FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD!!

Friendship with God!!

Verse for Today: Sunday, July 31, 2011
Psalms 25:14 - The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.

Understanding God as a friend of His people is a truth that pervades the entire scriptures. God is generally understood as the Saviour, Lord, Master and Deliverer of His people. It is also not difficult to understand God who hears the prayers of His children and answers them. But when we inquire further, we can see that God is willing to keep a very close relationship with His children. They once ran away from God and turned their backs on Him. But He came back to man and offered to wipe away his sinful past if he confessed and truly repented. At the same time it is God's desire that man becomes His friend so as to share in the thoughts and plans He has for man. Abraham was a friend of God and God revealed His plans for the world as a whole to him. When God decided to pour out His wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah, it was revealed beforehand to His friend Abraham. God gave Enoch the privilege to walk with Him as a friend for 300 years. He spoke to His servant Moses just as friends talk. He took Paul to heaven and revealed divine mysteries to him. Such in-depth relationship is available to God's children if they are willing to know God deeply, take His Word seriously and fear Him as a consuming fire. Enoch feared and revered God because of the judgement of God that awaited the world and he sanctified God in his heart with utmost reverence and respect. Moses trembled before God and lived in the fear of the Almighty. Abraham knew God with His awesome holiness and magnificence and that made him live in the fear of God. Paul saw the glory of the Risen Lord which turned his life full of the reverence to the Lord. His servants like Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others feared the Lord and drew themselves as close to God as possible. He recognized their sincerity in devotion and treated them as His friends, and revealed His plans to them. Today He is willing to give us the privilege to know Him intimately and deeply to be able to fear Him with our whole heart, soul, life and mind. Then we would qualify to know the secrets of God.

Dear friend, how is the barometer of 'fear of God' in your life? It is one thing to act out our 'fear of God' in front of others, but a totally different thing to have the true fear of God in our hearts. It is not what we tell Him that matters, but rather what He sees in us which alone is taken seriously by the Lord. It depends on the extent to which we keep renewing our minds and live in a spirit of revival with continuous repentance of our sins and inadequacies. It is directly related to the extent of our desires, priorities and devotion to Him and His kingdom. It is a practical demonstration of how much we take His Word seriously and adjust our lives accordingly. It demonstrates whether we truly believe in His promises and live on the basis of the hope He has planted in our hearts. It stems from a life which is totally and absolutely dependent on the power of His Spirit and the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we thus know the Lord and become His through total and absolute surrender to His will, we will begin to walk closer to Him in fear of His awesome glory. Thus when we know Him, He will want to confide in us and share in the mysteries of His will concerning our lives and pathways. This is how our ministries will be impacted by the Lord as He makes us to amplify His glory. He will then use us as He used Noah, Elijah, John the Baptizer and Paul to warn, edify and encourage others to walk in the fear and admonition of God. May we seek a closer walk with Him so that He could confide with us and reveal His will in our lives and that of others around us!

John 15:15b - But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Thought for Today
The depth of our commitment, faith and fear of God are the yardstick on the basis of which we become friends with God.

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BE VICTORIOUS TO BE A BLESSING!!

Be victorious to be a blessing!

Verse for Today: Saturday, July 30, 2011
1 Corinthians 15:57 - But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Victory over our circumstances and situations is a gift that God gives to His children. It is positionally given to us as His children. But it has to be appropriated in all our situations. First of all we need to cultivate a deep desire to live victoriously in all our situations rather than become a slave to it. When the winds of difficult situations blow on us, we have the privilege to go and hide under the shadow of the Lord and take refuge under His wings. But the natural instinct for us as humans is to seek a solution on our own. We are inclined to depend on our past experience and our knowledge bank. Our intellect comes to help us with logical answers to solve our problems. When our health fails, we often run first to a hospital rather than to the Great Physician. When we are short of money, we rush to borrow from a bank or a friend. When we are friendless, we try to use our ability to make new friends by using our personal charisma and verbatim. But these solutions are simply human and do not last for long and often land us in deeper trouble from which we will find it difficult to get out. But our Lord is waiting for us to go to Him with our situations and ask Him for a release. He knows about it even before we go to Him. He has answers which will satisfy all our inquisitiveness. But He gives it to only those who seek after Him and His ways. The victory the Lord offers is far superior to all that human mind can create because the Lord puts His seal on His ways which He wants us to walk. The victory that is offered to us is through the Lord Jesus Christ who is the victorious Lord seated on the Throne in Heaven, controlling everything. He has already won over all our enemies including death. When we approach the Father through the victorious Son and show our total dependence on Him, we will receive His victory to enjoy which would cause us to praise Him.

Dear friend, you might be thinking that your life is often a failure. It is possible that you loose out on the many battles that you are engaged in. There is every possibility that you become disillusioned because you are unable to win over your situations. But you must remember that you are already declared a winner. You are on the side of the victorious Lord Jesus who has won over all the situations that you have encountered. All you need to get this victory is to go to Him and claim the victory He has secured for you. The Lord has asked you to seek His help in putting this victory into practice in your situation. If you ask Him, He will give you the strength to accomplish victory in all your circumstances through His Spirit. You might find a lot of snares and snags on your path to discourage you and distract you from your devotion to the Lord. The enemies use different strategies to defeat you. But the Lord knows these strategies and has given you appropriate weapons to handle your difficult situations. If you use these weapons appropriately you will be able to get victory. Apostle Paul knew this victory in his daily life and ministry. He sought after the Lord and His victory. Trusting Him to give victory, Paul went forward in every circumstance and appropriated victory. He told his audience, including the Corinthian church, that there is victory available for them in all their circumstances through Jesus Christ. We are challenged today to ask for victory and claim it which should lead us to praise the victorious Lord Jesus.

Revelation 5:5a - Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed..."

Thought for Today
Not appropriating the victory that God wants to give us through Jesus is equal to rejecting it.

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GUARDS FOR A SOJOURNER!!

Guards for a Sojourner

Verse for Today: Friday, July 29, 2011
Psalms 23:6 - Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

It is comforting to know who travels with us in the difficult terrains of our daily walk in this world. We are walking with the Lord and walking after Him. We are on the Calvary Road, bearing the reproach of the cross of our Savior. The rejection, despising and ridicule of the world will be around us as we walk in the footsteps of the Master who has called us for this holy walk. When we experience the heat of the journey in an unfriendly atmosphere through the enemy territory, the Lord has appointed two formidable and powerful fellow travelers to walk behind us and keep us company. Wherever we go, the goodness and lovingkindness of the Lord will follow us. When we live as fools for the sake of the Savior, and when we willingly accept resentment and refuse to seek popularity, praise, prestige and prominence in this world, the goodness of the Lord will not depart from us. In His goodness, He makes sure that all the good things that are in the heavenly places flow towards us. In His goodness, the Lord strengthens us with His presence, preservation, protection, provisions and power to help us keep going. Even as we walk after Him, He is engaged in molding us to become like the Master. His lovingkindness will also follow us so that we would not be abandoned though forgotten by the world. When we are rejected by the world around us, the Lord will remember us just as He remembered Rachel and Hannah to give them His goodness. Even when the world ridicule us and challenge us to see how God's promises would be fulfilled in our lives, He would still show His lovingkindness by fulfilling His promises at the seemingly hopeless hour. When we carry the cross, He helps us to carry our burdens and to keep going a step at a time by holding our hands.

Hello, dear reader, it is possible that you are reading these lines with a heavy heart. You might be experiencing rejection and resentment from all around you because you carry the cross and walk after the Man of Galilee who had no place to lay His head when foxes have their holes and birds have their rests. Remember, you are walking after the King of this Universe! Isn't it wonderful to follow His footsteps! His goodness will follow you in your walk and you will be able to enjoy His favor every step of the way. He cares for you and wants you to cast all your cares upon Him. He sympathizes with you because He has experienced rejection and resentment with joy in His heart and wants you to have the same predisposition as you carry the cross and walk after Him. He makes sure that your walk will be a time of remolding you to become like Him one day at a time. In His lovingkindness, He will make sure that no good thing is ever denied from you. Most of all, He gives you His companionship and fellowship. He gives you wonderful songs during the daytime and night to sing which take away your weariness in the walk. Your songs will be a great encouragement to your fellow travelers and will challenge them to join you in this singspiration time. You will enjoy the journey because you will still be in the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords. This truth is as sure as He lives. When you finally reach heaven, you will see the reality of His goodness and lovingkindness in not giving you the many things that you desired, and the many other things that He gave you which you have not asked for.

