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.

THE CHILD AFTER GOD’S HEART!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2023.

SUBJECT : THE CHILD AFTER GOD’S HEART!

Memory verse: "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them." (Psalm 145 vs 19.)

READ: Psalm 37 vs 4 - 6:

37:4: Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

37:5: Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

37:6: He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

INTIMATION:

Your delight in the Lord occasions strong affection for God and His kingdom. When you delight in the Lord, you will experience great pleasure and joy in Him and His kingdom. The Scripture says of the Lord, “Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth...” (Isaiah 58 vs 14.) Desire to know God better, and to know His great love for you. When you do, you will entrust everything about you—your life, family, job, possessions—to Him, and He will work out what is best for you. 

You attract special audience in prayer when you partner with God in ensuring the establishment of His Kingdom here on earth. Kingdom-oriented praying gives you special audience with God. If you desire breakthroughs in your life, one of the fastest ways of achieving it is to have a strong affection for God and His kingdom. Let your thoughts be dominated with the desires of God, serve and obey Him in everything. For He said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6 vs 33.)

The reason God created the earth is for the extension of His kingdom, hence, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray thus, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6 vs 9 - 10.) When you pray kingdom-oriented prayer, you are giving reference to God's spiritual reign. It is God's Will that His kingdom be established here on earth as was announced in the covenant with Abraham. 

When we pray "Your Will be done on earth," we are praying that God's perfect purpose will be accomplished in this world as well as the next. When you are interceding on kingdom matters, let it be from the depth of your being, as if you are praying for your own child who is dying, or even the healing of your ailment that has kept you at the corridor of death. Such prayers usually means much to you. 

If you concern yourself that much on ensuring the actualization of God's Will on earth, God will definitely concern Himself with your affairs, and you will experience additions of all the things the world is struggling to get. This is a prayer strategy that moves heaven to rain down favor on you, so much that you will not need to pray for most things before you get them: "It shall come to pass that before you call, I will answer, And while they are still speaking, I will hear." (Isaiah 65 vs 24.) This is prevalent in the lives of those who are heartily mindful of His kingdom matters. Their prayers are answered at the right time. 

Most people are dying in their prayer rooms because they are self-oriented in their prayers. They are the "needy-stars" of the kingdom. Their prayer is always all about self; "Lord, give me this; Lord, bless me; Lord bless my children and my wife," and their demands are endless. All they remember to pray about is "me, I and myself." They are least concerned about the welfare of anybody else or on any issue that does not touch them personally. Their idea is, "If God is concerned about His kingdom, let Him fix it."

When a kingdom prayer point is raised in the church, a lot of people just mumble through; you can hardly hear what they are saying. But when it is said, "Pray for yourself, that this year's prophesy may find fulfillment in your life," people begin to pray with much vigor and energy. But it is how much you take pleasure in the affairs of the kingdom that determines the quality of response you enjoy from God. 

The psalmist in Psalm 102 vs 12 - 13 says, "But You, O Lord, shall endure forever, and the remembrance of Your name to all generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For the time to favor her, Yes, the set time, has come." When your concern for God's kingdom is deep-seated in your heart, you pray heart-felt prayers for the kingdom and His people. Your prayer shall be that, "The Lord endures forever, and be remembered throughout all generations." Then, He will arise with mercy and favor for you. As you begin to seek His kingdom in your prayers, I see every concern in your life become a testimony of answered prayers to you, in Jesus name.

Prayer: Abba Father, let the zeal of Your kingdom eat me up, that I may desire to do all the things required for the advancement of Your kingdom, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

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.”

EATER OR SOWER?

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 24, 2023.

SUBJECT: EATER OR SOWER?

Memory verse: "Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness." (Second Corinthians 9 vs 10.)

READ: Proverbs 11 vs 24 - 25; Second Corinthians 9 vs 6 - 7:

Proverbs 11:24: There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. 

11:25: The generous soul will be made rich. And he who waters will also be watered himself.

Second Corinthians 9:6: But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 

9:7: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

9:8: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

9:9: As it is written, “He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.

INTIMATION:

There two dominant heart conditions when it comes to money: eaters and sowers. Eaters are the ones who are all about getting their own needs met; they are seeking to establish their own kingdom. They use their resources to buy everything they want, and they only give when there is something left over. 

Sowers, on the other hand, are all about putting other people first. Sowers need to eat too, so it's not like they can't buy things for themselves, but their hearts' desire is to give and seek God's kingdom first. Sowers are people God is searching the world to find.

When we understand financial blessings properly, we realize that prosperity isn't about us. It's about being able to bless other people. If you don't currently have that attitude, once you get it, you'll experience the reality that God gives seed to the sower. Selfishness short-circuits prosperity because it causes us to consume all of our resources. It turns us into a vacuum cleaner that sucks up everything in sight. We ought to be just the opposite. Christians should be like leaf blowers: giving money left and right. We should be imitating God by searching for opportunities to give, and asking Him to show us how we can be a blessing.

The passages we read today present the paradox I have been hammering on. They explain clearly prosperity viewed in God's way; that we become richer by being generous. The world says to hold on to as much as possible. But God blesses those who give freely of their possessions, time and energy. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal toward Him." (Second Chronicles 16 vs 9.) When we give, God supplies us with more so that we can give more. 

In addition, giving helps us gain a right perspective on our possessions. We realize they were never really ours to begin with, but they were given to us by God to be used to help others. What do we gain by giving? Five major things; Freedom from enslavement to our possessions, the joy of helping others, God's approval, the grace of God for our sufficiency in all things, and it is imputed to us as righteousness.

The Scripture in Proverbs 3 vs 9 - 10, says, "Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine." The firstfruits refers to the practice of giving to God's use the first and best portion of your harvest (Deuteronomy 26 vs 9 - 11). Many people give God their leftovers. If they can afford to donate anything, they do so. These people may be sincere and contribute willingly, but their attitude is nonetheless backward. 

It is better to give God the first part of our income. We do this by ensuring that before you spend out of the income, you first of all pay your tithes and give out whatever yo desire in your heart to give God, and help others in need. This demonstrates that God, not possessions, has first place in our lives and that our resources belong to Him—we are only managers of God's resources. Giving to God first helps us conquer greed, helps us properly manage God's resources, and opens us to receive God's special blessings.

God knows you have needs, and He wants you to be taken care of. Remember, He doesn't mind if you live in a nice house and drive an nice car, as long as you aren't consuming all of your finances on yourself. When you get the attitude of a giver and walk it out over time, God will increase your finances. If God finds you trustworthy on the use of finances, that He can get money through you, He'll get it to you, and it won't be long before you have plenty left over for yourself.

Yes the life of adequate giving is very hard to live. People may hesitate to give generously to God if they worry about having enough left over to meet their own needs. Paul assured the Corinthians that God was able to meet their needs. A person who gives only a little will receive only a little in return. (Luke 6 vs 38.) Our attitude when we give is more important than the amount we give. We don't have to be embarrassed if we can give only a small gift. God is concerned about how we give from our resources. (See Mark 12 vs 41 - 44.)

Another thing to keep in mind is that prosperity doesn't happen overnight. You don't go from being selfish to becoming a generous millionaire instantly for a couple of reasons. First, there is a time between planting seed and harvesting. Fruit doesn't show up the next day. Second, money has power, and you might not be able to handle the power of prosperity right away. If you are a “ sower,” be patient with God, He will definitely come through to you. Though it might tarry, wait for it, for it must surely come to pass. (See Habakuk 2 vs 3.) 

Prayer: Abba Father, all things are Yours; the earth and its fullness. Thank You, O Lord, for all the talents, abilities, and resources You bestowed on me. Give me the grace to be a sower of the things You have freely given to me, that I may earn Your approval, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

 

God’s Final, Decisive Word

 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. (Hebrews 1:1–2)

The last days begin with the coming of the Son into the world. “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” We have been living in the last days since the days of Christ — that is, the last days of history as we know it before the final and full establishment of the kingdom of God.

The point for the writer of Hebrews is this: The Word that God spoke by his Son is the decisive Word. By the Son’s own design, that word has been captured for the ages in the writings of the New Testament. He explicitly made provision for this, lest every generation be left to itself to dream up the decisive word of God. This word will not be followed in this age by any greater word or replacement word. This is the Word of God — the person of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, and the work of Jesus, captured by inspiration in the apostolic writings we call the New Testament.

When I complain that I don’t hear the Word of God, when I feel a desire to hear the voice of God, and get frustrated that he does not speak in ways that I may crave, what am I really saying? Am I really saying that I have exhausted this final, decisive Word revealed to me so fully and infallibly in the New Testament? Have I really exhausted this Word? Has it become so much a part of me that it has shaped my very being and given me life and guidance? 

Or have I treated it lightly — skimmed it like a newspaper, clicked through like a quick series of internet postings, dipped in like a taste-tester — and then decided I wanted something different, something more? This is what I fear I am guilty of more than I wish to admit. 

God is calling us to hear his final, decisive, inexhaustible Word — to meditate on it and study it and memorize it and linger over it and soak in it until it saturates us to the center of our being.

RESTORING FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 23, 2023.

SUBJECT: RESTORING FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD!

Memory verse: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (First John 1 vs 9.)

READ: First John 1 vs 3 - 8:

1:3: That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1:4: And these things we write to you that your joy may be made full.

1:5: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declared to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 

1:6: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 

1:7: But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1:8: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

INTIMATION:

Broken fellowship with the Lord is the consequence of sin. All people are sinners by nature and by practice. At conversion all our sins are forgiven—past, present, and future. Yet, even after we become Christians, we still sin and still need to confess. This kind of confession is not offered to gain God’s acceptance but to remove the barrier to fellowship that our sin has put between us and Him. Broken fellowship does not break the relationship, but it mars it and robs that relationship of its richest blessings and benefits.

