Tag Archives: Romance

Health and Lifestyle

Q/A: Is it right for a believer to celebrate Valentine’s Day?

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Is it right for a believer to celebrate Valentine’s Day?



This is a question which is frequently asked among believers. Some are of the opinion that due to the sinful acts that are carried out on Valentine, it is not worth celebrating in Church.


For this to be clarified, one has to understand the etymology of the word “Valentine’s Day” and the purpose for which it was intended.


Far back in 270 AD, Emperor Claudius II Gothicus concluded that single men were more useful in battles than the married counterparts. On that note, he vetoed marriages for every single man in Rome.


Valentine, a Christian priest around the time realizing the injustice of the decree decided to help the unmarried men escape the unjust laws made by the Emperor, by secretly joining them in marriage with their lovers.



However, the outcome of this sacrifice was fatal for St. Valentine when the emperor, Claudius II learned of his actions, as he was later clubbed to death.


Valentine’s Day is celebrated annually on 14th February, to commemorate the martyrdom of the 3rd Century Christian priest, Valentine.


Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is closely linked to expressing romantic love, but there’s no definite association between romantic love and the ancient figure, St. Valentine.


However, it is believed that mid-February shows the first whiffs of Spring. Spring represents a new beginning and pleasance in life. It is also known to be the copulation season for most bird species.


Hence, St Valentine’s Day became closely associated with romantic love through its coincidence with Spring season.


Today, we commemorate Saint Valentine’s selfless sacrifice for the Romans.


With this in mind, celebrate this year’s Valentine differently. Celebrate it, not only with love but also with the consciousness that sacrifices are elements of love.


Note that your first sacrifice must be presenting your body as holy and acceptable to the Lord.

Romans 12:1: “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.”



Love God with all your heart, remembering that we love Him because He first loved us.



Likewise, love your neighbour as yourself. These are the greatest commandments. It is upon them that the Law and The Prophets are built.


Finally, love is not a thing to be emphasized only on Valentine’s Day.


Rather, always plant the seed of affection and kindness in every place you find yourself.



Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Written by Ada Mbamalu

Spirituality

The Culture of The Kingdom

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Every civilization, kingdom or race has its Culture. There is always a distinct manner of living peculiar to its citizens.

There is always something that marks them out from other people. A sense of identity that is expressed in their general disposition to every situation.

As representatives of a Kingdom, we have a culture that sets us apart from others, a pattern of operation that is peculiar to us.

Ever since the world fell into the state that it is in today; in control of the enemy by virtue of man’s fall and relinquishing dominion to the Satan; God has been interested in setting his people apart both in behavior and disposition.

He gives them His laws and desires they walk in His ways. He sets before them a pattern to conform to. This has been from the days of the Israelites to the present.

The kingdom of God has its culture. A pattern its citizens must conform to. A way they are to walk.

It is quite disheartening to see a believer behaving in a manner strange to Christendom’s culture.

It is very sad to see that in some situations, there seems to be no difference between a believer and an unbeliever.

What has gone wrong, why is this so?


It could be due to more emphasis being placed on the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit than the fruit of The Spirit in this generation.

Most Christians are taught that they should speak in tongues but not that that same lips should not slander others.

That they should heal the sick but not that they should also cater for the needs of the sick through giving.

This leads to the production of many Charismatic, yet, poor-in-character Christians. Believers who speak in tongues, yet, cannot be trusted with someone else’s finances.

Believers should be exposed to both the Power and Character perspective of Christ.

Another reason is the low concept of Christianity that is being incorporated into the modern believer.

A poor understanding of the concept of grace and liberty that has been afforded the believer in Christ, that seems to impress the idea that the Christlike character expression of the believer is of no importance. A Christianity that accommodates abortion of young ones. One that is compatible with laziness and Spiritual complacency. It is quite saddening.

What is the pattern of the New Creation’s Behavior?

What is the standard of conduct of the believer? In what way should pattern his steps?

There are several things that distinguishes us as sons. Patterns expected to be seen in us. Expressions that must be made manifest and highlighted in the different areas of our lives.

These are different areas we are expected to differ in compared to the pattern of the world.

1. Manner of Food:

Food is an expression of culture.

