Thanksgiving Greetings

Living God's Way In The Last Days

" So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17

Beloved sisters, how are you living your life today? Are you living your way, or are you living God's way? I encourage you to meditate on this scripture text today as another year draws to an end. 

It is essential to examine your life each season to ensure that you are living a lifestyle that is befitting for a true believer and that whatever you are doing is pleasing to God. You are doing what He has called you to do. On that appointed day, we will all give an account of how we used the time allocated to each of us. Scripture has warned us in our text today that we should be careful how we live; we must live as wise individuals and not foolish ones because the time of reckoning is near, and the time is very near for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to return for His church.

And so what are we doing to keep busy? Are we doing our own thing, or are we doing what God has assigned us to do? As believers, we must always be conscious of how we utilize the time and resources given to us. We must take advantage of every opportunity we have in these evil times. We must know precisely what God is calling us to do and do it. Today, a lot of believers need clarification about their purpose in life. They go to church, pay their tithes and offering, and probably try to do a little bit more in the church in the area of service, but is that all there is to our Christian walk/journey? Is there a possibility that God may want to use you to impact lives for Him, whether in a small way or in a significant way beyond the walls of your local assembly? 

I have been a Christian since my high school days, which is over 25 years now, and I always thought that serving God in my local church as an usher or choir member and striving to live a decent life was all God required of me. Still, about ten years ago, I realized it wasn't enough; I needed the Holy Spirit to direct my path and show me exactly what His plans were for me in these last days. Where do I fit in, in the body of Christ? What was my assignment? God revealed it to me as clearly as a day sometime later, and by His grace, I started to walk and work in obedience. 

I believe God is seeking for us to do more with our time. Marriage, raising children, having a secular job or business, and being a part of one fellowship or the other are all very good things; there is absolutely nothing wrong with having all of these... But the question is, are you ensuring that the Lord God is still your priority, that you are putting Him first above all these beautiful gifts HE has given you? Are you ensuring that you are raising your children in the way of the Lord and your marriage is unto the Lord? Are you representing Christ well in your workplace and business? And in addition, are you availing yourself of being used by God in your community and other areas? Are you letting your light shine for Him wherever you go? Are you striving to be the virtuous woman of the Bible who takes care of her home, does business, and helps those in need with the resources God has given her?

Sisters, I want you to ponder on all of these questions, and if you feel that you are not really living the way God wants you to and making the most of every opportunity given to you, then it is time to make a change. Ask the Holy Spirit to order your steps and direct your path, revealing where and how to serve Him wisely and diligently in these last days. I assure you that when you call upon Him, He will surely answer, for He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. He will reveal to you what He wants you to know and do.

Be blessed today!  

I Am Gabriel | Full Christian Movie

Troubled? Try Praise!

Psalm 34


A lot of negative emotions accompany hardship; frustration, despair, fear and doubt.  People ruled by these feelings will often make poor choices.  This is why I recommend that you decide now to respond to troubled times the way the psalmist did: with a heart of praise.  Even in the darkest hours, worshipping God fills the heart with joy and the mind with peace.  A believer who is filled in this way can wisely keep a commitment to obey the Lord no matter what.

Worshipping the Lord enlarges our vision.  By doing so, we begin to see how He is at work in the world, perhaps in ways and places we've never noticed before.  More particularly, we see what God is doing in our situation and detect areas where He requires obedience from us

Our human tendency is to plot a course through a situation toward the easiest solution.   But believers who strike out on their do not mature in their faith.  Moreover, they miss out on the blessings of following the Lord 's plan.  Stopping to praise can keep us from taking the easy way out and direct us to the right path -  namely,  the way of God's will.  Taking a step forward  in faith can be frightening .  However, we can confidently  take a risk,  knowing our omniscient, omnipotent God has His children's best interest  in mind ( Isa. 64:4; Jer. 29:11).  
It's hard to despair  while honoring the Lord for His love and strength .  We can dispel doubt  by recalling  His past faithfulness to us - and ease frustration  by committing our future plans to Him.  Praise is not the obvious reaction to hardship,  but it is the wisest response.


