What a sight, what a sad story to tell!No food, no water, gutters running with blood and dead bodies on the streets,
I just can’t fight back the tears just looking at the horrifying pictures, this makes me feel so… Words cannot describe the pain I feel, Only God Almighty knows why this had to happen.
I Pray O Lord that you, the helper of the helpless, the Father to the fatherless, the one who comforts us from all sides and see’s our hurts and pains, I ask that thou comfort these your Children, Daddy there is so much hurt and pain in Haiti today please Lord shine your light of mercy on that nation and indeed the nations of the World.
Give us your grace and mercy to continue daily…life is hard, Lord… especially in Haiti today
Thank You Holy Spirit
Lord Jesus I thank You for you are God and you never change. You love Haiti and Haitians and you died for them to give them eternal life and the Joy of your Salvation
This is a great Easter Message, Who is this King of Glory!!!
This is a message for the body and Soul, Listen to this and be blessed. For what better time to listen to this message than at a time as this when we take into account the Price our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ paid for us on the cross of Calvary.
Psalms 24:7-10
7Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
Below are News Summaries from the Direct Compass News you can go through the links and select the one you would prefer to read and and pray on… God bless
I thank God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour for the miracle he performed in my life from mid February till date.
I fell ill and after being treated of Malaria, I travelled home to my hometown for my mothers’ memorial service. On getting home I became very sick, begged God for strength to attend the service which He answered.
After the memorial, I became very sick and was taken to a clinic in Port-Harcourt after visiting my younger sister’s church where their Bishop prayed for me before going for admission. I went for admission twice in a space of one week, the treatment was not working so I discharged myself and told the Bishop that I was going back to Lagos to undergo further test/treatments.
My veins/blood vessels collapsed, my womb collapsed, My Bladder and all organs were falling me for they were no longer functioning as they should and I was in a lot of pain for I was mostly unconscious of where I was during the 2 weeks in and out of hospital, my Children where Praying and crying for me to return home alive . . . and God answered them!
By the grace of God, in Lagos, the test revealed otherwise, that I was suffering from low-blood sugar instead of what the Doctor in Port-Harcourt record/treated.(it was abnormally low even the Nurses were surprised for they haven’t seen that type of low sugar before now) I have being treated accordingly and I am strong now. God saved me and didn’t let me to go into shock for I was almost dead but God healed me am I am healed by the stripes of Jesus and the words of my testimonies. I shall not die but live to declare the words of the Lord.
My testimony is huge but I give all praise, honor, adoration, thanks to God Almighty. Amen.
Funny I said , “High” as if there should be even “low” assault rates in the Christendom!? this has become a terrible trend in in that, almost every other month you hear of notable men of God falling for this same weakness (hitting a woman). It is not the constant increasing rates of divorce, it is now the redesigning of woman’s faces that we are dealing with now, how low can we go!? it is not easy to say who is at fault here but judging by what the Bible says about women being the weaker sex . I think men should be able to restrain themselves even in most extreme cases where the woman just refuses to back down from an argument (for we women can sure argue our point to a fault) some of us will let go of the Holy Spirit and let go of all self restraint and lash out at the man and forgetting that as much as we like to see and believe that men are strong willed and powerful in the home, they also feel pain and are also anxious about their future like women too but too many women do not understand men’s pain for it is different from theirs while a woman is worried about “what type of cloth she is going to wear for an occasion a man is busy thinking of money and work or if he can keep on taking care of the family in the coming years” not that we do not have irresponsible men but we also have irresponsible women too, but in most cases men would be men and women will act like women. . . as we have all seen.
My point is that before a man gets married he has made up his mind to spend the rest of his life with this woman and for some reasons( devil prowling seeking who m to devour) he may not live up to his marriage vows and then all hell let’s loose. when this happens it is the woman’s duty to Pray not to nag and fight him,(and not be ignorant of the devils devices) for whether you like it or not a man with a made up mind is not easily swayed by emotions (that is why till date some women still wonder why their men left them for no reasons) it is not every man that is moved by tears, especially when he wants what he wants, he goes after it till he is fed up and then he may come back home.
With the matter at hand being that Pastors and men of God are no longer restrained, they beat their wives at the drop of a hat, some beat and listen later, what is going on brothers in Christ? if your wife is nagging you go into a quiet place and cool off for while instead of reacting on impulse, and if you are not living up to your responsibilities try your best to be there for you family after all you stated the family, why tear it down with your own hands! it is not wise. . . the devil is an expert at making us destroy ourselves with our own hands of course he will aid in the process but subtly
As for the women please allow the wisdom of God to guide your thought processes for I know women can think all kinds of crazy stuff to the extent that we become paranoid with rage and destroy the gift of God to us (our homes). Also the too much TV exposure cannot be good for your kids and family members, for the life of me I cannot understand why you would want your husband you once loved to be trashed on TV or on Newspapers, do they not know that these things will make reconciliation harder? what happens when the film crew are no longer interested in your stories? what will you be doing then? (am not supporting the men here but I wonder what some women think they are doing) Maybe am speaking as an African woman. . . who knows. in my place we have a proverb that says “two people don’t go mad at the same time” meaning one of the couple should show restraint when the other is going of the rails. Where is God in all of this!!!???Ephesians 5:22-25, 28-29 22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
This is a touching story because I can relate to this on a personal level without saying much, I want you dear reader to Pray for this sister and use her as a point of contact to reach other sisters who are been molested in any way across the Globe. I Pray that the Lord will guide sister Jesme and show her what true love in Christ really means for I can see and feel her hurt and pain and believe me she cannot say everything she suffered for the shame of it (sigh) Read on
A former nun’s tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala.
