Christians: The Lord’s mighty men

“…they [David’s mighty men], together with all Israel gave his [David’s] kingship strong support to extend it over the whole land, as the Lord has promised.”

-1 Chronicles 11:10, NIV

In 1 Chronicles 11:10-47, some of the remarkable exploits of the chiefs of David’s mighty men were mentioned. Those who were mentioned there are Jashobeam, who killed 300 men in one encounter, Eleazar who was with David when they struck the Philistines in the middle of the field at Pas Dammum, Abishai who also killed 300 men and became the commander of the three mighty men, and Abishai who killed 2 of Moab’s best men, a lion, a an Egyptian who stands 7½ feet tall. It was also said that when David was longing to drink water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem to get water, three of the chiefs risked their lives to get it, but David did not drink it as his men risked their lives to get it. In verse 10, it was also said that these chiefs of David’s mighty men (and all those who were not mentioned) played a very vital role for David to extend his kingship over the whole land of Israel as they became a strong support to him.

When I was observing this, it was revealed to me that like King David who has his mighty men, the King of Kings, our Lord Jesus Christ also has His mighty men – and that us, Christians. And like the mighty men who became a very strong support for King David to extend his kingship throughout the land of Israel, we too should become a strong support to the Lord Jesus Christ and help Him extend His kingship all throughout the world. And we must know as Christians that this is what we are called for– we are called to win the whole world and make disciples for Him.

Another thing that was revealed to me in here was that David’s mighty men were known for overcoming their enemies in their own exploits. Now as the Lord Jesus Christ’s mighty men, we, too, should become overcomers. We Christians are facing our own journeys and are fighting against different enemies, but as mighty men, we should overcome these enemies in order for us to help the Lord Jesus Christ extend His kingship all throughout the world. We could not serve our purpose as mighty men if we don’t overcome our enemies in our own exploits. We could never win the world for our Lord if we live as lose against the enemies we have in our spiritual lives!

Now, if we really want to become a great support to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, then we should be known as overcomers like David’s mighty men. “Losing”, “backsliding” or “stopping” should never be in our vocabulary. We must know that we could never become overcomers if our minds set on losing. We should have a mindset of a winner and an overcomer. As mighty men, we should know that there are no other ways for us but to move forward and continue to win and overcome! This is how we Christians should be. This how we could become a great support in order for the Lord Jesus Christ to extend His kingship to the whole world. This how to become one of the Lord’s mighty men.

Now the question for us Christians is – are we now living like one of the mighty men of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we helping our Lord in extending His kingship? Are we overcoming all our enemies in our spiritual life? If not, then we should better start moving like real mighty men.

Original link for the photo: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizuV9R_j4krK3ultP4E9EYZsPsUXXkUhl7KuT8-LIjr51Qdt2CquvvPTfla5eALvAvZaagBv2hyS8Oi0to2CLFZuwwUdimBBS7u1VqRcHGB-WAHZw319d7ScYaBZPn52kF-g7Pu8V-9t4/s1600/david+mighty+men.jpg

Giving to God: The test of heart and integrity

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

-1 Chronicles 29:17, NIV

In Chapter 29 of 1 Chronicles, David gave all of his resources for building the temple of God – even his own personal treasures (1 Chronicles 29-2-3). David also asked the whole assembly of Israel, “Who are willing to consecrate themselves with the Lord?” – Then the family leaders, officers of Israel, commanders, and the king’s officials also gave willingly for building the temple of God. Now, because the leaders had given willingly, the people greatly rejoiced. And after this, David prayed in front of the assembly.

In David’s prayer, he said that everything that they gave only came from God. That everything they have provided for building the temple of God also came from the very hand of God. David also said in his prayer that God tests the heart and is pleased with integrity – but what is the connection between here between “giving to God”, “testing of heart”, and “integrity”?

When I was pondering on this, God revealed to me that in “giving”, He is testing both our “hearts” and our “integrity”. How? Well first, let’s look at the connection between “giving” and our “hearts”. We, being humans, have our own personal lives. We use the resources/money we have buying things that will satisfy our wants and needs, and we are not reluctant when we do this – that is because we value our own satisfaction. But when giving tithes and offerings for the work of the church, what is the condition of our heart? Are we willing to give like when we are willing to spend our money and resources just to satisfy our cravings? If we are not as willing, then there is a problem with our heart. We may say that we love God, but when we are reluctant in giving, we are just lying to ourselves.

