Bundles of Joy (3)

Bundles of Joy is a series of Gods great works in my life and our lives (my family). It is aimed at revealing to people the prevailing power of Gods Word and His involvement in every details of our lives. God bless you.

After proposing to my wife in 2004, and commencing the courtship on the 6th of December 2004, we settled on a date we intended to get married. We were convinced that if we settled on a date and prayed towards it, God will work it out for us. Honestly, humanly I didn’t see the 29th September 2007 date feasible for many reasons. In 2004, I was still in the final year of my Bachelors, I haven’t gone for the compulsory federal youth service (NYSC), no job in sight, and all we were just doing was believing God and walking in faith.
You can read the miracle of my job in Bundles of Joy (2); how I never had to look for job for one day after my NYSC.

But just before I got employed in 2006, I had received an admission letter for a Masters program in the US and I was only trying to pursue a scholarship to go with it.
At work, I was informed that part of the schedule of training for me is that I will be sent for a Masters program abroad as a staff and not just on scholarship! Let me say it in another way, I will be paid to study for my own masters!

I was excited but had mixed feelings when I considered our plan of getting married in 2007. I didn’t want to go for 18months and then come to marry…, or marry only to leave my newly married wife for 18months not to mention the winter season! To my amazement, I was made to realize that if I was married before travelling, I would be allowed to go with my wife. Quickly I informed my then to-be wife of the good news and we had to shift our intended date forward in order to meet up with the logistics. We had our court wedding on the 13th January 2007 and sealed our marriage in church on the 7th April 2007. In accordance to our Christian values we celebrate the 7th April 2007.

God’s blessing was so much that bringing it forward was not an emergency; it is marvelous in my sight.

Satisfaction Cometh!

For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work
Isaiah 65:22b (The Message)

In mid November 2008, the Lord showed me this scripture and it lighted me up instantly. I would encourage you to read the same chapter from verse 17 to 25 especially in the message version (you can click this link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa%2065&version=65).
The first thing that comes to mind is the question ‘who are the chosen ones?’ If it did not come straight to you that you are chosen, then you would like to check out 1 Peter 2:9 for confirmation

But you are the one chosen by God... (The Message).

Invariably as Christians we are chosen by God.
Now in this verse God tells us explicitly what His chosen ones will have – satisfaction in their work.
This would mean that irrespective of what the company policy is (ask Daniel in Babylon), irrespective of the nature of your boss (ask Jacob with his father-in-law), the situation affecting everybody (ask Isaac in the time of famine) or even the kind of job you do (ask Joseph the Egyptian slave) God said you will have satisfaction in your work and that settles it.
Quit worrying whether you are in the right job or not. Instead, start confessing the Word of God in your life everyday as you go to work, and you will see God’s Word prevailing over every situation.

Bundles of Joy (2)

Bundles of Joy is a series of Gods great works in my life and our lives (my family). It is aimed at revealing to people the prevailing power of Gods Word and His involvement in every details of our lives. God bless you.

In February 2006, while observing my compulsory federal youth service (NYSC) in a village down the south of Nigeria, a fellow youth service member informed me about an advert in the oil and gas industry. I applied for it and trusted God. Later, I was called for the test in April of the same year. I wrote the test and kept on trusting God. I was further invited for the interview; now I knew God was up to something.
At the interview, I was uniquely dressed as I was the only one with a short-sleeve shirt and a tie without a suit. In addition to my less advantageous circumstance, I was the only one yet to conclude my federal service at that time. In all these I held on to God’s promises for my life.
After the interview, I wasn't contacted for weeks, I decided to call up some of the co-applicants I met during the interview. I learnt some had already been called for medical checks and even collected their appointment letters.
Well, as a grateful child of God, I thanked Him for giving me the opportunity to experience an interview of such calibre, believing that it would be useful for future interviews. One afternoon (still during my federal service), I got a phone call informing me that I passed the interview. I was further told that they have been trying to reach me for several weeks but have been receiving a wrong number reply from the other end only to later discover that they have been trying a wrong number. It was like a dream.
I collected my appointment letter the same day I collected my discharged certificate from the NYSC. It is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in my sight.

Lessons from 'Starting Over' by Bob Gass (2)

How to Prevent Organizational Dry Rot
Have an effective program for the recruitment and development of talent; people are the ultimate source of renewal.

Don’t kill the spark of individuality.

Cultivate a climate where it is comfortable to ask questions.

Don’t carve the internal structure in stone; most structures are designed to solve problems that no longer exist.

Have a good system of internal communication.

Don’t become prisoners of procedures. In most organizations, the rule book grow fatter as the ideas grow fewer.

Combat tendencies toward the vested interest of a few; in a long run everyone’s best interest in the continuing vitality of the group.

Be more interested in what you are becoming, than what you have been.

An organization runs on 3 things: motivation, conviction and moral; each person has to believe that his talent means something and that he is recognized by the whole.

The profit-and-loss statement is not the true measure of your success – fulfilling your God-given purpose and making daily progress toward you goal is.

· We fail because of a negative outlook

§ Your words create the climate you live in

· We fail because we are in the wrong place

§ Often failure is a result of mismatched abilities, interests, personalities or values. Think about that carefully

· We fail because of a lack of commitment

§ God is not limited by your limitations. God’s neither dependent on what is have, nor limited by what you don’t have

§ Just because you’re damaged doesn’t mean you’re not delivered. No, it just means you’re not yet fully developed. You can be delivered in one area and struggling in another – yet God will still use you for his glory

· We fail because of our inability or unwillingness to change

Top Ten Strategies for Dealing with a Dead Horse
Buy a stronger whip

Change riders

Appoint a committee to study the horse

Find a team to revive the horse

Send out a memo declaring the horse really isn’t dead

Hire an expensive consultant and find ‘the real problem’

Harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency

Rewrite the standard definition for a live horse

Declare the horse to be better, faster and cheaper when dead

Promote the horse to a supervising position

Until you have water in your own well, you’ve got to draw it from other men’s well.

Words paint pictures.

People need to see it as well as hear it.

The Difference is Attitude

· There always comes a time when giving up is easier than standing up, and giving in looks more attractive than digging in. In those moments, character may be the only thing you have to draw on to keep you going.

· It is not just enough to stay in the ring that’s commendable, but if that’s all you do, you’ll get your brains knocked out and still not win. The secret is to get back up and do things differently next time.

· Experience is not what happens to you. Experience is what you do with what happens to you – Aldous Huxely.

· If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. · By failing to plan, you are planning to fail – Benjamin Franklin. Keep on Keeping on

· Life is about 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we respond to it.

· With the right attitude, no barrier is too high, no valley is too deep, no goal is too extreme and no challenge is too great.

· Serenity prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Bundles of Joy (1)

Bundles of Joy is a series of Gods great works in my life and our lives (my family). It is aimed at revealing to people the prevailing power of Gods Word and His involvement in every details of our lives. God bless you.

I remember desiring to go for an international professional conference in the US from Nigeria even as an undergraduate in 2004; so I applied to the US embassy. Apart from the fact that I had never traveled outside the country with my international passport, I have been refused a British visa on it before. I was so disadvantaged that I didn’t even have any financial statement to take to the embassy. Many people gave me different suggestions on what to do on my passport to make it successful. If I had heeded to those suggestions, I wouldn’t be testifying today.
In addition, with faith, I went to the embassy without a financial statement. I went with just a letter from my father that says that I am his son and that he would sponsor my trip to the US. My father with his over 30 years of traveling experience was certain that I would be refused but he still gave me the application fee so that I won't be discouraged.

That morning of the interview God gave me two scriptures

Isaiah 61:9 All who see them shall acknowledge them, That they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed (NKJV) and

Haggai 2:8 'The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts (NKJV)

With tears in my eyes praising Him for success, I prepared to leave for the interview. At the interview, all my highlighted weak points were simply overlooked. I was predominantly asked questions that were related to my course of study in school, and eventually to the glory of God, I was asked to come and pick up my visa the following week.

It was like a dream! As I was praising God, it occurred to me that I still had the hurdle of airfare-payment to cross, knowing fully well that my father didn’t mean what he wrote in the letter to the embassy. At this point I started to put in all my effort, writing to individuals and corporate bodies for sponsorship. Some people advised me to go and not to come back (even my father suggested it). The thought of going and not coming didn’t sound logical to me after spending almost five years in school and only having one semester exam to write; to eventually abscond? Never!

