FROM SHAME TO HONOR

Ishmel and his wife from an Afghan village eagerly awaits the birth of their fourth son.The rejoiced when he arrived.
As much as they loved their new baby, Ishmael made a painful choice. He gave his new baby-boy to a neighbor who had no sons.
Now, you must understand that in Afghan culture, only male children carry on the family identity. Shame covered every man who had no male off-spring. Ishmael's gift lifted the shame from his neighbor's home.
     A father giving away a beloved son is beyond our understanding. Yet that is precisely what God did for us. Humanity's sinfulness covered us in shame by Jehovah's holy standards. We could do nothing about it!
John 3:16 captures the essence of the gospel: Motivated by His love for us, God gave up His one and only Son, who died to set humanity free from the bondage of our sin and shame.
I stand with you on the resurrection of Jesus Christ today and pray that we begin to appreciate and honor the unconditional love God has for us.
Happy Easter my friends.

ACCEPTING THE PAIN!

Pain is part of the package of life. We can hide it or ignore it, we can wallow in it, or we can embrace it.
      Acknowledging and embracing pain are the skills of a spiritually healthy person. In Psalm 42, the psalmist comes to grips with his deep pain and discouragement. He remembers better days and describes the depths of his grief.
On several occasions, Jesus also acknowledged and expressed painful emotions. His cry of loneliness from the cross (Mathew 27:46) was the ultimate expression of his personal suffering for our sin.
    God wants to touch our spirit in the midst of our deepest pain & loneliness to bring comfort and hope. He is a loving father who grieves with us. His presence has sustained countless believers in times of suffering. Even when we can't feel him, we know God is near because he has promised never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5).
          No pain lasts forever. The psalmist reminded himself to hang on for the good times to come.  We, too, know that God will see us through to the other side, stronger and with even more proof of his faithfulness. Pain or struggle can be traumatic, but let's not be afraid. Jehovah is with us!
  Let us pray to God today, to grace & strengthen us in times of our struggles and pain IJN. Amen.
-Olu Akpata (Zûr)
www.prayerlinez.blogspot.com

A RADICALLY DIFFERENT KIND OF LEADERSHIP.

From its central plaza the Romanian capital of Bucharest appears to be one of the richest and most magnificent cities in the world. Everything is built on a grand scale ,calculated to impress even the most widely traveled visitor. But a closer look reveals a tragically different reality. Behind the facade of grand public buildings, there are crumbling slums & crushing poverty.
   Nicolae Ceausescu paid for this "movie-set"  city by enslaving his people and robbing them of their dignity. As Romania'sCommunist dictator, he ruled for decades, becoming progressively more obsessed with his own power and reputation. Eventually, his people overthrew his government and executed him. Ceausescu's leadership style represents an extreme example of "the kings of the Gentiles"to whom Jesus refersin Luke 22:25.
Thankfully, most of the excesses of leadership we see today aren't so hash. But all leaderships are susceptible to the same human tendency to put pride, position and power before the good of the people they lead. Jesus observed this disposition in his disciples and countered it with strong correction. He thought them a radically different style of leadership, and more importantly, he modeled it for them.
      Although Jesus possessed awesome powers, he didn't use it to impress or lord it over anyone. He lived in quite the opposite spirit. Day after day, Jesus sacrificed his own comfort and desires to serve the people to whom he was sent. He wanted to show his disciples that leadership in God's kingdom was all about servanthood and not power.
     Yet after nearly 3 years of living with Jesus, the disciples still hadn't fully absorbed this important principle. As they were eating their last meal together,(John 13:1-7),Jesus humbled himself to stoop down and wash their feet. This act was dramatically inappropriate for the culture of that day. It embarrassed the disciples-but it helped Jesus finally get his message of servant leadership across to them. He concluded by saying, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."
We also will be blessed if we do these things. Those of us with leadership responsibilities now should be continually modelling our leadership after that of Jesus and other godly Biblical leaders. For those who are not leaders yet,the study of the principles of servant leadership could be part of God's preparation in their lives.
  When God does move us into places of leadership, we need to be on guard against the sin of pride. There is an element of dictatorial tendency in all humans,which only surfaces when we begin to think of leadership in terms of position, power & recognition. Those who lead with this kind of spirit will soon stir up jealousy, division and all kinds of abuses.
By contrast, "Jesus-style"leadership is humble, loving and focused on the needs of others. When we follow God's models, he makes us channels of his blessing to our families, friends, neighbors, communities and our nations at large.
  Let us pray in unison today as Africans (especially My 9ger brothers & sisters) to Jehovah for an immediate intervention into the hearts of our leaders.
May their leadership style begin to tilt towards "servantism" rather than dictatorship & oppressive rule IJN. Amen
   -Olu Akpata (Zûr)
www.prayerlinez.blogspot.com

