March Forward

 An Emoji Devotional for Mon, 13 March 2023

Topic: March Forward

Highlights: 

The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. Job 17:9 NLT

Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”

Psalms 95:1‭-‬11 NLT

Prayer: Father, Give us grace to do what you tell us so we can have peace and rest. 

Urge to Succumb

 

An Emoji Devotional for Sat, March 11 2023

Topic: Urge to Succumb

Highlights: 

“Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Deuteronomy 1:6 LSB

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 4:18

There may be some burden in your heart but you should not feel that God is not concerned. God knows you weep and why you do not eat and why your heart is sad? He said Am I not better to you than everything in this world? “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Matthew 6:25-26 LSB

God knows your struggles and know what you need. You have stayed long enough at this mountain. That urge to murmur or groan is on you but do not let it come out of your mouth to report that urge. 

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” John 11:40

An instruction from God will precede the victory over that urge to retreat into wrong decision that surrender to defeat. Do not stay too long on the urge but rather bless the Lord at all times and Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, i say, on the LORD.

Turn and set out, and go to the hill country..... as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have given over the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.’

 Deuteronomy 1:7‭-‬8

Trust in the promise. Release the urge and do not let it injure your progress no matter what. 

Prayer: God of Isreal give me peace; and grant your petitions that I have asked of you according to your riches in glory in Jesus name. Amen 

How can I come to spiritual maturity and be ready to enter the kingdom of God?

An Emoji Devotional for Thursday, March 9 2023

Topic: How can I come to spiritual maturity and be ready to enter the kingdom of God?

By Pastor Hans Wenger

Growth takes time, but the good news is that the moment you got saved by the grace of God, you became a citizen of the kingdom of God and you will be admitted to this glorious but still invisible land, if only you remain a true disciple of Christ. 

The big danger we are facing is the problem of back-sliding. We read the gospel and we are touched by God’s grace. We read the Sermon on the Mount and we tremble over the seriousness of God’s demand for a holy life. We realize that none of us can remain clean before God and that everybody is totally dependent on God’s grace and mercy. Considering what Jesus adds to the law of old, it is very clear that we all are haughty, hypocritical and corrupt, we all are murderers, adulterers, perjurers, revenge seekers and evil judges of others. In contrast to this Jesus demands: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5, 44 – 48)

Even teachers of the Holy Scripture have succumbed to the theory that the Sermon of the Mount is an unreachable ideal, nobody can live out and therefore it would not make any sense to aspire toward it. Men and women found many interpretations to circumvent the Sermon of the Mount and other parts of the biblical teaching. Did Scripture not tell us, that we only have to confess to Jesus our transgressions and that he would forgive and cleanse us? With that people are encouraged to live as they please and it is enough to repent once in a while and demand forgiveness. This is exactly what Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. He illustrated that with a short story. The children did not want to go to bed in the evening. Then the father entered their room and commanded: “Children, you have to go to bed now. I do not want you to be tired in the morning. You need your sleep.” The father left the room and the children gathered together and praised the goodness of the father, who does not want them tired. “But”, they said, “Because we can relax by playing as well as we could by sleeping, our good father really meant, that we should continue with our play.” Which earthly father would tolerate that? Why should or heavenly Father be content with it? There is no cheap grace. Hebrew 12:14 tells us: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no-one will see the Lord.”

God wants us to aspire towards a holy and perfect life. Scripture encourages us time and again to lay down the works of our flesh and to put on the newness of life. “Liberalism has awakened a tendency to adapt scripture to a fleshly pagan lifestyle, whereas scripture tells us: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22 – 24; compare, Ephesians 5:1 – 20; Philippians 2:1 – 16:3, 13 – 21; Colossians 3:1 – 17; 1. Corinthians 6:1 – 20; Galatians 5:13 – 26 and many more) 

Flee liberalism and the ideas of the falsely so called enlightenment, which teaches that man has to free himself from moral and religious boundaries. He has to exit out of his self-inflicted immaturity by setting his own logical law and rule. God’s rules, standards and laws are not needed anymore. Through his own reasoning, man has outgrown his dependence or a law, given by a higher authority. The present chaos and lawlessness among people shows us, especially in the western world, what such a theory leads to. John 1 makes us clear that God’s word is Jesus in written form and the same word has created everything and is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore stay close to the word of God and submerse yourself into it and follow it in obedience!

On the same token flee legalism, because it destroys love and relationship. Often times, legalism is a counter reaction to liberalism, but it divides and paralyzes the body of Christ. The body of Christ has many members and many tasks. Before anything else, we are called to love and appreciate each other in high esteem; even if we may differ here and there in our understanding of scripture. If we are born-again and can wholeheartedly agree to the Apostolic confession of faith, we are brothers and sisters and should do our best to love each other with the love Christ has commanded us in John 13, 34 – 35; 14, 23; 15, 9 – 16 and in many other references trough out the bible, especially in the Epistels of the apostle John.

Knowledge of God’s word connected with the love of Christ Jesus is the only real way for spiritual maturity and spiritual maturity means intimate knowledge of God. In John 17, 3 Jesus tells us: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.“

In Hosea, Chapter 4 the Lord laments: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.” It is very interesting what the Lord says here, especially, if we take verse 6 with it. “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children“.   Just think for a moment what this could mean concerning our daily complaints about the climate change and the dangers of it? 

Our faith needs to be rooted in the word of God for being deep and stable. 

The question in that stage is not any more whether we will enter the kingdom of God or not. We are already living in the kingdom of God because we have it in us. Remember, Father and Son entered our heart and made a dwelling within us and we became a temple of the Holy Spirit. The more we trust and live with the Christ in us, the more we are already living in the kingdom of God and we only wait that our life, Christ, gets revealed and we with him in glory. 

We are never to forget, what 1. John 4, 4 – 6 tell us: „You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

In Ephesians 4, 11 – 16   Paul tells us the aim of growth: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed to and fro by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus let me be a faithful student of your word and reveal your knowledge and your wonders to me. Let me grow to a perfectly functioning member of your body, guided by you as the loving and caring head of the body. Amen

How can I live a God pleasing life?

An Emoji Devotional for Monday, March 6 2023

Topic: How can I live a God pleasing life?

By Pastor Hans Wenger

After having surrendered to God and dedicated my future life to his guidance, I need to look back and see what has really happened. I have left the rule of darkness, sin and death. Through the blood of Jesus, he shed for me on the cross, I got cleansed from all of my sins and I have been legally admitted into the kingdom of God. I have Jesus Christ accepted as my Lord and Redeemer and he has entered my heart and dwells now within me. This makes me to his follower and disciple. 

Before Jesus went back to the Father, he commissioned his disciples as follows: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’

The next step now is learning to obey God’s commandments and to get baptized. Baptism is a visual depiction of what happened in the spirit. By getting immersed into the water, I am dying with Christ to this present world, and by emerging from the water I am re-birthed into a new life in the kingdom of God. I am now born-again out of water and spirit. The Holy Spirit has entered me when I invited Jesus into my heart. With the Holy Spirit I received eternal life and that means that I have regained the life Adam and Eve and all of mankind have lost in their fall in Paradise. The eternal life and the glory of it are not yet fully visible. They remain hidden in God until Jesus Christ will be revealed as the King of the kingdom of God in the latter days. (Colossians 3:1 – 4) 

It is very helpful to read Chapter 3:1 - 21 in the Gospel of John at this juncture. As I am now born again and have received the Holy Spirit, I am now equipped for the understanding of the word of God. “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1. Corinthians 2:14)

In order to obey God’s commandments, I need to know them and that is the reason I need to immerse myself now into the word of God. I recommend starting with the Gospel of John. It depicts best that following Christ has nothing to do with religion, but everything with relationship with God and with people.  Also Matthew Chapter 3 to 7 can be very helpful to understand that there is no way for us to reach salvation through keeping the law. We will always fall short and therefore need God’s grace and mercy. On the same token it is very important that you surround yourself with a group of followers of Christ with whom you can exchange your thoughts and experiences. I do not need to figure out everything myself. It can be very helpful to ask and to discuss the meaning and understanding of different topics. 

I am now trying to just give you some guidelines that may be helpful in your walk with the Lord.

