THOUGHT

CREATED FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE
"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10
Eric Liddell was an Olympic runner from Britain who won a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
He was a man who had a deep commitment to the Lord and had future plans of being a missionary. In the meantime, he knew God had given him a special gift to run, and he often said, "I feel God's pleasure when I run."
He spent years training for the Olympics. He passed each hurdle and qualified for the Olympics.
Finally, the day came for him to run in the games that were held in Paris. There was only one problem. One of his running events was held on Sunday.
Liddell refused to run on Sunday, believing it dishonored the Lord's Sabbath. He held to his convictions and brought great persecution on himself. He made a decision that even if it meant losing his opportunity to compete, he would not run. God's laws were greater than man's applause.
Just when the circumstances seemed hopeless, another situation arose that allowed Liddell to run on a different day.
So often this is the case in the spiritual realm. God tests our hearts to see if we will remain faithful to Him at the cost of something important to us. Once He knows where our loyalty lies, He opens a new door that meets the desires of our hearts.
God takes pleasure in seeing His creation used for His glory.
Liddell understood why he was made to run; he used his gift of running to bring pleasure to his Creator.
Later, Eric Liddell went on to serve God on the mission field.
Does your life work bring pleasure to the Lord? Do you understand that God instilled certain gifts and talents in you so that He might find pleasure in His creation of you?
Take pleasure in the gifts God has given to you this day. And let His glory shine through you.

This passage is taken from AllWorship.com by Os Hillman.
Here we see Eric Liddell was so respectful to God and fear God that he would rather sacrifice the gold medal to win God's pleasure. We Christians, the followers of Christ should always observe God's law, fear God, respect God and love God our LORD and be faithful to Him. In the spiritual realm we must be stouthearted to be on God's side.

Could we tell the animals the Good News ?

I have heard some pastors telling the members that Jesus never asked us to go and tell the animals the kingdom of God is near! They said in Genesis, God created animals before man as God wanted man to feed on animals and plants. Thus, I checked through the Bible, English and Chinese, and I could not find any that could say the Pastors were wrong.
There is a trend, especially among the rich people who have turned into worshipping their pets as their gods! For gentiles, it is understandable as they are yet to be introduce to Jesus. For Christians, it would be very very wrong to have idols! The Ten Commandments should never leave our mind any moment not even any second! May God forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. May the Holy Spirit guide them and bring them back to the right path which leads us to our Abba Father.

Bringing the World into the Church or Bring the Church into the World?

This thought has come into my mind on and off. I was impulsed to write it down. As we move further away from the day Christ was born and the day he ascended to heaven, a lot of so called Christians, be they Reverends, Pastors or just the common believers are really shifting away from the Way, the Truth and the Life Christ Jesus
has taught us. We tend to become more relax and forgetful. We begin to shift away and farther away from the narrow path Christ Jesus asked us to walk!

Are we bringing the world into the church or are we bringing the church into the world? This has been puzzling me as I watched the changes taking place in the churches nowadays. When I first asked this question to my fellow Christian friends and they for a moment, were sort like taken aback and did not know what I meant! Some churches wanted to have more members and rich members to come to them and they began to modify themselves just to please the world. Are they doing the things that would please our LORD?

Deut28:1If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.

I pray the churches would remember that we are to walk into the world and change the world and win the world for Christ, and not let the world change us. If we are to let the world change us then Christ Jesus would not have to die for us on the Cross.

Luke23:34Jesus said,"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Have YOU Changed???

EX19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
EX22:31You are to be my holy people....
LEV11:45For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
JOSH24:19And Joshua said.......Ye cannot serve the LORD:for he is an holy God........ {King James Version}

There are 59 verses I found in my Chinese Devotional Bible, telling us our God is holy and He wants us to be holy before Him. I was referring to my Nov18th post [THOUGHT which I have changed to IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE] that we Christians should not bring shame on our LORD. We should make less and lesser offences against the law. Incidentally, this morning this thought came to me. I was reminded of a sermon I heard in the GoodTV where the Taiwanese Pastor asked his congregation,"Have you changed?". He was referring to his congregation where a number of them had gone to visit the famous Korean Pastor David Yonggi Cho's church, the Yoido Full Gospel Church (Assemblies of God) and the Prayer Mountain yearly. He told his church members to observe from their daily life, like driving on the road, had they changed from their usual habits. If they still remained the same as before,then they had not grown spiritually. It would then be of no use no matter how many times they had done the pilgrimage to Korea. It is not the matter of you have visited the famous Korean church. It is more important that you have changed spiritually and away from sin. The change must come from within, from our inner body. Once we have the change from within us, then people can see Christ in us.

Yes, may GOD bless you and me too.

Testimony for the Grace of our Lord

With reference to my October 20th post, this morning when I went to the coffee shop to have my breakfast, the smiling sister who operates a mee stall there told me that she had a testimony she wanted to share with me. While she was talking I could see her beaming smiles which was so touching. I was telling myself this is the type of Chrisitan we are lacking in churches nowadays. I was so happy as she showed her joy and she rejoiced in her experience in the walk with the Lord!

