Category: Words2inspire

FAQs

Leave a comment

For a while now, I’ve been so confused about Christianity. Everyone has their own version of everything. So many different doctrines! So many lifestyles. I heard that all you need to do to be a believer is believe in Jesus. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. I had my doubts too.

A friend asked me why I didn’t attend church service. I told him I needed a breather. I had had it up to my neck. I said, “I need to know God for myself”. I sat back and folded my arms. That was my mantra for a long while and I wasn’t doing anything to solve my problem.

I had questions but I wasn’t asking them. What about my actions? That’s the only way people will know I’m a Christian. “By their fruits you shall know them”, right? Paul said, “I discipline my body” but I thought we have power over sin and it’s by the grace of God. Ah, tongues. That had always been and is still my biggest question. Is it a proof of the Holy Spirit? Must every believer have it? What if I don’t desire it? But we are to “desire all gifts”. As a Christian, should I listen to secular music? I really like some of them. What is secular music?

So many of them but I just folded my arms and carried them about. In fact, some of them are still questions and very necessary for spiritual growth. I am working on getting answers now. But I’m not writing this piece to answer the questions. I am writing this piece because I got an answer yesterday to the only thing that matters.

Yes. All it takes to be a believer is to believe in Jesus.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

A thing about Faith pt4

Leave a comment

On Faith for Creativity
This actually is not a particularly different revelation for only being creative, if applied it will produce results in every other area of life, faith for being creative in your writings as a poet is not different from faith for provisions, faith for healing, faith for anything really, it’s still the same principle only now concentrated on the particular gift of writing with inspiration (creativity).

3 Principles
Believe you are anointed
Stir the waters in your spirit
Meditate and give it expression

Believe you are anointed because you are, let me explain a little what we mean by the anointing; the anointing firstly, is not a bottle of oil, it is the enablement to carry out a task you have been assigned, the power of the Spirit of God in you at work through you to accomplish His purpose for you. For example, if my boss were to send me on an errand of satchet water purchasing, he gives me N300 for the work, N200 to transport myself going and coming and N100 for buying the water, you see that money given in this scenario is THE ANOINTING, it is the enablement by which I will carry out his assignment.
So if you ever feel God has called you or mandated or talented you to do something, then know with that call comes the anointing, you don’t need to be pray to be anointed for what you’ve been sent to do, the ability to coin words, frame stories, make characters, write exquisitely and express fluently is already upon you oh dear writer! Believe it!, believe it with every red blood cell of your body, you must believe not just in Gods power but in Gods power at work in you, have faith not just in the Word of God but in the Word of God in your mouth, the Word of God in your heart, the Word of God in your pen.

Stir the Waters, I’ll explain using the man crippled for 38 years waiting for the angel who stirred the waters every year, hopefully you know the story already. In those days before the Spirit came to dwell in us, they had to go somewhere to get a miracle, they had to meet someone to hear the Lord, they would need external help to be helped but now in this new covenant we don’t need to go anywhere to access all the help we need. Why? Because the Helper Himself has a new permanent residential address in our spirits, Jesus said “out of your belly (spirit) shall flow rivers of living water”. Do you see it? Back then they went to the pool of waters, today, the river flows within us.

We don’t go looking for a miracle, we are the miracle happening everywhere we go!

So what do we do, we stir up those waters of ideas locked in our spirits, those waters of insight, of plot and of character, it’s all within us and we can and must stir it till it finds expression all over the pages of our books, we stir the gifts within us as we pray in tongues, as we commune with like minds and commune this faith and these truths. Have you never heard a person’s testimony and you felt like going to pray? Have you never seen a picture that made you burst in tongues? Put the vision before you, paste it on the wall, buy a world atlas and place it on your roof, open your eyes from sleep to see it and gain motivation to change your world, stir yourself and let yourself be stirred by the Spirit.

