Topic: A Blameless Bride [Open Heavens for Teens 5 May 2019]
Memorise: “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” – Psalms 73:24
Read: Revelation 22:12
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Bible In One Year: 1 Kings 10-11, Luke 24:1-35
MESSAGE:
If you are born again, Jesus is your Husband; you have been betrothed to Him. He has paid your dowry and has gone to prepare for your wedding. He is coming very soon to take you home. If you value this, it will affect you conduct and lifestyle. Ephesians 5:27 says:
“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. “
Anyone who takes this truth to heart and acts accordingly will not be seen misbehaving; such a person will always comport him/herself. They will not be seen fighting, backbiting, or cheating in exams, neither will they be flirting around. You are the wife of the King of kings; your position must reflect in your disposition and conduct every time.
Key Point: Christ is coming for a blameless bride. How blameless are you?
1. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey.
Chorus:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
2 Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
3 Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
4 But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
5 Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Daily Devotional for Teen’s 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.
Topic: Living Holy among the Ungodly (Open Heaven 5 May 2019)
Memorise: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”- Daniel 1:8
Read: Genesis 39:7-12 (KJV)
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.
11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.
12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
Bible in One Year: Exodus 1-3, Jeremiah 31:1-14
Open Heaven 5 May 2019 Sunday MESSAGE:
People often cite their environment as the reason why they live a sinful lifestyle, but this is untenable before God. A good number of people who found themselves in ungodly environments still maintain their loyalty to the Holy God, and they will testify against such people on the last day. Indeed, living holy among ungodly people is possible. Joseph is one example of someone who lived a righteous life in the midst of the ungodly. As seen in today’s Bible reading, he lived under the same roof with an ungodly person who happened to be his boss, and yet he kept his integrity. Nowadays, some people who profess to be born again easily give in when pressured by their superiors to do ungodly things at work. They do this either to gain a promotion or because they fear losing their job, forgetting that the Holy Spirit said those who will live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). They also ignored His admonition in 1 Timothy 6:6 which says:
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Sadly, in spite of what the Lord said in Mark 10:29-30, many people believe that to be born again is to escape a life that will experience persecutions. For such people, living a holy life is not a possibility.
What is holiness? It is simply obedience to the word of God. When you are obedient to God’s word, you demonstrate faith in Him, and your life will be pleasing in His sight. That is what holiness is all about. It was disobedience that took Adam from a position of glory to labouring under a curse. Take a cue from Joseph who in the face of deadly pressure said in Genesis 39:9:
“…how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Daniel is another person whose life showed that living a godly life in the midst of ungodliness is possible. His actions in today’s memory verse demonstrates that living a holy life is a matter of personal decision. Some people would not want to join the police force because they believe policemen are corrupt. This is not true! You can be a police officer and decide not to be corrupt. Some run away from being accountants so that they are not tempted to falsify figures. How wrong they are! You don’t need to be an accountant before you steal the funds of an organization. A governor who purposes in his heart not to embezzle public funds will maintain his integrity, whereas a messenger could end up stealing cans of coffee in his or her custody. Irrespective of your location, with Christ in you, you can live a holy life and enjoy the promotion that it brings, just like Joseph and David did.
Open Heaven 5 May 2019 Sunday Prayer Point:
Father, grant me grace to live in obedience to your word even in the midst of ungodliness.
Open Heaven 5 May 2019 Sunday Hymn 10: I Have Decided To Follow Jesus
1 I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
2 The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.
3 Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though- none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
4 My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
5 Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
Will you decide now to follow Jesus?
No turning back, no turning back.
Open Heaven 5 May 2019 Sunday 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. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC. Open Heaven 5 May 2019 Sunday Daily Devotional.
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Lord Jesus, come into my life. I accept You as my Lord and Personal Saviour. I believe in my heart You died and rose from the dead to save me. Thank You Lord for saving me, in Jesus name Amen.
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A Promise For You From Bible Promises: [04/MAY/2019]
Topic: Clothed In His Righteousness
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
The Bible is filled with numerous promises of the ever faithful God and the reality of these promises coming to pass in the lives of those it was given to. The coming of Jesus Christ to the world to die for the sins of man brought perfection to everything God initially created but was deformed by Satan as a result of the fall of man from grace. Man lost his position (given by God) to Satan, but Jesus the grace of God personified came and restored it to man. We were no people to God before but now through the ministry of reconciliation Jesus came to establish, we’re now His people – His treasure.
Now, the Bible says we’re the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This is awesome to hear and believe. But you see, that Christ has done everything for us does not mean those things will fall upon us like a pack of card, we must deliberately lay hold on what He has done for us and follow all the principles. To those who are in Christ Jesus, we’re clothed in His righteousness, God sees us as righteous through Jesus’ righteousness. We are clothed in Christ righteousness and we must continue to be clothed with Christ, lest we loss our standing with God. To those who are yet to surrender to Jesus, your righteousness is as a filthy rag before God, God sees your sin and will reward you accordingly. Therefore, you must change that self-righteousness (fake) for the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ (original).
Bible Promises Thought: When you play your part, you enjoy all the promises of God concerning your life and family.
Progressive Christian Leader Rachel Held Evans Dies at 37
Rachel Held Evans, noted American Christian blogger, author and speaker, died at 37 on Saturday, May 4 after spending weeks in a medically-induced coma.
ChristianHeadlines had previously reported that Evans had been placed in the coma on Good Friday due to seizures caused by medications used to treat an infection for which Evans had been hospitalized. Since then, Evans’ husband, Dan, had been updating followers on her condition through her blog. In his post of this morning, May 4, Dan Evans wrote:
Rachel died early Saturday morning, May 4, 2019.
This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it’s a nightmare from which I’ll awake. I feel like I’m telling someone else’s story. I cannot express how much the support means to me and our kids. To everyone who has prayed, called, texted, driven, flown, given of themselves physically and financially to help ease this burden: Thank you. We are privileged. Rachel’s presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her.
A mother of two, Evans was raised in evangelical Christianity but for years had no longer considered herself a part of evangelicalism, having joined the Episcopalian church and challenging the American Christian right-wing establishment in her Twitter posts and in books like Evolving in Monkey Town, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and Searching for Sunday. Her final book, Inspired, was…
How do you know if your church is developing unhealthy preaching culture? Sure, there are obvious signs such as people falling asleep, playing games, or roaming the hallways during the sermon. But I think at that point, your church is just spiritually dead. There are subtle warning signs that I think churches should spot as signs of unhealthiness. What are those signs? Here are five.
Sunshine, free time, and a good book. Those three ingredients make for a pretty solid summer day. Often the hardest part is deciding what to read. Fiction? Classics? Theology? Biography? There are so many choices and the decision can become overwhelming. In an effort to make your decision easier, we asked Facts & Trends readers what they would suggest for a summer reading list. Looking at the responses, here are 11 recently-released books with a quick description and a link to easily add them your summer reading library.
Sometimes even we pastors lack a sincere reverence for God. We may speak otherwise, but our actions suggest that we don’t really see God as God. In fact, sometimes we act as if we’re God—and thus become blasphemous:
Anglicans on both sides of the debate about sexuality within the church are unhappy with plans for the Lambeth Conference in 2020, with some, including the Bishop of Liverpool, Rt Rev Paul Bayes, saying their partners will not come, in protest at same-sex bishops not being allowed to bring their partners.
Current Church of England doctrine states that clergy cannot conduct a same-sex wedding and the rules on whether clergy can marry a same-sex partner varies in different countries, with the Episcopal Church in the US allowing same-sex marriage since 2015, but in England only civil partnerships are allowed, on the assumption that they remain celibate, and marriage is not.
Aside from the issue of gay partners attending, there are complaints that clergy in same-sex partnerships are being allowed to attend themselves.
GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference), a group of Anglicans who say they ‘work to guard and proclaim the unchanging, transforming Gospel through biblically faithful preaching and teaching’, are the main voice of this concern.
In June 2018, their members gathered in Jerusalem and called on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Rev Justin Welby, “not to invite bishops of those Provinces which have endorsed by word or deed sexual practices which are in contradiction to the teaching of Scripture and Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference,…
On Friday, Westminster Abbey hosted a service for the Royal Navy ‘recognising’ fifty years of the UK having nuclear deterrents at sea.
