Stories of Faith - Episode 52

The true story behind the song “I have decided to follow Jesus” according to Dr. P.P Job in “Why God Why”

‘I Have Decided to Follow Jesus’ is a Christian hymn originating from India. The lyrics are based on the last words of a man in Garo, Assam. 

About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales. As a result of this, many missionaries came to north-east India to spread the Gospel. The region known as Assam was comprised of hundreds of tribes who were primitive and aggressive head-hunters. Assam and its surrounding provinces was located in one of the most oppressive forms of Hinduism — a place where the caste system was entrenched. These provinces often prided themselves on the hostile reaction they gave foreigners. 

Into these hostile and aggressive communities, came a group of missionaries from the American Baptist Missions spreading the message of love, peace and hope in Jesus Christ. Naturally, they were not welcomed. One missionary, who had endured severe persecution, finally succeeded in converting a man, his wife, and two children. This man’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity. 

Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man said: 

“I have decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back.” 

Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too?” 

But the man said these words in reply: 

“Though no one joins me, still I will follow Jesus”. 

The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. 

Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.”In the face of death the man uttered the final memorable lines: 

“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.” 

He was killed like the rest of his family. But with their deaths, a miracle took place. The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a Man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.” 

In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. 

The formation of these words into a hymn is attributed to the Indian missionary Sadhu Sundar Singh (picture above). The melody is also Indian, and entitled “Assam” after the region where the text originated. The song is based on the last words of Nokseng, a man from the Garo tribe of Assam (now Meghalaya and some in Assam), India. It is today the song of the Garo people. 

An American hymn editor, William Jensen Reynolds, composed an arrangement which was included in the 1959 Assembly Songbook. His version became a regular feature of Billy Graham’s evangelistic meetings in America and elsewhere, spreading its popularity.

Culled from http://charismatanews.org/2019/02/15/the-true-story-behind-the-song-i-have-decided-to-follow-jesus/ and https://pastorbradabley.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/the-incredible-story-behind-the-hymn-i-have-decided-to-follow-jesus/

Stories of Faith - Episode 51

The Story Behind the Hymn: Must I Go, and Empty-Handed? 

The story behind the hymn: "Must I Go, and Empty-Handed?" is short but remarkable. It was written by Charles Carroll Luther in 1877. Charles Luther (1847-1924) was a journalist and a lay evangelist before being ordained as a Baptist minister in 1886. He wrote about 25 hymn texts. In 1887, he heard Rev. A.G. Upham relate the story of a young man who was about to die. This young man had been a Christian for only one month and sorrowed because he'd had so little time to serve the Lord. He was thankful to the Lord for giving him salvation during his final hour. He, however, was grieved that he would not have an opportunity to serve the Lord nor to share Him with others. He said, “I am not afraid to die; Jesus saves me now. But must I go empty handed?” Upon hearing this account, Charles Luther wrote this hymn. Charles Luther then handed the lyrics to George C. Stebbins who did a wonderful job conveying the heart’s cry of this lovely hymn. The complete hymn was first published in 1878.

At death’s advent, may we be spared from sharing his lament. Sadly, because of the anxieties of this age and the deceitfulness of riches (Matt. 13:22), many Christians are stupefied by the lure of the world and consequently languish in their personal walk with Christ. This explains the prevailing state of spiritual barrenness among many of today’s Christians. Let us heed this hymn’s counsel to stop wasting our years in vanity and instead to give them to our Savior, to strive for the salvation of souls while we still have breath. May we pray to be spiritually energized to take up the burden of sharing the gospel, so that rather than living a life of vanity to later be regretted, we may redeem our time (Eph. 5:16) and bear fruit unto eternal life (John 4:36). 

“Must I go, and empty handed,” 

Thus my dear Redeemer meet?

Not one day of service give Him,

Lay no trophy at His feet? 

Chorus:

“Must I go, and empty handed?”

Must I meet my Savior so?

Not one soul with which to greet Him,

Must I empty handed go? 

Not at death I shrink or falter,

For my Savior saves me now;

But to meet Him empty handed,

Thought of that now clouds my brow. 

O the years in sinning wasted,

Could I but recall them now,

I would give them to my Savior,

To His will I’d gladly bow. 

O ye saints, arouse, be earnest,

Up and work while yet ’tis day;

Ere the night of death o’er take thee,

Strived for souls while still you may.

