Daily Devotions 27Th Sept 2017

Col 3: 14Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity

In the earlier two verses, Paul states “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,,,,,Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Paul is teaching the believers in Colossae which was a textile centre which produced and market fine and expensive cloaks. This was a capital of textile industry and the people are rich because many are skilled in this trade.

In fact Colossae is the producer of high end clothing that is distributed through the whole civilized region. Kings and nobles would buy and use the clothing from here.

Paul using the terminology and language that the people understand most made an analogy of the fruit of the spirit or godly characteristics that all believers must possess. He compares godly traits as some kind of garment that we should put on. Paul is here saying that our lives must be dressed in the godly attributes or traits that would demonstrate our Christian character.

Paul is saying that when we have the character of Christ we would be able to overcome all the attacks that come against us from the enemies. When we are faced with hostility and criticism, we can respond with patience, forgiveness and love. With these as the anchor in our lives, we would be able to face and overcome all the storms of live that will come against us.

As ministers of God, we can be assured that such attacks will come upon us by the enemy. However, when we have all the fruit of the Sprit and together with love, we would be able to withstand and overcome all the attacks. Therefore let us put on the spiritual armour and also to inculcate the fruit of the Spirit ib our lives.

Daily Devotions 26th Sept 2017

2 Kings 4:6When all the jars were full…the oil stopped flowing.

This is the account of God’s mercies to the widow who was in financial distress. Her debtors were coming to take her children to be sold into slavery and she came to look for help from the prophet Elisha.

He asked her to borrow all the jars that she can get from her neighbours and then he instructed her to take the small bottle of oil that she had and asked her to begin filling up all the jars. When all the jars were full, then the oil from her own bottle stopped flowing.

What we learn from today’s scripture is that God is our provider. He is Jehovah Jireh who provides for all our needs. Today we continue to see such miracles, God is not a God of yesterday but He is the same today and forever.

We have been into mission fields where we have actually seen and experienced God’s provision. There was an instance where we were travelling from the city to another smaller town far away. The journey was over three hours and there were no villages or shops all along the way, it was either jungle of farms.

All along the way I saw that the fuel tank needle was sitting at empty, I was sitting beside the driver but I did not mention this to the driver. We literally drove on an empty tank for well over one hundred miles and the driver was travelling at high speed. When we finally reached the small town where we were going to minister to the villagers, only then I asked the drive about the empty tank.

Then the vehicle stopped. Truly God is our provider and He allowed us to travel on supernatural fuel. There are also other instances which we have witnessed.

On other occasions, God had multiplied the food for the feeding of larger group of people with just one cup of rice.

A group had been up on the prayer mountain for a month and it was the last day when they were preparing to come down. The cook prepared the last meal to eat before they start their trek down the mountain. Just then another group of prayer warriors arrived from downhill and they were invited to join the meal by the leader who did not know that there was just some rice cooked from the last cup.

The final result was that two groups of hungry people ate and were full from the small meal that was cooked from one cup of rice. In all there were around 40 people who ate. This was a real miracle of providence from God.

Indeed our God is still a miracle working God and all that we need s to continue to believe in Him and to pit our trust in Him. He is the one and only true God of the whole world.

Daily Devotions 25th Sept 2017

Acts 20: 32
Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up.

Paul has spent some time in Ephesus and now he is saying his farewell to the church leaders, he encourages them to grow in the word of his grace. After all the fatherly advice made Paul says ‘Now I commit you t God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up.’

Every natural and spiritual father would want their children to grow and do well in life. Just as any other father who is leaving the family would leave behind some advice, Paul is doing the same.

His thoughts are for their well-being and spiritual growth. This is the same thing with all of us, surely we want to see our children well brought up and become successful in whatever they do.

We have seen how parents would go to great extent to provide for the finances and opportunities for their children to receive good education and training so that they may become successful in life. Many parents even sacrifice everything they have to provide for the children’s education. Some will sell all their properties and make big sacrifices for their children.

In the same manner every spiritual or church leader would also like to see their spiritual offspring grow and be matured in their faith. As leaders, we too must continue to discharge our fatherly responsibilities to those who are our spiritual children and just like Paul, guide and lead them to grow spiritually.

Daily Devotions 24th Sept 2017

Gen 12: 8From there he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent

Abraham was a man of faith, he responded to God’s call even when he was advanced in age. He was comfortably settled in Haran and when God called him to move into a new country he immediately responded by gathering all his possessions and together with Lot his nephew and his possessions both groups migrated westward to Canaan.

