Daily Devotions 14th Feb 2017

1 John 4:9

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This morning when I went to the shopping mall to get some groceries, I saw bouquets of fresh flowers and lots of red rose stalks. Then I remembered that today is ‘Valentine Day’ and in the western culture it is such an important day when couples young and old give flowers and presents to their loved ones. Some people think that this is only meant for the young people to celebrate but the older couples do celebrate too.

Generally people appreciate love and attention from others especially from those whom they love. The gifts that they bring will demonstrate the level of love they have for their lovers. How expensive would the gift be? Many would take their love to a special dinner tonight, then perhaps to a dance or a movie. The amount of expenses spent will demonstrate the amount of love from one person to another.

In the scripture today, we see God giving to us a gift which is immeasurable. This gift is the most precious gift that He could give, it is the gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ who came and lived on earth in order that He could personally bring the gospel of Salvation, He could also give us the Holy Spirit who enables us to do the works of the Kingdom with the power to do miracles, signs and wonders.

Jesus demonstrated this power by showing and setting an example for us to follow. He tend promised to pass on this gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Jesus said in Acts 1: 4-5 …”Do not leave Jerusalem, nut wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Considering this, we now understand that God gave us such a big present that it came in two parts. First God gave us His Son to die for us on the cross so that by His blood our sins are washed clean, by His stripes we are healed of all diseases. By His resurrection He defeated death and now we can inherit eternal life.

The second part is that God gave the third person of the ‘trinity’ who is the Holy Spirit to be our teacher, counselor, friend, empowerer so that we may receive His anointing and His power to perform all kinds of miracles including healing of diseases and casting out of demons and raising the dead.

These two gifts that God gave to us demonstrated His limitless love for us who are sinners. He loved us so much that He gave the second and third persons of the ‘Trinity’ to man so that we can get to know Him better and to turn back to Him. Sadly too many of the believers have lost their first love, they have turned back to the world and their relationship with God is only luke warm and superficial.

God wants us to be on fire for Him, truly dedicated and committed to Him and His ways. Only then can we be acceptable to Him and are able to secure our salvation. 

Daily Devotions 13th Feb 2017

John 20: 25

Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

The English has a saying, ‘seeing is believing’ this tells us that most people are very pragmatic. They want to have solid proof before they will believe or accept certain truths. The present form of education where emphasis is on critical thinking and questioning, has caused many to have doubts on things of the Spirit.

It is often that when the Gospel is shared, many cannot accept the gospel of Salvation because they cannot rationalize the plan of Salvation that God had given to us. Then again when this doubt has been overcome there is yet another hurdle which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The mode of teaching in higher institute of learning has emphasized on philosophical thinking.

This kind of teaching tends to make a person consider himself to be wise and he will not accept things that he cannot analyse or reason out. In everything he will try and find an excuse or a reason that would disprove the ‘thought’ that is taught. They will pride themselves out of the belief that there is a God and He will real and living through us.

They will not be able to remove this doubt of the person of the Holy Spirit and His work. Therefore we can see that many of the well-educated who pride themselves as great thinkers and leaders will find that they cannot accept the Holy Spirit’s baptism. It is only when they have repented and renounce this unbelieve that they would be able to receive the baptism.

There are many doubting Thomas’s in our Christian Church today especially among the traditional Churches where many man made regulations are in place. These who quench the Holy Spirit and their Churches are dry and unproductive.

These Churches will be without power and they will remain as a reserved and dry Church. However those Churches who believe in and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they move in the grace and anointing of the HS, these will flourish and will grow exponentially.

Daily Devotions 12.Feb 2017

2 Cor 8:7See that you …excel in this grace of giving.

The servants of Jesus Christ were told to minister by faith as He had. Jesus and His disciples needed financial support as they went about from town to town sharing the gospel of salvation. They share the word, healed the sick and most of these were people from the poorer class. In return these showed their gratitude to Jesus and His disciples by giving to their support.

What they gave was not something very substantial but they gave what they could afford. Many of these were women who had very little income of their own but they were the ones who had remained faithful in their support. Luke 8: 1-3 After this Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The twelve were with him and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

From the time of Jesus Christ the main support for ministries were from the grassroots. Though there are other richer people around, but the main support was from the faithful who are mainly the wage earners and the poorer ones.

The support that the Apostles received were the same and Paul wrote to commend the sacrificial offerings of the grassroots believers in Corinth who had been faithfully supporting him. In the verse we are studying today, we see that Paul encouraged the believers to continue to do so in this grace of giving. The work of the ministers and the Kingdom need financial support. There has been a consistency in the teaching from both the Old and New Testaments on giving to the Lord’s work.

In fact from the time of Moses, tithing had been taught and encouraged. Though it is a requirement there was never a compelling to do so. God had always promised that by the measure you give that would be the same measure you will receive.

Can we imagine that when we give to the Lord a cupful that would be the same measure he will give to us but if we compare it to giving through a bucketful, then God would also give to us by that same measure. His blessings will come upon us as bucketful. That is why Jesus said that by the measure we give that would be the measure we will receive.

In Luke 6: 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured onto your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measure to you.

Today all Christian ministries remain the same; all operate in faith and must rely on the support of like-minded believers. Some are national bodies, some are local bodies and some are individuals, the needs are the same. Everyone needs the same support to sustain their cost of operation. Believers are encouraged to give their support wherever they can.

Daily Devotions 11th Feb 2017

Psalm 139: 3

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

In this psalm David declares the Omniscience of God when he started off in verse 1 ‘You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down.’ As David continues he acknowledged that our God is truly omniscience and though He is far away in the third heaven, but yet His ears and His eyes hear our cries and He sees all that we do.

David declares that God’s eyes are upon us 24/7 and His ears too are open to our cries continuously. There is nothing on earth or even beneath the earth which can be hidden from God. He knows us when we get up and when we lay down. In fact before anything happens or before we think about saying anything, He already knows and He prompts us.

Personally speaking, I have experienced God’s presence and prompting in many instances where even before I could decide anything, He was already prompting my spirit. Sometimes it is a confidence and surety that the decision I was making is right and sometimes, I also get the prompting that what I was planning was not the right thing.

There were some instances that in the flesh I decided to proceed with what I wanted even when the Holy Spirit had given me a prompting that I should not pursue the plan and the result was I fell flat on my face. At other times when I hear from Him and obeyed then He took care of the situation even though at that time things did not look good. I have since learned to be obedient but must confess that I am in no way perfect but trying to walk in obedience.

This is what David is also teaching us, we must die to self and surrender totally to God in our lives. In order to please Him and to secure our relationship with Him, there is no other way but to obey all His commands and to walk in His precepts.

It is only then that we can enjoy that intimate relationship with God just like David did. These days we are beginning to see that many of the believers are becoming more and more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as we build a closer relationship with God.

The way to do this is to repent of our sins and to spend long and quality time with Him for He has promised that when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. 

Daily Devotions 10th Feb 2017

John 13: 23

One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

The scene at dinner is one that is familiar with many other cultures in Asia where the dinners will sit on the floor with the food served on a low table or just laid out on the floor. Even today in many countries and rural areas where the traditional way of life still holds, this form of having family meals are a normal way.

Sitting in this position of close proximity, the diners would be literally in contact and rubbing shoulders with the person next to him. In today’s text, John wrote about himself but put it in an indirect way referring to himself as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’

This is a great honor as when someone is loved and trusted by another, then the person would be able to have special favour and privilege of information and knowledge that others do not have or who would receive them at a later stage.

This position is developed over time where trust can be build and later on in the gospel, we read that Jesus entrusted his mother to John to take care of after His crucifixion. This is the level of love and trust that Jesus had for John, though Jesus had other brothers and sisters born to His parents, He did not entrust His mother to any of them. This speaks very highly of the personal relationship that John enjoyed with Jesus.

Can you imagine this privilege that even God the Son has so much trust in you that He passed on His mother to you to care for? Today, Jesus mother is no longer around but we do have many older people with us in the congregation who are equally lost in terms of security and financial needs. 

Looking at all the Churches, we will see that there are indeed many who are in need, some may have recently lost their jobs, others may have other types of failure in life like losing a love one who was the sole bread winner for the family.

