What To Do When All Has Failed

You have done every thing in your power, you have tried all the recipes for success that have been handed down to you, you literally have left no stone unturned in your bid to better your life and yet it always leads to a dead end.

There is no noticeable progress being made, you seem stuck in one place, rooted without any tap root and you keep wondering why things are like this with you.

You have even contemplated ending it all but that little hope in you is still holding you back.

Is this the summary of your story? or you know someone who is passing through this phase of life?

Well, do not give in to despair

These are surely trying moments and they never last for ever.

But one piece of advise I want to give to you today is "when all things have failed, then it's time to seek the Unfailing Master - the Lord Jesus Christ"

If you bring Christ into your life, genuinely that is, you would be shocked at what you had missed all this while because He would bring meaning back into your life and you would never want to leave His side for a second.

Try it today

And I tell you, your story shall change

Have a wonderful time

#DrJTF

Your Brother and Friend

Hymn For Today - A&M 170

The spacious firmament on high

With all the blue ethereal sky

And spangled heavens a shinning frame

Their great Original proclaim

The unwearied sun from day to day

Does his Creator's Power display

And publishes to every land

The works of an Almighty Hand

Soon as the evening shades prevail

The moon takes up the wondrous tale

And nightly to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth

whilst all the stars around her burn

And all the planets in their turn

Confirm the tidings as they roll

And spread the truth from pole to pole

What though in solemn silence all

Move round the dark terrestrial ball

What though nor real voice nor sound

Amid their radiant orbs be found

In reason's ear they all rejoice

And utter forth a glorious voice

For ever singing as they shine

The Hand that made us is Divine

Church Hymnal 792

What Is Your Purpose In Life? - Part 2

Yesterday, I had introduced this topic and taken a good look at it and how we sometimes are unable to actually decide what our purpose in life is; I also did mention that the sole purpose of life here on earth is to LIVE it - to find that something that brings us joy and happiness and to do it.

From the interactions I had on the matter it is obvious that not all agree with me on that.

Some people feel that the only purpose in life is to find God's Will for us and to do it.

Whichever side of the divide you are on, I would like to conclude this matter today with some tips on how to find our purpose in life.

There are basically 7 questions to ask and provide answers to that would help anyone find their rhythm in life

1.     What do you suck at?

In life sometimes every thing sucks; this means thaat "nothing is pleasurable for a long time"

There are always sacrifices to be made, compromises to be reached in achieving any tangible objective.

Life is a struggle and to find your rhythm, you have to choose what struggle you can tolerate, what sacrifices you are willing to make. If for example you want to be a great Surgeon but can't stand the sight of blood, then definitely you can't make it to the Medical School in the first place. If your happiness lies in paintings but you can't stand people criticizing your works, surely you'ld need to look for another thing to do.

So, go choose your struggle.

2.     What are you passionate about?

What is it that gets your attention completely fixed at it that you forget to sleep or eat or even take your bath?

What is it that catches your fancy so much that that you are willing to forgo all other things just to pursue that?

Do you know that Isaac Newton while he was young, would go for days without sleeping because he was tweaking and thinkering with his experiments and theories, to the point that even his mother go tired of having to constantly "wake him up to reality" - that of eating his food to stay alive!!! and when Newton was done, he became one of the greatest Physicists that ever lived.

So what is your passion? What do you obsess over and about?

Finding your passion is like a full - contact sport, you just have to be in touch with it because if you've not done it, there's no way you can tell if you like it or not.

3.     Release the little child in you!!

No matter how much any adult wants to deny it, but the fact is that there is a little boy in every grown adult man and there is a little girl in every grown adult woman.

These little children cry every day in our heads and minds asking to be released - they still want to play naked in the rain, they still want to build castles with sand, they still want to play hide and seek e.t.c. - all those games that little children of ages past used to play.

And it is of a good note that most successful people have really learnt to integrate the yearnings of the little children in them to their adult actions and activities - they are never too old or too big to relate to the little children in them.

So, are you still stultifying the cry of the little child in you - flow with it and see......

4.     Choose your moments of embarrassment!

If you are not willing to be embarrassed while trying to do something important, something that gives you a sense of fulfillment, something that brings you joy and happiness, makes your face very radiant even in a dark room, something that makes your lips to part in a raucous laughter that reverberates all around, then you would never arrive there.

If you allow your life to be ruled by "What will people say?", if you allow the thoughts of what other people will think or say about your action or what you are doing, then you have a long way to go.

This is because the basic fact is - no one actually cares what you do - people are more comfortable with you if you are at the same level with them - failure - than if you are heading above them and making a success of yourself.

And the truth of the matter really is that it doesn't really matter what you do, people will always talk. If you do they talk and if you don't do, they even talk more. So what the heck!!! go do that which you have been fantasizing over in your head for a long while and been putting off because you don't know how people will react to it - it's only in the doing that you would guage the people's reaction and by the way this is your LIFE.

5.     Set your standards

We are all born into a society that tends to make us conformists and tend to ostracize us when we show some independency of thought and action, when we take a step across and over the social boundary built by the society.

While it is good to have social norms and dictates to guide our social interactions but it is not just proper and fair for the society to decide for me who I should be or what I should do with my life.

So if you are like me, draw up your own set of standards and break them!! draw up your own rules and break them (rules are meant to be broken any way otherwise how would Governments make extra money without the fines) - take a leap to the 9th Heaven, Geniuses are not earth-held, be a Genius; allow yourself to fly far above everyone else

6.     Always follow your heart

In discovering your purpose in life, - flow with your heart.

Be where your heart is, anyother thing aside this is a pretence and a fake and it is also a lie and the worst sin of man is "living a lie".

In your heart lives the "still Small Voice" of God and it is there to guide you aright.

If you ever listen to your heart at every occasion, you would notice that the loud voice always eggs you on - sometimes to destruction but the still small voice comforts and admonishes.

Where a man's heart is, that is where his treasures are. No man grows at a job he does not have the calling for, where his heart is not; it is very frustrating, but if a man works his passion, it is no longer a job.

Follow your heart always, it is the first deep thought on any issue and most times it is never wrong.

So get involved in what you think you are passionate about and know if truly your heart is in it.

7.     How would you like to be remembered?

Have you ever had a discussion with yourself about your death?

If you have not, I suggest that you do!! because when you do that, you'ld find out that because you don't know when, how and where it will take place, you cannot but maximize the time you have left.

Death comes to the newborn, infact even to the yet to be born; to the child; to the adolescent; to the young adult; to the middle aged; to the old and elderly - it is not a respecter of age or status or personality and am sure you know that the worst thing about death is that NOBODY KNOWS WHEN S/HE WILL DIE but as for dying, that is obvious.

So how would you like to be remembered when you are dead and gone with eyes that can no longer see and ears that can no longer hear?

Would you like to be remembered as the one who had a life but did not know how to live it? as one who died at 30 but was eventually buried at 70?

Would you like to be remembered as the brilliant chap who had load of ideas, but none of which came to the lime light and he died with his dreams?

Or would you like to be remembered as Napoleon Bonaparte who declared "I came, I saw, I conquered"

The choice is obviously yours

Ask yourself this question- "What would I do if I knew that I had one year left to live?"

Answer it and just go to work doing that which will set you apart and above your peers, your competitors and every other person in your circle.

Take the time to re-evaluate your priorities

Let me end this treatise with these quotes from Mark Manson

" When people feel like they have no sense of  direction and purpose in their lives, it's because they don't know what's important to them.

They don't know what their values are and when you don't know what your values are, you are bound to take on other people's values and living other people's priorities instead of your own

Discovering one's purpose in life essentially boils down to finiding those one or two things that are bigger than yourself, bigger than those around you.

And to find them, you must get out of your comfort zone and act"

Be yourself - start TODAY!!!

That's it my friends

Thank you for reading and do let me know your thoughts about this topic.

Have a swell day

Thank God It's Friday

#TGIF

#DrJTF

Your Brother and Friend

What Is Your Purpose In Life? - Part 1

This is one question that has continued to plague mankind from one generation to another.

It is one of life's greatest mysterious questions.

And I am certainly convinced that there would be as many answers to this question as there are persons willing to put up an answer.

However, I don't intend to take us into the world of metaphysics or into esoterism or into cosmic significance, I want to do a simple discussion here that can be understood by many and which would help them to engage with the discussion.

