TAKING A RISK FOR THE HEAD OF YOUR FAMILY: GOD

Step, leave, go, abandon—these are the words we normally associate with risk.
But in a society that is constantly telling us to chase the latest and greatest and change ourselves with the seasons, what if, more often than not, the riskier thing to do for God is to stay exactly where you are and keep doing what you’re doing for the time being? What if instead of jumping from here to there, thinking God will do a miracle when we’ve chosen the right thing, person or place, we should really be standing firm? What if we should be allowing our feet to sink in a while and keep at the hard, dirty, messy work in which we’re involved? In the words of Ecclesiastes 11:6, “Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will.”

What if God wants you to start a ministry where you are instead of going to one? What if it’s actually more God-honoring to deal with an uncomfortable family situation than moving away from it? What if instead of leaving this position and that location again and again to “find ourselves,” we should be staying put? What if instead of leaving church after church, we should just keep coming to the same one? What if instead of abandoning all that is ours, we should be continuing to invest ourselves, our gifts, our resources?

What if “taking a risk for God” was less about jumping off cliffs and going and more about examining our motives and opening our eyes to how God might be wanting to use us right where we are, embracing the uncomfortable in our midst? Maybe God wants to use you as a change-agent in your workplace, as the glue in your neighborhood, as the light in your social circles and family. It’s possible that quitting your job or moving your family across the country right now to be “risky for God” is exactly what God wants you to do, but I think that more often than not, it could actually be counter to what God wants.

So how do you know whether taking a risk for God means staying or going? In my experience, it helps to consider a few things:

Scripture: Is leaving it all behind detrimental to the things God holds precious—marriage, promises, responsibility, etc? Or is fear alone keeping you where you are?

History: Did you just take a risk to go somewhere or do something new last week? Are you running away from something or someone?

Wise Counsel: What are trusted mentors, teachers, elders, your spouse or best friend saying to you? Has God revealed to them that the risk He wants you to take is to go, or to stay?

Peace: Can you have peace where you are or is there peace that comes with making a change? Has God revealed to you any hidden motives? Are you assured that you are already loved and that doing something “risky for God” is not going to make Him love you more?

As I’m reading Scripture, I see countless stories of men and women whose biggest challenge is not stepping out to go and follow God but continuing to follow Him. The biggest risk is often continuing to live in a God-honoring way, day in and day out, when it doesn’t feel like much of an adventure. It seems that many of us are in the same boat—where Jesus might be calling us to step out and walk on water, but He also might want us to just keep paddling.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

“You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.…”Mathew 5:43-45

As I read about the latest shooting, or the latest beheading, my natural response is to dehumanize the people who do these things. I think of them as monsters. Or demons. Or something else that allows me to pretend that they are not fellow humans.

But that’s not true.

Each one was born. Each one has a mother and a father. They eat. They drink. They have personal stories and experiences full of pain and joy.

They are human. And if I take the narrative of the Bible to be true, they are fellow children of God. They are loved by God.

Some are suffering from mental illness, or from personal anguish or from religious manipulation. In the midst of grief and anger for those who suffer, can I not spare some compassion for those who have missed out on the life filled with grace and hope that Jesus has called all of us to live?

We like to live in a binary, black and white world, where everyone is basically “good” or “bad.” But life isn’t so cut and dried. Someone can be guilty of terrible things and still deserve compassion.
Since we are dealing with human enemies, we can have hope. Hope that messages of love and acceptance and peace can be heard. Hope that God can redeem even the worst of sinners. Hope that God can redeem my deep, dark sins, too.

Question is how do I love my enemies?

Pray for Your Enemies
I’m not talking about “please give that person what they have coming to them” prayers. But I also don’t mean that you need to spend an hour each night asking God to pour blessings upon them. There’s a way to pray both for justice and for the hearts of those committing injustices.
If you have hate in your heart for somebody, maybe it starts with “God, I hate that person, and I don’t want to.”

Forgive Your Enemies
When Jesus looked at His executioners from the cross and offered forgiveness, can there be any doubt of His love for them?
Loving your enemy does not mean you have to add them to your Christmas list, or make them your best friend. It doesn’t mean you excuse their actions. It means you forgive them, with the knowledge that God is both merciful and just.

