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Week of December
14, 2008 - January 3, 2009
Our Testimonies 2008
(Please
click here to view the PDF with pictures)
…As for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD - Joshua 24:15 (KJV)
Dear family and friends,
Indeed the Lord is good
and His mercies endure for ever. We praise the God of
peace for His faithfulness and loving kindness in your
lives which He renews every morning.
This year
has been a glorious year for us as a family. The Lord
has been gracious to us and we proclaim His steadfast
love towards us. Wow, it has been a fantastic adventure
going through this year, discovering God’s goodness in
every aspect of our lives and serving in the kingdom of
God.
This year has been a time
of maturing for Bimisola. Due to our family’s numerous
relocations, she had spent less than a year at each of
her last four schools and this affected her social
interaction at the high school. Over the summer, she
heard a message on having positive attitudes and it led
her to go on a 3-day fast at the beginning of the new
school year. The change in her attitude towards school
and her interactions with her class mates has been
tremendous.
In the
spring, she played soccer and her team was the first
girls’ soccer team in the school to win any match. Then
this fall, she joined her school’s cross-country team
where she set a new school record for grade 10 girls’
team. Capping all these she joined the youth worship
team and also started guitar lessons.
Bimisayo also experienced his
share of changing this year. In May, he made a decision
to live for God and has since then stepped up as a
leader in the youth group. He started a Life Guide
Devotional (www.lifeguidedevotional.blogspot.com).
It’s been an interesting journey. For the first time, he
feels that he has made friends he can really count on -
best friends if you will.
He’s developed a love for
football, playing and watching the sport at every
opportunity. He discovered what career he wants to
pursue: Pharmacology, although now he is more open to
following his father’s footsteps into medicine. In all,
this has been a year of finding his identity in Christ
and finding others who identify with Christ as he does.
Not a lot of BIG things happened, but much of the
“little things” combined to make this perhaps the best
year of his life.
Both Bimisayo and Bimisola travelled a
couple of times to NYC to visit their aunts’ families.
They served for the 3rd year running as leaders at the
Highway Gospel
Zoom Kidz Camp for
5 weeks in the summer. Through their involvement, they
managed to recruit two of their friends who spent their
summer with us to also serve as leaders at the camp.
They both attended a week
long youth summer camp as well. They initiated and
spearheaded the planning of a Youth-led Sunday Service
at our church this fall. Spiritually, they are growing
and are taking on more responsibilities at church. Both
of them have made conscious decisions to excel in all
their subjects this school year and are doing well at
school. At home, they are still a big help with doing
chores.
It takes very little to excite Bisi! This
year has been a fun ride, walking with God and seeing
Him work out
situations for His glory
in her life and ministry. The year started with the
reorganization of the children ministry (of which she is
the coordinator). Just when she think a particular phase
was over and time to relax, God brings up new challenges
to take on. To His glory, God has granted her grace to
increase in ministry and favor with the children, their
parents and workers.
This year,
she designed quite a few websites for our church and her
clients; these have
been both
rewarding and a lot of fun. With all these
responsibilities, she managed to find some time to
travel a few times to NYC (and Texas once) to visit
family members. The best trip was with Dele to San
Diego; she got to tour the city and even toured Tijuana,
Mexico while Dele was busy with his conference.
Late this year, she decided to get her
Bachelor of Science in nursing degree and started school
(again). The family gets a kick when she tells them in
the morning, she is going to school because she walks a
few steps from the bedroom to the family room where her
laptop is and she is at
school. She
registered for four online courses and is done with one
of them already. So far, it has been very stimulating
and exciting. Of course, she still loves cooking and
feeding people every opportunity she gets.
This year has been very
busy for Dele. His teaching ministry has been well
received. He travelled quite a lot to conferences. Dele
continues to desire for God to use him more in this area
of ministry, and has a vision for Christians to be
knowledgeable especially in these times we live in. He
continues to head our church’s Christian Education
department.
Academically, it has also
been a successful year with as many as six manuscripts
either published, accepted, or submitted and undergoing
review In addition, he co-authored a book chapter on
radiation-induced liver injury. He is becoming more and
more active with the College of American Pathologists
(CAP) of which he is a fellow. Earlier in the year he
was invited to participate in a CAP Spokesperson
Program, which he did in early December and enjoyed
immensely.
Early this year, we
hosted numerous gatherings at our home. Over the summer,
our home was filled with guests staying over. As one set
of guests left, another arrived; there was a time period
that we had 3 sets of guests at the same time. Bisi’s
longest friend, Grace, with her children and nephew from
Ireland came over as well. Taking them on tour of
Toronto and Niagara Falls was an exciting experience.
Practically every day this summer had the feel of a
celebration in our home. After the summer, when the last
of our house guests left, it took a while to get used to
just being the four of us, but we did, and it’s still
fun.
We continue to sponsor children in far
away countries through the
Christian Children Fund
and the World Vision Canada (these organizations
have brought hope to millions of children). Dele is a
registered volunteer with World Vision Canada. We
would love to invite you, as you read our testimony, to
think of experiencing this journey with us and we would
be honored to further discuss possibilities with you.
With Bimisayo and
Bimisola growing up into late teens, our relationship
with them is evolving into more of friendship. We have
been supportive of each other’s walk with the Lord and
our services to Him. Our favorite activity as a family
still remains: hanging out at our living room and
enjoying each other’s company. We are rounding up this
year with a trip to Nigeria where we will celebrate
Christmas with family members.
God has taken us
individually and collectively onto higher heights in our
personal relationships with Him and in the various
ministries He has called us into. Indeed, we believe
these are the beginning of last days and God continues
to remain gracious to us as we labor with Him in these
end-time harvest for the kingdom of God.
The year 2008 has been
“as for me and my
house, we will serve the LORD” – Joshua 24:15 (KJV);
and it has been wonderful and exciting. However, we know
that God has greater things in store for us in the year
2009 and we are excited to be part of the move of the
Spirit of God. Habakkuk 2:14 says “For the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (NIV).
Have a merry Christmas
and an exciting New Year.
God bless you.
The ADEYIs
December 2008
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Week of December
7 - December 13, 2008
And
God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in
all things at all times, having all that you need, you
will abound in every good work – 2Corinthians 9:8.
I had
been looking forward to last Wednesday when my husband,
Dele, was teaching on the subject of Grace;
I was very excited and expectant at the same time. Dele
is a fantastic teacher with a very engaging presentation
style and in-depth insight/revelation of God’s Word. In
addition, ever since I caught a revelation of God’s
grace about 6 or 7 years ago, I have consistently walked
in it. I term this experience: resting in God’s grace.
With Dele teaching on grace, I knew I was not just only
going to be greatly ministered to, but that I was going
to learn something new about the grace of God. Wow, I
was not disappointed!
Grace
is defined as unmerited favor.
-
God
gives grace as He pleases
-
No
one can demand grace from God based on what they have
done
-
God’s
grace is something you cannot earn by good works, or
religious activities, or acts of charity
-
Compare Romans 4:4 - Now when a man works, his wages
are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation
with Romans 11:6 - And if by grace, then it is no
longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be
grace
The
first mention of grace in the Old Testament (OT) is at
the act of God’s judgment in Genesis 6:8 - But Noah
found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Also in
Genesis
19:19
- Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,
and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast
shewed unto me in saving my life… (KJV).
This was when God saved Lot as He was about to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah. Hebrews
4:16
says “Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help us in our time of need.” Note the
association of God’s grace with His mercy.
I
learned that to understand grace, one had to understand
God’s attributes that includes holiness, righteousness
and mercy. God’s grace or mercy operates within the
context of His righteous judgment – the difference
between those who seek Him versus those who forsake Him
(see Psalms 9:7-10). God manifested grace and
mercy to individuals, groups and nations in the OT.
Ultimately, God always looked for opportunities to show
grace and mercy: For the eyes of the LORD range
throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts
are fully committed to him – 2Chronicles 16:9.
In
the OT, the onus was on the people to seek God.
Following the law became a standard to identify those
seeking God, and hence the beneficiaries of His grace.
Now in the New Testament (NT), God does the seeking out:
[God] made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been
saved – Ephesians 2:5 (see also Romans 5:8).
In the NT, believing in Jesus becomes the standard to
identify the beneficiaries of God’s grace. Jesus
continues to do the seeking and invitation: Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest – Matthew 11:28.
Now
Dele asked the question, “Does God show grace to only
believers today?” Those of us at the bible study shook
our heads: No. So he asked us, “How does God show grace
and favor to unbelievers?” That question had us stumped;
no one came up with the right answer. Then Dele said,
“Through the believers.”
Wow! That was a major revelation
for me: God shows grace to unbelievers through
believers. Yep, you and I are the link between God’s
grace and the unbelievers. God has poured His grace on
us so that we will abound in good works: And God is
able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need, you will
abound in every good work – 2Corinthians 9:8. These
good works in turn causes men to praise God:
In the same way, let your light
shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father
in heaven – Matthew 5:16.
Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have
now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so
they too have now become disobedient in order that they
too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to
you - Romans 11:30-31.
We
are therefore Christ's ambassadors,
as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's
grace in vain.
For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you."
I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the
day of salvation.
We put no stumbling block in anyone's path,
so that our ministry will not be discredited.
2Corinthians 5:20 – 6:3
This
new revelation opened my eyes to the following:
-
With
regards to salvation, we are God’s ambassadors to preach
the good news.
-
As
recipients of God’s grace, we are example to the
unbelievers about the goodness of God which in turn
causes them to turn to Him.
-
God’s
grace towards us makes us abound in good works towards
unbelievers
-
Praying for unbelievers is a spiritual good work that
causes them to be saved or be shown God’s mercy
Before Dele’s teaching on God’s grace, I was a recipient
of God’s grace for myself alone. It was something I
enjoyed in my life. Now after his teaching, I am more
excited about walking in God’s grace as a co-laborer
with Jesus.
Dearly beloved, I “…urge you not to receive God's
grace in vain” (2Corinthians 6:1).
PS:
the above teaching is about half of what Dele taught on
about God’s grace. He went on to teach about:
-
What
grace does for us?
-
How
we can abuse the grace of God?
-
If we
can lose God’s grace?
If you are interested in the rest of the teaching,
please contact me and I will
e-mail it to you.
Back to top
Week of November
30 - December 6, 2008
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my
unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my
covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has
compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10
It
has been a very exciting week for me - I got a
revelation of the PEACE OF GOD! At the early Morning
Prayer on Sunday at church, the sister whom I usually
pray with shared Isaiah 54 with me. As she read
the chapter, verse 10 jumped out at me: “Though the
mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my
unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my
covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has
compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10). The Spirit of God
led us to prayer for the revelation of God’s peace to
the children and workers and the manifestation of this
peace during our service. As we prayed, I could
literally feel God’s peace on my mind and body – it was
like I was enclosed in the bubble of God’s peace.
That
Sunday, in one of the children’s rooms, the central
heater was down and I did a bit of running around
securing portable heaters, keeping the children in
another class until the room warmed up and then
transferring them to their classroom. All through the
time I was running around, I felt so calm and Isaiah
54:10 especially the phrase “[God’s] covenant of
peace” kept playing over and over in my mind. Also,
there was a child whose behavior had been cause for
concern for the past few Sundays, to the glory of God,
that Sunday the child was very cooperative and
calm-mannered.
Philippians 4:7 says: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This kind of peace is what I am experiencing. Before
Sunday, like I shared last week, I have so much going on
at this time of the year; and I have been busy mentally
planning and organizing. My sister and her son came over
the weekend; so I took Monday and Tuesday off school to
enjoy their visit which was very relaxing for me. On
Wednesday after service, I was chatting with a dear
sister of mine when I noticed that my mind was totally
focused on the conversation and not all over the place
planning as usual; I was shocked!
It
was then that I realized the extent of the manifestation
of God’s peace in my life. I am a very organized person.
Due to the fact that I had so much going on, my mind was
constantly on the go thinking on all that I had to do,
how best and when to do such and such. I thought that
was normal. I did not realize what a weight I had been
carrying around mentally until the peace of God removed
it. Since Sunday, there have been such calmness in my
mind; it feels so wonderful and very liberating. I still
have all the activities lined up for the end of this
year, all that has not changed. What have changed,
however, is that I have a revelation of God’s peace.
Dearly beloved, God’s covenant of peace with us is
everlasting. I pray you will experience His peace this
season and always, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Back to top
Week of November
23 - November 29, 2008
For this reason, since the day we heard about
you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God
to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
spiritual wisdom and
understanding. And we pray this in order that you may
live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in
every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in
the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10
This
morning, I read about David and Nathan in 2Samuel 12:
how God sent Nathan to confront David about his adultery
with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, Uriah. God
told David through Nathan that the child Bathsheba borne
as a result of the adultery was going to die. So David
went on a fast and at the end of the seventh day, the
child died. When David found out, it was recorded:
Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions
and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the
LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and
at his request they served him food, and he ate. His
servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While
the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that
the child is dead, you get up and eat!" He answered,
"While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I
thought, `Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and
let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should
I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him,
but he will not return to me." Then David comforted his
wife Bathsheba…
2Samuel
12:20-24
Wow,
I thought, this is someone who knows how to let go and
move on. I got thinking about the situations in my life
that I need to follow David’s example by letting go and
moving on; but I could not think of any immediately.
Then after a while, in response to an e-mail about the
fact that the end of the year is fast approaching and
there are so many things I need to get done; I realized
that I was dreading it all. The reason is that I had set
a goal for myself in addition to all the necessary stuff
associated with this time of the year that I need to do.