Psalms 16:2 - I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord, apart from You I have no good thing".

Thought for Today
A heavenly sojourner is marching with the Author and Finisher of faith in the front, goodness and lovingkindness behind and grace and truth on both sides.

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HIS GLOWING FACE FOR MY SUFFERING LOOK!!

His glowing face for my suffering look!

Verse for Today: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Psalms 22:24 - For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

When all around us despise us in our deepest gloom, there is a God who sympathizes with us. He will not ignore the pain and agonies of His beloved children. When we look at His face with deep anguish for help, He will not reject us nor will He turn His face away from us. He will never shut His ears to the sound of our cries. Even before we cry, He knows all about the depth and breadth of our agonies with its intensity and also knows how much we can take. He will not allow us to pass through any thing for which He doesn't give us His grace to endure it. When David cried in despair, the Lord was with him and brought him out victoriously. When all the satanic forces were against Job, the Lord was with him and strengthened him to go through it all and finally gave him back several fold his original resources. There were times when Jacob was in deep despair and total disillusionment. But the Lord was with him and gave him spiritual and emotional victory. The Lord healed his broken heart several times and led him to a level at which he was enabled to bless Pharaoh who was the richest king of that time. In the midst of deep afflictions, the Lord was with Joseph and lifted him up from the forgotten dungeon. He never let the circumstances defeat Daniel or his brothers in Babylon. He heard the cries of the children of Israel and brought them back to their home land. He strengthened them to rebuild the Temple and its walls even while the captivity continued. Yes, our God lives and He understands us in all our circumstances and leads us in unprecedented manner in the wake of any hopeless situation we might go through.

Dear friend, are you today looking at the Lord in your moments of despair? Perhaps you might be waiting for long for help to come from Him. But as surely as He lives, the Lord will lift you up from your times of desperation of afflictions. We are instructed to follow the example of David today to keep looking at the face of the Lord from where our release will come. He will never turn His face away from us because He is our compassionate Father. His eyes and ears are always open to our cries and needs. He sees us in our difficult situations. We are sent out as roses and lilies among the thorns. He knows that we are like lambs among the wolves that are waiting to tear us apart. But we can be courageous because our Lord has sent us out to such situations, knowing fully well that these enemies of circumstances and situations will try to destroy us. But our greatest comfort today is that the Lord is with us and He will never despise our petitions and prayers. He will keep us as the apple of His eyes and as little chicks under the wings of the mother. We are given the privilege to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty and are covered by His feathers. He holds us with His mighty hands and gives us the comfort of fearlessness in His presence. So there is no need for us to fret or wallow over our situations. Our Lord is above our circumstances and He is the Lord of all our situations. No force around us has the permission to destroy us. Let us today enjoy the nearness and protection of the Lord and live with the comfort and confidence that our Lord will never turn His face away from us and His eyes and ears are always open to our cries. His answers to our cries are flowing towards us to lift us up from our difficult situations.

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

Thought for Today
Even through the thickest and darkest clouds, the face of the Lord will glow in the eyes of His children who look unto Him.

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UNSHAKEN TRUST FOR UNSHAKEN LIVING!!

Unshaken Trust for Unshaken Living!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Psalms 21:7 - For the king trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the most high he will not be shaken.

It is heartening to see a king coming forward to acknowledge that he existed and survived because of the loving kindness of God Almighty. People who are in high places often forget the fact that they are placed there by the Lord to accomplish His purpose in the world. They often become proud and show arrogance to those around them. Their speech, facial expressions and goals reveal their high opinion of themselves and low opinion about others. We find such expressions of pride among those in leadership in secular and religious organizations. But king David was an exception to such pride and arrogance. He was always mindful of the way God pulled him out of the grazing field and brought him to become king of Israel. He went through a series of events in life which showed him that had it not been for the Lord, he would not have become king at all. His heart trusted the Lord to take him forward on a daily basis. Wherever he went astray, David had to suffer, but these experiences made him humble and lowly. He realized that only because of the unfailing love of the Lord he could stay unshaken in shaky situations. If the greatest king of Israel had to depend on the Lord so much, how much would we need to depend on the Lord for each moment of our lives? Any victory that we get ought to make us more and more humble before the Lord and others. David had no problem in his open worship even when his wife ridiculed him. David had no difficulty writing and singing the great Psalms while he was still king to declare his absolute dependence on the Lord.

Dear reader, what are you dependent on in your daily life? There is always the temptation to depend on past glory and victory. Our flesh, who is our enemy within us, enjoys pride and loves to brag about our positions, power, prestige and popularity and will tempt us to go for more and more of it. Our past achievements make us to be proud of it and will tempt us to depend on it to go forward. But the experience of David shows us that if we are not humble and do not keep reminding ourselves that all our help come from the Lord, we would be heading for failure. Past experiences are the ways by which our Lord had led us and this ought to make us more and more dependent on the Lord for our future. Yesterday's manna ought to put hope in us to look for today's manna and that should help us to look forward for tomorrow's manna. It has nothing to do with our ability to pick more manna faster than others. It doesn't depend on our smartness to wake up early to go out and pick more manna. It solely depends on our Lord who is pleased to give it to us each day. Such dependence on the Lord is essential for continuing to live in His grace. Our education might tempt us to prove our smartness. Our position and power might provide us with new strategies to show our efficiency. But these are all like a leaf which blows away in a wind. But the Lord alone will stand the test of time, circumstances, situations and depth of needs. He will always shower His kindness and love to us if we depend on Him. If king David needed it so much day after day, how much more do we need it in our daily battles of life! Let us depend on Him to provide for us today and declare to the world that our existence stems from Him alone. This will cause us to give Him all the glory for all that is happening to us each day of lives.

Lamentations 3:22 - Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.

Thought for Today
Only those who look unto the Lord alone for help will be able to see that all their help comes only from the Lord.

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HELP FROM TOP OF THE UNIVERSE!!

Help from Top of the Universe!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Psalms 20:2 - May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.

Extraordinary and unique ways are designed by God to send help to His children while they are in this world. God's sources of support for His children presuppose the stark reality that the sources on earth are insufficient to meet their needs. It also underscores the fact that the needs of God's children are met with all the sufficiency of God which is beyond measure or imagination. First of all support comes directly from the presence of God which is filled with the magnificence of the glory of God where His children are seated. As they sit in God's Throne Room, they are partakers of all that is reserved for His children to draw upon. In spite of all that is there, God Himself is there in His Throne Room, and His children get Him more than any thing else which is far greater in sufficiency to meet all their needs. In comparison with the tiny needs of God's Children, God's person, His personal glory and the abundance of His grace and love are so vast and far beyond any imagination. All of these are available to us to meet all our needs right now. These are flowing to us uninterrupted. But we are often so short sighted as not to see and enjoy all that comes our way directly from His presence. Abraham was satisfied by seeing His glory from a distance. David sang innumerable songs about the magnificence of this Lord and His sufficiency. Solomon wrote vast number of proverbs touching on this glory and Isaiah prophesied about what His glory would accomplish throughout the coming ages. This glorious person came to Bethlehem as a baby to touch the rough patches of human life and to fill it with His riches. He has opened the windows of Zion and showered His vast riches to His servants through the centuries from the abundance of His rich warehouse. People like Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, Elisha, Gideon, Samson, David, Peter, James, John, Paul and millions of His other servants throughout the last several centuries imbibed from it. Our help today comes from this same reservoir.