We need not fear revealing our sins to God, He knows them already. He will not push us away, no matter what we have done. Instead, He will draw us to Himself. He has given us an ‘Helper’ in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has given us the way to restore broken fellowship in the epistle of John. This short epistle was written to tell us how to maintain our fellowship and how to restore it when it is broken.

Christians must continually and humbly keep on acknowledging their sin (see Psalm 32 vs 5). This is the nature of walking in the light. In other words, one who is walking in the light is continually confessing his sin. Reference here is to a demeanor of life. It is natural for the one who walks in the light to recognize and confess his sin to God (Psalm 51 vs 2; Proverbs 26 vs 13). This is the condition upon which one receives the continual cleansing of the sin by the blood of Jesus. Confession of sin is the nature of those who walk in the light. It is evidence that they are in the light. 

God is light, and as long as you are in fellowship with Him, you are in the light. But the instant your fellowship is broken, you go into the dark. As long as we walk in the light, as long as we are in fellowship with Him, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses all the blunders and mistakes that we make. But if we sin, we are out of fellowship with Him and we are walking in darkness, deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The moment we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleans us from all unrighteousness. The broken fellowship is restored.

Restoring fellowship is restoring joy; restoring power with God, and working in love with God which is the greatest commandment. The richer the fellowship, the deeper one gets into the Word. Deep, rich fellowship means that we go far below the surface in this mine of wealth—the Word. To walk in love is to walk in fellowship. To live the love life is to live the fellowship life. It is bringing joy to the heart of the Father. This fellowship life with Him is the sweetest, biggest, and richest thing the world ever knew.

Jesus Christ gave us the greatest commandments thus, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12 vs 30 - 31). These two greatest commandments are anchored on love. God is love (First John 4 vs 8) and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. (First John 4 vs 7). From this we know that God's laws are not burdensome. They can be reduced to two simple principles; love for God and for others. 

When you love God completely and care for for others as you care for yourself, then you have fulfilled the intent of the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws. It’s for this reason that Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5 vs 17). According to Jesus, these two commandments summarize all God's laws. Let them rule your thoughts, decisions, and actions. When you are uncertain about what to do, ask yourself which course of action best demonstrates love for God and love for others. When you do this, you will always be in full fellowship with the Father.

There will be no growth in faith, in grace, in knowledge, nor growth in joy, with broken fellowship. Every person who has lost power with God has lost it through loss of fellowship. If their faith has been impaired so is their prayer life, and it is because fellowship has been broken. If joy has all seeped out, it is because the vessel that held it (fellowship with the Father) has been cracked. When their usefulness and testimony has lost its grip and power, it is mere empty words; it is because fellowship has been broken. If you want your testimony to be rich and full, then you must have fellowship that is rich and full. Fellowship in full with the Father puts the world in your pocket.

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to continually be in full fellowship with You. Though the human factors my cause the fellowship to be impaired from time to time, I pray that You endue me with the spirit of constant and immediate confession of any sin I may commit so as to forever restore my fellowship with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Hedonism for Husbands and Wives

 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:24–25) 

There is a pattern of love in marriage ordained by God.

The roles of husband and wife are not the same. The husband is to take his special cues from Christ as the head of the church. The wife is to take her special cues from God’s design for the church as submissive to Christ.

In doing this, the sinful and damaging results of the fall begin to be reversed. The fall twisted man’s loving headship into hostile domination in some men, and lazy indifference in others. The fall twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women, and brazen insubordination in others.

The redemption we anticipated when the Messiah finally came in Jesus Christ was not the dismantling of the created order of loving headship and willing submission, but a recovery of it. Wives, redeem your fallen submission by modeling it after God’s intention for a joyful church! Husbands, redeem your fallen headship by modeling it after God’s intention for the lavishly loving Christ!

I find in Ephesians 5:21–33 these two things: (1) the display of Christian Hedonism in marriage and (2) the direction its impulses should take.

Wives, seek your joy in the joy of your husband by affirming and honoring his God-ordained role as “head” or leader in your relationship. Husbands, seek your joy in the joy of your wife by accepting the responsibility to lead as Christ led the church and gave himself for her.

I would like to bear witness to God’s goodness in my life. I discovered Christian Hedonism the same year I got married, in 1968. Since then, Noël and I, in obedience to Jesus Christ, have pursued as passionately as we can the deepest, most lasting joys possible. All too imperfectly, all too half-heartedly at times, we have stalked our own joy in the joy of each other.

And we can testify together after almost 50 years of marriage: For those who marry, this is the path to the heart’s desire. For us, marriage has been a matrix for Christian Hedonism. As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy.