Becoming a People That Truly Loves God - Part2

The system of the world denies God because when you put God in your system there are many things that should stop. There are many things that you should not keep but you should share. It only not speaks of a system that defies God. Secondly the world speaks about a society that dignifies worship of self, as you translate it, humanism, as pride tells you obey your thirst even when your thirst is immoral. The world out there tells you you’re married but your spouse doesn’t make you happy, look for another one, if it is good, do it, that’s the worldly system. That’s the reason why self esteem is important, self worth is important but we put it over board.

Becoming a People That Truly Loves God - Part1

I now would like encourage the church to listen to the admonition of the oldest apostle of all, John. He was the one who recorded the Word of Jesus, the heart of the gospel, the heart of the Scripture “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” that is a very popular verse. The same John wrote several years later an admonition to the church at his time and the church of our time, “love not the world”. One way or the other we are torn between two worlds, one the world that we should love that God loves, second the world we should not love because it might pollute our love of God.

PROGRESS WITHOUT PRAYER IS PRESSURE

Rev. Arnel Tan

“Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word of God”
Acts 6:4 NLT

The problem of the early church was how to beat the pressure of progress. One thing hard with success is it can be fatal to the spiritual life of an individual or church. Progress is something wonderful to experience and admittedly this has been the driving goal of our hard works. While progress is a positive thing it also has its own side effects. The truth is the person or any organization that experiences progress or success without spiritual reserves will soon wake up facing unbelievable pressure.

The Apostles and the members of the early church showed remarkably deep spiritual maturity when they adamantly stood for prayer as the priority over projects. The prayer lives of the apostles and the prayer life of the church resulted in spiritual sensitivity that enabled them to detect the trap of progress without prayer . . . a dilemma many of us face today. Aside from our depleted prayer lives, we also have to deal with our inability to discern what God desires. I want to clarify that to be progressive is not bad. The issue here is the forgetfulness of many to put prayer above progress.

When prayer has priority over progress, the pressure of progress is controlled. In prayer, we see the difference between our good intentions and God’s approval. The desire to know God is intensified compared to just being busy doing Christian activities. In prayer, pressure is off because we are focused on the one thing that God wants us to do. In prayer, we learn to rest and not join the rat race for further success. In prayer, the Lord develops within us the spiritual sensitivity to detect when something is wrong even when the outside signs say otherwise.

Progress becomes an unbelievable and unending pressure because prayer has taken the back seat. Less prayer leads to prayerlessness. Here, the work that God has started is now perfected by human effort. No wonder Paul used the word “foolish” to rebuke the Galatians regarding their human effort in doing God’s work. The more progress we see, the more prayers we should say. It is impossible to handle the blessings of abundance when we are not in tune with the Giver of these gifts. Warnings have been issued all throughout the Bible . . . from the books of Deuteronomy to the Epistles. We have been warned not to fall into the trap of progress. As the Lord allows His favor to flow, let us be on our knees to pray! If problems brought us to prayer, the more we should be on our knees when things are progressing, for it is here that we are most vulnerable to forget God.

Warning From The Life of Jesus - Part2

Jesus said I did not pray for deliverance for I am made for this hour that you may handle your pain, because if I give up you cannot handle it anymore. Are you ready when God will not deliver you? Is there a prayer that when I lay hands on a child with down syndrome he will be normal again? Is that what you want? If that is what you want and you call it miracle then that miracle is cheap! You will learn nothing. Parents with autistic and down syndrome child confessed more than once said “The Lord sent us this child to teach us to be like Christ” There are some pains that does not need deliverance but on the other hand the danger of being too afraid.

Warning From The Life of Jesus - Part1

When you know the time of your death, would it affect your spiritual life? What preparations will you make until the day of your death? Remember the time of Jesus when his death was near? Though he is fully God and fully man, on the last chapter of his life in this world, you can see both faith and anxiety collide. Faith because Jesus would say I am bound for this, anxiety because Jesus expressed his situation and said I am deeply troubled. You would also see that in the midst of his eminent death people would come to him wanted some counseling and Jesus would explain, as he always explained “I need to die so that many will live”.

Solitude With God - Part2

One of our church member said to me Pastor he did not go to our Baptist distinctive? I would like you to know that in solitude sometimes it’s good to leave this distinctive for a while and to embrace the Holy Scripture. Have you tried to pray out of the Holy Scripture? Ah! it’s powerful! It’s not just my words, it’s praying the Words of God, as our Lord Jesus said “Abide in Me and I will abide in you”. While you are enjoying silence and then reflecting, scary thing comes in. In solitude you have struggle and in that struggle in solitude we become real.

Solitude With God - Part1

What happens when a child of God is growing in solitude with God? If you are not a Christian, if you don’t know Christ, your heart is empty, your heart is void, so when you try to be alone and to be quiet instead of peace you will find horror, you will find guilt, you will find a lot of condemnation. No wonder why noise is your defense. But if you surrender your life to Jesus Christ if you repent of your sins and invite Him into your heart you will realize how foolish we have been to miss the value to be quiet before our Lord.