A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Job 1:8

Think about it. The Lord is holding His morning meetings with His angels. Each has to report back on their earlier assignments on earth, while also waiting to be sent out to their newest. Satan also joins them from time to time….YES, he is the accuser of the brethren. Think about this! God has a very good report… about one particular man: JOB. He has a VOTE OF CONFIDENCE in him.

But Satan has his point to make. He thinks that Job’s loyalty and confidence in God is based on the exclusive protection he enjoys from God. As soon as the hedge is lifted…the enemy has the upperhand. Job is left standing alone EXPOSED. You may think this as tragic but wait until you hear the story.

You see, God’s vote of confidence in Job was not necessary based on Job’s ability to endure all the hardships but rather on GOD’S ABILITY and HIS ABUNDANT GRACE to see him through the trial. In his weakness, God became his strength.

As it was with Job, it still speaks well of you. A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE from God means you have the majority. Paul reminds us this:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal body.  2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Take courage friend…the vote is for you!

 

MEN & SUCCESS

Psalm 112:1 Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds GREAT DELIGHT in his commands.

Every man on the face of the earth wants or desires to be successful. And while..its right to desire to be successful, there are only two ways to get there. SUCCESS can either by FEAR-DRIVEN or FAITH-DRIVEN.

FEAR-DRIVEN SUCCESS says:

Blessed is the man who wakes up early and stays up late; the man who has a life insurance; the man who has savings for a rainy day; the man who exercises and eat health; the man who knows the rules of the game etc.

Psalm 127:2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat_ for he grants sleep to those he loves.

But…something goes missing for this man….HIS HEART! No matter how sure or secure he is at his present or perceived future….HIS HEART IS ALWAYS FEARFUL. Why? Because he has no fear of the Lord in his heart.

On the other hand…the man who has the fear of the Lord in his heart walks securely. His present or future is sure…as he walks by faith.

FAITH-DRIVEN SUCCESS says:

TWO EMOTIONAL WOMEN!!!

For the last 3 days, I have been EMOTIONAL….yes, I am full of GOOD EMOTIONS. And while I do not know how to express them through this computer screen…one thing is for sure. My EMOTIONS at this point in time can only equal the emotions of these TWO VERY EMOTIONAL WOMEN in the bible. So…I will borrow their words…to express my own emotions as well as theirs!

HANNAH…THE BARREN ONE.

She was married to a wonderful husband but couldn’t bear him children. She was constantly mocked and ridiculed by her co-wife. But finally, God heard her prayer and opened her womb. She became the mother of Samuel…one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 2:1-10 Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart REJOICES in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. ‘There is no-one holy like the Lord; there is no-one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. ‘Do not keep talking such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. ‘The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those whose were full hire themselves out for food, but THOSE WHO WERE HUNGRY HUNGER NO MORE. SHE WHO WAS BARREN HAS BORNE SEVEN CHILDREN, but she who has many sons pines away. ‘The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings to the grave and raises up. ‘The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. HE RAISES THE POOR

GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…

Genesis 28:16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the LORD IS IN THIS PLACE, and I was not aware of it.”

I just opened my email randomly this morning…and was excited to find a reply email from my blogging friend, Dora from Hong Kong. As I began to read her mail…tears began welling up in my eyes. But one sentence…one sentence in her email….made the tears begin to flow down my cheeks unstoppable. She was praying for me…and my family. She was praying for the very things…I have been praying for privately, and which I wouldn’t have thought of sharing with people outside my inner circle. Then, God took me back to Jacob’s encounter. Yes….GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…and I didn’t know not. It was as if…God was telling me….that He knows my thoughts ten years from now. He knows….what I will think, ask or do….come ten days, weeks or years down the room. GOD IS IN THIS PLACE….not because He comes and goes….God is in the place when I am at the present, God is in the place where I have been in the past, God is in the place where I will be in the future.

The tears are unstoppable, friends. GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…as He was with Jacob, so He is with each and everyone who looks up to Him…and even when we are unaware of it….GOD IS IN THIS PLACE.

SIMPLY CHURCH!

Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but WE TRUST in the NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD.

What does SIMPLY CHURCH got to do with anything? You see, church…for you and I may have a whole lot of different meanings. And so does…CHARIOTS AND HORSES. Ask the nobles in the days gone by and you might found out that…CHARIOTS AND HORSES represented in those days…POWER, PROSPERITY & PRESTIGE. In the middle ages, those who owned and rode in HORSE AND CHARIOTS…were usually the CREME of the society, to be regarded with high honour…not because of anything they had done on their part but simply because one was born into aristocracy.

But what does SIMPLY CHURCH got to do with you and me? EVERYTHING...and much more. Church…and I mean church in the only place where you require no qualifications whatsoever to be part of…other than…allowing Jesus to take your lowly place by forgiving your sins and admitting you into AN ETERNAL ARISTOCRACY…in this life and in eternity. Yes…CHARIOTS and HORSES can seem for some like a secure place…of power, prosperity and prestige…but SIMPLY CHURCH…is more secure than all the horses and chariots put together. Why? Because the bible says so:

FATAL ATTRACTION

2 Samuel 13:15 Then Amnon hated her with INTENSE HATRED. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get up and get out!’

The stories in the bible are not always what we would like them to be. Of all things, we hate to read the possibility of RAPE or INCEST among those who were chosen of God. But…truth be told. The bible stories are the very same stories we read in our modern newspapers or watch in our television screens in the safety of our homes. Everyone…wants to be loved and appreciated for the right reasons, and by the right person in different ways. No-one wants to be loved by a brother…not as a sister but as a lover! NO-ONE. Absolutely, no-one. But that’s exactly what happened to Tamar, King David’s daughter. David had several wives…hence, Tamar and Amnon had different mothers, but the same father. So in reality, they shared the same blood.

But that fact did not stop Amnon from falling in love with his half-sister, Tamar. Moreover, long before this, God has issued instructions about how to behave towards blood relatives in the book of Leviticus of which Amnon was fully aware.

Leviticus 18:6, 9 ‘No-one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
‘Do not have sexual relations with your SISTER, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same house or elsewhere.

However, Amnon was too much in love…to think rationally. He was so much into HIS FEELINGS… that he never once stopped to consider the consequences of following after his own heart. Yes…that’s what FATAL ATTRACTION

THE WIND OF CHANGE

John 3:8 The WIND blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of THE SPIRIT.

Last night, as I put my head down to sleep, I heard the Lord speak gently into my spirit. “THE WIND IS CHANGING.” Let me explain a bit. You see, sometime at the end of November last year, our landlady came with this unexpected announcement. Our house…where we moved in on our wedding night…and where our daughter has called home was soon going to be sold. Suddenly, our lives were turned upside down. For one…renting a house in our town is almost an impossible affair. Most houses are built for sale…and rarely do you find a house for rent. Secondly, because of the scarcity of rental houses, those available are at exaggerated rates.

But earlier in September, we had began thinking of looking for our own house to buy and settle down. We had an eye on a particular house…and the excitement was getting on as we prepared to get things moving in the right direction. Then…again, quite unexpectedly, the plans to relocate were soon interrupted. God closed the doors on us. Yes…the time for CHANGE was here but THE WIND OF CHANGE was not. Finally, when our landlady gave us notice of three months to move out…something happened to both of us, my husband and I at the same time. It was as if God had been waiting for this ONE MOMENT in time for a long time. Without a a long discussion or compromise, we knew that NOW…was the time for us to move out. Not out of our house…but rather to move on with THE WIND OF CHANGE.

BUILD YOUR HOUSE LAST

Proverbs 24:27 Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; AFTER THAT, BUILD YOUR HOUSE.

I remember reading the above Proverb sometime last month…and it left me pondering for days. I had even considered posting from it…but nothing concrete seemed to come to me. No revelation whatsoever was forthcoming! Then this morning, I woke up feeling as if I have suddenly lost foot. Our plans as a family almost seems threatened. After some thought, the words of Proverbs 24:27 came rushing back. It was as if God wanted to reassure me about MY HOUSE! Yes…OUR HOUSE.

Before I explain where I am heading with this, let me first remind you what a HOUSE represents for each one of us:

SECURITY: That means a roof over your head gives you a sense of being protected from danger or harm.
STABILITY: That means you have somewhere to go back to every time and all the time. It gives you a sense of continuity.
SETTLEMENT: That means you are now rested and your roots are put down. It gives you a sense of permanency.

With these three points in mind, it may seem more practical and normal for each one of us to desire to have or BUILD OUR HOUSE FIRST…and not as the Proverbs puts it…AFTER doing all the other things. But then again, when I read Proverbs 24;27 I realised I was reading my own life story. In fact, MY GOD STORY.

While I have desired for so long to reach that place of SETTLEMENT, the Lord had other plans for my life. He is the One who gave me…and you, I suppose the outdoor assignment. You and I have been busy preparing the fields for the harvest of the nations. And in the same way, after we have done our bit, He will bring us to the place of BUILDING OUR HOUSE. Just because your house will be BUILD LAST doesn’t mean you will loss out on the best. In fact, since your HOUSE WILL BE BUILD LAST…you will be surprised at what God has in store for you. Remember, He is still the God who SAVES THE BEST WINE FOR THE LAST John 2:10

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD!

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Last week was a trying one for my family…because our daughter was down with a bad cough…and ear infection. She is still here with me today…missing another week of preschool. And because of that…I feel she needs my attention more at the moment. For this whole week, I am therefore going on a sabbatical and hopefully will resume my normal post on 31st May, 2010. Meanwhile I leave you with a vision of where I will be as I HANG OUT with MY SHEPHERD!

SOW YOUR SEED WELL

Ecclesiastes 11:6 SOW YOUR SEED in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

For those who read my blog regularly, you might be aware that I have complied a manuscript…which someday I hope to find a publisher and yes…my memoir will finally hit the bookshelves. But meanwhile as I wait and trust God for the opportunity to get published…I want to share and rejoice with one of my blogger friends, Elaine Olsen.

Although I don’t know Elaine personally, I met her through the blogging world sometime in December 2009 and my heart was hooked to her writing ever since. May I say, she has a passion for the Lord, her family…and yes, the written word. Every time, I visit her blog….PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY, my heart is always stirred by the passion in her words…words which cut through and bring at times relieve, at times a radical change of heart but at most, I feel her heart…and my own lost in the things and purpose of God for her life. She is a LISTENER...and God is speaking into her heart…and she in turn, writes it out for you and me, to help us along our journey towards our heavenly dwellings.

She has SOWN HER SEED WELL….and the Lord has made a way for her. A few weeks ago, she got her first book published and I truly recommend it for reading! The book title is;

PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY:in the pleasure of his company
~f elaine olsen~

For the details on how to purchase your copy, please click on the link above! SOW YOUR SEED WELL…God is faithful.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

God bless you!