Currently, I am doing 4 on-line courses which involve
lots of reading, quizzes and essay writing. I have
devoted Monday to Thursday to those courses – a course
per day. By Friday, a lot of ministry and personal stuff
have piled up which eats into my Saturdays. Sunday
evenings are the only personal time which I try to
devote uninterrupted to my family. At the beginning of
those courses, I set the goal of completing them by
mid-December because my family and I are going for
vacation then. In addition, I have a Christmas party to
organize which involves a lot of shopping and cooking, 3
social events to attend, and packing for the trip; all
of these before mid-December. No wonder, I am feeling
overwhelmed!
As a result of the goal that I had
set for myself to finish those courses and the other
stuffs I need to get done by the end of the year; I was
getting stressed. Recently, my prayer had been to get a
lot done in my courses by the end of each day. God had
been faithful and gracious, yet there is still so much
to be done. At this point, like David, I have let go of
that goal and am going to focus on important things like
living – having a life outside of those courses. I have
decided to set a new finish date and I am taking the
last week before our trip off to attend to last minute
travel details and packing. It feels so refreshing;
indeed, “This is the
day the LORD has
made; let us rejoice and be glad in it
[I am rejoicing and am glad
in it!]” (Psalms 118:24).
This experience has made me realize how easy it is to
get caught up in wanting to have situations go our way
regardless. That is why it is important to keep our
focus on God. David wanted the child to live regardless
of the fact that God had pronounced that he was going to
die. The good thing about David was that when the child
died, he “got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed
his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and
worshiped” (2Samuel
12:24).
After giving up my near impossible goal, I am rejoicing
in the Lord and I am starting to feel the excitement
that comes with this time of the year. We need to keep
our focus on God to avoid getting carried away with our
plans and goals. Proverbs tells a good way to do this:
Trust
in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he
will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The end of the year is drawing near and we have so many
things we have set out to accomplish. We need God’s
wisdom to know what, how and when to do.
Dearly beloved, I am
“praying for you and asking God to
fill you with the knowledge of his will through all
spiritual wisdom and
understanding And
[I]
pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of
the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit
in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,”
(Colossians 1:9-10).
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Week of November
16 - November 22, 2008
“For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his
household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing
what is right and just… – Genesis 18: 19”
This
morning I was reading about the instructions God gave
the Israelites about the Passover. God told them: “Obey
these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and
your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD
will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And
when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony
mean to you?' then tell them, `It is the Passover
sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the
Israelites in
Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” - Exodus
12:24-27
The
writer, Marvin Williams, of the
RBC’s
Our Daily Bread devotional for November 15, 2008
wrote “When our children ask us about our values,
lifestyle, prayer in decision-making, Bible-reading,
church attendance, and worship, we have a responsibility
to answer them.” With regards to the Passover
celebration, it is for the Israelites to remember the
great deliverance God gave them in
Egypt.
In the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper which Jesus told
us to observe is to remember His sacrifice for us.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death until he comes – 1Corinthians
11:26. This
got me thinking about the values we have and the things
we do in my family.
The
main one is our family devotion in the morning. My
husband, Dele, and I started this when our first child,
Bimisayo, was a baby. We heard a message on the
importance of praying together as a family and we
decided to start. The next morning, we sat on our bed
with Bimisayo in the middle and had our first family
devotion. It felt kind of awkward the first few days
until we got use to it. A few times over the years, we
have allowed the busyness of our schedules to hinder us
from having our family devotion but God has been
gracious in convicting us and making a way for us to get
back on track.
In
addition to worshipping God and getting fed from His
Word, we have lifted up many prayer requests for us and
others and have shared the testimonies to answered
prayers. As a result of our relocation many times, we
have attended many churches and have learnt many songs
of praise and worship. During our family devotion, we
still sing many old songs and on Saturdays we actually
sing hymns – thanks to our worship leader, Dele. Through
our family devotion, our children have learned to
worship, pray and minister from God’s Word; and we have
had opportunities to instill godly values into them.
We
have tried by God’s grace not to allow our family
devotion to become religious. We take turns leading the
family devotions. We discipline ourselves to wake up
early on week days to have it. On Saturdays, we take our
time both in the start time and the duration. On
Sundays, we do not have it because we go to church and
my daughter and I leave home very early. When guests
sleep over at our home, we have encouraged them to join
us.
Why
is family devotion important? Our children have asked us
this question many times when they were much younger
especially when we have had to wake them up very early
in the morning. Just like God told the Israelites that
observing the Passover yearly will cause their children
to ask them why and it would be an opportunity to tell
them what the Lord has done; so Dele and I have been
able to tell our children that God is our Source and we
are showing our dependence on Him as a family through
our family devotion.
God’s
Word says, “Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it – Proverbs
22:6.” Dele and I believe that having our family
devotion is one of the ways we are doing this. To God’s
glory, our children have gotten to a place in their
spiritual growth that they do their personal devotion
daily in addition to the family devotion. I have shared
my family’s experience about our family devotion to
encourage us to have something we do as a family to
teach our children the greatness of God.
Dearly beloved, let God be able to say of us as He said
of Abraham, “For I have chosen him, so that he will
direct his children and his household after him to keep
the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just… –
Genesis 18: 19”
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Week of November
9 - November 15, 2008
Whatever you
do, work at it with all
your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… It is
the Lord Christ you are serving – Colossians 3:23-24.
In response to last week’s Heart
Word about serving
the Lord out of love for Him with all our hearts, souls
and strengths; a dear sister, Sarah D., sent me an
e-mail which I believe adds another perspective to
serving God which really blessed me. Below is the
e-mail:
When
reading this week's [Heart Words], one thing came
uppermost to my mind. Serving God is not primarily about
the things we do, but about the orientation of our mind
and heart... 24-7.
The
"churchy" things we do are not actually service to God,
but spring out of our servant hood to Him. When we
devote time to nurturing our family in godliness and
love, when we build ministering relationships with saved
and unsaved friends, when we go about the business of
day to day life in an intentional manner "as unto the
Lord", we are serving God in the very best way. Indeed
we do need to concern ourselves with meeting needs and
ministering within our church family, but that is also
only a co-part of all those other activities.
And
one thing that the Lord has really ministered to my
heart in the past couple of years is that He offers -
indeed He IS - a "Sabbath rest" for His people. No
amount of good works will ever make Him love us more,
and nothing will make Him love us less either. His love
for us is constant, unchanging, and motivated by His own
grace alone. Anything we do should spring solely and
spontaneously out of our reciprocating love for Him, not
motivated by a sense of duty. The last thing He wants is
for us to fall into religion, bondage of legalism.
Ultimately, He wants us to be in - and ENJOY - a close
(and ever closer) relationship with Himself. – Sarah D.
Dearly beloved,
whatever you
do, work at it with all
your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since
you know that you will receive an inheritance from the
Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving
– Colossians 3:23-24.
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Week of November
2 - November 8, 2008
Love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength – Deuteronomy 6:5.
This week
I would like to share with you about serving the Lord in
these days we live in. Economically, situations around
us are getting harsher and it is getting more difficult
to get ahead. As believers, we have the same needs of
shelter, food and clothing like everyone else.
Twenty-four hours a day seems not to be enough to do all
the things we need to do to make a decent living for
ourselves and families. The little down time we get, we
just want to spend relaxing and enjoying ourselves or
having quality time with our loved ones.
I am sure
most of us can relate to the scenario above. For those
few believers who are called into full time ministry,
serving God is what they do for a living. What about the
rest of us who need to do other things to make a living,
the big question is where does serving God comes in? Is
serving God sometime we do in our spare time to help out
the pastor or a ministry in the church? How can we serve
God in the midst of our busy schedules and routines?
Personally, these are questions I am asking myself
(because according to my sisters, I am the “busiest
unemployed person” they know) especially now that school
has started for me and the implication of that on the
demand on my time. The Lord gave me the answers to these
questions through an encouraging phone call from my
pastor and my meditations on God’s Word in
Deuteronomy 6:5 - Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
You
know how the experts tell us that the most successful
weigh loss is through incorporating healthy eating and
exercise as a daily routine instead of through a diet.
In the same way, the Lord ministered to me that serving
Him needs to be a lifestyle. The starting point is
through maintaining a personal and intimate walk with
the Lord. Our fellowship with God as we read His Word
and pray to Him turns our focus to Him and His will for
us. We see the big picture that
“…a man's life does not consist in
the abundance of his
possessions – Luke 12:15;”
but our purpose is to “seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well – Matthew 6:33.”
Deuteronomy 6:5 says “Love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength.” When we love God with all our hearts,
souls and strengths, we will give priority to the things
that matter to Him and make time for them. I remember
when I was in courtship with my husband, after a long
day at work I would get on the public transport to go
visit with him. I would not get home until very late and
I had to wake up early the next morning to go to work.
This was practically an every work day event, and
somehow I never felt tired! I loved him not only with my
heart and soul but also with my strength.
For many
of us, we love the Lord with our hearts and souls. As
long as our personal relationship with God is intact, we
feel that is enough. Some of us go even further to help
out at church whenever we have time. Where we fall short
is in loving the Lord with all our strength. We use our
strength for every other thing that we feel is important
to us – family, work, recreation, etc. If serving the
Lord is important to us as those other things, I know we
will make time for it.
John
21:15 - …Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John,
do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he
said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my
lambs." Three times, Jesus asked the same question
and gave similar orders. The premise of Peter “caring
and feeding the lambs and sheep” is based on his love
for Jesus. In the same way, our serving the Lord should
be because we love Him.
Dearly beloved, God has given each of us an assignment
in establishing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
and has equipped us with abilities to fulfill our tasks.
Let us begin to serve the Lord out of love for Him with
all our hearts, souls and strengths. Remember, as Jesus
told Paul, "My
grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness –
2Corinthians 12:9.
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Week of October
26 - November 1, 2008
And
he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten
pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come - Luke
19:13 (KJV).
This
week, I am sharing a couple of seemly unrelated events.
In the first one, I was stuck in 2 different traffic
jams caused by lane merges on my way to church. During
the first one, 3 lanes had to merge into 1; and there
were a few drivers who instead of waiting their turns to
merge went to front to cut the rest of us off. I felt
indignant, why can’t they wait their turn like everyone
else? When I encountered the second traffic jam, this
time I drove to the very front to cut the other
drivers off. I was feeling very smug with myself until
it occurred to me that I did exactly the same thing I
was mad at those drivers for! As I thought about the
event, this scripture in 1Corinthians
10:12 -
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall (KJV)
came to my heart. I realize how easy it is to fall if
one is not alert or careful.
The
second event happened a few days later: I was in a
telephone conversation with a dear brother of ours about
these days being the last days before the second coming
of our Lord Jesus. He mentioned a scripture which struck
a chord in my heart: …However, when the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on the earth – Luke 8:18?
You know, in the past I had always wondered why Jesus
would ask such a question. As long as there are
Christians on earth, there should be faith, I thought.
But now with the collapse of Wall Street which has
impacted the global economic negatively and media
reports of fear in the heart of the people, I can
identify with Jesus’ question.
The
parable of the 10 minas tied these two events together
for me. Luke 19:12 – 13 – He [Jesus] said: "A
man of noble birth went to a distant country to have
himself appointed king and then to return. So he called
ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. `Put this
money to work,' he said, `until I come back.' The
parable tells us about 3 of the servants: one gained 10
minas, the second 5 and the third did nothing with his
mina.
I
like how the King James Version says the instruction,
“Occupy till I come – Luke
19:13.”
The key to occupying till He comes is:
So do
not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall
we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' For the pagans run
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows
that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own - Matthew 6:31-34.
No
doubt, these are the last days and the world system is
going to get progressively worse. As Christians living
in this world we are not immune to what is going on.
There is a tendency to follow the trend in doing
whatever seems to be working to get ahead in these harsh
economic times. Yet as Christians we belong to a
different kingdom and march to a different beat. God has
invested a ‘mina’ in each of us and He expects us to put
it to work to bear fruit for the kingdom. We cannot
afford to get distracted by all that is going on around
us. We need to make the kingdom of God our first
priority.
Dearly beloved, Jesus is coming back soon.
Be on
guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will
come. …If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you
sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: `Watch!'
(Mark 13:33, 36-37)
Back to top
Week of October
19 - October 25, 2008
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know
what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
accordance with God's will - Romans 8:26-27.
This
week, I would like to share about my experience at an
intercessory prayer meeting I attended recently.
Romans 8:26-27 says: In the same way, the Spirit helps
us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray
for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with
groans that words cannot express. And he who searches
our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with
God's will. I believe that through the prayer of
intercession we yield our hearts to the Holy Spirit to
express the Heart of the Father.
Practically everyone at the prayer meeting came from
different cultures with varying degrees of accents. Yet
the beautiful thing was the unity in our expression of
the awesomeness and greatness of God. As we took turns
praying, each one of us acknowledged the power of God in
whatever we were praying on. The Lord Almighty, the
Creator of the heavens and the earth; to Him: Surely
the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are
regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as
though they were fine dust – Isaiah 40:15. This is
the same God to Whom “…All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be
– Psalm 139:16.” It was so easy to have the faith
that He will indeed bring to fulfillment all our
petitions. After all, is anything too difficult for our
God to do? For nothing is impossible with God – Luke
1:37.
Matthew 9:36-38: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the
Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into
his harvest field."
With intercessory prayer, I always get excited at the
privilege of being a co-laborer with the Lord of the
harvest. This prayer meeting was no exception. It always
amazes me that through my prayer, I am participating
actively in soul winning by asking the Lord of the
Harvest. Also, in the realm of the spirit we wage
war with the kingdom of darkness over the souls of the
lost to establish the victory Jesus won on the cross for
them.
