ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL Upon the pillars of the land I beheld the break of the band, The coat of arms. Though I looked with hope and cares, They came with lips and sowed in, tares. The mother is weeping Nkrumah is wailing And the fighters of freedom are frowning And the makers of history are mourning. (Wailing is heard from far) You hear that? Those are wailings from the wells of hell. Mother Ghana is weeping Why have you thrown away the values? Why has good ran from the land? Who has taught you to fight another? When did you create the tribal barriers? Where is the crocodile? Why have you burned the baobab tree? And you have planted in stead A broken pitcher of immoral, senseless craving for materialism? Mother Ghana is calling. If you can backup and bring back the baobab, Return to the lost glory of blackness, And bring back the love for all, All for one and one for all, Then there is hope. Oh where is Hayford? The Congress of British West Africa is broken! And the spirit of oneness has grown wings. There is none that love, no, not one. (The voice of Nkrumah) “This decade, is the decade of African liberation. Forward then to independence. Independence now! Tomorrow, the United States of Africa” Where is that hope? When all seek none but self and i? Where is the faire man? And how is the head damaged so soon? What happened to the love of the people for their land? Oh where is the Junior Jesus? Oh, how I long for the good old days How I yearn to see the hope brought back. The days of singing and chanting, Longing and craving to live and die for love. Will all for one and one for all ever return? www.yaoagbenyo.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/yafinc 17/11/14

Malachi 3: 7-10 Every person on earth has some time to live on earth, talents to make him live successfully on the earth and treasure to sustain his time and talents on the earth. In other to live a life to count for eternity with the creator, the time, talent and treasure must be profitably use. The problem is that many people are not aware of this. Those who are aware also do not know how to use it effectively. As these gifts are made available to us it our responsibility to give our tithe and offering to the glory of God. From our text God is demanding that from us. He wants us to give tithe and offering of our time, talents and treasure so that we do not be considered as thieves. Tithe and offering are not only taken from our money as many of us think but also from our time talent and treasure. As students of the Bible it suppose of us to learn these and practice it. THE TITHE AND OFFERING OF OUR TIME Ecc. 3:1-8 Eph.5:16 Col.4:5 Every thing has its time and season.Men are exercised with labour. Every thing is beautiful in its season, Men should enjoy thankfully the gifts of God,.What God does is for ever,There is nothing new, The corruption of judgment; but the judgments of God are right,Man is brutish, and men and brutes die in like manner, Man may enjoy the fruit of his own labours, The word redeeming, means, to purchase; to buy up from the possession or power of any one; and then to redeem, to set free--as from service or bondage. Redeeming means, to rescue or recover our time from waste; to improve it for great and important purposes. Because the days are evil. Because the times in which you live are evil. There are many allurements and temptations that would lead you away from the proper improvement of time, and that would draw you into sin. Such were those that would tempt them to go to places of sinful indulgence and revelry, where their time would be wasted, and worse than wasted. As these temptations abounded, they ought therefore to be more especially on their guard against a sinful and unprofitable waste of time. This exhortation may be addressed to all, and is applicable to all periods. The sentiment is, that we ought to be solicitous to improve our time to some useful purpose, because there are, in an evil world, so many temptations to waste it. Time is given us for most valuable purposes. There are things enough to be done to occupy it all, and no one need have it hang heavy on his hands. He that has a soul to be saved from eternal death need not have one idle moment. He that has a heaven to win has enough to do to occupy all his time. Man has just enough given him to accomplish all the purposes which God designs, and God has not given him more than enough. They redeem their time who employ it (1.) in gaining useful knowledge; (2.) in doing good to others; (3.) in employing it for the purpose of an honest livelihood for themselves and families; (4.) in prayer and self-examination, to make the heart better; (5.) in seeking salvation, and in endeavouring to do the will of God. They are to redeem time from all that would waste and destroy it--like recovering marshes and fens to make them rich meadows and vineyards. There is time enough wasted by each sinner to secure the salvation of the soul; time enough wasted to do all that is needful to be done to spread religion around the world, and to save the race. We should still endeavour to redeem our time for the same reasons which are suggested by the apostle--because the days are evil. There are evil influences abroad; allurements and vices that would waste time, and from which we should endeavour to rescue it. There are evil influences tending to waste time (1.) in the allurements to pleasure and amusement in every place, and especially in campuses (2.) in the temptations to novel-reading, consuming the precious hours of probation to no valuable purpose; (3.) in the temptations of ambition, most of the time spent for which is wholly thrown away, for few gain the prize, and when gained, it is all a bauble, not worth the effort; (4.) in dissipation--for who can estimate the amount of valuable tune that is worse than thrown away in the places of revelry and dissipation? (5.) in wild and visionary plans--temptations to which abound in all lands, and pre-eminently in our own; (6.) and in luxurious indulgence--in dressing, and eating, and drinking. Help us to number our days using the personal timetable. THE TITHE AND OFFERING TALENTS matt25:15-46, Exo31:1-6, Eph 4:11, Act20:28,Rom12:1-9, 1cor12:1-10,27-31, 2cor.5:10-12, Rom14:12 His several ability; representing the various gifts which God bestows on different individuals. All our blessings we receive from God, and to him we are justly accountable for the use of them. He does not give the same to all, and he requires only according to what a man hath. Of course, no one will be condemned for not having received more. The spiritual meaning of the parable may be thus summed up: (1.) The servants of God are not all endowed with equal gifts and talents. (2.) They are bound to employ their talents in promoting his honour, and in a proper improvement of them. (3.) By employing their talents in a proper manner, they improve and strengthen them. (4.) They will be judged according to the improvements they have made (5.) All sinners look on God as a hard master, and as unreasonable and tyrannical. (6.) They will be judged, not merely for doing wrong, but for neglecting to do right. (7.) If the servant who kept the talent entire without injuring it, and who returned it to his master as he received it, was nevertheless judged, condemned, and cast away, what must they expect who abuse their talents, destroy by drunkenness and lust the noble faculties conferred on them, and squander the property that might be employed in advancing the interests of morals and religion! THE TITHE AND OFFERING TREASURE Matt6:19-34 Prov.15:6,16 Prov.20:21 1Ti.6:6 21. For where your treasure is--that which ye value most. There Will Your Heart Be Also--"Thy treasure--thy heart" is probably the true reading here: "your," in Lu 12:34, from which it seems to have come in here. Obvious though this maxim be, by what multitudes who profess to bow to the teaching of Christ is it practically disregarded! "What a man loves," says LUTHER, quoted by THOLUCK, "that is his God. For he carries it in his heart, he goes about with it night and day, he sleeps and wakes with it; be it what it may--wealth or pelf, pleasure or renown." But because "laying up" is not in itself sinful, nay, in some cases enjoined (2Co 12:14), and honest industry and sagacious enterprise are usually rewarded with prosperity, many flatter themselves that all is right between them and God, while their closest attention, anxiety, zeal, and time are exhausted upon these earthly pursuits. To put this right, our Lord adds what follows, in which there is profound practical wisdom. If God be the treasure of our souls, our hearts, i.e. our affections and desires will be placed on things above. An earthly minded man proves that his treasure is below; a heavenly minded man shows that his treasure is above. Listen to the conclution of the whole mater. God requires at our hands to give one tenth as well offerings of our time talents and treasure for the expansion of kingdom. 2Co 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.) b

