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Showing posts from October, 2019

#123: The Jericho Encounter (1): Breaking the Barrier

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Jesus entered Jericho and made His way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. Luke 19:1-4 Blessed be the name of the LORD for granting us another opportunity to study His Word this week. By His grace, this study will be broken into 3 parts in order to understand the 3 major stages of the Jericho encounter that caused a remarkable turn around in the life of Zacchaeus. It is so wonderful to note that Luke 19 is a sequential continuation of the story in Luke 18, which ended with Jesus healing a blind man outside of Jericho. It must have been from the praise of the people that Zacchaeus heard of Jesus. It must have been the testimonies from this miracle that made the short man to be curious. He wanted to see J

#122: Let go and Let God

Just when you think you’ve got life all figured out, an extremely weak wind pulls your life–structure to the ground. However, to withstand hurricanes, you have to get the blueprint for your life from God. Matthew 16: 24-26 24-26  Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat;  I  am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? If you don’t allow God to be the manager of your life, you then put yourself under unnecessary stress, pressure and confusion when making life’s decisions. Also, you end up picking the wrong choices (career, life partner, place of habitation etc). You have to allow God to give you the direction for your life. It is however not that eas

#121: Business as Usual (This Same Jesus)

About eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white...Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus' glory and the two men standing with him (Luke 9:28-32) NLT Blessed be the name of our LORD Jesus who has granted us another opportunity to glean at His feet on this platform. As a form of background, we know that Peter, James and John were disciples of Jesus. They knew a lot about Jesus because they were practically following Him everywhere. This is true for many of us: who were brought up in christian homes, brought up in the church assembly, brought up to a habit of meeting with God daily through scripture reading and prayers. However, this particular day, the Jesus that Peter, James and John saw, was not the Jesus they had always known. It was not business as usual. They saw Jesus in His glory. Have you ev