January 14th - Watchman Nee's The Joyful Heart

January 14th's speaks of what happens if we sin, but yet still continue in our relationship with God.

 

We would: 

• feel the distance in our relationship with Him
• feel that we can't worship or communicate with Him that spontaneously no more.
  which is so true for me, as after I sin, I find it hard to get back into worshipping Him like how I could before I commit any wrongdoings. 

What we should do:

• Confess our sins to Him
• Ask for His forgiveness 
• Repent  

The Book of Genesis - Chapter 1 to 7

I recently acquired a daily devotional version of the Bible (NIV version), which is just the book I've been looking for quite some months. Alas.
As follow, are selected points which what impacted me one way or another.

• God is majestic
  - Having created the universe with multitudes of stars, which according to scientists, is equal to all the grains of the sands on all beaches of the world. Yet to imagine, that all these stars function orderly and efficiently.
  - The fact that our galaxy spins at 490,000 miles per hour - where it'd take our galaxy 200 million years to make one rotation across the entire universe. Over one billion other galaxies like ours exists in the universe.
  
  
  
• God is infinite
  Which simply means, that He exists before it all. We could never comprehend on this fact, based on our finite understanding.
  
  
  
  
  

• Even God rests!
  He rested on the seventh day after having six full days creating the universe, which includes the world we live in. We too, as God demonstrated, needs rest.
  
  
  
• God allows us to make choices in life, to obey Him or disobey Him
  He did not impose certain things upon us, simply because He does not want us to obey out of anything but our own choices.
  Adam was told not to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet, a tree which God had placed in the very garden where Adam dwelled, where He could have made it impossible for Adam to even reach to the tree himself.
  
  
  
  
  

• Be honest with God about our everything, even when we make terrible mistakes.
  Adam tried to hide the fact that he sinned when questioned by God.
  

• To confess when we are in the wrong, and to repent - not blaming others to 'save ourselves' from sin.
  God knows every truth there is, so each of us are held responsible for whatever our acts may be. Adam and Eve did not confess, instead they blamed others for their sins.
  
  
  
• God cares about every detail of every individual there is.
  Family lineage, from Adam's family down to his descendants were recorded with specific details, like name, children, age at death, etc.
  
  
  
  
  

• Do not worry about things beyond our control, so that we can focus on the things that are within our control.
  Noah did not worry about how he would round up all the animals to the ark that he was to build, but surrender the matter to God. Then, he stayed focused throughout, on building the ark.

Rest in Peace, Susan (1948 - 2009)

Susan Atkins
Born May 7, 1948

San Gabriel, California, U.S.
Died September 24, 2009 (aged 61)

Chowchilla, California, U.S.

I've just checked on one of my Facebook groups, and on Wikipedia - and found out that Ms. Atkins has already passed away recently, in late September. Even closing in to her death, the parole board would not set her free - people still remained unforgiving to her, despite the fact that she was already reborn and dwelled consistently in Christ.

So, she didn't get to spend time with her family and friends, not til' her death bed (least that's what I read from Wiki). She have suffered a lot during recent years due to sickness - she would really enjoy much more better in Heaven after having faced personally our Lord God the Father.

When God seems distant - Chapter 14 off 'Purpose Driven Life'

This happens as part of trial to test our friendship with Him. To get a picture on how this could end up be, take a look at what happened to Job's life. His was the most extreme case.

When this happens - what should we do? To keep on doing the thing we do with Him when we're up in our lives - like praising Him, talking to Him, etc. That's the challenge.

January 12th - Watchman Nee's The Joyful Heart

Message: If we are truly walkin with the Lord, we would always be in clear on what His wishes, wants, desires, and what nots in regards to direction, etc for our life.

We need no intermediaries to tell us in a nutshell (unless of course that He desires for things to be so, cos He works in ever new ways, which men could never make sense of).

January 11th - Watchman Nee's The Joyful Heart

January 11

God is a good listener - very good one.
Proof: Book of Job, where 35 out of 42 chapters which recorded nothing but conversations between several men, namely Job and his friends.

Message: Feel free to talk to our heart's content to the Lord.

January 9th & 10th - Message(s) I got off Watchman Nee's 'The Joyful Heart':

January 9th
To live life not in the dark, but as transparent as possible even in the eyes of men.
For He knows everything of us, watching us like 24/7.


