Proverbs 30:7-9

“Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" Proverbs 30:7-9 NIV

Proverbs 30 is regarded in the bible as the words of a man named Agur who probably lived during the time of King Solomon. The entire passage reflects a man of humility with a deep hatred for arrogance and love for God!

Argur starts in v7 by asking God two things and even begged God not to refuse him before he dies. What a man! 

What are the requests?

1. Keep falsehood and lies away from me!

2. Give me neither poverty nor riches but give me ONLY my daily bread!

Agur went further by telling God in his prayer requests the reason(s) for the requests. Which are:

1. If I have too much riches, I may disown God and say "Who is The Lord?"

2. If I become too poor and steal, "I will dishonour God's name"

Agur only asked for DAILY BREAD! 

What's Daily Bread? 

Jesus teaches us how to pray in Mathew 6 and specifically asked that we ask for our "Daily Bread in v11 "Give us today our daily bread". The word bread here denotes everything necessary to sustain life, Mt 4:4( Jesus says "man does not live on bread alone). Deut 8:3( He humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna. (The context here is all about trusting God even in great need - Israel totally failed here for they were quick to moan and rebel)

This petition implies our dependence on God for the supply of our wants. Perhaps this was what Agur was specifically asking God for. Give me ONLY my Daily Bread!

Above all, this talks about contentment in everything! 

We should never be anxious for anything but we should present our requests before God! Phil 4:6.

Paul admonishes us to be content with all we have and even said that he has learned the secret of being content. Secret? 

What's the secret? We can see this in v13 "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength". 

Question:

How do we become contented with what we have? Daily Bread is all about contentment!

Helping the poor and needy!

Luke 10:36-37- "The one who had mercy on him. Go and do likewise". 

Question:

How do we help the poor and needy amongst us? 

What are the consequences of stealing as a believer?

1. We dishonour God's name by questioning His ability to provide for us as His children. v9

2. We run the risk of arrest and custodial sentence or even death.  1Peter 2:13-25(which talks about upholding the laws of the land)

3. The risk of putting our family(both nuclear and church) to shame. 

4. Bad example to our children. Why did daddy go to prison? Because he stole and was arrested by the police. Jesus did warn us in Mark 9:42 about the effects of causing people to stumble(They not necessary be our children). 

The Last Three Days of Creation

Theme: The Last Three Days of Creation

Text: Genesis 1:14-31

Introduction: The Almighty God on Day 4 of creation created the light[but what light?]. On Day 5, He created the living creatures and called them blessed [this is obviously the first time, the word "blessed" is used by God] and on Day 6 created man in His image. As Ize Adava had highlighted on Tuesday, God is a wonderful sculptor with absolute Fine Art dexterity and attention to details. God is awesomely pedantic. 

Day 4 [v14-19]

Light? Again? Didn't we have "Light" created in v4? God has created light and there has been light in the past 3 days so what kind of light are we writing about here again? God could have left the light like that but He never did. He created the "lights, sun, moon and stars to serve as markers for seasons, days, years and signs. Just imagine a world without season, it would have been extremely "bland". These signs are important factors as they help us appreciate God more. These signs are used as testimony to God [Romans 1:14-20]. As navigation [Mathew 2:1,2] and as weather [Mathew 16:2,3].

Day 5 [v29-24]

God used the Day 5 to create living creatures: The animals and fish. And called them "blessed". The word, "blessed" simply mean to "be fruitful and multiply". Question. Can we ever catch all the Tilapia for food in the ocean? God has blessed the entire world with food. Why then do we go hungry and many are dead because of lack of food? Did God not bless us? Ponder on this! Adamic sin crept and God's curse remained! 

Day 6 [v24-31]

"Let us make man in our own image"- the words "us" and "our" shows us the very first sign of trinity [God, Son and Holy Ghost]. The crowning point of creation is the making of a living human in the image of God! I make bold to write that because we are made in the image of God, we draw a personal relationship with Him. Lets pause and think for a bit. We are made in God's image. We have a head [so does God], we have a heart [so does God], we have limbs and mobility [so does God]. We are made in His likeness. We are like God. The only difference is His awesome power. We have everything that God has! 

Dominion: We have dominion over all things that God has created. We have been asked to subdue them. [Psalm 8:6-8]. The word "subdue" does not in any way suggest unruly behaviour to "God's stuff".  We need to treat the earth with utmost caution and take care of God's stuff. I like the word "stuff". 

Male and Female: These two humans were specifically designed by God to multiply. God created them "Male and Female". This is instructive in this age of homosexuality where you have to be politically correct to address such issue but God at creation created them "Male and Female" and not "Male and Male" or Female and Female". If He had wanted such, He would have done it. Why are we changing God's plan? 

Blessed: God called them blessed. That word again? The second usage in the bible. This particular blessing involves reproduction and dominion. 

And it was very good: It's instructive to note that in v 4,10,12,18, 21, 25, God had used the word "good" but at the end of creation, He then used the phrase "very good". God was obviously pleased with Himself. There were no flaws. God is perfect! 

Conclusion

I wrote this about 3 years in an article titled "For Men Only: Praise and Worship", it's important that I add it here for emphasis. Pls enjoy!

I must confess that something just stirred up inside of me as I opened my PC to write this article, I’d wanted to write on an entirely different topic but I couldn’t hence this topic. Many of us as Men no matter our circumstance need to worship God daily. Nonstop. Sometimes, when I look at His Awesome wonder, I marvel at his sculptural dexterity. Forget human physiology and anatomy. Forget Medicine! God is an artist. He formed the bones and covered them in sinews and tendons. He formed the ball and socket joints and didn’t leave it like that; he added cartilages as a form of shock absorbers. He formed the ear and covered the middles section, the most delicate part with a tympanic membrane or else many of us in this 21st century would have gone deaf with the advent of over-blaring iPods and MP4s. He covered the eyeballs with an automatic eyelid, no matter the danger, no matter how small a foreign object may be, the eyelid closes before impact. It’s like He has a remote control in his hands up there. Take a look at your heart (I know you can’t see it but visualise its mechanism, follow the rhythm) and tell me if there is a Piston and Sleeve in place, what pumps that little organ? It’s been pumping the very minute you and I were conceived and will never stop till we drop the last breath. Even a Bentley Continental GT needs an annual service. When was the very last time you manually serviced your heart? What about the brain? Not even the world's fastest supercomputers can match it in Intuition. 

Give Him praise!

[Guest Article] The Christian in the End-Time Part 2 of 5

THE RAPTURE

David Oludairo

Please permit me to say from the beginning that the teaching on eschatology exists today in the realm of gleaned truths from the Scriptures. No denomination can lay claim to exclusive, infallible knowledge of the sequence of events for the end time. That’s why there are lots of argument and confusion among the body of Christ on the subject. This write-up is not immune from this trend.

We have a less-than-perfect picture because the Church is not engaging God on the subject of the end-time in the place of earnest prayer. Therefore, almost like the world, our back-slidden Church is also terrified of the end-time! Which is ironic, because the Lord has designed the end-time for the redemption and comfort of His people (1 Thess 4:18).

BOTTOMLINE: The most important thing about the end-time is not to have a full understanding of the sequence of events, but to BE FULLY PREPARED for the event.

Now, let’s come to the subject of the Rapture. There are several schools of thought in the Church on the timing of the rapture in relation to the seven-year Tribulation Period (TP) prophesied in Daniel 9:24-27. Some believe that all Christians will be here on earth (divinely protected) throughout the period of tribulation and will be rescued by God afterwards. This is the post-tribulation position shared by many evangelicals.
Others believe the rapture will occur mid-way into the TP (mid-tribulation position).

The pre-tribulation position (The Rapture), taught by most Pentecostal churches and other denominations, teaches that Christians will be taken away from the world before the wrath of the Lord is revealed in the TP (1 Thess 5:9). [Please join us in earnestly praying that the Lord will please shed more light that will unify the understanding of true believers on end-time events so that we can speak with one voice.]

Let’s look further at the pre-tribulation position on The Rapture. 

MODE
By nature, the Rapture will be sudden and cataclysmic; ( in the ‘twinkling of an eye’ – 1 Corinthians 15:52; and like a ‘thief in the night’ - 1 Thess 5:2). Jesus will appear suddenly in the sky at the blast of the trumpet of God in the midst of angels. The dead in Christ will rise in their graves and join this heavenly procession. Believers that have been truly waiting expectantly for this second coming will be caught up to join them in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-17). All this will happen in a split second.

TIMING
Jesus emphasised that no one will know the hour of His coming (Matthew 24:36). This is what He told us about the timing: IT WILL BE TOTALLY UNEXPECTED (Matthew 24:44).

PRECEDING SIGNS
How many signs will precede the Rapture? Zero. Unlike most events in the end-time that have multiple signs preceding them, there is not a single sign that will precede the Rapture. It is designed in this way so that only those who have obeyed the instruction to be ready at all times will make it. Scary, but very true.

INVITATION
The invitation list is exclusive, and highly restrictive. ‘Many are called, but few are chosen’ (Matthew 22:14)

POLITICAL OUTLOOK
Politically, the world will be under the central government of the Anti-Christ, who will unleash an unprecedented, pre-ordained persecution against Christians. He will torture them. He will overcome them. And He will kill them in huge numbers. All this is pre-ordained to punish and cleanse believers that ignored Jesus’ warning to be ready for His second coming. (Daniel 11:33,35; Revelation 13:5-7).
For such Christians, as well as the rest of the world, it will be a period of the out- pouring of God’s judgment on mankind in a series of calamities including, but not restricted to, natural disasters of megatronic proportions, onslaught of unknown pandemic diseases, huge social unrest and upheaval, devastating famine, etc. Jesus puts it this way: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved...." (Matthew 24:21-22