The Vicar.
Our Saviour’s (Ang.) Church  Ikenne-Remo
The Venerable Foluso O. Babatunji
22^nd April 2013

Dear Sir,

Our Saviour’s (Ang.) Church  Ikenne-Remo : 24^th Mother’s Union Conference

I thank God for your letter of invitation dated 6^th March and also for your ministry and specifically the hosting of the 24^th Mother’s Union Conference to take place from Friday 26^th to 28^th April 2013.  I am deeply humbled at your invitation to celebrate with esteemed members and profoundly apologetic at my inability to be at the conference. I pray that the presence of God at the conference will manifest in a fresh and unique revival for all families represented and indeed the Church at large.  I have included (the following paragraphs) a very brief contribution in a few words themed “The Times are Ominous for Naomi” to encourage the depth of discussion at the proceedings and I pray it will also enhance the harvest of insights during your deliberations.

The Times are Ominous for Naomi

The times we are in now are in no way like what we expected or have ever seen.  The issues at hand have progressed in so many complicated turns it is difficult to know where to start.  The corruption of values and decay of family structures are producing strange results which are not easy to confront.  Homes have been exposed to new dangers that old traditional admonitions can no more arrest. Marriages are being ravaged by strange modern monsters even as children turn to media for direction in the absence of parental maps.   But the word of God, and Christ Jesus – the same, yesterday, today and forever must remain our light and salvation.

Naomi was a mother, who eventually woke up to correct her journey path … to return back to Bethlehem. She faces old family errors and mourns the loss of her husband and sons …she offers her daughters in law the opportunity to stay in Moab, but Ruth follows her to Bethlehem …only to find redemption, grace and favor that eventually wipes the tears from the face of Naomi and brings restoration and revival to all. Orpah remains in Moab no more to be heard of.

The Lord will wipe the tears off the face of our mothers. Where there have been old blunders, and even the men can no more be found to bring needed societal correction, God will raise mothers like “Naomi” …who will not seek to pass the blame or name their agony as part of fate but who will realize there is a need to go back to the word of God …our Bethlehem …  back to family altars and raising our homes, families and children according to the word of God.

It was famine that led the faithful to sojourn to Moab…the place of secret societies, cults, syncretism (combining God’s with other altars), worldliness, witchcraft, greed, inordinate affections, selfish ambitions, materialism, corruption and false altars.  But Moab was also the place where the men were all silenced through immorality, divorce, infidelity, unemployment, greed and in some cases even death. Remember what God said concerning Abraham. The children and household are to be commanded by fathers in the home supported by our mothers. Modern thinking will dispute this.

Gen 18:19Gen 18:19
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.  

WP-Bible plugin  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Bethlehem, representing God’s divine order, was the place where sons are restored, but only with the help of mothers … where order is returned …the place of laughing, peace, nourishment and righteousness … the place where Christian families and the family prayer altar with fathers pastoring their families are all once again revived.

Rth 4:17Rth 4:17
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
17 And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.  

WP-Bible plugin  And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

It was a mother, Naomi … a pained mother who God used to initiate His revival.  I pray that even in the midst of the pains that a corrupted society inflicts on motherhood in our country, there is a pained Naomi that God will use to revive families in the Church and in the land.  Naomi focused not on vague blessings but on returning first and seeking the inheritance that was rightly hers … she was eventually blessed.   Let none be like Orpah or Jezebel, mothers with no pains for the present godless state of many homes and families represented in our congregations.

God give us Christian homes
Homes where the Children are led to know
Christ in His beauty who loves them so
Homes where the altar fire burn and glow
God give us Christian homes
God give us Christian homes.

I humbly encourage our mothers at this conference as they return afresh to Christ to lead our families to know Him…seeking hard His Kingdom, righteousness, peace and joy …our heritage in Him.  I wish you a successful conference.

Bode Ososami