Who will pray for our Children?

I’m over at a family friends’ house and the prayer tonight was a veeeery long thing

Ahhh… Popsie prayed for almost all the families in Nigeria tonight, we almost dozed off.

Popsi “anyi na ekele gi maka ndi be xyx, na ndi be abc, na ndi be qrs…” Us: “amen, amen, Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz… AMEN… *open eyes, look left and right…amen*” -_0

(Meaning: “we thank you for XYZ family, we thank you for ABC family, we thank you for QRS family…”)

Our parents can pray shaaaaaaa…

Anyway, I said that to say this…

A lot of the people I know today have praying parents, it’s either they have a Father who fires serious prayers every time he calls on the phone, or a Mother who does the same, and if you’re doubly blessed it’s both of them.

Birthdays especially are times for the heavy dosage of the prayers from them too (and if you are not married yet, Ovoko!! prayer go scatter everywhere be that *giggles*)

I’m of the opinion that most of them didn’t start praying recently (some maybe), but for the really praying ones, it’s not a ‘Today’ matter, it’s being in their system for a long time, probably was passed on to them from their parents too…

Some of us who are blessed to have these praying parents are actually living on their ‘stored up’ prayers (living on Granny’s angels like Nicole Mullen sang), angels all over the place, working on instructions sent from the praying lips of our worried folks. Protecting us when we enter all one of those our kurukere dodgy parole, and go to those our ‘nkoro’ crooked corners… *shines teeth*.

There’s ever so much a parent can do for their kid(s), you can only do your best and pray that God guides their steps. If they could go everywhere with us to protect us from danger they would, but that’s impossible so they send their prayers to go with us.

Now, sit back and look at us, yes, US = Me + You, present day.

If our parents didn’t start today to learn how to pray, this means we should know how to pray by now, because fast-forward into the future, it would be me and you, sitting, worried over our kids but all we can really do is pray and trust God to be the shield around them.

Do you see yourself ‘today’ as someone who would intercede for a child in distress?

You know, these things don’t just come on you, sure people remember to pray only when there’s danger, but trust me, the banked prayers of our parents that we are currently living on, are not words they just uttered hurriedly for few seconds, these are moments spent with God, calling out our names, one by one, probably bringing out our pictures, laying their hands on them and pouring out their heart to God concerning us.

Does this look like what you can do?

If yes, then that’s great! Congratulations, your kids are covered. 🙂

Aaaaaand if not…. mmmmmhhmmmm…HOUSTON, we have a problem! -_-

You need to start doing something about that… start attending prayer classes maybe: D
On a more serious note, you should look into praying more.

It’s not like there’d be World Peace all of a sudden, and I can imagine you remembering something terrible that happened and thinking, “Why didn’t their prayer cover that one?”

Trust me, something worse could have happened if they hadn’t prayed at all, at least you are alive reading this now aren’t you? See, it worked then. 😀

Now this is not intended to start getting you worried over a matter of the future when you haven’t even finished dealing with your today’s issues *rolling your eyes on your behalf* :)…

The intention is just to open your eyes to realities of life… things you should also work on today, the earlier you’re aware of them, the better, don’t you think?

So as you build yourself in every other aspect of life, in preparation for the responsibilities ahead, you can also give a thought to this… Who will pray for our Children?

Fact Vs Faith….

I just started a new job and already feeling challenged at it. I left a ‘seemingly’ Global company for a ‘seemingly’ smaller one. I was well aware that there’d be challenges but I thought I was prepared for it. I prayed before taking this job and I know the peace I felt when I made the move. All I saw were loads of opportunities and it surely looked like a bright future.

I have no regrets, but…my heart was troubled with all the challenges already and I needed a word from God assuring me he was near.

I opened the Rhapsody of Realities page to read this morning and right there was all the answer I needed!!!

I’ll go ahead and share with you here, so we can always come back to this page when it seems like the heat is on again… trust me, it never ceases. You win this time, get ready for the next challenge but be sure that if you hold on to the same word that helped you the first time, you’ll be sure to win again!!

