FAITH CAPSULE: The celebration of Jesus with understanding counts before God.

1 John 4

Jesus is coming for all creation at the appointed time of God, as a result, with understanding celebrate Jesus in all seasons, not in one season. Unfortunately, celebrating the birth of Jesus is colorful everywhere but lack understanding among celebrants. When there is understanding knowledge will be in place. Understanding of celebrating Jesus is the celebration that counts before God. The word of God buttressed praising (celebrating) before God with understanding. (Psalm 47:7)
Are you with an understanding of why celebrating Jesus?
The celebration of Jesus should always be at all season but not once in a year.
The celebration of Jesus should be with the understanding that He is the meaningful Gift of God for all man. It is written, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) The verse is to provoke the understand which count before God.
The celebration of Jesus is a secret but a story to ones with the lack of understanding and knowledge.
In this season, gain this understanding: “But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God…” (1 Corinthians 1:30) “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6) Knowing the above verses, evidently, one with Jesus the wisdom of God, knowledge shall be with the stability of times.
Are you with an understanding of why celebrating Jesus?
Ones celebrating Jesus should be with the identity as God’s people, but unfortunately, such one’s lack knowledge. The word of God declared in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Ones, with the lack of knowledge, are with the celebration which does not count before God.
Sincerely, do you know about Him?
Those who know about Him do not believe and know Him. The celebration of Jesus without keeping His word is celebrating with the error which does not count before God. 1 John 2:5 buttressed, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in Him.” Are you of God? Is your celebration confessing you know God that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God?
Giving gift without God is celebrating as one that knows about God but not knows God. Giving the gift of God is giving with love. God is love!
1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
The celebration of Jesus must come with love, at all season of celebration that counts before God. Come out of religion into religion with Christ reality.

Prayer for today: Ask God to open your heart of understanding in this season for all seasons.

FAITH CAPSULE: It is the love of God not the lobbying for love with the gift that counts before God.

John 4:1-42

Running around for a gift to dispose of it without love is a lobby to gain attention. In this season, at all season give out the love of God as a gift. Man, that is giving out love which is the gift of God is to gain from God.
Are you giving out the gift of love? It is those who know to embrace the gift of God that know to give out with God’s love. Jesus is the indescribable gift of God for all man.  He is not the gift of God to be purchased with money!
Search your self in all your lobbying with a gift to gain man’s attention instead of God’s attention. All the gift that matters to God is to embrace and give out the love of God.
One that does not love God will not give out love which counts before God. To love God is to fear God which is the will of God for all man. With the fear of God is to be in God. Ecclesiastes 12:13 admonished us stating, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandment, for this is man’s all.”
The love of God and the fear of God is living a life consistent to obey His commandments. Is your running around for a gift to dispose of it with God’s love?
Apostle Paul points it out that the purpose of God’s command is to love God. He stated, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.” (1Timothy 1:5-6) Paul was not talking about the love that flows from the tips of lips. Paul was talking about the love which counts before God. It is the love of God not the lobbying for love with the gift that counts before God.
Running around for a gift to dispose of it without love is engaging religion without Christ but a mere tradition. It is important to know that the gift of God can not be purchased with money!
Jesus gave so much for all man to understand and know it that He is the gift of God for all man.
Jesus’ self-introduction to the woman of Samaria also speaks to all man today. Jesus wants us to know Him when He said, “…If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) Jesus is the GIFT of God for all man. It is time to come out of religion, embrace religion with Christ.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God to have His way in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: God gave all to man, and all man should give back to God.

1 John 4

The gift of God for all man is perfect. In the gift of God, there is no expiration date in the gift of God but must be received. A failure not to receive God’s gift is not to unwrapped God’s gift. In the journey of life, do not become wasted but unwrap and engage God’s gift.
Do you know the gift of God which is near you or you only know about the gift of God?
At this time of the year, lack of knowledge ride over the life of many around, looking and seeking for an expire-able gift to impress or satisfy the world that is around one.
Why is it that you cannot give self to God’s gift?
What is the gift of God to all man?
Salvation through Jesus Christ is the gift of God all man. Romans 6:23-24, ” But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you know the gift of God or you only know about the gift of God to all man?
Bible recorded Jesus’ self-introduction to the woman of Samaria which does not know Him, “…If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) Jesus is the GIFT of God for all man.
Which kind of expensive or cheap gift are you chasing after to lay hands for impressing families or friends? Why not decide for giving the GIFT of God that is free to give out to your world?
Do you know the GIFT of God for you? GIFT of God is near and not far from man but not knowing the GIFT of God is man’s ignorance not unwrapping GIFT of God.
Often, man is decorated by the GIFT of God but not declaring the GIFT of God. God is not evidence in the way of man’s life.
Salvation through Jesus Christ is a gift from God if one will open self to the love of God.
The salvation of God is like a vehicle while the driver is be a believer of God. For example, the Israelites came out of the bondage of Egypt was God’s salvation, but they are unbelieving as the driver could not deliver them to God’s Promised Land.
The gift of God is the love of God for all man. This season is the reason that we should give God our love. 1 John 4:7-8 buttressed, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” God gave all to man, and all man should give back to God.

