Monday 12th – Friday 16th October, 2020
Weekly Anchor Scripture: “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” – Isaiah 7: 9b
GENERAL WEEKLY INTRODUCTION
One of the most popular verses of the Bible in the mouths of heavenly-ready Christians is Hebrews 11: 6 which affirm that without faith, no man will qualify to see the Lord. Meanwhile, several attempts have been made by most preachers and writers alike at identifying what faith is and how to have faith and most especially, the physical benefits of faith.
However, for a faith to qualify for the purpose for which God designed and demanded it, seeing God on the Last Day, it MUST not remain what I call ORDINARY FAITH but MUST have some qualities which the Holy Spirit calls the Ingredients of a good faith for us this week. We sincerely pray that our hearts of understanding be enlightened, our hearts be drawn closer Home and to Him with this week’s teaching, and may we eventually FINISH STRONG in Him in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
MONDAY 12TH OCTOBER, 2020
Topic: BE VIRTUOUS
Focus Scripture: “. . . giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. . . .” – 2 Peter 1: 5
Admonition
I bring you greetings from the Throne of Grace in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
It is Proverbs 12: 4 that says a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband and Proverbs 31: 10 that talks about the price of a virtuous woman being far above rubies. Because of these two verses of the Bible, we have literally limited the issue of virtuousness to women in our fold, with many users even in limbo as to the meaning of the word “virtue”.
For the sake of clarity and brevity, to have virtue or be virtuous simply means to have excellent moral characters. It means to live in conformity with sound moral principles or to align one’s behaviours and thoughts with the strictures of morality. Without any need of sounding immodest, we all know that what it means to have morals is to have good behaviours and character codes. For example, it was normal for a younger person to release their seats for the elderly, wherever, in the past. But, does that still apply today? Mention needs to be quickly made of the fact that our virtuousness ought not only to be to our Christian lives only, but to every facet of our life interactions.
There is no point deceiving ourselves here, brethren. There are many of us today all over our Christian denominations who are very far away from the path of FINISHING STRONG because of the faith we said we have come to have “in Christ” because we have allowed the faith that was supposed to liberate us from the bondage of sin to push us further down into the abyss of sin with its stranglehold on our salvation. Sadly though, most of us are unaware! For example, there is no land where stealing is permitted. But, don’t we have ushers and pastors stealing in the church today? In the good olden days, prostitution was forbidden almost everywhere, but most denominations today allow sisters to bare all like the normal prostitutes, even inside the church. Cheating and defrauding were once abominations, but today, quoting Scriptures out of context and using their authorities as shepherds of the lord’s sheep, are pastors, founders, G.O.s and the likes not cheating and defrauding their members? Lastly in our examples, telling lies was once forbidden, but straight from the pulpit today, we have lies, lies and lies upon lies flying around, all in the name of making the people believe and drop their substance for the “work of God” that never finishes.
As we close this morning, the book of 1 John 5: 17 makes it very clear that “all unrighteousness is sin . . . .” You may want to agree with the Holy Spirit this morning that none of the things mentioned above is out of the unrighteousness circle. Therefore, if we are caught in such webs as mentioned above or those not even mentioned but which we know are against the normal moral codes, we qualify among those holding truth in unrighteousness against whom the Bible says the wrath of God will be revealed (Romans 1; 18). And the Holy Spirit says we need to reckon that none against who the anger of God burnt will ever FINISH STRONG.
Finally this morning beloved brethren, our Focus Scripture this morning admonishes that we must add virtue to our faith. There is no need grandstanding that I am a born-again Christian or I am spirit-filled. If we are not morally upright, both in the church and out of it, our faith is not yet complete because we will be living in unrighteousness. But the Bible says if these things be in us we will have good knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1: 8).
Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him!
N. B. We will like to welcome your feedback either by way of comments under each daily devotional or as a private message. You could reach us through bwgospelministries@yahoo.comor via 07064694037. Please, feel free to ask any questions or add to what the Holy Spirit daily dish out to us, remember, “iron sharpeneth iron.”
Jesus loves you!