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Bible Meditation

[ecko_quote source=" Luke 3:5"]“ The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth”[/ecko_quote]

Devotional Thought

I love the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in the new cars. A voice constantly tells me how far I have to go and when to turn. However, sometimes I get off course and the voice says: "Recalculating route" or 'Rerouting' The GPS specifies to me that I have gone off course and it is now recalculating the route based on my wrong turn.

Likewise, at times we can make wrong turns in our spiritual lives too. We think we are going in the right direction only to discover it was never God's will to enter into that relationship, make that business deal, hire that person or fellowship with certain individuals- the examples are limitless.

An amazing thing about God is that  He can make our crooked places straight. He has an ability to make whatever blunder you make to turn out right. It may mean there might be some consequences to those decisions, but He will always allow your actions to work together for good for those that are called according to His purposes (Roman 8:28) if we repent and seek Him fully to make things right. These lessons can even contribute to greater wisdom in our lives if we learn from our mistakes.

God's omnipotence is always one step ahead of our incompetence. Do you think He knew you would make that misstep? Absolutely. Do you think your life was planned even with that misstep figured in it? Absolutely!
Isn't it comforting to know you cannot plan God out of the equation no matter how bad you mess it up? He will always turn crooked places into straight places for those who are humble and contrite. What a wonderful Heavenly Father we have. Prophet Jonah said, “For I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” ( Jonah 4:2), How true that is!

Action Point

Do you need a crooked place of your life straightened out today? Ask Him to straighten the course so you can flow in His perfect will for your life. Be cheerful my dear ones because we are blessed and our sins have been taken care of by our saviour Jesus. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (Psalm 32:1)

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Pastor Jonah Ravinder- United Telugu Church and Os Hillman

 

Bible Meditation

[ecko_quote source=" Luke 18:8"]“ Nevertheless, when the Son of Man (Jesus) comes, will He really find faith on the earth? ”[/ecko_quote]

Devotional Thought

Wish you a Happy and blessed New Year in Jesus to all my brothers and sisters. Welcome back from your long enjoyable holiday break. I was really busy in God's business during this holiday season and I will update you my forthcoming programmes and activities shortly. However, please accept my sincere apologies for not attending the matters related to our daily devotions.  I will try to post as many devotions as possible during the week.

While we continue our pilgrim's journey towards our Lord, it is paramount to encourage each other through our faith in Jesus. In this incredible journey, all we need is "FAITH". Because only through faith and patience we inherit what has been promised to us(Hebrew 6:12)

Coming to our today’s reading Jesus after concluding the parable he put a question to the people that when He returns will He really find faith on the earth. He did not give an answer to this question and also a couple of other questions too in the Bible (Matthew 16:26). It is evident from the question that when He comes, He is certainly looking for faith, not our possessions, buildings, bank balances, popularity or even our education. During Jesus earthly ministry, He always used stories, illustrations and asking questions when He spoke to the crowds. In fact, He never spoke to them without using parables. His teachings are simple yet profound. Most learned men found difficult to understand His saying. However, uneducated people were able to appreciate what He had to say. The reason appears to be simple; the uneducated people received Jesus sayings with childlike faith. Others applied their human reasoning. Their heads refused to accept the simple engrafted Word.

The increase in knowledge and advancement of technology produced a negative effect in receiving the Word of God. The world says “seeing is believing and believing is seeing”. In contrast, the Bible states, “see not to understand that you may believe but believe that you may understand”. Further, "to have mountain moving faith, submission to God’s Word must be a lifestyle".

Have you ever wondered why some people have so much faith, others have weak faith and some have no faith at all? Is God unfair? God is no respecter of persons (2 Chronicles 19:7). He has given to every man a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). And so, what is faith? Let me first say what it is not.

Faith is not positive thinking or optimism. It is not a feeling that you can do something. It is not a hunch or looking on the sunny side of the street.

Faith is getting a word from God and acting on it. Acting on the Word of God is what we call faith. You see, you can get a Word from God and believe that Word. That is belief. We believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and they tremble in fear. The demons believe, but they are reluctant to act upon it. My dear ones when you act upon it (on what you believe), that is faith. Faith is belief with legs. Sadly, so many of us are in 'belief' realm and are reluctant to act upon it. Consequently, we could see so many unanswered prayers and people falling from their Christian journey.

God will give you a word as you are waiting on Him, but then you should go out there and act on it. If Peter had not gone out of the boat and walked on water, Jesus could never have helped him. Peter had to physically get out of the boat and actually walk towards Jesus. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

Action Point

Today is the day that you put your foot of faith upon the promises of God and say, “That promise is mine!”. Faith is a doing word

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Pastor Jonah Ravinder- United Telugu Church

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