Quiet Times

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 H...

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...

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, ...

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 t...

After teaching two 2-hour classes today, I have to admit I feel a bit exhausted. The thought of heading to the  apartment where I stay while here in Oakland to stretch out on the sofa and put up my tired feet, perhaps snack on juicy and yummy strawberries in the refrigerator is very tempting. But I haven't had the chance to have quiet time today. So hereI am sitting in the quietness of the library blogging...checking out more meaning of the word dwell and wondering what new thing God has in store for me....Then there it was...staring right in front of me....the Hebrew word for dwell "shakan" also means to cause to or make to dwell, or to cause to have habitation, or to cause to lay, or to cause to rest. The phrase "to cause" implies a decision to exhort myself to "dwell in God's presence". It involves the process of allowing my mind to refocus from my sense of weariness to God. Psalm 42:1 comes to mind "As the deer pants for the streams of w...

The word truly is a like a multifaceted jewel. Today as I begin a new day, God opened my eyes to yet another meaning of the word " dwell ". Apparently the Hebrew word for it " shakan " also means abide . Some of the words online dictionary uses to define abide are persist, endure, bear, hold still and continue. The word abide reminds me of working out in the gym. One particular regimen that comes to mind is doing abdominal exercises i.e. crunches. At the beginning, curling my shoulders towards my pelvis while I rest my head on both hands is easy. But as I "crunch" along the way, I start feeling pain in my abdominals and in my heart of hearts I just want to quit...thinking..."Gee why does this have to be too hard and painful too?" Of course I never get to quit because I would always hear my gym instructor bellow "hold it!" and the few seconds of count down before I can lower my shoulders and head would seem to take forever. When it fin...

Another insight on the word "dwell" today. Reflecting on the definition of the Hebrew word "shakan" for dwell I read the word permanently stay . This reminds me of a story Todd, my husband, told me about when he was only four. One day while he was playing in front of their house a slightly older neighbor boy came up to him and told him..."Hey come on let's go!" My husband went along with the boy and both of them headed to a small shopping center. While at the shopping complex he was completely unaware of how long he had been far away from home, neither did he realize that it was getting late, and his parents were in a state of panic and were frantically looking for him. Fortunately the older kid he followed knew the way back. Needless to say Todd got the scolding he knew he deserved. By then he realized it was wrong for him to stray away from home. In life God has given us His word as a manual for our behavior. But sometimes the lures of the world di...

“Dwell in my presence”, this I heard God told me. Naturally I wondered what He meant by me dwelling in His presence. How am I to “dwell in His presence”?  What are the implications of this command to my personal life? Since I am a person who takes God’s commands very seriously, I decided to set out on this study of the phrase “dwell in my presence”. Scriptures and other tools like concordance, etc., will be my main references in this pursuit of understanding. Those of you who want to join me in this journey feel free to hop right in. The first word I set out to understand is the verb “dwell”. The Hebrew word for it is : shakan ‘shaw-kan' According to Strong’s Concordance “shakan”  means to reside or permanently stay. To dwell in His presence is to permanently reside in his presence. The term “permanent resident” strikes a very familiar cord to me who just newly migrated to the US. After Todd and I got married mid last year, one of the first things we needed to take car...

The vision of a flower breaking forth through the cracks of a hard ground came to mind today. Sometime in the past, I actually witnessed such an occurrence. I remembered watching the dainty solitary flower screaming its yellow color out to me as if giving out a shout of victory. I remember thinking, Wow! Such perseverance!  Hardness surrounded this thing of beauty and people walked that same hardness around the tiny bloom. Then I realized God was speaking to me. Today God reminded me of the truth that pressures around me and hardness of heart around me need not stop me from blooming. In fact it is during adverse times that one learns to persevere. Romans 3:5-3 comes to mind "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." It is amazing how much G...