Culled from https://austinbhebe.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/must-i-go-an-empty-handed/

Stories of Faith - Episode 50

Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu narrated: 

“There is a woman I know, she is a believer and then there was this other woman, a neighbor, who for no reason disliked her (the believer). You know sometimes Satan can just move people. You’ve not done them any wrong but they just don’t like you. 'Why must you be smiling?' 'Why must you be the way you are?' And Satan can just move them. Every morning when the woman (believer) dresses to go to church. She (believer) was living downstairs, the other woman was living upstairs. She will just wash cloth and be on one side and be waiting for the christian woman on the balcony. Immediately she’s coming, she’ll pour the dirty water on her. The christian woman will go back inside and change her cloth. The other woman will stay outside and laugh and laugh and laugh. You know that kind of situation. I don’t know whether you’ve been driven to the wall like that. 

She kept on doing it and doing it and doing it, but this christian woman never for one day reacted. She will go in and change and go to church and she kept on being a good neighbor. Then it got to the day the woman got a better accommodation and needed to pack out. The woman who had been doing this was weeping, she kept on crying when she heard that this woman was leaving. She was crying. The woman never convicted her, as in talking to her. She never said anything like: 'you’ve been dealing with me, God will deal with you too'. The woman never did that. She started weeping. She wept and wept and was telling this christian woman please I am sorry. I am sorry for all that I have done to you. I am sorry, please which church do you attend. I want to start attending that your church. And that was how the other woman got converted, without her opening her mouth any day to preach to her. But she just walked in love and walked in love, refusing to react and eventually this became the fruit of it. Halleluyah! Love Never Fails” (1 Cor. 13:8)

Stories of Faith - Episode 49

Professor Zacharias Tanee Fomum was born in the flesh on 20th June 1945 and born of the Holy Spirit on 13th June 1956. He made an absolute surrender of himself to the Lord Jesus and to His service on 1st October 1966, and was fi lled with the Holy Spirit on 24th October 1970.

He was admitted to a fi rst class in the Bachelor of Science degree and graduated as a prize-winning student from Fourah Bay College in the University of Sierra Leone in October 1969. His research in Organic Chemistry led to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) awarded by the University of Makerere, Kampala, in Uganda in October 1973. His published scientific works were recently evaluated by the University of Durham in Great Britain and found to be research of high distinction, for which he was awarded the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in October 2005. As a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of Yaounde I in Cameroon, Professor Zacharias Tanee Fomum supervised and co-supervised more than a 100 Master’s and Doctoral Degree theses and co-authored over 160 scientific articles in leading international journals. He considered scientific research as an act of obedience to God’s command to “subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28). He also knew that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of Science. “For by Him all things were created…” (Colossians 1:16). He made the Lord Jesus the Director of his research laboratory and he, Professor Fomum, took the place of deputy director. He attributed his scientific success to the revelational leadership of the Lord Jesus.

In his passion to know Jesus and to make Him known, he read over 1350 books on the Christian faith and authored over 150 to advance the Gospel of Christ. Four million of his books are in circulation in 11 languages. Sixteen million Gospel tracts authored by him are in circulation in 17 languages.

Professor Fomum considered prayer to be the most important work that can be done on earth for God and for man. He was a man of faith who believed that God answers prayers. He had over 50 000 recorded answers to written Prayer Topics. He strove more and more to know God and to move Him to answer prayer. With his team, they carried out over 57 Prayer Crusades (periods of 40 days and nights during which at least 8 hours are invested into prayer each day). Th ey also carried out over 80 Prayer Sieges (times of near non-stop praying that range from 24 to 120 hours). He carried out over 100 Prayer Walks of between 5 and 47 kilometres in towns and cities around the world. He taught on prayer over and over, even though he was in many ways just a beginner in the profound science of prayer. 

He also considered fasting as one of the major weapons for Christian Spiritual Warfare. He carried out over 250 fasts ranging from 3 to 40 days, drinking water only. During some of his long fasts he also took water-soluble vitamins. Recently, the Lord called the Professor to battle with the hosts of wickedness in heavenly places through supra-long fasts (between 52 and 80 days). In obedience to this call, he accomplished 3 of such supra-long fasts.

Professor Fomum saw the importance of redeeming money and investing it into reaching those without Christ with the glorious Gospel. He therefore chose a life-style of simplicity and “self-imposed poverty” in order that their income should be invested into the critical work of evangelism, soul-winning, church-planting and the perfecting of the saints. His wife and him grew to investing 92.5% of their earned income from all sources (salaries, allowances, royalties and cash gifts) into the Gospel. Th is was with the hope that, as they grew in the knowledge and the love of the Lord and the perishing souls of men, they would one day invest 99% of their income into the Gospel.

