Heralds Digest

  “ Receive my instruction, and not silver; And knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” Proverbs 8 : 10 - 11 KJV While meditating on the scriptural admonition “ Receive my instruction ”, it becomes strange for the heart to ignore the danger of negative influences to godly instructions in life. Even the meekest man on earth, Moses, paid dearly for this error when he allowed the stiff-necked disposition of Israelites pushed him to the edge of disobedience and unbelief. “.. Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” wouldn’t have reverberated from the meek heart of Moses, if “ Receive my instruction ” had been guided. Obviously, life is filled with several kinds of ‘rubies right’ instructions; and those who must be rich in recognition by men, political relevance, social influences, etc, must fall into the traps. Whereas, God always guides the truly and consisten...

  “ And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day .” Luke 5 : 25 - 26 KJV If the departing man that was previously plagued or infected with palsy had encountered the press from the city’s media houses; and they had queried the source of his excitement and desired to cover his ‘from man’s gory to God’s glory ’ story, he wouldn’t have missed out the miracles of his encounter with Jesus Christ. Needless to mention that all of man's gory and misery had been the specimen for God’s glory and miracles while complaints, confusions, and conspiracy theories last; but we are readily wired to focus on our gory and misery until the appearance of God’s glory and miracles. What if believers in Christ Jesus always believe they are God’s glory waiting to manifest? Even in the deepest of life’s challenges a...

“ Trust in the LORD, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; Trust also in him; And he shall bring it to pass. ” Psalm 37 : 3 - 5 KJV The major difference between the concept of ‘God is good ’ and ‘God’s good’ appears to be riveted on trust. Godliness is built on every believer’s relationship with God. Those who practice religion instead of relationship can rhetorically echo ‘God is good’, but can hardly submit themselves to the same God to make them good as Himself. Whereas, God is not just good; those who truly trust in God are His goods. Unfortunately, people are motivated into the practice of evil and wickedness because they trust either in themselves or in other people, instead of trusting absolutely in the LORD. Whereas, the best of goodness that the heart of man or other fellows can supply is mostly destructive to himself in t...

  “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord .” Luke 4 : 18 - 19 KJV One of the beauties of spirit-inspired sent-forth services is the recognition of believers’ (1)  sensitivity to the spirit rather than self - Acts 13:2-4; (2) extravagant excellence of the eternal Emperor - Psalms 36:7; (3) nomination for the naming of new nature - Luke 4:18-19; and the (4) transparent transmission of the gospel of Truth - Luke 4:32, 36. Whereas, all self services are simply motivated by an outright disbelief in the existence and excellence of God. Even when a service assignment is started in the spirit, the heart’s recognition of the relevance of man above God can readily divert and destroy the original purpose of God. For example, the...

  “ And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4 : 3 - 4 KJV One of the fundamental lessons on how to resist temptation as taught by the Master Jesus Christ is the appreciation of loneliness. Beyond the lustful company with bread to arrest hunger, Satan apparently loathed or detested the satisfaction of Jesus with the word of God. Socialization and companionship with people are good, only if accommodated to sustain believers’ fellowship with God. Unfortunately, the basic source of temptation comes from the place of our preferences for bread or any means of socialization and companionship that can guarantee ceaseless production of bread. When Moses got angered by the people’s murmuring for meat in the wilderness, it wasn’t from the place of their sin against God…but rather from his personal dissatisfaction fo...

  “ And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel. And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred. And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the LORD shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee. ” Numbers 10 : 29 - 32 KJV From the benefits of hindsight, we know that Hobab believed the testimony “ for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel” and followed faithfully. It just shows that good goings in life begat goodness gaining; while greedy goings begat grief gaining. Unfortunately, good goings are not the same as good starts. Many of the Israelites ...