FATHER'S GOODNESS TO OBEDIENT CHILDREN!

Father's Goodness to Obedient Children

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

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

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

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

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

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STRENGTH AND JOY FOR THE PILGRIM

Strength and Joy for the Pilgrim

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

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

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

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

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

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PRAISE: BYPRODUCT OF TRUE HAPPINESS!

Praise: Byproduct of true Happiness

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 12, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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WIDE OPEN FOR DEEP FILLING!

WIDE OPEN FOR DEEP FILLING

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 11, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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RELEASED AND UNSHACKLED!

Released and Unshackled

Verse for Today: Friday, December 10, 2010
Psalms 81:6 - I relieved his shoulder of the burden, his hands were freed from the basket.

God knows all about the burdens carried by His beloved children. He is compassionate to the suffering children as their hands are in the bondage of hard labour for the cruel master of this world. They are often under the bondage of flesh, world and Satan. They are lured into bondage by the enemy of their souls. Once they are under bondage, the enemy will create situations in such a way that there won't be any easy release. But that doesn't mean that there is no hope for them because their Lord knows their plight and He is ready to grant them release from the clutches of sin and the world. He comes down to our level and helps us get out of the bondage. First of all, it is important that we recognize our bondage as in the case of the Israelites in Egypt. When we cry unto the Lord, as the people of Israel did, He comes to our rescue. Secondly we need to confess our weakness of falling a prey to the enemy and become slaves to sin and the world. When we thus confess and ask the Lord to give us a release from the burden, the Lord will lift up the burden from our shoulders. He will unshackle our hands from the bondage of the hard labour that the world has pushed us into. We will thus enjoy freedom in the Spirit to live as unshackled people to the praise of our Lord. In order to release us from the burden of sin, He carried our burdens and infirmities and nailed them all to the cross at Calvary. In Him we have full freedom from all besetting sins and burdens. He gives us release from all the entanglements of this world, and will help us break all bondage. This simply means that we have the freedom and right to live a life without burdens. If the Lord has taken away our burden of sin, He can also remove our burdens of all sorts, with all its concern about our lives. When our burdens are lifted at Calvary, we can take adventures of faith to trust the Lord for our entire unknown tomorrows.

Dear friend, are you unnecessarily carrying any burden in your heart today? Is this burden about your day to day affairs or about your future? Is it a concern about your health or about family and children? Are you under the bondage of debt? There is need for you to go to the Lord and ask Him to help you with means to remove the bondage of all sort. Perhaps you are under the bondage of some habits or addictions. It could also be a bondage of negative thinking and pessimism. The Lord can take it all from you and give you a release if you ask Him. He never forsakes those who ask Him for help, as long as we are sincere in our requests. When we submit our lives to Him and give Him first and foremost place in all our affairs, He would take full control over our affairs and give us release from our problems and difficulties. He will give us the strength for perennial and perpetual release from bondages of all types and magnitude. He will show us how to live a victorious Christian life on a daily basis. He wants us to have a godly life, full of contentment and joy in Him. True freedom is what the Lord Jesus Christ offers us provided we are able to take Him by His word. Then we will know true freedom and resultant happiness. Then we will be ready to shoulder some burdens of the Lord which He will place on us so that we can carry it for His glory in our lives.

Psalms 55:22 - Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

Thought for Today
The Lord removes all the burdens placed on us by the enemy and entrusts us with His burdens on our shoulders.

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THE WEAKEST BECOMES STRONGEST!

The Weakest becomes Strongest

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 09, 2010
Psalms 81:1 - Sing for joy to God our strength; shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.

Singing and shouting joyfully are two characteristics of God's children because they are moved by the work of the Lord in their lives and the resultant accomplishments. They are able to praise Him for He is their sole strength. He strengthens His children to face any situation with confidence and courage. It is not their own courage, but the courage granted to them by the Lord according to His measure. They are weak in their flesh, but He puts His strength even in their bodies. They are emotionally weak and are prone to discouragement and disillusionment, and so He fortifies them with His Spirit to feel confident in life. Their strength erodes day after day when they are tossed around by the changing wind of circumstances and unstable friends. So they are now able to sing for joy because the Lord who is the embodiment of true strength is there to empower them in all circumstances for what He wants them to accomplish in this life for His glory. When God is their strength, they are able to do any thing that the Lord wants them to do, and nothing seem to be impossible for them. They do it all in the power of God and not in their own strength or reasoning basically because they do not have any strength in themselves. They are also inclined to shout for joy because they are like Jacob with all problems and weaknesses in personality and behavior. But God is so pleased to be known after Jacob because God chose him even when He knew what kind of a man Jacob was. But God gave Jacob abundance of grace and chose him to be a link and a channel for the Lord Jesus to come into this world to save sinners. Jacob was a looser on many counts and his life was a series of failures. He had encountered an array of problems. But in spite of it all, the Lord used him and was pleased to be known as the God of Jacob. He has become our Lord too because He has chosen us for special purposes here on earth. If God strengthens us and if He considers us with compassion as in the case of Jacob, even our singing and shouting of praises comes from His power.

Dear friend, are you a strong person or a weak individual? Do you think that you need to be empowered by the Lord so that He could use you totally for His glory? His power through His Spirit is available for genuine asking. If we seek Him, we will certainly find Him. He has asked us to seek His face and guaranteed full success. He strengthens only those who admit to Him that they are weak and heavy laden. He soothes the broken hearted and the down trodden when they admit their infirmities to Him in utter humility. He makes the weak among His flock to accomplish great things for Him if they surrender themselves to Him, and He has a pattern of using the weakest to accomplish mightiest things for Him. He gives them the capacity to trust Him to attempt things in life for His glory. They can do all things through Him because He strengthens them. They have the comfort that the God who used Jacob could use them also because the Lord has enough grace to extend to all of us who are weak and experience failures. He is the God of the second chance and gives us opportunities again and again to attempt great things by faith and live a life of spiritual adventure. When His people attempt things by faith and trust in Him, even before they accomplish things, they are able to give glory to the Lord for working in and through them. So all through the process of doing things for the Lord, they would be able to sing and shout for joy by faith. All that they do culminate in praising God who is the strength and power behind all that they do. So dear friend, there is no need for you to doubt and get into confusion about going the way of the Lord. The world around you might mock you and call you names because of what you attempt for the Lord. But there is no need for you to be discouraged. Just as the servant of Prophet Elisha saw fiery chariots and heavenly soldiers fortifying His children, we are able to believe that the heavenly forces are around us to strengthen and protect us in our weaknesses and infirmities of various kinds. The Lord is with us in our weaknesses even today to accomplish His purpose in and through us with His power. So let us rejoice in Him and His ways. Let us shout and sing songs of praise to the Lord who strengthens us for exceedingly great things by faith in Him.

Psalms 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Thought for Today
When God works in and through us, we can shout for joy today for what He accomplishes in us in our yesterdays, todays and tomorrows.

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NO FRUIT OR BITTER FRUIT!

No Fruit or Bitter Fruit

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Psalm 80:15 - Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted and on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.

It is a great matter of confidence to know that God's children are the shoot He has planted in His vineyard. We are planted in the most desirable place where the atmosphere is right for us to grow unto His stature and to fruit for Him at the right time. The vineyard is His, and the shoot is His. He desires that we grow day by day as the branches of the wine which is our Lord Himself. He is the gardener and spends His time to nurture this wine. He strengthens this shoot. When it was planted, it was a tender and weak shoot, but He has brought it up so far. His only desire is that we become useful for Him. Even when the wind of the world blows on this wine, He stands as a protection against it. He gives us the kind of manure we needs to grow. He is the one who waters this vineyard. He walks around and clips those branches which do not fruit. Those shoots which fruit are pruned for greater fruitfulness. The Heavenly gardener has planted us with great expectations. These expectations are based on the potential that He has built into each shoot. Let us today examine whether we are growing in our faith and trust in Him. Let us also see how much fruitfulness can be found in us. The gardener is summarily disappointed when He finds no fruit in us, or even when the fruit is below His expectations. He gives all the resources for us to grow and stands guard against all the wiles of the enemy of our Gardener. Our fruitfulness is seen in the way we practically demonstrate our deep and unfettered faith and trust in the Lord and give full commitment for growth and fruitfulness. Our fruitfulness is the fruit of the Spirit which will have to be seen in our practical lives.

Dear friend, are you able to praise the Lord that you are planted in His vineyard? Do you glory in the fact that the creator God is your gardener and that you are privileged to be part of His vineyard? How is your fruitfulness to Him where by you bring forth the right fruit for Him to enjoy? Are you sure that you are producing sweet and nourishing fruit? Would those who taste the expressions from your mind and mouth say that we are producing satisfying and nourishing fruit? Are you aware of the reasons for the lack of fruitfulness in you? Remember, it is the Lord who brings forth fruitfulness in you if you commit, surrender and submit to Him and abide in Him on a daily basis. You are a shoot selected and planted by Him in His vineyard. So it is important to remember in which direction we are growing and how much we should grow as unto the Lord. You are planted by the Lord and so no force in this Universe can uproot you. But if you do not abide in Him, you might become barren which will thwart the purpose for which you are planted. You are the Lord's son or daughter and so He does everything possible to strengthen you to grow. Let us today make use of the opportunity which He has granted according to His grace for us to grow. Our future is secure, but our daily life for Him will depend on how serious we are about our call and obedience. So let us today renew our allegiance, loyalty and commitment to the Lord and work with His resources to fruit for Him. This is the only way He will be pleased with our lives. Isn't it wonderful that we have the privilege to grow and fruit for the Lord of the Universe! So let us not waste the opportunity He has granted us today to demonstrate our absolute trust in the Lord through our attitude and commitment.

John 15:5 - I am the wine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.

Thought for Today
Fruitlessness and bearing bitter or tasteless fruit are all the greatest loss of opportunity for a child of God.

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