1 Peter 2: 1

Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

Peter who was the chief apostle writes to all believers that we must get rid of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. All these are the negative traits of the sinful man. Peter knew the evil of such sinful habits as we have seen that even while he was going through his discipleship training with Jesus Christ, he was still very much controlled by the sinful habits of the flesh.

At the Garden of Eden when the roman soldiers and the temple officials came to arrest Jesus, he lost his temper and took out his sword and cut off the ear of the soldier nearest to him. Then later in the night he was full of fear and he denied Jesus three times. These were not the acts of a man of faith or a righteous man but after the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Peter was truly transformed and became a bold witness for Jesus Christ.

He was also strengthened and changed by the Holy Spirit from a sinner and a coward to become the chief apostle. His life was fully transformed and energised and he became a true man of God who is holy and righteous. In this letter he wrote in his full conviction of the love of Jesus and appealed to the Church that we must all be transformed and changed as he and his fellow apostles were changed.

God is showing to all of the believers that what he can do in the early believers, He can also do with us today. The letters of the apostles are meant to be a guide and manual for all believers throughout all ages to walk righteous in Jesus Christ. We are to put our house in order which also mean to put our lives in order.

Peter tells us that all manners of evil traits must be removed and dealt with in our lives. We need to clean up our lives and be holy unto God for God is a holy God and His children must be holy.

His words says, ‘Be holy and I am holy.’ As our heavenly Father is holy, we his children must also be holy. 

Roms 7: 24-25
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

In this chapter, Paul describes the struggle of all men as they strive against sin. This is not peculiar to just only Paul, but it is universal, all men know that their conscience will prick them not to do evil but in the end they will end up doing it. The result would be a feeling of remorse and a disturbed conscience.

The Holy Spirit in us prompts us that we need to avoid the evil path and deeds that the enemy will throw at us. In our wisdom and conscience, we know that it goes against the commandment of God and that by doing so, we would fall into sin. Though this is a clear in us but our carnal mind and the desires of the flesh is weak.

In fact on a daily basis, we are challenged by such temptations from the enemy, it may be just little things not amounting to something big or serious, and nevertheless such temptations will cause us to trip and fall. There are many trivial temptations that we face, perhaps to take a small item that belongs to others, or maybe to pluck our neighbour’s fruits, etc.

On a more serious side we do see on the internet how many people are going around committing sins of theft and robbery. These are not committed by men only but also by women and young girls. Even young children are taught to commit such crime by their seniors. This is the carnal nature of men, greed and dishonesty and until and unless they are secure in their commitment to God, they would not be able to overcome these in their flesh.

Even Paul confessed that he too commits many sins of the flesh and he too still struggles with the desires of the carnal man. The only remedy for overcoming this carnal nature of our sinful man is to draw near to Jesus Christ and be filled with His words, only then can we have the strength to overcome the desires of the flesh. 

James 5: 16

Pray for each other.

In the following verses, James is reminding the believers that in all seasons and at all times they need to pray for one another.

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 

Jas 5:15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 

James then elaborated on the different occasions that we should pray. When we are blessed then we ought to offer our prayers of thanksgiving and praise. When anyone is ill then we ought to offer prayers of intercession for the healing of the sick.

When there are testing and trials, then we ought to pray for wisdom and victory over the trials and testing.

In this direction James turned the attention of the believers to the example of Elijah. When he was faced with a life threatening challenge, then Elijah prayed to God to intervene. He asked God to withhold the rain for three and a half years to punish the evil people. After that He prayed for rain and his prayers were answered almost immediately and a great storm came within a short time.

There are many needs that we have on a daily basis and Jesus also taught systematically to His disciples that they must pray not only for others but also for themselves. Jesus set an example by going aside each night after a long day’s ministry to pray for himself as well as for others.

This reminds us that we must be in prayer all the time, we need to pray before ministry and we need to pray after ministry. Prayer before is to prepare and equip ourselves for ministry and praying after is to recharge ourselves after we have exhausted our spirit man during ministry time.

We do spend a lot of energy whenever we minister especially if we have entered into spiritual warfare. There needs to be time to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit after our ministry. Otherwise we will experience weakness in us.

