YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE NOT TO SERVE GOD

Text: I Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, 

His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of 

Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light

You have no excuse whatsoever not to be committed to the service of the Almighty. You have no excuse not to belong to a local parish where you can join your faith with other believers to fellowship, break bread and praise God together. You truly do not have any excuse to assume that you have nothing to offer to the body of Christ, because everyone is called for different purposes. In Matthew 11:6, the bible says and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Thus, if you stop going to church or serving God to your maximum potentials because somebody somewhere in the church disappoint you or discourage you, then you need deliverance and you need to seek help. 

A lot of people today retire to televangelist churches, online discourse group, or moving from one prayer line to another instead of physical church. They wanted to fill the vacuum of belonging to an assembly just because somebody somewhere say something to them. You need to develop a different approach to your one line, single-minded decision. You are not helping yourself or your family, per adventure you are the head of your household. Majority of church haters today started well, but while they assumed they were serving God, they used the pastor, or anyone in the position of authority as their springboard. That is wrong, and I will still blame you for your erroneous stance, because JESUS, not John the Baptist, not Mary-the mother of our Lord was our model. Everyone should assume to be like Jesus, and nobody else. Man will surely fail you, as you move closer to them to see the tantrum they hide while in those church garments or going on that evangelism trip. 

Do not get me wrong. It is true that some pastors are spiritually challenged that they feel like someone is there to take over the parish from them. Even some individuals feel like they have undue advantage in a local parish over others because they have been there longer, or because they are anointed with olive oil while others have grape oil or oyster oil; whatever you want to call the oil. Some people even think that their affiliation to the head is a license to terrorize others in a local assembly. Regardless of any reason, once you are truly on the side of God, nothing shall dissuade you from finding a place to worship. A place where you need to unveil your naturally endowed talents to the glory of God. If you think starting a new parish by yourself is the answer, then remember the law of karma would catch up with you, then you should be informed as well that you will do something to others, and they would want to pick up their bag and baggages and leave your new church.

One of the things I want to remind you here is to know that God has a purpose for every life that He created. You were born to fulfill a purpose in life. You are never an accident in the history of creation. You are a product of divine wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God. The Almighty God does nothing arbitrarily. As an all Knowing God, in everything He does, He's known for a clear cut purpose. He's not like man who scrambles for answers. He knows where He's heading before He sets out on any course. Even for those people or things that we sometimes consider to be bad,  or evil or categorized as misfortune, there is a purpose they are permitted to exist in order to serve in the circle of life. In Acts 15:18, the bible said known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. everything


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CONSIDER:
You have no excuse to turn your back against God just because your society branded you as either handicap or someone living with disability. All these societal constructs are no impediment to giving glory to God, or going to the field of harvest where God Himself proclaimed that the laborers are few (Matt 9:37). The bible recorded that you don't need to be somebody in the eyes of the world to be useful in the vineyard of God. In I Cor 1:26-29, it was stated that God will choose the foolish who needs wisdom, the weak who needs strength, and the people that the world had counted to be nothing to make them somebody. So, I ask the question again, WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE NOT TO BE USEFUL IN GOD'S VINEYARD?  Isaiah 40:29 says He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength. There is a convincing caption that epitomizes everything and it states “God does not call the qualified, but he qualifies the called”

The little boy David was chosen as King to rule after King Saul in the place of his elder brothers. Who would have thought that the boy that the family considered to be too little and was asked to tender the flock was the reason the prophet was visiting the house of Jesse? Solomon, the son from the adulterous woman was chosen as king to reign after David out of his sons, and he went on record to be the wisest king ever lived. Even, he had the privilege of building God’s temple. Jeremiah, at a very young age when he did not know about the kingdom of God was cleansed by God to become a prophet. Unknown to him, God knows the purpose for his life. Today, several of us are running for the service of God because rather than seeking wisdom in God’s agenda for our lives, we are busy studying the philosophy of this world. Jephthah, the son of a harlot, who was once sent on an exile by his brothers for not worthy of the inheritance of their father became the commander of the army that led his nation to victory against the enemies. You have no excuse and I believe this submission will minister to you than your guts that is telling you that your decision of staying away form the vineyard is okay.

MARRIAGE THAT WORKS--The POWER of COMPROMISE

Text: I Samuel 1:23

And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; 

tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. 

So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him.

