Devoice Network

JimsBlog Posts from the Pastor of Richmond's First Baptist Chu Skip to content BY  JIM SOMERVILL    Sunday’s sermon touched on some questions I’ve been getting in “Talkback,” my weekly question-and-answer sessions with First Baptist Church’s adult Sunday school classes.  This excerpt deals with one of those questions. Sometimes, in my Talkback sessions, someone will ask about that biblical expression, “the fear of the Lord.”  “Are we supposed to be afraid of God?” they ask.  No.  That’s not what the word  fear  means, not in that context.  It means something more like “awe,” or “reverence,” or “profound respect.”  But you can see where the word came from, can’t you?  From an experience like this one at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19): where Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments and the people trembled in fear before the mountain of the Lord.  And when the writer of Proverbs said, “The fear of the Lord i...

             Sometimes one wonders if the policy makers of this country have a direction. Just as this situation applies to every aspect of our national life, it appears more confusing and directionless in the area of our education system. Our education policies seem to emerge from the whims of our heads of states who know little or nothing about education or from our ministers of education who are not clear headed enough to appreciate the direction to which they plunge the country’s education system. The Gowon administration announced the Universal Primary education programme which came into effect in 1976 even before our National Policy on Education was formulated. When Babs Fafunwan was minister of education of this country (1990-1992) he unwittingly scrapped core subjects from the curriculum of our teacher education programme at the NCE level. Thus such subjects as History and Geography were replaced with social studies while in the scien...

                              Buhari Muhammad, a nine-month old boy whose genital was cut off by his step-mother, has undergone first corrective surgery at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Bida, Niger.  Mrs Mariam Kolo, the Director-General of the state Child Rights Protection Agency, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Minna on Friday. Kolo told journalists that the surgery was part of the series of operations that the boy would undergo. “He was operated upon by four neurologists and he is responding to treatment. “Several other tests will still be conducted to prepare him for the next operation,’’ Kolo said. Recall that Muhammad’s genital was cut off by his 17-year-old step mother, Bara’atu Muhammad, when he was barely a month old. The incident occurred in Dafe community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger in June 2016. The step-mother had confessed that she took the action because she ...

Nollywood actress, Tonto Dikeh has revealed she and her husband, Churchill Olakunle are no longer together and he has not called to check up on her and their son since she left. She wrote; “Dear ‘concerned’ fan, Good day. How are you and your family? My regards, love and greetings to them. Now to address a little bit of your letter, firstly I say I do appreciate your concern. Then I move on to say thank you. When a woman leaves her husband, she takes her child because absolutely nothing else matters to her but the child. This is what I did and I happily give all access for his father to see him. Now my question to you is that did your source also tell you that he has never called for once to Ask how his son is doing? I will admit, I personally blocked his access to me for the sake of my emotional stability. But nonetheless he has the nannys no, my assistants contact,my part time helps number, and many other mediums of reaching the son your source claims I “took away”. He co...

     SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reinstate President Donald Trump's ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, dealing another legal setback to the new administration's immigration policy. In a unanimous decision, the panel of three judges from the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block a lower-court ruling that suspended the ban and allowed previously barred travellers to enter the U.S. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible. The court rejected the administration's claim that it did not have the authority to review the president's executive order. RELATED STORIES Why hasn't Trump tweeted about the Quebec shooting? Spicer calls question 'silly' Trump slams the courts, and his court nominee hits back Is Donald Trump's immigration policy fuelling racism in Canada? Air Canada hopes Trump's vow to cut taxes will spur change north of the bor...

   The Federal Government has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari was not sick and not in any hospital in the United Kingdom. Fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was joined by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN; Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Okey Enelemah; and Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, insisted that the President was on vacation, and urged Nigerians not to compare his case with that of  Yar'Adua. THE CITIZEN  recalls that this position contradicted that of the Presidency, which in a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, on Sunday, stated that the President was running series of medical tests and was asked to stay behind by his docto...

        The House of Representatives has commended the financial discipline of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and assured the anti-graft agency of improved funding under the current fiscal year to enable it effectively tackle corruption and revamp the nation’s economy. The Chairman, House Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Kayode Oladele, gave the assurance on Thursday, February 9, 2017 during the 2017 budget defence by the EFCC. Oladele used the opportunity to underscore the need to remind Nigerians that the fight against corruption is one of the most potent weapons to fight recession which cause is rooted in waste, looting, misplacement of priorities and misappropriation of public funds. “For the first time in Nigeria’s history, anticorruption searchlights have been beamed on the judiciary and the revelations have been mind-boggling. In addition, similar exercises in the arms procurement process by the Nigeria militar...

be careful with your tongue especially when you are a public figure......two years its almost here, its time to gather stones.......

  Positive thinking   is a mental and emotional   attitude that focuses on the bright side of life and expects positive   results. A   positive   person anticipates happiness, health and success, and believes he or she can overcome any obstacle and difficulty . We’re constantly making decisions  about work and relationships, but do you think that they’re all rational and logical? Sometimes, we don’t realize that our own positive thinking has a lot of influence over our decisions . “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” -Ayn Rand- When you desire something, like achieving a goal or buying that house you saw and couldn’t get out of your  mind , you send a signal to your brain that indicates you’re missing something. Every decision you make from then on will be influenced by this desire. So what happens to reality? It transforms into what you want it to be and causes you think everythi...

                                              We Know Water is        important but never        knew about the        Special Times one        has to drink it.. !   Drinking Water at the        Right Time        Maximizes its        effectiveness on the        Human Body;     1.     One Glass of Water               after waking up -               helps to               activate internal               organs..       2.   One Glass of Water               30 Minutes    ...