Vice President Aliu Mahama on Wednesday delivered a powerful sermon on God's demand on man to obey His laws and that of the nation and urged the Clergy to often link the message on righteousness to the Campaign for achieving greater discipline.
He called on Ghanaians to let their lights shine on the roads, at workplaces and wherever they might find themselves. Alhaji Mahama called for repentance from disobedience of the law and appealed to Christians to rescue the nation from perishing as a result of indiscipline.
The Vice President said these on the second day of the Methodist Crusade, organised jointly by the Church and the United Kingdom-based Evangelist Dr Lawrence Tetteh, at the Independence Square, Accra.
The message, backed with several quotations from the Bible, was received with spontaneous applauds and crowned with a standing ovation. Dr Samuel Asante-Antwi, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, asked permission from Moslem Leaders and conferred the title of Evangelist on the Vice President for his knowledge about the Bible.
Vice President Mahama said: "Throughout the history of God's people as is recorded in the Bible, the Lord God always made rules for His people as a means of creating and keeping the uniqueness, cohesiveness and orderliness of the society."
He referred to the 10 commandments as one of those set of rules, adding that because God abhors indiscipline he deported Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden when they flouted His law.
Alhaji Mahama, therefore, exhorted Christians to obey the law not only in Church but everywhere they found themselves, saying that they should be mindful of God's omnipresent nature, which no one could hide from.
The Vice President said it was untenable for Christians to do the wrong thing with the excuse that it was difficult to be upright under harsh socio-economic conditions.
He said: "I wonder if Jesus would accept that excuse. Indeed, God knows about the pain in uprightness. He says in Hebrews 12:11 that, for the moment of discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained for it'."
Vice President Mahama stressed that there was reward in being disciplined and said God subscribed success, blessings and prosperity of any individual or nation to the ability to do His bidding.
"Indeed, it is written in Deuteronomy Chapter 28 that, 'if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth,'" he said.
Ahhaji Mahama commended Christians for their tolerance, which according to him enabled different denominations to worship on the same premises, and urged other religious groups to emulate the example for peace.
He also applauded organisations that were championing the Greater Discipline Campaign and 12 individuals who wrote to his office to offer suggestions to make it successful. He asked for what he termed 'a spiritual warfare' to enable the nation to reap the benefits endowed her by God.
Dr Tetteh in a message interspersed with songs, asked Ghanaians not to rely on humans for solutions to their problems, but on God, who had the ability to perform what was humanly impossible.
He urged politicians to also turn to God for direction and called on aggrieved Ghanaians to release their pains as a sacrifice to ensure national reconciliation. The joyous mood at the Crusade, attended by a large congregation, including Methodists priests and leaders of other churches, was kept alive with Methodist hymns and popular gospel music from the John Teye Memorial School Band and other groups.
