P to P to P

Image by law_keven via Flickr

Another cool reflection I learnt at the retreat on 'Commitment'

When God calls someone, He leads the person through three stages of relationship with Him, we can call them the 3 P's:

1. PROMISE - God gives a promise when He calls someone; for e.g. when Joseph is called, God promises him that he would be the greatest of his brothers.

2. PREPARATION - This is the tough part; this stage involves waiting on the Lord and allowing Him to work on us for the promise to be fulfilled. This stage also involves trial and suffering, but without which we would not become what God wants us to be. For e.g. Joseph had to endure his brothers' rejection and imprisonment for 17 years.

3. PROVIDENCE - This is the stage in which God fulfills the promise He made; for e.g. Joseph is exalted in a foreign land and becomes the greatest of his brothers. God thus leads Joseph from pit to pot (Potiphar) to prison to palace.

No matter what stage we are in right now, we must remember 4 important facts:

A. God is with me

B. God is in control

C. God is working on me

D. God will ensure the outcome is good

A faith that is not tested cannot be trusted. Isaiah 40:31

The Servant's Profile

Image via Wikipedia

1. A Servant is a Giver - because the Christian servant reflects God who is the greatest giver ever, no one can out do Him in giving.

As His servant we give our time and other resources and make ourselves available for the purpose of the Kingdom.

2. A Servant is a Forgiver - an outstanding Old Testament example of forgiveness is Joseph. In the New Testament we have our Lord Jesus Himself.

As God's servant, we should forgive and also forget; hatred has no place except hatred of sin.

3. A Servant Endures - in the midst of trial and suffering, the Christian servant's trust and hope in God do not weaken.

 

Job, Joseph, the Psalmist and so many others show us the way. When all is not going too well, we must learn to wait upon the Lord.

Praying the Scriptures

I attended this 3-day retreat last weekend focused entirely on deepening my personal commitment to God, family, church and other relationships. I learnt so much during these 3 days and wish to blog some of the key learning points that I personally found very useful.

In this post I want to share this simple method of reflecting on scripture during personal prayer times:

• Choose a book of the Bible for daily reading - I have chosen to start with the Gospel of John.
• Start reading a passage from the beginning of the selected book, preferably a full chapter.
• Read it slowly a couple of times and then silently ask the following questions:
  • What does this passage tell me about the character of God?
  • Does this chapter describe any sin that I should give up?
  • What promise of God does this passage reveal that I can claim?
  • What commandment of God does this passage instruct that I should obey?
  • What lesson does this passage teach me to learn?
    
• Maintain a daily prayer journal/log in which the scripture reference and the answers to each of the above questions can be written down.
• Spend at least 20 minutes daily for this spiritual exercise.
• Keep the prayer journal close at hand and whenever possible, spend a few minutes to read the answers during the rest of the day. If your prayer time is in the evening, you can do this on the following day

It’s an amazing method of obtaining fresh and deep insights into the Word of God. I hope this way of praying the scriptures is useful to you too.

O Come – New & Revised!

Well, we added percussion, modified the dynamics a bit and I still didn’t like it…always got the feeling this song deserves more.

So we ditched the entire music and redid it completely. We changed the rhythm adding some light drums to a different set of percussions, put in an Indian flute along with some piano and that did it!

Now the song sounds like what I heard in my mind - only need to add in the guitar parts.