VICTORY IS IN JESUS CHRIST.

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: VICTORY IS IN JESUS CHRIST.

Many Christians are seeking victory through some teaching or some unusual experience, but victory is not in a teaching or in an experience. Victory is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says,

"But thanks be to God who gives us the victory THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST." 1 Corinthians 15:57

CHRIST MAKES TWO OFFERS

Jesus Christ makes two offers to every person. He offers them eternal life, and He offers them victory over sin. He makes both of these offers on exactly the same basis—that we let Him do it all.

Just as there is a right way and a wrong way to seek salvation, so there is a right way and a wrong way to seek victory. The wrong way is to try to do it yourself. The right way is to let the Lord do it for you. The Lord Jesus said,

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

If you were working at a job, and the Lord Jesus came to you and said, "I will give you rest," what would you expect Him to do? You would expect Him to take over your job and do it while you rested. This is exactly what He wants to do for you.

Perhaps you have been trying to live the victorious life, but failing. The Lord Jesus says to you, "Let Me take over. I will live the victorious life in and through you."

Just ask the Lord Jesus to come into your life and help you to do it all. You will surely have victory in Jesus Name.

LET US PRAY
FATHER IN JESUS NAME, DESTROY EVERY BURDENS OF SINS AND ENEMY UPON US AND GIVE US VICTORY IN JESUS NAME.

VICTORY BY GRACE

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: VICTORY BY GRACE

let us think about the time God saved us. Each one of us can look back to a time when we were separated from God and "dead in trespasses and sins." But God loved us and saved us by His grace. The Bible says,

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…" Ephesians 2:1

When we were "dead in trespasses and sins" could we make ourselves alive spiritually? No, we could not. It was God's power working in us that made us alive spiritually. It was all of God's grace. The Bible says,

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…" Ephesians 2:8

Now, let us think about the future. We know that one day the Lord Jesus is coming for His believers. All believers, both those who have died and those who are living when He comes, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Our bodies will be changed instantly, and we shall be made like Him. The Bible says,

"For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout…and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air…" 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

WHAT ABOUT THIS ?
Will we be caught up to meet the Lord by our own power? No, not at all. It will be by God's mighty power. It will be by His grace.

WHAT ABOUT NOW ?
Are we just to struggle along in our own strength, doing the best we can, but failing miserably? No! God has made it possible for us to be victorious now.

WHAT IS GOD'S PROVISION FOR US NOW ?
His provision is His grace—His mighty power working in us. No matter what our situation may be, God says to us, "My grace is sufficient for you."

God's grace for us now is simply Christ living in us. When God says, "My grace is sufficient for you" He is saying, "My Christ is sufficient for you. Trust Him. He can give you victory in every situation."

WHAT DO WE DO ?
We rest in Christ. We trust Him to keep us and to give us victory. This is receiving God's grace. When we do this, we "reign" in life.
The Bible says,
"…those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:17b

LET US PRAY
FATHER IN JESUS NAME, LET YOUR GRACE FIND US FROM ALL OUR STRUGGLES AND LET YOUR GRACE SPEAK PEACE INTO OUR WORRIED LIFE IN JESUS NAME.

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VICTORY IS A GIFT

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: VICTORY IS A GIFT

The first thing we want to see about the life of victory is that it is a gift. Just as eternal life is a gift, so the victorious life is also a gift. It cannot be earned; it is the gift of God. The Bible says,

"Thanks be to God who GIVES us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

Victory is by God's Grace
The next thing we need to see about the life of victory is that it is by God's grace.

WHAT IS GRACE ?

Grace is something God does for us. Grace has often been defined as "God's unmerited favour" but grace is much more than this. Grace is God's mighty, omnipotent power working for us, doing things for us that we could never do for ourselves. From beginning to end, our salvation is all of God's grace.

But don't we have a part in salvation?
Yes, we do. What is our part?
Our part is to receive what God's grace provides for us.

John 3:17-19 KJV
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [19] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

LET US PRAY
COME INTO OUR HEART LORD JESUS AND SAVE US FROM HELL, GIVE US YOUR VICTORY AND MAKE US AN OVERCOMMER IN JESUS NAME.

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WHAT IS VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE ?

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: WHAT IS VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE ?

When we speak of "the victorious life of Christian" we are not speaking of a life without temptation or a life of sinless perfection. It is not possible for a person to have such a transaction with the Lord as to enable him to say, "I am without sin," or "I can never sin again." The Bible says,

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8

WHAT, IS VICTORIOUS LIFE ?

The victorious life is a life of peace and joy in the Lord. It is a life of constant fellowship with the Lord. It is a life of victory over sins—even the so called "little sins," such as temper, fault-finding, irritability, complaining, lack of love, envy, jealousy, unkind words, wrong thoughts, worry, anxiety. Christian who is Victorious has victory over them all.

The victorious life is a life that glorifies the Lord Jesus—the only kind of life that glorifies Him.

WHO CAN HAVE THIS KIND OF LIFE ?

Any believer! It is for you! The victorious life is not for just a few, special Christians. It is presented in the New Testament as the normal Christian life. God has made provision for every Christian to live this kind of Life.

Today the Lord is ministering to me and you to start living this kind of victorious life. He want us to always do what please him, he created us for his glory and his glory we must surely live for. Amen

LET US PRAY
FATHER IN JESUS NAME, GIVE US VICTORY OVER EVERY SATANIC POWER AROUND US IN JESUS NAME.

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VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN

2 Corinthians 12:9b KJV
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

The saddest experience in the life of a Christian is to be under the power of sin. Sin in the life of a Christian has three terrible results:

1. It dishonours the name of the Lord Jesus.
If you are a Christian, you represent the Lord Jesus. When you yield to sin, you bring dishonour to His name.

2. It robs you of your joy and power. As long as you are yielding to sin, God will not use you.

3. It destroys your Christian testimony. Other people judge your Christian witness, not so much by what you say, but by the way you live day by day.
Right now, by your life, you are saying one of two things to other people. You are saying, "The Christian life works!" or you are saying, "The Christian life doesn't work."

The way you live as a Christian affects not only your life, but the lives of other people as well. Do you see why it is so important for you to be a victorious Christian?
... Continue tomorrow

LET US PRAY
DEAR LORD JESUS CHRIST, HELP MY WEAKNESS AND MAKE ME STAND OUT RIGHT IN FAITH IN JESUS NAME.

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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FORGIVER

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FORGIVER

Let's analyse the problem: when to forbear and when to forgive

(Colossians 3:13).
The first thing to do when you think you should forgive someone who has wronged you is to make sure that it really rises to the level of forgiveness.

Colossians 3:13 says: "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

There is forgiveness, and there is forbearance. You can think of forbearance as a kind of low-level forgiveness, or more simply as exercising patience and tolerance in the face of the idiosyncrasies of the people in your life.

For example, if your spouse is chronically late in getting ready to leave the house for an engagement, that doesn’t really rise to the level of mortal sin. It may be irritating, but it just doesn’t say in the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not wait until the last minute to put thy makeup on."
And it doesn’t say in the Ten Commandments that table manners are a matter of spiritual life and death.

You may have to forbear someone who talks too much, someone who wears really pungent perfume, someone in your house who chews with his or her mouth open or who leaves towels on the floor, someone who seems incapable of replacing the toilet paper roll. You may need to smile and tolerate some of the weird opinions of others or if they have no opinions or are opinionated about everything—but that probably is more about forbearance than forgiveness.

If you don’t see the necessity to forbear, then you may be living a narcissistic life, as if your way of living and thinking is superior in every way to that of others.
No, we have to live with the assumption that we live in an imperfect world surrounded by imperfect people, and not every bumping of heads means someone has sinned.

Forgiveness is the gutsiest thing a human being can do because real people do real damage to each other all the time—but it can be solved.
Bible says "Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

LET US PRAY
FATHER IN JESUS NAME, GIVE US A SOFT HEART TO FORGIVE THE OFFENCES OF OUR NEIGHBOURS IN JESUS NAME.

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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PERSON SEEKING FORGIVENESS.

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PERSON SEEKING FORGIVENESS.

Psalms 32:1-5
"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ — and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

First, to be forgiven is to be blessed beyond your wildest dreams, knowing that your Creator, the gracious Father above, is willing to forgive your mistakes and offenses. God is willing to not hold our sins against us. One’s record is wiped clean. No debt owed. Account settled. We’ve got to comprehend the blessing of forgiveness because if we take God’s forgiveness for granted with an attitude that says: "Well, what else is God going to do? Isn’t that His job?" then we’ll never understand or appropriate the forgiveness of God, and there is not a chance we’ll be forgiving of others.

Notice the progression of the person’s heart in this passage: "my bones wasted away... my strength was sapped." This is a person being "eaten up on the inside" as we sometimes say.
Guilt will do that. And though it is hard to believe, the tortured conscience is a gift. Look at the psychopaths and charlatans in our society.
Look at the terrorist, the spouse-abuser, the chat room predator, and you’ll be frightened by the image of the dead conscience and glad if your conscience is alive and vocal.

What’s the responsibility of the person seeking forgiveness?

Verse 5: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin."
When was the last time you tried to cover up your transgressions?

Covering up is the unfortunate instinct of fallen human nature. Denying our faults and mess-ups seems to be the way of least pain, but it only adds pain to pain.
We are supposed to confess our wrongdoings. But to whom?

The simple answer is: the person or persons whom we’ve wronged. Now in every instance, that is God. In Psalm 51, David’s heart-rending confession of his adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband says: "against you, you only, have I sinned." Of course, he had sinned against people—but the epicenter of the earthquake of our sins is always our detachment from God Himself. And so we confess to God.

We’re also supposed to confess our wrongdoings to the people we’ve wronged in many, but not all, circumstances. You have to judge the outcome and let God's wisdom lead you not to complicate issue.

LET US PRAY
DEAR LORD JESUS CHRIST. HELP US TO TAKE THE RIGHT STEP IN LIFE IN JESUS NAME.

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FORGIVENESS MEANS LOOKING AT OTHERS IN A NEW WAY.

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: FORGIVENESS MEANS LOOKING AT OTHERS IN A NEW WAY.

Matthew 6:15 KJV
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Forgiveness is a new way of looking at others. It’s a radical and counter-cultural perspective on life. If you believe in forgiveness—that God forgives, even though He is not obligated to, and that we’ll have the best kind of life if we hold other people in our lives with a loose grip—then here’s how you’ll view other people.
You will see people for what they can be and what they were intended to be, rather than simply as they are.

You’ll learn to not focus on people who simply irritate you. You can focus on them, of course, if you choose to, and keep yourself in a continual state of irritation; and you end up irritating the living daylights out of other people around you. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Forgiveness means looking at people who really have wronged you and deciding that you’d like to set things right—but in the end, you’re not going to play God.

And forgiveness means that you view the deranged people who shoot up school rooms and then turn the guns on themselves as people who are going to be standing before the judgment seat of God. They will answer to God.

forgiveness is a decision and a process. You can release someone from obligation to you personally, even though the smoldering fires of resentment keep burning in you for some time to come.

Matthew 6:14 KJV
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

LET US PRAY
FATHER HELP ME TO FORGIVE THOSE THAT HAVE OFFENDED ME AND FORGIVE MY SINS TOO LORD IN JESUS NAME.

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FORGIVENESS MEANS RELEASE

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: FORGIVENESS MEANS RELEASE

(Matthew 18:27,Matthew 18:32)

So, then, what really is the meaning of forgiveness?

The biblical word, the new covenant word. In Greek it is APHASIS, in English, RELEASE.

Now just for a moment, don’t make it any more complicated than that. RELEASE.
To forgive means to choose someone whom you have been holding in your debt, holding in resentment and bitterness, and release him or her.

Forgiveness is not calling something that someone else did that was immoral or destructive OK. It is not turning a blind eye toward injustice. Forgiveness simply means that you choose to release somebody from personal obligation to you—even though that person will have to face the justice of God.

In Matthew 18,
Jesus answers. A man owed a king ten thousand talents and was on the brink of having to sell his wife and children into slavery to pay the debt. But the pleas of the man to the king resulted in a canceling of the debt. FORGIVENESS. RELEASE. But the same man turns on a man who owes him merely a hundred denarii. And when the king hears of it, he is incensed, saying, "You wicked servant, ... I canceled all that debt of yours. ... Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant?" The king rescinds his forgiveness. And Jesus’ closing words are these: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Forgiveness is release—being released by God, and then we are able to release other people in our lives.

This week God want you to release people you have been holding up in your heart. LET go and let God.

LET US PRAY,
DEAR LORD JESUS CHRIST. HEAL OUR HURT AND BROKEN HEART WHICH IS WOUNDED BY PEOPLE AROUND US IN JESUS NAME

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FORGIVENESS

Topic: FORGIVENESS

To forgive is a divine attribute. It is to pardon or excuse someone from blame for an offense or misdeed. The scriptures refer to forgiveness in two ways.
1. The Lord commands us to repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness.
2. He also commands us to forgive those who offend or hurt us.

Sin is a heavy burden. It brings the tenseness of guilt and the anguish of knowing that we have acted against the will of our Father in Heaven. It brings lingering remorse as we realize that because of our actions, we may have hurt others and prevented ourselves from receiving blessings our Father has been ready to give us.

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can receive forgiveness for our sins through sincere and complete repentance. Sinfulness brings suffering and pain, but the Lord's forgiveness brings relief, comfort, and joy. The Lord has promised:

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

We can experience this miracle, whether we need to repent of serious sins or day-to-day weaknesses. Just as the Savior pleaded with people anciently, He pleads with us today:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
(Matthew 11:28-30).

In addition to seeking forgiveness for our own sins, we must be willing to forgive others.

In the everyday circumstances of life, we will surely be wronged by other people—sometimes innocently and sometimes intentionally. It is easy to become bitter or angry or vengeful in such situations, but this is not the Lord's way. The Savior counseled, ”Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you“ (Matthew 5:44). He set the perfect example of forgiveness when He was on the cross. Referring to the Roman soldiers who had crucified Him, He prayed, ”Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do“ (Luke 23:34;

LET US PRAY.
IN JESUS NAME, GOD'S MERCY WILL FORGIVE US AND WASH AWAY OUR SINS STAIN IN JESUS NAME. AMEN

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Good morning friends

FORGIVENESS

Topic: FORGIVENESS

To forgive is a divine attribute. It is to pardon or excuse someone from blame for an offense or misdeed. The scriptures refer to forgiveness in two ways.
1. The Lord commands us to repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness.
2. He also commands us to forgive those who offend or hurt us.

Sin is a heavy burden. It brings the tenseness of guilt and the anguish of knowing that we have acted against the will of our Father in Heaven. It brings lingering remorse as we realize that because of our actions, we may have hurt others and prevented ourselves from receiving blessings our Father has been ready to give us.

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can receive forgiveness for our sins through sincere and complete repentance. Sinfulness brings suffering and pain, but the Lord's forgiveness brings relief, comfort, and joy. The Lord has promised:

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

We can experience this miracle, whether we need to repent of serious sins or day-to-day weaknesses. Just as the Savior pleaded with people anciently, He pleads with us today:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
(Matthew 11:28-30).

In addition to seeking forgiveness for our own sins, we must be willing to forgive others.

In the everyday circumstances of life, we will surely be wronged by other people—sometimes innocently and sometimes intentionally. It is easy to become bitter or angry or vengeful in such situations, but this is not the Lord's way. The Savior counseled, ”Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you“ (Matthew 5:44). He set the perfect example of forgiveness when He was on the cross. Referring to the Roman soldiers who had crucified Him, He prayed, ”Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do“ (Luke 23:34;

LET US PRAY.
IN JESUS NAME, GOD'S MERCY WILL FORGIVE US AND WASH AWAY OUR SINS STAIN IN JESUS NAME. AMEN

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Good morning friends