WALKING WITH GOD (continued)

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WALKING WITH GOD(cont.)

and sin against God?” (Gen. 39: 8-9)
He walk in the ways God has pointed out to us for our observance, and to abstain from all such as are not in consonance therewith (Psalm 119: 9-16)
We must ever be sensible of our own weakness and of His omnipotence. Our whole lives must be spent in His service, and no duties considered too heavy or too onerous which devolve on us to perform.
The ways of the world must not be more regarded than these obligations by not allowing the performance of our real duties clash too much with our coincidence with the ways of the world. If we do these latter, being more valued, the former naturally suffers, and from being at first neglected, eventually becomes totally discarded, contemned, and forgotten. A little reflection must show the impropriety of this measure.
You must be aware that there is no medium course to be pursued. There is but one road which leads to the attainment of enduring happiness, and that is the path indicated in the text, that saved Noah from the universal destruction, and whose piety secured to him the exalted reward of being the founder of a new race.
Disquietudes and discomforts will be experienced in the course of your walk with God but the truth is you will have frequently to look for your sole consolation in the rectitude (uprightness, quality) of your motives.
In the pursuit of the undeviating path of virtue, you will be obstructed by many difficulties;
You must avoid following after those;
Possessed of less rigid notions of right and wrong;
who sneer and rail at revealed religion,
who profess a freedom from its restraints and self-denials,
who are would-be liberals in the extreme;
who within themselves, in the dark, deep, and hidden receptacles of their hearts, they feel the impotence of their creed,
who know the fallacy of their opinions,
who foresee the dread blank which the future presents
who may present, a calm indifference; publicly may laugh at all the sacred ties of religion, the holiest duties enjoined by God

They are the first to tremble at the approach of danger, and fly to the opposite extremes in the moments of adversity. Let misfortune but attack them, let calamity but assail them, they become the most rigid and scrupulous observers of all the minutia of their before slandered creed.

Question for Consideration

Would you for a moment place any value on such revulsions of feeling?—if you would consider any stability of faith in such individuals, who are only to be thus convinced of the truth of revelation in the time of need and trouble, but who, so soon as prosperity returns, are again the confident scorners of its dogmas?
The answer is NO!!!!
God values not and regards not this ways but the ways Enoch, Noah, and others followed.
The Holy Scriptures is our Value (2 Timothy 2: 14-16)
If we would, like these patriarchs, be considered as truly “walking with God,” we must study to be more and more acquainted with our own hearts, that we may thereby know our own weakness, and the grandeur of the Scriptures which distinctly points out the path in which we are exhorted to walk.

We must live as Pilgrims

Our journey may be impeded by difficulties whose strength we have not yet fairly calculated, or which, in the self-deceits of the heart we may flatter ourselves we are unaided, able to overcome.

Let us not trust in our own strength, or in our present feelings and impressions, which are often deceptive, and at all times an unsafe reed to lean upon;
Let us not put confidence in our own resolutions, and safely sleep with the confidence that our intentions are just, holy, and sincere.
It is in the practice of our obligations to our God and to ourselves that our best safeguard lies; it is this, and this only which will prove our greatest consolation, our most stable hope, when the time shall arrive when “we must shuffle off this mortal coil,” “and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.”
There is no action as pleasing as that of performing the will of his Maker.
Bitter remorse is always sure to attend our neglect of walking in God’s ways, which is synonymous with leading a righteous life, and of being the performers of the commands of the All-wise.
You can have no better examples of the opposite effects which the obedience or neglect thereof produces, than those the sacred volume presents.
Turn to the Bible, and in the life of the pious individual that is therein held up to succeeding ages as a pattern to be imitated, behold the final benefit which results to every one who is, like him, “A righteous man, perfect in his generations.”
We must influence others
This embraces also the essential duty of training up those with whom God hath blessed you in the paths of rectitude, of instilling into their youthful breasts early lessons of morality, and, above all, of exhibiting before them a model of that piety and virtue, which, be assured, is more powerful than precept, and will make a lasting and ineffaceable impression.
It is indisputably necessary that every one should not only himself act in a right and proper manner, but also take effectual means of inducing his family to do the same.
The Parents must teach their Children the Way to Walk with God
It is the duty, as well as the interest of the parent, to train them up in accordance with God’s commands; for in teaching them to reverence the will of their heavenly Father, he strengthens the link which unites him with his offspring, cements the bond of union which nature intended should exist between them, and causes them to recognize as a matter of course the sacred obligation of paying him that obedience, love, and reverence to which the authors of their being are entitled.

CONCLUSION

Know assuredly that no good deed is suffered to pass by unnoticed by the eye of Omnipotence
Often the reward follows not immediately on the action; yet the many occurrences of his eventful life strongly remind us that every righteous act will be remembered at a time when we most need the interposing aid of the Almighty,—when from amidst the general wreck we shall shine forth, as did Noah, special evidences of the majesty, power, and glory of the Supreme.
Do not hesitate in choosing which road we will pursue in our career through life. The paths of Godlessness are enticing and flowery, while those of virtue are rugged and difficult of attainment; but in the end we will find “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are those of peace.”
Let no obstacles, how great so ever oppose our progress; for they will not prove insurmountable, when we exert our energies to overcome them. The power accompanies the will.
Even when we have, for a time, been seduced into the easy, though destructive road of sin, we have it in our power to retrace our steps, and return to the glorious path which eventually conducts to the mansions of peace, contentment, and eternal felicity.
Let no false sense of shame at the scoffs of the profane, or a senseless compliance with the ways of the world induce us to neglect those paramount duties which Almighty God hath enjoined on us.

Shun Profane and Vain babbling

We may be told by many that to act honestly and justly with our fellows is quite sufficient, and comprises all that is required of us, and is as much as we can be expected to attend to, amidst the many pursuits of consequence which must occupy a paramount degree of consideration.
They who argue in this manner may think they entertain a higher notion of the greatness and majesty of the Supreme.
They may say that He, the All-wise, the Omnipotent, the Infinite, deigns (condescend, stoop) not to trouble himself with the doings of man —man, so small a speck in the boundlessness of creation.
To think otherwise is blasphemy; to imagine differently is to lessen the awfulness, the holiness, and the glory of the Almighty.
But what!—after God hath created man in such perfection, hath bestowed on him faculties of which no other creature can boast, hath infused into him an immortal soul, hath formed him after his own moral image, and placed him at the very apex of creation,—what! is he then set at large, free from all superior obligations yet slave to his own passions?
So far from aggrandizing the Eternal, it is detracting from his wisdom and goodness, to suppose that He would abandon his creatures to their evil ways, and impose on them no requirements, no active duties by which they might merit his love and favour.

No, brethren, guard against this false doctrine; let it be your constant wish to pay obedience to the Word of God (1 Samuel 15: 22-23).
The duties of pure religion are active ones, and are practical in their nature (James 1: 22-27).
In these consist, and on these depend what is termed in the Holy Scriptures, “Walking With God.”
Prayer:
Our heavenly Father we approach you with hearts over flowing with gratitude for the manifold mercies of you have bestowed on us.
Great have been thy kindness and love unto us, You have blessed us despite our shortcomings with so many manifestations of thy divine favour.
Yet we beseech Thee, O merciful Father! neither to look on our transgressions, nor to regard our iniquities, but accord to us Thy pardon for the past, and strengthen us to act rightly for the future.
Oh Lord deal bountifully with all who have assembled here to to worship Thee in spirit and in truth and to render Thee thanks for all your goodness and tender mercies
May we be endued with the knowledge “that this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”
We pray that our prayers may ascend on high to Thy throne of grace, and be favourably received by Thee, and let thy blessing rest on us all, according to thy promise, “In whatsoever place you cause my name to be remembered, will I come unto thee and bless thee.”
Thank you precious Father, we give you all the Praise. In Jesus Name we have prayed Amen.

Reverend Oshinyemi
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