John 5:24-30New King James Version (NKJV)Life and Judgment Are Through the Son24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. People, there is judgement. Don't act like a judge in your life. As believers of Jesus Christ we believe that one day He will come again and judge, for the unbelievers their sins and for the believers their works. It says in v28 "Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming." Are you still confused? Being confused of this world?I heard a preaching saying that we people will always justify our lifestyles. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ we have to make sure that our lifestyles actually match our belief. We should have a life reflecting the values of the bible. We should have a life where in people can see Jesus in us. But what if as believers our lifestyle doesn't match our belief? There are two ways we can actually solve this. 1. You will change your lifestyle to match your belief. Surrender fully to God and turn away from your old life. 2 Corinthians 5:17New King James Version (NKJV)17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. This is the way it should be. We turn away from our old self and be new person for God. We can not believe a holy, just and faithful God and live our life the other way around. Sadly, most people will do the second choice. 2. You will change your belief to justify and fit your lifestyle. People will most of the time leave the church because they can not do what they previously enjoy doing or they will quit out of shame for still doing the same old habits on mondays to saturdays and worship God on sundays. Sometimes they will find a religion that can actually justify the desires of their flesh claiming that they are not doing anything wrong this religion says its ok. There are some christian churches also nowadays that are hypergrace churches wherein grace is misused as an excuse for us to sin thinking ahead of God that they can sin and do this they will still be forgiven. Friends, life is not a game. We should not play on life. It's either you will really surrender to God's will for you or you be the captain of your own ship. You choose but there is judgement at the end. Think about it. Would you be that someone who will only experience this heaven on earth enjoying the world and at the end of life be in hell for eternity. Or, would you rather be a person that only experience this world as a temporary refelction and small percentage of hell and enjoys heaven for eternity? Who will you be? Matthew 6:24New King James Version (NKJV)24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. How many times you go and browse your facebook account? Your instagram? How long do you spend watching tv shows or series in youtube or movies? How often you actually browse the internet just to watch other people's lives or bother about the shows that doesn't even concern you or the world? Have you asked yourself how much extra times you have besides work and family time and church works? We have 365 days in a year, 12 months in a year, 30 days in a month, with 4 weeks, with 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, with 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. How much do you give back to God? How long do you actually set apart just to have a nice conversation with the Creator of time. He don't demand so much just enough to give you strength day by day! What is so hard about it? Seek Him everyday it will make one day extraordinary. If you ever feel like you have an LDR (Long Distance Relationship) with God, ask yourself, i believe it's you not Him. Jeremiah 29:13New King James Version (NKJV)13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. "FREEWILL", is such an overused word. If we want to say something whether good or bad we will insist of freedom of speech. If we want to justify our lifestyle and do whatever we want we will make an excuse and say: "this is my life, I can do anything with it. I am the captain of my own ship!" When Our teachers asked us to do something it must have a reasonable reason. When our bosses asked us to do something we will always make sure it is relevant to our work and within our scope of job. When our parents asked us to do something we often ask: "Why?"Life is full of questions. You have full of choices: What? When? Why? How? If God ask you to join Him in the promise land? What will be your respond? Salvation has always been offered freely. Enjoying life with God has been an open invitation since the world started. But it boils down again to that word: "freewill!" It will remain our choice if we want God in our life. For those who haven't said yes to the invitation of Jesus to put Him in the center of your life and accept His offer of everlasting life by believing that He is your Lord and Saviour the time is now! Is it yes or no? I said yes to Jesus 6 years ago and it has been an exciting journey with the Lord and I never regret that decision. If you are now a believer and already tasted how good it is to be in the presence of the Lord. What more can I say to convince you to make yourself available to God so like how others have shared to you the Gospel before you yourself will be able to do the same thing for those who haven't hear the Good News. God is calling now! Isaiah 6:8New King James Version (NKJV)8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” We are humans and we are not perfect only God is but it should not be an excuse for us not to try to live life in the most possible way of following the character and foot steps of Jesus our Lord. We often hear the excuse of I am not God, I am not perfect when people fall, fail and commit mistakes. True, logically we will still fail but in every failure we have to accept it and move forward from there with the thought of not doing the same thing again in the manner of repentance for us to be able to grow and mature in faith. We can never attain perfection but in our daily walk with God, as we mature in faith it comes also with the age of wisdom. If you are truly abiding in the Lord you will be inspired always to get better and live better and better. Aspire to be a better man always. Don't stop growing in your Christian life. Ephesians 4:13-15New King James Version (NKJV)13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ--
This is exactly what will happen to us if we missed out dating God in daily basis, if we don't pray and worship God in every day of our lives. It doesn't mean we are doing Works for God we are meeting God daily. Sometimes, actually often times when we are busy doing things for God we forget our God. Ate Rizza from the kids once shared this to me: "when we do works for the kingdom of God we should not forget the King." Nothing is wrong with sticking your tongue and working hard for your ministries. But if you got so tangled up with that but you have not met God personally and did not even talk to him in a daily manner you are no difference with those who doesn't do any work at all and don't talk to God. Find that balance and never ever neglect to be in the presence of the Lord. Luke 10:38-42New King James Version (NKJV)Mary and Martha Worship and Serve38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’[a] feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus[b] answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Have a blessed week ahead..😊😊😊 #prayer #challenge #christianlife #timetoponder Life is meaningless and vanity according to King Solomon if we do things not for God. He have tried everything under the sun in his pursuit of happiness; but he went searching under the sun, the things of this world because he became so distant from God until he had that realization that everything is empty and blank at the end if we don't have God in our life. Solomon himself went through everything in his own experiment in life and teach in the bible for us to not repeat the same thing. Wisdom! Some of us might climb the ladder of success thinking that it is what is fulfilling to do in life and at the end of the ladder it is so disappointing to discover that we have climbed the wrong ladder, after that long climb. Wisdom! Ecclesiastes 1 New King James Version (NKJV)The Vanity of Life1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 “Vanity[a] of vanities,” says the Preacher; 3 What profit has a man from all his labor One generation passes away, and anothergeneration comes; The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, The wind goes toward the south, All the rivers run into the sea, All things are full of labor; 9 That which has been is what will be, Is there anything of which it may be said, There is no remembrance of former things, Book of ecclesiastes(please read the whole book) Jesus saw a multitude of sick and needy in the pool of Bethesda on the sabbath waiting to be healed and it is very interesting for Jesus to ask one sick man for 38 years to be healed. John 5:6-7New King James Version (NKJV) 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” That place is full of sick people waiting for angels to stir the water for them to be healed. A belief that also steal their attention and petition to God. Then Jesus seeing a hopeless man who don't even have anyone to help him be placed in the water, asked him: "Do you want to be made well?" If you will be that man would you be puzzled? Of course i want to be made well! That is exactly why I am here. But then, Jesus is asking because he needs to know if he really needs to be made well by God? The salvation has been offered to many but then did they really want to be saved? Healed by God? Many years of depression, unforgiveness and lifestyle of sins maybe bondage of 38 years or less or more but do we really want to get out from there? Be healed? Be forgiven? Be saved? It is the same question for those who already have Jesus, who already know Jesus but can not fully surrender everything to Him. If you are going through some tough struggles in your life and Jesus came to ask you: Do you want to be healed? Would you submit it to God? When we truly admit our weaknesses that is the only time Jesus will have the opportunity to fix us. When you inally realize that we cannot do anything to save our life, or Fix whatever is broken do come to Jesus, He is more than willing to fix you and to save you!!! Romans 5:6-8 Do you really want Jesus to fix your life? Worrying will not change the situation. It will only change YOU. Give it all to God. Surrender your worries unto Him who is All Knowing. Pray and Trust God. Good morning..😊😊😊 #wordofGod #Devotion #timetoponder #busride #wisdom True beauty just comes out naturally from someone who is beautiful from inside. People will notice and ask about that radiance from you that actually comes from within. Within us is Jesus: who is perfect and love. If He is truly within us, the Jesus within us will naturally comes out from us and people will surely see it. Same goes with Joy. You don't need to show to people that you are ok when you are not they will still sense and feel it. You don't need to pretend you are happy when you are not. Genuine happiness comes from within. Most of the time when I am emotionally challenged with my own personal struggles or the people around me or the issues I am dealing with I am always left questioning, because I always wonder how I can still feel ligjt and joyful after and in the midst of it. That Joy is from God that comes out naturally from within when we abide in Him no matter what circumstances that we are. I heard one preaching said: "The true meaning of Joy is far different from Happiness. Joy is seeing the circumstances around you but you are confident and secured that God is fully in control." 😊😊😊 Trust God with all your heart you will eventually find that unexplanable joy in the midst of the storm. Philippians 4:4Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."Death is universal than life; Because everyone will die but not everyone lives." -Pastor Dan Leitz True that death comes to everyone. It is unescapable. So, stop living your life thinking you will never die because we all are gonna come to that point. Start thinking of that day when you leave this earth what legacy will you leave behind and further more what will you bring to present in the face of God. How much have you accomplished in the given mission He uniquely made for you. Live life to the fullest is famously quoted, but for me live life to the fullness of God and not of this world. Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. 1 Peter 4:12-16 12 Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, who is the Spirit of God, rests on you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or as a troublemaker. 16 But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. All for the Glory of God. Good News need to be proclaimed and announced and shared. No matter what! Other wise it will not be a news anymore. Have you bring even one soul to Christ? Have you lead someone to Salvation? Examine yourself today? Am I still delivering the Good News to the Lost or am I already comfortable having my own salvation? Many of us always seeks the big picture. Most people tend to have shortcuts in life wherein they see the goal as the ultimate destination and never bother of the process. Have you ever take time to pay attention to the small details of your big plans? The bibles says in: Luke 16:10 "The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." For us to be able to get the highest job we must have at least an experience of some years in a lower position. The big picture composed of tiny details to reflect the totality of the visuals. The highest skycrapers have may other small parts and details to help it stand. The greatest goal of all must have a process that will greatly give an impact to the outcome. Those little but many trials we have in life will help us to be stronger and be sharpened. Never take it for granted because you never know, going through those challenges is the only way for you to survive the later problems to come. Those little details in your life might be your small stepping blocks to get to the top or meet the end. So, don't lose hope, don't take shortcuts often, enjoy the course of life and see beyond and forward. Start appreciating the small things and stay humble. God will eventually bring you to the top. There is this story that inspired me to share this that i have read this morning in the book of "rumours of another world": There was this man that is obsessively neat that lives in a ten forested acres. One day when he is driving home he noticed the dead disordered branches and wanted to trim the trees to reduce that scenario. He called the professionals for that and found out that it will cost him 5000 dollars so what he did was he rented a chain saw and spent several weekends perched in a ladder cutting back all the branches he could reach. After that he called again the tree-trimming services to get a new price since he already trimmed the lower branches. To his surprise the price went higher and triple expensive. The service man said when he checked the place: " Mr. Rodriguez we are actually planning to use those lower branches to reach the higher branches and trim, now we need to bring an expensive equipments, trucks and work from the bucket." The only way to go up is start from the bottom and for us to compose a song it must start with one line and to build one great state of the art it must have a very planned small details. Take time to embrace and learn from the small challenges of life and go through it. 😊😊😊 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
A Time for All Events in Life 1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. There is time for everything. In every aspect of our life there is a perfect timing according to Gods' calendar. May it be in our spiritual growth, career and love life. In life we must value the importance of priority where in we should know how to see which things need to comes first and which ones need to wait. In one given time or situation there is a divine appointment from God that we should be doing. If you are at work give your best to fulfill the task given to you. If its time to worship God give Him the same quality of worship He deserves. If it is time to comfort a friend you don't be staring at your phone while she/ he is sharing. If the time is for your family give the best effort to make the most from it. Time is expensive because you will never be certain which time will fall in your life. Give the best worth of it and respect the time allotted for someone else! Proverbs 6:20-23
20 My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. 23 For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life, Most often when we are growing up we most likely have a few or a lot of arguments and differences with our parents, but the blind side of growing up and wanting to experience the world and try to do our own is to forget that our parents once have been through that same era, that growing up times; and they know what tragedies we all can face along the ways if they don't warn and discipline us. That's why Solomon wrote in this passage to keep our fathers commandment and never forsake your mothers teaching. For they might not always know what's the best for us, but they surely have an idea what seems right and what we should be warned for. They've been there. They already saw and most likely they will never want to see the same thing happen to their children. There's a saying: "as I grow older my parents get smarter." True! For they are learning even more day by day to get us all where we should be in the future. If our earthly parents do this, how much more our Father in heaven. He, among all is the all knowing God. He already knew before youu even think about it and He can see far more than what we sees. That's basically why we have the bible to guide us by His word, in every decisions we need to make. He Loves us so much that He will never want us to take the wrong turns, He never wish for us to get hurt we are just so stubborn sometimes that we choose our own way and we don't always listen. Have you appreciated any disciplinary actions or punishments you've got from your parents? Maybe it's about time to realize that they just love you that's why they want to protect you from the harm that this world can bring. "Proverbs chapter 8" One of the many part where in I believe Jesus is present in the old testament. It was mentioned in the middle part of the whole chapter that He who is giving the instruction of wisdom is with the Lord at the beginning when the Lord is creating the heaven and the earth. That He is with the Lord, that Jesus is our Gods' delight daily, rejoicing to our father daily when He is creating the heavens and the earth, and it was heart warming and touching to hear when Jesus said: "and my delight were with the sons of men." The passage is saying that wisdom is better than any wealth of this world; that we should always seek the wisdom from God, to guide us and to depart from evil. Today may we all seek His presence, His guidance, His wisdom, for I love when He said: " Proverbs 8:32-36(NIV)" 32 “Now then, my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it. 34 Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. 35 For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. 36 But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.” If you will google the meaning of lesson you will find that: "A lesson is a structured period of time where learning
is intended to occur." In a wider sense, a lesson is an insight gained by a learner into previously unfamiliar subject-matter. Such a lesson can be either planned or accidental, enjoyable or painful. The colloquial phrase "to teach someone a lesson", means to punish or scold a person for a mistake they have made in order to ensure that they do not make the same mistake again." What does the bible says about us making mistakes and learning our lessons? Proverbs 24:16 "For a just [man] falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." He who trust in the Lord will always rise up from failing, but to be able to do that we need wisdom. If you failed once about something and you deal with it the next time with the same thing, same approach and same thinking, where is wisdom there? Ask yourself today am I growing from my past failures and mistakes? If your answer is uncertain then maybe Gods' word for you today is "wisdom". Lessons are meant to be learned from; gained with different period of time that makes people grow and mature. So they will be wise enough not to commit the same mistake again. God is merciful for those who humble themselves and turned to God's guidance. He will raise you up from your failing, from every fall you make, but be careful! It doesn't mean God is gracious enough to raise you up every now and then that you fail, you will have the privileged to have an excuse to fall. I guess there is something wrong if you kept on falling over and over again, especially if it is the same thing; then maybe you are not learning at all. Proverbs 14:12-13The Message (MSG)