When this kind of question is asked, the answer one gets most often is that "God put us into this world for specific purpose and it is our duty to find out the purpose .."

This means that quite a lot of people are forever finding the purpose for their lives that they end up not living at all and as such would have to be on the defence before the Judgement Throne.

And this is because most persons cannot wrap their heads around the questions that have to deal with the purpose of life - such questions as "What on earth am I here for?", "What is my mission on earth?", "Why was I born?" and so many other such "purpose of life" questions.

and to make people be able to wrap their heads around this topic, I prefer that the question be rephrased in this way - "What important thing on earth can I do with my time that would make it relevant?"

When we think of our purpose in life being the thing/s that we can do to make living more relevant to us and those around us, it would be easier to comprehend than the omnibus "purpose of life" issue.

If we didn't know or knew but have forgotten, then we need to remind ourselves that we are on earth in this world for a very limited yet undetermined period of time and that no one knows exactly when and how he or she would be called back to eternity and therefore whatever time we have here is to be treated as very precious and should used to do those things that give us joy and bring us happiness. That to me is the purpose of every life - to LIVE

Every adult that passed through childhood and adolescence clearly knows that making a decision to be anything in life is not as easy as it sounds.

Not many students have a clue of what they want to be after school - some are just passing through the motions and waiting for the SSCE result to decide for them what they would be.

Many Civil Servants have no clue where they are headed - some are just counting the years to retirement without investments, without other sources of income, without improving themselves skill wise and career wise.

A lot of educated people are illiterates in life matters; many persons who went to the University cannot even defend their certificates because they sorted them out and thus have no skills to survive other than blue collar jobs!

The truth is that a lot of us waste our man hours doing things that are not helping our course and thus not allowing us to live this life that we have which is the primary purpose of God in bringing us here in the first place.

That's it for today

Tomorrow we shall continue with this discussion in the Part 2, hope to see you then.

But for today, let me know what you think of this topic

Thanks for reading and do have a very wonderful day

#DrJTF

Your Brother and Friend

How To Stop Self Sabotage

How To Stop Self Sabotage

Why Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

Why Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

How To Stop Self Sabotage

Yesterday I had taken a look at how we sabotage ourselves Why Sabotage Yourself and mentioned a number of ways by which we do that and I had promised that today, I shall discuss how we can overcome self sabotage.

Remember we had said that self sabotage is like one being in one’s own way i.e. stopping oneself from becoming what one has chosen to be due to certain deficiencies and indecisiveness.

It’s not really that anyone would consciously want to sabotage themselves, it’s a result of past experiences and hurts which have been stored in our unconscious minds and which we use as defence of our inability to help ourselves.

And so the following are ways by which we can overcome self sabotage

1.    Self Analysis

If you find yourself doing something which deep down inside of you, you know that you shouldn’t be doing it, then it’s time to do a critical analysis of yourself.

Ask yourself this question “Who am I?” and proceed to find an answer to it

And one of the tools that have been developed for analysis which can also be applied to the self is the SWOT analysis tool

S – trength

W –eakness

O – pportunities

T – hreats

Take a good look at yourself and tell yourself the basic truth – remember that self deceit is akin to throwing yourself in front of a moving train and expect to be alive afterwards.

In bringing us into this world, God (or Whoever you regard Him to be) has given each one of us a strong command – “Go ye and achieve” it is left for you to heed this command and actually make Him proud of you.

He has deposited in you a gift, no other person has and it is left for you to search out that gift and to run with it.

A self analysis using the SWOT tool would help you to discover your areas of strength to strengthen them and your areas of weaknesses that need to be dropped.

2.    Avoid certain tendencies

There are certain characteristic tendency that help us to ‘hurt’ ourselves.

The chief amongst them is

Procrastination

This is the art and act of shifting poles – putting off for tomorrow what can be done today

Oh my gosh, if only you know how many people have gone to their graves with their hopes and aspirations buried, you would not ever want to procrastinate again.

Procrastination is not only a time eater, and the apology of lazy minds but it is a destiny destroyer

You made a resolution on the 1^st of January that you would never touch alcohol again, and for that day, you kept to your words and then by the evening of 2^nd of January, you landed where there was so much free booze and you could not hold back, your friend asked you if you are breaking your new year resolution and you answer him “old boy, only this once na” but it doesn’t stop at that, you continue subsequently. That is procrastination.

The best way to kill procrastination is to DO IT NOW.

I used to be a great procrastinator, yes me. In those days, I would have done a mental calculation of what I was going to gain from doing that thing that needed to be done, or having that conversation (infact I would have rehearsed all I was going to say right in my head) but to get it done or get it said was a herculean task, and then one day, I was in dire need and had to get help from someone I had had mental discussions with in my head over and over again, but because I was in a fix, I decided to go have that discussion and I told myself that there would only be two outcomes –either a yes or a no and whichever comes, at least I would have tried. Can you believe that the mission was even simpler than I imagined it, the person was too “happy” that I found him worthy to ask for a favour from him? I was lost for words, so if I had not gone discussing, there’s no way I would have known the impact.

From thenceforth, I decided to act it out immediately I conceive it. I am an Apostle of Do It Now mantra (I am an Apostle of many movements o  o  lol)

I realise that there can be no better time to do that thing but NOW.

So what is that thought, that inaction that has kept you down to the point of ‘hurting’ yourself, this is the best time to tackle it and tell it to go to ‘hell’ – literally speaking

3.    Consider Others

The Good Book says “Love your neighbour as you love yourself”

It also goes on to say that love is the fulfilment of the laws and the prophets because if you love your neighbour, you would not want to covet his property, you would not bear false witness against him, you would not steal what belongs to him, and your neighbour is not just the one that lives in the next house, it includes the one who lives in the same house with you. That person is your closest and nearest neighbour even though s/he could be your significant other.

When you indulge in self hurting actions, you are also directly hurting the neighbour in the house and that puts them in state of discomfiture.

So spare a thought for the neighbour

4.    Live Your Life

This life was given to you by God to live and enjoy.

Some religions teach that there would be a life after this but all these are based on faith and hope. And how that would be, no one alive can say no matter what revelations there may be. It’s only when we get there that we shall know. And until then this life we have now is what we have.

So right now, the only life that you are conscious of is this one right before you.

So why not live it?

Take that trip that would take you to no where except to explore life?

Someone in Nigeria just concluded a trek from lagos to Abuja a distance of about 1000 kilometers – that man has set a pace, very soon I would not be surprised to hear that people can now trek from Maiduguri to Lagos or from Pankshin to Owerri.

So instead of sitting somewhere and not doing anything reasonable, why not embark on a journey just to explore???

Instead of going to an office and moving files from table to table and then doing office gossip when there are no files to move around, why not embark on an internet business and start making extra bucks?

Instead of hanging out to get drunk, why not pick on certain younger ones in the Community and mentor them – teach them the virtues of hardwork and honesty?

So many people have died with their fantasies unfulfilled, do you want to be counted as one of those?

What is that fantasy of yours? Go ahead and live it, you have only this life, the next one, would never be the same as this.

Remember the story of Cinderella?

If she had not gone to that party when she had the opportunity, if she had allowed her mentality to check mate her (the hated maid), would her story have changed?

Change your story today, aim for the skies, even if you don’t reach there, you sure would be blessed with star dusts and you would be proud to show them off to the doubting Thomas’s in your life

5.    Mindset Makeover

All that I have written above would be of no consequence if you still operate from the mindset of your unconscious mind – the mind that gives you reasons, alibis, excuses for failure.

Switch over to the mindset that accepts no excuses, no reasons. The mindset that refuses to accept No for an answer.

It’s you and it is in you. Nobody else can do it for you

6.    Remember that there is God

Most religions still believe that at the end of this life, there would be judgement.

If you believe that, then you also ought to believe that God shall ask you to account for all the talents and gifts He had deposited in you and what you did with them.

Think about it

Well, that’s it for today

Thank you for reading

And don’t forget to let me know what your thoughts are about the topic

Have a great day

Dr.JTF

Your Brother and Friend

Why Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

 Hello my friend

I just thought of you this morning and that is why I have decided to ask you this question - Why are you sabotaging yourself?

I know you might seem surprised at my question but am sure that by the time you are through with reading my article here, you would agree with me that unless you change the present dance step, no new dance teacher would appear.

