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SCRIPTURE:
"They discussed this
with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread.
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked
them: "Why are you talking about having no bread?
(Mark 8:16-17a, NIV)
OBSERVATION:
I asked myself what is Jesus' reaction to the
disciples internal discussion of having no bread without involving Him?
Aware of their
discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no
bread?
INTERPRETATION:
I asked myself what is the significance of Jesus'
first reaction?
What became so significant to me was that Jesus was aware of the
disciples discussion even though it was an internal discussion among
themselves. Jesus knew what they were discussing and asked them a
profound question, "Why are you talking about
having no bread?"
To be
continued....
IMPLICATIONS:
I saw important implications for my own life. No matter what I am
discussing with others, it can be good to know that Jesus will always be
aware of the discussion. Jesus is aware of anything we say internally
about others or externally toward others. Jesus will not remain silent
but will address us one way or the other, no matter what we are
discussing because He is aware of everything about us.
GOSPEL GIVES TESTIMONY
REGARDING A.W.A.R.E!
Jesus is aware of all the times I have COMPLAINED, COVETED, CRITICIZED,
DOUBTED, REBELLED or any other sin I have committed or commit. I have
been guilty of those sinful attitudes one point or another and need the Lord's help to overcome.
Jesus has put certain people in my life that I have become very close
to, to deal with these because JESUS IS AWARE, what those attitudes have
cost me even to this day. My mommy, Pastor Hugo and Edwin have PUT UP
WITH ME FAITHFULLY BY LISTENING BUT they would not leave it there. Time
after time instead of CONDEMNING me for my WRONG ATTITUDES, they would
CONVICT me of my WRONG ATTITUDES.
Sadly, in my sinful nature
when I do not FOCUS ON CHRIST, I HAVE YIELDED TO THE YEAST OF THE
PHARISEES AND KING HEROD. I am so thankful to Jesus for being AWARE of
my ATTITUDES and placing me in a COMMUNITY that is there to help me
overcome them.
It has not been easy but the
SPIRITUAL GROWING PAINS is worth it so Christ can work in me and through
me to overcome those attitudes I think and act upon. Right now, I have
been so blessed to actually be reading a book called, "LORD CHANGE MY
ATTITUDE, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE" by Pastor James McDonald that the Lord
Jesus is using to CONVICT ME.
It is such a blessing to have
Scripture exposited in that book and relate the principles to my own
life. So far I have learned to:
REPLACE A COMPLAINING ATTITUDE with a THANKFUL ATTITUDE.
REPLACE A COVETOUS ATTITUDE with a CONTENTMENT ATTITUDE.
REPLACE A CRITICAL ATTITUDE with a LOVING ATTITUDE (still reading on p.
146)
Jesus is also aware that I can
read all I want and fill my mind with all kinds of knowledge including
Scriptural knowledge but all that would mean nothing if all of it is not
SPIRIT-EMPOWERED.
I need the Spirit of the
Living God to convict me, teach me, and train me, so I can APPLY THOSE
TRUTHS. That is why Jesus came to give us TRUTH and help us to APPLY IT
IN OUR LIVES.
I have realized the more time
I spend in God's Word and prayer, the more I am changed to reflect His
glory when it is also supplemented by growing together in a community of
Bible-believing believers who believe BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD.
I am so thankful that Jesus is
making me so aware of my weaknesses because He wants to use me with the
Spiritual Gifts He has blessed me with. But for now, those GIFTS cannot
be put to use until I attempt to work on the ATTITUDES, He is aware in
my life and has been revealing them to me in no uncertain terms. The
worst of them I struggle with is CRITICAL ATTITUDE without LOVE.
Jesus is making me see that if
Jesus were CRITICAL towards me for everything I have done, I would not
even be here sharing this testimony. Imagine if Jesus were CRITICAL
without LOVE, Jesus would not have died for our sins because a CRITICAL
ATTITUDE without a LOVING ATTITUDE just focuses on our wrongdoings
alone.
Jesus however though CRITICAL
about my SIN because SIN can put me in a CRITICAL CONDITION awaiting
Hell's fury and fire, Jesus also LOVES ME SO MUCH and wants me to be
with Him in Heaven.
So, Jesus paid the penalty for
my sin by His PRECIOUS BLOOD to ransom me so now I can have a DONOR
whose BLOOD can be used in my CRITICAL CONDITION OF SIN.
But, I have to accept what
Jesus is offering to me in my CRITICAL CONDITION. If you or I think our
condition is not critical, it does not matter because Jesus is AWARE
that it is CRITICAL and we need help. Jesus has provided us that help
through His TRANSFUSION OF CHANGE.
Now, when I accept Jesus as my
DONOR to give me life, I will be forever TRANSFORMED BY HIS GRACE
through time, for being SANCTIFIED BY HIS GRACE is a process.
(Read Jerry Bridges, book on Transforming Grace)
I say GRACE because if it were
not for GRACE, Jesus would not have died for you and me. You see GRACE
is unmerited favor for NOTHING YOU NOR I HAVE DONE. It is SOLELY because
of GOD'S LOVE FOR US, HIS CREATED.
However, I don't want to
mislead you into thinking a LOVING GOD will automatically accept you or
I into heaven because GOD IS LOVE.
On the contrary, because GOD
IS LOVE, God loves all GOODNESS and PERFECTION. That means 1 sinful
attitude will not cover over 99 good attitudes. That just shows how HIGH
God's standards of perfection are and that neither you nor I cannot
reach it on our own. Because of His standard's God is AWARE of all sin
and will not have sin enter into His presence no matter how much we
think God loves us unless we accept the GIFT OF HIS LOVE. Jesus is His
Name and for you and I He came to deliver us from the sin that puts us
to shame. So, He can give us a new Aim!
"Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to
men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12, NIV)
I want you to know Accepting
the love of Jesus into our lives and all He did for us on that CROSS OF
CALVARY is what saves us when we ACKNOWLEDGE what Jesus did for us by
asking Him to cleanse us with His blood, BELIEVE in our heart that God
raised Him from the dead to give us life after His sacrifice, and
CONFESS with our mouth that JESUS IS LORD. Praise the Lord! Amen!
"That if you
confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your
heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that
you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in
him will never be put to shame." For there is no difference
between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses
all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved."(Romans 10:9-13, NIV)
I ask
you now dear friend, what is Jesus aware of in your life?
Dear friend, based on Jesus' interaction with the disciples,
Jesus was keenly aware of what they were discussing even though He was
not part of their internal discussion.
No matter what you are faced
with Jesus is aware and wants to intervene in your life as He intervened
in the life of the disciples and my own life. Come to Jesus as you are and
bring all your requests before Him. Yes, Jesus could question you but it
will be for your own good to change you and transform you. That is how
our Lord is.
Jesus made me see that Jesus is aware of what I was discussing, what I
was sharing, and what I was feeling about my experiences as I shared
them with Pastor Hugo mostly. Jesus had to bring me back to the place
where I started, to remind me about how I viewed life and what
presenting the Gospel and ministry for God's honor and glory had meant
to me.
Being selfishly focused, I had lost that perspective and had forgotten
the theme verse of my life which says, "But life
is worth nothing unless I use it to do the work assigned me by the Lord
Jesus, the work of telling others about God's mighty goodness and love."
(Acts 20:24, TLB) It is this verse the Lord Jesus pointed
to me yesterday to when that was the Bible verse of the day on
http://www.biblegateway.com
More than anything Jesus is
AWARE of the condition of our heart and our motives to why we do things,
why we say things, etc. It is this condition of the heart and motives
that Jesus wants to deal in you and me. Jesus knows everything about us
and nothing is hidden from Him and yet He loves you and me so much and
wants to take care of us. He is actually thinking about us! Praise the
Lord!
"O Lord,
you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I
sit down or stand up.You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You
see me when I travel and when I rest at home.You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my
head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for
me to understand!" (Psalm 139:1-6, NLT)
"I can never
escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I
go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are
there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest
oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will
support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me
to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the
night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you."
(Psalm 139:7-12, NLT)
"You made all
the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s
womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship
is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in
utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You
saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your
book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How
precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I
can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I
wake up, you are still with me!" (Psalm 139:13-18, NLT)
Yes, friend Jesus loves you so
much and will take care of you no matter what you are going through when
you turn to Him. Come to Him as you are because to save us from our
human condition of the sinful nature, Jesus came into this world.
Only Jesus knew that He could
save us by the antidote only He had so Jesus went to the cross and shed
His precious cleansing blood so we can have the antidote for the deadly
virus known as sin. But just as any blood transfusion, the blood is
there but it has to be requested. In the same way, Jesus DONATED the
100% transfusion of His PRECIOUS BLOOD to a world dying in sin. This
world including you and I have to accept it. Jesus is not going to
give us His blood unless we ask for it. Jesus became the donor of the
antidote for humanity and all those that wanted the antidote, Jesus has
given it to them. THANK YOU JESUS!
Jesus was aware of my soul's
condition before I was SAVED BY HIS GRACE. Jesus gave His antidote of
His precious cleansing blood for me to wipe away all my sins and cleanse
me with His precious cleansing blood. Being a Hindu did not make that
possible for me for only Christ's redeeming sacrifice on the cross
brought my redemption when I turned to Him. Jesus redeemed and gave me
new life in Christ. PRAISE THE LORD!
Jesus can do that for you too
if you do not already know Him as your Lord and Personal Savior. Come to
Jesus as you are and allow Him to work in your life through the
struggles of sin as He is working in my life.
Acknowledge that you have this
deadly virus known as sin for we all have had it. Acknowledge that only
Christ's cleansing blood can wash you whiter than snow cleaning you of
this deadly virus. Believe in your heart that Jesus died to pay the
ransom for your sin, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead
to give Eternal life and salvation to all those who believed. Confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and that you are in need of being
saved.
It is by
grace we have been saved through faith and not of works so let no man
boast.
"Aware,
Wonderfully Always Redeemer Emancipates! (A.W.A.R.E)" /"What is Jesus
A.W.A.R.E of in your life?"