12.There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. 13.Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak. Confidence in God will always be our safest decision to do. There is a thin line between being confident in foolishness when we think we can do all things and being confident because we are sure it is from God and He is with us. Confidence must always be accompanied by wisdom, for what the Word of God said: Proverbs 14:12(NIV) "There are ways that seems right to a man's eye but the end is death." Let us not be deceive by what we think is right because we are familiar doing it or it just felt right. Sometimes the most difficult decision to make is to make the right decisions. Make sure you seek wisdom from God and it feels right because it is based from the character of God not because it satisfies your wants and desires, for "even the laughter of the heart is sorrowful"(v13). God deserved the truthfulness of ourselves when we come to Him. We cannot fool God and let us not fool ourselves also. Go to God exactly how you are today and seek wisdom from Him. He cannot help a fake person standing in front of Him. When you are in doubt, when you are weak or in pain don't try to fix yourself with what the world can temporarily offer or what you think can best cure you. Go to God, that's the perfect place to go. Pray. Read His word and be guided accordingly. Proverbs 15:16-19(NIV)
16 Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. 17 Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred. 18 A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. 19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. Every time I read Proverbs in the bible the more I am convinced that Solomon really wrote proverbs to bring wisdom to us. While reading proverbs and run through this passage(pv. 15:16-19). I smiled and said: "nice! tricky but full of wisdom." The Lord said better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasures that brings trouble. It is better to have little but He never say we should aim little to be righteous. A vegetable dinner is better with love than a fattened calf with hatred. He never say that you are more righteous when you eat humble food, that if you aim little,live simple life and eat simply you are humbling yourself before GOd therefore you are closer to God. God is actually saying: "we should make the right decisions in life, and a proverbs with comparison is a proverb that is teaching us to try to check and balance out things in our lives. It doesn't matter how little or how much you have what matters is; Are you gaining what you have rightfully? Are you trying to gain things for His glory or your own pleasure? it doesn't matter what you prepare,eat and give; as long as you gave it, you prepared it and eat it with love. God sees our heart, our motives so do things with wisdom and love. Share to people with Love, not with double-minded giving and half hearted loving. This passage caught my attention and I begun to search for sluggard. By merely giving the ants as an example for the sluggard to follow his ways I already have in mind that it deals with someone that might be somehow lazy in a term., but then wisdom of proverbs has always bring something more exciting with one mere word.
John 8:7King James Version (KJV)7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. In the Jewish culture if you fail to abide in the law you will surely be stone to death. I wonder if the jewish law will be implemented worldwide by this date how many people will still be living? Zero I guess. How thankful I am to be living in grace because none of us can ever escape from those many lists of commandments. In some point we did lie or should I say still lying, in some point we people became fornicators, drunkens, cheaters, thief, adulterers or what ever is listed in the commandments. Nobody is perfect but God so all of us will be guilty of those. We all deserved to be stone to death but God said we are loved and can be forgiven, if only we know. Many people though we are not experiencing the stoning to death physically nowadays we still experience it emotionally,mentally and spiritually. Many people cast stones intentionally or unknowingly to other people by words or by condemnation and I believe we can all be guilty of that. But as the recipient of the stones what should we do about it? Like what I have said earlier if we know God's grace we will know how to react. Everyone makes mistakes and the more we get critism, condemnation and stoning we should draw closer to God because the only comfort we can get in times of darkness and whenever we are lost is found in Jesus. It is very sad when most people in times of wilderness and failure instead of picking up those stone to build bridge towards God they build a high wall blocking everyone and even God. If we do that we are blocking the way for God to be able to help and saves us from the situation. Are you building wall from the stones thrown to you by people, separating you from the presence of God? Or are you building bridge so you can get closer to God? I hope you are making the right choice. Come closer to God. He loves you and is always wiling to forgive. We are all saved by grace. Ephesians 2:5New King James Version (NKJV)5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), |
AuthorI am a FOLLOWER OF CHRIST Cleverly disguised as an Architect who loves to share my experiences and encounters with God in every simple and possible way to the people out there who needs to hear Gods' greatness and goodness. Archives
September 2017
Categories
All
|