WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine F-16 pilot killed in large-scale Russian attack, Zelenskiy calls for US help

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot died in a crash while repelling a Russian air attack that involved hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow intensifies night-time air barrages in the fourth year of war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, and bestowed upon him posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest decoration.

He also called for more support from Washington and Western allies to bolster Ukraine's air defences after the attack, which damaged homes and infrastructure across the country and injured at least 12 people, according to local authorities.

In Kyiv, families huddled in metro stations for shelter after air raid sirens rung out. Machine-gun fire and explosions were heard across the capital and in the western city of Lviv, where such attacks are less common.

The governor of the Lviv region, bordering Poland, said the raid targeted critical infrastructure.

Ukraine has now lost three F-16s since it began operating the U.S.-made jets last year. Kyiv has not revealed the size of its F-16 fleet, but they have become a central and heavily used part of Ukraine's defences.

The pilot flew the damaged jet away from a settlement but had no time to eject before it crashed, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

"The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude," the Air Force said on Telegram.

Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan, speaking earlier this month, said the F-16 was not ideally suited to all tasks in the war, particularly repelling drones which swarm Ukrainian cities, as it is better used against higher-speed targets.

Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ustymenko had been flying missions since the time of a campaign that began in 2014 against Russian-financed separatists who had seized parts of eastern Ukraine.

"He mastered four types of aircraft and had important results to his name in defending Ukraine," he said. "It is painful to lose such people."

The Ukrainian military said in total Russia launched 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types to Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian forces destroyed 211 of the drones and 38 missiles, it said, while 225 more drones were either lost due to electronic warfare or were decoys that carried no explosives.

Writing earlier on X, Zelenskiy said: "Moscow will not stop as long as it has the capability to launch massive strikes." He said Russia had launched around 114 missiles, 1,270 drones, and 1,100 glide bombs just in the past week.

Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency said one person was killed by a Ukrainian drone in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Luhansk region. Both Ukraine and Russia say they do not attack civilian targets.

POLITICAL WILL

Ukraine says recent attacks highlight the need for further support from Washington, which under President Donald Trump has not committed to new military aid for Ukraine.

Trump said he was considering a Ukrainian request for more Patriot missilebatteries after he met Zelenskiy at a NATO summit last Wednesday.

"This war must be brought to an end - pressure on the aggressor is needed, and so is protection," Zelenskiy said in his X post. "Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defence - the thing that best protects lives."

He said Ukraine was ready to buy the American air defence systems and it counts on "leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners."

Russia has launched large-scale strikes on Ukrainian cities every few days in recent weeks, causing widespread damage, killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds more.

During the latest barrage, explosions were heard in Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions, witnesses and regional governors said. The Ukrainian military said air strikes were recorded in six locations.

Eleven people, including two children, were injured in the central Cherkasy region, the regional governor said on Telegram. Three multi-storey buildings and a college were damaged. One woman was injured in western Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Rescuers evacuated residents from apartment blocks in Cherkasy that had charred walls and broken windows.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches ‘massive’ strike on Ukrainian defense industry – MOD

Russian forces carried out a large-scale overnight strike on Ukrainian industrial facilities involving long-range weapons and drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Sunday. The Ukrainian authorities and media confirmed the attack, with some suggesting it was one of the largest since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.

In a statement reporting the operation, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had “conducted a massive strike, involving high-precision long-range air-, sea- and land-based weapons, including the aeroballistic hypersonic Kinzhal missile system, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles, targeting Ukraine’s military-industrial and oil-processing facilities.” 

The ministry didn’t provide any further details, but stated that the “strike goals were achieved. All designated targets were hit.”

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky confirmed the attack in a post on Telegram, claiming that it involved 477 Russian explosives-laden drones and 60 missiles of various types. He used the occasion to once again call on Kiev’s Western backers to provide it with more air defense systems.

Zelensky also revealed that Kiev lost a Western-supplied F-16 fighter jet while attempting to fend off the attack. The pilot perished in the incident.

Meanwhile, in a post on X, Ukrainian MP Mariana Bezuglaya accused the country’s military leadership of “murdering” fighter pilots by allegedly failing to develop effective anti-drone protocols.

According to the Ukrainian military’s tally, more than 20 incoming rockets and 40 UAVs made it through the country’s air defenses during the strike.

In a post on Facebook, Stepan Kulinyak, the head of the military administration in the city of Drohobych in Lviv Region in Western Ukraine, said that “as a result of the air attack, a fire broke out at an industrial infrastructure facility.” Officials in the region stated that the strikes did not cause any casualties but that critical infrastructure was hit.

In Poltava Region, an industrial site in the city of Kremenchuk reportedly came under attack. 

While Ukrainian officials have not provided any details about the type of facilities hit and the extent of the damage inflicted, some local media outlets have pointed out that there are oil-processing plants in both Drohobych and Kremenchuk, and that they were likely the targets of the strikes. 

Social media users have been posting videos purportedly depicting the Russian strikes and their aftermath in several Ukrainian regions.

Reuters/RT

Nigeria’s total public debt climbed to N149.38 trillion at the end of the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, driven almost entirely by fresh borrowings by the administration of President Bola Tinubu, while sub-national governments actually trimmed their debt profiles over the same period.

The latest figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO) show that the country’s total debt stock rose by N4.72 trillion or 3.3 percent compared to the N144.67 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024.

Breaking down the numbers, the federal government alone accounted for N74.88 trillion of the domestic debt, a sharp rise from N70.40 trillion in the previous quarter. In contrast, the combined domestic debt of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) declined to N3.86 trillion in March 2025, down from N3.96 trillion in December 2024.

This continues a broader trend: data from the National Orientation Agency (NOA) revealed that between June 2023 and December 2024, domestic debts owed by state governments and the FCT fell by N1.85 trillion — dropping from N5.82 trillion to N3.97 trillion — largely due to improved allocations from the federation account which helped states rely less on borrowing.

Overall, Nigeria’s domestic debt stood at N78.75 trillion ($51.2 billion), while external debt amounted to N70.63 trillion ($45.9 billion). But the surge in the country’s public debt during Q1 of 2025 is squarely linked to the increased borrowings by the Tinubu-led federal administration, even as state governments demonstrated relative fiscal restraint by reducing their debt exposures.

Nigeria has been listed by the World Bank among 39 countries where conflict and insecurity are driving poverty and hunger to alarming new heights — a grim designation that underscores the dire reality on the ground, where more than 10,000 Nigerians have been killed in violent attacks during President Bola Tinubu’s first two years in office.

A new World Bank report released Friday paints a bleak picture: these 39 economies — which include Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan, Ukraine, and Nigeria — are now home to 421 million people living on less than $3 a day, more than in the rest of the world combined. That figure is projected to rise to 435 million by 2030, accounting for nearly 60% of the world’s extreme poor. Unlike other developing countries, these conflict-affected states have seen their per capita GDP shrink by an average of 1.8% annually since 2020, even as it grew by 2.9% elsewhere.

“More than 70 percent of people suffering from conflict and instability are Africans. Half of the countries facing conflict today have been trapped in these conditions for over 15 years,” warned Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s chief economist. “Misery on this scale is inevitably contagious.”

Nigeria’s place on this grim list is tragically well justified by data from Amnesty International, which reveals that at least 10,217 people were killed by armed groups and bandits across seven Nigerian states between May 2023 and May 2025 — the first two years of Tinubu’s presidency. The worst affected was Benue State, with 6,896 deaths, followed by Plateau State with 2,630 killed.

The security situation has grown even more complex with the emergence of new armed groups like Lakurawa in Sokoto and Kebbi states and Mamuda in Kwara, adding to long-standing threats such as Boko Haram. Amnesty’s investigation shows entire communities are under siege: in Zamfara alone, 481 villages have been completely destroyed, and 529 remain under the control of criminal gangs. Daily attacks are now so common in parts of the state that multiple incidents often occur within 24 hours.

The violence is also systematically dismantling essential infrastructure. In Benue, attackers have destroyed boreholes, health clinics, schools, and grain reserves across all 23 local government areas, with 148 villages wiped out in just seven. Meanwhile, April attacks in Plateau State saw entire families slaughtered, including children, as coordinated assaults targeted multiple communities simultaneously.

The fallout is a spiraling humanitarian disaster. Over 515,000 people have been displaced — 450,000 in Benue alone — with many forced to move repeatedly as even schools and displacement camps come under attack. Agriculture, the backbone of rural economies, is in collapse. In Zamfara’s Dangulbi district, sweet potato harvests rot in fields because farmers are too terrified to transport their produce to market. Many now beg to survive.

Beyond the killings and kidnappings, bandits impose a reign of economic terror by demanding tribute payments from villagers under threat of death, extorting communities already struggling to survive. As one resident in Zamfara’s Maru local government lamented, “The only relationship between us and the government is that they issue statements after we are attacked. When the next attack comes, they will issue another statement, while the bandits continue.”

Amnesty International has accused the Nigerian government of failing in its international legal obligations to protect citizens and ensure justice. The organization warned that without urgent, decisive action to halt the violence and hold perpetrators accountable, Nigeria’s crisis will deepen — feeding precisely the vicious cycle of conflict and poverty that the World Bank says is pushing millions across Africa and beyond into desperate conditions.

This dual indictment by both global economic experts and human rights monitors highlights just how severe and entrenched Nigeria’s challenges have become — and why, without immediate and meaningful intervention, the country risks sliding even further into a humanitarian and economic abyss.

IDF kills key Hamas founder and mastermind of Oct 7 terror attack in Israel

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday confirmed that they had "eliminated" one of the founders of Hamas in a joint operation with the Israel Security Agency (ISA). 

Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa, a senior figure in Hamas’ military wing, was killed in Gaza City in an airstrike in the Sabra on Friday, the IDF said. 

Issa’s current role in the Hamas military wing was as head of combat support headquarters, and he led force-buildup efforts in the Gaza Strip, served as head of the training headquarters and was a member of Hamas’ General Security Council.

He played a "significant role in the planning and execution of the brutal October 7th massacre," the IDF said, and over the past few days he has helped plan attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.

Issa was also attempting to rebuild Hamas’ organizational systems that were damaged by Israel during the war. 

The IDF said it had also killed Abbas Al-Hassan Wahbi, a Hezbollah terrorist, in the area of Mahrouna in southern Lebanon on Saturday. 

"Wahbi was responsible for intelligence in Hezbollah's 'Radwan Force' Battalion," the IDF said. "The terrorist was involved in efforts to rebuild Hezbollah and weapons transfers. These activities constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat posed to the state of Israel." 

The news comes on the heels of Israel’s conflict with Iran during which the IDF killed multiple military leaders, including Saeed Izadi, an Iranian commander who for years helped arm and fund Hamas on behalf of the regime. 

Izadi was also "one of the orchestrators" of the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said. 

Fox News

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Top Ukrainian commander sees new assault on key eastern city

Ukraine's top commander said on Saturday that his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther southwest.

After their initial failed advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks after the February 2022 invasion, Russian troops have focused on capturing all of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target.

Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults, with the regional governor urging remaining residents this week to evacuate as infrastructure breaks down.

Top Ukrainian commander Oleksander Syrskyi, writing on Telegram on Saturday, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting.

"The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing," Syrskyi said.

"The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors."

A spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, Viktor Trehubov, told the Ukrinform news agency that Kostiantynivka and the city of Pokrovsk to the west were "the main arena of battles and the Kremlin's strategic ambitions".

Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian forces had withstood in the past week a powerful attack near the village of Yablunivka in northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have been trying to establish a buffer zone inside the Ukrainian border.

Russia's Defence Ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow's forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka -- further southwest, near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure.

Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the 40-month-old war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow's control over four Ukrainian regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, though they do not fully hold any of the four regions.

Moscow has said in recent weeks that its troops have made advances in areas adjacent to Dnipropetrovsk region, which lies next to both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian officials have denied those reports.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops liberate eight communities in Ukraine operation over week — top brass

Russian troops liberated eight communities in the Kharkov Region and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the week of June 21-27 in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"Battlegroup West units liberated the settlements of Novaya Kruglyakovka and Petrovskoye in the Kharkov Region through active operations… Battlegroup South units kept advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and liberated the settlement of Dyleyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said in a statement.

Over the past week, "Battlegroup Center units continued developing their offensive on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Dnepropetrovsk Region. They liberated the settlement of Novosergeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic through decisive operations… Battlegroup East units advanced deep into the enemy’s defenses and liberated the settlements of Zaporozhye, Perebudova, Shevchenko and Yalta in the Donetsk People’s Republic," it said.

Reuters/Tass

“The 20-year-old EFCC has not always covered itself in glory,” I wrote in this space in April 2024.

“In five months, it will owe Nigerians its annual report, featuring an army of APC kleptocrats.”

I was discussing the EFCC travails of one Yahaya Bello, Kogi’s former governor who had flattered himself for eight years as the “white lion.”

He had proved to be more of a scared little mouse upon which someone had suddenly turned on the lights: scurrying into dark little spaces to avoid the law.

Bello was exposed by the anti-corruption commission, as he left the governorship, to a variety of corrupt deals, including a N100bn corruption allegation, an N80.2 billion money-laundering scheme, the upfront payment of $760,910.84 to the American International School in Abuja for four children up to university graduation.

That little mouse fled into hiding in the Kogi State Government House in Lokoja: the place where he had been an emperor for eight years, building for himself exalted mansions wherever he wished, including Abuja’s Wuse Zone 4and Asokoro, as well as in Kogi’s Okene GRA.

The same rat hole where he adamantly refused to pay Kogi’s civil servants or pensioners and where, until the National Judicial Council stopped him, he wanted to appoint friends and members of his family, including his wife, to positions in the Kogi judiciary.

An angry EFCC boss, Ola Olukoyede, demanded that Bello come out of hiding, questioning whether he was superior to so many others the commission was dealing with, and warning Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo  about frustrating Bello’s arrest.

When Bello refused to allow the law to take its course, the EFCC declared him wanted.

He was then stripped of police protection and placed on the immigration watchlist.

But no, the EFCC did not issue that 2024 annual report, which would have recorded Bello’s story.  That has been the commission’s tragic playbook since 2007.

Eight months after that first article, I wrote again, observing that the former Kogi Governor was about to drag the EFCC into a familiar hole and become another former governor whose court case travels for decades in an ethical and political fog.

That stripping of Bello’s police protection?  It has been exposed as misdirection, as he has been observed recently driving in a police-protected convoy.

It is this same ruthless, corrupt former governor that an unscrupulous Nigerian Union of Journalists last week “honoured with a “Lifetime Achievement Award on Media Empowerment.”

It said Bello had “encouraged and trained no fewer than 200 media professionals across Nigeria per edition on developmental journalism and how to sharpen their writing skills.”

“Media empowerment”?  Every true journalist who received the story last week responded with a loud gasp and a wink.

Bello received a meaningless “lifetime” award and the NUJ, as an association, attempted suicide.

It was never Bello’s job to train any journalists: his job was to serve the people of Kogi, and every evidence is that for eight years, he helped himself to their resources instead.

The journalists he “empowered” appeared to have been trained specifically not to smell the very scandals that he perpetrated as governor.

The new problem then, is the same as the old: every time a mass media organisation goes into the business of awarding “honours” to the same people it is supposed to be covering professionally, it ends up in an ethical retail market in which objective reporting is damaged and fake heroes are manufactured.

First lady Remi Tinubu last week expressedimpatience at the insulting lack of an annual budget for her “Office of the First Lady,” appealing to the Senate for legislative action for direct funding to that “office” to execute one impactful social projects.

“Most of the resources I used to work are just given to me by well-meaning Nigerians,” she told journalists in Abuja.  “It is whatever they give to me that I have to distribute to the First Ladies of various states. It’s difficult.”

First, there is no such thing in the Nigerian constitution as the “Office of the First [Spouse].”

There cannot, therefore, be budgetary allocations for what is only a wishful or imaginary outfit.

Second, people who give money to the first lady, should that even be true, do it for dubious reasons, not because she is starving or so she can undertake a parallel governance of her own definition.  These murky waters are the foundation of the filth in which we swim.

Remember: Patience Jonathan claimed to have accumulated over $15m from such “gifts.”

In 2018, Aisha Buhari had her ADC (why in the world does a housewife need an ADC for “ze oza room” work anyway?) arrested, allegedly for failing to turn over some N2.5bn he had collected as gifts for her.

That was less than two years after she had sworn that she “never collected any gift and till now I don’t and will never.”

Nigerians do not give money to the president’s wife to “distribute to the first ladies of the states.”  Nor should Nigeria amend the constitution to authorise the government to provide such funding.

Nonetheless, I commend the sentiment of Mrs Tinubu that first spouses should not simply “sit in the villa or in the government residences and be eating.”

Not that there is anything wrong with eating to support your elected spouse: it is over-eating or voracious consumption which attracts health problems, and this is precisely why the founding fathers strategically avoided making the ‘First Spouse’ a political or administrative fixture.  It is a role, not an office.

Even then, in Mrs Tinubu’s handbag, that role is already a recklessly expensive one for the so-called Renewed Hope train.

In just five foreign trips between 2023 and 2024, for instance, the records show that First Lady Tinubu collected foreign exchange of $554,064.00.

This is an astonishing haul for something that cannot be located in the constitution or justified in a classroom.

What would happen then, should Senate President Godswill Akpabio, an incorrigible gourmand who is heavily-indebted to President Tinubu, agree to award Mrs Tinubu a direct spending licence?

And let us not forget the serial spending of the presidency on the first family, including on various mansions, and the infamous payment of the private hotel bills of the president’s daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, in November 2023.  Or that in 2023, the presidency budgetedN1.5 billion on SUVs for Mrs Tinubu.  The world laughed at us.

No, Mrs Tinubu, to make an impact as the First Spouse, you do not need an office or budgetary allocations or contracts.  But you do need commitment, a heart, and a clear vision.

Define that vision.  For instance, you can opt to fight greed in Nigeria.  Build playgrounds or libraries for children nationwide, change our terrible driving habits, sponsor public toilets, renew elementary schools, make books available to children or hospital patients, and maintain public facilities.

Whatever vision you elaborate, those funds from Nigerians, including your husband, maybe, and appreciative governments and institutions, will multiply.  You can even proudly initiate accountability for all the funds.

True leadership comes from the heart, not from the bank.  Goodluck ma’am.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord … Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ~ Ephesians 5:22-25.

Preamble:

There are many couples out there these days, who seem to be in perpetual emotional pain because of certain agonizing marital issues that show up in their relationships, including problems associated with faulty family foundations. Theyfight continually, or live separate lives; some couples even live together only on paper, not in spirit, soul and body.

These harrowing experiences are most noticeable in marriages plagued with crass ignorance of how to tackle the common challenges of marital life. It’s essential that we know what the will of God is if we are to excel in His glorious plan for our homes and destinies.

Marriage is not an “achievement”, like buying a house or earning a certificate. You can’t just “own it” once and then continue to reap “the benefits” for a lifetime. You must continually pay the “rent” by yielding to God’s wisdom and keeping yourself in top shape — spiritually, physically and mentally. You must be Christ-centered in everything, consistently allowing His Word to rule in your homes.

Happy, healthy, glorious and harmonious lifelong marriages don’t just happen, neither can they be willed into existence by wishful thinking. They’re usually worked out, and built on the solid foundation of God’s Word and continuously spiced with the virtues of true love, submission, respect and mutual forgiveness (Philippians 2:12-13).

How To Maintain a Good Family Relationship

In Ephesians 5:17-33, the apostle Paul sends an uncompromising message to all believers who wish to enjoy good and godly marital relationships, that they should choose to be wise in understanding the will of God for their unions.

It’s not always easy to recognize what is best for us, andthat’s why we must learn to rely on God’s wisdom and be sensitive to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, if our marriages are to become what they were made to be.

Naturally, relationships take effort. Even the best relationships can have tough times occasionally. If you don’t put in the right efforts, you might get stuck in unhappy scenarios that can leave both husband and wife feeling miserable. However, when you combine your efforts to rescue your home from the prying eyes of evil, you’ll make it through.

Marital conflicts can be very challenging. Where God’s wisdom is not applied, small issues can quickly become big problems. Nevertheless, a simple, wise and godly approach can help the couple to get through, and can even strengthen their relationship in the process.

Disagreements in homes shouldn’t be about who is right or wrong. In a good and godly home, the husband and the wife are fused together to become one (Mark 10:7-9). Thus, disagreement isn’t the husband versus the wife, or vice-versa, but the two against the problem.

Misunderstanding shouldn’t even be about the hurting issues, but about the opportunity for the couple to grow stronger together and prioritize their relationship, to the glory of God.

Submit one to another. Be respectful of each other’s views.Be considerate and sincere in all your dealings. If you’re making any important decision, carry your spouse along. Stay purpose-driven together to continually energize your marital destiny.

Next, the apostle Paul instructed wives to submit to their husbands, as unto the Lord. Every godly wife must do this in her home as a role that God has cut out for her (Proverbs 31:10-31).

Every woman will create an atmosphere for the type of home she wants. Accordingly, one wise Christian thinker notes: “Where there is joy, happiness, trust, and freedom, thank the woman. Contrariwise, when you have suspicion, hostility, anguish, regrets and infighting, ask the woman” (anon). Remember Nabal’s wife (1Samuel 25:3). Recall Rebekah, the mother of Jacob (Genesis 25:28). And keep in mind Hannah, the mother of Samuel (1Samuel 2:19).

A real woman is a “womb-man”, a “feeling-male” and, especially, a “help-meet” for her husband (Genesis 2:18). For these noble roles she has to be full of virtue: wise in communication, innocent in character, forgiving in conflicts and exemplary as her husband’s companion(Proverbs 14:1).

Undoubtedly, it takes a wise, submissive, humble and patience wife to make a good husband, but they seldom come ready made. They are built to glorious specifications by their knowledge and obedience to God’s Word.

In this same spirit, Paul charges husbands to love their wives, as Christ loves the Church. This is the husband’s dominant role in the marital relationship, and lack of it is the reason many men are losing their homes today. Let’s please note that the extent of the love expected from the husband for his wife is in the dimensions of Christ’s love for His church.

Most certainly, Christ loves the church above silver and gold, above angels, above Israel His people, and even above His rainbow-circled throne in heaven. His love is sincere, matchless, undeserving, unwavering, sacrificial, and constant. It gives, strengthens, encourages, provides, builds, guides, corrects, commends, reproves, and forgives.The love of Christ cares in season and out of season, and hence it ministers hope consistently.

Husband, please love your wife indeed. Be proud of her, always (Genesis 2:23). Be present when you spend time together (Matthew 19:5). Be happy together, and keep the mutual attraction high (Matthew 1:18-19). Keep “courting” till the end: the moment you stop “courting” your partner,your relationship starts going downhill.

The real husband at the center of a happy home must be holy, understanding, supportive, believing, abiding in marriage covenant, noble, and dependable. He must also accept responsibility to provide for his family by all biblical means (1Timothy 5:8).

Finally it is imperative that godly couples must choose to secure one another, and pray for each other. When you secure and cover your spouse in prayers, you’re securing the glory of God in your home. When the husband secures the honor of his wife, he’s securing his “help” and “glory”; and when the wife secures the integrity of her husband, she’s securing her “head” and “lord” (1Corinthians 11:7; 1Peter 3:1-7; Genesis 18:12).

Friends and brethren, your spouse is never too bad beyond change; perhaps, it’s your way of relating with him/her sometimes that determines his/her responses and feelings towards you. If you can allow some changes today, you may be jumpstarting a big marriage miracle!

Start loving, honoring and cherishing your spouse. Encourage peace. Be patient, polite, supportive and respectful. Take good care of each other. Be very nice and appreciative of every single act of kindness. Don’t argue unnecessarily; be intentional in your quest to make your marriage work.

