May Archives

Haggai 2:6,7 In Haggai’s day God shook up the Heavens and the earth to awaken the people to their wrong priorities and to refocus them on the building of God’s House. God is shaking up the world today so that we reprioritize our lives God’s way so as to get us to refocus on His will and purpose for our lives today. A shaking may denote the judgement of the Lord. Isa 13:13 – ‘The earth will move out of her place …’. Whatever is of the earth denotes carnality – the things of the flesh. When God brings about a shaking in our lives, everything that is earthy, of carnality, will be removed leaving only that which is of spiritual/eternal value. 1 Cor 15:47-50, 2 Cor 4:16-18, Job 38:13, Rom 8:7,8, Gal 5:16-18 However, we need to understand that the judgement of the Lord is not for our destruction but for our transformation. Judgement can mean chastisement for correction. Isa 26:9, 1 Cor 11:31,32, Heb 12:6-11, Phil 2:13 Shake me to shape me could also be rephrased as ‘break me to make me’. When there is a shaking, the things that are of spiritual significance are fortified and given a solid foundation in our lives. Col 3:1-4, Heb 12:25-28 CCC Hymn – Bawo lo ti w’adi oko re si, jowo ro daju Ijo Mimo David asked God to x-ray his life. Psm 139:23,24, Psm 51:6 Can you confidently ask God to do the same in your life? 1 John 1:8,9 Look at the way the potter breaks up the clay and moulds it to fit his purpose. God wants us to be vessels unto honour in His house. But at the time the potter starts the moulding process, the clay is just a lump – disfigured, misshapen, ugly. However, when the potter is done with the clay, a thing of beauty is produced. Jer 18:1-10, 2 Cor 4:7, Romans 9:23,24, 2 Tim 2:20,21 Look at the way the gardener prunes the vine to make it more fruitful. The vine is stripped bare almost to the point of being destroyed. But no. The vine is not being destroyed neither will it die. The gardener knows that this pruning is necessary in order to get a bountiful harvest from the vine. John 15:1-8 Look at how gold is refined in the furnace to take away the impurities and to bring out its gloss and radiant lustre. However, the gold had to endure the heat and pressure of the crucible in order to be purified. Job 23:10, Prov 17:3, Mal 3:3, Isa 48:10 What am I saying? The process of being shaken is not going to be a pleasant one. It is a testing process. It is a training process. It is a disciplining process. It’s going to cost you. It’s going to make you cry. It’s going to change you. It might even cost you relationships. It might involve having to endure suffering. But it will make you want He wants you to be. John 17:3, Rom 8:18, Phil 3:7-11, 1 Pet 5:9, Gal 2:20,21, Jam 1:2-4, Heb 12:11, Isa 48:10 Song – He is able, more than able, to accomplish what concerns me today … If you are so set in your ways as to be so rigid, so hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13), if you are stubborn and not willing to yield easily in the hands of the Master, the shaking and shaping process will be quite a painful and harrowing experience. Jer 20:9, Psm 22:14-17 You need to yield yourself in obedience to the Master’s will so that you become malleable enough for God to shape you into what He wants you to be. We hear of many who had to be stripped down to nothing in order for them to heed the calling of the Master. We need to be wise and learn from the experiences of those who have passed through before. Rom 15:4, 1 Cor 10:11 Better still, we need to look up to the Captain of our salvation, the author and finisher of our faith, the one who has gone before us to pave the way back to God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Phil 2:5-11, Heb 12:2,3, Heb 2:10, 1 John 3:1-3 This shaking and shaping (breaking and making) is the work of the grace of God. CCC Hymn – Mo ti sonu sinu ese, ore Oluwa lo ri mi e … Gal 1:15,16, Eph 3:7, Eph 2:8 Let’s look at Paul. He was Saul, the zealot Pharisee that persecuted Christians. He thought he was doing God’s work but God had him in mind. But the grace of God located him and broke him down and shaped him to become a shining light to the early church and even down to our generation. Phil 3:4-6 => 2 Cor 11:5 => 1 Cor 15:9,10 => 1 Tim 1:15 When God brings about a shaking, he is reforming, restructuring, restoring and redirecting us back to Himself in Holiness and righteousness. He is a jealous God – Exo 34:14, Deut 5:6-9 He wants to have all our attention. Many of us have been bogged down with what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear, how to accumulate wealth and riches and do not have time for God in our lives. We need to be mindful of not slipping down this spiral of complacency and presumption. Matt 13:22, Rev 2:4, 1 John 2:15, Psm 19:13   Let’s also look at the life of Job. He had everything. He was one of the greatest men of his time. But when God allowed him to be shaken, he lost everything – wife, children, property, assets, his respect, honour and reputation – everything. He was broken down even to the extent of his health. Yet God built him up again and Job gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of who God is. Now, I do not pray that we undergo such