MIND TALK

YOU CAN MIND TALK YOURSELF OUT OF ANY BAD HABIT!

WEAKNESS

Weakness

“Be brave! Be strong! And if you can’t be either one, at least put up a good front!”-that’s what the world tells us. But the bible says exactly the opposite.

Only when we acknowledge our own weaknesses can God’s strength work through us, not only are we to admit our weaknesses to ourselves, we we’re also to reveal them to others. Paul said: he gloried in his weakness because through: his weakness, the strength of God was made known.

 We all want to be strong- or at least make other people think we are. But what a relief it is to realize that we don’t have to depend on our own strength! And we don’t have to be ashamed of our weaknesses because we have the strength of the almighty God at our disposal.

   We can rest on God and allow him to equip us with all that we need to be strong in warfare and our everyday life.

  I CERTAINLY COUNT AND REST ON HIM FOR ALL THINGS, SO SHOULD YOU!

For many more motivational topics like this visit my blog @: www.prayerlinez.blogspot.com or www.renewedmind-pendulum.blogspot.com

Your comments & contributions are most welcomed

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HE WAS A TURNAROUND SPECIALIST

HE WAS A TURNAROUND SPECIALIST

In almost every situation in which Jesus found himself, his job was to turn things around. In fact that was his specialty.

   "The people have forgotten who i am. Turn this around.

  "there is a little girl dying. Turn this around.

  "people are dishonoring the temple. Turn this around."

                If people were sitting in ashes, his job was to give them a garland of joy. The list goes on and on of the turnaround things he was sent to do. He did not have nor did he take the luxury of look at difficult situations and saying "well, politically it will be wise for me to just go with the flow here..." In fact, he said at a point, "I did not come to  bring peace. I came to bring a sword.

   In each instance his turnaround technique was different. He followed no set formula. If  he had, the famous put-mud-in-your-eye-from-the-river cure for blindness would be marketed through direct mail today. He didn't come to give us formulas, he came to give us a new mind-set (renewed)- one that has a turnaround mentality. In fact, the word repent means to turn around.

    We are all called to be turnaround specialists.

When we are faced with difficult situations, we should rejoice, because that's what we are here for!

      Dr Norman Vincent Peale said in one of his motivational talks & i quote: when you see a problem coming down the road, holler to him "hello problem! where have you been? i've been training for you all my life!

                                                     Society is filled with turnaround specialists. A nurse at a hospice comforts a family, spending time answering their questions about death in detail, and slowly the anxiety they were feeling disappears..........A teacher takes a special interest in a child who is blind , and has been labeled "mentally retarded" only to have Helen Keller grow into a woman who inspires millions. A young couple adopts child from a foster program, and slowly the frightened boy gets a new, turned-around image of what real parental love should be.

            Physicians reverse the progress of a disease. Artists take empty canvases and turn them into paintings that takes ones breath away. Nelson Mandela's refusal to give in to the then apartheid regime in south Africa earned him a 27year jail term which eventually turned around the situation in south Africa till today.

        We all have within us the power to turn things around. In fact, if Jesus is our coach and Lord, then turning things around should be our specialty too.

                   when have you successfully turned something around in the past? how did you do it? please share with us!