“Everybody wants to live and nobody wants to die” is a popular saying. But just how can one realise the dream of endless life?

This was one of the themes explored yesterday on day one of the third in the series of the 2012 “Safeguard Your Heart!” District Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses holding at Ota, Ogun State, South-West Nigeria.

The talk “Why Must We Safeguard Our Heart?” outlined five reasons why Christians must guard their heart as recommended by the Bible in Proverbs 4:23. One of them, according to the speaker, Adelu Daniel, is that “The position of our heart will determine our fate, either to gain everlasting life or face destruction.” He quoted Jeremiah 17:10, where the Bible says: “I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the kidneys, even to give to each one according to his ways, according to the fruitage of his dealings.”

Other reasons cited by the speaker are that the human heart is sinful by nature and wishes to do evil and so needs to be properly guided; the heart is treacherous, deceitful and unreliable; safeguarding the heart leads to salvation and will also make God happy.

Just like last week’s session, Ota 3, as this weekend’s convention is known, is holding in Yoruba.

As previously reported by News Express, a convention is holding almost every weekend at the Ota Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses until to December 7, 2012. Throughout Nigeria 250 conventions are scheduled in 32 cities – many of them in indigenous Nigerian languages.

The convention series described as a “heart examination” begins at 9:20 a.m. all three days. “Admission is free as conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are supported entirely by voluntary donations,” says the News Service Department.

*Photo: A cross section of the convention audience.