This Easter Season 3

How then should we live? Not as unwise, but as wise children,understanding the times,because the days are evil. We live in an age of brainpower,knowledge and discovery. As we grow in number, so does our propensity for good and evil also increase. However, an understanding of the impact of Easter helps us see right. We have a loving Father who took away our rightful punishment and gave his all so we could have all he has and gain a new standing with him. His sacrifice on the cross is the window to a new relationship and the grace of having a choice: to serve him or to deny him. It is a choice we all must make this Easter season. We must choose good because that is all that Christ came to do at Easter. If you deny him, then for you, Easter is in vain and the punishment he took on your behalf years ago is put back on you. You can't bear it so choose life today. God will make that choice worth it.

This Easter Season 2

Here we are, it's Easter Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection of the One who is the hope of our calling and the reason why the word 'Christian' was formed. Many of us celebrate and party,to the point of drunkenness, without really having a relationship with the One whp makes the celebration worthwhile.
The blood is the seal of the relationship and the promise that when this present life is over, there is a life after now. Let us work towards attaining that life. Let us live in the present reality of what Christ has done for us. Let us live like today is our last day on earth.
Let Easter be a permanent memorial of all that God has done for us and a reminder of what God has called us to impart into the lives of the people around us.
Let's celebrate him.

This Easter season

We all look forward to the holidays and we plan trips and parties around these days. Not too many of us really think about the reason for the season. Why are we celebrating? Let me share what someone sent me:
"I donated a pint of blood at the hospital; Christ gave all his blood at the cross. The needle was short and sharp; the nails were huge and dull. The bed was soft and restful; the cross was rough and hard. The nurses were kind and gentle; the soldiers were cruel and barbaric. The crowd lauded my sacrifice; his witnesses mocked and derided him. Mine was type A positive; his blood was positive for all. Mine,at best,will prolong life life for awhile; His will no doubt save ALL. My name is James,a mere man; his name is Jesus Christ, the Saviour. Let's celebrate Him."
He is the reason for both the season and the relationship.

How Great is this God?

Our human mind has been created with the capacity for growth and expansion. As we allow the mind to work, dream and think, it grows. When it comes to understanding God however, there's a limit to the human mind. Here's a God who does the miraculous with the most unlikely of materials- making an iron axe-head float in water, feeding 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread, and paying tax from a fish's mouth. If he does these things, why do we doubt him on the issues of life? If he created ALL things, what can be outside the sphere of his control? If he's the Lord of ALL the earth, the earth must therefore answer to his demand. If we can trust his power today, I believe he's more than able to deliver.
I just read a testimony of a lady getting pregnant without a cervix. Don't believe everything science tells you; hold on to what the omniscience himself says. He's got the final say on ALL matters of life and death.

Where do i go?

Everywhere you turn today, there is terror. There are mass murders and suicides, threats of wars,earthquakes,natural and man-induced disasters and great distress. It is difficult to find encouragement as you look around. Yet, God is still in charge. David and his men had lost all, but while his men talked of stoning him,he went to God. That is the solution- simple as it sounds. Nothing in life can suprise the creator of life itself. When you look around,hope is extinguished, but when you look to God, that which seemed lost forever is fully restored.
Where do i go for help? Who do i look up to? In him is endless hope, without him is a hopeless end.

Knowing my place

Men- the most complex of God's creation and the most fundamental to His plan for the end time. We plan like we own tomorrow and live like we will never die. We keep our eyes on the distant goal ahead, forgetting to live right in the present. Read a sobering passage today: All men are like grass,and all their glory like the flowers of the field...the grass withers and the flowers fall,but the Word of God stands forever.
I get the understanding that my life's race is personal and divine,therefore i owe no man any explanation. I only need to please the God who has commissioned my assignment and will reward accordingly. We ALL will stand before this same God,so run your own race;mind your own business. I'm not life's standard,God is.              

Planning for death?

Elisha the prophet of God was dying. You would think that such a great man of God shouldn't taste death at all. Great men attain great things for God and it is almost as if they would live forever.
However, one thing is certain: the unavoidable appointment we all must keep with death. It is not important what you are doing now,but what you will be doing when the appointment falls due. We live our lives as if there would be no accounting or auditing to be rendered; we live as if there is anywhere written that God has promised we will live forever in this present body that we have. People are asked to write wills and they make it clear that they are not ready to die yet,as if that decision was theirs to make in the first place.
God says: It is APPOINTED to men once to die and after that, judgement. Live in that knowledge and live right.        

Favour speaks,even when gifts are silent.

David was in the dryest of deserts, using his talents by playing the harp and making music. He may have had no audience back there but God was preparing a whole kingdom of spectators and partakers who would benefit from David's gifts.

Joseph the dreamer was using his gifts in seemingly the wrongest of places- prison. Who cares about the dreams of locked-up people?

But when the time of favour came, none of them was using the gift when they were summoned before the king. Someone had heard David play heavenly tunes, someone had had his dreams properly interpreted and his life restored.

Favour speaks long after talents, gifts and charisma have exhausted their options. Where i have been quietly working for God, using his gifts to bless lives and it appears as if nobody cares, God will raise up men who will speak on my behalf and i will be taken to the next level where God has prepared for me. His time of favour has come.

God's Amazing Timing

'Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end shall greatly increase'. Job 8:7 KJV

The beginning matters, but the end matters much more. We all have humble beginnings, but the decisions you make now will determine the state of your end. Many of us were told to go to school,get a good degree so you could get a good job and take adequate care of your family. Evidence abounds around us to prove that a first-class brain doesn't always equate to a first-class status.

What then is important? If God is in the plan from the start,he can take you to the end. He works from your pre-determined end and ensures that all your experiences-good or bad- takes you to that expected end. No man,no matter how rich,connected or powerful can guarantee you tomorrow. Invest in God- he gives adequate returns on investment. His time of favour is here.

An Intimate Moment   Luke 7:37-38
 Joanna carefully brushed her long, coarse hair before she put the covering over her head. She was scared, yes, but she was so excited! Her hands were trembling as she tucked the vial of perfume into the sleeve of her heavy garment. She was actually going to see Him, maybe even touch Him. And deep within her heart was the hope that He might see her-- might notice her in some way. If I can just get into the portico of Simon's house, surely I can find where they are eating.   She stayed in the shadows as she walked down the street, fully aware of the people staring and moving away from her as she approached. No one cares to recognize a harlot. But she was used to that. Not that being used to it had taken away the hurt, but she understood. And yet, maybe that humiliating life of sin and degradation was over? Maybe it was behind her? Maybe He will set me free!   She had first heard Him the day He taught the multitudes, and had followed Him ever since, sometimes losing herself in the crowds or crouching behind the trees and rocks. There were days when there wasn't anyone around who knew her and she was able to help prepare the meals and serve Him and His disciples.   There's his house. I know people can hear my heart pounding! Wait, there's the entrance to the servant's quarters. I'll go in there.   She walked quickly into the dark doorway and then moved toward the sounds of the kitchen.   I hear Him talking! Oh, please let me be close to Him just this once. I long so to show Him how much I love Him. . . .   She crept quietly to an open door just behind Jesus. Then, with one deep breath, she stepped into the room, knelt beside Him, and kissed His feet. It was almost funny the way everyone stopped talking and eating. They were shocked -- of that there was no doubt -- and their silence condemned her.   Joanna wept as she poured the perfume, her tears mingling with the sweet-smelling oil. Then she loosed her hair and began drying those dear, blessed feet.   * * *   Jesus talked to Simon and to the others lounging around the table that day. He talked to Joanna, too. She left, clean and forgiven, knowing that He returned her love and that she was special to Him. We don't hear any more about her, but I want to believe she held steadfastly to her new life.   She made quite a spectacle of herself that day. I can imagine that it took her a long while to make her plans and then to carry them out.   I'm prone to say, "What courage." But no. It wasn't courage that drove Joanna to Simon's house. It was love.   And so the unnamed harlot lives on through biblical history . . . while princes and procurators and scribes and Pharisees, mighty men and strong men and wise men and rich men, are all long since forgotten. Her only claim to fame? She loved much.   Lord, may I love You as much as Joanna loved You.