B1401 DAILY MOTIVATIONALS WEDNESDAY 061113

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content (3)

1 Timothy 6.6-8

Sadly, the church is no longer exempted from the curious love of money. Once I was in a church service and the Pastor said the only testimony he wanted to hear must be those of financial breakthrough! In the days of old, Pastors and other brethren would want to know the sources of sudden and unusual wealth; these days such people are the ones given recognition and prominence in the church. What has been the effect on the Church?

The Church has continued to lose its spiritual strength and relevance as it continues to look more like the world. Primarily and majorly, the Church is expected to be a spiritual organisation, men and women who have committed themselves to the ideals laid down by Jesus and the Apostles. Such was the power in the Church that Ananias and his wife fell down and died because they lied before the apostles. And hear what the Bible says in Acts 5.12 about the way unbelievers regarded the Church, “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people…yet none of the rest (unbelievers) dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly”.

What do we have today? Because of the non-manifestation of the same power, not too many esteem the Church highly, and people who should not, feel too comfortable in their unrighteous living, in the Church. The Church is more focused on competing with the world on who has more money, the finest houses, (now) the biggest jets, the finest church buildings, the most prosperous congregation etc. While none of these is necessarily bad, the undue attention and focus on them has become a great distraction to a group that’s supposed to be primarily spiritual.

For now, lets leave the Church to God to sort out.

Let every believer, you and I, refocus on godliness and refuse to be distracted by the inordinate craze for wealth. Lets trust God and His word that He will take care of us and our needs; if He took care of over 4 million people in the wilderness over 40 years, He can do it again.

God bless you.

‘Lolu Akinwunmi

Questions, opinions, and comments are welcome. If you have been blessed by this message, please pass it on to a friend or more, and with their consent, you can also forward their e-mail addresses to us, so they can be added to the mailing list. Or you can ask them to send a mail to: dailymotivationals@gmail.com asking to be put on the mailing list. It is free.

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Remember that you cannot have a relationship with God except you are born again and if you are born again, you must maintain a relationship with Him based on complete obedience, faith, and a life of righteousness and holiness.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the author

B1400 DAILY MOTIVATIONALS TUESDAY 051113

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content (2)

1 Timothy 6.6-8

The Bible warns us in verses 9-10, “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”. Now we should not misunderstand the Lord; to be rich or have the desire to be rich is not necessarily or fundamentally wrong, after all, most of God’s positive characters in the Bible were rich, and it is possible to be rich from God’s legitimate blessings.

However, there is a serious danger in desiring to be rich; if one is not careful, it is usually accompanied by temptations and snares. Many desires for riches are a product of (harmful) lusts; you want to be like the other person, without knowing the source or foundation of their wealth. We have heard of too many cases of people lured into drug pushing, forgeries, stealing, blackmail, bribery, disloyalty, dishonesty and even fetish activities simply because of their strong desires to become rich. Governments all over the world have been brought down so that people could have access to state money.

The root of all these, the reason behind all these is the love of money. People misquote the scripture by saying, “Money is the root of all evil”; they are wrong; the right quotation and what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6.10 is, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”. Money itself is not bad and can be very useful, but when people develop a lustful attachment to it, then they are not too far from evil and destruction.

Back to our original discourse. Sadly, even the church is no longer exempted from these things. Tomorrow we will see how the church and Christians have become involved in this inordinate desire to make money and become rich at all costs, and the implication on the faith. God bless your day.

‘Lolu Akinwunmi

Questions, opinions, and comments are welcome. If you have been blessed by this message, please pass it on to a friend or more, and with their consent, you can also forward their e-mail addresses to us, so they can be added to the mailing list. Or you can ask them to send a mail to: dailymotivationals@gmail.com asking to be put on the mailing list. It is free.

You can also read the messages on Facebook by going to my personal page, ‘Lolu Akinwunmi. Our blog site www.dmdevotionals.blogspot.com is up, and current messages can be read there as well. Soon we will have a full archive of all DM messages.

To subscribe to the Daily Motivational series, please reply to this message with the word “subscribe” in the subject field. However, if you do not want to receive such mails from us in the future, please reply to this message with the word "remove" in the subject field.

Remember that you cannot have a relationship with God except you are born again and if you are born again, you must maintain a relationship with Him based on complete obedience, faith, and a life of righteousness and holiness.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the author

B1399 DAILY MOTIVATIONALS MONDAY 041113

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content (1)

1 Timothy 6.6-8

Not too long ago, I was meditating on this lead scripture and I began to marvel at how much the body of Christ has moved away from the wisdom contained in it. What do I mean? The scripture preaches and encourages contentment. But what we often hear preached today is the exact opposite, in the name of prosperity messages.

The way many believers go on about getting rich, you would imagine that the main reason God gets people born again is simply to make them financially rich. I have been at services where the pastor encouraged people to give their lives to Christ so they could become prosperous. While in a sense the gospel of Jesus is a full gospel that is able to transform the believer spirit, soul and body, and to this extent prosper them, we must continue to stress that this is NOT the salvation message. Indeed, many are saved who are not rich and are not likely to be rich until they die. And we must always remember that no less a person than Jesus made this statement in John 12.8, “The poor you will always have in your midst”. He was talking to believers.

While it is necessary to assure every believer that one of the benefits of the new life in Christ is financial prosperity, it is not conditional to accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Rather, as we encourage believers to work hard and position themselves for God’s blessings through obedience, we must harp more on the doctrines of godliness. There are millions of rich people in the world who are not believers and who don’t live right with God. God is more interested in the Christian whose life will mirror His instructions in godliness and righteous living than one who can boast of many financial and material assets, as needful as they are.

To underscore this, Jesus warns us all in Luke 12.15, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."

We will conclude this mini series tomorrow by His grace. Enjoy your week.

‘Lolu Akinwunmi

Questions, opinions, and comments are welcome. If you have been blessed by this message, please pass it on to a friend or more, and with their consent, you can also forward their e-mail addresses to us, so they can be added to the mailing list. Or you can ask them to send a mail to: dailymotivationals@gmail.com asking to be put on the mailing list. It is free.

You can also read the messages on Facebook by going to my personal page, ‘Lolu Akinwunmi. 

To subscribe to the Daily Motivational series, please reply to this message with the word “subscribe” in the subject field. However, if you do not want to receive such mails from us in the future, please reply to this message with the word "remove" in the subject field.

Remember that you cannot have a relationship with God except you are born again and if you are born again, you must maintain a relationship with Him based on complete obedience, faith, and a life of righteousness and holiness.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the author