LET YOUR EYES BE SINGLY FOCUSED ON GOD!

 

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 02, 2023. 

SUBJECT : LET YOUR EYES BE SINGLY FOCUSED ON GOD!

Memory verse: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3 vs 5.)

READ: Proverbs 3 vs 5 - 6; Matthew 6 vs 22 - 23:

Proverbs 3:5: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

3:6: In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Matthew 6:22: The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 

6:23: But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

INTIMATION:

Your eyes are the windows into your body and the aperture in your life. Your eye is “good” when it is focused on God and His Word (Joshua 1 vs 8; Psalm 1 vs 2). The more we know of God's Word, the more resources we will have to guide us in our daily decisions. When you have a “good” eye—one that is fixed on God, you develop the desired spiritual vision; the capacity to see clearly what God wants us to do, and to see the world from His own perspective. 

But this spiritual insight can be easily clouded. This happens when your attention is shifted from being completely focusing on God. For instance, self-serving desires, interests, and goals block that vision because it has shifted from focusing on God to bifocal vision of God and self. The quickest way to destroy a person's vision is to give him or her two. And the beclouded spiritual vision can best be restored by serving God with all your heart. 

You can't accomplish your goals when your attention and resources are divided. Have you ever tried to have one of your eyes looking down and the other looking up? It is impossible, and that is how having your eyes focused on two things at the same one time is impossible. If you really want to prosper, then you need to forget everything else and press toward this one goal of putting the kingdom of God first. The Lord is saying that He wants you to have a single focus of your eyes on Him. At first, you might think it is impossible to be totally committed to, and focused upon God in everything you do. Yes, it can be so if you have to rely on human strength. But we don't live the Christian life in our own strength. 

For instance, If you think that supporting your family and earning money is strictly up to you, then you are going to have a divided heart, and divided heart is going to allow darkness to enter your life and hinder you in your relationship with God. The Lord knows what is best for us. He is a better judge of what we want than we are! We must trust Him completely in everything we do, and let Him the choice we make at any circumstances.

However, we should not omit careful thinking or belittle our God-given ability to reason, but we should not trust our own ideas to the exclusion of God’s leading. We must not be wise in our own eyes. We should always be willing to listen to and be corrected by God’s Word and wise counselors. Bring your decisions to God in prayer; use the Bible as your guide and then follow God’s leading.

King Solomon thirsted for God’s leading; spiritual vision, and earnestly asked for it from God and he was endowed with it, and he received even more than he asked from God (First Kings 4 vs 9 - 13). Consequently, he became the wisest king in Israel’s history, and the wisest man the world has ever known outside of Jesus Christ. This culminated in his writing most of the Books of wisdom (Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) in the Scriptures. He said that to receive God’s guidance, we must acknowledge God in all our ways and in all we do.

About a thousand years later, Jesus emphasized this same truth; seeking first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6 vs 33). Look at your values and priorities. What is important to you? Where is God on that list? What is His advice? Make Him a vital part of everything you do, then He will guide you because you will be working to accomplish His purposes.

Jesus warned against divided attention when He said in Luke 16 vs 13, "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Have your focus on the kingdom, and adjoining righteousness of God, and all other things shall be added to you.

Prayer: Abba Father, by strength shall no man prevail. Outside of You we can do nothing. Endue me with the spirit of total obedience and commitment to You in all my ways that will make me completely focused on You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God’s Pleasure to Do You Good

 

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus will not sit by and let us disbelieve without a fight. He takes up the weapon of the word and speaks it with power for all who struggle to believe.

His aim is to defeat the fear that God is not the kind of God who really wants to be good to us — that he is not really generous and helpful and kind and tender, but is basically irked with us — ill-disposed and angry.

Sometimes, even if we believe in our heads that God is good to us, we may feel in our hearts that his goodness is somehow forced or constrained, perhaps like a judge who has been maneuvered by a clever attorney into a corner on some technicality of court proceeding, so he has to dismiss the charges against the prisoner whom he really would rather send to jail.

But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way about God. He is striving in Luke 12:32 to describe for us the indescribable worth and excellency of God’s soul by showing the unbridled pleasure he takes in giving us the kingdom.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Every little word of this stunning sentence is intended to help take away the fear that Jesus knows we struggle with; namely, that God begrudges his benefits; that he is constrained and out of character when he does nice things; that at bottom he is angry and loves to vent his anger.

Luke 12:32 is a sentence about the nature of God. It’s about the kind of heart God has. It’s a verse about what makes God glad — not merely about what God will do or what he has to do, but what he delights to do, what he loves to do and takes pleasure in doing. Every word counts. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

THE DECEPTIVE POWER OF RICHES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 01, 2023. 

SUBJECT : THE DECEPTIVE POWER OF RICHES!

Memory verse: “And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10 vs 24.)

READ: First Timothy 6 vs 17 - 19:

6:17: Command those who are rich in this present age not be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

6:18: Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,

6:19: storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

INTIMATION:

People recognize that riches give them power. It enables them to put food on the table and pay their bills. The power in riches have been given various names: 'purchasing power,' ‘bargaining power,’ ‘economic power,’ negotiating power,’ and so on. So, people see giving their riches away as loosing power. Therefore, they think they are loosing in life by giving out their riches.

In imagining that their wealth is their strongest defense, rich people are sadly mistaken. Riches cannot provide safety because there are too many ways for it to lose its power. For instance, the government may cease to back it; thieves may steal it; inflation may rob it of all value. Eventually, in many circumstances your wealth can lose its power. But God never loses His power. He is always dependable and ever faithful.

Jesus laid emphasis on the teaching about money and riches because of its importance to our daily lives, and on our relationship with God. Churches don't preach on them today in the way and manner Jesus did, apparently because of fear of the perception of the congregants. Most of the time something is said about money and riches from the pulpit is to motivate the congregants to give toward funding ministries or projects. But the subject of money is very important for our Christian race.

Let us revisit the story of the rich young man. After the man walked away unwilling to part with his money, the Lord said, "How hard shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again, and said to them, children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10 vs 23 - 24.)

You could say it this way, "How hard it is for rich people to be born again." That's quite a statement, because people often see riches as blessings from God indicating God’s approval. That was why the disciples were astonished at Jesus’ remarks. But Jesus clarified His statement thus, "How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom." 

He isn't saying that riches itself makes it difficult to be saved. Rather He is saying that having lots of riches can trick people into putting faith in their riches because of the associated powers in it. Instead they should put their trust in God who gives them the power to get the riches. However, riches aren’t the problem, but how you trust in the associated powers is the issue.

The parable of a certain rich man told by Jesus in Luke 12 vs 20 - 21, says, “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” In the parable God called the rich man who trusted in his plentiful harvest a fool! So is everyone who trusts in uncertain riches. The rich man died even before he could begin to use what was stored in his barns.

Planning for retirement—preparing for life before death—is wise, but neglecting life after death is disastrous. If you accumulate wealth only to enrich yourself, with no concern for helping others, you will enter eternity empty-handed. Jesus challenges us to think beyond earthbound goals and to use what we have been given for God’s kingdom. Faith, service, and obedience are the way to become rich toward God.

Where do you look for security and safety, in uncertain wealth or God who is always faithful? All of us will say, "Oh yes, I'm trusting in the Lord," but you have to do more than just say it. As the apostle James said in his epistle, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2 vs 26). Someone who is really trusting in the Lord will prove it by giving out of their resources toward kingdom advancement endeavors.

The danger with riches is that you can get to where you trust in what riches can do, that is, relying on its inherent powers to work for you more than you trust in God. Then, when you come upon a problem that riches can't solve, you will feel like the earth is crumbling beneath you. God will still be there to help you, but you would have learned to trust in His ability to deliver you. This is the major reason why giving is important: because learning to trust God starts with your riches.

The psalmist in Psalm 18 vs 2 says, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Unlike riches, God’s protection of His people is limitless and can take many forms. God is the supreme controller of all circumstances. In Him all finalities rest. 

The Scripture, in Lamentations 3 vs 37 notes, “Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it?” Only with God’s approval will your riches provide a safe haven for you. Therefore, put your trust in Him that controls all circumstances.

Prayer: Abba Father, by You all things consist. You are my shield and buckler. My absolute trust and confidence is in You who never fails. May I never live to put my trust in any other thing but You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

Step aside with Jesus by ClaudyGod

 

Heaven’s Relief in the Coming Wrath

 

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted . . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:6–8)

There will come a time when the patience of God is over. When God has seen his people suffer for the allotted time, and the appointed number of martyrs is complete (Revelation 6:11), then a just and holy vengeance will come from heaven.

Notice that God’s vengeance on those who have afflicted his people is experienced by us as “relief.” “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted.” In other words, the judgment on “those who afflict” us is a form of grace toward us.

Perhaps the most remarkable picture of judgment as grace is the picture of Babylon’s destruction in Revelation 18. At her destruction, a great voice from heaven cries, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (Revelation 18:20). Then a great multitude is heard saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants” (Revelation 19:1–2).

When God’s patience has run its long-suffering course, and this age is over, and judgment comes on the enemies of God’s people, the saints will not disapprove of God’s justice.

This means that the final destruction of the unrepentant will not be experienced as a misery for God’s people.

The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the affections of the saints hostage. Hell will not be able to blackmail heaven into misery. God’s judgment will be approved, and the saints will experience the vindication of truth as a great grace.

YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD’S USE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JUNE 30, 3023. 

SUBJECT: YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD’S USE!

Memory verse: "Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out of two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, “Go view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.” (Joshua 2 vs 1.)

READ: Acts 23 vs 16 - 22:

23:16: So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.

