Sunday Quotes

How wonderful to know that Christianity is more than a padded pew or a dim cathedral, but that it is a real, living, daily experience which goes on from grace to grace. Jim Elliot

The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ. Norman Vincent Peale

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. C.S.Lewis

If only Jesus' followers shared his personality. That one shift alone would correct so many of the ridiculous and horrifying things that pass for popular Christianity. John Eldredge

The great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. John Gresham Machen

For Christians, they need to access the power of Jesus and not look at Christianity as a religion. It is our Lord Jesus that makes you change, and Christians need to actualize it and put it into practice. Erwin McManus

Saturday Vespers

 

As we relax on Saturdays, its time to not only think about ourselves but also all those people who need our prayers and support. We are sharing some prayer needs so that we all can support each other.

For Upper Room readers who have requested prayers-

Kait  requests prayer saying:

Please pray that God relieves the pain in my body after a hard days work. Please pray that God will allow me to fulfill his calling for me for a long time. Thank you God for the many blessings you bestow

RN requests prayer saying:

Please pray my doctor’s appointment goes well tomorrow. Thank you so much.

Jlow requests prayer saying:

Prayer for my freedom. God bless those who are not.

For a senior in India suffering from Dementia. We pray for her peace as well as strength for her caregiver.

Please pray for Jim. Pray that he can work thru an issue that happened today. Pray for it to go well.

John requests prayer saying:

Please pray that my dad's hearing will be corrected and that at least one of his ears will start working again properly. Please pray in Jesus' precious name. Thanks.

Jason requests prayer saying:

Please pray for The Lord to Bless my Family and Myself with, PEACE, Good Health and Laughter.

Please pray for Jim. Pray that he can work thru an issue that happened today. Pray for it to go well.

Tressa - I have been depressed as my sister, whom I love, is in the hospital for her kidneys. I will gladly give her one of mine. Satan keeps bothering me with hopeless thoughts. I have listened to praise music, asked for prayers for her & and her s.o. They are so stubborn as to reconciliation., Please lift up J and J. I am so encouraged by prayer of the Body of Christ. Amen.

PLEASE MAIL YOUR PRAYER REQUESTS TO: THISWEEKWITHJESUS@GMAIL.COM

The Weatherman

Matthew 16:2-3 "He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

Man predicts weather, stock trends, economic performance, poll results and what not. Anything that has a binary chance is what we attempt to predict, based on trends and indicators we recognize.

The sad part is we don't recognize Gods signs in our own lives. God does not ignore anyone. He sends His indicators amd messages of where we are headed as well as ways to turn back and change course, to each one of us.

Do we recognize them? Do we change course and follow His road signs to His way?

We need to be able to read the signs in our lives. We even have a "guidebook" to help us. Yet, many miss the turn.

Because we need to reach our destination safely, we need to pay attention to the road.

What do you want me to do today? Pastor Rajiv

Image from Lara Love's Good News Daily Devotional

How often have we asked God, Lord, what do you want me to do today? 

We need to remember God created each one of us as an individual. He did not create another like any of us; our fingerprints are unique; our DNA is unique, and we are made in a specific and tailor-made design and just as He made us unique, God has a specific and tailor-made design for each one of our lives.

Paul first asked the question ‘who are you, lord? Why? Because the 'who' is important and because it is not about us, it is about Him. It is not what we want to do but what God wants us to do. The important thing is that God did not just simply know us before we were born, He had an ordained and designated job for us to do that no one else could do. Just as God ‘ordained’ Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations and Paul to be the missionary that he was, he has a unique assignment for each one of us too. And knowing this truth makes the question Lord, what do you want me to do? even more important. 

We are not here by accident; he has a designated job for each one of us to do. What that job is will be revealed to us when we ask him in fervent prayer, Lord, what do you want me to do? But just knowing what is that job is not enough. We need to carry out that job because He has assigned it to us.

You know, Paul asked Jesus, Lord, what do you want me to do and he made that his driving force and his life was changed forever. We too can find that same life-changing transformation if we make Paul’s prayer our prayer every day.

Pray Paul’s prayer each morning friends and God will not just show us direction; He will guide us with his eye just as he has promised in Psalm 32 verse 8: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.

Minus Everything

"The measure of a person may not be in what they have, but what they are able to live without". Pastor David Jacobs.

Humans measure each other only in one scale: how much does one have.

If someone is extremely knowledgeable, they are respected. If some one has a lot of wealth, they are fawned upon. If someone is poor, they are endured at best.

The whole point is How does God view us.

Pastor Jacobs actually creates a new paradigm of measurement, and possibly God uses that measure. What can you live without? There is good sense when in Luke 12: Jesus says

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

In his message Pastor Jacobs goes on to say-

"In the consumer world that we currently live, we are taught that we should always want more, more, more. We can never possess enough, as evidenced by the wealthiest among us. When is it too much? At what point does all of what a person has achieved, gained, and even created actually take away from their status in God's eyes?"

How we view us, view God and how God views us is what we should ponder today.

If we have nothing but we have God, we have everything. God will help us survive with what we need.

Ask Job.

Embracing Uncertainty

In the story of Ruth and Naomi, one can't help but wonder what made Ruth stay on with Naomi? Can thier love have been so strong that made her do that? Look at the downside of that decision.

1. Ruth was a Moabite. She could have let Naomi go back to Judah and she would have got remarried and remained safe in her land. Yet she gave up that possibility of security for a seemingly uncertain future.

2. To understand Ruth's embracing of uncertainty, remember, the Moabites were not welcome among the Hebrews. In fact, Moabites were forbidden from entering “the assembly of the Lord” because of the actions of Balak and Balaam (Deuteronomy 23:3). In Numbers 25, God commanded Moses to stamp out the Moabite influence. Surely such history would have caused any Moabite to hesitate at Israel’s borders, for they were practically enemies.

