WISDOM QUOTES OF RICHARD OBENG MENSAH -SERIES 6

WISDOM QUOTES OF RICHARD OBENG MENSAH

 SERIES 6

Hard work does not mean do a harsh work.

The Word of God is my wealth.

I am not just a Christian. I am more importantly a disciple of Jesus.

For Apostle J.K. Kontoh, “We must obey and submit ourselves to the Word of God, not to the world”. I agree.

God is ONLY pleased by faith, not fame, riches, academic laurels or intellectual prowess.

Wedding is not marriage. It is just a preface to marriage.

The world seeks the wealth of God, not His word. But they do not know that eternal riches can only be found in God’s Word.

Daily Bible study is more than the demands of studying a professional Law course or practicing Law.

I am practical, not a professional, Christian.

I am not a ritual Christian. I am rather a righteous and a spiritual Christian.

“It is better to commit marriage than to commit fornication”-Dag Heward Mills. This is a great truth so I agree.

What always keep me going are God’s promises to me.

Marriage makes a man. Fornication flaws a person. Adultery idols any persons.

HOW TO BE A PERFECT PERSON

HOW TO BE A PERFECT PERSON

“No man,” so a saying goes,’ “is perfect”.  It is unfortunate that we do not know the exact author of this statement. Perhaps, the author would have done us some good by telling us the import of this cliché. The statement as it stands is grievously ambiguous. I wonder whether the author meant that s/he knows “no man (person)” who is perfect, or a person can never be perfect. If s/he meant the first meaning, the statement may be right. On the other hand, if s/he meant the second meaning, s/he is in a sincere and sore error, and must be corrected rightly. It is a sad commentary that many people have accepted this cliché as if it’s their daily bread. There are numerous perfect people on earth today, and you can be added to their number if you wish. History bear accounts perfect people like Jesus, Enoch, Joseph, Daniel, Mary, Stephen and so forth. There are many of such today! This piece will put into your hand the key to enter the kingdom of perfect persons.

There are three categories of people on earth - natural persons, carnal persons, and spiritual persons. Natural people (like an atheist) do not believe in the existence of God or anything about Him. To them, it is foolishness to believe in the “so-called God” or receive gifts from Him. Natural people therefore they do not know God or His gifts because such gifts are spiritually discerned. As a result, they depend on and use only their natural senses and understanding in everything they do. Besides, they may use every means to achieve their objectives or to be successful. Therefore, natural people are not perfect because they usually use diabolic and crooked means to be successful. It is worth noting that success may be good or bad. Successful natural or carnal people have bad successes.  True success is a product of good success.

Carnal people on the other hand, believe in the existence of God. More often than not, they eagerly seek God’s blessings and gifts in a wrong way, or with a wrong motive. They may be worldly people or people who claim to have received Jesus Christ as their only Saviour and Lord. Worldly people for example seek for the wealth of God but despise or ignore the Word of God. They are the so-called smart people. Certainly, worldly people are not perfect people because they do things in a wrong way, or for a wrong reason. However, some carnal people may seek for both God’s wealth and Word. Mostly, such persons have received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, after believing in Him.  They may be church-goers and tongue-speaking. Besides, they boast and claim to be Christians. Unfortunately, these carnal people do not understand nor know God (as the God of lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness). These people may for example know God as a kind and loving person, but never as the just and righteous God. To God, such people are robbers. They live in sin yet they are always clamouring for His blessings. Thus they are the care-free Christians or, say, the babe-Christians. Speaking modestly and soberly, they are the immature-Christians. Speaking bluntly and frankly, many so-called Christians are in fact carnal people. Carnal-Christians are unspiritual, envious, and act like mere men (people) - thus they act carnally. In addition, strife, and divisions are common among themselves, not among them and unbelievers (carnal or natural people or both). Strife and divisions are their hallmarks. Truly, truly, carnal-Christians are not perfect people. They are good-and-bad people. In other words, it is practically very difficult to say that they are bad, or good. God is their ultimate judge!

