December 30

 

We thank You blessed Redeemer for Your loving kindness in the lives of Your children. Thank You again You’re faithfulness that never fails. Though the devil comes with snares to trap Your children but in all things You are God. You are the One that fights our battles both seen and unseen. When the devil comes against us like a flood, the angel of God will raise a standard against it. You, Who loved us with an everlasting love. Glory be to Your Name now and forever.

The wisest man on the surface of the earth once said “better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof”, do you agree with the saying? Look at your life today and compare it at the beginning of this year; when you were born; have not accepted Christ; you gained admission into a school or program or at the end of your life here on earth. I bet you, there was a positive progress.

As we are excepted to be the best at the end of whatsoever endeavor we went into here on earth, so also the Lord expects the best of us after here. We must run this race with all carefulness so as to win the race thereof and surely our end will be better off.

Beloved, as we plan for a better ending, have you ever consider a bitter end? surely when a man heed not the voice of wisdom so shall his end be bitter. May God shield us and our generations yet unborn from such evil in Jesus Name:

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” Ecclesiastes 7:8

Look at David’s Lord and Master; see His beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at His Father’s right hand, expecting until His enemies be made his footstool. “As He is, so are we also in this world.”

You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof.

That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is. Be content to be like Him, a worm and no man, that like Him you may be satisfied when you wake up in His likeness. That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much—much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with trumpet’s joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary.

You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. “They shall be Mine,” saith the Lord, “in the day when I make up My jewels.” “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”

What a glorious ending you will agree with me if we make to the end and be among the jewels of the Lord, how happy we shall be but if anyone that fails what a bitter end it shall be (God forbid).

“Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?” 2Samuel 2:26

If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch of thine end.

You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your beginning. I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself.

Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he wakes up crying, “O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?” “Yes, he is coming.” The minister comes. “Sir, I fear that I am dying!” “Have you any hope?” “I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me.” The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again.

But where is the man, and where are the man’s true eyes? It is written, “In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before? Because he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings.

Let the Saviour’s own words reveal the woe: “Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah’s wrath! In Jesus Name. Amen!

Finally, brethren as the year is gradually coming to an end, it is important to take stock and balance off your account. Look at what you did that you did not do well and what you fail to do and how best to accomplish it, then ask God to help you to be all you have to be for Him in the coming year.

 

Remain blessed in the Lord.

Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu

 

nigerian news