Some of the wisest people having avalanche of relationship tips today are the single parents, or even unmarried people and you will be wondering why the potentials they display never surfaced in their love life until what I called “finding yourself in Paris, France when you actually board the flight for Rome, Italy". Per adventure, they learn from the bumps, the humps, or the potholes of their broken relationship and they are ready to embrace the second chance opportunity. It is always said that experience is the best teacher, but I think the normal and befitting saying would be experience applied is the best teacher because few individuals repeat the same mistakes in their first relationship and they found themselves in the same rugged path again.

Of a truth, there is never anything called second chance in life. Opportunity comes, but once. The fact that you find yourself traveling on the same road was never an indication that you were meant to ply that pathway twice. However, it is better to let our past experiences govern our desires of today so that our tomorrow could be better. Besides, single parenthood as a result of natural occurrence, especially death, is in itself another escapade to deal with. It thus carries the same connotation that you plan to travel to Lagos in Nigeria, but you find yourself in Lagos, Portugal. Finding a better relationship for the surviving partner is not a second chance either. Instead, it is a continuum, and who feels it, knows it better. In reality, certain individuals continue to jump from one relationship to another, and that is the basis of my pen today.

Marriage is God’s first institution and it is the source of all other relationships. Marriage without purpose or with faulty and wrong purposes always ends up in chaos and turmoil’s as you can see amongst players in Hollywood, and now the church of God amongst the so-called men and women of God. The purpose of marriage is to unite a man (husband) and a woman (wife) together in a covenant relationship with God as it was in the beginning. Gen 2:18 says, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. It should be on record here that man was created for love, fellowship and companionship.  Love is the fulcrum of every relationship, the foundation of every purposeful marriage. But the world has exchanged love for lust that you cannot tell what love is. Love is acted out in several instances and the supposed to be lovebird’s couple end up killing themselves out of foolishness and stupidity. If it is love in the first place, it will never be hurting. It was not love, but lust, no matter how long it survives, that is why the partners could not tolerate each other and make things work. Sometimes we see people loving each other in pretension, when the baseline was anchored on something else. All these lead to breakdown, heartbreak, broken homes that lead to divorce, which is on the alarming rate even in the house of God.

It is definitely difficult to figure out who is in love and who is not. Deception and pretension had become the order of the day and people are getting married for a whole lot of things. The house of God is not left out in the same menace of divorce because the people that ought to be waiting on the lord, or let the will of God prevails in their decisions before marriage already have their minds focused on something else even when they are hoping on God. To this, one cannot say for sure that every relationship is based on love, rather than lust as they pack up easily somehow.

In this series, it is good to know that even if your marriage was anchored on LOVE, there are nuts and bolts of a successful marriage. One of them is the Compromise, which comes from effective communication. The oil of marriage, like the oil for the engine of a car comes from effective communication that leads to compromise. No matter how we embrace communication, if it does not end in compromise, it is still useless. The two have to agree somehow. By this, I mean husband and wife needs to know that they are not going to engage in a certain decision brought up by the other before leaving the conversation table. No one should leave the table with ‘suppose’, ‘if’, ‘maybe’ etc

THE MESSAGE:-
If we look into the life of Hannah and Elkanah according to I Samuel 1:10-11, Hannah singlehandedly made a vow to God without the husband; And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. When it was time for Hannah to redeem this vow, it was by the grace of God that her decision of a year before did not break the house. This was where the power of compromise came into play, as the husband was able to reason with her in her option to do what she already promised God. In verses 22-23,  But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. In a lot of homes today, especially homes where love was traded for something else, it would be a total chaos and fiasco, as Elkanah was never part of the deal.

Another area where power of compromise was practiced in the bible was in the life of Jacob and his two wives against their fathers (Genesis 31:4-5, 14-15). The bible said that when Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and it was no more favorable toward him as before. So, Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family. Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? Does he not consider us strangers? He has sold us, and also completely consumed our money. For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children’s; now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.” Here, we saw the two sisters agreed to whatever the husband was ready to do against their dad. Any misgiving here could have spelt doom if they had not considered their husband in the place of their father. Compromise is the key to sustaining marriage, through an effective communication and that is where we are losing it today. May God give us a humble heart to see ourselves in others as we make cogent decisions, especially in our marriages.