So let's look at how you have been sabotaging yourself:

But first let's define sabotage: The Merian's Webster Dictionary defines sabotage as "the act of destroying or damaging something DELIBERATELY (capitals mine) so that it does not work correctly"   Sabotage Definition

Another writer says that "Self sabotage is when we say we want something and then go about making sure it doesn't happen" - Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby

There you have it. Sabotage is a deliberate act to make things not to happen or not to work correctly. So when we are standing in our own way of progress in whatever field, that is self sabotage.

These are the ways by which you have been sabotaging yourself:

1.     Laziness of the mind:

Do you know that right from the time of your birth, your unconscious mind had been at work collecting and storing all your experiences and that these collected works of the unconscious mind are what determine how far we can venture?

Most of us are religious and have memorized to our own spiritual and psychological underdevelpment articles that tend to tie us down and make us downright lazy, making it difficult for us to exercise our creative thinking from which all inventions flow.

Instead of exercising our minds to take control of our situations, we prefer to believe myths over realities.

Some even quote the scriptures out of context. "Say to the righteous it is well with his soul" is one quote from the Scriptures that people have abused in practicing the art of lazy mindedness. But this is a topic for another day's discussion.

2.     Too much hussling

Running around in a circle, too much motion but no actual MOVEMENT - no progress.

Have you taken a look at how "busy" you are? How you don't find time to do the necessary things to do but only finds time to be a Facebook Tiger? attacking and insulting all who come your way because they do not buy into your view point? And yet you have no visible means of livelihood neither has facebook employed you!!!!

Do you realize how much time you waste in gossiping? sitting out with people you can't learn any good thing from except for those roguish ways of doing things?

Every time you are very busy and yet you have to depend on another to subscribe to your BB!!!!

3.     Setting Unattainable Goals

At the beginning of every new year, we make resolutions of things to do and things to stop doing, that is akin to goals setting.

Of course there is nothing wrong in setting goals after all it is said that he who must succeed must be a goal setter as nothing in this world happens by accident or luck (luck is when preparation meets opportunity).

Be a big dreamer, set big goals but in setting big goals it has to be spread over time. Do you know that we sabotage ourselves when we set goals that are unattainable?

When a man who is earning N20, 000.00 per month sets a goal of buying a Lamborghini in one year!!!!! How can he achieve that goal from his income?

4.     Not Self Disciplined

When we say what we want to do, it takes self discipline to get it done but when we fail to apply self discipline, that thing cannot be done and that is a matter of self sabotage.

Self discipline includes time management - if only we know that time is the most essential resource we have in this world and that once it is spent it can never be recouped then we would have a second look at meaningless activities we undertake that kill our time unceasingly.

5.     Being in love with "old wives tales"

How often have you abandoned the real thing to do under a situation because your mother said so so so or your father said so so so?

You have pain in the abdomen which is very excruciatingly painful and instead of finding the nearest Health Facility and consulting a Medical Doctor, you prefer to follow your mother's advise that such pain can be taken care of by drinking boiled oil mixed with salt? Only to go looking for the Medical Doctor when things have gone out of hand and expect him to perform a miracle!!!

6.     Playing God

It really amuses me and sometimes even irritates me when men play God.

When we leave the terrain of the mortal and take on the garb of immortality!!!!!

We leave our own business that we have control over and then want to control the weather, discuss on how God does what He does when we do not even know Him?

These are all ways by which you sabotage yourself

So, do you think you have been sabotaging yourself?

Are there things that you are supposed to do to make your life better but you have refused to do them and waiting for Government or another to do it/them for you?

Have you taken a responsibility that is not yours when you have been quite unable to manage your own responsibilities?

Are you wasting those man hours in endless unprofitable and meaningless social media chats?

Then you need to do a re-think.

Tomorrow we shall discuss how to overcome self sabotage

That will be it for today

I wish you a very good day

Remember to drop a comment on your take on this topic

Be blessed

Dr.JTF

Your Brother and Friend

Are You Grateful?

Each morning I wake up from sleep, I stretch a little on the bed and do all the manouverings that people do when they wake up and then I look up and I say "Thank You Jesus"

I do that regularly, it has become a part of me.

The morning that I will not say Thank You Jesus is yet to come and as each morning continues to see me wide awake, so shall I continue to say it.

