HIGHER ALTITUDES FOR GREATER SATISFACTION!!

HIGHER ALTITUDES FOR GREATER SATISFACTION!

Verse for Today: Thursday, April 07, 2011

Psalms 103:5 - (The Lord) satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

All who receive great blessings from the Lord are challenged by the Psalmist to expresses their grateful heart before Him for all that is done for them. What the Psalmist received from God has been far beyond his expectations or what he ever deserved. This is true about all God's children who are given far more than what they ask the Lord in prayer. Sometimes we ask amiss. Sometimes we ask very little when the Lord is willing to give us so much more. Our prayers are from the human level of expectations and human scale of measurement. But the Lord gives us according to His heavenly scale and measurement. All His giving is according to His dignity, status and greatness. His hands are so big and so is His giving. He gives to fully satisfy His children. He is the greatest giver, with the greatest quantity of resources and the largest heart full of thoughts about the welfare of His children. He gives us all good things according to His will and pleasure so that His desires will be fulfilled in us each day of our lives. He gives us grace, love, forgiveness, peace and joy so that we can enjoy all these blessings each moment of our lives. As we sustain ourselves with the goodness that He imparts to us, our inner man grows stronger and stronger. There is no ageing for us because our lives are renewed day by day with the heavenly manna and the living water. Even though our physical bodies might be growing older and weaker, we are filled with His blessings day by day to make our inner person fly to higher altitudes like the eagle. The higher we go, the greater will be our detachment from the earthly and material things that this world offers.

Dear friend, how high are you flying today in your spiritual life? Are you flying higher and higher day by day spiritually? In order to fly at higher spiritual altitude, we would need to pant after the presence of God and crave for the pure honey, satisfying manna and living water which come from the Lord. If you take what the Lord gives, you will develop greater desire for the heavenly and stronger aversion for the earthly material things. Your love will then grow stronger for the Lord and your desire will be to enjoy more and more of the heavenly things. The Lord will always give you the best that heaven has, in far greater measure than what we ask for or even imagine. He will renew our hearts and minds to desire more of the heavenly and less of the earthly. If you have asked for any earthly things amiss, He will rule and overrule your prayers and give you His best. But it depends on our sincerity and genuineness of desire and motives. He will give what will give you real satisfaction so that you will not have any more desire for the mundane. He is surely going to give you far more than you have ever asked for. He knows what is best for us, and so His divine love will overrule our situation to give us His best. But for this to happen, we need to be totally committed to His perfect will. If we ask that we may be forgiven for asking any thing amiss, and submit ourselves to receiving whatever that pleases Him, then He will give us His best to meet all our spiritual needs. As we are led to enjoy all that He is pleased to give us, there is a certainty that our earthly sustenance will be met by Him. Let us today thank the Lord for not granting all our thoughtless prayers of the past, and for giving us what is best in His will and pleasure. Let us be grateful to Him for what He gives and also for what He denies. We will find greater joy in our lives when our Father denies what is not good for us and gives us what is best for us for our daily walk with Him.

Psalms 81:10b - Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Thought for Today

God gives us better things than we ask for and lovingly denies all that we ask amiss.

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GO DOWN TO GO UP!!

GO DOWN TO GO UP!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Matthew 5:5 - Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

We live in a world which thinks that meekness is weakness. They don't realize that meekness is power under control. They consider pride and arrogance as important virtues and challenge people to stand up for their rights and privileges. They train themselves in self esteem. They encourage themselves to be more and more assertive in their relationships and in getting what belongs to them. They learn to use different techniques to manipulate situations so that they can get what they want. But such attitude of pride has led the world to be a place of competition and conflicts. The more success people find through fights and competition, the more they are inclined to fight to gain what they want. But these atrocities for possessions and positions lead their lives to be a perennial battleground. Pride often makes slaves out of people. But the Lord Jesus Christ taught a life of meekness. He set the best example of a person who lived in great humility. He showed humility by giving up His heavenly privileges as God to come down to save His enemies like us. The Bible gives us the example of humble people like Moses who never retaliated or took revenge even under severe pressure. The Lord Jesus Christ was so humble as to wash the feet of His disciples, even though He was God. He showed that leadership was to become servants. A meek person voluntarily gives up his rights and privileges and lives without complaining and grumbling. Such people are able to find joy and true blessedness in being humble. They follow their Lord who became humble in this world to save their souls.

