WORD OF LIVING WATER DAILY INSPIRATION

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Monday, 9th February, 2026.
Theme: Build a befitting dwelling place for God
(1 Kings 8: 1-7,9-13, Ps 132, Mk 6:53-56)

Today we remember the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple.King Solomon built a befitting temple as a dwelling place for God. This was what the father David wanted to do, but God told him he has chosen his son Solomon to accomplish that purpose. The Israelites until the time of Solomon didn’t have a well built temple for their worship. They had a place which served as a national center for worship, but these were not temples. Solomon dedicated his time and resources to put up a place of worship for his people. This became a very popular edifice in Israel and beyond. Of course, it was the king who led this project, but he got all the people involved to accomplish this noble task. How beautiful it is to contribute to the building of a house of God. It is a great blessing for anybody to dedicate and contribute in putting up a place of worship.

Beloved, King Solomon contributed his part in putting up a place of worship for the people of Israel in Jerusalem. Today his name is remembered for this great contribution to the religious life of the people of Israel. What will you be remembered for in your religious group? How contributive are you in relation to your church projects? Do you really give your all to support the building of your church or any other church projects? Some of us when it comes to helping in building our churches, then we are zero to that effect. We don’t want our monies to be used in such projects. But we can spend millions of cedis on funerals, our own buildings, and others,but not on the house of God. We have forgotten that God is the one who has blessed us with all these resources. And we are refusing to help promote his work with the very resources he has granted us. One day we shall answer for that.

But I must admit that a lot of us are also using all our resources to help put up a befitting places of worship for our people. I know some individuals in Accra and other places who have helped to put up church buildings and other projects in certain deprived places, such as Donkorkrom Apostolic Vicariate. In fact, most of the churches in this area either worship in classrooms or under trees. And some people who have had the opportunity to visit such places or are previewed to this situation have contributed generously towards such noble tasks. Some groups have even adopted some of these churches. I can tell you that their blessings will continue to remain upon them and their families from generations to generations. Yes, that is what God does for people who spend their resources in and on his house. Try to be part of this group of blessed people.

The temple of God is not only the physical building but also our very self. Because our bodies are also the temple of God and the the Holy Spirit, according to St. Paul. It means that we must also make our bodies a befitting place for God to dwell. That place which he dwells is our heart. Make your hearts a holy place for God to dwell. In other words, we must abstain from all forms of sinful acts which will contaminate our bodies. The Holy Spirit can’t dwell in a body full of filth. Of course, light and darkness can’t dwell together. Therefore we must strive to live holy lives everyday in our lives. This is a daily efforts which we must endeavor to work on. Jesus is always standing at the door of your heart, wanting a place to dwell in you (Rev. 3:20). We either prevent him by indulging in sinful acts or welcome him by striving for holiness. Can you say right now that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit or otherwise? Your way of life will affirm or not.

May God help us to make our resources available always in building his house. Amen.
Have a Blessed week.
Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Tuesday,10th February, 2026.
Memorial of St. Scholastica
Theme:Don’t be an external Christian
(1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30, Ps 84, Mk 7: 1-13)

Beloved, Jesus is teaching us today that Christianity is not all about following rules but serving him from our hearts. The Pharisees and Scribes were only following rules but their hearts were very far away from God. In today’s gospel, they complained why the disciples of Jesus don’t follow the rituals of cleansing ( the washing of hands,feet, bowls and others). These are what they call the traditions of the elders. Religiosity was their way of life, meanwhile they had no personal relationship with God.

Again, Jesus is warning them against the life of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is one who portrays what he or she is not. They presented themselves to the people to be holy religious leaders, but in reality they were very sinful. They were not what they claimed to be. They were living lives of deception.

Our case is not different from these people. Don’t be a Pharisee or a Scribe of our time. A life of deception is disaster. By the way, whom are you deceiving? Of course, you are deceiving yourself. Because if you present yourself to be a prayerful person but in reality you are not, then you are doing yourself no good. When you die without repenting you will have no place in God’s kingdom. It is your own soul that you are destroying.

The Lord Jesus invites us to worship Him from our hearts and not with lip service. Hypocrites worship God with their lips but not their hearts. Most of us are only lip service Christians. We do things to please people, but our hearts are very far from God. It is one thing to be religious and other to be spiritual. You can be religious by following rules and regulations strictly, but you might not be doing it with your heart. We are called to be authentic Christians not hypocrites.

Being a Christian is not about being punctual at church, paying your dues, going for communion always, giving offering and offertory always, and the list continue. Some of us are so strict with following rules by the church, but we don’t have any personal relationship with Jesus.

