Category: BIBLE AND WEALTH

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BIBLE AND WEALTH

LET GO OF BITTERNESS

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Sometimes, it is said that the world is not fair! Well, one is forced to believe that statement but the word of God tells us the opposite and that is what we have to believe. Some of us, if not all, can bear witness to the fact that trusted pals have ever seriously hurt us before. I remember a case where a friend was dating a lady and introduced his fiancée to another friend and later on, this friend stubbed his friend in the back by ‘snatching’ his fiancée. There are several other cases of hurt which have resulted in bitterness either in one party or more.

The impact of bitterness is huge. Usually, the ‘party being hurt’ bears the greater impact of the bitterness. Party is used here to mean an individual or group of individuals.  Anytime that there is contact, the blood pressure of the ‘party being hurt’ may rise because bitterness penetrate very deep into the heart. Your guess may not be different from mine regarding the health implications of high blood pressure. Secondly, the ‘party being hurt’ indirectly channels some valuable energy thinking about the hurt and sometimes lament about the cause of bitterness. As you lament, you poison your spirit and may not enjoy happiness or joy. This valuable energy could have been channelled into some other profitable venture. Thirdly, the ‘party being hurt’ may opt for revenge and the choice of revenge comes with several repercussions. The party causing the bitterness may not even be aware of what they have done.

This is the conclusion of the matter- let go of any bitterness in you which may have been carried from 2013 or earlier years into 2014. It is also possible that you have been hurt in 2014. Why do you want to carry the bitterness and its repercussions further into the year and lose some blessings that may come your way? You may be asking yourself, what at all did I do wrong to warrant the bad treatment? Ephesians 4:31 states “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice….”. You can improve the situation! Don’t forget that, you will go through more pain by being bitter when in fact the party that caused the bitterness may not be going through any pain. Think about the agape (unconditional) love of God. Even with all the sins we sometimes commit, God forgives us. Therefore, forgive that party today and get your life back to the road map of unending victory and success.

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BIBLE AND WEALTH

GET YOURSELF READY AND THE LORD WILL ACT

ID-100215430Preparation is always done prior to expectation of something(s). When we are expecting visitors, we make sure we are prepared for their comfort. In sports, participants commence their preparation some several years prior to the set period of competition. For one to write an exam and pass, preparation in the form of studying is very important. Sometimes, in spite of the time spent in our preparations, we may still record some lapses; however, the lapses may have been more if we had not prepared at all!

How do we prepare when we want to receive from God? In Christianity, a lot of Christians do not know the difference between ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’. More often than not, some Christians are faithful to God. They go to church regularly and participate in church activities-faithfulness. As long as they are active in church activities, they expect God to also play His part in honouring His promises. When these people do not experience the promises of God in their lives but others are enjoying the promises, bitterness sets in. It is important to participate in church activities but there is much more to do. The scripture below will help us to answer the question above.    

Psalm 102: 16-17 states “When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer”. To receive from God, we need to prepare our hearts! Faithfulness will help us to some extent to get blessed by God. However, to be blessed more by God beyond faithfulness, we need to add faith to our faithfulness. The amount of the word of God in us and its right application is directly proportional to His glory in our life-faith. As we meditate on His word, become doers of it and speak in concert, He shall appear in His glory. God always deals with us according to the level of knowledge we have of Him. If the Lord appears in a form that you are not familiar with in His word in you, you can’t recognise His presence and act accordingly. His word is always important in preparing us for His action.

Young Samuel enriched himself with the word of God before God appeared to him. Secondly, God appeared to young Samuel in a voice similar to that of Priest Eli because Samuel was familiar with the voice of God through Priest Eli. As an experienced Priest, Eli directed Samuel on what to do.

To get ourselves ready for His glory, we must build ourselves by enriching with the word of God to generate faith in us in addition to our faithfulness. God acts when we have a personal discovery of Him through His word. Secondly, the counsel of experienced priest(s) is necessary most of the time to give us direction on what to do by way of preparation for God to act. Thirdly, prayer must always be part of the process of preparation for God to act.

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BIBLE AND WEALTH

THE RESPONSIBILITY IS YOURS!

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In secondary school, I was part of a student body called Scriptural Union (SU) where we met periodically to learn the word of God and share with other students who were not born again. Our patron always encouraged us to study very well whilst we did the work of God on campus. There were a few students among us who devoted all their time for the work of Gospel and neglected the main purpose for which they were on campus, that is, to study, make good grades and get placement in a university.  At the end of three years, these students were ‘recognised’ as students of the word of God but could not pass their qualifying examinations to the university. The failure of these students even repelled some others from getting close to the SU! These students failed to balance their academic work with the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on campus.

To reap a harvest, you must sow a seed. Seed sowing is a responsibility! More often than not, there is a part to play for God’s word to materialize in our lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ is replete with seed sowing and reaping a harvest. A typical example of seed sowing is that which was done by our heavenly father. Giving out Jesus Christ to die for our sins was a seed He sowed and now, He has reaped the whole world to Himself. It is now the responsibility of man to accept the provision of God by confessing Jesus as his/her personal saviour for salvation to complete. In fact, God in His omnipotent can operate on earth without man’s role but He would hardly do it because He has given the power of dominion on earth to man. God has given man has the power of choice so God will need the consent of man to operate with man on earth.

Matthew 7:7 states that “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”. Jesus Christ made it clear to us that there is always a responsibility for us to play to enjoy the treasures of the kingdom although the treasures are already deposited in our spirits.

Again, Matthew 5:6 (“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled”) clearly talks about our responsibility to desire for righteousness. The desire is likened to a seed which when sown will yield a harvest, that is, righteousness.

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BIBLE AND WEALTH

MORE BLESSING IN GIVING THAN RECEIVING!

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When I was growing up in elementary school, I had a teacher who always advised us to teach each other after classes on topics that some of us did not understand. The selfish students among us did not practice the advice of our teacher. However, I realised that the more some of us explained our understanding on a topic to our peers, the more clarification or understanding we got on those topics. I carried this quality to the university level and it was still helpful. Spending some time to clarify lecture notes to colleagues is not time wasting but very beneficial to the student doing it.  How true the scripture is in Act 20:35 which reads “….it is more blessed to give than to receive”.

 Some countries like the U.S.A., Britain, Germany and many others have become rich because of several development policies they have implemented over the years including aid support to less endowed countries. A church or institution which gives to support others become rich.The principle of giving and receiving is a spiritual principle and operates for everyone who obeys it.

Less endowed people always look up to rich people for hand outs. Rich people mostly give out to people and as a result become richer. The rich people would hardly blame some ‘entities’ for where they are but more often than not, the less endowed would blame almost everybody for their current state of deprivation. You may have a legitimate reason to blame an external force for your current poor state but that should stop at a point in time. What is important is to move forward to bring about a positive change in status rather than engaging in the ‘blame game’ business.

No matter how small what you have is, you can give out to pull yourself out of poverty or deprivation. What you give may not be in monetary terms; you can give out your time to help out people in need of it. You can give out your ideas to help in the development of people around you. Giving always comes with a reward greater than what you gave though the reward may not be in kind!

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