Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
WHERE IS THE PLACE OF VIRGINITY TODAY?
BIBLE IN A YEAR: 1Kgs 5 -7
GOD’S COMPANION?
MEMORIZE: “And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3:14)
READ: Mark 3:13-15
Israel was a nation that upheld the virtues of chastity. A lady was expected to remain a virgin until marriage. In fact, on the first night of their honeymoon, the bridegroom was expected to verify the claim of virginity of his wife. And if the proof was not there, that marriage was regarded as a fraud. The issue of virginity was beyond the family.
It was of national importance. Today, most nations of the world do nothing to encourage virginity. Rather, they allow very permissive and liberal laws that ensure that at the end of the day, no virgin is left. In some countries, the statistics of rape is rather alarming. Imagine having a rape victim out of every four ladies, age not withstanding.
Why won’t it be so when ladies are allowed to dress suggestively and sometimes in the nude? Christian leaders, families and Christians communities must not only rise and condemn this madness in the guise of fashion, but also ensure that everyone under their power of influence are brought up to rebel against it.
There were many virgins in Israel but only ten were chosen. God has chosen you as His servant for some reasons. According to today’s reading, you were chosen for companionship. One relationship where companionship is a very strong force is the marriage institution.
God likes being in company of His loved ones. In the Garden of Eden, He frequently visited Adam before the fall because He needed his company. If you are a servant of God but have no time for Him, your ministry cannot give the desired harvest. At best, you will be peripheral in your knowledge of your Caller and Commissioner.
Years after being called into ministry, many ministers have remained strangers to the Lord. True companionship facilitates mutual knowledge: God will get to know you intimately and you will get to understand the God you work for. Before He can entrust you with great Kingdom assignments, He must know you. Are you God’s companion?
Is it boring for you to spend an hour or two daily in His presence - just to keep Him company? If you must excel in ministry, Get to be in His company from today. Your first assignment as a minister of God is to be with Him. Are you with Him today?
ACTION POINT: If you can keep God company, all the good things of life and ministry will be your guests.
We need to ask our youths today where is the place of virginity today. Pastors are told to preach safe sex so that the young ladies will not get pregnant and disgrace the church.
May God help the church, we must stand for the Word of God.
GOD’S COMPANION?
MEMORIZE: “And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3:14)
READ: Mark 3:13-15
Israel was a nation that upheld the virtues of chastity. A lady was expected to remain a virgin until marriage. In fact, on the first night of their honeymoon, the bridegroom was expected to verify the claim of virginity of his wife. And if the proof was not there, that marriage was regarded as a fraud. The issue of virginity was beyond the family.
It was of national importance. Today, most nations of the world do nothing to encourage virginity. Rather, they allow very permissive and liberal laws that ensure that at the end of the day, no virgin is left. In some countries, the statistics of rape is rather alarming. Imagine having a rape victim out of every four ladies, age not withstanding.
Why won’t it be so when ladies are allowed to dress suggestively and sometimes in the nude? Christian leaders, families and Christians communities must not only rise and condemn this madness in the guise of fashion, but also ensure that everyone under their power of influence are brought up to rebel against it.
There were many virgins in Israel but only ten were chosen. God has chosen you as His servant for some reasons. According to today’s reading, you were chosen for companionship. One relationship where companionship is a very strong force is the marriage institution.
God likes being in company of His loved ones. In the Garden of Eden, He frequently visited Adam before the fall because He needed his company. If you are a servant of God but have no time for Him, your ministry cannot give the desired harvest. At best, you will be peripheral in your knowledge of your Caller and Commissioner.
Years after being called into ministry, many ministers have remained strangers to the Lord. True companionship facilitates mutual knowledge: God will get to know you intimately and you will get to understand the God you work for. Before He can entrust you with great Kingdom assignments, He must know you. Are you God’s companion?
Is it boring for you to spend an hour or two daily in His presence - just to keep Him company? If you must excel in ministry, Get to be in His company from today. Your first assignment as a minister of God is to be with Him. Are you with Him today?
ACTION POINT: If you can keep God company, all the good things of life and ministry will be your guests.
We need to ask our youths today where is the place of virginity today. Pastors are told to preach safe sex so that the young ladies will not get pregnant and disgrace the church.
