Excellence Makes The Difference

                                             Picture source: Google images

Excellence is defined by the English Dictionary as the ‘quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree’. While this definition seems afar off, a destination to be reached sometimes in the future if possible. A more practical definition is giving your best at all times and constantly seeking to be better. It is more about being better than you were yesterday while giving your absolute best today. An excellent person does not excuse mediocrity in self. Your presentation might not be the best among your peers, but it is the best you know how to do at the moment and you are on the look out to learn from those who had better presentations. Really then, Excellence is not a destination but a journey.

It is then surprising to see Christians, who are adept at the word and have the conviction that they have been accepted in the beloved and are saved by grace and not works, settle for mediocrity. Of course, nobody will concede to being a mediocre, we just don’t have the time or patience to put that extra in, we have several fellowship meetings to attend than to be bothered with such aesthetics. We are comfortable with the barest minimum since God looks at the heart and not the packaging. We even go ahead to confront anyone that points to the obvious deficiency that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Come, let’s learn from a man whom God gave wisdom such that he became the wisest king of the ancient world.

Growing Up

Our article this week is a Facebook post by Pastor Poju Oyemade


Growing up as a Christian one of the things I learned early that helped me greatly was to stop seeing the Bible as a theoretical book where it's level of understanding is determined by who speaks more eloquently using high sounding phrases that make little meaning in the consciousness of people.

I came to understand this, the Bible was never meant to be a theoretical book neither are doctrines academic in nature.

What is the purpose of Scripture? Paul answers this in his letter to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:16-17
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"

 All Scripture and not some are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in order that the man of God may be perfect i.e mature and furnished on to good works. So the end goal of God in giving us His word is producing good works in us. It is not to improve us intellectually even though it does, but to produce good works in our lives. The more we understand scriptures the more the works of God are demonstrated in our lives.

That You May Win

“But am a committed Christian and I take my relationship with God seriously, yet why am I bombarded with so many problems. Why are there disappointments all around?”

You might have asked these questions or its variants at some point in your Christian walk or maybe you didn’t so much as utter it, but you only thought about it in your heart. I know I have. While I did not expect a life without challenges, I did hope for an almost smooth road; after all, God had promised to clear the pathway for me such that I will not dash my foot against a stone nor have any big issues in life. But did he?

In the longest recorded teaching of Christ, which was also one of his earliest teachings, in Matthew chapters five to seven, Jesus gave us his manifesto, his mission statement and concluded with this allegory: ‘Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock. And everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them shall be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house. And it fell, and great was its fall.’¹ We can agree that the wise man is the committed Christian who does the word of God and the foolish man a church goer who doesn’t do the word and is the equivalent of an unbeliever. It is instructive to note the common experiences of both groups. They both built houses, the rain fell on both houses, both houses experienced the flood and the wind blew against both houses. What was different was the outcome, while one house was able to withstand all the elements of weather, the other house crumbled under the same conditions.

Following the Inner Witness

I was in my sophomore in the university in an outreach program organized by the church I attended. This was the last day of the outreach program and it was a healing service. Several healings were already taking place and something happened that inspired me writing this article. 

 A lady had just come out to testify of the healing power of God on her eyes. She was used to wearing glasses to aid her eyes. She was filled with joy. Unknown to me the lady who stood just beside where I sat at the program was a friend to the person testifying. She exclaimed 'I know her', that was how I got to know. 

 I noticed that she too wore a pair of glasses. I not only saw her joy but her expectation too, her friend had just been healed in her eyes. I immediately felt like ministering to her myself. I felt she deserved her own healing too from God. All these happened just in my head. Although there was a willingness in me, I took no action. 

 I just narrated one out of several other experiences of mine. After that evening program, I felt that lady didn't go to her hostel healed because I did nothing. I was 100% sure if I simply took a leap of Faith by acting on my knowledge at that point in time, she would have been healed. 

Light up your world

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.  Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.               Matt 5:13-16 (Msg)

The salvation experience is the beginning of a very exciting journey and not an end in itself. It is the birth of a new you, the beginning of the rest of your life. We are saved to live the life of God that we have received. Your job description as a Christian is to get trained and built up in the church; As you grow, you then go and light up your world, your world being anywhere and everywhere you transact or/and interact. For effectiveness, God appointed some to be ministry gifts for the purpose of equipping the vast majority to do ‘ministry’.¹ Ministry here means serving others in the name of the Lord Jesus. You are no less a Christian being a ministry gift than you are not being one. So, it is okay if you are not a pastor or a teacher in your church, your purpose is to light up your world.

INTEGRITY II

Being a Christian is living like Christ and integrity is a key attribute. If you don’t believe your words then no one else will. To become a person of integrity starts with aligning yourself with the manual for living. A constant study of the word of God will reveal your true self to you and it will relieve you of your need to please men. You learn to say what you know you can do and if you are not sure, state it from the outset. Adding ‘probably’, ‘if possible’ etc to statements when you are not sure will help your listener to know you are not being definitive. But when pressed to give a categorical statement, always mentally factor in unforeseen circumstances. If you are sure that a particular work can be done in three weeks, then ask for a month; the extra week will help cover for events beyond your control while you continue to work within the three weeks deadline.

Thus, there is need to be familiar with details, time being the most crucial. How long does it take for you to get dressed in the morning? how long does it take to do your makeup? how long is the drive from point A to point B? what is the traffic pattern? etc  Most of the answers to the questions above and to several others are personal and it is for you to find them out with time. That it takes longer for you to get something done than others do not make you a good or bad person, it only means you have to start earlier or work on reducing the time.

INTEGRITY

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.                             Jos 10:11-13

Hailstones from the sky, sun and moon standing still; surely, this is action-packed, Science fiction stuff. But it is not fiction, neither is it a movie. It is the record of a war that Israel was involved in just a little while after the fall of Jericho and its walls. The war was so remarkable that scriptures recorded that “there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”¹ You imagine that the opponents must have really angered Israel and provoked God to attract such a severe treatment, but no, Israel was not even the target of the war.