Yeah I agree, He should keep you posted on what's going on, if no opening or no jobs, should just inform you anyway rather than keep you in the dark, I mean that's what I would do anyway.

Good. You watch World Cup? Brazil vs Germany?

I didn't see.

Bible Devotions with UW

Only 1 thing is needed



In the Middle Eastern culture, it is the norm for the women to be busy in the kitchen preparing food for guest of the house.
It would really look inappropriate for a female to be sitting with the guest. From the perspective of outsiders, it may seem....lazy.

There is a very powerful truth here that our Jesus want us to know. I'm sure we have read this passage many times but don't really understand the
significance of the story. There is a typology here why the Holy Spirit records for us to learn.

I want to ask you a question. Who do you think make Jesus look like God? Martha or Mary?

Martha symbolizes Christians who think they need to give to God, like God is in need and demanding something from you. So they are always working trying to please God.

Mary Symbolizes Christians who is in need and recognize God is the one who supplies.

Who do you think in essence of this story "worship" God?

In Genesis chapter 1 When God created the Heavens and Earth, He created all the seed bearing plants and told Adam you may FREELY eat......
Adam did not need to worry about providence, He just need to tend to the Garden, God is the one who cause all the plants to grow and bear fruit. Adam merely need to reach out pluck the fruit effortlessly.

At the Well of the Samaritan who met Jesus. Jesus said this words.
John 4:10 - Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
Yes the focus is YOU would have asked Him not God asking you. Who is the one in need? Bear in mind in this story Jesus is the one who is hungry and tired. Think about it.

So back to the story of Mary and Martha, who do you think pleases God more?

The answer is Mary. Why?

Because Mary understood in essence, Here is the one who has unlimited power and resources. The One who fed the 5000 multitude not counting children and woman with 12 extra basketballs left.
The one who turned water into wine effortlessly. She recognize God is never in need but God is ever wanting to Give. She has chosen the good part and will not be taken away. In that sense, though not mentioned but I believe God is more pleased with Mary for she has chosen the "better" position which is the position of receiving. The one who is always trying to please God thinking God is in need does not realize, He has make God to be like one who need to take from you in order to be pleased. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When you come to God, understand that we are the one who is ever in need, not God. When you have this perspective, you in a way acknowledge that God is the one who is Almighty, God will honor you and say you have chosen the good part and will not be denied of it. When you read the entire Bible, you'll find that it's always God is the one who gives and bless, He wants to give, not take from us. Even in the most difficult passages that seem to make God is like demanding, if you see carefully and read under the lens of the Holy Spirit, you will usually find GRACE, that God wants to give more than you ask for. And that is the ONE thing that is needed.

God Bless.

Sorry Bro, not familiar with Cheras.

Bible Devotions with UW

Righteousness is a Gift



Good Morning,

You are already RIGHTEOUS. Let this affirmation by the word of God seeps through your spirit and soul, today.

But How you may ask? You know that you're not perfect. Sometimes you hear voices of condemnation saying you've done this wrong or that wrong.
Even though you've repented of your sins, you find yourself doing wrong again in the next few days it's like an endless cycle.

Hear what the voice of God says.

Romans 3:
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Verse 21 means that it used to be that you are righteous by your conduct (law of God) but NOW no more. A New type of righteousness is revealed.
Verse 22 means The New type of Righteousness is credited to you by your Faith. See the word GIVEN to you NOT Earned through Faith in Christ Jesus.
Verse 23 Reaffirms that NOBODY is righteous by his own conduct, ALL HAVE SIN.
Verse 24 Reaffirms one more time, you are justified by God's Grace.

The Righteousness of God is given to you as a GIFT. You cannot earn it, neither can you work for it. IT'S a GIFT to be received by Faith in the Son of God.
Just like birthday gifts given to you on your birthday, you receive it freely from the people who loves you.
In the same manner how you receive your birthday gift, this Gift of Righteousness is given to you FREELY from God who Loves you dearly.

Why is this important? When you know that you ARE Righteous by Faith, the promises of God will flow freely unhindered to you Life.
Start Reading your Bible and start claiming the promises of God and STAND ON IT. Know that in every passages that attached God's promise for protection, providence, Grace, etc meant for the Righteous, you already qualify for those promises by Faith. You don't need to run to this Man of God or that anointed person for answered prayers. God stands by you even if you don't feel like it. No. The Bible is very clear and comforting. THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY FAITH! (Romans 1:17, Galatians 2:16), not by effort or works or even your obedience.

Your spiritual life will not be easily shaken and you won't be an easy target for the Devil when you know this truth that Sets you Free.

You ARE RIGHTEOUS by Faith. Amen?

God Bless.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 16 2014, 11:24 AM

I think what makes one a Christian is that He/She believes in Christ Jesus and what makes
one a Disciple of Christ is one who follows after Him, regardless of denomination.

I think we shouldn't be too hard on people. Religion is really a problem that causes one to have the wrong kind of fire. (Romans 10:1-3)

I mean if God is more than gracious about reconciliation with his children, regardless of who you are (2 Corinthians 5:19), who are we to say Catholics are not Christians?

