All the problems you see in the entire world are caused by the knowledge people claim to possess. The universities and other schools of learning help greatly to actualize these problems. From the day someone is admitted into a school, particularly a university, he becomes so pompous. He becomes so arrogant that it takes much courage for a polite person to approach him. Such people think that the world is in their pockets. This explains why I pity the entire world. I am always sad about the pathetic conditions of the human race.

In the beginning of the world, man and animals lived together in peace. One did not feed on the other and neither was there any hostilities nor fear. There was neither sickness nor death. There were no acts of cantankerousness. What then brought about quarrels, hatred and cannibalistic tendencies in our midst?

Man gained wisdom, and he saw himself as being better than the other creatures. He decided not to live in the same tent with the other animals. From the day man pushed the animals to their own separate tents, the great division and discrimination started. There and then, cannibalism, hatred, pomposity and aggression started in the midst of God's perfect handwork. Human beings started attacking and destroying animals. The strong animals equally did the same to the human beings.

Wisdom has caused great damage to the brotherhood, which God initiated by Himself. For even among human beings, segregation over color, race, status, stature, and birth cropped up. This is the cause of all our sufferings and death.

So you can realize that, that which is referred to as wisdom of this world is vanity.

HUMAN WISDOM IS VANITY:

This vanity of man called wisdom has brought mankind to the lowest rung of the ladder. Therefore, even though you may spend hundreds of years in the university, you would only learn how to tell lies, steal, kill, and deceive people.

When someone becomes an expert in secret killing, duping, and falsehood, people call him a very wise man. You can see that the wisdom of the world thrives on iniquity and immorality. This is the terrible illusion that has thrown mankind into the depth of vanity.

There are two things which are the bane of the entire universe- wisdom and wealth. In the Second lesson, you can read the reply of Our Lord Jesus Christ to that young man who was so concerned with material things. From here, you can see that one's life does not depend on his possession or position. Let those who boast of their great possessions and wisdom brag no more. For vanity of vanities is equal to vanity.

I know that many of you prefer illustrative stories to the gospel, which is the main thing. So I want to use an earthly event to demonstrate a heavenly situation.

The monkey had a friend who besought him (the monkey) to escort him to a certain location where he needed to use the monkey's heart. Along the way, the friend hinted the monkey that he was going to make the plan effective. He told the monkey that it was for this reason that he wanted him, in order to use him. So the monkey told his friend that he had done something terrible out of error. He said that if he (the friend) had wanted to use his heart, it was better he informed him, (the monkey) at home. The monkey explained that he would always leave his heart at home whenever he was going out. He then told the friend that the only alternative was for them to go back home so as to pick up his heart.

Since his friend was determined to use the monkey's heart, he accepted that they should go back. On getting to where the monkey lived, he jumped unto the highest tree and he rained insults and abuses on his friend. The monkey behaved foolishly and outwitted the friend who thought he was wise. For he did not argue with his friend but only pleaded to be allowed to go home and pick the heart that the friend demanded. You have to know that money, wealth, wisdom, power, pride, does not help a man. But only supposed foolishness can save a man. You have to follow God and surrender all things to His will, if you surrender yourself to God, listen to the Holy Spirit and abide by his words, you will have life. But if you brag on your possession, position, and power, you have failed.

Do not even boast of your academic qualification but let all your trust be in God, even the Holy Spirit. If you do this, He alone will be your counselor and Comforter, and He shall over come all temptations for you, in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Read the first lesson below.

Wisdom leads to empty pride and death, you would foolishly challenge another man to try you, that you would withstand him. In that way, you would be killed. But one with the spirit of God would humble himself in supposed foolishness, and would escape such temptation.

What makes the spirit to abide in you is love. Once you have love, you are a source of unity and peace. If you possess love, you have overcome the world. What Our Lord Jesus Christ used to overcome the world is love. He both possessed and practiced unconditional, universal love. He endured all that was done against Him in humility, to the end, without complaining. He even prayed fervently for forgiveness of those who tortured Him.

Do not brag that you have money with which you can bribe people to go and deal with your opponent. Do not think that with your much acclaimed wisdom and intelligence, you have the weapon to overcome your enemies in court. All these are passing shadows. These are vanity and they are of no substance. The only substance is love, and without love you are practically empty.

Now you have power with which to murder people. You have money with which to pay hired killers to eliminate your enemies. What gain can you and the entire human race derive from your existence? It is known that anyone who kills must be killed. If you steal another person's property, yours must be stolen. But with love, you can overcome all enemies, powers and principalities.

One with love looks stupid before the worldly, wise people. In the wisdom of God, He uses the weak things to confound the mighty. He uses foolishness to overcome the wise people of the world. I hope you have now seen your nakedness. You who study hard to construct a jet or rocket, you would study hard to know how to manufacture all the deadly weapons, with which mankind is being destroyed daily, what really is the use of your learning?

A local adage says that the acclaimed wise man dies at the verandah of a fool. The wisdom of this world is nothing. All the crafty questions asked by lawyers and judges are mere vanity. They know the truth but would ask questions that would merely turn away from the truth. When they ask these questions, people would praise them for being so knowledgeable. The only thing that can help man is love. Reexamine the second lesson.

Recall that our first lesson had shown that wisdom can never unite people in peace. No person is saved through wisdom. It cannot do good, neither has it mercy, love, truth, humility, patience, unity, nor salvation. Love unites us in righteousness. Only Godly love gives mercy, and all goodness for mankind.

SONG: "WHEN YOU ARE CLOSE TO GOD YOU WILL CONQUER ANY WAR."

When you come here it is purposely to learn righteousness in its ramifications. For you are not given money or taught to kill, cheat or tell lies here. Here, you are taught to love, be truthful, merciful, peaceful, patient, joyous, humble, kind, benevolent, honest, meek, loyal, pure and holy. You are not taught the ways of the world. Let us again use an earthly event to demonstrate a heavenly situation.

A ram and a lion were to undertake a long jump contest. The ram ran back a distance from where he could approach the wide and deep trench. While the ram ran back to start from there, the lion was mocking him. The ram did not mind the mockery, but took off from the distance and he was able to jump over the trench. He landed safely on the other side of the big trench. The lion laughed for a while, after which he jumped with confidence, only to find himself inside the deep wide trench.

The lion stayed in the trench while other animals passed by, So an elephant came along and the lion asked him to help him out of the trench. But the elephant replied that he could not because he was never to be trusted. Later the Hippopotamus came along and the lion pleaded with him to help him out. The huge animal also refused to help the lion. Many others passed by but none helped the lion. For each complained of the untrustworthiness of the lion. They complained that the lion was always paying his helpers back with a bad coin.

Fortunately, the monkey went that way and the lion demanded for help. The monkey let down his long tail into the trench, so that the lion could get hold of it and climb out. When the lion climbed out, he did not let go of the monkey's tail, for he held tightly to him. So the monkey pleaded with the lion to allow him to go but the lion said that he had not yet rested. Becoming afraid or suspicious, the monkey asked whether the lion wants to eat him up. The lion cunningly retorted that he could not do that. In his mind the lion was secretly determined to eat up the monkey.

As the animals came by they blamed the monkey for helping the lion. As the monkey continued to plead for freedom, the lion's ferocious responses made the monkey to know that he wanted to eat him. Fortunately, the tortoise emerged. He asked both of them what the trouble was and having known the truth, he decided on a line of action.

The tortoise asked the monkey to raise his two hands up to take an oath that he was telling the truth. The monkey did what he was told by the tortoise. The tortoise then asked the lion to do the same. Immediately the lion merely raised his hands up, the monkey, without warning, jumped and ran away. Looking up, the lion beheld the monkey up on a tall tree. He then turned around to see whether the tortoise was there for him but he discovered that the tortoise had disappeared. Have you learnt another useful lesson? Could any amount of money or power save the monkey from the lion? Is there any wisdom in the world the monkey could use to save himself from the claws of the lion? So you can see that the wisdom of the world is truly vanity.

You have to know the truth and abide by it as well as love God. An English maxim has it that pride comes before a fall. Another says that humility precedes glory. Do not follow after wisdom for wisdom is inimical to the tenents of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.

Anyone who claims to be wise has no love, peace, patience, truth, lowliness of heart, righteousness, purity, and tolerance. Wise men are arrogant people. Let us abide by the instructions of the Holy Spirit, for He alone can save us.

There is no position or possession in the world that can give you salvation. You have heard that though you may give your body to be burnt in fire, yet that would not save you if you have no love. Refer to

It was written that when the Messiah comes His voice would not be heard in the street.

With this in mind, the Israelites were deceived by their earthly wisdom. When they knew that the Messiah would come, they believed that when He came, He would liberate them from the rulership of the Roman Empire and give them independence. So in their wisdom, they concluded that He would come with battalions of armies. Again they believed that with such great army, He would defeat the formidable army of the Roman empire and give Israel a republic. So when they beheld a man teaching love for one another, they were disappointed. They were the more convinced of His madness when He told them to forgive their enemies and that when they were slapped on the left cheek, they should turn the right cheek, they were offended.

The Israelites were used to the Mosaic Laws of retaliation, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and they expected something tougher. So they thought that Jesus was not the Christ, the expected Messiah. So up till this time, they are still expecting the Messiah to come. For the one they expected, by their reasoning, could not be talking about love, truth, peace, mercy, and humility.

If the Israelites had listened to Christ, they would have been saved. Even this day, if they listen to the Holy Spirit, they would receive salvation. All their problems would be solved.

This is the cause of problems in the entire world today. You all claim to be wise. The Father asks you to endure one another but you cannot. He asks you to love your wife and the wives should respect their husbands, but no one has practiced this injunction. You cannot love, neither are you ready to be humble, truthful, and faithful. You feel that your wisdom is above all that the Father is teaching in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. You are only interested in learning the cunning ways of the world.

