The Oscar Ajoku Blog: Daily Vitamin Devotional

DAILY VITAMIN - Leading Like Jesus Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God".                 (2 Corinthians 1:4 AMP) I once stated that a leader's mind is never on 'me', neither 'us' but always on 'them'. His primary duty is always to make sure that those among the 'them' are safe. A typical shepherd sees his sheep's life as more sacred than his; that is to say that a father values his son's life than his, and would be willing to give an organ for him whenever the call comes. So also, we must live everyday of our lives as though we were leaders placed by God in our surrounding niche to help as many as possible return to their 'safe' minds where they ca

DAILY VITAMIN - Becoming Hope "To whom God was pleased to make known how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory". (Colossians 1:27 AMP) If I were asked to describe the Person of Jesus with one word, not on the basis of race, or ministry, I would say HOPE. Everywhere Jesus stepped into, He was a ray of hope to everyone who encountered Him. The scripture says He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). So at all times, people knew they had a solution with Him around. When the blind met Jesus, they immediately knew that there might be a chance to see the stars glow. When the lame saw Him, they knew that walking again could cease being a dream or wishful thinking. When the afflicted touched Him, they could feel all affictions within them dropping. When the broken-hearted conversed with Him, they knew the cracks were soon to be anneal

DAILY VITAMIN - God is Aware "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you shall have wars." (2 Chronicles 16:9 AMP) Due to the evil that rampantly occurs around us, a lot of people have chosen to give up on the tightly held belief of the existence of a God, and the thought of ever being anything great in this presently infested world. We give up the thought of attaining the promises of God for our lives simply because we can't explain the obstacle that we presumed should have never been there in the first place. But guess what? Our God is not dead; as rightly said the only reason why evil occur has its roots on freewill, yet in whatever omen we find ourselves God is aware, and He is there, not as a spectator, but as a Saviour. God’s dignity is seen of all men when He defends His people (see 2 Chronicles 16:

DAILY VITAMIN - Come Home! "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". (Matthew 11:28) A home is more than a place where a group of people lay their head to sleep every night, and gather at the table by day to meal. A home is more than just a depot for hugs, smiles, and those words we assume make us comfy. It is also more than just blood. Rather, a home is a feeling; one that brings not only belongingness, but also an aura that strengthens perfection out of our imperfection. A home is more than just where you constantly see parents and siblings; instead it is anywhere you can feel like family. And that's why God's Person is and will always be a home for all. Little wonder why the Psalmist confessed '...the righteous run into....and are safe'. In God's presence, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17)....to procure virtues that seemed non-existent within you.... to unleash the potential that men's myopism blind the

DAILY VITAMIN - God Knows "Thus says the Lord, Consider thy ways" (Haggai 1:7) Most people always want a definition for everything that occurs, or might occur, and when it comes to issues about God, they want an 'up-there' kind of definition, at least that's what they call an ambiguous explanation. Yet unknown to them, God relates to men in a similar way in which we the sons of men relate with one another.  For instance, when a great general dies after several battle victories, a huge 'parliamentarian' funeral would be set up for him; the whole army would stand at attention for him; military rifles would be shot into the open air for him, and most times even a parade, just so that the surrounding world may know that someone who did great works just passed on.....instilling in your mind this feeling to never forget him. In the same way, God says 'I will never forget any of their works' (Amos 8:7). Whether it be of good or evil, God keeps a re

DAILY VITAMIN - The Responsibility To Forgive (2) "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke 6:36) Imagine a world full of hate with little or no forgiving, there would be no giving; that is, no giving of love, of helping hands, of nothing. Now imagine a world without the penumbra of hatred, yet with no forgiving, it would seem nice for a while until its incompleteness surfaces, splashing reality before the faces of men that all there ever was was hate in the disguise of serenity. Lastly, imagine a world without hate, yet full of forgiveness; in there you would see a world where chances are never devoid until the end; a world where strife and grief would easily be expelled from the minds of men; a world where men would give to foes regardless of 'before'. A world where helping a soul get rid of guilt would feel more like a calling. If there's anything God did to us through Jesus, it was forgiving us, for with forgiveness comes a savi

DAILY VITAMIN - The Responsibility To Forgive (1) "And be ye kind one of another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:32) Apart from the fact that your calling as a child of God-a forgiving God-demands you show the same attitude of forgiveness, the entire facet of success in life still has a hinge on forgiveness. The memoir of Job shows us how. Throughout the sufferings of Job, his three friends always thought they were defending God whenever they stroked Job with their whip-like words after he tried to justify his uprightness, even to an extent that it seemed as though their strokes exceeded their sympathy. After all was said and done, God instructed his friends to apologize to Job, yet the baton of the whole scene rested on Job: that is, on his forgiving them. Note, Job had been forgiven by God for complaining almost all through his trials, yet tested him to see if he could reciprocate the same, which

DAILY VITAMIN Your Position: A key "The Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him, Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your posterity forever" (Genesis 13:14-15 AMP) No matter how much I'd love the idea of living in the West, working in the West, growing old in the West, the moment I find myself stuck in the North or East, my aspiration takes a shot on its 'legs' of realism. At least that's what I'd think at that moment, because in my mind all I can ever be can only begin from there. And so, it is true to say that your position is a labyrinth to your reality. By its impact in the lives of men, it shapes our today, and perfects our tomorrow. It determines our allocation in life; for if we miss our place, we would only be misplaced in the array of glorious realities. For instance, if Jacob had missed out on the two immemor

DAILY VITAMIN - The Blissfulness of Obedience "If you know these things, blessed and happy and to be envied are you if you practice them [if you act accordingly and really do them]." (John 13:17 AMP) Most times, I just wonder how it would have felt when Joseph called his son the name Jesus. He knew that was God's chosen name; not only that, he had also received directives to call the child that name; so indirectly he was accomplishing three things at a time. First, he was naming his first son. Second he was obeying God's command. Third, he was ushering the Messiah into the earth with His name given from above. I'm sure Joseph would have felt great within; perhaps as we do whenever we fulfill God's bidding to us. There is something ecstatic about the act of obeying God. It gives us this inner peace and assurance. It takes away the 'egg' feeling. A peculiar feature about the egg is its property of fragility. Wherever it may be, it stands a 99.9%

DAILY VITAMIN - Practicing The Word The words of God carry a soothing aura of rest, and if only we can hold on to it, life would be a whole lot easier, because by the strength of the Word, He carries our burdens, and bears our cares. The prophet Micah, in those medieval days, wrote a line I love so much; he wrote....Do not My [God's] words do good to him that walk uprightly (Micah 2:7). The fulfillment of the word, as reiterated in those words of Micah, reaches completion fully in the lives of the upright. Upright here signifies the strictly obedient ones. Those who take God at His word, and practice all He instructs to the latter. The Bible emphasizes on how an upright man is a delight to God, and to the people; and so uprightness is a nature and character all men must covet, for it is a carrier of integrity and a conduit towards blessings. But this is where I'm truly driving at: the words of God are always ready to be fulfilled (Isaiah 55:11), yet they are quickened only

DAILY VITAMIN - Let God Be Enough For You "In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths." ( Proverbs 3:6 AMP) A popular phrase says that every end of the race is a beginning of another. First, yesterday became over some hours ago and bore today; last month became over and bore this new one, and soon this year would become over, adding one to itself to born the next. In this year and in the coming months, we all would need a refueling medium, and what's more better than what God has to say about your life. David had so much saturated himself in God's promises that he wrote...''I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, O Lord only makes me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:8). During those times, David structured his mind not on the insecurity problems, nor on the mass flawfulness. He didn't focus on his weakness, nor his soon to be weakness, rather he contented himself in the truth

DAILY VITAMIN - Imbibing The Nature Of Faith "Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants--not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a h

DAILY VITAMIN - Every Habit Is A Choice One thing almost every individual must have learned from his/her normal daily routine experiences is that attitudes aren't born in a day;  character isn't established in a moment, and that whatever you become is a final product of all you have always been. Like Edward V. Hill said ''Little rats don't cut holes, they just follow through where big rats have made the holes''; that is, whatever a man becomes is something he has been taught to be either by someone or by himself; and that's why habits are hard to break, because they are either self-influenced or strongly established by external influences. For instance, according to the record in the first book of the Kings 12, Rehoboam, even after being groomed by the wisest man in the world, still made the mistake of making the wrong choice. This fellow was always in the company of his friends right from kindergarten- I suppose, and when it came to the point of his

DAILY VITAMIN - Having Known, Shout It Out loud! "I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise you among much people." (Psalm 35:18) If you are one of the many "us" who watch a lot of sports, you'd understand that after any sport athlete does marvelously, or perhaps wins a race, he gets into a room, has a press conference where he expresses himself in regards to how he feels, and how it all resulted to that glorious moment.  The same thing should be evident in the life of every redeemed child of God. Every time you spend with others-peers or strangers-should be a press conference to you; every moment you converse with the world should be an opportunity to tell of how you feel and how it all resulted to this.  Your testimonies of God should be something the world around you should get used to, not hidden but broadcasted. For the past so many years, and in this last 100+ days, God has been so good to you and I: faithful as He remai

DAILY VITAMIN - Can You Serve God For Nothing? "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15) There is a marvelous picture in the book of Habakkuk of a true revelation about one man's love for God. He [the prophet] said that even if all he had ceased to prosper; even if his life came to a standstill and he lost every sense of hope for a revival; even if the picture of his future loses the poise and élan he was promised, yet will he serve-and rejoice in-Jehovah (3:17-18). Just like Job, this was a man who loved God not for what He gives, but for whom He is. But here lies the irony: How many of us can the same be said of today? How many of us will choose God even if that choice had no benefit to it? How many of us will choose God all over again if we had a hall-pass to live in any way, and if judgment, heaven and hell ceased to exist? This is what it means to truly love God: to serve and obey Him even when there's no reward or consequence attached to it. Mo

DAILY VITAMIN - Getting It Right In Love  "And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah's tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother." (Genesis 24:67, NLT) From the rear, I can hear the words "what makes you think you can write about this? You're not married and apparently aren't 'in love' presently". Touché; but while that may sound right, it's like telling a therapist he can't help you beat the addiction simply because he isn't addicted. You see, what experience may miss, observation and learning won't. And more so, who told them I haven't? Well, let's leave that for another day. Now, Love? For a long time, I have focused my attention on exploring and teaching about the love of God and the need for us to appropriate the same. But right under our noses, I have seen a plethora of young men and women get swindled by the idea of love adorned

DAILY VITAMIN - Born To Reign "For He has made us unto our God Kings and Priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:10) Who do you think you are? Men may call you normal; the devil may call you a potential victim; but God calls you His child. And being God’s child means you have a king's gene deeply trenched in your spirit. Choosing to live conscious of it in words and deeds is the responsibility that eventually makes it real indeed. But, will this bother people? Of course it will. Most times, when we speak of our positions in Christ as kings and peculiar people, a lot of persons tend to shrug, calling our words bluff. They mock and judge our claims as outlandish. With their angry faces, they dispute our belief until we even begin to doubt God ourselves. But I'm here to tell you -don't let that bother you. The fact that something seems untrue doesn't yet make it untrue. The fact that the same seems impossible doesn't cancel out its pos

DAILY VITAMIN - Cheer Yourself Out Of Fear In a world like ours where the greatest epidermic is fear, what sort of permanent solution can be proffered? In fact, it is an overlapped pandemic common to both the man with cancer and even the man with just a cold. It haunts both the rich and the poor alike. It cripples the strongest of men; leaving him to believe he is lesser than he knows he actually is. And not just that, fear, in its sinister state, overwhelms the man, emptying him of every thought of betterness, until all he has left is a mindset jammed with impossibilities, shame and the 'its all over' view of all things. It diminishes the actualization of an achievement that is very much attainable. For instance, when Peter shoved away fear for a moment, he walked on the sea of Galilee....leg on water manifesting upthrust. But at the entrance of fear, this high stander began to sink. The grievous effects of fear are currently ruining nations, states, organizations and fam

DAILY VITAMIN - We Live As We Think "For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you." (Philippians 4:8-9 AMP) It's true to say that in life there will always be good times and bad, but your chances of making both days seem blissful depends on your ability to paint both days blissful by seeing good in all things. Our confessions and perceptions define our realizations and actualization. You are what you see yourself as. Apostle James speaks of how believers should rejoic

DAILY VITAMIN - You Must Finish Well "I have fought the good (worthy, honorable, and noble) fight, I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith. [As to what remains] henceforth there is laid up for me the [victor's] crown of righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me and recompense me on that [great] day--" (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Finishing well isn't an act that always seem as though it would be right from the onset of a task, but by a persistent reminder that it's the only alternative, your willpower to work until you meet the goal stays on top. Whenever you have a task before you, the lacked materials, the unknown exclusive integrated knowledge for such tend to stand as a barrier, creating a siege against your accomplishment of such a task. In this dilemma (of confusion and pressure), the first thing to do to yourself is to remind yourself of how important that task's accom