THE‬ GOD LOVER 06: BREAKING AND POURING (FINAL PART)

“And while He was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head” Mark 14:3 (ESV).

I had to quote that scripture again to keep us abreast of our foundation in this series. In the last episode, I talked about the gesture of breaking the alabaster flask and the significance to us as God lovers. I believe by now, you have broken your heart in love for God and given him the pieces to fix. Let us move ahead to the second gesture.

INSTEAD OF SPRINKLING, SHE POURED: Another stunner! There is a question I have never ceased asking myself; what was this woman thinking? Well, whatever she was thinking is irrelevant. All that matters is that she went all out in her expression of love for Jesus.

By pouring, she released all the content of the broken alabaster flask on Jesus. She gave it all! She did not hold back. She used the best she had to show her love.

To be a God lover, you have to give him everything and withhold nothing from Him. I like to say that loving God in part is as dangerous as not loving Him at all. If you must love God, you must love Him in totality and with everything. “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind'”. Matt. 22:37 (NLT). Loving God demands your all, without reservations.

“There were some who said to themselves indignantly, ‘why was the ointment wasted like that?'”. Mark. 14:4 (ESV).

It was obvious that the people present saw this woman as someone with temporal insanity. Of course, they knew the worth of the oil she was pouring like that. But it was only this woman and God that knew what was going on.

In expressing your love for God, you are bound to look stupid in the eyes of men. Never mind, it is an affair between you and your God. If only they know how much you love Him, maybe they will understand. People always see God lovers as taking Gods things too far or doing it too much. Well, I owe nobody any apology for how I express my love for God knowing He is pleased with it. When they say you are doing too much, do much more.

Have you ever thought of it that this woman could have been an uninvited guest? It could be that nobody gave her a chance. But she was not going to be deterred by that. You could call her a gate crasher, that’s fine. But she had to find her way in and show her love to Jesus.

I like to say that you do not need to wait for when it is convenient to express your love for God, do it anytime and every time. You do not need a special occasion to show God how much you love him. With everything you have, show God all the love you can.

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER 05: BREAKING AND POURING (CONTINUED)

Remember from the last episode, I said this woman did something that stunned everyone, including Jesus. I was stunned too in the course of studying this event. I want to divide this woman’s action here into two gestures:

INSTEAD OF OPENING, SHE BROKE THE FLASK: From my explanation of the alabaster flask, we now know that it is not an ordinary flask you just break and replace. That flask cost a fortune. I was hoping the woman will just open the flask, but no, she broke it!

By breaking the flask, she was not expecting to have it back. It is okay to open up your heart to God, but that will still put you in charge. You can decide to close it again. Beyond that, God is seeking for broken hearts. “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Psalm 51:17 (NLT).
The day your heart is broken in love for God, you give Him licence to take it because it no longer belongs to you.

You need to break that heart that is full of strife, jealousy, bitterness, envy and their likes. That will be the time God will take it, mend it and give you a heart like His; that can love at all times.

I will deal with the other gesture in the next episode. I feel strongly that someone needs to digest this and deal with some pertinent issues of the heart. I believe strongly that as you break your heart in love, God will take it and fix it.

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER 04: BREAKING AND POURING

In the East, it is a tradition to sprinkle few drops of oil on the head of guest(s) to an occasion. This is to show hospitality and love to the guest(s). In the story we are considering, Jesus was a guest at the feast organized by Simon. It was demanded by tradition that Simon sprinkles oil on the head of Jesus to show hospitality. For whatever reason, he did not.

Contrary to what tradition demanded, this woman did something that stunned everyone present, including Jesus. She broke the alabaster flask and poured all the oil contained in it on Jesus head. This was beyond a show of hospitality, there was something more.

I will want you to chew this a bit and in the next episode, I will expound on this woman’s action and what our response should be.

THE CHEWING PROCESS:
As you chew and await the next episode, I will like to involve you a bit. I will love you to share what you think of this woman’s actions. You are free to comment on any platform you are receiving this.

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER 03: OINTMENT OF PURE NARD (CONTINUED)

In the last episode, we looked at one of the three qualities of our love for God. We will look at the remaining two in this episode.

OUR LOVE MUST BE PERENNIAL: I was not particularly a good student of Agricultural Science, but at least I can remember what I was taught about plants being perennial. When a plant is perennial, it means it can be present at all seasons of the year. A more interesting definition is persisting for several years usually with new herbaceous growth. This means that our love for God has to be persistent and enduring.

God’s love is unfailing (Psalm 6:4). The love God has for us is an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3), and we have to reciprocate it. Our love for God must stand the test of time. This forms the basis of a lasting relationship with God.

OUR LOVE MUST BE SWEET SMELLING: This has to do with how God feels when we express our love for him. A lot of people do things with the intention of showing how much they love God but in the end, God does not regard it. I will show us to scenarios from the scriptures that can help buttress the point I want to make:

Scenario 1: “Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priests servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servants name was Malchus). Jesus commanded Peter, Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” John 18:10-11 (NIV).

