Be The Gospel!

Imagine for a second that you are the closest some people are ever going to come to knowing Jesus. How does that make you feel?

Your response to the puzzle above is a clue to what your personally contribution to God’s work around you should look like.

We must live the Gospel everyday, and reach out to all men especially those who do not profess our faith.

You cannot compare the effect that light has inside darkness to the effect it has inside light. It has its place in the light but so much so inside darkness.

Prayerfully consider this thought.

Stay Sharp and thank you for reading.

Growing To Full Stature (3)

So I had an interesting ride (and chat) with a bike man on my way home today. Emmanuel told me about how he’s been riding for about four years and that he maintains a wife and three children all on his income from bike riding. While I had no problems believing what he said above, it was his claim that he built a nice house ( I did not remember to ask him for the description) in his village in Benue state that blew my mind and set me thinking.

As I walked in, I remembered another story my sister had told me of a driver in her office who maintains a family of three children and his wife, and also managed to build a 3-room bungalow somewhere on the outskirts of Lagos, all off of his 30k or thereabouts monthly salary.

Then it hit me that these guys could not have achieved what, going by how much they make and what they do, must be seen as phenomenal, if they had not humbled themselves and work unenviable jobs. In fact Emmanuel has a National Diploma from a Polytechnic but he still rides his okada. He is doing what he has to do to survive and raise a family. Shame and ego will not stop him.

But beyond humility is another lesson we can learn and that is sound financial management. These guys don’t make so much but with discipline and sheer vision, they saved what must be a major portion of their income and are able to use them judiciously to make a life for themselves and their families.

The Bible says that a man that cannot provide for his home is worse than an infidel. It also says that a good man leaves inheritance for his children and his children’s children. These two guys have my respect for their determination to make a good life with the little they earn when they could fritter it all away like some of their peers on alcohol and such vices.

I reckon that we could all learn a lesson or two from Emmanuel and the other man. Growing to full stature is on the one part about appropriating our rights as aware members of society but much more importantly, it is about coming to terms with and fulfilling our roles as responsible members of the society.

Stay sharp and strong!

Growing to Full Stature (2)

Here are some of the key lessons I have learnt in my journey to full stature:

I learnt a lesson from Isaac’s life in the Bible about not letting adversity and envy bother me. I also learnt how not to fight for myself. I mean this guy dug well after well, even the old ones his father owned, and different sets of guys either filled them with sand or fought him for it. But Isaac simply moved on every time they contended with him for the wells, until he eventually dug one and no one fought him over it. He gave it a symbolic name, Rehoboth.

I also learnt how to let go of past hurt and that it is God that justifies, from Joseph who was sold to slavery by his own blood brothers but when he had the chance to pay them back in their own coin, he was overcome with compassion and could not repay evil with evil. He overcame their evil with good. By the way, God had already justified him by virtue of the favour he enjoyed in Egypt so there was no point revisiting old issues. Rather, he threw a feast to honour them.

Third, I learnt that God’s blessing reside in people and they take it with them everywhere they go. Abraham was a blessed man and he knew it. So when there was strife between his servants and Lot’s, he asked Lot to choose from the piece of land on offer not minding if Lot chose the best.

Of course Lot chose the  best according to what his eyes could see but the blessings of the Lord followed Abraham everywhere he went. Jacob also brought his success to bear in Laban’s house. Daniel too.

Moreover, when you see a man that trusts in God, you will notice that they are not unduly attached to things and places. They know that God can relocate and bless as generously and as often as He wills.

They are careful not to permit offences in their spirit because then they might be grieving the Spirit. They let God fight their battles. When next you are tempted to defend yourself, remember Moses, who did not enter into the promised land because he allowed himself to be offended out of his destiny.

May God help our hearts to attain to wisdom and to learn to guard our hearts and minds jealously as He nurtures us to maturity.

Have a blessed week.

Growing To Full Stature (1)

Greatness thugs at all of our hearts and at some point we feel its strong urge. We must respond. We call it the ‘come up higher’ moment in Christian circles. I refer to that moment(s) when we come to know that it is time for a ‘configuration upgrade’ so that we can become better fits for the purpose or life work we are called to. We may need to acquire a new vision, mindset and passion in other to see things better and then produce better results, say at work, in your relationships, in things spiritual and everything else for that matter. For greatness is an accumulation of little things done well.

I am at such a place in my personal journey right now. That place when you just know that you have to deliver on your potential; when you know that you must learn more, do more and be more. I am navigating a path that I have never travelled and some of the things I encounter are novel and I have to stretch to and rise to the occassion. I know that it’s tough and I know that I am not the only one going through periods of change hence I write this series for myself as much as I do for you, the reader.

I write about the intensely personal struggle that we may face while stretching to full stature and the ‘huge’ price that we may have to pay when we respond to the call to fulfill destiny. It may require us to take a totally different course from what we are accustomed to like it was in Abraham’s case, when he was asked to leave home for the promise of a country which he did not know at the time or transition from one phase to another to fulfill purpose like it was in the case of Moses when he was asked to lead the children of Israel to battle against Egypt, the kingdom he grew up in even as member of the royal house but his real homestead, Isreal, needed deliverance from slavery. He trusted in what he heard.

Such a demand was also placed on the young shoulders of Gideon in the Bible when an angel appeared to him and told him to destroy the idols in his father’s house. You will agree with me that it was a tall order especially since most young men grow up with deep reverence for their fathers but Gideon responded to the call.

He had to test if it was truly God that was putting him to task by asking for the sign of the Fleece and we also may have to do same or whatever else will bring us to a place of full persuasion that it is the voice of Lord we are hearing, but when the demand is made of us, we must respond.

We may be scared to death like Gideon was, so much so that he took 32, 000 people to fight the war when the Lord needed, and eventually pruned the number down to just 300. Also, he destroyed the altar of Baal as he was asked to but he did it in the middle of the night. He could have done it during the day and nothing would have happened to him but his humanity came through and that may be the case for you and I too sometimes but respond we must.

The Lord even recognized and told him at a point to take Purah, his servant with him if he was afraid to go down alone to the Midianites’ camp. This demonstrates that help is already available and all we need to do is take the leap of faith and let the Lord take care of the rest.

Moreover, it is my considered view that we will all be required to respond to the call of greatness upon our lives at some point and we must respond with action even when we do not know the full detail of the journey but we know enough to know that it is the Lord leading us to take the step. We either respond and grow or refuse and stay stagnant.

That was the choice I faced when I got the offer to work in my current company. I accepted the challenge. It has not been all rosy but in spite of my fears, doubts and the occasional mistake, I am pushing on. It’s early days yet but through it all I have come to realize that if I just dare to move, the Lord will help me the rest of the way.

Finally, if only we can challenge the limits we have placed on ourselves and accept new Godly challenges, we could end up reaping huge material and immaterial rewards. For Gideon, having taken the initiative to allow the Lord work through him to deliver Israel from the hands of Midian was then asked by the men of Israel – same men who asked his father to produce him to be killed after he destroyed the altar of baal as he was mandated – to rule over them.