Blog Archives

Christ our healer

26/2/2014

We know that Christ has saved us from eternal condemnation when He was crucified for our sake 2000 years ago. But do we know Him as our daily saviour?

In our daily lives, we might face problems, distress and depression. They could make us feel so hopeless and alone.

We tend to be "too busy" dealing with our problems or thinking about them and do not have the time to pray. We forgot that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, He can heal us.

We need to have a willing heart and spend at least a few minutes everyday to open up to Him in prayer.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds

- Diven

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All you can eat Spiritual buffet

25/2/2014

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During one of my college days, me and my friend love to go to all you can eat buffet. Being students on budget, it was a delight to only pay half price but the catch was we would have to finish everything in our plate within one hour. So when the clock starts, we made all the minutes count and wolfed down our food till we felt uncomfortably full.

This practice can be quite similar to the way we treat our Bible reading. We may treat God’s word like all you can eat buffet where we would wolf down the Words as much and as fast as possible, some of us even speed read because we may have a yearly Bible reading targets. Then awhile later, we would wonder why we have not learned as much from our Bible readings.

Like physical food, spiritual food too needs chewing. If we speed read through those passages that we have read so many time before but learned nothing from it, it is a sure sign that we are not digesting the spiritual food.

Let’s not treat Bible reading as if we are in all you can eat buffet. Take time and ponder on each passage intently. Only by doing so, we will get the most value for our spiritual needs.

Psalm 119:15 NLT
I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways.

- Irene Soon

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Find faith when you need it

25/2/2014

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There are some things in our lives that take alot of prayer and a lot of faith to overcome. But why is it so hard sometimes to stand in faith for those things?

D.L. Moody spent many hours praying for faith. He once said, "If all the time I have spent praying for faith was put together, it would be months. I thought that someday faith was going to come down and strike me like lightening. But faith did not come. Then one day I read in the 10th chapter of Romans, "So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." I now opened my Bible and began to read God's Word and faith has been growing ever since."

Much of what we believers describe as 'faith' has nothing to do with Biblical faith. Our faith must not be based on emotion, or want, and not on the latest exciting conference or revival. But it must be centered on God's Word, on Jesus, His death and resurrection, His salvation. The Living Word is the eternal, everlasting love of God which has been poured out upon our lives.

Let's read, hear, apply and live the Word today, and we will grow strong in faith!

Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God

- George Whitten (Worthy Devotion)

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Receive fullness and wholeness

24/2/2014

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Have you ever noticed that one of the most common human experiences is the inability for us to be completely satisfied ? Unfortunately, salvation by itself doesn’t completely fill the need.

Many come to Christ out of their search for something missing. Yet after receiving salvation, they go elsewhere for further satisfaction .

Christians can be miserably dissatisfied if they accept Christ’s salvation yet reject the knowledge that daily relationship with God offers fullness and wholeness to oneself. God offers us so much more than we usually choose to enjoy, try your gracious Father dear friends. Listen to Him and He will reveal to you what is good. Receive the true fullness and wholeness.

Isaiah 55:2 NASB
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.

- Beth Moore devotional

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Pushing forward!

20/2/2014

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Ruth was one of the key persons in the Bible who left a mark on history. Her story did not have a happy beginning. In an unfortunate turn of events, her husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law died, leaving her mother-in-law, Naomi behind. Naturally, Naomi was devastated and wanted to return to her homeland.

Ruth had two options; to return back to the security and comfort of her parents house, or to go into the unknown, with only her mother-in-law, Naomi as her guide.

Sometimes, we may be in similar position to Ruth. Perhaps a journey which once seemed full of hope has brought more challenges or despair than had expected. Perhaps God's promises which was once so clear has now become a myth...

Yet, like Ruth we have two options. We can turn back, give up, return to the good old days, or the comfort and familiarity we have had; or we can allow these challenges to push us forward. With the Holy Spirit our own personal guide, God is able to turn the sourest situations into legacies! God is more than able! He turned Ruth, a poor widow with nothing into a wife, mother and an ancestor of the Saviour, Jesus! He can and will do it on our lives too! Let him turn what may look like nothing into something which impacts history!

Phil 3:10-14
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

-Jo Voon-

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I’m just a ...

19/2/2014

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One of the most common phrases often said by all of us starts from these three words – “I’m just a ….”

