SHM Book Recommendations_2014_Book 2.

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for?
by Rick Warren

New York Times bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life will help you understand why you are alive and reveal God’s amazing plan for you both here and now, and for eternity. Rick Warren will guide you through a personal forty-day spiritual journey that will transform your answer to life’s most important question: What on earth am I here for? Knowing God’s purpose for creating you will reduce your stress, focus your energy, simplify your decisions, give meaning to your life, and most important, prepare you for eternity.

Movie stars and political leaders aren’t the only ones turning to Rick Warren for spiritual guidance. Millions of people from NBA and LPGA players to corporate executives to high school students to prison inmates meet regularly to discuss The Purpose Driven Life.

My dear friends, if there is a book which transformed my understanding of why I am here on earth, this is it.

This is the second year in a row, we are recommending this book, having done so as Book 3 to read last year. That shows it’s importance!!!

I therefore encourage you all to read it. God bless. We love you. #SHM

@SalvationHouse Tweets

@SalvationHouse tweet: A conversation between 2 people should be 50% talking & 50% listening. When you pray, take time to listen! He will speak back to you. #SHM

SHM REFLECTIONS_Under What Influence?

Read: Acts 2:16-17; Ephesians 5:18 (AMP)

I have a confession to make – I get drunk from time to time, REGULARLY! Yes, I am a child of God and yes again, I am privileged to be His servant. But I still get drunk! The only difference is that the item of my inebriation, is not a physical object, but a spiritual one! 
See, I cannot achieve what God wants me to achieve, as His child, as His instrument, as a husband, as a father, as a member of my biological and church family on my natural strength. I will struggle and make a mess of it. I will hurt myself and people who I should be a blessing to. What I need therefore is to be filled to the full. As do you come to think of it!

So, under whose influence I have chosen to fall? That of the Holy Spirit!!! It is the Spirit of God that gives me capacity to be a blessing. 1 Cor. 12:7-11; it is His Spirit that can teach me all things. John 14:26. I drink Him till I am flushed! As you too should if you want the same results I get!

What many people do not know is that YOU NEED TO BE DRUNK, TO BE HIGH TO BE CALM! It is precisely for this reason that many take alcohol and other addictive substances. But this physical high cannot be sustained over a long period of time. There is however a drunken or high state that does not wear out. It is designed to be permanent if certain conditions are kept to. That is when you get drunk with the Holy Spirit. As I am, not only am I able to be creative, but I also have it for good. Effects of alcohol, of cocaine, of all LSDs wear out, and their addicts return to a life of frustration and panic. But, with my drunkenness in the Holy Spirit, I can do all things, at all times, in all ways, FOREVER! 

So, my friends, I need you to understand my new paradigm, I AM UNDER THE INFLUENCE, and I invite you to be too. Do you dare?

God bless you. We love you! Shalom.

SHM RELATIONSHIP TIPS_Tips 2 & 3

2. Hug your spouse and tell her (him) that all will be well, regardless of what they may be going through. Do it now! Capish?

3. A simple dose of truthful ‘I love you’ goes a long way to cure feeling of loneliness. Our prescription is several times a day! Capish?

God created you for relationships! He wants you to ENJOY, NOT ENDURE IT!
#SHM #CAPISH?

SHM RELATIONSHIPS_Personality Types.

Dear friend a lot of time and qualitative energy is spent in fruitless fights and misunderstanding between couples. What should be a loving, refreshing experience has turned into a hide and seek game, score keeping, points scoring etc. To the initiated, you will agree with me that there is indeed fire on the mountain of many marriages. But every hot thing has a cooling point!

You know, once both parties to a God-sanctioned union realize that marriage is a MERGER not an ACQUISITION half the battle of misunderstandings is won. The original purpose of Jehovah is a union of mutual helpers, not a master/servant relationship; or one of competitors! And often a simple test is required to understand why that man or woman is wired that way!

So, for those who have not, it is expedient that you know your PERSONALITY TYPE and check out that of your partner as well! Once you have an insight into this, you will understand why you behave the way you do; and why your spouse behaves as he/she does. Read books on these four personality types – Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine and Phlegmatic. Encourage your spouse to do the same. AND RENEW THE WINE OF THAT UNION ALREADY!

Your testimony shall be that of a refreshing marriage IJMN.

We love you!!!
#SHM #DOITALREADY

SHM REFLECTIONS_Knowing The Word Is Different From Believing It.

I have always been around the word of God. Grew up in a Christian environment, strayed away and cavorted with people whose mantra was to rubbish the Word for a bit, but returned ultimately to the light of the gospel. Praise God! So, I know from personal experience that Knowing the Word is a world different from believing it!

And this, sadly, is where many of our brethren find themselves today. Stuck with the words of the Bible, but confounded with the effects of those words on their lives and situation. We see Christians today who work hard but are still confused on how to make ends meet, do we not? We have friends who despite the passages of Scripture they have memorised on Divine healing still struggle with their health or that of a loved one, do we not?

So today, I would like us to help ourselves with this. See, every time you receive and believe the truth of the Word you are empowered to become what it says! You triumph always by the revelation of His truth. Why? Because the truth never fails! So, even if you know that #JesusChrist was made poor so that you could become rich but do not believe this truth applies to you then you probably will continue to struggle with your finances, regardless of your ideas and how hard you think you work!

How will this work for you? You need to pursue REVELATION of the Word. My personal experience is that what gets revealed to you most likely you will treat as your personal gift and hold on to its truth! Revelation will always culminate in manifestation. In fact, applied revelation guarantees supernatural manifestation! This is because no degree of darkness can nullify the power of light; in fact the more gross the darkness, the brighter the light of God’s word will shine and pierce through!

From today dear friend, I charge you to seek personal revelations concerning those pieces of Scripture that you wish to hang on to. It is not enough to know them by heart; it is more important that you believe them to a point of saturation!

You shall excel IJMN. We love you!