Category: Daily Devotionals

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

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John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – NIV

A story is told of some artists who were asked to paint a picture of peace. One painted an animal comfortably resting in its hide out atop very calm, secure and quiet snow capped mountains, apparently free from all harm. Another painted a little bird resting in its nest, built on a tree branch which extended over a roaring waterfalls. The later won the contest. The idea was that peace is not the absence of trouble, but within it.

We all want peace. Whether we are conscious or not, all the things we do and pursue, are intended to ultimately bring us peace of mind. But many times even after doing and acquiring them, we realize peace has eluded us, and yet those who don’t have even a fraction of them, look peaceful. Each one of us has a picture of what we call peace. There are things in our environment that we wish to work out in a certain way so that we have peace. But the fact is, our world may never settle from all the troubles and turmoil to give us that tranquility necessary for peace of mind.

True peace is primarily in the mind, not in the external environment. Even if the waterfalls and storms of life roar day and night, we can have peace of mind. Only Jesus, the Prince of Peace, can give such peace which defies the ever present troubles of this life, to those who seek Him. He gives it not as the world gives. You can rest in God amidst the troubles of this broken evil world, feeding us with bad news every day. Put your hope in Him. He will rest your heart and mind in Himself.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 46:1-3 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam  and the mountains quake with their surging.”

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

2 Corinthians 2:17 “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” – NIV

Paul had a huge challenge in dealing with false teachers who made it their task to discredit and speak ill of him in Corinth. They did this because their intentions in ministry was not to preach the word to genuinely minister to others, but to them it was a business. As Paul states in the verse above, they were peddling the word of God for profit! Their fighting Paul in ministry was motivated by a feeling that he was hindering the gospel ‘business.’

How terrible this is, and yet so true and common even in our day! Some gospel ministers are not sent from God, but into preaching as a way of earning income. To them, ministry is business. The more ‘customers’ you have the better. Their focus then is more numbers, more strategies to woo people, fighting those who rise above them, advertise their ministries, convince as many about themselves, etc.

These results in dishonest ways which bring shame to God as they do anything to remain popular and win crowds to remain in business! Paul notes that to the contrary, as those sent from God, they speak before God with sincerity as they minister. Our primary accountability is to God, to be found doing only what He commissioned us to do. This will guard against any temptation to peddle His word for personal gain. May we be found as able ministers with sincere hearts before God. Integrity of every gospel minister is none negotiable.

2 Corinthians 4:2 “Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Shalom. Fruitful week

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Hebrews 11:24-26 “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” – NIV

Moses was so privileged, one could say, to have been adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter as her son after picking him from the water. That entitled him to the best of everything in the then most powerful kingdom in the world. But Egypt was a heathen idolatrous kingdom in which other gods were worshiped and alot of sin against God Most High was committed. Despite all those privileges and sensual gratification, Moses deep within wasn’t satisfied because his God was not honoured. He decided to join and suffer with his people than remain and enjoy temporary pleasures of sin in the palace. He opted for the eternal.

Sin offers temporary enjoyment. But the victims don’t normally think about the bitter sting of its consequences to themselves, their families and generations to come, into eternity. Yes, you may enjoy that moment as you cheat on your spouse, as you plan that deal to steal, to bring down or even kill others so that you take the plunder or win favours, as you hide in those dark corners doing some mischief. You may even emerge as heros from a ‘successful’ mission, having left others mourning and totally devastated, because of the harm you dealt on them.

Government/organisational/community programs under your jurisdiction could be grumbling because you diverted and enriched yourself with the funds, and millions of would-be beneficieries continue to suffer – as you watch them!  And you give all sorts of excuses and doctored reports to justify your evil. Please turn away from evil and come to God. It would be good to always remember what the wise man Solomon said about the effects of temporary enjoyment of evil:

“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!” But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.” Proverbs 9:17-18.

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Luke:19.41-44  “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (NIV)

It was Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem. He had been around for three years, doing all the great things He did to demonstrate He was the expected Messiah. But the majority of His own people didn’t recognise Him as the Messiah sent from God to save them. God was in their midst. He had visited them in His mercy, to save and reconcile them to Himself, but they failed to discern God’s visitation to them. Their leaders ourightly rejected Him and mobilised the people to do the same. This was despite the fact that they were waiting for His coming! As a result, judgment was the only alternative.

God visits individuals, families,  groups, communities or even whole nations of people in two ways. First, to show mercy, intervene and save His people. If they fail to recognise it over time, or take lightly, abuse and squander the opportunity of favour and mercy of God, He returns in visitation of judgement. And that’s dreadful! Various people are at different levels of the mercy – judgment trajectory. I pray each discerns where they fall and respond to God accordingly. And while there is still time to benefit from His great mercies and love in this dispensation of grace, please receive it.

Hebrews 2:2-4 “For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Joel 2:12-13 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart  and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” – NIV

Prophet Joel’s key message in his book was that disaster was coming upon the land and people needed to repent of their sins and return to the Lord. The people had forsaken the Lord and turned to idols. The leaders and priests alike had drifted away from God’s ways to the extent that judgement was inevitable. But He gave them warning and opportunity to avert God’s judgement by returning to God through whole hearted repentance and brokenness.

To return implies you left or forsook something or someone and you need to get back to them. Human hearts are very susceptible to drifting away from God to other things, including the cares and pleasures of this life. Many have backsliden from the faith, forsaken God and His ways. They have loved the world and its evil ways, the easy broad way instead of following the narrow path to life. To all such people, the call to return to God comes.

God set conditions for the return that He accepts. These are; returning with one’s whole heart, in humble and broken hearts, and coming back to Him. External hypocritical actions of repentance which are not from the heart are not recognized by God. In response to whole hearted return, He promises to heal and restore in compassion and love. God, the searcher of mens hearts knows each one of us. You too know the state of your relationship with God. Have you drifted away in some way from Him? Come back to God. He is willing to recieve you back to Himself.

Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake their ways  and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

Revelation 2:5 “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Mark 3:5 "He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored."_ -NIV

Anger is an emotion that every human has. It is provoked by things we are not happy with. God gets angry too. We read of this throughout the Bible. It was, and is always directed against evil in its different forms. Jesus exhibited anger a number of times against those who deliberately twisted and sought to overturn the truth to promote evil. Mark reports how distressed He was at the stubborn hearts of the religious people to belief, insisting that He should not heal on the sabbath.

What angers us is important to identify. Some anger is in defense of ones ego and pride, towards acts of injustice, or out of personal frustration of sorts. As God’s people, we identify with His emotions. What pleases or angers Him should likewise please or anger us. The more we choose to live for Him, the more our hearts are aligned to His. We hate evil and rejoice in righteousness, truth and justice.

Anger, if not controlled and properly channelled, can be destructive. The devil takes advantage of it to cause us to sin. This is why the Bible says we should be angry but not sin. There is need for self control. But if channelled to righteous causes, anger can be a driving force to make things right, fight injustice and promote good. Many transformational changes in society have been ignited by anger at the bad state of affairs which drove the agents of change to take action. _

Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."_ 

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

James 1:22-24 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirrorand, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”_ – NIV Apostle James was emphasizing the importance of being doers of God’s word. A lot of people throng places of worship or tune to preaching programs every week to, among other things, listen to God’s word taught. But the irony is that most of them manifest a different lifestyle not in agreement with the teachings they recieved. Such are the people James says are deceiving themselves. The word of God is powerful enough to cause transformation in a person’s life and in any situation whatsoever. But it only works when it is obeyed and acted upon in faith. Hebrews 4:2 says, _”For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”_So how does one decieve himself? By listening/reading God’s word (the mirror), expecting it to bring results in their lives and situations, and yet they are not willing to do what the word says! They have other interests, desires and priorities competing against the word. The word of God should take precedence over anything else if it is to work. The biggest challenge in the church today is unbelieving Christians who partially believe God’s word to the extent of their convenience. They want the word to coexist with other things they are not willing to surrender and forsake. They confess Christ, but bear no fruit worthy of repentance and their profession of faith.Deception is elusive. Its important to examine oneself.  Are you a victim of self deception? Can you hear Jesus say, ‘Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?’ The remedy is simple: choose to believe and act on the word. Align all other things to obey the word. _Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”_Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” – NIV

Paul uses the example of athletes who undergo strict discipline in training to win the prize in a game. Such training restricts the body from some of its leisurely desires, things that make the body disciplined to a particular cause. Excelling and winning a prize is an outcome of alot of hard work for a long time behind the scenes. The public victory is only the climax. That’s true for spiritual success as well.

Relating this to spiritual disciplines, Paul states how he beats his body in order to win the prize for his service in the gospel. The body and its desires can be a source of downfall in ministry. So many have gone down the drain, fallen from the heights and eventually been disqualified for the prize because they could not resist the drives of the body. The uncontrolled lusts of the flesh, of the eyes, the quest for fame, coupled with the cares of this life, led them off track.

The Christian life requires self discipline in devotion. That is hard work. We have to learn to say no to bodily desires contrary to God’s will for us. We have to learn obedience, humility and living in holiness to God despite the evil around us. Those who will recieve the ‘weldone good and faithful servant’ reception must, of necessity, be overcomers. And overcomers are fighters, including disciplining their own bodies and bringing them under subjection lest they be disqualified for the prize.

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Isaiah 39:6-8 “The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”_ – NIV King Hezekiah had been sick. Upon his recovery, the king of Babylon sent envoys to go and see him. King Hezekiah excitedly showed around his palace and all the treasures. Prophet Isaiah found out what they saw, and the word of the Lord came through that all those treasures they saw would one day be carried off to Babylon. And the people would be taken captive, including Hezekiah’s own people. Since it would come much later, king Hezekiah said the word of the Lord about such disaster was good. It is ironic that he said it was a good word and yet it was about disaster coming. Reason? Because it would not happen in his time! Such is the short sightedness and selfishness of many leaders. They make decisions and policies that they are fully aware will be disastrous to their people. They are bribed to pass bad laws, mortgage the future of their people and console themselves that by the time their decisions bite, they would either be gone or safe somewhere!Strategic well meaning leaders secure the future. Hezekiah would have pleaded for mercy, asked God to spare His people and their land from such disaster. But since he was assured he would not be there to experience it, it didn’t bother him! Most of the problems we experience today across all leadership levels in the family, society, church, national and international levels is because of the selfish legacy of leaders. They only think about themselves and the present – steal, manipulate, divide, amass wealth – not caring about the people they lead. May God help us be foresighted leaders who lay good foundations and create a future softer landing for those who come after we are long gone! Jesus did so. Moses did so._John 17:11-12 “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”_Shalom children of God.