BIBLE READING -- PSALM 45-49

People who have wealth but lack understanding
    are like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49:20)

BIBLE READING -- EXODUS 9-12

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. (Exodus 10:27)

"God, I’ll obey Your Word for my life, but...." Compromise! And God says, "No, I’m not interested in partial obedience. The consequences of partial obedience are just as devastating as no obedience." God says, "I want to call the shots because I have a better plan for your life."

BIBLE READING -- PSALM 39-41

And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off. (Psalm 40:17,MSG)


I am a Christian for more than 20 years now and still I need God to help me to go through all of my challenges. I cannot say that I fulfilled Christian and I worry nothing now. I took choices in life and who's responsible is that me but when things aren't that well, I begun to think that I did it again. In my current situation, I have nothing to boast and I am nothing but here's the catch: Make something of me, You can do it, you've got what it takes!  I truly believe that God will make something of me, special, uncomprehensible, mind-blowing transformation. 

1. Accept your nothingness.
2. Acknowledge that there is something within you.
3. Recognize what God can do to you.
4. Show eagerness

BIBLE READING - PSALMS 36-38

But the meek will inherit the land
    and enjoy peace and prosperity. (Psalms 37:11)

Meekness
1. Power under control - roughly equivalent in common usage to humility.
2. A disposition to be patient and long-suffering.
3. Meekness is one of the Seven virtues in Christian tradition. Jesus of Nazareth preached, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth".Meek, a Greek derivative, also refers to a war horse that is bridled and ready for battle

BIBLE READING -- MARK 3-4

²⁴ And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure ^[a][of thought and study] you give [to ^[b]the truth you hear] will be the measure ^[c][of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.

²⁵ For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [^[d]by force], (Mark 4:24-25)

BIBLE READIN -- MARK 1-2

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” (Mark 2:27-28)

BIBLE READING -- PSALMS 30-32

Lord, when you favored me,
    you made my royal mountain^[c] stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
    I was dismayed. (Psalms 30:7)

BIBLE READING -- 1 SAMUEL 1-5

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led Israel forty years.
 (1 Samuel 4:18)

When Eli heard that the ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistine, great sorrow that led to death happened. The moment that we depart ourselves to the Word, we should realize that this a great lost personally. As His scripture said in Psalm 119:105, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. No word, no lamp, no light...

BIBLE READING -- MATTHEW 26-28

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

BIBLE READING -- PSALMS 27:13

Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness    while I am here in the land of the living.

 (Psalms 27:13)

Wait patiently for the Lord.
    Be brave and courageous.
    Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

(Psalms 27:14)

Dreaming of having a good life isnt a dream after all. Surely it will happen. We will taste the goodness of the Lord, not on heaven but on the land of the living. We can taste the goodnes of the Lord while we are living if we wait patiently, bravely and courageousely. The blessings that he has given is not an accident or by your mere strength but this is what the Lord promised. Don't let your worry and challenges to hinder you to become a happy person. This is His divine purpose to us. 

 

BIBLE READING -- RUTH

Woman who impressed God.

Ruth 2:11-12: Boaz replied, "I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband— how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

The fact that Ruth was a girl that…
- Worked hard
- Was very humble
- Was not self-centered
- And had a servant’s heart


That’s the type of person who impresses God - whether male or female. But before you can truly impress God, you must make the decision that Ruth made when she first considered leaving with Naomi. You must decide to take this God as your own…

BIBLE READING -- 1 cor. 3-5

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. (1 cor. 3:11)

BIBLE READING MATTHEW 23-25

But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24: 13)

Jesus is coming! No doubt about it. When? Nobody knows. And a lot..and again I will say, A lot of bad news connecting the second coming. For me, it will come. It is not our problem. These news are just destructions, to inject fear. The coming of the Lord means that's our Blessed Hope..

Hope..not fear..

BIBLE READING -- PSALMS 24-26

WILL YOU SAY, "TEST ME"?
 
Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me.
 Test my motives and my heart. (Ps. 26:2,NLT)

Examine me, God, from head to foot,
  order your battery of tests. 
Make sure I’m fit
inside and out (Ps. 26:2, MSG)


Few people are willing to let others judge or examine them. Some hate any kind of test of their mental or physical abilities. Most people do not wished to be critiqued regarding their personal conduct. On the other hand, all humanity will one day stand before God’s Judgment. Solomon conclude his work Ecclesiastes with these words:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” [Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14 KJV]

What we need to be willing to do is to walk our lives with integrity.
David understood that if he trusted in the Lord, he would not slide.
Whom do we trust in?
Do we walk in integrity and do we really believe that God can and will move in our lives?

At times, the Lord will test the righteous.
God sees our mind and our heart.

Are you prepared to take your test?
Would you pass it?
Trusting and obeying are the keys to passing your test.

Walk with integrity, and trust in the Lord without wavering.
Like David: Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.

BIBLE READING -- JUDGES 17-21

 THE FATE OF UNRULED LIFE

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. 

(Judges 21:25)

A. Though unruled lives may prevail for a time, God’s judgment cannot be forever escaped. 20:1-18

1. Immoral Acts Decried

2. Verdict passed

3. Hardness of Heart

B. The longer God’s rule is resisted the more devastating the final reckoning 20:19-48

1. Battle for Rightousness

2. God’s Deliverance God’s way

C. Even though his judgment is righteous, the fate of the judged should move us 21:1-23

1. First Response is Indignation

2. Second Response Mercy

3. Peace offered to the Judged

4. Preservation of the line

D. While God’s chastening may be harsh, his story remains one of deliverance. 23-25

Final lessons from Judges

A. Fallen humanity will never escape the need for a Deliverer.

B. Until the rule of our lives is fully surrendered to the deliverer, we will likely experience our cycle of sin.

 Forgetting the past
 Looking Elsewhere
 Facing the Cost
 Repentance and Deliverance
 Deliverance Diminishes

C. God will allow us to wallow in that cycle until we truly surrender.

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-fate-of-unruled-lives-the-final-lesson-of-the-judges-bruce-rzengota-sermon-on-judgment-142511.asp?Page=4 Accessed: 25-02-2014

BIBLE READING -- GENESIS 32-35

Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” 
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Gen. 32:26)

BIBLE READING -- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-2

 For, 

“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?

Who knows enough to teach him?” 

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

We gain the mind of Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he reveals it to us through the word of God.

 

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/who-is-the-holy-spirit-and-what-does-he-do-patrick-oloughlin-sermon-on-holy-spirit-general-62335.asp?Page=1 Accessed: 23-02-2014

BIBLE READING -- MATTHEW 20-22

WHAT IS FAIR?

Matthew 20:1-16 Parable of the Vineyeard Workers

“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16)

As we look at this parable one thing really seems to bother us; the treatment of the workers. It all seems so unfair. We have these men that worked all day in the hot sun only to receive the exact same pay as the workers that only worked one hour. It just seems like something is not right here. I think what really bothers us is not the treatment of these workers, but our potential treatment by God, because we realize that this is a parable about the way God calls us by His grace. In the back of ours minds we feel we that are the ones who worked in God’s vineyard all day. We are asking ourselves the question, "Is this fair?" Are we hard-working Christians going to be treated like these workers? Is the man who lives a life of sin who converts on his death bed going to get the same reward that we are? Will there be Charles Manson’s and Jeffery Dahmer’s getting the same benefits we worked so hard to recieve? Surely we must warrant at least a higher ranking in heaven? Maybe on a cloud with the Apostle Paul or Moses. Surely we life-long Christians deserve more. This is the very argument of the workers in the vineyard.

Is it fair for you to pay these men that only worked an hour the same thing you are paying us? The land owners response is very interesting. He answered, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. You agreed with me on a denarius, didn’t you? Don’t I have the right to do as I please with what is mine?" The land owner is right, He gave the workers the amount that they agreed on. This is the way God deals with us. God’s reward system is not our own. God’s system of reward is not based on personal accomplishments or hard work, but based on love. God, in His mercy, promised us a reward and that reward is eternal life. This reward is not something we earn but it is a free gift. As Paul says in Romans 4, "Therefore the promise is by faith that it might come to us as a free gift [by grace], so that the promise might be sure to all descendants, not only to those who live by the Law but also to those who only believe as Abraham did." God made His rewards available to all. His rewards are available through faith in Christ Jesus. He set up the system, so that everyone that believes in His only begotten Son will not perish but have everlasting life.
The main reason this reward system seems so unfair is that we have no control over it. We can’t work hard and recieve our rewards, because Christ did it all for us. He paid the price that we could never pay. He gave up his very life on the cross in order for us to recieve all of God’s promised rewards. The greatest reward of all is eternal life with God our Father.

However, God does not stop here. He set up the system so that it is not dependant on us having to come to Him. He comes to us. Just as in this parable the Lord invites us into His kingdom. He comes out and recruits us. Some of us were recruited early; about the third hour. We were baptized as infants and became one of God’s children. For others it took God coming to us a little later in life. And for others it will take God until the eleventh hour to bring them into the kingdom. But, never the less, we will be there. God made us a promise and God never gives up on us. He has called us by his grace to be His own. Whether we are "the first or the last" we all receive the same reward: eternal life. So is this fair? Not by human standards, no. This is the very reason Paul said in I Cor. 1:23, "For the Jews ask for miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach a crucified Christ. To the Jews this is a stumbling block and to the Greeks it is foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, He is Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom." Only proving that God’s ways are not our ways. For those whom God has called this message of faith is the power that saves and wisdom for salvation. This message of faith is that Christ loved us so much that he stretch out His arms and suffered and died on Calvary’s cross for our sins. God showed us grace in the form of His only Son, who has redeemed us with His own precious blood.
If you were to ask ten people to define the word grace you would probably get ten different answers. For some grace is a total mystery, but for the Christians it is the reason we are saved. "For it is by grace that you are saved through faith." In the dictionary there are many definitions of grace, charity, pardon, forgiveness. And for the Christian all of these words have a special meaning. The one definition that sums up what grace really means is, "undeserved love." This is what has God shown us, an "undeserved love." Because instead of turning His back on us and walking away, He call us to be His own. He went out and invites us to work in His vineyard. He calls us to be a part of His kingdom.
It is like the parent’s with their first child. All during the pregnancy the parents wonder whether this new little one will actually be apart of the family. You wonder will they really be able to welcome him or her into the this intimate circle of two. You wonder if the new one will even want to be a member of this family. And then once this child is born you realize that you would do anything for this child. You are willing to make all kinds of sacrifices to make sure he or she is happy and safe. Now this child has done nothing to warrant such love, it is undeserved. Yet this love is pale in comparison to the love that God has for us. He sacrificed His Only Son for us. There is no greater love than this. We are God’s children and we can rest assured that His grace is universal.

Finally, this parable not only reminds that God’s reward system is not like ours, and that He calls us all to be his own, but it also shows us God’s universal grace is for all. So to answer the opening question, "what is fair?" Nothing is fair. Fair is the wrong word. God does not deal with us fairly and it is a good thing. We should be thankful God did not give us what we deserved. The word we are looking for is grace. The question should be "What is grace?" And the answer is, it is that "undeserved love" that God has shown us through the death and resurrection of His only Son Jesus Christ. As it is written in John 1:17, "For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." God did what he pleased with that which was his. He decided to save us. We can now go out into the biggest mission field, "the world", with the joy and assurance that we have been chosen by God to work in his kingdom.

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/what-is-fair-byrene-haney-sermon-on-faith-vs-works-79268.asp?Page=3 Accessed: 22-02-2014

BIBLE READING -- ISAIAH 40-43

Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—
    unavoidable, indisputable evidence
That I, God, personally did this.
    It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel. (Isaiah 41:20,MSG)

BIBLE READING -- JOB 15-16

But if it were me, I would encourage you.    I would try to take away your grief. (Job 16:5)