Walking By Faith

And they all lived happily ever after... I am sucker for happy ever afters! I love happy endings and sappy romantic feel-good movies. Growing up, I loved to read books, particularly fiction, and before reading any book, I would flip to the last few pages to see if it had a satisfactory/happy end. If it didn't, I lost all enthusiasm and concluded that it was a pointless book. Happy endings are really not realistic, some might say and that is oftentimes the case. I mean, even as Christians (or should I say especially as Christians) we encounter some pretty difficult and sometimes grim life situations. Life seems to knock us down, the devil never lets up on us, and it seems like there is ALWAYS something going wrong. And in the event that everything starts going smoothly, a feeling of impending doom begins to develop and lurk in the back of our minds. Your life right now may seem like all hell's breaking loose and there seems to be no end...

Question: What is wonderfully exciting, yet mundane? Filled with happiness and joy, yet infused with moments of sadness and deep sorrow? You guessed it...LIFE!. This life that we have been blessed with can be quite an exciting adventure. But it could also be nightmare, especially when something terrible happens. I mean, one minute, you can be laughing so hard that tears begin to streak down your cheek, and the next moment, weeping so hard that you feel like your heart's about to break from the burdens that sorrow can bring. I'm sure you've had such moments (and if you haven't...well...yeah...be prepared).  When I was younger, after having received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, for the umpteenth time I might add (no one had yet explained to me the process of sanctification...but that's another topic for another day), I thought my life would be smooth sailing from then. Thus, whenever I encountered a hard circumstance, I thought, "I must be doing...

So...The Voltron Effect...a curious topic, huh? "What is Volton?", some of you might be wondering. Yet some of you already know what or who I'm referring to. Voltron is a cool superhero from the popular 80's animation series,  "Voltron: Defender Of The Universe" . I loved this animation growing up, and I must admit, I still love it (I guess the child in me is still very much alive...LOL!). I loved everything about this animation, but one of the most exciting parts was the formation of Voltron. This short video clip should give you a glimpse of what I am talking about (It's about 1 minute so please bear with me): Now that's very cool, isn't it? Five ordinary kids coming together and becoming one powerful defender of the universe. This reminds me of what the Body Of Christ looks like when it is unified. The fight for unity in the Body of Christ has been one frought with much difficulty. Why is that? Why is there so much division i...

Are We There Yet? Part 3 "...If that is the case, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hands, O king. But if not , let it be known to you...we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up...". Daniel 3:16-18, NKJV   In Part 2 of this series, we discovered three reasons (as revealed in John 11) why God has us in the waiting room of life, so to speak. We also happened upon an important question: If what you are expectantly waiting on God for doesn't happen, what would you do? What next? This is a hard question to contend with. I mean, we've been waiting for quite a while for our breakthroughs, right? We've done all the right things, said all the right things, believed and held on in faith. That breakthrough belongs to me, you think! It has been ingrained in us as Christians, and even in our culture, that if you work hard, you will receive a great reward. ...

So...waiting. Nobody likes to wait...at least I don't. Impatience seems to be something we are all well acquainted with, especially in this day and age. But waiting is inevitable. In fact, you had to wait a whole week to get part 2 of this encouragement...hope you were patiently expectant while waiting :) In Part 1 of this, we looked at the story of Lazarus as depicted in John 11, and we happened upon three reasons God has us wait for our break-throughs:   To reveal His Glory (John 11:4) To reveal His love for us (John 11:5-6) To mature and help us believe and trust in Him (John 11:15). To Reveal His Glory "This sickness is not to end in death; but [on the contrary] is to honor God and to promote His glory, that the Son of God may be glorified through (by) it." [John 11:4, AMP]. Sometimes, our break-throughs don't occur as quickly as we'd like because God wants to reveal and promote His glory, both to you and to those in your sphere of inf...

  There are times as Christians, and as humans for that matter, it seems like we're constantly playing the waiting game. Waiting for dreams to come to pass; Waiting for Mr or Mrs Right; Waiting to have children; Waiting for children to grow up and leave the nest; Waiting to get a job...the list goes on and on. You'd think by now we would have mastered the art of waiting but our lack of patience is evident in our everyday lives, from microwaveable foods to drive-thrus. In fact, this generation has been often called the "microwave" generation. We want everything now, now, NOW! We rush into things like relationships, business deals, etc because waiting doesn't seem to be in our vocabulary. It seems we are rushing to get nowhere fast! As Christians though, we are encouraged to master the art of waiting. Now waiting can paint the picture of passivity, but that's not the case. Waiting on God is actually spiritual warfare; It is actively and confidently expectin...

There are some times we go through life and we feel very lonely. The weight of our circumstances seem almost too much to bear. It seems like we are in the thick of the storm, and nobody knows where we are or what we are going through...nobody seems to understand. Boy have I been there! I was in a new place, with new people and I felt extremely lonely. Things I had thought would work out didn't seem to be working out. Plans I had made seemed to be crumbling all around me, and nobody really understood what I was going through. My very existence seemed questionable and at one point I wondered if anybody would care whether I was alive or dead. I cried out to God, and He didn't seem to care either. No response. No joy. No peace. Lots of tears. Then one day, I decided that to seek God out by looking for a new church. I'd been going to another church with the people I was living with at that time but I couldn't seem to hear the Voice of God. So, I decided to look for another...