My Pastor Said "He Is The One For Me"

I am saddened whenever I see people eating grasses because their pastor instructed them to or when children are almost/sometimes beaten to death because they are said to be possessed by ungodly spirits.

I am sick of hearing people complain about brothers/sisters that they were told by their spiritual heads are their perfect fits turning out to be worse than the devil. My questions to such people are did you seek the face of the Lord concerning the person yourself? Is your pastor in sole possession of the direct line to God? Will the pastor be in the relationship with you?  

There are many empty giants, a Facebook status read, alluding to the starvation of the spirit by many believers.

It read strange at first, but on a closer look, I got what the author of the update meant. It is true that many of us invest more in our physical bodies than we do in our spirits. We are guilty of being really lazy at developing ourselves spiritually. This lapse makes many of us prone to living lives far below what God intended for us. We find ourselves being exploited by people hiding behind the facade of spiritual heads. Your walk with God is a personal journey. Don’t be tricked into believing your future can only be decided by fake prophesies. Doctrines are definitely not the same but one thing is constant- the bible. This is the truth we all need to turn to for guidance instead of believing in things we ought to question.

Our spiritual heads are there to encourage and guide us and at times when their words are contrary to the word of God, the word of God should override.

This knowledge is only made available to us if we take out moments from our very busy lives to feed our souls. This keeps us sharp enough to know when counsels are downright ungodly. Even the bible enjoins us to seek the truth always.

Life is truly filled with uncertainties. If what tomorrow holds were as clear as writings on a paper, many of us wouldn’t be where we are today. One will be smart enough to know from start, the love that is doomed. One will be wise not to be caught in fruitless pursuits. Living life would be so easy and yet so boring. This is because the thrill of life lies in its uncertainties.

The gift of discernment is one of the biggest gifts man’s given. Since we don’t know for certain what tomorrow holds, we owe our lives to the decisions we make because we live with the consequences of whatever decision we make. This is why we ought to keep our souls and spirits nourished with the truth.

I say this especially in relation to relationships. If your pastor says he/she is the one, it doesn’t translate to you throwing caution to the wind and going forward with preparation for marriage. You still have to seek God on your own and try to court the person so you can know for sure if you compatible or not. Many marriages have crashed due to some pastors’ “matchmaking ways”.

Brothers and sisters, let wisdom guide you always. 

Between You,Your Spouse and God

It is interesting how as a society we can measure wrongs based on gender. I am not about to write this post by unveiling my viciously feministic alter ego, no! I will spare you the pains of listening to my riddled thoughts on unbalanced scales of the gender.

I am not even going to go into details on how four men at work were unashamedly chattering about their affairs. I am also not going to rant about how I find the fact, that the wife of one of the men packs him condoms, befuddling. What is wrong with women not having standards? *sighs*

I will try very much to keep this post devoid of pained feministic opinions. It is one intended for you to reflect on simple moral values.

I read of a woman who cheated on her husband of 23years after she found out that he bragged to one of his numerous mistresses that his wife was ok with his philandering ways.  Of course, people judged her and told her just how shameless she is. How can a married woman even conceive such a thought and carry such out? Is one of the predominant questions most people asked.

Truth be told I am sick of how many times I have heard the sentence ‘a man will always be a man’. I am not an advocate of avenging another’s wrong by committing more wrong but I suppose sanity can be achieved by acknowledging we all are accountable for our actions irrespective of who we are.

There are certain values that should never be compromised. I understand temptations abound but one needs to bear in mind that only guilt and betrayal outlives that short moment of selfish desire.

Spontaneity is good but in situations preceeding adultery, you need to stop and think, would you be able to live with the consequences that follow? I have seen families that have been destroyed because of short misplaced and uncontrolled passion.

Do as you would be done by. If your spouse were in your shoes , would you forgive him/her after such act?. By all means, respect your partners’ feelings.

 Lots of work goes into building trust in a relationship, don’t mock all that hardwork by acting selfishly. Think of the aftermath.

What company are you keeping, the Yorubas have a saying that “a sheep that walks with a dog will eat faeces”. You need to be your own person. In a world where sin has become the fad, dare to be the weird one.

Have you asked yourself what Jesus would do in your situation? Being a Christian goes farther than paying tithes and attending services, it is a lifestyle. Flee from sin my dear.

Forget what the society thinks is right or wrong, your vow is between you, your spouse and your God.  Man or woman , whoever you are , we all are accountable to the same God.

Photo Credit: dreamstime.com

Welcome to 2014, a year of joy and love

We wish you a loving and wondrous 2014. May the good Lord bless and keep your relationships. Amen

May He make His face shine upon you and your family and may He keep you till the end of 2014.

Happy New year

Merry Christmas from the Covenant Relationships team

Wishing you a very merry Christmas from the Covenant Relationships team.

May the joy of Christmas continue to dwell in your hearts and families. Amen

Personal space in marriages???

Hello everyone, it always feels good to be here. Learning from you and sharing from my own little life’s experiences always feels so unexplainably awesome. Let me get right into the post for today. See, I was at this get together over the weekend with number of friends and acquaintances and we started this talk on how far was too far in relationships.

Our argument was later streamlined and the question of the day was “what is personal space and how is it defined in relationships?” Of course we were split into different camps as regards to why there is a ‘personal space’ being kept in a relationship that should be all about two people living and sharing ‘almost’ all aspects of their lives together. Note the use of ‘almost’ in the preceding sentence because I understand there really should be a reasonable level of ‘privacy’, getting married doesn’t necessarily mean forgetting or blurring out what one used to do as an individual.

However, I am also of the belief that when we take that sacred oath of being together forever; we are signing a pact of ‘no secrets ever’. I decided to keep academic definitions out of this post so I am just going to share with you the crooked definition that majority of my friends gave to the said phrase. They agreed personal space should include respecting the other person in the relationship enough not to pick his/her calls or go through his/her messages. 

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Covenant Relationships is geared toward enriching Relationships that have a special covenant - Between God & Wo(Man), Husband & Wife, Parent & Child and about helping each other learn by sharing everything that relates to the everyday ins and outs of relationships.

We’re always looking for new contributors at Covenant Relationships, so If you have an piece you would like us to publish on the site that will bless others do send it to ladyijd@yahoo.co.uk.

Remain blessed

Prosperity Is The Result Of A Good Working Covenant Relationship With God

When you consider the lives of several great men in the Bible, you would realise that they had a good working relationship with God. And it was evident in their lives for all to see. 

Consider Abraham. The Bible says of Him in James 2:23 (NIV) that "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend." Genesis 13:2 records that "Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold." 

Also Consider David. The Bible also states in Acts 13:22 (NIV) that "After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’" 1 Chronicle 22:14 shows how rich He was - "Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto."

Get Me The Venison I Love - Pastor Poju Oyemade

“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: and thou maintain my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; ye, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who giveth me counsel....” (Psalm 16:5-6)

Relationships are based on Covenants. They have tenets which trigger diverse effects when engaged. We should understand the relationships we are involved in their covenant (terms and promises). With different people, there are different terms. For instance, the Bible instructs us to “honour our father and mother; and in doing so it will be well with thee and thou shall live long on the earth.” So, the parent-child/child-parent relationship is a covenant with significant terms which when adhered to brings specific blessing into your life. All relationships are loaded with various terms and blessings. They are covenants. Your ability to unlock the intelligence behind the covenant relationships you are engaged in will open your eyes to laws of life that yield great benefits.

Our relationship with God is also covenant based. There are numerous blessings awaiting anyone who will keep the conditions or demands of our covenant with Him. When we do, we will have deeper and richer experiences with Him. But just like it takes two to tango in every other relationship, God also expects us to fulfill our part.

Looking to God - Pastor Poju Oyemade

This was culled from the weekly Nutshell newsletter of Covenant Christian Centre. 

“Then she fell on her feet and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou should take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her, it hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in-law since the death of thy husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knowest not heretofor. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” (Ruth 2:10-12).

Ruth’s faithfulness to the covenant relationship she had with Naomi paved way for her. She diligently kept the tenets of the covenant. All over the Bible, there are teachings emphasizing different kinds of relationships and how each of us ought to comport and conduct ourselves in them. Whether it is between husband-wife or wife-husband, children-parents or parents-children, masters-servants or servants-masters etc., the Bible categorically states God's expectation. This is important because “whatsoever a man doeth, the same shall he receive." We are also charged in Scriptures not to "... do it as unto men but as unto God that you (we) might receive the eternal inheritance.”

When You are in Love....

How does it really feel when you are in love? Personally I just can't stop thinking about my love; my wife. My wife still excites me even after 14 years of marriage. The feelings that I have for her are still as strong as the time I was courting her, sometimes I think even stronger. Despite our ups and downs (mostly in early years of forming and norming), I see her as BFF (Best Friend Forever), my lover, my wife and I don't think she would do anything to hurt me. She has my back and I have hers.

When you are in love, you’ll willingly do anything to be alone with the one you are crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. Days seem like years. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.

Just as we cherish and show love for our loved ones, how do we show our love for God? Do we think He needs our love? Can we truly love someone we cannot see, feel or touch?