List of blogs
- Being the Best that I can Be – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
2. Quest for Integrity in Private & Public life – Real-life practical integrity
3. “There is no God” – the Height of Self-delusion
4. Takeaway-Lessons-from-the-Betrayal-of-the-Lord-Jesus-Christ
5. Forget the past, learn from past events, and move forward.
6. Depart from evil and do good
7. Living right and Walking with the Lord
8. Overcomers in the Lord
9. The Imperatives for Christian Living
Blogs
- Being the Best that I can Be – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The year is ending, it is New Year around the corner. How prepared are we for the new year, 2023?
Being the best that I can be is a mantra, a slogan, a guiding statement worth aspiring to now, in the coming year, and always.
It translates to the following practical statements.
- In my profession, I shall seek to be the best that I can be.
- In my relationships at home, I shall seek to be the best that I can be.
- In my relationships at work, I shall seek to be the best that I can be.
- In my community, I shall seek to be the best that I can be.
- In my own small world, irrespective of its size, I shall seek to be the best that I can be.
- In trying to earn an income, I do my level best, diligent and determined and work hard with transparent integrity.
- It is convenient and easy to criticise another person, what about me, what about you, are we consciously making efforts to be the best that we can?
- It is the in-thing, the politically correct practice, to criticise and even condemn politicians. No one says that what is bad is good. But what about you?
- Do we make deliberate efforts to do what is right all the time to glorify the Lord, who always watches and sees what we do?
Some Bible verses to consider on this subject, include the following:
- Matthew 5: 48: “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect”.
- Leviticus 11:44: “Be ye holy even as I am holy.”
- Titus 2:11-14 : “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works”.
Conclusion: The debate has been on-going, whether a person can be perfect here on earth. Certainly, it borders on lack of humility for anyone to claim to have arrived. No one is good but God alone, so the Lord says, Mark 10: 18.
This of course does not encourage us to continue in any unwholesome and bad behaviour of which we may be guilty at present, because it is the Lord who also commands: “Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is.” Matthew 5: 48. Therefore, we need to make efforts to discard such undesirable behaviours.
In spite of our personal views on attaining perfection, none of the passages quoted in the foregoing paragraph encourages us to be quarrelsome and always overly negative and critical in almost all our public and private statements.
The challenge is for us to be a reflection of the Lord in seeking by His help to live a life of moral excellence and be a blessing to others.
A writer suggests that “the basic call to a person in this world is to be a reflection of the character of God. That is what it means to be created in the image of God.”
chima.okereke@thegospelspeakstoday.com
2. Quest for Integrity in Private & Public life – Real-life practical integrity
Integrity, in private and public life, is very much in demand. It is sad that it is a scarce commodity with persons who are top officers, ministers, prime ministers, presidents, etc. It is equally scarce among ordinary mortals who go about with their private businesses.
It is said that the lure of sex, money and power has destroyed many erstwhile successful lives. These are practical issues that we face daily. The desire to get rich is always there and needs to be controlled. Beautiful ladies and handsome men will always populate the world and it requires discipline for one to keep one’s self in the straight and narrow. Power corrupts, and absolutely power corrupts absolutely.
We all have much to learn from Joseph, the Hebrew boy sold as a slave by his brothers. He turned out to be a resounding success in Egypt, a prime minister par excellence, such that to him belonged the credit of saving the nation of Egypt from seven years of devastating famine.
He was handsome, and faced temptation over an illicit sexual relationship, had wealth and power, and he passed all with flying colours in the foreign land.
How did he do it? To answer this question, we may have to analyse the account of his life in stages, starting with the temptation over an illicit sexual relationship.
Encounter with Mrs Potiphar
From Genesis 39:1-20, we have the following account: “Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favour in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking.
7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
10 And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, 12 she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, 14 she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; 15 and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” 16 Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; 18 but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” 19 When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison.
Analysis:
It would appear that the present day society condones or connives at sex between two consenting adults. Not Joseph, he would not have that. He described it as “a great wickedness” against his master and a sin against God.
It would also appear that while Mrs. Potiphar believed that there were just two of them, Joseph believed that there were three at the scene. There were Mrs. Potiphar, Joseph and the Almighty God. Joseph knew that he was committed to living for God wherever he was but not so Mrs. Potiphar. She did not see it that way.
At this point, we have to pause for comments.
Testimonies
Are there any testimonies or experiences on this subject of sexual relationship between two adults.
I know of a visiting professor in a foreign university. He was accommodated in a comfortable room with its ensuite toilet facilities. Whenever the lady house cleaner came to his room, he always left the room for her. On a given day, he was brushing his teeth in his bathroom, the house cleaner came into the room and walked up to him in the bathroom. The visiting professor gently stopped all he was doing and walked out of the room. He waited outside the room until the cleaner completed her work and left his room.
Please more testimonies and experiences are invited. Thank you.
