TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises.”
(Psalm 34:1, NLT)
TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria
When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you think about? What’s the first thing you say? Do you set the tone for success, favor and blessing? Yesterday may have had some hardships or some difficulties, but it’s a new day. We should be on the lookout for God’s blessings.
The scripture tells us that the darker it gets in the world, the brighter it’s going to be for God’s people. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn shining brighter until the new day. Things may be bad all around you, people may be negative, complaining and discouraged, but don’t let that rub off on you. The worse it gets, the brighter you’re going to shine. Be determined to set the tone for your day by praising God and speaking words of faith over your future. Be determined to shine. Stand strong in faith and set the tone for your future!
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father in heaven, I choose to bless You at all times. I choose to set the tone today to receive Your favor, grace and mercy. Thank You for Your faithfulness to me at all times in Jesus’ name! Amen!
— Joel & Victoria Osteen
Don’t blacks understand that they were forced to adopt christianity, give up their gods, names, and cultures, in favor of Christian customs and names? I understand that at the time, they really had no chose. But today, when you can choose whatever religion you want, or none at all, why do they continue to worship the christian god. Even when slave masters used the bible to justify enslaving them, including the founding fathers of America, they still practice christianity. I think it’s very sad. There are so many churches in my area with with black folks shouting “Amen”!, and “Praise the Lord!” , and I just shake my head at their ignorance. Is it because they need something to believe in, in this cold, cruel world? Really the only reason ANYONE, believes in a god is because they were…
…..either brought up on it by their parents taking them to church or they found their god/gods on their own. Why can’t black people understand that they are worshipping something that was against them, and if Europeans never enslaved us we would be back in Africa worshipping the many gods that we initially did. We wouldn’t even know who Jesus…God…Adam&Eve are…If it wasn’t for slavery and colonization of the Europeans on Africa!!!
this is just a stage of life that you passing through my friend. Once upon a time most of us thought we were so wise beyond the word of Christ. A time came when I realized that beyond my human mortal wisdom, a great God exists. Together with his sone Jesus and the Holy Spirit,mother make a mighty team. I thank God I realized on time and I pray that you do not realize when it is too late. May the almighty God richly bless you.
Christianity got where it is through breaking nearly… if not all of the 10 commandments. Everything that made Africans in america who they were was stripped away and now until they are able to shake off the effects of centuries of evil being done to them they’ll remain christians. I applaud Africans in other parts of the world. They either kept their traditions or created new ones that weren’t dependent on the master and his beliefs.
this is just a stage of life that you passing through my friend. Once upon a time most of us thought we were so wise beyond the word of Christ. A time came when I realized that beyond my human mortal wisdom, a great God exists. Together with his sone Jesus and the Holy Spirit,mother make a mighty team. I thank God I realized on time and I pray that you do not realize when it is too late. May the almighty God richly bless you.
Blacks wanted to fit into a white society, and they thought adopting the same religion as white people would give them some common ground… and of course the religion preaches equality, which also sounded good to them.
In many ways these same motives still apply today, however I definitely agree with you that the history of christianity is quite the opposite from the lofty ideals it preaches.
Why are Africans the only people who does not worship a God how looks like them self’s?
The Asians worship Buddha
The Muzungu’s worship a white Jesus
The Muslims have a their own Arabic God
But African sheepishly worship a white Jesus.
Imagine having a child looking at a picture of Jesus on the wall.
What will you say if the child asks you who that is?
Now if that is God or Gods son made in the image of him, then who are you?
And what is your place in the bible if light is good and dark is evil.
And if heaven is above and hell is below, what are you praying to??
My dear brother do not die from ignorance. God is neither white nor black. God has no colour. He does not belong to any race. The colours and races were all created by Him. Therefore He cannot belong to something that He created. The creation of man in His image is not related to the physical form of man. There are devine characteristics that God shared with man and not with any other creature. Whereas man has developed and advanced other creatures have continued to remain the same because they were not created in God’s image. God cannot confined to belong to Europe, Africa or Asia because heaven is His seat and the earth is His footstool. God is bigger that all the earth. Anything called god but limited to a specific area cannot be the real God.