Most of us Christians of today are becoming more hypocrites than ever. We are external Christians who are superficial with our religiosity. In fact, we can be called fake Christians, because we are not authentic.We can’t win souls with this kind of living. But the question is: Where do you belong? Are you worshipping God with your lips or from your hearts? The decision is yours.

May God help us to be authentic Christians. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev.Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Wednesday,11th February, 2026.
Our Lady of Lourdes
Theme: It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean, not what goes inside
(1 Kings 10:1-10, Ps 37, Mk 7: 14-23)

Beloved, Jesus continues with his teaching against the practice of externalism by the Pharisees and the Scribes. They focused rather on the unnecessary things and left out the essentials. For them ones you refuse to obey the ritual cleansing, then you have defiled yourself. If you don’t wash yourself according to the rituals and you eat your food, then you have become unclean before God. You have become sinful before God needing his mercy to be clean. If you eat certain meat or food which are considered unclean then you have defiled yourself, needing purification. The same applies to touching lepers, corpse and other things considered unclean. But they lost the focus on fornication, theft, wickedness,deceit, envy,slander, pride and other vices. Forgetting that these are rather the very things which defile us before God and not those external things.

Beloved, we should know that Jesus is the fulfilment of the law. He came to give clarity on certain practices of the Jews which were not according to the original plan of God. In the teachings of the law, especially in Leviticus, there are a number of animals and food that makes one unclean if you eat it or touch it. But our master Jesus, who is the author of the law is saying that he has declared all food clean (Mk 7:19, Matt 15:10-20). Then who are we to hold onto old traditions about certain unclean food? If you are a follower of Christ,then you must follow his teachings and stop deceiving yourself. He knew about these teachings in the old testament, but he still went ahead to give the original intention of God about these teachings that the Israelites are still holding onto. The fact that they have lost the focus of God about his commandments for them. These were human traditions and not divine, meaning not from God. After creation, God declared everything to be good. Then who are we to now declare some to be unclean? Are we God or we are those who created them?

Some Christians also hold on to certain traditional beliefs of their tribes or clan. Please you are either a Christian or an African Traditional Religion believer. In Christianity, there is nothing like this animal our clan don’t eat it. Then you are not yet a Christian. It doesn’t mean that a Christian throws away his culture or traditions. But the traditions which are not in conformity with our Christian faith are not encouraged by us Christians. Unfortunately, you find a lot of Christians who are following these beliefs. And these include even priests and pastors, who are supposed to know better. I know a priest who will never entertaine rat in the mission house or wherever he finds himself. Please those beliefs and attitudes are not Christian. A Christian is a follower of Christ, hence we can’t accept some of his teachings and reject some.

Again it is not about eating snake, snail, vulture, rat, pig, maggots, and others that makes us unclean before God. But rather our sinful acts which come from within our hearts, are the cause of our defilement. If you are a Christian and you are still holding onto some of these old fashioned traditions , then remember you need to mature in your faith and grow as a Christian in this understanding.

May God give us the spirit of discernment to follow his teachings without any reservations. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Tuesday,10th February, 2026.
Memorial of St. Scholastica
Theme:Don’t be an external Christian
(1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30, Ps 84, Mk 7: 1-13)

Beloved, Jesus is teaching us today that Christianity is not all about following rules but serving him from our hearts. The Pharisees and Scribes were only following rules but their hearts were very far away from God. In today’s gospel, they complained why the disciples of Jesus don’t follow the rituals of cleansing ( the washing of hands,feet, bowls and others). These are what they call the traditions of the elders. Religiosity was their way of life, meanwhile they had no personal relationship with God.

Again, Jesus is warning them against the life of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is one who portrays what he or she is not. They presented themselves to the people to be holy religious leaders, but in reality they were very sinful. They were not what they claimed to be. They were living lives of deception.

Our case is not different from these people. Don’t be a Pharisee or a Scribe of our time. A life of deception is disaster. By the way, whom are you deceiving? Of course, you are deceiving yourself. Because if you present yourself to be a prayerful person but in reality you are not, then you are doing yourself no good. When you die without repenting you will have no place in God’s kingdom. It is your own soul that you are destroying.

The Lord Jesus invites us to worship Him from our hearts and not with lip service. Hypocrites worship God with their lips but not their hearts. Most of us are only lip service Christians. We do things to please people, but our hearts are very far from God. It is one thing to be religious and other to be spiritual. You can be religious by following rules and regulations strictly, but you might not be doing it with your heart. We are called to be authentic Christians not hypocrites.

Being a Christian is not about being punctual at church, paying your dues, going for communion always, giving offering and offertory always, and the list continue. Some of us are so strict with following rules by the church, but we don’t have any personal relationship with Jesus.