By  Dr. Charles Stanley
IN TOUCH Ministries

A Church that Cares

Luke 10: 29- 37

- By Chiamaka O.

Beloved, we all know the story of the good Samaritan, and if you do not, I encourage you to read the above-listed scripture text. Today, I want us to understand that portion of scripture or story is the state of the church today. Are we a church that cares? When I say "Church" of course I mean the Body of Christ (believers). How many of us can say we are truly our "Brother's keeper"? How many of us show compassion and empathy for our fellow brother or sister passing through tough times or even genuinely rejoice with them when they are going through a time of rejoicing for what God has done in their lives. 

Let us ponder on this for just a moment! 

In the story of the good Samaritan, we see three individuals traveled down a road in which they all encountered a seriously injured lying almost dead on the side of the road and all reacted in different ways. Brethren, the first 2 individuals who came upon this injured man were supposedly men of the cloth ( godly men) and the last individual was a man whose people were treated as outcasts in the society. The first 2 men saw this injured individual and kept going without looking back, you would have expected any one of them to show compassion and pity to this person as it has been taught in God's Word right! 

The first man, a priest was someone who probably stood at the altar and read God's laws and commands to the people of God day in day out preaching and teaching on loving thy neighbor. "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself " etc. When it came to putting it into practice, what did he now do? It was amazing that the one who did not profess to be a child of God, a man of God, or a follower of Christ was the one who now helped this wounded man, not only did he stop and clean up his wounds, vs 34 but he went a step further to find a place where he could stay until he was strong enough to continue his journey and even paid for the injured man's stay and assured the innkeeper that he will return and pay any additional expenses. What a remarkable man he was!  What a wonderful example of being your brother's keeper! 

This is genuine Christianity and God's love in action.  Brethren, in the church today, we see all kinds of evil being done under the sun. believers waging war against each other, seeds of discord being sown, fellow believers taking each other to court, falsely accusing one another, selfishness, unforgiveness, and the list goes on.   

 It is time for us to repent and put on the fruit of the spirit Galatians 5:22-23. Without the fruit of the spirit operating in our lives, we cannot be the loving and caring church that our Lord and Savior designed for us to be. We must show the world that we are a Church that has its foundation built on the love of Christ and wherever we are or go, God's love must be paramount. Matthew 5:16 reminds us that we should let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.

Let us be a Church that cares, showing compassion and kindness to our fellow brothers and sisters and also to the world.

I pray you are blessed by this message!

Working Together With One Mind and Purpose

" complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,"  Philippians 2:2-5 

God created us for companionship, needless to say, we were not meant to be alone, doing things by ourselves.  We are designed to need our creator and each other to fulfill God's divine purpose and our purpose here on earth and that holds true in any relationship we find ourselves in e.g marriage, families. Hence we see that in the book of beginnings, Genesis where it shows the first marriage, and even before that the first "collaboration or teamwork" that was recorded was in Genesis 1:1-3 where we find the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit working together to bring about the world we live in today.   God knew that in order for His work on earth to be done, He was going to require human resources to bring it to pass.  In heaven, in the spiritual realms, there are multitudes of beings working together with a common agenda or goal be it in God's kingdom or in satan's kingdom to get things done and everything is extremely organized.   So it is on earth, as we have teams in heaven, so there is here on earth, be it in the secular world or Christian world.   In any organization, working together effectively is the key to the success of that organization.  In the secular world, organizations rely heavily on teamwork to get things done and so if working together effectively for a common goal is important in the spiritual realm and here on earth in the secular world, how much more in the body of Christ, the Church of God.  

Apostle Paul in his ministry always encouraged the body of Christ to work together in unity because he knew the importance of standing together in one accord.  He emphasized this at every opportunity he had; for example in Ephesians 4:3, he admonished the brethren to make every effort to keep themselves united in the Spirit, binding themselves together with peace and in vs 12, he refers to the Church, the body of Christ to work together, building one another up in Christ with the gifts, skills, and talents that have been given to us from the Lord.   The Lord Jesus himself believed strongly in the power of teamwork in His ministry on earth; for he chose 12 disciples to work along with him to do the work of the Father and he knew when his time on earth was up, these ones will continue to spread the message of salvation throughout the earth and today we see the results of those team of believers ( the apostles and disciples) in the world today. Matthew 4:18-21, Mark 6:7-12, Luke 10:1-20

In the body of Christ, working together as a team means putting God at the head of our lives and ministry. He must be acknowledged as the established leader in the body of Christ and our own personal lives (e.g in our marriages, businesses, etc).  In our text today, Paul admonishes the brethren to have the attitude of Christ for, without it, we cannot be effective as a team to build and propagate the work of the kingdom.  In vs 2, he lists the christ-like attitudes we must have in order to effectively work together and they are 1). agreeing wholeheartedly with one another 2). genuinely loving each other 3). working together with one mind and purpose 4). Being selfless and not conceited, trying to impress others.  5). we should be humble, thinking of ourselves less than others 6).  take interest in the affairs of others and not be all consumed with our own lives and interests. 

With the above-listed attitudes or qualities, we cannot go wrong in achieving team success in our ministries, the body of Christ, and our individual lives. Even the book of Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12 emphasizes the importance of working together for it states in vs 9 that "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. "If one person falls, the other can reach out and help".

Beloved, even satan knows that Christians who work together in harmony, with one mind and purpose is a big threat to his kingdom and so he does everything in his power to bring strife and discord within the body of Christ.  For example, corporate prayer, standing together in faith with one mind and purpose breaks stronghold and disrupts the works of the enemy Matthew 17:19, 21. 

Beloved, I will conclude with the words of another great Apostle in scripture, in the book of  1 Peter 3:8-9,  the Apostle Peter encourages all God's children, all Christians to be of one mind, sympathizing with another and loving each other.  These are the exact encouraging words Apostle Paul also stated before in the book of Philippians.  These men of God knew how important it was to work together in unity because they have seen the positive effect of it in their lives and ministry.  Peter goes further to admonish us to be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude, never retaliating when we are insulted by others, especially our fellow brothers and sisters but instead reward them with good and the Lord will bless us for it.   With these words I encourage us today to strive to be a team player in the household of faith, working together in one accord to achieve God's purpose for the Church and I assure you when we do this, we will surely be rewarded for our contributions to the work of the kingdom and our christ like attitudes and lifestyle. 



SHALOM!

The Full Armor of God

"A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:10-12

Beloved, we are living in perilous times as scripture has indicated.. The times are evil and we can see it all around us everyday, just turn on the radio or television.

 Our communities are mourning all over this country and around the world, so much hatred for our fellow man. See Matthew 24:12. The enemy is attacking our homes, marriages, our youths (the future generation), our very existence etc. Church, what are we doing about it? Are we sitting back folding our arms and just saying it is well or are we rising up and fighting back with the weapons God has given us. The apostle reminds us in 2 Corinthians 10:4 that “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” and knowing this , we should then recognize that we are dealing with powerful unseen forces and we cannot fight them with physical weapons. 

Friends, It is time for us, the body of Christ to rise up and take our positions taking back what is ours. There is one force behind everything that is going on in our world today and he has been around since the beginning of time and despises mankind especially the children of God (the brethen). He is the prince/god of this world and is causing calamities and woes in the lives of men and women, but it does not mean we or our loved ones should continue to be his victims. 

Let us put on the full armor God and also utilize the power of intercession prayer, to do battle against the enemy of our soul. We are facing greater spiritual battles today than ever before. There has been a release of demonic activity on earth over the last 2-3 years that is unseen in world history. and I tell you the truth it is not going to end anytime soon, for the world is going to see an even greater release of demonic activity on all unimaginable levels. The enemy knows that his time is very short and this is an intense battle for the souls of men.

Father I thank you today because I know that He that is in us is greater than he who is in the world. The battle is yours but the victory is ours . Halleluyah! II Chronicles 20:15.