Dear friend, are you being challenged by the proud people who are around you? Are they taking away what belongs to you? Are you forced to give up your privileges, positions and possessions? It is a great privilege to willingly and voluntarily give up what you will definitely loose in life. When you do that, perhaps people will say that you are not smart and capable, and cannot assert and show your strength. But when you are wronged, it is your ability to keep your power under control that makes you humble. Perhaps the people around might say that if you give up all that you have for the sake of peace and for practicing humility, you will become a pauper in this world. But if you are wiling to loose what belongs to you, the Lord will give you great inheritance which will never be lost. We are clearly taught by the Bible that it will be impossible to receive the blessings of God unless a person is meek. Meekness will lead a person to be broken before God about one's own depravity and sinfulness. Meekness will only lead one to be under the full control of the Holy Spirit and to be filled with the power of God. Meek people will look like losers in this world, but they gain great spiritual blessings and inheritances in heaven. When they give up what truly belongs to them, their hearts will be filled with true blessedness. They will be willing to give up great opportunities in this world to gain great recognition in heaven. When they are willing to give up recognition in this world, they will be recognized by the Lord in the presence of angels. Meekness should never make us sorry for being meek, but will help us to praise God for helping us to be meek. This is the path of the cross and the way to Calvary Road which will lead us to the alter where our selves will be submitted as reasonable sacrifices of worship to the Lord who became the true sacrificial lamb for us. This is the way to true happiness for those who are willing to genuinely practice humility.

1 Peter 5:6 - Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.

Thought for Today

When we are truly meek before God, we would have no difficulty to be meek before man also.

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JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSING YOUR WAY TODAY!!

JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSING YOUR WAY TODAY!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Matthew 20:32 - And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"

The two blind beggars who sat on the side of the street which Jesus chose to travel were the most fortunate needy people. The incident reveals that Jesus would have gone that way just for these two handicapped people. Jesus had the time and willingness to stop to touch the lives of these two men even though He had no shortage for people to minister unto, including the large crowd which followed Him on that day. We find Jesus who walks by those of us who are needy people today. He knows our needs and He is passing our way today, and each day of our lives. Even though He has the whole universe to look after, He has time and willingness to stop near us to touch our lives and heal us of our weaknesses of all sorts. His touch means that the power of God will pass from Him to us and will reach the areas of our lives where we have a desperate need. Our needs can be spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, financial, job-related, ministerial, family-based and what not. The type of need and the intensity of need do not cause any difficulty for Him. He wants us to feel desperate and reach a stage when we confess that only He can touch and meet our needs. He wants us to cling on to our faith in Him as the only means for meeting our needs. He also wants us to speak to Him while He is near us and tell Him what we need, just as these blind men did. He wants us to speak in spite of all the hindrances that are on our way. Jesus will stop for us which is an absolute certainty. He will touch us for sure. There will be complete fulfillment of our desires and meeting of our need in its depth and breadth without the shadow of a doubt.

Dear friend, are you in need of the touch of the Lord Jesus today in some sore spots of your life? Do you feel esperation for His touch? Perhaps you would have tried all other means to solve your problems by using your wisdom, knowledge, skills, understanding and experience. You would have probably consulted several experts in vain. It is possible that you had spent a fortune to resolve the difficulties. Now that you have reached a stage and realization that only Jesus can help you, this is the time and the moment to speak to the Lord Jesus who is near you. This is your opportunity to speak to the Lord and ask for His mercy and lovingkindness. You can be sure that the Lord will show compassion and mercy to you. He is the Lord who cries with the sorrowful and touches the needy with His mighty hands to heal us and to wipe our tears away. His gentle touch is sufficient to meet every need and solve any problem. We need to do is to stop handling our problems in our own strength and make a mess of it, and hand it over to Him just as these blind men did. There is no need for us to also try to do something about our problems after we hand it over to the Lord. When we take our hands off and give it all to the Lord, He will take us and our problems in His hands and solve it in His divine way. His solutions will be perfect and full and will not leave any loose ends. His answers to our prayers will be fully satisfactory. He would not pass us by if we care to look to Him and call unto Him. When He comes our way, no force in this universe can stop Him from coming to us with solutions to our problems. Today is another opportunity given to us to let Jesus handle our situations and meet our needs. When He sees our tears, He will ask us as to what we want Him to do for us. Let us tell Him about all our needs and ask Him to take full control, and wait for His answers at His perfect time. Perhaps that time for you, for your most pressing problem to be solved by the Lord, could be today. This day will also open a challenge for you to enjoy His benevolence and to follow Him every day of the rest of your life.

