The following are the views expressed by Olufemi Oguntokun in the June 30, 2026 episode of the On the Lord’s Side Podcast — Christian perspectives on news and current events.
ON EXTREME WEATHER AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Good morning to you once again. It is Tuesday, the 30th of June 2026.
I want to begin by asking: how has it been where you are? How has the weather been? From France to the United Kingdom, to Ghana and Nigeria, everyone seems to have one tale or another to tell. One of our beloved members in Ghana sent me videos yesterday of flooding in many parts of the country, including in Accra, where the main road to the international airport was so flooded over the weekend that there was a pile-up of traffic and people could not move. She wrote: “Good evening, sir. I trust all is well with you and your family. Over here we are having so much rain. It has become problematic. People have lost everything, and a few lives have been lost too. It is very pathetic. Even the street leading to our international airport is not excluded.” She also sent a video of a beautiful Methodist church, flooded; the voiceover, which she graciously translated, said the water had taken over the whole of the first floor and the fence was completely submerged. Think about that — the whole of the first floor, which, if the church was built on traditional lines, would be the main auditorium itself, submerged, and now that the water is receding, only a little of the top is visible. The person who made the video was calling for volunteers to help with restoration.
I responded that the videos were indeed troubling and scary — and should they not be, if all the major roads are flooded and submerged? She mentioned, and I checked this myself, that a whole township in one of the regions has been swallowed by rainwater because of illegal mining, which we will get to shortly. And I reminded her that Lagos has not been excluded; the videos of flash floods have alarmed all of us. If you are in Lagos, you have had your own fair share. Whether in upscale areas or the so-called slums, the story has been the same. Many of us are fortunate to live in areas not affected, and for that we give glory to God — but so many people have been impacted. Some could not even leave home for work yesterday because of the floods. I saw a video of a flood so bad it broke down the door of a warehouse and washed its contents into the street, where people were helping themselves. I saw another, from Ghana, of a compound where the flood rose so high it lifted a car and set it drifting like a lightweight object. I looked at it and thought: ordinarily, human strength could not lift a car; you would need hundreds of people to move it around. But that flood was so powerful it lifted the car and set it drifting like paper on water. We call these flash floods — things that happen unexpectedly, without a neat scientific explanation.
But it is not only West Africa. I have examples from the UK as well. A dear friend there has been complaining about the heat wave, as everyone is — and I understand it is even more acute in France. Friends in the UK, consider yourselves a little lucky you are not in France, where temperatures have climbed as high as 43 to 44 degrees Celsius. Even in Lagos we would cry out at such heat. And these extraordinary weather events are not only “how alarming, how strange” — they have had consequences on human lives. People have died in Europe. According to one report, officials link around a thousand excess deaths to the heat, with hospitals strained and schools closing. We should pray for those impacted.
My friend told me she visited a relative who was planning to install air conditioning in the common areas of the home — and that is the debate now in Europe: whether to install air conditioners at all. It is fascinating, because in the United States many homes already have them, and in tropical Africa the standard, if you can afford it, is to have air conditioning not just in the home but in practically every room. We sometimes deal with 32, 35 degrees and feel it is too hot, and we condition the temperature down to 16, 17, 20 to be comfortable. So it is fascinating that in Europe there is still a debate over whether it is appropriate, or environmentally sound, to install air conditioners — a debate no one would have in tropical Africa, because you simply need it.
According to one report, the heat wave has sparked a sharp political and cultural debate in France and parts of Europe over air conditioning. Right and conservative voices, including Marine Le Pen, have called for a major rollout of air conditioners in schools, hospitals and homes, arguing that they save lives and that it is absurd for public buildings to lack air conditioning during deadly heat; they criticise what they call an anti-climate ideology that prioritises environmental purity over human suffering. On the other side, the Greens and left-leaning environmentalists have been more cautious, some opposed to widespread installation, arguing that air conditioning is energy-intensive, worsens urban heat by expelling hot air, typically uses harmful refrigerants, and treats symptoms rather than root causes like poor insulation and climate change itself. And I read on Instagram that several homeowners in London have been forced to permanently remove newly installed air-conditioning units after local councils rejected their planning applications, despite record-breaking summer temperatures. I fact-checked it: multiple credible outlets, including the Telegraph, GB News and The Sun, have reported specific enforcement cases in London boroughs like Camden, where homeowners were ordered to remove the units to meet net-zero cooling hierarchies.