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for speaking to me from your Word
especially when I have been down. Your Word and studying it makes me see
the implications for my own life that I need to learn and understand.
Thank you for books you provide for us to learn from too such as Pastor
James McDonald's book on "Lord, change my attitude before it is too
late!". Oh
Lord, you can even use just one verse to speak to us from your Word. Oh
Lord thanks for being aware of what we go through and what we discuss.
Oh Lord Jesus thanks so much for being aware of our human condition and
that you save us. Help us to always be focused on you. I pray Oh Lord
for the one that does not yet know you as their Lord and Personal Savior
that they will come to know you. And Lord if they have come to know you
as their Lord and Personal Savior but have gone their own way, bring
them back to you and continue to shower them with your love. Thank you
so much Jesus. Help us to always depend on you. In Your Name I Pray
Jesus! Amen!!
May you experience the POWER OF
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION this day, and give Him the LOCKED areas of your
life too so you can experience His PEACE as you become an ACTOR in the
film called LIFE being directed by your DIRECTOR, JESUS CHRIST who comes
to give JOY and PEACE.
You
don't have to be locked away anymore for Christ is here to free you and
give you peace to live out your actions.
How do you look at GODISNOWHERE?
One
of my pastors, Pastor Hugo shared this example this past Sunday at the
RESURRECTION DAY SERVICE in the combined worship service of Pittsburgh
Chinese Church-Oakland & Oakland International Fellowship:
If
you look at it as GOD IS NO WHERE, you will still be lost in your sin
and be in bondage locked away in your sins and problems finding no
peace.
But
as my pastor spoke to the congregation and spoke to me, I am here to
tell you that GOD IS NOW HERE.
Yes,
friend God is alive and wants to bring a transformation in your life
through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for He paid the penalty on
the cross to rescue you and me and came back to life to save us and live
with us.
Yes,
friend that is exciting to know that we can experience HIS SAVING GRACE
& LIVING GRACE.
When
we mess up, we can go to Jesus with our shortcomings and He will forgive
us and restore us to Him and we will find peace in Him.
"Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he
has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore
Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God." (Colossians 5:17-21, NIV)
"For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord." (Romans 6:23, NIV)
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his
Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness." (1 John 1:7-9, NIV)
Friend, we need Jesus because we have been separated from God due to our
sin. Because of our sin, Jesus had to pay the price to become our bridge
so we can reach God now not of our own good works but because of the
finished work of Christ, the Lord on the cross.
"For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not
by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)
May
you come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior becoming
His offspring so you can spend Eternity with Him. He is waiting for you.
Come as you are. Please do not reject the gift of God.
If you would like to
invite Jesus Christ into your heart and make Him a daily part of your
life, you can this very moment. You will never be alone. You can claim
God's promises for you in the Bible and see them come true, before your
eyes, in His wonderful timing. You don't have to wait for a special time
to come to the Lord. You can come right now as you pray this prayer,
meaning it in your heart and finding your new identity in Christ Jesus.
Make this your prayer. Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking
you need all the answers before coming to Christ. Let me just assure you
though you may not have all the answers right now before coming to
Jesus, He will answer them slowly. Yes, He will for I know our Redeemer
will! Amen!
Make this your prayer. Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking
you need all the answers before coming to Christ. Let me just assure you
though you may not have all the answers right now before coming to
Jesus, He will answer them slowly. Yes, He will for I know our Redeemer
will! Amen!
Prayer:
Jesus, I thank you for being the Bread of Life. You are the Living Bread
of my life. Thank you for coming from Heaven and giving your life for
the life of the world. You sacrificed yourself for humanity. Thank you
Lord when we eat of you symbolically making you part of our life,
digesting what you teach us by following you, we can be living
Eternally, and the fruit that comes will reflect and resemble your life.
I want that Father God. I want that Lord Jesus! I want that Holy Spirit!
I know of a lot of people who partake of Holy Communion where the bread
represents your body broken for their sin and the juice represents your
blood shed for their sin. When we partake of Holy Communion, we are
reminded that we are remembering you. I want to remember you always Lord
Jesus. But for me to remember you always, I need to know you and
acknowledge everything you said you are. So right now I acknowledge that
you are my Lord and Personal Savior who died and rose again to give me
life from sin. So right now, I come to you and say how sorry I am for my
sin and living a life on my own. I repent of my sin and ask you to
forgive me of my sin with your cleansing blood which I accept. Wash me
and I will be clean from this infection of sin. Come Lord Jesus and
please become part of my life as you live in me and I will live for you.
I thank you Jesus for coming into my heart and making my heart your
home. Thank you for living in me Jesus and I will live for you and serve
you the rest of the days of my life. I do need your Spirit to reside in
me and work in me and through me so I surrender all that I am and will
be to you. Whatever your will is for me, please give me the strength and
willingness to bear it and rejoice in you. Thank you so much Jesus. I
thank you Jesus for becoming my Lord and Personal Savior. I thank you
Jesus you have heard my prayer and have answered me. I thank you that I
am your child Oh God. I thank you for becoming my only Way to Eternal
Life. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!
