Teach Our Children
Topic: Discipline

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 KJV)

 

If you want your children would have successful life, we must teach our children diligently to see God in all aspects of life, not just those that are church related. The news recently reported that one of third grader students decided to suicide himself. The reason was unknown. His action made other fellow students frighten. Even though this generation is scary time for those who do not have relationship with Jesus Christ, we need to involve with our youngsters in all aspects of life and lead them into Jesus Christ. It's so sad for them to decide to end their lives as they just started their journeys.

 

We do not just lead them to churches and schools to receive education, even though the places are good for them. We also need to share God's Words with them. That's why the BIBLE also stands for "be informed before leaving the earth." Jeremiah 29:11 said, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." In New King James said, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

 

Hebrews 11:40 mention that "God has provided some better thing for us," even our children. God is looking for children to do better things in near future. He doesn't want to see that children would hurt for themselves, such as what we heard from the news media. I do not care if you do not have children, they are looking up to you to feed them with words of wisdom, especially wisdom from the Words of God. We are responsible to nurture them with our actions and words.

Being a Follower of Christ
Topic: Discipline

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26 KJV)

 

Being a follower of Christ may seems to be challenged, but it is worth it for our eternal life. There is no person on the earth who denied himself than Jesus. He suffered for our sins by facing the death penalty on the cross by Roman soldiers. Even though most of His people laughed at Him, Jesus died for the sins of the world. Paul said in Philippians 2:5-8, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

 

Why Jesus suffered for us? Even though He can call His angels, He demonstrated His love for us by taking an action that no one able can do for his friends. God doesn't want us to become religious, but relationship.

The Fruit of Spirit: Peace / Temple of God
Topic: Discipline

The fruit of the Spirit is... peace.

 

To be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.

 

God hath called us to peace.--Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.--The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

 

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day--Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee.

 

The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.--Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

 

Great peace have they which love thy law.

 

GAL 5:22. Ro 8:6. 1 Co 7:15.--Jn 14:27.--Ro 15:13. 2 Ti 1:12.--Isa 26:3. Is 32:17,18.--Pr 1:33. Ps 119:165. (Daily Light on the Daily Path)

 

God's peace is not like the world. Even though His peace would make division within the rest of the world, God wants us to have peace and joy in our lives. He didn't create us like robots, because He wanted us to have the freewill and joy in life. Also, He wants to establish relationship with us.

 

 

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Temple of God

 

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3 KJV)

 

We are the temple of God. At the beginning, Adam and Eve dwelled in Garden of Eden, which represented as they were in His temple. Even though we will be in His temple again, we are the vassal for the kingdom of God.

Complaint
Topic: Discipline
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Exodus 16:1-3 KJVB)

How many time we complaint to God or another person that we can't do it? Probably hundred times or more. In Exodus 16, we read that Moses tried to lead his people to the land where God wanted them to be. Remember, after the new Pharaoh, who didn't know about Joseph, took over the land of Egypt, decided to take control over the people of Israel. He was called communist in our modern-day term. In the meantime, God was dealing with Moses to try to free His people from the communist leader. So, God brought ten plagues in Egypt to free His people out from the slavery under King Pharaoh through Moses.

After God brought His people out from the communist nation, there should be peace and celebration. Well, their celebration wasn't lasted. Instead, they began to act like cry children. They complaint to Moses and Aaron about their physical needs. They forgot what God had done for them while they were slaves to the communist leader.

Romans 3:23 says that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We can ask God what we need and He would provide answers. But, oftentimes, we complaint to God with our problems. Worse, we rebuke Satan with all the messes that we created. Even God let Satan take over the earth for while, he doesn't have permission to take over our lives as we read in Job 1-2. We have to submit our mistakes and go forward. We don't need to look back and try to complaint to Satan about our messes. We are not God's little children anymore. He wants us to become into maturity and take responsible. It is sad that most today's TV preachers proclaimed that it is Satan's fault to bring us in this situation. It is his false that I got fire from the job. Reality is: It is my false that I got fire from the job. We need to take our responsibilities of our actions.

People of Israel would able to take journey to the Promise Land within three to four days, but they took long route. Why? They didn't have faith to trust Moses to lead them to the land that filled with milk and honey. Let's trust God's provision and work through our issues.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this article is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)
 
If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "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 believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

James Rapp
MGJC Web: www.mgjcweb.org

Set a Boundary
Topic: Discipline

For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy… (Leviticus 11:44a KJV)

 

In this day of the age, we have easily found our identities with the world. Everything we see in the world, our eyes begin to attach to things of the world. Every commercial we see on the TV or hear on the radio, we would become addiction to what we see. Even though there is nothing wrong of buying new things for ourselves, we need to set some boundaries between the physical and spiritual things, time with the world and time with God.

 

Unfortunately, there has a major shift changes within the churches over the years. As we see what is happening in churches, many people may lose their identities with God. The Bible says that we need not to fall in love the world (I John 2:15-17). “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him (I John 2:15b).” We need to sanctify ourselves with God and not with the world. It is ashamed that we don’t hear the message on the sanctification in the church today. It’s all about our Christian living than giving blessing and honoring God. The sanctification is based on the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. He is the reason that we are saved by His grace and He doesn’t remember our sins. But this doesn’t guarantee that we are totally free from sins. As long as we alive in this world, we need to crucify our flesh and carry the cross daily to follow God. I know this is not easy for us to do, but with God, it’s possible thing for us to do.

 

Second Peter 2:9 says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light…” We are called to be royal priests. This doesn’t mean that we need to be some bible experts. God knows that we are not perfect as He is, but He calls us to be holy people. Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” It is not enough how much work we need to put in order for us to get to God. It’s about our relationship with Jesus Christ. Even though we born in sin nature, we have the purpose to born in this world. Jeremiah 1:5 (God) says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

 

I don’t know what circumstance you are going through in this very moment. I do not need to know. Because God already have the answer you are searching for. You only need to accept it. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” When the world tells us to be rich materially and fame, we don’t need to follow the worldly ways to receive God’s blessing. Instead, we need to listen Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” We need to make some boundaries between the two worlds. We have the power to sort it out.

 

Do you have your relationship with the Heavenly Father? If not, I like to encourage you to develop your personal relationship with Jesus Christ today. First, confess your sins and invite Jesus Christ to your life. Paul said in Romans 10:9-11, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” There is no sinner prayer formula. Instead, you just talk to God at where you are now. Secondly, I’d like to encourage you to find a good solid biblical teaching church and Christian friends. They can help you to build strong relationship with God. If you’d need further assistance, you can email me at mgjcwebminstries@mgjcweb.org or visit my ministries website at www.mgjcweb.org for further resources.

Take Jericho Wall Down
Topic: Discipline

Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. (Joshua 6:1-5 KJV)

 

In Joshua 6, we have a great historic event on how the people of Israel conquered the land of Jericho and possessed it. It was not them who possessed the land, but God. David said in I Samuel 17:46, “…the battle is the LORD’S…” So how does Joshua 6 could apply to our daily living?

 

We do have the wall of Jericho in our lives and need to take it down. It’s just not enough to pray a sinner prayer to conquer our sins and be reunited with Jesus Christ. By the way, when you’d repeat a sinner prayer through somebody’s words, it would not be a sincere prayer to God. We’d have to use our own words to repent our sins to Him and invite Him to our own life. There is no sinner prayer formula. It’s just between you and God.

 

The wall I’m talking is about our wills or our lusts that block away from having a personal relationship with God. We have been defeated by the ways of world that our nation turns itself to pagan nation. We need to break our walls down, so God could reunite with us and govern this nation. We need to break our walls down, so that parents can unite with their children and live together. We need to break our walls down to avoid God’s judgment. I don’t believe that terrorists didn’t decide to attack us on September 11^th, 2001. It was a wakeup call from God. We had been astray from God that we lost to stay in connect with God. In other words, we putted Him in a box.

