Guest Blog – The Christian Blog

Guest Post: How to Make Time for God as a Mother

The journey of motherhood is definitely a crazy one! A friend once asked me, “What makes parenting difficult?”.

My response was, “Raising another human whilst trying to figure out your own life.” Perfectly summarised right?

If, as mothers, we struggle with mommy guilt and making time for ourselves, how do we then ensure we create that time to consistently work on our spiritual and personal relationship with the Father Almighty?

Today, OMT’s Digest and The Christian Blog Ghana will share some tips to help you stay on top of your God game as a mother.

Be open-minded about how you spend time with God.

Sitting in a chair and imagining God seated opposite you can also be prayer. You can talk to Him in the bathroom or whilst cooking in the kitchen. Covid has taught us that even church can be virtual. We revere Him but He also says we should come to Him anytime with no strict rules laid down. Don’t allow society to create false rules for you. It’s a personal relationship and the mode of the relationship lies with the parties involved. Even in thoughts, you can still maintain that personal relationship with God.

Don’t limit yourself!

Check your schedule and find what works for you.

It could be the first 4 minutes before everyone is up, the time you settle in at work before the official work start time of 8am and it could be on the road to work which is even much preferred if you have your own mode of transportation. This is because you can have a morning devotion session in the car with the kids on the way to school drop-offs and you know who can be your best accountability partner? YOUR KIDS!

Once you find that time, proceed to create a routine out of it.

The strength of your prayer is not dependent on the length.

Not everyone is a prayer warrior. Some are gifted to pray in tongues and be deeply engulfed in the spirit for a longer period. Praying for a shorter period doesn’t make you any less of a child of God. Picture it as this, God has many children, and some are introverts and other extroverts. Some would meditate deep in their hearts and others will prefer to speak aloud. Even with our kids they all have their unique personality traits but we accept them as they are and still make time to listen to them.

Use the style that works best for you.

Supplement and develop yourself with spiritual audio teachings and music.

Worship and praise music and teachings can all help to develop your relationship with God. Mensa Otabil, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and Stevn Furtick and others all have podcasts you can subscribe to on a daily or weekly basis for FREE. These teachings can help build you up in your spiritual journey. And on days you are short of words, the music helps fill in the words for you.

One app that I find useful and would recommend to every mother is the YouVersion. This app has different devotionals on whatever topic you can think of – be it on anxiety, worry, fear, taking care of children, pregnancy journey etc. You can select a time to receive reminders to have your quiet time and what even makes it better is the audio option, thus you don’t need to read all the time. One of my favourite parts is the option it gives to users to record their prayers. Tracking your prayers and matching them to their answers, over time, teaches you to trust in God always.

Being a mother and taking care of the home plus managing a career or business could be extremely overwhelming and if care is not taken, God, prayer and quiet times could easily be relegated to the background. It is therefore important to make a conscious effort to spend some quality time with God in a day. As stated above, the duration is not as important and the quality. You could be cooking your meals and praying or doing your laundry and be singing your hymns and spiritual songs. They are all ways of communicating to God.

Hope these tips are useful and don’t pass judgement on yourself before you try out any of these tips. Tell us how this post served you. Is there any tip we missed in the post? We would love to hear from you. Let us know in the comment section.

Letters: To Advise or Not to Advise (IV)

Another Response to Joy by Doris Ampong

Bestie Joy,

I’m glad you girls are making room to reason with me. And I’m not surprised that you’ve been given the core responsibility of providing me with the appropriate response. You have always been the mother of the group; providing good counsel here and there and settling scores amicably amongst us.

I remember how you managed to break the iced silence between Akosua and I after several months, following our big fight over who you should pick up first from home on the day we decided to visit quiet Aba’s mum. It is funny how Akosua eventually became one of my favorites in the group. You do well with making peace.

