Written by Steve Popoola on May 18th, 2009
The word ‘content’ as an adjective is becoming more and more obscure in today’s language. I looked up the word ‘content’ in the dictionary and the meaning was as follows; ‘Satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else’. Another dictionary defined contentment as a ‘feeling of or showing satisfaction with one’s possession, status or situation.
I am sure if we take a poll of people who are contented in line with the above definitions, the statistics will show a very low figure. This leads us to the question, should we be contented with what we have or where we are? Would that not put us in danger of being complacent?
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Written by Steve Popoola on April 27th, 2009
A few days ago, I was at home watching a documentary on how some Japanese youth were being taught how to identify with the old people. They were taught that as a person ages, certain organs of the body begin to fail. Some of the effects could be blindness, stroke, arthritis among others.
Afterwards, everyone was made to ‘feel’ what these old people experience through simulation. Some of them had pads placed over their eyes for a whole day.
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Written by Helen Dowd on April 20th, 2009
Thomas is not with the other disciples in the upper room on this night of great rejoicing. So devastated by Jesus’ death is he that he has no desire to see anyone, even the other disciples. In fact, he has no more desire to live. He sits all day thinking of all the horrible things that have happened in the past little while. He recalls Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and how joyous an occasion that was. But it seemed from then on everything went downhill for his Lord and his friends and himself.
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Written by Helen Dowd on April 6th, 2009
Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32, 33, 36, 37; Luke 22:39-45; John 18:1.
Jesus and the disciples, all twelve, have spent hours fellowshipping together over the meal–the Last Supper.. Jesus dips the morsel into the sop and hands it to Judus. Judas accepts it. Christ declares Judas the traitor. Judas leaves the upper room. John 13:26
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Written by Steve Popoola on March 30th, 2009
The heat of the global recession is on. The news carried nothing else but job losses, closure of shops, bankruptcy and stock market crashes. Even before this moment in time, the media is known for sensationalizing bad news. If it is not about the global recession, it is about a man who raped his daughter or the body of a murdered ten-year old found somewhere or a country in Africa where people are being ravaged by AIDS.
In the midst of these terrible reports however, it is exciting to know that there is good news. The good news comes directly from the one who created the heavens and the earth; the One by whom you and I exist.
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Written by Steve Popoola on March 23rd, 2009
About seven years ago, I began to put my bible study thoughts into writing and circulate among a few friends that I had about that time. Before this time however, I used to keep a journal of my life experiences.
A few days ago, I was searching through some old stuff and came across one of my old diaries and I began to read through some of the things I wrote so many years ago. It was an emotional moment for me, as my memory began playing back some of the scenes I put down in my diary.
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Written by Steve Popoola on March 9th, 2009
It all started when I began sharing my personal Bible studies with a few friends. Back then, the internet was not quite popular as it is today and service outlets were very limited. I had limited access to the internet at work and these times gave me the opportunity to quickly share my thoughts with a few friends numbering about 10. These friends in turn forwarded my notes to others and my list began to expand.
At a particular point in time, I could no longer send my thoughts on individual basis because my list had grown to about 100. In 2002, The Biblepraise Newsletter was born when I registered it as a group on Yahoo. This was followed by the hosting of the website, biblepraise.org. The list began to explode and before I knew it, we had over a thousand subscribers on the list and the number has been growing still.
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Written by Steve Popoola on February 23rd, 2009
Every event in the world gives rise to new words and terminologies. Since the later part of last year till now, I believe the most common phrase I have heard is ‘Global economic meltdown’.
The current economic situation in the world has been described in various ways. Recently, I heard Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown refer to it as ‘an economic earthquake’. The economies of the developed countries of this world as we know them, are in recession. Governments are frantically doing all they can to revive their economies, thus we hear the frequent use of the phrase, ‘Bailout plan’. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Steve Popoola on February 16th, 2009
Movie producers creatively represent love as something which brings a man and a woman together. In many cases, there are so many reasons why these two people should not be together. It could be differences in race, colour, religion or parental bias. In a number of cases, the main characters have reasons to hate each other and ensure that they let the other person know that they could never have reason to relate together as friends. Being romantically involved would be just imagining the impossible.
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Written by Irene Budzynsky on February 2nd, 2009
The night shift had finally ended. It was one of the worst nights I could remember in 10 years. No matter what I had done, it didn’t seem as if I had accomplished anything of value. The hospital was unusually full, and the patients especially needy. Eight hours weren’t enough time to get all my tasks completed, so I’d stayed an extra hour to finish. I drove home crying in frustration, nerve fibers stretched to maximum exhaustion.
Too tired to walk into the house, I sat on the front porch well past the hour of dawn’s coolness and rocked in the wicker chair, oblivious to the weight-bearing heat on my skin. Devoid of energy, there was nothing left for me to do but to allow the sun’s rays to warm me, wishing I was one of those people who didn’t get so emotionally involved with my patients. I gripped the rounded curves of the oversized arms and pushed myself back and forth, chanting, “Why, why, why?” with the creaking rhythm.
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