The P&S model.

Acts 16: 22-34 recounts the scourging and imprisonment of Paul and Silas. I believe that this "unfortunate" occurrence could have been prevented; The Lord could have just whisked them away, just as He did for Philip, or He could have frozen time and let them out of the jail just like He did for Peter. However, this was not the case. He allowed His servants to be flogged and dumped in a jail for doing what He had sent them to do!!

As depressing as the situation may be, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God. Despite all of these, the ending of this account showed us the purpose of all this suffering - souls were saved. Through Paul and Silas' pain, the jailer, together with his whole household (of which a number was not stated), were brought to know the Lord. A soul is indeed priceless.

We have complained and sobbed over our presumed "predicaments" for too long. God sees and has a purpose/reason for allowing it to occur. Like Paul and Silas let us  "pray and sing hymns" in the expectation of the fulfillment of God's perfect plan. This time around, it might be the salvation of a city or nation or the strengthening and deepening of our faith and dependance on Him.

Lessons from the Centurion- Matthew 8: 5-17

• He had a heart of love and compassion to the extent that he went out of his way to seek Jesus, to heal his servant. This was a man of great authority with lots of servants, I presume.
• He was a man of understanding in the Lord and thus a man of great faith. He was not a man who looked at Jesus' works from the face level. He possessed an in depth understanding of what it meant to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord.
• He did not bring His mundane achievements before the Lord, but humbled himself at Jesus' feet, acknowledging that his position, achievements and authority were nothing before the Lord.

"heart-search"

Paul and Silas were prevented twice, from going to their desired venue, to preach the gospel. This time, this was not done by the devil, but by God Himself. This was because He ( the Lord) had purposed that they go to Macedonia. I believe that in those times of disappointment, Paul and Silas would have been frustrated. However, so far we have committed our ways to the Lord, we must remain in His will.

Sometimes our plans don't work the way we would have liked them to. However, the Lord calls us to trust in Him and fully avail ourselves to His will. He tells us in John 15: 18-21, that we are not of this world because He has chosen us out of this world. We must understand that we live by His rules and not ours, or those of the world. I think its hard for us to accept this sometimes because everything around us lives in tandem with the rules of the world. This brings me to recall the scripture where the Lord commands us to set our hearts on things above and not on things of this world. The question I believe we need to ask ourselves in times of disappointment is: " why am I really disappointed?". If we believe that God runs our lives, then we should still have smiles on our faces. Today, let us dive deep into ourselves and search our hearts.

The divine vision

I believe one of the obstacles in our lives today as Christians is our vision. We have set our vision on mundane achievements such that our whole bodies have become corrupted with the "darkness" that it brings. The demands of society, family and friends have moulded our goals and mindsets, deviating them from the divine goal. In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus tackles an age old issue which is extremely relevant today; the desire for worldly treasure. He ends His speech, with a very poignant comment: " You cannot serve both God and money"

Today the Lord is drawing our minds to the fact that our motivation/drive in this life, should be the attainment of heavenly treasures - eternal life, relationship with the Father, the Kingdom of God... etc. We live in the world, but we are not of it. May our hearts be set on the treasures of heaven.

the worship closet(3)

Today in the worship closet, Marvin Sapp leads us to worship with his song, "You are God alone". The lyrics of this song seems to reflect the words of King David in his psalms and tends to give a picturesque view of the awesomeness of our God. May the passion and desire vividly expressed by Marvin in this video become ours as well, as we partake in this song and not just view it.

Enjoy His presence.

 

His love never fails.

We seem to forget so easily the love of God for our lives. That is the reason for our doubt and questioning of His love, in times of difficulty. It is imperative that we continue to keep our minds fully inundated with the love of God, understanding that He loves us to the maximum level (if it can be measured), that what we do will not let Him love us more or less. There is no threshold to His love but He loves us completely. We can achieve this mindset, but remembering and pondering on the situations He has brought us through and the needs He has provided. Today, let us slip into our life's history and take note of all He has done, to serve as encouragement to us, that His love never fails.