PARIASE TIP

The purpose God created you is to worship Him. And one of the ways to express your worship to God is to give him praise. We are to praise God at all times, even in difficult situations. What guarantees your access into God’s presence is not your weeping, complaints or worries but a praiseful heart. Some people think that the more tearful they are the more they can secure God’s attention. On the contrary, worries and complaints are expressions of doubt born out of fear. If you can reflect on His love and how he miraculously attended to your every need, you will not hesitate to give him unalloyed praise. If you cannot recount His goodness now perhaps due to what you are currently passing through, try this tip for at least a month or two as a concrete tool for building up your praises to God. Get a blank book or a good dairy, record the date and your prayer request on the left side of the page, then as your prayers are being answered begin to write out the results on the right side across from the corresponding requests.Dedicate a part of your daily prayer time to reading over those requests as well as writing new prayers. You will be surprised how seeing the concrete results will build up your faith and your willingness to turn praises to God. Anyaogu Emeka

WORD FOCUS

‘And the earth was without form and void;And God said, let there be light and there was light.’ (Gen 1:2,3KJV). The gospel Christ brought is not a gospel of works;it is not a gospel of purgatory; it is not a biased gospel where only the privileged have access to. It is the gospel of ‘whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have a never ending life.’ (Rom 4:5; Jhn 3:16). From the text, we see that God could not hesitate but launched into the shapeless and shattered earth with ‘let there be Light…’ (Gen 1:2). Salvation has been made available to you and you don’t need to continue in these woeful living you nicknamed 'pleasure'. It has been hovering around waiting for you to say 'I do'(Prov 1:20). Would you love to live a life that will lead to endless doom? Do you still enjoy fornication after all the multiple heartbreaks? Sin is deadlier than HIV. Jesus Christ loves you with a superlative love. One that cannot to be measured. Why waste your life when he has provided a better one for you? Ozioma Okeke

DILIGENCE TO WEALTH

‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings…’ (Proverb 22.29) It is the will of God that you should prosper, but on the road to prosperity there are many factors which can hinder you. These factors can be categorized into external and internal environmental factors. The external environmental factors are those factors youdo not have control over but can only influence, while the internal factors are the onesyoucan control, e.g., laziness. The book of proverb say that hard work leads to prosperity while laziness leads to poverty. Hard work will give you power, but being lazy will make you a slave. If you are lazy you will never get what you are after, but if you work hard you will get a fortune (Prov. 12:24,27) GNV. Lazy people should learn a lesson from the ways ants live. They have no leader, chief or ruler yet they store up their food during summer, getting ready for winter. How long is a lazy man going to lie in bed? When is he ever going to get up? ‘I will just take a short nap he says, I‘ll fold my hands and rest a while, but while he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber.’ (Prov.6:6-11). ‘Work and you will earn a living, if you sit around talking you will be poor.’ (prov. 14:24). Therefore, it is very essential that you work hard and commit your work into God’s hand to prosper you. God does not prosper empty hands. Work hard! Manna no Longer falls from heaven. Angela Musa

THE INGRATE AND THE MOST INGRATE

I watched a Christian movie some time ago, one of the characters whom I presumed took the lead role was angry with God, and decided never to worship Him because according to him God did not care about his plight.In other words, God was wicked to him for not providing him with a job after his long year of graduation. Those who graduated with him who were also his fellow Christians had good jobs and were doing great in their various endeavours, but he had nothing other than the ‘crumbs’ from his parent’s table. This led to his lost of faith, of course you know what this means, he was falsely accused and was put behind bars. There he started reflecting on the words of advice given to him by his parents and friends while he was backsliding, only if he had known. Still on reflection, he was shown heaven and hell in a trance. He saw one of the supposed believers in hell wailing in pains, he was pricked and shouted I don’t want to be here!The angel who was showing him all these said to him you are an INGRATE, you complained of not having a job but you were fed, clothed, shielded and never admitted in the hospital. He now said to the unbelievers you are the most UNGRATEFUL, you never cared about your souls but live your lives the way you pleased. The one (Jesus) who paid the price for your souls you ignored. After the trance, he realized his wrongs and was restored to faith in God. From the aboveexcerpt, who are you? An Ingrate or the most ungrateful? Yes you may not have got to the level you desired (being married, bearing children, lucrative job or a successful business, having a mansion, etc.) but you are alive hale and healthy, praise Him for the ones He has done and in due course you will be visited. Then, are you the most ungrateful?What more do you want from God who did not spare His cherished son but gave Him up for the remission of your sins. Isn’t time you repented and enjoyed the free salvation at your disposal? Remember, there is joy in heaven over a soul that repents.Why not make heaven happy today? SHALOM! Ezinne Okpara