DON’T BE DISTRACTED

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Don’t be distracted

 

The world is currently moving at its fastest pace. We live in a very interesting time where opinion sharing is easier, awareness raising is faster, subconscious learning is dominant and communication is effortless.  Simply put, influence is like Monday; it is very unavoidable. We are all greatly influenced by this seemingly important but drastically distractive tool called “social media” – in my opinion the most powerful weapon of this age. I nearly lost my head when I came across the job title “social media influencer” – which essentially means a person with a lot of followers. New standards are set daily, new social media challenges, new lingo, new role models, new “normals”…. All happening at an immensely fast pace.

Knowledge is currently very accessible, however multiple studies have showed that average IQ scores are sinking. This might be due to many factors, but in my personal opinion I will say it is due to distraction from bad influence.

There is nothing wrong with influence unless it is the right type. I personally believe the generation before us had greater inventions because they were more motivated and less distracted. Life seemed more real and originality wasn’t farfetched. To be a celebrity meant a lot, because it wasn’t a two-week journey. Inventions were a very big deal because there weren’t a lot of already laid out protocols and manuals to follow. There was more originality.

It’s a sort of blessing and a curse for us, because we have very easily accessible tools to gain knowledge to help us excel. However, this same tool has become for most of us the most distractive and detrimental part of our lives – social media.

My message for us this year is “don’t be distracted”. No offence, I personally think there are lot less “actively wise” individuals; and if you are going to allow everyone to influence you, you will lose yourself without even knowing it. Social media is a central bank of knowledge where everyone freely deposits what they know, what they believe and have experienced. You can change to be a very different person in a month, if social media is where you live and that is your home. It is very easy to subconsciously learn people’s ideologies and standards. If you desperately want to be successful, the time is now; because everyone is distracted!” You have all the knowledge at your disposal and all your competitors are distracted. All you have to do is take a step back, tap into your original nature (which is your amazing God-created self), add value to yourself, work hard and achieve.

The devil is always working. For him to destroy, he steals(John 10:10), and for him to steal he distracts. Stay on your guard, keep your eyes open, you do not have to be like everyone else. Stick to your standards and believe in what you believe.

 

Happy new year!

 

– Sam

DEATH

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I just got back to Manchester from London, I got to my room and realized my light bulb had stopped working. My Christian self, that tries not to have anything to do with “the dark”, then set out to look for a new light bulb. On my way to buy this, I don’t know how, but I did not notice this dead pigeon by the roadside; I only saw it when I was coming back. I am not sure of the exact time it died. It might have died on my way to the shop, after I passed by the spot of its later death; or it might have been lying there dead when I passed by, and I did not notice it. I cannot answer, but what I know is, I do not know what time it died.

It is funny because even though I did know something, what I knew was that I did not know something. I knew I did not know the exact time of the pigeon’s death. Furthermore, even if I saw exactly when this pigeon was dying, I could not have told you yesterday that a pigeon was going to die today. However, if you asked me yesterday if, every pigeon will eventually die, I would have said, “Yes of course!”

Death is the unpredictable most predictable incident that happens to anyone. Very unpredictable with respect to time and very predictable in terms of possibility. In other words – We do not know when everyone will die, but we know everyone will die.

I got back home and instantly, it dawned on me that I went out in the first place because of the “death” of my light bulb. I fixed in the new light bulb and there was light in my room again! I brought light into my room by fixing a new light bulb, didn’t know death could be fixed! But well, will visit this point again. Back to the sad pigeon….

It died, and I know no one knew it was going to die. No one even thought about it. I mean, who goes around thinking about death? But it happens all the time though? Death I have realised, holds a certain power to make people think. Anytime a person dies, I see people thank God they are still alive. People that are able to find jokes in every sector of life, gives it a break when it comes to death.  It seems to hold that power which makes everyone freeze and reflect. Just as I saw this dead pigeon today, I reflected and I share my thoughts in this post. I will be happy to know that, the pigeon lived a comfortable life on earth before it died.

Friends, we have the luxury of knowing that we are going to die one day, but we just do not know when. I am sure each of us know a certain person who walked like us, talked like us, and they also knew that they will die one day, however they are dead now. As a result of this, I see every second as an opportunity to make a mark, as I prepare for my physical death one day. I do not know when this will be, so I thank God for every opportunity he gives me to live an extra day, so I take on the day as a challenge to leave a footprint. I accept everyday as a platform on which I print my purpose. Every day, I aim to dream excellence and to live out purpose in order to please my maker. Life is short, but eternal life isn’t.

