“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV (emphasis mine)
http://bible.com/111/isa.49.15-16.NIV
The Amazing thoughts of Freda Addi
It was Mummy Adejo’s birthday yesterday… anyone who knows this woman would refer to her as “Mummy” not ‘Ma’, or ‘Aunty’ or ‘a friends mum’! She has a way of mothering everyone she meets! She’s a blessing to all… but this piece isn’t an appreciative piece to her… because if I did that, there would be no space and I’d run out of words in seconds! She’s that awesome!
This piece is about the pictures Mummy Adejo took with her husband (Daddy Adejo) on her birthday.
The world says, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. If you don’t know someone and you see a picture of them, you may be able to pick up on their kind of person (depending on how perceptive you are)… you see pictures and no matter how much people smile in them, you just know things aren’t great…
Joy (Mummy Adejo’s daughter/ my big…
View original post 451 more words
Talking or writing about Jesus really does not have to flow out of the need to, but rather out of the “will” to. In other words, our desire, rather than our sense of obligation should move us to freely talk about him. For example, when you’re in love with a girl, (I’m a guy so I’ll talk from a guy’s point of view) you catch yourself too often talking about her; you brag to your friends how she’s out of this world even if it bores them. You want them to meet her. You want them to like her. Your mouth just runs because there’s a bubbling you can’t hold back. And when someone talks about her, your eyes light up and your pupils dilate and magically you take the form of a five-year-old who just got free sweets––and for some reason, you’re not even embarrassed to be silly like that. Everybody can almost see through you to your heart with her name tattooed on it––and your veins… and your brains.
When you say you love her, nobody doubts cause you know…look at you! Now my point is, all these crazy things you do (or all these crazy things that do you) not because she’d be mad if you didn’t do them. Most times she’s not even there. It just happens! It just freely flows out of the love you feel, right?
Well, so it is with Jesus. Think about it.
The first step is a relationship. Take it. Yep yep yep take it..!
I read a story about a father who was facing serious challenges with his seventeen-year-old son’s behaviour. Generally, the son was a good kid but he had one glaring flaw: he constantly disrespected his mother. The dad took him aside one day and explained, “Look, son, you need to understand this: disrespecting your mother stops now. If you do it again–I don’t care how big you are, I’m going to treat you like you were six. My belt’s coming off, I’m going to turn you over, and you’re going to g
et ten lashes on your backside. They’re going to count and you’re not going to forget them. You are not to disrespect your mother, ever again.”
You can probably guess what happened. The teenager disrespected his mother one more time. The dad dropped what he was doing and said, “That’s enough! Come over here. These are going to be ten lashes so hard you’re never going to forget them.”
He removed his belt and then stood, frozen for a moment and deep in thought. Suddenly, he handed the belt to his son. His son just stood there, startled, the belt dangling from his hand. His father said, “You know what? Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to whip me. The punishment has to stand. But I love you. So I’m going to take the punishment for you.” He spread his hands and leaned forward, placing them on the wall. He drew a deep breath, braced himself and told his son, “Hit me. As hard as you can. Ten times.”
His son protested, “I can’t do that!”
The dad insisted. “No! That’s the punishment. And it stands. Now hit me.” The son halfheartedly smacked his dad. The dad turned and grabbed the son by the hands, holding them together, still clutching the belt. “No! That one doesn’t count. It’s ten times, as hard as you can.”
He turned back to the wall and braced himself again. Through tears, the son lashes out, striking his Father time after time after time. His father clenches his teeth and accepted the punishment in his child’s place.
God did exactly the same for us. He became one of us in the person of his Son, Jesus. Jesus became sin for us on the cross, shed his blood and rose again. So now, when you hear about the forgiveness of your sins, you should understand what it cost God the Father: his only Son. Our God desires so much to forgive us of all our filth that he was willing to take the punishment for us. He is a forgiving father.
1Corinthians 14:55
-Excerpt from Craig Groeschel’s “What is God Really Like?”
I swear I’ve never fallen this low before. I feel like dirt, I’m just waiting to be walked on. Why do I do things that won’t bring me closer to you? Things that make me feel good, and leave me feeling worthless. Right now, I don’t have the right to speak ill of the dog that returns to it’s vomit. Or of Judas Iscariot. You know it’s like the enemy just knows which buttons to press. Look! Now I’m stuck in a pile of my own mess. I’ve stained my life enough by my own hands. The cookie jar didn’t call my name, i wanted that cookie jar all by myself. I didn’t know what I wanted; I just knew I wanted it so bad I was ready to go through hell to get it. Undesirable desires, God!!
•••My thoughts are no longer mine, how can I get control of this? How can 
I reach out to someone else when I can’t get it together myself? Plus did you see the way that usher at church was staring at me earlier? I probably smelled like sin.
I promised you the last time and the time before the last that if you got me out, I wouldn’t do it again, now I’m in a place where I don’t feel like I’m yours anymore.
But still you’re the only one who can help me. You probably shouldn’t by now, but then who will? I don’t have what it takes and I’m undeserving. I don’t know what it will take but I’m coming out! I’m done being a peasant when my Father’s a King. I won’t be at the bottom when there’s a place at the royal table for me. They say you can’t heal what we don’t reveal, so I’m putting it out here. And I know you’ve already done it, you’re waiting for me to step out the boat. I want you to get the glory out my life, I’ll get it right this time. Thank you, Father.
Love, Salem.
I could have sworn that this guy’s jaws were carved by Michelangelo, and his smile kind of gave his teeth a voice of their own. He had full brows and piercing hazel eyes. Okay they probably weren’t hazel, but I heard Uche use the word to describe some nice eyes the other day, so I thought I’d use a new word too don’t you think? Whatever, you get the point right? Ok don’t answer that. He beckoned as for a handshake and said in a gentle welcoming voice, “Hi, I’m Satan”.
Ok stop reading and listen to me. Look I know this is weird, and honestly I can’t remember if this happened in a dream or in reality. I can only recall that it was so real that when I heard that name, against that face, I felt the deep need to apologize for all the times I ever sang “I hate Satan, I hate Satan; he’s my enemy, he’s my enemy” as a child!! I mean I felt like, “I don’t hate this guy–I want to be this guy! Are you kidding me?” And for the love of God, where were his horns if he was Satan? And his tail?! And why was he extending a handshake instead of his signature garden fork? (Or hell fork? Who knows?)
Well here’s why he didn’t come with any of that–Because if he had come looking like the big bad devil, I’d recognize the sucker and run! I wouldn’t even look at him, or want to shake his hand, or uh…describe his eyes as hazel!
It’s same in everyday life. Everybody knows what’s good and what’s bad. It’s too easy to tell right from wrong and we know to run away from the bad prospects. The devil is a liar and he is many other things but he’s not stupid. He’s cunning, he’s smart, he’s absolutely interesting and he knows it’s 2015 so his software version is upgraded to suit your most unlikely expectation of who he might be. That’s why we don’t realize it’s the devil until it’s too late.
But I’ve got goodnews: he’s predictable. He doesn’t just lie, he kind of combines a lie with some truth, topped with a slice of what you want and a bit of what you think you need, mix all of that and you have yourself a meal of “good reason to be stupid”. Ain’t that smart! He’s always ready to creep in imperceptibly on anything; he’s a click away on the internet, a little freaky thought away, he shows up in that unnecessary conversation. A little sip here, a little puff there. A little this, a little that; or so it seems.
He looks like he has everything but he does need something. He knows his destiny and where he’s gonna end up, he has nothing to lose; he already lost everything. But he doesn’t know what your destiny is like, he only knows one thing: that it’s better than his because “Jeremiah 29:11” and he would do anything to put you on the same page as him. I believe that’s why he’s discarded his fork. Probably wasn’t working very well for him. I don’t know what he did with the horns and tail though…scares me to think about it.
Just know that he doesn’t look like the lurking, bloodsucking, devil image you have anymore, “he wears a suit and a tie.”And well he saw you read this, so probably next time he comes around, he won’t be wearing that. He’s smarter than that, be smarter.
Salem King's Blog 