CAPTIVE OF THE MIGHTY…FEAST FOR THE SLAVES (SEASON 1 EPISODE 3)

"Can the prey be taken from the mighty man, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?" Isaiah 49:24

All the years I would later spend in university were characterized by sexual immorality and a glamourous lifestyle that almost ruined me.

I gained admission to the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos to study Law “my dream profession” In my first two years in University, I went to school daily from home. At this time, my parents lived in “Gowon Estate Egbeda Lagos” and school was about 30 minutes away. I had learnt to drive and my parents had released a Racer Daewoo saloon car to me before I clocked 20 years old. This may have been a mistake eventually.

Being mobile afforded me the opportunity to philander on a whole new level. On February 13^th 2002 I was involved in an accident right after dropping off my then lover. The accident ripped the trunk of the car to shreds, I however was unscathed…this was just the beginning.

My parents were upset but their anger was short-lived. I had connived with the Mechanic to vandalise the brake pipe of the car so I could claim that the accident was as a result of brake failure. My parents believed me. I had tasted the sweet fruit of decadence well ahead of my time, I had switched to a faster lane and no force would be capable of stopping this destructive object.

On 6^th May 2002, I had a second accident. This time, it was my mother’s car, a Nissan Bluebird. The accident occurred on Access road in the University of Lagos during a high speed frenzy. I sustained a few bruises but the vehicle was totaled. When I was rushed to the health centre within the campus, I quickly concocted a tale to save myself from my mother’s wrath…and the idea came.

I told my parents that my late paternal Grandma had appeared to me in the car and she had told me that my mother was responsible for all the disagreements existing in the extended family at that time. My father saw through the lies, he was particularly hurt that I had weaved a web of lies involving his late mother. My mother however may have believed a bit of what I said, the sensationalism and mystery appealed to her as it would to most women…

My decadent lifestyle continued.

“Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him”. Proverbs 27:22

By three hundred level in the university, I had secured an apartment close to the university campus. It was a 3 bedroom apartment and I shared it with two friends. Three of us had cars and we lived the decadent bachelor’s lifestyle.

By the time I graduated from university, I had gone through several women and acquired a taste for deceit, sex and madness. I was an expert at seducing women and my childlike looks added more venom to an already lethal bite force. I still wonder how I was able to graduate with a second class lower degree from school without a spillover semester and also able to escape with my life intact, despite the prevalent and violent cult gang wars that rocked the university those days. Girls! Girls! Girls!

“Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings” Proverbs 31:3

I graduated from university in 2005. All my life, I never had to wait for a period before advancing to the next level in my academic pursuit. I didn’t experience any waiting period before gaining admission into secondary school, I finished secondary school in 1999 and by 2000 I was already in the university. At the same pace, I finished university in 2005 and by 2006 I was already in law school. I had missed going to law school in December 2005 but miraculously and for the first time in the history of the law school, the institution admitted two batches in one session. I was fortunate to make the second batch and so I didn’t have to wait a whole year. My strange luck was something I repeatedly boasted about. I assumed I had achieved all these by being extremely brilliant and gifted.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”. Ephesians 2:8-9

I had my law school education in the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School. While there, the decadent lifestyle continued. By February 2007, I proceeded for the NYSC program in Kebbi state. Armed with a fake doctor’s report, I was able to secure redeployment to Lagos State. I served in the law firm of ABFR & CO from 2007 to 2008.

Did I mention that the Lagos State Government had given me a scholarship to cover the rest of my secondary and tertiary education for up to 8 years as a result of my many achievements in secondary school? WOW!!!

“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labour in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” Ecclesiastes 2:11

The scholarship was presented to me by the then Military Administrator of Lagos State, Col Mohammed Buba Marwa (as he then was). I still keep in touch with this great man to this day.

During the NYSC years, I wrote my first novel titled “Of snakes and broken hedges” and also my first play titled “Of goons and the blood bought freedom” However, these manuscripts remain unpublished till this day…maybe I could begin to upload the book in bits for the reading pleasure of you guys…maybe.

In 2008, and as a result of the scholarship I had received from the Lagos State Government and continuing in that line, I was offered employment by the Lagos State Government as a State Counsel. I resumed work in June 2008.

All this time, the decadent lifestyle of women and deceit was still in full swing.

“For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon his precious life”. Proverbs 6:26

RUDDERLESS AND VISIONLESS…THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A FOOL (SEASON 1 EPISODE 2)

A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. Proverbs 18:2

By the way, let me tell you more about me…

I was born on March 27^th 1983 to the family of Mr and Mrs Onyemauche Obi (pseudonyms). It was Palm Sunday. According to my mother, a religious procession of worshippers had assembled in front of the maternity home, singing and praying. The procession did not leave until I came into the world. The strange event led the Mid-Wife to tell my mother that I was a child of destiny…my mother kept this story from me until I was old and matured enough to comprehend its significance.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-10.

I had 4 siblings (Yes, had). I was the second child and first male. At an early age, my talent was evident: I could write.  Through my secondary school years, I had participated and won several literary based competitions. Essays and poetry were my specialty and my parents were always proud of me.

I was brought up in a Christian family, my parents were born again Christians and as far back as 1992, we had made the transition from orthodox Christianity to a Pentecostal assembly. I had what you could call a typical Christian upbringing. Wake up in the morning, say your prayers, go to school, come back home and remain indoors with little or no opportunity to socialise with other kids. I guess my parents did that to shield us from the corruption that had permeated morality. Little did they know that there was a rat within the grain…

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy”. John 10:10

I was introduced to the damnation of sexual immorality at an early age…by my estimate, I would say before the age of 6. We had a house-keeper then who would engage me in sexual acts. This house-keeper lived with us for probably 15 years or more and for most of that time, I was trapped in a world of sexual abuse and decadence…no one knew.

During my secondary school days, I began to really appreciate the opposite sex…sexually. While there was no avenue in the school to actually have sex with girls, various forms of pre-sexual activities were prevalent and I was not left out of the madness…the occasional kissing, touching of intimate parts and all was the order of the day.

In secondary school, I was a model student. Winning several competitions and rising to the pinnacle of scholastic achievements when I represented the entire nation at the International Youth Forum organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (then UNO) in Rome. At that age, I had composed over 100 poems and I had written several short stories. I was probably the most popular student in school at that time and on several occasions, I had parents persuading me to become friends with their kids. Life was golden…or was it?

The sexcapades with the house-keeper continued whenever I returned home for vacation. I wonder why my parents couldn’t sense it at that time, maybe they trusted me, maybe they trusted the house keeper.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. –Psalm 118:8

Sometime in 1999, after my secondary education, as I prepared to enter the university, I was greatly troubled in my spirit. At this time, I was experiencing a new spiritual awakening and I was desperately seeking the salvation of my soul. When my lost self couldn’t fight it no more, I approached a pastor in my church, the Latter Rain Assembly and I opened up to him about the issue. All those years of sexual abuse would not hold me down anymore. I poured it all out. The pastor invited my parents for a meeting and told them everything…all hell broke loose.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. James 5:16

My mother couldn’t take it. She assaulted the house-keeper and also threatened to kill me…daddy’s reaction was strangely different, he called me and told me “son I am proud of you”. Strangely, after that incident, the house-keeper continued living with us but the sexual abuse ceased.

Lesson 1: After a spiritual emancipation, the object representing such sin should be removed and spiritual support should continue over a period of time. Failure to do this would simply create fertile grounds for an even deadlier invasion…

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, “I will return to the house from which I came” and when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first…” Matthew 12:43-45.

The essence of Being...I found me (Season 1 Episode 1)

“Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “the Lord has not appeared to you” So the Lord said to him, what is that in your hand” EX 4:1-2

Someday, maybe even today, someone who due to a limited vision or an alternative view may say the same thing to me: “The Lord has not appeared to you”. My answer has been prepared from the beginning of time; I have cast that which God has given me to the ground before him in obedience to his word and surely, signs, wonders and the salvation of souls shall spring forth. I say this in the beginning so that when these things begin to manifest, you who understand may not wonder…because you already understand.

This is a divine assignment. In every word, every line and every post, I pour out my heart as I take you on this journey of my walk with Christ even as I hold on to his covenant.

Some have wondered…Why are we born? What is the essence of existence? What is our purpose here on earth? If you do not know the answers to these questions, then you may have a problem fulfilling purpose and transmitting immutable eternal truth to posterity. If people led purposeful lives, they may then have the capacity to transmit purposeful living to posterity; this is the recipe for a better world. With the discovery of true purpose and the pursuit of God and his salvation, eternal life is attainable…what am I saying?

Granted that life begins when one is born, however, you begin living when you are able to identify the essence of life in the first place. For some people, the cycle of living is not complete until you have passed on these values to your seed…and then you are on the right track.

This is my story…

My name is Uzoma Obi (The pseudonym I shall be using for this blog), happily married man with a dark past…a bright future and a defining present. Join me in this journey of rediscovery as I share with you my experience as a man after God’s own heart and a couple waiting on the lord for the fruit of the womb. A great reward it shall be if you are able to key into my story, join your faith with mine and sire choice seeds, a greater reward it is if you are able to discover your purpose in life and like the biblical Moses, use that which is in your hand to impact your generation…the greatest reward however, shall be the salvation of your soul and this is prayerfully demand of God.

The day I signed up for Christ was the day I ceased to live an ordinary life. No. I am built for the extraordinary, I am built for such a time as this, I am a man of faith; a man of destiny

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” : Matt 5:14