DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 1 December 2022

TOPIC:  Enticed By The Yuletide

TEXT:  Ephesians 5:6-21
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

KEY VERSE
“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”

Ephesians 5:6

DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 1 December 2022 OUTLINE

People describe December as the slaughter season of the year. Why? Smart finance houses and other corporate bodies encourage employees and the general public to begin to save some funds from January. They are asked to do so till the last month, when promotional shopping spree consumes all their hard-earned deposits. December thus slaughters all their savings in their giddy greed and gluttony.

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This is not the will of God for His people at the end of the year. His desire is that we should not be deceived by the vain customs of men, which are the unfruitful works of darkness. We are not to allow the events of the period to overtake us so that we will not miss the outpouring of the Spirit’s power to evangelise. God’s word urges us to have psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as our companions when the world confronts us with its festivals.

There is danger when Christians begin to allow the spirit of competition with people of the world in wasteful spending. Such negligent believers eventually create other problems in the process. This displeases the Lord. As watchmen who have seen the writing of impending doom on the wall, we cannot but deliver the warning so that the Lord would not blame us for the blood of perishing sinners.

Those who have escaped the ‘slaughter house’ of the season through the sound message of Christ should show love to those trapped in it and are awaiting the fatal assault of Satan.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Do not let the festivals of the world feast on you.

THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Hosea 10-14