Glory of God Prayer Group, St. Cecilia Parish, Wa Diocese, Ghana - Let Your Light Shine

Saint of the Day

Authority of woman

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior. Socrates

The real problem

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. C. S. Lewis

We must be hatched

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis

The unexamined life

The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates

Feed the poor

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. Saint Augustine

Have peace fully in your heart

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi

Nonsense questions

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. C. S. Lewis

Seeking without that wert within

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within. Saint Augustine

Charity and wisdom

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi

God dispenses beauty even to the wicked

Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked. Saint Augustine

All things unholy

I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone. Francis of Assisi

Perfect moderation

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. Saint Augustine

Will

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider. Saint Augustine

if you love until it hurts

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa

meet with a smile

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa

Hear the other side

Hear the other side. Saint Augustine

You can't get a cup of tea big enough

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.   C. S. Lewis

People of worth

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. Socrates

Don't bother about originality

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. C. S. Lewis

Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama
Text: Judith 5:17-21

What if I were God? Would I be able to forgive the many wrongs that people do, even after they confess?

When I examine my own thoughts and emotions and when I listen to contributions to the Friday morning toaster programme, I wonder what would happen to us if God were a human; He is so full of mercy and compassion, sometimes I wonder if I were God I would be able to forgive some of the things that the Israelites did, and some of which we repeat today, even though I am also a victim.

Imagine what David did, he slept with Uriah’s wife; had him killed, and married his wife. I wonder how many of us here can forgive such crimes against our fellow human beings. Yet God forgave David. And now with the sacrifice of his own son for our salvation, He no longer covers our sins, but washes them away to remember them no more, that is if only we would go to Him in confession. God has given us the opportunity to come to Him in the sacrament of reconciliation. Again, He has given us the opportunity to forgive as He forgives. But to be able to go to Him in the sacrament of reconciliation or to forgive as He forgives, we need to seek the grace, for the Bible says, “For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock.” Matthew 7:8. The love of God for man is so great.

Matthew 7:7

There was a time in my life when I had sins I knew I had to confess. Even with that knowledge, it was hard for me to go to confession, because I felt shy going to the priest to confess my sins. This was in spite of the fact that I had been to confession several times before. However, knowing how important it was for me to go to confession, I sought the face of the Lord. Every evening when I took some time off to pray in the church after prayer meeting, I would put this matter before the Lord. I told the Lord frankly that I knew I needed to go to confession but that I felt shy and needed Him to help me to go. One evening while I was in the church praying my rosary, all the shyness that I had felt just vanished and got replaced by a very strong urge to go to confession. By this time it was around 9pm. I left the church immediately and went to the parish, found a priest and made the confession. What a relieve I felt! I felt the love of God.

The mercy of God is abundant

To illustrate how important it is to confess our sins immediately, I will give you a certain woman’s story (real story). There was a lady who was a very devoted Christian. However, she was living with an aunt who was a witch. The prayers of the lady used to disrupt the activities of the aunt and her colleague witches. The aunt was looking for every possible means to kill the lady but could not succeed because she was protected by the Lord through her devotion. The aunt discussed with her fellow witches and they agreed that the only way they could get to the lady was to get her to sleep with her boyfriend (the lady had a boyfriend but was still a virgin). They influenced the boyfriend to pressure her into having sex. They monitored the situation until the day that the lady had sex with the boyfriend. They then immediately mastered their forces and went to attack the lady. But when they got there, they saw that the lady was covered by the Holy Ghost fire because the lady was already on her knees confessing to God in tears for her sin.

Do not take the mercy and love of God for granted

And yet mercy and anger alike are of the Lord (Read Sirach 5:4-7). Because the Lord deals patiently with us, we sometimes take His mercy for granted. When we sin, the Lord is ready to forgive and receive us, just like the father was ready to receive the prodigal son – Luke 15:11-32. However, when we postpone our confession, we get the consequences of our postponement. Just like in the case of the Israelites, when we are in the good books of our God through faithfulness to Him, we are invincible. But when we sin and refuse to confess immediately, we open up the chance for our enemies to attack us and “we suffer heavy losses in many wars and are finally taken captive to foreign countries.”

