Month: July 2013

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: Psalm 50

 

Key Text: Psalm 50:5 – “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

 

There is something about the word sacrifice that makes us uncomfortable. It immediately conjures up in our minds words like pain, self-denial, costly, bloody etc. It is not a word we like much, but each day we are involved in some sacrifice or the other. You sacrifice your sleep and hours lazing around everyday you get up and go to work. We sacrifice living an extravagant life, so we can pay our children’s school fees. We sacrifice our freedom to be unaccountable and irresponsible for the joys of marriage and discovery of another person. We sacrifice hours studying so we can gain an education, degrees etc. Sacrifice is not strange to human beings and so I am not exactly sure why we shrink when God asks for sacrifice. Let me state upfront that every sacrifice has a reward. It is impossible to see sacrifice and not find a corresponding reward. It is automatic. So here is the point of today’s message.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel loves sacrifice. He is a transactional God. He demands sacrifice and consequently rewards it greatly. He is also a sacrificing God. He will give whatever is required to gain whatever He needs. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to be able to gain human beings back to Himself. Think for a moment what it must have meant to God to let Jesus go. Think about the pain of the Father. Then think about the sacrifice of Christ Himself; the scourging, the abuses, the piercing and nailing to a rugged tree. This was and remains the ultimate sacrifice. There will never be any bigger, better or more profound and rewarding than that of Jesus on Calvary.

In a sense, we do not need any more sacrifices to access God’s provisions; Because Jesus fully paid for all the blessings of God to be freely dispensed towards us. So whatever I say in this piece is not asking us to do anything other than believe in the accomplished work of the cross. So whatever we decide to sacrifice to God as New Testament believers is in direct response and appreciation to His all-fulfilling sacrifice.

Having said this, I want to state categorically, that even we the redeemed of God are expected to live a life of sacrifice. We are expected to sacrifice our praise. We are expected to sacrifice our resources. We are required to sacrifice our time and energy for the Kingdom of God. We are all called to lay our lives down for the gospel. We are called to carry our crosses daily and follow Jesus Christ.  As a Christian there is no escaping sacrifice.

But there is one thing we all need to know. Wherever you see sacrifice, the glory of God is not too far away. Sacrifice always attracts the glory of God. I often hear Preachers say God cannot be bribed and I know what they mean. But believe me the bible is replete with people who provoked God into action through their sacrifice. Solomon offered God a thousand bulls and that same night God showed up and asked him, “what can I do for you?” Hannah got God’s attention, when she dedicated her unborn child to the service of God. Cornelius was visited by the angel of God and became the first gentile to enter the kingdom of God by his alms. Jesus responded to the Centurions call for help regarding his servant, because Jesus was told that the Centurion loved Israel and has built a synagogue for the Jews, Mary stirred the heart of Jesus because she sacrificed her alabaster jar of perfume as a token of worship. Jesus was so moved that He said wherever this gospel is preached Mary’s sacrifice will be remembered. Abraham had the covenant confirmed with a oath, when He agreed to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God on the mount of Moriah. Though, God restrained him from killing Isaac and provided an alternative, this great act of sacrifice, proved to God that Abraham feared the Lord. Hear what God had to say about this event in Genesis 22 “He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Today’s passage says, “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” God sees and appreciates people of sacrifice and in this passage He calls them out for a special dispensation of His grace and favour.

Sometime in the future I will be dealing with the power of covenants and how we can enter covenantal agreements with God based on sacrifice. But today, I only want to stress one thing. If you want to see God’s glory in any area of your life, think sacrifice. God always responds to sacrifice. Those who understand this and therefore attract His glory by sacrifice always specially touch Him.

Sacrifice to God + Faith = Glory of God.

 

Let’s pray – Father God, thank you for reminding me of your nature. Thank you that you respond to sacrifice and you reward true sacrifice. Thank you that you have offered the greatest sacrifice to reach me and there really is no more sacrifice for the atonement of sins. Father help me to recognise the areas of my life that requires a special touch of your glory and teach me how to offer the right sacrifices to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

 

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: 2 Timothy 2: 1-10

 

Key Text: 2 Timothy 2: 5 – “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

 

Let’s not underestimate what it takes to succeed in life. Let’s not think that we can simply wish for it and then it happens. If this were the case everyone will be successful. Success does not happen by chance. It is a very deliberate and planned outcome to a long and arduous process. I look at medal winning athletes and it is so easy to think that the competition they won is all they did to win. We watch Usain Bolt sprint down the track for under 10 seconds and we think ‘that can’t be hard’. But only God knows how many years of training, he has had to put in to shave off a microsecond from his personal best. If you can spend a week of your life with one of these athletes, you will be so surprised at how they live. The rise up so early in the morning and they embark on rigorous training regime for the first four hours of the day. Next they go and study and do some theoretical mind strengthening exercises for another three or so hours, they eat very carefully selected and prepared meal that will produce a predetermined amount of calories and energy. Then they have some time for relaxation, and its back on the track for more exercises and stressful tests. By the time the day comes to and end, they are so spent and every fibre of their body and mind is stretched and in pain. Their whole being cries for a break, but after a six-hour sleep, they are up again the following morning and the same regime begins again. These they do for ten months of the year, every year, long before they ever come to the grand arenas of the Olympics and finally win a medal. (I can’t help but think of those who never made it to the medal podium, yet had to do the same arduous regime).

I said all these to draw our attentions to one simple fact of life. Because it is not easy to succeed, many people will do anything to succeed the easy way. Most of what they do is illegal and compromising and as such, when they are caught, they are disqualified. There are so many cases of doping in sports and I listen to all the comments people make about the sports dopers and I wonder, how many of them and guilty of the same offences in their sphere of operation. Every compromise is a doping offence. Every time we cheat we are ‘doping’. But there is a sure way to succeed and it is not easy, but it is God’s provision for success and if you can follow His route, you will end up successful, no matter what. God has a way to get you to the top.

At the beginning of today’s passage Paul tells his protégé and son in the Lord, ‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Then he went on to tell him about what he must suffer for the sake of his call and the Lord. In Christ Jesus there is unlimited grace. Grace is the empowerment of God for success. It is God’s unlimited Resources At Christ’s Expense. So if you want to succeed in life and not do it by compromise, then you have to learn how to be strong in the grace of Christ. Jesus Christ is the perfect man. He is the greatest man. He is the most successful man. He is all that we want to be and much more. So we can be all we want to be in HIM alone. You have to learn how to depend on God and draw from His unlimited resources. Or you go the harder route, which means arduous training and endless routines and no guarantee of success. If you follow the grace route, you will still have to go through a rigorous process, many hours and endless days of doing good and proper things, but not in your strength but His and at the end of the race, there are no second prizes. We all end up with the crown.

Every time you find your self thinking that you are tired and want to give up and compromise for some success, remember that you need to strengthen yourself in the grace of God.

Let me leave you with this promise from the Lord Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30 – 28 “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Let’s Pray: Father God I thank you that you have given us all things we need to survive this life in godliness. Above all you have made your unlimited grace abound towards us. Father, today I ask for the grace to succeed and excel in life. I lean fully of the grace that is Christ Jesus, the greatest man to live and the perfect specimen of humanity. In Him is all I need to get to the top and stay on top. Thank you for your grace. In jesus name I pray. Amen.

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage: Isaiah 35: 8-10 (Please try to read)

 

Key Text: Isaiah 35: “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;”

 

There is a way that seems right to men but the end of it is destruction, says the word of God in the book of Proverbs. It is interesting that most of us will dare not leave our homes for an unknown destination without first checking the maps for direction and in these days of the SATNAV, we would immediately plot in the coordinates and fully rely on the gadget to take us to our destination, obediently and assiduously following the voice of a complete stranger. Strange! Or let’s consider some of us who get on aeroplanes and jetliners going to far away destinations. We board these aircrafts completely trusting the pilot and this big contraption to take us there. We are completely relaxed; we eat, drink, and watch movies and sleep, fully expecting to arrive at our destination. What level of trust we are capable of exhibiting! Yet none of these things or people we put so much confidence in is 100 percent reliable. SATNAV’s have been known to get it completely wrong and with airlines we know what sometimes happen, though we pray that these never happen ever again.

But today’s passage tells us there is a sure, tested and 100 percent reliable route to success in all our endeavours, but we rarely take this route. God who created us and saved us, has a destiny for all of us and He has His way of bringing this destiny to pass. But we have to learn how to listen to him and follow him, much like we do with the SATNAV systems. Most of us, set out to the land of success without any consideration for the creator of success and the owner of our lives. We set out blindly, following strange voices, voices of our peers, our leaders and our world, without checking with the only One who really knows the destiny or destination. So on our journey we meet with unexpected obstacles and hindrances and sometimes the journey ends in a shipwreck, though this was not His plan for us.

God said in Psalm 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with mine eye. This is a great promise worth standing on everyday as God, the owner and controller of everything has promised to teach us or point us in the right direction and instruct us, meaning he would give us step by step direction at each stage of the journey. He goes further to say He would guide us with His eye. That means, he would personally scope our path and ensure we are directed based on His infinite wisdom and knowledge. It is impossible for God to lead us to destruction and disaster. God always leads to triumph.

Today, we read that there is a highway of holiness. A highway is another word for an expressway or what we call in the West a motorway. These are clear multi-lane roads that lead to a location. Once you get on them, you are assured they will take you to your destination. God has a highway for us to travel on through life and once we locate this road, we will never go astray. It is clear and direct. But if we chose to go on the low way or our way, we are likely to meet with all sorts of obstacles and hindrances and worse still end up in the wrong destination. May God deliver us from our self-will.

Let me challenge you believer today. Stop and consider your path. Is this God’s highway or low way? Stop and pray and listen to the voice of the good shepherd and let Him direct you out of your error and lead you to His desired path and destiny. It is a promise He has made that He would lead us. So please don’t waste your energy and life trying to succeed, when God the creator and our maker has already made a road for us that will lead us to success.

Let’s pray: Father God, I am convinced you have a highway for me to travel through life and be successful. Lord teach me and instruct me in the way that I should go. Forgive me for choosing my own way over yours. Please show me your Highway of holiness and give me the courage to make the adjustments I need to get back on track. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

 

Morning Dew

 

Key Passage; Psalm 20

 

Key Text: Psalm 20:7 – “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

 

We live in a world plagued with nepotism, corruption and all manner of evil and unfair practices. If one is not informed it is easy to believe that without a godfather or some strong human connection one can never attain certain positions in life. It is almost as if who you know determines who you become. So this mindset has bred all manner of practices; bribery, grovelling, horse-trading, evil covenants, selling of souls etc etc in the name of being selected for a position or a job. It is a rather dirty game, but this is the world of the uninformed and lovers of the world.

Our text today is so powerful. It says some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.  The strength of a horse to take you to a destination cannot be overstated and if you have a horse, it means you can travel to a destination much faster than the person who is travelling on foot. So it is easy for the person who has a horse to believe that he would arrive faster and much earlier that the man walking. But is this true? Also a chariot, is a vehicle pulled by horses and it travels even faster than a single horse can go. Again, it is easy to trust in the power of the horses and the chariots, than to look to God to lift one up. Actually, most of the people engaged in the horse-trading etc are clear that the connections and alliances and networks they have will take them to their desired destinations. They trust in flesh and put their confidence in men. But hear what the word of God has to say about such people.

Jeremiah 17:5-6 “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

As a child of God we are called not to trust in flesh or put our confidence in people. God knows that we would be disappointed. He wants us to trust in Him and Him alone, for our elevation and promotion in life. Whilst some trust in their horses and others in their chariots, we must turn our eyes up to the Lord and put our trust in Him. The writer of Psalms says in Psalm 121, I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where comes my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and the earth.

Again we read that “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalm 75:6.

Promotion comes from the hand of the Lord. For us who are his children, we cannot engage in the ‘wheeling and dealing’ of the world, we cannot afford the compromises and degradation that the so-called godfathers request to put people in positions. We simply have to lift our eyes to the Lord and trust Him to make a way for us. If God lifts us up, then we only have God to fear. If man lifts you up, then you have both man and God to fear. The bible says that the fear of man brings a trap. That is why many in positions of power are ineffective, because they are trapped into major compromises that make them so ineffective.

Let me show you what God says about those who trust in Him. Jeremiah 17:7-8 –  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Finally, the bible is clear about the outcome of the race of horses and chariots against a man of God who is on foot. Look at the story in 1 Kings 18:44-46,” And he said, Go up, say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”

Elijah gave Ahab a head start with his chariots and horses, but when the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah he overtook the chariot and horses of Ahab and ran faster than Ahab, even though he ran on foot. WOW! Those who trust in the Lord will go further and faster than those who put their trust in man.

Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but I will remember the name of the Lord my God. I will remember that He is my El-Shaddai, my all-sufficient God. I will remember that He is my El-Roi, my Shepherd, I shall not lack. I will remember that He is my Jehovah Jireh, My Provider.

God has a way for you and I to get to the top in life, its a sure and perfect way. So stop trusting in man and put your trust in God.

Let’s Pray: Father God, I lift my eyes up to the hill today and declare that my help comes from you. You are my glory and the lifter up of my head. I may not have any earthly connections to take me to the high offices of life, but you are the Most High and I am connected to you by blood. I am your blood relative. So Father, I put my confidence in you and you alone. Thank you for lifting me up. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.