God's work and human failures

"The book of the ancestry (genealogy) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the son (descendant) of David, the son (descendant) of Abraham............So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, from David to the Babylonian exile (deportation) fourteen generations, from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations." (Mathew 1:1-17)

A chronicle of the human lineage of Jesus Christ. His 'human ancestors" had different experiences and personalities. Some are well known for their faith (Abraham, Ruth David); while some are just ordinary everyday day folks (Hezron, Ram); yet others had real bad reputation (Manasseh, Tamar, Rehab, Ahija).

Lesson: God's work have never and never will be limited by human failures and frailties. He works with ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. He offers you a second chance to surrender and be used of Him. Now what has God accomplished through and with you?

chisom.ezeocha@shell.com

True joy, peace of mind

"Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!" (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

True joy, peace of mind, happiness and fulfillment in life is a function of your relationship with God and not in the abundance of things which you possess or your "accomplishments and successes in life"! This is the ONLY reason why you will still find strength to rejoice in the Lord God your salvation.

Wishing you and yours a fulfilled and peace-full weekend!

chisomaga.ezeocha@shell.com

Rick Warren

A brother sent this to me. It is a blessing to me and I wish it will also bless you as we continue to pray for Rick's wife. You can a link to his PurposeDriven Website in the links section down right.

This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of "Purpose Driven Life" His wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

"People ask me, "What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call. The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Great thought

The key to success in marriage is not finding the "right" person. It's learning to live with the person you found. Love is a decision not a feeling. Enjoy your marriage.
Alozie Echeonwu

The Lord will make a way for you.

This short piece was taught us by a sister. i hope it is going to be a blessing to you.

I know the Lord will make a way for me
I know the Lord will make a way for me
If I live a holy life, shun the wrong and do the right
I know the Lord will make a way for me

I know the Lord has laid His hands on me
I know the Lord has laid His hands on me
I can feel His mighty power, every moment every hour
I know the Lord has laid His hands on me

Challenges one faces in the days of Adversity.

Days of adversity are days of pain, days of loss and days of troubles. Oftentimes they are circumstances one never bargained for. Listed below are some of the challenges that accompany them.

Ø You suddenly seem irrelevant to people around you
Ø Men that used to celebrate you despise you
Ø Friends will suddenly find reasons to desert you. You may lose some of them eventually
Ø You seem to be alone and abandoned
Ø You lose respect
Ø Most of your genuine contributions are despised
Ø People who ordinarily should come to you or call will wait for you to come to them
Ø The vehicle of life seems to be moving leaving you behind
Ø People can easily misunderstand your life
Ø The little effort you make to exercise your faith is often termed pride
Ø You are seen as being faithless, lazy, and prayerless. People accuse you that you are not doing enough, even when you are struggling at your best.
Ø People easily pick offence at you, even what ordinarily they should ignore

I don’t know what you are going through right now, but bear this in mind: when you are on the brink of adversity, you are equally on the brink of a miracle.

“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all”
Ps 34:19 (NIV)

“And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.”
Rom 8:28 (TLB)

“No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”1Thes 5:18 (NLT)

The Lord is mightier than them all.

“The mighty oceans have roared, O Lord, The mighty oceans roar like thunder, The mighty oceans roar as they pound the shore. But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers of the shore. The Lord above is mightier than these” Psalm 93: 3-4

In most of our mission fields and what we know African Traditional Religion (ATR) to be, people seem to ascribe spirituality and reverence to things that they cannot understand. Trees like the Iroko are worshipped as a wonder of the gods. In fact, issues of life are divided between the gods and humans. The roaring of the mighty oceans is one of the things that the ‘gods’ do, hence the worship of the gods/goddesses of the seas. This is because they cannot comprehensively understand the issue of the oceans.

However, a lot of these things are superstitious while demons have taken advantage of people’s ignorance to exploit them and receive worship from them.

The Lord above is mightier than them all.

God is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. He has always existed and dwells from eternity past. He created the universe and the host we know and the ones we don’t know, even the seas. The Lord above is mightier than them all.

He deserves our worship and reverence। In the arena called “time” where human beings live, we go through all kinds of troubles। The idea here is that even if your troubles are like the ‘violent raging of the seas’, the Lord above is mightier than them all and is able to bring you deliverance।
This morning i heard my wife singing the old Scripture Union Spiritual:

"No man can walk upon the sea"
"No man can walk upon the sea"
"No man can walk upon the sea"
"Only Jesus can walk upon the sea"

It's well with you.

Don’t Be Like A Horse Or A Mule

Today, there are a lot of people who are like horses and mules, wandering in and out of God’s will. Strong and zealous but cannot carry eternal secrets. Gullible Children who have refused to grow and cannot take responsibilities as sons. Read this piece and be blessed. Remember, we entertain questions as God helps us.

Ps 32:8-9 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.” (NIV) The horse or mule has to be guided by bits and bridle in order to keep it under control. You beat it and charge it before it can respond to what you want it to do. There is no reasonable relationship between the rider and the horse. That is not the way God wants us to relate to Him. God wants us to walk with Him in love and intimate relationship. He wants us to respond to Him in obedience willingly without Him applying force or coercion on us. He wants us to be responsible sons committed to Him as our Father and Lord. He wants us to learn to walk with Him and understand His ways – men and women He can trust and entrust responsibilities into their hands. He can say of them like He said of Abraham “I know him…” We come to some level of trust with Him where He can ‘confide’ in us and share His heart with us and use us. You may be undergoing a ‘bit and bridle’ experience right now under God’s discipline. This is because God loves you and wants to keep you in His way. It is because He still has a plan for your life. He doesn’t want you to go far away before He starts looking for you. However, God wants you to grow and be trained in His ways so that you willingly follow and serve Him in His kingdom advance without ‘bits and bridle’. Children can be distracted by anything and cannot take responsibilities. Sons can. God does not want men and women that will be like a ‘senseless horse and mule’ (NLT) who will stop following Him but divert into some ‘bypasses’ because of the lusts and the pride of this life. He looks behind only to discover that something else has distracted them and turned them away from following. God will ask, “where is my son/daughter?” He will be told that he has gone to “play”. What God will do is that He will look for him, bring him back and try to put ‘bits and bridle’ on him so as to keep him within focus until such a time when the child has grown and He can entrust him with eternal secrets. God wants partners.