Monthly Themes
January - June 2016
January 2016 - Arising Glory
A
CCORDING to Wikipedia, Glory is said to relate to the Latin word gloria which means fame and honour. It is used to denote manifestation of God’s presence in the Christian religious tradition. It is one of the most common words in the bible used that is used to translate the Hebrew words of Hod (majesty, splendour) and Kabod (weight, heaviness and importance). God is Most Glorious; everyone born in the image of God ought to manifest part of that glory. However, the expression of the glory of God upon a man can be in defined in three ways: Extinct; Dormant or Active. In other terms, it could be said to be Dead; Asleep or Alive. Several factors can determine the state of that glory upon the life of a man. Things like the person’s level of spirituality; spiritual wickedness opposing him, ignorance, diligence, pride, family background, godliness, favour, etc. are determinants. As a result of pride, the glory of King Saul went from asleep to alive and then to dead. While as a result of godliness and favour, the glory of David went from dead to asleep and to active. In this first month of 2016, certain glory that appeared dead will come alive; those glory that are asleep will be awoken and those that are rising already will yet rise more in Jesus name. The glory of the church as a whole will arose out of obscurity in Jesus name.
February 2016 - Fame That Spread
F
AME can be defined as the state of being known or recognised by many people because of one’s achievements, skills, talents, etc. It can also mean to be of good repute, in favour, well regarded or highly esteemed in life. It is good to be famous in what one does as this will increase one’s recognition in their chosen field; make one to be easily accepted everywhere; make people to give heed to what one has to say; make one to have easy followership; increase the influence or impact one possesses over their area of operation and also bring honour to one’s mentor. Interestingly, God wants His children’s fame to spread. Jesus taught His disciples and even the multitude to have the mentality of been famous and renown for good (as salt and light), so that the world will know about their Father who is in Heaven and as such will be able to give the glory due to His name (Mathew 5:13-16). It wasn’t surprising therefore that Jesus fame did spread in His lifetime. The teachings and the deeds of Jesus made His fame to spread quickly throughout His country, so that He was able to make great impact in just 3 1/2 years of ministry! (Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:14-15). Many people thus believed that He came from God and gave due glory to God – His Father
March 2016 - Justified To Be Glorified
J
USTIFY in religion means “To declare innocent; guiltless; absolve or acquit”. Glorified in the same vein means “To give glory; honour; or high praise to; exalt”. Justified to be glorified would therefore mean “The declaration of innocency upon a life for the purpose of glorification; the proclamation of not guilty upon an individual for them to be exalted; or the acquittal of someone from charges levied against them in order to bring them into a position of honour”. The Bible says that sin is a reproach to any people; however righteousness does exalt nations (Prov. 14:34). To be truly exalted or glorified in life therefore, one needs to have been justified before. Sad to say that some Christians remain in a state of dishonour by their own making, by living in ignorance, even though they have been justified to be glorified (Prov. 29:18). God however wants His children to live a life of honour and glory as this in turn will bring glory and honour to Him in the eyes of men (Philippians 2:15-26; 3 John 2). That is why in Rom. 8:28-30, we have a supposed sequence of the life trail of a believer, which ours should indeed follow: That whatever happens, all things must work together for good eventually to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This is because God already foreknew both the person and their circumstances and had equally predestined how things should favour the believer. At a later stage in such person’s life, they are called by God to go through certain experiences, if they are faithful and became justified in their calling, then their glorification must definitely follow.
April 2016 - Deeds and Rewards of Honour
G
OD is all mighty and all powerful. He is the sovereign Being. There is nothing that can make Him do whatever he doesn’t want to do. God can choose to favour anyone He desires at any given time. He does whatever pleases Him and no one can challenge or question His judgements. However, because God is just, He most times considers certain things to justify His favour upon a man. Usually, God considers deeds that stand out in the life of the fellow, so that He can then bestow special honour and favour on the fellow which they otherwise wouldn’t have experienced. In Acts 10:1-6, the bible talks about Cornelius who his deeds was able to attract God’s attention. Cornelius lived in Caesarea which was the capital city of the Judea Region. He was a Roman soldier who was in charge of about 100 soldiers. He was a gentile, yet he was attracted to the worship of Yahweh, the God of the land he was sojourning. He had adopted the hours of prayers of the Jewish people; he was committed to giving alms to God’s people; and he involved everyone in his household in all what he did. Even though God has sent Jesus who had died for the salvation of the world; and the apostles of Jesus were then involved in spreading the gospel. Cornelius then hadn’t been informed about the way of salvation. God still took notice of Cornelius and decided to honour his deeds. An angel was sent by God to him to announce that his deeds of devotion and help had risen before God for action. To justify the intended honour upon Cornelius life, God had to arrange a path of redemption for him and his household. They were all empowered by the Holy Spirit and baptised into the body of Christ by Apostle Peter. They then became more honourable in the hands of Jehovah.
May 2016 - Grace For Recognition
G
RACE is a ‘Divine influence that inspire virtuous occurrences in the life of humans’. While recognition can be defined as ‘to give a favourable notice to somebody; give someone a good attention or for someone to be accorded honour’. Everyone loves to be recognised in a good way. Either for who they are; what they are doing or what they have done. People become recipient of such good attention if they are born into a honourable family; if they are successful in hard work; or if they deceive people into believing they are what they are not. Interestingly, some people are just blessed with ‘grace of recognition’. It is a genome that God has put into such people that make them exemplary. So that wherever they are, even without making any compelling effort, they will still get favourably noticed, given good attention and accorded honours. In Gen. 37: 2-4, we read that the life of Joseph was such that enjoyed grace of recognition. He was born into a family of twelve sons, he was the number eleven, yet he was the most recognised. The attention given to him by their father was second to none. The honour accorded to him was special. His dresses, meals, tasks, etc were all specially arranged as he grew up as a child. Also, when he got to Potiphar’s house as a slave, the grace of recognition was seen upon his life. Potiphar must have had other servants, particularly Egyptian house helps, but he accorded greater honour to Joseph and treated him as a son rather than a slave (Gen. 39:1-9). Again, when Joseph was in prison, the grace of recognition was seen on him still. Usually, the Commander of prison inmates is usually either the one who has served the longest time; the one who is the strongest physically or the one who is the oldest in age. Joseph was young, a foreign inmate, a new arrival, not physically powerful and yet became the Commander of the inmates because he received favourable notice from the Chief Warder and other inmates (Gen. 39:19-23)
June 2016 - Divine Amazement
A
MAZEMENT is a feeling of great surprise or wonder; it is the feeling that accompanies something that is extremely surprising and shocking. When that feeling of surprise comes from the acts of God or with the assistance from God, it is referred to as Divine amazement. God Himself is amazing. His person, nature and deeds are just too amazing. God also specialises in turning other personalities into amazing objects. In John 9:1-38, Jesus turned the life of a man into huge amazement. The man was over 40 years and had been born blind. In Jewish traditional belief and to some extent even in medicine; an ailment that occurs post-birth still stand a chance to be corrected, but when an ailment like blindness, deafness, dumbness and lameness was already there before birth; the Jews believed that it is irreversible, and it’s largely so in medicine also. When this man came in contact with Jesus, he was taken back to Eden for re-creation; Jesus anointed his eyes with mud and asked him to go and wash in Siloam pool. He came back seeing with brand new eyes! The occurrence was so shocking to the Jews and their leaders who have not seen anything like that happened before (John 9:18). The man had to explain himself over and over again, the Pharisees were so amazed that the act actually divided them (John 9:16).
EVERLASTING | 19