Do you agree?

"“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?"

Amos 3:3

The Bible presents God as someone, who values our choices. In Revelation 22:11 Jesus says " Let the unrighteous and filthy go on being unrighteous and filthy and let the righteous go on doing righteousness and the holy go on being holy".

Does God encourage sin and evil? No, certainly not. He is merely saying that He endows and respects freedom in His creation and even bad choices would be respected, but dealt justly with nonetheless. Freedom is linked up unbreakably with responsibility. God wants the wicked to turn away from his ways and do God's will (Isaiah 55:7), but He is in no way forcing it. If we extrapolate a bit more on the question of freedom, we can note that eternal punishment is not ruling out evil as a choice to be, but merely curbing its impact without taking away one's inherent preference for it. 

Therefore God would never inherently (that means who we want to be in our hearts) take away from us what is wrong unless we want that to happen. He would not fulfil His best will for us unless we desire it from the heart. "Can two people walk together unless they agree?" God expects our agreement to walk on with Him. Your and my will bear a great responsibility for our destiny. That seems tantalising.  Deciding your own ultimate fate is only possible because God exists. The right decision might be and is being encouraged by Him, but it is taken by us. If we really want to walk with God then we need to do something first. Like Adam in the garden of Eden, we need to get to meet with God.  How do we do that? Do we have the access to God, that Adam had?

God is everywhere so the geographical place is irrelevant. Jesus' died for our sins and rose to make us righteous so what we have done in the past is irrelevant too. What matters is whether we want to go along with God's grace now. The small things we do can make a big difference. 

 Our quiet time reading the Bible, for example, or time praying or contemplation is not just about learning more, getting spiritual strength and relaxing. These are some of the benefits of course, but the primary thing that is going on is that we want to meet with God.  When doing these things we should have the conscious desire to meet with our Father. If we would want to go further and agree to walk on the path He wants us to walk onto,  this would be, incidentally, the best decision we could ever make and would find our true selves. 

Prayer:

Dear Father,

I know that you are so loving and patient that you do not foist on anybody what is your will. It is the best for us all, but you created is in such a way that we can choose to accept it or refuse it.

Thank you for this great gesture of trust in us. I pray now, please open my spiritual eyes widely enough that they can see your loving and gentle nudging that leads through the narrow, but blessed door of life aboundant. Let none of us miss your will for their lives!

In Jesus' Name! Amen!

The locust would not withstand

"What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten."

Joel 1:4

That's a moribund account of what happened and was about to happen to Israel and Juda due to their sin. Different stages of the locusts' plague represented  the incursions, raids, attacks, sieges by enemies  and finally fall of Israel's' cities.

Do you feel that sometime everything is going upside down? You barely sort out a mess and something else hits on. You feel exacerbated. You wonder if God is not mad at you. You start seeing every little mishap as a serious transgression before God. Your prayer life dissipates. You are probably angry. You think that God does not understand you.

That's sometimes part of the normal Christian spiral of growth. The important thing to remember is that God is not mad at you. Even with the ancient Israelites, who were guilty of many serious crimes like: enslavement, soliciting for prostitition, curbing the rights of the weak like widows and orphans, they were being told by the prophet that God is awaiting for them to return to Him and change their ways and He would be faithful to His covenant and would set them free.

If that was valid for ancient Israel, how much more aware of God's gracious helping hand should we be? Jesus himself is on the right side of our Father and ensures that we are saved and uplifted. So do not distance yourself from  God! Make time for seeking Him. As with the Egyptians and Moses -  He will send the wind of His faithfulness and grace to sweep up all drawbacks and you would be victorious. God does not change. If your commitement does not change too the only thing left that could alter is the adverse circumstance. And it will.

Dear Father,

Sometime some of us feel so puzzled by what life heaps on them. Yet, you never change. We can always trust in you and seek you. You are our Saviour and your nectar of faithfulness surely flows from your hand if righteousness and might towards us. Please, help any of us to never despair, but lead a life of dogged commitment and faith in You, that conquer the world!

In Jesus' the faithful Witness' Name! Amin!

My cup overflows

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows"

Psalm 23:5

Having lived in a country that is close to Asia Minor and the Near East I can confirm that at least light alcoholic drink is often  present on the table at a banquet. 

When friends invite you they try their best to prepare for you coming and they put on the table the most exquisite they can source and cook. It almost always turns out to become a very merry gathering, where you feel appreciated, looked after and, indeed, full, in the end. 

At some point though, in case the guests overstayed their welcome, the host would never say so but would keep smiling and start filling their cups less and less. If you find yourself with no or little drink in the cup then you could be pretty certain that it's time to go. If they forget to fill your cup up, but want you to stay, they would be quick to redeem themselves by hurriedly and generously pouring in drink for you and apologise profusely. In ancient Israel that was a normal practice. They also used to put a few drips of oil fragrance onto the summit of the guest's head, which would ooze a pleasant scent around them for the whole evening. 

In life sometime we don't always feel that we are surrounded by friends only. Sometime we might feel like there are mostly people who don't seem to care about us. It might be that some people are in an outright opposition to us. Sometime there are problems that need attending. The least we feel like is like having a party. This hard situation doesn't alter God's intention to bless us though. It wouldn't change His plan about us. In the midst of challenges He is preparing a table of elaborate and astonishing  feast for us. Nothing can disrupt His unrelenting course to fulfill His will in our lives. In the stinky fallenness of this world the aroma of God's presence would be consistently with us. Just close your eyes and you would start seeing, through the eyes of faith, that the enemies are temporary, but you and God are meant to be a company forever. You are not a guest, who should carefully notice, when his drink is low and make his way out. God ensures His drink never vanishes from your cup. His Spirit wants to fill you up at all times because you have been purchased from the weary, worrisome world of the old time for God's kingdom of freedom and new life. 

Dear Father,

Thank you for your blessed hope in Jesus Christ. He is a proof that you are determined to change me, bless me and make me a victor and not be a victon. You are not stopped by the circumstances, but you fulfill your will for this world and you do so with me.

Please, let me never forget to have your oil on my head and enjoy my cup of favour being filled up for me by the King Himself every day.

In Jesus' Name! Amen!

I will make you mine

"And I will make you my wife forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy."

Hossia 2:19

Soon we expect to have an engagement celebration in our church. The couple are very young, but seemingly in love. We will be trying to make up the whole event in such a manner, that they would remember that this decision is not a temporary whim, but entering a door of new life forever. Nowadays, those who are somewhat business kind-of -thinking-people, are often afraid to commit forever. It seems to them like they haven't got the best deal in life if they don't have their door open for something possibly better. 

Thankfully God doesn't think this way. When He comes to us and makes a covenant with us in Jesus, He knows our state of mind, He knows our past, present and future wrongs, but He, without any second thoughts, commits to us. Some people worry if their partner would turn out not to be so good as s/he should be. God knows we would NOT be as good as we should be. Yet, He loves us and initiates the covenant of eternal relationship with us. He does so in righteousness and justice. The first (righteousness) is God's ideal will for His creation. The second (justice) is His particular will for us. What is the difference? The particular will is not always perfectly agreeable with His eternal will. The ideal will commands that all of us must be saved. The particular will says we deserve there just retribution for our sins. We don't deserve blessing.  So addressing the problem with sin particularly, God achieves His eternal will through something, which is against it in principle - the suffering and dead of His innocent Son. It is against God's righteousness because it is wrong for the innocent and let alone God himself to suffer. He does it though. That means personal sacrifice. God sacrifices part of what He is in order to get another part that He desires more - us. 

So if God is able to accept such a contradiction against Himself (Heb 12:3)  for the sake of love, we can be sure that He is fully and eternally committed to us and He can and will teach us to be that kind of people, who, motivated by love, accept the seemingly unjust and temporary in order to get what is righteous and eternal. He would teach us how to exercise "steadfast love and mercy". That would make us people who are easy to live with, partner with, work with. 

I hope that these young people would realise that the art of love is really an art of sowing and sacrifice in order to reap abundance and blessed life together. 

Prayer:

Dear loving Father,

You allowed so many contradictions and wrongs for the sake of love. You forgive them without compromising your righteousness but allowing your Son to suffer the just consequences of what is wrong for our sake. Please, help me be more into that kind of love, that sees the bigger picture and complies with your eternal will even though that would sometime mean being patiently enduring injustice, when that is the best thing to do, but winning out  like Christ nonetheless. 

In Jesus' Name! Amen!

I am grateful for you

"We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as it is appropriate,  because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing."

2 Thessalonians 1:3

Thankful people seem to be happier people. Grateful people seem to be deeper people. Gracious   people are apparently more sociable and less egoistic people.

When we are thankful we focus on the source of something good that adds value to our lives or those we care for and it makes us look away from ourselves in a dignified way. We don't look to another human being to criticise, to complain for, to get annoyed by and even to worry about. We look at them in an entirely positive and well meaning way. They might have a good deal of weaknesses that we can focus on, but we prefer to look at what is good in them because we personally experienced it.

What would happen if we never experienced something  significantly good by somebody or at least not experienced it lately, but we continue to focus on and encourage what is good about them?

Apostle Paul draws a parallel between the growing of the faith in somebody and the showing of love they are capable of. He knew that a servant of God (we are all called to be that) is called to see the people in a positive, God-point-of-view way. He had to have faith in them first.  Their love towards each other is "increasing", which would mean that probably it was very little at the start. 

That had not discouraged Paul though.  What he did was that he saw, through the eyes of God, what these people could become if he could impart them with faith in Jesus Christ. He looked at them with love and positive attitude well before they have done anything deserving gratitude. 

Once he shared the Gospel with conviction and spiritual power the faith was awaken in the Tessalonians. They realised what they can be in Christ and how many opportunities they have to flesh it out towards one another.  "The love (agape) of every one" was on the rise meaning that they all, having accepted Paul's way of reflecting Christ, were able to look at each other in a positive manner also before anything tangible in the other was yet manifested. The love of Christ does not depend on a value present in its object - it creates it. The gratitude-deserving deeds of course duly followed, but it was only possible because they chose to believe in what is the possible good about the other and love Christ in each other. 

Faith is conviction about things not seen (Hebrews 11:13). We don't need to wait to see the good things our acquaintances would do to be positive towards them. By being positive and showing high appreciation we prompt them to be better people and be good. And when thusly faith in Jesus is imparted in them, then goodness and love could only increase in magnitude. 

Dear Father of us all,

Thank you that you don't wait for us to produce something good in order to love us. I pray you help us see the good in people well before it is manifested and believing in them be able to help them believe in Jesus, who only can create true love out of nothing in the hearts of all of us towards each of us.

Praying in the lovingkind Jesus' Name! Amen!

The Word of God is living and active

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, going deep to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12

Deep inside us lays our true self. It is created in the image of God and therefore nothing can give it satisfaction to a full measure, but the Word of God, which incidentally created it. When it is being heard, understood, sown and rooted in us, and lived out -  it changes our world. 
There are lots of additional layers of motivation, which life and our experiences in general piled up over our Self.
For some it is ambition, for others - passion, third - bitterness or revenge.  It varies, but the common denominator of each driving force within us, especially which is not in accord with  the Word of God, is that they not just cannot satisfy us completely and permanently but could be seriously  harmfu if we try to put it in the place of God's guidance. Ideally, everything we strive towards should be in harmony with the inner self of God in us and thusly we can live a fulfilled life.
How could it happen, when this core of spiritual reality in us is so overlayed? 

The Word of God, when absorbed attentively with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, becomes an instrument of God's will that fixes up our weaknesses. It strengthens our character so we withstand the temptations. It opens our eyes to see life as it is - in its deficiencies and blessings - and the true value of everything around us. Then we can stick to what is most valuable with fervour and not be easily tricked into taking the baits of triviality. Those, the Devil embellishes so much, that they become grossly inflated in fake value that they if take  are capable to waste all our spiritual savings of purpose, love, happiness and joy.

The Word of God "discerns" the thoughts and motivations of the heart and helps us know ourselves and take control of our thoughts and therefore - lives. Only it can separate the wasteful from the precious. As a sharp sword it does so very effectively, but being an expression of the love of God it does it gently too. Sometime we don't even feel much of how  the Word is working in us: no catharsis, no drama, but if it has just caught our attention, it changes us nonetheless.  The more we heed to it, the more we alter our value system and order it in a way that is suitable to our deepest God-like self and it's needs. As we achieve a balanced personality and life, it, quite naturally, brings up peace, joy, purpose and fruitfulness. Then we have finally begun live out what we have always been meant to be.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

I know that nothing can change me to the extent, which will make me really happy and fulfilled, but your Word. Please, let your Spirit make it desirable and understandable to me. I want to yield myself to it's changing power. I need it as an ally  against my biggest enemy - my old self, which must give way to the best I am enabled by You to be!

In Jesus' loving Name. Amen!

Someone touched me

"But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I sensed  that power has gone out from me.”"

Luke 8:46

The Bible portrays God as life-giver. "When you send your Spirit, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth." Psalm 104:30

His Spirit makes life possible. When Jesus came in flesh He couldn't, but be what His divine nature is: life- giving, supporting, bettering  and enhancing.

Wherever He was going, He was carrying the light of life in the darkness of human experience of oppression, sickness and frailty. It has to be noted that we are created in the image of God and that is why  we carry the higher  appreciation of life than animals, for example, do. We also carry a small seed  of God's life and life-affirming qualities. Faith in God is the window through which light can enter and welcome this seed of life we have  in us into growing, blossoming and full fruition. 

When we strive to let the sun of righteousness shine in our hearts it brings healing with its rays (Malachi 4:2). This stubborn, relentless faith and attempt to let God's power in our lives would not ever be in vain. Sometime God is seemingly hiding but not for long.

Then we touch the life-giving mantle of Jesus and quite naturally His life flows through us and renews and rejuvenates us.

Jesus wants to feel how His generous power goes out of Him to His children. He did not complain from, but He praised the woman, who strived so much towards Him. He is so giving and so desiring to bless us. So let's keep on seeking, keep on knocking and keep on asking and drawing closer to God in faith. He is willing and able to respond and change the seeds in us into a beautiful and fruitful garden.

Prayer: 

Dear Father,

Your nature is of a life-giver who generously lavishes His goodness and love on us.

Please, hear my voice and help me be this person, who would ready himself to receive from you. I want to be the person, who would touch you and your power would flow freely trough me. 
I pray in Jesus' Name. Amen!

Love never fails

"Love never fails . As for prophecies, they will become obsolete; as for tongues, they will have to stop; as for knowledge, it will pass away in its current remit."

1 Corinthians 13:8

Sometimes I wonder how could the most sung about emotion  be so little understood in practice.
We hear about friends and acquaintances, who got divorced, in spite of being so much in love before. We see  parents, who barely have any relationship with their grown up children. Brothers and sisters, who fight each other over material stuff is a bad sight too. 
As Christians  we would be wise to bear in mind that the measure we allowed the love of God to work in us and change us would determine how close to God we would be in this life. If we want God to be on our side we  need to excel in love. A sign, that the love from God is in us, is its presence, when our interests or ego are challenged. Can I be happy for the fellow minister, Christian or even unbeliever who acted selfishly and arrogantly, but there is something good that has happened to them? Can I be sad, when they experience serious set backs? Surely they need to change something in their ways, but love does not rely on one changing in  order  to wish him/her good. It never fails to be itself. Prophecy can encourage you and guide you towards God's best  in your life, but once fulfilled - its obsolete. At some point in eternity, prophecy as a practice would be made redundant because it has achieved its goal on Earth. Speaking in tongues also benefits us  for the moment, but it is not a goal in itself. It is means towards a goal: to build up ourselves in Christ and we know that means love in the first place. Christ is loving one above anything else. Knowledge, although useful now, would stop because the full knowledge would be available to us, when we are in and with God in heaven. The only distinctly enduring trait and characteristic that would remain with us is our ability to love. 
May be you can sit down and think: do I show enough love to my spouse, children, brother, sister and others? How can I be more loving? The moment you ask these questions you tap into God's nature and demonstrate desire  to be like God. At that very moment your prayer is listened to and fulfilled.

My heavenly Father, 
I did not and still don't love the way I should. I know it is not my merely human effort that makes it happen but your work in me. Please, work in me and bring me to love more as Christ does: fully, unconditionally, bravely and transformingly enough for me and the world around me . 
In Jesus' Name! Amen!