3. “There is no God” – the Height of Self-delusion
The Bible states that “the fool has said in his own heart that there is no God”. Psalm 14:1. In everyday life, we often find some people who claim that there is no God. This, they presume, gives them the licence and excuse to live by their own rules. Some of them try, as much as convenient, to ensure that they do not contravene any public rules of law and order. They generally live in their comfort zone.
Some are generous in their interactions and spend on charity. Some live normal lives, trying to be gentle and practise fair play in their ways. While there is a third group whose overriding objective is to look for what is in it for them in everything they do and try to get it. For this third group, doing what is fair to all is way down in their behavioural priorities.
It has been said that there is no person who does not believe in anything. He says he does not believe in God but he believes in himself and just lives for himself. He spares himself no indulgences within his chosen areas of conveniences and comfort. He makes himself an island by refusing normal communication with other people, even those who should be in his small world. In doing this, he unwittingly fails himself by living with counterproductive short-term decisions which have no long-term values. He sadly does himself more harm than good, both in time and eternity.
He does not attempt to worship God. He excludes himself from anything that seeks to accord reverence to the Lord. He says and reasons that he has nothing to do with God, therefore God should have nothing to do with him. He tells himself that the Lord should only be concerned with those who worship and revere Him. This of course is self-delusion.
In spite of his head-in-the-sand behaviour, the Bible states clearly that: “The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand” Psalm 14:2. The truth is that all we do, including what the self-deluded person does, are being recorded by the Lord. The Lord not only sees everything each of us does but He also knows our motives. We cannot hide anything from the Lord.
Moreover, if a person does not live in obedience to God, he is living in sin.
John 3:36 states that “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Proverbs 23:26: “My son give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways”. This statement underlines the core of the matter.
From Colossians 1:16, we read that God made each individual for a purpose. It stands to reason that He cannot use the person to carry it out if he chooses not to obey Him. This is why obedience is paramount in man’s relationship with God.
This underscores why the Lord will punish those who do not know Him; “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” 2nd Thessalonians 1:8.
Knowing the Lord and living in obedience to Him should not just be seen as only when the person is worshipping the Lord. No please, the Lord is interested in the total life of the person. The personal relationship with the Lord should result in getting the best out of the person for the good of his community and mankind to the glory of God. The person could be a business professional, a scientist, a medical practitioner, indeed whatever professional, the walk with the Lord should elicit the best out of him so that he will be a delight to his society. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven, Matthew 5:16.
Repentance is not an option; it is the only action to take. Unless you repent, there is no way you will escape, you willperish. Luke 13:5. The Lord does not desire the death of a sinner but for the sinner to arouse himself from his self-delusion and come back to Him in repentance in Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.
God knows that we cannot save ourselves or make ourselves right with Him. This is why he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to come to the world. He lived, died to pay for the sins of all who will believe in Him, rose again, and returned to Heaven. As many as receive Him, He accepts by forgiving their sins and giving them the power to live for Him as children of God, John 1:12.
The opportunity to repent will not last forever; for “It is given unto man once to die, after that the judgement”. Hebrews 9:27. Today is the day of salvation, 2nd Corinthians 6:2: For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
4. Takeaway-Lessons-from-the-Betrayal-of-the-Lord-Jesus-Christ
Judas was a disciple of the Lord and walked with Him for three years. He was the treasurer. However, he had a secret sin which he lived with; stealing money from the purse, John 12:26. As he walked with the Lord, His messages would have spoken to him but he held on to the sin. John 8:34 -36: 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Sadly, he continued and refused to repent even as he went to the chief priests. Probably, he felt he had it all worked out. He would take the thirty pieces of silver and he was confident that the Lord would slip off as He did in the past and He could not be arrested. Meanwhile, he had pocketed the money and the Jews would lose their money and the Lord they would not be able to arrest. Regrettably, planning and building on sin is like building a house on sand.
The Lord was arrested and did not slip off. His plan failed, it then dawned on him that He had betrayed his innocent Master. He went and committed suicide. His miserable end did not change anything. It was too late. “He, that is often reproved, yet hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Proverbs 29:1
The lesson is straight forward, we are saved by grace, yes: but sin, no matter how secret, should not be our master. It is counterproductive if we continue with the Lord all the years and hold on to any secret sin. Does it mean, that we are now perfect? We may not be perfect but we should not practise sin for the command is “ Be ye perfect as your Heavenly perfect is” Matthew 5:48. Christians are set apart as holy, to live for the Lord and for His service irrespective of where they live or where they come from, and irrespective of what people around them consider politically correct and the in-thing to say or do. The message to takeaway is that we should repent of any besetting sin. The challenge is to live for the Lord and shine for Him in our own small world. May the Lord help each of us, Amen.
5. Forget the past, learn from past events, and move forward.
Happy New Year, as we go on in 2022, I suggest that we take a look at the message contained in Philippians 3:13-14. St. Paul wrote: “Brothers, I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The call today is to forget all those past hurts, pains, failures, disappointments, rejection, misunderstanding, and all those bad experiences of past years. Let them go!!! You cannot change the past and none of us can do that!
