There Is Always Another Path

[S] Matthew 2:12  --
And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.

[O] There is always another way to handle the situation especially when i am on my own pathway. That new way is God's way. The key question is whether I will recognize God's intervention for me to take that alternate route or not. Most times I am so deeply involved in my own plans and executions I will oversee or simply ignore His small voice calling to make the next turn into His ways.

[A] God's overpowering love for me will outweigh any and all of my mistakes on life because just like how He guided the wisemen to change their courses He would do exactly the same for me. in order for me to recognize this is for me to be I constant communication with Him so that I won't miss His cue.

[P] Dear God may my heart be softened to hear and recognize Your guidance for my life. Even through my mistakes and oversights may this heart be flexible to change the course upon Your commands. In Jesus' name. Amen.

If Look Out fails, then Look Up

[S] Psalm 31:4 --
4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.

[O] The enemy works real hard to place the traps (nets) and because they do a wonderful job, I will inevitably fall into it and get caught.  But God will pull me out with His strength and care.  He will never miss me because He is on 24x7 schedule to watch over me.  He never promised me to protect me completely away from being caught but He promised me to pull me out of it whenever I get all caught up.

[A] The enemy is cunning and diligent about setting the traps against me.  This is my reality and so I need to put on my armor daily and make sure my radar system is in operation.  Even then I will still be victim so I also need to claim that He is my rescue hero in all and any situation.

[P] Dear Father, enamor me with Your wisdom so I may work around the enemy's traps in my life and to have the strength through faith in You to pull myself out of times when I am stuck in his net.  Thank You for being there all the time.  in Jesus' name.  Amen.

Some Times Fast, Some Times Slow

[S] Acts 13:3,19 --
 ³Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 
 ¹⁹"When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance--all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 

[O] These two verses highlighted two contrasting views: 1) When I have God's conviction, I should not delay moving forward right away after fasting and praying; 2) Development of God's ministry from ground up requires time to mature.  Both are participating in God's will and yet depending on the situation I need to discern to either do a 100m dash, or run a marathon.

[A] Some times I'm too cautious about moving forward with God's convictions.  I do too much of a the Gideon's testing by looking from various angles to make sure.  But seeing how the leaders from Acts I need to learn to fast, pray, bless (lay hands), and start (send) down the path of God's conviction with confidence.  On the other hand, when the development of the ministry seems to take too long, remember that God let the Israelites 450 years to settle into the Promised Land which He had already allocated for His people to take over.

[P] Dear Father, please allow me wisdom to discern how I should act in my current ministry roles.  At times I feel like I should move quickly with conviction; and yet at times I cannot see how we can cover so much in such a short duration.  I need Your wisdom daily so I don't get stressed out too much so I ask for Your peaceful understanding of my circumstances better.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

The Real Purpose of Selling the Perfume

[S] John 12:4-5 --
 ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, ⁵"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?"
* denarii is equivalent to 11 moths' wage.

[O] Judas' question itself is perfectly a valid one, however as seen in verse 4, his motives are in question.  Why did he ask this question when his heart had already left Jesus' ministry?  Even before his heart leaving Jesus' ministry, he pilfered the funds which he managed and so perhaps another motivation was that if the perfume was sold for 11 months' wage, then he'd have more opportunity to pilfer that money for his own use.  From this basis I can see how someone with an ulterior motive acts in the midst of ministry.  They would shift the focus of ministry and efforts of participants away from worshiping Jesus to the very act of our own.  So, either it will be a self-praising or a criticism (like in this case) of the acts themselves.

[A] Be on the alert for those who voices their opinions loudly as if they care about the ministry but shifts the focus of the people away from worshiping Jesus for who He is and what He will do through us despite our faulty plans and executions.

[P] Dear Jesus, I seek Your wisdom as I partake in Your ministry through the church and workplace ministry efforts because as I work with many people I would like to have insights to distinguish the "Judas" who on the surface says all the appropriate things but deep inside they incubate evil and destruction.  I lean on You daily for this wisdom.  In Your name.  Amen.

Heart to Heart Communication

[S] Jeremiah 24:7 --
 ⁷'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

[O] Receiving the heart God gives me means I would know His heart because only a heart from God can understand God's own heart.  God did not promise to give more knowledge or more resources to read up on to find out more about God's heart.  He wants to implant the receiver that would directly connect to His own heart. I'm so glad He does this for me because all other methods will not guarantee understanding His heart and that means I would miss the goal of following Him wholeheartedly.

[A] I need to think with my (new) heart more than my mind because only through that I may know His heart and purposes for my life to carry out my tasks for God.  I need to not go ahead of Him by using my mind too much.

[P] Dear God, thank You for the new heart so I may know You properly.  I am so grateful for this perfect communication channel You implanted in my life.  May I be more and more sensitive to lean on this wonderful tool You gave me to follow and abide in You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

The Rejected Silver

[S] Jeremiah 6:30 --
    ³⁰They call them rejected silver,
         Because the LORD has rejected them.

