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Bless God for Pardoning All Thy Sins

(Psa 103:3 KJV) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

By the pardon of sin, that is taken away which kept good things from us, and we are restored to the favor of God, who bestows good things on us. Think of the provocation; it was sin, and yet pardoned: how many the provocations, yet all pardoned! God is still forgiving, as we are still sinning and repenting. The body finds the melancholy consequences of Adam’s offence, it is subject to many infirmities, and the soul also. Christ alone forgives all our sins; it is he alone who heals all our infirmities. And the person who finds his sin cured, has a well-grounded assurance that it is forgiven. When God, by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, recovers his people from their decays, and fills them with new life and joy, which is to them an earnest of eternal life and joy, they may then be said to return to the days of their youth,

(Job 33:25 KJV) His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:

How he furnishes himself with abundant matter for praise, and that which is very affecting: “Come, my soul, consider what God has done for thee.” “He has pardoned thy sins; he has forgiven, and does forgive, all thy iniquities.”

(Psa 103:3 KJV) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,….

The psalmist explains here what he means by benefits, and gives a particular enumeration of them; and begins with the blessing of pardon, which is a special and peculiar benefit; it is according to the riches of divine grace, and the multitude of tender mercies; without which all outward blessings signify nothing; and, without a sense of this, a man is not in a suitable and proper frame to bless the Lord; and this being the first benefit a soul sensible of sin, its guilt and is concerned for, and seeks after; so enjoying it, it is the first he is thankful for: this is rightly ascribed to God; for none can forgive sins but he; and what he forgives are not mere infirmities, peccadillos, the lesser sins of life; but “iniquities”, grosser sins, unrighteousnesses, impieties, the most enormous crimes, sins of a crimson and scarlet die; yea, “all” of them, though they are many, more than the hairs of a man’s head; he abundantly pardons, multiplies pardons, as sins are multiplied, and leaves none unforgiven; original sin, actual sins, sins of heart, lip, and life, of omission and commission, all are forgiven for Christ’s

Walking with God

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Walking with God

 For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are also His offspring” (Acts 17:28, emphasis added).

 God made man in His image according to His likeness He created him. He created man in Him, one with Him and He gave him dominion over the earth. Adam and Eve were the epitome of divine energy and tranquility and were glowing with heavenly peace as they rule their domain, filled with joy as they join the angels worshiping God in the cool of the day. As king, Adam lived and related to realities in a world where the Spirit and natural realms were fused into the one world of God. It was a world where things existed in one realm because God is one and in Him is no discord and division. It was a perfect existence filled with everlasting life, dazzling light and eternal truth as the glory of the Lord covered the earth from horizon to horizon. It was perfect because man was created the son of God, one with God (Luke 3:38). In their relationship with God, man was son of God and God was Father of man. Both God and Adam find delight and fulfillment in their divine Father-son relationship. Man was created to have dominion over all things in the kingdom of his Father. Adam was beautifully fashioned a glorious son of God to be concerned about his Father’s business. He was created a royal prince of light, overflowing with the presence and Spirit of God. God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, not to do his own will, but the will of his Father.

 When God walked with Adam, He taught him about creation and the purpose for cultivating and maintaining the garden. He also taught him about naming the animals and his king-priest relationship with them. He was the covering of all the earth. Because Adam was made in the image of his Creator, Adam had creative freedom while nurturing and caring the garden. Adam was created to manifest the name of God. In their fellowship both God and Adam found great joy and fulfillment as they flow in absolute oneness of Spirit. As Adam abided in Christ His creator, doing His will, he flowed with the life-force of God. He was totally alive to God, always moving, vibrant and an overflowing fountain of the energy of the Spirit of God which was working in Adam’s whole being according to His good pleasure. When Adam walked with God he was in harmony with creation and filled

National Youth Service Scheme: Incorporating Ube Into National Unity

INTRODUCTION

When general Yakubu Gowon established the NYSC by the decree 24 of May 1973, its primary aim was to promote the ideals of national unity and a sense of common destiny among Nigeria and eliminate mental suspicion and mistrust that has been engendered by the civil war, however it is high time the scheme had a face-lift, if not a new face in its entirety, with calls from different quotas on the president or who ever is in charge to to evaluate/audit the scheme, the president  has promised an overhauling of the scheme, in my own opinion I think the overhauling should be that which will involve the real  stakeholders in the business of NYSC, that will involve corp members, both serving and past, parents, educationist and community leaders, traditional rullers and employers of labour. In this meeting the NYSC’s objective should be examined critically and rephrased. Wordy of mention is the set and existing objectives which are

promote unity and national integration
raise the moral tone of the youths by exposing them to higher ideals of national building
promote even national economic development/mobility of labour into less developed areas
encourage employers to employ Nigerians irrespective of their background or ethnic group

having considered all this it will be of great benefit, if we examine how the scheme has performed/fared since its establishment.

NYSC IN RELATION TO NATIONAL SERVICE IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Nigeria – Service of one year in the National Youth Service Corps is compulsory for all university and polytechnic graduates below the age of 30, with exemptions for service in the armed forces, police and graduation with honors. 85,000 were enlisted in 1998/99. The program was founded in 1973 following the civil war to promote inter-ethnic group understanding by serving outside their home states and to contribute to the country’s development. 70% of corps members serve in schools; health clinics and other projects absorb the balance. One day each week all corps members are expected to participate in community service projects that are designed by the local communities where they serve.

Looking at the scheme in Nigeria, let’s consider what it looks like in other countries first are those in which it is mandatory for youth with certain qualities will participate,

Year of Jubilee: God’s Time Table

Year of Jubilee: God’s Time Table

And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all the land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family (Leviticus 25:8-10).

In ancient Israel the year of Jubilee was meant to be celebrated each fiftieth year where all debt were canceled and all possessions returned to its original owner and all Hebrew slaves in Israel were set free. The Year of Jubilee (from Hebrew yobel, “ram’s horn”) is an extension of the Sabbath principle that begins with the day of rest every seventh day, extended in the Sabbatical Year fallow every seventh year, to the Jubilee. The Jubilee year following each cycle of seven 7-year periods, counting from Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. Seven of these seven-year periods (7 x 7 = 49) were to be counted, and the following year, the 50th, was to be a Jubilee year. The length of each cycle toward the year of Jubilee is fifty years. The trumpet of the Jubilee is to be sounded throughout all the land to consecrate the 50th year and to proclaim liberty to all inhabitants of the land.

The Jubilee Year, like the Sabbatical Year, was also to be a year of rest for the land, in which sowing, reaping, and harvesting were forbidden. The land had complete rest. This meant that the produce of the 48th year of each 50-year cycle would be the primary food source for that year and for a little over two years following, until the harvest of the 51st, or the year after the Jubilee.

The Jubilee was the entire year a festival of restoration, a year of liberty. The observance of it would demonstrate Israel’s faith in God and it would be a time of thanksgiving and joy in His provision. There is no indication in the Scriptures that the Year of Jubilee was observed. If Israel would have observed this commandment of the Lord, every Israelite would have been freed from permanent poverty.

It was on the tenth day of the seventh month (in the month of Tishri), on the Day of Atonement, that the

Youth Cohort Study: Activities and Experience of 16 Year Olds in England and Wales

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Community Based Reintegration of Former Youth Combatants

Community Based Reintegration of Ex-Combatants: A Case Study Of The Lord’s Resistance Army In Northern Uganda

Muwonge J. Maxie

Human Rights, Peace and Development Worker and Researcher

Introduction

The specific context of any conflict, and the differentiating dynamics therein, inform the processes for resolving that conflict. In the case of northern Uganda Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war, the nature and scope of commitments and interventions; evolving political and security frameworks, vision and objectives set by the various stakeholders in an attempt to end this twenty years insurgency are informed by the nature and dynamics of this war. Many studies have indicated the nature of the LRA war. The LRA rebels mutilate, abduct children, widely kill civilians, commit rape and other acts of sexual violence as well as crimes against property including though not limited to burning down civilians’ huts, destruction of vehicles, economic extortion and stealing food and medical stuffs.1 Although it is right to argue that nature of LRA atrocities is synonymous with other armed conflicts in Africa like the Darfur insurgency in Sudan, the 1994 Rwandan genocide and other scenarios, in the case of the LRA, many of those who have committed crimes against humanity are under coercion from their abductors. At the core of the internal organization of the LRA are the abductees, mainly children and youths, who are turned into porters, soldiers and wives.

Many of the LRA ex-combatants who for the purpose of this paper will be referred to as Formerly Abducted Persons (FAPs), considering that they were abducted and forced to commit atrocities against their will, have over years escaped from combat back into their communities. In many instances, upon return from combat, the FAPs, due to their involvement in the violence against their community during the war, are portrayed as prone to violence and criminally inclined and summarily perceived by members from the centrally war affected communities as a menace in one form to another. Such perceptions are premised on the bitter realities. When the FAPs were abducted they were coerced to commit an act of brutality, frequently against a relative, thereby incriminating and traumatizing them so that they are reluctant or unable to return to their villages for fear of accountability to their community and revenge from those