Isaac Boluwatise

OUT OF ZION 005 | OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY 2

January 6th, 2016
November 22, 2015 Volume 1, Issue 005

OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY 2

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it

– Matt 16:25

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might …. Ecc 9:10

It is profitable to consider a principle advanced by the Lord in Matt 16:25. The reason for this is to show that the path to a man’s truest purpose may not be the attractive, the popular, or the highly esteemed among men.

THE PRINCIPLE is that whoever is inclined to preserve or keep safe his life will have it destroyed or lost, but whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it. Matt 16:25. This shows that the tendency to prefer safety in life can be very antithetical. No venture, no gain, they say. This tendency is natural to humanity. Even the Lord had to combat it to save humanity.

THE PURPOSE was for His followers or disciples to realise that their resolve to follow Him is more than a religious activity, it is following or pursuing life and truest purpose. These are found in the Lord alone. To be successful at this pursuit, the Lord advanced two attributes:
- Self-denial: this is the attribute of forgetting or losing sight of oneself or of one’s own interests so that nothing compares or competes with Christ or your truest purpose. This is the best test of reality and earnestness in a Christian life as Self is the greatest problem of a man and the greatest hindrance to life’s true meaning. Self-denial uses the example of Him who gave himself for us; it looks beyond the immediate to the ultimate benefit.
- Cross-carrying: while cross-carrying is a common parlance in daily usage, the true cross is not what you bring on yourself; It is not necessarily every trouble that you are grappling with; it is the burden/necessity laid on you (1 Cor 9:16); It is what you have to undergo to reach your finishing line.
These are essentials for Christ’s disciples. While most people don’t want to hear stuffs like these nowadays, it is important for everyone to understand this if indeed the truest purpose will be realised for your part to be made in history.

There is always a price to be paid to realise the true purpose on your life. Most people are dumping sacrifice for immediate gain and saving their lives to lose it. Gaining the whole world is not the same as profiting the soul because the Lord will reward each person according to what is done and according to what is to be done (the true plan). Indeed, what is to be done may not fit into the frame of man’s desire (Matt 16:21).

Some biblical heroes become very significant example to us at this point. If they had avoided their cross, they would not have fulfilled the purpose for their lives. JOSEPH, the prime minister to be, went through betrayal, slavery, and prison to get there. MOSES, the national leader, descended from palace to being a reject and the one for the dirty job for forty years to lead the nation. DAVID, possibly the son of a concubine, had the dirty job dumped on him; he could have refused it or even declined to take provision to those possibly preferred by his society; the experiences were the path to his greatness. ELISHA poured water on Elijah’s hand; THE APOSTLES were Jesus’ ministers.

The path to a great purpose is not necessarily desirable. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; doing the works while it is day (Jn 9:4; 2); laying aside every superfluous weight (Heb 12:1-2; 3); recognising the opportunities that God brings your way; carrying your cross to follow Him all the way.
Happy New Year

January 1st, 2016

Happy new year to you.
Congrats for making it into 2016.
The Lord shall fulfil your desire this year; He shall enlarge your coast and perfect all that concern you in Jesus name.
Cheers.Sincerely,

Tolu Boluwatise
OUT OF ZION 004 | OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY

December 30th, 2015
November 15, 2015 Volume 1, Issue 004

OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

Ecc 9:10

… But time and chance happen to them all. Ecc 9:11

For those in relationship with God, the pursuit of the future is the pursuit of the plan of God. The bible discusses the plan in terms of the future. Jer 29:11. The plan is God’s thought towards you, not your initiative or choice (Jn 15:16); it is for your welfare, not for calamity; to give you a future and an expectation. When God reveals the future to you, he gives you an expectation of (cord for) it, to conjoin you with the future, so that you can look reliably forward to it (Pro 23:18)

To realise that future and hope you need to do more than reading history to making history. To make history, there are a few things you need to know:
1. Treat your situation as a tunnel and not as a terminus, for life is a journey. You have to be on the move to avoid doing a grave injustice to the plan for your life. The victories recorded, which are just partial fulfillment of expectation, are the reason why some choose to rest. This shouldn’t be, as resting (unnecessarily) while there is a journey ahead leads to idleness, distraction and deflection from purpose (Num 25:1).
2. Be the solution by living your vision now. It has to be real to you now for it to be realised. Solutions look beyond the problems by refusing to be a part of the trending problem. This is the notion behind the call for Christians to live a separated and not a segregated life. 1 Cor 5:9-10; 2 Cor 6:11-18. Without leaving the situation you can come out of the problem. Refuse to be part of the unrighteousness; mediocrity; self-seeking attitude; local-mindedness and acceptance of the status quo. Participating in the problem jeopardises a man’s potential to be a solution and history maker.
3. Identify opportunities for in every problem is an opportunity and a key to success– Ecc 9:11.. Most people miss out on opportunity because they look for it a) as benefit – to receive and not to give; b) in a big form – despising the little offers of life; and c) in a very cheap way – someone to give it to them. The youth will blame the older generation for not giving them opportunities, whereas they have it all around them. Opportunities come in ways you least expected. You have to discern what many look for but only a few see to make history.
4. Utillise opportunities for there is no better time for a recognised opportunity than now. Time and space will always respond with opportunities, especially to those who are solution conscious. The gifts of those who don’t wait for offers, but know to take right action and offer solutions, will cause others to stand aside for them. While some think more in terms of position, title, and office; trailblazers think in terms of action. Whatever their hands find to do, they do it (well). Their right actions recommend them later.
5. Be God-centred and not self-centred. Self-centred people do not utilise opportunities simply because they often don’t hold direct or immediate benefits. With such opportunities, however are the connecting dots towards the future.
The awaited future of a nation and individuals become realistic when we take every opportunity seriously and within these opportunities lie the potentials for us to be history makers.
CHRISTMAS OR XMAS?