Before I attended this prayer meeting, I was seeking
God’s direction about how the children ministry of my
church which I coordinate can effectively reach the kids
in the community. Through my discussion with a couple of
children pastors earlier in the day, I got so many ideas
about how to connect with the children in the community
in their schools and homes. With so many ideas and
questions on logistics twirling through my mind, I was
kind of stressed out mentally. Glory to God, as we
interceded, I receive a Word from the Lord which brought
peace to my heart. Even though I still do not have any
specifics, yet I have this deep assurance that the Lord
will lead us to do that which He has purposed for us.
Reflecting on this intercessory prayer meeting, I
realize we did not pray for any personal need. Yet I
left the prayer meeting with the heart that all my
personal needs were met. I believe this is what Jesus
was talking about when He said, “So do not worry,
saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?'
or `What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
as well – Matthew
6:31-33.”
Dearly beloved, last but not the least, I find that
participating in intercessory prayer keeps me focus on
what matters most to God: Souls. This is good, and
pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved
and to come to a knowledge of the truth – 1Timothy
2:3-4. It is so easy to allow the busyness of day to
day living to distract us from reaching out to the lost
and seeking first our Father’s kingdom. As we pray out
the Heart of the Father, we see the world through God’s
eyes and get strengthen to participate in establishing
God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
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Weeks of October
5 - October 18, 2008
Be careful to
obey all these regulations
I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you
and your children after you, because you will be doing
what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God
- Deuteronomy 12:28.
Recently I was meditating on submission. I believe most
of us do not have problems with submitting to God. But
when it comes to submitting to one’s husband as a wife,
or one’s pastor, or the government as God commands us in
His Word; then submission becomes an issue. This is an
issue that generates questions like: won’t I get hurt or
be taken for ride or taken advantage of? Questions like
those come up especially if we have doubts about the
character of those we are to submit to.
The
story of Sarah’s submission to her husband, Abraham came
to my heart. In both Genesis
12:10-20 and
20:1-18, Abraham asked Sarah to pretend to be his
sister so that his life will not be in danger. In
submission to her husband, she agreed. I believe she
must have trusted God to fight for her and He did.
Genesis
12:17 - But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household
because of Abram's wife Sarai. Also, Genesis 20:3-4 - But God came to Abimelech in a
dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as
dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a
married woman." Now Abimelech had not gone near her…
I think of the various set of
people I am to submit to. As a wife, the Word of God
tells me: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the
Lord – Ephesians 5:22. As a member of a local body,
the Word of God tells me:
Obey your leaders and
submit to their authority.
They keep watch over you as men who must give an
account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not
a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you –
Hebrews 13:17.
As a citizen, the Word of God tells me:
Submit yourselves for the
Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men:
whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to
governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do
wrong and to commend those who do right – 1Peter
2:13-14.
Though the issue of submission is scary because I think:
what if by submitting I get hurt or get taken advantage
of? Nevertheless, submission to my husband, pastor and
civil leaders are commandments of God and I know that
God will look out for me if I submit in obedience to His
Word. Deuteronomy 12:28 -
Be careful to
obey all these regulations
I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you
and your children after you, because you will be doing
what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God
assures me.
Let go back to Sarah, her submission had its root in her
hope in God.
1Peter 3:5-6
says, “For this is the
way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God
used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive
to their own husbands, like
Sarah, who obeyed Abraham
and called him her master…”
Like Sarah, I place my acts of submission on the
foundation of my trust in God. My attitude is that,
“Lord, I submit to this person in obedience to Your Word
and I trust you to look out for me.” Just like God
protected Sarah from Pharaoh and Abimelech, God will
protect me.
Dearly beloved,
“…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose –
Romans 8:28.”
It is well!
Back to top
Week of September
28 - October 4, 2008
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of
the LORD our God - Psalm 20:7.
Recently, we received some ballot documents in which we
were asked to vote for 4 candidates out of 8. None of
the names on the ballot were familiar, so we really did
not know what criteria to use to choose. Then I saw 4
sheets of paper which had the resumes of 4 of the
candidates. This is a no brainer, I thought: if these 4
were diligent enough to have their resumes included,
then they deserve our vote. Lo and behold, the next
morning, I saw that the resumes of the other 4
candidates were on the other side of the papers!
Unfortunately, it was too late to change our vote.
The
entire episode got me thinking about how we need to ask
for God’s intervention and favor in all we do. I thought
of Joseph when he was in prison and he interpreted the
dream for Pharaoh’s Cupbearer. Joseph said to the
Cupbearer, “When all goes well with you, remember me
and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me
out of this prison – Genesis 40:14.” The bible
records in Genesis 40:23 - The chief cupbearer,
however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
There
are many such examples in the bible that show us that
men are unreliable, and our strength alone is not
enough. When we put our trust in man or our abilities;
sometimes it gets us no where. That is why David said,
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we
trust in the name of the LORD our God - Psalm 20:7.”
I can
imagine those candidates thinking that their
achievements will be weighed against the others and the
best persons will be chosen. But that was not the case.
In this world, nothing is a done deal except for
the sure promises of God’s Word. As the rain and the
snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it
without watering the earth and making it bud and
flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread
for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my
mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for
which I sent it – Isaiah 55:10-11.
This
is why we need to seek God’s face and stand on His Word
in all we do. We cannot afford to leave our lives to
chance. No matter how straight forward the outcome of a
situation may appear, we still need God’s intervention
to ensure that everything goes well. David compared the
end result of those who do not trust in God and those
who do: They are brought to their knees and fall, but
we rise up and stand firm – Psalm 20:8.
Dearly beloved, let us invite God into every situation
in our lives: “For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Back to top
Week of September
21 - September 27, 2008
This
is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes –
Psalm 118:23 (KJV).
When
people have written me to let me know how what I have
written have blessed them, I give God all the glory.
This week I am sharing to the glory of God how what I
wrote last week have blessed me. You see, the origin of
the passage Joshua 10:1-14 was a result of God
ministering Joshua 10:13 (…The sun stopped in the
middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full
day) to my heart when my husband, Dele, and I were
discussing my admission to nursing school.
Since
I graduated from nursing school in May 2003 with an
associate degree and became a Registered Nurse (RN), I
had been undecided about whether or not I wanted to go
back to school to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing
(BSN). Actually, I got admitted to an American RN-BSN
online program in which I turned down the admission
twice! In recent times, the stirring to go back to
school came back very strongly. This time, I wanted a
Canadian education simply because it is more cost
effective.
An
option of nursing school which I have is a university
10mins away from where I live. To apply, I need to get
approval from the College of Nursing which usually took
3 months in which time the admission deadline would have
passed. Dele and I were discussing the need for a
miracle for me to get admitted when the Holy Spirit
reminded me how God stopped the sun from going down for
Joshua. I was excited: If God did that for Joshua, then
He could do the same for me. And yes, I need The
Lord Factor to gain an admission into nursing
school.
So
early this week, I was on the phone and internet finding
out about all the options available to me. I called the
university I was considering about my options and I met
a dead end. Then I remembered that someone had informed
me a while back about a Canadian university which
offered an RN-BSN online program. As I researched into
the program, I discovered that I could start doing the
courses immediately as a non-program student while the
admission process is going on. The Lord Factor
in this case was that the university reduced the
required credits from 60 to 45 and removed the clinical
component as of
September 1, 2008
- just 2 weeks ago! All these will save me money and
time, praise the Lord.
To
become enrolled in this program, I had to get an RN
license in Canada. And to have that, I needed to do the
RN nursing exam. I had been apprehensive about the
prospect of doing the exam because instead of the
multiple choice format of the US, the Canadian has the
short answer format. Lo and behold, I discovered that
for a period of 2 years (from February 2008 to February
2010), the Canadian Nursing exam is a multiple choice
format. This is plenty of time for me to take the exam.
Indeed, the Lord stopped the sun for me!
Dearly beloved, as of this moment, yours truly is now a
student. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous
in our [my] eyes – Psalm 118:23 (KJV). To God
be all the glory! Amen!
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Week of September
14 - September 20, 2008
There has never been a
day like it before or since, a day when the LORD
listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for
Israel! – Joshua 10:14
Early the week while
reading Joshua 10:1-14, the phrase The LORD
Factor was ministered to my heart. By The
LORD Factor, I mean God’s role helping us
overcomes the situations and circumstances we face
daily. Since this amazing discovery, as I began a chore,
I ask for The LORD Factor to come to play
and I have felt “a clearing of the path” as I go through
the chore.
Joshua 10:1-14
began with the king of Jerusalem and 4 other Amorite
kings deciding to wage war against the Gibeonites for
making a treaty with Joshua and the Israelites. The
Gibeonites sent for the Israelites to come to their aid.
Now The LORD Factor started in verse 8:
The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of
them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them
will be able to withstand you." God gave Joshua a
word of victory and you know God watches over His Word
to fulfill it (Jeremiah
1:12).
The second The
LORD Factor is in verse 10: The LORD threw
them into confusion before
Israel,
who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon…
God cause the enemies to become confused, therefore,
giving the Israelites an advantage to defeat them. The
next verse says, “As they fled before
Israel on the road
down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large
hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of
them died from the hailstones than were killed by the
swords of the Israelites – Vs 11.”
Another The LORD Factor sealed the victory
for the Israelites.
The rest of the
passage confirmed The LORD Factor in the
Israelites victory over their enemies.
On the day
the LORD gave the Amorites over to
Israel,
Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
"O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."
So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed
going down about a full day. There has never been a day
like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened
to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for
Israel!
Joshua
10:12-14
It was possible that
by their strength alone the Israelites might have
defeated the Amorites, but this possibility is a toss
up. With The LORD Factor in play, victory
was a certainty.
Dearly beloved, I
encourage you to invite The LORD Factor
into your situations. The LORD Factor not
only guarantees success, it also makes the success easy
to attain.
Back to top
Week of September
7 - September 13, 2008
The
Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the
feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights –
Habakkuk 3:19.
Recently I was feeling down about an unjust treatment I
received in an aspect of my life that I had been having
some challenges in. The feeling of failure was
threatening to make me just thrown in the towel and say,
“I give up.” Glory to God, I remembered the verse in
Micah 7:8 - Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I
have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the
LORD will be my light. Also, Proverbs 24:16 - for
though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises
again… was ministered to me.
Praise God, I had just read an article in the Word of
Faith Magazine for the month of September that said to
counteract negative thoughts with saying the Word of God
aloud. So I started to confess these 2 scriptures over
and over again. As I did that, my perspective on the
situation begin to change and I realized that my life is
NOT defined by my circumstances. Habakkuk 3:17-18
reinforced this fact: Though the fig tree does not
bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the
olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though
there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the
stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful
in God my Savior.
I was
so excited when I read the next verse: The Sovereign
LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a
deer, he enables me to go on the heights – Habakkuk
3:19. From feeling down to promise of victory – God
is indeed gracious. The commentary in The MacArthur
Study Bible that I read on this verse says: “God’s
response to Habakkuk’s perplexities… provided assurance
of divine favor and hope. Security and hope were not
based on temporal blessings but on the Lord Himself. As
the sure-footed deer scaled the precipitous mountain
heights without slipping…” Yes, the deer portrayed an
image of a fragile animal, yet it has been blessed with
sturdy feet to climb mountains without slipping. Then I
went to the dictionary to get the accurate meaning of
enable. Dictionary.com defines enable as “to
make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to;
authorize…; to make possible or easy…; to make ready;
equip…”
Another amazing thing this revelation did for me was to
change my mindset. I realized that because of the many
challenges I had gone through in this area of my life,
my thinking was one of ‘maybe or maybe not:’ if I
succeed, all well and good; and if I do not succeed, all
well and good. My actions and confessions had reflected
this thinking as well. The bible tells us in Hebrews
11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God,
because anyone who comes to him must believe that he
exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Also, God’s Word in James 1:5-8 can be applied as
well: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault, and
it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must
believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a
wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man
should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
Dearly beloved, putting everything together, I know that
God has granted me breakthrough in this aspect of my
life. Now I am excited about the breakthrough that I
have received and I am making a conscious effort to walk
in faith in that area of my life.
Back to top
Weeks of August
24 - September 6, 2008
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near – Philippians
4:5.
As I
read the bible passage – Philippians 4:4-13 in my
devotional material, the 5th verse jumped out
at me: Let your gentleness be evident to all…
(Philippians 4:5). And I remembered a prayer that I
prayed a few years back on being hospitable. Growing up,
I could not really recollect that many people staying
with my family, as a result, I was not use to other
people sharing my space with me. As it happened, my
husband was the complete opposite. When we got married,
it was very difficult for me to accommodate people
staying in our home. Then I met a dear sister in the
Lord who was so warm and hospitable, I noticed that she
made people feel very welcomed around her and in her
home. After some months of being around her, I wanted to
be like her: I wanted people to come to my home and feel
welcomed, I wanted to enjoy people staying in my home.
To the glory of God, now about 6 years later, I love
having people around me and staying in my home.
My
attention went back to Philippians 4:5 - Let your
gentleness be evident to all... I began to ponder
on the verse: Am I gentle? Is my gentleness evident to
everybody? Can people say I am a gentle person? What
exactly does the word ‘gentleness’ mean?
To the last question, I went to
dictionary.com to find out. Some key phrases about being
gentle stood out to me: not severe; to mollify, calm,
pacify; to stroke. The dictionary also stated:
"Gentle
has reference esp. to disposition and behavior, and
often suggests a deliberate or voluntary kindness or
forbearance in dealing with others:
a gentle pat; gentle with
children." In this
definition, the words deliberate
and voluntary
made me go back to the verse again:
Let your
gentleness be evident to all. In other words, it is
up to us to allow or permit our gentleness to be obvious
to other. People should be able to hear gentle words and
see actions of gentleness from us.