Now let our boast be in God. Let our hope and trust be in Him not in money, wealth or any form of mundane position. Let your joy be in God who alone is able and willing to save us. If you do not have Him you have perished. Read the text below.

Have you known that the foolishness and weakness of God supersede man's? The weakness of God is indeed stronger than all the powers of men and all other beings added together. His foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of all schools, spiritual or academic. So behave as a fool at all times and in every thing that you do. Whether you are a servant or a master, you have to humble yourself and do not think you know more than any person.

This is the only way to survive and even overcome the world. Endure whatever is done against you patiently, without complaining. Accept any name that you maybe called by the wise and wealthy. That is the way God won the wars.

Has God ever quarreled with man? Upon all the scandalous calumny carried out against God, has he ever responded? You have seen this in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. The Father keeps mute in spite of all campaigns of calumny as though He is not existing. But is He not the only Being who lives and gives life and vitality? So always emulate Him. Become a fool before those who claim to be wise and wealthy. God is supposedly foolish in order to overcome the world and behave as though he is weak in order to rule man.

The above also constitutes the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Do not allow your self to be overcome by evil. Rather use good works to win the devil. Do not hate any person, no matter how much he hates you. Love all people and do good to them. If your enemy is hungry feed him. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. There is no other way that you can overcome the world than to do good to people. Do not mind the derogatory names that you may be called. Accept all but continue to love and do good to them indiscriminately.

All of us in the world regard ourselves as being very wise, wealthy and respectable. We think that we are so powerful, even more powerful than the lion. I want you to know that all these do not save man. These do no good to us, but lead to perdition.

Our Lord Jesus Christ made it clear that the greatest among you should be the servant. That he who humbles himself most among you shall be your leader. These admonitions are neither visions nor prophecy. They are not dreams or fallacious statements, but facts from God Almighty. If you give it a trial, it would prove itself beyond all reasonable doubts.

It is said that when all hopes are lost, the redeemer appears. Should we surrender ourselves to the will of God, we shall rejoice. Do not try to help yourself in any situation but let the will of God be done. Allow people to play on your intelligence and even think that they have cheated you. But I am assuring you that in the end, you will overcome. For God will always prove himself as truth and His words true.

There lived a couple in a flat in a certain house. There was a young man living in another flat in the same house. The married man was a poultry farmer and he had a big poultry farm. The young man was a civil servant. This civil servant daily sneaked into the poultry farm and stole some fowls, slaughtered, cooked and ate them up. The poultry farmer's wife noticed the losses they suffered. Whenever the wife would attempt to complain loudly about the losses, her husband would caution her to keep calm. They continued to suffer even more losses as the young man would sneak into the farm and steal more chickens, but the man would not allow his wife to let people know about it. He would always tell her that God will do His will over the issue.

The young man continued stealing until there was only two fowls left on the poultry farm. The day the man stole one of the two fowls marked the beginning of God's intervention. For the following morning, the young man grew feathers all over his body. He looked exactly like a huge bird. This young man could not get out of his house anymore, as a result of shame.

People noticed that the man was no more coming out of his house. So one old woman went and tapped at his door. When the man opened the door, she went in and asked him what the matter was. The young civil servant told the old woman his whole story. He even told her he stole all but the one fowl left on poultry farm. So the old woman advised him to go and steal the last remaining one. After a long argument, he accepted to take to the woman's advice. As he stole the last fowl, the poultry farmer's wife was prompted to rain curses, abuses, and derogatory names on whosoever had stolen all their fowls. She shouted for all the people to hear and know what had been happening on their farm.

The young woman's reaction brought the desired effect of what the old woman had envisaged. For from that moment, when she started shouting and cursing, the feathers started falling off the civil servant. The poultry farmer’s wife rained enough curses on the thief, and that paid for all the stolen fowls. By the following morning, no feather was found on the young man anymore. He was once again a normal person.

Have you seen why it is good to surrender all things to God? If the woman had listened to her husband, and allowed God to do His work to the end, the story would have been different. On many occasions, God would want to help but we would not give Him a chance to operate. Make use of this illustration and see what God can do for you. Once you start resisting you have set your enemy free. You will have good testimonies if you put this issue to test.

I am giving you the last illustration as food for thought. NEVER TRY TO RETALIATE BUT LEAVE ALL THINGS TO GOD. HE IS A PERFECT AVENGER AND REWARDER. FOR THIS REASON YOU HAVE TO ENDURE TO THE END. DO NOT RETALIATE OR FEAR FOR GOD IS WITH YOU. Let this story be a reminder to you. For if you want to witness the powerful hand of God in any situation, or action, you have to endure to the end. If your relation is killed and for that you kill his killer, you must be killed too. For whoever kills must be killed.

A stroke of the cane is sufficient to the wise. Let those who have ears hear what the Holy Spirit has imparted to the world. May God bless His Holy words.