Life is Fragile

Sunday 30 April
READ: Mk. 4:37-41
MORE LESSONS: Job 14:1-7

Life is fragile, handle it with prayer, so says an old Christian adage. The older I get, the more I find this word real. It is not a negative confession, it is just a reality and a good counsel. Even if things are going on smoothly for you, it is still not a proof that life is not fragile; in fact, that makes it more fragile. A smooth sail is more risky than a stormy one because the stormy one is already in crisis. It is the smooth sail that fears a risk. However with prayer, either smooth or rough, God can make a man prevail. He can prevail to keep a smooth sail sustained and can restore peace to the troubled ones.

Did you note in today's reading that Jesus began to sleep before the storm, and while the storm lasted, He was still sleeping. Both situations are the same to Him. He was so comfortable with the storm that even when the boat was filled with water, and possibly Jesus was soaked, He didn't wake up. Only Jonah could have neared such records in Scripture. Can you imagine Jesus’ comment when He woke up? … Why are ye fearful….: Matt. 8:26. Incredible! It means all that risk was not worth fearing. This is why I say to you today, trust your life only to Jesus. Whether in rough or smooth weather; He alone can give the needed shelter from the sun and rain.

Only the life that is hidden in God can prevail over life's turbulence and sustain a life of joy and peace. Is your life truly in God's hands? Are you a true child of God living in perfect communion and holiness with God? Is half of your life with the herbalist and half with God? Before you face life today, check and be sure that your life is completely in God's hands by redemption. Only a life hidden with Christ has a guarantee of safety, no alternative, no substitute, no options. No Jesus no life, no safety. The experiences of life have shown that, like Solomon confirmed, ... the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all: Ecc 9:11. That is why life is fragile and the only insurance for it is Jesus. Ask Jesus into your life today, surrender all of your life into His hands, and life will be secure to the end!

Prayer/Action
* Rededicate the steering of your life into God's hand today as you trust Him for safe landing.
* Receive an anxiety/fear-free destiny by faith in God's Word today, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
From the rising of the sun to its going down today will work for my good, in the name of Jesus.

Torments of Hell III

Saturday 29 April
READ: Luke 16: 26
MORE LESSON: Matt. 22: 13

Perhaps the greatest torment in hell is the separation from God that the lost soul has to experience forever. Separation is a very painful experience. The whole experience of pain associated with the death of a loved one is the pain of separation. People feel so much pain when they lose a loved one because they will never see the person again. The damage that accompanies divorce is all about the pain of separation. Married people separate from each other because things have gone wrong; children are separated from parents, sibling separated from sibling. Separation is tormenting; it is painful when you want to see or hear someone but you are restricted and you can't. This is the reason criminals are punished in a prison by being separated from the society. Even in the prison, hardened criminals are further punished by being separated from other prisoners. With no one to relate with, share with or express inner struggles to, a man starts to deteriorate.

Hell is a place of permanent separation. The soul in hell will never see God again. He is separated from all love, peace, joy, hope. If he calls on God, God doesn't hear anymore. He is separated from family and care. Every soul in hell is separated and consumed in loneliness. No two souls in hell will create a relationship and start discussing; no! Each person is alone; as if he is the only one in the whole of hell. Each sufferer in hell is not even conscious that other sufferers are there. He is alone, consumed entirely by his torments, and oblivion to every other person. When the rich man in hell asked for water, Abraham replied, and beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence: Luke 16:26. The torment of hell is the torment of eternal separation.

God is the source of all love, light and life. Every man on earth enjoys life because God reaches out to them. Even those that deny that God exists have reasons to enjoy life because He reaches out to them. The air we breathe, the water, the light, the sense of life and love all exist because they flow from God. As the Bible puts it, That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust: Matt 5:45 The sinner today may think he can still survive without God because even though he is not reaching out to God, God in His grace still reaches out to him through creation. Immediately a man goes to hell, everything that flows from God is cut off from him forever and then he realises how tormenting it is to be without God. You will not end in hell, in Jesus’ name. But you must accept Jesus today and now to escape.

Prayer/Action
* Say to Jesus, “I embrace Your love, light and life, I shall not walk in darkness and sin any more, in Jesus’ name.
* Declare that the grace of God will be sufficient for you, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
I declare that my enemies shall not live to rejoice over me and my family, in the name of Jesus.

Torments of Hell II

Friday 28 April
READ: Luke 16: 25
MORE LESSON: Psa. 9: 17

A man had a very wonderful family. He was a good man and loved his family very well but he refused to commit his life to Christ even though his wife and children loved the Lord. It is important to note that when it comes to the issue of going to Heaven, being a good person is not enough; no matter how nice a person is, if he refuses to give his life to Christ, he will go to hell. The man was so nice that he would drive his family to church on fellowship days before going back home to watch television. However, his family continued to pray for him.

One day he had a dream where he discovered that everyone in his house was gone. He looked up and saw his youngest daughter in a glorious place while he was in torments in hell. There in intense pain, he cried to his baby girl to come help him out of the place of torments. The girl looked at him with deep feeling and said, 'Daddy we love you but there is nothing we can do to help you anymore.' He screamed and woke up still screaming and sweats breaking out of his forehead. He quickly dashed round the house looking for his family to pray for him, he found the whole house empty. So he thought that rapture had actually taken place. He slumped on the floor and started wailing. It was the wailing that the family heard from the backyard, where everyone was working while he was resting in the bedroom, and rushed into the living room. He didn't hesitate but quickly gave his life to Christ.

Anyone who has a good picture of what hell is will never refuse salvation and risk going there. Hell is a place of untold torments. One of the torments of hell is the punishment that is meted out on the people there. For every sin a man commits on earth, he will be repaid back with torment in hell. For all stealing, lying, sexual immorality and abortion committed on the earth, there is a commensurate measure of pain that will be administered to the person in hell. Worms, demons and other kinds of agents of torture are in hell to inflict pain forever. Luke 16: 25 says about the rich man, ...remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Notice that the Scripture didn't just say that the man was 'in torments' but that he was 'tormented'. That denotes a deliberate act of inflicting torment on someone. There are agents that inflict torment upon souls in hell. It’s unimaginable! My prayer for you is that hell will not be your eternal home, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that everyone in your household will come to the saving knowledge of Christ, in the name of Jesus.
* Ask God to have mercy on you and your household, in the name of Jesus.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Every Goliath that needs to die for me to be divinely announced to my greatness as it was for David, let the Goliath die now, in the name of Jesus.

Torments of Hell I

Thursday 27 April
READ: Luke 16: 23
MORE LESSON: Luke 16: 19 - 31

The devil tries to deceive people into believing that hell doesn't exist but there is a place called hell. It is not an imaginary place, it is a very real place. Jesus told a story that confirmed that hell really exists. Just like every place in existence is describable and has definite characteristics, hell also has definite characteristics. The first characteristic of hell is that it is a place of torments. It is not just a place of torment but of torments. Luke 16: 23 rightly puts it that the rich man in hell was in torments. Every imaginable kind of torment is in hell. Hell is a place of fire. This is the reason the word 'hell-fire' is commonly used. 'Hell-fire' is not synonymous to hell; it is the fire in hell. Even though the fire of hell is incomparably more tormenting than all the fires on earth put together, it is only one of the torments in hell.

As tormenting as the fire of hell is, a greater torment in hell is the sad memory that haunts the people there. Deceivers have falsely taught that there is no life after death and once a man dies, there is nothing he remembers anymore. From Luke 16: 27 - 28, we see that man still remembers everything he did on earth after he dies. The rich man remembered his father's house and his five brothers that were not born again and started begging Father Abraham that someone should be sent from Heaven to go and preach to them. He also remembered how he lived lavishly on earth and wasted his life in sin. It is a great torment to be continually haunted by the regrets of yesterday when you can't do anything to correct it anymore. One of the great torments of hell is the sad memory and regrets of past mistakes that cannot be corrected but which consequence has to be faced forever. In hell, every sinner will remember the day he had the opportunity to accept salvation through Jesus Christ but he turned it down. That memory will bring great pain and torment.

Another torment in hell is the continual thirst that is there. The man in hell cried for just a finger-tip drop of water but he was denied. Water is so essential to human survival. Geographically, the earth surface is 75% water and the human body is also 75% water by composition. Life without water is unimaginable. Part of the torments of hell is that both internal and external water will be dried out of man. Hell is that it is a place of unquenchable thirst where there is no water forever.

The torments of hell are great indeed. You must not go there and you must do everything to keep all the people you can from going there. Consecrate yourself to Jesus today so that hell will not be your portion.

Prayer/Action
* Declare that your portion in eternity shall not be hell, in the name of Jesus.
* Ask God to take away from your life anything that will make you a candidate of hell, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, I strike my name from the list of beggars and debtors, I shall walk in abundance and lend to many, in the name of Jesus.