Heralds Digest

  “ Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” Matthew 15 : 28 NKJV While reflecting on the discouraging experience of the Syrophoenician woman with Jesus as a typical picture of the challenges of life, it becomes easier to understand that fight in life produces either faith or faint . And as succinctly captured by Joni Eareckson Tada, “ Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life ”. When the wrong perspective takes over the heart, “ How long, O Lord? ” reflects fainting in frustration. But with the right perspective of Joni in her series of calamities and quadriplegic paralysis, like with the discouraging experience of the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus will be saying at the end “ O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire” . Obviously, the intention and thought of God for all true believers in every fight is faith, not fain...

  “ The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever .” Psalms 12 : 6 - 7 NKJV While we live in the days of advances in dishonest honour, the motivation for dishonesty has been prevalent from generation to generation after the fall of man. Unfortunately, lies and deceits have never ever provided a lasting coverage for everyone caught by this ungodly motivation. For example, Joseph’s brothers finally busted out after almost 13 years of their dishonesty “ We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us” (Genesis 42 : 21 ). Whereas, truly “ The words of the Lord are pure words “ as regards the dreams of Joseph. Although this preserved precept was vigorously restricted, vilified, and laced with uncomfortable afflictions, ‘Like silver ...

  “ But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat .”” Matthew 14 : 16 NKJV Since life is definitely a statement of responsibility, the best legacy to be handed down by any parent, partner, superior, or leader is the teaching of children, subordinates, and disciples how to take responsibility. But, like it happened to the disciples of Jesus, everyone freaks out in front of multitudes with humongous needs beyond the capabilities of servers. Matters often get worse in a system when someone who seems to lack the capacity to support tells his partner “ They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat ”. That was exactly what Jesus did, but the disciples were only surprised and not necessarily frustrated. Likewise, the right responsibility in our challenging world is not necessarily what we are confident to confront. A purpose-driven life is focussed on the pursuit of what God specifically created the life to undertake. Unlike any pare...

  “ Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear !” Matthew 13 : 43 NKJV Despite the fact that very few in our workplaces and public institutions are selected for promotions and performance merit awards, everyone engaged in any form of commitment in life expects a raise. Unfortunately, people can do all kinds of despicable things to attract undeserved raises or treats. Actually, the system of exchanging raise for treat is the genesis of misappropriation of social trust, mismanagement of public property and underdevelopment in any institution or state. However, those whose ears can hear will accept the message of Jesus about the right raises in life, which is righteousness in the heart. When Joseph responded to the suggested ‘raise and treat ’ proposal in Potiphar’s house with ‘How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God’ , he simply chose righteousness to reserve the presence of God within hi...

  “ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” Matthew 13 : 24 - 25 NKJV There is no doubt that the statement ‘Let thy kingdom come ’ in the Lord’s Prayer begs for the right reign, where the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven becomes the bliss of the kingdom here on earth. Whether in our homes, workplaces, business environments, neighborhoods, and societies, the kingdom of heaven is the entrenchment of righteousness, peace, and the joy of the Holy Ghost, where everyone responds to the leading of the Spirit of God. Unfortunately, the sowing of the kingdom of heaven on earth comes with the accommodation of the kingdom of darkness, wickedness, and all forms of unrighteousness. For example, Joseph of old had the sowing of the kingdom of heaven in the form of dreams, while in the midst of his brethren, who are filled with en...

  “ But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”” Matthew 13 : 8 - 9 NKJV The parable of the good sower and his good seeds in relation with the different kinds of ground, including wayside, stony, thorny, and good ground, depicts the responsibility of man to the faithfulness of God. “ He who has ears to hear, let him hear! ” suggests that the responsiveness of the heart is the responsibility of the hearer. In our social media world, the dynamics of the hearer’s responsibility has grown astronomically. Everyone now has the compounded responsibility of managing the responsiveness of his heart to the activities of both good sower and bad sower, needless to mention the heart’s responsibility to the good seeds of the good sower, if adopted. For example, when Dinah took an unguarded excursion to see the daughters of the land of Shechem, and got defiled in the process, the irresponsibility of the ...

  “ Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly ;” Proverbs 2 : 5 - 7 NKJV Until the Jabbok encounter of Jacob with God, all the wits of Jacob towards appeasing Esau and his four hundred ferocious battalion fell down like pack of cards. His 20 years internship experience with Laban had enabled the upskill of intelligence, craftiness, amidst his undeniable intimacy with God. Notwithstanding, the more he deployed his wise wits towards unsettling the 20 years of Esau’s rage and ravaging for vengeance, the more he realized that the only source of winsome wit is God. Likewise, whenever we are desperate in our search for the Lord and the understanding of His revealed will, “ Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth...