God has permitted us to live in the most exciting days of all human history when the Holy Spirit is readily available to make people respond to God and to all that He is doing. But it's unfortunate that little or no importance is attached to spiritual things by many nowadays. There's prevalence of spiritual weariness, weakness, emptiness, dryness, lukewarmness, boredom, worldliness, and hypocrisy. While some are drowsy, sluggish and lethargic towards the things of God, others are rising and falling. Many are dull in the spirit, lack the innate drive and sincere passion for God. Low spiritual energy now characterizes the lives of once vibrant saints of God. It speaks from our innermost being when we give excuses like "I have some things I need to attend to urgently so I can't work for God or fellowship with him now. In our days we see Jesus prophesy that "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" coming to fulfillment. Seeing all these happening, whom should we blame? When our love for God dwindles because of the current economic situation and the prevailing circumstances in our world, whom should we blame? When it is very hard to generate excitement and zeal for the things of God despite the fact that the scripture says "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."
When negligence, looseness, carelessness, frivolity, high-mindedness, talkativeness, laziness takes over lives, and the word "watch" seems to have lost its import, having no serious meaning to nowadays Christians because the word "liberty" has been grossly misconstrued, whom should we blame? Jesus repeatedly admonishes us to "watch and pray" and quite interestingly the word "watch comes before pray. I believe there's a reason for this because if it wasn't that important to watch Jesus wouldn't have instructed us to watch. No wonder David, the psalmist said, "Who can understand his error, cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and be innocent from the great transgression." Everyone says and does what he or she deems fit, and unbelievably our world is just like it was in the days when there were no judges in Israel, "in those days there was no king in Israel: everyone did what was right in his own eyes"
When a Christian becomes indecisive, untruthful, and undetermined about his commitment to God's word, work and kingdom, whom should we blame? Many are busy engaging themselves in activities that generate self-satisfaction, self-love, self-praise, self-aggrandizement and self-gratification. There is no retreat in God's service, yet, there is apathy towards soul winning, boredom, eye-service and fruitless evangelism. With emerging signs of the last days, our world is becoming more dangerous to live in. Sins and evils ravaging every society, and thousands are dying from landslide, floods, blasts, plane crashes, vehicle accidents, terrorist attacks to mention a few. These unpleasant and disastrous occurrences abounding around us notwithstanding, we do no longer have passion for the dying souls. The iron of church is getting blunt, yet, God's program cannot fail and the nations of the world are waiting to feel our impact! Just as Jesus asked Peter, He is asking again, "lovest thou me more than these ?"
Why has the Church resorted to operating without glory? Why has she become complacent and adjusted to service without the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit? Why is God's glory not a priority issue in our days? Why is it that there are so many sycophants and alarmists in the church of God? Whom should we blame when everything seemed turned upside down. When the clergy is weak and the laity are feeble, whom should we blame? When the pulpit is defiled and the pews are polluted, whom should we blame? When the bride of the Lord is defiled and adorned (clothed) with filthy garment, whom should we blame? When the altar of the Lord is polluted and desecrated, whom then do we blame? Yet, God expressly commands, "Let your garment always be white and let thy head lack no oil."
When spiritual giants who have once snatched souls of men from hell now fall into the same error they delivered others from, whom should we blame? The wisest king Solomon chose to fragrantly disobey God by worshipping idols with his wives and concubines, he was polluted and became the greatest fool in the land of Israel. He broke record and surpassed his predecessors (the only king with 700 wives and 300 concubines-what a madness!).Whom should we blame for sinners who are going en masse to Christ-less eternity while the bride of Christ (Church) who is supposedly mandated to rescue them is not yet washed and cleansed from her stains and therefore cannot reach out to them. We need to recall the penitent prayer of Job's friend and cry out to God,"that which I see not teach thou me, and if I have done any iniquity I will do no more."