Many
times, we have made excuses when it comes to doing God’s
commands: it is not me, I do not have that kind of
personality, my background or culture is not that, etc.
As Christians, we are being built up “until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ – Ephesians
4:13.”
The
bible says in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Gentleness is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit which
is in us already. Therefore, it is possible for us to
grow in it. I believe God wants us to exhibit
gentleness, such as is obvious to
ALL the people we come in contact with.
Dearly beloved, if gentleness is not one of the
character traits that you exhibit, I encourage you to
pray and ask God to help you to be a gentle person.
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Week of August
17 - August 23, 2008
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all
we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at
work within us - Ephesians 3:20.
As the children minster in my church, I am privileged to
observe the behaviours of my children and have insights
into their family lives. There are certain things that I
felt needed to be addressed and corrected by their
parents. I had been contemplating how best to bring up
these issues with the parents concerned.
On Sunday during the child dedication segment of the
service, God gave me a whole new perspective on the
matter. In exhorting the parents of the child being
dedicated, my pastor read to them Deuteronomy 6:5-7
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be
in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children… (KJV). The word diligently
caught my attention and as I pondered upon it, I felt
convicted in my heart. I realized that, as a parent, I
had not being diligent in teaching my biological
children the ways of the Lord.
As a children minister for over 20 years, God had
deposited so much treasures of His Word in me to equip
me to diligently teach my biological children His ways.
The illustration that came to my mind was this: let’s
say God had blessed me with 1000 treasures but I had
only used 200 out of them to teach my children.
Meanwhile, maybe all God had given those parents I felt
I needed to counsel was 100 treasures to use to teach
their children and they had used 50 out of them. It
seemed like I had used more treasures, but doing the
math: I had used only 20% while they had used 50%. You
see, they are actually better parents than I am. From
everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded;
and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much
more will be asked – Luke 12:48.
I can tell you this was very humbling to me.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your
brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your
own eye? How can you say to your brother, `Let me take
the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a
plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the
plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly
to remove the speck from your brother's eye – Matthew
7:3-5.
Who am I to counsel someone who is doing a much better
job than me?
I realized that even the 20% of the treasures that I had
used was by the grace and mercy of God. Instead of being
critical of these parents (which I realized was what I
had done in my mind), I should lift them up in prayer. I
am learning that God is big and mighty enough to touch
the hearts of people. He does not need my meddling. I
believe if the Lord wanted me to speak to these parents,
it should be after I had lifted them up in prayer –
which I must confess I had not done then.
In real estate, people say the 3 most important
considerations are location, location, location. I am
learning in ministry that the 3 most important things to
do are pray, pray, pray. Through prayer, I discover the
mind of God, I see things the way God sees them, I keep
conforming to the image of Christ, God is able to move
and do His own thing in the lives of the people, the
serving is not burdensome, etc
Dearly beloved, let us be like Paul and proclaim:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his
whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I
pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen
you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in
love, may have power, together with all the saints, to
grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of
Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge
--that you may be filled to the measure of all the
fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all
we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and
ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
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Week of August 10 - August 16, 2008
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of
their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand
of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God,
until that he have mercy upon us - Psalm 123:2 (KJV).
On
Thursday, I went away outside the city about 1½ hours
drive away with a dear pastor whom I am “tapping into
her anointing” for a prayer time. I went with a big
expectation in my heart with no agenda whatsoever and
God proved Himself mighty and faithful. Before the
beginning of our prayer time, she explained to me about
separating oneself to enter into the presence of God.
She gave an illustration of how a family member is there
at home with us everyday but once in a while we need to
lay aside everything else just to focus our undivided
attention to such one. God is with us at all times, she
said, yet we need to separate ourselves from our daily
routines to spend time with Him. Sometimes we may be
able to do that in our homes; and other times we just
need to get away from our familiar places as we did.
As we
spent time worshipping and exalting the Lord, He laid a
scripture in my heart which I spent time meditating
upon. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the
hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD
our God, until that he have mercy upon us - Psalm 123:2
(KJV). Images of masters/mistresses and servants in
the old Roman era came into my mind. I saw the master
and mistress reclining and the servant standing at
attention waiting for a movement of hand from either the
master or mistress to give a specific instruction. I
also saw them walking on a busy road and the servant
ignoring all the distractions around them so that he
would not miss the movement of his master’s hand.
From
the meditating I did, I gathered the following:
- The masters and the mistress give instructions with
their hands
- The servants and the maiden need to focus their
attention on the masters and mistress hands so that they
do not miss an instruction
- The servants and maiden need to pay attention and not
be distracted in the midst of the things going on
- That shows they are always ready to serve and do their
masters and mistress biddings.
- Like the servants and maiden in that verse, so our
eyes wait upon the LORD our God – Psalm 123:2.
- TOTAL SUBMISSION
As I
pondered and prayed on the last point – total submission
or surrender, I felt so inadequate. My heart desired to
give all no matter the cost, yet my mind told me how
impossible this was. God is simply gracious – He
ministered to me that total submission is only possible
with His help. Jesus replied, "What is impossible
with men is possible with God – Luke
18:27." Psalm 139 begins with: O LORD, you have searched me and you know me (verse 1)
and ends with: Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is
any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting
(verses 23-24). Please take time to read the entire
Psalm 139.
You
know, I marvel at the goodness and graciousness of God
to us. God led me to intercede for all my children (both
biological and spiritual) – submitting them all totally
to His care. As I groaned and cried in the spirit, my
heart was filled with Psalm 139 being
personalized in each of my children’s life. I felt such
a relief and peace in my heart afterwards though I had
no idea about the specifics of what the Holy Spirit led
me to pray concerning them about. Yet that was totally
okay because God knew.
Afterwards, the pastor and I were led to pray for
specific individuals. It was amazing to watch how the
Spirit of God moved. As soon as someone or something
about someone was laid in my heart, she would voice out
the same thing; and vice versa. That was so exciting. At
the end of the over 5 hours of prayer time, we both felt
empty and yet so filled at the same time. Another
testimony was that I had no desired for either food or
drink during the entire period even though all I had
prior was a cup of coffee – fasting is one of the
challenges I am seeking to overcome.
Dearly beloved, I shared this experience not to brag,
but to encourage us to make time to get away from our
daily routines and spend time in God’s presence. But
they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint – Isaiah 40:31 (KJV).
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Week of August 3 - August 9, 2008
Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help us in our time of need – Hebrews 4:16.
Yesterday during a telephone conversation with a dear
sister of mine, she mentioned that she was reading a
book about dwelling in the secret place with God. She
said the author wrote that most believers go before
God’s with an agenda and as a result they do not
experience the Presence of God. That really struck a
chord in me: I was guilty of that.
Many
times I had gone before God with prayer lists. Most of
the times since there were no personal requests; I had
felt that it was okay and unselfish. Hebrews
4:16 says “Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help us in our time of need.” I need to have
confidence that God is awesome and loving enough to take
care of all my children (both biological and spiritual),
children ministry workers, families, friends and people
I usually pray for. He created them all and has them all
in the palm of His hands. If anyone of them needed
specific intercession, He will lay them on my heart and
the Holy Spirit is there to help me pray for them
according to God’s will. Wow, that was so liberating!
So I
laid down my prayer agenda and asked God to have His way
in my time with Him. After a time of worship, I felt led
to read the bible passage for the children class I was
teaching this Sunday – Acts 27: 1-44. The passage
is about the shipwreck Paul was in. Instead, of taking
Paul’s advice to stay put at Crete, the Centurion and
the ship captain decided to sail and they encountered a
great storm. Later on, Paul addressed the men on the
ship, “Last night an angel of the God whose I am and
whom I serve stood beside me and said, `Do not be
afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and
God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail
with you – Acts 27:23-24.'” New King James Version
says: …indeed God has granted you all those who sail
with you
– Acts 27:24.
In
recent times, God has been doing great things in my
church children ministry of which I head. To the glory
of God, all our workers love the Lord and the children.
Yet there were a few of the workers whom I felt needed
to step up and be part of the move of God in our midst.
As I read that God granted Paul the lives of all those
who sailed with him (Acts 27:24), I knew that I
was to petition God for all my workers - for His
anointing to minister His Word to the children in
everyway to come upon them. I decided “…from now on
[to] …regard no one from a worldly point of view
– 2Corinthians
5:16.” After
all ...it is God who works in you [us all] to
will and to act according to his good purpose –
Philippians 2:13. God is the same yesterday, today
and tomorrow; if He granted Paul the lives of the 276
men on board that ship, then He will grant me the
outpouring of His anointing to minister on each of my
workers.
After
this, God led me to pray some specific things for the
children in the class I will be teaching. You know I
ended up praying for my children and workers but
according to God’s will.
Dearly beloved, let us set aside our own agenda and
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help us in our time of need – Hebrews
4:16.”
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Week of July 27 - August 2, 2008
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of
Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and
trust is your strength…” - Isaiah 30:15
This
week, I am giving the praise report concerning the July
rally I shared about 2 weeks ago (see the Heart Word for
the week of July 13 – July 19, 2008). I want to thank
all of you who prayed along with me, God manifested
Himself in ways beyond comprehension.
Like
I shared the last time, all I knew at that point was
that we needed to change the venue from the school gym
to the big playground in the center of those 4 apartment
buildings. When I shared my heart to my Pastor about
this, he assured me that the church will take care of
getting the permission to use the playground. For almost
a week, the church made repeated efforts to get in touch
with the person in charge without success. Finally last
Thursday, we were informed by that person that it was
too late to get approval from the building board for the
Sunday rally. When I heard that, I thought, ‘Well I
tried Lord, maybe this rally was not meant to be.’
That
Thursday was a long day for me and I had decided to
sleep in the next morning. Lo and behold, the next
morning I was very wide awake by 5am! I knew in my heart
that the Lord wanted me to pray about the rally. All I
sensed in my spirit as I prayed was that I should go to
the playground during the day and so in the evening I
went there. As I sat on a park bench in the playground
praying, that was when it clicked in my spirit, ‘Yes! We
can still come here and share the good news.’
The
rally we had in June was held to minister the good news
and the love of Christ to our community kids and that
was our intention for the July rally as well. I thought
excitedly, we do not need all the activities we had
during the June rally to do that. We can simply come to
the playground and share the same good news and the love
of Christ one-on-one with the children and their
parents.
By
the time I left the playground that evening, I knew in
my spirit what we were supposed to do. Instead of a
Sunday rally, it would be a Friday evening good news
outreach. We would be in pairs: one person ministering
to the children and the other the parents. We would give
out construction pads and good news candies (a package
of the good news tract and candies) to the children.
One
of the scriptures the Lord ministered to me during this
period was Isaiah 30:15 - …in quietness and trust is
your strength… and it
encouraged me all through. From Sunday to
Thursday this week, it rained heavily everyday. We
needed a good weather for the good news outreach to take
place. During the week, I refused to watch the weather
channel; I was going to trust God for a perfect weather
for Friday. Praise God, the sun came out on Friday
giving us the perfect weather we needed.
On
Friday morning, I felt so nauseated that I threw up; I
had not been sick in a very long time. It was a
confirmation in my spirit that God had given us the
victory and the devil was just trying to set roadblocks
in the way. Immediately, I placed everyone participating
in the outreach under God’s protection. Later that
evening at church, we devoted about an hour to praying
for the outreach. In addition to exercising our
spiritual authority, one of the other things we prayed
for was for it to be easy to minister to the children
and their family. I was amazed at how many people who
were not members of the children ministry turned out for
the outreach.
At
the playground, the reception we got was great. As we
minister the good news to the children and adults there;
some gave their lives to Christ while the seed was sown
in the hearts of the others. The construction pads and
good news candies were a great hit. The initial set of
the children we gave them to went up to their apartments
to bring their friends. We spent over an hour at the
playground sharing the good news and the love of Christ
to about 10 times the number of children we had at the
June rally and their parents as well. The
feedback I got at the end of the evening was how easy it
was for us to minister to the children and adults.
Dearly beloved, through this experience I learned that
in quietness and trust is indeed our strength. Every
step of the way, God guided us and it was all so simple
and yet so marvelous that I knew that it had to be God.
To God be all the glory.
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Week of July 20 - July 26,
2008
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my
anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting - Psalm
139:23-24.
As I
continued in my “getting to know Jesus” through reading
the Book of Matthew, I read chapter 23 a
few mornings ago. That was a tough chapter: it was where
Jesus came down hard on the teachers of the law and the
Pharisees. Even though I felt I could not relate to it
yet verse 27 - Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed
tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the
inside are full of dead men's bones and everything
unclean – jumped out at me. I could not be that bad,
I thought to myself; and I dismissed the verse from my
heart.
Two
mornings later at the start of my quiet time with God,
the verse came into my heart again. Is God trying to
tell me something? Psalm 139:23-24 came to my
heart: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me
and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any
offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Ok, Lord, examine me. As I submitted my heart to the
Spirit of the Living God, it was NOT a pretty picture I
saw of myself.
God
dealt with me on certain issues. This gist of the matter
was that I had been portraying myself strong in certain
areas whereas I was actually very weak. I did like Jesus
told the Pharisees, “First clean the inside of the
cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean –
Matthew
23:26.” I
acknowledged those shortcomings before the Lord and
empty myself of everything in me, and then I asked the
Holy Spirit to fill me up. I had the best personal time
of worship in recent times.
