Gratitude Brings Abundance
Thankfulness multiples in your attitude as you do it.
It also opens you up to blessings and favours.
We thank God for the gift of salvation, for family, friends and the tiniest blessing we experience. (Psalms 107:21-22, Ephesians 5:18-20, Philippians 4:6-7, Jonah 2:9)
Confidence And Arrogance Are Different
Arrogance/Pride is not of God. Confidence/Boldness is of God.
No matter what you have become – a Christian experiencing and performing the supernatural or a respected professional in your field, pride only blinds you if you let it in.
Fear is not humility; Many people are afraid of what people think of/say about them. Some are afraid of the future and the unknown.
This is what brings a lack of confidence, but you are to walk in faith, in confidence and in boldness. (Jeremiah 17:7, Proverbs 11:2, 18:12, Isaiah 40:31, Proverbs 26:12)
Peers And Mentors Prove Vital
It’s not advisable to underrate learning with peers.
It’s also not advisable to overrate mentors.
Both are important for your growth and success. (Proverbs 15:22, 4:13, 19:20, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Proverbs 27:17, 11:14, 13:20)
Time like air is boundless, existing independent of us
Helping us take note, employing us
To nurture after our to-do-list
Yet reminding us the risk
of not being
of not seeing
The thought of it as illusion only makes bold the impact on our vision
An endless circle
Old enough to seal life’s chronicles
Yet does nothing to change it
The only certified entity to bridge it.
Love like the sea, is deep
Accommodating everything cold
and warm-blooded
Not seeking its own way
Needs nothing external to become
Countless questions on its existence
Unending thoughts on its purpose
And like the absence of peace
Making monsters of those who go by without it
The true essence of its fragrance waiting always on those who have gone past feeling
to becoming love.
Death, what happens when you’re busy making other plans
Claiming more lives with its rude interruption
The least talked about of all three
Yet with each blow comes a string of thought on time and love
Each seized breath a trail of shadows to your canvas
With more questions than answers
How much time is left?
Is love evident?
What next after death?
Imani Dokubo
©2021
The Tongue Is To Be Bridled
You reveal who you are when you speak. Powerful, purpose-driven people talk less and listen more.
Build your value without exposing how much you do not know. (Proverbs 10:19)
That you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave—a beloved brother… Philemon 1: 15-16
I’m a fugitive fleeing from punishment
A slave mortgaging with my destiny
Transecting my soul with transgression
A man finds me whose father
sentenced to death two thousand years ago
Says his name is Grace and he won’t let me go
Wraps warm hands around me
till his love fills me to overflow
Like rainwater filling a cistern
” I died“, he says but now I live forever
And if you let me, I can wipe away your past too, forever.”
Ayooluwa Olasupo Ìmísí
©2021
It began like this…
Clad in purple and linen, cat-walking with stiletto strapped feet,
I miss my steps
Fall into a gully of mud
Stumble into the midst of men mouthing profanity
Stench ooze from me like box of putrid egg
I become crafter of maleficence, of deeds done in darkness
Yet, I am of tender days than to perpetuate impurity
You, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
Lord, seems mother said you do not appose your eyelids like the sons of men?
But why are these befalling me
Or why should I be falling?
Like Martha, this is how I feel:
Lord if you had been here, my soul would not have been ensnared in the tempter’s trap
Now I come with a bunch of sins, my back bent into a hunch
Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy and vanquish this vile!
Let these things cease, like when you stilled the storm
Will you discard the memento of your purchase?
The one you stamped by your blood on the tree, like Rahab’s scarlet cord hung over the window in Canaan?
Up till now, the spies are over the gate of my soul, watching, waiting to devour & divide me as a spoil—this moribund mortal
But the redemption of my soul is costly,
And in it, you promised sin shall not have dominion over me
This is why tonight, I recite to you the memorandum of my redemption
I hope you heed my cry and help me.
Ayooluwa Olasupo Ìmísí
©2021
The seventh episode of The Chosen begins with loud hammering.
Sparks from glowing hot metal precedes the conversation between two men who turn out to be Moses (Stelio Savante) and Joshua (Advait Ghuge).
While Joshua argues respectfully with him, Moses is smelting something, beating the metal into a shape that avid bible scholars are quite familiar with; the bronze serpent.
The episode is titled “Invitations”.
“Anyone who looks upon the bronze serpent and believes in the power of Yeshua, will live. It is an act of Faith, not reason.”
In this episode, we see Matthew visiting a woman who appears to be his mother, her caution toward him and mention of Matthew’s father show that even amongst his family, Matthew is considered a traitor and therefore, an outcast. All the while, Matthew shows signs of inner contemplation.
Erick Avari, whom we have come to love and respect, is magnificent with his portrayal of Nicodemus. Nicodemus is pressured by the Roman side to put a stop to Jesus of Nazareth.
He opts to talking to this Jesus instead, and the ensuing conversation is the stuff of Christianity’s most memorable sermons.
The philosophical juxtaposition between the Kingdom of God and the Roman occupation of the time of the story is so displayed that we are piqued to ask ourselves:
What would you do in old Nico’s shoes?
Do you sympathize with Jesus?
Would you follow Jesus when you hear him call?
The meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus is often told but not with such detail and background. The famous conversation around being “born again” is dramatized as Jesus speaks with compassion and analogy.
The hug between Nicodemus and Jesus is a strong statement about God’s love.
Episode 7 ends with the dramatic call of Matthew, the tax collector.
One sentence that sticks with us is “Get used to ‘different’ ”.
PS: To watch this episode, download The Chosen app here.
Please read our review of The Chosen’s Ep 6, Indescribable Compassion.
Christ a poet 