3 important things to remember about Joy

Saturday 17 February 2018

3 important things to remember about Joy

In the past I used to be a motivational and self help books junkie, whenever I was at a low, I’d find the answer’ in a motivational book or a blogpost. I’d feel better for like "2 minutes", then go back into a funk. The cycle continued until I faced the most challenging time of my entire life this time last year and no self help book, no motivational book could keep my spirits up. 

The only thing that kept me going was the reality of what I have in Christ. In those trying times, his promises were enough. It was tough but 2017 turned out to be my strongest, most joyful, and hopeful year. 

It was in this time I learned the true meaning of joy. I was broken but I remained joyful and my life is better for it. 

So here are the three most important  lessons I've learned about Joy in the past year:

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Book Review : One thing you can't do in heaven.

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Book Review : One thing you can't do in heaven.

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them! -Romans 10:14

If salvation got to you by someones hard work and study, I think its only right that you take the mission of reaching people for Christ as the business of your life. It is our responsibility as christians and not just for our pastors or a select group. 

Trust me I didn’t always have this conviction. I used to convince myself that I was shy and reserved and it was okay to just go to church and write a faith blog which of course some people will read, but I never took personal evangelism seriously until I read this book. I didn’t put it down till I was done and I went out evangelising the very next morning and I’ve not stopped since then. 

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PRACTICAL STEPS TO SHARING YOUR FAITH (2)

Sunday 14 January 2018

PRACTICAL STEPS TO SHARING YOUR FAITH (2)

Last week I shared lessons I learned on sharing my faith from the the best in the game. Read post HERE. This week, I'll be sharing lessons I've learned from my personal experiences. 

As a Christian and believer, one thing I can be sure of is that you've gotten the desire to reach people for him - you might have suppressed it for so long, but you've felt it- yes? You don't need to suppress it any more, If you truly say you love something/someone, you'll tell the world! Let your love for Jesus overflow so much in your heart such that you can't wait to tell someone about it every minute! Don't be comfortable knowing that people around you might be going to hell and do nothing about it.


You need to know your message people are tired of the wrong information, so don't be that preacher that tells people the wages of sin is death and leave out the fact that the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23. So a few days back, I was walking on my street in the evening and I saw two guys smoking. It was not my normal route but the Holy spirit said to go in their direction this was new for e so I walked past them the first time. I eventually got around to talking to them and with the way I started, the couldn't have guessed where I was headed. I didn't start by rebuking them for smoking neither did I start with the all too popular "repent or you'll go to hell" speech, I started by speaking to them about normal things, family, work, life etc and this is how I usually start before I get around to telling them how much God loves them. 

In 1 Cor 15:31 Paul was writing to the corinthian church after he heard how badly behaved they've been, but he didn't tell them "repent or you'll die" from a place of love he said "What?! Don't you know that the Holy Spirit lives in you?" 

Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!

Instead of condemning, he helped them see the importance of who they were in Christ and this should be the core of your evangelism, you can never go wrong with preaching love

Intentions are not enough, you actually need to go for most things you want to do in life, you'll often get the "Be more intentional" speech. But with sharing your faith, intentionality is not really enough. In my experience, its very easy for fear to cloud your intentions; so the minute you find someone and start talking

Just Start talking one major issue for me when I started was trying to figure out how to start the conversation,  what to say etc. I can't really remember the first day I talked about Christ to someone but I think it was an Uber driver-I've evangelise to quite a number of Uber drivers since then- there I was in the back seat, contemplating on if I should talk or not but the moment I started talking, every other thing flowed! I taught the Kids in church to start with "I have a gift for you" then go ahead to tell them the gift is the Grace of God. Take a cue from Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He started with small talk then got down to his main goal. John 4

Ask normal everyday questions like how's you job going, how's your family, what are your life goals etc just create small talk first then you can go ahead with the "I have a gift for you line." This works everytime! People like free things.

You can also start by writing a tract study well and write out a tract describing the grace of God and how much he loves people! See one I created for BloomTribe outreaches here


read content HERE

Go with friends I like to take on projects solo it helps me tackle the fear of failure head on so I started out sharing my faith by myself but now that I know I can go out myself, I'm even more excited to go with friends! You can start by going with friends; it makes the process a whole lot easier. The apostles went out together. This year, I hope to preach christ in buses more and I'm starting by going with a friend on a bus preaching date next week! Holla if you want to join our bus preaching date!

Be consistent as with everything else Don't take breaks, Don't stop evangelising till you see God face to face. 
Die daily to your fears and cares and allow Christ to live through you! ( 1 Cor 15:31)

Your lifestyle cannot teach the gospel It's okay to say you'll live an exemplary life, behave right, run your business with Godly principles etc. but also know that Jesus did not say, "Go into all the world and behave well" he said " Go into all the world and teach. Evangelism is showing people Christ not yourself or your actions because you're still human and you're not perfect. 

Prayer and Study cannot be left out! Pray for confidence, study to get the right information. There are times when you won't have the answer to their questions and thankfully it's not an exam so collect their phone numbers and go back, study then get back to them on it. It's also an opportunity for you to learn something new. 

Seek to grow so for the most part of last year, I spoke to only one person per time, I had the opportunity to evangelise to a crowd during the Bloom Tribe Easter outreach and visit to a shelter but for my personal evangelism projects, I'm seeking to grow this year. I'm going out even more boldly to share Christ in buses and bring even more people to knowledge of him. So as with every other thing you do in life, seek to grow and get better with sharing your faith; this is the one thing you can't do in heaven that truly counts!


Lastly, 
There are two kinds of people you'll meet when you go out 

Christians: I've approached Christians that felt very offended that I was coming to evangelise to them;  and my first thought was "aren't we all Christians, can't we at least have a decent conversation?" the look on their face read "How can you evangelise to a whole Christian like me" When you meet people like this, encourage them and show them why sharing what they know and have is so important. 

Other Religions: Don't start by condemning them, Mark Cahill in his book said "Don't tell them that if they die they'll go to hell, Tell them why they need him first and tell them how he loves them and how they should respond. 

Next week, I'll be doing a full post on what to say when you go out evangelising alongside a review of the book I learned everything from! "ONE THING YOU CAN'T DO IN HEAVEN" by Mark Cahill

Send me an email (kunmioni@gmail.com) if you'll like an e-copy!

Love and light!

photo by @createherstock

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Practical Steps to sharing your faith in 2018

Sunday 7 January 2018

Practical Steps to sharing your faith in 2018

LESSONS FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

In 2017, after reading "One thing you can't do in heaven" By Mark Cahill I became intentional about sharing my faith and making my days count for the gospel. I set a reminder on my phone to let me know that I had to make each day count. I would go out early on Saturday mornings and take walks so I can talk to people, I would leave my car and take Uber cabs so I can reach out to the drivers. I'll spark conversations with random strangers everywhere just because. I didn't talk to as many people as I wanted to but I'm very happy I did some and my walk with God became better for it.

This is part one of a two part post that I'll be sharing to help you share your faith more this year.
As it should be with taking any major decision, step or action in life, learning from the Bible should come first before personal experiences.

Who better to learn from than the guys who first went out on the instruction of Jesus to share all they had learned-the 11 men that made sure the gospel has reached you today-that's why I took time out to do a study on the book of Acts and I'll be sharing everything I learned in today's post,

In today's post I'll be sharing lessons I learned from Jesus's disciples on how they went about evangelizing in the book of acts. In my next post, I will be sharing practical lessons from my personal experiences.

You're going to have to bring out your Bible for this one. I didn't write out the actual verses here so the post won't be extra long.

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Purpose "redefined"

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Purpose "redefined"

On Popularity & Happiness

I've seen people attach the meaning of purpose to their career, talents, business and other material things in fact thats a norm these days

But what will you do or say of I told you the purpose of your life is not your career? What if I told you the purpose of your life was not to get married or to have a talent that brings you fame? Or more interestingly, what if I told you the purpose of your life is not to be happy. I heard the from Laju Iren recently and it reaffirmed the whole idea of purpose for me.

When I stopped posting on my other blog, it was because I didn't feel enough. I'd post style posts and inspirational ones every now and again; there was they hype and all of that a little recognition here and there in the blogosphere and out of and to be honest it meant a lot to me and i felt like I belonged. 

