Wednesday Devotional: He’s a BIG God

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I love this verse, so let’s just jump right in! Today, we are talking about praying to a BIG God.

Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

I want to encourage you today to pray BIG prayers. Trust in a big God, and know He is able to do far more than we can ever even imagine!

Let’s talk about this big God we can trust in for a minute. I am talking about the God that spoke the universe into existence. He spoke, and everything came into existence. Friends, nothing is too difficult or too big for Him, who created it all!

Not only did He speak everything into existence, He also raised Christ from the dead. Who else has ever raised someone from the dead to never die again?

The point of prayer is to ask God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God places us in situations we cannot handle ourselves, so we must trust in Him to accomplish the task through us, so it is impossible to ask God for too much.

It is also important to point out God can do immeasurably more than even the biggest prayers we pray.

So pray to our big God and have faith that He is going to come through. He will come through and bring glory to Himself.

God, thank you for being such a BIG God! Forgive me for lacking faith to pray BIG prayers. Reveal your power to me through my prayers in order that You may be glorified. Be glorified through me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Wednesday Devotional: God’s Love

What is your view of God? Is He a God of wrath? Or is He a God of love?

Ephesians 2:4-7 gives us a picture of who God is. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in  Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Sure, God is a God of wrath. If we are not His child, we are His enemy, but if we follow Him, He loves us and pours out His mercy on us. We cannot do anything to deserve His love, but He chooses to save us by grace through Jesus Christ! Thank you, Lord!

We do deserve God’s wrath, “But God” sends us Jesus, so that we can be united with God again in Heaven! The verses above tell us we are raised up and seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. This verse means we are citizens of heaven when we become a Christian! That is so amazing! So if we know we are citizens of of heaven, then we must live like it each and every day. We must live like we are living in heaven today.

Friends, it will take us all of eternity to understand just how much God loves us, and then, I’m not sure we will even be able to fully understand! This is how much He loves us!

If you are a Christian, and you see God as a wrathful God and not a loving God, search God’s Word for His promises for His children and see if you view changes.

God, thank you for loving me. Forgive me for not living a life like You love me. Radiate Your love through me. Help me to love others as you love me, and help me to always remember how much you love me. Thank you for saving me, God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

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Wednesday Devotional: Brotherly Love

Welcome to this week’s Wednesday Devotional! I’m glad your here! Today, we will look at Romans 12:9-10. 

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

What does brotherly affection mean? Let’s take a closer look at it. Affection means to

• It is attaching oneself like family
• It is the emotion of giving one’s love to another above all else
• It is an intentional act of serving others
• It is emotionally giving to others spiritually
• It is having hope and faith in others
• It is fervently praying for others 
• And it is sharing what you have with those who need it

We are to love one another like we are family and pour out our emotions both mentally and spiritually all over each other. We are to serve others and hope the best for them. We are to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ and sharing what we have with them when they are in need. 

Think about how you love your family. Do you love them based on conditions? No, you love them because you are family. When a family member messes up, you still love them. You aren’t surprised when they disappoint you, so you keep on loving. We realize our family will likely let us down now and again, but we love them through those times. However, we tend not to view our Christian brothers and sisters as we view our biological brothers and sisters. We get all caught up in our emotions and write off our spiritual brothers and sisters as quick as we can turn around after they hurt or disappoint us forgetting we are all a part of the family of Christ. We all have our weak spots, and we will all stumble from time to time because we are not perfect, but we have to turn the other cheek like we do when our family member falls short of the expectations we place on them. 

In these moments, when we are let down, we need to pick up our brothers and sisters instead of cutting them out. We need to serve them and show them a Christlike and brotherly attitude as opposed to writing them off as unworthy and not worth the fight. We are a family, and we should be building each other up spiritually as opposed to running in the other direction abandoning our relationships with one another. 

This world is tough enough to live in with the non-Christians and nominal Christians tearing down our faith. We as a church, worldwide, need to be standing together and having hope and faith in one another. We need to pray for our Christian friends around the world to stand firm to care for each other with an unimaginable brotherly love. 

My point is, we should not be assuming the worst in people. We should grant them the same grace we grant our biological brothers and sisters when they mess up. Let’s begin to give others the benefit of the doubt because wouldn’t we want the same in return?

