Category: From Pastor’s Desk 2025

Sunday Exhortation form the pastor’s desk

From Pastor's Desk 2025 Pastor's Desk

Why Mary Magdalene?_J.0_Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date April 5, 2025
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Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 6). Why Mary Magdalene? From Pastor’s Desk, 12(49).

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the month of April 2025. My prayer is that God will make Himself known to you more adequately in the month, so that you can become more and more like the Lord Jesus in all ways. Amen.

One of the things that determine the extent to which God will make Himself known to us is our eagerness for Him. For example, the first person Jesus appeared to after His resurrection was Mary the Magdelene, not Peter, James, John or any of other apostles. Why? What made her so special that she was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection? At least, from what we see in the bible, this woman was not Jesus’s mother or sister. Also, she is not referred to as Jesus’ friend, as Lazarus and his sisters are referred to as His friends. On the contrary, she is described in the bible as the woman from whom Jesus drove out seven demons. (Cf. Luke 8:2; John 20:1-18)

So, Mary Magdalene was technically a witch before Jesus met her. Yes, she was a wicked woman before she met the Lord. Yet she was the first person that Jesus revealed Himself to after His resurrection. Why her?

Well, as we also see in the bible, it was because of her unusual eagerness for the Lord that He revealed Himself to her first. And how was that so? First, after her deliverance from her life of wickedness, she became one of the few people that supported Jesus most with their money and substance (Luke 8:1-3). Second, when Jesus was arrested and crucified, she was among the women that stood with Him to the very end, to the time He died and was laid in the tomb (Matt 27:55-61).

Third, this woman was among the women that went back to the tomb of Jesus on the day of His resurrection to take care of His dead body (Mark 16:1). Fourth, when they got to the tomb of Jesus and could not find His body there, it was only Mary Magdalene that would not leave the tomb. Others, including Peter and John, who had come to find out what had happened left. But she stayed there and continued to weep for the Lord because she thought some wicked people had come to steal His dead body. (Cf. John 20:1-18)

Now it was while she was weeping for the Lord in front of that tomb that He showed Himself to her. You can see, then, that it was because she was the most passionate about the Lord at that time that He revealed Himself to her first after His resurrection. That shows us that there is no favouritism with the Lord. If we are passionate about Him, He will make Himself known to us in ways He may not make Himself known to other people, irrespective of our age, sex, position, colour or history.

But then, let us not think that the Lord will automatically make Himself known to us because we bear bible names like Mary, Peter, James, John and so forth. If we are not passionate about Him as Mary Magdalene was, He will not reveal much about Himself to us. Let us be passionate about Him, then, if we want to know Him adequately. And we can show our passion for Him through our devotion to His word, prayer and Christian fellowship. My prayer is that our hearts will be daily strengthened to be seriously devoted to these things, so that we may get to know the Lord as we ought to know Him. Amen.

Have a lovely April 2025.

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From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025

Friendship with the world_Pst_J.O_Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date March 22, 2025
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Recommended Citation:

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 23). Friendship with the world. From Pastor’s Desk, 12(47).

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to another week of the month of March 2025. My prayer is that God will daily keep His love in your heart burning, so that you may remain true to Him to the end. Amen.

As we face this new week, I want to admonish you with the words of James that say, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4NIV) What point is James making here? It is that there is no way we can choose God as our friend and still be in love with the world. Once we choose the world as our friend, then, we have already chosen God as our enemy. And how that will hurt us is not something anybody can tell. But it will surely hurt us.

Now it is unfortunate that we have many so-called children of God who claim to love Him but who are still in love with the things of this world. They still want to talk and dress like those of the world. They still want to party like them. And they are still in love with their music and movies. How, then, can they truly say that they love God? Or how can they say that these things of the world that they are in love with are not hurting their relationship with God? It is only a liar that will say that.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that everything being done by those of this world is wrong. To say the fact, there are a lot of things being done by those of the world that are right and good for God’s people too and that God’s people can learn from. But there are also things that those of this world do to basically pollute themselves and others. And the child of God must identify such things and separate himself from them. Otherwise, regardless of how much he claims to love God, he will be polluted and turned into an enemy of God.

Remember Lot’s daughters. Even though they left Sodom as virgins in their bodies, they were actually not virgins in their minds. Why? The reason was that the things they saw and heard in Sodom corrupted their minds. In fact, it is possible that they had practised in their minds all the things they were seeing and hearing in Sodom before they left the place. Therefore, at some point, when they could no longer control themselves, they got their own father drunk and then slept with him. What a shame! (Cf. Gen 19)

In like manner, we may think that the things we are seeing and hearing through our friendship with the world are not hurting us. But we are only lying to ourselves. There is no way we will be in friendship with the world and its pollution will not enter our lives. And once it enters our lives, we too may one day do as Lot’s daughters did. We may do the unthinkable.

