DISCOVER WHY YOU WERE CREATED BY GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JULY 04, 2022.

SUBJECT: DISCOVER WHY YOU WERE CREATED BY GOD! 

Memory verse: "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were through him and for Him.” (Colossians 1 vs 16.)

READ: Genesis 1 vs 27 - 28:

1:27: So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

1:28: Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over  every living thing that moves on the earth.

INTIMATION:

Everything, absolutely everything above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank of angels, everything got started in God, and finds its purpose in Him. God has His reasons for creating the world. He has a purpose for creating all that are in the world, and determines the purpose to be served by all He created. All these are tailored to the form and nature of our Creator—our God is a God of purpose. 

To live purposefully in this life, we need to understand why we are created, and brought into this world by the Creator. I am not an accident, as well as you. We are here for a purpose. God brought you into the world for a purpose. Discovering that purpose makes life worth living, and you make the best of life here on earth.

All things in life serve their respective purposes. Manufacturers manufacture their products to serve their intended purposes, developers develop for intended purposes, all productions are for different purposes. And everything manufactured, produced, or developed have their respective guidelines, manuals, and instructions for their use. 

God mandated man, His creation in His own image and after His likeness, to have dominion over all other things He created. And this is the primary, and general purpose to be served by all of us. To have dominion over something is to have absolute authority and control over it. God has ultimate rule over the earth, and He exercises His authority with loving care. God delegated some of His authority to the human race, and expects us to take responsibility for the environment and the other creatures that share our planet. 

To achieve the general purpose God created us all to serve, we are to individually serve our specific purposes predetermined by Him, and it is the individual contributions, and collective responsibilities of all of us that culminates into achieving the general purpose for which we are created. The purpose of each and everyone of us toward achieving this goal is determined by God Himself. In Jeremiah 10 vs 23 the Bible says; "...The way of man is not in himself, it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." 

The quest for the purpose of life for everyone of us has puzzled many for thousands of years. This is because we typically begin at the wrong starting point—ourselves. We usually ask self-centered questions like; "What do I want to be?" "What should I do with my life?" "What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future?" But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life's purpose. Our Owner, our Creator, created us for a purpose, that is, His purpose. Therefore, if you want to know why you were placed on this earth, you must begin your quest with God. 

All we are, and our purposes in life are in God's hand. Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won't discover your life's purpose looking within yourself. You didn't create yourself, and as such there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created to do! If you are handed over an invention you have never seen before, you wouldn't know its purpose, and the invention itself wouldn't be able to tell you either. Only the creator or the owner's manual could reveal its purpose.

We cannot arrive at our purpose by starting with a focus on ourselves. We must begin with God, our Creator. We exist only because God wills that we exist. We were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.

The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it directly, or refer to the owner's manual. The same is true for discovering your life's purpose; Ask God—your Maker, or refer to the Owner's Manual—the Bible. The discovery is by revelations inherent in the Word of God. He has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed His purposes for our lives in the Bible. It tells us why we are alive, how life works, how the owner of life governs it, what to do, what to avoid, and what to expect now, and in the future. And it is only in Him, and His manual you can find these answers.

Many books have been written that suggests ways to discover the purpose of your life. All of them are classified as "self-help" books because they all approached the subject from a self-centered viewpoint, and predictable steps to finding your life's purpose. Some of the steps offered by these books are titled; ‘Consider your dreams.’ ‘Clarify your values.’ ‘Set some goals.’ ‘Figure out what you are good at.’ ‘Aim high.’ ‘Go for it!’ ‘Be disciplined.’ ‘Believe you can achieve your goals.’ ‘Involve others.’ ‘Never give up.’

Of course, these recommendations often lead to great success. You can usually succeed in reaching a goal if you apply yourself to it. But “being successful,” and “fulfilling your life's purpose,” are not, at all, the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals, and achieve your set objectives, becoming a star, or a raving success by the world's standard, and still miss the purpose for which God created you. You need more than self-help advice. 

God created you for a purpose, and determines how that purpose will be served and achieved by you. All these He wrought when you are yet unformed. Knowing that in Him all knowledge of you is hidden, why then do you seek your purpose in life outside of Him. Go to Him, and you will discover the purpose of your creation.

Prayer: Abba Father, in You I live, and move, and have my being. Help me discover my purpose on earth which is imbedded in the knowledge of You and Your Will. Give me the spirit of wisdom and knowledge of You, that Your grace and peace will be multiplied unto me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Good News: God Is Happy

 

. . . the gospel of the glory of the blessed God . . . (1 Timothy 1:11)

This is a beautiful phrase in 1 Timothy, buried beneath the too-familiar surface of Bible buzzwords. But after you dig it up, it sounds like this: “the good news of the glory of the happy God.” The word “blessed” is not the one that means “praised,” but the one that means “happy.”

A great part of God’s glory is his happiness.

It was inconceivable to the apostle Paul that God could be denied infinite joy and still be all-glorious. To be infinitely glorious was to be infinitely happy. He used the phrase, “the glory of the happy God,” because it is a glorious thing for God to be happy the way he is.

God’s glory consists much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination. As the great eighteenth-century preacher, Jonathan Edwards, said, “Part of God’s fullness which he communicates is his happiness. This happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in himself; so does also the creature’s happiness.”

And this is a key part of the gospel, Paul says: “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.” It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with a gloomy, unhappy God.

If God is unhappy, then the goal of the gospel — to be with God forever — is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all. But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Jesus spoke, and lived, and died that his joy — God’s joy — might be in us and our joy might be full. Therefore, the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 03, 2022.

SUBJECT: YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT! 

Memory verse: "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings." (Acts 17 vs 26.)

READ: Psalm 139 vs 13 - 16:

139:13: For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 

139:14: I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

139:15: My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 

139:16: Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the day's fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

INTIMATION:

You are not an accident. Your birth was not a mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned for you, but God did. Long before your conception in your mother's womb, God had already conceived you in His mind. He is the "Alpha" - the very beginning. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, not luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. The days fashioned for you is already written in His Book, and only Him will conditionally fulfill the number of those your days (Exodus 23 vs 25). 

Every single detail of your body is by God's prescription. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. Your body is made according to His needs of you, and impacts you with the natural talents you would possess and the uniqueness of your personality. Because God made you for a reason, He also decided when you would be born and how long you would live. God also planned where you would be born and where you would live for His purpose. Your race and nationality are no accident. God left no detail to chance. He planned it all for His purpose.

Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It's all for a purpose predetermined by the Owner—God! Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you. It doesn't matter whether your parents are good, bad, or indifferent. While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children. Many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by God the Creator. God's purpose even took into account human error, and even sin.

Though omnipresent and omniscient, God is mindful of every individual of His creation. In the passage we read today, the psalmist was concerned that our understanding of the awesomeness of God might lead us to believe that He is indifferent to the details of His creation, and thus might overlook individuals. 

Remember King David, Bathsheba, and Solomon. David and his son Solomon were Israel's two most famous kings. Bathsheba was lover and wife to one—David, and mother to the other—Solomon. Her adultery with David almost brought an end to the family through which God planned to physically enter His world. Out of the ashes of that sin, however, God brought good. Eventuality Jesus Christ, the salvation of mankind, was born to a descendant of David and Bathsheba.

God never does anything accidentally, and He never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything He creates, be it human, animal, or plant. All are designed with a purpose in His mind. The motive of God for creating us was His love. And it was with that same motive He gave us a Savior. 

God’s character goes into the creation of every person. Therefore, you should have as much respect for ourselves as your Maker and Owner has for you. God made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is, and by what He does for us.

Prayer: Abba Father, You own me, and created me for a purpose, show me that path of life predetermined for me by You, that I may walk in it to achieve Your purpose for me, that I may lead a purposeful life to earn Your approval, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How Well Do You Know God?

 

“Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.” (Job 36:26)

It is impossible to know God too well.

He is the most important person who exists. And this is because he made all others, and any importance they have is owing to him.

Any strength or intelligence or skill or beauty that other beings have comes from him. On every scale of excellence, he is infinitely greater than the best person you ever knew or ever heard of.

Being infinite, he is inexhaustibly interesting. It is impossible, therefore, that God be boring. His continual demonstration of the most intelligent and interesting actions is volcanic.

As the source of every good pleasure, he himself pleases fully and finally. If that’s not how we experience him, we are either dead, or blind, or sleepwalking.

It is therefore astonishing how little effort in this world is put into knowing God.

It’s as though the President of the United States came to live with you for a month, and you only said hello in passing every day or so. Or as if you were flown at the speed of light for a couple of hours around the sun and the solar system, and instead of looking out the window, you played a computer game. Or as if you were invited to watch the best actors, singers, athletes, inventors, and scholars perform their best, but you declined to go, so you could watch the TV season’s final soap.

Let us pray together that our infinitely great God would incline our hearts, and open our eyes to see him as fully as we can and seek to know him more.

HEAVEN IS BELIEVERS ETERNAL HOME!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 02, 022.

SUBJECT: HEAVEN IS BELIEVERS ETERNAL HOME!

Memory verse: "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” (First Peter 2 vs 11.)

READ: Hebrews 11 vs 13 - 16:

11:13: These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

11:14: For those that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

11:15: And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

11:16: But now they desire a better, that is, an heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. 

INTIMATION:

Believers are “sojourner sand pilgrims” on this earth because our real home is with God. Believers are residents of the world, but the spiritual expatriates of this world. However, their citizenship is not of this world. Their citizenship (membership) is registered in heaven. Heaven is not the pink-cloud-and-harp existence popular in cartoons. Heaven is where God lives. Life in heaven operates according to God’s principles and values, and it is eternal and unshakable. 

The kingdom of heaven came on earth in the symbolism of the Jewish sanctuary (the tabernacle and temple), where God’s presence dwelt. It came in a fuller way in the person of Jesus Christ “God with us.” It spreads through the entire world as the Holy Spirit came to live in every believer. 

The most damaging act of contemporary living is short-term thinking. To make the most of your life, you must keep eternity continually in your mind and the value of it in your heart. The child of God is a citizen of heaven where the child enjoys the best of life unlimited. The devil is not a citizen of heaven, and cannot access such life hence his effort to drag people to his side of total misery. There is far more to life than just here and now! 

What is it going to be like in eternity with God? Although the details of eternity are unknown, we need not fear because Jesus is preparing for us and will spend eternity with us. There are few verses in Scripture that describe everlasting life, but these few verses are rich with promises.

Frankly, the capacity of of our brains cannot handle the wonder and greatness of life in eternity with Christ. It will be trying to describe the Internet to an ant. He will create a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65 vs 17; Revelation 21 vs 1), and we will live with Him forever. There will be no more death, sickness, lack, want etc. The Bible, in the Book of Revelation chapter 21, reveals the idea of the home God is preparing for His children. Words have not been invented that could adequately convey the experience of eternity.

We know that right now God is preparing an eternal home for us. In heaven, we put on our celestial bodies (Spiritual bodies (First Corinthians 15 vs 40 & 44)), we will be reunited with the loved ones who are believers, released from all pains and suffering, rewarded for our faithfulness on earth, and reassigned to do work that we will enjoy doing. We will enjoy unbroken fellowship with God, and He will enjoy us for forever (unlimited, and endless).

God has a purpose for your life on earth, but it doesn't end here. His plan involves far more than the few decades you will live on earth here. God offers you opportunity to live with him beyond your lifetime on earth. 

It is a common knowledge that the only time people think about eternity is at funerals, and then it's often shallow, and sentimental thinking based on ignorance. Most people feel it's morbid to think about death, but actually it's unhealthy to live in denial of death and not consider what is inevitable. The Bible in Ecclesiastes 7 vs 2, says, "Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart." Only a fool would go through life unprepared for what we all know will eventually happen. We need to think more about eternity, 

Just as the nine months you spent in your mother's womb were not an end in themselves but preparation for life, so is life on earth, a preparation for life in eternity with God, or without God. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus, you don't need to fear death. It is the door to eternity. It will be the last hour of your time on earth, but certainly not the last of you. Rather than being the end of your life, it will be your birthday into eternal life. 

The Bible says in Hebrews 13 vs 14, "For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come." This world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven. Every moment we spend in this earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus. The time we spend on this earth, if measured against eternity, is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever. This calls for serious caution noting that the deeds of this life are the destiny of the next.

It is therefore, wise to listen to the counsel of most preachers; "Prepare yourself each day in life for eternity, living as if each day is your last day of your life on earth, being ready at all times to meet with your Creator."

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace to lead a life pleasing to You, preparing myself each day in life for eternity, living each day of my life as the last on earth, so that to die will be gain to me because I will live with You in eternity forever, in Jesus’ Name I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

 

God’s Pleasure to Do You Good

 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus will not sit by and let us disbelieve without a fight. He takes up the weapon of the word and speaks it with power for all who struggle to believe.

