Friday, December 31, 2010

ANSWER GUARANTEED & SCHEDULED!

Answer Guaranteed & Scheduled!

Verse for Today: Friday, Decembeer 31, 2010

Psalms 102:17 - (The Lord) will respond to the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their plea.

God's people usually do not have any deep ties in this world. The world finds them as people who live a separated life and do not involve in the vanity of the world. Their principles, goals and focus in life are very different from the people of the world. They are often looked down upon by the people of the world as destitute who are all alone in their struggles in life. The ways of the children of God often keep them away from friendship with the world and the world treat them as strange people who are out of focus with the world. They do not get any support from the world and are even deprived of any thing that might be theirs. These are the struggles of the people of God and as they live like destitute in the eyes of the people of the world, they continue to speak to their Father who is in Heaven. Their Father always listens to them. All their pleas and pains are heard and seen by the Lord whose eyes are everywhere and His ears are always open to the cries of His children. They know how to pray and then wait for His answers at His time for sure. Their Lord gives them supernatural grace to wait patiently for His time to come with His answers. In the meanwhile, they tarry in hope and keep placing their pleas in the presence of the Lord. His presence is the highest appeal court in this whole universe and once our pleas are placed there, we can rest our case because we know for sure that the Lord would never despise our petitions no matter how foolish they are. If we ask amiss, the Lord will give us the wisdom to understand the folly in our appeals, and if His time has not come, He will give us the patience through His Spirit to wait for His perfect time.

Dear friend, the world might look at you as a destitute, but you are the child of the benevolent God of grace. He allowed you to be born into His family. He bestows upon you all the grace, love and mercy which flow out of His presence towards you. The world will not understand this because they do not have the help of the Spirit to digest what goes on in the lives of God's children. But we know that we have a Father in Heaven who will never leave us nor forsake us. He will not despise us because we go to Him with a broken and contrite spirit full of repentance and humility. He will answer us, but it will have to be at His terms and schedule and not at our time frame. This is because He knows what time is best for you to get His answers from a futuristic perspective. Perhaps you have been praying about some of your struggles and deepest needs throughout the past year, but might find that He has not answered you yet. Perhaps you might wonder if He will answer you at least on the last day of the year. But if He doesn't, please know that He is working on it and in His time frame. Perhaps it is not time yet to answer you, but he has heard your pleas and seen your tears. He knows how burdened your heart is, and will strengthen you with His capacity to wait for His time. He will pour out abundance of patience and make you tarry into the New Year with renewed hope. There will be newer grace and mercy throughout the New Year. Perhaps His time will come in the New Year, but He alone knows about it. He has planned it all well. His program for your struggles will blossom in the New Year, and that too will be for His glory and your good. You are not destitute, but the precious child of the most benevolent Father in Heaven who is willing and able to handle your difficult situation in a way that no eyes have seen or any ears heard. Let us today thank the Lord for the answers to our prayers in the year past and also for those pleas for which there was no answer. Let us also wait for His mighty acts on our behalf throughout the New Year in His will.

Isaiah 65:24 - Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Thought for Today
There is a divine guarantee that our prayers will be heard and answered irrespective of time, place or subject.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

TOUCHING ALL GENERATIONS!

Touching all Generations

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 30, 2010
Psalms 100:5 - For the Lord is good and His love endures for ever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Only those who have tasted the Lord and His actions can boldly say that He is good. The Word of God says that He is sweeter than the honey in a honeycomb. But only those who know what honey is and then compare with it with the sweet experiences given by the Lord will be able to say that He is sweeter than honey. His actions might some times look as if they do not taste as sweet as one would want it to be. When we go through the experiences He takes us through, they are full of difficulties that one would find on a narrow way with its steep hills and rough patches. Humanly it is not always sweet experience, but when we know who is with us, or who do we lean on to and who talks to us on that narrow way, we are able to say that all the difficulties of the narrow way are for our good. The grace given to us on the narrow way is so rich that it would take away all the difficulties that we encounter on that way. The experience of walking through the narrow way with the Lord makes it a sweet time as we walk the edges of His ways. It is during this sojourn that we experience the Lord's love and kindness in an uninterrupted way. There is no instance where His love is not upon us and His kindness is away from us. Not only that, we can always look at the generations who have gone before us to see how He dealt with them in love and kindness. They were not without their share of faults and failures, but He built them up and compensated for all their failures through His faithfulness. We see also that His faithfulness was upon our generations and that is why we are today in His path. Each of us can trace the Lord's faithfulness in preparing our hearts to the point of accepting His grace at the moment when we got saved. Surely, His faithfulness will be with us until we complete our course and sojourn.

Dear friend, are you aware of the depth of faithfulness that the Lord has shown to you to prepare you to become a child of God? Do you realize how the Lord worked through your generations and picked you up at the right time and placed you in His pathway? The way He works in and through all the generations in the past can be vividly seen from the pages of the Bible which is the book of the generations of Adam, Abraham, David and others. The Lord worked in and through all of them to bring gospel to us today. The promises He gave them were kept by Him without an iota of change and that is why we are all in His pathway today. The depth of His loving kindness is seen in the way He knew us before the foundation of the world was laid and prepared our generations, geography, language and culture and even technology to bring the good news of the gospel to us at the time we all got saved. The salvation that was offered to all the generations of the past is the same salvation given to us. Before Calvary, the saints saw it by faith by looking into the future, but today we look back at Calvary and see it as a historical reality. If we analyze our past, we will be able to see how carefully He planned our generations to touch us by His gospel at the right time marked for each of us by Him. Along with that, all that we need to live a life of victory here on earth are also prepared and provided by the Lord so that we would not lack any thing that is necessary to keep going in serving Him. When we are adequately aware of this, all we can do is to fall prostrate before Him in worship, dedicate ourselves and all that we have. We can also be rest assured that His loving kindness, mercy and faithfulness will continue as long as there will be seasons and times until we reach our eternal Home. What a blessed privilege we have today to live for the God of all generations who has been faithful to us. We need to reciprocate it by being faithful to Him in all that we do.

Psalms 90:1 - Lord, You have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.

Thought for Today
History of mankind is the history of God's faithfulness to them.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

THE TRUE RULER AND THE OVERRULER!

The True Ruler and Overruler!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Psalms 97:1 - The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.

It is the awareness of the Lord as the King that makes people glad and rejoicing. The rulers of the earth rule through rules, regulations and controls. They promise and are not able to deliver. Their actions are always to please themselves and their coterie. Their plans are according to their worldly wisdom. But the Lord rules and overrules all other activities that are going on in this world. His control is behind the scene. Only His children know this and that is why they are able to be glad and rejoicing even in the most difficult circumstances. They recognize His hand in all the uncontrollable things in this world. His interferences in the affairs of the world by the Lord are primarily His ways to speak to the people to prepare themselves to meet their creator. His message through all the events in nature and creation is to make man think about his relation with God. But at the same time, God expects His people to show the world that they have rejoicing in their lives in all circumstances and that they are glad because their Lord is in ultimate control of the events of this world. The earth and distant shores are glad because there is soon going to be a deliverance for the entire creation of God from the curse which has been upon the earth because of the sin of man. All creation is rejoicing because their redemption is drawing nearer and nearer. These truths call upon God's children to exhibit their happiness about the fact that their Lord reigns and He is in total control of the situations around them. They have nothing to be afraid of because their Lord is turning the events around by ruling and overruling above everything and making it all culminate in His glory.

