Possible with God

 Possible with God

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16)

God has a people in every people group in the world. He will call them through the gospel with Creator power. And they will believe! What a power is in these words for overcoming discouragement in the hard places of the frontiers!

The story of Peter Cameron Scott is a good illustration. Born in Glasgow in 1867, Scott became the founder of the Africa Inland Mission. But his beginnings in Africa were anything but auspicious.

His first trip to Africa ended in a severe attack of malaria that sent him home. He resolved to return after he recuperated. This return was especially gratifying to him because this time his brother John joined him. But before long, John was struck down by fever.

All alone, Peter buried his brother in African soil, and in the agony of those days recommitted himself to preach the gospel in Africa. Yet his health gave way again, and he had to return to England.

How would he ever pull out of the desolation and depression of those days? He had pledged himself to God. But where could he find the strength to go back to Africa? With man it was impossible!

He found strength in Westminster Abbey. David Livingstone’s tomb is still there. Scott entered quietly, found the tomb, and knelt in front of it to pray. The inscription reads:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING.

He rose from his knees with a new hope. He returned to Africa. And today, over a hundred years later, the mission he founded is a vibrant, growing force for the gospel in Africa.

If your greatest joy is to experience the infilling grace of God overflowing from you for the good of others, then the best news in all the world is that God will do the impossible through you for the salvation of the unreached peoples.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 26, 2026.

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING FINDING FAVOR WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "Then the angel said to her, " Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God." (Luke 1 vs 30.)

READ: Luke 1 vs 27 - 30:

1:27: To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

1:28: And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

1:29: And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

1:30: And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

1:31: And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

1:32: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

1:33: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

INTIMATION:

Favor is kindness, approval, friendly reward from a superior, a kind action, or a grace given by a giver. Therefore, to find favor with God is to have His approval or grace. It is

to experience His divine approval, unmerited grace, and active delight in a person's life. 

Like grace and mercy, favor is a gift from God rather than something humans can force or manipulate. It is not a commodity to be earned through perfection, but a spiritual posture of relationship, trust, and alignment with God's Will, and is given entirely at His initiative because He delights in the receiver. 

It is noteworthy that finding favor with God does not automatically bring instant success or fame, but it eventually ends in glory on the part of the receiver. Having God's favor does not mean a life free of pain or difficulty (as seen with biblical figures like Joseph or Moses); rather, it means God's presence and purpose to remain active through the struggle.

Joseph experienced God's tangible presence and promotion even while facing betrayal and imprisonment in his journey of life. But it eventually led to the glorious position he held as a prime minister in a foreign land, and the birth of the nation of Israel as purposed by God. 

Now, in the passage we read today, Mary found favor with God. However, His blessing on Mary; the honor of being the mother of the Messiah, would initially lead to much pain such as her being ridiculed of pregnancy outside wedlock, her fiance would come close to leaving her, her son would be rejected and murdered. But through her son would come the world's only hope, and this is why Mary has been praised by countless generations. Her submission to the favor and Will of God was part of God's plan to bring about salvation. 

The Angel Gabriel announced that Mary was favored among all women because she was chosen by God to give birth to the incarnate Son of God. At this time, however, Mary didn't understand all that was happening, nor did she understand that she was selected by God to bring the Messiah and Son of God into the world. 

Mary was chosen by God to be the means by which the Son of God would be incarnate in the flesh of man. She was not chosen because of any special holiness or good works on her part. There were many young women of her time who had the same spiritual qualities. It was only by the grace of God that she was chosen. She didn't earn the right to be chosen for this unique work of God to bring the Redeemer into the world. 

Mary was a young, poor, female at the time she found favor with God, and by human standards, all these characteristics, to the people of her day, would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. But God chose her for one of the most important acts of obedience He has ever demanded of anyone. 

You may feel that your ability, experience, or education makes you an unlikely candidate for God's service, but what is important is God taking pleasure in your heart, choices, and character. Don't limit God's choices. He can use you if you trust Him. 

Are you following God but still suffering or suffering even worse than before? If your life is miserable, don't assume you have fallen out of God's favor. You may be suffering from doing good in an evil world. If sorrow weighs you down and dims your hope, think of Mary and wait patiently for God to finish working out His plan. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to find favor with You, for I know with it comes a my glorious end for me, that would be in accord with Your predetermined purpose for my life, in Jesus' name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Medicine for the Missionary

 Medicine for the Missionary

“All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Sovereign grace is the spring of life for the Christian Hedonist. For what the Christian Hedonist loves best is the experience of the sovereign grace of God filling him, and overflowing for the good of others.