In Amen – an autobiography of a nun, Sister Jesme says when she became a nun she discovered priests were forcing novices to have sex with them.
There were also secret homosexual relationships among the nuns and at one point she was forced into such a relationship by another nun who told her she preferred this kind of arrangement as it ruled out the possibility of pregnancy.
“I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me … I want people to know how I have suffered,” she said, speaking from the town of Kozhikode. [...]
She also alleges that while senior staff turned a blind eye to the actions of more experienced nuns, novices were strongly punished, even for minor transgressions. [...]
When she resigned as a college principal, she claimed convents had become “houses of torture”, saying: “The mental torture was unbearable. When I questioned the church’s stand on self-financing colleges and certain other issues, they accused me of having mental problems. They have even sent me to a psychiatrist. There are many nuns undergoing ill-treatment from the order, but they are afraid of challenging it. The church is a formidable fortress.”
The allegations are not the only controversy to rock the Catholic Church in Kerala. Last summer, a 23-year-old novice committed suicide and left a note saying she had been harassed by her Mother Superior.
Reports suggest there have been a number of similar suicides. And in November, police in Kerala arrested two priests and a nun in connection with the killing of Sister Abhaya in a notorious 1992 murder.
Last night, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Dr Paul Thelakkat, dismissed Sister Jesme’s allegations as a “book of trivialities”.
“It’s her experiences, but these are things that might creep into a society of communal living,” he said. Asked if the church would be shocked by the allegations, he replied: “Absolutely not. The church knows about these things.”Bookshops throughout India’s Christian communities in Kerala have already sold out of Amen, the autobiography of Sister Jesme, who has alleged that priests and nuns not only broke their vows of celibacy with each other but regularly forced novices to have sex with them.
The Catholic Church in India is mired in a series of sexual controversies, and has only just begun to recover from the dismissal of a senior bishop who “adopted” an attractive 26-year-old female companion as his “daughter”.
The book by the former nun reveals how as a young novice she was propositioned in the confession box by a priest who cited biblical references to “divine kisses”. Later she was cornered by a lesbian nun at a college where they were teaching. “She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I could not stop her,” she claims.
When she was sent to Bangalore to stay with a priest known for his piety, he lectured her about the need for “physical love” and later assaulted her.
"People say that everything is OK, but I was in the convent and I want them to know what goes on. I have concerns for others."
Sister Jesme, who quit last year as the principal of a Catholic college in Thrissur, alleges senior nuns tried to have her committed to a mental institution after she spoke out against them.
In her book, she says that while travelling through Bangalore, she was once directed to stay with a purportedly pious priest who took her to a garden "and showed me several pairs cuddling behind trees. He also gave me a sermon on the necessity of physical love and described the illicit affairs that certain bishops and priests had". The priest took her to his home, stripped off his clothes and ordered her to do the same.
She was not allowed to go home after she learnt her father had died. "I was able to see [the body of] my father barely 15 minutes before the funeral," she writes. "The [response] of the superiors was that the then senior sisters were not even lucky enough to see the bodies of their parents."
“The president-elect is coming into office at a moment when there is upheaval in many parts of the world simultaneously… … “You have India, Pakistan; you have the jihadist movement. So he can’t really say there is one problem, that it’s the most important one. But he can give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a new world order can becreated. It’s a great opportunity, it isn’t just a crisis.”
“… According to Henry Kissinger, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former secretary of state under President Nixon, conflicts across the globe and an international respect for Barack Obama have created the perfect setting for establishment of “a New World Order.”
In 1989 President Bush said
“A new partnership of nations has begun, and we stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment,” said Bush before a joint session of Congress. “Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective – a new world order – can emerge: A new era … in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony.”
“There is a need for a new world order,” Kissinger told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose last year, “I think that at the end of this administration, with all its turmoil, and at the beginning of the next, we might actually witness the creation of a new order – because people looking in the abyss, even in the Islamic world, have to conclude that at some point, ordered expectations must return under a different system.”
My Comment is this Hymn the Holy Spirit laid in my heart:
Christian seek not yet repose, hear thy guardian angel say, thou art in the midst of foes . . .
Principalities and powers,mustering their unseen array,wait for thy unguarded hours; . . .
Gird thy heavenly armor on,wear it ever night and day;ambushed lies the evil one . . .
Watch, as if on that alone hung the issue of the day;pray that help may be sent down . . . WATCH AND PRAY!!!
O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home
Oh Father Lord my God, we are Grateful for all you have done for us till date. I thank You for the gift of your son Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the Cross of Calvary, I thank you for the Holy spirit and also giving us the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, I thank you for the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. . . we ask that your infinite mercy abide with us now and forevermore.
Brethren we are blessed to be here today . . . I pray that now that 2008 has finally ended , 2009 will be a blessed and better year for us in Jesus Mighty Amen. As I was Praying last night and I asked the Lord what He wanted from me and His People this coming year of 2009 and this was the reply I got after a brief silence . . . My People should give their best to me this Year!!!
it sounded as such a simple request at the time but thinking more on it, it seems very difficult to do . . . but those that are serious with their God will definitely do all they can to please Him AMEN.
My Prayer for the New Year is that. . .
We would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
That the Holy Spirit will guide and defend us daily throughout the year,
I Pray that Jesus Christ would arise and give a Miracle that would make us forget our past troubles,
I Pray for restoration of any stolen virtues (Spiritually, physically, financially) this year,
I Thank God for destroying satanic plans and evil Testimonies over our lives and that of our families,
I Pray that God would arise and let our enemies be scattered ,
This year, We will not be candidates of sweating with little or no result. . . God forbid!
This Year, it will be unto us according to His Word,
This Year Favor, Grace, goodness and Mercy of God will follow us everywhere we go . . . God’s eyes will be on us,
In JESUS MIGHTY NAME I PRAY!!!
I leave you with these scriptures below so that you remember that our God is a faithful God and, He keeps all of His promises and He will surely bring to pass all He has promised you . Maybe you are wondering when it will happen, just keep on trusting in His saving Grace do not despair, He will surely come to your rescue this Year as long as you invite Him into your heart and into your situation today. Let Him come and carry your burdens and your sins, give it all to Jesus He is there to carry all the pain, tears , bitterness, resentment, jealousy, envy, unforgiveness, sexual perversion, shame, regrets/mistakes of the past, greed, selfishness, I tell you Nothing is too big to give to Jesus Christ our Lord this New Year . . . I Pray you start this year by giving it all to Jesus and you will never be disappointed. . . For our God is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him
Philippians 4:19 (King James Version)
19But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 9:8 (King James Version)
8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
It is disturbing to find so many people that fail to believe God answers prayer. Several top “authors” and so-called “professionals” being interviewed on TV lately, have claimed that prayer is a great therapy (as an end in itself). You never hear them mention God. It is sad that prayer has been diminished to the status of going to the park to watch the birds. Prayer is not effective because it is a good therapy. Prayer is effective because there is an omnipotent (all powerful) God up in heaven that hears and answers prayer! I am leery of bumper sticker theology. I see bumper stickers promoting about the "Power of Prayer," but prayer is nothing without a Powerful Divine God. I believe in the "Power of God."
Answered prayer can only happen by a miracle of God. A “Miracle” is defined in the Random House College Dictionary as “an event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a divine or supernatural cause”. In other words, GOD DID IT! Everything God does then is a miracle because His power is divine, not human or natural. When we pray, we are petitioning the Creator of the universe for a miracle. If God decides to grant our request (s), it can be nothing less than a divine miracle performed by an Almighty God.
Prayer is not to be taken lightly because God just may give you what you ask. I remember a country song by Garth Brooks, “I thank God for unanswered prayer”. He had been praying, as a youngster, for God to give him a certain girl to be his wife. God didn’t answer his request. He sees this same woman many years later, and then thanks God that his prayers were never answered! So be careful what you pray!!!
Jesus never preached an all night sermon, but he prayed all night! Luke 6:12 says concerning Jesus “He went out into a mountain to pray, and CONTINUED ALL NIGHT IN PRAYERto God.” Jesus disciples could not even watch and pray for “ONE HOUR” (Matthew 26:40,41). Are we guilty of the same negligence in prayer? The Bible says Jesus “continued”, he simply started praying and kept on praying as he felt necessary. Too many Believers center their life around the TV, not Jesus Christ.
Daniel was also a man of prayer! “…he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he KNEELED UPON HIS KNEES THREE TIMES A DAY, AND PRAYED, and GAVE THANKS before his God, AS HE DID AFORETIME” (Daniel 6:10). Daniel had a prayer life. He was about 80 years old now and kept his windows open toward Jerusalem (about 600 miles away) because that’s where his heart was. Jerusalem was his home town. He had been taken into Babylonian captivity as a young lad and longed to be back with his own people again, in the city of his God. We too, are pilgrims passing through this old dark world, and we should open the windows of our heart in prayer towards heaven (home). Daniel prayed morning, evening and afternoon! “Elijah was A MAN SUBJECT TO LIKE PASSIONS AS WE ARE, and HE PRAYED EARNESTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN: and IT RAINED NOT on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17). What a wonderful truth! Elijah was just a plain, common, everyday human being just like you and me; yet he obtained an answer to his prayer for something VERY BIG! That’s exactly why God is telling us about it, so we will be encouraged to do the same. Even more wonderful is that God is telling us this as pertaining to physical illness and healing. “…PRAY ONE FOR ANOTHER, THAT YE MAY BE HEALED. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous (saved) man availeth (accomplishes) much.” “Effectual” and “fervent” are words meaning ”energy”. In other words, you really mean business and are sincerely pouring your heart out to God the best you know how for a miracle. “…the PRAYER OF FAITH SHALL SAVE THE SICK…” (James 5:15). We need to pray and have “just enough” faith to simply keep praying! It matters not where the faith comes from: a child, someone at church, mom, dad (faith is faith). More than likely it was the elders of the church who had the faith, but not necessarily. It is Jesus Who heals the sick (Matthew 8:16,17), we simply must ask for the healing. “Asking” is faith in itself. One would not ask God for something without at least some degree of faith. Christ is alive today! Go to Him in prayer now.
Now here’s a heart warming truth in Acts 12:1-16. Wicked King Herod had just killed James the Apostle “with the sword”, probably by beheading. Herod saw that “it pleased the Jews”. The Jews were a wicked, rebellious people and most hated Christ. They demanded that the Roman government crucify Jesus, and they did! The persecution continued. Steven was brutally murdered by the Jews in Acts 7:54-60. Jesus, Steven and James had been slain by the Jews, who would be next? Herod now had Peter bound in prison and looked forward to killing him. “…but PRAYER WAS MADE WITHOUT CEASING of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). Guess what? A miracle happened! God answered their prayers and sent an angel to rescue Peter—divine power at work! After Peter was freed, the angel departed. Now Peter comes to the house where everybody was still praying for him (vs. 12). He knocks on the door and Rhoda asks who it is. When she heard Peter’s voice, she was so happy that she ran to tell the others and forgot to open the door! They told Rhoda “THOU ART MAD”. Your nuts! Crazy! Peter was still outside knocking. The Bible says when all those who had been praying opened the door, “THEY WERE ASTONISHED” (vs. 16). “Astonished” means “to put out of wits”. In other words, their minds were amazed! Here’s the beauty of this truth— even though this group of believers didn’t have much faith, God still answered their prayers. They had so little faith that when God did answer their prayers, THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE IT! Wow! What an encouragement to pray! Praying is faith in itself! If you have JUST ENOUGH FAITHto pray (ask) God for something, that’s all the faith God requires. What a Savior! Do you have doubts? Did you know that the more doubt you have, the greater is your faith—as long as you act on the faith! Faith is believing, in spite of the doubts. No matter how much you may doubt that God will answer your prayers, if you simply ask—that’s all the faith needed for your prayer to be answered!
Likewise, all the faith you need to become a born-again believer is JUST ENOUGH. If you have “just enough” faith to “call upon the name of the Lord” (Romans 10:13), you will be saved. “Call” means “to rely upon.” Won’t you make that decision NOW to “rely” 100% upon Jesus Christ as your Savior? Admit to God you’re a sinner, deserving of hell. Ask Jesus to forgive your sins and take you to heaven when you die. Let God work the miracle of salvation in your soul now. God bless!
What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and grief’s to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged— Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful, Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge— Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.
Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear; May we ever, Lord, be bringing All to Thee in earnest prayer. Soon in glory bright, unclouded, There will be no need for prayer— Rapture, praise, and endless worship Will be our sweet portion there.
MY COMMENT
I think I also loved the way this song was rendered by Brett James in the “Peace In The Valley CD”. I always cry whenever I listen to it, most times back to back because, it makes me remember to take all my issues to God in prayer .
The thing is, whenever am listening to the song. . . it’s like am hearing the voice of Jesus saying to me, why is your heart heavy my Child? why are you afraid? why are your burdened? why are discouraged? bring it all to me in Prayer. Cast it all upon me for am here for you. You needn’t bear this alone, with these words, I know am wrapped in the warm loving arms of the Holy Ghost and am safe , healed and whole.
I tell you that my Spirit becomes lifted when I take everything to Jesus in prayer.
The words in this song is so true and spiritually uplifting.
I urge you to take everything to God in Prayer today. No matter how hard it is. . . I received grace/healing from this song today so am passing it on to you to glorify the Name of the Lord in your life today.
A Desperate Man There was a man who had everything you could want, everything but happiness and hope. He had a good business and more money than he could count, houses all over the world, and owned an island in the South Pacific Ocean. He had a loving wife and four children, two boys and two girls. He was constantly putting on parties and all sorts of affairs trying to find what his younger brother already had. You see his younger brother had been ask to become a partner in the company several years earlier but turn it down because he was already a partner in something bigger. The younger brother did not own a fancy house instead he and his wife rented a small three-bedroom house in the country where they were raising their three children, one son and two daughters. The younger brother was happy with his life; he had everything he needed. You see the younger brother had found Jesus Christ and was living life the way God wanted him to. The older brother could not understand how his younger brother could possibly be content with the life he had chose, little or no money, always struggling to make ends meet. The older brother thought that money was the answer to all the troubles in this world; he thought that if you had enough money you could buy happiness. He was wrong the more he gained the more he wanted and happiness seemed to elude him at every turn. He began to search elsewhere in places like bars and nightclubs. He even started looking at other women thinking that maybe that is where he will find happiness but all that did was cost him more grief. The younger brother had tried for years to get his big brother to go to Church but he refused saying that there was nothing for him in a Church; to him Church meant giving his money to a bunch people that were to lazy to work. As time passed the older brother found out that he had cancer and was dying, the soaring medical cost was fast depleting his resources, and because of the turmoil he was going through he drove a wedge between himself and his wife and kids. Soon his wife told him she was leaving until he could get thing strait in his life. His company began to suffer large losses and he became more depressed. The younger brother tried again to get him in Church without any luck. A year went by with things getting worse every day and then the news the older brother dreaded most came; his money had ran out, his company was bankrupt and he had lost his island and all of the houses. Now broke, alone and desperate with nowhere to turn he went to his younger brother for help, he found out for the first time just how happy his brother really was. He was welcomed and his younger brother went out of his way to make him comfortable. He began to see God working in his brothers life, how he prayed twice a day and before every meal. And he noticed that his younger brother always prayed for him, and he also noticed how his health seemed to be getting better. When his younger brother left for Church one Sunday he found a Bible lying on the coffee table, he picked it up and began reading it. As he read in the New Testament about Jesus he could feel God touching his heart but he thought, I am not worthy of Gods love; yet he could not put down the Bible. When the younger brother and his family came in from Church they found him sitting on the couch holding the Bible crying. The younger brother went to his big brother and asks if he had found what he had been searching for, Christ. The answer was yes and he explained how God had touched him while he was reading. He told about the joy and sadness he felt, sadness that he had wasted so much time and joy that he had found Jesus. The younger ask him if he would come to Church with the family that night, he agreed. Once they got to Church that evening the older brother could not believe how much he felt the presence of God. It was hard for him to contain his emotions as God let the light into his life. At the end of the service even before the Pastor started the invitation he was on his way down the isle of the Church, almost in a run, he could wait no longer. When he had confessed his sins and accepted Jesus into his heart he made a promise to serve God. Two years later the younger brother still lives in the rented house and is now a deacon in the small Church where he saw his brother saved. The older brother is now a minister who travels around helping desperate men and women find what he had over looked for so many years. Author: Anonymous
THINK ON THIS
Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We need to live a life that makes people say I want what he or she has. A life that will make us proud to say I am a Christian and my Lord is Jesus Christ .
"Christopher Coleman—becoming the first in his family to graduate from college—likens his life in a wheelchair to the blind man in Chapter 9 of the book of John" in that he was "born with such challenges, so that the works of God be demonstrated in him."
(Atlanta, Georgia)—A report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution chronicles the life of Christopher Coleman, from doctors "writing him off" after his premature birth to his second birth in Christ years later. According to the article, shortly after Coleman’s birth doctors said he would never walk, talk, or even think for himself. His father abandoned his mother the day he was born and throughout his subsequent years in school people treated him as a non-entity as he sat in the back of class in a wheel-chair. (Photo: Empowered Ministries) "No one talked to me," he said, wondering why he’d ever been born. "No one even wiped my nose."
Meanwhile, he taught himself how to read and his mother "passed on her faith" of God to him and ultimately he graduated among the top five in his high school class of 1993. A short time later he moved to Georgia to go to school at Southern Polytechnic State University. One day in 1998, Coleman sneezed, spraying the personal assistant assigned to help him with his daily tasks. The assistant didn’t get frustrated or annoyed with Coleman like so many others had in the past. "It’s OK," the man told him.
"I didn’t hear him," Coleman said. "I heard God say, ‘It’s OK.’ "
That, notes reporter Gracie Bonds Staples, was Coleman’s second birth and in that moment, realizing that he was not a burden to the world, his life changed forever. Coleman has spent the last ten years taking this message of hope to others, and will do so again June 19 when he speaks before a performance by TobyMac in Atlanta.
Adds Staples: "Christopher Coleman—becoming the first in his family to graduate from college—likens his life in a wheelchair to the blind man in Chapter 9 of the book of John" in that he was "born with such challenges, so that the works of God be demonstrated in him."
"I don’t live my life in a wheelchair,” he said. "I live my life from a wheelchair."
Our God does not sleep nor slumber, He is able to all things. He never fails those who put their trust in Him…. I will keep on trusting in him all the days of my life. Hope you will join me in serving Him too? Godbless you my friend.
This is actually an excerpt of a message from my pastor, D.K Olukoya who is a fiery man of God. (God bless him) When this topic was brought to me, last year, I was like, pain!? everybody knows pain or something about pain, But when I read it, it dawned on me that God Almighty provided this topic at a point in my life when I needed to hear this. . . and to be reassured that I wasn’t alone and that God is with me all the time. So I have brought these few points out from the whole message for you my friend and I Pray that God will help you today to understand what His purpose for your life is today in Jesus Mighty Name Amen
What is pain?
Pain is a feeling of being hurt, a feeling of suffering. It is an unpleasant discomfort experienced by some body who is wounded or ill. It is a feeling of discomfort. finally, pain is an oppressor and the bible says oppression maketh a wise man mad. Ecc 7:7 when somebody who is normal begins to experience oppression, he will behave like a mad person
Facts About Pain
1. pain is universal. Everyone at one point or the other experiences pain in life. 2. pain has no respect for age. Both young and old people suffer pain. 3. pain does not discriminate. It does not matter, whether you are black or white, rich or poor. 4. it is impossible to journey through life without experiencing some element of pain or discomfort. Job 14:1 says, Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
5. pain may differ from one person to another; one person may have backache. 6. pain is either acute pain happens suddenly and ends at some point. there is a kind of pain you get from a broken leg or an injury. but as the injury heals the pain goes away. But chronic pain is long-lasting.
7. you can stumble upon pain. That is accidentally you can come across it. A lot of people are suffering from accidental pain, which they stumble upon. 9. there is something known as spiritual pain. It could be a guilty conscience. It could be a broken spirit, a loss of direction or a decline of one’s spiritual gift.
8. pain is a signal that something is wrong and needs attention. Every pain is a signal or an indication that something is wrong and needs attention. If a headache suddenly starts, the resultant pain is a sign that something is wrong and needs adjustment. If not for pain, one couldn’t know if their leg is broken, even A slap on the face or a blow on your nose could be ignored if not for the pain.
10. people generally turn to pain relievers instead of pain quenchers when they feel pain. Many drugs prescribed by doctors only stop the sensation of pain while the condition that causes the pain is still in existence. It is the tragedy of our world that the best selling drugs are tranquilizers. They just calm people down. They only remove pain but the problem remains. That is why believers must see their problem as a tree, which has fruits, leaves, branches and a root. It is a waste of time cutting off the flowers and the branches when the root is still in place.
12. pain is a teacher. pain teaches us lessons whether we understand them or not. 13. pain is a guardian watching over people and pegging the limit of their foolishness. 14. pain is an invigilator which tells us when the time is up and we have to submit our papers for marking. 15. pain is an adviser. It advices us to stop what we are doing now or the pain will increase. 16. pain is a memory aid. It is an aid to our conscience.
17. pain is independent of sentiments. It is independent of all the sentiments you may feel. 18. pain is arrogant it will not go without making a point. It will make its point known, and will not go until its point is understood. It will come back again and again until the position it opposes is altered.
19. pain is therefore, both a friend and an enemy. 20. pain can make you better or bitter. It can make you stronger or weaker. 21. some forms of pain are directly related to our behavior and actions. 22. pain calls attention to the relationship between our present conditions and our past actions.
23. not all forms of pain are related to past sins. Job did not commit any sin yet he suffered pain. The bible says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him from them all. He keeps all his bones that none is broken.(psalm 34:11). 25. pain prompt sacrifices for our good. Painful situations prompt us to make sacrifices. Before the crown there must be a cross. 24. pain prompts us to take action. There are many condition people would have ignored but because it is hurting them they have to take action that they would otherwise have put off to a later date.
26. there is power in pain, believers acquire considerable power while dealing with their pain. Many would not have become prayer warriors if not for the pain the enemy brought their way. So there is power in pain. Pain has made many to focus more on the power of God. Pain has made many to recognize their weaknesses and they lean heavily on the strength of the Lord.
27. there are two categories of pain, pain God’s way, and pain the devil’s way, Not having sexual intercourse until after marriage could be painful but it is pain God’s way. To pray from 12 to 3 am for 21days is not easy but, it is having pain God’s way. You can either have pain God’s way or have pain the devil’s way. The devil’s pain is a terrible pain to have, it has thrown many people into serious trouble. 28. pain from God would yield ultimate good. The bible says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’ ( Matt 11:29-30)pain from God converts our corruption to heavenly purity. Pain from God convert our gloom to glory. Pain converts our earthly trouble to heavenly luxury. Pain from God converts our failure to success, our midnight to morning, defect to victory, death to eternal life, warfare to triumph, struggle to success ,tribulation to jubilation, fear to testimony and pain to gain.
29. pain from the enemy can cause insanity, it has a maddening power. bible says oppression maketh a wise man mad. Ecc 7:7 when somebody who is normal begins to experience oppression, he will behave like a mad person When the enemy raises pain against you, then you need to counter and deal with it. You need to reject it aggressively and insist that you will have pain only God’s way. 31. most times, pains is an alarm crying for change. It could be a sign that God wants you to change something. It could be your prayer level, your bible reading level, or your holiness level, because the only things that is certain about life is change.
30. Spiritual pain, has pushed many people into religious cults and terrible societies.There is only one spiritual pain killer that treats the cause of pain instead of just the symptoms. pain only listens to one voice, and that is the voice of the blood of Jesus.
Beloved, you should deal with the oppressing spirit called evil pain. If you know the Lord has been passing you through fire, water and storm in order to remold your life, or he has been putting his fingers on your pressure point and is giving you pain that pain is a good one. But if you don’t want pain God’s way, you will get it the devil’s way which is very terrible and can lead to destruction therefore,
Following Christ has been a reality for me, my goal is to make heaven and to make sure that others around me do so too through the Grace of Christ Jesus my Lord. this passage I live by, without it I don’t know what would have become of my faith in Christ today.
Isaiah 49: 8-11,8 Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. 10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. 11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
Earlier on, while walking and working with Christ I was falling in and out of sin and repenting and, asking for forgiveness from preventable sins was like a daily routine for me but one day this passage in the Bible struck me… Acts 17:30 God overlooked people’s former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him.* 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” making me realize that I can only the play the fool so much, God is not mocked, I can’t keep taking His grace and mercy for granted as I was, and it was about time I surrendered completely to Christ there was no other way for me to go but the way of the Cross and there and then, I promised God to serve only Him forever and I have never gone back on my promise in Jesus Mighty Name Amen (Not that am perfect but I took a stand and pledged my allegiance to Jesus Christ).
Then in 2004 I heard the voice of the Lord say to me an giving you a new name the Lord gave a new Name "Hanna" the Voice said "you are now my Hanna I was like what! Hanna? why Hanna why not Deborah the Judge, "after fighting with the Holy Spirit about it the Lord said go and check the meaning of the two and when I did check it out I was glad I was "favored" by God and blessed by Him.
Time went on and The good Lord instructed that we get married because I was so scared of marriage, don’t ask me why? We Got Married am now living with my husband. We are learning daily in our walk with Christ and the Holy Spirit has been our Chief instructor all these years. and in all our trials and tribulations our God has been a Great God toady we don’t beg for food to eat we can afford the basic things of life and God has continued to show us his marvelous mercies that are new every morning… Amen
Also, I have been privileged to encounter Christ in many different ways over the years, in my dreams and visions and He has kept on reassuring me of His Saving Grace and mercy. for all you skeptics out there… He is Alive and He showed me one day His pierced side… the White garment he was wearing didn’t cover the pierced side but there was no sore on it. Folks Jesus is real and He is coming back again to judge the Earth. Hallelujah!
finally I would say having the opportunity to present this testimony of my life to you today as in obedience to the will of God has given me much joy and am grateful that I could only give a glimpse of my life to you and hope to get to know you my friend more in Jesus Mighty Name.
Today my father is calling on us to come back home that he needs us that we are the family he has, because his people abandoned him when he became poor but he still lives with his new wife of 13 yrs with their two sons., and by the special grace of God , I try to do what I can for him from time to time… but we ve moved on.
By the Special Grace of God, I hereby submit a short version of my testimony, agree or not it is true, cannot write every thing Down but I must say that Life has taught me things only God knows. . . am not in the habit of talking much about myself and so if there any thing you might want to know about me, Read and feel free to ask me any questions you wish. Godbless.
I would also like you to Read this post A Brief History About This Blog before you continue … that is if you haven’t already. Thanks.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-11, 9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 What can you point to that is new? How do you know it didn’t already exist long ago? 11 We don’t remember what happened in those former times. And in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
Revelations 12:11, 11 And they have defeated him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of their testimony.
Introduction
My Birth Name is IJ (meaning safe journey/ journey Mercies), I am Nigerian born to a Christian Home Anglican in the Niger Delta and now I reside in Lagos State, according to the instruction of the Lord, when He (God) said to; me to pack up your bags and go the Lagos and I will meet you there . . . God knows I hated the big city but I had no choice but to obey so, here I am trying to serve Christ any way I can. ” that’s another story for another day, as Lord pleases.” Am also A University graduate and am married to a wonderful man of God whom God gave to me for support and true friendship.
Early Days
My parents got married at the Anglican Cathedral and the wedding was conducted by 6 Reverends and a Bishop. My Mum was very young and also she is a very trusting individual, what ever you say she believes, always seeing the best in everybody so she trusted my dad and married him. little did she know that was going to live to regret her decision later on.
They got married, very soon I was born into the family. mum was a young woman at the time she was over the moon thinking that from here on it was going to be a roller coaster ride for her and us her Children. well that was not to be the case as she was very much hated by my fathers sisters and so began the saga of many years of suffering in the hands of my father and his sisters.. . you see I grew up in so much hatred and wickedness that I taught I was not going to be able to love anyone since all I had was hatred but God turned me into a loving person today, that even when I tried to hate, I find it difficult and end up loving again and given so many second chances to people around me.
As a child I found out my father hated my mother, and her children… his children, especially me since am the first born of the family, so maybe he believed I was the excuse why he should keep staying with a woman he hated so much and she was busy bearing him more children whom he loved to hate.(thank God for my brothers and sister) My childhood experience is so traumatizing that am not sure if it’s something worth sharing but God told me to do so and God is Good all the time. . . Amen.
