Authorities in Lagos have shut down churches across the city after a glut of complaints over noisy worship.
The chaotic megacity’s environmental protection department said it had sealed off 22 premises on Wednesday after receiving dozens of calls a day, according to local newspaper reports.
Neighbors of one church – Jesus Our Lord Divine Catholic Prayer Ministry – said they were constantly disturbed by a congregation of mainly pregnant women, young mothers and their children.
“On my phone alone, I get 20 SMS on a daily basis,” said Adebola Shabi, head of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, according to the national daily New Telegraph.
“In the next five years, if there is no stringent policy on the siting of religious houses, there will be problem.”
Constant noise – from the the thumping beats of loud music, the beep of car horns and the noise of generator engines – is the soundtrack to Lagos life and is seen by many as part of its charm.
But residents are complaining in unprecedented numbers that they can barely hear themselves think among the churches and mosques where giant loudspeakers pump out religious messages and music.
Officials receive around 50 telephone calls and 20 text messages a day complaining about noise, mostly from churches, the New Telegraph said.
“With the enforcement today, we would have sealed about 55 premises because the last enforcement we carried out, we shut 33 premises,” Shabi told reporters.
“I gave approval for closure of 22 premises today, making 55.”
Religion is big business in Lagos, a city of around 20 million which has seen more than 6,000 traditional and alternative places of worship spring up in recent years, according to the authorities.
Shabi said the churches would be allowed to reopen after paying fines starting at 50,000 naira.
KEY VERSE: “And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king’s house” (1 Kings 14:27).
Few things give more sense of fulfillment and pride than to watch your children improve on your attainment in life. Indeed, it is the prayer of every well-meaning parent that their children should conquer more grounds than they did. On the other hand, when children fail to measure up or even squander their parents’ fortunes, it brings disappointment and shame to parents and other concerned people. Such wasted heritage often attracts negative public comment.
One of the most pathetic cases of wasted heritage recorded in the Bible is that of Rehoboam, the son and successor of King Solomon. He had the best opportunities in life, as the grandson of the godly King David and son of Solomon (the wisest and richest man). His formative years coincided with the period when Solomon maintained a robust relationship with God. He had an opportunity of excellent education. Sadly, his seventeen years reign as king of Judah recorded nothing but unimaginable decline. Judah descended into gross idolatry and moral decay as vile as sodomy. Her sins estranged her from God and rendered her vulnerable.
Rehoboam yielded easily when Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. Shishak carted away the treasures of the temple and of the king’s house, including the shields of gold that Solomon made. To replace the looted golden shields, Rehoboam made shields of brass – pitiable counterfeit! This was a manifest symbol of departed glory.
Many Christians, churches and whole denominations have surrendered the golden shields of the “faith of our fathers” and have shamefully made for themselves shields of brass. It often starts by gradual compromise that morphs into outright backsliding. Did you have the privilege of rich godly heritage? What have you made of it? We can learn from Rehoboam’s case and avoid descending from gold to brass.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: TITUS 1 – 3
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: We lose all if we fail to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
When Jesus died and rose again, He became our High Priest. But notice that Jesus’ priesthood is “according to the order of Melchizedek”. Why the Melchizedek priesthood?
The Melchizedek priesthood gives to man (whereas the Aaronic priesthood takes from man). We see this when Melchizedek gave bread and wine to refresh a tired Abraham after his battle with the enemy kings. (Genesis 14:14–20) So if Jesus’ priesthood is according to the Melchizedek order, then it is one in which we can come boldly into His presence to receive from Him! (Hebrews 4:16)
Moreover, the first word from Melchizedek’s mouth was “Blessed”—“Blessed be Abram…” (Genesis 14:19) The Melchizedek order is just that—blessings. In other words, Jesus’ priesthood is one which blesses and never curses us!
So are we conscious of Jesus our High Priest giving to us every day? Are we alert to all His blessings coming from heaven toward us on earth?