Above all, choose to be godly inside out: a man or woman in discord with God will naturally create discord in the family. If you do these things, by the power of God, you will soon see the sweet husband and the precious wife you’ve been praying for in your home. You won’t miss it, in Jesus name. Happy Sunday!

 ____________________

Archbishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

The managing director had a liking for Fred, to the great annoyance of Joe, his main rival for promotion. Joe was convinced that Fred was no better at the job than him. He tried his level best to impress the boss but to no avail. So, he opted for a new strategy. 

He would set a trap for Fred, confident that he would slip up sooner than later. He did not have to wait for long. Fred fell into the trap hook, line, and sinker. Joe quickly and gleefully brought the matter to the attention of the boss. The dye was cast. He knew that Fred would be given the sack.

Kingdom Dynamics

But he was in for a surprise. The boss tried Fred under the perfect law of liberty, found him guilty, and convicted him. But then he also tried Joe for tripping up Fred. He tried him under the Law of Moses, also found him guilty and convicted him. But why try them under different laws? 

The Law of Moses is a law of judgment. Because Joe showed no mercy to Fred in tripping him up and reporting him, he could receive no mercy. Therefore, Joe is given the sack. Jesus says: “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7).

But the law of liberty is a law of mercy.  It does not lead to condemnation but to exoneration. Accordingly, Fred was sentenced to mercy, whereby he was not only absolved from the offense but was also enrolled for training that would ensure that he would not be able to commit another offense in the future. Since he was thereby now deemed to be a model worker, he was promoted. In Fred’s case, mercy triumphed over judgment.

These are not the ways of man; these are the ways of God. These are kingdom dynamics.

Caught Red-handed

Once, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They wanted to know whether he would contradict the Law of Moses, which states that the adulterous should be stoned to death.

There was no question that the woman was guilty. She was caught red-handed, in the very act. Neither did she argue or attempt to defend herself. She pleaded “guilty as charged.” And yet, Jesus did not allow her to be condemned. Instead, he challenged her accusers: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And the Bible records a dramatic turnaround:

“Those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” (John 8:9-11).

The case of the woman caught in adultery deserves scrutiny, not least because it was a major threat to Jesus’ ministry. It was an attack launched from the pit of hell. Had Jesus condemned the woman, his earthly ministry would have ended. Had he condemned the woman, he would have had to, by the same token, condemn all men: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). 

That would have short-circuited the whole plan of salvation. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17).Instead of being the Saviour of the world, Jesus would have become another accuser of the brethren.

Grace of God

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22). Because of the plan of salvation, God is not only just; he is also the justifier of all those who believe in Jesus Christ. This makes God paradoxically a God of the sinner, as opposed to a God of the righteous. 

Jesus was at pains to explain this to the self-righteous Pharisees: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17).

Indeed, according to the dynamics of the kingdom of God, the competition is not between sin and judgment, but between sin and grace. So, Paul says: “The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” (Romans 5:20).

The more the sin, the more the grace of God. Moreover, the redemptive power of grace has given us much more than sin ever took away. Thank God Adam sinned; for while sin robbed us of silver, grace gave us gold.  While sin killed the body of the flesh: grace gave us the body of the Spirit. While sin consigned us to dust, grace lifted us up in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

No Condemnation

Be careful, therefore, not to forfeit the grace of God. Jesus told the story of the contrite publican whom the self-righteous Pharisee despised at the hour of prayer in the temple: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14).

Once you judge a man, you have arrogated yourself to be God. Once you judge a man, you cease to be justified. Once you judge, you will be judged. Man often justifies the righteous but God will only justify sinners. 

Since the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death, Paul says: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1-2). Then, it naturally follows that those who are in Christ should not condemn others. It makes no difference if you are right; know it would be wrong. 

Once you judge a man, you are casting stones, which automatically qualifies you for condemnation in the court of God: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.” (James 2:13).

Let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus contradicted every prescription of common sense. He knew that Peter would betray him and yet continued to walk closely with him. He knew that Judas was a thief, and yet he kept him as his treasurer. He knew that we were sinners, and yet he died for us. And now the Bible says to us: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5).

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8).

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