THERE IS NO PARTIALITY WITH GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 10, 2023.

SUBJECT : THERE IS NO PARTIALITY WITH GOD! 

Memory verse: "And, behold, I am come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according as his work." (Revelation 22 vs 12.) 

READ: Galatians 6 vs 7 - 10; Ephesians 6 vs 8; Colossians 3 vs 25:

Galatians 6:7: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

6:8: For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

6:9: And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

6:10: Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who were of the household of faith.

Ephesians 6:8: Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

Colossians 3:25: But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

INTIMATION:

Our God is certainly not a partial God, His reward is with Him, to give to everyone according to his or her works. There is God's judgment awaiting everybody. Although His judgement is already working in our lives, there is a future, final judgement when Christ returns (Matthew 25 vs 31 - 46), and everyone's life will be reviewed and evaluated. Jesus will look at how we handled gifts, opportunities, relationships, and responsibilities in order to determine our rewards.

It would certainly be a surprise if you planted corn in your farm and pumpkins came up. It's a natural law to harvest what we plant. It's true in other areas, too. If you gossip, and guile found in your tongue, know it now, you will definitely reap what you sow, and God's final judgement will find you out. Every action has result. If you plant to please your own desires, you'll harvest a crop of sorrow and evil. If you plant to please God, you'll harvest joy and everlasting life. 

Neglect is common among all, especially when we are not adequately supervised. And this is an area that the accuser of brethren has always hyped. How is your responsibility and integrity on your assignment or job? Do you neglect your job or responsibility because of poor supervision? Christian employees should do their jobs as if Jesus Christ were their supervisor. Can you be trusted to do your best even when the boss is not around? Do you work hard with enthusiasm? Remember that no matter what you do or whom you work for, the one you ultimately should want to please is your Father in heaven.

In God's final judgement, He will separate His obedient believers from pretenders and unbelievers. The real evidence of our belief is the way we act. We are to treat all persons we encounter as if they were Jesus. Though it is not an easy task, but what we do shows what we really think about Christ's words to us. The Word of God in Luke 6 vs 37 - 38 says, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."

How is your relationship with other people? What do you give to others? What do you give to God? Are you resentful? speaking guile? gossiping about others? Do you give love and care to others? Are you judgmental? Do you easily flay? Are you always returning to others as they did to you, especially in wrong doing? These are not Christlike! If we are critical rather than compassionate, we will also receive criticism. If we treat others generously, graciously, and compassionately, these qualities will eventually come back to us in full measure. We are to love others, not judge them. 

Those who are doing God's commandments are those who are seeking to purify themselves from a sinful way of life. They strive daily to remain faithful and ready for Christ's return. A daily personal review of the "Ten Commandments" of God against your performance, will always put you on the guard. Above all, let your guiding principle be the "Great Commandments" of God; Love for God, and your neighbor. In this, all the commandments of God are fulfilled. (Matthew 22 vs 36 - 40.)

Prayer: Abba Father, without You I am nothing. In keeping Your commandments I demonstrate my love for You. Let your commandments be as sweet as honey in my mouth. Endue me with the spirit of love for You, and others, just as You loved me, these I pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God’s Wise Mercy

 We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23–24)

Over against the terrifying news that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin, there is the wonderful news of the gospel.

This is a truth no one can ever learn from nature. The truth of the gospel has to be told to neighbors and preached in churches and carried by missionaries.

The good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his justice without condemning the whole human race. 

Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice. But there is another way. God provided another way. This is the gospel.

The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God. There it is. The gospel. Let me say it again slowly: The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God. 

And what is this wisdom? The death of the Son of God for sinners! “We preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23–24).

The death of Christ is the wisdom of God by which the love of God saves sinners from the wrath of God, all the while upholding and demonstrating the righteousness of God in Christ.

Our Good Is God’s Delight

 “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are one and the same pursuit. God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows in praise.

For God, praise is the sweet echo of his own excellence in the hearts of his people.

For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from living in fellowship with God.

The stunning implication of this discovery is that all the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. These are amazing words: “I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

With all his heart and with all his soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth.

CRAVE FOR THE HIDDEN MANNA!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY OCTOBER 08, 2023.

SUBJECT: CRAVE FOR THE HIDDEN MANNA!

Memory verse: "He who has an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden Manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” (Revelation 2 vs 17.)

READ: Exodus 16 vs 13 - 16 & 31:

16:13: So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.

16:14: And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.

16:15: So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

16:16: This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one Omer for each person, according to the number of persons; Let every man take for those who are in his tent.

16:31: And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

INTIMATION:

“Hidden manna” suggests the spiritual nourishment that the faithful believers in Christ will receive. Christ is our daily bread who satisfies our eternal, and spiritual needs. In John 6 vs 48 - 51, Jesus compares Himself to manna: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Jesus is the Living Bread (the hidden manna), which provides spiritual nourishment that satisfies our deepest hunger. To eat living bread means to accept Christ into our lives and become united with Him. We are united with Christ in two ways; (1) by believing in His death (the sacrifice of His flesh) and resurrection and (2) by devoting ourselves to living as He requires, depending on His teaching for guidance and trusting in the Holy Spirit for power.

The bread from heaven (the manna) was a special meal from God to His people that sustained them for forty years in the wilderness. As the Israelites travailed in the wilderness for forty years, traveling toward the Promise Land, God provided the bread from heaven (manna) for their physical nourishment. In ancient Hebrew, manna means "what is it?" And this was the question the famished Israelites asked each other when the manna first appeared? No one was sure. But because everyone was asking the same question, the strange milky white ground cover was called manna (What is it). 

