Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 27, 2026.

SUBJECT: GOD’S GRACE AND OUR FAITH!

Memory verse: “Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17 vs 20.)

READ: Mark 9 vs 17 - 18; 23 - 24:

9:17: Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.

9:18: And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

9:23: Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

9:24: Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

INTIMATION:

There is a very thin line between “grace” and “faith” that is often missed by us. Because these two work together, the line between them is difficult for many to discern. And if we do miss it, our lives become confused. Many trust their faith to meet their needs. When their needs are not met, then they tried to have more faith because they are unable to discern the very thin line between faith and grace. They are not seeing beyond their faith to seek the grace of God (the power of God) to meet their needs.

Most people seemed to base all achievements on their faith, when, in reality, every victory or achievement is based on God's faithfulness bestowed on us through His grace—the power of God. If we frustrate the grace of God, we are going to feel frustrated. This explains why, by the grace of God, we receive our petition even when our faith is near zero.

In our memory verse, Jesus told His disciples who were worried that they couldn’t heel the epileptic child, ‘if you have faith as small as the mustard seed (tiniest known seed on earth), you can move the mountain.’ The disciples were surprised because they had done such things in the past (see Mark 6 vs 13). The disciples were followers of Christ and believed in Him. Jesus, at some point, sent them out in pairs as His coworkers. The Scripture says, “And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits” (Mark 6 vs 7).

Now note this, Jesus sent them out two by two as His coworkers, and gave them power over unclean spirits; “And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6 vs 13). Though, they believed and followed Jesus, but it wasn’t their faith or believe that enabled them to accomplish those exploits of healing the sick and casting out demons. It was the power of God—the power over unclean spirits given to them by Jesus when they departed—that enabled them to accomplish all that they did.

When they came back, they were very happy with their accomplishments, and obviously should have built up greater faith. With their increased faith, they expected to accomplish much more exploits, such that heeling the epileptic child wouldn’t have been a problem to them. But surprisingly they couldn’t. This was because in the company, and presence of Jesus, the power of God (the grace of God) for such accomplishments was no more with them, but with the Master Himself, their greater faith not withstanding.

Jesus was teaching them that it is the power of God (the grace of God) bestowed upon them that enabled them to do exploits, and no matter the size of their faith, they should seek the power of God (the grace of God) to come through for them in any situation they face in life. And in some cases, they will not only pray for grace, but will also back it up with fasting to able to bring the power of God to bear on life’s circumstances they face: “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17 vs 21). This same kingdom principle remains, and is unchanging, and is applicable to us believers even in this time.

In order to get our needs met, in order to receive anything from the Lord, we must have both faith and grace. It is by grace through faith that we are saved. And it is by grace through faith that all our prayers are answered, and all of our needs are met. Keep your eyes on God to deliver you, not on your faith.

In Second Timothy 2 vs 13, the Bible says, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself." The Bible is teaching us here to get our eyes off our ability to believe (as the ultimate), but rather on God's willingness to meet our needs even though we do not have perfect faith, or no faith at all.

Remember the father of the epileptic child had virtually little faith, which was even eroded when the disciples failed him. Jesus knew his state of mind and said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The man immediately tried to build up his faith and replied, "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief" or "Help my weakness of faith!" The man knew his faith was lacking, but he was honest about it, and Jesus healed his son. (See Mark 9 vs 17 - 24.) God's grace (power) came on the scene and gave the man what he did not deserve due to his unbelief.

Prayer: Abba Father, let Your grace be available to me at all times, that I may be able to face all my life’s challenges and meet all my needs, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Possible with God

 Possible with God

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16)

God has a people in every people group in the world. He will call them through the gospel with Creator power. And they will believe! What a power is in these words for overcoming discouragement in the hard places of the frontiers!

The story of Peter Cameron Scott is a good illustration. Born in Glasgow in 1867, Scott became the founder of the Africa Inland Mission. But his beginnings in Africa were anything but auspicious.

His first trip to Africa ended in a severe attack of malaria that sent him home. He resolved to return after he recuperated. This return was especially gratifying to him because this time his brother John joined him. But before long, John was struck down by fever.

All alone, Peter buried his brother in African soil, and in the agony of those days recommitted himself to preach the gospel in Africa. Yet his health gave way again, and he had to return to England.

How would he ever pull out of the desolation and depression of those days? He had pledged himself to God. But where could he find the strength to go back to Africa? With man it was impossible!

He found strength in Westminster Abbey. David Livingstone’s tomb is still there. Scott entered quietly, found the tomb, and knelt in front of it to pray. The inscription reads:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING.

He rose from his knees with a new hope. He returned to Africa. And today, over a hundred years later, the mission he founded is a vibrant, growing force for the gospel in Africa.

If your greatest joy is to experience the infilling grace of God overflowing from you for the good of others, then the best news in all the world is that God will do the impossible through you for the salvation of the unreached peoples.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 26, 2026.

