Oluwafemi .The Word of God is a light to my Path.

Today's Scripture                                            all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. Ezra 3:11, NKJV Be Prepared for Opposition In Ezra 3, with the permission of the king of Persia, fifty thousand Israelite men had returned to Jerusalem from exile with a leader named Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple. After two years, they finished the foundation and had a big celebration. Zerubbabel knew God’s favor was on his life. Everything was falling into place—the building supplies, the workers, the king’s provisions—and they were about to start the next phase when opposition arose. Local enemies of Judah didn’t want the temple rebuilt, so they stirred up trouble to stop it. When you start to take steps of faith and see God’s favor, it’s amazing how that can stir up other people’s jealousy, criticism, gossip, and slander. But God has put greatness in you. He’s called you to stand out, to b

  Weaving a Pattern of Giving “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) Each person has a different financial situation. In many parts of the world people have very little in the way of financial resources. It is important for all of us to remember that God loves the  cheerful  giver. God is more interested in the attitude we have about our giving than in the amount we give. All that we have has been given to us by God. Are we joyfully allowing him to use it to bless those around us? Are people welcome in your home? Do you share what you do have without being self-conscious that others may have more or less than you do? Are you willing to share what you have without being concerned about receiving a “thank you” in return? Do you consider the eternal ramifications of your giving? My goal is to be a grace giver, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Grace-giving is the result of a God-given and Go

  As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. Luke 24:30–31 Open Our Eyes Two days after Jesus was crucified and buried, two of His discouraged, heartbroken disciples were walking the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus when they were joined by a man they didn’t recognize. They were so focused on their great loss that they didn’t recognize the miracle of the moment, that they were walking with the risen Jesus. They were missing the joy in the journey. They didn’t see it until God suddenly opened their eyes and they recognized they had been in His presence the whole time. We see the difficulties and struggles every day, but are we seeing the joy in the journey? Could it be that God is doing great things, that we’re actually in a great moment right now, but we don’t see the good things? My prayer is, “God, open our eyes as You did for those two disciples.” There are gre

  Changed Perspective “My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.” —  2 Corinthians 9:6–8 In the  Kingdom of God. Enjoy a Life that Will Echo into Eternity. We  shared how we went through a conversion process. Our relationship with Jesus Christ set us on the road to becoming a Converterlator. This is a journey for each one of us and God teaches us and leads us in many different ways. However, the one thing we do know is that each one of us is called to converterlate our time, talent, and treasure. Now that our life is directed by God, I have a different view of all of my earthly treasure including my

  So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. Genesis 41:14 Stepping Stones When Joseph was a teenager, God put a dream in his heart that one day he would be in leadership, but his brothers became jealous and sold him into slavery in Egypt. He was being his best, but his owner’s wife falsely accused him of a crime, and he was put in prison. For thirteen long years it was one wrong after another. But notice that each of these wrongs was necessary to bring Joseph to where God wanted him to be—the interpreter of Pharaoh’s dream, taking him from the dungeon to being made the prime minister of Egypt. Maybe you’re having some wrongs in your life—someone betrayed you, a door closed on the dream you worked so hard for. How do you know you’re not a Joseph? How do you know that the wrongs are not divine detours, the hand of God leading you into something more amazing than you’ve ever imagined? You can live out of a place of rest, knowing that the wrongs, the things y

   Your SPECIAL Design “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart.”  (Jeremiah 1:5) God has created each one of us for a unique mission and he has equipped us with the exact abilities and talents to accomplish that mission. We can use the acronym SPECIAL to consider the talents and abilities God has given each one of us. Spiritual Gifts As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. —1 Peter 4:10 At the time that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit gives each of us one or more spiritual gifts. It is the Holy Spirit who determines which gift or gifts we receive. These spiritual gifts are different from the natural abilities a person already possesses at the time of their spiritual birth. These gifts equip us for special service within the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit has spiritually gifted  you  for a unique role and mission. Personali

  Merciful Lord, your love and loyalty keep me safe. I know that you listen when I pray to you, and that you hear my cries when I call to you for help. I love to do your will, O God, and I keep your teaching in my heart. Thank you for your steadfast love, care, and faithfulness. Amen.

