by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Sep 8, 2018 | Articles, Entertainment, Lifestyles |
“I look unto you oooh answer my call ohh (Answer My Call Oooh) Baba God o! (Pick up the call) Emi naa fe wa Range Rover (I want to ride Range Rover) Dangote olori meji ( like, Dangote, I want to be rich) Pick up the call. Na beg i dey beg o (I’m begging)…”
The song of the sensational hip hop artist, Adekunle Kosoko (a.k.a Adekunle Gold) has spurred me to write this piece. Looking at this topic, the first thing that comes to mind is a passionate plea for God’s blessings. It reveals the deep desire of a person who desperately needs divine intervention in attaining the good life. It is a heartfelt plea for God to pick up the call and prevent further delay in making him wealthy and accomplished like notable persons in the society.
How do you feel when you are trying to reach out to someone through your mobile phone and you find difficulties getting connected? Frustrated! Irated or pissed!? It’s very annoying and can be very frustrating when you cannot connect especially in a situation of dire need.
Yea, it can be really bad, sometimes with our network providers, you just experience annoying network failures. I’ve once been close to someone and I dialed his number and was told it is unavailable yet his phone was on and network signals were up. Anyway, we all benefit from the use of the mobile telephony as well as also suffers the effect of poor connections which maybe due to many factors including weather condition, natural disasters or technical faults to mention a few.
I haven’t seen a man who has a phone and wants to make calls and yet has not subscribed to a network. For instance, you can make calls with your mobile phones if you don’t have a SIM card that identifies you with a network provider. It’s impossible! You must have a line registered with a telecom service provider to be able to make or receive calls.
Even if a person lives very close to a telecom base station of a particular subscriber, and he is not registered on its network he can never make or receive calls. Such a person can go to anywhere to complain that he doesn’t benefit a thing from the network, he certainly has no case. In fact he maybe considered insane! He might even own the most expensive handset, if he is not connected to a service, he’s definitely on his own.
In the same vein, if you are not securely connected to God, your call will not be connected to him. Though, he is not deaf, yet will not only not answer you but you will also not be able to hear from him. He only answers and speaks to those who have his Spirit (The SIM card) in them. The Holy Spirit is the guaranty that you are his and that you are connected with him on the same frequency’.
The anger of God burns against the unrighteous daily but the righteous he shows Favour. Although he answers the prayers of a sinner who is willing to repent and follow God, but the disobedient and ungodly will not find Favour in God except he turns to him.
Some people actually blame God for their misfortunes, while some other thinks that if God is good he should have helped solve their problems even without them asking. Some argue that since God knows one’s heart why then can’t be provide one’s heart desires. Others have thought that if God is omnipotent why can’t he stop evil from happening to us. Why must he wait till we pray to him?
Same way you cannot possibly blame the telephone service providers for not being able to make or receive calls without you being an identified subscriber, it’s same way you cannot get God to bless you if you are not identified with him. You may exist but without a relationship with him you are actually not living.
You needn’t struggle with making calls if you’ve got a sim card and you are registered with the telephone service provider. Even though there may sometimes be bad connections, you are still assured that connections will be restored as soon as the barrier is taken away.
On the contrary, with God there’s never any network failure. Prayer is the telephone to God—you speak to him and he reveals his mind to you through his living word. Even when you get disconnected by sin, God is merciful to restore you back and connect you to the heavenly frequency.
Alright, pick up your phone now and call God. Be sure you’re connected and trust me, you’re winning! Yes, we are winning!
Also read: MR BASSEY, THE MISERABLE WARRIOR!
Greatmark
by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Sep 1, 2017 | Articles, Lifestyles |
Out of curiosity, I decided to do a little research about the significance of the “Ileya” festival, which literally means, “Let’s go home…for Eid Al-Adha”, in the dialect of the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria. I grew up to know that this Islamic event, also known as Eid Al-Adha or Eid ul Kabir is usually celebrated few weeks after the end of the Muslim fast.
It is normally associated with the sacrificial slaughtering of rams and considered as the holier of the second of two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year.
I recall the usual fun-fair that precedes the Eid-el-Kabir: when as kids we would delight ourselves in being spectators of the contests of rams in our neighbourhood. Owners of rams proud themselves in the strength of those rams who emerge winners after a tightly contested fight.
Even though ram fight has become unpopular (and forbidden in some quarters), but then it used to be very interesting for me to see the excitement in my Muslim friends and neighbors. I do hope many of them truly understands the significance of this celebrations.
From the accounts I read on the Encyclopedia, The Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى, translit. ʿīd al-aḍḥā, lit. ‘Feast of the Sacrifice’ is to honor the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismael, as an act of obedience to God’s command. Before he sacrificed his son. God intervened by sending his angel Jibra’il (Gabriel), who then put a ram in his son’s place.
