Overcoming Pride

By Elder Richard Chanda

14th  October. 2016

SCRIPTURE READING: 1 Peter 5:5-6, Daniel 4

Today's Treasure: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time" ~ (1 Peter 5:6).

If every believer had a spiritual day planner complete with a "to do" list, we might find one common denominator—the challenge to overcome pride is at the top.

Perhaps no other spiritual obstacle is quite like this one.

A simple reason exists for its Goliath proportions: pride is Satan's speciality.

Pride is the characteristic that most aptly describes him.

It is the issue that had him expelled from heaven.

It is still one of Satan's most successful tools in discouraging people from accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that pride is a problem only for the lost.

The most effective means the enemy has to keep believers from being full of the Spirit is to keep us full of ourselves.

No wonder the Bible states and restates that God hates pride. It is the main enemy of genuine ministry. It is the end of many homes.

Scripture exhorts believers, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand" ~ (1 Peter 5:6).

God's Word also makes that very unsettling statement in Daniel 4:37: "Those who walk in pride he is able to humble." I believe the sum total of those two verses is that we can humble ourselves, or God can humble us.

God won't put up with pride in His own children very long without dealing with it.

He's much too faithful—and far too much is at stake.

I know from personal experience that humbling ourselves is far less painful than inviting God to humble us.

He tends to make sure His lessons "take."

I am absolutely convinced that the most painful season God has taken me through to date was primarily to shatter my yoke of pride.

A yoke, incidentally, I didn't even recognize I had. Believe me, I'm on the lookout for it now every single day.

In some ways, Christians have to be more alert to pride than anyone. If we don't presently have an issue that is actively humbling us, we veer with disturbing velocity toward arrogance and self-righteousness.

We are wise to remember that Christ never resisted the repentant sinner.

He resisted the religious proud and Pharisaic. Remember, pride wears many masks. I once spoke on pride only to have someone remark afterwards that she had far too little self-esteem to have pride. Pride is not the opposite of low self-esteem, but rather the opposite of humility.

We can have a serious pride problem that masquerades as low self-esteem. Pride is self-absorption whether we're absorbed with how miserable we are or how wonderful we are.

We are wise to be on the constant lookout for pride in our lives. I believe we can safely say that if we're not deliberately taking measures to combat pride, it's probably doing something to combat humility.

Pride is the welcome mat in every figurative prison cell. All we have to do to remain bound in any area is to refuse to take responsibility for our strongholds and repent of the sin involved. Pride is a monumental boulder in the path toward breaking free.

These are some thoughts God gave me on the subject several years ago. May He use them to speak about the biggest injustice of pride: it cheats wherever it plays.

My name is Pride.

I am a cheater.

I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because

you demand your own way.

I cheat you of contentment...because you

"deserve better than this."

I cheat you of knowledge...because you already

know it all.

I cheat you of healing...because you're

too full of me to forgive.

I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to

admit when you're wrong.

I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look

in the mirror than out a window.

I cheat you of a genuine friendship...because

nobody's going to know the real you.

I cheat you of love...because real romance

demands sacrifice.

I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you

refuse to wash another's feet on earth.

I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince

you to seek your own.

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you.

Untrue.

I'm looking to make a fool of you.

God has so much for you, I admit, but don't worry...

If you stick with me

You'll never know.

Lord, please help me to remember the ugliness of pride as I go about my day.

Thank You for showing me the dreadful effects of this sin. How I want to live a righteous life, in the name of Jesus!

Take out my prideful heart and give me instead a genuinely humble heart that is pleasing to You.

I love You, gracious Lord.

BE HUMBLE AS CHILDREN BEFORE THE LORD.

"From the mouths of children and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy." ~ (Psalms 8:2).

"and Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you turn around and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven! Whoever then humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." ~ (Matthew 18:3-4).

AMEN!!

7 Reasons Why Africans are Poor and How To Be Rich In Africa - Africa Business Classroom (ABC)

                   By Lewis Nasilele on Facebook 25^th September 2016

1.    MOST AFRICANS ARE RELIGIOUS, BUT NOT SPIRITUAL.

I don`t know why I started here but let`s move on anyway. Religion is a significant part   of Africans, but unfortunately, an average Africans really don`t know how God works. Most Africans (blindly) believe that God can make them rich, if they will pray enough. This is heresy and unbiblical. I love the way, Pastor Bukola put it, God doesn`t give us money. He gives us business ideas and strengths to work it out. God doesn`t give anybody money and praying for money is as good as praying for maize. Yes, God is the one who gives us maize to eat, but we are the one to plant it. Though we may pray that it rains at the appropriate time, we have responsibility to go into the bush and get dirty.

