Sunday, March 8, 2009♥
God loves me and He freely gives
Wow, its Arrow service again. It was an awasome day, and God answered my prayers! Actually, quite alot of stuffs happened today, let's start with what Pastor B shared with us today that touched me so much.Today's preaching was on "God will make a way out of tribulations", where God said that Victory will always be on our ways when we faced challenges. Romans 8:28 (New King James Version)28And we all know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.Romans 8:29 (Amplified Bible)
29For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was [a]aware and [b]loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.In this chapter, God is actaully telling us that we don't have to do anything in order to justified and glorified ourselves.V28: He mentioned everything will works well because We are called according to His purposes.
V29: He had knew us from the beinging, and He predestined to molded us into the image of His son Jesus, and we are unique. (firstborn among many brethren).It is always God who finds the lost, and not we find Jesus. He finds us so that He can give us a life more abundantly. He will give us callings in our lives, and these callings are actually giftings that He provide. We are made in the image of Him, and He molded us like a diamond, so that we can shine to the world. Romans 8:29-30(The message)God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
You might asked why a diamond? Before polishing and cutting, the diamond is so unappealing, that it does not worth much in people's eyes. But after the polishing and cutting process, it will then shine to the world. God will called us out of our darkest to polish us and mold us so that I will appear like a gem, glorifed by Him and shinning for Him.
He knew who will recieve, and for those who are called, are justified. He justified us so that we can be glorified at the same time too. God and I are one, and He will give us the strength to work things out.
Romans 8:31 (New King James Version)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
No matter what situations we are facing, we just need to know that,
1) All things work together for good, 2) He is not against me despite my situations. Since He is for us, no one can be against us. We do not need to be qualified ourselves to recieve His blessings but it is He who qualified us. For instance, the lack of faith does not disqualified us from healing. Because in V32-33:
He who did not spare His own Son, but delievered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him, also freely give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justified.
Go for the best (Jesus) and He will provide. The only thing for us to do is to look to Him, look out for the love He had for us. He will then do the rest. Others cannot justified us, nor can we justified ourselves. Only He is qualified to justified us.
Who is He to condemns? It is Christ who died, and futhermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written: "For Your sake, we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter"
Nothing can seperated us from the love of God. Not even accusation we faced in our lives. The voices that makes us feel small, or condemn, are just voices from the devil. God will only gives voices of comfort and corrections. The devil can always make people say things such as "see, I told you already but you don't listen", or "see, you don't listen so you faced all these consequences". but voices of God will not condemn us, He will just assure us that He is there and even if He corrects us, He do it without condemnations like: "Maybe you should stop doing this because is not good for you.....".People can said things to us, that makes us feel so inferior or condemn. But it is a choice of whether to let these accusations get over you. When people gives you this kind of feeling, it also means there is a sense of comparision and judgemnet. And these comparision only exist among peers. Isn't it true? Who compared with people of the different age as you? It often just occurs among peers. As long as our mentality is right-knowing that we just have to rest in Him, He will do the rest for us. He will turn the situation around for us. We do not need to do things by our own efforts to make it good, or to live up to other's expectations. We just have to rest, and the results will be beyond the expectations. When we are discouraged about some stuffs, it does not means that God is closing the doors for us, and it does not means He is not answering our prayers. It just means that God closed the doors so that He can open up another door us us to work things out. And somethings, the things we asked for, God may not provide because He is protecting us from harm. Remember God will gives us in the right time and at the right place.Isaiah 59:1919So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him. When enemies came, God will lift up a standard against them. So question is: "at the end of the day, are you trusting, depending on the Lord to help you in your situation?What pastor preached today had really answer my prayer abt the issues I'm facing, especially the anger I had recently. God also spoke to me today, through my brothers-in-christ (Larry and Han Yuen) when we were having our dinner after arrow. As we were sharing about some issues that we faced, I told them mine also. One sentence from Han yuen just striked me. He said: "Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling". He means that it is up to us whether we want to forgive people and not whether is it hard to forgive someone. It is only when we forgive, and the feeling will come. haha. I guessed that's why there's this phrases: "Forgives and forget", and not "forget and forgives" Larry also reminded me that too. No matter what happen, God is still for me, so why bothered about what others said? He reminded me that we should love our enemies just as what the bible teaches us. We should love and not hate, no matter what others had done to you. Thanks God for speaking to me through them. I guess, I'm starting to let it go now.Matthew 5:43-44 43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
God is just so faithful! I love you Daddy! :)
