On Justice & the Kind of Life God Wants.

I recently found this gem the other day and thought to share. While it's particularly important for Christians, I also think it's something everyone should consider. So it is from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. Basically, God told the prophet Isaiah to pass on a message to the Israelites. The Israelites always acted very pious, God said. They would go the Temple every day and even seem happy to learn about God. They carried themselves as though they would never abandon God and like they wanted to be near Him. And when there was silence from him, they would protest:
we have fasted!
we have been really hard on ourselves; denied ourselves of life's pleasures just to please you!
why are you NOT impressed, huh?!
why do you act like you don't notice?

Sounds familiar? I bet it does. You are fasting and praying. You serve in Church. You can quote the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. You can preach the devil back to hell. So what's up? Why does God not notice it?
Well that's because while you are fasting, you are exploiting and oppressing your workers. While you are fasting, you are fighting with the whole world, and keeping malice. So you do the rites, and fast for 150 of the 365 days in the year. But God is like, nah, that kind of fasting will get you nowhere. That kind of lifestyle really doesn't please him. What kind of fasting does he want, you ask.
"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." -  Isaiah 58: 6-7.
If you go on in that passage, it continues to say "THEN..." meaning after you do all of the above, will you experience true healing; will your godliness lead you forward; will the glory of God protect you. It is THEN that the Lord will quickly (it specifies) answer your call.  When you feed the hungry, and help those in trouble, your light will shine out.
In other words, less of you and more of others. We can see that justice, mercy, and compassion matter to God a lot. And again, we see that hypocrisy really irritates God. I'll give another instance; this time in the new testament. Jesus was dragging the Pharisees and calling them hypocrites and stuff. And then he mentioned how they do everything right, they were careful to tick all the boxes. They would even tithe the tiniest income they earned. BUT, they would ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. I'm not even kidding, Jesus called those the MORE IMPORTANT [THAN TITHE] aspects of the law. He then reiterated that while tithing was and would always be important, justice, mercy, and faith were more important.
Coincidentally, I was just joking with my dad and sister recently that while no one person can be angry about all injustices, it's important and dare I say, it's our responsibility to care about justice. There has to be something; one thing you care about. Pick that one thing and run with it, in whatever capacity you can. Is it giving the less privileged? Maybe this year instead of another useless birthday photo-shoot, you can instead ask your friends to give on your behalf? Someone on Twitter once suggested calling your local school (board) and asking to offset some lunch debt for kids. Maybe it's your time you can give: to your own family, your friends. Something...just remember God really cares about it.  Also remember you can't just consistently live for yourself and yourself alone.

Vanity Upon Vanity.

While in surgery following a heart attack, a middle-aged woman sees a vision of God by her bedside.
   " Will I die?" she asks.
God answers, saying, "No. You have 30 years to live."
  With 30 more years to look forward to, the woman decides to make the best of it. So while in the hospital, she gets breast implants, liposuction, a tummy tuck, hair transplants and collagen injected into her lips. She looks great...different from what she used to be.
  On the day she gets discharged, she exists the hospital with a swagger. But as she crosses the street, a rushing ambulance hits her and she dies on the spot.
   Up in heaven, the woman sees God and is livid.
"You said I had 30 more years to live!"
   "That's true," says God.
"Well, so what happened that I'm here so soon?" she asks.
God shrugs his shoulders and says, "Guess what? I didn't recognize you..."

(Culled from the Readers Digest).

Sowing a Seed of Gratitude.

Some years back, after a Sunday morning Mass in Abuja, a young and a good looking lady walked up to me. She was holding a fat brown envelope. She handed the envelope to me and said I should please pray for her. I asked her about the content of the envelope and what particular intention would I be praying for? She told me that she started working just a month ago and that she came to thank the Lord and to offer the first fruit of her work for God’s blessings. What was in the envelope was her salary for that month. Her first salary. The entire money! Everything!

In all honesty, I was speechless not for lack of words but for being unable to know where to begin. Inside me I was like: do people still entrust everything they have to God in a child-like simplicity like this? I was really moved. In my heart, I said a prayer for her, that type of prayer that is deep down, it was as though it was the Holy Spirit Himself that was praying through me. I was feeling the answers to the prayers even before I finished praying. Then she knelt down, I laid my hands upon her and blessed her and the money. After prayers, I asked her to tell me how much was in the envelope. She said Eighty Thousand Naira. 

