Heralds Digest

  “ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. ” Jeremiah 29 : 11 NKJV Job placement, professional mobility and migration decisions are mostly driven by empirical metrics, like standards of living, economic indices, employment rates, mortality rates, etc. Unfortunately, these empirical thoughts are usually at variance with divine thoughts, leading godly people into the realm of walking away from productive purposes, fruitful future, and an honest hope. While the best of human thoughts are based on myopic assessment of the historical evidence, prevailing circumstances and challenges, God’s futuristic model is based on His omniscient casting of triumphant thoughts and reliable revelations. When prophet Jeremiah’s unpopular revelation of God’s triumphant thoughts was borne out about Israel and Judah’s 70 years captivity in Babylon, it is understandable why many people fell for the sensible but t...

  “ But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ ” I Thessalonians 5 : 8 - 9 NKJV Just as light of the day is meant to uncover darkness of the night, peace is made for wrath. And as God has made the distinction between day and night, the redeemed of the Lord are called out of darkness to manifest the glorious light of the day, through faith, love, peace, and kindness. Unfortunately, the breastplate of faith and love is not a fancy regalia for beauty contests; but it is meant for a formidable refuge against the power of darkness, deceit, and discouragement. Like for prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament and apostle Paul in the New Testament, every obedient servant of the Lord has had his own share of the unpleasant bread of affliction, oppression and persecution, while serving on the peace platform. Therefore, t...

  “ Prepare your outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the field; And afterward build your house .” Proverbs 24 : 27 NKJV The title of Geisler and Turek’s book “ I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist ” has never ceased to fascinate me. It takes extreme stupidity or extraordinary sophistication to play down the evident display of intelligent design in the creation of the world. Besides the emphasis on the reality of the existence of God, creativity is one of the divine attributes in man. Without prejudice to our lazy subscription to corruption and indiscipline, everyone knows that productivity can never align with the concept of evolution. Preparation and prototyping must precede production. And to transform a consuming economy to a producing economy, everyone must believe and be committed to the principles of ‘Prepare your outside work ’ and ‘Make it fit for yourself in the field’ before there can be ‘ And afterward build your house ’. The preparation aspect is the inev...

  “ Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy. ” I Thessalonians 2 : 18 - 20 NKJV In a sane environment where regulation for customer satisfaction is at its peak, people readily derive pleasure in rating their level of satisfaction in services rendered by service providers. Even the best assessed level of satisfaction in this world’s services is always temporal. Some customers are often driven to abuse any fair return policy, by always attempting to cash back after the expiration of an earlier assessed 100% customer satisfaction. The reality in life is that material things can never provide an enduring satisfaction and joy fulfillment. For example, in spite of satanic manipulations and unpleasant physical constraints to Paul’s freedom, he was able to express the source of an endu...

  “ Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart! They also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways. ” Psalms 119 : 1 - 3 NKJV There is no doubt that those who abuse the grace of God have little or no understanding of the concept of the narrow way. For  “ Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it ” ( Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭13‬-‭14‬).  The narrow way cannot be widened because it is not only strait , it is extremely wrangled. So, when the scriptures proclaimed the blessedness of “ the undefiled in the way ”, it merely commends their consecration to righteousness and commitment to the wrangled way. The wrangled ways are the divine molding wheels for forming God’s children into His effective a...

  “ God is the Lord, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You .” Psalms 118 : 27 - 28 NKJV Finding the g-factor in all of life’s pursuits is always a rewardable enterprise, whatever is defined as the g-factor. While the g-factor is grass to a lot of people, to some it can be gravel ; and probably the g-factor is gold to a handful of people. Unfortunately, the rewards from grass, gravel, and gold are still perishable and not pure, despite the variation in their strength of endurance in the ascending order. For example, those who are motivated by the momentary appeals, and appetites are rewarded with grass that burns off almost instantly at the heat of the moment. The gravel seekers do delight in the gathering of local appeals and appetites that do not have a far-reaching and wider relevance in the scope of life’s realities. They would have so many records of the ...

  “ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” Colossians 3 : 14 - 15 NKJV The peace from God and the peace of God can be used interchangeably as products of the grace of God. Notwithstanding, there is a significant difference or variation in the two concepts of peace. While the peace from God is God-given, the peace of God is man-driven. The former underscores the appropriation of the love of God through the acceptance of His peace; but the latter extends this love of God through a deliberate release of His peace to others. Therefore, when the scriptures admonish “ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection “, it emphasizes the common experience where many believers claimed the receipt of the grace of God without an evidence of His love extension to others. Unfortunately, believers do readily extend the influence o...