 

God doesn’t need to lock Himself in the box. Instead, we need to break our walls down and sit on His knees as little children. That’s it. We don’t need to make this complication as the sinner prayer formula. That is what Roman Catholic Church doing, such as the Rosary Prayer or the Lord’s Prayer. Pray a repetitive prayer doesn’t guarantee us to enter the Heaven. Only by establishing a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ guarantee us to get the eternal assurance to be with Him.

Fasting and Prayer
Topic: Discipline

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:16-18 KJV)

Having a fasting is not easy for anyone to do. It takes a lot of prayers and commitment to do this spiritual journey. Unlike yoga, it helps us to build our relationship with Jesus Christ as well as our inner being. As the Holy Trinity, we also have three instincts for us alive physically—spirit, soul, and body. We need our spirits to function our souls and bodies, but we need build our spirits to connect with God. Paul said in Romans 8:26-27, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

We cannot intercede with God without the Spirit. Remember, when Peter, James and John went to the mountain with Jesus Christ for transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13). After Jesus finished to talk with Moses and Elijah, His three disciples failed to heal a demon-possessed boy (Matthew 17:14-16), because they all failed and slept. They didn’t understand the meaning of His transfiguration.

We just cannot give up on certain food. We need to have the full experience of fasting and prayer as Jesus did at the wilderness. We also need to spend our times with God by praying, praising, and reading His words. Most today Americans said that they are proclaiming to be Christians, but there are few of them can quote Scriptures without looking at the Bible. Again, I say this: We need to put God in our communities, public/private schools, homes, supreme courts, and entertainment industries.

Nowadays, we see that many teenagers are hurting, come from broken-families, or come out from abused condition. When we look at the entertainment industry, MTV and Henry Potter movies are influencing our young people and decided to turn away from God, family members, and friends. Our nation is beginning farther away from God. President Obama is doing anything that would turn this nation far from God.

We need to exercise our spirits in order to fellowship with God and people. We also need to do fasting and prayer to stand firm against Satan. Satan can attack us if we’d decide to invite him to our lives. Satan cannot attack us unless he’d receive permission from us. This is why some America churches are weak, because they didn’t have experienced transfiguration with God. We need fasting and prayer, not because its religious recommendation, but we need our relationship with Him from now and throughout the eternality.

I know most of us would not able to fast and pray for forty days without food, but we could let some of our favorite things go for while and let’s spend our quality time with God. Most of us would have idols in our lives that pull us away from God. Idols don’t have to be made of wood statues, but they can be sport games, food, drinks, spouses, or anything that make in our first priorities in our lives. In 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” Things are not considered as our enemies, but when we’d have fallen in love things more than God, we’d consider ourselves as enemies of God.

Would you like to know Jesus Christ today? I’d like to recommend you to stop things what you are doing for moment and ask Him for forgiveness of your sins and invite Him to your life. If you are Christian and would like to re-vow your commitment to Him, it’s not too late for you to reunite with Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. God wants you to be in His kingdom and live with Him forever, but He cannot force you to be there. You have to choose to go either Heaven or Hell for eternality and there is no other way to spend eternality. Jesus paid your price for you to go Heaven by dying on the cross. Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Now, you have choice which life you’d like to live from now to eternality. Hopefully, you have made right choice for your life.

Choose This Day
Topic: Discipline

Why We Need to Obey?
Topic: Discipline

Since Adam and Eve decided to disobey God’s command, many people have been experienced problems and pains in their lives. Throughout the Old Testament, many people of decided to follow their own way to living life. Because of their decisions, God let them have their way, with many consequences in their lives. As a result, they realized what they were doing was wrong and decided to follow God’s way of living.

Why do we need to obey God? Do we need to obey all the biblical laws of God? There are at least 613 laws that God established in the Bible; how can we keep those 613 laws? God knows that we are imperfect that we cannot keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. We cannot keep all the 613 laws that God established for us to learn and obey. We have a hard time hearing and obeying God’s voice because of our sins.

So what do we do now? How can we have God in our lives again? Is there a simple law that we can keep?

If one of us seriously desires to have that relationship with God again, first, we need to repent of our sins and ask God for forgiveness. Although many TV evangelists use the “sinner prayer” as a repentance formula, there is no certain prayer in the Bible that we need to follow to pray. It is up to us individually alone to repent and ask God for forgiveness of our sins. Then, we may accept God as our Savior and follow what God says to us to do. If He says to enjoy going to the church, we may decide to go there. One thing God cannot do for us is make a decision for us.

We all have the freedom to live in this planet. God created us to have the freedom of choice. God didn’t make us robots that we cannot make our own decisions. Look at Abraham in Genesis 22; God called Abraham to sacrifice his own son Isaac as an offering to Him. It was hard for Abraham to obey God because he loved and had compassion for this young boy. But Abraham decided to obey God rather than following his own feeling; God blessed him and provided a ram, instead of Isaac, as his offering to the Lord. Because of his faithfulness and obedience, Abraham was included in the “Hall of Faith,” which is recorded in Hebrews 11.

God commands us to obey His voice because being obedient will lead us to greater things that we can’t imagine. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” If we want our dreams to come true, we first must acknowledge our Heavenly Father and seek Him before we ask Him for anything else. Jeremiah 29:11 said that God already knows what He wants to give us. Before He would like to give something to us, He would like to know that we have not neglected Him. The only way He knows that we can be trusted is if we make right choices and obey His command while we are living in this present age.

Of course, God knows that we cannot keep all 613 laws or even the first Ten Commandments. Instead, He gives only one law for us to keep. That is, love one another as our Heavenly Father loves us. If we love each another, we are doing more than just obeying the first Ten Commandments. We are fulfilling all the 613 laws if we obey one simple law that Jesus gives us to do.

Why is it love and not the first ten laws? I John 4 tells us that God is love and He loves and cares for us. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Romans 8:38-39 tells that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus also says that if we love Him, we need to obey His command. If we love Him and refuse to follow His command, it means that we do not love Jesus at all. This applies to human relationships as well.

God chose His Son, Jesus, to be a sacrificial offering for our sins. Throughout the Gospels, we see that Jesus was fully obedient to His Father. Even though He knew that many of His people would reject Him as their Messiah, He refused to disobey His Father’s will. Why? Jesus knew that His people didn’t know what they were doing to God.

Today, there are few people who choose to obey God and follow Him. Jesus tells us that there would be few who will make it to Heaven (Matthew 7:13-14), because only few have accepted Him and follow through His way of living. That’s why James warns that having faith but not showing our work is considered spiritually dead (James 2:14-26)—separation from God.

In addition to obeying God, we need to obediently love people. The last six commandments of the Ten Commandments are laws that are related to people. If we decide to not showing any respect to people, we are neglecting them as our guests, friends, business partners, or neighbors. Not do only we make them to feel unwelcome, we are breaking our loving relationship with Jesus Christ as well. But God says that we need to show respect to people by listening to them or have communication with them. It’s another way to be obedient. Also, we need to love them as our Heavenly Father loves us.

We cannot have faith in God unless we show respect to God and people. We can obey all the laws in the Bible, but remain unhappy in our lives. We can become a multimillionaire, but money doesn’t satisfy our needs. To satisfy our need, we need to establish a relationship with God and people through obedience.

Today, the divorce rate is high within families, because they disagree with each other and with God. They haven’t established good foundation of relationship. Many young people decide to go astray from their family by disobeying their parents. Many marriages have broken because the husband and wife don’t show any respect to each other. Most of them are from Christian homes.

To have success in life and marriage, we need to respect people; but mostly, we need to fully follow God’s instructions in our lives. It is up to us to make that decision.