[Ezeonugo02]

Name: Ezeonugo ijeoma chika
I totally agree with your points above, This shows that the power behind praising God before we receive or answer is a concept believers needs to incorporate more in their daily lives , I also want to add a little more voice on points 3 and 4
3. Praise Speaks of the Power of God to all who will hear / It paves the way for God’s power to be displayed:
it shows the listening believers that there is power in our praising God especially when those believer knows what we are passing through yet they see our lips filled with praises. But for the unbelievers it brings them to know more about the power of God.
Paul and Silas in Acts 16:22-34 (NKJV) were beaten and scorned before the whole nation and put in bonds for preaching the word of God, the normal response would have been negativity, regret, even blaming God, instead they prayed and praise God in such a way others heard them.
Also another thing worthy of note is that the effect of miracle spread and affected everyone in the prison, their chains were broken and doors open ( Vs 26 ), and I strongly believed that not only the jailer and his household (Vs 34) was converted, other prisoners who saw this miracle first hand will also desire it’s source.

4 Praise Does Not Let One Forget (Leaving no room for negativity and complaining)
We praise God for what he has done in the past, just like you pointed out when this becomes a habit you spend less time focusing on your problems or even speaking or meditating on the problems because you can’t speak and think at same time (2 Corinthians 10:5, proverbs 23:7)
David was a praiser who never forgets God past faithfulness in his life (Psalm 46, 42:11, 56:3-5) he consciously remember all his past victories and it gives him the strength to believe God for more victories.

[Ezeonugo02]

Name: Ezeonugo Ijeoma Chika.
Course: Prayer Basic PB 205 LC.
Topic: why is it important for you to praise God for your answers before you see them

What is praise: it is a joyful recounting of what God has done for us and is doing in our life. Praising God is expressing gratitude to Him. Praise is also expressed with enthusiasm and exuberance.
REASONS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR ANSWER BEFOR YOU SEE THEM ARE:-
1. It is a demonstration of your faith.
2. It boosts/builds your faith level.
3. It shifts our focus from ourselves and situations back to God.
4. It shows that you understand his character,
5. It makes us carriers of testimonies and it gives glory to God.

1. It is a demonstration of faith (2 Chronicles 20 :1- 22, Mark 11:24).
Praising God in advance is a demonstration of your faith, it shows that you are stepping out of your comfort zone into that realm of faith.
Praise is verbalized faith in action, it releases God’s Power to work on our behalf, real faith is revealed by what you do after you have prayed (Jam 2 v 20,26). It’s easier to give thanks after you have seen the physical manifestation than to give thanks before you see anything. It shows you are walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5 vs 7), when we praise God in advance, it shows that we know we have our answer (1 john 5: 14 – 15).
King Jehoshaphat demonstrated his faith by praising God on the battle field and God came through for him (2 chronicle 20 :18 -22).

2. It boosts/builds your faith level. (Roman 4: 20 to 21)
Praising God in advance builds our faith because faith comes by hearing (Romans 10: 17). As you hear yourself praise God before your prayer is manifested, you are declaring a deeper trust; you’re adding to your faith and increasing your certainty in what God has already declared about that desire.
Faith is made strong in an atmosphere of praise. So, to boost your faith, you need to praise God for his past faithfulness upon your life because when you give God praise, it gives you strength, keeps you moving forward and encourages you to keep believing that what He promised will surely come to pass.

Abraham waited 25 years for the fulfillment of God’s promise, he never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever He promises (Romans 4:20-21, TLB).
when you praise God in advance for the answer, it not only waters the seed sown in prayers but it keeps your faith alive and strong.

3. It shifts our focus from ourselves and situations back to God (Romans 4: 18 – 21 TLB. Philippians 4: 6 -7)
When you praise God in advance, it helps you to stay watchful and keeps you in a sensitive or alert mood, therefore there is no room for complaining. or making negative statement that can hold your blessings. We tend to be engrossed with our problems when praying, but through praise, we’re focused on Him, and our emotions is subdued.

4. It shows that you understand his character
When we praise God for answers before we see them, it shows that we understand God’s character and who he is because two big aspects of God’s character are his faithfulness and his goodness. And whenever we can say thank you for those things before we see them come to pass, it indicates that we know he is Good and faithful (James 1 vs17) and that we recognized that he had done it before and we know he will still do it again, because he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13: 8) and if he has made a promise to us, he will always come through and we can take his word to the bank.

5. It makes us carriers of testimonies and it gives glory to God (acts 16: 25 -34)
Not only is praising God beneficial to us, it can also encourage others. Our faithfulness or endurance, regardless of the circumstances, can be a powerful testimony that edifies people around us.
When we patiently praise God while waiting for answers and not complaining we becomes testimonies to people who only saw us praising God and never knew we were passing through challenges and thereby helping others build their faith.

[Ezeonugo02]

I agree that renewal of the mind is the keys to guaranteed success in every aspect of our life because when we were in the world we think and live our lives without heading in the direction God ordained us to,

As soon as were reconciled back to him we need to renew our minds constantly to know the plans and purpose for which we were made and fulfill it, it is only then we can say like Paul in 2 Timothy 4 vs 7 that I have fought the good fight and finish the race.

Your points are very good, I especially like points 3 and 4 because naturally a lot of humans shy away from the burden of making decisions (especially since they rather blame someone else when such decisions backfires) , but with the constant renewal of mind you know clearly what you are created to do and such knowing helps to shape your decisions, thoughts process and charts your life in the right direction, just like Jesus who had a clear purpose of his mission on earth and all through the scriptures every decisions he took was governed by that knowledge, we will be armed with the right knowledge and always know what we ought to do because we are not ignorant.

I also agree that to have the character of God we need to be in constant fellowship with the Holy Spirit, because 1 Corinthians 2 vs 9 shows that only the Spirit of God knows the things of God, so he will align your actions and your thoughts daily to be like God’s own.

[Ezeonugo02]

Name Name: Ezeonugo Ijeoma Chika
Course title: Christian character 105 LC
Topic : The renewal of the mind is central to the development of your character as a believer. Write a post on 5 ways renewing your mind can help develop your character as a Christian.
Renewing your mind according to Romans 12:2 indicates that renewing the mind will renew or transform your life. To renew or change the mind requires changing what goes into it. Our behavior is driven by our most strongly-held beliefs.
Renewing your mind aligns your mind with the truth of God’s word by learning to recognize the lies of the enemy, replace them with the truth of God’s word .

Ways renewing our mind helps us develop our character as a chirstian:
When you renew your mind with God’s words, you are conforming to God’s image. You begin to think like God and to act like God.
Your worldview changes and becomes more in line with God’s worldview. Bad characters begin to disappear. Your mind starts dwelling more on thoughts of God and what He thinks and does.
There is a clear reason for all this happening. God tells us in (1 Thessalonian 5:22), we are a spirit, we have a soul (which is our mind, will, and emotions), and we live in a body.
As we also renew our mind, the fruits of the Spirit ( Gal 5 vs 22-23) will be maginifed in us, we become like God daily and in return, it will be visible for others to see.

1.  As you keep renewing you mind you start loving others differently like God loves because one of God’s character is love, The Bible says, “God is love,” in 1 John 4:8b, NIV,  he gave his son to undeserving human, we too can love like him not because people deserves it but because the word of God (which is one of the tools we use for mind renewal) says we should love unconditionally.

2. Your thoughts, pattern and your way of life will change:
Paul encourages believers in Phillipians 2 vs 15, to put off their worldly ways of living because the world is at enmity with God. (James 4.4) as you keep renewing your mind you start shedding off thoughts that doesn’t align with the way God thinks and start acting like him.
Phillipians 4 vs 8 listed what our thoughts pattern should follow, and because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, we start acting on those pure and noble things that filled our hearts Matt 12 vs 34-40.

3. You will develop self control and self discipline:
Self control is discipline in the face of pressure from an immediate urge, it means delay immediate gratification of the senses, self discipline is about maintaining focus and focus in pursuing long-term goals.
God shows us self control in Romans 8 vs 32 by sacrificing his son, so that he will have many sons. Jesus exhibited both, because insipte of the devil plans to deter his plan ,he maintained the reason he came to earth (Matt 26 vs 53-54), he demonstrated self control by submitting to God’s plan.
As we renew our mind we come to the acknowledgement that God has deposited in us self Control (2 Timothy 1 vs 7) and the Holy Spirit who has been given to us will help us stay focus and not let the world’s standards be ours.
Self control is submission to God and ability to keep our emotions in check. In Matthew 21vs 12-13, Jesus was angry and destroyed the table of those selling in the temple, he did it in total submission to God, so while we are developing self control our primary focus remains on what God wants us to do.

