Daily Devotions

Gen 12: 1The Lord had said to Abram, “go… to the land I will show you.”

Obedience is something that is inculcated in children to be a virtue. Every child is taught to obey his/her parents and those in authority because the child knows that the parent or person who is in authority over them does not mean harm to them. The child will trust that the order or instruction from the parent is meant to do them good.

For us parents who have gone through child raising, we are familiar with our duty to bring up disciplined and honest children. Going beyond that when the young child start school, he/she would also begin to learn from the teachers and they are also taught to submit and obey the teachers as they are there to guide and teach them to become men and women of success.

Likewise in Church the pastors/leaders are also people of great responsibilities to teach and disciple the believers. It is a fact that no pastor/leader would want to mislead the believers in their faith. Again their task is to build and equip the believers who are under their leadership. In this sense, believers must submit and learn to be taught and equipped by the leaders.

Just as Abraham became totally submissive to God when he received the call to come out of his former country and to move to the Promised Land. We too have our Promised Land that Jesus Christ had revealed. 

Abraham received a temporal inheritance in the land of Israel when he obeyed God but we have the promise that we will inherit the eternal Promised Land which is heaven where the Trinity is and where all the angels and saints live as well.

The scriptures remind us that we are on a short sojourn on this earth, it may be 70 years or maybe 80 or even 90 years. Some friends have even lived shorter but no matter what span of time we are here, our destiny is our home in heaven. God has instructed us that this is our Promised Land and we must not lose focus of it.

The end times are upon us and we will never know when we will be caught up to our home. Today I read an article by a military analyst who said that we are perilously near to WW III and when it breaks out, it would be a nuclear war.

Then he said that when the super powers start dropping nuclear bombs, the whole earth will be affected and life over most part of the earth will be destroyed.

This is alarming but for those of us who are prepared and obedient to God, we must not be worried because we know where we are going. God has promised us that we will inherit our heavenly Promised Land just as Abraham was lead to the earthly Promised Land.

On Palm Sunday two Coptic Churches in Egypt was bombed by radical terrorists and what surprised the terrorist group is that the Coptic Church on Easter Sunday publicly forgave all the acts of the terrorists. The response from the terrorists was that the Coptic Christians are made of steel.

The terrorists don’t understand that the Coptic Christians have always been teaching their members to be ready for martyrdom and they rejoice that those who were martyred have received their Promised Land in heaven. This is their eternal hope and joy when they are persecuted. Just like the early Christians who rejoiced in the Roman arena when they were martyred we too must be ready and obedient unto death. To die for Christ is to gain our Promised Land, we must be ready and prepared.