Phrases such as “I’m just a nobody,” “I’m just a stay home mum,” “I’m just an employee here,” “I’m just a retiree now,” “I’m just a student,” are among the ones I hear often. There is nothing wrong in being humble and I have to say most of us usually have the right motive as we refrain from being boastful.

The motive is commendable but these words do shape our own self-image in a longer run. Take an example, if you were to repeat these words twice a week, that will make you professing these words 104 times a year. It is a very gradual way to instill a low self-esteem image unto yourself.

God clearly sees us more than what we profess of ourselves. He calls you “Mighty valiant warrior (Judges 6:12),” He sees you as a “Princess with clothing woven from gold (Psalm 45:13),” and you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). You are not just a number in the vast population of this world nor you are just a face in a crowd. You are one person whom Jesus loves the most. He is the Almighty God who is able to love each one of us differently and personally. Each of us is God’s workmanships; created in the image of Christ so what would you say next time? I will start mine and say, “I’m just the blessed one.”

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

- Irene Soon

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Consider it a blessing when we are tried

17/2/2014

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“The best evidence of God's presence is the devil's growl,” so once wrote Charles H. Spurgeon in The Sword and the Trowel. That little sentence has helped many a tried and tired child of God to stand fast and even rejoice under the fiercest attacks of the foe.

We read in the book of Second Samuel that the moment David was crowned at Hebron, "All the Philistines came up to seek David in full force but David went back to the stronghold.” At the moment we get anything from the Lord worth contending for, the devil comes to seek us. When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as "a token of salvation" and claim double blessing, victory and power.

Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. In the powerhouse, electricity is produced by the magnetic resistance of the revolving armature. Even so we shall find some day that the devil’s attack or resistance has been one of God's agencies of blessing. Rejoice and count it a blessing when we are tried.

James 1:2 - 4
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

- A.Simpson

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Begin Again

13/2/2014

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Are you doing what you really believe you should be doing at this stage in your life, or have you allowed fear and a lack of confidence to prevent you from stepping out into new things—or higher levels of old things?

If you don’t like your answer, then let me give you some good news: It is never too late to begin again! Don’t spend one more day living a narrow life that has room for only you and your fears. Make a decision right now that you will learn to live boldly, aggressively, and confidently. Don’t let fear rule you any longer.

It’s important to note that you can’t just sit around and wait for fear to go away. You will have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Or, as John Wayne put it, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” In other words, courage is not the absence of fear; it is action in the presence of fear. Bold people do what they know they should do—not what they feel like doing.

Numbers 33:3-4
They set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the Israelites went out [of Egypt] with a high hand and triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord had struck down among them

- Joyce Meyer devotional

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Prayer and hymns that shake the foundations of the prison

12/2/2014

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Sometimes, we are imprisoned by fear, negative thoughts, trouble, condemnation, sadness or anger. When situations and people rise up against us, it can be very hard to remain joyful and calm.

The Bible tells us that Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison. In the prison, they were praying and singing hymns and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

They did not pray and sing after they were released. They prayed and sang while they were still in prison, this brought victory and they were freed, the doors were opened and chains were loosed.

Whatever is imprisoning us today, we need to be freed by praying and singing hymns. Jesus is the light that overcomes darkness, He also overcame death. Let Him free you from your prison today.

Acts 16:22 - 26
Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

- Diven

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The Soldanelle flower

11/2/2014

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Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year God works one of His marvels.

The snow-patches lie there, frozen with ice at their edge from the strife of sunny days and frosty nights; and through that ice-crust come unscathed flowers bloom.

Back in the days of the by-gone summer, the little soldanelle plant spread its leaves wide and flat on the ground, to drink in the sun-rays, and it kept them stored in the root through the winter.

Higher and higher it grew and always above it rose the bell of air, till the flower-bud formed safely within it: and at last the icy covering of the air-bell gave way and let the blossom through into the sunshine, the crystalline texture of its lilac petals sparkling like snow itself as if it bore the traces of the rough flight through which it had come. This silent transformation bore witness to us that the impossible is possible ; none of these jewel like flowers nestled on the slopes below could have waken.

Everyday, we love to see the impossible done and so does God. Face all challenges to the end. Let your faith grow as God is the God of the impossible.

Luke 1:37
For with God nothing shall be impossible

- Streams in the Desert devotional

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