The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the June 17, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP AND THE PROOF OF REPENTANCE
Good morning to you once again. It is Wednesday, the 17th of June 2026.
“Why I stopped going to church.” This is a statement credited to Nicki Minaj. You must recall that in recent times we have had cause to engage with news relating to this lady. You would suppose that on a programme like this, a Christian apologetics programme, you would wonder why we are discussing a cultural icon such as Nicki Minaj.
Who is she? She was born Onika Tanya Maraj on December 8, 1982, and is now 43. She is a Trinidadian American rapper, singer and songwriter, widely regarded as the queen of rap. She has got into some controversies in recent times in the culture, well, because of her political stance. As you must know, anyone in the entertainment industry who is bold enough to identify with politicians such as Trump will be regarded as controversial by the mainstream media.
But she has said a number of other things and taken a number of other positions that — and this is my own personal opinion — have earned her some respect from a number of people, especially concerning the Christian genocide in Nigeria. She was one of the first persons in the culture, one of the most popular and iconic, to speak out very clearly, in unmistakable terms, about the horror of the Christian genocide going on in Nigeria. Till now you find that only a few of the cultural and entertainment icons have done so, which is sad, really.
We must thank God for those politicians in the US and the cultural icons like Nicki Minaj who have spoken out about these things and called attention to them. Otherwise it would appear that the Nigerian government would continue to have a dismissive attitude to the horror going on. We know that since Trump and members of the Republican Party and some Christians in the US, including Nicki Minaj, lent their voices to the condemnation of the carnage in Nigeria, things have, in my own opinion, deteriorated even more — because it would appear that the terrorists, perhaps in response to those foreign interventions, have upped the ante. As we all know so well, they have made incursions into southwest Nigeria, kidnapping students and teachers from Obumoshaw [place name garbled in transcript — confirm] in Oyo State. Let us continue to pray for those teachers and students, because they remain in captivity. It would soon appear to be a month since they were taken away from their schools, and who knows where they are now.
Some have reported that they remain in the forest there, at the Old Oyo National Park [transcript garbled “national old or your national park” — confirm]. You can only be left to imagine the horror they must have witnessed since they were taken by those bandits, what inconvenience — and that would be an understatement — they must have endured and continue to endure. It is our prayer that the Lord God Almighty will show His mighty power and bring them out, in Jesus’ name.
I have said all of this just to introduce the subject of our first story: Nicki Minaj, who now identifies as a Christian. In recent years, particularly 2025 to 2026, she has become more publicly vocal about her Christian faith, describing it as a source of strength and spiritual warfare in the industry. She has spoken about reconnecting with prayer and God, calling it life-changing and encouraging others to turn to faith. At events like Turning Point USA’s America Fest in 2025, she opened up emotionally about her Trinidad roots, her faith journey, her regrets over some past lyrics that might negatively influence youth, and standing against industry pressures.
So the news item that got me interested in her again — and this will be the second episode in about three months in which I am talking about Nicki Minaj — is this statement credited to her: “Why I stopped going to church.” American rapper Nicki Minaj has opened up about her relationship with God, revealing that her rise to global stardom forced her away from regular church attendance, even though her faith remains strong. Speaking on a recent episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast [podcast name garbled in transcript — confirm], the award-winning rapper said she stopped going to church after her music career began taking off, because her performance schedule often left her exhausted on weekends.
This is not something that should feel strange to many Christians. Many people say this in Christian circles. People come to faith in Christ, or others look to God for help in one way or another — maybe for their careers — and then they receive that help. The prayer is answered. An aspiring musician becomes famous indeed and rises to global stardom. And then the person whose prayer has been answered begins to give the very answer to that prayer as an excuse for not being active in the service of God.
Now, let us not get this confused. Many people have said in recent times: look, going to church is not the same thing as being in Christ. Regular Sunday worship is not the same thing as being in Christ. You could be in Christ but not able to attend Sunday services regularly. And that may be true. But it is also important to fellowship with God’s children. It is important to be active in promoting God’s kingdom. These are two things we must balance.