It was a journey of obedience and faith, in total submission Abraham went where God had instructed him to go. For this act of obedience, he was accredited with faith for his obedience.

His actions have caused him to be remembered for all history and his name recorded for all men to remember.

God is looking for men and women of obedience which always bring blessing. In fact the scriptures tell us over and over that God hates disobedience which is also rebellion. With disobedience comes judgement and punishment.  

The most prominent lesson to learn from disobedience is that of King Saul, he disobeyed the commandments of God and he was removed as king, the throne passed over t David who was not his son. There were many other instances recorded in the bible about the disobedience of God’s servants and after a period of grace which God normally gives for the person to repent, He will finally pass his judgement and sentence.

These remind us that we must never fall into the temptation of disobedience. The result would be the judgement from God that would befall everyone who disobeys. This must be ingrained in all of us so that we may be blessed instead of being judged and receive the wrath of God.

Daily Devotions 23rd Sept 2017

Luke 5: 5Simon answered…”But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Here we have the instance where Jesus had got on to a Simon’s boat and they pushed off a short distance from the shore where Jesus preached to the crowd.

When he had finished he asked Simon to go further and let down his nets. This was still in the morning and Simon and his friends have toiled all night and caught nothing.

They were both tired and discouraged as they were seasoned fishermen who have fished in the sea of Galilee all their lives..

We see the response of Peter who heard Jesus and responded in faith, Simon replied. “Because you say so, I wil let down the nets.’

His trust in Jesus was rewarded Peter who had a casual relationship with Jesus up to now was moved from calling  Jesus ‘Master’ to calling Him Lord.

From this encounter, we learn that when we hear and obey God’s voice we will draw closer to Him. There is also that opportunity of receiving God’s blessings when we do as He says.

In the case of Simon, by obeying, a bad night of fishing turned into a blessing of a big catch.

In our walk and relationship with God, we often walk by sight using our human wisdom and understanding just like Simon and he turned to obeying and subsequently received the blessing.

There are many things in life that we do not fully understand and sometimes when we are called into a new ministry, we cannot see or we cannot understand where the Lord is leading us into. But knowing God, He will definitely have a blessing in store for us.

Therefore walking in obedience is important when we serve God. When we walk with Him, He will surely lead and bless us abundantly.

Job 2: 10Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?

Here is Job being tested for his faith in God who had permitted the devil to test Job except taking of his life. Job was a righteous man who had been faithful to God all his life, even when his wife taunted him to give up on God, Job replied her saying, ‘shall we accept good from God and not trouble?.’

Job understood that God can use trials and tribulations to strengthen our faith. When Job had to suffer painful sores he responded by affirming his trust in God. He never murmured or blames God at all.

The lesson from this book shows that in this world, sometime believers are not spared from troubles and testing. God do permit that His children would be tested and He knew that this is like tempering a piece of metal in fire to make it strong. Just as a piece of metal is burned, softened, beaten and then hardened into a worthy instrument for the owner; we too are being tested at time so that we might grow stronger in the Lord.

Testing will develop character, each time we go through a trial we come through like become smarter and stronger as we have endured the test and trial and when we encounter similar tests next time, we would not be fearful of it but we would be able to face and confront it with great confidence and skills.

Sometime we need to understand that we must accept challenges in our l9ves in  order to grow and be honed.

Eph 6: 18Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

In this verse Paul encourages the believers to pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers particularly praying in tongues. Praying in the Spirit means to pray in the spiritual language given to us by the Holy Spirit.

When we pray in the Spirit we surrender our prayer life to the Holy Spirit. Our mind is not fruitful as we would not be thinking about what to pray or how to pray. Paul knew the importance of praying in the spirit and he demonstrated it by praying all the time in tongues. That is why he said that he prayed in tongues more than anyone else. He did it primarily to strengthen his inner man and to build on the anointing that he carried. Secondly he set an example for us to follow.

A good teacher must be a good practitioner of what he teaches. Just as a good chef is a good instructor to teach his students the culinary skills. Similarly a good doctor would also be a good medical teacher. He needs to teach from knowledge and experience.

Similarly, for those of us who wants to be teachers, first we need to build a good practice of the skills we are to teach. Secondly we need to be effective in the skills. It is not head knowledge that we are promoting but the real practical skills in ministries. This is why the apostles are all good teaches as they are also excellent practitioners. They not only talk but they walk their talk.

Paul also said that if it is all talk without works, then these teachers would only be as sounding gongs without substance.

Therefore we as minsters must be proof producers for what we practice and teach.

Daily Devotions 20th Spet 2017

Eccl 4: 9-10
Two are better than one… if either of them falls down, one can help the other up.

King Solomon, the wisest man who lived continues to teach that in life, we cannot be alone. This is more so especially in our spiritual walk and ministry. We need a companion, Jesus demonstrated this when He send out the disciples in pairs. Firstly it is for companionship; secondly each can help and support one another.

I have seen of people who said that they can do everything alone and even better than others. This speaks of pride in the person and very soon we will see that such a man will suffer setbacks and failure firstly because there is a lack of accountability. Secondly he will fail to see his own weaknesses and short coming.

If we see the most successful minsters globally, they have team support, there are others who are walking with them and moving with them. There is team work and some of the team members will look after the needs of the rest. This is also what the apostles did; they instructed that teams be set up to look after the day to day administration of the church whereas they would devote their time to prayer and the teaching of the word.

Ministry is definitely teamwork and Solomon with wisdom of God taught that no single person going about doing the Lord’s work should be doing it alone. They need to have partnership.

This is more so when anyone is in spiritual warfare, they must always have a partner who is in support in prayer. When in spiritual warfare the leader is actively in leadership, the partner must also be actively in prayer supporting the leader. Then when one is tired, the other can take over. It is also to watch out for any sneak attack that may come from the enemy.

This is what Solomon said, when either falls, the other can help to lift the other up again.

Daily Devotions 19th Sept 2017

Phip 4: 12I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation

Paul is writing about his life as a faithful servant of God, he was an itinerant preacher and he had to live by faith. This means that he had no full time financial support from any sources. There was no fixed income from any sponsor or sending church, in fact we read that he had to work to support his own ministry and when he could not find any work, he often had to go without food and sometimes even for many days.

He had only the piece of clothes on his body and nothing more. He did not carry a wallet as he had no money to bring along. This was the price he had to pay when he decided to follow Jesus; he turned his back to all the materialism of the world. He forsook all the fame that he had before, now he was despised by his former friends who were the religious temple leaders and now they had turned against him and had become his persecutors instead.

In spite of all these difficulties and challenges, Paul never looked back to his past but he kept his focus on Jesus as he had that personal encounter with the Lord. Looking at his circumstances now, Paul said in the next verse in Phip 4: 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Truly when God calls us, He will also enable us to bear all the consequences that come along with it. In the present day, we see that many full time ministers are enjoying the luxury of successful ministries where there are able to afford multi million dollars penthouses, mansions, cars and even jet planes.

But this is not how the early apostles started and finished, today we still see many of the evangelists and travelling ministers living on shoe string budgets. They have to pay their travelling costs on their own; they go to small churches that cannot afford to give them generous love gifts, but they do all these through the love that Jesus had given them for the people. They are true servants of the Lord.

They lay down their lives and do not count the cost. This is what Jesus is saying and calling out to us. Are we willing to pay the price for our lives as he ahd paid His?

Daily Devotions 18th Sept 2017

Heb 12: 1-2Let us run with the perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

This chapter comes immediately after chapter 11 which dealt with the faith of the mighty men and women of old. It traced their exploits and success in their journey of faith as they trusted in God to lead and deliver them through all kinds of life challenging situations.

Jesus also promised that He would not forsake us in Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” With this promise we now have faith to carry on in our work for the kingdom no matter what challenges are before us.

The writer of Hebrews said, let run with ‘perseverance’ this means there will be challenges and discouragements as we continue whatever we are called to do. No ministry is easy and without challenge, if so then that ministry would not be effective. If the devil does not hinder us then we are ineffective against him and he is not bothered with us.

The writer here tells us that when there are challenges and storms around us that is the time not to give up but to press on because victory and breakthrough may be just around the corner and we will enjoy the fruit of our ministry.

As in the natural, after every storm there is the calm and tranquillity that follows. Sometimes we may not see nor understand why things are not going the way we want, this is because our ways are imperfect, God knows what is best for each of us and he knows our skills and abilities and knows what and how much we can handle.

