Faith To Live

What is faith? I watched an episode of House MD where they treated a “faith healer” who is used by God to heal the sick. Of course House does not believe in such things and calls him a lunatic. One of the things he says: “faith is ignorance”. Well how would you live without faith? we need to have faith in different aspects of our lives. We need to have faith that the next time we take a breath there will be oxygen, we need faith that when we sit on a chair it will hold us up, we need faith that when we cross a bridge it won’t crumble. It is impossible to live life without faith.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:18

For people who have not received Jesus, the word of God is foolishness. It is only through the holy spirit can their eyes be opened to the truth. However for us who have been saved it it the power of God. We have that power, which is why we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Not by our own might, but by the power of God.

When we put our faith in God, we are not relying on what we can do, we like to be in control, but we need to let go and let God do His work in our lives. When we go to the beach, it’s comfortable to just walk along the shore because we have full control, but when we go further into the water until we are no longer touching the sand, we have much less control and the waves begin to dictate where we go.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” – Hebrews 11:6

Allow God to take the reins of your life. See what He sees, not what you see.

Lord take my life and use it for your glory, thank you God that you have an awesome plan for my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

One Hope, One Way

You think that life is hopeless.
You think that your toils are useless.
There is a hope, there is a way.
God gave His Son that we may,
Receive salvation and His glorious riches.
His name is none other than Jesus.
– Written by: Victor (me)

Praise God! I hope these words have blessed you.

Hope Mission Centre has started a building project and it would be awesome if people could contribute by donating to the fund. To find out more about this project, please visit http://www.hopemissioncentre.com

Come Back

When we go through tough times and it seems like God is not there, it can be difficult. You start to wonder, where are you God? I don’t feel you anymore…why is this happening?

But what really is happening is that you are the one that has left God, sometimes out of our own fleshly desires we leave God to satisfy our own cravings. Then when we hit problems, we ask why? If you want a reason, it’s simply because you have decided to leave God.

God will never leave us nor forsake us, He would never let the devil snatch us from His hands, but we have a choice to move away from Him. Don’t blame God when we face the consequences of our own actions. The only way we can be forgiven and restored is if we come back to Him.

Lord thank you for your unfailing love for us, that no matter how much we disobey you, no matter how much we have hurt you, yet you are willing to take us back with open arms. Forgive me Lord for the times that I have failed you, I pray that you would help me to be strengthened and not make the same mistakes again. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Don’t Be A Wuss

What do we do when problems and trials come our way? Do we run away or do we stand up and face them? By ourselves we are not very strong, but if we have God on our side who can be against us?

“In the LORD I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?” – Psalm 11:1

So if we have the Lord on our side, if we put our trust in the Lord, then why do we still run away from our problems? This doesn’t mean putting your trust in the Lord. When we trust in the Lord, we trust that our God is big enough to take us through the problems, to help us to overcome any obstacle.

God wants to be involved in your life, whether it be your school, work or anything. God is not someone that you just meet once a week. Whatever problems at work, school, home or anything else, you can speak to God about them. God has helped me numerous times to solve certain problems I had at work, also He’s helped me at Uni, especially with my thesis.

Lord thank you that you are always there for us, I pray Lord that I would put my trust more and more in You rather than my own abilities. Make me a man and not a wuss, who runs away at the sight of a problem. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Refuge

“The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.” – Psalm 9:9

God is a just God, He doesn’t believe in poverty, discrimination or anything like that. Which is why, whenever we are oppressed or we are facing a problem. The Lord is there with open arms to take care of us. We can see there are so many problems and so many people in this world facing oppression. Not only in the physical, but in the spiritual. What are we doing about it?

Lord help me to help those that need you. Use me to feed the hungry, heal the sick and give to the needy. In physical or spiritual, bless me so that I can bless others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Miniscule

If you think about it, the universe is so big, we haven’t even seen 1% of it. So in the grand scheme of things, we are just a microscopic speck. Imagine you had something like an iPod. On the iPod there’s the metal case, the screen, the circuit boards. Then if you go even deeper, you’ll find different types of bacteria on it and specks of dust. That’s similar to how we are compared to the universe.

The awesome thing is: God still cares for you, no matter how insignificant you are, God actually made you to be just a little below the angels.

“For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.” – Psalm 8:5

It’s amazing to think that God, the almighty, would care for people like us, and go to all the trouble to save us, so that we can be with Him.

Thank you God!

Garage Sale

Today and in the coming weeks, Hope Church will be having a garage sale. In the bible, people gave up everything to be given to those in need.

“Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.” – Acts 4:34-35

This is essentially similar to what we are doing. The church members have donated their possessions so that they can be sold and having the proceeds go to the church. The main focus will be the Hope Church Building. The building alone costs $610,000, plus more for the renovations that we need to do.

We can apply this same principle in our lives, we are selfish people, so it is hard most times to share the things that we have. However when we do share, you will certainly not lack. To us this doesn’t make sense, because God says, give and you will have more. Sounds like a contradiction, but that’s because we’ve been brought up to think that giving means we have less.

Lord thank you for all the people who have shared with me, I pray that you bless them abundantly and overflowing that they won’t be able to contain it. I pray that the garage sale will be a success and that you will have your way. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Life Involves Risks

Living life to the full involves taking risks, imagine if we never took any risks and each step we took was pre-meditated. It would be very boring, because you could always tell what was going to happen next. Sometimes to make it big, we need to take risks, eg. the companies and businessmen they invest into “things” in the hope that the “thing” will do well and they’ll get their returns. However there is always the risk that the “thing” will not do so well and they have just lost millions of dollars that they’ve invested.

Compare that to someone who only invests a few thousand dollars, because they know that they will gain for sure, even though it’s only a little. The sowing and reaping principle can be applied here. The more you sow, the more you reap. I think one of the biggest factors for small businesses to thrive, is having people to invest in it. Not just a few thousand, but millions, basically giving their all. In the end there will be two scenarios, either they will go bankrupt or they will be successful. The result depends on who we invest in.

Jesus wants us to give our all to Him, as He has done for us. Jesus died for us, risking the fact that people would not accept Him. We have the responsibility to accept Him and although it may be a risk to us, because of our background, families and friends. There is no other purpose in life.

God Hears Your Prayer

There is alot of bad things happening in this world, war in Iraq, terrorism, racism. People think why would God allow such things, well the fact is that He doesn’t want those things to happen to us, but they are there because this world is full of sin and people have made a decision not to obey God.

However even through our disobedience God can still forgive us, there is not a sin too great for God to forgive. The only thing we need to do is come back to Him. When we pray and cry out to Him, our prayers are heard.

Whatever your needs are, cry out to God, come to Him and He will hear your prayers, just like how He heard the prayers of Israel when they were enslaved by the Egyptians.

Thank you Lord that you care so much about us that you hear each and every one of our prayers. I pray that you would meet my needs for today Lord and that I can be a blessing to the people around me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

New Job, New Year

I have confirmed that I will be starting at my new job on the 4th of December. Praise God, prayer really works! The company is bigger than my current company now, and I will be getting more pay. The best thing about it, is that I will meet new people that I can witness to.

Another testimony I have is that, I am now officially 23 years young! Praise God that He has brought me this far. I still can’t fathom the fact that I am 23! that’s twenty-three!…

God is awesome, He has been so good. Thank you Lord, I pray that you would help me to become stronger as I grow more and more in you and as I walk with you. Forgive me Lord for the sins I have committed, help me to learn from my mistakes. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.