Can pleasures of this life hinder our Christian growth?

Nearly everyone likes some sort of pleasure. The Lord is not against us having pleasure. The danger lies when pleasure becomes the focus of our life.
Job 36:11
If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
From the above scripture the Lord is not against us having pleasure. Also to mention that they are different types of pleasures, and for the Christian, pleasures in His presence are much more satisfying than pleasures of this life.
Psalm 16:11
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm 36:7-8
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures
This article is referring to pleasures of this life. So when can pleasures of this life become a danger to us?
Pleasures of this life will become a danger to us under these circumstances:

• When we are given to pleasure:

Isaiah 47:8

Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
When we are given to pleasure, we will live careless lives. Not giving regard or time to things that are more important than pleasure.

• When we love pleasure more than God.

2 Timothy 3: 1- 4

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
How careful we need to be. Being lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God is a sign of the last days. All you need to do, is look around and see the abundance of entertainment and pleasures we have. We will all agree that if these are not managed they can become major distractions and hindrances to our Christian growth.
You have an urge to pray, but you choose to finish watching the movie on TV before responding. That action could have cost someone their life. Or you feel an urge to go into your closet and spend time with the Lord, but o no, the computer game is getting interesting. We need to judge ourselves and be very careful.

• Allowing pleasures of this life to choke the Word sown in our hearts

Luke 8: 5- 14
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
What choked the Word was cares, riches and pleasures of this life. And because of that no fruit was brought to perfection.
I think it is safe to say that most Christians are right here. We go to church or hear a good word, get back to the dinner, watch TV, go to bed then work the next day. In the middle of the week we go and play tennis, as the week goes by, we have not even opened the notes taken at church talk less of study them. We then go back to church the next Sunday to get more. How are we ever going to bring any fruit unto perfection with such a life style?
Each one of us have to count the cost of what it will take us to bring fruit unto perfection. When we count the cost we must be prepared to pay the price..
Are pleasures good? Yes to a certain extend, however if we are to be serious Christians that want to fulfil our purpose and understand His ways, we must be prepared to lay aside some pleasures and pay the price for eternal values.

Bisi Oladipupo

Judge nothing before its time!!

The bible makes it clear that we should not judge, yet many people find themselves judging situations and people. Only the Lord knows the exact details to judge.

Have a read of this account:
I once attended a conference with a brother whom I have known for years would be a significant prophet in the last-day church. This man had been rejected by much of the church because of the status of his marriage, which at that time was in a state of separation and had been one of many difficulties.
One night the Lord spoke to me in a dream about my own marriage, which l consider to be in compliance with biblical standards. He said that this other man was more righteous in complying with His standards for marriage than l was.
I had been given a godly wife who loved the Lord and sought Him, and the condition of my marriage was purely the result of grace. I had been given little effort to comply with His mandate in this and had been hard, unyielding, and resistant to things He would have me to do to improve my marriage.
Against the most humiliating circumstances, and resistance, this other man for years had devoted himself to complying with the biblical mandate to make his marriage work, even when he had every right, both biblically and morally, to walk away from it. Yet the church has judged him as a failure and me as acceptable in this area. God had a very different opinion.
(From The Harvest, page 203 by Rick Joyner)

The above account speaks for itself and brings this scripture into reality:
1 Corinthians 4: 5
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Bisi Oladipupo

The crown of life

A crown is a honour bestowed upon a person by someone else. It signifies that the person given it deserves it because of what they have done. In these days medals or cups are given to those that win athletics and football, however crowns are one of many rewards in heaven.
Life can be very challenging. The Lord is aware and Has given us His Word and Spirit to help us sail through life. In addition to this, rewards await those you overcome and stand for what they know is right according to His Word.
Imagine receiving a crown of life from the Lord?

James 1: 12
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Are you standing your ground on some things that you know is right in accordance to the Word? Are others that don’t know the Lord trying to put pressure on you to compromise? We stand for what we know is right and refuse to compromise because we love the Lord. Do you love the Lord?
I encourage you to stand for what you know is right,i.e right in His sight. Stand for the truth and resist temptation. Its only for a brief moment. The Lord promises those that endure temptation’s a crown of life ‘. That must be worth more that anything you can imagine.
Be encouraged, the Lord rewards faithfulness . A crown of life awaits those that endure temptation.

Bisi Oladipupo

The missing Rs!

What do l mean?

The Word of God has a three fold application according to 2 Timothy 4: 2
 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

Reprove and rebuke are very similar in meaning.

To rebuke someone is to reprimand someone, to tell what’s wrong with that person’s words and/or actions with the hope that the person will make an effort to change.
The reason why you rebuke someone is because you love him/her (2 Cor. 2:4) and the goal is that the person will learn and grow. (http://www.vtaide.com/lifeskills/AffirmRebuke.htm ).
So this simply means we stand in great danger if we refuse to receive rebuke and get correction.
Being rebuked is part of being a Christian, and if we refuse to receive it, great danger lies ahead.

The word ‘reprove’ means: act of rebuking or reproaching
According to the above scripture we have 2 Rs and One e i.e exhort.
We do need to be very careful in these days. Many sermons consist of so much exhortation, people running up and down during the sermon but with the two missing Rs, reprove and rebuke.
 Lets look at 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 to 3 :

2 Timothy 4

 ¹I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
 ²Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
 ³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
From the above scripture, we can see that we are not only to exhort, but to reprove and rebuke.
 Are you a teacher of the Word? People may have itching ears, but we are required to be faithful in what the Lord tells us to do.

1 Timothy 5:20-21

  Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality
This simply means we need to rebuke those that deserve to be rebuked with no partiality.

Titus 1:12-14
 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth

As Christians, we are to receive reprove and rebuke as apart of the gospel if we are going to bring glory to the name of the Lord.

 

Revelation 3:19

 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

If all we are hearing is exhortation, we stand in great danger. We are not supposed to pick and choose but received instruction and correction.

Lets embrace the whole truth of the Word of God. Thank God for exhortation, but to be a full grown Christians we need to be reproved and rebuked.

Bisi Oladipupo

The cloth was the evidence but was it true?

Evidence has and always will be required to convict a person of wrong doing.


These days we have all sorts of advance techniques to bring evidence, CCTV cameras, video cameras, DNA etc the list goes on.

However we do need to be very careful sometimes as evidence does not necessary mean that the person did something wrong.

What do l mean?

A good account can be found in Genesis 39:

Lets look at some scriptures to give us an idea of what happened:

1And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.


2And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.


3And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.


7And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

8But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;


9There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?


10And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.


11And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.


12And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.


13And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,


14That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:


19And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.

20And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.


21But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.


This is a good reason why we need to be very careful. The account also confirms why we should not judge others.

If this happened today and you saw the garment on CNN news of BBC news presented as evidence would you believe the accusation against Joseph?

Many will believe and start saying all sorts of things against Joseph, how wrong would they have been.

To make matters worst, Joseph went to prison, however he did nothing wrong.

Brethren, lets be very careful. We will always hear accusations against others.

Lets remember this account ;that yes the cloth was the evidence, but was it true?



Bisi Oladipupo

Good men still need the Lord

Have you ever come across someone that you thought, ‘ what a good person’, or are you a ‘good’ person yourself?


Do you know that you can be a very good person, but have someone very serious missing in your life.

Lets have a look at this scripture:


Acts 10


1There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

2A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

3He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.

4And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

5And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:

6He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.


This is Peter telling the brethren what happened:

Act 11

12And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:


13And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;

14Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.


15And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.



The above verse states why Peter was told to go to Cornelius, ‘ to tell them words that he and all his house shall be saved’, WOW!!


Corenelius was a good man, but he needed to be saved. Look at how the bible described him:


■A devout man,


■One that feared God with all his house,


■He gave much alms to the people,


■He prayed to God always.


He feared God with all his house, he gave to others, he prayed to God yet not saved until Peter was sent to him.

With all this, if he had not been saved he would have spent an eternity without the Lord. A place called hell.

While we don’t hear much about hell today, hell is a real place for those who have not received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour because it is our Lord Jesus Christ that paid the price for our sins.

The above account shows that ‘good men’ still need the Lord. Don’t be deceived, everyone that has breath needs to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour to make heaven after the last breath.

If prayers, giving to people and even fearing God was good enough to get us into heaven, the Lord would not have sent Peter to Cornelius.

Are you a good person? You need the Lord! Do you think you are not good? You still need the Lord, for Jesus paid for all our sins, it doesn’t matter how bad you think they are Jesus has paid the price. All you need to do is to receive the finished work on Calvaryby making Jesus Christ Lord and Saviour of your life. What a bargain, just receive the one who loves you.

When we come across ‘good; people, let us not forget that if they don’t know the Lord, they need Him, for ‘good people still need the Lord’.

The above account is evident and the scriptures declare that this:



Acts 4: 12


Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Don’t be intimated by the good works, share the good news to the people you come across. The precious blood was shed for all.



Bisi Oladipupo

Can someone tell me what happened?

Have you ever read the book of Judges? If yes, have you read


Jugdes 2: 10? It reads:


And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Very serious account which calls for many questions.

Now let us look at what the Lord said to Abraham,

Genesis 17:8-9

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.


And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.


Let us look at what the Lord said the Moses:

Exodus 3:14-15


And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.


And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.



From the first account, Abrahams seed after him in their generations were to keep Gods covenant. While in the second account the name of the Lord God was to be a memorial unto all generations.


Now lets look at these accounts:

Exodus 16:31-33


And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.


And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.


And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.



Deuteronomy 6: 4 – 9


Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:


And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.


And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:


And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.


And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.


From these two accounts, Manna was to be kept so that generations to come can see it and know how their fathers were fed in the wilderness. They were also to diligently teach their children the commandments of the Lord.

Besides these, the children ofIsraelwere to keep circumcision in their generations (Genesis 17:12), observe the feast of the unleaven bread forever (Exodus 12: 17), keep the Sabbath forever (Exodus 31:31).


All these commandments were put n place so that the children ofIsraelwill remember the Lord God and remember what He did for them.


Now lets look at Judges 2: 8 – 12

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.


And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.


And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.


And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:

And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.


With all these steps in place what could have happened? After all the mighty acts of the Lord and ordinances and instructions in place, how could there‘arise a generation that knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel?

I think it is safe to say that something must have gone wrong. Someone did not do what they were supposed to do. Someone did not teach their children nor pass down the instructions of the Lord. Someone lived for themselves and forgot the generation to come. Man failed in their duties to the Lord and to the future generation.

Before we start blaming and throwing stones we need to ask ourselves some serious questions. What are we laying down for our own children? What instructions are we laying down for our children to pass down to their generation?


What are we teaching them of the Lord? Are we teaching them the fear of the Lord? True worship? Holinesses, the list goes on.

What you don’t know, you don’t know. We are responsible for our children and the generation to come. What are we laying down?

This calls for a serious inventory of how we are living our lives now.

May it not be said of any of us that after brother Y, there came a generation which knew not the Lord nor His ways.

Lets make a conscious effort not to live for ourselves but for our children and the generation to come.


Let this be our heart cry!!



Psalm 102:12



But thou, O LORD, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.




Bisi Oladipupo