Rhythm of Faith

Read: 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 Memory verse: Ecclesiastes 11:5 Psalm 31-33 Key Point People fall little by little and rise little by little. If you don't want a negative surprise, watch little developments that are taking place in your life. Memory Verse As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Message It is good to know the weapons with which to engage the enemy, but this is not enough. It is important to also know the techniques of the enemy so that you will be guided on how to apply the weapons you have. The more I study the devil, the more I am convinced that he is a good boxer. In boxing, there are three major types of blow: the jab, the hook and the uppercut. The average boxer aims at hitting the head of his opponent but he may not start there. He starts with the jabs at the head, while the opponent is dodging these ja...

Deuteronomy 28:3 3“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. You may have heard of people who think that to have better “luck”, they have to move to a new home, work for a certain company or even migrate to another country. The truth is that it is not the place that gets you the blessings, but whether God’s blessing is on you. And for you, child of God, you are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:3) He has paid for your blessings with His blood. So the blessing is not on the land but on the man! It was in the city of Jerusalem that Jesus was whipped, cursed and spat on. And it was outside the city on Calvary’s hill that He was pierced and crucified. That is why you are blessed in the city as well as outside in the country! In fact, you are blessed regardless of your location. Perhaps you work in a non-Christian company and your boss doesn’t quite like you. In fact, he sometimes mistreats you. But God can...

Luke 10:19 19Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Years ago, while traveling on a domestic flight in the United States, I was seated next to a woman whose whole body was tense with fear. Concerned, I asked if I could help her in any way. Between sobs, she told me about her fear of flying. I told her, “Don’t worry. I am on board. Nothing will happen to the plane.” I did not say it with pride. I said it knowing that the Lord was on board the plane with me and that I would have a safe journey because He has promised that “nothing shall by any means hurt you”. Once, when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples, He told them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” (Mark 4:35) Believing that they would cross over to the other side, He fell asleep in the stern. A great storm arose, but it could not rouse Him from His sleep, only the cries of His terrified disciples did. The...

And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword which the Spirit gives you. Eph6.17. After we've humbled ourselves and submitted to God, the Bible teaches us to defy the Devil. We don't passively resign ourselves to his attacks. God tells us to fight back. The New Testament often describes the Christian life as a spiritual battle against evil forces, using war terms such as fight, conquer, strive, and overcome. Christians are often compared to soldiers serving in enemy territory. How can we resist the Devil? Paul tells us, "Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:17 NLT) The first step is to accept God's salvation. You won't be able to say no to the Devil unless you've said yes to Christ. Without Christ we're defenseless against the Devil, but with "the helmet of salvation" our minds are protected by God. Remember this: If you are a believer, Satan...

Proverbs 4:20–22 20My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;22for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. God has given us a sure way to receive the answers to our problems and challenges. It is His Word. Every answer or solution we need is found in the Bible. Yet, many Christians are not walking victoriously in certain areas of their lives. This is because the devil continuously wages a war of distraction against them. He has managed to take them away from the one thing that can bring them victory — the Word. He will do everything possible to prevent them from opening the Bible because he knows that the Word will deliver them. The distraction can be very subtle: A lot of things to get done, a lot of TV programs that interest you, or it may take the form of a big problem that makes you feel that you need to focus all your attention on it. The en...

Exodus 14:15–16 15And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. 16But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it... The problem with the body of Christ today is not that we are not praying. We are praying. But many of us are praying desperate prayers. We are praying, “God, help… God, please… God, do something about my problem!” If you are smiling a little by now, most likely, you know about such prayers and might have prayed a couple yourself. My friend, God does not want you to pray pleading prayers all the time. He wants you to use the authority He has given you to pray powerful prayers, to boldly command and to “stretch out your hand” and see miracles happen. When Moses stood before the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit, the Bible tells us that he cried out to God. But God told him, “Why do you cry to Me?” There is a time for you to cry out to God and there is a time for you to use your au...

How long is forever going to last? Forever! Someday your body is going to die, but you aren't! You're going to live forever in one of two places - heaven or hell. They're both real places. You will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Why should Christians be the most confident people about the future? "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8 NIV) For Christians, death is a transfer, a promotion. It's on to better things; no more problems. You're not ready to live until you're ready to die. You don't know how to live until you're ready to die. Only a fool would go all through life totally unprepared for something that everybody knows is inevitable. You're going to die - someday. If you've accepted Christ, then you're going to go to heaven. Y...

John 11:40 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” God, who parted the Red Sea, rained manna from heaven, caused the walls of Jericho to fall, shut the lions’ mouths, healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the sea, still performs miracles today. However, some Christians doubt that God wants to work a miracle for them today. They believe that there were miracles when Jesus walked the earth, but they think that the day of miracles is over. And they talk about how everything will be perfect one day in the sweet by and by. But God wants us to know that He is still the God of miracles today. Martha was like one of those Christians. She wondered if Jesus could perform a miracle when her brother Lazarus died. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. So she thought that Jesus was four days too late. That is why she said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have d...

Imagine this scene: One day God comes to Noah and says, "I'm disappointed in human beings. In the entire world, no one but you thinks about me. But Noah, when I look at you, I start smiling. I'm pleased with your life, so I'm going to flood the world and start over with you and your family. I want you to build a giant ship that will save you and the animals." There were three problems that could have caused Noah to doubt: 1) Noah had never seen rain because prior to the flood God irrigated the earth from the ground up; 2) Noah lived hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean; 3) There was the problem of rounding up all the animals and then caring for them. But Noah trusted God completely, and that made God smile. Trusting God completely means having faith that God knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary. Trusting is an act of worship. Just as parents are pleased when ...