It was evident here that Peter did what he did out of love for Jesus. But his act of love was contrary to the way God desired the events to play out, hence Jesus rebuked him. You can see that even though his actions were borne out of love, it had to align with the will of God for it to be acceptable. Your act of love for God can only be worthwhile when it is in line with the will of God.

Scenario 2: “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs”. John 21:15 (ESV).

Jesus, seeing how eager Peter was to demonstrate his love for Him, he showed Peter how to express love in line with the will of God. It is not enough for you to desire to express your love for God, you have to allow God show you how to do it.

REFLECTIONS:
Look at your life in the past few weeks. How much of your actions has really depicted the acceptable way of showing how much you love God?

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER 02: OINTMENT OF PURE NARD

King James Version translated it as ointment of spikenard. Spikenard is a tall, perennial and sweet smelling plant. Perfumes made from spikenard have a long lasting and sweet smelling fragrance. This perfume is a very precious perfume.

From the definition of spikenard above, I want point out three words that I have decided to use to qualify our love for God. They are tall, perennial and sweet smelling.

OUR LOVE MUST BE TALL: The love we have for God must be greater and higher than the love we have for any other person or thing.
“One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?. Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” Matt. 22:35-38 (NLT).

God is not saying we should not have love for any other person or thing, but He commands us to love him above all else. God must be given the highest priority in your scale of preference if you must be a God lover. I like to say that whatever you love more than God stands taller than God in your life. If you love God, lift him above everything in your life. Let every other thing be secondary and God be primary.

I will talk about the remaining qualities in the next episode.

REFLECTIONS:

At the end of today, look back at your activities and point out how much of God was involved in your activities today. Do this for the next one week. You can share your experience (that’s if you’ll to) with me on WhatsApp (08063566730) or Facebook (Ibeh Uche Sam) or e-mail (transformingwordseries@gmail.com).

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER 01: THE ALABASTER FLASK

The story of this woman has been preached and taught from different angles to drive home different messages. One of the most popular of these message is typifying it to how our worship of God should be like. But I am taking another angle of this story to show us the depth of the expression of our love for God, which also has a lot to do with our worship. I like to say that a God lover is a worshipper.

The first question I asked myself was: why did this woman choose the alabaster flask? I did a brief study on this and I was thrilled at what I found out.

This flask as we know was made of alabaster. Alabaster is a soft white stone like marble in appearance. It is used in preserving ornaments. The flask is specially used in storing costly ointments.

I drew two analogies from this:

1. The expression of this woman’s love for Jesus had to come from something very special. The source of our expression of love for God must come from a pure, soft and dedicated heart. You cannot profess your love for God if your heart is far from him.

“Then the Lord said, Because this people draw near with their words and honour me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote” Isa. 29:13 (NASB).

“He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” Mark 7:6 (NIV).

2. The alabaster flask is always kept safe because it contained something very special. It is important to understand that your heart is very delicate because it is the source of your love for God. You need to guard it jealously and be careful the things you allow access to it.

“Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it” Prov. 4:23 (GWT).

REFLECTIONS:
Do you really love God? Well whatever your answer is, you may need to revisit this question at the end of this series.

Stay blessed.

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THE‬ GOD LOVER (PROLOGUE)

Mark 14:3-9

3. And while He was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
4. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that?
5. For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her.
6. But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
7. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.
8. She has done what she could, she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
9. And truly, I say to you wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she had done will be told in memory of her. (ESV).

When I got born again, one of the things that I always thought about was how to show God how much I love Him. I do not know if you are like me? Well a brief study on the scripture above helped me a lot and I want to share some of the things God opened my eyes to with you. In this all new love series, I will basically be looking at expressions of our love to God.

I am going to make it available on some of the groups I have access to on WhatsApp and Facebook. Should you not happen to share a mutual group with me and desire to share in the blessings of this series, type SEND TO ME and send to my private chat on WhatsApp (08063566730) or Facebook (Ibeh Uche Sam).

Brace yourself, tighten your seat belts and tie up your laces. It is going to be an exhilarating journey.

I also want to say that I’m glad you made it to July. I pray that God will perfect all that he has started doing in your life this year in this second half of the year.

Stay blessed.

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LEADERSHIP‬ TONIC (THE EPILOGUE)

‪I want to say it has been an incredible journey through some aspects of leadership. As I round up the leadership tonic series, I want to share some sound bites from our journey. 1. A good leader is a man who has discovered his strengths and weaknesses, come to terms with them, and is not limited by the weaknesses nor arrogant with the strengths. 2. A leader’s mistake can rob an entire generation and more of their destinies. 3. Always have in mind that someone is looking up to you and you cannot afford to disappoint them. 4. Do not always crave to dish out what you have because you are a leader, strive to learn more. 5. Do not live like a slave when you have a royal blood running in your veins. 6. Every humble man has worked on his pride over time that he can exhibit humility like he was born with it. 7. For every promise you fail to keep, you gradually lose reliability and credibility as a leader. 8. Guide your enthusiasm with wisdom and you will make a very successful leader. 9. Humble leaders submit to good advice, counsel and correction. If you are the kind of leader that always wants things to flow your way, then you have pride to deal with. 10. If you have a good charisma without a good character, you will not be able to make a good leader. 11. If you must be a successful leader, you must ask questions. 12. If you must live out your potentials and become the leader you were designed to be, you have to DISCIPLINED! 13. If you must succeed as a leader, you must agree within yourself to do all that is required for a successful leadership. 14. In humility, you receive grace to turn your weaknesses to strengths. 15. It is dishonest to claim absolute honesty. 16. It is in the place of vision that you will see your purpose. 17. It is not enough to make positive declarations about your future, it is not enough to have loads of prophecy over your life, and it is not enough to have big dreams when you are not committed to ensuring they happen. 18. It takes humility to know that you cannot always be right. 19. Leaders do not live for now, they live for the future through vision. 20. Leaders see tomorrow from today. 21. Leadership gives you the opportunity to discover things others know that you do not know and to learn from them. 22. Let people follow you, not because they are left with no other options, but because you are worth following. 23. Let people follow you, not because you have exerted a forceful control over them, but because you have shown examples of good leadership. 24. Nobody cares about why you did not keep the promise, the fact that you did not do as you promised is what matters. 25. Reliability is so important because as a leader, the only collateral that the people have is the promise that you will lead them well. 26. Succeeding as a leader is a decision you make and not something that happens by chance. 27. The amount of success you record in leadership is determined by how big your vision is. 28. The consciousness of who you are should affect the way you live your life; your dressing, talking, eating, sleeping, and response to issues. 29. The more reliable you become, the more God can commit bigger leadership responsibility to you. 30. Treat everyone as important; rich or poor, older or younger, male or female. 31. Your success as a leader is a function of the amount of responsibility you are willing to take. 32. Vision shows you where you are going, but commitment takes you there. 33. What makes a good leader is not the absence of mistakes, but the ability to learn and move on. 34. What takes you from one point in life to another is your commitment to make it happen. 35. What your character shows on the outside as charisma is a result of the level of discipline used to fine-tune the output. 36. You are destined to lead! Think it! Act it! Live it! 37. You can have great ideas and wonderful potentials that will die with you if you do not commit yourself to making something substantial out of them. 38. You can only go as far as your passion carries you. 39. You have to do all that you can to make good your promise, even if it will hurt you so badly. 40. Your ability to place your priorities right will help you focus on what you need to achieve as a leader. 41. Your enthusiasm as a leader is what creates the positive atmosphere and energy for great achievements in leadership. 42. Your reliability as a leader is tied to your ability to keep any promise made. At this point, I take a bow. Hope you enjoyed this series? I’ll be expecting your comments on WhatsApp (08063566730) or e-mail: transformingwordseries@gmail.com. Stay blessed. © TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES

LEADERSHIP‬ TONIC 16: THE INGREDIENTS (10)

“Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men” Col. 3:23 (HCSB).

Enthusiasm! This has to do with zeal and passion, and I will be using the three words interchangeably. You have to be passionate in what you do and convey same to the people you are leading. Your enthusiasm as a leader is what creates the positive atmosphere and energy for great achievements in leadership. If you are not enthusiastic as a leader, you will lack motivation, both for yourself and the people.

Enthusiasm drives you to attain great heights in leadership. You can only go as far as you passion carries you. That is what gives you reason to forge ahead even in the midst of great discouragements.

I must also warn that if enthusiasm is not properly directed, a leader can end up being misguided. The tendencies of flying off course is there, and you need to watch out for that. Guide your enthusiasm with wisdom and you will make a very successful leader.

“Nobody can be successful except he loves his work” – David Sarnoff.

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles” – Augustine “Og” Mandino.

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LEADERSHIP‬ TONIC 15: THE INGREDIENTS (9)

“If it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully” Rom. 12:8 (NIV)

Diligence! I will love to quote Romans 12:8 in the New Living Translation for a better understanding of what I want to say: “If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift of showing kindness to others, do it kindly”.

Diligence is about giving careful and serious attention to a matter. This is what is required of us as leaders. We are to assiduously carry out the responsibility of leadership. I said in one of the episodes that leadership is so serious a matter that some things cannot be overlooked in dealing with it. Remember, everything and everyone is important. Leadership is serious business. You need to get this well!

As a leader, you need to have this consciousness that a lot of destinies are hanging on your shoulder. You cannot afford to live your life or do things anyhow. Always have in mind that someone is looking up to you and you cannot afford to disappoint them. Heaven is counting on you to succeed and the devil as well is working against your success as a leader.

It is risky as a leader for you to think you are like everyone else. I am not saying you should be arrogant, but you need be conscious of the fact that leadership is a serious business and requires due diligence. A leader’s mistake can rob an entire generation, and even more, of their destinies. The consciousness of who you are should affect the way you live your life; your dressing, talking, eating, sleeping, and response to issues.

Have you not wondered why of all the gifts mentioned above, we were specifically asked to take our leadership abilities very seriously? Does it mean that the other gifts are to be taken less seriously? No! If we are able to give leadership the seriousness it demands, we can replicate the same seriousness to other gifts. Do not live like a slave when you have a royal blood running in your veins. You are destined to lead! Think it! Act it! Live it!

© TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES