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THE FOLLY OF BEING UNPREPARED

While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut." -- Mat_25:10.

THE FOOLISH virgins made five great mistakes.
(1)They made no provision for the continuance of their light. It is not enough merely to have the lamp; it must be lit and maintained, because there is something for the fire to feed on. How many there are who are on fire and in earnest during the first stage of their religious life, but they have made no provision for maintaining the flame which has been kindled by the grace of God. They have lamps, but have neglected to take oil. The oil stands for fellowship with the Lord Jesus, for the grace of the Holy Spirit, for the daily study of the Bible, for the kindling communion of worship with fellow-Christians.
(2)They slept. There was a difference between the sleep of the foolish and that of the wise. There are two kinds of sleep. The one arises from a sense of security and trust. Every preparation has been made; all has been done that could be done, and we resign ourselves deliberately to the care of God. So Peter slept in the prison, before the angel came to deliver him. But there is another kind of sleep. The sleep of the sentry, when the foe is stealing up the pass; of the pilot, when the ship is making for the serried teeth of the rocks; of the nurse, when the patient's life is quivering in the balance. These foolish ones had no right to sleep, when they were so utterly unready to meet the Bridegroom. We must not take things for granted, or say "Peace, peace, when there is no peace!"
(3) They thought they could procure oil from the wise. But the appeal was in vain. Each must bear his own burden of responsibility in the sight of God. We may "buy without money and without price," but each must appropriate the living grace and power of Jesus for himself.
(4)They thought they could get in; "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But the door was irrevocably closed! "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"
(5)They thought that the Bridegroom would recognize them. But He said: "I know you not." Let each ask himself: "Does Jesus know me? Will he recognize me at last?" The only way to be sure, is to kneel at the foot of His Cross until He seals us with the Holy Spirit, and says: "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine."

PRAYER
O Lord, we pray that our lives may be lamps to which Thou shalt supply oil. Help us to be burning and shining lights for this dark world. AMEN.

Culled from ESWORD DEVOTIONS 2009.

THE DIMENSIONS OF GOD'S LOVE

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." -- Eph_3:17-19.

THE DIMENSIONS of the Love of Christ! It is broad as humanity, "for God so loved the world"; the length God's love had no date of origin, and shall have none of conclusion. God is Love, it continueth ever, indissoluble, unchangeable, a perpetual present tense. Its height--as the Flood out-topped the highest mountains, so that Love covers our highest sins. It is as high as the heaven above the earth. Its depth--Christ our Lord descended into the lowest before He rose to the highest. He has touched the bottomless pit of our sin and misery, sorrow and need. However low your fall, or lowly your lot, the everlasting arms of His love are always underneath.
The Apostle talks by hyperbole, when he prays that we may attain to a knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. We cannot gauge Christ's love, but we can enjoy it. Probably the only way to know the love of Christ is to begin to show it. The emotionalist, who is easily affected by appeals to the senses, does not know it; the theorist or rhapsodist does not know it, but the soul that endeavours to show the love of Christ, knows it. As Christ's love through you broadens, lengthens, deepens, heightens, you will know the love of Christ, not intellectually, but experimentally (1Jo_4:11, 1Jo_4:12; 1Jo_4:20-21).
But you say, "there are people in my life whom I cannot love." Granted, but you must distinguish between love and the emotion or feeling of love. You may not be able to feel love at the outset, but you can be willing to be the channel of Christ's love. I cannot love, but Christ is in me, and He can. Is it too much to ask that all this should be realized in ourselves and in others? No, because God is already at work within us by His Holy Spirit, and He is able to do infinitely beyond all our highest requests or thoughts. Ask your furthest, think your highest, and the Divine Love is always infinitely in advance.

PRAYER
We thank Thee, O God, for the infinite love which Thou hast given us in Jesus Christ. We have no measure for its heights and depths, its breadths and lengths. Teach us with all saints to know more because we love more. AMEN.

From ESWORD DEVOTIONS 2009

DREAM BIG

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American Speaker, Motivational Writer, ''Think and Grow Rich'')
When you dream, dream big, as big as the ocean blue. The hit song of Ryan Shupe and the Rubber band became a household name in Ghana a few years ago and even now, still gets people singing and humming along anytime it is played. However I wonder how many of us have really taken time to really study the lyrics and understand them. The song says, WHEN you dream, dream BIG. The best part of the song for me is WHEN you dream and not IF you dream. Someone said, why dream at all if you are going to dream small. The world is filled with so many opportunities that sometimes thinking about it overwhelms me. These opportunities are waiting for someone with a dream or an idea to take advantage of the vast resources available. Dreams are the building blocks, the protons of great successful futures.
If you want to take your place in this awesome Information Age as a successful person, then you have to dream, and not just any dream, dream BIG. Small dreams lack the ability to incite passions. It lacks the potential to activate the maximum processing capacity of the brain. so Dream Big.

illiterate graduates.

hi folks, this is the second part of my earlier post. to day i ask you, are you literate? the question of eduaction, knowledge and literacy is very exciting. in this day and age many go about this world with huge qualifications from the biggest institution with the notion that they deserve jobs becuase they believe they are literate. but what kind of education do you have? are you just word literate or do you have complete literacy. we live in the information age, yet our universities still have long queues for registration. many "graduates" have no idea how to design a simple presentation with Power Point. ask him to present a project or design a proposal and all hell breaks loose. people have no soft skills. they cant post a simple blog, they can't discuss the business times, they have no idea what a business plan looks like. young graduates have no leadership skills, no investment skills, no entepreneural skills, no business skills, no socail skills. we are finacially illiterate, emotionally illiterate, technologically illiterrate, economically illiterate and spiritually illiterate. so before you whip out your certifcate and CV to brag at an inteview, ask yourself, " im i really literate?

