To God be The glory, Amen

Everybody’s normal till you get to know them is a popular phrase and the title of a bestselling book by John Ortberg, though it is not a direct quote from the Bible. [1]

Core Book Concepts

• No Normal People: The book teaches that an ideal of “normal” does not exist and expecting people to be normal hurts relationships.
• Accepting Flaws: Maturity means accepting that everyone comes with unique quirks, flaws, and brokenness.
• Grace and Community: True Christian community happens when imperfect people love and forgive each other. [1, 2]

Biblical Principles on Human Imperfection

While the exact phrase isn’t in scripture, the Bible addresses human flaws:

• All Have Sinned: Romans 3:23 states that everyone falls short of perfection.
• Bearing Burdens: Galatians 6:2 encourages believers to support one another’s weaknesses.
• Unconditional Love: 1 Peter 4:8 emphasizes loving deeply because love covers a multitude of faults.

The Bible encourages believers to get to know others by building deep relationships, showing love, and sharing one another’s lives. 

Key Verses on Knowing and Loving Others

• Romans 12:10 — “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” This verse calls for genuine care and mutual respect in relationships. 
• Proverbs 27:17 — “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” This highlights how spending time with others helps mutual spiritual and personal growth. l
• Hebrews 10:24-25 — “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together.” The writer stresses the importance of physical presence and community. 
• Philippians 2:3-4 — “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This points to setting aside pride to truly understand people.
• Galatians 6:2 — “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Getting to know people includes walking with them through hard times. 

THE TIMELESS MIRROR.

📌Wrong ASSUMPTION often nullifies our assessment.

>>ASSUMPTION?

It’s taking something to be true without proof; jumping to conclusion unverified; it’s a life by sight… sounds familiar? We’re in it together!

The implication?

We misunderstand, overestimate or underestimate one another and sometimes mistakes ENEMIES for FRIENDS and vice-versa. Terrible!

Jeremiah 17:9 is a Bible verse that says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” [1]

Meaning of the Verse

• Flawed Nature: Human beings are prone to self-deception and moral failure.
• Tricky Emotions: Our feelings and desires can easily mislead us into making poor choices.
• Divine Knowledge: People cannot fully understand their own motives, but God searches and knows every heart. [1, 2, 3]

Biblical Context

• Found in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
• Part of a larger warning against trusting entirely in human strength rather than in God.

Reflection: Is your CRITICISM or CONCLUSION always true and justified?

Spiritually, none of us is perfect; each carries certain limitations or deficiencies due to our depraved nature but we’re naturally good in managing it. Physical a person may be attractive but the HEART may not be godly.- Rom.3:11-11; 22-23.

The truth? We need to see and live with the EYES of GOD, instinct can’t screen the ICEBERG of human’s heart… so, let the words of God TRANSFORM your HEART to better understanding!

God bless us.🙏🔥

Jeremiah 17:9 is a Bible verse that says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” [1]

Meaning of the Verse

• Flawed Nature: Human beings are prone to self-deception and moral failure.
• Tricky Emotions: Our feelings and desires can easily mislead us into making poor choices.
• Divine Knowledge: People cannot fully understand their own motives, but God searches and knows every heart. [1, 2, 3]

Biblical Context

• Found in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
• Part of a larger warning against trusting entirely in human strength rather than in God.

IT IS JUST A “LITTLE SIN”:
“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me”

Psalm 51: 2-3.

Even a little gossip is still gossip.

Even a little lie is still lie.

Even a little cheating is still cheating.

The size of sin is irrelevant!

So what if I slip up a little, only on occasion? Compared to someone else who is completely caught up in sin, it’s not that bad, right? Wrong.

We may feel less guilty. But are we? There is no such thing as a tiny, insignificant sin.

Effects of Unrepented Actions

• Separation: Wrong actions turn your focus away from divine love and toward selfish desires.
• Hardened heart: Ignoring guilt makes it harder to feel spiritual guidance over time.
• Broken trust: Unconfessed mistakes can make you feel unworthy or afraid to approach God in prayer.

Restoring the Connection

• Acknowledge the wrong: Recognize the action and its impact.
• Repent: Express true sorrow and a desire to change.
• Receive forgiveness: Accept grace and restore closeness with God.

Learn from your mistakes. The better way to lessen sin is to avoid the sin in the first place. Instead of looking for a quick fix in the comparison game, trying to make yourself feel better about your sin, figure out how to proactively address your own area of weakness (or avoid it altogether) next time. Remain blessed, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Many theological traditions agree that the perceived size of a sin is secondary because every misdeed involves turning away from a holy standard.

Core Perspectives on Sin:

Focus on the Creator: Scholars like Bilal ibn Sa’d noted that you should look at the greatness of the One disobeyed rather than the size of the act.

Cumulative Effect: Small, repeated actions can accumulate and harden the heart or destroy a person over time.

Separation: Any unrepented action creates spiritual distance between a person and God.

THE TIMELESS MIRROR.

📌What makes a snake deadly isn’t the size but the poison.

Just like a snake, it’s not the magnitude of sin that make it fatal but the fact that it separates us from the Life/Presence of God.

God sees and is fully aware of all sin, but He never approves of or tolerates it permanently.

Understanding God’s View of Sin

• Omniscience: God is all-knowing, meaning He sees everything that happens, including every sin, and nothing is hidden from Him.
• The Meaning of Habakkuk 1:13: The verse saying God’s eyes are “too pure to look on evil” is a poetic way to express His absolute moral purity and disapproval of wrong, not a literal physical blindness or an inability to be aware of it.
• Active Justice: God does not ignore or “wink at” sin; rather, He addresses it through justice and ultimately provided redemption through Jesus Christ.

