YOU - this Christmas

  

Words like poverty, expense, indebtedness, poor, borrow etc are all negative words that have now come to be associated with Christmas. YOU spend above and beyond what YOU have to buy presents for loved ones and also inviting family and friends over for expensive meals. If YOU are a parent with more than one child the bills tend to mount. Manufacturers of certain products do their possible best to pile on the misery for YOU parents too. Some of these companies make high end products that are targeted towards your kids in the form of game consoles. These game consoles are not only targeted at your children but also towards YOU as well (me too). So YOU go out and splash anywhere between £350 -£450 

($571 -$735) on a PS4 or an Xbox one and this may only be for one of your kids in the house. By Dec 31st YOU are so broke to the point that you are 'eagerly' looking forward to the month's salary. Come next year January by months end, the month's salary is again still being 'gingerly' expected. Come February, YOU can't wait for pay day, you are still struggling and broke from the Christmas expenses…do you get my drift? 

What I am trying to say is this - we (sorry YOU) are likely to get into huge debts this Christmas (and future ones), so much so that it may require more than 2 months salaries to get back into credit. Some of YOU will be in a worse state because your gifts and presents will be bought on credit cards or spread out on monthly payment plans, so come next year December, you'll still be paying off this year's debts. The most worrying aspect of it all is that we tend to pass on this 'Christmas spending' mentality on to our kids. #Viciouscycle. Is this the true meaning of Christmas?

If YOU are a Christian, there is only one reason to celebrate Christmas - "the birth of Christ and what HE embodies". If you are not a Christian but YOU celebrate Christmas, same reason should apply to YOU too. If YOU are a parent, this message should be brought to bear on your kids. If YOU are not a parent, please advise the younger ones you come across. Jesus Christ embodies everything that is contrary to all the "ills" I have just explained above. I will not be getting into the pagan history behind Christmas or the theology about Jesus, but there are somethings  that I'll like to highlight about HIS life.

As Christmas is a celebration of Jesus, it behooves us to know that he was always concerned about the poor (so why are YOU getting yourself into debt?). HE cared so much about the less privileged, HE fed the poor/hungry, HE healed the sick, HE showed love etc. So the real celebration of "CHRIST- mas" should incorporate those qualities. After all for some of us this will be the only time in the year (only chance possibly) that we will be required to help a "less privileged" person. Doesn't it make sense for you to teach your kids these principles? And may be if they know this, (just may be) the world will be a better place (some day). I will be wrong in saying that we shouldn't buy gifts or presents for our loved ones because this will be in contrast to the festive mood that surrounded the birth of Christ in Bethlehem (among those who were expecting his birth at least); but to do this at your detriment is a denial for what Christ stood for.

So if YOU can, if possible, try looking for whom to bless this festive period. Are YOU able to visit someone in the hospital, a sick person, an elderly lonesome individual who will be spending this Christmas all alone, will YOU be making up with lost friends or family members, inviting someone into your house for a nice meal? 

These sayings are worth considering - "do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it" - Heb 13:2 (that's mind blowing). So our imaginations of what angels look like (white robed winged flying beings) may not necessarily be. They may look like you and me. This Christmas some may be appearing as poor folks to you, some may be in the form of that colleague you don't talk to at work, whilst some may make contact with you in different ways…you never know. Penultimately, Jesus said He will be telling some people on the last day " I was hungry and YOU gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and YOU did not take me in" and those people will answer back and say "when did we see you and didn't offer any help?" (along those lines).. And Jesus will in-turn answer back and say "in as much as you didn't help those folks, YOU did not do it to me" (paraphrasing). Guess what , if we saw Jesus today asking for our help, we'll rush to HIS aid because we know how he looks (we think) ; but the last dialogue between those folks and Jesus showed that Jesus wasn't recognizable to them. He will not appear or hasn't been appearing in his glorious form to YOU but in a more earthly form - resembling everyday folks. Lastly, YOU are constantly being tested - "... I TEST the mind…"- Jer 17:10, "... I humbled you…in order to TEST you" -Deut 8:2, "...for God has come to TEST you..." -Ex. 20:20, "... That I may TEST them to know whether they will walk in my law or not..." -Exodus 16:4.

