HE STILL CONSUMES!

MEMORY VERSE: For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrew 12:29

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 15-18

The Bible puts a premium on knowledge. The lack of knowledge can lead to one’s destruction. Hosea 4:6 says: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.’ If the lack of knowledge is bad, half knowledge is worse. A story that comes to mind is that of a woman who thought that ‘LOL’ meant ‘Lots of Love’. One day, the mother of a dear friend of hers passed away so she sent a text message to her. The text message read, ‘Sorry to hear about the death of your dear mother, LOL.’ For some reason, her friend did not respond. As God will have it, one of her sons was visiting. She showed him the text message she had sent to her dear friend. ‘Mum, what is the meaning of ‘LOL,’ he asked. ‘Lots of love,’ she responded. He explained to her that ‘LOL’ means ‘laugh out loud,’ not ‘Lots of love’. You can imagine how embarrassed she felt on realising that she had used the wrong abbreviation. The lesson is, don’t use a word you don’t know its meaning.

God is a mystery. He is the Lamb upon the throne (Revelations 5:13). Also, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelations 5:5). How can one be a lion and a lamb at the same time? According to 1 John 4:8, He is love. Also, He is a consuming fire. Hebrew 12:29 says: ‘For our God is a consuming fire.’ How can a loving person be a consuming fire at the same time? That is the mystery of God. The men of Bethshemesh committed a terrible sin by opening the ark of the Lord to see what was inside (1 Samuel 6). Verse 9 says: ‘And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.’ Many of us have forgotten that the Lord is still a consuming fire. You can't fornicate and come to church to lead praise and worship or play musical instruments.No! Anyone who does that is offering a 'strange fire' to God; let it be known, God does not take such lightly.

PRAYER POINT: Father, please have mercy on your church.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

LOSING YOUR SALTINESS

MEMORY VERSE: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 7:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 11-14

Jesus makes it abundantly clear that it is possible for salt to lose its saltiness. Matthew 7:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ It is possible for a believer to lose his influence. We can lose our position as God’s agent of influence or change on the earth. Actually, sadly, it is already happening. Our ability to influence the world is dependent on our connection with the source of influence (God). We are able to influence the world as long as we remain in Christ. John 15:16 says: ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.’

Salt loses its saltiness once its chemical composition is changed or altered. A believer who is influenced by the world will lose its saltiness. Also, the moment a believer begins to question his Christian values, belief, and principles of Christianity, he begins to lose its saltiness. A believer who refuses to live holy will lose his saltines. It is a terrible thing for salt to lose its saltiness. Asides from the obvious fact that the Lord will cast such salt away - Matthew 7:19 says: 'Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire'; men will trod upon such salt under foot.

PRAYER POINTS:
• Father, please help me never to lose my saltiness
• Father, please give me the wisdom of a serpent to know how to live as salt on the earth
• I come against every agenda to destroy my faith.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

INSULATION, NOT ISOLATION

MEMORY VERSE: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 7:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 7-10

According to the Salt Institute, ‘the multiple chemical and physical properties of salt make possible 14,000 known uses. Its largest use is invisible to the public: about 40% of salt worldwide is used as the raw materials that chemical companies transform into chlorine and soda ash, the foundations of inorganic chemistry.’ Therefore, the usefulness of salt transcends common domestic use we know of to science and industry. In the same vein, believers' influence transcends the four wall of a church. No wonder, Jesus called us the ‘salt of the earth.’ Matthew 5:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ We are the salt of the earth i.e. salt of families, educational institutions, business organizations, communities, governments, and nations. Just as Joseph and Daniel were positive influences, believers must be positive influences in their families, school, at work, and any other place they find themselves.

As useful as salt is, one cannot realize any of its benefits unless it is applied. For instance, you need to add salt to food to experience its seasoning benefits. The further salt is from the food, the further is its ability to season it. As believers, to influence the world we need to interact with the world. The further we are from the unsaved world, the further our ability to positively influence the unsaved world. A lot of us have adopted the posture of isolation in our bid to avoid being negatively influenced by unbelievers. As genuine as this concern is, the isolated Christian is not an influential Christian. Remember, although salt mixes and dissolves in the food, the food does not influence the salt; rather, the salt influences the food. If you are really a salt and you are determined to maintain your saltiness, no one will succeed in influencing you. Besides, what we need, as the salt of the earth, is insulation, not isolation. Insulation comes through staying continually in the presence of the Lord.

PRAYER POINTS: Father, give me the wisdom to be all things to all men so that I may win some.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

SALT: PREVENTIVE AND PROTECTIVE SUBSTANCE

MEMORY VERSE: And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. Genesis 18:32

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 3-6

Salt can be obtained from salt rocks; as such, it is classified as a mineral mined. Also, salt can be extracted from sea water. The most common use of salt is to add it to food to improve its taste; however, it has other uses. Salt can be used as a preventive substance. For instance, if ants are beating a path to your home, you can intercept them by sprinkling salt across your door frame or directly on their paths. Ants will be discouraged from this barrier. Salt can be used to prevent grease from splattering while frying. If you don’t want to be burned by the grease splattering while frying something like bacon, what you can do is add few dashes of salt to the pan before beginning to fry foods that can splatter. Besides being burned by grease splatter, you won’t have to worry about cleaning grease off your cooktop. Iodized salt is considered as the national preventive measure of goitre.

Salt can be used as a protective substance. For instance, you can sprinkle it on weeds and pour very hot water on it to kill off weeds. In addition, it can be used to keep away fleas from dogs by washing their doghouse, blankets with salt water. Matthew 5:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ As believers, we have all the properties of salt; therefore, we are able to influence the earth in the same way, as salt does. A believer can act as a protective covering against every attack from the enemy. The active presence of a believer provides a protective covering for everyone, everything and every place the believer is linked to. A believer, in other words, can keep away all forms of evil. An example that comes to mind is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18: 20-32). Verse 18:32 says: ‘And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.’ God promised that He will not destroy the city for the sake of ten righteous people.

NOTE: Know, believe and enforce today this truth that because you are a believer, your family, company, and community can experience a certain degree of protection against evil.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

GRANULES OF SALT 2

MEMORY VERSE: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 22-2 Kings 2

Matthew 5:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ Salt has various uses – over 14,000 to be precise. Asides the obvious fact that salt is used for seasoning, it is also used as a cleaning agent. Salt is an excellent cleaning agent, either on its own or in combination with other substances. If an iron pan is dirty, you scour it with coarse salt and then rinse well to clean it. Our responsibility as Christians is to become a cleaning agent. The earth is very dirty; there is a lot of uncleanness; viz., defiling practices like pornography, masturbation, fornication, oral sex, bestiality, etc. Wherever we find ourselves, we must discourage these practices. We must not judge those who indulge in them but with love, pray for them and lead them to Christ.

Another function of salt is to hold back corruption. In the days before refrigeration, people preserved meat by salting it. Likewise, it is our responsibility to hold back the forces of corruption – moral corruption, social corruption, political corruption – until God’s purposes of mercy and grace have been worked out for this world of ours. Now, suppose we fail in our function as salt –to give flavour, to clean and to hold back corruption. Listen to what Jesus said: ‘…..but if the salt have lost his savour…. It is thenceforth good for nothing...’ If we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing, we become good for nothing! We might expect ‘to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ How would you feel if that happened? It is a sobering fact that millions and millions of people across the earth’s surface today would count it their greatest privilege to trample Christians underfoot – particularly, the Christians of England, America, Nigeria, etc. God is not going to come down and trample us underfoot Himself, but He will turn us over to those who hate Christianity and all that it stands for. And the most bitter reflection of such a moment will be, ‘we deserved it. Jesus warned us. We didn’t listen. He said that if we did not serve as salt, we would be thrown out and trampled underfoot.’

PONDER: If you look all around the world, this is gradually beginning to happen. This is a wake- up call to every Christian.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

GRANULE OF SALT

MEMORY VERSE: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 17-20

The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word ‘salt’ is 'seasoning for food.' Matthew 5:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ There are over 14,000 uses for salt; our grandmas are probably familiar with most of them. Today, I will look at three main functions of salt: To give flavour, clean, and hold back corruption.

What do you do if a food is not tasty or somewhat bland? You simply sprinkle salt on it. The salt gives flavour to that which otherwise might be flavourless. Practising believers are the salt of the earth; as a matter of fact, we are little granules of salt sprinkled across the face of the earth. We have a responsibility to give the earth flavour for God. Our presence on the earth should make the whole world; viz., our communities, workplaces, homes, etc., acceptable to God in a way that it would not be acceptable to Him if we were not here as Christians living out our lives in His grace and love, worshipping and praising Him, and praying according to His will. Our presence makes all the difference as to how He (God) views the earth. Today, the earth may not know our value but I believe the earth will one day discover our value when God takes us all out in the great event known as the Rapture, but that day has not come yet.

Believers give this world flavour. Sodom and Gomorrah were flavourless, as far as God was concerned. The people in it were evil. When the day of destruction came, after consulting His friend (Abraham) the Lord said, "I will not destroy it for sake ten’s sake (Genesis 18:32).” The Lord decided to withhold Judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of ten righteous people i.e. ten granules of salt. Unfortunately, He could not find ten righteous people. You know the end of the story. For the sake of Paul (a granule of salt), the Lord preserved a ship, full of people, destined for shipwreck.

QUESTION: Friend, are you a salt of this earth? Are you a salt of your office? Can the Lord because of your service in His vineyard cause your children to find favour anywhere they go?

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

twitter@BroOluwatoki

AND HE RESTRAINED THEM NOT’

MEMORY VERSE: For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. 1 Samuel 3:13

BIBLE READING: 1 Kings 13-16

Eli: The Accepted. Eli was a priest who walked with God. He was indeed God’s servant. He prayed a simple prayer for a barren woman and nine months later, she gave birth to a son. 1 Samuel 1:17- 20 says: ‘Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him…and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.’ God approved of Eli by answering his prayers just as He approved of Jesus of Nazareth by miracles and wonders and signs. Acts 2:22 says: ‘Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.’
Eli: The rejected. Eli’s sons were 'sons of Belial'; viz., the most wicked, vilest, and most profligate wretches. They abused their position as priests (1 Samuel 2:22). Also, they abused women who came to offer sacrifices in the temple. At the end, God wiped out the family of Eli. 1 Samuel 4:19 says: ‘And his daughter in law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.’

What happened? How did ‘the accepted’ become ‘the rejected’? We need to know what happened for the following reasons: firstly, so that we do not end up like Eli ( 1 Samuel 3:12-13); secondly, so that we do not exhaust God’s mercy like Eli ( 1 Samuel 3:14); thirdly, so that we do not perish like Eli; and fourthly, so that we do not miss heaven at the end. What happened is documented in 1 Samuel 3:13: ‘For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.’ The Lord rejected Eli simply because his children dishonoured God and he didn’t discipline them. If the Lord rejected Eli because he didn’t discipline his children, I don’t think He will spare us if we don’t discipline our children.

NOTE: Children must be taught the fear of the Lord if we don’t want God to destroy them because God is a not respecter of persons.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world.