DATE: SATURDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2017
THEME: YOU CAN AVOID WASTAGE
Memorise:
For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 24:6
Read: Luke 15:11-16
15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:
15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
15:14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15:15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Message:
In life, some people experience provision before they ever need it, while some get provision just in the nick of time. Some others only get the provision they need after the time the need is past. One Bible character who experienced provision before need is the prodigal son in today’s Bible reading. All he would ever need was already provided for and safely kept by his father. Nevertheless, what was his response to his father’s wisdom and grace? He foolishly asked for all that was his, and he wastefully spent it all. Luke 15:13 says,
“And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”
May you never waste God’s provision for your life! There are so many people who engage in wasteful spending. There are some people God has blessed with the funds to buy a piece of land, which they can develop as God enables them, but they use the provision to acquire a flashy car or attempt to live “big” while they are still in rented apartment. This amounts to foolishness. There are some youths who get some big money from legitimate ventures, but because they had no financial intelligence and never sought counsel, they wasted it and struggled thereafter.
“If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct. Ecclesiastes 10:10
To manage financial provision, you need wisdom. In fact, the Scripture above says that you can get results from a cutlass whether it is sharp or blunt; the difference is that wisdom helps you make the best decisions to obtain the best results. If you have financial wisdom, you would avoid wasteful spending and increase whatever you have. Do you have financial resources beyond what you need for the moment? Ask God for wisdom to manage it. Also, ask for guidance. Follow the counsel in today’s memory verse: ask those who know better. Ask from experienced fund managers and people skilled in financial investments. More importantly, find out from God, the Provider of that provision, what the purpose of the provision is. If you can diligently ask Him, He will guide you on how to spend it in such a way as to guarantee repeated provision. You do not need to spend on every item you see or like. Humbly surrender your desires to God and let Him reign over them.
Key Point:
You can completely avoid wastage when you submit your finances to Jesus asking Him for direction and approval of your budget.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
2 Chronicles 35-36
Ezekiel 41:12-26
AUTHOR: PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE
HYMN 7: OH JESUS I HAVE PROMISED
1. O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,
My Master and my Friend;
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my Guide.
2. Oh, let me hear Thee speaking
In accents clear and still,
I dare not trust my judgment:
Thy way shall be my will;
Oh, speak to reassure me,
To hasten or control;
Oh, speak, and help me listen,
Thou Guardian of my soul.
3. O Jesus, Thou hast promised
To all who follow Thee
That where Thou art in glory
There shall Thy servant be;
And Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end—
Oh, give me grace to follow,
My Master and my Friend.
4. Oh, let me see Thy footprints,
And in them plant mine own;
My hope to follow duly
Is in Thy strength alone;
Oh, guide me, call me, draw me,
Uphold me to the end;
And then in Heav’n receive me,
My Saviour and my Friend.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR PASSAGES
2 Chronicles: 35. 1. Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2. And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD, 3. And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel, 4. And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5. And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites. 6. So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses. 7. And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance. 8. And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen. 9. Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen. 10. So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment. 11. And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them. 12. And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. 13. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people. 14. And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15. And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. 16. So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah. 17. And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept. 20. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. 21. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. 22. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. 24. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. 26. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD, 27. And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Chronicles: 36. 1. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem. 2. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3. And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4. And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt. 5. Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. 6. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. 7. Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. 8. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. 9. Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. 10. And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. 11. Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. 13. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel. 14. Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15. And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 17. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. 22. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 23. Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.
Ezekiel: 41. 12. Now the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length thereof ninety cubits. 13. So he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long; 14. Also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, an hundred cubits. 15. And he measured the length of the building over against the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court; 16. The door posts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered; 17. To that above the door, even unto the inner house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure. 18. And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; 19. So that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about. 20. From the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple. 21. The posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other. 22. The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD. 23. And the temple and the sanctuary had two doors. 24. And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door. 25. And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch without. 26. And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.
No comments:
Post a Comment