In order to move forward, you have got to let go of the past! Leave it behind. We cannot drive forward looking backward.
Let yesterday go, it should not determine your tomorrow. Paul overcame his yesterday by forgetting his yesterday. He was not chained to his yesterday. You are not defined by your yesterday. Your view of eternity should affect your today.
Israel could not get to the promised land when they should because they kept looking back. Live in time with eternity in mind.
It is time to continue moving forward with confidence and assurance in the Lord. The command is to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith .
6. Depart from evil and do good, the Lord is against them that do evil
Takeaway lesson & an application: Joseph’s brother stripped him of his coat of many colours but many years later, he ended giving each of them changes of raiment.
Psalm 34:
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
They stripped Joseph of his coat of many colours and sold him
Gen 37: 23-27
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colours that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him.
Part of their result
Genesis 42:28c
……“What is this that God hath done unto us?” Joseph’s brothers complained that the Lord was doing to them. It is easy to blame God for our failures and failings and their consequences.
Joseph, the man of God, gave them changes of raiment, even though they stripped him of his coat
Genesis 45: 22
To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.
Romans 12:17-19
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
7. Living right & walking with the Lord
The practice of the Bible study and prayers daily, the Quiet Time, should be one of foundational practices in a Christian family. Indeed, some families conduct it twice a day.
It is hoped that each child of the family should have picked up the habit of conducting the Quiet Time with their family or at least alone for anyone who loves the Lord.
We cannot grow in our relationship with the Lord if we do not study the word of God daily. It is the desire of the individual to get to know the Lord better and walk with Him that motivates the daily study and hence the daily walk. We lose as individuals if we do not engage in the daily study which could be done at any time of our choosing in the day. The Lord also sees through our desire to get to know Him better by studying His word.
Psalm 119: 9, 105
How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Joshua 1:8
8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
2 Tim 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3: 15
“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
8. Overcomers in the Lord
It has been the case that the strong powerful and wealthy, whether nations or people, are contemptuous and disdainful of the apparently weak who put their trust in the Lord.
The life of the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that it pays to trust Him and the just shall live by their faith in the confidence that the Lord is faithful. “No one does business with the Lord and gets short-changed”. Compare this with:
“ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”.
John 10:27-28, King James Version
When the powerful is deliberately hostile, do all you can correctly but do not seek vengeance. We may wish to take note of the following two statements: “Vengeance is mine”, says the Lord. Please check out these references: Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:17-19
Someone has said that “forgiveness is enlightened self-interest”.
9. The Imperatives for Christian Living
The starting point of the Christian life is a deliberate decision by a person to accept two facts about entering into a personal relationship with the Lord which are:
- That the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again to pay for their sins which no other person can pay for. This acceptance means that the person’s sins have been forgiven and that they become a child of God. John 1: 12.
- Allied to this is that the person submits themselves to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The person accepts Him as both Lord and Master and undertakes to obey Him in all things. The Lord takes the first place in the person’s life. Every other consideration, be it job, education, relationship, etc., is secondary to this.
- Immediately after this acceptance, the person is said to have been born again. The life thereafter is lived to please the Lord in all things.
- The person studies and reads the word of God and lives in obedience to the Lord daily. They will pray all the time and also become a member of a Bible-believing church. Joining the fellowship helps the person to meet with other Christians during the weekends and on such weekdays as they meet.
The Rewards: They include the following:
- A life lived in the full knowledge that one is living to please God, Revelation 4:11.
- A life of personal discipline that exceeds whatever any human government can provide.
- An assurance that God loves the person and they are welcome to bring every issue to Him.
- A guarantee that the ongoing personal relationship started here will continue even after the person has died, Romans 8: 38 – 39.
- A guarantee of personal protection from physical and spiritual dangers as long as the person walks in personal obedience to the Lord, John 10: 27 -28.
Warnings
- The Christian is saved but has to realise that they are not yet in Heaven. The person needs to walk with the Lord diligently and avoid any situation or activity that could derail their faith or damage the relationship with the Lord. The Bible warns that if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12
- The Lord Jesus Christ warned seriously that if our hand or foot will make us to fall away, we should cut it off instead of going to Hell.
- Our God is a Holy God and if we deliberately go into sin, we cut off ourselves from the protection and security that He offers. Instead, we expose ourselves to attack by the devil. Hence the warning: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5: 8, Isaiah 59: 1-2
- If therefore we refuse to obey the Lord, we automatically start obeying the devil because there is no middle ground. Either one is with the Lord or one has abandoned the Lord for the devil. Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6: 16.
Return to the Lord
However, when one realises that one has backslidden from the Lord, one can still return and be accepted. If one is returning to the Lord, one should be prepared to repent of one’s sins and submit one’s self unconditionally and completely to the Lord.