The Source

Matt 5:1-18 “Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly father is perfect” v18     Once heard a story of a man sitting one day at home with his teenage daughter all of a sudden four healthy young men broke into his house and kidnapped his daughter, with him standing helpless before these four giants. The daughter screened ‘father save me’ the man replied. ‘As you can see Child, I am no match to this feast looking men.’ The daughter’s next response changed the man’s continence ‘What have you done, that you say you can do nothing?’ motivated by the Child’s response, he ran inside the house brought out his cutlass and chased after the kidnappers; the kidnapers turning and saw the man giving a hot chase with a cutlass glinting threw the daughter away and took to their heels. With the same spirit with the man’s daughter, God is asking today, ‘ What have you done to be perfect?’ (Matt 19:21). You keep saying nobody is perfect, but I am sorry to inform you this...

Today marks the beginning of an important event in the Calendar of the Universal Church of Christ, it is Ash Wednesday. It is the first day of the penitential season of lent, the ceremony of placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence. These ashes obtained from burning of palm front from previous Palm Sunday celebration. Ash (residue) is solid residue of combustion. And combustion is a process of rapid oxidation or burning of a substance with simultaneous evolution of heat and, usually light. Please note the process that brings the ash, evolution of heat & Light ; our Christian call is to give out heat (energy) & light to others, while we ourselves reduce to ‘ash’. Dear as the Church marks Ash Wednesday, it is not about inscribing of crucifix on our foreheads that matters, it is the issue of dying unto Sin, so that our light will so shine before men and bring Glory to God the father. There is also something worthy of note, it is the recitation of the Priest as he...