RHAPSODY OF REALITIES TUESDAY, 30TH MAY.  http://bit.ly/2dZqtLQ HE IS GOODNESS PERSONIFIED. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). God is good (Psalm 24:1). He’s goodness personified, but not many people see or perceive Him as such. They think He wants us afraid and apologetic all the time; so they try to be careful with Him, hoping not to offend Him. God isn’t that way. He’s not waiting to see you slip or make a mistake so He can sniff from heaven and wipe you off the face of the earth. He’s loving and kind. The Lord Jesus unveiled the Father to us as a loving Father. When He walked the earth, He represented everything that the Father is. The Jews knew God as the God of judgment. Then, they heard Jesus call God “Father”; that was new, and they understood what it meant. The Bible says, “Then the Jews took up st...

Memorise:  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Matthew 7:13 Read:  Matthew 7:13-14 (King James Version) 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Bible in one year:  Acts 18-19, Jeremiah 38:14-23, Hymn: Sing hymn 11 MESSAGE God wants to change your life, but beyond this, He wants to change your final destination. Over the ages, many people have had to move from one location to another within the same country. Others have had to relocate to other countries for one reason or the other. However, at the end of the day, irrespective of where we live, we shall all arrive at a final destination. That destination is eternal and cannot be changed a...

BETWEEN GOD AND NEIGHBOURS -MARK 12:28-37 KEY VERSE: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment" (Mark 12:30). Two aspects of Jesus’ personality are here introduced: His humanity and deity. He is both human and divine. In His incarnation, Jesus came to this world in human form in the lineage of David. That is why He is often referred to as the Son of David. However, because He is God, David himself referred to Him as Lord. Jesus, while answering the question of the scribes on which is the greatest commandment, said the most important commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and with all your strength. We, as believers are commanded to love Jesus Christ our Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. He deserves our love and reverence. We show our love to Him by obeying Him and giving our all, includi...

  May 30, 2017 Expect and Extend Mercy Xochitl Dixon Luke 18:9–14 God, have mercy on me, a sinner.  Luke 18:13 When I complained that a friend’s choices were leading her deeper into sin and how her actions affected me, the woman I prayed with weekly placed her hand over mine. “Let’s pray for all of us.” I frowned. “All of us?” “Yes,” she said. “Aren’t you the one who always says Jesus sets our standard of holiness, so we shouldn’t compare our sins to the sins of others?” “That truth hurts a little,” I said, “but you’re right. My judgmental attitude and spiritual pride are no better or worse than her sins.” “And by talking about your friend, we’re gossiping. So—” “We’re sinning.” I lowered my head. “Please, pray for us.” In Luke 18, Jesus shared a parable about two men approaching the temple to p...

AVENGE NOT YOURSELF -PROVERBS 25:16-28 KEY VERSE: "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink" (Proverbs 25:21). The story is told about Jane, a persecuted but non-vindictive and non-retaliatory Christian young lady somewhere in Africa. She sometimes left her clothes on the washing line at the back of their residence. Whenever she went for fellowship or evangelism, her hostile neighbours would never help her pack them inside, perchance there was rain. They never saw anything good in Jane. They maligned, slandered and vilified her whenever she was not at home. It happened, however that one day, Jane was at home reading her Bible when rain started threatening and some of her neighbours left their clothes outside. When she looked outside through the window and saw the clothes, she quickly ran to help pack them inside. When they came back and saw what she had done for them, they were humiliated by shame because, they had ne...

Memorise;  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me. Proverbs 30:8 Read:  Proverbs 30:7-9 (King James Version) 7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Bible in one year:  Acts 16-17, Jeremiah 38:1-13, Hymn:Sing hymn 10 MESSAGE What you get from God depends on how contented or dissatisfied you are. While some people ask nothing from the Almighty God who has all things and who can do all things, some others ask for crumbs. Your desire and request go a long way in determining what you get in life. In Matthew 15:21-28, when the woman whose daughter was tormented by demons met the Lord, all she asked for was crumbs: “And she said,...

HE MAKES YOU CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE. RHAPSODY OF REALITIES MONDAY, 29TH MAY.  http://bit.ly/2dZqtLQ HE MAKES YOU CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). One of the beautiful and amazing benefits of having the Holy Spirit in your life is that He makes you creative and innovative. He opens your eyes to see what others don’t see, and your ears to hear what others don’t hear. He anoints your eyes to see the right things, and your mind to understand and conceive lofty ideas. This brings to mind the famous words of Michelangelo, the great artist. He said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” He saw what he could get out of an ordinary piece of marble, which everyone else thought was just a stone with no value. From that same stone, he went ahead to create the famous statue of David. You’re born ...