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Flexslider
Motivation
You know how I see myself? As the best... This is not pride, not mere self esteem, it is the winning mindset... The positive mindset... I'm not on top of the class or at the peak of my game... Actually, success and failure are not events, neither are they principally about one's ability... It is about one's mentality... Ali the terror of the ring, Pele, the legend of the pitch, Bolt, the roar of the track, Shakespeare, the deity of creativity (the list simply endless) immortalized their names on the slate of human history... You want to know the secret of this dignified aristocracy? They see themselves as the best and so they were.... That guy will not step up unless you let him know he's got all he needs to get up. I know those that will never succeed in life.... They are those that think they may never do. Miracles can not change this fact... It is an immutable law of nature..." As a man thinks, so he is"
© Olatuja Oloyede
Sometimes unanswered prayers are God's greatest gifts. If all our prayers are answered, we may end up missing God's plan for our lives... Teach me O Lord to always say " Your Will be Done"
Just after supper, we all sat down on the mat in our compound listening to our grandma as she told us a story about the history of our village.
Suddenly, we heard a sound from above... Kpa kpa kee kuuu keeee! It was a thunder strike, a warning for a heavy outpour of rain, a whirlwind followed the thunder strike, the moon disappeared, dark and heavy clouds took over.
Go inside! go inside! my mum said to me and my younger siblings as she helped our grandma enter into her small room
I and my siblings quickly ran into our own room as we squeezed ourselves in one corner of the room. Soon, my mum joined us after placing some plastics at specific corners of the compound for rain to fall in.
My younger siblings were already asleep on the mat, while my mum went over to her mat and lay there.
The thunder kept striking, the wind kept blowing, the cloud was dark and heavy, while I sat still like a cat at the corner of our room.
Silently, I prayed in my heart, that it will not rain, I was not ready for another sleepless night. Just last week, a heavy whirlwind blew off the roof of our house, and whenever it rains, the ceiling always leaked directly on my head at the corner of my mat where I sleep.
My father is late, my poor mother cannot fix the roof, nor repair the ceiling, she was just a poor farmer, and use the little earnings of her farm to feed us and our grandma. I and my siblings have to leave our private school and go to the village public school, after school we join our mother at the farm to help her.
That was the reason why I sat still alone at the corner of the room.
© Oluwaferanmi Victoria
According to Our Faith
According to your faith be it unto you – Matt 9:29
“Praying through” might be defined as praying one’s way into full faith, emerging while yet praying into the assurance that one has been accepted and heard, so that one becomes actually aware of receiving, by firmest anticipation and in advance of the event, the thing for which he asks.
Let us remember that no earthly circumstances can hinder the fulfillment of His Word if we look steadfastly at the immutability of that Word and not at the uncertainty of this ever-changing world. God would have us believe His Word without other confirmation, and then He is ready to give us “according to our faith.”
“When once His Word is past,
When He hath said , ’I will,’ (Heb. 13:5)
The thing shall come at last;
God keeps His promise still.” (2 Cor. 1:20)
The prayer of the Pentecostal age was like a cheque to be paid in coin over the counter. —Sir R. Anderson
“And God said…and it was so.” (Gen. 1:9.)
Streams in the Desert
Earth's Broken Things
Fear not, thou worm Jacob...I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth – Isa 41:14-15
Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time.
And so the “worm” may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God’s strength we can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. “I will make thee,” and shall He not do it? —Dr. Jowett
Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth’s saddest failure up to heaven’s glory. —J. R. Miller
“Follow Me, and I will make you”
Make you speak My words with power,
Make you channels of My mercy,
Make you helpful every hour.
“Follow Me, and I will make you”
Make you what you cannot be
Make you loving, trustful, godly,
Make you even like to Me.
—L. S. P.
Streams in the Desert
Treasures in the Darkness
Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was – Exod 20:21
God has still His hidden secrets, hidden from the wise and prudent. Do not fear them; be content to accept things that you cannot understand; wait patiently. Presently He will reveal to you the treasures of darkness, the riches of the glory of the mystery. Mystery is only the veil of God’s face.
Do not be afraid to enter the cloud that is settling down on your life. God is in it. The other side is radiant with His glory. “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” When you seem loneliest and most forsaken, God is nigh. He is in the dark cloud. Plunge into the blackness of its darkness without flinching; under the shrouding curtain of His pavilion you will find God awaiting you. —Selected
“Hast thou a cloud?
Something that is dark and full of dread;
A messenger of tempest overhead?
A something that is darkening the sky;
A something growing darker bye and bye;
A something that thou fear’st will burst at last;
A cloud that doth a deep, long shadow cast,
God cometh in that cloud.
Hast thou a cloud?
It is Jehovah’s triumph car: in this
He rideth to thee, o’er the wide abyss.
It is the robe in which He wraps His form;
For He doth gird Him with the flashing storm.
It is the veil in which He hides the light
Of His fair face, too dazzling for thy sight.
God cometh in that cloud.
Hast thou a cloud?
A trial that is terrible to thee?
A black temptation threatening to see?
A loss of some dear one long thine own?
A mist, a veiling, bringing the unknown?
A mystery that unsubstantial seems:
A cloud between thee and the sun’s bright beams?
God cometh in that cloud.
Hast thou a cloud?
A sickness—weak old age—distress and death?
These clouds will scatter at thy last faint breath.
Fear not the clouds that hover o’er thy barque,
Making the harbour’s entrance dire and dark;
The cloud of death, though misty, chill and cold,
Will yet grow radiant with a fringe of gold.
GOD cometh in that cloud.”
As Dr. C. stood on a high peak of the Rocky Mountains watching a storm raging below him, an eagle came up through the clouds, and soared away towards the sun and the water upon him glistened in the sunlight like diamonds. Had it not been for the storm he might have remained in the valley. The sorrows of life cause us to rise towards God.
Streams in the Desert
Be yourself,
No matter the situation in life, people will always talk ,because you can't stop them from talking, because what you can do is to stop giving them what to talk about
Never allow anyone to put you in a position of depression and self pity in life ,those who has no joy will always find every means to remove happiness from other people's life.
Never feel bad when old friends become new enemies, they are tired of pretending to be friends
Never worry yourself about enemies and friends, because everybody in life fall into one of the two categories
#Adesola Oluwanifemi#
Loves you big
No matter the situation in life, people will always talk ,because you can't stop them from talking, because what you can do is to stop giving them what to talk about
Never allow anyone to put you in a position of depression and self pity in life ,those who has no joy will always find every means to remove happiness from other people's life.
Never feel bad when old friends become new enemies, they are tired of pretending to be friends
Never worry yourself about enemies and friends, because everybody in life fall into one of the two categories
#Adesola Oluwanifemi#
Loves you big
Tempered and Tried Followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises – Heb 6:12 They (heroes of faith) are calling to us from the heights that they have won, and telling us that what man once did man can do again. Not only do they remind us of the necessity of faith, but also of that patience by which faith has its perfect work. Let us fear to take ourselves out of the hands of our heavenly Guide or to miss a single lesson of His loving discipline by discouragement or doubt. “There is only one thing,” said a village blacksmith, "that I fear, and that is to be thrown on the scrap heap. “When I am tempering a piece of steel, I first beat it, hammer it, and then suddenly plunge it into this bucket of cold water. I very soon find whether it will take temper or go to pieces in the process. When I discover after one or two tests that it is not going to allow itself to be tempered, I throw it on the scrap heap and sell it for a cent a pound when the junk man comes around. “So I find the Lord tests me, too, by fire and water and heavy blows of His heavy hammer, and if I am not willing to stand the test, or am not going to prove a fit subject for His tempering process, I am afraid He may throw me on the scrap heap.” When the fire is hottest, hold still, for there will be a blessed “afterward”; and with Job we may be able to say, “When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.” —Selected Sainthood springs out of suffering. It takes eleven tons of pressure on a piano to tune it. God will tune you to harmonize with Heaven’s key-note if you can stand the strain. “Things that hurt and things that mar Shape the man for perfect praise; Shock and strain and ruin are Friendlier than the smiling days.”
Streams in the Desert
Praise in the Midst of Trouble
Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually – Heb 13:15
A city missionary, stumbling through the dirt of a dark entry, heard a voice say, “Who’s there, Honey?” Striking a match, he caught a vision of earthly want and suffering, of saintly trust and peace, “cut in ebony”—calm, appealing eyes set amid the wrinkles of a pinched, black face that lay on a tattered bed. It was a bitter night in February, and she had no fire, no fuel, no light. She had had no supper, no dinner, no breakfast. She seemed to have nothing at all but rheumatism and faith in God. One could not well be more completely exiled from all pleasantness of circumstances, yet the favorite song of this old creature ran:
“Nobody knows de trouble I see,
Nobody knows but Jesus;
Nobody knows de trouble I see—
Sing Glory Hallelu!
“Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down,
Sometimes I’m level on the groun’,
Sometimes the glory shines aroun’
Sing Glory Hallelu!”
And so it went on: “Nobody knows de work I does, Nobody knows de griefs I has,” the constant refrain being the “Glory Hallelu!” until the last verse rose:
“Nobody knows de joys I has,
Nobody knows but Jesus!”
“Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” It takes great Bible words to tell the cheer of that old negro auntie.
Remember Luther on his sick-bed. Between his groans he managed to preach on this wise: “These pains and trouble here are like the type which the printers set; as they look now, we have to read them backwards, and they seem to have no sense or meaning in them; but up yonder, when the Lord God prints us off in the life to come, we shall find they make brave reading.” Only we do not need to wait till then. Remember Paul walking the hurricane deck amid a boiling sea, bidding the frightened crew “Be of good cheer,” Luther, the old negro auntie—all of them human sun-flowers. —Wm. G. Garnett
Into the Deep Launch out into the deep – Luke 5:4 How deep He does not say. The depth into which we launch will depend upon how perfectly we have given up the shore, and the greatness of our need, and the apprehension of our possibilities. The fish were to be found in the deep, not in the shallow water. So with us; our needs are to be met in the deep things of God. We are to launch out into the deep of God’s Word, which the Spirit can open up to us in such crystal fathomless meaning that the same words we have accepted in times past will have an ocean meaning in them, which renders their first meaning to us very shallow. Into the deep of the Atonement, until Christ’s precious blood is so illuminated by the Spirit that it becomes an omnipotent balm, and food and medicine for the soul and body. Into the deep of the Father’s will, until we apprehend it in its infinite minuteness and goodness, and its far-sweeping provision and care for us. Into the deep of the Holy Spirit, until He becomes a bright, dazzling, sweet, fathomless summer sea, in which we bathe and bask and breathe, and lose ourselves and our sorrows in the calmness and peace of His everlasting presence. Into the deep of the Holy Spirit, until He becomes a bright, marvelous answer to prayer, the most careful and tender guidance, the most thoughtful anticipation of our needs, the most accurate and supernatural shaping of our events. Into the deep of God’s purposes and coming kingdom, until the Lord’s coming and His millennial reign are opened up to us; and beyond these the bright entrancing ages on ages unfold themselves, until the mental eye is dazed with light, and the heart flutters with inexpressible anticipations of its joy with Jesus and the glory to be revealed. Into all these things, Jesus bids us launch. He made us and He made the deep, and to its fathomless depths He has fitted our longings and capabilities. —Soul Food “Its streams the whole creation reach, So plenteous is the store; Enough for all, enough for each; Enough forevermore.” The deep waters of the Holy Spirit are always accessible, because they are always proceeding. Will you not this day claim afresh to be immersed and drenched in these waters of life? The waters in Ezekiel’s vision first of all oozed from under the doors of the temple. Then the man with the measuring line measured and found the waters to the ankles. Still further measurement, and they were waters to the knees. Once again they were measured and the waters were to the loins. Then they became waters to swim in—a river that could not be passed over. (Read Ezekiel 47). How far have we advanced into this river of life? The Holy Spirit would have a complete self effacement. Not merely ankle-deep, knee-deep, loin-deep, but self-deep. We ourselves hidden out of sight and bathed in this life-giving stream. Let go the shore-lines and launch out into the deep. Never forget, the Man with the measuring line is with us today. —J.G.M.
The Blessing of the Lion
And there came a lion – 1 Sam 17:34
It is a source of inspiration and strength to come in touch with the youthful David, trusting God. Through faith in God he conquered a lion and a bear, and afterwards overthrew the mighty Goliath. When that lion came to despoil that flock, it came as a wondrous opportunity to David. If he had failed or faltered he would have missed God’s opportunity for him and probably would never have come to be God’s chosen king of Israel. “And there came a lion.”
One would not think that a lion was a special blessing from God; one would think that only an occasion of alarm. The lion was God’s opportunity in disguise. Every difficulty that presents itself to us, if we receive it in the right way, is God’s opportunity. Every temptation that comes is God’s opportunity.
When the “lion” comes, recognize it as God’s opportunity no matter how rough the exterior. The very tabernacle of God was covered with badgers’ skins and goats’ hair; one would not think there would be any glory there. The Shekinah of God was manifest under that kind of covering. May God open our eyes to see Him, whether in temptations, trials, dangers, or misfortunes. —C. H. P.
Streams in the Desert
A preacher was driving home one night with his wife and two daughters in the car. It was raining and dark and because of the intensity of the rain he could hardly see past his headlights. On the way he had to drive over a huge bridge. There were signs posted all along the bridge that said "DO NOT PICK UP HITCH-HIKERS." There was an institution for the criminally insane near the base of the bridge and sometimes people would escape from it and try to hitch a ride. On this particular night, as he turned his car on to the bridge, he had to drive exceptionally slow because he could hardly see the road. Somewhere near the top of the bridge a man suddenly appeared in the headlights. He was soaked, standing in the middle of the road with his shirt off frantically waving it over his head and screaming.
This preacher's wife began to say, "Oh please don't stop, try to drive around him!" But the man was unavoidable and there was nowhere for the car to go to miss him. So he had to stop the car and as soon as he did, the man slapped his hand down on the hood of the car and was screaming at the top of his lungs. The preacher looked over at his wife and said to lock the door after him and not to unlock it until he returned. His family was now crying and pleading with him not to get out of the car. He opened the door and stepped outside...He was immediately soaked from the rain. As he approached the front of the car to grab the man, all of a sudden he could make out what the man was screaming, "THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT! A BUS LOAD OF KIDS JUST WENT OVER!" As these words registered in the pastor's mind, he looked back in the car at his wife and two daughters. He wrapped his arm around the man and wept in gratitude. The preacher stood there with the man for the next half-hour in the middle of the road, waving his jacket above his head screaming."THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"
For a lost and a dying world, "THE BRIDGE IS OUT!" For a people heading to a Christless Eternity,"THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"
where are the men and the women who will stand in the middle of the road and forbid people to perish ?
HELL HAS OPENED IT'S MOUTH WIDE AND MANY ARE SPEEDING INTO IT. Where are those who will stand in the gap, on the streets, the highways and the byways to forbid multitudes with the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST from going to such a horrible place ?
SPREAD THE GOSPEL
Lovely Thoughts For Lovely
People Just Like You. Always Remember JESUS Loves You . .....
Share this message to all your friends, both Saved and unsaved THE BRIDGE IS OUT.! Unlike Many social media messages this days, If you choose not to share nothing will happen It just won't hurt to encourage one another to keep spreading the gospel for the harvest is far more than the labourers
GOD BLESS YOU !