It would appear to be the prevailing thought in Christian circles nowadays that regular attendance in church is not that important, because it is all in your heart, all in what you do in your heart. But it is important, I must say, and we all must make efforts to continue to congregate. If you read through the Bible, you will find that God delights in congregational worship. When God’s people gather together, He delights in it. Go and read through the account of Israel in the wilderness. The Lord said to them, I want you all to appear before Me and worship. Of course, the worship that God wants is the worship of people who are themselves redeemed, individuals who are themselves godly. He does not want ungodly people to gather and worship and pray and praise. He said there that your praises, your singing, your dancing, your offerings will be detestable to Me if you yourselves are ungodly. But He wants the redeemed to come together and worship, and the Lord delights in it. If you find any portion of the Scriptures that contradicts that, please let me know.
The point I want to make is that we must continue to make room for congregational worship. It is to the glory of God that people gather together to worship. In recent times we have persuaded ourselves to think that if you have other commitments you may excuse yourself, as long as you know that you are in the Lord. As long as the Lord knows that you are His — that is almost a special argument of sorts. The Lord knows you are His, but He wants you to be part of God’s people as well. The Scripture often quoted, “do not forsake the assembly of God’s people,” is an important one.
We know that since COVID-19 the availability of online worship has made it possible for people to further rationalise that stance: well, although I cannot be in church, I can always log on to the online worship and hear what God would have said to me while in church. And that may well be true. We must give glory to God for technologies like that, including technologies like these that allow us to broadcast over the internet for many people to hear. It is all to the glory of God. But let us always make sure that, as much as possible, we congregate with God’s people; we all appear before Him, and He delights in it.
What takes us away is often work pressure, sometimes social pressures, and also — in some parts of the world, in some parts of Nigeria — the fear of terrorists. And one of the things these terrorists do not want to see again is congregational worship. Many churches, especially in the north and in places besieged by terrorists, are trying to modify things. Somebody said at some point: maybe we should all — all churches in Nigeria — stop evening worship services, stop gathering in the evening or at night. I said to myself, if you were to do that you would have given the terrorists exactly what they want. Because if they succeed in getting us to stop worshipping in the evening, they will up the ante and begin to terrorise us in the afternoons. Then we would cancel worship services in the afternoon. And they would up the ante even more and want us to stop worshipping even on Sunday mornings. And then we would say, for the fear of the terrorists, we should stop worshipping on Sunday mornings.
But I have a number of issues, conflicted in this story, and I want to go back to it. Nicki Minaj is saying work pressure stopped her from going to church, and I love that she has been as clear and as honest as possible in this particular interview. It is a reminder to us that if she regrets it, if she considers it an aberration, we also should consider it an aberration. I can understand those who have real commitments for work — there are nurses, there are people who work in the intelligence services, in the security services, and others. There are many nuanced positions here. There may be compelling reasons why one will stay away from church. I just want to make the point that God delights in congregational worship, and when we get together it gladdens the heart of God.
But Nicki Minaj made yet another statement in that interview that also deserves our engagement — more so because in recent times on this programme we have had to engage with people who were not formerly on the Lord’s side, who now identify with people on the Lord’s side, but who have said, “Look, I’m not going to change anything.” We have had so much to say about that. So when I came across the portion of the Nicki Minaj interview where she said, “Look, I wish I could change my old lyrics,” I was really gladdened.
According to the report, the rapper and singer has admitted that there are lyrics from her earlier music career that she wishes she could change, saying she now regrets promoting messages centred on wealth, status and material success. Speaking on the Bryce Crawford podcast, the award-winning artist reflected on the impact of her music and the responsibility that comes with having a large platform. Minaj said that, looking back, some of the culture she helped popularise in the music industry was not leading people toward faith or spiritual values. She said, “A lot of the music culture wasn’t leading people toward God.” Instead, she said, many songs focused heavily on money, fame and material possessions, and she now recognises the influence her words had on listeners.
There is so much to say here, especially about the impact of music and entertainment on the culture at large. But the real point I want to make — coming after the debacle, and I use that word deliberately, the debacle of that adult-content lady who became the best Bible student in a popular church in Lagos and who said, “Look, I’ve become the best Bible study student, but don’t think I’m going to stop broadcasting that adult content” — is that, coming soon after we engaged with that story, it is a delight to read what Nicki Minaj said.
And this is exactly as it should be. When you see somebody who was formerly known to be a sinner come to faith in Christ, do not start saying, “Oh, why is this person here?” Because Jesus Himself feasted with sinners. He was not known to have turned sinners back. Indeed He said, “I came not for the righteous, I came for sinners; I came that sinners might come to repentance.” We have always been admonished that when people turn from their sinful ways — even those who were outstandingly sinful, notoriously unchristian — when they come to the church, we should not push them away; we should readily welcome them.
That was the pushback from many people in the culture when we engaged with the story of that lady from the Logic Church [church name per transcript — confirm] in Lagos. But many others made the other point and balanced the argument: when Jesus mingled with sinners, it was not to make them continue in their sin, not to pat them on the back, not to condone their sins, not to say, “Oh, you guys are all good.” It was to teach them about repentance. Jesus preached repentance. Go and read the Gospel — everywhere He went He was preaching the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is at hand. And all the sinners He met became what? They became His followers. And He said to us that anybody who wants to follow Him must first deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.
So the overarching point is not, “Hey, don’t bring known sinners into the church.” That is not the point. When people raise concerns, it is not about bringing known sinners into the church. It is whether you are telling those known sinners, in love and gentleness, that when a man is in Christ he becomes a new creature — all things have passed away, all things have become new. And if things are not becoming new for that person, you want to warn him to check whether he is truly in Christ.
If you take the whole of the teachings of Christ together, you must come to the conclusion that at the time of coming into the narrow gate, at the time of coming to Christ, He gives certain conditions. You may not find it in just one passage, but you have to take all His teachings together. He says, “Look, I’m going to save you.” And then He says, “But if you must follow Me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Deny yourself means you no longer do what you want to do; you only do what He wants you to do. Take up your cross means you must identify with Him fully in public — the shame, the ridicule of following Him, you have to take it on and own it, to use the cultural expression — and then you must follow in His footsteps. So when people say, “Look, I can be in Christ and continue in my ways,” that is the point they miss: that coming into Christ is conditioned upon those three things — denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him.
That is why, with Nicki Minaj, I love that now that she has reconnected with her Christian roots she is saying, “Look, I look back now and I see some of my songs, I regret that I published them. I wish I could change them.” That is the kind of thing you want to see when a sinner comes to repentance — rather than one who says he has come to repentance and in the same breath says, “But I’m not going to change anything, I’m going to continue as I’ve always been.” Let us not mince words at all: that is a no-brainer. That person has not come to Christ. The Bible teaches that when a person is in Christ he becomes new; the old has gone, the new has come. So if the old has not gone, then that person is not in Christ. In fact, the proof that the person is in Christ is that the old has gone.
Of course, the old will not go overnight. The proof of being in Christ is a change of heart. The heart of stone has been removed and replaced with a heart of flesh, and that heart of flesh begins to hate the old. It is not that you immediately get rid of the old — even those of us who have been in Christ for a long time continue to struggle with the flesh, trying to get rid of the old. Does the Bible not tell us that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and that they are at war — at war, continually? So we are not saying you will get rid of the old immediately, but you will begin to hate the old. The heart of flesh becomes so uncomfortable with the presence of the old nature that this is the kind of statement you hear from a person who has truly come into Christ: “I look back now and I regret some of the songs I sang. I regret some of the things I did.”
When somebody says he or she has come to Him and yet continues to say, “Although I’ve come to Him, I’m going to remain exactly as I’ve always been; I’m going to continue to broadcast the adult content I’ve always been broadcasting; I’m going to continue to love the things I’ve always loved” — that is not proof that a person is in Christ, and we should not get that twisted. So I want to pray and hope that Nicki Minaj will continue on this path. It is God-glorifying that we have examples like this — people who were formerly known to be living in rebellion against Christ, who have come to Him and are saying, “I regret that my fame took me away from the Lord, took me away from contributing to congregational worship. I regret some of the things I said, some of the songs I sang, although they brought me fame. I regret them and I’m going to make amends.”
That is the same thing Zacchaeus did. When Zacchaeus met the Lord and the Lord said, “I’m going to come to you,” and entered his house, he said immediately, “I regret the things I did in the past. If I cheated anyone, I’m going to give back to that person double. And in addition, half of my wealth I would give out to the poor.” A person who has come to Christ must always look back and say, “Some things I did were wrong; I’m going to make amends.”
Let us not join those in the culture now who say, “Let people come as they are and remain as they are. God is loving.” That is a mangling of the teaching of Christ. When you say “God is loving, so let people come, and leave them, and don’t trouble them” — in fact, you don’t need to trouble anyone who is in Christ. If a person is truly in Christ, the person is troubled by the heart of flesh that God has given him. When God says, “I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,” what do you think He was saying? That you become tender? No — you become troubled. Because the heart of stone, no matter how hard the conscience punches it, feels nothing. Go and throw punches at a stone; it is your hand that will be hurt. But throw punches at a heart of flesh, and it is the flesh that cries out in pain. When He said, “I’ll take away the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh,” He was saying, among many other things, that you are going to feel the pain.
