I saw some gory pictures on my facebook home page. The individual who posted it asked some rhetorical questions that are very provocative. Had I not known better I would have been inflamed and perhaps join the alliance against the killing and maiming of Christians in Nigeria by consorting with the Movement For The Emancipation of the Niger Delta militants to please ship some of their hidden weapons to me so that i can distribute it to fellow Christians and repay the Islamic and political powers in Jos without delay. After all, it is said that Justice delayed is Justice denied.

It really bothered me that Nigerians especially in the North have not learnt from our own History. The Nigerian civil war that was fired to life by religious crisis, the Kano riot, Kaduna riot, the recent slaughter in Maiduguri and this incessant cancer in Jos has all brought more thirst for blood, revenge, pain, hatred and bitterness to us all. Many who lost their parents and loved ones will have the whole cause of their history remoulded by these incidents.

many would be doctors and Lawyers and inventors will because someone senselessly murder their parents, children, siblings and loved ones turn to anger and bitterness and irrevocably become murderers of other peoples relatives and loved ones who also will keep the cycle going.

The Middle East is more than a good example for us all. Israel and Palestine has known no peace not because of a strip of land promised both side by one God, rather it is a battle of pain and bitterness of two peoples inheriting the pain and bitterness of their forefathers and living in it without bothering to create their own history.

I remember that though it is true that illiteracy and fanaticism has helped the cause of the mastermind of these gory events the only positive reply is obvious.

Silence and an assurance that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ.

Jesus taught it and practised it and Today he is the conqueror. Martin Luther King taught it, practised it and died for it, today Obama is the president of America and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi of India practised it and emerged a true leader.

Conscience is not a luxury and no matter how steeled the heart of men, their ideologies will yield in time for their conscience to prevail.

Overnight I DREW STRENGTH from some materials I collected in the course of my journey as a Christian and I am going to share them with you all so that we can all learn from the legacy of the heroes of faith and gain strength even at such a time as this.