I've never really been a person that likes so much recognition and I would always like to be behind the scenes but then I started hearing Kunmio! more often than not and as much as i wanted to ignore the fact that people were starting to know my name and as I grew up in Christ, I knew that wasn't enough. If people were going to know my name, it should be because I'm putting myself out there for Christ. I knew this but for some reason I was comfortable being lukewarm. 

Now I'm sure you have a few questions already like  "kunmi are you saying  blogging is bad? or  Is being popular bad? and the answer to both questions are NO they are not bad in themselves which brings me to the reason for today's blogpost.

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A Social media heart check

Monday 18 December 2017

A Social media heart check

I'm one of those people that still craves the simplicity of a life without social media even though I can't really remember what life without trying to share every aspect of my life in real time is like. Doing freelance social media work doesn't even help matters because I have to spend 70% of my time on there. In 2016, I took a social media fast that somehow I've still not gotten back from till now and I really don't want to get back from but I have to because I have to GO! (Matthew 28:19) and my life is no longer mine (2 cor 5:15)

To be very honest, social media is exhausting! Lets not even kid ourselves. It's all about validation and trying to get noticed these days. Whether you're trying to build a brand or selling a product or service, you just want people to notice and give you a thumbs up and even buy. But lets put our businesses aside. As a Christian, what does your social media say about you?

There's a reason why this post is called a heart check?

Seriously now do you search your heart before you put up a post on social media. Do you ask yourself if your post is really necessary or if it brings glory to the one you live for? 

Social media is the fastest way to enliven our carnal nature. In one scroll , you'll find yourself lusting, coveting, envying, gossiping, getting jealous and what not; so as much as social media does a lot of good, it doesn't outweigh the bad. So if you must be on social media as a christian, make sure you're using it for what truly counts or at least search your heart clearly to be sure you are in line 

As Christian's we've been called to consciously live right by the help of the Holy Spirit. 

So anytime you pick up your phone to look through social media, use these questions to keep your heart in check. 

"Is this really the best use of my time?Is there anyway I can make this time count for Christ? This is a very important heart check question for those of us that have the habit of picking up our phones first thing in the morning to reply WhatsApp messages or scroll through instagram. You haven't prayed or read your Bible but you're on top of social media news; is that really the best use of your time?

Ask yourself...

Am I walking by the spirit? or fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Like I said earlier in the post, if you are looking for the fastest way to soak in carnality (which I'm sure you're not lol) scroll through your social media feed. So even if you must be on social media, you must beware of participating. Check your heart, does social media breed envy and jealousy for you? Are you less impeccable with your words when you scroll through your feed? Does it make you covet a certain lifestyle?

Ask yourself...

Is my page leading people away from Christ. Don't be an irresponsible Christian, as a christian, the goal is to be true NOT popular so don't be careless. You should be responsible for the growth of others; you should be an example. Read more in this post HERE

Ask yourself...

Am I seeking validation? So it goes two ways; God has told you to do something or you know your social page is a very good medium to share your faith but you don't because you feel you might lose some followers.

Or the posts where you share your faith gets less likes and comments than the ones where you just do your thing so you stop posting about your faith all together.

Let me ask you this: Who are you really living for?

You don't have to wait till you get a thumbs up from a friend or follower before you know you're doing the right thing. Let people look at your social media page and know what you stand for! And I’m not talking, posting a photo then posting a bible verse as caption for “eye service” I’m talking using your social media to preach Christ! Because this is what you’ve been called to as a Christian (Matthew 28:19-20) You’ve been called to go into ALL nations. Well Guess what?! Social media has made it 1000x easier. You can preach Christ to someone in Kazakhstan from your bed!

Make your social media page count for something.

Lastly, especially if you already preach Christ on your social media, check your heart and ask yourself...

Am I blinding people or am I showing the way? 
Are you bragging or are you leading? Are you only sharing so people can see you as the "perfect" Christian lady or guy? Gospel aside (not really) are you doing certain things so you can get bragging rights on social? Through your posts, do people see you or christ?

Take time out today to search your heart today and allow the Holy Spirit lead you and help you discern when to step back and realign your thoughts with his.

Love and Light

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