Topic: The Grace of Giving [Sunday May 7, 2017]

Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. – 2 Corinthians 8:7

How do you give to the Lord?

Do you just drop some money in the plate at church without much thought? Or do you just write a check to God at the first of every month and pay Him like you pay all your other bills?

You need to think about that because how you give is a matter of deep concern to God. He’s particular about how offerings are given. He won’t receive just any old thing however you feel like giving it.

In Malachi, for example, God refused to receive Israel’s offerings. They were bringing Him their defective animals, their blind calves and the injured ones they couldn’t do anything else with—and God said it offended Him. He told them, “You don’t have any reverence or honor for Me, and I’m not going to accept your offering.”

That kind of thing didn’t die out after the book of Malachi. Many today don’t have any reverence for God at offering time. People wait for the preacher to beat them over the head until they feel so guilty they have to reach down in their pocketbooks and get some money out.

But I want you to know, that’s offensive to God. In fact, He spoke directly to a friend of mine about it. The statement He made to her so impressed me, I wrote it down word for word.

It grieves Me when the Church takes offerings, He told her. I said to worship Me. Don’t take from the people, but let them bring their gifts and worship Me. Then they will see the fruits of their giving.

If you and I want God to be pleased with our offerings, we’re going to have to do what the Apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 8:7. We’re going to have to learn to “excel in this grace of giving” (New International Version). We’re going to have to quit being casual about it and to learn to give with faith and reverence in worship.

Next time the offering plate is passed, don’t just drop your gift carelessly in the plate. Get serious. Determine to obey God. Worship Him with your money and be thankful. He’ll do more than simply receive it, He’ll open the windows of blessing for you.

Scripture Reading: Malachi 1:1-14

This message was written by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, the leader of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries (www.KCM.org) that specializes in teaching principles of bible faith – prayer, healing, salvation and other biblical topics.

Topic: Start Early [Sunday May 7, 2017]

Text: Deuteronomy 21:18-23

Key Verse: “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them” (Deuteronomy 21:18).

A Christian woman narrated an unpleasant scene she witnessed at a supermarket. She said, “A woman was shopping with her son, who was about 10 years old. The child could be heard all over the store, demanding to leave. The mother continued to shop while the child’s demands became louder and more insistent.

Finally, with his hands on his hips, the boy screamed, “I want to go and I want to go NOW!” When his mother quietly told him that she still needed to get some wares, the boy hit her. The mother laughed apologetically and said “Now, Jason, that wasn’t nice”.” The Christian lady was clearly seeing the mother’s ‘acquittal’ of her son’s unruly behavior. In the present rapidly changing world, where the positive values of yesteryear are crashing out, owing to the destructive impact of television, movies, Internet, pornography, music and drugs, caring parents’ influence over their children is inalienable. One major reasons for waywardness in children is that parents begin child training too late.

They do not pay much attention to their children until they become wayward and difficult to control. This is contrary to the injunction in the Scripture which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). God expects that we begin training, moulding and nurturing our children while they are still very young. He expects us to teach them little by little while they are still growing. But if we neglect this important duty in their formative years, when they grow older, it will be difficult, if not impossible to train them.

Our children will consider us incompetent parents, which will encourage them to perpetrate evils without remorse. Unfortunately, it is when children get to this worrisome stage, that parents wake up to reality and thereafter nervously struggle to change the children overnight by compulsion. Let us prayerfully bring all our children, biological and spiritual to godly and parental authority NOW!

Thought for the day: A child without godly and parental dictates easily lacks the control of his impulses and no better than a vagabond.

Bible Reading in one Year: 1 Chronicles 25-29

DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.

Topic: Association That Enhances Greatness [Sunday May 7, 2017]

Scripture: And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: Genesis 26:13

Thought For The Day: Being part of a great system makes one great in life.

Yesterday we saw that being part of a great system makes one great in life. The Bible confirms this fact when it says that he that walks with the wise is wise (Proverbs 13:20).

Now, to illustrate this point with a practical example: every part of an elephant is big – even the toe nails of an elephant are not small because the elephant is naturally big. Also, every part of a lion is ‘lionic’ – they carry the lion’s gene.
So, even if the devil tells you that you are not great as a person, provided you are connected to God, your greatness is confirmed.

At the beginning of our Ministry, people thought we were wasting our time going into ministry, but now, it is clear that it was not and will never be a waste of time.