Many Christians don't make the connection between Sunday and Monday. They compartmentalize their lives. They think, "Well, I've got a spiritual life, and I've got a secular life. My spiritual life is when I read the Bible, when I pray, when I go to church, I do good things for others. That's my spiritual life." And that's over in one compartment. So then, they think, over in another compartment: "This is my secular life. That's my work, my job, my career, my business decisions, my finances, my pension plan; all these things are my secular life." God says, "No, that's wrong. All of life is spiritual." The word secular isn't in the Bible. Your whole life matters to God. He is as interested in your work as He is in your prayers. The fact is, your relationship to Christ is like marriage -- it's a full-time commitment. What do you think would happen if I came up to my wife and said, "Honey, I'm going t...

Study passage: Ephesians 6:14-18. It says "stand ready with truth as a belt" Child of God, how often do you speak the truth? Imagine a soldier at war with a belt that doesn't have a proper hold of him, fighting and pulling his pants up, the distraction would get him killed. "Righteousness as your breast plate" righteousness not self righteousness. The righteousness we attain by faith, by believing in Christ, not the righteousness we claim to attain by the standards set by the world. "As your shoes the readiness to announce the good news of peace" how often do we announce the good news? Are we peace makers? Do we share the good news with friends, brothers, sisters, parents, colleagues? Does your shoe fit properly or is it over/under sized due to your inability to share the good news? Do you even have shoes on? "At all times carry faith as a shield" if your shield can't protect you of what use is it? Faith, believing wi...

The letter of st. Paul to the Galatians is all basically about how the Jews wanted the Gentiles to be circumcised before they could be approved or accepted as christians. The question here is how can we relate this to our society of today, do we still have such people? Yes we do, but now its not actual circumcision that they require, its your appearance, your look, your standard, that's the circumcision of today. They believe that as a christian there is a certain way you must look/dress anything short of that makes you unworthy. Paul wrote to the galatians reminding them that God doesn't judge by outward appearances (Gal2:6) and that's what he's telling us today. He wrote, "A person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by what the law requires (Gal2:16). If we earn righteousness by our outward appearance, it means christ died for nothing. This life of faith that we all live has been given to us by Christ Jesus because of His l...

Contentment means, being happy or satisfied either with yourself, your position, family,.....etc. As christians can we honestly say we are satisfied with what we have, what we've been given by God? Often times we find ourselves saying "if only I had that car, if only I had his job, if only i had a son/daughter,if only this, if only that,......" Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't aspire for greater heights/achievements but we should aspire with joy and happiness within us to share/show Gods goodness and not with anger or frustration. In the creation story (Genesis 1) after every creation God made, it says "God made them all and He was pleased with them." Learn from this that however you are, tall, short, fat or slim, God made you and He's pleased with you! Also we can look at Christ's contentment with His father's will for Him. Christ knew the task ahead of Him, He knew what He was going to face to save us a...

Contentment means, being happy or satisfied either with yourself, your position, family,.....etc. As christians can we honestly say we are satisfied with what we have, what we've been given by God? Often times we find ourselves saying "if only I had that car, if only I had his job, if only i had a son/daughter,if only this, if only that,......" Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't aspire for greater heights/achievements but we should aspire with joy and happiness within us to share/show Gods goodness and not with anger or frustration. In the creation story (Genesis 1) after every creation God made, it says "God made them all and He was pleased with them." Learn from this that however you are, tall, short, fat or slim, God made you and He's pleased with you! Also we can look at Christ's contentment with His father's will for Him. Christ knew the task ahead of Him, He knew what He was going to face to save us a...

2 Kings 6:8-17 Mount Everest, the highest peak on earth, is undoubtedly one of the world’s most difficult and dangerous mountains to climb. On the mountain, extreme temperatures, lack of oxygen, high winds and risk of avalanche can make this climb seem impossible. For even the most experienced mountaineer, the risk of death is always present. The truth is, it is virtually impossible to make the ascent to the summit without the help of the Sherpas. These guides make the ascent possible. If you were to try to go it alone, your chance of success would be virtually zero. As a prophet of God, Elisha knew he needed help and that he was never alone. But as Elisha and his servant slept, the king of Aram sent horses and chariots and a strong force to confront them; they literally surrounded them and the entire city. The king was angry that Elisha always seemed to know their next move and was able to warn the Israelites of possible attack. Elisha’s servant had woken up early only to see th...

The Lord said to Gideon, “I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home.” (Judges 7:7 GNT) The Midianite army of 135,000 badly outnumbered the Israelites, who only had 32,000 men ready for battle. But even that was too many. God instructed Gideon to reduce his army to only 300 men! Before the battle, Gideon worshipped God and then divided his men into three companies. Their weapons were only trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them! God wanted Israel to know that victory does not depend on strength or numbers, but on obedience and commitment to Him. As proof, the Midianite army fell before them without the Israelites drawing a single sword. What in your life seems too hard to conquer? "Midianites" sometimes come in the form of parenting challenges when we feel outnumbered and overwhelmed. Whatever you're facing, remember that the battle is God's. Don't let ...