DO YOU CALL THAT LOYALTY?

Gary Thomas, an author tells the story of two American soldiers who became fast friends during their preparations for combat in World War I.Though they had known each other only a short time, the feeling of close friendship and trust among a group of people of battle and their shared dreams of postwar life quickly cemented their relationship.

One day, these two buddies crawled from their foxhole with the rest of their unit in an attack on the German forces. After a valiant fight, the order was given to retreat. But only one of the two friends returned to the trench. The other had been hit by German gunfire and was lying about 50 yards out of reach.

Against his commanding officer's orders, the other soldier crawled out of the ditch to go find his fallen comrade. Hugging the ground and dodging enemy bullets, he worked his way across the bloody, corpse-littered ground until he finally located the friend he sought. Finding him semi-conscious, they were left with only a few seconds together before he died.

When the man returned to the trench with the body of his soldier friend, the ranking officer flew into a rage for this flaunting of his order. "Was it worth it for you to risk your life?"

"Absolutely, sir. Because when I turned him over, he looked up at me and said, ‘I knew you'd come.'"

That's the kind of loyalty we are called to in all our relationships,our homes and families. Your spouse needs to know without a doubt that when you are needed, you will be there. Your children need to know they can count on you, not just in a pinch, but also in their most routine of expectations. Your fiancee or the one you are dating and hoping to get married to in future must know that when you are needed you will be there.

When they need you, can they be sure you'll come? Oh yeah, yes! You just told yourself but in your heart of hearts can you sacrifice your comfort for the comfort of the one you are walking with now? The one you call your hubby to be or wife to be, your wife or husband or that child you have given birth to and even your friends...can I count on you? Can you count on him or her? Even at work...hope you are not like the cat in the corner. Don't always place your interest first, learn to make the interest and preference of others yours and I guess you'll have some fulfillment.

Think about it.

HYPOCRISY IN OUR CHRISTIAN LIVES

HOW  WILL YOU FEEL  AFTER FINDING OUT  THAT  A  FRIEND  YOU  TRUST  HAS  GIVEN YOU  A  DIFFERENT PERCEPTION OF  WHO  HE OR SHE IS?

 In any great forest you will find huge trees. They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity. However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees. At first one wonders, “Why leave them? After all, we all assume trees as big as that must contain twice or thrice the amount of timber as a smaller tree.”

There is this secret we must all know… huge trees are often rotten on the inside and are the hollow trees that children’s picture books show raccoons living in. And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be strong, in fact their hollowness makes them weak. And this is how a lot of us Christians are; appearing strong, spiritual (spirit filled) on the outside, but hollow and rotten on the inside, falling victim to temptation and negative influences. Even those of us who profess to be men of God, preach and pray “so much” tend to be more hypocritical. Yeah, it’s true. We are all possible victims and we need to watch our way of life.

One of the saddest things about hypocrisy is that many in the Lord’s church have succumbed to deadly playacting (Pretense). Some Christians try to outwardly appear faithful and concerned about the Lord’s work, but inwardly they are worldly – they are only pretenders. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto white sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matt. 23:27-28). Jesus again said we must beware of hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). Paul speaks of hypocrisy when he says, “They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Tit. 1:16).

In our present days we cannot count the number of hypocrites we see around us. We appear to people to be the very spiritual and Holy Spirit led people in the church and even when it comes to things relating to God outside church but I keep asking myself; What is our action life after all that? After shouting the name of God and acting all spiritual, groaning and praying in tongues, what do the people around us see in us?, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: It’s written; these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain (Matt. 15:7-9). After reading this I ask myself, where is my heart? Is it truly with God or I can’t really stand strong at the pleasures of the world .Many Christians see only the faults of others and refuse to see their own. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (Luke 6:41-42).

I don’t believe we have to struggle to be who we are not. NO! It makes no sense. Get to know who you are, accept who you are and in all humility ask God to help you live right one day at a time instead of living with all the pride and making others feel inferior and God will use you as unique as you are.

How will you feel after knowing a friend you trust has given you a different perception of who he or she is? So, what else do you expect him or her to do when he or she gets to know that the you you profess to be is not YOU? Watch your Footsteps… Watch your way of life.

WHEN YOU FALL RISE...WHEN YOU FALL RISE…WHEN YOU FALL RISE!!!

As human beings, we meet temptations every second of our lives. How do you overcome those times?

There are two things involved here, you either learn to rise up, stand strong and firm or you stay down there but the latter is not advisable because it will not add up to your life. You will always be at the same level of your Christian life and your social life too

When you fall you must try and TAKE A DECISION TO RISE UP. The decision to rise up alone can go a long way to build you up. Donnie McClurkin wrote this song..."we fall down but we get up, for a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up."

Sometimes the feeling of having given in to sin takes you so far away from God and you feel God is nowhere close to you(forgetting that you moved lol). Sometimes you even feel like doing nothing in church or even taking part in church activities. You sometimes feel like even staying away from your good pals too but remember, these days are the days you need to stand firm and try getting closer to GOD in His presence because but these feelings are ways the devil uses to keep us away from God. The feeling of staying away from some people in your life I beleive is a medium the evil one uses to break down your relationship with the unique people in your life.

Do not give the devil the chance to operate in your life (your relationship with God an others in your life). The devil can only come in only when you give him the chance and when he steps in he will surely work at destroying one of you ( in terms of a relationship with a fellow man)…usually the other party who feels being avoided and you (when its your relationship with God).

JUST GET THIS RIGHT. He will make you feel so out of yourself and not to do anything to help maintain/build up the relationship… (you feel that same with your relationship with God right?). You’ll give in to anything that happens and you’ll often be ignorant at a whole lot of things happening in and around your. Not truly loving and wishing you have you own way alone. Do not forget, GOD SAID IN ISAIAH 1:18… COME LET US REASON TOGETHER, THOUGH YOUR SINS ARE RED AS SCARLET, THEY WILL BE WHITE AS SNOW, THOUGH YOUR SINS ARE RED AS CRIMSON, THEY WILL BE WHITE AS WOOL.

Unless you don’t want to do anything to build and maintain your relationship with God/your fellow man (or the one you are dating or hope to marry in future). I believe you can give the chance for your love to be rekindled and grow…yes grow, love grows and if you want it to grow, you will work at getting it built up or growing it.

Sin has the tendency to break you down but it will have that effect on you only when you allow yourself or you give it the chance to.

A good friend told me this “sometimes I just wonder  ... how foolish I am in order to fall into temptation rather than choose God instead” but we have to bear in mind that, we are human beings struggling for perfection...notwithstanding that we have to learn not to give in. It’s difficult but we can take it one day at a time

Friend: “i hope that all of us will heed the call to be living saints of today, I guess that the greatest challenge one will need to face since the end brings lots of reward.”

That is very true but we alll mess up in one way or the other but God says He's given us the grace. God is only working through and with us.

We are just his instruments of his mission.

Hope you have taken a cue from this. God bless you for reading.

Watch out for the next edition.

GOD MADE YOU WHO YOU ARE BUT...

Was in church on Sunday and I really took a cue from what the Rev. Father shared. In fact, our lives cn be linked to this donkey. Just enjoy the story.

"Once upon a time a donkey was a HAILED through its town. Everyone in that town gave it unique attention; what it really didn’t request for or demand or earn, to the extent that the people hailing tried to keep its feet from the dust. In fact the old and young bowed down and hailed it as others put on the ground their cloth for it to walk on. The whole day went well for this donkey. A real good time and it really enjoyed the day…a great experience indeed.

The following day wasn’t the same for it. This donkey went out walking along the same path expecting to experience what it enjoyed the previous day but no one recognized it. Not even a soul identified it and all the opportunities it enjoyed were way far off. People were busily doing what they were doing and this really made the donkey sad and went back home to its owner…with tears running down its eyes. What could have caused this? What really happened this time? It asked its friends and its owner back at home."

This is what happens to us most of us in real life. We always want to be identified and acknowledged but it can always be so especially when we allow PRIDE to take over and ignore the very vital things in our lives.

The fact is that in life we tend to enjoy some privileges because we are Christians. The presence of God in our lives really makes us different and the favor of God on our lives opens a lot of doors everywhere we go. That is something most of us tend to forget or ignore.

This donkey is the donkey Jesus rode on. Every cheer and privilege it enjoyed was the result of Jesus riding on it through town and this is what I want us to realize. It was because Jesus was with it.

When God takes us up the ladder of life, or when God opens some doors for us in this walk of life, we have to stay humble and keep to our values as Christians knowing that He is moving with us. Many of us loose our identity when we rise up the ladder of life, pride takes over and we ignore the little things which are vital and important in our lives. Most often the people and the very little things we ignore tend to be what actually helped us climb up this ladder. But we must not forget that PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION AND HAUGHTINESS BEFORE A FALL PROV 16:18

No matter what our circumstances, no matter our status, we can always, if we look for it, find evidence of God's grace to us - his unmerited favor, his strengthening and empowering in our lives. Let is identify that, desire to please Him as we hold on to our values as Christians and live a HUMBLE LIFE.

Until we acknowledge that, we will not be in a position to hold on to our values and enjoy fully what God has in store for us.

“Enuanom na adofo”, let us desire to go with God where every we find ourselves and as we keep to our focus of walking with Him, He will keep making us unique people in life.

 Until I come your way with my next edition, let this scripture stay with you.

• God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20
• Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall Proverbs 16:18  

A Little more time with God

June 3, 2011

Psalms 16:11 NKJV) You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore

After spending 8hrs sleeping and 8hrs at work can you sacrifice at least 30mins to help strengthen your relationship with God? We often ignore the time we spend in God's presence and expect church to help us grow spiritually; forgetting that, growth in our Christian or spiritual life is dependent on our true relationship with God.

Come to think of the time we spend with our friends, family, at work and even watching movies and TV programs. We sometimes get so much into activities around us that we often rush when we realize we are far behind time to watch a TV program or meet friends, trying to meet deadlines.

We all try to be in time or on time in order to meet deadlines and complete tasks. For those of us in relationships, we tend to value the time we spend with our beloved, and forget that the opportunity to meet each other is a doorway to go to God together.

Being in the presence of the Lord could arguably be considered the single most important part of our lives. While in a sense, it is always with us and we cannot live without it, we find ourselves hungering for it more and more because we tend to ignore time we have to give to build up our relationship

While God is omnipresent, and His presence is always with us, we must continue to long for an encounter with the Presence of God. When we talk about experiencing the presence of the Lord, we are talking about the realization of God’s presence – of perceiving His presence and being conscious of Him end growning up in your spiritual life.

Desire to build up your relationship with God... Just a little more time with God.