By Banji Ayoola
It is horrifying to see how mankind arrogantly spurns what has been wisely designed to benefit us and scramble only after what harms us instead.
Humanity on earth today are endangered having locked ourselves away from the true help that connects us more strongly, more purely with the Radiance of the Holy Will of the Almighty Father here on earth that leads us unerringly towards the Light.
Today, we are generally concerned mainly with earthly matters. Indeed human beings virtually everywhere on earth are now entangled in pure earthly matters which push us further away into the waiting, deadly arms of the Darkness.
Peace has eluded our world today because we are too busy pursuing the glittering transience of this earth – earthly wealth, power, influence, fame, gratification of our many selfish desires and other vanities which torment us and the earth.
We have by this recklessness, thrown the earth and ourselves into needless chaos and crises that prevail everywhere on earth today because we have no time for spiritual matters, an endeavour which should have guided us aright in all our affairs earthly or psychic; which should have certainly led us to always in all our activities seek and honour the guidance of our best friends, the Natural Laws, which are the expressions of the Will of our Creator.
Thereby, we would have automatically strengthened our connection with the radiant Power and Love of our Creator; and turned this earth into Paradise the Kingdom of God, where all who are permitted existence therein swing joyfully in the Holy Will of the Most High.
But the man of today is in deep slumber spiritually having closed himself to lighter and uplifting radiations, the pure vitalising streams of Life from On High.
In His unfathomable Love, the Almighty Father wisely provides for all our needs. We need only to open our eyes, recognise Him in His Love, humbly and gratefully grasp His loving Hand for our own liberation from the oppressive and suffocating Darkness.
But despite His immeasurable goodness to us, we are ungrateful as shown in our arrogant and conceited attitude towards Him.
Wisely, He has woven His Will into the Natural Laws as contained in His true, un-mutilated, un-distorted Word, the obedience of Which would have ennobled and uplifted us, and turned this earth into a radiant extension of His glorious Kingdom.
Because He knows us so well, He commands us to set aside a period weekly for quiet inner self communion. In His unfathomable Wisdom, He urges us to consecrate our hour of rest. He asks us to consecrate our rest hour by inwardly examining ourselves to ensure that our ways of life comprising all our thoughts, words and deeds accord with His Holy Will.
“Thou shalt keep the Sabbath Day Holy!”
This is a life belt lovingly thrown at us to restrain us from sinking deeper into the swamp of Darkness, which surrounds the earth today waiting to engulf any wavering or disobedient child. Darkness which is man’s greatest enemy.
The Sabbath Day is the hour of rest from man’s earthly work, a period which man must always exploit for his spiritual development. It is the hour, which we must set aside for deep and earnest reflection to review our ways of life, retrace our wrong steps, back onto the only path that leads to the Light. This is the path of the incorruptible Natural Laws Which express the Holy Will. For indeed, we have gone astray far into the Darkness.
But where is the time for quiet inner communion today? Where is the time to seek the true ways of the LORD?
For five or six days a week, we are busy with our earthly work to earn our living and pursue our greed. And once we close from work, we indulge in frivolities and banalities, ending up either in beer parlours, gossip centres or the waiting arms of pleasure hunters: in the arms of our neighbours’ husbands, wives, daughters, mothers, fathers or even grandmothers and grandfathers. Here we kill time in the name of enjoyment late into the night when we stagger home only to bury ourselves in deep slumber.
Daily, during our so called leisure hours, when we are not oppressed by the haste of work, we visit pleasure haunts to please the body alone; we indulge mainly in dense activities that further harden the case around our inner self and keep us away from more serious work on ourselves.
We tune on the radio, television and video player to enjoy and stimulate the senses alone. Even at work, these pleasure gadgets are parts of our office items to ensure that we are kept away from serious spiritual endeavour.
At home, work and even on the road, we keep ourselves glued to the phone or computer sets surfing the internet mainly for pleasure and our earthly needs.
We are busy almost round the clock for the seven days of the week entertaining ourselves with music, films and the likes, and other distractions. Where then is the time for serious matters?
There are many men and women whose indulgences after work are quarrelling with their spouses and neighbours, settling scores and the likes, destroying peace and harmony here and there, poisoning this beautiful Creation.
All these and many more we do for five or six days every week as the case may be.
And the weekend? This is the time when we indulge in worse banalities and sink deeper into immorality, running after other people’s wives or husbands, children mothers or grandmothers, and mere earthly pleasures.
Saturday especially pushes us further away from the path leading upwards. We spend this day throwing parties, attending ceremonies, squandering the riches of Creation on vanities which further estrange us from the Light.
And this is the day which man sets aside for rest from his earthly work, a day, which should draw him closer to his Creator.
Sadly, Saturday has become a day that pushes us further away from our Creator by virtue of the dense and dark activities which we generally engage in. It is a day, which now climaxes our barren ways of life. It is regrettable that we have turned this day, which should draw us closer to our Creator, into a day of useless earthly festivities, merriment and basest pursuits.
It has now symbolised sadly, the day on which we slip further down into decadence, when we throw ourselves into wild orgies of festivities. And yet this is only few hours away from Sunday which is set aside for the solemn worship of our LORD and Creator!
Weekend has become for us a day of stupendous waste whereas the LORD commands us to keep the Sabbath Day holy!
To keep holy means not to waste. In other words, to keep holy means making a gainful use of whatever merciful provision from Above.
Unfortunately, it is in this state of stupor that very few of us who remember, drag ourselves to our places of worship on Sundays to ‘humbly’ cast ourselves down before our Creator, to ‘adore’ and ‘worship’ Him! Worship?
In truth, can any man in this state bring his inner being to truly worship, that is give due reverence and adoration, pour out our hearts in gratitude to our Creator, in silence, for His Love? Could we in this state draw for ourselves the necessary help from the abundance of Creation for our journey on earth?
To ensure that we do not go astray or get lost, we have been carefully looked after by our Creator Who gave us The Ten Commandments as a guiding and supportive staff. He gave us The Lord’s Prayer besides. And He gave us the Hours of Worship among others.
All these Divine gifts are to strengthen and mature us.
Above all, He gives us the greatest lifebelt in His Word unadulterated, the complete and whole Truth Which is the last hope of salvation for erring mankind.
If really we want to have true peace, harmony, joy and development in place of the self-inflicted woes and tribulations prevailing today everywhere on earth, we need, as a matter of utmost urgency and seriousness, to retrace our wrong steps, most earnestly seek the Word in Its purest and unadulterated earthly form, and readjust all our activities and our entire being to the Holy Will of God.
