Strike

Background: Here's an episode from Elisha's life. He asked the king of Israel Jehoash, to bring his bow and arrow with him and shoot out the east window. Then a strange test, Elisha asked the king to take the arrows and strike the ground. "He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."

Lesson: Elisha was disappointed and rather angry with the king of Israel, to have not shown diligence in striking the ground. The enemy is not a friend. We've got to have passion for the victory-My prize is to see all my loved ones entering into the kingdom of God, young and old. Jesus wanted His home in heaven filled with All of His loved ones, and for that cause, He diligently persevered and didn't dilly dally in making the utmost sacrifice, a filthy rag like me should have never deserved. How desperately do I love my loved ones to be so moved that I sincerely did something about it.

An episode from my life-My brother Abraham, had been sidetracked for a long number of years, did all the things wrong that we could have possibly thought of. Whenever I went home from college for my summer vacations, I would be broken hearted to see the amount of pain my parents were going through because of his behaviour. In my final year in June when I went home I was soooooooo agitated by the entire atmosphere at home, I couldn't stand it any longer. For the first time in my life, I felt indignation rise up inside of me against the evil one trying to take away my brother, and I prayed the longest and most sincere prayer I had ever prayed with tears and longing and agonising, with my parents. From that day on I continued to pray for my brother every day, with my best friend Mary, at college. Then in October, my brother called me at college (he had never talked to me properly before that) and the first thing he said was "I want you to pray for me right now". Now in our hostel the phone would be in a common area where everyone would come and hang out, I felt awkward but I wasn't going to let go of the opportunity I had found. I prayed. My brother listened quietly on the other end, without so much as a word. At the end of the prayer, he said "I am feeling so much better now". By the end of that year in December my brother went for a Holy Convocation through our church and was baptised in water and gave his life to the Lord. I met him on the 31st of December and my heart was sooooooooo overjoyed to meet him, like having a brand new brother. Beautiful, peaceful, humble, loving caring, wanting to share of God's love. Now during his wayward days, he had destroyed his career and after 5 yrs from that incident, God has blessed him with a wonderful job now and he is doing so well. He recently received an award for being a good employee, in the 1st month of his work!!!

Yes I struck the arrow 1 time, 2 times and definitely 3 times like the Israelite king and I was going to give up, when I read this chapter from 2 Kings 13 and God's Word encouraged me, not to give in like the king did and to keep on striking the enemy with the sword of the Word of God until he is completely destroyed.

Conclusion: I encourage you my brother my sister, to not give up, but to keep on. If we've become luke warm, lets ask the Lord to ignite the fire of Holy desire in our hearts, that we may win souls into the kingdom of God, no matter how difficult the situation may look, we've got a Saviour Who can sympathise with us, because He has been there and He never gave up, even when I didn't deserve it, he went ahead and hung on the cross for me. Let's take up our crosses, for His yoke is easy, let's work with passion for the one thing that pleases God, to be united with His loved ones. Us and our families. God's family.

The Essence of Giving Thanks

26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.
Matthew 26:25-27

Jesus our Lord never asked us to ever do something He didn't show us to do, while He was on earth.

Jesus had been talking to His disciples, sort of giving His final words to them,"1When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2"As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." . Jesus knew what was to happen to Him later. (Mt 26:1,2)
He knew He was going to be betrayed-20When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." (Mt 26:20-21)
Jesus knew, this upcoming event of His life was going to be the most painful, so much so He even asked Heavenly Father if this cup could be passed(Mt 26:39). It meant being refused by the Father in Heaven even to the point that, Jesus cried out to His Father "Why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46

I asked myself, how could Jesus give thanks for His body which was to be broken and His blood which was to be shed, in the most gruesome event in history. This revelation from the life of our Lord Jesus, opened my eyes to see my folly, my narrow mindedness and helped me to see how much Jesus went through with thanksgiving, knowing that was God's will for His life.

I encourage you this day, my readers, this thanksgiving and always to "18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" Like our Lord Jesus did, knowing it was God's will for His life.
1 Thessalonians 5:17-19

A Song in Praise

David, a man who went through so many troubles, so many hardships, family problems, enemy problems, sin, sons fighting among themselves, sons misbehaving with their sisters, people who were not faithful to him for the care he showed to them when they were in trouble...well and so many more. This kind of a man, writes a song to the Living God

He said: "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn [a] of my salvation.

He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent men you save me.
4 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
5 "The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
6 The cords of the grave [b] coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
7 In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God.

From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.
8 "The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens [c] shook;

they trembled because he was angry.
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared [d] on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark [e] rain clouds of the sky.
13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.
14 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
15 He shot arrows and scattered the enemies , bolts of lightning and routed them.
16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare

at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 "He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 "The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God.
23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.
24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.
25 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness [f] in his sight.
26 "To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.
29 You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light.
30 With your help I can advance against a troop [g] ;with my God I can scale a wall.
31 "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
32 For who is God besides the LORD ? And who is the Rock except our God?
33 It is God who arms me with strength [h] and makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great.
37 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
38 "I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.
40 You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet.
41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.
42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the LORD, but he did not answer.
43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
44 "You have delivered me from the attacks of my people; you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know are subject to me,
45 and foreigners come cringing to me; as soon as they hear me, they obey me.
46 They all lose heart; they come trembling [i] from their strongholds.
47 "The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!
48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me,
49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me.
50 Therefore I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name.
51 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,

to David and his descendants forever."

This poem that David wrote is so uplifting. There are times when you feel there is no help, the situation seems overwhelming. It may not be a problem caused by the outside forces, it may be something my own inability or failure might have stirred up, but God remains faithful. That does not mean we take advantage of God's goodness, but it means to give ourselves to Him totally that He may set everything right.

A young boy was building a kite, he did not know how it works but he just wanted to make one. He had all the items needed, his dad asked him if he needed help, he said "No". The boy did make something, though it was not a kite and it was all messed up. His dad waited and watched by his side as the boy continued to try to fix it. Finally he could not. He turned to his dad and asked his dad if he could help. Of course by this time, the material was over, the kite was torn, the wires and stuff all entangled. Dad patiently yet, helped the boy and untagled everything one by one, patched up the work, got some new material and made the kite a kite. It wouldn't have had that many patches if the boy had asked his dad for help in the first place isn't. I am sometimes like that boy, trying to do things on my own, thinking that I could make it work better, but the One Daddy who watches from heaven is the one who really has a clear idea of what I am at and how it'll work out.

Let's learn to trust our Living Heavenly Father with "every " issue of our life, "every endeavour" we may ever take up and let Him make things work together for our good. He knows, even when we didn't. No matter how trivial the thing may seem, lets give it to our daddy to guide us and help us do it right, the first time. That saves a lot of potential patches the end result would have.

God Bless

Headed for Worship

So David was running away from his son Absalom who was trying to kill him, however the good thing is David reached where he was headed. I was amazed to know the place where David was headed, when disaster struck him," 32 ..David arrived at the summit, where people used to worship God..."(2Samuel 15:32) David was headed towards a worship ground and made it there. Its difficult to be able to reach a place of worship when you're not in a mood to worship, nothing around you seems like you can worship about, but I guess this is the key point the whole Bible resounds. Worshipping God, when life's situations are pressing in on you is a powerful thing. No wonder there are so many examples in the Bible where when God's people were tested or were in trial, they headed for worship and the most amazing thing was, none of them returned a failure from that place of worship, all of God's people who entered into worship during their troubled times were victorious, they came out stronger than they had gone in, they came out maturer from the lessons they learnt in worshipping God during their troubled, they came out more blessed. You want to see!!!
Here they are

1. Strength for facing any situation in the worship place-When Abraham was supposed to take Isaac for sacrifice, here's what he said-Genesis 22:5He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
2. Freedom from slavery of any kind is at the worship place-When the Israelites were in slavery and cried out to God, their first destination towards freedom was to go to the desert and worship God-"Exodus 3:12And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
3. Getting blessed at the worship place-When Hannah wasnt having a baby, they were at a worship place when she asked God for Samuel-" Year after year this man(Elkanah) went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh....Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. " Then Hannah prayed and asked God in the house of worship.."In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD."(1 Samuel 1) and her prayer was answered and thats how we got a powerful man of God and prophet Samuel.
4. Seeking God in worship-The Ethiopian who wanted to know God had gone to a place of worship before God's person came to meet him on his way-"Acts 8:27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship"
5. Getting directions through worship-Jesus disciples got answer for further direction when they were in worship-Acts 13:2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

The Word of God is full of examples from lives of people who found strength, hope and power in worshipping God, when the situation didnt exhort them to worship. Worshipping God when everything is fine, is easy however the real power of worship can truly be experienced when situation doesn't look like you could worship. Thats when our soul finds total dependence on the Living God, knowing thay only He can fix everything. Remember when Paul and the rest were imprisoned for preaching and were in the jail, they started worshipping and singing and the doors of the jail broke off. Thats the power of worship, when we're tied up. Hebrews 1:6And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him." Isn't it our call to worship our Living God.Hebrews 12:28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,"
So let us worship...Philippians 4:6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Its not that these people were going through an easy time when they were headed for worship, but let our requests be made known to God,"WITH THANKSGIVING"
Let us head for worship and receive the power that God has kept for us.