Then I asked,   “how much covers your transport to your work daily?”

She said “approximately N1,000 naira to and fro, Father.”

That means for 27 work days, it would be N27,000.

Then I spoke up again, “Sorry o, I am asking you too many questions, how much do you feed daily when you go to work?”

She answered “It depends. If I want to eat so well, I spend 800 naira with drinks, but mainly I spend just N500, and sometimes I carry food from home.”

So, I made the calculation in my head. Let say she spends 500 naira daily, 27 work days would be 13,500 naira. I went ahead to enquire about her accommodation and I discovered that she stayed alone in an apartment she just rented. We made the calculation by dividing the annual rent by 12 months and we discovered that if she was to pay rent monthly, it would be N12,500. Her monthly electricity and water bill with other fees for house maintenance was put at N10,000. On phone calls and data, we approximated it to be N5000 monthly. Her monthly DSTV subscription was around N3,600 for DSTV family bouquet. When you put all the expenses together and subtract it from the N80,000, she would be left with N8,400 to buy food stuffs and other things in the house. These are the expenses that she was sure to spend every month. We had not even talked about other things like make up, doing her hair, clothes, gifts to family and even savings. This was a huge sacrifice, in my judgment. I intentionally asked her those questions so as to ascertain the depth of her sacrifice.

I brought out the envelope, bless it for the second time and gave it to her. I looked at her countenance and I knew she was not too comfortable with my action. Then I took time to explain the Bible to her. That was when I discovered that so many people do not truly understand how God works. When God asks us for first fruit or for tithe or for any sacrifice, it is not so that He will eat it. No! He has no need of our money. When He asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, it was not because he liked seeing the blood of innocent children. When He asked Abel and Cain to make a sacrifice to Him, it was not because he ate fruit or even drank blood of rams. It is simply to test how committed we are, how willing are we to leave everything to Him. Do we, like Cain, select offerings that we no longer desire and give to Him or do we, like Abel, empty everything to Him?

This lady that brought the first fruit began to understand for the first time. Right from when she put the money in the envelope to bring to God, God had already accepted her offering. The minister must not spend the money. It is just that most of us ministers are unfortunately greedy. And we use God’s name to cover it up. We often see the part of scriptures that favor our stomach. Theologically, when you give to God, He transforms that gift and gives it back to you. The bread and wine people offer before mass are transformed to the body and blood of Christ and given back to the people to eat and drink. The son Isaac that Abraham gave to God, was transformed to be a channel that would bring forth the fulfillment of God’s promise and given back to Abraham. The offerings of bread and fish people brought were prayed upon and given back to them to eat and they were filled, still there was left over. The water they filled at the wedding in Cana is given back to them as wine. The Ugwu Kelvin that my parents offered to God, is given back to them as a priest. The money that the young lady brought to me as her first fruit is blessed and given back to her as pure gift from heaven.

-- By Rev.Fr.Ugwu Kelvin.

Affirmations for Spiritual Development.

Silver and gold belong to my father and according to His word; the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former. And in this place the Lord will give me His peace. 

God is my rock.

In Him will I trust: He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. He saves me from violence and in Him there is no impossibility. 

The Lord has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength. Surely, He will not give my corn to be meat for my enemies, and the sons of the stranger shall not drink my wine for which I have labored. 

I will eat the fruit of my labor and it shall be well with me. I have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus. I am not my own; therefore I glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which belongs to God. 

Every day and in every way, I am getting better: spiritually, physically, financially, mentally, morally, and in all my endeavors. 

I am called for a purpose.

I will fulfil this purpose and I will arrive at God’s ordained destiny for my life. Nothing will cut me short. I will make a formidable impact in my world for the Kingdom.

I will fulfil my destiny by the grace of God.

Time to Learn from Fruit Trees.

God created all types of fruit trees, each one with its own season to produce fruits.

Whether in or off-season though, a fruit tree never loses its identity.

And neither does it stress itself because some other trees are having a good time while in their seasons. It simply waits for its turn. 

When it’s the season for an apple tree to produce fruits, no one ever hears any whining or crying from a mango tree that is off-season. It merely waits for its own season. 

And in a mango season, there is never a sign of envy or some negative attitude from cocoa, walnut or any other tree. Cocoa, for instance, takes about ten years to produce fruits. Yet, it's never in a hurry. The tree simply waits for its own time to produce fruits. Ironically, when its time finally comes, just one cocoa pod is worth more in value than all the fruits produced by a mango tree, whose time comes every year.