My dear brother, please note God cannot be limited to a particular group of people. God is the creator of all things and a lll human beings on the whole earth. Human beings may have different colours, may live in different places and may speak different languages but the blood that runs in the same, their humaness is the same, their brain is the same, their mind, thinking and reasoning are the same. They are all equal human beings. The colour of their skin does make them different human beings.
The indigenous African had their own set of beliefs that guided them through their way of life. That was until colonization ripped through the continent and a new belief system was forced upon the people of Africa. Those who refused to be “saved” likely died for their steadfast belief in the heathen ways of their ancestors. In the minds of many colonists and missionaries, they were merely “helping” these poor souls to see the light that was Christianity.
The funny thing is, though, that’s it’s been well documented that during slavery times black people were not even deemed as human beings and more like beasts of burden, but yet in still slave masters felt so inclined to “save the souls” of their property. I never recalled any stories of colonists trying to baptize cattle.
This is simply indoctrination. ..everything in today’s message is what is wrong with religions ie Christianity. People there are factual books out there to read about self…go to YouTube and search for our brother Dr. Ray Higgins this man used to be a Pastor until he woke up and saw the light. Its all i ask of you my brothers and sisters you are far greater than this rubbish and the useless bible…you are sons and daughters of great Kings and Queens.
Wake up and study more about self…look around your church one Sunday and ask yourself how we became Christians where it came from? I’m a very inquisitive person and I started asking these questions at Sunday school…knowing self is pure freedom!
Wake up!!
My belief is that Christianity was used during slavery as a brainwashing tool to strip African slaves of their history and break them down mentally.
Slavery was driven by African greed. An African chief was willing to sell people from a neighboring tribe just for spices, cloth, sweets, or firearms-it had nothing to do with Christianity.
Ba Disciple as your name implies. ..dont be a blind follower …do you know who Badu Bonsu II is? He is the Ghanaian King who was lynched and then decapitated as an example to those who kings/chiefs resisted slavery or European invasion. ..dont think your christanity was embraced with open arms at the beaches…..a lot of blood was shed in the name of tbat cross.
Go and read that famous novel again; Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe…maybe it stink in
*….maybe it will sink in….
Your reference to chinua Achebe is misconceived. Even if it was not, he was just a human being from a country riddled with religious violence, crime, tribalism, corruption, etc. if you notice this,mother you should realize that you are the blind follower. If you do not want to believe, then you can keep your opinions to yourself- respect the chioce of those who have decided to believe. You cannot tell me about how much blood was shed for Christianity as I have read it in the bible and I have seen it in today’s world where Christians are being persecuted in places like Syria , Iraqis, China. My God reigns and he is mighty. Praise be to God!! May his holy name be honored.
Ba Disciple beaten at your won game mwakalipa ati he should keep his opinions to himself.You have been corrected,just accept that you didnt know that Africans resisted the white all throughout the continent, in west africa you have a powerful sister by the name of Yaa Asantewa who fought the whites until her death in 1921, in south africa the zulu wars raged on until about 1896.they started the resistance and attack on the whites right from the time of Cetswayo KaMpande.Its white history they teach you that african kings sold off their kith and kin just to make you hate yourselves more and foo.lishly it worked on some of us.thats why we hate our color,our names,our religion etc. which books did you read during your so called passage through this phase you call rebellion to christianity
@jay jay your constant referring of others to go and read is an assumption that you more well read than they are. be careful, before they embarked on Christianity, they researched widely and they do not owe you an explanation on why they believe, it is a personal decision. what is your level of education anyway or what are you doing where you are? you sound like someone who is failing school or getting tired of working in old people’s homes and taking out frustration on God. You always wait for Sunday to post your messages-pure sign of frustration. Call upon the name of Jesus and he will take away your frustrations.
The truth is many of YOU have fallen for one of the greatest cons of all
time, religion.
I am happy being atheist. I would never even think of considering any conversion simply because I find religion to be a fraud and a major source of stress. Wherever I’ve found religion, I’ve found strife and the determination of one group to rule another in the name of God. Life would be much better if religion was abolished from the world.
