faith & hope 2017

An accurate self-assessment of our spiritual state reminds us or reveals if we are living by the will of our Father. As we were taught earlier, you cannot have humility without love. Now, we are taught also that self-assessment is realistic. We must assess ourselves to determine if we are utilizing our God-given talents for His purpose or the things outside His will such as pride. Remember, it's all about Jesus. We were created to glorify Him. How can we better serve Him if we are going about aimlessly, not knowing what our spiritual gifts are? We have to know and be confident that we are here to glorify GOD and never forget the sacrifices made. If not, we are allowing the enemy, who roams the earth to steal, kill, and destroy have his way. As Christians, we must be very careful not to imitate others because we see and hear what they do and say. We can easily be mesmerized by their eloquent prayers, their missionary works, solo singing, etc. Being involved in something that God did not lead to will cause you to not be successful. You'll experience temporal success which can negatively affect a person's demeanor. What God has for you is for you. The Lord never made a mistake. You will prosperous in your God-given talent because He is victorious in everything He does.

When I think about this question, King Nebuchadnezzar comes to mind. His heart was hardened and he forgot who made him the king of a vast empire. As the story goes, he lost his sanity and lived like an animal. We jeopardize our relationship with God and our hearts will harden as King Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord giveth and He taketh away. We hit rock bottom. Knowing that all we have is a blessed gift from God, we don't lose sight of His sovereignty. We recognized Him for who He is and just hung up on what He can do for us. For me, it's wanting to show Him how much I love Him daily and not taking Him for granted.

When a person decides to follow Christ, their perspective of life changes. They surround themselves with like-minded people in fellowship, engage in more Bible-studying activities, and show an interest or involvement in the ministries. They take on the image of Jesus by being more compassionate, tithers (generous), and greatly emphasize pleasing God. Whereas, people of pride are self-centered, and judgemental, and tend to take more than give or to give for the sole purpose of receiving something in return. As Christians, we aim to obtain eternal life with Christ in heaven. We want to hear, "Well done faithful servant." Therefore humility is central to our authentic Christian character. People of pride, on the other hand, live a life differently. They live life for the "now" with little to no desire for the beyond.

The basics of humility is to have a modest view of one's importance. The Apostle Matthew in his gospel records what is considered the two-part definition of humility: to love God and our neighbors. In loving God we humble ourselves before Him by passionately recognizing Him in the following but not limited to consistently praying, studying His Word, and making Him our top priority. In loving our neighbor we are instructed to humbly serve others without any ambitious gain. We are instructed to care for the widows, orphans, and sojourners and visit the prisoners. Humility is a low self-focus combined with a high other-focus when it is displayed and executed in selfless agape love. Agape love is shown in our obedience and meekness to God. Thankful for His mercies and grace as well as for showing respect and concern for our neighbor's welfare and being. A disciple will make every effort to ensure that the needs of others are met, spiritually, physically, and to the capacity of their mental state of mind. Disciples will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drinks to the thirsty, and visit the sick, and shut-ins. A disciple of Christ will recognize Him as Lord and Savior, His sovereignty, be thankful to Him in everything, intercede for others in prayers, study and meditate on the Word of God, fast, repent, and turn from their sins wholeheartedly. A disciple will do the will of God to the best of their ability, and be lowly in heart and mind.

I believe that Solomon had pondered in his heart often about providing the best leadership for his people. He did not have the counsel of his father to rely on and probably because of all that he had gone through to become king, he did not place a lot of trust in his direct reports. He was indeed young but he was not naive to the level and depth of the responsibility he had as king. The people loved his father David and he had to gain and maintain their respect. God being omniscient, knew exactly what Solomon's desires were. I believe that God had asked the question to Solomon to see if he was going to cite his desires or not. Solomon followed his heart and it pleased GOD. Too often when I serve the Lord, I do it for what I can gain from Him. I seek His guidance, and His help in having a strong imitimate relationship with Him. I seek His forgiveness for my sins, and those things I did that were against Him and heaven. Nevertheless, there are times when I seek what I can do for Him because I consider it to be a privilege and honor to be chosen by Jesus. Singleness of heart is so important in a follower of GOD because it does not give way to distractions or even things of the world. We are not to conform to the things of the world and allow distractions from the events and things in our lives that do not give honor to GOD to take precious space in our minds and hearts. We are to cast our cares on our Lord and Savior Jesus. When we are burdened down, it gives way to the enemy to sow a seed. To combat adversity, we must diligently seek the Kingdom of GOD and all His righteousness by praying, fasting, and studying.

