Hislove

He calls because He cares

2008-06-23T20:46:00.005+07:00

I just came back from an awesome country, Nepal. I stayed with a lovely family. I was there for 2 months. Wow! Time flies. Here is a picture that I took from my room at a roof top. Since I am not a person who likes to take photo so this picture may be the best that I have. Hahaha. I had a great time there. But it's also a time of learning and struggling for me. I have learned that when God calls us, He may not be interested in the work, ministry or what we could do for Him but rather He is interested in building and making us to be a person who has His character.

When I felt God calls me to Nepal, I wanted to serve Him and do for Him. But when I was there, I can't encourage, teach or minister to the people there. I felt disappointed and complained to God that why He calls me here if I can't do a single thing. But His voice was so gently and replied me that because He is interested in moulding and building me up so that I will have His character and shine forth His glory to the people around me. My prayer is that I will be changed into His character. I am glad to say that when He calls He is interested in us more than anything!

He has a good plan for us

2008-03-16T19:59:00.005+07:00

1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the sojourners of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Jehovah, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except according to my word.

1Ki 17:2 And the Word of Jehovah came to him, saying,

1Ki 17:3 Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, before Jordan.

1Ki 17:4 And it shall be, you shall drink of the brook. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

1Ki 17:5 So he went and did according to the Word of Jehovah. For he went and lived by the torrent Cherith, before Jordan.

God told Elijah to hide himself by the brook Cherith and drink of the brook. He did what the Lord told him.

1Ki 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the torrent.

1Ki 17:7 And it happened after a while, the torrent dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

God took care of Elijah by sending the ravens brought him bread and flesh. Every thing happened according to what the Lord has told Elijah and it happened after a while the torrent dried up. The brook that Elijah has drank and quenched his thirst, now it dried up.

Perhaps, our brook, where we find joy and love, may dried up. And we may think, what have I done wrong? Or we even condemn ourselves when some thing didn't go in our plan. I have a good news! Don't loose heart because our God knows what will happen and He has prepared a good plan, a better plan we can say, for us!

Remember, the next thing that God does will be better thing than the last thing He did.

1Ki 17:8 And the Word of Jehovah came to him, saying,

1Ki 17:9 Arise, go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon, and live there. Behold, I have commanded a widow to keep you there.

Then God told Elijah to go to Zarephath because He has prepared a place for him. When it seems our brook dried up, God got another better plan for us. The brook dried up didn't surprise God, nor made Him worries because He knows our future! Because before the brook dried up, God already has a plan for us!!

Live for Him

2008-03-07T23:36:00.002+07:00

Tonight, when I was worshiping and praying. I felt so happy to know that if I were gone now, I will be with the One who loves me. What a joy to know that our life is to be with our Father. Our destiny is to spend time with Him. May be I just understand a little bit when Paul said in Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Some how I felt relieved to know that what I face in this world is not permanent, but it's just temporary! I need not to over concern about issue of life, not that I am pushing away my responsibility but what I am saying is this whatever we can't do anything, just let it goes. Let go and let God!

Life is so short. We can live for ourselves or for Him. I used to do whatever I like to do but somehow I felt empty in what I had done.

Jer 2:5 So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

The Israelite had gone from God and walked after vanity and they had become vain. I don't want to walk after vanity and I, myself become vanity. I want to walk in His way and walk after Him.

We do a simple thing and let Him do the Miracle!

2007-12-29T12:41:00.000+07:00

I had an opportunity to share at a camp. There were 90 youths attained. My message was very simple and short. It's about Jesus is the best gift and God is with us and always be with us. I shared about 15 minutes and then I did an altar-call. As I told you, my message was simple but there were 18 youths raised their hand to accept Jesus to be their best gift.

1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
1Co 1:24 But to them, the called-out ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 Because the foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and the weak thing of God is stronger than men.

I am reminded again that the foolish thing of God or simple thing of God I would say that there are power and miracle!

Praise the Lord!

Living to see good days

2007-12-12T21:58:00.000+07:00

1Pe 3:9 Never give back evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, giving blessing, knowing that you are called to this so that you might inherit blessing.
1Pe 3:10 For he that wants to love life and to see good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.

Do you know that we are called to inherit God's blessing? We are not just a common believer but we are God's heir to inherit His blessing. I checked the word blessing in Greek, eulogia, means fine speaking. The word eulogia comes from 2 Greek words, eu which means good and logia or logos means word so we can say that eulogia or blessing means good word. When Jesus said to the fig-tree and the following day the fig tree died. Mar 11:21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him (Jesus), Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered away. When Jesus said bad about the fig tree, Peter recognized those words as curse. And it's true that when Jesus said bad about the tree, the tree died. It means that our word carry authority and power to bring life or death. (Pro 18:21)

And verse 10 says, if we want to love life and see good days, thank God that we will have good days, not just a day but days, let us retrain our tongue from evil. Wait a minute! How come if we want to see good days we are to retrain our tongue from evil. Because if we want to get God's blessing or to see good days, we are to say good word in our life, our situation, our children and our study or job. Don't say bad word, or curse (remember curse word equals bad word), in our life but rather say what God says in our life.

How many agree that it's good to know we have good days ahead of us and God is the One who promises us that. Only we are to restrain our tongue from evil and we shall see good days!

He sees you without spot

2007-11-18T21:34:00.000+07:00

Many time when we have failed or sin. We have a tendency to condemn ourselves. We would say, "how stupid and foolish I am. I can't believe I have made this mistake!" If you don't condemn yourself I believe that there are those who are quick to say something bad about you and your mistake.

How about our Father, what does He say about us?

"that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." Eph 5:26-27

I believe that He sees us without spot or wrinkle, may be that's why we are Xtains don't have wrinkle as much as those who are not believe. And woman say, amen!

I am sorry. Please come back to our point, He sees us without spot. Wait a minute! How can it be? Because we have a loving Father who doesn't out to get us or looks at our weakness but rather He has faith in us. We can see in Abraham's and Sarah's life. When G told them about giving them a son, their response was laughing. (Gen 18:13-15) We could say that they didn't believe what God said and yet His word says, "and not being weak in faith, he (Abraham) did not consider his own body, already dead..." (Rom 4:19)

We have a loving Father who sees our faith, no matter big or small. And He sees us without spot. If He doesn't see our failure nor condemn our mistake why should we condemn ourselves. See yourself as God sees you, without spot, glorious and beloved!

He will uphold us!

2007-11-17T16:46:00.000+07:00

We all find ourselves in the valley of despair or disappointment sometimes. We may ask or question ourselves, how we get into this valley. But I believe we should ask, where do we go from here and what outcome do we want to achieve.

One thing that I know though, no matter how worst our valley of disappointment would be. There and then God is with us to uphold us because He says,

"fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isa 41:10)

When we know that He IS with us to uphold us with His righteous right hand, it is not our valley of disappointment but God's divine-appointment. Because all thing, even bad things, works together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose. We will be able to find joy and rejoice because He is in control and He will uphold us!

loong

Soul Nourishment First

2007-11-15T12:28:00.000+07:00

Our Lord says "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." I am drawn to the word "drinks". The Lord was speaking to a Samaritan woman at a well and telling that whoever drinks from shall not thirst again. I believe, one of the reason that we as a Xtain are not experiencing the joy and peace as much as the bible tells us because we don't drink from Him and we rather do our own thing and disregard what the Lord has said in His word.

I would like to share what I have read in an article by George Mueller

"It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For though I might seek to witness to the lost, or to benefit other believers, or to relieve the distressed, or in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; nevertheless, if I myself am not happy in the Lord, and have not been nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all of these other things might not be done in the right spirit.

I never read about this method in a book, nor did anyone ever tell me about it. And yet, now, ever since God taught me this concerning meditation and prayer, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God should do every morning is to first obtain food for his inner man. Just as our outward man is not capable of working long unless we eat, and as this is one of the first things that we do each morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food as well for the inner man.

Now, what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not merely reading the Word of God without comprehension, so that it simply passes through our minds like water running through a pipe, but instead, taking time to consider what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

We can profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, even though we are ever so weak spiritually; in fact, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. When we pray in this manner, our minds will wander far less than if we simply give ourselves to prayer without first taking time to meditate.

I emphasize this point so much because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I have gotten from it myself, and I strongly encourage all my fellow believers to consider what I have said. I believe that it is because of this method of meditation and prayer that I have received from God the help and strength to pass in peace through deeper trials than I had ever had before; and after having now practiced this method for over fourteen years, I can most fully recommend it to you.

How different it is when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one without such spiritual preparation." - George Mueller

Yes, we shall have our souls happy in the Lord!!

Rest and refresh

2007-11-14T16:15:00.000+07:00

I just finished leading a cip team. We went to teach english and painting at a school in CR. It was tiring but I had a good time seeing His creation at the mountain and I enjoyed fresh-air there. After the team has left, I still tire and felt like I don't want to do anything save one thing, sleeping.

While I was still tired. My Father shows me in His word that " 'to whom He said, This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest. And, 'this is refreshing.' " (Isa 28:12) I know now that I don't need to do or go somewhere in order to rest but here and now I can rest and get refresh because when I pray as it says in v.11 "For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people."

loong