A heart of stone does not feel the pain of rebuke from the Holy Spirit or from the conscience. A heart of flesh feels the pain and cannot stand it, and that is why you have no rest until you do what the Lord wants you to do. That prayer need not even be said; once you have the heart of flesh, you know it cannot rest, it cannot be at peace, until you do exactly what He wants you to do. And there are many more Nicki Minajs in the entertainment culture, in the cultural space all over the world. Let us pray that the Lord will bring them to the knowledge of Himself, that they must not remain as they are.
We know that in the church today there are also many people who preach these things. Many churches have opened their doors to people who are living in open rebellion against God, and we continue to hear it among ourselves: “Let us open our doors to them.” I think we should put this argument to rest. I don’t like the arguments where somebody takes just one side of the equation and wants to stay there. We have to marry the teachings of Christ and make them one. Yes — reach out to those who are in open rebellion against God. Reach out to them in love; it is your duty. In fact, God has committed to us the work of reconciliation, to reach out to them. And as you reach out, teach them exactly what Jesus taught. He said, “Anyone who comes to Me, I will not cast out.” Teach them that. He said, “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, the Lord will forgive.” Teach them that. But also teach them that Christ said, “If you want to follow Me, you must first deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” You have to teach them everything. You cannot teach them that God will not cast them out and stop there. You cannot teach them that whatever they have committed will be forgiven and stop there. You have to teach them also, as He said to the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more,” and then, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
And as for those who perfect themselves and speak down on people who are struggling — that is not the case with me. I am a struggling sinner as well. I do not even want to say struggling sinner, because God has redeemed me from my sin, but I am a struggling saint. There are things I am praying to God about, saying, “Lord, help me to overcome.” That is why in Christian speak we say we have been saved and we are being saved. He saves us every day. There is not one waking moment when I am not compelled to look to Him and say, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner; wash me with the blood of Jesus.”
So when we say that Jesus wants us, when we come to Him, to deny ourselves, we are proclaiming exactly what He has said — not saying, “Oh, we have arrived.” Paul himself said, “I do not consider myself to have apprehended, but I press forward.” That is the teaching: those who have come to Christ must press forward in the quest for holiness, and that can only be done through the power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And just to conclude on this, there are so many people who know they must press forward to become more like Christ but are really struggling — they can’t get it done. Well, if you can’t get it done, you are in a good place. A person who can get it done by his own strength does not need Christ. I cannot get it done by my own strength. I need Him. And every waking moment I say to Him, “Lord, help me.” And is it not He who is faithful, who has said, “Fear not, I will help you”? So let us pray that many more, like Nicki Minaj, will come to the saving knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And let us pray for that lady at the Logic Church who said, “Yes, I’ve come to Christ, but I’m not going to change” — that in the course of time the Spirit will continue to work the work of salvation, and I am still looking forward to the video where she will say, “I did tell you earlier that I wasn’t going to stop those sinful things; but now, the more I relate with the Holy Spirit, the more I find that I cannot continue in that.”
May that be the case. Because the Bible says to us, when a sinner comes to repentance, what happens? Everyone rejoices. Everyone rejoices when just one sinner comes. And that is why it must gladden our hearts when we read of these conversion stories.
ON NEGLIGENCE AND THE WATCHMAN
The next story I want to engage with this morning, you must have come across as well. I have seen it on many platforms, on many blogs in Nigeria; I have read of it on FoxNews.com and on many international news platforms. The story of that girl — what a sad story. That model who plunged to her death, because the bungee company, the workers in that company, failed to attach a safety cord.
This lady went, obviously, on a vacation or a trip of sorts. I do not know whether you have ever taken a dive like that, where you go to a vacation spot and they say, “You can jump off this cliff, but don’t worry, you’re going to be caught because the safety cord has been attached.” This Brazilian lady went to such a spot, obviously thinking she was going to have the thrill of her life. She took the leap, thinking the safety cord had been attached. And lo and behold, she jumped to her death. She fell 130 feet off the Skeleton Bridge in [location per transcript “Lemire in Sao Paulo, Brazil” — confirm place name]. She fell to her death because the safety cord was not attached.
