Vetrean Pastor, Life time Learner, Problem Solver, Servant-Leader and Motivational Speaker.

Nation & World | Christmas attacks kill 39 in Nigeria | Seattle Times Newspaper

Elsewhere, a bomb exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation's northeast as part of an apparently coordinated assault by the sect known as Boko Haram.

The Christmas Day violence, denounced by world leaders and the Vatican, shows the threat of the widening insurrection posed by Boko Haram against Nigeria's weak central government. Despite a recent paramilitary crackdown against the sect in the oil-rich nation, it appears that Africa's most populous nation remains unable to stop the threat.

The first explosion on Sunday struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near Nigeria's capital just after 8 a.m. The attack killed 35 people and wounded 52 more, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

Though billions of dollars of oil money flow into the nation's budget yearly, Luguard's agency could only send text messages to journalists asking for their help in getting more ambulances.

via seattletimes.nwsource.com

Jim Wallis: The Real War On Christmas... By Fox News

The war on Christmas is really about what brand of “civil religion” America should have. The particular (read: biblical) meaning of Christmas, for Christians, has almost nothing to do with the media war.

What a surprise.

What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s becoming flesh — human — and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall. Simply amazing. That Mary was homeless at the time,a member of a people oppressed by the imperial power of an occupied country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby’s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child, all adds compelling historical and political context to the Advent season.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.

In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as “bringing good news to the poor,” and finally tells us that how we treat “the least of these” is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

The other explicit message of the Incarnation is that Jesus the Christ’s arrival will mean “peace on earth, good will toward men.” He is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.” Jesus later calls on his disciples to turn the other cheek, practice humility, walk the extra mile, put away their swords, love their neighbors — and even their enemies — and says that in his kingdom, it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christ will end our warring ways, bringing reconciliation to God and to one another.

None of that has anything to do with the Fox News Christmas. In fact, quite the opposite.

Making sure that shopping malls and stores greet their customers with “Merry Christmas” is entirely irrelevant to the meaning of the Incarnation. In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season.

Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.

Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?

While we’re at it, here’s another point of clarification: The arrival of the Christ child has nothing to do with trees or what we call them.

Evergreens and wreaths, holly and ivy, and even mistletoe turn out to be customs borrowed from ancient Roman and Germanic winter solstice celebrations, assimilated and co-opted by the church after Constantine made peace between his empire and the Christians.

Now, my family loves our Christmas tree, but its bright lights and wonderful ornaments don’t teach my children much about why Jesus came into the world. We do that in other ways, such as giving needed gifts — goats, sheep, and chickens and the like — to the poorest children and families of the world though the World Vision web site on Christmas Day. The goal is to make our sons more excited about the gifts they give than the ones they get, and it usually works. Last year, my boys sponsored a child in Ghana.

I have no probl

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Paul Miller: “The great struggle of my life is not trying to discern God’s will.......

Paul Miller: “The great struggle of my life is not trying to discern God’s will; it is trying to discern and then disown my own. Once I see that, then prayer flows.”

1. The bible contains God's will for your life.

2. God's will is that you love Him more than life itself.

3. God's will is that you listen to Him more than your emotions.

4. God's will is that you trust Him with your "trash" and pain more than your perception.

5. God's will is that you love the people in your house not just on a mission trip.

6. God' s will is that you honor your parents especially when you do know you are right.

7. God's will is that you remember that you are not God. You did not create the universe.

8. God's will is that you learn more about Him by obeying Him.

9. God's will is that you seek to deny your self, take up your cross and follow Him every day and not just on Sunday.

10. God's will is declared and demostrated in the work, life, and words of Jesus Christ. Follow Jesus on His twitter page the Bible!!!! 

My problem is not that I do not know the will of God is that I am in love with my own will. 
Grace and Peace

Pastor James Owolabi 

Look at the Baby!

How do you motivate your people to think less of themselves and think more of others?  How do we nurture the seed of humility and serve the warm cups of cooperation and communication in a family on a daily basis? Look back prayerfully at the event of the incarnation during the advent season. Gaze closely at the baby in the manager and you will discover God communicating his love through the selfless cooperation of Jesus Christ. You may deny it, but you cannot miss it if you look humbly at pages of Holy Scripture and the historical account of mortal men who lived and spoke to the “Son of Man”. You will see the only Eternal and Triune God communicating his love to mortal humanity through the sacrificial humiliation of Jesus. You will see that the humility of Jesus displayed in the historical and prophetic event of the incarnation should be one of the many working models of communication and cooperation between parents and children in a Christian family. In the scripture below we are encouraged to embrace this attitude of humility of Christ.

Although deity was the perpetual state of Jesus Christ, He chose to demonstrate His love for His Father and Their creation by becoming human. Jesus became human to glorify the Father and save those who would believe from the penalty and power of sin in our lives. How do you motivate your children to think less of themselves and think more of others? How do we nurture the seed of humility and serve the warm cup of cooperation in a family on a daily basis? Focus intently to the event of the incarnation this advent season. Revisit the baby in the manager and you will discover God communicating his endless and eternal love through the selfless cooperation of Jesus Christ for the glory of His father. “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status …….. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion”- Former enemy of Jesus and Current servant of Jesus.

Christmas in the Midwest

  Unlike my last plane trip to Africa,my trip to Indianapolis, Indiana was long but fun.Southwest airlines is "cheap" all they offered me on the plane was this sorry pathetic can of water. Which airline is so cheap to offer their clients a "can"of water and only peanuts during an 8 hour flight? Southwest!!  Upon my safe arrival  to Indy this morning at 1:30 am, i joined my brother Ezra at his bed side at St Vincent Hospital. He was admitted early Monday afternoon due to some health difficulties and pain in his body, He was looking at surgery on Tuesday afternoon, but thanks be to God, Ezra was discharged tuesday the next day without sugery.

Just in case you feel your life sucks and nothing is going right, just stop at the emergency room of your local hospital and you will count your many blessings and see what the Lord has done for you. Tomorrow will be another exciting day. I will be driving down to Paducah, Kentucky with Rhoda and Jude. Topper Council a dear friend of the family invited me to preach at his church. This is a very fun Christmas break.

Truth for Today: What you don't know will kill you, because the hardest decisions to manage are the decisions you make subconsciously. Make a decision to constantly thank God for Jesus Christ this Christmas season.

Christmas Advice

The commercialization of  Christmas leads us to buy things we don't need with money we don't have,  in order to impress people we don't like-  James Owolabi (Adapted from Total Money Make over by Dave Ramsey)