When our prayer altar is weak and feeble and cannot bring down the power of God to destroy the activities of darkness, whom should we blame? When there is spiritual defeat and Christians cannot possess the gates of their enemies, whom should we blame? When captors become captives, whom should we blame? When believers are constantly under the attack of the enemy and it seems God has no power to give victory, whom should we blame? Remember, the bible says in Romans 8 verse 32, "He who did not spare his own son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?"
The young prophet from Judah was sent by God to prophesy unto the altar at Bethel. After delivering his message, instead of embarking on his journey back to where he came from as instructed by God, he was found resting under the oak tree. So, the old prophet successfully persuaded him and he consented to follow him to his house. He presumably believed the old prophet who spoke with precision though but he lied to him. The young prophet ate, drank and eventually set off on his journey. On his way, according to the prophesy of the old prophet, the young prophet was killed by a lion. It's quite unthinkable, unbelievable and surprising to know that the same old prophet who lied and turned him back from his way that was the first to accuse him when he was found dead. The Old prophet said that the young prophet died because he disobeyed God. So, whom should we blame? Satan is the accuser of God's children and he accuses us before God every moment. For the bible says, "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."
Ahab, the king of Israel spoke harshly against Elijah and called him the troubler of Israel. But Elijah proved to him that he was not the troubler of Israel but servant of the living God. Elijah raised an altar unto God, he called upon the Almighty God who brought down fire that consumed the sacrifice and licked the water around the altar. After his death, Ahaziah his son became the king of Israel. During his reign as king in Israel, Ahaziah fell and was injured, so he sent his messengers to inquire from Baalzebub, the god of Ekron if he would recover. Elijah met his messengers on their way and gave them God's verdict that the king would not recover. In anger, Ahaziah sent his soldiers to bring Elijah down from the top of a hill where he was sitting because he desired to deal with him. One would have thought that Ahaziah should have known Elijah too well not to have dared him. Unfortunately, two batches of soldiers with their leaders sent to Elijah never returned but were consumed by fire. It was only the third batch of soldiers and their leader who were spared; else they would have been consumed like the other two batches. For those who died foolishly on king's errand, whom should we blame? The leader of the third batch acted wisely and pleaded for his life and that of others because he realized the truth about the scripture "he maketh his angels spirit and his ministers flame of fire."
Ahab, the king of Israel spoke harshly against Elijah and called him the troubler of Israel. But Elijah proved to him that he was not the troubler of Israel but servant of the living God. Elijah raised an altar unto God, he called upon the Almighty God who brought down fire that consumed the sacrifice and licked the water around the altar. After his death, Ahaziah his son became the king of Israel. During his reign as king in Israel, Ahaziah fell and was injured, so he sent his messengers to inquire from Baalzebub, the god of Ekron if he would recover. Elijah met his messengers on their way and gave them God's verdict that the king would not recover. In anger, Ahaziah sent his soldiers to bring Elijah down from the top of a hill where he was sitting because he desired to deal with him. One would have thought that Ahaziah should have known Elijah too well not to have dared him. Unfortunately, two batches of soldiers with their leaders sent to Elijah never returned but were consumed by fire. It was only the third batch of soldiers and their leader who were spared; else they would have been consumed like the other two batches. For those who died foolishly on king's errand, whom should we blame? The leader of the third batch acted wisely and pleaded for his life and that of others because he realized the truth about the scripture "he maketh his angels spirit and his ministers flame of fire."
In fact, the list is endless. The bible is littered with instances and events where the question whom should we blame becomes inevitable. Aside the scriptures, daily events in our world; happenings in the political scene, economic, religious, and other sectors of government leaves us with the question whom should we blame. Our world is becoming chaotic, a lot is going on every day and many are troubled, perplexed, worried, and fearful. Nonetheless, everyone will be held responsible and accountable for decisions made or actions taken. For any failure in life, no one is to be blamed but you. We need to look inward first before passing the blame to others. In the bible, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent but the serpent had no one to blame or perhaps felt there is no need to blame anyone.