According to the report, the workers of a bungee company who sent a model to her death after her safety cord was not attached have appeared in court. Maria Eduarda Rodriguez [victim’s name per transcript — confirm spelling] fell to her death in front of horrified witnesses who can be heard shouting, “The rope, the rope!” At the moment she took the jump, the people around immediately saw that the rope was not attached, and they cried out, “The rope, the rope!” The Brazilian teacher was seen being carried in a Superman pose before being sent to her death down that 130-foot drop.
Now, it is left to be determined whether they did that intentionally or negligently. But according to the criminal laws of many countries — and I suppose it must be the case in Brazil, which must be why these people have been taken to court — causing death intentionally, by premeditation, is criminal; and causing death negligently is also criminal. So if it was the duty of these people to ensure the safety cord was attached before anybody took the jump, and they failed to do so, it must be negligence, because the facts speak for themselves. Res ipsa loquitur — the thing speaks for itself. It was your duty to attach the safety cord; it was not attached; unless you can prove otherwise, it must be taken that you were negligent. This appears to be a case of causing death by negligence. According to the report, three men were arrested for homicide with eventual intent following the tragic death. “With eventual intent” — that is a nuanced point in criminal law.
But it is really sad. I do not want to dwell on those men; they will have their day in court, and I do hope the Brazilian criminal justice system will do the right thing. Let us think instead about this lady who jumped to her death. She took that leap thinking she would be caught by the rope, thinking the rope would break her fall. Ordinarily, when you jump like that, that midflight you are stopped, and you are left floating in the air. People do all these things just for the thrill of it.
It is the kind of thing I would never do. Call me whatever name you want, but I would never take that risk. I always say to myself, why would I do that? I remember at one time, soon after the passing of my dad — I think the Christmas after that — we decided to take a family holiday. We went with my mum, and we were at a park, and we took one of those wild rides. I would not ordinarily take a risk like that, but we were just trying to relax for the holidays. As it became really wild and we were thrown in the air — my mum was somewhere up there, my wife was there, my daughter was there, I was there — and as the machine made its wide movements back and forth, up and down, what was going on in my head was: something could go wrong. I have read too many stories of things going wrong. Something could just go wrong — something mechanical, something electrical could fail — and I was asking myself, what exactly am I doing here? What would be the justification for being on a contraption like this? Now, yes, sometimes things do go wrong, but more often than not they don’t. People go on these wild rides and have the thrill of their lives. But personally, I won’t do it. I will say to myself, how do I justify to God that I’ve gone on something like this? What kind of thrill am I looking for? This is not to condemn those who enjoy thrills like this — and to be honest, statistically the times when things go wrong pale into insignificance compared with the times things go right.
But again, let us look at the last moment for this lady. She thought the rope would catch her, would break her fall. Do you want to imagine what must have been going on in her mind the very moment she became aware that the rope was not properly attached, and she fell to her death? Some people are suspecting those workers intentionally did that. They dare not — if they intentionally did that, they should face the full wrath of the law. They are probably negligent, and they failed to catch her. And this is as sad as it comes. I pray that the law will comfort the family of that lady. And if indeed those workers were merely negligent and simply did not pay attention, I wonder how they are going to live with themselves — because there are some wrongs you do that you cannot live with, if you truly have a conscience. There are some wrongs you cannot live with because of the consequence of your failure.
This reminds me of the story behind a hymn — not a very popular hymn. I cannot remember the exact words, but we have used it a number of times on Pilgrim’s Joy Devotional, and at some point we are going to play that episode again. It was a story inspired by a real-life event. A ship was arriving at harbour in the night. If you are conversant with maritime matters and sea voyages, you know that a ship arriving at night needs the light from a lighthouse to navigate its way safely into harbour. In the absence of that light — in this story, the lamps in the lighthouse had gone off, because somebody who had a duty to ensure the lamps never went off did not carry out that duty — the ship arrived in the thick darkness of night, made an error, crashed, and many people died. That was the inspiration for the writing of that hymn, “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” The writer drew a Christian lesson: there are times when we have been put on guard, put on the watch, and because we fail to do the duty God has given us, lives are lost, people are misled, people are led astray, and their destinies are taken over by the devil.