23:17: Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, “Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.”

23:18: So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.

23:19: Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside, and asked privately, “What is it that that you have to tell me?”

23:20: And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to enquirer more fully about him.

23:21: But do not yield to them: for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now they are ready, waiting for a promise from you.

23:22: So the commander let the young man depart, and commanded him, “Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me.”

INTIMATION:

God has no favorites; none preferred above others, liked or loved above others. We are all created in His own image and after His likeness. We are equally loved by Him; “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3 vs 16). 

God’s work in history is not limited by human failures or sins, and He works through ordinary people. He can use anyone, of any age, and any background, who is willing to yield to Him. Just as God used all kinds of people to bring His Son into the world, He uses all kinds of people today to accomplish His will. And God can use you. Nobody is excluded from God’s Love, but we appropriate it to ourselves by believing in His Son—Jesus Christ—He sent to us. 

Several heroes in the Bible were common people: Jacob was known as a deceiver but God used him to “father” the Israelite nation (Genesis 27 - 28). Joseph was a slave in Egypt, but God used him to save his family, and the birth of Israelite nation (Genesis 39). Moses was a shepherd in exile and a murderer, but God used him to lead Israel out of bondage to the Promised Land (Exodus 3). Gideon was a farmer but God used him to deliver Israel from the Midianites (Judges 6 vs 11 - 14). 

Jephthah was the Son of a harlot, but God used him to deliver Israel from the Ammonites (Judges 11). David was a shepherd boy and last-born of the family, but God used him exceedingly to defeat the enemies of the Israelites, and he became Israel’s greatest king. Esther was a slave girl, but God used her to save her people from massacre (The Book of Esther). 

Mary was a peasant girl, but God made her the mother of Jesus (Luke 1 vs 27 - 28). Matthew was a tax collector, but God used him as one of the apostles and Gospel writer (Matthew 9 vs 9). Paul a persecutor of Christians, but God converted him to be the most influential of the apostles (First Corinthians 15 vs 9 - 10).

Our memory verse relates to the use of a prostitute by God to accomplish His plan. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. As a prostitute, she lived on the edge of society, one stop short of rejection. Her house, built right into the city wall, provided both lodging and favors to travelers. God used her and gave her the courage to hide the spies and lie to the authorities. God can work through people, like Rahab, whom we are inclined to reject. God remembered her because of her faith, not her profession.  

In the passage we read today, God used a child to accomplish His plan to save the apostle Paul’s life. It is easy to overlook children, assuming that they aren’t old enough to do much for the Lord. But this young man played an important part in protecting Paul’s life. Even Jesus made it clear that children are important (Matthew 18 vs 2 - 6).

The encounter of Jesus with the woman of Samaria in John 4 vs 7 - 42 clearly emphasizes God’s character of not being particular about your background, and loves us equally. The woman: (1) was a Samaritan, a member of the hated mixed race, (2) was known to be living in sin, and (3) was in a public place. No responsible Jewish man would talk to a woman under such circumstances. But Jesus did, her social status, past sin, and her race notwithstanding. 

The same woman was used to convert a whole city—the city of Samaria to Christ. If at times you feel like a failure, remember that Rahab rose above her situation through her trust in God. You can do the same. Jesus selected “ordinary” men with a mixture of backgrounds and personalities to be His disciples. He can use you!

Prayer: Abba Father, I love You, all I have is Yours, Yours I am, Yours I want to be, use me as it pleases You. Here I am, ready for whatever You let me do, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

The Powerful Root of Practical Love

 

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. (1 John 3:14)

So, love is the evidence that we are born again — that we are Christians, that we are saved.

Sometimes the Bible makes our holiness and our love for people the condition of our final salvation. In other words, if we are not holy and not loving, we will not be saved at the judgment day (e.g., Hebrews 12:14; Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:10). This doesn’t mean that acts of love are how we get right with God. No, the Bible is clear again and again as Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” No, when the Bible says that we are saved by faith but that we must love people in order to finally be saved, it means that faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.

So, love for others is a condition of future grace in the sense that it confirms that the primary condition, faith, is genuine. We could call love for others a secondary condition, which confirms the authenticity of the primary and essential condition of faith which alone unites us to Christ, and receives his power.

Faith perceives the glory of God in the promises of future grace and embraces all that the promises reveal of what God is for us in Jesus. That spiritual sight of God’s glory, and our delight in it, is the self-authenticating evidence that God has called us to be a beneficiary of his grace. This evidence frees us to bank on God’s promise as our own. And this banking on the promise empowers us to love. Which in turn confirms that our faith is real.

The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life. That’s what I want too. Which is why I am a Christian.

There is a great God of grace who magnifies his own infinite beauty and self-sufficiency by fulfilling promises to helpless people who trust him. And there is a power that comes from prizing this God that leaves no nook or cranny of life untouched. It empowers us to love in the most practical ways.