5 BEST WAYS TO LOSE JESUS WITHOUT KNOWING IT Monday, 10th August - Friday, 14th August, 2020.
Thursday, 13th August, 2020
Topic: Abuse His Grace
Anchor Scripture: Matthew 15: 8 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."
Focus Scripture: "And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines." - Judges 16:30
Admonition Greetings to you from the Throne of Grace.
One of the Bible stories that I found most pathetic is Samson's. Chosen and consencrated, even before conception in his mother's womb and endowed with the awesome power of God (Judges 13: 1 - 5), Samson mistook the grace of God for foolishness and he paid dearly with his life.
The Holy Spirit of God spoke to us from the book of Jude 1: 4 yesterday about some ungodly men who crept into our midst and are ising the grace of God for lasciviousness. Of a truth, one of them was Samson. The only difference is that Samson was chosen by God before his conception.
Speaking with one of my daughters in Christ one day, I told her a blunt truth about the grace of God which most Christians are oblivion of; grace expires! If you think that is a lie, ask Samson! Many of us today are engrossed with the devil's lies about grace that it is unending, and so, we continue to do things abominable under the umbrella of our vague understanding of the grace of God.
Samson was commissioned to deliver Israel from under the oppressive hand of the Philistines. He was not meant to die with them as it eventually happened, but because he abused the grace of God, he died a death that was not meant for him. What a pity!
I dare to say that there are many Samsons in the body of Christ today, who hide under the canopy of grace to do the unthinkable. We need to come to the underatanding that the grace of God upon us is meant to draw us nearer to Him when we repose our faith in Christ Jesus, not drive us farther from Him through sins (Habbakkuk 1: 13). The grace of God is an enabler. It empowers us through the help of the Holy Spirit to live our lives in conformity with His commands. We may have the chance, to faulter once in a while, which grace may cover, but repeated strings of our misdeameanour may remove his grace from us without us knowing about it like Samson. The Bible says he did not know that the Lord had departed from him (Judges 16: 20).
As we close this morning, brethren, let us know that the grace of God was not given to us that we may continue to live in sin (Romans 6: 1), but for us to be able to live above sin and abide in Christ's righteousness. A continual abiding in sin because God's judgement is no longer immediate because of grace is an abuse of the grace of God, and people who indulge in such, like Samson, don't FINISH STRONG because they are prone to lose Jesus Christ without knowing it. When the deed was finally done on Samson, he thought to himself that he would arise and deal with the Philistines as usual, not knowing that he has lost the Jesus in him that was empowering him to put the enemies to rout (Judges 16: 20). I pray that will not be our testimonies in Jesus Christ's mighty name. Amen. * * * Please, pray that God will forgive your past non-challant abuse of His grace upon your life and He will from today, quicken you to walk perfectly with Him to the end in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
I remain, Yours in Him, Brother Bidemi Oyedele Bible-way Gospel Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria. 07064694037 [email protected]
Wednesday, 12th August, 2020
Topic: Love Pleasures
Anchor Scripture: Matthew 15: 8 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."
Focus Scripture: "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." - 1 Timothy 5: 6
Admonition Greetings to you from the Throne of Grace.
In his book, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer touched on a common malady in the church today which he called, the sacred-secular debacle. According to him, most Christian today are double-faced because just as they have a sacred part that is serving God spiritually, they also have another part, called the secular, with which they also perfectly respond to the rhythm of the world without battling an eyelid. This is it: with their sacred part, they attend all church services and do other spiritual things such as fasting and prayer. Likewise, with their secular part, they dress and talk and attend every ceremony and party, just like pure unbelivers. Very many of them, especially the women/ladies, with their paintings and bogus dresses, one would find it an uphill task to distinguish them from the common unbelievers, even on Sundays, while going to church. The worrisome part of it is that Christians caught in this web of spiritually maladious living don't even see anything wrong with it. Their usual response is "God is concerned with my heart." Indeed!
Excuse my thought, but I should think that this maladious belief and practice emanated from two sources: heretic and wrong teachings of the past and looking for Jesus in the wrong places, especially in the lives of "certain men who crept in among us, ungodly men, who have turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness . . . ." (Jude 1: 4). The belief of Christians who live this way is that God does not require them to inconvenient themselves to serve Him. So, they belief they can please their flesh, even while serving or worshipping God.
But our Focus Scripture this money should suffice to silence such heretic thinking and beliefs because according to that Scripture, spiritually speaking, such Christians are but walking corpses. According to the book of Revelations 3: 1, the church in Sardis also thought they were living, but was told that they were dead because of this kind of practices. In Matthew 6: 24 and Luke 16: 13, Jesus Christ made it very clear that no one servant can serve two masters. People who attempt it are only deceiving themselves and they will never FINISH STRONG except they repented.
As we close this morning, let me define pleasure as anything that your flesh enjoys; anything that the flesh doesn't complain about because it doesn't discomforts it. Pleasure, simply put, is the indulgence of the flesh. I seriously believe that the only thing that will make a Christian live a double-faced Christian life is a love for pleasure and the world, which God has warned us agaist severally (Romans 12: 1 - 2, 1 John 2: 15 - 17). Examples abound in the Bible of persons who had Jesus Christ, but attempted to live such lifestyle. What the Bible records about them is that they shipwrecked their faith. This is what will happen to anyone who calls themselves Christians, but love pleasures because according to the book of Romans 8: 5, none living in the flesh (pleasures) can please God. We cannot continue to indulge the flesh and be believing that God is pleased with us. The grace of God upon us by which we are not instantaneously judged like the people of the Old Testament must not be seen as a licence to lasciviousness, please, if we must FINISH STRONG in God and make heaven on the Last Day.
* * * Please, pray that God will forgive your double-faced lifestyle of the past and help you locate yourself in Him and and walk perfectly with Him to the end in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
I remain, Yours in Him, Brother Bidemi Oyedele Bible-way Gospel Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria. 07064694037 [email protected]
Tuesday, 11th August, 2020
Topic: Look For Him in Wrong Places
Anchor Scripture: Matthew 15: 8 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."
Focus Scripture: ".But they, supposing him to have been in the company, . . . sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance." - Luke 2:44
Admonition Greetings to you from the Throne of Grace.
I found it rather funny than amazing that Jesus' parents, knowing what an important child He was, could lose Him for three solid days (Lule 2: 46) without finding Him, and without even knowing where He could have been. In their fret, they looked in one of the wrong places where most of us, today's Christians, also look for Him; amongst people around us. We look for Him in our congregations, in our Pastors' lives and in one relation or the other. We look for Him in various places, including crusades, conventions and other large gatherings we may find.
People who genuinely want Him and sincerely desire to find Him normally get dissatisfied with the usual that is commonplace today from denomination to denomination. They always know, by the help of His Spirit that there is something missing. And they never rest, like Jesus' parents, until they find Him. But ordinary church goers don't care. They accept whatever they are fed with and participate in the usual worship rituals and customs there available and they are satisfied with it.
The art of looking for Jesus Christ in the wrong places today is the reason we have born-again who has no special affection for God. It is the reason we have people who are "saved" without any hunger nor thirst for Christ. These are because they looked for Him in the wrong places and didn't find Him, but instead of finding the REAL HIM, they were given a semblance, and since they too are like the Athenians of Acts 17 who didn't know the God they served, they accepted the fake.
As we round off this morning, let us know that God has placed a divine desire in our hearts to look for Him, and if we truly know Him Whom we seek, we will never be at rest until we find Him. The queation is where could we find Jesus, then? The truth, beloved brethren, is that both God and His Christ (they are one, really) are in the Word (John 1: 1). Anyone looking for Jesus Christ but not in His Word is searching in the wrong places. When His parents eventually find Him, what was He doing? He was teaching elderly people the Word. I have always maintained that everything we need to know and underatand about God is in His Word. Also, everything we need to know about how to FINISH STRONG and be with Him on the Last Day is in His Word. That is why the most important thing in a Christian's life is the Word. Nothing pleases Christ like getting hold of the Word. Even if you say you know how to pray, your prayer will be less effective without the Word. So, when next you are in church, ensure the TRUE WORD is preached, not stories and the prophetic lies of "I see you buy a car this week, in Jesus name", and the likes.
Finally, it is only the people who are able to find Him in His Word that can be very sure of FINISHING STRONG. If you are sincere about seeking and finding Him, you need to become dissatisfied with the usual worship jamboree and the bread and butter mesaages. Jesus Christ Himself says that the heaven and the earth shall pass away, but not the list of His Word will go unaccmplished (Matthew 24: 35). Psalm 138: 2c says He magnifies His Word more than ALL His names. So, don't go about looking for Jesus Christ in the wrong places. You may never find Him! Dig deep in the Word; He's there!
* * * Please, pray that God will put the hunger for His True Word in your heart and help you find Him and walk perfectly with Him to the end in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
I remain, Yours in Him, Brother Bidemi Oyedele Bible-way Gospel Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria. 07064694037 [email protected]
Monday, 10th August, 2020
Topic: Believe In Customs and Traditions
Anchor Scripture: Matthew 15: 8 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."
Focus Scripture: ". . . they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast." - Luke 2:42
Admonition Greetings to you from the Throne of Grace.
In Matthew 15: 8, Jesus Christ says, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." Unfortunately, that which He said about them then is still at work today as there are many people in the church today who attend all church services, but whose hearts are far away from God and His Christ, even though they shout their prayers and do all they do in their services in His name because He never commanded them thus. Sometimes, amidst fellow Christians, I look odd, just because I don't believe what they believe and won't do what they practice because they were neither done nor commanded by Christ Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, to whom I continually look (Hebrews 12: 2) for guidance and instructions.
As our topic depicts this morning, turning things that are supposed to be spiritual into tradition and or custom is one the easiest ways of losing Jesus Christ without knowing it. I consider it a very tragic thing for a Christian to lose Jesus Christ and it becomes more calamitous if the person now becomes oblivion of the fact that they have lost Jesus Christ.
The tragic event that happened in Luke 2: 41 - 48 has its root in Exodus 12: 11 where God commanded the Israelites in the twillight of their leaving Egypt to observe the Passover. Now, there is nothing wrong with Passover because it was a commandment of God, but as our Anchor Scripture for the week puts it, His parents "went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast." By implication, what was supposed to be spiritual have become a custom. Now, there is nothing wrong with Passover because it was commanded by God, but at this time that we are studying, the people have become so used to it that it has lost its spiritual values. That is one of the reasons the Bible warned in Hebrews 8: 7 that God brought on the New Testament because He found faults with the Old.
Today, against what the Bible commands in Hebrews 12: 2, many in the church today belief and worship the personal beliefs of their founders. Some founders have also imported some custom and traditions into the church and enshrined them as part of their churches' doctrines, claiming that was how God gave it to them. Involving oneself therefore, in these practices makes one guilty on what Jesus Christ says in Matthew 15: 9 that " . . . in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
As we round off this morning, we are admonished to heed Hebrews 12: 2 and that whatever Jesus Christ didn't command is not supoosed to be in our midst if we must FINISH STRONG. We must also beware of making light spiritual things, lest they become traditions and costoms. Lastly, go through the doctrines in your church, whichever of them that Jesus never commanded is not binding on you as a true child of God. Romans 8: 2 says that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death." Stop putting yourself in unnecessary bondage, thinking you are serving God. By doing that none shall FINISH STRONG. I pray we will all FINISH STRONG in Jesus Christ' mighty name. Amen.
* * * Please, pray that God will open your eyes and enlighten your heart of understanding to see where you have erring in worshipping Him and help you to make ammends in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
I remain, Yours in Him, Brother Bidemi Oyedele Bible-way Gospel Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria. 07064694037 [email protected]