Do you go to the mountain to pray for 21 days because you want God to give you maize? If no, you don`t have to go to the mountain to beg God to give you money. He is willing to give you money. He loves you and has already prepared all the money you need to live a good live, even before you were born.

Read Matthew 6:8 and see what Jesus says there, your Father (God) already know what you need, even before you ask.

God loves you and he Is willing to give you money, but you have to understand how money is being made. Just as there are principles of planting, growing and harvesting maize, there are principles of money making.

2.    MOST AFRICANS HATE KNOWLEDGE, INCLUDING FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE.

In the last point above, I made it known that farmers have to understand the principles of planting, growing and harvesting maize. How do they understand this? Well, not by praying or fasting, but by learning.

My grandfather was a farmer. He taught my father how to farm. My father taught all of us how to farm. Without the knowledge of how to plant maize, grow it, protect it from animals and insects and harvesting it, you can go and pray for 40 days, you cannot have a good maize farm.

Money making has principles… which has to be learned. someone reading book. These principles have long being discovered by rich men of old, starting from Abraham. These men (not Abraham now) have written so many books to reveal their secrets. Till today, books is still the greatest revealer of secrets. But Africans will not read. If you want to hide something from an African. they say, keep it in a book. I have tears in my heart. I am crying and telling my fellow continent people, we cannot be richer than other people around us except we know what they don`t know.

May be I should repeat that. You cannot be richer than people around you … until you know what they don`t know. Abraham was not rich because God gave him money. Open your Bible and read it. Father Abraham was rich because he knew what others didn`t know. While many people in his day were working as labourers (what you`ll call employee today), Abraham was a business man with hundreds staff (over 300 to be specific). Until we start learning, reading and upgrading our minds, Africa will forever be poor.

3.    MOST AFRICANS STILL LOVE JOB.

When will Africans start to hate job? We have to start to hate job today! We have to start telling our young children from age 9 and above that job is not available again, and if it does available, it is no more good like the days of our fathers. We are very poor because we love job.

4.    MOST AFRICANS ARE NOT BUSINESS ORIENTED.

About three days ago I was reading about the youngest female millionaire, Elizabeth Holmes who started his company at the age of 19 (just as Mark Zukerberg, facebook founder did) and she later dropped out of school when her business required that she do so.

How did a 19 years old lady get courage to start a business? Because she (and millions other young Americans) have been rightly oriented that job is a mess and that becoming a business owner is greatly rewarding. What do you think an average Africa 19 years old guys and girls are doing? Watching football matches, following fashion trends or best, getting busy with school to earn good certificate.

Nobody is out there to tell our young adults that they are the hope of this continent, that they are the one to create jobs for themselves and others, that they have to be entrepreneurs and not employees.
How can we be rich as a continent when we are not creating businesses?

5.    AFRICANS ARE POOR BECAUSE WE RUN BUSINESSES LIKE MERE ‘’BUYING AND SELLING’’.

Why majority of Africans don`t think about being business owners, those who think (or who condition forced to be business owners) are not running business like 21 century business, instead, they are running business like 15 century`s business.

You know, in the 15 century, all you have to do is to figure out a product or service to sell. If you can smile a little people will love you and patronize your business. Now however, business requires more strategies and innovations than ever before, just as the name of Seth Godin`s book sound, Purple Cow. If it is not purple cow (unique), nobody sees it or buys it. If you`re dull and your product/service is dumb, nobody notices you.

Most Africans are dull and their businesses are dumb. More of the reasons (should you care to know) lie on what I discussed with you in the second point above… about knowledge.

6.    AFRICANS ARE POOR BECAUSE AN AVERAGE AFRICANS IS IRRESPONSIBLE.

After all I am your brother, so you won`t say I am abusing Africans. Most Africans are so much concern about what they get, and not what they give. Few years ago I heard a man of about age 30 complaining that his father didn`t give him money (or something like that).

How dumb is that? Very dumb. An average 16 years old boy in many advanced countries of the world has being planning how he will get out of his father`s home and create his own life. Most 30 years old Africans still see themselves as infant, who need help. We love to receive a ready-made, stress free success. Unfortunately, maize doesn`t come to life until a farmer gets dirty. Africans have to (urgently) wake up and be responsible.