Dear friend, are you a needy person today? Do you feel frustrated that the earthly sources promise to meet your physical, financial, emotional, social and spiritual needs, but fall far short? No matter what your needs are and how vast they might be, it can be met absolutely sufficiently by the Lord from His sanctuary in Zion. You are already seated there and have the freedom and right to possess it to the extent of your needs. If your eyes are blurred can't see these resources because of the unconfessed sins which loom large in your heart, you can get yourself cleansed with the living word. Thus you will be enabled to see the depth, vastness, height and breadth of the rich resources God has stored up for you. You are already made heirs of all that Heaven has. You are given the privilege to appropriate it by faith. These resources are unmatched in power and excellence when compared to any thing that the world knows about. They can satisfy you fully and absolutely both now and forevermore. There is answer to all your questions there. All your doubts are cleared all your confusions are removed there. The best remedy for your faithlessness, lack of courage and confidence is available there. You can have abundant life with its rich aroma flowing from Zion. You do not need to go any where else, because you are fortunately in the vineyard of your great Boaz. There is no need for you to deprive yourself of the fullness of life in its depth and height and to live like a pauper. Today it is your privilege to draw upon the help made available to you from Zion to live victoriously and enjoy the richness of the blessings of God.

Ephesians 1:3 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessings in Christ.

Thought for Today
If we do not appropriate the blessings which come to us from the sanctuary, we are in essence resenting the best that God so kindly gives to us.

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FURNACE MAKES YOU GLOW!!

Furnace Makes You Glow!

Verse for Today: Monday, July 25, 2011
John 16:33 - In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

It is helpful to know what to expect during our pilgrimage. Even though no detail is given to us, we are given a general understanding that the journey will be tough. This journey is rough because we are traveling through enemy territory. Not only that, the enemy and his agents are all around us to see how they can create tough situations for us as we travel along. No matter where we turn to, some trouble awaits us. But the most interesting part of this journey is that the Lord Jesus is our way and we travel with Him. His protection is around us all the time. He has gone before us in this world and experienced every possible suffering that a human being could encounter. He had to face physical, social, emotional and spiritual warfare while on earth. Today the Lord Jesus wants to encourage us to keep going because we are going along with Him who is the victorious Lord. Because He has achieved victory, we become partakers of this victory and thus enjoy the benefits of His victory. Our Lord encountered the enemy head on several times. He went through every foreseeable test that was possible from Satan's angle. Added to that, He was misunderstood, oppressed, challenged, rejected, unlawfully arrested, tried with the help of false witnesses, unlawfully judged, mocked, despised and was subjected to untold brutally. His innocent blood was shed by the criminals. No one stood with Him including His beloved disciples who vouched once to even die for Him. No body wanted Him and no one cared for Him. He endured it all and came out victorious and wants to give us His victory so that we can depend on Him to sail smoothly through the rough waters of life. Because He is victorious and because He lives, we can also live and face situations which are hard.

Dear friend, are you going through some trouble in your soul today? It could be related to health, finances, relationships, ministry, family, neighbours, friends, co-workers and the like. As you go through the pilgrim journey, you can expect these and even worse. Some of it comes through your own decisions which would not have been in the will of God. We are often driven to accept it as our mistakes and suffer the consequences. There are also those that are brought on our way by the enemy of our souls as part of his intimidation tactic to make us discouraged and slowed down on our journey. But no matter what the source of our sufferings is, it is a fact that as long as we live in this sinful body, we suffer. It is a wonderful thing to suffer for the cause of the Saviour who suffered for us on the cross of Calvary. But for all our sufferings, our Lord gives us the consolation that we can have victory through Him. All of these sufferings have some purpose behind it to help us to learn valuable lessons in life to help us to walk more victoriously in our future walk. Our natural minds will not be inclined to learn lessons from these experiences, but would tend to put the blame on someone or something else. This is why we need to renew our minds and be transformed so that we would understand the lessons that God wants us to learn from these tough and rough patches of life that we encounter. Thus we will be helped to learn lessons, claim victory through Jesus and march joyfully in spite of sufferings. Our persecutions ought to make us happy in that we are counted worthy to suffer for the Lord who suffered for us. Let us overcome sufferings by faith in the Lord who is declared victorious and trust Him to take us to the other side of the shore by faith even as we go through it all.

1 Peter 5:10 - And the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Thought for Today
Just as gold in the furnace, when a child of God goes through intense sufferings, the glow of God's glory will be more intensely revealed in him.

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THE PERSON AND PLACE OF REFUGE!!

The Person and Place of refuge!

Verse for Today: Sunday, July 24, 2011
Psalms 61:4 - I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

No matter how rich and affluent a person is, he would find that this world will not give him lasting satisfaction and true contentment in all the possessions he might have. They give only temporary satisfaction and drive people forward for more and more. So when a person puts his trust in the affluence of this world, he would find it to be smokescreen or fog. It would look so real, but will be blown away by the winds of the changing world. But a child of God would leave such mirages of possessions, positions and popularity behind and seek to find full satisfaction in the Lord and His dwelling place. The many mansions in this world offer satisfaction and plunge people into despair, but the presence of God would give them lasting satisfaction. It is like a tent in which they can live and rest. This tent of the presence of God is a promise for the future when God will take His children to His abode to dwell with Him forever. While on earth, it is a refuge for His children to find safety and security from all the diabolic things that this world offers. The heart of a child of God can never find solace in any thing that the world offers, but will give them fear and insecurity as they are gripped with the uncertainties of this world. At such times, all the possessions and positions this world offers would not give them any confidence and strength in life. But the hope that God gives to those who live in His tent will fill them with peace, joy and satisfaction. They can go to confide in the Lord and find lasting rest in His presence. This rest is available to those who have a deep longing to be in the Lord's tent and take refuge under His wings.

Dear friend, where are you taking refuge today? Is it in the mansions of power, prestige and possessions that this world offers? Is it in the broken promises which the world and its prominence offer? When you are in trouble from the enemy of your soul, will you find these worldly mansions capable of giving you safety and security under their wings? You will surely find that such mansions are not built on a rock and so will not withstand the pressures of the situations that you face. They promise a lot of exciting things, but will not be able to deliver it to you. They will impress upon us and give us the reassurance that our life will be most secure under their wings, but when we need them, they will not be found. All they can say is that they are sorry that we go through it all and then will quietly desert us. But that is not so with our Lord. His tabernacle looks like a feeble tent which might be blown out in the wind, but it is based on the Rock of Ages and is guaranteed not to crumble. Taking refuge in the tent of the Lord is on the basis of His promises which are as sure as He lives. His tent is His presence where we have all the goodness and mercy that we would need here on the earth. When we dwell in His presence, we will enjoy the lasting peace and joy that His presence gives. It will never dwindle, but will enhance in quality as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord of the tent who gives us joy and peace. This joy and contentment can be ours if we choose to live in the Lord's tabernacle continuously and find refuge only under His wings because He has promised to provide us with the peace and security that is far beyond what others can offer. His promises are real and are time tested to have no flaws and so we can certainly trust Him to meet our needs of security, safety and hope.

Psalms 36:7 - How precious is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

Thought for Today
The strength that we derive from the tent of the Lord is not from its looks, but from the glory of Him who dwells there.

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ADVENTURES OF FAITH!!

Adventures of Faith!

Verse for Today: Saturday, July 23, 2011
Psalms 18:29 - For by You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall.

