Prayer life that is Daily, Systematic (e.g., keeping a journal of prayer requests) & Seasonal (i.e., setting a time; 10-days, 21-days, 40-days, etc)
4 "must-read" books of the Bible: Genesis, Romans, John, & Revelations
Be focused on others; not just on self.
A candidate for church membership was asked, "What part of the Bible do you like best?" He said: "I like the New Testament best. Then he was asked, "What Book in the New Testament is your favorite?" He answered, the Book of the Parables, Sir." They then asked him to relate one of the parables to the membership committee. And a bit uncertain, he began...
"Once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and the thorns grew up and choked the man. And he went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave that man, Sir, a thousand talents of silver, and a hundred changes of raiment. And he got in his chariot and drove furiously, and as he was driving along under a big tree, his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging here! And he hung there many days and many nights. The ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and he fell on stoney ground. And it begin to rain, and rained forty days and forty nights. And he hid himself in a cave. Later he went on and met a man who said, "Come in and take supper with me." But he said, "I can't come in, for I have married a wife." And the man went out into the highways and hedges and compelled him to come in! He then came to Jerusalem, and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high and lifted up in a window of the wall. When she saw him she laughed, and he said, "Throw her down out of there," and they threw her down. And he said "Throw her down again," and they threw her down seventy-times-seven. And the fragments which they picked up filled twelve baskets full! NOW, whose wife will she be in the day of the Judgment?" The membership committee agreed that this was indeed a knowledgeable candidate!
Fourth one to take the shower, I didn't expect hot water, but I hoped for at least water! None! Almost frustrating...
"No water? Face it! It's a fact of life!" said Matt [a long-term missionary who had been there over a year] as a matter-of-factly.
That didn't help.
I stepped outside. So few stars out tonight...
Am I angry at God? No. Not really - just frustrated by my own lack of faith.
Holding back tears, I came back inside still feeling uptight.
"Where were you?" Eunice [a Hispanic girl who came with me on this mission trip] asked, worried.
I mumbled a reply. I wanted to cry, but my foolishness would not permit it.
"Do you want to pray for water?" she asked.
I was astounded but didn't show it. "It's okay," was my lame reply.
She sat by me on my bed anyway and began to pray. I still held back my tears. When Eunice finished, Eren [another girl who came with us] and said "There's water!"
Eunice jumped and screamed and shouted in joy! She was truly rejoicing! "God answers prayers! Hallelujah! Come on, Song! Take the shower; if you don't, I will!" she sang, literally jumping up and down, clapping in joy.
She knelt beside me and hugged me, thanking God. My tears released then. It was incredible. Literally.
But it turned out, Eren used the last bit of reservoir to brush her teeth, and well, no water.
Eunice kept on believing saying, "God, let the water just overflow!" She didn't doubt a moment.
I was astonished by her faith.
Eren kept turning on and off all the faucets trying and trying. It was beautiful to see as I stood leaning against the threshold to the bathroom, watching them in wonder.
I felt peace. I had wonderful sisters in the Lord.
"It's okay, guys. I'm fine. Even if no shower, I'm still happy," was my honest reply.
Bombarded by Hollywood's shallow, depraved yet indelible expression of "love" - a physical appeal that has somehow been made equivalent to intrinsic goodness - the three typically-nonverbalized yet powerfully implied notion of "loves" to which we are daily exposed are;
The "because" love that says, I love you because you are beautiful...because you make me feel special...;
the "when" love that says, I love you when you are good...when you're obedient...; and,
the "if" love that says I'll love you if you measure up to my expectations...
These are birthed from what is termed eros in the Greek language. Though eros itself is not necessarily a bad kind of love, to build any kind of relationship solely on eros will always prove devastating and even fatal in the end.
The love that God has shown us through his Son, Jesus Christ...love beyond reason, love unconditional, love sacrificial...
It is the kind of love that makes the recipient of that love beautiful like Barbie's ragged doll, Pandy.
There is nothing we can think, say or do that can ever lessen or increase God's love for us. Such is the kind of love with which God woos us daily into His presence.
Love God, Love People...It seems an impossible command to obey, but as A.W. Tozer said:
"Love is the will to, the intention..."
God's command to love our neighbor as ourselves is not an option, and it has nothing to do with how we feel toward our neighbor.
Love is an act of obedience to God's command rising from willingness to love God with all that we are, a command indivisible from loving our neighbor as ourselves.
To show them the same mercy we show ourselves each day after countless faults and failures...that is what God requires of us.
This happened last week during the Friday night service.
I was seated toward the back when the two boys, Isaac and David, walked in with uncharacteristic silence. (I should have known then and there that something was very wrong, but my trouble-detection radar was not on full operation.)
Even more unusual was that they quietly sat behind me without a word, their faces grim.
I turned my head discreetly and met each of their eyes, a questioning brow raised. When I turned to face forward again, a slight tap on my shoulder got my attention.
“Teacher, Issac did something bad. Something… big,” David volunteered in whispered urgency.
I frowned, looking at Isaac, I whispered and asked: "What?"
Isaac opened and closed his mouth three times, but no audible sound came out. His face was ashen, guilt written all over him.
This is pretty bad, I thought to myself, but didn’t risk any speculations.
I looked from Isaac to David, whose eyes were wide with something like incredulity. He was clearly excited, if not necessarily in a good way.
Obviously David is innocent, I thought wryly as I saw David, eager to lead me out of the sanctuary.
“It’s something big,” offered David, his voice nearly cracking with uncontainable excitement. “In the girls’ bathroom. It’s…big. You gotta come see, Teacher.”
Sighing inwardly, I got up and quietly motioning them both to follow me, the three of us left the sanctuary.
As soon as the sanctuary door closed, David's voice cracked with wild enthusiasm, taking my hand to lead me toward the girls’ bathroom. I pulled back.
“Wait.” Turning to Isaac, I faced him, bending over to his level, “Isaac, tell me what happened first. I want you to tell me what you did.”
Isaac, looking sickly pale as I have never seen him before, muttered, stuttered and stammered, and after 5 minutes of that, I had absolutely no clue as to the deed or the damage done.
He kept raising his arms as though he is drilling a hole into something.
“All right,” I said resignedly, “Let’s go see.”
We walked over there and I gasped when I saw the bathroom floor.
The entire floor (a space of about maybe five by six) was covered with at least half an inch of toilet water, with what appeared to be scattered pieces of toilet papers floating by wasteful soaked bunches all over the place. Apparently Isaac thought to soak up gallons of water with half a roll of toilet paper.
I stood there speechless and, slowly turning to Isaac, asked (careful not to raise my voice since he looked half scared to death as is): “Isaac, how did this happen?”
David gladly supplied an introductory commentary, “I was in the room and Isaac was gone so long, I came over looking for him, and…”
His words trailed away keenly aware of my displeasure at the sight.
I knelt down before Isaac and asked him gently: “Isaac, tell me what you did. How did you cause this flood? Was the toilet stuck when you flushed?”
Isaac shook his head, his frightened eyes averting mine.
Then as I glanced at the deluge, the question of the day arose: “Did…did you pee before this happened?”
Isaac eagerly said, “No.”
I frowned: “Then why did you need to flush it? Were you playing in here?”
Speechless.
Okay. Now I got it.
“Isaac, what did you do to the toilet?”
Isaac began his explanation, finally: "I took the suction thing-y.”
“The what?”
“The suction thing-y.”
I frowned and followed his pudgy little pointer directed toward the wet crime tool, the plunger.
“Isaac, this is a plunger.”
I thought, where on earth did he get a ‘suction thing-y’?
“Plum…”
“Plunger.”
“Plunder.”
“Plunger.”
“Plunger,”he said in his small voice.
“You use it when the toilet is stuck.”
He blinked.
Then it dawned on me. “Did you plunge this into the toilet while you flushed it?”
His eyes almost wide with fear he nodded.
Do you know what it feels like to be punished eternally? I wanted to ask, but held back. I was speechless.
But in all honesty, I couldn’t be angry with him.
"Were you curious as to what a plunger does?"
He nodded eagerly, clearly grateful now we were understanding each other.
"Well, now you know," I muttered more to myself.
I only pointed out his two mistakes: “Isaac, first of all, this is not a playground. There is nothing in the bathroom you should ever play with. Do you understand? Never play in this place. This (lifting the crime tool before him) is not a toy.”
He nodded remorseful.
“And you should have called me immediately as soon as you saw the waters come out. You only came because your brother decided to call me. If David hadn't called me and then the adults saw first..."
I let my words trail, leaving the rest of the wrathful reactions of the other adults to his creative imagination.
He seemed to blanch at that realization.
I went on: "There was no way you could have handled this problem on your own. You tried to fix it so you won’t get into trouble, right?”
He nodded, eyes wide with guilt.
“Well, you know what? You made it worse. (pointing dramatically to the wasted tissue paper) You just wasted a lot of toilet paper trying to cover up your wrongdoing.”