Jesus is the one who is our coach; He is always by our side to encourage us to keep the course and to complete the race. He promised that He would be with us until the end of the earth, this would mean that he would be with us until we complete and finish our race on earth. The work that He has called us to do will surely be completed because Jesus will strengthen and equip us to complete that which He has called us to do.  

Philemon 1: 16He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

This was a personal letter that Paul wrote to Philemon. The occasion is that Onesimus a slave of Philemon had done some wrong and was thrown into the prison where he met Paul and was converted. Now Onesimus is a changed man having been born again when Paul led him to Jesus.

We see here that Paul is now acting as a peace maker as he writes personally to Philemon whom Paul knew personally. Paul wrote urging Philemon to receive Onesimus again as he now returns not as a slave but as a brother in Christ.

This was a difficult decision for Philemon to make, firstly Onesimus was a slave and secondly a convict of low social status. He was struggling to make the decision to receive such a man and we do understand his predicament.

In such circumstances a normal person would think twice before accepting and receiving a slave and prisoner into his house.  Sometimes we too are put into such dilemma and we are in a difficult position to decide.

The only way is to ask God for a merciful and compassionate heart  to forgive and receive back. There are times when we too are faced with such similar positions and find it difficult to decide.

That is the time when we must seek God’s prompting and direction. It is when we lean to listen to the still voce of God who will speak to us.

Eph 4: 26In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

What Paul is saying here is that we ought to provide a time limit on unresolved issues and we must also consciously keep anger in check. Often we just try and justify our stubbornness or inflexibility through righteous anger. Given that sometimes any misunderstanding or quarrel was not our doing but the work of those who come against us and intimidate us.

Looking at the example of Jesus and the early apostles, they were all righteous and holy people. What fault could there be held against them? But it was all because of the evil men who were creating troubles for them.

Looking at the offences that the attackers had against Jesus and the apostles we can see that the attackers were the most unreasonable and unscrupulous. Jesus and the apostle did not act or do anything to that would have offended anyone. Therefore it would be most unreasonable for them to attack Jesus and the apostles.

Humanly speaking the attackers are most unreasonable and therefore it would have been justified if Jesus and the apostles had retaliated. However they did not but remained as humble as sheep led to the slaughter.

In the present global conditions, we see that the Church is also greatly persecuted throughout. Some of the churches in the world are being burned down or bombed. Some have stood for thousands of years and have great historical value but these religious terrorists have no qualms to destroy what they like never respecting the honour of other people.

The Christians are being captured, sold as sex slaves, some are tortured and martyred. The question asked is, ‘what wrong have they done?’ The answer is ‘Nothing’.

The only thing that they have done is to be faithful to God and to hold fats to their faith and for this, they were tortured and killed. This is the most evil and demonic action that we see in the world today. This is spreading worldwide and global authorities like the UN is not doing anything about it. Instead they are supporting the terrorist’s evil activities.

Look at the attack of the twin towers in New York, thousands of innocent lives were lost and hundreds of millions were lost. Was there a reason for this? No! except that these terrorists are led and controlled by the evil forces of Satan.

So as believers, what are we to do about all these? Paul tells us that yes we can get angry buy we must not fall into sin. What does this mean? Falling into sin is when we purpose in our hearts to take revenge and to scheme evil acts in retaliation. Paul reminds us, get angry but do not react, if we do we will sin.

Therefore the only thing is to pray and seek God’s strength and mercy to forgive the most evil enemy just as Jesus did on the cross. Jesus did not call down fire and legions of angels to come down to defend Him. He just submitted to the perfect plan of God so that through His obedience we now have salvation.

Daily Devotions 15th Sept 2017

John 1: 12To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

To the people of Israel, they had identified themselves as the descendants of father Abraham. They had pride in being the chosen people of God who had promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the Promised Land.

Over the centuries, the people of Israel had experienced blessing and judgement from God depending on their obedience or disobedience to God’s commandments. If they had remain faithful to God they will enjoy a certain period of blessing but when they have turned their backs to God, then judgement came upon them including the the dispersing of the whole nation.

However when Jesus came, He promised all believers that they can now become children of God if they believed in His name and follow Him. For all who received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Jesus gave them the privilege to become joint heirs with Him to inherit the Kingdom of heaven.

This is the privilege of all believers provided that we remain faithful and obedience to Jesus. This is also applicable to us today; no one can come to God the Father except through His Son Jesus.

Today we are the spiritual children of God, though we are not born as the natural Jews, we are grafted into the family of Jesus Christ when we accepted Him as our Savior. Today, we have the assurance that as long as we remain in Christ, then our citizenship in heaven is assured.

However, we are also commanded that we must go out to the world and preach the Gospel to the lost so that in turn, they too can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Daily Devotions 14th Sept 2017

Judges 21: 25In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

After the death of Moses and Joshua who finally led them into the Promised Land, the new generation of Israelite forgot what God had done for them and they had rejected godly leadership. Everyone did what they saw fit; they made their own policies and did what they like.

Then God raised up judges who led the Israelite with the same authority as kings. They had the power to make decisions and to set directions for the people. When each judge died, the Israelite forgot about God and drifted further and further from God.

Today God has send Jesus Christ who came as our Saviour and also as our King. He is also our judge as the scriptures tell us that on that day of judgement, Jesus will be the judge who will judge over all mankind. Everyone will have to stand before Jesus and give an account of our lives to Jesus. Whatever we do and whatever we said will be judged.

Knowing this then, we must live worthy of our calling and remain faithful to Jesus so that we can secure our salvation. Each and every one must repent of our sins and to set our lives right with Jesus.

Today as we see the world events unfold and as we witness the numerous signs and events that are prophesied before the return of Jesus, let us continue to remain obedient to Jesus and to live righteously for Him.

Daily Devotions 13th Sept 2017

Heb 11: 13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and stranger on earth.

This chapter of Hebrews is the ‘faith chapter’ which mentioned nineteen people who had lived committed lives to the Lord and whose names have been recorded for posterity as a light house and a guide for holy living.

The writer of Hebrews said that all of them were men and women of great faith and they lived purely by faith and all died in their faith. They could only look forward to the things which have been promised to the believers but they only had a picture of the inheritance of the kingdom but they could not experience the glory of it.

The writer said that we are different from the saints of old as we now have the Holy Spirit and His work among us. Jesus Christ had sent the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us and also empowers us to works of miracles. With the gifts of the Holy Spirit we are now able to have power and authority over the powers of darkness and we are able to perform miracles of healing and other supernatural works.

This chapter also reminds us of the faith and the working of it in the lives of the saints of old. It encourages us to follow in their footsteps and lean to live and walk like them in the Spirit. They did not have the Holy Spirit in them and working with them, all they had was the faith and hope whereas we have the anointing and the presence f the Holy Spirit working alongside us as we do the work of ministry.

This chapter was written to strengthen and encourage the present day believers turn our eyes upon the author and finisher of the gospel. Today we can partner with Jesus and the Holy Spirit to go out and to do the work of the kingdom.

Daily Devotions 12th Sept 2017

2 Cor 5: 19

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Paul expounds in this chapter the love of God through the act of sending His Son to bring the gospel of salvation so that He can reconcile all men back to Him. When sin entered the world through Adam, the judgement of sin as pronounced and all men were condemned to a spiritual death.

But God started immediately His plan of salvation even in the Garden of Eden where he said in Gen 3: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise they head and thou shall bruise his heel. This was the prophecy of God’s plan of redemption for the world.

Jesus would come as the sacrificial Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Through this act of obedience on His part, the precious blood of Jesus would be shed to wash away all our sins and anyone who receive Jesus as their personal Saviour would have their sins cleansed by His blood.

This is the reconciliation plan of God to bring all sinners back to Himself. There is no other way that can satisfy God except through the sacrifice of the perfect sacrificial lamb which is His Son who is pure and holy, perfect and sinless. Only the sacrifice of Jesus can fulfill the demands of God.

Today, we who are sinners are saved because of the total obedience and sacrifice of Jesus who came, suffered and died on the Cross so that our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled back to the Father.

Praise be to God for His love and reconciliation, now we have the gift of eternal life through Him.

Daily Devotions 11th Sept 2017

John 1: 14The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us

In the Gospel of John he dealt with the divinity of Jesus Christ right from the first verse which declared that Jesus is part of the Trinity as being the second person in it. John also declared that the whole creation was done by Jesus as He is the living word of the Godhead.

Jesus is the word and He is also the person who spoke the word of creation. All creation was spoken into being by Jesus. He is also the authoritative word of God, some other part of scriptures narrate that He is the living Word.

