Saturday, June 20, 2009

I have a dream for Nigeria

We don’t have to wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Nigerian dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation Nigeria will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “we hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal”.

I have a dream that one day, the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into a oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream today!....

I have a dream that my two unborn children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

What does it take to dream, who is a dreamer and at what cost must one go to achieve a dream? These questions have consistently troubled my mind for as far as I can remember. My role model is Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights leader who dared to dream, who dared to believe and dared to give the ultimate price. When he died a lot of people thought he had died in vain but the blood that he shed helped to water a seed called Barrack Obama and the dream of a man though dead brought the dreams and aspirations of a race alive.

What is my business with American and their dream, right? Well, it is Nigeria again o! through out the last few months all I read in the print and electronic media were all negative stories about the largest black nation and it people. From Ekiti and their re-election rerun, to the deportation of Dan Foster a man who has given this country so much to be proud of.

The news just kept hitting and jolting me and I was forced to ask, HABA! What is the problem with our nation? Have we totally lost hope and the dream for a brighter tomorrow for our children? Have we suddenly become birds with broken wings for a philosopher once opined, “ if dreams die, we become birds with broken wings”.

When did it become so bad? When did we lost faith in our dear nation Nigeria? When did we suddenly become corpses walking without hopes for a better tomorrow?

We should stop acting like alcoholics who take alcohols to escape problems knowing fully well that when the effect of the alcohol clears, the problem still persist.

I think that instead of re-brand we should be re-dreaming. Yes! Re-dreaming about a greater tomorrow for our nation, a future that will be favourable to all irrespective of tribe or tongue, as for me I have a dream like Martin Luther King Jr.

As for me I have a dream that Nigeria will host the world cup.
I have a dream that one day Siasia will train the super eagles and win the world cup.
I have a dream that one day journalists will not be attacked and beaten during election.
I have a dream that one day there will be lecture halls in the University of
Abuja.
I have a dream that one day we wont have to settle alleged fraud in courts again but in the shrine of Ogun the god of Iron who will deal decisively with the culprit.
I have a dream that soon Nigeria will trust the Inspector General of Police and his boys.
I have a dream that one day police men won’t collect the usual green note.
I have a dream that one day Abero will wear suits.
I have a dream that one day there will be flying boats in Lagos for transportation.
I have a dream that one day Molues will disappear from Lagos.
I have a dream that rents in Abuja will reduce to what average Nigerians can afford.
I have a dream that one day Landlords in Nigeria won’t collect two years rent.
I have a dream that one day Agege bread will be cheaper than pure water.
I have a dream that one day elections in Nigeria will not be rigged.
I have a dream that one day a woman will become the Governor of the Central Bank.
I have a dream that one day a comedian will become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I have a dream that one day respected big men wont fight and affect shareholders profit.
I have a dream that one day profit making wont drag down market indices down in Nigeria.
I have a dream that my children will be so proud of Nigeria, I will not have to send them broad f or education.

I have some many dreams for our great nations that I can go on and on otherwise I will just be sleeping and achieve nothing. The first step to achieve our potentials as a people is to wake up and work. NIGERIANS… It’s not yes! We can! It must be… YES! WE WILL.