Solomon's marriage to Pharoah's daughter more than lightly brought about great peace from such a rather large nation that could have relentless devastation on the Israelites. Moreover, this marriage could have been beneficial in exchanging or buying and selling commodities. In a business sense, it was probably considered a great opportunity with profitability. The Bible teaches us that we cannot serve God and mammon. God requires our full undivided attention regardless of the cost. Solomon appears to place his gain, notary, and strength in himself over his obedience and trust in God. Unfortunately, he is not the only person of high degree to do so, even today men of great powers do the same thing. For example, former president Obama legalized marriages between the same sex. He gained popularity from the gay communities but he strictly went against the word of God. It can be said that they prefer men's praises rather than God's. When the followers of Yahweh praised and worshiped Him during OT times, they were, as we are today, to do so in a specific manner. In the days of Solomon, certain holy men helped and led the people into worship and they had to worship using holy objects. The first commandment written by Yahweh Himself was that we are not to have any god before Him. He is a jealous God. Solomon, I believe truly loves Yahweh but not in the manner that Yahweh wants us to revere Him. Just as we do today, Solomon's worship was at his convenience. For example, since COVID, many Christians do not attend worship/fellowship in the church in person but choose to attend church by a media platform. I truly believe that parents and pastors should continue in the ways of GOD regards the most popular things that other followers of Christ are doing. Staying faithful in prayer, fasting, worship, and studying His Word is what pleases our GOD. We should stay the course, and allow GOD to do the rest. Let GOD handle the consequences of our obedience. Let us not lean to our understanding, but continue to acknowledge and trust in Him who is able.

I've learned that the word grace is seldom used in the Gospels, but its concept, the practice of grace is in the Gospels. We understand more clearly that Jesus is indeed full of grace and truth. Everyone that enounters Him is changed, which is evidence that His grace overflow onto those around Him. What I discovered is that grace is given only to those who first repent of their sins and receive the gife of salvation. Then we make a commitment to digently wholehearted decision to follow, obey, believe in, trust in and love Jesus. You cannot have the favor of God without His love because He is love. Since grace cannot be earned by works, and it is neither deserved because we all fall of short of God's glory, we all sinned. But our God still blesses us with His grace. Some receives gifts for doing something remarkable or performing an task that goes beyond the set standards, or in regonition of, but God gave us the gift of salvation. He is ultimate Gift-Giver and He gives to us out of His love for us. God's agape love for us motivate His gift to us in this verse. What God did for us in John 3:16 is the essence of grace. It is the underserved and unearned favor that makes a difference for us between life and death.

The attitudes that cheapen the understanding of grace in Christians is, in my opinion, is selfishness and self-centered. Thinking only of one's own needs and desires and not taking others into consideration. In abiity to love, for Christ is love. The grace of God is not earned by work. However, the grace of God produces work done in His service. Costly Grace produces work. We must seek and follow Jesus. In following Jesus, we are holy because He is holy, we confess our sins and repent. We are righteous because He is righteous. Since we know Jesus is the Father of Life, and that He willingly laid down His life so that we may have life, we recognize that He is the ony true life. We have to understand that it is a gift given to us and we must ask for it, which means we must pray. It cost God to sent His only begotten Son who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we may believe and be saved that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He paid this costly price because He loves us that much. This is indeed "costly grace."

Yes, there is good in humankind because we are a remnant of the God's image. Humans are considered to be both, basically good and basically bad. Being the remnant of the God's image within us, we are good. However, because our heart being the center of our being is corrupt, deceitful, and cannot be trusted makes us basically bad. We are a mixture of both. When we displays underlying selfishness which is influnced to our genetic character and environment structure. When we do not share, withhold information that may be critical or vital to a situation or person, do things that only benefit oneself. A deceitful corrupts us in a pervasive way by haboring ill feelings and evil thoughts that may destroy the essential of our being. It can overpower a person to lash out destructively harming a person physically or slander a person's reputation. A deceitful heart can breed insecurities and hatred.

Ephesians 2:1-3 teaches that humankinds were spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins. We had no moral standards. We had no standard of uprighteousness. We mindlessly follow the ways of of the world, its culture's values, which is governed by Satan who is the ruler of the kingdome of the air. We were without God. Our actions before coming to Christ was dictate by the value system of our culture. We were highly influenced through media and social things that negatively affected our lives that without any thought of itself surrendered to the cravings of our sinful nature. ****, desires, covetness, jealousy, envy, selfishness and strife are a few of the motivations that we might be conscious of. Since we do have some control over our actions, and thus, we are weak, selfish and spiritually blind in that we break God's holy standards of conduct and righteousness, there is no motivation that is unconscious. Free will has no meaning whatsoever.

In verses 6-8 of the book of Romans, chapter 5, described humankind as being powerless, ungodly and sinners. We are helpless in that we have no ability or moral rights to claim any kind of mercy. No matter the title, no matter how often we pray, no matter how often we attend Bible Study or church services, we all fall short of the glory of God. We all missed the mark. It's not to say that we do not have a relationship with God for indeed we do, it is not an consistent relationship. The most remarkable thing about Jesus' death for us is His willingness to lie down His life each of us. Jesus is omniscient, He knows all things. He knew even the 21st century that we were going to unknowingly or knowlingly reject and rebell against Him. He does'nt hold our imperfections against us, He continues to love us perfectly. Love is what motivate the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

To be in a state of grace is gain access by faith into the grace in which we now stand, to justified through faith and to have a peace with God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. According to the text, our point of access is faith. We gained faith by trusting in Christ. The opposite of peace with Yahweh is to be at odd with Him. Being at odd with Him, is being rebellion, disobedient, living by the imaginary of our hearts.

Yahweh tells His prophet Hosea to marry a girl of ill repute so that the Israelites will see their own ways of unfaithfulness. I can imagine that as the people start questioning Hosea of his relationship with such a woman who is sleeping around, that He was able to responds to them of the things they did in not obeying Yahweh. I can imagine when the people said to him "how do take that, she's no good for you" that Hosea respond "how is that you turn your back on Yahweh when He has been faithful to you"? The story of Hosea and Gomer teaches us many things. For example, obedience. Hosea was obedient when Yahweh commanded him to do things that was truly thought of as despicable. Even though, it may have cause damage to reputation as a prophet, it unmistakeably strengthen his relationship with Yahweh. He married the prostiture (which made her father happy), he gave the children borned to her strange names that depicts how Yahweh felt about the Israelites and he had to care for these children. Then he had to find her and pay for her (he was not a wealthy man) to bring her back home. Amazing. This story also illustrates hope in the worst of situations. Yahweh always presents a "ray of hope." Their relationship was restored. With hope there is forgiveness. The story illustrates God's undying love for His people. Yahweh has given so much to and for us. We should never forsake His love like the Israelites. The story of Homer and Gomer clearly illustrates Yahweh's grace, unmerited favor. His grace is an act of His love for us. His grace never changes. Yahweh is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone, including you and me) to come to repentance--2 Peter 3:9-10.

The great Yahweh forgives all sins, wickedness and rebellion. He is indeed the God of Love. He forgives those who truly repent with all their heart. He is everlasting-to-everlasting. He doesn't need any of us. We need Him. But, Yahweh deeply cares for His chosen and wants us to seek Him in having a relationship with Him, not an one-sided relationship but a relationship whereas we will be submissive and trust Him. Yahweh knows of our challenges and struggles, and He is compassionate toward our sufferings, and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. The sin of rebellion can find its way into a believer's life when we thinks that Yahweh has forgotten us because we failed to wait patiently to hear a word from Him. Sometimes, we get discouraged when we feel our prayers are not being answered fast enough or in the manner in which we want them to be answered. So, we start behaving in accordance to the imagination of our hearts. Now God's Word is being ignored. Sadly, we find ourselves in situations that is hazardous to our wellbeing. But God... Yahweh wants more than anything for us to love and trust Him. He doesn't force any of us to have a relationship with Him. Yahweh being the merciful and gracious God gives us ample opportunities to come to Him. He is a God of many chances. But if one continues to reject Him by refusing to repent simply because He does not believe in Him or have no love for HIm in their heart, He will allow their fate to be their self-destruction. Think about it, The Bible teaches us that those who have faith and believe in Him, were healed. Well, the opposite will happen to those who hate and rejects Him.

Exodus 34 tells us how Moses went back to the mountain to talk with God after he addressed the hebrews for their grievous sin against God by making and worshipping the golden calf Aaron made. Moses had destroyed the first two stones where God wrote the ten commandments upon witnessing the evilness and sins of the hebrews. Now He has returned to the mountain to complete the conversation of Yahweh. Yahweh demonstrated His charactered in being merciful in that He understood their weakness and very gracious in showing kindness that He did not destroy them. He, in my opinion, did not agreed with what they did, but He did not hold it against them. Even though Yahweh was definitely upset with with them but He showed great patience and love. Grace is an expression of love and Yahweh had a deep abounding love for the hebrews. Thank Him for His grace that abound much more and is more than sufficient.