Jesus faced grave injustice with sacrifice. Through prayer and forgiveness in our hearts, let us go forth to conquer injustice in our time by the courage not to demand retribution, but rather to repay injury with blessing and hate with love.

Am I my brother's keeper?

The phrase “my brother’s keeper” occurs in the context of the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:1-9. After the Lord God had expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden for their disobedience, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy that God had found Abel’s sacrifice acceptable, but He had rejected Cain’s. After the murder, the Lord, knowing full well what had happened, asked Cain where Abel was. Cain’s response was "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

There is a grain of truth in this brazen lie, despite the surly response Cain offers to the God who created him. While no one is the absolute “keeper” of others in that we are not responsible for everyone’s safety when we are not present, every man is his brother’s keeper in that we are not to commit violent acts against them or allow others to do so if we can prevent it. This sort of “keeping” is something God rightfully demands of everyone, on the grounds of both justice and love. But Cain’s reply indicates a total lack of any kind of feeling for another human being—not to mention the absence of brotherly love—and the overriding presence of the kind of selfishness which kills affection and gives rise to hatred.

So are Christians to be the keepers of other Christians? Yes, in two ways. First we are not to commit acts of violence against one another. This includes violence of the tongue in the form of gossip and “quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder” (1 Corinthians 12:20). Second, we are to exhibit brotherly love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ with a tender heart and a humble mind (1 Peter 3:8). In this way, we “keep” those for whom Christ gave His life.

One of the golden chapters of the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. In this magnificent portion of the Scriptures, we are reminded that love is even greater than faith and hope. Chapter 13 comes on the heels of Paul’s explanation of how the Body of Christ (the Church) is like the human body and is made up of many members, all of whom are important to the function and well-being of the Body. We are continually encouraged throughout the New Testament to love one another (Hebrews 13:1; Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9). Sometimes love must correct, admonish or reprove (2 Thessalonians 3:13-15; Matthew 18:15). However, correction is always to be done in the spirit of love with the goal of reconciliation.

Paul the apostle wrote to the church at Thessalonica, “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15).

So, as Christians, we are to be our brother’s keeper. As Paul wrote, “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify (build up) another” (Romans 14:19).

Tee's thought...

My name is Tunde, my pals call me Tee. We could be friends, so you are allowed to call me Tee too, until you vex me and I decide to unfriend you… naa, just kidding.

I am a new Christian; I hear they call people like us ‘baby Christians’. Hmm, baby sha, a full grown man like me? I also hear they call the people on the next level after being baby Christians Matured Christians. That’s more like it, but how do I join this train full of matured minds? When will I stop drinking spiritual milk and start cracking spiritual bones?

A friend of mine at my new church, The Elevation Church, confided in me. He said studying the bible could help me become matured. Could help me? Or would help me? He wasn’t specific, but I know that pal of mine, he just wants me to find out myself because he knows I have got an inquisitive mind.

In my quest for answers I opened my dictionary to understand the meaning of Study. According to the dictionary, Studying is:

“The devotion of time and attention to acquiring knowledge or detailed investigation and analysis of a subject or situation”.
What I understand by this is that studying results in additional knowledge, which can be applied either in a test or even when discussing with a friend.  Hmm… What then happens when I study the bible?

In this little time that I have become a born again Christian, I have realized that the Bible is not just any other book, the benefits of studying my bible are life changing.
Hebrew 4:12 is quite instructive about this: -
For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Once I discovered this truth, I started to read the bible. I learnt a lot about God and the word just because I had the Holy Spirit as my teacher but I yearned for more. So, I began to study the bible instead. Now, this approach revealed the truth and power of God’s word to me such that I began to apply it to my day to day life and I suddenly began to pass all of life’s tests with flying colors. This is simply called wisdom.

I came to the full realization that actual study is a bit deeper than just reading the bible. So this is how I have decided to study the bible going forward:
• I set aside time and prepare - when I’m alone and comfortable.
• I use materials – my pen and paper is great, concordance etc. is helpful.
• My spiritual preparation – I pray and I am expectant to receive revelation from God.
• I rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal truths to me.


You can also start like me, right from where you are, whatever you are struggling with.
The simple thing to remember about studying the bible is this: Read, study, trust the Holy Spirit, gain knowledge and apply wisdom. These are my thoughts, what are yours?

ONE WAY

“Stop! I say stop!!”

“Chai, one chance! What kind of mess did I get myself into this morning?” I muttered to myself as I parked. The mean looking police man with the pot belly came running towards my direction ready to devour. I wound down the window a bit to peep out and talk to him.

“My friend, come down!!!” He screamed at me. At this point I was already shivering and praying to God to get me out of this. What kind of spirit entered me this morning? The first and only time I decide to take the one way, I get caught. I’m just a JJC in this trade.

“Hand over all your particulars, your driver’s license now! The likes of you shouldn’t be on the road driving”. I began to shiver the more, “oga I beg”, I murmured but this dude wasn’t ready to listen to me.

30 minutes later, as I stood there on the road watching how they stopped different cars and how the “settlement processes” were being done, I came to realize that these people would not leave me till I “shake body”.

I walked up to the officer again, begging him for the umpteenth time and he gave me the same reaction, like I wasn’t even there. Then one of the junior officers walked up to me and told me how the deal was being done. Something had to give for something. Upset and feeling dejected. I searched in my bag and brought out 2K. I timidly went back to the boss and told him I wanted to see him. Following me to one corner, I begged and told him I was really sorry and I was running late for work reason why I decided to take the one way short cut. Stretching out my hands towards him, he stared down at it and asked, “How much dey there?” I looked down at my feet and said “two thousand naira”. The man sneered at me and said “no be my money be that! You would not leave this place if you don’t drop the normal charge, it is ten thousand naira or you follow us to the station!”

I felt dazed. 10K? I didn’t even have up to that in my bag. All I had left with me was the 5k I planned to use to buy fuel. I begged profusely, close to tears and as a JJC, told him all I had was 5k.

After 5 more minutes of begging he asks me to bring it. I joyfully ran to my car, searched for the money, change and all, and handed it over to the officer. He counted it and asked the junior officer to hand me back my documents which were original copies, foolish me.

I got back into the car, already late for work but was relived the drama was all over.

Next morning as usual, traffic was sooo bad on my side of the road, same spot where I took the one way. I looked out this time to see if the police officers were on duty but they weren’t. I contemplated doing the illegal one way driving again. At least, when I gave my colleagues the gist yesterday, they laughed and told me it’s normal for a first timer to be caught but subsequent ones would be stress free and easier. They said everyone does it, taught me the tricks of watching out for the officers from a distance and how I would have to speed past the road as that’s not the time to behave like a mumu.

As I was about to navigate to take this same one way, I changed my mind. What if I get caught again? What if the officers not being visible was just a trick? If they catch me again today, I’m sure that pot belly dude won’t let me go today. He would definitely arrest me. What’s the point really? I’ll just wait and let the traffic move at my side biko.

Just at that moment, the car behind me did the Jackie Chan move and took the one way I was contemplating. A trailer from nowhere was speeding down that road, I heard tyres screech, the driver of the Honda car tried to swerve but it was too late! My jaw dropped as I watched people running towards the scene, the car was right under the trailer. Blood everywhere. Hands on heads as people stood by watching the scene. As people tried to get the guy out of the car, I know he couldn’t have survived that crash. At that moment, my side of the road started to move. It was just the traffic light that got jammed and now it’s working.

I switched off my radio as I drove in silence. I felt tears run down my cheeks. That could have been me!!! I didn’t understand why God would allow me, that I’ve been so good most part of my life, get caught yesterday and loose a whole 5k! Now I get it. He knows that it would be much better for me to be taught a lesson and loose as much as 100 thousand naira yesterday than to loose my precious life. I prayed to God to forgive the soul of the guy who lost his life today for the same crime I got away with yesterday for just 5 thousand naira and thanked God for giving me another day to live a worthy life.

Olajumoke...

Olajumoke at the bakery she worked before destiny knocked on her door

Olajumoke has suddenly become a household name.  Everywhere we turn we hear someone gisting about a bread seller turned model overnight. Every model’s dream has been fulfilled in just one lady, a bread seller. Hmm, Olajumoke is now more popular than even our dear Mr. President!

You tend to ponder, “Could this be for real or Ty Bello is just using this as publicity stunt?” Naaaa, erase this thought off your mind. Aren’t we Christians? This should be no surprise! When God says, “It is time”…my people… it is time!