And why do I always say that as the first thing in the morning?

Over the years I have come to learn that thanking God first thing in the morning surely does set the pace for the day and gives it a better tone.

I say it because it surely signifies my gratitude to Him Who has power over my life and Who in His infinite mercy has allowed me to see another morning and not just seeing the morning but being in good health and having all those that I love and who love me around me - my family.

For the many years I consulted as a Medical Doctor, I had to deal with people who were in pains, who had terminal illness, who were on admission for various medical challenges; I had to deal with people who had fractures especially of the thigh and lower limb and had to have their legs hung on a rope - literally speaking. I had to deal with people who were full of life before entering the Theatre but who didn't come out alive. I had to deal with people dying right in my arms!!!!

So I learnt to thank God for the priviledge of being alive because I know that if He says it is over, then it is over and not one thing would anybody do about it.

Knowing that I am alive fills me with hope for better things to come - it's only the living that can hope, it's only the living that can buy and sell, it's only the living that can make money - the dead is gone and nothing consequential can be done by them again.

Every morning therefore fills me with renewed vigor to go out there and achieve. There are loads of things yet to be done and an expression of gratitude to God for what He has done, would surely make Him continue to look down with mercy and grace and do more.

So, how about you, are you ever grateful? or are you filled with resentment because you are not yet what you want to be? you don't yet have the quantum of  money that you want to have? you have not yet built the out- of- this- world mansion that you want to build? you are not yet able to show the world that you have finally arrived?

Share with me

And thank you for reading

Do keep in touch

#DrJTF

Your brother and friend

Don't Stop Dreaming

Dreams are a big part of our Lives

and You must do whatever it takes to make them a Reality

by the plans you make,

Don't dwell on past mistakes.

Leave yesterday behind,

along with all it's problems,

worries and doubts.

Realize you can't change the past,

but you can start a new tomorrow.

Don't try to do everything at once;

take one step at a time,

Don't ever be afraid to try the Impossible

no matter what others may think.

Remember you are Unique in your own special way.

Don't ever stop Dreaming!

Don't ever stop wanting what's right for you! 

Don't Stop Dreaming

How The Apostles Died

You would remember that when Jesus Christ started His Public Ministry at the age of 30, He chose men some of whom were far older than Him to be His disciples.

They were 12 in number and included James and John the Sons of Zebedee.

Except for 1 who betrayed Him (by name Judas Iscariot), all the disciples were with Him until the end of His Earthly sojourn.

When Judas saw that His Lord and Master was about to be killed for real, he committed suicide and was replaced by Matthias when the Disciples re-connected after the resurrection of Jesus.

It was the Power of the Holy Ghost as was given out to the Disciples on the day of Pentecost even as Christ had promised them, that gave them the unction to become Apostles.

Now, this is an account of how they died

1.     MATTHEW- Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, Killed by a sword wound.

2.     MARK- Died in Alexandria, Egypt , after being dragged by Horses through the streets until he was dead.

3.     LUKE- Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous Preaching to the lost.

4.     JOHN- Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge Basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome.
However, he was miraculously delivered From death.

John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison Island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos .

The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve As Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey .

He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully

5.     PETER- He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross.

According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

6.     JAMES- The leader of the church in Jerusalem , was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club.

This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the

Temptation.

7.     JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE- was a fisherman by trade when Jesus Called him to a lifetime of ministry.

As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at

Jerusalem.

The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial.

Later, the officer Walked beside James to the place of execution.

Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and Knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

8.     BARTHOLOMEW- Also known as Nathaniel was a missionary to Asia.

He witnessed for our Lord in present day Turkey.

Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.

9.     ANDREW- Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece.

After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony.

His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: 'I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.'

He continued to preach to his tormentors For two days until he

expired.

10.     THOMAS- Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the Sub-continent.

11.     JUDE- Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

12.     MATTHIAS- The Apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

13.     PAUL- (was not among the original 12 but became one by unction of God's grace.)

He was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.

Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire.

These letters, which taught many of the foundational Doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

Perhaps this is a reminder to us that our sufferings here are indeed minor compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty faced by the apostles and disciples during their times

For the sake of the Faith. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

May God give us the GRACE to run this RACE OF FAITH in

JESUS NAME. Amen.