In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet says to God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil” (Habakkuk 1:13, CSB). This does not mean that God must close His eyes or turn His back when people start to sin. It is, rather, a recognition of God’s righteous character and, in context, part of a larger discussion of God’s methods in dealing with sin.

Habakkuk begins with a series of questions directed to God. Habakkuk saw the sin and degradation gripping the nation and took his concerns to the Lord. Who today can read this lament and not see the same questions so many are even now asking of God?:
“How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted” (Habakkuk 1:1–4).

Habakkuk saw the people of God wallowing in sin, but he was at a loss as to why the wicked prospered and the righteous suffered. Why was God so tolerant of wrongdoing? Like Job, Habakkuk questioned God’s seemingly slow response to right wrongs. Would the violence never end? Whatever happened to justice?

God responds to Habakkuk by revealing His plan to use the Chaldean nation to conquer Judah and thus punish the evildoers (Habakkuk 1:5–11). This answer caused Habakkuk even more distress, and he again questioned God. The Chaldeans (or Babylonians) were even more wicked and debauched than the Israelites. How could God use a wicked nation like that to judge His people (verses 13–17)? Why would He allow “the wicked [to] swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (verse 13). Does He approve of their sin?

It’s in this context that the perplexed prophet says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13). The key to understanding this statement is found in the parallelism of the poetry. “To look on” is parallel with “tolerate.” Habakkuk is pointing to God’s holiness and saying, “You are too holy to look favorably on evil.”

We use a similar expression today. Our English word countenance can mean “face” or “look,” and it can also mean “to sanction or approve of.” When someone says, “I cannot countenance that behavior,” he or she is expressing disapproval of that behavior. In similar fashion, when Habakkuk says of God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,” he means that God’s holy nature guarantees that He will not sanction sin. God cannot “look” upon wickedness with favor—so, the prophet asks, why would He allow the Babylonians to overrun Judah?

God is still omniscient and omnipresent, so He knows about sin, and He is present when it’s committed. He does not wink at sin or turn a blind eye to it. He sees it, and, as Habakkuk rightly asserts, He cannot see it favorably. What bothered the prophet is that, in using the Babylonians to punish Judah, God seemed to be countenancing the Babylonians’ idolatry, violence, and greed. God assures His prophet in chapter 2 that the sins of Babylon will not be tolerated, either. The Chaldeans were dispatched as God’s instrument to judge the wickedness of Judah, and the Chaldeans’ own sin will also be judged. But judgment will come in God’s time and in His way.

Confusion over the idea that God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil has led some to believe that, when a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit leaves him or her because the Holy Spirit cannot “look” upon sin. But that would contradict the Bible’s teaching that believers have been “sealed” by the Holy Spirit, the “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22). The Holy Spirit dwells inside Christians; although He is grieved by our sin (Ephesians 4:30), He does not abandon us. The key is that our sin is paid for by Jesus and fully forgiven. God cannot tolerate sin, and that is why He sent His Son “to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8).

It’s defiling and render one weak and vulnerable to the devil; it’s blinding and so shut out the light of God leaving us in spiritual darkness; it’s a silent and slow killer, every sinner is a walking dead spirit! Notably, lying is as fatal as witchcraft or murder! Spiritually- they are no different!

Reflection: Every sin infuses certain deadly poison into our system – Terrible, No?!!!

The truth? JESUS emphasized Self-denial and Paul advises us in the above bible quote to rather put our “sinful desires” to death before it strikes; it is survival of the fittest!

Ask God for strength, and turn to God ALWAYS!

so, let’s be wiser and tap into God’s Spirit to REPENT, OBEY and LIVE!

Shalom.🙏🔥

🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️

⚜️ Day 5 ⚜️

Good day friends!

🚨 A Gentle Reminder!🚨

Sunday is a decisive day. PLEASE we want to see everyone proceed to the second week.

God can do all things. Can’t He? He can definitely help you.

I know Whom I believe, with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, Hallelujah,  Amen 🙏🏾

What about you?

🌱 Have faith in God.

The battle is real. Don’t allow the devil to win it. Remember his tactics as we have told you.

Tactics of satan

The primary tactics of the devil involve deception, distraction, division, and discouragement designed to pull people away from truth and faith.

Deception

• Lying: Presenting false promises and making wrong actions look harmless or appealing.
• Twisting Truth: Misapplying scripture or changing definitions to make sin feel acceptable.
• Disguise: Posing as an “angel of light” to look righteous or helpful.

Distraction

Worldly Focus: Absorbing your time with passing pleasures, busy routines, or material gains.

Focus Shifts: Crafting diversions that turn your attention away from primary spiritual goals and prayer.

Division:

Conflict: Creating external arguments, broken trust, and bitterness among people and communities.

Inner Turmoil: Sowing internal confusion, self-pity, and destructive drives within your own mind.

Discouragement

Guilt: Constantly bringing up past mistakes to make you feel unworthy of Love.

Doubt: Making you question the goodness, care, and Love of God.

He is a toothless dog, defeated through the cross. Increase your faith by thanksgiving.

You are an overcomer and you will overcome in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

📖 Day 5 Target📖

Today’s Reading

Mark 9 to Luke 1

Let us pray… 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Our Father in Heaven, we worship You because You are great and glorious. No one can describe Who You are. You are too beautiful for description and too marvelous for Words.

We thank You for bringing us thus far, we return all the glory to You.

We know that what You have started in us, You will complete. Let grace be released upon all, causing those who limit themselves to see what You can do with a man who puts his trust in You.

Thank You for destroying the works of the devil in our midst. Thank You for the mighty things that You are doing. Yes! We know that You will do much more.

Thank You because You hear us always.

In Jesus Christ’s Name we pray.

Amen.

Have a blessed season ahead, in Jesus’ MIGHTY Name, Amen 🙏🏾