THE TRUE WORSHIPPERS For Wednesday June 3rd 2015

Topic: THE TRUE WORSHIPPERS 

Memorise: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24

Read: John 4:21-24, Bible in one year: 1^st Kings 7:1-8:11, Luke 2:22-40

It is not all acts of worship that God accepts, because not all worshippers are true worshippers. The truth was revealed by Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He also revealed some other great truths about worship that we should pay close attention to if we want our worship to be acceptable to God. The first of these is that any “God” that is limited or restricted to particular place is false and not worthy of worship. Worship directed towards such contraptions of men is counterfeit worship. The worship of the true God does not involve going to a junction where three roads meet to put food items for God to come and eat. Paul came across worshippers of such gods at Mars’ Hill Athens (Acts 17:22-31). The true God is described thus by the Psalmist in Psalm 8:1:

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”

Another truth about worship which Jesus revealed is that any god that does not have a fatherly relationship with his worshippers is not worthy of our worship. Anyone worshipping such gods is not a true worshipper. This is why Jesus came to make us children of His Father. Also, when He was teaching His disciples how to pray, He described the true God as “Father” (Luke 11:2). Furthermore, Jesus revealed that our worship of God is not true worship if we do not know the God we are worshipping. This is the reason why Paul tried to introduce the Athenians to the God they were ignorantly worshipping (Acts 17:23). He tried to teach them that they were wrong to think that the Godhead could be represented by gold, silver or stone graven by art and man’s devices (Acts 17:29). No worshipper should ignorantly think that a Holy God will accept worship from a life laden with the sin of falsehood, pretence and all manner of immorality and wickedness.

True worship involves worshipping the true God in spirit and in truth, we must worship God in spirit because God is a Spirit, and only through the spirit can we relate meaningfully with His Spirit. To worship God in Sprit means to do what He bids you to do with a spiritual mind of faith. These are things the Holy Spirit of God would ask us to do what viewed with a carnal mind, are difficult to understand. For example, when God asked Noah to build a big ship on dry ground, to men of his generation, this was not a sensible thing to do. That a person should stick to one spouse “for better, for worse” may not sound reasonable, but that is what the word of God says. A true worshipper of God will not tell lies even if there is no risk of being found out. To a true worshipper, being truthful is not about man but about God who is all-knowing.   

Prayer Point: Father, grant me grace to live a life of acceptable worship through Your Spirit in Jesus’ Name.

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DON’T CLOSE YOUR MOUTH II for Tuesday June 2nd 2015

 TOPIC: DON’T CLOSE YOUR MOUTH  II 

Memorise: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye  should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16

Read: Matthew 28:18-20, Bible in one year: 1^st Kings 5-6, Luke 2:1-21

In addition to opening our mouth in prayer, opening our mouth as witnesses of Jesus is another obligation we must perform. Evangelistic outreach is for all children of God; not for God’s ministers alone. We must all bear fruit of souls into God’s kingdom as commanded by our Lord in today’s memory verse. To back us up in this obligation, our Lord Jesus Christ assures us that all power in heaven and on earth belongs to Him. It is therefore a settled matter that no power on earth or in the spiritual world can stop us from carrying out His instructions. We are therefore inexcusable if we fail to win souls. He instructed us to go and teach all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Great Commission therefore involves teaching. Let us pause and think about what this assignment of teaching means.

To teach is to expound truth that will bring about change in the taught. We are faced with a two-pronged problem in the area of fulfilling this assignment today. One aspect of this problem is that the teacher who is supposed to expound the truth is often afraid of what the reaction of the student would be to a demand for change; hence, he shuts his mouth. But the Bible in 2^nd Timothy 4:2 says:

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

The other aspect of this problem is that the people to be taught are not comfortable with the cry for “change”. They do not want to be “intimidated” by the “dos and don’ts” of their new found faith in Christ. Such people are deceiving themselves because the Bible does not say we called into lawlessness. As a matter of fact and whether we believe it or not, a yoke of “learning and change” is attached to our calling into the faith. Jesus in Matthew 11:29a said:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;”

It is our duty as children of God to open our mouths wide to this perverted generation and teach them the counsel of God without fear or favour. I was in a church sometime last year and I heard a sister teaching on tithes. In order to make people accept the doctrine of tithing, she said they could start by giving 5% of their income and gradually increase it! What an erroneous teaching! We must not hold back the truth from those we are sent to. This is the only way our fruit can endure, and then our prayers will be answered.

Action Point: Determine to properly disciple your converts through sound teaching of the Bible from today.

