FAITH CAPSULE: Judging others on behalf of God belongs to no one but God. 

John 8:1-12

Romans 3:22-24 records, “…For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  
All have sinned, yet all are assuming the position of a judge. 
Are you quick to judge others for their sin? 
Sin and sinning are everywhere, yet the world is always quick to pass judgment instead of being judged.
The word God admonishes all that assumes judging others, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2) 
Judging others on behalf of God belongs to no one as an assignment for all. 
Assessing how one stands is more important than judging the stand of others.
A believer saved by grace must be concerned about the plank in their eye before attempting to remove the plank in the eye of others.
The Bible identifies attempting to remove a plank in the eyes of others instead of a plank in the eyes of oneself as the character of a hypocrite. 
Are you a conscious or unconscious hypocrite? 
Word of God questions, “…why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5) 
Give attention to self instead of others.     
The story of an adulteress woman in John 8:1-12 is a clear example of the world rushing into passing judgment instead of the world to be exposed to being judged. 
The scribes and Pharisees attempted to disrupt the teaching of Jesus in the temple when the case of an adulteress came before Him.
The scribes and Pharisees quoted the law of Moses in their effort to justify the judgment of the adultress woman, “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (John 8:5) 
In the case of adulteress women, the world wanted to rush into judgment, not waiting for the judgment of God.
As it has often been, the world that needed to be under judgment always wanted to be a judge.
Jesus responded by drawing a line in the sand to identify those who had never been a sinner and those who were sinners. 
Do not assume the position of a judge, but let God be God of judgment on His creation.
Answer to what the Lord calls you to be. 

Prayer for today: Ask that God enable you to only answer to your calling.

  FAITH CAPSULE: Every right decision keeps one on top of evil doing.

2 Samuel 11:1-22

Making a wrong decision is an avenue for the enemy to invest the life of anyone available. 
To be sleeping in the place of waiting and watching is an open invitation for the enemy to invade with evil activity. 
Among ways of sleeping and allowing the enemy to invest in the life of anyone is by making a wrong decision and engaging in wrongdoing. 
Are you on the verge of making a wrong decision or engaging or embracing the wrong ones?
Making a wrong decision instead of the right decision opens a door for the enemy to sow evil. 
King David made a wrong decision by not going out to the war at the time when kings went to battle. 
The Bible records that David sent Joab and servants. 
The decision of David not to go to war opened the door for the enemy to sow in his life to sin against God. 
David, being in the right place at the wrong time, arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the house. 
While on the roof, he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing. 
David sent and inquired about Bathsheba and lay with her. (2 Samuel 11:2-5) 
Bathsheba conceived for David while her husband was on the battlefield. As the seed of wickedness grew in David, David set up Uriah for untimely death. 
Uriah got killed on the battlefield because of the setup by King David.
It counted as a sin against David. 
As a result of his seed of sin, he could not fully recover from the consequences of his sin. 
A wrong decision as one sleeping where there is a need to be awake was the doing of David.
David allowed the enemy to sow wickedness in him. 
Engaging in what is wrong is also an avenue for the enemy to gain access to sow what is wrong in the life of one.
It was good doing for Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah when he visited the king of Israel. 
However, it was not a good thing for Jehoshaphat to join with Ahab, the king of Israel, for a battle against the king of Syria after having been warned by the prophet not to go to war. 
Jehoshaphat did not prevent the enemy from sowing wrong when he joined with Ahab, who did not listen to the prophet. (1 Kings 22) 
Jehoshaphat could have died in the war just like Ahab because it was not a war they should have engaged in by the warning by the prophet. Jehoshaphat and Ahab went to war by allowing the enemy to sow wrong in their life. 
It was a seed of untimely death for Ahab while Jehoshaphat escaped death. 
Disengage the representative of Ahab and not become a victim of the wicked one. 
Every right decision keeps one on top of evil, not to become a victim of evil. 

Prayer for today: Ask for the mercy of God to keep you from embracing any wrong.

FAITH CAPSULE: As an acclaimed believer, are you awake or asleep? 

Acts 12

Just as it is possible to be asleep physically, it is also possible spiritually. 
In the parable of the wheat and tares, Jesus mentions, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” (Matthew 13:24-25) 
The point here is that sleeping physically or spiritually at the wrong time or location gives the enemy the privilege to sow its wickedness to execute the wicked activity.
To be awake physically or spiritually, the enemy will not invest in sowing evil.
Living in this world today demands to be constantly awake. 
As an acclaimed believer, are you awake or are you asleep? 
Just as it is possible to be asleep physically, it is possible to be spiritually asleep. 
One who is spiritually asleep will be spiritually at risk. 
For one who is asleep, prayer will cease, and the enemy gaining entrance will become inevitable.
To be asleep is not only when eyes and mind are sleeping. 
Sleeping does not necessarily mean when one goes to bed at night. 
One at sleep in the place to be awake extends an invitation to the wicked one. 
The church must have gone to sleep when James, the brother of John, got killed by Herod the King. 
Acts 12:1-4 documents, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. 
The killing of James prompts Herod, the king, to go after the life of Peter. 
Acts 12:1-4 states, “Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” (Acts 2:5-7) 
For Peter, it was constant prayer, not the comfortable sleep of the ones in the church, that delivered Peter sleeping while in prison. 
To be in prayer is to be awake to deny the enemy from sowing evil. 
Watch and pray by being awake.
Is sleeping your passion? 
Be aware, being awake, knowing the enemy is at work! 

Prayer for today: Ask to be delivered from the sleeping of careless sleep and not to become a victim of evil.

FAITH CAPSULE:  Crying is not a sign of weakness.

Exodus 3:1-10

A horrible pit is a place of pain, deprivation, and aggravation.
A horrible pit is not a place to desire in any way.
Living in a situation not living a life of sacrifice for God can be referred to as a horrible pit. 
Exodus 3:7-9 records, “And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”  
Living under taskmasters represents horrible pits in the lives of the Israelites while they were in Egypt. 
The horrible pit is not a beautiful place to be; it is an unpleasant location. A horrible pit is a place of pain, deprivation, and aggravation. 
The horrible pit is not a place for a believer to be quiet but to cry out unto God. 
To be quiet in the place of the horrible pit is to have shut up the door of deliverance. 
The children of Israel were not quiet but lifted their voices and cried to the Lord. 
Psalm 81:10 buttresses, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
The cry of the children of Israel did not find a deaf ear because the Lord inclined His ear to their cry and extended His hand of deliverance through His servant Moses. 
Just as the children of Israel were in the horrible pit and were able to receive deliverance, so was King David in the horrible pit. 
King David also cried to the Lord God for his deliverance.
King David testified, “I waited patiently for the LORD, and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.” (Psalm 40:1-2) 
Crying is not a sign of weakness, and tears running down the cheeks are not always a demonstration of crying. 
God heard the cry of King David to bring him out of the miry clay. 
Miry clay in the horrible pit testifies to be a place of stagnation, constant falling, with no life of stability. 
Any experience of a horrible pit in your life?
Cry out loud to God for His goodness and mercy to provoke deliverance from what represents a horrible pit in your life.

Prayer for today: Cry out and ask for the outstretched hand of God for your deliverance. 

FAITH CAPSULE:  One that does not acknowledge God is far from Him.

Jeremiah 2

Failure to acknowledge God is a passage to fail not to gain and retain the presence of God.
The character of one that is far from God leads to failure.
Deuteronomy 30:14 records, “…the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”  
It is not impossible to go far from God, and those who go far from the word of God will not remember to acknowledge Him for all He has done. 
Where there is a failure to identify with what He has done, failure to do what is right will be the character of one who does not acknowledge God.
God spoke through Jeremiah to the children of Israel, “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters? Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, Through a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed And where no one dwelt?’” (Jeremiah 2:4-6) 
Knowing God to be a jealous God, giving Him attention by acknowledging Him for the past and present doing is to gain His attention. 
When God spoke through Jeremiah, the children of Israel had failed to do what was right by not identifying Him for the past and not acknowledging Him for the present. 
In every walk of life, it is worthy to identify God for what He has done and doing. 
As a believer, constantly and consistently acknowledge God, for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. 
When there is a failure to acknowledge Him, the foolishness to be turning away to another god takes charge. 
Consciously or unconsciously, which god are you turning to? 
Is it money, your profession, or sport? 
In Jeremiah 2:13, God responded to the acts of the children of Israel as “two evils” by stating, “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. ” 
The children of Israel committed two evils, and God laid down the consequences of their evil deeds. 
The word went further for the children of Israel, “…Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the Lord your God, and the fear of Me is not in you says the LORD of hosts.” (Jeremiah2:19)  
It is never too late to stand up where there is evidence of falling short. However, not to rise and stand but to remain on the ground is self-destruction.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled with redirection from every wrong step taken away from God.