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A Fresh Start

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You are welcome into the Year 2013 and I wish you a happy and fulfilling year ahead.

It is typical towards the end of the year to cast one’s mind back and conduct a review of what transpired during the year. On a personal note, I have every cause to give thanks to God for keeping me and my family alive and for all the accomplishments I was both able and unable to recall. Surely there were some areas of my review I felt I could have done better but overall I am full of gratitude to God and got ready to press the ‘reset’ button as the clock raced to end the year. It’s was time to say ‘goodbye’ to the one and only year 2012. Ironically some said and believed the world was going to end in the year 2012. It must have been quite disappointing for the believers in the apocalyptic predictions, the earth is still here and we are still on it.

‘2012, a year or I should say – a portion of time given.

Time well used or time wasted.

The truth is however we spent that allocated time resource, it can never be reused again.’

God is the owner of time and he allocates time to everyone for specific purposes. Without a reason or a purpose to be accomplished, time will never be allocated.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:…..”

The year 2013 is definitely the year the Lord had made and on this side of eternity, He has chosen us to be partakers in the events of this new year. Everybody’s got a role to play, if you wish, an assignment to carry out for Him during the time allocated for this year.

Irrespective of how you lived and – if you want to look at the subject from a performance point of view – how you fared in the previous year, the new year presents an opportunity to press the ‘reset’ button and have a fresh start.

God is a God of new beginnings. He loves to give us the opportunity to start again. Every dawn presents a new day and open door to a new begining.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God of our salvation….…so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles…He restores my soul…..They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles….

(Psalm 68:19;103:5,23:3;Isaiah 40:31).

Peradventure during your review of the previous year, you judged yourself as not having the best of scores in certain areas of your life, then you have another window to make things right. If you failed outrightly in some ways, it’s not over yet. It’s time to arise and have a go at it again. I pray for your good success this year. If you somehow disobeyed God in any way in the previous year, God is a loving God and He forgives. You only need choose to turn away from whatever it is you know He’s not going to put up with in your life.

To enjoy the numerous promises God made to us, we must cultivate our relationships with Him, listen to the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit and choose God’s will.  We need to agree with God and receive His promises by faith to enjoy these manifestations.The good news is that God has made his power and grace available to us again this year 2013.

(3 John 1:2, Deuteronomy 30:19, Ephesians 2:8, 1Cor.2:12)

His promises and will towards you has not changed, but you might not experience these promises if you do not cooperate with Him and receive those things by faith. Major hindrances to our receiving from God would always be fear and unbelief that the enemy sends against us to stop the power of God from operating in our lives. (James 1:5-7, Hebrews 3:18-19, 4:1-3).

Remember also that we are in a fight and our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, but be rest assured that if you stand up to every challenge and resist the enemy they are bound to flee.

Romans 8:

The Message (MSG)

31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

God is not our problem, God is our father, our enabler, the author and finisher of our faith.

The greatest feat and proof of his love and power towards us was manifested in the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ. God gave us everything that we could and ever need in Christ. His blood purchased the grace that we live to ever enjoy. Look inside of yourself if you are child of God, there is boundless power and possibilities bubbling therein.

In all your endeavors this year, remember the person who is in and with you and fully supporting you,  He is the God of heaven, the maker of the ends of the earth. He is the omnipotent – the all powerful, the omniscient- the all knowing, the omnipresent – the ever present God. Everything you need is already available in Him. You however, need to stretch forth your hand by faith and receive the manifestations of all He’s already done for us by grace. (Romans 5:17, Ephesians 6:10-18)

…Having done all to stand, stand ye therefore..

We reign in victory in the year 2013.

Shalom!

Laolu Oyeyemi

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The Christmas Story Retold – The ‘I’ version…

(Please listen to the ‘I’ version of the nativity story…)

If I was Jesus:infant-jesus-born

  • I would have been so busy managing the angels, I would think twice about leaving everything behind.
  • Back in Heaven I would have be so dignified, it would have been too difficult stooping so low as to becoming a ‘bloody’ human being susceptible to unthinkable abuse and disrespect.
  • If at all I agreed to become a human, at least I should be born to the richest and best of parents – possibly a prominent king somewhere.
  • I would definitely not agree to make an entry in a dirty stable. Give me the cleanest and most comfortable inn or hospital bed.
  • Kings and Queens from all over the world – preferably not shepherds, should be the ones to come welcome me.

Thank God Jesus thought differently.