In today’s verse, James reminded us that we need to pray for one another. When we spend time in prayer, pray for the needs of one another as well as for greater needs like corporate or national needs. We are to pray for those in authority so that they may lead and rule wisely and in a godly manner.  

Gen 1: 31
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good.

Here is the account of the creation and after the process of the creation of the world, God then went on to create the first man and women and when he had completed that He said that it was very good.

In this account we read that God was very pleased with His work of creation. It seemed that God took great joy in the very act of creation. Perhaps He saw that man was created in His own image and He delighted in seeing His own children.

We can understand the fatherly love for His children as now many of us also have children and grandchildren. This love is the DNA passed on to us from God who is our heavenly Father. His attribute of love is inborn in us and we can love without being taught. This is the natural instinct of goodness that God has put into all His creations.

I saw a short video of a family of elephants in a zoo and one little elephant fell into the mud pool and was too young and weak to make its way out of the mud pool. Immediately the parent elephants rushed to the rescue of their little baby. Even the animals which are also God’s creation have this innate nature of love.

We can see this same love that ferocious animals like the lions and crocodiles which are meat eaters; they would lovingly carry their babies in their mouths and transfer them from one place of safety to another. At all other times, such predators would be very ferocious and dangerous as they would attack and kill another living thing that is nearby.

Seeing all these, we can now understand that God is truly love and His commandment to us is ‘love one another as I have loved you.’

Deut 6: 6-7

These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.

The word of God is as a light to our feet, it will continue to remind us as to the teaching and the direction that scripture teach us. As such as we grow daily, we must continue to study, memorize and apply the word of scriptures that would guide our lives.

Bible study and memory verses have been the command of God, the power that is in the word of God in Heb_4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word therefore pierces our conscience, stirs our heart, encourages our spirit and guides our thoughts and decisions. To be able to fall back on the word and to draw upon the power of it we need to be able to remember the word and be able to recall the word.

Eph 6:17 tells us …the sword of the spirit is the word of God. This means that the word of scripture is a spiritual weapon which we can use in warfare. Jesus showed us the example by quoting scriptures and using it against the devil when He was tempted. If Jesus had to use the word as a weapon, then it tells us clearly that we too need to yield the word as a weapon against the powers of darkness.

It is a fact that in spiritual warfare and in healing ministry, we can invoke great spiritual power when we stand on the word of scriptures. This is because our enemy, Satan also knows the scriptures very well and he has to obey the scriptures when we use it as a weapon. Just as Jesus did when He quoted the scriptures and used it to nullify the powers of Satan.

As Moses reminded the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy to ensure that everyone must know the scriptures and remember them well. We are also to teach it to our children from a young age so that the word of scriptures will guide and lead them throughout their lives.

This is why Moses commanded that we are to impress them on your children. We can start young by telling our children bible stories and teaching them short scriptural verses.

John 13: 5
Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.

In this episode where Jesus set the example as a servant leader and humbled himself to wash the feet of the disciples, He had set for us an example to follow and never to consider ourselves higher than others. This lesson is essential and important for leaders as well as all other workers that they must always remain humble and never to consider that they are higher than others and are in a position to lord it over others.

Learning from the early disciples, they lived with Jesus and they applied what they saw Jesus did. That was the best tutor that anyone can have. They lived and learned hands on from their master.

This has also been the method that other cultures and discipline have adopted. Whether it is the apprentice in the car mechanic trade or electrical trade or even in the universities, the apprentices all learn hands on from their masters so that they will see and imitate. It is only through hands on practices that the apprentices can in tuen become a master craft man in the future.

In Jesus, He did the same and ensure that what He wanted the disciples to be like, He demonstrated and taught. This way they learned well and in turn also imparted what they have learned to others.

This is still relevant in the present day churches, we need to learn from that the apostles have written so that through the scriptures we too can be perfected in order to serve God effectively.

Roms 12: 5-6
So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

Paul reminds us that in the body we are many and diverse; we have our different gifting and functions. Each of us are different but yet we belong to the same body and in our diversities we complement each other.

The gifts of the Spirit are given individually and separately for the purpose of edifying the body. These gifts are like prophecy, evangelism, teaching, leadership, giving, mercy and others. Each complement and supplement the other and together they make up the body and meet the body’s needs.

Paul said in 1 Cor 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit for all. The gifts are not given for personal benefit or profit but they are given so that the whole body can be blessed.