Faith is for us to practice and its not an intellectual exercise. Faith is based on the object of faith which is in a person who is our Lord. Our faith is based on who the Lord really is and what He can do in and through our lives. Faith is the enabling that the Lord gives us to believe on Him and to take His Word as a basis for all our actions. Faith challenges us to prove it through practice. If we do not exercise faith practically, we do not have faith. Faith is action as a demonstration of what we believe. It enables us to do unusual things in life simply because of our trust in the Lord who will enable us to do it. It helps us to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. Faith enables us to be adventurous in our daily walk. Faith tells us that we blindly believe what our Lord tells us in His Word. So if the Word asks us to go forward in spite of forceful hindrances like a troop, we would still go forward. This was what David did as a young solider. He was able to go against Goliath who was equal in power to a small troop. David could walk over him without any difficulty and it was accomplished by the courage the Lord gave him based on his faith. it was faith that made Abraham believe that he could sacrifice his only begotten son and expect him to be back even from the ashes at the alter on Mount Moriah. Faith enabled David to go into the lion's den without any fear. Faith made Paul to courageously preach gospel without regard for the consequences. Faith enabled the three Hebrew boys to go into the fiery furnace without trembling. Faith made the Israelites to walk around Jericho believing that it would crumble. Faith is an adventure and it requires the capacity to believe in the God who promised that certain things will be accomplished if we believe. It will help us to jump over any hindrance if we are in the will of God and believe in the promises of God.

Dear friend, how is the barometer of your faith? It is through faith that sinners get saved. It is the assurance through faith that makes us wait for the imminent return of our Lord in the clouds to take us home to be with Him forever. It is faith that helps us to share the gospel with a sinner hoping that he might open his heart to receive the free gift of salvation from God. Faith keeps us going through the dark tunnels of life hoping that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Faith helps us to hold on to the Lord and His promises when we go through difficult circumstances. Today the Spirit of God challenges us to take His Word by faith and believe every bit of what God has promised. This challenge is to believe and to act accordingly so that we will see amazing results in our lives. It is this faith that has helped William Carey or Jim Elliot to carry gospel to far away countries and God gave wonderful results. Faith never disappoints, but only fortifies us to go forward because it is faith that gives us hope for a brighter tomorrow. We can see such brighter days in our lives only if we exercise faith and go forward without regard for the hindrances of troops or walls in front of us. Let us demonstrate it today in our lives as we keep going by holding the hands of the invisible God by faith.

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God.

Thought for Today
Faith accomplishes where reason and human ability fail.

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LARGE PLACE ON THE NARROW WAY!!

Large Place on the Narrow Way!

Verse for Today: Friday, July 22, 2011
Psalms 18:19 - (The Lord) brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

It is comforting to read the experiences of God's people who have gone before us in the ways by which the Lord dealt with them. These experiences reassure us about how the Lord works in the lives of His children. When the enemy of our souls pushes us to tight corners where there is no breathing space, our Lord comes to our rescue. When we are squeezed into narrow straights without any hope for deliverance, our Lord comes to release us from such difficult places. When we are in hopeless situations and when there is no one to rescue us, our Lord comes to us to take us to spacious places where we can enjoy His safety and security. This was the experience of David when all around him thought there was no hope for him. Situations threw Joseph into tight corners, but the Lord brought him out of there and lifted up his name and dignity. When Daniel, Mordecai and Jeremiah went through fierce battles of the enemy, the Lord pulled them out of their situations with His mighty hands and brought them to freedom and comfort. The Lord thus brings out His children from their tight situations and takes them to situations where they can enjoy the blessings of His presence and dwell without fear, anxiety, doubt and confusion. God was pleased with David, Daniel and Joseph because they were His children and so He showed compassion just as a father would show compassion to His children. This Lord is our God who shows compassion to us also. He will not stay inactive when He finds His beloved children in tight spots in life. All they need to do is to exercise hope and faith, and do not give up. They need to hang in there and hold on to the Lord, and at the right time the Lord will appear in the scene to intervene in their situations and circumstances to give them release, deliverance and rescue.

Dear friend, are you in a tight corner in your life today? Is your circumstance so fierce, even without breathing space? Is it true that the enemy has shut you off at all four corners so that you cannot move to any direction? Are you tempted to give up all hope of deliverance? Remember, our Lord is the only hope for His children in all hopeless situations. He is watching your sufferings and He comes to suffer with you as your partner in it. But He will not be inactive for long. He will come to you at the right time. In the meanwhile, He wants you to look unto Him who is the author and finisher of your faith. He doesn't want you to use your own methods to get out of your tight corners. You don't need to look at the tall mountains around you who pretend to help. But your help comes from the Lord who loves you as His beloved children. He interferes in your circumstance in amazing ways which will even surprise your enemies. His ways are mysterious and full of great wonders which no one else could perform. He rescued Peter from the prison through mysterious ways. He mysteriously interfered to deliver Daniel from the lions and the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace. He pulled Joseph out of the forgotten dungeon. The hopeless Job is today a man who enjoys God's miracles. Such is our Lord who will deliver you and take you to a place of safety and security. He will do the same for us today if we put all our hope and trust in Him. He first delivers our hearts and minds from psychological intimidation of circumstances by filling us with His peace. His physical interference will closely follow so that you can enjoy His peace in your situations as well. Today let us enjoy the release and rescue the Lord grants us and take us to the place of freedom from all entanglements of situations.

Psalms 118:5 - From my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place.

Thought for Today
As we walk the narrow way with the Lord, our hearts are released from the entangling circumstances to bring to a large place of spiritual freedom and contentment.

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DIVINE POWER IN ALL OUR SITUATIONS!!

Divine Power in all our situations!

Verse for Today: Thursday, July 21, 2011
Psalms 17:7 - Show the wonder of Your great love, You who save by Your right hand those who take refuge in You from their foes.

The Psalmist who experienced the Lord in his past has, in his prayer, observed so many of the attributes of the Lord as the Lord exhibited these in his situations. David has seen the Lord through these attributes which were demonstrated in a mighty way in his life. So he bases his prayers on the merit of these attributes of God. He found the Lord to extend His loving kindness to His people which for them are amazing. Even when they did not deserve it, the Lord showed great loving kindness which amazed them. David also experienced the Lord's right hand which is the hand of deliverance, salvation, protection, provision and preservation. He saw the Lord to be the unfailing bulwark in which His children could take refuge. When we confide in this great refuge, He takes away all our fear, doubt, confusion, anxiety, worry, stress, burden and unbelief. This has led the Psalmist to pray to the Lord who is keen to express His great attributes in the life situations of His children. David tasted the Lord who knew the intensity of oppression and fear that griped his life and gave him deliverance. He found the Lord who was with him during all his greatest trials and delivered him from all alarms. So David's prayer teaches us today that there is no need for God's children to loose hope about their situations and circumstances because their Lord is in it all with them.

Dear friend, have you had opportunities to witness the great attributes of the Lord exhibited in your life? When you pray on the basis of the great attributes of the Lord in and through your life situations, He will definitely come to exhibit it by rescuing you from your troubles. Thus your life and situations become a platform where God's great attributes are demonstrated. So in essence, your prayers are opportunities for God to present Himself to you as the great deliverer, refuge and the reservoir of loving kindness. Your prayers are also the barometer of your dependence on the Lord as He responds to your prayers by showing His mighty power in your life and situations to reveal His strength and authority over all your situations. But this necessitates us to pray with genuine faith and leave all our cares at His feet as He has instructed us to do. When we have a difficulty, we should let Jesus know about it like Mary and Martha of Bethany. This is not because Jesus doesn't already know our needs, for He knows all about us and our needs even before we are aware of it. But it is our prerogative to let the Lord know about our needs which is our way to express our total dependence on Him. Just as He exhibited His glory at Bethany, Cana, Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem and other places, He will exhibit His glory in and through our lives also if we submit our situations to Him. He will preserve, protect, deliver and comfort us in our all situations through the wonder of His loving kindness. He will not let us go through our difficult situations all alone. But He will go with us and hold our hands as we pass through these valleys in our lives and take us to the other side of troubles. This is how we can end each day with the Lord. So let us today go to Him with confidence, casting all our cares on Him and leave it there for Him to handle it by His right hand. He will be our refuge in whom we can find rest, peace and joy.

Psalms 18:31 & 32 - For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? The God who girds me with strength and makes my way perfect.

Thought for Today
Prayer is our expression of dependence on our Lord who is ready to exhibit His power and glory in our situations and circumstances.

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WATCH, HOPE, WAIT AND RECEIVE!!

