Topic: Take Off the Mask [Sunday October 29, 2017]

And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. — 2 Corinthians 3:18

So many times we act one way on the outside, but we’re actually another way on the inside. Because we have weaknesses, faults and fears—things that we think make us less likable or desirable—we’d rather hide them from other people. So we wear masks.

The danger of wearing a mask is that it misrepresents us. What other people see is a lie. It’s not who we are or who we were born to be. We can change the outside, but we can’t change who we really are deep down inside—only God can change our hearts.

We need to realize that God loves us just the way we are right now, and His love for us will never diminish.

And there’s more good news. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that God is changing us and making us more like Himself, fixing the flaws we want to cover up.

Trust Him enough to take off your mask. You will find, as I have, that you are being changed, little by little, into the very image of your Lord.

Prayer Starter: Lord, I realize that I often wear a mask in order to fit in and find acceptance. Today, I make a decision to find my acceptance in You. As You overwhelm me with Your love, continue to change me into Your image.

From Joyce Meyer’s Ministries

Topic: Not Reprobate [Sunday 29, October 2017]

Memorise: “But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.” – 2 Corinthians 13:6

Read: 2 Corinthians 13:5-8

5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Bible In One Year: Luke 16-18. Hymn: Sing Hymn 5 – Oh Spread The Tiding Round

MESSAGE:

To be reprobate is very dangerous for the society and for the Christian faith in particular. The reason is not far-fetched; a reprobate person does immoral and unethical things without any sense of guilt or remorse because his conscience has been seared with a hot iron of deviance.

The of Some of the 21st century believers is the philosophy of relativism. This is a human error that should not be allowed in the body of Christ because it turns believers into reprobates. Some people have sold themselves to reprobate minds, and so no number of sermons they hear can change them. They keep saying, “My conscience does not condemn me”. The truth is that a dead conscience cannot condemn, because it is not active.

Prayer Point: Lord Jesus, please cleanse my conscience with Your Blood so that it may be more active and sensitive for You.

HYMN:
SING HYMN 5
OH SPREAD THE TIDING ROUND

Oh, spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound: The Comforter has come!

Chorus:
The Comforter has come,
The Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n,
The Lord’s dear promise giv’n;
Oh, spread the tidings ’round,
Wherever man is found,
The Comforter has come!

2. The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last;
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!
Chorus:

3. Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,
To every captive soul a full deliv’rance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings:
The Comforter has come!
Chorus:

4. O boundless love divine! how shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!
Chorus.

Open Heavens 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: No Way For Hypocrisy— Sunday October 29, 2017.

Text: Luke 11:37-54

Key Verse: “And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).

Adolf Hitler, who does not need any introduction in history, at assumption of office in Germany freely used Christian vocabulary, professed God’s blessing and Christian confessions, showed his pre-war tattered Bible and declared that he drew strength from it.

These claims made people to welcome him as a man sent from God. But was he really a believer in Christ? Our text is Jesus’ clear warning against hypocrisy which He spotted in the Pharisees’ lives. As one of them invited Him for a lunch, Jesus did not wash His hands as expected by the pharisees. That, of course, triggered their censorship. Jesus, immediately, cashed in on the opportunity and firmly upbraided them for their wrong way of worship.

They had many rules, which principally centred on outer things like washing cups and dishes. They emphasised these outward things, while failing to love God and exercise faith in Him. They paid their tithes but failed to take care of the needy. They always wanted to appear superior to others, desiring to be seen and respected. They were like graves with no marks, which people could walk upon without taking notice, and end-up wounded. Though they pretended to honour the prophets slain by their ancestors by building their graves, they did not obey what those prophets had taught them to do. Invariably, they behaved like their ancestors – approving their evil deeds.

Today, many so-called leaders still insist that people must follow unimportant rules while they themselves disregard God’s injunctions. At the end of time, God will tell them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” God wants us to have right thoughts and attitudes and be classic models of genuine transformation and purity.

Thought for the day: No child of God is a hypocrite.

Bible Reading in one Year: Hosea 1-4

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: The Coca-Cola Formula! [Sunday, October 29, 2017]

Coca-Cola has a formula for their drink. There is a vault (a safe) where the legendary secret for Coca-Cola is secured in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Regarded as the most closely guarded and best-kept secret, the secret formula has been closely guarded for over 125 years without leaks! Shocking! Coca-Cola inventor, John Pemberton, is known to have shared his formula with at least four people before his death in 1888.

In 1891, Asa Candler purchased the rights of the formula from Mr. Pemberton’s estate, founded the Coca-Cola company, and instituted the present secrecy that has since enveloped the formula. He also made significant changes to the ingredient list, which by most accounts improved the flavor, and also entitled his to claim that: Anyone in possession of Pemberton’s original formula no longer knew the ‘real’ formula! Again in 1919, Ernest Woodruff led a group of investors into purchasing the company from Candler and his family. As collateral for the acquisition loan, Woodruff placed the only written copy of the secret formula in a safe at the lending bank, Guaranty Bank in New York.

I n 1925, when loan was repaid, Woodruff relocated the written formula to the Trust Company Bank (now Sun Trust Bank) in Atlanta. On December 8, 2011, the company placed it in a secure safe on the grounds of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, where it remains on public “display.” According to the company, only two employees know the complete formula at any given time and they are not permitted to travel together. When one dies, the other must choose a successor within the company and impart the secret to that other person. The identity of the employees in possession of the secret is itself a secret.

Amazing! Just like Coca-Cola that has such an fantastic formula, you must have a ‘secret’ personal formula for the ‘drug’ called ‘happiness’ which you will need to PARALYZE DISCOURAGEMENT As 2017 ends and as you prepare for another 21-day fast in January 2018. I personally have 3 secrets:

1. MORE AND MORE OF HIM – JOHN 3:30

2. MORE AND MORE OF LESS AND LESS!

3. MAKE PEACE WITH YOURSELF! Never compare yourself to others!

Oh, number two formula has helped me daily to walk in inner peace: MORE AND MORE OF LESS AND LESS! That means I do more of having fewer desires for material of physical things. I also TRUST people less and less so that when they fail or betray me, I do not get shocked anymore! Indeed, when you wake to see life as VANITY daily, then your desires will be lesser (fewer) and lesser (fewer)! It provokes CONTENTMENT AND KILLS GREED as a secret formula for happiness! What is your secret! Pray now! GO TO CHURCH TODAY!

In the storms of life, ODM is life’s PARACHUTE. Give a soul/family/ministry reasons to partake and key in to ODM Daily for their spiritual, marital, financial, academic and individual enhancement in life’s endeavors.

By Bishop (Dr) Chris E. Kwakpovwe (Cek)
Publisher/Writer Of ODM And

Rev (Mrs) Flora E. Kwakpovwe (Fek)
Co-Publisher/Writer Of ODM.

Topic: It Has Been Done — Sunday October 29, 2017.

“Blessed be the Lord and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3 KJV)

Ever before you did right or wrong, God has already moved on your behalf. In Christ, God has already blessed us. It is not about you. It is because He has moved on your behalf on the cross of Calvary. That is why you are entitled to the blessing. It is not because you did right. It is because of Christ. So what is your assignment? Say thank you Jesus. Thank you for what you have done in my life. I believe I receive. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for delivering me. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for setting me free. That is your part. The fact that you have not yet seen the manifestation does not mean it has not been done. It has already been done!

The scripture says in Titus 2:11: “for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men”. But not all men have received it. Therefore the question is not whether it has been done, it is whether you are receiving what has already been done for you in Christ. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ, guarantees us complete and total victory, so all we have to do is believe and receive it.

With only a couple of days left in this fast, I want you to thank Him for all the answers, whether you have seen the manifestation or not, thank Him, because they shall all surely manifest. It’s already done.

Further Reading: 2 Peter 1:2-4

Daily Bible Reading: Morning- Jeremiah 18-19; Evening- 2 Timothy 3

Written by Dr. Mike Okonkwo; Is the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM); a versatile man of God with over 30 years of dedicated service unto the Lord.

Topic: Battle of the Spirit [Sunday October 29, 2017]

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts . . . — Colossians 3:15

When we examine the problems that confront us in our world today, we find that every one of them resolves into a problem of “inner space,” a problem of the dark side of the human spirit. From thousands of letters we receive, it is evident that a large proportion of the population is facing deep personal problems. They vary from person to person, but they do exist, and they are all problems of “inner space.”

Yes, we are the people who have been conquering outer space, but are in danger of losing the battle of the spirit. But there is a solution-for millions it has already been reached-and that solution is in Jesus Christ. He said, “My peace”-my liberty, my freedom-“I give unto you” (John 14:27).

Today if we will turn the searchlight of truth on the dark side of our human spirits and let Jesus Christ become the Master Control of our lives, a new day will dawn for us. Submit the “inner space” of your life to Him.

Prayer for the day: How often I hurt deep down inside me, Lord, but the knowledge of Your love and compassion brings me hope and peace.

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.