Archive | March 2015

Matthew 1- God who Saves and God With Us

Mar2

Good evening y’all. Today we start our study of Matthew. We will be looking at Chapter 1 today.

Be blessed 🙂

Matthew 1:1-17

In the first 17 chapters we are introduced to Jesus’ Ancestors.

Two lessons I learnt from those verses that I would like to share-

1) God is a promise keeping God. He made a promise in Isaiah 11:1 and Isaiah 9:7 that the saviour would come from David’s royal line. Verse 1-16 confirms this. Jesus in human form, was a descendant of David.

This tells me that God doesn’t lie. He watches over His word to fulfil it. Whatever He has said, He surely will do. God cannot deny Himself. Be encouraged 🙂

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”(Numbers 23:19 NLT)

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is”.(2 Timothy 2:13 NLT)

2) God is gracious and merciful. I look at some of the names mentioned and I’m thinking how did they make it to this hall of fame. These were people that one would least expect to see in the lineage of Jesus. I look at Rahab, her beginning was very bad but in the end God saved her and included her in the lineage of His son. I look at Ruth, she was a foreigner. Wasn’t even meant to enjoy the blessings of God seeing as she wasn’t an Israelite, yet God extended His grace and mercy to her and now we see her included in this beautiful genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This tells me that no one is beyond redemption. No matter how bad your beginning may be, when you surrender to God and let him have His way, He can turn your life around and use you for His glory.

Matthew 1: 18 – 25

Here, we are told how Jesus was conceived. This tallies with the prophecy that was given earlier in the old testatment in Isaiah 7:14

“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)”. (Isaiah 7:14 NLT)

Joseph finds out that his fiance is pregnant and not by him. I was particularly struck by how he handled the situation.

Joseph didn’t act in a rash or spiteful manner towards her instead he was looking to cover her shame. He didn’t want her to be disgraced. That’s true love in action. Love doesn’t look to hurt or disgrace others. He acted in wisdom.

“The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced”. (Matthew 1:18-19 MSG)

Also, Josephs calm approach made it possible for him to get a direct message from God regards that which troubled him and immediately his anxiety was gone. All we need is a word from God and all our fears, troubles and anxieties will disappear. But we are too busy worrying and trying to solve the issue with our human mind that we can’t even hear God when He is speaking and trying to tell us what to do.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in God.

“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”. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

Joseph was told to name the baby Jesus.
Jesus means saviour. He is the one who saves us. Whatever situation you are in now, know that you have a saviour in Jesus. All you need to do is call on Him, and He promises to answer. 

Let’s ponder on the greatness and power of our God. This great awesome God chose to come down in Human form and dwell with us. We see him experience life just like we do yet He never sinned showing us that He is God. The God who Saves and God With Us

Thanks for joining today.

I am blogging through the bible with Good morning girls. Check us out at http://www.goodmorninggirls.org.

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***With God all things are possible***

Exodus 40

Mar1

Good afternoon y’all.  Happy sunday 🙂

So we are in the last chapter of Exodus today…whoop whoop!!!.  All glory to God. For those who have followed the blogs through the whole of Exodus, I’m sure, just like me you have been amazed at the depth and richness of this old testatment book. I pray God will continue to give us understanding of His word and that His word will come alive in us. Amen.

We start the book of Matthew tomorrow. (Excited much 🙂 )

Today we are looking at Exodus 40

Be blessed:)

The tabernacle items have now been completed and God tells Moses how to set them up. We are told in verse 16 that Moses did all that the Lord asked him to do. Can the same be said of us, that we did all that God has asked us to do?

“Moses proceeded to do everything just as the lord had commanded him”. (Exodus 40:16 NLT)

In the last 5 -6 chapters of Exodus,  obedience has been the message that has been constantly impressed on my heart.

Are we fully obeying God? Are we placing ourselves in a position to hear and listen for His instructions? Are we bothered about pleasing him or is our main goal to please and live for ourselves?

Jesus was about his father’s business. That was His goal – to do His father’s will. He was obedient even to the point of death.

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work”. (John 4:34 NIV)

“And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!” (Philippians 2:8 AMP)

The statement “just as the Lord has commanded him” was used 7 times in this chapter (reading from the NLT version). This shows that obedience is very important. If we truly want to enjoy and live the abundant life that Jesus has come to gives us, then we need to make obeying God our business.

Obeying could be difficult sometimes, especially when the instruction is one that is not pleasant to our flesh. But Jesus never asked us to do this by ourselves. He knew that of our own might we cannot obey him. That’s why He gave us the Holyspirit to help us. Holyspirit is there to empower us and supply the grace to be obedient.

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever”. (John 14:16 AMP)

Obedience even in the small things such as not going out ,when we feel the nudge in our spirit to stay home. Obedience not to watch that tv programme, when we know the contents and language are totally against what we believe. Obedience to not listen to that music cos the words don’t glorify God. We have to start obeying in the little things and we would realise that obeying in the big things becomes much easier.

So Moses was done building and arranging the tabernacle and the next thing that happened was amazing. Verse 34 tells us that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

“Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the lord filled the Tabernacle”. (Exodus 40:34 NLT)

God came down!!!! Whoop whoop. I don’t know about you but I kinda need me some God coming down into my life right now. But it occurred to me that it was obedience that resulted in God coming down. Had Moses not done as the Lord commanded him, I sincerely doubt there would be a verse 34.

“Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the lord filled the Tabernacle”. (Exodus 40:35 NLT)

Gods presence was so strong that Moses could not even go into the tabernacle. That’s awesome!!!. Doesn’t get any better than this. God in all of His fullness and glory came down to dwell amongst His people. Hallelujah!!!!. Good news is because of Jesus obedience to the cross, we too can now boldly say that God indwells us through His Holy Spirit. He doesnt come and go anymore, we are now His permanent dwelling place. Hallelujah!!!! What a privilege and honor for God to choose to indwell us.

“Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually]?”. (1 Corinthians 3:16 AMP)

Oh! how I love Verses 37 and 38. I would love for that verse in my life. Just to see a physical sign from God every step of the way telling me when to go and when to stay.

“Now whenever the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey, following it. But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted”. (Exodus 40:36-37 NLT)

These people made God their GPS navigation system. This is obedience taken to another level…lol. In those verses, they demonstrated total dependance and reliance on God. If God didn’t move they also didn’t move.

How much easier and sweeter would our lives be if only we would allow God be the one directing and leading us. If we would surrender and give the control over to him.

He knows it all. He created everything. He knows what’s best for us. So why not let Him take the wheel.

Proverbs tells us not to lean on our understanding.

“With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment.  Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow”. (Proverbs 3:5-6 CEVUS06)

Psalmist tell us that those who put their trust in God will not be put to shame.

“No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. Show me the right path, O  lord ; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you”. (Psalms 25:3-5 NLT)

Today why don’t you hand over the control to God. Ask him for grace to Trust and Obey him fully. 

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. We thank you for your love for us. We ask you forgive us for all the times we have been disobedient. Today we ask for Holy spirit to help us obey and trust you. Lord, we give over control of our lives to you. Pls direct and lead us. Thank you dear Lord. In Jesus Name we prayed. Amen.

Thank you for joining today.

Have a wonderful sunday basking in God’s goodness 🙂

***With God all things are possible***