Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Power of Amazing Grace





"11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:11-13, NKJV).


The Grace of God has not been fully apprehended by our generation and this is the reason many believers live a defeated lives. But true grace empowers you to live as a king under the King of kings and reign in this earth for His glory (Rom 5:21).


1) GRACE brings salvation to all men who receive it. Salvation means different things to different people who go through various circumstances in their lives. To a sick person it means healing. To a person who is not saved, it means he is receiving the life of God which is "eternal life" in the recesses of his heart.To a person in bondage to a sinful habit, it means deliverance from the shackles of sinful bondage. To a person who feels condemned in himself, it means he is receiving freedom from all accusation of th enemy.

The grace of God is a multifaceted heavenly package of benefits for the godly fulfillment of all our earthly needs and wants.

2) GRACE teaches us to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts. To "deny" is to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world (Tit 2:12, AMP). As the Message Bible puts it, "We're being shown [by the power of God's empowering grace] how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life."

3) GRACE makes you look forward eagerly towards the day of our sweet Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in which He will appear in the air to resurrect our sinful mortal body in to a supernatural sin-free immortal body and to give us a glorious life of freedom from sin, sickness and death for eternity ahead (1 Thess 4:16-17; 1 Cor 15:53-54).

4) GRACE makes you confess, "...Come, Lord Jesus" from the bottom of your heart (Rev 22:20). Grace received will move you in to intimacy with the One who gives it freely because of His love towards you. People who live by grace are the one who are very close to the heart of Jesus (Luke 7:40-50).

5) GRACE is a strong inner assurance which strengthens your spiritual man saying, "...the One who began a good work of salvation in you will carry it on until the whole process is completed on the day when Christ Jesus returns to give you a sin, sickness and death free supernatural body to enjoy for eternity." (Phil 1:6, Paraphrased).

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.


Lives rooted in God's unchanging grace can never be uprooted.

"Soar back through all your own experiences. Think of how the Lord has led you in the wilderness and has fed and clothed you every day. How God has borne with your ill manners, and put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the 'sensual pleasures of Egypt!' Think of how the Lord's grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles." - Charles Spurgeon

I dedicate this all time favourite song to Our Lord Jesus for the amazing grace made available to us through what He has acheived for us through His death and resurrection.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

- John Newton (1725-1807)








Monday, April 26, 2010

One Christian Physician Makes a Difference



“Anesthesia”



Imagine surgery before the day of anesthesia. Patients were strapped down while scalpel and saw cut through tissue and bone, every slice and turn of the knife causing unimaginable pain.

One Christian physician determined to do something about it. Sir James Young Simpson (1811-1870) practiced medicine in Scotland. He became Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh when only twenty-four, and in time received virtually every possible honor and position. He dreamed of finding a way of putting patients to sleep during surgery. On Monday evenings, Simpson periodically invited small groups of physicians to his home to experiment with chemicals, crystals, and powders, which were placed over a burning brazier while the doctors inhaled the fumes. Nothing worked until November 4, 1847.

One of the men had purchased a crystal called chloroform in Paris. As the doctors sniffed the burning substance, they fell to the floor unconscious. Simpson had his answer, but he soon encountered another problem. He was attacked by fellow Christians who claimed that pain was a God-ordained part of life. Freedom from pain comes only in heaven, and it is immoral to devise dangerous ways of escaping it on earth!

Sir James went to the Scriptures, seeking answers. He no sooner opened his Bible then he came to this verse: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.” Carefully studying the text, Simpson wrote an article entitled, “Answer to the Religious Objections Advanced Against the Employment of Anesthetic Agents in Midwifery and Surgery.” He ended his paper saying, “We may rest fully assured that whatever is true on point of fact or humane and merciful in point of practice, will find no condemnation in the Word of God.”

His critics were silenced, and a new day dawned in medical science.


-Selected








Wednesday, April 21, 2010

It is finished!




"...Jesus ...said, "Everything is done!" He bowed his head and died." (John 19:30, CEV)

Religion says, "Do, do and do until you die, you will go to heaven." Jesus said, "You cannot DO anything to secure heavenly salvation apart from me (John15:5). Everthing is DONE for your salvation, healing, peace, prosperity...., believe it and live for eternity." What a stark constrasting picture Jesus projects in opposition to all the religions of this world.

Jesus is the only person who has come in to this world not to establish another religion, but to restore the lost relationship of humans with God through sacrificing His own life as a ransom price paid to God for all our inadequencies, sin nature and failures to be covered. As a result of what Jesus has acheived for us, now we are the inheritor of all the blessings that belong to God. O what a mercy!


"The general religion of mankind is DO, but the religion of a true Christian is DONE." - Charles Spurgeon




Heavenly Blessings




"Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ." (Eph 1:3, NIrV)

Don't ask God to bless you, but praise God that He has already blessed you with all the spiritual blessings from the heavenly world. Only then all those spiritual blessings will be experienced by you in the earthly world.

Praise brings the heavenly blessings that belongs to you already in Christ Jesus in to your daily physical world, so that you will enjoy and live in it abundantly in this earthly realm.






Gift of Salvation



"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Eph 2:8-9, NKJV)

Salvation is the gift of God to enjoy, not a self-exalting religious work of any man to boast about.

We are not saved by good works, but by God's work.

The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation. - Charles Spurgeon






Monday, April 12, 2010

Developing a Blessed Heart




"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1Th 5:18).


The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful heart.

"All our discontents about what we want appear to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have." - Daniel Defoe






The Word of God is a Seed




"...The seed is the word of God." (Luke 8:11).


Take the seeds of the word of God and plant it as much as you can in the field of your heart. Water the field from the rivers of living water by praying to Jesus before and after you have sown the word-seed in to your heart (John 7:37-39). Once you have planted the word-seed, the word-seed transforms itself in to a positive thought-seed. Water the positive thought-seed daily by being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18).

Just wait as like a farmer waits for the crops, sooner than you realise you will see a harvest of the heavenly Kingdom crops of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit which are from the pure kingdom-seeds that you have planted (Matt 13:31-32; Rom 14:17). You will really enjoy life abundantly!

In God's kingdom positive thinking is just a hard work of sowing and reaping. If you are in need of positive thinking, plant a word-seed and just relax. You are already on your way to success and one step nearer to your destiny!





Honor those who serve God





"Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine." (1 Tim 5:17)

To honor is not only to respect those who teach the word of God and mentor you spiritually, but also materially support them with the money you have in your pocket or bank account (Gal 6:6; Mark 7:10-13). When you do that, the men and women of God will be really encouraged to minister the word of God still more effectively because you have made them to effectively focus on God rather than their daily needs.

We honor God when we honor those who serve God.





Love for God Equals Love For Others




"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1Jn 4:20)

To show your love for God, share your love with others.






In the Love of Jesus I Stand





"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (Joh 3:16 NKJV)

Have you ever thought why in the world that God should love us to the extent that he was willing to become one among us and die for us on the cruel cursed Roman Cross of Calvary? Have you ever thought we never loved Him first, instead we were enemies by our human sinful nature which He hates (1 John 4:10)? If it is for one thing to pin point, it is because of His unconditional love towards us which makes Him love us inspite of our weakness to do sin in our daily lives. We need Him daily to cleanse us from our sins because we are sinners by our inborn nature and that he has agreed to be our Saviour the moment we first invited Him in to our lives (1 John 1:8-9; 2 Tim 1:10).

"God desires to be loved by men, although He needs them not; and men refuse to love God, though they need Him in an infinite degree." Author:Plaintes Du






In Christ Identity





"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new....Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ" (2Co 5:17, 20a, NKJV).

In today's world where people constantly are searching for a self-identity, the greatest identity that God has already given us is in Christ identity, which confirms that we are His true "sons and daughters" (Gal 3:26).

If you are a follower of Jesus, that's all the identity you need.







