I believe, what is sanctioned in suffering for Christians, (as permitted by Father God) are persecution from people, being mocked and ridiculed for our faith.

Other than that, you are not to carry that burden alone but to commit everything in prayer to God (including your weaknesses) so that, there's opportunity for you to experience God's grace (favour) and power.

This is the meaning when Jesus said in

Matthew 11:28 - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

The end result is rest because you gave God the opportunity to deliver you or your situation.


Christian Life is really about partnership with God.

You may want to seriously consider letting go of your fears and doubt and start trusting in Faith that God is real and serious with your life.

I don't consider myself special or anything like that but if Father God does answers me, He can answer you.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 6 2015, 12:39 AM

Hey Bro, So am I.

I'm no different from most people.

I have terrible habits too, like fits of anger at times but you know what?

How is it that God is still graceful to me and still answers my prayer despite of my weakness?

Thing is, I've repented of my thoughts about God. My wrong view of who God is, is what is stopping God's grace. In other words I had the wrong type of believe or Faith about God if you will.

I used to think that God is still angry at me and I'm held under judgement until I get all my act sorted out. But that's far from the truth.

That's why I encourage you to take 1 day at a time, read the Bible, discover the truth for yourself, of who God is. When you repent of your view of who God is, when you have the right type of believe or Faith if you will.....your life will change. You will start seeing God.

The Bible says...It is the goodness of God that lead us to repentance. (Romans 2:4)

Not the wrath of God as most people would like to believe.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 6 2015, 01:47 AM

Bible Devotions with UW

Why Faith without works is dead?



Listen to this.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Simple but powerful truth.

What it means is this. If we don't practise our Faith practically, we're good as dead spiritually.
The equation is parallel. For our Christian life to be vibrant it depends on how crucial, as to how far we practise our walk.

Faith without works will cause you to be spiritually dead. It is not just a matter of believing (the intangible). Practicality and Faith goes hand in hand.

So UW, what do you mean by practicality? Live your Christian Life practically. For example"

When you wake up, first thing you do, spend time with your heavenly Father in prayer, read his word. Read the Bible.
I would go as far to say, even 5 minutes a day is better than None at all. That is a divine truth. You can increase the time spend, as you get more intune to this.

When you're out of your home, remember to be kind to others. Love your enemies. If you drive, be humble and be kind to others.
The Holy Spirit says it like this. When you love your neighbours (surrounding people), you love God. This is the greatest walking the talk for a Christian.
It is the essence of practising your Faith with deeds. People may not know your kind deeds but hey God knows.

For whatever prayers you have entrusted to God. Be it your career, your finances, your partner, you marriage, your relationship, that new House or Car, whatever it is,
guard your words carefully. Don't pray with faith and then confess negatively in front of your friends or working colleagues. What I mean is, don't contradict between what you
prayed for and what you say to others. Something like, God I believe and thank you for healing my this condition and in the next moment, in the course of conversation with someone, you say
I don't think I will be healed or I don't think God will hear me.

What I gave you as examples (above) are simple illustration of practising your Faith with deeds. It may be beyond these parameters or different.
Doesn't matter. What is important is that you understand, if you don't practise your Faith with works, your spiritual life is as good as dead.
I'm not saying this to scare you or discourage you. Just telling you, the Bible is never wrong.

And it's not just practising a few times here and there. It's everyday living. Everyday practising until it becomes part and parcel of your daily life.
One side of the coin in James 2:26 says that Faith without works is dead. It means the flipside is also true.
When you engage practising Faith with works consistently, Your Spiritual Life is guaranteed to be vibrant and alive and not only that. I believe you WILL experience the reality of God!
His grace, wisdom and power will be a reality in your life. It won't be just a matter of theory or concept but the living experience!

I write this devotion to reach out to Christians who feels that God is elusive and hard to experience. Now perhaps you know why you're not experiencing when you should as a believer.

Hope this helps you in your Christian life.

God Bless.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 6 2015, 05:28 PM

You can try bigger churches like Calvary or DUMC or even Glads Tiding.

I'm sure they have more tech geeks there.

Going to Church doesn't save you but it'll strengthen your Faith through the sermons preached.

Well sooner or later, have to accept that we all need to be discipline in life.

It does help in the outlook of life, whether studying or working.

Actually the whole context of Romans 9 is talking about Salvation where Righteousness is by Faith vs by Works (Human Effort). Something that we cannot obtain by our merit. Why God choose to open up this offer to the gentile world (all non jews - meaning us) rather than retaining it only to the Jew and change the way to obtain righteousness by way of the Law to the way of Faith.

Everything that was orchestrated, in the signs and the types and the history of the OT of making Salvation known, why He ended the Old Covenant and established a New one in the NT.....In all that orchestrating God is sovereign. That it's by God's grace or mercy, why things happened the way it happened in the OT. That is the meaning.

You'll notice the key phrase is mentioned in verse 8 and 16 of the same chapter. And why He talk about Children of the promise (Isaac) divine birth that is later repeated in more detail explanation in Galatians 4:21-31.

You will understand better why Paul was trying to establish in Chapter 9 when you start to read in verse 30 to 33 and then when you see the next chapter in Romans 10, its all about Righteousness by Faith.

That is the context. Suffering is not really the subject here in Romans 9.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 8 2015, 01:11 AM

I'm quite careful when it comes to Bible exposition.


If You have your bible with you, turn to Romans Chapter 9 and see why it starts talking about the Salvation of Israel in verse 6 all the way to verse 9

and

why it starts talking about God being sovereign in the scheme of his choosing people from verse 10 all the way to verse 24

and

why it starts talking about opening Salvation to the Gentiles in verse 25 all the way to verse 29.

THEN in verse 30 to 33, why does the starting verse starts like this:

What then shall we say?

It means that the preceding explanation from verse 6 to 29 is to support what it's trying to conclude in verse 30 to 33.

Which btw.....if you notice verse 30 to 33 talks about Righteousness by Faith vs works. What has that got to do with suffering?

It's alright, we all learn.

Chapter 9 speaks of Israel rejection, because they rejected Jesus as Messiah, God opened this Salvation to the world as a sign to the Jews to spite them to jealousy.

Actually all in all, God still cares for them, wanting them to be saved. (Romans 10:21)

Not all the Jews. Many are coming to Christ. I've met face to face visiting Christians Jews in my church.
They too are trying to evangelize to their own people. Can say part of the Jews are opening up to Christ.

That's why we need to pray for them, that their heart will continuously be open.
Jesus would return immediately the moment Israel declare "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'

Of course majority of them are still into Judaism, some have turned secular but the things is, God is still working in their lives.
They're the most blessed people on this planet.

Torah is the first 5 books which we included in Bible.

God already revealed the sign of the Messiah in the first book of the Torah which is Genesis 3:15


15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

And this is symbolic that Christ crushed Satan's dominion by his resurrection.

Death which previously held by Satan was defeated by Christ.

This will be exciting for you.

Marriage has to do with you putting Father God first and
Working out your marriage with fear and trembling. ( ....not exaggerating)

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 9 2015, 11:55 AM

I didn't know that.

hmmm I never did ask you this: but what are you doing here in Malaysia?

I don't think God wants you to give all your finances to the Church. Where got such a thing?

Tithe is the only requirement.

Giving beyond your tithe to the Church is a conviction between you and God.

When a believer does this, He should do it willingly and cheerfully not forcefully.

I don't think I've come across any Christian who's forced to do it unwillingly.

Then it's not right. God never forces anyone.

Even for a miracle, Jesus did ask the blind beggar, What do you want me to do for you?

He's a gentle God.

I believe tithing is an act of worship. I give my tithes unquestioningly whether I'm financially tight or not. I don't care if the amount is huge in thousands, I give because I believe in tithing.

For me fundamentally Tithing is important.

but beyond that, What I mean is, beyond the Tithe amount which could be offerings or pledge, I don't advise my fellow Christians to feel condemn if they don't give. Give with a cheerful heart, even if you don't give, don't feel guilty and don't feel condemn. It's not right.

The part I mention on willingly is for beyond tithing. I see Tithe as fundamentally important.

I may step on some toes about tithing because not every Christians understand what tithing is all about.

There are different opinions saying tithing is under Law, we are under grace, therefore it's not a commandment.

We're no longer bound to tithe.....If only they knew that Tithing existed way before the Law was given.

Abraham tithe 10%....even though there's no Law to force him or commanded him, think about it. I believe Abraham understood tithing. Though not recorded but I believe He got the revelation, the reason why to Tithe and that reason is consistent with the Book of Malachi.

Tithe means a tenth which is 10%.

In ancient times before money existed people tithe with whatever goods their hands produce.

Today we tithe with our Finance resources because bartering goods has been replaced with money.
We no longer work for exchange of goods but salary, so we tithe from our Salary.

Offering is whatever that is given beyond the 10% of our tithes, that is the difference.

Saying we tithe because we love God is not scripturally correct imo.

We tithe because it's a proclamation of our Faith in God. It's an act of worship of trusting God.

Trusting God in what?

Trusting God that He will protect our finances from being devoured by the enemies and
Trusting God that He will open the windows of Heaven and Bless us because we tithe.

but do you know how does that work?

(gee I'm teaching bible lesson in wee hours of the morning )


Romans 11:16 - If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Do you know that when you offer the first fruit of your tithe to God, it becomes Holy? When the first fruit becomes Holy, the whole batch is also holy, which means the rest of your money is also considered Holy to the Lord? What is Holy to God, the Devil cannot touch*.

I'm going to skip explaining in detail and say this in conclusion, hopefully those who read will be patience with me.

God ordained Tithing for our sake. It is for our benefit. Why? Because for one, God doesn't need our money.
Neither is He demanding money for himself. How can we give physical money to a Spirit God? Besides the whole Earth belongs to God, all the cattles, the Hills, the gold, the silver..all Belongs to the Almighty. How can we give something that already belong to God in the first place? (This is a bit deep, but think about it)

If God is not in need of our Money..then why does He command us to tithe?

When you study scripture, after understanding the reason, you will come to realize, he ask us to do this is more for our sake.

So that there resources for God's people in God's Kingdom (Malachi 3:10)
To protect us from the curse of barren or fruitless (Malachi 3:9 relating to Malachi 3:11)
That He'll open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing (Malachi 3:10)
That's He'll rebuke the devourer for our sake (Malachi 3:11)

Even the phrase "for our sake" (Malachi 3:11) is clearly emphasize by the HS in this passage.

He is a good God, Tina, He's not after our money. Tithing is really for our benefit. It will be inappropriate for a Righteous God who cannot lie to say
so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it (Malachi 3:10) to hoodwink or tempt us to give. Even if not for those reason, it's not appropriate for a Holy God
to say such things. but He did. So I'm far convince tithing is really for our sake!

Edit: Disclaimer: *Not unless you allow the enemy to by the way of distrust or unbelieve.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 10 2015, 10:59 AM