 

The bulb…

As a Christian I believe there is a physical and a spiritual death.  After the actual physical death, I have no other physical life. However as I live physically, I have to live as if I am dead physically in order to receive spiritual life. And even when I have received this spiritual life I have to constantly renew my mind in order to always receive spiritual life.

The old bulb represents my mind, the room represents me as a whole, and the light source represents the spirit of God living in me! As long as I keep renewing my bulb (mind), and I put on the switch, my room (life) will always be lit with the light of God! Through this, I will experience fully the perfect will of God for my life!!! Romans12:2

We will all die one day. We are all living, to die, so we might live. But before we die, we should live!

 

Sam

“Its 2017, get over yourself”

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“Its 2017, get over yourself!” I see this on the internet, and I hear people say this many times. Of the number of times that I have seen or heard it, it has been used majorly as a response to “a moral subject”. I have heard people say it to Christians who express their views on a topic, based on what they believe or what the bible teaches.

As a result of such reactions, there is this fear that many Christians face, which prevents them from expressing their beliefs on certain topics in this modern day;  just because it is not the norm anymore. In cases when some Christians actually express their beliefs, people say that the Christian is forcing their beliefs on them – which normally isn’t and should never be the case, because even God gives everyone a choice to believe in Him.  I personally feel that as “freely expressive” as people in this modern world might be, Christians are normally suppressed in terms of them being able to voice their opinions on matters.

As a Christian, in so many other ways I am questioned by other people why I do not do certain things, or even why I believe in God. I try to ask why I am being asked these and constantly the response to the question is “its 2017”, or something along the lines of “the world is evolving, things are changing, and some of these things in the bible are just outdated”.

If you are not a Christian and you are reading this, I don’t mean to offend you, I love you, and I understand why it might be crazy to you that I still believe in the things of the bible. It takes faith to believe in them, and revelation to understand them.

To Christians who might find themselves battling with the inhibition to speak out or to live out as a Christian should, trust me, the Christian experience is the best experience you will ever have; so live it in FULL. The world teaches us a lot of things that go contrary to what the Word teaches us, but then the bible tells us not to conform to the patterns of the world (Romans 12:2). I am sorry to say this, but the world will always battle with Christian values and beliefs. It has been like that from the beginning. Christ Himself was persecuted, the church was, and Christians are ever going to be. We are not here to persecute the world in return, but we are meant to bring heaven down on earth. We are meant to show the world who Christ is, and show the hope, joy, salvation and all the goodness that He brings. Therefore the least we can do, is to freely speak about Him, and to live for Him. There are so many blessings associated with living for God; regardless of what 2017 is telling us to believe. “The Word of God cannot be outdated!” The fact it is 2017 doesn’t mean the Word of God is any less powerful. The Word is God (John 1:1). God is unchangeable (Hebrews 13:8). So His Word stays the same forever! In fact He says, everything will pass away but His words never will! (Luke 21:33).

Your identity is in Christ. So the next time you are asked “to get over YOURSELF”, you know what your response should be!!!

Sam

Forgiveness

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I know Father that when I have done wrong and have sinned against you and to other people, I can humbly come to you and ask for forgiveness. God I can even ask you to show me the sins that I am unaware of and you forgive me.

“But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong.”

1 John 1.9

See, this is your beautiful character. It is part of how you love. Your love doesn’t shut me out or keep me away from you. Your love is open to me even in my darkest of hours. So why is it hard to forgive others? Forgiving people is important to God, just as much as Him forgiving us is important to him!

Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.

Matthew 6:12

The whole bible is filled with your gracious love. In Isaiah 1:18; you make us new and bright us snow, in Ephesians 1:7; your overflowing grace covers us and forgives us and in Micah 7:18-19, you show your compassion to our unrighteousness.

In essence You are awesome.

Bu why do I find it hard to forgive those who have wronged and hurt me.

When we are hurt, we focus on the pain, we focus on the action that caused us the pain. We don’t want to see anything else. We sometimes want to pity ourselves. But it is important to forgive others. God clearly asks us to extend the grace He gave us, to those who have wronged us. But again we are stubborn.

I have been hurt, been taken for a fool sometimes and have been wronged by the people closest to me. Those who I thought would never hurt me have left me in tears. But I have learnt that I cannot put all my faith and trust in everyone simply because no one is perfect and humans will disappoint continuously. However I know that I had to forgive and let the hurt go.

“Put aside all bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting and slander, along with every other evil. Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ.”

Ephesians 4:31-32

This was and is hard to do because hurt doesn’t disappear overnight. But I choose to forgive those that hurt me. I do not want the hurt to control me and I do not want these individuals to control my life. Instead I want to focus on God and to have positive energy around me.

So every day I ask God to help me forgive others and take away my bitterness and anger. Sometimes it can be extremely hard to forgive, especially forgiving those who continuously hurt us or those who are unwilling to change. We always have to keep in mind that forgiving someone does not mean that the person has to change. However, in forgiving, we free ourselves from the being captive of bitterness – which does not benefit us. My mum always says- “being bitter will block your blessings, so let go of the hurt”. And I couldn’t agree more. Not forgiving harbours in negative energy, which only builds up, causes us to say and do things that goes against God, which in turn steals our blessings. Can we also remember that regardless of how much one must have hurt us God always loves them! Therefore the best we could do is to forgive people, and let God do the changing. Holding on to bitterness cannot change people, God’s power does!

No matter how hard it might be, let us look to God and his beautiful love, and let us learn to forgive. In doing this we become more like Christ.

Mag x

The Beauty Of Your Personality

This piece expresses the amazing personality and character of God. It demonstrates how big He is because of His power, and yet how His love transcends down to mere flawed mortals such as us.

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Sometimes my mind tries to understand you,
My eyes have never seen you,
My conscience battled to accept you,
So how did my heart fall in love with you?
You have no parents? Where did you come from?
Wait, you’re so powerful you have no beginning?
You’re so powerful, you won’t run out? You have no end? So basically you’re without limits?
Without you, there wouldn’t have been an Adam or an Eve, an atom or a leaf, nothing would have been created?
They say you are omnipresent. They say you are everywhere. So does that mean you can be on the highest of hills where no one has seen, but still be in the darkest of places where the normal human feet have not been?
Well I guess because you are everywhere at anytime, you should be omniscient, meaning all knowing, because you see everything don’t you? I haven’t seen my heart and my liver before, but you have. Pretty cool
Now I am more convinced you’re omnipotent. You’re all powerful. A person that is everywhere and knows everything, surely can be all powerful! You basically have  unlimited power to do anything you want?
Like I’ve read stories about you, I must say, you are very amazing!
How did you split A SEA, to allow people to walk through it??
You spoke, with WORDS, and things that were not there.. came into being.. do you know how nice a flower looks? But you just spoke it into existence? Amazing!
You once set a fire in a bush, but the bush was not consumed by fire.. You’re so cool.
You caused dry bones to become fleshy and human again.. Scary scene, but your power is just… Wonderful!
You made people sing, and the walls of Jericho fell down.
You caused the sun and moon to stay motionless.
I read that you are THREE PERSONS IN ONE! How great are you, and what can you not do??!
Now this is the part which made my heart fall in love…
Why do you try to deliver us so much, even after we walk away twice as much?
Throughout your word, you delivered your people a million times, but they always ended up still walking away from you
Sacrifices made to atone for sins weren’t enough because the sins were continuously committed
So you brought down a perfect sacrifice, a blameless person, in the person of YOUR OWN SON, to die for us!
Did you even have to do that? You could have raised stones to worship you! You’re God… Aren’t you? You’re all powerful!
But all of this was a demonstration of your LOVE?! For ME?!
Yeah, I personally think that is the greatest miracle you ever performed !
How are you so holy, but yet carried my sin?
How are you in heaven, but yet still live in me?
How are you a spirit but yet feel so real?
How are you a king and yet still a friend?
You died so I might live
You were poor so I will be rich
You have no limits so you know my beginning and my end
No one made you so you’re the author of my life
You split the sea of my problems so I might walk through them
You cause the dead and dry sectors of my life to come alive again
You are omnipresent so I know you are with me always
You are all knowing so I know you will put me on the right path
You are omnipotent, so I have hope for the future
You brought your ONLY SON down to die for me, and through this, I have learnt how to love you!
Everything you are, and all you did, you are and you did for me !!
That’s the beauty of your personality!
-Sam