Food in this context refers to the things which we feed our minds with. What we constantly feed our mind is a determinant of what culture we will conform to.

If you eat the food of dogs, you will be weak like dogs.

If you eat that of Lions, you will roar.

When the world delights in feeding on sensual musics and books based on knowledge against Christ, we must delight in feeding on the Word, the Truth and the Life.

2. The Manner of Clothing

What people wear affirms what kingdom the belong to. Clothes here refer to our behavior, disposition and carriage. It refers to our mannerisms and adornments.

Ours must be Noble and not common. That a behavior is popular does not mean its virtuous.

That others “pepper dem” doesn’t matter to us because we are salts.

We must stick to the uniform of the kingdom.

Colossians 3:8-10: “But now you yourselves are to PUT OFF all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have PUT OFF the old man with his deeds, 10 and have PUT ON the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. “

3. Language

This refers to our manner of speech. The fruits of our lips.

Our language as believers should be one that completely highlights who we are.

In a generation full of hate and pain, our words should be soothing and like a balm, healing.

Members of the Kingdom do not speak anyhow. That vulgar words trend and are famous does not mean a believer should speak them.

Colossians 4:6: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”


We have a pattern that we should adher to. One that highlights our uniqueness and peculiarity as a chosen people. This pattern is found in our constitution (The Word of God).

This posits that as we live by God’s word and will, we conform to his pattern.

Romans 12:2: ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’

Health and Lifestyle

The Power of Love

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The outstanding characteristic of natural man is Selfishness. It has given to us every one of the major sins that are destroying the human race.

Selfishness is the parent of the liquor traffic, gambling, and every other sin.
The husband who comes home h

The outstanding characteristic of natural man is Selfishness. It has given to us every one of the major sins that are destroying the human race.

Selfishness is the parent of the liquor traffic, gambling, and every other sin. The husband who comes home half drunk doesn’t love his family as much as he loves himself. The mother who has taken on the unhappy habits of modern society, and dares display these habits in the presence of her growing children, loves herself and her appetites more than she loves her children .

The natural man cannot love his children as much as he loves himself. He cannot love his wife as much as he loves himself.

The natural human heart is a partaker of the Satanic nature, Selfishness; and when that Selfishness gains the ascendancy it makes the man a despot in his home, filling it with the spirit of tyranny.

I saw a couple who had lived very unhappily and had thought much about separating, but there were little children. The father had a godly background, and so had the mother, but neither of them had ever received Eternal Life.

After the children came along, the wife began to feel the irritations of bondage and said, “These children just rob me of my liberty.” The husband began to feel the same limitations. Selfishness began to grow apace.

The home was not a home. It was just a place where they quarreled and made up, found fault, and cursed the children.

Then one day my little book, “The New Kind of Love,” fell into the hands of the husband. He brought it home and started to read it. He became so engrossed in it that his wife wanted to know what he was reading.

You see, Selfishness is always jealous. The keener and richer your Selfishness is, the more sensitive you become. She became very curious as to what that little book was. Finally she said, “What is that you are reading?”He said, “It is the most wonderful book I have ever read.”

He laid it down on the table, and she began to read it. She hadn’t read half of it before she made her decision. She had seen things.

When he came into the house she said, “How far did you read in that book?”

“Nearly all of it. One of the men at the office gave it to me.” He responded. “What do you think of it?”

“I only wish we had gotten hold of it when we were first married and life would have been different,” she said.

He picked up one of his children and held it in his arms. “Wife,” he said, “would you like to go with me on this thing? I would like to have Eternal Life. I am sick of my selfishness.”
She looked into his face, and reached out her hand and said, “My dear, I will go the whole way with you .”

The two older children were not home when it happened, and the father and mother did not tell them about it .

Three or four days later the oldest girl said, “Mother, what has happened to you and Dad? You haven’t quarreled since last week.” Then the mother told the story to her, and the girl, in her mother’s arms whispered, “Mother, I want it too .”

And so, Love came to live in that house. After a bit every member of the household sought to give the other more than he received. Love’s rivalry began to develop. The husband and wife sought to out-do each other in love.

You see, when two New Creation people, Love filled, begin to practice Agapa, the very atmosphere of heaven is in that home.