His aim is to defeat the fear that God is not the kind of God who really wants to be good to us — that he is not really generous and helpful and kind and tender, but is basically irked with us — ill-disposed and angry.

Sometimes, even if we believe in our heads that God is good to us, we may feel in our hearts that his goodness is somehow forced or constrained, perhaps like a judge who has been maneuvered by a clever attorney into a corner on some technicality of court proceeding, so he has to dismiss the charges against the prisoner whom he really would rather send to jail.

But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way about God. He is striving in Luke 12:32 to describe for us the indescribable worth and excellency of God’s soul by showing the unbridled pleasure he takes in giving us the kingdom.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Every little word of this stunning sentence is intended to help take away the fear that Jesus knows we struggle with; namely, that God begrudges his benefits; that he is constrained and out of character when he does nice things; that at bottom he is angry and loves to vent his anger.

Luke 12:32 is a sentence about the nature of God. It’s about the kind of heart God has. It’s a verse about what makes God glad — not merely about what God will do or what he has to do, but what he delights to do, what he loves to do and takes pleasure in doing. Every word counts. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

DEATH IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE IN ETERNITY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JULY 01, 2022.

SUBJECT: DEATH IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE IN ETERNITY! 

Memory verse: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3 vs 11.)

READ: Ecclesiastes 12 vs 5; John 17 vs 3:

Ecclesiastes 12:5: Also they are afraid of height, and terrors in the way; when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets.

John 17:3: And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

INTIMATION:

You are created to live forever. Life on earth is not all there is. It is just the beginning of life, it is the preparation for the next. Death marks the beginning of life on the other side—in eternity. You will spend far more time on the other side of death than you will here. Earth is only a tryout for your life in eternity. It is a practice workout before the actual game. 

Death is not the end of you. It isn't your termination because you can't be terminated. Death is only a transition into eternity, and there are eternal consequences for everything you do on earth, leading to the part of the eternal divide you will forever live.

Even though we know that everyone will eventually die, death always seems unnatural and unfair, even at a hundred and twenty years. The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire! (Ecclesiastes 3 vs 11.) One day your heart will stop pumping, and that marks the end of your body and your time on earth, but it will not be the end of you. Your earthly body is just a temporary residence for your real self—your spirit.

At most, you will live a hundred and twenty years on earth (Genesis 6 vs 3), but you will live forever in eternity. Your time on earth is but a small parenthesis to eternal life. You are made to last forever. 

The plain truth is that while life on earth offers many chances, eternity offers only two; heaven or hell. Your relationship with God on earth will determine your relationship with Him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, accept His finished work on the cross for you, and confess Him as your Lord and Savior, you are given the legal right to be the child of God, heir of God, joint heir with His Son, and will spend the rest of eternity with Him. On the other hand, if you reject Him, reject His love, forgiveness, and salvation, thereby committing the only unforgivable sin, you will spend eternity away from God—in hell. 

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Your Will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right then, have it your way.' Tragically, many people will have to endure eternity without God because they chose to live without Him here on earth. 

When you fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and you realize that life is just a preparation for eternity, you will start living in the light of eternity, and that will color how you handle every relationship, task, and circumstance you are involved in on earth. Suddenly many activities, goals, and even problems that seemed so important will appear trivial, petty, and unworthy of your attention. 

The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears. Eternity focused life changes your value system. You use your time and money wisely. You place higher premium on relationships and character instead of fame or wealth or achievements or even fun. Your priorities are reordered. Keeping up with trends, fashions, and popular values just doesn't matter as much anymore. 

The Scripture in Philippians 3 vs 7 says, "But what things were gain to me, I have counted loss for Christ." The apostle Paul said he thought his past achievements were very important, but now he considers them worthless when compared with what Christ has done for him. If our time here on earth is all there is to life, we would live as if there is no tomorrow. You could exploit life as much as you could, forget being good and ethical, and wouldn't have to worry about any consequences of your actions. You could indulge yourself in total self-centeredness because your actions would have no long-term repercussions. 

Unfortunately, life is beyond our days on this earth. Lead your life in consciousness of eternity with God as your driving force.

Prayer: Abba Father, one thing I have desired of You, that I will seek after, that the eyes of my understanding being enlightened; that I may know what is the hope of Your calling, and what the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the saints, and I may dwell in Your house forever, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!