Encounters with God......

Experiencing God Day by Day Devotional by Henry & Richard Blackaby

February 9

" 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.

Acts 26:16

God was working in your life long before you began working with Him. The Lord knew you before time began, and He knew what He wanted to do with you before time began, and He knew what He wanted to do with your life (Jer 1:5; Ps 139:13). Before the apostle Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus, Jesus already knew Paul and had a specific assignment for him. But Jesus only revealed this assignment after Paul's conversion (Acts 9:15). So misguided was Paul that in his sincere efforts to serve God, he had actually been waging war against Christians! Although God knew what He wanted for Paul, He waited to reveal it to him until He gained his attention and became his Lord.

Our Lord does not come to us to discover what we would like to accomplish for Him. He encounters us in order to reveal His activity and invite us to become involved in His work. An encounter with God requires us to adjust ourselves to the activity of God that has been revealed. God never communicates with ys merely to give us a warm devotional thought for that day. He never speaks to us simply to increase our biblical knowledge. Our Lord has far more significant things to reveal to us that that! When God shows us what He is doing, He invites us to join Him in the work He is doing.

Are you prepared to meet God today? Don't seek to hear from God unless you are ready to ask, as Paul did, "What shall I do, Lord?"

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What God has been teaching me through this passage and through a Korean (Yes! Sometimes, God teaches us even in our everyday life and through history) series that I have been watching (highly recommended...a lot of you probably familiar with it)...Da Jang Geum ("Da Chang Jin" in Mandarin) is to trust in the unfolding of his will in our life...We cannot see it now, but He is still in control and working in our life. If we will let him and continue to be faithful to live life wholeheartedly. The movie is a moving story about a girl whose parents die when she is a mere 6 year old child and is then brought through many hardships in her life. But each hardship, when she overcomes her fears and insecurities to go through with them however limited she may be, brings her to another chapter of fulfilling her life's purpose to become the first female royal physician in the history of Korea. This is a biopic based on the real life story of the actual "Jang Geum" in Korean history.

Her story reminds me of Joseph...As the story unfolds, many unexpected things (many times opposite to Jang Geum's expectation) happen to her that brings her from one difficulty to another...But each bringing her closer to the path of her life's purpose. One example is when she is framed and was almost sentenced to death but was forced instead to become a 'government slave' from a Palace maiden. There she met a woman, one of the best woman doctors in those days, who would teach her all about medicine. The most admirable thing is her strength to hold on and to always do things with a focus and wholeheartedly even in the worst of situations. My aunty is convinced that it must have been produced by a Christian because you find many Christian inferences inside. It's a heart warming recount of Jang Geum's life filled with love, warmth, friendship in the midst of wanting to find justice for her mother who was framed and killed. Wanna know the whole story...watch it! Only if you have a lot of time!! haha...I watched a lot of it when on vacation in KL. There are about 80 episodes.

In one of the episodes...Jang Geum says that she doesn't know how each step will unfold but when she is a "gong nu" (palace maiden), she strives to be the best gong nu she can be...when she is a 'government slave', she does her duty as a government slave wholeheartedly...when she became a "yi nu" (lady doctor), in the same manner, she does her best ("yong xing"), with all her heart.

At one point, she gets very tired with the struggles she has to go through...but a close friend in her life (a dashing officer who has stayed by her side from beginning to end) reminds her that - the greater the giftings, the greater is the walls that one has to scale. And she must find it within her to scale that high wall. Jang Geum says that she can't do...she doesn't know how. And Ming Jin-Ho (the dashingly handsome officer) tells her that she doesn't need to know how, she just needs to do it as she usually does, wholeheartedly.

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Back to the Blackaby's Experiencing God Feb 9 devotional entry...

It is true! As I look back, I can see how God has been working in my life even when I was not aware of it...even before I came to believe and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. There were many decisions that I took that led me to great difficulties and struggles...yet when I succeeded in climbing over that hill, only then did I realise why I had to walk through that journey and climb over that hill.

Joseph had no idea that the visions and dreams would mean that he would have to go through so much to get there. If he had known that was the path he had to take early in his life, do you think that he would have wanted it as much? I don't think so. I don't think anyone of us can make light the struggle we all have to go through in truly submitting our life to God...even when we are walking intimately with Jesus, it is still a difficult thing to do. But God who called us will WILL it. Not us. So in a way, we need not be so anxious...though we are terrified sometimes...but just do whatever is ahead of us wholeheartedly. Every thing and every person that is brought into our life is not a coincidence. As much as you are a part of these people's path in life, they too are a part of God's plan for your life...even those who drive us up the wall; even those we cannot agree with; even those who are hard to love...God has called us to simply love. Love and hate CANNOT co-exist. You either love or hate a person.

Can we or do we really want to know the full details of what life has to offer us? Faithfullness is doing what we can, the best that we know how, each step of the way...as life serves us some easy serves and other times, some hard balls. What do you do in response? Hide and give up? Or lift up your head and climb upwards?

Lift up your head....for my help comes from the Lord....

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The Cost of Commitment

09 February 2006 - 11.35pm

Quote - Unquote "Authentic Faith" - by Gary L. Thomas

"As Christians, we no longer sacrifice animals or burnt offerings, but we can offer financial gifts, food for the poor, and good deeds toward others. The writer of Hebrew tells us, "Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (Hebrews 13:16). We will never even think about this aspect of faith, however, if we continue to define our faith in terms of God being obligated to bring blessings to us.

    Where are you today? Consider these 2 attitudes, and ponder which one marks where you are right now:

    Gary's attitude: "I'm willing to act like a Christian as long as it doesn't cost me anything."

    David's attitude: "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God something that costs me nothing."

....If you are dissatisfied with your faith or disillusioned with your God. Try this: Instead of accusing or blaming God, ask yourself what you've been holding back. Instead of waiting for God's blessing, ask him where you can start serving. Rather than become disillusioned by what God seems to be withholding, or by how life isn't working out just the way you planned it, remember that we are called to follow the example of our Lord, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to accomplish God's work on earth.

In fact, the most accurate picture of Jesus, and therefore the most accurate description of what we are to be, is on display in the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done" (Lk 22:42). This prayer is the heart of true Christianity - but that doesn't mean it's an easy prayer.

Have you ever experienced this? ...You begin to pray one way, then stop yourseld: "Am I willing to do that? Do I really mean what I'm praying?"

There is no vacillation in our prayers when we pray for affluence or blessing. It's easy to agree with God that he should step in and help us! But if we dare to enter the true arena of Christiniaty, if we accept the cross of sacrifice, then prayer becomes a tempest as we seek to die to our own wills so that God's will and purpose might reign supreme and uncontested - even when we know a price must be paid. It is not a lack of maturity that causes this tempest - remember, Jesus himself walked through it! As fallen, sinful people, naturally selfish and self-centered, we will only too regularly resist God's will, finally settling into it only with a struggle."