Do share the testimonies as they come, I’ll share mine too. 😀

Here it is….

Rhapsody of Realities message for 12th of May, 2011.

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Change The Facts With Faith

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Faith is a leap on the Word. It’s believing and accepting God’s Word as the truth, while giving no attention or consideration to the evident negative circumstances.

Someone may ask, “How can I say I’m healed when the growth in my body is getting larger?” Or “Why should I say I’m rich when there’s no money in my bank account?”

Faith doesn’t deny that the growth is present or that you have no money in the bank. What faith does is to change those facts by refusing to give them attention or consideration. In walking by faith, you don’t dwell on facts; rather, you fix your attention on the realities of God’s Word that confirms your divine health and prosperity.

So, quit thinking faith is all about pretending to have what you actually don’t have.

Faith is calling real what God has said about you, therefore acting that way, irrespective of what natural circumstances tell you.

When David faced Goliath as a young boy, he didn’t deny that he was facing a giant. But where everyone else was focused on the size of the giant, David only gave consideration to the truth that God was with Him (1 Samuel 17:1-51). That’s faith!

Faith doesn’t give attention to the things that are perceivable to the senses, for all such are subject to change!

Paul writing to the Corinthian Church said, “…we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.”

That means, you don’t give attention or consideration to the negative circumstances which your natural eyes can see. Instead, change them with the word of faith in your mouth!

Confession

I’m fully persuaded that irrespective of how I feel or what I see, I’m what God says I am; I have what He says I have, and I can do what He says I can do. The Word of God that inspires faith is in my heart and in my mouth today, and I overcome every adversity and prevail against oppositions in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Romans 4:19-21

Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Some music to go with the word *winks*

Check this video out — I BELIEVE http://t.co/2ueNgiJ via @youtube

Why ‘SHOULD’ I get married?

They say the first step to getting a solution is first realizing that you need help.

So this is me saying I NEED HELP!!!

Help in what way?

I’ve lost my faith in marriage. I don’t believe in it anymore.

Besides it being an avenue for *Legal Sex* (you know how God says not to do that thing until you are married… eheeen *shines teeth*) and splitting my bills into two (grins), I can’t think of any other non-selfish reason why I should get married.

Even though I’ve lost my faith in it, something in me knows there has to be a good reason to get married, a fulfilling one.

So here I am, asking you my MARRIED AND FULFILLED friends to please drop a note below telling me something good/positive about this thing called marriage you have gotten yourself into.

No negatives please, trust me, I have a trailer-load of those ones,… there has to be something good about Marriage and I’m on a quest to find it and wet my *EXTREMELY DRY* taste buds.

I don’t want any single person to tell me what they ‘THINK’ it is, I want those who are IN IT to do the talking here… (we ‘Singles’ go yarn our own for anoda blog abeg *winks*)

Please don’t preach to me, you would be wasting your time. I’m trying to be practical here so tell me something practical please and no fairytales too.

*fingers crossed* I pray all hope is not lost….

Let’s go…… …

Sunday Sunday Me-le-cine

Notice how everyone’s (well almost everyone) words/tweets on Sunday’s are ‘Churchy’ or ‘Godly’. You would have to make a conscious effort not to sound this way on a Sunday.

There’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with this, in my opinion. It only goes to prove even more that our words and actions really are influenced by what we expose ourselves to.

The radio stations play more Gospel music on Sunday’s, TV has more Gospel content on Sundays, even the print media have their Gospel articles on Sunday’s too.

