Jesus' prayer also contains a warning that pride can keep us from the love and knowledge of God. What makes us ignorant & blind to the things of God? Certainly intellectual pride, coldness of heart, & stubbornness of will shut out God & his kingdom of peace, joy, & righteousness. Pride is the root of all vice and the strongest influence propelling us to sin. It first vanquishes the heart, making it cold & indifferent towards God. It also closes the mind to God's truth & wisdom for our lives. What is pride? It is the inordinate love of oneself at the expense of others & the exaggerated estimation of one's own learning and importance. Jesus contrasts pride with child-like simplicity & humility. The simple of heart are like "infants" in the sense that they see purely without pretense & acknowledge their dependence & trust in the one who is greater, wiser, & more trustworthy. A God who loves us completely, unconditionally, & perfectly. Shalom!

Just as nature teaches us patience, so God's patience also teaches us to guard the seed of his word which he has planted in our hearts & to beware of the destructive force of sin & evil that can destroy it. God's word brings life, but Satan seeks to destroy the good seed which has been planted in the hearts of those who have heard God's word Matt 13:24-43. Good & evil are sown in our hearts like tiny seeds which germinate, & in due time yield a harvest of good or bad fruit. Charles Read said: "Sow an act & you reap a habit. Sow a habit & you reap a character. Sow a character & you reap a destiny." In the day of judgment each will reap what he or she has sown in this life. God's judgment is not hasty, but it does come. In the end, God will reward each according to what they have sown & reaped in this life. On that day God will separate the evil from the good. Shalom!

Moses said to the people: "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and see the great wonders of the Lord, which he will do today. For The Egyptians you see today, you shall never see again" Exo 14:13. This profound statement demonstrate that, No problem is permanent even the one we think that it has no solution, relax in God for one day, that problem will cease to be. Can there be anything that will be more life threatening than standing between a sea and well-armed soldiers that are coming for your life. Note: Before any problem befalls you, God already has given you a solution to it. You must be part of your success story. Moses raised the rod in his hand and with it, God divided the sea. You must do something through which God will use it to save you. Use the “rod” in your hand to part the seas in your life. As we enter the last week in the month of July, may we never lose sight of the fact that his banner over us is Love. Shalom!

There are so many of us who are making effort in life and it appears those efforts are like pouring water in a basket. Nothing is left to show for your efforts and suffering. You look around and you see your counterparts progressing in their different fields of life. Yours is always different. You are almost at the point of asking God, where are you? Every night is a moment of weeping; every morning is a period of wailing. You are almost giving up to hope. Where others go and succeed, you are there labouring and no success is in sight. You are almost believing that your own is different, not in the positive sense of it but in the negative. David in Psalm 126, tells us that “those (including you) who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap. The interesting thing from the response is that you cannot think of reaping except you planted. Therefore God wants you to get something and start doing it. Shalom!

THE WORD, PROPHET AND THE ANGEL... My faith is anchored on that solid Rock. There's nothing that can ever harm you, when you're anchored to that place. The storms may shake and batter us, but my anchor holds within the veil. When a man or a woman has anchored against that rock. Hallelujah. There's nothing can ever shake you from it. Just as Israel's time was for deliverance from Egypt, and they failed to see it, so is the time for the deliverance of marching orders for the church. It's at hand. Israel had First the Word, second a prophet, third an Angel to lead them, to guide them; everyone agreed with the other, the three of them. The Word agreed with the prophet, and the prophet agreed with the Word. The Angel agreed with all three of them, all of them. The Word, the prophet, an Angel, they were ready for the march. Oh, blessed be the Name of the Lord God. We're at the end time. The Word, the prophet, and the Angel, all three of them together, one great testimony... God always said, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established." And a true prophet will always agree with the Word, and any Angel will testify of truth. Amen. We're ready for Our marching orders. Aren't you? WILLIAM BRANHAM

When they walked into the fiery furnace, under trial, under a test, they held true to the end. But God was there just in a spare of a moment, and He delivered them. They knew that they were prayed up; their sins were confessed. They knew they'd met every requirement, and yet He, God, seemed to be silent. He's only silent to test you, to see really what you are, what's on the inside of you, see if you really mean from your heart what you're saying with your lips. Let that go deep. We can say with our lips, but is our heart saying it? Shalom!

The parables of Jesus Matt 13:1-23, will enlighten us if we approach them with an open mind and heart, ready to let them challenge us. If we approach them with the conviction that we already know the answer, then we, too, may look but not see, listen but not understand. God's word can only take root in a receptive heart that is ready to believe and willing to submit. One lesson from this parable is clear: the harvest is sure to come. While some seed will fall by the wayside and some fall on shallow ground and never come to maturity, and some be choked to death by the thorns; nonetheless a harvest will come. The seed that falls on good soil, on the heart that is receptive, will reap abundant fruit. God is always ready to speak to each of us and to give us understanding of his word. Are you hungry for his word? And do you allow anything to keep you from submitting to God's word with joy and trusting obedience? Shalom!

Jesus then goes on to lay down the conditions necessary to be a genuine disciple. “Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me" Matt 10:37. Love & respect for family members is a very high value for the Christian but there are even higher values which may take precedence. Filial piety & parental authority can be very inward-looking, too centred on just this group of people. Christianity is outward-looking & realises that there are people out there whose needs are even prior to those of my family. To the Christian, his blood family are only some among many brothers & sisters who have to be loved, served & cared for. One is also never bound to follow family requirements which would be against truth, love, justice, honesty… Jesus, as the Word of God, stands for a level of truth and integrity & love which is the ultimate measure of all that We do & say. Shalom!

What is godly fear? It is reverence for the One who made us in love and who sustains us in mercy and kindness. The greatest injury or loss which we can experience is not physical but spiritual - the loss of one's soul to the power of hell (Matt 10:28). A healthy fear (godly respect) and reverence for God leads to spiritual maturity, wisdom, and right judgment and it frees us from the tyranny of sinful pride, cowardice - especially in the face of evil, and spiritual deception. Physical Death is a reality we are all going to face sooner or later anyway. But worse than physical death is the “loss of one’s soul”, that is, the death of one’s integrity. There are some values which transcend our physical survival. To betray such a value in order to live a bit longer is to lose one’s soul. Thomas More understood this, so did Oscar Romero & many, many others. To be unfaithful to our deepest beliefs & convictions is a fate worse than death. Shalom!

Wherever Jesus went he did mighty works to show the people how much God had for them. Chorazin and Bethsaida had been blessed with the visitation of God. They heard the good news and experienced the wonderful works which Jesus did for them. Why was Jesus upset with these communities? The people who heard the Gospel here very likely responded with indifference. Jesus upbraids them for doing nothing! Repentance demands change - a change of heart and way of life. God's word is life-giving and it saves us from destruction - the destruction of heart, mind, and soul as well as body. Jesus' anger is directed toward sin and everything which hinders us from doing the will of God. In love he calls us to walk in his way of truth and freedom, grace and mercy, justice and holiness. To what extent are we listening to God’s word? Shalom!

A RELIGIOUS SPIRIT IS THE WORST SPIRIT TO BE OVERCOME BY.. Religion is cruel. It was not the dope addicts and drunks, nor the bums, that cried, Crucify Him, when Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus. It was those religious people who were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles, those who had the lively religious oracles, and the law and covenant of God. Yet they crucified the very one that came to give all that a living reality. That which the law and the prophets looked forward to, they rejected. They spoke often to the Messiah that was to come and deliver them, and when He came, what did they do with Him? They rejected Him. When John, the forerunner of the Messiah, came on the scene, what did they do with him? They rejected him. Why did they reject them? Because neither of them came according to their pre- conceived opinions of how the scriptures were going to be fulfilled. Of course they wanted their Messiah to come, but they expected Him to be born of one of the elite families in their social realm; they could never accept the idea that God would allow such a worthy person to be born under the conditions that Jesus was born under. In other words, they were just like denominational Christendom today; they wanted all the benefits that the scriptures spoke of, but they did not want to walk in the light of truth that those scriptures contained. That same old religious spirit has passed right on down through every age, and in our day we see its efforts magnified. It seems that almost everyone you meet is religious, but very few of them know anything about true Bible Christianity.