The Free Cheese is in the Mouse Trap.

As a kid back then, I was addicted to watching cartoons especially Tom & Jerry. Even as a grown up, I would sometimes watch them in the office and my colleagues would often tease me calling me a baby. But seriously, I watch them not just because they are hillarious and entertaining, but also educative. It is from cartoons that I got to learn about catching a rat with a bait in a mouse trap. It was really amusing because the mouse always succeded in taking out the cheese without getting hurt. The trap would then end up catching or hurting the fingers of the cat who would set the trap and almost always forgets about it.
The devil uses the same means to trick us into sin.
I used to think that all these mouse and cheese stuff was all stories made up for kids until I did some little research. I realised that rats really do adore cheese and would do almost anything to have it, even the ones in a mouse trap. But you see, cheese isn't really good for the intestines of the mouse due to its high fat content. . Rats are lactose intolerant. (The rat wouldn't know that anyway...hahaha)
I was pondering on this rat and cheese connection and I came to some realisations.

A trap is set to catch a prey. Have you ever gone fishing? The fish doesn't just cling to your hook and say ''Hey, i'm here! and i'll just love to be your dinner''. No, you have to put a bait on the hook, something that the fish would love to eat.
The rat is never a welcomed inhabitant in our houses, and the cats and we humans would constantly prey on them.
Man also has a constant enemy, the devil. he's everywhere with his agents, always looking for people to destroy. He creates horrible situations, circumstances and storms to pull us down. He tempts and lures us with our hearts desires, beautiful things and the pleasures of life, baits. If we fall into satan's traps, it will take only God to effectuate our deliverance.

''Be sober,  be vigilant, because the devil your adversary as a roaring lion walked about seeking whom he made destroy "  (1 Peter 5: 8 ) 
The devil never comes to you as that beast with horns,a tail and a pitch fork in his hand.

He'll come to you as that handsome man, those pretty ladies, some super hero who'll make you believe that your success, future, or life is in his/her hands. He could present as a stranger, a friend, or an aquintance with a ridiculously lucrative business proposal.
I had some interesting observations about this prey & trap things.
- The bait is always free,
- like the cheese, it is always sweet and attractive, nice aroma
- The preys doesn't usually deserve the bait (never worked for it)
- Traps are laid in secret, are set so they can't be seen (Ps 142: 3) (64: 5)

It's common among men to desire free things, want free quick money, free food, free house, free sex, free enjoyment, free and quick promotions, raise or appointments that you never really deserved.
Actually, there's nothing really wrong with recieving free gifts, that's if there are no sinful or wicked motives behind the giving and recieving. God gives free gifts and every one likes gifts, even me.
But God also wants us to work for the things we want.
The problem with many so called ''free things'' these days is that they come with hidden conditions, they are concealed traps. I read horrible stories of young people lured to their death with free offers.
Whenever I get weired offers or even seemingly normal ones, I don't just jump at it like ''hurray! God has just made a way for me!'' No, I ask questions. I also ask my self some questions too like; what does the word of God say about that particular thing?, do I deserve it? is it normal? could there be any hidden intentions behnd this offer? Are there any repercussions/detriments involved, etc. For me,these questions go before the question ''so, what is in it for me?''
Ok, its not like I have all I need in life, far from it. Neither am I trying to sound like a saint. I just like being careful. I cannot begin to count all the dangerous traps the devil has set for me, litttle traps here and there, but God is faithful.
The devil never rests until he sees people fallen and caged. The higher and stronger one gets in life, the more careful one should be.
Satan doesn't give gifts. If at all you get things from him, you pay with your tears, your life and your soul.

Every good and perfect gift is from God.

by Chioma

Woman, Where Are They?

She was somewhere in a secret corner hidden from the sight of her husband and loved ones, enjoying the forbidden embraces, consumed by passion and lost in the pleasure of the moment right in the arms of another man. It might have been her first time or maybe not, but that faithful morning was an unfortunate one for her.
suddenly, the door bursted and a group of furious young men rushed in and dragged her out, maybe half dressed or even naked, nothing was said of her partner in sin. Terrified, and with tears in her eyes, she must have pleaded for mercy but her plea fell on deaf ears as they dragged her out and lead her into the streets leading to the temple court.
As they dragged her through the streets, heads poked out of the windows in curiousity and eyes stirred at her in dissappointment, friends, relatives and family. She was a wife, a mother, how could she have stooped so low.

I wonder what must have been going on in her mind as she shamefully went along with her accusers. Was she thinking of her lost reputation and the shameful death that would soon be her lot, or about her family, her husband whose name she had dragged into the mud and her children whom she had failed and would soon be left motherless. what could she do? her fate wasn't in her hands now. If she ever goes through this, her life would never be the same. She would forever be tagged a whore.

 It was very early in the morning and a crowd had just gathered in the temple courts to listen to the teachings of the great teacher Jesus. The scribes and the pharisees (religious leaders) brought in the adultrous woman. They made her stand in the middle of the temple amidst all the curious eyes, eyes filled with contempt and condemnation. Fright, shame and disgrace was all hers.

The religious leaders said to Jesus ''teacher, this woman was caught in adultry. In the law, moses commanded us to stone such a woman to death, now what do you say?''
Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his fingers. At this point, the woman must have realised that she was just a bait, her lips sealed as she awaited her judgement.

Her accusers persisted and continued to question Jesus in anticipation of a response  Jesus sat up, and said ''If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her''
He continues writing on the floor, there was silence.
The accusers began to depart one after the other from the eldest to the youngest, until only Jesus was left with the woman.
Jesus sits up and asks her ''woman, where are they, has no one condemned you?''
At that momment, she looks up and  finds out that her accusers are gone, unbelievable!
''No one sir, she responds''
''Then neither do I condemn you, go now and sin no more'' Jesus said
Amazing grace!

Stoning to death, was a brutal form of execution in those days . The first stones had to be thrown by the witnesses to the adultry, after that each member of the community in which the two adulterers lived had to come foward and throw a stone. The thinking behind that is that since every person in the community threw stones, no one person could be held responbsible for the death of the pair. This was so, in a society that practised vandetta, and where payback would happen if a killing occuered.
The adultrous woman was brought as a bait to trap Jesus. The religious leaders wanted to know if Jesus would spare her life by condemming the law of moses, or if he would contradict His message of mercy and grace by condemning her to death by stoning.

Jesus reflected the merciful nature of God. He doesn't support sin in any way, he forgives on the condition that we sin no more. We  must not take his grace and mercy for granted.

We have all failed God in one way or the other in the past. There could be things you did in the past that you haven't gotten over or forgiven yourself for, or even forgiven others for. Sometimes you may look at your situation  and feel like there's no hope for you, or you feel so so horrible and dirty.

Jesus is asking you the same question now, ''where are they that accuse you or point fingers ?''

He wants you to open your eyes and see that there's no one there. It's just the devil himself, the accuser of the brethren who enjoys enslaving people, holding them down with the past, and far away from the saving hands of Jesus. devil always reminds us of our past failures.

Grab the amazing grace of God, while you still can, no one knows tomorrow. The grace of God abounds today.

by Chioma Morah

Those Loop Holes.

Talking about rats again, a couple of months just after I moved into my new apartment, I was thrown into a state of misery, mild depression and sleeplessness by rats. They were very bold, heartless and merciless, they roamed around my appartment even in broad daylight. They scattered my things, not only did they bite into every stored food item causing enormous wastage, but they also pooed into everything they saw, even my pot of food!
At nights, it was dreadful because they would scream and screech endlessly. Most disturbing was the sound of them pecking and biting into my window frames and wooden fixtures or trying to drill more holes for their easy movement. It was pretty embarrasing each time I had visitors and one or two rats would come around to say 'hi'
Day and night I pondered on what to do with them rats and how to eradicate them.I bought all sorts of rat traps and yes, it did catch me a couple of rats, but they kept on coming around.

One morning, my next door neighbour came visiting and I complained about the rodents. I was suprised he had never seen any in his flat because our apartments shared the same wall and he lived on the other side of the wall. My neighbour was of the opinion that the rats could be coming from inside my walls not from outside, they could be breeding inside dark isolated holes, and so he suggested that I search for holes and cracks in my walls and seal them up.
I decided to spy on the rats especially at nights. I was shocked to discover so many deep holes on my walls, close to the ceiling, and most of them were inter connected. I watched the rats at night move in and out of the holes  and was also able to detect the main entrance to the breeding ground.
 The next day, I got me some cements, mixed it with sand and began to seal every single hole. Guess what, the night came and my problem was solved. As I lay down on my bed anticipating a sweet peaceful sleep and the dawn of a new rat free day, I could hear them rats biting hard and screeching from inside the walls, they were trapped!  I settled down peacefully to enjoy my appartment.

Every experience I have in Life teaches me something. Thinking about this experience, I learnt something very vital. Like the rats, there are so many unwanted people, things, and reccurent incidents in our lives. There are problems we repeteadly encounter and each time we fight them, we forget to tackle the sources of the problems first.
All that rat poison and rat traps didn't do much for me, until I discovered and destroyed the breeding ground within. I sealed up all those loop holes through which they penetrated my appartment.

Some storms and calamities are not natural. Many atimes, we unconciously leave lots of loop holes for satan to come in and bug our lives and then we keep on wondering what is happening, despite all our prayers, fasting and commitments to God.
According to Rev O.A. Areogun of Life Oasis International Church, Nigeria. ''The devil can't do anything against you until he sees  a loop hole in your life from where he can touch you. Meaning Satan really has no place in your life except the one you give to him''
Loop holes are majorly sin; lies, degeption, all forms of rebellion and disobedience to God, Ignorance and incomplete knowledge of God's word

Screaming, yelling and stumping are not what's required to defeat satan. They will accomplish nothing if you are not living a consecrated life. Negligence in dealing with one's sinful life, secret sins, and weaknesses will continually give your enemies and satan himself the very loop holes he needs to ochestrate your defeat.
Spiritual warfare is serious business 

By Chioma

By Their Fruits you shall know; part 2

A pastor was fighting for his life in early June last year after he was beaten into a coma when condoms fell out of his bible during a preaching session in a bus in lagos, Nigeria. While preaching to the passengers, he was uttering statements such as ''If you wear trousers, you'll go to hell! Make-ups and weavons are from the marine kingdom! If you have pre-marital sex, you will burn in hell!''  While he was preaching and laying hands on passengers (Usual practice of Nigerian bus preachers), two Durex Condoms fell out of his bible.
The angry men in the bus who had been feeling guilty due to the preachings against fornication, suddenly got mad and pounced on him. While they were battering him he started shouting, ''I also preach safe sex, safe sex is good!''  He was beaten into unconciousness before the police arrived.

(Curled from our daily manna, by Dr Chris kwakpovwe.)

After reading this story, I had a good laugh. On the other hand, I gave a serious thought to the story and the different possibilities. That a condom was found in his bible didn't necessarily mean he was commiting adultry or fornication. what if it was meant for his wife? what if he wasn't aware that it was inside his bible, or what if it was a set up. I also pondered on his response when he was being beaten  ''I also preach safe sex! ridiculous! Did he really mean that? or did he just say that out of fear of being beaten to death.
Well, whatever the case is, I grabbed two important lessons here;
First,
 Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest,  neither is anything hidden that will not be made known (Luke  8: 17) 
Secondly,

God knows them that  are  His, those thst name the name of the lord or profess Jesus must stay away from evil or whatever resembles evil "  (11 Tim 2: 19)

Believers are targets of the devil who always wants to oppose God and make God look like a like a liar.

There's a nursery rhyme that says ''He that is down needs fear no fall.....I cant remember the complete lyrics but I remember that song each time I face huge temptation that can make me fall or can lead to my disgrace/shame if not properly handled.
As a believer, It helps to bear in mind that there are lots of things unbelievers can do and get away with it, nasty stuff that they do and no one would raise an eye brow or talk about it, but you cannot dare the same as a child of God. Infact, the very first time you attempt same thing, the devil will not only plot your downfall but will so disgrace you that you'lld not be able to forgive yourself for what you did.

I remember having this discussion with a friend who was upset with her boss. She said to me ''Chi, why is it that everyone in the office does this and gets away with it? why must my own case be different? why does my boss have to confront me and place me on surveillance, even after I've explained  my situation to her?.''
I said to her, ''dont complain my dear, it's because you are different'' I could easily connect with her because I've had similar experiences. I therefore try to follow the right routes and protocols to almost everything I do, why? because the devil knows that I'm different.
When the bible said we should count it all joy when we pass through trials and tribulations, I'm sure it wasn't refering to the mess we find our selves in due to our sin. There's absolutely no joy in paying for one's own sin or mistakes.

 For instance, It definitely would have made a big difference if the preacher was beaten because he said some truths that offended people in the bus, or for preaching Jesus (as happens in some islamic countries) instead of for Condoms!

We know that as humans, we have flaws and weaknesses that struggle to have control over our lives all day long. We are the devil's target every second we breathe, and he fights to ensure we dont bear the fruit of God in us.
Every morning when we wake up, we need to ask God for the grace to overcome the temptations the day will blow our way.

by Chioma