Good-life Daily Devotional

By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi. 1 Cor 9:18-21 NLT “Under this circumstance, what is my pay? It is the special joy I get from preaching the Good News without expense to anyone, never demanding my rights. And this has a real advantage: I am not bound to obey anyone just because he pays my salary; yet I have freely and happily become a servant of any and all so that I can win them to Christ.   When I am with the Jews I seem as one of them so that they will listen to the Gospel and I can win them to Christ. When I am with Gentiles who follow Jewish customs and ceremonies I don't argue, even though I don't agree, because I want to help them.   When with the heathen I agree with them as much as I can, except of course that I must always do what is right as a Christian. And so, by agreeing, I can win their confidence and help them too.”        Here the Apostle Paul shows what it takes to be an effective disciple of Christ: adaptation and respect for individual rights and lib

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi. 1 Cor 3:3-4 KJV “… for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?        Definition of tolerance for English Language Learners. :   a willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own. : the ability to accept, experience, or survive something harmful or unpleasant. In the Bible patience, long-suffering, forbearance are closely linked to tolerance with others.         There are over a hundred thousand tribes and cultures around the world ; each struggling for survival and seeking prominence , therefore, it is no wonder that there seem to be divisions among God’s people because of the clash of traditional values. It is for that reason that Jesus instituted the law of sacrificial love for one’s neighbor even as He loved us as the only law to be followed by all believers of Chris

By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi  2 Chronicles 18:4-5 AMP "And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Inquire first, I pray you, for the word of the Lord today. So King [Ahab] of Israel gathered together the prophets, 400 men, and said to them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up, for God will deliver it into the king's hand."         Ahab, the king of Israel ,was at war with Samaria and he sought to make an alliance with Jehoshaphat  ;kind of  Judah whom the lord had shown extraordinary favour by given him victory over his enemies.  Jehoshaphat had a tradition of always seeking God’s counsel before embarking major projects as commanded by the Lord ( Matthew 6:33).              Ahab on the other hand  had no personal relationship with God,  he was rich , arrogant, presumptuous and was willing to buy his way through any situation.  He only sought God through intermediaries only when he was in need . He was not i

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi John 10:2-3 "But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them John 10:1-21                  The safety of the sheep is tied to its ability to hear and recognize the voice of the shepherd. God speaks to every human being everyday .He is speaking to you this very moment. Many persons doubt the truth of this statement based on their personal experiences and do not believe they can hear God's voice.         God  's word is proven and true : He is presently engaged in a dialogue with you with regards to your opinion on what you are reading this very moment. His voice is the still ,authoritative, stable, small peaceful voice in your subconscious speaking with authority without contradiction .         The challenge is being able to recognize His voice  of out the four voices that we hear na

 By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi  Luke 15:18 ‘ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’           True repentance requires a person not claiming any goodness of one’s own or trying to justify one’s   actions, but being   humble to appeal  to God’s   mercy.The fellow in Luke15 became a victim of his presumptuous disposition, he hated correction and he suffered losses,he was in great despair until he came to he senses and made a u-turn in repentance.God does not bless sin.He frustrates the ways of the transgressor (Prov.22:12) He says in Prov 13:15KJV "Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.       God should not be approached in self-righteousness, but with a humble heart. We are to put all of our faith in a Saviour, and turn from our wicked ways ( Acts 3:19,2 Chr. 7:14). Repentance is an indispensable part of salvation. It requires godly sorrow and a change of mind accompanied

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Matt 6:22 KJV “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Matt 6:19-24        The word ‘single’ is the Greek word ‘ Haplous’ which means: folded together , clear . It is used figuratively to mean a healthy eye which by the context of the narrative means to be generous. The text centers on the risk of materialism (seeking possessions). Unfortunately, it has always been used by preachers to mean being focused on a task, Christians were discouraged from developing multitask capabilities for fear of being labeled as not being focused . Before you would have finished reading this message you must have changed focus several times from one things to another.      The theology of being focused has caused more harm than good among God’s people. Preachers who are gifted in certain areas of life (business, arts etc.) have to abandon these potentially rewarding ventures in a bid to appear foc

By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi   Matthew 12:37, "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."            The heavens and the earth came into existence  by the spoken word of God (Heb. 11:3) and Jesus Christ is the personification of God's word (John1:1-3,14) .All of creation was made by spoken words and can be altered by same.  When we speak words in faith,we activate either life or death (Prov. 18:21) and what we say affects people, things, and circumstances.Good words make us feel good and sad words makes one sad. You choose your mood by the kind of words you expose yourself to. Happiness and sadness is by choice.The gospel is full of good news and when spoken in faith can turn a sad situation into a good one.           We can release the power of  faith for the miraculous by our words. Every word counts. There is no such things as an "idle" or 'ordinary' word which will not work f

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Luke 7:33-34 KJV "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!        Matt 22:19-21Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius,  and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"   "Caesar's," they replied.Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."          The religious extremists of Jesus’ time thought of many ways by which they could truncate His ministry and in one instance they hatched the idea of setting a cultural trap by asking this very dishonest question . The inscription on the coin was Ceaser’s   claim to divinity and as emperor. Ceaser desired to be worshiped.On the contrary , Jews are God’s chosen peop

By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi . John 5:16-27, ".....And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the sabbath day."       When the Israelites left Egypt in the exodus, there were approximately  six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children (Exodus 12:37).  They had been slaves to the Egyptians for 430 years (Exodus 12:40). God miraculously fed  the Isrealites with manna during their journey in the wilderness to the promised land .         They gathered manna everyday except on the seventh (Exodus 16) this was compensated by the fact that they gathered  twice as much manna on the sixth day . This event was a prelude to the observance of the seventh day as a  Sabbath day in the ten commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai on the two tablets of stone (Ex. 20:8-11).            The Sabbath day was a memorial of the day of rest on the seventh day of creation. No physical work was all

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  "...Jesus said to him, Go your way; your son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went his way......" John 4:46-54       There was no physical contact between Jesus Christ and the child. Neither was any of His disciples sent with the boy's father to affect the cure where the boy was. Verse 53 says  all He did was speak and the son was instantly healed, hallelujah.     Notice , Jesus did not say money (miracle seed) be given to the disciples to travel to the village to uproot a charm or destroy a shrine or pray a special all-night prayer or bathe in a river or eat a special food or any of those religious rituals that tends to glorify Satan and diminish the power of God that are often displayed in religious places of worship. God is all powerful and is present everywhere and can affect a change anytime and anyhow He so desires.          The boy's