Joy - June 11, 2014

Scripture: Psalm 84-86

5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 

6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
11 For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
12 O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you. - Psalm 84
16 Look down and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant;
save me, the son of your servant.
17 Send me a sign of your favor. Then those who hate me will be put to shame,
for you, O Lord, help and comfort me. - Psalm 86

Message:

What joy for those who belong to GOD, those that trust and depend on GOD.

Observation:

Great are the blessings, joy and privilege for those that trust GOD. There is great favor and blessing that await those that trust in the LORD.

Application:

We have to put our trust in GOD, we shouldn't trust in man or anything else. We ought to put our trust in GOD. 

Live! Give Thanks! - Feb 20, 2014

Scriptures: Ecclesiastes 9-10
7 So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! 8 Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne!
9 Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. 10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.11 I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. - Ecclesiastes 9
Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader and whose leaders feast at the proper time to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk. - Ecclesiastes 10

Message: 

Life is Short. There is only one Life to live.

Observation/Promise:

GOD approves when we know how to appreciate the blessings in our lives. There is no such thing as luck, but favor comes from GOD and His favor comes to those that love Him. When you are thankful for what you have because you recognize that it is HE who has given and blessed you with everything, this pleases GOD and it makes your life even richer knowing that you are given everything that you need. Gratefulness is the key to a fulfilling life which leads to contentment.

Command/Application:

Live Life to the fullnest! Do not hold back or hesitate to chase your dreams and experience whatever you always wanted to do. Do your best in all things! For life is very short and everyone dies. When we die, there's no more, that's it! Be thankful to GOD for everything, and whatever you may still need, ask GOD of this, pray and do not stop praying. Live, not just for today but prepare for the future

Applying SOAP to Psalm 84

SOAP - Scripture, Observation/Promise, Application, Prayer

Scripture: Psalm 84

O: 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
A: 2 I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.
      With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.
O: 3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her                young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!
O: 4 What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. O: 5 What joy for those whose strength comes from theLord, 

     who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

    6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing         springs.The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
    7 They will continue to grow stronger, 

    and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.P: 8 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. 

P: 9 O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield! 

    Show favor to the one you have anointed.

O:10 A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!
A: I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
    than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
O:11 For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory.
    The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
O:12 O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.

Trusting GOD in the Dark

19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison.23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

- Genesis 39

The Favor of GOD rests in you when you are accused of something that you have not done. How could one feel that they are in GOD's favor when they are being accused of something that they have not done? But it is true in Josephs's life. He was favored by His father Jacob and was loved more than any other sibling. But he was envied by his siblings and didn't know how such envy could result into them selling him as a slave to strangers. He worked his best in Potiphar's house and earned the Potiphar's trust but the Potiphar's wife betrayed him by accusing him of something he had not done and was sent to prison. After all these things, Joseph was still faithful to GOD and that he managed to excel even in the prison cell.

When we remain faithful and humble even when the world has been so hostile to us, we receive GOD's favor. Everytime there is injustice being done in our lives and we trust HIM with it instead of plotting to have revenge, we received GOD's favor and the opportunity for GOD to bless us in the right time. The LORD was merciful to Joseph and understood the hardship he had to go through that GOD gave Joseph strength to be in the worst place on earth - the prison cell. But even in the darkest place in our lives, GOD's light can shine when we chose to trust Him with everything.

Grace - Undeserved Favor

19 “So write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Help them learn it, so it may serve as a witness for me against them. 20 For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat. But they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.21 And when great disasters come down on them, this song will stand as evidence against them, for it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know the intentions of these people, even now before they have entered the land I swore to give them.”
Deuteronomy 31:19-21

GOD knows and sees everything and seeks out the thing that man cannot easily see which is the heart of man or the the real intentions of a man. GOD knows the intents and hearts of the people of Israel yet HE still brings them to the pomised land flowing with milk and honey. Why? They don't deserve to be there, especially when GOD knows after that they have enjoyed the land, become prosperous and become fat, they will be rebellious and turn away from HIS ways. But still He gives these people abundant blessings that they don't deserve. He even creates a song for them for them to be taught and learn of it so that when they rebel against GOD, they will understand that the song was meant to witness against them. Would it make them remember GOD? Would it make them turn their hearts back to HIM? It doesn't say but the song says so many things about GOD. It says how faithful GOD is to people who cannot be faithful to HIM.

We are just the same as Israel. We can't ever be perfectly faithful to GOD because the Bible says that all of us have fallen short of God's glory, all have sinned, all have strayed away. But the good news is that GOD will always be faithful to us, even at our last breath, giving us a chance, when we stray that we can always turn back to HIM as long as we are still alive. So that at the very end, we can be with HIM in GOD's eternal promise land. So if you know you are in a state that is far from GOD, know this that HE has been waiting for you to come back to HIM. Remember that GOD remains the same throughout all time. HE never moved from where HE was in your life, in fact, when you moved away HE is still with you, still respecting your decision but waiting faithfully for you to come back to the home of HIS heart. Are you still enjoying the blessings even while you are far from GOD? That is His grace on you, our undeserving favor. 

Finding favor with GOD

“‘You are Adonai, the God who chose Avram,
brought him out of Ur-Kasdim
and gave him the name of Avraham.
Finding that he was faithful to you,
you made a covenant with him
to give the land of the Kena‘ani,
the Hitti, Emori and P’rizi,
the Y’vusi and the Girgashi,
to give it to his descendants;
and you have done what you promised,
because you are just.

- Nehemiah 8:7-8

How do we find favor with GOD that He decides to chose to bless us? Based on this verse, it is faithfulness to GOD that causes GOD to pour out His favor and blessings in our lives. It's not trying to be good because there are many rich people trying to look good by donating much to the poor and needy but their hearts are far from GOD. We have to understand that GOD is a personal being. He wants a relationship with every human being. He even calls out each star by it's name, how much more does He call out our name and know us from our intimate thoughts to every detail of our lives. If He knows everything about us, its only natural to think that HE wants us to know Him and who He is. The only way to know Him is to seek Him (find GOD) through His Word the Bible. The Bible describes Him as a Father and Mother to a child, a friend, a lover and many more. But what does He require of us that will make Him grant us great things? Faithfulness.

What does it mean to be faithful? It is to be consistent with our relationship with GOD. It is to communicate with him everyday just as married couples talk to each other about everything GOD wants us to tell Him what's in our deepest hearts, our concerns, our agendas because He has many good and great plans for us. GOD talks back through His word, the Bible so to be faithful also means to keep reading His word day by day. Just as any human relationship require time, we need to set aside time to be with GOD. GOD wants to be involved with every single moment of our lives, HE wants to bless, He wants to guide, He wants to be the center of our lives. It is hard to have that kind of relationship with someone so grand, so big, so powerful yet someone invisible. And this is why we have to have faith because without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him - Hebrews 11:6. We have to have faith, and to be faithful is to stay in faith, always until the end of days.