Bro. Prince Tabiri

03/09/2022

23/07/2022

Most of you know me very well. I don't accept many friends as I feel uncomfortable with that. Almost every FB friend I have known on some level, or we share some common ground. You are not just a number.
Basically if you are on my FB it's because we have some connection. Now I would love to see if we can still chat beyond 'likes'. I decided to participate in an experience called "Meeting between Bread". The idea is to see who reads a post without a photo. We are so consumed with technology that we forget the most important thing: good friendship- genuine connection- valued engagement. If no one is reading this message, it will be a short social experiment. But if you finish this till the end, I would love you to comment in one word about us. For example, a place, an object, a person, a moment in which you remember me or that somehow connects us. Then copy this post and post it on your page (don't share) and I'll go to your page and leave a word that reminds me of you.
Please don't comment if you don't have time to copy the text. This will destroy the experiment. Let's see who spent their time to read and respond according to the common story outside Facebook.
Where do you know me?
I am waiting?👂🦻

14/07/2022

Remembering Lucky Philip Dube. He was born on 3 August 1964 in Ermelo, South Africa. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25 years period. Dube was murdered in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.

Please name your favourite song of his.

as one not easy is the way it is brother my enemy on colours # and many more

12/07/2022

"WRETCHED MAN THAT I' AM"

A brief commentary on Romans 7

I have heard many times people using the words of Paul in Romans 7:24 saying: “Wretched man that I’m. Who will deliver me from this body of death?” They use them in a way that implies that these words are applying to us, the born again Christians. They use them like we Christians are in a kind of slavery to sin (it is in the same context, just a few verses earlier, that Paul says “I’m carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). They say then: “O wretched men we are”, “we are sinners, sold under sin”, “who will deliver us from this?”

In this article I submit that though people who love the Lord and want to follow Him – and only to such people this article refers to - can fall into many mistakes, they are NOT sold under sin, nor are they wretched men waiting for a deliverer. The deliverer has come and His name is Jesus Christ! He has opened the door of our prison and made us free. We are not “wretched men” any more. We WERE once wretched men when we were dead in the trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). But now we are not dead anymore! God made us alive together in Christ, as a gift, only on the base of our faith (Ephesians 2:5)! Now we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that we should show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). This is the truth of God’s Word.

But then we are right to ask what is this pitiful situation that Paul is describing in Romans 7? To whom is he referring to? Why is he using this passage like it would apply for himself and why is he speaking in present tense like it is something that is happening now? Well, we do not need to go far to find the answer. All that we need is to read the context of the above phrases, the whole of Romans 7. Having a look at Romans 7 shows that its main topic is the law and how it was impossible for somebody that had only the sinful nature of Adam to fulfill this law. To say this, Paul is using first singular and present tense figuratively, not literally. In other words though it appears that he says what he says for himself personally, he only does this figuratively, putting himself into the position of those to whom these things were directly applicable. How do we know this? Let’s read for example the verses 7-9 of Romans 7:

Romans 7:7-9
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”

The age “without the law”, was before the giving of the law, hundreds of years before the birth of Paul. So when Paul says “I was alive without the law once” he is using the first singular person (“I”) only figuratively. He was not alive at that time, but he figuratively puts himself into the position of the people who were alive saying “I was alive”. Same also for the next part of that passage that says: “but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died”. The commandment came with Moses and Paul was not alive then either. It is obvious then that he is using himself (first singular) FIGURATIVELY, not literally. The same pattern continues throughout Romans 7. Paul uses himself and many times present tense to describe what was a PAST situation. The reason he does this is to make the situation more vivid and the contrast with the present situation (which is described in Romans 8) even more clearer. His main topic in Romans 7 is the without Christ situation. Before Christ the law was present, and though this law was good and holy and just it was impossible to be kept by people who had only their sinful, carnal1, nature. As he characteristically said:

Romans 7:12, 14
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good ….. the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Was Paul carnal when he was writing these things? Did he have only the old Adamic sinful nature? Was he “sold under sin”? The answer is empathically NO. Paul, as any born again believer, had Christ living in him. Christ had made him free. He was now born again and saved. To what therefore is he referring to when he describes himself as “sold under sin”? He refers to the age of the law, the main subject of Romans 7. In the age of the law, there was no new birth! There was no new nature! All these are things available to us after the sacrifice of Jesus but before that, in the age of the law, they were not available. Thus the only that people had at this time was the old sinful nature. Though the law was good and holy and just it was a spiritual law while they were carnal, sold under sin. When Paul therefore says “but I am carnal, sold under sin” he is using himself and present tense figuratively, putting himself into the place of those who lived in the age of the law, exactly as he did in verse 7 with those who lived without the law, when he said “I was alive without the law”. When Paul was writing Romans 7, he was a new creature as any of us, who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God, also is:

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;”

Paul uses the same way of speaking (first singular, present tense) throughout the remaining of Romans 7. Let’s read it:

Romans 7: 15-24
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells [this is a timeless truth: there is nothing good in the old man, in the flesh]; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

What Paul is describing is a miserable situation. If you don’t take into account what is the context of the passage and if you ignore and discount the new birth realities you will get miserable too. You too you will cry “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”. But Paul says all that he says to describe the situation before Christ. It is a situation longing for a deliverer. Yes, before Christ all of us would cry “O wretched men that we are. Who will deliver us from the body of this death”. But the good news is that some 2000 years ago the deliverer came!! His name is Jesus Christ! Paul does not stop to the question: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” but he immediately continues with the answer and here it is:

Romans 8:1-4
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

There was a time when we were slaves, sold under sin. But no more! By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, He freed us from this slavery. Now we have a new nature, Christ in us. Now we are FREE. Now we are righteous!

To summarize: here is the question of Paul in Romans 7:24:

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?””

And here is the answer just 2 verses later:

“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.”

And again Galatians 5:1
“Stand fast therefore in the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

We are no longer slaves, sold under sin. We are no longer “wretched men”. Instead Christ our deliverer, came, gave himself as ransom and made us FREE. Next time therefore you will hear somebody crying “O wretched men that we are!”, implying that this is what we are now, you know that such an application to us is WRONG. Praise the Lord and thanks be to God always, who, through His Son, has delivered us from this dreadful situation. Praise be to him always that though we were once “dead in the trespasses and sins …. God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-5). Praise be to Him and to Jesus our deliverer always. Amen

Bro prince

09/06/2022

Perpetua and Felicitas -- "Everlasting Happiness"

(This month Church History is emphasizing women in church history. So, we will repeat a recent post on Perpetua and Felicitas):

The account of the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felcitas in 202 AD had gained “reverential status” in the early church. The great theologian St. Augustine (354-430) loved the story of Perpetua and Felicitas so much that he gave four sermons on their martyrdom.

Vibia Perpetua was a 22-year-old new mother from a respectable family in Carthage, an important Mediterranean harbor in North Africa. She was educated, well-versed in Latin and Greek. According to her contemporary Tertullian, Perpetua was “respectably born, liberally educated, a married matron.” She had recently converted to Christ and had just given birth.

Perpetua and a pregnant servant girl named Felicitas were arrested with four others from a catechumen group (classes in preparation for baptism). They were arrested for refusing to offer a sacrifice to the gods. The Romans referred to them as atheists because they didn’t believe in the gods. Non-conformists were looked at with suspicion in the Roman world; it hindered “Pax Romana”--the Peace of Rome.

Perpetua was allowed paper and pen and wrote down her experience. “A few days later we were lodged in the prison; and I was terrified as I had never before been in such a dark hole.” she wrote. “O bitter day!” She said. “With the crowd, the heat was fierce, then there was the cruel handling of the soldiers. Lastly I was tormented there by care for the child.”

Perpetua’s honesty and personal nature of her writing is unique in the ancient world. It is also the first writings from a Christian woman.

The young servant girl, Felicitas, was 8 months pregnant. When a jailer mocked Felicitas about her impending suffering, she said, "Now I suffer, what I suffer; but then Another will suffer for me, because I will suffer for Him.”

Felicitas would eventually give birth to a baby girl in the dark cell. Both Perpetua and Felicitas nursed their infants in the dungeon together as Perpetua's family would bring her baby to nurse. "All at once I regained my health, relieved of my worry and anxiety about the child" she said as her baby was brought to her. "My prison had suddenly become a palace, so that I wanted to be there rather than anywhere else."

"We were in the hands of our persecutors,” she said, “when my father...made new efforts to shake my resolution. I said to him: 'Can that vessel, which you see, change its name?' He said: 'No.' I replied: 'Nor can I call myself any other than I am, that is to say, a Christian.'”

Perpetua was brought before the local governor Hiliarianus, where her father begged her to relent, but she steadfastly refused to deny her Savior.
The impatient governor had enough.

“Are you a Christian?” He asked.
“Yes, I am," she replied.

That's all he needed to hear. "Then Hilarianus passed sentence on all of us: we were condemned to the beasts,” Perpetua wrote. Perpetua and Felicitas could not deny their Lord--to deny Christ was worse than death.

The fateful day came. An eyewitness said they entered the arena "joyfully as though they were going to heaven, with calm faces, trembling, if at all, with joy rather than fear. Perpetua went along with shining countenance and calm step."

A wild heifer charged the women (a wild cow can be just as dangerous as a bull). Perpetua was tossed into the air and onto her back. Her clothing ripped, she sat up, covered herself and looked for a pin to fix her hair.

She noticed Felicitas was crushed to the ground and went over to help her up. They stood side by side. She called out to her brother and other believers in the stands and said, "You must all stand fast in the faith and love one another, and do not be weakened by what we have gone through."

Soldiers were then sent to finish them off. The soldier who came to Perpetua was trembling and hesitant. To make sure he did his job well, Perpetua grabbed the blade of the sword and guided it to her throat. She was giving her life fearlessly and willingly. She knew she would soon be before her Lord.

Augustine said Perpetua and Felicitas will always be remembered together as their names joined together have a special bond--in Latin “Perpetua Felicitas” means “everlasting happiness." Perpetua and Felicitas are now experiencing everlasting happiness together in heaven.

Copied. CHURCH HISTORY

04/06/2022

03/06/2022

WORRIES OF OUR BELOVED BROTHER AND EVANGELIST:

BRO CHARLES G . BANGALIE OF LIBERIA.

IS HE RIGHT OR WRONG?

PLEASE LET HAVE YOUR COMMENT

Any Church who doesn't pay his Leader they are worse than an unbeliever and any Minister who does a part time work for the lord they are a False Teacher because nothing in the Bible is called part Time..

The work of the Lord is full time so your responsibility as a Minister is to correct all things..... 2nd Tim 4:2...
....Act 6:1-8....

Good Bless...

From: Bro Charles G. Bangalie the Evangelist of God..🙏👐💯

SOMEONE'S RESPONSE : You can't be at a village and be paying 50gh or 150gh and tell me to be full time.

ANOTHER RESPONSE : This part time and full time is a great issue paaa

SOMEONE'S QUESTION : What is part time ministry?

SOMEONE CONFESSION :. Preachers at the villages are really surfing.

LASTLY HOW SOMEONE SEES THE WHOLE THING

Yes in biblical context, our brother is right, preaching is a full time work not part-time job. We see from the gospel, that when Jesus called peter and the rest of the apostles, they immediately Left their works and followed Christ.
My only problem now, is the kinds of Bible Schools we have today, in Ghana here alone, we have different bible schools running by some churches of Christ. They trained a lot of Preachers into the ministry without helping them to even have a congregation to preach. And if these train preachers came to villages to mobilize 20 or 30 people to start a congregation, then you will hear from some of our leading Preachers and even directors or principals of these bible schools discouraged their own trained Preachers, that you can't have 20 or 30 members and call yourself a preacher. What!
Jesus taught the apostle and gave them the necessary tools they will need for their ministry, but our time it's all about fame for ourselves and not for Christ again. I believe strongly, that these are the reasons some does preaching as part time job. We always condemn pentecost, Methodist and some other churches for their practice thinking we know the bible than them, yes it might be true but some of their practice are biblical. Paul trained Timothy and Titus and find a place for them to preach as Preachers and at times visit them, to see how things are going on but ours is not like that, are we not practicing the same Christianity?
We preach about love, but there is not single dot of love in church of Christ.
John Huss was burnt to death because of his faith in Christ, some were thrown into lions den because of their faith. And James 2 talks about faith without works is dead and partiality. This book was written to Jewish christians and not unbelievers. I believe our generation are falling Christ and the apostles.
Mmmm let me end please 😭😭

