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Showing posts from April, 2019

EXUBERANT PRAISE, EXORBITANT WORSHIP - Part 1.

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Hear the cry of the Psalmist, "Shout joyfully to the Lord , all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm, with trumpets and the sound of a horn; shout joyfully before the Lord , the King.' (Psalm 98:4-6 NKJV). ' It was the periodical Morning of Praise in our church and a young, dynamic worship minister had been invited from outside to lead in praise/worship. The lively minister and his team soon infested the congregation with their spirited performance such that the excitement went contagious. The atmosphere of praise became so permissive that people yelled, left their seats causing a near commotion. The youth carried their plastic chairs aloft and danced around in formation around the auditorium, while we adults and fairly aged ones, hardly able to participate, gaped in amazement and disbelief. It was incredulous. Praise of God had gone exuberant, almost out of control! This scenari

UNITED, WE STAND...

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"If a country divides itself into groups which fight each other, that country will fall apart.  If a family divides itself into groups which fight each other, that family will fall apart." (Mark 3:24-25 GNB). Here's the story of a newly married sister. Directly after her wedding, a former suitor started phoning to tell her he hadn't given up his interest in her. He told her he didn't mind that she was now married and that he would still fulfill all his promises to her if only she would continue to see him. She pleaded with him to leave her alone, that she was very happy with her husband, but he wouldn't give up, rather he continued pestering her with phone calls. Frustrated, she shared her predicament with her husband and the latter planned with his wife to confront the insistent suitor. She took him to the suitor's office and they both disgraced him openly, making him declare publicly that he would thenceforth refrain from disturbing their matrimonial pe

GO TO THE ANTS 🐜 🐜 🐜

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'Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?' (Proverbs 6:6-9 NKJV). I have watched ants in action before and I believe what the bible says of them. As I sat on the paved steps leading to my garden chewing coconut, a few crumbs fell by my side and I planned to pick them up when leaving later. Minutes later when I looked, I saw a number of ants carrying the crumbs away to a far off hole in the pavement. To encourage them, I threw more crumbs on the spot and to my amazement, a larger contingent arrived and were carting the bounty away, some carrying pieces much bigger than their own size! And it all started with one single ant on patrol which found food and ran back to base, not empty-handed, but took with it a piece of the food and brought others back to the discovery. I

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING

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'Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” (I Samuel 16:1 NKJV).       One of my cousins, very outspoken, spoke to me at a time we were just recovering from the shock of burying the number one son of our parents in my larger family. He said, "Brother, as the first son presently in our family lineage, it's you we'll all be reporting to now. The King is dead, long live the king. Congrats!" How does one respond to that? Is that the reality of the moment? What sort of statement is that one anyway?  So I replied, stuttering, "What about my senior sister?" He pointedly replied, "You are now the oldest male child in the family." That silenced me then but left me reflecting on his didactic expression. Where did he pick it from? What does it mean? The