Of God and Mankind

  Deuteronomy 5:9b-10    “ for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,   10 And showing mercy  and steadfast love to thousands  and to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”   Dear people of God, there are some Christians who are of the view that the above Scripture does not apply to Christians since we are now operating under the New Testament and that the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.   One could even rightly reference the infallible Word of God in the Bible to buttress this point whilst quoting what God says in Ezekiel 18:20 (AMPC), “ The soul that sins, it [is the one that] shall die. The son shall not bear  and be punished for the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear  and be punished for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the r...

  PROVERBS 21:23-24   “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles. [Prov. 12:13; 13:3; 18:21; James 3:2.]   24 The proud  and haughty man–Scoffer is his name–deals  and acts with overbearing pride.”   Dear people of God, some years ago, I had a very bad habit of mocking others without realising that I was hurting people. By God’s grace I have given up the bad habit.   One of the biggest sins many engage in is talking bad about people behind their back and mocking or castigating them in their presence.   Some women have a very nasty habit of scouting round for hurtful information concerning others and whenever they enter a quarrel with such people, they begin to release their “missile” of hurtful words from their mouth against the person with intent to cause great distress, pain and sadness.   For the menfolk, what some do is crack spiteful and cruel jokes against others and they see it as a normal way of life. ...

1 Timothy 2:8    “ I desire therefore that in every place men should pray, without anger  or quarreling  or resentment or doubt [in their minds], lifting up holy hands.”   Dear people of God, prayer is a necessity for anyone who would successfully navigate the challenges of this life.   You cannot measure a person’s success in life just by material things because there are very many wealthy people whose lives are in severe crisis, e.g. marital squabbles, health challenges, insomnia, unruly kids, fear of death (Thanatophobia), fear of failure (Atychiphobia), fear of air travel (Aerophobia), etc.   With prayer to God in faith and trust, every human being would surely obtain that peace of mind that surpasses all understanding as God’s Word says in Philippians 4:6-7.   However, today’s main Holy Bible text shows there are hindrances to prayer that everyone should first deal with before going to God in prayer.   These are listed as anger, quarreli...

1 Samuel 30:6 (AMPC)  “ David was greatly distressed, for the men spoke of stoning him because the souls of them all were bitterly grieved, each man for his sons and daughters. But David encouraged  and strengthened himself in the Lord His God.”   Dear people of God, there are many issues in this world that cause distress for human beings. The most common one is money.   Another one is sickness. In today’s lead Holy Bible text, David and his men were distressed because their family were abducted by the Amalekites.   It is stated here that as part of the measures to resolve his problem, David encouraged and strengthened himself in the Lord His God.   David went further by enquiring of God what next to do and God told him to go after the Amalekites and that he would recover all he and his men had lost.   David did exactly what God told him and he recovered all as God had promised – 1 Samuel 30:7-19.   In today’s world unfortunately, many have a diff...

Titus 1:16 (AMPC)  “ They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny  and disown  and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable  and loathsome, unbelieving  and disobedient  and disloyal  and rebellious, and [they are] unfit  and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.”   Dear people of God, whenever I hear someone commending his character, one thing I tell him is that it is difficult for someone to OBJECTIVELY assess himself.   As a result of sycophancy as well, it is also difficult even these days to obtain an objective assessment of oneself from others.   However, if a number of people are complaining about the same person’s character and the person does not see anything wrong with his or her character, then something is definitely wrong.   Do others describe you as hostile? Unfriendly? Unkind? Untrustworthy? Unstable? Unreliable? Can you be trusted to handle...

Luke 9:1-2,   6 (AMPC) 1 THEN JESUS called together the Twelve [apostles] and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases,   2 And He sent them out to announce  and preach the kingdom of God and to bring healing.   6  And departing, they went about from village to village, preaching the Gospel and restoring the afflicted to health everywhere.   Dear people of God, in the first part of the post on this topic, we saw how the Lord Jesus Christ commanded Christians to respond with love to the offences their human enemies commit against them.   We saw how praying for your human enemies to die as a Christian is clearly against Christ’s commandments and a sin Christians commit without realizing the gravity of their actions.   We saw that what makes Christians to pray for their human enemies to die is because they are either unaware of their God-given rights IN CHRIST over ALL powers of the enemy OR they are afraid of their hu...