But God: A Story of Redemption and Grace

J Neil Daniel

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he speaks to those who have come out of deep darkness and into the light of Christ. He writes, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). I find myself deeply connected to those words. Such were some of you. That was me.

I started down the wrong path early in life. By the time I was 9 or 10, I was already experimenting with inhalants. Between the ages of 13 and 14, I began using narcotics, drinking hard liquor, running away, and became sexually active. My teen years were spent in and out of juvenile facilities. By the time I was 18, I was arrested—and nearly three decades later, I have been incarcerated ever since.

I was lost. I was hopeless. I was trapped in a life that had no future, no direction, no hope. But God.

But God, in His incredible mercy and grace, found me, redeemed me, and gave me a new life. God has done more than just pull me out of the pit I had dug for myself—He has transformed my life completely. In prison, He opened doors I never imagined possible. He gave me the opportunity to pursue an education, to study His Word, and to minister to others who are on the same dark path I once walked.

Today, I mentor men, I fellowship with people both here and beyond these walls, and God has blessed me with ministry opportunities that far exceed anything I could have dreamed of. Among these opportunities are writing and publishing a half dozen books in theology and working closely with the publishing arm of an international Christian ministry.

Paul was right: such were some of you. But God.

No matter how far gone you think you are, no matter how deep into darkness you’ve fallen, remember this: there is always hope, because But God changes everything. He redeems. He restores. He saves—to the uttermost.

Your smile is as sweet as you are
In my eyes you shine like the star
You an my angel with guiding light
I wish that your life be more bright
Stat blessed is all I want to say
Have the most amazing way
Happiest birthday to you
May God bless you!

There's that story of invisible artworks. Collectors, claimed Canada’s CBC, are paying through the nose for the art of 27-year-old Lana Newstrom even though you cannot see any of it. “Art is about imagination, and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you”, the artist said. Turns out it was all a hoax. No artist, no artworks, fake news.

We may make fun of those who bought into it, but it illustrates the faith principle. At the point of praying, whatever you're asking God for is invisible, immaterial. All you have is imagery. The Bible says to keep thanking God for that invisible thing. The belief you already possess it will give material form to the image in your imagination. In some sense, faith is like the Higgs field, which gives mass to particles. (That's for the science-minded)

God is very impressed when we master the principle of faith, and it has to be mastered. Without faith, you CAN'T please God. That's because there's a moral component to faith. It ultimately boils down to believing God has integrity. He keeps his promises. Even Balak, a rather notorious pastor, said that God is not a Nigerian politician. To prove his assertion, he asked a rhetorical question: "Has he ever promised and not carried it through?"

This brings to mind the story of Thomas. He was one of the earliest sceptics. He said he wouldn't believe Jesus rose from the dead until he touched him. In philosophy, this is known as materialism. Materialism is the belief nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications. So, Thomas wanted to see modifications to Jesus - the holes in his hands, the gash on the side, all sustained on the cross. Jesus told Thomas, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

If a young man believes God for a car in January, but he buys the car in December, faith says the car was actually bought in January, not December. The material manifestation just took 11 months.

We've got to develop the habit of calling those things which be not as though they were

*MY 2024 BIRTHDAY MESSAGE TO YOU.*
Peace Be Onto You My friends.
Good afternoon, I trust you are all doing good today.

*"Fix Your Eyes On Everything He Has Shown You."*
Ezekiel 40:4; *And the man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see."*

Your fulfilment in your life time and the determinant factor for whether you will finish well or not, is the vision you received from the Lord and your ability to hold onto it tenaciously to the end.

As children of God, there are things that God has shown to everyone whom he has called to follow Him and serve his purpose.

God has shown many things to those who follow Him. But in the midst of these, what determines how far a man can go in life, is the degree to which he has fixed his eyes & mind on the things that God has shown him personally as he follows God in his lifetime.

At every point of our lives, God shows things unto us. And what is the purpose of this? It is for you to fix your mind on them, it is for me to fix my mind on them, it is for us to fix our minds on everything both small and great; for until our mind is fixed on the things that God has shown to us, we may not be able to run with the vision, and when we don't run with the vision He had shown or given to us, we live at the stake of dying unfulfilled.

Today, we have many believers who can talk of the things that God has shown them many years ago... But how many of those things do they fix their eyes and mind upon to bring them to reality and manifestation? Only few. Hence many live small without entering into the fullness of God's intentions for their lives.

