Steadfastness!

                                    As children of God we need to be steadfast in our faith and in our commitments. It is a marvel what Paul passed through in defence of the faith. He brought the same commitment he gave to persecuting believers to preaching the gospel, he could do this because he believed that Jesus Christ was the final bus stop "ebe ano" as Igbos would say.
                                A lot us don't enter our marriage with that commitment needed believing we are at the last bus stop. Many believe we can always divorce if it doesn't work meanwhile in the right sense we should not have alternatives in our mind  to handing our marriage to God everyday of our lives because He alone can keep us with or without husbands. Our marriage is given to us by God if we believe in God, therefore we should always give it back to him. When we do that he will ensure we are not tempted beyond our ability. Paul in Acts 28 inspite of his troubles kept on preaching and showing love to the very people condemning him, we should pick a leave from Paul's book and be full of love. So hard to do but God's grace is sufficient! Just ask for it.

******* Have fun till we meet again*******

This is an interesting season where everyone is rushing around to do one thing or a the other and God has reassured us in- (Matthew 11:28 MSG)“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.”

Do you remember the Parable of the Lost Coin that Jesus shares in Luke 15? The woman has 10 coins; she loses one and turns the house upside down to find the missing coin.

In those days, a floor in a Palestinian home was all dirt with straw on top. To do what this woman did meant a serious search!

That’s what Jesus came to do on the very first Christmas. Whether you’ve lost your confidence, your hope, your reputation, or your innocence recently, Jesuss came to Earth as a little baby so he could recover you like that woman recovered her coin. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life” (Matthew 11:28 MSG).

Only Jesus can do that. You can’t depend on the government, your family, or yourself to recover what you’ve lost. Your savior can’t be the person we put in the White House. Your Savior is who we put on the cross. Never look to anyone else for your recovery other than Jesus.

Here are two things to remember about the coin in the Parable of the Lost Coin:

The coin didn’t realize it was lost. Often, neither do we while we’re unconnected to God.

The coin couldn’t find itself. That would be ridiculous! If the woman wasn’t looking for it, the coin would stay lost forever. We would, too, without a Savior.

If we could save ourselves, we wouldn’t need a Savior. But we can’t. You need God to recover whatever you’ve lost.

He’s the only one who can. I pray we do not lose our saviour as we rush around preparing for the christmas.

                          ******* Have fun till we meet again*******

”Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Psalm 50:15 NIV)

You can’t solve all of your problems. If you could, you would have by now. You’ve probably tried over and over again to solve them, but it’ll take more than you to solve all of your problems.

You need a savior, a rescuer. God sent us a rescuer for the very first Christmas. Every person on the planet is enslaved to sin. The Christmas story is history’s ultimate rescue mission. Jesus came to Earth to set us free from the sin that enslaves us.

You see, some problems in our lives can’t be solved by trying harder but only by trusting in Jesus more. The Bible says, “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15 NIV).

If you trust Jesus, he will set you free. He will rescue you from whatever dominates you. It’s why he came. From what do you need to be set free? Maybe it’s the expectations of others, whether it’s a spouse, your parents, your co-workers, or someone else. You can’t be who you were made to be when you are living for everyone else.

Maybe it’s shame, regret, or bitterness that you need to be set free from. Jesus came to rescue you. You can’t overcome it on your own.

But you can trust Jesus to get you through it.

                      ******* Have fun till we meet again*******

Hello my beloved friends! it has been long we met up. I hope we are preparing very well for the christmas season? Everwhere around me is so busy and i know it is same with you all too. I pray we do not lose our focus as children of God this season of joy but that we remember that Jesus Christ is the reason we have this season and this would be a good time to reconcile with him if we have gone away from him.
It is also a season to give gifts that shows thoughtfulness just like our father gave us all available spiritual gifts in the storehouse of heaven- 1Peter 4a "“God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts------". Our God is very very generous and as many of us that confess Jesus Christ as our God should also be generous not just with money but also with our words of encouragement, kind deeds, time and care we give to others.
As many are buying so many expensive gifts for each other there is nothing as cherishing as showing love to those in need of and spending time with those that no one has time for. In this christmas reflect God in your giving, don't give thoughtlessly!
Have a glorious time preparing right for the holidays.
                          ******* Have fun till we meet again*******

LET GO!

“When the wise men had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” (Matthew 2:13-15a NIV) Joseph and Mary had to let a lot of things go because of their faith journey. They left everything they knew when they headed to Egypt. And, in one sense, what they were sacrificing was their comfort at the deepest level. It is often uncomfortable to trust God and follow his plan because we get comfortable with the wrong things. We get comfortable with our little habits and rituals, the things that get us stuck where we are instead of getting us to where God wants to grow us. If you commit your health to God, it will probably mean giving up some of your favorite foods. If you commit your finances to God, it will probably mean cutting back on your spending. It’s uncomfortable to break a habit. It’s uncomfortable to face a fear. It’s uncomfortable to go somewhere you’ve never been before or forgive someone who has hurt you. But growth and change always come through doing those uncomfortable things, and that’s what’s good in it. But if we don’t face those fears, we continue to hold onto something that makes us feel comfortable and end up turning our back on God who is the source of comfort. The Bible says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3 NIV). I invite you this Christmas, like never before, to recognize that God is the God of all comfort. And in those moments when you want to turn back to that old habit, that old way of thinking which pulls you off track, turn to God and say, “God, give me your comfort.”                   ******* Have fun till we meet again*******

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” (Luke 6:32 NIV)
If you only love on and off like a light switch, you do not love others like God wants you to love. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (Luke 6:32 NIV)
His point is this: Anybody can love those who love them. Becoming a master lover means you learn to love the unlovable. It’s when you love people who don’t love you, when you love people who irritate you, when you love people who stab you in the back or gossip about you.
This may seem like an impossible task, and it is. That’s why we need God’s love in us, so we can then love others: “We know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16 NIV).
When you realize how much God loves you — with an extravagant, irresistible, unconditional love — then his love will change your entire focus on life. If we don’t receive God’s love for us, we’ll have a hard time loving other people. I’m talking about loving the unlovely, loving the difficult, loving the irritable, loving people who are different or demanding.
You can’t do that until you have God’s love coming through you. You need to know God’s love so it can overflow out of your life into others.
Love must become your lifestyle, the habit of your life. But it starts with a decision. Are you ready?

Your life is worth far more than you think, and by learning to love others with the love God gives you, you will have an influence far greater than you could ever imagine. If you will commit to this, you will experience love as God means it to be — filled with hope, energy, and joy.

My prayer for you is “that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love …” (Philippians 1:9 NCV)
                             ******* Have fun till we meet again *******