Haven of rest Evangelical Ministries, Ota Nigeria

I visited Olumo Rock recently to see God's workmanship. A little boy insisted on being our tour guide. I liked him. Feeling lazy, I asked him if the elevator was working, he said No, truthfully. The boy led us through scary paths explaining historic places with stories. There were times he assisted me to climb by holding my hand. You can imagine, small boy holding my hand, when I should be the one holding his hand. Experience is not necessarily by age. Humility will save one from falling. Finally, we got to the top. We asked him if we were going to return by the same route. He responded 'No! there is a stairway' "Common! You mean there are stairs? And you made us climb the rocks, why didn't you tell us earlier? We could have come up through the stairs instead" I queried. With smiles on his face, he said something that struck me deeply, "I intentionally didn't tell you about the stairs. If I did, you'd have preferred to take that route and wou...

A hat-seller who was passing by a forest decided to take a nap under one of the trees, so he left his basket of hats by the side. A few hours later, he woke up and realized that all his hats were gone. He looked up and to his surprise, the tree was full of monkeys and they had taken all his hats. The hat-seller sits down and thinks of how he can get the hats down. While thinking he started to scratch his head. The next moment, the monkeys were doing the same. Next, he took down his own hat, the monkeys did exactly the same. An idea came to him, he took his hat and threw it on the floor and the monkeys did that too. So he finally managed to get all his hats back. Fifty years later, his grandson,Tim, also became a hat-seller and had heard this monkey story from his grandfather. One day, just like his grandfather, he passed by the same forest. It was very hot, and he took a nap under the same tree and left the hats on the floor. He woke up and realized that all his hats were...

I don't know who authored this fantastic piece: it's powerful, full of knowlede, wisdom & educative! Please take time to read it over and over again.... YOU CANNOT GET BY PRAYER WHAT YOU SHOULD GET BY CHARACTER & OBEDIENCE A man’s character is his fate. Heraclitus Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States (US), said: “Nothing can stop the man with the *right mental attitude* from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the *wrong mental attitude.” As a clergyman, I have watched pitiably how people self-sabotage themselves by seeking spiritual solutions to character-deficit issues. They look around at everybody as suspects for their predicaments when their greatest demons lurks within them - their character. What we often call our destiny is truly our character, and since that character can change, then destiny can be altered. *Character is destiny* . Is prayer actually EVERYTHING? Many would begin to argue back and forth...

*(A Must Read For Every Pastor church-leaders, & Parents)* At her father's funeral  the pastor's daughter (who was a prostitute) watched and listened as church members described all wonderful deeds done by the pastor of 10,000 capacity church and worldwide television ministry. They spoke about his care, love, generosity, miracles, signs and wonders and tenderness when he was alive. But after the funeral the daughter of the late pastor asked her siblings and her mother - who was that man those people were talking about at the funeral - is he the same man that raised us? They must be telling lies. All the children including Jack (a drug addict) agreed that they were telling lies. But their mother said they were not telling lies, _YOUR FATHER WAS A GOOD PASTOR, BUT A BAD HUSBAND AND BAD FATHER,_ _HE GROOMED AND GREW THE CHURCH BUT LEFT HIS FAMILY GROANING._ _FIRE WAS IN HIS BONE TO WORK FOR GOD, BUT LOVE, AFFECTION AND INTIMACY WAS NEVER IN HIS MIND FOR HIS FAMILY,_ _...

  April 25 Not Like Yesterday David H. Roper Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  Deuteronomy 8:3 Matthew 4:1–11 2 Samuel 21–22; Luke 18:24–43 When our grandson Jay was a child his parents gave him a new T-shirt for his birthday. He put it on right away and proudly wore it all day. When he appeared the next morning in the shirt, his dad asked him, “Jay, does that shirt make you happy?” “Not as much as yesterday,” Jay replied. That’s the problem with material acquisition: Even the good things of life can’t give us the deep, lasting happiness we so strongly desire. Though we may have many possessions, we may still be unhappy. The world offers happiness through material accumulation: new clothes, a new automobile, an update to our phone or watch. But no material acquisition can make us as happy as it did yesterday. That’s becau...

What Does it Mean to Submit to the Church? "If you love someone, set them free." (Sting) Main Question:  What does it mean to submit to a local church? Are their limits to the church's authority over the individual?   Main Answer:  Submitting to the church means submitting our whole selves to the church for its good and for Christ's glory, just as Christ surrendered himself for our good and the Father's glory.  I talk throughout my book about church membership as a kind of submission and the fact that Christianity is congregationally shaped, but what does that look like? Are we really called to surrender our freedom? That's a tough pill to swallow. Didn't Jesus come to set us free, and isn't this what love always does—set the beloved free? It seems that freedom is a prerequisite to love. One person cannot be forced to love another. As the divine Father figure, Papa, in William Young's pop-spirituality novel The Shack, says, "It is ...