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Topic: Assigned Duty [Monday April 24, 2017] Text: Ezekiel 22:1-12 Key Verse:  "Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations"   (Ezekiel 22:2). While speaking in London, evangelist D.L. Moody was approached by a British companion who wanted to know the secret of Moody’s success in leading people to Christ. Moody directed the man to his hotel window and asked "what do you see?" The man looked down on the square and reported a view of crowded streets. Moody suggested that he looked again. This time the man mentioned seeing people – men, women and children. Moody then directed him to look a third time and the man became frustrated that he was not seeing what Moody wanted him to see. Open Heavens 24 April 2017: Monday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Another Jonah in The Church? The great evangelist came to the window with tearful eyes and said. "I see people going to hell without...

Topic: Fear Not! [Sunday April 23, 2017] Text: Deuteronomy 20:1-9 Key Verse:   "And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart"  (Deuteronomy 20:8). On Saturday the 28th day of May 2005, the British Guardian newspaper reported an almost unbelievable story. According to reports, two Japanese men, who were both in their 80s, had said they were soldiers of the Second World War, and had been hiding on the Island of Mindanao, which is 600 miles from Manila, in the Philippines. They had deserted their division who were fiercely devastated by the United States’ forces. They had since remained in the jungle and mountains possibly unaware that the war had ended 60 years earlier. They also feared being court-martialled for possible desertion if they showed their faces again. Desertion is a serious crime in the mili...

Topic: Reduce To Writing [Friday April 21, 2017] Text: Proverbs 25:1-15 Key Verse:   "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out" (Proverb 25:1). Can you imagine a world without history, without writing and without documentation? Most important events and persons would have been lost forever! Today’s text starts with the introduction of how the entire chapter 25 of Proverbs came to be. It was copied out by the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The basic difference between divinely inspired truth and mere history is that all divine truths started out with the glory of God in mind and God was involved in moving men to write. Though most historical writings are at best to preserve knowledge, divinely inspired truths are well beyond history. The entire verses of this chapter are laden with eternal truths that are still relevant to us. Verses 2 to 7 speak about relationships with God and leadership. We are taught both spiritual truths and ...

Topic: Wrong Conclusion [Thursday April 20, 2017] Text: Job 30:15-23 Key Verse:   "For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living"   (Job 30:23). In the story behind great hymns, it was said of Horatio Spafford, the lawyer who wrote the song ‘It is well with my soul’ that he lost all his fortune and while recuperating, eventually lost his four daughters to a shipwreck. But the most painful part of the story was that his church wrongly concluded that the tragedies he faced, were as a result of divine judgment. How painful it is when people who ought to console you, put you to more grief all because of wrong conclusions. The friends of Job had dragged him into a needless debate. Without knowing what was really going on, they concluded God was after Job because he had sinned. Job himself also thought that his sufferings were aimed at terminating his life. From the story of Job, we learn that things are usually not the way they appear espec...

Topic: When Afflictions Are Comely [Wednesday April 19, 2017] Text: Psalm 119:65-72 Key Verse:   "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better..."   (Psalm 119:71,72). Nothing happens accidentally in God’s economy. Every event or circumstance that occurs to God’s children are ultimately for their good. Even in the seeming negatives of life, God uses everything to His and to our advantage. You probably must have learnt about Job. God used his affliction to bless and to train him. In this wonderful Psalm 119, the writer discovered that there is something good in his afflictions. He had said "before I was afflicted I went astray". He saw God using his afflictions to make him better than he was. How do we react to adversity? People often wonder why bad things happen to good people. We learn from the Psalmist that good people may need to become better, and that’s why affliction sometimes come. Also, our a...

Topic: Ready For Judgment Day [Monday April 17, 2017] Text: Revelation 20:1-15 Key Verse:  "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them"  (Revelation 20:11). Many live as if they would not give account for their actions and conducts in this world. Driven by selfish interests, they act as if they no longer have a conscience. They defy constituted authority; they trample on the rights of other people. And most times, they get away with their actions. But it will not always be so: a day of reckoning will eventually come once you shut your eyes in death. On that day, there will be no hiding place for anyone, irrespective of class and status, material well-being and popular acclaim. Once the judgment throne of God is set, all men that ever lived on earth, both small and great, would heed the inescapable summons to appear before God and be judged. All will stand before the Great ...

Topic: At Table With The Saviour [Sunday April 16, 2017] Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Key Verse:   "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord"  (1 Corinthians 11:27). It is often the lot of man to turn God’s sacred practices to fads and fashion. Yet, God’s standards remain unalterable. The wise keeps to them and rejoices. The Lord’s Supper is a practical demonstration of the gospel, a vivid illustration of the death of Christ, for the sin of mankind. Through it, believers are reminded of the death of the Saviour and of the imminence and hope of His return. The celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the early Church also incorporated a love feast. This was a form of sharing and caring which preceded the actual celebration and in which all believers freely participated. Sadly, the Corinthian church soon lost this admirable tradition. It was replaced by wanton discrimination between the ...

Topic: Risen Forever [Saturday April 15, 2017] Text: John 20:1-10 Key Verse:  "Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him"   (John 20:2). Christ’s resurrection from the dead is a cardinal and fundamental teaching of the Christian faith. It is the hope of Christians that there is life after life. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19). Both death and grave could not hold Jesus Christ from resurrecting. Today’s text explains vividly the visit of Mary Magdalene and two other disciples to the sepulchre only to discover that the tomb was empty. Mary Magdalene, having found the stone taken away, went back to Peter and John saying, "they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him." The grave was emp...

