Believe Right!

Believers, see the righteousness of the Lord in His word. Micah 6:5 says: "O My people, remember now What Balak king of Moab counseled, And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, From Acacia Grove to Gilgal, That you may know the righteousness of the Lord.” Remember the story of Balak and Balaam and how the former hired the latter to curse the children of Israel? Balaam tried to curse them from three different locations but ended up blessing them instead, according to God’s will. Check out part of what the Lord caused him to say at his second prophecy- Numbers 23- 20 Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them. God did not observe iniquity in Jacob nor did He see wickedness in Israel. But wait a minute. Look what Moses told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 9:6-7 a...

Believers, have you noticed how even nominal christians are unable to escape memorizing Psalms 23? The Lord made it so😀 Our Saviour did not call us His sheep and Himself our Shepherd just to fill up space in the bible. He did so for us to see how hopelessly helpless we His sheep would be without Him. He Himself said "For without me you can do nothing." King David, a former shepherd himself, understood that a sheep is totally dependent on its shepherd for its very existence. This is reflected throughout the popular Psalm. Remember verse 4: ...For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. The rod of a shepherd used is for defending and protecting the sheep from predators and robbers. It is a weapon or tool to provide safety for the flock: Christ our Shepherd and His promise of protection for His sheep in all of Psalms 91. No matter how "careful" a sheep is, without the Shepherd's protection, it's only a matter of time before de...

Jesus described only two people as having "great faith" in the four gospels: the centurion with the paralyzed servant (Matthew 8:5-13) and the Canaanite woman with the severely demon-possessed daughter (Matt. 15:21-28.) Let's look at the centurion's story. How come he had great faith? Our thoughts could go to how he was a man of authority with soldiers under his command. But what about the woman of Canaan who acknowledged herself as being in the category of little dogs that eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table? She wasn't commanding soldiers or anything like that. How did her own great faith come to be? Believers, the centurion and the Canaanite woman had one thing in common: THEY WERE NOT UNDER LAW (they were Gentiles.) Galatians 3:12 says "Yet the law is not of faith, ..." You cannot have faith if you are of the law aka trying to get God's blessings by keeping the law/doing good things. The law is not of faith. ...

When many of us believers think of the word Repentance, we think "feeling really bad because we sinned," promising God that we will "stop sinning," and making the decision to "live a holy life from now on." But did you notice that there is no Saviour Jesus in this equation? Matthew 1:21 says:  " And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  But Jesus does not do anything in this "stop sinning by yourself or burn" kind of repentance that we hear in many churches. This is a Judas kind of repentance - towards self and not towards God. This is repentance to death and not repentance to life. The Parable of the Lost Sheep shows us what true repentance is - a gift from God. Luke 15: 4 - 7 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found...

Believers, the gospel isn't about karma or people doing their best to live by certain rules and regulations in order to get blessed and without which there will be dire consequences. Almost every other religion on earth has this; but this is not Christianity. This is the law which cannot make any righteous in God's sight according to Romans 3:20. Galatians 5:4 says  "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." Believers, in Christ, we are not under law but under grace. They cannot be mixed together. Telling people that they need to keep the Ten Commandments in order to get right with God or enjoy His protection and blessings is akin to expecting a drowning man who cannot swim to rescue himself from shark-infested waters because you tossed him a voluminous book on how to swim; plus he must learn every technique in the book- James 2:10 says "For whosoever...

Christ came to get rid of sin. Don't get Him backwards. See Him lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and like the Israelites that looked at the bronze serpent, you will be made whole. You will live. Remember all the Israelites had to do to live was look at the serpent on the pole. No "give to get." Look to Jesus (believe on Him) and you shall be saved- saved from death, hell, acts of sin, oppression, depression, lack, and everything else that is as a result of the sting of death that is sin.

Believers, let's take our blessed brains to church😊 Galatians 3:29 says  "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." But many in the church are not enjoying the promise of God for His children. Ask anyone why and most would respond with: "It is because of sin and the way people are just breaking God's law anyhow." But nothing could be further from the truth. God hates sin, but sin is not the cause. According to Romans 4:13- "For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." The promise (a part of which is living in triumph over sin according to Romans 5:17) is not inherited through the law. It is inherited through the righteousness of faith- that righteousness that comes not by our own obedience to the law but by the obedience of Christ, as it is written in Romans 5:19- "For just as by the o...

Jesus described only two people as having "great faith" in the four gospels: the centurion with the paralyzed servant (Matthew 8:5-13) and the Canaanite woman with the severely demon-possessed daughter (Matt. 15:21-28.) Let's look at the centurion's story. How come he had great faith? Our thoughts could go to how he was a man of authority with soldiers under his command. But what about the woman of Canaan who acknowledged herself as being in the category of little dogs that eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table? She wasn't commanding soldiers or anything like that. How did her own great faith come to be? Believers, the centurion and the Canaanite woman had one thing in common: THEY WERE NOT UNDER LAW (they were Gentiles.) Galatians 3:12 says "Yet the law is not of faith, ..." You cannot have faith if you are of the law aka trying to get God's blessings by keeping the law/doing good things. The law is not of faith. J...

Believers, remember the story of 12 year old Jesus who stayed back in the temple in Jerusalem after the Festival of the Passover in Luke 2? His parents were unaware of it. They had travelled for a day before realising that He was not in their company. Verse 44 says:  "...Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him." After three days of searching, they found Him in the temple courts, doing the will of the Father and amazing everyone who heard Him with His understanding and answers. Mary said to Him:  "48....Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.” How anxious Mary and Joseph must have been, looking for Jesus everywhere. Their hearts were not at rest until they found Him. But check out what our Saviour asked them in response:  49 "“Why were you searching for Me?” He asked. “Didn’t you know I had...

Believers, do you tend to think of the plane you're scheduled to be on spiralling down to earth with you in it? Do you seem to always have thoughts of bad things happening to you or your family members? Do you feel like something bad will happen to you because of a particular sin that you committed (and sometimes your worst fears even come to pass!)? Do you have 'un-Christian' thoughts and can't seem to find a way out? Do you sometimes think that you are not really saved? Have you tried to stop thinking these thoughts but they just don’t go away? There's good news for you! First, we need to understand that the battleground where we wrestle against “spiritual wickedness in high places” is not on some mountain top, coven or in the work place. The battleground is the mind. This is reflected in Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 10 - “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imagina...

Believers, the Old Testament is filled with faith pictures that have as their substance our Saviour Jesus Christ and our life in Him. Remember the two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24? They were sad because they felt thay their hope of redemption was lost since Christ had died. Here's what Christ did as He walked with them: 27 "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Check out the result in verse 32! "And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”" The New Testament did not exist yet. Seeing Christ is the Scriptures (Old Testament) sets our hearts on fire for Him. We see a faith picture in the story of David and his 3D (in distress or in debt or discontented) army in 1 Samuel 22:2 - "All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathe...