Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Monday, April 15, 2013
Obeying God's Words: How's Your Foundation?
The preaching last Thursday service was about obeying God's words. It was actually a very powerful message. I was actually telling to myself, 'Uh oh, Lord you are talking to me again!' Basically, when it comes to prayer and pouring of blessings, we immediately claim them and we say, 'Oh Lord, it is for me, I claim it, give it to me oh Lord!' but when commandments are being relayed, we ignore them and we say, 'Oh, this message is not for me, it pertains to others'. Claiming victories and blessings is so easy for us but when we were instructed to love your neighbors, do not judge others, give forgiveness, etc, we tend to point our eyes to others.
In these kinds of situations, we should check our foundation of faith. Do we have the strongest foundation that any instructions that He will give us, we will obey. Do we have the deepest foundation that we believe that any adversities and challenges will pass and we will be victorious? The main verse on that service was Luke 6:46-49. Basically, there are three things that we should know and check about our foundation:
- Foundation is important when we obey God (Luke 6:46-47 - "46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like."). Obeying God should be easy and listening to His words is far different from living them. We read the bible but do we apply it into our lives? We call Him our Lord and the source of everything but why we are not putting Him on top of our priority list? Why are we giving Him divided attention? Following His commands will be as easy as natural thing once we have that faith and trust in Him that have been cultivated from our foundation. Most Christians will face a command that isn't easy to understand but the perfect way to respond to it is to follow and be reminded that He has the widest understanding and that He sees everything so there is no way but to follow the commandment and the lessons behind it should be applied into our daily living.
- Foundation will be tested (Luke 6:48 - "They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built."). Challenges are inevitable and these are one of the tools that He uses to give us a chance to get closer to Him and not to harm us or destroy us. The foundation will be tested to check if we have our full trust and faith on Him. We should never give up and face these tests knowing that we are not alone. That we have Him and that everything has a purpose. The best example of this attitude is Job's life (Job 23:10-11 - "10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.") That despite those unfortunate things that happened to him, his faith was indestructible and was strong as ever.
- Foundation dictates the outcome of what it built (Luke 6:49 - "But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.") If our foundation is not that strong, then the result can be easily identified: we might give up, turn to our own understanding and rely to our own strength that can lead to more negative things. But if we have a strong foundation, everything will be easier and everything that surrounds us will be a testament of how great He is.
Foundation of faith is like the foundation of a house that is being built. If it is so deep then it can't be shaken but if it is shallow then you know what will happen. We might sometimes need to check our foundation and categorize if it needs minor repair, major repair or total destruction. Building a strong foundation takes time so we should be careful with it and ensure that we are surrounded with people and things that can help us to enhance and improve it.
Image taken from colindye.com
Monday, January 31, 2011
Integrity
Integrity, as defined in Wikipedia is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expections and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulnessof one's action. The definitions seems to be easy to understand but the question is, do we have this positive trait? Our integrity can be measured on the number of promises we have done against the quantity of which we have broken. When we have integrity, we are respected and we have self respect.
This word defines who we are, on what kind of relationship we have to others and how they look into us. This also sometimes serves as a basis and list of all our positive attitudes but it also damages our testimony if we did something that is not on that list, meaning we commited a mistake. It also determines how we react in a situation whether if it is full of pressure or in the midst of crisis. Integrity has four major roles in our life:1. Blesses Us. In Proverbs 20:7 (The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after Him), it describes here that if we are obedient to all His commands and teachings, an overflowing of blessings will be given to us. We should walk in faith with Him and let Him lead us to His path.
2. Judges Us. Job 31:6 - "Let God weigh me in honest scales and He will know that I am blameless". In everything we do, we are answerable to all our actions and these actions will evaluate us how we live our life and what kind of relationship we have with Him. We should always be consistent and don't fall on negativity and don't let others influence you.
3. Protects Us. Psalm 25:21 - "May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you". Once we have integrity, we are protected as we are bound with all the positive attitudes for showing our values and honesty to everyone. As long as we are doing the right thing, we don't have to worry on what will will happen the next day as we have Him in our life.
4. Guides Us. Proverbs 11:3 - "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." By doing only right things all the time will provide us a guide in every situation. Since the experience of being with Him and living in a rightful way, our decision making becomes matured, more passionate in doing good things and that we have these guidelines on every action we take.
In this fast pacing world right now, we might encounter several situations where choices can be made on how to react on it. With our conversation to others and all the words we are using, are we honest enough? Integrity is a simple word with variety of explanations and definitions but I think the simple way to have it is to do the right things all the time. I admit that I am still a work in progress and it's not easy but we have options and we have God who is always watching us.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The Watcher
Last night, we had a devotion about the way God watches us every minute, every hour and every day. It was actually my first time to read verses from Job and I had difficulty in understanding it, honestly. After my UL and CL texted us to read the verse I immediately looked for it from the internet and whoa! Nosebleed! I can't really understand it even if I read it from context and done almost 20 times of reading it. Here are the verses:
Job 7:18-19 - 18) that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? 19) Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
It was a good thing that we had a discussion with the Joseph unit before the CG prep and my mind was opened to the real meaning of it. We are favored in His eyes, that He secures us and ensures that we are doing the right thing and follow his commands. Yes it is everyday and we are blessed to know and feel that He is always there to guide us and check on us every minute.
As said by Frevy, God is like a father who still loves his son despite the wrong doings and misbehavior at some instances. As mentioned by Liway, we are blessed because He loves us, there is no moment He leaves us and let us do anything that we want. He is always there to remind us reveal to us the good path towards to Him. As mentioned by She, we will only be blessed if we follow His commands. As mentioned by Clai, He is also like a chef that watching over the dishes He is cooking and never leave a single minute to ensure that the food will be served. Here is another verse about Him watching us.
Psalm 32:8 - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
Isn't it very comforting to know that we have a Him in our everyday life, in our every action, in every moment whether failure or victory? He is not just there to watch but also to listen and instruct us. I feel really blessed!
It was a good thing that we had a discussion with the Joseph unit before the CG prep and my mind was opened to the real meaning of it. We are favored in His eyes, that He secures us and ensures that we are doing the right thing and follow his commands. Yes it is everyday and we are blessed to know and feel that He is always there to guide us and check on us every minute.
As said by Frevy, God is like a father who still loves his son despite the wrong doings and misbehavior at some instances. As mentioned by Liway, we are blessed because He loves us, there is no moment He leaves us and let us do anything that we want. He is always there to remind us reveal to us the good path towards to Him. As mentioned by She, we will only be blessed if we follow His commands. As mentioned by Clai, He is also like a chef that watching over the dishes He is cooking and never leave a single minute to ensure that the food will be served. Here is another verse about Him watching us.
Psalm 32:8 - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
Isn't it very comforting to know that we have a Him in our everyday life, in our every action, in every moment whether failure or victory? He is not just there to watch but also to listen and instruct us. I feel really blessed!
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