The last category of people on earth is the spiritual people. Spiritual people have the divine mandate to rightly judge all things, yet they themselves are rightly judged by no person. In other words, spiritual people are blameless before God, although natural and carnal people may wrongly blame or judge them. They are “the touch-not” anointed people. You dare touch (despise, insult or wrong) them at your own peril because God always fight their battles for them. A key example is Moses, the deliverer. Mariam, his sister, criticized him at her own peril. God mercifully plagued her with leprosy although Moses did respond to her carnal or destructive criticisms. Spiritual people have God’s seal of approval and endorsement upon them because they understand and know Him. In other words, they know the mind of Jesus Christ who instructs them. They are the sheep of God. Thus, they know and hear the voice of God. Unlike the goat-Christians (carnal-Christians, the disobedient and hypocrite), sheep-Christians fully follow God and obey Him totally, no matter what! Sheep-Christians rightly feed at the pasture (wealth) of God. They seek the wealth of God through the right way-Jesus Christ. The pathway of the right way is the truth. The right way only leads to the life. Any other way leads to either physical or spiritual death, or both. “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are ways of death.” Put more elegantly, the ways of natural and carnal people lead to death, which may be physical or spiritual. They are spiritually dead because they do not rightly relate with God. Thus they neither understand nor know Him. Natural and some carnal people for example do not know why God is one person but functions as three persons. Consequently, they may superficially be serving the Almighty God by depending on their natural senses and knowledge. No wonder they are always living defeated and pitiful lives. Their lifestyle attracts only their fellow natural or carnal people, never God! However, both natural and carnal people can become spiritual people. Spiritual people were once upon a time, natural and carnal people. 

It takes humility to be a perfect person. Humble people are teachable. Teachable people are discoverers. Real discoverers have learnt not only to believe in and depend on the Almighty God and for that matter Jesus Christ (God’s unadulterated word), but also to yield fully to the Holy Spirit. People who yield totally to the Holy Spirit are humble and teachable. The Holy Spirit is the potent combination of God’s Spirit and Word (Jesus) on earth. Spiritual people do and say only things the Holy Spirit has commanded them to do or say. Thus they know, understand, and obey the commandments of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spiritual-Christians are perfect people. Which kind of person are you? Are you a carnal-Christian or a spiritual-Christian?

Richard Obeng Mensah, author of If You Think of Your Opposition You Lose Your Position.

borncapy@yahoo.com/www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com

WISDOM QUOTES OF RICHARD OBENG MENSAH

WISDOM QUOTES OF RICHARD OBENG MENSAH

 FIFTH SERIES

Waiting upon the Lord is not a waste of time but it is the ONLY wise use of time.

The world is neither after a Whiteman nor a Blackman. It is only after a Wiseman.

The world is after people who are both talented and trustworthy.

God mostly blesses us in our crises moments than in our comfortable moments.

People’s description of me does not change who I am.

I am not into competition with anybody. I am into completion of God’s assignment upon my life.

I am proud of both my success and flops. They make me a complete human being.

The youth in Africa are more than instruments for political victory and power.

I may not be able to prevent people from casting me into a lion’s den. But even in the lion’s den, I shall flourish more than never before.

Marriage will be a mirage if we ignore to see it as God’s institution and message.

Despite the rate of economic crises and inflation, the price for salvation is still believing in Jesus Christ.

Somebody has said that “life is a teacher”. It is true only when it is added that Jesus is that life and teacher.

Somebody has said that “a crisis is an asset”. I agree.

THE THREE IGNORANT LAWYERS

THE THREE IGNORANT LAWYERS

Jesus Christ while on earth acknowledged the fact that lawyers hold the keys to knowledge. This means that lawyers are or may be knowledgeable and wise. Therefore saying that a lawyer is ignorant is indeed the worst derogatory statement a person can make to that lawyer. However, this does not mean that lawyers are the repository of knowledge. Glanville Williams, a professor of English Law, in his seminal book, Learning the Law wrote, “George III is reputed to have said that lawyers do not know much more law than other people, but they know better where to find it”. Therefore, it is possible for somebody to be a lawyer yet ignorant of a particular truth. For the purpose of this article, the term lawyer includes any intellectual, knowledgeable persons, a Wiseman and any wise person. Today, these people are as common as air. We have many trained minds in the ecclesiastical fraternity, legal fraternity, medical fraternity, academia, scientific fraternity and so forth. They are no doubt knowledgeable and wise, at most when it comes to intellectual and logical wisdom. Ironically, however, a number of them are ignorant of what matters most in life – the Truth. A lawyer must know and tell the Truth (Jesus)!

The Bible gives accounts of some lawyers and Pharisees who, although knowledgeable, were ignorant of the Truth. In Matthew 22:35-36, a lawyer asked Jesus, while tempting him, a question about the great commandment. Perhaps that lawyer, until Jesus answered, did not know that love is the greatest perfect law.  In Luke 7:30, we are told some Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God. I believe they rejected it because they did know the spiritual import of Jesus’ baptism. A certain lawyer, likewise Nicodemus, in Luke 10:25, probably, did not know how to obtain eternal life. Jesus asked him, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” Although he rightly answered Jesus, he was neither a doer nor a practitioner of what he said. Besides, in his attempt to justify himself, he ignorantly demonstrated that he did not know who his neighbour was until Jesus narrated the  story of the Good Samaritan to him. Jesus further instructed him, “Go, and do thou likewise”. This means that it is not enough to know God’s Word, or the perfect law of liberty. We must be practitioners of it. If not, we are not different from illiterates. I believe this unfortunate attitude influenced Jesus in Luke 11:46 to curse some Pharisees and lawyers. 

Hypocrisy may be a sign of ignorance. Jesus said in Luke 11:52, “Woe unto you, lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered”. This means that being knowledgeable without being a doer or a facilitator of good works makes that person accursed. Ignorance is a disease, but being a hypocritical knowledgeable person is disastrously dangerous. “To whom much is given much is...” Truly, more is expected of lawyers. It is a sad commentary that Jesus in Luke 14:3-4 had to educate some lawyers and Pharisees that it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. They were ignorantly challenging what they ought to be practitioners and teachers of. No wonder Titus 3:9 instructively states, “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain”. Unprofitable lawyers are commonplace. Unprofitable lawyers are lawless. But a lawyer must not be lawless.

Lawyer Zenas was different kind of lawyer. I love his Spirit. Titus 3:13-14 indicate  that he kept the company of persons who were diligently willing to learn how to maintain good works in order to be profitable. What kind of person are you? Do not be deceived by titles such as lawyer, doctor, pastor, journalist, Member of Parliament, president and statesman. Greatness and integrity are in towels (servant-service), never in titles. Ask Jesus or Lawyer Saul, who became Apostle Paul. Lawyer Saul was once unprofitable because of his ignorance of the Truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Of course, ignorance of the Truth is no excuse! It is better to be ignorant of the law than to be ignorant of Jesus! Paul later sought for what matters most hence he demonstrated exuding greatness afterwards.

 Philippians 3:3-10 recount the various secrets that accounted for Paul’s’ latter day glories. He wrote, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; AS TOUCHING THE LAW, A PHARISEE; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; TOUCHING THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS IN THE LAW, BLAMELESS. BUT WHAT THINGS WERE GAIN TO ME, THOSE I COUNTED LOSS FOR CHRIST. Yea doubtless, and I COUNT ALL THINGS BUT LOSS FOR THE EXCELLENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS MY LORD: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, THAT I MAY WIN CHRIST, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: THAT I MAY KNOW HIM, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Emphasis is mine). The crux of Paul’s testimony is that we are ignorant if we do not know Jesus, no matter our intellectual prowess and other life credentials.

Education does not a great person make; it is rather the excellent knowledge of Jesus that does the job. Towels are superior to titles. Jesus was a man of towels, not titles. “Lawyering” without Jesus breeds lies and lawlessness. Practising medicine without Jesus breeds mediums and madness. Politicking without Jesus breeds polarization and produces poisonous pollution. Journalism without Jesus breeds junks. Religiosity without Jesus without Jesus breeds confusion and chaos. It is high time lawyers demonstrated their true worth. Being a lawyer is more than winning cases. The basic duty of a lawyer is to uphold and defend the law honestly and selflessly. This certainly does not merely come by winning even celebrated or landmark cases. The combined force of integrity, honesty, self-control, and character does the job! A true great lawyer, like Apostle Paul, strives to win Jesus but not just winning cases by all means-crude and crooked. What kind of lawyer are you? Are you ignorant?

Richard Obeng Mensah, author of If You Think of Your Opposition You Lose Your Position.

richardobengmensah@gmail.com/www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com