I rather be innocent and gentle with regards to what is malicious in the body of Christ rather than to condemn. (1 Corinthians 14:20)

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 16 2014, 05:48 PM

dbl

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 16 2014, 05:44 PM

No, as Pehkay said it correctly they never ceased to be God's people.

This is the Grace of God that I believe some Christians find hard to understand or accept.

I like what He mentioned, it is scripturally correct as well.

Where got Matthew 35:40?

May I?

Though it sounds nice but unfortunately that is not the truth. If any good person from any religion can go to heaven, it would be pointless for Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and the Apostles of Christ would be the greatest fools on Earth because Jesus did say He is the only way to Heaven and the Apostles gave their own life for the sake of the gospel, something they truly believe in and experienced. There is no self agenda neither It is something taken lightly because if it is, it defeats the purpose giving up their lives. They are aware of this and recorded their statement in the book of Corinthians.



There's a reason why Jesus spoke in Parables and there is a reason why Jesus uses the OT Law, presupposing good works for Salvation vs Grace when it comes to certain type of people.

First of all, the Parables spoken are meant for people who have closed their heart to God for various reasons, unbelief, self righteousness, self dependency, etc. BUT God spoke clearly to those who are willing to follow Him as stated in verse 11 (the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you) and in the same breath BUT not to them. And Jesus explained those who has will be given more.

What is the meaning of this? It means that those who has are those who are willing to receive God's grace. To have means you must receive from God. Those who have none are those who think they don't need God's Grace. They can make it on their own, presupposing on their own strength, wisdom and works. Even that has no value in the eyes of God and will be taken away as mentioned in verse 12 (Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.)


So what about the Parables of the sheep and goats?

Jesus will use the Law to bring anyone to the end of himself for those who presupposes on their own strength. Consider the Parable of the Young Rich Man.




When that Rich young Ruler asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life"?

Jesus should have said the first time, Believe in Him (John 3:16) but instead gave him the Law, and that guy went away sorrowful unable to fulfill it. WHY?

See, the message of the Bible is very consistent. This is the central doctrine of our Salvation is always by Grace and by Faith not of works, it can never be change neither be altered, unless God is the one who does it. Until then this is the prevailing Doctrine.

Romans 11:6 - And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

The Salvation of God is either by Grace or by Works, NEVER both, this is the EXACT meaning of Romans 11:6.

So why did Jesus gave the Rich young Ruler the Law instead of Grace? Because God will never accept any form of self righteousness because it corrupts the person.
You can see it in the way the Rich young Ruler boasted in his statement...All these I have kept....which presupposes on his own strength, his own self form of righteousness. In reality nobody can do this perfectly, I believe He lied.

When you begin to understand this, then you will understand why Jesus gave the Parables of the Sheep and Goat which presupposes on one own's work because the Pharisee and the Teachers of the Law was there when He spoke of this in

Matthew 26
1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5“But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

The parable was meant for them. They were still alive when Jesus spoke this parable. Upon this they decided to kill him. Try and think for a moment why.

Why would God give something like this? Remember that the parable of Sheep and Goat in way will make you question, how many times do I need to do this? One time is enough? 3 Times? 10 Times? If 1 time is enough, doesn't seem fair to those who have constantly help others. If 30 times is enough, how do I keep track perfectly? It can become insincere in a way. And it leads to more questions than answers.

If anyone has ears to hear, listen. In way this type of Parables is meant to make you feel helpless, Why? Why God always give this type of Parable that presupposes on own strength for Salvation.

Answer: So that you come to Him for Grace, leaving your own presuppose strength behind, to repent, to depend on Him for Mercy and Grace and the Bible assures us God is Indeed merciful and more than Gracious!

God's grace will change our life, not our own strength because anything that is of our own, usually leads to pride. (Ephesians 2:9)

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 18 2014, 05:32 PM

Technically speaking, referring to the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law and also those who reject God's grace.

You can say, The Rich young Ruler is an example of this parable, the one who asked "What must I do to inherit Eternal Life? As you know, It's not DO,
but Faith or Believe in the one who died at the cross. When you measure Salvation by your Performance, Jesus will bring out the Perfect Law of God.
God preposition is that if you want to live by it, you can BUT make sure you are PAR Excellence and can abide by it perfectly. (James 2:10, Galatians 5:3-4)
And you know in reality that is not possible and unrealistic. God knows this but Man is too stubborn to admit it. That is why He gave the Law to bring us to the end of ourselves. Those who understand this will say, This is not possible, I need your Grace God, be merciful. Those who don't see it will say "I can do this, no problem. Just like the young Rich Ruler quoted "All this I HAVE KEPT (smudgily), emphasis is on own self.

Sometime some of us may exhibit the same thought mentality, after Saved by Grace, I need to be careful how I live, Walk Righteously so that I AM righteous and not fall into sin, not realizing that person have mixed up Law and Grace together, when The Bible is clear there can be no mixture, it's either Grace or Works. There's no in between. We are righteous not because of our conduct, we are righteous because we choose to believe and God credit Righteousness as a GIFT because of our Faith. Those who choose to trust God's grace completely will be more at ease and can rest in Christ compare to those who don't because there's is always this element of uncertainty due to our imperfect performance.

If notice in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, both the righteous and the Wicked did not know when they did good works. Both are at loss when they did it and when they didn't do it. Notice the key difference? If you can understand this, God is saying, If you want to be measure by Works, you will never know if you did enough or When you have missed it. And it's scary because no one can actually keep proper record of his own conduct. A person can do good works to someone and YET also missed out on another one by not doing anything. When you have both works judged against you, which one cancels out the other and by how much? More question than answers. The whole point is, there's no certainty in doing good works to justify for Salvation.

The Parable is given so that those who can understand that it is hopeless to be judge by good works will come to the end of themselves and come to God for Grace and Mercy. Unfortunately the Pharisee and Teachers of the Law were too stiff neck to accept that and conspire to kill Jesus for saying that Parable against them.

The rest of the lengthy passages has very much to do with the first paragraph, they are related.

Yes anyone can come to Jesus and confess that He is the only Way to God and to Eternal Life, even if He is from another religion, that is correct. God's offer of Salvation is for all but you are in error with regards to good deeds.


Ephesians 2:8-9 I(NIV)
…8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 19 2014, 12:27 AM

It's not so much about expecting some kind of payment or rewards

but in the economy of God's Salvation is has to do with establishing own Righteousness to be justified before God.

That is where the boasting part comes in.

It doesn't make much sense when you say one must do good deed in order to be 100% sure for selection and at the same time say good works is done because of inner desire not wanting any rewards. It kinda of contradict in meaning.

Perhaps you misunderstand my point.

I agree with you, there are many people who does good deeds without expecting anything in return, it's out of the sincerity of their Hearts but these acts do not qualify them to Heaven.

Many people will probably ask why not?

The answer is this.

The Kingdom of God is about God's Glory and his goodness, it has nothing to do with us.

He qualify us to enter NOT because we are good but because God is good, this Glory and Recognition belongs to Him and Him alone.
He qualify us to enter NOT because we do good deed but because God's good work at the cross. (Jesus sacrificed himself at the cross).

It ALL about God, nothing to do with us. NOT EVEN our obedience to God qualify us.

Salvation is a gift.

Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

sonido
Notice in Galatians 5:22 as you quoted, the word "fruit"? Fruit of the Holy Spirit not effort. Fruit in this context means the result of being already Saved not the condition to be saved.

Many Christians like you, started off from this perspective before they're saved and after they accepted Christ, they still carry idea this but it's not the truth.

The key point here as you said "only when we are sinless".

The problem with this doctrine is that your Salvation depends on one self not Christ ("with our own strength").

Any doctrine that negates Christ is not of God but of the Anti-Christ.

A bit difficult to make you understand when you're not a Christian.

God loves you, trust me.

He came to seek those who are lost in their life, including those who are humble enough to admit they need God, this type God really honours.

Read this whole Passage

Romans 5

Peace and Hope

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 21 2014, 08:51 PM

Salvation isn't just about the future, it's about now itself.

Having Salvation means being reconciled to God.

If only you know what that actually means.

.....the very thing that you asked for.

Don't be too hard on yourself, I know God loves you. I don't know how to explain it but I just know it when I see your words.

Even the few Bible verses in the card of your wallet can bring you through many tribulation in life, you can hang on to those verse.

You don't have to force yourself to read the entire Bible.

Just enjoy your life and know that God has taken all your sins and nailed at the cross of Jesus Christ. All you have to do is acknowledge that and your joy will be made complete in Jesus himself.

It's a message of God's grace and of Faith. Something truly unprecedented happened.

First we have to understand that Jesus wasn't crucified yet, and in the setting of those time, people knew that a Messiah would come to save the Jewish people.

We all know that the Jewish people are the first to be invited for Salvation later followed by the gentiles.

The Canaanite Woman pretended to be Jewish by addressing our Lord "Son of David". In a way she's trying to buy her way through by pretending. That's why Jesus at first kept silence, only when He said “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel", She realize she could not disguised herself any longer then She came as herself by crying "Lord Help me and then God answered her.

I have a message for you, God wants you to come as you are, with no pretense and nothing to hide and He will answer you.

The thing that's truly remarkable if you notice, that the Canaanite woman didn't give up in her Faith.

She just keep on coming to God. And God answered Her despite telling her that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.
Her Faith was persistent and God said, GREAT was her Faith.

Even though Jesus wasn't crucified yet but still He gave her the Grace of God, something she didn't earned, only she believed that God will answer her.
She reminds me of prayer warrior who once said " I will not let God go, until He answer me". God is not irritated neither offended by such persistency.
He is very pleased by it.

This is the key message.


P.S: The word dog used in this passage is not the insulting or derogatory term as many people think. The Greek word for dog used in this context is
kunarion: a little dog or a puppy.

Jesus was using this in a very gentle way.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jul 30 2014, 09:49 AM