Sunday May 22, 2016

His Glory Alone

-PSALM 4:1-11

Key Verse:

"But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still" (Psalm 4:3, 4).
A clergyman once asked some children before him, "What is holiness?" A poor little boy in tattered dress jumped up and said,"Please, your reverence, it is to be clean inside. " Could anything be truer? Holiness means "separated" or "set apart for a special use". In this specific case in our text, God speaks about His glory which the Sons of men had turned in to shame through their love for vanity. He turns our attention to the beautiful life of those set apart for His exclusive use: they do not live willfully in sin any longer as the nature and power of sin has been destroyed through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. The passage concludes with the gladness of heart and the prevailing peace which God's holy people enjoy in spite of the turbulence and evil in the world. The world's system has a way of controlling and corrupting people, be it through the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes or the pride of life. As Christians, we know that some of those things in the world system are wrong. We must therefore avoid them. We must not behave like people who don't want to give up the world entirely; people who try to hold onto the world and at the same time remain in Christ's kingdom. Anyone who clings to the world will surely be entrapped by it. The way of holiness is not to import worldly principles in to Christianity. The way of holiness is to come out from among them and be separate. That means, we exist for the special purpose of being a pure dwelling for God. When we are set apart, we show forth the praises of God and sinners are drawn to His love through our lives and conduct. Remember, without holiness no man shall see the Lord

Thought for the day: Holiness is "to be clean inside".

Tuesday May 24, 2016

A Vesture Of Glory

- 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-9

Key Verse:

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1, 2).
Paul here speaks of our body as the 'house' in which our real self dwells. We dwell in our body as in a house because the real 'you' is the spirit-man within. He explains in metaphoric expressions, in comparison to there spiritual and glorious 'body' that is to come, that this present earthly body is likened to a fragile 'tent' because it originates from that which is of this earth. Our hope of being clothed with a body from God motivates inward expectation to be transformed from this earthly 'body' in which we presently dwell, into the heavenly body that will dwell painlessly in the eternal heaven, which, of course, is our final goal. The greater our perception of the desired eternal heavenly dwelling, the more we understand that the burden our present 'body' does not confine us to this world. Those who feel comfortable in this present 'dwelling' and concentrate all their efforts in pleasing it do not fully understand the glory that will be revealed hereafter. The believer who has his mind on things above "groans" to be relieved of the confinement and limitations of this earthly body and be embodied with the glorious body of immortality. Paul says here, that all that happens to us in time are for the purpose of transiting the faithful into a glorious body for eternal existence. We are therefore to live our lives like that of Abraham who though present in this 'tabernacle', was neither subject to its allurements nor moved by its troubles because "he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God".

Thought for the day: The glory ahead surpasses the troubles around.

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Tuesday May 24, 2016

A Vesture Of Glory

- 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-9

Key Verse:

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1, 2).
Paul here speaks of our body as the 'house' in which our real self dwells. We dwell in our body as in a house because the real 'you' is the spirit-man within. He explains in metaphoric expressions, in comparison to there spiritual and glorious 'body' that is to come, that this present earthly body is likened to a fragile 'tent' because it originates from that which is of this earth. Our hope of being clothed with a body from God motivates inward expectation to be transformed from this earthly 'body' in which we presently dwell, into the heavenly body that will dwell painlessly in the eternal heaven, which, of course, is our final goal. The greater our perception of the desired eternal heavenly dwelling, the more we understand that the burden our present 'body' does not confine us to this world. Those who feel comfortable in this present 'dwelling' and concentrate all their efforts in pleasing it do not fully understand the glory that will be revealed hereafter. The believer who has his mind on things above "groans" to be relieved of the confinement and limitations of this earthly body and be embodied with the glorious body of immortality. Paul says here, that all that happens to us in time are for the purpose of transiting the faithful into a glorious body for eternal existence. We are therefore to live our lives like that of Abraham who though present in this 'tabernacle', was neither subject to its allurements nor moved by its troubles because "he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God".

