Month: March 2018

On Sunday, a young lady in church came to ask for the presence of pastor Eddie and I at a regional competition she was going to feature in. That happened this week and it was an amazing event where I learnt a lot of things, one of which I want to share with you now.

The event was the largest youth speakers’ award programme in U.K. where winners from 15 schools across the borough came to present their 3 minutes speeches based on topics of their interest and passion. The presentation was made to the mayor and other special representatives of businesses and companies in the Southeast of London. Present were also parents, school representatives and teachers. (And ourselves of course. the proud pastors of one of the contestants) 

All the 15 contestants were outstanding with great topics, delivered with confidence. As I listened to these young men and women, it crossed my mind that there were many people I also know who knew nothing about this event and could either have been good at it or benefitted a great deal from it if they were aware it existed. It saddened as well as excited me to think of what is available. Sadness due to those that are missing out on opportunities like these and excitement seeing so many talents being displayed in the room.

I have over time met quite a number of youths with great gifts but little or no opportunity to display these gifts and talent or to develop them into anything of great value. I asked myself the big question of, how come they do not know. These programmes are no secrets but many still don’t know of them whereas some do and make themselves available to be developed. If you don’t know what is going on, you’re likely to miss out on many provisions that have been made available for you, to benefit you on the long run.

Just like the word of God, there are many blessings and provisions made for us, but we can be ignorant of them and not access them. Ignorance of the word of God does not change the fact that it’s set up to bless us and that becomes impossible if we are not aware of them. Gods’ word says

‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ Hosea 4:6a

It’s amazing that though they are Gods people, He allowed them to wallow in lack of knowledge which leads to destructions. I would have expected God to make sure they know everything He has in store for them, but God holds us responsible for discovering His provisions and plans for our lives so we can benefit from them.

We owe it to ourselves to find out what’s going on and then get the best out of the provisions that have been made available to us. To know the provisions available to you, you must learn to familiarise yourself with the word of God, be aware of the things God has put around you and ask questions! If you do these things, you’ll win in life and be celebrated.

Did I tell you that our young church lady won? We screamed so loud when she was announced as the winner and were such proud spiritual parents!! It was a great evening indeed… but only started because our young lady knew what was going on and chose to apply herself to it. She surely wasn’t the only kid in school, but she chose to be part of something else alongside her studies. Today she was celebrated by the press, the mayor, business leaders, school teachers, parents and other students across the borough. 

There is a placed prepared for you to be celebrated, find out about it and get involved because celebrations awaits you.

God is on your side!

PB 

‘Why oh why did I even do this?’ That’s the question I asked myself after my good intentions didn’t yield the result I expected.

The story relates to Eddie’s new interest in an ultra light dawn parka jacket. His interest in the jacket seemed to be related to how light it looks and feels and the colour options available. On a particular evening, we went past a shop that displayed these jackets in our shopping mall. We walked in and he checked the jackets thoroughly. A few weeks later, we walked through another shop, this time around it was a well known English brand shop and again he slowed down to look at these jackets. Commenting more positively about the colours in the English brand shop.

I made a note of this and decided to surprise him a couple of weeks later by getting him the jacket from the English (reliable) brand shop. Upon receiving the gift, he was excited and then asked why it wasn’t the other brand, to which I replied that I  trusted this brand more and the brand I bought was slightly cheaper. We joked about it and he started wearing his jacket straight away. He loved it and couldn’t stop talking about how warm he felt in it. Something happened in the evening however, and that was, by the time Eddie took off his jacket, his jumper had a few feathers on it. We didn’t give too much attention to this until we travelled a few days later and by the time we arrived at our destination, Eddie’s shirt was full of feathers. He cracked a joke along the lines of, I think I’ll soon start flying as I’ve got so many feathers on me from my ‘lovely, reliably made jacket’. Again we laughed it off.

This week however, as Eddie and I were counselling a lady we saw a feather fly past us…both of us knew it was coming from Eddie and I almost started laughing when we avoided looking at each other! Eddie once more cracked a joke afterwards and I said.. ‘why! oh why did I even do this, I wish I stuck to the original plan of buying the jacket in the shop where we first found it without compromising.’ The difference of £5 more per jacket was nothing compared to the embarrassment and discomfort of a shedding jacket!

As I thought about this jacket, I learnt once more the value of staying the course without compromising. God’s word says

‘This book of law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to ALL that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and have good success.’ Joshua 1:8

Good success and prosperity, God’s way, are functions of observing to do ALL that God has written. No short cuts, no alternatives, no compromises.

There are benefits in following fully on the things we are instructed to do in the bible. To get it right as a Christian we,

Learn to find out what God’s mind is on a matter, observe to do it totally and completely, then the blessings and benefits will come in full measure.

Remember, don’t compromise because it almost always has negative consequences.

God is on your side

PB

I was chatting with one of my church sisters earlier this week who shared her understanding of a testimony given by a gentleman in church on Sunday. The brother shared that he accidentally saw an email that showed that he was being recommended for redundancy in a place where he had been celebrated for many years. As we discussed, the sister mentioned to me that she, as well as many of us would have read that as a sign that God wanted him to find out so he could pray to avert the ‘evil’ planned against him.

The gentleman said that he confronted the issue by having a conversation with his line manager – whom he actually trained! And the man apologised and all concerned thought the recommendation was now suspended and all was well; but that was not the outcome. In not so many days afterwards, the redundancy was enforced and the gentleman lost his job and was now in a seemingly difficult place because he didn’t have any work to go to and he has a family to feed and take care of. According to him, the freedom this lack of job created gave him an opportunity to train and re-skill so he could go into the industry of his choice to go take on a better role. He did and God ultimately blessed him with multiple roles in the new industry which he has gone into. 

His testimony created an opportunity to look closely at what we sometimes term as evil and our response to situations we do not want. The possibility of raising his problem, particularly the redundancy email he saw mistakenly as a prayer point and setting up many prayer chains requesting support wouldn’t have been out of place. The brother could have had ‘hours of spiritually averting this coming evil’ and that would not have been a misplaced action but would it have been a God action? 

As we conversed about this testimony, we saw how God allowed this brother to go through the unpleasant experience so he could enter into a greater and better place that God had prepared for him. Like the children of Israel in Egypt, they were already so comfortable; buying houses,building businesses, families and many other signs of settlement; then a pharaoh came that never knew what Joseph had done for Egypt and the new king made their lives impossible enough that they cried to GOD and HE led them out. They migrated into the better place God had prepared for them, not as slaves anymore but as masters and owners. What if they had spent time praying against the Pharaoh and his management? That surely wasn’t what God had planned for them. They would have been wrong!

It is important to understand that God has a plan for every one of us His children. In fact, He has what I will call a master plan, which we should just follow if we KNOW and are fully submitted to Him

Gods’ word said:

The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8

There is a best pathway for your life and if you allow God, He will give us the right advice and help to find the way so you can follow the path. Remember, not every difficult or seemingly negative way needs to be prayed against – it could just be God moving you towards your miracle place.

God is on your side!

PB