In spite of this, no mango tree ever wakes up one day to start stressing God through fasting and prayers, to produce cocoa, all because cocoa is a cash crop that is much beloved, especially by those chocolate makers in Switzerland.  



These are mere trees, contended to flow with the natural course of the Mother Nature.

They appreciate the fact that God created them differently, each with its unique attribute.  

But not so humans!!! Even though made in the image of God, they will rather adopt the ways and manners of Lucifer. 

Almost everyone wants to be like the other person. A doctor, created with a talent for medical healing and trained to so do, will abandon it to be an astronaut each time

there is news of space travel.  

A teacher, with a special gift for molding young lives, is too busy distracting himself or herself with dreams of one day becoming another Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.

It is natural for us, as humans, to desire success, comforts and the other good things of life.

But everyone has his or her uniqueness. It's just a matter of waiting for our "season" to "shine".

And there is no reason for anyone to stress himself or herself to death just to be like somebody else.

When are we ever going to identify and employ our individual natural gifts or talents and then wait patiently for the right seasons --- to reap from the “fruits” of our labor?

Family, Place of Forgiveness.

There is no perfect family. We do not have perfect parents, we are not perfect, we do not marry a perfect person or have perfect children. We have complaints from each other. We disappoint each other. So there is no healthy marriage or healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is vital to our emotional health and spiritual survival. Without forgiveness, the family becomes an arena of conflict and a stronghold of hurt.  

Without forgiveness, the family becomes ill. Forgiveness is the a sepsis of the soul, the cleansing of the mind and the liberation of the heart. Whoever does not forgive does not have peace in the soul nor communion with God. Hurt is poison that intoxicates and kills. Keeping heartache in the heart is a self-destructive gesture. It's autophagy. Those who do not forgive are physically, emotionally and spiritually ill.  

That is why the family must be a place of life, not of death; territory of cure and not of illness; Stage of forgiveness and not guilt. Forgiveness brings joy where sorrow has produced sadness;

Healing, where sorrow has caused disease.

Courtesy: Pope Francisco.

Capitalism and the Church – The Way Forward.

There is a work side to prosperity. It is the works of your hand God blesses. People are in farms planting yams and you are busy sitting in church, when it is harvesting time; don't expect yams to fall from heaven. When it is eating time; people are eating and you are "believing" God for yams. Faith without work is dead. There should be a corresponding action in line of faith.

When the gospel came to Africa, the missionaries saw two vital areas of deficiencies; hospital and school. They filled these gaps. Today, directly or indirectly, we have all benefited from it. Today, we have a major problem; unemployment. Instead of filling this gap we are taking advantage of it.

We gather the unemployed and "prophesy" jobs to them. We give them stickers, sell "holy water", tell them to sow and expect harvest, convincing them to "work" for the Lord, that breakthrough is coming... All these we do to exploit and explore the vulnerable.

We travel abroad. We have gone to Isreal and see the agricultural exploits there. But we are not willing to bring them home. When we sow, instead of our money to be invested into ventures like agriculture that would alleviate the sufferings of the weak ones among us, we channel the money to an atheist in Germany who designed MOG's customized car. We channel the money to Buddhists in China where we bought our building materials. We channel the money to a gay in America who produces the sound system and lighting system.

We channel the money to a Muslim in Dubai who did the interior decoration of our " magnificent " building...what a Capital Flight! Why are we crying of poverty and for breakthrough? The God that I know respond to work wherever he sees man doing something to advance humanity, be it a Hindu, Gay, Buddhist, atheist etc. 

I don't want to start mentioning names, neither do I want to indict any person. But just imagine Living Faith going to rice production, RCCG going into Cassava production, Christ Embassy into Maize, God's Chosen into Yams, Catholics into millets etc. The land is there, the man power is there, the money is there, like the missionaries, who saw a problem and filled it, we can also fill this problem of unemployment and food security.

Just imagine a church sending hundreds of trailer-loads of food to evangelize the north. No man can resist love. Feed them in love and watch how their hearts change. That was how the missionaries changed the hearts of our forebears. The missionaries have tried for us, and instead of us to keep pressing northwards, we have resulted in building empires. We have commercialized the gospel. It is all about breakthrough, money and less Jesus, His Person, His Sacrifice and Finished works. 