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A BELIEVER'S PRAYER--Effective and Fervent Prayer

Acts 4:24-29

24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is……. And now, Lord, behold their threatening’s and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

This is my first blog for the year 2014 due to a lot of events that went on in order to wrap up the year 2013. I am grateful that we are all witnesses of this year. It is never an understatement that New Year brings with it incredible potentials for wonderful new beginnings. It is always a moment of resolution, turning over a new leaf and revisiting the journey of life. It is a time when people often plan to change habits like smoking; dieting, family, people get engaged and marry, change jobs and if possible relocate. There is always an inclination that change is an effective tool that can be instigated in the beginning of the year. Either you believe it or not, you will be surprised on a whole lot of things that people do when it comes to starting a new year.

Christians often feel like it is a time to revisit their prayer altar, encourage revival time, take on a new assignment in the vineyard etc. So, I decided to take on the assignment of looking into what else could be done to present an effective and fervent prayer to GOD in an acceptable manner. Christians all over the world do pray daily, attend seminars, organize crusades and fast, yet most of the times it seems nothing is changing. So, let me try to see why we continue to pray the same prayer over and over again. Matthew 6 answered the question posed by the disciples to the master to teach them how to pray. The master admonished them for not knowing how to pray, but gave them the sample prayer in verses 9-13. This is just a model prayer and needs not to be mistaken for the only prayer a believer can recite.

There was a mandate from God according to I Thessalonians 5:17 that we should pray without ceasing. Simply put, prayer is our minds communicating with God. It is not an option as a believer, but we need to know what we pray for when we get to the throne of grace. That is the essence of my effort here so that we can present our requests or petitions to God in an acceptable manner to elicit an answer. There is no point having a conversation with God, but could not hear us. That was why the instructions in Matthew 6:1-8 became necessary.

First we have to understand the fact that we do not pray to Jesus Christ. Instead, we pray to our GOD who art in heaven through Jesus Christ His son (John 15:16b--that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you). God wants you to bring your concerns to Him, but in a way that there would be result. You have to approach the gates of heaven with your worship and enter his court with your praise. Yet two things can keep Him from embracing you while you are in His court. Sin – going against His will, or asking for something that goes against His will.

God knows what’s best for you, but because sin separates you from Him, you must turn to His Son, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for your sins. When you do, this everlasting mercy then lifts the barrier and God hears your prayers.

It is one thing for God to hear your prayer, and it is another thing entirely for God to answer your prayer. Thus, we need Faith, as the vehicle that transports our request to God and the same faith brings back the answered prayers to us. A whole lot of people miss out in this area. They believe God answers prayer but they don’t have enough faith to know that it can happen in their life.

OBSERVATION: It will surprise you that in this politically inclined and polarized society, where everything has to be correct in a certain way, you find yourself in a mixed gathering with people of different faiths and someone just want to offer a general prayer without the name of Christ.  That's not an acceptable prayer.  So, if you are the one to lead such a prayer, make sure you pray in your own faith regardless of who is in the audience. Trying to reach out across the isle to satisfy your audience amounts to compromising your faith. At that point, you're in charge and if God hears and answers your prayer for the event or the group, then the non-Christian among them could get saved. 

Finally, to render an effective and fervent prayer that moves the hands of God, I will suggest that you adopt the style of what I called referencing/precedence/scriptural prayer, as exemplified in this text by Peter and John, where you cite the same scenario in the bible and you ask God to move. Case in point, someone praying for the fruit of the womb should know about Elizabeth and Hannah stories, then used that as the reason for God to answer. Look at what Peter & John did in Acts 4:24-30. With their boldness, they referenced what God had done before and what He told David, then the prayer point. 

In essence, there's no way we can have an effectual/a fervent prayer without knowing the word of God. It is an individual thing and I encourage us to get into the habit of searching the Scriptures daily where God actually speaks to you before you engage him in prayer. Most of the text messages and Internet prayers these days are mere excitement or possible encourager, but to have an immediate answer to your prayer, you have to know your bible. Study it and use it wisely. There are lots of prophets, evangelists, apostles, teachers and pastors among us, but we're as well running after others or those who God did not even call because we're so lazy and we could not find time to spend with God. So, we get easily frustrated when answers don't come quick.  Remember, the same people have their own shortcomings.  I hope your attitude would change this year 2014. My prayer is that God who anointed Jeremiah when he never knew who he was, and Isaac in the year that king Uzziah died, the same God will release his fresh oil upon you this season in Jesus name.