Word2U: 2008-12-21

Reaons to Hope

23 December 2008

' Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times' Rom 12:12

When a man named Saul met Jesus in a blinding light, his life was never the same again. He went from persecutor to encourager, from arrogance to humble preacher, from self-sufficient to reliant on God. One other remarkable change that took place in his life is that instead of fixing his eyes on the past, he now looked to the future with great sense of hope (Phil 3:13-14)

Some of the compelling reasons that Paul has the hope even in the midst of adversity include:

- God forgives us: 'since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God. When we are at peace with God, the future is always bright irrespective of the circumstances around us.

- God favours us: He shows His great love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We do not have to crawl to Him and beg Him to help us with our problems. He is absolutely thinking of us

- God turns our suffering into hope: 'We also have the joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope..(Rom 5:3-4) With God at work in our lives, the very trials that could crush our spirit actually make our hope even stronger.

- God helps us when we are weak: One of the reasons we feel hopeless is that we just do not believe we have what it takes to overcome challenges. Not to worry, says God, I'll do it for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Hope keeps you youthful, optimistic, and joyful.

Just as You Are

22 December 2008

' But Moses said to the Lord, " Please Lord, I have never been a skilled speaker. Even Now, after talking to you, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and cannot find the best words' Exo 4-10

We live in a world that the best athletic, the best looking, and the most near perfect get noticed. Many of us question our own abilities and are fearful to fail and move forward.

One of the greatest leaders in all history, Moses, had the same hang-up. When God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, Moses was full of excuses.

But when Moses trusted God and stepped out from his comfort zone and moved in faith and obedience, he was able to accomplish much. God is his enabler and fulfilled His promise that he will help him to speak and teach him on what to say. (Exo 4:12)

Yes, we need to strive for excellence in our lives. We need to continually improve ourselves. But we should not forget that God gives us things to accomplish that are beyond our abilities and can use us no matter what it seems to standing the way.

No matter how much work you think you need right now, be assured that God can use you just as you are.

Take us back to the Heart of Worship

21 December 2008

' He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. ' Mal 3:3

The quality of our worship is not based on activities, the quality of our music or the songs that we sing but on our character. Churches mistakenly assume that it has to do with the impressiveness of the building, the sound system and the eloquence of the preaching.

Genuine worship originates from the heart and if our relationship with God is not healthy, all these things are nothing more than religious pageantry.

The Levites were the worship leaders of their day and their task was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. Before they could even perform these tasks, God has to refine them, purging them of any impurities.

Merely being members of the religious profession or having special positions in the religious institution did not guarantee their religious activities would be acceptable to the Holy God.
Today, we tend to look to external things to enhance our worship but the quality of true worship rests in us. Attending a religious service will not automatically ensure an encounter with God.

Church leaders should not hide behind the religious walls and every child of God must allow God to refine their heart until it is pleasing to Him.

If you want career success - Stop Running from your purpose

The main principle to career success is one that many of us will have to learn the hard way. In fact, initially upon reading the title you may have wondered why you would want to run from your purpose. That is a good question. The truth is that we all have dreams and goals. I like to think that God places dreams in our hearts as a path to serve Him and others. However, some of us will never realize those dreams until we realize a very important truth: God’s ways of fulfilling those dreams may be very different from how we would fulfill our dreams if everything were left solely up to us.
Many times, as our dreams grow dimmer over the years, we, too, may begin to wonder how our current circumstances - our present job, our current boss, our career, our employer - are remotely connected with what we might have thought we were supposed to be doing in life. We look around us and say, “This can’t be right, my purpose isn’t this, I’m supposed to be doing ________.”
However we may fill in the blank, the result is the same. We come to a crossroad that is a test of faith when the dream we believe God placed in our hearts doesn’t line up with our current situation. For many of us, that is when we begin to run from our purpose and sabotage our career success.
The subtle truth is that we are often unaware that we are actually running from our purpose. We may even talk ourselves into believing that we are actually running toward it. This is how it works: We have an idea of what our dream job or dream career is supposed to be, and we then proceed to do everything that is humanly possible to achieve it. Of course, some glitch always gets in the way, and we work hard to either remove the glitch or to get around it.
But then, some other barrier pops up, and we do our best to beat it down or push it aside, all the while using up years of energy, emotion, knowledge and power to get this dream to work out our way. But when it doesn’t, we become frustrated, and we wonder what else we need to do to move our career along. We toil and toil and may have a few successes, but even those aren’t what we thought they would be. How does this fit in with career success? When we begin to see our present circumstances as divinely planned by God, we approach those circumstances differently.
You may be in a position today that isn’t the exact job that you want to spend your life doing. That’s OK. However, don¹t make everyone around you suffer by being bitter or having a negative attitude simply because you believe that you are supposed to be doing something else. Instead, accept the fact that there are aspects to your job that may prove in the years ahead to have been very valuable to you. Are you learning to be more detailed? Is it a chance to become better at building relationships? Or maybe you have a need to learn patience to wait on God¹s timing. No matter what the situation may be, it’s all for your good. Stop running from what can be used by God to prepare you for His purpose for your life.
Jesus did not enter into full-time ministry until He was 30 years old. However, from the very beginning, He knew what God’s purpose was for His life. While on a trip with his parents when He was only 12 years old, He was unknowingly left behind because he had been busy teaching and discussing deep spiritual matters with the leaders of His time. I’m sure that part of Him was anxious to get started with the purpose for His life. However, when His mother questioned Him about why He had remained behind to talk when it was time to return home, He dutifully returned with His family and began learning the skills of a carpenter. It would have been easy for Him to ask, “What on earth am I going to need to know how to do this for?” But instead, He became an expert carpenter and worked diligently serving His customers until it was time for His ministry to begin.
What about you? Are you viewing your current position as a part of God¹s plan for your life at this time? Or are you still debating whether it could possibly be something that escaped God’s attention? One of the best truths every written is found in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
This tells us that when we are in a relationship with God, He calls us to something specific that is meeting a specific purpose. It also tells us that everything will work together for good. This doesn’t mean that each single event will look good to us. Each job that we have may not in and of itself seem good to us. But what we are assured of is the fact that at the end of the day, when it¹s all said and done, everything will work out for good. Not only will it work out for our good but also for the good of anyone else whom God chooses to involve who are also called according to His purpose.
What this also points out is that it’s not all about us. Instead, it’s all about God. How He wants to use our lives and our jobs or careers will be a blessing to us, but it will also be a blessing to others, as well. Think as if you were viewing a really great classic film and in the middle of it the main character began to go through some difficulties; you wouldn’t jump up, leave the movie, and say, “I have seen enough, this movie isn’t going the way I think it should.” No, it’s more likely that you would stay glued to your seat, wondering how on earth the character was going to get through that plot twist, and remain until you saw how it all worked out.
Well the truth of the matter is that we don’t have a choice when it comes to the purpose God has planned for us. We may try to run from it, and we may think we have even succeeded for a while, but all we will have really done is taken the scenic route to the place God wants us to be. And it will be the place we will want to be once we get a grip and realize that it’s all good

Realising Your Dreams

No matter where you are in your life... The life of a dream is no different than the life of a Christian. A dream is born, it grows, it matures, but ultimately it must die, be buried, and return to its creator before it can truly realize its full glory and potential. There is always a time in my life when my dream was in the stages of death, burial, and submission to God. I took great comfort in knowing that when I submit my dream to God, when I truly let it go and return it to my creator, it will bloom forth like a flower in the desert. If you have a dream, but it seems that your dream cannot be fully realized -- if you are frustrated or discouraged and feel that your dream is withering -- You will discover what Jesus said, “unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone -- but if it dies and is buried, it will bring forth much fruit.” Give your dream to God. Return your dream to its source. Let it die and be buried in the rich soil of God's fertile field. You will find that by giving your dream to God, it will exceed your wildest dreams. Whatever preconceptions you have about your dream, give them to God. Whatever hopes and ambitions you have for your dream, give them to God. Whatever selfish attachments and aspirations you have for your dream, give them to God. You will discover that your dream cannot flourish by your will or by your efforts. But in the hands of Almighty God, your dream will grow into a mighty and powerful force, greater than you could have ever thought or imagined.

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