The ceremony was attended by the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, and the Abbey’s Dean did the bidding and address.
Very Rev Dr John Hall prayed that the navy would never have to use the weapons but added: “We give thanks for all the thousands of people who have designed, built, supported, and crewed the submarines during these past fifty years and for their families, and we continue to pray for the life and work of the Royal Navy, in particular for its submarine service.”
In his address, the Dean spoke about a Japanese bishop whom he had once heard speak about his experience of witnessing the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The Dean explained how different things were now, with nine countries said to have nuclear weapons and that major global conflicts, he said, had been largely avoided.
He referenced the controversy around the event: “Since we announced our intention to hold this service, I have received very many personal letters, and our communications team a very large number of emails, telling us that the General Synod, the governing council of the Church of England, had voted against nuclear weapons. Moreover, they said, the message of Jesus was about peace, not violence. They asked us repeatedly to abandon this…
Thomas Orchard, 32, died in hospital seven days after being arrested and taken to Heavitree Road police station in Exeter, Devon, in October 2012.
During his detention, the church caretaker who had mental health issues was restrained and an emergency response belt (ERB) was placed across face for five minutes and two seconds to prevent spitting or biting.
In a landmark conviction in 2018, the office of the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police pleaded guilty to breaches under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The charge stated that the force failed to ensure non-employees, including Mr Orchard, were not exposed to risks in connection with the ERB.
Judge Julian Lambert previously ruled he could not be sure that the ERB, a tough webbing belt designed to restrain limbs, was a contributory factor in Mr Orchard’s death.
He fined the force £234,500 and ordered it to pay £20,515 in prosecution costs during a hearing at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.
The judge described the seriousness of harm risked by the force’s breaches due to the “potential restriction of breathing” by use of the ERB about the head and face.
“I appreciate that there is a significant body of evidence that no-one was, in fact, killed or very seriously injured because of the use of the belt as a spit or bite guard,” Judge Lambert said.
“It is, however, my assessment that it was only a matter of…
Ann Moore-Martin was “gushing” about Benjamin Field, then aged 26, and acted as if she was “hypnotised” by him.
Oxford Crown Court heard Benjamin Field began a relationship with Miss Moore-Martin as part of a “gaslighting” plot a few months after allegedly murdering her neighbour, Peter Farquhar, in the picturesque village of Maids Moreton, in Buckinghamshire.
Prosecutors allege Benjamin Field’s “project” was to befriend someone vulnerable, get them to change their will and then “make sure they died”.
Mr Field, the church warden, 28, the son of a Baptist minister, has admitted fraud by pretending to be in a relationship with the elderly spinster but denies conspiring with his friend Martyn Smith, 32, a magician, to murder her.
Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Miss Moore-Martin confided in her sister-in-law Gillian Moore-Martin that they were a couple.
“She said she loved him. She said they would sit together on the sofa and he would put his arm round her and fluff his eyelashes down her cheek,” he said.
“Ann Moore-Martin was gushing about Benjamin Field. She sounded like a lovestruck teenager. It was as if she was hypnotised by him.”
Field is accused alongside Smith of plotting to make the church-going pensioner’s death an accident, such as dying during sex, falling down the stairs and choking on her dentures, or suicide having got her to change her…
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. — Acts 3:1
Many people feel vaguely guilty about their prayer life because they compare themselves to others. God is a creative God and wants each person to have his or her own individual prayer life. Your prayer life doesn’t have to be just like anyone else’s.
Yes, there are proven principles of prayer that you can follow. As we see in Acts 3:1, the early disciples set aside certain hours of the day when they would go to a designated place to pray. That is good self-discipline, but that should be the start of learning to pray and not the finish.
We can discipline ourselves to establish a prayer schedule that is individually suited to us, but we can also learn to pray without ceasing. That means to pray at all times, in all places, with all kinds of prayer. I like to say, “Pray your way through the day.” Let prayer become like breathing, something you do with ease and without effort.
We never have to “wait” to pray. Each time you see a need or think of anything you need help with, pray right away! Prayer is talking to God, and since He is everywhere, we can talk to Him all the time.
Prayer Starter: Father, thank You for the incredible privilege of prayer! Help me to be mindful of You throughout the day and form the habit of talking to you about everything, any time. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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