My Dear Brothers and Sisters, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today, is from the book of Psalms 12:5, “For The Oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy, Now I Will Arise says, the Lord. I will set him in the safety for which he yearns. ”
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, from the above context we understand that God will protect the poor from those who oppress them. The word “poor” does not refer to a person who does not have money because a person may have money but might lack something else. Anyone who lacks something is considered to be poor. God takes note of all your problems that you go through. Only when a person is steeped in problems he goes through frustration. Such a person needs to be set free from his captivity.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, The phrase, “For the oppression of the poor,” refers to the tribulations which the Israelites suffered while they were captives in Babylon. The Lord represents himself, as looking on and seeing their affliction and hearing their cry. He comes forward to help them. God says, I alone delivered them into the hands of their enemies because of their transgression. But I alone can and will deliver them from the hands of their enemies. And the manner of their deliverance shall show the power and influence of their God.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, God does not want the oppressed to return ashamed. He says, let not the enemy rejoice when you go through trials or when you fall. For God says, “I will arise when you sit in darkness I shall be a light to you.” We should not rob the poor, because he is poor. And we should not oppress the afflicted. For the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. God himself grieved for the misery of Israel, and delivered them from the Egyptians who oppressed them with cruel affliction.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, God always, saves the poor, from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. And He that oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker. Therefore we should not inflict the poor. In case you have been oppressed by your boss or someone who is in authority over you then God will come to rescue, you as you are precious in his sight. All you have to do is to trust in the Living God. Cast all your burdens and problems upon Him and He will set you free from your bondage. He will protect you from those who want to destroy you. He will keep you as the apple of His eye. He will not leave you in the hands of the enemy instead he will guard you and protect you with His wings of protection. God says that He will set you in safety for which you yearn for. So do not worry. He performs what is appointed for you and many such things are with Him.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Lord thank you for telling us how we need to treat or consider the poor. Make us to understand the problems of the poor and treat them with honour and respect. Never to underestimate them, or inflict them with cruelty but to be merciful to them.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
My dear Brothers and sisters in Christ, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given you for today is from the book of Exodus 18:9 , “ Then Jethro Rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel. Whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. ”
My Dear Brothers and Sisters from the above words we see how Jethro was happy over all that the Lord had done for the people of Israel, and Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of the Pharaoh. Jethro the man of God praised Him When he heard all about the doings of God. And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh.” Jethro praised the Lord when he heard all the good things that happened to Israel in the midst of Egypt
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Jethro was Moses’s uncle. He was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. When Jethro heard that God provided Manna, the heavenly food from above, and also provided them with water to drink while they were thirsty and he turned the bitter water( waters of Marah ) into sweet water. He praised God . Moses actually met Jethro His father in law after he received the Ten Commandments, from mount Sinai. Jethro was pleased to know how the people, of Israel, found favour in the sight of the Egyptians. For they borrowed gold, silver, and jewels, bringing them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He was excited to know how God guided them as a pillar of cloud during the day. And as a pillar of fire during the night. How God divided the waters of the Red Sea for them to pass through dry ground. He gave them victory over the Amalakites. One must realize that the joy of Jethro was not merely on account of the goodness of God done to Moses just because he was married to his daughter Zipporah; but because of the great things God had done for Israel, God’s special and chosen people. The worshippers of the true and living God for whom Jethro had an affection. And therefore he rejoiced in their prosperity.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Just as Jethro was happy on hearing the good things which God had done for the people of Israel, in the land of Egypt, You also shall be happy to hear, all the good things that God is about to do for you and your children. God is good. He is good all the time. He will be good to you also. You might have experienced hardship in your work spot or in your business. You might have faced a lot of loss but God has turned your loss into gain and has brought peace at your work spot. Therefore you need to rejoice in the Lord and praise Him all the days, of your life like Jethro. God does not wish that you suffer always. He wants to bring about a great change in your life situation.
For, just as God had prepared a land flowing with milk and honey for his people God wants to give you the best in life. He lifts the needy. He raises the poor from the ash heap to set them among princes. And makes them inherit the throne of glory. God exalts the horn of His anointed. He wants to bless you with grain, new wine and oil. This represents prosperity. God wants to make you prosperous.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Thank you Lord for helping the people of Israel with food and water. You guided them with your presence. Meet all our needs too. Guide us through this dry and scorched wilderness. Lead us to Oasis where we can rest near Elim and drink of the waters of Oasis. Help us to depend upon you O Lord. May we rejoice in you and praise you all the days of our life.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Dearly Beloved, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today, is from the book Jeremiah 31:25-27, ” I will give rest and strength to those who are weak and tired. ”After hearing that, I, Jeremiah, woke up and looked around. My sleep was very pleasant. The days are coming, says the Lord, “When I will help the family of Israel and Judah to grow. I will help their children and animals to grow too. It will be like planting and caring for a plant.”
