Topic: The Struggles of Life — Saturday September 2, 2017

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree … — 1 Peter 2:24

All life is a struggle—that is the nature of things. Even within our physical bodies, doctors tell us, a conflict for supremacy is going on. The bacteria in our bloodstream are waging a constant war against alien germs. The red corpuscles fight the white corpuscles constantly in an effort to maintain life within the body. A battle is also raging in the spiritual realm. “We fight,” the Bible says, “against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Darkness hates light.

I have a dog that would rather dig up a moldy carcass to chew on than to have the finest, cleanest meal. He can’t help it—that is his nature. Men cannot help that it is their nature to respond to the lewd, the salacious, and the vile. They will have difficulty doing otherwise until they are born again. And until they are changed by the power of Christ, they will likely be at enmity against those who are associated with Christ.

Prayer for the day: When I consider the work of Jesus on this earth—which led to His supreme sacrifice—I pray all my labor this day will glorify You, my beloved Savior.

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.

Topic: Depend On God, Not The Gift – Saturday September 2, 2017.

Mark 11:2 “And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.”

Mark 11:1-6

The gifts of the Spirit are not meant to be a substitute for our own faith in the Lord. We are not to depend so completely on some individual with a spiritual gift that we neglect our own spiritual growth and maturity. We can receive anything we need from the Lord without a gift of the Spirit operating through another individual, if we know how to believe. Dependence on the Lord directly is superior to dependence on the Lord indirectly through someone operating in one of the spiritual gifts.

What if there were no gifts of the Spirit and the Lord established that the only way we could receive from Him was through our own faith? There would be some individuals who would get born again who already had terminal diseases but didn’t have enough time left to mature in their faith and receive healing. They would die if it wasn’t for others interceding for them or someone with the gift of healing praying for them. That’s why the Lord gave these gifts–to keep us encouraged and alive so we can mature.

It is also wrong for an individual not to mature in his personal faith in the Lord and become dependent on the gifts. It is not right for someone to receive a miracle through someone with the gift of miracles and then just struggle along until the next time that gifted minister comes through town.

The Lord wants us to receive His power through these gifts, but then we must mature so that we can walk in God’s best on our own.

We are able to mature beyond a total dependency on the gifts to where we can hear and receive from God directly. But none of us will ever reach such a level of maturity in the Lord where there is nothing left to learn or receive. Let Him teach you through His Word today.

This message was written by The Association of Related Ministries International (ARMI) is an extension of Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWM). ARMI is a unique partnership committed to providing resources to help like-minded ministers succeed in a spirit of excellence and to draw from the experience and expertise of both the AWM and Charis Bible College staff. (www.awmi.net)

Topic: Don’t Run Alone — Saturday September 2, 2017.

Read: Exodus 17:8-13, Bible in a Year: Psalms 137–139; 1 Corinthians 13

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . . let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

My husband Jack was on mile 25 out of 26 when his strength failed him.

This was his first marathon, and he was running alone. After stopping for a drink of water at an aid station, he felt exhausted and sat down on the grass beside the course. Minutes passed, and he couldn’t get up. He had resigned himself to quitting the race when two middle-aged schoolteachers from Kentucky came by. Although they were strangers, they noticed Jack and asked if he wanted to run with them. Suddenly, he found his strength restored. Jack stood and accompanied by the two women he finished the race.

Those women who encouraged Jack remind me of Aaron and Hur, two friends who helped Moses, the leader of the Israelites, at a key point (Ex. 17:8–13). The Israelites were under attack. In battle, they were winning only as long as Moses held his staff up (v. 11). So when Moses’s strength began to fail, Aaron and Hur stood on either side of him, holding up his arms for him until sunset (v. 12).

Following God is not a solo endeavor. He did not create us to run the race of life alone. Companions can help us persevere through difficulty as we do what God has called us to do.

Prayer: God, thank You for relationships that encourage me to continue following You. Help me to be a source of strength for others, as well.

Who can I encourage to persevere through difficulty today?

Insight:

Several unique battle plans recorded in Scripture include marching around a city and blowing trumpets (Josh. 6), surrounding the camp with torches and blowing trumpets (Judg. 7), and today’s story of raising hands (Ex. 17). While we have no record of when or why the battle plan in Exodus 17 was established, Moses’s lifted hands was clearly the deciding factor in who was winning (see v. 11). However, it wasn’t just up to Moses to keep his hands raised; the result was the same when Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s hands.

The combined efforts of Moses, Aaron, and Hur allowed Joshua to win the battle. In verses 14–16 we read something interesting about Joshua: He may not have known he was being helped. Moses instructs that the events of the battle, both on the field and behind the scenes, be written in a scroll and to make sure Joshua hears it (v. 14). Perhaps Moses intended that Joshua not think the battle was won by the strength of the army or by brilliant leadership. But it’s possible that he wanted Joshua to know he wasn’t alone in the battle, just as Moses wasn’t alone in his task.

This message was written By Amy Peterson [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

HAPPY NEW MONTH OF SEPTEMBER AND MONTH OF FULFILED PROMISE……….AMEN.

Topic — Beethoven: The Glory of Holding On [Friday 1 September, 2017]

(Deuteronomy 33:22-27).

A Professor once tested his medical students about a medical situation. He told them: “Here is the family history of a patient: The father has syphilis. The mother has tuberculosis. They already have four children; the first is blind. The second has diabetes, the third is deaf, the fourth has tuberculosis also; now the mother is pregnant and comes to you for advice. They are willing to have an abortion, if you decide they should. What would you say to them? The students gave various individual opinions and then the professor asked them to break into smaller groups for further consultation. All the groups came back to report that they would recommend abortion.

“Congratulations” the sad professor said, “You just took the life of Beethoven!!!” Oh, as I write this, I just remembered the crash of the Nigerian Sosoliso airplane on December 10th 2005 in which 71 children with great stars perished. I also lost a very dear, lady pastor in that plane crash. God’s message to a user of today’s devtional is that problems should not make a man to quit his/her confidence in God. Never confuse failing with failure. If the parents had aborted hin due to their harsh difficulties, Beethoven would have died and what a loss to musical schools and musical history on planet earth.

Whatever you are trusting God for, never give up now! Listen to Frank Rooselvelt: “When you come to the end of your rope…….tie a knot and hang on.” God gave you shoes of brass and iron to enable you to match on scorpions and serpents in life’s battles! Refuse to quit now! Resist discouragement! You will still testify that God is good. Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!.

THE U.S.A TELEPHONE ANOINTING SERVICE WITH DR CHRIS, IS SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2017. TEL NO: +1-712-432-0075 And Access Code is 374042. Time is 6am Central Time. Bring your OIL and prayer points!

Prayer Points: Take any song of worship as led.

1. Thank God for today’s word and pray as you are led!

2. Your being alive is a miracle! Worship God for another day!

3. Pray about today’s message as you are led.

4. Father, I make up my mind to hold on and trust You again concerning this matter (mention it now). Lord,make sure I am not ashamed in Jesus Christ name (Pray it very well).

5. Lord, shake away every agent of discouragement out of my life in Jesus Christ name.

6. Pray the morning and evening devotional prayers daily.

SUPPORT THE ONE NIGERIA, ONE ODM PROJECT OF OCTOBER 1ST. SOW A SEED FOR PRODUCTION OF MORE ODM COPIES IN EVERY NIGERIA HOME. SEE PAGE 29 FOR ACCOUNT DETAILS.

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

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

Topic: Do Nothing And Get Nothing [Friday September 1, 2017]

The formula for getting nothing is simple and straight forward: just simply do nothing.

This is the line between success and failure.

Successful people keeps doing something while failures are watching, doing nothing whatsoever.

If what you do is nothing then don’t expect something.

Doing nothing disqualifies you from getting something.

Those who do nothing are not expected to have anything.

No man ever reaps from where he did not sow!

What you do determines what you get

Topic: Is Your Conscience Alive? — Saturday 2, September 2017.

Memorise: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.  – 1 Peter 3:16

Read: 2 Samuel 12:7-14 (KJV)

7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 1-4, Ezekiel 34:11-24, Hymn: Sing hymn 9: On The Hill Far Away

MESSAGE:

A true representative of a good family will do everything possible to protect the name of the family. For this reason, Proverbs 22:1 says,

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.”

If you are a worthy child of God, you will do all you can to honour God’s Name, and you will never bring it into disrepute. Honouring God’s Name goes beyond lip service; God expects you to prove that you honour Him through your actions. In 1 Samuel 17:1-51, David was angry that an uncircumcised Philistine could boldly insult the God of Israel, and yet nobody could do anything about it. He therefore took up the challenge of defending God’s Name. What have you done to defend or honour God’s Name? In what way has your nation, state, community or even your workplace recognised the Lordship and greatness of God above all other gods because of your presence there? The patriarchs of old were not ashamed to stand for this same God, even at the cost of their lives (Hebrews 11:36-37). But how is it with you today? Are you even ashamed to publicly associate yourself with Jesus Christ, so that your peers and superiors will not look down on you?

If you truly hallow God’s Name, then under no circumstance would you defile that Name. When someone looks at you and say, “How could you do this? And you call yourself a child of God!” Those words will go through you like a hot iron if your conscience is alive. If those words were spoken to you because you truly did err from the faith, you would feel pain in your heart, become miserable and feel ashamed of yourself. If indeed your conscience is alive, in such a moment, you would see yourself as a wretched sinner and immediately run to the cross of Calvary for mercy and forgiveness. If your conscience is however dead, you may not feel a thing and just move on as if nothing ever happened. Is your conscience still alive? Does it warn you before you do any evil? Does it prick you when you sin? In 2 Samuel 11, David and Bathsheba fell into the sin of adultery. By the time Nathan confronted David over this evil act, he felt horrible. He was broken and in pain. God told him that his actions had brought shame and disgrace to His Name (2 Samuel 12:14). David genuinely repented, and God forgave him. At what stage do you realise you have sinned, and what is your response to this realisation?

Prayer Point: Father, from now on, may I never bring shame to Your Name by my deeds.

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.

Topic: The First Missionary — Friday September 1, 2017

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. — Matthew 4:19

Jesus Himself was the first missionary! He did not sit by passively and let those who happened to be interested in His teaching come to Him. He went out where the sick, the sorrowing, and the sad were, and expounded His message of joy, healing, and salvation. Even at a tender age, He went to the Temple and “taught” the doctors and lawyers who were entrenched in the old traditions. He found His way to the seaside and intruded upon the life of the commonest of laborers, saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Wherever He went He challenged, uprooted, and changed men. And at length they nailed Him to a cross because He had upset their selfish, secure, smug way of life. Not only was Jesus a missionary, but He pledged His followers to be missionaries, too!

Prayer for the day: Wherever I go, it is a mission field for You, Lord. Help me to be conscious of this, so that I may tell others the joyous message.

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.

Topic: The Miracle of the Donkey and Colt – Friday September 1, 2017.

John 12:14-15 “And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.”

Text: John 12:14-15

This is the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. Notice how specific Zechariah’s prophecy is and how exactly it was fulfilled. Zechariah prophesied Jesus not only riding an ass, but also a colt (unbroken), the foal of an ass. Zechariah also mentioned the people rejoicing greatly and shouting which certainly came to pass on this day.

All four gospels include a triumphal entry, but only Matthew records a donkey with a colt. A simple explanation to a so-called “contradiction” is that Jesus rode the colt while the other donkey went along. No doubt, He rode each animal part of the way.

Not only was it a miracle that Jesus knew about the ass and its colt, but also where they would be. God also worked some kind of miracle in the owner of these animals so that he would be willing to release them. It is possible that the Lord also revealed to this man that Jesus would need his animals.

Perhaps he was just a devoted follower of Jesus who gladly surrendered them when he knew Jesus was the one wanting them. Either way, it was just as much a miracle that the owner was willing to surrender them as it was that Jesus knew exactly where they would be.

Jesus hadn’t been in Jerusalem in quite a while and there is no indication that He had made previous arrangements with anyone there to obtain this ass and its colt. This was nothing less than supernatural knowledge imparted to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus did, let God’s gifts flow through you today.

This message was written by The Association of Related Ministries International (ARMI) is an extension of Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWM). ARMI is a unique partnership committed to providing resources to help like-minded ministers succeed in a spirit of excellence and to draw from the experience and expertise of both the AWM and Charis Bible College staff. (www.awmi.net)

Topic: God’s Doing Something New — Friday September 1, 2017.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 3:6–13, Bible in a Year: Psalms 135–136; 1 Corinthians 12

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. – 1 Thessalonians 3:12

“Is God doing something new in your life?” was the question the leader asked in a group I was in recently. My friend Mindy, who is dealing with some difficult situations, responded. She told of needing patience with aging parents, stamina for her husband’s health issues, and understanding of her children and grandchildren who have not yet chosen to follow Jesus. Then she made an insightful comment that runs contrary to what we might normally think: “I believe the new thing God is doing is He’s expanding my capacity and opportunities to love.”

That fits nicely with the apostle Paul’s prayer for new believers in Thessalonica: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thess. 3:12). He had taught them about Jesus but had to leave abruptly because of rioting (Acts 17:1–9). Now in his letter he encouraged them to continue to stand firm in their faith (1 Thess. 3:7–8). And he prayed that the Lord would increase their love for all.

Lord, open my eyes to love.

During difficulties we often choose to complain and ask, Why? Or wonder, Why me? Another way to handle those times could be to ask the Lord to expand His love in our hearts and to help us take the new opportunities that come to love others.

Prayer: I’ve got my own list of things I could worry about, Lord. Change my thinking. Open my eyes to love.

 Our troubles can fill our prayers with love and empathy for others.

Insight:

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is filled with warmth and tenderness for dear friends. He ministered in the midst of suffering, imprisonment, and persecution, but his passion for seeing people (like the Thessalonians) enter into relationship with Christ was undeterred. As a result, Paul endured these almost continuous hardships without losing his focus on the needs of people. This is clearly seen in 2 Corinthians 11:22–33, where Paul catalogues the price he paid for the gospel and for them. While we may never suffer as the apostle did, how might we wisely respond to the trials we do encounter so that others can be touched by God’s love?

This message was written By Anne Cetas [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]