THE THREE ESSENTIALS: GRACE, LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God and The fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen!

2 Corinthians 13:14

I was at church sunday and the title of the message was “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE LIFE ALONE”. And the focus of the Message was on the Holy Spirit, as you all know (or maybe not) its 40 days after the resurrection and hence the birthday of the church. On this day, some 2013 years ago the church was born with 120 people in an upper room, waiting for God’s promise of the Holy Spirit and when He came, there was an explosion, 3000 people were added to the church in one day by one man’s message that’s a 2400% growth(awesome, that’s what I call that). So the focus was how much we need to form a bond with the Holy Spirit.

GRACE, LOVE AND FELLOWSHIP.

I’ve heard of God a long time. I was born in the church, raised in the Church and that’s a huge opportunity (although sometimes it could be a burden, but it’s the best thing when you eventually find God). But I never really began to know God till one day (6^th July 2007)

On this day, I was having a perfect day (at least that’s what most people will call it), my life was perfect but something was missing. I was in school and life was perfect, my grades were very high, I had need of nothing, I had no reason to be sad or depressed, but there I was depressed and unhappy. Mind you I was born again, and that makes it really puzzling. I went to my friend and I told him what was wrong and he’s like “do you have the Holy Spirit” and I’m wondering “what does that have to do with my state of depression”  and then he said to me to go get the Holy Spirit and explained to me how it works. And on that day, I remember, going into my room and kneeling down saying to the Holy Spirit, come in and within minutes He was there with me and I began to speak in tongues and there was this JOY. Peter calls it and I call it “JOY UNSPEAKABLE FULL OF GLORY”. So I went from being super depressed to being the most joyful person in the world. Now I’ve fallen many times since then but I’ve had Grace to pick me back up on my feet since that day only because God Loves me so much He will never leave me or forsake me.

That story is to point something out, I was born again, had the grace of Jesus and the Love of God, but the fellowship of the Holy Spirit was missing and that put me in a state of despair. The text above prayed for these three things to be present in our lives because of how essential they are to our living as Christians. Grace comes first because it is what makes us acceptable to God and enjoy God’s Love because it is what propels us to do Good and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit because it is what instructs us and helps us along the way( because He is the friend that stays closer than a brother, a perfect gentleman).

To be the Christians we ought to be, we have to have this key ingredients because they nourish us and make us what God sees us as, not one of them should be missing.

Grace is Jesus, it saves us from our despair despite all our imperfections and nails all of them to the cross and makes us free, redeeming us and not condemning us.

Love is God, God is Love, in that while we were still sinners He sent Christ (His Son) to die for us, that’s how much God Loves us.

Fellowship is the Holy Spirit; it’s friendship with the Holy Spirit, this friendship is what we need the most that’s why Jesus needed to leave, He left Earth so we can enjoy this friendship showing to us how important it is. This friendship is born out of talking to the Holy Spirit and listening to Him talk to you too and with time He changes you and transforms you just like every friendship affects our lives.

So my Friend who’s reading

Do you have Grace?

Do you know the Love of God?

Do you Fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

If one of them is missing, go on your Knees and Pray and get those three things and your Life will never remain the same I promise you. It makes you Complete In Him.

Thanks for Reading. God Loves You and God Bless.

LOVE,THE BLOOD AND GRACE

            I am GOD, I am the BEGINNING and the END, so I know the end from the beginning, so when you see what happens in today’s world and you wonder if I see any of it, I see them, I saw them even in the beginning. I am both OMNIPOTENT and OMNIPRESENT  all powerful and present in all places, nothing is hidden from me (even what you did in the dark, the very thoughts of your head, yes I know all about them). THERE IS NONE LIKE ME.

             In the Beginning I decided to create someone special and in other to show my love for that someone I created something. Man and Earth; let me tell you how much I loved Him, I loved Him so much I saw the good and evil that will happen from creating him but I could not stop from creating him, I wanted to enjoy the fellowship I will have with him and let him enjoy the love I have for him. So I created a PLAN; LOVE, THE BLOOD AND GRACE.

