Category: Daily Devotionals

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." - NIV

The Israelites were about to enter the promised land. Moses instructed them on the kind of life and decisions they were to make so as to enjoy the blessings God had for them. The choices of obedience or disobedience they would make would lead to life or death, blessings or curses. They later failed and suffered the consequences of disobedience. Many died.

God still calls us to choose to obey Him. We are free to exercise our wills to obey or disobey. God never forces anyone to obey Him. Jesus said those who believe in Him receive eternal life. Those who disobey and reject Him are condemned already because they have not believed in Him. Those who believe cross over from death to life. Those who don’t remain in death.

Friends, our relationship with God is not a by the way matter. It is an issue of life or death, living with God or perishing forever! They are matters of eternal destiny! Unfortunately some take it lightly, despise God’s word, play double standards, ignore His warnings and think it is a waste of time. Rethink your ways before it is too late. Choose to obey God and walk in His ways while there’s still time. One day it will be too late!

John 3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

Shalom children of God

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo.

Matthew 4:8-10 "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” - NIV

During the temptation, Jesus and the devil are atop a very high mountain. The devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and material wealth. He offers it to Jesus if only Jesus would bow down and worship him. At that, Jesus chased him away, declaring that ALL worship is due only to God. Worship defines, and is at the centre of all spirituality, godly or demonic. God demands it. Satan also wants it by trickery.

Satan uses worldly things to lure people to worship him. He promises wealth, fame, influence and all the things people like and easily fall for. He gives what appears so simple and easy; ‘just bow down and worship me and all these will be yours! But the reality is that it will be at the cost of your soul! This is what many have done in all spheres of life: politics, business, sports, academia, social relationships, etc. They have fallen for the bait of Satan as they seek to succeed. And they pay heavily.

Friends, Satan gives nothing for free. It is ALWAYS in exchange for your soul. Watch out for the glittering ‘too good to be true’ offers he gives. He is a liar. In the end, it will NOT be as rosy as he promises. He is a terrible task master. Those under him are in torment. Getting out of his traps takes God’s grace. Learn to patiently wait on God and worship Him alone. In the end it will be well with your soul.

Psalm 95:6-7 "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God  and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care…"

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo.

Exodus 20:3-5 “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…."- NIV

Idolatry is love, adoration and worship of anything else apart from God. Because worship is exclusively for God Almighty, He utterly detests idolatry. He gave specific commandments against idol worship. In nothing and nowhere else is God’s jealous anger expressed than in idol worship. He shares His glory with no other. We are to worship God the Creator and not the things He made.

An idol is anything which takes the due glory, praise, attention and the place of God in ones life, such as material things, self love, a sport, position, etc. It’s more than a physical image of an idol people worship. It is an attitude of the heart. Consciously or not, people have so many idols in their lives. This manifests when, rather than honor God, people divert the honour due only to God, to those things.

God calls us to love Him with all that we are and have. Out of love, we submit in loyalty and sacrifice to the object of our worship. Watch where, and on what you spend your most treasured time, money and company. That’s an indication of where your heart is and what or whom you worship. If it is anything apart from God, then it is an idol. Let everything we do arise from a foundation of our love and worship of God.

Mark 12:30-31 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Shalom children of God

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo.

Luke 4:7-8 "If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ ”
Romans 1:25 "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

Man is a spiritual being. Our natural tendency as part and fulfillment of our nature, is to worship. God made us to worship Him alone. Satan knows that, and seeks to divert man’s worship of God to himself. He gives man quick alternatives of worship other than God. This is how people worship idols and unique parts of creation like the sun, moon, rivers,trees, animals, etc. This is all to fulfill the natural longing in all men to worship.

Everyone is a worshipper, either of God, Satan, something or someone else, consciously or not. Even atheists are worshippers of something, but not God. Paul says the effects of worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, is perversion and God giving them up to all sorts of filth. Does that describe the blatant evil people are promoting today?

Eventually we come under the influence of what/whom we worship. The worshippers of God become more like Him. Those who yield and bow to Satan get filled with demonic spirits and manifest it in their lives. Worship is never innocent. It opens up a person to the spirit world of God or the demonic. Like it or not, whatever people do in their lives and leadership comes from their worship lives.

Worship only God Almighty!

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." - NIV

Worship involves sacrifice which demonstrates ones covenant commitment to what or whom they worship. There is no true worship without sacrifice. In the old covenant, animals were slaughtered and their blood sprinkled, and other material items were offered. But when Jesus died as the sacrificial Lamb of God for our sins, we no longer offer animals in worship of God.

We now offer our bodies and readily use them for God’s service. We also offer praises, declaring His wonderful works. We do all these using our time, energy, material resources, and our thoughts, words and actions. In other words, we use all that we are and have to honour, praise and worship God. Our whole lives therefore, are for worship of God. When offered in holiness, Paul calls it true and proper worship.

The primary purpose of our giving is to worship God using our substance. Moses told Pharaoh that they had to go with all their animals and belongings to use them to worship God. Material possessions are for worship and God’s service, and never for a show of power and might. And so are our bodies, the temples of God.

Romans 6:13 "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness."

Proverbs 3:9 "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops"

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Matthew 15:7-9 "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips,  but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain;  their teachings are merely human rules.’ ”" - NIV

They travelled from Jerusalem to ask Jesus why His disciples were breaking the law and tradition of the forefathers by eating with unwashed hands. They didn’t even honour their parents and diverted whatever help they should have given them to God. Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy manifested by appearing very committed to the traditions of men more than God’s word and right worship of God.

Quoting from Isaiah, Jesus tells them why their worship was in vain. They were more committed to their traditions than the word of God. They focused more on external practices and lip service, but their hearts were far from true commitment to God. Their religious zeal was about laws and regulations, not out of love for God. Their religious practices involved more of routine rituals passed on as worship traditions, but disconnected from the God they claimed to worship.

Such was vain worship. To God, it meant nothing. He didnt recognise it despite their activities. Doesn’t this sound familiar in our times as well? Jesus taught that acceptable worship to God should be in truth and Spirit. It should come from a love and passion for God with all our hearts, souls, strength. The state of our hearts matters most in worship! When man made rules and traditions outside God’s word dictates how we worship God, it becomes vain worship. May your whole being love and live for God. May your worship be acceptable and pleasing to Him.

Mark 12:29-30 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’"

John 4:23-24 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”"

Shalom children of God.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Isaiah 29:13 "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"- KJV

Worship is adoration, an expression of love, loyalty, submission, allegiance… The battle in heaven that saw Lucifer(now Satan, the devil) and a third of the angels(now demons) rebel and thrown out, centred on the worship. He wanted to take God’s place in worship. He made man fall from glory with God as he sought to shift man’s allegiance from God to himself. Upto now that is what Satan fights for.

God expects us to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). As we worship, He expects us to do it with all that we are; body, soul and spirit. Short of this, it will be divided loyalty, which is hypocrisy. That’s what Israel had failed in. They had redefined how to worship God, and did it halfheartedly. God detested it. Their mouth spoke and sung what sounded like expressions of worship to God. But their hearts (which God considers most) were not loyal to Him any more. He rebuked them for hypocrisy. If it’s not from the heart, it falls short!

Worship with our whole being will involve the use of our strength, emotions, minds, resources, words and postures like kneeling, bowing, prostration, standing in awe, silence, shouts, laughter, tears – all to express our loyalty, admiration and love. Man made rules of worship may take some these as strange. You can tell how deeply people love and adore someone or something by their expressions. And so it is with our worship of God.

Mark 12:30 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"

Shalom children of God.

SERIOUS FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Matthew 25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." - NIV

Have you ever thought about eternity? This is a period of time beyond measure, time without end. One can’t even talk in terms of known units of measurement like billions, trillions, quadrillions  of years, because that’s already measurable, however unfathomable it is to our little limited human minds.