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God (1 Corinthians 3:7; Romans 11:36).

They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own. Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Romans 15:18).

“All things are possible with God!” — in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and the antidote to pride — the perfect missionary medicine.

The Great Missionary Hope

 The Great Missionary Hope

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)

The great missionary hope is that when the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God himself does what man cannot do: he creates the faith that saves. The call of God does what the call of man can’t. It raises the dead. It creates spiritual life. It is like the call of Jesus to Lazarus in the tomb, “Come out!” And the dead man obeyed and came out. The call created the obedience by creating life (John 11:43). That is how anyone is saved.

We can waken someone from sleep with our call, but God’s call can summon into being things that are not (Romans 4:17). God’s call is irresistible in the sense that it can overcome all resistance. It is infallibly effective according to God’s purpose — so much so that Paul can say, “Those whom [God] called he also justified” (Romans 8:30), even though we are only justified by our faith.

In other words, God’s call is so effectual that it infallibly creates the faith through which a person is justified. All the called are justified according to Romans 8:30. But none is justified without faith (Romans 5:1). So the call of God cannot fail in its intended effect. It irresistibly brings into being the faith that justifies.

This is what man cannot do. It is impossible. Only God can take out the heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). Only God can draw people to the Son (John 6:44, 65). Only God can open the spiritually dead heart so that it gives heed to the gospel (Acts 16:14). Only the Good Shepherd knows his sheep, and calls them by name with such compelling power that they all follow — and never perish (John 10:3–4, 14). 

The sovereign grace of God, doing the humanly impossible, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the great missionary hope.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2026.

SUBJECT: TRUE AND FAITHFUL COMPANIONSHIP WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6 vs 8.)

READ: Deuteronomy 10 vs 12 - 13:

10:12: And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

10:13: and to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command you today for your good?

INTIMATION:

God desires to have constant fellowship with us. He is ready to walk with us; to be our companion, if we can meet His expectations. He is willing to let us be with Him, if we will seek such a relationship; the teacher-mentor kind of companionship. 

God requires five things from us: (1) We must fear God’s awesome Being. (2) We must obediently walk according to His Will. (3) We must respond to Him with love. (4) Our lives must be one of service for His glory. (5) We must know and obey His commandments. Compliance with all that God requires results in our well-being on earth among ourselves, and our fellowship with God. 

There are four major ingredients for a relationship that would be described as a true and faithful companionship. These are: (1) Agreement, (2) Experience, (3) Conversation, and (4) Learning, and these are required in our companionship with God. 

The first is ‘Agreement.’ The Scripture states clearly thus: "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?"(Amos 3 vs 3.) You have to want to spend time together. This is God’s heart desire. He tells us in many different ways in His Word that He desires to be with us. Jesus said to us, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11 vs 28 - 30.)

The second is ‘Experience.’ You would share experiences together because you are together by definition. One of the special privileges we have as believers is sharing our heart with God and in turn learning more about His heart toward us and others. We get to see His overwhelming goodness, infinite patience, unchanging love, and unending mercies, as we study the Word. The Holy Spirit makes the Word come alive in our hearts and points things out from it that are specifically for us and our situations. 

The third ingredient is ‘Conversation.’ There should be conversation (fellowship) between you and God through prayers. Not just one way, but rather you wait to hear from Him. When you are with someone who monopolizes a conversation, or who does not let you talk, but only wants you to listen, you feel uneasy, dominated, and useless in the conversation. You may feel your opinion matters little since it is rarely sought.

Almost all the times we are guilty of doing this to God: We rush into His presence with our "want" list and then, in essence, after presenting our requests and/or complaints, we close the time with Him with, "In Jesus' name, Amen." No time to get His input, no time to seek His advice. Only a time to "dump" on Him. The apostle Peter advised us to give the Lord all our burdens and cares (First Peter 5 vs 7). Yes, we are to present our anxieties to Him, but then, we should wait for His response.

The fourth ingredient is ‘Learning.’ Learning from the “Superior Partner”—God. When we spend time with God, we would come to appreciate Him more as we get to know Him better. We become more relaxed in His presence. When we learn from Him, we understand ourselves better; our strengths and weaknesses, how to emphasize or overcome them, why we do things the way we do, how to change our negative responses, and the like. We also learn much about others and how better to interact with them, showing forth all the fruit of the Spirit.

Somebody will quickly ask, 'How do we hear from God or learn from Him?' He speaks to us through His Word—the Bible. God is the same with His Word. As we study we hear Him speak to us by understanding His opinion contained in His Word, thereby learn more about Him. In the course of your spiritual development, God can speak to you in a vision, through others, or even in audible voice.

God is ready to be our true and faithful companion. He is willing to let us be with Him, if we will seek such a relationship. And it is to our utmost benefit because walking with Him frees us from all burdens, and gives us rest. A relationship with God changes meaningless, worrisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose. 

Companionship with God is a shared relationship with weight falling on the bigger shoulders of God than ours. We have someone with more pulling power upfront helping. Consequently, you are participating in life’s responsibilities with a greater Partner. Consequently, the frown can turn into a smile, and the gripe into a song.

Prayer: Abba Father, I crave for Your faithful and effective companionship. Endue me with the spirit of obedience and undying fellowship with You, that I will walk in accordance with Your precepts, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Christ Is Like Sunlight

 Christ Is Like Sunlight

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. (Hebrews 1:3)

Jesus relates to God the way radiance relates to glory, or the way the rays of sunlight relate to the sun. 

Keep in mind that every analogy between God and natural things is imperfect and will distort if you press it. Nevertheless, consider for example,

There is no time that the sun exists without the beams of radiance. They cannot be separated. The radiance is co-eternal with the glory. Christ is co-eternal with God the Father.

The radiance is the glory radiating out. It is not essentially different from the glory. Christ is God standing forth as separate but not essentially different from the Father.

Thus the radiance is eternally begotten, as it were, by the glory — not created or made. If you put a solar-activated calculator in the sunlight, numbers appear on the face of the calculator. These, you could say, are created or made by the sun, but they are not what the sun is. But the rays of the sun are an extension of the sun. So Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, but not made or created.

We see the sun by means of seeing the rays of the sun. So we see God the Father by seeing Jesus. The rays of the sun arrive here about eight minutes after they leave the sun, and the round ball of fire that we see in the sky is the image — the exact representation — of the sun; not because it is a painting of the sun, but because it is the sun streaming forth in its radiance.

So I commend this great Person to you that you might trust in him and love him and worship him. He is alive and sitting at the right hand of God with all power and authority and will one day come in great glory. He has that exalted place because he is himself God the Son, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2026.

SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN LOVE! 

Memory verse: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13 vs 34.)

READ: First Corinthians 13 vs 1 - 8:

13:1: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

13:2: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

13:3: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

13:4: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

13:5: does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

13:6: does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

13:7: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8: Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

INTIMATION:

Christian love has God for its primary object, and expresses itself first in implicit obedience to His commandments (John 14 vs 15, 21). Self-will, that is, self-pleasing, is the negation of love to God. Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. It is an unselfish love, ready to serve.

Love can be known only from the actions it prompts. For instance, God’s love is seen in the gift of His Son; “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (First John 4 vs 9 - 10.) But obviously this is not the love of complacency, or affection, that is, it was not drawn out by any excellency in its objects (Romans 5 vs 8). It was an exercise of the Divine Will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself. 

In respect of love as used for God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects, producing and fostering a reverential love in them towards the Giver, and a practical love towards those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver. 

Christian love seeks the welfare of all (Romans 15 vs 2), and works no ill to any (Romans 13 vs 8 - 10). It seeks opportunity to do good to all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of faith, (Galatians 6 vs 10). Love had its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ (Second Corinthians 5 vs 14; Ephesians 2 vs 4). Christian love is the fruit of the Spirit in the Christian (Galatians 5 vs 22). 

Jesus says that if we truly love God and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the commandments. The best tact to deal with this is rather than worrying about all we should not do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show love for God and others. After learning to love God, learning to love others is the second purpose of your life. 

We are often preoccupied with our own selves, and act as if relationships are something to be squeezed into our schedule. We think always that we are doing others favor by loving them. But that is wrong, instead we are doing ourselves the favor of walking in the command of God to fulfill His law. We talk about finding time for our children or making time for people in our lives. That gives the impression that relationships are just part of our lives along with many other tasks. But God says relationships are what life is all about. 

Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life. Now that you know this, why will you allow relationships to get the short end of the stick? When our schedules become overloaded and overcrowded, we start skimming relationally, cutting back on giving the time, energy, and attention that loving relationships require. What is most important to God is displaced by what's urgent to you. 

Busyness is the greatest enemy to relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love—love God and people. Life minus love equals zero.

Our society confuses love and lust. Unlike lust, God’s kind of love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is impossible to have this love unless God helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is to live a life hinged on Your greatest commandments—to love You and others. Endue me with the spirit of love, that I may be worthy to be called Your Son, in Jesus’ Name I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!