4. As we continue to renew our mind we put off pride and start growing in humility:
Jesus does whatever he saw his father do and the Bible recorded that Jesus lived on this earth in humility, Phil 2 vs 5- 8, (John 5 vs 30), as we change daily in our mindset we stop boasting on things we have or who we are, and start being more like Chirst who shed all he had and gave it all for our sake.
Another example is Paul, he was recognized in the society  (Acts 13)  but in 2 Corinthians 12, he said he humbled himself and only boast in God.
As we renew our mind we start measuring our life based on God’s standards and not by man’s standards.

5. You will have long suffering as God does:
Long suffering is the ability to forbear a situation which is in most cases related to someone, it deals with negative actions and attitude towards others.
One character of God is long suffering  (2 Peter 3vs 9, Roman 2 vs 4.) We start to develop such patience and long suffering towards other because we are emulating God and we are to live like him, we will be slow to anger towards other and our anger towards God (for most people when they didn’t receive what the ask from God) will be eliminated, James 1 vs 9.

[Ezeonugo02]

Yes before Christ we are full of selfishness and our works were done for selfish purposes also those who are saved but haven’t renewed their mind in their new faith didn’t have a clear understating the their works were done to bring glory to God instead it became list of do’s and don’ts . Jesus in many occasions pointed this out about the Pharisees (Matthew 24:14) that they spend time carrying out the works without first dealing with the internal part which is the heart and Spirit.
The writer in this 4th paragraph noted “A relationship with Jesus is a relationship with the Word and the Spirit of God and so good works are inevitable because our very nature has become good. We begin to bear fruit that is good. It is not these works that justify us but they are prove that we have been joined to the one who is good.” Pointed to the fact that this good works are products of our relationship with God, which means as Christians the state of our heart will determine the nature of the works we will produce. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees that you can only give what you have (Matthew 12 :34 -40) we really need to keep renewing our mind to be like Jesus and produce good works.
Yes we are not saved by good works but when we got save (through believing in Jesus and confessing him Lord of our life) we will start living and acting like him whose very nature is good.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by Ezeonugo02. Reason: Correcting the 3rd paragraph to the 4th while making reference to what the write quoted

[Ezeonugo02]

Name Ezeonugo Ijeoma Chika
Course : Christian character CC- 105 LC
Essay Titile: Good works that stem out of a relationship with Christ Jesus are witness to Jesus” bearing in mind that we are not saved by good works (Ephesians 2 8 to 9). Give validity to this statement or state otherwise
Work : These are things we do, our actions, it means we are always doing works either good or bad.
Good works : These are person’s actions and deeds that are seen (externally), it differs from grace and faith which are inner qualities. These also are works that are good that are done for God’s Glory.
Good work does not produce salvations, but these are product of salvation (Matthew 5 vs 16. )
Good work that stem out of a relarionship with Christ are works or fruits that emanates or comes as a result of us been followers of christ and abiding in him (John 15 vs 15) it follows salvation, they also point people to Jesus. Having a solid foundation in the word of God will help us not to be misled about what God considers good work that are profitable to the kingdom of God.
As we abide in him and allow him to reproduce his character in us, we keep doing good works like Jesus did. We need to do more than talk about Jesus to unbelievers because our actions speaks louder than words and these works are the first thing the unbeliever sees and recognize.
Ephesians 2 vs. 8 to 9 shows and is a reminder that it is not our works and acts that got us saved, so we will not get to a point where we feel everything is by our might, our works did not earn us salvation but our salvation should lead us to a life of good works and men well see and judge and be attracted to us and therefore to God through this good works (Matthew 5 vs 16) , we were created for good works (Ephesians 2 vs 10) and we have nothing left to boast because the source of our good should be found in God. It is one way we can witness and evangelize for men to see the character of God in us.
During Jesus ministry on earth, he performed great works (John 9: 1 to 7. John 6: 1 -14 etc) the good works was used to witness to the people at that time pointing to God (John 10 vs 25), and before he left he stated in John 14 vs 12 that when we believe and abide in him and he in us we will do greater works than what he did and we will be greater witness.
Biblical examples where good works was use to witness Jesus:
1. Dorcas known for her good deed .(Acts 9 :36 to 43 ).
2. Healing of the man at beautiful gate. (Act 3 1 to 4 :1 to 25)
3. When the apostles sold their good and distributed to everyone who didn’t have enough (Acts 4: 32 37)
In summary, I believe that your good works will bring people to you and they would want to know more about your person then use those good works to tell them about Christ and get them to say the prayer of salvation because according to Rom 10 : 8 to 10, a person is only saved when he believes with his heart and confesses Jesus with his mouth.

[Ezeonugo02]

Your experience goes a long way to show that evangelism is totally a spiritual exercise and it shows that we need to be totally dependent on the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit before and during evangelism.
It encourages us to keep on spreading the word and at the right time the holy Spirit will complete what he has started ( 1 Corinthians 3 vs 6- I planted, apollos watered, but God gave the increase) his mum has been praying for him to get saved, it is also a reminder that if the prospect did not receive Jesus we take it as a seed sown and keep watering it with our prayers and at the right time God will complete the circle. Furthermore it shows that God always answers because he heard your prayers asking for help and he gave you just the right words to say. Matthew 10 vs 19 says “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak”
It is truly a miracle when one soul repents and ekklessia is reminding me of my duty as a Christian to do more evangelism and totally depend on the holy Spirit especially when one encounters hard cases.

[Ezeonugo02]

Name: Ezeonugo Ijeoma Chika
Course title: evangelism and follow up 108 LC
Essay 3 Topic: evangelism experience with Mr Henry

Sometime in July a teenager of 19 years old was employed in a laundry office next to mine. At first, he comes to my office to use my phone to call his boss because he doesn’t have a phone.
After a while I noticed by interaction and observation the following :-
A. He keeps wrong company.
B. He barely attend church.
C. He was looking up to his cousin who is his boss, trying to emulate some characters which I felt was not good.

Aspect of the conversation .
I began by finding out if he was a Christian, he said he was but I doubted him but felt we are not to be a jugde on salvation of an individual based entirely on his actions, I felt like there was time to take things slowly considering that it is working time and his boss will not be happy seeing him outside of his place of work. Then decided to follow him up and help him grow, concluding in my mind that time will tell if he was a Christian.

The main thrust of our conversation was trying to get him to be more aware of christian life, walking in it and leading him to Christ, If he wasn’t born again also because most people around him were living on the fast lane, I was also trying to get him to stay away from that way of life.

How did he respond to it.
He was open to hearing me out and responded very moderately whenever we had chance to discuss, opened to discussion and a few of the believes and stronghold he had was gradually being dropped and he looked forward to those uplifting discussions.

Problems encountered .
A. Because most of our chat occurs during working hours, we couldn’t chat much at any point in time.
B. There were challenges he was facing as regards to place of worship. His Mother forbids him from going to another church apart from hers and he didn’t like the mother’s church which resulted to him avoiding churches and he started spending weekends in his cousin/bosses home and he started to emulate his way of life which is opposite from what a Christian should be doing.

Decisions.
I wasn’t able to get him to make decisions to rededicated his life back to God, but he was interested in how to move forward in his christian life especially in getting a new church without offending his Mother or cousin, also our sessions was cut short because his boss shut down the business and he had to move, no phone number to use to contact him and he refused to give his mother’s number to contact him. He took mine promising to call when he gets another job.

Things I would have done differently
1. I wish I had more uninterrupted time to minister to him or done more with the time I had.
2. I would have love to led him to Christ again just to be sure. I never really emphasize salvation, because I felt following him up will be more effective considering he insisted he was a Christian (although he backslided), and I spend the little time we had trying to follow him up and fixing the church issues he had.
3. After he left I couldn’t call him again to know how he is faring, because I didn’t have his number and any means to contact him.
4. I would have spoken to his cousin on the need for henry to start going to church again since he spend most weekend with him, but the cousin was not opened to discussion and hardly around

[Ezeonugo02]

REPLY to Owhondah Ugochi Benedicta
I believe some churches, doctrines and religion has caused a lot of harm to spreading the gospel. On some cases, they most time trying to get more members to their churches. They replace church evangelism and doctrines of their churches to minister to unbeliever imposing these doctrines and believe to sinners.
These have many effects: many times the person been preached to will goes on the defense barely listening to the gospel. In most cases evangelism now becomes a session of agreement and defense of church doctrine and beliefs. because of constant bullying and coercion, the unbeliever will accept Christ not because he understands the gospels, but to avoid the consequences of their sin or to avoid the constant coercion.
I believe that changes can be made when we go back and rediscover that the purpose or true evangelism is a message for sinners to return back to God and keep religion out from the gospel and be like Paul (1 Corinth 9:19-23), who became all things to all men that the gospel might be preached, and like Jesus, who was compassionate and associated with both Jews and Gentles and people who the society reject and they (the churches)looked out for ways to minister Christ to everyone

[Ezeonugo02]

My reply post to Florence Oribhabor
True service is unrelated to your state of birth because service is not from born but rather a delebrate choice or effort you make to serve.
I completely agree on the writer on this because both Rebekah and Joseph never allow their social status affect their service to whoever came their way.
We could see clearly that this is who they are, disciplined, humble, with servant heart and they weren’t just acting to get something in return (eye service) as can be seen in the lives of a lot of today’s leaders. Looking at Joseph’s history, he had good vision of how great he was going to be yet, he took care of his father’s flock. Even as a slave he had plenty opportunies to advance by his power, but his love and respect for God stopped him from doing evil.
Rebekah already showed she was hard working (they had servants in their house Genesis 24 vs 61, yet she did not see anything wrong in going to fetch her water or even “stooping” low to serve a servant), compassionate and serving came natural to her.
Both were settled in theiir identity and purpose in life and knew that their current state will not affect who they are.
Just as the writer pointed, when we are settled in our identity and discover our purpose we will not serve because people are watching or to get recommendation from people, but it will be our daily life activities understanding that our sevice is first to God before to any human.

[Ezeonugo02]

NAME: EZEONUGO IJEOMA CHIKA
COURSE: EVANGELISM AND FOLLOW –UP 108
GROUP DICUSSION 1: One way to determine what a thing is, is to know what it is not.Are there things done by today’s contemporary church that are not evangelism? In your post state and explain at least 3 things being done today in the name of evangelism that is not true envagelism.

What is true evangelism?: It means to preach the gospel, which is the goodnews about Jesus Chirst, also God’s power to save all who believe in it. It is the way we can fulfil Chirst’s call to be his witness (Acts 1.8).
Therefore, True evanagelism is a true presentation of the saving message of the gospel that comes exclusively through Jesus Christ. Anything other than this is not biblical evangelism.
Jesus been our perfect example of a true envagelist, in John 4: 1- 26 we saw some of these in his ministry;
a. He was passionate, he cared for the lost.
b. He crossed boundaries of false religion restriction.
c. He connected with people on personal level . Etc

Below are some things done by today’s contemporary churches that are not evangelism:
1. lack of spiritual sensistivity; not letting the Holy Spirit lead.
2. False /church doctrine.
3. Condemnation
4. Wrong Target.

1. Lack of spiritual sensitivity; not letting the holy Spirt lead:
When we speak the Word of God to people, we’re speaking to their spirit man and exposing their innermost thoughts and desires, we need to let God direct us and put into our mouth the right words to say at the particular time, where to go, and to whom to minister to , so even our carefully laid out plans and speech can be change if we are submitted to the leading of the holy Spirt (Luke 12 :12).

There are at least 3 ways of describing the unseen work of the Holy Spirit in salvation:
A. He convicts the sinner, making his lost condition real to him. (John 16:8)
B. He enables the sinner to understand and accept the Gospel of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:4)
C. He regenerates the sinner’s heart (John 3:5 ).

2, False /church doctrine:
These are false gospels – heresies – that lead people away from the truth. They are lies that please man, but displease God. They are perversions of the gospel that change the message of God’s justice, grace, and glory into a message of man’s vindication, rewards, and happiness, and it tends to diminish and distort the authentic nature of the goodnews Chirst gave to us.
A believer will only speak what word he already know (Romans 10 :15} , false doctrines subtly infect the spiritual life of a person and are capable of leading to a person’s spiritual destruction. Therefore, if a believer goes out for evangelism armed with false doctrines those are what he spreads to unbelievers which makes it impossible to win that soul ( Matt 15 :14 ) blind leading the blind .
The Christian life is not meant to bring people into a life of spiritual bondage but instead when you are in Christ you are set free from bondage and you have liberty in Christ. Salvation is a free gift received by grace through faith in Christ alone and not by our own works or human effort (Galatians 2:21).

3. Condemnation /Judgemental evangelism :
Christian groups are making this error in the way they conduct their envangelism by listing all the sins the unbelievers has made and the right punshment they are to face, also telling people they are meant to speak the gospel to that they are worthy of God’s judgment and condemning them which put him in a defensive mood and will not allow the word to get through to him (Matt 7 1-5), it was the opposite of what Jesus did with the Samaritan woman whom he showed love.
Telling someone that God is going to punish sinners is not evangelism, until we have offered Christ and his death on the cross as the only way to avoid this punishment, we have not shared the goodnews.

[Ezeonugo02]

REPLY POST ON NEW CREATION NUGGET BY EZEONUGO IJEOMA CHIKA
The fall of man came with several effects, Discuss in detail three effects of the fall of man by Obiamonu, the writer detailed three things as the effect of man’s fall, these are :-
1. Adam and Eve committed high treason by willfully disobeying Gods command.
2 As a result of Adams transgression, he became a sinner and because we are all in Adam, we are all born sinners, that is our default state at birth.
3. We were born, yet we were born dead for in Adam all died spiritually.
It shows that God is not a liar when he said in Genesis 2.17, “that the day you eat of the fruit you shall surely die”, and for something as important as this, he still didn’t force his opinion on us because his commandments are for our benefits and protection (1 John 5 : 2-3 ) and our obedience should be out of love and not fear, sin bring temporary pleasures but there are negative consequences to every actions we take (Romans 6 :23).
The good news is that God never left us without hope, he chose us in him (Eph 1:4). We can learn that God is a good father who never stops loving us even when we disobey him and take sin (Gen 3:20-21, Job 3.16). Just as he clothed Adam and Eve, he can cloth you with his righteousness and gave his son so that the fellowship with him would be restored (John 3:16) and we would be made alive in him (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 45).
When we run to him, He restores what we have lost and exceed our expectation.

[Ezeonugo02]

NAME: EZEONUGO IJEOMA CHIKA
COURSE : NEW CREATION NUGGETS.
TOPIC :The fall of man came with several effects. Discuss in detail three effects of the fall of man
The fall of man is the occasion where man did not obey the instruction of God gave to man in the Garden of Eden and the following were the effects of the fall:
A. Their Righteousness before God was lost.
B. They lost fellowship with the father.
C. They experienced spiritual and physical death.
D. The land was cursed.
E. Eve will experience Pain during child birth.
F. They were evicted from the Garden of Eden so that they will not have access to the tree of life.
G. The man ruled over the woman,

1. They experienced spiritual and physical death:
Spiritual death is the separation of man from the God while physical death of separating the soul from the body.
God told them that they shouldn’t eat of the fruit lest they shall die, after the fall their number of years on earth was reduced and death was introduced because the bible said “in toil shall you eat all the days of your life, so from the moment they eat the fruit they began to die. Spiritually, they die because there was a separating between God and Adam spirit.
So because of this death (both physically and spiritually) that came as a result of the fall, Death passed through to all men .

2. They lost fellowship with the father:
Before the fal,l the bible recorded that there was a constant communication between God and man, both parties long for this fellowship because God took time communicating his mind and the reason of creation to man.
After the fall, the bible recorded that there was a bridge in this fellowship because when God came down for their usual “gist “, man knowing what he already did was afraid and hid himself from the presence of God. Fellowship is only possible between two people with a great relationship and had nothing to hide but between God and man who is now exposed to sin, full with fear, shame and guilt, fellowship was hindered, they now feared the presence of God which they previously enjoyed and saw God as a judge to be feared not God to enjoyed.

3. Their land was cursed:
Before the fall, work was given to man, God commanded him to have dominance, be fruitful and multiply, God made it in a ‘ plug and Play’ style like a soft work of tending to the garden and eating out of it. after the fall, the bible recorded that “cursed shall be the land, in toil shall he eat all the days of his life, thorn and thistles shall produce also (before the fall, only plants and herbs gave their produce while thistles and thorns were introduced after the fall) and in sweat shall he eat his bread all the days of his life.

[Ezeonugo02]

The fall of man came with several effects. Discuss in detail three effects of the fall of man
The fall of man is the occasion where man did not obey the instruction of God gave to man in the Garden of Eden and the following were the effects of the fall:
A. Their Righteousness before God was lost.
B. They lost fellowship with the father.
C. They experienced spiritual and physical death.
D. The land was cursed.
E. Eve will experience Pain during child birth.
F. They were evicted from the Garden of Eden so that they will not have access to the tree of life.
G. The man ruled over the woman,

1. They experienced spiritual and physical death:
Spiritual death is the separation of man from the God while physical death of separating the soul from the body.
God told them that they shouldn’t eat of the fruit lest they shall die, after the fall their number of years on earth was reduced and death was introduced because the bible said “in toil shall you eat all the days of your life, so from the moment they eat the fruit they began to die. Spiritually, they die because there was a separating between God and Adam spirit.
So because of this death (both physically and spiritually) that came as a result of the fall, Death passed through to all men .

2. They lost fellowship with the father:
Before the fal,l the bible recorded that there was a constant communication between God and man, both parties long for this fellowship because God took time communicating his mind and the reason of creation to man.
After the fall, the bible recorded that there was a bridge in this fellowship because when God came down for their usual “gist “, man knowing what he already did was afraid and hid himself from the presence of God. Fellowship is only possible between two people with a great relationship and had nothing to hide but between God and man who is now exposed to sin, full with fear, shame and guilt, fellowship was hindered, they now feared the presence of God which they previously enjoyed and saw God as a judge to be feared not God to enjoyed.

3. Their land was cursed:
Before the fall, work was given to man, God commanded him to have dominance, be fruitful and multiply, God made it in a ‘ plug and Play’ style like a soft work of tending to the garden and eating out of it. after the fall, the bible recorded that “cursed shall be the land, in toil shall he eat all the days of his life, thorn and thistles shall produce also (before the fall, only plants and herbs gave their produce while thistles and thorns were introduced after the fall) and in sweat shall he eat his bread all the days of his life.

[Ezeonugo02]

Can a person outgrow service? How can a leader who has grown in the ranks in church or in an organization still be able to serve?
Outgrow: it means to lose a habit, idea or reputation etc in the course of development or time.
Service: it is the performance of a duty or function.
Leader: He is someone who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. He has a shared vision aligned with core values and understands what it will take to reach the team goal.
No, a person can only outgrow service if he was serving with false humility, wrong motive and he had a targeted position of which when the target is achieved he sees no reason to continue pretending.
A person cannot outgrow service because we were called to be servant, and it comes from our inside out and the reward for hard work is always more work, service is not just an errand that is reserved for the lowest personnel but for everyone, as one grows in status they give more in their service. Faithfulness of service is meant to run through every level of life
A leader who is growing rank in any organization will still be able to serve if he recognize and work in the following principles:-
1. Constant renewal of the mind: A leader need to constantly renew his mind that is, one way for him not to outgrow service because it will help him to remain humble and faithful and also help him maintain a servant heart. It will help him not to feel bigger than the position or everyone within that organization. He should continue to bear in mind that he got to where he is by serving, by grace and by hard work and that more is expected from him.
2. A clear understanding of his purpose: He needs to keep his eyes focused on the purpose for which has been called to serve, by so doing he will understand that for every new level of greatness there is a greater door of service opened up at the same time also that there are more levels to grow into,so if he doesn’t serve properly he will cut short his purpose. Furthermore a leader is meant to coach guide and inspire others to be as him if not better so as long he is a leader there are people under him, people he can invest in their life.
3. Create opportunities to improve: He needs to always seek and create opportunities to improve especially if he feels that the current ways of things are not challenging him enough he should keep raising the bar. Service is what birthed leadership.
4. Check his associations: Most time people miss working in their purpose as a result of the company they keep . A leader who have associations especially ones who envy him or one who doesn’t have a clear picture of service and purposehe will easily loss interest in service because of peer advice.

[Author]

Posts