In the last 40 years, 99% of the time, this Spiritual Leader spent between 15 minutes and 6 hours daily with God alone in what he called Daily Dynamic Encounters with God (DDEWG). During these times, he read God’s Word, meditated on It, listened to God’s voice, heard God speak to him, recorded what God was saying to him and prayed it through. He thus had over 18 000 recorded Daily Dynamic Encounters with God. He considered these daily meetings with God around His Word, the determinant strength of his life. These Daily Dynamic Encounters with God were coupled with over 60 periods of withdrawing to seek God alone for periods that ranged from 3 to 21 days (which he termed Retreats for Spiritual Progress). These slowly transformed Professor Z. T. Fomum into a man who fi rst hungered for God; and then hungered and thirsted for God; while hoping to become a man who hungered, thirsted and gasped after God. “Oh, that I would have more of God!” was his unceasing inner cry.

As a passionate Evangelist and Preacher of the Gospel, he travelled extensively. He went out of his base in Yaounde on over 700 missionary journeys in Cameroon that ranged from 1 day to 3 weeks. He also embarked on over 500 missionary journeys that ranged from 2 days to 6 weeks, to over 70 nations on all the six continents.

Professor Fomum was the Founding Team-Leader of Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMFI) – an evangelism, soul-winning, church-planting and disciple-making movement with missionaries and Churches in over 50 nations on all the 6 continents.

Along with his team, they saw over 10,000 recorded healing miracles performed by the Lord in answer to prayer in Jesus’ Name. Th ese included headaches disappearing, cancers disappearing, HIV positive people becoming HIV negative, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking, the lame walking, demoniacs being set free, and new teeth and new organs received. 

This family man was married to Prisca Zei Fomum and their 7 children are involved with them in the work of the Gospel. His wife, Prisca, is a national and international Minister to Children and specializes in winning children to the Lord Jesus and making them into His disciples. She is also involved in imparting the vision of the Ministry to Children, and in raising and building up Ministers to Children.

Professor Zacharias Tanee Fomum said he owed all that he was, and all that the Lord had done in him and through him, to the unmerited favours and blessings of the Lord God Almighty. He also owed it to his worldwide army of friends and co-workers who have generously and sacrificially invested their love, encouragement, fasts, prayers, gifts and co-operation into him and their joint ministry. Without these unmerited favours and blessings of the Lord God Almighty and the investments of his friends and co-workers, he would have amounted to nothing.

May the Lord receive all the glory!

Source: http://zacharias-tanee-fomum.e-monsite.com/en/pages/the-ministry/biography.html

Stories of Faith - Episode 48

Pastor Kayode MOMOLOSHO (1960-2009)

IN MEMORY OF A GREAT MAN THAT LIVED FOR JUST 49 YEARS, BUT DID WONDERS FOR THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE BY THE GOVERNMENT IN HILLS OF KOMA IN ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

"No Epitaph is Golden and Remembered by Men like the One written in the heart of Men."- Pastor Kayode MOMOLOSHO

Proverbs 10:7 - The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

Odds Against Pastor Kayode MOMOLOSHO

He was a Missionary Extraordinaire in Koma Hills of Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. He was the Pioneer Chief Project Coordinator of The King's Call @ Koma Hills. He faced many challenges in carrying out the divine assignments given to him. Some of the challenges included the following;-

• He had to live in an unfamiliar land and among strange people far away from home.
• There was no road into Koma Hills and he trekked 16 hours from Yola to Koma Hills and back to Yola many times.
• He suffered from river blindness because there was no good drinking water. This made him blind in one eye.
• He walked hundreds of kilometers in between the 39 communities in Koma Hills preaching the gospel of God to the Koma people.
• Some of the communities are located on hills and he once fell from a hill on one of his trip. He was seriously injured and had to be taken to the theater for surgery.
• He had numerous accidents​ on motorcycles. At death, he had gone through 7 surgeries and was fitted with plastic knee caps and plastic ribs. He once said jokingly​ that when he gets to heaven, he will tell Paul the Apostle about the many motorcycle wrecks he suffered.
• He had to engage an interpreter to communicate with the Koma people.
• As at 1996 when he arrived Koma Hills, the Koma people were not wearing clothes but using leaves and animal skin to cover their nakedness.
• He was accused of trafficking children by the Government and he was arrested.
• The Koma people had the culture of burying a baby whose mother dies.
• Having twin children was a taboo and such children were killed.
• Females had their two frontal teeth removed before getting married between 12-14 years.
• Koma people were predominantly idol worshippers.
• A pregnant woman must not be assisted in the delivery process. After delivery, she must clean herself and prepare her first meal successfully​, if not, she will be regarded as a witch.
• Boys are circumcised in the early teenage years using local methods which sometimes resulted in deaths and many more challenges.

Life Application

Despite of the numerous challenges he encountered, he overcame them. He overcame the challenges in the following ways:

✓ The King's Call @ Koma Hills clothed over 90% of the Koma People with 5 trailer loads of clothing donated by the members of Living Faith Church (aka Winners' Chapel International) under the Leadership of Bishop David Oyedepo.

✓ The King's Call @ Koma Hills dug 10 motorized boreholes, 10 wells and constructed an infiltration gallery thus supplying portable water to many Communities in Koma Hills. This has made river blindness, which use to be prevalent in Koma Hills, a thing of the past.

✓ Rapha Mercy Centre provides free Medical care to the Koma People free of charge till date. This had reduced drastically the high mortality rate in Koma land.

✓ A free Boarding House School and 3 other Day Schools are currently running in Koma Hills for the education of the Koma Children. The day Schools serve the children a meal in school daily.

✓ Pastor Kayode Momolosho led the indigenes in constructing the first road which connected the community to other places. The road was constructed with hoes and cutlasses.

✓ Many of the Pioneer pupils of Dominion Academy, Mani were taken outside the state for further studies. Today, many of them are graduates including a First Class Graduate of Landmark University (LMU).

✓ Dominion International Junior Academy, Mani (DIJA) has also graduated many students from its Junior Secondary Arm of the school.

✓ Koma Children are not only receiving formal education but they are also been taught the word of God.

✓ The allegation of Child trafficking was dropped when he brought back home successfully all the children who were schooling in different parts of the country.

Conclusion

Pastor Kayode MOMOLOSHO didn't just survive in the midst of challenges but he succeeded against all odds. God's Grace and help was available for him.

Source: https://thiscrossroad.com.ng/rising-above-challenges-pastor-kayode-momolosho-1960-2009/

Stories of Faith - Episode 47

Chris Delvan narrates:

Pa Joshua Ekpikhe, a great evangelist in Northern Nigeria died recently. He was from Akwa Ibom. He built Baraka Press, the only press that publishes the gospel in Hausa. He told me the story, he said the Lord told him to leave Minneapolis and go and preach in the West Coast. And he said to God, but you know I don’t have money and you know that my host, his father died and he inherited everything. And the Lord said, “don’t ask him”. So, he told his host, I’m going to California, and the host said “for real… let me take you to the airport”. And he drove him to the airport. And the host said, “are you ok” and he said, “I’m ok, everything is perfect”. And the host dropped him at the airport and left him. And Pa Ekpikhe entered the airport and joined the line to buy ticket without a dime in his pocket. And there were two people before him and the lady at the ticket counter. And there was a man behind him reading a newspaper. As he was going forward, the second to the last person was just attended to and the last person was there at the counter and he started to sweat, a cold sweat. And then he said, somebody puts his hand in my back pocket and placed an envelope in it. Meanwhile, the man behind him was still reading his newspaper. He looked and pulled out the envelope carefully and there was enough money to pay for his flight to and fro.

Stories of Faith - Episode 46

Chris Delvan narrates:

I met an Ibo boy, who came to Mauritania. He had been to Mauritania four times in two years. To preach in Mauritania is punishable by death, by beheading. I said “what job were you doing to survive?”

He said he bought a taxi – a horse. He was using it to raise money to support himself to preach.

When I met him, he was living in an uncompleted house in Kaduna. They had arrested him four times and he was to be killed but this time he was released. The last time he was in an underground cell, open cell with bamboo and palm fronds and everything stacked on top and guards were watching him from above. So he decided to come and learn shoe-making, he wanted to be a cobbler, so he can add to his trade. So, I said, “what will happen, do you want to start making shoes?”

He said, “No”. He’s going back.

I said, “You are going back?”

I’m a Northerner. There’s no relish in going to Mauritania. They still have slaves there. And the guy went back.

If the fire of the spirit of evangelism is not burning in you, you have not seen the end of everything – the lake of Fire.