Daily Manna 24 January
MEMORY VERSE: “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” – 1 Thessalonians 4:4
READ: 1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-8
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects thisdoes not reject man, but God, who[a] has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Ruth Graham, the wife of the renowned evangelist Billy Graham, was said to have made the remark now ascribed to the evangelist himself. She had just read a vivid description of the sinful conditions in America as captured from a chapter in the manuscript of World Aflame, a book her husband was writing then.
She was so overwhelmed that she laid the document on his desk and said, “Billy, if God doesn’t come soon and bring judgment upon the United States, He’s going to have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah!” One wonders what Mrs Graham would have said about the extent of moral decay of the present age.
In an age where pornography, homosexuality and utter desecration of the marriage institution are not just tolerated but promoted, does Apostle Paul’s exhortation in today’s text still count? Of course. God’s demand remains the same irrespective of cultural shifts. Believers in Thessalonica were already doing well in faith, yet Apostle Paul earnestly urged them to “abound more and more” in their determination to please God.
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication”. The apostle’s admonition should ring with a stronger note today. Immorality and other perversions have become unimaginably daring and pervasive. The mass media and internet are helping to fuel this ugly trend.
To walk through this mess, the believer must cling to God’s grace. If you must avoid being splashed with the mud of immorality or even being an object of temptation, you must subscribe to strict self-control. Being married does not exempt from this discipline. Remember, the Lord has not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Holiness preserves us from earthly pollutions and prepares us for heaven.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: EXODUS 26-29
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Fast Fading Virtues – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 24 January 2021