Most of us Christians of today are becoming more hypocrites than ever. We are external Christians who are superficial with our religiosity. In fact, we can be called fake Christians, because we are not authentic.We can’t win souls with this kind of living. But the question is: Where do you belong? Are you worshipping God with your lips or from your hearts? The decision is yours.

May God help us to be authentic Christians. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev.Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Friday,13th February, 2026.
Theme: Be healed of your deafness and dumbness
(1 Kings 11:29-32;12:19 Ps 81, Mk 7: 31-37)

Jesus continues his mission of preaching and healing. Today, they brought to him a deaf and dumb man. You and I know how disgraceful this condition could be. Therefore we know what this man was going through. But as usual the condition couldn’t withstand the power in him. The man was totally healed to the amazement of all. Jesus has the power over all human conditions.

Beloved, we are also equally deaf and dumb in so many ways. We may not be physically deaf and dumb, but it can be spiritual, psychological and others. Jesus has the power to heal us. We may be deaf because, we have a lot of impediments preventing us from hearing the voice of God and being in touched with him always. We are not able to hear him well. You need the touch of Jesus. We are also dumb because we have failed to speak the mind of God always. We lack that courage to stand by the truth always. Because of the fear of what society will perceive about us and the intimidation that we will face, we have been dumb for long. We need the touch of Jesus to be healed.

But in the first place we must admit our condition just like the man. We may be deaf and dumb but if we don’t accept our condition, we may not see the need of inviting Jesus to it. We must accept first and then acknowledge Jesus as the only person who has the power to heal us. Invite Jesus to that deaf and dumb situation of yours. You may have roamed with that condition, which may be a physical one, but today Jesus is your last stop. He has done it before, hence it is something small at his sight. Encourage someone who has given up or about to give up. Give that person Jesus today. You may be experiencing difficult situation, but you have Jesus to heal and deliver you. Stop crying and persevere in your prayer. It is well, you shall overcome one day. It is a matter of time.

May God grant us total healing from all our physical and spiritual conditions. Amen.

Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Sts. Cyril and Methodius
Saturday, 14th February,2026.
Theme: Present the little you have to Jesus (1 Kings 12:26-32;13:33-34, Ps 106, Mk 8:1-10)

The Lord Jesus had compassion on a crowd of about four thousand people, not counting women and children. He fed them with seven loaves of bread and small fish. This was after feeding them spiritually and healing some of them from illnesses. Jesus is concerned about both our spiritual and physical welfare. The disciples didn’t believe that they can get food to feed all the people, because they didn’t have the means to do that. But they forgot that they had Jesus with them who is capable of anything. They only needed to present the little they had and Jesus will multiply it to feed all the people. After this encounter I believe their faith had increased in Jesus, because there was even a left over of seven baskets.

We need to also have faith in Him and present the little that we have. He can change that little to make it blossom. In the eyes of Jesus, there is nothing like a hopeless situation. Your money for the business you want to begin might be too small, but when you invite Jesus into it , He will bless it and that small business will become a flourishing one. You may be coming from an unknown background, but when Jesus is with you, your story will definitely change. You only need to invite Him into the situation and He will turn things around for your good.

Some of us complain too much just like the disciples, even when Jesus is in the situation with us. We sometimes forget that Jesus is a God of possibilities. Impossibility is not in his dictionary. May He increase our faith in Him in moments when we are giving up. And may the Lord also have compassion on you today and come into your situation. Amen .

Have a Blessed Day and a happy weekend.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev.Fr. Akakpo Matthew

VAL’S DAY MESSAGE

Theme:LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION

Today we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day we are expected to express genuine love to people. St. Valentine who is the reason for this celebration sacrificed his life for young people and was later killed. Of course, this according to the church is the genesis of the celebration. There are other stories concerning the history of the celebration. But from the Christian point of view, it is a day that you and I are supposed to express love to the unloved, people who have no one to care about them. Mostly, this was done in anonymous way so that those who received these valentine gifts did not know the senders.

We have profaned this day too much to the extent that mostly condoms even finish in most places. Valentine’s Day of late is all about sex. It is as if love is all about sex. Love goes beyond sex. In fact, genuine love gives no condition.

Let your valentine celebration this year be different from the masses. Make sure you touch the life of someone who has nobody to care for him or her. When we do this then we are living out the true meaning of valentine. Don’t be thinking about going out with your partner to make love (engaging in sex) as your celebration of Val’s Day. Then remember you are part of those who are profaning the day. Join the few who will promote the genuine love expressed by St. Valentine. Be an epitome of Christ’s love. You are my valentine today.Be a true valentine to someone today. Amen.

Happy Val’s Day.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew