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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Don’t let them put you in trouble | Pst. J.O. Lawal

fire in my bones
fire in my bones


Date: December 29, 2021 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 33

“See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Heb 12:15NIV)

One of the things to learn from the bible story of Achan is that the sin of one person can put an entire nation, community or family in trouble. Achan, as the account goes, was the one that sinned against God by stealing some of the items devoted to Him when Israel was taking over the city of Jericho. Yet when the judgment for his sin came, it was the whole nation that suffered for it. Interestingly, he was not even among the people that died when the nation fell before the city of Ai, showing that it is not every time that people cause trouble that they partake directly in suffering for it. (Cf. Joshua 7)

But could the defeat that the nation of Israel experienced on that occasion have been avoided? I believe it could have been avoided, if the people in the lives of that man, Achan, had been watchful enough. If his wife, children and other people with him had been paying attention to his movement and dealings and asking him relevant questions, they would, by the help of God, have been able to detect that he was up to no good and expose him. At least, as the account reveals, what he stole was kept inside his tent. When did he take it into his tent? How was he able to successfully hide it there, without anybody knowing or suspecting?

Of course, when people are filled with the desire to do evil, Satan will always help them come up with ingenious ways of carrying it out. But if there is someone who cares enough about them to keep an eye on them and on what they are doing with their lives, they may be prevented from doing things that will destroy them or put those in their lives in trouble.

Achan’s immediate family members suffered and died with him, not because they were partakers of his sin but because they were not watchful enough to know what he was doing and to expose it. Many today too are suffering for certain sins committed by some people in their lives because they were not watchful enough to discover their involvement in the dangerous things that eventually brought calamities on them and those in their lives. And if we too will not take watching what those in our lives are doing with their lives very seriously, so that we can hinder or prevent them from getting involved in what might get them or us in trouble, we will often find ourselves suffering for sins we have not committed.

All of this is why we are instructed in our opening bible text to see it that no one in our lives ignores or abuses the grace of God and get involved in things that will put them and us as well in trouble. Of course, this instruction is originally directed to churches of God to show them the kind of mutual attention they are to give towards watching one another, so that none of them ends up causing trouble for everyone. But it is something that individuals can also apply to their lives, marriages, homes, businesses and so forth. That way, they can prevent the people in their lives or around them from putting them in needless troubles.

So, keep your eyes open to see what is happening in the lives of the people in your life and around you. And stop acting as though what they were doing with their lives is not your concern or problem, for it may someday become your problem. I am not saying you should begin to unduly meddle in people’s affairs or that you should start suspecting every move the people in your life make. Rather, I am saying be alert and sensitive to observe anything in the lives of those in your life or around you that appears to be inconsistent with the righteousness of God or that looks like a trap to get them in trouble. That way, you can warn them, pray intelligently for them and also take necessary steps to protect them or to keep yourself from being a part of their problem.

May God’s wisdom to do this as occasions demand fill your heart continually, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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 Youth for Jesus

Remember where you came from | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: December 08, 2021 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 30

“Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.” (Deut 24:17-18NIV)

Among the things that are most difficult to manage in life is comfort. And that is because it can make one totally forget where he is coming from or what he has been through in life. To say the fact, God loves to do for people things that will make them forget their years of pains, miseries or sufferings. And that is to show them how powerful He is. For instance, when Joseph would name his firstborn child, he called him Manasseh, meaning God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household (Gen 41:51). That means God did for this young man things that made him look like someone that had never suffered in life.

In like manner, He is still doing for people today things that will turn their lives around and make them forget all their years of pains and sufferings. And why is He doing this? It is so that those He is lifting and comforting may also use their position of comfort and prosperity to help others who may be suffering or experiencing pains the way they used to.

Look at what Paul says about this: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2Cor 1:3-4NIV) Did you see that? Apart from the fact that God wants us to live in comfort in life, He also wants us to be instruments through which others will experience His comfort in life. That means we are not the only ones He has in mind when He leads us into comfort and prosperity; He has others around us in mind as well. And we will do well to keep this in mind, so that we do not allow our comfort and prosperity to make us blind to the sufferings of others around us.

Unfortunately, there are many today that comfort and prosperity have blinded already. These ones were lifted by God out of some sticky mud of misery and poverty and set on a solid rock of comfort and prosperity. And they were lifted up by Him like this so that they too could begin to do things that would lift some others out of their muds of misery, poverty or shame and set them on some solid ground of peace and prosperity. But instead of allowing themselves to be used by God in this way, they are yielding themselves to be used by the devil to add to the sorrow and pains of the afflicted ones around them.

You only need to look at the way some rich and influential people today treat their employees, neighbours or other people that are subject to them, and you would most likely conclude that they had never tasted suffering in life. But they have tasted it. In fact, if you hear the stories of what some of them experienced in their days of poverty, you would know that only God could have made them survive. Yet these same people, who have had their own fair share of oppression and affliction, now no longer see anything wrong in oppressing or afflicting others. Why? They have totally forgotten what it looks like to suffer. And if care is not taken, at some point, God may have to send them or their descendants back to where they came from, examples of which abound all around us.

At any rate, it is so that God wouldn’t have to treat us in that manner that He sends us the warnings that we have in our opening bible text. There He tells His people, the Israelites, to remember where they had come from in order to settle in that land of comfort and prosperity that He gave them. They had come from Egypt, that house of furnace, where they were shamefully and brutally treated for more than three hundred years. And now that they have rest and peace of mind from Him, if they are not careful, they also will not know when they will start treating the strangers and the poor and weak people among them just exactly the way the Egyptians treated them. Then, they would open the door for the wrath of God to come upon them.

In the same vein, if, in our days of comfort and prosperity, we do not continually remind ourselves what life once looked like for us, if we do not continually remind ourselves of how God set us free from the hands of certain powerful people that would have made an end of our lives or of all the pledges we made never to oppress anyone if God should deliver us, then, we too may end up becoming worse than our oppressors. Perhaps you have already become worse than those who once oppressed you, especially in the way you treat the people that are now under you. The word of the Lord is coming to you now in order that you may retrace your steps and repent before it is too late. Otherwise, God may change His mind about you and send you back to where He picked you up from or put an end to whatever plans He has to further lift you up or prosper you (Jer 18:9-10).

I pray that things won’t have to end like that for you. I pray that God will never have to send you or your family back into any place of suffering that He already rescued you from, so that you may learn afresh whatever you failed to learn before about how to treat people. But you too have to learn to do what is right and pleasing to Him with whatever measure of peace of mind or comfort He has given you in all your relationships with others. And may you be continually strengthened to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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 Youth for Jesus

Guard yourself against them | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: December 15, 2021 |Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 31

Guard yourself against them
Guard yourself against them

“Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.” (2Tim 4:14-15NIV)

God, as we see in Scriptures, is able to protect and safe His children from all kinds of wicked and unreasonable men. He is, in fact, able to protect them from all the traitors and saboteurs in their lives. But then, His children also must learn to be on their guard against individuals that have clearly revealed themselves as enemies or as having tendencies to become enemies. This is so that they will not foolishly walk into their traps or snares.

For example, in our opening bible text, Paul reminds his son in the faith, Timothy, of a man called Alexander and of how this man had shown himself to be his enemy. Why? It is so that Timothy will be on his guard against him. God, of course, is able to protect Timothy against all of this man’s wicked plans and works. However, it will be foolish of Timothy not to take whatever righteous measure that is in his power to take to protect himself against this man, seeing that God has already revealed him as his enemy.

See, we must understand that it is not everybody that their earthly life is meant to end the way our Lord’s earthly life ended. Our Lord surrendered Himself to be betrayed and killed because He knew that God was going to use His death and resurrection to save the world. So, even though He knew the traitor among His men and all that this traitor was doing to hand Him over to His enemies, He did not do anything to protect Himself against him. But since none of us has been chosen for that purpose, it will be unwise of us, then, to ignore any sign or revelation to us from God about what certain people may be planning to do to hurt us.

To say the fact, one of the ways God protects us against the wickedness of our enemies is by revealing who they really are, what they are capable of doing and what they are planning against us to us. Yes, of course, we will still need to function by His wisdom to make use of whatever information or knowledge He gives to us along this line. But we must surely make use of it. Otherwise, we may end us suffering or dying where He never intends us to die.

For example, there was a time that some Jews, more than forty men actually, bound themselves with an oath to kill Paul the apostle. And they told their religious leaders what to do in order to make this happen. But God, in His kindness, revealed their plot Paul’s nephew. And he came and told him about it. Interestingly, the night before those people hatched their wicked plan, the Lord had appeared to Paul in a vision and assured him that he would certainly testify about him in Rome. That means it was not His intention for this man to die at that time. Yet He did not say anything to him about what those wicked Jews were planning. Instead, it was his sister’s son that He used to reveal it to him. (Cf. Acts 23:1-16)

Now why did the Lord not reveal that matter to Paul in that vision? Though we are not told the reason in the bible, I personally believe it was because the soldiers holding him at that time would most likely not have believed him. And if they did not believe him, they would not do anything to protect him. But when his nephew came with details of the plans of those wicked men and shared everything with the commander of those soldiers, he believed the young man and immediately made adequate and effective plans for Paul to be protected and taken away from that region. (Cf. Acts 23:17-35)

What is the point of all this? It is that it is not every time that God will use His angels or some supernatural acts to warn or protect us from our enemies. There are times that it is people or circumstances that He will use to reveal our enemies and their plots against us to us. And when this is the case, He expects us to take whatever legitimate steps we can take to frustrate them or guard ourselves against them. That is what we learn from Paul’s case. Though he may have prayed to God to protect him against his Jewish enemies, he also took advantage of the fact that he was in a military camp to protect himself against them.

So, when God’s has revealed your enemies or what they are doing to you, don’t stop only at praying for protection against them; instead, also take whatever honest or legitimate steps you can take to guard yourself against them. And may you continually be filled with the right measure of wisdom and boldness to make the most of God’s revelation to you in protecting yourself and all that is yours and that you love against all forms of wickedness and evil. Amen.

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 Youth for Jesus

Wait for your time | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: December 01, 2021 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 29

“Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the LORD made this prophecy about him: ‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the LORD, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.’ Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the LORD.”” (2Kings 9:24-26NIV)

There is an adage in Yoruba, which when translated in English, says, “Until a child is holding the sword of judgment firmly in his hands, he wouldn’t be making certain enquiries about what was responsible for his father’s death.” And that is often the case in judging wickedness. Until someone has some measure of authority and power at his disposal, it does not matter how unhappy he is with the wickedness going on under his watch, he may not be able to effectively deal with it or judge it.

Now such was the case with Jehu, an Israel’s army general that was later anointed by God to be king in place of Joram, son of Ahab. As we see in our opening bible text, on the day that this man began to judge the wickedness of the house of Ahab, he reminded his chariot officer that both of them were with their master, Ahab, when the prophecy came that he and his family would certainly pay for the innocent blood of Naboth that they had shed. That indicates they too were not happy about the wickedness and bloodshed that characterised the reign of that man.

But could they do anything about the wickedness of his household at the time they were serving him? No! Why? It was because they did not have the authority or power to do so. And why did they not have the power or authority to do so? It was because it was not yet their time to have it.

However, the moment Jehu was ordained by God and also instructed by Him to make haste to judge the house of Ahab, he lost no time at all in doing so. Why? He knew that he had God’s authority and backing on this one and was bound to succeed. And he did succeed.

But then, you know that it was possible for some people who knew Jehu while he was still serving Ahab to have castigated him for not doing anything about his master’s wickedness or to even have associated him with his master’s wickedness. And that would be because they did not understand that even if someone is a lover of justice, there are things he cannot judge unless he has the authority and power to do so. And if he should dare to judge such things without having the power and authority to do so, he will most likely pay very dearly for it.

So, if you know any godly person that seems to be acting weak or docile in his position of authority, don’t be quick to judge them. That is because they may just be dealing with situations that they have no power, authority or wisdom to handle. And will God, then, be happy with you for condemning or judging them for something He has not given them abilities and opportunities to handle? I don’t think so.

Solomon says, “Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy. Even the king milks the land for his own profit!” (Eccl 5:8-9NLT) Did you see that? A lot of times, the number and ranks of those involved in making justice impossible in a place may just be too much to imagine. And without God’s backing, favour and authority, if you try to maintain justice in such a place, you may just end up perishing in a den of lions. (Cf. Dan 6)

Therefore, if you are passionate about maintain justice for God and man where you are, and you should be, if you are truly a child of God, then, be sure God has already delivered to you the authority, power and people to do so. Otherwise, wait for your time. Yes, wait until God bestows on you the authority and power to judge wickedness and maintain justice where you are, for that is only when you will succeed in doing so. And if you are wondering what you should be doing before that time, then, I will tell you this: First, be praying that God will hasten His handling of the authority and power that you need to judge wickedness and uphold justice to you. Second, continue to use your position now to promote whatever measure of righteousness it permits you to promote.

And may God strengthen you and make you alive, well and ready when the time comes for Him to use you to set right whatever is wrong in your world.

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)