Hebrews 12:28
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe"
In all you do to celebrate the coming of the New Year, remember to be thankful and worship the Lord for without his Merci you would not make it to this day.

Christmas

Christmas is here. We are celebrating Christmas because God gave us a great gift that is his only son, Jesus Christ.
At this Christmas you are trying hard to buy your love ones the best gift you could give. The cheapest but best gift you can give God is your Heart.

Luke 2: 9-11
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

-You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon



-A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero


-Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20

-"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!"
Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. -- Cicero

Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world: It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it. --William Law

“Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give me delight.” Psalm 119:143
Father God, I know that as long as I will trust in you and put my hope in you, You will surely comes to my rescue.

Just come

Are you hesitating to come to God? Do you think you are too sinner to come to him. Are you thinking he will reject you? My friend! No matter how far you have gone, hear what he is saying to you now.
““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

May be you are saying now; “There is no hope for me anymore. I lost everything." May be circumstances of this world took away your joy and peace.
Let me suggest to you that the Lord our creator is the God of hope who can fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Trusting in him is all he need from you.
Romans 15:13 "13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;” Psalm 103:13
So fear the Lord and He will have compassion on you.

“The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19

“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” 1 Chronicles 29:11

Isaiah 53 : 4-7

4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

Today is “Good Friday”, a special day for your Salvation. Jesus paid the price for your Salvation. Do you want to take advantage of this offer from Jesus? Jesus already done the big part; the only thing you need to do now is take a step to accept him as your personal Savior. Through the death of Jesus on the cross, the door is now open for you to go before the Lord your creator and say: “Father here I am take me back and make me new according to your way”

Through Him we are saved

We know that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that our sin separates us from God. We also know the Bible teaches we are all sinners and none of us is righteous before God (Romans 3:23). Because of our sin, we are separated from God, and we stand guilty before Him. Therefore, the only hope we can have is if He provides a way for us to be reconciled to Himself, and that is what He did in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. Christ died to make atonement for sin and to pay the penalty of the sins of all who believe in Him. It is through His death on the cross as God’s perfect sacrifice for sin and His resurrection three days later that we can now have eternal life if we believe in Him.

Sacrifice

Genesis 22: 1-2
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Here God was asking Abraham to do something very critical. Abraham is called to sacrifice his own child Isaac, the one he loves so dearly.
As Abraham obeyed the command from the Lord and took a step, God Himself came not only to save the child’s life by providing a lamb for the sacrifice but God also blessed Abraham.
God Himself sacrificed his only Son for you and me so we can be saved.
For this holy week that will end up with celebration of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I would like to tell you this; “God is asking you to sacrifice something very important to you. Check your life and you will find something that very well please your flesh but does not please God. For example: an addiction, fornication, adultery, slander, ….. You will be blessed if you do.

Check-out Yourself

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2: 20

Are you sure that you have been crucified with Christ? Check-out yourself very well; if you realize that you are still living the sinful life you used to live and/or if you realize that you are still displaying all the bad behaviors you had, I would like to tell you that you have not been fully crucified with Christ yet and Christ is not living in you yet.

Love Fulfills the Law

Romans 13:8-10
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
It is good that you came to know Jesus as your Savior. It is also good that you are loving God. But let me remind you this: “To fulfill the Law, you must love God AND also love your neighbor as yourself, said the Bible” Please read again the passage above one, two, or three more times. Pray that God gives you a loving heart and spirit.
You are doing very well in the first part which is “Loving God” but you must also do the second part which is “loving your neighbor” if you want to fulfill to law.

Loving God ONLY is not enough

“We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:19-21
Do you want to be called a liar? If you said no, so you need to love your brothers and sisters. Remember that liars will not enter the Kingdom of God.
Loving your neighbor is not only a New Testament affair but God always required from his people to love one another. The Lord asked Moses to communicate this to the people; “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19: 18
As a Christian, loving your neighbor is not a choice but an imperative for you. You must love.

Are you loving and connecting?

“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” - Matthew 22:37-39
As we come to accept the Lord as our personal Savior, we are now a part of the group that is called “Christians”. As Christian, we try to do the first part of the passage above which is “Love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soul and with all your Mind”. What about the second part “Love your Neighbor as yourself?” We all have problem doing that.
Who is your neighbor anyway? Your neighbor is whoever you come across with in your neighborhood, at your church, your job, market place, etc. We all need to do this second part too because Jesus said “it is like the first one.”
My beloved in the Lord, you who call yourself a Christian, do you want to start loving your neighbor today? Don’t look to far. Start from your church. All members of your church are your neighbors. How could you love others outside the church if you could not love the one who worship with you the same God in the same sanctuary every Sunday?
Do you think that there are some people in your church you cannot connect with? You see, when a child feel alone because he is away from home, he comes home because he knows this; “at home, I will be connected with my brothers and sisters. They will love me and make me feel comfortable. I will not feel alone again.” Could you imagine how miserable that child will feel if he cannot feel that connection he was looking among his ones?
Believe it or not, many are those miserable people in our churches today? They are alone in the world and they decided to come to church where they could meet loving people but unfortunately, their loneliness become worst. They come to church every Sunday but nobody connect with them. They sit, listen to the message and go home.
My friend! May be you are the one who sit next to that miserable soul that need connection so desperately but you did not even say “hello”. By doing so, are you loving your neighbor? It isn’t the church a place where people can run to for fellowship? As long as we are failing to provide a fellowship and connection among us in the church, we are sending people back to the world for wrong connection.
Are you coming to church but feel alone? You need to open up yourself for connection with other. Do not just come to church then go home but be willing to shake hand with somebody before you go home. The house of the Lord should be a place of fellowship and perfect connection to one another without exception.
Let fellowship with one another in our churches then we can prove to unbelievers that our God is a loving God. If you could not love your neighbor in your church but you try to show love outside the church, then you are just like someone who refuse to clean inside his house but keeps his yard clean.

Do you like the word of God? It will help you to discover him and know him in his fullness.
“For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.” Psalm 33:4-5

God knows the way

Psalm 143: 8 “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”
In whom you put your trust. The king David put his trust in God and you have heard great things about him. Put your trust in God too.
God knows the way to your salvation, to your deliverance, to you healing, to your blessing etc; so why don’t you entrust him your life?

14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1: 14-16

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

Habakkuk 3: 17-19