Check this out:

Philippians 2:5

The Message (MSG)

5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

If I was Joseph:

  • How In the world would I agree to proceed with the marriage with my supposed wife pregnant with a baby? Is someone taking me for a fool? Ok. I had a dream and I saw an angel. How can I be so sure the dream is from God? Why did God not consult with me first before striking an agreement with my bethrothed?
  • OK, now I have agreed to marry her, but surely God would not expect me to wait for so many months, till the child was born – before consummating the marriage? I just cannot wait for that long.
  • Why go through the trouble? Running from ‘pillar to post’ because of a child I did not actually father?

We thank God Joseph was an honorable man:

What if Joseph had despised the sanctity of God’s plan and purpose and had forced himself on Mary before the baby was born? That would have surely given rise to further doubtful questions about the virgin birth of Jesus the Saviour.

Check this out:

Matthew 1

The Message (MSG)

18-19 The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

20-23 While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

24-25 Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

 If I was Mary:

  • I could have asked: Why me? Why did you choose me for this experiment? Now I am open to ridicule, disgrace and the risk of being stoned to death.
  • I could have thought – Am I not free to exercise my free will and terminate this strange pregnancy?

If Mary was a different kind of person and acted irresponsibly – what would have happened to the baby Jesus?

Check this out:

Luke 1

Amplified Bible (AMP)

26 Now in the sixth month [after that], the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee named Nazareth,

27 To a girl never having been married and a [v]virgin engaged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

28 And he came to her and said, Hail, O favored one [[w]endued with grace]! The Lord is with you![x]Blessed (favored of God) are you before all other women!

29 But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled and disturbed and confused at what he said and kept revolving in her mind what such a greeting might mean.

30 And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace ([y]free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving-kindness) with God.

31 And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.

32 He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David,

33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end.

34 And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no [intimacy with any man as a] husband?

35 Then the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.

__________________________

Blow the Trumpet:

–      Jesus gave up everything to come to our physical and natural world in order to live and die as a man for mankind. One can liken that to a fully grown human being turning to an ant in order to go resolve an issue in the ant colony. Jesus was humble, selfless, sacrificial and obedient to God the father. He is our perfect role model and the Bible says we should emulate Jesus having the same mind as he demonstrated (Philippians 2:5-8).

–      Mary was declared blessed among women, a unique choice, she received the holy calling of God with all meekness and readiness of heart. God found her worthy to be the one to carry out heaven’s assignment. Everything was at stake. Yes, God is omnipotent, but he still needed this earthen vessel to incubate and nurture the seed, the Word that became Jesus.

–      She did not abort the pregnancy, neither did she carelessly endanger the baby’s life before and after birth. She took good care of Jesus and was with him all the way. She was a faithful mother and servant of God. The world surely needs more exemplary women like Mary in our generation.

–      Joseph was a man of integrity and honor, a man God could trust with the life of His son. God is looking for more men like Joseph in our days, Men who will lay everything down for their family and their faith in God. Joseph played a key role in the bringing to birth of Jesus, he was born for this purpose and he fulfilled his calling of being a honourable earthly father to Jesus the Lord.

As we celebrate another Christmas season, let us study, learn from and emulate these major characters in the glorious history of the birth of the Saviour of the world.

Shallom!

Laolu Oyeyemi.

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Time to draw up my list: Christmas gifts

It’s that time of the year again, when you compile your list of recipients, make plans and buy gifts for family, friends and….wait a minute…

I need to actually review my list and check out who made it in this year.

It appears I have been spending money buying gifts for the same set of people every year. While some recipients are genuinely appreciative, some other ones manage to let out some shallow ‘thank- you’ but really it’s obvious they do not appreciate the gifts.

Well, this year, I need to pause a little while and ask myself some serious questions begging for honest answers. Why am I giving out these gifts and who should I be sending gifts to?

I’ll like to ask myself; If I ask the Lord who should be on my list this year would His list be different from mine?

What will He have to say about my list? He probably will ask me for the motive behind my giving. Honestly the motives might not be far-fetched;

–          Please people, remain in their good books.

–          Prove a point to someone, who might actually never change their minds about me anyway

–          Give them because they also gave me last year…..

And some other reasons best known to me..

Who will the Holy Spirit have me extend a hand of love and care to this Christmas?

–          An unbelieving neighbour?

–          A gang member across the street?

–          A lonely single Mum or Dad?

–          Uncared for kids in my neighbourhood?

–          Someone around desperately seeking for love and a sense of value and self worth?

–          Homeless folks?

–          A self proclaimed enemy who will never expect anything from me?

The list of unlikely recipients goes on and on.

Matthew 25:40

The Message (MSG)

37-40 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

I am only saying, do something different this year, obey God and let Him answer someone’s prayer through you. Be there as God’s instrument to show someone he or she is also cared for this Christmas season.

