A Devotional Life

Thank God for the privilege to celebrate in remembrance the birth of His Son, Jesus, this season. It’s 25th already, and final merry routine checks going on; tree lights on - check, oven's hot - check, presents wrapped - check, cards sent - check, … - check, check. So, Merry Christmas. Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31-33. ...and you shall call his name JESUS; - for he shall save his people from their sins. (True sacrifice) - And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (New Reign) And that is the good tidings of great joy we have in celebrating Christmas - the birth of the Saviour: a sacrifice and a new reign. (Luke 2:10-11) Today as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, may we keep in our hearts these words that reveal the purpose of His birth. He was born to save from sin as many as believe, and establish his reign in our hearts for a living relationship with God. If you have never made a prayer of faith to accept Jesus into your hear

"How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You." Psalm 139:17-18. In Psalm 139, David worships God as one who, though supreme, yet is loving and conscious of man. God how wonderful you are. Let's have a quick run through the chapter: 1You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. David knew that God is all-knowing (omniscient), but what amazes him is that God knows his thoughts, so God understands him. We often have a particular friend(s) w

Awesome God, You’re so good. It’s weekend already and all I can recall now is a bunch of conversations with friends on the Christian faith – lots of sharing. One of the pictures I tried to paint was Grace. The picture: Sometimes God chooses to respond quicker to our simple faith than our excessive works. Just like a Christian gathering, often of two typical categories of attendees – those who came fully prepared: probably been fasting: maybe long expecting, and those who just showed up: maybe not even bothered. After the conference, you’re given a bulletin with testimony corner, and you begin to see stuff like: “I just showed up for the conference, and …”, the testimony corner then goes on and on in similar track, you even see stuffs like: “I didn’t even know there was a conference, my friend pulled me along … now God’s healed my back”. Hahaha, Awesome God. That’s grace. Now just take a minute to imagine; if we had to work for everything independent of God’s enablement, what need wou

Just want to say huge thanks to the guys here for letting me share in their life groups. Studying 2 Timothy 3 with y’all was good fun, and great privilege as well. As for the session on The Revelation of the Cross, we’ll be spreading the blog version across the months – for a bit of mix, this will also allow enough time for study groups to ponder on it, or to do what they do :) OK, praise God for a new month. It’s almost a week into September, and it’s back to business as usual as our most cherished summer breaks are over. Well, hope you enjoyed yours? Most of us “speaking for myself :)”, are still trying to cope with the sudden change in weather or even, anticipating the coping process, hahaha. If it is a comfort; there are so many coping anticipations in scriptures, though not much to do with weather, but relevant enough to learn from. Isaiah 56 is one of those scriptures. Isaiah 56:1-8 [NIV] 1 This is what the Lord says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvati

The Revelation of the Cross post series «  intro    the suffering    the hell    the joy    the love    the forgiveness    the total surrender    the fellowship  » A facet of the revelation of the cross is the suffering of Christ (The revelation of His suffering). Every other facet of the revelation of the cross flows from the suffering of Christ; for instance, the cross reveals fellowship (the fellowship of His suffering), the cross reveals/teaches forgiveness (forgiveness in His suffering), and so on. So, what is the suffering and its significance? To Jesus on the cross, the suffering was the pain and weight of our sins, the suffering was what He experienced on the cross. Since, Jesus lived a life of sacrifice – even by His coming to the world, the suffering began prior to the physical cross – through His self-denial. To Jesus, the cross was a daily experience, Luke 9:23. To us the suffering is the experience of Christ. And that phrase “the experience of Christ” sums

The Revelation of the Cross post series «  intro    the suffering    the hell    the joy    the love    the forgiveness    the total surrender    the fellowship  » By God’s grace, I would like to share a deep topic with you. It is going to be a session, so we will take it in bits. Kathryn Kuhlman in one of her messages said something which struck me, she said: Everyone at a point(s) in life, whether a Believer or not, will go through a difficult trial, and anyone who endures and passes these tests, will come out stronger. If you are alive on earth, you will definitely have a season of real uncommon trial, uncommon because you will want to quit, as that would be the only feasible option… You know, that’s biblical – in John 16:33 Jesus makes us know that we will sure have trials. One time, I was meditating and a friend came to mind – a very close friend and mentor in faith during my undergrad. I had observed him go through real trials and always come out stronger (and

Sacrificial thanksgiving is a kind of thanksgiving (or expression of gratitude to God for what he has done) by presenting an offering. In 2 Samuel 24:24 (also seen in 1 Chronicles 21:24), we see David’s expression of gratitude to God - He presents a kind of thanksgiving to God, and we see his decision of; not giving God an offering that had cost him nothing. This form of thanksgiving is the sacrificial thanksgiving. 1 Samuel 1:24-28 teaches on two expressions of sacrificial thanksgiving, distinguished by the offering. The first expression involves offering; for the promise (as seen in verse 24). In this expression of sacrificial thanksgiving, the substance of sacrifice – i.e. what is being offered or what we use to say thank you to God – is often not the promise itself. From the passage (in verse 24) we see Hannah presenting three bullocks, one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, as her sacrificial thanksgiving offering, in gratitude to God for the fulfillment of the promise (S

