NiU Nation Publishers

16/01/2025

02/12/2024

Last week, I lost a friend.

He was quite older than me. He was psychologically impaired due to drug abuse. His mum sold her fortune to get him help. They visited different herbalists and spiritualists seeking a solution, all to no avail. At some point, he underwent psychiatric treatment and recovered. However, things became worse when he returned to drugs. We had been trying to help him for years, but he died last week. He was over 40 years old when he passed, and the problem started when he was about 20.

It was a wasted life. A painful death!

Now, also consider someone who has achieved great life goals, been featured at the Oscars, and excelled in various endeavors—unlike my friend, who did nothing significant. Yet, if that's all there is to live for, and the person dies, we will still ask, is that all there is to life? On a telescopic view, we could still conclude that it is a wasted life.

The book Essence is about God's purpose for humanity. It is not just another book on "purpose" focusing on talent and skills. I aim to provide an exegetical and theological foundation for living a life of meaning in God. I struggled with the first five chapters because they felt overly scholarly and melancholic. However, I was encouraged not to oversimplify it and risk losing its "ESSENCE." Moreover, learning is not always fun—it requires effort. The second half chapters is more practical and straightforward.

I tried to incorporate anecdotes and stories to make almost every chapter engaging. It’s a serious book but also a necessary one. Billy Graham once said, "There are a thousand things you can do with your life; a thousand ways you can spend it. But how many of them will enable you to say at the end of your life, ‘no reserves, no retreat, no regrets’?" That’s why I have written this book—for those who want to learn to live a life without regrets.

Essence is about finding yourself in God's purpose. It is for both young and old.

You must get this! What a wonderful way to end 2024 and start a new year.

More updates are on the way!

Morakinyo Ayodeji Paul
Congrats to our esteemed client for blessing our generation with such a profound literary work.

23/09/2024

MY BIBLE COMMENTARIES – Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Genesis 47:22, 26.
“Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land ... Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh's.”

Joseph’s exemption of the priests from compulsory taxation aligns with a nagging thought I’ve heard for years: some aspects of the Mosaic Law were not exclusive to the Israelites. Even the tithe that was brought into the Law centuries after it was first mentioned in connection to Abram probably came from an existing practice in his day. Ditto for all the offerings, animal sacrifices etc. Religion generally is guided by the same basic principles:

1) a dedicated place of worship
2) a priesthood
3) rituals and sacrifices.

But the New Testament/Covenant is entirely novel. I know of no religion that holds to the concept of priesthood of all believers. Or that has at its core believers being the temple and not a physical building/holy place. Just two examples. Authentic Christianity which started originally as an expression/outworking of the New Covenant has continued to suffer the drag and pull of religion in order to strip it of these fundamental qualities and reduce it to just another religion.

I quote from John W. Kennedy’s Torch of the Testimony:

Whatever God establishes, man ultimately wants to prune and shape to his own liking. The New Testament adequately reveals the constant drag of the world upon the church to pull down what is of heaven to the level of the earth.

05/09/2024

As we felicitate with mama Ruth Elton on her 90th birthday, get all the Elton books and messages on www.sgeltonlegacy.org and other spiritually nourishing books from the stables of Niu Nation Publishers.

23/08/2024

"I don’t want to die with a song still inside of me" (famous songwriter). In essence, die empty.

14/06/2024

GRACE CAN BE EARNED!
(Understanding Grace 3)
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We have seen that grace is entirely at the discretion of the giver. No amount of works can qualify. However, grace can be earned. Most of those in scriptures who came into the favour and goodwill of God had some desirable qualities which made them become God’s favorites somehow. We’ll see some examples shortly.

Just think as a parent with two children; Boy A is well behaved while Boy B is naughty. Although you love them equally, you will usually and instinctively look at Boy A with favour. Is that correct? Think as a teacher of 25 students; one of your students is not only academically good, she is also a glowing example of good manners not lacking good home training. She will obtain grace, right? Think of a coach of a football team. Now, if an opportunity opens up in any of the examples, I am sure the parent/teacher/coach will prefer to favour the good child/student/player.

So, let’s consider Noah (Gen. 6:7-9): In v.7, God said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land..." However, v.8 tells us Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why Noah? v.9 says Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. So you see? Grace didn’t just land arbitrarily on any random person. It singled out a righteous man, blameless in his generations.

Other examples:

- Jacob soliciting grace from Esau by presenting gifts (Gen. 32:4-5),
- David soliciting favor from Nabal based on his kindness to Nabal’s men (1 Sam 25:7-8)
- God scorns the scornful, BUT gives grace to the HUMBLE (Prov. 3:34; also James 4:6).
- Cornelius: devout, Godfearing, generous, prayerful (Acts 10:2,4)

In all these examples, it is clear grace can be solicited. Humility, honest/sincerity are some indispensable attributes that qualify you for favour/grace.

.3

13/06/2024

UNDERSTANDING GRACE 2

A practical illustration of grace: my grace towards an ant.

This was probably 1991. I just came back from school famished and quickly rushed to the kitchen to put some water for eba on the gas cooker. I took the lid and covered the pot of water. I then realized there were about a dozen tiny ants on the lid, and immediately knew they were doomed. Definitely no way oF escape.

I decided to wait and watch. As the steel pot grew hotter, the ants’ movements became even more frantic, showing they were already feeling the heat. Suddenly, I just had this hunch to pick a long soup spoon and then placed the handle directly in front of just one of the ants. It quickly climbed the spoon handle and I took away the spoon and placed the handle on the window sill for the ant to climb down and make its way to safety.

The rest of its companions perished.

Now, of the dozen ants, I really do not know and would never know which of them impregnated another man’s wife. I would never know which of them was a rascal in school and a nuisance to the community. All I did was to follow my own instinct and stretch out the instrument of salvation to just one of them. That one could have been the least deserving BUT its salvation was NOT a function of his own doing but the goodwill, magnanimity and discretion of its savior.

That is grace.

Indeed, grace does not make sense.

.2

13/06/2024

UNDERSTANDING GRACE

Grace is not necessarily a religious word. Its everyday usage simply means unmerited favor. Grace is used interchangeably in many parts of the Old Testament as favor.

If it is unmerited favor, then Grace CANNOT be earned. Rom. 11:6 says:

If by grace, then it is no more works - otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace - otherwise, work is no more work.

This means there’s something about grace that is entirely the prerogative of the giver. The receiver cannot lay claims or protest.

For instance, a convict serving his 25 year prison sentence. He now decides to be so good in order to earn his freedom. Is there any amount of good works he can do while in prison that will now qualify him for state pardon such that if he is not pardoned, he can go to court?

Obviously, no.

This was Paul’s point when he said It is by grace that you’re saved through faith … not of works, lest any should boast.

Admittedly, such good works could earn some little favors from the prison warden BUT never sufficient to be a legal basis for his release. Which is why it is called Prerogative of Mercy. Religions of the world don’t understand this because religion is built chiefly on the philosophy of man’s effort to earn salvation.

20/03/2024

PUBLISHING TRAINING

I’m putting up a training in Publishing especially for authors who would like to self-publish to bring down the overall cost of publishing their own books

I bring 24 years practical experience to the table.

In 5 weeks, you will be able to handle book publishing on your own.

Of course, you can make good money from it too, making, for a start, between N60k & N100k almost immediately after the training.

Includes online publishing: how you can set up an Amazon account and publish your own / clients’ books - EARNING IN DOLLARS 💵 .

4 weeks of virtual class (3-4 hours per week) & 1 week of boots-on-the-ground practicals.

Costs N25,000.

Training starts 22nd April 2024 (a month from now).

Contact me if interested.

- Temidayo Adeyemo

04/03/2024

'Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.' *Put first things first*.

03/01/2024

Happy new year to everyone!

12/12/2023

NiU Nation Publishers, since 2004, is stepping into a new season and is assembling a team of highly visionary and motivated Kingdom-minded staff to join the drive towards achieving her goals for this new phase:

-- Relaunch of Essence Restored Magazine
-- Relaunch of Niu Nation website to facilitate e-commerce
-- Creating Essence Restored online TV channel
-- (Re)production of other NiU Nation titles.

Roles to be filled:

-- Script Editors / Creative Writers
-- Graphic Artists
-- Marketers
-- Audio/Video Editors.

Office Locations: Ibadan & Ile Ife

Send your application/resume to 0803 854 8073 or to [email protected].