Maybe before now, when you told people that you have surrendered everything about you to God, they mocked you, but now, they are watching you at the top where God has positioned you.

Beloved, if the devil wants to disconnect you from your destiny, he disconnects you from God and from any great source you are connected to. Therefore, make up your mind not to be distracted and disconnected from your Source of greatness in life.

Remember this: Being part of a great system makes one great in life.

Assignment(s):

1.    Make up your mind to associate with greatness.

2.    Remain permanently connected to the great God.

3.    Deploy your potential anywhere you find yourself.

FOR FURTHER UNDERSTANDING, GET THIS MESSAGE: POTENTIAL IS NOT ENOUGH.

Prayer: O LORD, help me to be great in life. Give me the grace to deploy my potentials for the fulfilment of my destiny, LORD in Jesus’ Name.

Daily Reading: 2 Samuel 9:1 to 11:27, John 15:1 to 27, Psalm 119:49 to 64, Proverbs 16: 1 to 3.

Quote: Not everybody around God is with God. Culled from “REASON FOR LIVING” by Dr Paul Enenche.

Amazing Fact: An octopus has 3 hearts.

Today In History: 7/5/1945 – Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II.

PROPHETIC PARENTAL BLESSING: In this fifth month, I prophesy that God shall perfect all that concerns you. Every crooked path around your life, marriage, career, academics, business and destiny shall be straightened, in Jesus’ Name.

Topic: Praise in the Dark [Sunday May 7, 2017]

Read: Matthew 26:17–30, Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 1–3; Luke 24:1–35

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15

Even though my friend Mickey was losing his eyesight, he told me, “I’m going to keep praising God every day, because He’s done so much for me.”

Jesus gave Mickey, and us, the ultimate reason for such never-ending praise. The twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew tells us about how Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples the night before He went to the cross. Verse 30 shows us how they concluded the meal: “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”

It wasn’t just any hymn they sang that night—it was a hymn of praise. For millennia, Jews have sung a group of Psalms called “The Hallel” at Passover (hallel is the Hebrew word for “praise”). The last of these prayers and songs of praise, found in Psalms 113–118, honors the God who has become our salvation (118:21). It refers to a rejected stone that became a cornerstone (v. 22) and one who comes in the name of the Lord (v. 26). They may very well have sung, “The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad” (v. 24).

As Jesus sang with His disciples on this Passover night, He was giving us the ultimate reason to lift our eyes above our immediate circumstances. He was leading us in praise of the never-ending love and faithfulness of our God.

Prayer: You are always worthy of praise, Lord, even when I don’t feel like praising You! Help me to learn to praise You more and more.

Praising God helps us recall His goodness that never ends.

Insight:

How might Jesus’s example encourage you to praise God during hard times?

This message was written By James Banks [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

Topic: Truth Brings Freedom [Sunday May 7, 2017]

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. — John 8:36

The mark of a true Christian is found in his personal relationship to the Person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. I speak reverently when I say that Jesus is more than His ideas. All that He said was true, but without Him even the truth would have been powerless. Men know the power of truth, and truth is that which sets men free. Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

Prayer for the day: Thank You, Jesus, for the shackles that have been broken in my life!

Written by Billy Graham, Founder of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association(BGEA). BGEA exists to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ by every effective means and to equip the church and others to do the same.

A Promise For You From Bible Promises:

Topic: Stand And Fight Like Men [06/05/2017]

Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. 1 Samuel 4:9. Read: 1 Sam 4:1-11

Apart from ignorance of God’s word, another thing that can hinder the victory of a child of God is sin. God only fights for His children who are righteous in all their ways. He comes in when all hope is lost. Many make costly assumptions and one of which is  that God is with them simply because things are going smoothly for them. Even when many experience hardship, they never care to ask or find out the reason behind their ordeal. This is the case of the Israelites. When they were smitten by the Philistines, they thought it was because the Ark of God was not with them. They sent for the Ark, when the Philistines heard the voice of the children of Israel, they were sore afraid and said who shall deliver us from this God?

But they encouraged themselves to fight like men. For the sin in the camp of the Israelites, the Philistines prevailed. Sin robs you of your legal right and keeps victory far from you. Sin denies you what rightly belongs to you. You must earnestly contend for the faith and your salvation, lest you become a slave of the devil. The Philistines said, be strong and fight, lest you become a slave to Israel. In the same vain, you must fight to defend your salvation to avoid being a slave to the devil in this end time.

#BiblePromisesThought

* Sin is a cancer that truncates and destroys men’s good testimony, avoid it and stay holy

Topic: Take The Risk! [Saturday May 6, 2017]

The cost price for becoming a king is taking a risk.

Take the risk to become the king!

That’s what David did.

Crowns are always transferred to risk-takers.

The crown shifted from the head of the indolent, coward, non-challant King Saul to the head of a risk-taking young lad David.

Kingship is seeking for just anyone who is prepared to take the risk.

Will you take your life in your hand; sentence yourself to death?

Dare the opposition to damn the opposition.

Be prepared to die if you must preserve your life.

Life is never preserved by trying to save, hide or keep it.

Be prepared to lose it and you shall save it.

Will you risk your life for the throne!

There is no risk-free zone in life.

There is no path void of challenges.

Take that risk now and you will certainly become the next king!

Topic: Pray at All Times [Saturday May 6, 2017]

Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty.… — Ephesians 6:18

In the verse for today, Paul is basically saying that we are to pray in every circumstance, following the Holy Spirit’s direction, using different types of prayer in different situations. But how do we “pray at all times,” as the Bible instructs? We do it by keeping an attitude of thanksgiving and total dependence upon God as we go about our everyday lives, turning our thoughts toward Him in the midst of doing all the things we have to do and listening for His voice in every situation.

I believe God really wants us to live a lifestyle of prayer and that He wants to help us stop thinking about prayer as an event and begin to see it as a way of life, as an internal activity that undergirds everything else we do. He wants us to talk to Him and listen to Him continually—to pray our way through every day with our hearts connected to His and our ears attuned to His voice.

We often hear about a prayer need or think about a situation and say to ourselves, I need to pray about that later when I pray. That thought is a stall tactic of the enemy. Why not pray right that minute? We do not pray right away because of the wrong mind-sets we have about prayer. It would be easy if we just followed our hearts, but Satan wants to complicate prayer. He wants us to procrastinate in the hope that we will forget the matter entirely.

Praying as we sense the desire or need to pray is simple, and it is the way we can pray continually and stay connected to God in every situation throughout the day.

Topic: Sons Are Spirit-Led [Saturday 6, May 2017]

Memorise: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. – Romans 8:14

Read: Romans 8:13-14 (KJV)

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Bible in One Year: Deuteronomy 4, Jeremiah 26:12-24, Hymn: Sing hymn 15

MESSAGE:

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” – John 6:63

To a natural man, the words of Jesus Christ and the message of the cross are all foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:14). A person who is not living in the Spirit cannot comprehend the message of Jesus Christ because it originates from the Holy Spirit. This is why it takes the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of a natural man’s understanding and convict his heart, before he can accept Jesus Christ into his life. To live in the Spirit, you need the Holy Spirit to quicken you. It is His work to make you alive and to strengthen you spiritually. When you are down or tired, if you pray in the spirit long enough, you will find the required strength to undertake the assignment ahead of you. Every assignment that God has for you is first spiritual and then physical. This is why you cannot effectively perform a divine assignment using only physical means. Even when you have to undertake the physical aspects of a divine assignment, you need spiritual stamina or input to be effective.

Moreover, if you live in the Spirit, you should also be led by the Spirit. Who leads you reveals who owns you (Romans 6:16). To understand what it means to be led by the Spirit, read up the account of the operations of the Holy Spirit in the life of Philip in Acts 8:26-40. If you are saved and you barely receive divine guidance from the Holy Spirit, you are still a babe in the Kingdom; but if you are regularly led of the Holy Spirit – meaning you hear His voice and fellow His instructions – then you have most likely attained the level of maturity in the faith where you can be called a son (Hebrews 5:11-14). God is looking for sons and not just babes! There are several Kingdom assignments that God wants to give out, but He is looking for sons to take them up. Sons hear His voice and obey promptly, but babes find it difficult even to recognise God’s voice. Sons are guided by the Holy Spirit into all truth, because they can accept it and run with it, but babes cannot stand certain truths (John 16:12-13). If there are some truths from God’s word that can make you to turn back from following the Lord, you are still a babe and not a son yet. The word of God contains depths of truth. While babes read through it without getting much, sons carefully go step by step through it to harness the volumes of truth contained in it. Are you a babe or a son?

Prayer Point: Father, give me ears that hear Your Spirit, and give me a heart that follows His leading.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.

iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.