Live life like the lion you really are

The is something majestic about lions. You feel it every time you are next to them. They have a sense of royalty. They boasts with authority and confidence. They never doubt their God given role. 

They know who they are. They will never compromise their being for whatever reason. Not even during starvation do they lose their pride. They are lions and they know it. They roar so loud as if they don't care who their noise may upset. They do it because indeed they don't care. After all, they are the Kings of the jungle. 

If I should learn anything from them is the importance of knowing your identity. Knowing who you are. Your identity is not determined by your surroundings or circumstances. A lion knows who he is whether he is living under captivity at the Pretoria National Zoo Park or roaming around with freedom at the Kruger National Park. Your identity is given to you by God. It's your birth right. Is not a man made gift that may expiry with time nor is it a spouse's gift that may be reclaimed when love ends. 

It is important to know who you are in this life. Once you know that you realise that your circumstances are not so significant because they are subject to change. You will not be trouble by the friends that change like seasons nor the people that talk behind your back. When you know who you are you will walk and boast with pride not for what you have but for who you are. Identity gives one a sense of pride, belonging, confidence, dignity and joy. 

Be a lion today. Know who you really are in this world. Know your God given role and fulfill your purpose with pride. It's not where you are in life but who you are.... 
I know who I am in Christ. I know I'm the head and not the tail. I'm blessed going out and I'm blessed coming. Find your identity in Christ. Find your God given talent and purpose and you will live a joyful life of contentment.

Men's health : What is a varicocele and how can it affect your fertility?

VARICOCELE

The veins in your testes (like those in the legs) have valves that help blood to flow upwards towards your heart. If your valves stop working, blood pools in the veins, which buldge or dilate, this is called varicoceles.

Who usually gets a varicocele?

It is usually first noticed in males between puberty and the age of 35, especially in late adolescence. About 15% of all men have varicocele. For many it is not a problem and does not require treatment. But nearly 40% of men who have fertility problems have a varicocele. If it is associated with infertility, it may need to be treated.

Who do varicocele cause fertility problems?

Varicoceles raise the temperature in the testicles, which may affect the production of sperm, as well as sperm movement and/or shape. It may also affect other aspects of sperm function. However, it is unknown by what mechanism varicoceles may impair fertility.

What are the symptoms and signs?

The patient is usually aware of a lump, especially when standing, but it disappears when lying down. The lump may have a bluish appearance through the skin; it is soft to feel, like a bunch of grapes or a “bag of worms”. 

Degree of discomfort or pain varies considerably from one person to another, with others experiencing no form of discomfort while others experience a dragging pain, especially in hot weather or after exercise.

What is the risk?

A primary varicocele is basically a relatively minor problem without serious consequences. However, in some men the discomfort is such that a surgical treatment is required – others can live with a very mild discomfort.

What are the treatment options?

No treatment is necessary for a varicocele that is not causing any discomfort.

For mild discomfort and swelling, the patient can wear firm-fitting underpants or a jockstrap. Keep in mind that the discomfort and swelling tends to disappear when lying down.

There is no medication proven to treat varicocele hence when treatment is necessary, surgical management is employed.

Surgical treatment?

Surgery is recommended if the varicocele is causing significant discomfort, or is associated with a reduced size of the testicle or with infertility.

It must be noted that varicocele may recur after surgical treatment, and that in the case of infertility there is no guarantee that it will improve a man’s chance of fathering a child.

Types of surgery?

Your specialist urologist will decide on the method to treat the varicocele after discussing them with you. 

The urologist may choose an operation to tie off the swollen veins and get rid of a varicocele, or any operation to block the swollen veins.

What are the risk of surgery?

Risk to a specific type of surgery include building up of fluid in the scrotum (hydrocele) and damage to an artery.

Varicocele may return after treatment.

Risk to any surgery include infections, pain, allergic reaction to the anaesthetic used and prolonged hospital stay which on its own has complications.

What will happen if varicocele is not treated?

There is not much research available to speculate. Some men will experience discomfort or testicle shrink and others have no problems.

To live, you must let die!

Isaiah 6v1 (KJV) "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."

We all have desires to live and serve the Lord. We try and try but most of us still feel there's something lacking. We desire not to just say "I'm a Christian"  because I go to church but we wanna walk hand in hand with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. What lacks in us that the apostles had? What are we doing different from what the apostles did? Were they not man like us? Did they not eat food like us? Did they not experience pain like us? How does one walk with the Holy Spirit like the disciples  did after our Lord Jesus Christ was taken into the Heavens? Today we live in a world where we ourselves do not fully allow the fullness of the Holy Spirit manifest in our lives. You see churches and pastors who preach the word of the Lord yet do lack this intimate relationship with the Spirit.
In the scripture quoted above, prophet Isaiah says the year king Uzziah died he saw the Lord. What is important to note in his wording is that "the year king Uzziah died" is not only use in reference to the period in time but also illustrate the significance of allowing something things to die in our lives so that we may also see the Lord. The scripture in the book of Matthew 6v24 (Luke 16v13) tells us that "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despite the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." This is true even in our lives as Christians, we can only serve one master which is God in heaven. However, if we desire earthly materials and objects we exalt it as our master living no space for Christ the Lord. It took king Uzziah to die for Isaiah to see the Lord.

