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Black Ash!

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Today is Ash Wednesday! For Nigerian Christians, it is a beginning of a bitter Lenten Season.  The ashes are black! We have known so much pain these days. So, it is a black Ash Wednesday! If the ash is to remind us of our mortality, and so, of the call to repentance, conversion and transformation, we now live in a state where we need not be reminded of our mortality. Death surrounds us! It stares us coldly right into the eyes! It dares us everyday! The blood that flows in our homes, cities, streets, communities and even forests has hardened … Continue reading Black Ash!

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#SV – Tough Yoke

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

It is really not easy to follow Jesus no matter how beautiful his words sound. Following Jesus reverses the trend and expectations of the world. It puts one in the position of vulnerability and recaliberates that vulnerability as true power. I doubt if the world honors that option. It is even hard for most Christians to honor this option. It is a yoke to difficult to accept; a burden to heavy to bear. But here is the twist! Once we get to the point of accepting and bearing this yoke and burden, we encounter the liberating effect of Jesus’ option. … Continue reading #SV – Tough Yoke

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#SV – The Logic of Light

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

The Gospel about being light says only one thing every Christian: Go and shine in the world! And there is the silent question there: How? How are we supposed to shine? Here is the answer: Shine through your good works! Shine through your good actions! Shine through your good deeds! Then comes the caveat: Do not shine for yourself. Shine that God may be glorified through your good works. That’s it! Continue reading #SV – The Logic of Light

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#SV – Behold, this Child!

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

A sign of contradiction! Isn’t that what we all are? Sometimes we are agents of good, at other times the agents of evil! We rise and we fall! We build and we destroy! We succeed and we fail! Well, in the case of Jesus, the message is that embracing Jesus and His words is to embrace life, love, joy, peace, resurrection and hope, while to reject Jesus is to abandon oneself to the forces of darkness, unforgiveness, unloved, strife and despair. Jesus is everything! Continue reading #SV – Behold, this Child!

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The Three Graveyards

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Early this month, a group of friends gathered for lunch in the quiet village of Boxberg, somewhere in Germany. As the conversation progressed, one of them narrated the story of a small community in Germany that had three graveyards (Friedhöfe): the first is for the Catholics, the second is for the Evangelische Kirche (Lutherans) and the third is for everyone. Interestingly, the first two are quite populated with beautifully maintained graves/gravestones, but the general or common graveyard has, after 10 years of its establishment, only two graves. Why? Why did the community even come to the resolution to set up … Continue reading The Three Graveyards