Sunday Mornings

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23) Many processes in life have a course that they take - a direction that they must follow. For example, fluids will always flow from a region of higher pressure to a region of lower pressure, gravity will always pull everything towards the center of the earth, water will always flow downhill and heat will always flow from a hot object to a cold object. The writer of Proverbs also points us to a very important truth that most times we ignore or do not pay attention to. This truth is that the issues of life flow from inside out. But what does this mean to us? We actually spend the bulk of our life paying attention to the outside life (Matthew 15:11-20) and we wonder why we never get better with time. But Jesus addressed this when He said you brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right. For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good per...

Today is a special day as we mark the first Sunday in the year 2020. It is not by our own efforts that we’ve been able to see this day, but for the grace and mercies of God. 2019 might not have been the best year, but in all, we thank God for Life. Psalm 100 Amplified Bible (AMP) Shout joyfully to the  Lord , all the earth. 2  Serve the  Lord  with gladness  and  delight; Come before His presence with joyful singing. 3  Know  and  fully recognize with gratitude that the  Lord  Himself is God; It is He who has made us,  [ a ] not we ourselves [and we are His]. We are  His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4  Enter His gates with a song of thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, bless  and  praise His name. 5  For the  Lord  is good; His mercy  and  lovingkindness are everlasting, His faithfulness [endures] to all generations. · ...

Author: Horatio Gates Spafford  (1873) In November, 1873, Horatio Spafford sent his wife and four daughters on the French ship  Ville du Havre  from their home in Chicago to a vacation in France, planning to set out a few days later himself. Somewhere in the Atlantic, the  Ville du Havre  collided with a British ship coming the other way, and sank in just 12 minutes. Of his family, only Spafford’s wife survived.  Spafford took the next boat over, and as he passed the spot where the ship went down, began to write, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll,” and continued until he had the text, “It is well with my soul.” His good friend, Philip Bliss, composed the tune for his words, naming it after the ship, VILLE DU HAVRE.  In this hymn, Spafford has given all of us words of comfort and assurance in times of physical and spiritual crisis, paraphrasing those familiar words of Julian of Norwich: “And all shall be well...

But the people were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the LORD and said, "I will give half of my wealth to the poor, LORD, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!" Jesus responded, Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. Luke 19:7-10 By God's grace today we will be concluding our study on the Jericho encounter. I trust that it has been an awesome time at the feet of Jesus. Glory to God for the success of the previous studies and for bringing us to today's study. One thing of significance about people who ever encountered God is that they left something behind after the encounter, or they had to forgo something. The woman at the well left her jar pot and rushed to the city to tell others about Jesus. Pet...

When Jesus came by, He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. " Zacchaeus!" He said. "Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today."  Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled. (Luke 19:5-7) Thank God for His grace to continue this study. In our  previous study , God helped us to practically and deliberately identify things that stand between our savior and us and God's grace we saw practical steps to live above these barriers that prevent us from seeing Jesus. Today God will continue speaking to us from the story of Zacchaeus. May the entrance of His Word bring light and understanding to our hearts. Amen. The gospel and the bible at large can be summarised in this phrase: the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.  And we will be going into today's study in the l...

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...

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 howeve...