Month: May 2021

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2021 Pastor's Desk

Judgment in the house of God | J.O. Lawal

Date: May 30, 2021 | Number: Vol. 10, No. 4

Beloved: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Welcome to another week of this year. I pray that your heart will continually be strengthened by the Spirit of God to remain true to the Lord and firmly established in His righteousness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As the Lord has clearly made known to me, one major thing that is hindering the spread and reign of the word of God in our land is the inconsistency of the lives of many so-called children of God with His righteousness. In other words, more people are not coming to the Lord Jesus for salvation because they cannot see the fruit of salvation in the lives of many of us who claim to have been saved by Him. How can we tell people to come to the Lord for liberty from Satan and their sins, when we ourselves are still obviously living as their slaves? Who is going to take us seriously?

See, it is not that people do not want to be saved from their sins, bad habits, destructive influences, sicknesses, generational curses, poverty and so forth; it is just that they want people whose lives will prove to them that they can actually be saved from these things. And God has saved us, recreated us, filled us with His Holy Spirit and planted us where we are to be such proofs to them. Unfortunately, many of us are even ignorant of His intentions and purposes for us. So, we frustrate them by living lives that are totally contrary to what we are made to live.

This, of course, is not foreign to the church. Even in the days of the apostles of old, similar things were happening among God’s people. There were also so-called believers at that time who would not stop stealing, fornicating, swindling people, keeping malice, living in greed, cheating their workers or practising sorcery. There were even murderers, hypocrites and drunkards in the church in those days. Therefore, none of the evil practices we see in the church and among God’s people today is new or peculiar to our time. (Cf. Rom 2:21-22; 1Cor 5; James 4:1-2&5:1-6)

However, the apostles of the Lord of old have also made it very clear to us through their writings that every so-called child of God who is involved in these things is not only blaspheming the name of the Lord Jesus and despising His grace but also destroying the work of salvation that He is doing in the world. Therefore, such an individual can certainly expect a revelation of God’s wrath against him (Rom 2:1-11; Heb 10:26-31). And this not something that will be delayed to the day of judgment. Rather, it is something that he will begin to witness right from this world.

All this is why Peter says to us, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God…” (1Peter 4:17NIV) Did you see that? This apostle is not speaking here about the judgment that is coming on the day of the Lord. Instead, he is speaking of an on-going judgment of God that is taking place right here in the world. And he is saying those in the church also will not escape this judgment. In fact, it will start with them and among them.

Therefore, if you are deliberately doing things that are contrary to the righteousness of God, know that you are a candidate for God’s judgment. And how exactly He will judge is not something anybody can say. But from what the Lord Jesus says to the church in Thyatira and what Paul says to the Corinthian brethren, we know that God may judge His people with sicknesses, weaknesses, labour loss or even death (1Cor 11:28-30; Rev 2:20-23). And if you have not experienced any of these things, even though it is obvious that you are living in sin, you need to understand that God is just giving you time to repent. But if you fail to repent within the amount of time He has given you, then you leave Him with no choice but to judge you in His righteousness. And how that will end for you is not what I can say. So, repent now and also tell your partners in sin to repent. Otherwise you may end up being crushed under the wrath of God.

Do have a great week.

Copyright © 2021, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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Fire in my Bones Relationship (Singles)

When primitive men are better | J.O. Lawal

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Date: May 26, 2021 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 2

“Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.” (Gen 4:19-22NIV)

We often refer to the first set of men and women that walked the face of this earth as primitive, and rightly so. They were crude, simple and unenlightened in many ways, according to the standards of today’s world. But these people were not stupid, dull or unintelligent. On the contrary, they were highly intelligent and sound.

For instance, as we are told in the bible, though Adam, the first man, walked around naked while he was still in the Garden of Eden, he was super intelligent enough to name all the animals in the world, as well as the birds of the air (Gen 2:19-20). So, you cannot measure the level of intelligence of someone or their ability to do big things in life merely on the basis of what they put on or where they live.

Another thing about the so-called primitive people was that they drove their minds to work in order to discover their various abilities and use them to make life better and easier for themselves. For example, in our opening bible text, we are shown how certain descendants of Cain, the first son of Adam, pioneered animal husbandry, music and blacksmithing. These were supposed to be primitive men. Yet they used their head. They recognised their skills and abilities and developed them. So, they laid the foundation for whatever good things we are seeing or enjoying today in those fields of life.

But remember that there was no well-established system of government at that time apart from the home. So, there was nobody to rely on to create jobs, build roads, provide housing estates, provide security or any of the things that we now rely on the various governments of our countries to provide for us. Everybody had to fend for themselves. Everybody had to examine themselves to see what skills or abilities they had and that they could develop and put to use to make life worth living for them.

Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said today of many of us who belong to this so-called modern world. That is because we hardly use our head. We hardly consider what abilities, skills or resources we have at our disposal that we could put to use to make life worth living for us and others around us. That is why we often rely too much on the government, certain support organisations and just anybody we find around to set the direction our lives will go for us and how much of life we will enjoy. And as long as we are functioning like this, we will never stop being small people, individuals who are hardly adding any value to the world they live in. That, of course, will make even the so-called primitive people better than us. That is because many of them added much value to the world they lived in.

Now I am sure you don’t want end up in life as a small person. You don’t want to end up as someone who, instead of adding value to the world he is in, is always relying on others to do for him what he can and should do for himself. So, wake your brain up and begin to put it to work. Yes, like the primitive people of old, drive your brain to begin to consider all the possibilities that you can actually explore in life with your gifts, education, skills and whatever measure of resources you have. Then, as you see these possibilities, put yourself to work, to work hard and smart. And who knows? You may just end up being the pioneer of something new the world has been waiting for. Even if you do not pioneer anything, as long as you are exercising your mind to put whatever abilities or education you have to wise and significant use, it is unlikely that you will end up in life as a small or useless person.

Copyright © 2021, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com  or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2021 Pastor's Desk

You will always have His protection By: J.O. Lawal

Pastor J.O. Lawal
Pastor J.O. Lawal


Date: May 23, 2021 | Number: Vol. 10, No. 3

Beloved: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Welcome to the last week of the month of May 2021. My prayer is that you will continue to be shielded by God from every form of evil, regardless of where it is coming from, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now I offered that prayer for you because it is in keeping with the word of God to us. And what does His word say? First, His word says, “If you make the Most High your dwelling — even the LORD, who is my refuge — then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Ps 91:9-12NIV) Did you see that? As long as we are living in God through Christ Jesus, no harm will befall us and no disaster will come near our dwelling places. Why? It is because He will see to it that we have His Holy angels all around us to protect us in all our ways.

But do you know that you have God’s angels all around you to protect you? The bible tells us that those of us who have come to God through Jesus Christ have come to an innumerable company of angels in a joyful assembly. Then it also tells us that all these angels are receiving instructions from God everyday to serve us. Can we see them with our natural eyes? No! But they are all around us, working hard to see to it that we are safe to experience a total fulfilment of the will of God in our lives. (Cf. Heb 1:14&12:22)

You can now see why the consistent position of the Scriptures is that disasters, terrors and oppression will be far from us (Is 54:14-15). And don’t miss the point being made here. It is not that bad thing will not want to happen to us. As long as we are in this world, Satan will always labour to see that bad things happen to us, whether we are God’s children or not. But because we are God’s children, we always have His protection through His mighty angels. And they will always see to it that regardless of what Satan does, the disasters he has plotted to bring upon us never come near us.

Remember what happened when the children of Israel just came out of Egypt. No sooner than they left that Pharoah gathered his army and pursued them. But the bible says, “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.” (Ex 14:19-20NIV) My! Think about that! The angel of the Lord that was watching the nation of Israel saw to it that the Egyptian army could not come close to them. And He made sure this was the case until the entire army of Egypt that was pursuing them perished in the Red Sea.

In like manner, there are angels appointed to watch over you too. And they will always see to it that regardless of how close or hard the disasters or calamities or plagues or sicknesses sent by the devil come towards you, they will never touch or harm you. So, get rid of all your fears and walk all the time with the consciousness that you have your own personal guards sent by God to keep you. Otherwise, through fear, you may use your own mouth to bring trouble on yourself (Prov 18:21).

Then you also need to be devoted to staying in the will of God and walking only on the basis of His righteousness and not yours. Otherwise, you may just expose yourself to satanic afflictions. Why did Jonah end up in the belly of a fish? It was because he disobeyed clear instructions from God. Why did Lot lose his wealth in one day? It was because he pitched his tents with people who were living contrary to the will of God? And why did God permit Job to experience all the terrible things he experienced at some point in his life? One of the reasons was to show him that he had been walking in self-righteousness all along, thinking that his good works qualified him to earn God’s protection.

So, if we don’t want to expose ourselves to disasters, we need to take all of God’s instructions very seriously and also rely on Him solely for our protection and not on our good works. As long as we are functioning like this, even if certain people’s misbehaviour, disobedience or evil schemes should bring some calamities or disasters our way, God will always ensure that His angels are there to preserve us by shutting the mouths of the lions that are sent to devour us. (Cf. Dan 6; Acts 27)

Do have a lovely week.