I decided : - Walking with God in Broken Places.

I decided:
The race is not endless.
The time to run is not without limits.
A finish line has been drawn in my life.

No time left:
To waste
To change lanes
To run sideways or backward
To run slowly and wave at the crowd
To run circles around the slower ones,
Or,
To run in the crowd of the mediocre.

The part of the race behind me cannot be re-run.
I can only run what is left of the race which is before me.
So,
It is time to run like Hell is hot on my heels
And Heaven’s open door is before me.
To run with purpose and power.

To run in a way that uses my gifts from God,
My resources,
My experience,
And
My skills to the maximum!

To run without yielding to distractions.
To run and not be deterred by any relationship,
But, to be spurred on by my relationship with Jesus.

To run so that when the race is over,
My past will benefit the future of others.
To run in such a way the spectators will not say,
“What a runner!”
But, they will say,
“What a Race!”

- John La Noue & Kaywin La Noue: Walking with God in Broken Places.

Morning Reflection - Idols

I was reflecting on 1 John 5:21 this morning. The Living Translation says "Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. Amen."

Other translations says "keep yourselves from idols". In the most basic sense, an idol is anything that takes the rightful place of God in our life. Apostle Paul equated covetousness or greed with idolatry. Our career, our pursuit of money, our possessions, excessive devotion to leisure and recreation, or even putting a human relationship ahead of our relationship with God, may all become idols. Our ministry can be an idol too if we fail to put God first. Nothing is more dangerous than making our ministries or jobs first in our life and relegating the God of those ministries to second place
Zooming in we can see that at the root of all of these is the idol of SELF - Me, Myself and I.

Be Blessed.

The Greatest love of all .....

About 25 years ago, my English teacher used Whitney Houston’s song, “The Greatest Love of All” for her listening comprehension lesson. Towards the end of the lesson, she asked a very defining question to her students - “Do  you  agree  with  the  singer  that  the greatest  love  of  all  is  loving  yourself?”. Many of my classmates agreed with the singer. Deep within me, I was praying for courage to disagree with my classmates.  After a while I took the courage and responded saying that I disagree with the singer. For me, the greatest love of all is God’s love.

I accepted the Lord two years before this question was raised. I saw the love of God reaching out to me and transforming me. 1 John 4:10 says “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Sometimes we need reminding that God loves us. We focus on the difficulties of life and wonder, Where is the love? But if we pause and consider all that God has done for us, we remember how much we are loved by God, who is love (1 John 4:8-10). The greatest love of all demands the greatest sacrifice of all and on the cross Jesus died for all our iniquities.

Be Blessed.

Entitlement vs Servant-heart Mindset

A trend had sprouted within society that more and more people are lured into an entitlement mindset.With each generation, we begin to see a growing entitlement mindset and it is also creeping into our churches. Dr. Carol Show in her article "An Entitlement Mentality in Church" describe entitlement mindset as following:

"An entitlement mentality says, “You owe me!” It encourages me to demand that you do something for me, give me something, or treat me in a uniquely special way – just because. And I have no particular responsibility in return." The entitlement mentality can show up in church when we feel “It’s all about me!”. 

The widespread entitlement mindset we have in our churches is truly heartbreaking.  It is such an inversion of God’s Kingdom principles that encourages us to have a servant-heart mindset. Servant-heart stands opposed to the entitlement mentality we see today where the focus is more on our own personal happiness and comfort - "It is all about me" culture.

What is a Servant-Heart? The Bible teaches that greatness in the Kingdom is defined by serving others. Having the heart of a servant is an important component in our spiritual walk with the Lord. In our quest for the marks of servant-heart, we must not bypass that quality which so completely characterized in the life of Jesus Christ, unselfish desire to serve. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The Lord Jesus came as a servant with a commitment to serve. Just think, if He had come to be served, our redemption could and would never have taken place. Likewise, our failure to live as servants throws up a huge barrier to effective ministry as representatives of the Lord Jesus.

We must learn to become a servants if we want to experience true fulfillment. We need to become lowly, meek and humble. As God's servants we should have no other agenda, except to do His will. When we become faithful to do His will, then He will fulfill the aspirations He desires for us in our lives and even those things we desire! As God's faithful servant — we share in His success, we have direct access to His power and wealth and are able to walk in His authority! Let’s get our hearts in servant mode and watch how God brings about all the things we need and want.

Teach us o Lord today to have a Servant Heart.

Finish the race well

Gleaning from the account of King Amaziah: 

2 Chronicles 25:2 - "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly."

When Amaziah became king, he continued in his father's pattern. He executed those who had assassinated his father. He kept alive an appearance of attentiveness to God, but his heart wasn't in it. His early successes, which could have inspired humility, instead gave rise to arrogance. He received but rejected God's warnings. He challenged a reluctant Israel to a military confrontation. God ensured a humiliating defeat for Amaziah and Judah. The remainder of Amaziah's reign was a road to destruction. Amaziah's own people plotted and killed their king.

Despite an impressive start, King Amaziah’s end was not so wonderful. In arrogance, he challenged Israel to battle, lost miserably, and saw the temple depleted of its riches. Eventually he was forced from Jerusalem and killed by conspirators. The king had a godly start that ended in misery and defeat.

Noting this king's life, we should be compelled to examine our own lives. Are we offering our service to God with imperfect hearts? The downfall of Amaziah should encourage all of us to examine our service constantly for signs of an “imperfect heart.” Remember that Amaziah did some right things and yet his end was destruction.

Itching ears syndrome

2 Timothy 4:3-4 says "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Paul has spent a long time reminding Timothy of the value, the necessity and the power of the Word.  In 2 Timothy Chapter 4, Paul is about to close this letter and gives Timothy one more set of reminders regarding the Word. Timothy was seriously told to preach the Word, just as the church today is being told that, because as time passes, more and more people who are in church don't want to hear the whole counsel of God. They take offense when critical biblical truth are being shared from the pulpit. More than ever before, they want to be entertained that leads to a spectator mentality in the church. I am not discounting the fact of deploying creativity in preaching. They are good but not at the expense of not preaching the whole counsel of God.

Many want church to be more like the Grammy Award show, in order to keep their interest. They want to hear messages that make them feel good, that tell them they're okay right where they're at. Lots of people don't want to be challenged to grow or convicted in their hearts. Thus, many will no longer stand for Biblical teaching. This has led to the corruption of the church and the desecration of the true gospel message. So many "Christians" flock to churches and run after the preachers, evangelists and teachers who will preach to them what they want to hear —riches, power, success, and the list goes on. In essence, they have turned away from the absolute truth and have become comfortable with relative truth.

It's interesting that these words of Paul were written thousands of years ago, yet seem applicable today. As a society, we are more interested in entertainment than truth. Apparently, Timothy's day wasn't much different. We are living in a day and time where we see the meaning of these verses more clearly than ever before. Mankind is searching for answers—spiritual answers. But many are eager for the blessings that come with a life dedicated to the Lord but not the self-discipline, not the self-denial, not the self-abasement, not the humility, not the holy or righteous lifestyle. Many want all the benefits without a life submitted to the Lord.

Where do we stand? Do we submit to the preaching of the Word of God regardless how uneasy we feel when confronted with truth? Or, do we search for a more palatable sermon?

Can Leopard change its spot?

Jeremiah 13:23 - "Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."

The prophet Jeremiah uses the Ethiopian and the leopard to explain the habit of sin. Man is creature of habit. Man sins by habit, having had a lifetime of practice to ensure that they are good at it! Just as we can easily tie your shoe while thinking of ten other things that we need to do, while never once thinking about the process of tying that shoe, we can sin just as easily. The reason for this is that we have spent a lifetime failing in one way or the other until it is consistent enough to be considered habit.

Only God alone is able to bring for the change in our lives.God has made a way for a person to change. As we surrender to Him in complete obedience, He will begin the transformation in our lives. Change is two - factored. It is not breaking habits alone, but also replacing them. Change is a focus on both putting off and putting on. An examples of put off and put on is found in Ephesians 4:25. The apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesians to put off lying and put on speaking the truth. Also, in 1 Peter 3:9 Christians are exhorted to put off returning evil and put on returning good.

Be Blessed.