Life is about choices; others have chosen to believe and you chose not to. I can respect your decision but I also ask you to respect the decision of those who have believed. This message was written for believers and if you are not one of them,mother leave them alone to enjoy their message. Surf the I ternet and you will find sites for non-believers where you can go and enjoy yourself instead of seeking attention here,
@Happy
People become atheists when they hit a brick wall trying to understand life’s perplexing questions. One of the paradoxes that drive people into atheism is that if God is Almighty and powerful and able to sort out all problems why has he allowed so much suffering and death to happen to the people he so lovingly created? Failing to reconcile this problem, they turn around without further investigations into this apparent anomaly and embrace atheism, a belief that there’s no God. They happily embrace crackpot scientific theories that say life arose spontaneously from non-living matter. The fact that the Bible has been twisted and mis-interpreted doesn’t mean it’s not the word of truth. Keep on searching and you will be rewarded with truth. Hebrews 11 vs 6.
@ Wantanshi your bible says: Keep on searching and you will be rewarded with truth. Hebrews 11 vs 6. Yes indeed but why arent you searching? By settling on Christianity you are not taking Hebrews’ advice.
To all non- believers, why not leave this space for those who believe? I am sure LT can give you a slot to publish your atheist articles if you request, just as times of Zambia gave space to mercutio. You are afraid of leaving this space to go to your own because you are looking for attention here, are insecure of moving away and above all you know that no one will read your articles. I challenge you to request LT to give you space to write your articles.
Why do you want to discriminate those that have a different opinion or belief to yours? What are you afraid of why can’t you take them on in a debate backed by facts…..not verses from your bible.
It is simple, just asking you to respect the opinion of those who believe, just as they have respected yours.
Set the tone. Good message. Yes without a doubt , one has to set the tone to live by in life. It can either be a bad tone or a good tone, but we are created to set a tone to live by. My Psychologist friends call it ‘The Law Of Cause And Effect’ which is in effect the law of the universe (Cosmos).
A bad tone, e.g. racism and spiritual apartheid advocated by some bloggers with short foresight, would not bring harmony and love in this global village we now live in. It would send us back into the dark ages. Examples of people in history who set a bad tone include Boers in South Africa and Malcolm X. We know what legacy they have left behind.
A good tone, e.g. racial inter-marriages and mutual respect for other people’s spiritual beliefs, will continue to enhance harmony and love in this…
this global village we live in. It will push us forward. I have friends and family members of mixed races. Its now a rainbow World.
You cannot successfully drive into the future and compete as an equal, if your eyes are permanently fixed in the rear view mirror.
Ba Lusaka Times naimwe muzinkalako a little bit open minded. You cant keep on giving us, your readers, one monotonous message from only one Religion week in week out. You are creating unthinking people or to put it differently, people who cant think outside the box.
There are many religions on earth and these include AFRICAN religions and they all have wise messages. If you arrive in a place and find people who are lost you dont continue misleading them-like you are doing by misleading the misled people of Zambia
Ba disciple is really lost. He has never known truth tho he claims he has also seen the other side of unbelief in the mumble jumble of christianity.just out of curiosity what books did you read during your rogue years away from christianity.
@Cactus obviously you are a poor driver and also poor at History. Poor Driver: Any good driver knows that when you drive you constantly look at the rear view mirror; you never abandon the mirror otherwise you will cause an accident.
History: Malcom X cannot be put in the same sentence as the Boers the way you have done. The Boers were oppressors. Worse: racist oppressors who believed that God supported their oppression of black people.
Malcom X was oppressed and decided to fight racial oppression with blood. He told fellow blacks that a revolution was needed to free them from racial oppression. The white authorities obviously started getting scared.
@Proudly African, its either you know but are acting dumb, or you don’t know what the metaphor “Driving forward with eyes permanently fixed in the rear view mirror” means. If its the latter, then it’s proof that you missed the plot of my comment altogether. Save yourself some embarrassment and look it up on the net, then re-read my comment and learn something.
And while you are on the net, go to YouTube and check “Islam kills racism – Malcolm X”. Its only 8 minutes long. Listen carefully to Malcolm admitting that he had ‘set a bad tone’ earlier in life when he propagated for spiritual ‘apartheid’ for African Americans. Again you have missed the plot. However, I won’t call you ‘poor’ anything like you have prematurely called me. It could be that you have some learning difficulties.
Praise be unto to the Lord Amen