Holy Spirit

• The third person in the trinity of God, God the father, the son (Jesus Christ) and The spirit of God
• Jesus said, It is better I go to my father because the father will send his spirit to live in you to comfort you, lead you the way in the will of God
• Wherever there is the presence of the Holy Spirit, that is our safest place in terms of living a life up to the standard of the word of God.

Holy Spirit is wonderful counselor

Isaiah 11:2: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

• No matter where you are and no matter what you are doing, you can just reach out to him and feel blessed.

• Holy Spirit will never leave you nor forsake you.

• He will strengthen you when you feel weak and helpless.

• When you lay down in pain and agony, he will make you bear your pain.

• Paul and Silas were severely beaten

• No one on earth will understand what you are going through in life more than him.

• Not even your family, not even your closest friend.

• He is your closest friend.

• He understands everything.

• He is on your side.

• Most of the time, we will fall in trouble when we depend on what is called ‘human counselor’.

• Whether it is a close friend or not, no one can give us the comfort and condolences as the Lord himself can give.

• In fact, they can be trouble when they turn their back on us one day and start gossiping about us.

• On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is a wonderful counselor.

• He will never turn his back on you. He will never let you down under any circumstances. Where shall I find him? Where do I seek him? We will find him when we incline our heart to him. I don’t know how many times we have done that every day.

• The Holy Spirit just speaks to our soul every day in various ways, but we couldn’t listen to his voice.

• We spend most of our time on something that is of no value compared to the life he can give us.

• We never have time to stop for a moment and talk to him in a manner that we can talk and listen to a person.

• But when we do, we know he is so kind, knowing every deep secret of our heart.

Holy Spirit Convicts of Our Sins

Proverbs 3:11-12: "My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."

• But many who have already chosen the road to death wouldn’t want to do that because he will convict them of their sins and they don’t want to confess their sins to him and become forgiven.

• However, his convictions are not like anger full of judgment.

• His convictions bring life rather than death.

• When the devil convicts you of your sins, he condemns you and you will regret it to death.

• But when the Spirit of God convicts your sin, he does that so that you may come out of your miserable life and follow his voice in the light, the everlasting life of peace and love.

• That’s how we know who is convicting us of sin.

• If it is the Holy Spirit, he will lead us into peace.

• More confession to him, we feel more relief and more peace inside.

• Less confession means we are depriving ourselves of this wonderful healer’s peace.

• When the sinner lady cried out her innermost pain and trouble of her life at Jesus’ feet, she was forgiven. Luke 7:36

• But how do we know if we are forgiven?

• It all depends on how much we ask for forgiveness.

• It all depends on how much we forgive ourselves in the first place.

• It all depends on how sincerely we cry out to him with truth and hate for sin.

• God is so much more generous than we can possibly imagine in forgiving our sins.

• So don’t say that your sin is bigger than God’s mercy and forgiveness.

• There is no sin that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse if we come to him knowing that he is the complete healer.

• He is a healer of a nation and the whole world.

• How come the almighty cannot forgive your sin?

• We have to come to him by faith and by faith we will receive our healing of sin.

• We have to take him as our only option, not as an option.

• I just wonder how the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove when he descended from heaven and testified that Jesus is the Son of God.

• What a good representation of the Spirit of God to us.

• He is peace.

• At some point in his ministry, the Bible teaches us that Jesus felt this wonderful joy inside of him that was not related to any source from outside.

• I wonder if we could experience such a joy in our lives every day, how things could be different.

Holy Spirit is a Living Water

John 4:14 Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV): “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

• The way we talk and love and see things would be completely different.

• That is why we need him so badly.

• We need his voice daily.

• We need him more than anything in life.

• No devil can come between us and the Holy Spirit.

• He may tempt you to go away from him.

• He may tempt you to sin against him.

• But he is just jealous when we establish a covenant relationship with the Spirit of God.

• He just doesn’t know what we are talking about.

• He is really confused when we talk to God in secret through his spirit like a son talks to his father.

• A Christian living without day-to-day experience of this peace and joy from the Holy Spirit is like a fish living without water.

• We are just empty, dry, and a very clear target for the enemy.

• This shall dictate to us how it is really important to live in the presence of the Holy Ghost day by day to avoid temptations,    sin, and the troubles of the world and be led into our eternal blessing and joy to our father through our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen!

Holy Spirit Guarantee of our inheritance

“The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭

“ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin].”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭30‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Questions:

1. What is the Holy Spirit often symbolized as during the baptism of Jesus?
2. Who sent the Holy Spirit to be with us?
3. Can you name one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit?
4. How does the Holy Spirit help us in our daily lives?
5. Can you think of a story from the Bible where the Holy Spirit played a significant role?
6. What are some ways we can connect with the Holy Spirit?
7. How does the Holy Spirit guide us?
8. Can you name one gift of the Holy Spirit?
9. Why is it important to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit?
10. How can we honor and respect the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
11. How do we know if we are forgiven?

Prayer:

“O the spirit of peace, please come to our heart and give me rest from all my difficulties.

• I will make my heart straight with you.

• I will sanctify my soul and flesh with the blood of Jesus.

• Come heal my broken heart.

• Come fill me with simple joy that is not related to anything in life.

• Because you are the source of joy that will never run out in Jesus Name Amen!!.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus

Why it is important?

• Because Without faith it is impossible to please God
• Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.
• Faith is to believe God can do extra ordinary things far much better than we can possibly do.
• Believing in God promises more than our doubts and fears

Examples of faith

• We believe God made the heavens and earth
• We believe that our sins are forgiven when we pray
• When you come face to face with very difficult situation (exam or )and you have no idea what to do about, faith comes to rescue
• When you meet some difficult person like a Bully person in school and try to make you feel bad
• When someone you love is sick and we pray for their healing
• Most importantly we believe that we have everlasting life because Jesus died for us
• In all of these and many more we stick our selves to Gods

Lessons from Hebrews 11

• In the journey of faith, the metaphor of running a race is a powerful image.
• The New Testament frequently uses this analogy to encourage believers to persevere in their spiritual journey (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, 2 Timothy 4:7-8).
• Hebrews 11, often referred to as the "Faith Hall of Fame," provides profound insights and examples of enduring faith.
• Jesus also taught us a crucial lesson about priorities.
• In John 6:27, He said, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."
• This reminds us to focus on eternal values rather than temporary, perishable things.

The Heroes of Faith

• Hebrews 11 recounts the stories of numerous individuals who demonstrated extraordinary faith.
• These "heroes" faced diverse challenges, yet they remained steadfast in their trust in God
• Abel: Demonstrated the importance of offering our best to God, even if it means standing alone
• Enoch: Walked faithfully with God, showing us the value of a close relationship with the Divine
• Noah: Built an ark in obedience to God's command, illustrating the importance of trusting God's plan even when it seems improbable (Hebrews 11:7).
• Abraham: Left his home for an unknown land, embodying the call to step out in faith without knowing the full picture (Hebrews 11:8-10).
• Sarah: Believed in God's promise of a child despite her old age, teaching us to trust in God's timing and promises (Hebrews 11:11-12).

Faith in Action

• These stories emphasize that faith is not passive but active.
• It requires movement, decisions, and sometimes even risks
• This assurance and conviction drive believers to act in accordance with God's will, even when circumstances are challenging (James 2:22).

Overcoming Obstacles

• The heroes of faith faced significant obstacles.
• Abraham was called to sacrifice his promised son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19, Hebrews 11:17-19).
• Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt despite immense opposition (Exodus 3:1-10, Hebrews 11:24-29).
• These stories remind us that enduring faith often involves overcoming trials and tribulations.
• James 1:2-4 reinforces this idea, encouraging believers to consider trials as opportunities for growth, resulting in maturity and completeness.

The Ultimate Example: Jesus

• Hebrews 12:1-2 shifts our focus to the ultimate example of enduring faith: Jesus Christ.
• He is described as "the pioneer and perfecter of faith."
• Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
• His journey exemplifies ultimate endurance and faithfulness, providing us with the perfect model to follow (Philippians 2:5-11).

Practical Steps for Running with Endurance

• Lay Aside Every Weight: Hebrews 12:1 urges us to "throw off everything that hinders from running and the sin that so easily entangles."
• Identify and let go of anything that slows your spiritual progress
• Fix Your Eyes on Jesus: Keep your focus on Christ, drawing strength from His example and presence (Philippians 3:13-14).
• Run with Perseverance: Understand that the race is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay committed, even when the path is tough
• Draw Strength from Community: The "great cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 includes those who have gone before us. Draw inspiration from their stories and lean on your faith community for support (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Faith has three components that should not be separated,

• Righteousness
• Relationship
• Responsibilities

Righteousness

Romans 4:7

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

1. In this scripture we also learn that when God forgives us we are considered blessed by default
2. No work of once own is needed to reach that level
3. We are just the byproduct of what Jesus has completed on the cross
4. As result we are considered now saints where the fact is we were vagabond and sinners who all rebelled against the word of God
5. The package of our salvation comes first before every other thing before we even think how to please God with our actions

Relationship

Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬

By faith we have been made acceptable to God.

And now, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God.

Christ has also introduced us to God's gift of undeserved grace on which we now take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God.

Responsibilities

James 2:14

Faith without work is dead

1. We are required to live up to the expectation by God that is away from wickedness and in love
2. For every wrong doing or an act of faith, there is a consequence of our action that we must reap
3. God faithfully bless those who faithfully obey him and rebuke who rebeled against his teaching
4. The righteousness of man is faith accompanied by work and not work accompanied by faith

Greetings, friends! I will be talking about another piece of the Armor,  The Shield of Faith. Faith comes from you. Not your mom, aunt, granny, friend or dad. You. You need to believe in God. You need to believe in Jesus. You need to believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins. Faith is on you. Although we have victory through Jesus, we already have victory from God.

The difference between believers and unbelievers is that believers have faith and unbelievers don’t. Since they don’t have faith, they worry, and stress.  But as Christians we rely on God, so we have peace in our hearts. It drives away all the worries in our hearts and minds.

Do you know what Faith is? Faith is everything we know about God and that we believe Jesus died on the cross in our place. He is our Founder and Perfector. James 2:19 says that faith by itself is meaningless. We need to do good deeds as well. We all go to Jesus so that we can receive Salvation. But meanwhile, we are on the road to Sanctification. We stay in this process until we die. Sanctification is how we grow spiritually. While we are on this road, Jesus will help us. But our faith must be tested. James 1:2-8 tells us that we should not be unhappy with the trouble we are facing. It will help us build endurance, and when it is complete, we will be perfect.

Although you need wisdom, God will give it to you without rebuking you. But you must trust him completely or else you shouldn’t receive anything from the Lord. I love the Lord, so I feel that no one can drive my faith away. Or, I have unshakable faith. Although I know that I’m still on the road to sanctification, I still believe Jesus will help me through it. I do believe it. I have some good news: Our faith can grow. People who don’t believe too much are those with little faith like in Matthew 8:23-27. It talks about the boat ride with Jesus and his disciples. so Jesus went into the boat with his disciples, but a violent storm struck while sleeping. The disciples woke him up, saying, “Save us Lord! We’re going to drown!” But Jesus replied, “Why are you so afraid? You with little Faith! “This is an example that our faith is still so little that it still does not know everything, but as your faith grows, we will know little by little.

Proverbs 3:5-8 means that we should not be prideful with our wisdom. Like I mentioned, we still don’t know everything. But if we fear the Lord, then our faith will build up until we are perfect. It is like building up a tower until it is complete. We take Jesus for granted because we hear him all the time. Just like if you live on Hawaii, you’ll see beaches all the time. But if you saw a beach for the first time, then it would be like a big deal. You would be like “Oh my gosh, that is so cool” and stuff like that. That is what we do. We take Jesus for granted, but newcomers are amazed. People who have been Christian for a long time take him for granted because we hear him over and over again. We have forgotten that we have been given the best of all gifts. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us three things that will last forever – Love, Faith, and Hope.

Peace is what makes us feel peace in our hearts. When we encounter hardships, we are not encountering the same hardships as a person who doesn’t know Jesus. And when we encounter hardships, we don’t focus on them. We focus on Jesus and fix our eyes on Him.

The moral of the story, like the title, is The Shield of Faith.

እግዚአብሔርን መፍራት ወደ ሕይወት ይመራል፤ የሚፈራውም ጠግቦ ይኖራል፥ ክፉ ነገርም አያገኘውም።

Hi friends, I’m here to remind you about the Love of God. The Love of God is unique. No person has that kind of love. God’s love is unfailing, undeserving, (I mean that we don’t deserve it because Jesus died for our sins. He had to die for our sins, not His own.) unending, merciful, etc… kind of love. In fact, the whole Bible is about the Love of God. But the highest peak of God’s love is Jesus Christ. What I’m saying is, that because God loved us SO much, God sent His ONLY and begotten Son (Jesus Christ) so that whoever believes in Him, will have eternal (forever) life.

Whenever you feel down, God is looking down at you and He loves you no matter what. In fact, God is never mad at anyone, He only looks down on us and feels very sorry for us. Like in the story of Noah in the Bible, the whole world was doing bad things. Or committing sins. God did not get very angry. Instead, he felt very sorry and decided to flood the earth because of all the bad things that we did. And he saw that only one man was following His Word called Noah. You see, at the end of the story of Noah, God made a rainbow to show that he will never flood the entire earth again. That is an example of God's Love for us.

If you read the Bible often, you will see many examples in the Bible when God showed mercy and that's also a type of God's love. He also shows it to us in our world, but we don't thank him or praise him for it. God is trying to prove to us that He loves us. And He does. Believe me. Why do you think God would send His only Son if He didn’t love us? God loves us SO much He actually loves us more than any human being. And we, should love Him more than any human being. Or else we are breaking one of His commands. Just like He loves us SO MUCH we should love each other. That is called loving your neighbor. For God, neighbor doesn’t mean the person who lives right next to you, but the person who loves you and takes care of you. That would be following His laws. But also love your enemies. They may hate you, but pray for them to become better. This is also one of the main principles of God and Jesus Christ.

Hi friends, I’m here to talk about the Armor of God. If you go to battle, you need to be armed with the Armor. Without it, the devil sees you as an easy target. So I will talk about one of the pieces; The Shoes of Peace.

We need to remind ourselves about the shoes of peace. Because that protects us from walking in the path of death. If we walk in the path of death, we will stumble many times. If we walk in the path of life, we will have a smooth path with no trouble! 

The shoes of peace are part of the gospel of peace. After you have received the shoes of peace, share it with others instead of keeping it just for yourself. That's what Jesus’s sheep do. To have the shoes, you need to have the readiness.  And when I say to share it, I am saying to preach it also. Preach it for others. 2 Timothy 4:2 is related to this. It says that we should preach the word of God, anytime or anywhere.

As God's children, we have the responsibility to listen to the Holy Spirit. If you are talking to a friend, a teacher, a person you know, and  you feel like the Holy Spirit is talking to you, do it. Listen to it. The Holy Spirit is guiding you at that very moment. We also need to speak the truth in love. We need to preach God's word in kindness. Or else no one would want to know about God. If we don't speak in truth, our chains will not be broken. But when we do speak in truth, we will be set free. Only truth can set you free. 

We are living in a world that doesn't have time to share the gospel. Even in Matthew 6:31-32 gives examples about questions we use as excuses during the day. One of the many excuses we use are, “What will we eat?” The only people who ask those questions are unbelievers, only unbelievers stress like that. As Christians, we rely on God. We need to depend on him. We do that not just because we are Christians, but also because our God is the same yesterday, today and always. Whenever we trust in God, we feel peace because he’s very proud of us. When we don’t trust in him, the devil takes this advantage to distract you. He uses your personal life; close family, people, or even your own hobbies. Even when we go through really tough times, don’t lose heart. Or in another way, stand firm. John 16:33, Jesus said we had to suffer in this world. But Jesus also said that he defeated this world. So no worries! Jesus had told all this, so that we could have peace in our hearts.

 In my life, I do ground tennis, exercise, and many other activities. But I feel deep down that I am playing with my life. What I mean is not taking time to read the Bible very often, but one thing I’m glad about is that I pray every single day before school so that God could bless my day. 1 John 2:17 tells us this world, and everything with it will disappear. But if we listen and obey God‘s commands, we will live forever (spiritually.)

 I think I am doing the will of God, because I do the best I can of what God expects. I think that all Christians should do the same. We should not wear the shoes just to share the gospel, but to stand for not our righteousness, but Jesus’s righteousness. We need to stand against the devil and his evil schemes. 1 Corinthians 16:13 gives strong advice. Don’t lose your faith. Stay strong and prepared. Galatians 5:1 tells us that Christ gives us freedom. I know I walk spiritually and physically. And I am sure most Christians do as well. If we love God, then you must love your neighbor. Don’t keep the gospel just for yourself, instead, share it with love and truth.

Hi friends, I am here to talk about sin. First, do you understand what sin is? Sin is the separation from God. When we lose the relationship with God, we have sin. No one can say that they don‘t have sin. We were born with it. 

Sometimes it gets worse that sin controls us. One example in the the Bible who couldn’t control his sin was Cain. His jealousy rose so high that he killed his younger brother. That’s why we should control ourselves. Hold the temper. 

Sometimes we have high temper because we don’t think someone cares for us. Don’t think that way. God loves you. He cares about you. He sent his only Son to the cross to save your soul from eternal punishment. 

Imagine, since we’re all sinners, we would have to go to hell if we made one sin. That would have happened if it weren’t for Jesus. That one man saved us all. On the cross, God had left Jesus because Jesus was carrying all of our sin. 

God is like the exact opposite of sin. Without God in your life, you go hell. When Jesus went hell, Jesus took the keys of hell and mad a rule in John 3:16 written in the Bible, “God gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will not perish but have everlasting life”(everlasting spiritual life)

We know God intends to reward those who are faithful to Him in heaven.

Yes, the New Testament mentions several crowns that believers can receive as rewards in heaven.

These crowns are symbolic, representing various aspects of the Christian's faithfulness and commitment to Christ during their earthly lives.

The Imperishable Crown

  1 Corinthians 9:24-25

    - "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who Wants competes in the games goes into strict training to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."

This crown is for those who have exercised self-control and discipline in their Christian life,

Athletes who hold several world records in long distance running has to go through a lot of training.

They do it to bring honor to the people they represent.

How much more we should follow the footsteps of Paul and Peter to look more like Jesus and bring glory to God.

All this runners has something in common : running the race with perseverance.

• NEVER GIVE UP
• NEVER SURRENDER
• KEEP PUSHING
• KEEP PRESSING

The people of this world race is all about how to defeat others but the spiritual race is how to serve others and win souls.

Matthew 6:19-20

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Let's briefly look at each:

1. The Crown of Righteousness

Timothy 4:7-8

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

This crown is for those who have lived righteous lives and eagerly await Christ's return.

To get this crown there are three criterion’s

Fought the Good Fight: Paul speaks of his life in terms of a battle, representing the spiritual warfare and challenges he faced in spreading the Gospel and establishing churches.

Finished the Race: The race metaphor refers to the Christian life. It is not necessarily about being the first to finish but finishing the course God has set for each believer. It is knowing the will of God specifically for our lives and fulfilling it as our Lord did

Kept the Faith: Paul remained true to the Gospel message and his call despite facing numerous trials, persecutions, and hardships.

2. The Crown for Soul winning

    1 Thessalonians 2:19

    - "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?"

Often referred to as the "soul winner's crown",

this crown is given to those who have played a role in leading others to Christ.

The Bible says   He/She who wins souls is wise

After we have been saved from eternal fire we should also return the favor by doing the same thing for the unbelievers that God wants them to be saved too

As the scriptures said in John 3 16. For God so loved the world ….

3. The Crown for shepherding Gods people

1 Peter 5:4

"And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away."

This crown is especially mentioned for the faithful shepherds or elders who have cared for and guided God's flock, but it's also applicable to believers who have faithfully shepherded others in any capacity.

4. The Crown of Life / self sacrificing

Revelation 2:10

 "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown."

this crown is for those who have endured suffering, trials, and even martyrdom for the sake

It is believed that all the apostles of Christ and many more early Christian’s were martyrs for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

James‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭

“My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But you must learn to endure everything, so you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.”

‭

Summary

It's worth noting that while these crowns are mentioned in a manner that implies reward, the overall New Testament message emphasizes that salvation is a gift through faith in Christ, not based on works.

Work vs Grace

These crowns represent commendations for a life lived in faith and service,

It is a way of God responding to us WELL DONE YOU FAITHFUL SERVANT

but they don't determine salvation itself.

Many believe that they serve as a way for believers to honor Christ in eternity,

But the greatest reward every believer will receive is the honor of seeing God face-to-face.

Because of our sin, we can’t see God’s face (see Ex. 33:20). But in heaven, we will be made perfect.

We will share in Jesus’s inheritance as sons and daughters of God (see Rom. 8:17).

Two Travelers story

Luke 24:13-35

"Road to Emmaus" or "The Walk to Emmaus."

two of Jesus' disciples encounter Him on the road to the village of Emmaus shortly after His crucifixion and resurrection.

Two disciples, not part of the twelve apostles, were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village about seven miles away.

As they walked, they were discussing the recent crucifixion of Jesus and the reports of His resurrection.

They were sad and confused about these events.

As they walked and talked, a stranger (who was actually the resurrected Jesus, though they did not recognize Him) joined them and asked them what they were discussing.

They explained the events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion and the hope that He would be the Redeemer of Israel.

The stranger (Jesus) began to explain the Scriptures and the prophecies about the Messiah to them, starting with Moses and all the Prophets.

He helped them understand that the suffering of the Messiah was part of God's plan.

When they reached Emmaus, the two disciples invited the stranger (Jesus) to stay with them for the evening because it was getting late.

They sat down to eat, and when Jesus took bread, blessed it, and broke it, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him.

However, at that moment, He vanished from their sight.

Overjoyed and realizing they had been walking with the risen Christ, they immediately returned to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples what had happened.

Faith is more than knowledge.

It’s a deep trust and belief in something even without physical proof.

It moves us from unbelief to belief.

The Doubt of Thomas: A Lesson in Faith and Skepticism

John 20 20

The doubt of Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, is a well-known episode in the New Testament.

This story, found in the Gospel of John, is often cited as an example of skepticism and the struggle for faith.

It serves as a reminder that doubt can be a natural and even necessary part of one's spiritual journey.

In this article, we will explore the biblical account of Thomas's doubt, the lessons it teaches us about faith and skepticism, and how it can be applied to our lives today.

1. Doubt is a Natural Part of Faith:

The story of Thomas reminds us that doubt is not something to be ashamed of.

Doubt can be a natural and healthy part of one's faith journey.

It's human to question and seek evidence or reassurance.

Thomas's doubt did not make him a weaker disciple; rather, it was a stepping stone towards a deeper, more personal faith.

2. Faith and  doubt Coexist:

we grow in our faith to be 100% dependent

Thomas's doubt did not exclude him from the community of believers.

In fact, his doubt was met with understanding and compassion by the other disciples.

We can be both believers and questioners, as long as we are open to seeking answers and growth.

We all have some honest and genuine questions about God

God is faithful to answer our doubts and question

3. Jesus's Grace and Patience:

The response of Jesus to Thomas is a testament to His grace and patience.

Jesus did not scold Thomas for his doubt but lovingly met him where he was.

This shows that our doubts and questions can lead to a deeper encounter with God if we are open to His guidance.

Summary

What do we learn  Thomas's Lesson Today

The story of Thomas's doubt continues to resonate with people today.

In an age where skepticism and questioning are valued in many aspects of life, it is important to recognize that these traits can also coexist with faith.

Here are some ways to apply the lessons from Thomas's doubt to our lives:

1. It is ok to have  Doubts:

we should not pretend we don’t have doubts

Don't be afraid to acknowledge your doubts and questions.

They will open doors for deeper spiritual growth and understanding.

2. Seek Answers:

Use your doubts as a launching   point for seeking answers and understanding.

Explore the Scriptures, engage in conversations with fellow believers, and seek guidance from trusted mentors or spiritual leaders.

3. Be Open to Revelation:

Just as Thomas eventually had a personal encounter with Jesus, remain open to moments of revelation and encounters with God that can transform your doubts into deeper faith.

4. Show Grace and Compassion:

If you encounter others who express doubt, approach them with grace and compassion.

Encourage open dialogue and offer support as they navigate their faith journey

It takes faith to claim Jesus as Lord and God.

Without the transforming power of faith, we are just speaking meaningless words.

Psalm 103:2-5 (NIV):

"Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins and

heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit and

crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s."

 

God‘s love for Abraham was expanding. God wanted to test Abraham love for him so he told Abraham to sacrifice his son on the altar. Abraham was feeling great pain. He didn’t want to kill his son. That is fear . Fear stops us from following God. Fear is a liar. 
 

That is why we should believe God more. We should love him more than fear.  Even through these things, Abraham passed the test. He was willing to sacrifice his son to God. That’s why we should be prepared for testing. 

God can test our faith when he needs us so we should be faithful to him. God prepares us for trials and struggles, and soon we will die for him. During Abrahams days, you have to kill an ox and walk through the blood of the ox to show an agreement and that was the blood of the ox. God made a promise that he will bless Abraham for he would make his descendants as numerous as a stars.

We need to trust in God‘s promises. When Isaac knew he would be sacrificed, he respected Abrahams decision. He didn’t complain or argue with him, Isaac submission and Abrahams faith caused God not to sacrifice Isaac. God knows that Abraham loves him, so he blessed him with many generations as numerous as the stars.

 We should always be prepared for anything. God tests us to prepare us, and to see if we love our idols more than him. Don’t love anyone more than you love God.

 God is more important than anything or anyone that you know. Idols aren’t good for you. The only thing that idols would do for you is destroy your relationship with God or destroy your spiritual life with him. Don’t you want to stay in touch with the one who created you? Abraham called the place that Isaac could have been sacrificed, “The Lord will provide.” God did provide the sacrifice. 

In this day, and time, Jesus is our sacrifice that was slain for our sins. Praise God!

Managing relationships between family and friends can be complex, but here are some tips to help:

1. Communication: Open and honest communication is key. Share your thoughts, feelings, and concerns with both family and friends. Be a good listener as well.

2. Boundaries: Establish boundaries to maintain a healthy balance between your family and friends. Ensure you have time for both and that one group doesn’t overwhelm the other.

3. Prioritize: Understand that different relationships hold different levels of importance. Family might take precedence in certain situations, while friends play a more significant role in others.

4. Quality Time: Dedicate quality time to both family and friends. Make an effort to spend time together and create memorable experiences.

5. Respect Differences: Recognize that your family and friends may have different values, opinions, and backgrounds. Respect these differences to avoid conflicts.

6. Mediation: If conflicts arise between family and friends, try to mediate and find common ground. Encourage open dialogue and compromise.

7. Be Flexible: Life can be unpredictable. Be flexible in your commitments to accommodate the needs of both family and friends.

8. Trust Your Judgment: Ultimately, trust your instincts when it comes to managing these relationships. You know your family and friends best, so make decisions that feel right for you.

9. Self-Care: Don’t forget to take care of yourself. Balancing family and friends can be emotionally draining, so ensure you prioritize self-care and maintain your well-being.

10. Seek Advice: If you’re struggling, consider seeking advice from a therapist or counselor who can provide guidance on managing relationships effectively.

Remember that relationships are unique, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s essential to adapt these tips to your specific situation and prioritize what matters most to you.

The succinct yet profound command found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16,

 "Rejoice always," 

serves as a beacon of light guiding believers towards a life marked by joy and gratitude. This article delves into the depth of this verse, exploring its implications, the challenges it presents, and the transformative power it holds in shaping one’s life and perspective.

1 Thessalonians 5:16 is nestled within a series of exhortations by the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonian church. These instructions are not isolated moral teachings but are interconnected, each one building upon the other, creating a holistic framework for Christian living. The surrounding verses emphasize continual prayer, gratitude in all circumstances, and the pursuit of goodness, painting a picture of a life deeply rooted in God’s love and grace.

The Essence of Rejoicing:

Rejoicing is not merely a fleeting emotion or a reaction to favorable circumstances. It is a profound state of being, a choice to embrace joy and contentment regardless of external situations. It is an acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty and goodness, a steadfast trust in His purposes, and a celebration of His presence. Rejoicing always is a transformative practice that shapes our perspective, enriches our relationships, and fortifies our faith.

Challenges to Rejoicing:

The command to "Rejoice always" is not without its challenges. Life is replete with trials, sufferings, and uncertainties. Pain and sorrow are inevitable companions on our earthly journey. The loss of loved ones, financial hardships, health crises, and relational conflicts can cast shadows over our hearts, making rejoicing seem distant and unattainable.

However, the essence of Christian rejoicing is not contingent on the absence of suffering but is deeply intertwined with it. It is in the crucible of affliction that the depth of our joy is tested and refined. Rejoicing in the midst of trials is a testament to the resilience of our hope and the authenticity of our faith.

The Source of Joy:

The ability to rejoice always is not mustered from our own strength or resolve. It is a fruit of the Spirit, a divine gift bestowed upon believers. The source of our joy is not the transient pleasures of the world but the eternal presence of God. It is the assurance of His love, the richness of His grace, and the promise of eternal life that anchor our souls in unshakeable joy.

The joy derived from our relationship with God transcends the fluctuations of our emotions and the instability of our circumstances. It is a constant wellspring, nourishing our souls and refreshing our spirits, enabling us to radiate the light of Christ in a world shrouded in darkness.

The Impact of Rejoicing:

The practice of rejoicing always has far-reaching implications. It fosters a heart of gratitude, prompting us to count our blessings and acknowledge God’s hand in every aspect of our lives. It strengthens our resolve, enabling us to face challenges with courage and confidence, knowing that our joy is not dependent on our circumstances but is anchored in our relationship with God.

Rejoicing always also influences our interactions with others. It cultivates a spirit of generosity and kindness, inspiring us to share our joy with those around us. It builds bridges of understanding and compassion, allowing us to empathize with others in their struggles and to be bearers of hope and light.

"Rejoice always" is not a simplistic or naive command. It is a profound invitation to a life marked by deep joy, unwavering hope, and resilient faith. It challenges us to look beyond our circumstances, to anchor our hearts in the eternal goodness of God, and to embrace a perspective marked by gratitude and trust.

The journey of rejoicing always is not a solitary one. It is intertwined with the communal experience of the body of Christ, where mutual encouragement, support, and love are vital. It is in the shared joys and sorrows of our Christian journey that we experience the fullness of the joy that is in Christ.

Rejoicing always is not a destination but a continual journey, a daily choice to live in the light of God’s presence, to drink deeply from the well of eternal joy, and to reflect the radiance of His love to a world in need of hope.

This article has briefly touched upon the multifaceted nature of rejoicing, its challenges, and its transformative power. The pursuit of rejoicing always is a lifelong endeavor, one that shapes our character, enriches our relationships, and draws us closer to the heart of God. It is a journey marked by grace, sustained by hope, and fueled by the unending joy found in the presence of our Savior.

Hebrews 10:26 (NIV):

"For if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."

This verse is part of a larger passage in the book of Hebrews that addresses the superiority of Christ's sacrifice and the importance of faith and perseverance in the Christian life. To understand Hebrews 10:26 fully, it's essential to consider its context and the key themes of the book of Hebrews.

Context of Hebrews 10:26:

The book of Hebrews was written to a predominantly Jewish Christian audience who were familiar with the Old Testament sacrificial system. The author of Hebrews (Paul) seeks to show that Jesus Christ's sacrifice is superior to the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant and that faith in Christ is essential for salvation.

In the preceding verses of Hebrews 10, the author emphasizes the once-for-all sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice for sins. He contrasts Christ's sacrifice with the repeated animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant, highlighting that Jesus offered Himself as a perfect and eternal sacrifice to atone for sin.

Hebrews 10:26 is a warning against willful and deliberate sinning by those who have received knowledge of the truth, which refers to the gospel message and the redemptive work of Christ. The key points in this verse are as follows:

1. Deliberate Sinning: The verse specifically addresses the act of "deliberate sinning." It suggests an ongoing, intentional pattern of sin rather than occasional or unintentional transgressions. The author is concerned with those who, after professing faith and receiving the knowledge of the truth, continue to live in unrepentant sin.

2. Knowledge of the Truth: Those addressed in this verse are individuals who have been exposed to the truth of the gospel. They have heard the message of salvation through Christ, acknowledging Him as the Messiah and Savior.

3. No Sacrifice for Sins Left: The verse issues a solemn warning by stating that for those who persist in deliberate sin after receiving knowledge of the truth, "no sacrifice for sins is left." This implies that the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice is forfeited or rendered ineffective for those who reject it through persistent rebellion.

Interpretation and Theological Implications:

Hebrews 10:26 has generated significant theological discussion and debate. Here are some key points and interpretations:

1. A Warning Against Apostasy: Many theologians interpret this verse as a warning against apostasy, which is the willful abandonment of one's faith in Christ after initially professing belief. The warning underscores the seriousness of apostasy and its consequences.

2. Maintaining Faith and Perseverance: The verse emphasizes the importance of genuine faith and perseverance in the Christian life. It suggests that mere intellectual knowledge of the gospel is insufficient; one must respond in faith and continue to live a life characterized by repentance and obedience.

3. The Perseverance of the Saints: Different Christian traditions have varying perspectives on the interpretation of this verse in relation to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Some believe that genuine believers will never ultimately fall away from the faith, while others emphasize the need for ongoing faithfulness.

4. Restoration and Repentance: It's important to note that while Hebrews 10:26 issues a stern warning, the broader context of the book of Hebrews also offers hope and encouragement for those who may have struggled with sin. The author encourages believers to draw near to God with a sincere heart and to hold fast to their confession of faith in Christ.

In conclusion, Hebrews 10:26 serves as a reminder of the importance of genuine faith, repentance, and perseverance in the Christian life. It warns against the danger of deliberate, ongoing sin for those who have received the knowledge of the truth. However, the broader message of the book of Hebrews also emphasizes the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and the possibility of restoration and repentance for those who turn back to Him. The verse is part of a larger theological discussion on the nature of faith, salvation, and the consequences of rejecting Christ.

The story of Nebuchadnezzar begins with his pride and arrogance. He had a dream that greatly troubled him but could not remember the dream itself. He summoned his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to not only interpret the dream but also to tell him the dream itself. When they failed, Nebuchadnezzar decreed:

"Tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me." (Daniel 2:9, ESV)

However, none of his wise men could meet his demand.

Through divine revelation, Daniel was able to interpret the dream and reveal both its content and its meaning. He explained the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, telling him about a great tree that would be cut down but with a stump left intact. Daniel said:

"The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds—Your Majesty, you are that tree!" (Daniel 4:20-22, NIV)

Nebuchadnezzar's Punishment:

Despite Daniel's interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar did not heed the warning to humble himself. He continued to boast about his achievements, saying:

"Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30, NIV)

As a result of his pride and arrogance, Nebuchadnezzar faced divine judgment:

"The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules." (Daniel 4:26, NIV)

Nebuchadnezzar's Humbled State:

Following divine intervention, Nebuchadnezzar was struck with madness and lived like a wild animal, experiencing a dramatic transformation:

"He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird." (Daniel 4:33, NIV)

Nebuchadnezzar's Acknowledgment of God:

After a period of time, Nebuchadnezzar's sanity was restored. He acknowledged the greatness and sovereignty of God:

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble." (Daniel 4:37, NIV)

This story serves as a powerful lesson about the consequences of pride and the importance of recognizing God's authority. Nebuchadnezzar's journey from arrogance to humility demonstrates God's sovereignty over human affairs and the transformative power of acknowledging His greatness.

During the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah in the late 8th century BCE, the Assyrian Empire, under the leadership of King Sennacherib, sought to expand its dominion through military conquest. The city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, became a target of the Assyrian forces.

As the Assyrian army besieged Jerusalem, King Sennacherib sent a menacing message to King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. In this message, Sennacherib boasted of his previous victories over other nations and challenged the faith of the Israelites by questioning the ability of their God to save Jerusalem. He blasphemed and undermined their trust in their God:

"Now do not let Hezekiah deceive you and mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my predecessors. How much less will your god deliver you from my hand!" (2 Kings 18:29-30, NIV)

Upon receiving Sennacherib's threatening message, King Hezekiah was deeply troubled but did not lose faith. He went to the temple, spread the letter before the Lord, and prayed earnestly. In his prayer, Hezekiah acknowledged the greatness and sovereignty of God and beseeched Him for deliverance:

"Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God." (2 Kings 19:15-16, NIV)

In response to Hezekiah's prayer and faith, God sent a message through the prophet Isaiah. In this message, God reassured Hezekiah that Sennacherib's blasphemy and threats would not be realized. God promised to protect Jerusalem and deliver it from the Assyrian king:

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: 'Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you...'" (2 Kings 19:20-21, NIV)

The message through Isaiah continued to foretell Sennacherib's downfall and the miraculous intervention of God, leading to the defeat of the Assyrian army.

In accordance with God's promise, that very night, an angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers camped around Jerusalem. Sennacherib retreated, and Jerusalem was saved from destruction.

The story of Hezekiah and the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem demonstrates the importance of faith, prayer, and trust in God's sovereignty in times of adversity. It underscores that God can intervene miraculously to protect His people and fulfill His promises. It also highlights the contrast between the arrogant words of the Assyrian king and the humble response of King Hezekiah, who turned to God in prayer and found deliverance and protection.

The story of King Ahab is found in the Old Testament of the Bible, primarily in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings. Ahab was the seventh king of Israel, reigning in the 9th century BCE. His story contains several important lessons and moral teachings, which can be summarized as follows:

1. Idolatry and Spiritual Weakness: One of the most significant aspects of Ahab's reign is his marriage to Jezebel, a Phoenician princess who introduced the worship of the god Baal in Israel. Ahab not only allowed the worship of foreign gods but also participated in it himself. This story illustrates the danger of turning away from the one true God and the spiritual weakness that can result from idolatry.

2. Consequences of Sin: Ahab's wickedness led to divine judgment. The prophet Elijah confronted Ahab and proclaimed a drought as a punishment for his sins. This drought brought hardship and suffering to the land. It serves as a reminder that there are consequences to our actions, and sin can have far-reaching effects.

3. Repentance and God's Mercy: Despite his many sins, Ahab did show a brief moment of humility and repentance when confronted by Elijah. God took note of this and delayed the judgment on Ahab's house during his lifetime. This demonstrates God's willingness to show mercy to those who genuinely turn from their sinful ways.

4. Influence of Bad Company: Ahab's alliance with Jezebel and her influence over him had a corrupting effect on his leadership and spiritual life. This serves as a warning about the influence of bad company and the importance of surrounding oneself with people who uphold moral and ethical values.

Let's delve deeper into the theme of bad company as exemplified in the story of King Ahab in the Bible:

4.1. Moral Corruption: Ahab's marriage to Jezebel, a foreign princess who promoted the worship of the god Baal, exposed him to a morally corrupting influence. Jezebel was determined to eradicate the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and replace it with the worship of Baal and other false gods. Ahab's willingness to accept and even participate in these practices can be seen as a direct result of his association with Jezebel. This illustrates how bad company can lead individuals away from their moral and ethical principles and entice them into wrongdoing.

4.2. Compromise of Values: Ahab's relationship with Jezebel led to the compromise of his values and principles. He not only tolerated the worship of Baal but also supported it. This compromised his faith in the one true God of Israel. Bad company can pressure individuals to abandon their core beliefs and values, often in exchange for social acceptance or personal gain. Ahab's willingness to compromise his faith and values is a stark warning about the consequences of such compromises.

4.3. Influence on Leadership: Ahab's association with Jezebel had a detrimental impact on his leadership as the king of Israel. He allowed her to wield significant power and influence in the kingdom, which led to policies that were contrary to the laws and traditions of Israel. Bad company can lead leaders to make poor decisions that harm their nation or community. In Ahab's case, it ultimately led to divine judgment and suffering for the people of Israel.

4.4 Personal Consequences: Ahab's bad company not only affected his leadership but also had personal consequences. For example, his coveting of Naboth's vineyard and his involvement in Naboth's unjust execution were directly influenced by Jezebel's counsel. These actions resulted in divine judgment upon Ahab and his house. Bad company can lead individuals into situations where they engage in unethical or illegal behavior, which can have severe personal consequences, including guilt, remorse, and punishment.

In essence, the story of Ahab and Jezebel serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of bad company. It highlights how associating with individuals who promote immoral or unethical behavior can lead to moral corruption, a compromise of values, poor leadership, and personal consequences. It emphasizes the importance of choosing one's companions wisely and staying true to one's moral and ethical principles, even in the face of external pressure or influence.

5. Prophetic Ministry: The story of Ahab highlights the role of prophets in Israel. Prophets like Elijah and Micaiah were instrumental in confronting Ahab's wrongdoing and delivering God's messages. It underscores the importance of listening to and heeding the word of God through His appointed messengers.

6. Covenant Faithfulness: Ahab's disregard for the covenant between God and Israel led to the downfall of his dynasty. This emphasizes the importance of remaining faithful to God's covenant and the consequences of forsaking it.

7. Justice and Accountability: Ahab's coveting of Naboth's vineyard and his complicity in Naboth's unjust execution illustrate the importance of justice and accountability. God holds rulers and individuals accountable for their actions, especially when they abuse their power for personal gain.

In summary, the story of King Ahab in the Bible serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of idolatry, the consequences of sin, the importance of repentance and divine mercy, the influence of bad company, the role of prophets, the significance of covenant faithfulness, and the principles of justice and accountability. It highlights the timeless moral and spiritual lessons that continue to resonate with readers and believers today.

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who later became known as the Apostle Paul, is a remarkable and transformative event in the New Testament. It stands as a testament to the power of God's grace and the profound impact of encountering the risen Christ.

Saul was a devout Pharisee and a zealous persecutor of early Christians. He played a significant role in the persecution of the early Church, overseeing the imprisonment and even the martyrdom of Christians. His zeal for Judaism led him to view the emerging Christian movement as a threat to the Jewish faith.

The pivotal moment in Saul's life occurred on the road to Damascus. He was on a mission to arrest Christians and bring them to Jerusalem for trial when suddenly a blinding light from heaven surrounded him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" In humility and trembling, Saul responded, "Who are you, Lord?"

The voice replied, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." Saul's companions saw the light but did not hear the voice.

Saul arose from the ground, blinded by the encounter. His companions led him into Damascus, where he remained without sight for three days. During this time, he neither ate nor drank, wrestling with the profound experience of encountering the risen Christ.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, the Lord appeared to a disciple named Ananias in a vision, instructing him to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and lay hands on Saul to restore his sight. Ananias, initially apprehensive due to Saul's notorious reputation, obeyed the Lord's command.

Ananias entered the house where Saul was staying and greeted him as "Brother Saul." He then laid hands on him, and something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, restoring his sight. Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately began proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God, an astonishing reversal of his previous mission to persecute Christians.

Saul's conversion had a profound impact on the early Church. His transformation from a persecutor to a proclaimer of the Gospel served as evidence of the power of Christ to change lives. He became one of the most influential figures in Christian history, penning a significant portion of the New Testament and undertaking missionary journeys that spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

Saul's name was changed to Paul, and he became a tireless advocate for the Gospel. He preached to both Jews and Gentiles, establishing churches and mentoring leaders. His writings, including letters or epistles to various churches, provide theological depth and guidance for the Christian faith.

The conversion of Saul exemplifies God's grace and His ability to transform even the most hardened hearts. It underscores the principle that no one is beyond the reach of God's love and redemption.

In the broader context of the New Testament, Paul's conversion marked a turning point in the expansion of the early Church. His ministry and writings continue to shape Christian theology and practice to this day.

The story of Saul's conversion is a reminder that God's ways are beyond human understanding, and His grace can break through even the most entrenched opposition. It inspires believers to recognize the transformative power of encountering Christ and to boldly proclaim the Gospel message.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central and most profound event in Christian faith and theology. It marks the pinnacle of the Gospel narrative and represents the victory of life over death, sin, and the powers of darkness. The resurrection is the foundation upon which the Christian faith is built.

The story of Jesus's resurrection is primarily found in the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each providing unique perspectives and details. The accounts harmoniously affirm the core events: Jesus's crucifixion, His burial in a tomb, and His glorious resurrection on the third day.

The crucifixion of Jesus took place on a Roman cross, where He endured unimaginable suffering and died as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of humanity. His lifeless body was placed in a tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin who had become a secret follower of Jesus.

The tomb was sealed with a large stone, and guards were placed to ensure its security, as the religious authorities were concerned about the possibility of Jesus's disciples stealing the body and claiming His resurrection.

However, on the third day, a remarkable event unfolded. An angel of the Lord descended, rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. The guards, trembling with fear, became like dead men. When the women who had come to the tomb early in the morning discovered it empty, they were greeted by the angel, who proclaimed, "He is not here, for he has risen, as he said."

The news of Jesus's resurrection spread rapidly, and the disciples encountered the risen Christ in various appearances. Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus at the tomb, and later, He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, revealing Himself through the breaking of bread.

One of the most significant post-resurrection appearances occurred when Jesus appeared to His disciples in a locked room, offering them His peace and showing them the wounds in His hands and side as proof of His identity. Thomas, who had doubted the news of the resurrection, famously declared, "My Lord and my God!"

The resurrection of Jesus validated His claims to be the Son of God and the Messiah. It affirmed the reality of His victory over sin and death and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The Apostle Paul later referred to Jesus as the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20), emphasizing the resurrection's significance for all believers.

The resurrection of Jesus holds profound theological implications. It is the cornerstone of Christian faith, validating the message of salvation through Christ. It affirms the hope of eternal life and the promise of resurrection for all who believe in Him.

The resurrection also demonstrates God's power over death and His triumph over evil. It marks the ultimate defeat of Satan and the redemption of humanity.

In the broader context of the Bible, the resurrection is the climactic event of the New Testament, concluding the redemptive work of Christ. It initiates the mission of the early Church, as seen in the Book of Acts, and continues to be a central theme in Christian theology and worship.

Throughout history, the resurrection of Jesus has been celebrated as the heart of the Christian faith. It has inspired countless believers to embrace the hope of eternal life, to live in the power of the risen Christ, and to proclaim the Good News of salvation to the world.

The message of the resurrection is one of joy, triumph, and the assurance of God's love. It continues to resonate with believers as they affirm, "He is risen indeed!"

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, found in the New Testament Gospel of Luke (Luke 15:11-32), is a timeless story of forgiveness, redemption, and the boundless love of God. It resonates deeply with individuals who have experienced waywardness, repentance, and the hope of reconciliation.

The parable begins with a father who had two sons. The younger son approached his father, requesting his share of the inheritance. In this culture, such a request was essentially telling his father that he wished he were dead. Despite the painful request, the father divided his property between his two sons, giving the younger son his share.

The younger son then embarked on a journey to a distant country, where he squandered his inheritance in prodigal living—wasting his wealth on reckless living and worldly pleasures. However, a severe famine arose in that country, leaving him in desperate circumstances. He found himself feeding pigs and longing to eat the food they were given.

In his moment of desperation, the younger son came to his senses. He realized that even the hired servants in his father's house had more than enough to eat, while he was starving. With humility and repentance, he decided to return to his father, acknowledging his unworthiness and seeking a position as a hired servant.

As the prodigal son returned home, his father saw him from a distance and ran to him with open arms. He embraced his wayward son, kissed him, and ordered a celebration, declaring, "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

The older son, who had remained obedient and faithful, became resentful when he heard about the extravagant celebration for his younger brother's return. He questioned his father's actions, feeling that he had not been similarly honored despite his faithful service.

The father responded to the older son, emphasizing that his love and compassion for the younger son were due to the son's return from a life of sin and recklessness. He reassured the older son of his love and reminded him that everything the father had was his.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates several profound truths. Firstly, it exemplifies the boundless love and forgiveness of God. The father in the parable represents God, who eagerly welcomes repentant sinners back into His presence, celebrating their return with joy.

Secondly, it emphasizes the transformative power of repentance and humility. The prodigal son's recognition of his sinful condition and decision to return to his father serve as a model for true repentance.

Thirdly, the parable addresses the danger of self-righteousness and pride. The older son's attitude highlights the need for humility and a right understanding of God's grace.

In the broader context of Jesus's teachings, the parable illustrates the central theme of redemption and the Kingdom of God. It conveys the message that God's mercy extends to all who turn to Him in repentance, regardless of their past.

Throughout history, the Parable of the Prodigal Son has touched the hearts of countless individuals, reminding them of God's unconditional love and the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation. It continues to inspire believers to turn to God with contrite hearts and to extend grace and forgiveness to others.

The parting of the Red Sea is a miraculous and iconic event in the Bible, recounted in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 14). This extraordinary narrative marks a pivotal moment in the history of the Israelites and serves as a testament to God's power, deliverance, and faithfulness.

The story begins with the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt. Led by Moses, they had been guided by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. But as they journeyed, they found themselves trapped between the Red Sea and the approaching Egyptian army. Pharaoh had regretted letting them go and was pursuing them with a mighty army.

The Israelites were gripped by fear and despair, as they believed they had no escape. They cried out to Moses, questioning whether it would have been better to remain in Egypt as slaves than to die in the wilderness. Their faith wavered in the face of this seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

Moses, however, responded with unwavering faith. He assured the people, saying, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today." He believed in God's deliverance, even when the situation appeared dire.

God instructed Moses to stretch out his staff over the Red Sea, and a strong east wind began to blow. As the wind blew all night, it divided the waters of the Red Sea, creating a dry path through the midst of the sea. The Israelites, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, crossed the sea on dry ground, with walls of water standing on either side of them.

When the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites into the sea, the waters returned to their place, engulfing the Egyptian chariots and soldiers. Not one of them survived.

This miraculous event showcased God's power over nature and His commitment to deliver His people from bondage. It was a demonstration of His faithfulness to His promises, as He had promised to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.

The crossing of the Red Sea also symbolized a rebirth or new beginning for the Israelites. It marked their liberation from slavery and their journey toward a new life of freedom and covenant with God.

The song of Moses and Miriam, recorded in Exodus 15, celebrates this remarkable deliverance. It praises God for His victory over the Egyptian army and His guidance throughout their journey.

In the broader context of the Bible, the parting of the Red Sea is a foundational event in Israel's history. It serves as a reminder of God's power to overcome obstacles and deliver His people from oppression.

This story is often cited as an example of the importance of faith and trust in God's providence. Even when circumstances seem impossible, faith can open up unexpected paths and bring about miraculous outcomes.

The parting of the Red Sea continues to inspire believers to trust in God's ability to make a way where there seems to be no way. It is a powerful testament to the God who can turn the impossible into reality and lead His people to freedom and salvation.

The story of David and Goliath, found in the First Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 17), is one of the most iconic and inspiring narratives in the Bible. It centers around a young shepherd named David and a formidable giant warrior named Goliath, and it is a tale of courage, faith, and God's unexpected choices.

The backdrop of this story is the ongoing conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines. The Philistines had gathered their armies to face the Israelites in battle. Among the Philistine forces was Goliath, a giant of immense stature and strength, who challenged the Israelites to send a champion to fight him in single combat. The outcome of this duel would determine the fate of the entire battle.

Goliath's intimidating appearance and challenge struck fear into the hearts of the Israelite soldiers. They were paralyzed by fear and unable to find a suitable champion to face him.

Enter David, the youngest son of Jesse, who had been sent by his father to bring provisions to his older brothers serving in the Israelite army. Upon arriving at the camp and hearing Goliath's taunts, David was appalled by the Israelites' fear and lack of action. He asked about the reward for defeating Goliath and expressed his readiness to face the giant.

King Saul, hearing of David's willingness to fight Goliath, was initially skeptical due to David's youth and lack of military experience. However, David recounted his experiences as a shepherd defending his sheep against lions and bears and his faith in God's protection. Saul agreed to let David face Goliath and provided him with armor and weapons.

However, David chose to face Goliath in a way that defied conventional wisdom. He refused Saul's armor, picked up his shepherd's staff, and chose five smooth stones from a nearby brook, placing them in his shepherd's bag. With faith in God alone, he approached Goliath.

Goliath, towering over David, mocked him and cursed him by his gods. In response, David declared his trust in the living God of Israel and proclaimed that he would defeat Goliath. With a single stone from his sling, David struck Goliath in the forehead, causing the giant to fall to the ground, dead.

David's victory over Goliath astounded the Israelite army and solidified his reputation as a hero. It marked a turning point in the battle, leading to the defeat of the Philistine forces. David's rise to prominence began with this extraordinary act of faith and courage.

This story is rich in themes. First and foremost, it illustrates the power of faith and trust in God to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. David's unwavering belief in God's protection and his courage in the face of overwhelming odds serve as a timeless example for believers.

Secondly, it highlights the concept of God choosing the unlikely and the unassuming to accomplish great deeds. David, a shepherd boy, was chosen by God to become a king and a central figure in Israel's history.

Additionally, it emphasizes that outward appearances can be deceiving. While Goliath appeared invincible due to his size and weaponry, David, armed with faith and conviction, proved to be the true champion.

In the broader context of the Bible, David's victory over Goliath is a precursor to his anointing as king and his role in the lineage of Jesus Christ. It also foreshadows the theme of God raising up unlikely leaders throughout biblical history.

The story of David and Goliath continues to inspire believers to face their own giants—challenges, obstacles, and adversaries—with faith, courage, and trust in God. It serves as a reminder that God empowers His chosen ones to achieve extraordinary feats, and that His ways are often different from human expectations.

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The story of the fiery furnace, found in the Book of Daniel (Daniel 3), is a testament to unwavering faith, divine deliverance, and the willingness to stand firm in the face of extreme adversity. It centers around three Jewish young men—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—living in Babylon during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar.

In Nebuchadnezzar's empire, idol worship and the worship of the king were enforced by law. The king erected a massive golden image and commanded that all the people of his kingdom, regardless of their nationality, bow down and worship it. Refusing to bow to any other god, the three Jewish men stood in defiance of this decree.

Their unwavering commitment to the God of Israel and their refusal to worship a false idol caught the attention of the king's officials. They reported the disobedience to King Nebuchadnezzar, who summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to appear before him.

Nebuchadnezzar gave the three young men a chance to comply with his decree, warning them that failure to do so would result in being thrown into a blazing furnace. His question rang out, "And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?"

The response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is a testament to their faith and resolve. They acknowledged the king's authority but declared that they would not bow to the golden image. Their unwavering faith in God was unshaken, regardless of the consequences.

Nebuchadnezzar, enraged by their refusal to obey, ordered the furnace to be heated to an extreme temperature, beyond its usual intensity. The three young men were bound and cast into the fiery furnace by mighty men of the king's army. The heat was so intense that it killed the soldiers who carried out the king's orders.

But something extraordinary happened within the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar looked and was astonished to see not three, but four figures walking around inside the fiery furnace, unharmed and unbound. The fourth figure, in the king's words, "has the appearance of a god."

Filled with awe and amazement, Nebuchadnezzar approached the furnace and called for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out. They emerged unscathed, without even the smell of fire on their clothing.

Nebuchadnezzar, humbled by this miraculous intervention, praised the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, acknowledging His supreme authority and the futility of opposing Him. He issued a decree that no one should speak against the God of Israel, and he promoted the three young men within the kingdom.

This story highlights several significant themes. First and foremost, it underscores the importance of unwavering faith and the willingness to stand for one's beliefs, even in the face of persecution and threats to one's life.

Secondly, it serves as a powerful illustration of divine deliverance and the presence of God in times of trial. The fourth figure in the furnace is often interpreted as a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, emphasizing His role as the Savior and protector of His people.

Furthermore, the story highlights the transformative impact of faith on those who witness it. Nebuchadnezzar's recognition of the God of Israel's power and authority illustrates the potential influence of authentic faith on those in positions of authority and influence.

In the broader context of the book of Daniel, this account reflects a recurring theme of faithfulness in the midst of adversity and God's sovereignty over the affairs of nations and rulers.

The story of the fiery furnace continues to inspire believers to remain steadfast in their faith, even in the most challenging circumstances. It serves as a reminder that God is a deliverer and a protector who honors those who trust in Him.

In the midst of the conquest of Canaan, an unlikely character emerges as a key player in the biblical narrative: Rahab, a Canaanite woman living within the walls of Jericho. Her story is found in the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 2) and (Joshua 6).

As the Israelites, led by Joshua, prepared to enter the Promised Land and conquer its cities, Jericho stood as a formidable obstacle. Its walls were tall and impregnable, and its inhabitants were aware of the Israelite advance. Within this city, Rahab resided, occupying a space on the city walls.

Rahab, however, possessed a unique quality that set her apart from her fellow Jericho residents: faith. She had heard of the God of Israel and the miracles He had performed, particularly in delivering the Israelites from Egypt. Her faith led her to make a decision that would change the course of her life and the destiny of her family.

When two Israelite spies arrived in Jericho, Rahab offered them refuge and hid them from the king's men who sought to capture them. In doing so, she defied her own people and aligned herself with the God of Israel. She recognized the imminent fall of Jericho and sought mercy and protection for herself and her family.

Rahab's act of hospitality and her plea for salvation reveal her profound faith in the God of Israel. She declared to the spies, "The Lord your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath." Her confession of faith and her plea for kindness and salvation were met with an agreement from the spies.

In return for her assistance, the spies promised Rahab and her family protection when the Israelites conquered Jericho. They instructed her to tie a scarlet cord in the window through which she had let them down from the city wall. This cord would serve as a sign to spare her house during the impending destruction of the city.

As the Israelites marched around Jericho, following the divine instructions, the city walls indeed crumbled, and Jericho fell. However, Rahab's house, marked by the scarlet cord, remained standing, and she and her family were spared.

Rahab's story is a testament to the power of faith and the transformative grace of God. Despite her background as a Canaanite and a resident of Jericho, her faith led her to align herself with the God of Israel and to act on behalf of His people.

Her inclusion in the lineage of Jesus Christ, as mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 1:5), underscores her significance in the biblical narrative. It demonstrates that God's grace extends to all who turn to Him in faith, regardless of their past.

Rahab's story also emphasizes the role of hospitality in the biblical narrative. Her willingness to offer refuge to the spies and her act of kindness played a pivotal role in God's plan for the conquest of Canaan.

Furthermore, her scarlet cord, symbolizing both her faith and her redemption, serves as a precursor to the symbolism of the blood of Christ in the New Testament—a means of salvation and protection.

In the broader context of the conquest of Canaan, Rahab's story serves as a reminder that God's mercy is not confined by cultural or ethnic boundaries. It foreshadows the inclusion of Gentiles in God's redemptive plan, as seen in the New Testament.

Rahab's faith, hospitality, and redemption continue to inspire believers to trust in God's grace and to recognize that He can transform lives, even in the most unlikely circumstances. Her story stands as a testament to the universality of God's love and the power of faith to overcome the most challenging obstacles.

In the northern region of Israel, nestled in the town of Shunem, we encounter the story of a woman whose faith and hospitality left an indelible mark on the pages of the Bible. The Shunammite woman's narrative is found in the Old Testament, in the Second Book of Kings (2 Kings 4:8-37).

Elisha, the prophet of God, frequently passed through Shunem during his travels. Touched by the kindness and generosity of the Shunammite woman and her husband, he often accepted their hospitality. Recognizing his holy calling, they provided a room for Elisha to rest and refresh himself on his journeys.

As Elisha's frequent guest, the Shunammite woman and her husband came to realize that Elisha was a prophet of God, "a holy man of God." Impressed by Elisha's character and prophetic ministry, the Shunammite woman expressed her desire to honor him even more. She suggested to her husband that they build a small, furnished upper room for Elisha to use, complete with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp.

Elisha, deeply moved by the Shunammite woman's hospitality, sought to bless her in return. He prophesied that she would bear a son, even though she and her husband were advanced in age and had been childless. The promise of a son was a significant blessing in that cultural context, representing both joy and security.

As Elisha foretold, the Shunammite woman gave birth to a son, and the promise of God was fulfilled. The child grew, but tragically, one day he fell ill and died suddenly in his mother's arms. Devastated by this loss, the Shunammite woman laid her son on the bed in the room prepared for Elisha and set out to find the prophet.

Her journey to find Elisha is a testament to her unwavering faith. She did not reveal her son's death to anyone, including her husband. When she approached Elisha and fell at his feet, her words were marked by faith: "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me?'" She believed that Elisha, the holy man of God, held the power to intervene and bring her son back to life.

Elisha responded to her plea by sending his servant, Gehazi, with instructions to place his staff on the child's face. However, this attempt to revive the child was unsuccessful. Undeterred, Elisha himself went to the room, prayed fervently to God, and lay down upon the child, causing the boy's body to grow warm. He repeated this process, and the child sneezed seven times, coming back to life.

The Shunammite woman's faith and persistence, coupled with Elisha's intercession, resulted in the miraculous restoration of her son's life. Overjoyed and grateful, she fell at Elisha's feet and declared, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."

This story highlights several key themes. Firstly, it emphasizes the significance of hospitality and kindness, as the Shunammite woman's generosity toward Elisha led to the blessing of a son and later to the resurrection of that son. Her actions reflect the biblical principle that those who extend hospitality to God's servants may receive blessings in return.

Secondly, the story underscores the power of faith and belief in the face of seemingly insurmountable circumstances. The Shunammite woman's unwavering faith in Elisha and her belief in God's promises played a central role in the miraculous events that unfolded.

Additionally, this narrative reveals the prophetic ministry of Elisha and the intimate connection between a prophet and the people they serve. Elisha's prayers and actions demonstrate his role as a conduit of God's power and compassion.

In a broader context, the story serves as a testament to the faithfulness of God in fulfilling His promises. The birth of the Shunammite woman's son and his subsequent resurrection exemplify God's faithfulness to His people even in times of loss and despair.

The story of the Shunammite woman continues to inspire believers to show kindness and hospitality to others, to maintain unwavering faith in God's promises, and to trust in the transformative power of prayer and intercession.

In the bustling court of the temple in Jerusalem, where wealthy individuals made grand donations, a simple act of sacrificial giving by a humble widow became a powerful demonstration of devotion and selflessness. The story of the Widow's Offering is recounted in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospels of Mark (Mark 12:41-44) and Luke (Luke 21:1-4).

As Jesus observed the people putting their gifts into the temple treasury, He noticed a widow who approached with two small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. These were her last possessions, all she had to live on.

The widow's offering was meager compared to the large sums contributed by the wealthy. Yet, in Jesus's eyes, her gift held incomparable value. He gathered His disciples and declared, "Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury."

The essence of Jesus's teaching in this moment lies in the widow's heart and her willingness to give everything she had. Her offering, though small in monetary terms, was an act of profound faith and sacrifice, embodying the principle of giving out of one's need rather than abundance.

The contrast between the widow's offering and the contributions of the wealthy serves as a poignant lesson on true generosity. The wealthy gave out of their surplus, without experiencing any significant impact on their lives. The widow, on the other hand, gave sacrificially, trusting God to provide for her needs.

Jesus's words underscore the importance of giving with a sincere and generous heart. He teaches that it is not the quantity of one's gift that matters most, but the spirit in which it is given. The widow's offering becomes a model of wholehearted devotion and selfless giving.

This story is a reminder that God values the condition of our hearts more than the size of our gifts. It challenges us to examine our motives when giving and encourages us to cultivate a spirit of generosity that extends beyond monetary wealth.

Furthermore, the story of the Widow's Offering is a reflection of Jesus's concern for the marginalized and vulnerable in society. Widows, in that cultural context, often faced financial hardship and dependency. Jesus's recognition of the widow's faith and sacrifice emphasizes His compassion for those who are economically disadvantaged.

The widow's offering also draws parallels with the concept of stewardship. She entrusted her last resources to God, acknowledging Him as the ultimate provider. Her act of faith echoes the biblical principle of faithful stewardship, recognizing that all we have ultimately belongs to God.

In the broader context of Jesus's teachings, this account serves as a counterpoint to the religious hypocrisy and self-righteousness exhibited by some of the religious leaders. It challenges believers to embrace a humble and authentic faith, marked by genuine devotion and compassion for others.

The story of the Widow's Offering continues to inspire believers to examine their attitudes towards giving and to prioritize a heart of sacrificial generosity. It serves as a timeless reminder that God values the authenticity of our devotion and the condition of our hearts above all else.

In a world driven by materialism and excess, the widow's act of sacrificial giving resonates as a powerful testimony to the transformative power of faith, selflessness, and the recognition of God's providence.

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The story of Daniel in the lions' den is a gripping tale of unwavering faith, divine deliverance, and the triumph of righteousness in the face of adversity. It is found in the Old Testament book of Daniel, specifically in Daniel 6, and it continues to captivate readers with its powerful message of faithfulness to God.

Daniel, a Jewish exile living in Babylon, rose to prominence in the court of King Darius. His exceptional wisdom and integrity earned him the favor of the king and the envy of his fellow officials. The king recognized Daniel's exceptional qualities and intended to appoint him as one of three administrators over the kingdom.

However, Daniel's rapid ascent to power aroused the jealousy and resentment of the other officials. Desperate to find fault with him, they sought to exploit his unwavering commitment to God. They devised a cunning plan to trap Daniel by convincing King Darius to issue a decree forbidding anyone from making petitions to any god or man for thirty days, except to the king himself.

Daniel, faithful to his God, continued to pray three times a day with his windows open, as was his custom. When the officials caught him in the act of praying to God and informed the king of Daniel's defiance of the decree, King Darius was deeply distressed. He admired Daniel and recognized the trap he had fallen into but was powerless to reverse the decree.

As a result, Daniel was thrown into a den of hungry lions as punishment for his disobedience to the decree. The king, troubled and anxious, spent a sleepless night fasting and mourning for Daniel's fate. His attachment to Daniel was a testament to Daniel's character and integrity.

In the morning, the king rushed to the lions' den, fearing the worst. To his astonishment and relief, he found Daniel alive and unharmed. God had sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions, sparing Daniel's life. Overjoyed by this miracle, King Darius ordered Daniel's release from the den.

Daniel's faith and commitment to God had not wavered, even in the face of a life-threatening situation. His story is a testimony to his unyielding trust in God and his refusal to compromise his faith for the sake of convenience or safety.

The tale of Daniel in the lions' den serves as a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness to those who remain faithful to Him. It illustrates that when we stand firm in our convictions, even in the face of adversity, God can deliver us from the most daunting challenges.

Furthermore, the story highlights the importance of prayer as an integral part of Daniel's life. His commitment to regular prayer, despite the decree, showcases the significance of maintaining a consistent and unwavering connection with God.

The king's reaction to Daniel's deliverance was to issue a decree that all people within his kingdom should fear and reverence the God of Daniel, acknowledging His sovereign power and dominion. This declaration reflects the transformative impact of Daniel's faithfulness on those around him.

In the broader context of the book of Daniel, this story is one of several accounts that demonstrate God's sovereignty over the affairs of nations and individuals. It reinforces the theme that God's purposes will ultimately prevail, even in the face of opposition.

The story of Daniel in the lions' den continues to inspire believers to remain steadfast in their faith, no matter the circumstances. It serves as a testament to the enduring power of faith and the faithfulness of God to His people.

Amidst the multitude of stories in the Bible, there are moments when the spotlight shines on individuals whose faith transcends boundaries and astonishes those around them. The story of the Canaanite woman is one such powerful narrative that showcases unwavering faith and determination.

This remarkable encounter occurs in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 15:21-28). Jesus, during His earthly ministry, embarked on a journey to the region of Tyre and Sidon, an area primarily inhabited by Gentiles, outside the territory of Israel.

In this foreign land, a Canaanite woman approached Jesus, crying out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." Her plea reveals a deep understanding of Jesus as the Messiah, addressing Him as "Son of David."

What makes this story particularly striking is Jesus's initial response. He did not immediately grant the woman's request but remained silent. The disciples, perhaps uncomfortable with her persistent pleas, urged Jesus to send her away. Yet, the Canaanite woman was undeterred.

She continued to plead, falling at Jesus's feet and imploring Him, "Lord, help me." Her faith was unshakable, her determination unyielding. She recognized Jesus's divine authority and the potential for deliverance for her afflicted daughter.

Jesus's response, though seemingly stern, was part of a test of her faith. He said, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." In this metaphorical language, "children" referred to the Jewish people, and "dogs" to Gentiles.

Remarkably, the Canaanite woman's response was filled with humility and profound faith. She replied, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Her words conveyed a deep understanding of God's abundant grace and mercy, even for those outside the covenant.

Jesus was moved by her faith and persistence. He declared, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." At that very moment, her daughter was healed, and the demon was cast out.

The Canaanite woman's faith serves as a powerful example of how faith can transcend cultural and societal barriers. Her story challenges the notion of exclusivity and emphasizes that God's grace is available to all who approach Him in faith.

Moreover, this story highlights the importance of persistence in prayer. The Canaanite woman's unwavering determination to seek Jesus's help for her daughter is a model for believers to persistently bring their concerns before the Lord.

In the broader context of the Gospels, this encounter foreshadows the inclusion of Gentiles in the salvation plan. It is a precursor to Jesus's commission to His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations.

The faith of the Canaanite woman serves as an enduring reminder that God's grace knows no bounds. Her story continues to inspire believers to approach God with unwavering faith, even in the face of challenges and cultural barriers.

In a world often divided by differences, the story of the Canaanite woman encourages us to recognize the universal nature of God's love and the transformative power of faith.

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The story of Noah and the Ark is one of the most iconic and universally recognized narratives in the Bible. It is a tale of divine warning, human obedience, and God's promise to preserve life amidst impending judgment.

The world in Noah's time had become increasingly wicked and corrupt, with violence and immorality prevalent. In response to this pervasive evil, God decided to bring a cataclysmic flood upon the earth to cleanse it of sin and wickedness.

God's choice for the instrument of salvation was Noah, a righteous man in his generation. God appeared to Noah and revealed His plan to destroy all living creatures with a flood. He instructed Noah to build an enormous ark to save his family and pairs of every kind of land-dwelling animal.

Noah's obedience to this divine command is a testament to his faith and trust in God. Without question, he devoted himself to the monumental task of constructing the ark, following God's precise instructions. The ark itself was an enormous vessel, designed to accommodate not only Noah's family but also representatives of all animal species.

The flood, when it finally came, was cataclysmic in its scope. Rain poured down, and "the fountains of the great deep burst forth," causing the waters to rise and cover the earth's surface. All life outside the ark was swept away, and the floodwaters prevailed for 40 days and 40 nights.

Inside the ark, Noah, his family, and the animals were safe from the devastation outside. The ark became a symbol of refuge and salvation in the midst of judgment, foreshadowing the salvation offered through Christ in the New Testament.

After the floodwaters receded and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, Noah sent out a series of birds to determine if the earth was once again habitable. The dove returned with an olive leaf, signaling the beginning of new life and hope.

Upon leaving the ark, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices to God, signifying his gratitude and devotion. God responded by making a covenant with Noah, promising never to destroy the earth again by flood. As a sign of this covenant, God set the rainbow in the sky.

The story of Noah and the Ark is not merely a historical account but a profound lesson about God's justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It illustrates God's willingness to spare the righteous and provide a means of salvation amidst judgment.

Noah's unwavering faith and obedience are hallmarks of his character. His story inspires believers to trust in God's guidance, even when His plans may seem incomprehensible.

Moreover, the rainbow, which God established as a sign of His covenant, serves as a reminder of God's faithfulness to His promises. It is a symbol of hope and assurance that God's mercy endures forever.

In the narrative of Noah and the Ark, we find themes of divine judgment, redemption, and the preservation of life. It is a timeless story that continues to touch hearts and inspire faith in the providence and grace of God.

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Abraham, whose name was originally Abram, is a central figure in the Bible and the father of three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His story begins with a divine call that would set the course for his life's remarkable journey.

In the book of Genesis, we are introduced to Abraham, a man living in Ur of the Chaldeans. It is here that God appears to him, commanding him to leave his homeland and travel to a land that God would show him. This divine call is the foundation of Abraham's story and the start of his faith journey.

Abraham's response to God's call is an exemplary demonstration of faith and obedience. Without hesitation, he gathers his wife, Sarah, and nephew, Lot, and sets out on a journey into the unknown. He becomes a nomadic pilgrim, following God's promise of a land and descendants.

One of the most pivotal moments in Abraham's life is God's promise to make him a father of nations. However, as years pass, Abraham and Sarah remain childless, which leads to doubt and despair. Despite their old age, God reaffirms His promise of offspring, foretelling the birth of a son.

In a moment that encapsulates both the absurdity and the miraculous nature of God's promises, Sarah laughs at the prospect of bearing a child in her old age. Yet, God's promise comes to fruition, and Isaac is born, bringing joy and fulfillment to Abraham and Sarah.

Isaac's birth is a testament to the faithfulness of God and serves as a reminder that God's promises are not limited by human limitations. It is a profound moment of hope and blessing in Abraham's life.

However, God's test of Abraham's faith and obedience is yet to come. In a remarkable and heart-wrenching story, God commands Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering on a mountain in the land of Moriah. This is a test of unparalleled magnitude, as Isaac is not only Abraham's son but also the fulfillment of God's promise of descendants.

The gravity of God's command cannot be overstated. Sacrificing Isaac would not only bring immense personal grief to Abraham but would also seemingly contradict God's promise of making him a father of nations through Isaac.

Nevertheless, Abraham's response to God's command is one of unwavering faith and obedience. Early in the morning, he takes Isaac, along with wood and fire, and sets out for the designated mountain. The journey to Moriah is a period of silence and profound reflection.

Upon reaching the mountain, Abraham and Isaac begin to prepare for the sacrifice. Isaac, unaware of the true purpose of the journey, questions his father about the absence of a sacrificial lamb. Abraham's response is laden with faith: "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."

As Abraham raises the knife to offer his son as a sacrifice, an angel of the Lord intervenes, calling out to him. "Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

This divine intervention demonstrates not only Abraham's obedience but also God's immense grace and provision. A ram caught in a thicket nearby becomes the substitute sacrifice, sparing Isaac's life.

Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, coupled with God's provision and intervention, underscores the importance of unwavering faith and trust in God's divine plan.

The significance of this story extends beyond Abraham's personal journey. It foreshadows God's ultimate act of sacrifice through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who would provide redemption for humanity.

In the end, Abraham's call and the sacrifice of Isaac are a testament to faith, obedience, and the profound relationship between humanity and God. It is a story that continues to touch the hearts of believers, reminding them of the depths of faith and the boundless grace of God.

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As Christians, we are called to live a life that is guided by faith and love. Emotions play a significant role in our daily lives, shaping our thoughts, actions, and interactions with others. However, if left unchecked, emotions can become overwhelming and detrimental. In this blog, we will explore how we can harness our emotions in alignment with biblical principles to experience emotional well-being and spiritual growth.

1. Acknowledge and Understand Emotions:

The first step in harnessing emotions is to acknowledge and understand them. God has created us with a range of emotions, and each emotion serves a purpose. Take time to reflect on what you are feeling and why you might be feeling that way. Through self-awareness and introspection, you can gain insight into the underlying causes and triggers of your emotions.

2. Surrender to God:

As Christians, we believe that our lives are surrendered to God. This includes surrendering our emotions to Him. Invite God into your emotional experiences and seek His guidance and wisdom. Through prayer, ask God to help you understand and navigate your emotions in ways that honor Him and promote spiritual growth.

3. Seek God's Word for Guidance:

The Bible is a rich source of wisdom and guidance for all areas of life, including emotions. Search the Scriptures for passages that address emotions, such as Psalms, Proverbs, and the teachings of Jesus. Meditate on these verses and allow them to shape your understanding and response to your emotions. God's Word provides a solid foundation for managing emotions in a healthy and godly manner.

4. Practice Self-Control:

The Bible teaches the importance of self-control in various areas of our lives, including our emotions. Proverbs 25:28 states, "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." Ask the Holy Spirit to help you develop self-control over your emotions. This involves pausing before reacting impulsively, choosing words and actions that reflect godly character, and seeking wise counsel when needed.

5. Seek Emotional Healing:

Emotional wounds and past hurts can significantly impact our ability to harness our emotions. It is crucial to seek emotional healing through prayer, counseling, or support groups. Allow God to bring healing and restoration to areas of brokenness, so that your emotions can be guided by His love, grace, and truth.

6. Cultivate Gratitude and Joy:

Gratitude and joy are powerful emotions that can positively influence our overall emotional well-being. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude by regularly expressing thankfulness to God and others. Choose joy by focusing on the blessings in your life and finding contentment in God's presence. These emotions will help you navigate challenges with a hopeful and optimistic perspective.

7. Community and Accountability:

Surround yourself with a supportive community of fellow believers who can provide encouragement, prayer, and accountability. Share your emotional struggles and victories with trusted individuals who can offer biblical guidance and support. Together, you can grow in emotional maturity and harness your emotions in a way that honors God.

Harnessing our emotions is an ongoing process that requires self-reflection, surrender to God, and intentional alignment with biblical principles. As we acknowledge, understand, and surrender our emotions to God, we can experience emotional well-being and spiritual growth. Through prayer, self-control, seeking God's Word, pursuing emotional healing, cultivating gratitude and joy, and engaging in community, we can harness our emotions in a way that brings glory to God and enriches our lives and relationships.

Proverbs 29:11: "A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back."

 

James 1:19-20: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

 

Proverbs 16:32: "Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."

 

Ephesians 4:31-32: "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

 

Colossians 3:8: "But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth."

 

Proverbs 14:29: "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly."

 

Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

 

Psalm 37:8: "Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil."

 

Proverbs 15:18: "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention."

 

Romans 12:17-21: "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

These verses highlight the importance of self-control, forgiveness, humility, and seeking peace in managing our emotions according to biblical principles. They encourage us to rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance and to respond to our emotions in a way that honors God and promotes love and righteousness.

Hey guys! Today I just want to point out that we should be confident a some point when you are scared or something. Like maybe you’re in a big performance and you need to count on God so you can have at least a little extra of confidence. I even went to a ballet performance  myself after months of practice and at the performance I counted on God so that I wouldn’t be nervous. This is what you should do in your life: obey God and his laws and when your scared and you need confidence, say, “ God I have obeyed you all this time, now  its your turn to encourage me.” 
 

Believe and trust in God and you will have confidence and you will have his spirit.

• Hello fellow christians. I will be teaching you how to pray properly and where to pray and why. First, I will be teaching you how to pray properly. It goes like this,

Dear Father in heaven,

May Your name be honored,

May Your kingdom come,

May your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us our daily bread,

and forgive our sins,

just as we forgive others.

Do not lead us into temptation,

Protect us from all evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the 

power and the glory forever.

            AMEN

Now I will be teaching you where to pray. You should pray in a room then lock the door because God will reward you if you do that. If you pray where everybody can see you, then God know that you won’t need a reward from God because aren't you happy enough with the people?

Finally, I will be teaching you why you should pray. You should pray because you and me all have sins and we repent by praying. Jesus died on the cross for everybody you see. Because of him, we don't have to be punished if we pray.

Love of God

 Hi friends! Today I want to share something awesome. Did you know that a single mistake can make a complete disaster? In fact, when Adam and Eve made the first sin, sin enters in to the world. That's why the bible says, "Everyone is a sinner".

We know that everybody sins but some of us really try not to sin and that's great. No matter how many mistakes you make and believe in Jesus, you will inherit the kingdom of God. But if you on purposely lie or sin just because of fear, it's bad. But don't worry. I make the same mistakes too!

Just like one sin caused disaster to the whole world, one man who was pure and righteous saved the world so that we could be forgiven and have eternal life. However, we need to obey His laws so that we can be righteous. Although how hard we try, we cannot be saved by our works. We still need to believe in Jesus Christ. 

In conclusion, the Almighty God saved us from our sin since we couldn't save our selves.

Are we worthy of God's kingdom?

The short answer is no. We are not worthy if not by the grace and mercy of God.

We will enter in to the house of God with confidence because of the cross of Jesus and what he did for us on that cross, he becomes our righteousness.

But unfortunately, most of us become worthy of the world because we level ourselves to the foolish desires of this world. 

The Bible says in Hebrew 11:38 regarding our faithful children of God,

The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 

Surely, if the world is worthy of us, then surely, we are not worthy of God's kingdom.

Let me explain what worthy of the world mean exactly.

We are worthy of this world if we talk like them, we love and hate like them, if we live our lives like them. If we watched the same movie like them. If we treat others like the people of the world and specially if we are loved by the world and get their attention. 

Jesus said that when the people of this world love and adore you then watch out as you are in the wrong track.

But when they hate you and prosecute you for doing the right thing, then rejoice because they also did the same thing to Jesus. 

Beloved children of God, love for the things of the world will cost us our relationship with God.

Love and adoration for the world is enmity with God.

We cannot be citizens of devil as well as God's kingdom. 

The world belongs to the devil. He is the ruler of the darkness in the world.

But while we live in it, he cannot overpower us and defeat us since he who is in us (HOLY SPIRIT) is stronger is he who is in the world, devil.

Faith is confidence in God that he is going to finish what he started in our lives.

In other words, faith is assurance of the things that we don't see.

Our faith father defied the devil and its foolish desires of the world by one simple but mighty weapon. FAITH!!!

Friends and listeners, with God, nothing is impossible. All the circumstances will be hard and we may not do anything about it. But of course, God was here before human world was created. (That does not mean devil was here without a purpose.) This means no harm will come to us.

Not to mention, I almost forgot! Faith in God is also part of making him happy. So if God can do anything which is always true, faith can as well! And so can you with faith. 

You can move mountains with faith and turn water to wine.If you love God deeply you can do anything! So have faith in God so things can go easy on Earth, and God will let you do nothing but praise Him in heaven.

Something important about faith, is that it is a strong weapon that helps you overcome the devil when he lurks upon you with many  temptations which might create chaos in your head!(No offense though,).

Friends and listeners of the Lord,

Let's celebrate that we have been welcomed by the Holy One and that when we are put in The "New Jerusalem" , we are and we will, live there forever more.

The God, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and The God of Jacob, is going to make the old Jerusalem a new and better place for us when we, the disciples of Jesus, are there. He will leave the gates there open and never let it become closed for the People Of God are welcomed. He will protect His People although there is nothing to be scared of. This is how He will turn old things to new things. Like our world.

Here is the moral of the whole lesson. Like the title, I may repeat it. "Be Happy And Rejoice For The Kingdom Of God Is Near."

God is fair. So we need to share fairness like Him. God is kind. So we need to share kindness like Him. Lastly and mostly, God is Holy.  We want to all be equal and fair with all the things we have and we can share our Spirit with all the people who really have a hard time understanding God's Word.

We are God's adapted children. I know how you are confused and are saying, "Why? We are God's children. Not adapt!" And yes you are God's children, but God himself and His son Jesus want to be an adapting Father.

The Lord's unfailing love wants to help the poor, bless the humble, and do other miracles for us forever but there is two problems. Sin, which comes by the devil, separates  us from God to fully bless us. The second problem is, usually, God and Jesus are working together to fight the devil and we ourselves are busy. I don't want to be mean but, sometimes, we don't really deserve a blessing all the time. That's why we want to let God do what He decides to do.

Yeah. Sometimes that can happen. 

I know sometimes its hard to understand but even now, before and after, I know that people in this world; States, and countries alike, may have tragedy too, sometimes. That's why giving could help ourselves, other people, and our very hearts. God is already caring and all He needs to do is watch us. (Well, the devil is patrolling the earth too. But no harm will come to us.)

This is the moral of the whole lesson. Like the title, I can repeat it. "Kindness: If God Is Kind To You, Please show The Same Act Of Kindness To Others."

Friends, listen to my sayings. Before our savior died on the cross, he knew this was going to happen so he blessed us and wanted to be generous to us as a sign that this will be the end of being on earth for quite a while. And he willingly died for us on the cross because he wanted to reunite our relationship with Him.

Let's say you pushed your very own best friend in your house or in a random place and the following day your friend chose you in her team at school. This is precisely like God. Even though the people of Israel plot to kill our Savior, and turned their back away from Him, He still loves us no matter we do. But there is always a consequence in disobedience.

What would you ask God ? Would you ask The Lord to forgive the people like Jesus and Stephen or would you ask Him to punish them? Well, it's your opinion to forgive or not. Making the Lord happy is all he needs from you. Not turning to idols and disobey him, just listen to his commands and just sit tight.

I hope you all understand me but, I know how we all face difficulties and stuff like that but others don't. That's how I feel too. However, when we think about how Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, we can feel better again. (Or if that can't help take 3 deep breaths.)

Here is the moral of this story. Like the title, I can repeat it. Jesus' purpose on earth was to bless and be generous for every human generation.

 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  --Romans 5:8

 

There is salvation for everyone today, friends. For we do not know what will happen tomorrow. God only knows our future not us. He had all the answers of philosophy in life in the beginning, and even now! If you ignore his words, you will keep procrastinating  the good news. 

Speculate that you had everything you need and a 100 percent what will happen the next day and, Boom! It did not come as planned, and God will not appreciate that work you did. Today is a special day where you can do as planned and do as your desire can leap to but not understanding the future will not make it as that special as you think it is.

Make your free time today praising the Lord. God needs his glory on Sunday because the rest of the 6 days are for you.

Indeed, making God pleased is the key of understanding him and making him happy. Knowing that he is all powerful and has unfailing love, we can understand his love too!

This is the moral of the whole lesson. Like the title, I'll repeat it. "Love and Cherish for today". 

Love, the fulfilment of law, is like a stream that flows from a pure heart and good conciousness. 

The faith in faithful people will lead it to the rightful path through every person.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

‭‭ወደ ኤፌሶን 5

1፤ እንግዲህ እንደ ተወደዱ ልጆች እግዚአብሔርን የምትከተሉ ሁኑ፥

2፤ ክርስቶስም ደግሞ እንደ ወደዳችሁ ለእግዚአብሔርም የመዓዛ ሽታ የሚሆንን መባንና መሥዋዕትን አድርጎ ስለ እናንተ ራሱን አሳልፎ እንደ ሰጠ በፍቅር ተመላለሱ።

3፤ ለቅዱሳን እንደሚገባ ግን ዝሙትና ርኵሰት ሁሉ ወይም መመኘት በእናንተ ዘንድ ከቶ አይሰማ፤

4፤ የሚያሳፍር ነገርም የስንፍና ንግግርም ወይም ዋዛ የማይገቡ ናቸውና አይሁኑ፥ ይልቁን ምስጋና እንጂ።

5፤ ይህን እወቁ፤ አመንዝራም ቢሆን ወይም ርኵስ ወይም የሚመኝ እርሱም ጣዖትን የሚያመልክ በክርስቶስና በእግዚአብሔር መንግሥት ርስት የለውም።

6፤ ከዚህ የተነሣ በማይታዘዙት ልጆች ላይ የእግዚአብሔር ቁጣ ይመጣልና ማንም በከንቱ ንግግር አያታልላችሁ።

7፤ እንግዲህ ከእነርሱ ጋር ተካፋዮች አትሁኑ፤

ወደ ገላትያ 1

15-16፤ ነገር ግን በእናቴ ማኅፀን ሳለሁ የለየኝ በጸጋውም የጠራኝ እግዚአብሔር በአሕዛብ መካከል ስለ እርሱ ወንጌልን እሰብክ ዘንድ ልጁን በእኔ ሁኔታ ሊገልጥ በወደደ ጊዜ፥ ወዲያው ከሥጋና ከደም ጋር አልተማከርሁም፥

ወደ ገላትያ 2

20፤ ከክርስቶስ ጋር ተሰቅዬአለሁ፤ እኔም አሁን ሕያው ሆኜ አልኖርም ክርስቶስ ግን በእኔ ይኖራል፤ አሁንም በሥጋ የምኖርበት ኑሮ በወደደኝና ስለ እኔ ራሱን በሰጠው በእግዚአብሔር ልጅ ላይ ባለ እምነት የምኖረው ነው።

ወደ ገላትያ 5

15፤ ነገር ግን እርስ በርሳችሁ ብትነካከሱ ብትበላሉ እርስ በርሳችሁ እንዳትጠፋፉ ተጠንቀቁ።

ወደ ገላትያ 6

14፤ ነገር ግን ዓለም ለእኔ የተሰቀለበት እኔም ለዓለም የተሰቀልሁበት ከጌታችን ከኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ መስቀል በቀር ሌላ ትምክህት ከእኔ ይራቅ።

ወደ ገላትያ 6

1፤ ወንድሞች ሆይ፥ ሰው በማናቸውም በደል ስንኳ ቢገኝ፥ መንፈሳውያን የሆናችሁ እናንተ እንደዚህ ያለውን ሰው በየውሃት መንፈስ አቅኑት፤ አንተ ደግሞ እንዳትፈተን ራስህን ጠብቅ።

Friends, today I would like to share with you some of the important instructions that apostle Paul passed to Timothy concerning how he should live his life and guide others around him. I believe these are very monumental and very practical that we should also apply to our lives in a daily manner. The order in which I listed these points are not the same order in the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy, rather in the order I think is very important.

Paul instructions to Timothy.

1. Pray for all people including leaders

We must pray daily consistently about all things and for all people.

We should pray about leaders and governments so that we can have peace and freedom to worship the Lord. 

2. Believe God with all your heart

Paul emphasized that we should have good faith in the Lord since we cannot please God without one. Everything we do in the spiritual world is one way or another due to faith as we cannot see it with our eyes. Faith is assurance of something we hopped for and proof to our imagination that we cannot see or feel in the physical realm. 

3. Live with Modesty and Simplicity

Paul mentioned that as Christians whose home is not in this world, we should not put to much attention to the glittering things of this world. Moreover, we should be very thoughtful about other people around us who are not fortunate enough to have material things like we have. We should not boast our selves more than what is necessary and become a burden to other people.

4. Respect the elders

Elders who have enough knowledge and experience in the house of the Lord may not need to be instructed or corrected as they know better.

5. Provide for the families and relatives

Paul put the issue of helping our families very crucial as this is mandatory for any Christian to do. He even compared a person who is not willing to help family while he can to a person who has abandoned his faith or even worse than this. That is how important this is. 

Our parents raised us since we were 6 pounds. They changed our diapers, went through a lot of psychological, mental, physical, emotional pain just to raise us. It will be very cruel to abandon them when they need us most which is in their old age or due to illness,

6. Love others with good conscience

Good conscience is something we barely find now a days. It is nothing but positive mindset with no ill intentions. Good conscience is when we have a good intention towards others to be able to nurture, captivate and enrich other people lives no matter what the other person thinks or does. A person with good conscience never retaliates or conceive evil plans. He always forgives and forget and move on when bad things happen. 

7. Be a good soldier for Christ

This is so important as we are all need to be loyal and good faithful servant and soldier for our Lord.

It always amazes me how a soldier is dedicated his own life for the sake of the country he or she serves. 

Soldiers don’t have extra ambitions and purpose other than to defend their country. They lay down their life just to keep everyone safe and make them proud. We should act similarly as we too are soldiers of God’s army and kingdom. 

8. Do not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ

Under no circumstance should we be ashamed of the gospel.

It is the way of salvation for human beings and escape the wrath of God. It is also foolishness to those who will perish. 

If we speak about the gospel in front of other people, Jesus will testify that to the father in judgment day. Otherwise, he won’t do it.

9. Be content with what you have

This is the key to a happy life. Making more money doesn’t make you happy. Only when you understand this principle that you will be happy. Paul said many tried to get rich, but they were pulled down and hurt themselves. Faith is not a way to get rich by craving for more but by making you fulfilled and satisfied with what you have. That does mean if we are rich then we are are sinners until we don’t know how to share for the poor. Which takes us to our next point. 

10. Share with the poor

Sharing shows that you care and love others. Keeping money for yourself doesn’t say good things about you. We came into this world empty handed and we will go the same way we came here – empty handed. Not even one penny will be taken with us to heaven. Being rich is not a sin but being greedy is. Rich people should store their treasure in a place where thieves cannot steal it and moth cannot destroy it. And that my friend is when you give your money to the poor. That sounds foolish but is true. You cannot save your money in bank somewhere in this physical world and expect it to see it in the spiritual world. The spiritual world has principles as the physical world that we have to follow in order to operate on it and that is what Paul is teaching us here with the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit.

11. Pay your tithe

It is very necessary that we should contribute to our church using our gifts and talents. Paying our tithe and offering is one way of showing love for the servants of the Lord who are serving the church day and night diligently. Those people deserve to get paid even two folds as they have dedicated themselves for the sake of preaching the gospel. Young minsters sacrificed their youth and energy into something that is eternal and therefore they should be encouraged and supported both financially and emotionally when they need our help.

12. Use your time and money wisely

Time is one of the most precious gifts we have on this earth. We must be vigilant and use it wisely. Most resources can be acquired anytime but once you run out of time, it is impossible to get it back.

We all live only a limited amount of time on this earth, and we should plan it accordingly. We should prioritize what we need to accomplish each day, week, month, and year and so on. 

The Bible gives us full of examples of individuals who have wasted their time on earth and regret it later. 

The Bible says there is time for everything. Time for laugh and time for crying. Time for work and time for rest. Time for giving and time for receiving. Don’t waste your time with anything that is ungodly and may degrade your faith in Christ.

13. Use your money wisely

Money is also another important resource that is bestowed to you to manage and utilize is wisely. 

In this aspect Paul advised to not waste our money on someone who can work but being simply dependent due to laziness.

Paul doesn’t encourage people who can work but are simply lazy to get help from church. These people are burden for the church. They are taking resource that should be given to other people who really need it. For example, Paul mentioned young widows should not be included as we must take care of old widow above the age of 60.

14. Use and guard your gifts wisely

We have participated in the glorious plan of God according to his love through Christ Jesus.  The grace of our Lord was poured out on us abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

We partake from this heavenly gift, and we must use it for the benefit of humankind and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

15. Expose false teaching including prosperity gospel

In this last days there are so many false teachers that are anointed by the devil to confuse God’s people from the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ. 

On the other side the church is now filled with so many non-believers who call themselves “Christian” that are the breeding ground for false teachers as they encourage them to preach their non-sense. Paul mentioned that in the last days people doesn’t want to hear the true gospel but only that itches their ears which is filled with greediness, malice, distorted scriptures, pride, false prosperity, and so on. 

16. Tell the truth with love

Because false teachers that always tries to capture people attention with deceitfulness and cunning mind, people are now tired of hearing the truth from the word of God that admonished and correct them and guide them to do good things. Therefore, as teachers of the word of God we have to be loving and caring when it comes to correcting others and cultivating them to be fruitful. Which leads us to the last but not least lesson we learn from this article

17. Be humble

Humility is the basis for a Christian living. God listens and speaks to a humble heart. God disgraces and breaks a proud person, nation, mankind... David was called “a man after God’s heart” because he always humbles himself in the eyes of God and lay dawn himself when it comes to serving other people or the King of kings.

People also listen to anyone who is humble. As teachers of the Word of God, we must humble ourselves under the power of the Almighty God and serve other as if we do all things to please Him. 

May the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all the time

May he bless you with peace of mind and joy of the holy spirit.

Friends, have you ever wondered what is the benefit of providing assistance for the needy, whether it is financial or emotional support? Whether it is genuine empathy or an actual help, whether it is a small gift or a hefty one. All these matter so much. It does not matter whether it is small or big. 

Many people pass through difficult times in their lives and we need to offer help as much as we can to help them elevate from their unfortunate circumstances. We may think when we help someone, we only are helping them, and we may not know that the benefit is mutual. There is a lot of joy in giving to the needy. we cannot feel it until we take the steps to do it in the first place.

In fact, there is a lot more joy in giving than there is in saving money and accumulate treasures to use it later for yourself. The joy comes from watching closely to the response of the person whom we have helped. Their facial expression, thankfulness and happiness are the factories of your happiness. It is not near to what you may feel when your saving account grows.

It also comes from the fact that when we give, we are lending money to our God who is the creator of all things.

Why, because the Bible says so. 

Proverbs 19:17 Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD

You see when you give instead of saving it for later, you are saying to the Lord that you trust his provision for bad days than your preparedness.

You are putting your confidence on him rather than your brain.

In other words, God is saying to you, you give them now and think as if you lend me a money.

I do not know about you, but I think this is serious business. When God is their collateral, there is no way you are going to lose you money. He is giving you a lifetime warranty that nothing is going to destroy you financially the rest of your life as he is going to pay back the goodness that you have showed to the needy.

It is interesting when we look giving from this angle that God borrows money from a peasant like you and me where the truth is we are in great debt of his mercy and kindness.

I never looked my kindness to others will make God in gratitude towards me as I always believe that I have never paid what he has done for me in Christ. Neither should you, BTW.

Jesus has laid his life to save us from hell and we will never pay that loan off.

But as a sign of gratitude, we should visit the poor and reach them at their pains and miseries and support them. This is considered as proper form of worship the Lord according to Jacob

Jacob 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

There is no way we say we love the Lord if do not even care about those who suffer in life. We should contribute to their lives and show them that we care, and we are here to help. We are all God children, brothers, and sisters in Chris, that God has born us in Christ. Let us not turn our backs to those who need our help while we can help.

Let us feel their pain and try to walk in their shoes and be compassionate as our father is compassionate and never fails to provide us with what ever it is to sustain us and have a productive life.

Therefore, in conclusion, giving to the needy has a lot more benefits that we may have believed so far. It is a certificate of warranty that the Lord will be with us when we are the one in need. It shows God is in full control of our lives and we trust in him. Giving creates joy and happiness that no money can provide.

So, let us do something good today by thinking about giving something to someone in need and go ahead and do it. God bless you!

ስለ ሕይወት ቃል ከመጀመሪያው የነበረውንና የሰማነውን በዓይኖቻችንም ያየነውን የተመለከትነውንም እጆቻችንም የዳሰሱትን እናወራለን፤,

ሕይወትም ተገለጠ አይተንማል እንመሰክርማለን፥ ከአብ ዘንድ የነበረውንም ለእኛም የተገለጠውን የዘላለምን ሕይወት እናወራላችኋለን፤

እናንተ ደግሞ ከእኛ ጋር ኅብረት እንዲኖራችሁ ያየነውንና የሰማነውን ለእናንተ ደግሞ እናወራላችኋለን። ኅብረታችንም ከአባት ጋር ከልጁም ከኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ ጋር ነው።

ደስታችሁም እንዲፈጸም ይህን እንጽፍላችኋለን።

ከእርሱም የሰማናት ለእናንተም የምናወራላችሁ መልእክት። እግዚአብሔር ብርሃን ነው ጨለማም በእርሱ ዘንድ ከቶ የለም የምትል ይህች ናት።

ከእርሱ ጋር ኅብረት አለን ብንል በጨለማም ብንመላለስ እንዋሻለን እውነትንም አናደርግም፤

ነገር ግን እርሱ በብርሃን እንዳለ በብርሃን ብንመላለስ ለእያንዳንዳችን ኅብረት አለን፥ የልጁም የኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ ደም ከኃጢአት ሁሉ ያነጻናል።

ኃጢአት የለብንም ብንል ራሳችንን እናስታለን፥ እውነትም በእኛ ውስጥ የለም።

በኃጢአታችን ብንናዘዝ ኃጢአታችንን ይቅር ሊለን ከዓመፃም ሁሉ ሊያነጻን የታመነና ጻድቅ ነው።

ኃጢአትን አላደረግንም ብንል ሐሰተኛ እናደርገዋለን ቃሉም በእኛ ውስጥ የለም።

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  

We write this to make our joy complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Hello Friends,

Today I would like to discuss the issue of mental health as we are now passing through one of the longest pandemics in history. I would like to share my two cents about this issue. I am not by any means a mental health expert or physician. I am just sharing my knowledge I have gained through the past years from reading the bible and some of the articles on the net. 

From time to time we keep forgetting to give a good care to our mental health. We may be more sensitive and careful about the things that are in front of our eyes like studying or working or cleaning or eating.

But we may forget to invest into the sanity of brain. Although our mood and behavior change intermittently during a time like this one, we need to focus more on stabilizing our feelings and try to overcome some of those mood changes. 

One of the great concerns during the COVID-19 outbreak is we tend to stay inside a house more.

We don’t get the chance to cool off from a bad argument with someone by going outside as often as before.

People are fragile by nature. No exceptions. We all are. The problem is not only we are fragile, but most of us we don’t even know we are fragile.

The most important part of our body is our brain. We take care of our selves and others when we have a good healthy brain that can function well even during abnormal condition like the COVID-19 outbreak.

The more good thing we do to our brain, the bigger is the return of investment. In return we will lead a healthy lifestyle.

We don’t take a good care of our brain means we end up making bad decisions including doing more bad things that is hostile for our brain and become a stumbling block to others.

Knowing how to manage our feelings is never more important than the time we are now.

Feelings or in other words, neural impulses produced by our brain, CAN ULTIMATELY DRIVE US CRAZY if we don’t know how to be the boss of them.

We have more will power than what we think we can do to our brain. 

We can say SHHHH! to our feelings to shut them down like how a baby is calmed down by his mother.

Psalm 131:2
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Otherwise, if we entertain them too much, they might get out of control and we may lose it all.

Although not all feelings are dangerous by  nature, there are many circumstances during the day that we found ourselves in a tricky situation that the only way to be safe is by only de-escalating the situation by backing up a little bit and let the other person have his way. 

We are living in a fallen world. We don’t want to be fools and hurt our selves and our loved ones.

We must be vigilant in detecting what is about to happen in our lives and act very wisely.

The times are bad.

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. - Ephesians 5:16

Never get out of your bed without saying your prayers. I believe God has the power to destroy all the plans of the wicked when you kneel down and pray consistently. 

It doesn’t mean He will not protect you if you don’t do that but when we pray we become aware of the situations that are about to happen that can be so tense and brutal if we were not prepared for it ahead of time in prayer. God reveals a secret of what is about to happen in our lives when we are intimate with him.

Abraham was so intimate with God that God said, 

The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” Genesis 18:17

Here are 10 suggestions on how to take a good care of our mental health

Eat healthy. 

This means eat only as much as you need and only when you need it. It is also important to eat healthy food. Our brain needs it and it is a good investment.

Take at least 2 hours walk 

outside with the whole family (if we are living with a family) as your schedule allows it. This one will definitely help your brain to relax a little bit from the stress

Get a good night sleep every day. 

This is very important as the brain regenerate and remove the dead nerve cells as we rest well.

Drink a lot of water during the day. 

Nighttime less water to avoid sleep interruptions. Water increases blood circulation in the brain, and it helps clear some of the fogginess

Exercise daily

That may release hormones that can stabilize the bad hormones.

Focus on your relationships

There are a lot of things that distract us from one of the most valuable things in life, family. Work hard to love and serve your family. Spend quality time.

Positive thinking

Surround yourself with books and people who are positive and love other people. Proverbs 13:20: Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

Daily dosage of Bible

The bible has a way challenging our thinking and changing our heart. It shapes our desires and makes it in align with God’s will. You will never regret the time you spend reading the bible.

Pray consistently

Never stop praying even for a day. Have a daily prayer time that you will have fellowship with God privately and with your family. Tell everything you want to say to God, and he will listen to you. He will not just listen, but he will change your sorrows to joy. He will carry your burdens and heal your brokenness. The joy that comes from the Holy Spirit is nothing like what you feel and experience from any where else.

Worship

Worship has this amazing power to lift your spirit from this world and have a taste of heaven since that is what we all do in heaven, worshiping God forever. I have heard the testimonies of many that worship has helped them deal with temptations of self-harm, suicide and depression.

References:

https://www.helpguide.org/#

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/

Let us be safe and take a good care of our mental health during this Pandemic

How to Offer Spiritual Support for the Broken 

From time to time we may come across with people who are beaten severely by the enemy and are in the brink of loosing passion and joy of life. These people are passing through the worst time of their lives and they are in need of all the help they can get from their loved ones. 

Meditating about our past tribulations and how God carried us through it is a great start to offer help to those who really need it in times of trouble and confusion. We were once living a low form of life filled with anxiety, depression, and self-doubt. Only Jesus has transformed our lives into a magnificent piece of work. We are the works of his omnipotent hands. 

Sometimes we felt so proud and self-righteous and we tend to forget what we have passed through. We may think we are in good shape for now, but the truth of the matter is we are so brittle. 

The Bible teaches us that we must be very careful about what we think of our selves. We may think we are safe, but we are not.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:12

Therefore, let the one who thinks he stands firm [immune to temptation, being overconfident and self-righteous], take care that he does not fall [into sin and condemnation].

No one is immune to sin, lose and condemnation. We all are sinners by nature and it only takes a matter of few unfortunate circumstances to stumble and fall.

The great lesson in life to learn is not only to stand temptation of sinning but also to have a compassionate and kind heart towards those who really are going through tough times.

In other words, it is very important to feel the pain and weakness of our friends and families when they are too confused to lead their life in the right directions.

It takes a good heart to put our serves in their shoes and walk the walk and talk the talk with them.

We need to do this even if we are going to pay a huge sacrifice to make them feel comfortable about themselves. We may pass through tough times when they navigate through their lives and go through the healing process.

We may be escape-goat to their actions with or without intention. We may a victim of their personal attack on our hard work and support, but we need to still pray and support them as much they need.

The tough part is to keep them with you as they may not feel they need you.

The most important part is not how we feel about ourselves but how much care and love we can offer to them. The center of our thoughts should be them and not us.

When God gave us relief from the attacks of our enemies like Solomon, He expects us to do the same for others in great deal of trouble.

He wants us to offer help as much as we could. He wants us to be like the good Samaritan who stopped to help the person who was left between life and death. However, He does not want us to be like the hypocrites who avoided helping the poor man that really needed their help. 

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

Read Luke 10:25 for the whole story.

The most important thing we can do after doing all we do to help is to pray for them privately for God to heal their broken spirits. 

I believe prayer has great power to reach the depth where we cannot reach if we attempt to help them physically. Holy Spirit intercedes in their lives and offers the best help that no human can offer. 

We need to activate their faith by praying for all of us that are involved. When we look in to the past, we all had someone who constantly prayed for us even when we are weak in our faith.

The people who were strong in their faith may become weak and the weak might get stronger as the Bible says in 1 Samuel 2:5:

“She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons’ pines away.”

“It is not by strength that one prevails;”

If we think we are in spiritual race by competing with our fellow brothers and sisters, we completely misunderstood our faith in Christ.

We don’t get praise from our father by beating our brothers. Instead, we will get punishment for doing that. 

God rewards us for humbly serving our brothers and sisters specially those who are about to stumble and fall.

God doesn’t take delight in seeing the sinner die in their sins nor He is happy when we ridicule them with insults and gossip. 

He calls us his children when we pray for them and love them by covering their weakness even up to the point that no one knows about it.

Again, don’t we feel deeply sadden if someone broadcast our sins on national TV? We all do. However, we don’t care if we do the same to our brothers.

It doesn’t mean I am part of the sin he is committing but I care much about the soul that is committing the sin - The soul that looks like the same soul (my soul) that was going down the hill before Christ intervened and rescued from the crowds of the dead. 

When the wrath of God is revealed and consume everything that is evil, we don’t want our brothers and sisters go down with it. At that time, there is nothing that can be compared to what is about to come to the perishing world. There is nothing that can prepare us to comprehend the wrath of God.

However, there is only one thing that can save us from it. That is the blood of Jesus and the mark or stamp that is sealed on our heart by the Holy Spirit. The stamp authenticates that we are in deed the children of God.

On that day, we don’t have any more chance or time to correct our mistakes.

We don’t have any second left to forgive those who do us wrong.

We don’t have any second left to pray for those whom we love most.

We don’t have time to intercede for the world that is going to be destroyed.

We don’t have any more excuses and procrastination to do what is left for us to do.

My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, now is the time to love deeper than we ever love before. It is time to witness the gospel of Christ boldly to the unbelievers and save them from what is to come to the world. Now is the time to hold our loved ones tight and tell them we do care when they are feeling down. Now is the time to offer hope of the coming of the King.

Love without sacrifice is selfish love and is fake. If we say we love our brothers and sisters, we need to feel the pain of reject, blame and sometimes total denial from them when they are in temporal denial of the truth. It is what comes with the package. No one loves his children and hate to change dippers. Similarly, when we say we love our family in Christ, we need to take gracefully what comes with it as the result of this new family made of multi-hormonal, multi-cultural, and multi-behavioral individuals. 

Therefore, in conclusion, let us take pride in living a life according to the scriptures. We need to love the lost to the point we may need to sacrifice our time, money, energy, youth and resources just to serve them and put them in a better spiritual position than what they were before.

I leave you with one of the most important commandments of God. Sacrificial Love. 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. -1 John 3:16

…

Honor God.

 Trust in God

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 

Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. 

Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 

But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of rightosness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

As there were false prophets and teachers in the old days, there are false prophets and teachers in the present day church. These false prophets and teachers are once saved by the grace of God but now they have abandoned the truth and destroyed by their own selfish desires. The fact that they defile and disregard the salvation they received through Christ means they are heading to great destruction. Not only did they brought eternal condemnation on them, but they also relay that to the body of Christ.

Many will follow their evil desires and sensual sins. Because of these false teachers and prophets, the name of the Lord will be ridiculed among the unbelieving nations. Their main agenda is exploiting the resources of the people of God. Many have spent enormous amount of money, time and energy on the so called “prophets”. Their destiny is already decided by the Lord and their destruction will be very soon. 

If God didn’t have any pity for sinful angels whom he has placed in hell so that they can be kept until final judgment; And if God doesn’t have any mercy for those people who rebelled against him in the time of Noah saving only Noah and his family and a pair from each kind of animals and destroyed any other creature on earth; And if he turns the city of Sodom in to ashes, and if he saved only two people from over half a million people of Israel, and the rest had died in the wilderness before they see the land of hope and prosperity, then surely God will condemn and judge those people who have no respect for the Lord and are only led by their filthy desires. God knows how to save His very own and very best from the destruction that is about to come on the false prophets and the world in general. 

These false teachers have no due respect for higher authorities in the Spirit which are God’s Angels. When you look at them, they look like very confident in what they are doing which is insult and blasphemy against God and the servants of the Lord.

Their pride has gone way over the limit.  Even if God’s Angels are higher in authority than these people, they did not dare to despise them. They insult and disregard to the things of God will cost them their eternal life. Their ignorance on this matter is what makes them to speak of things that are unwholesome. 

Their characteristics are like animals who are destined for destruction. With out confession, their destruction is sure to come. Their life is filled with sinful dance and arrogance. They encourage others to do sin which is they always fix their eyes on.

They always snare up on those who are week in the Spirit and are double minded. Since these people are not satisfied with the truth of the gospel, they dread to hear what only their evil hearts want to hear. And the false prophets are the right choice for them to satisfy this desire. 

"You must correct people and point out their sins. But also cheer them up, and when you instruct them, always be patient. The time is coming when people won’t listen to good teaching. Instead, they will look for teachers who will please them by telling them only what they are itching to hear. They will turn from the truth and eagerly listen to senseless stories. But you must stay calm and be willing to suffer. You must work hard to tell the good news and to do your job well." -2 Timothy 4:2

The false prophets and their followers have this unsatisfied desire which they crave to seek and find outside the Word of God. If the Son of God doesn’t satisfy them, no other thing in the world will do. Due to their nature they are like the cursed seeds that never grow up to bear spiritual fruits.  They once were following the truth with good consciousness and positive mind, but now they have neglected their true callings and got astray in the direction of covetousness and adulatory. 

It takes a donkey to speak and advice the false prophet, Balaam, whose way was evil and corrupt. If he listened and turned from his madness, why don’t the false prophets of this generation come back from their evil schemes and confess all their sins to the Lord. 

Otherwise, the judgment of God is very near and eternal darkness and punishment are awaiting them. Their ways are like wells with out water, clouds with out rain and their words are useless for anyone who cares to listen. With those superficial and empty words which look like the truth from outside, they led many to the pit that ought to be saved from the devil.

One of the promises they make is they say their words will deliver many from their affliction. With a positive mind, that may see the right thing to communicate to the people but yet with out the truth in it, it is useless. They should have waited for positive affirmation of the Spirit of God before they prophesied the words of so called “Comforting words” to God’s people.

The old testament also indicates that false prophets doing such things have died after speaking their message since they used God’s name to speak a lie to His people. 

Jeremiah 28:10

Hananiah grabbed the wooden yoke from my neck and smashed it. 11 Then he said, “The Lord says this is the way he will smash the power Nebuchadnezzar has over the nations, and it will happen in less than two years.”  I left the temple, and a little while later, the Lord told me to go back and say to Hananiah: I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You smashed a wooden yoke, but I will replace it with one made of iron. I will put iron yokes on all the nations, and they will have to do what King Nebuchadnezzar commands. I will even let him rule the wild animals.

Hananiah, I have never sent you to speak for me. And yet you have talked my people into believing your lies and rebelling against me. So now I will send you—I’ll send you right off the face of the earth! You will die before this year is over. Two months later, Hananiah died. 

If using the name of God in vain and lying could cost one’s life in the old testament, home much more it will be sinful to deceive and grieve the Spirit of God, in which we are sealed for our redemption.
 

Ephesians 4:30

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 

They them selves are living the life of a slave in the Spirit since they too are under the condemnation of sin. Then how can they preach freedom if they are under slavery of sin. If anyone is under any consistent sin, he or she is slave to the thing that has power over him/her. 

If any one falls under the sin of adulatory, and says he can deliver people from any sin, then that person is fooling himself. These people know the truth which is Christ. But then they are entangled by the evil desires of the world and cannot get out of it since they love the world more than they love the Lord, whom He loves them till death. 

