RIGHTEOUSNESS VS SACRIFICE

MEMORY VERSE: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 11:25

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Jeremiah 22-26

BIBLE READING: Matthew 5:23-24

Lovers love giving gifts to each other. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He did not give because He was held to ransom, No! His decision to give His son for our sins was motivated by love. Everything He does for us is motivated by love and mercy. So whenever we give back to Him, although we give out of the much He has given to us, no matter how small it is, He appreciates it. All Abraham did was host Him for few hours (Genesis 18). While He was there, He ate bread, meat and milk, and He said “thank you”. Abraham gave a meal and He received a son! Whenever you give to any child of God, I want you to know that it is God you have given to (not man) and He will say thank you no matter how small. When we give something big to Him, He responds and says ‘a big thank you’. Oh yes! King Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings to Him and He said thank you by giving the young man a blank cheque (1 Kings 3:3-13). Verse 5, “In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.” It is not so much the size of the gift but the cost of the gift. That poor widow in Luke 21:1-4 gave the least, yet the Lord said she gave the most. Why? All the big men in the church gave out of their abundance, but this poor woman gave all she had which was two mites. Regardless of the cost of the gift, one must give cheerfully. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

God loves generous people. Proverbs 11:25 says, “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” The key to financial prosperity is giving. When you look at countries that are prospering, e.g. England, although they are small in population, they give foreign aids to so many countries. Not only that, they give to the elderly and look after their citizens. While most of the countries that receive foreign aids from them  are struggling financially, they are wallowing in riches. The secret to their prosperity as a nation is giving. They give to charity a lot. Proverbs 21:3 says, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.” The Lord is more interested in Christians living a life of purity and holiness than giving big offerings. No wonder He says peradventure whilst giving an offering, we remember a brother or sister who we are not in talking terms with, we should drop the offering, run to the person and be reconciled with the fellow. One cannot keep malice and expect God to accept his offering, No! One cannot fornicate and expect God to accept His service in the church, No!

NOTE; Obedience to the word of God is better than fat donations.

PRAYER POINT: Father, please bless me so that I can be a blessing to others.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

PERSECUTION FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS VS JUDGMENT FOR WICKEDNESS

MEMORY VERSE: Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:36

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Psalms 119:13-18, Proverbs 31:3, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If anyone tells you that once you give your life to Christ you will never face any challenges, they are telling you a big lie. Jesus, whilst on earth, said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).” (In the world, ye SHALL have tribulation not ye MIGHT tribulation). It is a guarantee that you will face challenges in your walk with Christ; it is also a guarantee that you will be victorious every time a challenge arises, as far as you remain in Him. You have no reason to fear challenges because the One who can solve all problems is with you. (Long before the challenges arrives; He would have prepared a way of escape.) You see in John 16:33 that almost immediately after He said “ye shall have tribulation,” the next thing He said was, “but be of good cheer; i have overcome the world.” One of the things that will come your way, as you consecrate yourself for the use of the master and live holy, is persecution for righteousness. Even as you witness about Jesus Christ in your offices or colleges, people will challenge you. Sometimes back, a sister was sharing with me how her managers, at work, were persecuting her for not dressing sexy. They wanted her to wear tight clothes and expose parts of her body that is meant to be covered and she said no. They started calling her names. When that did not work, they began to threaten to move her to another department. We thank God for not permitting the enemies to have their way over her job. The moment you decide to really take your Christian life serious and obey God to the letters, people – friends, family, colleagues – will persecute you. What are you expected to do? Endure it. Matthew 5:10 says this: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Something very similar to persecution for righteousness is judgment for wickedness. Whilst persecution for righteousness comes upon the righteous from the wicked, judgment for wickedness comes from God, who is righteous, upon the wicked. We, believers, are all called to endure persecution. None of us who are believers, however, should ever endure God’s judgments upon the wicked. Luke 21:36 says this: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Jesus indicated that it was the will of God for His disciples – you and I - to escape the judgments of God that were coming upon the wicked earth. However, His disciples – you and I- better watch and pray, otherwise we will not qualify to escape. Were we worthy to be saved? No, we were saved by grace. You and I neither merit it nor deserve it. However, now that we have been saved, we are required to lead such a life of righteousness that it would be unrighteous of God to judge us with the wicked.

QUESTION: Are you still leading a life of righteousness?

PRAYER POINT: Father, please keep my household from evil.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.                    