3 things for YOU (yes YOU) to ponder upon; Angels may not be as YOU have assumed (not like the ones on your Christmas tree), so they may be in your midst right now. Jesus may have approached YOU on many occasions seeking for YOU to help HIM (but YOU didn't recognize HIM because he looked different). YOU are constantly being TESTED by God. Do good this "Christ-mas".

Twitter - @mexy7777

Blackberry Z10 is a good device! Read on!!

   

I have been using the Blackberry Z10 for a while now and it's been a wonderful surprise and a steep learning curve. When I first delved into the world of smart phones, I started off with a blackberry Storm 1 and after that I went for the Storm 2. I gave Blackberry another chance by going for the Blackberry 9860, another touch screen version. From that time till now, Blackberry has been losing its 'cool factor' and they were issues with the OS (operating system); the freezes, the constant battery pulls, it was endless. I decided my next phone wasn't going to be a BB. My next phone was either going to be the Windows Lumia 920 (a good phone by the way) or the Samsung Note 11; but then the Z10 was launched and the Crackberry in me was aroused.  I got the Z10 as soon as it was launched.

All I can say is that so far I have been pleasantly surprised and quietly pleased. It handles superbly, I haven't had a freeze in weeks and it feels cool again to just leave my phone on my office table. Everyone now wants to have a look. I have been using the black Z10 but I've now changed it to the white Z10. I must say the white one looks really cool. The z10 is not as you know it with former BB phones; it takes getting used to with its entirely new way of doing things.

 Specs-wise the Z10 packs a punch. I don't want to bore you with technicalities and jargons but be rest assured that it is more or less on par with the Iphone 5 and the Samsung galaxy3 or any other high end smart phones out there. It's got the best predictive keyboard in the market, it does not only predict your next word but it tries to predict your sentence ( more or less); other reviews  have confirmed this. The Z10 is very capable of multi- tasking unlike its predecessors that froze when tasked. You can have your own 'live tiles' on your home screen which Blackberry likes to call 'active frames' or tiles (just like Windows 8 phones). With the Z10 you can have a maximum of 8 apps in active mode running on the home screen as minimized apps (active frames).

You can decide to populate your home screen with a weather app (Accu Weather for me), a Clock, BMM, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in etc and they all stay live and active on the home screen. A quick glance at your home screen and a handful of information is acknowledged.

For those of you that use BBM and BBM Group chats, this has been revolutionized. I always have my BBM set up on my home screen as a tile. This live tile updates with submissions/chats on BBM Groups, personal BBM texts, what music your BBM contacts are listening to and Picture changes (whether in a group or BBM personal contact); whatever anyone does in that eco system is transmitted live on to your home screen.  You can also make calls over wifi or network to BBM contacts, unlike BB7 which was only over wifi.

Now who is this phone for? It's for someone who wants to try something different, be different, he who wants to be set apart from the rest of all the android and apple heads. It's for the workaholic - those who want to have a personal phone and work phone imbibed in one instead of carrying 2 phones. The Z10 has what is known as a 'Blackberry balance'.  This allows your phone to have 2 separate and unlinked profiles on the Z10. So with a swipe you can activate your phone for work profile, where work or office emails, BBM's, documents, data, apps etc all exist and with another swipe you will be taken back into your personal profile. These 2 profiles stay separate and information, data etc. can't be mistakenly transferred or copied into either profiles. The z10 is also for BB heads that have stayed loyal and true to the game.

The z10 isn't without its fault; battery life is less than a full day, but a spare battery can be bought. As a new OS, it's not apps populated as the Android or IOS ecosystem but this isn't a problem for me as major apps developers have promised to support BB10. Skype, instagram, whatsapp, etc are all underway. BB10 launched on day one (Jan 30^th) with 70,000 apps and for a new OS this is phenomenal as no other OS has done this before. If I have my facts rights, IOS and Android launched on day one with less than 100 apps. BB10 apps are growing at the rate of a 1000 apps a day as I heard or read somewhere, as of today B10 should have 100,000 apps and counting.

People want cool gadgets and this is what the Z10 is. Most reviews on the web have been very positive; it's been the best review for a blackberry phone in ages. Can the Z10 bring Blackberry back into the game?.........

Many thanks to a Nigerian based BBM group chat/forum known as HOA, which has its exclusive members in 3 continents. Thanks for allowing HOA to be used as a case study for this Z10 article. HOA , I hail!!

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