WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 27, 2020.

SUBJECT : WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?

Memory verse: "Do You not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6 vs 16.)

READ: John 8 vs 34 - 36:

8:34: Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a salve of sin.
8:35: And a slave does not abide not in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
8:36: Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

INTIMATION:

A person is a slave to whatever controls him or her. 

Every person has a master—either God or sin. We are controlled by our 

masters and pattern ourselves after the master as slaves to the master. You are either a slave of sin that leads to death or a slave of Jesus that leads to righteousness. 

There is no middle ground. 

All people were firstly enslaved to sin, but not anymore. Thanks to Jesus for without Him we would all had been enslaved to sin with 

no choice, 

and the results would be guilt, suffering, and separation from God. With Jesus, however, we can now choose God as our master. Following Him, we can enjoy new life and learn how to work for Him. 

In sin every part of the body is vulnerable. In Christ, every part can be an instrument for service. Therefore, i

t is impossible to be neutral. 

It is the one to whom we offer our service that makes the difference. We are like lasers that can burn destructive holes in steel places or do delicate cataract surgery. If we refuse to follow God, we will follow our sinful desires and become enslaved to what our bodies want. If we submit our lives to Christ, He will free us from slavery to sin. Christ frees us to serve Him, a freedom that results to our ultimate good. 

People today are slaves to sin until they commit their lives to Christ, who alone can conquer sin’s power. When you accept Christ’s substitutionary work for us and make Him your Master, sin, pride, and fear no longer have any claim over you, just as a slave owner no longer has power over the slaves he has sold. The Bible says we became Christ’s slaves when we become Christians (Romans 6 vs 18), but this actually means we gain our freedom, because sin no longer controls us. If we refuse to follow God, we will follow our sinful desires and become enslaved to what our bodies want. If we submit our lives to Christ, He will free us from slavery to sin. Christ frees us to serve Him, a freedom that results to our ultimate good.

The central theme of the Bible is redemption. It means “to buy back” or “to save from captivity by paying a ransom.” One way to buy back a slave was to offer an equivalent or superior slave in exchange. That is the way God chose to buy us back from slavery of sin—He offered His Son in exchange for us. In the Old Testament God accepted symbolic offering of blood to cover sin. Jesus had not yet been sacrificed, so God accepted the life of an animal in place of the life of the sinner. When Jesus came, He substituted His perfect life for our sinful lives, paying the penalty for sin that we deserve. Thus He redeemed us from the power of sin and restored us to God. 

A Christian  is not someone who cannot sin but someone who is no longer a slave to sin. 

He or she belongs to God. 

Now Christians are bound to Christ, He is their master and gives them power to do the good rather than evil. Now, how can we keep this command to not let sin control the way we live, to not give in to its desires? We can take the following steps: (1) identify our personal weaknesses, (2) recognize the things that tempt us, (3) stay away from sources of temptation, (4) practice self-restraint, (5) consciously invest our time in good habits and service, and (6) lean in God’s strength and grace. 

Sin has a way of enslaving us, controlling us, and dictating our actions. Jesus can free us from this slavery that keeps you from becoming the person God created you to be. If sin is restraining, mastering, or enslaving you, Jesus can break its power over your life. Now, a

re you still serving your first master, sin? Or have you chosen Christ? 

Will you give yourself completely to Christ, asking Him to put you to good use for His glory? It is when you turn to Christ, when you give up yourself to His personality, that you will begin to have a real personality of my own. 

Christians have presented themselves as slaves to God because they have been set free from sin (Matthew 6 vs 24; John 8 vs 34). Their expression of thanksgiving is seen in their desire to call on their Father to direct their lives. What is your attitude toward Christ, your Master? Our willingness to serve and obey Jesus Christ enables us to be useful and usable servants to do work for Him—work that really matters. Obedience begins as we renounce other masters, identify ourselves with Jesus, discover His will and live according to it, and consciously turn away from conflicting interests, even if these interests have been important to us in the past.