Dear friend, are you glad and rejoicing today in spite of all that is happening around you? If you look around, there are a lot of reasons for you and me to cry and be bewildered because sin is abounding and evil is enlarging into all areas of human endeavors. But in the midst of it all, God's children can rejoice because their Lord is above all of these events and He is watching it all. He intervenes in world events to make it all focus towards His plan for this earth and for all the people who live here. He is not going to watch these sinful events for long without interfering. His focus is to protect and preserve His children till the rapture and then allow the earth and its inhabitants to go through a time once again to take a stand for or against Him through the great tribulation which is on its way. But at the end of it all, He will once again directly interfere and redeem this earth and the entire creation and rule over it literally for a thousand years. The earth and the shores are rejoicing because the rule of the Lord will soon be on its way. The Lord will once again prove that He is the Lord of all and Lord of the entire Universe. This ought to make His children happier than any one else on earth, because the Lord's plan for the redemption of this creation include a serious role for them also. They are going to rule with Him in the millennial kingdom. But we His children are already in His kingdom of love where He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When He rules us, it is not tyranny, but rule of love, grace and mercy. This awareness ought to shift our attention to the Lord and His benevolence and praise Him. Let it show in our lives as unexplainable joy and happiness which possessions or positions cannot buy. It was all purchased by the blood of the Lamb on the cross, and we are privileged to be beneficiaries of all that He has prepared for us. Let the reign of the Lord control our thoughts and aspirations today and make us abound in joy!

Psalms 89:15 - How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.

Thought for Today
The knowledge of the greatness and benevolence of our God ought to make His people rejoice and live in great expectation day by day.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

SPRINGS OF NEWER SONGS!

Springs of Newer Songs

Verse for Today: Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Psalms 96:1 - Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

A child of God who sits in the presence of God and gazes at the glories and greatness of God comes up with innumerable reasons to sing to the Lord. His glories and attributes are so great that each of these demands innumerable expressions of praise, gratitude and wonder. Not only that, when we sit in the presence of the Lord, we are reminded of the various ways by which He touches our lives through His mighty acts. Each of these incidents of His gentle touch of encouragement, strength, building up and protection makes us come up with newer and newer ways to express His mercy and benevolence. These expressions make painters to paint new portraits, poets to write new poetry, composers to write new lyrics and the skillful fingers of the string instruments compose new notes of new heights of music. These are the different expressions of different kind that come out of the grateful hearts which have seen the various colours of His glory as these touch the various aspects of our lives. This is the setting at which the Psalmist invokes us today to sing a new song. Surely the old songs are worth repeating any number of times, but there is pressure in our souls to sing new songs of new thoughts and meditations about who our Lord really is and what He keeps doing for us. New songs are the new catches of original renditions that we get from the Spirit of God in our hearts. Throughout the last centuries, millions of new songs have come up in about 2000 languages in the world, but there is no end to it. Till the rapture, there will be more and more new songs of new beauty and elegance which help us to express our emotions of love, gratitude and worship to our Lord for who He really is and what He has done for us. Some of us are given the grace to compose, others are given the grace to make notations and chords, still others have the melodious vocal track to make it soothing, and some of us sing along and sing when we are alone. The music keeps going and praise keeps being lifted up to the Lord who is seated on the Throne.

Dear friend, you might not be a song writer, but even then, when you sit in the presence of God with a heart full of gratitude and indebtedness, your heart will be filled with newer and newer thoughts of newer depth and height about the person of our God. He is our Shepherd, leader, guide, friend, protector, encourager, strength, trainer, provider, healer and the lover of our souls. In each of these dimensions, there are far too many thoughts that come to our hearts, all of which will give us newer and newer expressions of our love and gratitude to the Lord. As we meditate on these, we get ourselves lost in the wonder and awe of Him and submit ourselves as living sacrifices to Him. He wants us to submit ourselves as worship as many times as possible each day because we mean so much to Him and He has done so much for us which demands as much expressions of gratitude from us as possible. We can also sing the new songs which come out of the hearts of God's people and at the same time sing the old songs with new vigor, vitality and sincerity. This is what He expects from us. Think about the wonderful ways by which He leads us each day which demands so much of singing and praising. When we occupy ourselves thus with thoughts about Him and His mighty acts, we would not have time to murmur or grumble and our hearts will be full of grateful thoughts about Him and the resultant joy. Let the joy of singing fill our hearts today as we meditate on Him and His mighty acts. Let us be occupied with Him and Him alone, and let us live today as heavenly people who are truly seated in Heaven even when we are on earth physically.

Psalms 100:2 - Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Thought for Today
When the heart catches fresh visions of the glories of our God, it springs up newer expressions of love and worship.

Monday, December 27, 2010

A JOYFUL LOT!

A Joyful Lot

Verse for Today: Monday, December 27, 2010
Psalms 95:1 - O Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

The Spirit of God invokes the people of God everywhere to come together to sing joyfully to the Lord because God has filled their lives with unspeakable joy. They were people of tears and their lives were in darkness. Instead of singing, they only knew crying. They were spiritually oppressed people and had no peace in their hearts. They were full of murmur and have been going through grumbling. They had no satisfaction in anything. But God came into their lives and changed their countenance. He changed their hearts and gave them new hearts. He wrote His laws in their hearts and lives. He removed their curse and filled them with blessings. He gave them peace that passes all understanding. He performed innumerable miracles in their lives which even amazed them. When the Lord has thus changed their lives, the fitting response was to sing to the Lord about all that He has done for them. They have personal singing, but they are also challenged to come together and sing as a congregation of redeemed people. The marvelous things that the Lord has done in their lives make them shout for joy because mere singing alone was not adequate for them to sufficiently express themselves. Often when they shout for joy, the people around heard them and realize that some unusual things were happening to them and even feared them and their God. The people in the surrounding places realize that God's people are a blessing to others because of the mighty acts of their God. This is the most splendid testimony that a child of God can have as he or she sings and shouts for joy because a joyful countenance conveys strong messages about what was going on inside them.

Dear friend, is your heart full of joy because of the realization that the Lord has done wonderful things for you? Is your life full of praise for all that the Lord is doing in your life? Do you sometimes reach a stage when you realize that mere singing is not adequate to express your joy, and that leads you to shout in His presence? Remember, a joyful heart leads to a joyful life which leads to a joyful congregation. For any reason whatsoever, if your life is not full of joy, it is time to examine whether you are truly grateful to the Lord for what He has done for you. A grateful heart will be a joyful heart which is reflected in the expressions you make in the presence of the Lord. Today the Spirit of God asks us to come together with other children of God to the presence of God to sing and make a joyful noise unto Him. A joyful heart has strength from the Lord to face any eventuality in life. No matter how the world treats them, such lives will still be joyful. There is no scope for frustration in a joyful life. A joyful life is the best advertisement for Heaven where God's people are going to spend their joyful eternity. A joyful life tells the people around their joy in spite of all the circumstances, tests, failures, losses, grief or the way the world oppresses and cheats the child of God. None of these eventualities take away the joy of the Lord which is the driving force to take us forward in our sojourn. Today let us walk with the joyful Lord Jesus, with songs in our mouths and hearts, come rain, snow or sunshine, and march towards Zion. Let us walk together as a congregation of God's joyful people from victory unto victory day by day, because the victorious Lord is with us.

Nehemiah 8:10a - This day is sacred for our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Thought for Today
When we give full control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, He will allow our lives to fruit joy unspeakable.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

PRECIOUS INHERITANCE!

Precious Inheritance!

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 26, 2010
Psalms 94:14 - For the Lord will not abandon His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.

One of the greatest confidence the people of God have in this world is that they are God's special people and that He owns them as His special inheritance. The Lord deals with them on the basis of this special ownership and possession. In all His plans His children are the prime focus. It has pleased Him to share His glory with them. He is happy to testify about them to their enemies who try to mistreat them. He has spoken to people like the friends of Job and emperors like Pharaohs of Egypt, Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar and others for and on behalf of His precious children. He even speaks to Satan and ask him to leave His children alone. God always has something to speak about His children to the outsiders. They are His inheritance which He secured through His act of redemption. It is this relationship which makes us go to Him with holy boldness in prayer for all our needs. But even before we go to Him with our needs, we must realize how big and mighty our God is. He is mighty in intervening in any of our circumstances for our sake. He stops kings from sleeping in order to fulfill His plans for His children as in the case of Mordecai. He has commanded all our enemies that they should not touch His anointed. Touching His precious children is like touching Him. This was why the Lord stopped Saul of Tarsus to ask Him to refrain from touching His children and His church. It is our blessed privilege to know this wonderful God and to be part of His divine plan. It is also important for us to behave like we are God's inheritance here in this world and make ourselves totally available for Him to use us to bring greater glory to Him.