May God help the church, we must stand for the Word of God.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
WHEN GOD CHOOSES FOR YOU
http://openheavensdevotional.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-he-chooses-open-heavens-devotional.html
WHEN HE CHOOSES
Thursday, April 15, 2010
MEMORIZE: “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the Excellency of Jacob whom he loved” (Psalm 47:4)
READ: John 15:15-16
Moses was grazing Jethro’s cattle one day when he encountered the burning bush. One thing about this bush is that it was divinely chosen. God looked through all available bushes around and picked on this particular one just as He decided to locate the Redemption Camp on its present site. If given the privilege of determining the location of our camp ground, it would never have been in its present location.
I would have preferred a location much closer to Lagos. But if I were to choose the location as a tribalized leader of the church, I would have chosen a bush very close to my origin at Ifewara. Thank God His choice prevailed. For those believers who obtained their spouses from God, if asked to make that choice personally, they would have chosen someone else and would have missed God’s divine destination.
Has the Lord had to choose for you on any matter? Appreciate Him for His choice and wisdom. You could never have chosen something better! God’s choice may not look like the best. If it is a job, it may not necessarily offer you the fattest remunerations. If it is a spouse, the fellow may not necessarily be the most handsome or beautiful, comfortable, etc. Yet, if it is God, it is the best.
“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). God still chooses for His own today. When God chooses somebody for an assignment, it does not necessarily mean the fellow is the most qualified. Infact, usually, God chooses the least qualified so that flesh will not rob Him of His glory.
If the Lord chooses a husband for you, it is not because he is perfect but because He is about to take the fellow through a process of change that will make the person your ideal partner. If God has chosen your partner but the fellow falls far below your expectations, as long as he or she is a bonafide child of God and is living to please God, leave God with the remaining details.
By the time He is through with the fellow, you will understand why God made that choice in the first place. When God chooses someone, several activities follow in quick succession. For instance, God’s choice of this burning bush culminated in the death of an Egyptian who knew nothing about the bush just to connect Moses with the bush. Because the Lord has chosen you, He will cause everything to work in your favor.
WHEN HE CHOOSES
Thursday, April 15, 2010
MEMORIZE: “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the Excellency of Jacob whom he loved” (Psalm 47:4)
READ: John 15:15-16
Moses was grazing Jethro’s cattle one day when he encountered the burning bush. One thing about this bush is that it was divinely chosen. God looked through all available bushes around and picked on this particular one just as He decided to locate the Redemption Camp on its present site. If given the privilege of determining the location of our camp ground, it would never have been in its present location.
I would have preferred a location much closer to Lagos. But if I were to choose the location as a tribalized leader of the church, I would have chosen a bush very close to my origin at Ifewara. Thank God His choice prevailed. For those believers who obtained their spouses from God, if asked to make that choice personally, they would have chosen someone else and would have missed God’s divine destination.
Has the Lord had to choose for you on any matter? Appreciate Him for His choice and wisdom. You could never have chosen something better! God’s choice may not look like the best. If it is a job, it may not necessarily offer you the fattest remunerations. If it is a spouse, the fellow may not necessarily be the most handsome or beautiful, comfortable, etc. Yet, if it is God, it is the best.
“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). God still chooses for His own today. When God chooses somebody for an assignment, it does not necessarily mean the fellow is the most qualified. Infact, usually, God chooses the least qualified so that flesh will not rob Him of His glory.
If the Lord chooses a husband for you, it is not because he is perfect but because He is about to take the fellow through a process of change that will make the person your ideal partner. If God has chosen your partner but the fellow falls far below your expectations, as long as he or she is a bonafide child of God and is living to please God, leave God with the remaining details.
By the time He is through with the fellow, you will understand why God made that choice in the first place. When God chooses someone, several activities follow in quick succession. For instance, God’s choice of this burning bush culminated in the death of an Egyptian who knew nothing about the bush just to connect Moses with the bush. Because the Lord has chosen you, He will cause everything to work in your favor.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, October 22, 2009
You have a part to play in getting your partner
PART OF THIS PROCESS?
Gen. 2: 21; “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof”’
Marriage is a great institution that has criss-crossed nations, tribes, academic and social-cultural goals and affiliations. Not too many married couples are finding marriage pleasant. A brother was planning for his wedding sometime ago and he went to tell some of his customers who were directors of an engineering company. They told him they were fed up of their experience with marriage and were looking for a way out, while he was taking steps into it. Several homes were broken with the highest divorce figures coming from the West. Many couples are living in hell. In fact, if you want to describe the torments of hell, just say the situation in hell is comparable, though far worse than what obtains in their homes. And they will get the message. Yet originally, God designed the family to be an extension of Heaven. It is my prayer that whatever your family has lost or is missing which should give you heaven on earth will be divinely supplied.