LOVE: I created Him just like me(my very own image) so that when you see him you see me and I gave him the earth as a gift and told him to use it, its resources, replenish it, subdue it and be lord over it (have dominion). Oh how much I loved him and for a few days earth was like heaven and everything was good. Then disaster stuck and evil was given birth to when man disobeyed me and obeyed the devil, making the devil his master. So the man I loved so much became a slave to the devil and not a master of himself like I wanted him to be. At that time, even in my wrath, I chastised them out of love and proclaimed the prophecies of my PLAN to save them because I loved them.

THE BLOOD; Man’s life was in his blood, and without blood there is no remission of sins. From time to time I showed him that to get back to me, the blood of an animal needed to be shed. I kept showing this from the sacrifice of Abel to Abraham, to the Passover (exodus) because I am God and of a purer eyes than to behold iniquity. I still wanted to enjoy fellowship with man whom I loved so much so I showed him how he could do just that in my relationship with Israel. So in my PLAN there was the ULTIMATE BLOOD, because of my love I sent MY SON JESUS, Jesus was me in the flesh, he had my spirit and lived on earth the way I wanted man to have always lived with love for me and compassion for all men. However, I sent him to die, to shed his blood, his blood is the way for the remission of sins of every man and the salvation of every man and I made this known to man, by his blood every man will be free from the slavery of the devil when they believe in Jesus and Man can once again enjoy me in the fullness of my love for him. He didn't need to sacrifice blood every time he wanted to speak with me.

GRACE; this very act of mine was grace, man did not need to do anything to save himself but by believing in Jesus, grace was given to man and they could live as I wanted from the beginning. Man was to live with prosperity, in love. However, In this world, some did not accept this and evil still abounds, but not to worry, I am preparing a place for all those who accept Jesus and in that place, there is no tears, no death, no sorrow, no crying, no sickness, no suffering, it’s a MANSION.

If You ever wonder what happens to all this evil in that mansion, well all evil goes to hell(a large lake of fire that burns with unquenchable fire); the devil, demons and every man that has a part in evil and has some evil in Him, All of these I do so that the man I love so much can live in peace and love in the mansion I am preparing for him.

I love man so much and I will do all it takes to ensure that he enjoys all my love and everything I have for him even creating a new heaven and new earth for him.

THAT IS MY PLAN? MY QUESTION TO YOU IS WHAT PART OF MY PLAN ARE YOU IN?

Oh, the love that sought me

Oh, the blood that bought me.

Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold.

Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.

A MIXED DAY FOR AFRICAN CHAMPIONS

I love Nigeria.
In case You don't know, we are African champions at both the youth and senior level. We played two matches yesterday. The Youths against Congo and the Senior ones against Kenya.
It was a mixed day however,the youths did the job, qualifying for the next round(wining 3-1), the seniors had a had time  with a score draw(1-1) but are still top of the group.
The positives is the drive, you see them play more like they want to win, yes they miss chances but i guess we missed Emenike a lot. Obafemi, welcome back to the fold, there'll be better days.
One thing though is that we need to find a way to create that balance in the midfield that let's Mikel pull the string and allows Onazi be the box to box midfielder he can be(cos He's a great ball player)
Kudos to all of them.
J'aime le Jeu.

God bless Nigeria.
God Bless the Flying and Super Eagles(They've earned the right to be called Eagles)

ABIDING:Our Victory

Some Few years ago, i was going through a torrid time in my christian life where stumbling and falling became a rhythm. I found some answers in what i am about to share:

John 15

Our Victory as Christians lies in Abiding in Christ.

I do not know any other way for a Christian to live victoriously than by abiding. Therein lays our victory.

In my personal Christian Experience, I have seen and found that I triumph most when I am abiding. When I am not abiding, I slip, I fall, and the more time I spend not abiding the more into the miry clay I sink. That’s universal so don’t go thinking it’s not the same for you too because if you sit back and think you will see what I am saying except you don’t really understand what it means to abide.

Abiding is an Art.

Abiding includes a number of things, but in sum it is absolute dependence on the vine (JESUS) for everything that we want and need.

