Turning On the lights In Leeds

It is fair to say Merry Christmas everyone after all the Christmas build up started at the beginning of November.

Christmas is such a big deal everywhere including our very own Leeds. Two weeks ago, a couple of us struggled to make it to choir practice because the Christmas lights were being switched on. There were so many people there, loads of rides, street merchants and also a stage where local celebrities were sing and performing including last year's winner of the x factor.

One thing was missing though, the reason for the season Jesus Christ. As they switched on electrical lights, they needed one thing; The Light of the world... John 12:46.

We at C3 make it a mission to live by the scriptures Mark16:15, and so we will be going into town on Saturday to relight the town with the one who is able to keep darkness away forever. We in our selves are cities set on a Hill that cannot be hidden and so we would not camouflage into Leeds without  getting involved.

Watch out for these faces and many more on Saturday.



This Christmas is going to be exciting as we have a couple of Christmas events and most of them include us taking the Good news into the world.The events include

• Street evangelising and singing Christmas Carols on Saturday the 26Th of November at 3pm.
• Sessions: the Christmas editions- on the 8th of December we are hosting our event to Dfusion bar, this spectacular night will consist of music, poetry, dance, a live band, raffle draw etc.. 
• Singing at old people's home. 

Here are a couple of antics from last Christmas at C3: 

Here we are singing Christmas Carols at Colton lodge Nursing Home.

Feel free to join us this Christmas and be sure to have a fun filled Christmas.
To get involved email us at ccc@cloverleafworld.org.
Stay tuned for more pictures and videos this Christmas.

Love- The Commandment

Christmas is fast approaching. We are getting ready to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, our saviour. Let’s take our time for a moment to just imagine the day before Jesus was born into this earth, or what we will now mark as Christmas Eve. We will normally wrap gifts, get last minute shopping done and deliver our final gifts and cards and maybe go to church. Have you ever thought what heaven was like on that day, what was actually going on in heaven the day before Jesus was born unto us?

Jesus got off his throne perhaps, put off his robe, crown, put aside his deity and entered a foetus. He wasn’t going to another palace; he was going into a womb. This is an ultimate expression of God’s love for us that He will give up his throne to come to somewhere in no way comparative to what he was used to. This is the greatest form of love

Why is it so easy for God to Love us so much?

Because we were created in His image and so when God sees us He sees Himself. God still sees Himself in us, and even though we changed our image never changed. The devil came to tempt the woman and man, to change their perception of themselves, but did not change their image (Gen3:1-7). And so now and forevermore, even if we realise it or not our image will still be that of God. He will always love us because in us, there is Him.

If we are the image of God, we have to love god because when we see ourselves we must see God and so also when we see others we must see God. All we need to survive and live a perfect life is love God, which may mean everything from loving others to surrendering ourselves to God. In the Old Testament God introduced so many rules to help us love Him and in turn one another but Human beings found it so hard and just couldn’t stop ourselves from breaking these rules. Jesus came to simplify it in the New Testament and told us what to do:

 Mark 12:28-31- Love commandments.

We have assumed love to be an emotion when in actual fact love is a commandment. We pick and choose who we can love, why we want to love and who deserves our love even to the extent that sometimes God doesn’t even make the cut. But loving everybody is not a choice we get to make; loving people because they love you does not count. Luke6:32-33. That is love ruled by emotions, loving those who have done you wrong is keeping to the commandment.

If God could still love Humans even after all they have done enough to send His son, why can’t we love those who have wronged us.

How does God love everybody the same, righteous or unrighteous, holy or sinful? Because God sees Himself in every man.

How do you love your enemy? 

By seeing them by not what they are doing but by whom they are. The prostitute was brought to the presence of Jesus to be stoned; He did not condemn her for what she had but gave her a chance because he saw her image: the image of God.  

When Jesus was being crucified, he said: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do”, perhaps if they had known who He was by image, they would not have killed him, if they had seen past their hatred and seen that He was created in the image of God they would have spared His life.

In the church today, we have created a sect and we only find it easier to love just Christians. We judge others for what they do and we do not want to associate with unbelievers. We should start loving them because it is a commandment from God. Until then you do not even love yourself because you are playing with the wrath of God. If He could love you even in sin you can love everybody.

Love is not a feeling, it is a commandment, a verb and a state because you still have to do it even when you don’t feel like it.  

Loves thou me?

Matt 4 17-22

John1: 1-15

Jesus  approached His disciples with an opportunity of a lifetime promising He will make them fishers of men and immediately they dropped everything and followed him. He performed many miracles and lived life with these men for three years. One day, He was having dinner with his disciples and He told them He was leaving them soon and there Peter professed that even in His absence, He will never deny Him. And Jesus was eventually crucified and left them by themselves. 

Have you ever been in the absence of Jesus? Do you ever feel abandoned by Christ? 

Why does Jesus leave us alone on our own sometimes?

To test what was within. Your faith, love and commitment to something is really tested in the absence of the object. That applies to everything e.g. In a relationship, the commitment to your partner is really tested in the absence of the person. We are committed in church but our lives out of church is the true test of our commitment to the things of God.

Adversity introduces a man to who he really is. When everything is good and we can feel the hand of God supporting us  it is easy to remain the person God expects us to be, but when adversity comes, the real you introduces him or herself, making adversity the best place God could evaluate us. 

Are your testimonies of God still the same even when you go through adversity? Job is a great example, He said; 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.' The disciples of Jesus were the opposite,  even though they had spent 3 years with Jesus, but after leaving them for three days their testimony changed. 

Jesus’ absence is like a palette ball. This ball is a round ball for exercise. You balance yourself on the ball and it works muscles that have never been worked or are not worked under circumstances. The moments we feel Jesus is not showing His face to us are moments where he is helping us exercise muscles of our faith that has never been used in a quest to keep our faith as strong and as fit as possible.

In times of adversities what should you do rather than reacting by changing your commitment to God?

Adapt the strategies of a smart boxer in a ring who has just been beaten down by His opponent. The referee is counting to ten, the fans are raging to see if he will stand up again. He stays down till the count of 7, 8,9, before getting up. He spent some time down there to strategise and regain his stamina rather than rush up to be beat down again. He did not give up neither did He rush to any quick decision that will cause any harm. So reflect on what you are going through and come back up and out of the adversity to regain carry on your relationship with Christ

Peter and the rest of disciples did not come out of adversity to Christ, they returned to their old ways. They failed the test of love and commitment. They lost the plot and did not even recognise him. They were so far off that they were willing to follow anybody. Jesus told them to cast their nets, even though they did not recognise him, they were willing to throw their net to just anybody’s command. In God’s test of our faith, do we abandon Him and forget Him to the extent where anything or god goes? We deny God in times of adversities of trial, and when we comes back to us we are found naked and have fallen short of His glory.

Start questioning yourself from now, Lovest thou God, than the things He offers you? more than miracles, more than life, more than your job, more than your family, more than fame, more than everything else in life? Let your answer be yes, because if not, when he hides from you will not be able to stay committed to him. .

The Place For Work

What are your dreams, plans, what are you capable of doing, what is written down in your book as a to do list? what is hindering you from accomplishing these things? 

Jer 1:4-7: Before God Began with you He had finished it already. You were born what God has ordained you to be who you are meant to be.When you start out to do things, make sure that in your mind you have finished it. That way you can arrive at your goals easily. You are aware of what the finished product looks like so you can drive towards it.

But don't just write it down and finish it in your mind, everyone has dream and want to accomplish those dreams and even though they might be finished in our mind but only few dreams are made reality and this only happens when we put hard work into it.

We are judged by what we do not our dreams. We are remembered for our deeds and not our dreams.

There is no need for laziness as the fruit of laziness could always be better as hard work could sweeten it.

Luke 6: 46-50

What is the difference between the two men? One worked and the other did not and so the foundation of the house was based on the doing. Everything we accomplish in life is on the foundation of our doing.

We always have many ideas and any time we see what we thought we could do done by something else it hurts,but we are not in that person shoes because we did not do. We shouldn't just be big thinkers but big doers.

James 1:22-24: we are not supposed to be just hearers or speakers or dreamers but be doers. We deceive ourselves when we do not take action on hearings, saying or dreams. We hear a lot of good messages but nothing happens until we started putting them into practice. It is a foolish action to hear, speak or dream without putting in work, the previous action was simply a waste of time.

Laziness is the greatest hindrance and sometime we confuse faith for laziness. We always say it is well when there is room to apply work e.g. we are looking for jobs but we can’t expect to find a job until we start applying. We cannot replace the place for action with the sentiment that the job will fall in our laps, that is not faith.

Being excellent requires focus but also hard work, set your sights on what you want to do and apply work.

The place for work in the scripture

James 2:17: Faith without work is dead

Hebrews 11:6. Yes without faith it is impossible to please God, but work actualises faith.

Gen 2:5-7 God created man to work the earth.

John 5:17 Even God is working, so much so us.

The place for work in a story.

Michael Angelo was a sculptor. He was around at the time where he was when another artist Raphael was at the peak of His career. Raphael was in a quest to show that he was better than Michael Angelo. He convinced the pope to give Michael Angelo the task to do paintings on the chapel, to prove that Michael Angelo was not the best artist. The pope summoned Michael Angelo with a task to create a tomb for Him but when he got there He also decided to test His ability by commissioning him to paint the 12 disciples on the ceiling. Michael was committed and did not just back down, he was in competition with Himself to be the best he could be and set to work for three whole years. He did not just paint what He had been assigned to but ended up painting 300 larger than life murals; the Downfall of Man and the Promise of Salvation through the prophets and Genealogy of Christ, nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's Creation of the Earth; God's Creation of Humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of Humanity as represented by Noah and his family. He even moved from the ceiling to the pendentives supporting the ceiling and painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of the Jesus.

He was a person with an excellent spirit, He was the best and achieved the best by setting Himself the goal to achieve His best, but he did not just dream of what could have been. He got to work and created a work that made him a genius. To others he is a genius but to himself just a hard worker.

In your pursuit For excellence; Just Do it!!

IN THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

When God created the world, He created the heavens and the earth and said it was good (Gen 1:31). In fact it was Excellent, He was just being modest.

Can we look back on all we do and call it excellent?

What is excellent? Utmost quality, High class, incomparable, perfect, distinction.

A person of excellence always strives to be the best and keep going till they reach perfection like God, He did not rest till he made the most perfect creature and finished the world. God was progressive in His thinking while created. Everything He built needed the next thing to give it purpose, and He ended in creating a perfect man that will tend to and make use of all that He had done. 
We are made in His image and in us is instilled the ability to be excellent and must keep striving to attain the state of Excellence. 

Tips to being an excellent person:

• ·         A person of excellence never procrastinate, they work immediately to do what needs to be done. They take the opportunity to succeed at the first attempt. Why? They realise that the enemy is at his weakest point first attempt, so they are ready to meet attack and kill every time they go to war, because the enemy you meet today, when you fight tomorrow will be stronger and more ready to beat you. 
• ·         A person of excellence realises that today’s excellence is tomorrow’s mediocrity. Not everything we do is perfect but everything should be progressive.
• ·         A person of excellence does not dwell with mere people but kings, in a struggle to be better. The people around you motivate you to be better, if you hang out with people who have done what you are trying to do, things are made easier and you are motivated. Prov 22:29
• ·         A person of excellence realises that they have never arrived but realise they are always on a journey. It doesn't matter if you are at the highest point of your career; you are still on a journey.
• ·         An excellent person is in competition to beat others but to be the best they can be. Excellent athletes run to beat their best time and not the other athletes, in a quest to beat your best time you may find that you win against others but being the best you can be is more important.

 2Cor 3:2-13

There was a glory on the Old Testament, but the glory of the New Testament was greater. Even though the old testament was excellent, things progressed into the new testament because a better system was in place. if there was no progression, there need be no separation. The Old Testament had to pass away for the better things in the New Testament to manifest. The Israelites were still stuck on the old ways of the law when Christ had brought about a better way.To be excellent we have to adapt new systems that bring about excellence. 

Key Ingredients for Excellence
Focus.

• Do not focus on results, but focus on change. Change brings about results.
• Keep your eyes single and focus on one thing. Anything else in the way is a distraction and deters you from seeing what your focus should be. 
• The sharper your focus is the sharper you are.  
• To be focused you need priorities and concentration. Your priorities help you set your focus and concentration on your priorities keeps you focused. If you lack concentration but have priorities, you will never attain your priorities.

The Israelites focused too much on Moses and the law they cannot see the better way God has set before them. We are too focused on our old ways and practices we miss things.
Phil 3:1-13
In our quest to be excellent let us emulate Paul. Paul was a smart, multi talented guy. He was the best lawyer and used it in the persecution of the people of God. He was well learned and was raised to be a religious Jew; born into the tribe of Benjamin, He was circumcised, he was a Pharisee and believed so much in the law (the old way) that he sentenced all those that believed in Jesus Christ (the new way). He became excellent when he counted all this for loss to focus on Christ. He forgot everything that He was involved in and His many talents to be focused on Christ.
We also should be like Paul, count for loss your old way of life because Christ is the only way to perfection. Focus on Him, you can survive on Him not on your many talent or brain and in your focus on Him you will do everything to be the best of your ability.

In the pursuit of excellence, focus on Jesus Christ. 

Welcome to Our Blog

Hi Reader,

Thank you visiting our Blog. We at Cloverleaf Christian Centre are committed to getting the word of God out to as many people as possible.
We have such an amazing time at C3 and enjoy the presence of God, and so we will be using this blog as an avenue to allow everybody the opportunity to join us in worshipping an amazing God.
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