To enable some slight understanding of eternity, someone once illustrated it this way: Consider the smallest ant, on a mission to move the whole earth to the farthest star in the universe. The farthest star so far known is about 9 billion light years away from earth. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. In one second, light travels at 299,792KMs. One year has over 31.5 million seconds. So in one year, light moves over 9.4trillion KMs. To the farthest star, it’s that distance multiplied 9billion times. That’s already beyond the range of our computations and numbering.

Even with modern supersonic jets, traveling at thousands of KMs per hour, such a  journey is endless. How much more a little ant? And knowing how much the ant carries, when will it complete shifting the entire 6×10^24Kg mass of planet earth? Mission impossible! And yet one day it will complete it. But eternity would have just began!

God’s word teaches that all of us will spend eternity somewhere. There are only two destinies, heaven or hell determined by our decisions here on earth. Heaven is a place of great joy and peace for those to whom Jesus is Savior and Lord. Their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Hell is a place of extreme torment for those who rejected Jesus Savior and Lord Jesus. Please give serious thought to the question of where you will spend eternity. Choose to spend it in heaven by choosing Jesus the way. That’s God’s will for all of us.

1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words."

Shalom children of God. 

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
Genesis 2:18 "And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." NIV

After God made all the good things in creation, he made Adam. Still the man was incomplete. And God Himself said so. God created man, male and female, in His own image. He gave them dominion to rule over His creation (Gen 1:26-28). Man and woman are co-heirs in God’s kingdom. Without woman, man cannot fulfill his creation mandate from God. Both were made in God’s image, in the likeness of God. These are profound truths God set from the beginning.

After the fall of man, the devil twisted God’s original intention in the minds of men, making woman seem inferior and subordinate to man. He has done this through cultures and traditions down the millennia. To date, millions of women are treated as inferior beings, sex objects and slaves, dependant on men, less than men, less deserving, and subjected to many dehumanising practices. Many girls grow up thinking that is what they are made for!

The desire to be lose from these oppressive demonic vices and enable women realise and live out their God given potential, gave rise to women emancipation movements, special day to recognise women, women representation in governments, and other women groups and organisations fighting for women rights. Until you experience your freedom first in God, these attempts fall short good as they are.

The rise of women into various positions of influence in governments, church and society has proved the worth and abilities they have to co-manage with man. Whereas Jesus did not appoint women to be among the twelve disciples, it’s no doubt He valued them contrary the Jewish traditions then, and women were very much behind His successful ministry, upto the cross, at the resurrection and at the upper room when the church was being ushered into the world.

Woman, you are special to God and in His creation work and the world. Jesus came to restore the dignity of women. In Him you find your true position and liberty. Rise up, walk with your head high and take your place in humility and respect in society and the church.

Galatians 3:26-28 "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Shalom children of God. Happy women’s day.

By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo

Luke 10:41-42 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” - NIV

Jesus had visited Mary and Martha. Martha was very busy with preparations and got distracted from listening to Jesus. Mary sat and listened to Him. When she got troubled that her sister wasn’t helping, Martha complained to Jesus. Martha got busy and entangled with many things, which worried and upset her. Jesus’ counsel was that she needed only one thing, to sit under Him and listen to Him.

Learning to sit and take counsel from God Who knows it all, controls all things, knows the end from the begining, and is willing to guide us, is all we need. When God threatened not to go with Israel, Moses prayed that they would rather not move if God wasn’t with them(Ex 33:15-16). His presence meant everything to them. In Him is our comfort, peace, joy, strength, victory, protection, provision and meaning and purpose to life. All the many things we do outside God leave us troubled and upset, and don’t mean much after all.

Many today are troubled and upset, like Martha, with many things life throws. But if only we could learn to wait on God, get His counsel and guiding instructions in all we do, we would remain peaceful. Most troubles that plunge men into destruction could be avoided. And we would soon realise that the one thing makes all the difference in our lives for the better. We shall never want to leave His presence. It will be all we need as king David understood.

Psalm 27:4 "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

Shalom children of God.