United Christian Ministries International - Greater Works Assembly

10/08/2025

UNITED CHRITIAN INT. GREATER WORKS ASSEMBLY INVITES YOU TO FELLOWSHIP WITH US. YOUR LIFE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AFTER AN ENCOUNTER WITH US. MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU

10/08/2025

04/04/2024

Welcome to the month of Sacrifice. Ephesians 5:1-2.

Stay blessed

22/03/2024

QUIET TIME
Rev. Andy
22nd March, 2024

PERSISTENCE (PART 4)

Text: Mark 10:46-52

LEARN HOW TO LEVERAGE ON OPPORTUNITIES
The end game of being persistent is to leverage on opportunities. And to leverage on opportunities means to take advantage of your kairos moment. Rick Warren calls it "Surfing Spiritual Waves." In his book titled "The Purpose Driven Church," he explained that in the game of surfing, timing was very important. One must wait to catch the right wave in order to ride it. Rick stated that like surfing game, there are specific seasons in life for the move of God and that one must learn how to take advantage of it. It's just like the story of the man who sat at pool of Bethesda for 38 years in John 5:1-15. The bible recorded that all the sick folks at the pool waited for the stirring of the water and the first person to take advantage by falling into the water got healed of all his infirmities.

As we persist in life, there will always come a moment of opportunity. But it's our ability to leverage on our opportunities that becomes the game changer. When Jesus heard blind Bartimaeus shouting His name, "Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me," He stopped and gave him attention. That was his kairos moment. But imagine that after asking Bartimaeus, "what do you want me to do for you," and the blind man tells Him that "oh Lord, please I want a bag of money to cater for myself." It would have been very unfortunate because he would not have intelligently leveraged on his opportunity to receive his sight. Thank God he said "Lord, that I might see." That was how he got his sight after persistently shouting for mercy.

Juxtapose Bartimaeus story with the lame man who sat at the temple gate called Beautiful. When his kairos moment came, he asked Peter and John for money and not to be healed. He narrowly missed his opportunity but for the intervention of grace. The point I want to put across is that as we persist in life, there will surely come a moment of opportunity to change the narrative of our lives. But we've got to know how to leverage on our opportunities. The first time I encountered Prof. Robert Ebo Hinson, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Ghana Communication Technology University, I leveraged on the opportunity when I had to speak to him after the session to invite him. May God help you to leverage on your opportunities. Stay blessed.

Prayer
Lord please help me to leverage on my opportunities.

( Believers in Christ #)

21/03/2024

QUIET TIME
Rev Andy
21st March, 2024

PERSISTENCE (PART 3)

Text: Mark 10:46-52

DEFY ALL ODDS
Persistence is about defying all odds. And in the quest to gravitate towards the achievement of our goals in life, we shall be confronted with many odds. There are two odds that Bartimaeus faced as he sought to catch Jesus' attention. The first odd is what I call internal challenges. This has to with his blindness which was a physical disability. His blindness suggest that he had no sight. But he had a voice to shout. And instead of lamenting over the fact that he had no sight, he rather chose to use the voice he had to get what he wanted. See, it's about time we focus on what we have instead of what we don't have.

Recently, I read in the newspapers the story of a blind man who graduated from the University with a PhD. When they interviewed him on how he was able to achieve this milestone success, he intimated that "disability is not an inability to achieve one's dream." He explained that being physically challenged must not be an excuse for failure in life. He was definitely right because in our part of the world, people will rather prefer to make excuses with their disability than to defy all odds to achieve their dreams. But I have seen videos of physically challenged persons in other countries defy all odds to becoming global icons. The second odd that Bartimaeus faced is what I call external challenge. This has to do with the crowd.

As he began to shout "Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me" the bible stated in Mark 10:48 that "Many warned him to be quiet." I want you to take note of the word 'many' and not few. It suggest that in this life, there are many voices you must ignore. These are voices that will make you feel worthless as if you don't matter or count. They tried to shut Bartimaeus up because they saw themselves to be more qualified for Jesus' attention than a poor blind begger sitting by the roadside. What they didn't know was that Jesus did not come to call the qualified but He rather came with grace to qualify the called. He defied the negative voices and persisted in his shout until he got Jesus' attention. Defy the odds and persist until you reach your goal. God bless you.

Prayer
Lord please help me to defy all odds in order to persist towards my goal.

( Believers in Christ #)

20/03/2024

QUIET TIME
Rev. Andy
20th March, 2024

*PERSISTENCE (PART 2)*

Text: Mark 10:46-52

NEVER QUIT TRYING
Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor failed many times inventing the light bulb. When he was asked about the many times he failed, he stated that he did not fail many times, but rather discovered many ways of doing the same thing. What made him successful after many attempts of failure was his persistence. He did not throw his hands into the air in despair after several unsuccessful attempts but kept on trying until he finally succeeded. It's often said that winners don't quit and quitters don't win. Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams opined that "a man is not finished when he fails, but when he quits." Many times people fail in life because they do quit too quickly. But an attitude of persistence is a step towards success.

Recently, a young lady shared with me her success story. She had written mathematics at the Senior High level three times and had failed in all attempts. She gave up after convincing herself that she can never pass the subject. I encouraged her to make a fourth attempt and after putting in an extra effort, she passed. You can imagine her joy in breaking the news to me. But the point is that, like Thomas Alva Edison, her persistence eventually paid off. The challenge with many people is that they easily give up. They throw in the towel too quick when they could have just persisted. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus told a parable about the persistent widow who wearied an ungodly judge with her frequent visits over an appeal until he avenged her of her enemies.

In that story, Jesus spoke about the persistence of the widow as an act of faith. This is because faith never gives up. In the story of blind Bartimaeus, the bible stated that when he heard about Jesus, he began to cry. Remember that in Romans 10:17, the bible says that "faith comes by hearing." Also, faith without works is dead. When Bartimaeus began to cry, the people around him tried to shut him down. But according to the scriptures, the more they tried to shut him down, the more he cried out. Bartimaeus never quit trying to get Jesus' attention. Guess what! His persistent cry eventually caught the attention of Jesus. May your persistence catch Jesus' attention. God bless you.

Prayer
Lord please help me to persistent until I win in life.

*( Believers in Christ #)*

14/03/2024

QUIET TIME
Rev. Andy
14th March, 2024

LAYING ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT (PART 4)

Scripture: Proverbs 16:18

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

PRIDE OF THE HEART
The fourth weight we need to lay aside from the 5P'S is what I refer to as 'The Pride of the Heart.' And I would like to tell a story to explain why pride is a deadly weight to be laid aside. I read a story titled "My Pride Killed My Wife" written by Mercy Obot, a journalist, an entrepreneur, and inspirational writer. In that story she shared about how a couple had woken up one Monday morning over a little argument about breakfast as they prepared for work. It was all about how the wife was spreading butter on the bread of the husband. He considered it rough and out of anger yelled at her. The wife who did not take kindly to her husband raising his voice at her got mad and left the dinning room for work without saying goodbye.

The husband went ahead to eat his bread but still angry at his wife. They both returned from work that evening without exchanging their usual pleasantries or speaking to each other. They ate dinner separately and went to bed without saying good night to each other. The cold war persisted until Thursday night when at dinner the wife said hi to her husband smiling at him. He was so proud that he murmured and hurriedly left the dinner table. He had vowed never to end this cold war nor allow the captivating smile of his wife to get him to change his mind. That night, she even sung his favorite song as she took her bath but he was so filled with pride to the extent that he simply refused to join her in singing; something which was very uncharacteristic of him. By the time she came out of the bathroom the husband was fast asleep.

Around 3am in the morning, he felt her hands on his body tapping him nonstop but he refused to wake up because he thought she wanted to end the fight in bed. He woke up on Friday morning at 15 minutes past 7am, rushed to take his bath and off to work without taking notice of his wife who was still lying in bed. He returned from work in the evening only to find out that his wife was still lying in bed at the same position he had left her in the morning. He quickly rushed to check up on her and realized that her body was cold and breathless. She had died earlier that morning of an asthma attack. Her tapping was only for him to get her inhaler but he was so proud to respond to her. The husband lost his beautiful wife because of the pride of his heart. Today, people have lost precious opportunities, relationships, blessings because of pride. Perhaps, simply saying "I am sorry" or backing down on your entrenched position could have changed the narrative. I tell you this: pride is a weight we need to lay aside before it's too late. God bless you.

Prayer
Lord please help me to lay aside every pride of the heart.

( Believers in Christ #)