I WAS
(past tense used because I am trusting God for change) a
very private person when it comes to revealing my
weaknesses. Most people who know me may find that very
hard to believe because I seem to be always so open and
positive. Even when I share a weakness, I frame it in
such a way it comes out as strength. Later that day, it
was very liberating sharing some of those details with a
very dear friend.
Paul
said in 2Corinthians 12:7-10 To keep me from becoming
conceited because of these surpassingly great
revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded
with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to
me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all
the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's
power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in
persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then
I am strong.
A
word of caution: what I am encouraging is NOT for us to
indulge in ‘pity party’ lifestyle or babbling out our
problems to everyone who cares to listen. We must always
acknowledge that we are work in progress in the Lord’s
hand. That means when God grants us victory in an area,
acknowledge and share it to encourage others. And if we
are still struggling in another area, we should be real
enough to also acknowledge and share it with another to
get help.
Dearly beloved, I pray the Lord will help us to be real
to Him, ourselves and to others.
Back to top
Week of July 13 - July 19,
2008
The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I
will give you rest - Exodus 33:14."
Recently, God impressed on my heart to change the venue
for my church children rally. We had done the first one
at a school gym and everything went smoothly. I was all
geared to start planning for this second one. As I was
praying for this rally, God ministered Matthew 4:23 -
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and
healing every disease and sickness among the people
and Matthew 9:35 - Jesus went through all the towns
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease
and sickness into my heart. I realized that at the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he went out to the people.
He made the connection with them in their own space –
"their synagogues."
During
the flyer distribution for the first rally, we had gone
to these four apartment buildings with a big playground
in the center, there we saw so many kids with their
parents. The image of the playground and the children
came to my heart as I meditated on the above verses in
Matthew. This playground was “their synagogue”
in this community. In the past, as soon as I believe God
wanted me to do something, I start planning. Being
organized is one of my strengths, so before you know it,
everything is all planned out and ready to go. But this
time around, apart from knowing the change of venue, I
have no idea what next.
One of
our Pastors, whom I had shared this with, called me to
encourage me to seek the Presence of the Lord for this
rally. As she prayed with me over the phone, the Lord
dropped Exodus 33:14 - The LORD replied, "My Presence
will go with you, and I will give you rest" into my
heart. As soon as the phone call was over, I grabbed my
bible and read the passage in Exodus 33:12-23. As
I read about Moses experience, I wanted to experience
the Presence of the Lord in my own life.
The
very next morning, during our church TV program – It’s
your Destiny (on Vision TV every Friday at 7:30am); one
of the guests being interviewed said that when God calls
you to do something, just rely on His presence to go
with you and you will experience rest. Exodus 33:14
was being confirmed again.
Later
that evening at a prayer service during the worship, in
which this same Pastor was leading, she encouraged us to
go beyond the outer court and enter into the Presence of
God. The passage in Exodus came back to me and I
said what Moses said to the Lord, “Show me your glory
– Exodus 33:18.” Based on the next verse, I started
listing the goodness of the Lord in my life. A short
while after, I felt led to open my bible to that
passage. Lo and behold, Exodus 33:19 says:
And the LORD said, "I will cause all
my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim
my name, the LORD, in your presence.
Wow,
the Lord said, “He will cause all His
goodness to pass in front of Moses.” It was not Moses
who is to mention the goodness of God; therefore, it is
not my place to start recounting the goodness of God.
When I got this revelation, I asked God once more to
show me his glory and I kept my mouth shut. All of a
sudden, I was sobbing uncontrollably. I was just so
overwhelmed with the goodness of God. I sensed the
Presence of God so strongly.
I know
that God Himself will cause His goodness to be made
manifest and will work out the logistics of the rally.
This is a new experience for me: not being in my
planning and very organized mode, and seeking God’s
Presence. Based on the Pastor’s advice, I am spending
time praying in the Holy Spirit. I believe that God will
reveal to me by His Spirit what He would have us do in
this rally. You know something, I am totally at peace
and also very expectant that God is about to do mighty
things in this rally.
Dearly
beloved, I have shared what is in my heart this week so
that you can pray along with me. Thank you.
Back to top
Week of July 6 - July 12,
2008
"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and
power, for you created all things, and by your will they
were created and have their being – Revelation 4:11."
This
week, I am sharing with you an e-mail a dear sister
forwarded to me about Rick Warren. The quote below really
ministered to my heart deeply and I believe this is what
the Lord would have me share this week.
Dearly beloved, please
read and be blessed.
“When
I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and
say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I
want to know You more and love You better. God didn't
put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more
interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're
called human beings, not human doings.” – Rick Warren
Rick
Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE ' PURPOSE DRIVEN
LIFE'
) You
will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with
his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from
the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short
interview with Rick Warren,
'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback
Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick
said:
People ask me, what is the purpose of life? And I
respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for
eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God
wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the
end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to
spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the
warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to
practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure
that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now,
you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready
to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in
your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He
is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not
the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in
Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but
also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go
through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop,
back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that
it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at
all times you have something good and something bad in
your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is
always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is
always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your
problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into
self-centeredness, ‘which is my problem, my issues, my
pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is
to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of
hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to
heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has
strengthened her character, given her a ministry of
helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her
closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad
of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is
harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden,
when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me
instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had
to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money
or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life
of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this
money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different
passages that helped me decide what to do, II
Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not
change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major
purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking
a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we
call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders,
assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next
generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in
the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it
all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for
free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for
possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness?
Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's
purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my
bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done
today, I want to know You more and love You better. God
didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
God's Blessings on you today.
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Week of June 29 - July 5,
2008
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon
son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in heaven - Matthew 16:16-17.
In
recent times, God has been stirring up my heart about
the end time harvest of souls into the kingdom of
God. I realize that it is
time to stop playing church and being focused on me. I
am realizing that it is all about Jesus and reaching
souls. Times are getting worse and souls are stumbling
into hell everyday. For the earth will be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters
cover the sea – Habakkuk 2:14. God is moving in
these last days and we need move with Him if we don’t
want to get left behind. Revelation 7:9 paints a
picture of the end result: After this I looked and
there before me was a great multitude that no one could
count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…
Whether or not we participate in this end time harvest
of souls for the kingdom of
God,
God’s purpose will stand.
These
are the days that we must as believers know who we
serve. And a few days ago, the Lord confirmed this by
opening my eyes to see Matthew 16:16-20 in a new
light. A couple of verses before, Jesus asked His
disciples who do people say He was. They gave Him
various answers and then he asked them who they say He
was. Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by
man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you
are Peter… - Matthew
16:16-18.”
Two
major things were ministered to my heart. First, it is
in knowing who Jesus is that we know who really are in
God’s sight. If you are familiar with the life of Peter
during the time of Jesus’ ministry on earth, you will
know that he was impulsive and cowardly on occasions.
Here was Jesus declaring that he was a rock (the
footnote in NIV says that Peter means rock). When you
think of a person as a rock, you picture a solid, stable
and consistent individual. Peter did not display any of
these qualities then. But, glory to God; in the Book of
Acts after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he truly
lived up to his name Peter – the rock.
With
regard to this end time move of God, as you get to
really know Jesus, you will realize that when he walked
the earth, he was all about reaching the people.
Matthew 9:35-38 says: Jesus went through all the
towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every
disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to
his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers
are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send
out workers into his harvest field." His command to
us is: "Go into all the world and preach the good
news to all creation – Mark
16:15.”
And he assures us in John
14:12: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me
will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater
things than these, because I am going to the Father.
The
second thing God ministered to me about Matthew
16:16-18 is that it is God who can really reveal
Jesus to us. It is totally possible to go to a bible
school or even be in ministry and not know who Jesus is.
Take Peter for example, he got the revelation of Jesus
as the Son of the living God and a few verses down, he
did not recognized that Jesus suffering and death was in
line with God’s will. In fact, Jesus rebuked him for not
having in mind the things of God. So we see that in our
natural self, we cannot know the things of God.
1Corinthians
2:11 says: For who
among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's
spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the
thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
I believe when we allow the Spirit of God to continually
reveal Jesus to us, we will know who we are and what our
role is in this great end time harvest.
Dearly
beloved, these are the end times; God’s purpose will
surely come to pass. How great and wonderful it is to be
a part of it. Ask the Holy Spirit to daily reveal Jesus
to you so that you can be one of the “workers into
his harvest field – Matthew
9:38.”
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Week of June 22 - June 28,
2008
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him – John 14:23.”
This morning when I read Matthew
14:22–36, I knew this was what I was to share this
week. The key message I got is about Jesus meeting us at
our different points of faith. Then when I asked the
Lord for the scripture for the week, He directed me to
John
14:23 -
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him.”
Wow, I
thought, this seems to be a contradiction of the message
I got. John
14:23 is telling us that Jesus loving us and dwelling in us is dependent
upon our obeying His teaching; whereas Matthew
14:22-36 is reassuring us that Jesus is there to
meet us at various faith levels. How do you reconcile
both messages, I asked the Lord. The answer is in
John
14:22 -
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do
you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
Judas had asked Jesus why the privilege
of knowing Him is restricted to His disciples alone. In
1Corinthians 2:6-16 -…We have not received the spirit
of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may
understand what God has freely given us. …The man
without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,
and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually discerned; Paul explained Jesus’ answer
to Judas question. As believers, we have the privilege
of being able to obey God’s Word.
Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, we have
to obey His word as revealed to us in the bible by the
Holy Spirit. And as we do that, we will experience the
love of God and He will abide with us. It seems that our
walk with God is depended on us. Glory to God, this is
only one side of the coin.
The
other side of the coin is that regardless of our points
of faith, Jesus is always there for us. Let’s look at
Peter experience with Jesus on the lake. Jesus was the
One who approached them: during the fourth watch of
the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake –
Matthew 14:25. When Peter got all excited and wanted
to exercise his faith, he asked Jesus to bid him come
and Jesus said, “Come.” "Lord, if it's you," Peter
replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come,"
he said – Matthew
14:28-29.
Peter
actually walked on the water until he removed his eyes
from Jesus to the winds of circumstance around him. As
he began to sink, he cried out to Jesus to save him.
Matthew
14:31 stated: Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught
him. At Peter low point of faith (Jesus called him,
“You of little faith – Matthew
14:31”),
Jesus was still there for him.
You see, Jesus met Peter at his points of
faith. When Peter was all excited to exercise his faith,
Jesus was there for him and when he failed in his faith,
Jesus was still there for him. Dearly beloved, God is
there for you at your high, middle, low and all the in
between points of faith as you love Him and obey His
teaching.
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Week of June 15 - June 21,
2008
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd
– Matthew 9:36.
During
the week, I traveled to New York City and got back home
last night much later than scheduled because I missed my
initial flight. This morning as I reflected on my trip
back, I realized that there were 3 people whom I could
have said hi to and possibly initiated
conversation with but did not even throw a smile their
way. I felt very much convicted as I read Matthew
chapter 9 this morning. Matthew recorded that people
came to Jesus and in each instance; he had something to
offer them. Even when He initiated contact as He did
with Matthew, He did not come empty (see the Scriptures
below). Verse 36 sums Jesus encounters up,
“When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
I
thought of my personality type: I am only very outgoing
when I am in my comfort zone. Throw me outside of my
comfort zone, and I tend to withdraw and keep to myself
unless I feel I have no choice. Of course, coupled with
that, I had missed my scheduled flight out of NYC and I
was feeling tired. But all those are no excuses. I have
made a decision to know Jesus and be like Him. In
Acts 10:38, it was recorded that
“…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good
and healing all who were under the power of the devil,
because God was with him.”
Do you
know that not much was recorded about Jesus before He
was baptized with the Holy Spirit? His ministry did not
start until “…the Spirit of God descending like a
dove and lighting on him – Matthew
3:16.” Look
at Acts 10:38 again:
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit
and power, and how he went around doing good…
It was after the anointing with the Holy Spirit and
power that He went around doing good. The Holy Spirit
defined Jesus personality and directed his actions.
Praise the Lord, we have same Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit personality is what we have to put on and
exhibit.
One
aspect of the Holy Spirit personality is love;
Galatians
5:22 - But the fruit
of the Spirit is love…
And “…God has poured out his love into our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us – Roman 5:5.”
Regardless of our personality types and circumstances,
we can be channels of passing across God’s love to those
around us. Going back to
Matthew 9, what Jesus offered each person was
different, yet He met the needs of each one. You know, a
smile, a greeting, a kind word maybe just what is
needed.
Dearly
beloved, there is a dying world out there in need of
God’s love. Let us see people with Jesus eyes (when
he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them… - Matthew
9:36) and allow the love of God to flow through us to them.
Scripture verses about Jesus encounters
Matthew 9:2 - Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying
on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
Matthew 9:9 - As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man
named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth.
"Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and
followed him.
Matthew 9:14-15 - Then John's disciples came and asked
him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your
disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered, "How can the
guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?
The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken
from them; then they will fast.
Matthew 9:18-19 - While he was saying this, a ruler
came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has
just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she
will live." Jesus got up and went with him…
Matthew 9:20-22 - Just then a woman who had been subject
to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and
touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If
I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." Jesus turned
and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your
faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from
that moment.
Matthew 9: 28-30 - When he had gone indoors, the blind
men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that
I am able to do
this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. Then he touched their
eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done
to you"; and their sight was restored.
Matthew 9:32-33 - While they were going out, a man who
was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to
Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who
had been mute spoke.
Matthew 9:35 - Jesus went through all the towns and
villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the
good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and
sickness.
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Week of June 8 - June 14,
2008
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come - 2Corinthians 5:17!
