Author: michael
You Raise Me Up
How Great Thou Art
10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)
Importance of Prayer
In Lk 18:1-8, the parable of the unrighteous judge. Lord Jesus encourages us to pray always, not to give up.
Widows came to the unrighteous judge for justice, she was refused. But because of her persistence, She got what she wanted. Prayer is important.
Jesus’s mother Mary asked Lord Jesus to provide wine for the wedding, Lord Jesus didn’t intend to perform miracle, but He did it because Mary requested. (John 2:1-11).
Canannite women asked Lord Jesus to cast out demon from her daughter, but Lord Jesus came to preach the gospel to Israelites first, not for the Gentile, but because of the persistent of the Canannite’s woman, Lord Jesus did the miracle for this Canannite woman. (Matthew 15:21-28). She was praised for her faith.
The LORD gave us a medium size pan we wanted
We had a medium size pan which was broken, so we would like to buy a new one. We went to a couples of stores to look for a suitable one. I showed a couples of pans in the stores to my wife, she said she would like to buy a pan whose top and bottom is whole piece and it lasts longer, but we could not find one in the store.
Sometimes later we invited a few brothers, sisters and friends to our place for dinner, one of our friends gave us a pan which is exactly what we wanted, same size, top and bottom is one piece. This friend bought whole set of pans and gave us one.
Thanks the LORD, he provided us what we needed through this friend.
Resurrection
Today I share about resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:20 says, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
Lord Jesus died and rose again, Christ is the firstfruits. In the future we will also be raised, resurrected. Our lowly bodies will be transformed to a glorious spiritual body like Lord Jesus’ body.
Paul talked about Spiritual body in 1Cor 15:42-44/50-53
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
From the above passages, we see that we will be raised with an imperishable, glorious, spiritual bodies.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God Rom6:4-7
4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
So at baptism, we died with Christ, raised with Him, we live a new life, we receive power to live this new life, this new life free from the power of sins. This new life is dead to sin, alive to God. This new life is a resurrected life.
Prayer
Today I share about prayer. Talking about prayer, sometimes some other things can be distractions for us from prayer.
Some people might say that they are too busy to pray, they have no time to pray. They have time for other things, but don’t have time for prayer.
Bible encourages us to pray
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
What does it mean pray without ceasing? it means pray often, pray constantly, pray continuously.
Romans 12:12
12 Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
We know that in early church, disciples were devoted to prayer.
Mark 1:35
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Here we see that even Lord Jesus got up early in the morning to pray.
Seek the LORD until you find Him
Isaiah 55:6-8
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
Isaiah 55:1 Invitation to the thirsty
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
The above two passages say seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. God delights us to seek after Him, to come to Him, to draw near to Him, to communion with Him.
Jeremiah 29:13
13 You will seek me and find Me when you seek me with all your heart. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Here is says seek me until you find me. Seek will find, if you seek me with all your heart. When we seek the Lord, we should not give up, we should seek Him until we find Him. If we seek Him with all your heart, seek Him diligently, we will find Him.
Luke 11:5-13
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[a] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[b] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Here it says ask you will receive, seek you will find. Later in the passage, it says, how much more will Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
Seek Him and keep on seeking until we find Him, knock and keep on knocking until door open.
1John 4:16 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
God is love, He desires our love, when we love Him, abides in love, He will abides in us. When we abide in love, we will be connected with Him.
My born again experience
John 3:3,5
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
My Born Again Experience:
I had my baptism at a church summer camp. Right before my baptism, I had a prayer together with our pastor to commit my life to God, let Him to be the Lord of my life, the King of my life. Right after prayer, I sensed the Holy Spirit coming down from above into my heart, it was very touching. As Apostle Peter says in Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. At my baptism, I experienced what Bible says receiving the Holy Spirit at baptism which is being born again. That evening, whenever I closed my eyes, I sensed the joy in my heart which comes from the Holy Spirit. Joy is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit as we see in Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
God Bless!