Matthew 20:34 - Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

Thought for Today

Jesus stops at every needy soul every day to meet every need according to His riches in glory.

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HEAVENLY LIFE ON EARTH!!

HEAVENLY LIFE ON EARTH!

Verse for Today: Monday, April 04, 2011

Philippians 3:20 - For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Biblical world view of life is that the children of God are passers by in this world. They do not have any permanent abode or interest here on earth. They are temporarily here to accomplish the purpose for which God has placed them here on earth. They are to work as ambassadors of heaven on earth and should represent their homeland in attitudes, priorities, likes, dislikes, loyalties and commitment. The children of God are to look forward for the appearance of their Savior and Lord in the clouds to take all His children home with Him. This heavenly home is our eternal home and we are citizens of this home where we will dwell forever with our Lord who is the lover of our souls. This means that we do not cultivate any permanent titles, deeds, relationships, attachments and loyalties with any thing here on earth. The people around us should be able to see such a heavenly attitude and attachment in us to understand that our citizenship is not here on earth. We are taught to live here on earth as strangers and pilgrims, and not to develop any permanent interests here in any thing whatsoever. But on earth, we have to be responsible to our society in the way we live, but it should be without breaking the commandments which are given to us by our Master to whom we are ultimately loyal. Our hope is to see our beloved Lord and be with Him. While we await His return to take us to be with Him, we are also challenged to accomplish our best for Him. When we are thus engaged in matters of eternal importance, we would not have much time or energy to amass possessions, seek positions and promote selfish interests of any sort. When we are thus engaged with the Lord and His affairs, we would not have much concern for the temporal things in life and we will be detached from it all. This is the kind of life that a sojourner will have while we live here on earth as the citizens of Heaven.

Dear friend, are you governed by the thought that you are a true citizen of heaven and are expected to live here on earth as an ambassador of heaven? Is your life governed by thoughts about your Savior and your eternal home in heaven? Will your life style and priorities speak loudly about your true commitment and loyalties in life? Will people around you think whether you are an earthly person or a heavenly person by watching your priorities, likes, dislikes, goals and visions while you are here on earth? When you and I have seen the Lord Jesus who is our Master and Lord through our spiritual eyes, and when we have touched Him by faith, it ought to be reflected in our daily lives. But if we are continuously struggling to be recognized, appreciated, loved and honored by this world, then we do not know much about our true citizenship and the kind of honor and welcome that is awaiting us in heaven. If we are full of anxieties and apprehensions about our earthly lives, others would find it easy to think that we are like any body else in this world as earthly people. If our greatest concerns, thoughts, plans, programs, priorities and preferences are centered around what is heavenly, others will recognize it through our actions and life styles. This is how we can become good witnesses to the faith that we claim to have. When we are far above the mundane things of this earth, we would be less affected by the earthly and worldly things and we will find that these mundane things would not control our thoughts and decisions. Such a life would exhibit our true citizenship. Today let us live to please our Master by living as true citizens of our homeland which is heaven, with the joy and thrill that it would give us. Let our visions, desires, thoughts and aspirations become that of heaven as its true citizens.

Colossians 3:2 - Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Thought for Today

Heavenly life on earth is one where we are adequately lifted up from the mundane earthly things.

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VALLEY SCHOOL OF FAITH!

VALLEY SCHOOL OF FAITH!

Verse for Today: Sunday, April 03, 2011

Psalms 23:4a - Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.

God's children often go through the experiences of valleys of life when things are at low ebb. There are humiliating and depressive experiences in life that they go through. These valleys are often dark, damp and lonely places. There are valleys of sickness, loss, failures and frustrations of different types when no one will sympathize with us. We often grope in the darkness of valleys not knowing where to go and which way to turn. The enemy will be there to roar and frighten us and lead us to hopelessness. The enemy will try to tell us that we are in the dark valley because God's doesn't care for us and love us any more. Sometimes, the enemy will tell us that the valley is the consequence of our past sins, foolish decisions or carelessness for which we are to be blamed. Thus the enemy will try to make us guilty of our past. But God tells us that the valleys are appointed by Him in our lives to teach us that even in such dark valleys, our Lord will not forsake us. He will be with us and He will walk with us in the darkest moments of our lives. When we cannot see the pathway in the darkness of the valley, He will hold us in His hands. As we grope for direction to go forward, He will take us forward by His hands. His presence will take away our fears and anxieties. His fellowship will take away our loneliness and give us courage. If we trust in Him, we will have no difficulties in crossing the valleys of life. There is a guarantee that the valley will cause no harm to us. It is a time planned for us to learn to trust in the Lord and in His mighty power. In the valley, the Lord will warm our hearts up when we are dejected and do not even feel like praying. But during those difficult hours, even our sighs and groaning are transformed as prayers by the Lord for which answers will come at His time.

