Living Daily in the Glory of God

When I started this blog, I wanted to write in it every day. I wanted it to be my way of continuously coming to the Word. I started it off well, sharing my enjoyment of this Christian life I have. However, it started to slow down. I didn't know why so much, until 2 weeks after. Until now.

When I started this blog, I was merely sharing what I have learned through the day. Something that I have read and learned about the Bible and of God. It was full of life, seeking the Lord. A few posts down the line, I looked into the Word not to gain the Lord but share knowledge. At that point, I slowed down in writing. I stopped writing.

I would open the window and have a blank slate in front of me to write whatever comes to mind, but nothing. Why? I can tell you, it's because I was seeking mere words in a book rather than the life of God in His Word.

I wrote in my earlier post and quoted that "Every Scripture is God-breathed". Somewhere down the line, I stopped taking that in and looked to teach rather than feed. It was good that I had a moment to step back and look at it that way.

This week, some students reminded me of what it means to continuously seek the Lord. To continuously live in Him. Amen!

The church is seeking to expand and to grow. The Lord is looking for His expansion through us, the church. To do so, we must not just come to the Lord during the Sabbath and during bible study, and meetings, and at the church building. But rather, we should come to the Lord whenever we can. Day by day, moment by moment. We must remember to praise and thank the Lord.

The students emphasized on creating vital groups and prayer groups. Every morning, I have a prayer group call me on the phone and we pray to God and call onto him for 15-30 minutes of our day. It's a great way to start the day by waking up and turning to God. Telling Him "Lord, I Love You! Lord, I praise you! Thank You, Lord!" However, it must not stop there. As Christians, we must continue to live a Christian life. To do so, we must continue to see God in everything we do. When we meet people, when we speak to each other, are we speaking God? Or are we speaking something of the world? Most likely the latter. In doing so, we distract ourselves from a goal of coming to God. In becoming one with the Lord. So how do we stop ourselves from doing so? By reminding ourselves that God wants to gain us more every day. When we do so, we will spontaneously speak as God speaks through us to our family, friends, acquaintances and maybe even random strangers.

By doing so, we breathe out God and feed the Word of God to others. We supply life into others, and in doing so we fill ourselves with God through them too. The feeling of knowing that you are with God, and you somehow (even for a brief moment) were able to feed and turn your conversation with a friend towards God, is a good feeling.

I didn't have that the past few weeks while looking to write. I was looking merely to just teach, rather than to converse and feed my readers and speak with God through my writing. So from this point on, I want to open myself to God first before I start typing. If what I am about to write has nothing of God in my words but rather more of my own thoughts, I do not want to write it anymore. I want to type as if God was typing for me.

Rather than trying to write something every day, like I was before, I want to write when I have a real feeling of being touched by the Word. Mainly, because at that moment, I am writing and dispensing God, rather than just my own thoughts. Lord Jesus! Help me in my weakness! Speak through me so that others may hear you! I want nothing of me, but everything of you in my words that others are reading. Lord, feed them with your Word through me.  Lord work on me daily and work through me. Let me serve you, as you have served us.

The Will of God

(From an e-mail received from a friend in church: Ariel Yang)
 
People always want to know what God’s will for them is. They’ll pray and pray, “God, what do you want me to do?” Many people ask people to pray for them and with them, but they don’t realize that their problem is in their heart.

How do we know the will of God? It’s not a matter of the procedure, but a matter of what kind of person you are. In the Bible, many people prayed, but look at the kind of person God reveals His will to - not the people who prayed for God’s will in order to compare it to their own goals and choose what they want, but to people who had already resolved to do God’s will, whatever it may be. Examples: David and building the temple of God (God’s answer was that David couldn’t build the temple, contrary to David’s original intention); Samuel and establishing the kingship of Israel (Samuel hated the idea of establishing the kingship); Peter and spreading the gospel to Gentiles (Peter considered them unclean).

The real problem isn’t that we don’t know God’s will, but that we pray while still holding our own interests as the top priority in our heart. We ask, “Lord, what kind of career do You want me to have? (but I really want a successful career that allows me to live a comfortable life Lord, is that what You want? That’s what I want)”.

We don’t know how to reconcile ourselves to the Lord’s will because we still have our own will. Once the Lord and His will becomes our only goal and aim, His will becomes very clear. You might not like the answer, but by then it’s too late, you’re locked in. And even the future you would never have originally considered will be sweeter and bring you closer to Him than any path you originally wanted.

Song: Never Did I Dream Before

I enjoy this song very much. It gives a bit of that feeling of remembering the beginnings of your church life. I hope that if you are a part of the church that you don't ever forget the enjoyment that you've experienced when God first came into your life and made Himself real to you.


Title: Never Did I Dream Before

Lyrics:
1 Never did I dream before,
Such a place could e’er be found,

The Great I AM

Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Isael, I AM has sent me to you.

"I AM" has so much in it. In other words, God is saying "I will be who I will be";or "I will become who I will become. The divine title I AM denotes that God is the One who is self-existing and ever-existing, and who depends on nothing apart from Himself. As the I Am, He is the all-inclusive One, the reality of every positive thing and of whatever His called and sent ones need.

God is what God is. God is the unique self-existing One. Everything else comes and goes, but God remains. We are not, but God and God alone, always is.

Before anything else came into existence, God was. After so many things have passed out of existence, God will still be. God was, God is, and God will be.

As the self-existing One, God is the reality of every positive thing. The Gospel of John revelas that He is all we need; Life, light, food, drink pasture, the way.

This is an amazing thing to come upon and realize. Heaven and earth may pass away, but God will not. If you only believe in God, everything will be all right. You have your many riches, your health, and your flesh now, but some day those will cease to exist. However, God will still be there. You may have your weaknesses now, but those will be gone as well. Do not believe either in your weakness or in your strength for both your weakness and your strength will pass away. However, when they are gone, God will continue to be the One who is.

Acts 19:11-12 And God did works of power of no ordinary kind through the hands of Paul, / So that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.

Many times, we see God as the almighty One. However, Jehovah God is neither able or mighty, and at the same time He is both. Many instances in the Bible, God has shown Himself to believers and some of those times he was the almighty one. Paul healed many people, and even the handkerchiefs that had been in touch with him could heal others.

Other times he wasn't able nor almighty in any way. When Paul was to be martyred, God did not show his greatness by breaking down the walls and setting Paul free. Rather, Paul just stayed and believed in Him, which gave Paul his strength and comfort. He does nothing to show His power, nor help us. However, Even when God apparently does nothing for us, we should still believe in Him as the One who is. If we know God as the One who is, we shall be greatly encouraged, especially during difficult times. To know God as the One who is, brings us into a deeper understanding and knowing of who He is.

Three Signs of Being Called and Sent by God: The Blood-turned Waters (3/3)

Exodus 4:9 And if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then you shall take some of the water of the River and shall take some of the water of the River and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take out of the River will become blood upon the dry ground.

The meaning of the third sign, the sign of the water becoming blood, is that in the eyes of God all the earthly supply and worldly enjoyment (the water of the Nile) are nothing but death (blood). The water of the Nile represents our earthly dependency and enjoyment of worldly and earthly supply. All the supply, enjoyment and entertainment are death. In order to realize this, we need to pour the water of the Nile upon the dry land. Dry land being the source of from which life is produced (Gen 1). When they are poured out on that which produces life (the ground), immediately the death is exposed.

Exodus 78:44 And He turned their rivers into blood, As well as their streams, so that they could not drink.
Exodus 105:29 He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.

The very supply of that the world affords us is death. To the people of the world, the water in the Nile is wonderful, it irrigates the land of Egypt. However, the called one must see what the water really is.