All Loving God

Jesus Culture's newest album, Unstoppable Love features a song named after its title. One line stands out foremost in my mind...."All the while You're shouting, My Love You're Worth It All". God is so unfathomable! His love is so indescribable. His majesty is so powerful. His glory is so unavoidable. God's Word, from cover to cover, describes in grave detail His amazing love for us. Sometimes we face situations, trials and challenges where we feel trapped into responding negatively. The outcomes are nothing we are proud of. We feel broken on the inside but walk around with a puffed up attitude as a way of telling the world that we are justified in the things we did. However, God's love for us covers our multitude of sins, washing us and cleansing us and wrapping us in His undying, unending love. Some of us have been through things that leave us feeling worthless, unloved, ridiculed, ashamed, timid, and rejected. I myself have gone through several situations where I have been treated with disdain and contempt. I sank so low into depression and wallowed in self pity and even self hate. But, it was then that I felt the arms of God wrap me in His embrace, shielding me from it all. It was in those circumstances I recognized that God's love was nothing compared to our love. His love has no limits, and goes so deep that we could never be capable of loving like that because we are not love itself.
God created us and He sees the worth of His creation. He is satisfied with us and doesn't blame us for the things we have done, but reaches out with love to bring us back to that place of originality. While we are there finding faults in ourselves, God is there shouting out that we are worth all His love, all His attention, all His thoughts, all His time, all His affection, all His blessing... And it was because of all this love He has for us that He died on the cross for us..
God is real. He is alive. He hears and He sees. He is ready to help. Most of all, He wants us to know that above all else, He LOVES us.

The Apple of His Eyes...

We are the apple of God's eye. It doesn't matter how many times we fail or how often we are on our faces before Him begging for forgiveness. Jesus remains ever in love with us and is always working things out for us. He sees the enemy and knows the plan of attack against our lives. So, He stands as a mighty centurion in battle ready to wage war on His inferior opponents. He is fighting for us, even when we turn around and realize that there is no one there for us. When we look in the mirror and see nothing, worthlessness, and insignificance, He is looking down and seeing a person of value, worth and significance. He thinks about us all day long, and continues those thoughts while we sleep. He is working the trials and circumstances out on our behalf.
Let us then not put our trust in man, but look up towards the hill where our help comes from. Let us look up and see that we can hope in and trust the God who continues to stand with us in everything we do. We may not always make the right decisions, but it doesn't mean He will leave us because of our choices. He loves us too much to let our actions create a dividing space between us.
Thank You Jesus.

Pastor Joseph Prince - God of the small things too

JOHN 21:9, 12
Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread… Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.”

Like many parents, Wendy and I pray for our daughter Jessica every night before she sleeps. When Jessica was two years old, we decided to pray that her diapers would not overflow during the night. Her diapers not overflowing might be a small thing, but we knew that it would give our little girl a comfortable sleep every night. And after we started praying for this, we noticed that her diapers did not overflow.

That incident made me realize that our God is not just interested in the big things that affect us. He bothers and cares about the minor things that affect us too. There is nothing too insignificant for Him. So don’t be like some religious people who have this idea that God only wants us to bring the big issues to Him, and that He doesn’t want us to bother Him with small issues.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God cares about everything that you experience, from the small ulcer in your mouth to your concerns about the world’s economy. Even when you tell Him about the inconvenience that might arise if the bus is late, He takes note of that too. In fact, when you come to Him often about anything and everything in your daily life, you compliment Him because you are telling Him that He is your Daddy God who watches over you.

Jesus represented the Father’s heart and will when He was on earth. (John 5:19) He cared when His disciples were out at sea the whole night, cold and shivering. He cared when they caught nothing that night. (John 21:3) He cared that they would not have fish to sell. So He gave them a huge catch early the next morning. (John 21:5–6) He knew that they were cold and hungry, so He prepared breakfast for them, served over a fire of coals to keep them warm.

Jesus showed us that God is our loving heavenly Father who cares about the big and small things that happen every day in our lives. Nothing escapes God’s eyes because He loves you!

Holy Spirit, right here, right now..

I heard a phrase that set me up for a new way of thinking - Holy Spirit Contemporary. What do you make of this? For me, I began to understand that we are a generation who are not interested in entertaining the church, or who doesn't care about playing church  - but we are actually a generation who is ready to DO for God what ever He will have us to do. Men of old were so sensitive to the presence of the Holy Spirit that they moved according to His nudging. But we, this new generation, are being trained in the church to act when God gives His command. We don't need a full worship team singing songs of praise in the background for us to do what God says. We have to act wherever we are, whenever He calls us to. We don't need to shout out prayers on the streets to get people to come to God, but in our homes, workplaces, social gatherings etc., as long as God says so, we can pray for someone who is hurting, in physical pain, mourning, distressed or going through any kind of trial as the Spirit leads. We have to recognize that the Anointed One, the Christ, is in us, and He is ready to work mightily through us. So, I'm ready to change my mindset and to get out there and do God's will. I pray that we can be vessels that God can work through. I pray that we can become sensitive to the presence of the Holy Spirit especially when we are not in church so that we can be used to help the lost in some way.  I pray that everything we touch shall be blessed. I pray for deliverance from the things that are holding us back from reaching to new levels with The Lord, all in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Thank God the seasons change...

It felt as though it was one thing after another. The pain and the hurt was building up so much inside of me, that even when I told God about it, I couldn't stop until it burst out of me. God saw. And He had pity on me. I learnt today that things won't be the same way forever. When it seems like a thousand years of the same difficult situation, to God its only a day! God loves His children, and He is pained when we are unhappy. He wants to work out that thing in our lives for us, but we sometimes keep going back and try to handle it alone. It wouldn't work. Give God the control. God is ready to fight our battles for us, but we are stepping in the way of our own victory. Its time to move on. Stop looking back. Let God lead us into the future.

Hold On, God is in Control!

A life in Christ doesn't equal a life without trials... We all have difficult moments that we go through as Christians in our homes, our family lives, our marriages, our jobs, our health.. Some of these situations weigh on us so heavily that sometimes we feel lost, like we are in a place where we can see the darkness and we are running around looking for an escape. Sometimes, its as though everything is turned upside down and we are trying to hold on to the ounce of hope we have left just to make it through another moment. Sometimes, even death seems better...
But, God shows us a wonderful lesson in the book of Job - Never give up on God! In the story of Job, we meet a man who faced numerous trials, persecutions, circumstances and situations, but he just held on to God. It didn't matter that he lost his possessions, his friends or his family - He still had God. His wife was among the people who told him to curse God and die instead of living a life that to the people looking on, appeared so defeated. But, Job was not a man who was living in the flesh. He had developed a relationship with God that he held in high esteem. This relationship allowed him to know in the Spirit that all that was taking place had a great purpose and one of victory!
It is obvious that Job saw thick darkness surrounding him that may have drained his hope. But, he never gave up. He continuously spoke words over his life declaring the Word of God which breathed life into his situation. As it progressively grew worse, somehow Job knew that God was in control and he embraced it all. In the end, Job was rewarded double for his trouble becoming one of the wealthiest men of his time.
So, what does it teach us? Things may get so bad, we may loose everything and everyone who ever mattered to us, but in God, we have hope. God does not leave us or forsake us. He is our present help in times of trouble. He sees our difficulties, and catches the tears we cry. He is a mighty and awesome God who is able to deliver us out of all our afflictions. We ought not to faint...but strengthen ourselves in Him, who gives us life and gives it more abundantly. There is no one like Jesus. Cry out from the depths of your heart. With the simplicity of a child, speak to Him. Believe He is right there when you go in prayer and know He is hearing you. Believe that His way is the best way and know that all things work for good to those who love God.
Be Blessed - and, relax, God is in control!

Accept Godly Correction

It's been quite a couple of weeks, and things have been difficult. I found myself in a place where lack of knowledge led me down a strange path, and all I could see was darkness for a while. Somehow, I had received counsel from people who were carrying contrary spirits, even though I didn't want to. Everything within me wanted to dispute what I had heard, and I wanted to rebuke the words. But, to my ultimate dismay, I found myself wallowing in the doubt that the advice brought me. Hours went by and I was literally tortured in my mind. When I acted on the evil, I recognized how much in the flesh I had drifted. I was disappointed and down right disgusted with myself. The only thing I could do at a time like that, was to bring myself at the feet of Jesus, where His mercy and forgiveness was bountiful.
The scripture says in 1 Corinthians 11: 32 (AMP), But when we (fall short and) are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not (finally) be condemned (to eternal punishment along) with the world.
This is so comforting. There are so many moments in a day that we fall short of God's glory upon our lives. Because God is a loving Father to us, He doesn't condemn us to Hell for our failings, but we are disciplined. Think back to when you were a kid... there were many times you did things you were not supposed to do, and you were corrected by your parents/guardians so that you could learn and hopefully never repeat your offense again. In the same way, God disciplines us for our own betterment. He seeks to correct our evil ways so that we can become better individuals, friends, men, women, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, etc.. He seeks to put us on the path of righteousness so that we will continually be on the journey that leads to Heaven where we can enjoy eternity with Him.
God knows that the world is heading to their ultimate destruction if they do not repent. He knows what Hell is like, since He created it for Satan and his demons. He doesn't intend for us to go there. Therefore, let us not take offense when we are scolded and rebuked, disciplined and chastened by God through the leadership of the church but let us arise and recognize that the correction comes from God Himself, since He doesn't want us to end up in Hell for our short comings...
People, God is a loving God and all He does is love us every moment of every day. He knows when we fall - His eyes are fixed upon us - and, like Pastor Joyce Meyer says, when we fall, we have to keep our eyes focused on Him so that we can get up again!
Let us go to God continually with repentance in our hearts for all our shortcomings daily, receive our correction wholeheartedly, apply the Word of God to our lives and watch the Glory of God rest upon our lives....
Jesus loves you all and desires to dwell in Heaven with you forever...