Prayer: Abba Father, I can’t thank You enough for Your gift of salvation. I completely surrender my life to You. Do with me whatever is pleasing to You. Give me the grace to serve a You aright in this life, and be crowned with Your glory of eternal life with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

FAITH AS SUBSTANCE AND EVIDENCE

 FAITH AS SUBSTANCE. AND EVIDENCE

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1" 

Devotion : Faith is a vital ingredient in our walk with our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6. Faith is a substance: faith can be apprehended by our heart/soul. Faith is evidence: the basis of faith is the Word of God/Holy Scriptures. Therefore, whatever you are believing should have the scriptures to support it; if it has no scripture to support it, then your faith is baseless and cannot be fulfilled by God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This should encourage the children of God to be students and teachers of the Holy Scriptures so that their hope in whatever they are believing can be done without any shadow of doubt or struggle. Dear believer in Christ, do you have scriptural evidence for what you are praying about/believing? If you have, then wait patiently for the answer. If you do not, then start searching the Holy Scriptures for it or else you are just wasting your time and energy. Share your comments here!

YOU ARE GOD’S WORKMANSHIP!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 26, 2020.

SUBJECT: YOU ARE GOD’S WORKMANSHIP! 

Memory verse: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2 vs 10.)

READ: Ephesians 2 vs 4 - 10:

2:4: But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

2:5: even when we are dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

2:6: and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

2:7: that in ages to come He might show His exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

2:9: not of works, lest anyone should boast.

2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

INTIMATION:

What assurances it gives to the heart when we come to know that the Father loves us even as He loved Jesus, that He is vitally interested in us as He was in His Son when He walked the earth. Consequently, He made one with Christ—we are the body of Christ, the church. The body starts with the head, consequently, the Church is headed by Jesus. In Colossians 1 vs 18, the Scripture says, "And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."

Jesus was the first person ever born again. He was born twice. He was born of the Virgin Mary; then on the cross He was made sin with our sin, as our substitute. He was crucified on the cross. God, in accordance with His plan of redemption, accepted His death as a propitiation for mankind. Consequently, He satisfied the claims of justice, He was justified in spirit, made righteous in spirit, and made alive in spirit. This was the new birth. It was for this reason God said "....You are My Son, Today I have begotten You," (Acts 13 vs 33). God was speaking of the resurrected Jesus Christ. And when we confessed Jesus, and accepted His substitutionary work for us in redemption, we were recreated—made New Creation, and adopted as sons and daughters of God.

In the substitutionary work of Jesus, He was actually made sin with our sins, was forsaken of God, a curse because He had hung upon the tree. After meeting every demand of justice, in accordance with God's law, He was born again out of death, recreated and becomes a partaker of Eternal Life. Now He is called the firstborn out of death, the Head of the New Creation. It was that morning when Jesus was recreated that the whole church by faith came into being. In reality it began on the Day of Pentecost and it has continued until now. Our salvation is something only God can do. It is His powerful creative work in us. 

One of the most graphic pictures of what Jesus wrought for the believers is given in John's gospel, John 1 vs 16. The Amplified Version Bible gives a clearer picture of the verse: "For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing  and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift."

The grace (unmerited favor) gives us the gifts of His love life, wisdom, His very being, and substance. We are the branch of the vine; we are partakers of the Divine Nature. His fullness here means His ability, His love, His righteousness, His utter completeness, and we have received them all. All the gifts and favors are now piled on us one after another, and all by His grace. We have been chosen by God as His very own, and His jewels, a special treasure to Him above all people, and we are to Him a kingdom of priests, as Christ has made us kings and priests to our God that we shall reign on the earth. 

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ (Ephesians 1 vs 3). We are blessed. We are rich in Him. We have His fullness. We are sufficient in His sufficiency. All that He is, we have. We are what He says we are. And the Father has told us that we are in the Beloved. The Father sees us as His own righteousness in Christ Jesus. "And you are complete in Him," and this completeness is over and above all that we can ask or think or desire. We have been called to represent Him to others. We are united with Christ as members of His body, and we join in His priestly work of reconciling God and people.

Prayer: Abba Father, I am complete in You, and have Your fullness in Christ. You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I am in You, and You in me. Strengthen me with might according to Your glorious power that I may be fruitful in every good work, worthy of Your calling and fully pleasing You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

DO NOT BE STRESSED OUT ABOUT RICHES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY OCTOBER 25, 2020.

