Transmuted

They went to secondary school together

Those days were something else

They were just wild

They started smoking in SS1

Cigarette was what they started with

There were six of them

Three of them moved on to marijuana

The other three stayed with cigarettes

The youngest of them was very reluctant

Eventually he succumbed to peer pressure

By the time they got to SS2

The three marijuana smokers amongst them had started sneaking out of the boarding school to the brothel three kilometers away from their hostel to sleep with prostitutes

The other three stayed with their cigarettes

They had become addicted but they refused to move on to higher levels of addiction

The youngest of them barely smoked a stick of cigarette a day

He was a social smoker

Just did it to save face

They moved on from secondary school

One of them travelled abroad

Two became clerics

The other three went on to the higher institution

One to the university and the other two to polytechnics

The youngest of them went to a polytechnic

He became a “Big” boy

But he couldn’t drop the cigarettes

From a social smoker, he had become a chain smoker

The one that went to the university dropped smoking all together

But they all kept in touch

They graduated and started working

The youngest of them invited the one that went to the university to spend the weekend with him

They called it the pre-reunion of the four (they had lost touch with the religious clerics)

They met at a club on a Friday night

They hung out together

He noticed that the youngest one had changed drastically

He couldn’t say a word of truth!

The youngest one told his friends that his secondary school pal just returned from the USA and came to pay him a visit!

USA? He had never been on an aircraft before

Why was his friend saying all these?

When they left the club he asked his friend

Why were you saying all that?

 “I was hyping you” came the reply

Hype? Who would hype his friend by lying to his other friends?

They got to his friend’s house

His friend opened a bottle of beer

He saw the fridge stocked with all sorts of alcohol

“You drank eight bottles of beer at the club! Isn’t that enough?

His friend laughed!

“I am no longer the small boy you went to secondary with bro. I am now a man”

He couldn’t say anything

This was an innocent boy he believed would turn out better than all of them

He was smoking like a chimney and drinking like a palm wine keg!

That night because he was in a strange environment, he could only sleep lightly

He overheard his friend screaming from his sleep!

Screaming in terror!

In the morning he called his friend

“My brother, the alcohol you take is just too much

The one pack of cigarette a day lifestyle will send you to an early grave

You need to tone it down!”

His friend agreed but bad habits are difficult to break

The weekend was nice in its own way

There was fuel scarcity and they had a good time hustling for fuel

They also went to some nice places and had great fun

He was happy he was with his friend

It was always towards the evening that the demons emerge from the shadows

His friend would drink himself to stupor and smoke like someone who was determined to bring about global warming

No amount of appeal could get through to him

His friend also had many girlfriends

It was as if he was keeping a harem

His friend’s phone was always ringing

His friend was indeed a single fine boy who had a good job and lived in a flat

Many ladies would die for that but to live a life without boundaries was to court disaster

His friend also had many other friends

Those involved in internet fraud, human trafficking and drugs

His friend met most of them on his night escapades at different night clubs

He realized after the weekend that his friend’s lifestyle did not fit into his own

Sadly, he would have to wave goodbye and stay away from his friend forever

Early that morning (as he was preparing to leave his friend’s house) his friend got a visitor

They talked for a while outside the main entrance of his friend’s sitting room

Few minutes later, his friend brought the visitor into his flat

His friend: So and so, I want you to conform to my friend here that I paid you so and so thousand dollars yesterday to help me get some stuff from the USA

He looked at his friend

He had collected no such money and he wouldn’t admit he had done so in the name of friendship

“No, I didn’t collect a penny from you” he said

His friend looked at him, totally alarmed!

The visitor walked outside

Minutes later, a police officer walked in and arrested his friend!

What was going on?

His friend had lied to another friend that he had contacts who could bring this and that into the country for a fee

His friend was paid

His friend spent the money

His friend had been lying to the people he collected money from for many months

On the day of reckoning, his friend was even willing to implicate him in a matter in which he knew nothing!

Old friends are truly very dangerous

It took him three days to bail his friend out

His friend was very angry

“If you had said I gave you the money, he would have gone away! What sort of friend snitches on his friend like that? What sort of friend are you?”

He couldn’t believe how warped the thinking of his friend had become

He was now the evil guy for telling the truth and his friend who tried to implicate him was the one playing victim

He left his friend’s house that evening

He swore he would never be seen around his friend ever again!

His friend’s lifestyle was not only headed in the path of destruction, and it wouldn’t take long for his friend to implode

He said his goodbyes and left

After then, his friend would call him often to come and hang out with the boys!

 He always declined!

His friend’s lifestyle was built on subjective truth, not objective truth

Subjective truth always led to chaos and mayhem

He declined every invitation from his friend

He had seen too much of the world not to be able to chart the course of his friend’s life in the nearest future

Three years later, he saw his friend on the television

Paraded by the police for a crime (This turned out to be false accusation, the criminal was eventually arrested)

He wondered how much the secondary school peer pressure had to play in his friend’s present condition

He wondered if there was anything he could have done differently during their weekend together

He went to the police station

He made his inquiries

He saw his friend

Wow!

He apologized for not introducing Jesus to his friend throughout the weekend he spent with him!

“I didn’t know how to tell you about the love of Jesus without offending you! I am sorry but you cannot totally be free unless you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior!

Jesus will break the yoke of addiction, deceit and affliction. He will set your life on a glorious course. I used to be far worse than you. Just look at my life now!

His friend agreed.

“I will accept Jesus as my lord and savior, I have tried to change but I found myself going back to my old ways after a few days”.

Say “Father, thank you for saving me and for being my good father! I ask the lord Jesus to come into my heart, soul and body! I surrender my life totally to him!  Ask that the Holy Spirit take over my life! Thank you father for saving my soul today and giving me eternal life and eternal purpose. In Jesus name I pray. Amen

His friend’s life transformed positively after he made this bold declaration

He stopped smoking and drinking immediately!

Just like that

Three months later, his friend was baptized!

Months later his friend asked “Why didn’t you tell me about Jesus earlier”

“I tried but the timing was just always off. I prayed for you every day and eventually God made a way!

His friend is now happily married with a child

Let Jesus transform your life today, don’t wait a day longer. Call on the name of Jesus now!

PS: This event happened in December 2016

His friend is now married with a daughter

His friend’s new found faith helped to reshape his life without stress

All his friend’s other babes and friends stopped calling him after he became born again

He stopped night crawling

His habits and lifestyles became healthier and more productive

He paid off his debts and had no reason to lie pathologically again

He became a new man

Do you love your friend and family members who are living dangerously?

Tell them about Jesus today!