The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, yesterday expressed concern over the plight of Christians living in the northern part of the country.
Speaking yesterday in Jos during a "Moment of Encounter," a monthly programme of the Assemblies of God Church with the theme; "Men Ought Always To Pray," the CAN President said: "I did not seek to be president. TECKAN came to me to request me to be president, that they specifically knew that I should be the one to be CAN president.
"The position I occupy, I occupy for you. The day you say you don't want me, I go. When I see what happens to the church, especially in the north, I'm troubled.
"Nigeria shall remain one. I urge the church to pray for Nigeria. Let's raise the standard for this country. The church needs to remain one so that its prayer can be effective."
Quoting from the Book of Judges 16:28, the CAN President said Nigeria was passing through a season of wilderness, but expressed hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
He said: "Samson cried onto God to remember him. It represents the traumatised people of Jos, of northern Nigeria, possibly of Nigeria. I could call this a season of wilderness when anything could go wrong, has gone wrong. Jos was a place for vacation.
"If you wanted vacation, you came here. What happened to Jos? What has happened to Nigeria?" Also reading from the Books of Songs of Solomon 8.5; Jeremiah 1:2; Act 10:2-4; Gen 39.9; Acts 8:20; Luke 18:1, the CAN President added: "Who is this that has come out of the wilderness.
He stands for the church, you and I. "This Jesus has remembered you. They found grace in the wilderness. Grace is divine help in a helpless situation. He will bring you out of the wilderness.
The angels say your prayer has reached God, God has remembered Cornelius. The problem with Nigeria is we don't fear God. We sit at a roundtable and discuss something, but do something else when we come out. "You can't take another man's life if you fear God. There is money you mustn't touch. How do you seize a pensioner's money and be able to go home and sleep. Some people are dying of malaria, in childbirth and people are jetting abroad to check for headache.
"God remembered Cornelius because he feared God. Take your Christianity to office, to the market, because God is everywhere. Don't go to church on Sunday and leave, saying; "God, goodbye, till next Sunday." Go everywhere with the consciousness of God, he said.
National Mirror
Then all christians should just get out of that part of Nigeria to be safe. In whatever we do in life, safety first!