Now, it is easy for us to believe God for His blessings in creation. For example, we have no difficulty believing that the sun will rise every morning. But while we have no problems believing the work of creation, we have problems believing the work of redemption. We sometimes find it hard to believe God for healing, provision, favor, protection or restoration—blessings that Jesus died to give us. We don’t really believe that every day, the Lord will take care of us, keep our bodies healthy and provide for all our needs.
Yet, creation is fallen. It can be a blessing as well as a curse. Sometimes, a storm arises, and powerful winds and rains destroy thousands of homes and lives. Sometimes, dark clouds hide the sun and make the whole day gloomy.
My friend, we can’t put our trust in creation, but we can certainly put our trust in redemption. And unlike creation, the blessings of redemption are all good! The work of Jesus is not subject to the weather or anything else. The work of redemption is as sure as Jesus Himself. He died and rose again to be our High Priest who daily showers us with blessings!
Thought For The Day
Jesus’ priesthood, which is according to the order of Melchizedek, is one which blesses and never curses us!
“Who is my neighbor?” a lawyer asked Jesus (Luke 10:29).
The lawyer had made the mistake of trying to catch the law’s author contradicting the law by asking how he should inherit eternal life. The author turned the tables by asking the lawyer what he thought the law said.
The lawyer then summarized the law in these two commands: We must love God with all we are (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). The author agreed and said, “Do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28).
But the author’s agreement pricked the lawyer’s conscience. So the lawyer sought to “justify himself” by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). The author answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37).
The Neighbor We Wouldn’t Choose
One observation from this application-rich parable is this: The neighbor we’re called to love is often not one we choose but one God chooses for us. In fact, this neighbor is often not one we would have chosen had not God done the choosing.
The Jew and the Samaritan wouldn’t have chosen the other as his neighbor. What made them neighbors was one man’s unchosen calamity and another man’s chosen compassion, but only in response to an unchosen, inconvenient, time-consuming, work-delaying, expensive need of another.
The shock of the parable is that God expects us to love needy strangers, even foreigners, as neighbors. But if this is true, how much more does he want us to love our actual, immediate neighbors, the ones we have to put up with regularly? Sometimes it is these neighbors we find most difficult to love. As G.K. Chesterton said,
We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor. . . . [T]he old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when [it] spoke, not of one’s duty towards humanity, but one’s duty towards one’s neighbor. The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable. . . . But we have to love our neighbor because he is there — a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us. (Heretics, chapter 14)
The idea of loving our neighbor is beautiful to think about so long as it remains an idealized, abstract concept. But the concrete reality of loving our neighbor, that all-too-real, exasperating person that we would not have chosen and might prefer to escape, strips the beauty away — or so we’re tempted to think. In truth, the beauty of idealized love is imaginary and the beauty of real love is revealed in the self-dying, unchosen call to love the sinner who “is actually given us.”
The Family We Didn’t Choose
Our very first neighbors are in our family. We don’t choose them; they are given to us. We are thrown together with them, warts and all, and called to love them, often with the kind of neighbor-love Jesus had in mind. Chesterton again:
It is exactly because our brother George is not interested in our religious difficulties, but is interested in the Trocadero Restaurant . . . [and] precisely because our uncle Henry does not approve of the theatrical ambitions of our sister Sarah that the family is like humanity. . . . Aunt Elizabeth is unreasonable, like mankind. Papa is excitable, like mankind. Our youngest brother is mischievous, like mankind. Grandpapa is stupid, like the world. (Ibid)
Many wouldn’t have chosen their families if the choice had been theirs. That’s why families are laboratories of neighbor-love, because families are a microcosm of the world.
The Community We’d Like to Un-Choose
If we are old enough and live in a region where we have options, we do choose our church community. But we don’t get to choose who else joins that community.
Invariably, after some time, our church community takes on similarities to our family. We must live with leaders who disappoint us and fellow members who see the world differently. Besides their irritating temperamental idiosyncrasies, they have different interests, ministry priorities, educational philosophies, and musical preferences than we do.
“Doing life” with them doesn’t end up looking or feeling like the community of our dreams — our idealized abstract concept. Perhaps we need a change, to find a different church where we can really thrive.
Perhaps. If the defects of the church community include things like ethical or doctrinal unfaithfulness, a change may be exactly what is needed for us to thrive.
But if our restlessness is due to the disillusionment of having to dealing with difficult, different people and defective programs, then perhaps the change we need is not in church community but in our willingness to love our neighbors, the ones God has given us to love.
This has always been God’s call on Christians. The early church was not all Acts 2:42–47. It was also Acts 6:1 and 1 Corinthians 11:17–22. Those first-generation churches were comprised of Jews and Gentiles, masters and slaves, rich and poor, people who preferred different leaders, people who strongly disagreed over nonessentials — people very much like the people in our church. It was hard doing life together then, like it is now (most likely it was harder then). That’s why we have 1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 12.
The distinguishing mark of the church has never been its utopic society but its members’ love for each other (John 13:35). And according to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the glory of this love shines when it is costly and inconvenient.
“Go and Do Likewise”
If we ask with the lawyer, “Who is my neighbor?” we may not like Jesus’s answer. It may explode our dreams of love and community. Because instead of loving the neighbor we wanted, the soul-mate we would have chosen, Jesus may point us to the needy, different mess of a person in front of us — the one we feel like passing by — and say, “There is your neighbor.”
Perhaps he or she will be a stranger. But most likely he or she lives in our house, or on our street, or is a member of our church.
The parabolic Samaritan loved the wounded Jew as himself. And Jesus says to us what he said to the lawyer: “You go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).
Memorise: And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook: and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 1st Kings 17:4
Read: 1st Kings 17:2-6, Bible in one year: Genesis 45-46, Romans 1:1-17
Our God is awesome, and His ways are beyond finding out. Nobody can box God into a pattern or regimen. He can use anything He chooses to achieve His purpose on earth. God uses those who are lowly placed, and He also uses the rich. Luke 8:1-3 tells of some wealthy women who ministered to Jesus from their resources. Mary Magdalene and other women blessed by the Lord resolved to serve Him with the resources they had. Are you rich or wealthy? Do you serve the Lord with your substance? Experience has shown that those who have little are the ones who dare to give their all to God. This was the case with the widow who dropped her mites (Mark 12:41-44). Usually, the rich only give a fraction of what they have because they believe they are giving something big. However, God does not judge the size, He judges by proportion. Hence, the poor can give more than the rich in the sight of God, even if what they give is not as much as what the rich have given in quantity. Justifying why the widow’s gift was more than what the rich gave, Jesus in Mark 12:44 said:
“For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”
Moreover, not only can God use humans to accomplish His purpose, He can also use animals. In 1st Kings 17:2-6, God sent ravens to deliver food to His servants, and they obeyed. We have equally seen Him use birds too. When we began to build the Redemption Camp in those early years, there were some trees that provided shade which I instructed the workers to preserve. Some little birds came in their hundreds of thousands to perch on these trees. Whenever they descended on them, there would be no leaves left on the trees the following day. They were also very noisy. I wondered if they were demonic birds. Some of my children who had guns would enter their midst and fire some shots; yet, they refused to go away. Some birds were hit by the fired bullets and dropped dead, but the rest stayed on. At some point, it appeared the more they were killed, the more they multiplied! The situation became unbearable. I therefore called on God to help us one morning. That evening, several eagles came and began to eat them up. Within hours, there was not a single one of them left. God has not stopped using birds! If He needs to send birds to meet your needs, He will do so; but you need to show Him that you can serve Him with all He has given you. How faithfully have you served God? To what extent can you risk your life and all He has given to you for His service?
Key Point
God can mobilise all of His resources to satisfy the needs of those who can give Him their all
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.