We have the manpower to feed Nigeria and Africa, generate employment by adding values to farm produce and exporting them. We have traveled abroad and have seen great agricultural exploits, it is time to bring these inventions home. 

It is time we convert our exotic cars in our garages to tractors and other mechanised and modern agricultural tools. Doing what government cannot do, by do doing this; "THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ". When we roar, the government is supposed to quiver, not because of our large bank accounts, but because of our intimidating exploits.

It is time to wake-up... I see a day when we shall be holding our numerous church services in farms and factories. It is time to take the government upon His shoulder. It is action time!

Courtesy: Enenche, a Nigerian comedian.

On Practical Things to do When the "Waiting Period" Seems to Last Forever.

I think I should have done this a little bit earlier. But actually, it's the right time. I suppose many graduates are home now; doing the waiting game. Waiting to hear back from places you applied to. Or maybe not graduates; maybe just regular people. Maybe things are not going as you planned, which is 99% of the time in life. Seriously, the earlier everyone accepts that life rarely goes as planned, the better for everyone. So yes, you had planned the perfect summer, you had planned the perfect year, indeed you had planned the perfect life, but it's not working. Or nothing is happening right now. What do you do while you wait? How do you maximize the time? Here are some suggestions.

Pray: when I say pray, I don't necessarily mean badger God for that exact plan/thing you envisaged. That's not exactly a bad thing. But the essence of prayer here is to learn to relinquish your plans for God's plans. A lot of times our fixation on perfection and our own plans prevents us from noticing progress or even enjoying the present. This is what praying and seeking God helps you do. Also it helps with peace of mind and an ability to trust God. So spend time with God, getting to know more about God, listening to preachers who share God's word, and learning to have a discerning spirit, which of course you would need further down the line.

Shut down social media and build your mental strength: This varies. Social media is fun. But it also can be very, very toxic. All hail the mother devil, Instagram. While you are going through a tough time, it's not especially the ideal time to watch people pretend to be living their best lives on social media. So you might need time away to clear your head. You might also need time away to keep you from bouts of envy. I mean, imagine just breaking up with the love of your life only to see everyone getting engaged or those gorgeous but flamboyant pregnancy shoots. Yeah, no. Or imagine being jobless and then logging on to see your old schoolmates bag the job of YOUR dreams, and seeing them travel the world. It's never easy, even for the best of us. At that moment, we are never logical enough to think that everyone puts their best foot forward on social media, and the pictures you see are only snapshots and peeks into perhaps, otherwise turbulent lives. That being said, it's important to become mentally strong, because you will need it in life. So learn to stop comparing your life with others; learn to stop throwing a pity party for yourself; learn to understand that sometimes things are bad, other times they are good. Indeed people's lives may be as perfect as they portray and no matter how much you convince yourself it’s all a façade, it really isn't. So until you learn true contentment, just stay off social media. Or keep it, and build your mental strength.

Journalize: maybe it sounds mushy-mushy, but it helps. It helps you to think. It helps you glean from God/holy spirit/introspectiveness on what is next and how you want to move forward. You would also be able to look back and see how far God has brought you. And best of all, it's therapeutic to describe exactly how you feel. Knowing how you feel also helps with dealing with it.

Open your eyes to see what lessons God has for you: this is sort of a piggyback to the last point. But every season/situation/problem most likely has a lesson for you in it. Sometimes they are not very glaring, but there are lessons. Is it a test in patience? Or in preparation? Or in hard-work? Or to get you ready for a completely different phase of life?

Learn/Explore/Do something different: we all have that one thing we have always wanted to do or learn. Do it now. I'm not going to give some silly, elitist advice like travel the world or work for free or go skydiving. No. If you can't afford it, don't bother your head. But there are things you can do: learn a language? read a book? learn to code? re-read a book? write a book? learn graphic design? Maybe that concept you were taught but never really grasped because were too busy? Well, there is time now. YouTube is filled with [free] resources. The internet is filled with tons of resources. Allow for fun too; yes binge watch your favorite shows or do whatever your definition of fun is.

Create a new vision: Unfortunately, it would be a lie if I said everything always works out perfectly. It doesn't. Sometimes your biggest plans fail. Sometimes you will not get that job, sorry. But is that the end? No. Re group. Someone asked TD Jakes how to continue life/cope after her divorce, because she felt like her life was over. His response was profound: 

"What makes you feel like you have lost your life is that you have lost what you had in mind for your life. Which means you need a  new vision for yourself; one that does not include someone that no longer chooses to be a part of your life."



