Temporary Hardship, Everlasting LORD

Beyond all problems, Shines still the sun's rays, Even through the clouds, To light up our days.

Beckoning our hope, Our days can transcend, The end of the rope, Where our hearts do rend.

Helping us with meaning, Attributions of life, God is the one deeming, We are safe and beyond strife.

Closing hearts is madness, How are we to rather suppose, To achieve divine gladness, And to attain peaceful repose?

BEYOND ALL PROBLEMS - THERE IS GOD

The eternal nature of life sets itself in our consciousness at our beckon call. We can see the eternal facts of life ever turning when we open the eyes of our hearts.

Some things in life - countless numbers of things - the things of God - never, ever change. Unlike our moods, the disposition of our hearts, our circumstances, the people we relate with, and all sorts of other things, God is unchanging and unchangeable. This fact is manifest in the nature of life.

Our problems are bound to dredge up thick and misty clouds of doubt, worry, anger, and contempt, but at every problem there is the opportunity - to allow the light to pass through the clouds in ways to light up our days.

So, our days can transcend the extent of our problems if we are mindful of the Lord in our going out and coming home.

God is the one helping us with meaning regarding helpful and hopeful attributions of life, and, in this, God is the one that is deeming us safe for passage beyond strife.

In consideration of these facts, that God is eternal and our problems are temporary, closing our hearts is madness. We will not achieve divine gladness, and attain a peaceful repose, unless we keep our hearts open. Open hearts before God are blessed eventually.

Problems and difficulties will always be part of our lives, but, where we are able to remain cognisant of the eternal Presence of God, anxiousness is offset by a prevailing thankfulness leading to a stilling peacefulness.

***

Even though our lives seem permanent here and now, there is something much more permanent - and ever permanent in its permanence - is the concept of eternity. The difficulties we experience now are hardly comparable with the glory we shall experience then.

Bearing close to mind the hope of glory in eternity, our temporary difficulties and problems are put into perspective. Our problems are endurable.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   

Hindu Temple

Hinduism is the predominant religion of India. Hindus hold their religion very close to their heart. The word of their scripture is the word of the Lord to Hindus. Worshipping idols of the Ultimate Reality and having faith in innumerable forms of the Supreme Power is an integral part of every Hindu's life. Although there are atheists to be found in India yet the majority truly believe and abide by their holy scriptures. Many Hindu families have their own family patron deity known as the Kuldevta.

Hindus believe in the existence of 330 million gods. There are temples all over the country dedicated to the God the region believes in. Temple is the place of worship for followers of Hinduism. Every temple has a statue or 'murti' of the Hindu god to whom the temple is dedicated. Many temples are built on account of religious significance or a legend associated with a place. The idols remain decorated with ornaments and precious jewels. Offerings of fruits, flowers and sweets are made to the Gods by every disciple in the temple.

The diversity in India in terms of language, culture, history and religion accounts for the variety in terms of temples too. Hindu temples all over the country differ in terms of architecture, rules, beliefs and customs. The temples of North India are different from that of South India. The rituals performed in latter are much more complex and elaborate as compared to the former. Lord Sri Venkateshwara Temple, Thiruvannaamalai temple in Tamil Nadu, Guruvayur temple in Kerala, Thiruvanaikaval temple of Tiruchi are some of the most famous among South Indian temples while the Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand, Vaishno Devi, Akshar Dham are amongst the popular North Indian temples.

These are pilgrim sites. Hindus visit these famous temples at least once in their lifetime. The live darshan of Indian temples, becomes the innate desire of every Hindu once they reach their old age for in the embrace of God, they find mental, physical and spiritual peace. It soothes and comforts their restless soul. Three temples of fame and huge pilgrimage are Shirdi- home to Sai Baba of Shirdi, Tirupati- home to the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple; and Sabarimala, where Swami Ayyappan is worshipped. It is believed that those who visit such pilgrim sites attain salvation.

Whether a person is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or a Christian, every individual instils great faith in the almighty. At the end of the day spiritual quotient is what holds utmost importance and it can be felt best in no other place but in the religious abodes of the Gods.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   Walking After Emptiness   

The Conversion Experience

Now when they heard [Peter preach the Gospel], they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." ~Acts 2:37-38 (NRSV)

There is much perennial consternation within Christian circles regarding experiences of conversion. There are liberal schools who think God accepts the plainest forms of ecstatic conversion, where altar calls claim, "One more for the Kingdom!" At the other end of the spectrum the conservatives require much more evidence that the transformation of salvation has actually occurred. These people can be very hard to convince, where only the Holy Spirit need be convinced.

Truly only God and the person concerned - ultimately at Judgment - can attest to the effectiveness of the conversion experience. However, we could say that a vital indicator that someone is truly converted to Christ is their approach toward their discipleship under God, as guided by more mature Christians of the cohort, after their conversion.

