The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” John 5:7 REFERENCE John 5:1-9 Painfully, this man had been ‘there’ for 38 years, yet he didn’t (and couldn’t) find ONE PERSON who paid enough attention to his situation to render him help. No surprise, this is simply because man is naturally selfish and largely driven by his own needs. Besides, it is unlikely that people help others when they are also in a helpless situation. The sick...
Now it came to pass…that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Ruth 1:1 REFERENCE Ruth 1:1-7 Tough and trying situations are not meant to destroy you but to create opportunities for your faith to shine forth; God expects you to go through and come out victorious. Elimelech and his wife Naomi may have started out in marriage with a pleasant experience and things working out for them. However, they encountered some tough times and they decided...
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him. I Samuel 3:7 REFERENCE I Samuel 3:1-9 Though Samuel had been ministering in the temple of God for some years, he still didn’t know the Lord. He read the scrolls, but it was just a closed book to him, and he never received a word from God through it or from it. It is possible to be serving in church and not know the God of the church. You can be so faithful and overburdened with church activities that...
And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. Isaiah 37:3 REFERENCE Isaiah 37:1-3 The picture here painted is that of a woman at the point of delivery, yet lacking the strength to give the ‘final push’; it is indeed a disheartening one. Sometimes in our everyday lives, we get to this point, the point where something or an idea we have been pregnant with for “9 months” (indicative of its full term)...
When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun! - II Corinthians 5:17 (TLB) REFERENCE II Corinthians 5:17 (TLB) Christianity is more than a religion; it is more than church attendance or membership. It is the very life of God lived out in man. Your salvation is more than just an escape route to heaven – it qualifies you for abundant life (John 10:10) and to reign in life through Jesus (Rom. 5:17). When you became ‘saved,’ you didn’t go from a lost worm...
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. Psalms 34:19 REFERENCE Psalms 34:17-22 Life comes with its ups and downs and its twists and turns, but there’s a God who in all things, works after the purpose of His will and works all things together for our good. Many are the BUTS (weaknesses, question marks, and misnomers in an otherwise good life) of the righteous, BUT the Lord delivers him out of them all. David who wrote this psalm didn’t write theoretically; he wrote from personal experience. At the time he wrote...
The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man! 2 Samuel 16:8 REFERENCE 2 Samuel 16:5-8 It is interesting how people can make conclusions about the reasons why a person may be going through a particular challenge. We become judges and interpreters of the seasons and events of people’s lives, when in actual sense, we have no clue...
When the LORD saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Luke 7:13 REFERENCE Luke 7:11-17 Jesus is our loving Savior who is touched by the things that cause pain and sorrow in our lives. As depicted in this story, He saw how crushed, hopeless and helpless this widow had become as a result of losing her only son – the only support she had as a widow. And so, He was moved with compassion to do something for her. Probably because of the magnitude of her loss, she had so many...
But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:20 REFERENCE James 2:18-24 Yesterday we concluded with the thought that FAITH has some corresponding actions that make it a dominant and conquering force otherwise it will remain inactive. When faith possesses a man’s heart, it manifests itself in different ‘actions of faith.’ Here are some of them: 1. Thinking in line with God’s Word – “As a man thinks so he is…” The woman with the issue of blood kept thinking in her heart (muttering to herself), ‘if I may touch the helm of His...
Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. I John 5:4 (MSG) REFERENCE I John 5:4 The natural law and system of this world often fails because the world is a fallen place. That is why we see a lot of hardship and evil in the world. As believers, we need to start moving from the natural to the supernatural. We need to operate a system or a law that is higher than the one that is prevalent around us and that system/law is FAITH. Faith...