Besides, it’s also a character of God’s spirit. Whenever you spend time with him, he rubs off on you… *winks*

Now back to the impact of this influence…

This must mean that the problems and issues that we face in life are a result of our actions, and our actions are influenced by what we are exposed to for the most part of the week… hmmmmmphh

Imagine if we spent quality time everyday with God… Truly our words will be seasoned and will minister grace to the hearers

If only we took this our Sunday-Sunday-‘Melecine’ every other day of ze week…

If only we had more ‘Godly’ input in our lives every other day…

If only we had more ‘Godly’ articles/views on relationships every other day of the week, maybe we wouldn’t be such a mess…

If only we had more ‘Godly’ content in our music, maybe our reasoning would have more value…

If only God had the right-of-way for more than just the one Sunday we allowed him in…

But then again, we can’t wait for the Radio stations to play the music or for the TV stations to air the shows with ‘Godly’ content… we need to make an extra effort to make God part of our daily lives

We need to make that move to have more of his ‘Excellent’ character show up in our words, thoughts and deeds

Let’s show him we value his influence and presence…

Let’s take the step to go in search of stuff that points to him…

Let’s show him we would love to have more of him in our lives.

(More of You by Sinach… http://youtu.be/yZeO_8n1lpM)

I fall, he picks me up…

grabs ze mic….. ifocha pi…..

way back in school… we were really zealous and wanted God to be happy with us *hehehe*, some were *extra extra zealous with hot chilli pepper*

you know how you’ve learnt about God’s love and u don’t wanna mess up your relationship with him… but you are in school and *tins* are happening every where

so people would make *Vows* and pray harsh prayers like *God please kill me if I do this, or do that*…

…eerrm, yours truly knew that she loved her lord but she also had some *scroin scroin* brain so she NEVER prayed dat kain prayer *giggles*

…some girl got killed by a car then, the gist was that she was on her way to go see her boyfriend and a car hit her and she died…

…that story haunted me for a veewwwy vewwwy long time… especially if I was on any kurukere waka *side eye*

…such *God Kill me before I do anything wrong* prayers kinnda tie God’s hands and it’s also short-sighted… see, No be By Power meeehn

…God reeeeeaaally wants us to love him back and live for him but he’s also made provision for when we fall, it’s called GRACE

…most times it’s cos we beat ourselves up when we do wrong that we don’t even look back to take advantage of his grace and we go deeper

Romans 6:1-3 (Message Translation) “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not!”

…ze long and short is, no matter how deep you think you’ve gone, it’s not God who turned or walked away from you, you did, he’s still wer he is…

…still loving you and waiting for you to come right back to wer his love is *winks*

…drops ze mic

The Man and The Shirt

A man was ironing his shirt when the shirt spoke up:

Shirt: Sir, why are you trying to burn me up?

Man: No, I’m only removing the wrinkles from you

Shirt: But the heat is too much, it will soon burn me

Man: That’s not possible

Shirt: Why are you so sure?

Man: Because before I began, I looked at your label and noticed the right heat for you. I do not intend to exceed that temperature

(Author unknown)

1 Corinthians 10:13 – No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (The Message Translation)

Peeps, promotion in every area of life usually comes after examination. God follows the same principle. The first thing that happened to Jesus Christ after God proclaimed Him as His Son was temptation (examination) by the devil!

Let’s rest in this assurance: Your maker knows you more than you know yourself and will NEVER allow anything that is stronger than you to destroy you.

(This write-up was culled from the book “Watch Out World, I’m coming Out” – A collection of short inspiring Christian messages by Mike Kalu Ogba…. Send him a mail at michael.ogbaa@gtbank.com if you want a copy.)

Some mind programming isshh

I woke up thinking these thoughts and since I’m one who believes that nothing happens by chance, I was sure these thoughts were an answer to someone’s questions and so I have decided to share.

Here goes……

Your mindset will determine what you believe and what you believe will determine the quality of life you live.

Your mindset is how you’ve been programmed… Knowingly or unknowingly we are programmed everyday by the things we expose ourselves to… TV, music, books.. e.t.c

Someone sits somewhere in their studio, house, out in the garden or wherever the inspiration came and scribbles down a couple of words probably from their experience and make it into a song. I hear this song and all of a sudden it becomes the template of what my life should be. I nod to it because it probably tells the story of what my life is at the moment. There I sit, being programmed.

I’m watching a movie/TV series (Grey’s anatomy don scatter my head, kai kai kai *giggles*), this is the handwork of some great script writer, but, here I am matching the scenes to my life and trying to connect the results on screen to what I’m experiencing at the moment. That’s some programming issh going on… again.

Every day we wake up there are a thousand and one things fighting for our attention, its either the internet, TV, work… there’s just something there that requires our time… but there’s ever this little something that also wants our attention… it’s the Bible.

The Bible… the blueprint of life. Our maker, the creator of the universe, the reason we are all here in the first place (the one who can answer #IsThatWhyWeAreHere), did not leave us without guidelines, he gave us an instruction manual…

But, how often do we stay around the bible to get programmed by it, to have our mindsets formed by the content?

In this manual are guidelines on how to live an effective life…

– For when you’ve got no money in your pocket Psalm 23 reminds you that “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… he makes me lie down in green pastures

– For when you can’t seem to understand that course in school he says in John 14:26 “the HolySpirit will teach you all things” and you’ll know more than your teachers”

– For when you are ill he says in 1 Peter 2:21-24 “by his stripes you were healed”

– For when you keep doing wrong he says in Romans 6:14 “Sin shall not have dominion over you” and in 1 John 1:9 “he is faithful and just to forgive you”

– For when you need a business idea he says in Proverbs 8:12 “you’ll have knowledge of witty inventions”

– For when you start up a business and you require contacts he says in Psalm 37:23 “your steps are ordered of God” he’ll lead you to be in the right place and at the right time to meet the right people

Wouldn’t you rather be programmed by this?

Where is God?……….. Is Life a Gift?

Questions where asked on a certain Blog:-

– Is life is a Gift?

– Why is God seemingly doing nothing about the wrong in this world?

Below was my response and I thot to share…..

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I was impressed while reading the introduction to this blog : “…we are a group of people who don’t just follow the crowd in their beliefs…”

there’s no better way than to experience stuff for yourself and come to your own conclusions, that way the TRUTH that you’ve found stays deeply rooted in you, come hell or high water.

And it’s in the light of this that I choose to make my contribution here, it comes from my conviction of who I’ve come to know God to be, and goes beyond what I heard he was or is 🙂

I’ve come to know that NOTHING happens by chance, everything that happens here is a reflection of something that has happened in the spiritual and everything is related to something.

So, I would have to trace a lot of today’s event to ze very beginning…

In the beginning when God created everything, he meant well. However, he also realized that it wasn’t just enough to have subjects who worshipped him and did his bidding; a perfect scenario would be when they did it by their choice. SO he added the “CHOICE” factor and we all know what Adam and Eve did with that CHOICE.

The world is in a mess because of the CHOICES we humans make on a day to day basis. The world was created to be good, that was the original design but what we have now is what we have CHOSEN.

This life is governed by rules and God is a God of order. When the world was created he put everything in MAN’s hand, he gave him dominion over everything, but man handed that dominion over to the devil, and the devil became the Prince of this world. God could have just stepped in at this time to put everything back into how it was, but he can’t break his own set rules, Man had to take this dominion back but couldn’t and that is why God in his mercy gave us Jesus, who still had to come AS a MAN, to take back that authority. And he did. So to REIGN in this life, and live in the original order that things were created to be in, enjoying its glorious benefits you would need to have the life of Christ in you.

Why does it look like God is doing nothing in our world today? :-

God acts in our world through you and me, he can’t bypass the order. So where you can make a change, be the hand of God and make that change, where you can’t, pray that God will send someone to be that change and he will put the need in someone’s heart in that place and he’ll use someone else.

Is Life a Gift? :-

Life is a gift from God. He had great things in mind for us and still does. We didn’t ask to be here, we just found ourselves here. But then, if the life you’ve come to know is not worth ringing the bell for, there is remedy. You might not have a hand in where you find yourself today, but once you realize it, seek the originator of the whole process and let him show you how to live the life as he intended it to be. And when you have found the way out, lead someone else to the one who showed you the way.

ForJos – May Love chase away the strife!

Out there lay the Golden cloth, visible to any who passed by. On it lived two families, half-aware of the treasure that lay beneath them, but, they shared a deep love for it all the same. They communed with each other, lived with mutual respect, diverse as two families would be but united by their love for their Golden cloth.

Strangers came by from time to time, telling them how beautiful and valuable their cloth was. Some stayed to feel the warmth of it and left with memorable stories to tell, each story attracted more visits from even more strangers. As was expected too, most envied it and wished it theirs.

With each visit from strangers came a greater awareness of the treasure that lay beneath them, and so did the love and desire to protect it too. “Can we have a piece of it?” the strangers would ask, but each time they would get the same protective reply, “This Golden cloth is ours to love and protect, we have been blessed by it by our forefathers and we seek to pass this blessing on to our children’s children yet unborn”.

Then one day, along comes this stranger, with one thing in mind, “what a valuable cloth, I’ve seen a lot of treasures on my many journeys, but none have captivated my heart as this. I must have it!” Beaming with seemingly warm but pretentious smiles he came, begged to live amongst them and stayed awhile learning their ways, their values. He saw the depth of their love for their Golden cloth yet sought only to take their cloth from beneath them and make it his own. The more he tried, the more he discovered, that as strong as the Love for their precious cloth was, even stronger was the desire to protect it.

How do you take a treasure off someone he thought to himself, without making yourself an obvious enemy? How do I take this precious Golden Cloth without drawing attention to myself, seeing that these people are truly protective of their treasure?

Seed by seed, he started to plant; little by little it began to grow…

Words began to fly, were it all came from no one tried to find out, but every morning each family woke to a new reason why the precious Golden cloth was theirs alone to own. The common love was forgotten; the once friendly neighbor who would normally look after the kids when the adult neighbor went to the farm suddenly grew invisible horns and could not be trusted.

Suspicions began to spread everywhere. The cooking pot is missing; it must be the neighbor who took it. Yams are missing from the barn; look! over there, the neighbors’ yams have increased! My child is ill! It must be water from the neighbors’ pot.

And then, one morning, a neighbors’ son lay on the field. Yes, out there he was, on that same field where the children used to play together, where heads of the two families would each take turns to tell the little ones stories of how they came to find the Golden cloth, the children would laugh at the jokes that laced the stories, mothers would bring the food and water to wash the stories down, out on that very field he lay, cold… in the pool of his blood.

From then on, each family woke up to one less member and slept seeking to avenge the loss. One by one they fell, till there was no one left to love and protect the Golden cloth.

Alas! Along came the stranger, to reap the reward of the words he planted, and with him now resides… The Golden Cloth.

Accepting the "Adoption" option in Nigeria…

One of the thoughts that came to my mind when I was reading the book “Dear Eliza” was the way the concept of ADOPTION is treated in this part of the world. It’s sad to see the pain and agony couples go through trying to have their own babies.

As a young girl I always fantasized getting rich so I could have more than enough for me, adopt a child and then marry someday but as I grew and got to understand my environment more, I realized that I would have to get married first and then discuss the adoption with my husband . I never shared the thought with my mum anyway, I can imagine the look on her face if I did, she would have flipped hahahahah.

My point of view on adoption is this; I believe the true test of love comes from loving a child you didn’t naturally give birth to than one you are bound to love because of the natural link. I also believe that there is more to fatherhood/motherhood than the mere birthing of a child by a man/woman; it’s a process that is attained as you go in life. Why would a couple try endlessly to have children naturally when there are babies thrown into thrash bins almost everyday, you can give meaning to the lives of any of these babies and all that love you have in your heart for your unborn child would make plenty of sense because it is unconditional.

I will not deny the “extended family” factor in this issue but I believe that once the couple in question understand what they want and the MAN stands his grounds ( na him people dey like give plenty wahala ) and they take advantage of God’s grace it will work. We have been adopted by God who is the author of the whole concept and I know he will give the wisdom and love required to whoever wants to take that path if we ask. I see God’s blessing being in that home every second of the way.

Like I said, this is my point of view, what’s urs?