FAITH CAPSULE: Repent your sin to gain and retain the presence of God. 

2 Samuel 11, 12:1-25

Obedience to the word of God does not despise God but takes a position to find God. 
Despising the word of God will set one for self-destruction. (Proverbs 13:13) 
In life, despising the word of God is a destination to become sink into sin. 
With sin, one is not seeking God to find God. 
The Case of the sin of David and Hezekiah is a testimony of what sin adds or takes away while alive:
King David saw and sent for Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. 
The Bible records, “…and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” (2 Samuel 11:4-5)
David was a man after the heart of God but did wrong in his attempt to cover up his sin with Bathsheba, sending Uriah (husband of Bathsheba) to the front of war to get him killed. (1 Samuel 13:14) 
God will not overlook the sin of anyone regardless of the past good act before God. 
Before God, the only way to come out of sin is to repent. 
The sin of King David before God called for Prophet Nathan to rebuke David as he responded with repentance. 
2 Samuel 12:13 records the repentance of David, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.  
Repentance will bring forth redemption.
The repentance of David before God granted Him the mercy of God. 
God did not withdraw His spirit from David and not cut off His word from him. 
The word of God speaks to all, “Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1:23) All need to learn from turning away from sin to God to gain the presence of God. 
David was rebuked, turned to repent and retain the hand of God over his life. 
Hezekiah was sick with the mark to die when the word of God rebuked him through Prophet Isaiah, stating “…thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” (Isaiah 38:1) 
The bible records the repentance of Hezekiah, “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD.” (Isaiah 1:2) 
David, Hezekiah repented at the rebuke of Isaiah, the prophet of God, and the word of God gave life to Hezekiah in the place of death.
What stops you from turning away from sin to God.?
With sin, no one will gain the presence of God. 
Come out of sin, and live life by the word of God to gain and retain the presence of God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live a sin-free life.

FAITH CAPSULE: There is no reasonable excuse before God. 

2 Samuel 12

With sin, no one accesses the presence of God. 
Is sin and sinning your way of life?
For sin, do not assume the mercy of God but repent before God.
Sin and sinning are not acceptable or excusable before God.
Through the Bible pages, no one lives life above sin and sinning against God by violating the word of God.
There is no acclaimed believer or one with a title that gets away with sin or sinning before God without consequence.
Eve made Adam sin before God.
Before God, Adam had a reasonable excuse for his sin. The excuse states, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12)  
Before God, there is no excuse to sin. 
Disobedient before God is a path of sinning.
Eve and Adam sinned before God, and they received a measured painful consequence from God.
None is excusable from the consequence of sin before God.
Imagine God testifies David as a man after His heart, and with his sin, there was no excuse from the consequences of his sin.
Act 13:22 records the testimony of God, “And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.”
King David sinned before God when he violated the wife of Uriah and set Uriah up for his death.
After the killing of Uriah, God sent Prophet Nathan to David, pointing out the sin of David and the consequences of his sin before God.
2 Samuel 12:7-12 records, “Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”
Before God, there is none that is above the consequence of sin. 
David repented before God, but the consequence followed through over his life of David.

Prayer for today: Ask against sinning before God in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Nothing is hide-able before God.  

Proverbs 4

No heart that can hide from God that can see all.
It is the heart of all that presents one before God. 
Every heart does not hide before God, who sees all about the doing of all the heart.
Genesis 6:5 testifies how the heart of all exposes the wickedness before God. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 
The heart of one is not open for another to see, but only God can see and know what transpires in the heart of all.
Jeremiah 17:9 testifies, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
The Bible points out that the heart is where the rise and fall begin. 
Satan makes the heart target as a launching pad to attack. 
Judas spent time with Jesus, yet his heart made him available as a playground for Satan. 
The book of Luke 22:3-4 states, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.” 
Satan went after the heart of Judas to establish his plan of betraying Jesus. 
Invariably, faith will fail when the enemy attacks the heart not kept.
Peter was close to Jesus and could also have been a victim of the devil. Once Jesus said to him, “…Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32) 
The only proven target for the enemy to strike is the heart. 
Ananias and Sapphira sell their possession to buttress the fellowship but lied about the proceedings, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep part of the price of the land for yourself? (Acts 5:3)
Evil doing is the business of Satan, and he has taken the heart of all as a target. 
However, the heart that is not reachable by Satan is the heart with constant engagement to the word of God by meditating on the word of God. 
The word encourages, “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Meditate on the word of God to disengage Satan from the heart. 
King David, a man after the heart of God, carelessly, not diligently kept his heart when he set his eyes to lay with Uriah, the wife(Bathsheba) of Hittite.
David set Uriah for death. 
David sin against God 
Keep the heart diligently from evil by meditating on the word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for enablement to be keeping the heart diligently.

FAITH PRESCRIPTION: Eliminate doubt, and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every moment. 

Mathew 11 

The word of Jesus speaks to all:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) 
Jesus came for all on the cross to give abundant life.
Indeed, He has risen, and life abundantly is in place for all that will live life by the word of God.
Knowing to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus should be the evidence of faith. 
One with faith will deny the fear which encases doubt. 
Where there is fear or when fear is rising, faith will sink. 
The Bible identifies the source of faith, “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) 
Just as faith comes by hearing and hearing, faith will depart by not hearing and hearing the word of God.
Engage hearing and hearing by the word of God to gain faith. 
John the Baptist was in prison when he demonstrated doubt about who Jesus was. 
Matthew 11:2-3 records, “And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  
Celebrating Jesus demands having faith and not doubt.
John the Baptist baptized testifies the time when he baptized Jesus by saying, “…Behold The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.”’ (John 1:29-30) 
John also exalted Jesus saying, “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all.” (John 3:31)
Despite all which John the Baptist testified about Jesus, when he was in the prison of his life, he doubted Jesus. 
John demonstrated doubt, the evidence that he does not know God but knows about God.
The majority have heard it all, seen it all about Jesus but could not hold on to Him in trust and hope the evidence they do not know God but know about Him. 
The response of Jesus to the doubt of John also speaks to all doubting believers. 
Jesus sent to John in doubt and the prison of life, “…Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Mathew 11:4-5) 
When doubt is in place, faith is bound to drown. 
Give self to the meaningful celebration of the resurrection of Jesus every moment. 
He has risen!

Prayer for today: Ask that your faith will not allow doubt and fear over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is to live life for God.

1 Corinthians 15

The resurrection of Jesus is the reason for the need to be praising God.
Psalm 150:6 states, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
One with the breath of life owes it all to the resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of all. 
It is good to know God, engaging in the celebration of the death of Jesus at the Calvary and the rising of Jesus to be alive for all.
It is the love of God for all that provokes the death and the rise of Jesus.
Celebrating is praising God with understanding. (Psalm 47:7)  
Celebrating Christ without understanding there will be no knowledge to be increased for God but decreased not to be elevated.
Jesus came to give it all on the cross of Calvary, and He gave it more abundantly that all should have life.
John 10:10 records the word of Jesus, “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”
The desire of Jesus, His passion for all, is for all to live life abundantly and not live wasted. 
With faith, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus should be every moment of life by knowing that Jesus Christ paid for all on the cross and rose for all to have life abundantly.
Celebrate the resurrection of Jesus soberly reflecting reflect the price on the Calvary, the love of God for all.
With faith is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus soberly, not pessimism (doubt)but to take away disappointment and hopelessness. 
Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ is keeping alive the memory of death and the rise of Jesus for all.
All should celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ to provoke salvation as Galatians 2:20 states, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The majority celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ with a lack of knowledge. 
Many spend time in the church but very far from Jesus while He is in their presence. 
As an acclaimed believer of Jesus, do you know him or only know about Him? 
From the times of the Old Testament to New Testament, the people of God do not know God, just as Hosea 4:6 records, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”   
Knowing about God is not with understanding of celebrating the resurrection of God.
All should know God to seek Jesus diligently, celebrating Him for the life he has given to all to die and rise. 
All should know to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be sober and awake, not to miss the salvation paid by Jesus. 
1 Thessalonians 5:6 speaks to all, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

Prayer for today: Pray that you live life for God.