All of this is why the word of God warns us against friendship with the world. It can only make us enemies of God. And if we should become His enemies, what will become of our hope of His eternal kingdom? It may just slip out from our hands. I pray that the hope of God’s kingdom will never slip out of our hands. But we too should watch ourselves.

Have a great week.

Tags dont conform, friendship with the word, From Pastors Desk, religion, spirituality

From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025

Guard your heart_J.0._Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date March 15, 2025
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Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 16). Guard your heart. From Pastor’s Desk, Vol. 12, No. 46.

Beloved: Grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I am pleased to welcome you to another week of the month of March 2025. I pray that God will daily keep your heart from being messed up by the devil in any way, so that you will never take any step that will result in regrets for you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The bible says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Prov 4:23NIV) What does this mean? It means that one of the most important things you can do for yourself as a child of God is to guard your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. And why is this important? It is important because everything you do in life proceeds from your heart. If you, then, will not protect it well, Satan will fill it with all kinds of evil. And before you know what is happening, you will have found yourself doing what you never thought you could do.

For instance, did Judas Iscariot think that he could betray the Lord Jesus, when he first became one of His apostles? I don’t think so. Yet, because he would not guard his heart against greed, Satan succeeded in entering him and driving him to betray his Lord and Saviour. What a shame! (Cf. John 13:2&27)

What about David? When he was first ordained by God to be king over Israel, did he think that he could one day snatch another man’s wife and then kill the man? No! He loved God too much for that. Yet, because he did not guard his heart against lust, he ended up doing the unthinkable. He snatched Bathsheba from Uriah and also killed the man. (Cf. 2Sam 11)

Now if David, a man after God’s own heart, could act like that, simply because he would not guard his heart, don’t you think that we too can do similar or worse things? And if Judas Iscariot, a man privileged to live, eat and drink with Jesus, could betray Him because he would not guard his heart, don’t you think that we too can do similar or worse things?

Therefore, in the wisdom of God, He tells us to take the protection of our hearts against evil thoughts and desires very seriously. Otherwise, we may end up messing up our lives and faith in ways beyond what anyone can ever imagine. So, shut the door of your heart against those thoughts of bitterness, jealousy, hate or lust. And my prayer is that God will daily strengthen your heart by His Spirit to daily do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a pleasant week.

Tags alertness, From Pastors Desk, guard your heart, religion. spirituality, spiritual alertness

From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Be Careful and Prayerful_J.0.Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date March 8, 2025
No Comments on Be Careful and Prayerful_J.0.Lawal

Recommended Citation: Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 9). Be careful and prayerful. From Pastor’s Desk, 12(45).

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I am glad to welcome you to the second week of the month of March 2025. And I pray that God will keep you from falling into any trap set by the devil for your soul, so that you may stand blameless at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

As we begin this new week, I want to admonish you with these words of our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36NIV)

What are the main things the Lord wants us to note and take seriously, as we see in this bible text? The first is the need for us to be careful. Why do we need to be careful? The reason is that our enemy, Satan, will daily use all kinds of things to fight our souls in order to enslave us and make us forget that this earth is not our permanent home. And if we are not careful, we will have been lost to the anxieties of this life and to all kinds of ungodly things that will ruin our lives and souls before we know what is happening.

So, be careful. Be careful of where you go. Be careful of who you make friends with. Be careful of what you allow your eyes to see and what you allow your ears to hear. And be careful of what thoughts you permit in your mind. Otherwise, you may just lose yourself to the world and to the devil before you know it.

The second thing the Lord wants us to pay attention to, as we see in that bible text, is our devotion to prayer. There are, of course, all kinds of prayers. But the prayers He is talking about here have to do with the preservation of our souls in these last days. So, first, He tells us to pray that we will be able to escape all the terrible things, accidents, calamities, plagues, famines and so forth, that will be happening in the last days. Second, He tells us to pray that we will be able to stand before Him when He returns.

What is the point of all this, then? It is that none of us can escape the dangers and corruption of the last days, if we are not preserved by God Himself. Our boldness, determination and strong will are not enough to preserve us. God Himself has to preserve us. Otherwise, we will just wake up one day and realise that we too have become everything we have once preached against.

Therefore, apart from being careful in our daily walk in this life, we must also give ourselves to earnestly praying that God, in His mercy, will preserve our lives and souls from all the dangers and corruption of these last days. And if we will continually do this in faith, we will not be put to shame. Instead, we will be preserved pure and blameless when our Lord Jesus returns.

Do have a lovely week.

Tags be careful, be careful and prayerful. prayers, From Pastors Desk, religion, spirituality

From Pastor's Desk 2025 General Post

His Eyes Are Always On Them_J.O.Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date March 1, 2025
1 Comment on His Eyes Are Always On Them_J.O.Lawal

Recommended Citation: Lawal, J.O. (2025, March 2). His eyes are always on them. From Pastor’s Desk, 12(44).

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the third month of this year, the month of March 2025. My prayer is that God will beautify your life and home afresh in the month, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, as we begin this new month, I want to encourage you with these words from a Psalm of David:

“But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” (Ps 33:18-19NIV)

What do we see here? We see that God’s eyes are always on those who fear Him and who have put their hope in His unfailing love. In other words, He never takes His eyes off them, regardless of where they go or find themselves.

Why, then, are God’s eyes always on such people? First, it is so that He may deliver them from death. Remember that it was David that said these words. And he said them as a testimony of God’s goodness to him. God continually protected him from death, even though his enemy, King Saul, took all kinds of steps to kill him and prevent him from sitting on the throne of Israel. Eventually, it was his enemy that lost his life. But he went on to become the king that God had always wanted him to be.

In the same vein, if we too are living in the fear of God and have all our trust in Him, not in human beings or their schemes, we will always enjoy His protection from death and destruction. That means it does not matter what Satan does to destroy or kill us, he will not succeed. But we will go on to become on all that God wants us to be in life.

Second, God’s eyes are always on those who fear Him and whose hope are in His unfailing love in order to keep them alive in famine. That means it does not how bad the economy of a place becomes, God will always see to it that those who are living to honour Him and who have their eyes fixed on Him do not go hungry. In fact, as He made Isaac wealthy in a time of famine, He is able to make them wealthy too. (Cf. Gen 26)

In like manner, even though the economy of this country is poor at the moment, if we will continually live in the fear of God and put our hope in Him, He will see to it that we do not hungry. How will He do that? I cannot tell you. That is because I wouldn’t know unless He tells me. But I do know that if we will not throw our confidence in Him away, He will see to it that we do not lack any good thing, even though we are living in a time of famine.

So, maintain your faith in God, regardless of what is happening around you and regardless of what you have or do not have at the moment. Also, keep on living in His fear, even though everyone around you has given themselves to unrighteousness. And He will see to it that you are never put to shame.

Have a lovely March 2025.

Tags From Pastors Desk, johnsonlawal, religion, spirituality

From Pastor's Desk 2025 General Post

Show your love for Him – By J.0. Lawal

Post author By Pastor J.O. Lawal
Post date February 22, 2025
No Comments on Show your love for Him – By J.0. Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, February 23). Show your love for Him. From Pastor’s Desk, 12(43).

Beloved: grace, mercy, and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the last week of the month of February 2025. My prayer is that God will make available for you in the week every good thing your heart desires to have this month that you are yet to have. Amen.

Now, as we begin this new week, I want to encourage you with the following Scripture about Solomon and how he proved himself worthy of God’s favour:

“Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.” (1Kings 3:3-4NIV)

How did Solomon show his love for God, as we see in this bible text? First, he showed it by walking according to the godly instructions given to him by his father. In other words, he was living according to the will of God. Second, he showed his love for God by giving to Him. He gave Him a thousand burnt offerings in one day. And there is no record in the bible that anyone had proved his love for God in this manner before.

Well, because Solomon took his love for God beyond words of mouth by living according to His will and also by being generous to Him, God also appeared to him in a dream to reward him. God asked him to ask for anything that he wanted Him to do for him. That, of course, was how he became the wisest and richest man of all the people of his time. (Cf. 1Kings 3:5:15; 2Chro 1:1-12)

What is this teaching us? It is that it is not enough for us to be telling God that we love Him or telling people that we love God; we also need to daily prove our love for Him. And how do we prove our love for Him? First, it is by living according to His will. No one who will not live according to the will of God should say, “I love for God.” That will be nothing but a lie. If you truly love Him, then, you will not only be devoted to finding out what He wants but will also be doing what He wants.

The second way to prove that we love God is by being generous to Him. Can we truly say that we love someone that we are not generous to? No! If we love people, we will be generous to them. We will want to give them anything that is within our ability to make them happy. In fact, sometimes, because of our love for some people, we may even go beyond our ability in giving to them. And if we truly love God too, there are times we will go beyond our ability in giving to Him.

A woman once proved her love for Jesus by pouring a jar of some very expensive perfume on His head. Those who saw this, of course, were very angry with her. Why? They thought the perfume she poured on Jesus’ head was too expensive to be wasted like that. But Jesus said told them immediately that what she did was not a waste at all. On the contrary, what she did was done to show her love for Him. Then what she did, according to the Lord, was also done to prepare His body for His burial, even though she had not known this herself before that time. That means it was actually the Spirit of God that led her to do what she did. And the reward was that her name would be mentioned wherever the gospel of the Lord is preached. (Cf. Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:1-9; John 12:1-8)

So, we can even say that one of the ways to know how yielded we are to the Spirit of God is through our generosity to God. How generous are you, then, to Him? How generous are you to His servants? Then how devoted are you to living your life to please Him? These are the things that will let us know whether you truly love Him or not. My prayer is that what you call love for God will always prove to be genuine and not counterfeit, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a pleasant week.

Tags From Pastors Desk, religion, spirituality