39 lessons from my pastor on his birthday!

So it’s my Pastor’s birthday today, whoop! Pastor Sunday Ogidigbo is the golden age of 39, and he decided to share with us 39 principles he’s learned through 20 years of following Jesus, 19 years of preaching the word, and 5 years of pastoring full-time.

Ready for it? You better be!
39 things that equal wisdom for daily living.
1. Be planted in the word of God; listen to it, apply it, abide by and be guided by the word. Let His word lighten your path and guide your steps.
2. Be prayerful, not because you feel like it but because you ought to. Pray in the spirit, in your understanding, in season and out of season.

3. Be addicted to fellowship. As long as the iron is in the fire the fire will be in the iron. When you stay connected to God in the place of fellowship you remain on fire for Him. Executive Christianity will profit you nothing.

4. Fast often. It must be part of your lifestyle, at least once a week. Fasting is a spiritual catalyst.

5. Join a service unit, be useful in the house of God.

6. Join a smaller fellowship unit in the church.

7. Read books. Develop the gift and passions inside you.

8. Surround yourself with Godly friends. Any friend who isn’t helping you grow is destroying you; if you’re not changing them they’re changing you.

9. Have faith in God. Flood your heart with materials that will build your faith.

10. Read biographies whether they be men of God, politicians, sportsmen, social activists.

11. Be a giver… Giving is the proof that you’ve conquered greed. Give as you have, to God to your parents, to the needy, and with the right attitude.

12. Find a mentor. In the multitude of counsel there is wisdom; follow people who are headed in the same direction you want to go. Be accountable to them, submit to them.

13. Be holy. Holiness is the quality that validates our ‘sonship’.

14. Be a soul winner. Be a public Christian. If you are ashamed of Him He will be ashamed of you.

15. Be generous. The liberal soul will be made fat.

16. Be a person of integrity and honour. Be true to God, to men, and to yourself. Don’t make promises you won’t keep. Let your words be bankable.

17. Honour all men. Treat elders like your parents, accord them the respect they are due. Fear God, honour the King, love the brotherhood.*Don’t ever conclude on a Christian, you don’t know what God has in store for them.
18. Be contented. Learn to enjoy the things that you have.

19. Be supernatural. Don’t operate based on the things you hear, see, read.

20. Be humble. Humility engraces and enthrones. God gives supernatural support to the humble.

21. Work hard, work smart. Work to learn before you work to earn.

22. Learn to understand people. Be tactful, political, and diplomatic.

23. Be hospitable, allow people to eat your food and drink. Accommodate strangers.

24. Dream big. Visions are free, get yours. Money is too small to be a dream.

25. Be purposeful

26. Live your life on information and revelation.

27. Meditate on the word. Meditation is to your spirit what digestion is to the body.

28. Attitude is everything. The only disability in life is a bad attitude.

29. Love is the greatest. Love will always guarantee victory regardless of what life throws at you.

30. Be friendly. Try. Celebrate the successes of others. People never forget how you make them feel.

31. Be simple. Simple is hard but powerful and effective. Be brief.

32. If you have nothing to say, keep quiet. Train your mind so your mouth talks wisdom. A foolish man who talks less will be seen as wise.

33. Fear God. A fool says in his heart that there’s no God.

34. Don’t live on impulse. Let principles guide your life so it has a sense of direction.

35. Be gentle. Blue flames burn hotter, empty barrels make the most noise.

36. Self control.

37. Control your appetite, especially for food, sex, and sleep. A man who cannot control these three cannot be a vessel into God to be used by him.

38. Family is important. After God comes your spouse and children.

39. Hold no grudge, begrudge no man.

Happy birthday pastor Sunday! Thank you for yielding yourself to God and HIs great work, and for constantly dividing the word of truth with such simplicity. God bless you today and everyday!

Do unto others… including your staff

Over the last few days I’ve trained my eyes to tell distances from my fuel gauge, no thanks to the scarcity that means cars congregate on fuel stations like they’re sharing something else there. Of course I went to fewer places as the dial danced closer to the ‘E’, and then last night, I knew I had to humble myself and queue.

Why use the word humble? Well, I braved a black market purchase the last time there was a queue. It not only cost me double the normal thing, but the fuel was bad so there was the cost of changing the injector and something else when the car refused to run properly the next morning.