For us to live maximally without failing God and our generation, God expects us to Fix Our Mind on whatever He has shown us... Meditate on it until we get direction on how to run with it and bring it to fruition and profit the kingdom of Heaven and our generation. For a man who doesn't fix his mind on the things that He has been shown, won't be able to bring it to Fulfilment in his lifetime.

It is good to know that, if the devil doesn't succeed in making you to sin, cut your relationship with Jesus Christ or stop you from hearing God and to receive from Him; what he does is to make you to be distracted or encumbered with many irrelevant things, so you won't focus on running with what the Lord God has shown you.

Are they things that God has shown you in the past, of recent or even today but because you didn't fix your mind on everything, some have escaped or some are lying fallow in your life without implementation? Arise and fix your mind on those things so that your generation will be blessed by your much profiting.

Men will show us many things... The world will show us many things... But always Remember to fix your mind on Everything that God has shown you, meditate on them, get direction and bring it to Fulfilment. No matter how far you have gone, there is more impact to make in your generation.

Join me to thank God for a new age, but Do Well To Fix Your Mind On Everything He Has Shown to You.

*Thank You for being part of my Life Pilgrimage thus far.*
*God Bless You.*

We are blessed

Whether you are an entrepreneur or a student, or just someone who wants to have a productive lifestyle, the first and foremost thing to learn is time management.

We all are blessed with 24 hours a day. While some can be couch potatoes and feel that time flies in a second, some others can seal more than one deal, finish a chapter, or learn new skills in the same 24 hours.

However, some want to be productive and yet feel like time doesn’t favor them. In reality, they haven’t learned to save time ultimately. If you are one of them, here are seven ways to save time and make the most of your day.

Make A Structure Of Your Free Time
Structuring your free time seems pointless since you will not be doing any work. But that doesn’t mean your free time cannot be productive. People tend to stay motivated and focused on the workplace because of the presence of a work structure.

Although you would like to spend your free time freely, the downside of doing so is that you will lose focus of time spending or spend it doing pointless stuff. Structuring your time, on the other hand, will give you direction and purpose. This will provide you with something to stay motivated and focused or even help you understand your free time value.

Keep a Diary Of Time Details
Like they say, time flies, you can hardly keep track of it. But keeping a time diary on what you spend your time gives you an insight. You can see what things impact your productivity in the right way and what things negatively impact it. Knowing the same will lead you to make decisions regarding how you can make better use of time.

A time diary helps you see patterns of time spent, keeps you from spending time on low low-leverage stuff, enables you to focus on priorities, etc.

ind Out Your Priorities
Every person is unique, and so is the time they spent. Some people may work hard for a successful career or career growth in general. At the same time, some others want to invest more in family time. But the critical question is, which one is you?

The Life Hype recommends taking your time to think about which part of life is more important for you and invest your time accordingly. People sometimes go with the flow and hardly know if they are working towards their priorities, often losing valuable time and not getting any work done.

Understand Why 24 Hours Is Not Much
If you think about it, the activities and things you do, 24 hours shouldn’t be less for you. If an average person spends 7-8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working, 1+1 hours for eating and chores in the house – it leaves only 6 hours for the activities you want to do.

This realization of having only a little time for your other commitments will remind you how important time is and how you have to be strict about spending it every once in a while. This will remind you to say ‘no’ to things that are not taking you anywhere and continuously drive you to make the most of the time.

Focus On High-Leverage Activities
The 80/20 rule is quite popular, and it says that you can work 20% and yet gain 80% success. But it also depends on what work you do in that 20% so that you get 80%. Every activity is either high leverage or low leverage.

Some people might only focus on low-leverage activities like watching the TV, which unbeknownst to ourselves take away a considerable part of our time. However, investing the same time in reading a book, meditating, exercising can provide fruitful results when the time is right.

Don’t Over Work
The right approach isn’t how much you are doing but the quality of work you are doing. Take Apple, for example. They are one of the most successful companies, and they have only a few product lines.
You can take a similar approach to your life. You can do fewer things and yet have a productive lifestyle.

Pack Your Lunch in Advance
While you’re busy with your schedule and work structure, you hardly remember about your lunch. But when it’s time, whether you are a slow eater or fast eater, you end up spending more than 1 hour for lunch. One of the common reasons why it happens is because you spend half the time planning your lunch.

The right approach is to plan your lunch and pack a cold lunch in advance so that you can take a small break during lunch.

Bottom line
Time management skills are not something you will pick up in a week. You will need to practice it regularly to make it a habit until it becomes your lifestyle.

We were blessed today