Now let's break down the basic components of this particular conversion experience.

THE ACTS 2:37-38 COMPONENTS OF CONVERSION

The first process of conversion is conviction by the Holy Spirit - Peter's listeners were "cut to the heart." They suddenly realised how far from God they were. They had realised the scale and dimensions of their sin. A person can never be converted unless they are truly cut to the heart; a person's recognition of themselves as a sinner needing saving.

Only the Holy Spirit can convict the heart of an unregenerate person. People cannot 'lead' people to this experience. The Holy Spirit needs to do that. Therefore, the people do not do the saving, but God's Spirit does. People can teach Biblical truth with power, but it is the Spirit that saves.

The second process of conversion is the spiritual action and commitment of repentance. This, simply as can be put, is turning back to God - the central idea is a lifelong commitment of doing just that; of repenting by character, continually. Evidence of Christian growth and health, therefore, is the pervasiveness of honesty and repentance, toward integrity, in the Christian's life. If the phenomenon of repentance is a rare experience for a Christian, how close can they be to the Spirit of God?

The third process of conversion is the outworking of the inner condition: baptism. It appears in the text that baptism and the forgiveness of sins are linked. So why would we put off baptism? It seems to be a vital component in the conversion experience. Baptism seems to be a necessary component toward the receipt of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

***

The conversion experience is not a highly excited and emotionally overwhelming experience 'at an altar call' - though that may be included - but the process of conviction by the Holy Spirit of one's sin and distance from God, toward repentance, and commitment to follow God all the days of our lives, and then baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. The gift of the Holy Spirit is then received.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   

Jesus Is The Morning Star

Jesus is the light of the morning that takes away darkness. Anywhere the light of Christ shines, it will penetrate and remove darkness. When we ask Jesus to come into our lives, His light shines in our hearts to purify us of every evil deed. It is only the light of Jesus that can truly discern what is in the hearts of man. Our hearts are deceitful and no one can really know it except Jesus.

2 Peter tells us that all this helps us know that what the early preachers said was true. You will do well to listen to what they have said. Their words are as lights that shine in a dark place. Listen until you understand what they have said. Then it will be like the morning light which takes away the darkness. And the Morning Star (Christ) will rise to shine in your hearts.

Promise Of The Morning Star

The morning star is promised to those who are victorious and overcomers of the teachings of Jezebel. To those who have not followed her false teaching which they call deep truths, which are actually the teachings of Satan.

Jesus is the bright and morning star. When we hold out in faith and obedience to God, He has promised to give us His Son Jesus the bright and morning star. With the morning star comes authority to rule over the nations

In the Book of Revelation 22:6 Jesus says: I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.

As it goes on in Revelation 2:18-29 Jesus is speaking to the church in Thyatira and He says to John: Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze:

"I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

"But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman-that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet-to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.

"Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.

"But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching ('deeper truths,' as they call them-depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end,

To them I will give authority over all the nations.

They will rule the nations with an iron rod

and smash them like clay pots.

They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!

"Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Angel of Light

Jesus is the light of the world. When we ask Jesus to come into our lives and save us, we too are called to be a light in this dark and evil world. As we read in the book of Isaiah, Lucifer was called the son of the morning. He was the bringer of light in the morning. After Lucifer was cast out of heaven for the sin of pride, he lost his position in heaven as a morning star to bring forth light, but he can still disguise himself as an angel of light.

In the book of Isaiah 14:12-14 it tells of Satan's great fall by saying: How have you fallen from heaven, O light-bringer and daystar, son of the morning! How you have been cut down to the ground, you who weakened and laid low the nations [O blasphemous, satanic king of Babylon!]

And you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit upon the mount of assembly in the uttermost north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.

False Light and Wisdom

We must always remember that everything God has created, Satan has a counterfeit for it. God is the creator of all things, Satan can not create, he can only duplicate. The Bible tells us that God created Lucifer to be perfect in beauty and full of wisdom. He was called the son of the morning. He was beautiful, he shined bright, he sound good because he had instruments built inside of him and he was full of wisdom. The book of Ezekiel gives us a description of Lucifer as it speaks a prophecy to the king of Tyre which is another name for Satan.

The Wisdom Of God Brings Light

Satan does not want us to receive the wisdom of God. If he can keep the wisdom of God from us, he can keep us in the dark, without knowledge and the light of His salvation. The Bible teaches us that there are two kinds of wisdom. The wisdom of the world, which comes from the devil and the wisdom of God that comes from heaven. The wisdom of God is pure, loving, kind, peaceful, gentle, truthful and obedient. This is the wisdom that we are to ask God for.

James 1:5

If you do not have wisdom, ask God for it. He is always ready to give it to you and will never say you are wrong for asking.

Wisdom And Spiritual Warfare

In dealing with spiritual warfare we must pray and ask for the wisdom of God in everything that we do. Jesus is the bright and morning star and He is who shines the light in the dark places. When we have Jesus abiding in us, we can go into those dark places and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.