13 The church of God at Smyrna to the church of God at
Philomelium [in Phrygia, Asia Minor] and to all the communities of the
holy all-embracing church everywhere.
We write to you, brothers, concerning that which took place with
those of us who have given witness unto death, in particular with the
blessed Polycarp, who put an end to the persecution by sealing it, as it
were, with his own witness.
Cut by scourges until the anatomy of the body was visible, even to the
veins and arteries, they endured everything. Even the spectators pitied
and bewailed them. The noble martyrs of Christ attained such towering
strength of soul that not one of them uttered a cry or groan. They
proved to all of us that in the hour of their torture they were free of the
body, or rather that the Lord himself stood by them and talked with
them.
In the same way they endured fearful torment when they were condemned
to the wild beasts. They were rolled over shells and were subjected
to all kinds of other tortures, for the tyrant hoped to induce them
to deny their faith by the prolonged torture, if that were possible.
The infernal Tempter used many devices against them, but thanks be
to the Lord he was powerless against them all. The noble Germanicus
strengthened the weakness of others by his steadfastness. He wrestled
gallantly with the wild beasts. When the proconsul tried to persuade
him, saying that he had pity on his youth, he forcibly pulled the wild
beast towards himself, wishing to be freed more quickly from this godless
and unjust life. The whole mob, horrified at the heroism of the Godloving
and God-fearing Christian sect, shouted, “Away with the atheists!
Get moving! Look for Polycarp!”
Only one man, a certain Quintus from Phrygia, who had just recently
come from there, turned coward when he saw the wild beasts. He was
the one who had voluntarily given himself up to the court and had also
persuaded some others to do the same. After earnest entreaty the proconsul
persuaded him to take the oath and to sacrifice. Therefore, brothers,
we do not find it praiseworthy if some of us voluntarily give ourselves
up. The Gospel does not teach this. But Polycarp, in contrast, when he
first heard of all this, acted admirably by showing no fear… When they
did not find him, they arrested two young slaves, one of whom became a
traitor under torture.
Taking the young slave with them, the constables set out against him
on Friday at evening with a squadron of mounted men and their usual
arms. Late in the evening they came upon him and found him in an upper
room of a small cottage…They were amazed at his great age and his
calm dignity…He immediately ordered food and drink to be served
them, as much as they wanted, and he asked them to give him an hour
for undisturbed prayer…And when the moment of departure came,
they seated him on a donkey and in this way brought him into the city.
It was a great Sabbath. Herod, the chief of police, and Nicetes, his father,
rode to meet him. They took him into their carriage and sitting next
to him urged him by saying, “What is wrong with saying ‘Lord!’ and ‘Caesar!’
and sacrificing, and the rest of it, and thereby saving your life?”
At first he did not answer them, but when they did not leave him in
peace he said, “I am not willing to do what you advise me.”…When he
entered the arena there was such a tremendous uproar that nobody
could be understood.
When he was led forward, the proconsul asked him if he was Polycarp.
This he affirmed. The proconsul wanted to persuade him to deny his
faith, urging him, “Consider your great age,” and all the other things
they usually say in such cases. “Swear by the genius of Caesar; change
your mind. Say, ‘Away with the atheists.’” Polycarp, however, looked
with a serious expression upon the whole mob assembled in the arena.
He waved his hand over them, sighed deeply, looked up to heaven, and
said, “Away with the atheists.”
But the proconsul pressed him further, and said to him, “Swear and I
will release you! Curse Christ!”
And Polycarp answered, “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he
has never done me any harm. How could I blaspheme my King and Savior?”
When the proconsul still pressed him saying, “Swear by the genius of
Caesar,” he replied, “If you desire the empty triumph of making me
swear by the genius of Caesar according to your intention, and if you
pretend that you do not know who I am, hear my frank confession: I am
a Christian. If you are willing to learn what Christianity is, set a time at
which you can hear me.”
The proconsul replied, “Try to persuade the people.”
Polycarp answered him, “You I consider worthy that I should give an
explanation, for we have been taught to pay respect to governments
and authorities appointed by God as long as it does us no harm. But as to
that crowd, I do not consider them worthy of my defense.”
Thereupon the proconsul declared, “I have wild beasts. I shall have
you thrown before them if you do not change your mind.”
“Let them come,” he replied. “It is out of question for us to change
from the better to the worse, but the opposite is worthy of honor: to
turn round from evil to justice.”
The proconsul continued, “If you belittle the beasts and do not
change your mind, I shall have you thrown into the fire.”
Polycarp answered him, “You threaten me with a fire that burns but
for an hour and goes out after a short time, for you do not know the fire
of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment for the godless.
Why do you wait? Bring on whatever you will.”
As Polycarp spoke these and similar words, he was full of courage and
joy. His face shone with inward light. He was not in the least disconcerted
by all these threats. The proconsul was astounded. Three times he sent
his herald to announce in the midst of the arena, “Polycarp has confessed
that he is a Christian!”
No sooner was this announced by the herald, than the whole multitude,
both pagans and Jews, the entire population of Smyrna, yelled
with uncontrolled anger at the top of their voices, “He is the teacher of
Asia! The father of the Christians! The destroyer of our gods! He has persuaded
many not to sacrifice and not to worship.” This they shouted,
and they demanded of Philip, the high priest of public worship, that he
let loose a lion upon Polycarp. He explained that he was not allowed to
do this since the wild-beast combats had been closed. Then there arose a
unanimous shout that Polycarp should be burned alive. In this way the
vision had to be fulfilled in which he had seen his pillow burning while
he was praying. To the faithful who were with him he had spoken the
prophetic words, “I must be burned alive.”
Now everything happened much faster than it can be told. The mob
rushed to collect logs and brushwood from the workshops and the public
baths; the Jews as usual were especially zealous in this work. When the
woodpile was ready, Polycarp took off all his outer clothes, opened his
belt, and tried to undo his shoes. This he had not usually done himself
because each of the faithful was eager to be the first to touch his body.
Already before his martyrdom he had been very much honored because
of the goodness of his life.
The fuel for the pyre was very quickly piled around him. When they
wanted to fasten him with nails, he refused. “Let me be. He who gives
me the strength to endure the fire will also give me the strength to remain
at the stake unflinching, without the security of your nails.”
…When he had spoken the Amen and finished his prayer, the executioners
lit the fire.
In the end, when the godless mob saw that his body could not be consumed
by the fire, they ordered the executioner to thrust a dagger into
his breast…When the tempter, the slanderer and evil one, the enemy of
the race of the righteous, saw the whole greatness of his martyrdom and
his blameless life from the beginning…he prompted Nicetes, the father
of Herod and the brother of Alce, to ask the proconsul not to give up the
body…“for fear,” those were his words, “that they should abandon the
crucified and start worshipping this man.” They said this through the instigation
and urging of the Jews who also had been watching when we
wanted to take him out of the fire. They do not know that we will never
abandon Christ. He suffered for the salvation of all those who are being
saved on the whole earth, the one without guilt for the guilty ones. We
can never worship anyone else. We worship him because he is the son of
God. To the martyrs we give the love we owe them as disciples and followers
of the Lord. They have, after all, loved their king and master with
boundless love. How we wish that we may become their companions
and fellow disciples! When the officer in charge saw the commotion
caused by the Jews, he had the body put in the middle of the pyre and
burned, according to their custom. So afterwards we were able to take
up his bones, more valuable than jewels and more precious than gold,
and to lay them to rest in our burying place. There we will come together
as often as God will grant us, in jubilation and joy, as much as we are
able. There we will celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom and
death like a birthday, in memory of those who have fought and won the
fight before, and for the strengthening and preparation of those who
still have to face it. Such is our report about the blessed Polycarp who,
counting those from Philadelphia, was the twelfth to suffer martyrdom
at Smyrna.
The Martyrdom of the Holy Polycarp, recorded February 22, A.D. 156.