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NEVER THROW THAT BUNCH OF DISUSED LOCKS AND KEYS EVER AGAIN!

As one moves from one place to another in one's life, it is amazing how one leaves behind "debris" that was, at one time, very useful to them.

This bunch of keys that I went through recently, in order to find any keys that I could use again for some locks that I have repaired, revealed quite a number of things that one can relate to in one’s life!

Those keys have been kept for a period of many years that I have spent living in nine residential houses in four different towns and cities in Zambia from around 1980 to 2018 (A total of 38 years!).

Some of the keys are brand new because they were kept as spares and have never been used because their locks got damaged before they could be used.

From this experience, I can relate the following to our situations in life: -

1. The very person that one is very used to today and is very valuable to them, will not always be of useful to them all the time of their lives.

The locks and keys are always changed for various reasons and circumstances.

2. Where you are “locked away” from the rest of society in, an apparent, secure position, it will not always be that way throughout your life.

You need to change the lock and key from time to time. There no situation than is permanent in one’s life. Remember Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 27–36)

3. Not all the people who you see nearby you now, will open doors for you today but may be of use to you later in life.

Never throw away a disused key or lock when you think you will never need it later.

Do not disregard anybody you think is of no consequence to your life now. He or she will probably the one who will bury you in future.

4. Every person you think will be of value to you in future because they have the same character as your close friends will not necessarily be useful to you later.

The locks and keys may be of the same model and type but they will never be exchangeable for use.

5. Some people who may seem to be very difficult to approach now may just need a bit of persuasion for them to help you. Later on you will find that they are really valuable to you than others that you have been associated with before.

Some keys just need a bit of modification for them to work on other locks and may sometimes prove to be more robust than the original keys that you have used before.

6. It is not how useful and reliable a person maybe to you now that they will always be so. Some locks look so good and reliable at purchase but only work for a very short time.

7. When relating to others do not look at the size of their income or where they come from. They will not always be there for you.

Locks get lost or stolen as you move from one place to another. People come and go on this world trough death, loss of status or being relocated to far off places where you will not have access to them.

8. No matter whether you like it or not you will always live in a society with people of different characters and traits from yours. You will never find anyone, even if you belong to the same race, tribe or political party, that is exactly the same like you. Being a demagogue does not assure you of a secure future.

Locks and keys are of different makes and types but they all perform the same function in one way or another.

9. Avoid association with people of cheap value because they will never improve your life in any way. This will be costly to you in the long run.

If your close friends are, for example, drunkards, lazy-abouts, satanists and false prophets, etc, this will greatly affect the quality of your life.

Associate with powerful people such as men of God, successful businessmen and women, economists, engineers and other professionals who will inspire you to be of the same class with them.

Buying locks and keys that are cheap and not durable has cost me more money before I learned to purchase quality ones recently.

10. It is always good to have as many people as possible that you associate with because even if they are may not be of use to you for now, one day you may find them useful for something that you will need urgently.

I keep thousands of contacts on my phone book (2,600 plus) and a similar number on Social media (some 5,000 on Facebook).

Out of these thousands, I only relate to a few of them on a regular basis.

However, from time to time I get in touch with those I rarely communicate with.

The fact that you got their details, in the first place, means that you have dealt with them in one way or another.

There are some people I rarely communicate with nowadays, but from time to time I get in touch with them.

For example, a friend of mine recently requested me to find him someone who is a very good machinist to be employed. There was a very good one that I knew when I was working in Nampundwe, around the 1990s. Since I did not delete him from my contacts list in my phone, the man was engaged.

I always backup my contacts list on the Computer and the Internet, so that even if I lose a cell phone, I am able to quickly put them on another phone.

There is a current tendency amongst graduating students, from higher learning institutions once they get their diploma and degree certificates, to sell their textbooks or to tear up their study notebooks

They erroneously believe that they will never refer to them again and their knowledge will be from their own brains.

This has proved costly to them because reading to acquire knowledge is a continuous process until death and it does not stop at college or university.

Those who stop reading in the long run, become illiterate educated people through “loss by osmosis” to the environment.

Never throw that bunch of disused locks and keys ever again because you will need it in future!

How To Identify That You Are Living A Disorganized Life

1.    You do not have a written schedule of what to do on a daily basis (Goal setting is absent in your life. You do not, for example, keep a personal Diary or a To Do list).

2.    You have no budget on how you spend your money. All your purchases of personal items are done on impulse and you always run out of money well before the next payment of your salary or commission.

3.    You keep a lot of junk around your home which you have no immediate use for.Your Wardrobe is full of old clothes which you have never worn for years and is unlikely to do so soon. (A lot of junk around you is known to clog your mind as well!)

4.    You do not keep a record of phone numbers of important contacts in your life such as the Hospital, Ambulance, Police, Fire Station, your immediate family members. You are never ready for any emergency situations.

5.    You do not have a personal library or never visit public libraries for motivational, spiritual and personal development books. The only major reading material you read are comic books and you relish idle talk and gossip via Social Media.

6.    During meetings with others you do not write any notes. You would usually doze off during such meetings.

You do not carry a notebook or notepaper to write down ideas that come to your mind as you go around.

7.    You spend your spare time with fellow "boys and girls" who do not have any future plans for their lives.

You enjoy making fun of others without considering of who you really are in society. Idle talk is your main preoccupation and obsession.

8.    You are very comfortable with your present academic and professional status quo. You have no desire to improve your education at all.

9.    You are always late for any appointments and meetings and sometimes you never show up at all.

10. You are fond of making excuses whenever you are asked to own up to some issues that are under your control.

Finally, I do not expect you to concur with most of the observations I have made above.......!

St Margaret's UCZ Church Fireworks Display for 2018 New Year

STATUS SWAP

I had a very interesting discussion with some friends recently, in which we expressed concerned at the future of some of the children of the affluent in our society today.

Their parents are able to send them to the most expensive schools in the country and abroad.
However, what is worrying is that a number of these children do abscond from school and some do not even attend the schools they are sent to after sometime.

Meanwhile, their parents think that they are in school and keep on giving or sending them money.

We all know of some children who fail to be educated and end up being vagabonds in society as a result of being children of the affluent.

When their parents die such children often fail to continue to do what their parents did in order to acquire the wealth they are currently enjoying.

In most known cases, they would plunder the property of their parents and soon become destitutes whose ending is usually very tragetic.

Poverty and in worst cases death creeps in and take them on before they reach mature age.
On the other hand, children of the some of the poor, do struggle to go school due to lack of financial support from their parents.

Through their struggle they eventually manage to finish their education, even when it takes them longer than normal to do so.

Once they attain their education, they become the affluent whilst their counterparts become the poor.

This is what is called "status swap".

If you are reading this Post, it means you are likely to belong to the affluent, who can afford a computer or a smart phone.

As you celebrate the Christmas and New Year festives, lanced with a lot wine and dining, have you ever thought about the plight of the children of the poor?

What pass are your children on right now?

Are they destined for a status swap or will they be like you?

Remember Christ was born for our salvation and not for our salvaging.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

AMEN !

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.