[O] Whether silver is buried in mud or placed in a brightly lit display case, its value does not change as long as it is pure silver.  However, the silver that is rejected by God is worthless and in fact God will discard it all together.  There are so many "silver" that we hold on to in this world which God had rejected deceiving ourselves to believe we are holding on to valuable things because they look so good on the outside.  The lesson here is that I need to see (and believe) that the true values I should gather and cling on to is what God deems valuable no matter how good things may look in my own eyes.

[A] In order to have the same gauge as God on the values of things in and around my life, I need to first learn the standards of value system from God's instructional manual, the Bible.  Even if I do not understand everything, I need to soak them up into my mind such that God may use that knowledge to guide my gauging.  So keep up my daily Life Journaling of reading the volumes of Bible.

[P] Dear God, thank You for the Bible to teach me how to put right values on the things I treasure in this world.  I wouldn't want to hold on to any things You rejected just because they resemble things of true value.  Grant me the discernment to know which is Yours and which You rejected.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Which Voice to Listen with Pleasure

[S] 2 Kings 20:13, Isaiah 39:2 --
 ¹³Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 
 ²Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

[O] These two verses record the same incident where Hezekiah's heart is revealed by the two words I boldfaced: listened, and pleased.  When King of Babylon paid a visit to comfort Hezekiah who was ill, his heart was pleased and pretty much gave his heart to King of Babylon.  He needed to apply some discernment here because instead of listening to God's voice he was more inclined to listen to King of Babylon's voice and went over board to show him everything he had without understanding what motives the Babylonian King had.

[A] Who am I listening to with pleasure these days?  Is it some other people who seem to be good to me?  Although it is good to trust other co-laborers in Christ to carry out His ministry together with one heart, in the end I must listen to the voice of God and be pleased from that alone.  Even though King Hezekiah did many good things in the eyes of God, he was not immune to making mistakes so the only way for him to avoid that was to listen for God's voice each and every day; and I must not neglect to do that.

[P] Dear God, I desire to be pleased by listening for Your voice only to guide my life.  May I not be distracted by many other voices, some of them sounding very friendly.  I want to be discerning in which voices to listen to as there are so many coming my way.  Please continue to train my ears to recognize Your voice through the Holy Spirit.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Respecting God's Anointed

[S] 1 Samuel 24:6-7 --
 ⁶So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD'S anointed."
 ⁷David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.

[O] David did not overruled God's higher precedence of His anointing Saul even though he was filled with the desire of killing Saul in this opportune moment.  David seemed to struggle but he successfully separated his own desires from God's desires and submitted to God's leadership by acknowledging that Saul was God's anointed one and he was not going to touch him.  If it were me, I would have told myself -- this is God's provision for me to relieve myself from my enemies by arranging this perfect situation so I will certainly get rid of Saul.  In a nutshell I would've injected God's anointing right into my own desires for full justification of my actions.  However, David trusted God even in that "perfect" situation for him to take matters into his own hands because even though it did not make sense to him then, he trusted God knew what He was doing and He is eventually for David's best well being.

In verse 7, not only David submitted to God's leadership over his own desires, he also persuaded his men to do likewise.  I'm not sure which would be more difficult:  Yielding to God's leadership over mine, or to persuade a bunch of angry soldiers wanting to take advantage of the situation to kill King Saul.

[A] Honoring God's anointed is not led by emotions or feelings.  It's carried out by recognition of His covenant and first submitting to it regardless of how I feel at the moment.  Following spiritual leadership at home and church requires this type of submission if I trust that God had placed anointed leaders over my life through these two channels.  Hopefully I won't have to deal with with "Sauls" in my life as David did but even if I do my prayer is for me to be equipped to display such submission to follow God's ways.

[P] Dear God, in order to honor Your leadership in my life, I need to let go of my own desires and interpretations of circumstances I find myself in.  Please keep ingraining Your wisdom deep into my heart such that I will have discernments to see Your anointing vs. my own desires to take things into my own hands.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Voice Recognition in Low Moments

[S] John 20:16 --
 ¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).

[O] It appears the key operand here is "said" to her.  Jesus "says" many things to us but the question is do I recognize His voice.  When Jesus called Mary, she quickly recognized His voice and called Him Rabboni.  She was entrenched in her own sadness of not finding the body of Jesus and I'm sure she didn't pay much attention to who she supposedly thought to be the gardener.  However, her sensitiveness toward Jesus' voice allowed her to quickly and accurately recognize Him.  During my "high" moments, I'm sure it'll be easier for me to recognize the voice of Jesus because I probably will be focused in His words and all, but when I am crawling my lowest moments, probably not too intimate with His words, I am most likely to miss what God is speaking to my heart.  So, this is a good scene to remember whenever I'm down such that even in those moments, Jesus is next to me.

[A] Read His word daily to develop my sensitivity toward His voice.  Also pray to Him daily to develop the rapport with Him that will become my second nature.

[P] Thank You, Jesus, for being next to me at all times, especially when I am down and under thinking that no one cares about me.  I am thankful for Mary's posture of recognizing Your voice even during her emotionally down condition.  I would take this to heart so that even during my darker moments, I will still cling to You and wait to hear Your voice.  In Your name.  Amen.

How Easily Am I Pleased?

[S] Isaiah 39:2 --
²Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

[O] God gave us ability to feel pleasure but He desires us to be pleased about Him and what He's done for us rather than about satisfying myself only. Hezekiah being so pleased by Merodach-baladan's letter of sympathy, he went all out to show all treasuries he had. Perhaps he should've applied some discretion here but his emotion of being pleased drove him to lose discernment. In contrast, Abraham's response to the King of Sodom grounded in his oath to God in Genesis 14:21-23. He didn't let his victory go to his head and still wanted to bring recognition to God for the blessings he received.

[A] Whenever God allows victory in my life, give 100% credit to God. Eliminate my own achievements such that when others praise for my achievements, I can readily pass that on to God who is the source of it all.

[P] Dear God, I desire to hold humility at all time especially during times of great achievements in my life. I want to practice being on my knees daily so I'm quite used to approaching You in that position. May You receive all of the honor and glory through my life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Heartfelt or Lip Service?

[S] Isaiah 29:13-14 --
¹³Then the Lord said,
"Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
¹⁴Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."

[O] Why do we give lip service when it is so obvious to other parties? I think this stems from having no respect for others. When the heart is not into any relationship we tend to blow it off by just saying whatever without really meaning it just to appease the situation. It is almost playing dumb. Well, God has a solution for this type of attitude which is to make them really dumb. They will lose discernment because God will conceal those who can discern away from these people.

[A] I need to watch out when I pray such that I don't just give a lip service for the sake of sounding good in my prayer. I need to pray from the bottom of my heart sincerely. Also, as in verse 13, I must not pray out of habit or by tradition.

[P] Thank You, Father, for being my God who cares for each word I speak. May I be careful with every word that come out of my mouth to be genuine and from my heart. I especially want to do this when I talk with you through my prayers. Please align my heart with Yours at all times. In Jesus' name. Amen.

When It Comes to the Dark Side, Move Swiftly

[S] Ecclesiastes 8:11 --
¹¹Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

[O] As the saying goes -- If you can't beat'em, join'em -- if we don't act swiftly against the evil one when we have the opportunity, we will eventually end up joining him. In fact, the moment I think, "I can handle it on my own," I'm almost handing myself in to him because it's the reflection of my pride and arrogance thinking my own power is sufficient to thwart the evil one. We are like sheep which, without a good shepherd, has no chance against the evil one. So without having to lean on God while fully abiding in Him, I am bound to be given fully to do evil. As Joseph who ran away from Potiphar's wife (in Genesis 39:13) to avoid the evil one, we must discern our circumstances and make our move quickly and firmly.

[A] Teach my children to know there are times when they need to act swiftly.

[P] Dear God, our lives are filled with different scenarios for us to respond to and based on this passage I ask that You continue to fill my children's hearts with Your wonderful Words so they would know when they need to act quickly against evil, or otherwise appropriate. Please allow them to have the discernment coming from You at all times. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Counsel on Routine Matters

[S] Joshua 9:14 --
¹⁴So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD.

[O] Could God have stopped them from making this serious mistake?  Yes, but He didn't because they did not ask for His counsel.  It appears that this event for the Israelites seemed to be a normal routine task and did not feel necessary to seek God' counsel because the circumstance look OK to proceed on their own.  From this passage I am learning that no task is too insignificant to ask God's opinion before making the decision especially even when it comes to my routine tasks.

[A] My old car's transmissions came to its end of life last week.  The cost of fixing it is going to out weigh the value of that car so I am going to donate this car and buy a new one.  At first it seemed like this is my routine task for researching for the next car under budget and go buy it but after reading this passage what came to my mind was to seek His counsel on which car we should select and purchase.

[P] Dear God, Your direction is always the best one for me and even purchasing a new car is something You would guide me best.  Please let us know which car is best for our family situation to be used for your ministry as well.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Direct Communication

[S] Leviticus 29:40 --
Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in accordance with all that the LORD had commanded Moses.

Mark 8:12, 18 --
¹²Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." ¹⁸"HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,

[O] Jesus makes a comment in Mark 8:12 about why we seek for a sign. To me, He's saying why can't we just find out the real thing directly from the source rather than seeking for a sign which indirectly attempts to point to the source. He goes on in verse 18 to say how we have eyes and ears that do not seem to function properly. My thoughts on this point is that our eyes and ears must be trained to pick up the the right things because there are so much going around us. It's much like a detective trained to look for the right evidences; a musician's ears trained to listen for the right notes, sounds, rhythms, etc. Jesus' comments imply what are we doing to train our eyes and ears to be spiritually sensitive. Rewinding back to the days of Moses, we see from Leviticus that Moses didn't seem to have any problems picking up the commands directly from God. Now, remember that Moses had a lot of training -- 40 years in the desert -- so don't expect this to happen overnight.

[A] Seeking signs and messages as I read the Bible is good but I don't want to be content there but dig deeper into the Word until His heart touches mine directly and clearly with His commands for my life.

[P] Dear God, I totally desire to hear your commands/instructions directly from You clearly like Moses did.  Please train me to have the right ears and eyes to hear and see what You desire from me.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.