Meditate, the idea of meditation is not a hermit locked in a mountain chanting kumbaya. No, a thousand times no, it simply means carrying in your thoughts actively and on purpose a particular line of thought, it means to so dwell on it you begin to mutter it, your begin to roar it. O dear poet, many a times you must go to a quiet place and maintain a quiet mind and focus all that energy on the seed of idea God has planted in your spirit, as you do this, it begins to germinate, and grow and become a fruit bearing tree from which the whole world can eat. And once you have a sniffling of an inspired thought express it, by jotting it down, immediately somewhere, anywhere you can later reference it from. Many a great stories and songs have been lost by poets who felt their heads were magnets and the words metals. Please, our minds can be very short-term at times, treat preciously the ideas that come your way and save them, and from there meditate on it and develop it and save it again, and continue this process till it’s a tree so big you don’t have to worry ever loosing it. I hope this blessed you!

 

 – Williams Udousoro

Our society will never attain morality until it exalts God – Bill Bidiaque, Author – Jesus In Jeans (An Exclusive Interview)

Leave a comment

 

So to begin, I’d like to know your full name.

Bill Bidiaque.

 

Middle name?

No middle name 😁.

 

 Oh that’s nice. Where were you born?

  Oron, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

 

That’s where you’re from also?

 Yes. Urue Offong Local Government, precisely.

 

 Tell me about your childhood. What was it like growing up?

I was raised by a single woman as the only child, with novels for siblings. I was bullied through secondary school and I expressed my self-pity in my notepads. It veered into more productive content. About the home, there was nothing much to make of it, other than I spent most of my days alone with books.

 

Wow, that’s interesting, and to think a bunch of children go through this scenario daily. It’s awesome to see how you channeled all the negative energy to writing. What are some of your favorite things? (Book, Color, sport, subject, etc)

Wow. I didn’t have a favorite book. I read everything, but mostly fiction – Anything by Hardley Chase (original and fake Chase), Ian Flemmings (007 Series), Nick Carter, Don Pendleton (Mack Bolan Series). Read a couple of Mills and Boons but romance wasn’t my thing, so I left it. I never had the luxury of a favorite color either. I read mostly spy/detective/crime stuff, I wasn’t into sports. (Nice. I read Hardley too. Kept me company as a child) Oh Chase is quite common and popular, which is why there a lot of Chase novels out there that were not written by René Lodge Brabazon Raymond. I also loved Agriculture – because, I was raised in a village and farming supported my mum’s income.

 

So talking of income, how was it at home? Was it steady?

Oh, Akwa Ibom State Government has never been known to pay regularly. My mum worked with the General Hospital in Oron as a nurse, so income wasn’t steady, which is why we had to farm and sell the produce to support the little home.

 

That must have been challenging

Well, yeah! Mum, did what she could and we were okay. There was always food on the table.

 

 Is she still with you?

Yeah, she’s retired now in Akwa Ibom and  I am resident in Lagos

 

 That’s good to hear. What about the friends you had grown up? How did they influence you?

I had one friend in primary school and Two in secondary.

I owe my creative bent to the friend in primary school. His parents were literature teachers and buffs. All the story books and novels I read while growing up came from him. They had about five shelves of novels.

 

Incredible! That’s a lot of novels.

 Did you attend religious activities, growing up?  What are the challenges you’ve faced because of your beliefs?

Yeah. I attended religious activities. My mum was and is still very churchy but after secondary school, adolescent rebellion set in and I veered off. Christ found me in 2007. My greatest challenge was graduating and receiving instructions to create Christian content. I wish I could say I have been burning ever since but I am just a struggling Christian trying to make sense of my walk with Christ.

Hitherto I was already writing for local TV and that instruction was hard to follow, is still hard to follow, seeing I have responsibilities. Also, I find in me a conflict to take in illicit content prevalent in the media today and a desire to stay off. Simply saying, going to the movies or not.