Anyways, back to the crucial issue. Yes, I did say that my able counsellors warned Yaw and I to cut off all external parties or binding friendships. They might not have meant doing that in totality. However, they were clear that Yaw and I should keep to ourselves most of the time. We were encouraged to be our own best friend and enjoy our company. During those counselling sessions, the core of the advice was to make each other our priority above anything or anybody; even our parents. Their assertions were anchored on the famous marriage scripture that says ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh Gen 2:24 (NKJV)’. It was as though our counsellors knew I did a lot of hanging out with the girls; hence they being fierce and strict on me.

I did listen to them during those sessions but did not think I was going to follow through. I felt Yaw and I had our individual lives which should not be compromised because of marriage.

However, reality set in when we moved in together as husband and wife. There was not enough time on our hands; especially my hands to want to step out with the girls. You remember God blessed us with a seed three months after marriage and the whole process; coupled with corporate and church work was time consuming. The process is another story for some other time.

Yaw did have a large number of groomsmen and was all over the place during our wedding. His seemingly ‘all over the place’ attitude and non-stop dancing during the wedding is a mystery I’m still trying to solve considering the fact that he is a very quiet and private person. With the large groomsmen, his co-workers who by some luck heard in advance that he was about getting married were extremely happy. They could not believe that Yaw’s ‘mouth had finally sang’ (made a proposal) and so they all wanted to be part of his great day as groomsmen. At a point, I had to literally beg some of them to drop off as groomsmen due to the large number. He may have gathered the courage to dance his heart out during the wedding knowing that he had achieved a great feat for himself (making a proposal).

After the wedding, I never heard him talk about the groomsmen, left alone to want to step out with them. And that’s where the difficulty lies for me. He is always home; if not for work or church.

Like I mentioned in my previous letter, he is understanding and so will make time one of these days so that we can have an unforgettable sitting or trip.

Dearest Joy, keep the group strong and going; do not cross me out of the circle. I love you all very much,

Ama

**Doris Ampong is the writer of this 👆🏾 and the second letter in this series. You can follow her on Twitter @dorampgh

Letters: To Advise or Not to Advise (II)

A response to Joy by Doris Ampong

Dear Best friend Joy,

Your letter has been duly received. I must say that I’m not surprised to read the contents of it. I’m not surprised because I always read the look on your faces whenever I try to excuse myself to attend to my family needs.

Was I expecting a letter like that from you girls? Probably!
Am I hurt to have read that you girls are bailing out on our beautiful friendship? Yes.

Truth is that I miss you girls a lot too. I miss our long hours of chit chatting, stepping out to have fun especially at the movies where we get to put ourselves in the shoes of the movie characters and have long debates about how we would have behaved if we were them. I miss our cooking parties where each of us will prepare a particular dish and we will have a food-festival and eat as though we have been warned of an impending famine; lol.

But the reality is that I have entered a new phase of life where I do not get to make decisions just for me. There is now a second person whom I have to consider whenever I make any decision. Decisions that I make now need to bear him in mind.

What makes it difficult for me to maneuver through this is that, during our counselling sessions, my husband and I were told to cut off all external parties or friends and concentrate on building one between us. Our seemingly old, mature and knowledgeable counsellors told us to keep to ourselves and enjoy our own company. Especially for me, as the woman, they were hard and strict. They warned me to stop all these hanging-out-with-friends thingy and concentrate on building my home. The simple reason was that anything that goes wrong with the marriage will be blamed on me; as the woman.

This ‘warning’ has placed a heavy burden on me and so I try as much as possible to be with my husband and kids and build my home. Unfortunately, my husband Yaw, does not have any friends that he hangs out with. He is always at home. This makes it difficult to leave him behind at home and hang out with you girls. I know our party will not be the same should I come along with him. We may not be able to have as much fun as we will want to and talk our hearts out as we always do.

Yaw is an understanding person; and so I hope to convince him one of these days so that we girls can go for our Aburi trip which never materialized.

Please hold on to this friendship. You girls should not break the bond. I have you all at heart and I know that one day, we will get to be together like old times.

