Definitely worth watching!
Definitely worth watching!
My new favorite song!
Hello My Name is Child of the One True King :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Source: bloodsavedus)
(Source: spiritualinspiration)
(Source: forgiven-and-lovedd)
Hiiiiiii Tumblr Family :)
This is a post that is very different from my regular posts, but it is one that is definitely long overdue.
It is a PRAISE REPORT!
This is something I told God I would do over a year ago in church but after God answered my prayer I ungratefully failed to do it :( because I moved to a different city and the church I’m in now doesn’t have a time during service where people get up to give praise reports (still a shabby excuse!)
I decided to give my praise report here on tumblr because I believe the Lord will use it to minister to someone and encourage them to know that we serve a God who answers prayers. A God who qualifies those who the world sees as unqualified.
Its super Long! But here it goes…
I don’t consider myself an exceptional student, I honestly believe I am an average student and sometimes even below average :(. But I am an average student who refuses to just settle for anything! I am originally from Lagos, Nigeria but I came to America for College. I missed the deadline for the schools I wanted to go to and quite frankly, I would probably not have gotten in at that time because I was international and I didn’t meet many of the stats they expected applicants to have. I therefore went to community college for about 2 years and took my core curriculum classes there.
I wanted to be a Chemical Engineer and being me, I wasn’t going to settle for an average school. My dream school was a school whose Chemical Engineering program is ranked #5 in America. I had a good gpa, but I lacked many of the classes that they stated were necessary to get admitted, but I applied anyway. I applied to 3 schools. The other 2 schools were ranked much lower than the school I wanted to get into.
The waiting period was very nerve wrecking. Days…weeks…months..of waiting and refreshing my status page EVERY SECOND! & then one day, my status for one of the much lower ranked schools changed and said “we are sorry….” I almost blacked out! I couldn’t believe it! I felt like all hope was lost. If I can get rejected by a lower ranked school, how in the world was I going to get into an engineering program that is #5 in America?? I had been praying all along but I think this day I just went before God hopeless and told him I leave every single thing in His hands. That this is totally beyond me. There is nothing I can do about my admission. I prayed that he should show me his sovereign power in this situation and that he should show me that he is the God that qualifies the unqualified.
The waiting period continued and I wouldn’t say I felt absolutely confident I would get in, although I should have since I had put it in Gods hands. About a week later, I routinely checked my status for my dream school and I saw *Congratulations… I couldn’t even finish reading the entire sentence. I just started screamiinnngg!!!!!!!!! I had just gotten into one of the best Chemical Engineering program in America. Meeee! Even without the classes they said are requirements! I was so speechless! I went on my knees to thank my loving Father who hears my prayers and even in my sometimes partial belief, he is faithful and grants me the desires of my heart.
Okay! The point of this extremely long post is to encourage anyone reading this who is unsure God hears them when they pray or unsure of Gods power. Look at my story, I first of all was barely qualified, but my God in his magnificent power made me qualified. I believed, but I’m not sure I can say after I prayed I was 100% sure I will get in, but my Father overlooked my faithlessness and still showed up in my situation. Your prayer request might be much bigger or relatively smaller than mine, a friend who has cancer, or a parent who is addicted to drugs, the need for an A in an exam or the need to have a better relationship with God. Whatever it may be, be assured that we have a God who hears you when you call on him. The God who answered me will surely answer you. The God we serve parted the red sea, turned water to wine, brought down the walls of Jericho, walked on water, brought Lazarus back to life, healed the blind, lame, deaf and dumb, casted out demons…this list can go on for eternity. But ultimately the God who did all these miraculous things loves you and endured the cross for you and he is telling you to just ask and he will answer. So my friend, What are you waiting for?
Some verses to check out;
Jeremiah 33:3a Call unto me, and I will answer thee
Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you
Philippians 4:6-7 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
1 Kings 18:36-39 Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,[e] prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. 37 O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”38 Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
Yes! We serve a God who even causes fire to fall from heaven. Trust me, your problem/need is too small to make you doubt God. He owns this world and everything in it. He can change the mind of everyone and anyone in your favor. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM and because of that, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU. Don’t cheat yourself. Like my pastor said, don’t be a homeless person who has a priceless vintage guitar but doesn’t know its value. You have the King of Kings as your father, so why should you fail? Why should you settle for whatever life throws your way? Talk to Him! All you need to do is call on on him and he has promised to answer you. However, make sure there is no sin in your life, because in Isaiah 59:1-2 he says “Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you,nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.”
I pray this post encourages you, and I pray that as you talk to God, and ask him for the desires of your heart, he will answer you and you will also have a praise report to give :)!
Sorry it’s super Long.
Stay Blessed, and have an amazing week
Tolu :)
For my Dear Anonymous friend who is getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations!!! & I pray that the Lord would indeed cleanse you and make you whole and perfect before Him. I pray that in accordance with Romans 6, he would give you dominion over sin and empower you to live a new victorious life in Him!!! & That you would experience what it means to truly walk with God and be in a passionate relationship with Him :)
| Hi I really love the picture with the text that says Lord Cleanse me from anything that breaks your heart. Am I able to get a copy of it with out your web address over the top. I am getting baptised and would love to put it on my invitation cards. | |
─ Anonymous  |
Thats soooo awesommmeeeeee!!! The Decision to get baptized is a very wonderful one! I would upload one without my address for you in about 5minutes :) !
Becoming a father has made me a softy.
I mean, I was a crier even before I had kids, but now?
Dang.
I was choking up watching a Subaru commercial last night.
A Subaru commercial?! Seriously?
I know, I know.
My man point stock is crashing with every key stroke,
but before you condemn my whimpering,
have you seen this one?
Dude is sitting at the bus stop in the morning with his little girl
when the bus suddenly screeches to a stop and the doors swing open.
His daughter proceeds to give him the most achingly forlorn look I’ve ever seen in the history of the world, as she drearily ascends the steps of terror to cruel and certain elementary isolation.
So what does he do?
He jumps in his car and races beside, constantly peering through the school bus windows to make sure she’s getting along.
And in slow motion you see her with new found friends, laughing at the brilliance of rainbows and all things bright and beautiful.
Punch me in the face.
I’m hysterical at this point.
And why?
Well, it’s taken me all night, all morning and a particularly large cup of coffee to work it through, but I think it’s starting to become clear.
That commercial gets to me because no father ever said, “I hope my daughter becomes a porn star when she grows up.”
What?
Even as I’m typing this, my two year old girl just ran up and snuggled her face against my chest. She touched my face, looked in my eyes just along enough to melt me into man-mush, and then scampered off. I don’t where she just went but I’m pretty sure she was scampering.
And I think,
“God, I will do anything to protect her. Even if I have to get my school bus driver’s license and drive the thing myself. Even if I have to clothe her in burlap and cover her in an impenetrable coating of quinoa, I will do anything to keep her safe.”
But a chill runs through me.
I can’t.
No matter how many Subarus I buy, or how many baths in Organic milk she takes, I cannot control what happens to her.
And perhaps even scarier? I can’t control what other people will do to her.
Sure, I will educate her.
I will read her stories and applaud her.
I will tell her I’m proud of her.
I will hold her and esteem her.
I will pour myself out to fill her with all the love that I can.
I will arm with her the gospel.
I will cover her in an armor of prayer and joy,
and in every way I can,
I will strive to cultivate the kingdom in her,
and show her how to bring it with her wherever she goes.
But at some point, I will have to let her go into the world.
A world that has seem to forgotten that every girl has a father,
and every woman is some father’s little girl.
Let me talk to the fellas for a second.
Guys.
I know you’re scared.
I know you don’t feel as loved or as valuable as you long to.
I know you try to push those feelings down by achieving and belittling.
You cover them up with swaggering and bragging.
I know because I have and still do.
But remember.
Please remember, that if you use some “chick” to make yourself feel valuable, you are using somebody’s baby girl.
Ok. Sure that’s melodramatic.
But it’s true.
And you know it.
Deep down you know what drives you to the computer.
You know what drives you to take advantage.
You know what fuels you to forget that the picture is a person.
As Steinbeck surmised in East of Eden,
”The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved,
and rejection is the hell hefears.”
Rejection is the hell we fear.
Our clamoring for retweets is like cracks in the concrete.
Let’s stop with the excuses.
No more of this “boys will be boys” nonsense.
“If boys will be boys then girls will be garbage.”
-Ann Voskamp
Let’s own up and let down.
Let down our defenses, pull down the masks.
Own up to the love you’re really after.
We must stop viewing each other as commodity for use and misuse,
for selling and trading, for rule and conquest.
We must present ourselves to one another as gift,
if we are going to stop using one another like currency,
we need to lose our need for such a system.
If we could just;
be filled to overflow,
to bless instead of take,
to gift instead of steal,
then we might just find the love we were always after.
And in the process, we might dry up the fuel that gives demand for girls like mine to become porn stars.
I don’t want my daughters to become porn stars,
and neither will you.
Learn from Steubenville.
Learn from the endless demand and consumption of pornography.
Learn from the millions of trafficked women and children around the world.
Sex will never save you, so save yourself.
And save someone’s daughter in the process.
I fear for my daughters like a man driving a Subaru,
but I also believe in the power of Christ to fill the void that drives our lusts.
And this morning I pray specifically to that end.
Jesus,
I trust you.
And I trust you with these daughters you’ve given me to raise.
But tender Christ you see what has become of us.
You see how we use one another.
We manipulate.
We exploit.
Men and women both, we turn each other into objects.
Taking, always taking.
So I come to you Lord asking that you would fill us.
I ask that you would fill the emptiness and the lack of love we feel.
May we know that we are yours, and look upon each other with those eyes.
Sons and daughters, daughters and sons.
Give us life to give.
Give us new eyes to see.
In Your Life-giving name,
Amen