making money on campus 3

hey welcome back. i hope you are enjoying our discussions. if this is your first time, welcome to my blog. please do not forget to leave a comment or rate this post. i would also love to hear your views.
now lets talk about making money. today i want to talk about decorations and organizing. have you noticed that the stage in church or any programme has a very profound effect on the atmosphere of the service or programme. YES. it does. and that is the power of stage decorations. what about how programmes are organized. the arrangement of chairs, the setting up of the technical items, the arrangement of the seats on the high table and many other things. do you know of world renowned event organizers, promoters and publicists. do you know how much people and organizations pay to have their events organized and publicized? i personally know a friend who is now the CEO of her own company and she is just in her final year. a company she started in second year and is now making it big and having branches across all the traditional universities in Ghana! and believe me, she is earning big money. i remember she even had to turn down a contract on the 14th of February this year because she was fully booked. and amazingly all she had was a passion for decorations and a training in the organizing wing of her church. hers is not the only success story, i had the pleasure of working with a group of students last year and these were event organizers. the have made a name for themselves and were executing big contracts all across campus and the non surprising secret of their success was their membership of various organizing and executive bodies. the question, therefore is why are you not doing something to acquire soft skills? the answer i discovered was the failure to realize that these skills are money making equipment. the word to you, my friend is what you just read. come on, lets make money.. to be continued.

how to make money on campus 2

hey welcome back. now lets continue with our lessons. after you have considered getting computer fluent, lets consider joining the technical team of your church. now that is a mine of experience, knowledge and skill. here most people learn how to set up a P.A system, how to repair basic instruments and gadgets, how to operate a mixer board, how to tune and synchronize microphones and monitors, how to arrange various sets of drums and other instruments, how to mix and edit video and audio recordings and so on. the list is endless. now what you do not know is that these lessons,skills and knowledge are not free out there. people pay a lot of money to learn these skills for their lifetime professions. radio presenters, DJs, sound engineers, professional musicians and instrumentalists all pay a lot of good money to learn these skills. i personally know people who have made millions and are still making a lot of money because they took that little time and that little effort to join the technical teams in their churches. several graduates have diverted from the courses they pursued and are making it big as sound engineers, radio presenters, professional music producers and music teachers.you can also easily do the same. just recently, i had to work with a sound engineer during the Independence Hall 50th hall week celebration and i had to pay the former technical head 300 Ghana cedis for a four hour job during the jazz night programme. Yes, a whooping 300 Ghana cedis for a skill he did not pay for. that could easily be you. you can also learn how to play an instrument by joining the instrumentalists in your church. its a whole lot easy to learn and become quite proficient in playing an instrument on campus at little or no cost at all. now if you know an instrumentalist just pause here, go and ask if it is worth it and come back. the little said about them the better. remember all these skills become a bonus to your original course you are studying on campus. now that is a way to make money on campus.... to be continued.

making money on campus 1

hey, how are your finances? do you wish you could make extra cash whiles on campus without having to struggle or skip classes? why? cos If you are like me or most other guys your answer obviously is a YES! you need the extra cash to add to what the oldman could scrape together and if you are a lady you could also do with a few Ghana cedis in this day and age of Independent women. you ask how? well, its real easy, cos ive done it and im still doing it. read on and let me give you the 411. the secret is to make yourself valuable by acquiring extra or what we call soft and technical skills. let me ask you a few questions. do you have a passport? what about a driver's license? are you computer fluent? (notice i didn't say computer literate but fluent.) how many languages can you speak? do you hold any leadership position on campus? how are your organizational skills? can you play any game very well? are you a sportsman or sportswoman? are you part of your drama club in church? are you an usher or technical man in church? the list is endless. if your answer to all these is a NO, then you better stop reading, think really hard and start something. if you answered Yes in any of these questions then you are on your way to making extra cash on campus.the more skills you have, the more money you can make and the more ways you can make them. ( all legally of course).
lets start with computer fluency. this is the complete specilaization or mastery of basic computer programmes like Microsoft Excell, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Power Point, Microsoft Publisher, Coral Draw and other common programmes. so you see, simple Microsoft Word knowledge and basic internet skills is inadequate. do you know that designing posters, handbills and digital banners for associations, churches, halls and aspirants can earn you a decent flow of income with no cost at all to you. all you need is a computer and a pendrive. things that can easily be borrowed from friends of you dont have them yourselve. you can also teach people these basic skills for money if you are the teaching type. what abpot creating blogs and webpages for these associations and groups? what about designing certificates, greeting cards, programmes line ups? all these can earn you extra cash on campus. so what are waiting for? why don't you start learning these computer programmes and join the very few selected group of entepreneural students who are becoming rich on campus. quit wasting all your time at the JCR, T.V. room and pool side invest that time in learning a computer programme or two. to be continued.......

from knowledge to wisdom

i keep wondering how come most Africans have tremendous capacities to retain information but lack any sense of achievement or development. i have come to believe after several studies that, the main problem is the transformation of knowledge to wisdom. that is, the conversion of information to informed and planned action that is directed towards the achievement of goals and visions. many of us like reading, planning and imagining but when it comes to continuous consistent dedication to action, we fall short of the mark. students and young men need to commit to strategics and concrete drafting of detailed plans. the journey must not end with just the drafts, but must be accompanied by action and check up plans to facilitate the achievement of meaningful results. if we as the youth do not practice action oriented thinking and take charge in this 21st century we will have no to blame but ourselves. there is too much money to be made, too many sucesses to be chalked. lets transform our knowledge to wisdom, our plans to actions and our dreams to realities. here i go.