SECRETS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE....Agbenyo Yao

THE YOUTH AND FUTURE INC.

WITH

GHANA EDUCATION SERVICE

PRESENTS

SECRETS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Agbenyo Ebenezer Yao (B.A. hon.)

There are secrets in everything and your lack of knowledge of these secrets will keep you behind. We shall in this write up try to figure out some secrets people employ to become geniuses. YOU TOO CAN BE….

What is academic excellence? It is that outstanding success that is admired and envied by many people, especially in a learning environment. This cannot be achieved overnight, but a conscious deliberate step-by-step approach needs to be employed in order to achieve this fit. It does not come by luck, nor by chance, but of choice, backed by adequate proper prior planning, coupled with hard work, long time preparation, and making sacrifices.

REMEMBER: you have not achieved academic excellence until your mates envy you.

Determining your purpose, developing a positive attitude, right focus, taking responsibility for your own success, employing proper study techniques, identifying your potentials, and setting challenging goals for yourself are requisite for a successful academic performance. A realistic goal is a mental picture of the future that gives you a firm grip of your actions. It is the energy, the driving force which can take you to your dream land. Without these factors you cannot say you are on the highway of excellence.

1. Determine your purpose.

“When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable." So what is your purpose for coming to school? I want you to answer that sincerely. I know that you didn't just wake up one morning, and had a matriculation number. Of course, you wrote some exams, you burned the mid-night oil, you reduced your sleeping time, and even wrote NOV/DEC perhaps, before finding yourself in level 100 or wherever you are now. Don't forget that whoever is sponsoring your education has reasons for doing so. He/she has hopes and expects you to make him/her proud by coming out (of school) with flying colours. I have discovered that it is very easy for you to get distracted with parties, fun, entertainment, fashion, and all that but the distraction is not the problem, but the consequence of the distraction, how it affects your purpose and your grade point in school. Even those who make time for their books do not have an easy time passing let alone excelling so if you decide to mess around, you have yourself to blame.

What do you hope to achieve in, and by going to school? That is food for thought.

Set challenging goals

Do not be like the pauper in the poem, craning your eyes in every direction in no direction. Get a focus. Say for instance, this term or this semester, I hope to make three ‘A’s out of the seven courses, two ‘B+’s and two ‘B’s. now that that is more realistic than saying I want to make seven As when you know yourself.

If you were the 20^th in your class last term, set the goal. May be coming to the 10^th position or better. Make sure your eye is on a goal. When you get to prep, you have two hours ahead of you, how do you expend that, set a goal and keep your eyes on it.

Employ proper study techniques.

Learning as it is, is not just taking a book from the shelves and sitting behind it to look at a few stuff, run your eyes over some three lines, stretch yourself and say “uuuhmm I am so tired”. It’s not about the number of hours you spend behind your books, nor the number of books you carry to school or prep. It is making a conscious, deliberate and intentional effort to decode an academic work and to retain what has been decoded.

It not just enough reading a book, you should be able to retain and remember what you learn.

THE SQ4R

Survey        Question    Read Recite         Revise        Recollect   

 You need to make a survey of what materials are available to you. Do you have the text books, the past questions, the human resource for the course, you need to know whether the materials are available in the library, on the internet or wherever.

Ask questions related to your topic. Set your own likely examination question and attempt answering them without looking or referring to the materials. In certain subjects, especially the reading oriented ones, there are certain questions that should come into the mind of any one studying them for instance those regarding definitions ane explanations and examples. Some too are application questions.

Then delve into READING. Now reading is done in stages.

Scanning refers to surface reading through the text to ascertain certain facts and key words. After this stage you do what is called scheming, where you read with closer attention than scanning. After this you do a close reading to make sure that you have what you need to pass your exams. Here you make conscious effort to UNDERSTAND what you are reading. If at this stage, you do not understand anything, you need to consult a more experienced friend or your tutor to ensure that you get a REAL understanding of the text. Remember there is a need to consult in every situation no matter how old you are than the one who has the information.

After READING, RECITE what you have read. Making a deliberate effort to memorise what you have read so far, is a sure way of retaining what you have learnt. Ruminate over it, ponder and reflect over what you have learnt. After these processes, go over what you have learnt. Many times we make the mistake of not revising what we are taught in class. Statistics has it that if you fail to revise what you learn in 24hrs, you are likely to forget about 40 to 60%. To reach one month without revising means you are likely to forget about 80 to 90% of what you have been taught or learnt. Remember, procrastination is not just a thief of time, it is a thief of life. So remember to revise your notes the moment you return from class.

JOIN A STUDY GROUP

Your study group should not be more than eight, so that each person takes one subject in which he or she is very good. You can decide to take turns in teaching each other. If you do not understand anything, consult. You may get others from other schools or other classes to visit you for peer tutoring. Additionally, appoint a potter to ensure that there is law and order in the discussion. In a group where talking and gossip are the order of the day, stay away.

GET A TIME TABLE

A personal workable and working time table is very important. Both at your group level and personal study level. There should be flexibility in your time table. Don’t tie yourself so much to the point of suffocating. FOLLOW YOUR PLANS AND SCHEDULES.

GET A STUDY PLACE.

Your study place should be well lighted, there should be fresh air and it should be free of distractions. Know yourself, what is good for you and what is bad, at what time you learn best and work accordingly. Seek help if you do not understand anything. Better you ask and be a fool for once, or you keep quiet over your ignorance and remain a fool forever.

NEVER GIVE UP

Believe in the power of your brain and what you can do. If nothing could stop you from being born, nothing can stop you from being successful. If you try once and it does not work out, that is not the end of life. Go again until you get your desired dream. Everybody fails at one point in life or the other, so if you failed, you aint the only one who failed, you can bounce back.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul? Knowledge is earthly, but the ability to apply that knowledge is called WISDOM and wisdom comes from God. That is why a doctor knows that its bad to smoke but he still smokes. You know that wasting time and aimless roaming will make you poor but you still go ahead to do it, WHY??? You lack wisdom. You have the knowledge, but God has not given you the ability to apply it. Ask God for it.