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DON’T CLOSE YOUR MOUTH I for Monday June 1st 2015

Topic: DON’T CLOSE YOUR MOUTH  I

Memorise: Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. James 4:2

Read: Daniel 9:1-19, Bible in one year: 1^st Kings 3-4, Luke 1:57-80

Our Bible reading shows Daniel, a great man of prayer, interceding for his nation, Israel. In his prayer, he asked God to remember His promise to restore the nation of Israel. He was determined to seek the face of God for mercy, through prayers and supplications with fasting. He mourned for the despicable condition of the Jews who were scattered all over the world and for the ruins of Jerusalem. There are great lessons of life we can profit from when we ponder on this example of Daniel.

One of these lessons is from this statement: “I Daniel understood by books” (Daniel 9:2). It was Daniel’s discovery and understanding of what the Lord has said through Prophet Jeremiah 29:10, concerning the time of His visitation to restore Israel as a nation that motivated him to intercede for his people. Recognise the fact that in this period, there was no Bible collating all the writings of the Prophets in one volume. The writing of the Prophets were on different scrolls spread across various locations. Therefore, it must have been a lot of hard work for Daniel to search for the relevant scrolls of the Prophets, and then read through them to know what God had said about the situation he was bothered about. Reading, studying and meditating on God’s word is hard work, but the extent to which you know the Bible is the extent to which you will know the mind of God concerning you. When you know the mind of God concerning a situation, it will build your confidence as you approach your Heavenly Father in prayer.

Our Lord Jesus Christ assured us of answers to our prayers in Matthew 7:8. He followed up this assurance by asking this question in Matthew 7:9:

“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?”

In answer to Our Lord’s question, a father indeed would not do that. How much more our Heavenly Father who is more benevolent than our earthly fathers (Matthew 7:1)? I therefore encourage you to study to know the mind of God, so as to pray aright at all times. This alone can guarantee express answer to your needs. It will not be good for you to engage in an exercise in futility. Pray according to God’s mind in His holy word and you will be happy you did. Do not keep your mouth shut and suffer in silence.

Prayer Point :Father, help the leaders of my country to be alive to their responsibilities in Jesus’ Name.

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"Open Heavens" A Daily Devotional Messages from Pastor E.A Adeboye of R.C.C.G: THE PRICE OF BEING A STANDARD for Wednesday May 27...

"Open Heavens" A Daily Devotional Messages from Pastor E.A Adeboye of R.C.C.G: THE PRICE OF BEING A STANDARD for Wednesday May 27...: TITLE: THE PRICE OF BEING A STANDARD  Memorise: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch n...

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IT IS FOR YOUR GOOD for Sunday May 31st 2015

TITLE: IT IS FOR YOUR GOOD

Memorise: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Read: Genesis 50:15-21, Bible in one year: 1^st Kings 2, Luke 1:26-56

From the beginning, the devil’s modus operandi has been to sow the seeds of doubt in the heart of mankind with regards to the plan and intentions of God for them. For example, while God’s reason for restraining Adam and Eve from eating the forbidding fruit was to keep them alive, healthy and prosperous, the devil came and told them that God did so because He did not have their good at heart (Genesis 3:4-5). It was this type of doubt that the devil sowed in the heart of Joseph’s brothers after the demise of their father. Thank God Joseph was a man who knew the mind of God; He quickly quenched their doubts. For us His children

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A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE for Saturday May 30th 2015

TITLE: A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE 

Memorise: And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Acts 24:16

Read: Romans 14:16-21, Bible in one year: 1^st Kings 1^st Luke 1:1-25

The Church of Jesus Christ on earth will be healthy and pleasant if Christians would live with conscience void of offence. Unfortunately, offences often arise here and there in the Body of Christ today. This is caused by misuse of opportunities, wealth and other material possessions. For this to be uprooted from the Church, we need to apply the spiritual principles that Apostle Paul laid down in 1^st Timothy 6:17-18:

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;”

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WHAT HAS YOUR AFFECTION? for Friday May 29th 2015

TITLE:WHAT HAS YOUR AFFECTION?

Memorise: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

Read: Colossians 3:1-6, Bible in one year: 2^nd Samuel 23-24, Mark 15:33-16:8

I have observed that one of the reasons why many Christians find it difficult to live according to the standards of the Bible today is that their mind is not set on the things of heaven, and the reason for this is the coming of material prosperity to the church. Is it then a mistake that God has prospered us materially? Certainly not! Abraham was blessed, Isaac was blessed and Jacob was also blessed, but yet, they all served the Lord. King David even blessed the Lord for material prosperity among other things. Psalm 103:1&5 says,

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