This is a guest blog post by Yaw Ansong  of loverealm.org. Check out loverealm on Facebook. Check out their new website as well…it launches TODAY!

It was a bright Saturday morning. My local Christian fellowship had organized two busses. I was however late and thus had to join one of my university mates in his car. The day had finally arrived: It was evangelism day. We sat in his car and off we left. As we drove towards the local college to evangelize, we were stopped at a police barrier. “Produce your driver’s license,” He said. My mate had left his license. The policeman asked us to get off the car. Hard as we pleaded, this man was relentless and would not let us go. I then had an inner feeling of abandoning my friend by boarding another car, perhaps a taxi. I however knew inwardly that this was not right, and therefore dismissed the thought. Eventually, the police let us go.

As we drove towards the college, I thought to myself: “It really pays to be steadfast!” What If I had abandoned my friend, and in that attempt failed to get a taxi to transport me. Would my friend have let me join his car when he was left to go? Indeed, I ask my readers, would you let me join your car if you were in his shoes? I guess not! Why then are modern day Christians abandoning God, and naively expecting to be with him when his son appears?

I envision Christianity as a journey, with the body of Christ as the vehicle that transports us. Our final destination is heaven, and on this vehicle is God the father, who is the driver. The Holy Ghost is our aide and we are the passengers in this vehicle. On this journey are barriers, storms and glitches. Christians today, having been faced with challenges during this journey, get down from the car of God, and automatically end up in that of the devil. Obviously, the driver of this vehicle (the devil) has a different destination, and his car automatically leads to hell. My friends, I solemnly warn you, do not expect to be in Heaven if you turn your backs on God. Jesus himself said that:

“… No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 10:62

Do not be deceived, what a man sows, he shall reap. No man can therefore unrepentantly turn his back on God, regardless of past achievements, and expect to be accepted by him in the coming kingdom. These are the words of Jesus:

“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26

Remember that a servant who is 95% faithful to his master is still unfaithful. There is no such thing as a part-time loyal to Jesus Christ, therefore, whenever you are tempted to backslide, think twice! What do you think?

About the author

 
Yaw Ansong Jnr is a Christian entrepreneur with the personal vision and mission of sharing the gospel via modern technology. He is the co-founder and CEO of LoveRealm ministry.

This is a guest blog post by Yaw Ansong  of loverealm.org. Check out loverealm on Facebook. Check out their new website as well.

…Because you will be accountable to him someday. As humans, we all have our unique skills and abilities. We all have our areas of expertise as well as weaknesses. Though we may share certain similarity in traits, we all have our unique ways of doing things. I therefore appreciate the gaps in our abilities and have a strong conviction that God gave each of us different abilities to help in producing a strong and whole church. Romans 12:6 (NLT) says that:

“God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you.”

We would therefore be poor stewards if we ignored the special abilities God has given to us. Yes, believe it or not, every Christian is a steward. A steward is basically a caretaker, a servant in charge of his master’s possessions. He is the one who takes charge of his master’s house and trains its people. He directs and shows them what to do on behalf of his master. The master therefore inquires not of the servants or of the other people in the house, rather of the steward. As Christians, God has entrusted so much to us. As I read through scripture, I found this to be mind-blowing! He trusts and loves us so much! Indeed, he has not just made us stewards but has gone to the extreme of making us his children, thus making us automatic heirs to all his property. It’s so wonderful, and I never cease to be amazed by this God that we serve. Like Paul, I say;

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” Ephesians 1:3

Indeed, it is this thought, which amazed and puzzled David so much, that he exclaimed:

Psalm 8:4-6 KJV
“ What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet”

God has blessed us with spiritual gifts, sonship and specific human abilities. I can go on and on and on about the all the things that God chooses to gift us with, all because of the divine love and trust he has for us. It will therefore be very heartrending if we break this trust that God has for us. This is why he will hold each and every one of us accountable for whatever he has entrusted to us.

“So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Romans 14:12

At this point you may be wondering, what at all will God (the master) inquire of us (His caretakers) on the Day of Judgment? The answer is very simple: He will inquire of how faithful we have been, period. I have a very simple definition for faithfulness: It is what you do when no one is watching. This is because, when no one is watching, you are at liberty to do whatever pleases you. The one who does the will of his master in his absence, he is faithful! We must therefore be faithful stewards of all God has given us. Be it a spiritual gifting, our marriage, the work of God or our own possessions. According to Jesus, the good and faithful servant will be rewarded, however the unfaithful steward will be punished and beaten with many stripes (Luke 12:42-48).

