Suffering That Strengthens Faith

 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)

Strange as it may seem, one of the primary purposes of being shaken by suffering is to make our faith more unshakable. 

Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. That’s what James means here. When your faith is threatened and tested and stretched to the breaking point, the result is greater capacity to endure. He calls it steadfastness.

God loves faith so much that he will test it to the breaking point so as to keep it pure and strong. For example, he did this to Paul according to 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

The words “but that was to” show that there was a purpose in this extreme suffering: it was in order that — for the purpose that — Paul would not rely on himself and his resources, but on God — specifically the promised grace of God in raising the dead. 

God so values our wholehearted faith that he will, graciously, if necessary, take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on — even life itself. His aim is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that he himself will be all we need. 

He wants us to be able to say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).

House of Joy Ministry celebrate her 20 years annversary of ministry to over 500,000 souls world wide through Gospel of our Lord Jesus on August 4th, 2023 also double my birthday. Join us on +2349016233784 on WhatsApp or on https://miheanyi.blogspot.com. Menu botton.

GOD DESIRES OUR CONSISTENT OBEDIENCE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 29, 2023.

SUBJECT : GOD DESIRES OUR CONSISTENT OBEDIENCE!

Memory verse: "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved." (Mark 13 vs 13.)

READ: Philippians 2 vs 5 - 11: 

2:5: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 

2:6: who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

2:7: but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

2:8: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross.

2:9: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given him the name which is above every name,

2:10: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth,

2:11: and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

INTIMATION:

God demands our obedience to His commandments. We do this by obeying God with (1) Our heart— by loving Him more than any relationship, activity, achievement, or possession; (2) Our will—by committing ourselves completely to Him; (3) Our mind—by seeking to know Him and His Word, so His principles and values form the foundation of all we think and do; (4) Our body—by recognizing that our strengths, talents, and sexuality are given to us by God to be used for pleasure and fulfillment according to His rules, not ours; (5) Our finances—by deciding that all of the resources we have ultimately come from God, and that we are to be managers of them and not owners; (6) Our future—by deciding to make service to God and man the main purpose of our life’s work.

We should strive to be consistent in our obedience. Heroic spiritual lives are built by stacking days of obedience one on top of the other. Like a brick, each obedient act is small in itself, but in time the acts will pile up, and a huge wall of strong character will be built—a great defense against temptation. 

God requires lifelong obedience. Spurts of obedience are not enough, and we can’t please God by spurts of religiosity. Real spirituality takes a lifetime of consistent obedience. Only "he who endures to the end" will be rewarded. Be remembered for your consistent faith. Being consistent in your faith every day engenders the build up of a lifetime of obedience. Otherwise you may become more famous for your downfall than for your success. 

Consider Jesus Christ who actually became a human to identify with our sins; He voluntarily laid aside His divine rights and privileges out of love for, and obedience to His Father. Christ died on the cross for our sins, and God glorified Him because of His obedience; consistent obedience to the end. God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.

Therefore, if we say we follow Christ as believers, we must also say we want to live as He lived, and strive to live as He lived. He is our role model, and we are expected to be Christlike. To believe in Jesus "to the end" will take perseverance because our faith will be challenged and opposed. Severe trials will sift true Christians from fair-weather believers. 

Enduring to the end does not earn salvation for us but marks us as already saved, and an evidence that we are really committed to Jesus. The assurance of our salvation will keep us strong in times of persecution. Persistence or consistency is the by product of a truly devoted life.

Obedience to God begins with humility. We humble ourselves by renouncing 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. 

We must believe that His way is better than our own. We may not always understand His ways of working, but by humbly obeying, we will receive His blessings. We must remember that (1) God’s ways are best; (2) God wants our obedience more than anything else; (3) God can use anything to accomplish His purposes. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to have the mind of Christ and live humbly as He lived; consistent in my obedience to You till the end. Strengthen me in my strive, and help me in my daily life to live like Christ, and to live for You, in Jesus' Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God’s Plan for Martyrs

They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)

For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs. 

Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general. 

One writer described the situation in this third period: 

Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.

So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom. 

And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11. 

Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ. 

It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.

Why We Don’t Lose Heart

 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18) 

Paul can’t see the way he used to (and there were no glasses). He can’t hear the way he used to (and there were no hearing aids). He doesn’t recover from beatings the way he used to (and there were no antibiotics). His strength, walking from town to town, doesn’t hold up the way it used to. He sees the wrinkles in his face and neck. His memory is not as good. And he admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy and courage. 

But he does not lose heart. Why? 

He doesn’t lose heart because his inner man is being renewed. How? 

The renewing of his heart comes from something very strange: it comes from looking at what he can’t see. 

We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

This is Paul’s way of not losing heart: looking at what he cannot see. What, then, did he see when he looked? 

A few verses later in 2 Corinthians 5:7, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” This doesn’t mean that he leaps into the dark without evidence of what’s there. It means that for now the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our physical senses. 

We “look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts — we renew our courage — by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We see this as it shines in our heart through the gospel. 

We became Christians when this happened — whether we understood this or not. And with Paul we need to go on seeing with the eyes of the heart, so that we not lose heart.

GOD FORGIVES SIN!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JULY 28, 2023.

SUBJECT : GOD FORGIVES SIN!

Memory verse: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5 vs 32.)

READ: Isaiah 1 vs 18 - 20:

18: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19: If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

20: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword", for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

INTIMATION:

The Greek word for sin is harmartia, which means “miss the mark.” Sin, therefore, is one missing the mark of perfection in order to be considered righteous before God. Those who are involved in sin are known as sinners. Sin has been preached to us so long and we have been told so often that we are unworthy and unfit, and this has kept us with a sense of inferiority which has been destructive to a faith life. This has made many to keep a distance from our holy and perfect God, and their guilt feelings of sin keep them from praying (seeking the face of God), which is their only means of restoration, because only God forgives sin. 

Sometimes one may feel that he has done something terrible, and could never come close to God. Consequently, the effect of sin keeps one away from praying. However, it is noteworthy that perfect moral behavior is not a condition for prayer. Though the stain of sin seems permanent, but only God can remove such stain of sin from our lives. We don't have to go through life permanently soiled. God's Word assures that if we are willing and obedient in turning to Him, Christ will forgive and remove our most indelible stains of sin.

No matter how long you have been away from God, He is ready to hear from you and restore you to a right relationship with Him. Every situation can be salvaged if you are willing to turn to God. In Judges 16 vs 28 - 30, we would observe that in spite of Samson's past, God still answered his prayer and destroyed the philistines' heathen temple and worshipers. He killed more people at his death than he did in his life because of the mercy of God when he turned to Him in prayer.

Christ came for sinners like you and I, and He expects us, the sinners, to come to Him for mercy. We can only go to God in prayer, acknowledging our need and admitting that we don't have all the answers, and God will come to our help. He desires to show mercy and His mercy endures forever. God is infinitely merciful. All of us are compassed with infirmity, and only God can succor us. Hence we are to pray boldly for mercy. When we go to God in prayer, repent of our sin, and seek His forgiveness, He is faithful to forgive us, but we must come to Him in prayer. He then withholds punishment deserved by us and gives His kindness in excess. God's mercy is everlasting and total. 

God can forgive all sins, except the sin against the Holy Spirit. The unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit is the deliberate refusal to acknowledge God, and His power in Christ, expressed through the Holy Spirit. It indicates a deliberate and irreversible hardness of heart. It reveals a heart attitude of unbelief and unrepentance, that attributes to Satan the work that the Holy Spirit accomplishes. Such people have turned their backs on God and rejected all faith, and are unwilling to ask for forgiveness. Even when they receive the prompting of the Holy Spirit, convicting them of sin, they reject it. 

The deliberate rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy, because it is rejecting God Himself. Blasphemy is a malicious and injurious speech against the work of God. It is such because the accusers are assigning the work of God to Satan. It cannot be forgiven simply because those who are making the accusations will not accept the message by obedience to the gospel. Such persons remove themselves from the only force that can lead them to repentance and restoration to God.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are the only God, there is no other. Before You there is no God, with You there is no other God, and there will be no other God after You. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleans me from my sin, in Jesus name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

If You Don’t Fight Lust

 Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11)

When I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in, I tried to understand his situation, and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever.”

As a professing Christian, he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?” 

So, I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and that puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings. I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). 

Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). The point is not that true Christians always succeed in every battle. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly. We don’t make peace with sin. We make war.

The stakes are much higher than whether the world is blown up by a thousand long-range missiles, or terrorists bomb your city, or global warming melts the ice caps, or AIDS sweeps the nations. All these calamities can kill only the body. But if we don’t fight lust, we lose our souls. Forever.

Peter says the passions of the flesh wage war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). The stakes in this war are infinitely higher than in any threat of world war or terrorism. The apostle Paul listed “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” then said it is “on account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6). And the wrath of God is immeasurably more fearful than the wrath of all the nations of the world put together.

May God give us grace to take our souls and others’ souls seriously and keep up the fight.

By God's grace House of Joy Ministry will be 20 years old in the ministry on August 4th and also is my birthday special on August 4th this year. For your sponsorship, donation and your gifts contact on +2349016233784 on Whatsapp or send email to miheanyi19@gmail.com.

God bless you!

What It Means to Love Money

 The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Timothy 6:10)

What did Paul mean when he wrote this? He couldn’t have meant that money is always on your mind when you sin. A lot of sin happens when we are not thinking about money. 

My suggestion is this: He meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money. 

So what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or the copper coins or the silver shekels. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask, What is money? I would answer that question like this: Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources. Money stands for what you can get from man — other human beings — instead of God. 

God deals in the currency of grace, not money: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). Money is the currency of human resources. So, the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer. 

So, the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money — belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy. 

Love of money is the alternative to faith in God’s future grace. It is faith in future human resources — the kind of thing you can obtain or secure with money. Therefore the love of money, or trust in money, is the underside of unbelief in the promises of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and money.” 

You can’t trust in God and in money at the same time. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money — that banks on money for happiness — is not banking on all that God is for us in Jesus as the satisfaction of our souls.