What would it look like if we began to look at the best in people rather than the worst?

What would it look like if we began to praise others face to face rather than tearing them down behind their back?

What would it look like if we begin to go to others for clarification in a misunderstanding rather than assuming a false (often negative) judgment about them?

What would it look like if we began to bite our tongue instead of letting harsh words come out of our mouths?

What would it look like if we began to think about others feelings and not just our own?

We, as Christians, need to take seriously honor, respect and value for others. If we begin to take this seriously, we will only glorify the beauty of the cross even more. 

God, thank you for the families you have placed us in. Forgive me for taking advantage of my family and the friendships you have provided me with. Pour out your love through me on every relationship in my life. Help me to treat others in the same way I want to be treated. Help me to love others in the same way you love me. Help me to learn to serve others before serving myself. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

 

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Wednesday Devotional: Putting Others First

Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 

Parents have a serious grasp on what it means to be selfless, am I right? We get up in the middle of the night to feed our kids. We rearrange our entire house when they start walking to keep them from bumping into things. We play endless hours of catch because they love it. We risk our own lives to teach them how to drive! We sit for hours at practices and games to watch them play the game they love. We shell out loads of money when they want to go to college. We know selflessness. 

If selflessness with our children comes so easily and naturally, why is it so hard in our other relationships? Why do we raise ourselves up to be higher than others? Why can we not be humble in the God given talents we have been given? Why are we not lifting others up more signifcantly than we are? 

We as Christians are supposed to be making less of us and more of Christ-this is humility. When we pursue Jesus and pursue to be more Christlike, we will become selfless, and we will raise others up above us by thinking more often of others and less often of ourselves. 

We need to start viewing other people as more important than ourselves. We need to look out for their interests rather than simply our own. That’s what Jesus did, right? He died for me and for you! That is the most selfless acts I can think of EVER! 

Do you look out for the interests of others? Do you ask them how they are spiritually? Do you ask them about their marriage? Do you know how things are going at their job? Do you know how to pray for them? Do you want them to succeed?

If we can make these actions happen, what a difference we could make in the world! Think about how different your life would look to others if we simply looked out for the interest of others. 

God, thank you for Jesus’ example of what it looks like to be selfless. Forgive me for putting others above myself. Help me to put others’ interest above my own. Help me to want others to succeed even more than I want myself to succeed. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

 

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Addressing Issues With Others

*I am so excited to start this new series and share it with you all! Please check back here every Wednesday for a weekly Wednesday Devotional! *

It is often hard to address issues we have with other people, even when those other people are our Christian brothers and sisters. However, the Bible is very clear in Matthew 18:15-20 that we must go to our brothers and sisters and address the issues.

Here is the verse laid out for you:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” ~Matthew 18:15-20

These verses are intended to prohibit gossip and misunderstandings between the church body from happening. They are intended to bring unity among the body of Christ, instead of leaving holes and empty relationships.

Isn’t it easier for us to simply ignore a situation and stop talking to another person rather than going to them and addressing a tough issue? However, by addressing the issue, it allows us to build a stronger relationship with the other individual. It builds trust and promotes communication skills. It allows us to understand another person and their point of view and past experiences and soften our own hearts toward them. It furthers discipleship and provides an example of how we should live our lives according to the Bible.

Providing 2 or 3 witnesses as described in verse 16, relates to the verse in Deuteronomy 19:15, where the 2 or 3 provide a witness to the offense as to not wrongly accuse someone. Verse 16 sets up verse 17, where it states that if a person chooses to not repent, then, he or she should be treated as someone who rebels against God and should be thought of as an unbeliever and excluded from the church’s fellowship. Wow! These are seriously powerful words!

Jesus is all about unifying his body of believers, so He wants to make this clear, even in these situations, and He reminds us He will always be present in these situations.

Chances are you have issues that need to be addressed with others, and what an impact it can make on your life, your relationships with others and, most importantly, your relationship with God if you choose to talk about it with the other person. So who do you need to go to address these issues with?