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*WHAT IS MATURITY?*
I used to think that maturity was about age and physical development, how wrong I was. I have since found out that age is only but a number, below are 20 definitions of *MATURITY*
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1.... *Maturity* is when you accept other people the way they are and their level of maturity.
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2.... *Maturity* is when you understand that your ideas are not always the best.
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3.... *Maturity* is when you learn to let go even if it pains.
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4... *Maturity* is when you are able to drop expectations from a relationship and give for giving sake.
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5.... *Maturity* is when you understand that whatever positive things you do, you do for your own peace.
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6... *Maturity* is when you stop proving to the world how RIGHT OR SUPERIOR you are.
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7.... *Maturity* is when you stop comparing yourself with others because life is not a competition.
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8.... *Maturity* is when you understand that you cant and shouldn't always get what you want every time.
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9.... *Maturity* is when you are content and satisfied with your life and yet aspiring to be better everyday..
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10.... *Maturity* is when someone hurt you and you understand their attitude and stay clear, rather than trying to hurt them back.
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11.... *Maturity* is when you start thinking about other people and not just yourself.
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12.... *Maturity* is when you know you cant please everyone.
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13.... *Maturity* is when you see things in different perspectives - far beyond the way they seem.
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14.... *Maturity* is when you love more and judge less.
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15.... *Maturity* is responsibility
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16.... *Maturity* is Love
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17.... *Maturity* is the application of wisdom and knowledge in humility..
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18... *Maturity* is when you accept that your accomplishment, failures, destiny, reputations and virtually everything about your life depends on God's will and the choices you make and not pointing fingers at others.
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19... *Maturity* is when someone hates you and you still pray for them to succeed.
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20.... *Maturity* is knowing God, serving Him with all that you've got and pursuing His Kingdom no matter what people think or say..
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Christians and the Social World
*_"Whosoever is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness" 1 John 2:9_*
There are Christians whose lives are too complex to comprehend. They are always at loggerheads with somebody over something and you may find it almost impossible to please them. They can get angry over the slightest mistakes of people around them and they have zero tolerance for other people's shortcomings. We can explain this away with modern terms such as self-esteem or holy anger. Even unbelievers will prefer the company of their partners in crime to the ever nagging presence of the so called believer who is confusing them with his profession of God's knowledge.
Although certain things like our family background and our social environment may inform the behavioural patterns in built in us, however, by coming to Christ in repentance and penitence, we are not just forgiven of our imperfections, we are initiated into a process of spiritual transformation which end result is to configure us into the image of the son. Genuine Christians will not remain absolutely calm in the state of helplessness as far as sin is concerned. All through the scriptures ( from Genesis to Revelation), God and man's relationship has always produced one thing _____extraordinary men with exemplary lives. That is what the grace we received does in us.
*_For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age Titus 2: 11&12_*
The Spirit of God will not necessarily appear in tangible form to give us instructions as to how we live daily, but we will see Him personified in the written Word of God instructing us in the will of the Father. He is present within us controlling and regulating the kind of lives we live on the outside. As you spend time with the word of God, your cultural worldviews will be changed or modified to the desires of God which may sometimes be directly opposite the perspectives of the world's system. He will encourage you to forgive and live in peace with your fellow men. We may sometimes fail along the way, but the Spirit of Grace inside of you will encourage you to get up, make necessary amendments and move on rather than remain helpless, neglected and buffeted by the tempest of human limitations.
You will find it easy to say sorry no matter who is right or wrong. You will love to identify with a godly simple and healthy life than the self-sinking ungodly ways of life. Christ who is your life will find expression in your ways of living.
Have you really forgiven that person you are grudging over in your heart? Are you not still self centered when your overt abundance can bless a poor soul dying for crumbs from your table? Are you still prone to constant anger while you are busy justifying these ungodliness with some strange doctrines manipulated into the scriptures?
Yes, a leopard cannot change her skin. You can't change who you are but Christ can. That was why he came to this world, suffered, died a shameful death and rose again. At the foot of the Cross, you will not only be forgiven or cleanse, a new nature will be given to you. A new life regenerated by the blood of of the sacrificed Lamb. If you come naked, you will go clothed. There is the rivers of living water every famished soul can draw today. The hungry can come to the table of the Lord and feast from the bread of life. All it will cost you is to come to God and tell Him you need a bettered life. Then go and live a life of trust and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. May God bless you as you bow your head and pray.
© Olatuja Oloyede
+2348137834509
*_"Whosoever is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness" 1 John 2:9_*
There are Christians whose lives are too complex to comprehend. They are always at loggerheads with somebody over something and you may find it almost impossible to please them. They can get angry over the slightest mistakes of people around them and they have zero tolerance for other people's shortcomings. We can explain this away with modern terms such as self-esteem or holy anger. Even unbelievers will prefer the company of their partners in crime to the ever nagging presence of the so called believer who is confusing them with his profession of God's knowledge.
Although certain things like our family background and our social environment may inform the behavioural patterns in built in us, however, by coming to Christ in repentance and penitence, we are not just forgiven of our imperfections, we are initiated into a process of spiritual transformation which end result is to configure us into the image of the son. Genuine Christians will not remain absolutely calm in the state of helplessness as far as sin is concerned. All through the scriptures ( from Genesis to Revelation), God and man's relationship has always produced one thing _____extraordinary men with exemplary lives. That is what the grace we received does in us.
*_For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age Titus 2: 11&12_*
The Spirit of God will not necessarily appear in tangible form to give us instructions as to how we live daily, but we will see Him personified in the written Word of God instructing us in the will of the Father. He is present within us controlling and regulating the kind of lives we live on the outside. As you spend time with the word of God, your cultural worldviews will be changed or modified to the desires of God which may sometimes be directly opposite the perspectives of the world's system. He will encourage you to forgive and live in peace with your fellow men. We may sometimes fail along the way, but the Spirit of Grace inside of you will encourage you to get up, make necessary amendments and move on rather than remain helpless, neglected and buffeted by the tempest of human limitations.
You will find it easy to say sorry no matter who is right or wrong. You will love to identify with a godly simple and healthy life than the self-sinking ungodly ways of life. Christ who is your life will find expression in your ways of living.
Have you really forgiven that person you are grudging over in your heart? Are you not still self centered when your overt abundance can bless a poor soul dying for crumbs from your table? Are you still prone to constant anger while you are busy justifying these ungodliness with some strange doctrines manipulated into the scriptures?
Yes, a leopard cannot change her skin. You can't change who you are but Christ can. That was why he came to this world, suffered, died a shameful death and rose again. At the foot of the Cross, you will not only be forgiven or cleanse, a new nature will be given to you. A new life regenerated by the blood of of the sacrificed Lamb. If you come naked, you will go clothed. There is the rivers of living water every famished soul can draw today. The hungry can come to the table of the Lord and feast from the bread of life. All it will cost you is to come to God and tell Him you need a bettered life. Then go and live a life of trust and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. May God bless you as you bow your head and pray.
© Olatuja Oloyede
+2348137834509
I have said that in the spring of the year the older members of the church began manifestly to decline in their engagedness and zeal for God. This greatly oppressed me, as it did also the young converts generally. About this time I read in a newspaper an article under the head of, "A revival revived." The substance of it was, that in a certain place there had been a revival during the winter; that in the spring it declined; and that upon earnest prayer being offered for the continued out-pouring of the Spirit, the revival was powerfully revived. This article set me into a flood of weeping.
At the next meeting of the young people, I proposed that we should observe a closet concert of prayer for the revival of God's work; that we should pray at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset, in our closets, and continue this for one week, when we should come together again and see what farther was to be done. No other means were used for the revival of God's work. But the spirit of prayer was immediately poured out wonderfully upon the young converts.
(Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney. 1876, p44)
Revival In 1741, William Cooper wrote the preface to Jonathan Edwards work entitled The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. In his preface, Cooper wrote:
Now for a great while, it has been a dead and barren time without fruit in all the churches of the Reformation. The showers of blessing have been restrained. The influence of the Spirit stopped. The Gospel has not had any famous success. Conversions have been rare and dubious. Few sons and daughters have been born to God.
The hearts of Christians are not as lively, warm, and refreshed under the ordinances of the Word and sacraments as they have been. The Christian faith has been in this sad state in this land for many years. There are one or two well-known exceptions. This sad state is acknowledged by all who have any spiritual awareness. Faithful ministers and serious Christians lament this fact. This sad state of the church is a constant petition in our public prayers. From Sabbath to Sabbath we pray, "God, pour out Your Spirit upon us, and revive Your work in the midst of the years."
He did! The answer to this prayer was the Great Awakening!
None of these things move me – Acts 20:24
We read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at Hebron, “All the Philistines came up to seek David.” And the moment we get anything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek us.
When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as “a token of salvation,” and claim double blessing, victory, and power. Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. The way electricity is produced in the powerhouse yonder is by the sharp friction of the revolving wheels. And so we shall find some day that even Satan has been one of God’s agencies of blessing. —Days of Heaven upon Earth
A hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head winds right for royal sails.
—Emerson
Tribulation is the way to triumph. The valley-way opens into the highway. Tribulation’s imprint is on all great things. Crowns are cast in crucibles. Chains of character that wind about the feet of God are forged in earthly flames. No man is greatest victor till he has trodden the winepress of woe. With seams of anguish deep in His brow, the “Man of Sorrows” said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation”—but after this sob comes the psalm of promise, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The footprints are traceable everywhere. Bloodmarks stain the steps that lead to thrones. Sears are the price of scepters. Our crowns will be wrested from the giants we conquer. Grief has always been the lot of greatness. It is an open secret.
“The mark of rank in nature.
Is capacity for pain;
And the anguish of the singer
Makes the sweetest of the strain.”
Tribulation has always marked the trail of the true reformer. It is the story of Paul, Luther, Savonarola, Knox, Wesley, and all the rest of the mighty army. They came through great tribulation to their place of power.
Every great book has been written with the author’s blood. “These are they that have come out of great tribulation.” Who was the peerless poet of the Greeks? Homer. But that illustrious singer was blind. Who wrote the fadeless dream of “Pilgrim’s Progress”? A prince in royal purple upon a couch of ease? Nay! The trailing splendor of that vision gilded the dingy walls of old Bedford jail while John Bunyan, a princely prisoner, a glorious genius, made a faithful transcript of the scene.
Great is the facile conqueror;
Yet haply, he, who, wounded sore,
Breathless, all covered o’er with blood and sweat,
Sinks fainting, but fighting
Is greater yet.
—Selected
http://www.youdevotion.com/streams/january/21
*COULD THIS BE YOU?*
He called his friend;
And told him: "I'm in need of money, my mom is sick and I have no money for her treatment."
His friend said: " Alright my dear friend, just call me later after Devotion."
He called him but his phone was switched off.
He kept calling over and over again, until he got tired.
And went to search for another friend who can help him with the treatment fee.
But he couldn't find anyone who can help.
He returned back to home and found a bag of medications near his mother's pillow and she was sleeping.
He asked his brother, the brother told him: "your friend came and collected the prescriptions and brought these medicines, he just went out not long ago".
He smiled and with tears in his eyes he went out to look for his friend, and when he found him; he asked him : "where have u been, I have been calling you since but your phone was switched off..?"
The friend replied: "I sold my phone and bought the medications for your mom"
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED.
Again l ask.....
*COULD THIS BE YOU?*
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