Yet, Ruth embraces Yahweh. She put herself in actual harm's way. All for what?

It seems that Ruth had a devotion to Naomi that went far deeper than family ties. In fact, she seemed to have a deep belief, even as a gentile, in Yahweh. Look at Ruth 1:16. She embraces not only Naomi whom she knew well as her mother-in-law, but she embraces God as well!

Boaz called this out in Ruth 2:12.

"Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 2:12

It seems more than Ruth choosing God, God chose Ruth, seeing her heart and her devotion, as she later begets the lineage of Jesus. (Matthew 1:1-5 includes them in Jesus's genealogy, which includes her in Gods great plan for redemption, even though she was a gentile.)

May we, Gods people, learn this lesson to choose to take refuge under our Lord's wings no matter how bleak or uncertain our situation is, rather than in worldly securities and escape routes. In all the uncertainties of this world, let the only certainty be God and our relationship with Him, and be chosen for His work.

Living the Word

Man giving his own slippers to a child. (The Kindness Blog)

It’s a paradigm shift…
Let’s look at this from 30,000 feet…
At the end of the day…
Let’s get our heads around this…

The world us full of buzz words and jargon. I guess they make the speaker feel a little wiser and knowledgeable and "in".

Dis you know that Christianity too has a lot of buzzwords ? One of the many is "The Living Word" . Yes we all know what it means but do we really live it? Jesus said many will say Lord Lord... Matthew 7:22.

Yes, Jesus is the living word from God to us. His ressurection proved that.

The problem is unless we don't live the word it's a dead word as far as we are concerned.

He also made it so simple: love and honor God above all else and love people. Do we love people apart from Sundays in church? Do we help our neighbors even if it's inconvenient? If someone Need's medical support, though we may not be doctors, we could arrange for them to meet a doc. Or if someone needs money genuinely, and I don't have it, I could use my friends and family to come together to help.

The point is we should be genuinely interested and concerned enough to do it. Following Jesus takes effort and a commitment to live the word. Let's Live the Word! 

Champion Wrestlers

Jacob, famous as a con artist, found himself conned, a liar deceived, and a manipulator outmaneuvered. His life mirrored the meaning of his name, "heel-catcher," a term that implies following someone closely to overtake or deceive them.

But, Jacob is also famous for wrestling with God for a blessing, which was anyway intended for him all along. While this episode is quite funny, does it not sound familiar?

We too, are constantly wrestling with God to get His blessings - in the way we think we deserve. God wants to give it His way and we want ours. Sometimes, the wrestling looks a bit like negotiating with God, and at other times it looks like reminding God of his promises while asking him to act.

But sometimes, our pride and arrogance, intelligence, come in the way. Let us learn to accept in humility rather than demand in arrogance.

Like Jacob, let our encounters with God be to demand a blessing according to God, not demand our desires according to us.

Like Melanie Campbell says- "Many people know about God, but never have a true, life-changing encounter with Him. Knowing what God has done for others isn’t the same as understanding what He has done for you".

Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message

 

Revival in 4 Steps

In continuation of his post on Revival, Pastor Rajiv today outlines the steps we could take to experience our own revival.

Remember, God has designed revival to begin with his own people who are called by his name, people like you and me who have called on the name of Jesus. 

As a revival process, God’s first call for his people is to humble themselves. 

How? Firstly, by recognizing and confessing our need to seek God in all things – spiritual and material. Our independence to be overcome by Dependence. We need humility to constantly guard against spiritual pride because spiritual pride results in self-centeredness, according to Hawkins. (Note: In Colossians 3:12, the word humility in Greek means “humbleness of mind or lowliness of mind”, and it’s the same word used in Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3, and 1 Peter 5:5. It is in this attitude of the heart that we came before the Lord, admitting that we were wrong; we are sinners, repenting, and asking Him to be our Savior because being so crushed by the turmoil of sin and darkness of the world, we recognize there is no place to turn but to God, in other words with a broken spirit). Therefore, in order to be truly humble we need to bring a broken spirit before God.

Secondly, we are to pray and call out to God earnestly. If we are to see true revival, we need earnest and fervent prayer. In fact, every true revival has been the result of fervent and earnest prayer. We have seen what happened when the early church prayed and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Prayer invokes the Holy Spirit and for any revival to take place we must be filled with the Holy Spirit who will give us the courage to speak the word of God with boldness.

Thirdly God demands that we seek his face. Hawkins holds that if we spend as much time in our prayers seeking God’s face as we do to seek His hand to help us, we would be much nearer to our own personal revival. (Note: To seek God's face is to turn from any wicked ways, to look to his presence, strength, and precepts and NOT LOOK BACK.)

And finally, we must turn from our wicked ways. Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin, and this is the greatest obstacle to revival. Just confessing our sins and feeling sorry for them is not enough. We need to forsake them altogether, (In thought, word and deed) because that is true repentance.

The final step in God’s recipe for revival is God’s delight. God’s delight is forgiving the sins of his people if they are truly repentant and turn from their wicked ways. His promise is that He will hear from Heaven he will forgive our sin and He will heal our land.

God delights in healing our hearts, healing our homes and everything around us because it appropriates his sacrifice on the cross and does not render His death in vain. He is willing; He is waiting, and He is longing for us to call on His name in prayer and seek his face (get to know Him) through his word and turn from our wicked ways so that he can fulfil his promise.

The big point for us to remember here is that that prayer and revival go hand in hand. 

There can be no revival without fervent and earnest prayer.