The Loving Touch

Relationship Friday: The Loving Touch

Apostle Paul said it is good for a man not to touch a woman rather every man should have his own wife and every woman should have her own husband.

Of course, just as in everything, we often interpret such instructions out of context and out of the spirit of the Word to suit personal biases.

Not to touch is definitely about the kind of touch that should be between husband and wife. There is a level of intimacy that shouldn't be between unmarried man and woman. God wants us to have respect for our brothers and sisters who are married to our friends and not to take what belongs to them. Even an unmarried person belongs to someone he or she is yet to meet or marry and such should be respected. No one is free for the taking.

But my thoughts runs along the touch that should be within marriage. It is good for a man or woman to touch his or her wife or husband.

Touch represents romance. Touch triggers feelings. Touch creates bonds. Touch gives assurance and reassurance. Touch is a means of communication of deep seated intents of love. Touch solidifies relationships. It helps break barriers and initiates deeper intimacy.

Just a handshake can be powerful enough to destroy enmity. You can imagine the feeling of a boxer losing to his opponent, but having a good handshake and a hug, the pain of loss is doused and they can be friends again.

You can imagine, how the hugs of a loving wife of that boxer at the losing end would further help him to bear the loss. That's what a loving touch can do.

The endearment and the bond between a baby and parent isn't just because they gave birth to the baby but because their touches were the ones the baby feels. The joys of an helpless immobile baby can only be through the joys and the touches of lovable parents. Whose touches, the baby feels is his or her parent.

We don't ever lose that need for a loving touch even till old age. We may have conditioned ourselves not to need it probably for lack of it, but we were made by God to feel a loving touch and to respond.

Marriages is beyond mere duties and responsibilities. It has its foundation in the mutual comfort it offers. The right to expect comfort from the other person and the assurance that it will come and not be denied powers marital relationships. When you remove romance from marital relationship, what you have left is frustration.

Romance has the power to keep you from depression as a married man or woman. It is understandable that many people find marriage tough and the responsibility of keeping a home both for the man and the woman can be enormous, but where romance is healthy, the stress will mean nothing for the joy their romance gives. Marriage becomes a herculean task without the oil of romance. Without romance, marriage is worse than toiling. It's like a machine without engine oil or lubricants, frictions will be much and the engine may soon knock. Romance greases the system and services the operations.

I know certain cultures don't see romance as necessary. A lot of patriarchal societies and negative masculinity cultures see romance as being soft and dangerous for security and great achievements. But we have seen that such perspectives result in hurts and psychological problems. Sadism, lack of empathy and all manners of antisocial behaviours result from not having a healthy romantic culture among married couples.

The same extends to the way children are raised and what they become. Children who had never seen their parents show any kind of endearment towards one another except raised voices, arguments, anger and probably physical and emotional abuses won't see showing empathy as being strong, many become bullies and violent people within and outside the home.

Domestic violence can hardly be in a home where there's healthy romance between the wife and husband. Every argument would end in a kind word and a kiss or a hug. Teasing is permitted in love and there will be a lot of smiles and laughter. Romance makes communication easier and lack of trust, reading meanings to simple things and suspicions will be less.

The pressure of life often affect romance but it is if we let it. We often rate bringing in money for family upkeep or doing house chores and making sure everyone is ok as very important and when we have done all that, romance may be the least thing on our minds being tired. At such times, our minds may find any kind of touch irritable. But it is just the mind. Our sense of responsibility must accept the reality of romance in helping to douse the stress of other responsibilities.
If eventually we fail in our quest to make money and to take care of our families, it's most likely that it is our romance that will take the hit first instead of seeing it as the way to lift the feeling of failure.

I understand the place of non physical touch where actions, words and gestures transmit romantic feelings but with all of that, let there be touches that comfort, let there be tickles, let there be hugs, cuddles and kisses.

Know it that no one will hug, kiss or cuddle your wife or husband as you will do. They may try but it'll communicate differently. Yours has a special place and gives something different to what any other person will give. No one else can give it as you would, so break the ice and take your special place.

I understand also that it won't be easy at the beginning and it has to start gradually if you aren't used to that, but it has to start anyway.
At first it may seem strange and the other person may be wondering what the meaning of that may be, but it also brings reassurance to the person when words of endearment are used to support and consistency is maintained without any strings attached.

Romance is best when hurts are cared for and wrongs are forgiven. When a heart is burdensome with hurts and pains, romance won't work. So we have to ask for whatever forgiveness we need one way or the other. We cannot be hurting the same person we want to minister romance to us or we want to show romantic gestures. Clear the ground first, maintain a good relationship and romance can be helpful going forward.

When we say touch, we understand that beating is a kind of touching also. I remember the brother who slapped his wife and called it a love pat. Of course, he said that to douse the tension but slapping your wife isn't the touch we speak of. Love pat and a malicious slap communicate different things, one is to be avoided and the other is always needed.

In a society where open show of endearment is not common, there will be barriers to break to have healthy romance that build great marriages. It's not that we don't have the capacity to have healthy romantic lives, but our mentality about marriage is that of duties and responsibilities of caring for a family. So we have very bad statistics in extra marital relationships and paternity because romance is meant for flirting in many minds. They'll do such romance with people they aren't married to but not to those they are married to since that's not where it's needed according to the warped mentality.

But where do we need romance at all if not in marriage? Let's take it back there and so build great loving homes and families where the legacy of love can be inherited and passed on to generations to come.

Have a lovely weekend
Photo Credit: Leah Kelley/Pexel

Fruit Bearing

Ministry Wednesday: Fruit Bearing

Fruitfulness is the ultimate in the development of a living thing. The purpose of a thing is its fruit. The delivery of expectations is fruitfulness. Whatever the expectation delivered is the fruit. It is the ultimate output of an entity or system which determines the success of the entity or system.

In Christian ministry, fruits are the purposes for which we were called. The expectations God had when He called us. It is safe to call it the hope of His calling. God invested and keeps on investing in us as ministers, to derive certain benefits from the operations going on with and within us. He created the system and fuels it to perform in such a way as to deliver expectations.

[My Offline Bible] John 15
16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.


[My Offline Bible] James 5
7. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

God has general expectations of Christian ministry as an entity, He has expectations from the particular ministry office and has expectations of particular minister. That's the three fold expectations of God from Christian ministry.

For ministry, generally, He expects that by our obedience to preaching and teaching the word of God and speaking that truth in love, we will all come in the unity of the faith unto maturity to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13,15 New International Version (NIV)

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

So the fruit of ministry generally is that we become like Christ in every respect as His body, as people get saved, discipled and equipped to take their places and positions in the body of Christ to receive and to give what God has sent for personal and general conformity to Christ.

But this can only happen when the fruit of each part is delivered. The apostolic ministry must bear the fruit of ground breaking and setting authority in place, the Prophetic ministry must bring its fruit of revealing the mind of God for the church per time, the evangelistic ministry must bring forth its fruit in bringing nations and individuals into Christ, the pastor must bring forth the fruit of gathering, tending, feeding, grooming and watching over the flocks, while the teaching ministry must bring forth the fruit of revealing and explaining the mysteries of Christ for light and for understanding for the life, the light and love of Christ to be lived and shown to the world by the body of Christ and so achieve the conformity to Christ, the ultimate vision.

This won't be achieved except each of us brings forth his or her own fruits. Though many are called into the same office, each has his specific calling and divine expectations to fulfil in obedience towards the general fruitfulness of the office.
Divine expectation from each of us is unique to each one. The uniqueness is seen in the places and the people one is sent to, the method of delivery of the message and the mode of operation of the individual minister. An apostle to the Gentiles can not present the Jews as fruits, a teacher of ministers cannot present a church congregation as fruits even if there are teachers sent within local churches who must bear their own fruits of teaching within the local churches.

Each of us must discover what fruit is specifically expected of us. The grace available makes it easy for us to quickly discover. It is the grace we labor with. The grace will manifest not just in what God can do through us but in what God does around us and the opportunities and the kind of open doors of ministry we receive. Here we have to be sincere with ourselves to know that the opportunities and the open doors are from God and not self made.

These opportunities constitute flowers and foliage on our trees, they may be what's most easily visible to people to attract them to us for ministry, we must know that they aren't the fruits. The graces given are for work and for enhancements of the assignment, they aren't the end products. We are given grace so we can bear fruits. We won't be rated by the amount of grace we have but by the work and the fulfillment of the assignment given to us to be accomplished by that grace. Fruits must be according to the grace given.
We don't need to boast in the grace given for work, it isn't our doing, it is the gift of God and so we can't boast. A tree doesn't boast because it has been manured, it is what it does with the manure that matters if it conforms to the expectations of the farmer.

God will purge us often for us to bring forth more fruits, the flowers and the foliage must give way to necessary levels for fruitfulness. We will be recognized by the fruit we bear not by the foliage or the flowers. Our existence are only necessary by our faithfulness to our fruitfulness instead of just flowering and shooting great foliages. When we stop fruit bearing, the husbandman, who owns the vineyard may decide to remove us from the scene. We must focus on delivering His expectations and not be distracted by other things.

We may be able to do a lot of things but we must never veer off from the specific purposes for which God has called us from where He expects fruits from us.

Every tree growing in us encumbering the ground while not bearing fruits must be cut off for our fruitfulness in Jesus name.

We shall bring forth our fruits in every season, no season of our lives and ministry shall fail its fruits in Jesus name, may the Lord restore the years eaten up by insects in Jesus name.

Have a great day. Shalom.

Photo Credit: Filipe Lopez/Pexel 

Compete

Monday Motivation : Compete

Life is about drive. Someone said, it isn't about what you drive but what drives you. King Solomon said, anyone who labours, does so for himself because his appetite drives him on.
Proverbs 16:26 The desire of the working man is working for him, for his need of food is driving him on. BBE

Just as our appetite is a major driving force, so also is competition. There is an appetite for survival common to creation, whether animate or inanimate, every living thing craves for perpetuity. [My Offline Bible] Psalms 49
11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

These things drive man.

There's a fearful thought in man that the resources of the earth may not be enough to go round. And so for survival, they fight, which possibly may end in the destruction of other people, even if they will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to make it happen, so long they are able to have an assured sense of perpetuity.

But no one lives forever. No culture lives forever. Fights and competitions must be wisely handled before they birth their futility. Hitler desired to rule Europe, lives were wasted, today, the same Europe, bound together as the EU, not by any war, is headed by someone the majority won't readily remember or recognised either by name or in person. So why the fight?

Same applies in every industry and endeavor. Even within families, the base side of us tells us we must fight and compete. Even within Christian ministry, people still compete. Its arguable that competitions have driven the world to great heights and accomplishments but, is it really this kind of competition that brought us to the development we now have?

Yes, competitions are better than monopolies at the market place. But what brought about the monopolistic ideas and cravings if not the sense of wanting to outwit the other or probably totally annihilate them? Competition is better than monopolies because monopoly is the king of competition, it takes all after winning.

Nations have been conquered by other nations who still couldn't perpetuate. What's the use of conquering others, with vast resources and lives wasted, when even you would only be a tiny bit of historic mention, without being able to live on?

It is the futility of purposeless competition.

When we understand that each of us is here to fulfil a purpose and that the overall picture won't be achieved without each of us fulfilling that purpose, then we would view competition differently. The truth is that you can't fulfil my purpose and I can't fulfil yours. We aren't meant to outwit one another but to complement each other to achieve divine purposes in life.

My failure won't add to your success and yours won't stop mine. Yours can help mine and mine can help yours. That's exactly how we developed to where we are and not by competition.

But there is one competition we must engage in. That's competition with our potentials. There is the length we were created to go. There are possibilities embedded in each one of us. There are abilities within us coded in there to help us achieve certain things here on the earth. These abilities alone determine our limitations and we have the responsibility of removing every other limitation until our abilities become the only limitation in our development.

We must be driven by our potential. We must strive to be all we were made to be. We must take the opportunities that court our abilities to produce things God made us to replenish the earth with.

It begins with faith. The belief in what's possible which may not be obvious. If one can run a 100 meters sprint in 10 seconds without stress, the possibility is there, that with a little bit of more drive and effort, such can run it even faster. That's where competition is and not in outwitting others. If competition is merely to beat others, you may cut corners or do things to hurt the other competitors so they won't be able to maximise their potential for you to win even if you can still do more than winning the competition. In so doing, competitions against others are won but possibilities are never attained.

We must never be complacent. Potentials must never be handled with levity or with slack hands, if we are to fulfil purpose. There's a degree of attention we must give to make potentials produce. Possibilities don't happen by being static, only explorers discover new frontiers.

We must also be consistent in perseverance. Keep at it. Our muscles relax when subject to convenience. They release what's embedded within them when put them to work, and when the work stops, they behave as if they had never done or can ever do what they had done before. They will need a consistent push to arrive at where they were destined to be.

This competition isn't driven by how much comfort we have achieved, it'll be a great waste and disservice to God and humanity, if because you are comfortable and can now afford the pleasures of life, you stopped striving to be all you were meant to be. Our purposes in life isn't to attain our own comforts but to attain comfort for others, that's a higher calling than personal comfort. Who knows if the solution to the next worst human problem is in your fat and comfortable hands, but now you had retired into your palace to enjoy all your "deserved" comfort?

Let's strive and be driven to be all we were created to be and so fulfil purpose being a blessing to our world. That's the only competition we can't afford to lose.

Have a great and fulfilling week ahead. Share this and let it be a blessing to others too. Good morning!

The Power of Loving Oneness

Relationship Friday: The Power of Loving Oneness

Marriage makes two one. But the two must have faith in each other and be in love towards one another before they can operate in oneness.

For this cause, says the Lord, shall a man leave his father and mother and be cleaved to his wife and both of them shall become one flesh.

Apostle Paul said no one hates his own flesh but cherishes and nourishes it.

Two are only better than one when the two are one. One will chase a thousand, two will chase ten thousand but that's only if they are chasing together as one and not chasing each other.

Marriage makes two one in principle but it takes certain things to make oneness a reality.

You have to first know that oneness is a necessity. There are things created in pairs that won't work maximally and normally singly. The legs, the eyes, the hands, the ears, the nostrils etc all came as twins and they have to work as one and in sync to achieve purpose. So also is marriage. But marriage won't be what it was meant to be without oneness between the man and woman involved.

We often think the ceremonies make the marriage, cohabiting, the sex or the children. These aren't what make marriage. Without oneness, marriage doesn't exist. This shows the necessity and the importance of marriage.

Two, for oneness, there has to be love. Both of you must be in sacrificial and unconditional love towards each other. Not the kind of fair weather love that seeks its own things, looking for how to take advantage of the other person for personal gains. Such conditions don't augur well for oneness.

Thirdly, oneness can't happen without trust. Love produces trust. Love shows in the intents of the heart. But love doesn't always produce faith, until it is expressed. Love comes by hearing but hearing isn't just of words and the things we say but reading and hearing the things actions and attitudes are saying.

Sometimes, trust is a matter of personal insecurities and not of the integrity of the untrusted. To someone with personal insecurity issues, there's nothing you'll do that would make such trust you. Every good deed is a suspect because of the impurities of the heart of the insecure. Insecure people are hard to form oneness with. And the insecure must do away with his or her personal insecurity to be able to trust his or her spouse enough to form oneness that will move their lives forward!

Oneness is homogenization with specialisations and departmentalization. It requires supplying all to form the mix from where offsprings are drawn that define increase and success. Both need to be naked and not be ashamed otherwise there will be separations that kills oneness. If you have things to hide or to keep back, you know you're not one and can't be one with another in that state no matter how much love is shown. The trust placed in you is misplaced and can't form oneness.

The degree of love, trust and openness that operate in between couples drive the degree of oneness they form to benefit their union and their future.

In oneness, life is one for the two. The present and the future for the two is one. Oneness isn't theoretical, it must be active and it shows in practical living.

Oneness is seen in sex. Sex makes the two one. The primary benefit of sexual oneness is the pleasure derived, then the commitment or covenant it establishes and the procreation it brings.

All the three basic benefits of sexual oneness is available for oneness in every area. Financial oneness will produce same benefits so long, the love, the trust and the openness are present.

The brains of a couple can bring innovations that will change situations and the world if they will work together as one being married. Marital oneness isn't just about having sex and making babies... It can also make money, it was meant to make your lives...

Your jobs can be family business if oneness comes in. Jesus Christ said, a house divided against itself can't stand. Is your house divided? You'll say No, but is your house running on oneness? Your answer must be Yes!

Start working on it from this moment, build oneness and drive it to make it work for you and your home.

Remain blessed and have a great weekend!

Rejoice, again I say Rejoice

Ministry Wednesday: Rejoice, again I say, Rejoice

It's quite important to know where our joy comes from. It'll help us stabilize. Ministry needs ministers with clear heads. The challenges are many and they have the tendency of wearying the soul and recreating the person of the minister even negatively.

Each of us seeks happiness and comfort. The worst that can happen to a minister is to seek happiness in the wrong things. The disappointment will be enormous. Of course, the people of the world have their ways of seeking happiness. If things don't go as they desire, they have their own ways of creating it.

