Tag Archives: Abraham

Health and Lifestyle, Spirituality

Here’s why you must avoid Pride!

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If there’s one thing God hates so much, it’s pride.


So many great men have fallen down the ladder of success due to this. Pride is a disease that slowly eats one up without knowing.


Take Satan for example, He was once called Lucifer, one of the highest ranking angels then in God’s kingdom but then, pride set in.



Isaiah 14 vs 13;
For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north”


Going to verse 15, we see what God did to him.
“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit ”.


When pride sets in, God is moved to bring such a person down so as to make such person realize that he or she is actually nothing.



James 4 vs 6 says;

But he giveth more Grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grave unto the humble.



This shows us the extent to which God detests pride. People who are proud are hard to deal with. They feel above everyone and feel they are way too big to be corrected. They feel they know everything and therefore need not to learn from anyone, not even God.



Everyone has the tendency to be proud especially when something big happens in our life, like a major achievement or something. That proud instinct kicks and when such happens, that’s the Devil knocking on the doors of our heart.



The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee. So as he keeps knocking, you keep resisting him but how do you resist him?



James 4 vs 7 says;

“ Submit yourself therefore to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee from you”.



God has given us a code there to fighting off pride.


To fight off pride, we must submit ourselves unto God, place your self, your ego, your will under him. Tell him to lead the easy while you follow.


Seeing this, God gives us the Grace needed to resist the devil until he flees.



Pride is a matter of the heart. Always place your heart on a constant check.
Only God knows the true intents of our hearts. Always ask him to look into your heart and if there be any wicked thoughts there, ask him to purge you of it.


Never allow pride to set in. No matter how big and influential you might be, always be humble.


Remember Nebuchadnezzar?

No matter how high you think you are, God is always capable of humbling you.



Pride goes before a fall.


Written by Tolu-Taiwo Victor

Faith

Covenant Lessons from Father Abraham

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God desires a relationship with every man. It is only through a relationship with God that we gain full understand of who God is.


If our fellowship with God is weak, our hearts will be unable to dwell on the things of God.


It takes consistent fellowship with God to be able to understand the thoughts of His heart.



God relates with man on different levels; but there was a man in the old testament who became the friend of God – Abraham.


It is only those who have become friends with God that can be entrusted with His secrets.


True Friends keep secrets. God never wanted to hide anything from Abraham because he was a friend of God.


And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Genesis 18:17.

Here are some vital lessons believers must learn from Abraham’s walk with God:





Faithfulness to the Covenant:


Abraham was faithful to the Covenant between him and God, and he ensured his children and household followed his lead.



“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” Genesis 18:19.

Abraham’s faithfulness and loyalty is worth emulating. As believers we must live a life of faithfulness and loyalty to the covenant of Grace.


We must abide by the terms of the covenant ranging from faith to holiness and even consecration. We must also ensure we teach our children the tenets of this covenant and guide them into it.



The greatest inheritance we can give our children is to teach them the ways of God and show them the covenant.




A Life Of Sacrifice:


Abraham was sacrificial. He entertained strangers with the best of his flocks. He trained his nephew, Lot in the stead of his father without demanding a return. He was willing to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God.


Abraham was willing to go extra mile to ensure the completion of his obedience. May we not be satisfied in partial obedience as believers – because partial obedience is absolute disobedience.



The life of the believer is a life of sacrifice, we don’t own anything in God we are only made stewards.


“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.” Romans 12:1.


Absolute Obedience:

The life of Abraham is absolute obedience to God’s instructions. Obedience is our proof of our loyalty and submission to God.

One can’t claim to be a devoted citizen of a country and live in disobedience; one can’t claim to be a devoted Christian and live in constant disobedience to God’s word.

His WORD IS HIS COMMAND

Someone once asked, ‘How can you say I’m living in disobedience; God hasn’t spoken to me about His dos and donts before.

I deem this a fallacious statement. God does not need to appear to us in dreams and visions like He did with Abraham; His Word is His command to us. The Bible is the Book of God’s commands and instructions to believers.

When you do not pray as commanded in scriptures, you’re living in disobedience. When you commit the sins which the scriptures speak against, you position yourself in the path of disobedience.


“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8.

Abraham obeyed by faith – he obeyed God promptly.

There must be a consistent and accurate walk with God that secures our establishment in the kingdom.

Obedience and diligence are non-negotiable in the kingdom. If we must secure the working of God’s covenant in our life, they must be our watchword.



God testified that Abraham was His friend. He also testified about David. The covenant principles highlighted above when put into practice, will earn you the friendship testimony of God.


What will God testify about you?


Green-Hills Emmanuel Amarayahweh

Student's Corner

Students’ Corner: The Time Factor

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Becoming an excellent student arguably requires certain resources which range from funds to enough textbooks, guides etc. One might not have access or full control of these things, but a resource that a student has full control over is ‘Time’.

You are in control of your time! No one else has control of it. Your lecturers might only have a portion of it, but you own your time.

The Time Factor is what every student must be able to use for his/her academic growth


Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1;
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1|KJV)


When the Bible said to, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”, it literally meant, “There’s a time for everything ”.



It never shortlisted it to a particular thing.


Students today develop problems when it comes to PRIORITIZING and meeting up with a set time especially time to read and give answers to waiting assignments.



Someone once made a joke, he said “Even if you give students a whole year for an assignment, you will definitely find many of them doing the assignments a night before submission ”.


I laughed when I heard this though it is painfully true.


The only time you find a lot of students reading is actually a day to exams or tests and this is sadly painful.


Then you see them blaming the teacher or lecturers for giving them low grades.



Throughout the semester or term, all you find them doing is anything but studying.


Having fun isn’t wrong but having it at the wrong time is wrong and dangerous to one’s academic growth.


Remember what Jesus said to Martha in Luke 10 vs 42?



He said, “But one thing is needful”.


In that text, Jesus didn’t mean to say cooking wasn’t necessary, all he meant to say was “At that moment, there was something more important than cooking”.


Having fun and being social is an essential part of every human’s life but when you prioritize it above the needful – your studies, you are wasting precious time – time you could invest in learning something new or gaining more knowledge about a particular course.



We all have our Achilles’ heel when it comes to studying. No one is perfect in all subjects; but the time you devote to gaining mastery of your least favourite subjects determine whether it becomes your strength or remains your downfall.

There exists a law of consistency which states that the way to gain mastery of a thing or course is to study and practice it repeatedly. Spend time daily studying your academic work.



Time lost is lost forever – it can never be gotten back. So what do you do with you time as a student?


A wise man once said, “Time, is an asset of equality. Everyone has 24hours, no one has 25 hours so use yours well”.


The key to a successful and fun-filled school session is total commitment and hard work. Read when the time to read comes, the fun can wait.

APPLICATION

1. Write down the list of courses you’re doing this session as well as the recommended texts for those topics

2. Apportion at least thirty minutes to studying each of those courses daily.

3. Be candid with yourself; the day must not pass without you completing the thirty minutes devoted to each subject.

4. Ensure you celebrate yourself for time spent by getting a good nap or challenging a friend to a quiz based on the studied course

5. Use your night time properly.

6. Overtime, increase the number of minutes spent on each course.

Thank you for your time here 😊. If you enjoyed this post, we request that you give us a like as well as a share 👍. More on students titbits comes soon.




GENERAL

Look unto Sarah not Feminism!

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Isaiah 51:2: “Look unto Sarah [that] bare you…”

In a world in which perverseness and wokeism has become the order of the day, it is imperative that believers are well taught and instructed in Bible culture and values, else conformity to the ungodly civilization will be inevitable.

We live in a society which has been taken over by the rise of radical feminist movements. These movements started in the early 19s as honest movements in nations with subjugation of the female gender; yet, they have deteriorated into movements that are against the pillars of marriage, especially in Christianity.

Thus, the Spirit is sounding a firm warning to the female gender in Isaiah 51:2; He says, “… look unto Sarah”. He does not say, ‘… look unto Adichie…’ or ‘…look unto feminism’, instead, He reveals to us who is His blueprint for Christian wives to conform to; Sarah.

Who was Sarah?

Sarah is the first wife of Bible’s Abraham. Her role as a wife, friend and partner in Abraham’s life can never be overemphasized.

Sarah was not the one God called, Abraham was the one called by God. Sarah was not the one who received the promise, it was Abraham. But when Abraham shared it with her, she supported Abraham by choosing to go with him in his journey towards destiny. Here, Sarah shows us that as a wife, you must be ready to support your husband in his pursuit of his God-given vision. You must be ready to make sacrifices for him; you must be ready to displease yourself to see to the fulfillment of that great dream.

          Imagine how difficult it was for Sarah to leave her home, country and comfort to go with Abraham to an unknown land. It shows how much she loved Abraham and how far she was willing to go to see to his success in life. Sacrifice is a great necessity in building a strong marriage.

Sarah’s love and sacrificial heart made her consistently follow Abraham even as he wandered from one place to another. She was selfless, and truly devoted her whole life to supporting Abraham’s vision.

If we could get more wives like Sarah in Christian marriages, certainly, we would get more men like Abraham; because the success of Abraham, to a large extent, was tied to the supportive role of his wife.

  • She was submissive

1 Peter 3:5-6: “For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.” (NIV)

Sarah was a submissive wife. In several places in the book of Genesis, she called Abraham ‘her lord’. The Hebrew word for ‘lord’ in that context is ‘Adonai’ and it means an owner or a master. Thus, Sarah recognized Abraham’s lordship over her. She recognized the fact that in that marriage, she belonged to Abraham. She recognized Abraham not just as her husband, but also as one who rightfully owned her; and she proved this by her unfailing devotion to serving Abraham.

When Abraham was entertaining the three strangers in Genesis 18:6, he instructed Sarah to bake bread and she promptly obeyed his instruction. In the two events in which Abraham instructed Sarah to hide her identity as his wife, Sarah obeyed perfectly. Folks, this is the reason God had to appear to Abraham and tell him to listen to Sarah and send Hagar away from the house.

Sarah is an epitome of true strength in marriage. She reveals to us, that as a wife, the way to getting a strong home and respect from your husband is not in fierce opposition or constant disobedience to his instructions, but in love and submission.