So we can see the dichotomy between the reality of the heat wave sweeping Europe and what some policymakers prioritise. Many people are calling out these “environmentalists” — and I put that in scare quotes — and climate policymakers, saying: you look ridiculous; you are prioritising theory over human comfort, and not just human comfort, but human lives. And that word “theory” is significant. All the things being said about the climate — the conclusions reached, the suggestions about what we should and should not do — are mere theories. This is important. In science there is a difference between a principle and a theory: a principle is a foundational truth, while a theory is a broader, tested explanation of why or how things happen. Many of the claims of climate and environmental activists are mere theories. They have examined some facts and drawn conclusions, but those conclusions have not been proven true. It is not to say some may not eventually turn out to be true — but they are not proven yet. Go back ten, twenty, fifty years and examine the claims of climate activists, and see which have come true.
Now, many will say, “You can’t keep arguing like this — just look at the flash floods in Lagos and Ghana, look at the heat wave in Europe; that is proof something is happening to the climate.” That may be true. But the question is: must we prioritise those theories over human lives? If you have a thousand estimated deaths in Europe from the heat wave, pray tell why you would prioritise a theory over human lives. And that is a reminder to us who think from Christian perspectives that there is a hierarchy of values. Topmost is God — that we worship and honour Him, God and His Word. After that comes human life. You cannot say, “For the sake of this fear or that, we would rather people die.” If you look closely at what the culture tries to impress on us, the Christian worldview puts God and His Word topmost at all times, and after that, human lives. But society says, “Let us leave God aside” — a secular society does not even want to recognise God — and even when it comes to the second item, human life, it deprioritises it. Take the abortion debate: if the life in the womb will interfere with your plans, your career, your vocation, “let’s get rid of it.” You see the deprioritisation of human life. The same appears to be happening in this European debate: “the environment, the environment.” But it is still mere theory that air conditioning harms the environment; it has been ubiquitous in much of the United States and tropical Africa with no conclusive study showing a direct correlation between air conditioning and environmental degradation. Yet on the basis of this theory, some do not even mind that human beings are suffering and lives are being lost.
We have to get our scale of priorities right. No theory — whether dressed as scientific, sociological or legal — will ever lead me to push down the number one on my list, which is God and His Word. If any theory contradicts the truth that God is sovereign and His Word is true and binding, I will ignore that theory. And if any human theory, however respectably dressed, tells me to deprioritise human lives, I will not listen. That is why many are pushing back against the so-called climate activists in Europe who say, “Yes, there is a heat wave, yes, people are suffering, yes, people are dying, but no air conditioning.” I am very sure the reality of the heat wave will compel policymakers across Europe to eventually see the wisdom in allowing widespread installation of air conditioning — with proper checks and balances, of course, and mindful that there are income-challenged people who may not afford the additional energy bills, which is where individuals and government should step in.
And then West Africa. One thing I did not mention earlier is that many of the flash floods in part of Ghana were caused by illegal mining — a whole township swallowed by rainwater because of so many illegal mining pits. As my friend wrote: “Most of our problems are man-made. I am just begging God that after this experience, we learn to do right to protect our country.” And that is so true. We often get ourselves into problems that are man-made. Reading of the illegal mining pits in Ghana, I thought of the many credible reports of illegal mining in Nigeria too. Mining has a long history, and people have learned safety measures over time — there was a time when mining for treasure led to tragic collapses that killed many, but over the years people learned to do it more safely. The problem in West Africa now is illegal mining in many places, and unfortunately many of our leaders profit from it. And when something is illegal and shady, they often do not heed safety measures. It would appear some areas in Ghana are now reaping the whirlwind of illegal mining — and that is a disaster waiting to happen in many parts of Nigeria as well, a real problem for security, the environment and the economy.
So how should we, as Christians, engage with these changes? First, it is important to distinguish weather from climate. The weather is what we experience day to day, week to week, before things return to normal; we do not expect the heat wave in Europe to last beyond July — it is, in a sense, just a fierce welcome to summer. How should we engage with these strange happenings from a Christian perspective? You want a balanced and hopeful framework — I always reject a framework that is not hopeful. Many people have been persuaded by climate theorists that there is no hope for the world, that it will be destroyed by the climate and by what we have done to the environment. The Bible does not say that. No matter how beautifully and credibly a theory is dressed, if it offends or contradicts what the Bible has said, I will not believe it. And there are consequences to these hopeless theories: you have young people with a zero-sum approach to life — “I’m not going to marry, I’m not going to bring children into this world, because of the climate.” A Christian approach gives a balanced and hopeful framework.
First, above all, God is sovereign over creation — the one aspect many environmentalists will not accept. The Bible does not teach that human beings control the weather or even the climate. It tells us that storms, heat and rain — the Lord commands them all; these events are not outside His control. Even if it is proven that we bear some responsibility, or that there is a nexus between our actions and weather conditions, these events are still not outside the control of God, and that gives comfort. Jesus calmed the storm — you know the story in Mark 4 — and showed His authority over nature. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, never be persuaded to think that what is happening anywhere in the world is outside the sovereign control of the God who made it.
Second, we acknowledge that we live in a groaning, fallen world, so nothing will ever be perfect. Here is the difference between the Christian worldview and the wholly secular environmentalist worldview: the latter says whatever is happening is entirely our fault, so much so that some say we should reduce the world’s population, that people should stop having children because we are polluting the environment. That runs counter to Scripture. The secular environmentalist says we must work towards a perfect world — if only we do this and that, we will reach that Eldorado where everything becomes perfect. That is not what the Bible teaches. We live in a falling world; Romans 8 tells us the whole creation is groaning, waiting to be delivered from the effects of the fall. Yet the Christian perspective also says we are stewards of the environment — and here there is overlap with the secular view. It is not that, because God is sovereign and the creation is fallen anyway, we may do whatever we want. No. We are stewards. If certain things have been shown to have consequences — like the illegal mining pits across West Africa — we must be wise enough to avoid them. When the Lord put man in the garden, He put him there to tend it, and we must indeed tend the garden He has placed us in. And in Mark 13, where Jesus spoke of earthquakes and various occurrences, He said, when you experience things like this, do not be troubled; these things will happen.
Finally, hold on to eternal hope, which flows from the first point. Nobody should look at what is happening and say there is no hope because we are at the mercy of the climate. We are not at the mercy of created things; there is a God who rules and reigns over everything, including heat waves, storms, rains and flash floods. Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.” Think about that — if we woke tomorrow to find that mountains had moved, or that the earth shook as it did in Venezuela, where in seconds multi-storey buildings collapsed; even if there were a tsunami, which we pray the Lord will keep us from — we will not fear. We will take protective measures: install air conditioning if you can afford it (and policymakers should allow it), soak yourself in cold water, open your windows, do all these things. But we will not fear, because the psalmist wrote that “God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.” The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
The danger of engaging these weather events without a Christian worldview is to think we are at the mercy of them. We are not — notwithstanding that they are extraordinary, exceptional, alarming and scary, which must be admitted. We must not lose the Christian worldview that affirms God is sovereign over creation, and that if the Bible says there is hope, there is hope; do not be persuaded that the world will be destroyed any other way than the Bible has said. And never elevate any theory, however beautifully dressed, above what God has told you to prioritise: first, God and His Word — no human theory should displace that; second, human lives — and I do not know where the theories sit on that scale, but certainly not above God and His Word, and certainly not above human lives.
Our hearts go out to those directly impacted — those who lost their lives in Europe’s heat wave, those whose medical conditions were compounded, whose livelihoods were impacted, whose assets were destroyed; and in Nigeria and Ghana, those whose houses were flooded, set back financially and otherwise, and those whose events may have been cancelled. Let us pray for them, and if you are in a position to help, do not withhold it. And since God is sovereign over creation, should we not also look to Him and say, “Lord, please let this stop”? I expect Christians in Europe to be praying for the heat wave to subside. Pure secular thinkers would laugh you to scorn — imagine a politician in today’s Europe having the temerity to call for a day of fasting and prayer over the weather; they would call him stupid. But that is the culture describing what it deems unwise. A Christian must never move from believing that God is sovereign over all things. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; he prayed that it would not rain, and there was no rain; he prayed again that it would rain, and there was rain. James wrote that, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray like him.
That does not remove our responsibility to do what is right. In Ghana, the illegal mining should stop. In Lagos, the lack of drainage is something we are responsible for — we cannot take that to God in prayer. So there are weather conditions outside our control, like the heat wave in Europe; and there are others not outside our control, like the flooding in Lagos, which is a combination of two things: the rain, which the Lord sends in whatever volume He decides, and our own failure — for God has given us the intellect to understand that we ought to prepare for rain and build channels to conduct it, and we have been lazy, unwise and foolish not to. So I am not saying we should not pray for better weather; it is not foolish to pray for improved weather conditions, and do not let anyone persuade you otherwise. But neither must we forget to do our part — clear, functioning drainage. It is a shameful thing that even upscale areas in Lagos, where real estate is most expensive, lack effective drainage. For those things we are responsible, and we should act. But for weather conditions outside our control, it is not only right but wise to pray. And if someone makes light of you for praying about the weather, remember that the things God values are often detestable to the world, and the things the world values are often detestable to God. God is sovereign, and it is He alone who will determine when this world ends — not any theorist. Whatever our takeaway from the current weather, it should never displace our core affirmation of God’s existence and sovereignty and the truth of His Word, nor our regard for human lives.
ON 144 HOURS IN THE WORD
Next, an interesting bit of news from Nigeria, taking place in Port Harcourt, in the South-South. Habiba Salaudeen — a 27-year-old Nigerian woman, Kogi-born and based in Ibadan — is attempting to set a new Guinness World Record for the longest marathon reading aloud of the Holy Bible.
Pause on that name a moment. For many Nigerians, and across much of West Africa, you can often tell from a person’s name whether they are Christian or Muslim, and which part of the country they are from. But sometimes you find a combination. Take the first part of her name and you would say she must be Muslim; hear the rest and it suggests Yoruba; so you cannot easily tell — most likely someone from a mixed marriage or mixed heritage. She is Kogi-born, which is North-Central; based in Ibadan, so primarily Yoruba; and now in Port Harcourt — almost a complete Nigerian. Anyway, what she is attempting is the longest marathon reading aloud of the Holy Bible. The target is set within the longest-marathon-reading-aloud category, and her attempt is tagged “144 Hours in the Word” — six days of continuous reading aloud, at the Novotel Hotel in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. She started on the 22nd of June 2026 and is expected to conclude around the 2nd of July. By late June she had surpassed the 100-hour mark and was in the later stages, with only short permitted breaks for essential needs, according to the Guinness rules. Her stated goal is to inspire deeper engagement with the Scriptures among Christians, beyond merely breaking a record. I am rooting for her, and I hope you are too.
For context, the current official Guinness record for the longest marathon reading aloud is 215 hours and 2 seconds, achieved by Samson Ajao in Osogbo, Osun State, from the 6th to the 15th of May 2024 — which is quite a revelation to me — surpassing a previous record of 124 hours set by a man from Kyrgyzstan in 2022. So her 144-hour target is ambitious for a Bible-specific attempt; previous Bible-related efforts, often group reads, were shorter — 70 hours, 113 hours. She is now reading the Bible continuously aloud for 144 hours.
How significant is this? Some think it only moderately significant — a faith-inspired endurance feat and publicity event, not revolutionary in scale compared with the 215-hour record. But there are real upsides. I will root for anybody doing anything positive in relation to the Word of God. First, inspiration and awareness: “a lady is trying to read the Bible for 144 hours” — and the Bible is there in the conversation; it could motivate believers to read more consistently. Second, evangelism and public witness: she is identifying clearly and closely with the Bible. And listen to her name again — Habiba Salaudeen — obviously a lady who has some relationship with Islam at some point, perhaps through her mother or family, for those are Muslim names; and now she has been drawn by the Holy Spirit to the Lord’s side.
I always say this about names. Those who bear names synonymous with the small-letter-g gods, the idols our fathers worshipped — whenever you hear an “Oguntokun,” for example, the “Ogun” part referencing the Yoruba god of iron, proclaiming the glory of Christ, publicly submitting to His lordship, it is the glory of God that the generation of those who once served these idols has been drawn near, to use the apostle Paul’s expression. It is the glory of God when you hear the Oguntokuns and the Sango-derived names now on the Lord’s side, renouncing that heritage of idol worship and worshipping the Lord. And it is the glory of God when you hear the Ahmeds, the Salaudeens, the Habibas and the Ibrahims on the Lord’s side. So from that perspective too, I see an upside in this story. There is community building as well — events like this involve supporters and live streams, so people are talking about the Bible. And there is the possibility of someone tuning in to a live stream and hearing a particular portion of Scripture that stays with them until they are converted, for God works that way. It can seem completely random — someone, even someone who considers himself a Christian but has not truly met the Lord, could tune in for three or five minutes, hear a particular portion, and be haunted by it until he comes to the Lord’s saving grace. There are many testimonies of people arrested by a single passage who had no rest until they were reconciled to God through Christ. Even Augustine of Hippo, that venerated father of the church — I cannot recall the exact passage now — was tormented by the knowledge of the saving grace of our Lord until he yielded.
It is also a testimony to endurance, and to how wonderfully, powerfully, marvellously we are made by God. You look at what human beings can do and endure, and the wise person says, “The hand that made us is divine.” Some say it is merely a result of discipline — “if you are disciplined enough, you can endure and perform great feats.” And there are incredible feats human beings have performed. But the wise person, and many surgeons who have gained close insight into the makeup of the human body, will readily say, “The hand that made us is divine.” So when someone endures long hours like this, do not merely say, “That’s a disciplined person,” or “a determined person.” Say, “That is a person wonderfully and marvellously made by God.”
But there are things that matter more than this. Symbolic things are good, and I am rooting for her to succeed because it puts a discussion about the Bible in the public space — but it is mere symbolism, and symbolism is not the core of the matter. What matters more to God is obedience. We may break one record or another, and that is not a bad thing at all — indeed, from such things the greater glory of God can be manifested. But let us always remember that what matters more is obedience. One of the clearly haunting portions of Scripture is where James wrote, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” — be doers of the word, not readers only, not record-breakers only — “deceiving yourselves.” Every time I come across it, I say, “Isn’t that true?” Don’t just be the speaker, the reader, the preacher, the teacher, the promoter of the Word of God — be a doer of it, otherwise you are only deceiving yourself. And I pray that this lady, who is doing something positively symbolic and inspiring, will also be one who lives in the world and obeys the Word — and if so, she will have a true reward. This is a beautiful development that I celebrate. I am rooting for her, and hoping that by the grace of God she has crossed the 144-hour mark.
ON FORD, AI, AND THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN WORK
Finally this morning, a story I came across on Instagram from one of the official handles of Fox News — I think Fox News Business. It says Ford — the ubiquitous, well-known vehicle manufacturer — has rehired around 300 to 350 veteran human engineers and quality inspectors in recent years, after its push toward AI and automated quality systems fell short.
The context is that Ford had increasingly relied on AI, machine learning and automated quality control in engineering, design review, supply chain and manufacturing. Executives acknowledged that they mistakenly believed feeding design requirements into AI would produce high-quality outcomes without the depth of human expertise. Many experienced engineers had previously left or been let go amid the automation drive, taking decades of tacit knowledge with them. So now Ford has brought back veteran technicians — some former employees, others from suppliers — as internal auditors and specialists. They hunt for failure points pre-production, mentor younger workers, and help retrain and improve the AI systems. The outcome is that the move has contributed to better quality metrics. And that is why Fox News is highlighting it, because we live in an age where it is supposed that very soon almost everything will be automated, with AI platforms and machines churning out better work than human beings. That has not been the experience of Ford, which has had to bring back human engineers to oversee what the AI systems are doing.
From a Christian viewpoint, this story resonates with core biblical truth about human dignity, work and stewardship. We are created in the image of God — the imago Dei. We are uniquely created, and there is no AI system that can rival the human being. Somebody will say, “Femi, you’re kidding yourself — do you know how many things AI and automated tools can create that would take a human being years and many resources to do?” True; but although AI excels at pattern-matching and efficiency, what does it lack? It lacks the soul, the discernment, the wisdom embodied in experience that only human beings have. At the end of it, AI is garbage in, garbage out — it does what it has been fed. And because AI has become so ubiquitous and so impressive, many are beginning to forget that these platforms were created by human beings; the algorithms powering them were designed by human beings. This was our engagement when ChatGPT was launched: we emphasised then that whatever you see that is impressive about AI, the glory must go to God, who created the human beings who designed the AI. AI did not come into existence on its own; it was designed by human beings, who themselves were created by God.
And, as in the first story this morning, you do not want anything — no matter how impressive or effective — to reorder your scale of priorities. It is always God and His Word first, human beings next. That is why we must not allow AI platforms to remove the dignity of work and vocation from human beings, or to displace human beings. Humanity must be wise enough to understand that AI and automated tools should serve us, augment what we are doing, help us do things faster — not displace us. Those who think we are going to be displaced will soon learn the hard way that that is not the way God intends for us to live, and we will find the folly in it. Christians are called to prudent dominion over creation, using tools like AI responsibly, without idolatry and hubris. Some begin to almost worship these tools, thinking them mighty and able to do everything; but we are to engage them responsibly. This story of Ford rehiring engineers warns us against over-promising on technology — and against forgetting that human strength lies not necessarily in lifting heavy equipment or doing things in seconds, but in doing things with the fear of God, with discernment, able to identify what is right and what is wrong.
I hope that as technology improves and expands, we will have an engagement with technology that is grounded in hope and tailored for human flourishing — which is the ultimate point, and perhaps the theme of today’s episode: do not get your scale of preference jumbled up. Whatever theory you hold about the climate, you must not displace God as the One atop everything, nor displace His Word, nor your duty to care for and respect human life. The same with AI and automated tools: God has revealed them to us to aid human flourishing. Whatever tool you adopt, whatever use you put technology to, it must be proven to aid the flourishing of human beings — created in the image of God — who themselves must glorify the God who made them. The Lord wants us to have dominion over the earth and to subject everything to the flourishing of human beings. And whenever we come across reports like this, proving that it is not wise to suppose human beings may languish while AI rises, it is a timely reminder. May the Lord help us to apply our hearts unto wisdom, in Jesus’ name.
I want to thank you for spending this morning with me on GospelBells Radio, On the Lord’s Side — Christian perspectives on news and current events. I hope to be with you again tomorrow by the grace of God. Whatever you do today, please remain firmly 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.