Enough

When David picked up that little pebble to go into the battlefield to fight with the giant, he had the confidence that he's well trained. It's a win or die situation, but he had no battle in his mind. He didn't need to go through a famous Bible college, mentored by prestigeous preachers...he didn't finish an expensive uni course, nor did he hire any personal tutors. He didn't have the coverings of intercessors, or confirmed by a number of prophets. He didn't have the blessings and the release of his local church or family, nor did he have the support and understanding of friends. financial support, impartation, recognition, discipleship ....he had none. He only had God, and that was Enough.

Bread crumb blessings

Matt 15:22-39"A Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon....and he answered and said, it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs....but she said, yea, Lord, for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was healed from that hour."

A lot of the times, we're in some kind of distress or desert situation, and all we want is,"God, get me out of here, I don't want to be here, give me a big miracle, give me a red sea experience!"
But sometimes, God's response is a delayed "breadcrumb"style blessings....lol
If we can just open our spiritual eyes, and be aware, we can almost always find that God is everywhere. His grace is always enough. But sometimes we just only focus on the big miracles that we miss all these "breadcrumbs". They're too small to be noticed, to be thankful, and to even ask for. But if we can humble ourselves, and look out for blessings, we'll find multitudes of God's blessings, and His ways to lead us to the breakthroughs.

Behind Moses' seperating the red sea, there was 40 years of daily seeking drinking water; behind David's fearless confrontation of the giant, there was a shepherd boy's countless fights with bears and lions.....

"And step by step He leads me..." through the little steps, seemingly small blessings, we'll find His ways, and get to know who He is, which will lead us to a lifestyle of miracles, and living a supernatural life naturally.

Washing feet - John 13

John 13:10 " Jesus said to him, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean;..."
"If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." (v8)

Bath here speaks baptism to me.
Washing feet speaks seperation of the world, and be empowered to bring God's salvation to the world.

Seated on a donkey -John 12

John 12:14-15 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."

If we worship God, then He will gladly take His place as our king, no matter how shabby the place we can offer Him, no matter how unworthy we feel we are. He's willing to take a king's throne even on a donkey's colt. He's willing to come to every heart to be the king if only we worship Him.

The king of universe, can also be the king of our hearts. Even though our hearts can be broken hearts, the king's willing to come and transform us into queens and princesses.....
Isn't that a good news!

The alabaster Jar -John 12

John 12:3 "Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

Mary broke something very costly to her to anoint Jesus, and in return, Jesus broke His own body and the real anointing flew out.

If we break our alabaster jar for the sake of the Lord, we're anointing the Lord with our sacrifice. And in return, God will anoint us with His glory -- the fragrance of His anointing.

Jesus wept -- John 11

John 11:33-35 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ....Jesus wept.

There's a secret bond between Jesus and Mary, that is, they share the same feelings. Jesus trusted Mary with His own feelings, she had His heart. She took care of His feelings and didn't let Him down. She acted out what she felt in her heart. In return, Jesus took care of her feelings. When she's troubled, He felt what she's feeling, and was moved to actions.

When you feel something bigger than yourself, when you feel the Lord's heartbeat in you, you know that God has entrusted to you with His own feelings, and you know that you've been called into something. If you act out what's in your heart, when you're moved by what God feels in you, God will be moved into action, too.

Abundantly - John 10

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

This is such a powerful verse.
Do you have an area that has lack? Is there any area in your life that has marks of having been stolen, robbed, destroyed? There's good news. Jesus has come to that very area, to give life, and to give it abundantly! Whether it's finance, health, relationship...etc.

Just picture an area in your mind that's been lacking, and then invite Jesus into that area, and let the shower of His truth rain down your whole being, and stay in that shower, until you can feel that abundance becomes alive!

Abundantly....... I found myself repeat this word over and over today in my mind. There's no lack in abundance. It's more than enough, more than we can work it out for ourselves....it's the reality of heaven, it's the gift of Jesus.

Blind - John 9

John 9:41 "Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, we see, your sin remains."

Wherever there's lack, the lack itself will take us or motivate us to the throne of God and to ask for His blessing. Like Job, the lack that the enemy had caused him enabled his double blessings.
If we recognise our lack or weakness and come to His mercy seat, we'll be forgiven and be blessed.
Where there's no lack, where we can't recognise our sin and weakness, we simply won't be bothered to come to God for His mercy and blessing, so our lack remains in us, and everything stays the same.

Continue in My word - John 8

John 8:31-32" ... If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

It's like we get dirty and get into a shower. The dirt are the lies of the enemy, of this world. There's no point dabbing a little bit of water here and there. We are to be completely exposed in the shower, and continue in the running water, then the water will gradually wash away all the doubts and unbelief, and we will know the truth.
We need to continue to be exposed to God's living word, to be exposed to the truth, until His word becomes such a reality, until all the doubts are gone.
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing word of God. If we continue to hear God's word, then our faith will grow. And perfect love cast out fear. When we're in the shower of truth and faith long enough, we'll be clean of the dirt of doubt and unbelief. And when the faith is perfect, we'll be set free.

"I am the bread of life." --John 6

John 6:5-6 Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Phillip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?" This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.
I think Jesus here is teaching us a lesson of "Mary or Matha".For Mary's approach it would be to draw on Jesus' strength and provision first, and then feed the crowd, while Matha's approach is simply to get on with the work, find the money, find the food and see what we can do.


John 6:15 "So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone."
This is a powerful example of leadership. A lot of leaders today will eagerly embrace success and fame rather than "withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." Jesus stayed faithful and connected with the Father in all circumstances. And this is the secret of His power and true success.


John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."Galatians 5:16-18 "Walk in the Spirit....But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
God is still speaking today. If we don't believe that, then we are not led by the Spirit, but by the law. The law kills but the Spirit gives life and life more abundant. If we're not hearing His voice, then we're missing His will and His power in our lives, then we'll be running around frustrated like Martha and missing out on all the blessings of Mary.

Who's voice are you listening?--Job

When there's trouble and frustration in our lives, it's easy for us to lose focus on God's voice and turn our attention to the voices of our friends: the negative voice, rational voice and cynical voice,etc.The most dangerous question to ask in time of trouble is "why?" rather than simply trust.Faith and doubt can't coexist. Perfect love cast out fear.There has to be a time when we make up our mind:"enough is enough, now I'll just listen to what God has to say and simply believe."
Job1:21 "...The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
There's blessing when the Lord gives; and there's double blessings when the Lord takes away. Don't let the devil trick you and take you off the track.

The Woman of Samaria -- John 4

John 4:7 "There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me a drink."Drink to me speaks of presence. Jesus is asking us here to give him our presence, to give him what we have. And when we give Him our attention, then He will give us His presence and what He has, the living water.

The second part of conversation the woman was confronted of who she thinks she is. She was convicted of her package. She felt unworthy. "Our fathers worhiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worhip."(v20)She thought only those people with high achievements and church leaders are worthy of worship. For this, Jesus' reply was, I'm your savior, I love you just as you are.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."(v24)
In spirit, is the 1st part,"Give Me a drink." We must be present in the spirit. We come to Him with almost a naked heart, a wide open heart fully attentive, ready to be touched. Not tired, bored, can't be bothered, or absent minded. We give Him our cup of drink.
In truth, we come as we are, with all our baggages, not pretending to be some holy people. We will be convicted, but Jesus comes for the sinners, not for the righteous. He's here to save, not to condemn. He loves us just as we are.

And if we give Him our open heart, then He will give us His open heart, and we'll be able to touch and feel His heart and His passion. We'll be able to know His will and His purpose for us.1John5 :14 "...if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."
John4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work."

We have the drink, and we have the food, and we'll have a very fulfilled life.

The Word -John 1

John 1:1-2&14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

The Word speaks of language, means of communication, bridge of relationship to me. In the beginning God desired to have a relationship, to love, to communicate. The Word is living word. He speaks constantly.He communicates with us by various means. Just like the communication between a husband and a wife. They constantly talk and communicate. We're given the means of communication with God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Word brings God and us together. Through the Word we can enjoy a close relationship with God. If we accept Jesus into our hearts, then the word speaks in us, and God lives in us. And if God lives in us, then we can hear, sense,and feel His Word.

This is a prophetic word by Kent and Andrea Simpson:"You speak of Me as if I Am a book. Do you not know that I Am NOT wood pulp and ink bound in genuine leather. You reference to the Holy Scriptures as if they can save you. I tell you, these words testify of Me and My works. Many of you worship this Holy Book as if it can save you, but I declare to you, you cannot be saved except you first come to ME.Jesus Christ the Word of God.

In the footsteps of Elisha - 2 King 2

2King 2
Elisha has been following Elijah. He's been faithful in his servanthood. He's been following orders, doing chores.

What made him stand out from the rest of the people and became an extraordinary man of God?

There're 3 places of significance in this chapter.

1. Bethel: a place of church, house of God. Religion. Boundaries of law. Reinhard Bonnke in his book "Even Greater" (P55)said,"Somehow, I believe this transition between obeying earthly authority and obeying God's authority is an essential test for those who serve Him."

2. Jericho: a place of proclaiming, obedience(following God's specific orders and guidance), praise, and spiritual breakthrough.

3. Jordan: a place of overflowing. Joshua 3:10"By this you shall know that the living God is among you..."

Abide in Christ --1 John2

1 John2
Above everything else, to abide in Christ is the ultimate purpose of all creation.

Above all purposes and all achievements, to abide in Christ gives God the ultimate joy and fulfilment.

We're created to abide. Not just to achieve.

Achievements will be gone one day. Purposes fade away at the eternal glory. But abiding is what God's heart craves.

He created us for relationship. He longs for us to abide in Him, and enjoy all He has, to share eternity with Him.

There's no lack in eternity. There's no lack in Him.

A husband doesn't want a wife who just wants his money or some benefit. A husband wants a wife that he can share everything he has with her and to live life together.

And abiding in Christ is the ultimate calling to all God's people.

Manna -Exodus 16

Exodus 16
Manna is the daily bread in the journey to the promised land.It's not the real thing. But it's the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Manna is the faith, hope, strength along the journey while God's promise hasn't been fulfilled.God provided manna every day before they got to the promised land. The Lord gives us our daily bread as our daily need of faith, hope, strength...We need God's supernatural provision every day. If we try to live on yesterday's faith, we'll find that "it bred worms and became foul"(16:20). God will give us enough strength for each day. But if we stop seeking and gathering, we'll find the leftovers are not good enough for the challenges of the new days. Faith needs to be renewed and refreshed every day. For the Israelites, even after witnessing the greatest miracle of the red sea, only after three days of hunger and thirst they lost their faith. We can have great faith at the beginning when we felt God's calling, but on the journey if we don't look out for God's manna, His reassurance and provision on a regular basis, we'll lose our vision, and our faith will be corrupted by doubts and fears.The proverb verse today says "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge...so that your trust may be in the Lord...to make you know the certainty of the words of truth..."

Faith, hope and love -- Hebrews 11

Hebrews 11:1-2 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval." 39-40 "And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect."

Faith is a journey. In practical Christian lives, probably there's more failed faith than successful faith. That means, probably there're a lot of prayers go unanswered. If all faith works, then everybody will be healed, and everybody will be saved, there won't be any tragedies or disappointments...

To me, God is like a fisherman, and faith is like the bait that He's using. And we are the fish. God gives us a promise(bait), and we want to bite that bait. We want it so much that in the process of getting that promise we change. We die to ourselves. We give ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. And this dying and giving ourselves totally to God is the "approval" that He's seeking to have in us. In the end, whether we get to enjoy the bait or not is not His primary concern, "because God has provided something better for us"(v40) He wants to give Himself to us, which is far better than His promise. And more so, He wants to have us, "so that apart from us they would not be made perfect."(v40)

"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1Cor13:13)
"Love never fails. " (1Cor13:8)
"God is love." (1John4:8)

Faith can fail, hope can fail. But through faith and hope, we can get the approval of love, and love can never fail.

Ask God questions -1 Samuel 23

A lot of the teachings nowadays I hear tend to tell us to learn the Godly principles and then make decisions by ourselves.But in this chapter David's example is that he enquired God of every move he had to make. He asked God, in detail, and then God answered him in detail. He asked a lot of questions, like,"Shall I go and attack these phillistines?" he wasn't sure if he's heard right so he asked again and God answered him again; He asked,"...Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard?" ..."Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?"...The reason that David could play hide and seak with Saul without being found and killed was because he asked God specifically about everything. And God was quite happy to answer his questions. It would be a disaster if he missed asking God and just made his own decisions based on his own judgements.I think God would still like us to ask Him questions. Sometimes we might not be happy with the answers we get, like Daivd might not be happy why he had to be in the wilderness for so long. Sometimes we might not understand why God wants us to do certain things. But if we obey and follow the directions and orders, it will turn out much better than if we just go ahead and try to change the situations by ourselves.

Giving -1 Samuel 25

I don't know if anyone has used 1Sam25 as a tithing message...anyway I think it pretty cool to be related with giving in church.Nabal was rich but refused to give, and he caused God's anger; Abigail was generous in giving, and her attitute and perspective toward God's people was right. So she found favor and blessing with God.Same family, but different response. We can choose to be grumpy and stingy like Nabal, or we can choose to be cheerful and generous like Abbie.

Hosea

I can't stand reading Hosea one chapter a day, it's like watching an action movie, but only watch 10 minutes for a day...I just have to get to the end of the book to see that tention relieved and everyone's happy like by the end of the movie.It's also like watching a child pulling up a full on tantrum but daddy is also determined that he's gonna win this time.....Jacob wrestling the whole night with the angel and the angel couldn't win so in the end Jacob had to be touched so he couldn't fight any more but to lean....the prodigal son is determined that he wants to get a life of his own, he wants to have all the fun that he could have until all is gone and there's no more fun he could possible have any more but to live with the smelly pigs....But in the end dad is dad. He lost his temper for a while, he got angry, he spanked, he warned, he yelled, ...but when the child said sorry, he cried and hugged.

Enquiring from supernatural power - 1 Samuel 28

1Sam28Saul reminds me of so many people in the world today, who are desperately seeking supernatural spiritual guidance but have nowhere to go to to get proper personal detailed spiritual guidance, so the only solution is to turn to the psychics.Open up any magazines or newspapers and you'd be able to find loads of ads for psychics, and if you ring them you'd be able to get infomation that's just for you.I'm wondering if we're missing something big here today as Christians. In Samuel's time, people would be able to turn to prophets to ask God questions. I'm sure lots of Christians are like David, capable of asking God for themselves. But what about non Christians(and Christians of course)? There's massive spiritual hunger everywhere. People want to know things about themselves. Prophetic people should be more capable than psychics in giving people spiritual infomation and guidance. Remember Moses' snake ate all the other snakes. Moses's miracles beat all the other magics.The reason that the psychic is going rampant in the world today is because of the missing of prophets that're accessble to normal people. People should be able to ring a prophet and find out infomation and guidance about themselves as easy as they can find a psychic. Yes, we have church for people to turn to. But most of the time people are more interested in specific infomation about themselves rather than general knowledge about God.There are so many ways for people to find out information from the wrong spirits, and why can't they find these things out from the right spirit?

Do the right things- 1 Samuel 30

The way David dealt with Saul speaks to me to do the right things for the moment, and give all the frustrations to God. God is in control of all situations. If we're trying to change the situations and sort things out by ourselves we'll live a very frustrated life; but if we just concentrate on each moment, and do the right things that're in our hands, then God will sort things out for us and settle things in His time, by His power.All things work for good.... all things might not look good or feel good at their moment, but in the whole picture, they all work for good.

Jephthah's Vow -Judges 11

Jephathah made a vow to God, and as a result he had to sacrifice his only daughter as a burning sacrifice. On the other hand, I was wondering, if Jephthah didn't make that vow, would he still succeed? In chapter 12, he slew down 42,000 of Ephraim. If we make a movie out of his life, and picture it vividly, that's quite a horror scene, wouldn't it?Put a modern church in that time, I think everyone would be flat out running programms of mercy, compassion, orphanage,rehab, conselling,etc. Or, put a scene like that in our current society, are we just too busy jump into the humanity side of mercy work and forget that God is actually behind the scene and He has something to tell us?When Jephthah made the vow, didn't God know what He want? Jephthah might not know what he was talking about, but was it just an accident that his daughter come out to meet him? I doubt it. There were thousands of other people that He could choose, but to make the sacrifice acceptable and worthy, I think He had the person in mind who He wanted to be sacrificed. And just for this reason, Jephthah knew that God had made the choice, not himself, not by chance, that Jephthah couldn't get out of the vow.Luke 16:8-9 has always been my favourite verse concerning giving:"And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings."In other words, all the money we make, things we treasure, when we die, we can't take any of them with us. They belong to this world. But if we're shrewd, we can actually find ways to take them away with us, to store them or invest them into a place that will last eternally. For the moment it looks gone, but when you have the mindset of an invester, you know you've spent and kept your treasure in the best place that will bring you the maximum return.Maybe for that reason God always want the best of us as the sacrifice, not the leftovers. Because when we die, and leave this world, we don't want to just take the leftovers with us into eternity, we want to keep our best!Jephthah was a sad man in the Bible, but I think when he gets to heaven, his perceptive might change. The emotion on earth didn't last forever, but the emotion in heaven will last forever.

I will harden Pharaoh's heart - Exodus 11

Exodus 11:9 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt." 10Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.Pharaoh's not the problem. The Lord hardened his heart. The Lord made it impossible for any human effort to overcome.If the Lord didn't harden his heart, then Pharaoh would have let them go much earlier, and exodus wouldn't have become such a famous scene in history.It's interesting to see that after frustrations and human limits, there're usually great miracles. Like in Judges 13:2"...Manoah's wife was barren and had borne no children..." It's unnatural for Israelites not to have children. But when there was an obstacle, a miracle appeared: Samson was born with supernatural power, and he became the next judge. Then Abraham and Sarah, Hannah,Elizebeth...This speaks to me that unusual difficulties and obstacles are often signs of unusual miracles and great wonders.God is often behind the difficulties to get people's attention for Himself to intervene.

Lost and found -Philemon

Philemon 15 "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good - no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as dear brother."Sometimes we wonder why bad things happen to good people. But treasure lost on earth could become treasure found in heaven with value of eternity.

Esther

Esther speaks to me of an intercessor.She felt the burden that's been given to her, and she faithfully carried out her responsibility and thus saved God's chosen people.
If we feel burdened to pray for someone or do something particular, it could be a God-given responsibility. We can choose to be like Esther, to carry out the calling God has created us for, or we can choose to be like Vashti, only thinking of the inconvenience of oneself which leads to the abandonment of the king.
The favour and grace that Esther had found before the king was not for herself to indulge, but for a much higher purpose.
If we fail to recognise the purposes, we may also lose the favour and grace that God has given us.