 

What about school? Tell me about your academic history. (Primary school, secondary school, University, any other degrees?)

Primary School – Infant Jesus’ Nursery school/Onyieme Montessorri Primary School (1989 – 1995)

Secondary School –  Methodist Boys’ High School/Methodist Senior Science College Oron(1995 – 2001)

University of Lagos (Psychology) – 2005 – 2009 Just a B.Sc

 

Okay Nice. You mentioned earlier how you were bullied and expressed  yourself  in writing. How often did you express yourself with the ink and when did you eventually start writing professionally?

Writing was cathartic for me as a teen because I was bullied a lot. I spent my days expressing my thoughts on paper, but my pieces then were mostly on self-pity and loneliness. I remember my first poem pad in Junior Secondary School, I believe I was thirteen then. I gave it to a cousin to read and she said, “Billy, why are your poems always sad? Isn’t there anything happy about your life?” That remark changed my perspective and I started writing about things other than my self pity.

I write as often as I can, which is almost everyday because it also happens to be something I do professionally. I wrote my first script for TV in 2004 – It never got produced. My first show to be broadcasted was about 5 episodes of “Family Affair” directed by Kingsley Omoefe. That was 2005.

 

That’s pretty cool. What is your favorite genre to write? Being a professional writer, which author influenced your work and how did you improve over the years, What was the process like, Who helped you through?

I have a myriad of authors whose works I respect (this is not an endorsement of them as people, as I don’t know them personally),– some of them are Mario Puzo,  Robert Ludlum, Ted Dekker, Dan Brown (he does his research), Stephen King. These are all Fiction Writers

For non-fiction – Robert McKee, Christopher Vogler, John Piper, John MacArthur, Francis Chan, Tim Keller, Charles Spurgeon, C. S Lewis (I love his fiction too). I read a lot of books on writing and film-making. Even when I was in university. I would cover my course syllabus early in the semester and borrow writing/film-making books from the library to read. I watch YouTube videos too. You’d be surprised at the depth of writing materials on YouTube.

I can say through the years, I have spent more money buying books than buying clothing items. Improving over the years was and is still hinged on research and study. About a preferred genre, I am not sure I do crime and fantasy well For TV, drama comes naturally. And when I write for Stage, comedy comes naturally.

But the most important thing in any genre I choose to write per time is the audience I am writing it for. Once the audience had been identified, it is easy to understand their needs and deliver. Audience and Value.

 

Awesome! You’re a well read African! Give me some gist on your book, Jesus in Jeans. (what inspired you to write it? When did you finish? When did you start? What were the challenges you faced writing and publishing?)

With “Jesus in Jeans” (JIJ) I just wanted to write the Jesus Story in contemporary times I started research in 2010, then started writing in June 2012 (Stayed in my apartment for two months without leaving the compound).

(How did he eat?)

When Pastors say, Daniel survived the lion’s den, what is the lion’s den in 2017? The routine was simple – wake, devotion, drink coffee, workout, work till 7 or 8 pm, sleep. That was the cycle I was living in a family apartment, so I didn’t need to step out to get food.

(Ok. Praise God.)

I don’t think I would do that anymore, seeing I have responsibilities now.

About publishing, it took me three years. I contacted Thomas Nelson and they rejected my manuscript because it wasn’t solicited, but they referred me to their self-publishing arm – WestBow Press. The major challenge I had was funding the publication. It took everything I had and some to publish the book in 2015. There you have it.

 

You finished writing the same year?

 Within two months, because it was a marathon write.

 

In the publishing industry and among your audience, was there any opposition because of the Christian view?

I don’t think so, even though it wasn’t widely accepted I didn’t get any obvious opposition.

 

 How would you describe the plot and setting of the book, was it easy bringing someone from 2000 years ago to 21st century?

Hmmmmm. The plot is simple – Jesus’ story; he came, battled with the “Syndicate of Religious Lawyers” and was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, then was sentenced and executed. It wasn’t easy merging the settings and some people think I took it too far. For example, the scene where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman by the well – She was married 5 times and living with another man (Harlot, so to say). The well was forbidden for Jews (a nightclub is forbidden  for Christians). So I made “Jay” (Jesus), preach to a stripper in a nightclub. Is this something Jesus would do? I will ask him when I see him.

 

 What are the hopes you have for the novel? What kind of impact did you intend to make with it and what kind of feedback did you get, how did you feel about them?

My hopes for the novel? Help my generation see a relevant Jesus. Not a teacher who lived 2020 years ago but a homie who also happened to be God I was disappointed after publishing, because the book didn’t “blow” as I thought it would. Also, I was hoping to distribute it free in Secondary Schools, sadly my budget wasn’t high enough because I printed in the US. Howbeit, I distributed to about 6 schools, then I gassed out. However, I know better now.

 

That must have cost a lot. But I’m sure you didn’t give up. Are there any more of your works out there, what other occupations are you involved in? 

I have a blog that I haven’t posted on since last year (you found the blog. Shame). I’m hoping to change that this month – C.I.A (Christed I Am). I am also a documentary filmmaker – I create documentaries, video profiles, presentations, commercials through my company Ideomania Limited.

 

I like the style of the blog, It’s really relatable. So What are the goals you are still working towards?

Per Goals – The vision is to establish a movement where any one who wants to create any form of Christian content can come, learn/develop the necessary skills, receive funding and shoot out. When I say Christian content, I mean anything arts and entertainment that proposes the relevant Christ.

 

That’s a really wide vision. I trust it will be actualized because this is what the world needs and what better way to start than in the immediate community. So what have you done so far that you are more proud of? How do you want people to remember you?

I believe that question is too early for now. Right now, I am more Jonah than Paul and I don’t believe I have done the best I can. So, nothing.

 

Well thankfully, Jonah got out of the fish eventually, I believe you will too.  So Bill,  Is there anything you do currently that you have decided  “you know what? I would never do this again God help me”, and is there anything you would love to do over again?

Okay, procrastinate! I do that more than I should. Anything I would love to do over? I am not sure.

 

Being a creative, do you have someone who supports you through your process? A significant other perhaps? ( Are you married?)

Yes, I am, to a beautiful woman.

 

Wonderful! How does she contribute to your creative process? Oh, and what’s her name? If you don’t mind sharing.

She’s my number one critic. She reads all my works before they go out. Her name is Ibiene Bidiaque.

 

I’d like to hear your view on a prevailing issue in our society. What do you think is the problem with morality in our society? As Christians, what is the reaction to it and should it be that way?

Today, humans want to uphold morality and discard God. That is our society’s fault. The moment God is excluded from the equation then there is no single truth – no standard for morality I believe the entity who created this standard is God. Hence, there is no morality without God. So if this entity isn’t human, who or what then is this entity? An entity that isn’t human because humans cannot create a standard because all humans are flawed. I am no religious authority and I do not have any titles. My views are mine and must not be seen as doctrine – search for doctrine in the Bible. I am just a struggling Christian trying to make sense of his walk with Christ. But I know this, our society will never attain morality until it exalts God.

 

Then, any words for young Christian creatives out there?

For young Christian creatives, you have the Holy Spirit, allow Him lead. Even when you can’t make sense of where you are .

 

 I forgot to ask; How old are you? And when is your birthday?

 I turned 32 on July 31st.

 

Great conversation, Bill. It was nice getting to know you and we look forward to seeing more ground breaking work from you.

Thank you for having me, I hope my views will remain mine and seen as holy. We all learn. And I am always open to learn as long as Christ tarries.

 

Speaking with Bill taught me  to take the creative process a step at a time and to be focused(how do you stay 2months in isolation writing?!). I do hope you learnt more.