This is of course the account of the holy Quran. However, the son is not named in the Quran, but Muslims believe it to be Ishmael, though it is mentioned as Isaac in the Bible. What however, is striking and worthy of note here is the issue of obedience to God as demonstrated by Ibraham (or Abraham in Hebrew).
The sacrifice of his priced possession was one of the main trials of Abraham’s life. God was out to test his faith and prove his love, and the extent of his obedience to Him. In this instance, “Abraham had shown that his love for God superseded all others: that he would lay down his own life or the lives of those dearest to him in submission to God’s command.”1
Muslims commemorate this ultimate act of sacrifice every year with the believe that God ultimately prevents the sacrifice, additionally signifying that one should never sacrifice a human life, especially not in the name of God. (Quran, sura 37 (As-Saaffat), ayat 100–112[18]) (more…)
by Mark Ibigbami GreatMark | Mar 21, 2017 | Articles, Lifestyles |
Imagine being invited to a dinner party for fundraising for those who are suffering from depression, and to your amazement, you discovered that these people were on the guest list: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Schumann, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and Vincent van Gogh.
When you arrive Schumann and Beethoven are discussing the movements in their most recent musical compositions, Poe and Twain are listening to Van Gogh talk about the meaning of his art, while Roosevelt and Lincoln discuss politics.
You wonder to yourself why these people are here. After all, this is a fundraiser to help people suffering from depression. Maybe they all have someone in their family who suffers from depression? The time arrives during the dinner for speeches by special guests. You are shocked as one by one each of these famous people describes their own battle with depression.
Lincoln even quotes from a letter he wrote to a friend some years earlier: “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better it appears to me.”**
You are not the only one who is been challenged! Therefore, suicide should never be an option. There are many others whose case are even worst than yours! To think that the whole world is against you; and that your life isn’t worth living is a lie of the devil! You are relevant that is why you are still breathing.
Why would you contemplate Suicide?
To think that you must take your life for whatever reasons you consider tenable is foolish! A mad man roaming the streets is better than a man who commits suicide, because he still has hope of being rehabilitated some day. You may not be where you want to be; you may even be far from your dreams even though you have labored so hard to get to where you are.
Perhaps, you have thought that when you have achieved your goals, then you would be happy and free, but sadly, you are still plunged in depression and fear. I tell you, you need to quickly look beyond yourself, for true victory is from above. Those who think they don’t need God always end in painful regrets, no matter how intelligent, wealthy or famous they may have lived.
Later on in another letter, Abraham Lincoln, encouraged everyone to persevere. He wrote, “The year that is drawing toward the close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. These bounties are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come.”** Imagined if he had given up on himself when he was dissatisfied about life, he would have not had this beautiful testimony of God’s magnanimity.
How to live above Depression
Who are you, what have you achieved that you think you are bigger than your creator? Even great men whose names and successes remain indelible understood that the way out of depression and hopelessness is God!
Here is one secret to live above depression, and overcome the act of suicide: let your heart be positioned towards God, and then you will be connected to heavenly signals that would position you for divine excellence. If you stand up now from your depression mood, turn towards God and tilt your faith towards heaven, you will be connected to possibilities, and trust me, you will be locked down to winning mode!
Those who are locked down to winning mode are those whose help is in the name of the Lord (Psalm 124:8). “God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him…” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Are you so worried about your performance? Have you received so many queries and rejections that you think you are so worthless? The truth is, that which you do is not who you are. Your performance is a product of what you do; and who you are is what God has made you to be.
You might have failed in what you do but that doesn’t make you a failure. Your performance may change but who you are doesn’t change! God says you’re His child, His masterpiece -beautifully and wonderfully made. He says you are good, and you are more than conqueror! So why settle for less of God? Why even think of suicide!?
Look, the enemy will do his best to magnify your problems. You’ve got to make the decision that you’re going to keep a positive attitude to life. So many things around you will seek to demoralize you but you must choose to be happy. The enemy always fight you the hardest when he knows that God has great things in store for you. Your best days is right ahead of you!
You’ve got to keep doing the right thing even when the wrong things are happening to you. You’ve got to stay positive and make a decision that you are going to step out in faith and outlast the enemy! Don’t settle for mediocrity so you don’t miss out on God’s best.
Just beyond the adversity is a place of abundance. You are winning! Yes, we are winning!
Also read: THE MANY BLESSINGS OF AN UNGRATEFUL MAN
How to overcome depression: https://thiswayup.org.au/how-do-you-feel/sad/
GreatMark
*Source: based on information found in an article by Liora Nordenberg “Dealing with the Depths of Depression” at US Federal Drug Administration website. **Final Lincoln quote found at sermons.com