This is a seed for the Holy Spirit to brood on in your hearts this season.

Merry  Christmas!

–

‘Laolu Oyeyemi.

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Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. – Galatians 5:13-26

I have been studying on the subject of the Holy Spirit in recent weeks and lately came to the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. I have come to realize that it is all about the Holy Spirit bringing His nature and character into our lives as believers, affecting our way of life, our day-to-day walk and changing our personality into a semblance of God’s character.

To be honest with you, there is no way we can exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our natural selves. We cannot live like God prescribed as natural human beings.  Our flesh, the sinful – ‘Adamic’-  nature poses the greatest threat to our being true children of God. Galatians 5:17 above says ‘the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh…’

And that is our weak spot, the point of failure for many Christians, right there. Many believers live their lives in the power of the flesh and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are largely carnal otherwise flesh ruled.

The fruit of the Spirit is the reflection of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but for this to be a reality, we need to make a switch in our way of living to the Spirit controlled mode and stay in that mode on a consistent basis. Check out the fruit of the Spirit and constituent attributes; Love, Joy, Peace, Long-Suffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.

Let us take a closer look at love – which is the chief character; The Spirit inspired kind of love is not talking about ‘loving’ someone who has been nice to us, or the mere giving of gifts to close friends or other obviously common and convenient shows – although there is nothing wrong in doing these.

The love of God is supernatural. It is popularly referred to as Agape in the Greek language. It defies definition, it goes beyond human comprehension, this is exemplified by dying for the unlovable and unworthy. It is the character of God that drove Jesus to leave His place in Heaven. He took on the body of a man, lived and died for the service of mankind. The real love of God can only be exhibited by the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was there to help Jesus all the way. Jesus could not do without the partnership of the Holy Spirit. Human beings are way too selfish to exhibit the Agape love of God on their own. We need to die to self and embrace the ways and leading of the Spirit of God for us to be the true light he has called us to be.

The Christian witness will not be effective when we make our efforts in the flesh. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood and the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal.   Are we doing better than the world? Do we love differently than the unbelievers?

We need a switch. We need to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to birth His true nature in us. We need to embrace the word of God and receive a revelation of the mind of God from the Holy Spirit. We need to yield ourselves to his promptings and direction and we will see the difference the Light of God shining through us can produce.

25 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. (Gal. 5:25. Message Translation)

Shallom!

‘Laolu Oyeyemi

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It’s time….. To shine.

Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! (Matthew 5:14-16 MSG)

Can you imagine the light complaining about darkness and the salt complaining of so much decay around them?

Well, it is so easy for that to happen. We look around our world and we are confronted with so much darkness and confusion. Our society has no time or respect for anything that sounds, looks or have any semblance of God or what He stands for. Spiritual corruption and decay is evident every turn. The Governments of this age driven by the secular society and the forces of darkness have decided to shut God out the public life including the schools. The ever sacred word – family, has been redefined to include all kinds of arrangements it no longer has any meaning. The confusion has even found its way into the supposed church of God. As it has always been, there are many wolves in the flock dressed in the sheep’s skin. Some who claim to know God have also partnered with Judas in betraying the Master and His message with false kisses.

These are all facts. But the question is, what is the truth? Is the light justified to complain about darkness? Is the salt right to complain about decay? What is the purpose of light and why was the salt made? Is God surprised about the existence of darkness? Is he shocked there seems to be unprecedented decay everywhere? Well No. God is not shocked by anything. Darkness is not a threat to God. Darkness does not exist in the realm of God. In fact darkness is not a measurable entity. Darkness can only exist where there is no light. Darkness is the absence of light. If the Light is present, shining and fulfilling it’s purpose then Darkness will be far away. The truth is that Light is the solution to darkness just as the salt is given to sweeten and eradicate decay.

Isaiah 60 vs 1-3 (AMP)

Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

 

From the beginning, light has always been the solution to darkness, good has always triumphed over evil, the truth will always set us free and this is the reason why God still have His children in this corrupt world. He wants us to showcase His light, His true colours. He wants us to make a difference in our world and illuminate whichever space we find ourselves as the children of light. He expects us to Go public with this. God is not a secret to be kept. If all those who claim to know Jesus will decide to live as they are called, as the light and the salt of the world, then the world can indeed witness the manifestations of the true sons and daughters of God.

Please join us as we heed the call of our Lord, shinning as light and indeed displaying the true God-Colours everywhere we go.

You are welcome, this is just the beginning and please let me know what you think.

Laolu Oyeyemi