He bowed his head, repentant.
I faced him squarely, calling David as well this time: “Listen to me, both of you. Never try to fix these problems on your own. If you did something wrong, ask an adult for help. Don’t try to solve these kinds of problems on your own. Sin is like that too. You can’t solve the problem of sin alone. You have to ask God for help. Do you understand?”
They both nodded.
I sighed and brought a old towel (we had no mop) and crouching down, began to wipe off the excess water, emptying it into the bucket.
“Ew! Gross!” David commented, giggling in disbelief.
Isaac, feeling miserable, softly muttered: “I should help.”
“Don’t worry about it, Isaac. As long as you know what you did wrong…” I began to quickly clean up the mess, which really was gross even if Isaac assured me he had not peed. For some odd gnawing reason, I felt he wasn’t entirely truthful, as he probably assumed I’d freak out even more.
O well.
As I almost finished, infinitely relieved, Isaac squeaked, “Am I going to be in trouble?”
I realized he meant, Will you tell mommy?
I wanted to tell him, not only his mom, but my mom would totally flip if they saw this, but I didn’t answer.
When I finally finished and stood up, David ran over to me and started to massage my back.
The adults were filing out of the santuary.
“Does this feel better?” David asked, his tiny hands making useless taps on my aching back, smiling.
I smiled back and pat him on his head, “Thank you, David. It’s good.”
Isaac, seeing me smile, seem to take on more color on his pale face and threw me a shocking revelation.
“The plunger... I saw in Larryboy…”
O brother.
Now I understood. The “suction thing-y”!
Larryboy and his silly super-suction ear cups… (See here if you still don't understand.)
No wonder Issac did this bizarre thing.
I tell you, cartoons are dangerous…
There were three men on horses riding down the shores of a beach. Each being a believer, they heard the voice of God instructing them to take a handful of the pebbles from the shore and put them in their pockets. They were not told the reasons for such odd command, but they were told that they must not look at the pebble in their pockets until tomorrow morning, and that they will experience joy and sadness simultaneously.
All being obedient, they each took a handful of the pebbles from the sandy shore and put them promptly in their pockets.
The following morning, each awoke eager to see what God had in store for them. And to their utter shock and amazement, when each man reached in to take out the pebbles from their pockets, instead of sandy pebbles, they found beautiful gems and precious jewels shimmering in their hands.
Filled with awe, they were overjoyed with the unexpected gift wealth, but immediately, they were filled with deepest sorrow for each moaned the same regret: "Why, oh, why didn't I get more pebbles?"
***
The devotional went on to say that such will be the case for many if not all believers when we reach Heaven.
The things we strive for on this earth can sometimes seem like a waste of time, insignificant and even tediously useless in the light of deceptively glamourous wealth and pleasure the world promises. We may appear to be foolish people picking up pebbles on a shore when others are mining for gold.
But we would find on that Day that we had all along been carrying treasures incomparably precious and beautiful.
And alas, we would be stricken with regret beyond description that we had not sought after true treasures blinded by temporary pleasures.
One life to live; it will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.
Fri, Aug 25th 8:00PM
Sat, Aug 26th 7:00PM
Sun, Aug 27th 11Am & 2:30PM
I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one "like a son of man" with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. (Rev 14:14)
Behold the sun! Every square yard of the sun is constantly emitting 130,000 horse power, or the equivalent of 450 8-cylinder automobile engines. And yet our sun, as powerful as it is, is but one minor star in the 100 billion orbs which make up our Milky Way Galaxy. Hold a dime in your fingers and extend it arm's length toward the sky, allowing it to eclipse your vision, and you will block out 15 million stars from your view.
Consider the earth! Our globe's weight has been estimated at 6 sextillion tons (a six with twenty-one zeroes). Yet it is precisely tilted at 23 degrees; any more or any less and our seaons would be lost in a melted polar flood. Though our globe revolves at the rate of 1,000 miles per hour or 25,000 miles per day or 9,000,000 miles per year, none of us tumbles into orbit. Our God who "stretches the northern sky out over the empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:7) also created an invisible band of gravity to hold us secure.
Now...let me pose a few questions. If he is able to place the stars in their sockets and suspend the sky like a curtain, do you think it remotely possible that God is able to guide your life? If your God is mighty enough to ignite the sun, could it be that he is mighty enough to light your path? If he cares enough about the planet Saturn to give it rings or Venus to make it sparkle, is there an outside chance that he cares enough about you to meet your needs?
