Been long you saw me :p

Hey my lovelies,

It is with a huge sense of shame (lol) that I type this post. I have no excuses for my hiatus. Actually, I do. Good ones too and yes, I shall bore you with the details thereof.

The past three months have been very interesting for me. I went through some shitty personal stuff in February that really got me low- I mean I was literally taking 10 minute breaks to weep in the toilet! I actually got caught by a colleague doing same on my birthday. Thankfully, I was able to explain it away. I’m sure she did not believe me sha, but oh well! February was the month of transition for me-from corper to worker, from mid 20s to late 20s, from being rigid in my thinking to being a tad more open-minded. It was all too much to take in and deal with sometimes but I thank God who was faithful through it all.

Remember when I was a bit unsure of what to do next? Well, I joined this law firm somewhere in Lagos and had the most amazing experience with them. It was not just about the work (which was great) but about the entirety of my experience there. It was a whole new world where people are friendly, laugh, joke around yet work like their lives depend on it.  It was very different from the MNC where I served where though good, by 6pm, most people would be off. Sleeping in the office for many at this place is commonplace. There is no opening time and there is no closing time. Emails are flying well into the early morning. No one ever says no to a client-the aim is to always find a way to ensure they go away happy.

I looked forward to going to work everyday! I learned so much from working there and the Friday when I said my goodbye after 3 months with them, it was with a really heavy heart. They were no longer like co-workers, they were like a mini extension of my family. All I can say is being there was a healing process for me as well as a period of growth. I’ve moved to another law firm now and it’s been good. I really thank God for the opportunities he has extended my way, for the amazing friends I have made, for the relationships I have built and the thorns He has taken away from my life.

One thing I have learned and I want to share is this: when going through ish in life, don’t try to downplay it or act like it doesn’t bother you. Instead, acknowledge your feeble frame and your frailty, look to God and grow. As you go through, realise your errors and ensure you do not make them again. Then dust your self off and keep walking with your head held up.

Random gist: I went to the cinema after a long while a week ago or so and I slept through the movie, lol. My friend actually enjoyed it so I know it was a good movie but I was so tired. I can’t even remember the title but it was about a girl who had an accident, suffered amnesia and forgot her boyfriend. I’ll make sure I see it again. I saw American Pie: the Reunion on Monday. All I can say is please do not see it with a prude or your mother. Typical American Pie. Totally hilarious up until the very last scene, ‘Great movie’! lol (You’ll understand that if and when you see it.)

Law School starts on the 2^nd day of June. I am very excited but in a little corner of my mind, I am a tad worried. In this new firm I’m in, I’m realising how much reading I have to do, there is so much to refresh my memory on. I left uni in 2009 and I have pretty much not touched core law since then so when I see Law school students on Chambers Attachment spewing forth sections of the Evidence Act, drafting Affidavits, Writs of summons etc, I get a bit edgy and say a silent prayer to God to help me and I know He will. I learned no foreign trained student has ever come out with a First class in the history of the Nigerian Law School. Hmm, nothing is impossible with God!

I wish you all a fab month of May and I promise not to be doing monthly posts anymore. I leave you with this Word from Revd. Funke Felix Adejumo when she ministered at Daystar: if your husband’s life does not improve upon marrying you, you are a witch! Hehehe.

Have a beautiful Wednesday.

Enjoy some of my pictures which give a mini glimpse into my life in the last couple of months. Finally, can someone please offer guidance and tips on what to take along to Law School, what things are a must, what will be confiscated, what documents, generally the essentials, what kind of clothes etc. Thanks in advance.

My cocktail when I fell ill last month.

Olumo rock with 9 girl friends in April

At work in April. Yes Im still a Coke Addict: Vintage top by Uchy. Link to her webstore: http://uchybyuchvintage.blogspot.com/. Free delivery anywhere in Lagos!!! Shoes by Inkechi (If you are tall like me and find it sometimes difficult to get your shoe size, give her a call. She’s got it all. Amazing, fab party, work shoes!!! 08100801303)

Caught some part of the bouquet at a wedding in April :p

D and V’s wedding at Civic Centre in April. Amazing! That’s where I caught part of the bouquet btw. The comedian was bare jokes.

Friend from ISI’s engagement in Ibadan in April

Off for an event in April

That’s all folks!

