Posts

Showing posts from December, 2011

WITH WHAT KISS?

Image
Meditations on End-Of-2011 Exhortation by Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost On December 23, 2011 a very transforming chord was struck in my system when Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah exhorted the Head Office Staff at the end-of year service. I did not need a second asking to settle my 2012 resolution, with which I quickly updated my status on Facebook: “ In 2012 and beyond, I want to speak what is in my heart, and let my face reflect what is in my mind. May I fully accomplish all that I commit myself to. May the Lord, whose word never fails make my word also reliable. Merry Christmas to all the wonderful friends I made in 2011 ” His theme for the morning was “With What Kiss are You Greeting Your Lord?” He recalled three kisses that betrayed their recipients: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and

MAKING DISCIPLES FOR THE LORD WHO IS WITH US

Image
Until the convert has been brought up to the status where he can be entrusted with a charge, the disciple-maker should not consider his work to be complete. By Ps. Seth Asare Ofei Badu (First Delivered at a Pastors Pre-Christmas Convention Prayer Meeting at Techiman in 2011) Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16 The disciple-maker, cast in the mode of the Saviour, is equipped and authorized to bring/guide a person into full maturity in the Lord, watching to work with the Holy Spirit to raise a vessel that is useful to the Lord. Discipleship practices in approximately sequential order are: Compassion: Intercession: Preaching/ Calling to Decision: Water Baptism – The substance and the symbol: Holy Spirit Baptism – Completion of the New birth: Teaching – discipleship: Appo

WHAT IS THAT TO YOU?

Image
DAVID TAGOE repeats the necessary question we feel uncomfortable asking daily I am not done reflecting on how to maintain the appropriate attitude in the Kingdom of God as a child, and another stunner comes along: What is that to you? Efa wo ho ben? Please do not go away. I am not talking exactly to you. I am just repeating what Jesus told Peter when he asked him about what happens to John when the Lord the leaves. Because that is the angle that this stunner of all time came from, and as uncomfortable as this question would make anybody, and as utterly cheeky as it sounds, it should be a top self-examination question. David Tagoe, at devotion today used just 15 minutes to drive home this point so poignantly that it will remain with all HQ staff forever. Some may feel like toying with it and letting the point go, others may devote themselves to prayer for the Word to purify them and put them better in touch with their calling, but efa me ho ben? Let me concentrate on telling you exa

Continue to be a Child (and not an Adult) of God

Image
Joshua Baffoe draws our attention this morning to the fourfold quintessential character of the child of God that makes him or her continue to flourish on earth There are attitudes which must never be traded for the so called “experience” and “common sense” that rather draw us back and make us useless in the hands of God. Placing the child before us, in the fashion of Jesus in Luke 18:17 ( Truly I say to you, Whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no way enter into it ), he remarked on characteristics retained by children, but are largely lost to adults: 1. Sense of Wonder : Children know that the world about them is wonderful, and they cannot understand all its workings, and they accept it so, and enjoy themselves in it. In the same way, we need to accept that the Kingdom of God is as beyond our full comprehension as it is precious to us. We need not try and rationalize everything God does for us. We should accept His goodness to us and than

FRUITFUL MARRIAGE – MOVING BEYOND SURVIVAL

Image
Don't Look for a Draw when You Can Win By Ps. Seth Asare Ofei Badu (First Preached at Calvary Baptist Church, Circle, in November 2011, at Adjrago's Wedding) The institution of marriage is from creation and its expected blessing is fruitfulness , which is the first God commanded, and for two, as follows: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Gen. 1:28) Fruitfulness goes beyond the fruit of the womb, and includes all kinds of wellbeing that in turn bless others. In Ephesians 5: 22 - 33 and elsewhere, the Bible throws light on the roles by which we ought to interact to make our marriages fruitful. But first let us look at what hold up a survival level marriages, then we learn how we can do better than just survive. The attack on marriage is also briefly exposed. Survival Level Marriage A marriage may be surviving wi