The Nation Newspaper

Tag: levels

  • Accessing next levels through spiritual stewardship!

    Spiritual stewardship, which entails serving God and the interest of His Kingdom, is key to all that life will ever demand. This is because serving God does not only pay, but it pays the best, pays supernaturally and offers incomparable returns. Remember, the Bible says: If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (Job 36:11; see also Matthew 6:33; Exodus 23:25-26).

    It is also important to know that serving God is a covenant. For instance, Abraham, a servant of God, served God faithfully. As a result, generations after him benefited from his service. Remember, God swore to him that in his (Abraham’s) seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

    Furthermore, we understand from scriptures that serving God also means the fear of God, which guarantees our access to generational blessings. As it is written: …Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever (Psalms 112:1-3).

    “Feareth the Lord” in the above scripture connotes serving God. When God spoke to the devil about Job, He said: …Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? (Job 1:8). The Bible records that: Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? (Job 1:9).

    Therefore, Psalms 112:1-3 can read thus: Blessed is the man that “serves” the Lord and delight greatly in God’s commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: his generation shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness shall endureth forever. That is how serving God positions us into realms of abundance forever.

    But, what is Spiritual Stewardship?

    Spiritual Stewardship simply means engaging in spiritual investments towards the advancement and enlargement of the Kingdom of God (Job 36:11).

    What are the Avenues for Spiritual Stewardship?

    • Prayers: This involves praying for the salvation of souls and their establishment. We also pray for the Word of God to have a free course in every service and for signs and wonders to be experienced. Furthermore, we pray for the needs of co-believers to be met (Galatians 6:2).
    • Reaching out to the lost: From scriptures, we understand that every believer is an ambassador of Christ and as such, he/she is ordained to reconcile lost souls back to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Therefore, we must go forth, bearing the reproach for Christ, as we reach out to lost souls in love and with passion. To be ashamed of Christ is to have Him turn His back on us (Hebrew 13:13; Mark 8:38; Romans 1:16).

    We must understand that the returns that accrue to us via spiritual stewardship are incomparable and are supernaturally paid. This is what makes spiritual stewardship the most profitable venture in the world.

    What, then, are the returns accrued to us in Spiritual Stewardship?

    • Divine Favour: Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory (Psalms 102:13-16; see also Hebrews 12:22-24).

    “Zion” here means the church of the Living God. This helps us to understand that when we become committed to the building, growth and expansion of God’s church, we are entitled to divine favour in return (Hebrews 6:10; Psalms 30:5).

    • Divine Honour: In the multitude of people is the king’s honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince (Proverbs 14:28; see also 1 Samuel 2:30).
    • Abundant Life: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33; see also Job 36:11).
    • Longevity: There is no service in the world that guarantees long life, except Kingdom stewardship. The Bible says: …Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. …The number of thy days I (God) will fulfil (Exodus 23:25-26; see also Psalms 91:16).

    Therefore, let’s engage wholeheartedly, and watch God decorate our lives for the world to see. Remain ever blessed! Are you born again? This means, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord? If you haven’t, you can do so as you say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

    For further reading, please get my books: Wisdom that Works, Walking in Wisdom, All you need to have all your needs met, Winning Wisdom and Excellency of Wisdom. I will continue this teaching next week.

    I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. respectively.

    I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

  • Hunger levels up in 52 developing countries

    Despite progress in reducing hunger globally, hunger levels in 52 of 117 countries in the 2015 Global Hunger Index remains “serious” (44 countries) or “alarming” (eight countries). The Central African Republic, Chad, and Zambia had the highest hunger levels in the report, which was released by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

    Conflicts can be strongly associated with severe hunger, according to the report, which focused on armed conflict and the challenge of hunger in the main essay. The countries with the highest and worst GHI scores tend to be those engaged in or recently emerged from war. The two worst-scoring countries both experienced violent conflict and political instability in recent years. In contrast, in Angola, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, hunger levels have fallen substantially since the end of the civil wars of the 1990s and 2000s.

    The report outlined some bright spots in the fight to end world hunger. The level of hunger in developing countries has fallen by 27 per cent since 2000, and 17 countries reduced their hunger scores by at least half since 2000.

    Among those countries are Azerbaijan, Brazil, Croatia, Mongolia, Peru, and Venezuela. Some of the world’s poorest countries could not be included in the report due to unavailable data. As a result, the picture of global hunger may be worse than reported here.

    Global hunger is a continuing challenge with one in nine people worldwide chronically undernourished and more than one quarter of children too short for their age due to nutritional deficiencies. Nearly half of all child deaths under age five are due to malnutrition, which claims the lives of about 3.1 million children per year.

    This year’s essay sheds light on an unheralded achievement of the past 50 years. “Calamitous famines,” those that kill more than one million people, seem to have vanished.

    “War and conquest have long been the drivers of mass starvation. Although humanitarian responses are far faster and more proficient than in the past, we still need to attend to the perils of armed conflict and inhumane policies generating severe hunger,” said Alex de Waal, author of the essay and executive director of the World Peace Foundation and research professor at Tufts University.

  • Public pension funding ratios still well below pre-recession levels

    The median funded status for U.S. public pension funds was 71.5 per cent at the end of fiscal year 2014, relatively unchanged from 2013, and only slightly above its 2012 post-recession low of 68.9 per cent, said a new report from Fitch Ratings.

    “Several years of strong market gains through 2014 offset remaining market declines and steadily rising liabilities, thus lifting reported funded ratios slightly, but they remain well below pre-recession highs,” Fitch said in the report. The median funded status in 2007 was 84.7 per cent.

    Strengthened mortality assumptions, the falling ratio of active employees to retirees and their beneficiaries, and changing discount rate calculations are helping drive states’ liabilities upward, Fitch added.

    Looking at individual state’s pension burdens, Illinois ranked the worst. Illinois’ roughly $119 billion in unfunded pension liabilities amounts to 19.4 per cent of personal income compared to a median 3.7 per cent for all states. Kentucky, with $27 billion in unfunded liabilities, followed at 16.2 per cent and Connecticut, with $33 billion in unfunded liabilities, came in third at 14.2 per cent.

    At the other end, Wisconsin’s $605 million in unfunded liabilities amounted to only 0.2 per cent of personal income.

    However, states’ contribution practices are improving, the report noted.

    In fiscal year 2014, 53 per cent of major state-wide retirement systems received at least 100 per cent of their actuarially calculated contribution, up from 42 per cent from post-recessionary fiscal year 2011 when budget struggles reduced pension funding.

    • Culled from Pensions & Investments

     

  • Lawyer faults child abuse levels

    A lawyer, Mr Kamilu Adegbenro has faulted the continued abuse of children in various parts of the country despite “copious provisions in our laws and international instruments on the rights of the child.”

    Mr Adegbenro, who delivered a lecture entitled: The legal rights of the child in Nigeria to commemorate the 47th Founder’s Day of St Peter’s College, Abeokuta, drew attention to the “gap between law and practice resulting in gross inability of the child to realise these rights.”

    He said: “Child labour and child abuses are still rampant with the presence of street children and children beggars. Domestic violence, child witch craft, street hawking persist on daily in Nigeria. Corruption in government has robbed children of the finance necessary for the implementation of the rights of the child as per their education and the health care delivery system.

    “Children are still deprived from enjoying the full benefit of their basic rights and suffered untold hardship in the exercise or demand of their rights. The enactment of the Child Right Act 2003 is a direct response to the concern and abuse that Nigerian children are exposed to in virtually every state of the federation.”

     

    He urged parents, children, families and government to be alive to their responsibilities under these laws and pay greater attention to their implementation.

    “The attitude of the family and by extension, the society to the idea of a child having any rights at all is to a great extent contributing to the non implementation of the Children’s Law,” he said.