Flipping through Instagram pages, you see half naked girls aspiring to be super models. I smile and wonder if Olajumoke even knows what an Instagram page is! Looool! Some bad belle got upset and started bad gists about TY Bello; “How can she be associating with a bread seller?”…”she can’t even speak a single line of English!”…”they have taken her too far. How can she be the face of Stanbic IBTC?!!” …Let’s remember that our God is BOUNDLESS and there is no limit to his blessings.

Left - right: Olajumoke the moment she bumped into Ty's photo session; Olajumoke now as a model

Children of the most high, let’s learn a lesson from this and understand that we were not created by God to do what He alone is supposed to do. Let God be God and let us remember that we are created to worship and obey him every minute of our lives.

Only fear is this; Olajumoke could be scammed! As a lot of people are choking her with so much, she might need help processing all this in. Although she’s got Ty Bello as her manager but the hearts of men are desperately wicked. As long as you are a human being, you cannot be trusted. In God we trust and all we can do right now as a body of Christ is to pray that God’s wisdom would never leave Olajumoke and Ty Bello. Amen.

Made in Nigeria

Flipping through Nigerian fashion magazines, most of the things I see are foreign designers. We read blogs and see how the “first class” citizens of Nigeria are constantly having shopping sprees in “Obodo oyinbo”. We watch Tv and see how foreigners celebrate their own “Made in” their respective countries and how most of these designers, merchants, producers, etcetera, are constantly being praised as the top shots in their respective fields. We join in these celebrations, we eagerly yearn to be a part of these successes but have we ever stopped to think and realize that WE are the major contributors of these successes?

We complain of bad roads, poor electricity, no water, bad drainage, all of these are the end time results of not investing in our dear country, Nigeria. We have finally gotten ourselves addicted to the “craze” of “if it aint made in the UK or US, it can’t be of good quality”. It has gotten to the sad point where a  little girl, on a shopping outing with her mum in the highbrow region of Lagos, sees a pretty dress, falls in love with it on the spot and shows her mum what her heart desires. Mummy, with a smile on her face, admires this lovely choice her daughter made, only to check out the tag and finds that it is made in Aba. The frown on mummy’s face deflates this little girl’s enthusiasm as she watches her mummy quickly hang back this pretty dress! This little girl just can’t seem to understand why! Mummy ushers her to another section of the store called “Foreign” and asks her to pick her choices from here. Little girl, with no choice, had to make do with these. What this implies is that this little girl will grow up with the mentality that there is something definitely wrong with that section of the store labeled “Made in Nigeria”.

SENATOR BEN MURRAY-BRUCE BUYING MADE IN NIGERIA SHOES

All across the country, we see imported milk, imported shoes, imported rice and even imported fish! We are buying all of these at a very high rate just because of a mentality we are trying so hard to fit into. What is wrong with an Aba made dress? A material with good quality and sewn to size sounds like a very good buy to me. If Aba or Ajegunle have some smart kids designing all of these, please educate me, what is wrong with that?

The end result to all of these is that things get smoother and better in these foreign countries but we just can’t seem to understand why things are so hard for us here. The common language we hear now is “things never work in this country”. The latest one is the idiom in Yoruba, “dollar ti won” which means “dollar is expensive”. Why wouldn’t it be expensive when we don’t patronize our own?! Why would our roads be in good shape when major part of our country’s resources is being spent on foreigners? Weather we agree to admit this or not, this habit, as little as buying a single strand of Brazilian hair, is causing collateral damage somewhere, somehow on our economy. It is a collective effort into negativity.   Is mummy in the above story indirectly telling her little girl she cannot produce or manufacture anything good and worthy to be bought?

Why not join these collective efforts as a people to invest in our own talents, our own creativity, our own sweat and turn them into our good roads, our power supply 247, our free education for all at the end of the day. Let us stop hurting ourselves. Please give us a chance!

We are black…we are African… and we are proudly Made in Nigeria.

Okay...no excuse

My people my people. Where do I start this apology biko? No explanation can be good enough for this long silence but I'm sure you will all be happy to know that I have been away to expand my enterprise! Yes, went back to school last year to bag two certificates as an Oracle Certified Associate and Oracle Certified Professional. Yeey! But not withstanding, I apologize for the abandonment. Biko, find it in your hearts to forgive me. I'm back bigger and better y'all. Stick with me and be entertained and motivated.

Yours,

Aderonkearogs...