God is simply awesome! During last week’s
mid week service at church, my Pastor ministered on
revival. He said revival is all about Jesus: falling in
love with Him and remaining consistently in love with
Him. Hearing that, I prayed to God that I desired to
know Jesus more and fall in love with Him all over
again. This week, God laid it on my heart to start
reading the Gospels, so I started with Matthew
chapter 1.
Jesus’ linage comprises of so many flawed
men and women: Judah who impregnated his daughter in
law, Rahab a prostitute, Bathsheba who was involved in
an adulterous relationship with David and was not even
mentioned by name but referred to as Uriah’s wife,
Manasseh one of the worst kings of Judah, etc. Matthew
recorded in Chapter
1:18, “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before
they came together, she was found to be with child
through the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit came into the picture and the entire
equation changed! The Holy Spirit’s DNA in Jesus
overrode all his flawed human ancestry. He was able to
exhibit God’s traits here on earth even though he was a
man.
The revelation I got is that as
believers, though we come from different backgrounds and
with all sorts of garbage but at that point we received
Jesus as our Savior we become new creatures.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come - 2Corinthians
5:17! The bible also tell us, “Having believed, you were
marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who
is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance… – Ephesians
1:13-14.”
That means regardless of our flawed past, when we
received Jesus, the Holy Spirit was given to us and the
equation changed as well. We are able to live for God
daily, glory to God!
The bible tells us to “…be filled with
the Spirit – Ephesians
5:18.”
With this powerful revelation, I asked the Holy Spirit
to fill me up. To the glory of God, I sensed the
Presence and leading of the Spirit of God with me
throughout the entire day.
The other thing that happened is that I
am seeing Jesus in a new light. You know, he walked this
earth and he “…suffered when he was tempted, [so]
he is able to help those who are being tempted – Hebrews
2:18.” He loved me so much that He left all the
glory of heaven, put on the form of a man, was filled
with the Spirit of God and live a sinless life. All
these He did to be an example to me for me to know: yes,
it is possible to live for God daily. Indeed, I am in
love with my Savior, the Lover of my soul. I totally
yield to the Spirit of God. And I worship and give all
the glory to my Father in heaven.
Dearly beloved, let us return to our
first Love and fall in love all over again.
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Week of June 1 - June 7,
2008
Therefore, since we are surrounded by
such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us - Hebrews 12:1-2.
Praise the Lord! This morning, I finally
completed reading the Daily Bible in Chronological Order
(365 Daily Reading) with devotional Insights which I
started March 2007. It took me 15 months to complete the
one-year bible! This was because I did not read the
bible some days or read only a part of it some other
days. Of course, I played catch up once in a while,
reading 2 or 3 daily readings in one day. There were
some part of the bible which I found kind of “boring” –
like Leviticus and the first part of 1Chronicles. There
were other parts which seemed kind of difficult to
understand like some of the books of the prophets and
the book of Revelation. But you know what, in addition
to God’s specific ministrations to me throughout His
Word, I got an overall view and appreciation of the Word
of God.
As I reflect on the past 15 months of
reading that bible, I think of our faith walk in Christ.
Our ultimate goal is to conform to the image of Christ:
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining
to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ –
Ephesians 4:13. In our faith journey, many times we
stumble, but God upholds us. If
the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps
firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD
upholds him with his hand – Psalm 37:23-24.
Though it took me 15 months to finish
what I was supposed to complete in 12 months, yet I
rejoice that I actually completed it. In our walk in
Christ, circumstances and challenges rise up to
discourage us. Sometimes, we get frustrated with our
progress and may just want to give up. But know this:
God does NOT give up on you. Therefore, if God will not
give up on you, you have no right to give up on
yourself.
Paul encourages us in
Hebrews 12:1-2 - Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Dearly beloved, it is not how fast we run
our Christian race that is important, but that we
“run with perseverance the race marked
out for us.”
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Week of May 25 - May 31,
2008
His
divine power has given us everything we need for life
and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us
by his own glory and goodness – 2Peter 1:3.
Ever
since we moved to our home over a year ago, the
electrical outlets in the 2 upstairs bathrooms had not
worked. We had gotten use to this fact and usually use
extension plugs in the bathrooms. Recently, the lights
in the basement bathroom did not come on. My husband,
Dele, fiddled around with the main electrical panel to
no avail. About a week later, I got an inspiration that
the problem may have to do with a reset switch I had
noticed on the electrical outlet in the basement
bathroom. Lo and behold, I pressed the button and the
lights came back on!
The
next day, we invited some guests over for dinner. Dele
mentioned to one of them who has his own construction
business about the lights in the basement bathroom not
working (I had forgot to tell him about the little
miracle of the reset switch). Of course, when they got
downstairs, they found the lights were working. Then
Dele told him about the problem with the 2 upstairs
bathrooms. Our guest looked around the house to find the
Circuit Interrupter or GFI (that is what the reset
switch is called) for the bathrooms. He found the GFI in
the powder room and simply pressed the reset switch.
Amazing, the electrical outlets in the bathrooms became
functional! To think we had lived in our home for over a
year not able to use the electrical outlets when all we
needed to do was to press a reset button!
It
occurred to me that the same situation happens in our
lives as believers. God’s “divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through our
knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness - 2Peter 1:3.” Jesus said, “…I have come
that they may have life, and have it to the full – John
10:10.” Yet we
go through life with some form of lack or the other.
Just
like my family had adapted to the bathroom electrical
outlets not working by making do with extension plugs;
in the same way as believers we have found coping
mechanisms outside of God’s Word to get through
situations. I think of the invalid by the pool of
Bethesda who met with Jesus the Healer and all he asked
for was to be assisted into the pool. Jesus did much
more than that – He healed the man.
One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight
years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that
he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked
him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid
replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when
the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in,
someone else goes down ahead of me. "Then Jesus said to
him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the
man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked - John
5:5-9.
God
desires to do the same thing in each and every one of
our lives. He has given us His Word so we may enjoy life
to the fullest. Through these he has given us his
very great and precious promises, so that through them
you may participate in the divine nature and escape the
corruption in the world caused by evil desires - 2Peter
2:4. Therefore, we must not be satisfied with
anything less than God’s best for us.
Dearly beloved, know this: He who did not spare his
own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not
also, along with him, graciously give us all things? -
Romans 8:32.
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Week of May 18 - May 24,
2008
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through
and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it -
1Thessalonians 5:23 – 24.
Last week, I read a Christian historical novel, Danzig Passage
(the 5th book in the Zion Covenant) by Bodie
& Brock Thoene. There was a German pastor who was
imprisoned by Hitler’s regime for supporting the Jews,
all sorts of torture was tried on him to make him deny
his faith in Christ and support Hitler’s anti-Jewish
policies. One of the methods employed was to threaten to
torture and kill his 2 children. God strengthened his
heart by reminding him that his children were saved and
if they were killed, heaven awaits them.
After reading this novel, I pondered upon the pastor’s situation
and his faith. I asked myself, if it was me in such a
situation, would I show that kind of faith? Sometimes, I
jokingly refer to myself as a creature of comfort:
I consider sleeping on a hard surface a form of
hardship! Here was this pastor living in the most
inhumane environment and was willing to continue in it
for the sake of Christ. As I thought of the various
scenarios which may threaten my faith in Christ, I
realize that it is not by my power or might that I am
running this Christian race but by God’s grace.
I am where I am today in Christ simply by God’s grace. I
know beyond a shadow of doubt that God has been gracious
to me. I also know “The one who calls you [me]
is faithful and he will do it - 1Thessalonians
5:23
– 24.”
I rest in His grace. I am confident that “No
temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he
will also provide a way out so that you can stand up
under it – 1Corinthians
10:13”
Dearly beloved, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through
and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it -
1Thessalonians 5:23
– 24.”
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Week of May 11 - May 17,
2008
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you
not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and
streams in the wasteland - Isaiah 43:18-19.”
It is
becoming a trend in my family that when we are unable to
fall asleep, we browse through the Christian channels on
TV. This time, it happened to my husband, Dele. The next
day, he shared with me that he listened to Pastor Joel
Osteen who shared about change. Pastor Osteen gave a
powerful illustration about a dog his family had when he
was growing up. Whenever there was a thunder storm, this
dog would go to a particular spot in their garage to
weather out the storm. After a while, this dog was given
to another family about 10 miles or so away who had a
bigger house. One day there was a thunder storm and he
saw this dog running in the rain towards his home. The
dog ran about 10 miles just to come to that same spot in
his garage.
Dele
said that Pastor Osteen likened some believers’ behavior
to that of his old dog: resisting change when confronted
with challenging situations. You see, in a little corner
in my heart, I had always wanted to go back to the US
ever since we moved to Canada. America was a place that
I liked, had gotten comfortable with and things in my
life while we were there were going according to
plan (my plans as I have come to realize). And
every so often, when things are not lining up, I start
wishing I was back in the US. Immediately, I got
convicted in my heart: I was like that
dog.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do
you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and
streams in the wasteland – Isaiah 43:19.
This
is an exciting time in my life. Just this week, I got
liberated in my spirit to embrace God’s plans for the
children ministry outreach in my church which I
coordinate. Also, I am making great strides in my home
based business. Indeed, God is doing new things. I
realize that if I want to see the fulfillment of the
great stuff God has started, I must not harbor any
resistance. God’s Word says, "Forget the former
things; do not dwell on the past – Isaiah 43:18.”
I
think of Joshua and Caleb who gave a good report when
the other 10 spies brought back a negative report (Number
13). Even at the start of their mission to spy out
Canaan, God reaffirmed His promise, ‘The LORD said to
Moses, "Send some men to explore the
land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites… – Number 13:1-2."’
Just like the children of Israel encountered giants in
Canaan, I know challenges will come up in the children
ministry outreach and my business. Based on the
revelation, I got through Pastor Osteen illustration; I
also know if I do not get rid of that longing to go back
to The US, I can easily be like those 10 spies.
Glory
be to God, come challenges, I will declare like Joshua,
“The land we passed through and explored is
exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he
will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk
and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel
against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of
the land, because we will swallow them up. Their
protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be
afraid of them – Number 14: 7-9.”
Dearly beloved, in each and every one of our lives, God
is doing a new thing. See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a
way in the desert and streams in the wasteland – Isaiah
43:19. Whatever resistance to change you may be
having, get rid of it by God’s help. Embrace God’s plans
for your life. Go forth and conquer!
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Week of May 4 - May 10,
2008
For physical training is of some value, but godliness
has value for all things, holding promise for both the
present life and the life to come
- 1Timothy 4:8.
During the winter months, I told myself that once the
weather turns warm, I will begin running outdoors. Now
we have a summer-like spring, I find myself in front of
my computer all day. The little time I spend outdoor on
my swing set reading a novel (by the way, that’s my idea
of paradise), I can’t help but feel guilt that I should
be running like I planned. As a result, I started
running on my treadmill after a long break from it. Most
mornings, I get on that treadmill, not because I feel
like running, but because I know that I should. I feel
more energetic, guilt-free to laze around outdoor and
hopefully lose the few pounds I have gain over the
winter.
This
morning as I read Paul’s letter to Timothy in
1Timothy 4:8 - For physical
training is of some value, but godliness has value for
all things, holding promise for both the present life
and the life to come;
I thought of my time on the treadmill and the benefits
of it. As I meditated on this scripture, I realize that
we can apply the same thing to spiritual things like
reading our bible, praying, serving God, and going to
church, etc.
We have various admonitions in the New Testament on
these things:
Jude 1:20 - But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most
holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 12:2 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God's will
is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Ephesians 6:7 - Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were
serving the Lord, not men.
Hebrews 10:25 - Let us not give up meeting together, as
some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one
another--and all the more as you see the Day
approaching.
One
thing you will notice about the above scriptures is:
they are all commands for us. I believe God’s commands
to us are very do-able and require conscious efforts on
our part to carry out. For most of us working out or
exercising is not easy to start or even to maintain. But
we do it anyhow because we know that there are benefits
to be derive from it. As believers, we need to do
spiritual workout which
“has
value for all things, holding promise for both the
present life and the life to come.”
Dearly beloved, let us start today to engage in spiritual exercise
to build up our spiritual muscles. Ask God for His help
in getting started and keeping at it. Just like with
physical exercises which you need to make time for on a
regular basis, the same hold for these spiritual
exercises. You may not see the results immediately
(which is same for physical exercises) but if you keep
at it you will not be disappointed.
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Week of April 27 - May 3,
2008
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of
God rather than burnt offerings - Hosea 6:6.
In the Our Daily Bread which I read this morning, the
author wrote about how Queen Vashti “didn't want to
compromise her character by being reduced to a piece of
property (Esther
1:10-12).” This was the first time I would read that Vashti was
the one being disrespected. According to Esther
1:18 - This very day the Persian and Median women of the
nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will
respond to all the king's nobles in the same way. There
will be no end of disrespect and discord;
it was the king who felt insulted.
As I meditated upon this passage, Hosea 6:6 - For I
desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God
rather than burnt offerings came to my heart. And I
remember the story of the adulterous woman who was
brought to Jesus (John 8:1-11). Jesus response
was “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the
first to throw a stone at her – John 8:5.” Yes, she
was a sinner and deserved to be stoned according to the
Law, yet Jesus showed her mercy.
It is so easy to be judgmental. Yet if we learn to put
ourselves in other’s people’s shoes, we will find it
easier to have compassion on them. I am not saying that
we should condone sin; Jesus did not excuse the woman.
In fact, he told her, “Go now and leave your life of
sin- John
8:11.” We should look beyond other people failings and
shortcomings to see them the way God see them.
Next
time before you start focusing on others weaknesses,
remember: For in the same
way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you – Matthew
7:2. Dearly beloved, let us ask God for the
grace to be merciful to others.
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Week of April 20 - April 26,
2008
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall
continually be in my mouth - Psalm 34:1 (KJV).
At the beginning of this week, I started to feel some sort of
weariness in my spirit. It did not help matters that I
had a running stomach. I was feeling weak both in my
spirit and my body and I was struggling not to succumb
to the weakness. It was with great expectation that I
looked forward to the mid-week worship at church so that
my spirit would be refreshed.
Initially, in the worship, I was so focused on being refreshed
that I kept repeating, “Lord, please refresh me.” Of
course, I was NOT getting the refreshment I long for.
Praise God, midway into the worship, our Pastor started
encouraging us to focus totally on worshipping God that
in doing so is our breakthrough. At that same moment,
the Spirit of the Lord confirmed this by reminding me of
Psalm 22:3 - But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of
Israel (KJV).
Yes, that was it - the Lord inhabits the praises of His
people! That was why the Psalmist wrote in Psalm
16:11 - You have made known to me the path of life; you
will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal
pleasures at your right hand. When we praise God, we
entered into His Presence and in His Presence is joy. At
that point, I set aside my weariness and concentrated on
worshipping God. At the end of the worship, I felt so
refreshed and strengthened in my spirit man and body.
Indeed …the joy of the LORD is your [my]
strength – Nehemiah 8:10.
As I look back on that experience, I realized two
things. One, we need to constantly get our minds
renewed. Those scriptures which God dropped in my heart
to encourage me were bible verses that I knew. Yet
sometimes when circumstances get to us, we don’t
remember God’s Word and therefore do not apply it. Two,
there is power in congregational anointing. That is why
Paul enjoins us in Hebrews 10:25 - Let us not give up
meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but
let us encourage one another--and all the more as you
see the Day approaching.
Dearly beloved, if you are in a low place in your life, do not
despair. Turn to the Lord in praise like the psalmist
and say, “I will bless the LORD at all times: his
praise shall continually be in my mouth - Psalm 34:1 (KJV).”
In praising the Lord is your strength and breakthrough.
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Week of April 13 - April 19,
2008
Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and
power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created -Revelation 4:11 (KJV).
Yesterday, a dear sister sent me a video clip which
really blessed me. Then last night my husband, Dele,
shared a conversation he had with a friend who was
complaining about his life’s circumstances and was
feeling depressed by them. Dele gave an analogy that God
dropped in his heart. He said there were 2 men who went
to the car garage to service their cars. One had a
Mercedes Benz and he paid about $600 for service fee,
while the other man who had a Toyota Corolla paid about
$60. The Mercedes owner started complaining about such a
high bill to the Toyota man and said he wished he had
only $60 service fee. The
Toyota
man turned to him and said, “I have been praying about a
day when I will own a Benz and paid $600 to service it.”
My husband told his friend that the reason the Mercedes
owner paid $600 was because God blessed him with a Benz
and for him to wish that he was paying only $60 meant he
wished for a reduction in his blessing. Of course, that
got Dele’s friend to start counting his blessings and
giving thanks to God for them; his depression
evaporated.
Lo
and behold, as I got on my computer this morning,
another dear sister of mine sent me Nick Vujicic’s
testimony on video (the link is below – I enjoin you to
take the time to watch it). I was amazed at the goodness
of God in our lives. Nick is a 24 year old man with no
limb who has been and is still going all over the world
sharing the good news of Jesus. The video showed clips
of a day in Nick’s life (he is highly independent) and
an interview. What stood out to me during the interview
was that with each reply, Nick always gave glory to God
and had words of encouragement for the listeners. At the
end of the video, he said something like this,
“Circumstances do not have to change for us to have a
miracle; it’s our hearts that has to be filled with the
Holy Spirit.”
Wow,
that hit me like a brick! The word of God says, “Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and
power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created -Revelation
4:11 (KJV).”
Also, 1Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to
God, that you may declare the praises of him who called
you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” No
matter who we are or how we are, we are created in God’s
image and for His pleasure and glory. The psalmist knew
this and he wrote, “I praise you because I am
fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well – Psalm 139:14.”
Indeed, the Lord is good and His mercies endure for
ever.
Dearly beloved, if you need encouragement, please take
the time to count your blessings and give glory to God
for them. I really think Nick’s testimony says it all.
Nick’s testimony on video
http://www.wretch.cc/video/ ritahsia&func=single&vid=2282608&rpage=2&p=0
Website that has more info about Nick Vujicic
http://disabilitiesministries.com/nick_test.htm
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Week of April 6 - April 12,
2008
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal
encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and
strengthen you in every good deed and word -
2Thessalonians 2:16-17.
This
week, God had been ministering to me about seasons of
refreshing. I was reading Acts 18:9-10 where God
spoke to Paul in a vision saying "Do not be afraid;
keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you,
and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I
have many people in this city." For about a period
of 3 years after that Paul experienced a
persecution-free time to preach the good news and teach
about the kingdom of God. Meanwhile, just two chapters
before, he had been beaten and thrown into Jail with
Silas.
Then
the next day after reading about Paul, God gave me the
opportunity to minister encouragement to a dear sister
of mine. At the end of our conversation, she said, “I am
going home to sleep without worry and I will wake up and
go to work.” The next day she forwarded an e-mail a
girlfriend of hers sent her. That e-mail had words of
encouragement and the most amazing floral pictures to
cheer up even the most depressed soul. As I looked at
the pictures and read those words, all I could think of
is that she is truly a beloved of the Lord. Imagine
going to bed with such images and waking up to a
glorious morning (it was a bright and sunny day).
And
this morning I read 2Thessalonians 2:16-17 - May our
Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved
us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and
good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in
every good deed and word. I started thinking of how
good and gracious God is. Even though negative
circumstances come, yet God is able to see us through
and change such in the twinkle of an eye in His own
perfect timing. God is in the business of doing good.
Cast all your cares upon Him today and rest in His love
and grace.
Dearly beloved, like Paul wrote in 2Thessalonians
3:16, “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in
every way. The Lord be with all of you.” Amen.
Back to top
Week of March 30 - April 5,
2008
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven –
Matthew
6:10.
This
morning as I was praying about the children ministry of
my church which I coordinate, asking God to help us know
and do His will concerning it; God ministered to me
about following Heaven’s Blueprint. So many great
changes have taken place to God’s glory and it is easy
to implement good ideas instead of God ideas.
I was
ministered to about the building of the tabernacle. God
commanded Moses, “Have them make a sanctuary for me,
and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and
all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show
you – Exodus 25:8-9.” If you take the time to read
Exodus 25 – 30, you will be amazed about how
detailed the building instructions God gave to Moses
were. In Hebrews 9:24, this tabernacle was
referred to as “a man-made sanctuary that was only a
copy of the true one;” hence my term heaven’s
blueprint.
As I
pondered on this, it hit me that if Moses could hear
from God such details about the tabernacle construction,
then it is possible for me to hear from God about what
to do concerning the children ministry and other aspects
of my life. After all, He is the Lord and He changes
not: He is the same yesterday, today and forever more.
I
know that as I pray and commit all ideas that come to me
to the Lord, He will lead and guide me. He will guide me
along His own ideas and stir me away from good ideas. I
am really excited based on these scripture that when I
can walk in heaven’s blueprint for my life.
Dearly beloved, do not think walking in heaven
blueprint is unattainable or it is only for the
special spiritual giants. I believe this is why Jesus
told us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven – Matthew
6:10.” You
may not always get such details instructions like Moses
did, but you can “Trust in the LORD with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths
straight – Proverbs 3:5-6.”
Back to top
Week of March 23 - March 29,
2008
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in
me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me
you can do nothing – John 15:5.
This week, God has laid in my heart a
message of encouragement concerning the gifting He has
blessed us with. Have you ever wondered about what it is
God has called you to do? Or if you are utilizing the
gifting God has placed in you? Or if maybe you could be
doing much more? Or if maybe you are effective at all in
being a blessing to others through your gifting? At
different times in our lives, we ask ourselves these
questions. Unfortunately, our answers
get us
discouraged
most of the time. Be encouraged, you are not alone.
I remember some years back I struggled
with knowing what God’s calling on my life was in
addition to children ministry. Then God gave me the
scripture in Romans 12:8 - if it is encouraging, let
him encourage. That excited me because so many
events and relationships in my life added up. Knowing
that I am called as an encourager, I expected a
situation where I minister to multitudes of people, you
know become a mega motivational speaker. Lo and behold,
that was not happening and I was getting frustrated.
Then God dropped 1Corinthians 12:7 and
11 into my heart - Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common
good… All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
I realized that the one person God may bring my way
to encourage is priceless. If that person becomes
encouraged in his/her walk and service in the Lord, that
person goes ahead to be a blessing unto another person.
Who knows, maybe that person will become that mega
motivational speaker.
Remember the parable of the talents in Matthew
25:14-30. Again, it will be like a man going on a
journey, who called his servants and entrusted his
property to them. To one he gave five talents of money,
to another two talents, and to another one talent, each
according to his ability – Matthew 25:14-15. Note
the last part: the master gave each servant according
to his ability. Also, Romans 12:6a says, “We have
different gifts, according to the grace given us.”
God in His wisdom knows His plan for our lives and how
we fit into the bigger picture of His kingdom.
Are you
a stay home mom feeling that you are stuck with raising
children instead of being out there serving God in
spectacular ways? Or do you have a demanding job that
requires a lot of your time? Or are you simply
struggling with so many issues that seem not to have an
end? Be encouraged, my brothers and sisters, God knows
your situation.
Know
that God is more interested in you as a His child more
than in your service to Him. Focus your strength on
drawing close to God, on growing in your fellowship and
relationship to Him. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you
are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him,
he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing – John 15:5.” It is by staying connected to
the Lord that your gifting will find fruitfulness.
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Week of March 16 - March 22,
2008
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and
not faint – Isaiah 40:31 (KJV).
Last
week Sunday, I attended Household of Faith (RCCG) in
Arlington, Texas where Pastor Mike Bamiloye ministered.
His main scripture was Isaiah 40:31 - But they that
wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and
not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (KJV).
The New International Version says, “But those who
hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will
soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow
weary, they will walk and not be faint - Isaiah 40:31.”
He gave an illustration on soaring on wings like the
eagles which I was hearing for the first time. He
said that an eagle waits for the wind to fly and it
flies in the direction of the wind. That is why the
eagle glides and does not flap its wings.
Pastor
Mike likened that to a Christian who flows with the move
of the Holy Spirit. Such a Christian will not expend
unnecessary energy. He went on to say that the key to
being led by the Spirit of God is to wait on God: move
only when God’s Spirit says to move.
As I
sat there listening to Pastor Mike, I started thinking
about the different aspects of my life. On each aspect,
I ask myself, “Am I gliding with the Holy Spirit
or flapping about based on circumstances?” I
asked myself, did I wait on God to do this or that?
When I
think about waiting on God, the first thing that comes
to my mind is spending time praying (and fasting) about
something I need God’s direction on. It was very
liberating when he gave another scripture:
Proverbs 3:5 and 6 - Trust in the LORD
with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he
will make your paths straight.
Part of
waiting on God, I have come to realize, is to commit our
way to God and trust Him to lead and guide us. Since
Sunday, I have been conscious of the course of my daily
events and I discovered that as I commit my ways unto
the Lord, I have been soaring on wings like the eagle
through those events.
Dearly
beloved, God is gracious and He desired that we
soaring on wings like the eagle. Therefore,
in all your ways acknowledge him, and
he will make your paths straight - Proverbs 3:6.
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Weeks of March 2 - March 15, 2008*
* - I will be away from my
computer until March 15. Please bear with me.
God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom he has given us
- Romans 5:5b.
This
morning my daughter shared with us her thoughts on
1John 2:7&8 - Dear friends, I am not writing you a new
command but an old one, which you have had since the
beginning. This old command is the message you have
heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is
seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and
the true light is already shining based on the
Precious Seed (a daily devotional material she uses)
which she had read the night before during her quiet
time with God:
“It’s actually really funny because this
morning I saw a pack of Sun Chips in the vending machine
at school and it had a new packaging. And this
devotional talks about repackaging. Repackaging is just
when a product or company gets a new look. The product
stays the same, but the package just improves.
The passage talks about repackaging love.
Walking in love isn’t new for us Christians, it is an
old command. The product here is love and the packaging
would be us. We need to advertise the love we have in us
in a newer, more improved way so we can send out the
best message of our product as possible.”
As she
read the last sentence, Romans 5:5b - God has poured
out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he
has given us was ministered to my heart. We have the
love of God in our heart which shows through our words
and actions. Yet sometimes, the words we say and the
things we do not accurately portray that love regardless
of our loving hearts.
I
believe this is where the repackaging comes in. We need
to ask ourselves, how best can we express this love in
our hearts? Sometimes, it may mean apologizing even
though we are in the right. This takes humility.
Sometimes, it may mean that we go back to the person and
re-express ourselves in another way either through our
words or actions or both. This takes wisdom.
I
believe this repacking is what Jesus meant by saying,
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar
and there remember that your brother has something
against you, leave your gift there in front of the
altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then
come and offer your gift – Matthew
5:23-24.”
Dearly
beloved, let ask God for the spirit of humility and
wisdom to repackage our love so that, “we can send out
the best message… as possible.”
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Week of February 24 - March 1, 2008
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace – Ephesians 4:3.
During the week, I had a discussion with a friend about
Christians generally leaving churches. In my two and
half decades as a Christian, I have seen Christians
leave churches for many, many different reasons and the
way they have left. Some have left the church properly
and some improperly. I believe the biblical way to leave
a church is to be sent forth. The most obvious
example of this is seen in the account of Barnabas and
Saul in Acts 13:1-3 -
In
the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers:
Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen
(who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and
Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting,
the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and
Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after
they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on
them and sent them off.
The last verse says, “They placed their hands on them
and sent them off.” A modern day scenario would be
that the pastor and the entire church are informed and
the departing Christians are brought out in front of the
congregation and prayed for. This shows that there is no
offence or disagreement involved.
Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 4:2-6 - Be completely
humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another
in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and
one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when
you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one
God and Father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all.
I
believe the starting point is seeking God’s face before
we commit to being part of any local church. When God
leads us to become a member, there is a plan and purpose
involved. And when it is time for us to leave, it will
also be because God has other plans for us. One thing we
have to realize is that the Spirit of God is One. If it
is truly God’s desire for us to leave, the pastor and
the members of the church will also have the same
witness.
It
is easier to just get up and leave a church than to
resolve whatever the issue is. As Christians, we need to
purpose in our hearts that offence, disagreement or hurt
will not drive us away from a church. There are no
perfect churches; in fact, a minister once said, “The
only perfect church is a church that you are not
in.” Therefore, there is bound to be disagreements in a
church once in a while. Yet that should not discourage
us but we should allow such to build our character,
letting the fruit of the Spirit be manifested in our
lives. If offence occurs, stay and resolve it.
Dearly beloved, as a member of a local body, we have the
responsibility to “Make every effort to keep the
unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace –
Ephesians 4:3.”
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Week of February 17 - February
23, 2008
…So
that the body of Christ may be built up until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ –
Ephesians 4:12-13.
This past week, I read the book of Nehemiah, which
surprising was the second to the last book of the Old
Testament in my Chronological Bible. The commentary by
F. LaGard Smith at the beginning of the book was that
Nehemiah “completes his primary mission within six
months of receiving his commission from the king!”
So
the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in
fifty-two days – Nehemiah 6:15.
This amazing feat surprised even their enemies: When
all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding
nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence,
because they realized that this work had been done with
the help of our God – Nehemiah 6:16.
How did this happen?
There was division of labour. Read the whole of chapter
3 for the full account.Eliashib
the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and
rebuilt the Sheep Gate… The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the
sons of Hassenaah… The Jeshanah Gate was repaired by
Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah…
Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired
the next section; and Hananiah, one of the
perfume-makers, made repairs next to that… Next to him,
Malkijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as
the house of the temple servants and the merchants,
opposite the Inspection Gate, and as far as the room
above the corner; and between the room above the corner
and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and merchants made
repairs – Nehemiah 3:1-32.
This got me thinking. These people who worked on the
wall and gates of Jerusalem were living in the city
before Nehemiah came to town. Why had the wall and gates
not been repaired before this time? I realised the key
was in Nehemiah’s leadership. He came with God’s help
and motivated the people to do what they were suppose to
do.
I remember an advice my pastor gave me on January 18,
2007 shortly after I became the editor of our Church Magazine. He said, “Do
not use people around you to get your vision done.
Instead release a well in them by causing their gifting
to come out. Let your team member follow you to grow and
not just to serve.” I believe this sums up what Nehemiah
did with the builders.
In Ephesians 4:11- 13, Paul wrote:
It
was he
[Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be
prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining
to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Also
in 1Thessalonians
5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build each
other up…
For each one of us, not just leaders,
we should desire to bring out the gifting in our
brothers and sisters.
Dearly beloved, let’s strive to be like Nehemiah to
those around us “so
that the body of Christ may be built up until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son
of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ – Ephesians 4:13.”
Back to top
Week of February 10 - February
16, 2008
My
message and my preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the
Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on
men's wisdom, but on God's power - 1Corinthians 2:4-5.
These verses put into words for me my heart’s desire for
a while. You see, I know and I experience the goodness
and graciousness of God. I say it all the time, “God is
good” and “God is gracious.” Mainly due to the
encouragement of my Pastor to go to the next level as
the coordinator of our Children Church, I started to
desire to know and experience God as powerful.
Indeed, God is good and gracious to us in our Children
Church: we are seeing positive changes and numerical
growth in our children, have faithful and dedicated
workers with hearts for children, and have established
the strong organizational structure we needed. Now I
desire that God be so real to our children. As I read
1Corinthians 2:4-5, my spirit shouted, “Yes! Yes!!
Yes!!!” That is it. My heart’s cry to God is that as we
minister to the children, our words will go beyond wise
and persuasive but come forth with a demonstration of
God’s power so that our children’s faith will rest on
God’s power.
Another thing my Pastor has been admonishing me about is
on being prayerful and I ponder on how do I pray and
what do I pray for concerning the manifestation of God's
power. Since Paul wrote these words in 1Corinthians
2:4-5, what kinds of prayer did he pray? So I did a
scan through Ephesians and Colossians (see
below for the scripture references). A common trend in
these prayers is for us to know or have knowledge. The
scripture in Daniel
11:32
came to my heart -
but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and
do exploits (KJV).
Part of the conclusion I have come to about experiencing
the power of God, is that I need to know God. Based on
other things God has been ministering to me, another
conclusion is that I need to walk in expectation of
God’s power.
Scripture references on Paul’s prayers
I
keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, so that you may know him better – Ephesians
1:17.
I
pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
in order that you may know the hope to which he has
called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in
the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who
believe - Ephesians 1:18-19.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in
love, may have power, together with all the saints, to
grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of
Christ, and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all
the fullness of God - Ephesians 3:17-19.
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we
have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill
you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual
wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that
you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please
him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God – Colossians 1:9-10.
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Week of February 3 - February 9, 2008
Since,
then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to
persuade men - 2Corinthians 5:11a.
In the
Bible passage I read this morning, 2Corinthians 5:11a
- Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we
try to persuade men jumped out at me. After reading
this scripture, I ask myself, how hard do I try to
persuade people? Do I really know what it is to fear the
Lord? Why was Paul able to make this declaration?
To get the answer, I went to what Paul
said in the earlier verses: …we make it our goal to
please him, whether we are at home in the body or away
from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for
the things done while in the body, whether good or bad -
2Corinthians 5:9-10. Paul had a goal - which was to
please Christ; and he knows that after leaving this
earth, he will answer to the Lord.
A few verses down, he gave the key to
fulfilling the goal. For
Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that
one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died
for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised
again - 2Corinthians 5:14 -15.
God
ministered Matthew
9:36 - When he
[Jesus] saw the crowds, he had
compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd to my heart.
My simple definition of compassion is love in action.
Tying these scripture together, I believe that the fear
of God that will motivate me to persuade or reach out to
people has to do with the love of Christ.
Pondering on these scripture and their
application to my life, I realize that I fall short and
I feel kind of sad. But I know that this is one of those
times that I need to keep praying and holding on to God
to work out His Word in my life.
Dearly
beloved, I hope this message has got you thinking and
praying as well. Let us not get discouraged but realize
that this is a process and hold on to the fact that
“it is God who works in you to will and to act according
to his good purpose – Philippians
2:13.”
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Week of January 27 - February 2, 2008
For God
did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of
power, of love and of self-discipline. 2Timothy 1:7
Ever since we moved to North America, I
dread winter especially after having two auto accidents
during this season. Last year as the winter season
approached, I became afraid of driving in the snow or ice.
I had decided that once there was any snow or ice on the
roads, I was staying put at home regardless of wherever
I needed to go to. As I started making plans for
alternate arrangements for my various commitments
outside of my home, I realized I was allowing the spirit
of fear to get a grip on me. Then God laid 2Timothy
1:7 - For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but
a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline -
on my heart. I knew God wanted me to come out of that
winter driving bondage. Right there and then, I received
this Word and resolved that I was not going to allow the
weather to dictate my movements.
I got this Word on Saturday night; lo and
behold on Sunday morning, I woke up to the first snow
storm of the season. It was like the devil was out to
test my faith. As I got ready for church, I kept
confessing that For God hath not given us [me] the
spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind – 2Timothy 1:7 (KJV). To God’s glory,
still confessing 2Timothy 1:7 non-stop, I drove
in that snow storm all the way to church. God is
gracious; when I got to church, my Pastor’s sermon was
based on Isaiah 26:3 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth
in thee (KJV).
This strengthened my faith even more as I
realized that because I kept my mind on God by repeating
2Timothy 1:7 continuously, I was not scared
driving in the snow storm on my way to church.
To God’s glory again, I testify that I
have not had to cancel any appointments because of snow.
Another interesting discovery is that I love shoveling
snow. I actually look forward to snow falling because I
get to shovel the snow afterwards. I found out that snow
shoveling is good exercise and it’s the only time I do
not feel cold when I am outside.
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Week of January 20 - January 26, 2008
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your way and my thoughts than your
thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
Finally, as I completed my reading of the Book of Job, I
thought about how fortunate I am to see the whole
picture. Repeatedly, Job expressed his desire to plead
his case before God. Then Job replied: …If only I
knew where to find him; if only I could go to his
dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my
mouth with arguments – Job 23:1-4.
At
the end God appeared to Job and demanded of him, “Who
is this that darkens my counsel with words without
knowledge? …Will the one who contends with the Almighty
correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him - Job
38:2 & 40:2!" By the time God finished asking Job
all those hard questions, his response was repentance
and surrender.
Then
Job replied to the LORD:
"I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, `Who is this that obscures my counsel without
knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
"You said, `Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:1-6
As
I meditated on these passages, I realize that I cannot
put God in a box. My circumstances, good or bad, have a
higher purpose that goes beyond me. After all, it is
written in God’s Word: "For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the
LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts – Isaiah 55:8-9.
No
matter what happens, I can rest assure that God is good
and trust Him unreservedly. Just as God worked out Job’s
life that his end was better than his beginning, I know
that “…in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose – Romans
8:28.”
Dearly beloved, know that God loves you and that He is
in control of your life.
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Week of January 13 - January 19, 2008
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned
with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Colossians 4:6
This week, I had been reading the book of Job. In the
past when I read the Book of job, I did not really
understand when God rebuked Job’s friends for not
speaking the right thing about Him, what He meant.
After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to
Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two
friends, because you have not spoken of me what is
right, as my servant Job has – Job 42:7.
Now reading the dialogue between Job and his friends, I
realize that what God was talking about. You see, Job
maintains that he is righteous and does not understand
why God is punishing Him. His friends respond by
pointing out that bad things only happen to evil people
because God is righteous. Of course, they do not know
what went on in the spirit realm between God and the
devil.
So
far, in what I have read of the book of Job (up to
chapter 24), his friends did not out rightly say that
Job was evil. Yet Job takes their words very personal.
Then Job replied: "How long will you torment me and
crush me with words? Ten times now you have reproached
me; shamelessly you attack me – Job 19:1-3.
This got me thinking about what I say to people and how
I say things to them. Do my words edify others or does
it pull them down? Paul admonishes us in Colossians
4:6 “Let your conversation be always full of grace,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer
everyone.” The devil is the accuser of brethren and
I do not want to help him do his job. I desire to be one
who builds others up with her words.
Dearly beloved, let us purpose in our hearts to take
Paul advise to “…encourage one another and build each
other up… - 1Thessalonians
5:11.
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Week of January 6 - January 12, 2008
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every
morning; great is your faithfulness – Lamentations
3:22-23.
Practically every Sunday, my Pastor says, “It is a new
season.” Early this week, I was talking with my son and
he asked me why Pastor says that and how can it be
possible to have a new season that often? To him, a new
season is when something major happens in one’s life,
like going to college (he is in high school now).
I
told him that he should see beyond the physical
definition of seasons as referring to winter, spring,
summer and fall. I explained to him that a new season is
whatever new thing God is doing in one’s life. Since God
does new things in our lives practically all the time,
then we have a new season in our lives every time.
This morning, I shared this conversation with my Pastor
and he said that a new season has to do with the state
of our hearts and mindsets. As long as God touches your
heart and cause your mindset to change, then you are in
a new season of your life. He quoted 2Corinthians
4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly
we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed
day by day.”
Dearly beloved, it is by staying connected to God that
brings about changes in our mindsets for the new season
to manifest in our lives.
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Week of
December 30, 2007 -
January 5, 2008
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I
have come that they may have life, and have it to the
full – John 10:10
As
we enter the New Year, I would like to share with you one
of my favorite passages which I happened to read this
morning for my Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14. On
one of the occasions that I have read this passage,
Ezekiel "non-committal" reply have stood out for me. When
God asked him, "Son of man, can these bones live
(Ezekiel 37:3)?" He replied, "O Sovereign LORD,
you alone know (vs. 3)." Sometimes, when we are not
sure of God’s will in a particular situation, this is a
trusting way of declaring, “Lord, let your will be
done.”
But we should not stay in that place. God commanded
Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones. From Ezekiel’s
obedience, we know that his faith level has gone up one
step. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I
was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound,
and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and
tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered
them, but there was no breath in them – Ezekiel 37:7-8.
In
our walk with the Lord, sometimes we are unsure of the
will of God in a particular matter. Like Ezekiel, our
safe and trusting response should be to seek God’s will
on what ever it is. I am sure during this year 2007, God
has proven Himself mighty on our behalf on various
occasions. Let us draw on those experiences and go a
step further in faith.
God’s Word says, The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full – John 10:10. There are
positive things in our lives that have died regardless
of whether it was deliberate or accidental death. Let us
hold on to John
10:10
and speak life to those situations.
Dearly beloved, God’s will for you is to have life and
have it more abundantly. Be an Ezekiel and prophesy life
unto all dry bones in your life and watch God bring them
to life. Have a Blessed New Year.
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