SUBJECT : DO NOT BE STRESSED OUT ABOUT RICHES!

Memory verse: "Do not overwork to be rich; because of your own understanding, cease!" (Proverbs 23 vs 4.)

READ: First Timothy 6 vs 9 - 10:

6:9: But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

6:10: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

INTIMATION:

People tend to think they are responsible for all of the factors that lead to prosperity and the money needed to survive. They are worried about losing their jobs or a downturn in the economy because they see themselves as the source of their provision. For this reason they are so stressed out about riches since they think they are in control of their finances. Seeing yourself as the source of blessing in your life puts a lot of pressure on you to control circumstances that are really beyond your control. 

God is responsible for you, and even is interested in every detail of your life, to the extent that He knows the number of the hairs of your head. (Matthew 10 vs 30.) God is the only source for all you have; “...A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.” (John 3 vs 27.) And is God ‘who gives you power to get wealth.’ (Deuteronomy 8 vs 17 - 18.) If you are stressed out about possessions, then I encourage you to start looking up to God as the source of your prosperity, not the power and might of your hand. When you know God is your source, you aren't worried about the natural circumstances surrounding you. 

God gives us everything we have, and we are just stewards or managers. Being a steward gives you a sense of confidence that ordinarily you will never have as long as you see yourself as your source. Knowing that your possessions are really entrusted to you by God, makes your approach towards possessions totally different. And your attitude toward riches is more important than what you do with it. The human tendency is often to take credit for our prosperity and become proud that our smartness, hard work, and power have made us rich. Therefore, we get so busy pursuing after riches that we may want to do anything to succeed, eventually “fall into temptations and a snare” that ultimately lead only to “destruction and perdition.”

When you hasten after riches, the tendency is to do things in disobedience to God’s leading, and against His will, and eventually lose your relationship with Him that ends you up in eternal condemnation. Therefore, the short time you live on earth, if spent pursuing after earthly possessions, which you cannot take with you at the time of passing to meet with your Maker and which will eventually be destroyed (Second Peter 3 vs 10), will rub you of eternity with God. We have heard of how many turned to money rituals, armed robbery, cheating, stealing, and many other evil tendencies, just in the quest to get rich. We become so obsessed with our pursuit for riches that we push God right out of our lives. 

The brother who is seeking to be rich will lose his contentment with the necessities of life. In his worldly desire, he will lose sight of that which brings spiritual fulfillment. The snare on which he falls is the fact that he leads himself to believe that if he surrounds himself with possessions and involves himself in activities, he will be happy. His thirst to financial affluence will bankrupt him spiritually. It is not wrong to possess things of this world. However, one should never allow the possessions of this world to possess him. If one sacrifices his good works in relationships because he has no time for others as a result of running after riches, then his spiritual life is void of the foundation of the community of God. 

It is not money that is evil. What is evil is the materialistic heart that is obsessed with obtaining it. Some of the brethren had already strayed from the faith because of their desire to become rich. In their desire to satisfy their thirst for wealth, they had marginalized their relationships with friends, family and other disciples. The sorrows that they produced through their striving to be rich manifested the error of the greedy motives of their hearts. 

Regardless of the economic state of any man, one’s first concern should be for his spiritual poverty, not his physical poverty. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...” Matthew 6 vs 33). This is one of the greatest struggles of the poor because of their destitution. Nevertheless, the struggle must be won, for one’s salvation is more important than anything this world can offer. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of contentment in godliness, that I may not trust in uncertain riches, but trust completely in You—my Maker and Owner of the whole world, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

THE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

 THE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

"And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Luke 18:27" 

Devotion : A rich young man came to Jesus Christ to ask what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus started by telling him to obey the commandments. The rich young ruler replied that he had been obeying the commandments since his youth. Jesus Christ ended by saying that he should go and sell all that he had and give to the poor, and he would have treasure in heaven; thereafter he should come and follow him. The rich young ruler went home sorrowful - he could not let go of his possession to follow Jesus. Jesus said to His disciples that it is hard for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of God. Furthermore, He added that it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The audience were shocked and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus then quoted the opening scripture to them. Jesus explained to them that even though it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom, it is not impossible because God is capable of making some of them enter. Those who can enter are those who do not trust in their riches but trust God for their riches. Dearly beloved, no situation is impossible with God, with men it is impossible but not with God. Trust God for the impossible, praise the Lord! Share your comments here!

