The light of men

[The Glory Unveiled]

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.[ John 1:4 KJV ]

The life of God in Christ Jesus is the lamp that illuminates the path of everyone who comes into the world. Without the life of Jesus dwelling in humanity, we remain in darkness—wandering in confusion, stumbling through despair. But the moment we acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, we receive this divine light, a light that shines upon our path so that we no longer walk in darkness. If the life of Jesus is truly the light of men, then every man who lives without Him is still walking in darkness. And just as light enables us to see clearly and avoid stumbling over hidden obstacles, Christ as the light within us guides our steps and shields us from challenges that would have otherwise delayed, damaged, or destroyed us. There is no life anywhere else. Just as a fish has no life outside of water, so we have no life apart from Jesus. Life does not exist in alternatives, substitutes, or good intentions—it exists only in Him. This is why it is not only necessary, but eternally beneficial, that the Son of God lives in our hearts. So the question remains: are you walking in darkness without realizing it, or are you walking in the light that gives life?

Prayer_Bead: Light of the world, thank you for being in my life so that I will not walk in darkness 

Wisdom_Quote: Light does not announce itself, darkness does the announcement.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Appearances of Evil

[The Glory Unveiled]

“Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
‭‭[ 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬ ‭KJV‬‬ ]

We live in a world saturated with evil and ungodliness, and in these times the line between good and evil is growing dangerously thin. The boundaries are blurred, so much so that evil often dresses itself in the clothing of good. This is why Scripture does not only warn us to flee from evil itself, but to abstain from every appearance of evil. Evil no longer announces itself loudly. It now appears beautiful, friendly, familiar, amusing, and harmless. It comes smiling, relatable, and interesting—so that by the time it lures you in, you do not realize what it is until the damage is already done. The appearances of evil are close to us; they feel normal, comfortable, and familiar. And because they feel close, we easily compromise. In our day, the appearances of evil look good and seem harmless. And so, when they finally lead us into destruction, we follow without resistance—like sheep to the slaughter. Not because we intended to rebel, but because we failed to discern. This is why we are admonished today: abstain from every appearance of evil. And the only way to recognize that we are tolerating an appearance of evil is to know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Our senses must be trained and sharpened by God’s Word and His ways. When our discernment is formed by truth, every disguised form of evil is exposed. Then, no matter how attractive or familiar it appears, it will be revealed for what it truly is.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for reminding me to abstain from all appearances of evil. Help me to detect and avoid them in Jesus name. 

Wisdom_QuoteWhatever wears the face of evil is born of evil and will always deliver evil’s consequences.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Wake up and pray!

[The Glory Unveiled]

And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. [ Luke 22:46 KJV ]

Temptations are never far from us; they surround us daily. But whether we fall into them or stand firm is largely determined by the temperature of our prayer life. Prayer deeply influences not only howtemptations come, but also how we respond when they arrive. And even though prayer does not remove temptation, it restrains its power. It does not cancel the battle, but it equips us to win it. When we pray, we place spiritual boundaries around our lives. And when temptation approaches our doorstep, grace is already present—strength is already supplied—to resist the fall. Every time we pray, we are signaling to God that we recognize our weakness and acknowledge that our strength is insufficient for the pressures and enticements of life. Prayer is our confession of dependence. It is our admission that without God, we cannot stand. But when we are spiritually asleep, we leave our doors wide open—to temptation, to compromise, and ultimately to destruction. Spiritual sleep robs us of the blessings, the protection, and the privileges God has reserved for those who watch and pray. What prayer secures, sleep carelessly surrenders. So stop sleeping. Wake up and pray. Stay alert and stay watchful, because temptations are not distant—they are looming all around us.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the opportunity to pray so that I will not fall into temptation. 

Wisdom_Quote: What prayer secures, sleep carelessly surrenders!

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Crossing impossible gates

[The Glory Unveiled]

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” [ Genesis 18:12 NIV ]

Sometimes, as human beings, we reach conclusions that God has never reached. We close cases that heaven has deliberately left open. We stack up evidence—reasonable, logical, convincing evidence—to prove that what God seems to be promising us cannot possibly happen. We disqualify ourselves with facts. We convince ourselves that we are not qualified candidates for the season God is announcing. Sarah did the same. And to be honest, her reasoning was sound. Everything she said about herself and her husband was true. By every natural standard, the miracle was impossible. Time had passed. Strength had faded. Biology had spoken. Her conclusions were valid—yet they were incomplete. So she laughed. Not out of mockery, but out of the sheer absurdity of the promise. And many of us have laughed too. We laugh quietly when God’s Word confronts our reality. We smile to ourselves when the promise sounds good but feels unrealistic. We laugh because, given the facts we know, the outcome seems ridiculous. Have you ever been there? A place where God’s Word feels almost impossible to fulfill? A moment when even entertaining the promise feels humorous? Yet God remains the God of all possibilities. He does not consult our timelines, our limitations, or our qualifications. He specializes in eleventh-hour interventions—when the case is closed, the evidence is final, and hope seems unreasonable. The real question is not whether the miracle is possible. The question is this: when God speaks beyond your conclusions, will you believe Him?

