Monday, March 16, 2015

2 Thessalonian 1: 2-5

2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.
4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: 
5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

What is the manifestation of a growing faith?

In most churches, people are just talking about faith and not practicing it. In fact, Christians are becoming more like scholars than Christ-like. Real faith is now an extinct part of churches and Christians.

Paul talks about a growing faith and the abundance of love. Why? Because there is a direct link between the two. You cannot separate real faith from love. Faith produces love, and love produces faith. If you love the Lord, you will learn to have faith in Him; and while your faith grows, you will learn to love more.

So love is the manifestation of faith?

Yes, but love is a very broad term.

Loving the Lord is more than enough. Some would mistake love to the Lord as to their giving to the church. Some would even mistake it with their soulwinning efforts. And so on.
 
This should be the case. Loving the Lord is more than that. It involves the entirety of a person’s life. It involves the “everything” of a person.

If we want our faith to grow, we ought to learn to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, strength.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Exodus 2:23-25

23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob

25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Last week I had a big problem to consider. I was talking to my friend and he asked what was my problem. I couldn’t really talk about my problem that much. I am the kind of person who keeps the problem for myself only. I don’t want others to feel what I feel.

And he told me this: Sir, for every problem I had, you were there, and I can feel the pain you are suffering from. Just tell me for I am more ready to help you.

There I understand that someone cares for me aside from my God. I understand that someone hears my groaning other than my God. Yet, I know that my God’s ears are better and His words are more tender and comforting.

Often times, we tell others of what we feel and what we think, but we failed to tell our God. We miss the whole point of faith and life. Instead of giving God our praise  by telling Him our problems and groanings, we prefer to tell our friends, our neighbors or some other people. This is an insult to the Lord’s power.

It is the best time to reconsider our ways. Let us understand that God remembers the pain we are suffering from. Always bear in mind that He remembers His covenant He promised the day we accepted His dear Son.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Acts 5:40-42

40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 

41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

During the revival of Wales, mission-minded Christians stretched forth their effort to India, which by then was a colony of England. Back in the 19th century, Welsh missionaries preached the glorious gospel of Christ to the people of Assam. Among those who got saved and converted to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ was a family who faithfully guarded the truth they had received from the Lord.

When the family was called before the village chieftain for the renouncement of their faith, the man defended the gospel of Christ and refused to renounce his faith.

While the archers aimed at his wife, the man faithfully and courageously said, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” His wife died in that instance. The persecutor proceeded to take his two boys’ life, but the man said, “The world behind me, the cross before me.” Now that was alone and the chieftain threatened to take his life, the faithful father answered his persecutors and sang, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow..”

Throughout the history of Christianity, believers were persecuted in countless horrible means. Some were beheaded for their faith; some were put in stake for keeping their trust on Christ; and some others were tortured for their belief on the gospel of Christ. Truly, there are millions who died for the preaching of the gospel.

Christians, let us labor till the Master comes without wavering and without doubt. It may not be today that our labor be rewarded, but someday, yonder, beyond the shore, we will meet our Lord, and our rewards are with Him. Let us not go weary in the works of love for we labor not in vain.

Be encouraged to serve the Lord. Do your ministry faithfully without fear. We can only be soldiers of Christ if we are not afraid to give our lives up for the One who died for us to translate us from darkness unto light.

Matthew 13:44

44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

There are striking realities in this passage of the scripture. Let us try to dissect this text into its elements and forms.
  • Treasure. The Kingdom of heaven is likened into heaven, and we found this is consistent to all other illustrations of Jesus Christ. We see in this text that the treasure, which is heaven, is hid in a vast area, the field. It must be understood that heaven is hidden from the view of the world. We can’t see the treasure because of the world’s covering.Now, in contrast, the Bible says “all that he hath”. It does not consider “all that he hath” as a treasure. It just simply categorizes “all that he hath” as the possession of the person. Therefore, we can’t consider wealth as a treasure of PERMANENCE, but just mere possession we can have for a MOMENT.
  • Man. The man found the treasure hidden in the field, and he hid it again. The greediness of the man is very imminent. We do know that it is not his field, but he did not inform the owner of the field that a treasure is hidden in there.
  • Action. And here we find the action of the man. It was a foolish act. When he found the treasure, he could have seized it, brought it home, and perhaps, sold it. He already found it. I did not mean to say he should steal it, but bringing it home or telling the owner of the field is the most sensible thing to do. But he did not do it. He just hid again.

    The next thing is worse than ever. He sold all that he hath, all the possession he had, to buy the field. Hey, the treasure was for free already. He could have it without selling his possession, but he sold his possession to buy the field and to gain the treasure.

    In so like manner, many people tried to get into heaven by buying it. It should not be case. Heaven is free, and you can use your possession to make that treasure worth it all.
Let us be reminded today that our greediness sometimes hinder us from the true blessing of the Lord. Because we don’t want to give, we lose everything in the process of gaining something that is already free.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Luke 21:1-4 

1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.  
2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 
3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 
4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

I know of a Christian who stopped going to church when the pastor preached on giving. Giving is a very hot topic in the church, and even tithing. People are not accustomed to such subject that they would do everything to avoid it.

But here in our text for the day, we see an example of giving. I will not dwell on the rich man’s gift, but on the widow’s mite.

The Bible says she casts all her living in to the offering box. And when the Bible says ALL, it means everything. Nothing’s left to the widow. Nothing for her to survive the next meal, and nothing for her to survive life. Everything was cast into the box.

Whatever happened to her, that we don’t know. Was she able to eat the next meal? Was she provided food?

 The Bible is silent.

Yet we see the most appealing example of giving. She gave her all.

Does Jesus care for her that she survives? Of course, Jesus is always concern about what we eat and what we wear, He is even concern over the hairs of our head. Certainly, Jesus wants the widow to have food the next meal.

But why the example of giving everything? It could have been that Jesus said that the widow gave one mite and have the other for her survival. Yet Jesus is more concern on what we give Him than what we have. It does not mean He is not caring for us. It only means He wants us to trust Him come what may. He wants us to give everything for us to trust him in anything. By then, God will be able to work on our lives.

I am certain the widow was able to eat, survive, and enjoy life. Why? Because she trusted the hand of the living God who fails not.