By Nna Anulumadu
Improper understanding of God’s Kingdom has been described as the ultimate reason for the rising diverse forms of neo- peganism in our society.
The parish priest of St Vincent Catholic Church Ogbunike Rev Fr Ogbunuko made the description while preaching a Sunday Homily.
According to him, Christ, in the gospel, before raising the question to the people about whether they understood His many teachings on the kingdom of heaven, presented the kingdom of heaven to them as something extremely unique and precious. ” Something so unique that a farmer would sell all he has to buy the land where it is situated, a businessman would sell all his wares just to be able to purchase it and a fisherman would take out time to uniquely separate it from other things in his net that is not it. Note that, these men used as examples would accept to go the extra mile because they understood how precious the items they have come in contact with are. And likewise, Christians of today can go the extra mile for God and God’s kingdom only when we have truly understood how precious the Christ whom we have come in contact with is and what differentiates us as his followers from others.”
“Beloved child of God, the greatest challenge facing our generation seems to be coming from an improper understanding of what the Kingdom of God is. It is this improper understanding that is giving rise to diverse forms of neo-pagan which daily manifest themselves among our Christians of today. It is such too that makes worshipping God with a pagan mindset (principles) seem ideal and correct to many Christians today leading to the decline in our living out the authentic ancient Christian principles with which we were raised and holding onto modern pagan principles just because they seem to have been given a new garb.”
” In truth, paganism does not become Christian by a mere change of name, it requires a foundational re-orientation and a re-adaptation. And this can not be achieved unless the individual has the right understanding of what Christianity is all about. For instance, so many Christians today seek out their modern prophets who would, in the name of prophecy tell them about what their lives will become tomorrow forgetting the principle that God is more concerned about their living their today in the best manner that pleases Him. They do so and hold themselves down from growing spiritually because they have a shallow understanding of the Christian life which in turn stunts or alters their spiritual growth”
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“Since God works everything onto goodness for us his children in the hope that we would remain His true representatives among our brethren, it behooves us then, as His children to open ourselves to a deeper understanding of Himself for it is such understanding that would lead us into making the right choices in our pursuit of this precious gift that is Heaven. To achieve this, we would need to review our present understanding of Christianity to be sure it conforms to the ideals which Christ taught. Such ideals, we must always remember, focus more, not on ephemeral earthly gains but on eternal heavenly rewards.
And with this, we pray to God today for the grace of a deeper understanding of His position in our life that manifesting this understanding in our living, we may, like Solomon make the right choices that would win us His eternal divine rewards in heaven.”
