#Relate 008: Edward Bok

“Edward Bok came from Holland as a boy with his parents. He was imbued with the idea that someday he was going to run a magazine. With this specific goal before him he was able to seize upon an incident so trivial that with most of us it would have passed unnoticed.

He saw a man open a package of cigarettes, take a slip of paper from it, and drop the paper on the floor. Bok stooped and picked up the scrap of paper. On it was a picture of a famous actress. Below the picture was a statement that this was one of a series. The cigarette buyer was urged to collect the complete set of pictures. Bok turned the piece of paper over and noticed that the back side was perfectly blank.

Bok’s mind filled as it was with a purpose sensed an opportunity here. He reasoned that the value of the picture enclosed in the package of cigarettes would be greatly enhanced if the blank side were devoted to a brief biography of the person pictured. He went to the lithograph firm which printed the enclosure and explained his idea to the manger. The manager promptly said:

‘I’ll give you ten dollars each if you will write me a hundred word biography of a hundred famous Americans. Send me a list, and group them- you know: presidents, famous soldiers, actors, authors, and so on.’

This is the way Edward Bok got his first literary assignment. The demand for his short biographies became so great that he needed help, so he offered his brother five dollars each if he would help him. Before long, Bok had five journalists busy turning out biographies for the lithograph presses. Bok- he was the editor!” (Success Through A Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill)

The starting point of all achievement is through a positive mental attitude. ‘What the mind can conceive and believe- the mind can achieve.’  Because you know what you want there’s a tendency for you to get on the right track and into action. Action now becomes fun and the more you think of it, the more enthusiastic you become. Then you become alerted to opportunities that will help you achieve your objectives and because you know what you want to, you are more likely to recognize these opportunities as they present themselves in your everyday experiences. #Relate.

The Full Armor

Armor is a protective metal covering, as against weapons usually worn during warfare. The Christian life is a warfare "...For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms..." The Full Armor of God Comprises of The Belt of Truth, The Breast plate of righteousness, The Feet with peace, The Shield of Faith. The Helmet of Salvation, The Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and Prayer
The Belt of Truth
Truth is that which is consistent, faithful and dependable, God himself is truth and Jesus is truth personified. You live in truth with the strength of the Holy Spirit and believing God's word that has the quality of being true.
Mary Mary said "First comes the match, and then the smoke and then the fire, You feel the flames and then it burns and take you over, it keeps coming down like an explosion...We gotta tell the truth." Believing the truth isn't enough, telling the truth isn't enough either but living the truth give you no guilt, makes to confident and ready at all times to face battles and fire.
The Breastplate of Righteousness.
This is the state of being saved from sin, being innocent that is revealed by God through faith and works... "For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
The Feet of Peace.
Wearing the feet of Peace means being free from trouble, or disturbance
to become reconciled with God and man. Having no grudge against anyone and living a life of forgiveness. This is an act of putting right what has been done wrongly; it brings favor and causes speedily answers to prayer from God. With Peace and Restitution there's fearlessness, healing and heavenly provision.
The Shield of Faith.
Without Faith we can do nothing...the shield of faith is used to denote both trust and reliance in God. And Faith in God brings understanding of his character, will and purposes. It is a gift from God given to all who seek salvation from the Lord..."take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil ones". The bible gives an example in James 2:14-20, It says that if a brother or sister is naked and hungry and someone says to them "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?"... It doesn't make any difference cause Faith without works is dead. Faith in God must go with works for God, Remember that "...the faith that fades is faded already." So Have faith through hearing God's word and keep it with some works of faith.
The Helmet of Salvation.
Salvation means a victory in battle, recovery from illness and relief of the poor and needy...it includes physical and spiritual healing, forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. It restores to us, God's love and relationship to us.
Salvation can also means redemption from sin, it brings a real encounter with Jesus Christ, causes Joy unspeakable, it gives the holy spirit as a friend and as a living water to quench all taste, It makes every man a new creature and creates reconciliation between God and man, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is confessing with thy heart and believing with that heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
The Sword of the Spirit
This is the Word of God, that is from God and centered on Jesus who is the word made flesh...the word of God is the source of Creation and the origin to the call to service that holds power even when it is written down
The Word of God is our Spiritual weapon, made through inspiration from God and for our usage. Knowing the word of God, gives wisdom and salvation through faith, and it was made for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness and "That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:17).
Prayer
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the entire Lord's people."
Prayer creates a heart that is constantly in the state of gratitude, awesome and desire to God. It lifts God up, causes us to master his unfailing promises, and masters his promises and more over his presence.
When Trails and Temptations, Worries and Fears, Troubles and Sorrows come put on the full armor of God, so that...you may be able to stand your ground.

#Relate 007: When Your Past

To stay happy when your past hunts you, do not treat them anger. Treat them with enough love. You were the one who made the mistakes.

#Relate 006: One Choice: Two Options

Add capOne Choice:Two Options
Source: Jefferson Vann

Discipline

Discipline is being obedient, having self control, control over your life, doing what is right and believing it. It requires you to put up a fight against yourself whenever you about to get on the dark road again.
Some things may seem nice to do but the same things may be a challenge to your next lesson. Self control wins the race of life for us when we have it because "The first and the best victory is to conquer yourself." Plato. But Indiscipline breeds losses, confusion and disgrace, like Aristotle say "What it lies in our power to do also lies in our power not to do."Cain lost control of his anger and ended up in the land of curses.Samson lacked self control and ended up in losing his honor and oil.David lacked discipline and ended up losing his throne and dignity for a season. Solomon lost self control over women and ended up with a divided kingdom. Gehazi lost control over his financial appetite and lost his future, glory and health.
Judas could not control his spirit and ended up committing suicide.

"Have you seen a student who wants to move up to the next class, and refuses to write the promotional exam? (Get Discipline) Because challenges are like exams that makes you get to the next class; taking off means you don't want to get promoted " Pst. Chris… but the worth of our lives comes not in what we do or whom we know but as someone special by what you define yourself as and who you want to belong to the Maker or the Breaker? “So Life without challenges is like a school without classes, you won't learn any lessons” so what do you do when you're faced with all those problems that may seem to crumble you? (Try This! Crumbled a $100.00 bill, and check if it changes it value, does it? No, it doesn't) ...So Get Disciplined! You've got control over your life; show those problems you can kick them off, don't go looking for the next exit, don’t do nothing and let fear take over you, embrace yourself and pass the examination for you are worth your value because with discipline there's success, glory and excellence.
Be submissive to the authority; learn to obey rules at school, at home, in church, neighborhood, country and the world as a whole. Remember that what is wrong is wrong and that which is right, Is. Don't compromise anything. Obey your parents and "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." Hebrews 13:17.

God has placed people over you for certain reasons so don't think you're smarter than you leaders, pastors, teachers or parents, be submissive to everyone in other to maintain your excellence. Remember God does not tolerate indiscipline, Have control over your spirit for "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." Proverbs 16:32. Jim Rohn says that "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."
See You don't have to keep up with masturbation, with pornography, you don't have to hide behind sex, you don't have to take your life, stop cutting yourself, stop punishing yourself, stop looking down on people, let the malice go, forgive someone, treat your mother right, forget what your father did to you, say no to thoughts that try to control you, be strong, don’t live afraid, don't let people break you down, is your Joy to express, don't allow the circumstances around you to define who you are! You are not a failure.
“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish his object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as well as heavenly things. Even the man whose object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object; and how much more so he who would realize a strong and well-poised life." James Allen.

#Relate 005: Self-Control

"You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life". Dr. James Bilkey.
"He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." (Proverbs 25:28).
An Icelandic Proverb says "He who lives without season dies without honor."
"When you cannot control your time, what you read, how you sleep, where you go, what you wear, what you say, or when you cannot control your sexual appetite, food or temper, then you are like a city without walls and your name will be changed to confusion at last!" Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe.

#Relate 004: Walking on Water.

Every individual lives with an expectation of achieving certain goals in life that may seem like walking on water and impossible. In pursuit of these goals and aspirations, we face challenges which must be overcome in order for us to succeed. Jesus in passing through this world experienced all kinds of adversity and deprivation that we go through and so He is able to help us in our time of need. Remembering that “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.” And bringing this home to our personal life we can do the impossible, framing how things go with us from day to day by speaking forth God’s word with Faith and Hope.

#Relate 003: Cobhams

Cobhams, A songwriter, In one of his songs said “When you watch CNN and Sky and all these stations you tend to see … (different things), and I’m like through it all God is God and through it all God knows what’s best for us as humans and we only see a fraction of the big picture, which is what he sees.” He also asked that “Have you read the papers do you hear what they say?, rising unemployment and cost of living every day is getting high, another suicide bomber in a bus with thirteen kids, Kind of makes me wonder what those children ever did. Yet we still go to church and sing shout to the lord and we lift up holy hands and we are reading his word … but that doesn’t change the fact that God is God anyway... but in every situation I still chose to worship ...”

#Relate 002: Be Prepared.

"Soldiers are not trained during the time of war rather; they get trained before war... The boys’ scout motto reads: Be prepared. Its letting you know: you don’t prepare for trouble in the day of trouble; you’ve got to be proactive. This is the reason you ought to embolden your spirit with the word of God, Day in, day out; Such that when adversity comes you’re prepared to handle it.

When My Roots Are Too Deep!

A man visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to dry up for lack of water. The man giving the tour took the man to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly “These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks,” he said. ‘You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest rooted trees in the area. While other scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.”

