Author: Schulter Etyang

Thank you, Nelson Mandela!

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© July 17, 2018 | Schulter Etyang Nelson Mandela, what a man! What a life. His persona, endearing. His heroic deeds, unmatched. A man who lived way before his time. A man who peered into the future, anchored himself in the present, reconciled the past and led not only South Africa but also the rest of the world into the future he envisioned. His future? Black and White living together in a non-racial South Africa – all of humanity living together in harmony. This was his vision. A few events have been planned around Johannesburg to commemorate the centenary of Nelson Mandela. This year, he would have been 100 years old. In particular, Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States will deliver the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, in partnership with the Motsepe Foundation, in Johannesburg on 17 July 2018.

What if you met the most powerful person on earth?

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© July 4, 2018 | Schulter Etyang You have had this desire for the longest time to meet someone that you really admire. This person is very powerful and wealthy. They have influence. They have credibility. Their gifts and talents are without comparison. They have topped the list on TIME’s 100 most influential people. Not once, not twice, but since TIME magazine started compiling this list. So, you put out a tweet or Facebook post requesting to meet them. Alas, they reply back and say, let’s do this. They give you the time, date and location. They are on the other side of the world, but they promise to fly out to meet you.

A grace perspective on the Parable of the Talents

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© June 29, 2018 | Schulter Etyang I still maintain that the Bible is not about us but about Jesus and his work for us. Failing to do so makes reading the Bible a dangerous endeavour. Whenever we superimpose ourselves on the Bible, two things happen; pride or apathy. When we read the Bible and discover that we have attained to its ideals, it produces in us pride. Ask the Pharisees, Sadducees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day. When we read the Bible, on the other hand, and discover that we have failed to attain to its ideals, it produces in us apathy or indifference. Which leads me to this parable in Matthew 25:14-28 about the man who left his workers with some money. This particular parable has been used to enforce an ROI (Return on Investment) thought that has been of great disservice to the storyteller and its hearers. We have made this parable about us and not about Jesus. 

The party tent

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Edited by WordPress.com staff © June 26, 2018 | Schulter Etyang Amos, an Old Testament prophet, belts out this fascinating words about the restoration of a fallen tent. He calls this tent, David’s tent. He tells the nation of Israel that God will repair the holes in it, restore its ruined places and will rebuild them as they were a long time ago. (Amos 9:11-12 GW) What is he talking about? Hundreds of years later, the same words are repeated by the leaders of the early Church when they met to discuss what to do with these Gentiles whom God had saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 15:16-18 GW) We have to go to King David and see what this tent was all about. David took the Ark of the Covenant that he had abandoned in Obed Edom’s house and brought it back to Jerusalem. Initially, he had tried to bring it, from Abinadab’s house, but things didn’t go so well. On his second try, he did it the right way, and brought the Ark of the Covenant …

No way Jesus, You come!

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© June 21, 2018 | Schulter Etyang I’m sure you are familiar with Peter’s story and how he walked on water. It’s a Bible story that is as old as your Harry Potter’s novels or your Lord of the Rings trilogy. Even if you are the irreligious type, you have certainly heard of this story. It’s a popular cultural expression for doing something that seems nearly impossible.  This particular sticking point that Jesus and Peter walked on water, however, has made many people to disprove the Christian faith. Who can walk on water, they ask. Such stories, they believe, are a figment of our imagination.

Happy Father’s Day

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© June 17, 2018 | Schulter Etyang  On Father’s Day, many of us will wake up with a feeling of angst. It is supposed to be a day when we are celebrated but to most of us, it’s a day burdened with regrets because everything will be geared towards reminding us of our failures.  Worse, the day is on a Sunday. We will feel “obligated” to accompany our spouses and kids to a religious service. At the religious service, the speaker will talk about how true manhood looks like, how our religious founder exhibited those qualities, and that we now have to live up to his standard.

Jesus and ​the culture

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© June 13, 2018 | Schulter Etyang There is nothing new under the sun, the wise king Solomon, once said. Every act or event is something that has, in the past, taken place. History revisits itself. The old cliché same old’, same old’ is true. Our generation is living through a cultural moment right now that seems out of the ordinary, but the truth is, we have already lived through it. The cultural moment we are living through right now is the issue of freedom of religion. This is a hot topic. If you listen to prominent religious voices, you will think, this has never happened before, that this is a new phenomenon.

How to pray, the gospel

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© June 7, 2018 | Schulter Etyang Pray, everybody prays. And we pray to a transcendent being. For Muslims, it is to Allah. For Hindus, it is to Brahman. For Judaists, it is to Yahweh. For nominal Christians, it is to God. For Buddhists, it is to Buddha. For Taoists, it is to the Universe. For Confucius’s, it is to the individual self. For agnostics, it is to science and reasoning. Pray, everybody prays. And when we pray, we do two things; We pray to someone – either self, reasoning, science, the universe or to a god. We pray about something.

Day of good news

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© June 5, 2018 | Schulter Etyang A few years ago, deep into my gospel journey, I was invited to speak at a Church just outside our city. It was around Easter. As I pondered on what to share, I came across a story in 2 Kings 7 that became my favourite gospel story. Cue, I had been a Christian for many years. I had been a Church mouse all my life. I had been on a constant diet of performance, DIY and spiritual gymnastics. The result was, I wanted to become a leadership guru of some sort. My dream was to join the ranks of the leadership gurus of our day. My mother, in support of my dream, bought me books and DVD’s on leadership by a renowned leadership guru. This was her investment into my dream. Until the gospel smacked me right on my face. The gospel threw me off. It unravelled my world. It punched a hole in my world. And this is one of those stories that God used to whip …

On chaos, grace and the wisdom that grace imparts on us

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© May 25, 2018 | Schulter Etyang My previous post was about Jesus and his attraction to chaos. Jesus uses chaos to his advantage for your good. He is a master at turning chaos into beauty. I also wrote that chaos is the connecting dot or link to God’s superabounding grace. Without chaos, grace has no purpose. Without grace, chaos destroys. Chaos and grace work hand in hand. They need each other.  I would like to point out something else that grace does after it deals with the chaos. Grace imparts wisdom. There is a story that illustrates this truth so succinctly. (2 Kings 4:1-7 NKJV)