Happy new month!

Welcome May, The month of clear skies and sunny afternoons. The month of sweet windy nights accompanied with the amazing smell of flowers in the air. The month of rainy days and cool evenings.  The month when we start taking off our heavy winter jackets and finding delight in lighter dresses and shoes. 

Oh Our God is good, spinning the earth round and round and making the seasons come into their different phases. What a Great and Mighty God we serve! Glory to His Name now and forever more. Welcome May! Be good to us in Jesus Name. Amen.

Miracle stories. A touching story by Pastor Enoch Adeboye

In 1956, while living with my uncle, we had our fair share of poverty. He was poor but I was poorer. We mutually shared whatever we had. One day, we were very hungry and there was no food in sight. Then all of a sudden a young girl approached us and said her sister asked her to give us the food she was carrying -pounded yam with vegetable soup and chicken. My uncle told her he did not know her sister and asked if she was sure we were the right people the food was meant for. She replied in the affirmative, so we received the gift and my uncle told her he will be expecting more gifts from her sister like this one she brought. Immediately the girl left, we pounced on the food. As soon as we were done eating the food, the girl resurfaced and said it was all a mistake that the food was not for us. Who will give a hungry lion a goat and expect to get it back?

NOTE: 
The mercy of God can corner what was meant for somebody else for the recipient of His mercy. This season, the mercy of God will bring you blessings and opportunities including the ones not initially meant for you. By an unplanned move or deed, mercy will connect you to your destiny. Mercy turns mistakes into appointments. When mercy is involved, there are no mistakes!

Miracle stories. She was chosen out of the crowd.

            

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel alone, lost, darkness all around and thought God had forgotten you existed?

We all experience times like these.  I will never forget my own a few years ago while in South Africa visiting my parents. 

The ten-day vacation was coming to an end and I expected to be home in the States within the three days.  Unfortunately, the staff of the airline I was to travel on went on strike, resulting in no flights coming to or leaving South Africa. 

Initially, I was not concerned. Surely, I thought, this will resolve itself within the next three days. But no, it did not resolve. It went on for weeks. 

Panic set in because I needed to get back to the States as work and family were waiting for me.  I prayed and prayed, begging God to intervene in the strike so that I could fly home.  Daily I called the airlines.  There was never any change. 

Finally, after two long weeks of striking, a few flights left South Africa. But by this time there was such a backlog of passengers camped out at the airport that it would be weeks longer before I was able to leave. 

Still, I could not wait any longer. I had to get home. I presented my problem to the Lord once more. And, in faith, took action on my request to Him. 

My parents took me to the airport, which was a good two-hour drive.  Not knowing what to expect when I got there, I planned to join those sleeping on the floor hoping to get a flight out. 

We arrived at the airport and it brought my stomach to my throat.  The sight of the throngs was too awful to bear! 

"We're just going to turn around now and return home," my mom said. 

My dad, on the other hand, is one of those old time believers in God's amazing work in the worst of situations. 

"I think she should just step out in faith and see what happens," he said. 

We parked miles away and fought the crowd to the terminal.  People were sleeping, standing, camping out in the terminal.  No line was moving.  I had no idea where to go to even begin to put my name on a waiting list. 

And then God intervened, as He always does in such circumstances.  There I was standing with my huge suitcase, in the middle of the crowd, totally dazed, not knowing where to turn, when one of the airport attendees suddenly reached for me and asked, "Where are you going?" 

I said, "New York." 

He replied, "Come with me." He picked up my suitcase and escorted me right to the front of the line, leaving everyone else yelling and cursing at me.  He waited with me at the counter and helped me get on a flight. The flight had one seat open to New York. 

After checking in, I went to find my parents, who were still in shock at what they had just witnessed.  My dad, tears running down his face, smiled and hugged me, saying, "Well?  Once again, all you had to do was step out in faith, making your requests known to Almighty God and He answered.  But you had to act on your faith.  Why do we doubt God?" 

Looking back over the whole situation, my faith in God increased tremendously.  What happened?  Why was I chosen out of the crowd?  I will never know why, but I can only say that God took this situation to prove to me that He knows who I am, that He alone can work out the toughest challenges in our lives.  He knew I had to get home to fulfill commitments in the church.  I asked and He answered.   

There are times when we have to take God at His word when He says He will make a way in the wilderness when there is no way.  We have to physically move forward, taking up our baggage, trusting that He is who He says He is. 

Was the gentleman in the airport who took me out of the crowd an angel?  I don't think so.  He was looking in the crowd for someone to put on the flight.  God helped him to pick me. 

We miss out on so many blessings when we say, "The situation is impossible."  We must come to the realization that our God is a God who transcends the impossible.  We need to step out in faith, knowing He hears our cry. 

What do you need to ask God for today?  And then how do you need to take action? 

Are you Born again?

Have you been saved by the blood of Jesus? have you given your life to the King of kings and Lord of lords? have you accepted him as your lord and personal savior?                 

Do not be deceived, Heaven is real and so is hell!!!! everyday millions are lost to eternity. the bible says what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? absolutely nothing!!!! where you end up after death is determined by the decision you take when alive! give your life to Jesus today and let him come into your life and transform it totally to suit his purpose!

God can use you.

No matter where you have been, God can still use you to change lives and impact the world. Never give up. 

Jesus and the woman at Samaria.

Reading through John 4 had me in awe and almost in tears. Here we see the amazing encounter between The Lord and a scorned woman. In those days, Samaria was considered a gentile zone. The Jews cared little for the Samaritans and no one would have dealings with the people living there. They considered themselves superior to the Samaritans.

But Our Lord wasn't concerned about this obviously. He knew all about the discrimination and yet passed through there all the same while his  disciples went on to buy food. As he waited  for them sitting and resting on a well, the woman approached. She probably recognised almost immediately that He was a Jew because of his attire. I am certain she might have been expecting a few verbal jabs from him but that was not to be the case.

The Bible accounts that when Jesus saw her, he spoke to her. He actually spoke to her! That must have thrown the woman off balance for sure! She even asked him "How is it that you a Jew asks me for water?" That describes how stunned she was.  Jesus would not only go on to tell her who he was but also tell her amazing revelations about herself and the gospel. That day, salvation came to Samaria!

One of the key things to point out from this story is how The Lord conducted himself and His Father's business. He knew the man made restrictions that had been placed on the Samaritans and He didn't let that interfere with what he had to do. His passing through the land of Samaria itself proves that cultural, racial, geographical and religious embargoes would not affect His mission. He was concerned for the countless of souls predestined for salvation and would break senseless man-made barriers to get to them.

What does this teach us? Our God is no respecter of persons. The gift of salvation is and was for all men. We must understand that Christ came and died for all men that whomsoever will believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

As we go about evangelising and fulfilling God's mandate we must  lean on His spirit to help us reach out to such souls like this woman. The ones who have been rejected and called good for nothing by the society, the ones who have been condemned because of their lifestyle. We shouldn't let silly man-made restrictions hinder us from fulfilling God's mandate.
Christ died for them and its our duty as Christians to tell them that. We shouldn't let irrelevant man-made embargo's  hinder us from fulfilling God's mandate. Remember Jesus died for all men.

Food for thought.

Purpose in your heart to walk in love this year.

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2016 already!!!!!!! I can't believe it!  Oh what a Great and Mighty God we serve. All Glory be to His Holy Name now and forever more. No matter what happened last year, we must press on in Christ with patience and perseverance. Beloved we must never forget that God's thoughts towards us are of good and not of evil but to give us an expected end. He never fails! He always comes through no matter what.