7.    AFRICANS ARE POOR BECAUSE WE ARE STILL PROUD OF SCHOOL AND CERTIFICATE.

I can see a time coming, when our so called universities and polytechnics will all be destroyed and our youths will be taught to embrace education in its true sense, but for now, the situation is pathetic, universities and polytechnics are not giving the kind of education we need now and therefore should be killed. There will ever be poverty in Africa until people embrace education and not certificate. As for me, library and Google are the best universities there are in 21 century.

Read. Read and read.

You want to be rich and wealthy? Go and start reading books about business and wealth creation. Do you desire a better marriage? visit a book shop and buy some good books about marriage. Do you desire to be more spiritual? Search Google, download some great books written by the great Christians of old.

Read and read, then you`ll know how to be rich, how to have a great marriage, how to be more spiritual and how to do just anything worthwhile.

Does school teach you how to be rich? Does school teach you how to have a great marriage? Does school teach you how to be spiritual? Then, what does school teach us?
Africans have to start loving education (not school) if we want to be rich.

Finally, I want to thank you so much for reading this article and I want to say that the above opinion is mine, and since I am a little boy, I may be wrong (or bias) in my expression.

A United Zambia is Must!

To our citizens who are young at heart and the old generation who may not remember, we need to know how the Republic of Zambia came into being to enable us to understand our present political divergence in the country.

Before 1911 the territory currently known as Zambia was divided into two separate entities known as North-Eastern Rhodesia and North - Western Rhodesia.

Both territories were under British colonial rule.

The capital of North Eastern Rhodesia was at Fort Jameson (currently known as Chipata).

The Fort was established to defend the British ruled territory from other colonialists and hostile natives.

You may be interested to know that the "Policemen's language", commonly known as "Nyanja" originates from Fort Jameson.

It was developed as a dialect from the local languages of African tribes found in North-Eastern Rhodesia.

The capital of North Western Rhodesia was initially at Kalomo.

It was the first administrative centre of Northern Rhodesia, serving until the capital city was established at Livingstone in 1907.

The British colonial masters then merged the two into one territory know as Northern Rhodesia after 1911.

The capital of Northern Rhodesia was eventually moved to Lusaka.

You may be interested to know that the name "Lusaka" originates from a Chief who was found around there called Lusakasa , which the British abbreviated to Lusaka.

There is a school in Lusaka called Lusakasa which is named in honour of the Chief.

Northern Rhodesia and the neighbouring British ruled territories of Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) were then merged into a Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

The administrative capital for this Federation was set at Fort Salisbury, later to be called Salisbury until independence in 1980 when Southern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zimbabwe when it was renamed Harare.

After the establishment of the Federation, there was resentment amongst the black nationals who were not happy with the way the wealth from the three territories were managed.

It was felt that most of the wealth from these territories was used to develop Southern Rhodesia more than the other two territories.

Salisbury became more developed than Lusaka and Blantyre (now Zomba) which was the capital of Malawi at independence. Even today this historic fact is still evident.

The capital of Malawi was later shifted to Lilongwe.

This brought about the call for the disbandment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland by black nationalists (later to become the politicians) of these territories.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland came to an end in 1953.

Thereafter, the African nationalists in the three territories demanded independence  of these territories from British colonial rule.

This saw the independence of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland from British rule in 1964 to become the Republics of Zambia and Malawi respectively.

The white administrators in Southern Rhodesia did not want the country to be ruled by the native blacks, so on 11th November 1965 they declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) from British rule.

The UDI saw the begin  of a bitter 15-year guerilla bush war when the blacks in Southern Rhodesia , which was called Rhodesia after UDI, resorted to fighting the white rebels (under Ian Smith) from the bush.

This war affected the Republic of Zambia because the Freedom Fighters took refuge in the country and the rebels in Rhodesia used to bomb certain parts of the country in pursuit of the Freedom Fighters.

When the Liberation Centre was bombed by the white rebels in the 70s I was in Lusaka as a student at UNZA.

As students at UNZA we were conscripted into the Zambia National Service to go for military training in 1973 in order to protect the country from rebel attacks.

The UDI brought a lot of economic hardships to the Republic of Zambia in many ways.

The county was subjected to border closures, military attacks and siege by the white rebels in Rhodesia, the white Apartheid racist regime in South Africa and the Portuguese ruled territories of Mozambique and Angola.

Under the leadership of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who became the President of Zambia in 1964 (he was called Prime Minister then) the country managed to pull through these hardships.

This part of our history needs a separate writing about it!  

