I tell you, wisdom is better than strength. It is one thing to make money and another to know how to keep it. A very big difference between the rich and the poor is in their money flows. A rich man watches his inflow very carefully and watches his outflow even more. Most poor people are careless about their money outflows. They are more concerned about making money and pay little attention to what happens to the money they have made. You must not pour water into a basket and you must be concerned if your water jar has a leak in it. That’s why you must watch the banks.
In the last decade of economic downturn and depression banks have kept on year after year declaring what many describe as ‘JUMBO’ and ‘MEGA’ profits. You just can’t stop them; everything seems to be working for them. The good news is that you contribute a lot to their MEGA profits. Friends, wisdom is the principal thing and I challenge you, most especially business men and women to learn how the banks operate. The banks are richer because many lack understanding of its operations. I see business people pay avoidable charges and interest every day. I see the low income earners pay a good percentage of their meager income back to banks just because they can’t take the pains to understand how an account operates and should be operated.
Banks operates within the ambits of the law and will normally only take charges permitted by law. So you must take the pains to understand why and when they charge what they charge. You must understand the difference between various kinds of accounts. A good understanding of a savings account and a current account will save you a fortune. Further understanding of different money transfer options will save you another.
Stop paying charges three ways. Why pay money into one charged account and transfer it into another charged account before making a transfer to your client. Why have a fixed deposit of 1million earning interest at 10% and simultaneously be servicing a loan of 1million at an interest rate of 22%. Why leave an overdrawn position on your account and allow interest to accumulate when you could easily have paid it off? Why feel lazy to offset that overdraft just because you can’t get to the bank. Why keep cash in your house for weeks when it could earn you something in your own account. Why take a cheque from your client for cash to be transferred immediately to another client and still pass it through your current account. Are you really sure that allowing the bank to finance that asset acquisition for 6months is really a wise choice? Is the perceived comfort of “easy repayment” not costing you a fortune? What loan options are available to you?
If you use the banks for one reason/purpose or the other, take time to understand how they operate. You will be wise if you did.
God bless you.
emmanuel aladenusi
Some logical reasoning has crept into the church unaware, and our minds are so accustomed to these ideas that we accept them without asking questions. Just as it is commonly practiced in choosing a life partner, we have been told to watch while we pray to find the bone of our bone, and the flesh of our flesh. In fact it is also commonly reported that, if you pray without being on the look out you will most likely loose out on the right person i.e. you will not know when he or she pass by you. Much as “watch and pray” is directly attributed and linked to Jesus statement to His disciples at the garden of Gethsemane, it is obvious that there is serious misunderstanding, most likely due to the King James English translation of the bible.
Matthew 26: 41 in HSBC version states “stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. What has been translated as “watch” by the King James translators and commonly used in churches today means to stay on guard, alert or be awake. This was because in verse 40 after Jesus prayed for a while, He found that His disciples were sleeping and did not join Him praying. So He had to tell them to stay awake and pray just as He was doing.
If you believe that what Jesus meant is that each time we pray specifically about a situation we should also rely on our senses to get the results, then it means we are no longer relying on Him to handle the situation we are praying about, then the question is why do we pray if our senses can do the job? It is possible that God communicates His will about what we are praying for through our senses but this will purely be as He wills, in essence, God has a way of working through us (For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure {Philippians 2: 13}). The best of what our senses produces is still referred to as our decisions, except God has worked through it; God’s will and workings is irrespective of our senses. Next time we pray, we should not be mindful of looking for what it will look like. We should pray with alertness of mind towards God not “pray-sleeping” or “pray-mind traveling”.
-adeyiga awomuti
| These days life is full of exciting events and sites. For those who create time off work, there is a lot to enjoy. There are fun games, sun bathing, cliff-diving, swimming contests, hikes, beach walks and bush walks, visits to game parks, historical sights, museums, and monumental parks among many others. Still there is visit to homes for the destitute and the elderly, tree planting, visit to countryside and reflection retreats. We have a real variety to choose from. All these events provide exciting and relaxing moments and off-work climate suitable for bodies that have passed through days or weeks of hassles and haggles.
We as Christians however need to be careful during these times because of several reasons. During some of these events, our bodies and minds are idling hence susceptible to evil thoughts engineered by Satan. It’s during personal reflections that some people find life worthless and may decide to commit suicide. It’s during fun games that jokes are taken too far and indeed lies are spoken. It’s during sun bathing that fleshly passions run high due to the nude bodies in beaches hence causing beachgoers to sin by way of lust. Weekends have been marked by a lot of indulgence in drinking, anti-spiritual melodramatic movies and soap operas and unspeakable forms of immorality. Christians are not exempted from these evil waves. It’s when people have gone to tour museums and monumental sites that some buy some items which are idols and have evil deity connections which may be accursed in the sight of God. We will not go deeper than this. All I’m putting across is that off-work clouds may carry with themselves heavier drops than anticipated … in form of serious temptations.
2 Samuel 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. David was taking a roof walk relaxing because the Israel army had utterly destroyed the Ammonites. What followed before the end of the walk was a real bombshell. And things snowballed from lust to covetousness to adultery to conspiracy (duping Uriah into lying with his wife) and finally to murder! ‘An idle mind is a devil’s workshop’ so the saying goes. Let’s watch out! Even when we are having off-work events let us cling to Romans 12:1-2 ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ And let us also remember Colossians 3: 3 & 5, For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
– johnstone katuku
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