Abiding includes:

• ·         Reading God’s word
• ·         Studying God’s word
• ·         Meditating on God’s word
• ·         Praying God’s word
• ·         Worshipping God
• ·         Praising God
• ·         Adoring God
• ·         Sharing God’s word
• ·         Fellowship with God’s People
• ·         Do God’s word.

As you can see each of these is an art on its own so when we put them all together, we have an ART.

They all work hand in hand.

You cannot study what you do not read, can’t meditate on what you don’t read, can’t pray rightly to someone you don’t know, can’t be moved to worship, praise and adore till you read, meditate and study, can only share what you have read.

They form one big loop of victory that sets us on a rock called Jesus. 

I SING

I don't know about tomorrow

I just live from day to day

I don't borrow from it's sunshine

Cos it's skies might turn to grey.

I don't worry about the future

Cos I know what Jesus Said

And now,i'll walk beside Him

Cos He knows what is ahead

So many things about tomorrow

I don't seem to understand

But i know who owns tomorrow

And i know He holds my hand.

Sing with me.

Lyrics and Composer: Ira Forest Stanphill

WITH THE REF'S HELP

Well, I love real Madrid and we've just had one of the best 8 days in history. Beating Barcelona twice and Manchester united once, though we got a little bit of help from the referee. What better reward for all the hard work put in.

I got to say though that if I had to be scared of any team in the champions’ league, it was man u, they aren't the most special side but what makes them special is their ability to win when they are not playing well, that was what made me scared. They have the grit that Barcelona don’t have.

And now that they’re out I have to say ‘bring it on’ to all the other teams (maybe not Bayern and Dortmund if we ever play like we did yesterday again).

Thanks referee, though I agree with him because the rule book says Dangerous play-red card. Justifies the sending off, though we hate the sending off in the big games.

Now, away from all the controversy, you've got to love the awesome shot technique from Modric, the creativity of Ozil for the second goal, the vision of Higuain to get the right pass and Ronaldo's athleticism to get to that ball ,how about the defensive tackles by Varane . On the flip side, the pace of Welbeck and oh boy! 39 year old Giggs keeps surprising me, the defensive organisation of Manchester United till the red card.

That's what football is about, that is why it's the best game in all the world.

J’AIME LE JEU.

HALA MADRID!

HALA MADRID!

               I Love Real Madrid and Yesterday I just loved them more. It’s not often you get to set the camp nou on fire, though we seem to be doing that a lot these days. Not been beaten the camp nou for over 3years now.

              Remember how I said my loyalties lie with real Madrid? Here I am confirming it again. It’s all for the beautiful game. Ronaldo strikes in the 12^th minute, strikes again and then the most promising talent I have ever set my eyes on, Varane finishes it off. Well, they just had to score one, they are barca and they needed to save their face in front of a massive home crowd.

              Now, here’s the lesson I draw from this, who said you don’t need a plan B? I appreciate the tiki-taka kind of football, pass the ball around in pockets of spaces and e.t.c but I also want to see the athleticism of a footballer, the pace, the acceleration, the stamina, the doggedness and grit I see in teams like Westham, Bolton and the likes. We watch the beautiful game for these things not just to see the ball passed around, if I needed that I will go to the training ground. You need to have something else to turn to when times are tough. Isn't that what life teaches us especially with money. The only area of life you're not allowed to have an option is with God and Marriage.

              Life is short they say, but you probably got the opportunity to try again more than once. In soccer however, you’ve got 90minutes, if you’re lucky 120mins. So why not show the grit in that time that you’re given, which was what barca lacked yesterday, GRIT.

Let’s see what happens Saturday.

J’AIME LE JEU.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN.

                   I’ve been having the time of my life for a while now. And many will think it’s because life is good and everything is in place, no it isn’t. Maybe some of it, but it aint the reason for the happiness or the Joy that I feel inside. The reason is because I found something, something I’m swimming in. Something that is abounding in my life now more than ever. It’s been there all along but I never realized it till now.

                  Hey dude, cut to the chase, you’re taking too much time. It’s the SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN: GRACE.

                 GRACE. You found any Christian who doesn’t have that swag it’s because he does not understand grace or its meaning in his or her life. I’ve been on my devotional that has studied the subject of grace for two months now and OH BOY! I feel like I won a lottery.

                  Now what’s that swag?

                  That swag says it’s all possible because I found grace and walks about like there’s not a thing in the world that’s worth being bitter about. It spurs you to be better, to be gracious, and to be holy, to WALK FREE. That’s the swag, a true Christian walks free. Free to live, free to die, free to grow, and free to make mistakes because God is your father first before master, and won’t sack you because you made one even though he might chastise you, just like a Father will do the same to His Son, but the son knows anyway I’m still loved.

                  Here are some truths on grace:

• ·         No man understands grace till he understands and sees God’s Holiness
• ·         Till you understand His anger and wrath against sin you will never understand God’s nature, grace and Holiness.
• ·         God is incompatible with sin, he doesn’t tolerate sin, we all have to meet up to His standard of Holiness and that is why He gives grace.
• ·         Grace  Births Good Works
• ·         Grace in its fullness is found in the totally surrendered life.
• ·         Today’s Grace has to be used in order to get tomorrow’s grace.
• ·         Grace is given for everything. For all commands and instructions, for all situations and circumstances

Just to mention a few.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; that even if he went to sleep for a year and did nothing, God will still love him just like he does now.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; He knows that every Good work he does not impress God, but Grace still spurs him on to do them.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; He Walks Free without any weight in the head or body or spirit.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; that God accepted him as he is and he will accept everyone that comes to him the way they are, not necessarily approving what they do but just accepting them and in so doing emit Fumes of Grace into their lives.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; that he can and will live holy because of Grace.

THE SWAG OF A CHRISTIAN IS THIS; everything comes with grace just like every food served in KFC comes with a tray.

So you see my JOY, my HAPPINESS.

So come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need.

MY GOD: Thank You.

Everything I write is in gratitude to God for life and to point the way to truth, and the Truth that I know sets free because it did set me free.

I was born 21^st June 1988, from stories I have been told, was quite complicated, I would have been the child that never came around, but miraculously through caesarian section I was born and God saved my life and that of my mother. That’s God’s first miracle for me even when I didn't know a word.

As the years went by, I grew up, however, not easily as due to the way I was born there were bouts of unconsciousness where I will lay dead, I don’t know how many of them God has seen me through because I have lost count but I do know that each time, he sent me back to this world, HALLELUYAH, HE SAVED me, it continued for a long time but stopped at some point but found me again when I was 10years old. It became my visiting friend, visiting anytime it felt like it, uninvited. I lived like that through my teenage years until I found my will to fight for myself.

I ran to the only one I knew could help me, My Jesus, My Rock, My Salvation, My Teacher, My Friend, My Hope, My Future, My Answer, My Joy, My everything,  My King, My Lord, My God, My Healer.

He healed me, He made me free and today I owe all of my life to Him, Every Breathe I take, every step I take. Outside of Him I cease to live and exist. Now maybe you see why I say there is nothingness outside of him, which is truth.

Every area of my life is tied to that truth because a lot of times I wonder why and how I make it through a lot of things, the only thing I could say I know for sure is that His grace brought me through. I’ll give you a good example; it happened 2004 while I was writing my mathematics exam for WAEC. In the middle of the exam I passed out, was rushed to the clinic and resuscitated, when I came back to the exam hall, I finished my paper like nothing happened before everyone in my hall and guess what I had? An A1.

I can only explain that one word. GRACE.

So I don’t know who you are and you’re going through that makes you sad, it might even be as stupid as the hair on your head being too short. Come to my Jesus. Remember I said He’s my answer and my Joy, come and find why I find Joy in Him and outside of Him I see nothingness.

My friends come find what I Found in Jesus

AC MILAN DOING ONE ON BARCA

                 Remember how I said my loyalties lie with Real Madrid. Well, this is me telling the story of how you can overcome adversity. Well, soccer is one of the best sports in the world, if not the best, you can draw so many lessons from it.

               Like how you should confront your challenges based on the type or kind of challenge you’re facing.

               Another is how it’s not about age or experience but about the attitude, reminds me of how you add up the letters of attitude and you have 100%.

               It also tells of the importance of mixing experience with youth take Ambrosini and El-Shawary(Something the Nigerian government is yet to see, with all of them in their 50s-60s) 

              Well, that’s the few lessons I can pass on.

               What makes the BEAUTIFUL GAME? The crunching tackles, the closing down, the zonal and man marking done by Xabi, Pepe, Varane, Ramos,Mikel , the awesome ability to strike the ball like the Ronaldos, Drogba,Van Persie,  the ability to caress the ball like Pirlo, Iniesta, Mata, Ozil, the ability to chase like bale, Walcott, the ease of dribble like Hazard,Messi, Moses. Lets not forget the tactical geniuses that put these systems in place the Fergie, the Mourinho, Del Bosque.

IT’S ALL MESMERIZING. J’AIME LE JEU.

LONELY AND ALONE

About a week now I had this argument with my sister that pointed out an habit of mine that I had to work on, I told her I will work on and so help me God, Amen. This led me to thinking about this particular subject, these two words. On that note let’s get into it. ALONE AND LONELY.

I first came about the difference between these two words in a church context talking about relationships. But first, let’s all go to the oxford dictionary

Lonely: sad because one has no friends or company, solitary

Alone: on one’s own; by oneself, isolated and lonely (I DON’T AGREE WITH THE LAST TWO)

The difference between these two words in the church context I talked of was expressed in the fact that one could be alone and happy while it was impossible to be lonely and happy and every single person needs to know how to be happy alone, only then can you be happy with anyone. If that’s up for debate I don’t know, that’s another day’s subject. Here and now I just want to spot the differences between these two states of a person.

Lonely, you don’t choose loneliness, it finds you. I remember a song by Westlife, ‘loneliness is always looking for a friend, it found me once and has been with me since then’, and then in the chorus he chants ‘get out of my life’. Point is, to be lonely is that one thing no one wants. Everyone reaches out in some way, like me blogging right now, through a rally, by loving an undeserving one, rallies on the street for your voice to be heard, facebooking, tweeting and many others

Alone, you choose to be alone, sometimes one needs isolation, a retreat from the buzz, it a time to look inwards to reflect, to reminisce. We choose to be alone so we can be in our space, so we can think clearly, rid ourselves of all the doubts that the world throws at us every day, to see things in the right perspective so u can act on what you know and not what you feel.

Lonely, you are on your own, with no one to count on, you look through all the contacts on your phone and there is not one person you feel or know you could call on, not a shoulder to lean on, puts you in a state of despair with all the negative emotions a man could ever think of feeling (envy, sadness, jealousy).

Alone, you are isolated but when you look inside of you, you find people who have overtime become part of your heart that you can call on and lean on. Lessons learnt that have become anchors, foundations that we can hinge unto.

Lonely, you are sad; there is an emptiness that yearns to be filled. And can only be filled by that specific thing you seek.

Alone, you are sad and you find happiness on your inside, you are happy and it springs from your inside.

Loneliness is never a solution, but alone is a solution a lot of times.

The first reference to alone is at creation where God said it is not good that man should be alone. So weather it’s lonely or alone, they are both not good.

No man should feel lonely at any point in his life; he should be able to count on someone at every point.

But sometimes, not every time, we need alone. To be able to pause, drain out the voices in our head and look inside because the best things in life come from our inside, the things God put on the inside of us.

Personally, I know how to be alone, not sure if I know how to be alone and be happy as I want to be though(I know I used to, but I’m not sure about now), I've been blessed never to be lonely, by God’s grace I have always found a shoulder to lean on in Him or someone He put in my life. So I’m about to learn to be alone and be happy while at it.

At this point I’ll say this, we live in a world where it’s easy to become lonely and never find time to be alone. I’ll say this:

Are you Alone or lonely?

GET LONELINESS OUT OF YOUR LIFE BUT LEARN TO BE ALONE SOMETIMES AND STILL BE HAPPY.