Happy New Year

The three words "Happy New Year"will be used more frequently in our vocabulary in the next few days and will gradually wane by the end of the month. This can easily   be attributed to the fact that by then the excitement of the word “new” may no longer be applicable and things may have steadily  returned  to status quo.

But I am quite glad that although the word “new” may not be applicable to the year after some months, there is something that we can count on that will be new every day; God’s mercy (Lamentations 3:23). It will never grow  stale neither will it expire as , there is a daily  manufacture of it. No matter how much we use the day before, there will always  be a new  and  fresh supply the  following day  and this is ample reason for  rejoicing. We can hope  and  trust in the mercy of the Lord ( Psalms 52 8 ) as it is good and does us good.  

God is the source and  Father of mercies  (2 Corinthians 1:3), he is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2 4), his mercy being abundant  (1 Peter 1 3), is great towards those who fear him(Psalms 103:11)  and the joker is that  he  delights in showing mercy(Micah 7:18).It is in God’s DNA to be merciful. This mercy of God can surround us (Palms 32 10), be a crown on our heads( Palms 108 :4) and even be our special personal  escort with its twin goodness(Psalms 23 6).No wonder, the Psalmist rejoiced at God’s mercy and when given at option to choose his punishment, decided to fall into the hand of the Lord because he understood the mercy of God (2 Samuel 24:14).

 

As a result of his mercy, we receive salvation( Ephesians 2:4-6,1 Peter 1:3) and as we continue in our walk, our failures  and sins are forgiven( Psalms 51:1) yes of course we need to confess them (1 John 1:9).It is his mercy that enables us to walk in the fear of the Lord. Our families are saved as a result of  his  increased   mercy (Genesis 19:19 ),this mercy is an insurance  policy for our children and grandchildren  (Luke 1 50).As an outflow of mercy, marital destines are fulfilled and partners are located(Genesis 34:1-25).Barren wombs bear children in remembrance of God’s mercy and visitation (Luke 1:10-24,Genesis 30:2).God’s mercy is available  to help us (Psalms 30:10)when we are sad (Psalms 31:9) , desolate ( Psalms 28:16), in trouble ( Psalms 9:13 ) and  brings healing , causing  blind eyes to be opened ( Luke 18:38), mental illness to be cured (Matthew 17:15-18). His mercy will make men and even our bosses to favour us Genesis 39:21). Celebration and rejoicing occurs  at our gates because of the mercy of the Lord( Luke 1:58 ).Truth be told, all our prayers are answered because of the mercy of God ( Psalms 4:1 ).But how can we access this mercy?

All we need to do is to come boldly to Gods throne and obtain this mercy (Hebrews 4:16) and the Living Bible puts it well by saying ”so let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need”.God does not only delight in showing mercy but he delights in those who hope in his mercy(Psalms 147: 10,11 ).

So this year I wish that more than ever we, being vessels of his mercy (Romans 9:24) all live under the reality of the new mercies of God daily with thanksgiving (2 Chronicles 16:34). Happy New Year and remember every day is new with his mercies.

         

In His Service,

Grace Tom-Lawyer.

The Ultimate Gift

The Error of Balaam 3- Error of Wrong Company

7 The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination. When they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak had said.

8 “Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him.

9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?”Numbers 22:7-9

So  the delegation  from Midian and Moab armed with the fee set off on the  long arduous journey of over 400 miles  to meet Balaam (Numbers 22:7).After a minimum of twenty one days, they arrived safely in Balaam’s house where the typical  oriental hospitality would have been shown and  faithfully stated their mission. They retired that night with a promise from Balaam that he would consult  God about the matter (Numbers 22:8).

Balaam’s statement of faith is worthy of emulation(Hebrews 11:6). He was so sure God would speak to him( Numbers 22:8) . He had an altar that challenges us as Christians today when we watch the dialogue and not a monologue that ensued between  Balaam and God(Numbers 22:9-12).This kind of relationship is both  our right and privilege as his children (John 10:27; Jeremiah 33:3) True to his expectation, that very night, God asked Balaam “Who are these men with you”?(Numbers 22:9).

  It is important to note that God asks the question “who” and not “why”. It is not for a lack of knowledge that God asks Balaam this question, rather it was needful for Balaam  to come to a realization of the full implications of the “who” in his life .Balaam replied answering God’s question of who  and  went further to answer “why” to justify the “who”, which is the usual human tendency and a common error we make.

 But  God is concerned about "who" because he knows the influence of our “who”(1 Corinthians 15:33).This is because our “who” will greatly influence and be a cause of “why”. Who are those men with you because the men with you are a prophecy of who and what you are going to become (Proverbs 12:26; Proverbs 27:17&Proverbs 13:20).

 This “who” association is all embracing and needs not to be confined to people or the physical plane alone. Intellectually who are we rubbing minds with? It boils down to the blogs, magazines  we read or even the TV programmes we watch or the sites we visit on the internet (Romans 12 :2). Are we like the Psalmists who  said he refuses to take a second look at corrupting people and degrading things( Psalms 101:3).Even those we follow on Twitter or other Social Media should be mirrored against the standard of God’s word(2 Timothy 2:19).

 Balaam’s first error of the wrong company is one that we sometimes are guilty of and need to keep a check on regularly (Romans 12:2). Any company or counsel that is not helping us become more like Christ and fulfil destiny should be avoided (Psalms 1:1-4; 1 Corinthians 5:11).There is no time we will ever grow beyond the influence of the people we surround ourselves with (Proverbs 22:24-25). Hence the need for us to rightfully select those we allow to become close to us or whose influence we come under (Psalms 101:5-6; Philippians 4:8).

In his Service,

Grace Tom-Lawyer

The Error of Balaam 2- Who is Balaam?

Two weeks ago, I promised that we would look at the third and main character in our story; Balaam. This is necessary as he is not one of the popular Bible characters and most of his life is hidden in the least read books of the Old Testament.   

We are first introduced to him in the Old Testament (Numbers 22:5) and typical of Biblical accounts, he is identified with his ancestry and his location. Balaam, an Edomite was the son of Beor. He lived in Pethor (Deuteronomy 23:4) in Mesopotamia (Numbers 23:7) which was about 400 miles from Moab. As an Edomite, he was a descendant of Esau(Genesis 36:1) who was the twin brother of Jacob(Genesis 25:23-26).Jacob is also known as Israel and  is the father of the Israelites(Genesis 49:2), thus making Balaam a relative of the Israelites. He is also mentioned in  the books of Deuteronomy( Deutronomy 23:4-5) , Nehemiah(Nehemiah 13:2) and Micah (Micah 6:5).

Balaam is mentioned thrice in the New Testament  and on all occasions, negatively. The first is seen in 2 Peter 2:15 where  Apostle Peter admonishes that we do not follow the “way of Balaam” .The second mention is found in the book of Jude who  while warning about the apostates, describes them with three Old Testament characters, one of which is Balaam. These apostates were said to have run greedily after the “error of Balaam” while  the last mention of him  is by the Lord in his message to the Church in Pergamos in  Revelation 2:12-16 where  after commending the Church,  urged them to repent as they had amongst them  some people who held unto the “doctrine of Balaam”. This same doctrine is what is referred to as the “counsel of Balaam”(Numbers 31:16).

  The Greek form of the name Balaam means “devourer of the people” or simply “devourer “ while the Hebrew form of his name which is Bilam means “one not of the people ,devourer or foreigner”.  Beor on the other hand means “burning”.It is noticeable that the meaning of his name as well as that of his father is negative.

In the Bible, names were not given lightly and neither should we give names or change names without  revelation, conviction, prayerful consideration and counsel.(Genesis 32:28, Luke 1:13, John 1:42) Balaam  eventually lived up to his name (Numbers 25:1-9) by making errors along the way which we would start to consider in the next post.Watch this space.

Yours in Service,

Grace Tom-Lawyer

The Error of Balaam

 "Woe to them!For they have gone in the way of Cain and have run greedily after the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah"Jude 1:11
NKJV New King James Version.

In the fourth shortest letter of the New Testament, Apostle Jude in a no-nonsense approach admonished his readers to “fight for the faith” as he warned them to be aware of false teachers and men who were perverting  the grace of God and using it  as a license for sin, (Jude 1:3 CEB Common English Bible). In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, these men were promoting “cheap grace”.Jude gives three  characteristics of these men,( Jude 1:4) and then uses three  negative biblical examples as patterns they have followed; the way of Cain, the error of Balaam and the rebellion of Korah (Jude 1:11).

