Use Easter for reconciliation - Lawrence Tetteh

Dr Lawrence Tetteh, a renowned International Evangelist, on Sunday urged Ghanaians to use the Easter festivities to reconcile with one another.

He said the whole essence of Easter was that Jesus Christ died to reconnect mankind to God; declaring that "the shedding of the blood that he did was very important to reconnect every one of us back to God."

Dr Tetteh who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra said: "If there is anything that will push Ghana forward, it is unity and reconciliation".

He noted that "regardless of our political colours, and our different ideologies, we need to reconcile.

"Regardless of our political divide and our party colours, we should find a place in our hearts to reconcile our nation."

He said reconciliation was the essence of Easter as God himself had to come down to our level to reconcile us with himself.

"We should not use political power to score political points. We should not use our pulpits to score spiritual points. We should not capitalise on people's weaknesses to make statements in our interest, but build the nation together, and reconciliation is very important," Dr Tetteh stated.

"Easter is all about that, that God himself saw that the blood of bulls, cows, sheep and goats could not save mankind, so God had to sacrifice his son," he added.

He said that as a nation, Ghanaians were becoming very personal and very judgemental."So we should come out of that spirit of being judgmental and stop pointing the accusing finger at our opponent.

"We should rather see a place where we can embrace all to find a place of convergence, it is very important to me."

Dr Tetteh, who is also the Founding President of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach (WMO), urged Ghanaians to see themselves first and foremost as Ghanaians, more than any other nation and should not allow strangers to come in and infiltrate into their ranks and file.

"And that is what is happening. If we don't reconcile as a people, strangers will capitalise on our disunity. And that will be the doom of Ghana, when strangers infiltrate our midst," Dr Tetteh said.

On the essence of Easter, Dr Tetteh explained that the three significant things that happened at the cross were to; first and foremost redeem mankind, give hope and thirdly give the assurance that mankind could be connected back to Christ.

He said it was a selfish thing that they did (crucifying Christ), but God used it to glorify himself for humankind.

Dr Tetteh said the three declarations of Jesus Christ on the cross was one thing that every Ghanaian must take seriously.

He said almost immediately after the cry of derelictions on the cross at Golgotha, Jesus altered three more statements that were very important.

"Number one statement he made was that 'I am thirsty', the greatest spiritual suffering; the number two statement he made was that 'It is finished' and the third statement he said was that 'into thy hand I lift my spirit'."

He said Christians must come to the realisation that when Jesus said "it is finished"; he had actually finished with everything for them on the cross and urged Ghanaians to dedicate the entire nation to God.

"I am asking from the President to all political leaders to dedicate their situation, their thoughts and their minds to God," he said.

"There is no power beyond this power. We should come to that place where we would see the authority in the reconciliation God gave, and to know that there is no any other power.

"If we can reconcile and look at Christ as our yardstick, then we can properly reconcile for the benefit of our nation."

Dr Tetteh also urged Ghanaians not just talk, but to walk the talk.

"Unity for us as a nation is very crucial now. It is more crucial than any other thing," he stated.