KEY SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

Abigail a name which means my father is joy or the father’s joy. She was the wife of Nabal. To appreciate the special role of Abigail we have to take a good look at her husband. The name Nabal means a fool. Please by very mindful of how you give names to people, especially your children.

Nabal was a very rich man yet the Bible described him as hard, cruel severe, fierce and difficult. The simple description of this man is that, he is a very selfish man. Selfishness always makes a man mistreat others and therefore others cannot genuinely love him, no matter how rich he may be. The Bible also said he was evil in his doings. This is the kind of man Abigail was married to. The Bible described Abigail in 1st Samuel 3:25 as follows “and she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance. To be described as having good understanding meant she behaved very acceptably. She was not carried away by her husband riches to misbehave. She was a selfless woman. Great women are mothers. A mother is one whose heart is opened to all that are in need. Abigail was a mother. Nabal was not a father.

 A father is the one who is ready to lead and support all those who are within his sphere of influence. David and his men have been on the field with Nabal’s shepherds and flocks. They protected them from every intruder. He heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. He sent His men for some of the wool but Nabal rather insulted David and his men. David got furious and set off with his men to destroy Nabal and his household.

Abigail was informed of what David did for their shepherds and the husband’s reactions to David’s request. She was informed about an impending danger from David and his men. She quickly organised two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine and other lots of food to be given to David and his men. She did not tell her husband. Wives and husbands are supposed to tell whatever they do to each other but it is not everything that must be told. What would have happened if Abigail had told Nabal?

When Abigail saw David, she fell at David’s feet and requested that David must rather punish or slaughter her instead of Nabal and his household, Abigail spoke humbly and wisely. She then presented all that she brought to be given to David and his men. She even spoke words of prophecy into David’s life. 1st Samuel 25;28. David thanked her and said to her “Blessed be thou advice and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood. As a wife, be wise in your judgements to save yourself and your family.

 PRAYER

Father open the eyes of all women to be people of great wisdom and humility. Make husbands sensitive to their roles.

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Samuel 25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

1 Samuel 25:24 And fell at his feet, and said, upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

KEY SCRIPTURE:1 Samuel 15:22 ” And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams”.

We continue with our discussion on the bible character Samuel. In 1st Samuel 12:14-23, Samuel rehearsed the actions of the Israelites in preferring a king to the judge God gave them.  He reprimanded them and said the following “moreover as for me God forbid that I should sin against God in ceasing to pray for you; but I would teach you the good and right way.” Samuel revealed that it was a sin on his part not to be praying for the children of Israel. In this instant he was acting as a pastor or a shepherd.  Samuel says it is a sin if you as a shepherd does not intercede for the sheep.

  Samuel was never afraid to say the truth even if it was not pleasant to his hearers. He was a man of God. A man of God is not a man for himself or for men, he is a man who solely seeks God’s interest amongst men.

  In 1st Samuel 15, God told Samuel to ask Saul to go to Amalek and thoroughly destroy them without leaving anything or anybody. Saul did not obey this instruction. In verse 11 the Lord told Samuel it repented him for getting Saul as king because he did not obey him fully. The bible said it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord for the whole night. Samuel was a great mentor. He totally sought for the success of Saul. He prayed all night for Saul. We must be concerned about all. When a brother or sister commits an act against God, we should not be happy for his or her fall. We must rather stand with him or her in intercession before God and the Lord may intervene because of our persistence in prayer.

   From 1st Samuel 15:17-26 Samuel took pains to explain to Saul why he was wrong. In verse 35 the scripture reads “And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul. Samuel did not come to see Saul again because God had rejected him. When God tells us, this thing is wrong and he dislikes it. We must likewise forsake it outright. Samuel loved Saul because he was his prodigy yet God had rejected him.  We must break from some people if God says so. We live for God not for ourselves or for anybody.

  In 1st Samuel 16, the Lord asked Samuel to go and anoint David.  Samuel said Saul will kill him if he hears it. The Lord asked him to take an heifer to go and sacrifice. Why didn’t he just go, as God could have protected him? God is almighty, yet in some occasions he expects us to act in wisdom. we must always be very sensitive to the leading of the spirit in all life issues. God is not a one-way God.