To purchase a copy of Jesus In Jeans please follow this link https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Jeans-Bill-Bidiaque/dp/1490866574

 

Interviewer: Ifeanyi Chikereuba

For: The Christ A Poet Team

 

 

A thing about Faith pt3

Leave a comment

On Hindrance
I had earlier begun on the premise that for the believer, faith is natural; its his mother tongue, his lingua franca, his only tongue really, but alas this is not the daily experience of most believers. We normally find ourselves like the man who brought his son to be healed…

Lord I believe, help my unbelief.

The problem of Faith is never the opposition we face, it’s not the mountains or the giants that challenge us in daily life, many times those temptations we fall for, only show that something within us is not quite right. The children of Israel’s problem was never with the mightiness of the Philistines or the multitude of Assyrians, it was always a matter of their current state with their God. So also, it’s not for plenty witches from our villages but that we’ve not settled the fight in us, as has been said; win the battle within and you’ve already won every war without.
‬ I’ll explain the hindrance to faith using the parable of the Sower, the parable goes…

Bros farmer went a sowing and his seeds went every all the where, some on stony grounds, some on the road path, some on thorny ground and some on good soil.

Jesus told us the meaning; the ground represents the heart, the seed represents the Word, the problem was not with the seed but with the ground, the heart is where the Word (and remember faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word) lands, the problem is the system of this world in which we live have been planting stones, rocks, concrete, mines, and every conceivable anti-seed material in our minds and so it has given us a system of thinking, of believing, of seeing things and of responding to things. So powerful it is that even when we get born again our spirits are made perfectly as Jesus is but our minds have to be renewed, that is made anew. Hence Romans 12 says“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, its like saying, now that this land (heart) now belongs to farmer Jesus, go get the Tractor of the Word and overhaul EVERYTHING! Get all the stones, thorns and other junks out of the ground, and remember some of this stuff has gone down so deep, but must all be overhauled, and so that the heart can now become the good soil and receive the engrafted Word and bear fruits.
‬In English what I’ve been saying is; the hindrance to the Faith of God in us is the things we faith in already, she believes if he’s not from her village he cannot be a good husband, so she will leave the Angel from the next village and marry Lucifer dressed in a tuxedo all because he’s from her village. That mindset is a stone in her heart that will choke the Word and make it unproductive. They’ve told him all male from their family becomes asthmatic at a certain age, that it’s a natural hereditary condition in his bloodline, he has swallowed it, asthma will soon be the portion of this blood-bought child of God. He, like the Pharisees have made the word of God of no effect by his traditions (that is by staying with the norms of this un-renewed worlds mindset), the list goes on.

‬The Cure
The cure to the problem is still the Word. God pours out His spirit of Faith, God pours out His all and already He has but the problem is not God giving, it is us receiving. Like Rom 5 says, “they that RECEIVE the abundance of Grace…shall reign in life”, our mind is cleared of the crazy as we stay on God’s Word from personal study and listening to relevant teachings, so poet or pastor if you don’t have a consistent personal time of study of the Word and of prayer, you can’t receive all God has already given you and you can’t express all that is already within you. This point calls for more but I’ll stop here for brevity sake.

– William Udousoro
‬

A thing about Faith pt2

Leave a comment

I said earlier Faith is natural for the believer.

The thing about faith I always look at, is not so much how much of it you know or can say but how it affects your everyday life, when the bible says we walk by faith and not by sight what exactly does it mean, does it mean we are to go about parting red seas and multiplying fishes to show our 6 packs and biceps of faith? I don’t think so (at least not always)! The Life of Faith is simply living your everyday normal life based on Faith, based on the Word, based on your belief in that Word. So someone asks you for something and you actually believe it is better to give than to receive so you part with that item; that’s the life of faith, you are living by faith when you refuse to listen to your family who tell you not to marry him because he’s from Edo and you’re from Ebonyi because you believe in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, it is a life of faith when you choose to pray for the thief that stole your phone and sentenced you to Nokia Torch because you believe bless those who persecute and pray for your enemies, it’s a life of faith when you, against your insecurities and inferiority complex, choose to write and publish that book because you believe that the greater one is in you and He that is born of God overcomes the world, it’s a life of faith when you choose to forsake that ungodly habit because you believe my body is the temple of the Lord, the Spirit of God dwells within you. It’s a life of faith when you say we would rather fail honestly than succeed deceitfully because you believe God is a rewarder of all they who diligently seek Him, it’s a life of faith when you believe that you are still a beloved child of God even when you’ve made a mistake because you believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and the blood of Jesus washes you from all iniquities.

It is not a life of Faith just when you stand on a stage with a suit like a pastor in a healing service, it’s a life of faith when you can lay hands on the cripple who begs by your street corner because you believe they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, its a life of Faith when you believe for me to live is CHRIST and to die is gain, when you are ready to lose your life for the sake of Christ, its a life of faith when you ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and you lean not on your own understanding’, when you agree to be led by the Spirit of God, even when it makes no logical sense; this is the beginning of walking by faith.

 

– William Udousoro

Think about this (UC Truth)

Leave a comment

I will teach you something that took me over 10 years to learn.

See?
Attention suddenly increases by at least 30 percent when someone claims experience in a certain thing.

You open eyes wide so you would see truth but I just lied,
Then you swallow whole like a bird does its seeds every false information I have to give.

But that’s not the lesson I have to give;
This won’t be free of charge so you would need to first subscribe to my channel, and then pay attention.

Internet age, how old is it?

How many times have you believed something just because generations before told you so?
Because they have done it so, so we should do same?

Who taught you that the left hand is bad compared to the right?
Where did you learn to hate snakes?
Ohh! Before you go all scriptural on me remember that HE made them and called them ‘good’

Are cats really witches turned to suck?
Our blood the owls and bats devour?
Is it really true that destinies can be stolen and returned?
And if I can barely stay awake during the day, then why not just let me work at night?

See animals understand themselves and act naturally
No forced rhythms to dance to
No need tuning unto stations where their bodies aren’t trained to live

They hunt when they find best, naturally
Live where they can breathe, naturally
And feed on what they can eat, naturally.

No wonder they run away from humans, well, bad association corrupts good manners.
And I would run too if I wasn’t me, human.

We have become a flaw to our own self by our rules and countless regulations, which only seems to excel when we get those screams of approval as or fans regulate us.

But I tell you, you can dare to be different
Do what you love,
Learn to play some games,
Study what you like,
Do work hard, and you don’t have to go to sleep at night just because they all do the same.

Be you, breathe,
Don’t become the next dog on life’s leash

It’s bliss to know that left and right;
White or black;
Tall or short;
Fat or slim;

..are all perfect shapes for their own holes

I am filling my spot, are you doing the same?

Think about this and get to living, and be quick about it, for the animals are still watching.

Jesus be REAL!

2 Comments

Pour me a drink He said.

I ain’t got time for y’all Jews she said.

Oops if I were you I’d be asking me for a drink He said.

Now there you go thinking you’re better off than our fathers she said.

Well I got water that  will give them water-well companies a run for their money He said.

Oh really? She exclaimed Well can I get some? She asked.

Go call your boo He said.

What you all up in my business for? I ain’t got none She said.

You are correct cos you’ve had 5 and the one you’re with ain’t yours He said calmly.

What the? You must be prophet! Can I holla at you for a Moment?  We have church at the mountain cathedral but y’all Jews and the like say we all have to get to Jerusalem before we can have church. What’s up with that? She asked.

I’m gonna be real with you, God is done with all them physical locations. These days, any man that wants to worship can do so wherever he is in spirit and in truth.  and that’s what’s up. He said

 

  • Ezeonyeka Godswill (2017)

#TheConversation

#FreestyleFriday