OLUSEGUN ISAAC BLOG

  Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT).  The AMPLIFIED version says God has given us three eternal graces: Faith in God, Hope of heaven and the Love of Christ.  Love of Christ "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12 NKJV) In a dramatic account, the bible revealed to us the depth of love in Jesus’s heart for His followers: ‘Therefore, when Jesus saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”  While we may describe this form of love Jesus showed His friends as what has been termed Philia [Brotherly, affectionate friendship love], there is a higher form of love – Agape [Unconditional, Unmerited love for others], the type that made God give His begotten Son...

  Reading: Job 32:1-10 NLT  ' But there is a spirit within people, (which is) the breath of the Almighty within them, that makes them intelligent'. (Job 32:8 NLT ) God has given His people a device, the means by which to live. It is a threefold device named wisdom, knowledge and understanding. But understanding is the arm of the tool, the device that enlightens the other two in us. It is the forerunner among the three.        The dictionary defines Understanding as Ability to learn, reason, make decisions or judgments. Synonyms of Understanding include intelligence, comprehension, sensibility, reasoning capacity, insight. So our subject is saying that Understanding is the ability to acquire knowledge which when properly applied to our lives gives us wisdom. It is the bridge or pathway to acquiring knowledge which when properly applied begets wisdom. Thus the balanced statement would be: Wisdom is the application of knowledge acquired through understanding -...

  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  ( Matthew 17:4 ) One commentary says, ‘Infatuation is an intense, often irrational, short-lived, or fantasy-based attraction, whereas love is a conscious choice built on trust, vulnerability, and mutual respect over time. The transition requires moving from idealized attraction to accepting imperfections and building a deep emotional connection.’ [ Verywell Mind +3]  Simon Peter, who had earlier professed his unwavering affection to Jesus and His ministry on the Mount of Transfiguration, later reneged on his avowed commitment to his Lord. The Bible says, ‘Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out an...

  ' Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.' (Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV).       Jamaican star Usain Bolt was the fastest man on earth, at least till the 2016 Rio Olympic games when he ran the 100 meters sprint in 9.58 seconds. Some call him 'lightning bolt'. At 32 years of age he was already worth $24 billion according to the Forbes Index. Many know him as a sprint star alone, but he is also a footballer, dancer, coach etc. When asked the secret of his success he made these statements among others: "Those seven guys behind you in that track want it much as you want it. So you have to want it more. This is why you train harder." And another statement by him: "It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you finish strong. There are better starters...

  Text:  1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Here’s my own story: My late wife suddenly took ill and ended up in intensive care. We had to order a pace maker from U.K. and the insertion procedure was successful. But later, for some unexplained cause she went into coma and remained in that state for many months. I spent all I had and all the help I was given, still I had to borrow money to meet the mounting and unending hospital expenses. Eventually my late wife passed away, but ever before she fell ill, she had been praying for my salvation. When I couldn’t pay the money I borrowed, the lender took away the collateral – my treasured car. After I fully recovered from my grief, God gave me another wife, a caring and diligent child of God. Together we built our l...

  What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?  (Ps.8:4 NKJV) The answer to this question must necessarily be elucidated scripturally. Only God has the full meaning to His purpose for creating man and the fullness of creation. We read that in five days God prepared ahead all that man would need as a living being, then created man on the sixth day and breathed life into him. 'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen. 2:6-7). Then He spent the seventh day resting (Gen. 2:2).  So God had all along been desiring fellowship with man. In order to fulfill this plan, not only did He make man in His likeness, He formed the garden in Eden where He would visit man in the cool of the day to roost with him. (Gen. 3:8). Another question arises here. We are told God created man male and female. (Gen. 1:27). Why did God make room for procreation? If we r...

  “ Take a long, hard look. See how great He is—infinite, greater than anything you could ever imagine or figure out!  (Job 36:26 MSG) I ran away from additional mathematics in school when our teacher, a slightly eccentric South African genius, started taking us in abstract topics like calculus, permutations, infinity equations and sums 'tending to zero'. My artistic mind couldn't comprehend such topics on calculations, so I stopped. Infinity is defined in mathematics as an infinitely or indefinitely great number or amount; in general physics as a dimension or quantity of sufficient size to be unaffected by finite variations, while In optics, it is a point that is far enough away from a lens, mirror, prism, etc for the light emitted by it to fall in parallel rays on the surface of the reflecting object.    Infinite means endless in time, space, or quantity. The latest attempt at estimating the vastness of the universe states: 'In the observable universe, Earth is ju...

  “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert."  ( Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV) As each year rolls by, I reiterate on my achievements in the year just ended. Invariably, I find I have entered another year with many requests from God still outstanding, unanswered. What can the matter be?  Has'nt God promised to grant us the desires of our heart? Has He not said He would crown the year with fatness? One writer quipped, "As the calendar turns to January, we’re filled with hope that the new year is going to be different, that things are going to be better. But, God doesn’t make us better—He makes us new!" I couldn't agree with her less! More than anything, the fault is in our hearts! There is a condition to fulfill first. Something has to change in our lives for our total fulfilment to start coming.  The ...

LIGHTNING AND THUNDER   Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ( Exodus 19:16 NKJV)        There's a behaviour pattern we observed in our parents and the older generation during thunderstorms. When a bright lightning struck, they quickly made a loud, double smacking sound with their lips. Although no plausible explanation is attributed to this myth, it appears that it is a purposeful act of safety, since it is common knowledge that thunder can strike individuals during heavy thunderstorm! As children, we were also warned that our fingers would stiffen up if we stood outside wetting our hands under rain showers!        According to scientific explanation, lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge in which two electrically active are...