 Many seek happiness from substance abuse, from financial prosperity and from other external sources.
Of course, the world has recognized happiness as man's ultimate desire and has used that desire to enslave and control man. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life thrive by the false hope and promises of happiness they give. And day by day the cost of happiness increases as man pursue it in its elusiveness. The cost of entertainment keeps increasing yet the happiness they bring don't last. Consider how long the joy of your favourite soccer team winning their last match lasted and the cost of following the team?

Our joy is in God as children of God. That may sound simplistic. The truth however is that joy is part of the fruit of the spirit. It is a result of a spiritual reproductive process. Just as in the process of producing physical fruits. Fruits are results of a process. They aren't instantaneous, they don't come just by casual engagement with God. Our spirit and the Spirit of God must be in very close intimacy to produce the fruit of the spirit that brings joy to us.

The kingdom of God isn't in external religious rites of eating and drinking, and other activities, these can only drain us of spiritual vitality and excitement making our forms of godliness cumbersome and tiring. Rather the kingdom of God is in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's where zeal, excitement and enthusiasm for the things of God come from. Ultimately, that's where joy comes from to the child of God.

Or how do we explain our being able to rejoice in tribulations and enjoying comfort in afflictions?
[My Offline Bible] Romans 5
3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Or how can you be exceedingly joyful in tribulations except you are out of this world? And yes, we are!
[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 7
4. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

How does that make any sense? That's because our source of joy isn't in things that perish or that are transient. We are comforted by an ever bubbling joy of the Spirit of God from within.

[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 1
4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

Without this phenomenon, we can't survive the organised and the stray tribulations we are subjected to. Even the sufferings from 'Brethren' alone are excruciating enough to decimate a person but for the consolations that are in Christ that keeps us in shape against the pressures that seem to deform us spiritually and physically.

That's why we can rejoice again and again. Apostle Paul, gave the instruction to the Philippians, it wasn't a suggestion but a command: not so as to fake it or be hypocritical about it but to take advantage of a prosperous life in the spirit to keep hope alive and to be joyful beyond the circumstances and the happenings around us.

Depression is real. And it isn't that those who fall into it are weaker vessels, rather, it is the direct repercussions of the troubles and the tribulations of this life and its cares.

It isn't anything beyond being infected by paramecium that causes malaria or being infected by any other disease-causing parasite, once one is exposed to it. It is equally a result of human weakness to dealing with the troubles of his environment. But God has answers to both malaria and depression. God who made us also heals us. He has created for us a system by which we can soar above the troubles of this world and still keep our joy. A system beyond paying a fortune to a comedian or subjecting ourselves to obscenity to be able to laugh.

We have the Holy Spirit within us who engages our spirits in the time of troubles to trigger bubbles of joy within us. We are not careless but we must be carefree to permit the Spirit of God to do His work. We have to trust God with our lives knowing that He is in control, casting all our cares upon Him, because He truly cares. Learning to be content in all things and to maintain our identity in Christ Jesus either we abound or abased... We have the assurance that He will always come through for us, no matter what!

So I join apostle Paul to issue the call to you today to rejoice, and again I say rejoice...

Good morning

Photo credit: Edu Carvalho/Pexel

It is not Good to be Alone

Relationship Friday: It is not Good to be Alone

In the book of Genesis, marriage started with God saying, it is not good for the human he had made to be alone. There He resolved to making him a help meet and suitable for him.

Man didn't have a problem of who to work with, he only had the problem of companionship. He didn't even have a problem of procreation, God would have found an asexual means of reproduction for man to keep giving birth. The problem man had was that of companionship.

The necessity, therefore, of marriage is in companionship and in being there for one another. The social need of a married person is the primary responsibility of the spouse. A married person shouldn't have a problem of loneliness or being alone.

Being alone isn't just a case of not being in a crowd. It is more than not having someone near. A person can be in a crowd and still be lonely and alone. It goes beyond being among people, it is about having someone who connects mentally, psychologically and emotionally.

I believe that's the reason why the help meet was not found in the animal kingdom outside of Adam. God had to split Adam into two to get him to be the help he needs for himself. No help against loneliness or being alone can make any lasting effect if it isn't of the bone of one's bones and the flesh of one's flesh.

What that means is that we have to learn to be there for one another once we are married. It is more than bearing same name, living in the same room and having sex but a ministry that offers vital emotional, psychological and social benefits that give emotional and psychological wellbeing to the other person.

With you are married to your wife or husband, she or he must never walk alone while you are still alive. There must be a sharing and shearing of both the pains and the joys of life. There should be mutual emotional and psychological reliance on one another.

That's why it is the worst kind of betrayal and irresponsibility to suffer rejection in the hand of a spouse. The greatest support a person can get is that one coming from a spouse. Some may not cherish it until they don't have it anymore. This one support is worth a million others. If it's there, it may not matter much whose support isn't.

But it is highly enhanced by communication and openness. Emotional and psychological needs are not easily discoverable. They are not like physical needs that can be easily seen. That's why this depends so largely on quality communication. When we are naked to one another emotionally and psychologically, and not being ashamed, even if it makes us look vulnerable, we give the other person the opportunity to play his or her role of being the companion and the help we need.

Our spouses won't know if we have been hurt and the kind of hurt we are dealing with if there is no platform for communication. We often wish they knew without us having to tell. But they won't know and the responsibility of knowing by the Spirit should not be added when we are there to speak up of what is going on within us.

And when we have been told what's going on, we should not treat it as something unimportant. What's important to one may not be important to the other but in marriage, what's important to your spouse is a big deal even if it isn't important to you. When we treat what's important to the other person, which may not be important to us as no big deal and we handle then with kid gloves, we tend to make the other person think he or she isn't important and shouldn't have shared the information. Such would find it hard communicating such issues next time.
When our spouses open up to us about their emotional and psychological difficulties, it is a great responsibility that has been given and we should rise up to the occasion, paying serious attention and making sure the issue finds a solution.

The greatest solution is in being there. Being the ear that hears. The shoulders to cry upon, the heart to bear the burden, the hugs that soothes, the mouth that encourages, the legs that walk with and the hands that work out solutions to the problems.

The bottom line is that you just have to be there. That's your business, you can't be too busy to be there for your spouse. It is why you are married to him or her.

It is not good to be alone and now that you have a companion, be there for him or her... That's what makes it good! Otherwise it's not good and it can be worse if you are there and the your spouse is still alone and lonely, having no one to share his or her pains and struggles with... That'll be a shame.

Start today to create avenue for emotional and psychological ministering to your spouse. Check out for symptoms of depression, sadness and hurts and start doing what you can to show concerns and cares. With you being there, there's enough help to move on unto solutions!

Have a solid weekend together! God bless you and your spouse. Share for others to take action!

Photo credit: Luizmedeirosph/Pexel

Love and Romance

Relationship Friday: Love and Romance

Love and romance are two different things that married people should understand. Of course, you need not be married before you understand the difference.

We are to love everyone but we are not to have a romantic relationship with everyone. So when I say I love you, I don't necessarily mean that I want a romantic relationship with you. Though that's the way the world sees it but people of understanding need to know that better.

Love is needed in every relationship. It isn't a feeling, it is a show of responsibility. It is expressed differently in different situations and relationships. A man loves his son and loves his wife too, but what love of a father means is different from what the love of a husband mean. The expression of love from a father to his daughter is different from the expression of love from the man to his wife. That's why we don't easily call the love of parents to their children as romantic, even if the responsibility is big even bigger sometimes than that of the intimate relationships they may have.

Romance is for marriage. It is one of the responsibilities of the marital relationship. It must never be undermined. It's absence should be questioned. It should be inspired by love. It is the unique way marital relationship exhibits or expresses love.

It's common, particularly in regions where open display of romance isn't a culture for people to claim to love their spouses without having any romantic experiences with them. In such cultures, responsibility of the marital relationship is centered only around making provision, providing security and leadership from the man and showing respect for the man and his people, home making, child bearing and upbringing and so on from the woman, which may be devoid of any act or words of endearment.

Meanwhile, all sorts of romantic moves and endearment are shown during courtship particularly from the man, soon after marriage such disappears, supposedly to face more serious issues.

Marriage then looks like a contractual arrangement that has no soul. It is then seen and operated as a set of duties and responsibilities that may coexist with abuse and negative emotions like malice, fights etc.
For instance, you can have a man who leaves home 5am and returns 10pm without a call but provides adequately for the home, claim to love his wife because he does his 'duties'.

But marital union is more that doing certain duties recommended by society. You just don't need a cashcow as a woman, neither do you just need a housekeeper as a man. You really want emotional health and well-being that should be provided only by the most intimate person to your heart and soul.

You want to be happy and be at peace. You want laughter and joy. You want to be touched and to be cuddled. You don't want silent and cold treatment. You want to talk and empty your mind to a listening mind. You want to play and throw banters. You want to tease and be teased. You want an environment private to you where you can be free to be all you desire and be a child again. And these desires aren't just for a woman. Because these are the things we have been made to believe, that only women wants such things. But such mentalities are archaic. They were only fit for those days when wars were rough and frequent. When women had to stay back home to watch over the home, the farms and the kids and men go to war not having time to play. These days things are more organized and we can be who we're made to be.

To say that men don't want romance is to deny how we were originally wired. Yes, we may have been conditioned to deaden our instinct of marital romance and replace it with the sense of responsibility to provide for the home, but we can't deny the fact that we were so created and wired to be romantic beings.

And it's not a wonder that lots of men who don't show their romantic sides in their marriages do so outside their marriages in adulterous relationships that ruin them. Why is this so? Because romance is seeing as only useful in wooing a woman, not in keeping her. So, it isn't a meal for the woman already married but for those such men aren't  married to. And so what's meant to strengthen the relationship between a husband and wife is used to create unfaithfulness to one another. Because as the man is flirting with other women, so also other men are with flirting his wife because to them, 'flirting' isn't for marriage even if the instincts are hard to kill.

But that's not right and we all know it. But because we won't put romance and flirting where they were made for, we create societal complications that create emotional hurts that are transferred to generations after hard to heal.

Now, the Bible in describing adultery, calls it the stolen water that's sweet but eventually kills...
[My Offline Bible] Proverbs 9
17. Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 18. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

That's it with people who take romance out of marriage to express it outside of it, neglecting their spouses and opening them up for unnecessary temptations.

Now, sex isn't what romance is all about. You can have non romantic sex and still have dozens of children out of the dry copulations. Sex without romance is just an exercise of ejaculation that leaves pains and regrets behind.

Romance is also not a rampant expression of libido and lewdness. It is rather an expression of marital love and commitment to whatever length needed, in readiness for any required sacrifice without flinching. It is a show of sensuality but not inspired by mere sensuality. It isn't infatuation that lacks commitment, solidity and reliability. It is a show of endearment with the backing of unconditional love.

While selfish libido often leads many into romance, it is such that will leave hatred and rejection behind. [My Offline Bible] 2 Samuel 13
14. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. 15. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.

(If you aren't familiar with that story please read it up, so much to learn about how people are motivated by their libido to take advantage of others sexually.)

That's not the kind of romance or love we are speaking about here. Such is evil. It is called sexual immorality. And a reason why marriage and its commitments are necessary before romance and sex should come in, to avoid being taken advantage of, used and dumped in shame and regret. It's now not commonly accepted to be chaste till marriage anymore but that hasn't reduced the incidents of people taking advantage of others to use them to satisfy their carnal sexual lusts. And we discover daily that promises to marry aren't even enough to stop people using others.

Even in marriage, romance shouldn't always end in sex, the world of a married couple is supposed to be of romance either when present with each other or not. It is meant to be an unending rollercoaster of romance, sex or no sex.

Romance actually starts with thoughts. It's actually a thing of the mind. If the mind is not in alignment, the body won't recognize or respond to stimuli. A hurt in the heart made by your spouse won't readily permit romantic thoughts to grow in the mind and romantic frigidity is the result. Every overture will lead to more anger. Every touch will be irritating and every word, no matter how endearing won't inspire faith because of the hurt occupying the heart. You can't be frustrating your spouse in actions and words in the living room and get into the bedroom seeking romantic attention. It won't work. It's not your bedroom light which you can switch on and off by a click.

When love is entrenched in a marital relationship, with both seeking the best for one another with the readiness to make sacrifices for the good of the other and the union, even within their imperfections, romance will be easy. When love is properly engrained, you will hardly be able to afford leaving each other, so that when you have to depart, the minds are filled with the thoughts of one another till you meet again, and being together you'll hardly be able to take your hands off each other... This isn't just to woo or for premarital courtship, it is even more appropriate now that you are married. The wedding or the kids coming should never put an end to love and romance in marriage.

Rekindle the fire right away by a text message and see what happens after. I'd not mentioned the place of words and communication in igniting romance, we'll deal with that some other time.

For now, let's do it... Ignite the fire and keep it burning, tap into the joy God has given you in marriage and live a new and happy life!

Have a romantic weekend!

Mercy Against Fainting

Ministry Wednesday: Mercy Against Fainting

[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 4
1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

There will be many reasons and opportunities to faint in anything we do. And in Christian ministry, there will be many more opportunities to faint. There are myriads of agents of discouragement fighting to stop the minister of God from delivering the purpose for which God has called.

If we fail in the day of trouble, it’s because our strength is small. We face intense trials and temptations, because of the intensity of demand on our integrity, character and performance within our unusual calling, which calls for personal sacrifices to meet up the standard, as it exerts intense pressure on family, finances, emotional and physical well-being, societal acceptance and other areas of the life of the minister.

The enormous expectations from God, from society and from the church can become a daily stress with the desire to quit always lurking in the heart of we don't understand what provision God has provided with which to deal with the demands.

There are so many issues capable of breaking a minister of God. We all have to deal with people, for instance, but the way a businessman will display his people skills will be different from that of the minister of God, who is expected to always turn the other cheek and must not complain while being cheated. Any attempt to express his frustration is seen as being incompatible with his integrity and reputation. Yet, there are people who would deliberately provoke him or would take advantage of him because he won’t complain nor resist.

If you want to see stress, there's no better place to go than in the ministry. But because of the desire to serve the Lord, lots of ministers are still happy. I understand that some will fight back by indulging in all sorts of things behind the scene, some will also use their offices to take undue advantage of others, some will even oppress others but I can tell that many are still bearing up under the enormous weight of societal expectations.

The statistics concerning the physical and spiritual wellbeing of pastors aren’t looking good even if they had improved over the last 20 years. Some sites to access these data include www.intothyword.org and www.churchleadership.org
These may exclude data from other regions and cultures but they tell us how that the call into ministry has its difficulties and how people could respond to it negatively.

The culture and tradition of ministry work in Africa may be a little different from that of the United States of America but the stress isn’t less, may be more and the response may be worse if not same. Here in Africa, instead of quitting for instance, we may begin to take advantage of the people to satisfy what’s missing and before God, it is same, fainting. In both places, marriages and homes of ministers are under pressure emotionally and financially. In both regions, ministers fall into sexual sins not just because they are demons but for some devilish ‘fresh air’, all amounting to fainting.

How about making merchandise of God’s people? So many ministers, because of financial constraints and difficulties in meeting their family needs have resorted to all manners of do-it-yourself methods of raising money including floating mega businesses as part of ministry, aside the pressure they put on people to give and to buy their so called ‘spiritual’ products.
It isn’t seen as same with doing the same things Jesus Christ sent traders out of the temple for.

I’d said all that to confirm what Apostle Paul said concerning fainting in our scripture text. Fainting is real. But we don’t have to faint if we obtain mercy just as apostle Paul did.

Yes, he obtained mercy and didn’t faint. It is possible to say, “well, God gave him mercy, not everyone will have such mercies”. Aside from the fact that I believe everyone has his or her own mercies to help from fainting in the day of trouble waiting to be activated, we still have the opportunity and right to go boldly to the throne of grace to obtain it to help in time of need.

As soon as we have a ministry from the Lord, the possibility of fainting is immediately created but so also God has made provision for deliverance through mercy. If, therefore we have received a ministry, we should also make sure we ask and activate the corresponding mercy so that we don’t faint.

Don’t give up is the message. But more than the personal resolve not to quit, seek the mercy attached to the ministry received of the Lord and it’ll be alright. Don’t think the answer is with you outside of God and His mercy. The way is known only to Him. He has traveled it before and He has answers to every bit of challenge we have the tendency of facing on the way, don’t despise it. Call out for mercy. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Hope you’ll call!

Bow down your head before God right now and whisper to Him…
“Oh God of mercy, I receive a release of your mercy upon me and so strengthen me at this time so that I do not faint… in Jesus name!” and expect Him to make a way, where there’s no way!

Have a great day, servant of God!

Photo Credit: Harsh Kushwaha/Pexel

The Father Knows Our Needs

The Father Knows Our Needs

It is clear how Jesus Christ presented the issue of our relationship with money and material things.

He said we shouldn't lay up treasure here on the earth.
Matthew 6
19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:


He said we should not make money and material things the objects of anxieties and worries.
Matthew 6
31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.


He spoke of the danger of the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches to the spiritual life.
Matthew 13
22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.


He said it is difficult for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Mark 10
23. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 24. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! 25. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

He spoke about a rich man whose farm yielded heavily but was not rich towards God.
[My Offline Bible] Luke 12
15. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

He spoke about how mammon could become the object of our worship and service in the place of God.
Luke 16
13. No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

In fact, at a point He said the rich had received their consolation...
 Luke 6
24. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

Now, it'll do a Christian commentator a lot of good if such studies these passages in context.

But that's not the whole story, even though it sounds as if being rich is negatively presented. We also saw that certain people of substance and wealth served Him and supported His ministry...

When his disciples asked what would happen to them who had given all. And how possible is it for anyone to be saved using that measure. He said this...

Mark  10
26. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 27. And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 28. Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, 30. But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 31. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Notice, He said, we'll receive mothers too... Meaning, we should be careful taking the words totally litotally but He sure gave some promises there.

But then, does it mean God wants us poor? No, He only doesn't want us to be covetous nor replace God with money in our lives. He knows we have need of things He had created for us. Jesus Christ said that twice in Matthew chapter six alone, it seems He really wants us to be convinced of that fact.


Matthew 6
8. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Father knows we need those things unbelievers set as their objects of pursuit worship and devotion, while we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first and He would add them to us as we seek the kingdom.

So, it is possible for us to have our land yield bountifully but we must be careful to be rich towards God.
We must be careful not to serve money or to worship it, no matter how much we need it.
We must be careful not to allow the cares of this world to control our lives. We must be careful not to be deceived by riches. We must know that the Father Knows we have need of the things of this life and we should be expectant that He will add them to us if we continue in faith in Him. We must not be covetous, selfish or greedy. We must learn to give to the poor and to the cause of Christ and His gospel and lay up our treasures in heaven and not here.

Photo Credit: Public Domain Pictures/Pexel

How Desperate Are You?

Monday Motivation: How Desperate are you?

Every heart yearns for success. More importantly for daily sustenance. Many, having conquered basic needs strive for a life of luxury and absolute freedom without stress of any kind. Some are driven to be part of the very few multi billionaires and so are in competition to be in the top numbers of the most wealthy. Some are simply driven by their knack for commerce as a game, pastime or routine work, they are rich but not for any personal vanities.

Many too are poverty driven. The desire to leave poverty, probably having seen or suffered the horrors of it. The fear of poverty, of not going back there or of not experiencing it drive a lot of people.

Poverty can truly be devastating and should not be cuddled nor given a space within our community and economy but it can be a motivator for good. As an inspiration from the rich unto good works or for a desire to work oneself out of it.

Many wants to be rich to break the back of their sense of being oppressed. Their self esteem is affected standing next to someone richer than them. They just can't stand someone else spending while they can't afford to buy things even if not basic things in life. They derive satisfaction and self esteem from being seen as rich. They don't mind being rich but being seen to be rich is more important to them than their being actually rich. They drive the big cars, hang around the same places the rich hang out, they may be neck deep in debt but they'll still spray money at parties and live in the high ends of the community. It is about being seen as rich. They tell anyone who cares what they have, where they've been and what they can afford.

Now, wanting to be rich and why, may not be the problem, what people are ready to do to get rich is actually the problem. Though there is a thin cord that attaches the reason for wanting to be rich to what people are ready to do to get rich.

Some would rather die than not be as rich as they feel is necessary. It all depends on how desperate they are. If a person is desperate enough to be rich, nothing will be too much for him or her to do. It's about being desperate.

But being desperate makes you dangerous, reckless and callous. It is driven by that sense of hopelessness, of last resort, urgency, anxiety and despair. Being desperate removes every sense of decorum, decency or rationality clearing the way of any restraints that may discourage from doing whatever the desperado feels is necessary.

Most desperate people won't listen to the voice of wisdom while they put themselves and others in the path of danger and destruction to get whatever they feel they need to succeed.

Despair makes you feel you have done all that are possible to get what you want and have failed and now you have to do what may not be generally acceptable to arrive at what you want so badly.

I saw a video recently of a young man copulating with a cow in a bush, the person who sent it said it was a kind of money ritual. The cow was to be killed and the meat served at a party from where the fortunes of the partakers would be withdrawn for the guy who did that. Meanwhile, whoever told him to do that didn't tell him that when you join yourself to another being you become one with the being. While there is a spiritual law of sacrifice, that was typified and ended with Christ on the cross, there is also another law of oneness, where you become one essentially with whoever you have sex with...what has become of that man in the realm of the spirit can only be imagined, yet without any guarantee that those sacrifices will work.

Desperation is often a sign that what it inspires is an error and that it most probably won't work or end well because it doesn't permit any reasoning outside some vague imaginations and superstitions.
You can imagine the amount of crime desperation has inspired, the number of people in jail or who have engaged in dangerous crimes and got killed for being desperate.
You can imagine how many die daily from dangerous crossing of Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea out of desperation. You can imagine many who have been lost in strange lands because they fell for the horrors of desperation.

You can imagine the number of people who have been hurt, deprived of their valuables or murdered because of some desperados who would want to live a certain kind of life at all cost, not minding what sorrows and pains they cause others.

Being desperate makes you think you've exhausted all legal and normal ways of finding solutions to your problems. When you start feeling that no one gets rich without joining a cult, doing something diabolical, stealing or killing someone, then you are setting up yourself for the negative motivations that comes out of being desperate. Just anything will crack the flames that will destroy things. When you feel evert rich man must be a thief or a murderer, then you are prepping yourself up for trouble. Such thoughts are unreasonable but being desperate, it won't be thought through to see the holes in such ideologies.

Desperation makes one vulnerable. You can hardly be duped when you aren't desperate. Human trafficking is boosted by that sense of being desperate the victims acquire somewhere there making them susceptible to those who will enslave them.

