God, have mercy on us.

Luke 18: 9-14 "Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Despise no one! Despise no one!! Despise no one!!!

Jesus is our perfect example and teacher. Jesus is God Himself. A man is and will always be "MAN." Man is subject to error but God is perfect as Jesus is Perfect.

We can learn lessons for a life-time from the parables of Jesus.

Yes, we are the righteousness of God in Christ but that does not and will never give us the right to despise or condemn others.

John 3:16-21 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

A lot of times, we cross the lines between despising/condemning sin and despising/condemning the sinner. We must LOVE the sinner even as we despise and condemn sin in its entirety. It is that love we have for sinners that makes us reach out to them even as we help them and help ourselves to overcome sin and reject darkness. That is God's nature and we are God's creation in His image and likeness so we dare not hate the sinner and we dare not love sin.

However, the lines need to be clearly defined so we don't find ourselves like the Pharisee that trusted in his righteousness and despised others.

Overcoming sin: Let love lead the way.

Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."

Acts 20:32 "So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified."

I believe with all of my heart that the Word of God is the solution to every problem. The Word gives us direction and builds us up, giving us an inheritance among the saints.

Looking at the problems and issues around us today, in and out of the church, can we say we have made God's Word the standard for our lives or have we deviated from His Word in any way?

2 Corinthians 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

I say its time we embrace the Word and see it as priority; its time we sit with the Word of God till we get answers and solutions to lives problems and issues.

Hebrews 13:4 "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

Revelations 21:7-8 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

I understand that a whole lot of these issues are not addressed from the pulpit but nevertheless, we need to be conscious of what God's word says about them. These issues were existent in the church in the days of Paul and were addressed. I think we need to address them in the present day church also in other for us to have solutions. Christ is coming back to a blameless church; I'm not sure if we're exactly there yet but I believe we're progressively moving towards it.

We have heard of some of us involved with all sorts of sin from sexual harassment to murder etc . . . are we going to turn a blind eye to these issues and pretend they aren't there or are we going to face them and nip them in the bud?

Are we going to sit down and do nothing until the world pushes us to act? Are we going to keep on waiting till governments sign bills to justify or condemn sin?

There's a  Yoruba adage that says "Even when our eyes are full of tears, let us not lose our sight."

Let us embrace the Word of God. Every thing we'll ever need in our lives is wrapped up in the Word of God.

I encourage us to talk about issues, address them and help each other in love to overcome weaknesses.

God's Word is love.

LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY.

Seed time & Harvest

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, Seed time and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”

We've been taught for so long that the way to sow seeds is to give money in church and give big. That's correct only to an extent.
To sow means to plant and whenever a farmer sows or plants seeds on his farm, he knows he will have a harvest and therefore will expect the harvest. A farmer cultivates and tills his farm and works hard to ensure he plants quality seeds and gets a quality harvest.

God administers seed to the sower and bread for food. Whenever you earn your salary or profits as the case may be, God has administered to you seed to sow and bread for food. Our thoughts and experiences on seed to sow is often limited to giving inside and outside our local assemblies. A whole lot of time after giving, we're waiting on God and men to give back to us whereas God is waiting on us to multiply what he's given us.

A farmer after getting a harvest first puts aside seeds to sow for the next planting season. After putting the seeds aside does he start eating from the remaining harvest, sells some and gives some away. He knows his harvest will come only from the seeds he's put aside for the next planting season. We also should put aside a part of our income/profits also to be multiplied; this part is what produces a multiplied harvest for us and not the part we spend or give away. It is a good and noble thing to give, in fact every covenant child of God "is" a giver and I encourage us all to do so as much as we can but we'd not be helping ourselves to think that's how to multiply what we have. WRONG - We multiply our savings by investing it to get a multiplied return.

If you're a tither, I would recommend you save up at least an equivalent of your tithe to be multiplied. That way, you'd be making yourself richer even as you're helping your local assembly become richer.

We've been told that the tithe belongs to God.
WRONG AGAIN - 100% belongs to God. We're only custodians of God's wealth and he that is faithful in little is faithful in much. When we are faithful with the wealth God has given us, we multiply it and make it grow while we give in partnership with God and allow ourselves to be God's channels of blessing.

We've been told that if we don't tithe, we'll be cursed and that God blesses us when we tithe. WRONG AGAIN. - God blessed man at creation. God blessed Abraham and his seed Christ and that seed remains in you if you're Abraham's Seed. We tithe because God has blessed us and not because we want God to bless us. We tithe and give in covenant and in appreciation of all God has done for us and is still doing and not because we want to blackmail God into showering financial blessings on us.

When next you're paid your salary or you make a profit, make up your mind to put aside a part to be multiplied. That's the Seed that'll give you a harvest. You can give away all that remains if you wish but you'll be doing a great injustice to yourself if you put nothing aside for your self to multiply.

Start immediately and if you've already started, continue and stay with it.

God bless you.

Bootstrapping

"Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help." "Bootstrapping in business is to start a business without external help/capital. Startups that bootstrap their business fund development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with their expenses." -- (wikipedia)  

When God created man, he started with one man Adam and gave them a command to be fruitful and to multiply. The world as we see it today with billions of people started with just one man, Adam; so tell me who is the king of bootstrapping?  

If you want to start a business and you require let's say N10m(Ten Million Naira) and the cash you have is N10,000(Ten Thousand Naira), I dare say that is all you need. Why? Just follow me and the picture will get clearer. "He that is faithful in little is faithful in much" the scripture does not say he that is faithful in little will be faithful but God makes us understand that the man faithful in little is already, present tense, faithful in much.  

When God blessed Abraham, he spoke Words to him. When He blessed Solomon, Words were spoken. God still blesses people very much in the same way today by Words. 

It doesn't matter where you are, whether you are an employee or you are already a well seasoned business owner, God wants to see you at the very top of your game. If you are an employee, you can bootstrap your way to the top of your organization. Work when at work, start before everyone else and stay later than everyone else, when every other employee is complaining, keep quiet and if you'd talk choose to emphasize the bright side, go the extra mile; this is also bootstrapping. If you can do all these now tell me, when it's time for your boss to give an opportunity to rise in the company's leadership who will be called upon, the complaining employee or the bootstrapping employee?  

Start today from where you are and you'll get to where you want to be; bootstrap your way to your destination. Don't be afraid of making mistakes or failing. If you do make a mistake or fail along the way, WHAT THE HELL? Get up and do it again. If you fail again, keep doing it again until you get it right. It doesn't matter how many times you tried or how many times you failed at it, what matters is THE ONE TIME YOU GET IT RIGHT! 

I believe in you. We Are The Present -- We Are The Future.

A New Year Message to Christians.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. - Acts 10:38
We need to refocus our hearts and our minds on the things of God in the present day church, have an understanding that church is not mainly about us but about God. When we gather as a local assembly, our main reason should be to worship God and give him praise and thanks. The local assembly used to be regarded as "a place of worship". Now it seems our reasons for gathering have become selfish and about us; the message being preached and by whom its being preached has taken more importance than worshipping God with all of our hearts.
Let us all embrace God's love which is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and express this love towards other Christians and non-Christians alike. How else can we win a non-Christian to Christ when what we seem to do presently is to express our preferences for one man of God to another? Let us let go of every form of bitterness, hatred, malice and gossip.
How I long for the day when Christians can gather and attend any local assembly for the
main reason to worship God.
The main work to be done for God is not in or with the local assemblies but in the fields. Jesus said to his disciples, "the harvest truly is  plenteous but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38.
It is good to gather together and listen to the teachings and take part in the activities but it is simply not enough.  We need to make ourselves available to God for His harvest. We have a mandate as christians which is also called the great commission.
Mark 16:15-18. "And Jesus said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall  lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
My prayer for us all is that in 2014, the grace of our Lord Jesus to fulfill this mandate on earth, the Love of God shared in our hearts that leaves
no room for neither bitterness nor envy, and the communion of the Holy Ghost rest and abide with us & in us in Jesus name.
We are God's instruments and God wants to express so much good in this world through us.
May the hand of God rest mightily upon us this new year as we do great exploits for Him.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

With love from 'Yomi & 'Lola Faneye.