He’s an usher in church. He speaks in tongues. Why is he making THOSE demands? What demands? Find out below and download some uncommon wisdom from Uncle Leke Alder in today’s Letter to Jil. You will learn something. Cheers.
1. My dear Jil, I do see the confusion you have. But the fundamental question is: #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
2. Does the fact that someone is a good church volunteer (or worker) mean the person will become a good marriage partner? #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
3. The simple answer is that religious volunteerism is not an affidavit of marital qualification. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
4. Neither is religious volunteerism a certificate of matrimonial proficiency. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
5. You cannot assume that both roles- husband and church worker- are interchangeable. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
6. A church is a melting pot of society. Despite our belief in the goodness of the average church attendee… #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
7. …we must not confuse personal righteousness with the gift of righteousness. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
8. Christians are gifted with righteousness because personal righteousness won't cut it with God. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
9. But marriage operates on personal attributes- ideosyncracies, personality, values and character. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
10. Our Lord Jesus has enormous absorbent capacity. Come unto me ALL you that labour with heavy burdens he said. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
11. That makes the average church a federal republic of ex labourers. The doors are open to struggling load carriers. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
12. The church is open to EVERYONE- the sick, the lame, the troubled, the weary, the directionless, the vain, the proud… #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
13. …the moralistic, the undisciplined, the loving, the hating, the searching, the depressed, the abused… #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
14. …thieves, witches, alcoholics, prostitutes, recovering alcoholics, addicts, cultists… #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
15. …convicts, the broken, the mending, the disturbed, ritualists, pimps, "good" people… Jesus says come! #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
16. Those that are well have no need of physician He said. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
17. Jesus died for the world because humanity is sick. He's the Great Healer. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
18. The secondary consequence of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden is psychological damage. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
19. Shortly after this incident we had the first murder recorded in human history- Cain slew Abel. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
20. That was indeed a fratricide- brother killing brother. It was hitherto unimaginable. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
21. It is because of this psychological damage that Paul encourages us to "renew" our minds with the word of God. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
22. Some have gone far in this regard. Some are far behind. He may be an usher and be far behind. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
23. And spiritual age is not proportionable to biological age. A grandfather can be a baby Christian. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
24. And so the church is a reformational institution for humanity. That is the conceptual framework. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
25. There are two natures struggling in the average Christian: the "new man" and the "old man". #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
26. It's a titanic struggle. The one is Dr. Jekyll, the other Mr. Hyde. (Remember the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?) #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
27. It's the lot of the Christian to suppress his Mr. Hyde to enable God's nature in him dominate his existence. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
28. The Jekyll and Hyde configuration is why he can speak in tongues and still do crazy stuff. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
29. Tongues is a gift. It is no proof of maturity or godliness. Neither is it a measure of holiness. Tongues is not earned. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
30. Paul called this Mr. Hyde the "flesh". It's a technical term for debased and perverted reasoning. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
31. Since reasoning informs action, the level of mind renewal of the Christian influences his character and behaviour. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
32. That someone is a good church worker or volunteer does not automatically mean he'll make a good husband. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
33. Qualification for both roles are not the same. You can't be presumptive. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
34. That is not saying there are no commonalities of virtues across both strata of engagement. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
35. There are attributes like dedication, faithfulness and diligence. Some carry such attributes into matrimony, some don't. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
36. The truth is, the man who buys into the recommendations of Jesus should ordinarily make a very good husband. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
37. And the exposition of love in Paul's letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13) should make any marriage solid. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
38. Subscription to THE WORD OF GOD (not religiosity) should create a joyful marriage feast. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
39. Who best to turn to for marriage counsel than the Creator of marriage Himself? #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
40. The reality however is that we don't always heed God. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
41. And some people have schizoid tendencies. They exhibit contradictory attributes. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
42. In church they are holy holy but outside the context of church they are another thing entirely. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
43. Their Mr. Hyde dominates their existence. Paul calls such "carnal" Christians. They're given to crude bodily pleasures. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
44. And there are those who masquerade under the habiliment of piety. They're pretenders. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
45. Remember the Parable of the tares? (Mat.13.24-30) Satan has his own plantings. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
46. Some people are like those sleeper cells of the espionage world. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
47. They are counterintelligence assets. They lie dormant until the signal comes from their father Satan. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
48. These are sons of Belial: wolves masquerading as sheep, cloaked in the fur of devoutness. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
49. You can't take people at face value just because of the context of church. The church is a melting pot. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
50. You must be as wise as serpent but harmless as a dove. Use your wit. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
51. Of course there are many good people in church; and there are many wonderful unions forged in church. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
52. But the composition of the 12 disciples of Jesus presents the probability of a variation of one in every twelve. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
53. Judas is a statistical variant- an aberrant, paradoxical, anomalous intercalation. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
54. Watch out for anomalies. Don't assume everyone who goes to church is good and godly. Remember the church is for all comers. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
55. As a percentile Judas is about eight out of a hundred. In every hundred therefore there's a probability of eight Judases. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
56. May God help you conjugate with someone from the other 92%. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
57. The fundamentals remain nonetheless: you must seek matrimonial love, peace, harmony and happiness. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
58. Spirituality does not obliterate the need for love. Marriage is not a joyless, loveless, dutiful spiritual obligation. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
59. And God is not against personal preferences. God recognises personalities. Peter is not John. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
60. Your personal preferences are okay. Only layer them on sound fundamentals. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
61. I will of course advice you pray and ask God for guidance. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
62. God sees everyone's heart and knows tomorrow. If you do get warning signs don't ignore. #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
63. I wish you the best as always. Your mentor, LA © Leke Alder #Letr2Jil
— Leke Alder (@LekeAlder) November 23, 2013