No matter whom we are and what we are blessed with, we need to honor one another about ourselves and work in co-operation for the good of the body and not to have competition.

Consider that we are many parts in a machine, if just one little part does not function and work in co-operation with other parts, then the whole machine is malfunction and will be non-functional. This si just a simple comparison but the fact is as a body of Christ and if only just one member do not cooperate then the whole body will not function well and have much difficulties and problems.

Let us understand that we are indeed the body of Christ and no single member is a solo member, we are all united, joined and linked together so that we can function together.

Let us surrender ourselves as members of the local body and determine to co-operate so that the local body will be strong and effective.

Habakkuk 1: 2
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

We see here the frustrations of Habakkuk as he sees the ill treatment that the people were receiving from the oppressions of the authorities. There was rampant corruption and lawlessness in the country. The rulers were robbing and stealing all the wealth from the people.

In vs 9 we read; ‘woe to him who covets evil gain for his house.’ This tells us that though God is not punishing the evil men immediately it is not that God had not noticed the evil deeds that are going on. The only thing is God is not like men who react impulsively. God is patient and gives room for the evil people to repent. They would be surely punished in God’s timing.

Sometimes we just could not understand the way that God judges against the evil people. If it’s up to us, we would have reacted immediately. Instead we read in Hak 2: 20 ‘But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.’ This means that the evil men must also be submitted to God for He will surely rise and bring them down.

This is the same felling that many believers are facing in many countries worldwide. The amount of evil deeds that are being done in many countries worldwide seem to baffle us. We do wonder why God is allowing so many wicked and evil leaders in the world that are corrupt and causing hardship to the people through their evil deeds of corruption and theft of national wealth.

In fact in the majority of countries including the most powerful nations, those who are in power seem to have abuse their position and have used them to gain immense wealth unlawfully. What we see are the replica of what Habakkuk saw during his time. In fact there are so much oppression from the rulers that the faith of believers are challenged but praise God that His people are faithful to His word and they would not waver but trust in Him completely.

We see the Christians in such persecuted nations standing firm and holding on to their faith because they know that the judgement belongs to God whether it is for now or in the future. This is what Habakkuk is teaching us, though events of the day seem to be unfair and lawless, we can trust in God to deal with these lawless people if not in this world then for sure He will deal with them in the next.

Our vision is to gain the inheritance not of his world but of the next. Just as hundreds of thousands of believers have paid the ultimate price for their faith, they are now standing in the presence of God as their reward and inheritance. They have gained their crowns of glory as Paul had reminded us.

Let us therefore not look at the evil and lawless men around us but let us look towards inheriting the crown of glory and righteousness that Jesus had promised us.

                                                                       

2 Cor 1: 7
Our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

In verse 3-4 Paul tells us Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort.

Vs 4 He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.

Paul reminds us that God is our comforter and he grants us His compassion and comfort. He comforts us when we are in trouble so that in turn we can also comfort other when they are in trouble.

The early disciples went through the trauma of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; they were greatly traumatized and distressed. They lived in fear of even losing their lives, they hid in secret places and they hid from the persecutors of the church. Later we see the Lord Jesus coming to encourage and comfort them so that after they have been strengthened trough that experience, they will in turn be able to comfort others.

Jesus Christ went through all His suffering as a man so that we can also trust in Him to strengthen us when we too face the same. Many believers of Jesus Christ in the past and present have the same experience and because Jesus did not waver as He went through the persecution, today we also see that many believers in Jesus Christ including little children do not give up their faith in Christ even till the point of death.

Today I saw an article of the believers in the terrorists’ states in the Middle East. The terrorists captured and tortured the Christian children; they were forced to give up their faith but the little children refused and stood firm on their trust in Jesus Christ.

As a result, the older children were tortured and crucified and the smaller children from babies to four years old were killed in the dough kneader, their little bodes were crushed alive like dough in the machine. These are evil days but Jesus Christ has promised us that when we hold firm in his suffering and share the suffering with Him, then we shall also share the glory in heave with Him.

1 Thess 5: 11
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

The Paul who wrote this letter to the Thessalonian Church was different to the Paul who met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. At that time Paul was a notorious gangster and persecutor of Christians. He went into homes and churches to arrest believers and imprisoned them. He was also notorious for leading the persecution of the believers.