She was very worried the other day when there was no customer came to her stall. She phoned her good friend who was a mature Chrisitian. Her friend then prayed for her and reassured her that if there was still no customer to eat at her stall by 3pm, she would buy all the food in her stall. She told me that she was so shocked as all her food was sold out before 3pm after that prayer! Hallelujah. Praise the Lord! Our Lord has shown this newly born again sister He is the God who answered our prayer. Her beaming smile just told how she rejoiced in the Lord. I too was very happy and praise God for He is so faithful.

IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE ?

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

May we remember as we love our Lord, we should make less and lesser offences against the law. The Cross we carry is showing the gentiles we are the followers of Christ and we are honouring Him in our Everyday Life. Christ is so Holy. We should not bring shame on Him. One easiest excuse the gentiles would use is: " You Chirstians are just the same as us, doing things against the law too. What is so different?" Yes, is there any difference?

JESUS replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' Mat22:37

Healing

有些病虽得医治，但因病根没有全然拆毁净尽，所以会再生病。

我们看箴言十五章13节-心中喜乐，面带笑容；心里优愁，灵被损伤。我们再看箴言十七章22节-喜乐的心乃是良药，忧伤的灵使骨枯干。我们又再看箴言十六章24节-良言如同蜂房，使心觉甘甜，使骨得医治。

神的话是有威力的。神说灵被损伤会带来肉体上的病。所以弟兄姐妹若是有骨头痛的症状，就要想到良言如同蜂房，去原谅，饶恕那些令你们不愉快的人时，病就会全然都得医治了。

病会再回来，乃是正常的。就像身上的细菌没有全然消灭， 问题还是会再回来的。

以上取自为何得医治的病会再复发 - 张志雄牧师。

Hold Firm To The Word Of GOD

I received this inspirational email from the AllWorship.com. This passage just hit on my mind and I want all my friends to share. Seems we can use things we observe from our everyday life to practise in our walk with the Lord. We just can learn so many things.

A LESSON LEARNED FROM A BUG

I pulled out of my driveway heading for my mom's and noticed a katydid on my windshield.
This is rare for the area I live in since it is more city than farm or wooded area. For those of you who do not know what a katydid is, it is similar to a grasshopper. It is green but has a flat body whereas the grasshopper has a round body and is more brown colored.
As I accelerated, I noticed the wind was making his body flutter, but the legs were securely attached to the windshield. I was sure he would lose his battle to the wind, but he kept hanging on, body fluttering in the wind. He did this for a couple of miles.
As I slowed down one time, he tried to re-adjust his footing. He released his grip on the windshield with just one leg and it was all over; he was gone.

The wind is our trials.
The windshield is like the word of God.
When we hold on to our "windshield" securely, we are secure.
When things start to settle down, we often loosen our grip on God's word. We start to rely on our strength and understanding rather than staying in God's word. That's when the trials come back and catch us unprepared and the trials drag us away.

If we hold firm to God's word, we will be ready for the trials as they come.
by Mike Stull, Chino, CA

Healing ；病得医治

Remember in my earlier blog I asked why are there Christians fell sick and why are there Christians healed but fell sick again (为什么我们又看到有弟兄姐妹病倒了呢？为什么又有弟兄姐妹病得医治了切又再复发了呢)？
In The Elijah Challenge book of Introduction To The End Time Model Of Evangelism where the author Rev William Lau, who is the founder of The Elijah Challenge Ministry, said evil spirits, including those which cause infirmities, may attempt to return to afflict the person who has been healed. In such cases, the person may feel the symptoms returning, or resurface in another part of his body. The person should repent and receive Jesus, live a life of obedience, and fill his "house" with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are referred to the Gospel of Luke11:24-26 and Gospel of John5:14
Christians should be obedient to follow the teaching of Christ Jesus and seek God steadfastly so that one is "sanctified" and there is no opening for the evil spirit or the spirit of infirmity to enter into the "body".

Hold On To GOD

Wow, it's Sunday today. We rejoiced in the church to receive God's Word.

Today my church Pastor preached on the subject of Hold On To God and do not look back anymore. We were referred to Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 19 to 39 and also Chapter 12 verse 5. We were saved by Christ and through Christ we can come near to God and call Him Abba Father. Jesus Christ helps us to be able to come near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. We should then hold fast to the hope promised as our God is a faithful God. Then in the body of Christ we should consider one another to love each other that the Agape Love of God is manifested through us to the world. However, a number of people after being saved still continue to sin. This deliberately continue to sin would bring the severe punishment from God as we have treated unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctified us and also have insulted the Spirit of grace. We should remember it is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living God for He said,"It is mine to avenge; I will repay." It is not easy to be a Christian but is a joy to be a Christian; a true follower of Christ would testify to this! Paul said, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." To win that prize, we have to be faithful in suffering and courageous in endurance to press on toward the goal. God bless you.