LOVE CONQUERS ALL EVIL

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers 

a multitude of sins. 

1 Peter 4:8

God demonstrated His love for us whilst we were still sinners and separated far away from Him. 

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (KJV)

His love for us was evidenced by allowing His only begotten son, Jesus Christ to come and died for the propitiation of our sins. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  

John 3:16  (KJV)

Because of this, we are constrained to love one another. By loving one another, we learn to forgive the wrongs done to us by our fellow human beings. Where there is love, there is no fighting and there is peace. Peace then leads to progress and development. The world would be a better place for all if we learn to put our differences away and focus on our commonalities. We have many things in common than what divides us. We all breath; we all defecate; we all eat; we can walk; we can talk; we can see; we can hear; we can reproduce; we can feel; we can think; we can laugh; we can urinate, and many more. Only few things divide us. So above everything, let us "keep loving one another earnestly."

Earnestly means "to be sincerely zealous" or "to be serious in one's intentions, purpose or effort." We must make every effort to love even when it is not reciprocated. This is where the challenge is! Love always keeps giving. 

How do you know that you are showing love? The answer is summarized in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

Beloved, let us make every effort to exhibit love to one another as Jesus did. This is what the upward calling is all about. Peace be upon you all!

HOW TO PLEASE GOD THE MOST?

To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3 (NIV)

Sacrifice is defined as the act of surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure. It is offered as a form of worship or propitiation. Offering sacrifices generally makes one feel good and free of any guilty conscience. It also tends to benefit those who can afford the items needed for the sacrifice. Those who can afford to pay for the sacrifice may go back to their old ways and live in sin because they may think that they would be able to appease with their sacrifices. Sacrifice is also the act of giving up something that you want to keep, especially, in order to get or do something else or to help someone. It is the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim. It is to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else. Again, the intent here is to make one feel good about himself or herself.

When people give tithes, they feel they have given up something to God and they intend want something back from Him. When some people give to the poor, they want others to know about it. They want people to know how much they have sacrificed. Saul made a sacrifice to God after winning the war with the Amalekites. It was good to offer sacrifice but his intents were not right. He was told to destroy the entire city and not to take anything from the spoil. He wanted to show off his warrior feats so he captured the king of the Amalekites alive and made a public show of him. God was therefore not pleased with his sacrifice.

Saul thought his own ways were right. "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts." Proverbs 21:2(NIV)

As you offer a sacrifice to God, you have to ascertain the motive behind it. When you make a vow or pledge to give money in front of a congregation, what is your motive. Is it to show off? God is interested in the motive and principle behind everything that we do. Are you motives in right standing with God? When your motive and principles are in accordance with God's word, then your sacrifice becomes acceptable to the Lord.

 "Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers."  

Isaiah 58:3 (NIV)

The Israelites fasted, which was a form of self sacrifice, and they expected God to listen to their prayers and cries. Yet God was not pleased with that because they did their own thing by exploiting their workers. God is interested in us living a holy and righteous lives than bringing our sacrifices to him.  God weighs the heart and intents of man.

Human beings evaluate the outward appearance and actions of others and we judge them according to that. Samuel was faced with a similar situation when he was choosing a king for the Israelite:

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."         1 Samuel 16:7

Today, as you read this message, may you not be a man-pleaser but be a God-pleaser. God is calling us to holiness without which no man would see God. A call to do right and just is what is more delightful to God. How is your relationship and dealings with others? Are they right and just? How are your deep thoughts, are they right and just? Let us desire to living righteously in this present world so that we will be ready when our maker comes to take us up into heaven.

FREEDOM FROM THE LOVE OF MONEY

 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”  Hebrews 13:5-6(NIV)

Money is needed for acquisition of most things on the earth. We acquire earthly things to make us feel happy BUT this happiness is always temporary and fades away within hours. This creates the need to acquire new things to regenerate the emotions that we felt before. This is an unending circle and the intense desire to do everything and anything for money. For the love of money, many have stolen from others, they have reaped where they did not sow. For the love of money, many have murdered or injured people in order to have their possessions. For the love of money, many relationships have been broken and enmity created between closely knitted families. For the love of money, big corporations have collapsed because of corporate greed that has caused many innocent people to lose their whole life savings. It is the desire to have more and more for the self with disregard to the negative effects it has on others that the bible refers to a sin. Fleecing or squeezing others to get rich quick through all kinds of schemes is a sin of the "love of money". When your live is not free from the love of money, you have no time for God. Your whole mind and being is focus on money, money, money!

How does God want us to live our lives? He wants us to be content with whatever we have acquired genuinely and to live within our means. We are not to chase money because somebody else has it and you want to surpass him or her. We are not to compete with others since you do not know how they acquired their wealth. God has promised to provide for you daily and you will not lack anything good if you trust in Him. He said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." He is the provident God who knows the needs of His children and He provides them with their daily bread. Let us not be anxious about what we will eat today for even the birds of the air do not work yet they are fed by the Lord. If God cares for them, how much more will He care for you. 

Just have faith, work hard according to your God's given ability, trust in Him and be content with what you have. Above all, bless others with what you currently have.

CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.             1 John 1:7 (KJV)

This hymn by Robert Lowry, speaks about the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all our iniquities. 

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

Oh! precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my cleansing this I see

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

For my pardon this my plea

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Nothing can my sin erase

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Naught of works, ’tis all of grace

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

This is all my hope and peace

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

This is all my righteousness

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Come to Him just as you are and He will wash away all your sins and make you right in fellowship with Him. Click here to read about Charlotte Elliot of blessed memory and how she came to the saving knowledge of Christ.

A WIDE DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY AWAITS YOU

I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Revelations 3:8 (KJV)

The Lord is pleased with the little things that we do in difficult circumstance to promote His name. Many Christians are being persecuted these days because of their beliefs. Yet they have not stop proclaiming Jesus as their Lord. They are enduring the persecutions and challenges as a result of their faith in Jesus. The Lord is saying that, " I know what you are going through in my name, you have not denied me even when you were tortured, scorched with fire, or even beheaded. You have kept my word in your heart and you have been faithful to the end. Because of this, I have opened a door of great opportunities before you that will make  every ear tingle. Nobody will be able to stand before you because you are a conqueror and victor. You will enter into my rest and you will find an uncommon favor wherever you go."

When  you have little strength but you focus on doing God's word, He empowers you for greater works. You position yourself to be used by Him in mighty works because you have learned to be faithful with the little things he has entrusted into your hands. If you have little resources and your are able to share with those in need, the Lord rewards you abundantly because you have been able to make the life of another person better. 

In Mark 12:43-44, we read about the widow who gave out of he want and was very much appreciated than those who gave out of their surplus. 

"Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."

It is more difficult to show your love to God in times of challenges, poverty, sickness, persecution, etc. But in times like these, that is when you need the Lord the most. 

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,

When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?

When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,

Will your anchor drift or firm remain?

When your faith is threatened, ask God for strength endure because He has promised to be with you as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He is with you as you walk through the fire just as He was with Daniel in the burning furnace. He will shut the mouth of the lions that are roaring at you if you remain steadfast in His word and abide in Him. Never deny Him as His follower when faced with a challenge. Even if you have done so, like Peter did when Jesus was arrested, it is not too late to ask for forgiveness and the Lord who loves you so much will restore you like He did to Peter. Your later glory will then be greater than the former. There is an open door before you that no one can shut? 

Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord,…" (2 Corinthians 8:1-3)


Whatever your lot, my fellow friends, in any circumstance, remain faithful and be diligent in your service to the Lord.
If it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Romans 12:8

The Lord is watching you and He has His reward in His hands to give to you according to what you have done.

He has opened doors of opportunity at your work place, in your family, among your friends, etc., to declare His mighty works and saving grace to them. Never say, ''I cannot speak," or belittle yourself. Just do it and the Lord will take care of the rest. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand." Zechariah 4:10
He who is found faithful in small things will be given greater things to handle because of the wide door that the Lord has declared opened.

 BE FAITHFUL AND NEVER DENY HIM!