Time is the most precious asset that we all are given on earth. You can make more money but you cannot make more time. This makes Time the most expensive currency that we spend. You don’t need to make noise about how you love God and His work; we only need to note how you spend your time and we get a clear indication whether you really love God and are giving your life to him. It is really difficult to claim you have given your life to Christ if you do not constantly give him your most important currency – time.
But what happens today? Many of us spend most of our time enriching our employers (a number of them unbelievers), fulfilling their goals, dreams and visions while the visions, dreams and goals that God has placed stay neglected. Our employers get the best of us, but God gets the worst of us. In a busy city like Lagos, many spend an average of 12 hours daily – 8am to 8pm – working for their employers, get home at night to watch the news, movies or catch up with their friends on Facebook, Blackberry and other social media. We do this day in day out, as time ticks away.
If we do not allocate valuable time to do God’s work now, when will we ever do so? Are we not among those who are getting older every day? I am not against working; I go to work daily too and I have loads of deliverables. More so, the Bible commands us to work. But while at work, do we have that sense of purpose aimed at fulfilling the great commission God has given to all believers and also realizing the goals He has placed inside us? Do we see our work as a platform to fulfill God’s purpose and reach out to others with the gospel of Christ?
It’s quite surprising that many believers think it a strange thing to excel at work and also be committed to the work of God. They feel that one has to give way for another. Sometimes people ask me, “Tope, how are you able to combine ministry with your very demanding work schedule?” What is the secret? The secret is that I don’t combine them. I simply live the Christian life – which is a life of all-round success. Sometimes I ask such people the question – you are so busy at work, how are you able to find time to eat? What is the secret behind combining eating and working? That gets them speechless, because when we consider something very important, we don’t talk about “combining them” with other things, we just do them.
Jesus Christ said, “My meat is to do the will of the One that sent me.” The way we “combine” eating and working since we consider both very important, is the same way we have to make time to live the will of God. It is said that when the heart is willing, it finds a thousand ways but when the heart is unwilling, it finds a thousand excuses. Are you willing to give your time to God? Do you need to reduce the time you give to movies, football, idle talk on social media, etc.?
– Tope S. Aladenusi
Just about everyone has heard of the Wright brothers, the bicycle mechanics that pioneered manned motorized flight in the first part of the twentieth century. But what you may not know is that prior to that day, the Wrights, unknown with no university education, were not the leader in aviation. They were obscure at best, and another man was expected to put the first airplane in the air.
His name was Dr. Samuel P. Langley. He was a respected former professor of mathematics and astronomy who at that time was the director of the Smithsonian institution. Langley was an accomplished thinker, scientist, and inventor. He had published several important works on aerodynamics, and he possessed a vision for achieving manned flight. In fact, till late 1890s, he had done extensive experiments with large unmanned plane models and achieved a high degree of success.
In 1898, Langley approached the U.S. War Department for funding to design and build an airplane to carry a man aloft. And the department gave him a commission of $50,000- a huge sum at that time. Langley went right to work. By 1901, he had successfully tested an unmanned gasoline-powered heavier- than-air craft: It was the first in history. And when he enlisted the aid of Charles Manley, an engineer who built a powerful new lightweight engine based on the designs of Stephen Balzer, his success seemed inevitable.
On October 8, 1903. Langley expected his years of work to come to fruition. As journalists and curious on lookers watched, Charles Manley, wearing a cork-lined jacket, strode across the deck of a modified houseboat and climbed into the pilot’s seat of a craft called the
Great Aerodrome. The full seized, motorized device was perched atop a specially built catapult designed to initiate the Aerodrome’s flight into the air. But when they attempted the launch, part of the Aerodrome got caught, and the biplane was flung into sixteen feet of water a mere fifty yards away from the boat.
Criticism of Langley was brutal. At first, Langley didn’t let failure or the accompanying criticisms deter him. Eight weeks later in early December, he and Manley were ready to attempt flight again. They had made numerous modifications to the Aerodrome, and once more Manley climbed into the cockpit from the houseboat’s deck, ready to make history. But as before, disaster struck. This time the cable supports to the wings snapped as the plane was launched, the craft caught again on the launch rail, and it plunged into the river upside down. Manley nearly died.
Again the criticism was fierce. His Great Aerodrome was called “Langley’s Folly,” and Langley himself was accused of wasting public funds. The New York Times commented, “We hope that Prof. Langley will not put his substantial greatness as a scientist in further peril by continuing to waste his time, and the money involved in further airship experiments.” He didn’t.
Defeated and demoralized, he abandoned his decades- long pursuit of flight. Just days later, Orville and Wilbur Wright, uneducated, unknown, and unfounded – flew their plane “Flyer 1” over the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Langley let his moment of disaster make him think it was the end. He abandoned his experiments. Two years later he suffered a stroke, and a year later he died. And today, while even young school children have heard of the Wright Brothers, Langley is remembered only by relatively few aviation buffs.
Never give up.
-Uju Onyechere.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 14:17 NLT
Be patient in trouble and always be prayerful. Romans 12:26 NLY
I once heard the story of a man who gave his son a puzzle to solve. He disarranged a world map puzzle and gave his son to arrange it back because he was disturbing his meditation. Unknown to him, at the back of the world map puzzle was the picture of a man. The boy did not waste time arranging it back and this surprised the father greatly. He asked the little boy how he did it and his response was “If the man is right, the world would be right”.
When problems arise in your marriage and everything seems to be in disarray, and you are considering where to start from, remember what that little boy said – “If the man is right, the world would be right”. The solution could just be you. How do I mean? When you act right or decide to put things right in your own life, it influences a change in your partner thereby making your marriage right. Let the change in your marriage or relationship start from you. You don’t have to wait for your spouse to change first. Be an actor of love and not only a ‘reactor’. Take time to pray about the problems and situations you are going through, committing your spouse to God. I am confident that He would make a way out for you. One thing I found out about prayer is that it changes you first. So let your prayers change you for your situation to become right. Allow God to work in your life and your spouses’. Let your actions be commensurate to your prayers. Pray for a change and expect a change.
At times, the solution may be a change in character or habit. Majority of problems in homes are caused by character and habit differences. For instance, a dirty wife with a shabby dress sense and unsubmissive attitude has gracefully invited problems into her home. Such a woman would be wasting her time if she goes 40days fasting and prayer because of the problem. All she needs to do is to change her ways first. Check your life first; it could be your spending habits, nagging attitude, pride, anger, culinary skills, nonchalant attitude…
What are those things you need to do away with? Let the change start from you, be determined to win your spouse back with love and humility. Pray to God, learn of Him and let Him work on your character. God wants to dry away your tears, heal your heart and relieve you of your pains, only just allow Him to perfect His work in you, remoulding your character. For when He changes you, it influences your partner to change, normalcy returns and then your heart is filled with joy. I Peter 3:1 sets the tone – Wives, in a similar way, place yourselves under your husbands’ authority. Some husbands may not obey God’s word. Their wives could win these men for Christ by the way they live without saying anything.
After the change has come, remember to always succeed in your marriage everyday.
busola oshinubi
Love never gives up, never looses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 14: 7 (NLT)
Perhaps you are at the crossroad about to make a decision; Quit or endure? You are facing a lot of problems in your marriage that is getting you hardened by the day. You have probably exerted efforts to make your marriage work instead, it is growing worse. Love has turned sour; seeing your partner irritates you. Uhm … You say marriage is not a bed of roses.
I can understand how you feel. Marriage may not be a bed of roses to you but even if it were so, the rose plants I know have thorns in their stem. Sometimes you may get a small ‘sting’ while trying to pick the roses. Marriage may not fit exactly like what we were being told in the fairy tales “and they lived happily ever after”. It usually comes with very big challenges. Before you make your decision to quit, I would like to remind you that God is so much more interested in your situation and He wants a turn around for you so that you may enjoy the blessedness of marriage. Like the phrase, “it’s not over until it is over”, I know your innermost desire is to see a turn around in your marriage.
Consider this: The way you respond to life determines what you get from it – Gal 6:7. Your attitude affects a lot of things and as you truly desire a change, be positive in your mind. Don’t base your marriage on feelings because they can be very deceptive rather let it be based on choice; the choice to always stick together; choice to love no matter what. See those problems as a challenges; a challenge to love better, to be more patient; to learn. When you see problems as a challenge, you have already laid a foundation for change and for the solution. Challenges are meant to make you better. It works when you are positive in your mind about your situation, believing that turbulent times will pass away. No matter the situation, make a decision today that you will win your spouse back to love.
Have you ever considered why a larva has to go through a lot of struggle in the cocoons to become a beautiful butterfly? Of course to get rid of the ugly part. If the Larva had refused to see the cocoon as a challenge and decides to react negatively, it would die as a larva.
Regardless of the situation, be positive in your mind, don’t give up in Love. Be determined to win your partner back. Then you will enjoy the blessedness in marriage. You will begin to succeed everyday in your marriage.
– busola oshinubi
The story of the Good Samaritan will ever be a source of inspiration to me. It was spoken by the Master and the Lord, the king of glory. It was a story in response to a very pertinent question at the heart of man’s existence. The discreet lawyer enquired “And who is my neighbour? [Luke 10:29]”
To begin with it was a ‘certain man’, Luke 10:30, pointing to the fact that it could be anybody. He was on a journey and was waylaid by thieves; he was robbed, injured, beaten and left half dead; then the moment of truth and the unfolding of the true character of man. This true character is what the Lord wanted to expose by the parable.
Then the Lord begins in his wonderful teaching style to list the groups of people who found this dying man by the road side. The Priest and the Levite who were the so to say religious men whom people will call ‘Rabbi’. The Levite – those involved in the writing of the commandment, those who appeared to know the law inside out. It is ironical that they who seemed to know the commandment most are those who did not keep it. ‘They both passed on by the other side’, Luke 10:31, 32.
So many things could have run through their minds. “He is not my relation”, “This must have been a reward for his sins”, “Those who robbed him might still be lurking around, they might pounce on me too”, “What if he dies in my hands?”, “I can recognize him, he has offended me in the past and this is the time to repay him in his own coin”. Whatever their excuse, it was not a justification for abandoning the man on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.
Surprisingly it was the so called sinner that showed love. He cared and was genuinely interested in the plight of the injured, battered, wounded and half dead. The word says “He had compassion on him, he bound up his wounds, and he poured oil and wine. . . . He also told the owner of the inn ‘Take care of him, whatsoever thou spendest more I will repay’”,Luke 10:34-35. Oh how great and wonderful when there is true love, the world would have been a better place.
How many times have we met the half dead man between Jericho and Jerusalem but passed on the other side. How many times have we met those with injured emotions, injured feelings, broken dreams, and weird experiences, tortured souls, weighed down spirits? Those whom have been through the rough side of life, those who feel life has been very unfair to them, those in despair, those rattled with conflict within and without. Those who have known war all their lives, those whom have known poverty all their lives, those who have known hostility all their lives, those who lived in the slums all through their lives, those who lived in the Ghettos all through their lives.
Oh, how often are we not willing to identify with the brokenhearted, the poor, the needy, and the afflicted? We are more concerned about what we can make out of life. We are not willing to give a helping hand or a lending hand. Therefore the ‘Certain’ man who was wounded between Jericho and Jerusalem dies for lack of help. He is lost because man has passed to the other side for whatever reason.
My neighbour is anyone that needs help and I can help if even that help means a sacrifice
– lekan adekoya