Don't be complacent

One common area where we become complacent is when the Lord is blessing us, when we are prospering and everything is going on well with us. We begin to wonder whether what is happening to us is not by accident, especially when others who are notably ungodly are also prospering, or even prospering more than we are doing. We begin to wonder whether we really need all those rigorous religions practices in our lives. We begin to fool around. This is when the wrath of God descends heavily upon us. (Read 1 Kings 10:14-11:8; 1 Kings 11:9,11)

 

Respect dignities

When we despise dominion and speak evil of dignities we break the divine pattern and bring a tide of curse upon ourselves and those under our care. As those under our authority behold how we treat those in authority over us, they will become fuelled by the same spirit and start to treat us in a similar manner. Once this spirit enters into a community, that community will burst apart at some point fracturing along personality lines. This is the... Read more>>>

The unconditional love of Jesus Christ w…

{bib=Matthew 13:44-46} Have you ever fallen in love? Do you remember when the phone rang and he or she was on the other end? Your heart fluttered with excitement. You couldn’t wait to see your loved one again. However, the romantic attraction you’ve ever had is nothing compared to the way Jesus loves you. You’re always on his mind. To him, you are the “pearl of great price” ({bib=Matthew 13:46}). He gave up everything for your salvation. If only this would... Read more>>>

Lesson from the story of Joseph.

The brothers of joseph thought they were pushing him away from his dream of being who God said he would be. Little did they know that they were rather pushing him into it.   Read more>>>

Prevailing prayers

Greetings My dear brothers and sisters, I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith and the sustainer of all living beings. Today I want us to look at the subject of prayer and its place in the life of a believer. What is prayer? Prayer is a communication, and the kind that takes place between God and the believer. In fact prayer is the meeting point between divinity and... Read more>>>

I have decided

There is nothing we go through that God does not know. He sees, He feels, He hears and He knows. God knows all the challenges, difficulties and problems His children go through. He is not unconcerned. He is not indecisive about your situation. In fact, God has made a decision to deliver you and He will do it! When the people of Israel were in captivity, it looked as if the Lord had abandoned them. They were in need of deliverance... Read more>>>

Short memory

One of the most painful things in this world is when people you helped in the past later decide to work against you. So many people have vowed never to do anything to help others again because of the ungratefulness of some people they once helped. Our world is really full of people with selective short memory. They only remember the bad you once did against them but quickly forget the good you did for them. Joseph was a man God... Read more>>>

A brief history of the Holy Rosary and h…

What is the rosary? The angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, when he came to announce the conception of Jesus, is familiar to most Catholics. It is echoed in one of the most popular Catholic prayers, the Hail Mary (in Latin, Ave Maria): “Hail, [Mary,] favoured one [or ‘full of grace’]! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). The words that follow in that prayer also come from Scripture, from Elizabeth’s greeting to our Lady soon afterward: “Blessed are you among women, and... Read more>>>

Guarding friendship

Teaching for Sunday 21st June, 2009Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama Text: {bib=Sirach 22:19-27} Friendship = companionship History of friendship Friendship has existed since the beginning of creation: When God created man, he saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so he created woman – {bib=Genesis 2:8-23}. God used to come down and interact with Adam and Eve in the Garden. Destruction of friendship But man broke this friendship through disobedience by eating the forbidden fruit. We also frequently break our friendship with people... Read more>>>

Is the Bible the Final Authority?

This article has been inspired by the conflict that exists within Christianity mainly due to the interpretation of the bible (the genuine cases). First of all it is important for us to understand the place of the bible in Christianity before we can properly apply it to Christian spirituality. This article seeks to use the dealings of God with his people Israel, the dealings of Jesus and the apostles with the early Christians, the bible itself and common sense to... Read more>>>

The different world of blurred future of…

The world is more than rotten The world has changed completely into what I can’t describe. Will I say rotten? Oh no, it will be an understatement. Some youth say, “We are in the 21st century.” Some also say, “We are the future leaders.” Other youth say, “We are civilised.” Still, others say, “Computer children.” Indeed this twenty-first century has changed. Things are now upside down, which has made the road to righteousness very rough for the youth and difficult to... Read more>>>

Who has more followers: God or satan?

Please finish reading before you do anything else right now; read this to the end. My name is God. I know you will give your time to me. I love you and always bless you. I am always with you. I need you to spend 30 minutes of your time with me today. Don't pray. Just praise. Today I want this message across the world. Will you help? Please drop everything & pass it on. Tell the devil you are... Read more>>>

Knowing the God you serve: God will forg…

Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama Text: {bib=Judith 5:17-21} What if I were God? Would I be able to forgive the many wrongs that people do, even after they confess? When I examine my own thoughts and emotions and when I listen to contributions to the Friday morning toaster programme, I wonder what would happen to us if God were a human; He is so full of mercy and compassion, sometimes I wonder if I were God I would be able to forgive some of... Read more>>>

Reckoning my past as loss for the sake o…

Three days fasting and prayers -28th - 30th May, 2008Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama Text: {bib=Philippians 3:7-9} Background of St. Paul St. Paul was a Pharisee. He was a scholar well respected. He had the right to be called a Jew and to be hailed by his own people and by other people. Everyone loves uniqueness and the Israelites were unique; and St. Paul could choose to hold on to this uniqueness without caring about the rest of the world.  He could choose to stick to... Read more>>>

My prayer for you

I pray that you may prosper, more so in your soul, in the name of Jesus Christ. May Jehova Jire  provide all your needs according to his riches in glory. May he who saved the Israelites from the tyranny of the Egyptian king rescue you completely. May he who is all-knowing and source of all knowledge and wisdom give you the needed grace this day and help you understand the dream you just woke up from. May your enemies look... Read more>>>

Guarding our social lives to attain spir…

Teaching for Sunday 30th October, 2011Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama Text: {bib=John 15:17-19}. We are in the world but we are not of the world What is our social life? The Lord tells us that even though we are in the world we do not belong to the world. Through our brother Paul in {bib=Romans 12:2}, He tells us again that we should not conform to the standards of the world. We live in the world everyday; eating, drinking, sleeping, working and interacting with... Read more>>>

Understanding the book of Acts

Analysis of video condemning water baptism for gentiles(Understanding Acts)   It is very helpful to watch the complete video before reading my comments, so that you can have the full picture. Someone referred me to this video when we were discussing about baptism. The video claims that water baptism is not required by gentiles for salvation. I have analyzed the video and given my thoughts on it. I would have loved to post my comments directly on youtube, but comments have been disabled... Read more>>>

Pack your things and give them to me to …

Drama this Morning:  My wife and I were having a serious quarrel when I said to her, "Pack your things and ...." At that moment her phone rang, so I had to stop for her to receive the call. It was her dad. The phone was on speaker so I could hear what he was saying. After the usual pleasantries between father and daughter, he said: "my daughter, I have transferred $1,000,000 into your account, give your husband $500,000 out... Read more>>>

Advice to young girls

The moment you agree to date a married man,you agree to be a second class woman andevery second class person is classified as a person of lower value.Now look at it this way.If he is with you and his wife calls,he lies that he is still in the office or on an official assignment.You dare not interrupt his conversation or quiry him, but you can't call him when he is at home....... My sister you be toy? He sneaks you from... Read more>>>

The Father

I begin my day not knowing what went into the night as I slept.I wake up every morning to see the clear beautiful bright sky.I hear the birds of the air sing and fly stylishly across the sky.I see trees wave their leaves in the air.I see animals of all kind around the land.I see people like me doing one thing or the other.I wonder and ponder over it … The FATHER’S love.   Oh yes!  The FATHER’S love:So great, so steep,So... Read more>>>

The rotten generation

 Aaah! Oooh!I can smell the smokeThe smoke of the burning generationGeneration of darkness and crimeDark, deep, deeper than the bottomless pit   This rotten generationMakes my heart bleedI am filled with sorrow about how morality Is being thrown away Like a piece of cloth wrapped around the waist Aah! What a generation of it-doesn’t-matter   This rotten generationPursues the youth with its rotten fingersCapture them, harden their hearts like stonesThe youth no more see the light Jesus Christ has become deviant crime Drugs and... Read more>>>