Can’t be Nice

On Friday, while my daughter who is almost two years old was tired, I was trying to talk to her and sing some songs with her, but she kept being mean to me. So, my wife told her, “baby, please be nice to daddy”. She immediately replied, “I can’t, this is my story! Sorry!”. My wife and I had a good laugh, but as I thought about her comment, I realized that this is exactly what we tell God when He wants us to do something that we don’t want to do. We simply ignore Him, and tell Him that we are going to write our own story. The problem is that when we actually write our own stories, we keep failing, but our heavenly Father, never gives up on us. He still lifts us up and gently asks us to be nice to our Daddy..
“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13)

His Spirit in US

Last Thursday at Lifegroup (Small Group), we studied Romans 8. We focused mostly on a particular verse that I thought to be very strong and meaningful.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.(Romans 8:26)

The verse simply implies that when we are in situations that we have absolutely no words for, or perhaps when there is too much emotional hurt and pain involved to the point that we can not even pray to God because we have no words to say, His spirit will be interceding for us.

Since Thursday I have been in situations like this at least a couple of times, I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was to know that Holy Spirit within me is interceding for me. That He is sending the prayers which I can’t even think about to the Father. What a beautiful concept, what a beautiful God.

I do encourage you to read Romans 8 if you get a chance this week.

Spiritual DNA

Have you ever asked yourself if your spirit carried a DNA, whose DNA would it be carrying?

The more I look around, the more I realize how broken our world is. It is saddening to see the effects of what we as God’s most glorious creation leave behind. It is saddening to see all the evil going on in the world, in our own neighborhoods and perhaps our own families. It is saddening to see that following Jesus is irrelevant to the world and being kind and humble is not a characteristic that people look for anymore and if you are kind, and a person who loves the way Jesus loved, then you are nothing but a weirdo!!!

Perhaps it is time for the Christians around the world to not compromise and be more like Jesus. Perhaps it is time for us to take action and love our enemies, instead of repaying evil by evil. Perhaps it is time to actually follow the the message we have been given by God and to be a light. What would the world be like if everyone was humble? If every one was loving and kind? If everyone sought to be morally pure?

I guess we will only know the answer through those who really are in Christ and are allowing Him everyday and allowing Him to transform them daily to what He created us to be. We were created to be holy! Created in God’s image. How awesome to thing that we carry the DNA of our creator. The DNA of the Father whom is full of love and forgiveness.

 

1 John 1:5-10

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

Who do you Follow?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be follower. Adam was created to follow God and have communion with him, but after sin entered the world, things started changing quickly and after some years, man’s focus was taken away from the ONE whom he was supposed to follow.

If you have noticed, people have a tendency to imitate the ones they follow. For example, if you look at children, you will notice that they often imitate their favorite movie or cartoon character, or they imitate their favorite, actor, singer, or athlete. Adults are pretty much the same way; they imitate the ones whom they follow. The Bible indicates that this world belongs to Satan and those who follow this world are actually imitating Satan.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

God wants us to imitate him in everything that we do and be his followers.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)

How much of a more beautiful the world would be if we imitated Jesus and lived like him. At some point in our lives we have to examine our hearts and see who it is that we truly follow.