“He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said: “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, aren’t they all with us? So, where does He get all these things? And they were offended by Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘a prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief,” (Matthew 13:54-58).

Text: Psalm 37:1-40
Knowing people either make or mar you. Knowledge,indeed,is power; knowledge is a treasure of experiences, accumulation of the good, the bad, the great, the small, the ugly and the beautiful; it is the day-to-day encounter registered in a person’s total being. Someone explained it to mean:The ledger of things you know. The ledger stored in your brain’s hard drive. Victory or failure is dependent upon what you know.

Knowledge can:
• Help your survival.
• Help to saveyou and enable you to navigate the stormof life.
• Help you to be healthy and live responsibly.
• It is one thing to know a thing and another to apply what you know. Knowledge is everything.
• Knowledge is precious.
• Knowledge can be dangerous when abused.
• Knowledge can corrupt, and make someone to be arrogant.
• Knowledge can make someone tobe humbled or even less humble.

What Is Familiarisation?
From the day you start getting familiar with a person and allow that closeness to affect you negatively, they may stop being a blessing or source of inspiration to you. The word ‘Familiar’ means well acquainted or conversant with something or someone – knowing it all. It is the popular Nigerian slogan: “See finish.”The feeling of ‘I have known him well enough.’Familiarisation is, therefore, the process of becoming acquainted with someone or something such as concept, skill, environment or system. It involves gaining knowledge, experience and comfort level through repeated exposure, practice or exploration. It means a deep understanding of someone or something to the point possibly that you no longer have awe, respect, deep regard or adoration for them or for such things thereby treating them with less importance.

Note:
• Sometimes being familiar leads to loss of value. “My familiar friend has forgotten me,” Job 19: 14.
• Sometimes being familiar may open the door to easy attack. Psalm 41:9: “Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
The danger of these words: “Familiarisation’ and ‘familiarity’ is in knowing and taking for granted. Our text: Matthew 13:54-58, revealed that Jesus could not do many miracles in his hometown because they were offended by him; they only considered him the carpenter’s son whose mother’s name was Mary; they knew his brothers and sisters by their names, therefore, they despised him and lost the opportunity of being blessed.

The gospel according to Luke gives the account of a sinful woman who saw the worth of Jesus and anointed him with oil and wiped his feet with her hair, but the religious leaders who felt they knew Jesus’ mother and father could not comprehend the value of what she did.

Christians are called to have intimacy with God. Our Christian knowledge of God is in part. Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 13:9 opined: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” No one can claim to have known all about God. There will always be secret things that solely belong to God. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law,” (Deuteronomy 29:29). The God that is all-known is no God.

Sometimes people grow too familiar with spiritual things that they end up treating divine things with a casual, apathetic, flippant attitude; they become so ordinary, usual and routine. This subsequently affects their reverence and awe for God; they become‘used to God’ that the ‘Almightiness of God’ loses reverence, awe, greatness andhonour; it is presented casual and ordinary. Ezekiel Chapter 2 brings to light the picture of a people who are chosen by God to represent, obey and live as His children; rather than complying,they were rebellious and stubborn. This same group of people, God through the prophet Amos said: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;your assemblies are a stench to me.Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them.Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,I will have no regard for them.

• Venerable Stephen Wolemonwu is the Rector,Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State (08035413812)