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING FINDING FAVOR WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "Then the angel said to her, " Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God." (Luke 1 vs 30.)

READ: Luke 1 vs 27 - 30:

1:27: To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

1:28: And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

1:29: And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

1:30: And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

1:31: And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

1:32: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

1:33: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

INTIMATION:

Favor is kindness, approval, friendly reward from a superior, a kind action, or a grace given by a giver. Therefore, to find favor with God is to have His approval or grace. It is

to experience His divine approval, unmerited grace, and active delight in a person's life. 

Like grace and mercy, favor is a gift from God rather than something humans can force or manipulate. It is not a commodity to be earned through perfection, but a spiritual posture of relationship, trust, and alignment with God's Will, and is given entirely at His initiative because He delights in the receiver. 

It is noteworthy that finding favor with God does not automatically bring instant success or fame, but it eventually ends in glory on the part of the receiver. Having God's favor does not mean a life free of pain or difficulty (as seen with biblical figures like Joseph or Moses); rather, it means God's presence and purpose to remain active through the struggle.

Joseph experienced God's tangible presence and promotion even while facing betrayal and imprisonment in his journey of life. But it eventually led to the glorious position he held as a prime minister in a foreign land, and the birth of the nation of Israel as purposed by God. 

Now, in the passage we read today, Mary found favor with God. However, His blessing on Mary; the honor of being the mother of the Messiah, would initially lead to much pain such as her being ridiculed of pregnancy outside wedlock, her fiance would come close to leaving her, her son would be rejected and murdered. But through her son would come the world's only hope, and this is why Mary has been praised by countless generations. Her submission to the favor and Will of God was part of God's plan to bring about salvation. 

The Angel Gabriel announced that Mary was favored among all women because she was chosen by God to give birth to the incarnate Son of God. At this time, however, Mary didn't understand all that was happening, nor did she understand that she was selected by God to bring the Messiah and Son of God into the world. 

Mary was chosen by God to be the means by which the Son of God would be incarnate in the flesh of man. She was not chosen because of any special holiness or good works on her part. There were many young women of her time who had the same spiritual qualities. It was only by the grace of God that she was chosen. She didn't earn the right to be chosen for this unique work of God to bring the Redeemer into the world. 

Mary was a young, poor, female at the time she found favor with God, and by human standards, all these characteristics, to the people of her day, would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. But God chose her for one of the most important acts of obedience He has ever demanded of anyone. 

You may feel that your ability, experience, or education makes you an unlikely candidate for God's service, but what is important is God taking pleasure in your heart, choices, and character. Don't limit God's choices. He can use you if you trust Him. 

Are you following God but still suffering or suffering even worse than before? If your life is miserable, don't assume you have fallen out of God's favor. You may be suffering from doing good in an evil world. If sorrow weighs you down and dims your hope, think of Mary and wait patiently for God to finish working out His plan. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to find favor with You, for I know with it comes a my glorious end for me, that would be in accord with Your predetermined purpose for my life, in Jesus' name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Medicine for the Missionary

 Medicine for the Missionary

“All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Sovereign grace is the spring of life for the Christian Hedonist. For what the Christian Hedonist loves best is the experience of the sovereign grace of God filling him, and overflowing for the good of others.

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God (1 Corinthians 3:7; Romans 11:36).

They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own. Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Romans 15:18).

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and the antidote to pride — the perfect missionary medicine.

The Great Missionary Hope

 The Great Missionary Hope

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)

The great missionary hope is that when the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God himself does what man cannot do: he creates the faith that saves. The call of God does what the call of man can’t. It raises the dead. It creates spiritual life. It is like the call of Jesus to Lazarus in the tomb, “Come out!” And the dead man obeyed and came out. The call created the obedience by creating life (John 11:43). That is how anyone is saved.

We can waken someone from sleep with our call, but God’s call can summon into being things that are not (Romans 4:17). God’s call is irresistible in the sense that it can overcome all resistance. It is infallibly effective according to God’s purpose — so much so that Paul can say, “Those whom [God] called he also justified” (Romans 8:30), even though we are only justified by our faith.

In other words, God’s call is so effectual that it infallibly creates the faith through which a person is justified. All the called are justified according to Romans 8:30. But none is justified without faith (Romans 5:1). So the call of God cannot fail in its intended effect. It irresistibly brings into being the faith that justifies.

This is what man cannot do. It is impossible. Only God can take out the heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). Only God can draw people to the Son (John 6:44, 65). Only God can open the spiritually dead heart so that it gives heed to the gospel (Acts 16:14). Only the Good Shepherd knows his sheep, and calls them by name with such compelling power that they all follow — and never perish (John 10:3–4, 14). 

The sovereign grace of God, doing the humanly impossible, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the great missionary hope.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2026.

SUBJECT: TRUE AND FAITHFUL COMPANIONSHIP WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6 vs 8.)