Prayer for today: Ask God’s mercy to live life by giving self to His Gift.

FAITH CAPSULE: What a man sow is what a man will reap

Proverbs 14

–Mercy of God is attainable when we trust God and cry out to Him
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 need is a way of living by God’s word, looking up to God. Looking up to God is keeping eyes on Him. God will have His mercy on ones that look up to Him. The Psalmist buttressed, “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).
Looking up to God with the voice of cry can be a way of gaining mercy from God. Word testified, “And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13) God is merciful.
-Mercy is attainable when we ask God for forgiveness
Every time we sin and ask God for forgiveness, it is God’s mercy that we receive 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). Among character of God is mercy. Calling on God to ask for forgiveness of sin will provoke forgiveness of sin by merciful of God. Just like other pages of the Bible, Proverbs 28:13 testified, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsake them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). Seek diligently to attain God’s mercy by confessing your sin.
-Mercy is attainable when we do good.
Anyone that devises evil will get evil in return while he that does good gets good in return. Once, Haman devised evil against the Jews, but Esther’s response to Mordecai’s guidance led Esther to receive privilege before King which denied Haman’s evil devise. Bible recorded, “Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews.” (Esther 8:3) Esther devised good, and mercy answered on behalf of all her people (Jews). The Word of God in Proverbs, which states, “…but mercy and truth belong to those who devise good. (Proverbs 14:22) is true.
Mercy is obtainable according to what is sown.
A wise saying states that what a man sow is what a man will reap
Indeed, as close as banana and plantain look alike, one cannot sow banana and reap plantain. What a man sow is what a man will reap. Hosea 10:12 buttressed the word of God, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy.”
Before God, with no exception, a man will always be responsible for his or her giving and taking in every area of life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you seeking Him for lining life in obtaining His mercy.

FAITH CAPSULE: Mercy is attainable when our life aligns with the word of God.

Romans 9

Just as power belongs unto God, mercy also belongs to God.
Mercy means God is compassionate or kind forbearance that never runs out.
Mercy means loyal love; it is the conventional love of the covenant-keeping God.
Only God renders mercy unto man unfailingly.
The mercy of God, not our merit, is the reason God answers.
God cannot be intimidated or manipulated by any of His creation for the release of His mercy.
God declared and was testified of in Romans 9:14-16, “…I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So, then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”
With God’s mercy in place for His creation, nothing under heaven is powerful enough to displace it from overcoming the challenges of the world.
AMONG WAYS OF PROVOKING GOD TO OBTAIN HIS MERCY ARE:
Mercy is attainable when our life aligns with the word of God.
When we live our life according to the word of God and do His will, God will always grant us His mercy. Joseph’s life was the evidence of one that lived according to the word of God and did God’s will. Every time there was an incident that could tempt him to violate the word of God, he did not. In one instance, he denied the offer to sleep with his master’s wife by claiming, “…How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) Joseph’s reaction to his master’s wife provoked God’s mercy for Joseph. The Bible went further to state, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor…” (Genesis 39:21).
Mercy is attainable when we love God
Demonstration of our love for God will always provoke the mercy of God.  The Bible makes us realize that loving God is keeping His commandments (John 14:15).
Using Joseph’s example above, we will notice that he kept God’s commandment by forbidding adultery when he fled away from sleeping with his master’s wife. Joseph loved God to obtain the mercy of God.
Mercy is attainable when we ask or plead for His mercy.
God testified that there is none like Job on the earth; a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:9). The character of Job does not excuse him from a position of begging for God’s mercy when he stated, “For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge” (Job 9:15). God’s testimony about Job could not qualify him for God’s mercy without pleading for God’s mercy.  Psalmist asked for God’s mercy 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). Mercy belongs to God to give His mercy as He pleases to.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you seeking Him for lining life in obtaining His mercy.