Christian Growth




"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30, NKJV)

The great Christian is one who is small enough to let God be great in his life






Friends in Christ






When I thought for a second about all the friends that I have around the world, this new interpretation came in to my mind for this verse, "How good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity...there I will release my anointed blessings upon them to over flowing like upon Aaron" (Ps 133:1-2, Paraphrased). God Bless You All!






Saving Grace




The one reason I want every person in this planet to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is because nearly half a decade ago God showed me in a vision of how I was saved from eternal hell and damnation.

When you've been rescued, you'll want to rescue others. I pray for all the saints to get a clear vision of the great salvation that the Lord has wrought for them personally.

The Bible clearly describes this lethally death-stamped situation to the transferred kingdom life situation of the saints by saying, "God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating." (Col 1:13-14, MSG). O what kind of unconditional mercy our heavenly Father has shown to us! Glory to God! All I can say now is, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

The world will never stay the same as each believer realises how he/she has been rescued by our Lord Jesus from eternal damnation which every one of us rightly deserve because of all our sins.





Gift or The Giver





"As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (1Pe 4:10, NKJV)

Never let the abundance of God's gifts cause you to forget the Giver. The gifts given are earthly and temporary, but the giver of all good gifts is eternal and permanent. Always choose the giver at any given point of time and you will always have abundant gifts at hand and overflowing to others.

The gift is given to you to bless others and love them by ministering to their needs through it. When your focus is on the giver of all good gifts, your gift will empower you to minister to others through the love of God, which always is the required mandatory motivation in order to receive God's reward and eternal inheritance. And thus you will be satisfied through the blessings of the giver over your life which comes as a rebound effect when you use God's gift to bless others with the heart beat of God's love beating in your heart. God Bless You!









Prayer Power




"...The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]." (James 5:16, Amp).

Time spent with God is time well spent. It does have both temporal and eternal value. So increase your daily time spent in the presence of God.






Breathing Praise







I once said 'praise the Lord' in my friends home and he asked me for what reason I praised God, he thought that God had done some miracle tangibly on that day and that is the reason I praised Him. Spontaneously with out thinking a second thought, from my heart I told him because I still am breathing as the Bible says I am praising God. He was a little bit astonished.


Yes my friend, the greatest miracle for which you can praise God anytime is that you are still breathing through your nostrils. The Bible says that your breath is in God's hand and physically it is present in your nostrils (Job 12:10; 27:3). I believe that Psalmist understood the magnitude of the miraculous breath that is present in man by the miraculous sustaining power of our loving God and Saviour Jesus Christ, that is why he cried out with all his strength saying, "Let everthing that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!" (Ps 150:6). Notice he did not exhort others and waited to hear their praise, instead along with them he shouted 'Praise the Lord!' at the end. This is what I believe it means to embody what we preach. Once we leave this physical body, we cannot praise the Lord in the earth. So now is your time, say "Praise the Lord" loudly if you are still alive!

Praise the Lord!!!!!




Your Name in God's Hand





"See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands." (Isaiah 49:16, NLT).



Palms are one place we often use in our daily life to hold something. It is one place in our entire body we often see and clasp together to relieve our emotions.

Think about it for a while in your mind, the great God who has created us and redeemed us from our sins is so minful of us that He has tattooed our name in His hand to remember us closely enough to think about us always. O what a love it is to experience!

Only for a lifemate or spouse we tattoo their name in our body, but as the Bible says our loving Daddy God has tattooed it in His very hand to make us remember that we are His children for eternity. He is sure not going to forget you even for a moment. Remember it always and rejoice for eternity!





Lamp and Light






"Your word is a lamp to my feet [i.e. moment by moment walk] And a light to my path [i.e. long term vision]." (Psalms 119:105).