Friday, June 19, 2009

You Can Have Fearless Faith

You Can Have Fearless Faith
by Gloria Copeland

Everyone needs a refresher course on faith, even if things seem to be going well. Maybe things in our lives seem to be going too slow for us. Perhaps we are in a hard place. Whatever the case, we need to be sure we are actually walking by faith. We need to be sure we have all the things working for us that it takes to walk by faith and not by sight. You may say, “Oh, yes, I’m a faith person. I go to a faith church.” But just take a few minutes to examine what your life has been like recently. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a faith person, or how long you’ve been in a faith church. The real question is: Have you lost your “edge”? Is your trust and confidence in God still so strong that nothing the enemy throws your way bothers you? Or do you approach negative situations with less assurance that you can overcome them than you used to? The truth is, we all need to be sure we are always walking in faith—fearless faith. Ken and I have walked by faith for a long time, but we go back and refresh ourselves on the principles of faith so we don’t let things slip. We make certain we’re not missing some of the elements that bring the power of God into our lives. The Amplified Bible says it this way: “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves…” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Live by Faith
You see, living by faith is neither an option nor a part-time activity. Habakkuk 2:4 says it and Paul repeats it in Hebrews 10:38, “The just shall live by faith.” By faith is the way God planned for us to live out our lives, day in, day out, minute by minute. When you were born again, you were born into a new way of life…the faith life. Faith simply believes what God says about any circumstance in our lives rather than believing what we feel, what we see or what we hear. One of the greatest challenges to this new walk is that most people don’t live there. When you begin to walk by faith, you may face opposition from the people in your life. Most people believe they just have to take what comes and that’s the way it is. They don’t know about faith so they are not going to encourage your faith walk. They don’t know God has the plan for everything in life. They don’t know He directly addresses the issues of life in His written Word, and gives guidance from our born-again inner man. But even those who do know He has a solution to every situation we encounter in life, must still answer a very important question: How do we get to the place where we totally believe and rely on the Word of God? The answer is this: You have to start where you are and let the Lord help you.
How Do I Do It?
The good news is God is not going to tell you to live by faith then fail to tell you how to do it. We simply have to continue to keep His Word in front of our eyes and in our ears. What you hear and see gets down into your heart. Whether good things or bad things, what you focus on becomes what you believe. Focus on what the Word says and you will have victory in every situation. Because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). You are the one in control of what goes into your eyes and ears. You are responsible for what gets into your heart—for what you believe. Put your eyes and ears on the Word of God. Receive it and believe it. This is how faith comes. Once you begin to focus on the Word, faith develops within your spirit. Faith in the Word becomes the first response in your heart when challenges come. Faith is activated when you speak from your mouth the Word that is active in your heart…your words begin to agree with God’s Word. Good things happen! Agree With the Word and Don’t Quit!
When you say from your heart what God says about anything in your life, you can be sure the thing you’re believing for will manifest. Just don’t quit! Hebrews 10:35 tells us, “Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward” (The Amplified Bible). I like to call it “fearless faith,” because fearless confidence in God’s Word is faith. When you get so full of the Word that it becomes bigger in you than the situation, where you are not moved by what you see or what you hear, you have moved into a place of fearless faith. How do you develop fearless faith? Well, you grow up into it. Ken and I grew up in our faith and today it is easy for us to walk by faith when needs arise or challenges come. We have no doubt or fear even when the answer to our challenge seems to be delayed. We know it’s coming. In the early days I knew that from the Bible, but today I also know it from experience. Faith in God’s Word always produces results! The Word you continue to place in your heart through your eyes and your ears—the Word that you speak in agreement with God—will increase your faith. You may have been the world’s worst worrier. You may have been someone who believes things won’t change unless you change them yourself. Or you may have even been someone whose tendency has always been to just throw in the towel and give up. Don’t fall back into your old ways. Keep on the Word. Replace worrying with believing. Agree with the Word of God, and don’t give up. Stand fast and be patient. Eventually, you will receive what God has promised. You will inherit the promise! Faith keeps us moving in the direction and on the path God has planned for our lives. We hear, we believe, we speak, we receive—we get there!
Keep Company With Strong Believers
One of the ways to develop your faith is to watch the company you keep. You have to make sure you don’t surround yourself with people who think and speak negatively. The smartest thing you can do is to keep company with people who are more turned on to and tuned in with God than you are. Those are the kind of people who will help you develop your faith. Choose friends who believe God and know how to stand fast—even in the hardest of times. If you want to develop fearless faith, seek out people who are full of faith and led by the Spirit—then stick with them! You have to help each other. Once you have developed strong faith yourself, you will be in a place to help other people who are growing. But always be connected to someone who has stronger faith than you. You can grow by yourself if you have to, but when the Lord brings people into your life to help you grow, hang on to them and learn all you can about the fearless faith you see in them.
Preserve Your Soul
Hebrews 10:39 says: “We are of those who believe [who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by faith preserve the soul” (The Amplified Bible). Do you see that? We believe and preserve our soul by faith! What is our soul? It is our mind, will and emotions…what we think, how we make decisions and how we express ourselves. Our faith in God’s Word changes our soul to agree with Him. Our way of thinking, making decisions and expressing ourselves begins to line up with the Word of God. Our changed soul is where “walking by faith” is played out. Our soul should come into agreement with our reborn spirit and allow God to direct our steps every day. Before we were born again we weren’t even thinking about God, or how He would do things. We didn’t know, and we didn’t care. Now that we’re believers, things are different. We have His Word in our hearts and we’re growing in faith. Our soul has been changed and everything we do now, we should do in line with the Word. We know things change by faith. And much of it has to do with your soul changing and being obedient to the Word of God.
You change and things change! Blessing Comes
When Ken and I began to live and walk by faith over 40 years ago, things changed for us! As we took hold of God’s Word and became students of faith, everything about our lives began to move in a different direction. We began to hear from God, both in His Word and in our hearts, and we began to walk in His direction for our lives. Today, we are still walking by faith and learning. The blessing of God gets bigger for us every day. And every day we wake up knowing God is good. He has the best for us when we get in step with Him. We know He will continue to change us where we need to be changed, because He loves us. We also know He will keep us going in the right direction. Blessing comes when you walk in His direction. And faith is required for the walk. Without faith you can neither see nor hear God. But by His Word and by His Spirit speaking to your heart, you receive faith, direction and blessing. When we stay in the Word—studying and meditating it—it makes adjustments in our lives. The Word changes things and changes us. It Starts With a Choice
Habakkuk 2:4 says, “The righteous will live by their faith” (New Living Translation). There are actually two meanings we can get from that verse. For one, it means the way you live or your manner of life. In other words, your way of living is faith thinking, faith talking, faith acting. It also means your means of life—your very life and well—being is by faith. To live by faith, you have to give God His place in your life. He’s not going to barge into your life and take over. He doesn’t operate like the devil does. The devil is a liar and a thief. He comes into your life uninvited to kill and steal all he can from you. He will do everything he can to keep you from the life of faith. The choice is yours. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). John tells us Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). If you don’t choose Jesus and go the direction God has for you, you’re choosing to walk right into the plan of the devil to destroy your life. The starting place for your life of faith is to say, “Come into my life, Lord Jesus. I accept You as my Savior. I want You to lead and direct my life. Take my life and do something with it.” Receive Him and all that He has in store for you.
Grow in Unwavering Faith
As Christians, we should believe what God says more than what we see with our eyes or what the world or the devil says to us. We refuse to be moved off our faith. Paul declared in Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).” The key is to never let go, never give up and never stop growing in faith. You keep faith growing by staying in the Word of God. Keep faith alive in your heart by relying on God to be true to His Word. Lay hold, and don’t let go! Nothing on this earth can take your faith, and you certainly are not going to give it up. If you hold fast to your fearless faith, you will receive the reward—because He is faithful who promised! You are born again to live a life of bold, fearless and unwavering faith.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

HOW TO BECOME A LAND LORD ON THE INTERNET



Did you say it is not possible or true to become a landlord on the net? Well, doubting Thomas, wait and hear me out first. Have you visited a website before? Sure you should have. You must have at least been to www.yahoo.com or www.infinityinfotainment.blogspot.com. For those websites to be available on the World Wide Web, it’s because of their being hosted on a web server. A web server can be described as a space online where a website is hosted. In other words, a web host is a server that provides a home for your website on the web. Just as your computer contain all files, so a host contains all the files needed to run your website. Shikena!

Now you can become a landlord or landlady as the case may be online by owning a server, which you rent to others, of course, for a fee, to host their websites. Then you sit back and be collecting your monthly rent from your tenants – that is those whose websites are hosted on your server. Web hosting is one lucrative business that anyone, that includes you, can venture into. However, according to my friend David Ugoagbara (by the way, David is an expert when it comes to web hosting). Before venturing into web hosting you must, first and foremost, take some time to acquire the technical knowhow that is required to run the business effectively.
Please, listen good. I am not an expert in this area of online business, so I asked David to bail me out. That means that I will be taking the lecture with him. That said, lets hurry over to the class where David is waiting to deliver…
Everyday thousands of websites are being added to the world wide web. Already there are hundreds of millions of websites, and millions more added each year. And guess what? Every one of those websites has to have a host! If they didn’t, nobody would be able to see them.
If you want a website for instance, the designing is done on a computer probably with a web designer software. You do not need to be connected to the internet when designing your site. When you are done the site will be there, on your computer. Only you and those who have access to your computer can view it. To make it available on the web, so that every other person from anywhere in the world will be able to view the site; you will need two things.
One, a web address- that is the domain in the internet market parlance. Every website on the net have it own web address. www.jkconsulting-ng.com is an example of a web address.
The second thing you need is a web host. A web host, as I have said, is the service that makes the website available on the internet. This service is made available by web hosting service providers on the internet. The owner of a website hosted on a particular web host must be paying, monthly or yearly, certain amount of money to the web hosting service provider. Else the site will be deleted from the server. It just as one must pay his house rent or shop rent yearly or monthly to his or her landlord or landlady. And if he fails to do that he will get kicked out of the house or shop.
Now, how would you feel if you were to be a landlord /lady on the net? Sounds good, doesn’t it? If you are to consider the fact that a greater percentage of business, schools, NGOs, politicians and even churches in Nigeria are yet to have websites and will definitely need one very soon, then you will realize how lucrative this business is. Imagine being paid N5,000 or more monthly by your tenants (people whose websites are hosted on your server). Mind you, you could have hundreds, even thousands of sites on your server and the all pay you N5,000 each month. That is good money, isn’t it?

As you can imagine, the web hosting business is a hugely profitable and rapidly growing industry, they are already thousands of web hosts; but don’t think for a moment that there are already too many – at least not in this part of the world.

There are literally so many websites being added to the web each day that if you can capture just a fraction of the market you are sure of smiling all the way to the bank at the end of every month.

Let me guess. At this juncture you must be spoiling for action. You are already dreaming of starting your own web hosting business and start raking in money at month ends. But wait. Before you even start fantasizing of a life of leisure, spending money you have earned off your hosting venture, here is a reality check. Not only is running a web hosting business technical, starting one is even quiet a challenge.

And it is not an easy business to run. It takes a lot of patience, computer and technical knowledge to start and run a successful and solid web hosting business, keep this thing in mind, don’t jump in the water without learning to swim in the baby pool first.
The best method to start in the hosting business industry and not having to worry about heavy costs would be to start with reseller hosting. The term reseller hosting is basically where you purchased bulk amount of server capacity from a major web hosting service provider, which you can split and sell to your own customers under your own brand. For example, let’s assume that you bought 5 gigabits of storage space and 50 gigabits from a web hosting company like hostgator.com, with that plan, you can offer packages such as 500 megabits storage space and 5 gigabits bandwidths, and you will be able to offer at least 10 of those for sale. Don’t worry if you do not understand what all this “giga: and “bit” really means. You will understand all these fully in the e-book David and I have decided to give to you free of charge. To get yours, send your e-mail address to nseng78@yahoo.com or victornse@hotmail.com.