Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
Church could be seen as a place where Christians carry out their religion activities. One may also see it as a group of people who follow the same Christian religious believers, local or general. Theft, according to an English Dictionary, simply means the act of stealing property. Based on the subject above, it could be referred to as the act of stealing property in a place where Christians carry out their religious practices.
The media seldom focuses its searchlight on these issues because it might think that it would be of interest to just a few but I see it that this story could help someone somewhere.
The recent one that caught media attention a little was the demolition of church building at Onne in River State recently by some unknown men. Sometimes, these people do this and think it has ended there.
What is very trendy now is stealing of cell phones in church while service is going on. Believers, while paying attention to preaching may not be aware that someone behind them is looking for means to collect their phones and leave the church. It happens almost everywhere. There was a man who specialized in stealing during church services and believers would come back crying. This made them resort to keeping their electronic devices which would contain different versions of the Bible, hymns, and other applications that could assist them in getting references faster to carrying paper bible and hymn books and it became very hard for this man to see a valuable to steal… and idea sprang his head immediately and he resorted to stealing the time bell in church.
In some of these old generation churches, these bells are made of wheel of a trailer and one of the irons bundled together to serve as shock reliever could be used. This wheel are hung within the church premises and then be struck hourly to intimate not only members living to nearby but their member of times stuck signifies what time it is and members could count and know what time to go to church. The iron is quite heavy and sounds very loud so that those living afar can hear it sound. One who hits the wheel sometimes may have to use ear muffs to reduce the sound effect on his ear. This is what was stolen as an aftermath of not seeing what else to steal in church. One might think that these archaic iron objects were not valuable but only when they got missed and in Sunday morning, those whom, by the time they could hear it sound the eighth time would hurry to church became sluggards.
Announcement were made everywhere so that the person who took the bell could return it for the sake of God’s work but the man paid deaf ear, beating his chest that nothing will happen, till it got to the point that the church could not bear it anymore and conveyed for a prayer. Everyone, hearing that the prayer is summoned went ranging from toothless babies to the oldies that are still losing their teeth due to old age. The blood, crippled etc where not left behind as this bill was of very importance to their timing.
After a few days, they heard the bell rang. Yes, their prayer was answered. All ran to church to celebrate the bell’s return and on getting there, it was still not there but it kept ringing to tell the exact time. This caused pandemonium in the community as it would still strike three times to notify all that it was 3 0’clock. Lo and behold, the bell was ringing in the belly of the man who stole it!
He became so much disturbed every hour as it gets to the time the wheel was to be hit in church. Imagine it is mid-day and the bell is to be struck 12 times … imagine the nose standing close to it and as it sounds from his belly, it travels a far distance as it used to be when it was in church. He became scared and would be watching his time when he goes out. At a point, he could not bear it anymore that he went back to the church for confession and saw members contributing to buy a new bell, both the downtrodden giving their hard earned money for a new bell. He cried and cried and finally, died. I thought of bringing this lesson to all who have specialized in stealing in church thinking that nothing will happen to them.
Those who are experts in this started somewhere. Maybe their parents never advised them on what to do and what’s not good. Some, especially the mothers might quarrel with the father for correcting their child, expressing how painful labour was. Those who have a few might not dare flog them when they ere and as such contradicting the bible principle that says that parents should train their children in the way they should go, and that when they get old, they will never deviate.
If we as parents could train our wards the right way, we would be assured of having a better country in the future. Each will be brought up with the fear of God and anything that is to be done will be carefully considered before acting on it. When their kids also rise to the positions of authority, good decisions would be made which will affect the masses positively. This article is put together especially to those who specialize in going to church with the minds set of looking so that they could have a review of their thoughts and do what is meaningful with their lives.
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