My fellow readers, God loves and trusts us so much that he has entrusted to us many things, things so numerous that the unfaithful steward will not be forgiven on the Day of Judgment. How then should I conclude: Whenever you are using/misusing the gift God has given to you, remember that you will one day give account to the omnipotent God. What do you think?

About the author

 
Yaw Ansong Jnr is a Christian entrepreneur with the personal vision and mission of sharing the gospel via modern technology. He is the co-founder and CEO of LoveRealm ministry.

This is a guest blog post from Gracezyl Blanco. She gives some amazing advice we all need to implement in our lives. Don’t leave it as platitudes. Make sure you figure out how it can work in your life….

Yes, we all admit that our daily modern lives are very fast-paced and are both mentally and physically draining. In other words, it can get really STRESSFUL. Nowadays, we do everything in a hurry- we just grab breakfast with instant or ready-made pancakes/waffles and coffee, get inside the car with breakfast still at hand and drive on towards the work place. After work, there’s not much energy and time left to make a decent homemade meal so we just buy meals from the nearest fast-food restaurant, eat it and sleep. On the next day, we are bound to repeat the same activities.

Most of our lives are merely a work-home or school-home cycle with almost all our hours devoted to work or studying. I’m not saying that working and studying are bad, but overdoing it can lead to stress and eventually, it will take over our lives. Naturally, we work and study to be able to afford a decent and comfortable lifestyle in the near future. We need to invest in both if we want to buy the stuff we want or need and afford the little luxuries we want to experience in life. More so, we need to earn to support our families soon enough.

However, as a modern Christian, it is never an excuse to forget our duties to the Lord just because we are too busy with our own lives. Remember, everything is not in place (your work, your family and your achievements) if it weren’t because of Him.
Additionally, let us remember what is written in Luke 16:13- No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love theother, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Below are 7 ways to live a stress-free Christian life. They are just simple reminders for us to pause and contemplate what the Lord has done for our lives and appreciate Him for everything He provided.

1.) Time for a time out.

2 Timothy 3:16- All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
Weekends are great days to spend some time with the family. Aside from that, it is also the best time to attend and devote an hour or two on attending a Church service. The Lord devotes all His time for us, why shouldn’t we? Learning about His love and words will deeply strengthen family ties too!

2.) Give Thanks!

1 Thessalonians 5:18- Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Even after a long and tiring day, think about the things you are grateful of. Your family, your job, the pizza treat from your boss and that colleague who helped you out on a certain task. Realizing how blessed you are will lessen the stress and you’ll find yourself more happy and eager about your day to day activities.

3.) Don’t hold grudges.

Matthew 5:43-48- You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Holding any kind of grudge or hatred is actually emotionally stressful. As humans, it is natural for us to feel angry when someone has done something really wrong on us. Sometimes, we go as far as taking revenge just to make the anger and frustration worth it, but is revenge really worth it? The best thing to do is to keep your ease, let go of the pain and anger and just let God deal with it. That way, you’ll be able to live a stress-free and lighter life.

4.) Offer everything to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58- Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
In whatever you do, remember that it’s not just for self-fulfilment but it is also for the people you love and care for the most- your family, your friends and God of course!

5.) Trust in His plans.

Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Sometimes, God’s plans for us are not in accordance to our own plans and this can cause us distress especially if we are working so hard for it but the end result is still negative. However, we should not be discouraged, everything happens for a reason. Just trust that God has better plans for us than what we have expected, and it would be less stressful for you!

6.) Make a confession.

James 5:16- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Sins and other troubles are heavy on the heart and mind especially if they are not confessed to anyone. Best to confess with your local priest or pastor at least every month just to clear off your mind from all the negativity that stress can bring. Your local priest or pastor can also help you out with practical advices and guidance for heavy emotional and personal problems. Confessing your woes and troubles will certainly leave you more light hearted and free from stress!

7.) Love yourself!

In the second commandment, God said ‘Love your neighbour as you LOVE YOURSELF’. So basically, it is implied that God expects us to love ourselves even though it is not explicitly said in the bible. As implied, you cannot love your neighbours or anyone for that matter if you don’t love and appreciate yourself first.

AUTHOR BIO

Gracezyl Blanco works alongside Churchgoers Choir Robes as a content writer and manager. Born and raised as a Christian, she continues to live and serve the Lord accordingly by attending Sunday masses and being active in her local bible study group at Jesus Our King Church. In her free time, she loves to sharpen her skills in Social Media management and read historical and fictional literature.

Prayer never is enough when God tells us to do certain things. He’s told us to keep meeting together. It’s for our encouragement. He’s told us to think on the good not the bad. He’s told us to stop thinking like the world and renew our minds.

When we take responsibility for our thoughts and actions, God does amazing things. Why not check out the Negativity Fast? It might help you over time.

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Do you have more advice to share? Encourage him in the comments.

This is a guest blog post from Aaron Lange. Learn more about him in the bio. If you ever guest blog for me be sure to add links in your bio for people to connect with you.

The scent of grandma’s peach cobbler, the unmistakable sound of Pat Benatar belting out “Battlefield,” a yellowing Polaroid of a small child clutching a tattered teddy bear. Nostalgia can be triggered by just about anything, and new research reveals that it may give much more than the warm fuzzies.

A 2012 study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research found that nostalgia can increase our overall self-esteem, give us a sense of connectedness and fortify our perception of the meaning of life. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Southampton took the study even further, bridging feelings of nostalgia to heightened charitable giving. Participants were more interested in donating to earthquake victims if they had first been asked to think about a nostalgic event. Another Southampton study found that nostalgia is so powerful, that it has the ability to make us physically warmer. The study had participants rate their perception of a room’s temperature (after being placed in rooms of varying temp) after being exposed to nostalgic stimulation, and those with the strongest nostalgic thoughts consistently perceived warmer temperatures, despite the actual climate.

Nostalgia seems to make us more empathetic, less lonely, happier and apparently warmer. Emotion and reason seem to agree that tapping into your nostalgic side is a great way to celebrate and thrive, so don’t forget to pay homage to your favorite memories before they slip away:

Bring New Digital Life to Old Media

You probably have yellowing photo albums, spools of homemade films and tattered envelopes of negatives you haven’t looked at in years. Print and film is notoriously fragile. Converting film into digital copies allows you to be nostalgic and preserve those memories. Most of us don’t have the time or technological expertise to scan and retouch all of our old family media to digital, but professional services do it for you. Costco or Walgreens can digitize old slides and prints for as low as 29 cents per image. You can transform your unorganized boxes of media, including prints, negatives, slides, VHS and 8mm to DVD at Dig My Pics.

Treat Your Ears to Old Tunes

When you’re stuck in traffic, at the gym, on a walk, running errands or doing chores, treat your ears to the good old days. Browse iTunes and create playlists devoted to your favorite songs from the past. Reminding yourself of your wedding, your grade-school musical or the rock concert you snuck out to see in high school is a surefire way to bring a smile to your face. If you can’t remember the songs that framed your youth, YouTube has channels devoted to every era.

Let Your Nose Know

Scent is the most powerful sense associated with memories. Taking a walk in freshly cut grass might be enough to trigger the excitement you felt when you rounded home plate and won the district championship for your team. Or, perhaps it has been awhile since you’ve let yourself indulge in a pecan pie, but making one from scratch will take you right back to grandma’s kitchen. Sometimes smells are hard to recreate, but scent nostalgia is so powerful that it has even prompted designers like Tobias Wong to create newsprint scented candles ($65) and companies like Demeter to produce crayon scented cologne spray (21.99).

About the Author

Name: Aaron Lange
Bio: A Web designer and adjunct professor, Aaron shares the latest blogging tips and trends.

In this episode of RevTrev TV I talk about how you can hear God.

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If you have questions for future episodes of RevTrev TV contact me. 

This is a guest blog post from Paul Brake. Find out more about him below.

God Bless you all. There are many opinions in the world. Ever since I received Jesus Christ as my personal saviour and got baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins in accordance with Acts 2:38-39, the Holy Spirit has moved me to always ask the question “what is God’s Opinion”. In every conversation and on every topic that question now arises. Now let us apply that question to the idea of “who is Jesus Christ, and how do I recognize him in my life”?