Just pondering over 1 Peter 5, and would love to share with focus on verse 7. If using any sectioned bible you will notice the NIV uses the title: ‘To the Elders and the Flock’ for verses 1-11, while the Message version, says ‘He’ll Promote You at the Right Time’ – interesting; just an observation. Verse 6 runs into verse 7, so we’ll start from 6: 6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7. Casting cares is a form of prayer, but I often prefer to just call it ‘casting cares’. My reason is that most times in prayer, we are thinking; what is the most appropriate way to pray this? Or how do I put it, since it is God we are talking to here? – And like thoughts… With such attitude/orientation it is possible to be praying something while bearing something else in mind. But the idea of ‘casting cares’ is like an old community setting when a king shows up to listen t

There are a variety of ways through which God speaks to us or relay His plans to us. We often have to listen to God in these different ways or discern by them. For example; the Scripture (the Word of God) is a very common way through which God speaks to us. So how does this work? We invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us while we study We listen while we study a passage By listening we begin to discern how it applies to us – what God is saying, and sometimes questions are raised: Does it apply to me at that point in time? Or is it in fact for someone else (maybe a friend)? And then we pray into the scriptures and our thoughts to get more guided answers (which might sometimes include going through the loop again or prophecy or some signs…) Same applies when we receive a prophetic word from God (from/for a friend or for ourselves): we think about it, is it relevant or applicable to me? As a prophetic word, does it have scriptural savour?... Now the question is: what about dream

It’s Easter again – a wonderful season to remember Jesus and His finished work on the cross (His Death and Resurrection). Why did Jesus totally commit to His death on the cross? There was every temptation to deviate from the cross experience. He experienced the worse kind of pain but chose to endure it. The bible says in Hebrews 12:2; "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." So he endured the cross because of the joy that was set before him. What was the joy that was set before him? …you and me. We were the joy that was set before him. On that cross Jesus saw me – Sam and you – Mr/Ms, and decided I will endure the cross for their sake, yes, for you and me. Wow. So He endured the cross for us all, despising the shame, and in-fact rose again for us. The end of the scripture in Hebrews 12:2 says … and is set down at the r

You know that feeling where you know what to do so you just go for it, there is another feeling where you don't know what to do so you just wait. There is yet another situation where, to an extent, most is out of your reach, so you get to wait - it's this bit I am talking about. We’ll do some deep study today. Hebrews 6:11-15. 11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14. Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Let's look at Abraham. God said I'll bless you with Isaac, he had to wait believing (better put; faith and patience - Hebrews). It was after he had patiently endured that he

Proverbs 15:15-16. [NLT] 15. For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast. 16. Better to have little, with fear for the lord, than to have great treasure and inner turmoil. Let’s merge 15 and 16, shall we…, a heart with the fear of God, although has little, lives a happy life and experiences life as a continual feast. Wow, that’s powerful – whether with less or with much, the fear of God always translates our experiences to that of joy and abundance. I’ll tell you a real story. Story story… Once upon a time… For my national service (NYSC), I was posted to a village to serve – which means, no luxury of the usual city experience :) Oh dear. For any bank transactions, we (myself and my friends – other corp members) had to journey from the village to closest town – where there was a bank. There were times during my service year, that we literally had nothing (or as much as very little), but what kept us going was Christ and fellowship

I just remembered a story of two kids from YWAM that were shot in Denver. What happened was; a stranger - guy, wanted to stay in for the night, which was not allowed. So one of the girls from YWAM approached him and said, the rule here is; unless we've known you and you've been a part of the ministry here, you can't sleep over here at night. He threatened, but she insisted. He then pulled out his gun and shot her, he also shot around the room, and escaped afterwards. The friends of this young girl gathered around her while awaiting the medics. When they gathered, she asked her friends; is it really bad? and they said, yes it's really bad. You know what her dying words were? "We do this for Jesus, right? We do this for Jesus, right?" that's the last thing she said. Wow, she had her priorities right. It's often easy to count the cost of following Jesus, and overlook the cost of not. (Matthew 19:27-30, Mark 10:28-31, Luke 18:28-30) In these passage

Praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God. Wow, just a bit excited over here. I strongly sense God saying to you and me: "I need you to trust me completely this time". Proverbs 3:5-6 is a reminder of the need to trust God completely. Maybe the reason why some things don't work out or partially work out is because we're still holding back, maybe we have to boldly say, Lord this time I'm holding nothing back - and actually give it all to Jesus. I believe a need stirs up trust. Anytime God demands your trust, that's because He intends to meet a need (and He demands our trust daily). Acting in trust means acting in obedience. Let's take an example from Luke 5; v4. Jesus asks Peter to launch into the deep. v5. Peter knows it's hardly possible for any catch at that hour, but decides to trust. v6. Peter's trust was followed by an act of obedience. I love verse 6. It says, reading from NIV; When they had done so, they caught such a large nu

This is not the new year’s message – click here for that . Happy New Year and good morning. I’d love to quickly pray God’s word into your new year. Heavenly Father we bless you for your graciousness and your love towards us. It’s a privilege to see another year. The Word of God says in Psalm 30:5; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Your morning has just begun - I pray today that any pain that occurred in 2013 shall not repeat itself this year. God shall cause your joy to be full in 2014, in Jesus name. May God’s perfect peace and presence be continually revealed to you, for he has promised never to forsake you. The Sun shall not smite you by day nor the moon by night. God bless your going out and your coming in. God bless the works of your hands and make you fruitful. May his goodness and mercies be with you continually – may his divine provision be your daily testimony. In this year 2014, may God guide you to greater intimacy with the Holy Spiri