I love you all;

Sincerely, Ama.

2 Christian Bloggers answer the Question, “Why should I Bother to Have my Quiet Time?”

Having one’s Quiet Time is one of the habits every Christian is encouraged to cultivate but what are the benefits? Two bloggers share their perspective on why it is necessary to have Quiet Time:

Robert Chamberlain – Christian Blogger, UK

Firstly, nowhere does the Bible say, “thou shalt have a daily quiet time!” But this doesn’t mean to say we shouldn’t. David, the man after God’s own heart is a great example. See for example the epic Psalm 119, his great “love song” as it were to the word of God, which he (on his best days) meditated on day and night
Robert Chamberlain

Here are other biblical examples on the need to have one’s quiet time:

Daniel prayed three times a day – Daniel 6:10
Jesus assumes we’ll pray, and encourages us to do so in private. He Himself would go away by Himself while it was dark, early in the morning, to pray – Mattew 6:6
Paul encourages us to “pray continually” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16
Luke commended the Bereans for daily searching the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true – Acts 17:11

Robert is Christian Blogger and his blog address is https://roberlain.wordpress.com. His blog is also known as Watching Daily at Wisdom’s Gates

Quiet time is an essential part of every believer of Christ Jesus. It is in that state and process of mind and heart where we get the chance to commune with our Heavenly Father. It is an intimate act and a deliberate move of a born-again believer where we receive revelations, insight and heavenly information from God through the Holy Spirit, by spending time in the Word and prayer. There are so many benefits any believer of Christ Jesus can acquire through quiet time.
Ken Dadson

Here are some of the privileges.

During one’s quiet time, we develop and exercise our soul which is the mind, will, and emotions to line up with all the promises and purposes of God in His Word.
During Quiet time, we grow and also develop our faith and trust in God.
Quiet time also reveals hidden truths and revelations of God which has been hidden from the carnal man and has been revealed to us by His Spirit.
During our quiet time, we express our gratitude for the love our Heavenly Father has for us.
Quiet time also prepares us for the day because during that time, we hand over all our petitions and request to Him and we know and believe that as we do that we’re rest assured that He will take care of us.

For Further Reading: 2 Timothy 2:15; Romans 10:17

Beloved, never live a day without spending quality time with our Father, for as you do that you become strong and immovable as Mount Zion in Jesus name. Amen!
Ken Dadson

Kenneth Dadson is based in Accra, Ghana and his Instagram handle is jesus.rocks285

Guest Post: Baptism – To be Immersed or not Immersed

One spiritual exercise that has generated a lot of debate in the Christian faith is baptism. While some denominations believe that baptism should be by immersion, others believe that it can also be by sprinkling water on the believer as there is no strict form baptism has to take. In so far as there has been a symbolic act to signify baptism, that settles it.

This leads us to the question – What is Baptism?

The word ‘Baptism’ is a transliteration of the Greek word ‘Baptizo’ which means to immerse. The same word is also referred to as ‘Mikveh’ in Hebrew to mean an immersion. Basically, it is an immersion into another substance, for the purpose of being saturated with it, such as water in this instance. The new covenant also presents the immersion of a believer ‘’in the Spirit of God’’ and also ‘’with Fire’’ Matthew 3:11. For the purposes of this article, we will limit it to water baptism.

Baptism was seen as a ritual cleansing referred to as ‘Mikveh’ in Hebrew and was an established practice in Israel which was understood to be a work of the Spirit of Yahweh for inner cleansing. John’s Mikveh immersion was an outward symbol after an inner change that enabled repentant individuals to enter into an elevated state to prepare them to receive the Spirit of God and enter the Kingdom of God. John 3:5.

Baptism is, therefore, a higher spiritual exercise where the heavens open unto the believer for which matter it has to be dealt with in all seriousness. After John had announced the coming of the Messiah, he eventually baptized him in the Jordan River, further confirming the significance of water baptism. We read in Matthew 3:16 that after Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.

As Christians, we are charged to go into the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:9 KJV. This means that after a person has believed in the word of God, the second part is baptism, which is an outward expression of the believer’s faith in God.

Therefore, from what has been enunciated, a believer is either baptized or not baptized as there is no middle ground; Baptism is only by immersion!

This is a Guest Post submitted by Ernest Nana Osei. Ernest is an ordained minister of the gospel, journalist and a law student.

Guest Post: Who is Your King?

In Africa and the world, the Ashanti Kingdom is one of the oldest surviving empires. Found in modern-day Ghana, the kingdom covers the Ashanti region, of course, that explains its name. The Ashanti Kingdom is so vast, it stretches into other regions of the country. They were particularly known for their wealth in gold and other natural resources, past military achievements and their beautiful culture.

In the past, when a newly installed Asante Hene (Ashanti King) assumed the throne, he made a peculiar demand. He sent an order out to all who owned lands in the area considered as part of the Kingdom. The order – landowners were made to pay a levy to the Asante Hene before a set time. Defaulters automatically lost ownership of their property.

Just to let you know how powerful the Kingdom is, permit me to narrate a more recent event. This happened when the Asante Hene lost his mother, the Queen Mother. As part of the tradition, they organised a befitting burial for the Queen Mother and a curfew was declared. On a particular night, from dusk to dawn, no soul was supposed to be found on particular outlined streets in the Kingdom. That was the night the body of the Queen was conveyed to be washed and embalmed for the final burial.

The interesting thing that everyone living in that part of the country, no matter your nationality, is subject to the rules of the Asante Hene and his Kingdom. This has worked well through the years and that is synonymous to the Christian life of whoever you obey, you are subject to.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Romans‬ 6:12‬ KJV‬‬‬‬

Today, many Christians struggle because they live double lives. They are struggling with addictions and secret sins. They profess Jesus Christ as Lord but are not ready to live as followers of Christ. They will be in church on Sunday mornings and the local club in the evenings. Christians do not even have Christian friends because they find them boring. We serve the Lord God but are fully subject to secret sins, addictions and love for money.

If every single decision you make in your life is based on how much money is involved and what you are going to earn for yourself, you are possibly serving money. If there is a pet sin that controls you, such that you are unable to stop, you are in servitude to this sin and you need to turn fully to Christ. The good book says…

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Romans‬ 6:16‬ KJV‬‬‬‬

We cannot serve two masters. Definitely, one will be considered greater than the other. Consider this seriously and be guided by the Word…

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew‬ 6:24‬ KJV‬‬‬‬

If God is your king, your whole world should be ruled by Him and that includes every single aspect of your life. The Word of God is a complete manual. King Solomon said that there is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). And in fact, men have lived before us who had the same challenges as we face today. Everything recorded in the Bible is very much relevant today. Decide to live by it, and allow yourself to be guided by the Creator of the universe. Ask yourself this all-important question:

Who is my King?

This is a Guest Post submitted by Nimuah Tarko. Nimuah is a Ghanaian, a passionate Christian Blogger, a church worker, a husband, a God lover and recently a father. He is the Blog Administrator of Wisdom Treasures.

Politics And The Church: A Collective Effort Towards Social Change (Guest Post)

In almost every ancient history until today, the church and the government have been working side by side in protecting the welfare of the society. There are instances though of the church and the government’s involvement in controversies. We cannot, however, presume that this is always the case. How does a society benefit from the church and the government’s collaboration and leadership

Upholding the Law

The laws that are currently existing in our society have been God’s laws elaborated and specifically modified. The Bible is the oldest “law” ever written and it serves as a tool towards civilization. Both the church and the government have responsibilities to uphold these laws in promoting peace and stability within the society. It is only the government-mandated policies that sealed the laws that were written in the Bible so they cannot be interpreted objectively.

Nation Building

The church and the government are one when it comes to alleviating poverty and eradicating crimes altogether. It is not just the responsibility of the government to look after its citizens, but the church has that responsibility, too. The homes for the aged, the rehabilitation centres for juvenile delinquents, and the foster homes are just some of the institutions that together, as one, the church and the government can work to reach their goals.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” – James 1:27

Values Formation

“No littering.” “No smoking.” And there are more of these rules that we already grew up with. These are the rules that the government specifically enforced but looking at them from a wider perspective, it is actually about forming good values and creating a formidable character. A character that imbues discipline, respect, and submission to authorities. There are so many instances in the Bible that speak so much of these values. In fact, these are only but some of the values in the Bible that we can use to improve the self and become a better citizen.

A Unified Body of Christ

The body of Christ is composed of all of us who occupy a certain part of that body. We cannot claim that engineers are better than doctors, nor teachers than fishermen. Everyone has been given a gift and skill so we can perform on the roles that God assigned us with. It is a collective effort that further God’s greater plans to manifest in our lives, in our nations, and throughout the entire world.

The most controversial question that we can ask at this point is whose authority is most supreme? Is it the church or the government? The answer is both. We cannot separate the church and the government in the context of authority because they are both implementing the same laws one way or the other. Also, if we are to look at history and ancient civilizations, institutions were formed and built around the premise that God is the Supreme Being and leader of all. This means that the primary goal of every constitution is to honour God and His ways.

For example, every oath-taking ceremony for every professional includes this phrase at the end of it: “So help me God.” This will prove that our social duties are never separate from our duties to God as a Christian. They will always be congruent to one another even if future successors will change the laws as they see fit. But what we can be assured of is that there are some of these laws that will remain as they are because God mandated them.

The challenge for ourselves is this: are we fulfilling our obligations as mandated by the law of God reinforced by the laws of man?

This is a guest post by Christine Lailani Ginete – Rome. Christine is a Filipina, a devoted Christian, a faithful wife, a prayer warrior, a teacher, a writer, a hobbyist, and an advocate. On a deeper level, you’ll find her as a believer who’s imperfect but driven to encourage everyone to be a catalyst for social change and serve others through God’s grace, guidance, and prayer. Christine blogs at The Journeyman’s Moments.

3 Biblical Principles to Having a Successful Year

Christian Blog Ghana — **Dr Emmanuel Sogah** || Medical Doctor|| Budding Minister

When the clock strikes midnight on the 1st of January, there seems to be some glimmer of hope that the New Year will automatically be better than the previous one. It is not bad but to have a successful year requires deliberate steps and like a soldier preparing for war, it is important to have a plan and strategy.

People start the year with different ambitions and resolutions but half-way, they lose hope even though they believe the will of God for them is to have an amazing and successful year.

To ensure 2018 becomes one of the best years yet, believers are required to follow these principles as listed by Dr. Emmanauel Sogah:

Abide in the Word

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you – John 15:7

To have a great year, you need to be a person of the word. It is in the word that you’ll find strategies and ideas to accomplish whichever goal you list. When there is a union between the Christian and the word of God, whatsoever you ask will be granted.

In God’s mind, there is no prayer of a Christian that should be rejected. Jesus in his earth walk demonstrated that when he, for example, spoke words to the fig tree and it was done (Mark 11:12-25). As a Christian, this should be our everyday experience – when we speak we ought to receive answers and that can only be done when there is a perfect union between the Christian and the word of God.

Allow the Holy Spirit to Influence you

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. – Luke 1:35

After setting our goals for the year, we wonder how we are going to achieve them. Just as Mary conceived her baby after she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, so shall we achieve our goals this year by the influence of the Holy Spirit. This point is also emphasised in Zechariah 4:6

So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

If you are going to achieve anything, then it is going to be by the Holy Spirit. It is also important to fellowship with the Holy Spirit by praying with other tongues. He (the Holy Spirit) will help you as emphasised in Romans 8:26.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

The Spirit gives us insight into the future for us to understand the details of projects we wish to undertake. The Holy Spirit also helps us in our shortcomings when it comes to goals we have set for the year. Joshua received unorthodox directions from God to march around the walls of Jericho, seven times (Joshua 6) in order to bring the walls down. If we are going to succeed this year, we’ll need to go by the strategies of the Holy Spirit which is sometimes uncommon and not according to the systems of the world.

Pursue Excellence

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge…. – 2 Peter 1:5-8

Ensure excellence is seen whatever you do as a Christian this year. Be steadfast and immovable in the decisions you take. Pay attention to expressing your inward virtues.

If these things (aforementioned) are in you in an increasing measure, fruitfulness will be inevitable.

You can also click on the link below to listen to the audio.

Garbage in, Garbage out!

Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO), in the context of information technology, is a slang expression that means regardless of how accurate a program’s logic is, the results will be incorrect if the input is invalid.

While the term is most frequently used in the context of software development, GIGO can also be used to refer to any decision-making system where failure to make right decisions with precise, accurate data could lead to wrong, nonsensical results according to Techopedia.

Similarly, as a Christian, what you feed your spirit with is very important as it has a direct reflection on your lifestyle and confessions to a greater extent. Jesus cautions in Matt. 12:34,

“For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks…”

When evil resides in the heart, it will be exposed in perverse speech or language contrary to the truth of God’s word. However, if the heart has been impregnated by the Spirit of God, the mouth will begin to speak like God does! A person’s works produce the fruits, and the heart then is known by what it produces.

Therefore for a Christian to manifest Christ, he/she would need to have the mind, which is a spirit renewed more and more. The Apostle Paul succinctly expresses it in Eph. 4:23

“…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind”

Once the spirit of your mind is renewed, it is then reconnected to the Spirit of God which would be evidenced outwardly by your lifestyle.

Endeavour to discipline your spirit man always by fasting and the study of God’s word so that your spirit would be rekindled to enable you to connect to the Spirit of God and hear His voice when He speaks!

The Bible is not a STORY BOOK

There have been a lot of controversies regarding the operation of the Holy Spirit amongst Christians.

While some Christians (mostly Charismatic) believe in the Holy Spirit, there are a lot others who argue that the working of the Holy Spirit was only operational in the Old Testament and did not extend to the New Testament.

This has often led to very contradictory interpretations of the bible by the various denominations and sects.

The Bible, which is the word of God, was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (II Timothy 3:16). The written word is known in Greek as the Logos whereas Rhema is the revelational knowledge behind the Logos.

So in order for a Christian to understand the written word (Logos), he /she would have to get the Rhema which is the revelational knowledge which comes from the Holy Spirit. This means that without the revelational knowledge, one would read the bible and interpret it as though he were reading a story book.

This is the much reason why there are a lot of doctrines and religious sects, whose activities seem to be in sharp contrast to the word of God. Although they spend time searching through the scriptures, they are unable to come to an understanding of the deeper meaning behind the letters they read.

Permit me to make a legal allusion here:

In law, whenever a matter of contention arises regarding any constitutional provision, the Supreme Court as the highest court of the land is vested with powers to interpret the provision under contention so as to reveal the intended meaning of the drafters of the constitution.

In doing this, the Judges employ the purposive rule of interpretation to unravel the spirit behind the letters of the Constitution.

This means that that it will be difficult for a lay person in matters of law to read the Constitution at first hand and fully grasp the meaning behind the letters.

In the same vein, for a Christian to fully understand the things of God, he/she would need to have a personal relationship with God. By so doing, their spirit man becomes sharpened and more in tune with the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is after your spirit has been rekindled that your spirit can become alert to hear from God through the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20).

This is what will enable you to read the bible and understand what the words truly means.

I pray that from today, as you spend time to search through the scriptures, your spirit man would be rekindled so that the word you read would make meaning to you.

The author of this post is Ernest Nana Osei. Mr Osei is a journalist, real estate consultant, life coach, law student and very passionate about the things of God.