Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Saturday, 2 November 2013
Birthdays & Wedding Anniversary for November.
Bro. Tijani Opeyemi Kayode. 4th
Bro. Oyebode Olusegun Kehinde. 7th
Bro. Akinfolarin Tosin Akiniyi. 9th
Sis. Akpan Joyful Godwin. 11th
Bro. Aladegbaiye Adefemi Oluwarotimi. 14th
Dnc. Babalola Oluwagbemiga Omokayode. 21st
Wedding
Deacon & Deaconess Babalola. 24th
OPEN HEAVENS- BEWARE OF SATAN’S WILES!
According to
John 10:10, Satan does not waste his time with those who have nothing in stock
for him. If he is bringing lots of difficulties to you, it is because he has
seen something good coming your way. Whether he likes it or not, that great
destiny he has seen in you shall be accomplished in Jesus name. Usually, the
devil prefers to use his perverted wisdom while fighting. He implements a
hide-and-seek strategy in getting his victim. His target are usually pointed
and focused. All he may target in a person’s life might be just to have at
least one stronghold in that life. if he can succeed in having that, he knows
he can go and sleep. He doesn’t mind your going to church, dancing, and singing
as long as you idolise your children above God. If he can get you to love one
of your children above God, he could destroy your destiny. This was how he
ruined Eli and got God to reverse His great plan concerning that family (1
Samuel 2:30). Satan does not mind your worshipping God and being in His service
as long as you idolise money. This was how he ruined the life of Gehazi who had
the potential of becoming the most powerful prophet ever in his time. Satan can
allow you pull down the gates of your enemies and to do exploits for your God
as long as you lack self-control. He will tell you to be free and to do as you
like, after all, we are in the dispensation of grace and not the law. This was
how he got Samson.
Paul saw the devil trying to use his flesh against him so he kept
his body under control (1 Corinthians 9:27). For failing to crucify their
flesh, many evangelists are winning people to heaven while they are heading for
hell. Beloved, your life being right with God is more important than your
service for God. Is the devil still having a foothold in your life? Are you
flowing with his evil philosophies? Reject them today. Take a good look at your
life, thoughts, deeds, plans, words, and relationships and ensure that they are
in conformity with the Word. Do everything possible to make it to Heaven.
5 FRIENDSHIP TRUTHS YOUR CHILD MUST KNOW
Children are
born, great friends are made! Friendship is at the core of every meaningful
relationship- work, marriage, social relationships, etc. so it’s best we groom
our children to be the best friend they can be. The following five values of
friendship would be a good place to start:
·
Friendship
is a gift: Help your kids understand that by being friends with others, we
are offering them the privilege to share our lives. We are giving a gift of
ourselves, which is an honourable thing to do. We give of ourselves, our time,
our resources, etc. and we share the joy and pains of our friends. Friendship
teaches us to share. And it gives us the honour to share in people’s lives too.
·
Friendship
is an act: The acts of friendship define the quality and impact of
friendship. Friendship is not merely about saying, “this person is my friend”,
but in being friendly. Let your kids know that friendship is actually about
being kind, thoughtful, sensitive, loving, affectionate, etc. it is basically
about acting rightly towards others. The basic rule of friendship is this- do
to others what you want them to do to you. Teach your children to act towards
their friends the way they want to be treated.
·
Friends
accept: Friends accept one another for who they are. Friends should
complement and not condemn. Encourage your kids to love their friends for whom
they are. We are not saying teach them to celebrate their friend’s weaknesses, rather
help them understand that no one is perfect. Teach them to correct their
friends in love. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Help them not to become
judgmental.
·
Friends
nurture: Friends build each other up. We should teach our children to be a
part of their friends’ support network, to encourage their friends and cheer
them on. Let’s teach them to compliment others, not to be afraid of complimenting
others, but to be the first to compliment their friends.
·
We can
choose our friends: Let them know that friendship is a choice. They can choose who to
be friends with, whoever makes them feel bad or inferior about themselves
should be a friend. Friends should stir good feelings. Teach them not be
friends with people because of what they have but because of who they are. They
should watch out for character and values before becoming friends with people.
This is because association has the power to influence. Let your children know
that they will become more like the people they associate with. Proverbs 13:20
says, “He who walks with the wise grow wise, but a companion of fools suffers
harm.”