Every morning, the desert floor east of the volcano and Red Sea was white with this mysterious substance. Like snow it lay evenly on the ground. Like frost it began to crystallize and evaporate in the midday sun. The wandering Israelites harvested the manna each day of their 40-years trek in the wilderness of Sanai. On the day it first appeared, their leader Moses declared this unusual seedless crop "bread from heaven." Most of the people were so hungry they spent less time questioning the dietary value of the manna than they did collecting it. It tasted sweet like honey. It resembled coriander seed with a waferlike consistency. 

The manna was nutritious enough. Men and women and children survived on this bread substitute. But "bread from heaven" was an awesome creation of God, a customized never-before-heard-of food just for His chosen people, the Israelites. The manna kept a whole nomadic nation of Israel alive when their survival seemed in jeopardy. It even fueled the amazing growth of the nation of Israel so that they could supplant the people living on the edges of the desert—the Edomites, the Midianities, and eventually the Canaanites. 

The same perplexing nature and nutritional value associated with manna in sustaining the life of the nomadic Israelites, is inherent in our believe in Christ. Jesus is the bread of life that was sent from the Father in order to nourish the spiritual poverty of humanity. Our believe in Him is the ‘hidden manna’ which satisfies our deep spiritual and eternal needs. In the hidden manna do all our need to live for God consist. Therefore, crave to have it.

Prayer: Abba Father, I crave for the hidden manna. Satisfy my thirst and let my eyes of understanding be enlightened that I may know what is the hope of Your calling, and what the riches of the glory of Christ’s inheritance in me that believe.Give me the grace to live for You forever, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

We Wait, He Works

 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. That’s not at all in Isaiah’s mind when he says, God “works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

God works for me means I can’t do the work. I am utterly in need of help.

And this glorifies God not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

Listen to the way the Bible talks about God working for you, and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. Let him do that work.

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:12, 15).

“To your old age . . . I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

“I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

“Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).

“Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (Philippians 2:12–13).

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

GROWING SPIRITUALLY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 07, 2023.

SUBJECT: GROWING SPIRITUALLY!

Memory verse: "But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (First Corinthians 15 vs 10.)

READ: Philippians 2 vs 12 - 13; Hebrews 13 vs 20 - 21:

Philippians 2:12: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

2:13: For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Hebrews 13:20: Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 

13:21: make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen. 

INTIMATION:

Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit works with us, not just in us. The spiritual growth path is made up of two parts: the "work out" and the "work in."parts. The "work out" is your responsibility, and the "work in" is God's role. In one of the passages we read today, the Scripture says, “For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2 vs 13.) This verse written to believers is not about how to be saved, but how to grow. It does not say "work for" your salvation, because you can't add anything to what Jesus already did. It says “work out” your own salvation. The salvation has already been delivered to you through Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross. 

The “work out” is like thinking of exercising your body; you exercise your body to develop it, and not to get a body. It's the same with the farmers who work on the land, they work not to get land, but to develop what they already have. God has given you a new life; now you are responsible to develop it "with fear and trembling." That means to take your spiritual growth seriously! 

When people are casual about their spiritual growth, it shows they don't understand the eternal implications. "Work out your own salvation" in the light of being careful to obey Christ wholeheartedly. We must be careful about what we believe and how we live, especially when we are on our own. We must focus our attention and devotion more on Christ so that we won't be sidetracked. 

God works in us as we have responded to His work for us. He worked for us through the cross. Our sense of gratitude to the work of God in reference to our salvation, therefore, should move us into action. In this way God is living in us (Galatians 2 vs 20; First Timothy 4 vs 15). 

When we are motivated into action by the redemptive work of God, then we work according to the purposes of God (Second Corinthians 3 vs 5). And when we work according to the purposes of God, it is God who works in us. Christians do not work in order to be saved. They work out their salvation because they are saved.

The calling of the apostle Paul into apostleship illustrates the work of God through His grace. He did not earn his call into apostleship. He was not a self-proclaimed apostle. In fact, his persecution of the church placed him as far away from God as one could possibly be. However, God knew that Paul was a sincere and honest personality, and thus, He provided for him the opportunity to respond to the miraculous appearance of Jesus. The apostle Paul could claim no meritorious accomplishment for either his calling or his salvation. All were by the grace of God. 

All that God did toward the apostle Paul by His grace was not a wasted effort. It was not useless because he responded with thanksgiving (Second Corinthians 4 vs 15). When God’s grace was extended toward him, he worked more abundantly than when he lived under a legal system of religiosity. He really worked out his own salvation with fear and trembling, and labored more than all other apostles. He knew he could do all that because of God’s grace with him. When one is motivated by grace, he or she cannot do enough in thanksgiving for his or her salvation.

Prayer: Abba Father, I will forever remain grateful for your gift of salvation, and Your subsequent work in me both to will and to do for Your good pleasure. I commit myself entirely to Your care and leading, and Your empowerment to live in accordance with Your precepts, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Happy God

 Sound doctrine [is] in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed [that is, happy] God. (1 Timothy 1:10–11)

A great part of God’s glory is his happiness.

It was inconceivable to the apostle Paul that God could be denied infinite joy and still be all-glorious. To be infinitely glorious was to be infinitely happy. He used the phrase, “the glory of the happy God,” because it is a glorious thing for God to be as happy as he is — infinitely happy.

God’s glory consists much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination.

This is the gospel: “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.” That’s a quote from the Bible! It is good news that God is gloriously happy.

No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy, then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all.

But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy — God’s joy — might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13). Therefore, the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

The happiness of God is first and foremost a happiness in his Son. Thus when we share in the happiness of God, we share in the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son.

This is why Jesus made the Father known to us. At the end of his great prayer in John 17, he said to his Father, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). He made God known so that God’s pleasure in his Son might be in us and become our pleasure in him.