Category: FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2022

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace 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 January 2023. My prayer is that everything God has been saying to you will succeed in making you the person He wants you to be in this world and not work against you on the last day. Amen.

Once, while addressing the Jews, Jesus said the following to them: “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:47-48NIV) From what the Lord said to these people, it is clear that it is not a new thing for people to hear His words and not act on them. So, if you have been hearing the word of God and not acting on it, it should not surprise anybody.

In any case, the Lord says that He is not ready to judge anyone that hears His word and rejects it. And that is because His mission at this time is not to judge people but to save them. That, however, does not mean that those who reject Him will not be judged at all. They will be judged at the last day. And who will judge them? According to the Lord, it is the very word that they have rejected that will stand in judgment against them on that day.

Therefore, if the word of God is coming to you and you are refusing to take it seriously and act on it, know that this same word will testify against you someday. And this is not something that will happen only in heaven but also here on earth. For instance, Solomon, while addressing his sons about adultery, makes it abundantly clear to them that if they will not pay attention to him, a day will come when they will remember his words and condemn themselves.

Look at his actual words about this: “At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”” (Prov 5:11-14NIV) Now has something like this ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you began to condemn yourself for your own failure to act on the wise counsel you had received from your parents, church leaders or other good people in your life?

Well, I have been there. And trust me, it is not a nice experience at all. I am talking about a situation in which you know that you are the cause of your own trouble. That is because you can vividly remember all the words of warning and caution that you heard and that you failed to utilise. Then you begin to wish you had acted on them; you begin to wish you had not been stubborn. Yet you also know that the damage has already been done and that unless God shows you mercy, you will have to live and die with the mess you have made. And though you beat and condemn yourself at such a time, it will not change anything.

Now that is how the word of God judges people and how it will judge them on the last day. They will remember every truth they have heard and have failed to utilise. And they will know they have no excuse for failing God. They will know that they have no excuse for messing up their own lives or for choosing hell. But it will be too late to change anything then. It will be too late at that time to change the results they have gotten. So, they will have to live eternally with them.

But while we are still here in the world, there are things we can change. As long as we still have the breath of life in us, we can turn back from the path of disobedience to God and start listening to Him and taking His word seriously. That way, He can heal us, save us from the consequences of our past mistakes and set our lives right. Then we will not have to live forever regretting the wrong choices we have made. And my prayer is that you will take these words to heart and turn away from doing those things that will make the word of God stand against you someday in this world or on the day of the Lord. Amen.

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2023, 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@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am glad to welcome you to the last week of the year, year 2022. My prayer is that you will receive from God a perfection of all that concerns you in the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, as we come into the last days of this year, it is important you rid your life of all forms of bitterness, hatred, hostility and selfishness, so that you may fully experience the blessings of God that have been poured out upon us in Christ Jesus. Yes, it may be because of the things that you have suffered from the hands of people that you are now bitter, hateful, selfish and hostile to others. But if you can remember that you too were once hostile, hateful, bitter and selfish towards God and yet He forgave you, you should have no problem ridding yourself of these things as you relate to others in your life.

While speaking to the children of Israel about the need for them to always release their brothers, who had served under them as slaves, every seven years, God said this: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.” (Deut 15:15NIV) Did you see that? God wanted these people to always keep in mind where they came from and how they were brought to where they were. They too had been slaves before. And it was God’s mercy that set them free, not their power, might or wisdom. So, in dealing with their slaves, God wanted them to remember this so that they would not be harsh towards them or deny them their liberty at the set time.

Unfortunately, centuries later, when these people had been well established in their land, they became perhaps even more wicked in treating their slaves than the Egyptians had treated their forefathers. So wicked were they in treating them that they would not set them free at the times appointed by God. And even when the word of the Lord came to them from Jeremiah about this, they would not listen. On the contrary, those who had already freed their slaves among them went back to forcefully take them back in order to enslave them again. So, they brought God’s judgment on themselves. (Cf. Jer 34)

In like manner, many of us today often forget how kind and gracious God has been to us in saving us from our sins and also in lifting us up from our mud of shame and poverty. We often forget those days in which we were crying out to God to save us from our sufferings and how He answered us and saved us. So, we deal ruthlessly and mercilessly with those in our lives and those under our authority. And we harden our hearts not to forgive or show mercy to those who have offended us or hurt us. Yet we expect the grace and goodness of God to abound towards us. How can that be?