Temiville..xoxo

Nahum what???

Pastor: Church, please open your Bibles to Nahum 1:9′.

At this point, half of the church have no idea what Nahum is not to speak of where it is! Two-thirds are sure they have heard of it before somewhere but have no clue where to begin the search. The remaining people are certain it is somewhere in the Old Testament and begin frantically searching but after 2 minutes resort to the Table of Contents. This just goes to illustrate the fact that Nahum is one of the most ignored, most unread books of the Bible by most Christians along with the likes of Ezra, Haggai, Zephaniah and Philemon.

I was just there in my room today, praying/browsing/watching ANTM and I thought, ‘hmm, Temi, you don’t know much anything, about Nahum. So I decided to blog about it. But before I could do that, I had to sit and actually read it. It’s not that long (just three chapters, actually).

On opening to page 906 of my Bible (yes, I had to refer to the Table of Contents!), my first thought was that ‘hmm, a rather dry account of history which is really not very relevant today’ and ‘what/where on earth is ‘Elkoshite”?. It took all my will power not to flip to my good ol’ Psalms. I must admit, it paid off. I’ll share with you my discoveries.

Nahum pretty much had a vision and boy, it was not a pretty one. It was one fully describing the wrath of God against a place called Nineveh (remember from Jonah?). God was very vexed with Nineveh and Nahum’s vision had details of the destruction that was to come upon the city/town/country (let’s just say ‘place’).

As we know, our God is a Lion (Revelation 5:5) yet a Lamb (Revelation 13:8). He is a merciful God (Psalm 100:5) yet a Consuming Fire (Hebrews 12:29). Nahum brought to the fore the ‘Lion’ and the ‘Consuming Fire’ attributes of God.

So why exactly was God so angry? As I mentioned earlier, the prophecy of Nahum is directed at Nineveh where Jonah was sent to by God. When Jonah preached in Nineveh (after much persuasion and in fact outright force!), the city repented in sackcloth and ashes. God’s anger was withheld from the city and he spared it, because from the king on down to the lowest citizen, they turned to God and repented of their sins. The book of Nahum comes some one hundred years after the episode of Jonah. Nineveh, unfortunately had gone back to their old ways and God was mad at them, very mad!

But the same Nahum who tells of God’s great indignation in Nahum 1:6 tells of His great love too. I think this balance is wonderful. It is impossible to speak of the God of wrath without touching on the God of love. The anger of God is borne of His love and is a manifestation of His love. Charles Spurgeon once said that “He who does not believe that God will punish sin, will not believe that he will pardon it through the blood of his Son.”

I remember when my dad used to beat smack me when I did something silly, he would roar ‘I am doing this because I love you!!!’ Well, the same thing goes with God for whom the Father loves, He chastises (Hebrews 12:6). Nahum also nicely tells of ways of escaping God’s anger: The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble;  he knows those who take refuge in him (Nahum 1:7).

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the song ‘OUR GOD REIGNS’ by Lindell Cooley has some lyrics from Nahum!!! Remember this verse?:

A fire goes before Him

And burns up all His enemies

The hills melt like wax

At the presence of the Lord

At the presence of the Lord

Well, they’re from Nahum 1:5!

As Paul advised, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16,17), therefore, we ought to fall out of the habit of ignoring any part of the Bible. Plus, there is so much to learn from Nahum.

Whilst I am not certain I fully understand Chapter 2 of Nahum yet, I know never again will I say ‘Nahum what???’

 

With my caramel latte!!! *and an attempted pout :p

 

In other news, Ann (whom I told you guys is my fave in ANTM Cycle 15) has made history! She is the first contestant to be called first four consecutive times for best picture in the history of America’s Next Top Model!!!

Here she is:

She’s sooo Vogue Italia!

That’s all folks (for now)

Temiville.xoxo

Truth or blatant heresy?

Am I a bad Christian for believing in the truth of star signs?

Again, I plead, hold your fire all thou holy and righteous and let me explain myself. Back in the day, I NEVER believed in anything that claimed to predict personality traits. I thought it was a whole load of bullocks! That was until I read The Spirit-Controlled Temperament by Tim LaHaye. I read that book when I was 15, I believe. I finished it in a few hours! All 251 pages of it! Why was I so glued to it? Well, aside of the fact that I used to read like my life depended on it as a teenager (I read everything that came my way: From John Grisham to Danielle Steel to M & B, Hints and Hearts *covering eyes in shame*, to the Bible *smiling with pride*, I related to The Spirit-Controlled Temperament on a deep level. I quickly identified my dad as a MelChol, my mom as a SanChol and myself as a SanMelCholPhleg (yes I am 25% of all temperaments! bite me :p) It was just so true, so real, so relatable.

 

An amazing read!

 

I especially love the way Tim linked it all to the Holy Spirit. He made it clear that the Holy Spirit-filled temperament does not have weaknesses; instead it has nine strengths which happen to be the fruit of the Spirit! Irrespective of ones natural temperament, the Spirit gives strength for every weakness. The perfect characteristics of each temperament were shown in Jesus Christ who stands as our example, the One we should look to as the perfect personality.

This is all nice and dandy. But I was so keen to know more about myself. Why do I act the way I do? Why am I so emotional? Then I probed further into another source of personality trait predictor and decided to read about my Zodiac star sign, Pisces. What I saw left me weak in the knees. I was dumbfounded. I was intrigued. My insides screamed out ‘this is so me!’

Let me give you a few of the characteristics that embody the Pisces which I culled from the internet.

Key Words of the Pisces: Shy* Romantic *Trustworthy *Dreamy *Creative *Understanding *Unrealistic *Impractical*.

I BELIEVE’ is the motto for Pisces. You are drawn to religion and anything of a spiritual or esoteric nature. You have a very creative imagination and an artistic temperament.

You are a compassionate, sympathetic and loving soul. You are so sensitive that unconsciously you may absorb the moods and thoughts of the people around you.

It’s easy for you to become emotionally drained by the needs of friends, family and lovers, so it’s important for you to take time out for yourself.

You can be very impressionable. You can also be indecisive, but that’s partly because you don’t like to be pinned down.

These to a great extent describe myself and a lot of other Pisces I know. The same also goes for other star signs.

But is this Biblical? Should I be reading this? Or is it knowledge given by God but now distorted by the devil because wisdom comes from God alone (Romans 16:24, Proverbs 2:6). I really am confused. Like I am wont to saying and mentioned in my recent post on another blog, when confused, reach for the Word of God. It never fails. So what sayeth the Bible about star signs, astrology, zodiac signs and why are they so annoyingly almost always accurate? Let’s go there.

 

What does the Bible say?

 

In Psalms 147:4, we discover that “He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth them all by their NAMES.” If God created the stars, then are they not ‘good’? Genesis 1:31 says that ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.’ Hence, we have established that stars are good. For example, the wise men (we were lied to, they were not three!) in the Bible saw Jesus’ star and were able to go and worship Him (Matthew 2:10).

The problem however is that they have become perverted by workers of iniquity for their own use and to mislead people from God. Whereby, people would rather subscribe to Astrological Daily Predictions than read Open Heavens or better still, the Bible. That, my friends, is where the problem lies!

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 clearly states that,

‘There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, 11 or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. 12 For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.’ So, whilst I don’t think it is wrong to understand personality traits of people, it is a problem to replace the knowledge of God with this.

There was never any mention of Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy or Phlegmatic temperaments in the Bible, yet Tim LaHaye has successfully related it to the Word of God, teaching us how we can be strengthened even in our weaknesses through the help of the Holy Spirit. I think the same can be done with these Zodiac signs. For instance, the Aries can learn to be less aggressive by building up a meek and gentle spirit (1 Peter 3:3), the Pisces can learn to be more decisive through the help of the Holy Spirit etc.

I feel we ought to stop dismissing things we do not understand as ‘alien’, ‘demonic’ and try and understand them better but with caution though! It becomes WITCHCRAFT however when we depend on it instead of on the Holy Spirit and on GOD and look to it for help instead of looking into the Word. Nothing must be exalted above GOD.  Take your daily cues from the Word of God and not from the back page of some silly newspaper written by some ignorant person!

Do I speak truth or is this blatant heresy?

In other unrelated news, let’s say a word of prayer for Gamu and her family in what must be undoubtedly, difficult times.

That’s all folks (for now)

Temiville.xoxo