Because of this, their former life (the life before they know the truth) is much better than their current life. It is much better for anyone to not know Christ in the first place than to deny Him after knowing that He is the savior of their soul. As the saying goes “Dogs go back to their own vomit”, these people go back to their filthiness over and over again.

Introduction 

Where shall we begin? Where shall we start? What is the most effective verse(s) in the Bible for one’s salvation? Well, a good starting point is knowing that God loved the world so much that he gave his only son for the sake of the world as a sacrifice for their sins. 

In order to get saved we must believe that God sent his only Son to die on the cross so that we shall have faith in him and get saved from eternal destruction.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16

There is no other way to heaven to God other than through our Lord Jesus Christ. No amount of good work can sanctify us and no human or angels or another creature can save us from eternal condemnations and wrath of God.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” -Acts 4:12

Jesus said, unless we are born again from the Spirit by confessing our sins and believe in him to be the sacrificial lamb for the sin of the world that God prepared for our sanctification, we will not enter the Kingdom of God.

Jesus answered,, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. - John 3:5 

Bible tells us if we confess our sins and declare that Jesus is our Lord and believe with all our heart, we are saved. As simple as that. God is faithful and we will never regret the day we got saved from the kingdom of darkness and migrate to an extraordinary Kingdom of God.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” - Romans 10:9

Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. - 1 John 5:10

 We also need to believe that the blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from any sin when we confess our sins to him.

 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:9

As for the time to get saved, the Bible says, now is the best time to get saved. It is not later and never say tomorrow. You don’t know tomorrow. You have today and use it wisely. The best decision of your life is the day you invited Jesus into your life.

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. - 2 Corinthians 6

The Issue of Grace

Grace is the most important concept of Salvation. It is very important to understand that our salvation is simply undeserved gift from Father God to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

The gift is fully paid off by Jesus when he died on the Cross. It is like somebody paid of your mortgage and the house you are enjoying now is free. Somebody sacrificed his life for you to enter the kingdom of God. That is Jesus and the only requirement to get saved today is knowing the truth and the truth shall set you free from the bondage of sin. 

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:1

The Issue of Worship

Whom shall we worship? Who deserves to be adored and get all the glory? 

When the three wise men encountered baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they worshiped only Jesus and presented their precious gift to him. It doesn’t indicate they worshiped Mary or Joseph or presented their gift to them. Jesus is the King of kings and we should only worship him.

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. - Matthew 2:12

The Bible specifically instructs us to worship only God and should not have any other gods before Him.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  - Exodus 20:3

When Barnabas and Paul heard of the people are trying to worship them as gods, they humble themselves before God by reaping off their clothes and telling the truth to the people.  

And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 

Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our heart with food and gladness. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. - Acts 14:11

When John fell in front of an Angel of God to worship him, the Angel told him not to do it as only the God head (Father God, the Son and Holy Spirit) deserve to be worshiped by their creations. 

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. - Revelation. 19 10

Jesus is worthy of our worship since he died for the sin of the world. He was slain like a sheep and he didn’t complain. 

And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain,    and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. - Revelation 5:9

They holy men of God in the Bible disgraced themselves when it comes to the issue of Worship and they specifically said, “Worship only God”.  The Angel of God said, “I don’t deserve any of the Worship. Worship only God.” Since they didn’t die for the world and took the shame and guild that was upon u. 

Jesus took the image of a slave and disgraced himself just to save us. Although He sit in the image of God in the heaven as no one can see God, He didn’t even think for a second that he could stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity when He took that flesh. What a powerful love we see in Jesus. It is unprecedented and never will there be the same kind of Love forever more. 

“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Only Jesus can show who God is really look like. Jesus is the closest we can get to God the father. Holy Spirit explains the Will and Purpose of God for our lives. God is a living fire, and no one can see him and shall live. We all will be consumed in a second if it were not by his Mercy and kindness.  

The Issue of Intercession

Whom shall we go to when we are in big trouble, someone who can intercede for us to get back to normal with our heavenly father?

Well the Bible tells us Jesus intercede for us.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. - 1 Timothy 2:5

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” -Luke 22:31

When Peter was in big trouble in terms of his relationship with God, Jesus prayed for Peter and God listened to Jesus’s prayer about Peter and help Peter to get back to track. Interesting!

God himself made a promise when this priest was appointed. But he did not make a promise like this when the other priests were appointed. The promise he made is, “I, the Lord, promise that you will be a priest forever! And I will never change my mind!”

This means that Jesus guarantees us a better agreement with God. There have been a lot of other priests, and all of them have died. But Jesus will never die, and so he will be a priest forever! He is forever able to save the people he leads to God, because he always lives to speak to God for them.

Jesus is the high priest we need. He is holy and innocent and faultless, and not at all like us sinners. Jesus is honored above all beings in heaven, and he is better than any other high priest. Jesus doesn’t need to offer sacrifices each day for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He offered a sacrifice once for all, when he gave himself. The Law appoints priests who have weaknesses. But God’s promise, which came later than the Law, appoints his Son. And he is the perfect high priest forever. -Hebrews 7: 21

There were so many candidates for the position of eternal intercession between man and God. But none qualified for the job because none raised from the dead to continue the job they have started on earth in heaven.

Only Jesus qualifies since death cannot hold him in the grave. Therefore, he continues what he was doing on earth in heaven. He used to intercede for our faith when he lived on earth and now, he intercedes for the entire world by siting on the right hand of his father. If anyone comes to him by faith, believing that Jesus died the death of a sinner, he can save them from eternal death through the blood he shed on that cross.

The other qualification for the job of intercession is purity before God. No one is pure since all have sinned against God. Only Jesus is holy and innocent before God. He is the only one on earth and heaven who can come between the sinner and the wrath of God, which is like fire predestined to do justice for God is holy. Jesus’s blood is an eternal atonement and a beautiful fragrance that cools off the wrath of God when God smells it ever day for eternity. 

Others cannot even save themselves let alone become an eternal atonement for whoever believe in Jesus. They too need the blood of Jesus to get right with God.

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

We praise God for sending his son to die on the cross for the sake of the sinner and design a way to establish eternal friendship with him through Christ Jesus who is our high priest. He always intercedes for us when we got in trouble and prepares a way out.

What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God’s great throne in heaven. He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans. - Hebrew 8: 1

The priesthood of Jesus Christ is eternal. Jesus Christ is the same today, tomorrow and forever. He doesn’t change. The only thing that is needed from us is to believe in him who is faithful to bring peace to our lost soul.

That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. -  2 Corinthians 5:19

God reconciliation is from him, by him and to him. Salvation is designed, prepared and executed by God.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. - 1 John 5:12 

There is no other option to be saved and escape from the eternal death. There is no alternative other than Jesus that God has prepared for humans to be saved. No Jesus, No life. Period.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. - Matthew 16

The best thing you can do to save your life from the danger of eternal fire is lay it on the hand of Jesus Christ. Any other option we take to save it is a guarantee for death. Jesus will never let you down. Once you put your trust on him, he is faithful to keep it safe and be able to present it to the father. 

For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10:13

Just calling his name when you are in great trouble will bring safety and salvation for your soul. God listens to us when we truthfully cry out to him by faith.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. - John 3:17

Therefore, there is no one below or above the earth except Jesus that is given to human beings to carry their sin and burn on the cross. There is no one for us except Jesus to care for us and bring our case before the most fearsome God and be able to win the case.

There is no one except Jesus who can face God for the sins of human beings since the wrath of God on the sinner is great. Jesus Christ intercedes for us when we are short of the glory of God due to our rebellious nature.

Others may feel pity for us but nothing more. But he can give us grace that will help us triumph over our enemies. He set a practical example for us to learn how we can defeat the devil by obeying God till death. He has already sent us his Spirit to live in us who always intercedes for us even when we don’t know how to pray.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Holy Spirit also intercedes for us. The Spirit of God which is living in us always intercedes for us according to the will of God.

Since it is God’s Spirit, he knows (in 100% match) the will of God for our lives. Since he is also God, he knows exactly what is in our heart. Therefore, he prays for us even if we don’t know what to pray and what exactly Holy Spirit is praying for us. Interesting! Jesus is praying for us in Heaven sitting on the right-hand side of his father. Holy Spirit is also praying for us on earth living inside of us if we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. 

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. - Romans 8:26

John put in a very understandable language also. He said we should keep all the commandments of God but as a human being, if we messed up now and then, he said, we have an advocate with our father.

What it means is that Jesus is asking the father for forgiveness as don’t know nothing – not even the right from the left. We saw that Jesus intercedes for Peter. We also read in the Bible Jesus Interceding for the men who crucified while he was still in pain (He said, “Father, please forgive them as they don’t know what they are doing”).

Now, as you read this article, Jesus is praying for you and me to make it to heaven. Interesting! 

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1 John 2:1

Thank you Lord!

Can We Lose Our Salvation??

The answer is simply “YES!”

I don’t want to trick you by saying empty words. I am not here to keep your spirit up in the air by telling a lie. Yes, we will lose our salvation if we consider it worthless. If we don’t guard it as something that is the most precious thing, we ever received from someone, even better than life itself, we will end up selling it to the devil with the cheep price. That is what Esau did with his birth right, the right to be the first born. He sold it for a bowl of soup. That is how much his birth right worth to him.

In a similar story, the Spirit of God abandoned Saul since Saul consistently disobeyed God's instruction and leadership. It comes to the point that God regretted to make Saul a king of Israel. Saul was later tormented  by evil spirits as a result of his sins, disobedience and unfaithfulness to the Lord. 

Moreover, we have another similar story with Samson. Samson got to the point he was deceived by the prostitute women whom he failed in love with and give up his secret to his supernatural source of power and strength. 

He was then taken captive as a slave by his enemies and was tortured brutally till the point his eyes was taken out while he is still alive. He was hamulated in front of his enemies to the point he later committed suicide. What brings all of these things to him? Because he didn't take his greatest God given gift seriously and he traded it with pleasure of this world just like Esau. 

The Bible teaches us, there is a sin that deserves eternal death.

 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. - 1 John 5:16

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” Hebrew 6:4

The above scripture shows one can possibly lose his/her salvation. Salvation comes through believing Jesus, but it is not a one-time act. It governs and defines how we should behave and act the rest of our lives. One can argue it is possible that a person might not be saved in the first place instead of saying he lost his salvation. In other words, it is easier to conclude that one salvation cannot be lost. It is easy to put the issue at the beginning of the foundation of one's Christianity that is one’s salvation rather than the type of lifestyle one leads.

I do believe that the day of our salvation has nothing to do with what kind of life we may lead after that. I think the lifestyle we follow every day is based on our choice to love or to hate. To listen to the word of God or not. Just like the day of our salvation we choose to obey God and give our lives to him.

There is always a time we will be tempted to revolt against God and to disobey his commandments. Even if Holy Spirit is always with us to comfort us in times of failures and moment of disbelief, the choice is still ours to follow the path of righteousness or not.

As Paul mentioned in this place, it is always difficult to correct someone who knows all these facts but chooses to deny Christ. I don't know why someone would want to do that, but the end is worse than the person didn’t know the truth in the first place. 

In addition to this passage, we have several similar warnings and advices about such issues in the Bible.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” - Hebrew 7-12

Here it shows that, we should fight sin and the deceitfulness of sin every day to be confident and blameless. Jesus Christ has finished all the work that needs to be done for you and me to be saved. There is nothing left that we must do to finish the work. This means if we believe in him and die right away, we will inherit the kingdom of God.

But as long as we live in this flesh, we need to keep the good work that our Lord has started in us and be faithful to him all the time. In times of trouble and sin, we should always come
to him by faith with true repentance.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” - Matthew 7:19-23

Here Jesus warns anyone who thinks he can get into the kingdom of God without first experiencing the kind of relationship God wants through his Son, Jesus Christ.

It is possible that one can prophesize or cast out demons but not know Jesus Christ personally or do it with the wrong motive. Now a days, this is not far from the truth. We see many do all manner of bad things in the name of Jesus, but it is far from what Jesus would want or do if He were in their place. It is seriously advised here that anyone who thinks is standing should watch his steps since falling can happen any time.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. - 1 Corinthians 10:11

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  - Matthew 24:9-13 

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” - Hebrews 10:26-31

Here it touches the main point of abusing the grace of God by living sinful life repeatedly and not willing to surrender the sinfulness of the heart to the Lord.

It is understandable that one can go through an addictive way of life that is sinful and brings disgrace to the Lord. This behavior is like a bird in cage or a fish inside a fishing net which always enslaves one to the same sinful behavior again and again.

One may also ask that there is no way a believer can be addicted to sin. I would say that this is not true. As long as we are living in this flesh, we are tempted and often time defeated by the will of the flesh. 

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is in living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. -Romans 7:14

Paul mentioned in this place that the spirit and the flesh are always at war. The flesh wants to do what it pleases without thinking about the consequences since it is pleasing to it. The Spirit wants to please God and to do what is good and honorable and stay away from all forms of immorality.

There is always this battle between the spirit and the flesh and occasionally one defeats the other and this is all because we are human beings. Moreover, there is nothing we can do to overcome this issue except throw ourselves under the mercy of God with humility and broken heart.

One may ask if we are always under the umbrella of sin and grace, how can one lose his salvation?

I will leave the answer to this question to God as He knows the hearts of men. I don't even know about me. Only he knows the beginning and the end. I just want to present the truth about the characteristics of our salvation according to the Bible. It is not my intention to judge anyone here. We all are going under different circumstances and it is very clear to me that flesh always wants contrary to what the Lord wants for our lives

Moreover, I want to emphasize that our salvation doesn't come freely so we shouldn't take it for granted. Jesus Christ paid his life for us so we should never abuse the blood that redeemed us the wrath of God.

In conclusion, the concept of losing one’s salvation is directly related to the nature of relationship with our father in heaven through the fellowship of Holy Spirit. This relationship must be worked out the way we establish and maintain a good relationship with our family and friends. It must be taken very seriously. It must be nourished. 

It is also important to rely on the grace of God without abusing it. Those who intentionally abuse the blood of Jesus and displease the Spirit of God in whom we are destined for eternity, there is no forgiveness of sin! It is all lost! Salvation is Lost!

For such a person, it is much better that s/he were never born if s/he intentionally abused the grace of God repeatedly since the grace of God doesn't give any license to sin.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. - Hebrews 3:12

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. - Ephesians 5:3

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God - Galatians 5:19-21

Paul’s warning to Timothy make it evident that unless we watch our steps closely, we may slip and fall away from grace.

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.  1 Timothy 4:16

But if a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked person does, will they live? None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness they are guilty of and because of the sins they have committed, they will die.  Ezekiel 18:24

Keep away from worthless and useless talk. It only leads people farther away from God. That sort of talk is like a sore that won't heal. And Hymenaeus and Philetus have been talking this way by teaching that the dead have already been raised to life. This is far from the truth, and it is destroying the faith of some people. 2 Timothy 2:16

But my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. Hebrews 10:38

And those on the rock are they who, when they have heard, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. Luke 8:13

Jesus: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Math 24:13

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1. Have at least one hour bible study per week with your spouse
2. Always pray with your spouse no matter how
3. Husbands submit to your wives as you submit to Christ
4. Wives submit to your husband as you submit to Christ
5. At the time of conflict always find the common ground and build on that
6. Acknowledge Holy Ghost as the leader and rule maker of your house
7. Don’t blame your spouse for criticizing you because that could be your weakness. No one is perfect. Accept criticism.
8. Humble yourself before your God and spouse
9. Take time to enjoy life together.
10. Worship and Serve God together
11. Take charge of your finances together
12. Grow together as a family
13. Appreciate your spouse in front of others (specially your side of family, like your mom and dad).
14. Trust your spouse even if things don't make sense sometimes. Trust is the key to relationship
15. Know what makes your spouse very angry and stay away from it
16. Make your family first before anything except your faith in Christ
17. Know how to please your spouse. It could be as simple as bringing flower or buy a small gift
18. Take responsibility to help your soul mate in everything s/he needs help.
19. Spend as much as time with your spouse
20. Separate time with your spouse from time with your children
21. Make love as often as possible. Make it a habit unless you want present yourself before God in prayer together.
22. Fast together so that the devil cannot attack by divide and conquer
23. Lead by example not by force
24. Accept one another even if things look silly
25. Accept criticism and strong feedback
26. Be honest. Share what you feel honestly with your spouse. Don’t take grudge.
27. Don’t forget to say I love you before you leave your spouse
28. Pray for your spouse even if s/he doesn't know that
29. Don’t share your marriage secretes to no one
30. Holy Spirit is your true counselor. Don’t trust human beings with your marriage.
31. Know that your marriage is the most important thing next to your faith in Christ
32. Protect your marriage with all you have got when it is in danger
33. Don’t involve your parents with your conflicts unless it is absolutely necessary. Your conflicts will go away soon but they won’t.
34. Be always hopeful about the future.
35. Create a sense of security; specially husbands
36. Be positive. Don’t interpret the words of your spouse in the wrong way. Always ask for more clarification.
37. Love gently. Life is short. Huge gently. Talk gently. Show your love and don’t hide it.
38. Honor others more than yourself to serve them with humility
39. Never hesitate to ask forgiveness
40. Become the source of laughter and joy
41. Be helpful
42. Be inspirational.
43. Always thankful
44. Always forgiving
45. Always cherish
46. Don’t be too jealous with your spouse. Jealousy opens the door to marital infidelity. True love is not jealous and doesn't envy.
47. Always ask for help if you need help. Sometimes husbands need to be told what to do specifically for their wives.
48. Be Thoughtful and Passionate
49. Be Merciful and Loving
50. Be Caring and Protecting
51. Be Peaceful and Joyful
52. Be Compassionate and Decent
53. Be Graceful and Praiseful
54. Be Truthful and Honest
55. Be Patient and Thankful
56. Be Servant and Helpful
57. Be Gentle and Full of empathy
58. Be Disciplined and Respectful
59. Be Sincere and Full of integrity
60. Be Generous and Cheerful
61. Be Content with your spouse.
62. Be Knowledgeable and Wise
63. Always intercede for the sins of your spouse to God
64. Be Thankful
65. Be Obedient and self-sacrificing
66. Never count or recall one’s wrong doings
67. Be Hopeful for the future
68. Love like crazy
69. Forgive like everything a person does harm to you is like a scratch.
70. Humble yourself like you are the dumbest and lowest of all, but you know that you are not that at all.
71. Share out of Love; not because you want something in return
72. Be Holy. Purity from immorality
73. Don’t grumble and complain on your spouse
74. Watch what you do with your time. Actions speak more than words.
75. Watch out the words that come of your mouth. Words can heal or break your relationship.
76. Don't make empty promises. Be a man/woman of your words
77. Prophesize good things on your marriage
78. Never mention the word divorce in any of your arguments
79. Fulfill your family needs
80. Come up with a common working plan to discipline and raise your children
81. Always resolve conflicts before it is too late. The sooner the better.
82. Take a short walk when you are too angry to speak.
83. Never argue with your spouse in a difficult situation. Find the right time and place to do it.
84. Don’t fight in front of your children. But also let them know that healthy arguments are also part of life.
85. Deal with your personal, spiritual and professional issues without hurting your relationship
86. Don’t keep secrets that can potentially hurt your relationship.
87. Allow time to solve some of your critical marital issues.
88. Remember that we are constantly changing every day. Tomorrow is another day.
89. Know that you are the protector of your family next to Christ. God has trusted you with a precious gift.
90. Be Faithful and Loyal
91. Be Gentle and Kind
92. Keep your promises and never make empty ones
93. Keep the secret of your marriage and your spouse. Very important.
94. Be faithful to God and to your marriage
95. Fear God. Before doing anything ask your self the question of fearing and obeying him no matter how smart you think you are
96. Please God. Always find a way and a reason to please him.
97. Tell your spouse that s/he has an important role in your life every time
98. Treating your spouse with respect in front of friends and family
99. Establish and pursue your marital visions and dreams. This can be both physical and spiritual goal you want to achieve as a family
100. May God bless you and protect your marriage from any form attack from the evil and bless it till he comes back! Amen!!!

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman When Jesus realized that the Pharisees were aware that Hea was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John (although it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples), He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

Now He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well.

It was about the sixth hour.b When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) “You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”


 

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Hebr. 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.

We need to understand that the word of the living God is the place where we get best comfort and encouragements. We start to trust the Lord more as we uncover more truth in the Bible about the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Have you ever wondered where do we get faith that can move mountains? Do you even wonder how to start to lean on the Lord and not to your own understanding?

Well the bible says:

2nd Corinthians 5:17 faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God

There is no hope without exploring the truth about hope in the bible. When we start to read the bible, we will discover mainly on 4 areas. Hope, Faith, Love and Wisdom/Direction.

I would never become what I am now (simply the child of God) if it weren’t for the encouragements and hope I have found deep inside the mighty Word of God who carve out every uncertainties and doubts I had in my life.

There is no way I would develop faith in God through Christ if I didn’t see for my self how deep and how vast is the love of God in Christ Jesus. There is no other book that has the depth of truth, hope and guidance for living our lives according to the principles of God.

Jesus said, “Know the truth and the truth will set you free.” How do we know the truth? It is from reading the bible. There is no shortcut. The Word of God is the wisdom of God. It makes little children wise and renews the strength of elders. It has tremendous power to lift you up from your depression or whatever pain you are passing through.

It has practical stories. How can you not get up and keep going when you see God has already done it in other people lives thousands of times as it is written in the bible. Without the bible, all your love letters from your father is gone.

Without reading the bible regularly and keep in in you heart for good and bad times, we are easy target for the enemy. You are like a king with no guards.

When the enemy comes, you are vulnerable to attacks and the enemy can easily exploit your vulnerability. With the truth from the Bible, you have armed your self not only with defensive strategies but also with an attacking spirit.

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

No soldier goes to the battle with out wearing arms and appropriate defensive wearables.

Therefore, we need to also arm ourselves with the bullets of the words that come out from the living God. Jesus Christ defended himself from the attack from the devil at least three times just by utilizing the Word of God that is already written in the Bible. He is God and he may have used new strategy, but he used what is already in the bible.

Why? Because, he wants us to show us how mighty is the Word of God. He wants to set an example for us to live our lives by and defend ourselves from the darts of the devil.

In conclusion, we need to treasure the Word of God like we never treasure any thing else. It is all we have got to turn to when we need courage, hope and comforter in times of trouble and discouragement. It is road map to righteousness and life full of joy. It teaches us how to use defense strategy against all attacks (I mean all of them), it documents all the lessons we need to take to learn how to love and fear God, it is all about real life stories on how to deal with anger, emotions, fear, sexual immorality, and so on.

Matthew 4:4But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by b

ead alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

James 1:21-23 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror

2 Timothy 3:15-17 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Psalm 73 And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

Your love fulfills all the desires of my heart. There is nothing I need more than what you already gave me through Christ. You gave me everything till the point you died for me on the cross. Who will love me like you do? Who has the power to rescue me from eternal death?

You loved me the most and you have the power to rescue me from eternal fire. There is no greater love than what you have already done for us. You are my best friend, my savior and my father. Lover of my soul. I love you so much! Thank you for rescuing me from me.

I was my own venom to my soul. When you came to my life, you took away my selfish sinful desires and put your humble Spirit inside my Spirt. I have crucified my old nature and received a new life from you. A new beginning and a new start so that your purpose will be fulfilled in my life. I gave you my life because I trust you. I trust because I tested and found out that you are the lover of my soul.

Thank you for your kindness. Glory be to your name forever and ever. Even now you cover me with grace every day so that I don’t get sidetracked and drop out from the race. Your grace is the manifestation of your deep love and compassion for me. I enjoyed your companionship everyday since you make it very enjoyable for me. I love the way you examine my life. There are no burdens that I need to carry to fulfil the relationship, but I have a father who wanted to carry the load for me everywhere I go.

There is no over expectation I should meet to keep the blessings I already have, but I have a generous father who continually do everything according to the reaches and abundance of his grace. Clearly, I have greately benefited since I have known you and invited you in to my heart.

1 Ti. 1 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Roma. 5 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Roma. 5 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Roma. 8 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Roma. 8 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Roma. 8 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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For those who have stubborn kids at home, there will be a time that we will be tempted to pull hair out of our heads when we are angry. There will be time we will be angry and mad so much so that we may be tempted to discipline them in the wrong way.

Discipline is wrong if physical, emotional and psychological abuses are involved. There is big difference between physical and mental abuse and discipline. Discipline is guidance, like the GPS. It shows the right directions to reach to the ultimate goal.

When you read Bible to your child, you are installing a GPS system in your child’s life. When you pray the prayer with your children you are disciplining your child. When you walk the walk and talk the talk with them on certain issue on life, you are showing them ultimately Christ who is the good Shepard of our lives.

Discipline is not screaming, shouting, squeezing, pushing, pulling, shaking, throwing, and destroying your child with negative talk. These things are more destructive than most probably the issue we are mad at. These bad responses are most destructive to your child in the long run. They are the cause of bad attitude, negative life perspective, low self-esteem when the child reaches adolescence.

It destroys child-parent relationship, degrades self-confidence, kills creativity and learning abilities. Discipline is not punishment as God never wants you to punish your kids rather it is showing love, nourishment and protection. It is not aggressive behavior towards your kids.

This is all the shouting, screaming, yelling staff. You need to be filled with kindness and not anger as the Bible say don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, discipline is self-control to cool down quickly when things escalate.

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Discipline is never being revengeful by attacking your child and make him pay penny for penny for the wrong decision he make. Rather it is coming out of forgiving heart full of compassion and love. 

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you…”

If we know that we are always responding in bad ways when tested by our kids, why do we even do that? I think the fact that we grew up in similar type of environment where our parents did the same thing to us unknowingly negatively influence our character to do the same thing to our kids.

The bad thing is we end up doing the same thing to our children since that is what we were being fed since birth. We didn’t know better than to follow our parent’s footsteps. We didn’t know we are programming their mind to be vindictive and malicious when they grow up like we were programmed in a negative way.

Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In order to discipline our kids properly we need to lead them according to Psalm 23. It is the same way our Lord is being our competent shepherd that we are called to be guardian to our kids. 

Jesus leads our soul to the green pastures to feed her from the pure word of God so that it becomes strong in faith. He also leads us beside the still waters. The water here is the fellowship with the Holy Spirit through prayer and worship. Otherwise with out food or water, our soul will wither and die.

Then when these two things are fulfilled, our soul will be restored. This means we will find the joy and peace because of the Holy Spirit begins leaving in us that we were looking for in the wrong places by doing all manner of things in the world. 

Moreover, God will simply lead our soul in the path of righteousness. You see, without following these three steps, it is impossible to find peace within our selves and to lead our lives in the path of righteousness. 

Discipline has to do with discipleship and not with inflicting pain on your kids. Rather, discipline as in discipleship is to train baby Christians to be strong worriers of faith. 

Our kids are like baby Christians feeding from the bottle of milk. Our job is to help them start to eat from the meat part of the Word of God. 

As a soldier is trained to be a mighty worrier in the training camp, we need to train our kids to adopt and learn when they face the real world out there. 

All the negativity, bad influence, the resistance, bullying, bad friendship that corrupts the good behavior, insult, rejection, intimidation, disrespect they will face from the world might break them emotionally and spiritually if we don’t do our job as parents to make them as strong as steal before the impact and damage have already been done. 

It is no use to say we should’ve done this before once the damage has already been done. 

These impacts are very dangerous and can make their lives miserable if not properly handled with enough training. As parents, this is our job. We may not be paid for it, but it is a wise investment for the good of our kids and the peace we will get when we see everything is good. 

How to Climb the Unclimbable? Sometimes we are not sure which way to go when we come face to face with hardship in life. Life is so difficult for those who want to follow the truth. It is difficult to those who have the courage to say no to ignorance and sin. It is difficult to those who wants to live a life which is not contrary to the truth.

Whether it is living a righteous and healthy life or leading others in to the same, everything is kind of easy and normal when you flow with the current but the whole hell shake loose when you start to swim against the current. Many gave up their dreams and passions in life due to the struggles that they face.

Don’t get me wrong, we all face challenge if we are on the right way. We face almost no challenges if we surrender to destruction, violence, sin and hatred. The world is corrupted, and we need to make faithful decision for us and for our beloved ones everyday of our lives. Our decisions determine our destiny and that is why we need to be very careful in making one. Whether it is bad or good, everyday one way or the other we are making constant decisions. The question is how many good decisions we make every day.

As human beings, sometimes we will make the wrong decision. But if the good ones out way the bad ones, we are just going to be fine. Nonetheless, we don’t have to give up in trying to make things work for our good as God the father is by our side to help us achieve the goals. Don’t shy away from your dreams or too much burdened by life.

When it seems there is no clear way going forward, when it looks like there is no road map to follow, when we feel there is no way out from the cycles and when we are not sure whether we continue or quit, know that God is able to carry the load that is too big for us to carry. He will renew our strength and take us to the destination He prepared for us even if we are weak on our own. 

We should be grateful since we have eternal father who will never give up on us. His promises are true, and they will never run out or expire. We are loved and we are forever protected. Our fate is sealed, and our destiny is clear. No matter how hard the storm slams the ship, we will reach the harbor safe. And no matter how bad the devil tries to devour our righteousness and peace, we should resist him even more and throw him out of our lives.

In conclusion, life is hard, but God is even stronger. We are weak as a vessel made of clay but he who is in us is stronger than gold. We may feel worthless but he who lives in us is precious more than diamond and rubies.

When we are weak, God releases his grace so that we can bear the unbearable and climb the unclimbable. God is stronger than all of our weaknesses. He is able to do more that all we can do by ourselves. In fact, if we follow our feelings, they may lead us to destruction. Therefore, don’t give up and don’t lose hope for He is faithful to renew our strength and fight our fight by our side. Victory belongs to Jesus! 


 

Unless the LORD Builds the HouseUnless the LORD builds the house,those who build it labor in vain.Unless the LORD watches over the city,the watchman stays awake in vain.It is in vain that you rise up earlyand go late to rest,eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.Like arrows in the hand of a warriorare the children[a] of one's youth.Blessed is the manwho fills his quiver with them!He shall not be put to shamewhen he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127)

Children are indeed a blessing from God. No one can truly appreciate the value of family and children if we don’t understand that they indeed come from the Lord to make our lives happy. We all agree that they install in us purpose and the desire to live for a purpose. Once we have children our lives will never be the same. It is forever changed for the good.

They are exemplified as powerful arrows in you hands to destroy the enemy. If properly trained and cultivated to be respectful, they are powerful to revenge the works of the devil.On the other hand, if not properly trained, they can also be misused. That is why the Bible also says,

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Imagine all the failures and painful moments and sorrows of your life that you wish it never happened to you or you could have done it in a different way to avoid the bad consequences, but you cannot.

Now you can revenge that by training a child in godly manner. Their success and accomplishment are counter attack on the evil who attacked viscously.Imagine your children preaching the good news to the unsaved world and bring glory to God.

Imagine them feeding the poor, helping the helpless, encouraging the depressed filled with the Spirit of God and just live life compassionately.All these bring multiple fold glory and honor to God and a great damage to the kingdom of the darkness.

That what the Bible teaches us about our children. They are a ball of fire where you can revenge your enemies.God has placed a precious and powerful thing in your hands. Use it wisely for the glory and kingdom of God.

How do you raise your children to be a good citizen of heaven?

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity.Titus 2:7

You teach your children the percepts and rules of the kingdom.You showed them how compassionate and loving is the Lord.But more than that you become the model of good works.You shape their behavior by becoming one of the virtues you want to teach them.

Do you want them to be patient and kind to each other? Then you should become patient and kind when they are disobedient.You positively influence them by your attention to details and by giving themundivided attentionto their day to day activities. Nothing should be left unaddressed.

You see a problem, you address it immediately in calm spirit. Do not over heat and argue with a child as they might not follow you in the way you wanted.Argument never solves anything in household.You also need to know that you cannot solve the issues by yourself.

As the Bible indicates, unless the Lord interferes, your hard work is for nothing.Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

You must make yourself in 100% submission to the Holy Spirit to allow him to work on your child.At

he end of the day, the only Hope you have is that may Holy Spirit completely take over the situation and make your child be a responsible and God-Fearing person s/he needs to be in every circumstance.

Is physical punishment necessary to discipline a child?

In my opinion you cannot teach your children anything by introducing them in to violent nature of discipline. I also believe that the Bible never intends to tell us to do that. There is always the risk of causing physical harm to a child up to the point the child could severely hurt. 

There is no way you can always physically punish a child and not one day end up putting him in great physical harm. It is like drinking every day and you say you are sober. We know that never works.

My argument is even if the bible gives us the permission to physically punish our children, we need to know that it doesn’t mean we end up hurting our children. Aggression towards anyone is sin including your children. It also destroys the parent-child relationship one has with his children.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 

We are told to discipline but not even to make them angry. Physical harm and aggression towards your children do make them angry. With a broken heart and wounded body, they will develop fear and hate towards other and mostly their parents. You cannot make a point my hurting someone, and your child knows that well. As a child I was beaten up so bad by my parents that I developed so much hate and bitterness towards others. 

My parents didn’t know better and they thought they were doing a great favor to me.  Little do they know that they were making me to be one of the most hostile and violent kid in the vicinity of my home - Very aggressive and very demanding and very revengeful since that is what I learn from them at that time – revenge instead of discipline. 

Discipline is never revenge. Revenge is judgment on the wicked. Not a loving correction to your loved one.

What is Discipline?

Discipline is a formal method of correcting and instructing a child to follow the path of righteousness. 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think on these things. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7)

Discipline is to encourage your child when they do the above and reproach when they fell out from these.

Discipline is when you come face to face with your child who is confused and agitated by life and you hug him and kiss him and tell him everything is going to be all right one day. It is when you show him the glamor of hope and astonishing future that God has installed for each one of us. 

Discipline is to help your child discern the right from wrong and pick the right one and help me develop these skills while you raise him up.

What is NOT Discipline?

Discipline is not to demoralize and belittle your child just to make a point.It is not inflicting pain in to your child for what so ever reason you have.Is not to segregate and left out a child hence making him feel outcasted and abandoned by the family. 

Discipline is not depriving the necessary needs of a child like food, bath, clothing, sleep, comfort of a child in order to teach a lesson. Discipline is not leaving your child in a dangerous situation whether out of despair or out of for the sake of teaching him 
lesson.

By doing discipline the right way, we may save our child from destruction or even death and

ake them fruitful and productive members of the kingdom of God. There is no failure in the kingdom of God. We all are part of the body of Christ with specific purpose.

If we don’t practice discipline (or do it the wrong way), we will see one or more of the following consequences

1. The relationship with your child will be destroyed

2. You will lose you child either due to self-harm and the harm you may cause by accident 

3. They may experience temporary or permanent disability

4. They will develop hate and bitterness towards others and themselves 

5. They will be aggressive and display anti-social behavior.

6. They will do less academically. How can they do well in school when their freedom to be a child is taken away by an abusive parent?

7. The will fight with depression and self-esteem issues later in their life. 

8. They no longer feel safe and protected even in the place where they think is the safest place on earth. 

9. Destroys self-confidence 

10. Develop an erratic temper that can ruin their life forever and put them in great danger

11. Children who are severely abused when they were a child may commit suicide when they are teens

12. Neven feel loved so they live their life in search of one in which they may end up in the wrong hands. (This can be being in abusive relationship or runaway kids)

13. Post-traumatic stress disorder

14. Mental health issue

15. Lose passion and enthusiasm for life – the basic components of life

In conclusion, what ever the situation is and how bad it looks like, never give up on your child. There is still time to positively influence your child and teach him the right from wrong. 

If you are an aggressive parent who wants everything to be done exactly by the book and never leave a margin of error, then you need to remind yourself how rebellious and stubborn you were to the Lord when you were a little. And how God has simply covered you with grace and love that is beyond comprehension. 

Maybe you need to treat you child with the same compassion that the Lord has showed you. Forgive their sins and love them anyways. Cover them with the garment of grace and help them understand that treating others with care and love is one of the most important things you can do in your life. 

There is still great debate among Christians about the issue of work vs grace. Some even put work for the reason for our salvation. In other words, they argue that our own righteousness plays a great role for our salvation. They also argue we need to do certain things like providing for the needy to remain saved.

There main scripture to support their argument is the Book of James. The Book of James in deed mentions about faith accompanied with work. It doesn’t say anything about work accompanied by faith, which leads us with the main concept about work and grace. It doesn’t mention about our salvation but it describes the fruits of the Spirit.

James 2:14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James never intended to explain about how one gets saved. However, he did mention about investing our Christian life in to ministering other people both physically and spiritually. It has the same meaning when Jesus gives an example to the disciples who looked so religious but never cared for other people.

He says to them, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). Jesus also teaches us if we don’t forgive others as we are forgiven, then we will lose our salvation.

Matthew 18:21-35Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.

He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time.

‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.

Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

If someone thinks that he has contributed any human work for his salvation, he is deceived. There is no human work other than the work of Jesus Christ that put us where we are now, being children of God. Only Jesus has the power to grant us entrance to the Holy of Holies.

Only him restored our identity. I

is completely worthless to do all we have to do thinking that it will buy us any privilege in to the presence of God. As one man simply put it, we all were in dark room where there is no electricity but with lots of switches.

Unless Jesus, who is the main power of electricity, provide us with light and shines his face for us, we may play with the plugs as much as we want, we will not have any light. All people are wicked and crooked in the eyes of God with out Jesus. We were all sinners.

Romans 3:23 All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.

What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law.  Paul also mentioned that if our works have in any way any significance for our salvation, then Christ died in vain.

In conclusion, we didn’t contribute in any form or way to be saved. Jesus only saved us from the pit of destruction. We paid the full price that sin has placed for us to be saved. We all were slaves under the power of the devil, Jesus had to die the death of the sinner to release us from the pain of darkness. 

Mathew 25:1The kingdom of heaven is like what happened one night when ten young women took their oil lamps and went to a wedding to meet the groom.

Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but no extra oil. The ones who were wise took along extra oil for their lamps. The groom was late arriving, and the young women became drowsy and fell asleep. Then in the middle of the night someone shouted, “Here's the groom! Come to meet him!”

When the women got up and started getting their lamps ready, the foolish ones said to the others, “Let us have some of your oil! Our lamps are going out.” Those who were wise answered, “There's not enough oil for all of us! Go and buy some for yourselves.” While the foolish ones were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived.

The five who were ready went into the wedding, and the doors were closed. 11 Later the others returned and shouted, “Sir, sir! Open the door for us!” But the groom replied, “I don't even know you!” So, my disciples, always be ready! You don't know the day or the time when all this will happen.

The story of the five wise women is written in the Bible to teach us the principle of preparedness and wisdom for the sake of the kingdom of God.

It is represented as five very wise women waiting for their groom to arrive so that they can attend the wedding in which they are delighted to attend. Their desire and diligence governed their attitude of the heart and hence they were vigilant in their actions.

They made their lamps full of oil and also make sure they have reserves in case the bride groom is late. On the other hand, there were also other five foolish women who were not ready for the coming of the groom which ultimately disqualifies them from attending the wedding. There are two very important concepts we need to learn from this

1. Vigilance/preparedness

2. Wisdom

The greatest treasure we have in life is Holy Spirit. It is very important to know that the only requirement to be in the presence of God is carrying his spirit in us whom he has provided without measure. Holy Spirit is the most valuable thing we need and must have in order to attend the big wedding, which is the second coming of Christ.

It is also very important to know that we should safe guard this precious gift with all we have from the thief so that we can inheritance to the kingdom of God Many have received this marvelous gift which is represented as the oil in the lamp in the above story and some how lost it in the difficulties and trials of life. Many believed it is impossible to lose Holy Spirit once received, but I would say Holy Spirit like the other two parts of Holy divinity of God, has feelings and emotions that can be grieved.

Ephesians 4:30:“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

It is indicated in the above scripture that grieving the Holy Spirit is a sin and is committed when we are not living life by loving others and when we disob
y God. It occurs:

When we hate others and become bitter fueled with anger

When we complain too much with little things

When we grumble and judge others

When we fight with each other and gossip

When we lie, steal and murder

The list goes on and on, but the idea is Holy Spirt will be saddened and ultimately leave us if we don’t stop doing the above.We al

know what happ
ned to King Saul. The bible tells us that Holy Spirit lift him, and the evil spirt came to make his life miserable. 

Laziness from doing what we supposed to do in time is sin and it leads to death. This could be refraining from doing little things like kneeling for 5 minutes to pray and praise God for his blessings, but it has great implication in the overall life of a Christian. I believe there is no difference in the eyes of God among the different kinds of sins since they all have deadly consequences. 

Wisdom is the tool that preserves and maintains our life from going to destruction. It is one thing to be prepared but it is another thing to safe guard what we have inside for the long run which can only be accomplished by using wisdom.

The five wise women not only have extra oil but also have wisdom. They refused to share their oil to the other five foolish women who completely forgot they may need extra oil in case the groom is late. 

They did so because they believed if they had shared their oil, they wouldn’t have had enough for all of them and they will all miss the wedding. 5 is better than nothing. 

Simply speaking wisdom is making decisions now that have great implications on the final result.  How many of us are protecting what we love most with wisdom? It we don’t, the devil will have every opportunity to snatch it from us while we are sleeping.

What a tragic story it is when we see what happened for the five foolish women. They thought the did all it takes to attend the wedding. Probably they also put on their best clothing. They waited the groom until it arrives. The did everything they could except they run out of oil.  But the other wise women anticipated this might happen and prepared for the occasion. 

The good news is God already gave us wisdom when He gave us his Spirit as the Spirit of God is the spirit of wisdom and understanding. All we have to do is listen when whispers in our ears telling us what to do in every difficult situation.  

Isaiah 11:1-2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, [that is] the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Might, the Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord." 

God has invited everyone to his kingdom. His ambition and desire for all human beings are clear. He wants everyone to escape the eternal condemnation by believing Jesus Chris as their one and only savior.

For this reason, God has sent his only begotten son to earth so that everyone who have trust in him shall have eternal life.

John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

But many still refuse this sacred calling to be partakers of the kingdom of God for whatever reason they may have in their mind. Some reasons include:

1. Procrastinating

Some are just procrastinating their decision as if they know what is going to happen tomorrow.Only God knows what will happen tomorrow. In my opinion, no one can be 100% sure about tomorrow. You may have probability of knowing some aspects of it but no one can predict the future.But some people want to gamble with the most precious thing on earth, their soul.

There should not be any reason what so ever that would make us hesitant to make the decision of life and death.

Those who procrastinate their day of salvation are simply setting themselves for the enemy to destroy them permanently. There is no guarantee what have today will be there tomorrow. But if we have Jesus today, we know by faith that God will abundantly pour out his blessing on to us more than we even ask or imagine.

It is wise to think outside of the normal way of thinking and see if God is really giving us the second chance to be with Him today.

Luke 12:20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

2 Corinthians 6:2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Wouldn’t it be so offensive for someone to ignore the invitation of very prominent person or an official of some kind to a very important ceremony, like a wedding?I didn’t see any reason why anyone would do so unless he wants to put him self in great trouble.

Most people who have a big respect for famous people and would respectfully accept invitation from such famous people would not even bother to think about the invitation to the wedding of the lamb of God who was slain for the sake of sinners like you and me.

2. Murder

Some even become eternal enemies of God by killing his messengers like the evangelists and preachers.According to Math 22, God will revenge such people and bring justice for his servants who were done wrong by the schemes of the evil.

As the Bible teaches us in the Book of Acts where it narrates how Jesus met with Paul and warned him to turn from his wrong doings and persecuting Christian, it is absolutely necessary for those of us who are knowingly or unknowingly do the same to turn away from persecuting the children of God and start to live life according to the plan of God.

God is awesome God. Whether we like it or not, he will save his people from the evil and bring justice to the oppressed. He will h
ve a wedding for his son with us in it or without us. The important part of the wedding is not us. It is all about the Lamb of God. If we obey him and surrender our ways to him, we will enjoy this extraordinary wedding in heaven.

3. Clothing

It is

very important to know that we must wear the proper attire when we attend the wedding. Any dirty clothing is not acceptable in the wedding. This is off course metaphor. God is telling us to cleanse our soul by the blood of Jesus before attending the wedding. 

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 

If anyone dares to enter the gates of heaven depending on his own righteousness and not on what Jesus did on the cross, he will be thrown to the eternal fire as it is consider as wearing a dirty cloth in the king’s wedding.  

Romans 8:1 There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus"  

Ephesians 2:8–10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing;  it is the gift of God, not a result of works,  so that no one may boast. 

Math 22:1 Once again Jesus used stories to teach the people: The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a king gave a wedding banquet for his son. The king sent some servants to tell the invited guests to come to the banquet, but the guests refused. He sent other servants to say to the guests, “The banquet is ready! My cattle and prize calves have all been prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the banquet!”

But the guests did not pay any attention. Some of them left for their farms, and some went to their places of business. Others grabbed the servants, then beat them up and killed them.

This made the king so furious that he sent an army to kill those murderers and burn down their city. Then he said to the servants, “It is time for the wedding banquet, and the invited guests don't deserve to come. Go out to the street corners and tell everyone you meet to come to the banquet.” They went out on the streets and brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike. And the banquet room was filled with guests.

When the king went in to meet the guests, he found that one of them wasn't wearing the right kind of clothes for the wedding. The king asked, “Friend, why didn't you wear proper clothes for the wedding?” But the guest had no excuse. So the king gave orders for this person to be tied hand and foot and to be thrown outside into the dark. That's where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. Many are invited, but only a few are chosen.

God’s Love Never Fails.God keeps Loving us even if we do not completely abide by his love. He keeps forgiving us even though we don’t forgive our selves.

Lamentations 3:22

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

How magnificent is the love of God to us.His mercy and kindness are forever more.His forgiveness has no end at all.Like a river that goes on and on drenching the dry land ahead, his love just keeps going satisfying the inner desire of his people.

God never stops listening to our prayer nor his ears get tired from repetitive questions.Instead he kept blessing us with more joy and happiness.He gave us his Spirt in whom we find complete peace.God is wonderful for he is the only one who is able to do his miracles to rescue us from danger.

He kept us very close to him so that no one can snatch us away.God is faithful in all circumstances that we should completely surrender our lives to him for he knows what he is doing.

We may lose hope in all things we have in life but we should never give up on our lord.He is able to solve our life puzzles. He is able to take us to the next phase of our lives.

You may even give up on your self after trying all you have to do, but there is still hope from the heaven. Holy Spirit is able to change our lives 180 degrees.Trust God know that he will take you where you ought to be.

Jesus loves more than you mom or any one else. He knows better that you do and he is ready to help. My dear, surrender your life to Jesus and you will inherit the kingdom of God as it is very near than before.

The only reason we are not dead yet is because God covered us with his mighty wings from the arrows of the evil.He defends us when the enemy accuse us of sin.

If I have one chance to say all I have to say to someone that is about to give up on himself or life in general, I would say, “God’s love never fails”.

He never lets you down. You are his priority. You are not the last in his long list. Your situation is already noted and already answered according to Jesus. All you must do is tap your self in to this great resource of spiritual realm and get the answer for yourself.

Psalm 103

Praise the Lord, my soul;all my inmost being, praise his holy name.Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,nor will he harbor his anger forever;he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;as far as the east is from the west, s

far has he removed ourtransgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,    so the Lo
d has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed,  he remembers that we are dust.

The life of mortals is like grass,  they flourish like a flower of the field;the wind blows over it and it is gone,  and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting   the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,   and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant   and remember to obey his precepts.

Jesus has repeatedly mentioned several verses in the Bible where one can endanger his soul of hell. He even used very simple stories to illustrate his teachings to make them easy to understand and very hard to forget.
 

Some of the teachings were about:

1.Ignoring the invitation of the King to the wedding. Read Math. 22:1

This is rejecting the invitation to peace and reconciliation to our God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone didn’t accept Jesus as his savior and Lord, he is opting himself out of the kingdom of God.

Key = Obedience to God’s Calling.

2.Procrastinating the Lord’s calling for salvation

Procrastinating the Lord’s calling is the same us rejecting as tomorrow is not ours. Today is the day of salvation. The devil is best known for stealing life. As long as we live in this world, there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come. The truth of the matter is we are so lucky we see the light of the day today. God is giving us one last chance every day until it is all over. The day of salvation is today. Now is the right time to invite Jesus in to our lives.

Key = Surrender to Jesus Today. Believe.

3. Calling someone bad names like ignorant or stupid. Read Math. 5:21

It is amazing to realize what we do every day might cost us our eternal life with God. God specifically instructs us not to undermine our brothers and sisters and not to abuse them with our careless words that come out of our mouth when we are angry. It is also required of us to seek reconciliation with any one whom we have offended and do it as soon as possible while there is still time to do so. (Math. 5:24)

Key = Patience, Love and Humility

4. Wasting God given talents (especially spiritual ones) Math 25:16

We may think we can make it to heaven without utilizing our talents and gifts for the glory of God. Laziness is a great deal of sin. God created us for a purpose. It is unfortunate that many of us fail to find and pursue the will of God for our lives due to lack of constant communication with the Spirit of God. For this reason, we end up leading sinful life which leads to eternal destruction.

Key = Diligence and focus for the kingdom of God

5. Fornication. Read Math 25:27.

Jesus clearly indicated that one can fornicate with a woman with out even having sexual encounter with her. Fornication can be a matter of watching a woman with adulterous heart and pursue that till it conceives sin. Having images of sexual act in one’s mind is considered fornication. Sexual sin has a power to kill our spiritual life and lead us in to eternal fire. So let us work on that by having a convent with our eyes not to even look in to a woman with sexual desires. Job 31:1 says, 

“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.”

Moreover, divorcing without finding out extramarital affairs of spouse and start another marriage is also considered fornication. God expects us to mean what we say on that altar when we promised our spouse that we will be there: for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health

Key: Holiness

6.Abusing the stewardship that we received from the Lord.

Any position we have, we should faithfully serve the Lord with it. If we start to hit and inflict pain and agony to any one under our care, it will be more painful for us in judgment day. Read Math. 24:50

Not only abusing our power but also failure to lead in the right direction is also sin.

Key = Leadership Wisdom.

7.Being careless and unprepared for the things of the kingdom of God. Math 25:1

We have to be always vigilant to the things of the kingdom of God with lots of prayer and 

asting. We need to use the gifts we received from God in a consistent manner as to benefit us and others while bringing glory to God.

Key = Vigilance and Diligence

8. Being selfish and greedy. Math 25:33

One of the things that should concern any one who has a good life financially is to find a way to share some of the financial resources to those who are really in need specially to those in a very poor conditions. Jesus said that if we neglect others while they desperately need our help while we can help, he will deny us in front of his angels.

Key = Generosity and Compassion

9. Denying Jesus in front of others may lead Jesus denying us in front of His Angels and God

Key = Make Christ First

10. Serving Money instead of the Lord Math 6:24

We cannot serve money and God at the same time. We will honor one and leave the other. They both need our time, energy and resources. If we love God, we will follow him even if it will cost of everything including money. If we don’t love God we will not give time for his word, worship and prayer. That will lead us to destruction.

Key = Lord over Money

11. Unforgiveness Math 6:14

We must forgive the sins of others to be forgiven by God

Key = Forgiveness

12. Insulting Holy Spirit

Some people dare to despise Holy Spirit by denying Him that He even exists. Just because we can’t see Him doesn’t mean He isn’t God. It is a great tragedy to find out He is the one who will cast you down to the lake of fire sooner or later and not having any good relationships with Him.

Some people also constantly grieve Him by constantly put themselves in a situation that makes Him grieved. Even if grieving Holy Spirit and insulting his are two different things. It is worth mentioning in this place that both have great bad consequences on our spirituality. 

Key = Honor Holy Spirit

13. Not bearing spiritual fruits (like kindness, self-control, godliness, love) even if we are given a lot of opportunities to have these. The Word of God said, God will cast away any tree that cannot bring forth and good fruit to fire as it has no use when it is expected out of it. 

Key = Bear spiritual fruits

14. Being a snare for others to go astray from their faith in Christ. Read Math. 18:10

We are supposed to bring people to Christ not make them disappear from the church.

Key = Honor God, Fear God

15. Depending on one’s own work rather than the work of Christ on the cross for our sins. Math 22:13

If any faith relies on one’s own effort in stead of the work of the Spirit of God in our lives, that faith is from the devil. Nothing good can be achieved by our own except through the one who has the power to do good in people lives.

Key = Faith alone

16. Being deceived and taken away from faith by false prophets Math 24:11. Math 7:15

Jesus told us not to believe all who said they are prophets. In fact, Paul wrote to us to examine each spirit and find out if they are sent from God or not. Even though we are also instructed not to despise the gift of prophesy. 

Miracles should not be the main focus we follow and worship God even though we are worshiping a miracle worker God. We worship God for what He is. He is God. We are all God’s children and we should walk in close relationship with Him. We sh
uld not expect some prophet from somewhere to solve all our spiritual problems. That is just impossible. Only God through the power of Holy Ghost that is working actively within you can change you and your situation. No one can substitute the manifestation of this amazing power that is actively engaging in your life – Holy Ghost.

If we are a real Christian, God has given us a Spirit that will test and know if a person is a false prophet or real. We can also tell from their fruit. If they consistently preach the kingdom of God with out shaking and give to the poor and not exploit the people of God, they might be from God. Again it needs the voice of the Holy Spirit to confirm or deny any one with a prophetic spirit. However, I would like to emphasize that working miracles is not indication if a person is from God or not.

17. Being Hypocrite. Math 6:1

Hypocrisy is a great sin in the eyes of God. In short words, hypocrisy is when one’s internal feelings (the reality) are completely different from his external behavior(fake) for the sake of gaining power, respect and fame from others. In other words, we pretend to be someone in sheep’s clothing while we are completely a different person in side.

We pretend to be nice, generous, meek, righteous, powerful while we are really far from these. It is not bad to want these. However, it is a sin to pretend we have these while we have not. Why we pretend we have these while we haven’t is because we want other people respect as society gives more dignity to those who have these things. But God despise hypocrisy. Because He is the truth and he doesn’t align himself with a lie. 

Key: Be yourself

18. Worrying. Read Math 6:31

Being worried too much weakens our faith in Jesus and opens a wide range of opportunities for the devil to attack our faith in Christ. As the head of a family myself, it makes me sad when I see my children to shake and tremble during little encounters like a scary situation or when we deny them things that are direct threat to their health. On the other hand, I was very delighted when they completely rely themselves on me and let go of their situation, like when they are in deep sleep and we carry them to bed. 

Key: Have Faith

19. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Very powerful expression. The word of God is simply amazing. We may read several inspirational and spiritual books and squeeze them together and not even close in wisdom with one sentence like this one from the Word of God. I have watched several inspirational movies and read many articles about life. Most of them preached about having a good life in this life, to love life and have it in abundance. But the Bible just told us in fact if we try to save our lives we will lose it and if we lose it (for the sake of God) we will find it.

This simply means we are not created for us. Any one who understands this principle has already lived life abundantly. We are the salt of the world. Salt is not salt for itself. It is only when you put salt in your food that will find its meaning and purpose. What does it benefit for a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Nothing! Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Nothing!

Our soul is way greater than anything we can possibly accumulate in the world.

God created us for a purpose and that purpose is to enlighten others to have everlasting eternal relationship with God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything else is just for a while and will not be there forever!

20. Worshiping any idol we may have.  Math 19:21

Many people have many idols that they sec
etly adore and worship instead of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The best way to identify idols is to ask our selves the question, “Am I able to give up this thing for Jesus?”

It could be wealth, or addiction, or friends, or family, or profession, or education – anything we are so proud and very independent of the need to cling to Jesus. If we love any thing more than we love Jesus, then we don’t deserve to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But our Lord is a compassionate God.

He is full of mercy. He didn’t desert us when we cling to our idols and not him. He always finds a way to separate us from our pride and makes us walk with Him a little bit closer than before. He does that for a reason. Sooner or later we are going to depart this life and leave everything here since we didn’t bring anything in to the world. Therefore, it is only fair to treasure the Lord’s friendship and cling to Jesus only and nothing else..

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1. David when he was given the throne, he took the chance to build the temple of God. Even if God chose King Solomon as the builder of the temple of God instead of King David, King David was burning with passion and zeal to build it. He spent all his life to prepare for this project and he passed the mantle to King Solomon to do the Job. I love the way he listened to God. He didn’t argue with God that he will do it since he has the skill or the power to do it. He learned from Saul’s sin against God that obedience is better than sacrifice.

2. David when he was convicted of sin of counting the number of people of Israel to see how many men can serve in his army, God had eventually punished him by sending a disease to kill the people. But David having known that he has sinned, he begged God to take away his punishment from his people. Furthermore, he offered himself to be punished instead of his people. What a great humility and love for his people we learn from this.

Moses also offered himself for punishment instead of the people of God he led out of Egypt. Read Exodus 32:32.

Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.

Jesus who is the pinnacle of our faith has offered himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. We see in him the greatest sacrificial love who considers himself not worthy of anything unless it dies and give glory to God.

3. Nehemiah prayed an intercessory prayer to God that is for the sake of others:

“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace”

He was suffering in the heart due to the great troubles his people had endured during their trials. He was no more concerned about his own safety and comfort but like Mosses, he saw a nation that had a great promise from God but yet suffer a great deal of scorn as a consequence for their sins. Even if he was determined to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, He was more focused on rebuilding the lives of his people. For him this was tragedy to see a nation of God whom He redeemed by his great strength and mighty hand in such miserable conditions.

4. Nehemiah took the matter to God and fast and pray and fast several days before launch in to action. He knew this is not ordinary suffering. He knew only sin can bring such kind of trouble as God said, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations”.

He confessed his sins and interceded for the people of Israel. He knew that only true confession can lead to restoration. No one else can liberate them without God himself forgives their sins and have mercy on them. When God breaks someone, only He can fix him back.

5. Nehemiah consistently prayed according to the promises of God in His word.

He said, “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying..”

By doing so He is begging God according to His own promises and Word.He is kind of saying,

“We didn’t forget what you told us and nor did you.You were very straight forward with your instructions and advice. We didn’t follow your Word. We stranded away from your grace and we are begging for your mercy and restoration.”

How many of us stick to the Word of God while we pray? God works and answers prayer according to the principles that are written in His Word. He doesn’t conflict himself. God is His Word. The book of John started in saying,

”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

God’s Word is God. You can compl

tely understand the Will of God by reading the Word of God, and this is exactly what Nehemiah did.

6. Nehemiah was so wise and humble in his approach to the king to ask for favor. Even if Nehemiah knew the king was responsible for the suffering of his people, he didn’t approach him as an enemy. In fact, he took him as a good friend and shared with him the sorrow in his heart. If we think about it, this is a great wisdom. Being always humble even in front of your enemies makes things easier for you to accomplish your dreams.

But the source of this wisdom is from God. Nehemiah took the matter to God and not to the king. The king was an accomplice to Nehemiah when God answered his prayer. Most of the time, we are so angry with the person whom we think is the source of our problem. The thing is, they don’t have any power over us unless God gives them the power to do so. Nehemiah said, “May the king live forever!” instead of cursing and insulting the king, which can cost him his life. 

Daniel also did the same thing after the King threw him in the lion’s den. “May the king live forever!” Nehemiah also addressed all his requests very politely. 

“If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 

7. Nehemiah knew he was called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It is very important to know you are called for a given purpose. This man knew he has to rebuild the broken pieces of Jerusalem. For him, this was his purpose in life that he considered himself worthy of living. There are a lot of people on earth who walk with no definite purpose in life, though, God made them with one.

There is no greater tragedy in life than to live life without purpose. God gave us all the reason to be born and the reason to live. As the church of Jesus, we are here to witness the greatest gift man has ever received, Jesus Christ. That is sort of the bigger agenda of our purpose in life. But if we drill down to it, we are called individually to build and restore the broken pieces of the church of Jesus Christ. We are called to consolidate things around us. We are called to help the sick and the poor. We are called to be guardians to the orphans and care givers to the elders who need help.

Our purpose, in a very simple definition, is anything we can offer back to the community to help build and restore broken lives.  And how do we know which specific task we need to do is all up to you and the Spirit of God who is able to do great things in you for His glory.

8. Nehemiah planed and well prepared for his Journey very well. There is a saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail” 

Having a good strategy that we put down in our plan is a good start to succeed in our mission. The enemy will rock the boat left and right and if we don’t know where we are going with no road map to our route, we will definitely fail. And the worst part is we won’t even know we have failed because we have not set a plan to succeed. 

Planning is a method to lay out a strategy to implement your vision. It will consist the details of your vision and what you are trying to accomplish with very specific details.  God will be with you and ready to help you if you have a plan and a goal you set to achieve in life. No plan means no divine provision.

9. Nehemiah knew there was an enemy waiting to fight and he was well prepared for it.

10. Nehemiah launched in to action after fasting and prayer.

The reason Nehemiah fasted and prayed was to plead to God to release him to restore what the enemy has destroyed. Not only he identified God’s will but also, he executed it by dedicat

ng his life for the task. It is very interesting to realize that God used the same Babylonians that are responsible for destroying the walls of Jerusalem and its gates to help to restore it back to its previous state. 

The moral of the story is it doesn’t matter how bad or worse things get around us. How many countless bad things have occurred around us? God will use the same enemy to honor you who has been degrading you for years. Mordecai was honored by his enemy Haman by the decree of the king according to Aster 6:11

So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!”

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. -Luke 14:25

Even if the word disciple would be simply defined as follower of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it has more meaning than just a follower and a believer.What is the difference between a disciple, a follower, a believer and a minister?I believe when we come to God by faith through repentance and believing what God has revealed his salvation through Christ, we become a follower or believer of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But I believe there is a big difference between a believer and a disciple of Jesus Christ.The disciple is the one who gave up his everything for the sake of the kingdom of God.He who forsakes all that he has for Christ is a disciple of Jesus Christ.

A disciple is the best candidate to be a minister to preach the gospel for nations. Only God affirms the carriers of His word and His message around the globe. One’s own zeal and desire can’t make a follower (and even a disciple) a minister of the Gospel.

Most of us think we are disciples but the truth is we are still in Level 0 (just a believer).And since we don’t want to go to the next level (disciple), devil is even tempting us to give up level 0 and to become unbeliever. Discipleship is not intended to be for only few members of God’s church. God wants the majority/all of Christians to be his disciples and prepare themselves for the ministry that God has prepared for them.

Discipleship is making baby Christians in to warriors of faith in Christ.

Matthew 28:19 (NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Only few are called from discipleship to be ministers like pastors, apostles, teachers and the likes. A Christian cannot directly go to ministry without being a disciple first. It is like for a soldier going to war with out passing through the necessary combat training.

If we see the life of the apostles, they were first under the ministry of Jesus Christ before He told them to go and preach the good news for the world. They were first disciples before being apostles.

This doesn’t mean they were not preaching the gospel when Jesus was around. Jesus was sending them in a way that they can see what it means to be called to ministry while they were still on training by Jesus. It is like practical training.

There were complaints against them to Jesus that they were not able to heal the sick or cast out demons, but Jesus defended them and taught them on the spot how things should be done. Moreover, Jesus ordered them before he resurrected to the Father to wait until they are filled with the Holy Ghost.
Only then they will have the power to preach the gospel with boldness and humility.

Discipleship educates and trains Christians to be ministe

s but only the Ho
y Spirit can empower and change people lives using disciples. Holy Spirit can use an ordinary person like you and me to spread the gospel but it will be much more effective if someone is converted in to disciple first before moving to ministry. I believe the issues that we see in the current church is due to sending  unprepared ministers in to the world who take the work of the kingdom of God in their own hands and many for their own benefits.

Ministry comes in different flavors. We can minister the people of God with our possession, giving what he gave us back to him. With our knowledge in different discipline like nursing, doctors…. With our compassion and taking care of the needy. Defending the helpless. Providing to the poor. With our strength and youth in cleaning, caring, committed to help those spread the gospel.

We don’t have to be the preacher or the pastor in the church to be a minister. And we don’t have to be a disciple to do this kind of ministry. Part of ministry that involves healing the sick, fighting spiritual battles with the devil and evil principalities, teaching the word of God to many, prophesizing, speaking in tongues, doing miracles are all the gifts of the Holy Ghost given to those who have completely given up their life(everything) for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of God. (Disciples). 

One might say we need these gifts to minister the people of God before we give up anything to be disciple. But this is wrong. God is waiting for you to change your heart and become available for him to use you as He wishes and then He will give the gifts and not vice versa.

Gifts are given for disciples and not for ordinary Christians. Notice that the gifts of the Spirit were given to the apostles when they dedicated their life to preach the good news by living a Godly life for Christ.

If we are in the darkness of sin that we experience every day, there is no way we will receive these gifts. If we turn our face after being partakers of these gifts, Hebrew 6 says, there is no more to be done. It is amazing how most of us live our lives. We are so immature in our faith that we are so much in to the things of the world. 

We watch movies that are unholy. We listen to musics that preach hate, arrogance and violence. We do not pray and read the Word of God diligently. We don’t share the gospel to our neighbors. We don’t help those in need. We are always self-centered and don’t care about others. 

We are lukewarm Christians in a way that we are not a strong Christians who should be ready for the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. We don’t forgive when our brothers and sisters offended us. We don’t love sincerely. We don’t treat others with respect at all times. We don’t faithfully obey God. We treat others badly with and without their faults. We even drag some of them to court.  We are angry and bitter when others do wrong to us. As a result, we end up grieving the Holy Spirit by practicing these and many more.

I don’t know how we are going to please God without bearing any spiritual fruit. God wants us to grow in the Spirit and bear many spiritual fruits. If we don’t have fruits, we may end up in the wrong place that we don’t want to be which is hell. 

Many may deceive christian by saying we don’t earn our salvation and no need to worry about bearing fruits of our faith. But the truth is we need to worry every day to live a life that glorifies God’s name in our generation and many more to come. As Christians, we need to stop drinking only milk and start to eat real food from the Word of God training ourselves in to the likeness of God in Christ.

We need to be compassionate for one another and forgive each other sins. We need to understand everyday the depth and breadth of the grace of God and how He forgives our huge debt that we cannot pay off and on

y eternal fire was the only thing we deserve to have.

We need to understand that if we don’t love others as God loves us, we are in danger of eternal fire. We need to know that after being forgiven by God if we treat others bad, God will take away his mercy and put us in great trouble. There is no guarantee that we are saved if we conform ourselves in to the likeness of the devil, who is evil and deceitful.

Even if we think we are not called in to the ministry, we still should prepare our selves to be a good disciple that loves Jesus more than anything we accumulate in life since we will all leave that here and go to our eternal home.

Paul said, nothing comes close to the love of God in Christ.

Romans 8:35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

This life(Romans 8) is given for all who love and believe in Christ. It is a call to love Jesus like his disciples giving up everything we have for sake of Christ. Remember saying the words and living according to the words of Romans 8 are not the same. May God give his grace to have a great revelation of what it means to give up everything we have for God.

When the young rich person whom he claimed he is a good Christian was asked by Jesus to give up his wealth (his idol) and follow Jesus, he was sad and turn his back on Jesus and left. Are we like him today? Which ones of our possessions become our idols? Anything we love more than God is our idol and we suffer the consequence of losing it. Whether it is our spouse or kids, or house, or car or profession or hobby, it is a matter of time before we will be asked to choose between Jesus and our idol.

Choose wisely. Choose Jesus since he gave up everything for us and they crucified him on that cross almost naked. He also promised that whatever and whoever we give up for his name sake, he will give it back to us multiple folds. 

Matthew 19:29: And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

Q&A

1.Can a follower of Jesus Christ who is not a disciple of Jesus Christ go directly to the strong form of ministry like Pastor?

2.What is the importance of being a disciple?

3.Can a believer inherit the kingdom of God without going through discipleship?

4.What does it mean when Jesus says, “You cannot be my disciple, if you don’t love me more than yourself and family?”

5. Is discipleship necessary to enter the kingdom of God?

6.What are the varies ways of serving the Lord (ministry)?

7.Can a Christian live without Holy Ghost? 

8.Is it possible to inherit the kingdom of God with out the Holy Spirt living in us?

9.Whom shall the Lord give the gifts of the Holy Ghost? A new christian or disciple? (Wisdom,  Knowledge,  Faith,  Healing,  Working of miracles, Prophecy, Discerning of spirits, Divers kinds of tongues, Interpretation of tongues)

Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. ~ Jeremiah 17:14

Most of us have passed through a very long period to get completely healed from our sinful behavior washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. During those difficult times, we promised to God to do his will to get healed from our infirmities. we say, "If I only get healed, I will be your faithful servant. If I only get healed, I will do so and so. I will get better, if only I get this."

There is a great resemblance between sickness in the physical body and spiritual body. There is no precondition for our spiritual sickness as there may not be other option for cancer treatment other than to go for chemotherapy. Please remember, when we sin, we are infected with a deadly disease. I am not talking about this rubbish physical body. It is the spiritual body, spirit and soul that you will bring to the Lord. That my friend is rotten, smelling and dead. You cannot get to heaven with that. In fact, you cannot get anywhere except hell.

Therefore, you are going to be treated for healing. It doesn’t have to be as easy as you might think. If there is anything called incurable for spiritual bodies, then your case will be close to that. But in the case of Jesus, nothing is impossible. He wants to see you well. It is not his will, never been and never will be to go to hell. You see people die due to lack of knowledge and understanding. They die in their physical body. They die in their sin. So, God will lead you through the healing process one day at a time until you are completely cleaned from your inequities.

So, take all the time you need with him. It is worth it. The healing process is not only for the body but the cleansing of the soul. It heals the flesh as well as removes sickness of the soul by washing away the dirt from the soul. Sin is accumulated through time. Any kind of complicated problem has a root cause but it has spanned several months if not years. This makes it chronic and difficult to heal. For instance, you take any of the deadliest diseases like heart problem or failure of any of our vital organs or the cause of stroke or diabetics.

They all have the same characteristics: they are chronic and take a long time to develop in to one. When a person sins and does that for a long period of time, it will cause a chronic sin that is deadly by nature if it is not treated with the mercy and blood of Jesus very quickly. One of the easiest and fast way to cure any disease is to get to treatment as soon as possible. The very best way to walk in righteousness with the Lord is to repent our sins as soon as they occur.

Delaying our repentance will open another door for sin and the devil. It is always very important to come to God’s presence with repentance if we know there is something we should confess before it is too late. As human beings our days are numbered and we don’t even know when we shall depart this life to see God in his judgment seat. God cannot be mocked as everyone gets what he deserves on earth as well as in heaven.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." ~ Isaiah 53:4-5

The healing process can only be achieved through our Lord Jesus Christ as he was crushed for our iniquities. If it were not through the sanctification and redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, we all will end u

in hell as we
br>ll were sinners.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

God expects each one us to come to him with humble heart and confess all of our sins before him. Humility makes us to confess all of our sins to God since we know we cannot enter the kingdom of God by our own works.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5 

Humility also leads us to live a life of righteousness as it opens the door to serve others considering them better than us. We also need to know that once we experience the love of God and our rotting spiritual body is regenerated by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and revived through the knowledge of God, if we willfully disobey God and turn our face from his love, then there is no other way to redeem us back to Him.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins..  Hebrew 3

In conclusion, sin one way or another brings a curse in to our soul and creates a big hole that cannot be cured except through the blood of Jesus Christ. The hole sometimes stays there until we completely recover from it. 

If we confess all our sins, God is willing to redeem us in to everlasting life when we surrender our life to him. He will forget the past and give us a new beginning. 

When everything has passed, we will praise God for he has changed our suffering in to joy and our anguish in to peace and we will know that it was for our benefit that we suffered for a while.

"You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back." ~ Isaiah 38:16-17

Consider yourself fortunate if God All-Powerful chooses to correct you. He may cause injury and pain, but he will bandage and heal     your cuts and bruises.  God will protect you from harm, no matter how often  trouble may strike. ~ Job 5:17

Let’s return to the Lord. He has torn us to shreds, but he will bandage our wounds and make us well.

In two or three days he will heal us and restore our strength that we may live with him.

Let’s do our best to know the Lord.His coming is as certain as the morning sun; he will refresh us like rain renewing the earth in the springtime. ~Hosea 6:1

2 Peter 2:1

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have kno

n the way of rightosness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 

As there were false prophets and teachers in the old days, there are false prophets and teachers in the present day church. These false prophets and teachers are once saved by the grace of God but now they have abandoned the truth and destroyed by their own selfish desires. The fact that they defile and disregard the salvation they received through Christ means they are heading to great destruction. Not only did they brought eternal condemnation to them, but they also relay that to the body of Christ.

Many will follow their evil desires and sensual sins. Because of these false teachers and prophets, the name of the Lord will be ridiculed among the unbelieving nations. Their main agenda is exploiting the resources of the people of God. Many have spent enormous amount of money, time and energy on the so called “prophets”. Their destiny is already decided by the Lord and their destruction will be very soon. 

If God didn’t have any pity for sinful angels whom he has placed them in hell so that they can be kept until final judgment, If God doesn’t have any mercy for those people who rebelled against him in the time of Noah saving only Noah and his family and destroyed any other creature on earth,

If he turns the city of Sodom in to ashes, If he saved only two people from over half a million people of Israel, and the rest had died in the wilderness before they see the land of hope and prosperity, then God surely will condemn and judge those people who have no respect for the Lord and are only led by their filthy desires. God knows how to save His very own and very best from the destruction that is about to come on the false prophets and the world in general. 

These false teachers have no due respect for higher authorities in the Spirit which are God’s Angels. When you look at them, they look like very confident in what they are doing which is insult and blasphemy against God and the servants of the Lord.

Their pride has gone way over the limit.  Even if God’s Angels are higher in authority than these people, they did not dare to despise them. They insult and disregard to the things of God will cost them their eternal life. Their ignorance on this matter is what makes them to speak of things that are unwholesome. 

Their characteristics are like animals who are destined for destruction. With out confession, their destruction is sure to come. Their life is filled with sinful dance and arrogance. They encourage others to do sin which is they always fix their eyes on.

They always snare up on those who are week in the Spirit and are double minded. Since these people are not satisfied with the truth of the gospel, they dread to hear what only their evil hearts want to hear. And the false prophets are the right choice for them to satisfy this desire. 

"You must correct people and point out their sins. But also cheer them up, and when you instruct them, always be patient. 3 The time is coming when people won’t listen to good teaching. Instead, they will look for teachers who will please them by telling them only what they are itching to hear. They will turn from the truth and eagerly listen to senseless stories. 5 But you must stay calm and be willing to suffer. You must work hard to tell the good news and to do your job well." -2 Timothy 4:2

The false prophets and their followers have this unsatisfied desire which they crave to seek and find outside the Word of God. If the Son of God doesn’t satisfy them, no other thing in the world will do. Due to their natur


they are like the cused seed that never grow up to bear spiritual fruits.  They once were following the truth with good consciousness and positive mind, but now they have neglected their true callings and got astray in the direction of covetousness and adulatory. 

It takes a donkey to speak and advice the false prophet, Balaam, whose way was evil and corrupt. If he listened and turned from his madness, why don’t the false prophets of this generation come back from their evil schemes and confess all their sins to the Lord. 

Otherwise, the judgment of God is very near and eternal darkness and punishment are awaiting them. Their ways are like wells with out water, clouds with out rain, and their words are useless for anyone who cares to listen. With those superficial and empty words which look like the truth from outside, they led many to the pit that ought to be saved from the devil.