I feel like you can apply this to almost anything. Create a new vision, a new dream, something completely different if the prior plan has failed. Things and plans and even people fail. That's okay too. 

One last thing is to learn to live beyond your feelings. Please, this can't be overemphasized. We can't be consumed by our feelings all the time; it's so fleeting. Our feelings should have no control over us. I have to write an entire thing on this. The root of most problems is dwelling in our feelings AND letting it conquer us. Anyway, I digress.

This is way longer than I thought, but I hope it helps someone out there going through a waiting period that seems to be lasting forever. This, too shall pass. It usually always does.

Culled from The Modern Cedar (a blog by Ifeoluwa Olawole).

On Justice and the Kind of Life God Wants.

I recently found this gem the other day and thought to share. While it's particularly important for Christians, I also think it's something everyone should consider. So it is from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. Basically, God told the prophet Isaiah to pass on a message to the Israelites. The Israelites always acted very pious, God said. They would go the Temple every day and even seem happy to learn about God. They carried themselves as though they would never abandon God and like they wanted to be near Him. And when there was silence from him, they would protest: 

we have fasted! 

we have been really hard on ourselves; denied ourselves of life's pleasures just to please you! 

why are you NOT impressed, huh? 

why do you act like you don't notice? 

Sounds familiar? I bet it does. You are fasting and praying. You serve in Church. You can quote the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. You can preach the devil back to hell. So what's up? Why does God not notice it?  

Well that's because while you are fasting, you are exploiting and oppressing your workers. While you are fasting, you are fighting with the whole world, and keeping malice. So you do the rites, and fast for 150 of the 365 days in the year. But God is like, nah, that kind of fasting will get you nowhere. That kind of lifestyle really doesn't please him. What kind of fasting does he want, you ask. 

"No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.

Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." -  Isaiah 58: 6-7. 

If you go on in that passage, it continues to say "THEN..." meaning after you do all of the above, will you experience true healing;

will your godliness lead you forward;

will the glory of God protect you. It is THEN that the Lord will quickly (it specifies) answer your call. 

When you feed the hungry, and help those in trouble, your light will shine out. 

In other words, less of you and more of others. We can see that justice, mercy, and compassion matter to God a lot. And again, we see that hypocrisy really irritates God. I'll give another instance; this time in the new testament. Jesus was dragging the Pharisees and calling them hypocrites and stuff. And then he mentioned how they do everything right, they were careful to tick all the boxes. They would even tithe the tiniest income they earned. BUT, they would ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. I'm not even kidding, Jesus called those the MORE IMPORTANT [THAN TITHE] aspects of the law. He then reiterated that while tithing was and would always be important, justice, mercy, and faith were more important. 

Coincidentally, I was just joking with my dad and sister recently that while no one person can be angry about all injustices, it's important and dare I say, it's our responsibility to care about justice. There has to be something; one thing you care about. Pick that one thing and run with it, in whatever capacity you can.

Is it giving the less privileged? Maybe this year instead of another useless birthday photo-shoot, you can instead ask your friends to give on your behalf?

Someone on Twitter once suggested calling your local school (board) and asking to offset some lunch debt for kids.

Maybe it's your time you can give: to your own family, your friends. Something...just remember God really cares about it.  Also remember you can't just consistently live for yourself and yourself alone. 

Courtesy: Ifeoluwa Olawole.

There is Honor in Humility.

Mega Church Pastor Fred Price Jr. Steps Down because of Personal Misjudgments?


Back in those days, even though I was considered an unbeliever by the "righteous" people all around me, a typical Sunday of mine was never completed until I watched a sermon of Dr. Fred Price (the senior) on TV. The man preferred to be addressed as a teacher and not a pastor. And he was a great preacher! But then, he retired and imposed his son on the church. I heard that some members disagreed with him and quit the church.

Now, I got two lessons from this story: 

1. It takes a huge courage to do what this young man did here. How I wish many pastors (especially those in Nigeria) would have the same courage and humility to accept that they are mere mortals and that whenever they mess up as this guy just did, it's important for them to own up instead of carrying on as if they can do no wrong.

2. Why do a lot of modern-day pastors turn their ministries into a dynasty? Just because a man is "called" does not necessarily mean he is called along with his wife or son or daughter! Or was it because prophets Lot, Elijah, Elisha, Samuels and the rest of them didn't set up churches? Do we even know if any of the apostles in the new testament passed down their anointing to sons or daughters as some sort of legacies?

