Tag: counsel

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

Title: Misplaced priorities

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: From Pastor’s DeskNumber: Vol. 14, No. 13

Beloved: grace and mercy be multiplied to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I am delighted to welcome you to the last week of the month of July 2025. I pray that God will daily keep your heart fixed on those things that truly matter in life, so that you will not waste your life on irrelevancies. Amen.

As we see in the bible, it is possible for us to get ourselves occupied with the wrong thing and still think we are doing so for the Lord. That may be because we do not know how to handle things in the order of their importance or urgency. And where that is the case, we may find ourselves losing things that could change our lives forever while running after things that could only give us temporary satisfaction.

For instance, the bible tells something that happened when Jesus visited the house of Mary and Martha one day. Look at how it is reported by Luke in his gospel:”As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42NIV)

What is this account showing us? It is showing us something about misplaced priorities. And who misplaced her priorities in the account? It was Martha. How? Did she do anything bad by working hard to entertain Jesus and His disciples on that occasion? No! But she should first of all have taken out time to speak with the Lord and to also listen to Him. This would have helped her in knowing the right way and time to entertain Him.Some of us too often make the same mistake when people visit us.

We want to be in a hurry to entertain them without first spending time to converse with them and learn their real reason for visiting us. And we may end up not settling down to have any serious discussion with them till they leave, just because we want to entertain them. That is not how to build a good and meaningful relationship.Well, while Martha was busy trying to entertain Jesus, her sister, Mary, sat down to learn from Him.

That, of course, offended her so much that she could not hide it. Therefore, she came to the Lord to tell Him to rebuke Mary for not knowing her priorities and to send her to assist her in preparing what they would use in entertaining Him and His disciples.But instead for the Lord to do what she wanted, He simply told her that she was actually the one that had misplaced her priorities.

In other words, she too should have sat down like her sister to learn from Him. Then she would have gained better knowledge on how to entertain Him and be praised. And that knowledge would have stayed with her for life. But she missed her opportunity to learn and become a better person that day. What a shame!In any case, the point of this is that we must never allow any good thing we are doing for God to hinder us from giving adequate attention to Him, His word and prayer.

Otherwise, we will not know Him and how to serve Him better. And that may even make us lose the rewards of the so-called good things we think we are doing for Him.So, let us always get our priorities right, as children of God. Our relationship with Him must always come before our service to Him. And may our hearts be duly strengthened never to forget this. Amen.Have a splendid week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: When you are not fit to judge

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No.11

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” (1Cor 4:5NIV)

What is Paul speaking to us about here? He is speaking to us about situations in which we are not fit to judge others. What he says here, of course, can be mistaken as meaning that we cannot and must not judge others at all. And if we should mistake it like that, then, we will be giving evil enough room to strengthen itself against us and destroy us.

But Paul is not saying that we cannot and must not judge others at all. Instead, he is simply telling us to understand that there are situations in which we are not fit to judge what others are doing or what is going on in their lives.

In fact, what he says here is similar to what the Lord Jesus say to us through the gospel of Matthew, which reads:“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:1-5NIV)

Is the Lord telling us not to judge people at all here? No! Rather, He is giving us an example of a situation in which we are not fit to judge others. What is that situation? It is one in which we are guilty of the same offence as others or of worse offence than them.

And where that is the case, He is telling us that we are not morally fit to judge them. So, we should first take care of the evil in our lives before pointing accusing fingers at others. Nevertheless, if God has already judged something in His word as wrong or evil, we must judge people accordingly.

So, if you are doing something wrong and somebody condemns you for it, don’t say, “Jesus says, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged.’” And do not say, “What right do you have to judge me, seeing that you too are doing something worse.” Just repent. Otherwise, sudden destruction may come upon you while you are arguing with the truth.

Well, Paul’s point to us in our opening text is that it is not in every situation that we are fit to judge what is going on in people’s lives or what they are doing, however close we may be to them. And that is because it is not everytime we have enough light or information to judge others correctly. We may know what they have done or what they have not done. But we may never know why. We may also never know what they have done in secret or not done in secret.

If we, then, judge them only on the basis of what we know, without considering their motives and secrets and the fact that we may not know enough about the matter at hand, we can miss it big.That is why we are admonished by Paul to wait until the one that knows everything about everyone comes to judge. Then He will judge everybody and their works, motives and secrets. That, of course, is when we all will know who has done well and who has done better. But until then, we wait.

Now remember that Job’s friends made the mistake of judging him before God showed up. They judged him as wicked, proud and unrepentant. And that was because they thought that they knew enough about him. But God knew the man differently. So, when He showed up on the scene to judge, it was not Job that needed sin sacrifices and prayers for forgiveness; rather, it was his friends. (Cf. Job 4-42)

In like manner, if God should open our eyes, we may be extremely surprised at the number of people we will need to go and meet for prayers of forgiveness because we judged them wrongly. And only God knows in what ways this is hurting and limiting our lives. So, henceforth, don’t be in a hurry to judge anybody in matters that God has not clearly judged.

Instead, first check if you do really know enough to judge their matter. Otherwise, wait for the judge of all to come and do His job. That will be your wisdom.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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

Title: Wealthy in a time of famine

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 12

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you 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 July 2025.

My prayer is that God will open your eyes in the week and throughout the remaining part of the year to see all His provisions for you to live in sufficiency, in spite of the famine of all kinds of good things that our country is witnessing at the moment. Amen.

The bible says, “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)

Who are those that God’s eyes are continually on? It is those who fear Him and who have put their hope in His unfailing love. So, if you fear God and have your hope in Him, His eyes will continually be with you wherever you go and irrespective of the circumstances of your life.

Now why will God continually have His eyes on you in this manner? As David shows us in those texts of his psalm, the first reason is to deliver you from death. And is that not a beautiful thing? It is. So, don’t be afraid of death, even hidden death. It will not be your portion. That is because God will continually deliver you from it.The second reason God will continually watch over you is that He may keep you alive during famine.

That means regardless of how bad the economy of the land may be, God will see to it that you and your household are sustained. How will He do that? That is beyond what anyone can tell. But since His word tells us that He will do it, we can be assured that He will do so. All we need is to act on whatever He tells us to do.

For example, there was a very severe famine during Isaac’s time. It was so severe that the man wanted to relocate to Egypt. But God told him not to do so. Why? The reason was that His provisions for him to prosper were not in Egypt at the time. They were in the land he was living in. If he, then, had gone to Egypt, his hopes would have been dashed. (Cf. Gen 26)

Thankfully, Isaac obeyed God and stayed where he was. And because he obeyed Him, He opened his eyes to go into farming. That, of course, was how he became wealthy in a time of famine.

In like manner, God can make us too wealthy in a time of famine or hardship. We just need to put our trust in Him and act on whatever He tells us about His provisions for us. And my prayer is that our ears will not be deaf to whatever He is saying to us about His provisions for our prosperity. That way, we too, like Isaac, can become wealthy in this period of national famine and be a blessing to others around us.

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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

Title: Impossible to please Him

Series: From Pastor’s Desk
Number: Vol. 14, No. 11

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of July 2025. My prayer is that God will daily equip you with everything you need to please Him in all ways. Amen.

As we are told in the bible, it is only through faith that we can please God. But why do we need to please God? The reason is that He is the creator, owner and judge of our lives. If there is anyone, then, that we need to please, it is God. And if we are not pleasing Him, we are defeating His purpose for creating us. So, all we can expect is eternal condemnation.

But then, as I already pointed out, it is only through faith in God that we can please Him. Look at what the bible says about that: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6NIV)

Now observe that the bible does not say, “Without faith it is difficult to please God.” That will mean that even if you do not have faith in God, you may still be able to please Him, if you try hard enough. But that is not what the bible says. What it says is that without faith it is not at all possible to please God.What, then, is faith in God?

First, it means taking God seriously. It means to accept whatever God says to us about Himself, about us and about life generally as the truth that we must act upon. And anyone who is not living on this basis cannot please God at all, regardless of how good he may appear to others. He is just doing his own thing.

Second, faith in God means to rely on Him absolutely. And why do we need to rely on Him absolutely? It is because He is the source of every good thing we need to be all that we have been created to be in life. To have faith in Him, then, means to live with a recognition of the fact that we cannot do anything we need to do or have anything we need to have in life without Him.

Anyone, then, who is not living on this basis is not pleasing God, regardless of how beautiful his life may appear to be. The person is just doing his own thing.Now if someone becomes as successful as anybody can be in this world and is not pleasing God, what has he really accomplished? Nothing! Why is that so? It is so because it is only those who live to please God that will forever live with Him in His eternal kingdom.

Those who do not live to please Him, who are simply doing their own thing, can only end up in hell, away from Him forever.If we, then, do not want that to be our experience, we must take our faith in God seriously.

We must take whatever He tells us seriously. And we must rely on Him only for everything we need in life. That was how our Lord Jesus lived when He was here on earth. He took God seriously by always doing only those things that pleased Him (John 8:29). He also relied on Him for everything He needed to succeed in life (John 5:19). And when His time was done here, He was received by the Father to sit at His right hand.

May we also be received by Him to occupy the places He has prepared for us in His eternal kingdom when our time here is done, as we live as Jesus lived, by faith in God. Amen.

Have a lovely week.

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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Wasted on an empty head

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 8

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful face on an empty head.” (Proverbs 11:22MSG)

Those are Solomon’s words to us. And he does not say them to discredit beauty. Beauty is good! Beauty is a gift from God. So, we ought to appreciate it in anyone who has been endowed with it.However, beauty alone is not enough to attain greatness in life.

Yes, beauty may open certain doors of greatness for you. But if you lack God’s favour, good sense, character and adequate measure of education and skills, those doors of greatness may just be wasted.Look at Esther of bible days, for example. Her beauty made room for her among those being considered as queen for King Xerxes. But she needed more than her beauty to become queen. She also needed God’s favour, wisdom and character.

Thankfully, she had them all. (Cf. Esther 2)As we see in the account, the moment the king’s Eunuch in charge of the harem saw her, he just loved her and began to treat her differently from all the other girls that were brought to him. That’s favour. Then when it was her time to go to the king, she did not request for anything else apart from what that man had told her to take along. So, she ended up becoming queen. That’s wisdom. (Cf. Esther 2:8-16)

Moreover, after she had become queen, she continued to listen to the counsel of her uncle, Mordecai, the man who had raised her like his own daughter. So, she continued to thrive and prosper. That’s character. (Cf: Esther 2:20)You can see, then, that you need more than beauty to thrive and prosper in life. Otherwise, you will be wasting the good opportunities to shine that God may be using your beauty to bring to you.

And where that is the case, the words of Solomon that say, “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful face on an empty head,” will be true concerning you. In other words, beauty will have been wasted on you, wasted on an empty head.Now you may know one or two people that what we are talking about is true concerning them.

Beauty has been wasted on them, for they lack the qualities needed to make it shine. And is that what you too want? Do you really want people to be saying that God has wasted beauty on you? Well, that is what they will most likely be saying, if all you have got apart from your beauty is an empty head. And this is not applicable to beauty alone; it is also applicable to other natural advantages or gifts you have received from God.

If all you have apart from these natural advantages or gifts is an empty head, you will surely be making a waste of God’s gifts.All this is why you should learn to pray that God will daily equip you with everything you need to make whatever natural endowments He has blessed you with worth it in life. Then you must not be lazy. Instead, you must drive yourself to daily take advantage of every opportunity you have to train and develop yourself to be fit for greatness in life.

That way, as God is using your natural endowments to open doors of favour for you, you will not be using your hands to shut them, simply because you have got nothing else apart from an empty head.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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

Title: If you think you are standing firm

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 10

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be abundantly multiplied to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour. I am glad to welcome you to another week of the month of July 2025. My prayer is that God will keep you from falling into any trap set by the devil to ruin your soul. Amen.

Now is God really able to keep us from falling into traps set by the devil to destroy our lives and souls? Yes, He is! The bible says this about Him: “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25NIV)

Did you see that? God has the ability to keep us from falling. Not only that, He has the ability to present us to Himself without fault and with great joy. And to say the fact, if He does not keep us from falling, we will surely fall and not make it into His eternal kingdom. Also, if He does not present us to Himself without fault and with joy, we will not be able to stand before the Lord Jesus when He appears in His glory.

Therefore, we must learn to entrust ourselves to Him in prayer, daily asking Him to use His power to keep us from falling or failing Him in this world. Then we must never assume that we cannot fall because we are praying, studying Scriptures, giving and living righteous lives at the moment. That is because it is when we feel most secure in our walk of faith that we are most vulnerable to satanic attacks.

