How to Wonder Jesus

[S] Mark 6:6 --
 ⁶And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

[O] Ever wondered how to wonder Jesus?  The people from His hometown, Nazareth did just that by not believing in Him.  This is amazing actually because you'd think He'd have the home-ground advantage there but quite the contrary.  In fact, He wondered at their unbelief.  I sure don't want to be wondering Jesus with my unbelief.  My prayer is for me my family to be a place where we believe in Jesus wholeheartedly.

[A] Keep up with our daily devotions such that each of us would be standing on our own based on His Word.  Create a culture where we will be wondering at the power of Jesus.

[P] Dear God, may my life, my family members' lives, my church's culture be the one wondering at how great Your amazing love and grace is toward us.  May we live daily wondering what wonderful power You give us to live our daily lives because You are showering us with miraculous power that can only come from You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Shipwrecked Lately?

[S] Acts 29: 8-11 --

⁸And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him.

⁹After this had happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured.

¹⁰They also honored us with many marks of respect; and when we were setting sail, they supplied us with all we needed.

¹¹At the end of three months we set sail on an Alexandrian ship which had wintered at the island, and which had the Twin Brothers for its figurehead.

[O] God's working through Paul's life touched many people in this overall scene of the shipwreck to landing on this island and then to be ministering to the whole community. The result was that due to his edification of the people, they reciprocated the blessings back to him and the crew in order that they may continue on with their journey. Through his obedience and ministry, God's promise of none of the people on the ship getting hurt was fulfilled also. In the end it's about releasing God's promises through my services to others just like what Paul did even when his circumstance was quite bleak at first running into trouble at sea. What troubles am I going through now which may blind me from seeing what God's promise is in the midst of that which needs to be fulfilled through my services?

[A] Look around those near my family and see how God's promise is waiting to be fulfilled by my services to/in their lives. I'm thinking particularly about a family in need right now. God's placed them close to our family and even though we're not too familiar with them we want to obey to His calling for our services to them.

[P] Dear God, may we not lose sight of Your wonderful plans to be fulfilled in this family's life right now. May we continue to be faithful to Your calling. We are expecting wonderful fulfillment of Your joy in this family. Thank You for giving us the opportunity to take part in Your great plan. In Jesus' name. Amen.

What Has God Done Through You?

[S] Acts 15:4-11 --

⁴When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.
⁵But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."
⁶The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.
⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.
⁸"And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
⁹and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
¹⁰"Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
¹¹"But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."

[O] In verse 4, the apostles and elders reporting what God had done was touching because I don't do this enough. Many times I'm all caught up in what I had achieved (desiring to seek compliments from others). The focus of my achievements need to be centered around what God has allowed me to achieve more. When I do this, what I achieve will actually be more of a blessing to others around me than getting a few more patting on my shoulders. What I also have to be careful about are some people (like the Pharisees in v. 5) who will strongly influence me to look towards my own (or worldly) achievements. That in itself isn't bad but only when I focus on it more than what God's done through my life.

[A] Ask the question: What has God done in/through my life today? How much of a struggle did I go through to let Him work through my life?

[P] Dear God, I want to testify more about what you're doing in and through my and my family's lives. I can easily fall into just trying to get the credits myself. I want others, especially those who do not know You, to see what You're doing so they may find an opportunity to draw closer to You. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Offering as in Former Years

[S] Malachi 3:4-5 --

 ⁴"Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.
 ⁵"Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.

[O] Without a sense of trying to dwell in the past, there are certain things that we should pay attention to the original intentions rather than inventing new ways to veer away from the original intent.  Worshiping God falls into this category.  God had laid the ways for us to please Him in our worship which had not changed over the years.  However, over the years the way we worship God had altered into ways we prefer.  One of the indication is to see whether God draws near to us in our worship or not (v. 5).  Is the trend around us more and more churches popping up where when people gather, God draws near?  At least from where I live, that is not the trend.  In fact, the trend is churches are not doing too well to the point of closing up in some cases.  God is showing us the formula for the believers' church to get back on track.
In the beginning of Jesus' ministry He cleansed the Temple (John 2:13-22) based on this passage in order to restore the Temple's original purpose.

[A] As Jesus cleansed the corrupted Temple, I need to re-examine my own life/body as the temple of God to see if I have veered off in tangent away from God's original intent for me to worship and adore Him.

[P] Dear God, please identify the areas in my life where as a temple of God I need to restore to your original way of worship and offering which please You.  May I be moldable enough to change my life in order to please You every day of my life.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Boldness Originating from Unreal Reality

[S] Acts 4:17-21, 31 --

 ¹⁷"But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name."
 ¹⁸And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
 ¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge;
 ²⁰for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard."
 ²¹When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;
 ³¹And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. 

[O] What inspired them not to stop speaking about Jesus was really based on the overwhelming excitement and conviction fo what they witnessed in their lives.  It was so real and part of their lives that they cannot keep inside but to let it overflow out of their lives.  Nothing can really stop them even the threatening from the Jewish leaders who deep inside also knew who was behind all this.  This sort of excitement and out-pouring of conviction from believers' hearts is a pre-amble to a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit (as seen in v. 31).

[A] Before asking God to fill me with His Spirit and do mighty works, I should first make God's message from the Bible about His love toward me as real as possible in my life.  Don't just settle with a knowledge of what happened back then, but to bring it into my current life such that it will interact with it and produce an overflowing excitement from deep within.  Without such basis, I don't believe there is any substance for the Spirit to work in my life.

[P] Dear God, please fill my heart with Your real substance as I continuously meditate on Your word such that Your Spirit will have a way to work into my life the power of Your Love.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Give Me Times of Refreshing

[S] Acts 3:19 --
 ¹⁹"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

[O] I need a times of refreshing especially after feeling a fatigue from the small group launching efforts, fighting some sort of virus in my system, roof leaking in multiple locations when we had the storm yesterday.  My kind of refreshing is to get away from all this and when I return all the problems will have been erased but God's refreshing is to have more of His presence in my life than my sinful nature; and quickest way to do that is to repent and return to Him.  This morning, I was at a retail location about to get some service and they find some problem with my account again.  This is the like the 5th time this has happened and so when I walked up to the customer service agent, I started out by saying "I'm frustrated this is happening again and again...."  Not what I would call a refreshing time.  So this verse convicts me even more today of the significance of repenting and returning to God to restore the refreshing times in my life.

[A] Daily, reflect and repent of the shortcomings in my own life.  Seek for increasing of His presence in my life by 1) filling my mind with His words; 2) minimize my own ways of thinking.

[P] Dear God, may Your presence overflow out of my life to allow times of refreshing in my life.  May I not seek from anywhere else but by increasing Your presence in me.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

How Do You Spell Success?

[S] Henemiah 1:10-11 --

 ¹⁰"They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.
 ¹¹"O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man " Now I was the cupbearer to the king.

[O] By this moment, Nehemiah was quite distressed (verse 4: When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.) and yet his prayer to God starts with praise and recognition of workers He had placed her to carry out His will.  He did not start directly to ask for a "solution" to fix the problem his facing.  There was a clear Adoration and Thanksgiving to God.  Then he requests earnestly such that they will be able to delightfully revere God's name by making him successful.  I am really encouraged by Nehemiah's prayer because he didn't just go down the list of his requests but his ultimate desire to successfully revere His name.  So is my success related to revering God's name?  I would say so based on Nehemiah's prayer. Without trying to generalize too much, isn't it true that our world defines success as my making it big and my name getting the major press?  It's about putting myself on top so others will revere my name.  But I believe the true success God honors is the one that God's name is revered and raised up high through my own "success."

[A] Be careful not to fall into the trap of gaining my "own" success where it's all about ME getting to the top.  Instead, aim for a successful life/work such that God's name will shine through in the end.

[P] Dear God, make me successful in all that I do, at work, at church, at home, at neighborhood, such that it is SO CLEAR You are the one others will see at work in my life.  May my heart stay humble and seek You at all times.  I desire that very much.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.