It will take me and you to allow whatever object or material or ideology, to die so that us too can see the Lord. A "master" in our lives is not limited to a man made object or a symbol in which we bow down and worship. No, a "master" could be anything and everything. It is anything that keeps us away from praying, anything that keeps us away from fellowshiping with the Holy Spirit. It could money, certain relationships, it could be lust, gossip/lies, it could be sports, cars, politics. It could be anything. What keeps you from spending time with the Lord? The answer is different for every body.

Whatever your answer, you must allow such "being" to die for Christ said as quoted above that it is impossible to serve two masters. I don't know what is the master in your life, is it your car, your business, your lover or is it in a form of addiction to drugs, sex, porn, alcohol or any other. You must allow it to die today in Jesus's name. However, you can not do it on your own. Don't try to do this on your own. You will fail and fail and the devil will discourage you telling you it can not be done. Those who have ever tried quiting an addiction will tell you. You need the help of the Holy Spirit for you are only flesh and flesh desires flesh things but the spirit desires spirit things.

John 14v26 (ESV) says "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." God knows our weakness. He knows we are human and that certain things might be hard or impossible for us to achieve hence when Christ went into the heavens to prepared us a place he didn't leave us alone. God sent the Holy Spirit to us. He is our "Helper", our "Comforter" and He is here to teach us all things and to continually remind all the things Christ has said. So if you wanna let things that are not of Christ die our of your life, don't do it on your own. Call upon the counsel of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always there with you, you just have to call upon him and he will manifest in your life (John 14v16).

Amen.

Sinners prayer:
Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, sweet Holy Spirit, I come before you today. I confess my sins unto you Lord. I today take a decision in my heart. I welcome you Lord into my life. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ your beloved son was sent on to earth for me; and that He was crucified on the cross for my sins. He became a curse for me (for it is written that cursed is he that hangs on a tree), and that He died for me and His death was life to me. I acknowledge that Christ conquered death and on the 3rd day He rose from the grave and today Christ is alive. I say with my mouth that Christ Jesus of Nazareth is my Lord and Saviour, for as of now I'm a new creation. Holy Spirit I welcome you in my life to be my friend, my Comforter, my helper and my teacher. Guide my footsteps so that I may from today onwards live a life that is pleasing unto my Father in heaven. Amen.

Why I'm voting today

This is a speech made by former South African President P.W Botha to his cabinet about 27 years ago. It was reprinted by David G Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, in 1985.
I quote…” We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the blacks in 1001 ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expenses of intelligence, sweat and blood………We do not pretend like other whites that we like the blacks. The fact that, blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles because they look alike. If God had wanted us to be equal to the blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years. I believe that the Afrikaner is honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being……By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Blackman is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn’t it plausible? Therefore that the Whiteman is created to rule the Blackman……And here is a creature (Blackman) that lacks foresight….. The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year”.

This is why im voting today.

Big dreamers work the hardest

Dream bigger than your counterparts, work hard than them. If they sleep, you continue working. Be the first in and last out. Put more effort, more than they do. Do more even if the reward looks the same. Don't let today's reward clouds you of tomorrow's.

Hard work, that's the gospel every successful person is preaching. But its not just the hard work. Its the thinking too. Those who dream of being big think big. They dare to think outside the box. They don't see obstacles, they see challenges. Opportunities to be creative and innovations. They don't fear failure, they see it as an opportunity to reinvent themself. An opportunity to start new and more intelligently. They refuse to see their weakness but only a side that can do with some improvement.

The thinking of a failure and that of an achiever can not be the same. If you think like a failure you probably gonna fail, if you think like an achiever you gonna achieve? But changing your thinking pattern is not enough, you need to change your attitude too and the company you keep around you. Yes, it is well known that "birds of the same furthers fly together" so if you wanna be a winner, an achiever, then why do you stay with people who think the opposite?

Attitude is everything. They way in which you.....(To be continued).

Good times ahead

I have been humbled by an offer to post one of my blog on a online magazine on a weekly basis. Although I received the offer with gratitude and excitement, I could not help but think of the reality that I have not been the most consisted blogger in the past few months. However, this is due to change as I have accepted this offer as a challenge and an honour.

The scope of my blog for the online magazine will remain the same as that of my blog. And what scope is that you ask? It is described in one of my idols quotes when he said "..I write what I like."
Not being a professional writer but a student and a custodian of medicines, I intend to incorporate this other side of me that I rarely mention on any of my online profiles.

I also intend to post few notes about my idols as I believe these men and women not only shaped the world we live in today, but some of them have changed my life on a person level. It is my hope that their stories will inspire you in one way or another.

I hope I will be able to meet the task that is at hand, and in doing so I'll be able to win your loyalty and your following.

INVICTUS by William Ernest Henley

INVICTUS
BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.