God then directed someone to me who suggested that I give a seed of a hundredth of my estimated travel expenses. So I calculated it to be N400,000 and gave a seed of N4,000. Just about a week to the conference date, I received a call from my father that he has discussed it with my Mum and they would raise the money for me to go. It sounded unusually good to be true, and perhaps filled with some sort of suspicious intentions in my own view; so I had to make serious clarifications of their intention. I told them I was going just for the conference and coming back. In fact, they told me it won’t be enough to go for the conference alone, that I should also go for a drop box approach for a British visa since I now have a US visa; to enable me pay a visit to London as well.

Friends it was like a dream, in two weeks I traveled to three different countries in three different continents.

It may not seem a big deal to you because of your status, it was to me back then.

Glory be to God.

VALEDICTORY SPEECH, MARANATHA STUDENTS' FORUM, RCCG, 2004

An abridged version

...Gold, they say can only be purified and adored after it passes through extreme heat; the fire burned, the heat melted but I thank God it was all for me to come out an adorable jewel to this generation.
On the road of life, there are meetings and there are partings. The beginning did not seem to have a clear visibility of what the end would look like. But as the day goes by and weeks after weeks, semesters after semesters and sessions after sessions slowly what the end may look like started to unveil.

...To the church. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Don’t confuse a relationship with God for an encounter with Him. Seek after a relationship with Him. Don’t approach Him with a ‘bait attitude’-giving only for what you want to get in return. Instead, approach Him sacrificially. Offer up your life, money, time, love and even yourself as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable unto Him. You started strong strife to finish strong.

To my friends. Wake up to the reality that we are not parting but moving forward in life with a purpose in mind. Are you more of ‘human doing’ than a human being? Are you so busy in activities and pursuits that you have neglected the work of the Holy Spirit in your character? People are busy, busy, and busy. They are busy doing with little of emphasis on being. If you refocus your life on responding to God’s inner work, you will have more lasting success in the outward visible things you are doing. Being the right person always precedes doing the right thing. Study hard, love God and strengthen relationships.

To my co-graduates. If you remember when we finished primary six, we had to start again with a JSS one; when we concluded JSS three, we started another level with an SSS one. Now we have finished 400level or 500level as the case may be, let me remind you that just as the new levels in the past started with the lowest number after every high number in the former level, this new level puts us at the lowest part of it. Let us enter into it with every sense of humility and willingness to learn.
Don’t contemplate taking life as a sprint of ten seconds; you will miss the details and excitement. Take life as an endurance race, take time to attend and listen to details it helps. This is not to say we should be slow because fast and steady will always win the race.
Meekness is not the same as weakness, but strength under control. Let us choose meekness, it is the way of the Lamb. Money is not everything even if it answers all things. Moreover, having the answer and using it at the wrong time could be more disastrous. Stay with God who makes all things beautiful at its own time.

To all the high fliers. It is true that ‘behold the fowl of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feedeth them…’ Mathew 6vs26, but you will agree with me that He doesn’t drop it in their nest. They go out to get it. You are better than they are so go out, put in an effort, fly and get what God has prepared for you. Be patient to get a word from God.
Peter the disciple had the right team, the right skill and even the right tool but yet all to a fruitless catch until he got a word from Jesus. Let me also point out that though his catch was net breaking and boat sinking, yet after a safe landing, Peter didn’t stay or remain with the catch instead, he left with the catcher.
You don’t have to know all things as long as you have a God that knows all things.
Nothing guarantees a great future like a correct picture and also, you cannot feature in a future you cannot picture. Keep your dreams alive. Be careful what you call impossible. God is at work in your life, He has made the idea conceivable, the product achievable, the process endurable and you the person capable.

When it dawned on me that we will be moving forward, I told myself north, south east or west Maranatha is the best.
Valuing friendship is not by seeing each other everyday. What counts is that somehow in our busy lives we remember each other.
Forgetting you is hard for me to do, forgetting me is up to you. You may forget me but please know God and glorify Him as God.

Lastly, I have always asked people a question that I have refused to give my own answer to all this while. The question is “what is life?” I am pleased to tell you that to me life is what you make it. Thank you.

