You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created. Revelation 4:11.

One indisputable fact is that everyone on the surface of the earth is created for a purpose. And it is crystal clear that God created man to fellowship with Him.

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. Gen. 2:15. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are thou? – Gen 3:8-9.

Man fell out of the perfect arrangement of God and, since then, the fellowship and worship sought by God became a matter of condition and a principle through Jesus Christ. Law came to bring man back to no avail but grace did. ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’. –  Romans 3:23. Then the worship and service that God accept and seek becomes selective.

 “ For as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name’ . – John 1:12. To believe in God is to dedicate our lives to the cause of His kingdom in the world…the second commandment flows from the first. When a man turns to God desiring to serve him, God directs his attention to the world and its need.

‘But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honour and some unto dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepare unto every good work’.  2 Timothy 2:20-21. It is therefore imperative to note those that God seek:

• Those that have located themselves:  Location is where you are before God at this moment. God knows everything about us: our thinking, steps, intention, and our reactions. He asked Adam where he was. God would want us to state expressly our location before Him before He can solve our spiritual problems. ’So when they continued asking him, he lifted Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her’. John 8:7. Christ gave the accusers the opportunity to locate themselves before God to enable Him help them see their personal spiritual condition. They were convicted of their sins but they did not stay there to talk with Jesus about it. Why don’t you talk your own with Jesus today? The story of the sower  and seed (Mat. 13-9, 18-33) brings out the desire of Jesus to help us locate ourselves. It is possible one is on the wrong path and not realize it until one get to the wrong destination. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they had wonderful fellowship with Him. There were no cover-ups, no pretenses and no secrets. But when they chose their own way, God had to ask ‘where are thou’.
• Those that are willing to obey the first commandment:  ‘For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offering’. Hosea 6:6. ‘Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment”. Mat. 22:37-38. I heard Lord saying in that book of Hosea that, I don’t want your sacrifice, I want your love, I don’t want your offering, I want you to know me.
• Those that will say – “Here I am”:  ‘Also I heard the voice of the Lord , saying: “whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”Isaiah 6:8. To say “Here I Am” is to yield to call for service. “ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”. Mat. 6:33. The beginning of any instrument God will use will start by a call and the response of willingness. To become great in God’s hand, it is not greatness you must first seek. It is service, and through the service you become great. It doesn’t matter even when the environment is hostile, conducive or not, co-operative or uncooperative, yours is to say “ Here I am”. One thing that is important is to check if you have said “ Here I am” to God. This is the next thing to do after you have located yourself – presenting yourself as an available material for the potter to work on you.
• Those that are willing to come out: God called Abraham out from his people with a promise of everlasting and generational blessings. “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. Mat. 11:28. “Therefore “come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you” 2 Cor. 6:17. Getting out is one of the conditions God expect from worshippers He seek. – Get out of the old covenants; get out from your place of initials, where you have no knowledge of Christ;  get out from sin, atrocities; get out from worldliness, pleasures of this world; get out of the valley of troubles; get out from the hills of pride and self righteousness; get out from the mountain of self satisfaction. There is no one without a background or a place of beginning, but then if we must worship God, we must leave our past. Abraham was made to get out from Haran before God established His covenant with him.  Haran represents all your past.
• Those that desire a change of name: The Angel of the Lord asked Jacob, “What is your name”. Gen. 32:26-27, because the name Jacob means a deceiver and could not fit in to the new covenant of God. Also, Jesus had to rename Peter to enable him fit in for the new covenant because Peter means cowardice, fear, backslider and the new name, Cephas, means Stone . John 1:42. Each time a man desires to worship God, God will seek his identity. What make a man’s identity a greater priority to God than the man’s several urgent request? Is there any man on earth whose name is unknown to God? If the answer is “No”, then what was God looking for whenever He asked such question, “what is your name”. God was trying to remind Jacob of his life style from his birth. His life had never been straight. Of course, it doesn’t matter who you are before now, God can change that position if you will allow Him.
• Those that have conviction about God:  Conviction is spiritual instincts that drive us to action regardless of the circumstances. “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him in those that hope in His mercy” – Psalms 147:11. “ ….and if I perish, I perish”- Esther 4:16. Conviction like the three Hebrew men – “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” – Daniel 3:18. Like conviction of Paul – “ For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” – Phil. 1:21.
• Those that God seek will also include those that will allow God to direct their ways; those that will put on the whole armour of God; those that will stand up like Nehemiah to build the Church and those that will make adequate use of the God given gifts.

 Remain blessed as you determine to be among the worshippers that God seek.

 Deacon Wole Bodunde

After a five weeks serial teaching on the Dangers of Backsliding, the conclusion and summary of the teaching bothers on repentance. The third week of the teaching opened with self-examination of our present stand in the race compared with when we first started. In reference to this self-examination, the man of God said he called his wife to x-ray themselves.  I ventured into it and I experienced an outburst in me, an experience that told me bluntly that I had not made any visible impact, and a matter that appears that it has been a vicious circle all along.

To make progress in Christian life, you must be sincere with yourself. Check what you are inside yourself, right inside your bedroom where nobody sees you.  Let it be based on sincerity and brokenness of heart. Let it be without covering. Jesus Christ, our standard, a man of perfect ministry on earth among men, asked His disciples – “… who do men say that the Son of man is?”

I discovered in the teaching that Christianity is not an emergency adaptation of behaviour; it is not oratory in the delivering of messages or teaching skills. Even preaching, the type that is effective is the one that positively influence our lives. You may appear zealous and people are praising you; but what does God say about you.

The concluding part dwells on repentance. “I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for my name’s sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have [this] against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” – Revelation 2:2-7

Repentance for the believers is re-embracing the work of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not an arrangement. It is not an issue of adaptation of behaviour with an elaborate systematic plan of action. It is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesigning of your life to bring about dramatic change in your life towards God. It is not the emotions displayed at the call for prayer for forgiveness but a realignment of your spirit, soul and body to God’s.

God’s package of salvation is far beyond forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin is the first instalment of God’s blessing to a repentant soul. God desire us His children. He want to be our father –  …”And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty” – II Cor. 6:18.

Repentance is making covenant with God. “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” – Ps 50:5. Sacrifice is the central theme of Christianity. The Church is founded upon the bedrock of sacrifice – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” John 3:16. You must pay a lifelong subscription for being a child of God.

Repentance is dead to the world. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” – Col. 3:3. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” – Col 2:13. A repentant soul will forgo the place of his initials. He will come out of the familiar terrain of sins. He will come out completely and be separated for God. He will engage him/herself in profitable works. He will have the right motives, think God’s thought and share God’s vision. Repentant souls will not allow the world system to overwhelm them. They will be indifferent to same priorities, same interests, and same success syndrome, same old emphasis on treasures and same leisure and pleasure as in the world.

The Bible says – “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” – Rom. 8:10-14  

Finally, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” – Phil. 2:5-8.

Remain blessed- Maranatha

‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God’. Romans 3:23. ‘The wages of sin is death’. Romans 6:23. In view of man’s inability to justify himself in the sight of God’s law, God made available a wonderful provision. ‘Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life’. Romans 5:18.

Of all the glorious works of our Saviour, Christ death on the cross in place of mankind is of supreme importance. In one singular act, Christ wiped out the handwriting (certificate of debt) of requirement that was against us which was contrary to us. Colossians 2:14-15

Salvation in its simplest definition or meaning is to be completely delivered from sin, saved for Christ and worthy of the kingdom of God. At the fall of man in the beginning, there was sort of depravity and lost of privileges as a result of sin committed.

How sadly man was marred by sin?

1. His understanding is darkened. ‘Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Ephesians 4:18.
2. His heart is full of evil. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it’ Jeremiah 17:9.
3. His conscience is defiled. ‘Unto the ……unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled’ Titus 1:15.
4. He is spiritually dead. ‘You being dead in your sins’ Colossians 2:13.

God demonstrated His desire to restore man to fellowship with Himself. ’ ……Yet doth He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him’. 2 Sam. 14:14. He made possible the restoration of mankind through His son. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

‘All the heathen religious teach men to work their way up to God; but the religion of Jesus Christ is God coming down to men to save them, and lift them up out of the pit of sin’ – D.L Moody

The Scripture gives four names to a Christian, taken from the four cardinal graces so essential to man’s salvation.

‘Grace is not simply a kindly feeling on the part of God, but a positive benefit conferred on man as an active force for illuminating the intellect, warming the heart, strengthening the will of redeemed humanity. And God gives grace in this world as a preparation for glory and glory in the other world as perfection of grace.

Therefore, each Christian is expected to bear all the names as well as manifesting these four cardinal graces:

• Saint – for their holiness.
• Believer – for their faith.
• Brethren – for their love.
• Disciple – for their knowledge.

Holiness: God demands holiness from every acclaimed Christian. Beside His perfect love and omnipotent power, other fundamental attributes of God are righteousness and holiness. ‘The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. Psalms 145:17. God therefore placed it as an absolute essential qualification to associate with Him. ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:’ Hebrews 12:14.

God made promise of restoration to those who will respond to His plan of mercy. ‘Ye shall be holy; for I Lord your God am holy’ Leviticus 19:2 (See also 1 Peter 1:16)

NOTE: The condition of eternal life, under grace, are just what they were in Eden – perfect righteousness, harmony with God, perfect conformity to the principles of His law…… God has made provision that we may become like Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will, and thus frustrate His grace – E.G. White in Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, page 116.

‘Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference’. Romans 3:22.

Faith: ‘But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that HE is a rewarder of them that diligently seek HIM. Hebrews 11:6.

‘Thou believest that there is one God: thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble’. James 2:19. A mere intellectual believe in God is not faith. It is not merely belief in, but associated confidence in and complete reliance upon God. Faith is not our righteousness. It is accounted to us for righteousness. Faith comes through hearing the word of God and testimonies of others. Romans 10:17.

Love: Love is the Alpha and Omega of redemption. Beginning from the journey of the mediator from heaven to earth, His pilgrimage on earth and how He was shamefully nailed to the cross, the reason is LOVE. The moment a man’s heart touches the heart of Christ in living faith, he becomes (whether he knows it or not) the brother of every other, in heaven or on earth who has come into the same relationship with Christ. Whoever is united to Christ is brother or sister to every else that is united to HIM.

A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another: as I have loved you. That ye also love one another. John 13:34.

He whose heart is not filled with love for God and his fellowmen is not a true disciple of Christ.

Knowledge: ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witness unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth’. Acts 1:8. All who are ordained unto the life of Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their fellowmen. Of the missionary zeal of the early Christians we are told, every congregation was a missionary inflamed by the love of Christ to convert his fellow men. Mark 16:15.

‘The only knowledge which is of any avail to eternity is a personal, intimate knowledge of God. Christianity is not merely belief in certain facts about a person, it is rather knowledge of that person; only this can transform lives and solve the problem of humanity’.

‘Christianity is not a philosophy, but a life; not knowledge of abstract principles, but a personal knowledge of faith and love of God in Christ’.

Conclusion: Obedience is the test of discipleship. It is the keeping of the commandment that proves the sincerity of your profession of Love; When the doctrine we accept (by Faith) kills sin in the heart, purifies the soul from defilement, bear fruits unto holiness, we may know that it is the truth of God. – E.G. White in The Mount of Blessing, page 210.

Deacon Wole Bodunde