Dear friend, are you aware of the extent to which you are precious to God? Do you know that God the Father loves you with the same love with which He loves His only begotten Son? This is why we have all the privileges in the presence of the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can go to Him with all our needs and ask Him boldly in our prayers to meet our needs. This does not mean that He doesn't know our needs before we ask Him, because as the God who knows yesterday, today and forever, He knows all our needs and has already prepared everything for us. But as a loving Father, He loves for us to ask Him so that He can give us as answers to our prayers. But we must understand that He has planned far greater things for us than we could ever ask for. We often ask for mundane things, but He wants to give us glorious things. Our asking often falls far short of His plan for us and His immeasurable capacity to give, and this often makes us live in spiritual poverty. His providence is like a vast ocean, and we have every right to go and drink the whole ocean, but we are often satisfied with a handful. He is challenging us to go to Him and dip deep into the ocean of His providence. His resources like love, peace, joy, grace, patience, sleep, contentment and hope are available in immeasurable quantity for us to imbibe and enjoy. But sadly many of us do not go to Him and drink from His vast ocean of glorious blessings. He is asking us to go to Him and drink to our capacity and satisfaction. If we go to Him and allow Him to fill us, we would not lack any thing because He wants us to be shining inheritance for His name sake here on earth until He takes us to Himself where we will be like stars in His presence forever. Let us be rest assured that no matter what our circumstances or problems are, He will not abandon us nor forsake us because we are His precious possession and most invaluable inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:9 - For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.

Thought for Today
As God's inheritance in this world, we ought to look and act like it.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

PERMANENCY HERE AND NOW!

Permanency Here and Now!

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 25, 2010
Psalms 92:12 - The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

The world has a distorted view of what it means to flourish and grow. According to the world's definition, flourishing is in human achievements and growth is in popularity and prestige. If a person has more and more material prosperity, the world will consider him to be flourishing. But sadly the world doesn't know that the material prosperity or popularity will never be permanent and will vanish as years go by. Ignorant of this truth, we see the people of the world take all efforts throughout their life time to expand in more material prosperity and grow in popularity, positions and prominence which are sure to disappear. But the righteous people have a permanency in their existence. They may not be materially rich and might not become prominent in this world. But they flourish spiritually which is a permanent state of affairs. They grow in faith, love, peace and grace which are divine attributes that they will never loose. In fact, they will flourish in all of these characteristics day by day because they are planted in the presence of the Lord. Their growth is aided by the resources of Heaven and so they keep growing. We find several Bible characters whose reputation has grown several folds since their time on the earth and are still growing. Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job and Nehemiah are growing in the hearts and experiences of millions of God's people throughout the last several millenniums. They occupy a great place in Heaven and no one can take these positions away from them. Their growth has been strong and long lasting like the palm trees and cedars for several generations to see.

Dear friend, are you growing in the Lord and His Word daily? It is most meaningful if you grow only as a righteous person. By being righteous does not mean that you become a faultless and perfect individual, but a forgiven sinner who is made righteous through the righteousness of God. When you confess your sins and failures before God, your sins and shortcomings are forgiven and you are declared a righteous person in and through Jesus Christ. As a person who has righteousness imparted into you life, you have the opportunity to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Holy God. But your spiritual growth while on earth is only a starting point of a process and you will grow into eternity and stand there like a strong and sturdy cedar of Lebanon forever. This privilege is available to all human beings provided they allow themselves to be replanted in the vineyard of the Lord in His presence. The act of replanting is the experience of being born again into the family of God. Thus when you become a child of God, you are given a permanency which moves from earth to heaven at the return of the Lord. But the choice is ours to decide whether we want to be planted in the vineyard of the Lord and enjoy permanency. We stand as a mark of the faithfulness of the Lord to us. We stand because He makes us permanent. We become strong and sturdy in His strength which He imparts in us. Our standing is His standing which He gives to us. There is no reason to believe that the palm trees and cedars of God would ever get uprooted and lost in the heat of the world. We will always enjoy the shade and coolness of the Lord to stand for Him as a mark of His faithfulness. This is the reason why the Bible says that we shall not want. The flourishing and growing trees of God are aided by the Lord and so we shall stand strong for the Lord. What a privilege it is to stand for the Lord in His presence as a testimony to His faithfulness!

Psalms 92:13 - Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Thought for Today
It is the Lord who plants us and helps us to grow for His glory and to stand for Him forever.

Friday, December 24, 2010

PROMISES LEAD TO RESPONSIBILITY!

Promises lead to Responsibility

Verse for Today: Friday, December 24, 2010

Psalms 91:14 - "Because he loves me", says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name".

The promises of God are to His children. When they seek the help of their Father in times of need, He is under loving obligation to help them. God always looks into the hearts of His people to see whether they love Him and whether they acknowledge His name in all that they do. These genuine responses to God are expected from all God's children. God's rescue plan for His children is not without any responsibility on their part. He is looking for people who loves Him more than any thing or any one else in this life. Such deep love has to be demonstrated through total commitment and allegiance to God evidenced by actions and attitude. God sees our actions and looks into our hearts to see if our attitudes are in line with what we do or speak. If our motives are right before Him, that would suffice. If our attitude is sincere and serious, He would help us further to walk closer to Him. Such love is always demonstrated through obedience. So when a child of God obeys the Lord and demonstrates love towards God through right attitude and actions, the Lord's promise to them will become a reality. He will rescue such obedient children from all difficult situations. If we acknowledge the Lord's name in what we do and live as a living testimony to the power and dignity of the Lord, His promise of protection and caring will follow us. In other words, if we desire God's protection and rescue, we must live a life that is worthy of the Lord to whom we belong. Those who profess Him as Lord, but live as if they belong to the enemy of the Lord are disobedient and dishonest children and so they cannot claim the promise of rescue and protection from the Lord. So every prayer for help must precede repentance and confession of sins.

Dear friend, if we do not want to dwell in the shelter of the Most High and do not want to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, we do not have any claim for His rescue and protection in our daily lives. His promises are directed to His committed children. We do not rule out any help from the Lord even to the disobedient children, but it is out of His loving kindness and mercy, and not as a right to claim His promises. But if they wish to see to it that the promises are fulfilled in their lives, they need to get back to the Lord and draw closer to Him. So there is need for all of us to live in continuous repentance and confession of any known or even unknown sin and be in tune with the Lord so that we can claim the promises of the Lord in our daily lives. We must also realize that either we live in the shelter and shadow of the Lord, or we do not. There is no way we can live by putting our legs in two canoes at the same time. If we falter in our trust in the Lord, we must be quick to confess it as a grave weakness and sin and ask the Lord to forgive us. Otherwise, we would be living as sheer hypocrites. No hypocrite has any right to claim the promises of God, but all repentant and forgiven sinners have the privilege to claim all the promises of God. Such people are asked to seek the face of the Lord which will not be hidden from them. When such people claim any of the promises of God by faith, the Lord will honor their faith and fulfill His promises to them. So let us today confess all our known and unknown sins and ask for His forgiveness. Let us live in continuous repentance and be constantly washed by Him with His Word. As we are drawn closer to Him and as we walk with Him in continuous fellowship, we will enjoy a time of dwelling in His shelter and shadow. When we pray with such a heart, we have the privilege to expect answers according to the promises of God. Let us today renew our hearts and lives and enjoy the promises of God which are specially designed for His obedient children.

Psalms 91:15 - He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

Thought for Today
Each time we claim a promise of God, it is also an opportunity to straighten out our lives.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

SAFETY, SECURITY AND PROTECTION!

Safety, Security and Protection

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 23, 2010

Psalms 91:4 - He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

It is absolutely definite that the Lord is our protection and stronghold. When we live in the shelter of the Almighty, we are covered by His glory which cannot be penetrated by any other force in this universe. He protects us like a mother bird carefully protects its chicks. Unless the enemy penetrates through the mother bird, the young ones cannot be touched. It is also true that those who try to touch us actually try our Lord who is our wall of protection. His faithfulness with regard to His promises is also far above even the iota of doubt of any kind. When the Lord is our refuge and protector, He is the ultimate safeguard against the wiles of the enemy. So when a child of God lives under the wings of the Lord, there is no greater safety and security. The reassurance of protection that we enjoy from the presence of Lord is unparalleled. So we are always safe in the arms of the Lord. This safety is our privilege and inheritance as the children of God. The heavenly hosts of our Lord are appointed to look after us in the physical sense and they encompass around us all the time. Such protection is ours because we are the precious possession of the Lord bought with the highest price that could be attributed to any object in this universe. This price is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which He gave for us so that we can be secured for Him eternally. Along with Him as His gift to us, the Father in Heaven has given us all protection, safety, provisions for daily living, caring and love. Our responsibility it is to enjoy these privileges and live for His glory on a daily basis.

Dear friend, do you enjoy the security that is given to you under the shadow of the Almighty? It is security for our souls and our bodies because along with our souls, our bodies are also purchased at Calvary. So in all our dealings and movements, we should have this awareness that we are not our own, but are purchased with the price of the blood of the Lamb. We should understand the preciousness that is attached to us by the Lord. We need not have any fear for life while here on earth because we are eternally secure in Him. We should also enjoy the safety that is granted to us because we live in His presence and that He treats us as sheep that are carried in His hands and on His shoulders. We are protected like the young ones of a mother bird with love and we sit close to the heart of the Lord for maximum security. Who can separate us from the Lord and His love? But the enemy will try his best to detract us from sitting close to the Lord. The enemy is very crafty and he will try to develop pride in us so that we would want to take our protection and safety in our own hands. This is the sure way to destruction which we should carefully keep away from. No matter how mature a believer you are, you should never feel self sufficient and arrogant about your own capacity to protect yourself. No matter how much experience you have in spiritual matters, it will not protect you from the enemy. But only total dependence on the Lord will give you the protection you need. Today let us draw closer to the Lord and enjoy the protection He gives us on a daily and minute by minute basis. His protection also includes His wonderful provisions for us to live a life of contentment and satisfaction which the sheep of His pastures enjoy. Because the Lord is our Shepherd, we have everything that we need to live a peaceful and anxiety-free life here on earth for His glory.

Psalms 36:7 - How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

Thought for Today
We are expected to appropriate the safety and security given to us on a daily basis through total dependence on the Lord and His resources.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

IRRECOVERABLE LOSS!

Irrecoverable Loss

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Psalms 90:12 - Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

God is so much keen that His children should live in this world with His wisdom. Godly wisdom can come to us only if we interact with God and live a life of regular review of our yesteryears. It entails the number of opportunities that we have wasted away because we didn't use the wisdom that the Lord has given us. When He allows us to live for a day in this world, He has some definite purposes behind it. It is part of His eternal plan for us in His perfect will. But as we endeavor to live according to His purpose, our enemy will come to distract and lure us away from His perfect plan for us. The enemy will make us so busy with work, business and even ministry, as to forget what God wants us to do each day. Thus when we do not make ourselves available for God's purpose to be fulfilled in our lives, we are rejecting the plan and the corresponding heavenly resources which are kept at our disposal as a gift from God. This is the most serious lack of wisdom that we exhibit in our lives. Ultimately when we reckon with it, we will be in a great sense of loss in our account with the Lord. Surely there will be a day of reckoning with God for all the opportunity that He gives us. At that time we would have to stand alone to give an account. If we are adequately aware of this reality, we need the wisdom of God to number the days that we have lost forever. These are the heavenly opportunities that are lost simply because we do not take time to be with the Lord in His presence to receive His wisdom to know how to use the opportunities. As the Lord enlightens us through His Spirit, we need to first of all confess the lost time due to our lethargy, lack of seriousness and the coldness of our hearts. Inasmuch as the loss is permanent and irrecoverable, the Lord is gracious and merciful to forgive us and give us another day or perhaps another year or a few more years. But if we have learned our lessons of the depth of the loss that we have incurred in making use of the opportunities for the Lord and the wasting away of the resources of God, it is time to gear up and invest our everything and our all in the Lord's business. But the Lord is first and foremost asking us to give ourselves to Him and then all that we have will follow suite.

Dear friend, are you aware of the tremendous opportunities and resources that you would have wasted away in the past by not investing it for the Lord? In terms of the hours that are lost, when it is translated in monetary terms, perhaps it will come to millions of rupees or dollars. Yet, are we concerned? Do we feel the tremendous sense of loss? To the extent of the loss on your accord, you are a debtor to the Lord. He is now asking you to count the number of days that are left for you to work for the Lord, and surrender yourself to His business, to at least making the maximum use of the available time in the future. This is one of the ways by which we will be wise according to the Lord. The exciting news is that if we use the Lord's resources to work for Him, He will put all the results in our account and give us credit for it all. Such is our Lord who wants to make use of us for His glory by giving us all that we need to work for Him. The way you have been making use of the available opportunities for the Lord is an indicator of how much Heavenly wisdom you possess. Let us today ask the Lord to forgive our sin of omission in not doing what we ought to have done for Him. Let us also confess our sin of commission by which we have done what we should not have done with the resources He has given us and ask for His pardon. But this pardon is to accompany a total and absolute commitment by us to making use of the future opportunities for the Lord. When we are thus involved in the Lord's business, He will get involved in our affairs and give us our basic needs to enable us to serving Him. So when we are in the Lord's business, we do not need to be anxious about our needs because He is faithful to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory. Let us be wise and see all the provisions the Lord has made for us to mind His business and at the same time meet all our needs.

Daniel 12:3 - Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Thought for Today
The depth of our wasted opportunities will be a shocking revelation to us when we meet the Slain Lamb in His full glory.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

UNBREAKABLE PROMISES!

Unbreakable Promises

Verse for Today: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Psalms 89:33 - But I will not break off My loving kindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.

There is a firm and unchanging promise from our loving Heavenly Father that He will not deal with us according to our qualifications or merit. He has promised to continue to show loving kindness to us not because we deserve it, but because He is a benevolent Father who has compassion towards us. When we walk astray, His love comes back to us to remind ourselves to walk worthy of the call with which we are called. He helps us to re-establish our broken fellowship with Him. When we fall away, it is our act of backsliding that keeps us away from Him. But He still loves us and wants to help us re-establish fellowship with us. This is why God always comes to man. God knows that man is not capable to come back to God unilaterally. So God helps us to get back to Him. We see God going after Adam and Eve. He has gone back to all His children who have been disobedient, to help them settle with Him. This is because He still loves us. Our disobedience will be dealt with by Him according to His righteousness and loving kindness because we are His beloved children. So He deals with us in compassion and mercy. Otherwise, we will be consumed by His wrath and we will be no more. The very fact that we are all in His grace today is simply because of His grace, mercy and compassion. He also reminds us that He will not withdraw His promises to us because these promises are words which the Almighty has uttered in His eternal wisdom and cannot change it. It is not in His character to change His promises and so He comes to reassure us that He will not go back on His promises to us. He is the loving Father who awaits us and puts His arms around us when we come back to Him. He is the compassionate Shepherd who searches after the lost sinner. He is the patient and loving Spirit who searches for us until we are found. He will not rest until He finds us to have continued fellowship with Him.

Dear friend, are we not the most fortunate people in this world because we have such a loving and compassionate Lord in Heaven who is so much interested in us? He has the whole Universe to look after, but His priority is to be with us and look after us. None of His promises go waste as they are uttered by the Lord of the Universe and He means every word of it. He will never withdraw any of His promises as long as times and seasons exist. Our salvation is His promise which we can attain by a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our needs are met on a daily basis by simply believing in His promises. We receive peace, joy and comfort in this difficult world because He has enough of it to be given to us. He gives us according to our daily needs to meet the challenges we face each day. All that He gives us is according to His measure and there is no shortage in any thing that He offers. He deals in us on the basis of His principles which are eternal. So when He gives to us, it is on the basis of His eternal purpose. For us to gain full satisfaction, we must try to understand His eternal purpose for us. He gives us things which are of spiritual value and not of the temporal decaying earthly value. His gifts are precious and cannot be compared with any thing that the world offers. His gifts are always on the basis of His promises which are unchanging. When we have such a benevolent Lord, we need to straighten our lives with Him and live as it fits the call with which we are called. Let us today live on this earth as we are seated in the heavenly places to enjoy all the spiritually qualitative blessings that are bestowed upon us.

1 Kings 8:56 - Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through His servant Moses.

Thought for Today
Heaven is unwilling and incapable of going back on the promises made to us, but it can be utilized only by those who have a felt need.

Monday, December 20, 2010

SHOUTS OF VICTORY!

Shouts of Victory

Verse for Today: Monday, December 20, 2010

Psalms 89:15 - How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound; O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.

The Bible is the book which describes the blessedness of God's people who know God as a living reality in their lives. They experience God in the varied events of their lives. He leads them from victory to victory every day of their lives and that makes them shout for joy in the name of the Lord. Their victory is what the Lord has earned for them through His mighty power. The enemy of their soul tries to bring them down and defeat them squarely, but the Lord doesn't forsake them. He fights for them and fights with them in the battle as their partner. He equips them to fight and give them the right strategy to fight. They are constantly reminded that the battle belongs to the Lord and that they win on the merit of their Lord and Master. As God's people experience victory, they cannot keep quiet, but to shout loud to the power of the Lord. They acknowledge all their victories to the loving kindness of the Lord and attribute their very existence to the mercy of the Lord. They look to the Lord for strength and energy to fight for the Lord and consider it a great privilege to fight for Him. When we examine the history of God's people, we find that they were all engaged in battles all through their lives. There were many defeats in several lives which were largely due to their carelessness and disobedience. But the Lord showed mercy to see them through their defeats and gave them victory through their unconditional obedience. We also find those who were utterly victorious like Nehemiah, Joseph, Daniel and Jeremiah. They all went through rough and tough patches of life, but the Lord gave them victory largely due to their willingness to follow the instructions and commands given to them.

Dear friend, are you aware of the fact that you are involved in a battle which belongs to the Lord? It is a battle for the Lord and for His kingdom. It is to be fought through unconditional obedience and austerity. We live to fight for the Lord and live to keep utter discipline in life so that all our energies can be used for the Lord and His battle. When He gives us victory, shouts of joy come out of us spontaneously. This is the true acknowledgement that the Lord became victorious through us. His victory is for us and not for Himself. He wants us to be victorious over sin, flesh and the world which are all owned by the enemy. When we live for the Lord and fight for Him, He uses us to fight for us to get victory. Thus we get victory over all our behavioural aberrations and faithlessness. When thoughts about the Lord control our minds, we would not have anxiety and cares. Battle against these evils itself is a great battle and we need to get victory over these so that we would live in full trust and faith in the Lord. That is when we look to the Lord and our face shines as He sheds His light on us. Such a life of faith is what the Lord wants us to enjoy through victories in faith. May we enjoy such joy of victory over all the emotions and feelings that come to capture our minds! May our Lord secure victory for us in all our circumstances so that shouts of joy will come out of us as a matter of praise to His name!

Psalms 35:9 - And my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; it shall exult in His salvation.

Thought for Today
There will be bewilderment in hell when a child of God shouts for victory in the name of the Lord.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

GOD'S JUSTICE FOR THE UNJUST WORLD!

God's Justice for the Unjust World

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 19, 2010

Psalms 89:14 - Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your Throne; love and faithfulness go before You.

God as the King of all living beings rules His kingdom with righteousness and justice to all. He will never violate these foundational rules of His kingdom. He deals in everything righteously and does everything with absolute justice. He does justice to all who are suffering and oppressed. He shows loving kindness and compassion to all His children and interferes in their lives to see to it that there is justice in their lives. He deals with all in love and is faithful in all His promises. But there is none righteous in this world and all have gone short of the glory of God. So He comes to man through His Son, and in His death on the cross, He paid the entire price that had to be paid for man to be righteous before God. So today God deals with man in righteousness through the death of His Son and asks people everywhere to go to Him through His Son. If we go to Him through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He will do justice to us and deal with us in righteousness. In order for us to be dealt in righteousness and justice, God allowed His Son to deprive Himself of righteousness and justice. He was dealt in utter cruelty by man and was not shown any justice, for He suffered without a crime. If we trust in Jesus and His death on the cross, we would then be eligible to receive God's righteousness and justice, and so God will then deal with us in righteousness and justice. This is the only way His love and faithfulness will follow us and go before us as we sojourn in this world. Such a life will be a contented life which will praise God for all that happens in their lives. Such a life will never complain about any thing in life, but will receive all that the Lord gives without any resentment.

Dear friend, are you feeling that you do not get righteousness and justice in this life? Don't feel dejected, because your Lord Jesus didn't get it either. He willingly allowed Himself to be deprived of it so that you can find it before God. This world will not give justice to God's children, but we will find it in the presence of the Lord. So while here on earth, we will receive the grace to face the rough realities of life even when we are deprived of righteousness. The world will not give it to us because the world doesn't have it at its disposal. But the Lord has it in abundance and will give to us according to His measure. It is given to us not because we deserve it, but are made to be inheritors of God's righteousness through Jesus Christ who was denied it for our sake. So, dear friend, there is no need for you to get frustrated when the world denies you righteousness and justice. The world cannot give it to you because they cannot give you what they don't have. But your life is a result of God's righteousness and justice to you and He will show it to you in abundance. He deals with you in righteousness which is given to you freely through the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. This is what makes you eligible to receive God's faithfulness and loving compassion. Isn't it wonderful to be able to live in this world of injustice with Heavenly justice, love, kindness and righteousness and live as the children of God?

Psalms 101:1 - I will sing of Your love and justice; to You, O Lord, I will sing praise.

Thought for Today
You are God's signpost of His love, kindness and justice in this world.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

THE LORD OF LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS!

The Lord of Light in my Darkness

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 18, 2010

Psalms 88:12 - Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Those who are made to wait for a long time for deliverance often plunge into desperation and depression. They have waited for long and there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. They become weary by longing for endless years and feel tired of waiting without seeing any ray of hope in the horizon. Their hearts throb with great expectations and they continuously renew their hope that one of these days the Lord will answer. Their waiting lasts almost a life time and they wonder if it was worth waiting any further. Many of the great men of faith like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Job and others had several milestones of waiting. Yet they never gave up hope in spite of several human reasons to quit. In every such case, the Lord proved that those who wait for the Lord will be honored and their faith found the reality. But if one asks them, they will be able to tell stories about how difficult it was to wait in darkness indefinitely. Such indefinite waiting can drain any one of faith and trust. In their desperation, such waiting saints ask the question as to whether there would be any wonders in the darkness of life. But wonders work only in the darkness and the light of the Lord is shed abroad in the stark lonely dark nights of life. They were all given the capacity to wait and were fortified to keep expecting the hand of the Lord in action at the right time. Even when people forget the promises given to them long time ago by the Lord, His choice servants are given the grace to renew the promises of hope. Every one of us reach a stage in our life of faith when we get exasperated because of seemingly unwarranted waiting. But the Lord will always come back to prove to us that His best is reserved for those who are willing to wait in the darkness for long without becoming weary.

