DevotionTWENTY: Psalm 121

Good morning Revelations :)

Hope you all had a good nite rest and are looking forward to the makan gathering later! haha



Do take time to listen to this song by Paul Wilbur, an Isreali-American singer, while reading up today's devotion. Enjoy and while doing so, listen out for the words of the song too! :)

Psalm 121
1 I lift my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you - the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.


How comforting it is to know that the Lord, despite having so many prayer requests, prayer for Him to watch over someone somewhere everyday, yet He cares for each one of us as if there were only one. :)

We may encounter problems or setbacks, and wonder God "Why me?!" or "Why do I have to undergo all these problems!?". I like how this author puts it 'Often we stand at life's crossroads and view what we think is the end. But God has a much bigger vision and tells us its only a bend.'

With our own eyes, we sometimes magnify these problems and forget who is the One who is in control of all these.

As the song goes...In Your presence, thats where I am strong. In Your presence, O Lord my God. In Your presence, thats where I belong. Seeking Your face, touching Your grace...

Do not lose heart amidst all these, and know that God loves you more than what we can imagine and there are people around who are more than willing to walk alongside with you.

No day is too dark
And no burden too great
That God in His love
cannot penetrate. - Helen Steiner Rice
:)

DEVOTION NINETEEN: NO COMPROMISE

Do you know the story about Daniel in the lions' den? Im sure most of you do and have heard about it in sunday school! Anyway, at the end, Daniel was rescued from death inspite of the plotting and scheming from his co-workers. Surprisingly, he passed the test with his faith and character beautifully intact. How? He refused to compromise.

In places where no one would know except the Lord, Daniel didnt waiver in his private actions. His model is a great one for us to follow.

Establish consistency in your walk with God. If you're not walking with God today, its only a matter of time you'll fail and fall. We will never stand consistently until we are walking consistently with God.

Exact Opposition. Following Christ doesnt mean fewer hassles and hardships. Sometimes it means more! Resistance from family, schoolmates, close friends...They may even say things like "When did u get so serious about following the Lord?" Dont worry about any of them, and take a stand for Christ.

Maintain Consistency. Keep praying and stay on in God's word. "When Daniel knew that the document - his death warrant - was signed, he went to his house....He got down on his knees three times a dayand prayed and gave thanks" (6:10)

Did u notice the subject of his prayers? "Thank You, God, for this opportunity. Thank You that You're gonna show Yourself strong in my life. Thank You that I can trust You even in this."

Consistency in our walk with Godand His word will strengthen us during times of crisis.

Daily Bread

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25, ESV)

People,just in case you miss the "DailyBreadCorner". Please read the verse of the day THRICE.Get it into your mind and think about it seriously.Are you a hearer only and not a doer? If you're a hearer only,are you thinking to be a doer too? Come on,lets' be doers and not just hearer shall we?

kev

devotionEIGHTEEN - Light Of The World

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else" - C.S Lewis

It would be a mistake to think that Christianity does nothing more than tell us what happens when we die. It does even more than simply tell us how to live. The Word of God is the lens through which every thing else comes into focus. We need to learn to adopt Christianity as both a philosophy and a world view. Just as we are called to become like Christ in our personal lives, we are called to shape the world into the Kingdom of God, but we cannot hope to do that unless we understand it.

While most Christian thinkers defend Christianity by presenting either some sort of evidence or by offering some logical proof, the late Cornelius Van Til proposed a subtler type of approach. He used to encourage people to investigate Christianity by first getting them to assume it was all false, and then challenging them to explain the universe without it. Why are we here? Where did we come from? What are good and evil? In doing so, Van Til helped people to see for themselves that without a foundation in Christ, nothing makes sense. Christianity doesn't just have the answers to salvation, it has the answers to everything.

For example, Christianity helps us to see why Communism was such a wicked and dismal failure. In the days following the resurrection, Christ's disciples practiced a kind of communism and it was successful because every member placed the will of God first. However, modern-day communism denies God and so there is nothing to keep the power and authority in check. The Bible teaches us that without God, man is inherently sinful and communism has been the ultimate and unfortunate demonstration of that fact. Democracy, though far from perfect, works because it understands that power has the tendency to corrupt and so there are check and balances in place to protect us.

The Bible does not provide solutions for every problem we face in the world. It cannot specifically tell us what to do about gun violence, broken marriages, sexual immortality or rampant famine. What it can do is provide principles and a framework by which we can arrive at the correct solution. Things will get better in our lives and community when we start to see every problem from a Biblical perspective and then apply these principles consistently in our lives, our families, our work, our home and our governments.

If you want to know more about the "Christian worldview", one of the finest books I've found is How Now Shall We Live? It's a long, challenging read, but well worth the effort.

kev

Daily Bread

For "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it." (1 Peter 3:10-11, ESV)

The Passion of Christ




Some of you may not have caught Mel Gibson's 'Passion of Christ' movie. Anyway, I've just included a short snippet of the movie (how Jesus was tortured and crucified by the Romans to the point where He breathed His last). Do spare about 5mins for this movie :)

This movie is certainly meaningful as it reminds me of how we so often hear and talk about 'For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten son...', that it doesnt seem to mean much, does it?

The price that Jesus had paid for us all didnt come cheap and while watching the movie, I couldnt help but feel much anger towards the Roman soldiers. How they tortured Him was almost beyond what any human being would be able to endure. Yet, Jesus uttered to the Father to 'Forgive them for they know not what they do.."

Do you also feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude knowing how Jesus, the Son of God, Kings of Kings, who has the power to command legions of angels to save Him from the cross, chose instead to complete the mission so that we might be saved?

Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,and by His wounds we are healed.


Thank You for the cross Lord
Thank You for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace

Thank You for this love Lord
Thank You for the nail-pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious

High and lifted up
Jesus, Son of God
The darling of heaven crucified
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb

devotionSEVENTEEN - Almighty God

As Christians, we love and worship God, but do we fear Him? Do we remember that He is all-powerful and sovereign? In this devotional, we look at Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah's encounter with God reminds us how mighty He is.

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Isa 6:1-5

God is wonderfully complex and can never be fully defined by any single thought or idea. He has many natures and many sides which are all very different and all equally valid. For example, one of the most cherished images we have of Jesus is that of an accessible and compassionate friend and companion. Without a doubt, Jesus fulfills that role for his faithful. Yet at the same time, consider the image of Christ we get from the Book of Revelation.

"His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were bright like flames of fire. His feet were as bright as bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was as bright as the sun in all its brilliance." Rev 1:14-16.

The contrast is startling. Jesus is kind and loving, but He is also a fierce warrior. The Father is likewise loving and merciful, yet this very same God declares, "I will pour out my vengeance on all the nations that refuse to obey me." Micah 5:15.

We can be certain that any descriptive term we use for God, in isolation, will fall well short of elucidating all that He is. The best we can do is to continually appreciate and accept all his many qualities, without neglecting those we may not understand.

In this devotional, we want to take you to the other side of the spectrum and look at another aspect of God's nature which may be equally overlooked. If we are guilty of overlooking the fact that Jesus became a man, then perhaps we are sometimes guilty of failing to remember His awesome power, His supremacy and His authority.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with our cherished image of the peaceful and kind Jesus who calls children to Him and always turns the other cheek. It's a completely accurate albeit incomplete description of our Lord. As an extension of that image, we may have the idea that if we were to meet Jesus face to face, we would shake His hand, perhaps give Him a hug and then go grab a coffee.

This passage from Isaiah is a startling reminder of what would happen if we were to actually meet our God face to face, revealed to us in all His true glory. Like Isaiah, in the presence of the almighty God, seated on His throne, we would fall on our knees and proclaim "Woe is me - my eyes have seen the King!"

Let us never forget that God is to be feared. God is to be respected. He is the creator of everything seen and unseen, and deserves our worship and adoration. His power is limitless and without equal. His glory and holiness are beyond our measure.

Our purpose in this devotional is not to in any way diminish his human qualities or his love, mercy or compassion. Without those qualities, we would all be lost! Rather, our hope is that when you ponder Jesus Christ and all that He is, you might never forget His power and glory which completely fill the heavens and the earth. As you love and surrender to Christ, may you not forget to fear Him as well.