Photo of father and son. 

God is not Averse to Detailed Prayer Points.

As a young man, the man would always pray for 3 things:-

1. To be rich.

2. To be very rich. And,

3. To become the CEO of a bank.

One after the other, the prayers were answered. Yes, the man even became a bank's CEO. But shortly after, he got terribly sick and died. If only he knew...he could have asked for more...such as good health and long life.

Lesson:- God is not averse to a detailed list.

Don't be like the Hypocrites.







“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,

for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and

on the street corners to be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room,

close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you.  

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them,

for your Father knows what you need before you ask him".

Matthew 6:5-8 (NIV).

You Think There is no God?

Every day, a woman stood on her porch and shouted, “Praise the Lord!” 

And every day, the atheist next door would yell, “there is no Lord!”

One day, the woman prayed, “Lord, I’m hungry. Please send me groceries.” 

The next morning, she found a big bag of food on the stairs. 

‘Praise the Lord…” she shouted in gratitude.

“Ah! I told you there was no Lord,” her neighbor said, jumping from behind a bush. “I bought those groceries…not some Lord.” 

“Praise the Lord!” the woman shouted louder this time. “He not only sent me groceries, but he made the devil pay for them."   

Courtesy: Readers Digest (May, 2013 edition).



God's Magnanimous Kindness.

God, I want to thank you for your many blessings upon my life…because you often bless me publicly. Most times, I am baffled by the wonders you’re performing in my life, the same way I was baffled way back then when my high school principal gave me an “award” for doing some bull-sh***—his way of teaching me a "lesson".





Anyway, thanks for your patience, mercy and magnanimous kindness. If you were to consider my sins, I would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, you don’t want the death of sinners but only for us to repent. And I thank you Lord for recognizing that some of us are “Work-In-Progress”…even though some people think mine is taking too long to “complete”.

The great thing is that your ways are different from that of Man. You’re never tired of my asking for forgiveness, knowing fully well that I don’t take your mercy for granted. In my total submission and gratitude to you therefore, I give you Lord all the praises, glories and adorations In Jesus name. Amen!

Stress Antidote.

Whenever you are stressed or worried or uneasy, take a nice long walk in the nature, touch the ground with your feet, touch the trees with your hands, visualize the gentle breeze of the wind as it massages your body and the Divine nature of life will flow into you to ease your pain. This is because nature is God's way of keeping in touch with us, His creatures, and merely appreciating it is a sure way to attract God's attention to your life.

God's Magnanimous Kindness.

On this glorious Sunday, I want to thank you God publicly for your many blessings upon my life…because you often bless me publicly. Most times, I am baffled by the wonders you’re performing in my life, the same way I was baffled way back then when my high school principal gave me an “award” for doing some bull-sh***—it was the man's way of teaching me a "lesson". Anyway, I'm thanking for your patience, mercy and magnanimous kindness. If you were to consider my sins, I would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, you don’t want the death of sinners but only for us to repent. And I thank you Lord for recognizing that some of us are “Work-In-Progress”…even though some people think mine is taking too long to “complete”. The great thing is that your ways are different from that of Man. You’re never tired of my asking for forgiveness, knowing fully well that I don’t take your mercy for granted. In my total submission and gratitude to you therefore, I give you Lord all the praises, glories and adorations In Jesus name. Amen!

Miracles Happen on the Platform of Hard Work.

Remember the paralyzed man in the Biblical Capernaum, how he was carried by four of men? They could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, yet the men refused to give up. They made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. Among other things, it was their hard work along with faith that impressed Jesus who then said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

What about the wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus turned water into wine? Most times, people don’t refer to the efforts of the servants who had to fill six stone jars to the brim with water, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

And lest we forget the encounter a widow had with Prophet Elisha. The prophet could have performed some “abracadabra” to make the jar become multiplied in numbers. Rather, he directed her to first go get a lot of empty vessels (which she borrowed from neighbors). It was only then the poor woman was able to fill all the vessels with oil.  

Out there are too many folks who are practically folding their arms while waiting for some miracles to happen in their careers, marriages, relationships, business ventures and life generally. They call it faith. But ask them what they are doing to bring about the manifestation of their faiths and they glare at you as if you are of little faith. They see great things happening in the lives of others and automatically attribute them to some mere luck. If only they can move closer to behold the other persons’ many painstaking efforts.