Watch, Hope, Wait and Receive!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Micah 7:7 - But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Human tendency is to watch for a little time and then slip into impatience. Waiting is such a difficult exercise in a world where instant gratification of all the desires is the order of the day. But we often forget the fact that looking unto the Lord who has promised to do abundantly for us is only the normal thing to do. Looking unto Him and not looking unto any other source for help, support and blessing is the mark of faith in the Lord when His promises are taken for their true value by us. When the Lord has promised to give us all that we need, how can we consciously look unto any other source? If we look unto some other source for the same things God has promised, we are undervaluing God. He wants us to keep looking unto Him until He fulfills our desires. If we look at nature, we can see that God has built in the truth of waiting in everything. For all natural processes to take place, whether it is for day or night to roll over, rain to fall, Sun to shine, plants to grow and fruit, food to be cooked or for reaching a distance, we need to wait. If we do not know how to wait for the events to take place at their own natural pace, we would not enjoy life on earth. So is the case with God and His promises. When we have divine promises with God's signature on it, we should look in hope for Him to unfold His promises to us. We should not succumb to pressure or temptation to look unto any other source for the gratification of our needs and desires. Not only that, we should wait for the Lord's time to unfold these blessings and needs. We are asked to wait, but no time frame is given to us. The time frame is what the Lord has set and it is known only when the promise is fulfilled. So we need to ask the Lord to help us to wait patiently for Him.

Dear friend, do you some times become impatient in life? We all loose patience several times in our lives, don't we? We are often like little children who cannot wait for the meal to be cooked or reach a destination when travelling. We want instant gratification of our desires or needs, without even knowing whether that need is genuine or not. Waiting for the need to be met is a time frame ordained of the Lord to prepare us for receiving and enjoying the blessing that God wants to give us. It is also a mark of our relentless faith and trust in the Lord. Our Lord will not despise any one who looks unto Him. He will not send us empty handed if we go to Him and will not disappoint us when as wait for Him. If God delays, it is not a delay of inactivity or indifference, but preparation. God is working behind the scene to prepare us to receive the gifts that He wants us to have. The Omnipotent God doesn't need any time to prepare the gift. We are the people who need time to get ready to receive what God wants to give us so that we can gratefully enjoy it. Sometimes, as we wait for the Lord, we might loose the desire for something and instead might desire something more spiritually satisfying. When God fulfills that, we would be able to look back and thank Him for not granting the earlier request and that it was His mercy that prevented us from receiving what we had initially asked for. Waiting for the Lord's time is better than having something which was not in the will of God. Let us be careful not to overtake God, but let us travel with Him at the speed at which He leads us.

Matthew 7:8 - For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Thought for Today
Only those who have patience will receive ripened fruit which is sweet and nourishing.

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BEST ADVERTISEMENT FOR HEAVEN!!

Best Advertisement for Heaven!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Psalms 16:11 - You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

It is comforting to know that the Lord is with His children all the time to guide them in the paths of life. They are given both life and life eternal by Him and He guides them in this life to prepare them for the life eternal. There is every possibility that we loose our pathway in this world because there are all sorts of detractors around us to lure us away from the right path. They offer joy and pleasures if we go their way. But this offer is only an advertising gimmick. Once we join their way, we will be plunged into sorrow, misery, hopelessness and oppression. Instead of singing for the Lord on His path, the path of the world will make us weep and wallow in our pain and agony. We will also have the guilt of taking detour from the path of the Lord. Many God's children experienced this sorrow when they drifted from the path of the Lord. Abraham and David were prime example of such lives of diversions, but the Lord rescued them from it and brought them to the right path. When we are on His path, we would enjoy His happiness because it will be a time of perfect fellowship with Him and enjoy all the heavenly resources. Our hearts will be filled with joy which will be expressed through the songs that we would be enabled to sing to the Lord. This pathway is full of grace, joy and satisfaction through supernatural enabling. We are called upon to experience heaven on earth moment by moment when we tread the pathway that the Lord shows us. This doesn't mean that we will not encounter problems or difficulties while on the Lord's way, but He will give us heavenly resources to cope with these earthly challenges as we walk with Him.

Dear friend, Are you continually on the pathway that the Lord shows you? Do you sometimes drift into detours from the Lord's path into the world's pathways? If you are lured like that, you will surely recognize it because without the Lord, you will not be happy no matter what the world offers you. Instead of singing joyful songs and hymns, you will only be able to weep because you will miss fellowship with the Lord and His people. You will then be out of touch with the Word of God and will not be able to pray in the Spirit of God. But even as you take the detour, you will hear the soft and soothing voice of your Shepherd asking you to come back to His path and follow His instructions. If you listen and obey Him, you will be able to come back to His path. As you repent of your backsliding and drifting, He will give the joy of your salvation back to you. He will reestablish fellowship with you and give you songs in the night to sing along as you tread His pathway. The joy that the Lord gives you is joy in spite of your circumstances and situations. You will be able to rejoice even in the midst of poverty, sickness and loneliness. You will sing even when the world engages you in fierce battles. When you are misunderstood, misrepresented and misinterpreted, you will still be able to enjoy your walk in the pathway of the Lord because He fills you with His joy. Will the people who meet you be able to see such a joy in your life? If so, you are the best advertisement for heaven. This is the challenge the Lord wants you to take as you walk in His pathways each day of your life.

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

Thought for Today
A child of God filled with the joy of the Lord in spite of his situations and circumstances is a formidable challenge for the world.

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FAITH WRECKS DOUBT AND CONFUSION!!

Faith Wrecks Doubt and Confusion!

Verse for Today: Monday, July 18, 2011
Ephesians 6:16 - .....Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

One of the greatest challenges of Christian life at all times is to live for God by faith. We are challenged to worship the unseen God by faith and to pray to the invisible God by faith. We enjoy the protection of God who cannot be seen physically. These exercises of faith are given in our souls by God. When the soil is slipping from under our feet, we still can stand the ground by faith. When all around us work against us, we can stand firm without fear, trusting our God who is with us. Sometimes, God lifts up the curtain of invisibility to show us the reality of His protection and care which He has established around us, as in the case of Prophet Elisha. He exhibits it to us on a daily basis through the provisions He sends to us by the ravens or widows. But we are called upon to live a life of faith where we believe even before we see evidence. Our life of faith is one where even when circumstances are against us, we hold on to the One who has promised to take us forward. As we keep going, the enemy of our souls tries to confuse us and cause us to doubt the invisible God who is working for us all the time. The enemy uses time as a factor and makes us tense about what is not happening when the clock is ticking away. But we can have faith in our God and expect a thunder storm even when there is no sign of any clouds. By faith we can give our five lofty loaves of barley bread and two small fish in a desert to the Lord and expect to feed thousands or kill a lion in a pit on a snowy day. Our flesh has always the craving for evidence and the enemy will use our natural man to doubt our faith. These are the arrows of flame that the enemy sends to us to defeat our life of faith. But to extinguish these arrows which inflame our spiritual lives, God has given us a great shield of faith which has the heavenly guarantee that it will never fail.

Hello, dear friend, are you today tossed around by your natural instincts to look for evidence to believe? Is your faith constantly shaken as you face the stark realities of life? Are you tempted to quit because the pressure on your soul is so strong for a long time? Are you bogged with doubt and confusion? God has given us a great and mighty shield called faith which is not man-made equipment, but a divine armor and is powerful enough to defeat any fiery dart of the enemy. It is the Spirit-enabled ability to believe against all odds and in any circumstance. Faith can walk the narrow road without seeing any thing because it holds on to the Light of the World. Faith reaches the destination even before it starts the trek. Faith doesn't seek evidences but it receives in advance what it anticipates. Faith doesn't know the word 'impossible' because it believes in the God of the impossible. Faith starts where sight fails. God doesn't add any thing to faith because it is perfect in its capacity to accomplish what He wants us to have. It was through faith that Abraham received a son and Moses got the people of God out of Egypt through the Red Sea. It was through faith that Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. It is through faith that every child of God receives salvation. It is for us to use in our daily walk. It helps us daily to attempt great things for God. Faith is God's answer to doubt, confusion, unbelief, fear and anxiety which are flaming arrows the enemy sends to us. God wants us to destroy these emotions by faith and become victorious. What is most important is that our faith is not in 'faith', but in God and His promises. Faith says that God will accomplish what He has planned for us in every circumstance. Today is our best opportunity yet to live by faith without which we cannot please God.