Remember that even though Jesus prayed and went without food for forty days and forty nights, Satan still came to tempt Him. And if He had not been full of the word of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit, He would have fallen and failed God.

So, regardless of how upright your life may appear to be now, always remember this Scripture: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1Cor 10:12NIV)When must we be careful not to fall? It is when we think we are standing firm. The person that knows that he is not standing firm where he is does not need anybody to tell him to be careful not to fall. He knows that if he is not careful, he will surely fall.

But the one that sees himself as secure where he is may not see any reason to be careful not to fall. That is why his fall may be too sudden for him to notice. Then there may be no remedy for him.

When did Moses miss it? It was when it looked like he already knew everything about God and could never offend Him. And when did David miss it? It was when his kingdom had been firmly secured in his hands. So, the time we need to be most careful not to fall into Satan’s traps is when everything is going on well for us in our walk with God and in our lives. And if we fail to realise this and act accordingly, the price we will pay for our arrogance may too much for us to bear. (Cf. Num 20; 2Sam 11)

All of this is why we must trust God completely to keep us from falling or failing Him, instead of assuming that we will be safe because we are devoted to prayer, the word of God, righteous living and giving.

Our trust must never be in any good thing we are doing to please God. Rather, it must always be in God Himself. Otherwise, if we are not shown mercy, we will fall where we never think we can. I pray that none of us will fall away from the place of God’s grace for us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Responding to threats

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 6

“But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.” (Nehemiah 4:7-9NIV)

Why were Sanballat and his associates angry that the Jews of their time were making progress in repairing the walls of Jerusalem? They were angry because they would no longer be able to profit from the miseries of those Jews as they used to. And there are still people like Sanballat and his associates today, people who never want others to be free from oppression or poverty because they are profiting from it. Now when such people begin to see you making progress or doing things that will hinder them from profiting from your misery or misfortune, they will not be happy.

Besides, they may even begin to take steps to keep you where you are, where they can continue to profit from your sorrow and pain. And that was the case with Sanballat and his associates. Not only were they not happy with Nehemiah and the Jews because they were making progress in building the walls of Jerusalem and ending all the forms of harassment they had been experiencing, they also began to take steps towards causing them trouble.

How, then, did Nehemiah and the other leaders of the Jews respond to the threat of these people? They responded to it in two ways. First, they prayed to God about it. In other words, they asked God to pay attention to what their enemies were saying and planning against them, so that He may frustrate them.

Why? It was because they knew that unless God kept them safe from the threats and wicked plots of these wicked people, they would not be able to keep themselves safe from them.In like manner, when we are being threatened or harassed, we must learn to pray to God and not ignore what Satan is using people to do against us. Nehemiah and his people did not ignore Sanballat and his men.

Otherwise, they would have been caught by surprise and frustrated or destroyed. And if we too don’t want those threatening us to catch us unguarded, we had better never ignore their threats, however feeble they may seem.

Instead, we should pray to God about them, so that we may always have His protection from their evil thoughts and schemes. Otherwise, we may end up feeling sorry for ourselves when these enemies are through with us.The second thing Nehemiah and his people did was to keep watch on the activities of their enemies, day and night.

Why? It was so that they would be regularly updated on what they were doing and be able to prepare themselves for it. And that was a manifestation of wisdom on their part.See, it is not everything needed for our safety that God will do for us.

There are things He will not do to keep us safe because He knows that He has given us the wisdom, strength and resources to do them. And if we fail to do these things for ourselves, we will not be able to blame Him for not keeping us safe.Keeping an eye on what Sanballat and his associates were doing was something that Nehemiah and his men could do. And they did not expect God to do it for them. Instead, they did it themselves. And it paid off, for it made their enemies see that they were not stupid people that they could easily attack and frustrate.

In like manner, keeping an eye on what anyone threatening or harassing you is up to will let them know that you are not stupid but sharp and attentive.

In fact, it will make them think twice before they take any step against you. And since keeping an eye on them is something you can do, do it, instead of waiting for God to do it for you.

Otherwise, you may ignorantly or foolishly take steps that will make you fall into their traps.Who, then, are you going to blame, if that should happen? Yourself!

So, learn and embrace the wisdom of God to keep yourself safe from all kinds of threats. And may God’s loving eye continually watch over your life. Amen.

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

Title: A ready faith

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 6.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the second week of the month of June 2025. And I pray that your heart will always be made ready to receive from God whatever good thing He wants you to have. Amen.

As we see in the bible, no one can receive anything good in this life, if God has not provided that thing. That means we can only receive what God has given or provided. If He, then, has not provided something, no one, regardless of how great his faith may be, can receive it. (Cf. John 3:27)

But then, even if God has provided something for us, we too must want to have it. Otherwise, that thing may never be ours, unless we are shown mercy. For example, as we see in the bible, the family of Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless for many years, even though they were righteous before God. That, of course, did not make them turn to some other gods for help. Instead, they kept on praying to God to show them mercy and take away their disgrace. (Cf. Luke 1:5-7)

Now how did I know that they were praying to God to take away the shame of barrenness from their home? I know because, as we also see in the bible, when God sent angel Gabriel to give the good news of His answer to their prayer to them, the first thing he told Zechariah was, “Your prayer has been heard.” So, if we will not faint in praying to God, we will surely receive an answer to our prayer, as long as it is in line with His will. Yes, the answer may take a while to get to us. But it will surely come. (Cf. Luke 1:13)

However, will God’s answers to our prayers always meet us ready? Are we going to be ready to receive from Him what He wants us to have, which we too may have been praying and longing for, when the thing is eventually brought to us? Zechariah was not ready to receive from God the child he had been praying for years for, when God eventually cleared the way for the child to come to his family. He could not believe that God was really going to give them a child in their old age. (Cf. Luke 1:11-20)

Why, then, was he praying to God all those years for a child? He was probably doing so to fulfil all righteousness. And if God had not been merciful to him, in spite of his unbelief, he would have been the reason his wife would remain childless for life.

So, it is not enough to be praying to God to give us something. Our hearts also must always be ready to receive from Him what we are praying for, regardless of how long it takes for the answer to come to us and regardless of how impossible it may seem for the answer to come to us. Otherwise, our prayer for that thing may end up being a waste.Not only that, we must continually give ourselves to the word of God, so that our faith will be strengthened to always be ready to receive from Him.

Mary the mother Jesus, for instance, never prayed to God to become the mother of the saviour of the world. She probably never considered nor took to seriously the Scripture that talks about a virgin that would conceive and give birth to the saviour. But when angel Gabriel came to tell her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of the saviour, her faith was ready to accept what God had chosen her for. So, she said, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” And it was so. (Cf. Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:36)

In like manner, if our faith is always ready to receive from God, whatever He wants us to have will be ours, even if we have never prayed for it. So, let us learn to daily feed ourselves with His word, so that we may always have a ready faith to receive from Him. And may you and I be strengthened to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

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

Title: Slow to learn

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 5

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 the sixth month of this year, the month of June 2025. I pray that God will strengthen you every day of the month to make the most of His grace in growing to be all that He wants you to be. Amen.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer tells us that it is possible for our spiritual growth to be arrested. And one of the things that can make that happen is an unwillingness on our part to make effort towards learning the truth of God, understanding it and also applying it to our lives.

Look at how he puts this:“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Heb 5:11-12NIV)

Did you see that? This man of God had a lot of things to share with the brethren who first received this letter about the life of faith in Christ Jesus. But it was hard for him to do so. Why? The reason, according to him, was that they were slow to learn. That, of course, does not mean that they did not have the capacity to learn and understand what they were being taught. Rather, it means that they were lazy about learning. In other words, they were not making any serious effort to understand and begin to put to work the things they were learning.

Therefore, as the man of God goes on to say in the bible text, when these people ought to be teachers already, when they ought to be taking responsibility for other new believers, they themselves still needed someone to be teaching them all over again the basic truths of God’s word. When they ought to be spiritual adults that could be entrusted with spiritual babies, they still wanted themselves to be treated as babies. Now think of how frustrating that must have been for this man of God and other leaders of these brethren. Yes, think of the kind of discouragement it must have brought to their hearts.

Unfortunately, even today, we still have many of God’s people that are lazy to learn spiritual truths and apply them. These ones are making their leaders in the church to teach the same things again and again. They are making them to correct them again and again about the way they are living their lives in bitterness, in hatred, in selfishness, in lust, in pride, in greed, in jealousy and in lack of zeal for God. Therefore, they are slowing down the ministry of their leaders and of their Christian assemblies, making it difficult for them to reach and bless more people for the Lord.

What, then, are church leaders to do to such people? How do leaders deal with those who are frustrating their effort in raising them in the will of God? Well, as the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us, at some point, they will have to stop treating these spiritually lazy believers as babies. Yes, they will have to start teaching them the things they do not want to learn and also stop treating them as spiritual babies, making them to do for themselves those things that they are reluctant to do. (Cf. Heb 6:1-3)

Now will that make such believers happy? No! In fact, it may make some of them stop coming for church meetings altogether. But whether it makes them happy or not, what has to be done has to be done for them to stop hindering the growth of their assemblies. So, if you have been a child of God for two years or more and have still refused to grow in your faith and become someone that your church leader can trust with responsibilities, you are slow to learn and spiritually lazy. And if you continue to be like that, slowing down your church leaders, they may soon begin to withdraw the attention they are giving you, so that you can stop being a spiritual baby. That, of course, will not be something pleasant for you.

So, wake up before it is too late and begin to pray to God to supply you with adequate zeal and strength to start making the most of His grace to grow spiritually. Otherwise, it will not be long at all before those who become born again after you become your teachers in the Lord.

Have a lovely June 2025.

Categories
Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Our attitude means a lot

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 3

“But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”” (Judg 7:4-7NIV)

Who told Gideon that the men with him were too many? It was God. But how many were these men that God referred to as ‘too many’? They were just ten thousand. And these ten thousand men were supposed to go with Gideon in fighting the armies of the Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern people of the time, armies that the bible describes as ‘impossible to count’. Yet the Lord said of these ten thousand men, “There are still too many men.” (Cf. Judg 6:5)

Now that must have sounded ridiculous to Gideon. That was because, as we see in the account, he had just sent twenty-two thousand men home because God had said that he should do so. But God did not ask him to send those men home for no reason. He asked him to send them home because they were already trembling with fear. In fact, they themselves were willing to go home. So, they really could not have contributed much to the success of Gideon’s army, even if they had stayed. On the contrary, they would have been liabilities to him, making him to feed them for contributing nothing. (Cf. Judg 7:1-3)

But then, when this man was about getting ready to go to battle with the ten thousand men left with him, as ridiculous as doing so seemed, God spoke up again and said that the men with him were still too many. “What? God, are you really serious about this?” he must have said to himself. And God was indeed serious this time too. He was not telling him that the men with him were still too many just for the fun of it. He was telling him so because those men were actually too many for the job to be done. That means there were many among them that would add nothing to the success of his army – they were just numbers.

Well, to prove to Gideon that the ten thousand men with him were too many for the battle ahead of him, God told him to subject them to a test of attitude. Sadly, only three hundred of these men passed that test. Others failed. Why did they fail? They failed because they had no attitude or culture of vigilance.

As we see in our opening bible text, what God used in judging the fitness and readiness of these men of Gideon for battle was the way they drank water. Three hundred of them drank water with vigilance, with the consciousness that they were at the battle front and should be ready all the time for the attack of their enemies. But the remaining nine thousand and seven hundred men settled down at the stream to drink water as though nothing was at stake. So, God rejected them and asked Gideon to send them home. And he obeyed.

Now did this man of God regret sending those people home? No, he did not regret it at all. Instead, he went on to overcome all his enemies with the three hundred vigilant and serious-minded men with him. That, of course, means that he did not need more than those three hundred men for success in that battle. Any additional person to their number, then, would have been nothing but a liability, excess luggage.What is the point of all this, in any case? The first is that our trust must always be in God and not in number or population. Number can fail us. But God can never fail us.

Also, it is not every time that more people will equal more success. So, for every project we are handling, we should be certain that it is only those that will contribute immensely to its success that we bring in. Otherwise, we may find ourselves spending much more than necessary in accomplishing our desired results.

The second lesson from the account is that our attitude towards the things of life means a lot to God. The way we sit, stand, walk, sleep, eat, drink, talk, listen and even look at things matters to Him. And we too should let it matter to us. Otherwise, there are certain truths He may never reveal to us, just as there are certain assignments or positions of greatness that He may never consider us for.

So, when He, directly or through others, is drawing your attention to certain attitudes or habits you need to drop or change, you had better listen and act fast. Or else, you may be disqualified from being a part of the celebration of certain victories in this life and in God’s heavenly kingdom.