He Knows How It Feels, Evans olang

John 14:14, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

It’s nearly impossible to tell someone “I know how you feel” in a tough situation when you have not gone through it yourself. Often mistake made is encouraging someone who has either lost a dear one and say words from no experience of your own. If you have not gone through it or similar, you do not know how it feels. The best way to respond in my judgement is to say something like this “I don’t know how it feels but I want to let you know I care“. The good encouragers are the ones who have had a taste of it and can stand and encourage.

For God to create, He only had to speak, to redeem, Christ had to suffer. There are many things that accompany Jesus’ life here on earth. We know His main mission was to come and die on the cross to save mankind. And while He was here, He also taught, healed, raised the dead, raised leaders etc. He became a person (Man) to identify with us. You cannot redeem what related to.

A Need To Be In Uniform, Evans Olang

John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (power) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” 

Ever had those days you just couldn’t function effectively like you should? Before day break, you are tossing on your bed back and forth wondering what the day will bring. Previous days were tough and your conclusion is, “today will present the same if not worse”. Fear has gripped your heart and you just can’t seem to get past it and move on. Don’t fret for God is present in the situation with a solution. In school we would give the teacher the right answers to math question only to learn that he was interested in how we arrived at the answer more than the right answer. Most of the time the answer was right but we couldn’t tell the teacher how we arrived at it because we cheated. The process to get to that answer is more important than the answer itself. So praying that God would lead you to that destination is better than praying, God let me find myself there.

POWER is authority, ability, right, strength, control, influence etc. At the point of believing, you are given rights you did not posses before the conversion.

His Process Accomplishes His Purpose, Evans Olang

Deuteronomy 2:1-4, “…You have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward” 

It’s easy to talk about trust and be led of God but when it comes to the actual action it becomes a little bit hard because of what we have trained ourselves to think of ourselves. I don’t know how many times I have talked about trusting in God to lead and then felt like I was by myself or I did not see how things were going to come out in the long run. If you’ve noticed, the Lord tells us things but He never explains Himself.

When God called the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the plan was to bring them to the promise land. When the Lord begins to do something, He already has an end result for it and so when He begins to do it, it’s not for Him to try and see if it would work but for Him to finish what He has began. We can start with Him and then give up but He will not.

His Staff Is Our Comfort , Sarah Susan

Exodus 17:11-13, “11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekites army with the sword.”

Usually people are very tensed in battles, no one knows what the outcome will be…..Their life is in jeopardy…severe danger /hazard …In the battlefield, the men fighting are at the heights of stress and tension/ agony. Ultimate aim is to defeat and destroy the enemy..No matter what …..But the Israelites had great comfort, even in the face of the fierce battle, the savage war that they all were being supported by prayer …What a privilege, it was for the Israelites that they had a leader who was upholding them all in prayer –intercessory prayer…Though all the others were perishing in tension, these people had great source of comfort ….

Counted Worthy, Evans Olang

Daniel 3:16-18, “16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17, If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18, But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Four men are brought from their land to so serve king Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. They were full of wisdom, good looking and the greatest thing, they trusted and depended on God. Everything seemed well until the king made his own gods (idols) forcing everyone to fall down and worship the gods he had made. Three men living for their true God were also challenged to bow down. What do you do when what you stand for is challenged? Situations bringing you two sides and you have to choose one. One presents you with the picture of the immediate consequences, the other promises relief.

I Will Wait, Peggy Hawk

Lamentations 3:22-23, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.“

Once there was a pair of doves living in the wilderness, not knowing where they would get their next season of rain in the desert land where they were naturally born . This was a dry, hot and desolate place, no food, no water. Total hopelessness. They longed for a difference, for a day that would bring rain and quench their thirst. What strikes is a pair of doves lived in that desert, a rare case that not many times one hears! One day a heavy storm broke and the doves were disillusioned as to how would they go out to get their food, even if it meant dry tweeds from wild plants and worried to leave the nest with their newly born chicks. It was heavy showers of rain for hours, thunders, uncontrolled and untamed loud screaming wind blowing madly from here to there, it began to get cold and dark, the little doves were home with their chicks, sheltering them under their wings, warming them.

I Shall Not Die But Live, Evans Olang

Psalm 118:17-18, “17 I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the LORD. 18 The LORD has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death”

If there was an enemy any of us would want to get rid of, most of us would say death. Death robs us of those dear to us, leaving us with such a great void. The more we also think of it, the more we all realize that we are on death row waiting for our time.

Profiting From Trials, Evans Olang

2Corinthians 4:7, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,”

The new year has began, not everyone has began it on a good note. My family for one is in a trying period having finished the year with one only to open with another. The reality is that we live in a fallen world full of pain and suffering, however we as believers can be different from the world by learning to profit from trials.

When it comes to afflictions/trials, three men in new testament tells us how we should respond to them. James encourages us to count it all joy. Paul encourages to consider them light. Peter on the other hand encourages us not to think them strange. Only the grace of God enables us to speak and live in the light of such words with confidence.

Tidal Waves of Truth, Pastor Phil Sessa

Matthew 24:7-8, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains…”

Some time back an earthquake hit Japan which added Tsunami tragedy. How should the church respond to such a tragedy? First Jesus tells us that we should not be alarmed. This does not mean that we shouldn’t care, pray, weep with those who weep, or send relief to the people affected by this horrific event. Jesus instructs us not to be alarmed because these things are a sign of the times. Even though we don’t desire these things to take place, we are reminded that these things are part of biblical prophecy, and can rest assure that our God is in control, in the midst of these times. We can’t explain such an event of this nature without looking to God.