Topic: Be Led By Him [Friday April 14, 2017] Text: Matthew 2:1-13 Key Verse:   "...Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him"  (Matthew 2:2). Coming to God and knowing Him fully is never by happenstance; it is often a product of pursuit and dogged follow through. The wise men had seen an intriguing sight. They came from another land, travelling over along distance until they got to Jerusalem. Probably to their amazement, they found the Jews completely oblivious of the arrival of their King, the Messiah they had been expecting for ages! Herod the king was disturbed at the news. He then sought to use the wise men to obtain information about the child. Neither the ignoble ignorance of the Jews nor the additional sacrifice, in traveling further to Bethlehem, discouraged the wise men from tracking the Star. They did not stop until they got to where the child – Jesus was. On sighting Him, they were overjoyed...

Topic: Rebellion Does Not Pay [Thursday April 13, 2017] Text: Ezekiel 17:11-24 Key Verse:  "But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?"   (Ezekiel 17:15). Change has taken a central place in global lexicon. This age is especially notorious or renown for change, whether for good or for evil. Man is wont to rebel against the order of the day and break the covenant of the Creator by the damning quest for change. Zedekiah’s rebellious action of sending ambassadors into Egypt to form an alliance with its king with the aim of obtaining help from him to break the Babylonian yoke spelt doom for him. How can one, guilty of a breach of covenant, and of perjury, escape the vengeance of God and man? Some children of God are impatient whenever they are in trouble. They are eager for immediate rescue. They can...

Topic: Folly Of Earthly Pleasures [Wednesday April 12, 2017] Text: Isaiah 5:11-17 Key Verse:  "And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands"   (Isaiah 5:12). Underneath every scramble for success and achievement in the things of this life is the quest for pleasure and easy life. The ultimate ambition of the average man is to so amass material goods that he can tell himself "...Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:19). There came a time when the Jews were working hard to gain worldly goods, to the detriment of their souls. They were prepared to perpetrate any kind of heinous acts to excel in their ventures. To them, the end justified the means. With sweet music from such delicate instruments as the harp, violin, tambourine and flute, the men and women would settle down to dance an...

Topic: Behold His Majesty [Tuesday April 11, 2017] Text: Psalm 19:1-6 Key Verse:  "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork"  (Psalm 19:1). God has not left anyone in doubt as to the revelation of Himself. The inspired writer invites us to look up at the vast sky and behold the mighty sun that adorns the day with its magnificent light, the beautiful moon and the innumerable stars that litter and glitter in the expansive night sky! The sun in the day, in its unalterable course and constancy utters undeniable words, assuring all that the almighty God sits in the heavenly Control Tower, engineering its motion. The moon and the stars that enter into their bedchambers during the day and show forth their light in the night from time immemorial can never be the handiwork of chance. How could things have been so ordered and so constant? "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard". When the sun, like a bridegroom, ...

Topic: True Repentance Required [Monday April 10, 2017] Text: Exodus 8:1-15 Key Verse:  "But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said"  (Exodus: 8:15). God is too just to overlook sin and take remorse for repentance. In His justice, He warns before bringing judgment. The only response He expects from man is repentance, which is total turning away from sin. In His judgment, He always shows mercy to whosoever is truly penitent. Pharaoh was warned to expect the epidemic of frogs if he refused to let Israel go and serve the Lord. On Pharaoh’s willful refusal, Moses and Aaron, with outstretched rod, performed the miracle of judgment. It was a plague of frogs that came from the streams, the rivers and the ponds throughout the land of Egypt. Frogs invaded the houses, the ovens, the kneading troughs of both the king and his subjects. Pharaoh’s magicians, in their folly, conjured more frogs with their enchantment...

Topic: A Beggar Hereafter? [Saturday April 8, 2017] Text: Luke 16:19-31 Key Verse:   "And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame"  (Luke 16:24). An old Scotsman, while dying, was asked what he thought of death, and he replied, "It matters little to me whether I live or die. If I die I will be with Jesus, and if I live, Jesus will be with me." Death is inevitable for everyone. Our soul is worth more than the whole world and everything in it. The text reveals the drastic reversal of the state of Lazarus and the rich man after death. Lazarus was a beggar on earth, while the rich man became a beggar in hell. In his lifetime, the rich man ostentatiously displayed his wealth with beautiful clothes and sumptuous feasts. Conversely, Lazarus was destitute and covered with sores; he had only dogs to lick his sores. After death, Lazarus was car...

Topic: Divine Counsel [Friday April 7, 2017] Text: Proverbs 19:21-29 Key Verse:   "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand"  (Proverbs 19:21). The May 2009 edition of Readers Digest shared a story of a couple who asked a pastor to perform their marriage ceremony. He proceeded to tell them that he used to give several sessions of premarital counseling before performing weddings and would want to do so for them. The couple replied, "We don’t need counseling. We’ve both been married several times before." Guess who needed counseling most! Someone said that the trouble with good advice is that it usually interferes with your plans. How true! We need the counsel of God because it is always dependable. You cannot do without His opinion in your life. The passage under study opens our eyes to the advantages that will come our way when we accept and exalt the counsel of God in every area of our life. It will influen...