Jesus is still looking for people who would be close to Him whom He can trust and whom He can entrust with the welfare of others. Today some Churches might be financially very strong with lots of money in the bank, they are rich financially but they are poor spiritually because they are too zealous about keeping their money in the bank instead of using the money for ministry.

If we want to draw near to Jesus, we must know and understand His heart. Jesus came to draw all men back to Him. All men mean the rich and the poor, the educated and the less educated. He does not see us as we see others. We look at the outward appearance but Jesus looks into our hearts.

That is why He called the Pharisees white washed tombs that look nice on the outside but is dirty on the inside with the remains of the dead bodies. In the eyes of Jesus, he sees the purity, the righteousness and holiness in man, He does not look at the outward appearance, but He sees our hearts.

If we want to be a disciple whom Jesus loves, then we must make ourselves lovable first.

Daily Devotions 9th Feb 2017

1 John 2: 1If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father --- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

John is giving a reminder and warning rather than an encouragement to the Church. We are all born with the sin nature; we cannot help but commit sin either knowingly or unknowingly on a daily basis. When we say we do not sin, then we fool ourselves. There is no man who does not sin on earth except the man Jesus Christ.

Look around us at home, at work or in the market place. There is so much sin and evil that has been going on. Even right inside the Church, the whole congregation from the leadership down to the very small child sin prevails. This is a fact and cannot be denied.

In this letter, John reminds the church that we all struggle with sin and because of this our struggle has many drastic consequences. Hurt and failure are the fruit of sin. How many people are hurt and how many relationships have suffered in churches. Leaders have clashed with leaders, members have slandered and gossip against one another.

These have been going on and are still going on in Churches even today. The bigger the Church is, the more problems it has because every man is a sinner and a potential to bring sin and disharmony into the Church.

Some will turn around and say they do not sin just like the Pharisees. 1 John 1: 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 Joh 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Though we know that we are sinners but this does not keep us away from God provided we do what he has asked us to do.

Again John has given us the key to this.

In 1 John  1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Daily Devotion 8th Feb 2017

Heb 13: 5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’

The writer of Hebrews knows the difficulty of the believers living during that time, they people were mainly simple farmers,  fishermen and holding other menial jobs which did not enable them to earn large income.

Poverty was the normal way of life; this is still true in most communities outside the urban towns or cities. In third world countries the people can hardly survive on what little they can earn. Life is indeed a struggle for most and for many this is their worry day after day.

With the progress of education and society this has opened the door for people to be more skilled and has enabled them to be higher wage earners. But for the less educated, they are caught in this poverty trap and they struggle to put food on the table. Unfortunately this is part of the fabric of society and we will find some of these within the local churches.

Whether the people are poor or rich, they are equal in the eyes of God and sometimes because of their poverty they have to put in long hours in their work to earn the little extra. These economic demands have often caused them to be unable to spend more time with God. They miss out on the weekly worship, they miss out on the prayer meetings and soon they will grow distant from the Church and they will grow cold spiritually and fall away.

The writer of Hebrew recognized this and he addressed it in this letter. His advice was ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ God who is Omniscience knows all our needs, 

He knows every single need that we have even before we bring it before Him and He has a plan and a blessing for us.

All that we need to do is to trust in Him and ask Him to bless us. We have seen this becoming a reality so many times but there are responsibilities to this. Firstly we need to be a true child of God, faithful in our walk with God and fully committed to His ways. God needs to see that we are faithful before he can bless us.  If not His blessings can become a stumbling block to us and cause us to fall.

By this I mean that God must see that we are able to be trusted in handling the skills or blessings that He puts in our hands. This can be wisdom, wealth, positions, authority etc. How do we deal with each of this? Would we continue to be faithful and humble or would we be overcome by pride and lust?

God knows who we are and what we are. God also knows if we can handle the blessings that He will give to us. If we cannot handle it, we will be destroyed by it. Many have started well but have fallen along the way like the prophet Balaam. There are in fact many in ministry who have fallen because of money and fame, this is what the writer of Hebrew is telling us. ‘be content with what you have’ do not run after greatness and greatness will run after you.