In verse 14 here John explained that the authoritative word of the Trinity steps down from His divinity and He became flesh just as a normal man. In this form, Jesus had to come in the flesh as a helpless infant; He had to go through the normal process of human life. This meant that He would have suffered needs of hunger, cold, discomfort just like any other man.

From His previous position as the second person in the Trinity, He stepped down temporarily from His divinity so that He can experience what all men experience and He could then show us the way to overcome and conquer all challenges that we would face in the flesh. He taught and showed the way to overcome temptations, take authority over the forces of darkness with the power of His name and the power of the blood that He shed for us.

Jesus’ sole purpose of coming in the flesh and to live powerlessly in the flesh so that we too in the flesh as man can follow His steps and do what He had done. Jesus said in Matthew 16: 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This is possible after Jesus had come and demonstrated how He did it and taught us how to do it now. On top of that He had sent the Holy Spirit to us so as to empower us to work the works of miracles. Though we are still ordinary men in the flesh but now we have the empowering or the anointing of the Holy Spirit who enables us to do the miraculous works as He chose.

Today, we are seeing increasingly the equipping and empowering of more and more servants of God who are performing great miracles in the name of Jesus.

This was the purpose of Jesus’ coming so that He can raise up men and women who are able to do the works that He did. Praise the Lord that we have this privilege and power to do His works. 

Daily devotions 10th Sept 2017

2 Cor 3: 2

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

Paul reminds us that we are the letters of Christ for men to read our hearts and life.

Recently I went to do a house visitation where there was a spiritual need and the lady of the house was narrating how till today she has refrain from becoming a believer because of the very bad behavior and testimonies of her close relatives who are supposed to be Christians but whose lifestyle are far from being so.

Paul reminds us that we are the living testimonies of Jesus Christ, who we are and what we are is determined by our lifestyle. Do we bear the fruit of the Spirit; do we have the testimony of Christ in our lives?  Do we live like Christ, do what He did and are we an agent of influence and change to those around us.

Non-believers do not read the bible and they do not know our Saviour Jesus. They see us, they know us but do they see Jesus in us? Are we truly living testimonies of what we believe in?

Paul says that our hearts and lives are the living proof of what we believe in. Do others see the love of Christ in our lives? Do we have the same love and compassion of Christ that when we are around the non-believers, would they be attracted to our Saviour because they see something different in us?

Perhaps it is time for us to consciously live like Jesus, talk like Jesus and do everything like Jesus so that others will see the proof of Jesus in our lives.

Let us be doers of the word and not just speakers only. Let us walk the talk for Jesus.

Daily Devotions 9th Sept 2017

John 14: 8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Christianity is a journey of faith, many of us have received Jesus as our saviour without having seen Him and we have also never seen God. Our faith is based upon what we read in scriptures which are God breathe and given to holy men who have recorded it for our edification and learning.

Understand that during the time of Jesus, the people were mostly uneducated and were illiterate. Many would not be able to read and there were not so many literature or books at that time. All that they believe were transmitted through word of mouth, and for them at that time they were privileged to be with Jesus and saw the miracles that He did.

In their own simple mind set, they asked a legitimate question which was ‘show us the Father God.’ To this Jesus answered, that those who know Him will know the Father as the Son always look like the father and has the DNA of the Father.

Jesus said, if you know me, then you will now the Father. Jesus is confirming that the character and features of Jesus is a close image of the Father. Therefore when we draw near to Jesus we would be drawing close to God.

Therefore we are so blessed that since we have the privilege to get to now Jesus intimately, then we in like manner would be able to get to know our Father God intimately.

Whatever and whenever we ask Jesus in prayer, the Father will hear us through His Son. That is the assurance that Jesus had given to us, that whatever we ask according to His will and in His name, our Father God will answer.

Daily Devotions 8th Sept 2017

Psalm 30: 5Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

David who wrote most of the psalms has been very poignant when he wrote. He had a lifelong experience of ups and downs, good times as well as bad.

In this psalm he recollected his pains and the feeling of loss. There was great pain in his heart and he had endured suffering for some time but the difference was though he had to go through all these, he never gave up hope in God. In this verse David wrote in his lamentation that surely weeping may stay for the night but breakthrough or rejoicing will come in the morning.

David put his trust in God and though what he saw was not encouraging but his faith in God tells him that God will grant him a breakthrough in granting the answer to his prayers.

These psalms of David reveal that he was just an ordinary man like us but he had an extraordinary faith in God that touched the heart of God and his prayers moved the hand of God.