Now the Paul who writes to the Churches is a different person, He had a personal encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ, and he has been completely transformed into a meek and righteous man. In fact Jesus Christ had personally selected him as a special vessel to bring the gospel to the gentiles.

Paul reminded the believers in verse 10, ‘Christ died for us, so that we could live with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes’

In verse 11 ‘That's why you must encourage and help each other, just as you are already doing.’

What had happened to him personally, he now relates it to the believers. Paul had become a merciful and passionate worker for Jesus Christ and now he appeals to all to also become encouragers just like him and also be able to help each other as all the apostles are doing.

This appeal is also relevant for the Church today, as we see that many are suffering persecution and danger throughout the world, we need to stand with and strengthen the persecuted believers in many troubled areas in the world. In many counties especially where the antichrist spirit is at work, we see that believers are challenged and many have even paid the supreme price of martyrdom.

When we study the bible, we should not be alarmed but instead be prepared and ready to face the days of tribulation ahead and also be ready even to the point of martyrdom, this has been ordained in the scriptures for the believers.

1 Kings 8: 58

May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him.

The scriptures run true and clear throughout beseeching men to turn to God and be obedient to Him. Paul reminds us that in all things we must do it for the glory of God. Many times we forget and we want to take the glory for ourselves. This is of the flesh as all men have the inherent desire to seek self-glory.

Remember the tower of babel, the people grew to become a large number and they wanted to make a name for themselves. This is the sin of pride which is in all men. This sin was the same sin that caused Lucifer to sin and casted out of heaven. He has been cut off from God and He wants to get men cut off from God as well. Therefore He has put this same sin in our lives.

We are controlled by our sin nature and unless we have the help from the Holy Spirit, it would be difficult for us to overcome pride in our own strength.

King Solomon knew the danger of this sin of pride and when he had built the temple which was such a beautiful structure, he purposed in his heart to give all glory to God. In 1 Kings 8:20 he said; “I have built the temple for the name of the Lord.” King Solomon declared that all glory belongs to God and He gave all glory to Him. Then King Solomon prayed “May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep his commandments.’

Let this same desire to glorify God be the lamp to our feet, that in all that we do, we must do it for the glory of God and not for our personal glory. 

Provs 20: 7
The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.

King Solomon when he wrote this proverb was teaching his children the value of godly lives and relationship with God and men. He reminded them that as the children of God, we must lead blameless lives and as we do so, then we would be blessed and also our future generations will also be blessed.

This brings us to memory the promised of God in Deut 7:9  Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. This is God’s promise to us His children, if we are blameless and obedient to Him and His laws, then He will bless our families for a thousand generations. This means forever.

This is the reason that King Solomon reminds his children and also all believers that the blessing for our future generations depends very much on our righteous lifestyle. God’s promise is that He will punish those who sin against him down to the third and fourth generations. He will judge the sins of the forefathers down to the third and fourth generations.

On the opposite, His promise is that when we are faithful to Him and live righteously before Him, then He will surely bless our posterity forever. We have seen this in real lives, the families that have godly forefathers have received blessings in their families where the descendants have been blessed so much in that the descendants have become successful.

Many of the early pilgrims who have migrated to new lands as pioneers have seen that their present generations are all greatly blessed and successful in their lives. In contrast the people who rejected God and lived sinful lifestyle have their generations in deeper troubles and are generally less successful and are under privileged.

God’s plans are for the blessings of His children, though it is so, we can fall out from His plans if we chose to walk in rebellion to Him and in sin.

Therefore let us choose from this day to be obedient to God and to serve Him well so that out future generations would be all blessed in Him.

Psalm 147: 11
The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

The psalmist reminds us that as children of God we have our duty to love and fear Him. This fear is reverence and not the same fear as we would describe the sense of fear of danger or evil. God knows each of us by name; He knows our heart and our whole being. He knows what we do and what we even think.

There is nothing that we can hide from God for He is the omniscience God who knows the very thoughts of men and also the very intents in their hearts. He is the almighty who even knew us from the beginning of time and He ordains our salvation. Therefore since He first loved us and He saved us through His Son, Jesus Christ, He has done all these for us and now He only wants us to put our unfailing love in Him.

He delights in our interaction with Him in prayer and worship. There is nothing more that God loves than to interact with His children. Remember that when God created the first man and first woman, God would come down and have His personal interaction with them. It was always God’s intention to fellowship with His children.

But sin has cause men to be separated in guilt from God. When the first man and woman sinned, they were afraid because they knew that they have sinned and they purposely hid from God. They could not face God in their guilt and therefore they were withdrawn from God.

This is the same with believers today, when we slip into sin, the accuser of the brethren who is Satan will put the sense of guilt and condemnation in us so that we would be fearful of god and withdraw from His presence. In truth, God will forgive us if we come before him in repentance. He will surely forgive us and grant us our relationship with Him so that we can continue to rejoice in Him and interact with Him.

Let us secure our position in God by coming each day in repentance and worship as we draw near to Him, God promises that He will draw near to us.

Eph 2: 1
You were dead in your transgressions and sins.

Paul is telling us that though we are alive in this world but we are already spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins against God. When men turned away from God, they have already trespass against the law of God and have been cut off from the fellowship with God.

When we walk in sin and transgression, each step that we walk in sin we are walking away from God. Therefore Paul reminds us that the further we walk away from God; the more we will become cold and callous in our hearts and mind. Soon we will forget about God and our relationship with Him. We will find it unnecessary to pray and to spend time with God and in His word.

Soon we will also be drawn away from the fellowship of saints and fellow believers and we will be spending more and more time in the fellowship of non-believers and in activities that do not glorify God. In today’s scripture Paul is therefore appealing to all believers to be aware of our spiritual status and to do the necessary to turn back to Him; otherwise our salvation can be lost.

Many believers are disillusioned to think that once saved is always saved.  That is not true, James also taught us that we are to work out our salvation; faith without works is also dead. We need to combine both faith and good works. Having said that only good works without faith is also dead.

Jas 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Eph 4: 3
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

In recent times, I have experienced how we can be betrayed by even those who are supposed to be closed to us and who are supposed to work alongside us. This has also been the experience of many other servants of God who had labored much in the gospel field.

Recently I read that as we put on the nature of the lamb as we go about doing the work of God, the wolves will come and attack us. These wolves are the servants of Satan who camouflage as children of God, they look like one, talk like one but in their hearts they are not. Their hearts are full of deceit and cunning.

They are full of jealousy and anger because they are generally not in the top of the hierarchy and are impatient to rise up and take over. Therefore they resort to all kinds of scheming and unlawful tactics to undermine those who are rightfully in leadership and position of power. I speak of the Church culture and this is irrespective of race, nationality or social standing.

Everywhere we see this evil and this is the common weapon of the devil to split and divide. It is also sad to read in the media of strife and struggle in the nations between political parties each trying to stab the others’ back. This is because of greed and power struggle.   Throughout history we have seen this right across the world and it cuts across religious and cultural backgrounds.

In fact the more religious groups are also committing all kinds of evil and malicious acts to outdo one another. The trouble we see in the Middle East where there is so much of strife among the religious nations of the same culture tells us how the personal greed of so call religious leaders are scheming and killing hundreds of thousands innocent people just because they want to achieve their selfish agenda.

Nearer to home, we see the number one family in our neighbouring country openly fighting among the siblings over family feuds. Their family linen is being washed in the public bringing such pain and sorrow not only to the family but also the nation. The social media is full of the accusations and counter accusations from the family members.

All these are unnecessary as Paul says. Unity and love and peace is the hall mark of Christianity. Paul in his writing to the Church appeals that we must ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ If it is within our capability to do so, let us make that effort to keep the peace, let us reach out and mend the breach and reconstruct the bridges that have been broken.

After all God first reconciled to us when we were yet sinners and He send His son to die on the cross for us so that our estrangement from Him can be restored and we can come back to Him and become His child once more. We are like the ‘prodigal son’ who have left the home of our Father in heaven and He is waiting patiently for us to return to Him.

Let us respond and make peace with both God and men.

Matt 11: 29
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus is speaking to the crowd of common people who are familiar with the everyday life of farmers. He made an invitation for them to shake his yoke. This here is a picture of a yoke being shared by two oxen pulling the plough, the purpose of which was to plough the fields. This means that the oxen were labouring in the fields.

The lesson here is that there are two oxen, one is a mature and strong oxen and the other a younger and weaker oxen. The older oxen is teaching the younger the skills needed for the work and the older oxen is stronger and therefore takes most of the weight.

Jesus is making an allegory of us sharing the task of the work in the kingdom and that He is by our side and is willing to work alongside us. When we do that, Jesus does most of the work and our task will be easy and light.

We acknowledge that by ourselves, we can do very little but when we have the benefit of working alongside Jesus and the Holy Spirit then we become the passenger and they become the driver. The Holy Spirit will lead and see us through whatever difficulties we may encounter and He will make the way straight before us.

In Roms 8: 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our infirmities; foe we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. This speaks of the difficult times when we are weighted down and do not know what we can do, but the Holy Spirit will help intercede for us with groans and words that are in spiritual languages.

This is a clear example of what God continues to do for us, He knows our weaknesses and He never abandon us but He will support and care for us all the time.

Job 37:16
Do you know how the clouds hang poised?

We are in the midst of winter in the southern hemisphere and just this morning as we were preparing to get ready to leave the house we saw wisp of water vapour flying pass and rising in the air. This was the phenomenon of water vapour that was rising to the sky. Ordinarily we would not have seen this with the naked eye but because the weather was so cold, we could just see a wonder of nature occurring before our eyes.

The writer of the book of Job asked, do you know how clouds are formed and hung in the sky. In ancient times, the knowledge of the people were limited and they could not understand the working of the evaporation process which sends up water vapour to the sky forming the different types of clouds.

Today with science discovery, we know how this works. However the wonder is how God put all these into His creation that through this cycle, God provides rain to fall from the vapour that has risen to form clouds and when they have become dense, the vapour will principate and fall to the earth as rain, watering the soil and providing life to both plants and animal life.

This is the miracle of God that what He had created millions of years ago has never changed and is still working in perfection. This speaks to us about the perfect God who is unchangeable. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His words are eternal and His promises are also eternal.

The plan of salvation that He had given to all men is perfect, there is not prequalification that men need to prepare. All that is neededis that man repent from their sins and accept His Son Jesus to be his Lord and Saviour, then the repentant man will receive forgiveness and eternal life.

God had made it so simple; all that man has to do is to respond to His invitation to accept His Son as their saviour.

1 Cor 15: 58

Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

The devil is the accuser of the brethren and he will do his best to accuse us that we are useless and unable to do the works of God. He is s successful that many believers are paralyzed into thinking that they are useless and cannot do much for God and once with this thought in their minds, they are afraid to even try to do anything for Him.

The word of scriptures are clear to us, if the men do not rise up, then God will use the ladies and if the ladies do not rise up, then God will use the little children. In this aspect, we have seen that in the persecuted countries where all the full time workers have been martyred, imprisoned or deported then we see that God raised up the youth to do the work.

In China, we hear of testimonies of teenagers who have rise

n up to lead the Church. In the absence of older full time workers who have been  removed by the authorities, these youth who have no bible school training but who are trained by the Holy Spirit are not only leading several Churches at one time but they are going round teaching, praying for the sick and even raising the dead.

Their relationship with God is so strong that they are fearless and are ready to lay down their lives for God. They spend long hours in prayer and they can hear clearly from the Holy Spirit and are totally obedient. They are like the believers in the NT churches.

Even among the tribal believers, I have seen the same in the different countries that I have ministered in. High up in the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal, I had the privilege to teach and guide these youth workers. Even in the jungle Churches of South East Asia, I was also privileged to teach the youths who are so committed to the Lord.

Today God is still raising younger children and preparing them for the work of the Kingdom. When the next wave of revival comes, we need to mobilize a young army of spiritual warriors, we must encourage and train them now. This is our responsibilities as leaders, we must know the plans of God and be able to do whatever is needed.

2 Chrons 6 :13-14
Solomon knelt in front of the entire community of Israel and lifted his hands toward heaven and he prayed.

This verse described the posture which Solomon took when he led the nation of Israel to dedicate the temple to God. They had spent many years to build it and God had promised that He would come and dwell in it and be among them. The posture for prayer is not as important as the attitude of our hearts.

The posture is to enable us to fully concentrate and focus on worshiping God. Like Solomon who went on his knees, this kept him lowly and disabled him to move about and when he stretched out his hands towards heaven, it is a posture of total surrender to God. This posture of humility helps us to concentrate on our worship.