Dear friend, are you weary and tired of waiting for the Lord in the darkness? Is the circumstance telling you that it is better to forget the promises of God and try to do something on our own? But the lives of children of God who lived only by faith tell us vividly that even in the stark darkness of forgetfulness, it is still worth all the while to wait patiently for the Lord. He might delay His action to allow you to be ready and prepared to receive the special answers that the Lord is getting ready for you. He might delay to measure your faith in action. Remember, it is better to be in the perfect will of God even in darkness rather than out of the will of God in light. It is better to wait in expectation than to receive in faithlessness. Some people receive faster because they do not have the capacity to wait and do not have the spiritual maturity to stay in expectation. But those who wait for the Lord only renew their strength. So either you can have renewed strength of the Lord to keep going or get weary without instant gratification of your desires. Was it not better that the dreams of Joseph were fulfilled when he was 30 years old than at age 17? He was not ready at 17 and the setting was not right for the dreams to be fulfilled at that age. The Lord is working in and on us all these years. He speaks to you in light and tests you in the darkness. But even then His loving arms are underneath you and you are allowed to rest on His shoulders so that all your weariness in waiting will not be felt by you. Surely the present darkness will go away and the sun of righteousness will rise on you to brighten up your path. None of the Lord's promises to you will ever lose its credibility and tenacity. All the promises will be fulfilled at the right time to open the right doors for you to go forward to reach the vistas the Lord has for you.

Psalms 112:4 - Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious, compassionate and righteous.

Thought for Today
Dwelling in the darkness with the Lord is better than walking in the light without Him.

Friday, December 17, 2010

YOUR LIFE: A SPRING OF JOY!

Your Life: A Spring of Joy

Verse for Today: Friday, December 17, 2010

Psalms 87:7b - "All my springs of joy are in you"

It is good to know the Lord intimately through our experiences. The more we experience Him, the more we will appreciate Him as a practical reality. Our experience will strengthen us to keep trusting Him for our unknown future. It also speaks to others and strengthen them in their faith. What He has done for us, He will do for others too, and vice versa, but it will all be according to His measure for our individual needs. How He works in the lives of His children is a matter of mutual encouragement for all of us to continue to walk by faith in Him. As we walk with Him, we realize that there is no shadow of turning with Him. We thus learn that He is the never changing God who does what He says. His promises are unchanging because all His promises are based on His character of being the unchanging God. Thus we enjoy our walk of faith with Him and it gives us a special kind of joy in our lives. This joy comes from our experiences of trust in Him that He will never leave us nor forsake us. So even when the going gets tough, if we are sure that no matter what we go through, the end will be joyful victory for us. That should make us happy and fill us with the joy of the Lord. This joy comes to us and fills us. It comes from the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of joy. He fills us with Himself and thus we get His joy which encompasses around us with the confidence that we do not need to be perplexed about what we are going through. When the joy of the Lord thus fills us, He will not stop there, but will work as a spring in our lives and will overflow through our behavior, attitude and expressions of various kinds so that the joy permeates into the social environment around us.

Dear friend, what kind of a spring is your life? Is it soaking your environment with good and godly things or is it filled with things of this world which are depressive and negative? Surely it depends on what or whom you allow to fill your life with. It depends on whether your thoughts are filled with the Lord and His glory or with the vanity of this world. It is the direct result of the way you allow your life to be controlled by the Lord. Such controls are a direct result of the matters you allow your mind to occupy with. If your mind is occupied with the Lord and His Spirit, He will control your thoughts, desires, aspirations, likes, dislikes, preferences and priorities and you will endeavor to do what pleases Him. He will give you the kind of confidence that you need to face the tough patches of life. Your life will then start speaking aloud about what the Lord means to you and what He does for you every moment in your life. When His Spirit fills you with His peace, joy and love, your life will speak loudly about it to those around you. Your life will thus become a spring of the joy of the Lord. You will thus find the greatest consolation and comfort in the Lord and in His promises. Your life will fill to overflowing and will become a river of living water which will refresh the lives of others around you. May your life thus fill to overflowing like a river to minister unto the people around about all that the Lord is doing for you and through you!

John 7:38 - Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

Thought for Today
When we allow the Lord to fill us to overflowing, we will refresh other lives as a never ending spring.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

ABUNDANT GIVING BY THE LOVING FATHER!

Abundant Giving by the Loving Father

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 16, 2010
Psalms 86:5 - But You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in loving kindness to those who call upon You.

It is very comforting to know that our Lord is good to us in spite of our failures and disobedience. Even when we come short of our love for Him, He still loves us. He is also very compassionate in that He forgives us when we ask for forgiveness of all our sins. He knows that if we are not forgiven by Him, we will have to be punished by Him because He is a righteous God who must punish all unconfessed sins. But He also admonishes us to confess our sins to Him, and then He will forgive us of all the sins that we confess. He is ready to forgive us and reassures us that if we confess He will forgive all our sins and iniquities. He listens to our prayers because He is a God who is full of loving kindness. He knows too well that if He doesn't show loving kindness to us, we will be like destitute, and will have no future. So He shows compassion to us and listens to our cries for forgiveness. He attends to our petitions and supplications with kindness which He extends to us abundantly. But His kindness is His special regard for us as His loving children. Our disobedience to Him doesn't change our relation with Him as our Father, but it will leave us as disobedience children. This is why we need to recognize our disobedience and approach Him for His complete forgiveness. When He forgives, He forgets also. But His forgiveness is not a license for us to go on sinning against Him. Each time we sin against Him, it grieves His heart. He would then long for us to go to Him for forgiveness. Our God is such a compassionate and loving God and He understands our human frailties and deals with us with patience.

Dear friend, your Father in Heaven is full of compassion towards you because He knows how needy you are. He also knows that He is the only one who can meet your needs in a satisfactory way. But He deals with you on the basis of the forgiveness He extends to you. This is because He must forgive you before He answers your prayers. At the same time, He wants to meet your needs according to His benevolence. So we have a wonderful Father in our God who is far greater and compassionate than any of the human fathers. He is quick to forgive us if we confess. He is all knowledgeable in that He knows our needs long before we ask Him. He is all sufficient in that He has enough and more resources to meet all our needs in the most magnificent manner. When He gives, He gives according to His measure which is far greater than any human pattern of giving. His hands are unlimited in its capacity to give. He always gives His best to His children which meet all their needs in the best possible manner. He doesn't keep an account of how much He gives because His giving is measureless. His giving is abundant and far beyond any one's capacity to imagine. And He keeps on giving as if His reservoir is a fountain which showers blessings on His children in a continuous manner. How fortunate are we that we have such a wonderful and compassionate Father in Heaven who is the greatest giver the world has ever seen or will ever see! Let us be grateful to Him and receive all that He gives to us with gratitude and continue to use all that He gives for His service.

Psalms 6:9 - The Lord has heard my supplication, the Lord receives my prayer.

Thought for Today
When God gives, He gives according to His standard and dignity to meet our needs abundantly.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

RECEIVING IS RESPONSIBILITY!

Receiving Is Responsibility

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Psalms 85:12 - Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce.

The most wonderful truth about Christian life is that it is a life of hope. It hopes against hope for God's goodness to flow towards His children. There is not a single moment of hopelessness with God. There is no doubt whatsoever that our Lord will give us what is good for us. Perhaps what He gives might not look very good in the short run for our immature eyes. But He knows what is good for us ultimately and so He gives what is truly good for us in the short as well as long run. He is not interested in giving us something that makes us feel good for the immediate moment, but wants us to have what is excellent for us for our entire future. If we receive what He gives us, its quality and usefulness will mature over a period of time and its credibility will increase day by day in our eyes. The Bible promises us that the Lord will always give us what is best. He is interested in giving His children His best. He has given us eternal heaven which is the best that we could ever imagine. He has given us eternal salvation and made us His children. He has adopted us into His family which bears His name. He has already made us seated in the heavenly places. He gives us satisfaction in all situations and leaves us with a contented life here on earth. He makes us wait for His kingdom to come because the best governance in this universe will be where Jesus is the King and Lord. His gifts to us have eternal value and goodness in it. If we are led by Him in this sojourn, He will help us with good yield for our hard work here on earth as it pleases Him. So there will never be a dull moment in our lives here on earth and in Heaven as we will be enjoying the goodness that is given to us by the Lord all the time. Our responsibility is to make sure that what we get is from Him and not from the moguls of this Universe. We should also be grateful to Him for giving us good things which are for our welfare. We are to also use it all for His glory and honor and for those who do not have any of those things to enjoy. The best is to help others to also become eligible to get good things from Him for which they need to also become His children through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear friend, are you enjoying the good things the Lord is pleased to give you? How much craving you have for the things that He gives? Are you able to distinguish between what the Lord gives and what the world gives? It is His desire that you do not develop any craving for what is offered by the world and that you renew your desire for those things that are guaranteed to come from the Lord and are for your ultimate good. He is also particular that whatever He gives is acknowledged by you with grateful heart and uses it all for His glory. The Lord knows exactly what you need at different times and in the best possible measure. He would not appreciate it if you do not use all of it for your welfare. He is also keen that you share what He gives you with those who do not have. In other words, when the Lord gives you blessings, He is deeply interested in your willingness to share it with those who do not have. He guarantees that when you do business with what the Lord gives you for His glory, He will make it yield good results. He wants you to mind His business so that He can mind your business in this world. But we should realize that He is interested in giving spiritual blessings to us and at the same time meet our mundane needs so that we would be able to give full attention to His matters. The Lord gives you health, education, talents, spiritual gifts, skills of various kinds, wisdom, knowledge about Him and spiritual fruits of various kinds. These are His gifts to you so that you can use it all for Him and for the furtherance of His kingdom. His promise that He will give you what is good will hold at all times. He wants us to have faith to trust Him to give these gifts to us on all the days of our lives so that we can live with Him in His presence all the days of our lives and beyond in eternity.

Psalms 27:13 - I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Thought for Today
Giving us good things is the prerogative of the Lord, but it is for us to give Him an account as to how we are utilizing it for His glory.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

FATHER'S GOODNESS TO OBEDIENT CHILDREN!

Father's Goodness to Obedient Children

Verse for Today: Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Psalms 84:11 - For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good things does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

God in His person is full of qualities and characteristics which are perfect in themselves. At the same time, His characteristics are perfect in His relationship with His people also. He can thus be looked at from both these perspectives. In His absolute nature and existence, God does all things perfectly to reveal Himself. In His relationships, He reveals Himself perfectly and does all things which express His characters and qualities. God is the provider of all the goodness that man needs and is illustrated as a sun which provides all that the solar system needs to survive and perpetuate. God is a shield for all which He sustains through the laws which He has established in His creation. Both of these are true about God's works and person in His relation with His children for whom He provides everything. He works as a shield against all perils they are in. All favours and honors for man have come from Him. He has created man in His own image and provided man with the privilege to know God and to keep a relationship with God on the basis of the spiritual laws He has established. He favours those whom He wants to favor according to His sovereign will. He has established honors to all He wants to honor with special gifts, abilities and desires for His kingdom's sake. Even though there are natural abilities which He bestows in creation, He also gives special gifts and talents to those of His household to serve Him and His people. He gives good gifts to all His children. He gives them priceless treasures from His treasure house. These treasures like His peace, love, grace and mercy which money cannot buy are given freely to His children so as to enrich their lives and make them treasure houses to be spread around. But He expects His children to live in unbroken communion and fellowship with Him in order that these treasures will flow to them and through them. They need to live a blameless life and follow a repentant attitude towards sin and the world so that they will continue to live in fellowship with Him.

Dear friend, do you realize that God in His characteristics and qualities is a giving God? He gives immeasurably to His children. He gives them liberally and in abundance so that they will have no shortage for all His goodness in their lives. He wants their lives to be full of the richness of His great qualities in such a way that they can use it all in their own practical lives as a living testimony for His name sake. God is full of goodness and He wants to make His goodness flow to His children all the time. If His goodness has to flow to them, they need to keep the channel open. The only way the channel is kept open is to keep the relationship going without broken fellowship. Sins of commission or omission break our relationship and fellowship with Him. So we are admonished by the Psalmist to keep ourselves blameless before Him so that His goodness will flow towards us and to others through us. In order for His resources to flow to us all the time, we need to live a continuous life of repentance and contrition of heart for all the sins that we commit against God. When we violate any principle given by God, His Spirit who indwells us will remind us about it and put loving pressure on us to go to Him to confess and get ourselves washes white as clean. And the Lord expects us to obey His Spirit and go into a time of repentance so that the hindrance to our fellowship with the Lord will be removed. Thus the goodness of God will flow to us once again. As we enjoy God's goodness, He expects us to live a life of gratitude and praise to His name. He expects us to live a life which recognizes that all good things flow to us from God because of His grace and not because of our merits of any kind. He also reassures us today that He will not withhold any good things to His beloved children if we walk in communion with Him.

Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Thought for Today
As our loving Father, God will not withhold any good thing from us, but will expect us to live in continuous fellowship with Him and be His obedient children.

Monday, December 13, 2010

STRENGTH AND JOY FOR THE PILGRIM

Strength and Joy for the Pilgrim

Verse for Today: Monday, December 13, 2010
Psalms 84:5 - Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

All human beings need strength to live happily in this world. They do everything possible to gain and retain physical strength so as to enable them to withstand the pressures of environmental changes to live in bliss. People also try to develop and enlarge their mental strength to be able to float above circumstances. There are those who find good market for spiritual strength through a lot of religions activities. But history has proved that none of these give lasting strength and health to people and that over the years, their strength and health fail no matter what they attempt to do. But there is a source of strength and health for all who are keen to have it in abundance. It is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who gives strength and health to those who seek after Him. He gives spiritual strength and health which lead the seekers to become eternally healthy and strong. Jesus gives eternal life to those who seek after Him and come to Him with true repentance and confession. When they do that, Jesus provides them with eternal life where their strength never erodes. It starts in this life itself and emerges into into the life to come. So the child of God who meets Jesus and be born into the family of God will take a pilgrimage to Heaven to continue with eternal life in its physical sense. He or she will be able to enjoy the spiritual strength provided by the Lord and become happy people. They are also people who are able to help other lives to gain this power by leading people to the Lord Jesus Christ. As they pursue this pilgrimage to Heaven, they walk with the Lord Jesus and go on singing and praising the name of the Lord. Their hearts are filled with gratitude to the Lord for giving them His power through the Holy Spirit. Since then, their priorities and direction in life change and they set their hearts to focus in Heaven where they would spend the eternity praising and worshipping the Lord Jesus who died to make them strong in Him.

Dear friend, do you remember the time when you were spiritually weak and powerfess? At that time you remember how you could not even respond to the love of God because you were dead in your sins and trespasses. But the Lord Jesus Christ brought you back to spiritual life and enabled you to trust in Him as your savior and Lord. But now that you have received this new life, you are privileged to live in the power of this new life which is the power of God. It is the power to recognize God and to worship Him. It is the power to believe in all the promises of God without doubt and confusion. It is a life which makes you a happy person because you now possess the joy of the Lord in your life. But is this life of joy a reality in you? Are you able to demonstrate the joy of the Lord which is supposed to be your strength? Or do you worry about every little thing and live as a powerless and lifeless person? Are you able to hold on to the promises of God and believe on them without the shadow of a doubt? Do you trust in the Lord for all your needs, situations and circumstances? Is the power of God seen in your life by others or do they see a demonstration of the flesh and the world in you? Are you able to speak the word of God with power and authority? Do you command the enemy of your soul in the power of God to keep away from your situations and affairs? When you realize that you are missing the strength of God in your life, do you wait upon the Lord to renew your power by getting filled with the Spirit? This is the life of the strength of God and it is seen in the perpetual joyful encounters you have with life. The strength of God also enables you to attempt great things for God. But all of these are accomplished in your life as you continue to enjoy your pilgrimage. Your life ought to reflect the characteristics of a person who is only traveling through this world without making it their permanent abode. In our pilgrimage, the Lord Jesus walks with us to meet all our needs and to encourage us to walk in His steps. He gives us directions and supplies songs on the way which we sing and make a joyful noise unto the Lord for the praise of His name and for the expansion of His kingdom. Hallelujah! What a privilege it is for us to live in God's strength for His glory and ultimately walk with Him to His physical presence in Heaven!

Psalms 29:11 - The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.

Thought for Today
God's strength becomes a reality in my life when my own strength is placed on the alter for His glory.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

PRAISE: BYPRODUCT OF TRUE HAPPINESS!

Praise: Byproduct of true Happiness

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 12, 2010

Psalms 84:4 - How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You.

It is nice to know where we are in our hearts and thoughts. Such knowledge will help us to behave accordingly. When we loose track of such understanding, we might fall into behaviors which are unbecoming of our standing. This is of uttermost importance to God's children who are seated in the Heavenly Places. They are there because of the mercy and grace of our God. It has pleased Him to place us in His presence permanently. He paid the price for us to be in His presence forever through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Those how are in God's presence are the happiest people who are blessed with all the blessings of the Heavenly places. The Lord changed their old nature and gave them a new nature and put us in the control of His Spirit who fills us with His happiness. This is the true nature of the blessed people who are happy people with the happiness of God who is the true Blissful One. They are happy to be in the presence of God and are able to enjoy the full measure of God's grace and love. In God's presence, they enjoy the fellowship of Triune God. They can always speak to God and God in turn speaks to them and listens to them. They become overwhelmed with the wonder and awe of the dignity and decorum of the glory of God. They absorb the strength and power of God for their daily living. They enjoy the peace of God which passes all understanding. They have innumerable reasons to praise God day after day. They realize what God has done for their souls and what He is doing daily for their lives here one earth. If they recount all the blessings they have received from God, it would be beyond their capacity to praise Him adequately. All of these make life in the presence of God exciting.

Dear friend, are you aware of the blessedness that you are in? Do you know the extent of blessings which are bestowed upon you through the salvation that you received free of charge by God? Do you realize that it cost God the Father the very life of His Beloved Son to grant you salvation? That tells how much God loves you and wants to keep you in His presence. He wants you to dwell in His presence because He wants to have continuous fellowship with you. But in order for you to be able to have continuous fellowship with God, you would need to confess all sins which grip your life knowingly or unknowingly. Thus when you go to God with a contrite heart, He will forgive you of all your shortcomings and keep you in continuous fellowship with Him. This is the sure way to continue to be in happiness and a time of praise to God for all that He has done for you. Nothing in this world could ever buy the kind of happiness that the presence of God would give you. The happiness that God gives you is happiness which knows no measure. It is not dependent on circumstances or situations. It is not a result of any human achievements. It is not earned through any human effort and cannot be purchased with wealth or prestige. It is not reserved for any particular class of people. It is a free gift from God to all His children by virtue of their standing in God through faith in Jesus Christ. Its direct result is continuous praise and worship for who God is and what God has done for us. When one is full or praise, there won't be any room for complaints, anxiety, tension, apprehension and similar emotions. It knows no disappointments. It is based fully on faith and trust in the Lord. It believes all things spoken by God and claims all His promises by faith. It helps the believer grow in spiritual stature and mature in their love for the Lord. It develops trust and helps to climb the mountains of faith to reach new heights of adventures of a life which clings on to the mighty power of the Lord who has called us. Today let us praise God for giving us all the blessings of the heavenly places. Let us vouch to continue to dwell in the presence of the Lord and mature in our praise to Him.

Psalms 16:11 - You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence in fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Thought for Today
A life which doesn't portray true happiness and praise is an indication that such persons do not appropriate heavenly blessings given to them on a daily basis.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

WIDE OPEN FOR DEEP FILLING!

WIDE OPEN FOR DEEP FILLING

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 11, 2010
Psalms 81:10b - Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

We are confronted each day by the God of the Universe with an admonition and a commandment to open our hearts with deep craving for Him and His resources. His admonition is accompanied with His most powerful and never-chaning promise that if we open our hearts, He will fill it. On the one hand we have the right and the privilege to open our hearts and lives as wide as we could possibly do, and on the other hand, no matter how much we crave for Him and His blessings, He will meet every bit of it fully, completely and absolutely. This is because God has all the resourcefulness to fill our hearts and lives. He knows what is best for us and the measure in which we can take it. God's promise here is conditional in that unless we have the desire for the Lord and His blessings, it would be difficult for Him to give to us. So He warns us to be sufficiently aware of the need for developing the right desires. The more we desire Him, the more He will help us enjoy Him and to that extent, He will fill us with Himself. When He fills us with Himself, it means filling us with His glory, His character, His holiness, righteousness and presence. When we are thus controlled by thoughts about God, we would be least bothered about our immediate environment. This is the process of getting lost in the wonder and awe of Him. He then becomes the most important and number one priority in our lives. Our desire for Him will come as we dwell more and more with Him and occupy ourselves with thoughts about Him. As we read and meditate on His Word, His Spirit will expose His glory into our hearts in a more and more intense manner. Thus when we are more and more occupied with Him, He will control our lives and thoughts and will influence our desires, priorities, likes, dislikes, preferences, ambitions, plans and the entire focus of our lives. The most meaningful life in this world is one which is filled with God and His things. Today God is inviting us to open the mouths of our desires and needs to Him and allow Him to fill it as He sees fit at His pace.

Dear friend, is your mouth widely open for the Lord to fill it just as the beak of a chick when its mother comes to feed it? How much of a deep desire you have today for the Lord to fill you with Himself and His resources? Do you go to the earthly sources to fill your mouth with the lukewarm water which comes from the broken cisterns of this world? If you drink that water, you will be thirsty again because that does not have the capacity to fill the voids in your life. Today you have the freedom to open your hearts and lives as wide and deep as possible so that the Lord can fill you more deeply. But if you are opening your lives and hearts for the world to fill you with attractive things like education, positions, power, money, fame and prestige, the world will give it to you to make you desire more of the same kind which will never satisfy you. It will make you go for more, thinking that it will ultimately satisfy you. But the world's philosophy is to lure you away from God and His blessings. Going after this world is like chasing the wind because you will never reach any where and yet keep going to continue with your cravings. If you are fully open, He will fill you to the brink. He wants to fill you today not for you to use it to promote you, but to use it all to overflow to others around you so that they will also get to enjoy the blessings of God to minister unto their needs through you. When they develop a thirst for God's things, you will then be able to lead them to the Lord to quench their thirst and fill their lives too. When the Lord thus fills you with Himself, He will not deny you any thing that you need to sincerely follow the Lord. He will meet all your physical, emotional and spiritual needs so that you can continue to serve the Lord with satisfaction. Today let us go to the Lord and meditate on His attributes and promises and ask Him in humble prayer to fill us with Himself in the greatest measure with which He alone will be able to do. Let us keep away from any of the worldly desires which the enemy of our souls will try to drop into our hearts. Let us tell the Lord that we need Him and Him alone. Let Him see our deepest cravings for Him and fill us to the brink. Let His character fill us to overflowing so that we will continue to be a blessing to others. Remember, if we do not have deep desire for Him, we will live as spiritual paupers. In order not to be in spiritual poverty, let us open our mouths wide and allow the Lord of the Universe to fill it.

Psalms 104:28 - When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

Thought for Today
Denying the Lord the privilege to fill our lives with good things is rejecting the mercy, grace and love of God.