John 11:40 - Then Jesus said: "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

Thought for Today
Christianity is first and foremost faith-based and not evidence-based.

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DECISION FOR GAIN OR LOSS?

Decision for Gain or Loss?

Verse for Today: Sunday, July 17, 2011
Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasurer is, there your heart will be also.

People of this world are engaged in a treasure hunt which they will not be able to keep for long. It looses its value over time and is susceptible to be stolen or eaten by moths of various kinds. So people try to use all their human wisdom to find the safest way to keep their treasures. Their thoughts are almost always centered on their treasures which make their treasures idols in their hearts. They often develop anxiety about the possible loss of their treasures physically or through value erosion. They worry about the consequences of their wrong decisions they have taken in the past about their treasures because it has not gained the value it could have gained. So a person's life is the story of the anxieties and worries about their treasures which they will ultimately loose. But Jesus is asking us to change our priorities and put all our treasures in Heaven where it cannot loose its value. Once it is in Heaven there is no reason to be anxious about it and that is the way to keep our minds in peace. But the people of the world become anxious about the insecurity of what will definitely be lost because these are invested in this unstable world. If we keep our treasures in Heaven, we can live a carefree life here on earth, without anxiety or worry. We can also work hard and increase our treasures by investing more in Heaven and by living a life that is worthy of the Lord Jesus who had no place to lay His head when foxes had their holes and birds had their nests. Such life of austerity and sacrifice will help us to increase our investment in Heaven. This requires strategic choices in the spiritual realm. If we do not make such choices well in advance, we would loose what we invest in this world and at the same time we would not have any thing to count on in Heaven also. This is double loss which we should avoid as prudent investors.

Dear reader, are you heading for double loss or gain with your life? Are you using all the resources God has put under your stewardship for temporary gain in this world? Then it will definitely be lost eventually. God doesn't want you to be a looser at all. So He wants you to invest in Heaven and find it expanded several fold when you reach there. When you are investing in Heaven, your thoughts will always be in Heaven where your treasure is kept. This is the sure way to keep away from earthly anxiety or worry. You don't need to waste your spare time and energy with your computer to calculate what you will definitely loose. The anxiety that you develop about your earthly investments will cause you to have several psychosomatic illnesses which will eat away part of what you gain in this world in spending on medicines. But if your heart and mind are secure with the Lord and you think on those things which are on higher grounds, you will not have time and energy to experience anxiety or worry. You will rejoice and praise the Lord for the daily bread that He gives you to live with the joy of the Lord which will be your strength. The world might call you a fool if you do not have prudent earthly investments. The flesh will challenge you about a possible rainy day in the near future. Your family might call you a thoughtless and unconcerned person who is not practical and wise. None of these pulls of the enemies of your soul need to make you take decisions for earthly investments. You and I need to trust the Lord to meet our daily needs as we work hard to increase our investments in Heaven. Such lives will be contended here as well in the life hereafter. Others will be miserable at both places. Let us decide which pathway we should choose today and live victoriously as the Lord Jesus has taught us.

Matthew 6:33 - But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.

Thought for Today
Investment in Heaven is double gain whereas investment on earth is double loss.

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ENJOYING TOMORROW'S VICTORY TODAY!!

Enjoying Tomorrow's Victory Today!

Verse for Today: Saturday, July 16, 2011
Psalms 13:5 - But I have trusted in Your loving kindness; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

When God's children are faced with opposition and trouble in their lives, they have two options. One is to allow the troubles to control their thoughts to fill them with fear and anxiety and resultant loss of joy in their hearts. Such a life of various phobias drains them of their courage and confidence and makes them blown around by the wind of circumstances. It takes away the stability they should have otherwise enjoyed in their lives. But the child of God has a splendid option to follow which is to put all trust in the Lord to look after their present and future circumstances. Even when the road seems to be long and the sufferings endless, the child of God has the confidence that the Lord is there with him in all his circumstances. This is because his Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever. But when we allow circumstance to prevail over our faith, it will control our thoughts and eventually the decisions we make. When the possible fierce consequences try to penetrate our thoughts, the child of God can find victory over negative thoughts and melancholic feelings. No matter how long we wait for deliverance, we do not wait alone but the Lord helps us to wait for His time. He is in all our circumstances with us, He knows it all beforehand and has gone before we we reach there. He awaits us with His grace to meet the intimidating challenges of circumstances and will pour His grace into our hearts. Thus our hearts will generate trust and patience through His Spirit who fills our hearts. When the Lord thus fills us with Himself and His Spirit, it is as if the future has already arrived in our hearts. That is when we can sing to Lord with rejoicing because of the victory and deliverance He has already granted us. In essence we go to our future circumstances by faith and appropriate joy and victory by faith and enjoy it today.

Dear friend, has it been long since we you have waited for the Lord to give you victory over your difficult situations? Your long wait would have perhaps challenged your patience at times and caused you to develop doubts in your hearts. But the Lord has already given you victory over your situations. He is first and foremost concerned about your victory over the present emotions of apprehension, anxiety and phobia. He gives it to us moment by moment through His Spirit and Word so that our concern for our circumstances would wane away from our hearts. It will be replaced with praise in our hearts for the victory that He has already given us. Perhaps that victory is on its way in terms of time frame, but for the God who is above timeliness, the victory for you has already been accomplished. This is why we can praise God for tomorrow's victory and deliverance today itself. Such was the life of Abraham who saw the blessings God had promised him by faith from a distance. He was able to boldly sacrifice Isaac believing that He had already regained him by faith even from the ashes. Such faith helped Joseph to keep going in the wake of severe tests and persecutions. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem by the same faith and Gideon went to war seeing victory even before it was physically accomplished. Today we are challenged by the experience of David to take God by His Word that He has already accomplished deliverance for all our present and future situations and praise Him today for it all. Such faith is the greatest driving force for us to keep going in all our circumstances because our Lord has gone before us and has already accomplished victory for us. Let us enjoy all such future victories today by faith and live accordingly, thus defeating all the fear and anxiety which try to overtake us.

2 Timothy 4:18 - The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will being me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Thought for Today
Reassurance of future victory drives us through all circumstances with courage, confidence and strength.

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PRESERVED THOUGH INTIMIDATED!!

Preserved though Intimidated!

Verse for Today: Friday, July 15, 2011
Psalms 12:7 - You, O Lord, will keep them (safe); You will preserve them from this generation forever.

We live in a generation which is ungodly. This generation is under the clutches of Satan and sin and is opposed to any thing that God does in this world. The people of this generation are used often by the enemy of our souls against us who are God's children. We can see them in every walk of life, at work places, public places, service centers, on streets, market places and even in religious institutions. They are the best instruments in the hands of their master to intimidate and challenge God's children and their life of faith. We are often ill-treated, back bitted, gossiped about and schemed against. Our words are often misinterpreted and misrepresented. Our motives are misunderstood and we are misquoted. The enemy uses them to challenge our faith and trust in God. Their work ethic is manipulation and blackmailing. They do not have any ethics in the work place or in businesses. They say something and do something else so that they can achieve their goals of increasing their profit and other selfish desires. They win with their tongues which are twisted to say things to meet their goals in life and it is often at the expense of the children of God. These lead God's people into a lot of frustration and heartaches. They are often deprived of their rights and privileges through the people of this generation. But we are reminded today by the Word of God that this is not the end of the story. Even when the enemy tries to use people against the children of God, these brutal acts do not go unnoticed by the Lord. He watches these from above, rescues and safe keeps His children under His wings. They may suffer temporary losses of various kinds, but the Lord gives them deliverance and ultimate victory.

Dear reader, are you experiencing persecution of some sort in the hands of the people around you? Perhaps you are going through bitter experiences at your place of work or business. You might be looked at as a failure and an unintelligent person because you are not smart enough to win over their tactics. Do not let the intimidation of the enemy through the people around you downcast you and make you despair. You are going through these experiences because your values are that of the Lord and His Word. Your methods are not of flesh, but of Spirit. You cannot use fleshly and worldly tactics to win over your situations. You also have to realize that these people who are used by the enemy are not your real enemy and that the real enemy is only using them in his hands as puppets. He wants to scratch our skins and bleed us so that we might be tempted to react like the worldly people. But you and I have the consolation that we are preserved by the Lord in His mighty hands. We might temporarily experience setbacks of different kinds in the hands of the perverse generation in the midst of which we live. But the Lord makes sure that our ultimate spiritual interests are never affected. He keeps us in His peace which passes all understanding. He helps us to forgive our detractors and forget the temporary losses through their hands because no one can thwart us of our permanent inheritance in Heaven. He keeps our hearts and minds in peace and comfort in Him so that we will have the spiritual strength to bear with any of the intimidation of this generation with the spirit of forbearance, patience and peace. Joseph, David, Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah, Paul and others had similar experience and they got victory over their situations through the Lord. The same Lord is alive for us today and He will give us His grace in abundance to weather away the intimidation of the enemy for His name' sake.

Psalms 12:5 - "Because of the oppressions of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord. "I will protect them from those who malign them."

Thought for Today
The strong shield of the grace of God around His children will preserve them from the fieriest darts which come through the ungodly around them.

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FOUNDATION UNSHAKABLE!!

Foundation Unshakable!

Verse for Today: Thursday, July 14, 2011
Psalms 11:3 - When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?

We see the foundations laid by God in this world being destroyed day by day. The moral law that God instilled in the hearts of men have already been mutilated. The laws of God which once governed all human relationships seem to be crumbling fast, if not already crumbled. Rebellion in families is ever on the increase. All norms of godliness have been questioned under the shadow of freedom and spirit of independence. The inquiry methods of education have come into question everything that God has taught man. There is a counter-argument for every doctrine and teaching of the conservative pulpit. There are seemingly innovative approaches to everything which do not seem to need the power of the Spirit of God to accomplish. Christendom is increasingly challenged to use modern methods to accomplish great human goals with guaranteed success. Ministers and Christian ministries use modern marketing methods to achieve objectives. Organizations have come to replace the role of the church, and their growth rate is intimidating. Great men are tempted to join the crowd lest they will be shown the way out of ministry. Faith is replaced by sight and technology. Sin has become a 'weakness' for which someone else is always responsible. Gospel has new ingredients like 'prosperity' and 'social reformation'. Very few know God who is the 'consuming fire' because they think He is full of love who cannot punish sin. The church is full of 'pharaohs' who have not seen 'Joseph' and might not learn until the plagues come and devastate everything. When foundations are thus destroyed inch by inch, God's people get exasperated and wonder what to do to keep going. But such exasperation need not crumble us, and instead lead us more often to the holy temple where our Lord is seated on the Throne righteously. He has guaranteed consolation and hope to all who go to Him for strength and comfort even when the foundations are destroyed.

Dear friend, are you exasperated about the way things get out of control around you? Do you feel deeply frustrated that you are unable to do any thing about the destruction of the foundation of life situations? Is the enemy sowing the seeds of despair in your heart? But there is no need to plunge into despondency because the Lord is still on the Throne in Heaven and He controls everything. When people break the chains of love that God has put into their lives, they will plunge into chains of slavery of various kinds and will suffer for it. Even when there seem to be nothing we can do about the evil that pervades all walks of life, we can always go to the Throne of Grace and draw strength and hope from the Lord. He controls our lives with His love and grace and wants us to continue to depend on Him for all our affairs. When we submit ourselves to Him without loosing hope, He will take hold of our hearts and minds to strengthen us through His Spirit and Word to face the hopeless situations that we are in. He deals with us as He examines us to see if we are right with Him. Let us live without getting stuck with the blemishes that are around. Let us believe the Word rather than question it. Let us take God and His Word by faith and hold on to it to strength us when the foundations shake. Let the Word be the only foundation for our faith because when all things pass away, the Word is eternally secured in Heaven. When life seems to be at a standstill, let the golden rays of the foundations of the Word give us hope to keep going. Let Jesus alone be our hope in this hopeless world to provide us with the spiritual energy that we need to hold on until He comes to take us Home with Him.

Isaiah 6:1b - .......I saw the Lord seated on the Throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Thought for Today
When all foundations around us crumble, we have a sure foundation in the Lord who is our only hope and strength.

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INVISIBLE YET INVOLVED!!

Invisible yet Involved!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Psalms 10:1 - Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

When we wait for long for the Lord to answer our prayers and when the answers do not come even after we tarry for a long time, it is likely that we become exasperated and desperate. At such times, doubts and confusions come and knock at the doors of our hearts. It is possible that words of unbelief might come out of our souls in such situations. We become like little children who wait in impatience and speak impulsively because of intense feelings of despair and pain of suffering. Sometimes we wonder whether God had heard our prayers and supplications. These doubts and apprehensions tend to dim our eyes so that we would even loose our spiritual insights. Isaac had a time of dimmed vision and so also Eli, the high priest. Such dimmed visions drove them into serious spiritual problems. The enemy will use our weak flesh to plunge us into deep depression and despair and we might not even know what we utter in the presence of the Lord. But if we look unto the Lord through the spiritual eyes, it won't be difficult to see that He is very near us and still holds us in His mighty hands. We might not be able to see the way He works in our lives and in our situations because these actions of our Lord are often hidden to us. But our Lord is working wonderfully for us behind the curtain which will be revealed at the right time. Till that time, we need to exercise faith and patience. When we lack faith, we have the freedom and opportunity to ask the Author and Finisher of our faith to increase our faith and trust in Him. We can thus challenge the forces of the enemy that there is nothing impossible with our Lord and that He will come to our rescue and answer our prayers at the right time. He is not standing far off in hiding, but working behind the scene to meet your need and help you to face the challenges in life.

Dear reader, there were times when great children of God like David, Hannah, Abraham, Jacob, Paul and others got exasperated and wondered whether our Lord was far off. We are sometimes tempted to utter words of faithlessness which are en embarrassment to our faith. But the Lord knows that it comes out of our weak faith because we are dust and do not have much strength in ourselves. We are all people with feet of clay. So in our times of despair and faithlessness, He prays for us as in the case of Peter. His Spirit intercedes before the Father for us. He speaks to us daily through His Word to strengthen us and help us to see the way He works for us even when we are not aware of it. Even when we sleep, He works for us. As we are involved in other things and forget about His mighty work in progress for us, He still works for us. He works in us with the same power with which He created the Universe and all that is in it. His ears will never be shut from our prayers nor will His arms be short that they cannot accomplish His purpose in and through us. If we cannot see the Lord near us, it is our spiritual problem and not His neglect of His beloved children. On the authority of the Word of God and on the basis of the experiences of millions of His children throughout the past centuries, we can confidently say that the Lord is near to us and He stands by us to help us in all our situations. He is in all our situations with us and will never forsake us. Let us see Him today by faith in His full glory and power and put all our trust in Him to deliver us from our difficult situations and thus take glory to Himself through our lives.

Psalms 145:18 - The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.

Thought for Today
When we focus our eyes and attention on the Lord, we will be able to see Him working in all our circumstances all the time.

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YOU WON'T BE WRITTEN OFF!!

