TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 19th September 2020)
“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 261ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
With 104 more days to go in this eventful and glorious year, only GOD is to be praised for His marvelous works in our lives. He has been faithful, that is why the year have been glorious. He kept His word by making it our year of rejoicing indeed.
Most times, God has been faithful to us even when we were faithless. The Bible made it clear that even when men are faithless God remains faithful. We are the evidence of that.
Truly, from Biblical point of view, because of the LOVE of God for us, there are things you can still get from Heaven when you are not completely faithful to Him. But the vision is to use the goodness of the LORD to make you faithful.
The Bible says the goodness of God is targeted at bringing us to repentance. Sadly, many do not make use of it, hence coming into sudden destruction.
On the flip side of the coin, I have come to realize that when the faithful God, finds a faithful people as Sons and daughters, His glory will kindle their lives with amazing things from the throne room.
Yes, God will pour Himself into their lives and bring to amazing heights of greatness that forces tears out of their eyes. Friend, greater things in the Kingdom can only be accessed by the faithful not the faithless. They can only be accessed by those who fully follow the LORD.
Sadly, we live in a generation that does not like following the LORD fully. We do not like following the LORD fully but expects the fullness of His blessings in our lives.
IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!
Sometimes I wonder what my life would have being if I had fully followed the LORD from the day I found him as a child. Every internal pain, external scar, regret, worry, loses and crack I can see in my life today would not have happened because they all occurred in seasons I did not fully follow the LORD.
The greatest and most successfully attack of the devil, would be launched against you when you are not fully following the LORD. I know that if I had fully followed the LORD, from the day I found Him by His grace as a Child, the painful memories I have today would not have been there!
Everyone have painful memories; sad things that happened in our lives when we either did not know the LORD, or did not fully follow Him. These things can be very painful, especially when reminiscing on how life would have been without those events. But those occurrences are also the events that make us helpful to others.
There are also times that I wonder what the life of man would have being, had we not fallen in the Garden of Eden. I read a story of what Eve went through even in the hands of animals for eating the fruit.
She spent her days in grief and guilt. Humans and other creatures blamed her for the woes of the human race till she died. But God put the blame on Adam. He was the head of the home and King of the earth. If he had fully followed the LORD, he would not have joined her in eating the fruit.
Yes, if Adam had fully followed the LORD GOD, there would have been no pain, no sin, no death, and no evil. It would have just been Heaven on Earth. That tells me, the only way to have Heaven on earth as a Child of God, is to fully follow the LORD!
How beautiful it is to follow the LORD with our whole heart and not compromise anything. It is one of the most difficult but blessed things to do in life as a Child of God. I have come to discover that Compromise does not really hurt God, (though it grieves His loving heart and affects His kingdom moves). Compromise hurts us very badly; and sometimes without redemption.
SADLY, MANKIND IS YET TO COME TO TERMS TO WHAT A GODLESS AND UNGODLY LIFESTYLE DOES TO A HUMAN.
Even many of us in the faith are yet to come to terms with what ONE MOMENT OF NOT FULLY FOLLOWING THE LORD does to our Christian lives!
I was told of a man of God who was fully following His LORD. He was married to a very terrible woman. Whenever he closes from the Church (a Church his wife does not attend), he will drive around town to make sure the woman has slept before he enters the house. Because whenever he meets her awake, she will give him hell on earth.
Now, there was this day that he drove around town longer to stay away from trouble usual. He saw a lady by the road side that seems to be in need of help. He was a kind hearted man of GOD and due to his kindness, he decided to use the moments to show kindness to this lady by taking her to her destination.
Sadly, something else was in store for the innocent man of God.
The lady did something terrible when she got to her destination. She took advantage of his vulnerability and seduced him successfully into an illicit affair with her that night. The man was too weary spiritually to resist the flesh.
Friend, there is spiritual weariness that can result in a moment or even moments of compromise. We are in battle against unseen forces and must understand that.
What made matters worse was his secrecy. He kept all he was going through secret; even those who loved him were not brought into the picture of what was happening to him, so they could help. He felt it was shameful to share.
Sadly, the enemy had an upper hand that night. So after sleeping with the woman and waking up the following day, he did not find the woman. He only saw a note by his side reading “welcome to the world of AIDS.”
THIS INCIDENT HAPPENED WHEN THERE WERE NO ANTI-VIRAL DRUGS.
This man of GOD knew his days were numbered and started going from church to church to share his testimony in repentance.
In my opinion, he was a true soldier of the cross. Who got shot on line of duty. He did not cover his sins. He confessed and forsook them. That is the way to go if you are shot as a soldier of the cross. Finally, he died.
I believe God allowed the disease to kill him so he could come home and rest having repented genuinely. Sometimes God will not leave a good man in the hands of a terrible woman. Today, there are so many good men and women in the hands of terrible spouses.
Friend, it is good to fully follow the LORD. One moment of compromise can cause us a life time of joy and peace in Christ.
As earlier stated, compromise hurts us not the just Church or the minister of the gospel that may be urging us to live right. Compromise hurts us severely, it most times does not even hurt those the enemy may be using to seduce us into it.
A Child of God who is not fully following the LORD will loose much more than a sinner any moment he or she compromises divine standards. The reason is simple; the sinner has nothing to loose. He is already lost without the LORD! But we THE REDEEMED have all to loose if we compromise.
You see, not everyone comes out successfully from the consequences of a moment of compromise. In the journey of faith, fully following the LORD is a necessity not an option.
Fully following the LORD remains a chief salvation key in the Christian faith. It is stronger than anything else. God said to Saul through His prophet Samuel,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NKJV
We live in a Church generation that is more interested in prayer, fasting, giving, sacrificing unto the LORD and etc. without fully following the LORD. Our devotional text today makes that even clearer. A major highlight in it says,
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
GRACE IS FREE BUT IT HAS STANDARDS.
Friend, Grace has principles we must line up to. It teaches that when we have put our hands to the plough to follow the LORD, we must do it fully. We are ‘condemned’ not to look back because if we do, we will become unfit for the Kingdom of God.
I believe Abraham our father, and all who followed GOD previously knew this. That was why the Bible said,
“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:15-16 NKJV
I believe with the whole of my Heart that if the true CHRIST dwells in our hearts by faith, we will lead a Christian life style that will reflect the very life these men lived in their time because it’s the same LORD that we are all dealing with. We will be fully following Him and not stop even when sin is thrown at us. We will repent and quickly go back to Him.
It was in the light of all this that Paul the apostle of Grace (the foundational and only true apostle of grace) said,
“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
We can become disqualified if we do not commit our hearts to fully follow the LORD. Fully following the LORD will involve putting out bodies under – subjecting the flesh to daily spiritual discipline, so that we will not profess born again and then be cast away in the next life!
It’s a new day for you!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR TODAY!
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31 NKJV