This blogpost was suddenly inspired.. I was about to sleep and dis just came dat's y is so late at nite..
The best thing about ISCF is not the place but the people. ISCF ppl hav experienced God in a different and much more out of the ordinary. When I first came to noe about it, I thought : It's just another movement or christian association wannabe. But countless times I was proved wrong; the reason is bcoz the people in it are much more mature in terms of walks with God. My most memorable moment was not the camps (sorry to dissappoint), it was just before the TNT concert. Though the concert wasnt much of a success, I still remember vivdly the moment the call for prayer before the event starts. It was the best time ever actually when those serving dat day gather to pray, united as one, on the stage. Believe it or not, God was there in our midst. And when the team on the stage starts praying, the people who where present but werent in the team started praying along on the floor. Prayer makes alot of difference and I believe every christian will agree on dat. And when christians unite and pray, stuff do happen though we don't see it in the natural, though the concert wasnt very much of a success in terms of number of people accepting Christ. But that moment with God, praying, surpasses everything. Sometimes events doesnt work out as successful as thought bcoz God is in control. He has His ways and plans which are absolutely higher den ours and we couldnt argue on dat wid God. God knows the best.
Note: For those who werent there and haven heard of dis, do join in whenever, where ever there is a prayer going on. Maybe the person in charge will call u to join, maybe not but I could say u r most welcome 2 join actually in any prayer. More people, more prayer, more power. It's something u couldnt be shy of and it will determine how ISCF is gonna be.
For those who always stand at the sidelines when a prayer is going on, it's time 2 step in and pray together.
THE CHANGE HAS COME. are you ready to seize the moment and make a difference?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
In Exodus 19, God called Moses up to Mount Sinai and told him that if the children of Israel would obey Him and keep His covenant, they would be His special people. He then gave them “The Law,” which is also commonly known as the “Mosaic Law” or the “law of Moses.” Although the name was attributed to a man, we must be mindful that the One who gave it was God Himself. Moses was merely the “messenger boy.” James 4:12 makes it very clear that there is really only “one Lawgiver”—God.
The law consists of various parts. The most important portion is the Ten Commandments, also known as the “moral law,” as they express the morality, values and character of God. The commandments were engraved on stone tablets and are recorded in Exodus 20: 2-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21. Because there are ten of them, they are also commonly called the “Decalogue” (Gr. dekalogos), which means the “ten words” or “ten pronouncements.”
I. You shall have no other gods before Me.
II. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.
III. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
V. Honor your father and your mother.
VI. You shall not murder.
VII. You shall not commit adultery.
VIII. You shall not steal.
IX. You shall not bear false witness.
X. You shall not covet.
Apart from these commandments, God gave Moses further instructions that governed the ethics and rituals of the Israelites. Augustine (354-430) divided the law of Moses into two parts: the moral and symbolical. For example, “you shall not covet” is a moral law; “you shall circumcise every male on the eighth day” is a symbolical law. To Augustine and the early Church fathers, the moral law of the Ten Commandments is still binding while the symbolical law is no longer binding. Besides circumcision and the sacrifices, Augustine categorizes as symbolical law the tabernacle regulations, the dietary laws, the feasts, etc. Because they are non-binding, he interprets the rules against blended clothing (wool and linen) and the mixed yoke (ox and ass) allegorically.
As always, Scripture must be compared with Scripture to avoid misinterpretation. It is clear that Jesus brought to an end the observance of the symbolical laws by His redemptive accomplishment. The entire sacrificial system and ceremonial washings were “external regulations applying until the time of the new order” (Heb. 9:10). These symbolical or topological law was “only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves” (Heb. 10:1), its regulations were set aside once the realities had arrived in Christ (Heb. 7:18-19, 22). Jesus ushered in the new order that made the ceremonial rituals redundant: “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13).
This moral/symbolical distinction eventually gave way to the more precise three-part analysis first worked out in detail by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Aquinas says that the law of Moses is made up of moral, ceremonial and civil precepts. From the days of Aquinas to the Reformation, to our time, the Church has been consistent in teaching that only the moral law is still binding, all ceremonial and civil laws are no longer applicable to believers.
Yet, there is always the vocal minority who feel that since we are in the age of the Gospel, when we are justified by faith alone, the law is now “abolished,” or in theological jargon, “abrogated.”
* In the June 21, 2009 issue of The Age, Cleric Francis McNab, the executive minister at St. Michael’s Uniting Church in Melbourne, Australia, says, “The Ten Commandments is one of the most negative documents ever written.”