Make Jesus the Lord of your life and he will give you the desires of your heart. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. GOD BLESS YOU.

ARE WE STILL BRETHREN?

ARE WE STILL BRETHREN?

The irony of brothers and sisters in churches today is one thing I find very amusing and comical. Hypocrisy is now wearing different regalia in the house of God; the holy Church of God. They call themselves brethren, brothers and sisters. Some have even adopted specialized names to mark the ironically unique qualities of their group; daughters, Lifers, Chosen, Ambassadors, lovers, youths etc. these are not bad things to do but are we really brethren?

We call ourselves brethren, beloved, and so on but within us, we hate and castigate one another, we backbite and insult each other, we look down on others and see ourselves bigger and more important than others, you suspect and blame each other, yet you still go about calling brother, sister, beloved, brethren. We encourage tribalism and have derogatory, egoistic and insulting terms we call members of the rival tribes. Are we still brethren?

Do we have a heaven for the Ashanti and another heaven for the Ewe? Has God a special Holy Spirit baptism for the Ga and another for the Frafra? We say we are brethren going to one heaven but within us, we are full of tribal bigotry, hatred, suspicion and divisiveness in our hearts towards members of other tribes even in the same church. Are we still brethren?

Let a new position crop up in the church and both pastors and board members are looking for members of their tribe to occupy the position. Let a scholarship emanate, then we shall see tribalism at its zenith.

We call ourselves brethren yet we stab each other at the back? Why do you call me sister and still look down on me? Why do you call me brother and still insult me because of my tribe and status in the church? Are you not ashamed of yourself to be a hypocrite in the house of God? Why do you call me sister but will not let me marry that brother who is likely to become the pastor, just because of my tribe? Were we not all baptized into the same Spirit? Are we still brethren?

Christians have forgotten so soon that in the early church, members sold their lands to feed the poor. Where is the fellowship of old? We see a brother come to church in tattered cloths while we parade in the best and most fashionables of our zeitgeist. Instead of helping that brother with just one used shirt and trouser, we group under trees and summer huts to gossip and insult this brother that he is colour blind and does not dress well to church. If he stops coming to church because of our most holy suspicious looks, we say a lady has kissed him. Are we still brethren?

When will the church of God stop this nonsense?

I attended a mass wedding of a church in the middle belt of this country, a cosmopolitan city, and met the greatest disgrace of my life; every one of those ten or so couples was marrying his tribe mate! The Ewe brother to his tribe sister, the Ashanti man to his tribe sister, the Ga to his tribe sister, the Fante to his tribe sister, the Dagbani to his tribe sister! Yet they all claim they prayed and GOD LED THEM! Is God so “tribalistic?”

I came down to my own church where my pastor and I discussed my senior brother’s marriage to a woman from B.A. Apreku to be precise. My pastor said so disgustingly

Why didn’t he go to Volta?

That was at home. I came up to campus and observed the leaders in my church, and guess what…every one of them is married to their tribe mate! What the hell is wrong with us? Are we still brethren?

I am glad I don’t worship any of my father’s “royal gods” those are tribal gods. I serve Jehovah Nissi who stretches his banner over ALL men. He says in Ezekiel 18:4 all souls are mine. He didn’t say the Ga-Dangme, Igbo or Yoruba or Oyo or Anexo or Zulu, Ewe, Anlo or Ashanti soul is mine. He says ALL SOULS ARE MINE.

Are we still brethren?

If we are still brethren, why is individualism reigning in the church? Why is self interest running ahead of the church business, why do we choose from which wedding to attend because of the tribe of the members.

If we are still brethren, why is it that when my father died, I looked round and saw only my unbeliever friends? Why is it that when I was hungry, only my moslem friends fed me? When I was sick only my traditional pagans came to visit me? If we are still brethren, why is it that our church board is made up of the pastor and his family? Because he does not trust others. Yet you close and call me brother, sister. Don’t brother me in hypocrisy.

If we will be brethren,

Then repent and let’s return to the fellowship of old. Let each one of you see his brother as higher than himself. Respect the poor and the rich alike FOR WE ALL MUST APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF GOD.

Is anyone listening?         I shall return.

It’s your boy

E.A.R. AGBENYO YAO                                                                     CEO: Youth and Future Incorporated, Ghana.

0543556235, 0274864449                                                                  Hon.agbenyo@ymail.com 

HALLELU……………IAH