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Consider your ways!

You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled... you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes... Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified" (vv.

4-8 NKJV). When God says "Consider your ways", He invites us to examine our hearts and ask whether there are areas where we have ignored His leading or neglected what He has called us to do.

James 1:17 - the words "no variation or shadow of turning" mean that God is intrinsically good, and He longs to shower your life with His goodness; but to experience it, you must walk in obedience: "No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11 NKJV).

Obedience is your key to victory and blessing.

The title track, "Hands Off, Let God Do His Work" (with a pidgin version), comes from the struggle of praying and then still trying to "help God" - "All my efforts become futile until I get to the point I say, 'Okay, I'm just dropping it at Your feet.'" The decision to release an album came after surgery, during more than a month of recovery when he could only study scripture and watch TV - "If God has given it to you, it's timing.

You can't help God." The track "Suddenly" was born from the medical challenges his first son faced as a newborn - spending so much at the hospital, trusting God day and night - and God's unexpected provision of resources "suddenly from nowhere." His son is now in his twenties. On AI: "AI can help you...

Don't be lazy. But AI cannot do what God has told you... Fantastic doesn't mean it's blessed by God."

On secular artists featuring on gospel projects: "Would I do that? No... I'm kind of what you would call an old-school Christian." The album dropped in June on all major streaming platforms; more songs are written, each set to have a Pidgin version.

(Source: firstpost.com - "Saudi seeks Israel's help against Houthis after Pakistan stresses limits of defence pact")

Before I met Christ, my ambition was to be the youngest Vice Chancellor in Africa: at a very young age I became acting Head of the Mathematics Department at a Federal university in Nigeria and had completed the interview process to become a full professor when God called me into full-time ministry.

I never became the youngest VC, but today many VCs call me Daddy - and God has started a university through me by His grace.

Following Christ closely is the only way to discover purpose: until God's light shone on Paul he was living contrary to God's plan while thinking he was fulfilling it.

Some people are actively climbing career and ministerial ladders leaning on the wrong wall, only to realize at the top they laboured in a space God never called them into. Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.

Suddenly I felt an overwhelming joy and energy at the same time. And in an instant my eyes were directed to a vision: I saw a lady walking and then I heard a voice telling me that this lady was going to hell.

The energy in my physical body burst and triggered me to start running towards the direction I saw the lady.

I ran with an unexplained urgency in an attempt to save this lady. I was not in control of my body - I was conscious of my environment but not in control of my body. It was like fire and electricity but it never hurt. I was held down for some time; I almost bit my friend holding me down - all that was on my mind was to save this lady I saw.

Later I was calmed. This is my story of how the anointing flowed through my body. I never remained the same.

He only knew "Our Father who art in heaven," which stopped working - until his grandmother taught him a different prayer that showed him he could pray against the things that came after him at night, and it worked: prayer and God defeated those evil things and returned his sweet sleep.

(In a follow-up post he lists the movies that drove him to prayer: Medusa/Clash of the Titans, The Omen (Damien), Hammer House of Horror, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead, House, The Exorcist, Hauwa, Willie Willie Hot Cash, Abiku, Ishawaru, old Nollywood ghost movies and Wishmaster - the one that finally made him divorce horror movies forever.)

Some appealed to traditional values - but those are historically tied to religious beliefs; some appealed to ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt) - but those were deeply religious societies whose morals were tied to their gods. The OP also notes atheists raised in conservative backgrounds judge the same acts differently from Western atheists, concluding that people are shaped by their society and often benefit from moral frameworks created by religious tradition while rejecting the foundation - "If this is not hypocrisy, I don't know what else to call it."

Advice to would-be atheists: don't raise children without a strong moral and religious framework.

(2) How is a world begun in shadow consistent with a wholly good God? The good God has a good shadow under which the world may abide safely (Psalm 91:1). (3) Why would a loving God invent a place of endless torment? In love He gathers all torments into that one place so there will be no more torment anywhere else.

(4) Is punishing finite sins with infinite pain just or cruel? No sin is finite if its wages is death; every offence is infinite unless love, mercy, justice or forgiveness nullifies it; even a cruel design can be just, since it is a sentence in death where no days measure duration.

(5) If God foreknew who would end in hell, why make them? Why prepare food you know will end in the pit? Adam and Eve could have kept everyone from hell by avoiding one tree; to stop making humans because they might end in hell would end the human race.

The only remedies are the Second Adam as Savior, and the ending of the world. (6) Would mercy not spare them? Mercy did and does spare us - but many do not believe what God foresaw nor regard the mercy He sent; mercy without faith could not save them.

People sacrifice their time, peace, relationships, values, integrity and sometimes their lives in pursuit of it; for many, money has become the source of identity, security, power and happiness.

Money itself is not evil - it is a tool - but when its pursuit takes the place that belongs to God, that tool becomes an idol.

The devil doesn't always need to convince people to reject God openly; sometimes all he needs is to give them something else to place above God. Money can buy comfort but not peace; open doors but not guarantee purpose; provide a house but not create a home; extend opportunities but not give eternal life.

The real question is "What has taken the highest place in my heart?" Whatever we place above God - money, power, fame, possessions, even ourselves - quietly becomes the god we worship. "Let money serve you, but never let money become your God."

Last last, even after making payment, nothing changed - that was where I gave up on church. From that time till now, I see 99% of Nigerian pastors as thieves and fake. I don't think I will ever go to church again, except for my wedding - if not, nothing will ever take me there.

An elderly (83-year-old) white man bought one of his paintings at a steep discount, then commissioned close to 1.3 million naira of work; the man's young Senegalese wife took a liking to the OP and suggested he move into an unused room in her mother's compound.

"Na so I entered real spiritual war from that day. Witchcraft is REAL." [Story continues in the thread.]