We at Jehovah Evangelical Team Ministry (J.E.T.) support a nationwide network of food banks and together we provide food and support to people locked in poverty, and also campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. Jehovah Evangelical Team Ministry know it takes more than food to end hunger. That’s why we bring together the experiences of food banks in our network to challenge the structural economic issues that lock people in poverty, and campaign to end the need for food banks in the UK.       We thank all our supporters who had made our Food Bank Success….Follow our progress in fighting hunger and poverty in the UK. Read our latest news and blog posts to Support and find out more about our current work

Divine focus of thy work leads to victory (2 King 2:5-15) What is Divine Focus? This is generally something akin to a holy symbol. In adjective it is Godly, Angelic, Saintly, very pleasing and good looking. In Noun, a Cleric, or Theologian, Christology i.e someone who study Christ. What is Focus? The centre of interest in an activities or paying particular attention to something of interest. What is Work? This is a physical effort done in order to achieve a result. MATHEMATICALLY: Divine Focus + Work = Victory BIBLICAL MATHEMATICS: Hebrew 12: 1-3 +Philip 2:12 = Victory We have to take our Lord Jesus Christ as a role model just like Elisha took Elijah as a role model. There are Job description we often given when applying for a job in a Company, so as a Christian we have job descriptions before we can be Victorious in life. These are some Job Descriptions to make you have victory in life such as,   Obedient: The need to Obey, Just as our Lord Jesus Christ was obedient (Philippians 2:8), Elisha  obeyed in book of 1 King 2: 9-10. Therefore, as a Christians or Follower of Christ you have to be obedient to his words. The need to Work: This phase disturbs many of our denominational friends in our community today, those who think salvation is not of work (Luke 19: 4-5). The new testament says a GREAT DEAL about Christians needing to work 1 Corinthians 15: 58. For you to attain victory in Christ with your Divine focus of thy work, there are qualifications necessary and requested by our lord Jesus Christ, it is called job requirement which Christ want from us. There are 5 Jobs requirement listed here for Christians to attain Victory. Work Reverently: This is by working in a deeply respectful way (Philippians 2:12). Fear comes from phobia which is respectful behaviour, you must work for God with serious certain desiring never to offend God. Work Confidently: You may be saying working for God sounds hard or not sure you can do it, but remember you are not alone (Philippians 2:13). Do God energise miraculously? The answer is No because God energises through, reading the Scriptures regularly, timely sermon and encouragement of friends. Work Willingly: Many today want to argue with God about unfairness of life or what requires of them. Keyword is do all things without complaining or arguing. (Philippians 2:14) Work Inoffensively? Our character can sometimes destroy the efforts we put forth for Christ, Paul says we need to be harmless and blameless but live a life at which no finger of criticism may be pointed at us. In brother Paul statement, we derive that Blameless+Harmless= Light in the World (Matt. 15:19, Mark 7:21) Work Steadfastly: We must hold securely the light so that others can see and follow it. King David said God’s word is a lamp to our feet (psalm 119:105) In conclusion, our divine focus towards our work for Christ without distraction from friends, families and earthly activities will leads us to victory in all areas of our lives.

The story of Garden of Eden is a theological use of mythological themes to explain human progression from a state of innocence and bliss to the present human condition of knowledge of sin, misery and death. The Garden of Eden is the biblical “GARDEN OF GOD” described most notably in the book of Genesis chapter 2&3 and also refers to Garden of God in Genesis 13:10 and the trees of the Garden are mentioned in Ezekiel 31. Adam and Eve didn’t have to have a comprehensive understanding of sin to avoid Sin. They should have been content with their understanding of God as loving,generous creator and friend. This is where we go astray too. We commit sin because we think we are missing out, when God is all we need. Every human has an understanding of good and evil (Romans 1:20-22). Someday when those who have rejected God in this life stand before him, God will able to remind them occasions when they sensed that God existed. They will have no excuse for ignoring God. Biblically, we sense that God exists. Our conscience convicts us of wrong actions, but it is the bible that tells us what God actually consider to be sin.Then we understand sin sent us out of Garden of Eden but if we flee from Sin we can still enjoy the atmosphere of Garden of Eden….. Sin is the reason Jesus came to this earth and died. It is the reason he returned to life and returned to heaven. He did these things so that he could forgive your sin if you believe him. After you can come back to GARDEN OF EDEN I want you to give your life and surrender your life to God through Jesus Christ so as to enjoy living in GARDEN OF EDEN.

OH, THAT YOU WOULD ENLARGE MY TERRITORY! The next part of the Jabez prayer—a plea for more territory—is where you ask God to enlarge your life so you can make a greater impact for Him. From both the context and the results of Jabez’s prayer, we can see that there was more to his request than a simple desire for more real estate. He wanted more influence, more responsibility, and more opportunity to make a mark for the God of Israel. Depending on the version you’re reading, the word territory can also be translated coast or borders. For Jabez and his contemporaries, that word carried the same emotional power as the words homestead or frontier did for generations of American pioneers. It spoke of a place of one’s own with plenty of room to grow. In Jabez’s time part of Israel’s recent national history was Joshua’s conquest of Canaan and the partitioning of the Promised Land into chunks of real estate for each tribe. When Jabez cried out to God, “Enlarge my territory!” he was looking at his present circumstances and concluding, “Surely I was born for more than this!” As a farmer or herdsman, he looked over the spread his family had passed down to him, ran his eye down the fence lines, visited the boundary markers, calculated the potential—and made a decision: Everything you’ve put under my care, O Lord—take it, and enlarge it. If Jabez had worked on Wall Street, he might have prayed, “Lord, increase the value of my investment portfolios.” When I talk to presidents of companies, I often talk to them about this particular mind-set. When Christian executives ask me, “Is it right for me to ask God for more business?” my response is, “Absolutely!” If you’re doing your business God’s way, it’s not only right to ask for more, but He is waiting for you to ask. Your business is the territory God has entrusted to you. He wants you to accept it as a significant opportunity to touch individual lives, the business community, and the larger world for His glory. Asking Him to enlarge that opportunity brings Him only delight. Suppose Jabez had been a wife and a mother. Then the prayer might have gone: “Lord, add to my family, favor my key relationships, multiply for Your glory the influence of my household.” Your home is the single most powerful arena on earth to change a life for God. Why wouldn’t He want you to be mighty for Him? No matter what your vocation, the highest form of Jabez’s prayer for more territory might sound something like: O God and King, please expand my opportunities and my impact in such a way that I touch more lives for Your glory. Let me do more for You! When you pray like this, things get pretty exciting.

THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CONVERSION Unless God gives me a clear indication to go another way I will be preaching during these last four Sundays of winter on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I feel a great yearning in my own heart to know more of the Spirit’s power for holiness and power for witness. I feel a tremendous need to learn to rely more fully on his guidance as the Spirit of wisdom and truth. The life-giving, renewing Wind of spring is blowing through this church, and my great desire is to unfurl the sail of my heart and watch it fill up with the Holy Wind of God and be drawn in his direction, at his speed, in his power. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8) Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8) We will see the paradox in that statement today, because we can’t even begin to draw near to God without the Spirit’s help. Which means that in our very effort to draw near to him, he has already drawn near to us. But that does not negate the promise at all: it remains true that if we draw near to God, he willdraw near to us! Lift your sails into the Holy Wind of God, and he will fill them. Our Need for the Holy Spirit We need the Holy Spirit at Bethlehem in these next weeks. Things are happening; and my great concern and expectation is that they happen under the guidance and in the power of the Spirit. For example, we have our sights set on doubling the number of Laotian and Hmong people to whom we minister on Sunday morning and through the week. You will be hearing more about how that can be done. In four weeks we will enter an Income Expansion Program by which I pray the Lord will supply the money needed, for example, to vacate and enlarge 13th Avenue for parking, and to raze 1212 Eighth Street for parking, and to secure and beautify the campus so that we will be ready for the opening of the stadium in the spring of 1982. I plan to propose to the deacon council this Wednesday that we move to two Sunday morning services the first Sunday of spring and that we call an all-church forum Wednesday, March 4, to pray and think together about this proposal. I hope on April 4 to lead all the church boards in a retreat where we can pray and plan for our future. And I anticipate that there will begin to emerge this spring small groups of people gathering for prayer and mutual upbuilding in faith and outreach. And on top of these structured changes, there is the supremely important transformation of individual lives from week to week as the Word of God from classrooms, from conversations, and from the pulpit begets faith and stirs up love and joy in our midst. We need the Holy Spirit in these times so that we can say in days to come, “We planned and we worked, yet not us but the Spirit of God in us, willing and doing his good pleasure.” And we will be able to say this if we draw near to God and raise our sails into the Holy Wind blowing on us. Open your hearts wide to God, go hard after God in your prayers, wrestle with him till dawn, till he gives you the blessing of his fullness. Take Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14–19 and pray it for yourself every day in these weeks: I bow my knee before you, O Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of your glory you may grant me to be strengthened with might through your Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that, being rooted and grounded in love, I might have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that I might be filled with all the fullness of God. We’ll come back to that prayer in the weeks to come, but the very least it means is this: there is more of God to be had than we now experience! Conversion to Christ is the end of one quest: we have found the Savior of our souls; we have found fellowship and peace with God; we have all drunk of the same Spirit. But conversion is the beginning of another quest, “that we might be filled with all the fullness of God”—a quest which I think will never end to all eternity, because no matter how much is poured into our hearts from the ocean of God’s love, it will always be replenished from the springs of infinity. Come with me as we go hard after “the fullness of God” in these next four weeks. Our Need for Conversion But there must be a beginning. Nobody by nature delights so much in the character of God that he hungers after the true God. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). As David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” We come into the world bent on being independent from God and loving the things of the world. Something has to happen to us if we are to be saved from the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 1:10). We must be profoundly changed. The Bible speaks of this change in many different ways. I’ll mention a few. 1) We must change slave masters; we must cease from being slaves of sin and become slaves of God (Romans 6:17–23). 2) We must die with Christ and rise to newness of life

What comes to mind when you think about yourself is one of the most important things about you. In particular, what comes to your mind when you think about who you are in Christ is of greater importance. As a leader in the church, I’ve found that most problems are traceable to uncertainty about our identity. We have forgotten who we are in Christ (2 Peter 1:9). When we forget our identity, like Jason Bourne, we should be relentless until we know it again. Bourne, one of the great action heroes of our day, is a highly trained agent — to understate it — capable of winning a fight with nothing more than a rolled up magazine or a ballpoint pen. He is armed with unrivaled skill and know-how for every situation he faces. In the first Bourne film, he wakes up from a failed mission, not remembering who he is, but quickly realizing all he is capable of doing. Bourne is determined to find out who he is. He doesn’t seem to care that he can do things James Bond only dreams of doing; he wants to know who he is. Identity Comes Before Activity Herein lies the parable for the Christian life: we are often more drawn to what we can do for Jesus, rather than who we are in Jesus. One reason we get so discouraged and frustrated in the Christian life is that we forget who we are. We forget that we are new creatures in Christ. We misplace the reality that by his blood, by his cross, and by his resurrection, we are new. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need to know that we are not our former selves. We are not defined by our former sins — or our present ones. No, we are defined by being in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9–11). We are not ultimately defined by our ethnicity. We don’t find long-lasting and enduring significance in our accomplishments, intelligence, or appearance (Galatians 3:27–28). We find eternal value, meaning, worth, and hope in who Jesus says we are in him. Who We Are in Jesus In his letter to the Galatians, Paul takes a buzz saw to legalism and all its nasty knots. He does this by reminding the Galatians of their identity in Christ, showing how the gospel and all of its gifts to us are better than anything else we could build or find for ourselves. Here are six identities that are now ours through faith — six things God says about us. Like a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path, these truths from God’s word can lead us back to reality, to comfort, to hope, and to joy. 1. We are servants of Christ. After we are saved by Jesus, we are enlisted into his service (Galatians 1:10). We are now called to make disciples of Jesus (Matthew 28:18–20). We are called to spread his fame. We don’t live for the approval of men, but for the name of Christ. No Christian is insignificant. We are his servants. When we evangelize, we are serving Christ. When we pray for a sick Christian, we are serving Christ. When we go to the homeless shelter, we are serving Christ. When we go to the pregnancy center and care for mothers, we are serving Christ. Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matthew 25:35–36). And the people say, “When did we do those things?” Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). 2. We are crucified with Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). We have been crucified with Christ, by faith. We live with him, and he lives in us. No matter where we go, Christ is with us, alive in us, at work in us. We are never alone anymore. And we are crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). The world has nothing better to offer us than Jesus. We’ve died to the ways of the world, how the world runs. We follow Christ now. We operate from his example, his priorities, and his words. 3. We are children of God. Not like Jesus, of course; we are not God. But we are children of God, like Jesus, in that we are a part of the family of God (Galatians 3:26). We have all of the perks of being one of his own. We are cared for by God, led by his Spirit. We aren’t strangers, we are family. God doesn’t save us and then kick us out. He saves us and then adopts us (Galatians 4:4–7). In the gospel, the Father-Judge declares us not guilty, and then he turns to us and says, “I want you to come and live with me. Welcome home.” We are at home with God. In the triune God, we have a Father, a Brother, and Helper. 4. We are heirs with Christ of everything. As Jesus’s people, he gives us all that is his. We are heirs of the promise (Galatians 3:29). Whatever belongs to Jesus belongs to you and me. The universe belongs to Jesus, and now, it belongs to you and me. Jupiter belongs to you because of Jesus. The Hubble Telescope is itemizing your inheritance. “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or

The naming part of the event of new year is of course significant, but the most important aspect of this naming event is that it offers you the chance to focus on your daily living such as: future development, welfare and happiness and for you to affirm that you will try to be the best new being you can. For Jet Eri family and friends, this naming event is a way for them to declare that they would like to be involved in this year 2018 not as a witness but with success. Luke 2:21 And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called JESUS, which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. After prayers and Spiritual Consultation 2018 shall be called… PURE GRACE, SURE GRACE AND CURE GRACE which is 2018 MY YEAR OF (I CARRY GOD’S GRACE) The oil of Grace on your head will not dry off in Jesus name.