Dear friend, are you lately going through a time of utter desperation in a valley experience in life? Perhaps you are going through low ebb in life when there seem to be no answers to your prayers. The people around you might be laughing at your situation and mocking you. But they do not know that your Lord is leading you through the dark valley to teach you great lessons to trust Him more and more. He has taken you to a place where you do not have any body other than Him and you have no place to turn to except to Him. This is the time to understand that it doesn't matter even if the whole world turns against you, as long as you know that the Lord is with you. That is why the Lord has asked you not to trust in man or in the mountainous powerhouses around you, but only in the Lord from whom all blessings flow. Even when the whole world forsakes you, He will not leave you alone. In the valley, as you go through frustrations, loneliness, loss and failure, the Lord will be with you. He will strengthen you to go through the valley and praise Him for giving you the experience of the valley. God's valleys are excellent schools where we can learn patience, trust, faith, confidence and courage in the Lord which we may not learn anywhere else. In the valley, the Lord teaches us on a one-on-one basis the sublime lessons about His power, care, love, peace and compassion which He showers upon you. In the valley experiences, the Lord was with Moses, David, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Job, John, Paul and millions of others through the past several millenniums and taught them wonderful lessons about Him and helped them to come through it victorious. Today He says to us to keep holding Him just as a baby holds on to her mother. May He fill your eyes with His bright glory through which you can see the light at the end of the valley! There is no need to be afraid, but to simply trust the Lord to see you through the present valley at the end of which you can see rays of hope coming from the Son of righteousness to brighten your path. Remember, at the end of the valley, the Lord will lead you to a mountain of Sonshine which He will enable you to climb by faith.

Psalms 27:1 - The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?

Thought for Today

In the darkest valleys of life, the brightness of God's glory will shine upon us to show the way.

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COMFORT FOR THE PENITENT!

COMFORT FOR THE PENITENT

Verse for Today: Saturday, April 02, 2011

Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Comfort is needed and desired only by those who mourn over themselves and their situations. Mourning is possible only when a person is fully aware of his inadequacies and sinfulness. Willingness to mourn over their sinful situations is the proof that they are genuinely penitent before God, and that is the way to receiving the comfort that God grants. God is not looking for the proud who think that they do not need any repentance. But if the proud repent and go to Him, He will grant them also comfort and joy. If we look into ourselves we will be able to see how wretched we are. When I feel that I am a wretched person because of my sinfulness, I can only see hellfire in front of me. The only way such people can escape hellfire is to look into themselves and see their true condition and repent. Thus when they cry over their sinful condition and be broken in their unworthiness to receive pardon and joy from God, they would find a reason to go to God who is out there to receive them. He will not despise any repentant person who goes to Him asking for pardon. Such people who are truly repentant will receive God's comfort, and will continue to live a life of repentance all the days of their lives. Thereafter, each time they go to the presence of God, they will be aware of their unworthiness and repent as did Isaiah, Moses, Paul and others. The very presence of God will make them aware of their unworthiness which will make them mourn. The sinful environment in which they live also makes them mourn over it. They will also cry over the foolish things they did or said in life, and ask God to rule and overrule the consequences of their sins and situations. Their prayer to God always will be to deliver them from the snares of sinfulness that is around. Such people are comforted by the Lord through His Spirit and Word. He will fill their hearts with His joy in all circumstances and help them to look to the future when He will take them to a sinless state in Heaven to be with Him forever.

Dear reader, are you a candidate for mourning before the Lord today? Are you aware of your utter sinfulness and depravity and willing to cry over the various ways by which you have hurt the heart of the Holy God? Do you see how your acts of omissions and commissions in life have caused you to grieve the heart of God? Are you able to feel how unworthy you are to go to God with your needs? Now is the time to go to the Lord with a penitent heart and confess your total unworthiness before Him. If you mourn over your inadequacies and unworthiness and confess it to God, He will certainly wipe away all your past and fill your heart with His forgiveness and the joy that is attached to it. He will give you true blessedness which will fill your heart with the joy that will be your strength to live day by day in total dependence on Him. He will help you to enjoy His comfort in life. Your past will try to haunt you with its consequences in your life, but you can claim victory over the intimidation of your past through the forgiveness God has granted you. You do not need to worry over those sins that He has forgiven you because when God forgives, He also forgets. He will never remember any of those sins that you have confessed. This is the reason why you become acceptable to Him in His presence. God's comfort is like the comfort of a mother for her little child. He comforts, strengthens and empowers you to overcome the struggles and battles that you are dragged into by the enemy of your soul and will give you victory over your situations and circumstances and in all that you do for His glory. Let this comfort of the Lord be your strength to face your unknown tomorrows. Today let us enjoy the comfort of the Lord and gratefully express our hearts to Him and live with such a thankful heart for His glory.

2 Corinthians 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

Thought for Today

God's forgiveness and comfort are available to those who are genuinely penitent and brokenhearted and willing to express it through mourning before Him.

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BLISS FOR THE BROKEN!!

BLISS FOR THE BROKEN!

Verse for Today: Friday, April 01, 2011

Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

True blessedness only comes from God because He is the only truly blessed one who imparts blessedness to those you seek after Him. But only those who are empty can and will go to Him with a broken and poor spirit. If we are full to overflowing with our own self esteem, pride, wisdom and righteousness, we will not have a desire to go to God to be filled with His bliss. We can pray for bliss only when we feel inadequate in our own standing. Spiritual poverty is a consciousness that we are starving for true bliss which only God can give us. It is a feeling that the prodigal son had when he came back to his father to make him at least a servant because he no longer deserved to be the father's son. Admitting our spiritual poverty is the declaration of our total depravity and inadequacy before God. This is the spirit of brokenness of our self that God wants from us when we go to Him in prayer and supplication and ask that our lives may be filled with God and His character. God knows our hearts and motives and so if we are genuine in our request, God will fill us with Himself and His Spirit. He will regenerate and renew our souls through Jesus Christ and make us seated with Him in the heavenly places. This is the state of having faith and trust in the Lord and in all that He is pleased and willing to give us. When we are thus filled with Him, we will have joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness and all the other qualities that are seen in God. It is then that we live here on earth as if we are seated in Heaven. He will then have control over our will, and will help us to exercise our faith in Him to claim all that He has in store for us. While He fills us with divine attributes, He will also give us the faith to trust Him to meet our daily emotional, intellectual and physical needs as well. Such persons, who live in heaven, though present in the world physically, will be able to claim all that they need by faith and live a contented life here on earth.

Dear friend, have you had this experience of brokenness in your spirit? Have you ever felt that you are absolutely poor in your own self and are not capable of receiving God's blessedness on your own merit? Do you feel that without God you are nothing and that there cannot be any goodness in you without it being supplied by God? It is then that you and I need to go to God with utter brokenness in our self and ask Him to fill us with His heavenly resources. Then He will fill us with Himself and we will have everything that we need all the days of our lives here on earth. Such an experience will give us the assurance and conviction by His Spirit that we are seated with Him in the heavenly places and we enjoy all His resources. It is then that we can truly pray and ask for those heavenly blessings that are on a higher ground rather than the mundane things on earth. When we are thus with Him all the time, our desires will be for the heavenly and no more for the earthly. We will think more of the Lord and less of ourselves. We will speak more to Him than to man. We will go to Him with our every need rather than to man. He has enough room at His presence for us to drop in all our burdens and difficulties. He will then take over all our affairs, including all our battles, and put it on Himself. He will lead and guide us every step of the way and will give us the character that is akin to His. Our hearts will then be filled with true blessedness which is a state of true joy and happiness. We will then stop having anxieties about the unknown tomorrows because He knows our tomorrows and will provide for our every need. Let us today go to the Lord with a broken heart and declare our nothingness to Him and ask Him to fill us with all that is there in the heavenly places.

Psalms 34:8 - O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Thought for Today

God will impart true blessedness to us when we are ready to admit our nothingness to Him.

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