Love’s slogan is, “I am not seeking my own, but your happiness.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have classes that would take up the study of Agape.

There has never been a chair of “Love” in any of our Colleges or Universities, and yet it is the most important thing in life.
You cannot adjust the labor and capital situation by law or by force. It can only be settled with Agape.

Oh, if there should arise in the labor world a great leader who could evangelize the labor world and prove to them that

Selfishness has never yet built anything that it did not destroy!

Sense Knowledge has built cities, but it always destroys them.

Few of us have recognized that there are two kinds of ambitions: one was born out of the desire to conquer and to reign, and to have and to hold, no matter what effect it had upon those who stand in the way;the other is the ambition to give, and to build, and to make happy, to educate and to train, and to make beautiful, glad homes.One is the Jesus kind, and the other is inspired by Satan.

EW Kenyon, ‘The Hidden Man’

STORIES

Entangled; An Anecdote

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“If I told you,” Bimbo’s hands caressed the chunky mound on my cheeks, her eyes reminded me of firecrackers screaming like dead souls into the rambling Christmas night. “that anything you want, I can give it to you. Would you have a change of heart? ”

She was a beauté. One could get lost into the whirlpool of her eyes; stare hungrily at her full matted lips, or her voluminous thighs that spread over the chair like spilled milk.

A soft slap on the cheek brought me back to reality.

“Wake up.” She shifted a little from me.

“I wasn’t asleep.” I wondered how she was able to sustain her gaze for that long. There were many before her, many who dared to take the reins and pull something out of me, like a tea spoon of affection, but they all failed to hold my interest or my gaze.

“Just thinking about, you know, stuffs.”

“Is that so? See, I’m a Warri girl and I also have regal blood coarsing through me. I could wait a little bit, or I could go ferocious beast on you, and, you know, devour you here and now.”

We were sitting inside The Cube, a very noisy club close to Benin airport. I had offered to buy her a drink, she declined. Turns out, if I’m not the only available form of sustenance to her thirsty sultry soul, she was willing to die of dehydration.

“I admire your boldness.”

“How many girls have you told that line?”

“I don’t keep record.”

She laughed heartily for a second before resuming her gaze. “Are you trying to scare me?”

“Not really. Scaring you would be me reminding you about the royal blood Coarsing through your veins, and how Coarsing somehow has similar pronounciation to Coercing. Like the royalty in your blood, I’m Running out of patience.”

“I’m really impressed, that you could keep me here, watching you spew trash. While I get rejected and — ”

A group of guys walked by, checking her out. One stopped on his tracks, almost moon-walking to our table. The huge guy with a goatie mentions her name, the smile she gave was forced, obviously the guy’s presence wasn’t welcomed. He took his cue and left after exchanging greetings.

“You’re famous.” I mocked.

“Yeah, well, fame doesn’t get you the man you want.”

That’s it!

“Surely it can’t be me. Me that you met a week ago. Sure, my penis is powerful — magic rod. But I assure you, whatever it is you think you’re feeling right now, it isn’t love.”

“That thing of yours isn’t as magical as you make, it is your tongue. What a shame that you’re using such a glorious tongue to spew bullshit. If surely shut you up and make you put it to good use.”

Incredible!

“Okay, that’s hot.” I had to admit.

“And so are you, Afam.”

“Bimbo, I’m not sure of my feelings for you.”

“Then I’ll be here to reassure you. Trust me, if I was to use my List to rate you, you’d never be an option for me. You’re not making as much as I am, you’re loud as hell when you’re overly comfortable with someone, Afam your voice is terrible for singing and yet I couldn’t stop listening to you sing in the shower that morning. Sure you have a basic penis but I can manage. Your fingers and tongue skills is consolation. So fuck the fear and let’s build something good.”

Huh?

“Wait, so this shit ain’t about just fucks?”

“On the scale of one to ten, you’re an ‘abso-fucking-lutely not!’ if I were to choose a toy.”

She scooted closer and cupped my jaw with a hand, guiding my lips to hers. She sent her saliva of confusion down my throat and my brain resetted.

Then and there, entangled in a kiss, from a girl I met less than a week ago, I knew I was falling in love, and it was surely going to end in tears.

Kessy Agwam