* In a recent May 11, 2009 blog entry, a prominent megachurch pastor says, “When you come under the law by trying to keep God’s commandments in order to be blessed, it will lead to death. There will be deadness in your marriage, ministry, health, career.”
The message is clear: the Ten Commandments are unnecessary, oppressive, and maybe even downright evil.
Then there are those who wrongly speculate that the Old Testament teaches “salvation by law” while the New Testament teaches “salvation by grace through faith.” Nothing can be further from the truth. Justifying faith originates in the Old Testament. The phrase, “the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), which became the rallying cry of the Reformers in the 16th century, is really a concept that first appears in Habakkuk 2:4, an Old Testament Scripture. In Romans 4, Paul went through extraordinary length to explain that both the greatest Old Testament patriarch, Abraham, and the greatest Old Testament king, David, were themselves saved by faith, not by the works of the law.
This may come as a shock to you, but the whole purpose of the New Testament is to establish the law—the moral law of the Ten Commandments. Jesus says so Himself: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). This statement does not mean that Christ has come to merely fulfill the messianic predictions contained in the old covenant. The Greek for “fulfill” is pleroo which means to expand, establish, strengthen, make firmer and fuller. Jesus wants us to have the true meaning of the law so that our understanding of it is not shallow or erroneous. And He demonstrates that masterfully in the Sermon on the Mount when He broadens and deepens what the commandments really mean when they say “you shall not murder,” or “you shall not commit adultery” (Matt. 5:21, 27).
Like Jesus, Paul says faith and law are not mutually exclusive. One doesn’t invalidate the other. Paul affirms the words of Christ by saying, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). And how is the law established? It is established “not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3). Herein lies the difference between the two covenants. In the old covenant, the Ten Commandments was a set of external code written on stone tablets. But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit writes those commandments in our hearts, and gives us the grace to live them out in our daily lives. This is not an afterthought of God but His original plan for the law from its very inception.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jer. 31:33).
The New Testament repeatedly confirms this. One such example is:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Heb. 8:10).
This is really what the new covenant is—to have the law written in our hearts. And the way God does that is through the Holy Spirit, who Himself gives us the power to obey them.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (Ezek. 36:26-27).
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart (2 Cor. 3:2-3).
Think about it, if the moral law is unimportant to us in the new covenant, why then would the Holy Spirit even bother to write it into our hearts?
This is the whole argument of Paul when he says, “So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 8:4 TLB). So in the new covenant, we are still serving the law, but we are serving “in the newness of the Spirit” because we want to, not because we have to! We serve not out of fear because the law is our burdensome master, but out of love because Christ is now our Lord. It is no longer a hope of obedience leading to salvation but rather, salvation leading to obedience.
To confirm their validity, all the Ten Commandments are expounded time and again throughout the epistles:
Commandment I 1 Corinthians 8:6
Commandment II 1 John 5:21
Commandment III 1 Timothy 6:1
Commandment IV Hebrew 4:3-11
Commandment V Ephesians 6:2
Commandment VI 1 John 3:15
Commandment VII Galatians 5:19
Commandment VIII Ephesians 4:28
Commandment IX Romans 13:9
Commandment X Colossians 3:5
The Reformers made it a point to emphasize the need for the Ten Commandments in Christian growth and discipleship. John Calvin (1509-1564) says that “even the believers have need of the law.” Calvin teaches that the moral law helps the believers in two ways: (a) to make daily progress in doing the will of God, and (b) to encourage the believer how to live a life of obedience. Calvin quotes Psalm 1:2 that a Christian’s “delight is in the law of the Lord” and Psalm 19:7 that “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the original pioneer of the Reformation, fought with those who despised the Ten Commandments. He coined the term, “antinomianism,” which the Oxford Dictionary defines as “a belief that Christians are released by grace from obeying moral laws.” This was the first major theological controversy in Protestant history. In 1577, to counter the antinomians who were rubbishing the Ten Commandments, the Lutherans wrote in the Formula of Concord the following statements:
“Thereafter the Holy Ghost employs the law so as to teach the regenerate from it, and to point out and show them in the Ten Commandments what is ‘the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God’ (Rom. 12:2) and ‘what good works God hath before ordained that they should walk in’ (Eph. 2:10).”
To the Reformers, the Ten Commandments was an absolute necessity for sanctification and discipleship. As such, its validity and importance was repeatedly emphasized in documents like:
* Helvetic Confession of the Reformed Church of Zurich (1566).
* 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571).
* Irish Articles of Religion of the Church of Ireland (1615).
* Methodist Articles of Religion (1784).
* Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).
* Savoy Declaration of the Congregational Churches (1658).
* Baptist Confession of Philadelphia (1688).
* French Confession of Faith (1559).
* Belgic Confession (1561).
* Scottish Confession of Faith (1559).
* The Wittenberg Confession (16th Century).
As you can see, the Ten Commandments are viewed as vitally important to practically all mainstream, orthodox, Bible-believing churches—Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.
The truth be told, supporters of the Ten Commandments are in the abundance. In his June 21, 2009 interview with Seattle Post, Dr. Billy Graham gives his view on why we need the Ten Commandments. Dr. Graham says, “We don’t keep the Ten Commandments in order to be saved; we keep them because we want to please God and bring honor to Him by the way we live. Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command’ (John 14:15).”
Well said. I rest my case.
The law consists of various parts. The most important portion is the Ten Commandments, also known as the “moral law,” as they express the morality, values and character of God. The commandments were engraved on stone tablets and are recorded in Exodus 20: 2-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21. Because there are ten of them, they are also commonly called the “Decalogue” (Gr. dekalogos), which means the “ten words” or “ten pronouncements.”
I. You shall have no other gods before Me.
II. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.
III. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
V. Honor your father and your mother.
VI. You shall not murder.
VII. You shall not commit adultery.
VIII. You shall not steal.
IX. You shall not bear false witness.
X. You shall not covet.
Apart from these commandments, God gave Moses further instructions that governed the ethics and rituals of the Israelites. Augustine (354-430) divided the law of Moses into two parts: the moral and symbolical. For example, “you shall not covet” is a moral law; “you shall circumcise every male on the eighth day” is a symbolical law. To Augustine and the early Church fathers, the moral law of the Ten Commandments is still binding while the symbolical law is no longer binding. Besides circumcision and the sacrifices, Augustine categorizes as symbolical law the tabernacle regulations, the dietary laws, the feasts, etc. Because they are non-binding, he interprets the rules against blended clothing (wool and linen) and the mixed yoke (ox and ass) allegorically.
As always, Scripture must be compared with Scripture to avoid misinterpretation. It is clear that Jesus brought to an end the observance of the symbolical laws by His redemptive accomplishment. The entire sacrificial system and ceremonial washings were “external regulations applying until the time of the new order” (Heb. 9:10). These symbolical or topological law was “only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves” (Heb. 10:1), its regulations were set aside once the realities had arrived in Christ (Heb. 7:18-19, 22). Jesus ushered in the new order that made the ceremonial rituals redundant: “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13).
This moral/symbolical distinction eventually gave way to the more precise three-part analysis first worked out in detail by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Aquinas says that the law of Moses is made up of moral, ceremonial and civil precepts. From the days of Aquinas to the Reformation, to our time, the Church has been consistent in teaching that only the moral law is still binding, all ceremonial and civil laws are no longer applicable to believers.
Yet, there is always the vocal minority who feel that since we are in the age of the Gospel, when we are justified by faith alone, the law is now “abolished,” or in theological jargon, “abrogated.”
* In the June 21, 2009 issue of The Age, Cleric Francis McNab, the executive minister at St. Michael’s Uniting Church in Melbourne, Australia, says, “The Ten Commandments is one of the most negative documents ever written.”
* In a recent May 11, 2009 blog entry, a prominent megachurch pastor says, “When you come under the law by trying to keep God’s commandments in order to be blessed, it will lead to death. There will be deadness in your marriage, ministry, health, career.”
The message is clear: the Ten Commandments are unnecessary, oppressive, and maybe even downright evil.
Then there are those who wrongly speculate that the Old Testament teaches “salvation by law” while the New Testament teaches “salvation by grace through faith.” Nothing can be further from the truth. Justifying faith originates in the Old Testament. The phrase, “the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), which became the rallying cry of the Reformers in the 16th century, is really a concept that first appears in Habakkuk 2:4, an Old Testament Scripture. In Romans 4, Paul went through extraordinary length to explain that both the greatest Old Testament patriarch, Abraham, and the greatest Old Testament king, David, were themselves saved by faith, not by the works of the law.
This may come as a shock to you, but the whole purpose of the New Testament is to establish the law—the moral law of the Ten Commandments. Jesus says so Himself: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). This statement does not mean that Christ has come to merely fulfill the messianic predictions contained in the old covenant. The Greek for “fulfill” is pleroo which means to expand, establish, strengthen, make firmer and fuller. Jesus wants us to have the true meaning of the law so that our understanding of it is not shallow or erroneous. And He demonstrates that masterfully in the Sermon on the Mount when He broadens and deepens what the commandments really mean when they say “you shall not murder,” or “you shall not commit adultery” (Matt. 5:21, 27).
Like Jesus, Paul says faith and law are not mutually exclusive. One doesn’t invalidate the other. Paul affirms the words of Christ by saying, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). And how is the law established? It is established “not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3). Herein lies the difference between the two covenants. In the old covenant, the Ten Commandments was a set of external code written on stone tablets. But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit writes those commandments in our hearts, and gives us the grace to live them out in our daily lives. This is not an afterthought of God but His original plan for the law from its very inception.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jer. 31:33).
The New Testament repeatedly confirms this. One such example is:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Heb. 8:10).
This is really what the new covenant is—to have the law written in our hearts. And the way God does that is through the Holy Spirit, who Himself gives us the power to obey them.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (Ezek. 36:26-27).
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart (2 Cor. 3:2-3).
Think about it, if the moral law is unimportant to us in the new covenant, why then would the Holy Spirit even bother to write it into our hearts?
This is the whole argument of Paul when he says, “So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 8:4 TLB). So in the new covenant, we are still serving the law, but we are serving “in the newness of the Spirit” because we want to, not because we have to! We serve not out of fear because the law is our burdensome master, but out of love because Christ is now our Lord. It is no longer a hope of obedience leading to salvation but rather, salvation leading to obedience.
To confirm their validity, all the Ten Commandments are expounded time and again throughout the epistles:
Commandment I 1 Corinthians 8:6
Commandment II 1 John 5:21
Commandment III 1 Timothy 6:1
Commandment IV Hebrew 4:3-11
Commandment V Ephesians 6:2
Commandment VI 1 John 3:15
Commandment VII Galatians 5:19
Commandment VIII Ephesians 4:28
Commandment IX Romans 13:9
Commandment X Colossians 3:5
The Reformers made it a point to emphasize the need for the Ten Commandments in Christian growth and discipleship. John Calvin (1509-1564) says that “even the believers have need of the law.” Calvin teaches that the moral law helps the believers in two ways: (a) to make daily progress in doing the will of God, and (b) to encourage the believer how to live a life of obedience. Calvin quotes Psalm 1:2 that a Christian’s “delight is in the law of the Lord” and Psalm 19:7 that “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the original pioneer of the Reformation, fought with those who despised the Ten Commandments. He coined the term, “antinomianism,” which the Oxford Dictionary defines as “a belief that Christians are released by grace from obeying moral laws.” This was the first major theological controversy in Protestant history. In 1577, to counter the antinomians who were rubbishing the Ten Commandments, the Lutherans wrote in the Formula of Concord the following statements:
“Thereafter the Holy Ghost employs the law so as to teach the regenerate from it, and to point out and show them in the Ten Commandments what is ‘the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God’ (Rom. 12:2) and ‘what good works God hath before ordained that they should walk in’ (Eph. 2:10).”
To the Reformers, the Ten Commandments was an absolute necessity for sanctification and discipleship. As such, its validity and importance was repeatedly emphasized in documents like:
* Helvetic Confession of the Reformed Church of Zurich (1566).
* 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England (1571).
* Irish Articles of Religion of the Church of Ireland (1615).
* Methodist Articles of Religion (1784).
* Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).
* Savoy Declaration of the Congregational Churches (1658).
* Baptist Confession of Philadelphia (1688).
* French Confession of Faith (1559).
* Belgic Confession (1561).
* Scottish Confession of Faith (1559).
* The Wittenberg Confession (16th Century).
As you can see, the Ten Commandments are viewed as vitally important to practically all mainstream, orthodox, Bible-believing churches—Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.
The truth be told, supporters of the Ten Commandments are in the abundance. In his June 21, 2009 interview with Seattle Post, Dr. Billy Graham gives his view on why we need the Ten Commandments. Dr. Graham says, “We don’t keep the Ten Commandments in order to be saved; we keep them because we want to please God and bring honor to Him by the way we live. Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command’ (John 14:15).”
Well said. I rest my case.
Monday, July 20, 2009
HEARTBEAT
TAKE a moment... breathe in and breathe out...Take your hand, put it on your heart...
You can feel it beating..If not please see a doctor.
What is your heart beating for today?
-Money?
-Love?
-Materials?
-God?
-Yourself?
-Desires?
There are more to what your heart can beat for..But take a moment.. Think of your creator..
Ecclesiastes 12 v 1:
Isaiah 11 v 1 - 2
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.Jeremiah 50 v 25
25 The LORD has opened his arsenal
and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do
in the land of the Babylonians.
You can feel it beating..If not please see a doctor.
What is your heart beating for today?
-Money?
-Love?
-Materials?
-God?
-Yourself?
-Desires?
There are more to what your heart can beat for..But take a moment.. Think of your creator..
Ecclesiastes 12 v 1:
1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
“ I have no pleasure in them”:
He is the God who created you. Without him, you are nothing... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL..
So in whatever you do, in the midst of what you think is kiosk, God is still in control. In the midst helplessness, God is helping. In the midst of loneliness, God is always by your side.
Things might seem good, God is forgotten. When things go bad, we proceed to seek God, praying earnestly day and night for answers. That's hypocrisy.
Our God is suppose to be the center of our lives, regardless of what, where and when.
Imagine this: God is like our oxygen. We breath in everyday to live. God is our lifeline so to speak.
In this last days, God is raising a generation, far greater than what He had raised before. You will either be caught in the flow or just get swept away by it.
DO NOT GIVE THE EXCUSE THAT YOU ARE JUST TOO YOUNG, God has use mighty young people to change the face of Israel. Look at Joshua, Caleb, David, Daniel, The little servant girl of Naaman, The boy who gave 3 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. These are the people, out of no where, out of nobody, they are willing and God used them.
Don't worry of how or when or what should you do. All you need is a wiliing heart, a heart beating for God, hunger for Him and praying without ceasing. And true enough, the PROMISED HELPER, the Holy Spirit shall come and you'll be used mightily.
Isaiah 11 v 1 - 2
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -
Wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge and the reverential fear of God.. these are the Spirit that rest upon Jesus, which is the Holy Spirit sent to us.
Jeremiah 50 v 25
25 The LORD has opened his arsenaland brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do
in the land of the Babylonians.
God has not only grant us a Helper, the Holy Spirit but also has even open up his arsenal to let you wage warfare with the devil whenever required. That's why we need to get in to the word and promise of God, grab it and start praying and fighting for what belongs to ours, what the devil had rob and short-changed us. Our promises, our blessings.
Align your lifestyle, according to what God wants, not what you want. And you will fulfil what He wants which is the GREAT COMISSION. Then your heartbeat will be beating for God.
So, what is your heart beating for today?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
CONNECTED??!
In a marathon, what comes first in your mind? Track and Field? Stadiums? Athletes? Champions?
Champions. We see them as winners, extraordinary bunch of people. Champions no overnight winners. Hidden from the eyes of the world, they toil and train hard enough till they are ready to be the strongest. Being the strongest is not having strength or ability at the peak of performance, but being the hanging on, staying sharp and focus to the finishing line, having the endurances to excel in the midst of weakness.
In a marathon, The first 100 metres sprint and the last 100m dash for the finishing line does not count if one falls short in the middle of it.
How is this applicable to our lives?
ISCF camp 09' had concluded about 3 months ago. This is the time when we are back to our own lives. Camps can get anyone excited about God and after the camp, most of us will tend to fall back to how we live our life like how we live it before the camp. Most of the time, we get so connected with life and the world till we get disconnected with God.
What can WE do to keep the fire, keep connected and stay on, sharp and focus?
-Prayer
-Devotion
-Diligently seeking and reading God's word.
This is will be the training to stay sharp and focus.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
For true Christians, prayer is "communion with God".
Through prayer we actually experience relationship with God.
The quality of our prayer life then determines the quality of our relationship with God.
Prayer is talking with God. Prayer is listening to God. Prayer is enjoying the presence of God.
It can take many forms - for example: worship, confession, thanksgiving, praise, petition (asking for things), waiting (silent, listening and sensing of God) and warfare (command).
If we are baptized in the Spirit we can pray with the spirit, in languages unknown to us but not to God. (1 Corinthians 14:2,14).
Prayer is not simply saying words. It is not repeating formulas.
God is looking for heartfelt relationship. We are told by Jesus not to make meaningless repetitions of words when we pray. (Mathew 6:7). Tongues may be meaningless to our understanding, but it is not to God. In a future lesson we will give more attention to this subject.
WHY PRAY?
1. We pray because we love God. We spend time with God in prayer and communion because we love him. Just as a man and woman in love desire to be together and communicate, so we - if we love God - will desire to be with Him and to fellowship with Him in proportion to our love for Him.
2. We pray because we depend on God. God is our source. He is our life (Colossians 3:4). Through prayer we receive the comfort, the strength and all the other resources that we need in life - both naturally and spiritually. Prayer - relationship to God - is as necessary to the spiritual life as air to the natural life.
3. We need to pray in order to resist temptation. "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (Mt. 26:41). Much sin is the result of the sin of prayerlessness. Through lack of prayer, we are weak, others are weaker and Satan gains the advantage in our lives.
4. We need to pray because it is necessary for men to invite God to act in salvation. God gave the earth to Adam and his descendants. We must invite God to work here. If no-one invites God to work here, Satan (the god of this world through man's universal rebellion - 2 Corinthians 4:4) will dominate the affairs of men and eventually the judgment of God will come. By inviting God often and specifically, multitudes can be saved that would otherwise be lost.
5. We need to pray because God commands us to pray. "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 4:2). "Then he [Jesus] spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1). The need to pray is as great as the authority of God which commands us: "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is so vital to all that God wants to do on the earth, and so essential to us, that God commands us to do it all the time. We should even deny ourselves sleep and food at times in order to pray more and with greater power. (Matthew 6:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 21:36; Colossians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:27).
God has created mankind so that we naturally hunger for a relationship with Him. He has built that yearning for Himself into our frame; He has encoded eternal longings in our spiritual DNA structure. The Scripture says, "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (Eccl. 3:11). The famous theologian, C.S. Lewis, wrote "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity)
Prayer is the bridge between Heaven and Earth. It is the conduit through which the spiritual realm is brought into our everyday lives. Prayer is the way our spirits breathe. Just as our lungs require oxygen and are designed to seek it out, so our spirits require the presence of God and are designed to seek Him out. Without His presence, we are left gasping for meaning and desperately seeking our purpose in life. We find ourselves trying our best to pray because it is as needful as air for our lungs. Prayer is the method God uses to provide not only our daily needs from food to shelter but also comfort, strength and guidance. The late E. Stanley Jones, missionary and preacher, wrote, "Prayer ... is the opening of a channel from my emptiness into His fullness." (Abundant Living)
Answers depend on the relationship!
You find yourself drawn to prayer, curious about prayer, or even desperate for prayer. Maybe you've tried prayer and prayer has failed you. Maybe you can point to unanswered prayer after unanswered prayer, proving that prayer doesn't work.
Does that describe you?
Welcome! You are at this Web site because God wants you to understand how you can have a fulfilling relationship with Him that will turn prayer from a fruitless exercise to an exciting adventure.
Prayer = Love
Prayer works in the context of relationship. Once the relationship is established, you will find that prayer is its natural expression. It is simply speaking and listening to your Heavenly Father. God wants to answer our prayers. Answered prayer is how He manifests Himself in our life and makes this relationship personal "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." Prayer is the intimacy that flows spontaneously from a loving relationship.
Imagine that you went into a restaurant with your father. Imagine that you and your father ordered your meals, and when the waiter brought them to your table, he said to your father, "That looks delicious. I want to try a bite of that!" Then imagine the waiter picks up a fork and helps himself to a bite from your father's plate. It would be inappropriate. You would be offended. You would demand an apology.
Now imagine that you and your father ordered your meals, the waiter brought them to your table, and you said to your father, "That looks delicious. I want to try a bite of that!" Imagine that you pick up a fork and help yourself to a bite from your father's plate. It would be natural. Your father would be happy to share his meal with you. It would be an accepted intimacy.
What is the difference between the two scenarios? Not the words. Not the actions. Not the intention. The difference is the relationship. The child has access to the father that the stranger does not. (Adapted from Live a Praying Life by Jennifer Kennedy Dean)
Prayer starts with the relationship.
We need to get re-connected. This will help us go on and on, staying sharp and focus to the finishing line, having the endurances to excel in the midst of weakness.
God bless =)
Champions. We see them as winners, extraordinary bunch of people. Champions no overnight winners. Hidden from the eyes of the world, they toil and train hard enough till they are ready to be the strongest. Being the strongest is not having strength or ability at the peak of performance, but being the hanging on, staying sharp and focus to the finishing line, having the endurances to excel in the midst of weakness.
In a marathon, The first 100 metres sprint and the last 100m dash for the finishing line does not count if one falls short in the middle of it.
How is this applicable to our lives?
ISCF camp 09' had concluded about 3 months ago. This is the time when we are back to our own lives. Camps can get anyone excited about God and after the camp, most of us will tend to fall back to how we live our life like how we live it before the camp. Most of the time, we get so connected with life and the world till we get disconnected with God.
What can WE do to keep the fire, keep connected and stay on, sharp and focus?
-Prayer
-Devotion
-Diligently seeking and reading God's word.
This is will be the training to stay sharp and focus.
WHAT IS PRAYER?
For true Christians, prayer is "communion with God".
Through prayer we actually experience relationship with God.
The quality of our prayer life then determines the quality of our relationship with God.
Prayer is talking with God. Prayer is listening to God. Prayer is enjoying the presence of God.
It can take many forms - for example: worship, confession, thanksgiving, praise, petition (asking for things), waiting (silent, listening and sensing of God) and warfare (command).
If we are baptized in the Spirit we can pray with the spirit, in languages unknown to us but not to God. (1 Corinthians 14:2,14).
Prayer is not simply saying words. It is not repeating formulas.
God is looking for heartfelt relationship. We are told by Jesus not to make meaningless repetitions of words when we pray. (Mathew 6:7). Tongues may be meaningless to our understanding, but it is not to God. In a future lesson we will give more attention to this subject.
WHY PRAY?
1. We pray because we love God. We spend time with God in prayer and communion because we love him. Just as a man and woman in love desire to be together and communicate, so we - if we love God - will desire to be with Him and to fellowship with Him in proportion to our love for Him.
2. We pray because we depend on God. God is our source. He is our life (Colossians 3:4). Through prayer we receive the comfort, the strength and all the other resources that we need in life - both naturally and spiritually. Prayer - relationship to God - is as necessary to the spiritual life as air to the natural life.
3. We need to pray in order to resist temptation. "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (Mt. 26:41). Much sin is the result of the sin of prayerlessness. Through lack of prayer, we are weak, others are weaker and Satan gains the advantage in our lives.
4. We need to pray because it is necessary for men to invite God to act in salvation. God gave the earth to Adam and his descendants. We must invite God to work here. If no-one invites God to work here, Satan (the god of this world through man's universal rebellion - 2 Corinthians 4:4) will dominate the affairs of men and eventually the judgment of God will come. By inviting God often and specifically, multitudes can be saved that would otherwise be lost.
5. We need to pray because God commands us to pray. "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 4:2). "Then he [Jesus] spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1). The need to pray is as great as the authority of God which commands us: "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is so vital to all that God wants to do on the earth, and so essential to us, that God commands us to do it all the time. We should even deny ourselves sleep and food at times in order to pray more and with greater power. (Matthew 6:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 21:36; Colossians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:27).
What Makes Prayer Work?
It's all about a relationship!God has created mankind so that we naturally hunger for a relationship with Him. He has built that yearning for Himself into our frame; He has encoded eternal longings in our spiritual DNA structure. The Scripture says, "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (Eccl. 3:11). The famous theologian, C.S. Lewis, wrote "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity)
Prayer is the bridge between Heaven and Earth. It is the conduit through which the spiritual realm is brought into our everyday lives. Prayer is the way our spirits breathe. Just as our lungs require oxygen and are designed to seek it out, so our spirits require the presence of God and are designed to seek Him out. Without His presence, we are left gasping for meaning and desperately seeking our purpose in life. We find ourselves trying our best to pray because it is as needful as air for our lungs. Prayer is the method God uses to provide not only our daily needs from food to shelter but also comfort, strength and guidance. The late E. Stanley Jones, missionary and preacher, wrote, "Prayer ... is the opening of a channel from my emptiness into His fullness." (Abundant Living)
Answers depend on the relationship!
You find yourself drawn to prayer, curious about prayer, or even desperate for prayer. Maybe you've tried prayer and prayer has failed you. Maybe you can point to unanswered prayer after unanswered prayer, proving that prayer doesn't work.
Does that describe you?
Welcome! You are at this Web site because God wants you to understand how you can have a fulfilling relationship with Him that will turn prayer from a fruitless exercise to an exciting adventure.
Prayer = Love
Prayer works in the context of relationship. Once the relationship is established, you will find that prayer is its natural expression. It is simply speaking and listening to your Heavenly Father. God wants to answer our prayers. Answered prayer is how He manifests Himself in our life and makes this relationship personal "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." Prayer is the intimacy that flows spontaneously from a loving relationship.
Imagine that you went into a restaurant with your father. Imagine that you and your father ordered your meals, and when the waiter brought them to your table, he said to your father, "That looks delicious. I want to try a bite of that!" Then imagine the waiter picks up a fork and helps himself to a bite from your father's plate. It would be inappropriate. You would be offended. You would demand an apology.
Now imagine that you and your father ordered your meals, the waiter brought them to your table, and you said to your father, "That looks delicious. I want to try a bite of that!" Imagine that you pick up a fork and help yourself to a bite from your father's plate. It would be natural. Your father would be happy to share his meal with you. It would be an accepted intimacy.
What is the difference between the two scenarios? Not the words. Not the actions. Not the intention. The difference is the relationship. The child has access to the father that the stranger does not. (Adapted from Live a Praying Life by Jennifer Kennedy Dean)
Prayer starts with the relationship.
We need to get re-connected. This will help us go on and on, staying sharp and focus to the finishing line, having the endurances to excel in the midst of weakness.
God bless =)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Luke 18:18-22
Basically this talks about sacrifices. Yes, indeed from the scripture we know that the rich inside the passage has not abused the law at all. But, what Jesus really requires is his sacrifices of his most treasured wealth. In the end, we know that this guy became sad.
In todays term, is not really about our wealth or the question of being able to give up everything for the cost of following Jesus(though, this might be the calling for some people). Is about able to let go what is really in the flesh. I know this is quite simple, but this can be the greatest struggle from what i can see and experince.
When exam time comes or whatever it maybe, we often struggle to go to church, pray and devotion and so on. We let the stress takes over us rather than we manage it properly, we begin to stop serving. I know it sounds good, studies! Then what? when everything begins to settle back to its original state then we begin to serve again and so on or whatver u can name it.
This kind of situation is just lk u treat God with contempt, just like when we were young(4-5 years old), the food that we dont lk to eat we give it to our parents or we just give people things that we dont want. I hope i am making sense. If this can be our attitude now, it might be worse.
Let's say next time u have a career, u have a wife,children and u are elder of the church. U go to yr wife or husband and said,"honey i am just gonna give 20% to u",next u go to yr children and do the same thing maybe in the range of 20% again. God,hmmmmm 35% and the rest is our career.
But thats not the way. Lets give our all to everything we do, 100% in everything we do, i know this is hard, Jesus never said is easy. Infact there is always comes with a price and what is really our priority. To be able to give our best in everything we do sounds insane, but how are we willing to pay the price?Abide in Him! Luke 12:48 says that when someone is given much,much will be requred in return, and when someone has been entrusted with much even more will be required. (I hope i am making a point here, or u can vote this post out.)
And another thing is that alot of us want the goodness and riches of Christ can give. We want so much of the anointing but we are not willing to pay the price of just praying. Is lk u want to do something to help a person yet u are just looking at it without taking any actions. But here is the truth. Romans 8:17 says that And since we are his children, we are His heirs. Infact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering. Here is the thing that we need to understand fully as children of God. See the word suffering, it doesnt mean u will be in pain or sick, it talks about bearing the cross.
Basically this talks about sacrifices. Yes, indeed from the scripture we know that the rich inside the passage has not abused the law at all. But, what Jesus really requires is his sacrifices of his most treasured wealth. In the end, we know that this guy became sad.
In todays term, is not really about our wealth or the question of being able to give up everything for the cost of following Jesus(though, this might be the calling for some people). Is about able to let go what is really in the flesh. I know this is quite simple, but this can be the greatest struggle from what i can see and experince.
When exam time comes or whatever it maybe, we often struggle to go to church, pray and devotion and so on. We let the stress takes over us rather than we manage it properly, we begin to stop serving. I know it sounds good, studies! Then what? when everything begins to settle back to its original state then we begin to serve again and so on or whatver u can name it.
This kind of situation is just lk u treat God with contempt, just like when we were young(4-5 years old), the food that we dont lk to eat we give it to our parents or we just give people things that we dont want. I hope i am making sense. If this can be our attitude now, it might be worse.
Let's say next time u have a career, u have a wife,children and u are elder of the church. U go to yr wife or husband and said,"honey i am just gonna give 20% to u",next u go to yr children and do the same thing maybe in the range of 20% again. God,hmmmmm 35% and the rest is our career.
But thats not the way. Lets give our all to everything we do, 100% in everything we do, i know this is hard, Jesus never said is easy. Infact there is always comes with a price and what is really our priority. To be able to give our best in everything we do sounds insane, but how are we willing to pay the price?Abide in Him! Luke 12:48 says that when someone is given much,much will be requred in return, and when someone has been entrusted with much even more will be required. (I hope i am making a point here, or u can vote this post out.)
And another thing is that alot of us want the goodness and riches of Christ can give. We want so much of the anointing but we are not willing to pay the price of just praying. Is lk u want to do something to help a person yet u are just looking at it without taking any actions. But here is the truth. Romans 8:17 says that And since we are his children, we are His heirs. Infact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering. Here is the thing that we need to understand fully as children of God. See the word suffering, it doesnt mean u will be in pain or sick, it talks about bearing the cross.
--THE END--
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Lost World POSTPONED
Lost World of Tambun postponed...
This is final.. (Sorry for the change)
Thursday (4th June)
11 am - meet at the entrance.
This is final.. (Sorry for the change)
Thursday (4th June)
11 am - meet at the entrance.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
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