PRAYER

Father, I pray for all men of God, to live solely for you and act always to bring glory to your name

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Samuel 15:11″but It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night”.

1 Samuel 15:22. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

KEY SCRIPTURE:1 Samuel 1:28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.

We continue with our discussions on bible study as we major on character study. This time we would consider prophet Samuel.

Samuel was born out of aggressive, travailing prayer from His mother Hannah who was barren. (1st Samuel 1:9-11). His mother also vowed unto the Lord that if God was to give her a male child, she would intend give the child back to God. (1st Samuel 1:11). Samuel’s mother honoured her vow the moment the child was weaned (1st Samuel 1:26-28). God also gave Samuel ‘s mother five children, that is three boys, two girls.

Samuel started serving in the house of God at an early age. The Lord audibly called Samuel, although for the first two times he ran to Eli because he taught Eli was calling him.  Eli asked him to say the next time God called that, speak Lord for the servant heareth (1st Samuel 3:10). The. Lord called again and He spoke audibly to Him. God still speaks.

Samuel became a judge of Israel after Eli died. Samuel was a very diligent leader. He did not sit in Ramah to judge the whole of Israel. In Samuel 7:16 it says ” And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places.”

 The Bible did not state whether he had men in the various town representing him and gave him a feedback of what was going on there. I believe he had such men and places he resided in those towns to judge or speak God’s mind to them.

In 1st Samuel 8 we realized Samuel made his sons judged Israel yet they did not walk in the fear of God as their Father did. This misconduct of his sons caused the Israelites to demand a King to reign over them. It seems the problem Eli had with his sons was the same that Samuel also had with his sons . Parents must be careful, your children learn from the way you lead the family and they would do (Samuel saw these mistakes in Eli, but repeated them. ) likewise. God said Eli did not restrain his sons (1st Samuel 3:13), that is he should have employed the Elders to forcefully driven them from the priestly duties.

Samuel was a man of prayer and would always commune with the Father when there was any case for him to consider. 1st Samuel 8:6. When the Israelites were demanding a King although he felt rejected, he took time to explain to them the implications of having a king. A lesson to leadership: when your members are agitating for a change, do not brush them off, explain the consequences of their desire. Samuel was led to choose Saul to be the first King of Israel.

In 1st Samuel 12:3 he asked the Israelites to point out any defrauding he might have done, or anyway he has acted wrongly? Yet they found none. Samuel was a very upright man. Leadership must always be without blemish. Even at old age he kept teaching them the ways of God.

  PRAYER

O Lord God I pray for all leaders, that they will be men and women of distinguish character, men and women without blemish.

FURHTER STUDIES.

1 Samuel 12:3 ” Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.”

1 Samuel 12:4 ” And they said, thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. “

We continue with our discussion of the various aspects of bible study. This time we look at character study.  A character study involves taking a study on the life of any of the characters in the bible. There are so many men and women in the bible, with wonderful experiences that can teach us a lot.

There are people like Moses, Abraham, David, Elisha, Uriah, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Abigail, Mary and many more. It is amazing to study about their characters. On studying, some of the characters, you have to patiently read through a number of chapters from the scriptures to have a fair grasp of these character.

I will want us to study about a simple character like Uriah. The story about him can be found in 2nd Samuel 11:1-27. From verse 3 we are told that Uriah was the husband of Bathsheba. He was also a Hittite.  King David happened to have an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. The woman became pregnant and therefore told King David. The king planned to cover up his sin. Uriah was on the battle field fighting under the army general Joab. King David Asked Uriah to come home. The king then asked him to go and sleep at home supposing he would sleep with his wife but he   lay at the king’s door. (2nd Sam.11:9). King David asked him, “why did you not go to your house?” This was Uriah’s answer, “And Uriah said unto David, the ark, and Israel and Judah, abide in tents, and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields, shall I then go to mine house, to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As thou liveth, I will not do this thing”. By this answer Uriah demonstrated that he was a noble man, a dependable, selfless, and a very focused man to his duties. His commitment to uprightness saved him from falling into the trap set for him. COMMIT YOURSELF TO RIGHTEOUS STANDS AND YOU WOULD BE SAFE FROM SATANIC TRAPS.

In verse 13, King David made him drink so he would go to his house, yet he did not fall into that temptation. Uriah was a determined character. 

Finally, the king wrote a letter to be given to Joab, to place Uriah at a hot point in the battle so he would be killed. Uriah was killed by this plot yet he died   gallantly. Always stand for the truth no matter the threats.

 PRAYER

Father, I pray that my life would continually be dedicated to honouring you inspite of what men may say or do.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Job 2 :3

“And the Lord said unto Satan has thou considered my son Job, that there is no one like him on earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and eschewed evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Psalm 25:21

” Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 15:33 ” The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility”.

I will want us to take another topic from the scriptures and study about it. This time we will look at HUMILITY.

Once again you would need your bible, a concordance, a bible dictionary, your pen and note book. The Bible dictionary (strong dictionary) defines humility as meekness or condescension. The Oxford learner’s dictionary defines humility as a lack of pride.

We would consider various scriptures that talk about humility. The first to look at is our key scripture

Proverbs 15:33. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility. This verse shows one of the benefits as well as the functions of humility. Humility always precedes honour. Anytime a man acts sincerely in humility, honour and promotion is the next event in his life.

Proverbs 22:4 says, “by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour and life” In this instant we see humility coupled with the fear of the Lord. There can be no fear of God without humility and there can’t be humility without the fear of God. The bible said these give birth to riches, honour and life. All these benefits are the provisions from the Spirit of God and not any man. God is in love with the humble .                           .

Col 2:18, speaks about a voluntary humility. This is an act of the flesh to satisfy the mind. True humility always proceeds from the fear of God. It is a desire in the heart to please God at all instances. This gives us a working definition of humility. A humble man or woman is the one who has resolved in his heart to always do that which pleases God no matter the cost or the reaction of men. This implies the disposition of a man does not in any way show whether he is humble or not. .A man may look very calm and of few words , yet very proud. It is the condition of the heart towards God and His word that shows whether a man is humble or not.

 PRAYER

Heavenly Father I submit my will to honour you in all that your word may say.

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Peter 5:5 ” Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”.

James 4:6 ” But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: James 1:4 ” But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

We continue with our discussion on having a bible study, by considering the topic, PATIENCE. From. our previous study we defined patience ” as a characteristic of a man, who is not swayed from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”  We first look at Romans 5:3,4 “Tribulation works patience….”. We learnt in our previous discussion that patience is very necessary even for the word of God to produce results in our lives. It takes tribulation, trials, challenges to produce patience in us. Patience gives us experience and experience results in hope. Great Christians with stable hearts that conquers are people of experience. Experience is always a product of patience. Note, you can’t be patient with simply making demands or praying to be patient, we allow the situations we go through to perfect patience in us.

Romans 8:25 reads “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with, patience wait for it. “Patience always looks beyond you and beholds the faithfulness of God. It is this foresight that makes the heart assured to wait without any agitation.

Romans 15:4 “for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope” from this verse we realized patience is built up in a Christian who has taken time to learn the word of God. Right information develops proper Christian character. The scriptures also comfort us. All these culminates in having hope. Be a learner of the scriptures.

Romans 15:5 describes God as a God of patience and consolation. It is His nature to bear long with his people. Although he is almighty, he never moves on impulse, that would have been the destruction of all men. He sees a victorious end from the beginning and so He is able to wait. Lesson, never act on impulse, or out of how you feel about a person that seems to make you satisfied. But act on the principle of what God expects from you concerning the individual you are dealing with.

2nd Corinthians 6:4 “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in affliction in, necessities, in distresses”.  The earlier verse says “and giving no offence in anything that the ministry be not blamed”. As servants of God, of which every child of God is, we must not allow anyone to reproach God’s work because of the way we behave. Patience is one ingredient to prevent the name of our God from being drawn into the mud. Patience to stand and overcome, distress, afflictions, insults mistreatments, lacks and all kinds of conditions that have the potential to affect God’s work is what we have to employ.

 We realized that as we go through various scriptures that talk on the topic of study, we come to the understanding of the topic.

PRAYER

O, God may your word and the events of life build in us patience to keep winning.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Colossians 1:11 ” Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”

2 Thessalonians 1:4 ” So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure”:

KEY SCRIPTURE: James 1:4. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We continue with our discussion on having Bible studies in various forms. Today we look at having a TOPICAL STUDY. This is an aspect of Bible study that considers various biblical topics of interest to you. Once again what you would require a Bible, a Concordance, a bible dictionary, your pen, your note book to put down all that you study. If you have the bible up on your lab top or phone, it would have all these. The Bible dictionary explains patience as follows: steadfastness, constancy, endurance, also it is a characteristic of a man who is not swayed from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

We now consider the role that patience plays in certain verses of scripture, giving us a better understanding of what it is. Matthew 18:23-34. This is a story about a man who owed ten thousand talents and his whole family, that is, his wife, children including himself and all that he had was to be sold to pay the debt. This man pleaded for patience and the Lord forgave him all the debt. He also found a friend who owed him a hundred pence. This man held his throat and threw him into jail, although he pleaded for patience. When this issue got to the master or Lord, He got furious and delivered the wicked man to the tormentors. From this story we learn that to be patient with those who offend us we’ve got to consider how much God has had patience with us. From verse 33 the Lord said, the man could not express patience because he had no compassion. A compassionate heart is very necessary for patience with others.

In Luke 8:15 the Lord talked about those who receive the word and are patient to allow it to grow to fruition. You may ask what part did patience play in this instant? It was patience that helped him not to give up on the seed (the word) in the waiting period when nothing seems to be happening. God’s word at certain times, needs patience to bring results to us.

The next verse on patience is Luke 21:19. “In your patience possess ye your souls”. In the context of this statement the Lord talked about the period of great trials and persecutions that would befall the church. Our souls, that is our mind, emotions and will could easily be shattered in the times of trials. Patience always looks beyond oneself: it considers the mightiness of God, his faithfulness and love. Patience then assures you of a better day so keep calm (Note: Patience is always a product of looking beyond yourself to God, focusing on the faithfulness of God and the fact that He changes not.

 PRAYER

O God open my eye to the reality of your mind.

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Timothy 6:11.” But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

2 Timothy 3:10 ” But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,”

KEY SCRIPTURE:2 Timothy 2:15 ” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.

Most children of God do not study the Bible. One main reason is laziness. Others get so busy they don’t have the time. Well the issue is not about not having time or being lazy it is all about priority. We are always able to make time for the things that seem very important to us. There are others who really want to do it, yet they don’t know how. It is such people that I would like to teach how to do some aspects of Bible studies. We would consider word study.

In a word study we consider a particular word. It could be a verb, a noun or adverb. All that matters is that it is a word of interest. We would consider the word diligence. A look at the word diligence from the Concordance gives us about 10 appearances throughout the whole Bible. The meaning from each particular appearance is found within the context of the verse. We see the word diligence in Proverb 4:23. In this verse (using the bible dictionary) it is the Hebrew word “mishmar” and defined as a place of confinement, prison, guard, guard post, watch, observation. Proverbs 4:23 reads “keep thy heart with all DILIGENCE, for out of it are the issues of life”. From the meaning of the usage of the word in Hebrew it is a “place of confinement”, “prison”, “guard post”. This teaches us to keep or protect our hearts like a prisoner is held in prison. A prisoner is strictly confined from all Intruders. Whatever comes to him or her is what the prison authorities chose. This is the idea being carried to us in Proverbs 4:23, about being diligent

Another verse in which we find the usage of the word diligence is Luke 12:58. This time it is a Greek word since it is in the new testament. (The old testament was translated from the Hebrew language and the new testament, from Greek). The word is “ergasia”. This has the following meaning in Greek

1. A working, performing

2. Business

3. Gain, get by work, profit

4. Endeavour, pains.

The scripture involved is quite long so we would not quote all of it. Luke 12:38 “when thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in thy way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered…”. From the meaning the word diligence in this context means do your possible best or “make every effort”.

Because of space we look at third scripture: Romans 12:8. From the bible dictionary, the word diligence used in the verse means ‘spoude’ from the Greek translation. It means; haste, with haste, earnestness, earnestness in striving after anything.  Most earnestly: This word simply means to act with speed.

 This study teaches that the usage of words in biblical translations do not have same meanings, but their meanings are according to the context of the verse or passage.

   PRAYER

Father, it is time church gets to study your word with more seriousness as we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Romans 12:8. Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

2 Corinthians 8:7 ” Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also”.

KEY SCRIPTURE:2 Timothy 2:15. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

We would repeat the discussion of the inductive study this time too, to deepen our understanding.

We would consider Psalm 119:89,90. It reads “Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations, thou hast established the earth and it abideth”. We would consider the OBSERVATION:

1. Who is speaking?

2. Who are the persons involved in this verse?

3. What does the passage say?

We take the answers for these questions.

1. This verse is written by David 

2. The persons involved in the verse are:

a. The Lord

b. All generations, that is, all men for all time.

3. God’s word is settled in heaven forever His faithfulness is unto all generations and he had also established the earth and it remains

We now make our Inference. God has established His word and His faithfulness is unto all generations. What is the meaning of the word ‘settled, ‘it is the Hebrew word ‘natsab’ which means to stand or ‘to take your stand’.  That is God’s word is standing erect before the father in heaven, every word concerning you is not hidden but standing erect before the father. This word cannot be forgotten His faithfulness is unto all men including you. The earth is established on the basis of His faithfulness. God has no favorites. What He did for Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, He will do the same for every other person if they will do that which pleases Him.

 This verse gives us * *perfect assurance to believe the word of God. Every promise of scripture cannot fail.

APPLICATION: We must take God at His word. Every scriptural promise will produce results. Whatever the word says about any situation is true and would respond to our stand on the word concerning it.

The next point to acknowledge is that God would not treat me differently from how he responded to Elijah, Peter or John. He is forever the same towards all men. All that is required is to respond to God on his terms. These men responded selflessly to God’s word. They put their personal interest aside. God will forever be faithful to every man who stands for him and not himself or herself.

Thirdly since the earth is established by the Lord, He owns all that is in the earth, I am therefore never on my own, I am His own and would live to please Him alone, not myself.

CONFESSION

God is supreme over all. His word is over all and rules all. I am submitted to his word. I am a slave of his and does what the word says. I continually seek His interest and therefore He also stands for me in all things. 

FURTHER STUDIES.

Psalms 119:91. “They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.”

Psalms 91:1 ” He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 2:15 ” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

In our previous study we looked at what an inductive study is all about.

We would consider another practical example of using an inductive approach to study the Bible.  We shall consider John 10:10 for an example. “The thief does not come, but when he comes, he comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. We said the inductive study has three aspects, they are observation, Inference and Application. The observation involves using the fact-finding questions to look out for the basic facts in the verse. We may ask questions like:

1. Who is talking in this verse

2. Who are the persons involved in the verse

3. What are the persons spoken of doing in the verse? In this instant we will not use the other fact-finding questions like HOW, WHEN, WHERE because they may not apply to this verse.

From the verse, the following will be our answers to the questions:

1. The verse does not give us who is speaking so we would have to read from the beginning of the chapter: we learn it is Jesus

2. The persons involved are the thief, Jesus and All people. Who is the thief? To find who this thief is   we have to go back and read through the passage. We have been taught the thief is the devil but reading verses 1 and verse 8 we see it is not referring to the devil but rather false teachers. (In practice these acts spoken by Jesus are all the works and portraits of the devil anyway) yet in this passage it is referring to false teachers.

3. From the verse, the following are the activities of the persons in the verse. The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.

ii. Jesus comes only to give life and give it more abundantly. (He has no evil agenda)

iii. The people have two options either they choose abundant Life or are destroyed by the thief.

We now consider the inference or make deduction from our observations.

i. The Lord Jesus tells the truth about himself and the false teachers. The false teachers are very crafty and always come undercover like a thief. They deceitfully steal, kill and destroy.

ii. Jesus also gives life and gives it more abundantly and nothing evil comes from Him. It is up to men to choose to receive life (truth) from Jesus or to be deceived by the thief.

APPLICATION: I will not accept any teaching that does not involve our Lord Jesus revealing His grace in giving life and giving it abundantly. False teachers do not free people but takes advantage of people by placing legalistic demands that places people in bondage. I am very alert to their deceptions.

  PRAYER

Lord Jesus, I pray for all Christians to be very alert to error and to know every false teaching, so they would not be held captive and deceived. May all be enlightened to study the bible effectively.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Luke 21:8 ” And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them”.

Colossians 2:8 ” Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”