Wisdom Of Life

The Bible says in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart,  for they will see God." - To “see God” means having experience with the presence of God, and  the one who have a pure heart get to feel the power of God. They get to know the purpose of God for their lives, they also get to live in the peace of God, and they having experience by the pardon of God.  If we want to be one of those peoples, we don’t only talking a lot about being pure in heart, but we do use the word “ integrity .” and having integrity does not mean that we are perfect, Integrity is " wholeness ."  A lot of people having perception about their life are like the pieces of the pie, this slice of the pie, is my career, or my work life, or my spiritual life, then this is my family life. That one is my social life, then over here is my secret life, my compulsions, addictions, and the things nobody else knows about. If we are being an segment, our life are like that, we lack of integrity...

"I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."   ~Jeremiah 29:11 Your mind and your thoughts could be stuck in the past, continually thinking about what has already happened. If that's the case, it's best to get over it. The past has already happened; you can't do anything to change it. Rather,  "you ought to trust God that he is working out those things for ultimate good" (see Romans 8:28).   On the other hand, your mind could be stuck in the future, thinking about what might happen, what you fear will happen, and things you wish wouldn't happen. However, being a person of faith requires trust, trusting God about the future.  Romans 15:13  says, " May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him." You'll have joy and peace when you trust in God, why?  Because you'll be able to rest and relax knowing that God has go...

"I will give thanks to you, Lord , with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High." ~Psalm 9:1-2   Praise should always follow answered prayer; as the mist of earth's gratitude rises when the sun of heaven's love warms the ground. Has the Lord been gracious to you, and inclined his ear to the voice of your supplication? Then praise him as long as your live. Let the ripe fruit drop upon the fertile soil from which it drew its life. Deny not a song to him who has answered your prayer and given you the desire of your heart. (see Psalm 37:4) To be silent over God's mercies is to incur the guilt of ingratitude; it is to act as basely as the nine lepers, who after they had been cured of their leprosy, returned not to give thanks unto the healing Lord. (see Luke 17:17-18) To forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves; for praise, like prayer, is one...

S piritual gifts, H eart, A bilities, P ersonality, E xperiences, these are the five things that make you, and it's call " OUR SHAPE."   That's the unique way that God made you that brings glory to him, means to believe that God knows best. It all comes down to the matter of trust. Do you believe that God made a mistake when he made you? Or do you trust him, knowing that he has a plan for your life?  When you say, “God, there are things I don’t like about myself. I wish I had different hair or a different color of skin. I wish I were taller, shorter, skinnier. I wish I had more talent. I wish I could do ‘that.’ I wish I looked like him. I wish I had her smarts” and on and on. This kind of thinking is basically telling God, “You blew it! Everybody else is OK. But you goofed up big when you made me.”  When you reject yourself, you are in essence rejecting God, because he’s your creator. When you don’t accept yourself, it’s rebellion against God. You’re saying, “God,...

"Because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:"  - 2 John 1:2 Once let the truth of God obtain an entrance into the human heart and subdue the whole man unto itself, no power human or infernal can dislodge it. We entertain it not as a guest but as the master of the house--this is a Christian necessity, he is no Christian who doth not thus believe. Those who feel the vital power of the gospel, and know the might of the Holy Ghost as he opens, applies, and seals the Lord's Word, would sooner be torn to pieces than be rent away from the gospel of their salvation. What a thousand mercies are wrapped up in the assurance that the truth will be with us forever; will be our living support, our dying comfort, our rising song, our eternal glory; this is Christian privilege, without it our faith were little worth. Some truths we outgrow and leave behind, for they are but rudiments and lessons for beginners, but we cannot thus deal with Divine truth, for ...

God gives us a lot of confirming emotions and often answers the mostmature, self-centered prayers so we’ll know he exists, when we are a baby Christian, after that, as we grow in faith, he will wean you these dependencies.  God’s omnipresence and the manifestation of his presence are two different things. One is a fact; the other is often a feeling. God is always present, even when we are unaware of him, and his presence is too profound to be measured by mere emotion.  The situations that will stretch our faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job. On a single day he lost everything — his family, his business, his health, and everything he owned. And then, for 37 chapters, God said nothing, of course, he wants us to sense his presence, but he’s more concerned that we trust him than that we feel him. Faith, not feelings, pleases God.  How can we praise God when we don’t understand what’s happening in our li...

Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."   Luke 22:46  When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more wakeful than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travellers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters. Christian went not to sleep when lions were in the way, or when he was wading through the river, or when fighting with Apollyon, but when he had climbed half way up the Hill Difficulty, and came to a delightful arbour, he sat down, and forthwith fell asleep, to his great sorrow and loss. The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes, laden with fragrant odours and soft influences, all tending to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan's description: "Then they came to an arbour, warm, and promising much refreshing to the we...

"Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."  -John 6:67-68 (NKJV)  Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked no more with him; but what reason have we to make a change? Has there been any reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient?  He appeals to us this morning -- " Have I been a wilderness unto you?" (Jeremiah 2:31)    When our soul has simply trusted Jesus, have we ever been confounded? Have we not up till now found our Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to us, and has not simple faith in him given us all the peace our spirit could desire? Can we so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to  us?  Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present, can that compel us to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or with the severer trials within the...

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,"   Matthew 6:9 NIV  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that the first priority in praying is to ask that our heavenly Father’s name be hallowed. Notice that this is a petition or a request. It is not a declaration (as I thought it was for years). It is a request to God that he would see to it that his own name be hallowed. It is like another text, Matthew 9:38, where Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers into his own harvest. It never ceases to amaze me that we, the laborers, should be instructed to ask the owner of the farm, who knows the harvest better than we do, to add on more farm hands. But isn’t this the same thing we have here in the Lord’s Prayer — Jesus telling us to ask God, who is infinitely jealous for the honor of his own name, to see to it that his name be hallowed? Well it may amaze us, but there it is. And it teaches us two thin...

The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins to God, we will be forgiven through the shed blood of the Savior, but that doesn’t mean that God will immediately erase the consequences. As the psalmist says, “ Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me .” –  Psalm 51:2-3   He forgives anyone who genuinely repents. Jesus died for our sins, but understand that the sacrifice was to get us right with God, not to protect us from earthy consequences. The thief must still face prison, the child will be disciplined by his parents, and the adulterer still faces the risk of losing everything.  Look at the story of David. After being guilty of adultery, abuse of power, murder and cover-up, the guilt of his sin clung to him everywhere he went. Then, he confessed his sin to God before a priest and he was instantly forgiven by God. But while God instantly forgave David, he did not remove the negative cons...

“ Husbands, love your wives and be gentle with them " Colossians 3:19 (NCV) Gentleness diffuses conflict, it disarms critics, it’s persuasive, it’s attractive, and gentleness communicates love. Guys, if you’re married, the quickest way to improve your marriage is to start talking to your wife more gently. It’ll do wonders! Colossians 3:19 says, “ Husbands, love your wives and be gentle with them ” (NCV) . Any fool can be selfish. Any fool can be rough. Any fool can be rude. But gentle men are gentlemen. A great marriage is simply the union of two great forgivers, because you’re going to hurt each other a lot in life.That’s a part of gentleness.Gentleness is not only the key to effective marriage; it’s also the key to effective parenting. Never discipline out of anger or frustration, but always gently and out of love. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger … but rear them tenderly in the training and discipline and the...

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  (John 15:7) Prayer pursues joy in fellowship with Jesus and in the power to share his life with others. And prayer pursues God’s glory by treating him as the inexhaustible reservoir of hope and help. In prayer, we admit our poverty and God’s prosperity, our bankruptcy and his bounty, our misery and his mercy.  Therefore, prayer highly exalts and glorifies God precisely by pursuing everything we long for in him, and not in ourselves. “Ask, and you will receive . . . that the Father may be glorified in the Son and . . . that your joy may be full.” (Matthew 7:7). Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You wo...

“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal him.” (Isaiah 57:18–19) In spite of the severity of man’s disease of rebellion and willfulness, God will heal. How will he heal? (Verse 15) says that God dwells with the crushed and humble. Yet the people of (verse 17) are brazenly pursuing their own proud way. What will a healing be?  It can only be one thing. God will heal them by humbling them. He will cure the patient by crushing his pride. If only the crushed and humble enjoy God’s fellowship (verse 15), and if Israel’s sickness is a proud and willful rebellion (verse 17), and if God promises to heal them (verse 18), then his healing must be humbling and his cure must be a crushed spirit.  Isn’t this Isaiah’s way of prophesying what Jeremiah called the new covenant and Jeremiah called a new heart? He said, “...

"And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." 1 Samuel 27:1 The thought of David's heart at this time was a false thought, because he certainly had no ground for thinking that God's anointing him by Samuel was intended to be left as an empty unmeaning act. On no one occasion had the Lord deserted his servant; he had been placed in perilous positions very often, but not one instance had occurred in which divine interposition had not delivered him. The trials to which he had been exposed had been varied; they had not assumed one form only, but many--yet in every case he who sent the trial had also graciously ordained a way of escape. David could not put his finger upon any entry in his diary, and say of it, "Here is evidence that the Lord will forsake me," for the entire tenor of his past life proved the very reverse. He should have argued from what God had done for him, that God would be his defender still. But is i...

"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine." John 21:12 In these words the believer is invited to a holy nearness to Jesus. "Come and dine," implies the same table, the same meat; aye, and sometimes it means to sit side by side, and lean our head upon the Saviour's bosom. It is being brought into the banqueting-house, where waves the banner of redeeming love. "Come and dine," gives us a vision of union with Jesus, because the only food that we can feast upon when we dine with Jesus is himself. Oh, what union is this! It is a depth which reason cannot fathom, that we thus feed upon Jesus. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him."  (John 6:56) It is also an invitation to enjoy fellowship with the saints. Christians may differ on a variety of points, but they have all one spiritual appetite; and if we cannot all feel alike, we can all feed alike on the bread of life sent down from heaven. At the table of ...

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."   (Psalm 34:18 NIV ) Every one of us will experience loss in our lives. So how does God heal your broken heart? You don’t get over a loss. You can’t go under it; you can’t go around it. You’ve got to go  through  the grief. And if you’re scared to express emotion and refuse to go through it, that’s where you get stuck. There are six ways God blesses a broken heart. =>  God draws you close to himself.  When you grieve, you often feel like God is a million miles away. But what you feel and what’s real are not always the same thing. God’s not a million miles away. In fact, he’s never been any closer. (Psalm 34:18 NIV) =>  God grieves with you.  When you come to Jesus with your grief, he knows what you’re talking about, and he understands your pain. God is a suffering God, and he is a sympathetic God. He’s not aloof; he’s not apathetic. He’s not...

"But who may abide the day of his coming?" (read Malachi 3:2) His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few enough could abide the process. But what will his second advent be? What sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."  (Isaiah 11'4)  When in his humiliation he did but say to the soldiers, "I am he," they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the "I am?"  (John 18:5).  His death shook earth...

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Philippians 3:8 Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with him. No, I must know him myself; I must know him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge--I must know him, not as the visionary dreams of him, but as the Word reveals him. I must know his natures, divine and human. I must know his offices--his attributes--his works--his shame--his glory. I must meditate upon him until I "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." It will be an affectionate knowledge of him; indeed, if I know him at all, I must love him. An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. Our knowledge of him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Saviour, my mind will be full to the br...

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness."(Hebrews 3:13 NIV)  A church family will help keep you from backsliding.  None of us are immune to temptation. Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin. God knows this, so he has assigned us as individuals the responsibility of keeping each other on track.  The Bible says, “Encourage one another daily … so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13 NIV) . “  Mind your own business” is not a Christian phrase!  We are called and commanded to be involved in each other’s lives. If you know someone who is wavering spiritually right now, it is your responsibility to go after him and bring him back into the fellowship.  James tells us, “If you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back” (James 5:19 MSG).   ...

Read (1 Corinthians 12)  God has given us great and wonderful gifts. As we grow in our commitment to Christ and the fruit of the Spirit become manifest in our lives, these gifts play out beautifully on God stage. The apostle Paul describes the spiritual gifts given to the church by God and administered by the Holy Spirit. It is sobering to realize that the fruit of the Spirit did not include how well we could preach or how effective we was at giving altar calls. We realized that there could be no doubt that we had been examined by the Lord and found lacking. We had obvious gifts in our life and put them to good use in a growing church. took all too seriously (1 Corinthians 12:31) ,.which tells us to “eagerly desire the greater gifts.” Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the gifts of the Spirit are given by God to strengthen the Church, but when we seek them at the expense of the deep and often unseen internal work of God, that’s when it becomes a problem. In case,...

“ Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God ; he is my mighty rock, my refuge." (Psalm 62:5-7 NIV) There are always going to be people in your life who misunderstand you and people who don’t like you. There will always be people who criticize you, judge you, attack you, and spread rumors about you. When you are misunderstood, you’re going to have a tendency to get in there and defend yourself. When you’re attacked, your tendency is attack back — just like the rest of us. When people criticize you, you want to criticize back. When people insult you, you want to insult them back. Don’t do it! Let God be your defender. Every time you are under attack, criticized, put down, or misunderstood, you have two choices. You can defend yourself, or you can let God defend you. Which will it be? Who do you think can do a better job defending you? God can. Wh...

"But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you."   Genesis 6:18 NIV The Bible is filled with covenants made between God and people. Six of those covenants were made with Old Testament figures: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David. The seventh was made with His own Son, Jesus Christ. God is always the strongest partner in a covenant relationship. God made a covenant with Noah in order to preserve the human race. This covenant involved Noah's participation by building an ark. He'd never built an ark before. He'd never had a boat. It was a totally new concept to Noah and the rest of the world. Why would he need a boat in a dry land? Noah did not have to invent the ark; God gave him the plans-in specific dimensional detail. He did not have to gather the animals-God led them into the ark. God even closed the door when they all came on board. God made it rain to prove ...

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.” (Proverbs 3:5-7 NLT) Have you ever had a feeling that something was so very, very right, and then when you did it, it ended up being so very, very wrong? There are a lot of things that are wrong that feel so right at the moment.   If you want to have fewer dead ends and failures in your life, you need to hear what the Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-7:  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil” (NLT).   If you really want God’s blessing on your life, you have to depend on God’s wisdom and not what your feelings say or what your ...

"Does not know God, because God is love ."    1 John 4:8 The Bible says God is love. It doesn’t say God  has  love; it says God  is  love. Love is his nature.  God is love .  God created the entire universe. He created this planet; he created the human race; then, he created you because he  loves you.  God created you as an object of his love. He made you so he could love you and so you could love him. God’s love for you is the reason your heart is beating right now; it’s the reason you’re breathing. (see Isaiah 45:8; Revelation 4:11)  God’s good news is that he loves you on your good days as much as he loves you on your bad days. He loves you when you can feel his love, and he loves you when you can’t seem to feel his love. He loves you whether or not you think you deserve his love.  There is nothing you can do that will make God stop loving you. You could try, but you simply can’t do it, because his ...

“Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28 TLB) We are commanded to serve God. Jesus was unmistakable: “Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many”  ( Matthew 20:28 TLB ).  For Christians, service is not something to be tacked onto our schedules if we can spare the time. It is the heart of the Christian life. Jesus came “to serve” and “to give” — and those two verbs should define your life on Earth, too.  Jesus taught that spiritual maturity is never an end in itself. Maturity is for ministry! We grow up in order to give out. It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe. Impression without expression causes depression. Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation.  The old comparis...

" And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God.” Zechariah 13:9 GNT Each piano has always been made from scratch; it takes over a year to make one them. The most impressive scene as I toured the manufacturing plant was the place where the soundboard is stretched to its maximum tolerance and allowed to sit for an extended period until it remains in the curved design. This was done in an off-to-the-corner part of the plant. If the wood were alive, it would be crying out for mercy.  After an extended time of stretching, the wood will never spring back to its original state. It is permanently changed. The piano is becoming a fine-tuned instrument. After this process takes place, the next step requires another point of stress. It takes 11 tons of pressure on a pia...

“Take on an entirely new way of life — a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.” (Ephesians 4:22-24 MSG) Many religions and New Age philosophies promote the old lie that we are divine or can become gods. Let me be absolutely clear: You will never become God or even  a  god.  That prideful lie is Satan’s oldest temptation. Satan promised Adam and Eve that if they followed his advice, “You shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5 KJV).   This desire to be a god shows up every time we try to control our circumstances, our future, and people around us. But as creatures, we will never be the Creator. God doesn’t want you to become a god; he wants you to become godly, taking on his values, attitudes, and character. We are meant to “ take on an entirely new way of life — a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately repr...

"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 Joĥn 2:1 "If any man sin, we have an advocate." Yes, though we sin, we have him still. John does not say, "If any man sin he has forfeited his advocate," but "we have an advocate," sinners though we are. All the sin that a believer ever did, or can be allowed to commit, cannot destroy his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, as his advocate. The name here given to our Lord is suggestive. "Jesus." Ah! then he is an advocate such as we need, for Jesus is the name of one whose business and delight it is to save. "They shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." His sweetest name implies his success. Next, it is "Jesus Christ"--Christos, the anointed. This shows his authority to plead. The Christ has a right to plead, for he is the Father's own appointed advocate and elected priest. If he were of ...

" But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."   ( James 3:17 ). Christ always sought wisdom from above before speaking and acting. Thus, as Christians (Christ- followers ) we should be constantly seeking this godly wisdom and applying it to our lives and relationships. But that verse is a big verse. What does it look like to have this  wisdom from above ?  ( Mark 1:35) =>  It is first of all pure.  Our motives for doing  anything  should reflect a desire to live like Christ and be in right relationship with God. If our earthly “wisdom” tells us to approach a situation with impure motives such as greed, selfishness, or pride – that is not wisdom from above. =>  It is peaceable.  Sometimes we get preoccupied with the imagery of Spiritual Armor and treat everyone we meet like an enemy solider. We must remember that   b...

" The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. "  Song of Solomon 7:13 The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has "all manner of pleasant fruits," both "old and new," and they are laid up for our Beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude; we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labours; our heart blossoms with new prayers, and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts. But we have some old fruits too. There is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful has God been! In ...

"For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory . The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right."   Psalms 84:11 Bounteous is Jehovah in his nature; to give is his delight. His gifts are beyond measure precious, and are as freely given as the light of the sun. He gives grace to his elect because he wills it, to his redeemed because of his covenant, to the called because of his promise, to believers because they seek it, to sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly, seasonably, constantly, readily, sovereignly; doubly enhancing the value of the boon by the manner of its bestowal. Grace in all its forms he freely renders to his people: comforting, preserving, sanctifying, directing, instructing, assisting grace, he generously pours into their souls without ceasing, and he always will do so, whatever may occur. Sickness may befall, but the Lord will give grace; poverty may happen to us, but grace will surely be af...