Harry's Bag

  “Show me your friend, and I’ll tell you your character”  – A Ghanaian Proverb (a direct translation into English) One of the statements we often heard as children in Primary and JSS, when teachers were referring to a group of “bad” boys was to mention the name of the gangalia (gang leader) and add “and co” to refer to the others. You would hear something like “Yaw Jon and Co”. When I grew, I came to understand that the “Co” was the short form of “Company” and that it referred to more than just businesses. It referred to one’s friends, notably the group of people one surrounded themselves with.  Paul of Tarsus made clear the importance of company to oneself. He put it succinctly in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that “Do not be misled: Bad Company corrupts good character” . The Apostle is said to have quoted a Greek poet, Menander, demonstrating his grasp of contemporary literature. However, the lesson is solid: your life is impacted by the quality of your company! And this “compan...

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven .” - Luke‬ ‭10:20‬ ‭KJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Last week, a friend and I went through the Weekly Bible Lesson book for Methodists. The topic focused on Jesus sending out the 72 other disciples to go and preach. When those 72 came back, they reported “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name!” Jesus replied and told them to be happy rather because their names were written in heaven.  This year the world was hit with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). Ghana got its share of the infections beginning March this year (some think we got our infections earlier). In order to stem the tide of infections and “flatten the curve”, social and religious gatherings were banned. Some companies asked their staff to work from home and finally the state instituted a partial lockdown of the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metrop...

Dear God, I know you have received a plethora of letters and telephone calls from many different people, and you must be bored since most of them are just to create fun. My letter is of the more serious variety. I know you already know what I want to say but I'll repeat it for all to hear. The Bible must be rewritten!   Father, I submit that the Bible must be rewritten because it has outlived its days (of course you know I can't say usefulness). You see, even though you created this world, and you have been there from the beginning, you do not live in this world with us. A lot of things have changed since the days of Adam and Abraham thems. Thus if we pick the Bible now, we must change some things to suit the "modern" age. For example, books like Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers are no longer relevant. People who oppose Christianity say that it is filled with hate speech, and they actually quote portions (Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 13:1-5) of those books t...