Smallest Seed

Here's Part 1 Imagine that poor guy in Mark 3 suffering from a shriveled hand a long time even if he went to the worship place (probably a long-time member of it) where God, the Healer, was supposed to be worshiped. All religion and no power. The "spiritual" high-ranking Pharisees were even there. I remember churches where pastors have titles and degrees, adept at their human theologies, and yet the sick there remain to be sick. [Image above by Kendal, Unsplash]. But Jesus did a spectacular miracle. You know what a shriveled hand is? "Shriveled" means wrinkled and contracted, says Google. It's atrophy and drying of a limb due to sickness, like extreme thinning of the hand and arm, and kindof twisted. See image below. The man in Mark 3 was suffering something like that. I imagine it to be severe, because the miracle created a sensation (besides being done on a Sabbath), so much so that the authorities wanted Jesus killed. Picture borrowed from thi

What caught my critical eye at once was the man with a shriveled hand in the synagogue in Mark 3. What was he doing there remaining unhealed? There were Pharisees around with the Herodians, so why didn't they pray for healing? Surely, their religious expertise have made them read about miracles and healing in the Old Testament done by God. But why did this man go on suffering from a shriveled hand? Why was there no miracle in the synagogue? [Picture above from Natanael Melchor, Unsplash]. What kind of synagogue was that? The members claimed to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but that man's hand remained shriveled--until Jesus came. Church is like that today. They worship Jesus, the Healer, but their very members remain sick and suffering from ailments. Even their pastors have maintenance medicines. Some even die of diseases or rushed to the ICU for serious medical attention. They know Jesus only as Savior. Jesus is a lot more than that. He is our Portion. Whe

In a way, Resurrection's good news is also about the grace that enables us to stop drinking from the cup of God's wrath, and having the enemy drink from it instead. By Jesus' rising from death through God's supernatural power, true believers become children of God spared from his wrath and given supernatural power to live his life on earth and do his ministry. [Picture above by Damir Spanic, Unsplash]. “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. 23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.” [Isaiah 51.22-23] But it doesn't end there. To a lot of church people, though, it does--escaping the wrath is the end--and all they have to do now is be active in  their church and in their ministries happily ever after. This is what they call church

It's imperative that we develop sensitivity to what God's mood is and what he's up to. Moses knew when God was mad and when he was pleased. More so Jesus, the Son. Thus, the church should ask why God is allowing the church to stop meeting during this Covid crisis. What's God up to? [ Image above from this site] . It's not something incidental, fortuitous or accidental. No such thing to God. Everything has a purpose. So why did he allow a stop to church gatherings? Persecutions have tried to close down churches but what we have today is something different (though it may eventually lead to it if the anti-Christ enters the picture and starts ruling the world). Church is closed down for safety and survival, even of its own members, from a deadly virus. God allowed the virus to make governments prohibit all types of gatherings the world over. This is unprecedented in world history. In the process, churches are affected. So it's far from being systematic perse

PRAYER THAT TOUCHES GOD'S HEART These are preparation times. The Bride must be glorious for the Groom. In Esther's time, it took 12 months to prepare before finally meeting the king--6 months of cleansing through myrrh and 6 months of special oil scents and sweet spices. [Image above by Isaac Ordaz, Unsplash]. Then the candidates would choose what they wanted to wear to please the king. But Esther decided to ask "for nothing but what Hegai suggested." Hegai was among the closest to the king, being in charge of the king's harem. He knew exactly what pleased the king. In effect, Esther was desperate about what the king desired while other girls fancied about what would make them look good. So Esther won the king's heart. It's not what you want for the king, BUT WHAT THE KING WANTS. Today, we are facing a global pandemic that shakes and reveals the true nature of things we think we can rely on. God is exposing hidden idols in hearts, baring

Unless God opens up the meaning of Scriptures to you, you won't understand any of it. At best all you'd get is what the smart and wise of this world also get--the letter--which kills, according to Paul the apostle. What counts in the Kingdom is getting the Spirit of the Word, not the letter. [Image above by Aaron Burden, Unsplash]. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. [2 Corinthians 3.6] The Spirit gives life, says Jesus in John. "The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life." So, it's the "spoken" Word you should get--spoken straight from God's own mouth--without which all you get is an intelligent appreciation of the bible. An earthly interpretation. Intelligent but it does not remove the veil that the god of this world has covered minds with. It cannot remove the curtain that keeps you from entering the holy of holies. The same thi

To protect itself  from worldliness, Acts church disciples (or followers of the Way) devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings [Acts 2.42]. The modern church doesn't. In fact, most church people today do not know what apostolic teachings are. In these last days when the devil is hellbent on deceiving even the elect (if that were possible), the church ought to devote itself to the apostles' teachings more than ever. [Photo above from Aditya Romansa, Unsplash] The ignorant think you have to be an apostle to be apostolic. Worse, they think the apostolic invents new gospels or adds new teachings to the Word of God. Fake apostolics may do that, but not the genuine ones. The apostolic simply means taking Jesus seriously and applying his spiritual principles to daily life and ministry as the apostles did--nothing more, nothing less. God's Word and ways alone. Nothing whatsoever of the world. Like the least being the greatest . It's a powerful teaching of Jesus [