Thank God for His perfect plan. On the day when Adam sinned against God, God was not caught by surprised. God is on top of all things and He is still today. Amen! And His plan to redeem us from sin is perfect and complete. Jesus, our sacrificial Lamb, willingly died on the cross for us.
Jesus was not murdered, He laid down His life. Do you see the difference? Amen! Jesus knew where He came from and where He is going to. When the roman soldiers came to capture Jesus, they drew back and fell onto the ground when Jesus said "I Am He." The word "I AM" was introduced to Moses when he asked God what should he say to people of Israelites who sent him. God replied "I AM" who sent you.
Exodus 3:15
15 God said also to Moses, This shall you say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you! This is My name forever, and by this name I am to be remembered to all generations.
Here, God identified His Name as "I AM" What a name! As much as the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.... God said by this name "I AM", He is remembered to all generations.
Now you see why the Roman soldiers drew back and fell onto the ground? They were shocked and afraid when Jesus identified Himself as God. Instead of they capturing Him, Jesus has to surrender Himself to them. Because He knew where He is going to, He was not carried away by His Godly authority. He knew He had to accomplish the task of going to the cross. This is the kind of God we serve. All loving and all humbled, always composed and swift. Hallelujah!
Before we went for the Paris trip this year, I was not too keen to include Amsterdam in the itinerary. But, after much consideration, knowing we had quite a number of days to spare in Paris, we decided to head up to Amsterdam. While doing our research on Amsterdam, I got very excited when I saw there is display in Amsterdam.
Now adays, putting a "i" in front of a word is pretty common in commercial advertisement. For example "i phone" "i tune" "ieat, ishoot.ipost" So, at one glance, the display " i amsterdam" seem like another commercial display. But what caught my attention was the letters "I AM" are painted in Red, whereas the rest of the letters are in White.
I knew in my heart it is a sign of God's presence at that place. Since then, I was so excited and looked forward to visit this place. And true enough, the display "I Amsterdam" is actually at Rujk museum where it contain lots of paintings and sculptures pertaining to Jesus. I felt so blessed to be able to spend an afternoon looking and admiring these paintings and sculptures. What a joy!
There is something very mysterious yet true...I notice whenever we seek our Lord Jesus, there is this inner joy and peace which the world can never give nor satisfy. Drugs and alcohol may give temporary peace but the long-term effect is addiction and death. But, the inner joy and peace our Lord give is eternal and life. Amen! Jesus says " The peace I leave with you, not as the world give, I give unto you...." The peace we have from Jesus is not dependent on outward circumstance, it comes from within. Amen!
George Muller, a great man of God, has been known for his work in building orphanages. Through out the days of his ministry, he and his wife brought in thousands of orphans. They will give these homeless a place to stay, food to eat and gave them education. You can google this man to know more about him.
This is what I found in one of the website:
"When each child became old enough to live on his own, George would pray with him and put a Bible in his right hand and a coin in his left. He explained to the young person that if he held onto what was in his right hand, God would always make sure there was something in his left hand as well."
What an amazing man! And the best part of it all is all that he did, he did through through praying... Yes, literally just pray and nothing else. He did not seek anyone for help, he did not knock on anyone's door for funding. All were done through praying. Amazing! Such great faith!
Here's an excerpt I took from Wikipedia:
"Through all this, Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well-documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table, even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage."
In all that George Muller has done ( praying huge amount of funds to build orphanages, providing food and education to so many children, doing so much for the kingdom of God), this is what he wrote in a little booklet "Soul Nourishment First"
http://www.tms.edu/semwivesweb/media/The%20Discipline%20of%20Prayer.pdf
I thought it is interesting and it is related to the topic of our discussion on Spiritual Warfare. I've extracted a portion of what he said in this booklet and I believe it is the essence of what we should achieve everyday in order to be champion for the kingdom of God:
It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more
than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and
primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.
The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Hallelujah! Isn't it true? Some christians are trying to serve the Lord and yet not happy. From what George Muller, the great man of God said the priority is not to think of how to serve the Lord. The priority is to have our soul happy in the Lord, and when our soul is happy, our inner man will be nourished and strengthened. Amen!
If you think about it, the only area which the devil will attack us is our soul. Our soul comprises of our thinking, emotions, feelings. Once he can trigger our negative emotions, he knew it is a matter of time it will lead to manifestation of physical illness or negative behavior.
I would reckon that if a great man of God like George Muller who prayed miracles prayers and brought such great glory to the kingdom of God, said we need to keep our soul happy and that is the number one priority, I believe it with all my heart and I would encourage you to do likewise everyday. Amen!
With this, I leave you with this verse to meditate:
3 John 1:2
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
Grace and peace be with you.
Shalom,
Bro
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