18/05/2022

NT KOINE GREEK TRIALS

adjectivesand pronouns with 1st and 3rd Declensions
The adjective πας (all/every)
πας -σα -ν, follows the 3rd declension for masculine and neuter but the 1st for feminine, as shown below:

πας πασα παν παντες πασαι παντα
παντα πασαν παν παντας πασας παντα
παντος πασης παντος παντων πασων παντων
παντι πασῃ παντι πασι(ν) πασαις πασι(ν)
Examples of πας
Standing alone
πας ουν οστις ακουει : Therefore everyone who hears
παντα διαυτου εγενετο: All things came to be through him.
With a Noun
παν δενδρον : Every tree
πας ο οχλος : All the crowd
The number 1 (εις)
The number one has the following declension:

M. F. N.
εις μια εν
ενα μιαν εν
ενος μιας ενος
ενι μιᾳ ενι
εις can be combined with ου or μη which results in the word 'no one':

ουδεις, ουδεμια,ουδεν // μηδεις, μηδεμια , μηδεν

Examples
πειραζει δε ουδενα

ουκ εφαγεν ουδεν: and he ate nothing (note that the double negative doesn’t cancel)

The irregular adjectives: πολυς (much/many) and μεγας(great)
These two irregular adjectives are frequently found in the New Testament.

πολυς πολλη πολυ
πολυν πολλην πολυ
πολλου πολλης πολλου
πολλω πολλῃ πολλω
πολλοι πολλαι πολλα
πολλους πολλας πολλα
πολλων πολλων πολλων
πολλοις πολλαις πολλοις
μεγας μεγαλη μεγα
μεγαν μεγαλην μεγα
μεγαλου μεταλης μεταλου
μεταλῳ μεταλῃ μεταλῳ
μεγαλοι μεγαλαι μεγαλα
μεγαλους μεγαλας μεγαλα
μεγαλων μεγαλων μεγαλων
μεγαλοις μεγαλαις μεγαλοις
Exercises
Therefore no one can have two lords.
And you will open our mouths, 0 Lord, and every tongue will bless your great name.
Did you not sow good seed in the three fields?
Do not carry anyone to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
But you can heal the colonel.
But I came into this world for a great judgment.
And one of the lepers, when he saw that he was being healed, threw himself at his feet.
For the chief priests knew that this word was true.
And all the disciples were full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and they healed those who were ill (i.e. the ill), and cast out many demons.

ουδεις ουν δυναμαι δυο κυριους εχειν.
ανοιξεις δε τα στοματα ημων, Κυριε, και πασα γλωσσα ευλογησει το μεγα ονομη σου.
ουκ εσπειρας καλον σπερμα εν τοις τρισιναγροις;
μη βασταζετε μηδενα εις την συναγωγην εν τῳ σαββατῳ.
δυνασαι δε θραπευσαι τον χιλιαρχον.
ηλθον δε εις τουτον τον κοσμον μεγαλῃ κρισιν.
εις δε εκ των λεπρων, οτε ειδεν οτι θεραπευεται, εβαλεν εαυτον παρα τους ποδας αυτου.
οι γαρ αρχειρεις εγνωσαν οτι τουτο το ρημα ην αληθες.
και παντες οι μαθηται ησαν πληρεις πιστεως και του αγιου πνευματος, και εθεραπευσαν τους ασθενους, και εξεβαλον πολλα διαμονια.

☺️☺️☺️🙏