GROWING TOGETHER IN CHRIST

From the burning bush to the psalms to Jesus’ promise, God’s presence gives us confidence, guidance, and hope. In Exodus chapter 3, we find Moses in Midian tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro. Earlier, Moses had fled Egypt, fearing the wrath of the Egyptian king who had threatened to kill him after it was discovered that he had killed an Egyptian official. While in the wilderness tending the flocks, he noticed something strange. He saw a bush on fire, but it did not burn up. He went over to look, and God called him, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And he answered, ‘Here I am.’ -Exodus 3:4. God then told Moses not to approach any closer and instructed him to remove his sandals, for ‘ the place where you are standing is holy ground .’ Then God goes ahead and introduces Himself, saying, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’- Exodus 3:6. He told Moses that He was concerned about the sufferings of His people under the hands of the Egyptians. H...

‘ Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight . Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.’ – Proverbs 3:5-8 Proverbs 3:5 starts by saying, ‘ Trust in the Lord .’ The word " trust " comes from the Hebrew word ‘batach’, which means to rely on, to put full confidence in, and to feel safe. In this case, we are called to put our full confidence in the LORD, to feel safe, and to rely on the LORD. It goes on to say, ‘with all your heart .’ The word " heart ," derived from the Hebrew word "lev," goes beyond the physical organ. It involves the mind, feelings, will, and inner self. Thus, when it comes to trusting the LORD, it’s an all-in situation. It is not about trusting God half-heartedly, or one foot in, but putting all of your trust in God. The second part reads, ‘ and ...

  ‘ Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’ -Genesis 12:1 In Genesis 12, we read about Abram’s calling ( later Abraham ). At this point, God tells Abram to leave his home country, a place where He’s well familiar with, to leave his people and most importantly, his father’s household and journey to a place that is totally new to him. God then goes ahead and tells Abram the good things and promises that He had in mind for him, but first, Abram had to leave his father’s household to receive the promises of God. God has amazing plans for each one of us; plans to prosper us, plans to bless us and plans for a better future. Like Abram, God intends to do amazing things in our lives, but first, we must show readiness to leave what is familiar to us and to meet God and His promises outside our comfort zone . For as long as an arrow stays in the quiver, it will never achieve its full purpose . Similarly, if we limit ourselves only to our...

  ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’ – Romans 8:28 There’s an analogy of the Archer and the arrow, which simply describes our relationship with God and His plans for us. When an Archer has the desire to shoot an arrow, He first identifies the target. When the target is set, the Archer picks the arrow from the quiver and positions it properly until it is nocked with the string. He understands that the entire process has to be done carefully and steadily to hit the target. First, the Archer pulls back the bow, then He carefully aims at the target and finally, when the moment is right, He releases the bow, and the arrow thrusts forward until it hits the target. In the analogy, God is the Archer and we are the arrow. God has a plan for each one of us that will ultimately bring glory to Him. God designed each one of us with specific needs, skills and gifts that are unique to us. God had already...

'So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.' – Isaiah 41:10 In life, when faced with challenging situations or when things are starting to get difficult, we often begin to worry about how to deal with them. Sometimes we worry about almost everything, our finances, our children, broken relationships or the future. In Matthew 6:27, Jesus questions the usefulness of worrying. He asked, 'Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?'  Jesus points out that it is useless to engage our minds in worrying. He shows us that God is capable of taking good care of us more than He takes care of little things, such as the birds of the air. Worrying does not benefit us in any way. Think about it this way: when you worry, it is like carrying a bag with holes in it. As you walk, you pick up stones along the way, which you pack in the bag. Each stone you pick re...

 'About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.' – Acts 16:25 The story of Paul and Silas is just one of the numerous examples of how God delivers those who choose to fix their eyes on Him in the midst of trials, persecution and challenges of this world. Perhaps you are caught in one of these storms of life, and you don't know how you could ever overcome them on your own with no lasting or reliable help; if that's you, then the deliverance of Paul and Silas from prison cells will encourage you to remain steadfast in Christ Jesus. In Acts chapter 16, while Paul and Silas were in Philippi, they were met with a female slave possessed by an evil spirit. Since she could predict the future, her owners used her to earn money through fortune-telling. When Paul cast the demon out of the slave girl, her owners were angered by the loss of profits they would have earned from the slave girl.  These men went ahead and arrested Paul and Silas, dragged them throu...

 'Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. – Luke 13:12. Are you living in bondage? Do you feel like your life is bound in chains by the evil spirit? If that's so, be encouraged, Jesus demonstrates to us in Luke 13:10-17 that He's rich in mercy and powerful to break chains that have bound us for so long.  In Luke's gospel 13:10-17, as Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, there was a woman in attendance who had been crippled by the evil spirit for a period of eighteen years. The scriptures go on to say that 'she was bent over and could not straighten up.' For eighteen years, she was bent over, unable to straighten up, look up, or walk normally. She was restricted to looking down.  Isn't that always the objective of the devil? To restrict us to only looking down, to only operate within the circles of addictions, doubt, anger, gambling, sin, debt, and resentment, so that we don't discover the gifts and power that God has put inside of us and liv...

'So, Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.' – Acts 12:5 Perhaps you have come across someone who's going through something, and out of your mind you say, 'I will pray for you' or 'Friend, I will always have you in my prayers.' As simple as it may sound, that simple sentence, when put into action, can move mountains in someone else's life, especially when they can't do it on their own.  Throughout the Bible, we've seen how people took the position of standing in the gap for others through intercession. In Genesis 18:16-33, Abraham took that position of standing in the gap for the people living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As we know, the people living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had committed great sins against God, and God's wrath was about to fall on them. Abraham, knowing God's intention to destroy the cities, interceded for them, for God to spare their lives only if he found a fe...

 'Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.' - Revelation 3:20 Imagine this, if you keep on adding so much stuff into your room without cleaning it from time to time, at some point your room will become cluttered. And if you try to look for something, it gets increasingly difficult to locate it. This is because you are holding so many things that are unneeded. To make your room tidy again, you need to declutter. Sometimes, to properly declutter your room, it is essential to involve a third party. Someone who will help you to get rid of what you don't need, because if you do it on your own, you will probably keep everything.  In the same way, we allow so many things into our lives and into our hearts, and rather than letting go of them, we choose to hold onto them. We hold on to the hurtful things people did to us, we hold on to the pain, the unforgiveness, the shame, the ...

 'Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.' - Jeremiah 38:20 We live in the information age, where things are easily accomplished by the use of the internet. For a computer to work, it needs software. And for your computer to be secure, you will need additional software called anti-virus. This software will protect your computer from viruses and threats that may harm your computer and your data. Normally, when you try to download or install unauthorised files from unsecured sites, your anti-virus will alert and warn you about a possible threat. It does this to keep your data safe, and when you act accordingly, your system will be secured.  In the same way, the Holy Spirit does speak to us from time to time. Guiding us on things we need to do, and warning us when we try to cross the line which God has set. The Holy Spirit does this for our own good, so that we don't fall into trouble. So often, we hear the voice of ...

"Pray without ceasing"- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Do you see yourself as an outsider? Or as someone whom society has pushed aside? Well, if that's how you see yourself, then it is important that you consider the story of the Canaanite woman and Jesus in Matthew 15:21-28. In the passage, Jesus enters the region of Tyre and Sidon, and He is immediately met with a Canaanite woman from that region. The woman came to Jesus crying, 'LORD, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.'- Matthew 15:22. We also read in verse 23 that, 'Jesus did not answer a word.' At this point, Jesus chose to stay silent. Normally, Jesus would go ahead and do or say something. But on this occasion, he just went quiet. What's unique about this situation is that the woman was a Canaanite and not an Israelite. The Canaanites and the Gentiles were often considered as unclean, unworthy people and outsiders by the Jews. We see this a lot in our pr...

  “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith.” – Hebrews 12:2 Today, we focus our attention on the gospel of Matthew 14:22-34. As we read, we learn that Jesus immediately makes his disciples go on a boat ahead of him to the other side. Notice, the word being used in the Scripture is immediately. And when did it happen? Right after feeding the five thousand people. The disciples didn’t have time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening; they were immediately ushered into another phase of events. Later that night, the storm arose, and the disciples had already covered some good distance from land. When all this was happening, Jesus was up on a mountain praying. The storm grew so strong against them, and they were buffeted by the waves. Do you notice how sometimes a storm arises in our lives, immediately? Just when things are going very well, something happens immediately. Before we know it, we are deep into the storm, struggling to stay afloat and away from...

“In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”- Hebrews 10:37 Do you sometimes worry when God’s promises for you seem to take longer than expected? Does your soul get restless while waiting for God to fulfil His promise, especially when you don’t see any progress yet? Often, people get restless and worried whenever God’s promises seem to take longer than they expected. And yet, we forget that it is God who gives such amazing promises to us. He knows when and how to fulfil it. If there’s anything that we can firmly hold on to, it's the promises of God. Hebrews 10:23 encourages us to “Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” God is faithful, and He can never go against his word. Deep within, you know the promises that God has spoken to you. The promises of God for your life are something that we need to stand on. They are like an anchor of hope to keep us steady and firm in God. If we are not careful and decide to lis...

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” – Psalm 119:105 One day, a son saw his father looking at a map and got curious and asked his dad. He asked, “Father, what are you doing?” His father replied,   “Son, I got a new job in the city. I am going to a place I have never been before, and this map will guide me.” Then the son said, “Father, since you will be away, I have one request to ask.” “What is it, son?” his father asked. “I also want a map to guide me through life.” So, if you were the child’s father, mother, or guardian, what would you have given the child as a guide? We, who are believers in Christ, have God as our Father. God knew that we would be lost without Him, and that’s why He gave us the Bible. His word. Without God’s word in our lives, it would be like walking blindly in an unfamiliar place. It is important that we read the Bible to know what God’s will is for our lives. We need God’s word also, for guidance each time we are not sure what t...