FAITH CAPSULE: In your thanksgiving, let it be pleasing to God but not pleasing man.

Psalm 100, 116

With understanding, it is a man’s responsibility to be offering sacrificial thanksgiving to God.
Understanding comes when one gains wisdom in the word of God.
Gained wisdom will activate the knowledge to do right before God.
Are you giving thanks to God without praise or you are praising God without giving thanks? 
Praising God and thanking God cannot be separated.
It is thanksgiving and praising God that will locate one in the presence of God as Psalm 100:4 encourages, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
Are you returning to God with the heart of thanksgiving?
With understanding, all His creation should be giving Him thanks continually. 
One with the understanding of thanksgiving to God for all things, at all times (regardless of any issue), will provoke all things to work for good over one’s life, to the glory of God.
Giving thanks to God should be a reasonable sacrifice.
In your thanksgiving, let it be pleasing to God but not pleasing man.
Word of God identifies sacrificial thanksgiving:
“And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, offer it of your own free will. (Leviticus 22:29)
“Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.” (Psalm 107:22) “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:17)
Jonah buttress, “But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:9) 
With understanding, give a sacrificial thanksgiving to God instead of thinking thank that is not acceptable before God.
Once, King David’s sin of counting the Israelites against God’s word not to count (engage census) provoked plague from God to kill thousands of the Israelites. The sin of David demanded a costly sacrifice of burnt offering before God to withdraw the plague. 
Are you offering a costly sacrifice instead of sacrifice that does not cost you?
2 Samuel 24-25 records about David’s demonstration of costly sacrifice, “Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.”
With a costly sacrifice, King David provoked God’s visitation for the plague to be ceased.
Learn to know that a sacrificial thanksgiving is costly, it must be engaged if there is an expectation for God’s visitation.

Prayer for today: Ask that you will continually give God a reasonable thanksgiving.

FAITH CAPSULE: Be responsible to KNOW GOD, a life of responsibility before God!

2 Corinthians 5

Living life with responsibility before God is the key to greatness, to the glory of God.
God is a perfect creator, He is a saving Master, not a slave master with the power to force any to live life with responsibility before Him.
One that lives life with responsibility before God is bound to be mindful of God. 
A man that is mindful of God is set to be full of God.  
As a believer, are you truly mindful of God or mouth full of God?
What does it mean to live life with responsibility before God?
RESPONSIBILITY IS TO KNOW GOD AND NOT JUST KNOWING ABOUT GOD
Getting to Know God should be one’s desire to know the truth of God by studying the word of God, in the pages of the Bible. John 8:32 inspires to know God, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” How are you studying to know God? Are you listening to a man to know about God? 
Responsibility is to KNOW GOD not by KNOWING ABOUT GOD. 
The story of Daniel’s life of responsibility in the word of God is for learning for all. Daniel 11:32 records, “but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” 
Daniel was responsible before God when he purposed not to defile himself with the delicacies of an unbeliever king. The Bible records, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8) Daniel was mindful of God; he knew God and he responsibly purposed his heart for God. 
Daniel’s life with his custom prayer life before God testifies a life of responsible. As a captive, he became elevated as one of the governors in the land. Daniel, as the responsible one before God, eventually became a target for an untimely death in the den of the lion. The Bible records, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” (Daniel 6:10) The death sentence against Daniel was because of responsibility before his God. Daniel had a custom way of praying since his early days. Daniel knew God in his days; he was responsible before God and could not become a victim of an evil agenda.
Be responsible to KNOW GOD, a life of responsibility before God!

Prayer for today: Ask God for His grace to guide you to live a life of responsibility before God.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is the only God that is mercy-full.

Psalm 116

Mercy belongs to God.The Mercy of God is the love of God. 
The mercy of God can answer to one in an unexpected or unmerited way.
Among possible ways to attain God’s mercy:
Mercy is attainable when one asks or plead before God for His mercy.
Job, a man God declared as none like him on the earth; a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil found himself in a position to plead for God’s mercy when he said, “For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge” (Job 9:15). Despite God’s testimony of Job did not excuse Job to receive the mercy of God without pleading for His mercy. 
Just like Job, pleading for the mercy of God, Psalmist did the same saying, “Have mercy on me, O LORD! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death.” (Psalm 9:13). 
Sometimes, there is a need to ask for God’s mercy to receive from God.
The mercy of God is attainable when one trust God 
The Psalmist declared, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). Trusting God to meet our needs is a way of living by God’s word, looking up to God. Praising Him or thanking Him will provoke God’s mercy in one’s life. One that looks up to God, keeping eyes on Him provoke His mercy. The Psalmist buttresses, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God until He has mercy on us” (Psalm 123:2).
Just as looking up to Him is trusting in Him, so is lifting our voices in crying to Him for His mercy. Luke 17:13 records, “And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” God is merciful and never runs out of mercy.
Mercy is attainable when one asks God for forgiveness
Sin activity that calls to God for forgiveness will receive God’s mercy in return. It is written, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5). God is good and merciful; there is no iota of evil that can deny God’s mercy on one that calls on God. Asking for forgiveness is a very sure way of obtaining mercy as it is obvious all through the pages of the Bible. The Bible encourages, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsake them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). 
God is merciful to respond with mercy for one that pleads for God’s mercy, for one that trusts God and one that knows to ask for forgiveness will receive God’s mercy to live life for God’s glory.

Prayer for today: Ask that you will live life to attain God’s mercy.

FAITH CAPSULE: Learn to be living life by the written word of God.

Matthew 21:1-22

Think this for yourself: The word of God is God. John 1:1 confirms, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Also, the recordings in the Bible make it known that God is light. 1John 1:5 records, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Think this:
What the word of God wants to do is:
The word of God wants to enter into the life of all. 
Psalm 119:130 testifies, “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”
How beautiful will it be if the word enters into one’s life? 
The word of God is so true and pure to perform when it enters.
Proverbs 30:5 speaks of the word of God, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”
Psalm 12:6 mentions, “The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.”
Keep thinking this:
Manifestly, when the word of God gains entrance into one’s life it is certain to give light.
When the word of God enters into one’s life, the light will have a place in one’s life, keeping one in this wicked world from evil agenda.
Today, desire and be opened for the word of God to gain entrance into your life.
Without a doubt, when the word of God enters into one’s life, one will become the carrier of God’s word. One carrying God’s word will give self to being ride and rule by the word of God, to be living life for the glory of God.
How sweet will it be, carrying the word of God with the identity as one with the glory of God?
Think and ask yourself:
Is the word of God gaining entrance into you, to ride on you for His glory?
If you will desire for the word of God to locate you, to gain entrance, to ride and rule your life in the journey of life, God will not deny your desire.
Open yourself to receive God into your life for His glory in all your ways of life!
Think this for yourself:
When donkey and colt carried Jesus (the living Word of God) into Jerusalem, they could not miss out on God’s glory over their life.
Donkey and colt could not be excluded from all the glory accorded with Jesus, the glory of God, as He rides and rules over them.
Think this for yourself:
Open yourself for the word of God as a carrier of the living Word of God, just as donkey and colt carried Jesus, to experience the glory of God, you shall live life to the glory of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His word to enter into your life that you begin to live life for the glory of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: What does it mean to be a Christian?

Acts 11

What makes a man be a CHRISTIAN is not just by attending a gathering in the name of a church or by quoting the word of God, but living life as CHRIST LIKE.
Are you a CHRISTIAN searching self to gain the understanding to know God?
So many answers as Christian but not live life as Christian because they have no understanding and LACK KNOWLEDGE!
Are you answering as CHRISTIAN?
Do you have an understanding of what it means to be a CHRISTIAN?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN (CHRIST LIKE)?
With the persecution, the followers of Jesus Christ scatteredas far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the Lord Jesus. At Antioch, they were called Christians, meaning Christ-like.  Acts 11:26 records, “…And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Living life as a disciple, a follower of Jesus’ ways of life is what identifies a believer as Christian (Christ-like) but many answers as Christian and not live life as a Christian.
A Christian should live life, searching self, to seek God to follow the word of God as His disciple. 
Do you search yourself as David testifies in Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
SEARCH YOUR SELF continually, to seek GOD diligently as a Christian.
Search yourself in the word of God as like looking into a mirror to be addressing self, living life as Christ-like.
Among reasons to SEARCH SELF continually, to seek God, to gain understanding and know God is not to be lost in the TIME one is living.  Ecclesiastes 9:12 WARNS all, “For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them.”
What you do not SEARCH (SEEK) to gain UNDERSTAND or to know about will not be found.
God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
Do you search to know why you are not with KNOWLEDGE?
Lack of knowledge is evidence of no understanding.
Without understanding how can there be knowledge, not to become a victim of destruction?
God is mindful of all about the issue of no understanding as word records, “God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.” (Psalm 53:2)
Isaiah 56:11 also points out the reason for no understanding stating, “Yes, they are greedy dogs Which never have enough. And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain, From his own territory.”
Search yourself to be a Christian (Christ-like).
Search yourself continually, gain understanding to know God.
Live life not to become a victim of the wicked ones or not to be a wicked one, but to be led in the way of everlasting.

Prayer for today: Ask God to provoke you that you will continually search your heart.