Don’t be swept by the flood or drought or whatever is going in the world around you. The Lord in His mercy has shown us the only way of withstanding the floods of life; Jesus in Lk 6 : 47-49 showed us the way of standing strong in the face of various problems of life (Lk 6:47-49) says “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

Soldiers are not trained during the time of war rather; they get trained before war. The boys’ scout motto reads: Be prepared. Its letting you know: you don’t prepare for trouble in the day of trouble; you’ve got to be proactive. This is the reason you ought to embolden your spirit with the word of God, Day in, day out; Such that when adversity comes you’re prepared to handle it.
Getting your roots deep in God’s word is doing his word, (James 1:22-23) says “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:” … this verse likened the word of God to a mirror that reflects exactly who we are. Therefore, the person who does the word is the one who looks into the word of God (the mirror) and acts accordingly. So we endorse what we see in the word by doing it, going deeper and acting in accordance with the Word irrespective of our feelings or what you’re going through and declaring in our mouth, the picture of ourselves that we see in the word.
Getting your roots deep in God’s word trains you to handle life’s challenges before they come? I challenge you today to build your faith strong with the word of God, because you need the word to deal with the issues of life! Begin today to consciously and voraciously store the word of God in your heart, so that when crisis comes knocking, you will be standing with deep roots.
A foundation upon the rock, a life rooted in God’s word, a life lived according to the word of God is the only solution Jesus gave as a means of withstanding crisis that we are face, be it floods, drought, fear, sickness, financial problems, temptations and anything that comes our way ; only that life whose foundation is in Christ will stand and not be shaken … like Cobhams remembering that God is still God in every situation and that we ought to still give God praise in everything Because it is not “FOR” but ‘IN everything we should give thanks.’ And that praise should not only come when all is seemingly okay.
Is your foundation on the rock? How serious do you take God’s word? The Lord Jesus loves you and has shown the way to stand against the flood…You need to come back to Jesus and Obey Him; only those whose foundations are rooted in God’s word will stand the vehemence of floods. But you can decide now to place your life in his hand, and fix your foundation on the rock, because in Christ you become unshakable by the floods. SO forsake your sin and surrender to Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Savior because he is ready to accept you. There is no time to delay. For WHEN MY ROOTS ARE TOO DEEP, I'M INDESTRUCTIBLE.

Light Landened.

God didn’t intend life to be filled with worries but his intentions towards life, is for us to have a good life and have it abundantly. Life with a heavy burden like guilt, depression and sin is not worth living and that’s why He shows to us comfort, strength, love, grace and mercy, through salvation which encompasses everything he offers to us. Being saved, there’s a mandate to live a life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, which are the confirmations of the God’s Spirit that dwells in us. The natural life we live should be based on the new life God has promised us if we have accepted Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:1) says “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” for Jesus shed his blood for us, and all we need to do now is to come unto him whose yoke is easy and burden is light and trade all our burdens for rest, a life that has no condemnation but redemption from guilt and the power of sin for “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 1:17). If you study the lives of people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you’ll find that no matter how they started, they ended up living a glorious life and as Abraham’s descendants our story should be even more glorious.

Salvation could mean a victory in battle, recovery from illness, relief to the poor and needy. It is God’s creation of a new being, a new life, new hope based on comfort, assistance, mercy, freedom, restoration, glory, invitation, redemption, and an everlasting salvation. It is from God and it’s centered on Jesus: it includes physical and spiritual healing, forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life, adoption as a child of God and the gift of the indwelling Spirit. God has provided a perfect way of restoration and redemption. He sent his son, Jesus Christ so that anyone who accepts him becomes restored and delivered and he becomes a new creature. (John 3:16). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
There are those who say life is filled with ups and down but we have been called to a better life, a life where we would not have to worry about our past mistakes, because Jesus has wiped off all of our old records and has given us a new page to start. The Light laden which comes through salvation repairs us and makes us a brand new creation, more than a conqueror over sin and the cares of this world and all our guilt been wiped off. When we accept Christ into our hearts, a new life, a light burden and an easy yoke, the very gift of God is infused into our spirits and we become totally new. So we live in salvation with a light laden and we would not have to worry if we rest and truth only in God who is control.

Read original by owhorspecial.

#Relate 001: Enjoy the Juice!

“A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests juice, the professor went to the kitchen, and returned with a large pitcher of juice and an assortment of glasses porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some exquisite telling them to help themselves to the delicious juice. When all the students had a glass of juice in hand, the professors said. “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive glasses were taken up, leaving behind the plain and the cheap ones, while it is normal for each of you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was juice, not the glass, but you consciously went for the best glasses and were eyeing each other’s glasses… Now’ if life is juice, then the jobs, money and position in society are the glasses they are just tolls to hold and contain Life, but the quality of life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the glass, we fail to enjoy the juice in It.” So, don’t let the glasses drive you… enjoy the juice instead. Life is a Gift- Get the best of it.”