Well, the word of God is coming to us now and commanding us to remember how kind God has been to us and so let go of all forms of malice, hatred, bitterness and hostility towards those in our lives, regardless of how bad or unfaithful they may have been to us. And as we do this, especially as we come to the last days of this year, all God’s blessings that have refused to manifest in our lives will begin to find expression. Then the new year ahead of us will overflow with honey and milk for us in every way.

Merry Christmas

Copyright © 2022, 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@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great delight that I welcome you to another week of the month of December 2022. And with all my heart I pray that God will teach and strengthen your heart to always take Him seriously in every area of your life, so that whether you are faced with trials or not, you will always be able to find strength and wisdom for victory in Him. Amen.

Most times, when church leaders are admonishing God’s people to take Him very seriously in their lives and not be epileptic in their devotion to Him, they think they are being unnecessarily worrisome. But it is all for their good that they are being counselled in this manner. And it is only those who take this counsel seriously and act on it that will be able to find strength and wisdom for victory in God in the day of evil.

As Paul shows us in Ephesians 5, we are living in evil days. But it is not everyday that the evils of these days threaten our lives, our peace or our joy. And that is because of the goodness and mercy of God to us. He is the one who, in His goodness and mercy, has never permitted the devil to be free to mess up our lives or our world as he pleases. May His Holy name be praised forever.

However, sometimes, for various reasons, God allows the devil to confront us with some of the evils of these last days. That is when we begin to feel like we are the only ones facing challenges in life. And as Paul further says in his epistle to the Ephesians, it is only those who take God seriously and put on His armour that will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil in such evil days. Those who don’t take Him seriously, if not shown mercy, will end up being crushed by their challenges, running away from everyone in their lives, turning away from God Himself or taking their own lives. (Cf. Eph 6:11-18)

Why did King Saul end up visiting a witch and then taking his own life? It was because he would not take God seriously in the days of his prosperity and peace. All along, he had been living as though he could do without the God who put him on the throne of Israel. He even went as far as despising God’s prophets and killing His priests. But when a challenge that was bigger than what his brains and his army could handle showed up, he began to desire God’s attention. (Cf. 1Sam 13, 15, 19, 22 & 28)

Unfortunately for this man, God, at that time, no longer had anything to say to him. He had spoken to him severally before. But he would not listen. Not only that, he had the book of the Law of God with him but would not consult it. What, then, was he expecting God to say to him? Well, when he realised that God was not going to talk to him, he went to meet a witch and opened the door of his life for utter destruction.

In like manner, there are many so-called Christians today that think God is only for emergency purposes. They think they can go ahead and live their lives as they please and then come running to God for salvation in the day of trouble. It will never work. So, they also, like King Saul, may find that God has nothing else to say to them about how to come out of trouble. And unless they humble themselves and go back to acting on all that He has been saying to them, they will never be saved.

Now is that to say that God is not a merciful God? No! He is a merciful God. However, He also knows when His mercy will not change a man or keep him from ultimately destroying himself. And where that is the case, He may choose not to say anything to such a man. Look at what Isaiah says about this: “My soul yearns for you in the night in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD.” (Isa 26:9-10NIV)

Did you see that? Grace and mercy don’t always make people take God seriously. But challenges and judgment are always able to let them know that He is not someone anyone can take lightly. Why, then, should you, like Saul, wait until certain challenges come for you or you are faced with God’s judgment before you agree that God must be taken seriously? Why should you push yourself to that place where God’s grace will not work for you in the day of disaster?

Well, the word of God is coming to you now and telling you to learn to take God seriously every moment of your life. People like Joseph, David and Paul the apostle were never for once defeated by their challenges. Instead, they always walked in victory over them. And that was because they were not waiting for trials or judgment to come before they would take God seriously. They always took Him seriously, trials or no trials. And if you too are like them, it does not matter when evil shows up, you will always be ready to handle it and walk in victory over it by the power and wisdom of God, instead of losing your mind.

Do have a great week.

Copyright © 2022, 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@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)