The Lord's Theme For The Year

The Lord has crowned the year (2011) with His goodness and caused us to walk in His paths that drips with His fatness (Psalm 65:11)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Being At The Right Place At The Right Time

When Abraham's servant was sent to the land of Abraham's forefathers to his own extended family to look for a bride for Isaac his son, the servant prayed a very interesting prayer, (Genesis 24:12-14),
v12 "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
v13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.
v14 May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too'--let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."
The Bible records that no sooner had he finished praying that Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor who was Abraham's brother, came to the well to draw water for her sheep and all the things that the servant prayed for were answered directly and the servant knew in an instant that Rebecca was the chosen bride for Isaac.
This is the first mention in the Bible of a "hap" in the "happening" - being at the right place at the right time - and it gives us a good model to follow.
Over the past few days (since February 01), I had the occasion to be in the right place to bless three persons - two friends are on the threshold of looking for career moves and I came to know about them and, lo and behold, I was chatting with the general manager of a company and this company is looking to hire trusted persons for its job openings and so all I did was to arrange for the separate parties to meet to introduce them and see the commonalities and the matchings (2 separate meetings will be held back to back in a week).
The other case involves a friend's family where the children could not come to terms with their father's sudden passing more than five years ago. The bitterness in the son has become almost unbearable for the mother and over the Lunar New Year visitation, they came to our home and poured out their situation. Well, the boy seems to be missing a fatherly figure and so I will come in and befriend the boy and allow the Holy Spirit to heal the wound and set him free.
Certainly these three cases demonstrate how the Lord works in ways we do not understand at that moment but when everything falls into place we can reflect and say, 'all glory to our Lord Jesus Christ Who has given us the grace to bless others with the gifts (blessings) He first gives us'.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Being Obedient To The Prompting Of The Holy Spirit

Last evening, I attended a funeral memorial wake service of a dear brother in the Lord who went home to be with the Lord in the early hours of Tuesday (Monday night) after suffering a heart failure. He was 88 years old and he left exactly one year after his beloved wife went home to the Lord (Jan 30, 2010) leaving behind three children and 5 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. 
Now what was amazing was that on Saturday evening, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to approach the ushers after the second service to take five sets of holy communion elements and visit mr friend's father in the hospital after lunch on Sunday and to administer the holy communion (five sets - the brother, his two daughters, my wife and myself). And the prompting was very strong as I was reminded again on Sunday morning over breakfast and I even asked my wife to collect the elements should I missed the opportunity.

I was surprised when my wife told me that the ushers had kept everything after the service and that they could not give me the communion elements. And so, undeterred I approached the ushers myself and spoke to the team leader about reopening the boxes to hand me the required sets for my hospital visit and, praise the Lord, one of the ushers apparently had already taken the initiative and handed me the required number.

After lunch, we proceeded to the hospital and we had a good time of fellowship over the Lord's supper. The Lord is so good in that He arranged for all the family members to be present at the hospital and so there were eight of us there. After communion, I took the anointing oil and anointed the brother and spoke over his situation and so when our friend texted me in the morning I knew the significance of the hospital visit and the communion.

But what thrilled my heart most was when this dear sister (our friend) shared with me after the service that she and her sister discussed on Saturday evening and were believing the Lord that the father would have an opportunity to take communion in the hospital and also to be anointed with oil. They approached the pastor of their church and were told that it was not possible because of timings. Unbeknown to them the Lord had already planted that assignment on my heart and so, when I announced to the two sisters that I was going to share communion, they were amazed at the answer to their prayer and were further thrilled when I opened the bottle of oil and started to anoint their father.

And so, from this experience, I am now more sensitive to what the Holy Spirit puts in my heart. I believe this is just the beginning and there will be more miracles taking place after this.

To Jesus be the glory and honor. AMEN

A New Believer's Prayer

Thank you Father for loving us so much that You sent Your precious Son Jesus Christ to this world to die for all our sins. I receive Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior.
Thank you that all my sins have been nailed to the Cross on Jesus at His death and because He died in our place, I am now saved forever. I have been made righteous in Your sight because of what Jesus did and I can now enjoy Your blessings over my life. Thank you for the privilege of being called Your Child and for the Gift of Your Holy Spirit in my life. AMEN