Through prayers David poured out all his troubles which were quite significant as compared to us. Imagine he was pursued by his father in law the king and for many years this persecution continued and David had to constantly change his hiding place. He ran into the wilderness of Judea and the scriptures tell us that he spend considerable time at En Gedi which is on the side of the Dead Sea. From Jerusalem to En Gedi, there is the vast Negev desert.

The temperature is extremely hot and the terrain is mountainous and there were no proper roads as it is now. David had to flee on foot as his small party of loyal bodyguards escorted him in his escape. They had to hide in the caves of the mountains which we can see today as we ride along the shore line of the Dead Sea today.

The mountain sides are barren and rocky, it was very dangerous to travel on but David and his body guards had to do it and sometimes even when his persecutors were chasing them close behind.

It was during one of these occasions as he rested in one of the caves that David wrote many of the psalms and this is one of them where he lamented of his woes but he proclaims that God will deliver him the next morning.

We too can take comfort in this as when we at times are also faced with great difficulties and problems, I believe that none of us would have experience greater problems and difficulties than David.

Our God is still the same and as He has delivered David, He will also hear our prayers and deliver us.

Acts 8: 2Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.

We see that there was a group of godly people who were ready to stand up against the persecution that the Jews were inflicting upon the believers. Here was the account when the temple zealots including Saul who was a young man then took Stephen one of the Christian leaders and stoned him to death outside the city walls.

Though the believers were outnumbered they were unafraid as we see that after Stephen had been martyred, the group of spirit filled believers came and took Stephen’s body for burial. It is recorded that they are the godly men who were with Stephen.

They mourned deeply for Stephen as he was a deeply loved leader among the believers. We can imagine the trauma that they had to endured when they see one of their leaders being stoned to a painful death.

When death occurs, it is a natural thing to be sorrowful and the loss of a loved one will result in pain and emotional hurt. This sadness is a natural effect of loss. Even in the animal kingdom we can see this expression of sadness when there is a loss by death.

In the midst of sorrow, God gave strength to Stephen who was the first martyr when God opened the heavens and Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God waiting to receive him. The bodily life is a temporary period that we spend on the earth, it is just a fraction of time in eternity.

When we get to heaven that is where we will be for eternity. Compared to eternity, our time on earth may be like a few short minutes of our lives. Thinking back we can remember when we were young and little children.

Just this week some of my former classmates organized a get together for the first time after 60 years have passed. Everyone who came together are already in the 70s and practically everyone could not recognize each other and had to introduce themselves again.

The bible tells us that our life span is 70 years and a little more if we are lucky. Looking at that all of us from our young school days are already living in our bonus years and we do not know when we will leave this world. Some of our friends have left this world and others in the years ahead would also die off.

But for us who know the Lord, we rejoice in knowing that when we pass on from this temporary earth we will move on to inherit the eternity in the heavenly kingdom with our Lord, Jesus Christ. We must be living with this hope as the early believers that no matter what happen on this earth we shall inherit our eternity in heaven.

Therefore we ought to encourage each other and to build up each other as we go through life on this earth.

Daily Devotions 6th Sept 2017

2 Kings 19: 14

Then Hezekiah went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

This account is the occasion when King Hezekiah had received a threatening letter from his enemy the Assyrians who had threatened to destroy Jerusalem. During this time, Assyria was the strongest nation in the known region of the Middle East.

They had carried out great conquests stretching from India to Europe. The Assyrian armies are well trained, equipped and ferocious warriors. There were many of these who have come from different nations and are conscripted as slave warriors who duty was only to fight in the battles and win or they die in the battles.

To these people they were trained and prepared to battle till death. This was the fierce army that King Hezekiah faced and when he had received the letter of threat, he immediately fell before the Lord and presented his needs to God.

When we are faced with similar situations that will bring fear, anxiety we have precedence here where we can learn from Hezekiah and run straight to God and petition Him to guide our steps and calm our fears.

When Hezekiah cried out God answered him that He is greater and stronger than the Assyrian army. This may seem very difficult to comprehend but the God of Hezekiah is also our God today. What he had done for Hezekiah and other faithful men, God is able to do the same today.

Look at the many Apostles, Evangelists, and Prophets whom God had raised in the world today. God hears their prayers and He answers them through the working of many miracles which are well documented through video and verified by high authorities certifying the working of these miracles.

Let us continue to trust in God and turn to Him each day.