December 27th, 2015

CHRISTMAS OR XMAS?

True worship of Christ is more than the arguments or controversy about CH or X.

Language is a mere symbol of expression varying front one people to another. Written words are same.

The decision about spellings are humanly decided, not instructed from Heaven.

Devotion to God is spiritual. It transcends matters of spellings, language and whatnots for Christianity is supra-cultural.

Using shorthand in writing His name does not in any way denigrate His person.

In all my writings, I use capital letters to start all noun and pronouns about Him. That does not mean I am technically right. It is my choice.

If you look very well in the Bible, once the pronoun about Him is in the middle of a sentence, it is written in small letters. That is the rule of the language.

I am not defending myself, for I do not write XMAS, I do CHRISTMAS. I am only dealing with what is spiritually real and unreal

Sociologically, we all have our definitions of what is real. Our definitions might not necessarily be right.

The kingdom of God is more than judgement in this things. You can write all the letters in Caps and still be having a faulty relationship with Him. You can write Christmas and not Xmas and still be wanting in spiritual matters.

Religion has the knack for leaving the essentials and busying itself with what is baseless. It makes no sense in heaven.

The way to please Him is to do His will and obey Him in all things.

Let us pursue things that are clearly spelt out in the scriptures and not secondary mundane issues. There are still many things pertaining to the whole counsel of God that we are yet to fully experience.

One feels free to use this mode and another that mode. Everyone should do these as unto the Lord without judging one another in these matters of mundane opinions.

Let the meaning of Christ’s coming resonate in our hearts this season, so that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

#thekingismorethanourspellings

#makehimthekingofyourlife

#undoingchristmascontroversies

#correctioninlove

#merrychristmaseveryone

6.574593 3.391843
OUT OF ZION CHRISTMAS | HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL …

December 27th, 2015
December 27, 2015 Volume 1, Issue 010

HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL …

And she brought forth her firstborn Son … and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. – Luk 2:7

Though God makes all things beautiful …, He does not birth all things in the perfect beauty expected ….

Christmas brings hope to a dying world. Christ’s coming as the Father’s answer to the troubled world is still joy to the world. His arrival, heralded by the appearance of the angels to the shepherd who were watching their flock by night, was good tiding to all; of glory to God in the heavens; of peace on earth; and of good will to men.

The immediate account of His birth rounded up in Luk 2:7 with “… because there was no room for them in the inn.” The birth was not in a beautiful setting as we are wont to expect. God who makes all things beautiful in its time begins the beauty with a birth in simplicity. This is a lesson in the importance of appreciating the days of little beginnings. Often we do not recognise the things that are not essential to the fulfilment of God’s will in our lives. A baby was to be born and the setting of the birth was not as important as the birth itself. Note that the mention of the setting was the last in the details of His birth.

Despite the setting of His birth, He came to make lives beautiful by restoring men back to the original plan of God. Israel ignored Him simply because the King did not appear in glory, confused by the two sidedness of the prophecies about Him. But to those who received Him power was given to make them sons of God. The effect of that little beginning is still ongoing on earth. Amidst oppositions and violent resistance to the peaceful propagation of the good tidings, the message about the King, as a gracious gift to the world continues to thrive across the nations, tribes and climes.

The value of the Christmas story is an encouragement to all in that:
1. You do not have to know everything about your life’s purpose. The things revealed to you are yours for your obedience to God. The ones kept by God are for His sovereign operations. An angel did not have to tell Joseph and Mary to go down to Bethlehem from Nazareth as the Almighty who rules in the affairs of men will influence a political decision at that time to get them back to their nativity for the birth of Christ to be according to the necessary plan (the prophecy).
2. Your life’s purpose is supra-locational. Though God specifies location in His plan, it doesn’t have to be the best of all locations. The King did not have to be born in Jerusalem or in Rome to rule the world in the long run; the great King would be born in the smallest town in Judea to rule all the people. The plan is greater than the place.
3. Your life’s purpose is more than the beauty of your birth setting or of its initial setting. Most of those who have influenced in most fields, the world over, were neither born in the palace nor with the silver spoon. Though God makes all things beautiful in its time, He does not birth all things in the perfect beauty expected by men. Mary did not have to travel out to the most notable of places or hospices for the birth of the baby; the child that was born King did not have His Kingship signified with a crown on his head at birth. He was a typical baby, noticeable by those in Bethlehem by the unusual peasantness of his birth setting. The significant thing at the time of the birth was even secret; an angel announced the birth not in the royal palace in Jerusalem, but in the field to mere shepherds. The birth is only the beginning of the beauty to be manifested.
As we celebrate this season of His Advent, be encouraged that all things will work together; not necessarily for immediate gratification but for the ultimate good and the glory of God. His counsel for your life shall stand if you cooperate with His good plan of allowing Christ into your life, in spite of the immediate setting that is unsatisfying. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will perfect His plan in your life.

Merry Christmas to you.

OUT OF ZION 005 | OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY 2

Happy New Year

OUT OF ZION 004 | OPPORTUNITY AND THE MAKING OF HISTORY

CHRISTMAS OR XMAS?

OUT OF ZION CHRISTMAS | HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL …