Heralds Digest

  “ Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour.”  Numbers 24 : 11 KJV Up until this point, the response of Balaam to Balak’s great honour was delightful to the LORD. But the end of Balaam showed how difficult and sincerely impossible it is for canal minds to resist great honours from the system of this world. After all, the essence of life’s activities in career, business, ministry, and family is the achievement of great honours; and who does desire company with failures? Balaam must have pondered so much on Balak’s offer of great honour to the extent of reneging on “ If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak? (Numbers 24 : 13 )”. Obviously, the enemy of Baaam’s soul knew that he couldn’t keep his eyes away from Balak’s great honour, so he...

  “ Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Psalm 37 : 34 KJV Truly, the opposite of waiting is not walking or working; it is simply wickedness. Those who truly wait on the LORD receive and obey His commandments. Whereas, the root of wickedness is inspired by the deceitful slogan ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves ’. And then the heart is blinded by self exaltation at the expense of wicked cutting down of others. For example, even when Balaam had all access to divine revelation from the LORD and desired the excelling exaltation through righteousness, he opted to help himself with the promotion offer from Balak; and the destructive end of Balaam is now history. Waiting on the LORD helps the heart of any man to walk uprightly and work forthrightly. We exhale as though we know not our rights in order to get things right and righteously; and the righteous LORD settles the bills by His own ...

  “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you .” Luke 6 : 27 - 28 KJV Naturally, we tend to feel good only when we have resources to use at our disposal….we are cheerful users! It takes grace to turn from users to givers. That is why there is nothing special when the heart gives in any relationship for the purpose of manipulation, rather than contribution. Invariably, anyone can give to givers. Therefore, the proof of grace is found in those who can give generously to users, without holding back. The evidence of a deposit of grace is measured with the metrics of love in the midst of hatred, and light in the midst of darkness. Unfortunately, when the mist and dew of bitterness, revenge and disappointment from every show of disaffection within the sphere of believers’ influence settles on the hearts, the fellowship of love is automatically dried up. Whereas, with grace, th...

  “ 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...