Morning by Morning devotions

  Balaam epitomized the sin of greed! He was a pagan prophet, an enemy of God, who believed he could profit from doing the work of God. We're living at a time where this has become the order of the day for a majority of our ministers. The scriptures indeed speak about honoring the servants of God who teach in our midst( 1 Timothy 5:17-18  Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.  18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages." )  but many have majored on this at the expense of the weightier matter.  I have observed that I can easily run in the error of Balaam if I am not careful to guard against these two things: 1. Slowly gravitating towards eisegesis as opposed to exegesis. Eisegesis happens when one reads into a text. This is where one wrongly interprets the scripture in order to fit his/her interpreta...

  There are two questions worth answering in Matthew 12:31-32: 1. What constitutes blasphemy against the Spirit? 2. Why is this kind of blasphemy unpardonable? Contextually, Jesus was facing fierce criticism from the Pharisees especially with regards to matters the Sabbath as seen in: • v1-8- Reaping on the Sabbath and • v 9-14- Healing on the Sabbath. It was this consistent "flouting of the law" in their opinion that made them conclude that Jesus was casting out demons by Beelzebub (v24). At this, Jesus' defense was in three parts: 1. A kingdom, city or even a family cannot continue to exist if it is divided against itself (v25-26). 2. When the followers of the Pharisees exorcised demons, the Pharisees claimed it was accomplished by the power of God. Why change of tune now?(v27) 3. When the Messiah cast out demons, it happened by the Spirit of God (v28). An indication that the Kingdom of God has come upon them. It's on this premise that Jesus goes on to speak about t...

What is Salvation? In order to understand the meaning of salvation one has to consult some Old Testament texts in order to capture the context; knowing very well that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The penalty of sin is death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:2) and "for the wages of sin is death..." - Romans 6:23. However, God out of His great mercy and grace made a provision for an animal that is spotless and without blemish to die in the place of the human that has sinned as captured in (Leviticus 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30). In that way, the animal that dies in the place of the sinner, saves the sinner. NB: there's a laying of the hand on the animal before sacrificing it symbolic of transferring by faith one's guilt on the animal and entreating God to accept the life of the innocent animal in place of his own. Fast forward in the New Testament, John the Baptist said, "Be...

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I believe the same is true for many of us. I love the carols, decorations, movies and all that goes with this season. However, reading through Matthew 2:1-18 one easily comes to the realization that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus produced great tension. I'm particularly intrigued by the bewilderment that the wise men found themselves in. Matthew profoundly shares the three major  things that shocked them and thereby helping us understand how God works.  1. The wise men were shocked to learn that Jesus was not born in Jerusalem  Matthew 2:1-2  Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem ,  2 saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."    Going by the question they asked, it almost appears like the wise men expected to be direc...

We have three major soccer competitions happening around this season: Women's world cup, Copa America and Africa Cup Of Nations. Unlike previously when everyone's joy was not short lived after scoring a goal, today, goals have to be scrutinized by the video assistant referee (VAR). Sometimes it takes two minutes or more to verify the validity of a goal, only then can one celebrate. This new development was not taken kindly by many but it's widely considered to be more accurate. I see this kind of a system playing out in the scriptures as well. There were several instances in the scripture where people felt like they had really "scored a goal" only to be told by a higher authority that it does not hold. This morning I'll focus on two major areas: Joy Luke records in  Luke 10:20    " Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. "   Their joy was short-lived b...

A story is told of two corrupt brothers who succeeded greatly in their businesses. One day one of them fell ill and was later diagnosed with cancer. Upon realizing that his brother was critically ill and would die sooner than later, he approached the local pastor with a proposal that he would donate a huge sum of money to the church if only the pastor would say at his brother's funeral that he was a saint. Eventually his brother died and on the day of the funeral, the pastor having accepted the challenge, looked for a way to say those unlikely words before the congregation. Finally he said,"Before we close this memorial service, I want to say that compared to his living brother, Joe was a saint!" ~ Ravi Zacharias  Exodus 20:16  " You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. "  Bearing false witness basically means misrepresenting the truth. It carries the idea of twisting or stretching the truth and not just limited to telling a lie. We can bett...