One Pick Up Too Many (8)
It was then that she noticed a presence. It started with a warm glow around her and then it was all over her body! The effect was as if she had become a new born baby, completely unaware of fear, guilt or shame! In an instant, all negative emotions disappeared and all she could feel was a sense of well being she had never known before! It was like a feeling of being secure, loved and cared for, all at once. She felt a baby once again, being cuddled by her mother! Read more
One Pick Up Too Many (7)
The Lecture had been unusually long but Ama had stayed behind in the Law Library to study for the first Semester exams. It was about 4.00pm when she found herself dozing and hitting her head on the volume of the Supreme court cases she was studying.
“That’s it”, she announced to herself! She had read till 4.00am in the morning and now she couldn’t possibly assimilate anything more. Read more
One Pick Up Too Many (6)
This time around, the young man had nothing to say. He could only bite his lower lip until he tasted blood! He needed to feel more comfortable, the heat was killing him. He removed his hands from the steering wheel and leaned back to remove his jacket. One hand first and then the other. Ranti’s words had cut through him like a knife, wrenching his heart. Read more
Is divorce running your family?
“Do you know that eight out of the ten folks we’ve just spoken with have divorced parents?”
I turned to look at my wife and partner in counseling as I suspended a fork full of French fries that was headed towards my mouth. I put the fork down.
To say I was stunned by that piece of information would be an understatement. As a marriage counselor, I had come across many folks passing through divorce whose parents had gone through the process too. It was just that for the first time, it seemed the truth struck me! There was a pattern!
You see, the ten folks we had just spoken with were from different backgrounds, different countries, different professions and what have you!
We were at an international convention and the organizers had asked if we would speak with divorced people who were interested in re-marriage. We divided them into groups of ten and we had just finished our first teaching with the first group.
What struck me was that if folks with absolutely nothing in common could show such a pattern, it provided proof beyond a doubt that the choices parents make in their marriage could very well have far reaching implications on their children!
“This is quite serious,” my wife continued. “If a marriage is broken and there are five children, it means about four of them could also end up separated or divorced!”
As she spoke, names and faces of members of some families where divorce seems to have ravaged all the siblings started coming to me!
I had realized many years ago that Satan was attacking marriages with a vengeance but I had never recognized this strategy! Break up one home and there is the likelihood of 3 out of 4 children from that family ending up with broken homes too!
“If only parents could understand the havoc they wreck in the lives of their children when they refuse to work at their marriage, maybe they would try harder at making their marriage work!” my wife concluded.
I could see how true that was. What most parents do not understand is that children learn much more by observation than by verbal lessons. For example, if you tell a child it is wrong to tell a lie and the child observes that you tell lies frequently, the child will imitate you by telling lies regularly, your threats and corporal punishments notwithstanding!
In the same vein, when parents take the decision to go their separate ways and break up their home, they set a pattern. Their children are taught that it is okay to break your commitment to someone when things are not rosy! The children learn that staying in a marriage “for better and for worse” is not an option!
When these kids grow up and they have challenges in their marriages, they are quick to give up! The option of staying in the marriage and working at it never occurs to them!
The tragedy of it all is that most of the time, such kids cannot even connect their actions in later life to the choices their parents made! On several occasions when I’ve had to point this fact out to folks, they’ve been absolutely shocked! They never made the connection before!
The interesting thing is that I’ve never met a child from a broken home who didn’t want the home restored! Grown up children are not different! It doesn’t matter for how long the home has been broken, children still hope that their parents would one day come back together!
Despite the fact that children hate it when their parents divorce, it is simply amazing that these same children grow up and end up getting divorced themselves! How can one explain that!
Unknown to folks, divorce is really a spiritual issue and not a physical one. God hates divorce but Satan is the enemy of everything that God stands for. If you are the product of a broken home, you have to understand what you are up against. It is not something to trifle with!
If you are a parent contemplating divorce or separation, please understand the spiritual implications of what you are contemplating. You are laying a foundation of broken homes for some, if not all of your children. If you really love and care for your kids, this will be a good time to reconsider your options!
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THE EVIL THAT PARENTS DO!
One Pick Up Too Many (4)
The door hardly closed before the driver of the BMW sped off the curb with the now famous acceleration speed of BMW models. Fastening her seat belt, she sank into the well cushioned leather seat. The smell of luxury permeated the car as cool music came out softly from the hidden speakers. Barry white’s deep romantic voice floated all over the car as the driver took a right turn off Ozumba Mbadiwe into Adeyemo Alakija to climb the Falomo Bridge.
She was too young to recognize who was singing but he sounded nice. Really nice! Lizzy couldn’t hide her delight as she glanced at the man sitting by her. This was her first expatriate date and she could see images of Dollar notes, lots of them! Now she was in business! Read more
PUNISHED FOR WHAT I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT! 3
(Please read Parts 1 & 2 before reading this)
“In 1951, my grandfather passed part 1 of his Bar exams after his third trial. For some strange reason, the Law of Equity was a problem. He was working as a Bell Hop and studying at the same time. It was too tough for him. He found it difficult to stay awake to study at night. If he failed a third time, he would have to withdraw from the University and that would be devastating. Read more
Punished for what i knew nothing about (2)
PLEASE READ PART ONE BEFORE READING THIS!
“You mean curses are real?” she asked starry eyed. With both hands firmly clasping her head, she didn’t look so corporate now.
“Curses are real and it makes no difference that you are innocent. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that five sisters in a family are still single and you are the youngest at 33!”
“But I am Christian” Shade protested “My Pastor said old things are passed away and I don’t have to bother about things like curses!”