In this passage, Gen. 2:21-24, although Adam was asleep when God was working on Eve, he however made some certain inputs. He contributed a rib. As a searching single, you have to make a sacrificial contribution for your Eve to come out. The size of your contribution will determine how your finished product- your wife will be. That contribution could be in the area of prayer, fasting, sowing seeds into the type of home or partner you want. It could also be to what extent you have prepared. Sister, if you want a good home, are you prepared to be a good wife? As married couples you will need to make sacrificial contributions in order to have your desired home. Turning a house into a home is the responsibility of both partners. Proverbs 14:1 says the woman who sees herself as a builder and commits herself to building her home is wise. If you build your home, you will enjoy it. If you pull it down, you will regret it. Are you building or pulling down your home? Moving house into home is a process. It takes time. Give it what it takes.
FROM: OPEN HEAVENS, A DAILY DEVOTIONAL.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Be Patient as you find your partner.
BE PATIENT
James 5: 8 “Be ye also patient: stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”
Read Hebrews 6:13-15
“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” Gen. 2: 22.
When God finished the product He was making for Adam, He brought her to him. Some believers are so much in a hurry to get their partner. Some would say, “If God does not give me my life partner by such a time, I will backslide”. Who loses? Is God the one in need or you? The truth is, it takes time to turn raw materials into a finished product. Go to a plant where brand new cars are assembled and you will appreciate all the efforts that go into producing just one car. Not all ladies are from the Lord. Proverbs 19:14 says, “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: a prudent wife is from the LORD”. If you want your partner from God, as you make your sacrificial inputs, be prepared to wait on Him. Adam did not rush God. He allowed God to handle it and when He was through, Eve came. If you are looking at your age, thinking you are getting too old and unwilling to wait until God is through, you may be courting trouble. If a product is to be made, it has to undergo several processes in probably different machines. It has a set time too. But if you want to bring it out in a hurry, it will have to skip some stages in the production process and turn out to be a defective product. Impatience of some believers has made them rush out their partners before God was through. Yet, today they are complaining about the individual. Be patient!!!
Another thing in this passage is that God led Eve to Adam. Whoever says a sister cannot identify her partner first? Although to avoid looking cheap, she may not want to bell the cat but pray until he too receives from God. However, God can lead the woman to the man, as much as He can lead the man to the woman. Both men and women have access to divine guidance. Are you a sister trusting God for your heaven-sent partner? God will lead you to him. You will not miss God’s best for your life. Go to God and ask. Let Him be your focus. Make the necessary seed inputs and be expectant. The Lord will visit you.
PS: Those who cannot wait on God before embarking on a project end up being caught in the machinery of delay after take-off.
PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE
FROM OPEN HEAVENS – A DAILY DEVOTIONAL
James 5: 8 “Be ye also patient: stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”
Read Hebrews 6:13-15
“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” Gen. 2: 22.
When God finished the product He was making for Adam, He brought her to him. Some believers are so much in a hurry to get their partner. Some would say, “If God does not give me my life partner by such a time, I will backslide”. Who loses? Is God the one in need or you? The truth is, it takes time to turn raw materials into a finished product. Go to a plant where brand new cars are assembled and you will appreciate all the efforts that go into producing just one car. Not all ladies are from the Lord. Proverbs 19:14 says, “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: a prudent wife is from the LORD”. If you want your partner from God, as you make your sacrificial inputs, be prepared to wait on Him. Adam did not rush God. He allowed God to handle it and when He was through, Eve came. If you are looking at your age, thinking you are getting too old and unwilling to wait until God is through, you may be courting trouble. If a product is to be made, it has to undergo several processes in probably different machines. It has a set time too. But if you want to bring it out in a hurry, it will have to skip some stages in the production process and turn out to be a defective product. Impatience of some believers has made them rush out their partners before God was through. Yet, today they are complaining about the individual. Be patient!!!
Another thing in this passage is that God led Eve to Adam. Whoever says a sister cannot identify her partner first? Although to avoid looking cheap, she may not want to bell the cat but pray until he too receives from God. However, God can lead the woman to the man, as much as He can lead the man to the woman. Both men and women have access to divine guidance. Are you a sister trusting God for your heaven-sent partner? God will lead you to him. You will not miss God’s best for your life. Go to God and ask. Let Him be your focus. Make the necessary seed inputs and be expectant. The Lord will visit you.
PS: Those who cannot wait on God before embarking on a project end up being caught in the machinery of delay after take-off.
PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE
FROM OPEN HEAVENS – A DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)