*DAILY DEW 6/JUNE/2022* *PEOPLE & UNITY* (III) _Key Bible Text:_ *“Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands [who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm], take heed lest he fall [into sin]."* (1 Corinthians 10:12 (The Message)) _Bible Insight:_ When in 1650 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland opposed Oliver Cromwell and declared Charles II their king, Cromwell wrote them a letter of earnest appeal in which he said, among other things, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” Appeal must precede attack if we are to act like Christians. The army of Israel was commanded to offer peace to a city before declaring war against it (Deut. 20:10–20), and that’s a good example for us to follow. Jesus instructed us to settle differences with people quickly and privately and to take the initiative in seeking peace (Matt. 5:21–26; 18:15–35). The big problem, of course, is that we all think we have the right answer, and we’re prepared to defend our “convictions.” And when you add the implied threats that often accompany our “discussions” (“If you don’t do this, our family will leave the church, and a lot of people will follow us!”), you have the potential for a real explosion. When that happens, it’s time to sit down together and read aloud in unison Philippians 2:1–18. The next step is to suggest a prayer meeting to ask God to help everybody obey what was just read. I have in my study a small sign a friend made for me when he heard me quote in a sermon a favorite statement from Thomas Merton. Here’s the statement: *_To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell._* If Merton is right, a lot of Christians are sitting on a hot seat because they expect everybody to agree with them and everything to go their way. Like Lucifer, they insist on being “like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14) and playing God in everybody’s life. The name of the malady is pride, and it’s a difficult disease to cure. _MEDITATION:_ *“New Testament scholar William Barclay wrote, “Pride is the ground in which all the other sins grow, and the parent from which all the other sins come.” Among the sins that God hates most, pride heads the list (Prov. 6:16–17)."* *#Warren_W._Wiersbe* *#Monday_wisdomforliving* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#Year_of_Big_Favours* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_June* ❤ (Culled from _On Being A Servant of God_ ) Links To Visit: *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg *WhatsApp Group:* http://bit.ly/The_David_Generation Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 5/JUNE/2022* *PEOPLE & UNITY* (II) _Key Bible Text:_ *“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."* (1 Corinthians 1:11-13 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ You and I don’t have to manufacture unity in the church because it’s already there. We’re all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28), and the spiritual oneness of the body is a miracle of God’s grace (Eph. 4:1–6). No, we don’t have to manufacture unity; but we do have the obligation to maintain the unity that Jesus died to create—“endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). So important is the unity of His people that Jesus prayed about it before He went to the cross ( John 17:22–24) If among God’s people there’s a difference over fundamental Bible doctrine, “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” ( Jude 3), there can be no room for compromise. But let’s be sure it’s fundamental doctrine and not some secondary matter that somebody has blown out of proportion. For centuries, good and godly people have disagreed over the interpretations of certain Scriptures and have agreed to disagree without being disagreeable. *“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”* Augustine said that, and he’s right. That third statement from Augustine is especially important: “In all things, charity.” Even when we defend the faith, we must behave like Christians: *“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth”* (2 Tim. 2:24–25). If they don’t repent, they’re the ones who have broken the unity and left the fellowship (1 John 2:18–23). False doctrines cause divisions, and false teachers must be warned and avoided (Rom. 16:17–20). _MEDITATION:_ *“But it’s been my experience that very few ministries divide over doctrine. Most differences among Christians center on personalities, methods of ministry, allocation of funds, and other noteworthy but nondoctrinal matters. Let a church receive a large bequest from a will, and the potential for division is astronomical. The trustees want to use the money to pave the parking lot. The Missions Committee wants to send it to the fields. The women want to renovate the kitchen, and the young people want to build a gym. Not only is loving money a root of all kinds of evil, but spending it can produce a good deal of evil."* *#Warren_W._Wiersbe* *#Sunday_wisdomforliving* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#Year_of_Big_Favours* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_June* ❤ (Culled from _On Being A Servant of God_ ) Links To Visit: *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg *WhatsApp Group:* http://bit.ly/The_David_Generation Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 4/JUNE/2022* *PEOPLE & UNITY* _Key Bible Text:_ *“For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"* (1 Corinthians 1:11-13 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ When our older daughter was a child in grade school, one day she came storming into the house, slammed the door, stomped into her room, slammed that door, all the while muttering under her breath, “People— people!—PEOPLE!” Thinking I might be of some help, I tapped on the door and asked, “May I come in?” The answer was an explosive “No!” “Why?” I asked. “Because you’re a people!” Even children have their problems with people. One thing’s for sure: believers who try to serve the Lord can expect to have problems with people—and maybe people will have problems with them! Moses had problems with people, so much so that one day he asked God to take his life because he’d had enough (Numbers 11). Sometimes the people you help the most appreciate it the least. Jesus healed ten lepers, and only one of them—a foreigner—came back to thank Him (Luke 17:11–19). When Paul was a prisoner in Rome, some of the Roman Christians, instead of encouraging the apostle, tried to make things more difficult for him (Phil. 1:12–21). Paul took the loving approach and thanked God that at least they were preaching the gospel. Ambrose Bierce wrote, “There are two classes of people: the righteous and the unrighteous. The classifying is done by the righteous.” His satirical pen makes a significant point: sometimes we create problems with people because we adopt a “we/they” attitude. Everybody in the church (or Bible class or choir or youth group) is either for us or against us. _MEDITATION:_ *“Most people think of a heretic only as somebody who teaches false doctrine. But the word translated “heresy” in the New Testament comes from a Greek word that means “to choose.” It describes an office seeker campaigning for votes and asking everybody, “Are you for me or against me?” There’s a willfulness about this attitude that often causes bad feelings and might produce division. If we take the “we/they” approach, we may become heretics; and instead of solving the problem, we will only make it worse."* *#Warren_W._Wiersbe* *#Saturday_wisdomforliving* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#Year_of_Big_Favours* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_June* ❤ (Culled from _On Being A Servant of God_ ) Links To Visit: *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg *WhatsApp Group:* http://bit.ly/The_David_Generation Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 2/JUNE/2022* *DISCIPLESHIP, GATHERINGS & GROWTH* (II) _Key Bible Text:_ *“For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [mature] man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"* (Eph. 4:12–13) _Bible Insight:_ If you had asked the apostle Paul what his goal was in serving God, he would have said, “That we may present every man perfect [mature] in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). If you had asked him to describe the work of the local church, he would have replied, “For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [mature] man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12–13). *In spite of what some “success preachers” say, God’s goal for our lives is not money but maturity, not happiness but holiness, not getting but giving.* God is at work making people more like His Son, and that’s what Christian service is all about. Your purpose in serving isn’t to build the biggest church or Sunday school class, the greatest choir, or the most efficient band of ushers. Your purpose is to build people of Christian character whom God can bless and use to build others. You can use all kinds of gimmicks and techniques to gather a crowd or build an organization, but that’s not the same as building His church. The key idea is maturity. The individual Christian is born into the family of God and should mature and become more like Jesus Christ. As the church body matures, it increases in size and takes on adult features and adult responsibilities. It, too, becomes more like Christ. There’s no conflict between size and maturity, although all bodies don’t mature exactly alike. But where there’s life, there ought to be growth. There’s nothing automatic about spiritual maturity. Paul had to pray for believers, share the Word with them, warn them, even discipline them, to bring them out of babyhood and into adulthood (1 Cor. 3:1–4). Paul wasn’t always successful in helping people mature, nor will we be; but with the Lord’s help, he did his best. If people failed to mature, the failure was theirs and not Paul’s. _MEDITATION:_ *“The danger is that we exploit people to get things done instead of ministering to them so that what they’re doing helps them mature in Christ. Remember, in God’s eyes, the worker is more important than the work. If the worker is what he or she ought to be, the work will be done right and will please God."* *#Warren_W._Wiersbe* *#Thursday_wisdomforliving* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#Year_of_Big_Favours* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_June* ❤ (Culled from _On Being A Servant of God_ ) Links To Visit: *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg *WhatsApp Group:* http://bit.ly/The_David_Generation Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...