Good-life Daily Devotional

Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi Psalms 51:5 NLT "For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me."  This scripture teaches that the human sperm cell : the seed that grows into a human being in the womb of a woman is tainted  with the sin virus. This virus induces an inclination to rebel against God's laws . Humanity got infected by the virus when our first parents (Adam and Eve ) ate the forbidden fruit (symbol of God's authority) thus  paving the way for idol worship  : man-made  religion. They turned a tree into their god. Sins creates a sense of disconnection from God that's why people go long distances to worship objects (Isaiah 59:1) God is everywhere and never sleeps .       Ever since that unfortunate incidence, the human gene pool became corrupted. Nobody learns how to sin, we sin by default. The first lie we ever told as children and the selfish tendencies are the effects of the sin nature. It is for this reason that the scriptures says in E

     By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi Mark 10:49 NIV “Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you."               The world’s belief system runs contrary to God’s principles of faith and it thrives on rebellion , selfishness and oppression. It celebrates those who make a mockery of the sacred and vilifies defenders of the Christian faith. God's kind of Faith is volitional, intellectual and emotional ; expressed through positive emotional outbursts like the blind man in Mark 10:43-48.The world considers this offensive.            The life of  faith in Christ is laterally inverted and diametrically opposed to popular worldview (Eph2:2) It is like running against the crowd in a marathon race. A lot of people have missed out on their purpose and the reward of a fulfilled life by trying to please the crowd: such persons would rather serve God secretly while depriving themselves of the benefits of livin

  By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Matt 11:30  KJV  ” For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”          The Greek word for “burden” is the word ‘phortion’  and it means “an invoice” (as part of freight), figuratively: “a task or service”: Jesus Christ is saying to the disciples that His service is light or easy. Whenever the lord gives an assignment, He foots the bills; all invoices are easily taken care of. There, are those who believe that serving God is a sentence to a life of penury and perpetual misery based on what they have observed in the lives of some believers. But contrary to this view, the truth still remains that God’s work is easy. It is what it is: God’s work,  not man’s work. It becomes difficult when it becomes your work. It is like a surfer surfing the waves, the surfer simply rides the waves, it is not his responsibility to create waves. Most preachers teach church members to create waves and this is against biblical principles. Followers are made to undergo all man

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Proverbs 12:25 NKJV “ Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.”             Encouragement is the act of giving someone support, confidence or hope , it is the persuasion to do or to continue something it is also the act of trying to stimulate the development of an activity , state or belief    . The opposite of this is discouragement , the world is full of discouragers and that makes the ministry of encouragement of necessity in the body of Christ.        God does not give an assignment he has not empowered us to carry out but it is usually the activities of discouragers that seem to make such tasks often seem too difficult or impossible. This was what the exiled Jews felt when they began to rebuild the broken walls under the leadership of prophet Nehemiah in Neh 4:1-5 “Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews,    saying in front of his friends and

       By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi    Matt 20:23“And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”      The Greek word for the phrase ‘ye  shall drink’  is “pino”  it means to “imbibe” " It means : to receive into the mind and retain as moral principles, assimilate or take into solution like a sponge absorbs moisture _    Merriam-Webster dictionary .   As Christ’s disciples, we will indeed be plunged into the same sufferings that He experienced.          Suffering is part of the Christian life, it is caused by(1) God (trials)(2)Self: as a consequence of disobedience and(3) Satan(temptation). Regardless of its origin sufferings end up working out for our greater good .       In Matthew 20:17-25, the disciples had imagined Jesus’ kingdom on earth that encouraged celebrity status but the

    By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi Acts 12:1-5 NLT    “About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church.    He had the apostle James (John's brother) killed with a sword.    When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.)    Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover.    But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.” Num 16:44-47 NIV    “…and the Lord said to Moses,    "Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." And they fell facedown.    Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started."     The importance of the ministry of in

    By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi  Luke 3:6 “And then all people will see the salvation sent from God.'" The word ‘Salvation’ used in this scripture is the Greek  word  ‘soterion’  and it means defender or defense. It is likened to a legal counsel sent to defend a person in a court of law.       Sin is the contravention of God’s holy laws  and all it takes to be a sinner is to break one law . James 2:10-11 “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws.  For the same God who said, "You must not commit adultery," also said, "You must not murder." So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law”  therefore going by this principle nobody can have access to heaven through any of the world’s religions including religious Christianity which requires obeying laws instituted by founders and church elders .        The only cure to the problem of sin is a unilateral a

    By  Rev Michael Benson Ajayi …..”who is that my neighbor?” Luke 10:29  Prov 3:13 KJV   " Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding"          Happiness is the reward of working in God's wisdom and having an understanding of why people behave the way they do . Wisdom comes from reading the bible every day ( 2Tim 3:15)   Family members  should devote time to study the bible everyday. Through God's wisdom we know that we can influence a person's actions towards us , that's what the scripture means when it says do unto others as you would want them do to you (Matt7:12). A man desirous of love from his wife should first show unfeigned love towards her and vise versa .  A kind deed evokes happiness. Sadness is a by-product of selfishness. Its the selfishness of one or both partners in a marriage that makes for a sad home. We should always ask God to reveal the consequence of our actions on others before we take action in any mat

 Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  1 Cor 10:6-13 NLT “ These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry." And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don't grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. “ Ps 106:7-8 Mssg After our parents left Egypt, they took your wonders for granted, forgot your great and wonderful love. They were barely beyond the Red Sea when they defied the High God — the very place he saved them! — the p

Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi   Isa 32:17-18 KJV “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;” 1 Cor 15:34 AMP “ Awake [from your drunken stupor and return] to sober sense and your right minds, and sin no more. For some of you have not the knowledge of God [you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, lacking the sense of God's presence and all true knowledge of Him]…” The righteousness of God is not devoid of common sense. God has given every one the intuitive ability to know right from wrong without being told, therefore, it is possible to live a life of peace, stability, quietness and assurance forever, these are the effect of practicing the righteousness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.                      Unrighteousness requires embracing illogical theolo

  By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  Matt 5:20 KJV  “ For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”       Scribes (Greek  ‘grammateís’) which means "lawyers,"  where  those trained in the application of the Torah(Matt 22:35 , Mark 12:28 ) they are described as "teachers of the Law," In old testament times they took down prophet’s dictations (Jer 36:4,18) “The importance of scribes (in the basic sense of those trained to read and write) goes back to the first use of writing in the ancient centers of civilization, Babylon and Egypt. Clearly these skills automatically made the scribe both a necessary and an influential members of society. The ruling class depended on the scribes for a great variety of practical matters, and gradually scribes evolved from mere copiers and recorders to being members of the government and representatives of the king”       

    By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi  2 Kings 7:1-2 NIV Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"       There was economic recession in Samaria  and it was so severe that citizens resorted to cannibalism for survival (2Kings 6:28). Like this crisis ,every evil on the face of the earth is caused by human selfishness. Despite this, God’s love for humanity remains the same however; His blessings are conditioned on our submitting to His authority .Rebellion against spiritual authority leads to poverty and chaos.     As in the case of the Samarians , a prophet (Hebrew: nabiy’ meaning an inspired man) would be sent to us and our response to his instructions would determin

   By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Ps 27:4 NKJV “One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.” Ps 16:5 NKJV    “ O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot”       Every kingdom is ruled by a monarch and a set of rules which outlines duties of citizens and their rights and privileges.   They are entitled to an inheritance which includes security of lives and property. The scriptures says in Col 1:12 NKJV    “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”    The believer in Christ has an inheritance in God’s kingdom that is  beyond any material object in value . In reality ,there is no poor Christian. The poor in society are victims of bad governance and man-made religion .Poverty is the outcome of the theft and mismanagement of resources by God's

  Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi 1 Cor 12:31 KJV "But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."    The scriptures speaks of God’s love for mankind demonstrated in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.    No greater love has any man than he should lay down his life for another man. It was God’s desire for fellowship and family bonding in an atmosphere of unconditional love that necessitated the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.         Jesus Christ did not come to condemn but to save the world by reconciling us back to God . The process of reconciliation can only be attained when we value a relationship. You want to be as far as possible from someone you detest. Sometimes this could be as a result of not knowing the person enough to gain their trust and vice versa. Ironically, the average person tends to hate persons that we know little or nothing about. It would amaze you to know how loving some of the persons we despise are