The Greatness of Lowliness

 

An Emoji Devotions for Wed 11th of August, 2021

Topic: The greatness of lowliness

By H. U. Wenger

Highlights: 

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”(Proverbs 3:34) Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:5b – 6)

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:9 – 10)

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” (1 Samuel 12:13 – 14)

Humility is nothing our time is teaching. 

I attended a coaching seminar, and I learned how to teach people to put themselves into the best light and to subtly highlight their achievement without overtly bragging. I do understand that this is somehow required in our competitive business world. Humbleness equals here weakness and psychologically it is viewed as self-belittling and putting oneself down. In the teaching of the Bible it is, however, not at all what lowliness or humility means.

At the core of the biblical understanding of meekness is the conviction that none of my achievements and accomplishments has the power to praise myself. Much more it praises my creator who has gifted me to do such outstanding things. Jesus mentions in John 15:5 – 6:  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” In other words, whatever we do without him remains nothing, even if it will look good and finds human praise. Deeds against the will of God are contempt for God and will ultimately get punished as the story of David and Bathsheba reveals, even if the sin against God and fellow humans gets forgiven. 

The most humble man that walked the earth was at the same time the greatest and the only perfect human being, the son of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. In John 13 we are shown how Jesus went up and washed the feet of his disciples. With it he did something, which was way below his status as their master and teacher. When he was finished with it he said to them: “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 

If you want to be admired by people, boast with your accomplishments and you will be envied. If you crave for authority, respect and grandeur, live in humility before the Lord according to the prophet Micah, Chapter 6, Verse 8:  “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you have humbled yourself even to the death on the cross for my redemption. Teach me how to humble myself under the obedience to your word. I am craving authority in sharing your gospel and your word. I have nothing to boast about, but with Paul I want to say, by the grace of God I am what I am. Amen.        

Being of one Mind

 

An Emoji Devotions for Tue 10th August, 2021

Topic: Being of the same mind

by H.U. Wenger

Highlights: 

Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. (Romans 12:16 KJV)

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:16 NIV)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:3 – 5)

Who is the greatest among us? Wherever there is a group of people, it is a very natural question that unconsciously pops up in the mind of the persons involved. What place do I have in this group? Am I bottom? Am I top? What is my role in the group? The Bible tells us to be of the same mind towards one another, or to live in harmony with one another. Could it be that there is a reason why the New International Version chose a more neutral phrase for the same Greek expression? The King James Version is closer to the Greek text. Be of the same mind has a connotation of consolidation of institutional powers. One person or a group of persons decrees how everybody has to think and whoever dares to think otherwise violates the unwritten law. Unfortunately the pattern is way too common in religious groups. The people in power are not allowed to be challenged or questioned. Whatever they decree is law for the group and delinquency is severely punished. Our highlight and the context thereof depict a pattern that is totally opposite to the slavery of mind. 

Being of the same mind, concerns above all the quality of relationship. Do I look down on the people around me, or do I hold them in high esteem regardless of their social status? In 1991 I went to Colorado for a study in counseling. The first intern I got assigned to was a woman, who was about seven years younger than me. I was disappointed, asking myself what a younger woman could possibly teach me. I was not humble at all I did not value her above me. In fact I looked down on her believing that I could not learn from her. Boy, did she correct my attitude even in my first session with her. I got totally humiliated, not by her, she treated me with respect and high esteem, but by the Lord, who showed me how conceited and selfish I was. I am telling you that story to show how easily we can fall into the trap. I would not have any problem to list many more of my failures. Being of one mind means: to have a higher esteem for the other person than for myself. I may think very different about many issues. That is fine. When it comes to the thinking about the people around me I should be of one mind towards the other, the mind Christ Jesus has towards me, the mind that asks not for my best interest, but for the best interest of the other. 

How can I be of service or of help for the other person? This is the question that helps to live out the mindset of our Lord. My own experience tells me that this comes not naturally. So easily we regard ourselves above others. We need to put our thinking under the obedience of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Prayer:  Dear Lord Jesus, you came into our world as the son of the most high, but you served all of us and saved us. Please let me be of the same mind towards all of my fellow human beings. Help me to see and to treat everybody around me with a higher esteem than I have for myself. Let me be salt of the earth and light to the world. Amen    

Holding the Line

An Emoji Devotions for Mon, 9th Aug, 2021

Topic: Holding the Line

By H.U. Wenger

Highlights: Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. (Jude 1 : 3)

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2. Timothy 3:1 – 5)

The topic of today is an unpleasant one because we normally love peace and quiet. Here we are called to contend for the faith that has been given unto us. Jude and Peter make both very clear that the Christian Community of the end times will be infiltrated by deceptive teachers who will somehow change the gospel and make it more suitable for the human flesh. Truth and deception will get craftily intertwined and the whole focus of the gospel will get shifted away from the glory of God to God’s longing for mankind. The totally depraved and fallen human beings who desperately need God’s salvation, his grace and mercy mutate to little gods. They can now be taught how to use their own inherent powers to live a prosperous and healthy life. 

It is not the place and not my task to expose the different false teachings around the world. My intension is only to call all of us as followers of Christ to pay attention to the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people according to Jude. Brothers and Sisters let us go back to the scriptures. Here we find the line, we are to hold. During my theological studies, there was a big emphasis on sound teaching. The drawbacks of it were legalistic tendencies that sometimes lead to very harsh and unjustified judgments. 

It got forgotten that for now we know in part and that a Christian has to be gentle and loving. Nevertheless it is my conviction that we should return to the habit of the Berean Jews from whom we read in Acts 17, 11: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Let us again examine the scriptures and not blindly follow teachers. It will help us to hold the line. We live in a time of exposure. We see it in the events that happen in the United States and elsewhere. 

We already know that Christian Churches have been involved in human trafficking and in other activities that are opposed to the biblical teaching. When more of this will be exposed, it may well lead to an onslaught on all churches and on the Gospel. Most likely there will not only truth be exposed, but the demonic realm will as well spread lies, and we will have to hold the line by contending and fighting for the faith according to the scriptures.

Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank you that you have saved me from the dominion of Satan and that I can now live a new life under your rule. I pray that you protect me from deception. Let me daily examine the scriptures and keep me close to you and your sound doctrine. In your holy name, I pray. Amen    

In God’s protective custody

 

An Emoji Devotions for Sunday 8th, August 2021

Topic: In God’s protective custody

by H.U. Wenger

Highlights: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6 – 7)

Verse 12 out of Psalm 33 is the motto above todays Sunday and above the coming week. Psalm 33 reminds us to praise the Lord as the one who has created heaven and by his word and their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. (Verses 6 – 9) 

He deserves praise and adoration, “for the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.” Blessed is, whoever belongs to him as son or daughter and is therefore a candidate for his inheritance. They have reason to be full of joy and expectancy. “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” (Verses 30 – 32)

The Psalm makes very clear that true help comes always from the Lord. The power of the king is worthless, a hero cannot be saved through his great strength and horses will not help either, they are too weak. I am glad for the verses 13 – 19, because they tell us difficulties, and tight spots are absolutely normal for our lives. God does not prepare us a smooth path, but in praising him, he shows us is strength and might and let us participates in it.

Many years ago, I was sitting in an airplane from Denver to Minneapolis-St. Paul. I was devastated. I flew to Denver to meet a representative of Colorado Christian University, but the appointment got forgotten. I was in a difficult situation and to be accepted as student in the counseling program of the university was like the last straw in my thinking. The failed appointment brought me in such a distress that I told God, it would be better the plane would crash. It did not although it has been the roughest flight I ever had. After a while, I began to pray – not to praise and not to adore – it was more the cry of a helpless child to his father and he saved me. Suddenly I had such a peace within me and a deep conviction that despite the failure at hand everything would fall into place and that I would get accepted as a student at the university. The peace of God had taken my heart and mind in protective custody. In the natural nothing has changed, but my innermost being was suddenly so sheltered from the storm that I could call my wife and tell her: Prepare for Colorado, I will get accepted. Dear Brothers and Sisters let us trust the Lord and give him praise and adoration. Many of his wonders do not take place in changing of situations, but in the renewing of our hearts and minds, in the God given conviction, that he never will forsake his kids or let go of them. 

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to put your trust in you in my hopeless and fearful situations. Let me praise and adore you for how you have saved your followers through the centuries. Thank you that your eyes are on those who fear you, on those whose hope is in your unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. I am one of them and I praise you for your unfailing love to me. Amen

Dangerous family politics

 An Emoji Devotions for Sat 6th February,2021

Topic: Dangerous Family Politics

Highlights:

As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."

Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?"
1 Samuel 18:7-8

You wonder why some family are shattered today? It's simply because the parents have made one of the siblings powerless by singing praise of the other. In the inward truth the plan is to stir up passion and to motivate the weaker one but in so doing, some brothers and sisters have hated each other. King Saul and David were not family by blood but by anointing.

What could he have more, some women (not all the women in the country) have sang praise of David more than King Saul and given to the king fewer credit to the shepherd boy. In order words we must warn our family members to beware of praise singers of men who could cause rift between peaceful family. Christian elders should beware of powerful factors in the causes which could lead to unhingment of mind in family.

King Saul later became mentally unbalanced and almost took David's life in the cause of taking back his credit. He totally lost it all because of political praise singers.

Prayer: Help me Lord to be mentally stable through peace found in the Salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

My Father, my son, and my Holy Spirit

An Emoji Devotions for Thursday 5th August, 2021

Topic: My Father, my son, and my Holy Spirit

Highlight: 

Daniel answered: Your Majesty, not even the smartest person in all the world can do what you are demanding. 

But the God who rules from heaven can explain mysteries. And while you were sleeping, he showed you what will happen in the future.

Daniel 2:27‭-‬29

....

As they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire parted the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 

And Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

2 Kings 2:11‭-‬12

Today's Devotional is an explanation of mysteries presented in biblical text as to what only God can do among men through His favorite people. Have you ever called God "My Father, My Son and My Holy Spirit"? perhaps you have by chance encountered God in some special way before.

I believe that some of you reading this devotional would have had that encounter with God before Hallelujah. So for those who don't know about having encounter with God will need to step up their Bible study and prayer game higher. 

"God made the four young men smart and wise. They read a lot of books and became well educated. Daniel could also tell the meaning of dreams and visions."

Daniel 1:17

It can't be done, except by the gods, and they don't live here on earth.”

Daniel 2:11 ..... But Daniel did it because He studies to know God through the Bible. Daniel was able to reveal a dream that was not told and interpreted it to the King Nebuchadnezzar (read Daniel 2:31-45) More so, He made King Nebuchadnezzar to bow down low and worship Daniel. Daniel 2:46 He even gave orders that incense be burned and sacrifice of grain be offered in honor of Daniel. 

As we delve further in today's devotional we  realizes that when Elisha saw* (note that word saw) that Isreal's calvary has taken away his master Elijah into heaven in 2Kings 2:12 the first thing he shouted was "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and it's horsemen" . This is not only a coincidence but a landmark legacy that Jesus later established the father, the son and Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:19 ... Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,". It is the power of the trinity that turns ordinary people to extraordinary. 

If you call God my father, then you should call Jesus My son, and the Holy Spirit my Holy Spirit.  James 4:8 says 

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

James 4:8 

Jesus said in Mark 16:17 that "Everyone who believes me will be able to do wonderful things. By using my name they will force out demons, and they will speak new languages.

We are talking about those who truly represents Jesus here on earth. Not people who are afraid of demons. Not run away from demon possessed neighbors because they hurt them. You must be sanctified because Holy Spirit does not stay in unholy place.

It is different thing to be saved through faith while it is another thing to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit. But Anyone who is saved must be sanctified and purged for God to make them His favorite. Sanctification is very important. 

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?. 1 Cor 3:16

That is what Apostle Paul summarizes in 2 Timothy 2:20-21 

"In a large house some dishes are made of gold or silver, while others are made of wood or clay. Some of these are special, and others are not. This is also how it is with people. The ones who stop doing evil and make themselves pure will become special. Their lives will be holy and pleasing to their Master, and they will be able to do all kinds of good deeds."

When you are Holy, you become special to God and He treats you with special honor. God said in Psalm 91:15 "When you are in trouble, call out to me. I will answer and be there to protect and honor you."

 

Prayer: My God in heaven, help me through my daily journey with you as I address you as "My Father, My Son and My Holy Spirit" in Jesus name I pray. AMEN. 

Prophesying

 

An Emoji Devotions for Tuesday, 3rd of August, 2021

Topic: Prophesying

Highlight: 

The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel's people out of Egypt. He used a prophet to keep them safe.

Hosea 12:13 

Trust the Lord your God. If you do that, you will be safe. Believe his prophets . If you believe them, you will win the fight.’

2 Chronicles 20:20b

If there is anything you need to quickly generate a miracles (I mean genuine miracles), that thing is to be prophesying in the name of Jesus. To be prophesying is like programming things in heavenly code. What are you prophesying? it is to be saying positive things that will happen in the future through the power of the Holy Spirit according to God's will in Jesus name. Yes in Jesus name. You ask why? because when you believe in God and believe in His son Jesus, you are registered and privileged to ask God anything through the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name, and God will do it (John 14:14). While Such things you ask for must be according to God's will. You must also be Holy and acceptable unto God to bring into reality the things you prophesied.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8 

The above scripture is a prophecy that our Lord Jesus Christ prophesied to everyone who believes and does what the Lord commands and up till date it is happening to all believers all over the world. That's the power of prophecy. To call for action, things that will glorify God in future. 

Prophecy is a gift of Holy Spirit. You cannot buy the gift of God with money Acts 8:18-20. You need to receive the Holy Spirit by giving your life to Christ and by living a Holy life. When you prophesy, you can change the unchangeable and also break protocols.

David in the Bible prophesied that He will cut off Goliaths head and feed it to the birds and it happened 1 Sam 17:46, 54

Once you have received the Holy Spirit, watch your tongue. Do not let any frustration cause your tongue to prophesy negative words from your mouth. Luke 9:54-55

From today onward, it is important to know the powerful weapon of prophecy and use it as a gift to minister to the world according to the will of God by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name.

Prayer: In Jesus name I receive the mandate and power to prophesy according to the will of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name. Amen