January 10th
Just as how the Lord has treated you, treat the others the same.
For we are forgiven, so should we forgive others.
For we have the priviledge of grace, so should we grant grace to others.

January 8th

Message I got off Watchman Nee's 'The Joyful Heart':

To throw everything old of us, for Christ to work fully in us.

From the works of 'Watchman Nee' - The Joyful Heart

Following are the messages I got, from my reading off the book 'The Joyful Heart - Daily Meditations' by Watchman Nee.
I personally wish to thank my friend, Ashlee for sending me the book after she had done reading it.


January 1st
God works in ever new ways. We do not dwell in how God had worked in the past, but to move forward to see his ever new ways of working things outs.


January 2nd
Men may give up, but God never stops at something until they are fulfilled.


January 3rd
Do not wait for assignments to come to you, but keep an eye look out for works that are already out there, waiting for people to take on.


January 4th
Christ is: the light, the bread of life, the way. In short, Christ is everything.


January 5th
Having been touched, we are able to give out so much more, more than what other people or even ourselves could ever imagine.


January 6th
This particular one seemed to have impacted my friend Ashlee, as I could see highlighted keynotes of this particular devotion, in the bookcopy. Personally, I know of the 2nd part below, but I have no idea at all before this, on the 1st part. For me, it was just praying and praying til God fulfills the promise, yet not expecting Him to fulfill (though I've learned that we would have to persistently pray til God fulfills the promise; in a way, we should come to expect the fulfillment of the promise.


Prayer consists of 2 parts:
- Pray til God gives you a promise on what you are praying for.
- Pray til God fulfills the promise.


Jnnuary 7th
Didn't really get any messages off here for meself, so yea.
If you would have anything spoken to your heart upon reading this particular day's devotion, feel free to contribute under comments section. :)

Saul takes his own life

1 Chronicles 10: 1 - 14

Saul, king of the Israelites was on the brink of losing a war he was fighting against the Philistines. His enemies are now near victory, and they were that close to cornering him. He thought he'd rather die than being abused by his enemis upon capture, so requested that one of his men to kill him with a sword. That man wouldn't, so Saul did the deed himself.

His death came about as result of his disobedience to the Lord in various things. His throne then was passed to David, just as the Lord promised.

Lessons

• Never mess with the Lord - we'd definitely pay.
• His words always come to pass - be it good news or bad news. 

When OCD has finally taken us over - the story of Howard Hughes

At times, I wonder how it'd be like living with OCD at its worst, without help of the now-existing medication and counselling available from healthcare professionals. I found the answer today in Howard Hughes' life.

A total genius, who created various world records and set history to its new course in aviation, engineering and movie making - his OCD condition worsened throughout the years, eventually taking total control of him.

He eventually went into total isolation for 20 years to the end of his life - away from people, in fear of germs, physical contacts, and having even developed fear of flies from one point in time.

He would urinate and dispose of his waste in milk bottles all lined up in certain way; re-arrange his stuffs in his room repetitively; and organise sections into germ-free zones.

His servants were given elaborate details on how to handle his things that he would be touching or use, like cutleries and soap. He would stay inside his room and not coming out for months; with his hair, beard and nails all untaken care of.

At his death, he was so unrecognizable to the extent the FBI had to resort to fingerprints to identify his body.
His tall structure (193 cm) had then weighed 41 kg, nails grossly long, with hair and beard extremely unkempt. Doctors who examined his body, found that he was severely malnutritioned, with kidneys failed, and broken needles (he did drugs for very long to cure his pains from various plane crashes he had) still within his arms.

My personal take on this

Had he be destined by the Lord to live in a more future time, he would have priviledge to access medications and services available to help him counter his condition. Stuffs like Prozac, a would have been huge-reliever for him, had only surfaced in the market in the late 80s; a decade more after his death in 1976.

Can't begin to describe how fortunate those of us who live with this condition at this present time. Life would have been literally a living hell, had us lived in the past, and gotten this illness.

NECF Malaysia: 40 days prayer - Day #2

This is actually meant for Malaysians to pray for their own country, though I find it relevant too for people of other country to pray for their own nation.
(just in case, as below are my own words, and not as directly extracted from the booklet)
Pray for:

• Unity amongst the people in the country
• God to deal with the area in your heart where you may feel discontented about your own country
• People in the country to be seeking God - that He may be able to move across the nation