MOSES: A lesson in disobedience

Have you ever wondered if God was a bit too harsh for not allowing Moses to enter the Promise Land because of a little disobedience?

Lemme share a sermon I listened to some 13 years ago about the ten plagues of Egypt.

Plague 2
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand WITH THY ROD over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
And Aaron stretched out his HAND over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.  And the MAGICIANS did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 8:5‭-‬7 KJV

So Aaron stretched out only his hands (without his rod) and sure enough the frogs came. But what was the catch? The magicians were still able to do the same thing.

Plague 3
The plague of lice happened just as God said it would  because Moses & Co followed his instructions to the letter and here's the interesting part; the magicians tried to replicate the plague and failed woefully. Exodus 8:16-18

Plague 7
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine HAND toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
And Moses stretched forth his ROD toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exodus 9:22- 23 KJV

So instead of just sending just hail on the land of Egypt, God sent a mixture of hail/thunder/fire simply because Moses didn't follow instruction to the letter.

Same for the plague of locusts and the turning of Moses rod to a snake...

Till this day I carry the lesson I learnt from that sermon with me.
Partial obedience to God is no obedience at all.

A LETTER FROM GLORIA

On today's episode of "I bet you didn't know that!...."

"Studies show that one in four children have undiagnosed eye problems which can interfere with learning and lead to academic and/or behavioral problems"

Gloria is 8 years old, the only child to a single mom. She is a lively and brilliant girl but her school performance is poor.
She hardly pays attention in class and doesn't copy notes from the chalkboard. Her relationship with her classmates is strained at best as she is usually the butt of their jokes.
 "Olodo rabata!" they'd hail her, everytime she failed to answer the teacher's question in class.
 Her last report card reads; "Gloria is a lovely girl but she is very lazy. She can do better."

I am Gloria.
Right from when I was born my parents noticed there was something wrong with my eyes. I went to the optometrist so many times I lost count, there was no test I didn't do, practically changed lenses every six months because the doctors kept getting it wrong.
My folks, bless their hearts, were determined to get my vision corrected.

"Visual  difficulties  affect  children’s  ability  to  learn (three  times  more  likely  to  fail  at  least  one  grade), resulting in academic  under-achievement  and  risk of reduced  adult  literacy.  This  has  a  significant  impact  on professional and social fulfillment."

I was one of the lucky few.
I didn't let the fact that I couldn't see the chalkboard properly deter me from copying my notes and making excellent grades. I was a nuisance to my seatmates cos I was always leaning over their shoulders to copy their notes, my nose almost making contact with their books.
I always made sure my seat was as close to the board as possible. In Class 5 I practically begged my teacher with tears to let me put my seat in front of the class.
One time in high school at the beginning of a new term, I cried my eyes out when I discovered my seat had been moved to the back. It was a major melt down, my class mates were positively stunned.
Before you laugh at me, I went to a federal school and seating positions were survival of the fittest. I'd never forget it was Chiamaka Chukwuemeka    who calmed me down and somehow I got my front spot back.

"Good eyesight (the ability to read  at a certain  distance which is  tested  in  some  countries)  is  not  the  same  as good  vision."

It was a bit difficult explaining to people my eye problem. It usually involved a lot of words like "myopia", "strabismus", "nystagmus".
When I was younger my parents thought I hated wearing glasses because it didn't look "cool" but in actual fact, all they did was give me a headache.
The question "Why are you not wearing your glasses?" still annoys me to no end.

"  Vision  problems  cause  developmental  difficulties and  have  been  linked  to  anti-social /delinquent  behavior.  In  the  USA,  up  to  70%  of  juvenile  offenders  have undiagnosed vision problems."

I had a lot of coping mechanisms.
In the university, whenever I was walking with my girlfriends, if someone from afar waved at us, one of them would lean closely and whisper the name of the person who was waving so that way my face would register recognition and I could wave back without looking foolish. I really do have amazing friends.

"$269  billion of  productivity  is  lost worldwide due  to uncorrected vision."
I finally learned how to drive this year but I still harbor this fear that my eyesight could get me into a lot of trouble behind the wheel.

"Vision  problems  can  reduce  employees’  performance  by  as  much  as  20%4  and  considerably  affect employment  opportunities, job satisfaction  and  job security."

Dear teacher,
I am not lazy. I really just have a hard time reading the blackboard and it gives me a constant headache. I also feel bad why my class mates call me names.
I could use reading glasses and a little positive reinforcement. Thank you.
                          - Gloria

FACEBOOK FOR DUMMIES: The Ultimate Guide

Hello!
How's your weekend going?
OK so now that you're here, let's talk a little bit about how Facebook works, shall we?
*hits snooze button*

So it has come to my attention that some of you feel like your updates/pictures are not getting the number of Likes/Comments they deserve. You probably feel that your virtual friends/followers ignore your posts so once in a while you come online to threaten to "decongest" your friends list by removing your "ghost" friends/followers.
Your concerns are valid but....

Lemme digress a bit and introduce you to the concept of a Facebook gang. You're probably in one and you ain't even know yet.

A Facebook gang consists of those people whose posts you like all the time. Infact you're so used to liking their posts that these days you just like by default even without reading or seeing it. That is why you can see a video with 3 views and 20 likes in less than 5minutes.

Facebook gang members can always be seen hobnobbing in the comments section of a fellow gang member.

Even Mark Zuckerberg knows you're part of a gang, that's why if you check the "Favorites" section on your profile, you'd see all your gang members listed there. They are the people you interact with the most on this platform.

Pro tip: If you want somebody to like/comment on your posts, you have to like/comment on their own posts first. I don't know how it happens but people always feel obliged to return the favor.

Now back to the original issue. Imagine if the posts of your 1000+ friends appeared on your newsfeed all at once, you'd have a dizzying headache na.
So Facebook has streamlined it in such a way that you only get to see the posts of people that matter. In the sense that the more you interact with a person(either by chatting them up on Msngr or liking their posts or even stalking, sorry I mean following them)
the more you're likely to see their posts on your newsfeed.
Kind of how the real world works.
 
Una good evening.