God's "Great" in Small Package

 From Our Pastor's Desk

2nd Kings 22:1-2 - “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign…Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” 

Josiah, according to the scripture above, is proof that we can remain faithful to God throughout our lives, and it does not matter what is going on around us. 

It would be easy to think Josiah's faithfulness was because he saw it in his father, Amon. 

Unfortunately, his father wasn't faithful to God, and neither was his grandfather. Yet these things did not deter Josiah. He looked to and followed someone else’s footsteps – David. 

When we read about the lives of Christians who lived for the Lord, like David, Joseph, Timothy, Daniel et al, a common theme emerges. 

They loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind. Young, but Great man of God Josiah was one such person. 

His life was one of complete dedication to the Lord. 

 He was comfortable standing out from the crowd 

 He humbled himself before the Lord and confessed his sins 

 He put his words into action and removed evil from his sight 

In our daily lives, let’s emulate this man of God. He may have been 8-years of age, but he is a worthy example of greatness to be emulated. It is my prayer that we be the right godly examples unto our generation and those that follow us, in Jesus Name.  

You will have good success this 2023.  Remain blessed.   Shalom.

July 2023 - Month of Josiah

From Our Pastor's Desk

Welcome to this our new Month of Josiah, in Jesus name.  

2nd Kings 22:1-2 -“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign…Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” 

David was not Josiah’s direct father. During the reign of both his father (Amon) and grandfather (Manasseh), the people of the land were moving away from God. 

Idol worship was commonplace and the Lord’s anger burned against the people. In those days, people sacrificed their own children in the fire to Molech. 

Manasseh sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spirits. 

But although Josiah became a king at the tender age of 8-years-old, the Bible records him as following the Lord wholeheartedly, as did David. 

Young king Josiah’s life teaches our children and us many lessons. We do not need to imitate evil, whether from our parents, the pressures to follow the crowd, in school, at work, or everywhere. 

Mercy seatizens, welcome to the month of July 2023, “Our Month of Josiah” – 2nd Kings 22:1-20. 

In this month that we celebrate our InsideOut Children, the Lord will give them, and all of us, the courage, faith and wisdom to stand out, like young child-king Josiah, and say “no” to everyone or everything that is evil and ungodly, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Winning with Honor and Respect

By Deaconess Rebecca Orimoloye

Our God is a God of honor and respect. The book of Exodus 20 is filled with the things we need to do to honor God, ourselves, neighbors, parents, etc.

Likewise, we, the work of His hands also thrives in honor and respect. No one in their right minds will say they do not like being honored or respected.

 It is easy for us to remember or even keep a grudge against those who dishonor or disrespect us. Why? We are wired as a people of honor.

But do we know that we can win battles by fighting with honor and respect? We can in fact avert major disasters and generational issues by choosing honor and respect.

In the book of 1 Sam 25, we were taken into the household of Abigail and Nabal. Nabal’s lineage was literally about to obliterated, had it not been for the quick thinking and honorific actions of Abigail in pacifying David and his men.

Similarly, in the book of Esther, Esther used honor and respect to destroy the plans of Hamman. When we pay attention to Esther 3, from verse 7, we begin to see the extent of Hamman’s planned atrocities in order to appreciate what Esther actually did.

Hamman spent a good 12 months (1 year) preparing for the destruction of not only Mordecai, but the entire Jewish lineage. He was casting spells to see the best day he would be most favored in order to go into the presence of the king and ask him to destroy the Jews. It took him a year to cast the spells.

We should note that Esther’s honor and respect for the king didn’t start when the Jews were in trouble. Else, an “out of the blues” action would have been too late. She must have had a track record. Honor and respect can provoke favor, as we see in Esther’s story.

We see that honor and respect goes beyond what is on the surface. Honor and respect can actually be used to provoke help, open doors, blessing, favor, win wars, fight battles and save generations, etc. The list and possibilities are endless.

It is my prayer that we begin to use honor and respect in order to win in Jesus name.

Mighty Men of War - Lessons for Fatherhood

By Bro. Leke Alomaja

 Exodus 15:1-3 – “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. 

The LORD is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a Man of war: the LORD is His name” 

This passage not only teaches us about God's power but also provides insights into the qualities of a strong and loving father: 

• The Strength of a Father's Love 
• Celebrating Fatherhood 
• The Role of a Protector 
• Obedience and Fatherly Guidance 

Defining what I think a good father needs to be in 2023 based on an acronym for Father. 

 F - Faithful 

 A - Available 

 T - Teacher 

 H - Helper 

 E - Encouraging 

 R – Reliable  

Today, we celebrate all our Faithful, Available, Teaching, Helping, encouraging & Reliable Fathers. More grace to you all, in Jesus Name.  

You will have good success this 2023.  

Remain blessed.   

Shalom

It's Time to Move on & Rebuild

From Our Pastor's Desk

Isaiah 61:4 - And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. 

There will always be broken down walls that need to be rebuilt, old waste places that need reconstruction, need repair and restoration. 

If we look around us we can see broken “walls” – lives, relationships (parents-children, siblings, loved ones, friends), marriages etc. 

Many are broken because they have been hurt by those from who they are supposed to receive love from. 

Hurt by parents, friends, and spouses who deserted them. Some are broken because of past failures. Broken because they failed to live up to the expectations of others. 

Acts 15:16-17 – “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 

These and many more are walls that need to be rebuilt. God wants us to pick up the broken pieces, move on and rebuild. 

According to the scriptures above, Isaiah 61:4, even yet many coming generations depend on this rebuild.  We need to rise up from the doldrums of defeat, stagnancy, inaction, pity, “woe-betide-me” syndrome, dormancy and deep-freeze…..and MOVE ON & REBUILD. 

Micah 7:11 - In the day that thy walls are to be built, I pray that the Lord grant us courage from on high to arise from our fallen state and move on and rebuild and shine, in Jesus Name.  

You will have good success this 2023. 

Remain blessed.  

Shalom.

June 2023 - Month of Ehud

From Our Pastor's Desk 

Welcome to this our new Month of Ehud, in Jesus name. Judges 3: 15 – “But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab”

Above is an excerpt from the story of Ehud, a man used as deliverer for the Israelites from the hand of evil and oppressive king Eglon of the Moabites, who were idol worshippers and did evil in the sight of the Lord.

The story of Ehud is a story of victory, conquest and overcoming. That’s what we have, through Christ Jesus. We need Christ for the spiritual battle & warfare of life, against satan, our adversary, the enemy of our souls.

God delivered Israel from the hands of Eglon, by sending the left-handed Ehud and his cubit-long sword to assassinate Eglon and liberate God’s people from his evil rule. 1st John 5:4-5 – “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”

Mercy Seatizens, welcome to June 2023, “Our Month of Ehud”. This month & beyond, because we are born of God, we are overcomers. By faith we declare our victory over the world, over every evil oppression, and over every situation that has weighed us down, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Hard Facts About Battles

From Our Pastor's Desk

Psalms 144:1 – “Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight” 

You must have heard people say “everyone has their demon to fight”, which, in essence, is the same as “every man must fight his own battles”. 

As Christians, we are in a spiritual battle of some sort on a daily basis. 

In warfare, battles are fought on different fronts, for different reasons, and with varying degrees of intensity. 

The same is true in spiritual warfare. The day you surrender your life to Christ is the day you are drafted as a soldier in the ongoing war between the Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness. 

A battle that satan fights against us because of the position/level God has placed us, because he has lost his position, because satan is envious of the love God has for us. 

Psalms 8:4 says “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

Our spiritual battles and warfare are real, even though we cannot physically see the attacker. But, we can educate ourselves on how the battles are fought and how they impact our lives on a daily basis. 

What you must not do is take a back-seat, spectator stance in this battle of life. It will be very unfortunate and tragic if you opt to take the stance of a civilian while battles are constantly raging around you.

Today we share just 4 hard facts, out of countless others, that we need to know about battles & spiritual warfare.

I pray that the Lord grant you courage from on high to confront every challenge on your path, in Jesus Name.

You will have good success this 2023. 

Remain blessed. 

Shalom.