One of the promises they make is they say their words will deliver many from their affliction. With a positive mind, that may see the right thing to communicate to the people but yet with out the truth in it, it is useless. They should have waited for positive affirmation of the Spirit of God before they prophesized the words of so called “Comforting words” to God’s people.

The old testament also indicates that false prophets doing such things have died after speaking their message since they used God’s name to speak a lie to His people. 

Jeremiah 28:10

Hananiah grabbed the wooden yoke from my neck and smashed it. 11 Then he said, “The Lord says this is the way he will smash the power Nebuchadnezzar has over the nations, and it will happen in less than two years.”  I left the temple, and a little while later, the Lord told me to go back and say to Hananiah: I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You smashed a wooden yoke, but I will replace it with one made of iron. I will put iron yokes on all the nations, and they will have to do what King Nebuchadnezzar commands. I will even let him rule the wild animals. 

Hananiah, I have never sent you to speak for me. And yet you have talked my people into believing your lies and rebelling against me. So now I will send you—I’ll send you right off the face of the earth! You will die before this year is over. Two months later, Hananiah died.  If using the name of God in vain and lying could cost one’s life in the old testament, home much more it will be sinful to deceive and grieve the Spirit of God, in which we are sealed for our redemption. 

Ephesians 4:30

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. They them selves are living the life of a slave in the Spirit since they too are under the condemnation of sin. Then how can they preach freedom if they are under slavery of sin. If anyone is under any consistent sin, he or she is slave to the thing that has power over him/her. 

If any one falls under the sin of adulatory, and says he can deliver people from any sin, then that person is fooling himself. These people know the truth which is Christ. But then they are entangled by the evil desires of the world and cannot get out of it since they love the world more than they love the Lord, whom He loves them till death. B

ecause of this, their former life (the life before they know the truth) is much better than their current life. It is much better for anyone to not know Christ in the first place than to deny Him after knowing that He is the savior of their soul. As the saying goes “Dogs go back to their own vomit”, these people go back to their filthiness over and over again.

Luke 23:32 Two criminals were led out to be put to death with Jesus. When the soldiers came to the place called “The Skull,” they nailed Jesus to a cross. They also nailed the two criminals to crosses, one on each side of Jesus. Jesus said, “Father, forgive these people! They don’t know what they’re doing.”

While the crowd stood there watching Jesus, the soldiers gambled for his clothes. The leaders insulted him by saying, “He saved others. Now he should save himself, if he really is God’s chosen Messiah!” The soldiers made fun of Jesus and brought him some wine. They said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” Above him was a sign that said, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals hanging there also insulted Jesus by saying, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!”

But the other criminal told the first one off, “Don’t you fear God? Aren’t you getting the same punishment as this man? We got what was coming to us, but he didn’t do anything wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into power!” Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.”

The story of two criminals that were nailed on both sides of Jesus is a great lesson for all of us. These two individuals had similar stories. They both came from the same life style with common background. They also had the same information about who Jesus was according to the Roman soldiers and the witnesses of the people near the cross.

Both had seen the soldiers insulting Jesus and demanding him to save himself if he is God’s chosen Messiah. They were also near the end of their life and death was around the corner. Even if they both share similar stories, they had completely different perspective about Jesus.

The first one took the broad way and joined the ideologies of the soldiers and he too had ridiculed Jesus. He didn’t take the leap of faith and think for one second that Jesus was indeed what he said he was. Given the same information, one criminal had a negative impression about Jesus but the other one had completely different opinion.

The second criminal during the brink of his life on earth, didn’t dare to say any bad word to Jesus. In fact, he condemned the act of the other criminal for his insult. What a great transformation he had made that has saved him from eternal distraction! The mercy of God has no expiration date. He can save any one at any given point of time in one’s life. No one knows when since his timing is not like ours. Here we see again Jesus’s saving power even at the brink of his physical life on earth.

The criminal defended Jesus against the most wicked men. How many of us when we are in great trouble honor and love God as we used to when we are in comfort. When Job was in a great pain and misery, his wife recommended him to insult the Lord for the bad things that had happened in his life and die.

But Job answered her that she is wrong and God can take whatever he has given before.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. -Job 13:15

Job not only surrendered his family and belongings to God but even his own life. What a great man of faith. We all know Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to God according to God’s request to do so. Moreover, we see that Job was willing to die for the will of God.

The quality of any person is determined by the decision he/she
akes whether to honor

r insult God when approaching difficult life issues including death.

The criminal man not only defended Jesus but also had faith in Him. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”.

What a great revelation this man had? He knew that Jesus is indeed the son of God and He will soon go to His kingdom. His revelation is like that of Peter when he confessed that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. The story didn’t end there, Jesus heard his prayer and promised him that he will enter the kingdom of God with Him.

But no promise was given to the other criminal who had insulted Jesus. Why did Jesus promise him to enter the kingdom? It is because of his faith in Jesus to enter the kingdom of God where Jesus reigns.

The man believed him at the time and for the same reason Jesus was about to be crucified. Even if the authorities, the high priests, so many people and the criminal took the kingdom of God like a joke, this man strengthened his heart to believe in it and boldly fought and begged for him to be in the kingdom.

This is in fact, a great revelation and a wonderful opportunity for this man to get saved. He was not ashamed of asking it in front of the Romans who could possibly make his death worse. He wisely used the last moment of his life to be with Jesus. Jesus knew this man’s heart and he was craving to be saved. Thank God for his awesome love. He never gives up on any one of us who was once lost and was willing to come back to Jesus with pure heart.

What a compassionate creator we all have? He is indeed full of mercy and forgiveness. There is no one like him on earth or above the earth who goes a great extent to correct and save his children.

Probably this is the shortest prayer ever. The prayer of “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” should be the prayer of every one of us. Without Jesus remembering us in his kingdom, we have no place and right to be in it.

This prayer has also resemblance to the story of Rahab on Joshua 2: 9

I know that the Lord has given Israel this land. Everyone shakes with fear because of you. 10 We heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea[d]so you could leave Egypt. And we heard how you destroyed Sihon and Og, those two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River. We know that the Lord your God rules heaven and earth, and we’ve lost our courage and our will to fight.

Please promise me in the Lord’s name that you will be as kind to my family as I have been to you. Do something to show that you won’t let your people kill my father and mother and my brothers and sisters and their families.

Rahab in the old testament had similar type of faith that the criminal had in the new testament.“By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31).

She had faith in God and how he led his people out of Egypt. By faith she hid the spies not fearing her government that could execute her for hiding and aiding the enemy.

Faith is acting in the physical world by believing God and his promises in the Spiritual. I am amazed by the similarities of the stories here between the old and the new testament. By faith, she asked and begged for the same type of request as the criminal in the new testament, “Please remember me when...” 

Even if she was a prostitute and unbeliever, by faith she was included to be part of God’s people and nothing prevented her from entering the kingdom of God. The act of faith always moves God from his throne, and makes him interfere on our behalf. God loves to see his children stand strongly believing in him and his promises. It is not pleasant to see any one wavering on faith. The most important aspect of our Christianity is our faith and we must stand still believing in him no matter worse
he circumstances are.

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All the gospels of Jesus Christ, our faith fathers and the apostles made a great emphasis on having faith and believing God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us fix our eyes on Jesus who can give us eternal life to whoever trust and believe competely on Him and no one else.

Worship and fasting have similar characteristics. They both can be superficial and don't make any difference in the spiritual. One can do both with a lot of dedication and lot of zeal but it may not impress our Lord Jesus Christ. Why you asked? It is because worship and fasting should be done giving importance about their true meaning as the Bible teaches us on Isaiah 58.
 

Shout the message! Don’t hold back. Say to my people Israel: You’ve sinned! You’ve turned against the LORD. Day after day, you worship him and seem eager to learn his teachings. You act like a nation that wants to do right by obeying his laws. You ask him about justice, and say you enjoy worshiping the LORD.

You wonder why the LORD pays no attention when you go without eating and act humble. But on those same days that you give up eating, you think only of yourselves and abuse your workers. 4 You even get angry and ready to fight. No wonder God won’t listen to your prayers! Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship?

I’ll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don’t turn away your relatives. Then your light will shine like the dawning sun, and you will quickly be healed.

Your honesty will protect you as you advance, and the glory of the LORD will defend you from behind. When you beg the LORD for help, he will answer, “Here I am!” Don’t mistreat others or falsely accuse them or say something cruel. Give your food to the hungry and care for the homeless. Then your light will shine in the dark; your darkest hour will be like the noonday sun.

The LORD will always guide you and provide good things to eat when you are in the desert. He will make you healthy. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water or like a stream that never runs dry. 1You will rebuild those houses left in ruins for years; you will be known as a builder and repairer of city walls and streets. But first, you must start respecting the Sabbath as a joyful day of worship.

You must stop doing and saying whatever you please on this special day. Then you will truly enjoy knowing the LORD. He will let you rule from the highest mountains and bless you with the land of your ancestor Jacob. The LORD has spoken!

One can fast and pray with resentment, fear and anxiety. It is a complete waste of time to hate our brother but still declare days prayer and fasting in the church. God sees the heart and the fasting that he declares is not starvation of the body alone.

It is fasting with compassion and love for others. It is to care for the lost ones who have no one to help them. It is to take the orphans as our children. To embrace them with love and care and give them the necessary nourishment. It is to forgive our enemy and love them as if they are our allies and not to kill innocent lives It is to be generous to others sharing what we have as Jesus described it.

He said if any one of us has two pants, it is very necessary that we give one to the needy. It is to take care of our family including our parents and not to abandon them when they are old. All the above are included in one principle of God. That is to love everyone as we love our selves. Therefore, love should be the motive for fasting.

God is love and the Spirit. Any one who wishes to worship the Lord has to do it giving most importance on the spiritual aspect of life and not just the physical world.

God is not impressed by our physical performance since even those who said there is no God can perform well. Only three things move God Love, hope and faith. 
 

You show me a person who loves his neighbor and God and I will show you a person who has obeyed all the laws. We hope to see the future trusting God and his promises. A person without hope is helpless.

No one dares to face the future unless there is something we love to see and that we hoped for. Finally, faith is the key feature that triggers the hand and protection of God up on his children. God dares to rescue those who dare to believe him even if the world is abandoning him. 

Our God is a loving God who loves everyone that does good and opposes those who do evil in the name of worshiping the Lord. God encourages us to participate in all acts of kindness before we even think about gathering to worship him or giving offering to him. He expects us to forgive those who do harm to us as he forgives all our sins.

Isaiah 1:11:

“Your sacrifices mean nothing to me. I am sick of your offerings  of rams and choice cattle; I don’t like the blood of bulls or lambs or goats. “Who asked you to bring all this when you come to worship me? Stay out of my temple!

Your sacrifices are worthless, and incense is disgusting. I can’t stand the evil you do on your New Moon Festivals or on your Sabbaths and other times of worship. I hate your New Moon Festivals and all others as well. They are a heavy burden  I am tired of carrying.

“No matter how much you pray, I won’t listen. You are too violent. Wash yourselves clean! I am disgusted with your filthy deeds. Stop doing wrong   and learn to live right. See that justice is done. Defend widows and orphans     and help those in need…

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Ephesians 4

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.8 This is why it[a] says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?

He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

God called us to be one in everything. He called us to love and accept each other’s differences. He called us to humble ourselves and not consider us better than any of the members of the body of Christ.

Our faith has one distinct identity from any other faith that is practiced in the world. That is we are all one part of the body of Christ and we all have equal significance for the body. And there is only one governor/head and that is Christ himself.

We are not called to be the boss of our sisters or brothers. God values us equally and we should have the same perspective. We think we have power and that power basically makes us above others. Whether we are minsters of the gospel of God or well educated with the things of the world, it is only useful when we use the same knowledge to educate and change people’s lives.

It is not good when we use it to express our superiority over others. We are not super or smarter than others. Whatever we have is given to us as a gift from God to serve him and others. There is no other effective way of destroying our unity in Christ than pride, unforgiveness, hate, gossip, bitterness, anger, malice.

These are all against the love and respect we should have for one another. If we are humble, kind, polite and gentle for one another, we would develop love for one another as these are the characteristics of Love. Peace is the byproduct of living a righteous and godly life that is according to the will and word of God driven by the Holy Ghost.

The peace we have inside and the peace we have in the outside world. As Christians we may manage to keep it peaceful within ourselves but sometimes it is very difficult to be in peace with everybody since there are always conflicts of interest.

It is one thing to resolve our conflicts by avoiding the things that hurt us and find a common ground to stand together, but it completely another thing to fight for every instance of conflict and make matters worse. It is very important as Christian to negotiate a deal that will benefit us and glorifies God in Christ. We shouldn’t focus on selfish desires. Rather, we should be able to honor one another and give praise to God who is the author of our salvation. 

The bondage of love we all should have in Christ actually holds the body of Christ together. The utterance of love and forgiveness with patience and hope in the spirit of God should be the only thing that should come out our mouth.

We should be able to stand against the force of darkness that comes between us and our brother/sister by covering him/her wrong doings.

It is so unfortunate to have the so called pastors and prophets now a days who are money driven and don’t worry about the flock. Their job was supposed to be workers to train people in to being grown in the body of Christ and bring them to the fullness of the faith in Christ- Not to rob them and take every bit of advantage they can get from the people of God.

The people of God is precious and deserves a lot more respect than these people give now a days. The people of God need to know their value and worthiness in the eyes of God and stop being a victim of this outrageous deceit and blasphemy. Jesus Christ has paid the ultimate sacrifice for his people. That shows how valuable the people of God is.

They deserve to be treated better. They deserve a lot more respect. Cheating and lying is from the devil and should never be used to win the hearts of the people. The drama they are making in front of these people are to be caught and make known to them that they are in fact cheating. There is nothing that will be hidden as God himself will make everything known in its due time for his glory as they are not just fooling his people but dishonor the Spirit of God by using his name wrongly to fill their stomach.

May God bring justice quickly for the sake of his people and raise faithful servants that will rebuild the broken hearted and body of Christ to bring unity and love among his people. Amen!!!

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Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.

God speaks here that all humans are wicked except Christ Jesus who is perfect human and God. If you start to dig in to the nature of any man you will be surprised with what you will find. You don’t have to go far. Just stop for a second and start to think about your own heart. Most of the time no one wants to look deep in to the nature of his own heart since we already know we are wicked by nature.

One of the reasons that we are wicked by nature is because of the curse we inherit from the first man, Adam. Adam was cursed by God and that curse goes down to generations of men and women till today. Most of the curses we may experience came from the past generations that go all the way to Adam. Some curses are generational. These curses play a vital role in understanding why we act the way we act without Christ.

There are also curses that are present in our lives as a consequence of our sins against the laws of God. The laws of God are from the Word of God. The Bible is the word of God. If we don’t do what the Bible tells us to do, we are under a curse. This is not to say we are destined to be wicked by God. In fact I am saying God paved a way to get out of the nature of our heart. We are our own prisoners tied by wickedness, fear, hate, blasphemy, anger… The gospel is the good news towards all men and women to break the bondage of sin and curses that came from one Man, Adam.

Sin entered in to the world thorough one Man. Before that Adam or Eve didn’t know or commit any sin. But once they committed their first sin, they opened the channel of communication to devil. They started having fellowship with the Devil himself. Before that they had only fellowship with God and God used to visit them in the Heaven and they talked to God as we talk to each other, person to person.

Now Christ entered to the World to break that fellowship with the Devil and restore our relationship with God. There is hope in Christ. When a person is born again of the Spirit of God, the old nature that we inherit from Adam is dead. We are no longer bind to our old way of thinking. We have a new heart that is the vessel of the Holy Spirit. As Paul described it in Romans 5:12, through one man fault, sin entered in to the world, and through one Man, Jesus Christ, sin will be eradicated from the world. At least that is the purpose of Christ coming to Christ. Whether we will believe in him or not is up to us and without believing in him there will not be cancelation of debt.

Romans 5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

15 But not as the offence, so also is the free
gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: f

r the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

In summary, after we accepted our Lord and savior, Jesus Chris, and be born again from the Spirit of God, we are no longer attached to the old man which had the same characteristics of the first man and was associated with the curses.

As born again Christians, we have freedom from guilt, the ransom of our soul was fully paid, no more fellowship with the devil and a brand new channel of communication with father God was established, praised God, which means instant healing, deliverance and guidance by the Holy Ghost.

Many have believed the sins are forgiven but failed to communicate to the father through the Holy Ghost. Many haven’t experienced the fire of the Holy Ghost that is the power to live and preach the gospel. Many are still living under the darkness of the devils authority since they don’t know their yolks are broken and they are free indeed. Brothers and sisters, if the son of God has made you free, you are free indeed. No evil or principalities have power over you to oppress and rule over your life.

God almighty, we pray that you give us the power of the Holy Ghost with fullness to do the works you gave us more efficiently. Please let us know you better than we do now. We make our selves available to be used and utilized as much as possible. Glorify your name by doing the work you have planned and started in Jesus Name.

Amen!

If the mercy and forgiveness we feel every day by the power of the Holy Ghost are not strong enough in our lives to do the same for other people, our faith is in danger. We have to stop for a minute and think why we are acting the way we act. The Spirit of God is active in our lives if we follow God’s will. But if we don’t follow him, we will not feel his presence when we need him most. We may think he is still with us but the fact is he is gone long time back.What a great tragedy would it be for any born again Christian to let this happen due to silly mistakes? It is very important to know that Holy Spirit like any human being has feelings. He can feel very bad when we are mean and unloving to others.

His presence is guaranteed where there is the love of God that dwells in you to do miracles in other people lives. He will give you the power to preach the good news to the world, to help others in times of trouble, to encourage the oppressed and to give hope to the depressed. If we don’t love people, there is no love of God in us and vice versa.When we love to do good things in people lives, it will instantiate the spirit of God to do more. Anger, malice, hate, bitterness, deceit, conspiring on others, blasphemy, gossip are all the fruits of the devil. If we practice these a lot, then we are partaking from the nature of the devil and we are walking far away from the Spirit of God.

Compassion should be contagious. It is a great deal of sin if we accept forgiveness and practice hate to others. Nothing makes God happy than to see us practice what he does in our lives.

It always amazes me how the smallest things we do to honor and please God have a great impact not only in our lives but to many more generations to come. When God sees a little bit of faithfulness in our lives, He makes sure he rewards that with so many blessings in our lives and the lives of others. God is so faithful. He keeps His promises that He made to us.

He won’t leave us alone when we need Him the most. What we need to know about this everlasting relationship we have in Christ is that God is so faithful. No matter how ugly our sins are He is so faithful and forgiving when we come before him with a humble and humiliated heart with absolute repentance spirit.

That is what David did when he sinned against the Lord. Therefore, that is what we should do. David considered nothing worth of giving his heart away except he gave it away to God, His mighty shield and protector. He fought all his wars and wins using God as his shield from the arrows of the enemy that pierce anything in the flesh.

His rock and his salvation was God. He didn’t lay his trust in the number of soldiers he had to serve him. Well, of course, no wonder God was so angry when David wanted to do that and punished him severely for that. What a great lesson for David and for us who know the story? You cannot impress God with your skills or the size and skills of your army.

In fact, you make him angry by trusting on the flesh. And by flesh I mean anything of the flesh. Your education, profession, power, wealth, health, skills, experience, wisdom or any other measure of performance in the flesh is nothing for God. God is not impressed with these at all. In fact, He gave these to anyone He is pleased with, like he took it from Saul and gave it to David.

Because God’s mercy and forgiveness that he showed to King Solomon for the sake of King David, what God had planned to save the whole world through Christ Jesus was fulfilled by having Jesus to be born from the ancestry of King David. If God had not forgiven Solomon even if Solomon abandoned God to worship his idols, then there would haven’t been Jesus, the Covenant he had promised to give to be slain for the sake of the sins of the world.

God is Faithful:An Epic contradictory story between King David and King Solomon

1 King 11: 1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.

3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.

11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

33. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.

34 “ ‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes.

36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.

This is God speaking. He said, King Solomon and his people abounded the laws of God, they worshiped idols, goodness and kindness were far from them and they separated themselves from the ways of King David.

But how did King Solomon cast himself away from the very good and righteous deeds that his father taught him to do before he died?

As he was a man of so many curiosities and wondered to know so many things asto why and how things reveal themselves in to existence, he found in a very deadly situation where he couldn't pull back once he was completely overtaken.

But it was not without a warning that he perished. God had so many times told him to take it easy with the so many wives he had. As a king, he took all the opportunities and privileges of being born into and becoming king of a great nation.

He had no background as his father. His father fought every day of his life to become a king seeing God protection and mercy on the wa

through t
the throne.

David deceived himself to have sex with the wife of his servant but couldn’t make his heart stubborn when the warning and punishment came for what he had committed- a terrible and terrible sin against his servant and most of all against God whom he gave him a great responsibility to protect and serve.

On the contrary, when God convicted Solomon of his sin in his word by clearing stating that he should not marry with those woman, he did not stop and confess his sins. Rather, he continued and fell in to the same trap God warned him, the sin of worshiping idols.

He fell in love with a deadly women that killed the very important thing he and his entire generation had kept for so many years, the covenant they had with God. He risked everything that was built before him and the covenant of God with future generations after him. But the story did not end there. HALELUJIA.. If it did, it would have been the saddest story of all.

But God said this,

11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

He didn’t say, “Hay Solomon, you are doomed. The promises I made with your ancestors ends here because one part of the covenant which is you cannot live up to the expectation of me.”

God had the right to stop being faithful to the genealogy of Abraham due to the failures of King David and King Solomon, but he did not stop there. He kept his faithfulness anyhow. There were some consequences of his actions. The kingdom was torn apart in to 12 pieces. In the coming years, his son will not rule over the whole nation, but only over one tribe.

And that is how God kept his promises he made to King David. David was found faithful in the eyes of God because he always humbles himself before God no matter how far he thought he went far away from the grace of God and always pleading God for mercy.

He always clings to the mercy and grace of God as a baby attaches himself to a mother. And God loved him for that since David trembled and humiliated himself under the word of God. He also gave glory to God for his victories over the enemy. It might be unnatural for King Solomon to do that, but David knew how he became what he was. 

Life is by itself a ministry and greatest testimony to us in the first place and to those who get the chance to hear our story. David learned from his life experience and glorified God’s name till the end. Two kings with different backgrounds reached different conclusions. David knew where he came from. That could be his greatest character we all need to learn from.

What about you and me? Do we always remember what God has done in our lives? Do we testify that to our souls every day and document that for the next generation?

Or do we fell in to trap of the deceitful of the world with drugs, money, sex, drunkenness or even just idleness. Idleness is the greatest threat to mankind as it leads to all manners of sexual immorality, gossip, drugs, and drunkenness.

We owe God everything. Our youth, our love, energy, time, money, our senses, our strength, our wisdom and many more shou
d be used to serve him at the right time in the right place. 

Don’t give your youth/last days to sexual sins as king Solomon did. He chose the wrong choice and made God sad. Solomon put his heart where there is no glory of God. His heart stranded away from his master. “Love” is tough. The love of money is tough. The love of sex is tough. The love of self is tough. That is why many have lost in the wilderness of loving the wrong item.

But the Bible says, “Love your God with all your heart, so

l and w
ll.”  That is why we should protect ourselves from loving the wrong thing. If we diligently seek God and his ways, we will not fall astray
 If we love him no matter how delicious the apple looks like, we will save our lives.

If we keep our eyes focused on our lord and savior, the beginning and end of our faith, we will not have any problem losing our faith over cheap and cosmetic items.

This world has nothing good for us. Our soul will never be satisfied with false pleasure and unfulfilling cosmetic materials. That is why many die craving for more satisfaction completely taken over by drugs and alcohols. With lust and evil desires, their soul cries day and night to find peace and pure joy which is to meet and dine together with her creator.

May the faithfulness and mercy of God help us every day to have intimate relationship with our father in heaven by the power of the Spirit of God. God has called us in to this beautiful fulfilling, joyful, loving and everlasting relationships we have in Christ Jesus. Let’s keep doing that and we shall make it to the end by his faithfulness!!!

I really like this song and I would like to share it with you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YJ4vddbJJo

Ezekiel 11: 17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’

“They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

The first important thing in order to live to live a sinless life is a changed new heart that the Lord himself gives to us. The new heart is characterized by one word, "Humble", like the heart of Jesus, that always humbles himself under the Word of God.

The old man's heart is characterized by stubbornness and pride which leads to a bigger sin. The spirit person is born with a new heart from the Spirit of God like a baby is born in the flesh from the flesh of his mother’s womb.

The heart is the container of the second important thing to walk in the path of righteousness. The second important thing the Lord does to help us achieve victory over sin is a new Spirit. The spirit of compassion and kindness.

This spirit the Lord gives is the Spirit of God over mankind. Without a humble and pure heart, it is impossible to invite, receive and reside the Spirit of God as His characteristic is humble and pure.

The nature of the Spirit of God determines the kind of heart he lives in. If we are always angry and full of bitterness, there is no way we can invite him in to our heart. If our little heart doesn't know how to forgive and forget and always held grudge against the wrong doings of others in our lives, it is very difficult to invite Jesus in to our heart.

That is why it is so difficult for many to invite and receive Jesus in to their lives. Whereas, for the low spirited and humble person, accepting Jesus is a matter of raising hands kneeling down before God and confess all sins and receive this mighty savior and kindly invite the spirit of Jesus to dwell in him forever. Salvation starts with humility and always nourished and protected by love.

There is no other more powerful thing that destroys it like pride. Therefore as the first thing we get to receive salvation is the new heart, it is very important to know that for a Christian the most important thing to protect his salvation is to protect, nourish and guard the heart.

If we guard it faithfully, from this heart flows everlasting peace, love and joy that is the characteristic of the Spirit of God.If we don't, then anger, bitterness, hate and other wicked things will start to grow and sophisticate and kill the new heart.

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flow from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

Luke 21: 34 

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” 

How magnificent and awesome God you are? I cannot stop writing the words of gratitude and all the feelings of my heart to you since you are closer to me than a mother to her child.

Your faithfulness stays with me and keeps me in the house of the Lord forever. Therefore, I sing of your love and forgiveness all the days of my life. Words are helpless when it comes to praising you, O Lord!

They are not able to express the deepest feelings we have for you. We simply say Glory be to your name day and night since we don’t have anything else we can pay back for your kindness and generosity.

My soul leaps with joy when I hear your name praised in the midst of your congregation. I come to you every day with the spirit of thankfulness to magnify your holy name. I say to you, “Holy, Holy, O Lord Almighty!”

Worthy is the Lamb of God to be praised and to get all the glory He deserves, since He was slayed for the sin of the world. He was crucified for our transgressions.

Even though we were disobedient children of God and we were pushing back His love, but now we come to you Lord with all we have got since we truly understand that you are the Lord of our lives.

You are full of compassion for your children which you have redeemed through the blood of Jesus. Holy Spirit we worship you for standing with us during trouble and pain.

Thank you for becoming our confidence to see the face of the Almighty. Nothing comes close to him except by the virtue of Love you have cried over for each one of us to intercede and create peace with our father.

You have neither abandoned us nor condemned us for our sins. You rather keep trusting us to come back and convict us of our sins so that we can get rid of our crooked ways and make our ways straight with the Lord.

There is no limit for your compassion as we know it and you proved it repeatedly by pouring your grace and love in to our lives to sustain us from falling and from casting away from your presence.

Your grace and love have been the number one reason that we are not part of the condemned. You chose to love and it is by choice you saved us and not by chance. It is exceedingly far from our understanding how you choose to save us even if it is easy to understand a father love always protects and provides.

But we have no clue why you were even worried to save us since we were so stubborn and unloving in the beginning. We have no clue how much it cost to redeem us since we were not in your place when you died the death of a sinner.

That is why we play with your grace while we enjoy the benefits of our salvation. This shows how immature we are in terms of the growth we ought to reach in our faith. We know for sure that death is the biggest sacrifice one can pay for the benefits and safety of others.

Soldiers die for the freedom of their country trusting the freedom will come one day for many to enjoy. Moms die before they even see their babies during delivery believing that their babies will come safe and grow with one peace. These are greatest sacrifices built on faith on others.

Jesus Christ died believing that one day we all become children of God and live a peaceful life away from the curses that are about to come in the world. He saved us from condemnation of sin.

Therefore, we are free from what sin about to bring to humans that was manifested and seen on others who betrayed Jesus. It is also much better not to fall under the judgment of God after receiving the Lord as your savior and Lord since it is much worse than not knowing him in the first place.

Abusing the grace of God is a much worse sin than not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. For if you don’t know the Lord now, you still have time to know him in the future. But after knowing everything that you should know about him and abusing it is something one must regret badly after he/she committed the sin against the Lord. 


 

We need to be careful what we allow to come in to our heart to be totally blessed and touched with the love of our God. Otherwise it may be poison to our soul.

We can’t trust everything that looks like love and joy. This world can easily deceive us with glittering copper which we think as gold. Only God’s love is trustworthy. Don't open the door for other things. I know ministry can thoug sometimes and we might suffer a little bit.

But the Lord will heal our soul very quickly. If this world hates us and condemns us, our grief is endurable because as Christians we know our God will come soon. We will cry out to him and soon our soul gets healed. After all he is the creator, our God, right?

He will make us joyful again. He would not leave our body to the grave and abandon our soul to the wicked. He will come to our rescue and he doesn’t want grief and pain to cast up on our heart. But if God put us away, who will help us?

Nobody will bother even to look around and ask what is going on. Holy Spirit wants to teach us a great lesson from Jeremiah 45 It is about the servant of God crying to be heard of his earthly prayers.

God replied to him by saying, Can’t you see that I destroy soon what I have built? If it was good for you, I would have given you long time ago. Please pray to me if you have to pray that I rescued you soul from all of this nightmare so that it follows the most important thing than just life. God is talking about Holy Spirit controlling our life. Our life to be lived only for God. It is the greater prayer of all I know.

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You said, Woe to me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest. But the LORD has told me to say to you, This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth. Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life. -Jeremiah 45

This is the time where everybody put you on test. You should fear nothing while on the mission to win souls for the Lord. The only thing you have to fear is God, as he is the only one with ultimate power. Fear the one who has both the power on your flesh and soul.
 

What is the key to winning souls? Putting yourself dead as a wheat seed. Only God will lift you up from there. You cannot win this war with your wisdom. The ruler of this world is your greatest enemy. He has the advantage in every way.

Jesus advised,

“As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the Judge turns you over to the officer, and the officer throws you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

So avoid any conflicts. You have no options but to accept their slaps on the face. Don’t judge them like the world judges. A fool man will spent all his energy and time talking about disappointments. There is nothing worse than that. That is absolute failure and departure from the will of God. That you can’t afford.

How would you live with them? Jesus said, “How long must I live up with you?” It is because the wickedness of their heart. My prayer to the Lord is to make my heart as strong as a steel. That it won’t be broken by the enemy.

May be this is how the children of this world are wise. They will never trust you. Even if you are a brother. They know always what is going on. They know what they want. And they don’t take no for an answer to get it. They have well prepared for it. I mean all what ifs… and in case offs.

Now let’s see what most Christian are. We trust everyone in the name of love. We have no idea of what is going on. We don’t know what we really want. And for something we need, we will not put everything we have to get it. Think about it. Now how would we fight the good fight of faith? If we are incompetent, we don’t fulfill the criteria for success.

Man’s greatest enemies and strongest tools of the wicked are REVENGE, FEAR, TRUST and PLEASURE. How does the devil implement them in our lives? Through Ignorance. He will tell you how to REVENGE your enemy and you will not forgive. He will magnify your problems that you will FEAR them. He will make God too far and not caring, not interested in you so that you don’t TRUST him.

While the devil uses these things to devour us, our only hope Holy Spirit always whispers the antidotes of these greatest threats and he will tell you how to be aware of them. It is time to wake up! Your enemies have increased in number. There was time for a sleep. In fact for long time, you were slumbering. Now is the time to REVENGE your enemy.

Now is the time to fight the good fight of faith. He will maximize your pain and when he does, wake up because he wants you to REVENGE. He will tell you that you are beaten severely and left alone. In fact the thing might be true. But he will amplify it so that you feel bad. Most of us go for our REVENGE. That way we feel like our pain is released from us.

But whether you REVENGE your enemies or not, you will feel the same. All we have to do is to cry to the father. That he will REVENGE our REVENGE. As for me, I want a big and true REVENGE on my true enemy. Since I want a big one, I don’t want to mess it up trying to do it myself.

I already gave it the manufacturer and I am patiently waiting for the date of manufacturing of my REVENGE, manufactured by God Almighty, since I have this revelation of the wisdom of God.

Holy Spirit always embolden us to have faith in God. It is the opposite of fear that the devil tries to introduce in our lives. Without faith we cannot see and please God. That is why the enemy’s main target to destroy your faith is by allowing certain things to shake our faith in Christ.
 

Whatever the circumstances look like, don’t abandon you faith. That is the most precious gift you have that you must be vigilant enough to protect all the time. Jesus continuously preached the importance and the value of faith in our day to day life. Unfortunately, as humans, we tend to focus on the current situation instead of the overall picture and the destiny God is going to take us.

When the disciples were confronted with a troubling and life threatening storm, they immediately found themselves under the influence of fear. They cannot even pray or exercise some of the faith words they learn from their master. But Jesus demonstrated how they should handle their fear and become fearless children of God.

Devil also fights us with the issue of trusting God when he seems far away. The truth is God is never far away. He is always with us till he comes back. We have to declare from the word of God that Holy Spirit will never forsake us. By doing so, we will have hope and faith in him.

When the devil tempt us with the spirit of immorality and false pleasure, we can defeat him by sticking to the fear of the Lord. Remember that our faith fathers defeated physical temptation by fearing and honoring the lord above themselves or any other human.

When their obedience were completed, God was able to reward them with more glorious things than the temporally sinful pleasure they would have experienced if they had failed the test.

Do we ever think that there is nothing that is hidden? All we do in secret will be revealed in day light. All we do in private will be revealed in public. Who do that? God. Why? Because we fear man instead of God. 

When we did our sin, we were worried about men seeing us. But we didn’t think about God almighty. For that he disciplined us since he didn't want to lose us in the wilderness. God is the punisher.

Sometimes we do that not out of disrespect but out of loneliness. Being Helpless and discouraged. Out of all of our afflictions and tribulations.  But how can we did this to him?

We should FEAR him since he deserves all our respect and love. Sometimes we disobey God because we don’t know how not to disobey him. But let’s obey him all the time even it means we have to pay a lot of sacrifices to do that.

God bless you!

... [Click on the blog title or image to read the entire blog.]

• Have at least one hour bible study per week with your spouse
• Always pray with your spouse no matter how
• Husbands submit to your wives as you submit to Christ
• Wives submit to your husband as you submit to Christ
• At the time of conflict always find the common ground and build on that
• Acknowledge Holy Ghost as the leader and rule maker of your house
• Don’t blame your spouse for criticizing you because that could be your weakness. No one is perfect. Accept criticism.
• Humble yourself before your God and spouse
• Take time to enjoy life together.
• Worship and Serve God together
• Take charge of your finances together
• Grow together as a family
• Appreciate your spouse in front of others (specially your side of family, like your mom and dad).
• Trust your spouse even if things don't make sense sometimes. Trust is the key to relationship
• Know what makes your spouse very angry and stay away from it
• Make your family first before anything except your faith in Christ
• Know how to please your spouse. It could be as simple as bringing flower or buy a small gift
• Take responsibility to help your soul mate in everything s/he needs help.
• Spend as much as time with your spouse
• Separate time with your spouse from time with your children
• Make love as often as possible. Make it a habit unless you want present yourself before God in prayer together.
• Fast together so that the devil cannot attack by divide and conquer
• Lead by example not by force
• Accept one another even if things look silly
• Accept criticism and strong feedback
• Be honest. Share what you feel honestly with your spouse. Don’t take grudge.
• Don’t forget to say I love you before you leave your spouse
• Pray for your spouse even if s/he doesn't know that
• Don’t share your marriage secretes to no one
• Holy Spirit is your true counselor. Don’t trust human beings with your marriage.
• Know that your marriage is the most important thing next to your faith in Christ
• Protect your marriage with all you have got when it is in danger
• Don’t involve your parents with your conflicts. Your conflicts will go away soon but they won’t.
• Be always hopeful about the future.
• Create a sense of security; specially husbands
• Be positive. Don’t interpret the words of your spouse in the wrong way. Always ask for more clarification.
• Love gently. Life is short. Huge gently. Talk gently. Show your love and don’t hide it.
• Honor others more than yourself to serve them with humility
• Never hesitate to ask forgiveness
• Become the source of laughter and joy
• Be helpful
• Be inspirational.
• Always thankful
• Always forgiving
• Always cherish
• Don’t be too jealous with your spouse. Jealousy opens the door to marital infidelity. True love is not jealous and doesn't envy.
• Always ask for help if you need help. Sometimes husbands need to be told what to do specifically for their wives.
• Be Thoughtful and Passionate
• Be Merciful and Loving
• Be Caring and Protecting
• Be Peaceful and Joyful
• Be Compassionate and Decent
• Be Graceful and Praiseful
• Be Truthful and Honest
• Be Patient and Thankful
• Be Servant and Helpful
• Be Gentle and Full of empathy
• Be Disciplined and Respectful
• Be Sincere and Full of integrity
• Be Generous and Cheerful
• Be Content with your spouse.
• Be Knowledgeable and Wise
• Always intercede for the sins of your spouse to God
• Be Thankful
• Be Obedient and self-sacrificing
• Never count or recall one’s wrong doings
• Be Hopeful for the future
• Love like crazy
• Forgive like everything a person does harm to you is like a scratch.
• Don't think of your self better than your spouse but vise versa
• Share out of Love; not because you want something in return
• Be Holy. Purity from immorality
• Don’t grumble and complain on your spouse
• Watch what you do with your time. Actions speak more than words.
• Watch out the words that come of your mouth. Words can heal or break your relationship.
• Don't make empty promises. Be a man/woman of your words
• Prophesize good things on your marriage
• Never mention the word divorce in any of your arguments
• Fulfil your family needs
• Come up with a common working plan to discipline and raise your children
• Always resolve conflicts before it is too late. The sooner the better.
• Take a short walk when you are too angry to speak.
• Never argue with your spouse in a difficult situation. Find the right time and place to do it.
• Don’t fight in front of your children. But also let them know that healthy arguments are also part of life.
• Deal with your personal, spiritual and professional issues without hurting your relationship
• Don’t keep secrets that can potentially hurt your relationship.
• Allow time to solve some of your critical marital issues.
• Remember that we are constantly changing every day. Tomorrow is another day.
• Know that you are the protector of your family next to Christ. God has trusted you with a precious gift.
• Be Faithful and Loyal
• Be Gentle and Kind
• Keep your promises and never make empty ones
• Keep the secret of your marriage and your spouse. Very important.
• Be faithful to God and to your marriage
• Fear God. Before doing anything ask your self the question of fearing and obeying him no matter how smart you think you are
• Please God. Always find a way and a reason to please him.
• Tell your spouse that s/he has an important role in your life every time
• Treating your spouse with respect in front of friends and family
• Establish and pursue your marital visions and dreams. This can be both physical and spiritual goal you want to achieve as a family
• May God bless you and protect your marriage from any form attack from the evil and bless it till he comes back! Amen!
  
   

God himself made a promise when this priest was appointed. But he did not make a promise like this when the other priests were appointed. The promise he made is,“I, the Lord, promise that you will be a priest forever!And I will never change my mind!”

This means that Jesus guarantees us a better agreement with God. There have been a lot of other priests, and all of them have died. But Jesus will never die, and so he will be a priest forever! He is forever able to save the people he leads to God, because he always lives to speak to God for them.

Jesus is the high priest we need. He is holy and innocent and faultless, and not at all like us sinners. Jesus is honored above all beings in heaven, and he is better than any other high priest. Jesus doesn’t need to offer sacrifices each day for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He offered a sacrifice once for all, when he gave himself. The Law appoints priests who have weaknesses. But God’s promise, which came later than the Law, appoints his Son. And he is the perfect high priest forever. -Hebrews 7: 21

There were so many candidates for the position of eternal intercession between man and God. But none qualifed for the job because none raised from the dead to continue the job they have started on earth in heaven.
 

Only Jesus qualifies since death cannot hold him in the grave. Therefore, he continues what he was doing on earth in heaven. He used to intercede for our faith when he lived on earth and now he intercedes for the entire world by siting on the right hand of his father. If any one comes to him by faith, believing that Jesus died the death of a sinner, he is able to save them from eternal death through the blood he shed on that cross.

The other qualification for the job of intercession is purity before God. No one is pure since all have sinned against God. Only Jesus is holy and innocent before God. He is the only one on earth and heaven who is able to come between the sinner and the wrath of God, which is like fire predestined to do justice for God is holy.

We praise God for sending his son to die on the cross for the sake of the sinner and design a way to establish eternal friendship with him through Christ Jesus who is our high priest. He always intercedes for us when we got in trouble and prepares a way out.

What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God’s great throne in heaven. He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans. -Hebrew 8: 1

The priesthood of Jesus Christ is eternal. Jesus Christ is the same today, tomorrow and forever. He doesn’t change. The only thing that is needed from us is to believe in him who is faithful to bring peace to our lost soul.

That God was reconciling the worldto himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.- 
2 Corintians 5:19

God reconciliation is from him, by him and to him. Salvation is designed, prepared and executed by God.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. -1 John 5:12

There is no other option to be saved and escape from the eternal death. There is no alternative other than Jesus that God has prepared for humans to be saved. No Jesus, No life. Period.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. -Matthew 16

25

The best thing you can do to save your life from the danger of eternal fire is lay it on the hand of Jesus Christ. Any other option we take to save it is a guarantee for death. Jesus will never let you down. Once you put your trust on him, he is faithful to keep it safe and be able to present it to the father. 

For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10:13

Just calling his name when you are in great trouble will bring safety and salvation for your soul. God listens to us when we truthfully cry out to him by faith.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. - John 3:17

In conclusion, there is no one below or above the earth except Jesus that is given to human beings to carry their sin and burn on the cross. There is no one for us except Jesus to care for us and bring our case before the most fearsome God and be able to win the case.

There is no one except Jesus who can face God for the sins of human beings since the wrath of God on the sinner is great. Jesus Christ is able to intercede for us when we are short of the glory of God due to our rebellious nature.

Others may feel pity for us but nothing more. But he is able to give us grace that will help us triumph over our enemies. He set a practical example for us to learn how we can defeat the devil by obeying God till death. He has already sent us his Spirit to live in us who always intercedes for us even when we don’t know how to pray.

Ephesians 5:21:Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

One of the causes of conflict in marriage is the issue of misunderstanding. By nature, we are all designed to think, function and manage things in a unique fashion. God’s master piece is unique as we are unique. We are all the creations of His hands. One thing that the devil uses to destroy marriage is by creating an illusion of disbelief – which is the opposite of faith.

When there is a gap in communication, there will be lack of understanding of the ideas and unique perceptions of one’s spouse. In other words, when marriage partners stops communicating effectively to each other, there will be a chance for misunderstanding. Misunderstanding also comes from the lack of faith on one another.

As human beings we are entitled to thinking in a different way than our spouse. This way we can fulfil our spouse by suggesting better ways of doing things. Marriage is not about one person (the spouse) performs whatever he/she wants without consulting the other constituents of the marriage(Holy Spirit and the spouse ). Marriage is beautiful and peaceful when Holy Spirit takes his place that is being the Head of the House and when the husband and wives follow His command and His voice in every aspect of their lives.

Husbands should lead by example not by force. By example, I mean with love and sincerity. By submitting himself to his family as he submits himself to Christ. Devil will never get the chance to destroy marriages if we learn how to be humble in the eyes of God and people. If we know how to accept the ideas of others and work out our differences.

Our ignorance in the areas of the word of God can lead us in to all manners of troubles. The best thing you can do to get wisdom is to humble yourself before God. That is what David and his son had done before God anointed them with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. Jesus humbled himself before God and God raised him to the highest place in the Spiritual Realm.

Fixing broken marriages is not easy if we approach it in the wrong direction. The right way to solve our problems is by getting closer to the Word of God to listen what it has to say concerning our marriage. God created marriage and no human being can fix it when it is in jeopardy.

God’s is specialized to conduct any kind of operation to rescue your marriage. The problem is we don’t come to him when we have a mess in our lives. We think that people, who cannot even solve their own problems, can give us relief to our pain.

If we get lucky, the best thing we can get from advices of others is a temporary relief not a permanent solution.

It is like taking a pain killer to numb our pain but we all kno


hat has nothing to do with healing the sickness.

Consulting  the so called “Counselors”, which I completely disagree about this word, is like getting pain killers. They have no solution. They are guessing how to solve your issues. They don’t even have a thorough understanding of your marital issues.

There is no other counselor other than the Spirit of God living in each and every one of us. He knows you more than any human being. He understands you better than your mom understands. He won’t judge or criticize or take an advantage of you. There are no strings attached when Holy Spirit councils you. 

Many don't approach you the same way He does. I doubt it if you can find one in this wicked world. Their counselling is full of judgment, criticism and gossip. They open doors to other issues in our marriage by disseminating the secrets of our marriage to others. God made you and your marriage. Don’t allow humans to destroy your marriage.

Marriage breaks when the husband or wife stops listening to the word of God and stops communicating to the Spirit of God through prayer. There is no other efficient way of destroying marriage others than this that I can think of.

By the way, long before divorce, there is a sign of arrogance, the spirit of idolatry, sexual impurity, lust, and ignorance on the word of God manifested at least on the husband or wife. These things are the fruits of the devil not the Spirit of God. That is why we need to examine ourselves ahead of time when these signs appear. The cost of maintaining our marriage is much higher than we can anticipate. Therefore it is wise to work on prevention of these things before it is too late.

May God bless you and protect your marriage from any form attack from the evil and bless it till he comes back! Amen!

Psalms 34 : 8 :Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

I praise you God, in Jesus' name for everything that is going in my life. In the time of distress and confusion your Words of comfort are my consolidation. It gives me relief from all the agents of negativity in my life.
 

You clean my soul from all the bad things that surrounds it like a fog and every time you do that it installs hope and a future in my life. Your Spirit refreshes my spirit which makes me mighty and strong to triumph over every form of wickedness.

In your promises, I find the reason to believe and strive for another day. It gives me courage to stand firm by faith when the devil comes with his lies to dismantle your eternal propose from my life.

The devil cannot succeed in our lives since I know you have already planned a great destiny for our lives. For this reason, I don’t get confused when life becomes tough sometimes.

Rather, I always keep your Spirit high and full since God has already placed us on his palms watching us every fraction of second. No one has the audacity to take us away from his glorious hand. So, Relax in times of affliction and trouble. They will just pass and long gone very soon, just like the wind!

Love is a gift from God. Sometimes it has to be earned. Sometimes it has to be learned. Sometimes it has to be shared.

Love has a tremendous amount of positive energy. You can take this gift and use it as you want. Love is a temporary delegated power from God to you like money or authority.

But love is invisible and doesn't take any form by itself. We need to decide how to use it. It needs a great deal of responsibility.

If you don’t know how to use it, you might end up loosing it at all and cause a lot of damage to your relationship.

The wisdom of God is to save, protect and rescue from danger. It is given to us to safeguard us from the dangers of the world. It is also the only way of protection from the wicked. God has not given a spirit that will lead us in to sin and the snares of sin. He has given us His Spirit to identify the snares of the devil and indicate a way out of our troubles and pains.

The Wisdom of God is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God gives wisdom for those who know and fear God. The Spirit helps us avoid traps if we live by his Word. It also gives the clear distinction between right and wrong so that we don’t waste our lives by following worthless deceptions of the devil. If we listen to his voice, He can guide us to safety and peace.

In the Old Testament, we see a man who had a great desire for this priceless gift of the Holy Spirit. The wisdom to differentiate the good from the bad was given to King Solomon, the son of King David’s, upon his prayer onto the Lord so that he could serve the people of God with all fairness and humility.

In his leadership, he had solved many disputes that came to him for the sake of Justice and peace. He had obtained great reputations as he was able to create and maintain peace among different tribes and the nation of Israel. He was able to do all of that because the Lord blessed him by giving him the desire of his heart that was to lead with all fairness and kindness.

I don’t know how many of us, as leaders, pray this prayer to God so that we won’t abuse this righteous power and the privileges given to us as a gift from God. All it takes is to be able to pray a simple prayer that we won’t underestimate and misuse the gifts of God.

Solomon was all he was by the grace and gift of God. Nothing was of his own. The wisdom, understanding, and all the influences we have in life are all gifts from God to nourish, cultivate, educate and motivate others to reach their God given potential and live up to all the expectations that comes with God. We are not in this business to boss around, misjudge, and even misunderstand each other.

One of the great stories of King Solomon, perhaps of the Old Testaments, is about the ruling of the two prostitute by King Solomon.

It is written as follows, 1 Kings 3:16:

Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.“During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”

Then theking gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. D

not kill him; she is his mother.” When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.

The story is very intriguing. It shows how the king applied the wisdom of God to show justice for the oppressed and to save the life of an innocent baby. The story is great because no one had this level of applied knowledge at the time and the methods he used were beyond comprehension that everyone wonders about the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We have a similar story about freedom, justice and mercy in John 8:3

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus rescued this woman from those who demanded her head on a plate by utilizing the same technique that was used when the king delivers his verdict.

I was very much amazed by the fact that two individuals lived on different millennials had reached to the same kind of conclusion, to save the innocent life from the hands of the evil, guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The similarities of these stories of the new and old testament are beyond imagination. I will just mention a few for the sake of comparison.

1. The king was asked to kill the baby but he preferred to save him anyway. [Deliverance from death]. Similarly, Jesus was asked to allow them to kill the prostitute woman but he thought differently. [Deliverance from death]

2. The king saved the baby by taking the RIGHT move. He offered them the option to split the baby, which looks like the enemy is getting what he wanted that is to kill but finally presented a lose/lose scenario for the enemy. He was trying to see who was the real killer. [Discern the evil from the good, give Justice to the innocent]. Similarly, Jesus also offered them to stone her to death, but with only one condition. Anyone who had not sinned should throw the first stone to kill her. This also looks like the enemy was getting what he wanted that was to kill but again no choice but to lose.  [Discern the evil from the good, give Justice to the innocent]

3. The killer prostitute didn’t get any chance but to drop her case in front of the king. [Conviction of sin]. Similarly, those people who had got the chance to look in to themselves and see nothing but full of sin were decided to drop their stones to the ground. [Conviction of sin]

In both stories, we have seen how the anointed discern the evil from the innocent.

The anointing of God, which is the Spirit of God, which is the Word of God, which is the wisdom of God, which we see what was revealed in human flesh in both Old and New Testament has the following characteristics:

1. Gift from God. Not of work of our own

2. Guidance for our path to righteousness

3. Deliverance from death. It Saves, protects, rescues the innocent.

4. Justice is always served

   
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5. Conviction of sin

6. Freedom for the afflicted

7. Leadership and Excellence

8. Discern the spirit of evil that is working in people lives

9. Conviction of Sin that could lead to repentance or judgment

10. Judgment of God, if we don’t repent upon conviction

May God gives you His Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and excellence, to fulfil what you have desired in your heart to serve the Lord and make you wise to give justice for the oppressed and afflicted, lead many in to freedom from sin, and be able to discern the spirit of the wicked when you see one. This way many might come to Christ Jesus and honor your father in heaven and live according to his will.

May God bless you all for reading this blog.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” Hebrew 6:4

The above scripture shows one can possibly lose his/her salvation. Salvation comes through believing Jesus but it is not a one-time act. It governs and defines how we should behave and act the rest of our lives. One can argue it is possible that a person might not be saved in the first place instead of saying he lost his salvation. In other words, it is easier to conclude that one salvation cannot be lost. It is easy to put the issue at the beginning of the foundation of one's Christianity that is one’s salvation rather than the type of life style one leads.

I do believe that the day of our salvation has nothing to do with whatkind of life we may lead after that.I think the lifestyle we follow every day is based on our choice to love or to hate. To listen to the word of God or not. Just like the day of our salvation we choose to obey God and give our lives to him.

There is always a time we will be tempted to revolt against God and to disobey his commandments.Even if Holy Spirit is always with us to comfort us in times of failures and moment of disbelief, the choice is still ours to follow the path of righteousness or not.

As Paul mentioned in this place, it is always difficult to correct someone who knows all these facts but chooses to deny Christ. I don't know why someone would want to do that but the end is worse than the person didn’t know the truth in the first place.

In addition to this passage, we have several similar warnings and advices about such issues in the Bible.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” - Hebrew 7-12

Here it shows that, we should fight sin and the deceitfulness of sin every day to be confident and blameless.

Jesus Christ has finished all the work that needs to be done for you and me to be saved. There is nothing left that we must do to finish the work. This means if we believe in him and die right away, we would inherit the kingdom of God.

But as long as we live in this flesh, we need to keep the good work that our Lord has started in us and be faithful to him all the time. In times of trouble and sin, we should always come to him by faith with true repentance.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, andin your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” - Matthew 7:19-23

Here Jesus warns anyone who thinks he can get in to the kingdom of God without first experiencing the kind of relationship God wants through his Son, Jesus Christ.

It is possible that one can prophesize, or cast out demons but not know Jesus Christ personally or do it with the wrong motive.
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Now a days, this is not far from the truth. We see m

ny do all manner of bad things in the name of Jesus but it is far from what Jesus would want or do if He were in their place. It is seriously advised here that anyone who thinks is standing should watch his steps since falling can happen any time.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. - 1 Corinthians 10:11

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  - Matthew 24:9-13 

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” - Hebrews 10:26-31

Here it touches the main point of abusing the grace of God by living sinful life over and over again and not willing to surrender the sinfulness of the heart to the Lord.

It is understandable that one can go through an addictive way of life that is sinful and brings disgrace to the Lord. This behavior is like a bird in cage or a fish inside a fishing net which always enslaves one to the same sinful behavior again and again.

One may also ask that there is no way a believer can be addicted to sin. I would say that this is not true. As long as we are living in this flesh, we are tempted and often time defeated by the will of the flesh. 

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is in living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a
lave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d

a slave to the law of sin. -Romans 7:14

Paul mentioned in this place that the spirit and the flesh are always at war. The flesh wants to do what it pleases without thinking about the consequences since it is pleasing to it.

The Spirit wants to please God and to do what is good and honorable and stay away from all forms of immorality.

There is always this battle between the spirit and the flesh and once in a while one defeats the other and this is all because we are human beings.

Moreover, there is nothing we can do to overcome this issue except throw our selves under the mercy of God with humility and broken heart.

One may ask if we are always under the umbrella of sin and grace, how can one lose his salvation?

I will leave the answer to this question to God as He knows the hearts of men. I don't even know about me. Only he knows the beginning and the end. I just want to present the truth about the characteristics of our salvation according to the Bible. It is not my intention to judge anyone here. We all are going under different circumstances and it is very clear to me that flesh always wants contrary to what the Lord wants for our lives

Moreover, I want to emphasize that our salvation doesn't come freely so we shouldn't take it for granted. Jesus Christ paid his life for us so we should never abuse the blood that redeemed us the wrath of God.

In conclusion, the concept of losing one’s salvation is directly related to the nature of relationship with our father in heaven through the fellowship of Holy Spirit. This relationship has to be worked out the way we establish and maintain a good relationship with our family and friends. It has to be taken very seriously. It has to be nourished. 

It is also important to rely on the grace of God without abusing it. Those who intentionally abuse the blood of Jesus and displease the Spirit of God in whom we are destined for eternity, there is no forgiveness of sin! It is all lost! Salvation is Lost!

For such a person, it is much better that s/he were never born if s/he intentionally abused the grace of God over and over again since the grace of God doesn't give any license to sin.

May God bless you and may your light of righteousness keeps burning until He comes back in the name of Jesus. Amen!

Then Job answered the LORD and said, "I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." - Job 42:2

Seeing God face to face, Job came to realize who God really is and what He can do in our lives. God is magnificent and omnipotent God. No one on earth can destroy the will of God in our lives. He alone created all. He cannot be restricted by anything.

No devil can defeat God's will. No one can compete with God and win. God gives his grace to the weak. God raises the helpless and honors the low spirit.

We are all His creations and he does value all as equal. All the inequality and lawlessness happens in our eyes and it is not because it is how it is with God but we refuse to listen to him and do according to His will.

Have you ever wonder that you run out of luck and out of the mercy of God because of the nature of your heart or some form of wickedness tries to destroy what God has put in you?

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. -Psalm 90:2

For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? -Isaiah 14:27

It is almost impossible to run away from the will of God. If it happens, it is a complete disaster. But I do believe that God knows everything from the beginning to an end and there is nothing that surprises him.

There is nothing that just happens all of the sudden to him. But it is important to know that the will of God is not something that always happens in this world.This is the place where the rulers of the darkness govern. This is not a place where everyone does the will of God. Since we are living in a fallen world, we can expect that. But the time will come where everyone does just that.

No one will do according to what he thinks is right. The time will come when Jesus reigns over his body and everything will follow his command. That is all it takes to have a place where evil no longer takes effect. God has prepared a new heaven and earth, Zion, and his glory will shine upon the faces of his people like a mighty sun.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. -Revelation 21:1

Those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. -Isaiah 51:11

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. -2 Peter 3:13

All the above scriptures tell us that what we know now will soon disappear and instead we will be part of a place where there are only good things and we all be part of it.

All who are trusted God for his promises when in fact there is nothing to see in the physical but with hope and by faith that God’s love is indeed everlasting and his promises are real, will inherit the will of God.

It is very important for us to know that everything works for the best to those who are called to do according to the will of God. N

evil prevails over His blessings and compassion for our lives.

That is what the book of Job teaches us that Job after he passed through all of that (and believe me none of us has eve gone through what he had to go through), but by consistently keeping his stand and believe in God even in his suffering, God revealed himself to him at the end even more that Job was astonished by God’s nature.

God is all powerful, great, and mighty in battle and no one can defeat him when they gather upon him and what is his. His will for his children is wonderful. 

We pray in the name of Jesus that may the will of God be done in our lives as it is in heaven. That nothing can come closer between him and us. That we may live in the house of God all the days of our lives. That we understand nothing is more powerful than the Love of God in Jesus Christ. Amen!!

For I am persuaded , that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present , nor things to come , Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord - Romans 8:35

May God bless you!!

If you know that you have to pay a price for the safety of your spouse and comfort; If you know there is a sacrifice that you have to make for your spouse happiness and enjoyment; If you understand that your spouse has demanded love and respect from you;

How are you willing to address these issues to keep the fire of love keeps burning in your home?

Most of the issues with a marital relationship are based on the value of the relationship one has with his/her spouse.

The value you give to your marriage determines the sacrifice you will pay to save the marriage when it is in jeopardy. It also determines how much sacrifice you pay to keep it safe and secure from the troubles of the world.

You need to evaluate and understand the love of your life (wife or husband) as soon as possible if you have not done it already because it will guide you to make an effort to cherish, care and nourish what you have with the rest of your life.

Without a deep revelation of one’s love, it will be impossible to protect, serve and love appropriately.

Your spouse worth more than anything you have ever accumulated in life. He/She is invaluable to you.

You cannot win her soul with a lot of materials. Neither can you brought back what is lost with years of agony and weeping.

Your love is a true blessing from the Lord. She is even beyond the love for your children since she has brought them to this world risking her life just to make the love of her life a little happier.

In return, she deserves the respect and love from her husband and she loves to know how much worth she has in the eyes of her man.

Same is true for wives. Husband wants to know how much value his wife gives for his dedication and love for his family. He wants to be 100% sure that his wife gives him all the support he needs to fulfill his duties as a husband. That will be possible if the wife already figures out how much a husband would cost her if she accidentally lose him.

All the nasty criticism or nagging or discouragement doesn’t prove any point to your spouse. Instead, they have the power to negatively interpret and convey that you don’t consider her/him worth of your love.

So what should we do to make sure our spouse knows how we value their sacrifices

1. Be helpful:We need to take the heavily lifting too. Don’t sit and look when our spouse take enormous stress in the house while taking care of the kids or outside the house?Don’t be negligent or irresponsible

2. Don’t take risk.Understand the risk of losing them.This is to say that you have to protective when it comes to your family.Don’t allow anyone to interfere in your marriage; not even close family members

3. Be appreciative.It is the little thing we need to do express our gratitude but it looks like we cannot do that due to pride or self-centeredness.

4. Express the value of your spouse. Show her/him some love. Don’t hide Love. Let it shine. Express your feeling of love with boldness. This will tell something to your spouse

5. Protect, nourish and cherish

6. Take time to relax with your spouse by coming out of the regular routine just to enjoy the presence of one with another. This is one of the reasons whyweneed to spend quality time with our spouse

7. Pray. This is the most important thing about relationships. The fact that you guys pray together tells it all. It cleans up the stress and disbelief that is accumulated through time and give you comfort with each other. Holy Spirit is the only glue that holds your marriage together and with out calling his name to bless your marriage, it won’t last long.

May God bless you!!

And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.

Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our heart with food and gladness. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. - Acts 14:11

All Saints and angels would have done the same thing if people had tried to worship them the same way they tried to worship Paul and the same way many people are doing right now. Worship belongs to God and only God. He alone has created the heavens and earth. We all are the works of his hands.

It is true we have to love and respect the servants of God who have paid a lot of sacrifices for the kingdom of God. Those who had been persecuted for preaching the good news and brutally killed.

But worshiping a human being is one of the greatest sins in the Bible.Worship belongs to God and not to human beings.When we spend more time preaching about human beings rather than God.

When we dedicate day and month just for saints to just have communication with them in the spirit, it is one way of worshiping them.

I would say if we try to pray to a person (saint person that has already died) rather than to God himself (even to ask forgiveness from God through prayer), is some kind of worship which is not biblical.

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. - Revelation. 19 10

Only Jesus can intercede for us to the father. He is our High Priest that had completely paid the price of the death of sin. He continually intercedes for us with him.

When we offend God, we offend Jesus also. So he has to present your case to him and to the father when you come to him with a broken heart and ask for forgiveness.

He is doing it for you all the time, no time restriction applied. That is how we maintain the good relationship with him.

God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is jealous God and he cannot share his glory with any other person.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I
the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; - Exodus 20:3

When the Bible says in this place “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

It means we should not put anything above the love and respect we have for God.

Whether it is work or family. Whether it is the person or an angel. Whether it is money or fame. Whether it is drugs or immorality.

Anything should not have any power over our lives mo

e than what the Lord has commanded us to do. That is to love him with all our strength, heart, and will. If we pray sometimes directly to Jesus and sometimes to an angel of God, that is sharing God’s glory with a creation.

If we dedicate an entire day just to think about saints and angels and have the rituals for them, that is one form of worship and it is considered as a sin in the Bible.

According to Revelation 5, only the Son of God is worthy to open the book of Judgment and loose the seals of condemnation. Therefore, he is the only person worthy of our praise and worship. 

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to lo0se the seals thereof? 

And no man in heaven, nor in the earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.  - Revelation 5

Jesus, only you are worthy of our praise!!  We give you all the glory and honor that you deserve. We worship you all the days of our lives. Amen!!

This is one of the most important concepts in the Bible and for many this has been a point of controversy.The reason that many find it difficult to believe that salvation is free is because we think salvation is something we earn.
 

But, All we need to be saved is the right attitude to depend on the Lord for he has finished all that is required to be saved on that cross.Stephen summarized the Old Testament in just a few paragraphs as follows:
 

And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. – Acts 17

What do we learn from this?God called Abraham to be separated from his family. God knows how to get a person's attention to who he wants to have a covenant with. It is to take out of the comfort zone. How many of us are willing to obey God by getting out of our comfort zone. God wants to have an intimate relationship with us that we have never experienced before.

How many of us take some time out of our busy routines and take a time to talk to God? How many of us really come out our comfortable beds in the middle of the night to say thank you to God for his benefits?

How many of us spend morning fresh time with the Lord? God wants to lead Abraham all alone in the desert where no one can take the credit except God for his blessings.

Abraham completely trusted and believed God when he called him. That is why he is called the father of faith. Abraham's faith in the Lord was seriously tested many times. His wife was not able to conceive a child, but God answered his prayers at their old ages when everything looked impossible.

He was also tested to scarify his son, Isaac. Abraham passed the test successfully even if no one would dare to even think about it. God had finally prepared the Lamb for the sacrifice he asked from Abraham in the place of Isaac. All this to foretell that Jesus will be sacrificed on the cross instead of each and every one of us for the sins we have committed.

The steps for one's salvation:

We need to obey God when calls us. We need to come out of our comfort zone to the place where God called us to meet . If Abraham did not obey God leave his parents and come out the city God wants him to be, things would be completely different.

Love God with all your heart. Abraham loved God with all his heart. He did not complain when he was asked to do commands that are impossible to do. Abraham loved and showed his love with his obedience even to the point he could sacrify his son if he have to. Love requires sacrifices, but God is not evil, that he demands the sacrifice of children. It is all in the attitude of our heart.God would never want you to murder innocent life.That is from the devil.

Believe that salvation is not by works [Isaac on the cross] but by faith [Jesus died for you and me]. If Abraham would have said, “I really want to kill my son for you”, and would have done it, then salvation that God prepared had been lost. But still sometimes we want to get saved by our own way of thinking of salvation, not as how God prepared it for us. That is dangerous and it won’t get us saved.

Wait on the Lord.The promises of God take time, even if salvation is instant. But when they are late, we are always tempted to lose hope even on our salvation. The devil always lies about our hopes and our salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus. It is foolishness to think we know better than our Lord and follow our wild imaginations. But is it wise to cling to the promises of the Lord since surely they will come to pass. Our salvation is the main target for the enemy. He wants to lie about it all the time. He wants you to procrastinate rather that to fulfill it now itself. But the word of God strictly told us that the day of salvation is today and not some other day.

Know God Personally.  The Spirit if God is something we can feel his presence. He is full of joy and happiness. But this joy is not like any other. This joy is not like the world gives. It is not attached to any of our situations we are in. Neither family nor angels can replace this joy. It is a great honor to exercise daily with the presence of God. The Word of God said we should not be drunk with the things of the world, but always filled with the Spirit of God.

May God open our eyes to clearly see and understand our salvation in Jesus Name!!!


 

Matthew 18:3 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Be like Little Children:

This is the key to enter the kingdom of God, but how to be like little Children?

We are grown-ups now but what does the Lord mean by that?

In my opinion, It means:

1. Love like crazy

What a privilege to be loved and accompanied by children since they don’t know how to do that wrongly. On the other hand, we know how to fake it. We know how to smile without loving someone. Children’s love is indeed pure and not diluted with fake body language

2. Forgive like everything a person does harm to you is like a scratch.

Don’t try to conceive and implement evil things on those who have done you wrong. Do not go to war with your enemy. Treat your enemy like your friend. That is what children do. They don’t store in their mind how to attack someone who is not nice to them. If someone treats them badly, they will forgive him after a while. They just don’t have the capacity to do that.

3. Humble yourself like you are the dumbest and lowest of all.[But you are not that at all]

Children don’t treat other children with disrespect. They don’t consider themselves as one of the brilliant people in the world and think others like crazy. They love dearly. They are polite and sincere.

4. Sharing out of Love

Children give out of love not out of a reason to be respected or to be famous. They don’t give to enslave someone out of a huge amount of debt this person carries and cannot repay.

The children don’t share their things because they want to enter the kingdom of God. They share because they love.

5. Purity from immorality: I don’t know how but we grownups are always under an attack from the devil to exercise immorality. This is like our main weakness. Whether it is too lose our integrity through backbiting or whether it is that uncontrollable addictive way of life we are doing, we are always short of the glory of God.

6. Don’t grumble

I have never seen a child cursing the Lord for bad things happened in their lives

I know when they are disciplined, they may feel bad, but they always fall back to love their parents no matter what happened.

7. Always thankful

8. Always forgiving

9. Always cherish

10. Never count or recall one’s wrong doings

11. Hopeful for the future

12. Don’t worry about the future.

They don’t worry about what they eat and drink. They don’t worry about which schools they will attend. But we parents do that for them. We worry for them. They don’t worry for them. It is not in their mindset at all.

13. Love gently. Life is short.

Huge gently. Talk gently. Show your love and don’t hide it.

14. Honor others more than themselves

15. Never hesitate to ask forgiveness when they do wrong. As they honestly embrace others when others confess, they also truthfully confess their wrong actions and don’t say, “Let me pray first”

16. Be honest

Have you ever seen a child who fakes his anger or happiness? Have you ever watched a childhiding all his feelings and protruding fake ones? Children are indeed honest and we know it and like it when someone is honest with you. If we like them tobe honest, we have to be honest too with others with God.


17. Become the source of laughter and joy for yourselves and for others

18. Be helpful

19. Be inspirational.

I am so inspired by the life of children. I want to be loved and cherished all over again like I used to be loved when I was a child. I want to love and cherish others as I usedto do it
fore when

as a child. Please God help me to be a child again so that I don’t fall from your grace and cutoff from the midst other children who already made it to your midst.

20. Don’t insult and accuse others 

I cannot exhaustively mention all the characteristics of little ones. They should be our learning point, hence we may start to realize how mean we are and confess the evil doings we did to others.

It is all about our mindset.  We need to work on that a little bit every day.

We pray in the name of Jesus to capture what we have lost when we became grownups and be like little children since the kingdom of God is only for those people who are like little children.

Matthew 18:21-35: Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
 

“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.[d] He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

What do we need to do to be saved and enter the kingdom of God?

Salvation is when someone is rescued from a planned destruction by someone who loves this person so much and decided to take his place on the ‘persecution place’. Salvation is when someone who has done nothing takes your sin and get punished for it. This person is Jesus Christ. Salvation is when you did something wrong, but because of Jesus’s work on the cross you escaped from eternal death.

It is when our destination is measured based on not how much “self-righteousness” we have accomplished in our lives, but how much we have trusted God that our sins are forgiven. In other words, you cannot guarantee your salvation by counting your good deeds and forgetting bad ones, but confessing bad ones to the Lord and lean on his mercy and grace in your life.

God forgives the humble and destroys the proud. So come to the throne of God with humble heart who always confesses his sins and stay away from them. Humbleness begins when we start to give value to the works of our savior Jesus Christ and give him honor for that instead of insisting on showing-off our ‘good’ works for others
If we honor God for sending his son as a ransom for our sins, we can make sure we have the right to come to his presence in the spirit.

If we give more value to the things we do instead of what he did for us, we are preparing ourselves for destruction because the devil can easily use the hypocrisy of such kind of person and lead to destruction.

Only true salvation can lead us to be fruitful in the kingdom of God. We cannot achieve salvation by good works, but can do many great things if our faith is based the love of God in Christ Jesus. True salvation leads to the path of righteousness. Not the other way round.

What is the problem of salvation by work instead of by the grace of God?

No one is able to make it to heaven by the goodness of his/her own work. The Bible said that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” hence cut themselves off from the tree of life. So this plan doesn’t work at all.

Adam and Eve were given by God a chance to live the life of righteousness in the perfect paradise, but could not live up to that level of standard.

We are living in a fallen world where everything is not perfect. In fact, nothing is perfect. So we couldn’t live the life of righteousness without falling back on the mercy and grace of God.

I am so thankful to God for he always washes me with his blood and give me a future whenever he finds me filthy of sin.

That is why I don’t rely on my strength on anything, let alone, such a big subject as salvation.

But despite all of these, many people still believe that one’s own work can guarantee entrance to heaven. This is absolutely from the devil who wants to undermine the power of God’s Love that is shown on the cross. His love is sufficient to save even the worst of all.

Paul mentioned this when he said God saved him even if he did many bad things in his life. I am also a witness to the power of God’s grace that is able to cleanse one’s soul from any kind of sin. That is why I want to witness this salvation to others so that they too shall have confidence when they ask God for forgiveness. 

Can salvation be lost according to the Parable of the debtor and his Master?

It is so amazing when someone achieves his salvation freely since salvation is free.

Can salvation be lost? Many scholars disagree with this point. They said once a person is saved there is no way he will lose this status.

I would present this according to  Matthew 18:21-35.

This guy received debt forgiveness that was way so much that he couldn’t repay. Out of kindness, this guy’s debt was forgiven.

But since he didn't show the same kind of favor to his borrower and treat him badly, his master demanded back the money and everything went bad for this guy afterwards.

The Bible warns us of a possible rejection into the kingdom of God, if we Christians treat others badly.

It specially warns us about the issue of forgiveness. The Bible teaches us if we are not like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.

This means we have to be forgiving to those who offended us badly since our sins are also forgiven,

Also in the Lord’s Prayer, we can see that our sins are only forgiven if we forgive others.

So the point is if we did not forgive others who had done wrong in our lives and do bad to them intentionally, that is a serious thing in the eyes of God.

But I would still rely on the word of God that says, there is no sin that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse if we confess them and absolutely depart from them.

So yes, I believe if we do any sin that is against the Word of God and don’t confess them promptly, we will be endanger of eternal destruction.

In other words, if the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins and we don’t confess them, we are guilty of sins and endanger of eternal fire.
 

Holy Spirit speaks through our consciousness and our spirit from and in accordance the word of God. He also speaks through another person or a dream or through closed doors and empty blessings. When he doesn’t want you to do something, all doors will be closed and when he wants, all doors will be open.

It is not a good idea to fight with the spirit of conviction, common sense and truth. It is a very good idea to listen and do exactly how and when he wants us to do it, including forgiving those who have done wrong on to us.

Holy Spirit, we pray to you so that we do not respond like the story of the rich man and like what he did to his servant, but to be more like you who always forgives our sins and allows us to live without the feeling of hatred of sin, in Jesus Name, Amen!




 

Nehemiah 1:4 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.

I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

We know that Nehemiah was one of the great leaders that God called to rebuild his house after the destruction of Jerusalem.

In this series, I would like to focus

1. What he felt when he heard the destruction of Jerusalem.

2. What action he took after he heard the destruction.

3. What we learn from Nehemiah in this regard.

Nehemiah felt really bad when he heard the bad news about the destruction of Jerusalem. He wept bitterly as Jesus wept when he saw Jerusalem.

Luke 19:41: When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.…

2 Corinthians 4:4 : In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Jesus wept for Jerusalem for the people of Israel did not recognize their savior as one who came to deliver them from their sins.

The truth was simply hidden from their eyes. They couldn't accept Jesus as their personal savior and Lord and listen to his words. Instead, they consider him like a thief, mad person and a man possessed with the evil. And they couldn’t sleep until they persecute him with false accusations and kill him.

Jesus wept for those and not for him until his tears turned into blood with a lot of intercession to the father, that their sins shall not lead them into eternal destruction since the devil had blinded their eyes and deafened their ears.

Since New Testament is reflection from the Old Testament, we see such kind of similarities in the Bible like what we see with Jesus and Nehemiah.

Nehemiah cried because he heard that the
people of God were treated badly. Brother was against brother. There were a lot of segregation and hate going on.

The wall of Jerusalem was destroyed, and its gates was burned with fire by the enemy and its walls were breached and burned. Because of these facts and many more, Nehemiah cried and fasted for so many days, interceding with God for his people.

A great leader always knows that distractions are

signs of sin and rebellion against the will of God on our lives. He knows only God can turn this around. When all hope seems to be gone and the enemy has won on all of the circumstances, we should raise our voice and pray day and night for the mercy of God.

Nehemiah knew he cannot win the heart of his people unless he got divine knowledge and help from God and unless the Holy Spirit touched their heart to repent and start to build what the enemy had taken from them.

They were in great mess and most of them did not realize what was going on.

That is why we need a great leader like Nehemiah even in this age, to revive and help restore our sleepiness when everything we built has been destroyed by the enemy.

Nehemiah, while interceding, prayed according to the word of God. Let's see the key points in his prayer.

1. God is merciful and faithful for those who love him and obey his commandments

2. Nehemiah confessed that they did not obey the commandments of God, he gave them through Mosses.

3. God strictly told them if they are not obedient, God will scatter them among nations.  [A clear indication of what is going with our own people]

4. God fearing nations will prosper and its people will come from around the world to live peacefully

5. God would love to rescue us from our troubles since he has already bought us with a great price, with the blood of Jesus.

In conclusion, in this series, we learn that a nation that despises the Laws of God is week and an easy target for the enemy. Great leaders always intercede for their and our sins and show us the truth and the way to God through our lord Jesus Christ. When great trouble and tribulations come and when grief and sorrow kick in, it's the right time to come closer to God and ask for forgiveness for our sins since Holy Spirit always convict us to repent and come out of our own way. God bless you!

Hannah’s Prayer

1 Samuel 2:1 Then Hannah prayed and said:My heart rejoices in the Lord;in the Lord my horn[a] is lifted high.My mouth boasts over my enemies,for I delight in your deliverance.There is no one holy like the Lord;there is no one besides you;there is no Rock like our God.

Do not keep talking so proudlyor let your mouth speak such arrogance,for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more.

She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.“The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.“For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world.He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.“It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be broken.

The Most High will thunder from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.“He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Hanna went through very tough times since she had no children.

Her story is one the great stories mentioned in the Bible since it is very inspirational to trust and believe God in the middle of our frustration.

Like Sarah, who was visited by God in her old days, Hanna was also visited when all hope looked to be gone.

But she did not give up hope on her Savior and Lord, even if everyone was telling her to give up.

Her husband tried to comfort her by saying it is ok even if there is no child God gave them, he is much better than 10 children for her.

Even if his words were a little bit comforting to her, she did not stop from present her pain and innermost desire to have her own baby to kiss and hug even for a while.

Her husband had another wife and other children, but none from Hanna.


Out of this long time prayer and the desire to have a baby, she promised God that if He gives her one, she will give it back to him.


Let’s ask ourselves, how many times we pray to God when we are in big trouble and when God solved our issues and we don’t even go to church any more?


As we learn from the story of Hanna , we need to honor the word we give to God after we got what we want.

Hanna honored her word and give him to God after the baby stopped breastfeeding.

God took him and raised him to be one of the great leaders that he led nations to walk with God and honor him with their lives.


Hanna also put her experience with God in a prayerful song. I believe it is so powerful that it would be a lesson for all of us.

She said:


1. I am pleased with God's Salvation

How many of us are happy with the Salvation we have through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is indeed the Horn of our salvation. Jesus took away the wrath of God that was placed on us and waited for our destruction. Jesus intervened just befo

e we are about to be doomed. Because of him we are now sons and children of God and not enemies. I encourage you to worship and magnify his name for God's way of Salvation


2. God is righteous.

You would not hear this kind of prayer from most of the people who had gone through bad times.

Many have abandoned the way, the truth, since they thought God is not listening to them.

Many also give up just before the visitation of God.

But Hanna knew that she would be visited by God if she kept going.


Even if some who mistakenly disrespect her and calling her names. Eli has called her drunk.


3. We should not be boastful and proud of the things we have and say bad words to others


The reason being there is nothing that stays the same in this world. Everything changes.

The strong will be weak. The weak will be strong. The poor will be satisfied. The barren has now many children and she that gives birth can do no more.

All because of the visitation of the Lord.


4. Men shall not win by the might of his strength, but only by the Spirit of God

The battle is not always for the fast and swift. Only God has the final saying on our destiny.

5. Be in Sync with God. Honor him with whatever you do. Don't be against his will.
That is the best place you want to be - his will in your life where there is abundance of grace and resources that will last a life long.


God bless you for reading this blog. I hope God teaches us a great lesson from the life of his servant, Hanna.


May God bless you.

John 6:35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not.All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

Jesus is the Living Bread of LIfe that we eat and shall not starve no more. He satisfies our innermost cravings and desires. There is nothing we want in his presence. His Spirit gives all we need and all we want.


People who don’t have this revelation do all manner of things to satisfy themselves with all the garbage and the non-sense the world can offer.


Jesus is the only way to quench the thirst of our soul. The desire of our soul has been always for the one who he created her, our God.


But since we don’t know what we want, we find peace and joy and happiness in the wrong places. We think we can find this joy through fame, drugs, sex, alcohol, etc.


But after we west everything like that disobedient son mentioned in Mathew, we only realize that all our youth and money are wasted looking for the right thing in the wrong places.


Only God can give true joy since he is the source of life.


The best part is once we know him and start to follow him, he will never cast us down or abandon us like children without fathers.


If you are wondering what could be the will of God in your life, the answer is it is that you may find Jesus and believe in him and have everlasting LIFE through him.

Jesus is indeed the bread of life that we need daily to eat and drink and satisfy our soul from the everlasting Love of God through his son Jesus Christ.

Why Prayer?

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. -Acts 12:5
 

From this chapter, we learn that prayer is the most fearsome weapon for the Believer against the works of the enemy.
 

The same ruler that had ordered the killing of disciple James and succeeded, also ordered to do the same thing with Peter.But by the strong prayer of the church, we all know he has been miraculously saved by the Angel of God.

Prayer is a powerful tool for us to withstand every evil in our lives. Prayer in faith and faith alone can move mountains and quench the blazing heat of fire and destroy the power of a storm.
 

Prayer is taking one step towards acting in our faith. Prayer is an action of faith. Whether we speak the words of faith or whisper it through prayer, God always listens and acts on our behalf to perform the miracle our heart waits for.Besides, the Lord will answer our prayers when we pray interceding for others, according to God’s will.

Prayer is a two way communication between us and the Lord. Sometimes we think we have to be the only one who are actually talking when we pray. That would be the case if we are not listening while we are praying. Praying in the spirit requires a humble and contrite spirit that will always expect the voice of the Lord in our spirit.
 

Sometime we found ourselves stuck in a fruitless one way communication with the Lord, where we are the only ones talking and not allowing the Lord to speak on our behalf.Prayer also requires a heart that always adores God and trembles when God speaks.

Without a humble and innocent heart, it will be useless to communicate with our God. All the gifts that we bring to God are nothing compared to the nature of heart in which the motive derives from.
 

When we pray we must be obedient to God’s corrections and teachings. We should not harden our heart when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. We should be willing to change into what God wants to do in our lives.

When we pray, we must first accept that we are sinners. The following verses are good learning point of our nature to sin and what we should do about it.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. -Romans 1:26
 

The beginning of the desire to sin is the deficiency of the fear of God. If we don’t give God the proper respect, that means we are given to ourselves that is to our selfish desires.

God spoke in the Book of Malachi that if he is God, then he expects the respect that he deserve from the works of his hand, Us.

A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. - Malachi 1:6

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;” -Romans 3:10
 

There is no one except Jesus who can be sinless and able to help those who sin. We all were under the umbrella of universal sin and personal sin of the heart before the Lord sanctify us and make us holy.

This also indicates that without the blood of Jesus shed on that cross there is no way we can be sanctified and made whole. Jesus was the only way to God because no one was able to make it by work. Only faith in Christ was considered the way to God even before Jesus came to earth.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.-Romans 3:20
 

Everyone needs Jesus, sinners as well as the so called "righteous"
 

May God gives us grace and wisdom to pray more efficiently to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The leadership challenges we face every day are very crucial in dictating our lives and the lives of our loved ones. I would like to highlight the importance of leadership and the significance of dealing with the challenges we face during leadership.

We become so much frustrated after we tried all we can do and there is nothing we can do any more to change our situation.We get very much disappointed and they beat us very good and we can’t even continue to lead in that area.

As a worker we wanted to see the fruits of our labor and we tend to get nothing.Our problems deeply rooted in our weak emotions and the backgrounds of the other person.Change is not easy and it takes quite some time in some cases.Even the word of God says if we don’t give up so quickly, we will eat the fruit in due time.

Change is inevitable if we don’t give up on our loved ones no matter how many mistakes they have done.If we keep training them showing them how things could be accomplished more easily, we will find ourselves doing a great job in positively influencing their lives.

These are not the only things we face as a challenge.Now I would like to flip the coin and discuss the other side of the story.Now let us discuss the steps we need to take to overcome the challenges we face as the designated leader of the family of the Lord.

We are responsible to fulfill the needs of our family.They trust us with this job so we should do it with love.But that doesn’t mean we should be overburdened with their request.Like any other individual, we need to get settled inside at least once in a while.Unless we experience the peace of the Holy Spirit, we cannot create peace in our family.This is true for both husbands and wives.

When we understand this, we will start to think about the little things we really need to perform our duties successfully both at home and outside.One of the things we really need is personal time with our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ .It is very important to worship the Lord with the congregationBut we need also some time with Jesus in addition to the contribution we have made to the church.

At least once a day, seven days a week.This might not be possible when more things come up and responsibilities build up.But we need that anyways to be successful in our day to day duties.

With prayer and intercession, we need to lay our burdens to the Lord, who said he can take from us.He is faithful to give us the rest of us and the family he gave us with a privilege to protect, lead, admonish and nourish with love till he comes back.

Challenges at home are sometimes different than we face from outside. We usually don’t take an issue in a relationship that is from outside of our house very seriously.

People may tend to make us feel bad and disturb our feelings, but yet they are not always successful.If we noticed we do not have the option to create the same feeling inside the house as we do outside.

I also noticed that some people if you see them outside the house and if you see them inside the house, they are two different persons.

Why is this all happening to us sometimes?Is it because we don’t love the people outside the house as we love very much our own family.We all know we got so emotional when someone touch the one we love most.

We don’t even know how to act when it comes to our loved ones.We say things we shouldn’t say in our heart that will make God unhappy.We found ourselves in an argument all the time with loved ones.

We are insisting that we want them to have what we know is the best for them.We don’t want their bad days nor do we want to see them falling one day.Their problem is our problem.When they fail, we fail together as we succeed together.

There is no boundary between you and them.You cannot say, “It is up to them - Let them be whatever they want and we don’t care a bit about what their fate will be”.

God has attached their lives to our lives.I don’t have a special responsibility about the individuals I met outside my house other than the usual.

It is my desire that they too shall succeed in everything and it is my moral obligation to tell the right from the wrong, but I am not responsible for whatsoever actions they should take after that.

But there are people in my life that I need to get concerned about.These are my own flesh and blood. If they starve, I shall starve together.

If they have no food, I too am responsible for providing with their needs.I am responsible for their decisions also.It doesn’t matter that they are grown-up or little one.

I shall involve in their day to day activity and need to guide them take corrective actions.That is why God has called husbands the head of the house.Husbands are the delegated leader of the house.

And as a leader we need to sacrifice our will for them and our intentions have to be always for the good of the family.

God bless you!!

I believe homosexual behavior can be conceived (with a lie from the devil) and cultivated in the heart of a person where there is no deep revelation about the fear of God.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. If God doesn’t want you to start a relationship with the wrong gender, then don’t.The fact that one has been sexually abused and tortured by some evil person doesn’t mean he/she should go for homosexuality. But I strongly believe that when someone is sexually violated by a spiritually possessed person, there is a good opportunity for the spirit of the wicked to possess this person.

In other words, homosexuality can be transmitted through sexual contact with other same sax homosexual person with or without consent. Our fight and main struggle is not with flesh, but against evil principalities who can ruin our lives in one incident. That is why we need to cover ourselves and our family with the blood of Jesus every day before we do anything.

"Right is right though all condemn, and wrong is wrong though all approve." - Charles Spurgeon. Don’t be fooled by so many godless people who neglect the path to righteousness.

It is very important to humble yourself for the Lord that he will forgives every inequity that is working in your life and takes you from there.

Finally, I would like to leave you with a comment I post for a man who has been physically abused by his father and sexually abused by some criminal. He is also struggling with the spirit of homosexuality for a very long time.

It goes like this:

I want you to know that we love you so much that we cannot let you go through all of these by yourself. We will pray for you, for God to heal you from all consequences of this disaster.

You should also pray to God to heal your heart from the scares this brutal people left you with. You will know that you are completely healed when you start to love those evil people. You may ask, “how?” But I know I can tell you for sure you can do that through the Spirit of God.

You should never stop praying to God to help you reconcile with your earthly father who had never got the chance to protect you from the abusers. You also told us that he physically abused you.

I believe only through love and forgiveness you will be able to recover back to your original identity that God has made you, and ordained you through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ.

You have to do that to triumph over your real enemy, the wicked one, the devil. You see, our fight is not against flesh and blood.

If you want a real revenge, then take it to the Lord and he will give everyone according to their acts and the punishment he has prepared with absolute fairness.

If we cannot love our enemies, we cannot initiates/instantiate God’s power to be active in and around us. But, when we do that, God will move every mountain just for our sake, to destroy our enemies.

That is why I want you to stay in love all the time so that God can use you for his Glory. I assure you that if you do that you will always be in God’s plan.

“God will never leave you nor forsakes you till the end of the world!!!”

Please don’t stop having fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters at the Church. Devil is always successful attacking Christians who are all alone. I pray that one day God will give you a beautiful wife who will love you just as God created you.

Homosexual behavior or act is considered as a sin in the Bible. 
 

The Bible teaches us for a man to take one woman as a wife and woman to take one man as a husband. I believe the nature of a man is to be with a woman and not with another man and a woman with a man. Only a woman can complete and fulfill the desires of a man and vice versa. It is all about all kinds of human, emotional, sexual, psychological, physical, and spiritual compatibility and much more.

One of the wonders of God is, how God makes a woman out of a man so that the two shall be inseparable. The two cannot function without each other in a marital relationship. You cannot change that principle. It will be absolutely impossible for a man to fulfill the marital requirement of another man instead of a woman.

The most important thing about marriage is not to reproduce. Even if that is the original blessing we got from God, I believe in these last days, we need to show to the world that our marriage depicts what is about to be revealed in the Spiritual world; in which we fail to do so many times.

Our marriage should be a shadow of what is to be revealed when Christ returns to us for the second time, When Jesus returns, everything will be like a huge wedding in which Christ, the groom, comes to take his bride, the church, with him. After that, we will live with him forever and ever in his kingdom where there is no more sorrow and no more cry.

Even though I strongly disagree with homosexual behavior, I have no right or power or judgment towards to homosexual individuals. I don’t consider myself better than any homosexual. I know my sins are so many that I have no clue how many times I have already transgressed the laws of God and I would in the future.

But the most important question is not about how we or some other person or entity would feel about the nature of once sexual desire. The government can’t define or sanctify our sexual behavior. The government, however, has the power to give or deny a set of human rights.

The government is nothing but the people they serve. The laws of the government should be established considering the fact that we are eternally spiritual beings who have one God we all should obey, fear and tremble.

If the government had been designed to do that, it would have enforced the laws of the living God instead of allowing transgressors to break it. That is why there are so many people who insult God and his creation with their foolish remarks. And I will assure you all humans will give accounts to all of our acts for every action we took in this world when we come face to face with the living God, all powerful.

The government, according to my understanding in general nowadays is secular by design and has no attachment to one’s religious beliefs or practice as long as these religious beliefs don't violet someone right or freedom to live.The government also claims that it protects the democracy of its people.

Even if I strongly support once own rights and privileges should be respected, I also believe that freedom without righteousness is not really freedom.

The laws of the government can be amended or removed but the laws of God stay forever.If the government or anybody else doesn’t have the real authority to define who we really are and how our sexuality should look like, then who does?I believe the living word of God has the final saying about us in general, our identity and our sexuality.

The Bible teaches that there is no definition of sex in the kingdom of God, even though we all are created with a sexual difference.

When we die, we will be like angels who can’t be categorized according to gender, but according to their service and glory of God on them.

This doesn’t mean we can be genderless in this word.

 

Matthew 19:11

But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

According to this teaching, there are four kinds of people with regards to human sexuality

1. There are people who can and are engaged in a human relationship with their opposite sex.

2. There are some people who cannot perform their sexual behavior due to birth defects, including genital malfunction or complete disposition

3. There are some who also can’t perform due to human error after birth

4. There are some who intentionally make themselves single (eg Apostle Poul) for the sake of the kingdom of God.

The fact that people under 2, 3, and 4 unlike 1 cannot have a sexual relationship with opposite sex doesn’t mean they have the tendency to engage in homosexual behavior.

In conclusion, the homosexual act should be considered an act of sin. It should not be considered as an honorable thing to be into. God doesn’t intend marriage to be abused into such act of infidelity in the beginning.

According to Romans, sexual inclination towards the same sex is a curse from God. And like any other curse, this curse can be broken by the blood of Jesus if we diligently seek his face.

The fact that we wanted to be in that set of binding shouldn’t mean it is ok to do it.

The fact that it is nearly impossible to be straight once one turns into the homosexual person doesn’t mean God gave up on him/her. One should try as long as there is a breath in his/her mouth to escape from such kind of sexual immorality.

But we all are one big family as long as God is our father and Jesus will eventually take every one of us out of the mess we are into in this world and keep us on his side for as long as we live for the rest of eternity.

We should continue to love each other no matter what like brothers and sisters. Christ would do the same if he were in person with us today. He gave us one and only one commandment when he leaves us here: Love one another.

He also gave us one promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us no matter how hard life could be till he comes back and gives us a resting place.

While we live, there could be many tribulations and question and puzzles that we have no answers for. But when he comes, everything will be all clear.

But before all of that happens, if you engage in homosexual behavior, you need to confess your sins to the Lord so that he will give you your freedom back.

Homosexuality is slavery to sexual sin like any other sexual sin (adulatory, polygamy, masturbation, pornography) whether it is committed in the heart or executed in action.


I can assure you that none of us are free from all of these sins. But like the Bible says, if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and able to save us from the guilt and consequences our sins. After all, he is able to do anything that is beneficiary for us as long as we have faith in him.

What makes sexual sin so natural is its addictive power and tendency to stick to our souls for a long period of time. It has also a natural tendency to make us think it is all normal and anyone can be naturally drawn to it.

That is why it is sweeping away many souls in the darkness out of the will of God for their lives. The devil is ok as long as no one is making a big deal about it. As long as everybody is quite about it. As long as there are moralists and politicians who think they fight for the rights of others, but the fact is they paving the way to destruction.


There is new life through Christ that you may have not yet experienced. I would like to remind you about this wonderful new beginning for you will be completely renewed by the blood of Jesus and starts to be fruitful in his kingdom.

It is my desire that God will change and use you as he pleases for his glory. If he can use a wretch like me, he can use anybody. If his grace was sufficient to break my stubborn heart, he can do the same to you. If his new covenant is able to remove every curse that was working in my life, he can do the same to you.

May God bless you for reading this blog!!

In this personal testimony, I would like to share a few of my personal experiences with Jesus and how Jesus never leaves me nor forsakes me when I was in trouble. It is a living testament, which is written on my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of my God and my Lord Jesus Christ. This can be taken as evidence that he can be trusted at all times. He came at last when everything I had and everything I could possibly think of was gone. But He was never late. He is on time all the time. Here I will mention a few instances of how He came late and resurrected my dead life with his miracles.

1. When I was close to death because of my illness at 8th grade, he healed my full body and gives me a second chance.

2. When I was drowning and almost dead in the deep waters, he resurrects me. When I thought my life had surely ended, he rescued me.

3. My ninth grade second semester result was totally amazing. I was weak at first, but later I stood second.

4. When I was weak and can’t even study well at the end of my high school education, God helped me pass the national exam to join the top rated University, when people think I couldn’t make it, my life has changed since then.

5. When I initially score low grades in first year college classes, I almost forget about my education, but he had changed me and gave me victory about that.

6. When I was two years late, everybody thinks it was a total waste of time until they saw I graduated with distinction in a nice department.

7. When I joined CS, my point was not good enough, but he made me join anyways.

8. When I joined the master program in Ethiopia, I was able to register one month passed the registration date.

9. When I got a job. When I got visa when I got this and that's when everybody forgets about me and I was about to lose everything.

10 .Jesus has completely healed from a migraine that has lasted for so many years.

11. Jesus has heard my prayer to heal my mom from her asthma conditions

12. Jesus has healed me from a birth condition that no doctor has no solution for the problem

13. Most of all, Jesus Christ has completely healed me from the sin of immorality that had tormented me for so many years that I couldn’t even count. The point is he is still faithful to put you where you need to be in the eternal plan of God, so no worries. So the smallest thing, but the most important thing expected from us is to stay in our place and wait for him to come and change our story. No problem is too big for God to solve. Our issues in life are not different than He has already solved in peoples' lives. The Bible tells us that we are not going to be tempted beyond our capacity.

I believe these pieces of writings will be a lesson to me and for those who will get the chance to read my story. I will incorporate God’s word in it. I hope it will be a book of wisdom not critics.

I was born in a small town in Ethiopia, Africa. I was raised by two hard working parents who want nothing but the best for their children. I was the first born and I have two sisters and one brother in my family.

My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old. At first I got the chance to live with my father, but then later I moved to my mom and my little sister when my father married his second wife after 5 years my parents got divorced.

When I was a boy, I remember my dedication to the things of God and I was completely obsessed with God’s existence and my purpose in general. I also remember that I prepared myself to the idea of good things, and good things used to come to me. Then they say I had been severely attacked by the devil. But God was able to make me free not so long I had been attacked.

I have received my Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savioiur at the age of fourteen. The problem came when I grew up. My attachment and close relationship with Christ and me loving Christ was offensive with my unbeliver parent. I would say to you never interfere with the religion decision of your child. Even though critical life issues and decisions have to be seriously advised, the decisions of your child must be respected.

Respect is very crucial, even with friends. But the family has to respect and encourage his son/daughter for his/her decisions. Here is my thing…. I didn’t want no body, especially my family to be disappointed because of me. Silly me! I never wanted to interfere with another’s person’s decisions, but I compromised with my own. I thought this is not a healthy relationship, but I didn’t know what else to do at that time.

The first time I couldn’t go to church because of family disagreement, I accept it with difficulties. I then became like some of my friends in the village where nothing was accomplished all day. But devil used this opportunity to destroy my life. Believe it or not this was the time I hated myself and tried multiple times to destroy it. This happend when I was a teenage boy.

When the only means of my happiness and my life choice was restricted by family, I didn’t know what else I should do with my life than to destroy it. But God was with me all the time. He nether abundened me in the hand of the devil. Nor he left me to die in the depth of the river. He remembered me and snatched me from the brink of unexpected death. I then came to my heart a little bit and tried to realize that life is more important than everything. Soon, I started to stay in the house and read the Bible.

But there were some obstacles with that too. I was not allowed to spend more time with the Bible. My only argument was how it was not obvious to my family that a man without God is dead, especially a boy whose soul were like a blinking candle about to get darkened by the storms of life.

By the time I should return to campus, I was not as vigilant to God’s things as before. My motive was to score more grades to join department of medicine. It turns out to be I am a computer science guy.

I used to think one day I will be rich and when I become rich, I will give the money to those who need it in the beginning and I will come to my Lord. But this idea makes many to disappear from the house of God for good.

I then realized that the chance to come back after a long term commitment with sin is so little. The money, fame, artificial joy, and everything are so powerful to snatch them and swallow them for good. I, on the other hand was still struggling in the belly of the wicked. I prayed day and night to my God so that one day the wicked might spit me out.

I tried to be as uncomfortable to the devil as much as possible.

I wanted the hell to shake up a little bit to throw me out of there. I thought to myself, “I don’t belong here.” I wanted to be with my father. While I was in search of more education and more money, I found myself daily far from God. I got into the wickedness of this world more and more.

I was also dumb and stupid that even I didn’t know how to keep myself from danger. In search of love and happiness, I found myself soon enough in danger. Because of that I was left with a new kind of curse which made me tormented for so many years.

Praise the Lord! I was delivered from it after so many years, but then there was a substitute. By the time I was about to finish my undergrad studies, I was so happy but again I found myself lost in the wilderness. I couldn’t find myself.  My whole identity was lost. It was all about forgiving myself and those who were closest to me. I didn’t know how to do that? I thought my life was already wasted and destroyed. I was thinking I never asked my God for earthly benefits. But God for so long forgets my souls cry on family and love.

I was looking for the real love and family. I was looking why I am here. My question was while devil used every opportunity to destroy my life, God seemed to remain in silence. I had prayed every day this prayer, “Have I ever ask you for anything, father? But you ignored my years of prayer. You know I am zealous about your house. I am delighted when your name is spoken among your congregation.”

Praise God. This is all behind me now. God has miraculously saved me from all of my enemies in the Spirit. I am now completely healed by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. I don’t hate no one now since God has filled me with ever flowing Love and compassion for others. That is the Holy Spirit!

I tried to address the healing process in another blog (Grace-vs-Self-righteousness). Please read this blog if you are interested.

It is the will of our father to find the right marriage partner in life. It is also his will to be blessed and bless other marriages. It is what he wants to do for his children. For his will is full of peace, joy and kindness. When the Lord blessed us with a companion in life, we need to ask him what are the things he wants to accomplish in our marriage. We need to receive a vision about our marriage. We need to pray:

Lord, you have considered and blessed your servant with a blessed wife/husband and a happy marriage. What is it that you want me to do that will eventually make you happy?

Tell us the work to be done. Enlighten us and give us dreams and visions. You have now two individuals who have separated themselves for you. Your kingdom has to be preached for the lives to come. Your love has to be told for generations.

You have two children who want to know what you want to do in their lives. You have two loving couples who are united by you to do your will. For you are merciful and loving God. Don’t leave us alone. Be present in our midst and bless our marriage that you have established through the blood of the Lamb.

Nothing shall come between our marriage and the love you have for us. Protect it and cover it by the blood of Jesus. For all we know you are able to do that. You make people fall and you raise the humble from the ground. Please cleanse and sanctify our marriage with the precious blood of Jesus. We are not able to sanctify and cleanse ourselves.

Our motives and the inclination of our heart is not far from sin. We need your forgiveness Lord; we need you to be there for us. There is no one to guide us and lead us. You are the father and the mother for this family. You are our level of expertise and confidence.

In you we only trust and depend. We always want to hear from you and do it because we love you and trust you. Spread your mighty shield upon our sacred marriage. Let no one come closer to us more than you. We need you more than anything to survive and to live a happy blessed family life.

The rest is extra and that means we don’t really need them as we need you. All we are getting from the world is another problem we are not able to deal with. But engage in our lives so deep and allow us to express our deep heart felt gratitude and love we have for one another.

Please allow this marriage to be a good start to prepare for the ultimate wedding that Christ will make to the church. Christ you are always the groom and we are your bride. By faith we will celebrate and enjoy thinking the greatest is yet to come.

We are the symbol of your love for the rest of the world. We are not to share blasphemy and sin with the world. Neither have we liked to get categorized under their congregation. Please cleanse our soul and spirit and most importantly our dirty flesh.

Moreover, please help your servants to live unto the word, the guidance and rule of protection, you have given us. You are the most fearsome God but yet lovely and kind. Please open the eyes of your servants to able to see what you are about to do in our lives. Glory and honor be onto your name in Christ Jesus.

Prepare us for the days to come. Teach us how to count our days so that we will have wisdom to do the right thing and most important thing. Teach us to be wise and bring hundred fold glory in to your kingdom. We couldn’t be satisfied with the food and the clothing and the job.

Teach us to eat eternal food, to drink eternal water, to do eternal work and to build eternal wisdom. In everything we want to hear from you, please do not hide your face from us. If you remain silent, we will be like those who are going to the pit. We would be as good as a blind person with no light for guidance. Your Words, your Promises, your Covenant, your Spirit is the way to life.

We are not only to pray this prayer for us but also for other marriages and couples who want to dedicate their marriage for God’s glory. 

Lord, we pray that you build the foundation of their marriage with strong love, patience and faith for one another and for your kingdom. Let their marriage be blessed for generations to come. Let no devil find ground for assaulting them to bring them to destruction. Let their marriage be sealed by the blood of Jesus.

We pray that you protect our vulnerability to sin of the desires of the heart and be our strong security against sin on any kind on to you. Instead, please install within us the spirit of servitude with humbleness and gratitude to you with this marriage!

In Jesus Name! Amen!

One of the good things about this kind of impartation is that it is peaceful and full of compassion for others. It is as if something is flowing non-stop with in us to give us rest and peace. When that happens, we will also want to share that with the rest of the world with great ambition and zeal for the kingdom of God. We would feel empathy for those who are going through tough times with or without their consent.
 

On the contrary, when we are out of the presence of God, we will not feel love and kindness for others.All we think all day is to make us happy and not to care for others. The presence of God creates initiation in you to do good with your time and with all you have got. He wants you to share your belongings with the needy.

He wants you to encourage one another. Most of all, He wants you to love your neighbor as it is written in the Bible. He is a wonderful reminder of what God has done through Christ and all of the sacrifices He made on that cross.

How do we participate in this wonderful blessing of the Lord?Well first of all, we need to invite the Lord in to our hearts, recognize him that He is the salvation of our souls.Jesus is the reason we are not wicked and disobedient children any more.

He is the Lamb of God in whom we all could escape the wrath of God. When we come near to the presence of the Holy Ghost, we will fill this amazing high level of joy and happiness inside.There is no cost for you and me to enjoy this kind of blessing. It is all paid in full by Him, who wants us nothing but the best for his Children.But this gift is not for all. It is only for those who have accepted him as their Lord and Savior. We need to recognize him for what He has done in our lives.

These are 9 gifts given by the Holy Spirit for our edification according to 1 Corinthians 12:8.

1. Wisdom

2. Knowledge

3. Faith

4. Healing

5. Working of miracles

6. Prophecy

7. Discerning of spirits

8. Divers kinds of tongues

9. Interpretation of tongues

These are all beyond our natural abilities. These are supernatural powers given to human beings who have surrendered their lives to Christ and lived their lives according to the Word of God. All of these gifts are given by God not according to our deeds but because of his grace and his Love. Therefore, one shouldn't be proud for obtaining and exercising them.

Most of all, these gifts are given to us so that we can help one another to build our Spiritual strength and grow in to the likeness of God in Christ. Therefore, the motto should be Love and Love first, before even try to use them. For God has not called us to destroy others but to edify us and our brothers and sister in Christ.

It is our father’s will to clean ourselves every day from the accumulation of filth, bitterness and sin in general. It is impossible to stay clean while we live in this world no matter how hard we try. The good news is it is possible to live a guilt free life since the blood of Jesus is always fresh in our lives to cleanse us from every sin we commit on to God.

But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we will have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. -1 John 1:7

Our reward is serving God's name. If there is something that fills my heart with joy is my humble service to God. If there is something that I will never regret doing and would like to do the rest of my life is my humble worship to you, my Lord. Just the word that says I am your servant of the Holy God stirs joy and happiness together in my heart.

That I am not exalting your name in vain. That I am not working for money and fame that everybody will leave it in here. You are my reward in deed that I have profited in serving your Holy name. If I trusted flesh that my reward comes from them, I will be piteous man. If my heart leaps with joy so that I can accumulate a vast amount of earthly treasure, how miserable would I be? But you have called me by name and I became the son of the most high through Christ Jesus serving your name.

How piteous would I be if I have lived all my life for a wood made by the hand of a man? My reward will not come from man. I don’t even really desire thank you from a flesh. But my delight is if I only make You happy all the days of my life. That I will never do anything that will make You regret that I am yours. That is my trust that is my desire that is my wish and that is my reward.

You have given me everything that is yours through Christ with Christ. Your love has given us your gift of love. We have done nothing to deserve any of this. Your grace has completely raised us with favor. While we are disgraced and left alone that no one was able to recognize us, you lifted us from the ground so that we could have a life filled with joy. Christ had given up his life so that others who believed in him shall live a long life of happiness and joy.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. -1 Corinthians 15:58

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. - Proverbs 3:3-4

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. - Colossians 3:23-24

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Galatians 6:9

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ - Matthew 25:21 a

I learned that the problem we experience in life stays there as long as we want it to be there. Hence take no action to change it. Moreover, we don’t want to change our situation since we put much interest in our way of thinking. We put too much reason not to try again after we fall. We know excuses are not answers to our problem. May be we are afraid not to fall again. We like being who we are now.

For winners, getting up again is not a problem. Failing is not an option. No matter how and how many times they fail. There is still time for winning. The battle is not over until they win. They have always saved little energy to ignite their next attempt.

They believe there is always a second chance for those who want to try one more times. They don’t worry too much for tomorrow as tomorrow comes too soon. Winners are those who wait on to the Lord patiently and renew their strength to try again to succeed in the kingdom of God.

The things in life could be dangerous in a way that we could have ended up dead. On the other hand the true glory is if only we could overcome this with the help of Jesus. If we only follow as God tells us and you will be out of our impossibilities.

We can defeat the enemy and go to the next level by establishing father – son relationship with God through Christ Jesus. Avoiding the problem itself or getting knocked down every time will not take us to the next level. We should be able to face our enemy watching his move every second. Don’t forget God always checks what we can do with our family, money and time.

Money is a delegated power given to us by God and God watches us that if we can handle that without abusing it. Time is a valuable resource and he wants us to use it very wisely. The wrong usage of either money or time is an abuse and we cannot be trustworthy. Trust comes from experience.

You trust someone if you know him well and for a long period of time. It can also be possibly with anything we have at hand. Our possessions and everything we believed it is not truly our own. Even the ones who belong to others and we think it is not our problem to care: Even those who have more value than the ones we own. Therefore he watches from heaven if he can find someone faithful who can do all these without seizing. It looks like the concept of responsibility but it all goes to one name: faithfulness.

God knows those who trust on him day and night. He calls them faithful servants. Even though the enemy put obstacles on these faithful ones, he will not prevail. They will always succeed even at times it seems he is prevailing at them. All of this because God fights and wins for them who have given him their lives as a sacrifice.

They have learned that from their Master and their Lord Jesus Chris. For he has not taken his own way but the will of the father to prevail in his life even at times it is impossible to do so. That is why his father has given him the name of all name that those who are created for him and by him should worship him (God) through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God surely will renew your strength and enables you to succeed if you surrender your life to Christ in all matters. For will comes first before action. Therefore your actions will be according to his will when your will has been surrendered for his glory and for his name sake.

Holy Spirit is always there with you to give you strength and forgiving heart.

First he will renew your mind and your heart. When he does that, you will find a new reason to live and a new passion for life. You will be able to walk on your adversities and laugh at your enemies. Yes, he will renew your strength when you wait for him without seizing in payer in Jesus Name!

There could be a time that we may fall again one more time. But the most important thing is that we need to get up and get out from the pit we fell into no matter how deep it is.
 

The result of this experience is that we become empowered once more again to sit at the table and write our past with praise.

One of the reasons we fail is that we think the promise is too far to grasp. We think it is too dark to see.

We may feel like we have nothing to do to speed up. We got also a little bit discouraged by our current situation.

May be we are broken and helpless. Life could be tough sometimes. And for that reason, we may think we have no options but to give up.

But there is something inside of us with a small voice telling us there is still hope. Our dear, Jesus Christ, will come, so we shall wait for him.

He will create enough strength in us to try again. He will encourage us and create a future for us.He will not judge us wrongfully or misunderstand our situation.

He will judge rightfully and he will judge against all odds that are not cultivating us to bear fruits for the Lord.His anger will burn against every opposition and burden that bury our lives down.

He will cast away our deepest sorrow and greatest fear. He will fill us with absolute joy and he will affirm his love for our lives.

It is always better to wait for the Lord and hope for his coming having deep rooted faith in him.We must not give up on him no matter how bad the circumstances are.He will give us victory and a new start to begin with.

Remember always that he is the start and end of everything that is created by Him.He can fix every issue in your life.He is able to bring forth the unseen to be seen.He is alpha omega the beginning and the end.

He is the father of the helpless and father of the fatherless.He can fix anything that has become hopeless and ended miserably.Your case is not any different!

God is our mighty fortress, always ready to helpin times of trouble.And so, we won’t be afraid! -Psalm 46

But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will see His righteousness -Micah 7:8

This is a lesson from the Bible about the story of a man who tried to take what he doesn’t deserve by lies and deception. This is also a lesson that we should not exploit the people of God for our service to them.

2 Kings 5

He returned to the man of God with all his attendants. He came and stood before Elisha, saying, “Now I know for certain that there’s no God anywhere on earth except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.”

But Elisha said, “I swear by the life of the Lord I serve that I won’t accept anything.”

Naaman urged Elisha to accept something, but he still refused. Then Naaman said, “If not, then let me, your servant, have two mule loads of earth. Your servant will never again offer entirely burned offerings or sacrifices to any other gods except the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master comes into Rimmon’s temple to bow down there and is leaning on my arm, I must also bow down in Rimmon’s temple. When I bow down in Rimmon’s temple, may the Lord forgive your servant for doing that.” Elisha said to him, “Go in peace.”

But when Naaman had gone some distance from Elisha, Gehazi (who was the servant of Elisha the man of God) thought, My master let this Aramean Naaman off the hook by not accepting the gift he brought! As surely as the Lord lives, I’ll go after him and accept something from him. So Gehazi pursued Naaman.

Naaman saw him running after him, so he got down off his chariot to meet him. He said, “Is everything okay?” Gehazi answered, “Yes, but my master sent me to say, ‘Two young men who are members of a group of prophets have just now come to me from the hills of Ephraim. Give them a kikkar of silver and two changes of clothing.’”

Naaman said, “By all means, take two kikkars!” He encouraged Gehazi to accept them. He tied two kikkars of silver up in two bags, along with two changes of clothes. Naaman gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them in front of Gehazi. When Gehazi arrived at the elevated fortress,[c] he took the items from them and stored them in his house. Then he sent the servants away, and they left. Gehazi then went and stood before his master.

Elisha said to Gehazi, “Where did you come from, Gehazi?”

“Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi replied.

Elisha said to him, “Wasn’t my heart going along with you[d]when the man got off his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to accept silver, clothes, olive trees, vineyards, sheep, cattle, or male and female servants? 27 Naaman’s skin disease will now cling to you and to your descendants forever!” And