(Culled
from GEM Woman Magazine)
WISDOM PAYS ITS OWNER (with Sis. Tomilola Kemi-Olaitan)
According to
John 3:14-18, there is Godly wisdom and ungodly wisdom. Ungodly wisdom is the
wisdom of the serpent. Being cunning, the devil knows how to get what he wants.
Out there, there are many serpents ready to deceive unsuspecting people.
However the wisdom from above is what God expects His children to operate on.
Some leaders who claim to be led of God, still operate under serpentine wisdom.
Proverbs 4:7 says God’s wisdom is the principal thing. Ecclesiastes 7:12 calls
it a means of defence. Great nations of the world are what they are today based
on wisdom. Israel though small in size is a regional power. Ecclesiastes 9:6
says wisdom is better than strength while Ecclesiastes 9:8 says wisdom is far
better than weapons of wars. There are some battles that can only be won
through the application of wisdom not by might. Also deploying wisdom in a time
of war or in an event can lead to saving resources and time. Many battles are
avoidable. If you apply wisdom you will prevent so many avoidable battles. If
you employ wisdom in your speech it will be difficult for you to say what can
trigger strife. Many fire that are kindled by the tongue according to James
3:5,6, can be avoided if wisdom is employed. If there is one thing you should
ask God it is wisdom. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says wisdom is profitable to direct if
you cannot give your children anything, give them education. The only one who
controls wisdom is the owner of wisdom. Daniel 2:20 says wisdom belongs to God.
If you think you’re wise, be extremely careful because 1 Corinthians 1:19, 20
says God can turn wisdom into foolishness. Ahithophel the great counsellor was
a victim of this. 1 Corinthians 1:27, says, God can use foolish things to
confound the wise. John 12:17, says, God leads counsellors and turn judges into
fools. If you’re an earthly judge you must fear the Almighty God because He can
make you to take some very foolish decision or err in your judgements to such
an extent that it will be glaring to all that you are foolish. To maintain your
wisdom you have to constantly feed on God’s word and submit to the counsel of
the greatest counsellor. Ask for more of His wisdom in your life on a daily
basis and avoid everything the Bible classifies as foolishness.
EFFECTS OF SECRETS IN FAMILIES (with Tobi Delly)
Secret is a
pre-causal agent to the causes of trouble in Christian families. What is called
irrelevancy often end up to affect someone in a family that looks healthy
already. When a woman gives birth to a female child at her teen age and by the
time the kid grew up, she also had a child of her that exact age, it is a
function of secret. What you mostly keep away from children or tell them to
abstain from is what they mostly do. That’s because parents don’t take the time
to explain the reasons for their acts for the kids to understand and make a
decision in line to that. A man of God narrated a story where he told her daughter
about the importance of staying up as a virgin till marriage. The young girl
later asked him, “Dad, was mom a virgin when you met her?” the man was taken
aback, he then answered and said, “No, she wasn’t, I wasn’t too. But we didn’t
have anybody to teach us the importance or virtues of it. Now, you have the
opportunity to do the right thing because we your parents now know the right
thing. That’s why we holding you to a standard.” The young girl was quite happy
with the answer, and thanked her dad for telling her the truth, promising she’d
keep it safe because of that. Look at it the other way round, if the man had
presented the mom as a saint, the daughter won’t want to be a saint. And before
you know it, she might be thinking, just because mom did, doesn’t mean I
should.
Psychologists
specialising in family secrets like Evan Imber-Black, a Psychotherapist, has
discovered that secrets in family life can lead to murder, abuse, suicide, and
other damages. It is so common with Nigerian families, the parents hide
somewhere in the house discussing family matters while the kids are somewhere
wondering what exactly are they talking about. Some families make sure when
you’re at the dining you eat, not talk. No explanation, nothing. You talk, you
get beaten. In another family, it might be when the Dad calls you once and you
didn’t answer, you’re doomed for the day. The present family troubles can all
be traced back to a family secret in the line of generation. It might be the
mother was abused as a kid, might be the Dad was a cultist in his university
days. A perfect family knows when to discuss these things with each other, with
the kids and everyone. It helps push off mistakes that would’ve been made. And
it’ll also help communication between the families. A family with no secrets or
less secrets has a better communication than a family with more secrets.
I once heard
a speaker saying at a conference, ‘my parents sent me to school, just saying,
remember whose son thou art. That was all, no sex education, no peer pressure
education, just remember whose son thou art. And with that I found myself in a
very confusing world.’ According to his explanation, he came from a family
where the father calls the mother by name, ‘Tade, Deji, Tunde, etc.’ and
vice-versa for the mom too. The parents show no affection for each other, they
don’t even touch themselves, all of a sudden the mother will just pregnant, and
he will be wondering, what’s happening? How did it happen? Where did it happen?
So that before starting his family, he made sure he recounts his life from A-Z.
His own family background and the effects it had on him, in that way he and his
wife were able to plan on how to educate the kids in a better way.
Whether you
like it or not, Christian or no Christian, secret will shape the life of your
family, even when you’re dead, it might even destroy the lot. Secrets are
dynamic, and they move from person to person. The mother can tell the daughter
closest to her. While she keeps it away from the others. This will later produce
a rigid boundary in the family. It can isolate someone in a family, who thinks
he or she is carrying a burden. It then kills either the person or eats away
the relationship. A husband who discovers he is HIV positive and the wife is
negative, or a wife who is in debt with her business and couldn’t tell the rest
of the family. There are lots of concealing in families today but the knots are
unknots, the better any relationship and families will be. If you’re one of
those held in the captivity of secrets, apply wisdom, start by discussing it
with someone, preferably your Pastor, if you believe in him. And then you can
start including some people, one by one in the family and before you know it,
you’re in the clear, happy and having fun with your life not looking back if
someone has discovered what you’ve done in the past or else, the past will
continue to haunt your present and can alter the future.
Shalom!
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE (with Tobi Delly)
In a picture
in one of my Chemistry textbooks, show Albert Einstein, seating with
Rutherford, Neils Bohr, de Broglie, and other notable scientist discussing new
research. Have you ever thought who Aliko Dangote’s friends are? A friend
either pulls you up or drags you down with him. It is life’s natural law that
you’re either moving forward in life or you’re going backward, there’s no
standing still. So also your friends won’t hold you down. (i.e. pause) they
either drag you to bankruptcy or lever you up to greatness. If you have a
friend that is a joker, who doesn’t understand that life is a business and not
a play fair you might end up where you don’t like with him if you can’t put a
stop to that friendship. In my Primary school, throughout my school days, I was
friends with only the set of people who have vision and constancy of purpose
for their lives. When I started business, I had new set of friends with the
same entrepreneurship mindset. We all attended Business School together, hopped
from one business conference to another. When I started to write my first book,
I made friends with others who already are Authors. I attended Association of
Nigerian Authors meeting to get to the right set of people. The people you
surround yourself with matters in your personal development growth, in your
being successful or becoming a failure. There’s a law called ‘The law of five’.
The law of five states that ‘You are the average of the five people you spend
most of your time with.’ This means if you spend time mostly with five people
who are on level 3 and 4, you’ll be the average of this level. That is, you
don’t even get to be on level 4. You’ll be dragged down to 3 point something. I
explained this to a friend in this way, if you’re on level 5 and you have a
level-3 friend. Your level-3 friend will drag you down from your level-5. So
that before you know what’s happening, you’re coming down to his level. But if
you’re on level-5 with a friend on level-8, definitely, he’ll pull you up.
You’ll start going up from your level-5. A most shocking aspect of Social
Intelligence in Daniel Goleman’s research is that our brain communicates. When
you have a friend, and your communicating becomes intense, brains begin to wire
and thoughts begin to transfer from one brain to another. Now, you want to
check who your brain is communicating with, ain’t that right? I’d want to if
you ask me.
It took me a
while to realise my mentor doesn’t have friends coming and going out of his
house. I have discovered the damage just one friend can do. One bad apple can
destroy the whole pack. So watch out, know your friends. If he is a fan (like
the over 80, 000 fans watching a football match), then fan him out. Stick only
with the players, (like the 22 players active on the field). When you’re
socially intelligent, you communicate better with others and make them feel
better off. You create a network of friends who have a purpose for living. I
get my kicks from writing books. My five close friends get their kicks from
Computer education, Writing, Consulting and Public speaking, Deals, Internet
innovation respectively. And they’re doing so well with their various fields.
When you’re visionless you become friends with those who likewise don’t have
vision. If you don’t have direction, you become friends with those who don’t
have direction for their lives. A farmer knows exactly when to plant, when to
cultivate and when to harvest. A good farmer utilises this seasons. A lazy
farmer ignores it. But it is he who soweth who is justified to harvest. If am
not with the right set of people, I read books, listen to audio programs
instead. When I feel I’m not working at the pace I should, I call friends to
ask them the projects they’re working
on, I know I’ll get inspired to put more effort in mine. But how do you move
forward if the person you’re friends with doesn’t care about moving forward or
not. Understand social intelligence today, and know the right set of people to
be friends with.
Shalom!
GIVE GOD THANKS ESPECIALLY IN TIMES OF TROUBLE (with Pastor Femi Oladapo)
It is very easy to give thanks to God when all is well. Psalm 103:1-6, but extremely difficult when in sorrow. Psalm 120:1, "In my distress I cried unto the Lord....” There’s always a brain call when anyone is in distress, sickness, accident, debt, crisis, chaos, etc. when anything bad is happening, people begin to call on God, ‘Oh, please God, I promise, I’ll be a better person this time. Oh lord, if you can just provide good health for me right now, I’ll serve you till I die. Some don’t even involve themselves in anything like praising God, only petition. Petition in the morning, mid-morning, afternoon, evening, night, and in the mid-night, you’re eating, instead of giving thanks for the food you’re still thinking, God provide a better food. Let there be meat; beef, snail, chicken, fish; fresh and smoked. Amen. However, the Bible commands us to give thanks in all things, 1Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"
The Bible is right because God's word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89. The word of God cannot be faulted for it is the truth, John 17:17 "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." What you give gratitude about is what you get mostly. You must understand that by default you’re either giving been grateful to God or you’re been ungrateful. If you think you’re not complaining, you’re already complaining, and been ungrateful, and what will you get? Things that’ll make you more ungrateful. But when you sing his language, ‘Halleluyah’, you get even more blessings that’ll make you continue your halleluyah. Two major reasons why you and I should give thanks to God even in times of trouble are;
1. God is our place of security and safety. All else may forsake you in trouble but God will not. All else may collapse, but God won’t. Psalm 46:1-5, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. No matter how the earth turns, the mountain shakes or water roars or trouble, God is in the midst of her. He is unshakable, unmovable, and unchangeable. Anything He says stand, Psalm 33:9 "For He spake, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast.
2. God is watching your reaction to that problem before He reacts, James 4:8, 1 Samuel 2:2 "Talk no more so exceeding proudly, let not arrogance come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed" Galatians 6:7
Your reaction matters, i.e. what you do to answer your troubles. There are two reactions basically aligned to human emotions.
a. Murmuring and complaining: This is the opposite of thanksgiving and it is a sin to God. Yet this is what many Christians do in time of trouble. It is the expression of unhappiness, dissatisfaction or discontent. Christians are full of complaining of either someone or something. It has become the way of life for many. Please not that all complaining and murmuring is a sin against God and He is displeased with it. Numbers 17:1.
Murmuring and complaining has been detestable habit since time immemorial in our earthly world talkless of when it comes to God. Murmuring and complaining is a wrong act and must be avoided at all cost. Why?
1. It denies God's sovereignty, Genesis 17:1, Deuteronomy 32:39-40 "See now that I even I, am He and there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive, I wound, and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand; for I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever"
2. It is an expression of unbelief. Proverb .24:10 "If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small" Romans 8:28
3. It robs you of your blessings and denies you of operating in your destinies. Israelites, Numbers 14:21-22, Moses and Aaron, Numbers 20:12.
4. It discredits your testimony, Philippians 2:14-15 "Do all things without murmuring and disputing; that Ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom Ye shine as lights in the world"
b. Praise and thanksgiving; This is the best meal God require because;
1. It shows that we realize and acknowledge that God knows what's best for us, the problems we face notwithstanding. Job 23:10 "But He knoweth the way that I take, when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold"
2. It shows a strong faith in God. Philippians 4:13
3. It preserves and multiplies your blessings/destinies, Job 42:10, 12:1 Samuel 2:21
4. Believers who praise and give thanks to God never focus on their problems but on God.
Little wonder they are always victorious. Habakkuk 3:17-19
No doubt, each of us has been blessed in numerous ways. The more we think about how we have been blessed, the more we will be thankful. Praise and giving thanks to God are the best solution to complaining and murmuring. Therefore when you are passing through any problem it's the best time to praise God and He will show up in that trouble. All trouble comes with its wrapping of blessing, and the only it can be turned into blessing is by giving thanks. Complaints will only blindfold you. David said in Psalm 146:1-2 "Praise Ye the Lord, Praise the Lord o my soul; while I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being "What about you?
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