Faith and trust 

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.“ (Hebrew 11:1) We all live in this present world, but we are Aliens, we are citizens of the kingdom of God. That means that between what we know to be true and our daily experience is a gap. As we begin to walk with the Lord, this can irritate us. We know we have eternal life, but we experience dividing death. We are therefore in danger to somehow weaken the assurance about what we do not see. I hold it for true that Jesus will come again and rapture his church, but I do not much to be ready for encountering him. To hold something for true and to have faith are two different things. Faith knows that what is promised will come into existence, no matter what and it fully and literally trusts every word of God. 

An artist had a rope stretched over a big waterfall and balanced back and forth over the roaring waters. He then took a wheelbarrow and pushed it over the waters. As he was back again he addressed the crowd by asking: “Do you trust me that I can sit a man into the wheelbarrow and cross the chasm again?” The crowd jeered and scanted: “We trust you, we trust you,” but got very quiet when he asked: “Who volunteers?” Suddenly a young man stepped forward and said: “I do!” He safely crossed the waters with the artist and the crowd jeered again. The young man had faith and trust. The crowd only held it for true, but doubted in the heart. 

Have faith in the word and take it literally for you and you will make wonderful experiences with God.

Surrender and dedication.

In my conversion, I have surrendered to God, received the Holy Spirit and became a child of God. I do not need to repeat that. However, by trying to be a sincere follower of Christ, I will catch myself time and again with mistakes and sins. This can discourage me and I may hold myself for a failure or just pretend that my behavior is not sinful and flawed at all. Both reactions are wrong. The apostle John teaches us in his first Epistle about the subject. I will just quote the main verses from the first chapter, but it is very helpful to read chapter 2 as well.

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” (1. John 1:5 – 10)

This is not a new conversion; it is much more a means of sanctification and growth. 

We need to dedicate ourselves to discipline, to prayer and to the study of the bible. If I struggle time and again with the same sin, it may be helpful to talk about it with a friend or to go for counseling. I need to force myself to reserve a certain time of the day for my audience with God and for my prayers. If we do not fix a prayer time, we may have not time for prayer. The devil does not want us to study the word and to pray.    

Obedience

Follow the word of God in your heart. Recently I had to give my opinion about a man, who does some questionable teaching and I judged him rather harshly. On the same day I searched for the parable of the speck and the plank. The bible server guided me to Mathew 7. I opened it and the first thing I saw were the following verses: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. These are the verses 1 and 2 of Matthew 7 and with verse 3 the parable of the speck and the plank begins. I was caught cold. I had grossly violated respect and love for the brother in question. Nevertheless my ego searched for justification and a way out. Well, I was concerned about missing clarity and truth was kind of an excuse, but in my heart I was fully convicted that I had sinned against God and a brother. I had to repent according to first John 1:9.

Do not try to justify yourself, as I did, when you feel in your heart that you are guilty. Come to Christ and confess in obedience to his word. If you try to escape, you are saddening the Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to follow you as your diligent disciple. Help me to grow and to be changed into your example. Thank you for helping me and for being with me at all times. I love you and I want to learn from you. Amen

 

How can I come to spiritual maturity and be ready to enter the kingdom of God?

My future as a follower of Christ Jesus

How can I become a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ?

 An Emoji Devotional for Fri, March 3 2023

Topic: How can I become a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ?

By Pastor Hans Wenger

Do you know Jesus Christ? Before following somebody and even much more important, allowing to be educated and thought by somebody, we should certainly know, who that person really is. Let us check out, what we know about him. Talking about him, we need to forget about religion or about a religious system. Although Christianity as we know it has built such e system, it is never what he meant. His life on earth was much more geared to destroy the religious system of the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus Christ was strictly and thoroughly relational concerning the divine and the profane. He did not introduce a new religious cult, but made clear that everything is dependent on the personal relationship between God and man as well as between man and man. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ (Matthew 22:35 – 40) 

Let us hear what the Apostle Paul says about Jesus Christ in his Epistle to the Colossians: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:13 – 23)

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man and therefore the mediator between God and man. “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” (Apostle Paul, in 1. Timothy 2:1 – 6)

Now, as we know just a little of who, Jesus Christ is, we will look how he invited people to follow him. He began his preaching by telling: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17b) “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.‘ Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18 – 21) 

It is today exactly the same as it has been then. Jesus calls people to follow him and he will give them rest and life eternal. He is man’s only chance to get saved from certain death and condemnation. The story of Peter and Andrew, James and John make us clear that following Jesus is not only a decision, but a turn around, a change of direction. They turn away from what has been determined their lives till now and submit now to a new direction. Jesus taught: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’ 

The same way it has not been cheap for God to reconcile us – it has cost him his beloved son – it is not cheap for us to surrender our lives to God. It costs us our phantasies about life and accepting that true life cannot be found but in God. Even though our walk with God is likely to begin with a prayer of surrender, it is much more than just a prayer of surrender. In Luke 15 Jesus tells us the parable of the two lost sons. The younger one has searched his life in worldly pleasures. He went away from the father. His repentance was not so the prayer (Luke 15, : “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants,” but much more in the humility to turn back to the Father and the acknowledgment that his own way has brought him almost to his demise. His return triggered the Father’s mercy and grace and he was accepted as a “new-born” son. “‘But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

The Father waits for you too! Make the decision to go back to him and be a follower of Christ Jesus. You will not be rejected. John tells us about Jesus: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:11 – 13) Moreover, Jesus said in Luke 15:7: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.”

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father. I acknowledge that I have lived my life without you. I have searched my own way and I have sinned against you by searching for fulfillment outside of you. I am guilty before you and I pray for your mercy and grace. I truly repent from all my crooked ways. Thank you that your son, Jesus Christ, has paid for me with his blood and that I therefore can be clean before you through your grace. Please come into my heart and guide me in your ways through your Holy Spirit. Renew me from the inside out. Thank you that you accept me as your born again son / daughter. Amen. 

Tell somebody your decision today and look for a community of true followers of Christ, with whom you can share life. The blessings of the Almighty God be with you!

 

 

How can I live a God pleasing life?

How can I come to spiritual maturity and be ready to enter the kingdom of God?

My future as a follower of Christ Jesus

Why should I become a follower of Jeshuah Hamashiah? (Jesus Christ)

An Emoji Devotional for Wed 28th February, 2023

Topic: Why should I become a follower of Jeshuah Hamashiah? (Jesus Christ) 

In the beginning created God heaven and earth and started a time-flow. The earth was at that time totally dark, without form and void. So God called light into it and called the light day and the darkness he called night. “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:5b) God goes then on with creation as you can read it in Genesis 1:6 and following verses. On the sixth day, after God had created several animals, God said:  ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26 – 27) In Genesis 2:7 God gives us some details about the creation of man: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In the Hebrew text now, it does not say “the breath of life”, but the “breath of lives.”  That breath has given man a threefold life. Firstly the life that connected him to God and eternity and enabled him to live in the presence of God, secondly a spiritual life that gave him his own personality and thirdly the biological life like the one God has given to the animals and to all living creatures. The first life gave them glory and radiance and made them King and Queen over the whole creation. 

In the garden God has created as the palace of their reign, there was only one tree that was not under their dominion. God warned Adam, telling him that if they were to eat from that tree, they would die. The devil tempted Eve in the form of a serpent and explained to her, that God did not inform them well. The fruit would not bring death, but rather a higher knowledge about good and evil that would make them like God. Although they had perfect living conditions and free access to God, they did not go to discuss the ideas of the serpent with God. They grew suspicious about him and eventually trusted the serpent more than the Creator. Both of them ate from the fruit of the tree and immediately they died and lost their eternal life. It became visible for them as they instantly lost their heavenly radiance and they found themselves naked and full of shame. They felt compelled to hide. The Bible tells in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because we all have sinned in Adam and Eve, death came through to everybody, but in Christ Jesus everybody has the chance to regain the life, lost in Paradise. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the many will be made righteous. The bible tells us that the second life of man, his personality, does not die, but will eventually bow before God and be judged by him according to his or her deeds. “Then (after death) shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2. Corinthians 5:10)Adam and Eve lost their heavenly clothing and realized their nakedness, now they began to look to each other like bloodsuckers who desperately need a host to nourish them. As both now had their individual knowledge for good and evil, they ended up sucking on each other because there was no satisfying host available to suck on. They began to blame each other and produced all the human vices as they are mentioned in Galatians 5:19 – 21: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” They had to leave the garden so that they could not eat from the tree of life, which would have perpetuated the abominable situation. Mankind before the great flood deteriorated incredibly. The Bible tells us: “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created – and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground – for I regret that I have made them.’” The Flood was, however, not the end of mankind. God saved many animals and eight people in the arc of Noah. Later he called Abraham and eventually the people of Israel and made clear that in the end he wants to save as many people as are willing to accept his invitation in Jesus Christ. 

He came as a man to us, lived with us a perfect, sinless, live and died for us on the cross. With that he redeemed us with the Father and gave us the possibility to get saved in him. He calls us today, telling us: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 – 30) ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6) “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 14, 37) 

He made clear that he will return to his church in the last days, which will be very similar to the times of Noah. The Apostle Paul tells us in his epistle to Titus how he and his fellow disciples have been invited into the new arc in Jesus Christ: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3 – 7)

You are invited to come to Christ. He does not reject anyone, who comes to him. He is your only chance to regain the life we all have lost through the sin in Paradise and through our personal sins. Jesus is ready to accept you – do not miss out on securing your eternal happiness.  

Prayer: Christ I'm ready to come home to the right family and level where my senses should function as someone enlightened and redeemed. Please accept me first as I accept you into my Spirit. Take possession of me and lead my soul to your eternal life where I will live to glorify my God. In Jesus name. amen. 

God calls you - Be my Valentine!

 

An Emoji Devotional for Tue 14th Feb, 2023

A Valentine Special 

Topic: God calls you - Be my Valentine!

By Pastor Hans Ulrich Wenger

 From early age men and women around the world dream of becoming the very special person of someone else. Somebody who makes me feel at home, somebody who assures me that we belong to each other, no matter what may happen around us. Such human encounters can euphorically magic wonderful colors before our eyes and wild dancing butterflies into our stomach. 

 We cannot help falling in love with the most precious person who just invited me to be his or her Valentine. It is romantic, exquisite and at least for the moment happiness seizes us, and we experience all our longings satisfied. Dating relationships, and covenants for life often start exactly that way, but our short life-span as human beings makes the “forever” always limited. 

Have you ever entertained the thought that God calls you to be his valentine for eternity? 

This is no joke; he actually does exactly that for you! He says: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’ (Jeremiah 31:3) Originally he speaks here to his chosen people Israel, but Jesus made clear, that in him every person in the whole world is meant. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’” (Matthew 11:28 – 30)

 God has put Adam and Eve in a perfect world in the Garden of Eden. They lived in the presence of the Holy Trinity and had free access to the creator, but they decided to trust the words of the serpent more than their creator and brought themselves under the dominion of death, of the separation from God. With the curse of having now an individual knowledge of good and evil, they brought strife, hate, war, murder and tyranny among themselves. They were created for life in Paradise and were now forced to live in a world within which with everybody and with everything is something wrong. Eventually Jesus Christ, the son of God, became human and lived a perfect and sin free life among us and sacrificed himself to overcome death, the main enemy of man. Through his victory over evil, death and all the powers of the darkness he can now give life eternal to all who are willing to surrender to him. He is the way, the truth and the life and nobody comes to the Father except through him. (John 14:6)  

Surrender to him means to accept that God is absolutely good and that I am willing to submit my own will under his will. With this attitude I am willing to learn from him and to be changed into his image. ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ (John 17:1 – 3) Whoever comes to him becomes a child of God and belongs to the bride of Christ. Together with him God’s children will inherit the kingdom of the Father.

Today God calls you – be my Valentine and I will give you rest for your soul and life eternal. Take the step and you will most certainly never rue it. 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, today I come to you confessing that I have sinned against you and against my fellow men and women. I pray for your forgiveness and I surrender to you and I want to learn from you. I invite you into my heart and pray that you will change me from the inside out, so that I am beginning to spread your love and your character. Thank you, that your forgiveness makes me clean from all my sins. Help me to grow into your image.