Spiritual land grabbing

 Spiritual land grabbing By Cadmus Atake- Enade

It so nice and great to have massive land space for spiritual purposes where you commune with your maker (God) in solace and enrich yourself spiritually,  but one thing keep beating my imagination and that is the acquisition of large land for such purposes when local community people needs lands for farming purposes and they are not been given by their community leaders. 


We keep fighting and speaking against multinational corporations and government establishment claiming indigenous land space for their mining, selfish and developmental purposes yet we fail to realize that a new phase  of such land grabbing episode has emerged and it’s from the spiritual perspective. Ask me what this is I can't really say but I just believe is a new form of land grabbing where massive land is acquired by spiritual house and churches at a cheap rate for the purpose of prayer grounds and camp sites but are later turned into business ground rather than what it was initially proposed,  yet the congregation are struggling to survive.


Some have no jobs to sustain themselves and family feeding from hand to mouth yet they contribute for the upkeep of their spiritual leaders and their families because they believe that in there lies their eternal blessings.  


They give their offerings and tithe faithfully and willingly out of a cheerful heart because they know and believe that the Lord blesses a cheerful giver and sometimes they are obliged to contribute specially with various kinds of conditions attached to it.  


They become lean due to lack of food, malnutrition and hunger that prompt them into spiritual exercise of fasting and prayers yet the so called leaders and their families are fat and wallow in affluence with flashy cars and armed security men as body guards.

If I may asked were was it stated that Jesus Christ had armed body guards or security men? Am yet to find out that.

With the current emergency of acquiring massive lands majority of these churches have converted these lands to private owed business ground where they build their private mansions, schools, day care center, universities and guest houses which most times the congregation cannot afford the exuberant fees paid in these schools and guest houses.

As a Christian / believer am not judging anyone but am trying to create a scenario  where these houses of God and men of God will take up the challenges of fighting and eradicating poverty from their congregation by actually turning these massive prayer grounds or part of it into agricultural lands for food crop planting in other to alleviate the sufferings of the masses and their congregation.


In the past the church was a ground for the rescue of souls, rendering support for those in need, criticizing and addressing corruption in the nation and society but these days the church leaders are the major ones that play key roles in the politics of the nation, organizing prayer sessions for corrupt leaders who in their life time may not have visited the four walls of a church building and sometimes they even have dinners and luncheon with them rather than preaching a message of repentance and salvation to them. If asked about this they will tell you that Jesus Christ eat with scribes and the Pharisees so they can do the same.  


They have turn their places of worship into great channels and grounds for political campaigns and solidarity movement when Christ during His days destroyed the tables of the money changers and others in the temple enlightening them that His house is a place of prayer and not for money changing and den of thieves (Matthew 21:13).

The church has now become a place where the congregation is compel to vote for  particular candidates rather than the candidate of their choice, which is not suppose to be.

In the past Men of God were meek and gentle, they are always neutral in their dealings and non partisans, something totally different from what we see today “radical Christians and leaders” all in the name of the violent ones take it by force(Matthew 11:12).

     
These days Men of God now visit presidential lodges and international conferences as though they are personal assistant to the  president,some even have permanent lodge at the government guest house.

They have become so consumed by their lost and quest for material things rather than the things of God which have prompted them to acquire massive community lands for themselves all in the name of spiritual camp ground.

They no longer seek God as was commanded in Matthew 6:33, rather they seek self riches forgetting the fact that seeking God first adds every other thing to your life.

It’s high time men of of God and church leaders sit up to address the issue of poverty in the nation and in the mist of their congregation by careful thinking and sorting out a way to save humanity from extreme poverty which leads to the destruction of their souls as stated in the bible book of proverbs that “the destruction of the poor is their poverty”(proverbs 10:15).

As the bible made it known to us that the lips of the righteous feeds many,(proverbs 10:21a).


It’s high time we  as individuals, Christians and church leaders, find a possible solution to avert the menace of  poverty which is one of the root causes of all evil,corruption and social vices in our society presently.   Ensuring that our environment is conducive for living because it was not so from the beginning, God’s divine purpose for saving us is for us to save our world from all the oppressions of the enemy(Satan and his cohorts) and not to aid them in  destroying  mankind and his environment.

Think about this things and make a change for the better because you are an agent of change to your world don’t fail in this responsibility as posterity will not forgive you if you fail to do that which is right in the sight of God and men.