COVID - PASSOVER - DECODED

Hey guys! If you a Christian or you are/were around a Christian friend, you might have heard this word - "Passover". Memes like the one I have posted, may not be new to you. If you are wondering what in the world that means, this is just for you. 🙂

Passover is a seven-day long Jewish festival. This year it is to be celebrated between 8th April till 16th April. Why is it called "the Passover"? Because God passed over the houses of Israel. Now that may sound like Greek and Latin. Let me explain… 

The Israelites were slaves under the cruel Egyptian task-masters. God warned the Egyptian King (Pharoah) to let his people free through Moses. Pharoah did not bother and rejected the proposal straight out. God sent in plagues one after the other (water turned into blood; frogs, lies, darkness filled the land and so on) to remind him that He was in control of nature. The Pharoah would not budge. God again warned the final plague would be the most terrible of all. Pharoah only got angry at God and not sorry for his mistakes. He didn't want anything to do with God. This was the last and the scariest plague; every firstborn son in the land of Egypt would die - from the firstborn son of the king who sits on the throne to the firstborn farm animals would die. Did Pharoah listen and change his mind? Sadly not. 

God told the Israelites if they want to be safe from the plague, that each family must take a year-old lamb without any blemish, cook it and eat that night. They had to take some of its blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they stay (Just like in the picture). Just as God said, the plague happened at midnight. Loud outcry was heard all over Egypt except in Goshen because the Israelites did exactly as God said. The plague did not attack the house which had the mark on its doorposts. The Israelites were safe because God passed over the houses that had the mark and did not let the plague have a say. 

What does it have to do with COVID?

COVID is no plaything. It seems like the world is under a big shutdown - economies are crashing; governments are struggling to stop the spread of the virus. More dangerous than the virus is the panic and mental stress it has put on people. People for once are beginning to contemplate about death and things that really matter in life.  

If you are someone who does not believe in God, then this might seem like a way nature balances itself (Thanos comes to mind) and you just don't have any hope. If you believe in God, you might be wondering what He is up to, like me 🤔. 

Or like some Christians, you might be tossing out jargon like 'end-times', 'unrighteousness', etc. 😃

In obscure times like these, it is safer to dig back in time because invariably history repeats itself. Let's think about the plague in Egypt again. We just saw from the story of the Passover that the land of Goshen had hope even though it was right in the middle of plague-infected Egypt. What was that hope? If it was on the blood of the lamb, I'm sure all of us who know this story would have been right at the mutton shop when the outbreak happened. If it was eating the lamb that gave hope, then I'd be the first to order Roghan Ghosht from Swiggy. 😁Surprisingly the truth is much, much simpler than that. 

God did a symbolic thing with the lamb. 1000 years after the first Passover, God came to the world in the form of a man named Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life. He did good and spoke only good. Even an atheist is cool with that fact. But during a Passover celebration, His own people crucified Him. Now you may ask if He is God why didn't He save Himself? You are not wrong at all! He could have, but he didn't, just for you and me. Why you may ask? 

The only way for a Holy God (who cannot tolerate sin) to pass-over your life and save you from the plague, is to become that blemish-less lamb and die for you. If you are like me you would be wondering, would it not have been simple if we just killed a lamb every time we sinned/ once a year on our birthdays? The sad but honest truth is that our sin is so dark that it takes something at God level to clean it. Though it is human to err, it is not like a food spill on our cloth that can be washed with detergent. Evil is buried deep in our hearts and it takes God to wipe it clean.

So, today, you have the lamb sacrificed, you have the blood in a bowl, figurately. What do you do? Just say, "Jesus I accept what you did for me. Please forgive the evil in me. Thank you for being the mark over my heart, that I am kept safe from plagues. Amen!" 

What have you just done? You have bought yourself life insurance on your soul for eternity. Today it is COVID, tomorrow it could be something else. But now you now have hope - the hope of a pass-over; the hope that God protects you not just on earth but in your after-life as well. 😊

8 Gifts That Don't Cost a Dime

Let's all try to give at least one of these gifts every day. I know it's easy to just brush it off, but it really truly does make a difference in your life and the life of the person you give the gift to :)

1. THE GIFT OF LISTENING...
But you must REALLY listen.
No interrupting, no daydreaming,
no planning your response.
Just listening.

2. THE GIFT OF AFFECTION...
Be generous with appropriate hugs,
kisses, pats on the back, and handholds.
Let these small actions demonstrate the
love you have for family and friends.

3. THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER...
Clip cartoons.
Share articles and funny stories.
Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."

4. THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE...
It can be a simple
"Thanks for the help" note or a full sonnet.
A brief, handwritten note may be remembered
for a lifetime, and may even change a life.

5. THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT...
A simple and sincere,
You look great in red," "You did a super job,"
or "That was a wonderful meal"
can make someone's day.

6. THE GIFT OF A FAVOR...
Every day, go out of your way
to do something kind.

7. THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE...
There are times when we want nothing better
than to be left alone.
Be sensitive to those times and give
the gift of solitude to others.

8. THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION...
The easiest way to feel good is
to extend a kind word to someone.
Really, it's not that hard to say,
Hello or Thank You.

The Richest Family in Church.

👇👇👇👇👇

The Rich Family In Church will never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12,and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us
babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to
make three potholders to sell for $1. We made $20 on potholders. That month was the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be about 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering. The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes and felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope.
We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whomever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed. I didn’t even want to go back to church. Every one there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to.
Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people? ”We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church. “Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.” We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary just said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus! 

Eddie Ogan.

👆👆👆👆👆

Little Tea cup☕

I'm a Little Tea Cup.

 Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in a tea cup again without thinking of this. 

There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

 They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.

Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup.

 There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that.

 I don't like it! Let me alone," but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet."

Then WHAM!

 I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was made to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. 

I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!"

 I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet."

When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened.

 He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf-life, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much better," I thought.

But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. 

The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 

"Oh, please, stop it, stop, I cried." He only shook his head and said, "Not yet."

Then suddenly he puts me back in to the oven.

 Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. 

I begged.

 I pleaded.

 I screamed.

 I cried.

 I was convinced I would never make

it. I was ready to give up. 

Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, "What's he going to do to me next?"

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did.

 I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember. 

I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped,

you would have crumbled.

 I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. 

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't

done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.

 Now you

are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing for each of us.He is the potter, and we are His clay.

 He will mould us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be

made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control;

 when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life

seems to "stink", try this.

Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think of this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter..

☕☕

..God Bless You !

Happy steady life!!

Such a beautiful message ...worth reading😍😍!!!

I was jogging this morning and I noticed a person about half a km ahead.

I could guess he was running a little slower than me and that made me feel good, I said to myself I will try catch up with him.

So I started running faster and faster. Every block, I was gaining on him a little bit.

After just a few minutes I was only about 100 feet behind him, so I really picked up the pace and pushed myself. I was determined to catch up with him.

Finally, I did it! I caught up and passed him. Inwardly I felt very good. "I beat him".

Of course, he didn't even know we were racing.

After I passed him, I realized I had been so focused on competing against him that .....

I had missed my turn to my house,

I had missed the focus on my inner peace,

I missed to see the beauty of greenery around,

I missed to do my inner soul searching meditation,
and
in the needless hurry stumbled and slipped twice or thrice and might have hit the sidewalk and broken a limb.

It then dawned on me, isn't that what happens in life when we focus on competing with
co-workers, neighbours,
friends,  family, trying to outdo them or trying to prove that we are more successful or more important and in the bargain
we miss on our happiness within our own surroundings?

We spend our time and energy running after them and we miss out on our own paths to our given destination.

The problem with unhealthy competition is that it's a never ending cycle.

There will always be somebody ahead of you,
someone with a better job,
nicer car,
more money in the bank,
more education,
a prettier wife,
a more handsome husband,
better behaved children,
better circumstances and
better conditions etc.

But one important realisation is that
You can be the best that you can be, when you are not competing with anyone.

Some people are insecure because they pay too much attention to
what others are,
where others are going,
wearing and driving, what others are talking. 

Take whatever you have,
the height, the weight and personality. 
Accept it and realize, that you are blessed. Stay focused and live a healthy life.

*There is no competition in Destiny. Each has his own.*

Comparison AND Competition  is the thief of JOY.
It kills the Joy of Living your Own Life.

*Run your own Race that leads to Peaceful, Happy Steady Life.*

Santa Claus’s Prayer

My dear precious Jesus, I did not mean to take your place,
I only bring toys and things and you bring love and grace.

People give me lists of wishes and hope that they came true;
But you hear prayers of the heart and promise your will to do.

Children try to be good and not to cry when I am coming to town;
But you love them unconditionally and that love will abound.

I leave only a bag of toys and temporary joy for a season;
But you leave a heart of love, full of purpose and reasons.

I have a lot of believers and what one might call fame;
But I never healed the blind or tried to help the lame.

I have rosy cheeks and a voice full of laughter;
But no nail—scarred hands or a promise of the hereafter.

You may find several of me in town or at a mall;
But there is only one omnipotent you, to answer a sinner’s call.

👩‍⚕️👩‍🏫👩‍🎤👱‍♀️WOMEN ARE PRICELESS! 👧👩‍🎓👩‍🎨🤰

She wakes up by 4am but 
You sleep back, she will move straight to the kitchen. She would join morning devotion by 5:30am, start preparing kids by 6:00am, serve everybody food by 7am, take the kids to school and move to her office by 7:30am, go for school runs by 2pm.

She would come back to the house by 5-6pm, start washing of clothes and cooking dinner by 6pm. Serve dinner by 7:30pm, start home work for kids by 8-9pm, Shower and meet you the husband in the room by 9:30pm, discuss with you and catch fun so that you will be in the mood for sex.

And you the husband with your big head will sleep like a king, She will get up to check on the children if they are sleeping well, off the light, Start praying for you and the family by 12am -1am.. 

Sleep a little and wake up again by 4am to start all over again...

And yet we don't respect the ladies in our lives..  change your ways.
Good women are to be celebrated.

Sometimes I feel nature is unfair to you.
But you are a miracle.

It's you who bleeds blood every month with severe pains and crams. Even in those pains, you still have to put things together for a normal day. The cooking, washing, etc.

It's you who carry another human inside you for 9months. The inconvenience, the discomfort, the sacrifice, and carefulness. You sacrifice what makes you happy just to keep another life healthy. 

When it's time to deliver, your life is on the line. It's a 50/50 chance for you. You may live and you may die. But being the life-giver you are, you will choose the life of a new stranger over yours. Even the process is not favorable to you. Either the pains of childbirth or surgery. 

After it all, you still carry yourself up and continue life activities with bandage and pains. But what is miraculous about this all is the smile you put on your face while facing all this.

May God bless every woman out there.
Good women are to be celebrated.

Via: The Pink Revolution.

Tremendous Job

Thank God for your job




'Those who work hard will prosper.' Proverbs 13:4 NLT


Author and motivational speaker Charlie 'Tremendous' Jones tells the story of a man who dreamed he'd inherited a million dollars. In the dream he tried to take a shower, but the shower wouldn't work. He tried to shave, but his shaver wouldn't shave. He tried to make breakfast, but the coffee wouldn't perk and the toaster wouldn't toast. He went to get a newspaper, but the newspaper box was empty. He went to catch the bus to work, but the bus didn't come. Finally, after waiting an hour, he asked somebody, 'What's going on here?' They replied, 'Haven't you heard? Everybody has inherited a million dollars and nobody's working anymore.' Suddenly the man woke up, discovered that it was all a dream, and said, 'Thank God!' So he went and had a tremendous shower, a tremendous shave, a tremendous cup of coffee and a tremendous piece of toast while he was reading a tremendous newspaper. Finally he caught a tremendous bus to a tremendous job!
Thank God for the job he has given you, and put your very best into it. Your position and salary would most likely have been a dream-come-true for some of your ancestors. You may not be called to 'the ministry' per se, but if your job affords you the privilege of being a solution to somebody's problem and offers you the dignity of making a difference in life, be grateful. Imagine what your life would be like without it!
'Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper' (Proverbs 13:4 NLT).

Voice of Jesus📣📢📢

*This is purely my imagination based on Luke 5:1-11. Read on and you imagine too!*

🐟:  Shush....What a crowd inside the net! Hey, don’t push me! I am getting all crushed up… (screaming) aah…

Other fish🐡🐬🦈🐠: No, we don't want to crush you but we too want to jump in!

🐟: It is tight packed in here and there’s hardly any breathing space for us! And you too want to get into this crammed net?!

🐡🐬🦈🐠 to 🐟 : Psst.. Don’t raise your voice, just give a little space and more school of fishes want to come in too! 

🐟  (Choking…) ugh.. You can’t possibly get inside the net… yuh-uh! 

🐡🐬🦈🐠  :Jesus has called us!  We don’t have any option than to submit to His call 

🐟  :Do you know what happens when Jesus calls? 

🐡🐬🦈🐠: Yes, we sure know!!

🐟 : Tell me what?! What is the purpose of Jesus calling you?

🐡🐬🦈🐠 : Ahhh… yes of course! We know Jesus calls us to die!!

🐟: Oooh so you know the purpose of His calling and yet you want to get in here??

🐠: Let me explain what happened. Yesterday night Peter threw his net into the deep water. We all escaped. Some of us went into the narrow hole down in the sea and some of us deposited sand upon us at the bottom of the sea and we hid ourselves! We knew that Peter, James and John were patiently waiting all night to catch us. But every one of us swam away on seeing Peter’s net!

🐟 : Oh I see… How did you know that the net belongs to Peter? 

🐡🐬🦈 : Of course, we have ears to hear the voice of Peter.

🐟 :  Oh.. then what happened? 

🐠 : Jesus had intended to call Peter for His ministry. Through our involvement Peter got much more fishes - actually double the capacity of his net. Still nothing happened to the net and it didn’t tear. If we had gone into Peter’s net a day earlier, some Israelites would have eaten us. In any case, one day we all shall die. If we die for Christ, we will be assisting Jesus in His master plan for the rescue of mankind.  He will be glorified and through our death the mankind would enter heaven. After hearing His voice we all have decided to get into the net even if there is no place inside. The life I have lived so far is enough for me! 

🐟 :  I see … You are too small and too young. You have not enjoyed worldly blessings like living a long life, going around the sea to admire nature, interact with other fishes to learn more of the sea world?!

🐠 : Once I hear the voice of Jesus there cannot continue to enjoy this sea world. 

 Then all the fish are screaming... One more boat had come to help Peter to drag all the fish to the shore! Peter and his friends give up their profession to follow Jesus!

🐡🐬🦈🐠🐟  : Praise the Lord. We have assisted Jesus in His master plan.

                                            *All the fish died happily ever after!*

First - things -first

👌👌👌

I got married at 25, finished my PhD at 27 and became a Professor at 40.

So fast you see! Yes, everything around me worked fast. It is now that I realise that it was a misplaced priority.

My ambition blindfolded me and I got it all wrong, that is why I am sharing my experience through this medium to warn and encourage our young mothers not to be careless as I was back then.

I worked very hard as a lecturer and as an administrator, always so busy that it became my language to my children...."I'm busy"

My mum was around to nurse the children for me for some time. The moment they clocked ten, I sent them to boarding schools, though my husband was not in support of this. I always found my way.

I had no warm relationship with my children, 2 boys and a girl.

I never knew it was a bad idea not to have time for my husband, children and the household, until 5 years ago, when guilt, loneliness and restlessness filled my heart.

I sent for my children to rejoice with me on my 60th birthday.

The two boys, living in Canada said they are "busy" and that their sister will come down from South Africa.

Two days to my birthday, my daughter sent this message to me, "Mum, I am very sorry not to be around over there, there is no time to squeeze out, my husband needs my attention at his newly established clinic and presently, I'm pregnant. "I'm very very busy,
I'm also lonely in a strange land. Please pray for us mum. Happy birthday". I could not recover from the meaning I got from the message.. "First-things-First". When they needed me for warmth and discussion, I was not available, now I needed them for warmth and discussion I could not get them, rather they returned my slogan back to me, "I'm busy"

To worsen the matter, my dear husband died in his sleep a month after. ...Only one of the children came ​without​ his family to the burial ceremony.

I was dumbfounded!!! Considered Opinion: it is good to work and be a hard working fellow.
But hear this important and salient truth:

Parenting is sacrificial work, give it all it takes. Avoid any work that will take away your attention too much from your home - Avoid it and be careful!

SOLIDIFY YOUR HOME FIRST, CREATE TIME FOR YOUR SPOUSE AND CHILDREN.

ESTABLISH THE FEAR OF GOD IN THEIR HEARTS THROUGH YOUR ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR.

THOUGH IT IS COSTLY NOW, THE FUTURE REWARD IS WORTH IT.

THIS IS AN EYE OPENER FOR BOTH MEN & WOMEN.

LET'S BE SELFLESSLY AVAILABLE WHEN OUR CHILDREN NEED US.



Source : unknown