God Must Be Loved For Himself

God being who he is must always be sought for Himself, never as a means toward something else.

Whoever seeks other objects and not God is on his own; he may obtain those objects if he is able, but he will never have God. God is never found accidentally. “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Whoever seeks God as a means toward desired ends will not find God. The mighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, will not be one of many treasures, not even the chief of all treasures. He will be all in all or He will be nothing. God will not be used.

His mercy and grace are infinite and His patient understanding is beyond measure, but He will not aid men in their selfish striving after personal gain. He will not help men to attain ends which, when attained, usurp the place He by every right should hold in their interest and affection.

Yet popular Christianity has as one of its most effective talking points the idea that God exists to help people to get ahead in this world. The God of the poor has become the God of an affluent society. Christ no longer refuses to be a judge or a divider between money hungry brothers. He can now be persuaded to assist the brother that has accepted Him to get the better of the brother who has not.

A crass example of the modern effort to use God for selfish purposes is the well-known comedian who, after repeated failures, promised someone he called God that if He would help him to make good in the entertainment world he would repay Him by giving generously to the care of sick children.

Shortly afterward, he hit the big time in the night clubs and on television. He has kept his word and is raising large sums of money to build children’s hospitals. These contributions to charity, he feels, are a small price to pay for a success in one of the sleaziest fields of human endeavour.

One might excuse the act of this entertainer as something to be expected of a ‘twenty-first’ century pagan; but that multitudes of evangelicals should actually believe that God had anything to do with the whole business is not so easily overlooked. This low and false view of Deity is one major reason for the immense popularity God enjoys these days among well-fed elites in the world.

The teaching of the Bible is that God is Himself the end for which man was created. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” cried the psalmist, “and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (Psalm 73:25). The first and greatest commandment is to love God with every power of our entire being. Where love like that exists there can be no place for a second object. If we love God as much as we should, surely we cannot dream of a loved object beyond Him which He might help us to obtain.

Bernard of Clairvaux began his radiant little treatise on the love of God with a question and an answer. The question, Why should we love God? The answer, Because He is God. He developed the idea further, but for the enlightened heart little more need be said. We should love God because He is God. Beyond this the angels cannot think.

Being who He is, God is to be loved for His own sake. He is the reason for our loving Him, just as He is the reason for His loving us and for every other act He has performed, is performing and will perform world without end. God’s primary reason for everything is His own good pleasure. The search for secondary reasons is gratuitous and mostly futile. It affords occupation for theologians and adds pages to books on doctrine, but that it ever turns up any true explanations is doubtful.

But it is the nature of God to share. His mighty acts of creation and redemption were done for His good pleasure, but His pleasure extends to all created things. One has but to look at a healthy child at play or listen to the song of a bird at sundown and he will know that God meant His universe to be a joyful one.

Those who have been spiritually enabled to love God for Himself will find a thousand fountains springing up from the rainbow-circled throne and bringing countless treasures which are to be received with reverent thanksgiving as being the overflow of God’s love for His children. Each gift is a bonus of grace which because it was not sought for itself may be enjoyed without injury to the soul. These include the simple blessings of life, such as health, a home, a family, congenial friends, food, shelter, the pure joys of nature or the more artificial pleasures of music and art.

The effort to find these treasures by direct search apart from God has been the major activity of mankind through the centuries; and this has been man’s burden and man’s woe. The effort to gain them as the ulterior motive back of accepting Christ may be something new under the sun; but new or old it is an evil that can only bring judgment at last.

God wills that we should love Him for Himself alone with no hidden reasons, trusting Him to be to us all our natures require. Our Lord said all this much better: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

** Written by Aiden Wilson Tozer (A.W. Tozer) **

*** From the Book - "Man: The Dwelling Place of God" ***

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Behold, He Comes!

Text: Revelations 1:4-8

The pages of the Scripture are filled with warnings to both believers and unbelievers that the Lord is coming again. The promise of His second coming will be literally fulfilled just as the prophecy concerning His first coming was fulfilled literally.

None should be carried away with the words of the scoffers saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Jesus Himself warned: “for as the lightening cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27).

The coming of the Lord will be sudden and unexpected. Every wise person will get ready for His coming. In readiness for His coming, the sinners including the backsliders should quickly return unto the Lord and seek pardon. The compromising Christian should “awake to righteousness, and sin not … for now is salvation nearer than when we believed” (1 Corinthians 15:34; Romans 13:11).

For the believer, he/she must continue in holiness and righteous living, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. He/she is to get himself/herself occupied in the Lord’s work snatching as many as possible from the hand of the devil.

