The Word That Suits: February 2014

Monday 24 February 2014

Lessons To Impress On Our Children

In my last post I began a discussion on the unhealthy trend in the lives of the youth of this generation. I mentioned a story I read in the news of an 18year old boy who killed a 12year old girl just to get the feaces of a virgin which he claimed a pastor asked him to bring in exchange for a N100,000.00 fee. And this story shocking as it may sound is just one of the many stories of the atrocities committed by the youth of this generation. One common trend among these youths is their unquenching thirst to make money by all means, be it negative or positive. Their total lack of will to wait on God for their dreams to materialize is actually very alarming.
Although I will not put the blame on the parents in totality, but I am of the opinion that the devil is out to snatch away the youths and this calls for extra vigilance on the part of the parents knowing fully well that their peace of mind in the old age is anchored on the investment in discipline and love they have been able to make in the lives of their children now that they can.
One truth that has worked for me and I am convinced to be so true is that the words of the Bible are effective. For those who know how to wait on God, the dividends of their righteousness will produce good fruits for them at the right time. Isaiah 40:31 says “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” This is the portion of those who have learned to wait on God. This is the message that God expects that we hold for our lives and teach our wealthy hasty children as they grow.

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

The passage above teaches deep lessons that we need to learn and then teach to our children. The wealth that is stored up by sinners and through sinful means are actually been laid in wait for the righteous. It might sounds like an impossibility, but with God who is the sole owner of all wealth, He will distribute His wealth as He deems fit irrespective of our dreams, desires and actions. If anyone tries to acquire it forcefully, they only retain it for a short while and get punished for their actions.

Proverbs 12:11He who works his hands will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement.

Proverbs 13:11
Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

Proverbs 10:22
The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

Proverbs 23:4-5
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.
Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Above are some basic truth about the pursuit of wealth that as parents we need to be mindful of and at the same time teach our children. The desire to be rich is not in anyway wrong, but the blind and ungodly pursuit of it tells how long we will be able to keep the wealth that has been acquired. No matter how fast a man gets rich and no matter the fact that he is young or old, the truth is that if his means of wealth is ungodly then it is just last a short while with very serious consequences. As parents we need to get close to our children enough to know their deepest secrets and be able to put them on the right path early enough.
A child millionaire will not necessarily translate to an adult millionaire if he has not learned to grow wise and show restraint to the pursuit of wealth. And also because the child next door is rich at a tender age does not mean that all the children on that lane should be teenage millionaires. Their destinies defer and the plan of God for their lives are different. These are the truth we need to instil in the minds of our growing children.
A child who has learned to work his hands from his youth will learn the secret of growing wealth little by little right from when he is young and be sure that his wealth will grow. It is important that as parents we start to disabuse the minds of our children from the get rich fast and young syndrome, so as to preserve their lives from death.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Discussing Matters Of The Home

Malachi 2:15
Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
Most of my blog post last year where based on issues that were closely related to the topic of marriage, and I have received quite a number of positive and encouraging responses that makes me thank God. This year I will still be doing much of the same thing, but focus more on the home as a bigger picture. I will trust God to help us as parents and parents to be, focus more on the bringing up of our children to be all that God has called them to be as part of having a healthy home, and as we all strive to make our contribution to a better world for all to live in.
In my spear time or when I think I just need to rest, I lie down and pick up my phone to go through the tweets from people and organizations that I am following. I have quite a number of local News platforms that I am following so I get to read the news via their tweets. One very prominent news that comes up almost everyday day is the prevalent decay in the moral standard of the youths of this generation, and their unquenching thirst for money and the luxuries of life. I read of an 18year old boy who strangled a 12year old girl to death because a pastor asked him to bring the last feaces of a virgin for a reward of N100,000.00. I was not just shocked at the news, and wondered what on earth an 18year old boy wants to do with such an amount of money. Then there is another story of a 19year old girl being stabbed to death for refusing the advances made to her by a group of boys living within the same environment as she was. Her offense being that she is too proud and will not mingle with those in the society.
These and many more stories that are featuring today, necessitates the need for us as parents to be re-awakened to our God given responsibility as parents. The Lord said He made the man and his wife one in flesh and spirit because He seeks godly offspring from their union (Malachi 2:15). And like all other assignment that the Lord has laid on us as humans, on the issue of the offspring that we birth forth, the Lord will demand an account from us.

Genesis 9:5
And for the lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man too. I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.

The words above is a declarations of God that has not been found to change by any other word of declaration in the Bible. Though the Lord might temper justice with mercy, but yet He will demand an account over every of our conduct on earth and every assignment we have been assigned to do on the face of the earth. Living with the consciousness that we will have to account for the lives of our offspring on how we have performed in raising them up for the Lord as He seeks, calls for the need for us as parents, by the grace of God to do more and put more effort in excelling in this one big and important assignment for God.
The priority given to this assignment has its ripple effect. When God revealed that He seeks godly offspring from the marriage union, it is not to God’s advantage but it is for the benefit of the man to whom the charge has been given. Whether your offspring are godly or not does not make God less than God, it does not diminish His powers in any way and neither does it reduce His Kingdom over which He rules as God. But that we men might have comfort and peace in the society we live in, thus the Lord seeks godly offspring from our marriage union.

Proverbs 17:21, 25
To have a fool for a son brings grief; there is no joy for the father of a fool.

A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him.

Proverbs 19:13a, 18
A foolish son is his father’s ruin.

Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.

From the passages above, we don't need to have anyone reconfirm to us that the charge by God to raise our children in a godly manner is mainly for our own future good. Obedience to this charge is a positive preparation on our own part for own future. Another important thing to note is that raising godly offspring that the Lord seeks rid the society of unbelievably demoralizing stories of what is happening in the lives of the youth such as we have today. When every home and every parent prayerfully adhere to God’s instruction to discipline their children and bring them up in the way of the Lord with stern discipline and adequate love then we are walking our way to a healthy society.

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Wednesday 12 February 2014

Enjoying God's Covenant (Part 2)

In my last post I tried to open up our minds to the magnitude of what the Lord it providing for us by way of His promises and covenants, with God having to swear by His name or confirm His covenants with an oath. Going by the definition of the word covenant as a legal agreement in which someone promised to pay another person a some of money on a regular basis and having the definition of a promise as a ground for expectation and a sign for future excellence, once we have a covenant from God in effect in our lives, without God having to swear or confirm we oath we can rest all hopes that our future is secured no matter the circumstances we are faced with today. But I bless God that He did not just give us His covenants and make His promises to us, He swore to those promises by His Name which is above all names and confirmed them with oaths that we might be double sure and have a basis to erase all doubts that our future is excellent and that which the Lord has promised to us will be delivered into our hands at the appointed time.
If we have to consider all the covenants and promises of the Lord one after the other, we would be having a course to put down the entire Bible on blog post, because the promises of God are endless. They contain in them the covenants of blessings, prosperity, wealth, health, security, peace of minds and all that we can ask or think of, the Lord has promised to give to us.
We will find in the book of John where Christ says “if we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we can ask for anything in His Name and it will be done for us by our Father in heaven.

John 14:12-14
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 15:7
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

John 16:24
24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

The passages above shows us without any doubt that the promises of God are boundless and there is not restriction to what we can obtain from God as long as we remain in His will, and His words remain in us. But a covenant of any kind is a two-way agreement. In as much as it is legal, it is still an agreement between two people or groups of people and each party has a role to play in order for the covenant to take full effect. It is God’s role to provide for us what we have asked of Him or what He has promised to provide for us as contained His covenants and promises, but it is our duty to remain in His will and allow His words to remain in us for us to enjoy the full benefit of the covenant He has made with us. So once we are outside the will of God and do not allow His words to remain in us, then we should not expect that the dividends of God’s covenant will accrue to us.

Genesis 17:1-9
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Abram fell face down, and God said to him. “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you fruitful; I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for generations to come.

The passage above explicitly describes the message I want my readers to keep at the back of their minds as they journey into the success of the year 2014. In the book of John, Jesus says in order for us to have eligibility to ask for anything in His Name and have our request granted then we must remain in Him and let His words remain in us. That is the part of the covenant assigned to us to keep for the effectiveness of that covenant in our lives and situation.
In the passage above, there are two things God required of Abraham as his own role in the fulfillment of God’s covenant for his life. First, the Lord said in Genesis 17:1 that “walk before me and be blameless.” So we are to understand that a blameless walk before the Lord was required from Abraham in the covenant relationship between him and God. And in the same manner, a blameless walk before the Lord is required from the descendants of Abraham to sustain and retain the everlasting covenant of God for generations of Abraham’s descendants.
In chapter 9 of Genesis 17, God instructed Abraham to keep His covenant. God is the initiator of the covenant, and meeting up with what He has promised does not pose a problem at all because Abraham was convinced that God has power to fulfill that which He has promised (Roman 4:21). He is God and never in lack of resources. But the clause laid with Abraham, he needed to keep the covenant, he needed meet up with his own side of the agreement. He needed to walk before the Lord and be blameless and also needed to circumcise every male within his household as a sign of his covenant with God.
As descendants of Abraham and heirs to God’s promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:29), we have a covenant with God. We have a promise from God that is our grounds for expectation and a sign for our future excellence. These covenants are legal and binding to God to fulfill in our lives, and the knowledge of this truth always gives us reasons to rejoice in Christ. But we need to keep God’s covenant. There is a side to that legal agreement that is not dependent on God but on us. God has the power to fulfill His promises, but a blameless walk before Him is required from us to have the covenant fulfilled in our lives.
Without any doubt the year 2014 is going to be a victorious year for us all. It is a year where God will increase His grace upon our lives and our expectations in Christ will not be cut short as we will not trust God in vain. But we need to keep God’s covenant. We need to walk before the Lord and be blameless, we need to remain in Christ and let His words remain in us and our miracles will not be delayed in Jesus Name.

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Sunday 9 February 2014

Enjoying God’s Covenant (Part 1)

Hebrews 6:13-18When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no-one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts and end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchanging things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

I really need to apologize for the very long interval between my last post and this one. In fact this is my first post this year and so I will be wishing all those who will view this post a Happy and Prosperous New Year in Jesus Name. For those who have been following my posts and have not heard from me in a long while, once again I say I am really very sorry.
As the year begins I am most certain that a lot of people have hopes, and are therefore believing God for something new and something special. I am not sure how many people had their hopes meet in Christ last year, but the truth is that at whatever level we are on waiting on God for a specific miracle, God still remains faithful and He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
As my year began, there are quite a lot of things I have tabled before the Lord for Him to accomplish in my life, family and ministry, and as I began to pray for the new year, God has been reminding me of what His covenant is all about. There is a book He led me to write on His covenant that is presently available on Amazon.com and on kindle. I had to go back and read this book as the Lord led me, to be reminded of what God’s covenant is all about.
In order to understand the magnitude of what we have received from God by way of His covenant and promises, it will help us to find out from the English dictionary what the definition of a covenant is and also what it means to make a promise to someone.
Based on the information given by some English dictionaries, a covenant is “a written agreement, it is said to be a common pledge.” Another dictionary gives its meaning as “a legal agreement, often an agreement to give money.” But the meaning that I want to relate with, describes a covenant as “a legal agreement in which someone promises to pay a person or organization an amount of money regularly.”
If the English dictionary is giving us the meaning of a covenant as a legal agreement in which someone promises to pay a person an amount of money regularly, then it means what we have received from the Lord by way of His covenant to us is a legal agreement that is binding to Him to fulfill. What God has promised to us when we made His covenant with us is a LEGAL AGREEMENT. But in the definition we have looked at we will notice the word promise, so once again we will need to understand what it means to receive a promise as we prepare to anchor our hopes in the word of God for this year.
Again the dictionary definition of the word promise says “it is a pledge, an assurance, a ground for expectation.” It is also described as, “to tell someone you will definitely do or provide something, or that something will definitely happen.” And lastly, “a promise is a declaration that one will give or do something; signs for future excellence.”
From the definitions of the words covenant and promise that we have highlighted, we can better appreciate what the Lord is about to make happen in our lives this new year as we hold onto the hope He has given to us.
It would have just been okay that the Lord made a covenant with us knowing that His covenant is a legal agreement binding to Him to fulfill, and His promises are an assurance and grounds for expectation that what has been promised will definitely be provided for. But the Lord went much in providing us the reassurance that we need to hold unto by swearing by His Name in confirmation of His covenant and then making an oath and thus giving two things by which it is impossible for Him to lie as anchor for our faith as we hold unto Him to receive that which as been promised to us.
From the definitions we have seen of the words covenant and promise, it would have been enough for God to make the promise without having to swear or confirm His promise with an oath and still we will have a legal agreement in place for us, but that we might be double sure that God will not fail, He swore by His Name and confirmed with an oath in order that our doubt might be totally erased as to whether the Lord will do for us that which He says He will do.
I don't know what you are trusting God for this year, but if just like me you have a list of request laid before the living God, I implore you to go back to His word and find out what His covenants are, those promises that He has made with those who wait on Him that will never fail, and will not go unfulfilled. Because this year as you learn to keep God’s covenant, you are entering into the best year that you have experienced so far on the face of the earth and it will only always get better as you remain in the Love of Christ.

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The Word That Suits