The Upward Way

 

An Emoji devotions for Fri November 19, 2021

Topic: The upward way

Highlights: 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:14 AMP

When a note is missing in music then you try to find it, while you keep on trying to hit the correct note and you can't all you need to do is to leave the song and find someone who could carry the note to take it. No matter how you try to sing, if you are hitting the wrong note people will not enjoy the song. The problem could stem from the instrumentalist and then to the audience. Even loved ones cannot bear the sound of a wrong note being sang by their family or friends. They will rather advice the fellow if everything is okay. 

The way that Jesus is talking about is not like the journey we walk with physical feet. It is just not that type of way. It is the right way - "The right way to do things". Let's revise the verse again fixing the phrase "the right way to do things" in John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the (the right way to do things) and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Your life depends on doing things right. Schooling ourselves in Jesus academy with the help of the Bible will give us the ability to do things the right way. 

In Matthew 7:14 Jesus Christ affirm that only few knows the right way things are done that pleases God. "But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it."

So sometimes or most times we could be wrong because It is difficult to go through the small gate. And it is difficult to walk on the narrow road. But when you do go that way, you will get true life. Not many people find that narrow gate.’ And even some people who find the Narrow gate may not be able to enter into it because it is an upward way. Once you are heavy there is no heaven. It is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a Needle and it is even more difficult for a rich person to let God rule in their life. 

Are you hitting the note right? Are you living in the truth? Is this in God's plan? See if you are genuinely born again or you are that big man who has setup a standard of selfrighteousness, who would not let God rule but thinking that God is ruling. 

PRAYER

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! In Jesus Name. 

My Mind is for Jesus

 An Emoji devotions for Sun 14th Nov, 2021

Topic: My mind is for Jesus

Highlights: 

If we say that we are living in God's true way, then we must live in the way that Jesus lived.

1 John 2:6 

The earth was without shape and it was empty. Deep water covered the earth and everywhere was dark. The Spirit of God moved above the water. God said, ‘There will be light!’ And there was light.  Can our light be like the light of Christ? The love of God is perfected in Him. In John 13:34, Christ commanded us to love one another. We should live in the light as He is in the light. Those who loves Jesus must live as he lives by loving others. 

Show that you love other people. Remember how much Christ loved us. He gave himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He offered himself in a way that pleased God, like a sacrifice with a lovely smell. You are for Jesus, and your Spirit is for him likewise. Show the world that your mind is for Jesus.

Prayer: Jesus you live forever deep inside of me as my role model and my King. My mind belongs to you. Take control. 

Waking up for the big transition

An Emoji devotions for Fri 12th Nov, 2021

Topic: Waking up for the big transition

All the Prophets of the Old Testament did not only prophecy judgment, but also a peaceful, glorious time to come after the horrors of the wrath of the Lamb. Jesus himself confirmed what the prophets have promised, that the people or Israel would be gathered again in its territory of old and would prosper there. The generation of our fathers and our own generation could watch how the country of Israel was resurrected step by step and developed to one of the leading nations of this world.

 Technically and agriculturally it rose from a barren and deserted and dry land to a wonderful irrigated garden, out of which many goods are exported into the whole world. In Isaiah 51 God says through his prophet: “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. 

Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. “Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations.” Many of us have witnessed all of the stages, but only few are aware that Jesus prophesied that the generation who is alive for these events will live till all of it has happened: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:34-35.) 

This means, that our generation will see the snapping away of the church and everybody, who is not ready for the rapture will have to enter into the seven years of judgment that are described in the book of revelation. The big transitions will take place in two very different phases, one very short one and one that will drag on for a total of seven years. 

At the sound of the last trumpet the rapture of the church will take place, which will take away about half of the confessing church of Christ according to the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25. Lots of people will disappear in the twinkling of an eye and all of those who are left behind will go through the judgments depicted in the book of revelation and one quarter of the world’s population will die in the first half of the seven years, either by sword, famine and plague or by the wild beasts. (Revelation 6, 8) With the disappearance of the church all hell will break lose on earth, because nothing will hinder evil anymore. The only way to be raptured and to escape the wrath of the Lamb is to accept Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior and to live with him.

It is high time all of us, who are believers, went to our friends, neighbors, relatives, to everybody we care for, to the roads and country lines to implore people to sign up for the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24). The days of judgment will be terrible and we would not even wish for our enemies to live through it. We have to wake up for a great rescue mission by inviting people into the kingdom of God. Eternity will not have a neutral place. We are going either to heaven or to hell. Both places are real. Naturally we are all on our way to hell and there is no way we can earn heaven on our own. We need the redeemer who has paid for our sins and transgression. He is inviting us to come to him by acknowledging that we are sinners, to give him the Lordship over our lives and to follow him. He then gives us life eternal and a place in heaven due to his mercy and grace. 

 Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I confess that I have kept your gospel often times for me, instead of urging the people around me to accept you as their Lord and Savior. Please give me the strength and love to implore everybody I am caring for to turn to you and to get saved by you. Let me be your witness and servant in these last days of the world as we know it. Amen.

My life’s pathway before the Lord

An Emoji devotions for Thu, November 11, 2021

Topic: My life’s pathway before the Lord

By Pastor Hans

Highlights:

A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the unplowed field of the wicked —produce sin. (Proverbs 21:2 - 4)

 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:17 – 20)

The New Testament tells us time and again that the King of Kings will return and we are supposed to watch and be ready for his arrival. “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” (Luke 12:35 – 36, just to mention only one reference out of the many). The main cause is the kingdom of God and all our efforts are supposed to let it shine, like it did when Jesus himself has walked the earth. He has sent us into the world, the same way his Father has sent him into the world (John 17, 18 and 20, 21) and he wanted us to win souls for his kingdom with a holy life as he has depicted it in the beatitudes and in all of his teachings. It is his kingdom we are supposed to be building, not our own.

 Exactly here are some dangers for all of us, because we all suffer from an inherent conceit with the tendency to believe that we are quite good people and that our path is quite strait and comparably well. Yes, we readily admit that we too have faults, but they are easily explainable with our deficient circumstances. Therefore we all believe that our own ways are quite right. It is a sacrifice to admit before the Lord that my own ways are crooked and that my conceitedness produces sin. The Lord weighs the heart and only the broken heart that is aware of its own depravity has the right weight. 

After the Apostle Paul has put down the theological concept of the gospel to the church in Rome, he sends many individual greetings to the people he personally knows. The church in Rome is in a good standing and he commends it for the exemplary obedience. Nevertheless he is concerned about the people who cause divisions, who do not serve the kingdom of God, but try to build their own kingdom with deceit. He commands the church to keep away from them as they intertwine good and evil. He wants the church to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. Evil has to be rooted out and that begins in my heart. If my heart is haughty, proud and conceited, I will produce sin, no matter how much truth I may spread. I need to be separated from everything that is evil. There is no other way to serve the good. People who ignore that are serving the evil, even if they may include some truth. Whoever serves evil will be crushed together with Satan under the feet of the church, when the God of peace appears. 

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, please search my heart. I do want to separate myself from everything that is evil. I am a sinner before you, but through Jesus Christ you have redeemed and accepted me. I praise you for your mercy and grace. Lead me through your Holy Spirit that I am wise in all that is good and innocent in all that is evil. Amen

 

Where do I go to? What is my destiny?

 

An Emoji devotions for Wednesday Nov 10, 2021

Topic: Where do I go to? What is my destiny?

by Pastor Hans

Highlights: Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. (Isaiah 50:10)

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (2 Peter 1: 19)

In Isaiah 50 the Prophet speaks about Israel’s sin and the total obedience of God’s servant. Jesus is sent into a dark place where he gets misunderstood, rejected and mistreated, but he knows one thing for sure: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!” (Isaiah 50:6 – 8)

 It is in that context that he invites people, who walk in the dark with no light, but fear the Lord and follow the word of his servant, to trust in the name of the Lord and to rely on God. The servant, who is the living word of God himself, knows the future of light: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. (Isaiah 60: 19 – 20)

There are times of darkness in our lives. We may feel trapped and stuck and every way out seems to be blocked. Peter is at the end of his earthly life, but he has two anchors to hold on to. One is his experience with the Lord himself, especially the transfiguration and the second one is the prophetic word, which he knows to be completely reliable. Peter knows that he is going out of the present darkness into the light and this is exactly, what is my and your destiny, if only we are followers of Christ Jesus. The living God told us the end from the beginning. By following him we do not know the details that are coming our way, but we know that we are called back to our creator to live together with him in his radiant light. Your destiny as a child of God is everlasting life in his presence. 

Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for being the servant of God, who has set your face like flint and you were not disgraced nor put to shame, but given a name, who is above all names. Give me the strength to trust in you, like you trusted in your father. Help me to put my face like flint by looking only up to your light, as you are my light and the light of the world. Jesus, in your holy name I pray.

Amen.  

Joy of salvation and feeling bad before God

An Emoji devotions for Tue November 9th, 2021

Topic: Joy of salvation and feeling bad before God

by Pastor Wenger 

Highlights: You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalm 51:16 – 17)

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. (Psalm 51:10 – 13)

King David is in deep trouble after his affair with Bathsheba. God is his refuge and strength. He knows the joy of salvation, the assurance that God is his shepherd. He can call out with conviction: “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.” (Psalm 62:5 – 7) Nevertheless he is now shaken and tormented by anxiety of losing the very stronghold he trusts in.

He feels bad and unworthy, he knows that his sin is separating him from God and he pleads for mercy: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” (Psalm 51:1 – 4) David is experiencing what every maturing follower of Christ has to live through. The joy of salvation, the knowledge that God has accepted me as his Child is indescribable. I just received life eternal and all my sins are washed away. God himself declares me to be a saint and he looks at me as if I would never have committed any sin.

 What a joy, what a glorious estate, what a reason to praise and worship the redeemer. With the justification, however, our sanctification starts under the lead of the Holy Spirit. In the justification through faith in Jesus we became a new heavenly creation, but we are still living in the flesh, which works against the godliness. 

The process of sanctification makes our life holier and more Christ like. At the same time it shows us how deeply depraved and unholy our flesh is and how much it still influences our daily living. The process of sanctification leads me individually to the acknowledgment that I am the foremost sinner in this world and that I am in need of grace and mercy before anybody else.

 The more I grow, the worse I feel concerning my own ego and the clearer and brighter the mercy and grace of God appears. My pride diminishes and my thankfulness for the Lord’s salvation begins to abound. Do not get depressed when you discover for yourselves that you are a failure, but take refuge in the Lord, like David did: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.” Your failure, your bad feeling will be the encouragement for somebody else to return to the Lord. 

Prayer: Almighty God, there is nothing within me I could be proud of except for you and your holy ways. Let me praise your salvation, let me confess my sins and my failures to you and praise you for your forgiveness and for the sanctification you are providing me. Amen.         

Representing the living God among the Nations

 

An emoji devotions for Mon, Nov 8th, 2021

Topic: Representing the living God among the Nations

By Pastor H. U. Wenger

Highlights: Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ (Isaiah 46:9 – 10)

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. (Revelation 3:11 – 12)

In Isaiah 46 God makes very clear that he is absolutely incomparable with any God of the Nations. He has carried Israel from its calling in Abraham and in verse 4 he even renews his vow: “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” He goes then on and asks in verse 5: “With whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?” The following description God gives from the making and handling of pagan Gods reveal how ridiculous Idols are. Years ago he has given Israel his law through Moses reminding them that he has proven himself with a strong hand. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Even then it has been difficult for the people to accept the one and only powerful invisible God, who declares the end from the beginning and brings about all he has promised, despite the unbelief and disobedience of his subjects. In the absence of Moses they quickly created an idol in the golden calf. Today, especially in the western world, people do rarely create visible idols, but it became common to violate the second commandment by inventing all sorts of ideas about the elements and the powers of the universe often related to the false gnosis the apostles fought against. 

The Almighty God gets often reduced to what seems feasible to the human mind. I see God as …, I worship God as … and so forth. For the Israelites the worship problem got visible in every new challenge. They always considered the material problem bigger than the divine power, although they had a daily experience of the supernatural force. In the end they missed out on the timely entry into the land of milk and honey, because they did not believe that God could give them victory over the people of the land and their fortified cities. In other words, they worshiped the givens of their circumstances more than the Almighty God. Nevertheless they were called to be an example for the nations and they were and they are still today. 

God has told them the end from the beginning and he does it again with the prophet Isaiah. Israel is still a sign for the nations and with it Jesus has made the New Testament Church to a sign for the world. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says to his disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Israel and the New Testament church are God’s calls to the world to turn to him because he is on the move to come back to his creation, to uproot and destroy all evil and to bring a reign of peace and justice to the fallen world. He declared it from the beginning and we are the generation who has the privilege to see it with our own eyes. He made it know from the beginning, he brought Israel back and now he is on the verge to rapture the church, to save Israel out of the coming troubles and come back as the prince of peace, as the king of all kings and the Lord of all Lords. Eventually he will gather all his redeemed subjects in that wonderful city, which will come down from heaven to a new earth within which there will be no evil no injustice, no crying, no sorrow, but only peace and joy. 

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, please help me to be victorious with you by trusting you and by believing that your powers and possibilities are always greater than all the obstacles and impossibilities I am encountering. You have a way even if I cannot see it. You have told us the end from the beginning and you have promised: “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” You know me as a big sinner and nevertheless you love me and grant me your mercy and grace. Thank you for ever and ever. Amen.