  Converterlating Your Talent “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”  (1 Peter 4:10) A paper weight on my desk has the inscription, “Don’t wait for your ship to come in. Swim out to it!” As we practice  KingdomNomics , we aggressively look for ways to converterlate our talents for the advancement of the kingdom of God. People often make the mistake of waiting for their ship to come in, hoping for something to come their way. Waiting and wishing with good intentions will not accomplish any worthwhile objective. If it feels like not much is happening in your life, perhaps the Lord is saying, “Stop waiting for your ship; start swimming!” Each one of us needs to ask ourselves this question:  Am I available?  If we are really honest, oftentimes, we are  un available. This was also true in Bible times. Moses didn’t want to go to Egypt to be the spokesman for leading the people out of the Egyptian cap

  Loving and merciful God, you hear my groans when I am worn out, crushed, and in pain. Be near me, Lord God, when I cry out to you. I trust you to never abandon me. Surround me with your comforting and healing presence. Amen.

   Finding Balance “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”  (Proverbs 16:3) There is a difference between using time for refreshment and renewal, which all of us need from time to time, and wasting time on pleasure. There are many ways to relax and enjoy life, however there needs to be balance in this area. We need refreshment; however, we need to carefully exercise discernment in order to make sure we are not just being a consumerlator instead of a Converterlator. I say this because when I was younger, for me the epitome of “living” was to be on the golf course. I would grab every moment I could to be there. I loved everything about that lifestyle. However, my desire for that way of life from a time standpoint began to fade as I exposed myself more and more to the truth of God’s Word. As my desire to spend more time in the Word grew, I began to see my excessive time on the golf course as purely selfish. As I spent more time studying the Bible and learni

  “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:25 In the Fire Daniel 3, when three Hebrew teenagers were thrown into the fiery furnace because they wouldn’t bow to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol, not only did they survive without being harmed, but their enemies saw a fourth man, one “like the Son of God,” with them. What’s interesting is that the teenagers couldn’t see the fourth man. When you’re in the fire, in the adversity, you may not see what God is doing. You don’t think anything is changing or improving. But you can be sure the fourth man is in there with you. The beauty of our God is that He never lets you go in the fire alone. Meanwhile, the king was stunned. He had the teenagers brought out and decreed that no one in the nation speak against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Sometimes God lets you go through the fire so other people will see the ha

  The Chief Consumerlator Wants Your Time “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”  (Isaiah 58:10–11) At the very most, Satan wants to use our time for his benefit, and at the very least, he wants to keep us from using our time in the way in which God wants us to. The Chief Consumerlator will use whatever means he has available to keep us from doing God’s will. We must remember that time is a currency that needs to be invested in the right things. I have found that many people attempt to find fulfillment in life in the wrong ways and in the wrong places as they follow wrong pursuits. They think that the pleasure of this world, whether it is found in relationship

  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15:1–2 Pruning Sometimes God will remove things in our lives that we don’t understand. Perhaps He will remove a friendship, someone who’s pulling us down, causing us to compromise. We don’t like change. We were comfortable. Now we’re going to have to stretch and grow. Don’t fight the pruning of the branch. God knows what He’s doing. He’s not going to leave something on you that will keep you from your purpose. He’ll never ask you to do something and then not give you the ability to do it. If He’s asking you to walk away from an unhealthy relationship, you know a season is coming to an end for your good. If you resist it, you’re going to miss the greater things God has in store. Let Him remove what He knows is keeping you from the true you He created you to be. He’s not trying to take some

   Making an Impact  “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  (Psalm 90:12) We know that time in this world is a perishable commodity. It is going to run out for each one of us at some point. Our time will have no real meaning in the eternal world, but what we do with it  now  does have an impact on eternity. In the 1960s, Charles Hummel wrote a book entitled,  Tyranny of the Urgent . The basic premise of this book is that the most  urgent task is not always the most important. The  tyranny of the urgent  lies in its distortion of priorities. We must evaluate the use of our time not by what is most urgent, but by what is most important. We need discernment to converterlate our perishable time into something imperishable. And we will only have the wisdom that we need for that evaluation if we depend on God and his Word to guide us. It has become increasingly clear to me that the only two things that will survive the perishable world are the Word of God, which en