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for your sure promises. I trust that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly and above. 

Wisdom_Quote: The word of God does not fall to the ground. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Just hold your peace 

[The Glory Unveiled]

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. [ Exodus 14:14 KJV ]

It is almost impossible for a person who is accustomed to constant activity to do nothing. For such people, movement becomes identity. Productivity becomes proof of worth. To them, doing nothing means irresponsibility. So even when help is offered, they resist it. They have been trained to believe that accepting help is weakness, that dependence makes them less authentic, less capable, less valuable. But Scripture and life teach us a different truth: accepting help is not weakness—it is wisdom. No one has it all together. We were not created to carry everything alone. We were made to pour out our strength and, in due time, to be replenished. And often, replenishment comes through help we did not produce ourselves. Consider the Israelites. Their story up to that point had been one of constant movement—marching out of Egypt, journeying toward a land they had never seen, surviving by obedience and motion. Then suddenly, they were trapped. The Red Sea before them. Pharaoh’s army behind them. The desert hemming them in on both sides. Logic demanded action. Strategy demanded effort. Survival seemed to depend on doing something—anything. And yet, in that moment, God gave them an instruction that cut against every instinct they had: “Stand still. Hold your peace. The Lord will fight for you.” What a strange command. To be still when danger is advancing. To be silent when fear is shouting. To do nothing when everything in you is screaming to act. But when they obeyed—deliverance came. So if you find yourself boxed in today, pressed on every side, perhaps the call is not to fight harder but to trust deeper. Maybe this is not the moment for you to win the battle, but for God to fight it. Perhaps your assignment is not action, but faith. Not striving, but surrender. Let God do the fighting—while you do the believing.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the privilege to trust you as you fight for me. 

Wisdom_Quote: Often, the best time to hold your peace is when your situation is dictating to you. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Adam’s wife

[The Glory Unveiled]

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. [ Genesis 3:6 NIV ]

Adam and his wife, Eve, had always walked in the perfect harmony of the Garden of Eden. They knew its every corner, every tree, every animal, every sound. Life was complete and filled with God’s presence. Yet, there came a day when Eve’s heart would be tested, a day that would reveal the deepest desires of her soul—and the choices she would make would echo across all of humanity. On that day, she saw something she had never noticed before. Her eyes were opened—not to truth, but to illusion. She was deceived into believing that something good could emerge from a path where God was absent. And yet, God had clearly spoken: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He was not part of that act, and where God is absent, nothing good can ever come. Consider Nathaniel, who once asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). The answer came not from human logic, but from divine orchestration: the Messiah indeed come from there, because God was at work. But when God is removed from a plan or a choice, destruction follows. That is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve—and by extension, to the human race. Eve saw the tree and desired it: it was pleasing to the eye, it seemed good for food, it promised wisdom. And she ate. But how did she know this? Not from God, but from the tempter, the deceiver. She embraced a counterfeit knowledge, one that contradicted God’s original instruction. So I ask you, what knowledge are you accepting today that contradicts God’s word? What voices are shaping your desires away from the truth you once knew? Before you believe a lie masquerading as wisdom, remember Eve—the woman whose inner longings were exposed by deception, and whose choice became the gateway for humanity’s fall. Guard your heart. Test every message. Seek only the wisdom that comes from God Himself.

Prayer_Bead: Almighty Father, thank you for your instructions which are guiding my path and my ways.  

Wisdom_Quote: The heart’s contents are always exposed by external things.  

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Led by God. 

[The Glory Unveiled]

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. [ Romans 8:14 KJV ]

Our free will as humans often gives us the feeling of complete autonomy. Yet from the beginning, free will was never meant to stand alone. It was designed to function within the life and nature of God. It was given to us not to exalt our independence, but to be willingly surrendered back to Him. Think of it like a parent who gives a child biscuits. Later, while the child is eating, the parent asks for one. In most cases, when the child gives it freely, the parent returns the biscuits—sometimes with even more. But there are children who refuse to give what was first given to them. That simple picture reflects our relationship with God. He gave us free will so that we could live fully in His likeness and nature, yet many of us choose to exercise that will outside the boundaries of who He is. When free will steps outside of God’s nature, it becomes destructive. At that point, we are no longer being led by His Spirit. And Scripture is clear: if we are not led by the Spirit, then we are not living as God’s children. The only way God is truly revealed is when a life is led by God Himself. This is why no one has ever revealed God more perfectly than His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not lack a will of His own; He had one. But He consistently submitted it to the Father. He lived fully yielded, fully led by the Spirit. That is the pattern God desires for us—not a life driven by independence, but one flowing from relationship. God is calling us to live from communion, not self-direction. When we walk with Him in such a way that He takes the lead in every area of our lives, we begin to be absorbed into His nature and His life. So the question remains: are you being led by the Spirit of God, or by your senses?

Prayer_Bead: Gracious Father, thank you for leading me by your Spirit. 