 I knew about Cain ,after all he won the award of first murderer in the Bible(Genesis 4:8)  and as for Korah,(Numbers 16:1-32) he dared to question the authority of Moses , the man of God that God spoke to face to face (Exodus 33:11)what nerve! But what about  Balaam? It was just an  error  or so I thought until I began to study closely  and realized that like us, Balaam made several errors along the way before  culminating in the one he  is most famously known for(Numbers 22-23,2 Peter 2:15,Numbers 31: 16, Revelations 2:14).To help us understand and avoid these errors ,a little background to the story is necessary.

The children of Israel had begun making their way to the Promised land and had defeated some of their enemies and were about to conquer the land of Jericho (Numbers 22:1). Stories of their past victories had made headline news and their success attracted both admirers- Rahab (Joshua 2:10-11) and enemies (Numbers 22:2-6).Two of these enemies (Balak, the king of the Moabites and the Midianites teamed up together to fight the children of Israel  as they feared their land would be conquered soon. Not surprisingly, these enemies were actually their relatives (Matthew 10:35).The Moabites were descendants of Moab, the first son of Lot, Abraham’s nephew born out of incest with his first daughter (Genesis 19:36-37) while  the Midianites were descendants of Abraham from his wife, Keturah after the death of Sarah(Genesis 25:1-4).To ensure victory, they decided to employ the supernatural and engage the services of  Balaam a prophet who lived hundreds of  miles away. They were ready to pay honorarium and foot the bill as they believed in testimonies of the success of his ministry and anointing to attack their enemy.

What an encouragement  for  us to  harness and continuously refine our God given gifts  as we  see scriptures fulfilled in Balaam’s life as his gift made a way for him(Proverbs 18:16). Without the benefit of a Facebook or Twitter account, or even a complimentary card, he had people sending for him across international borders. We must be careful though to use our gifts to serve God and his purposes rather than the enemy.

Enemies are a living reality of the fallen world and we all have them – both “real ones” and “phantom ones”. Some we have acquired foolishly and unnecessarily while others have been wrongfully blacklisted by us. It may be possible that like the children of Israel, sadly it is the success of these individuals, being painful reminders of our unaccomplished dreams that have made them enemies. As for the real enemies, different battles require different strategies( 2 Corinthians 10 4,1 Samuel 18: 14,Matthew 10 :16, 1 Peter 5:8).Thus we should act wisely with the assurance  that in the economical nature of God , he is able to fight our battles as well as   use our  enemies to accomplish his purpose(Psalms 23:6,Romans 8:28).

In our next post, we will consider Balaam.

In his Service,

Grace Tom-Lawyer.

Back to Study

Dear all,

I believe you are well and  pray that these remaining months of the year will usher new joy to you and your loved ones. The Summer break is definitely over and we will begin to study once again as we journey on this path(yes I was on a break although this got extended).

I do not take this opportunity for granted and always seek to write these notes with excellence.This sometimes delays some publications but hopefully as I continue to obey the promptings of the Spirit with diligence,there will be regular updates 

 I remember you in my prayers and  earnestly covet your prayers  that I would continue to bring the Word for the season  in  fresh  and practical ways and that the power in the Word will continue to break yokes and find fulfilment in our lives.



In his Service of Love,
Grace Tom-Lawyer

The Perfect Father:The Father of Glory

The Father of Glory 
Some weeks ago I attended another Church and listened to a lady share on how on how going through  her grandmother's things, she discovered that the space on her father's name had filled Not known. She thought that definitely a check on the wedding certificate would reveal otherwise but to her dismay, it was still recorded as "Not Known".There may be varying degrees at which different people will relate to that but almost everyone of us can appreciate that that must have brought a degree of shame to that lady's mother and I can imagine that days like this must have been particularly difficult for her. It is one thing for your father to be absent,unavailable each with its own peculiarity but not known denotes with it some degree of shame.
But one of the names the beloved Apostle Paul called God was he referred to him as the father of glory and God loves to add  glory to our lives. No matter how the matter of fatherhood has brought some form of shame to anyone, God delights in bringing  glory, he delights in restoring the place of fatherhood to one that can be referred to as and looked upon with Glory. And to say that God is the father of glory also means that God is the source of Glory , even when Jesus walked