The truth is that you don't have to steal, kill or destroy others to be rich. When you argue this statement then you are ready to do things out of being desperate and no one is safe around you, not even your parents, your wife or your children. It's good to mark desperate people and avoid them. Anyone who's desperate to achieve success in anything can be dangerous, even if desperate to be a successful pastor. Judas didn't mind betraying Jesus Christ just for a few pieces of silver. We must be careful.

The truth about life is that you don't need all the money in the world to be comfortable. Our desire to be rich must come with constraints and not with despair. Why would you gain the whole world just to lose your soul? What would you pay to gain back your soul? That is one of the things Jesus Christ taught on this subject matter. The whole world gained can't be enough as an exchanged for a lost soul.

Apostle Paul explained it to Timothy this way...

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 6
5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
6. But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
9. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

In a society as ours where young men and women are ready to do the uncommon to get out of poverty and be rich enough to spend on vanities, and by which our economy has been pillaged, raped and robbed, we need a new motivation, sensible and realistic to help restore what's lost in our value system. Enough of grafts in private and public sectors, stealing, lying, kidnapping and murders just because we want to be seen as rich, let's deflate this evil sense of desperado and be ready to do all that's good and capable of bringing us into the prosperity we have been given in God as a people.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 6
17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, NOR TRUST IN UNCERTAIN RICHES, BUT IN THE LIVING GOD, WHO GIVETH US RICHLY ALL THINGS TO ENJOY... (emphasis mine)

We must check how desperate we are and start deflating it till we are able to think reasonably and rationally to discover the ways God has ordained to lift us and the people who look up to us out of poverty.

Good morning. It's a great week. Be inspired!
Picture credit: Tookapic/Pexel

Smarter than the Standard

Ministry Wednesday: Smarter than the Standard

We are often encouraged to think beyond the box. We were once taught to make sure we write within the box as elementary school pupils learning to write. The 2b exercise book was used to teach us how to write numerals and how to write them within stipulated space. The 2d exercise book was used to teach us to write within stipulated straight lines. The essence of these is that our minds are trained to stay focus in writing. The effect is that after we stopped using these exercise books, and graduated to using plain papers to write, we would keep those boxes and lines in our minds even when they are no more there physically.
They help us still in writing. They are fundamental.

But in innovation we would need to think beyond the boxes of limitations and consider other ways of accomplishing things and solving life's problems, especially when known ways of getting things done are failing. This too has worked, bringing so many solutions to the problems of the world.

But it won't work all the time. For instance, the basic laws of nature, even with their rigidity, remain basic. We may have to explore them further than what we have known but they remain fundamental. With them, the more we stay within the box, the more we discover what we are yet to know, embedded by the Creator for our good. Here, you can't be smarter that the standards.

It is the same in following Christ. It is true that times are different now. The world has moved on in development through massive knowledge and technology. Between the days of Christ and now, the world had developed more in communication, in transportation, in medicine, and so on. But certain things remain the same irrespective of the changes.
For instance, man may have conquered his environment to a large extent, he's yet to conquer his greed and self and so he's yet to be able to properly manage his achievements.

This is where the coming of Christ remains relevant and it'll be so till this age closes down. The fact that mankind needs salvation from its sins and that he can't obviously get it by himself and that God has provided a solution to clear away past sins and to enable him become a better race, that can sustain itself on love through the message of Christ and the influence of His Spirit is fundamental. Christ has become the standard for us with the way He saved us by sacrificing Himself for us. We too must follow that standard, we can't be smarter than that. Until mankind learns to truly and sincerely make sacrifices for others according to the standard set by Christ, nothing will truly get better.

My focus here, however, is Christ being our standard for ministry. It is true that organisation management and public speaking have taken a different shape today from what they were in the days of Christ, the basics of organising and ministering to people are the same. The message and the vision in any organisation take pole positions in administration both then and now. Resources and their management to achieve vision remain fundamental from Adam. We can't be smarter than such standards.

Christ ran a ministry, even if He didn't have to register with the government as it is expected in certain places today, He wasn't lawless in the pursuit of His ministry. He modeled integrity and accountability.

He used money. He related with the opposite sex. He had followers. People wanted to make Him king. He operated within the world system which hasn't, till this day, changed much in the weaknesses of mankind. He was tempted in every way just as we, yet without sin. He maintained His character and the message He came to give to mankind without compromise. He remains our perfect example, our ultimate standard in ministry. We can't be smarter than that.

Our efforts not to follow His standard in the areas where we face same situations today is the reason why our results are different from His. We desire what He didn't have as vision. We handle money, people and resources differently from the way He did. Obviously, our mentalities about how to run organisations may not have come from Him.

He isn't the standard we follow in many things we do today, of course, because we think His time is different from ours, after all, He didn't use the internet. We want to think outside the box, His box and so we innovate and create things that are contrary to Him while running what's supposed to be His show. Yet, we think we are doing great judging by some other standards.

We can't run in a race and be crowned winners if we don't run according to the rules, 2Timothy 2:5. The standard makes the rules. Jesus Christ is our standard, He is the measuring line. His ministry judges ours. We can't be smarter than the standard.

Let's check what we pursue in ministry. Let's use His ministry to judge how we run ours. Let's put our financial systems side by side His to know how we are faring. How do we treat people, compare to how He treated people? If truly He is our perfect example and basic standard, what are we doing differently that needs reconsideration and repentance? That's the essence of my message today. Let's walk as He walked that's the only way we can get His message practicalised.

1 John 2
6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Good morning. Peace to you.
...............................................
If you are in Lagos, join us on Friday 3rd May by 3pm @

Grace Missions International Ministers and Leaders Conference May 2019

Our Walk with God

@GMI Teaching Centre
Havila Place
DF 46, Shagari Estate
Opposite Bobcat Hotel
Mosan Road, Ipaja, Lagos.

If you won't be able to come, listen on wigradio.com, download the Wigradio app and enjoy high quality Christian programming and contents.

Remain blessed