FAITH CAPSULE: A journey of distance is like a journey of a year.

Exodus 14

When a journey of distance approaches the end a new journey unfolds.
When a year is folding up a new year begins to unfold. For a man to be alive at the folding of a year journey, it is nothing a merit but a gracious mercy of God. God is a gracious merciful God and power belongs to God alone.
Do you have power to be alive?
Absolutely it is the grace of God that has brought you this far and it is the grace of God that will see you further.
Every new beginning is like a new year. Every new beginning is always the race with boldness that is rooted in the word of God’s promise. However, in the course of the journey, different scenes start to unfold.
The children of Israel left with boldness but it did not take long before it evaporated and fear became incorporated into the lives of the children of Israel. The Bible recorded in Exodus 14:10, “And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.” Despite the children of Israel went out with boldness, their boldness turned into fear.
Are you looking the ahead of journey with fear?
When God places His calling upon one’s life, it has to be answered with boldness and character. The children of Israel believed, but they could not behave what they believed. The same word of God that brought the Israelites out of the bondage of over four hundred years is same word that delivers man to salvation today. However, when one fails to live the word, no character of the word will be able to be seen in one’s life.
In journey, complaint is the root of rebellion and the substitute of disobedience. The children of Israel had boldness and complaint instead of having boldness and character. They could not hold on to the victory the Lord placed in their hand. As a result, they became lost as a nation. God said to them, “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.” (Numbers 14:29) Without any doubt, the race is for those who finish it. If you have received the grace and mercy to be alive, continuity is the rule of the game; a purposeful heart is the officiator. Run the race with boldness and character and you shall become a winner to the glory of God. Trust and be hopeful in the hand of God that has brought you this far. God will back you up if you will not back yourself out of the promises of His word.

Prayer for today: The grace of God that brought you this far shall not expire over you in Jesus name.

FAITH CAPSULE: Have you allowed mixed multitude to turn your celebration season to commercial season?

Romans 1

Are you a true believer?
A failure to accept the Lord Jesus as a gift of God for salvation of man is forgetting the work of God. God sent beloved son, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Are you a true believer that has forgotten and not remember that the gift is not a commercial celebration?
If we fail to be mindful of God and the works of his hands then the spirit of forgetfulness will reign. Paying attention to the works of God is giving jealous God His due exaltation. It is a blessing to be paying attention to the works of God because it gains God’s attention. The children of Israel could not wait for God they took to their own ways. It is comforting to know that the way that is perceived as right to man, only lead to death. (Proverbs 14:12) The book of Psalm 106:13-14 recorded about forgetting Israelites, “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.”
Evidently, not waiting on God will lead to wasting away just like the children of Israel that died in the wilderness and not get to the Promised Land. Their lust for the past prevented them from the remembering the wondrous acts that brought them out of bondage. God was leading them to a better future but they were reserved to their ugly past all because they forgot His wondrous works that delivered them.
A mixed multitude will mislead celebration of the gift of God to commercialize God’s gift. Exodus 12:8 recorded about a mixed multitude that went up with Israelites on their journey to Promised Land. As the journey advanced, the mixed multitude caused them to a state of lust.
Their lust is revealed in Numbers 11:4-6, “Now the mixed multitudes who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” The children of Israel could not wait for what God was doing and what He was set to do in their life out of the bondage of over four hundred years.
Focusing on the works of God prevents one from forgetting and not sinning to God. Today, mixed multitude are not focusing on Jesus as a God’s gift for salvation but commercial celebration. It is time to avoid mix multitude to avoid commercial celebration of God’s gift.

Prayer for today: Ask the grace of understanding and not be a victim of ignorance.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is a gracious and merciful God.

Genesis 39

God cares to give His love but man care less to know about God’s loving care for man.
Bible recorded, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)
Do you know about the love of God or do you know the love of God? To know the love of God is identified in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Keeping God’s commandment is doing His will, obeying the word of God. It takes sacrificial commitment to obey God’s commandment. With God, there is a set standard for every area of His expectation for us. God did not just ask for love rather He gave us a standard of acceptable love when He stated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” To love God means to give Him our all. Through the pages of the Bible, men and women that gave Him all were able to live a fulfilled life and accomplish great exploits to the glory of God. Men like Abraham, Joseph, Daniel and other giants loved God and were able to do great exploits. The giants in the hand of God’s approach to the issues of life clearly depict what it is to love God with all of their heart, soul and strength.
Do you know Jesus the love of God or you know about Jesus?
Are you identified with elaboration of celebration of the birth of Jesus or you are identified with lying, deception and manipulation?
The truth is that God cannot be deceived. Joseph by virtue of his challenge and temptation to deny his love for God he decided not deceived God.
Joseph the dreamer found himself in pit because his brothers hated him. He was sold as a slave to Potiphar’s house where he was tempted by his master’s wife. He could have become the object of his master’s wife when she could not resist from asking Joseph to lie with her. Joseph refused to sleep with his master’s wife. Joseph’s excuse not to take on his master’s wife was, “…how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.” (Genesis 39:9)
Joseph love God and refused to enter into a way of wickedness towards God.
Joseph love God.
Every time our love for God overrides our love for self, heaven would be provoked for our lifting up. For Joseph, favor could not depart from him because he loved His God and demonstrated His love for God by not giving in to Potiphar’s wife.

Prayer for today: Ask God to help you to love Him fully.

FAITH CAPSULE: From today allow Jesus to take His place in your inn.

Luke 2:1-40

With knowing the reason of the coming of Jesus is the important of Christmas celebration not giving of gift to selected ones called love. The bible recorded in John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” This scriptural verse is the key but it is the most neglected.
To be-living (believe) in Him are the ones that love Him.
To be-living in Him is to work the works of God.
The book of John 6:8-9 clearly answered to what it means to work the works of God. Jesus was asked, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” and He responded, “…This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Many received the story of how He was born, they embraced it and celebrate it glamorously but do not consider to work the works of God as stated by Jesus.
Do you sincerely love the gift God sent for us? To love the gift of God is to be-living in Him which God sent.
Can you imagine, “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)
Does the Redeemer of man deserve to be wrapped in a swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger?
Can it possibly be the sign that our Redeemer was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger?
Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room for Joseph and Mary the in the inn. The inn that matters to Him is our inn not the commercial inn that was filled and not has a place for Him.
It does not matter the kind of gift that occupies your inn waiting to be delivered as a gift. If you do not have a place for Him in your inn it becomes a meaning less gift. He spoke in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Jesus came to have a place in our inn so that we overcome and be granted a seat with Him on His throne.”
As you celebrated Jesus, let your inn be opened up for Him.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to open you up for Jesus.

FAITH CAPSULE: Give glory and honor and thanks to God for Jesus.

John 1

Psalmist stated, “Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation.” (Psalm 106:4) Indeed His favor toward man today was delivered when He visited salvation.
Virgin Mary received the message of favor, “Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)
God is a good God. Give glory and honor and thanks belong to Him.
In this time of year but all year round, who does your glory and honor and thanks goes to? At this time of the year, is it your gift for others is your attention or giving glory and honor and thanks to Him who gave the message of favor with salvation?
It is written, “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:9-11)
He is a good God and He is worthy of all glory and honor and thanks.
Why not preoccupy yourself with giving glory, honor and thanks?
Allow your prayer and supplication to become rooted in giving glory and honor with giving thanks to God.
Paul knew exactly what he was saying when he stated, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, and let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6) God owes man nothing except that man owes God all the glory and honor. Out of His goodness and mercy, He gave to us love and the Bible stated, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
God sent Jesus to the world.
It is written, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) To those who receive and believe in Jesus, everlasting life becomes their portion. It is only receiving and believing Him that makes the only way out of every trap of hell.

Prayer for today: Ask God to open your heart to receive Him and believe in His name.