Waiting Upon The Lord

There are times in our lives when our God demands that we wait...to receive that perfect gift, to see His Salvation, to behold His will made manifest in our lives.
When wait, we learn perseverance, patience and faith.

Waiting is not easy..Sometimes, it gets us thinking if our God has abandoned us.Does He not see what we are going through? How the unrighteous are prospering and getting their hearts' desires? while we who claim to wait on Him are but stagnant, unable to achieve, to clinch that job, that promotion, that contract..or perhaps all around us our mates are marrying, having babies, building homes, everyone but us is achieving their heart's desires...

THE LORD SAYS WAIT:
'Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!' - Isaiah 30:1
He further assures us:



As i go through my lesson in waiting, sometimes i feel frustrated, overwhelmed, burned out, but i pray for His grace so i will have the strength still to say...

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning."- Psalm 130:5-6

Fighting Temptations

A dictionary defines to tempt as to "entice someone to do something against their better judgement".
We all face temptations in our daily lives. Scripture tells us that all that shall live godly in Christ must suffer persecution. It's important we understand that God, whose nature is holy and perfect, does not tempt us although He may allow us to face these temptations (see James 1:13). Furthermore, He always provides an escape route from all of them ( 1 Corinthians 10:13).
The writer of the book of 1 John in the 16th verse of its 2nd chapter, stated that all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life- is not of the Father. The evil one appears to tempt us through these means.
First case study- EVE. Read Genesis 3: 1-6. In the 6th verse, Eve was stated to have beheld the fruit as good for food (lust of the flesh), pleasing to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and desired to make one wise (pride of life). Sadly, she fell for it!
Second case study- JESUS. Read Matthew 4:3- 11. Satan employed the same tactics against The Chosen One, by asking him to turn stones to bread ( lust of the flesh), by showing him the glories of the mundane kingdoms (lust of the eyes) and by daring him to jump down from the summit of a temple (pride of life). Hallelujah!!! Our Lord Jesus resisted him firmly.
My beloved, whose report would u, therefore, believe? I am persuaded and convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that Jesus is the Way. We are well armoured and equipped to fight temptations and resist the evil one (James 4:7).
Let's remain strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Wonderful or Wonder-empty

"Behold, You [God] desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom (Psalm 51:6).

Some people you meet are very warm, genuine and connected. Others seem to be cold and distant. Their life seems rather flat line, dull, and even boring. I'm not talking about times of sickness, sadness or sorrow but this is how they are pretty much most of the time. Why are some people like the latter group? One of a number of reasons is because they are repressed in their emotional life. Chances are that they grew up with a sense that emotions—especially negative emotions—were not acceptable, so they learned early in life to bury and deny them. Or they may have been hurt deeply as a child and found that they had to stuff their emotions in order to survive. It may sound crude but it is a fact of life that the stuff we stuff stuffs up our lives. This can cause all sorts of emotional, physical, relational and/or spiritual problems.Emotions are God-given and are a vital part of a healthy, mature life. We are not talking about emotionalism which is a cover of true emotions. We are talking about being connected to our inner self and being in touch with all of our God-given emotions. If my emotions are buried and I am disconnected from them and my inner self, I cannot be truly connected to anyone else or to God at any kind of intimate level. At best, my relationships will be very shallow. Furthermore, when emotions are repressed, instead of life being wonder-full, it may be wonder-empty. As such I will characteristically be bored with life.

If one's life is wonder-empty, how do we overcome? How do we get connected to our inner self? Go to God. If we commit and trust our life to God and ask him to confront us with our reality so that we become fully connected to our inner self, we may go through some very painful experiences (that are often needed to break through our defenses) but, in time, our pain will pass but the beauty of our life will last forever.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in keeping with your desire please help me to be connected to my inner self and always be honest with myself and with you and thus grow up into the fullness of my salvation. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Show Me—Don't Tell Me

"And then he [Jesus] told them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.' (Mark 16:15)

I have often felt that much of my education taught me how to make a living but not how to live. That I have had to learn the hard way … and am still learning how to do that. Still, I did learn many valuable lessons. One that I have never forgotten was from my Bible teacher. Time and again he would say to me, "Show me. Don't tell me!" He meant it to apply to my daily life, which, of course, was the way that Jesus often taught. ("He spoke to them in parables and the common people heard him gladly.") I like to apply the "show me—don't tell me" teaching to my life, to my teaching, and especially to my family life and to my witnessing for Christ. In other words, one of the greatest ways we can teach and witness for Christ is to model true Christianity and what we are seeking to teach others. Until we do this, our words won't carry much weight.

Like St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words."And as another said: "The living truth I long to see,I cannot live on what used to be,so close your Bible and show me howthe Christ you talk about is living now."

Remember too that, "To win some we need to be winsome."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to live the Christian life so that others, seeing you in me and what you have done for me, will want you for themselves. Let my life be a reflection of your love and a living testimony for you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

A day to be born!

The wise one did say, and very truly so, that there is a time for everything... including a time to be born. Eccl 3: 2
Food for thought: do you ever ruminate over the events that surrounded your birth?
The enigma of your formation and maturation in utero surely transcends human's understanding! More intriguingly, our variation in every ramification at birth is indeed of epic proportions.
Psalm 139: 14 says God is is to be praised because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Reading through to the 16th verse of that chapter further justifies why He must be exulted and celebrated.
In cognizance, therefore, of the fact that our life is only a special favor from the Great One, we should look inwards, making amends in our lives where necessary. Besides, there is also a time to die!
Are you prepared? Heb 9:27.
God Loves You.

Seek Ye First....

Text: But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness
and all other things shall be given unto you.. Matt 6 : 33

Reading: Matt6 : 19 - 34

To 'Seek' is to look for, to try to obtain or achieve something, to make an effort to find that which is in existence. Our God rewards those who diligently seek Him.
'First' is God's place in the affairs of those who are His. It should be in the affairs of all He created.
***In His Law to Israel, the very first called for a unique honour for Him, a positioned incomparable to that we give anybody or thing.
In sacrifices and offerings, it was the firstborn and firstfruit that was dedicated to Him.
No other position fits God in the affairs of men. When He occupies this position in ourhearts and lives, every other thing falls into place.

A kingdom is a domain or territory under the rulership of a king. The citizens are subjects of a king.It is a monarchy. That the Kingdom is of God means that God is its King.
To seek that kingdom is to yield one's will to Him who is Supreme.

**Would Abraham have sacrificed Isaac if God was not first in His scale of preference?
Would Joseph have missed the pleasure of Mrs Potiphar if God was shifted to second place?
Would Moses not have been stupid to deny himself of his princely status in Pharoah's house?
How about Daniel and his three friends in Babylon who defied lions and furnace of fire?

When God takes His place, life becomes for us as it should be...beautiful and satisfying..


***excerpts of a Bible study by Bro. Young Nkwocha at the Church of christ, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

Insurance that everyone needs

This life is real and living is a risk. Therefore, as humans we try to make life as pleasant as we can. We try to get protection for the risks that living brings. Insurance offers us a way to cover these risks and make life more comfortable for ourselves and our dependents. It is a means of guaranteeing safety or protection. So we take property (house, business, car etc), liability, health, disability and life insurance.

We take these steps to protect and ensure we live relatively safe and happy lives here on earth.this is a very sensible step. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but the fact that we take these steps show that we love ourselves and want the best.

The good news is, there is a more secure form of Insurance. It never fails. It value cannot be estimated. It serves us in all aspects of our lives; in this life and when all is done, in the life to come. It is that insurance that will come to our aid when this life is over. It is good to know that we acquire this insurance from this life,our actions in this life determines if our claim will be true when the time comes.

Remember, "...rather, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can consume and thieves cannot break in and steal.For where your treasure is, so is your heart". -- Matthew 6: 21
When we obtain accurate knowledge of God and apply it in our lives, we store up a good record with Him. When we do his word and keep to them, we are paying premium on our insurance. When we do good to others, are kind and considerate,we are storing up treasures.

Indeed, serving God, placing our confidence in Him is the best insurance of all.

welcome..

Welcome!! We're thrilled that we are finally doing this. it's been on our minds a while.

This is a team blog with the sole purpose of encouraging us to explore day by day the love of the God who has saved us and whose plan it is that every man should not only acknowledge Him but love and submit to Him.

We are young people, vibrant in loving and serving the creator of all.

WE are members of The Church of Christ...here, you will find diversity, fun, love, unity and the simplicity of the Christ.

We know it will be a worthwhile journey and we look forward to having you with us all the way and when all is done, up there with Him!!