GIVING; THE MOST VISIBLE ATTRIBUTE OF LOVE (An online lecture)

Venue: SRAF whatsApp group.

Date: 24^th of March, 2016

Time: 08:55pm.

Lecturer: Eneji Stephen Toluwalashe (Soul’e Rhymez)

SOUL’E: Good evening great people,

I greet all our guests of honour and our Great Minds in here who have cooperated so far to make this night a possibility; I am humbled to be in your presence tonight.

I am surely too small to stand in front of you tonight and say anything, but who can tell what God has planted in me for all of us?

SAMUEL: Welcome Sir.

SOUL’E: Please, let us not look at me, the words are not mine, they are from him who is greater than me.

OYINDAMOLA: Hmmm…

PRAYER: Glory!

SOUL’E: The topic of today's lecture is: GIVING, THE MOST VISIBLE ATTRIBUTE OF LOVE

 But first, can anyone, among those who have been in this group before now remind us what the definition of love is?

From there, we will talk about giving.

PRAYER: God is love biblically 🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈

ISOBOYE: Love is having tender feeling towards someone or something.

SOUL’E: Now, you people tried, but according to the series of essay titled, THE TRAIT CALLED LOVE, Love is defined as the Godly trait in human beings that makes them nurture and preserve their lives.

Does anyone disagree on this or I should explain it more?

BRIAN: I agree

PRAYER: Explain more

HELLEN: I agree

ISOBOYE: 👏🏽👏🏽 but explain

SOUL’E: You will agree with me that it is because you love yourself that you eat, bath, buy cars for yourself, build houses you live in and so on.

All these are to nurture and preserve your life and it is a Godly trait.

Take note of NURTURE and PRESERVE.

Now, talking about giving as one attribute of this trait, we have to understand it is just one among many attributes of love and giving as a virtue can be independent of love.

It means you can give without loving, but you can't love without giving.

Giving without loving is also inspired by another Godly trait called selfishness.

That might contradict, but selfishness is an attribute of pride which is another major trait inherited from God. GIVING as a result of selfishness has limitation, but the one as a result of love don't.

PRAYER: …Don't get, God is selfish?

SOUL’E: Just wait

PRAYER: Ok

SOUL’E: Giving is a very good virtue, but a lot of people don't give because of certain insecurities

Such as lack of faith, Self-centeredness; which is an abuse of selfishness and also, as a result of initial abuse of pride.  Can I go on?

HELLEN: yes we are following 👼🏾👼🏾👼🏾👼🏾

SOUL’E: Okay, I once sent a quote out saying, "if you truly know the eternal reward attached to giving, you will beg people to take what you have" but this is true.

OLUWATOMISIN: not getting it clearly, but I hope to before the end.

SOUL’E: Good.

Some people are always on the receiving end, they feel they don't have what to give, but I tell you, there is no one created by God, regardless of how poor that does not have what to give.

Did anyone get that or I should give a personal example?

Should I go on?

PRAYER: Yes

SAMUEL: ✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽

OLUWATOMISIN: sure

SOUL’E: OK, let me give an example of the fact that you always have what to give.

PRAYER:  Please do

VICTORIA: ✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽

SOUL’E: Some time ago in the church I attend, I had this urge to give, but I was too poor financially to afford anything worth giving to the great people in my church, so I thought, I always have something to give, I wanted to give and an idea came. I am a poet and that’s something I can give.

I decided to study everyone who has been working well in the church and I stood at the gallery and wrote their names down, then I wrote a poem titled "THANK YOU" I typed and photocopied it, put each one in an envelope for each name I wrote and gave it to each of them.

This poem was to thank everyone for their positive contributions to the growth of the church. Just a poem, but did I not have what to give?

Now let me tell you the effects of that single poem.

PRAYER: ✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽

SOUL’E: There is hardly anyone among the presbytery in my church who doesn't know my name; I became popular with only a single poem even though I didn't give to become popular.

 But most importantly, they are encouraged to move on because they now believe someone appreciates their efforts.

Literally, I became the most influential person in my church, but mind you, up till now, I am only a church boy. Giving goes beyond money, but must always be sacrificial.

BOLANLE: Nice one that message was for me.

SOUL’E: Little appreciation of someone could make the person to be motivated to change the world, not giving out the appreciation means the world will remain as it is and you will be responsible for this failure because you refuse to GIVE appreciation.

DOSUMU: I support that.

SOUL’E: Take note that giving is an attribute of love and going by the definition of love, which is to nurture and preserve one's life, your giving must be to nurture and preserve other people's lives just as much as you do to your own life.

In the series of essay titled,  THE TRAIT CALLED LOVE, it was stated that loving others just as yourself is the right use of love and this entails GIVING (sharing with) others, what you use to nurture and preserve your life.

The world gets worse by the day, not because there is no love, but because people have refused to use rightly, the most visible attribute of love which is GIVING.

Are we following?

SAMUEL: Yeah.

PRAYER: I am

SAMUEL: 📝📝📝📝

SOUL’E: GIVING must be sacrificial and if you are self-centered, it doesn't mean you won't give; you will give, but only give to show off. The intention behind what you give matters a lot, God does not love givers; he love cheerful givers.

Many give, in fact, they give more, but for their selfish interests, this does not have any eternal reward, I tell you, such GIVING makes no sense to God.

DOSUMU: Yes,

SOUL’E: Did anyone get that?

PRAYER: Yes I do

PRINCE T: Yes good talk.

‪DOSUMU: Yes, God love cheerful givers.

SOUL’E: This means if you give because you want to be praised or recognized for doing so, you had better get your reward from men, because such giving does not move God and attracts no eternal reward.

Now, on types of giving, religion has restricted people from giving due to several misinterpretations, let me give an instance of a significant type of giving that religion would have gone against, it happened in Brazil a few years back.

DOSUMU: Okay.

SOUL’E: There was a 23 year old lady who, who couldn’t get a job, but decided to auctioned her virginity and used the money to realized to feed the poor.

As awful as the religious minds might see that, that giving makes sense to God, unfortunately the lady wasn't a Jesus Christ believer and Jesus was proven right to say "the children of the world are wiser than the children of the kingdom.”

That act would have been considered a sin by a typical Christian or a Muslim person, but such makes sense to God, I mean perfect sense.

What the lady did was to give out what she take pride in, in order to make other people's lives worth living, but here, we will rather pray for the poor than to give them food.

How many Ladies will do that in here?

Instead they keep their virginity and probably lose it to superstars in order to look better than others and make money for themselves.

It is not about women and virginity; it is rather about doing whatever it takes to make the other person's life worth living just as yours and without cheerfully giving, it is impossible.

Are we still here?

ENE BIBI: Yes

BRIAN: Yes....although...I'm still perplexed… I feel like spitting some Biblical venom.

SOUL’E: Don't yet, Question time is coming.

Away from that, I wrote about how we will be positioned in heaven in a chapter of GOD IS NOT RELIGIOUS, that you should not be surprised when you see your pastor in a lesser position in heaven. Those you think are the irrelevant people now might be your boss in the kingdom of God.

The major difference is giving.

Look, God is not mocked, though Jesus bought you eternal safety with his blood, you will determine you position in heaven.

Your cheerful giving is a determinant.

This giving is divided into two in relation to the definition of love: giving to nurture people's lives and giving to preserve their lives even till eternity.

Giving to preserve lives are the giving done to make someone's life worth living on earth, this will determine how rich you will be in heaven.

Giving to preserve people's lives even till eternity, this is by telling people about Jesus Christ.

This will preserve their lives till eternity and you will earn crowns for doing so, which means it determines your position it in heaven.

This is not religion! Are we following?

PRAYER:  Yes I am

BRIAN: Am here all the way, wisdom is rarity.

SOUL’E: Jesus said, "do unto others what you want to be done to you," this is actually talking about love and its most visible attribute which is giving.

ENE BIBI: Ok

SOUL’E: Now, if you are in a situation and you think you need love from someone, try giving it first, you are not a fool for doing so. Remember, it is written, without faith, no one can please God.

That's absolutely true!

‪OLUWATOMISIN: hmn

SOUL’E: However, most people think that faith is to ask God for the impossible and believe he will do it, it goes beyond that.

Jesus said to his disciples, if you "believe" you will receive anything you ask of. The “believe” there means "obey", if you will obey, you will have whatsoever you ask for.

The question is, obey what? ...simply obey what I (Jesus) say to you and you will receive whatsoever you ask for.

In this regard, Jesus said, "give and it shall be giving on to you".

If you believe, you will receive and it means if you obey him and give first, you will receive. GIVING actually means you are faithful to what Jesus commanded and with that, you are prepared to see God. Are we following?

PRAYER: Yeah

ENE BIBI: Yup

BRIAN: True😜

SOUL’E: However, some giving are more profitable while some are less profitable and this will lead us to another lecture which is themed COMMISSION WORKS THAT EARN US POSITION IN HEAVEN, If you give to someone who will affect more lives with what you give, it is more profitable than giving to someone that will spend on selfish interests alone.

BELLA: True talk my boss, Soul’e.

SOUL’E: This is why when you give to pastors and they pray for you, you think it is their prayers that work, not at all time true, even if they don't pray, you will receive whatever you ask for,    simply because you acted on Jesus’ command to give and also give to who will affect more lives with it and most importantly lead people to heaven. This is accounted to you as faith and with that, you have pleased God. Even if they curse you, what you will receive is pure blessing.

Pastors know this and that's why many people want to be one.

If you give to Dangote, the richest man in Africa, you will receive anything you ask for regardless of whether he’s a pastor or not, simply because, he has a vision that affects lives positively. This is not limited to pastors, but giving to everyone who has visions and work on them will always earn you more of God's favour.

OLUWASEGUN: wow!

BELLA: Good to know

OYINDAMOLA: Uhmmm,

SOUL’E: Thanks.

The difference between ambition and vision is that, ambition is about you while vision is about the people and giving to someone that has ambition alone will earn you little reward compared to when you give to someone with vision because by giving to someone with vision, you are indirectly giving to a lot of people and your blessings increases for that.

This giving is not limited to money alone, but it must be sacrificial, so don't say you don't have what to give.

You can connect them (visionaries), encourage them to the right people, show them love for them to carry on, give them attention; appreciate them and all these types of GIVING will earn you more earthly and eternal reward than when you give to someone with only ambitions that won’t translate into vision. By doing it to them, you are doing it to many other people whose lives they will affect with their vision.

Have you ever thought about why Jesus said: whosoever gives to these little ones gives to me?

Who are the little ones and why does giving to the little ones mean giving to him?

Find out more about this.

 Please let us give and give rightly, God is happy with cheerful givers.

This is where I call it a day, but before then, any question?

BRIAN: Ok back to the Brazilian

PRAYER: Yes oo

BRIAN : I believe God always has a way of making sure His own do not mislead others by using such measures as you said.

SOUL’E: Good, I'm following

PRAYER: This shows she's likely not to have a job & giving a lie that she’s helping the poor & needy.

Now the 23yr old lady can help the poor by doing some work. Get money and help yourself & others. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, we’re not our own. Our body is never to be used as merchandise for anything, including the gospel. Yeah, simply, her intentions may be right, but the methodology is wrong!

SOUL’E: Prayer, did you ask a question or you explained? A question, not explanation or argument.

PRAYER: Am sorry…

BRIAN : My question is now....Doesn't God always makes a way out....if it was a Christian.

‪DOSUMU: That’s a sin anyway, but she will surely receive reward of what she did, although God mind punish her for that act.

BRIAN : Hey.....Don’t confuse God for a human judge @Dosumu.

DOSUMU: No sinner shall go unpunished @flame, not my word, but d scriptures.

SOUL’E: No one has asked a question yet, please, if there are no questions, let's consider others and not disturb them with too many messages. They have more than enough already.

Coin your argument into a question that will maybe expose what look like my ignorance and heresy to you.

PRAYER: Don't get, there was somewhere you said God is selfish, can you please explain because I don't understand.

SOUL’E: thanks Prayer, God is selfish, not self-centered…

VABEC: Expatiate…

SOUL’E: In the book THE IMAGE OF GOD written by Soul'e Rhymez, it was discovered that selfishness is an attribute of Pride which make a person seek what belongs to him.

Another attribute of pride is jealousy and you will agree with me that God is jealous.

Selfishness means looking to oneself, taking pleasure in oneself, and protecting oneself, however, abuse of it is stinginess, greediness and self-centeredness.

God loves himself and protects what he considers his such as praise and worship and also we human beings.

God is not happy when a man worships a man or Satan, this is selfishness and jealousy is a way of protecting such that belong to someone.

Is God not a jealous God?

BOLAJI: Let God be true and let every man be a liar!

BELLA: God is a jealous God off course!

BRIAN: in regard to the Brazilian Lady, doesn't God always make a way out....if it was a Christian in that situation?

 SOUL’E: There is no answer to it than, God is not religious! Christians provide answers to themselves not God and if God will provide answers, it will be because they believe in Jesus Christ and asked him, not because they are Christians.

DOSUMU: It’s biblical.

SOUL’E: Any other question?

If not, we may have to call it a day.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPECIAL GUESTS OF HONOUR IN THE PERSONS OF:

Mr. Rotimi Lewis, Mr. Akintola Oluwaseun, Mr. Bernard Ifeanyi, Miss. Neofleotry DaWina Aleme, Miss. Princess Norma Manjo, Miss. Oluwatosin, Miss. Princess Tumi, Miss. Ene Bibi, and Mr. Olulu Holloway.

We are grateful for your inspirational presence. God bless you all.

My most special thanks to the dedicated members of SRAF GROUP, you guys are wonderful; once again, we have proven that we are great minds here. Thanks for your cooperation, and extension of this appreciation also goes to Mr. Enigmatic Olumide, who wanted to make it, but couldn’t due to some constrain.

Thank you all, stay blessed!