THE WORD OF GOD

In my first of articles for the year running 2015, I would want to attempt an explanation of what   the word of God is.

To avoid the complications and the difficulties most of us encounter on our way to demystify the mysteries of the word, I have decided to simply tackle this all important theme from two distinct points of view, which are; what and why of the word.

Defining  What:  What of everything is its defining principle. The word simply, but controversially, is not just what is spoken or written; but what one makes of what is written or spoken.  The word is HIS word. It is not the word of any man.

WHAT IS THE WORD, OR HIS WORD

·         Bread of Life- John 6: 27, 35, 48, 51

·         It is the very instruction of God- Genesis 1:2; talking of instruction, it is to be identified that a man’s words are what he stands for and what is okayed as an accepted way of life.

 Therefore in every household there should be a father. The father with the aim of keeping the harmony of his household intact has a prescribed way by which every member of the family must live by. 

This is similar with our eternal father. He has an instructive way and the Christian life is guided by it. This is his instruction onto us, and it can only be made known unto us by his word.

·         The word is the spirit and breath (life) of God- Genesis 2:7, John 6:63. No man born of Christ is able to live without the word. And any man without the word is absolutely dead. The word helps us grasp the very concept of God the spirit.

·         The word is the second person of the Trinity ( Jesus)- John 1:1

·         The power and authority of God- Luke 7:2-7

·         The yardstick of accountability and Judgement.

·         The word is our salvation… John 14:6

·         It is the standard measure of the power and authority a Christian life controls

·         The word is the will and intent of God

The Psalmist Amy Grant succinctly puts it; thy word is a light onto my path and a lamp onto my feet…

It is not enough our knowledge of the word, but the reason for the knowledge. This leads us to answer certain question about why we need the word of God.

Our reason for food is not food itself but, what food can afford us (Matthew 4:4). Therefore, our why for the word is not the word, but what the word is able to achieve for our lives.

·         The word is life- John 6:63

·         The word is Practice- Revelation 1:3, James…

·         It is our weaponry as Soldiers of the Kingdom and Gospel- Ephesians 6:10-16 ( The armour of God)

·         It is the steadfast of our life

·         It is the form and shape of our life- Genesis 1:2

·         Foundation of our life- 1^st Corinthians 3:11

·         It’s our faith builder- Romans 10:17

·         To help forestall the famine of the word in the world- Amos 8:11, Luke 5

·         Because you are a leader and must lead. If you are a leader, but is not leading, then it is because you lack what it takes to lead, the word.

·         You need it for an approval- 2^nd Timothy 2: 14-15

                                                   WHO then is this WORD?

Revelation 19: 13 “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God…”

He is the one who have trodden the winepress alone (Isaiah 63: 3-4), and from the people, no one was with him, though His very garment has been stained by our sins.

The Word is Jesus Christ.

INFLUENCE- Dr. Myles Munroe

 

Dr.Myles Munroe

Influence is a divine imperative- every human being was created by God to have an influence on earth-

Influence means to dominant an area of life. Influential people are simply people dominating the environment they are in.

Whoever dominant an area of life has influence.

Fame is not influence, but that which can even last after your death.

Influence means your life has so much dominion that even death can’t destroy it i.e. Martin Luther King Jnr.

Influence is not popularity, influential people are not necessary popular… They are impactful.

You are born to influence time…age doesn’t matter. Methuselah and Jesus Christ  

Your gift is your key to influence, if you don’t influence, you would be influenced

Keys to Influence

Worth…want to be influential, amass worth

Knowledge…invest in yourself and talent

Ownership… invest in properties

Systems controllers…i.e. Bill Gates, he controls the system in your computer.

Specializations…identify your area and invest heavily into it

Create all the other five… (Worth, Knowledge, ownership, system controllers, specialization)

The Steward's time with the journalist!

Steward Jane, a young minister of Christ who is moving her generation with the word, and power of HIS word, had a ghost filled time with members of the Campus Christian Family- GIJ Chapter.

Steward Jane

Steward Jane

The Watch night ceremony, which is meant to draw the curtains down on the first half of the 2014/2015 academic semester, was well attended by students of the Institute.

a cross section of students

                                        You missed paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn!

Gratefulness of Christ to the special six…continuation of The Six Special Marys, Christ will ever remain grateful

As is typical of man, whoever does you a great deal, you shall ever remain grateful… so is Christ. For the motherly role Mary the virgin played in his life, she continues to wear the enviable crown of being the mother to the saviour of the world.

She had no mean a person, but God the almighty to be her spokesperson. Remember the said decision of Joseph to part ways with Mary, his to be wife after he has identified her to be pregnant? No amount of explanations could have saved such a situation, but for the timely intervention of an angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream. Matthew 1:20 but while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Mary the virgin in modern times could have been taken for one of the gleeful mothers of her generation. Many a time; I have seen and heard parent express an opened delight, amidst praises from family friends, neighbours and the lot, all in cognise of one thing, “a genius performance by an offspring”. “This is out of your child’s generation” is but one of the numerous expressions of delight that might crown such assertions. Little Jesus, per the records, was such a delight. Teaching in the synagogue, asking mind boggling questions; challenging doctrinal deficiencies of Teachers, proving and exposing the hypocrisies of the perceived “paragons of virtue”, the Pharisees… the list continues.  This is the joy of motherhood every child can honour her mother with, and Mary certainly was not denied it.

In our today endeavours, if only we would delight ourselves in the lord, keep a sanctified life; we shall also be the ever pleasing mothers of children bringing us honour, instead of shame.

Our children shall save the world from the numerous challenges facing it in modern times. I believe this because, Christ attests to the fact that, whoever that believeth in him, shall do greater than he came to do.

For Mary, sister to Martha; her brother Lazarus did not remain in the grave after his death. He was raised from death. She had the honour of an enviable visitation by Christ to her home.

This is what it means to be a friend to Jesus Christ. Their friendship (Mary and Martha) alone warranted them a visitation from Jesus Christ. And it wasn’t a mere visitation, but one that led to the resurrection of their brother Lazarus who was dead for some days.

Being a friend of Jesus Christ means resurrection. He is the same Jesus of the Mary and the Martha days. He changes not, Jesus give him the chance to be part of your life and your situations (Hebrews 13:8).

 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” Luke 5: 32, Matthew 9:13, Mark 2:17…

The above proclamation of Jesus ushers us into a discussion on our next character, Mary Magdalene. A prostitute and a demon possessed fellow who in our current times wouldn’t have befit a close association to any of us, holier than you Christians. Her meeting Jesus Christ was a miracle and deliverance. She was purged of anything demon, filthiness.

Her zealousness for Christ propelled her to want to be the first, in meeting Christ after his resurrection from the dead.

She availed herself to be the mouthpiece for announcing Christ’s resurrection to his disciples…Not only this, but even his subsequent ascension to his father.

Jesus was a man of practice. Whatever he says, he exemplifies that practically. And Mary Magdalene was the beneficiary and a perfect example of his coming not being for the righteous, but the lost.

No matter how critical you may have subsumed your situation, it is absolutely not critical beyond the remedy of the saviour, Jesus Christ.

Bible history may have not expatiated enough on the other Marys, but nobody serves Christ whole-hearted and goes unrewarded.

Take a clue…

The Six Special Marys, Christ will ever remain grateful

Mention Mary in any claimed Christian environment, and what first comes to the table is the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ; the saviour. In this my latest of write ups, I walk you through five other Mary’s apart from the known, Virgin Mary.

What’s worth emulating, apart from their individual contributions to the growth of the Christ ministry is their individual moral attributions.

First to discuss is the Virgin Mary. Obviously, she is the most popular among the lot for her role played in bringing into being, what arguably will be taken as the largest religion in the world, Christianity. As captured by scriptures; she is mother to Jesus Christ, the saviour of the universe.

 Luke 1: 30, 31, 34 and 35… “The angel said to her, don’t be afraid. Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and will call his name, “Jesus”

She is the only lady, apart from fictionist characters who in history conceived, and gave -birth still a virgin.34- Mary said to her, “how can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”35- The Angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most high will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the son of God

Mary, the virgin as known was also a relative or sister to Elizabeth (the wife of Zacharias, a chief priest) Luke 1:36 “…Behold, Elizabeth, your relative…

 The sixteenth book of Romans also gives an account of a Mary who also lived in bible times. Much was not said as to whom she was. But she for the purpose of this write up deserves the mention. She was by way of recognition mentioned by Tertius, a servant of Christ, in an epistle to the church in Romans as someone who really laboured for the course of the kingdom work. Romans 16:6, “Greet Mary, who laboured much for us”

The book of Acts also gives another account of a Mary, mother to John, whose surname scripture says is Mark. Acts 12:12, “Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark”. It was in her house, the saints gathered in the observance of their prayer activities during the arrest of Peter the Apostle by King Herod.

She is the first to meet Christ after he has risen from the death. She took responsibility for the announcement of Christ’s resurrection, and subsequent ascendance to the father to his disciples. One of her most remarkable experience with Christ was the opportunity of having been delivered of seven evil spirits. She is none other than Mary Magdalene.

Another Mary worth noting is Mary, who is sister to Martha and Lazarus, The one Christ rose from the dead. She exemplified a soul whose delight is in sitting under the feet of Christ to listen to the message of life, the gospel of the kingdom. Mary, unlike her sister Martha, was a typical of that who took no interest in many a fleeting thing of the world to the neglect of the gospel of Christ’s kingdom.

John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas …, Luke 24:13-32

The final but not the least, the Mary identified as being wife of Cleophas; also a follower of Christ in the early church days.