Second is the test of our “integrity”. Now how is our integrity being tested in giving? Let’s define integrity first. Integrity is found on a man who holds on into a principle, giving his whole self and heart into it, and without compromising. Our integrity is being seen depending on how much we give, and on how whole our heart is when we give, because in this, we could know if we are giving our all or not. Once we are reluctant in giving, we don’t give our all – we start to compromise. Our heart then feels heavy because of guilt of not giving our all. But if we give our all, we wouldn’t feel guilt, but joy instead, like what the people of Israel felt when the leaders gave to the Lord wholeheartedly.

So as Christians, if we really want to say that “we love God”, then we must show it in giving. And in giving, we must always remember that we should give wholeheartedly – giving our all to the Lord and for His kingdom.

Shalom!

Original link for the photo: http://vecto.rs/600/vector-of-a-cartoon-man-reluctantly-giving-away-american-money-outlined-coloring-page-by-ron-leishman-25050.jpg

In times of persecution…

 
“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot am arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege camp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

-2 Kings 19:32-34, NIV

In 2 Kings Chapter 18, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent 3 of his men to King Hezekiah to ridicule his confidence, the whole army of Jerusalem, and even blaspheme the power of the Lord, the real living God when the field commander said that “the gods of the nations Assyria has destroyed could not deliver them from Assyria’s hand, so how will the Lord, the God of Israel deliver Jerusalem from the hands of Assyria?” They persecuted King Hezekiah and the whole of the kingdom of Judah, but King Hezekiah, still, didn’t lose his trust in the Lord. He knows that all the nations that Assyria has destroyed have worshiped false gods and idols, unlike Judah who worships the real living God. And so, King Hezekiah prayed to the Lord for deliverance in order to show that the Lord alone is God. And through prophet Isaiah, God answered King Hezekiah’s prayer and said that He, Himself will defend the city of Judah against Assyria. And God fulfilled it when He sent an angel to kill 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp, and when the sons of King Sennacherib killed him while he was worshiping.

From this event, God revealed to me that even in the times of persecution, He will never leave us and He will always be there, and that He will fulfil His promise. Like King Hezekiah whose trust and confidence in the Lord was ridiculed by the men of the king of Assyria but was delivered from their hands, God will never let down all of those who are being persecuted because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 5:11-12, the Lord Jesus Christ said that all of those who are being persecuted because of Him are blessed – and that they should rejoice because they have a great reward in heaven for they were being persecuted the same way as the prophets were persecuted! The Lord Jesus Christ has given us this promise for us to hold on to, and He will not let us down and He will fulfil this promise just like what the Lord did when He rescued King Hezekiah and the whole city of Judah from the hands of Assyria – and He will do this to show that He is the real living God!

What the Lord wants us to know here is that in times of persecution, it will all be God’s work – for the fulfilment of His promise and for His own glory. Like King Hezekiah, the only thing we could do is pray for our deliverance from these persecutions and never lose our trust to the Lord. We should continue to hold on into our faith, endure all persecutions until the end, and never doubt on the power of the real living God – for He has already proved His faithfulness all throughout our lives. We should continue to hold on to the truth of God’s word for He will surely fulfil it. And also, the Lord Jesus Christ told us to rejoice in the times of persecution, for we are blessed and we have a great reward in heaven.

Original link for the photo: http://www.ellenwhite.info/images/chapt-illus/GC/PP-EarlyPersecutionOfChristians_JS_0027.jpg

God's Patience

“All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.”

2 Kings 17:7-8, NIV

In 2 Kings 17 7-23, it showed that the reason why Israel was exiled to Assyria was because of all the evil they have done in the eyes of the Lord – they worshiped other gods, followed the practices of the nations the Lord has drove out, and the evil practices that their kings has introduced to them. They were already warned beforehand by the Lord to not do these evil things and observe the law that was given to them. The Israelites, however, did not listen. They had become disobedient and rejected what the Lord has said to them – and because of this, the Lord grew angry to them and gave them this punishment.

When I was observing all the events starting from the rule of King Jeroboam until King Hoshea’s reign, I could see that the Lord’s patience for the Israelites is very, very long. Though the Lord has given them punishments for their evil deeds, He still delivers them out of them. The Lord continues to show His power and saving grace to them to prove His faithfulness to the promise He has given to the Israelites, but still, the Israelites continued on their evil ways.

It actually made me think that the Israelites, because of their hard-headedness, are very annoying. If I was in God’s situation in that time, my patience on them would quickly run out. But here, it shows that even though many generations of kings has passed in Israel, God is still patient – waiting for the Israelites to turn back from their evil deeds. But also, it was revealed to me that even though God has a very long patience, that patience still has an end. In 2 Peter 3:15, it says that the Lord’s patience is our salvation. Putting this verse in another context, we could say that outside the Lord’s patience, or when the Lord’s patience ran out, it is our condemnation – like what happened to the Israelites when they were exiled to Assyria (but we must know that God still didn’t left the Israelites after they were exhiled).

This revelation could be translated directly into our lives – that when Jesus died on the cross for our salvation, God’s patience started working on us. God is waiting for all the people to accept Christ in their lives in order to receive God’s gift of salvation, and also for those who are already believers of Christ who continually lives on sin to repent and go back to Him. God is patiently waiting for all of us to fully commit our lives to Him, until the time He has set – the time of Christ’s second coming. Until that time comes, we are still under God’s patience, and we shouldn’t waste it like what the Israelites did for many generations.

With this revealed to us, we should now check what kind of live we are living in now – if we are living in obedience to His commands or not. If we are not, then we must know that it’s still not too late for us, as we are still within the timeframe of the Lord’s patience. We should not abuse God’s patience and let it run out on us – as it would mean our condemnation. We should go back to Him and start living according to His will and purpose for us.

Shalom!

Original link for the photo: http://www.oneyearbibleimages.com/patient.jpg

Sin has consequences – What should we do with it?

“Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.”

-1 Kings 13:4, NIV

In 1 Kings 13:1-9, Jehoahaz became the king of Israel. In his reign, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord as he followed the ways of Jeroboam, which also has caused Israel to commit sin. Because of the sins that Israel has committed, God became angry, and for a long time, the Israelites were under the oppression of Hazael, king of Aram. But then, King Jehoahaz sought for the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him as He could see how Hazael oppressed Israel. Then the Lord has provided a deliverer for Israel to escape the power of the Aram. The Israelites, then, went back to their own homes but still did not turn back on their sins. And as for King Jehoahaz, only few soldiers were left under him as the Aram has destroyed the rest.

In this event, God told me that like King Jehoahaz and the whole of Israel suffering from the consequences of their sins, we, too, have consequences we have to face for the sins we commit. These consequences will most of the time put us into a deep misery, like what happened to the Israelites when they were being oppressed by the Aram. But we must always remember that even though we have done evil in the eyes of the Lord every time we commit sin, God is always there ready to listen to us. God knows all of the misery we are going through because of the sins we have committed, and if we only seek for His favor, He is more than willing to deliver us from the misery we are in – like how he delivered Israel from Aram. However, we are only delivered from the misery that the consequences of our sin has caused us, but the damage of the consequence of the sin we have done will still remain, like what happened to King Jehoahaz when only few soldiers were left to him.

And so from this, there were two things that God has revealed to me that we should always remember and apply into our lives:

First is that if we want to avoid the misery that the consequences of our sin will give us, then we should avoid committing sin on the first place! This is self explanatory – there would be no consequence for our sin if we avoid committing it. We should be able to control and discipline ourselves and strive for holiness, for we are called to be holy! We should completely hate and persecute sin, overcome temptation and the demons so that we could avoid committing any sin.

And second, if we already have committed sin, instead of hiding it and trying to solve its consequences by ourselves, we should seek for God’s favor, ask for forgiveness and deliverance from the misery that the consequence of our sin has brought us. God is always there and could see our sufferings, and He is always willing to listen and help us – and He will help us if we ask Him to. But also, we must be strong enough to endure the damage of the consequence of the sins we have committed as its mark will be left there even though God has delivered us from our misery.

Original link for the photo: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/december/images/misery_news.jpg

Overcoming fear from troubles

…He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

-1 Kings 19:4, NIV

In 1 Kings Chapter 19, verses 1 to 9, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to tell him that he will be killed the next day. When Elijah heard this message, he was very afraid and ran for his life. Elijah seems to be giving up because of the trouble that is about to come to him – and on his journey in the desert, Elijah sat under a broom tree and prayed to the Lord to take his life, and after that, he fell asleep. Then an angel woke him up and gave him food to eat and water to drink. Elijah ate then lay down again to sleep, but the angel woke him up the second time and asked him to eat because the journey he took was too much for him. Then Elijah continued to eat and was strengthened by the food – and then he continued travelling until he reached Mt. Horeb.

God revealed to me what this event means to us in our lives. First is that the message of Jezebel to kill Elijah translates to the troubles we have in our lives. Our enemy, the devil, uses these troubles to pursue us until we give up and let the troubles we have kill us. And us, we are like Elijah who was in fear because of the trouble pursuing him. Now the tendency is for us to run away from it, and along the way, we also come to the point where we give up and wish that we would just die – like what Elijah prayed to the Lord. But then, God told me that what we don’t realize in these times is that we are still alive. We don’t realize that God is always giving us a new hope when He wakes us up the next morning, and that God also provides us food to renew our strength so that we continue on our journey. This is something that we don’t see when we have troubles – that is because we are always looking at the negative side, which is that these troubles would just kill us.

So now that this has been revealed to us, what then should we do?

First is that we should completely put our trust and hope in the Lord. By this, we could strengthen our hearts because we trust that the Lord will deliver us from our troubles. We must also remember that our hearts are now also being shielded by our hope in the Lord – this is so that our fear from our troubles wouldn’t consume us and kill us.

Second is that we should always realize the grace that God has given to us. If we only realize the grace of God, we wouldn’t be grumbling because of the troubles we have. If we only realize the grace of God, even when we are in the middle of the strongest storm of our lives, we would just always be in the mode of thanksgiving. We wouldn’t feel fear in our hearts, or any negative things – that is if only we realize the grace that God has given us. We must realize that our every breath, every beat of our hearts, and every food we eat is the grace of God.

And lastly is that we should continue to move forward in our journey. We are now guarded from our fear on the troubles we have, so there is no reason for us to stop from our journey. What we could only do is to continue to move forward!

Original link for the photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Scared_Child_at_Nighttime.jpg/250px-Scared_Child_at_Nighttime.jpg

Wrong Teaching and False Religion: Deception through the Word

He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’”

-1 Kings 13:21-22, NIV

In the 13^th chapter of the book of 1 Kings, the man of God from Judah was commanded by God to bring a word to King Jeroboam. He was also commanded not to eat bread and drink water to the land of Bethel, and not to return to Judah by the way he came. After the man of God brought the word to King Jeroboam, he went back to Judah and took a road different from the road when he came to Bethel. However, a prophet from Bethel came to him while he was on his journey back to Judah offering bread and water. The man of God from Judah did not accept the offer, but the prophet told him that an angel by the word of the Lord told him to come back to the prophet’s house to eat bread and drink water – but it was written in verse 18 that the prophet was lying. The man of God, then, accepted the offer and ate bread and drank water from the prophet’s home. Then the Lord talked to the prophet and told him the consequence of the man of God’s disobedience, that he would not be buried in the tomb of his fathers.

In this event, God revealed to me that like the prophet who used God’s word to make the man of God from Judah disobey God command, His Word is also being used by many in this world to deceive people and disobey God’s commands. Many false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word has spread all throughout the world and has deceived so many people. And also, because of this false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word, many haven’t noticed that they are being led to their death, like what happened to the man of God from Judah, which is very horrible.

So what should we do so that we wouldn’t be deceived like the man of God from Judah? Well first, we should fill ourselves up with the word of God to increase our defence against the false religions and wrong teaching. Our knowledge about the word will help us discern what is right and what is wrong – that is why we should always study the word of God and read the bible.

Second is that we should always hold on to the truth the Lord Jesus Christ and obey His commandments. We must always remember that anything that goes beyond or against the truth of the word of God is a deception or a lie of the enemy which will surely cause us to sin. The man of God has sinned because he did not detect or realize that what the prophet was saying goes against God’s commandment to him. He didn’t held on to the truth of the word of God, which I believe God Himself has spoken to him personally.

Now we should learn from this mistake that the man of God from Judah has done. We should just continue holding on to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and His word and continue to obey it. We should not easily believe on what other people might say that could make us disobey the word. By this I believe, we could easily detect and ignore the deception being used to trick us.

Original link for the photo: http://covenantcommunity-church.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/557px-Singapore_Road_Signs_-_Warning_Sign_-_Danger.svg1_-300x264.png