UNBREAKABLE PROMISES!

Unbreakable Promises

Verse for Today: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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SHOUTS OF VICTORY!

Shouts of Victory

Verse for Today: Monday, December 20, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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GOD'S JUSTICE FOR THE UNJUST WORLD!

God's Justice for the Unjust World

Verse for Today: Sunday, December 19, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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THE LORD OF LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS!

The Lord of Light in my Darkness

Verse for Today: Saturday, December 18, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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YOUR LIFE: A SPRING OF JOY!

Your Life: A Spring of Joy

Verse for Today: Friday, December 17, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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ABUNDANT GIVING BY THE LOVING FATHER!

Abundant Giving by the Loving Father

Verse for Today: Thursday, December 16, 2010

Psalms 86:5 - But You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in loving kindness to those who call upon You.

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

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

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

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

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RECEIVING IS RESPONSIBILITY!

Receiving Is Responsibility

Verse for Today: Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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