LOVE OF MONEY1Timothy 6:3-16

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When you do not look for what God did not give you, He will give to you what is good and His goodness and mercy shall follow you. Hebrews 13:5 – ÒLet your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ÒI will never leave you nor forsake you.ÓÓ What are you looking for outside of the will of God? How are you conducting yourself in the areas of your wants? There is a difference from what you want and what you need. List of wants can be done away with without it affecting oneÕs life most of the time. Wants are not as important as needs because most times, needs can be pressing and can hardly be avoided or done without. Is your desire for wants growing based upon what you see that others have? Covetousness is a sin. It is not a sign of going after getting what glisters or what is better. In the Ten Commandments, it is clearly stated that, ÒYou shall not covet your neighborÕs house; you shall not covet your neighborÕs wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighborÕs.Ó (Exodus 20:17) The word of God that states ÒHe will never leave you nor forsake youÓ is true only to those whose conduct is without covetousness and to those who conduct themselves with contentment. It is a blessing to have God to be for us, but His entire blessing comes with conditions. His love, however, is unconditional. God wants us to be content with what we have. It is recorded in I Timothy 6:6-7, ÒNow Godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.Ó Many are godly and many claim to be godly, but yet everything that they see becomes a desire. By this virtue, contentment loses its place and the power of God ceases to flow because God, the source of power, does not have a place where covetousness reigns. Many coveted needs demand money so as a result, the love of money takes it place where lack of contentment abides. Have you thought about your relationship with money? Is it a love and love relationship? There is no warning signal in falling in love and falling out of love. The moment you are in love with money, you are bound in the wrong direction and it is not of life; it is of death. The word of God warns in 1 Timothy 6:10, ÒFor the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.Ó The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil; not just one kind but all kinds of evil. Be very careful in your pursuit for wants or else the devil will recruit you as part of those who will be spending eternity with him. God will have mercy on those who seek and experience contentment with Him.   

FEAR RAIDSMatthew 14:22-33

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ÒImmediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.Ó (Matthew 14:22) The disciples needed to get to the other side where Jesus wanted them to be. Jesus knew what it would take to get to the other side and what the other side had to offer for the disciples in order for them to continue in following Him. Jesus could not have been unaware of the storm ahead when He made them to go on before Him. In His sending them, the multitudes were not allowed and He sent them away. With every representative of multitude, you cannot get to the other side where He wants you to be. For those whom He called, He sent and backed them up with support that would help them not to fail regardless of any activity of journey terminating storm. Did He call and send you? Are you in the storm yet? If you are not yet in the storm, the storm will come. It came for the ones that He made to go before Him and it will also come for you. The storm that went for the disciples was not in the beginning of the journey, but rather in the middle of the sea where the only escape from trouble can come by the visitation of Jesus if there will be no reason to be afraid. ÒNow in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ÒIt is a ghost!Ó And they cried out for fear. (Matthew 14:25-26) Jesus did not delay in His response to their cry. ÒBut immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ÔBe of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.ÕÓ (Matthew 14:27) JesusÕ response must have given them a sigh of relief when Peter asked for permission to join Jesus in walking on the water. One thing that is clear in the word of God is not to allow fear or the act of being afraid if we are to have Him in our walk. Jesus, having just showed up and letting them know that He was with them was enough to terminate doubt. When we ignore His presence and make a choice to be afraid, we are consciously or unconsciously telling Him that we do not acknowledge His presence and He will not move when we decide to be moved by being afraid. Peter, while seeing Jesus walking towards him, decided to look into the challenges of the storm. ÒBut when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ÔLord, save me!ÕÓ(Matthew 14:30) Peter operated in doubt. He was faulted with fear and right there, he withdrew himself from the presence of God. With fear, faith withdraws and Peter began to sink. The Jewish remnant wanted to run and dwell in Egypt because they were afraid of the king of Babylon and God sent Jeremiah to speak a word. ÒDo not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,Ó says the LORD,Ó Ôfor I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.Ó (Jeremiah 42:11)  They disobeyed and God withdrew Himself and could not be with them. Do not be afraid. He called you and He will see you through. Do not allow fear to raid you.

FEAR NOT< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>Jeremiah 42

Obey the word of God by receiving it and releasing it into your life. After releasing the word into your life, then you should be living in the word. The word can be pleasing or displeasing at the time you receive it, but it will not mistreat you in anyway. If you will allow the word, then the world will have no part of you. When the Jews who were left behind after the captivity began to seek for a means of avoiding the challenges from the Chaldeans opposition, Jeremiah was consulted for inquiring from God. ÒNow all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, ÔPlease, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), 3 that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.Ó(Jeremiah 42:1-3) The Jews who were remaining were referred to as the remnant Jews. They wanted a word from God so they asked Jeremiah for help. One thing is to want to hear from Him and another is to be willing to receive whatever He says. God is willing to reveal His way to His children, but another thing is whether or not you are ready to accept what His word of direction is saying? The Jews promised Jeremiah before inquiring from God, ÒWhether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.Ó (Jeremiah 42:6) Jeremiah went before God and was able to receive a message for the Jews. The message for them was not to run and dwell in Egypt because they had set their faces to run to Egypt as a safe dwelling ground. God promised in Jeremiah 42:11-12, ÒDo not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,Ó says the LORD,Ó Ôfor I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.Ó The Jews did not listen to the message for them. The point here is that they were afraid and it is clear from their case that to be afraid is to lose the presence of God that will deliver and show mercy. The Jews could not remain in the land just as God had sent Jeremiah to them. They were afraid and they eventually moved to Egypt. The Jews lost their ground and they could not retain the presence of God and as a result, they could not retain life. The remnant Jews disobeyed the Word of God. Egypt could not prevent them from dying by sword, by famine and pestilence. Obey His word and you will live and not die. 

Feb 04-08< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>INTENTION AND INTEGRITYJob 2:1-10, Acts 19:11-20

Good intention without integrity is the same as spiritual emptiness. For every man who wants to be good without having integrity of backing up their good intention will have nothing move before God. The American Heritage College Dictionary as defined integrity: Òsteadfast adherence to a strict ethical code; the state of being unimpaired; soundness; the quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness. Can you imagine God declaring or testifying you as being a man of integrity? Job 2:3, ÒThen the LORD said to Satan, ÔHave you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.ÕÓ God, by Himself, qualified Job as a man of integrity. For God to have described Job as a man of integrity, Job must have walked the walk and lived the word. He earned it all before God, but yet the enemy found its way to touch him. Among all that should not have discouraged Job was his wife, but she used JobÕs strength as a slap on Job. The wife was supposed to be a helper to him, but in his situation she turned the other way of discouraging him. The wife did not spare him from rubbing it in. ÒThen his wife said to him, ÒDo you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!Ó (Job 2:9) Keep your head straight up and your eyes only unto God in your current situation. Whatever the situation is, it is not the measure of GodÕs blessing. It could be your way to be multiplied in the blessings of God. Good intention is what the itinerant Jewish exorcists had when they, ÒÉtook it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ÒWe exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.Ó (Acts 19:13) The itinerant Jewish exorcists had the intention of casting out evil spirits, but the level of integrity that would cause God to look in their direction was absent from their lives. Faulting in the line of integrity does not require a big or consistent case of lying, but even a very simple and what can be considered as a minor lie is enough to disrupt your testimony of integrity. Good intention and integrity will add up in making one a vessel of honor to the glory of God. The Lord will have mercy.

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Psalm 23

ÒPardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.Ó (Numbers 14:19) This is a prayer of intercession by Moses on behalf of the children of Israel after one of their rebellious acts that made God to react against them during their wilderness journey. At any point in time, have you complained against Him or have you found yourself in a situation that is not well with the experience in your wilderness journey? It is worth it to pray the kind of prayer that Moses prayed because it was all written for our learning. Great is the faithfulness of God and He is abundant in mercy. In His hand is His mercy and He can choose to have mercy on us and He can also choose not to have mercy. However, He said in His Word that we should ask and not faint. When we ask constantly and consistently according to the greatness of His mercy, He will no doubt hear us from Heaven and His mercy shall be given unto us. The Psalmist knew to ask for His mercy when he prayed, ÒHear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4: 1) The phase Òhave mercy on meÓ should be an adopted signature tune for each and every believer in every area of life. In the absence of His mercy, there could be a merciless destruction by the liar and his agents of wickedness. Just for His mercy alone, the Lord is worthy of great and mighty praise and adoration. He is a good God and His mercy endures forever. The Psalmist considered it as very important to acknowledge this fact when he repeatedly testified in the first verse of Psalm 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, 136:1, ÒÉOh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good For His mercy endures forever.Ó Indeed He is good and His mercy endures forever. It is His mercy that we need when all have rejected us as hopeless and condemned. The mercy of God is all that we need to consider us. ÒHave mercy on me, O Lord! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death.Ó (Psalm 9:13) He never runs out of mercy, however, we run out of His mercy. The Bible says His mercy endures forever. Can you trust in His mercy? Trusting in His mercy is trusting in His name because His name is merciful. Today, lift up your hand, pray and ask for His sure mercy. ÒSurely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.Ó (Psalm 23:6) Amen.