Knowing that the Lord can come at any time, he/she is sober and vigilant, watching over his life and conduct and praying without ceasing.

The Lord is coming to take His own unto Himself and reward them for their love and labour.  He will make a separation between the sheep and the goats. At the first phase of His coming, He will take the believers up with Him in the air to reward them while the rest that re in the world will suffer great agony and torture under the ruler-ship of the Antichrist.

Therefore, He shall descend with the saints upon the earth to rule for a thousand years after which He shall “execute judgment upon all and convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (Jude 1:15).

The time to prepare for His coming is NOW, not tomorrow. The time is short. The door of mercy will not remain open forever. Seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6-9).

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In Times Like These

In times like these, you need a Saviour,

In times like these, you need an anchor;

Be very sure, be very sure,

Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

This Rock is Jesus, Yes He’s the One,

This Rock is Jesus, the only One;

Be very sure, be very sure,

Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these, you need the Bible,

In times like these, O, be not idle;

Be very sure, be very sure,

Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these, I have a Saviour,

In times like these, I have an anchor;

I’m very sure, I’m very sure;

My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

This Rock is Jesus, Yes He’s the One,

This Rock is Jesus, the only One;

I’m very sure, I’m very sure,

My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

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When Last Did You Have A Spiritual Checkup?

A young Christian lady had scheduled a business appointment with a client for 9am on Monday. Being a worker in the church and nursing mother of a seven months old girl, her Sunday was so occupied that she barely had time to even press her clothes to be worn the next day.

She was moving from one chore to another and eventually by 8:30pm, her to-do list was fulfilled for the day. She had only wanted to rest few minutes before dinner, only for a terrible sleep to overwhelm her. Being an early riser, it was odd that she woke up just five minutes before 9am on Monday. With much anxiety and remorse, she prepared hurriedly and off she went for the meeting.

And there was an unfriendly traffic gridlock, what she least needed at the time. The client had called and wanted to cancel the meeting due to her lateness; “Please, kindly exercise some patience. I will be with you in the next ten minutes,” she said just to appease the client. Whereas, she was only five bus stops away from her house and many miles away from the rendezvous. Though she managed to meet the client eventually after several hours of delay, the fact remains that, she had lied.

Three days later, her boss told her to follow-up on a client and send feedback the same day. Amidst several tasks to be completed for the day, she forgot and because her boss didn’t ask at the moment, neither did she bother to carry out the assignment. Her boss asked for a progress report the following day and so as not to appear incompetent she replied: “My apologies sir. I had called the client but the number wasn’t reachable. I will try again and get back to you.” The boss retorted, “That’s fine but get back to me as soon as possible.” Yet again, she had lied.

She started her week with compromise. One misdeed led to another and more lies ensued that week. Sadly, no guilt what so ever did she feel and I guess she would say in her heart, ‘I didn’t really mean to lie. The circumstances were just beyond me and I know God being a merciful Father understands and will forgive me.’

This is how some Christians really are, daily compromising their faith and allowing ‘those little foxes that spoil the vine’ to dominate their lives and ridicule their testimonies of salvation. They neither watch nor pray and alas, fall into diverse temptations that give the devil an opportunity to trample on their faith and convictions.

In the epistle of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 13:5), he admonished them, and by extension all born-again believers, to examine themselves whether they are still in the faith; proving themselves by the standards of God in His word.

As Christians, we cannot afford to be nonchalant with our spiritual lives while gratifying the physical. The days are evil and seductions to backslide are taking several forms to the detriment of babes in Christ. The enemy of our souls is unrelenting on his intentions to multiply the sorrows of men and keep them in eternal bondage.

Hence, it is so important that we tread with caution, taking stock of our lives daily to know with certainty whether we are still right with God, for no one knows when the trumpet of rapture shall sound. And how painful and pitiable it would be to claim to know and serve the Lord and yet, not make heaven eventually just because of negligence of being spiritually conscious in examining our lives.

The Lord Jesus Christ admonishes us to watch and pray so we will not fall into temptations (Mark 14:38; Matthew 26:41). Jesus knew that for the true believer temptations, persecutions and trails are inevitable (John 16:33, see also Acts 14:22, 2 Timothy 3:12). Therefore, He exhorts us not for a second to lose our guards and often observe a spiritual checkup for we know not when the appointed time will come (Mark 13:33; See also 1 Timothy 4:16).

Unlike the young Christian lady whose story was earlier told, “No compromise” must a sincere Christian be.

"No compromise with error, for Bible truth we stand,

Let none remove the landmarks erected by God’s hand.

With loyalty our watchword and faith in Christ our stay,

We’ll bravely storm the forts of sin and thro’ Him win the day.

No compromise with worldliness, no yielding to the wrong,

No lowering the standard that’s stood thro’ ages long;

With Jesus as our leader, His Spirit as our guide,

We’ll firmly stand for righteousness whatever may betide."

We are truly in the last days where the seeds of the antichrist are on rampage. Sin lures at every corner and takes prey of souls that aren’t vigilant of the devices of the devil. Such people take lightly the exhortation of the Christian Hymn: “Christian, seek not yet repose.”

"Gird thy heavenly armor on,

Wear it ever night and day;

Ambushed lies the evil one:

Watch and pray."

We mustn’t be so lax as to allow the devil rob us of our salvation bought for a costly price at Calvary. Even spiritual complacency in times like this is as well dangerous for “if any man thinks he stands, he should take heed lest he falls” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Finally, dear friends, let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord should we find any blemish in our hearts and don’t measure up with God’s standards (Lamentations 3:40). Watch and pray in the morning, at noon and at night, and put away everything and anything that may hinder us from making heaven.

Run with perseverance the race marked out for us as believers, looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). And not forgetting that, it’s only those that endure till the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13; Matthew 10:22).

There’s so much at stake. We can’t afford to miss heaven for anything in this world or let our loved ones miss it too. So, when last did you have a spiritual checkup of your life? Should Christ come this very minute, will you make heaven?

Examine yourself today and may God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you and me through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (1 Thessalonian 5:23).

Please share this with others so they may continue in the faith and prepare their souls for the coming of the Lord.

God bless you and thanks for reading.

*** Written by Michael Olajubu alias Jacobs Adewale (Admin) ***

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Thy Word Have I Hid In My Heart

Thy Word is a lamp to my feet,

A light to my path alway,

To guide and to save me from sin,

And show me the heav’nly way.

Thy Word have I hid in my heart,

That I might not sin against Thee;

That I might not sin, that I might not sin,

Thy Word have I hid in my heart.

Forever, O Lord, is Thy Word

Established and fixed on high;

Thy faithfulness unto all men

Abideth forever nigh.

At morning, at noon, and at night

I ever will give Thee praise;

For Thou art my portion, O Lord,

And shall be through all my days!

Thro’ Him Whom Thy Word hath foretold,

The Savior and Morning Star,

Salvation and peace have been brought

To those who have strayed afar.

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Video: Jesus Is Always With You

Dear Friends,

I recently began writing a new book called "Jesus: A Man Like No Other." I am very excited about this and before I started, I went to my wife and asked her, “What was the one thing that stands out the most to her about Jesus?” Without any hesitation she said that “He was always there.” I agree, for indeed, our Lord is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).

In good times and bad, Jesus is always with you. My wife then told me about a great music video called "Jesus Is Always With You" that I now want to share with you. It is my deepest prayer that this great video will help remind you that even though you may not be able to see Jesus with your natural eyes, He is with you every step of the way.

He is rejoicing in happiness right alongside you and wiping away your tears when you are sad. I promise that this four minute video will touch your heart just like it did mine. Be sure to share it with someone else who needs to know that Jesus is always by their side.

You are not alone. Jesus will always be there for you no matter what happens. So, be rest assured that you are safe wherever you may go. For He promised, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20 NIV).

Thank you and God bless.

** By Randall J. Brewer **

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Lies Of The Devil

One day, a young woman raised in a Christian home was asked by her pastor if she was born-again. “Of course, I am born-again. I am a true child of God,” she responded confidently.

The pastor smiled warmly and asked further, “how do you know you are born-again?”

“Well, it’s obvious as everyone can see. I am good, decent, disciplined, kind and loving person. Besides, I go to church regularly. These make me a good Christian,” she replied with excitement.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Feeling guilty for lying to her boss, a woman went to her pastor for counselling. “I had lied to my boss to avoid being fired, and now I feel guilty before God,” she admitted in tears after telling him what had happened in the office. “Please pastor, what do I do?”

“Is that why you are crying?” the pastor queried with a soothing smile. “You should understand that no human can live without sin. Besides, lying to your boss is just a little sin. You only said that to protect yourself from any misfortune. It doesn’t matter; God understands.”

The foregoing interactions reveal how the devil, the old evil genius, the master of deception and all evil machinations, the brilliant mastermind of revolts and rebellion against God, and a professional trickster, tricks people with his lies, giving them a false hope of eternal life. You must understand that he has nothing to offer you.

Being the archenemy of man, his major goal is to destroy lives, and he does this through his subtle, skillful but destructive lies (John 10:10). Jesus says, “There is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

Imagine the damnable lie he told the woman who had lied to her boss through the pastor that no human can live in this world without committing sin, and that “a little sin” doesn’t matter, justifying the woman’s action. To say a person can’t do without sinning is simply underestimating the power of God’s grace.

The Bible tells us that the moment you are born-again, you are free from sin because you are regenerated and quickened by the grace of God, you have Christ formed in you, and you are made a partaker of God’s nature. You don’t live, walk, give yourself or continue in sin because you are under the influence of the Spirit, power and grace of God which preserve you from the temptations of the devil, pollution of the world and corruptions of your own heart (1 John 3:9).

Moreover, there’s no big or little sin. Sin is sin! So what you call a little alcohol, a little lust, or a little lie will damn your soul because “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21). God never takes any “little sin” lightly, even if it is committed to protect one’s self or to get out of trouble.

It’s also strange to believe that being kind, generous, disciplined and regular in church without assurance of salvation qualify you as a Christian. Being nice or religious is not the same thing as being born-again. Substituting salvation with a good religious and moral lifestyle is another lie of the devil.

The Bible teaches that everyone needs salvation because we were all born in sin; we were all sinners by nature (Romans 3:23), and to be born-again simply means to repent of or turn away from all your sins.

Six (6) steps are involved in true repentance:

1 Recognizing you are a sinner (Psalm 38:18)

2 Confessing your sins to God in prayer, asking for His forgiveness (1 John 1:9)

3 Forsaking those sins (Proverbs 28:13)

4 Believing you have been forgiven (Romans 8:1-2)

5 Accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, and living a righteous life (1 John 4:14-15)

6 Reconciling with those you have wronged by righting your wrongs (Numbers 5:6-7; Matthew 5:24; Luke 19:8).

If you haven’t taken these steps, you are not born-again and no amount of good deeds, religious activities or moral uprightness can cancel out the debts of your sins.

Finally, the Word of God never teaches eternal security – once you are born-again, you are forever born-again – even if you sin at will or occasionally after you professed to be born-again. If you believe you are secured eternally and lead a sinful life, then you have been brainwashed by agents of the devil. Anyone who had repented of his or her sins and believed in Jesus at one time or the other can backslide.

The Bible uses expressions such as “left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4); “depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1); “put hand to the plough and looking back” (Luke 9:62); and “the dog is turned to his own vomit again…" (2 Peter 2:22) to tell us that you can lose your salvation or any other Christian experience you have. Luke 9:62 categorically says that when this happens, you are unfit for God’s kingdom – heaven.

So friend, don’t allow yourself to be deceived by the lies of the devil. If you are not born-again, repent of your sins now and accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. And if you are born-again already, don’t fall into sin and damn your soul. Be wise!

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The Christian’s Obligation To The Lord

Text: Matthew 25:14-30

All believers have a responsibility to fulfill the purpose of God for the Church in the world. Having accepted the gospel and becoming children, they must accept the obligation of passing the message of salvation to other people.

God expects every believer to join in the urgent task of rescuing those on the path of destruction.

The Lord has endowed every one of His children with certain gifts, abilities and talents to enable them serve Him. These talents, which include ability to preach, teach, evangelize, help, provide succor, etc., are to be deployed for the benefit of other people. Also, the blessings of God are not to be selfishly kept to ourselves, but to be used to expand His kingdom; we receive to give.

As love prompted God’s great gift of His Son, so His love in our hearts should prompt us to give, minister and engage in loving services in the church for the welfare and happiness of other people. Our commitment should constrain us to evangelize, invite people into the church, warmly receive and care for new church comers and cultivate their friendship.

We must also not default in paying our tithes and offerings for the support of the local church and mission work.

As committed members of the body of Christ, we must be true and faithful ambassadors of Christ by upholding the teachings of the Bible. If we are faithful and the Lord meets us so, we shall be greatly rewarded when He comes to take home His own.

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Welcome To August!

From The Truth Media family,

Happy New Month!!!

I’ve seen the ways of the humble and just,

How they March through grace to August;

Though sometimes are weary but never weak,

They in the Lord abide and remain meek.

When trials fester and persecutors pester,

They stand resolute and bold as Esther,

Confidence reposed in the King of kings,

Knowing that triumph is what He gladly brings.

Let this mind be in you this August

And not to delight in contention or lust;

Sow for yourself righteousness

And reap the fruit of love and God’s goodness.

Another month, another blessing,

Another month of progressing.

Welcome to August!

*** Written by Michael Olajubu alias Jacobs Adewale (Admin) ***

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There Is No Wisdom In Sin

The world has divided men into two classes, the stupid good people and the clever wicked ones.

This false classification runs through much of the literature of the last centuries from the classics to the comic strip, from Shakespeare’s Polomus, who furnished his son with a set of good but dull moral platitudes, to Capp’s Li’l Abner, who would never knowingly do a wrong act but who would rather fall on his head than on his feet because there is more feeling in his feet than in his head.

In the Holy Scriptures things are quite the opposite. There righteousness is always associated with wisdom and evil with folly. Whatever other factors may be present in an act of wrongdoing, folly is one that is never absent. To do a wrong act a man must for the moment think wrong; he must exercise bad judgment.

If this is true then the devil is creation’s prime fool, for when he gambled on his ability to unseat the Almighty he was guilty of an act of judgment so bad as to be imbecilic, He is said to have had a great amount of wisdom, but his wisdom must have deserted him at the time of his first sin, for surely he grossly underestimated the power of God and as grossly overestimated his own. The devil is not now pictured in the Scriptures as wise, only as shrewd. We are warned not against his wisdom but against his wiles, something very different.

Sin, I repeat, in addition to anything else it may be, is always an act of wrong judgment. To commit a sin a man must for the moment believe that things are different from what they really are; he must confound values; he must see the moral universe out of focus; he must accept a lie as truth and see truth as a lie; he must ignore the signs on the highway and drive with his eyes shut; he must act as if he had no soul and was not accountable for his moral choices.

Sin is never a thing to be proud of. No act is wise that ignores remote consequences, and sin always does. Sin sees only today, or at most tomorrow; never the day after tomorrow, next month or next year. Death and judgment are pushed aside as if they did not exist and the sinner becomes for the time a practical atheist who by his act denies not only the existence of God but the concept of life after death.

History is replete with examples of men whose intellectual powers were great but whose practical judgment was almost nil: Einstein, for instance, who was a mathematical genius but who could not look after his own bank account and who absent-mindedly ran his little motorboat aground with the excuse that he “must have been thinking about something else.” We can smile at this, but there is nothing humorous about that other class of men who had brilliant minds but whose moral judgment was sadly awry. To this class belong such men as Lucretius, Voltaire, Shelley, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman and thousands of others whose names are less widely known.

The notion that the careless sinner is the smart fellow and the serious-minded Christian, though well-intentioned, is a stupid dolt altogether out of touch with life will not stand up under scrutiny. Sin is basically an act of moral folly, and the greater the folly the greater the fool.

It is time the young people of this generation learnt that there is nothing smart about wrongdoing (sin) and nothing stupid about righteousness. We must stop negotiating with evil. We Christians must stop apologizing for our moral position and start making our voices heard, exposing sin for the enemy of the human race which it surely is, and setting forth righteousness and true holiness as the only worthy pursuits for moral beings.

The idea that sin is modern is false. There has not been a new sin invented since the beginning of recorded history. That new vice breaks out to horrify decent citizens and worry the police is not really new. Flip open that book written centuries ago and you will find it described there. The reckless sinner trying to think of some new way to express his love of iniquity can do no more than imitate others like himself, now long dead. He is not the bright rebel he fancies himself to be but a weak and stupid fellow who must follow along in the long parade of death toward the point of no return.

If the hoary head is a crown of glory when it is found in the way of righteousness, it is a fool’s cap when it is found in the way of sin. An old sinner is an awesome and frightening spectacle. One feels about him much as one feels about the condemned man on his way to the gallows. A sense of numb terror and shock fills the heart. The knowledge that the condemned man was once a red-cheeked boy only heightens the feeling, and the knowledge that the aged rebel now beyond reclamation once went up to the house of God on a Sunday morning to the sweet sound of church bells makes even the trusting Christian humble and a little bit scared. There but for the grace of God goes he.

I am among those who believe that Western civilization is on its way to perishing. It has many commendable qualities, most of which it has borrowed from the Christian ethic, but it lacks the element of moral wisdom that would give it permanence. Future historians will record that we of the ‘twenty-first’ century had intelligence enough to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it.

** Written by Aiden Wilson Tozer (A.W. Tozer) **

*** From the Book - "Man: The Dwelling Place of God" ***

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