Wisdom_Quote: The Spirit of God tracks the children of God.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Lot’s wife

[The Glory Unveiled]

But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. [ Genesis 19:26 NIV ]

Even though Scripture teaches that a husband and wife become one in marriage, God still engages with each partner individually in their personal relationship with Him. Some spouses take comfort in the devotion of their significant other to God, yet they themselves remain distant from that divine connection. But, as we saw yesterday, the fires of life—whether literal or figurative—have a way of exposing what lies hidden beneath the surface of pretense and hypocrisy. Note that, when given the opportunity to choose while journeying with Abraham, Lot selected the land that was well-watered and seemingly prosperous (Genesis 13:10-11). This choice reveals his inclination toward comfort and the finer things of life. Over time, Lot accumulated wealth and possessions in Sodom—not inherently wrong, but the problem was that he lived and acquired these things for himself. He forgot a simple truth: he was not the owner, only a steward. And then there is Lot’s wife. For much of the record, we hear little about her, but when the moment of testing came, her heart was revealed. The Scripture tells us she “looked back”—she lagged behind, unable to let go of the possessions and comforts that were being destroyed by the fire. Her attachment, her lust for what was passing, blinded her to God’s command. In the end, she perished alongside the very things she could not part with. Let Lot’s wife serve as a warning. When our hearts cling to possessions, comforts, or desires more than we cling to God, the fire of life will reveal the truth. And what we cannot release may very well be what destroys us.

Prayer_Bead: Father and Lord, thank you for daily satisfying me with your word and presence. Help me to be content with you always. 

Wisdom_Quote: The fire of God reveals everything hiding in the blind side of our hearts. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Job’s wife 

[The Glory Unveiled]

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” [ Job 2:9 NIV ]

Often, we carry carefully formed opinions about who we are—until life puts us on trial. It is in the furnace of experience that the truth about us is revealed. The specialist who administers such tests answers to many names, but in this line of work he is best known as the Accuser of the Brethren—Satan himself. In the opening chapter of Job, Scripture tells us that Satan was roaming to and fro upon the earth (Job 1:7). When Job’s name was brought before him, Satan challenged the integrity of the man God had commended. He sought permission to test Job, not to refine him, but to invalidate God’s testimony concerning him. Permission was granted, and the testing began. What followed were trials so fierce and relentless that few would have survived them. Yet when the fires had done their work, Satan found no fault in Job. Just as Jesus declared, “the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30), so it was with Job—Satan found nothing of himself in him. No hidden allegiance. No compromised loyalty. But while Job stood firm in the flames, someone else was exposed. The fire that failed to consume Job revealed what lay buried in the heart of his wife. The pressure uncovered her true attachment—not to God, but to the things that had been lost. In much the same way, when Paul gathered sticks and laid them upon the fire on the island of Malta, the heat did not invent the serpent—it exposed it (Acts 28:3). The flames always reveal what was hiding beneath the surface. So we must ask ourselves: What would the fire expose in us?

What is that thing—comfort, status, security, relationships—that could rob us of our integrity? What might tempt us to trade faithfulness for relief, or devotion for preservation? That very thing may be what costs us fellowship with God, just as it did Job’s wife. The fire is not sent to destroy the faithful—but it will always reveal where our hearts truly rest.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the grace to continue to have a working relationship with you. Help me not to trade my integrity on the bed of material things. In Jesus name. 

Wisdom_Quote: The value of your integrity is determined in the day of adversity. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Creation’s habitat

[The Glory Unveiled]

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ [ Acts 17:28 NIV ]

God is the environment of existence itself, the great ecosystem in which all creation lives, moves, and has its being. He sustains all things. And that is how we understand that the Garden of Eden was more than a geographical location. It was the circumference of God. It was not merely a place God visited; it was a revelation of who God is. The garden portrayed the content of God, expressing different dimensions of His life and nature. That is why within the garden stood the Tree of Life—and later, in the fullness of time, Jesus would declare Himself the Bread of Life. There was also the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, alongside many other reflections of the varied expressions of God’s being. Adam and Eve were not merely placed near God; they were living in God, dwelling within His boundaries. This is also why, when they were driven out of the garden, cherubim and seraphim were stationed to guard the way. They were not simply guarding land; they were guarding access to divine life. God Himself is the solid Rock upon which we stand. Every other ground, every other promise, every other “opportunity” is sinking sand. We are who we are, and we are sustained as we are, because we dwell within the borders of the person of God. Outside those borders there is only emptiness and void. It was so in the beginning of creation. Outside God, darkness and chaos covered everything. But the Spirit of God hovered over the deep, mapping the chaos, and then God spoke Himself into it. His Word swallowed the void, introduced order, and released light. From that moment until forevermore, this has been the reality: in Him we live, and move, and have our being. All creation, the entire universe, is God’s offspring. He is the source of all that is and all that ever shall be.

Prayer_Bead: Creator and Father, thank you for being my ecosystem so that in you I live and move and have my being. 

Wisdom_Quote: There is absolutely nothing outside of God. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.