Olaniyi Olanrewaju

Some days ago, I found myself looking for an hiding place from clouds that was sending a scornful look to us. Everyone got the message. It wasn't going to rain cats and dogs, but elephants and gorillas. The market places went dry within minutes. I wasn't willing to be drenched as I was carrying some important documents in my bag and I was willing to go to any extent to protect them. I got a place to hide my bag though, my feet wasn't safe from the arrows of the heavens. It wasn't long before the rain subsided and a lot of people rushed out of their hiding place to get a taxi. The crowd was close to mammoth and the available taxis were not encouraging. The struggles that greeted the taxis was nothing less the attempt of warriors fighting to gain the favour of the king to be the suitor for his only princess. I stood for some minutes, utterly hopeless. Then I resulted to trekking in my soaked shoe. As I moved ahead, I asked the LORD to provide a taxi for me. I kne...

"It is time to hear the word of God and the person that will share the word with us is Bro Lanre. Let us pray". Bro Lanre sat down wondering if there is another bro Lanre in the subgroup meeting or was it that the subgroup head made a mistake? I mean how can bro Lanre be the one to share the word and bro Lanre is getting to know in less than a minute before the prayer starts. There was no time for bro Lanre to express his shock or protest that he would not be able to take the session because he was not prepared. Bro Lanre was caught completely off guard and as he was still thinking, the prayer ended and everyone was looking at bro Lanre. Bro Lanre is just few weeks old in the subgroup and he is being set up like this. It could have been dramatic, but thank God he read his bible in the morning, so he was able to share something. You see, we must always be at alert to preach the word at every instance. Paul admonished Timothy to always be ready whether the time is fa...

This morning, I visited a catholic secondary school in Ibadan and after the principal addressed the students, she announced that the Rev'd Father is around to put ash on the foreheads of the students because today is the Ash Wednesday. After a brief word, he started drawing a cross using the ash in a plate with his right thumb. I stood at a distance and quietly watched the scene. I asked my friends that we were standing together: "what's the significance of Ash Wednesday?" I went back into the streets of meditation immediately I asked the question. Ash is the solid remains of a burnt thing. It means that before we can get ash, something must be burnt. Earlier in the day, I had checked scriptures where ash was mentioned and very interestingly, I came across a word while I studied. It is MISTAKE! We make mistakes; I often think that I have made so much and I wonder if God's purpose for my life is still intact. I mean, haven't I spoiled God's plan as a...

Have you seen a kid with a pen and a book? He is very eager to write, but then he holds the pen halfway in a way that he cannot get anything legible to write. After some minutes of some serious work, he is caught! Mostly, the elder ones collect the book from him and give him a rough one so as not to discourage him. The markings of the pen on the book is unreadable as it is full of dots and lines that are not straight. To the older ones, he has written rubbish in your book and the best thing to do is to tear out the page. However, a very skillful artist can get hold of that same page and join the dots, add more lines and make some other skillful adjustments to the page and the mess of the kid will turn out to be a beautiful piece of art work! That's how God does things too. Instead of tearing it out, He would join the dots and create a masterpiece out of the nonsense on the paper. He is very very skillful at turning ashes into beauty. Don't say that yours is too ugly ...

This morning, I saw a man trying to catch fish. It was a very interesting scene for me as it is the first time I will be seeing it live. I was fascinated at the way the man caught the fishes because I have never heard of his method. He held a small green net and a cutlass. He would throw a stone into the river at several points and somehow, this makes the fishes to come to the surface of the water which makes the man to pick them very easily. Wow! It was just very easy. I was not the only one that was fascinated by the scene, but the other 'spectators' were not convinced at the ease with which the fishes made themselves available at the surface of the water. I just listened as they discussed and made speculations. A woman said he was using 'something' while most men said he must have poured something into the river that made the fishes to move to the surface because they were not comfortable in the river again. When I heard that, my mind just traveled to where ...

Sometimes ago, my mum bought a small goat. She has always wanted a goat and finally, she got one. She cherished the goat and fed it with all kinds of delicacies. Mum liked it so much that she named it. She called it 'Jeje' which means gently. Mum's attitude to the goat made it get the beating of its life when she was not around. After some months, mum began to think of how to get Jeje impregnated so that she can establish a clan of goats in our backyard. She was planning to send the goat to a place where it can get impregnated when something happened. It was very early that morning and mum had gone to say hello to her pet and she found two babies beside Jeje! She came back almost dancing. Jeje has given birth to twins when we didn't even know that it was pregnant. It was a surprise. A pleasant one for mum, but a bad news for some of us who never wanted to share our compound with goats. There are some testimonies that are simply surprises and God actually surpri...

The roommates I had in my final year in school was completely different from the roommates of the other years. The room was always 'on fire' as almost everyone in the room was a 'pastor'. I mean majority were hungry for God, so there was always a message playing, some people discussing scriptures or someone praying in the Spirit. It was a time full of awesome testimonies. I remembered the day we discussed John 17. We were all screaming and jumping. At a time I fell sick and they gathered and we kept on reading the bible and praying in the Spirit till I was healed. Pastor Chris Oyakhilome was always talking in the room. If he wasn't around, Archbishop Benson or Bishop Oyedepo would be thundering. Pastor Olubi Johnson, Jentezen Franklin, Pastor Poju, Joseph Prince, Joel Osteen were also in the pack. We were soaking in so so much In the midst of all these, there was a Muslim, very devout. Very quiet and a moralist. He enjoyed the room for a long time until som...

Last week, I was coming from a vigil around 6am. It was still very dark and I could hardly see my way very well, but I could still walk without hitting my leg. I was half awake and very tired and I just tugged home to have some good time to sleep. Close to my house, I started hearing a murmuring, but I could not decipher where it was coming from. All of a sudden, I began to hear a dog bark loudly and in an angry way. Unknown to me, I was already in front of the dog. It suddenly charged at me as it made some threatening noise to show his superiority. Within split seconds, I let out a bark from my mouth that was louder than the threats of the dog. Right before me, the dog ran back and stood afar from me. It must have been surprised that my threats was much more louder than its own. I walked away making similar murmurings like that of an angry dog to make sure that it doesn't make another attack. When I was in school, I learnt several things about the  rights and privileges o...

When I was in the university, I asked some of my friends who they thought is the worst person living on earth. Many of them mentioned Shekau. I could remember one of them mentioned Lady Gaga. The people on earth at this time are the worst when compared with other generations in history. However, as bad as the people on earth could be at this time, when we check through the eyes of God, we see what we refer to as Passion for Souls. Paul told Timothy that God does not want anyone to perish. Can you imagine that! God doesn't want Shekau to perish. He wants everyone to be saved. This passion for souls makes me to rethink the way I see people of the world. We call them lost souls, but God doesn't see them as lost. At least, not yet. Some of them do things we consider as very terrible ranging from abortion to homosexuality and they are so bold about it, but how does God sees them. Sometimes ago, God took Ezekiel on an excursion to the valley of dry bones. On getting there,...

Last night, I saw a trailer with its tires up in the sky and many people around it. It was an accident and according to the driver of my taxi, nobody died. This evening, I heard the true story. A taxi was involved in the accident. One of the passengers of the taxi allegedly reduced the fare of his trip by 10 naira and the driver would not agree, so they started arguing. The argument was so hot that it took the driver's attention completely and swerved into the mouth of a trailer that sent it completely away from the road. They, except a man all died. The man that survived came out with broken legs. When someone shouts at another person, accuses someone wrongly or do anything that can make another person react in an angry manner, it is actually evil that is being directed to the person. We must be conscious of this. Rick Joyner explained it well in a book (There were two trees in the garden). We must recognize what is been aimed at us or what is going on around us. The taxi...

I have written about episodes from a taxi and a bike. Today, I was not privileged to get a taxi or a bike. They all declined going to my destination. After standing for about 25 minutes without any success, I decided to trek to the next junction to try again. But it was the same story. Instead of waiting for a taxi that may never come, I started trekking. Lagos-Ibadan express way is known for heavy traffic especially when you move towards Iwo-Road area. The heavy duty vehicles were so much that the taxis looked like they were trespassing on the express road. I had to engage my mind in some fruitful meditations while I maneuvered my way between the trailers. After trekking for about an hour, I got to a junction where the problem seemed to have started from. It was a real mess. Both sides of the road were blocked. Cars moving towards Lagos had crossed to the other side and blocked those coming from Lagos. Horns were blaring and bikes were competing for the little space left with p...

Inside a taxi today, a wonderful drama happened. A woman stopped the car and I thought she was going to join us inside the car, but instead she began to drag the cloth of the man that sat in front. She shouted in Yoruba "bami mu owo mi, oti jeun awin leemerin lai sanwo" (give me my money, you have eaten four times without paying). Instead of saying words that would make the woman cool down, the man told the driver to move. I mean, he was completely shameless. At the end, the car moved without the man paying for the food he has eaten. Quietly observing from my seat, I laughed so hard. Then, i meditated on the issue. Somehow, it is easier to dictate how to react to an issue when you're not involved. One lesson I learnt while in Jos was that when we get angry and shout at people, we release evil. If the recipient, however didn't react back to the words aimed at him/her, the evil released is conquered. To do that is simply supernatural. I mean it is supernatur...

About 3 hours ago, I was on a typical Ibadan bike moving towards home to rest. This one however did something spectacular as he decided to stay in the center of the road. He almost caused commotion; perhaps he has drank the thing they use to drink. Cars were blaring their horns at us as they sped past us with very narrow space left to kick us out of the road. One of the cars that sped past us had a bride in it. Of course she was wearing her gown and that was how I recognised her. I allowed my mind to stray off the bike and I entered her wedding. Wow! She must have danced away all her strength trying to beat her husband in the competition that gets everybody's attention. Well, help me tell her that she has won our own; she doesn't need to compete. I remembered some of my friends in school. After they have ate concoction rice from Monday till Friday, they will put on fine cloths and move to town looking for a ceremony where they can eat something nice. They don't care ...