Just the HEM of Your PRESENCE

(Mark 5) A large crowd followed and pressed around him [Jesus]. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

       The Lord deals with all of us in different ways just as he had treated the sick people in the New Testament times. But sometimes we have to intentionally touch Him like what the bleeding woman did. We have to touch His heart as we align our plans with His for our lives. We have to simply touch His glory with every simple things we do: with our corporate worship, with our giving, with our cell group and discipleship, with our family, studies, career and even with  our personal and private lives.

      Good thing about our Lord Jesus is that, He hears even the deafening silence of a humble spirit or even in the midst of the raging crowd of prayers thrown at Him. Every act of faith, every act of worship, every soul thirsty for Him to fill, every obedience and sacrifices will never go unnoticed. Crowd will not overcome Him, all sins will be blotted out and He will give us fresh start; we just have to come to Him just as we are: BROKEN.

Isaiah 59:1
  Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

"I didn't see it coming!"

Browsing over my Bible this morning and praying that the Lord will give me His word for the day to which I will reflect, I went over the Book of Luke. I have read it many times and heard preachers preach from this book but this time I felt it's different. I resolved to learn again from the very word of Jesus Christ and His life on earth so I started from the first chapter. Chapter 1 talks about the birth of Jesus Christ, the first Christmas ever celebrated. But in the very first passage, it's the promised birth of a servant to prepare the way of Christ: The birth of John the Baptist, as foretold.

The plot of the story goes like this: There was a priest named Zechariah with his wife Elizabeth (who was a cousin of Mary), who had no child borne to them. They prayed for it but still they had none until they got old. When it was time for the LORD to bless them with a child [John], Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah while he was doing his chores at the temple. The birth of his son was foretold by the angel but Zechariah didn't believe at once because of their old age. Because of his disbelief, he was made mute until John was borne. His wife, however, believed and afterwards conceived a child and gave birth to John.

There are few things that made impact on me, something that is very personal.

     *** Zech, my man was a priest, a servant of the Lord, ordained and anointed to perform such a heavenward duty but sad to say he didn't see the answer to his prayers coming. Sometimes, even leaders can be very disbelieving or to some extent, most Christians are. Instead that we become example of Faith, we can be those who are doubting. This only confirms that we are not excused to have doubts. I sometimes doubt and it's my prayer that the Lord will bring me to a higher level of faith and say, "I believe Lord, please help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

     *** God has His own time-table and He never forgets. We may have forgotten that we ever prayed for it, but God doesn't. He will do it in His perfect time and nothing can ever shut the door of favor once He opened it. (Revelation 3:7) I am blessed by the movie The Perfect Stranger. When Nikki got an invitation to have dinner with Jesus Christ, she was totally in disbelief. The Lord told her that she actually asked for it [to talk with Him] which Nikki forgot, but the Lord didn't.

     *** Our disbelief will not hinder the Lord from doing what He has planned doing, it can still happen, only to other people's lives who believe. Zech's wife believed and so it still came upon his family. As members of family [especially when we are the only ones Christian], it is crucial that we don't lose our faith even in the midst of unbelieving parents and siblings. Every seed of faith we do counts in heaven, and the Lord never rejects an offering of a righteous [thru Christ]. We can be the only representative of our family, our campus, our offices, our friends.

     *** It's for the Glory of the Lord that we will see it materialize. Every fulfilled promise is for the Lord's glory to be visible in our lives, every answered prayer is a manifestation of God's saving grace.

The Lord sees every single tear, he sees the sacrifices we've made...and He never cease to care.

Pressed Olives

"And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of Pressed Olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually." - Exodus 27:20

The Testimony of our life weighs upon the victory we've won, the crushing we went through and the trials we've overcome. Christian walk is never without thorns and thistles. God only promised the Victory and that he carries us all the way.

Consider our lives an Olive Tree. We are planted and expected to grow where God placed us and while in the process of growing, we experience being pruned, branches cut down, drought in one season and rain in another, storms trying to uproot us and testing the very foundation of our lives. After we've overcome all these, we flourish and bud came out. The fruit of our labor starts to manifest. It grows and once matured, plucked and harvested, prepared to be crushed and pressed. Yes, crushed till the last drop of oil are extracted! It was difficult, the process was painful but in the end, we bring about the finest of oil to cause the lamp burn continually.

So whenever we feel pressed on every side - pressure from family, finances, relationships, school, ministry - consider: God is about to bring the purest of oil from us. The lamp to to burn is not only our own lamps, our passion and ministry, rather it's others' lamps. People will look on us and see good things God did into our lives and it will cause others to be encouraged, edified and moved for the greater cause. Our lives will be a value-added factor to others' lives! With this we cannot minimize the impact we can cause to the people around us. Keep the flame burning!

As We STRUGGLE. . .

Biblical Passage: Genesis chapter 32

Every struggle we face is an opportunity to Encounter God. It is in this season that we find ourselves broken and in need of a Savior. Our victory over life's adversities is not because we are wise nor strong. Our victory comes from the Lord.

Jacob struggled with God and he was blessed when he stood the test. God didn't come to Jacob just to have wrestled with him. He did it on purpose! But He didn't just came by surprise and blessed Jacob either! So are all our struggles in life. When Jesus left his human status on earth, he left with a word that in this world, we will experience struggles, adversities and alike. Everything that happens to our lives is never without the knowledge of our Father. Even Job experienced life in difficulty with the all-encompassing knowledge of God.

In all these struggles, our attitude should be like that of Jacob. His words, "I will not leave you until you bless me," speaks of a yearning from God to turn the situation to his favor. What God tells us with the problem at hand? How will we learn from these? What will we become out of these? The blessing depends on how we react on the situation. The problem itself will not make or break us, but our attitude towards it does!

Looking into the words of Christ when He said, "Take heart, I have overcome the world," (John 16:33) is such a comfort to the disciples and to us who are called. Victory is WON! He is Risen from the dead! We are made automatic Conquerors through the Victory of Christ at the cross.

Jacob was changed after his encounter with God. When faced with many struggles in life, be it financial, relationships with parents, siblings, leaders, friends, etc., school, or even ourselves, we should be changed for the better after we've overcome the test because it is the only concrete manifestation of an inward victory.

Facing the Dead-End

I am with you and I will watch over you wherever you go, and i will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what i have promised you." 

- Genesis 28:15

Many times we find ourselves lost and away from the presence of the Father because of the sin that so entangles us. But looking back to the traces of our journey, God has never really left us all the way through. While we are running away, He really never allowed for us to be very far from Him. There is no point too low for God not to reach us for His hands are never short not His ears too deaf to hear. He's always able and willing to bring us back to the land He promised us.

Along the way, we will find ourselves at one time or another in the realm of discouragements, pressures one every side, persecution, ridicule, threat. But it's comforting to know that God is always at work in our lives and never will He leave us until He's done what He promised. So whenever we feel like God has already left us alone, let's first ask ourselves, "Has God fulfilled all that He has promised me?" If the answer is NO, then it's not dead end yet. We're never alone. He must be busy fixing the details of our lives...we just have to obey and submit to His will.

Like Jacob, when he received that revelation at Bethel, the first thing he did was to acknowledge God's presence in his life; then he made a commitment to the Lord. So must we. When it's dead-end zone, the only thing that drivers do is to reroute himself back. However, life has no returning point. But the way out is much easy...it's just on our knees.

Looking through the Lens of Grace

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" - Genesis 18:14a

The story goes when the Lord promised Abraham that he will be a Father of all nations and his wife Sarah will bear him a child. Sarah overheard from the three visitors that indeed she will conceive a child in her old age while Abraham had already been worn out.  She laughed at what she heard and so questioned in herself the ability of the Lord to make miracles.

Oftentimes we act like Sarah did. When faced with a promise from the Bible, we reckoned if such can ever happen to us with the situation at hand. We look at the promise with the eyes of the present situation. Whenever we do that, we limit the hands of the living God to do great and marvelous things into our lives and so frustrates ourselves.

"Is there anything too hard for the Lord?" Let us ask ourselves once more, "Is there?" The Bible tells us that the things of the past is written to teach us. They are written accounts of the goodness of the Lord to those He pleases to bless. May the lives of the characters in the Bible remind us that indeed God is the God who makes miracles and still doing miracles after miracles to our lives.

God's sustaining grace is never far from us. It's always just an arms-length. We only need to be still and trust Him while He's busy working out the details of our lives. This is not the time to hold everything with our bare hands and play superman. It's time to look into out lives through the lens of God's grace. As he said, "My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Blessed to Bless

"I will make you into a great nation and I will BLESS you; I will make your name great and you will be a BLESSING. I will bless those you bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through you." - Genesis 12:2-3

You cannot give what you do not have. The principle stands true even when it comes to becoming a blessing to other people. God did not bless us just to satisfy our personal needs and wants. No, in all these, there is a purpose for being a blessed person. And if we desire to bless others, we must be connected to the source of blessing and experience the blessing Himself.

Moses wrote, "Choose Blessing!" Who else doesn't want to be blessed after all? Nobody wants suffering but most of us already experienced the fangs of starvation, the agony of torture and sickness, the demeaning of ones self  due to failures one after another. It's inevitable. But we can do something about it. As I mentioned, we only need to be connected to the source of blessing. It is only in His presence that we find true peace despite the raging seas crashing against our shore of comfort, love in the midst of havoc and conflict, hope in the middle of wilderness.

When God promised to bless Abram, He didn't just bless him but also destined him to be a blessing. However, looking into the promise, God didn't say you will be a blessing and I will bless you. It doesn't work vis-a-vis. The river do not go up to the falls, but the falls flow through the river and onto the vast ocean. Our lives are only instrument of God to release the blessing to other people.

The promise [of Blessing] comes by Faith (Romans 4:16) for without Faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrew 11:6). Receiving the promise is through pleasing God thru Faith. Had Abram did not believe in God to fulfill it, the promise could never materialize. Same as true with us. If we want to experience blessing, we must have faith and not doubt, believing that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him and He who promised is faithful (Heb. 10:23).

We may not have enough to share to others, but being faithful with the little that we have now can touch the heart of our Living God to bless us. I believe God blesses His people gradually. He doesn't just pour them all out on us because He wants to test us in the area of our faithfulness. We don't need to be a multimillionaire before we desire to serve Him. We don't need to have it all and got the whole world in our hands to extend a hand to others. For what profit for a man if he gains the whole yet forfeits his soul? The blessing is not a winner-takes-it-all kind of promise. God allows us to enjoy what we have now and exercise the passion to bless with it. Let us be reminded by the Proverb 30: 7-9, "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."

Therefore, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Galatians 6:9