FAITH CAPSULE: Who are you in Christ?

2 Timothy 2:1-13

Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or by the act? 
A Christian soldier need not be introduced as a soldier because his warlike disposition will always point him out as one who is operating as a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
What kind of a soldier are you? 
Are you a soldier who will always need a constant introduction as a soldier? 
A soldier should be one that contends or serves in any cause as a soldier of the Lord. Soldiers are to persist steadfastly in their cause and to persevere until an assignment, as expected.V
An eligible and qualified soldier for Christ has to be a sold-out soul for the cause of the cross that Jesus carried to Calvary.
Paul, the apostle, admonished Timothy by using an illustration of a soldier. “You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
Paul’s illustration for faithfulness is that a soldier (follower of Christ) must endure hardship. Unfortunately, Christian soldiers today do not want to endure hardship but will like to enjoy worldly pleasures or live lives of convenience and not commitment. 
Are you an acclaimed Christian with no iota of desire to live life to experience the endureth life of Christ?
Endurance can be painful and can generate unwanted suffering.
Enduring hardship is what qualifies a Christian soldier as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
Every Christian soldier must know to experience how to endure; Christian soldiers cannot escape hardship in this world of wickedness. 
The Christian soldiers without endure of challenges in this world are soldiers that often entangle themselves with the affairs of this life. 
It is evident in the word of Paul that no soldier engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life and answered to the cause of Christian soldiers.
In the book of Peter 2:11, the word warned against fleshly lusts: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” Among the affairs of this world that can derail a soldier for Christ is fleshly lust. With lust, it is not possible to answer as a sold-out soul for the assignment of Christ. 
Undoubtedly, fleshly lust is a principal target which Christian soldiers should not take for granted because it launches its attack regularly. 
Are you working not to walk living lust?
Living lust will present great or small temptation that does not spare grave
for fleshly lust ones. It is so deadly that it only goes after its target that is the soul of every Christian soldier.
As a soldier of Christ, you become captured by the enemy of all, the evil one, then your role as a soldier will mark you as a victim soldier in the hand of the chief of all wicked, the evil one himself.
Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or one with a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live life for Him.

FAITH CAPSULE:  Give yourself to the word of God.

2 Samuel 22

Word of God is worthy and profitable to trust and hope in it for one that allows its entrance into the heart.
2 Samuel 22:31 records the character of the word of God, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” 
First is the way of God. 
Moses proved the way of God is to find grace in His sight. 
Moses confirmed the trust of God in his question with the answer he received from God. Moses asked God, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:13-14) The way of God is perfect because taking to it is to encounter grace in the sight of God that gives rest.
Secondly, the word of God is proven.
The creation of heaven and earth by the word of God is proven, and having a place in it will not fail. The bible made us know that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) The word is proven it comforts in a time of affliction as testified, “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.” (Psalm 119:50)Also, the word of God is proven to give rest because it is true that God magnified His word above all His name. (Psalm 138:2)
Thirdly, God is a shield to all who trust in Him. 
Through the pages of the bible, the testimonies are clear that by His doing, He is a shield giving deliverance and preservation.
For example, God declared to be a shield for Abraham not to be afraid in Genesis 15:1, “…Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” God was the shield in the old days, and He is still the shield beyond times to come.
Are you distracted from trusting God?   
In times of challenges, do not be distracted but trust God. 
With trusting God, the peace of God reigns. Indeed, and in truth, it is not possible to hear the testimonies of God and doubt the word of God.
When you hear from God, there will be no fear but peace. 
In faces of challenges, the whole world can say no; but you will say yes that is based on trusting the word of God. 
The existence of doubt is the evidence that you have not heard from Him. Take to the word of Isaiah 26:3-4, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind stayed on You because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.” 
The word of God is profitable to trust in it.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to rest in His worth word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you mind-full of God or selfish to your world?

Psalm 8

One that is selfish is lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with self to profit or pleasure. The character of a selfish one is not to be mindful of others.
One that is selfish will hardly listen.
One that is selfish avoid responsibility.
One that is selfish does not have consideration for the time for others.
Selfish ones are not mindful of others the evidence of self-centeredness, not the spirit of God.  
Think of this: How can one that is not mindful of others be mindful of God?
David asked God: “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:4)
Does the question of David before God speak to you?
Are you mindful of God?
In the world today, man is full of himself while God is empty in man. 
The empty of God in man is the evidence of not living by the word of God, the lack of fear of God. 
Today, the majority no longer fears God with their heart but with the mouth.
The lack of fear of God is the evidence of misplacement of the word (command, law) of God, and it is the automatic route into the path of eternal damnation.
Without any compromise, the will of God for man is to fear God. 
No one is born to this world with the knowledge to fear God.
The knowledge to fear God comes from learning in the word of God. 
Deuteronomy 31:12-13 buttresses the need to learn and fear God, “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” 
To live a life with the fear of God is the only way to be able to humble self and become obedient to God continually.
The Law of God will cause tenderness of heart. 
With a tender heart, there is a place for humility. Without humility, obedience is not possible. The word records about the obedient of Jesus, “…humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8)
The will of God is for man to fear Him. 
Do you fear God indeed and in truth? 
Are you lost from the word of God? 
One that does not learn from the word of God is one that will be misplaced, from God.
Fear God and know to Him.
Deuteronomy 24:29 identifies what it takes to find God, “…seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul seek Him and you will found Him” 
Do not be deceived but fear God from the depth of your heart.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live a life for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: The devil is with devices to entice all into sin.

2 Samuel 11

The enticement of the devil is a cunning device with no respect to excuse any man under heaven to become a victim of the devil. 
The devil is with devices to entice with an attempt to bring all down into a pit of sin. 
The enticement is the deadliest weapon of the devil. 
The enticement is always what the devil will use to attract a man for the temptation to become a sinner before God.
To be enticed is to be lured away from the point of focus. 
Know and not fall for the devices of enticement but remain focus on the word of God. 
The temptation is not to sin, but it is for man to fall and sink in sin. 
King David did not accidentally fell for the sin of sexual immorality that he committed with Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah). It was through seeing (which is the anchor of enticement) that King David entrapped himself into sin. The Bible records the route that David took to fall for sin: “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” (2 Samuel 11:2)
David was at the right place but at the wrong time to become trapped in sin. David fell for sin when he saw a woman bathing. 
David could not resist the temptation of sin but went on to inquire about a woman belonging to another man. 
Getting carried away by enticement will lead to a deadly avenue of sinning before God.
Are you positioning yourself to be carried away by enticement, the avenue that leads to sin and sinning before God? 
Imagine David, a man identified by God, as a man after the heart of God but carried away into sin and sinning before God?
David failed in the depth of his heart, not to avoid sin and sinning.
Are you paying attention to avoid the wrong place not to become a victim of sin against God? 
Eve could not give attention to avoid the enticement of the devil when she eats from the tree of knowledge against the warning of God not to eat it.
Eve lost focus when she saw that the tree was good for food; that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate with Adam. (Genesis 3:6) 
Without seeing in the word of God, enticement will come to lead one that is unfocused into sin. The enemy of all man is the master of deception that has been around long enough to draw one into the sin of destruction.
Live life to the glory of God, stay tuned, and not be turned off by the devices of enticement by the devil.
Abstain from seeing in the wicked world; begin to see in the Word of God for your deliverance and preservation. 

Prayer for today: Ask that you will not become a victim of the enticement by the devil.

FAITH CAPSULE: Fear shatters trust and hope not to attain promise.

Numbers 13

During the wilderness journey, the children of Israel could not trust and hope to see in the word of God to take them to the Promised Land. 
The Israelites were at the Wilderness of Paran, waiting to move into the Canaan when God spoke to Moses to send men to spy out the land of Canaan. (Numbers 13)
Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan to spy out the land. The spies returned with a report and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” (Numbers 13:27-29)
The spies reported with trust, mentioning the goodness of the land.
However, their report was lack of hope because of the fear for the people of the land b saying, “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants), and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:31-33)
The report of the spy lacks trust and hope in the deliverance of God.
In the plans and the promises of God through the pages of the Bible, trust, and hope in God, He is faithful to deliver.
The lack of trust and hope in the Israelites prompted fear that is not acceptable before God. Except for Joshua and Caleb, the Israelites complained, confessed negative before God.
God responded to the negative confession of the Israelites: Numbers 14:28-30, “As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.”
Know and understand that God is not careless to deliver in His plans and promises when there is no full attention to the conditions to receive from Him. 
Give full attention to the word of God that says, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:7)
Give full attention to God in His word.

Prayer for today: Ask God to fear Him alone, not to fall fear wicked world.