Yuletide: Cleric urges Nigerians to be hopeful
By Fortune Abang
Pastor Adebayo Oladeji of University Baptist Church Gwagwalada, in Abuja, has urged Christians and Nigerians in general to be hopeful, in spite of the economic situation as they celebrate Christmas.
Oladeji gave the advice, while speaking with newsmen shortly after the Christmas Carol service at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The cleric also urged Nigerians to pray for President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of the National Assembly to be able to take right decisions that will affect the country positively.
He described Christmas season as a universal fiesta, saying it is global celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to set the world free from the challenges of sin and iniquity.
“Jesus is the hope of the world and we must be hopeful in all situations.
“Economy or no economy, I know that situation is not as expected, things are so tough, but thank God for the government of the day, the key word is hope, so let’s have hope, if you have hope, tomorrow will be better.
“We should have hope and rejoice with expectation, it is those that do not have hope that commit suicide, let us have hope that tomorrow will be better.
“Let’s celebrate the Christmas with hope, just like when prisoners are granted clemency, they will be rejoicing or when they know that their term of prison will soon be over they will be rejoicing
“So let us also have hope that our tomorrow will be better,’’ he said.
According to him, when people have hope, it entails that they should celebrate, because they still have life, saying “thing that are bad today will be better tomorrow.
“ Let us rejoice in hope, let’s pray for our government, the president and the National Assembly, it is when they make the right decision that we are going to benefit.
“Just like David in the Bible, when he made a singular mistake the entire country suffered, so if we pray for our leaders we will have it better.
“The God that we are serving will answer our prayers concerning security and economy, we have no other place to go, this is our country and it will be better.
“My advice for the government is that they should be sensitive to the plight of the people, they should lead by examples.
“When government functionaries said that we should tighten our belt they should not lose theirs. When people are suffering, they should consider their plight,” he said.
The cleric advised that people should be more prudent in the face of economic challenges, to be able to overcome such.
“This era is the era that they should be prudent in their spending, not when a government functionary will be going about with six or seven cars.
“Let the government look at how to alleviate the suffering of the people, let the government give us good example, let there be something to cushion the effect of hardship, we are hearing about palliative, let it felt by every household.
Earlier in his sermon title joy for the whole world Oladeji described Jesus Christ as the joy of the world.
According to him, Jesus came to liberate the world and give joy of salvation and there is no way you can talk about salvation without the saviour, who is Jesus Christ.
“He is a God incarnate who came as a man to live with us. He is the Messiah according to Mathew 1:21. He came to deliver man from the bondage of sin,” Oladeji said (NAN) NAN reports that the highlight of the carol include Bible reading, Choir ministration and other activities. (www.nannews.com.ng)
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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola
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