Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Please find attached the Bible Study Outline for Sunday 21 July entitled “Manifesting God In The Marketplace”.  This is the next in our Quarter Series on Living Out Your Faith – A study of the book of Daniel.  The main text is Daniel 2:24-49 and the key learning points are as follows:

1.    There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets.  He makes them know to whomever, He chooses. He is no respecter of persons  (Daniel 2:28)
2.    We are called to proclaim God in the “marketplace” where most of us, spend most of our time and to live lives of integrity that bear testimony to what we say of our God. We need to live in a manner that exalts Jesus, upholds His standards and brings glory to Him while not alienating the unsaved.  (Daniel 2:24,47, Philippians 1:10,11)
3.    As God honours us in the marketplace by making His presence known, we must be careful to give Him the glory.  (Daniel 2:30, Acts 3:12,16)

Yours in His service

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Brethren,

This is coming late. My apologies. Hope your week is going well.

It is about two weeks to Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of the Holy One. In readiness for this, we pause to look at the subject of Purity and Holiness in our quarter theme, ‘The World Eagerly Awaits Your Manifestation.

Key Take Aways:
1. Holiness is not optional for a Christian. Holiness is to characterize everything we do, God’s command to all Christians.
2. We are to be holy to be like God, our Father, who called us to be holy. Those commanded to be holy are the children of God. Never is it assumed that unbelievers can or will strive for holiness. Only His children can do so, by His grace and through His Spirit.
3. God has called us to be holy in an ungodly world. It is holiness which sets us apart from the world and to God. It is holiness we are called to pursue and to practice, to the glory of God and for our good. 

See attached outline for your reference.

See you in Church on Sunday.

‘Without holiness no one will see the Lord’

Brethren,

Welcome to the last month of the year. May God, who has brought us this far, see us through to the end.

Speaking of getting through to the end reminds one of Psalm 119:33 where the Psalmist prayed for help to obey God to the end. This brings us to our topic this Sunday – manifesting Obedience.

Key learning points include:

1. Obedience to God is not optional for a believer.
2. Notwithstanding the cost of obedience, God demands that we obey Him completely and wholeheartedly. Partial or half-hearted obedience will not do.
3. The type of obedience God demands is only possible when we are completely surrendered to God’s will.

See attached outline for your further reference.

May God sustain us with willing and obedient hearts.

Brethren,

I trust you are well.

Our topic this Sunday is Manifesting Thankfulness. Key learning points include:

1. God expects us to thank Him for what He has done for us. Returning to thank God is how we acknowledge that God is the Source of whatever we have received.
2. Thankfulness is an act of worship. Like the Samaritan, we must not only be quick to return and thank God, but we must also do so, throwing ourselves at Jesus’ feet for a thanksgiving that is from the heart, and not just with our lips.
3. Giving thanks in everything (including unfavorable circumstances), is how we acknowledge that God uses every circumstance to work out His good purposes. (Rom 8:28). So, to not be thankful is to go against the will of God. And as Romans 1:21 puts it, sets one on the path of spiritual decline.

In the spirit of the season, thank you for your faithful participation in the weekly Bible studies. 

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Brethren,

How has your week been?

Our topic this Sunday touches on something we all desire more of: We wish others will be more patient with us, more gentle and more intact when responding to our shortcomings. And God does too.

Key Learning Points:
Patience, self-control, and gentleness are attributes exhibited towards others. The call to manifest these attributes is a direct call to being like Christ and allowing Him to live through us.
So, this call to manifest patience, self-control, and gentleness reminds us that:

1. We are called to be a blessing to others through patience, self-control, and gentleness. This is a call for us to be like Jesus Christ and to allow Him to live through us. Self-interest is the enemy to patience, self-control, and gentleness.
2. When we exhibit patience, self-control, and gentleness, we will be exposed to all kinds of reproach, discomfort and even suffering. Jesus did not consider Himself nor did He please Himself, but He chose to let our reproach fall on Him.
3. Manifesting these qualities can seem humanly impossible. But it is God who fills us with joy, peace and hope and empowers us for patience, self-control, and gentleness towards others. All these to the glory of our God and Savior.

See attached outline for your further reference. 

May the Lord use this study to work these virtues into us in increasing measure.

Brethren,

I trust you are well and that your week is going well.

We continue our quarter series on ‘The world eagerly awaits your manifestation.’ This time, we focus on manifesting the gifts of the Spirit. See attached outline for your reference.

Key Learnings include:
1. The way that we use our spiritual gift(s) is much more important than which specific gift(s) we receive. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to build and edify the body of Christ – His bride.
2. The gifts of the Spirit are many and are diversely distributed. God expects these gifts to work in harmony among the brethren and be complementary to one another in the building of the Church.
3. Some of the gifts the Spirit bestows upon us may be more desirous than others, and believers have the freedom to desire any gift. However, such striving after a particular gift should not be for showmanship or self-gratification, but to serve the Body of Christ, and please the giver of these gifts.

The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. Let’s manifest it to His glory and for the edification of His Church.

Brethren,

Trust, this meets you well.

On a normal day, life is challenging. And being a Christian adds another level of challenge to an already tough situation. That is why God used the letters to the Philippians and the Thessalonians to urge us to rejoice in the Lord always. This topic is timely for anyone living in the world today, especially in Nigeria. 

So, as we continue our quarter Theme on The World Eagerly Awaits Your Manifestation, we come to this important command to ‘Manifest Joy‘

Key Learning points:

1. Joy comes from the Lord — and He alone is the originator of true joy. We don’t have to produce it or drum it up on our own.

2. Joy is a choice we make daily. Strife and circumstances of life can stifle joy in and among believers.

3. We can manifest joy despite life’s trials if we fix our eyes in the hope that Jesus Christ will rescue us from God’s coming wrath. And that the Lord has a purpose for whatever difficulties He allows in our lives while we await Jesus’ return 

See attached outline for your reference.

Always joyful,

Brethren,

This Sunday, we open our Q4 series on the theme ‘The World Eagerly Awaits Your Manifestation’

And as we will discover in the opening topic, ‘Manifesting Christ’, it is not only the world that eagerly awaits our manifestation. God does as well.

Key Learnings
To manifest Christ, we must:

1. Imitate God and walk in love just like Christ did. This will require us to continue to renew our minds, which enables us to live in total submission and obedience to God just like Christ did.
2. Follow up the daily renewal of our minds with a daily choice to living this new Christ-life, putting away all filth and uncleanliness and instead be filled with the Spirit
3. Walk circumspectly – being careful to know what God wants, and to do that which pleases Him

See attached outline for your further reference and advance preparation.

Brethren,

Trust this message finds you well. Christmas in the air!

In John 3:19 Jesus declared the entrance of light into the world. But sadly, men preferred darkness rather than the Light. So, He left us here to continue to shine the light into our world.

Salt and light are the focus of our Bible study this Sunday as we continue the quarter series on The World Eagerly Awaits Your Manifestation. Our topic is Manifesting as Salt and Light.

Key Takeaways:
1. When believers (the Church) fail to be the salt of society, we lose our relevance and will be rejected by society, as we are witnessing these days.
2. Just as the life of Jesus Christ brought light to mankind, so God expects the life of Christ in the believer to bring light to the world around us.
3. Our being salt and light is so that our lives may manifest God’s glory to the world around us. And in so doing, make the gospel of Jesus Christ attractive to the world. God has destined us to have a lasting positive influence on others. 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 43:7,21

See attached outline for your further reference.

See you in Church on Sunday, God willing.