You won't be Written-off!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ruth 1:6 - When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of His people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

Even though there was a famine in Bethlehem, the house of bread, that was not the end of its fate. The famine was a direct reprimand from God for the wayward life of the people of God when they all did as seem fit in their eyes. People like Elimelech and Naomi even fled the land of God to a cursed gentile country for survival, just like their father Abraham who went to Egypt. But the emancipation from God's land only brought them more tears and depravity. At such times the ungodly people around would say that God had forgotten His people and the land He had given them. But once the people of God learned their lessons, God remembered the remnant and His covenant with Abraham and sent a time of abundance to His people. Such is our God who will not forsake His children forever. He has special ways to teach us great lessons, often through pestilence, poverty, war, captivity, crop failure and the like. These are never to wipe us out of the land of the living. When we learn the lessons that God intends us to learn, He will bring back a time of normalcy in our lives. He will not forget us forever nor will He forsake us completely. He is mindful of us and knows that we are but just and worms. So He shows compassion to us and comes back to meet our needs on a daily basis. But it is equally important that we also live a life of faithfulness to the Lord and His Word.

Dear reader, have you ever felt that God has forsaken and forgotten you because of the seemingly repeated adversities that strike you? But these adversities are often a way by which God is speaking to us and asking us to straighten out our lives. Any thing that God allows in our lives is a way by which God speaks to us. We need to humble our hearts and give ears to the messages that He so loudly speaks. All events that happen around us have a message to us. Some times the events are due to the attack of the enemy which ought to make us sharpen the armor of God that He has given us and use it according to His instructions to fight and become victorious. At other times, we go through the experiences of Ai when failures in our lives make us fumble and mumble. At such times, adversities point us towards our failures so that we can become right with God. Through all that happens to us, we should listen to God and obey unconditionally. When these pestilences blow on us or other believers, we must also realize that after these winds stop, there will be a time when we will enjoy a time of peace and rest. But this rest is available to us today in spite of the winds and storms that blow on us because we are already seated in the heavenly places. We can today be comforted along with the Naomi's and the Ruth's among us that God will not forsake us forever and that even when all around write us off, there will be time when God will once again open the windows of Heaven to shower His providence, peace and protection on us in a special way. Yes, Bethlehem will once again be filled with bread and God's people will once again enjoy a time of spiritual abundance as they confess their failures to Him and wait for Him to act. Perhaps that day will begin in your life today for you to continue to enjoy the favor of the Lord.

Psalms 136:23 - Give thanks to the Lord who remembered us in our low estate.

Thought for Today
God will never write off His children but will show grace and loving kindness towards us when we repent and go back to Him.

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A THOUGHTFUL AND CARING GOD!!

A Thoughtful and Caring God!

Verse for Today: Monday, July 11, 2011
Psalms 8:4 - What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

The glory of the creation of God is so great that it exemplifies the glory of its Creator. The universe is so vast and varied with relative magnificence and excellence in its characters and movements. Considering all the vast creations of God, man is but a puny creature and in comparison less than an amoeba. But it is amazing that God considers man greater than all His other creations. It seems that all of creation works for man who lives on the earth which is one of the smallest planets. Even after man committed sin and had fallen short of the glory of God, it is amazing that God is still mindful of man. God controls the movements and interrelationships of the stars and the planets in such a way that the environment of this earth is conducive for man to live. This is because God loves man and is interested in his well being. God wants the fellowship of man and desires that he responds to the love of God demonstrated on the cross of Calvary through the death of His Son. God is mindful of man and his welfare. God is infinitely interested in the affairs of man because God envisages an eternal plan for man. The life that He has given to man is a time of preparation for man to be with God forever. So man's life on earth is of tremendous importance to God. God speaks to man through His entire creation and declares His glory to man to challenge man to respond to God's love. God has great provisions to meet all the earthly needs of man, for water, air, energy and environment which are all built in the universe through the skillful arrangement of His creation.

Dear friend, isn't it amazing that the God of this Universe is interested in you and that He is mindful of your welfare? Do you realize that He moves the universe to meet your needs while you have the challenge to search and find God and His love? Are you aware of the extent of care He has for you and your affairs? Yes, He is interested in you and your affairs because He has eternal purposes for you. He wants to accomplish certain purposes with your life here on earth as well. He desires to use your life as a great investment for the spiritual welfare of others around you and will reward you for allowing Him to use your life as a springboard for Him. While you are mindful of Him and His affairs, He wants to be mindful of your affairs. He thinks about you all the time because you have His Son dwelling in your heart. He has also deposited His Spirit in you. So God has something at stake in your life and He is interested in the spiritual investment in you to grow and fruit so that God can use these fruit for others. But He can use you only if you surrender your life to God to use it the way He wants for His glory alone. He guarantees that He will meet all your needs while you allow Him to use your life for His glory. When you reach your eternal home, He will help you to find your life with all the investment that you allowed Him to have in your life. This is both an opportunity and a challenge. If we acknowledge God as our creator, rightful owner and redeemer of our lives, we would have no hesitation to give our lives back to God to use it the way He wants. Considering our nothingness and sinfulness, there is no reason for Him to be mindful of us, but He remembers us because of His loving kindness and compassion. Isn't it wonderful that while we look after His interest on this earth, He will look after our needs and interests here and now and forever in eternity as well? It is then that we are able to live without anxiety about our earthly affairs because He is mindful of us and our affairs.

Psalms 27:13 - I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Thought for Today
When we are mindful of God and His business on earth, He will be mindful of our business on earth.

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A COOL DESERT!!

A Cool Desert

Verse for Today: Sunday, July 10, 2011
Song of Songs 8:5 - Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?

Desert is a picture of intense dusty heat which makes travelers weary, thirsty and miserable. The life of a child of God is often depicted as a journey through the desert. It is a difficult journey which makes the travelers frustrated. They feel like wanting to run fast, but they can't because of the pressures of the desert. There are no trees for shade and the way itself is not clearly marked out. It is so easy to loose the way and travelers get confused about which direction to go forward. This world puts great pressure of heat on the travelers and intimidates them with great challenges of life. The world doesn't give the traveler any rest, but make them intensely thirsty. Often the world gives them wrong things to drink to increase their weariness. In the midst of it all, there is a thrill for the child of God because he is traveling with the Lord who is the Lover of his soul. As the Lord walks so close to us, we can always lean on to Him and find comfort and rest in Him and cast all our burdens on Him. When we lean on to Him, He keeps comforting and encouraging us to keep going. But we need to watch out to make sure not to lean on to the pseudo-lovers like possessions, positions and prestige who are out there to attract us to them. They only offer bondage of various kind and infected lukewarm water to drink. They give us entertainment to make us joyful which will be like soap bubbles. They offer sleeping pills to help us sleep instead of sleep and peace. They give us false sense of satisfaction which evaporates in the heat of the desert. But our Lord, the Lover of our souls, is with us and He invites us lovingly to lean on to Him to find rest, comfort and coolness in Him. When we lean on to Him, we can cast all our cares and burdens on Him. He will put His arms around us and comfort us with His Word which is the living water for us to regain the lost energy as we walk through this desert.

Dear friend, are you a weary traveler through this world which is a desert with its hot wind and sand that make you miserable? Are there times when you feel that you might not make it through the journey? Do you often get confused and feel intimidated by the pressures and tensions of this desert journey? Just look behind you to find the Lover of your soul walking beside you. He wants to talk to you and walk with you to help you tread this path with joy in your heart and rest for your soul. He wants you to lean on to Him and put all your burdens on Him so that you can relax. He wants you to trust Him to be your travel companion who carries your baggage for you. As you lean on to Him and put all your weight on Him, you will be completely relieved of the burdens. He is the Rose of Sharon whose fragrance will take away the weariness from your soul. He is like an apple tree in the desert and you have the privilege to sit under its cool shadow to enjoy the sweet melons which will take away all your weariness and give you the spiritual energy to keep going. When the desert tries to confuse and defeat you and make you take detours in your walk with the Lord, your Lover is ever beside you to hold your hands and take you to your destination. Walking with Him even through the desert is a great thrill. You have the privilege of singing love songs of praise to the Lover of your soul as you keep walking with Him. Then you will not feel the harsh desert weather, and your weary soul will be rejuvenated. Let us enjoy this walk in spite of the unfavourable situations in this desert because we have our Lord to lean on to.

Psalms 91:4 - He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Thought for Today
Leaning on the Lord will take away all our burdens and release our souls to express our love to Him through spiritual hymns.

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