I could see tear drops starting to form around her lovely eyes. She obviously was getting more confused. Read more
The Pope is dead!!
Last week Saturday, the news spread all over the world in a matter of Minutes! The Vatican announced the death of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul 11 and since Saturday every other news has been second page!
CNN and BBC have virtually ignored any other thing happening anywhere else in the world! We’ve been getting a minute-by-minute account of what is happening in Rome! Today, the three-hour funeral was broadcast life all over the world and Al jazeera, the Islamic TV station in the Middle East wasn’t left out!
Why has the death of this man virtually brought the world to a stand still? Even Prince Charles and Carmella had to postpone their wedding from Friday to Saturday because of the Pope’s burial!
And it wasn’t a willing decision that Charles made, I assure you. You see, his spokesman had announced just after the Pope’s death that the wedding would go on for Friday!
Well, the head of the Anglican Church in England and Tony Blair announced that they would be at the Pope’s funeral on Friday!
Prince Charles wedding without the Archbishop (who was supposed to bless the new Couple) and the British Prime Minister wouldn’t quite be the same
would it? What with the Queen being ‘unable’ to attend because the wedding takes place in a Registry and the Queen can’t be seen in a place as undignified as a Registry!
Charles promptly announced that he would be at the Pope’s funeral on Friday with his fiancée too. The wedding was hurriedly moved to Saturday!
While one could assume that the Pope’s death got all that attention because he was the head of the Roman Catholic Church, which may not be the whole truth.
You see, by all accounts this Pope was a great man! How did he become great? He affected the lives of millions of people positively!
Credited to have had a hand in the fall of Communism, he was hailed far and wide as a man of Peace. The Pope had humble beginnings in Poland and was I believe the first non-Roman to be elected Pope! He was the 67th Pope! Unlike any other Pope, he was loved by young people all over the world and is credited with having a hand in the organization of the first world Youth Day!
The Pope was not a stranger to Personal pain and suffering. Early in his reign he was shot and almost killed. He recovered to forgive his assailant!
In the latter stage of his life, he had several operations and was hit with the Parkinson’s disease.
Through it all, until his last days, he struggle to execute his duties as the Pope. During the last days, he appeared at his window and attempted to bless his congregation but the words just wouldn’t come out!
It is not in doubt that this Pope touched and affected move lives than those that went before him! He visited about 120 Countries and covered enough
Kilometers to go to the Moon twice! It has been said that no other human living or dead has been seen as much as this Pope was seen!
More than 200 world leaders attended his funeral and about four million visitors came to Rome for the funeral! Over two million people are said to have filed past his body where it was lying-in-state!
He was many ‘firsts’ The first Pope to visit a U.S President, the first to enter a synagogue, the first to visit Cuba and many nations including Nigeria!!
Did the Pope know he would be such a great man when he was growing up?
Did he want to be a great man? I think not. According to Mother Theresa,
“We can do no great thing. We can only do little things with great love. This was a man who did little things with great love!
I know many people may not have even one head of state present at their funeral. I know most people will not affect as many lives as the Pope did. My question to you is this. How many lives will you affect in a positive way before your time comes?
It is said, ‘To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die.’
In how many hearts will you continue to live after you die?
You don’t have to want to be great. Just learn to do little things with great love and you’ll be amazed at what you too can accomplish!
The passion of the Christ!
The first time I heard about the movie, ‘The passion of the Christ’ was on TBN. Paul Crouch was speaking about this wonderful film that was not even done in English that was destined to impact the world.
Who was the producer?
Mel Gibson! Well, to my knowledge Mel Gibson was a good actor but a producer of a film about the last days before and the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Perhaps I wouldn’t have doubted if Paul Crouch had announced that TBN or maybe Benny Hinn or TD Jakes or Billy Graham was the producer! Mel Gibson? Forget it!
A few days later, this was about a week to the Easter Weekend of 2004, I saw Mel Gibson’s interview about the movie! Now Mel Gibson is a good Catholic. The number of children he has is proof of that but I foolishly believed that only a Christian with a Pentecostal experience could portray the Passion of Christ in a way that would impact the world!
When Mel Gibson however stated in the course of the interview that he believed that the reason that God created him was to produce the movie ‘The Passion of the Christ’, well, I sat up!
The man explained that everything he ever did, his acting career, his epic movies (great movies, if I may say so) were all to prepare him for this one movie!
You see, I am a firm believer of pre-destination. I believe that no human is on planet earth by accident! There is a purpose to everyone’s existence on earth. The Bible explains this in Psalm 139, Roman 8, Jeremiah 1 and so on.
By now I was fast loosing my skepticism. When Mel Gibson mentioned that Hollywood had shunned him and refused to distribute the film and that he had turned to the Evangelical Christians in America for help, well all my skepticism went out of the window!
Well, the Passion of the Christ was released and it has become one of the biggest money making movies till date!
Much more than this, there are several documented miracles that have happened to people who have watched the movie including people getting healed and even a baby raised from the dead! These are documented in a CD called the ‘Miracles of the Passion!’
I saw the movie myself and for the first time I understood the magnitude of the pain and the suffering that Christ went through as my substitute just to reconcile me to God! Quite simply, my life has not been the same since then! The movie is one that I highly recommend for everyone!
To folks who complained that the sufferings were too graphic, well there is now a new re-edited version of the movie being released this Easter.
Whatever you do this Easter my friend; go see ‘The Passion of the Christ!’ It will transform your life!
Have a lovely Easter Weekend!
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THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST!