It is good to keep yourself, marrying as a virgin is beautiful. I am an advocate of sexual purity and moral uprightness so to the virgins in the house, I celebrate you. Keep it up.
And to the non-virgins too, I celebrate us.

However, let me state this clearly, a good marriage/spouse is not always the reward of being a virgin.
While it may be for some, it is not always so for many.

So rearrange your mindset from the popular opinion that when you marry as a virgin, you will definitely get it right and that virginity is all you need to keep your home.

Our parents and religious teachers made it seem so to us and today, we have many ladies keeping themselves chaste for the wrong reasons only to get married and be shocked by the turn of events.

You've got to pray for God's favour, let the Spirit of God lead you and also shine your eyes when choosing.
Don't bank on your virginity, gone are the days when it was a yardstick.
I have never even believed it has ever been a yardstick except for culture and tradition that held it in high esteem then.

Keep yourself because you love God and want to keep his commands, keep yourself because being sexually pure is the right thing to do, keep yourself because you understand that your body is the temple of the Lord, keep yourself because you want to keep the marriage bed undefiled, keep yourself because you love and respect yourself.

That is the only way not to blame God when that man starts to cheat or misbehave to you despite 'you keeping yourself for him'. It is the only way not to feel disappointed or let down when the unexpected happens in your marital relationship.

You are not keeping yourself for your husband or any man, you are keeping yourself for God and for your conscience.

Virginity does not guarantee a happy marriage.

It is not a bait to hold a man down, it has since stopped being a tool for blackmail or an excuse to misbehave in a relationship.

Am I discouraging you from keeping your virginity?
No, pls do keep it,
but for the right reasons.

Visit www.modupe.org for more reads.

It is good to keep yourself, marrying as a virgin is beautiful. I am an advocate of sexual purity and moral uprightness so to the virgins in the house, I celebrate you. Keep it up.
And to the non-virgins too, I celebrate us.

However, let me state this clearly, a good marriage/spouse is not always the reward of being a virgin.
While it may be for some, it is not always so for many.

So rearrange your mindset from the popular opinion that when you marry as a virgin, you will definitely get it right and that virginity is all you need to keep your home.

Our parents and religious teachers made it seem so to us and today, we have many ladies keeping themselves chaste for the wrong reasons only to get married and be shocked by the turn of events.

You've got to pray for God's favour, let the Spirit of God lead you and also shine your eyes when choosing.
Don't bank on your virginity, gone are the days when it was a yardstick.
I have never even believed it has ever been a yardstick except for culture and tradition that held it in high esteem then.

Keep yourself because you love God and want to keep his commands, keep yourself because being sexually pure is the right thing to do, keep yourself because you understand that your body is the temple of the Lord, keep yourself because you want to keep the marriage bed undefiled, keep yourself because you love and respect yourself.

That is the only way not to blame God when that man starts to cheat or misbehave to you despite 'you keeping yourself for him'. It is the only way not to feel disappointed or let down when the unexpected happens in your marital relationship.

You are not keeping yourself for your husband or any man, you are keeping yourself for God and for your conscience.

Virginity does not guarantee a happy marriage.

It is not a bait to hold a man down, it has since stopped being a tool for blackmail or an excuse to misbehave in a relationship.

Am I discouraging you from keeping your virginity?
No, pls do keep it,
but for the right reasons.

©Modupe

Wifey,

Don't be the reason why your husband will go and engage in money rituals, don't let it be because of you that he will loose his financial integrity at work, don't push him to jail, pls don't make him a criminal.
Many wives today are really frustrating their husbands by placing higher financial demands on the them.
As long as he is not lazy and idle, support and encourage him, stop tasking him as if he has entered a ritual den by marrying you.
Stop telling him he is not man enough simply because he can't yet meet your outrageous demands, don't tell him his mates are buying jeeps for their wives and he can't afford one for you.

One thing I know is this, every responsible man wants to please their wives, it is their joy to make their woman the envy of all, if he is not meeting up, it bothers him, he may not say it out but deep down, that's his wish, that alone is enough burden.
Making the home hotter than hell for them will simply push some into taking irrational steps and you might not be spared from partaking in the eventual negative outcome.
Pray for your man, encourage and motivate him always, nagging him on financial grounds is a sin against God.
Be like the virtuous woman in Prov 31.
Be considerate.

** ** ** ** ** ** **
Hubby,

Don't ever allow your wife to push you into doing what is wrong. Your life, name, integrity and relationship with God should be jealously guarded.
As long as you are working hard and not idle, God will surely crown your little efforts and bring greatness out of it.
If you allow yourself to be pushed into doing wrong, God will not listen to your excuse(s).
Adam was not exempted from God's punishment even when he reported Eve as the cause of his fall.
God who placed you as the head expects a level of sense and wisdom from you.

May the Lord bless every man reading this with the resources you need to properly take care of your wife.
May you wives not be the reason why your husbands will miss it.
Amen.

©Modupe™.

WHAT IS MUSIC?
The dictionary defines music a
vocal or instrumental sound (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

We can also say that music is a collection of coordinated sound or sounds.

WHAT EXACTLY IS SECULAR MUSIC?

Simply put, secular music is any music not written for the church. Any non-religious music is a secular music.

WHAT THEN IS CHRISTIAN MUSIC ?

Christian music is any music written to express personal or a unified belief regarding Christian life and faith.

Christian music is basically what we can call church music. It could be in form of praise, worship, encouragement, admonition, salvation or even lamentation.

Now to the big question ;

SHOULD CHRISTIANS LISTEN TO SECULAR MUSIC?

In determining whether or not to listen to secular music, there are three primary factors we need to put into consideration :

1) The purpose of music,

2) The style of music, and

3) The content of the lyrics.

Talking about

1. THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC - Let's answer these questions :

Is music designed solely for worship, or did God also intend music to be soothing and/or entertaining?

The most famous musician in the Bible, King David, primarily used music for the purpose of worshipping God (see Psalm 4:1; 6:1, 54:1, 55:1; 61:1; 67:1; 76:1).

However, when King Saul was tormented by evil spirits, he would call on David to play the harp in order to soothe him (1 Samuel 16:14-23).

The Israelites also used musical instruments to warn of danger (Nehemiah 4:20) and to surprise their enemies (Judges 7:16-22).

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul instructs Christians to encourage one another with music:

“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19).

Do you know that the happy birthday song is a secular song and so is the ABC song. But are these songs evil?

Of course No.

So, while the primary purpose of music is to worship God, the Bible did not condemn its usage in some other areas aside worship.

2) THE STYLE OF MUSIC - The style of music varies among Christians based on beliefs and doctrines.

There are Christians who adamantly demand that no musical instruments be used.

There are Christians who only desire to sing the “old faithful and spiritual ” hymns.

There are Christians who want more upbeat and contemporary music.

There are Christians who claim to worship best in a “rock concert” type of environment.

Instead of recognizing these differences as personal preferences and cultural distinctions, some Christians declare their preferred style of music to be the only “biblical” one and declare all other forms of music to be unwholesome, ungodly, or even satanic.��

The Bible nowhere condemns any particular style of music. The Bible did not in any place pronounce any particular musical instrument to be ungodly.

The Bible mentions numerous kinds of string instruments and wind instruments.

While the Bible does not specifically mention drums, it does mention other percussion instruments (Psalm 68:25; Ezra 3:10).

Nearly all of the forms of modern music are variations and/or combinations of the same types of musical instruments, played at different speeds or with increased emphasis.

There is no biblical basis to call any particular style of music to be ungodly or outside of God’s will.

Talking about the third one which is -

3. THE CONTENT OF THE LYRICS -

This is the greatest and most important factor of the three.

Since non of the prementioned factors (the purpose and style of music) determine whether a Christian should listen to secular music, the content of the lyrics must be deliberately, carefully and consciously considered.

Though not specifically speaking of music, Philippians 4:8 is an excellent guide for musical lyrics:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”.

If we should be thinking about such things, surely those are the things we should invite into our minds through music and lyrics.

Can the lyrics in a secular song be true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy?

If so, then there is nothing wrong with a Christian listening to a secular song of that nature.

Oh yeah.

But then, it is sad to know that bulk of the secular music around does not meet the standard of Philippians 4:8.

Most of the Nigerian secular music often promotes immorality, desperation for money, violence and sin as a whole, while belittling purity, integrity and upright living.

If a song glorifies what opposes God, a Christian should not listen to it.

However, there are many secular songs with no mention of God that still uphold godly values such as honesty, purity, and integrity.

Some songs corrects the ills of the society, teaches us about life, love, proper behavior to mankind etc. Listening to such songs is not a sin.

If a love song promotes the sanctity of marriage and/or the purity of true love—even if it does not mention God or the Bible—it can still be listened to and enjoyed.

A good example is the song ‘Iyawo mi’ by Timi Dakolo, ‘Ade ori mi’ by Fola Moses, ‘Olo mi’ by Tosin Martins- and a host of other beautiful love songs.

I know many might oppose me on this but before you do, ask yourself this intently, is God glorified when couples are happily in love?

Does a love song bond couples or does it break them?

You can take it up from there.

Whatever a person allows to occupy his mind will definitely determine his speech and his actions.

This is the premise behind Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:2, 5: establishing wholesome thought patterns.

Second Corinthians 10:5 says we should Cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

These Scriptures give a clear picture of the kind of music we should not listen to.

Obviously, the best kind of music is that which praises and glorifies God.

We have seen many Christian musicians work in nearly every musical genre, ranging from classical to rock, rap, and reggae. There is nothing inherently wrong with any particular style of music. It is the lyrics that determine whether a song is “acceptable” for a Christian to listen to.

If anything leads you to think about or get involved in something that does not glorify God, it should be avoided.

I believe that by now we know the answer to the question of whether Christians can listen to secular music or not.

Check out www.modupe.org for more reads.

Do you have contributions or additional thoughts to share, feel free to share in the comment section.

Something funny happened to me last month , promise me you won't laugh at me, or at least, you would laugh just a little. �.

So I went out for soul winning together with some kingdom friends one Saturday and as usual, I got the name and contact of this brother and promised to remind him of our church service via call on Sunday.



Sunday came, I didn't want to call him very early, who knows, it might upset him and that will be the end.

Soul that I'm seriously anticipating to see in church.

Around 7:20am, on my way to church, I dialed his number, twice I called, he didn't pick up.

Perhaps he had a busy Saturday and he is still in bed resting, I thought to myself so I decided to send him a text.



I was running and typing, as I was almost late for workers’ meeting and I might not be able to send the text again once service starts.



“Good morning Mr Omotayo,..........God bless you as you attend our service’’. I clicked the send button.


All through the service, my neck was turnioniown, looking out for my new convert. I didn't see anyone like him when the first timers were welcomed.

‘Maybe he is attending the second service’, I thought again.

I wasn't really happy for real.


After the service, I tried calling him again, he still didn't pick my call.

I decided to check the delivery details of the text I sent to be sure he got it.

Lo and behold, what I saw in my sent messages folder was “Good morning Mr Potato”. My goodness, auto correct has changed Mr Omotayo to Mr Potato.


Soul that I have been praying for since Saturday, I even spoke in tongues asking the Holy Spirit to order his steps to church, and auto correct just messed up my runz like that.


I tried to imagine how the brother would feel when saw the message, maybe he had even dressed up to come before the message got to him.

I am still in pains really.

Who else has suffered terribly in the hands of auto correct. ��


That's just one of the many challenges we encounter in soul winning.


A lot of people really desire to be a soul winner, they want to do what will make heaven rejoice but don't know how to really go about it. Whenever they see young people like them share the good news with confidence in public places, on transit or during a one on one evangelism, they are thrilled and secretly, they wish they could do so too.


If you are one of them, then read along because after reading what I am about to share, you will no longer be afraid to talk about Jesus anywhere you find yourself.

I am about to share all you need to know about evangelism and soul winning.

It is God's will for us to win souls, as a matter of fact, it is His greatest delight. Jesus, commanded the disciples to go into the world and make disciples out of men.

He wants us to reach out to the unsaved. There is great jubilation in heaven when a soul is brought into the kingdom of God.
Majority are still wallowing in darkness and until you and I decide to take up this divine assignment, they may not know what we enjoy as children of light.


Your Christianity is not complete until you become a soul winner.


Every Christian must learn the art of telling others about Jesus, boldly, and confidently too.

In this post, I listed eight practical steps to a productive soul winning exercise.


1.You have to be compassionate.

To go after souls, you need to have a good level of compassion for them. The desire to see others saved must be burning in you. Without this, you will become discouraged in no time.



2. Be very prepared.

You've got to prepare yourself physically and spiritually.

Study the scriptures, have the word in you so you won't be thrown off guard should you be asked any Bible related question.

Prepare spiritually in prayers, commit the souls you will meet unto God. Ours is to speak, it is God that draws men to Himself.

Pray fervently, pray in the Holy Ghost, ask for boldness and courage and bind the spirit of fear and shyness.



3. Map out an approach that you think will work best for you.

There is no official format or template for soul winning, but every new. conversation should be properly initiated. You may decide to start by introducing yourself- which is often time a very good way to start, you may choose to talk about an interesting or trending topic before you strike the main deal, depending on how much time you have, you can start with a personal testimony of your own salvation experience, another person might just want to go straight to the point.

It all depends on the mood and countenance of the person you are witnessing to. But in all, share the news with joy and enthusiasm and ensure you make the person relaxed and comfortable around you.


4. Look Good.

Your outlook is going to go a long way in determining whether people will give you audience or not.

Remember you are marketing Jesus, so look good, dress nicely, wear clean clothes, brush your teeth- nobody wants to stay around mouth odour.

You can even use a cologne or body spray but in all wear a smile, it is the greatest apparel you should wear.

The gospel of Jesus is good news not a message of doom.

Wearing a stern look may scare a potential convert away.


5. Be polite in your approach.

Everyone loves to be respected. Choose your words wisely and carefully. Don't go and say words that are judgemental. You are not sent to condemn people, you are to introduce Jesus to them.


Imagine these two statements;

“Sister, look at the way you are dressed, if you don't repent you are going straight to hell and you will burn forever there”


“Wonderful Sister, how do you do ma. Jesus loves you dearly, He wants to be your friend, He knows all your struggles and he’s willing to make you better than the best if you would give him a chance in your life”


Now if you are the sister, how would you react to both statements? Wisdom is always profitable to direct.

And this is not about sugarcoating the scriptures, not everyone should be like Apostle John in the Bible.

The world is hell already, people are going through stuff, they need a message of love.

A harsh message will only chase them farther away.

Let them come to Jesus in their naked apparels, the WORD will shape and remould them.


6.Be Bold and Confident

You need that a lot and that is the essence of praying.

Prayer empowers us through the Holy Spirit to do things we cannot do naturally.

Many Christians desire to also share the gospel in buses, public places, amongst their friends and colleagues but they lack the boldness and confidence to start speaking each time they have the urge in their spirit.

I have experienced that too severally, where I'll be led to sing worship, pray or share the word on transit but fear and a lot of ‘what ifs’ won't let me speak.



Many times you think in your heart, ‘what if they start laughing at me, what will I even say, which scripture will I use, what if I get embarrassed’ and silently, you kill the voice of the spirit leading you to speak.

You have to learn how to constantly ask the Holy Spirit for boldness. He is ever ready to endue you with it.


When next you have the leading to share the gospel anywhere, just say a silent prayer and start out in faith. The one who wants you to speak to his people will always give you utterance.

Once you open your mouth to speak, He'll always fill it with words. You'll be amazed at how incredible you will perform.

Be bold to talk about your heavenly father.


7. Ensure you lead your new converts to take the confession prayer.

It is very important not to miss this part. After you have spoken to your new convert about Jesus, lead him/her to say the prayer of faith and confess Jesus as their Lord and saviour.

They need to boldly declare their new stand in Christ.

Also pray for them and with them, it goes a long way in encouraging them. Many people really desire someone to pray for and with them.


8. Get their contact information if they are willing to give.

You can politely request for their phone number. This will enable you to properly follow up on them and pray with them from time to time.

You can also give the contact to the evangelism and follow up department of your church.

Never stop praying for your new converts, it doesn't end at winning their souls.

After conversion, pray that they be established in the faith and that they grow and bear fruits like you.


I believe now, you can set out for a bountiful harvest of souls for the master.

Remember, He that wins souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30).

Kindly visit my website at www.modupe.org for more reads.