The Oscar Ajoku Blog: Daily Vitamin Devotional

DAILY VITAMIN - Under His Watch For every time we perceive to have fallen short of God's glory by our wayward actions, we all have the Peter's experience. How do I mean? Right there in the midst of multitudes of haters and profane fellows willing to kill Jesus, with some other Christ-loving people, the Lord located Peter immediately after he had denied Him (Luke 22:61). Jesus saw him even when he thought he had perfectly hidden himself from men. This is to tell us that whenever we go against His words, though we might think the world is so much as populated, such that God can't see us at all, but He sees you much more than you see yourself. And the same happens at all times. We are constantly under His surveillance (2 Chronicles 16:9). But what happened afterwards with Peter? After his realization that the Lord had seen him, and that he had erred, he went out and wept (v. 62). Thus, as Peter, do you feel the pain of regret, accepting the chance of repentance when you

DAILY VITAMIN - Never Ending Faith The kind of faith God expects of us is the sort that is borne within, never-ending. The kind that never dies whether or not God answers our petitions. Jesus standing before the council and Pilate as well would not deny Himself, nor God in Him, even with the prior knowledge that God won't deliver Him in fulfillment of scripture. At the brisk of death, His faith didn't die; even at the cross, He never despised the words 'My Father'. Are you passing through a hard time at the present stage of your life? I can say that God would deliver you; that is good, but the truth is, I do not know what God's planning on accomplishing through that phase. But all I can tell you is that whether or not it seems as though it's gone or not, never stop trusting Him; for even if that doesn't change your omen, it accomplishes something - it pleases God (Hebrew 11:6): and it is much more profitable to please God than self. The faith that please

DAILY VITAMIN - Be Liberal In Love It is said that love is not blind, but rather that it sees more; but because it sees more, it chooses to see less. That alone tells the Jesus' story: First of all, Peter was a non-chapel going person before he met Jesus, yet Jesus didn't discriminate him, rather He saw less of his religious flaws, and more of his godly potentials. Second, Matthew was the con of society, ripping exuberant amounts from peasant all in the name of taxes, yet Christ chose him, seeing less of the con in him, and more of the son he could be. And lastly among many others, Judas was a thief, yet Jesus wouldn't judge him even after his treachery, seeing a friend in him, even while he had played the enemy. Jesus showed us the perfect example of a life well lived in just thirty-three earthly years; a life in which impact was not a fight, but an aura that came naturally. The life God expects us to live is that which, like Jesus', brings the farthest foe to a

DAILY VITAMIN - God Doesn't Want You To Worry Just try looking around everyday, and you will easily find a thousand and one reasons to keep worrying; from the ghastly auto-accidents we see daily occurring on the same route we plan on passing through the next day, to news concerning recessions, religious chaos, personal financial depletions and our work routine challenges. But Jesus gave the all-compassing words of encouragement when He said '...my peace I give unto you..'(John 14:27). The thing about Jesus wasn't that He never faced any challenges, or that He didn't have any trouble... for God's sake He had calvary to deal with, a raging sea to overcome, and an army of antagonizing pharisees on his neck, yet in all of these conditions, He remained in the joy of the LORD. At Calvary, He wouldn't regret, only a tear so lifted. At Tiberias, He wouldn't fear, only in God's arm of power would He believe even as He spoke. Among the law-givers, He would

DAILY VITAMIN - Recovering The Consciousness of Your New Identity As we read through the Scripture, from God's chat with Abraham to the vision of Micaiah, one question will always pop into our minds; and that is, if God is all-knowing and powerful as we know and believe, then why does He still seek the fragile suggestions of men or lower beings? Well, the answer is not far-fetched. God sees you in the same way as much as He sees Himself, because you are made in His image. That is, He sees unlimited potentials spurring from that fragile vulnerable person you say you are. He sees the light within you your ignorance have denied you from seeing. He sees potential, and the dynamic power to make things happen. He sees your opinions as worth listening to. Though His rule is clearly theocracy, yet He appreciates every word, every idea you have to bring forth His will into fulfillment on the earth. Unlike our inferior self-inflicted thoughts, God sees a god within you- one bathed with w

DAILY VITAMIN - Being Faithful I have come to realize that God remains faithful at all times, and that we are the ones who are always less faithful. The Bible says that even if we deny Him, God is faithful, He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13); but then it shouldn't come as a surprise as God often referred to mankind as the adulteress in this divine union. Regardless of this flaw on our part, the primary duty of every man is to fear God, keeping up in faithfulness to Him (Ecclesiastes 12:13); but while on this, know that as I said God is always faithful: all He says, and would ever say, He does. With this mindset of God's unfailing faithfulness, I implore you to launch into this day with the notion that your impossibilities shall be made possible- not because you can do so on your own, but rather because this faithful God in you can. For instance, for nine consecutive times, God sent Moses on a mission that seemed not to produce the appropriate answer; and for this perio

DAILY VITAMIN - Aim For Growth Growth, they say, is an irreversible increase in size; and if we are to work with that, we would see that our growth in Christ is defined by our limitless endeavour to keep moving forward in the knowledge of God, and the actual act of that deed. " As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby". (1 Peter 2:2) Most astoundingly, everything God does- every miracle, every sign, every mysterious wonder- is for the purpose that we may fear and believe in Him more and more (Exodus 14:31), even as that phenomenon keeps us in the euphoria of an endless search for more of Him. If there is anything I believe Jesus loved about Nicodemus, it was the fact that though he was a Rabbi whom proselytes would do anything just to clean his robe; one with an astounding background on knowledge of the law...I guess, yet he didn't see his covering too occupied to receive anything new from the Christ. Rather he came as a neonate

DAILY VITAMIN - Don't Settle Comfort is every man's dream. In fact, to man, it's a sign that a goal has been reached. And the feeling it affords you reveals how good comfort is. Yet, in actual sense, there comes a time when comfort becomes a burden to men. This then begs the question why? Well, because as a result of our negligence, and reliance on its flair, we take up an attitude that displays levity- thus making us lesser than we once were before we attained comfort. The principle of God for the diligent I believe is to keep beating your best. So many of us feel like we have conquered all there is the moment we cross a canal, forgetting that the seas lie ahead. For instance, the children of Israel thought crossing the Red sea would be the biggest achievement ever, and so became non-chalant towards God, and at the end only a few out of the many who crossed reaped the promise that laid ahead. Same thing with Jehu who dealt so well with Baal only to get so comfortable

DAILY VITAMIN - Revival In one of his inspiring psalms, David wrote a line about a special event that occurred between Moses, the Israelites and God. Remember, when the Israelites went against God in serving the calf, God chose that moment to destroy the whole nation, and establish another through Moses; and surprisingly He had already started with that plan. But Moses seeing what would happen, as David wrote, stood as a barrier to turn away God's wrath (Psalm 106:23). We see the same thing in Jesus, coming to save an already condemned and judged world. Furthermore, He is the light, the same light we carry within us, and so it can be depicted that you and I have a duty to stand before Him in the breach to save the fallen fellow. At this point, our minds may sway unto prayers for others; yes, that's good, but still it involves much more. When the 5000 were hungry, Jesus didn't say a prayer for them, He fed them. When Jairus' daughter had died, Jesus didn't say a p

DAILY VITAMIN - Exhibiting God To The World God is more important to every thing in this world than every thing in this world, (that is to say, for instance, more important to the hair than the hair needs the shampoo, for without God there would be no hair); and this is why the world suffers every time a breach is perceived separating it from Him. But God so wise created an alternative to keep this problem the world faces solved, and that alternative is you (the image of Christ on the earth) and all Christians in general. You are a perfected work born into the world to relive that perfection (that is of Christ) unto the saving of man. So it becomes imperative that our lives carry a congenital mechanism to bridge the breach, yet the irony is that we don't even believe we are whom God says we are. And so whenever you get that feeling that you are not worth anything, think again, because not only do you have the greatest diplomatic job ever - which is to express His culture on e

DAILY VITAMIN - Trust: The Component For Destiny Fulfillment One of the problems of humans is the inability to trust continually even when the other end has proven to be faithful over time. We see this in our normal human-human relationship: a friend lends a sum to be repaid on or before a deadline society had set against us, and although this friend pays up on the nick of time, but next time, we won't readily give him that sum, because our fear of society's worst would drive us to distrust him. In the same way, our man-God relationship suffers from the same ordeal. God despite having been so faithful from natality till this point of our lives doesn't yet have the absolute trust He demands from us. Though we are aware that during exams, when we skipped what we had in retention, and then prayed, He helped us remember, but because the teacher keeps saying the next term's is going to be tougher, we kick God out of the picture, believing we don't need that Person who

DAILY VITAMIN - Walking The Lost Back To Him All throughout the Exodus, God never stopped walking with the children of Israel, though He knew them as stiffnecked: stubborn, relentless in sin, and more or less worldly. Despite His knowledge of this, it wasn't enough to discard them in a moment because God knew He had a future with them. He knew what He had envisioned for them. This is the same way God treats the sinner, and that's why Paul wrote, 'the goodness of God leads to repentance'(Romans 2:4); He keeps walking with them though far away from their lane, so that at the point when they look back and see Him nearby, returning to Him won't be a difficult task. Now that was for God; now for us: being His replica on the earth, and if genetics truly is significant, then we must carry this trait of His. It is our duty to return the lost sheep back to the flock. Though Paul said ''be not unequally yoked with the sinner'', that doesn't entail our

DAILY VITAMIN - More Of Him It is a mystery, but it is true that spending time with God transcends His glory upon us. Just like Lamarckism preaches, the more consistent an organism practise an act, the more there's an evolution to make it its nature- just like his illustration with the giraffe. In the same way, the more we spend time with God, the more like Him we become. Like they say, you can't be close to a bonfire and not smell like smoke. The more we attach ourselves to God, the more we adopt His ways of life. The story of the shining face of Moses seems like a myth to many of us, but unknowing to us it happens everytime we stay refreshed in His presence (See Exodus 34:34-35); and though we may not see it, but those around us feel it. To be sincere I believe if there's anything God desires most, it is impartation. In fact that is why He created the world - to give all things a chance to live. That's why He gave Jesus - to bring upon man His way of life. That&#

DAILY VITAMIN - Find Relief In Jesus I have come to understand that a word of your ordeal with God never leaves you in the same spot. God’s comfort will heal wounds men's hands can't reach. You see, you might get in a cab, down you go to a professional psychologist, but still might return as down as you went. You might see a doctor to advice you on how long of a life span you have, but you might still leave with the same expected life span. In fact, you may even see a teacher to help you with better understanding of Dalziel's equation and mathematical theorems, but there is also a big chance you'll return without understanding anything better as you did earlier before. I'm not saying these professional helps aren't good, I'm simply saying there aren't better than God. They may provide help, but true rest comes from the Lord. But what does God say? 'Come unto Me, all ye... that are heavy laden', but He isn't just calling you for a session

DAILY VITAMIN - Chasing True Needs The thing about God is that most times He does not give us our best, but His best; and that's why we tend not to receive what we think we need, but what He says we need. The truth is, we think we know what we need, but we don't, we only know what we think we need. Just like a child who craves the idea of becoming a drug baron because he watches them with their so feigned elite state and glittering flair on TV, and though his parents warn him why he must not tread that path, he pays them no mind,at least not until he sees how so many drug dealers get shot or arrested or what have you as the evening News. We are so much like that kid; we think we know what's necessary in our lives - where we must live, how we must live, and with whom we must live, but in real sense we don't, because we are the creation, and every creation requires its Creator for the knowledge of the blueprint of its life. You don't have to fail before you realize

DAILY VITAMIN - You're Blessed! God has given you all you need to be whom He has said you shall become. Remember, He has blessed you with all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). He has loaded you with so great potentials that I believe even nature envies you; for in the same way nature's sun brightens the day, your soon-to-be revealed sunlight shall shine on so many unto liberty (see Matthew 5:16). For instance, take David for example; how did a sheepboy in less than 13 years gain so much allegiance from every individual on the streets of Israel? God had set all things in order so that David didn't really have to strive. Though times came when he ran for his life, switched personalities to stay alive, begged just to be fed; but in the times of his ever greatest challenges, God stood there fighting for him. And I am sure it felt like a movie to the on-lookers. When he needed to pull a city down, loyalists were there to do it all on his behalf, all because God

DAILY VITAMIN - Reconciliation The essence of Christ's life and death is for the purpose of reconciliation; that is, a continual saving process. Let's see it this way: you are a prize to take home; and regardless of how far we were in our lostness, God would go the distance to trade in His Son just to get you back. And so that means that when Christ was dying, He was doing just that; not because He merited death, but because He sort to bridge the gap to cover our lostness, and when He arose again, He did to give us the life God willed us to possess and the duty to extend it to others as well. Just as Paul wrote in Romans 11:15, the casting away of the Son on Calvary hill reconciled us all back to God, and by His resurrection, we arose from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from judgment to peace, from condemnation to conversion, from hell-bound to heaven; and so now we can say that because He is holy, we are as well, for what the root is, so are the branches (v. 16).

DAILY VITAMIN - God Will Push You Until You Grow Resilient One thing I have come to understand is the fact that when you do well, and yet you still don't get the best, keep doing well until you get that best. Most times when failure strikes and hits us down beneath the 'tunnel' of hope, it isn't because God wasn't aware; in fact to be. factual He was, and often times He permits it because He knows that it's not the action (i.e.unexpected blow as a result of the ordeal) that truly matters, but our reaction to that ordeal; as it can be depicted that while action makes a path, reaction chooses which to follow. Permit me to say this, but I believe God stretches us so as to re-amend our breaking points, because the truth is, if today after one failed attempt there is no zeal to retry, there will never be a zeal tomorrow to press on after 999 failed attempts as Edison encountered. The greater He stretches us, the greater the patience we gain and the greater the nee

DAILY VITAMIN - Your New Identity In Paul's heart-felt letter to the Achaian church, he summarized the effect of Christ's deed on mankind. He revealed our new status before God. You know many have been deceived by the devil into thinking that they are still as hopeless and hapless as they were before they met Jesus. But that isn't what apostle Paul teaches us in that letter, rather he showed us how high the gift of salvation hoisted us in the sight of God; in that it brought us into One's hands, and other things into our hands. He wrote 'ye are Christ's'- teaching us that the essence of God's sacrifice in Christ isn't just for the purpose that you follow Him, but rather that you follow Him until you begin to walk with Him, and then abide in Him, such that there is no telling as to whether there's a difference between you and Jesus: a process He everly remains patient to see occur. Furthermore, Paul also wrote 'all are yours': all Chri

DAILY VITAMIN - Find Hope In Jesus Try taking a walk through the city, you'd realize that almost half its population are suffering from depression; both the man in the Porshe as well as the man in the projects. And the very reason why  this occurs is because regardless of all they've accumulated, they still lack the hope of ever being fulfilled. And that's where life actually finds its essence. Rekindling our hope often times can be the most difficult task to accomplish; and as a result of this fear, we run to the 'shrink' to help us find it back, or simply just wait for some hopeful guy to help push us whenever we feel down. But guess what God thinks: As much as your alternatives are so much of a good idea, God is really enough to keep you going. One, because He holds the eventual end of your goals and aspirations, and as such your eyes on Him and that goal should spur you always to keep going. Second, His words. God said '..they that wait upon Him', t