Though this is important, our attitude and total surrender of our hearts during worship is more important. Our hearts must be believing in everything that we seek God for, our praises and worship must be pure and sincere. When we sing or when we praise God, every word must be genuine and we must mean it.

Our prayers, our heart and our mind cannot be out of focus. We cannot and must not be praying with our lips but in our heart and mind they are distracted by other thoughts. Imagine when we have a conversation with a customer or our boss; we will be fully focused on every word that we speak would be clear and committed.

If we can do this with man, how much more we must do the same with God. This is what scriptures tell us, “We must love our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.” Worship must be total concentration and commitment of our body, soul and spirit. This is what God desires from us and it is our duty to dedicate our all to Him.

We must surrender our all to God every time and at all times.

Acts 8: 34The Ethiopian asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?

We read that at that particular time, a great persecution broke out in Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. Many of the believers fled from Jerusalem and Philip was among the group that fled into Samaria where he proclaimed the gospel.

While he was there, the Holy Spirit sent Philip on a special mission to the desert road. In obedience Philip went out there not knowing what to expect. Normally a desert road would be quite deserted and there would hardly be anyone on it. To his surprise, Philip saw an Ethiopian eunuch from the royal Ethiopian court who was trying to read and understand the scriptures from the book of Isaiah.

The Holy Spirit had directed Philip to go to the isolated road in the desert to help a young believer to understand the scriptures. God works in mysterious ways and He led Philip to minister to a young believer. Today we know that the Holy Spirit is our guide and counselor who lead us and teach us all things.

The gospel is always spread by personal testimonies and through the word of mouth. The gospel was spread in the old days through the believers who were driven out of Jerusalem and they traveled far and wide bringing the gospel to every nation and every tribe in the then known world.

Today, God is still sending out his servants to preach the good news of salvation, He is still calling men and women to rise up and go to the uttermost parts of the world to preach the good news.

This week I met a couple, who is working with the Christian organization ‘Youth, with a mission,’ in Thailand. They are there for the last 20 years working among the non believers and they have brought many souls to the Lord.

Today the Christian world owes their salvation to the efforts of Christian evangelists who came from the western countries bearing the good news. Now it’s our turn to bring the gospel to others who are unsaved in the world. We need to pay this gospel debt for our salvation, as others have saved us, we now need to save others in turn.

Psalm 47:6Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.

The psalmist who wrote this psalm is already enjoying the personal relationship with God on a daily basis where he is continually praising and worshiping God. His life is engrossed in praising and worshiping God all the time.

We can imagine that he is a worshiper and there is constant praises upon his lips throughout the day. It is a natural thing for him to worship God and he is telling others around him to do the same. In today’s text we see the psalmist encouraging all believers to sing praise to God and to offer worship to Him.

Praising and worshiping God is our privilege and honor. Only people who know our God can worship Him, non-believers who do not know God personally cannot come and worship God. They do not have a personal understanding of who God is. Only we who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior will know the way to reach out to God.

Since we are His children and we have the free access to Him at any time, then it is our responsibility to seek Him and worship Him. Paul knew that this is our requirement and he also teaches us in Eph 5:19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 

There is power in praise and worship, the bible tells us that God in the past had taught His people to march into battle not with sword and spears but with worship. In the battle for the city of Jericho, God asked that the Levites march around the city with their shofars and worship God each day for seven days. On the seventh day they were to march and shot to God and we read that God brought the walls of Jericho down and gave victory to the Israelite. 

Similarly when king Jehoshaphat went out to battle against his enemies, God gave instructions that the priests are to go ahead and praise and worship God along the way. The priest sang hymns and played music in honor and worship to God and as they march into the battle field, God caused the enemy camp to be confused and they fought and killed each other.

King Jehoshaphat and the army of Israel did not have to do any fighting. There is power in praise and worship. We also know that when we enter into spiritual warfare, we need to worship as well and as we do that the enemies would be defeated. The demons will have to flee, this we have seen and experienced as we do spiritual warfare.

Therefore the people of God must learn to be dedicated and committed worshipers. If we want to see breakthrough and victory in our own spiritual walk with God, we first must build our prayer life and worship God habitually.