So this time my darlings? I finished all the work I had to do, and at 9.30pm, I joined the queue at Forte Oil, opposite Transcorp Hilton. While I was there, I started tweeting a few things I’ve had on my mind for a few days, starting all the tweets with ‘shout out to…’. Did you catch them? Lol…

About 10.15pm, it was my turn, and typical me, I started chatting with the attendant. Apparently, the station is open 24 hours, and they run shifts. Which sounded nice till the guy said he resumed at 4pm and wouldn’t get off till 5am the next day!

What!! That’s 11 or 12 hours! So, two shifts, and these attendants are on their feet the entire time. And this is a very busy period, because very few stations have fuel, and so the lines are like the never-ending lists we tale before God. Daily.

It gets even more interesting. Guess how much these guys earn? Attendants – N10, 000 per month. Not per shift, or per week. Every 30 days. No wonder they’re trying to fleece everyone every chance they get. No wonder they connive with their managers to fiddle with the meters and sell you N500 fuel even though you pay N1000. Am I excusing theft? No. Stealing is wrong. All shapes, forms, and sizes. Even the Bible says a thief who stole bread because he was hungry should still be punished. However, the same Bible says that if eating meat (or paying a deplorable salary) will cause your neighbour (or staff) to sin, don’t do it.

How do you pay a man (or a woman) N10, 000 in Abuja where everything is triple the price? Not in any of the really cheap states where money goes further? How are their bosses able to sleep at night? In their million dollar houses and bourgeois lives? What are their staff supposed to do with N10, 000?

I didn’t bother asking if they had health insurance or a pension contribution from their management – didn’t want to waste my time. Or his.

Interestingly though, he was very excited with this job because it was hard to get, and it was only because his brother knew someone who knew one of the managers that he got it. So, I also didn’t talk about leaving this or applying for any other jobs. Again, I didn’t want to waste his time. Or mine.

It’s like one multi-millionaire I used to know… who would owe his staff for months on end (and he was paying the exact definition of chicken change) yet they would see him flaunt his wealth on his children and associates. And expected loyalty and honesty, feigning surprise that they were pinching sums whenever/wherever they could.

Again, for absolute clarity, theft/fraud/misappropriation/add other synonyms in all forms is wrong. Wrong, and should be punished.

However… Think about it. What are you paying your hired help? Not saying you should pay beyond what you can afford, but would you accept that with joy and gladness if the positions were reversed? Even if you had no option and the job in itself was a favour?

To paraphrase a saying I’ve heard several times about racism and slavery… there is the bad thing the government has done to its citizens, but there is also the bad thing that citizens have done to themselves.

This thing about the golden rule sha…

 

PS: I got home a few minutes to 11pm. Exhausted, but with high spirits. I have fuel!

What’s your favorite scripture? Why?

So there are a million challenges going on simultaneously in our world today. There’s the Ice Bucket challenge, 20 things about you (obviously resurrected because I know there was something like this some time in 2009), and tons of others. There’s also the favorite scripture challenge, and my friend Francesca (I have to stop blogging about this girl, haba) nominated me to put up my favorite ones. I decided to put them up (did that on Facebook) but I also decided to open it up to my Christian audience.

What is your favorite scripture? What are your favorite scriptures? What speaks to you? What gets you out of difficult situations?

While you think of it, here’s what I put up…

Here’s accepting Francesca Onomarie Uriri‘s challenge to put up my favorite Bible verses. Ok, so some of them are not complete verses but I’ll do a bit of a context for each of them…

Here goes!

Titus 1 vs 2 – “God who cannot lie” Not like He won’t lie, He can’t. Even if He wanted to, this is the one thing He cannot do. This scripture for me is what gives the entire Bible the legs it stands on. It is such a comfort on days when I feel blue!

Psalm 107: 20 – “He sent His word and delivered them out of their destruction” – Sometimes, we dey take our hands find trouble (can I hear an amen) but God’s word rescues/snatches/delivers us. Super grateful. Super super grateful!

Photo Credit: Wise Decor http://www.wisedecor.com/decor/wall-lettering/scripture/

Joshua 1: 8 – “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” – ‘this book of the law’ for me refers to whatever my hands find to do per time. The only one who can negate the promises of God concerning a person is? That person. So if the book of (whatever law – school, work, the Bible, whatever) departs from your mouth, and you don’t meditate (work at it, devote productive hours to it), you will not make your way prosperous, and you will not have good success.

Selah (said in the voice of my Pastor, The Rev Goodheart Obi Ekwueme).

So, who to nominate? My sisters – Tokes, Raji, Adaora, Nike, go for it!

Over to you people, share yours!

#PRAISEwithCC! This is why we’re here…

I’m so excited!

When I was younger and living full-time with my folks, I would join church members to go out on soul winning drives, invite people to church, witness to them, that kind of thing. I loved it, looked forward to each and every one of those outreaches, and have tons of stories.

A lot older now, many times I’ve wondered how to keep that evangelism up, how to share my love and affection for God with people, more people than I did as a child. I just feel like there’s so much more I can do to bring people together to rejoice in Him and to share His Word.

And then on Sunday morning, I was listening to a message by Bishop TD Jakes and he said something about us Christians asking God to do things He had already empowered us to do – so we ask God to help us with things He has already released strength for us to do on our own, wherever we are. And in that moment, I just knew that I wanted to start something about sharing His word.

So I started thinking, wondering how I was going to do this from my little corner. And then boom! #PraisewithCC came into my head. Whoop!

What is this about? Very simply, we’ll just praise. Praise, praise, praise Him for 30 minutes on Wednesday, and Friday. We’ll do this wherever we are, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, wherever. I’m using the place where I’ve been called to make a difference, where I am most comfortable, to do what I was created to do.

Who’s in? Join me at 7pm on Wednesday, and 7pm on Friday. Let’s return glory to God for what we’ve seen, for what we’re seeing, and for what we want to see this year. What are you grateful for?

#PraisewithCC!!

P:S – I want to be able to curate as we praise, so please use the hashtag #PraisewithCC. I know that as we lift Him up, tell of His wondrous works, He will lift us up.

I’m so excited!

 

 

The principle of firsts…

Welcome to church!!

Two weeks in a row at Hillsongs, just the dose of sanity for what was a practically horrible month of May.

Dont remember the Pastor’s name but the title of his sermon is the title of this post (I always make it easy for you don’t I?) and it dwelled on tithing and the ‘Principle of Firsts’.

The text was Exodus 13: 1-2; it says “The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

And then verses 12 and 13 ” you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”

Three things about firsts we need to be aware of today (and every other day)

1. The firstborn must be sacrificed or redeemed.

Lamb = Clean (sacrifice), Donkey = unclean (redeemed)

*Jesus was born clean, we were born unclean, Jesus was sacrificed so we might be redeemed.

Tithing is the only aspect of our Christian walk that God invites us to prove/test this. Malachi 3:8-12

2. Proverbs 2:9-10. The first fruits must be offered.

Proverbs 23:19

*Anywhere God talks about tithing in the Bible He says “bring” not give because you cannot give what you don’t have. It’s His anyways. If we consider that a commandment/giving back to HIm what originally is His, we’d do a lot better with giving our tithes first.

Genesis 4:3-5 – The reason God accepted Abel’s offering over Cain’s was that Abel brought the first-born of his flock but Cain brought any fruits.

There are some things God cannot do. Like even if He tried, He can’t do these things.

• God cannot change (Inimitable)
• God can’t think the way we think (Omniscience)
• God cannot be second (Pre-eminence)

3. The tithe must be first! First! First! Not second, not third on your list to do when money enters your hand.

Leviticus 7:30 – “His own hands shall bring the Lord’s food offerings. He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord.”

Exodus 13:14-15

* It’s the first fruits. First fruits. Not the money left over. May God bless the reading and understanding (and the doing) of His word, amen.

P:S 1- Note that I didn’t go into the ‘who does the tithe go to’ argument because I believe that my tithes go to the Lord and my blessings come from the Lord. #EndOf

P:S 2 – Starting next week, I’m not going to write out a load of the scriptures for you anymore, bring your Bible!! Open it!! Read it!!

 

Related articles

• God Blesses You When You Tithe (kingteamdad.wordpress.com)
• 5 Bible verses about money every Christian should know (christianpf.com)
• The Blessed Life – Day 20 (newlifedevotions.com)
• John D. Rockefeller on tithing (christianpf.com)

OCCUPY TILL I COME!