And you have to remember what was said in the book of Ezekiel: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman.” That is the Christian lesson I think we can draw from this. We should allow the Brazilian criminal justice system to take its course. Proper investigations will be conducted into whether those attendants were negligent, or whether they deliberately did not attach the safety belt — which would be quite horrific — or whether something else went wrong. But what lesson can we learn? Clearly they were, at the very least, negligent. And it is the lesson of the reality that consequences follow negligence. Let us be charitable, in the absence of proof of criminal intent, and proceed on the basis that they were just negligent. They simply did not do what they were supposed to do. Look at the tragic consequence that followed: the death of that lady. Consequences follow negligence — tragic consequences, in real life, and also spiritually.
Ezekiel 3:17: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.” That is what the Lord said to the prophet. “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.” That is the spiritual equivalent of the negligence of those bungee workers who did not attach the safety belt to that lady — who, trusting them to have done what they should, took a leap and jumped to her death.
And this takes us back to that first story, where we contrasted the case of Nicki Minaj with the case of that lady from the Logic Church who said, “Although I’ve come to Christ, I’m not going to change my ways.” If those who have been placed as watchmen over her fail to tell her, “Look, that is not what the Lord expects of you,” and she continues in her way, and they continue to pat her on the back — if she should end her life that way, Ezekiel 3:18 teaches us that the people placed as watchmen will be held accountable for that person who was not dissuaded from her evil ways. This should really admonish us. This should make us tremble — all of us who are Christians, whether you are a pastor or not, whether you are a Christian parent, a Christian evangelist, a Christian brother, a Christian neighbour. You have been placed as a watchman, and if you see an evil person going in the evil way and you fail to dissuade that person, the Lord will hold you accountable for the blood.
So I pray the Lord will help us, in a culture where everyone says, “It’s not your business.” Well, the Bible says it is our business. If you find it difficult to do, maybe you should start by praying about it. If it is a spiritual matter with somebody who would say, “What’s your business with me?” — maybe you should first pray about it. Indeed, it was Charles Spurgeon [attribution per transcript “Charles Paul John” / “Chasporian John” — confirm] who said something to the following effect: “I will not speak to anyone about God until I have spoken to God about that person.” That was quite a profound statement the first time I came across it. And that should be an encouragement for anybody who wants to engage in evangelism, anybody who wants to be the mouthpiece for God — especially when you want to step into matters that the culture will say are “not your business.” Let me first take you to God and say, “Look, I have this colleague in the office; clearly this person is not living righteously and glorifying You. The culture says it’s not my business, but I know You want me — it is my Christian duty — to bring it up with him, with her. Please help me to do so. Please prepare the heart of that person.” And if you have faith indeed, glory will come out of that. With that kind of person, the Holy Spirit teaches you how to broach the topic; you discuss it, and then you say, “Wow, this person responded most encouragingly. I never thought it would go that way.” It is because you prayed about it first, and as the Lord reminded us, there is nothing we can do except we rely on His power: “Without Me, you can do nothing.” So this is something we should bear in mind. That quote from Spurgeon is one beautiful, encouraging quote: “I will not talk to anyone about God until I have spoken to God about that person.”
ON CONSEQUENCES AND THE CREATION ORDER
And finally this morning, I want to engage with yet another sad, sad story. You must have come across this as well; I have seen it on Sky News, on BBC News, and on many other platforms. It says: a teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering the 13-month-old baby he adopted with his partner.
Did you hear that? I am going to read it again. The baby [child’s name garbled in transcript as “President David / President Davy” — confirm] died in July 2023 at the hands of Jamie Valley [name per transcript — CONFIRM SPELLING; convicted individual], who took a year off work to adopt him. Valley, from Blackpool, UK, told police the child had accidentally drowned in a bath. But a post-mortem examiner discovered the child had suffered 40 injuries. His partner, John McGowan [name per transcript — CONFIRM SPELLING; convicted individual], has been found guilty of sexual assault, child cruelty, and allowing the death of a child.
So you are talking about a gay couple here. I am going to spare you many parts of this horrific story and just report it to you. You can always read it up; just search for it. It is a recent development from the UK. The long and short is that this gay couple — and a gay couple means a couple consisting of a man and a man — adopted a baby, and you know what they were doing? They were sexually abusing that baby until the baby died. They then took the baby to the hospital and reported that it had drowned in a bath. The post-mortem showed the baby had suffered 40 injuries. When we saw this on Sky News yesterday, it was reported that the baby had things inserted into its private parts, and that eventually the baby suffered a cardiac arrest. The long and short is that this couple, the two people in the union, were sexually abusing this 13-month-old baby. They were paedophiles, really.