The lamp will be effective only as long as it burns. In the same way the word of God will be effective to us as long as it burns in our heart daily by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:32). When the lamp turns off due to lack of fuel, we again fill it with oil to make it burn continiously. In the same way, as we feel empty in our lives and feel as though we do not know what to do the next step or what decision to take, we again need to be filled with the Holy Spirit once again (Eph 5:18). The filling of the Holy Spirit is not a once in a life time experience, but a recurring experience for those who ask God sincerely again and again daily (Luke 11:13; Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31). When this happens the next moment you will again begin to sense the guidance of the voice of Jesus for the present time [i.e. lamp] and feel purposeful in living life because of sensing in a new refreshing way the long term vision [i.e. light] that God has for you to fullfill in your life.







The King of Kings





"...I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion." (Psalms 2:6) says the Psalmist.


Only when we set Our Lord Jesus as the King of our spiritual, soulish, physical, social and financial area of our entire life, we can be kings under Him and will be able to reign on earth through the grace we receive from Him day in and day out (Rom 5:17). This is the reason Bible calls Jesus as the "King of Kings" (Rev 19:16). So be loyal O kings of the earth to THE KING and rule the earth!







The Great Shepherd and His Sheep




"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:27-28)

It is true that we are safe in the hands of Jesus. But true to the foolish character of the sheep we go astray and sin many times. But Jesus is faithful to search for us back and again find us. The Lost sheep naturally will cry and be restless until the shepherd finds it again and comforts it. In the same way we should cry back to Him saying, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments." (119:176), until he shows up again with His comforting presence and His words inside our spirit man.

God Bless You!



Heart and Mind





"2Cor 5:7 - For we walk by faith, not by sight"


Don't trust your fleshly mind, but believe your spiritual mind within! Praise the Lord that you already hold the mind of Christ within your Spiritual-mind, way deep inside the recesses of your spirit-man!

The fleshly mind always leads you to sin and cannot understand God completely. Sin brings death. Death in all simplicity means 'seperation from the presence of God'.

There are two ways to deal with sin, you can SIN > CONFESS > SIN (SCS) or you can SIN > CONFESS > RESIST (SCR). For those who choose the second option SIN > CONFESS > RESIST [SCR] God gurantees victory over sin by saying, "Sin shall not have dominion over your" (Rom 6:14) and therefore "...Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). In other words, for those who resist the devil, God alters their inward attitude in to a positive attitude of joy, peace and righteousness which is an absolute victory over demonic oppression.

The mind of Christ inside our heart [spirit-man], when allowed to influence our soul will always bring the positive attitude of heaven in to our life. When the heart rules over our soul mind, we understand heaven on earth perfectly.

God Bless You!






Perfect Rest






"Mat 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."


Learn to take the yoke of Jesus by walking in the perfect will of God all the time. It is His will that you should always be humble, meek and lowly before God and others all the time. When you are, I promise you will truly experience that peaceful, tranquil and serene rest for your soul. You are invited to experience heaven on earth! God Bless You!





Bible




"16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV).

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man." - Abraham Lincoln


We know Jesus did good works which God the Father had prepared for Him beforehand (Acts 10:38). He did not finish ninety nine percent of it and say "Oooo this is all I can do, no more than this". You know why he was able to do this? Because he equipped himself with "All scripture" programmed inside him, the energy to fullfill God's will got released constantly in to him through the right programming of the word of God that he did painstakingly right from His childhood days (Luke 2:46, 49, 52). Don't think that only the public ministry of preaching, teaching, witnessing and healing all the sick people is the one and only Father's Buisness, God the Father's buisness includes you programming yourself with the word of God so that He can easily use you to fullfill His plan for your life. If you too desire to fulfill all the "good works, which God prepared beforehand... [for you to] walk in them" (Eph 2:10) and receive a full reward from the Lord (Col 3:23-24), then program your mind fully inline with the word of God by meditating upon it constatly day in and day out.

As the Lord has instructed in His Word in (Duet 6:6-7, MSG), "6 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you 7 and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night." God is always willing to fullfill all His plan that he has planned beforehand for you to glorify Him, but it is how you cooperate with Him is what makes you to fullfill His custom designed specific plans for your life.

You don't need the Bible when you get to heaven, it is given to you now so that you can use it as much as you can before finally getting in to heaven to receive reward for using it efficiently.