The wisdom of God brings forth light and illumination and it reveals truth. We have to pray that we will always walk in the wisdom of God and never rely on our own wisdom, which is earthly, sensual and devilish.

It is only when we enter into spiritual warfare with the wisdom of God that we will know how to move, when to move and where to move. When we make wisdom the principal thing we will receive insight and knowledge on how to effectively wage war against the powers of darkness. Christ, the morning Star will shine His light in our lives and bring us light, wisdom, understanding and authority to rule.

Proverbs 4:7

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   

True Faith or Dead Faith?

In the book of James, the Bible talks about two kinds of faith: dead faith and true faith. Here is what the Bible says: "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). So we define dead faith as a passive faith that is not accompanied by action.

In the following verses, the Bible underscores the faith and accompanying works of Abraham and Rahab to demonstrate that "faith without deeds is useless" (verse 20), and to conclude the following: "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (verse 24). So we define true faith as a living faith, which is accompanied by action.

This is a very important teaching of the Bible because it has serious implications on the validity of many peoples' claim to be true believers in God and His Son Jesus Christ. According to the verses above, a person cannot be justified simply by saying he believes in God and he believes in what Christ did on the cross, but his faith must be accompanied by works that attest to his faith.

True faith in God is self-affirming. When it exists, you don't have to tell anybody you believe in God. They can see that you do by your commitment to Him and to the things that are important to the Lord. On the other hand, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" (verse 26).

Alas, dead faith is alive and well in our churches today. I have had the opportunity of serving as the pastor of a couple of churches. I have witnessed members of the congregation who come to worship nearly every Sunday and who talk about how much they love the Lord, but that's the extent of it. Ironically, sometimes, these people are the loudest in the church doing worship and praising God. But there are virtually no deeds to attest to their profession. Their faith is all talk and no action.

It's important that I emphasize that the works James is talking about in his discourse on dead faith and true faith are not the works of the Law. None of us can become justified by keeping all the commandments and rules found in the Bible. Rather, the works James is talking about are the product of one's faith in God. When you think about it, this is really no mystery. Whatever we strongly believe in, we will manifest that conviction by accompanying actions.

Copyright © 2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   Walking After Emptiness   

When It Seems God Isn't Helping

Some people believe in luck, others believe in karma, and then others believe in God. Luck and karma is about colors and circumstances, but God is a living spirit. He is a supreme being. None of these beliefs changes the problems that arise in life. Faith does not stop sickness, divorce, or death. These problems happen one time or another to everyone, and sometimes it seems to happen every day. When tragic events happen, people tend to lose faith, and turn to alcohol, drugs, or other damaging habits to ease the pain. The problem(s) are not solved, and the damaging habits bring on more problems. During these times, people believe that God is distant, or he is punishing them for their wrong doing, but is he? Here are three ways to assure you that during the rough times, God is helping you to work it out.

No pain no gain. This statement says it all. What we experience in life helps make us stronger. God is our heavenly father, and every father wants his children to be successful. He is not going to give that child everything on a silver platter. He is going to let the child learn from their mistakes, but he is going to be there to help the child through the process. Most of our problems occur because of our wrong doing. We have to face our problems head on. We will survive the storm because of the grace that is sent from above. It is not say that we will not have the same problems again, but we will know that we will survive with the help of our heavenly father.

If we never have problems, we would be perfect. What type of world it would be if everyone in it is perfect? Boring is a good description. People who think they are perfect have serious mental issues, and need to seek counsel. No one is perfect, and that is great. Our imperfectness helps doctors find cures for diseases, helps psychiatrist treat mental disorders, helps scientists find medicine, and helps others to answers. So, it is a good thing that we are imperfect and only God can balance it all.

What other alternatives do we have to solve problems? We already explored how damaging habits only add to the problems, so what are our other solutions. Now if you are sick, please go to the doctor. If you have legal problems, seek legal remedies. These remedies are available because of God. He has given us remedies to solve every problem. I know this does not help us understand why do children die, or why innocent people get hurt, but it does let us know that we can survive the storms of life. One can use other remedies like drugs and alcohol. One can get angry, cry, or become depressed. All of these remedies are not healthy, and can bring on long term problems. God can help us get through the situation with no extra baggage. Your heart will not be hardened, so you can live the rest of your life in peace.

God is always helping. The way he solve our problems seem like he isn't helping, but he is helping us to grow. With his grace and guidance, we are stronger, healthier, and loving. He is always there even if we do not feel him. When you are in a storm, wait on the Lord, and he will reveal his grace, and mercy.

Finding and Building Upon Our Sense-Of-Self   Love Is an Act of the Will, Not a Burst of Emotions   Corrie ten Boom - The Roots of the Jerusalem Prayer Team   Unspectacularly Supernatural   Walking After Emptiness