Quiet Times

2 Corinthians 4:13-15   13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of [ c ] faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Paul wrote "It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken" Then again in the same verse he repeats himself by writing "we also believe and therefore speak." Matthew 9:29 teaches that "things will be done for us according to our faith." Now faith is not wishful thinking neither is it mere positive thinking. Faith as spoken in Scriptures is founded in the word. This is evident in Romans 10:17 which says "faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.  Faith then necessitates a relationship

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. Serving God does not guarantee a burden-free life. Many of us tend to think that those who faithfully serve the Lord are free from any troubles, that God has created a fast lane of deliverance for them. Ministers of God are asked to pray by many yet often times are forgotten to be prayed for. In this passage Paul draws our attention to the truth that even the faithful can find themselve

   Finally some time to blog again. Today I continue with my sharing from 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.  Spiritual warfare for anyone involved in gospel proclamation is apparent in this passage. Paul wrote "the god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God." This passage brings me back to an encounter I had with Laksmi, an Indian

2 Corinthians 4:2 2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth  commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.  This passage clearly outlines to me how I am to conduct myself as a servant of God. First I am to renounce any activity or behavior that has a hint of darkness in it. This necessitates walking in the light and a life of complete transparency before God and before man.It also implies holding myself accountable and opening my life to correction from those around me. This further requires humility on my part. This makes complete sense considering that the captain of the army who captured me with His love has walked the path of humility the entire time He lived as a human.  Second, I am not to walk in craftiness. To be crafty is to be skilled in deception. In the Greek, the word "craftiness" mean "unscrupulous conduct". To be

2 Corinthians 4:1   1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry , we do not lose heart. Another aspect of this ministry Paul talks about is found in 2 Corinthians 2 :14-17:   14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. In an earlier blog I shared about the implication of the passage that says God "always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him". The focus of my sharing was on the seriousness of our ministry a

  2 Corinthians 4:1   1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.  I woke up today acutely aware of how blessed I have been through the 44 years God has given me. My mind raced back to the varied seasons God allowed me to go through and my heart lept with gratitude for God's hand upon me through the many ups and downs of life even before I knew Him. As I meditate on the goodness of the Lord, the phrase "jars of clay" came to mind. So I searched the Scripture and found the phrase nestled in 2 Corinthians 4. So today I start my meditation on this chapter, commencing from verse 1. Verse 1. "Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry: we do not lose heart." What ministry was Paul talking about here. We find an answer to this query from chapters 2-3. In 2 Cor.2:14-16. Paul talks about the the nature of this ministry. In verse 14 he thanked God who "always leads us in triumphal procession in Chri

  Genesis 1:26-27  "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."   So God created man in his own image,        in the image of God he created him;        male and female he created them. This passage is foundational to the truth that humanity is God's idea and that God Himself is the originator of humans. The humans God created in Gen.1 were sinless. Unfortunately they did not remain in this state due to their disobedience of God's command not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of God and evil. It is interesting though how Scripture defined humanity in this verse. From this passage one sees that it is the image of God in man that makes him human. To quote Millard Erickson "the real human is the being that came from the hand of God unspoiled by sin and the fall." 

Psalm 63:4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands .          This Bible passage has never been so real to me than today. At the onset of the year I injured my left arm and was hardly able to raise it. It was a rotator cuff injury which I probably got from constant use of my left arm reaching for stuff over my head. Needless to say for months the movement of my left arm was very limited to just raising it forward. But today as I was singing "Can't stop praising His name" with Ron Kenoly via youtube, I raised both arms above my head! What I joy! What freedom worship brings! I lifted my hands today in worship to my King--a testimony to His healing power and to His awesome goodness and mercy upon me.          Thank you Lord for the ability to raise both my hands as I stand before your presence in worship. I acknowledge that you my Lord are the one who continue to train my hands for battle, so my arms can bend a bow of bronze (Psalm 18

I John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. One of the benefits of being in the teaching ministry is the tremendous growth it affords me while I study and sit in  the presence of the Lord, to allow Him to instruct me specially in the area of sound doctrine and understanding of His word. One of the things I have been meditating the last couple of weeks is the superlatives of God. Although I have always known that God is most powerful, and over and above anything I can ever imagine ...for some reason I never really stopped and thought of His love as one of His superlatives...at least NOT until I started studying the attributes of God for my Systematic Theology class. During the course of my study, this truth hit me. When God loves He always loves in the superlative because that is the only way He knows how to love, because He is

It was with a heavy heart I reported to my class today. Since the day I finished checking the midterm papers of my students at the college, I struggled with discouragement due to the fact that my students did not do well in the exams. I searched my heart and wondered ...Was there something I did that led to the students doing poorly in the exams?...As I searched...and waited on the Lord, I became increasingly aware of His wonderful love for me. There was no voice of condemnation....no blame...only words of affirmation...You have done well Elsie...There is nothing you did that was wrong...You have toiled and labored and done your part well...God's encouragement empowered me to face my class today. Delivering the not so good news to my class was painful! By God's grace I got through it though. After a brief break I started off with the lesson for the day -- God's immanence and transcendence..... Towards the end of my lecture, I led the class in a word of prayer..As I did, a

 Isaiah 6:5-8 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"       And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" As Isaiah becomes acutely aware of his sinfulness his heart cries out to God,"Woe to me, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips". It was not just his state of sinfulness that made him grieve but it was also the fact that he "lived among a people of unclean lips." Implicit in this remark is the possibility that like anyone of us Isaiah struggled with "compromise

Perspective changes in the presence of God. This is one truth that is evident from Isaiah 6:1-8. After beholding the Lord in all His majesty and glory Isaiah cried out. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (6:5) Here we see a shift in Isaiah's feelings, from mourning the death of King Uzziah to grief over his own wretchedness. It is interesting to note that Isaiah confessed to having "unclean lips". The word used in Hebrew ( tame' ) actually translates "polluted or defiled". Implicit in this confession are two realities concerning Isaiah. First even as God's prophet, Isaiah had a problem taming his tongue. Second, in Isaiah's heart lurked sin, for a man's words is an overflow of His heart. Matthew 12:14 says "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Beholding the presenc

Today I am drawn to meditate on Isaiah 6:1-8: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:        "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;        the whole earth is full of his glory."   At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook  and the temple was filled with smoke.   "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and you

Just recently a sister of mine miscarried. She and her husband has waited 6 yrs for this baby. The day my sister tested positively pregnant, all of us in the family shouted in jubilation. Some of us even cried in happiness. Things were great until one day disaster struck...she started spotting...then the spotting turned to bleeding....then the final blow....the gynecologists announced...the baby has no heartbeat. My sister called me right away and we frantically called on the name of the Lord asking Him for a miracle. WE reasoned, if He can raise Lazarus who was 3 days old dead then surely it is a small thing for Him to bring the baby in my sister's womb alive...As I write this my family is still grieving with my sister and brother-in-law. One would ask where was God in all these? What happened to His presence. Did His presence leave us? Isn't He the Omnipresent God, the God who is present everywhere? As I struggled to find answers, the Lord started opening my eyes to His goodn

The presence of God is a place of joy, worship and demonstration of great power.  Did you not know? “The mountains quake, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at my presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein” (Nahum 1:5). With my great power and stretched out arm, I have made the heavens and the earth. Nothing is too hard for me (Jer. 32:17,27). Knowing that I who you worship am the great I AM, I then exhort you to come into my presence with confidence in your heart.   Regardless of your circumstances, “come before my presence with thanksgiving in your heart and with a joyful noise sing praises to me” (Ps. 95:2).   Stand on your feet and applaud me-your God, and bring me the gift of laughter!(Ps. 100:2 MSG). The Presence of God is a place to celebrate. I am your GOD who provides (Philippians 4:19) so learn to celebrate my goodness towards you. For each season I bring you through, for every good thing I bless you with, and for every victory I give you, you and your f

The last couple of days I have been mulling over the second part of God’s command—God’s presence—given to me last Sep 2. What is the implication of being in God’s presence? In my quest for answers I turn to God’s word. Here’s sharing my first discovery.  1 Chronicles 16:27 “Glory and honor are in his presence; strength are in his place.”    David made this declaration the day the ark of the covenant was finally moved back to Jerusalem. Prior to this time, the ark of the covenant (which symbolizes the presence of God) stayed in the house of Abinadab in Kiriath Jearim for a period of about 120 years.   David’s first attempt to bring the ark back to Jerusalem resulted in a disaster—death of Uzzah (1 Chronicles 13:9-11). David later explained the disastrous result saying “The ark has to be brought in prescribed way…according to the word of God. According to David it was because they did not inquire of the Lord the first time how to move the ark of the covenant that the Lord’s anger bur