GOD’S DRESS CODE

Genesis 3:21 unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Ex 20, Luke 23, Job 38, 2 Cor 8

 

After Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened and they found out that they were naked. The Lord made coats of skin for them to cover their nakedness. Let us briefly focus on what type of clothes was made for them. The bible records that He made coats of skin or tunic for them. There are three things about these coats of skin or tunic. Firstly, it was not transparent; secondly, it was not tight or it did not reveal their body shape; thirdly and most importantly it covered their nakedness. The fashion world advises otherwise but the reason why God created clothe for man was to cover his nakedness. Bible scholars have actually pointed out that the coat was from their shoulder to their ankle. This is the first occasion in the bible we see God giving humans a dress code. As a child of God, whatever we wear must satisfy at least these three: 1- not transparent; 2- not tight fitting or expose body shape & 3- must cover our nakedness.

 

God is not only interested in covering our physical nakedness but our spiritual nakedness too. The danger of been spiritually naked is that it exposes one to attack. Ephesians 6:12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. The question is what is our spiritual dress code? Ephesians 6:11 says put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. According to Ephesians 6:14, we should gird our waist with truth and put on a breastplate of righteousness. John 4:24 says God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 2 Corinthians 6:4-7 says but in all things approving yourself as minister of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and left. Ephesians 6:15 says we should shod our feet in peace. James 3:16-18 says where envying and strife (opposite of peace), there is confusion and every evil work. Ephesians 6:16 says our shield should be of faith. The moment our faith weaver Satan wins. Ephesians 6:17 says our helmet should be a helmet of salvation and our weapon which is the sword – a sword of the spirit which is the word of God. The bible records in Matthew 8:16 that Jesus casted out the spirits with His words. To be fully clothed spiritually one need to put on the whole armour of God. Any fellow studying the word of God but not living in peace is spiritually naked because he is not putting on the whole armour of God. Putting on the helmet of salvation without the breastplate of righteousness is as good as  naked. This is why we need to give our lives to Christ; live a life of righteousness; live in peace with everyone; study the bible regularly; build our faith by hearing by the word of God e.t.c. These are our spiritual dress codes.

 

PRAYER POINT: Father, greatly increase my faith.

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

Philippians 3:9says And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith

What is the definition of righteousness? According to 1 John 3:7 (NIV), righteousness is doing the right things. The reason why God counted Abraham’s faith in Him as righteousness was because it was the right thing to do. It is the right thing to have faith in the One who the bible says with Him nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). Righteousness is simple doing the right thing. It is righteousness to obey one’s parents (physically or spiritually) because the bible says in Ephesians 6:2-3: honor your father and mother that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. It is also righteousness for wives to submit to their husbands just like the church submits to Jesus and the husbands to love their wives to the extent they are willing to die for them just as Christ gave up His life for the church (Ephesians 5:22-25) . Just like it is the right thing to work hard, it is the right thing to attend services on time and pay out tithes. This is why we all need to go to God from time to time to ask for forgiveness and the grace to be righteous because James 4:17 says therefore to him that knows to do good and does it not ,to him it is sin.

Many of us misunderstood Paul in Philippians 3:9 when he talks of the righteousness which is of God by faith. By this we assume that once we are Christians we are righteous and no matter what we do it is not a sin. This is the big lie! What Paul meant was the justification we received through the atonement made by Christ not justification received as a result of following the Law of Moses. If it was so that once we receive Christ as our personal Lord and savior we are righteous and whatever we do is not counted as sin, Paul would not have asked the believers in Rome that shall we continue in sin and ask for grace to abound – Romans 6:1. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. The old things include love of sin, their sensuality, pride, vanity, levity to mention a few. The new things are a new course of life, both of faith and holiness, a new way of serving God through Christ by spirit. We cannot do what is not right and say our righteousness is of God .Righteous in God means we are made right through our faith in Jesus .Prior to our conversion, all our righteous is as a filthy rag according to Isaiah 64:6 because we are unclean but once we accept Jesus, we are washed with the blood of Jesus and we are made clean from all uncleanness. From that day, our righteousness becomes of God. Remember 1 John 3:7 says He that does what is right is righteous. Anyone who claims to have giving his life to Christ and still indulges in sin is not righteous.1 Peters 1:17 says be ye holy for i am holy.

PRAYER POINT: Father, please help that my obedience to your word is total.