Lessons from 'Starting Over' by Bob Gass (1)

Three Life-Changing Principles

1. The answer to old relationships – new ones

We talk only of the past, because we stopped living at a certain point years ago.

Anytime you discuss the past as though it was the present, it’s because you’ve allowed the past to steal the present right out of our hands.

2. The answer to pain is purpose

When the focus changes from you to others, your life will to take an up swing.

3. The answer to resentment is a commitment to walk in live and forgiveness

Forgiveness is not for the benefit of others – it’s for your benefit. Until you can forgive the offense and release the person who hurt you, you can’t move on.

The Rearview Mirror

There’s no way to go forward, if you’re looking at what’s behind. If you do, you’ll end up in a ditch for sure.

Lessons from my Mother

I don’t have to do anything to earn his love; he gives freely to us. But I do have to do certain things if I want to enjoy his blessings.

Three Things about Giving:

The seed you sow will never leave your life
It simply moves from where you are today, to where you’ll be tomorrow; but when you get there, it will no longer be the seed you planted, but the harvest you need.

God will never ask for something you don’t have, but he’ll always ask you something you’d like to keep
Giving proves that you’ve conquered greed. It also proves you’ve conquered the fear of lack .

You always have enough to create what you need
When what I have is not enough, I just make it a seed. The moment I put that seed into God’s hand, my next harvest begins.

Don’t Limit your Potential

Instead of waiting for life to happen, go out and make it happen.
He (God) can’t be your peace until he is first your focus (Ish26:3).
At that moment God gives you an idea or speaks with definite direction, you either make a commitment or make an excuse. You act in faith or react in fear; but right then you’re deciding your future.
Fear usually comes dressed up as an excuse.
You can’t control the wind, but by his grace, you can adjust your sails to take you where you want to go.
Opportunity is a visitor; don’t assume it will be back again tomorrow. Move while the door is open.

What’s your Achilles’ heel?

If you’re unwilling to acknowledge that you’ve got a problem, you wont protect yourself in that area or work on it, and as a result you’ll keep getting into trouble.
We fail because we love things more than people.

People don’t care how much you know until they first know how much you care.

AGONY OF CHOICE

by J.O Adenuga

Principles can be easily made
But it can also hurt to abide by
How painful it feels to let go
To let go of one for another
Just for the sake of principle
The grief can be like that of a departed soul

How easy it is to make a choice
But the price of our choice lingers
Much longer after the choice have been made
Along with our choices
Comes the immediate pain
The pain of loosing fringe benefits from other alternatives

And the pain of uncertainty of the chosen

The choice once made opens the eyes
Opens the eyes to the benefits of other alternatives
Reveals & counts the loss of not choosing other alternatives
Our choices are like seeds
The result or benefits are the harvest thereof

Each time we make a choice
Especially the right one,
We plant a see in the ground
We suffer the pain of not eating the seed
We suffer the pain of parting away with the seed
It enters the soil & leaves us with no proof of harvest
It rather decays & decomposes
Leaving us with the grief of loss
With the uncertainty of choice

But certainly time will tell
Time, the revealer of secrets will prove
How worthy the choice is
Right or wrong we cannot tell
But time will tell

God give me a heart to endure through this time
Through the time a farmer waits to endure the loss of his seeds
The time that reveals the fruitfulness of the choice
That reveals the certainty in the uncertainty
I have made this choice, Lord
Help me to wait

Being Carried?

by J.O Adenuga 08/08/2006

Acts 3:1-7
Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle received strength.


2 And a certain man LAME from his mother’s womb WAS CARRIED, whom they laid DAILY at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered the temple…

…LAME
This man was in a circumstance – he was lame. Same as most of us, we are lame. Ours may not be physical lameness, but we are incapacitated in one way or the other. We are lame in our minds, our vision is 'lame', and we don't seem to be making progress. Many are lame financially and cannot satisfy themselves due to financial disability. We are all like this man in a way. It may not even be our fault that we are lame, it may be an inherited predicament like this man, it could be as a result of our background, our parents, our environment might have made us lame.

…WAS CARRIED
Most times there is little we can do when we are lame, we are at the mercy of people. If you are lame financially, you wouldn’t have a choice as to how much people will give you; even if it’s your wage – in other words you are carried. Some may have been carried by the moral decadence in the society due to their lameness in making up their minds; some may have been carried by the storms of doubt and fear due to their ignorance of the promises of God for their lives.

…DAILY
This passage reveals to us that this carrying is done daily. I can understand if I were carried once maybe twice but daily! No way! He is so helpless that he has to be carried daily; the carrying of just one day can’t solve his problem so he needs it daily. Sounds to me like addiction. How many times have we thought and wished in our hearts that this would be the last ‘carrying’ in our lives only to discover we would still need to be carried the day after and the next? We have longed so much to walk on our own but, we find ourselves in a terrible situation that would require a daily ‘carrying’. It also sound to me like salary. The 'carrying' of one month salary can't just be enough for the financially disabled - you need financial freedom!

If you ask me, I would tell you it is good to be carried, it only depends on who is carrying you. This verse indicated that people carried this man to anywhere he is located. Many times you discover some inadequacies in your life, some levels of disability, whom do you run to? Who do you seek comfort from? Who do you seek advise from? The best that men can do for us is what people did for this man in this scripture – they laid him at the gate called beautiful.

Men don’t have answers to your problems, men don’t have the blueprint of your life, the best they can do is carrying you and lay you down to beg. To be fair on these men that carried him, they did what seem best to them. In their minds carrying him to a place where he would be able to get some thing of his own was a great idea and helpful one too. The unfortunate thing is that this solution for the man won’t last long. You would have to come another day and another just like this man. He was laid daily. No matter the amount of money he received in a day, he would still have to be carried the next day.

How long will you be carried? How long will you have to go home happy only to still be helpless the following day? The truth is that many of us are carried away by what we get at the beautiful gate. Let me tell you, what you get at the beautiful gate is a speck compared to what God has for you. Besides, note this that any help from man does not terminate your need for help; it only brings you to a point where you will need multiple of help – like the beautiful gate. Each time we get to the beautiful gate, we thank them for taking us thus far to ‘achieve’ yet another volatile and nascent achievement in life. Whereas ignorantly we are there to seek greater amount of help from people – begging for alms.

For you the solution to your problem may be the last days of the month when you collect your salary (alms) at the 'beautiful gate'. But then you will still have to look out for another month; this is because you are only being carried and laid down at the beautiful gate.

God has a better plan dear, an end has to come to your being carried, and you would have to start walking to your God designed destiny. I see you fulfilling just that in Jesus name.


3 Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an ALMS. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. 5 And he GAVE heed unto them, EXPECTING to RECEIVE SOMETHING of them.

Asking for help, support and all sort is what he has adapted to. But then it is a big surprise to know that this man gave something. This is someone whose way of life is hinged around receiving and we now see him giving something. Isn’t it surprising to hear that someone who is carried daily, who can’t do anything without the support of someone, who has no other business but seek assistance, gave something?

If the story had ended in the fact he gave then it would have been a plus to him; better still if the bible had not mentioned his motive for giving. The bible tells us that he gave expecting to receive something. He has become so use to receiving that even when he gives he is expecting to receive. Definitely he would be offended or hurt whenever he gives and does not receive anything especially when he does not receive what he is expecting – alms.
This looks like the picture of many Christians today in church, they are simply giving expecting to receive. They wouldn’t have any problem with expectation if their expectation were in line with God’s will. But their expectation is just as that of the lame man – alms.

Sometimes our lameness begins to define our expectation. We might have been in that disability struggle, poverty, immorality, luke warmness, strife and all sorts of lameness so much and for a long time that our expectation has been redefine by our circumstances. We no longer see the problem as solvable, we no longer see our feet walking, we no longer see our life getting better and all we look out for is just the survival of today. How can God fulfill is glorious plan in our lives and make us whole when all we do is giving with the expectation of receiving alms?

Peter in accordance to God’s will didn’t give this man what he expected, instead, they gave the questions of his life answers, weakness in his body strength, ashes in his life beauty.

…and immediately his feet and ankle received strength. Act 3:7.

You might miss the answer to your prayer if you expect Him to work how you want Him to. I see God moving pass our circumstance-defined expectation and giving answers to our questions, healing our minds, mending our relationships, giving us back our vision and restoring us back to where we belong.
You will get there on your feet.