Growing up I witnessed so many hurtful situations, I will only give account of a few, as early as the age of seven I became my fathers punching bag, I was beaten mercilessly and manhandled in a way fit for a criminal and not someone’s child. My father and his sisters made sure they stole my childhood, they tormented me for years, you might ask, how? let me throw a little light to how I grew up
For good Nine years I was a victim of physical torture almost daily, in other for you to understand my point take a look at this scenario that played out daily for years. My father called me names and beat my mother to pulp almost daily and I was next inline, he could just come back from work and when I run out to go and greet him he would slap me in both my ears at the same time and he does this daily, I would find it difficult hearing after the slap, till date I have trouble with my left ear. another constant scenario was that at night while sleeping he hits and pushes my room door open and gives me a heavy knock on the head to wake me up to ask for his food and it is mostly at midnight cos he was a heavy drinker and smoker. ..(because of the long years of torture even my husband can’t touch me at night I feel someone wants to beat me up ) My father was almost awake 24hrs a day or he sleeps when he leaves the house and goes to his many guest houses with his girlfriends that his sisters and brothers organized for him. whenever he comes back home there is tears and pain because I would be seriously beaten and he would ask us ; what are still doing in my house? and I would say “Papa please forgive us” and let us stay in the house with you, we have no where to go” and he would start stumping on my stomach and chest with his weight and he would beat me with the fan belt of his Mercedes Benz cars and also a mop stick, he always wanted to kill us , he would throttle me as if to choke me, I would be bleeding from my nose and other places and then he would push me against the wall and I would hit my head on the wall and fall down, and also he would kneel me down and ask me to carry a heavy object over my head for hours. when that is not enough he would force me to crawl round the compound and scrape my knees on the granite floor, sometimes he put knife on my immediate Junior Brother’s throat and my junior sister he threw downstairs from the balcony, God saved us we didn’t die or were we disfigured in all these years. this was what played out almost everyday he was drunk and not in any particular order. but mostly it did happen like this. he kept on repeating the punishment , ?(I wondered why he didn’t spank us like most parents did their kids) Instead he fought like he was fighting his match, it was like he was been controlled by forces to do those things to me and my mum… especially when my mum became pregnant he would beat her that she would be bleeding all over the house he did it to her so she would miscarry and God never allowed that to happen. He was also doing all this to make his people happy, because if his people find out my mum is pregnant they would be angry with him. . . some times when my mum gets to the hospital she lies that she was mugged by robbers., Because it was too much , I know wives get beaten once in a while but ours was like daily and very brutal too.
Aside from the beatings he called me names and which I think is worse, cos the beating and the wounds healed over time but the words I remember daily and it pains me that my own father would do what an outsider wouldn’t ever do to me uncountable times, he called me a nobody and a witch, a prostitute and, I was always checked if I was still a virgin he would send any lady available to do that(check) after beating me up even though I didn’t even have a boyfriend let alone have sex, this was what I knew as life. he always told me that his brothers and sisters were the most important thing to him (but today he is singing another tune)
My fathers sisters hated me so much, they taunted me and my mother shamelessly we were all called for meetings and they assigned a particular punishment to us as they deemed fit at the time for any reason they have, what they do is they accuse you falsely and they punish you for it too, they reckoned my mum wasn’t bold enough to leave so they where going to make sure they frustrated her out of her house, you could see the glee in their faces as the spat on us and calls us all kinds of names. This made me draw closer to God daily and in my distress I cried all the time to Jesus and guess what He answered me. They also made sure that I shouldn’t be friends with their Children, my cousins but today God has given me Jesus Christ, (He is all the friend I need that is why I keep to myself till date. . . I found I have peace that way). . . we were always threatened to be banished all the time, by them Because they were living in their small world and mum was from a poor home, so they believed she was not their class, it was in such a time that I was recalled a day when I heard a voice say to me; they are out, they have all gone out, quick take that rope and hang your self on that tree so that all your troubles would be over, and they won’t trouble you any more. As I sat there contemplating whether to get up and do it. I did I heard another voice say to me don’t ! , am your father, I know your father has offended you a lot, I am here to help you I will never leave you nor forsake you I will take care of you, just trust in me, though your father and Mother forsake you I will not forsake I knew from When you were in your mothers womb I have been watching I know what you are going through and I will help you. then I knew that was the voice of God and I didn’t go through with the suicide anymore. . . it was later when I took to studying the word of God that I found that actually the words I heard that day was in the Bible Isaiah 49:14-18, 14 But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 17 Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. 18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
I Appreciate your Prayer Requests,(Thanks to God for all who have been sending already) Keep them coming in Please, I love Praying for you... Lets Trust Jesus Together! HALLELUYAH!!! Thank you Holy Spirit
According to the article, shortly after Coleman’s birth doctors said he would never walk, talk, or even think for himself. His father abandoned his mother the day he was born and throughout his subsequent years in school people treated him as a non-entity as he sat in the back of class in a wheel-chair. (Photo: Empowered Ministries) 
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