A Devotional Life

Matthew 19:16-28. One of my favourite kids' exercises is the marshmallow test. Kids are given a marshmallow and left in a room. If they can wait for some time, they get more. You see kids staring, sniffing, poking and doing all sorts to the marshmallow. The point is to teach kids to wait for a better reward in the face of instant gratification. In the passage, Jesus gives a marshmallow test to a rich man, and he begins sniffing, poking - he gets sad! And it also made Jesus' disciples greatly astonished. Why was this? Because the gospel pattern of life will always look nothing like what the world calls living. Eternal life looks like sacrifice in the now for a future reward! A Present Sacrifice. (16-26) The rich man asks what good thing he must do to have eternal life (16). Jesus responds: only God is good; keep His commands (17). But the man replies, (paraphrased) "I am good too" wit...

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 sufferin...

There is no one formula to worship, but there is a biblical principle. As Jesus said: true worship is in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). I love to see and explain the 'in truth' bit as 'full-time'. Just a wee story for ya: Once upon a time... well, let's just get to the story... during my undergraduate study, as a Christian student, I mean, a proper Christian student, I enjoyed fellowship with friends. So we would usually meet in the evenings - pray, sing songs, study the word and what have you - complete church style 'worship' as you would have it. In fact, interestingly, at several occasions there were experiences of intense presence of the Holy Spirit in our meetings (we were five, sometimes a sixth or seventh made the meeting). I was meditating one time, while feeling good with myself, as we all do, God was inviting me to live life to the full (not just at evenings). John 10:10 records 'life to the full' [ niv ] not 'life in the night...

Building a successful prayer life post series [James 5:16] «  effective prayer    committing to prayer    persisting in prayer    hindrances to prayer  » The point is: prayer begins and prayer sustains. This is an important point about prayer that we all have to understand. God loves the world and even loves us while we were yet sinners, and it was that love that brought about the work of the cross. However, the love of God and the work of the cross do not itself insure a relationship with the Father, until we take a step of faith and utter the words of repentance and accept that love and the work of the cross – prayer. Then a conscious relationship begins. Prayer begins our relationship with God and prayer sustains our relationship with God. Furthermore in the Christian faith, prayer begins so many other supernatural acts of God through our lives and it’s only prayer and the Word that sustains his divine work in us. So there’s a popular ...

The knowledge of God's Word is very crucial to the Christian race. Proverbs 4:18; But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. You cant afford to live today with the grace of yesterday, and postpone the glory of today to the next (John 4:34; 9:4; 17:22). Not so, because the kingdom business demands urgency; Yes, urgency. Psalms 17:4. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Which means we only overcome the devil by the authority hidden in the Word of God. Why hidden? ...because it has to be searched and applied rightly (2 Timothy 2:15) In fact Jesus knew this, that was why when the devil came [a couple of days after His (Jesus') baptism and public declaration as the Son of God (by the Father)], asking; 'if thou art the Son of God...', Jesus answered the devil it is written. And not; Weren't you there yesterday when God spoke out loud, I heard...

Dayspring from on high – the revealed ministry of a believer All the prophets of the bible who directly foretold the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, referred to Him by a unique name or names gotten by divine revelation/utterance. Old Testament Ref: Isaiah prophesied Him as Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), Your Light (Isaiah 60:1-2). Balaam prophesied Him as the Star of Jacob (Numbers 24:17). Micah prophesied Him as the ruler of Israel (Micah 5:2)… [A full revelation of the birth of Jesus was presented by the prophet Isaiah, who through the Spirit covered all the names prophesied (as seen in the book of Isaiah).] An emphasis that was worth making was Him being 'your light'. In Isaiah 60:1-2, Isaiah prophesied: in (v1) arise for your light is come and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee and in (v2) for darkness shall cover the earth…but the LORD [referred to as: your lig...