Prophet Jeremiah had lived during the time when the Babylonians invaded Judah, assaulted Jerusalem, and reduced the Mountain Temple into rubble. The chaos caused by the Babylonians was unimaginable. Yet God had not abandoned the people. he same God who planted the garden of Eden and crafted humanity from its soil will replant Judah. God will replant, tend, and nurture human and animal life amid the ashes of Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple.
Jeremiah instructs the children of Israel to follow the road with signposts and landmarks that would guide Israel back to the land and be restored to relationship with their Covenant God. He asks them to set their hearts towards the high way so that they would come back to their first love, which they once had with God. Jeremiah predicts the future prosperity of Judah and Israel. God had promised them that they would return from their exile and Israel would be so blessed and secure in God’s restoration that even the women among them could protect the men and the people as a whole. So he says,“A woman shall encompass a man:”Such would be the power and strength of a woman. The prophet further says, after their return, the government of Israel will be transformed and righteously governed by the Messiah who will make Jerusalem a home of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jeremiah goes on to say, that the people will dwell safely in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks: In that day the Jewish people would not only be blessed spiritually, but also materially. They will be restored in both the city and the country. God promised abundance and satisfaction, to the empty, tired soul. The soul filled with sorrow would be filled with hope and peace. Therefore the Lord says, “ For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul” May be God spoke to Jeremiah in a dream while he was in deep sleep. And when he awoke, he looked around and found that his sleep was sweet. For God had told him that after the people of Israel return from their exile in Babylon, the Lord will increase seed of both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, with men and cattle. And God would keep a direct watch over them. And it shall come to pass, that just as He had watched over them to pluck them, to break them down and to destroy them and to afflict them, in the same manner He will then rise up to watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. He will forgive their iniquity, and their sin He will remember them no more. What a great God!
You might have been saved, and received Jesus as your saviour, long time back. And therefore you would have enjoyed His glorious power, His Mercy and Grace. But due to some reason you had, gone astray, from your first love. You began to enjoy the pleasures of this world. The lust of the flesh, the beauty and charm of this world, attracted and enhanced you so much, that you have gone away from the presence of this Almighty God, who led you in the past. As a result you have been cornered from all sides, and taken into captivity by God. May be you are caught up in huge debts, or loss in your business, facing disharmony in your family relationship, Or maybe you are going through shame and humiliation because of childlessness. You might have lost your job all of a sudden, and thus driven into poverty, or you have been attacked by some serious sickness or disease. All these are some kind of captivity, which God purposely thrusts upon you that you may return to your first love with God, as you loved Him in the beginning when you received Jesus as your saviour. Therefore examine yourselves and see if there is any mistake in your life that has separated you from God, and set it right and return to His first love. Only then you can witness the goodness of God in the land of the living. The Lord will give strength to those who return to His first love and bless His people with Peace. He will help you dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Lord we realize how we involve ourselves in the worldly affairs, and thus get into captivity. Father please forgive our sinful nature, help us to return to our first love. Teach us to endure patiently, while we go through trials and learn to correct ourselves from our mistakes. Give us strength to overcome physical and mental struggle that we go through in our daily life.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today is from the book of Genesis 28:15 “Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, wherever we are, we are safe if we have God’s favourable presence with us. The Lord whom we worship respects each one of us. He is a great creator. He is an Almighty God. The Earth or the World could not contain Him. He has authority over heaven and Earth. Such a great God, respects the ordinary man. Or in other words is mindful of man. God likewise expects us to respect others. We are nothing when we compare ourselves to God. Yet He loves us and wants to have relationship with us. We see now a days that man wants to have relationship with similar people. God does not look for status. He has no partiality. He treats the rich and the poor alike.
My Dear brothers and Sisters, We see in the Bible, a young man, Jacob who experiences personal relationship with God Almighty. One day his parents Isaac, and his mother Rebecca, called Jacob blessed him and asked him to go to his uncles place, to make his livelihood. Being young he had to take up some job and help himself for his survival. In those days rearing sheep was the main occupation. Jacob was an obedient son to his parents. He did not receive any money or take his share of wealth or any investment to start his business but just received the blessings of his parents and departed to his uncle’s place. He considered the blessing of his parents more valuable than anything else. We see that the blessing of parents is so important, if one must be blessed by God. The Bible says, he acquired all the blessing from his father Isaac. As a result Jacob feared his brother Easu, who wanted to kill him.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Jacob never argued with his parents or questioned his parents about leaving to his uncles place. He honoured and Respected his parents He was a humble man. So God was pleased with him. Whether Jacob knew or not, about the presence of the Almighty, God was with him. He had chosen him even before the foundation of the world. Now that he feared his brother he was in trouble, obliged to flee, so he looked up only to God, to make him dwell in safety. He had to take up a long journey from Canaan to an unknown country. He was prepared to lie down and sleep in the open air, with his head upon a stone. God’s time to visit his people with His comforts is when they are most destitute of their comforts.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, God gives his people graces and comforts, accommodated to the events that shall be, as well as to those that are. Jacob at that point of time was forsaken by all, even by his own family members. God foresaw what hardship Jacob would face in that strange land especially in his uncles service. So God promises to keep him. God visited him while he was asleep. He saw a ladder, which reached from earth to heaven. The angels were going up and down and God himself, was at the head of it. Christ is the way to God. All God’s favours come to us from God through Christ. All the glad tidings we receive from heaven come through Christ. God assures him saying” Behold I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go. And will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”God was mindful of him. So he says, I will not leave you nor forsake you. Whom God loves, he never leaves. God bless you.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Thank you Lord for telling us the importance of getting the blessing of our parents. Help us to be obedient to our parents and also to honour them. Make us a blessing to others. Teach us to have a personal relationship with God as Jacob had. Accommodate us with your graces and comforts when we are forsaken by all.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Dearly Beloved, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today, is from the book of Psalm 84:1-3, How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young -place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
David penned this psalm when he was forced by Absalom his son, to quit his city, over which he lamented his absence from the city not because it was the royal city but because it was the holy city. The psalmist here with great devotion expresses his affection for the holy city. This psalm speaks about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which was in ancient times, one of the most religiously hallowed places in the world. This Psalm is considered to be an account of the experience of a pilgrim going to the temple in Jerusalem for a religious festival. But what makes going there so “special” is that, this is the dwelling place of the “Lord of hosts. “
This “Lord of hosts” is also the “Living God” , the Holy one who dwells in Zion as one who is dynamic, at work, among men whom he has created. So the excitement is not about going to the particular place, but more about the very presence of God. It is because of God’s presence that the psalmist says, “Happy are those who live in your house.” Even the birds seek to be in the presence of God and thus find homes among God’s altars. People had to pass through the valley of Baca to reach the holy temple. The valley of Baca is known as a notoriously dry place. But God provided springs for the pilgrims to quench their thirst, while they passed through the valley.
Those who experience God’s real presence are brought into a new reality of life, where even a dry valley, can yield springs and be covered with rain. The living God uplifts and empowers through this new reality, in a way, just as God led and sustained his chosen people through the wilderness and into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey. God’s presence may also be found, however, in the dry valleys and journeys of life where one may not expect to find God. Even here the Lord of hosts, who is also the living God, brings springs, rain, and strength to those who seek the ever-abiding presence of the one whose home is among mortals.
The Tabernacle where God dwells is so lovely. When you go in search of God into the tabernacle you will find the presence of God. He will fulfil all that you ask for, when you go to the church. Many do not seek God; hence they fail to receive His blessings.
Dearly Beloved, enter into His presence, to sing, to praise and worship God. And God reveals His power to the people who come to seek him. God knows your pain your sorrow, the shame you go through and all the problems that you face daily. He knows the thoughts of your heart. He takes note of all your problems and records all the details of your mind. You experience the goodness of God in His dwelling place. The Psalmist says, Lord has provided even the sparrow a house and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones. When God can provide the sparrow, and swallow, will he not meet your needs? Surely He will bless you if you come into His tabernacle. Hallelujah. ! May God help you to enter His gates with thanksgiving.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Lord we thank you for revealing the importance of tabernacle. We are thankful that You are present in the Tabernacle. Today all the tabernacles are closed. This may be because of our sin in not realizing the goodness of worshiping God. Please forgive our sins and open the tabernacle that we may once again go to the church and worship God in truth and spirit, as those who went to the Mount Temple in Jerusalem as pilgrims.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