A good start is to see what the Bible says about him. I believe, as does every true Christian, that the Bible is the Word of God, unfailing and perfect. The Bible is our absolute. When it moves we move, when it stops, we stop.

Hebrews 13: 8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

This is a very interesting concept spoken here. This concept will anwer our question perfectly. It says that Jesus Christ is the same, unchanging, thoughout all time. This is a vital concept for Christians. Since Jesus Christ is the same and unchanging, if we want to know who he is today, we just have to find out who he was yesterday. If we want to recognize him in our lives today, we just need to know how to recognize him yesterday. This sound complicated but we have a valuable tool, the Bible.

So to know who Jesus is today lets look to see who he was in the days of his earthly ministry. Looking into the scriptures you will note a few characteristics of Jesus immediately. First of all you will see that he was wholely dependent on the Spirit of God and did not rely on his flesh. He said the Spirit gives life and the flesh profits nothing. Secondly you will see that he was led by the Holy Spirit of God in visions. That may surprise some so here is the scripture on it.

John 5: 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Jesus Saw a vision of everything he did before he did it. So this tells us that Jesus operates in the spiritual realm and not the carnal realm. He is the same yesterday today and forever so he is still operating in the realm of the spirit. That is why the world is missing him today. They, as the Pharisees and Saducees of old, are relying on the carnal, the physical, and missing the spiritual. There was Jesus Christ, in him dwelling the fullness of the godhead bodily, vindicating every single promise in the scriptures about him, and the theologically educated missed it completely. And yet we find a little woman at the well, lost in sin, sees one miracle and recognizes him as a prophet and the Messiah.

What else can we determine about Jesus? He was a healer. He was the resurection. He was the forgiver of sins. He was the deliverer. So if Jesus Christ is the same, then he must still be all those things today. Verily if you want to see Jesus Christ in your life, examine your life by the Bible and see where it lines up. My, I’m already over 500 words and I haven’t even began. So lets leave it at that for now. Jesus Christ is today exactly what he was 2,000 years ago. He does today what he did yesterday, the way he did it yesterday. Every promise in the Bible is for you!

If you are sick. He is your healer. If you are lost, he is your saviour. If you are oppressed, he is your deliverer. Every move of God in our lives today will have a matching example somewhere in the Bible. If your experience does not line up with the Bible, I would question the experience. Seek, knock, ask believing and you will see the power of the Lord Jesus Christ manifest in your life. That is his eternal promise.

God bless you all richly.

My name is Paul Brake and I am a Gospel Preacher. My ministry, as part of the five fold ministry outlined in Ephesians Chapter 4, is that of a teacher. My work relies heavily and solely in the Scriptures, expounding the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Connect with me at http://gods-opinion.com/wp/

Which one is a lie? Three of them I hold true

1. I secretly trained as a ninja.
2. I often am a ghost.
3. I was an alien.
4. I am a chubby bunny guru and can stuff 38 marshmallows in my mouth.

The answer might surprise you.

I also answer questions people have asked me including:

How can I hear from God? Is deliverance ministry biblical? How do you know what your calling is?

I’d appreciate your feedback on these answers AS WELL AS your thoughts on if I should be doing video answers for questions more?

Feel free to leave your comments and be free to ask your questions. Thanks to everyone who has already participated.

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Watch all the Coaching Step Videos on YouTube

• Coaching Step 1 – Discover Coaching
• Coaching Step 2 – Is Coaching for You?
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• Coaching Step 4 – Let Your Coach Learn More About You
• Coaching Step 5 – Journey Together With Your Coach

Three Truths and A Lie

I spoke at the Right to Wear White conference on the weekend and the spur of the moment thought had me open with the game “3 Truths and a lie” I’ve had time to work on these a bit and thought it would be fun to see what RevTrev Readers can figure out about me.

Three of these statements are true about me. One of them is a lie. Let me me know which one you think is a lie and why in the comments and I’ll give you the correct answer next week.

1. I secretly trained as a ninja.

2. I often am a ghost.

3. I was an alien.

4. I am a chubby bunny guru and can stuff 38 marshmallows in my mouth.

What 3 are true? Which one is a lie? Tell me in the comments.

Can I pray for you?

Lord, many of us are faced with telling difficult truths. Others of us are living lies. It takes courage to confront and courage to quit. I pray for courage for all of us. Amen.

Next week…

The answer to 3 truths and a lie…