As stated earlier, North-Eastern Rhodesia and North -Western became Northern Rhodesia in 1911.

Northern Rhodesia was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland until 1953 when the Federation was disbanded due to African nationalist pressure.

Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia on 24th October 1964.

Now coming back to our present voting pattern in our Elections, you may notice that these are based on the historic basis of the two former British ruled territories of North-Eastern Rhodesia and North- Western Rhodesia.

A lot of people talk without knowing where we are coming from a Nation.

Ignorance is our greatest enemy today and if not checked it could lead to animosity in the country.

The Bible teaches us that: -

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”

The challenge of our current political leaders is to keep the unity of this country so that it is not again divided as the British colonialists did before 1911 and it must remain a ONE ZAMBIA and a ONE NATION!

AMEN !!

REFERENCES :

For those who may be interested to read in detail about the history of our beloved country, you may get details from the links given below, from Libraries or research online, etc.

1) North - Eastern Rhodesia

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Eastern_Rhodesia

2) North- Western Rhodesia

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Western_Rhodesia

3)  Historical Atlas – The History of Zambia

      https://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/southafrica/haxzambia.html

Zambia's Political Metamorphism

I am appealing to fellow citizens, who are following the just ended Presidential and Elections’ results, posted from various sources on the Social Media, to take easy!

There is no need for one to stress oneself unnecessarily due to politics.

A number of people, who were close to me, have passed on or became unhealthy due to stress after an election.

Others, who were successful businessmen, who recklessly threw their wealth into campaigns and lost the elections, saw their businesses going under.

It took time for a few others that I know of, to be restored.

As individuals, we are just tiny elements of a much bigger body.

Our personal development should be of prime importance to us.

So why should one worry who rules us?

An election victory or defeat is not a permanent situation.

Political leaders come and go.

From 1964, when I was 11 years old, up to this year of 2016, when I am 62, Zambia had seen several major political changes as follows:-

  

a) 1964 Zambia attaining political independence from British white rule.

     A black man and a native of the country becomes the first Head of State.

b) 1972 - Zambia becoming a one party State after abolition of all opposition  

     political parties.  

c) 1991 - Zambia reverts back to multiparty democracy.

    The second Republican President voted into Office with a popular vote from

    an electorate fed up with 27 years of one party leadership.

d) 2001 - The third Republican President is voted into Office after a two term

    tenure in Office of the incumbent comes to an end.

    This is after a bid by him to go for a third term flops due to public pressure.

e) 2008 - Zambia losing its third Republican President in office through death.

     This is the first time that an incumbent President dies in Office and a fourth

     President is elected.

f) 2011 - a fifth President is elected into office.

     This is after being in the opposition for 10 years.

     The new President is from a third political party to rule the Nation since

     independence.

g) 2014 - Zambia losing its fifth Republican President in office through death.

     This is the second time that an incumbent President dies in Office and a  

     fifth President is elected.

h) 2015 - A sixth Republican President is voted into Office after the death of

      the fifth President.

      He wins the party presidency after a big wrangle amongst party leaders as

      ten of them vie for the post of party President.

      After a fiasco at the party’s Convention, this lasts several days in two

      camps, the current party President is elected amidst one of the greatest

      controversies witnessed at any party Convention in the country.

i) 2016 - Zambia goes to the polls again.

It must be noted that this is a time when the country's economy is at one of its lowest levels since attaining its political independence in 1964.

Will the country have its seventh Republican President from a new political party or will the sixth President going to continue with a depressed economy?

The challenge of the incoming Government is to turn around Zambia’s economy and see the country to achieve the Agenda for Sustainable Development by 2030 as per resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25^th September, 2015.

Failure to do so will result in continued suffering of the citizens, especially the marginalized, such as the unemployed youths and women.

This is likely to bring increased political agitation and animosity.

The Bible tells us about earthly leaders as follows:-

• “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” ~ Romans 13:1

• “Jesus answered [speaking to Pilate], “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” ~ John 19:11

• “By me kings reign…” ~ Proverbs 8:15

• “…he removes kings, and sets up kings…” ~ Daniel 2:21

• “Then God removed Saul and made David their king…” ~ Acts 13:22

• “No one … can exalt themselves. It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.” ~ Psalms 75:6-7

• “…the Most High has power over human kingdoms. He gives them to whomever he wishes.” ~ Daniel 4:17

At the end of it all, the Almighty Lord will make the decision on who the next President of Zambia will be.

He has the final power to put leaders into and out of Office.

AMEN!!