The greatest victory of Christ -1 Cor 1

1Cor1:22"For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified,..."

The greatest victory of Christ was not in the miracles he performed or the teachings he taught, but the cross.
Sometimes all we want is miracles, gifts, signs and knowledge. But a life with cross gives us the real victory.

Leaders and followers -Ruth 3

Ruth3
This chapter speaks to me of leaders and followers.
Leaders seek benefit and opportunities for the followers and give proper directions and guidance.
Followers follow by serving and obeying wholeheartedly, without any grudging attitute and selfish ambitions.

Opportunities -Ruth 2

Ruth2
When the heart is right, opportunities will come without even contiously asking for them.

If we put seeking opportunities before seeking the Lord, we could get frustrated easily. We could even run into wrong opportunities that will put us in bondage for a long time.

Alabaster jar -Mark 14

Mark14
Alabaster jar
To me this passage says focus.
Where do you see Jesus in your life?
Some see Him in running for the Olympics, some in leading a country, some in singing, some in cooking...
Wherever you see Him, wherever you feel that that is what He calls you into, that's where your alabaster jar goes.
"For you always have the poor with you..." there are a million things that you can do, that can distract your attention and energy.
Extravagent worship....let's live a simple life....be focused.

Famine -Ruth 1

Ruth1:1"Now it came about...that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons."
It seems that whenever there was a famine, then it could be a time that God wanted to move people around to achieve His plans. We've seen that in Joseph's time.




I posted this comment under Gen 19, where I found a connection between Lot and Ruth:

Gen19
Lot speaks to me of the family members of the righteous.
There are Christians who will answer God's call and follow God all the way through. But there're also Christians, especially the people who are around those "on fire" kind of Christians, family members, friends, relatives...
They respond to the call of salvation, but they fail to respond to the higher calling of fulfilment in their lives.
When choices come their way, they choose the valley, the easy way, the obvious, common sense way. They don't have the passion to give all their lives for God.
They soon find that the people they're involved with are corrupt people. People with no moral standards. Their lives are full of confusion: they're tempted with worldly temptations but they still keep their moral convictions. They're struggling to make a living at the gate of the city.
It's remarkable that Lot managed to keep his daughters pure in the sinful city.
In the end Lot survived at the place called Zoar, meaning small. He survived the fire of the Hell, but he only lived a small life.
But nevertheless, God's favour and grace extends to the family of the righteousness.
In Ruth 1, we find that Ruth actually came from Moab, so Ruth is a descendant of Lot. By some strange coincidence, Ruth was united back into a family of the Israelites, and she became part of the bloodline family of Jesus. Interesting hey!

Crown - Proverb 12:4

Prob12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.

Crown gives identity: she'll help her husband know who he is.
Crown is a symbol of celebration: she cherishes her husband;
Crown gives honor and attracts attention and adoration: She honors her husband and generates praise and admiration for him.
Crown gives the look of dignity:she changes his way of expression and looking.
Crown speaks of power: she's submissive and honors his judgements and decisions.
Crown represents joy and pride: she helps him to be a success.

The burial of Jacob - Genesis 50

Gen50
What a burial!
I just can't get over the fact that "all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father's household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company."...almost the whole Egypt went to mourn for Jacob..."they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation" the Canaanites were affected also.
What a legacy! What a legend!
His life touched so many people. Even in a nation who don't know God, God's promise and God's name was made famous.

The sons of Israel -Genesis 49

Gen49
The twelve legacies and charisma of Jacob:
Reuban: preeminent but uncontrolled
Simeon and Levi: cursed be their anger and wrath
Judah: praise
Zebulun: life of blessing
Issachar: hard working, a happy slave
Dan: message of salvation
Gad: abundance
Asher:joy, fruitful
Naphtali: fulfilled
Joseph: God's favor, outstanding achievement
Benjamin: warrior, soul winner

The fig tree -Mark 11

It's very unnatural for the fit tree to produce fruits in the wrong season, yet Jesus demanded the fruit and He was quite upset by seeing no fruits produced.
It's very unnatural for Abraham and Sarah to produce a child when they were in the wrong season, as God withheld the blessings, yet by faith they went on an extra mile, put on extra effort and produced Ishmael. It's kind of like early fruit, didn't look as spectacular, but it satisfied God's hunger for extra faith.
Throughout the gospel books we see everywhere that Jesus was hungry for extra faith. Everyone's given a certain amount of faith, but those who went on an extra mile, produced fruit in the wrong season are the ones that got Jesus' attention and received their miracles, like the Syrophoenician woman in Mark7:25-30, the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus' cloak(Matt9:20-22), the man who climbed up the tree...etc. These were all examples of people who produced something in their wrong season. They stepped out, by trying to make things happen. And when the Lord sees that early fruit produced in the wrong season, although they can look funny and not even fruit like, they'll satisfy the Lord's hunger for extraordinary faith and the prayers will then be answered. If there's no extra faith demonstrated, no extra work or act (early fruit)showed, then their prayer will be like the fig tree, disappeared in passive waiting.
Reinhard Bonnke is a kind of fig tree that produced fruit in wrong seasons. When he first went to Africa, he found out that Africa wasn't waiting for him. But he wasn't just waiting for his season to come, he made all kinds of effort. He'd even pretend to be a beggar singing and playing piano accordian at the bus stations and as soon as he got someone's attention he'd preach. And this early fruit resulted the massive productions when the right season did come.

Meanwhile there are so many others that're called, but Jesus didn't see any fruit when He's hungry, and as a result their callings never got fulfilled.

So if you feel called into something and you're in the wrong season, nothing seems to work for you, just remember, Jesus is hungry, produce anyway! If you try hard enough, take an extra mile effort,do something unusual, you'll find a way to produce some kind of early fruit, and when Jesus' hunger is satisfied, your fig tree is sure to prosper.

From the beginning -- Mark 10

Mark 10:6-9"But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man seperate."

From the beginning God made them male and female; from the beginning God made the two; from the beginning God has joined the two together, therefore this two shall leave the influence of the parents and be independantly joined as one, and let no man seperate this two (by any social agenda, culture influence or family tradition) that were created and designed to be one.

Gen48
Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, the son of Rachel.
It was a very formal(at the time), almost sacred ceremony.
Jacob meant to pass his bloodline blessing down through Ephraim. He made the choice. He ordained it this way.
But in the end God quietly shifted the blessing. God didn't honour his choice and his ceremony. God's choice was Judah.
Although Judah didn't get the formal ceremony of passing the blessings, he was the God ordained person.

This reminds me of other ceremonies we have in life. Like weddings, ordaining a minister, or a leader of a country or a certain group,etc. We make the choices, and we perform the ceremony. We say God honors our ceremonies.

But does God really honor those choices and ceremonies?
I think sometimes God can be quite stubborn. If He's already made a choice, He doesn't like any men twist it around. And if He's not in the choices, He doesn't have to honour our ceremonies. He'd only give the chosen blessings to His chosen ones.



What I have learned most from Joseph's life this time of reading is that Joseph's a vessel used by God to serve His chosen people, his family.
God gave him tests to get him ready, then gave him spiritual gifts to raise him up, and placed him in a position of great honor, wealth and power. All these was for the purpose of achieving to serve and save the rest of the family.
Joseph achieved most of the calling. But he also attempted to use that glory for himself.
God gave him honor, not for himself, but for others.
It's very hard to remember, in present days, God can still raise people to positions of high honor, not for themselves, but for the purpose of serving others, and to achieve God's plans in other people's lives.

The spiritual gifts -Genesis 47

How powerful are the gifts of the Holy Spirit!
Prophetic dreams, gift of interpretation, words of knowledge, words of wisdom...
God gave Joseph these gifts, and the gifts turned him from a prisoner to a powerful richest man in Egypt.

Now if only I could have some of Joseph's gift in the share market....

The baptism of fire - Genesis 46

Reinhard Bonnke preached about the baptism of fire at the conference. He meant power.
Robert Fergusson preached about the odyssey and the return a while ago. Without the odyssey, we'd always be the older son, life not lived to the full. First Adam is good, but the redeemed Adam is even better.
The baptism of fire is also for the use of purification of gold.

In Gen46 God's pushing Jacob, the people of Israel out for another odyssey.
Who caused the famine? Who sent Joseph ahead of everyone else to prepare for the journey?

"So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac."(v1)
Israel didn't seem to be too keen on journey this time. It almost felt like he's reminding and arguing with God that Beersheba was his place of destiny."Been there, done that, journey?....not too much fun for me." But God spoke to him:"I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes." It seems that Joseph's almost like a bait here: without him Israel would not be willing to travel down.

God wanted the people of Israel to experience fire: first the pain of the fire(life under Pharaoh), then the power and glory of fire(Moses, Exodus).
Posted: 17-Jul-2005 12:43

Pharisee's mindset -Mark 8

Mark8:1-13
When I close my eyes, I can feel God's calling in me to step out in faith, give him what I have and see Him do miracles, but I can also hear the pharisee in me began to argue, seeking yet another sign to prove it's Him. There's always this battle going on within me. It seems that this pharisee's mindset is the biggest enemy of faith.

V14-21
When there's a shortage of bread, it's easy to try to find some leaven to blow it up instead of trusting Jesus to multiply the bread.
When we're in need, we tend to seek answers from men first instead of asking and trusting God to meet that need. We always try to do it our own ways instead of yielding to His ways.

V27-38
The revelation of who Jesus is and the relationship coming out of that revelation(Follow Me) will totally change our lives.



I was reading Reihard Bonnke's book "Even greater".
Here's a quote from the book (P55): "Somehow, I believe this transition between obeying earthly authority and obeying God's authority is an essential test for those who serve Him."

If we have been Christians for a while, then we're somehow trained to be Pharisees. We're taught to obey the laws. There's nothing wrong with that. Just like kids, they need a lot of rules and boundaries. But there's a time that we're not babies anymore, we're not kids any more, but mature adults in faith. And this is the time the test comes to set us free from the mindset of Pharisees.

Mark 7

Mark7:36"And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it."

When there's real power demonstrated, there's no need for advertising and promoting.

Mark7:1-23
Men always try to rationalise God. They always want to make a tradition and then act from that tradition rather than God's living word.
Like Reinhard Bonnke's example, we try to put God in one room and have the rest of the house free to ourselves.
But God is a living God, He's not some dead theory or tradition that can't be changed. He's sick of being restricted into a box and He wants to be free!

Mark7:24-30
We're all given a certain amount of grace. But some people can argue with God and they're really good at bargain and can get a better deal. God really responds to faith well.

Emotional - Genesis 45

Gen45
Lucinda Dooley preached a few weeks ago about the movie "the incredibles", "let your secret identity be your only identity."

There's power when that identity comes out in the open. "He(Joseph)wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph!' "
(Gen45:2-3)
It's a very emotional moment for him. When he made the confession "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt."(v8), he brought fulfilling power into his life and his family's lives.
God had placed a burden, a love in him for his family. And when he released his emotions, he couldn't control himself.

God's calling often comes with a supernatural love, together with a super strong emotions. This love can endure, this love can forgive, can be kind, can give generously far beyond human levels. It's God's love in him.

Do not go beyond God's grace -Genesis44

Gen44 Ps105:1-22
Today's psalm goes hand in hand with Gen.
At the conference Joyce Meyer talked about not to go beyond the annointing or grace that's been given.
Joseph in this chapter was tempted to go beyond his calling.
Ps105:21-22 "He made him lord of his house and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princed at will..."
Joseph's life calling is to save Jacob's family in a time of famine. God has prepared and enabled him for this task. But when in a position of honor, he nearly stepped out of this grace and acted on a personal level.
Thankfully, Judah brought him back into perspective and reminded him of his (God given)right role to play in the family.

God' s in control -Gen43

Gen43
God's in control of all circumstances.
For one moment, Joseph was traded as a slave, for one moment, he was put in jail with no hope in sight, yet for another moment he was given the greatest of honour.
We can't change our circumstances according to our likes. But we can trust that the almight God is in full control of all situations to bring glory to His name. We can't always put reasons down to why we encounter different things. But in God's hands, He can work all things out for good.
God doesn't always reveal the reasons behind everything; but if we can just trust Him, in the end we'll be able to see the full picture, His higher purpose.

Gifts - Gen40

Gen40
I'm blessed to see in Joseph that in the midst of the dungeon the gifts that God gave to him paved the way to many people's blessings.
God will make a way where there seems to be no way; Even though at times it seems that there's nothing we can do about our situation, the gifts that He has placed in us will open the way to His glory.

Drink with sinners -Mark 2

Mark2:17"and hearing this, Jesus said to them, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

It is good to seperate with the world when we were just converted. But after a while, it can become such a life style that all we hang out with are the "righteous" ones, we even forget there're still sinners around.
We stopped going to pubs, stopped going to unsaved friends' homes, stopped listening to pop music, stopped drinking(not even one drop), stopped smoking(can't even handle anyone near us smoking), stopped eating with them...We even try to put our kids in Christian schools so they get to grow up with righteous kids...
But gradually we take the light out of the darkness where it's needed the most!
It really takes guts to go back to those places, just to hang out with people, to eat and drink together... not to be influenced by them to sin again, but to bring light into the darkness, to let people see hope, and let God's love flow out to them.

Dream and jail -Gen39

Gen39
Joseph had a God dream. Then instead of seeing that dream coming to pass, his life went opposite the other way, the extremely opposite way. Although God was with him every step he went, he probably couldn't feel too confident about that dream. More over, he went through trial after trial. Prison, massive injustice...
However, God was in it every step he went. At the time he couldn't tell. But every step had a purpose.
If he hadn't be sold to the Egyptians, he wouldn't have achieved what he's called to achieve later.

Sometimes we'll encounter things that doesn't look like our dreams. But could Joseph figure out for himself and plan to go to Egypt in his youth? Sometimes we did all the right things but the result is very disappointing: Joseph ended up in jail by doing right. But can we see that God is bigger than jail and He does turn things around in time? Sometimes jail can interpret as the shadow of His wings? You'd praise Him for jail when you see the whold picture.
Isa55:9"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Tamar -Genesis 38

Judah married Canaanite, but God obviously wasn't impressed with his decisison and in a way He dismissed the marriages of the children.
I don't know where Tamar came from, I can't find proof who her fathers were. But she almost went through a faith journey like Abraham did.
Interesting that whenever the children of Abraham and Israel failed in their faith walk and almost got themselves perished, God would always raise someone else and cause them to walk a faith journey(vision-desert/waiting-trial...)and brought fresh blood back into the bloodline family.
Tamar,Joseph, Moses ...
The recording of Tamar was very brief, compared to Abraham, Joseph and Moses' stories, but I can see that she had extraordinary faith.
She also reminds me of Matt15:21-28

Absurd dreams -Genesis 37

Gen37
A while ago I received an email from someone talking about dreams. I really liked it, and I'd just copy it here:

Do your dreams seem absurd? Do they seem unattainable? Don't
worry because these are the true qualities of dreams. If dreams
were logical, grand AND reachable, then all you would have are
big goals. Big goals are not dreams.

Albert Einstein said that, if, at first, the idea is not
absurd, there is no hope for it.

Want to be a history maker? Don't throw out your absurd
dreams! Lay them out before the Lord and let Him purify them.
Then, embrace the dreams-no matter how weird, unreachable or
absurd!

When God gives you a dream that seems weird, unreachable or
absurd, it may because the dream does not fit into the context
of your present situations, circumstances, understanding or
knowledge. Or, the dream may be totally out of the expectations
of the people around you.

But, so what? You believe in a God of infinite wisdom, right?

Let Him guide you. Don't easily throw way His hidden treasures-
the dreams- that He has given to you. What about the comments
of those around you? Remember that you are ultimately
responsible to God, not the people around you. Certainly, God
has set up levels of authority in our lives in the interaction
with have with people. Biblical teaching includes how we are,
in love, to relate to those people. However, keep in mind that
one day, God will ask you what you have done about your dream
for which you are solely responsible. People around you do not
share that responsibility.

Have you given up on a dream? Have you stopped dreaming all
together because, at some point, you or someone else thought you
were strange to have those dreams? Get back to dreaming again.
Lift up your dreams to the Lord to see whether He gives them
back to you. If He puts them back into your heart, start taking
steps to manifest them. Faith in your dream alone will not get
you anywhere. You need to take actions. That is true faith.

Warmly,

Helen Y. Chen
Business & Life Coach
http://www.HYCCoaching.com

Early and late rain - James 5

James5:7"The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rain."
Early rain is also called autumn rain, is for vindication(Joel 2:23);
Late rain is the spring rain, latter rain, is for the harvest.
In a way the two rain's like the red sea and the Jordan river.
Between the two is winter, the desert, the journey, the fire.

Esau - Gen36

Gen36
Jacob moved and journeyed, had his odyssey and then found his destiny in God.
Esau however, experienced a few movements, but eventually settled back to the place where he came from: Seir, the place of the Horites. Nothing changed. He mixed and married into the ungodly culture and tradition of the local people. He's quite productive and enjoyed the result of his hard working hands.

Jacob's journey to destiny -Gen35

Gen35
The Lord is calling Jacob to leave the worldly place, the ungodly ties of peer pressure, the corruption of the unbelivers, where he can get hurt and easily tangled up, to "arise, go up to Bethel and live there"(v1)
Bethel means the house of God.
There comes a time of seperation and letting go, of spiritual cleansing.
Although it can look very disturbing, those worldly things really didn't have any power ove him
once he decided to leave(V5)
He committed his life and worship to God at Bethel.(altar)
V8"Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died..."The person who had been meeting with him basic needs(nanny's for chores, feeding, cooking, cleaning,etc), who had helped discipling him left. Or it could mean he graduated from foundation period of discipleship.
Then he met God again at Paddan-aram(V9), the place of His mother, who laid down her life and paved the way for him. And he found who he really was. Rebekah had always believed in him, she had a vision for him, and this is the time that he came to the revelation of his mother's vision for him.
Out of this revelation Jacob built a pillar of stone, a monument, a new stronghold in God, a new statement, and he named it Bethel. Now not only was he belonged to Bethel, the house of God, he's gonna be a builder of the house of God.
Then he came to a place called Ephrath, which is also Bethlehem. This is the place where the love of his life, Rachel died. And this is also the place where a born again mind of greatness was birthed. Out of the death a new seed was planted.
v21"Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder." The reference in my Bible leads the tower of Eder to Micah4:8"As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come - even the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem." This speaks to me the fullness of destiny, the fulfilment of God's promise.
v22 speaks that some of his children are pinching his glory.
v27-28 Jacob remembered and recognised that he's a successor of Abraham and Isaac, that his spiritual blessing was built on the foundation of Abraham and Isaac's faith.

Dinah - Gen34

Gen34
Jacob is restored to faith. And he has found who he is. But he's still doing the world's business.He's still interfering with the world, and unavoidably he got affected. Dinah was defiled.
After these God called him to leave the place behind and enter into the ministry He has planned for him.

Zion -Psalm84

What a beautiful psalm! (Ps84)
5-7 How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart ar the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; the early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, everyone of them appears before God in Zion."

Zion: God's callings.
Valley of Baca: Baca means weeping, the place of disapointment, of mourning, failure,etc.
Spring: God's rhema words, when we're down God will always give us words to give us faith and hope again.
Early rain: we see miracles along the way.
From strength to strength: everytime we fall, God will pick us up and renew our strength, give us faith again. If the calling is from God, He won't let us go. He will tell us the same vision, same calling again and again even though we're stumbling all the way. In the end our strength will be replaced with His strength.
Everyone appears before God in Zion: Wow!! Isn't that awesome!

Faith and doubt -James1

James1:2"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

The journey of faith always involves various trials. Often we want to see God's hands, but during the trials God teaches us to seek His face, and that's the time we get to grow in endurance, in Godly character.

V5-8 God will always give us wisdom generously and without reproach if we ask Him. But it's up to us receive in faith. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. We really need to set our anchor firmly in God's word, otherwise we'll just be driven and tossed easily by all kinds of doubts.
I like V25"one who looks intently at the perfect law" When you look intently, when you look long enough, you tend to remember, the idea starts to sink in and you're more likely to believe and act out.
It's hard to step out of the boat onto the water when you're not convinced you can walk. But when you know that you know that you know that it's God who has called you, then you feel safe to step out into the sea.
Posted: 21-Jun-2005 09:07

Jacob's return and his path to destiny -Genesis33

Gen33
Esau speaks to me the elder son, people who have always been Christians, people who didn't "backslide", who haven't had any odyssey. They welcome the prodigal sons back to the church with warm embrace. They want to rush "Jacobs" along their path to their success, which is what "Seir" means to me. But Jacob didn't follow the men's lead. Jacob journeyed to a place called Succoth, which means favor. He found favor in God's eyes. He found his own place that God had prepared for him. Then he came to a place called Paddan-aram, which was the place of Rebekah, the person who sacrificed and paved the way for his blessing, he inherited every blessing that's from his mentor.In the end he reached Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, the place where God promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, the place he was destined to arrive.
Although Jacob reconciled with Esau, he didn't follow every footstep of Esau's, as he knew he had a higher calling and higher level of blessing and favor.
Don't ever under estimate the potential of those prodigal sons in our midst. They are the ones that will really reach destinies and fulfill God's callings.

Jacob's wrestle - Genesis32

Gen32
A few years ago I heard a great sermon about Jacob's wrestle by Benny Hinn.
Instead of Jacob wrestled with the angel, it's the angel wrestled with Jacob, wanting him to lean on him, to surrender. The angel couldn't get Jacob to surrender by wrestling, so in the end the angel had to touch the socket of his thigh and then Jacob had to lean on him.
Interesting sometimes this is the way God makes a stubborn child to surrender: by taking things away from him, by leaving him alone, and by wrestling with him all night, then by touching the socket of the thigh. For a prodigal son, he simply wouldn't return until all is gone and then his strength, his means of support is gone as well.

Thank you God for sending your angel to wrestle with us when we're stubborn!

Take the stand -Proverb 8

Pr8:2"On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand;"
Heights means success and fulfilment of all sorts. Each success takes price and effort, takes life. Which one do we want? Which path do you want to choose for your life? There're so many choices we can make that will affect the rest of our lives: career, relationship, hobby, ...
It's painful and a sheer desperation when one spends his whole life to climb to the top of a mountain and finds there's nothing there!
Which mountain is your mountain to climb? Which path leads to Your destiny that you'd really call it home in your heart?
Wisdom and understanding is so vitally important when it comes down to making choices.

Odyssey of Jacob -Genesis31

Gen31
This chapter reminds me of "What the enemy meant for evil, the Lord turned around for good."
Jacob had his odyssey,and now it's time to return home.
He had found his wives, his love, but now he's all spent. Although he was smart and he worked hard in those years, he was not destined to prosper and flourish in that land. But the Lord restored his wealth with a miracle.

V19"When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her fathers." This verse revealed the reality of Rachel. That actually defined who she was and what she was heading into.

"Laban Pursues Jacob" in a way reminds me of the Egyptians chasing
Moses, and the red sea(or Galeed) meant miracle, also it meant seperation: there's no way back.

Odyssey for Moses was the desert(in which he married); for Abraham was Ishmael, for Isaac it could be the time he spent in Negev...(I'm only guessing)

From desperation to glory - Psalm 77

Ps77
What a powerful psalm!
"My soul refused to be comforted...
when I sigh, then my spirit grows faint...
I am so troubled that I cannot speak...
Will the Lord reject forever?
Has His promise come to an end forever?...
Has God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion?
Then I said, it is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High has changed."

Have you ever been to a place like this? Everything seems so hopeless, there's no way out, everything's against you, it seems the only thing left to do is to die?
Praise God! He's in charge of your situation. He'll turn the most hopeless situation into a most glorious exodus in your life!

Rachel and Leah- Genisis30

They both loved Jacob. Rachel got Jacob's praise and love, but Leah got the blessings of the children. Rachel had what a normal girl would dream of. Leah seemed to live a life of misery, but she stored up treasures for the generations to come. Jesus was born out of Leah's descendant, not Rachel's.
Rachel was popular. Leah's life seemed nothing but pain, yet she turned God's favor into her children. Rachel died of tragedy, the very thing she loved most brought death to her. Leah lived a normal life, and yet she birthed glory and everlasting,evergrowing treasure in eternity. Rachel reaped most of her harvest while she lived. Leah died, and her harvest started to begin...
Not many people would prefer to live like Leah, and yet it was Leah that got God's heart.
Rachel had the love and praise of man. The reward? she's got it all, not much more to come.
Leah was rejected and ignored by man. Her very presense seemed to be just annoying and full of nonsense. But God appointed to her the very blessing that mattered. What other blessings can compare to have Jesus as a descendant? What harvest would that be?
Two sisters, one happy, one sad on earth, one sad, one happy in heaven.

Rebecca favoured Jacob and she sowed a seed of manipulation, deception, prejudice and injustice into her future generations. Joseph, being such a good boy himself, unfortunately had to reap every bit of what she had sowed.
Jacob loved Rachel. And they both loved Joseph more than anyone else. But even though Joseph survived the generational curse that's upon his life from birth, even though he even saved his nation by his own good faith and works, even though Jacob and Rachel had done all they could to pass down the generational blessings to him, he could not twist God's arm again to get the blessing as the bloodline of Abraham all the way to Jesus.
Sometimes it's hard to live like Leah. It's hard to not to have the love and praise of man. Everyone wants to follow Rachel: "I'll have what she's having". But if you have a mindset of eternal benefit, your point of view might change.

In Matt2:18 "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children;And she refused to be comforted, because they were no more."

The well -Gen29

Gen29
By the well Abraham's servant met Rebekah for Isaac, by the well Jacob met Rachel, and by the well Moses met his wife (Ex2:15)...isn't the well an interesting place?

Jacob -Gen28

Gen28
Esau and Ishmael seem to get along pretty well. They're one family. They're the hard working people.(lol)

Jacob is quite a carefree boy. The journey he started out was a bit like Moses' journey into desert.
He encountered God in the place of Bethel, which means the house of God, the gate of heaven, where angels ascending and descending,"Surely the Lord is in this place...awesome"(16-17), He is amazed at God, and aware of His promise to him, but he's not ready to give his heart to God yet. He made a vow(v20), saying "if... then the Lord will be my God."(v21)

Jacob always reminds me of the prodigal son.
When my husband had a powerful dream of heaven and hell, and was baptised in the Holy Spirit without any knowledge of the tongues(amazing experience), he was then 21 and was wild in the world, but he said to God, if by 35 I still haven't settled in the world, then I'll come to find you. Then when he was 35 his world totally collapsed and on his way to kill someone the Lord saved him and he became a Christian.

The prodigal son knows he has an inheritance, he's had encounters, but he's not ready to settle in the will of God. He wants to have a journey first before he can really settle down in the house of God.

Rebekah - Gen27

In Gen25:23 Rebekah had an encounter with God and received a word" And the older shall serve the younger."
This to Rebekah could be like a lifetime calling like Abraham's:"you shall have a child..."
From the very beginning of birth Rebekah started to favour Jacob and seeked as her mission to fulfil that word in Jacob. She did with a passion and she didn't care what price it would take.
Although it was a big lie and it was greatly distresseing to other people, God didn't seem to be bothered.(there's no reference in this chapter)
This could be another example of breaking the universal ethics(as Craig would say)in order to fulfil a higher purpose. We see it in Abraham planning to kill Isaac, we see it in the destroy and killing through the flood(Noah), we see it in the devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah, we see God sacrificed Jesus His own son...while killing is definately condemned in any universal law.
At this stage, Esau was no longer fit for the enheritance of the blessing, as he had married the daughter of Hittite.
However, Jacob paid heavily for the price of this lie:
He loved Rachel, but he was tricked with Leah first and then end up cursing Rachel; He favored Joseph, but Joseph was badly mistreated and sold out,etc.

Isaac and his wells -Gen26

Although Isaac had the promise and command from the Lord to sojourn in the land(v3), the journey he had toward this calling was not easy.
First, the inherited wells were "stopped up by filling them with earth(v15)", then there was contention, then there was enmity. Finally he was able to make peace with Abimelech and settled in that place.
The Lord was with him all the time, because every time he dug a well there was living water. But the journey to actually possess that blessing was quite a battle. This was Isaac's faith journey, just like Abraham's faith journey of having a child.

Well seems to be used as supplying waters. When we're thirsty in the spirit, we try to find water. So it's kind of like annointing, fellowship with God, or where you can feel God's presence? You can find God's presence and annointing in the things He promised, called. When you're following His will and way you'd find His presence, and that's like finding a thirst quenching water supply. The well could be in church, in devotions, in the businesses,etc.
If we're seeking God's presence then we're digging a well, sometimes we find called to do something, then some other people will come in and deny them or give us doubt, or battle with us...I guess anyone can dig a well, if you can find water flowing, you know God's with you in the things you do.

Esau - Gen25

Abraham had Ishmael and Isaac; Isaac had Esau and Jacob.
Ishmael and Esau had quite a lot in common.
Esau was very practical, he's a hard worker. He'd trade spiritual things with physical needs if necessary. He didn't esteem the value of his spirutal blessings highly. Like Ishmael, he married a foreign girl.
Jacob, on the contrary, "was a peaceful man, living in tents.(v27)" He's quite laid back, enjoying cooking and just being the mommy's boy. I guess he's a thinker. At times he could be very tricky and sneaky. Although he paid for every bit of tricks and lies later on in his life, he got the most important thing: the bloodline blessing.
Esau worked his way out of the blessing. He took whatever came his way without analysing and seeking the Lord for direction. Sometimes life present us things like opportunity, but by taking these opportunities, we could end up losing every blessing we have in God.

Sarah - Gen23

The Bible devoted a whole chapter to the death and burial of Sarah.
Although Sarah's life was mostly barreness and shame, she was given twice by her husband to someone else, and then she gave her maid to her husband in her place, she birthed the vision that God put in her heart. Although she only saw a tiny glimpse of that vision and promise came to pass, although when she died Abraham had to trade for the field to bury her, she laid the foundation for her future generations. Thus her life is worth being remembered.
This reminds me of people like Frank Houston, although having flaws in their lives, they were faithful toward their calling and gave birth to the vision and laid foundation for future generations.
Sometimes we might use a whole life time to see just a glimpse of God's calling fulfilled, but if it's truly God's calling and promise, the reward in heaven will be great and it's worth every bit of effort and tears.

The offering of Isaac - Genesis22

Gen22
In Gen 21:11 it said that Abraham was greatly distressed.
It's interesting that in Gen 22 although the content is greatly distressing to us readers, it didn't seem to bother Abraham any more. There wasn't a word I can find that mentioned his mental or emotional state.
Gen22:1 "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham..." A test is usually done when a student has finished his study, he has learned all his lessons, and the teacher put the test in to see if he really has learned or not. And in the end we found that Abraham has learned his lesson well and God was happy with the result.
So what was this test about?
To me the bottom line for this test is to see if Abraham is a whole person without Isaac.
To us the test can be are we whole without our achievements, purposes or dreams,etc...anything that describe and define who we are in the world.
I remember years ago a well known counsellor said this. He said his defining moment in his life was when God said to him, "I don't need your help, I give you a ministry because that will make you happy. But I don't really need you to do anything for me." That gave him a huge freedom.
It seems that everyone has this huge drive in them to achieve, to help save the world...
It's true that we're born with a purpose to fulfill, and without fulfilling that purpose we feel somewhat falling short.But does God need us to fulfil and achieve for Him? Not really. He can just show up and save the whole world in a minute, or do something like He did to Paul, make everyone blind and reveal Himself to everyone and the great commission will be fulfilled.
Does He really need us to help Him out? No. He just wants us to obey.
With this in mind, then even if you fail, it's still OK. Even if it means to take Isaac away, it's OK. Even if it means that there will be no descendants, no future generations, it's still OK. Cause worst of all, even if everyone died, God can always make another Adam and start all over again, can't He? He didn't need Abraham to help Him multiply and cover the earth.
If our worth comes from having to achieve, having to help God out, then we're not whole in Him and we're not free. We're still bound up by this purpose, in other words, the purpose, God's promise is still our idol.
Only a whole person can obey and sacrifice Isaac on the altar without winging, complaining and fighting; Only a whole person can rise up when he can't understand why his prayer didn't get answered; only a whole person can see the bigger picture in the midst of tragedy; only a whole person can still sing praises to God when his world is falling apart; only a whole person understands that the achievement in heaven can look totally different to achievement on earth...

Abimelech -- Genisis 20

Gen20
Abraham was very disheartened by the scene of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Up until now, he had had plenty encounters with God, but no miracles yet. Plenty promises, but no actions of God. He'd done all he thought was right concerning this promise and calling, he'd done all he could to facilitate that call, but the result was very little. All he'd seen was barreness, destruction, and total failure. He was disappointed. He couldn't believe himself, believe God any more. He wanted to give up and walk away. He returned to the place(Negev)once he fell, and decided to seek the world's council, to do what everyone else did, and to "get a life". Although he just had a great encounter with God, and more so, the Lord had just promised him that "this time next year" He'd return and fulfil His promise, Abraham couldn't believe that it's God any more. He had been disappointed way too many times to set himself once more for faith.
But interestingly, God frustrated Abraham's plan again of his attempt to compromise with the world, and what's more, He gave him a little sign-- He called him "prophet"(v7). V17 "Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children."
Doesn't God have a sense of humour.... Abraham couldn't twist God's arm to give him a child at the time he wanted, but when he prayed, other people responded and had children!
God restored Abraham's faith in a very gentle and loving way. He knew how hard it was for Abraham.... 25 years, He didn't act. Abraham had a world of reasons to question, to doubt, to be frustrated, to be angry, to laugh at himself, to walk away....he's just tired, he's exhausted in this faith walk. And God had cried with Abraham all the way.
It's like, watching your baby child going through surgery. You know your baby will cry and suffer, but you have to do it. But when the surgery's complete, and baby's all weak, you just want to greet him, and feed him so that he can restore healing and strength.
Abraham communicated to God that he's finished with this faith business. And God smiled: this is exactly what I want, that you admit the end to yourself.
To that end, God's surgery in Abraham is finished. He's got rid of this tumor of self-righteousness, and now He can get on with real life.

Lot -Genisis 19

Gen19
Lot speaks to me of the family members of the righteous.
There are Christians who will answer God's call and follow God all the way through. But there're also Christians, especially the people who are around those "on fire" sort of Christians, family members, friends, relatives...
They respond to the call of salvation, but they fail to respond to the higher calling of their lives.
When choices come their way, they choose the valley, the easy way, the obvious, common sense way. They don't have the passion to give all their lives for God.
They soon find that the people they're involved with are corrupt people. People with no moral standards. Their lives are full of confusion: they're tempted with worldly temptations but they still keep their moral convictions. They're struggling to make a living at the gate of the city.
It's remarkable that Lot managed to keep his daughters pure in the sinful city.
In the end Lot survived at the place called Zoar, meaning small. He survived the fire of the Hell, but he only lived a small life.
But nevertheless, God's favour and grace extends to the family of the righteousness.
In Ruth 1, we find that Ruth actually came from Moab, so Ruth is a descendant of Lot. By some strange coincidence, Ruth was united back into a family of the Israelites, and she became part of the bloodline family of Jesus. Interesting hey!

Lot could have chosen to rejoin Abraham in the mountains, and if that happened, his daughters would have a high chance of marrying Isaac.
But instead, he chose to hide himself in a cave. He wouldn't face his failure and shame of the past and let go. He couldn't forgive himself. As a result, he passed the shame on to his daughters.
That reminds me of a lot of the preachers' parents or family. They could join the great blessings that their family members have inherited, but rather they decide to isolate themselves and hide in a cave. God still extends grace to them, but they're missing out so much in life, and their children miss out so much blessings.

Sodom and Gomorrah -Genisis 18

Interesting that when the Lord revisisted Abraham, confirming His promise again, and before Isaac was born, He had a job to do: some serious destroying and killing.
I find the same pattern elsewhere: each time before a significant new generation emerged, there's a massive killing and destroying...
Noah, the flood; Isaac, Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses, lots of baby boys were killed;David, Judges 20(massive killing); Jesus, all the boys under two were killed; Paul, Steven and lots of other persecuted Christians...
So, if in your world you suddenly see lots of unbelievable, abnormal failure and destroy, that might be a sign indicating the new breakthrough is just around the corner.

Ishmael -Genesis 16

I don't know if this is theologically correct. Please advice me if it's not.Anyway I'll just say what I think.
I thought I understood Abraham and Ishmael before, but today some new thoughts came to my mind that totally revolutionized my way of thinking and understanding.
First of all, Abraham taking his wife's maid is culturally acceptable for that time. Rachel and Leah's maids could be an example, also David and Solomon all had concubines. Moses' law wasn't yet available. In this sense it's not a sin.
Abraham and Sarah lived a purpose driven life. Sarah went on an extra mile to see the promise fulfilled. It was a sacrifice for her to give her maid to her husband. The result? They had Ishmael, and it's interesting what the name means: "God listens." In other words, it means that's a prayer answered.
Let's see what's God's promise in the first place..."I'll make you a great nation"(12:2)"descendants like the stars"(15:5)
Did Ishmael fulfill God's promise? He actually did. He became a big nation. His descendants were like the stars.
Did God reject Hagar and Ishmael? No. He sent His angels to comfort them and gave them promises, on one condition though, they must go back and submit.(16:9)
What happened in the end? Ephesians 2:14-18 "He made both groups into one" Does Isaac's descendants today and Ishmael's descendants today have the same chances of salvation and blessings through Christ? Does God love us and the Iraqi people the same?

In Chapter 15 verse 6,"Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Abraham believed what the Lord said was gonna happen. And that was his righteousness. This was before today's chapter.But how was it to happen? It actually showed us two ways: one is by supernatural encounter, and one is by action.

Maybe I'll use some examples. Say speaking in tongues. You can get it in a supernatural way, God just did it to you in a miraculous way, and you had a supernatural, spectacular experience. That's awesome. Some people decide that they would wait for that moment to happen....they could end up waiting for 20 years. But there's also another way of getting it... you step out in faith by making some sound, by moving your lips and tongue....and you'll get it straight away.I've witnessed hundreds of people getting the tongues in this way I know it works. But it starts with human effort,and it's less spectacular. But in the end? Both were filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Benny Hinn's meetings, at first they were waiting for supernatural healings to happen, but gradually they encourage more people to actively getting involved in the healing process, by trying to move, trying to stand up...etc.
Joyce Meyer once said, that she was so afraid that she'd miss God's perfect will that she dared not do anything. But God said to her, that "if you miss me, I'll find you."

If purpose driven life, fulfilling God's promise and calling only involves waiting for God to show up, then why do we need to have Phil Baker's books on how to succeed in life?
Like it or not, today's western churches are mostly following the principles of Ishmael. By passionately follow our dreams, by taking actions, by trying new ways, making sacrifices, go the extra miles...by making it happen. And of course, by submission, following the principles and guidelines.
And most of the time, after the Ishmaels, God will add to us the Isaacs as well.
In a nutshell, Ishmael speaks of human effort, and also answered prayers. It's not God's perfect will, not His perfect method of doing things, but if we're persistent enough, we pray hard enough, the prayer still gets answered. We might get into some troubles, some people might not like the way it happened as it's less spectacular, but in the end we still get the result and God will help us out with the problems we created.

We can't drive out Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah did. But an angel found them and told them to go back! I don't know how Sarah reacted when she saw Hagar again...."hey I thought I just got rid of you..."
Have you found yourself saying things like..."this is too hard, what have I done? what have I got myself into? Can I just abort mission? Why do I have to continue with this journey?"
Somehow I believe God wants us to have both: Isaacs are for our blessings, but Ishmaels are for our character, our growth. Maybe that's why God didn't show up in this case until Ishmael's already a teenager.
All we want is Isaac. But maybe God is more interested in our character and our growth in maturity. There's a saying, "Our gifts can't take us where our character can't sustain."

Sooooo, has your Ishmael grown up yet? If he's still a toddler, you know you still got a few years to go then....

In other words, a modern term, Isaac is just a new level of annointing and blessing. We start with Ishmael, and we'll encounter Isaac along the way.
We can't control God, but we can control ourselves. We can't determine when Isaac's gonna come, but we can determine when to start with Ishmael. We're waiting for Isaac, but God's waiting for Ishmael to be born and grow up; Brian Houston taught a few weeks ago,"to be faithful with your hand to fulfill what's in your heart." If we're responsible for the present, then God will take care of the future; We do what we can, even if we can't, we still can by making sacrifice, by getting help, then God will fulfil what we can't. Ishmael is actually a stepping stone for us to get to Isaac. The sooner we start, the better we get at raising Ishmael, the sooner Isaac will come.

Faith -Gen15

Gen15
Abram started to question God. He's trying to compromise his faith with reality.

Faith is the gap between what God can do and what he can do, between who God is and who himself is and how to cope with the difference between the two.

As his journey went on, the gap got bigger and bigger. Time after time Abram was trying to reduce God down to his level, and time after time God's training him to come up to His level.

Faith is not trying harder. Abram tried and tried until he could try no longer. All his life God's trying to teach him that A+F=G
A can't be enlarged, and G can't be reduced.

v6"Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."

War in Sodom and Gomorrah - Gen14

Gen14:2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Brisha king of Gomorrah...

Althought it's a place that's well watered, there's no peace, there's war, constant war.
We might have friends or relatives that have chosen to go there, a modern day name for Sodom and Gomorrah can be a pub, casino, red light area, or simply a place that's just outside God's calling: career, interest, addictions, relationships,etc. And they've lost the battle, and become slaves to drugs, sex, alcohol, different drives,etc.

Gen14 "14When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained me, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit...16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people."

People who follow God's calling can actually have the strength and power to help the people who are lost to get out of their bondage again. They're the hope to the lost.

Idols, letting go and choices - Genisis 13

Gen13
Before we can respond to God's promise and calling in our lives, there has to be times of seperation, of dealing with idols: things that we hold dear, things that are important to us, things that we love, but things that will take our eyes off the Lord.

Ray Macauley said, if you have a calling in your life, you're ruined for everything else.

It's hard to let go, especially the things we're letting go define part of who we are on earth. But the promise is:"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life."(Matt19:29)

There's this lyrics of a song that I so love: "The things that You take away, You'll replace them with Yourself."

It makes a whole world of differences in making choises when we add eternity into our perspectives. The things that we see with flesh eyes and the things we can see with eternity point of view can be so dramatically different. Lot chose Sodom and Gomorah, the land that was green and florishing in the eyes for the moment. But Abram chose the mountains, the land that's barren for the eyes, and even though throughout his whole lifetime he could only see a tiny glimpse of the result of his choices, what a blessed man he is now in heaven!

Unclean animals - Acts 10

Acts 10:15 Again a voice came to him a second time,"what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."

Up until now, to eat unclean animals had been unheard of as acceptable.
We tend to put God in our various boxes and question, judge God with our own value system. But God can work outside of our value system, even though at times it can look so wrong.
God told Abraham to kill Isaac. How wrong can that be? God sacrificed His only son Himself. Would a human do that under any moral value?
We can't judge God. We have to say that His ways are higher than our ways and He's not bound by any kind of boxes.

Conversion of Paul -Acts 9

Acts 9
I've always wondered what caused Paul to have such a dramatic conversion, what kind of inheritance he's got that gave him such favour with God. Can God convert my unsaved friend or loved ones like that?
Reading this passage again I was reminded of a story Merilyn Hicky told. There's this lady who wants her daughter to go to Bible college and become a missionary. Then the daughter was raped and murdered. The Lord told the lady to forgive the murderer and to send him a Bible. It was very hard for her to do so but she obeyed. Then later the murderer got saved and brought lots of people to salvation in prison, and the lady actually funded him to go to the Bible college and he became a missionary in place of her daughter.

This story made me think that the cause of Paul's conversion is because of Stephen's martyr and his prayer:"Lord, do not hold this sin against them!". The Lord answered his prayer by raising one of his persecuters in place of him.

Divine moments - Acts 8

Acts 8:26
There're moments in life that are ordained. We think they're accidental but in fact they're orchestrated.
The people in our lives, the places we're at, the things happened to us...they're all well planned beyond our understanding.
It's so comforting to know that God is in control of everything and He never loses control.

Stumblings -Gen12

What a beautiful and exciting moment it was when God revealed His calling and promise to Abram!
Have you experienced a moment like this in your life? You shall never,ever let it go!

I guess for many times Abraham and Sarah must have thought that because they sinned, then God changed His mind and took His promise back and caused Sarai to be barren. Anyway Abram even gave Sarai away to be someone else' wife. How bizzar is that!
It's comforting to know that we don't have to be perfect to be worthy of being called. God's promise and faithfulness will not change because we stumble along the way. We can be so ridiculously wrong, and God can still remain faithful. It reminds me of psalm23:4"Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Without the plague in Pharaoh's house, Abram might have never got his wife back, let alone be the father of the nations.

Frustrations -Gen11

A lot of the times things didn't go as we expected, and we started to rebuke the devil or blame ourselves for not trying harder.

In the tower of Babel, they set up their goal, drew a perfect plan, and they started to work hard toward their goal. They believed in unity and they believed in themselves. This is just like the secular life coaching schemes. But they missed one thing: is this purpose a God given purpose? In the end God intervened and frustrated the plan so He could join the journey of these people.

From Shem all the way to Abram, nothing seemed to go wrong. They had their sons, and the first born son carried the records of the generations down. But then something went wrong: Gen11:30 "Sarai was barren; She had no child." At the time, she must have felt shameful or not capable enough to even produce a child. But no, it's part of God's plan...He wanted to join in. He wanted to be the real father of Isaac, that's why the record of the genealogy of Jesus only started with Abraham, (Matt1), not from Noah, not Adam.

Have you met frustration in your journey with God? You've tried everything, and it's not working for you? Think again, it might be a sign that God wants to it Himself.

Tower of Babel -Genisis 10

Gen 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; ...10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and....

Every talented, gifted, capable, mighty man or woman has a tendency to build something for his own glory, to build a business, career, ministry that's just like Babel. It can look awesome for a while, but then, when the Lord decides to come down and do something about it, there's nothing can stand against that, and the Babel will not last into eternity.

So if we're building something that's by our own strength and effort, there' nothing to be boasted about, even though it might look glorious for the moment. But if we build something by God's power and calling, even though it can look insignificant like just a small child as Isaac, (Abraham didn't look successful at his time), but God will sustain it and it will last into eternity.

The fear of the Lord -Psalm 34

Psalm 34:11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.

Do you have peace in your soul? If you do, then you're indeed a blessed person. But if there's anything wrong, you'll have the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Depart, leave, repent, reject, renounce from the things that's bothering you, and do what's right. Pursue, use every effort until you find that peace.

Number of 7, mountain top experience, and burnt offerings -Genisis 8

Gen8
A lot of sevens in this chapter. v4 seventh month, seventeenth day... v10 another seven days ...v12another seven days...v14 twenty-seventh day of the month

It seems to me it has to do with receiving directions for life, and seeking God's will. At the end of the waiting Noah received his mission: be fruitful and multiply on the earth(V17)


Do you want to have a mountain top experience? Here's one: "the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat."(v4)"the tops of the mountains became visible."(v5)
How do we get to the mountain top? Not by climbing this time, but by following God's orders, even though it's quiet inside the ark, even though all we can see for a long time is only flood,even though what we're doing inside the ark has nothing to do with climbing seemingly, but when the time is right, the flood itself takes us to the mountain top. When we do what God tells us to do, then God will do the climbing for us at the same time even though we might not even be aware of it.


V20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

That's a lot of burning! Every clean animal and every clean bird!
And the burning made the Lord said to himself,"I will never again curse the aground...."
It's a life commitment to the Lord, as Paul said, "living sacrifice". Commit the whole life to God until death.

Number of 40 --Genesis 7

What does 40 mean?
The flood came upon the earth for 40 days, Jesus fasted for 40 days, Moses went up the mountain for 40 days, the Israelites in the desert for 40 years, Moses' three 40s...

A completely new beginning, a big turn around, a new hope in the entire hopelessness, time for the desert, a season in God's timing, a new phase...

Sin - Acts 3

Acts 3: 19"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins maybe wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

Sin is like dung, as long as it's present, it always attracts flies. You can try to get rid of the flies, but if the dung is still there, the flies will return sooner or later. The most thorough way to get rid of the flies is to clean up the dung completely. If it's not cleansed completely, it might look clean enough, but the flies will still smell them and come back. That's why so many people try deliverance and found it didn't work. As the flies might be out for a while, but sin is still there, or the roots of the sin is still there, so after a while the flies came back again.

This morning I heard a preaching from Lisa Bevere. She was talking about how she was struggling with her problem of anger. Once she threw a plate at John Bevere which he missed it and the plate broke the window. Another time she nearly pushed her 2 yr old son into the wall. And once she was in her rage and John had to lock her in the garage. She had blamed her temper for all kinds of reasons, her parents, ancestors,witches praying against them, hormone, abusive past,etc. and she could always find enough reasons to justify her anger.She'd play up like once a month, although she was then a pastor's wife. Until one day the Holy Spirit convicted her that she had to take full responsibility for her sin, not to blame anyone else. And as soon as she stopped justifying and confessed and renounced, she was free. And she has been free for 15 years

Cain and Abel: attitude behind giving --Genesis4

Gen4:4-5"And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard."16 " Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod.."

Both Abel and Cain gave offerings, but one gave the firstlings and one didn't.
The attitute behind giving is vitally important. If we're not putting the Lord in the first, then "sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it"(v7) If we don't have the Lord as our first desire, we'll lose our true identity in Christ, then we're entering into a place of competition. We might win one or two fights along the way but then there'll always be someone else that's stronger and smarter that will beat us. We'll lose the sense of direction and end up settling in the place of Nod, which means wandering.

Proverb 31 women (Part 5)

V28,29 "Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying 'Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.'"
Her life is so fulfilled. Not only is her own life a success, but also she establishes her children and her husband, she reaps the harvest from the mustard seeds that she had planted in others' lives. Because of her wise choices, her attitute and her commitment, she excels.

v30"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."
The charm and beauty of a woman can be attractive, but if a man chases only after that, he will be deceived and trapped, and he will get nothing out of the relationship. But if he searches for character, he'll set his life on the right foundation and right track.
Character for a woman is way more important than the looks.
Life is equal to everyone, some girls feel they're nothing if they haven't got the outstanding looks, but ultimately, it's the character that wins the praises.

v31"Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates."
She's so deserved to enjoy her life. She's so deserved for all the praises.
The mustard seed has grown into a big tree, and the big tree has yielded many fruit, and the fruit bear many other seeds, and the seeds multiply, reproducing multitudes of trees and seeds. One day in eternity she'll get the whole picture of the whole production of her seed, which is her own choice of responding to the calling of her life to be the woman God has called her to be, and she will really smile.

Prov 31 Women (part 4)

v25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future."
She's so on the right track. Because of her growth and success, strength and dignity was just kept added to her. She's like the little mustard seed, growing bigger and bigger. And she's so sure that God's on her track, that nothing can rob her gain away from her, and she'll just grow and grow, and when she looks at the future, at what that mustard seed can grow into, she just can't help but smiling.

26 "She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."
She knows the wisdom of life, she knows the power of giving, and she teaches the secret of her success about kindness. She's bringing generations of followers after her own model of success and excellence.

27 "She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness."
Her house demonstrates her dignity as well. She's not idle and leaves her house in a mess.
She has her eyes in the future, but at the same time, she keeps her hands occupied and she's into details of the present.

Proverb 31 woman (Part 3)

Prov31:19-20 Every sentense has got "hand" in it, she certainly has her hands full.She's occupied with what's been entrusted to her hands. Out of her abundance she can let the blessings flow out of her hands. She's definately not idle. She knows the secret of joy is to give. She has a family, she has a business, and she has a ministry, what a super woman!
21 She looks after the family and she makes sure that her family is her pride. She won't sacrifice the dignity of her family members because she's busy. She doesn't dress them casually. They're all well and properly dressed.

Proverb 31 woman (Part2)

Prov31:14-18
She's the queen of the castle. She lives her life with a passion. She's a manager, she's an organiser, she's the core to the family. She makes things happen and she's well prepared. She looks to the future and she plans for the future. She takes actions and she's deligent with her plannings. She's always learning, practising, training,overcoming and growing. She keeps up with the flow and never loses the momentum. She protects what's in her hands and she makes sure that the growth in all area is healthy and good. Everything in her care is in control and in order. She spends time with God and renews her strength daily in the presence of the Lord. She keeps the oil of her lamp full.

Proverb 31 woman (Part 1)

Proverb 31:10 "An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels."
Excellence is our aim for success in life. So here we find an example, a model of a wife that the Bible calls her excellent.
Can the man find the excellent wife by himself or does he need to trust God to find the wife for him? Is it worth the wait?
Man's eyes are prone to the beautiful lookings. Jewels are beautiful, and the worth is all there is, no more to gain. But her worth is ever increasing and ever growing. Not only does she brings beauty and glory on the outside, but also she changes the inner conditions of the man.

11 "The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain."
She picks him up from wherever he might have fallen and establishes him with a sound mind and soul. When a man's attitude is healthy toward life, he can achieve anything and thus will have no lack of gain. She's an encourager, comforter, healer, she speaks truth and faith. She brings wholeness into the husband's wellbeing.

12 "She does him good and not evil, all the days of her life"
She's an angel of God's not the enemy's, she a vessel of God's blessings. She's consistent and she's determined. She doesn't compromise. She's a faithful servant of God. And God's blessings and presence is with her all the days of her life.

13"She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight."
She serves "as if to the Lord", and the Lord gives her joy and energy in everything she does. She looks for blessings and looks to be a blessing. She finds joy in everything she does,even in chores. She doesn't get grumpy or weary, but she enjoys so much that she looks for more things to do. She's very practical and down to earth, she gets her hands dirty and she doesn't complain.

Newborn babies, Stumbling stone, God's favor --1 Peter 2

1peter2:2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word..
Newborn babies need specially formulated milk, normal milk for adults are no good for babies. Babies respond to mothers best. They need bonding. They need constant feeding but less amount each time. Apart from feeding, they also need lots of cuddles and touches. They definately need lots of attention. Are we treating new christians the same way?


1peter2:6 Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed... the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,... a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense...

Zion means God's calling in our lives. When we sense that calling and start out following Him, sooner or later we'll bump into this stumbling stone.
For Abraham, this stumbling stone could be Sarah's inability to conceive a child, for Moses, it could be Pharaoh(God said I will harden Pharaoh's heart) or the red sea, for David, it could be Saul...it's the natural limit and inability in us to fulfil God's calling and promise. For a non Christian, he can sense that desire and passion of life purpose in him, but when he comes up to this stumbling block, he has no means to surpass it thus he rejects and walks away like the builder. The stone also means Christ in us, our faith, His supernatural power which becomes the foundation of His work in us.
Jesus says, I am the way. Without Jesus, there's no more way to go when we see this rock. But when we put our trust in Jesus, then He becomes our way, and we will not be disappointed.


Do you want God's favour in your life?
This is a good one: "...if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose..." (1Peter2:20-21)