Let me close with a prayer:

God, thank you for the many relationships you have placed in my life. Forgive me for allowing misunderstandings and gossip to get in the way of my relationships with others and my relationship with You. Help me to be bold in addressing these situations in my life. Help me to have the courage to go to those I know I need to address tough issues with. I long to unify relationships in order to glorify You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

 

 

Persevere

My family and I returned to Bangkok about 10 days ago.  We had went to visit the States to see our family and friends.  Before we went to the States one of our church members, Dylan, came to me with the idea to start a College Ministry.  This is something we had been trying to do since our church started here, but with no success.  Bangkok University is across the street, but it is a private university. Therefore, it was very difficult to get permission to do anything on campus.  So Dylan and I talked about starting a college ministry.  We thought we might get 5 to 8 students because the truth is their might only be 5 Christians on the whole campus of thousands of students.  This campus is made up of Thais, Vietnamese, Korean, Nepalese and many more.  So the chances of getting many people to show up to a Bible study was slim to none.  But God calls us to be willing to share His story and His truth with people, so Dylan started it.

I am happy to tell you that Dylan has had some Sunday nights with over 40 students.  Absolutely crazy what God has done.

I think this can really teach us something about how God works and what our responsibility is in His work.  About 6 months ago we were really wanting to start something on campus to get to know more college students.  The campus had always told us no in the past because we are Christians.  But we got introduced to an Irish man who had been given clearance to have a class every week on campus.  He pitches his class to the administration that he is going to teach the students about Christianity so they can understand Westerners and Western thought better.  The university is all about helping its students understand the Western business world, so they gave him permission.  Well we came along side him to help in any way possible, and we started to make some relationships with the students.

At the same time Dylan had started a service club for students at the university.  So they would go and feed the homeless or play with the kids who live in low income housing.  We would join Dylan in this at some events and get to know more students.

With all this, the most important factor, is that God had connected Dylan to our church about 2 or 3 years ago.  He wanted to attend a church that was a Gospel centered, Bible teaching church.  So he has been regularly attending our church for a few years.  We have been able to encourage him with God’s word, and he has been faithfully serving our church.

So when Dylan had over 40 students show up for Bible study it was truly an act of God.  But God had been preparing this for the last couple of years; actually before time He planned this.

We can learn two things from this: One of them, I am sure you already know, but I hope to help you realize the second aspect.

First, God is moving for His own glory.  If God wants something to happen nothing will stop it. I MEAN NOTHING.  The fact that a university is less than half a percent Christian or the fact that over 99% of Bangkok is worshipping idols, cannot stop God’s plan.  His will be done.

But the second piece to this is encouraging to me, and I hope it will encourage you.  Anything that happens is because of God, but God does use us to bring about His will.  You see, the end result of many steps was that over 40 people came to a worship service, and that is encouraging.  But the steps before this left us to wonder if we were really making any headway.  The once a week class would usually only have 4 or 5 students there, one named Satish, which I will tell you about in a moment.  We were not seeing much fruit from this ministry.

Dylan has been a student at BU for 3 years, and even though he has tried many different things to see movement, nothing has sprung into fruit.  Also, we had joined with his service club, but we really didn’t have anyone from it come to our church.

So all these steps were showing little fruit, but we kept trying.  We trusted that this was what God wanted us to do, and we continued to pursue His plan. Dylan continued to be willing to be used by God.

All of the sudden in January, BOOM, we have a college ministry that is alive.  You see God’s plan was this all along.  He wanted us to take the necessary steps to build relationships and to work with His plan. Then, in God’s timing, He brought about glory for Himself.

So I want to encourage you all to persevere; keep plugging away at what God has called you to.  You might not see immediate results, and you might wonder if God is really doing anything.  But just keep trusting Him and following His will.  God is the one who makes everything happen, but remember that He uses us as His tools.  If we want the people around us to know the love of Jesus, then we need to get to work.  Don’t sit around and expect God to reward your inactivity.  Lay yourself at His cross and sacrifice everything for Him and see if He uses it to glorify Himself.  He will.

I want to end this by telling you that last Sunday Satish, a Nepalese guy with a Hindu and Buddhism background,  came to believe in Jesus.  This is the same Satish that started coming to the once a week class that we thought was showing very little fruit.  He was led to Christ by Dylan who has been sacrificing himself for years at that campus for God’s glory.  So when we are working hard for Jesus, and it doesn’t seem that anything is happening, remember Satish-a guy from Nepal, who now knows the love and saving grace of our Lord Jesus.  Praise you Jesus; You are amazing.