And here is the number-one thing — many people may disagree with this, but you can know this for certain as somebody who is on the Lord’s side: sin begets sin. If a person persists in sinfulness wilfully, that person will not only persist in that one sin; other sins will also find tenancy in that room. If people want to live in rebellion against God and say, “Look, it’s man and man having a sexual relationship,” you soon find that they add many other sins to it. So these people were not just living in open rebellion against God as a gay couple; they were also paedophiles, abusing this child.
And if somebody in the culture today says, “Oh, I’m surprised, this is horrible, this is horrific, this is detestable” — go and look at many of the news reports from the UK. You find many of the people who are the leaders of the watchdog agencies for adoption feigning surprise. How can it be surprising? The fault for this must be placed clearly and rightly at the doorstep of these two men who sexually abused that 13-month-old baby — yes, I agree with that. But you know what? The greater blame should be on a society that allows gay couples to adopt children. Think about it: a society that allows gay couples to adopt — what did you think was going to happen? That is the consequence of a society that has turned its back on God, that has convinced itself that living in rebellion against God will have no consequence — a society that has persuaded itself to believe that whether it is a heterosexual couple or a same-sex couple makes no difference, when God has told us that from the beginning He created them to be a man and a woman.
Now it is not that it is impossible to know better. What did God write in His word? That He made them a man and a woman. And what does the society say? “No, it doesn’t matter, we’ll do it our own way. And in proof that we are doing the right thing, we’re even going to allow same-sex couples to adopt children.” You put a baby in the care of two men who think themselves married, and you tell yourself nothing is going to happen? And then people say, “But there are many other gay couples raising fantastic children.” It is not possible. Don’t persuade yourself to think that. Did we not engage recently with the story from the United States of a gay couple where, as they played with the baby they adopted, the baby kept calling out “mama,” and they kept saying, “No, in this house there’s no mama”? So even if that couple did not sexually abuse that baby, they had already begun a process of psychological abuse — indoctrinating a baby who called out for “mama” that there would never be a mama in that place.
So, well — if you sow the wind, you are going to reap the whirlwind. That is exactly the wisdom confronting society here. Many people have been saying this: why would you leave children with gay couples, allow them to adopt children, and then wonder what they will be doing behind closed doors — especially with the rise in the number of paedophiles in the world today? The case of this 13-month-old baby, who died of a cardiac arrest because it was sexually abused, is a sad, sad story.
We trust and hope that the criminal justice system in the UK will take its course and that these two men will be punished. But it should be a wake-up call to society that consequences follow when we decide to subvert the natural order of things, when we decide to subvert the creation order. And maybe this episode should be titled “Consequences,” really. Coming from the story of those bungee workers who failed to ensure the safety belt was attached to that Brazilian model before she jumped to her death, and then the story of a society coming to terms with the folly of allowing gay couples to adopt babies and raise them — whenever we fail to give heed to our God-given duties, consequences follow. Whenever we decide to subvert the divinely ordained pattern for life, for living, for society, consequences follow.
And when those consequences follow, let us not be able to say, “Oh, we are shocked; we did not know this would happen.” Society cannot feign surprise here. The watchdogs, the agencies overseeing adoptions in the United Kingdom, who persuaded themselves to adopt the policy of allowing gay couples to adopt children, should not feign surprise or horror. What did you think was going to happen? And let us all be reminded as well: when we depart from and ignore the ancient paths, consequences follow. I am pretty sure we are supposed to correct course where we need to correct course, and I pray the Lord will help us to correct course wherever we are stepping away from the ancient paths. Let us remember that there are many babies, many young children, in homes like this — homes of same-sex couples — who are being abused; and granted, there are children in heterosexual-couple homes as well who have been abused. Let us remember them in our prayers. The Lord will save them, indeed, and expose all the evil paedophiles in the world today.
This is a very sad story — the thirteen-month-old baby. What did it do to deserve such a cruel death? How sad. How sad, indeed.
I want to thank you for being with me this morning on GospelBells Radio, On the Lord’s Side — Christian perspectives on news and current events. I will be with you again tomorrow by the grace of God. Whatever you do today, please remain firm on the Lord’s side. God bless you. You are listening to GospelBellsRadio.com, the Christian internet radio with a mission to engage the culture with the mind of Christ. Keep listening, and invite others too. God bless you. Engaging the culture with the mind of Christ.