THE BEST WAY TO ENJOY LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2020.

SUBJECT: THE BEST WAY TO ENJOY LIFE! 

Memory verse: "He who finds his life will lose it, and He who loses his life will find it.” (Matthew 10 vs 39.)

READ: Matthew 16 vs 24 - 26:

16:24: Then said Jesus to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
16:25: For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

16:26: For what profit is it to a man if he if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

INTIMATION:

The best way to enjoy life is to cling to Jesus instead of this worldly life; pledging our whole existence to His service which is our real purpose of life. Clinging to this worldly life may cause us to forfeit the best from Christ in this world and in the next. Adhering to this life is loving this life’s rewards (leisure, power, popularity, financial security, etc.) at the expense of your commitment to Christ, and what He desires of you. The rewards of this life is really empty compared to what Christ offers. The best way to enjoy life, therefore, is to loosen our greedy grip on earthly rewards so that we can be free to follow Christ. In doing so, we will inherit eternal life and begin at once to experience the benefits of following Christ. 

When we don’t know Christ, we make choices as though there were no afterlife. In reality, this life is just the introduction to eternity. How we live this brief span determines our eternal state. What we accumulate on earth has no value in gaining eternal life. Even the highest social or civic honors cannot earn us entrance into heaven. Jesus wants us to choose to follow Him rather than to lead a life of sin and self-satisfaction. He wants us to stop trying to control our own destiny and to let Him direct us. This makes good sense because, as the Creator, Christ knows better than we do what real life is about. He asks for submission, not self-hatred; He asks us only to lose our self-centered determination to be in charge.

Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that worldliness, which is centered on possessions, position, or power, is ultimately worthless. Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a pleasurable life, but in the end you will find it hollow, empty, and all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 12 vs 8). Therefore, make the pursuit of God more important than the selfish pursuit. Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well. And that is the best way to enjoy life.

If this present life is most important to you, you will do everything you can to protect it. You will not want to do anything that might endanger your safety, health, or comfort. By contrast, if following Jesus is most important, you may find yourself in unsafe, unhealthy, and uncomfortable places. You may risk death, but you will not fear it because you know that Jesus will raise you to eternal life. Nothing material can compensate for the loss of eternal life. Do not use your life on earth merely to please yourself, rather you should spend your life serving God and others.

Those who control the lust of the flesh in this life will enjoy the abundance of life. Those who have committed themselves to Jesus will not only receive the abundant life in this life, they will also receive eternal life in the new heavens and earth to come. It is senseless to profit that which is of this life at the expense of that which is beyond this life. It is senseless because no man with the goods of this world can make an exchange for the heaven that is to come. If any would seek first the satisfaction of earthly desires in order not to glorify God in this life, he would perish eternally.  If one does not give his life to Jesus, then he will not receive that which will preserve his life into eternity.

Prayer: Abba Father, in You all things consist. My utmost heart desire is to live and move and have my being in Christ. Engrace me to do all things in Him, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

THE JOY OF THE LORD

 THE JOY OF THE LORD

"Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10" 

Devotion : Nehemiah gathered the Israelites and asked Ezra, the scribe, to read the book of the Law to the children of Israel. Whilst Ezra was reading the Law to the Israelites, the Word of God touched their conscience and they began to weep. After Ezra had finished reading the book of the Law, Nehemiah consoled the people and said that day was holy unto the LORD, so they should not weep nor mourn. Instead they should go their way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to the needy for the joy of the LORD was their strength. Beloved God does not want you to mourn or weep at hearing the Word; He wants you to celebrate the Word so that His strength can be imparted to you. All that He wants you to do when you fall foul of His Word is confess your sins and continue to celebrate His Word. When God is happy, His strength is released to us to function in His kingdom. Dearly beloved, what did you learn from this devotional? Share your thoughts here!