READ: Deuteronomy 10 vs 12 - 13:

10:12: And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

10:13: and to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command you today for your good?

INTIMATION:

God desires to have constant fellowship with us. He is ready to walk with us; to be our companion, if we can meet His expectations. He is willing to let us be with Him, if we will seek such a relationship; the teacher-mentor kind of companionship. 

God requires five things from us: (1) We must fear God’s awesome Being. (2) We must obediently walk according to His Will. (3) We must respond to Him with love. (4) Our lives must be one of service for His glory. (5) We must know and obey His commandments. Compliance with all that God requires results in our well-being on earth among ourselves, and our fellowship with God. 

There are four major ingredients for a relationship that would be described as a true and faithful companionship. These are: (1) Agreement, (2) Experience, (3) Conversation, and (4) Learning, and these are required in our companionship with God. 

The first is ‘Agreement.’ The Scripture states clearly thus: "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?"(Amos 3 vs 3.) You have to want to spend time together. This is God’s heart desire. He tells us in many different ways in His Word that He desires to be with us. Jesus said to us, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11 vs 28 - 30.)

The second is ‘Experience.’ You would share experiences together because you are together by definition. One of the special privileges we have as believers is sharing our heart with God and in turn learning more about His heart toward us and others. We get to see His overwhelming goodness, infinite patience, unchanging love, and unending mercies, as we study the Word. The Holy Spirit makes the Word come alive in our hearts and points things out from it that are specifically for us and our situations. 

The third ingredient is ‘Conversation.’ There should be conversation (fellowship) between you and God through prayers. Not just one way, but rather you wait to hear from Him. When you are with someone who monopolizes a conversation, or who does not let you talk, but only wants you to listen, you feel uneasy, dominated, and useless in the conversation. You may feel your opinion matters little since it is rarely sought.

Almost all the times we are guilty of doing this to God: We rush into His presence with our "want" list and then, in essence, after presenting our requests and/or complaints, we close the time with Him with, "In Jesus' name, Amen." No time to get His input, no time to seek His advice. Only a time to "dump" on Him. The apostle Peter advised us to give the Lord all our burdens and cares (First Peter 5 vs 7). Yes, we are to present our anxieties to Him, but then, we should wait for His response.

The fourth ingredient is ‘Learning.’ Learning from the “Superior Partner”—God. When we spend time with God, we would come to appreciate Him more as we get to know Him better. We become more relaxed in His presence. When we learn from Him, we understand ourselves better; our strengths and weaknesses, how to emphasize or overcome them, why we do things the way we do, how to change our negative responses, and the like. We also learn much about others and how better to interact with them, showing forth all the fruit of the Spirit.

Somebody will quickly ask, 'How do we hear from God or learn from Him?' He speaks to us through His Word—the Bible. God is the same with His Word. As we study we hear Him speak to us by understanding His opinion contained in His Word, thereby learn more about Him. In the course of your spiritual development, God can speak to you in a vision, through others, or even in audible voice.

God is ready to be our true and faithful companion. He is willing to let us be with Him, if we will seek such a relationship. And it is to our utmost benefit because walking with Him frees us from all burdens, and gives us rest. A relationship with God changes meaningless, worrisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose. 

Companionship with God is a shared relationship with weight falling on the bigger shoulders of God than ours. We have someone with more pulling power upfront helping. Consequently, you are participating in life’s responsibilities with a greater Partner. Consequently, the frown can turn into a smile, and the gripe into a song.

Prayer: Abba Father, I crave for Your faithful and effective companionship. Endue me with the spirit of obedience and undying fellowship with You, that I will walk in accordance with Your precepts, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Christ Is Like Sunlight

 Christ Is Like Sunlight

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. (Hebrews 1:3)

Jesus relates to God the way radiance relates to glory, or the way the rays of sunlight relate to the sun. 

Keep in mind that every analogy between God and natural things is imperfect and will distort if you press it. Nevertheless, consider for example,

There is no time that the sun exists without the beams of radiance. They cannot be separated. The radiance is co-eternal with the glory. Christ is co-eternal with God the Father.

The radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different from the glory. Christ is God standing forth as separate but not essentially different from the Father.

Thus the radiance is eternally begotten, as it were, by the glory — not created or made. If you put a solar-activated calculator in the sunlight, numbers appear on the face of the calculator. These, you could say, are created or made by the sun, but they are not what the sun is. But the rays of the sun are an extension of the sun. So Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, but not made or created.

We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So we see God the Father by seeing Jesus. The rays of the sun arrive here about eight minutes after they leave the sun, and the round ball of fire that we see in the sky is the image — the exact representation — of the sun; not because it is a painting of the sun, but because it is the sun streaming forth in its radiance.

So I commend this great Person to you that you might trust in him and love him and worship him. He is alive and sitting at the right hand of God with all power and authority and will one day come in great glory. He has that exalted place because he is himself God the Son, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”