A letter to my Friend

 

You know what? You can soar like the eagle despite your present state. I was invited to a ghetto area to teach some teenagers on how to write tracts. In actual fact, when I got to the place, I felt bad that human beings live in that kind of horrible environment. But I discovered that we have some brilliant children there. As I taught them and they responded, I realized that they had good stuff in them despite their deplorable environment. Below is a tract produced by the children with just some supervision from me.

 Dear Friend,

How are you surviving in this era of meltdown, swine flu, wars, failure, famine et c. this is a tough time indeed. But I have a friend who loves you even with what you are going through.

Well, I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. Why did I say that? He loves you because He died for you on the cross of Calvary. He loves you so much that He took your sin on Himself, and carried it all the way to Calvary just for you to be free. Romans 3:23 Says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"

My friend, I don't want you to miss the love of God by dwelling in sin. Come to the love of God. There is an adage that says “If we are born again we will reign again but if we are not born again, we shall die again.”­ Are you born again? My dear friend, the Bible says in John 3:18 “He that believeth in him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already” Why don’t you give your life to Jesus Christ and stay away from the sorrow of the world and eternal condemnation.

Friend, just confess all your sins to Jesus and ask him to use his precious blood to wash away your sins. Immediately you do that, you can be sure that your name is now written in the book of life.

Congratulations for escaping eternal condemnation!

For more counseling and prayers, contact:

The Redeemed Christian Church of God,

Junior Church, Makoko, Lagos.

REMEMBRANCE

Most of the time, when we hear or talk about remembrance, the first thing that comes to our mind is death. For we believe that it is only the dead that are remembered. This is because some of the time when we pick our newspapers we are faced with announcements of obituaries and remembrance of some loved ones who had gone to the great beyond.

However, the remembrance to be examined here is not only about the dead but even the living; that is you and I. Psalm 112:6 says, "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." The word, everlasting means eternal or endless, which means that no good work of the righteous will ever be forgotten. Even when he or she is dead, the good deeds of that fellow will be remembered not only here on earth but even in heaven.

While here on earth, we do not have to tell people to remember us. The works of our hands, our behaviours and the way we live our lives will determine whether we'll be remembered for good or evil. But one thing that is very certain is that; we'll all be remembered for one thing or the other when we are alive or gone to the great beyond.

Today, when I see people with their mobile phones, I remember Graham Bell, the man who started it all. According to one account on this man, Mr. Bell invented the telephone by accident. He was said to be trying to make an apparatus with which to help deaf people hear and in the process ended up inventing the telephone. From that time, many people have improved on this box to the extent that today we have a phone that can easily be tucked in our pockets or handbags. Can history ever forget that man? No sir. I must confess that the invention of telephone has done much good than evil. We cannot actually quantify the advantages of telephone in any sense. One man however started it all. The history he made affected not only his generation but even generations unborn.

In this generation, anytime we mention Bill Gate, the next thing that comes to our mind is Computer. Even generations unborn will live to remember Gate’s efforts to improve the lot of humanity and make life more comfortable. At this juncture, the question that comes to mind is what you and I will be remembered for, while on earth and when we are no more.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God was established in 1952. The church has really grown in all respects; physically, spiritually and in all other areas. One unique thing is that whenever the history of this church is written, there is always a reference to Reverend Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi, the man who started it all. Even though, he is no more, the work of his hand is very much alive. He paid the price to make sure that millions will be blessed. Over the years, that little seed planted in a small bungalow in Lagos Mainland, has continued to grow and he is being remembered for good.

What record does history have for you and me? What are we going to be remembered for as youths? What are we doing with our strength which is our glory? One day, a woman found herself in a cemetery and she read one epitaph, which touched her. The children of a deceased woman wrote. "Mum, you were the Sunshine in our lives." How many mothers or stepmothers will their children remember and declare that they put sunshine in their lives. As a parent what will your children remember you for; good or bad?

The Bible says, when the wicked perish the city rejoices. This is because the wicked has not affected his or her generation positively so when he/she dies people rejoice because his death simply means good riddance to bad rubbish but the case of the righteous is different. The Bible says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Some years ago, a woman died in a house and the whole street immediately turned to sorrow street. According to reports, it was said that the woman was a lover of children. She preached the gospel of salvation to them and also met their material needs. It was reported that no child could escape her preaching programmes even if the child came visiting. She was a blessing and when she died, she was remembered for her good deeds. Will our household remember us for good as dutiful children, siblings, relatives? Not to talk of our neighbours, and even generations yet unborn.

Memory is the power of retaining and reproducing mental or sensory impression. It also means to keep in mind. So, people remember us for what we do and the way we live our lives. History will always have a record of our good or evil deeds and it is a personal thing. As an individual, we are the ones to decide where we want history to place us.

The other day, I went to a lady's house and the woman she was staying  with said she should leave her house because she was of no use to her. The woman said, “If she leaves my house, I will not miss her.” I felt bad, that means the lady does not have a positive impact on the family. So, what would she be remembered for? We must strive to impact people we meet, work with or even live with positively. If we impact them positively for good then we'll bring joy to a lot of people but if it is otherwise then we'll probably have no place in the book of records.

As we move on this earth as strangers and pilgrims, what shall we be remembered for? A blessing or…

Remembrance is the fourth chapter of my book, YOUNG AND CONFIDENT, IMPACT 001. You can get the book to read more...

ACCEPTANCE

What exactly is inferiority complex? An inferiority complex in the fields of Psychology and Psychoanalysis is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some ways. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person. Inferiority complex is an advanced state of discouragement, often embedding itself into one’s lifestyle.”  Bukonla Akinwande’s, Take A Step, Pg 71.

As young people, one of the greatest challenges we face in life is, acceptance. Most of us feel and act so inferior that, the best we could offer ourselves in order to be accepted by our peers, friends, colleagues, family and society is to make ourselves conform to the standards (negative) of others or the society even when it hurts.

Recently, Mr. Uti, the young man who once won the Big Brother Africa contest was angry with a Director in the Tourism Ministry in Nigeria who refused to accept Uti as an ambassador of Tourism for Nigeria because of his dread locks and pierced ears. Of course, Uti was crossed with the man because according to him, the man was taking it too far. Uti said he was in the entertainment industry and so, he must have a dreadlock and pierced ears to be acceptable by his target audience!

The above scenario is exactly what happens to most of us. In order to be accepted by our friends, we go against our culture (good ones) and imbibe wrong cultures which are sometimes detested by the citizens of the countries from whom we copy them from.

Furthermore, in order for some of us to be accepted, we sometimes want to play God. Simple, we promise heaven and earth when we know we do not even have the capability to move a stone. Some of us tell so much lies in order to be accepted by other people that we are sometimes disgraced at the end of the day. I call to mind the case of a lady who loved to form in school, and as such painted herself big in order to be accepted by her classmates who were in the upper class in the society. She told them she lived in one of the high brow areas in Lagos, whereas she lived in the ghetto.

Her secret was revealed one day and she lost her place of honour among her mates.

When some of us are given some assignments to do, such as organizing a picknic, youth event etc, we make so much noise about how we put everything in place to the detriment of the fellow who assigned the task to us. Now, why do we sometimes make so much noise about our organization skills? We want people to recognize our efforts and accept our person. Unfortunately, some of us don’t even do bulk of the job, probably just a little here and there.

You know what? You don’t need to make so much noise in order to be accepted. If you have sterling qualities, you will stand out anywhere. You don’t even need to make any noise, as your work and character will promote you and you will be accepted instead of you having to noise it to everyone.

Come on, accept your person, learn from others, improve on your weak areas and affect your generation positively!