Thought for the day: The glory ahead surpasses the troubles around.

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Wednesday June 1, 2016

Your Best To God

-2 CHRONICLES 8:14-18
Key Verse:

"Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth at the seaside in the land of Edom" (2 Chronicles 8:17).
The well respected British classical scholar, Thomas Morell (1703-1784) is remembered by many for his skill in Natural History and Open Literature. One of his memorable quotes is: "The first great gift we can bestow on others is a ‘Good Example'". God gave us a good example of perfect giving when He gave the very best that He has in heaven. Jesus is that good and perfect gift that came from the presence of the Father to save mankind from sin. Jesus, Himself gave the best that He had when His blood was shed and His life taken at Calvary. The passage we have just read pictures King Solomon giving the best that he could find for the building of a worship place for God. Solomon's heart was at this time filled with love for God, and his giving reflected the love that was in his heart. As recipients of His grace, we also ought always to show our love, reverence and devotion to God by giving the most costly and valuable things we can afford in service to His Kingdom. When it is time to give for the work of His Kingdom, we may have to recall our treasures which are stacked up in distant places to honour the Lord. It is not appropriate for those who possess His material blessings to give only a widow's mite. The God from whom we seek the greatest things for life and eternity has right to the greatest things of our possession and wealth. Therefore, what are you going to give to God this day? Your time, intellect, money or other material possessions? Yes, all these you may give, but remember to give also your very best, that is, your heart and your life.

Thought for the day: Be not possessed with your possession, use them to God's glory.

Thursday June 2, 2016

Change Within

-2 CORINTHIANS 5:10-21

Key Verse:

"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
In the words of Helen Keller (1880-1968), American renowned deaf-blind lecturer and author: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart". Conversion, in the same vein, is the greatest and most exciting experience a person may know, but it is a change that takes place within, in your heart, when you ask Jesus in earnest prayer of repentance to come into your heart. When He comes in, He cleanses your heart of sin and guilt and condemnation. He then dwells within you. Christ living on the inside of you is the reason and power for a really new life which others can see. Some folks are deluded, thinking that religious observances and self inflicted punishments would do. The hardest thing for a sinner to do is change the attitudes that originally produced sinful behaviour in them. He must be born again to really become a new creature. Being born again is more than being religious. It is more than making personal resolutions. It is a change of life to a completely new and godly behaviour made possible by the Spirit of Christ within. There are things that testify in the believer's life that he is truly of God, namely, the absence of the old sinful lifestyle, self centeredness, unholy affairs or pursuits and such other things. Jesus becomes the very centre of his life. The change within is reflected in the corresponding good works produced without. The way we are on the inside matters so much to God. If you are new inwardly, your attitude without will be right. Are you born again?

Thought for the day: New life, evidence of Christ within.

Friday June 3, 2016

God First

-1 CHRONICLES 9:1-13

Key Verse:

"Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims" (1 Chronicles 9:2).
God attaches fundamental importance to His service and to His servants. Upon the return of the children of Israel from captivity in Babylon, He allowed the Priests, Levites and temple assistants into the land first. Partnering with Him to publish His laws, rules and regulations as well as engaging in temple maintenance were of utmost priority to God. As it was then, so it is today. There is distinction given to those directly involved in church work. God often focuses attention on the redeemed who, day and night, live a completely surrendered life through biblical ethics of righteous, holy and sacrificial service. Everyone who has given his life to Christ is a sacred vessel in God's hands. He works not only in the visible church, but also in the universal one. As soon as they returned, the Priest immediately set a precedent in the service of God, making it a priority over other considerations. We are saved to serve. And God's service must be second to none in our personal economy. God is preparing us for our heavenly home by His mercy, just as He prepared the way for the return of the children of Israel to their inheritance. Yet, He does not want us to rest on our oars. We must show appreciation to Him for saving us by enlisting in His army to spread the Good News, laying as it were, treasures, talents, time, and indeed our all on the altar of consecration. God must be number one in all things and our service to Him must be without parallel.

Thought for the day: God puts first those who put Him first.

Grace All The Way

-ROMANS 15:14-22

Key Verse:


"I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God" (Romans 15:17).
Nearing the close of his seminal epistle to the Romans, Apostle Paul goes back to the key concept of grace with which he started the letter. The book continues with the affirmation that we are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Paul's stand in this Spirit-driven presentation is that he became saved not by self emancipation but through the all sufficient merit of Christ. If any remarkable work for the Lord must be credited at all, the Motivator must be Christ who saved him. Put more aptly, Paul laboured so strenuously because he was saved and not in order to be saved. That should be the attitude of those who come to the knowledge of Christ. Christ simply redeemed mankind by His grace and rescued him from the broad way to hell. Once saved therefore, we need to doggedly continue in the narrow way. Such a career must be one of gratitude to the Master, without whom we would have been lost eternally. The Apostle speaks of striving to preach the gospel in far flung regions where Christ had not been mentioned. Striving suggests toiling, struggling and exertion of extraordinary effort in a given task. The church of Jesus Christ is looking for such men and women in an age with jaded doctrines of self-adulation. The church must go back to the old days when grace was sufficient for the saints and no credit was given to them for work done for the Lord. It is this motivation of the grace of the Lord that would carve in us the image of that faithful servant in Luke 17:7-10.

Thought for the day: God's inalienable grace is the propelling force into heavenly habitation.

Sunday June 5, 2016

Never On Vacation

- JOB 1:1-12

Key Verse:

"And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" (Job 1:8 ) .
The Bible authored by a God of order cannot contradict itself by saying God is watching over the righteous and then reverse itself to say this same God would allow righteous Job to be crushed by Satan. The occasion of a just Creator permitting controlled “calamity” to hit His righteous creature is the unfolding of the wisdom of God to prove that man’s existence is not about bread and butter, as it were. He proved that Job could absorb suffering and still remain faithful to Him. Christians need to constantly demonstrate to the world that persecution for their stand for Jesus will never be weighty enough to make them abandon Him in the face of temporary setbacks that may come through low finances, sicknesses, job loss, failed expectations and so on. In the midst of these, we must see the presence of God through the invisible hedge He has made around us with the eyes of faith. Such storms may bring down our property or business and inflict some bodily harm. But let us be assured that God does not allow such adversarial winds to fatally blow our souls. The devil or his agents cannot overrule God. But then, God expects the believer to endure in faithfulness to the end. We must vindicate God’s trust in us and put Satan to shame by not allowing the quest for fleeting material considerations to overwhelm us in times of adversities and temptations. There is a crown waiting for the overcomer in heaven.

Thought for the day: A Christian’s patience when tried honours God.

Monday June 6, 2016

Who Is Leading You?

-2 CORINTHIANS 1:12-24

Key Verse:

"Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God" (2 Corinthians 1:21).
The story was told of a pastor who misled a group of soldiers at the funeral of a war veteran. The friends of the late soldier asked the minister to take them to the room where the coffin was so they could observe some moments of silence. They would then return through another door. But alas, the officiating pastor missed his way and led the soldiers into a broom closet instead of the casket room. This proves the saying, "As go the leaders, so go the followers." In the case of Apostle Paul, he could beat his chest to claim that it was God that put a stamp of authority and approval on him and the pair of Timothy and Silvanus. This enabled them to lead the church effectively. Because they knew who was leading them, they could not be wrong in imparting His guidance to the church they were writing to at Corinth. They could, through the perfect counsel of God instructing them, apply the required disciplinary levers if the need arose with regard to earlier reports of immorality among the brethren. When the church is led by those who are themselves led of Christ, it is impossible for anarchy, rebellion, indiscipline and worldliness to secure a foothold among the brethren. And it would be impossible for the brethren to be misled into shallow doctrines unreflective of the mind of God. Unrepentant self-serving leaders in the church and their followers, are a foreshadow of those who will remain in the world at the time of the Great Tribulation since they are not absorbing the core of the apostolic truth. "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock…feed the church of God (with Bible truths)...Not for filthy lucre ...neither as being lords over them but being examples to the flock."

Thought for the day: The only leader worth following is the leader who is following and abiding in Jesus Christ.

Tuesday June 7, 2016

Truly, A Merciful Father

-MICAH 6:6-9

Key Verse:

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8 ) .
The scene of a grieving father standing before his stubborn and wayward son and pleading with him to renounce his destructive lifestyle would touch any reasonable person. But the picture of the patient Almighty God serially wronged by His children, calling on nature to witness His people's sin, is an overwhelming testimony to the bottomless mercy of God as against the extreme iniquity of man. The children of Israel had behaved like the heathen, disrespecting God and His laws, thus provoking Him to anger. God had loved and pleased them at every turn. Instead of showing appreciation to Him, they were unthankful and forgetful. Their custom of addressing their sin by sacrificing to God was not acceptable. It was infuriating to Him. In our age, thousands of years after Prophet Micah, God's standard has not changed. He has the same message for everyone today. He wants a regenerated heart from where love, justice, humility and mercy will flow. Our service to God is meaningless if we do not possess a soul that exhibits these virtues, which only a new life in Christ can create. If there is no answer to our pleas to God for peace in the home, community and nation, then we must go back to God, the Author of peace and listen to what He says in Isaiah 59:1,2,4: "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."

Thought for the day: It is wisdom to be thankful and appreciative of God's sprawling mercies.

Thursday June 9, 2016

The Ultimate Truth

-JOB 14:14-22

Key Verse:

"Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands" (Job 14:15).
Agronomists and scientists say that times of drought are not disastrous after all. Their findings reveal that when everywhere is arid on the surface, economic trees are driven deeper to find water for sustenance. Put in a spiritual perspective, suffering can lead us beyond our ordinary acceptance of truth to complete dependence on God for hope, life and safety. This is what Job's concluding remarks to the submission of one of his friend's demonstrate. The mourners who showed up at Job's home to sympathise with him were of little help to relieve him of the catastrophe that has come his way. They rather infuriated him, insisting his sin caught up with him. His wife also provoked him, asking him to curse God and die. Estrangement from the Almighty and final death appeared to be better than the state in which Job found himself. It was in the midst of these despairing and death-sentencing circumstances that God enabled him to discover the ultimate truth. It is very much like the tree in the time of drought when it digs deeper for survival. Job also, in his moment of need, saw the glorious which New Testament believers know as Resurrection when God "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" (Phillippians. 3:21). The great truth is that, it is not sufficient to flaunt our knowledge of the Scriptures as Christians. To claim to know Him and the doctrines of the Bible is not enough in our walk with God. This knowledge must be weighed in the balance of life's experiences. It is the fire of challenges that would determine the texture of our faith, the depth of absorption of what we take in from the Bible. We must all come to the point where we are driven to rely only on the deep, undiluted and uncorrupted word of God.

Thought for the day: Faith untested by life's challenges is shallow.

Tuesday June 14, 2016

Cheating Is Bad

-MICAH 6:10-16

Key Verse:

"Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights" (Micah 6:11)
"When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves, threaten their own self- esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true" - Cheryl Hughes. God, in today's text, condemned the wicked practices of the Israelites in the days of Micah the Morasthite. He also decried the violence and lies that characterised the people of those days and the idolatry which they intentionally practiced. God punished them by bringing a famine in the land, leading to hunger and starvation. Some wicked practices are so common and widely practiced in some areas that they become entirely accepted as the norm. Some people involved with the business of buying and selling have devised so many methods to cheat their unsuspecting customers. The practice of depressing the containers used for measurement, using harmful substitutes in the production process and selling inferior materials for the price of the originals are condemned in Scriptures. If we truly love our neighbours as ourselves, we won't be engaged in the act of defrauding or cheating them. Our business practices should be so transparent and impeccable that people will see the difference and believe the gospel that we preach.

Thought for the day: Cheating destroys trust.