In the last three weeks, if I had a dollar for every time I heard the word ‘occupy’, walai I would have bought my own island by now, complete with its inhabitants. Even people with no inkling whatsoever as to what was being occupied, where the ‘occupation’ (lol) was taking place, why, and even how it was happening, took pride in the word, and maybe even mouthed it the loudest.

Fast forward a couple days, many nocturnal meetings after. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) accepted the reduction of the pump price of fuel from N141 to N97, and then called off the strike. I was very disappointed in that resolution because it made a mockery of the time and energy expended on the protests inside and outside the country; plus on the surface it also appeared that the people who lost their lives on the altar of the strike died in vain. But then again, I kind of expected it. Isn’t it the NLC we know?

On another level though, I think that the protests were not in vain. What we lost in failing to reverse the subsidy removal, we gained in unity, which perhaps is one of the greatest things ever. We gained in looking out for each other; realizing that the enemy is not the next man with a different religion/ethnic background, but a system and its handlers who say they want to serve us but then rule with an iron fist and no conscience. Without meaning to be dramatic, the protests in Kano where we all saw pictures of Muslims watching over Christians and vice versa when they were praying, the Sunday when CAN and the Islamic Council went around churches in Kano as well….. what else have we been asking for?

And then we heard that the bomber responsible for the dastardly attack on a church in Madalla, Niger State on Christmas day that left scores dead and many more injured, escaped from detention. The rate at which we misplace priorities in this country is scary. So you punk the entire country, telling us you’ll address the nation by 9pm on the 15th of January and you don’t, (and without any apology whatsoever) and then by the next day you’ve rolled out the army to clamp down on protesters who have been peaceful, contravening their rights as humans to assemble. While all this is going on, someone who was single-handedly or in collusion with others responsible for the deaths of Nigerians escapes? How did he escape?  How stupid does this government think we are? *sigh*

Most disgraceful is that while you have the army out on the streets in Lagos state, Boko Haram turns Kano, Bauchi, and Yobe States into mourning parlors! For God’s sakes the amount of explosions in Kano state in one night were between 15 to 20! Are we at war? What the hell is going on? The part I will never understand is the effrontery with which this agents of the devil ‘claim responsibility’ for the bombings. The brazen stance they wear, encouraged by a toothless government with priorities as warped as a two-year olds. Do they deliver their statements to the media via post? Over the phone? In person? Can’t their numbers be traced? Can’t they be found? Is that so difficult? And no Mr President, you don’t score any points for visiting Kano! Where’s decisive action when we need it?

Again (one time too many I must say), my heart goes out to everyone who’s lost a brother, sister, father, mother, relation, friend, or enemy in the attacks of the past weekend. May God in His infinite mercies comfort your families, and somehow strengthen you all, amen. I speak peace to our nation, and decree that by the Blood of Jesus every worker of iniquity, any one profiting from this mayhem will himself and his family be visited by quick destruction, in Jesus name. AMEN.

Today’s post is all about ‘occupation’. Not of Wall Street (which in these times can be listed as the birth place of the word), not London but my very own Nigeria. This post is different though; here the pictures do all the ‘occupying’. I searched for images using #OccupyNigeria and the pictures below appealed to me the most.

courtesy voiceofnigeria.org

 

I don't know where this originated from, but it was at the heart of the protests, especially on social media

This is another picture that was at the heart of the protests.....couldn't find its origin too...

                                                                          Courtesy @i_blend

One of the billboards on display at the London Protests...

Courtesy campusheathq.com

courtesy storyful.

Got this one off Twitter; if you know what 'waka' means, yes that's what they were telling the choppers circling over the grounds where they were protesting!

P:S – I have tried to credit original sources where possible and/or the website I found the pictures on. If however you feel there’s an error please get in touch and I’ll make the correction. Thanks!

Related articles

• Are We Done Occupying? (fairygodsister.wordpress.com)
• ‘Occupy Nigeria’ Protest: Photos and Video of Latest Unrest (ibtimes.com)
• Occupy Kano : Protesters file N500m suit against Jonathan (vanguardngr.com)
• One Blast Too Many (yomzie.wordpress.com)
• Nigeria city on edge after deadly attacks (edition.cnn.com)