Straight Paths For The New Year

by: Sis. Bing Domingo

 

Proverbs 3:5-6  “ Trust in the Lord the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”

 

Every New Year brings new anticipation and new expectations. So we ask, will this year be a prosperous year for me? Will I succeed in everything I do?  If this question is in your mind, here’s a good news for you….God has in His word the assurance that He will guide us in every step of our way as long as we follow His instructions.

 

In Proverbs 3:5-6, we can find three things that we should do and when we do them we will be blessed with the promise of God to guide us. The First one is to …  

 

Trust in the Lord…

 

Here’s a short story about TRUST...

A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter:
"Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river." The little girl said: "No, Dad. You hold my hand." "What's the difference?" asked the puzzled father. “There’s a big difference," replied the little girl. "If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

The word trust in the Bible is “baw-takh” which means “to be confident or sure”; to hope. The dictionary defines it as firm reliance on the integrity or ability or character of a person or thing. Just like the little girl in the story, God wants His children to trust Him. Simply believing is not going to do good to us. We need to have faith.  Is it not that when we speak about faith, we tend to think of some sort of mystical quality that belongs to the spiritual and not in the practical day to day living? Faith is actually more concrete than we realize, and trust is the practical outworking of our faith. We then can understand faith better when talk about trust. After all we find ourselves having to trust people every day. We trust whoever built our house that it's not going to fall in on our heads. We trust the bank with our money. We set our watches and alarms trusting that they would function right to wake us up in the morning so that we won’t be late for work.

 

But how many of us have experienced heartaches because those things and those people we trusted have failed us? Is it because we do not have faith in them? It doesn’t matter if we have so much faith, but what really matters is the object of our faith. God is All-Powerful! He is the Great I Am, the Creator who owns the universe! He alone has all the resources to supply our every need. If He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? He is Faithful and True and able to keep His promise. ( Numbers 23:19). He is unchanging. He is our Refuge and our Ever-present Help in times of trouble. The Name and the Blood of Jesus is more than enough for our protection! We can trust Him because He is the All –Knowing God, the First and the Last who knows the end from the beginning! God is indeed worthy of our trust!

 

……with all your heart

 

How does God want us to trust Him? With all our hearts or with our whole being. Trusting in the Lord with all our heart begins with our knowledge of Him, and we would never know God unless we have a relationship with Him. Notice that the verse says, “In the Lord”, He is not the God who is far away, but Jehovah who has revealed Himself to those who have chosen to accept Him as Lord of their lives. Many of us try to live by faith and want to trust God but have little or no knowledge of His character and His ways. The more we know His word, His promises, His character and His ways, the more we can trust Him. He loves us and has better plans for us. That’s why we can trust Him with our lives.

 

Lean not on your own understanding.

 

The way we can show God our trust is to stop relying on our own understanding. We should not depend on our own wisdom and understanding in every decision we make or every step we take. Jeremiah 17: 5 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” Many people try to follow the dictates of how they feel, that’s why they married the wrong person, left jobs because of fear and so on. But we could not trust even our feelings for it may deceive us. Our understanding is so limited. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Before we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we only operate on our own reasoning; we don’t know the ways of God that’s why we are used to rely on own wisdom. We thought we are better than God, like Solomon who started right with God but became wise in own eyes and eventually brought division to the nation of Israel. When we were born again, although God has given us a new nature, we have brought with us into our new life our mind full of knowledge on how to do things our own way and no one as pressed that CLEAR button in our brain. That is why we need to have a lot of renewing of our minds with God’s word so that we can start relying on His promises. Lean not on your own understanding. Lean instead on the wisdom of God's word. As we daily read and understand his word we will be learning to think His thoughts after Him. And that will help us as we seek to trust in him with all our hearts.

 

In all your ways acknowledge Him.

 

What then should we do? If we are to stop relying on own wisdom or understanding, we then should acknowledge God every minute, everyday through prayer, with thankfulness and with submission. When we acknowledge God in every decision we make, we seek His advice or counsel, we wait for His perfect and appointed time. We don’t go ahead of Him. His word says that there is a proper time and a proper procedure for every matter. God wants us to be fully aware of His presence and be completely dependent on Him. The first man, Adam lived in complete dependence on God before He sinned. The moment he disobeyed God, he started to live his life independently. And so the generations after him tried to live independently from God, doing things which are right in their own eyes. Praise God that through our Lord Jesus Christ who showed His complete dependence upon the Father, speaking only what he heard from the Father speak and doing things He saw His Father did, we can follow His example. Remember the principle that Jesus followed? His only desire is to do the will of His Father who sent Him. If that would be our desire too, when we pray, we should ask God’s will to be done, to close doors that are not meant for us and open doors that He wills for us and be willing to go wherever He leads us. When we do these things, we can expect God to fulfill His promise for us. And that is……

 

He shall direct  your paths

 

The word in Hebrew for Direct is “yaw-shar.”  It means to be straight or even; prosperous; be upright.

 

What a great promise and encouraging promise for us!  It's a promise that with God’s helps as we trust in Him, He will guide our every step. But walking in the paths that Jesus walked are not an easy path but have the promise of an eternal joy in His presence.”

 

We may have thought that God's path is easy, but it’s not. But understanding that these paths have been well trodden, and these are the paths of righteousness, of love and forgiveness, we are sure to reach the destination that God has planned for us. God’s ultimate purpose for us is to walk uprightly becoming like our Lord Jesus Christ. He will guide us in all our ways.

 

Conclusion:

 

God has a wonderful plan for each of us. Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. He has given us His word for our instruction. To receive God’s guidance, Solomon said, we must trust in the Lord with all our hearts, stop relying on our own understanding; We must acknowledge God in all our ways. This means turning every area of life to Him.

 

 Jesus emphasized this truth in Matt.6:33 when He said:

 

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

 

Let’s take a look at our values and priorities. What is important to you? In what areas have you not acknowledged Him? What is His advice? In many areas of your life you may already acknowledge God, but it is in the areas where you attempt to restrict or ignore His influence that will cause you grief. Make Him a vital part of everything you do, then He will guide you because you will be working to accomplish His purposes.

 

Prosperity is deeper than mere material wealth. True prosperity comes when we obey God.  Let us obey His instructions and we’ll be assured that He will guide us and make our paths straight and prosper us this New Year!

 

Sis.  Bing Domingo

SIMON- THE GREAT PRETENDER

ACTS 8:9-25 (NIV)

by: Pastor Audie Castillo

INTRODUCTION:

☞- Christ post resurrection ministry (Acts 1:3-11) Jesus remained with the apostles for 40 days and speaking to them pertaining to the Kingdom of God. He instructed the apostles not to leave Jerusalem until the promise of the Father has come.

And He said to them,” 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.”

☞- The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost (Acts 2) They began to speak with other tongues

.

☞-The Church grows (Acts 2:40-47) The word was preached and received with gladness and they were baptized. On one occasion Peter preached the word and 3000 souls got saved.

☞Stephen’s arrest and martyrdom - God worked great wonders and signs among the people through Stephen. (Acts6:8) Up to this point, the church had stayed put in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem was growing so much, and it created controversy to the Jewish leadership and they sought to control.

We will pick up the story from verse 8

☞Saul Leads the persecution of the church: He had been the official overseer of the death of Stephen. Now he was taking that violence to Christians wherever he could find them and put them to prison. (Acts 8: 1-3)

☞Philip’s ministry in Samaria.  The gathered church in Jerusalem is now scattered.  (Acts 8:4-8) And from Jerusalem, they scattered throughout Judea and  Samaria.  Except the apostles.

Samaria receives the word. As Philip speaks the message about Jesus, people are responding.  But this is not the whole story, because it is not all good news. So… . In our study today, the bible will  exposed  the dangers of a counterfeit faith of a certain man called Simon.

●In the previous verses we saw: city wide revival w/ Philip the Evangelist. Miracles were performed, souls saved. And here’s a scriptural principle which follows: wherever God sends genuine revival, Satan attempts to send counterfeit revival. God sows some saved souls, and Satan sows his tares among that wheat.(Matt. 13:24-30)

I-     SIMON’S ARROGANCE (9-11)                                                                                               

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.

Simon Magus.

☞  Did you know that the Bible strictly forbids having anything to do w/ sorcery and the like: such as astrology, horoscopes, fortunetelling, psychics, , palm reading, spirit-channeling, divinations, enchantments, incantations, witchcraft, wizardry, charms, spells, or anything else invented by the occult world, including today’s big names: Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons and similar video games, The Bible forbids involvement in these things! God goes so far as to call these things an abomination.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 (NIV)                                                                               

¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.

He commands respect (influence) of the people (9-11)

● He claimed to be someone great

● People claimed to have power of God.

II-            SIMON’S FAITH (12-13)

¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

A)   He became a follower of Philip (12-13)

● He believed and was baptized and followed Philip

Think with me. When it says Simon believed also, does that mean he got saved? Not necessarily!  Are we saved by believing? Yes, by believing on. But look at James 2:19:

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

● He was attracted by the signs and wonders (He believed not because of the Word, but because of the miracles took place.)

In the same way…
●We have known of people that have confessed their allegiance to Christ in order to date and eventually marry a Christian, but then lay it aside after the wedding.
●We have known people who said they prayed the sinner’s prayer, and then never live for Christ.
●We have known people who said they were believers because it seemed like a good idea.

These are examples of believe that are neither genuine, nor saving.

III-   SIMON’S DESIRE ( 14-21)                                                                                                      ☞ Samaria received the Word. (14)

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

I am sure when word got back to Jerusalem, some heads were left shaking in disbelief.
So, two apostles are sent to inspect the work, Peter and John. It is interesting that John goes, for he and his brother James were known as the sons of thunder, and it was not because they were gentle souls. No, they were movers and shakers. One time, when they were with Jesus, a Samaritan community had been inhospitable to Jesus and his band of disciples. James and John had a just solution for Jesus.

Luke 9:54 “Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, Just like Elijah did?” (

☞ Samaria received the Holy Spirit. (15-17) 

¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit

                                                             
They were missing the Holy Spirit.

You see, no one is really saved without the Holy Spirit. God honors faith, but it is the Holy Spirit that makes you a Christian. We don’t know if there was any visible evidence of this lack. Luke is silent on this point. But Peter and John did have the discernment that the Samaritans were without the Holy Spirit. And when they laid their hands on them, the Holy Spirit came.

A)  Simon’s Desire for Power (v.18-19)

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

SIMONY in the Dictionary means…“the trafficking of sacred things, as well as the buying and selling of Church or ecclesiastical office.”

The word “SIMONY” gets its start here…from SIMON!

In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.^]Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man; justification rather depends only on such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man. The benefits of good works could be obtained by donating money to the church. (Wikipedia)

Penance, catechisms, praying for the dead were teachings that were strongly opposed by Martin Luther. He taught that we can be saved by Grace through faith.

B)   Simon’s Desire Will Lead To His destruction (v20)   

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

So Peter simply was saying here ““To hell with you and your money.””

C)   Simon’s Desire reveals his heart is not right with God. (v21)                                             ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

IV-          SIMON’S SINs (22-25)           

                                                                         

²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”   ²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”  ²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

A) Wickedness in his heart (22a) Bitter and bound by inequity (v23)           

B) His sinfulness prevent him to pray for forgiveness.(v.24)

Simon’s response was, "Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me." And that is the last we hear of him. The sad thing is that no matter how much any of the apostles or the disciples prayed for Simon, the only one who could pray the deciding prayer is Simon himself. He had to come before the Lord in repentance. He had to surrender his life before the Lord. He had to take that step of belief. He had to receive God’s forgiveness. No one else could.

Conclusion: This passage of Scripture shows just how close a person can come to conversion or salvation in Jesus Christ and still be lost without knowledge of God.

2 Corinthians 13:5 (New Living Translation (NLT)

 ⁵ Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is in you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
Pastor Audie Castillo

God's Mercies: Our Key to Finding Hope (Lamentations 3:21-24) By: Sis. Andrea Ortega

The new year’s air is teeming with freshness – having to start all over again like a clean slate and bursting with promises for brighter days ahead.  No wonder the prevalent feelings are happiness and hope.  Yet, in the midst of the sea of happy faces or even behind those smiles, deep down inside, some are in despair because yes, the calendar may have changed…but it’s only the calendar, their situation still didn’t change a bit.  There are still no signs of a much-needed job, homes remain broken, huge debts are still looming over our heads, precious relationships are still strained, or sickness still plagues the body.  Regardless of how we feel or what our situation is, there is a message of hope found in Lamentation 3: 21-24 that we can carry in our hearts throughout the year.

²¹ This I recall to my mind,
      Therefore I have hope.
       ²² Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
      Because His compassions fail not.
       ²³ They are new every morning;
      Great is Your faithfulness.
       ²⁴ “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
      “ Therefore I hope in Him!”

     The first two chapters of Lamentations till verse 20 of chapter 

3 poured out the grief and deep anguish of the people of Judah reflecting their sense of hopelessness.  But suddenly a ray of hope broke through the dark clouds of despair, something changed starting from verse 21. 

     Tucked in this passage is the key to finding hope in the midst of difficult times.

Finding hope begins with:

The Decision to Recall God’s Mercies and Faithfulness (Lam. 3:21)

21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.

     

In order to unlock the key to finding hope, we need to decide to shift our eyes and mindset from our circumstances and focus on the Lord.  We can do this by recalling, reviewing or remembering God’s mercies and faithfulness towards us.

     Recall the times and incidents how God came through miraculously and amazingly for you- rescuing and helping you in your deepest need.  Try to trace His Hand in Your life and you’ll see that through all those times, God’s love, grace and mercy has sustained you.  Dig through your memory and choose to remember and meditate on God’s faithfulness.

     We can always choose what to think about or what to meditate on. Remember that the mind is a very powerful facility.  According to an article in Scientific American Magazine, “What is the Memory Capacity of the Brain” by Professor Paul Reber of Borthwestern University:

The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.

     So if we would take advantage of such capacity and fill our minds with the things of God, choosing to dwell and meditate on His character and His Word instead of filling our thoughts with lies and rubbish and contemplating on the hopelessness of the situation, we would certainly find hope.  All we need to do is to decide to recall or call to mind God’s faithfulness, love and mercies toward us.

     Then when we have made that decision to recall God’s faithfulness, don’t forget about it right away and toss it out of the window.  Instead hold on to it and continue to meditate more and more on God’s mercies and faithfulness- and you’ll see:

The Depth of God’s Mercies (Lam 3:22-23)

       22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Mercy as used in this text is not just how we commonly understand mercy as simply having pity on someone.  Notice that mercy here is in its plural form “mercies”, meaning God’s supply of His mercies toward us is an abundant supply.  It is overflowing, and it never runs out. In addition, there are 3 ways how the mercies of God was further described and its depth explored:

1.    God’s mercies or his steadfast love preserves and sustains.

§  Although Jerusalem was razed to the ground, there was a lot of bloodshed and the people of Judah were taken in exile to Babylon, Jeremiah saw that because of the Lord’s mercies, they are not completely consumed, destroyed or wasted.  There was still a remnant.   Bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. When we are in difficult situations, realize that things are bad but they might have been worse, and therefore there is hope that they may be better. . As Paul had given encouragement in 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9 “ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.  

2.    God’s mercies and compassions or his steadfast love never fails or will always remain.

§  The word “steadfast” means that no matter what would happen, it would always remain.  This is the kind of mercies and compassions that God has for us.  Even if all else fails, His compassions will never fail.  His steadfast or covenant love knows no end.

3.    God’s mercies and compassions or his steadfast love are new every morning.

§  Morning always signal the start of the day.  What a great comfort to know that at the beginning of each day, God’s mercies are already there.  To top it off, these mercies are always fresh and new!  We don’t have to use yesterday’s supply for today’s needs.  We don’t have to budget His mercies for us because it will not run out, they are always in abundance and the supply is always new each day !   Do you see God’s goodness?  We don’t even have to wait for another week, month or year in order to get a fresh supply of God’s mercies.  It’s every morning!   Great is the faithfulness of God indeed!

     When we choose to focus our minds and hearts on the Lord- His faithfulness and mercies, and hold fast to it, hope springs forth.  I believe it’s not so much of our decision to remember – it’s the object or the focus of our hope that gives us hope.  It is because we know whom we are trusting and where our hope lies- it is because our hope is in God.  We can always hope and hope and hope and hope, yet if that hope is founded on shaky objects, we would only end up frustrated and disappointed. How many times have we placed our hope and trust in the promises of men, but in the end they fail to deliver, thus crushing our hopes. But the good news is that our hope is in God who will never fail.  He is who He says He is. If He said that He is our provider, healer, deliver, rescuer, comforter- He is all these things and so much.  He is not like man who lies, He is trustworthy, He never wavers and His character never changes.  He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.  Thus, we can put our faith in Him and then we can boldly have: 

The Declaration of Hope (Lam 3:21 & 24)

             21 “ …Therefore I have hope…    24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,  “ Therefore I hope in Him!”

     

We can only know and boldly declare real hope if we know that where we have placed our hope will never ever fail.  And only God will never fail. We can see that sandwiched between the two declarations of hope in verse 21 and verse 24 is the Prophet Jeremiah’s understanding of the character of God – His steadfast love that knows no end, His compassions that never fail, His mercies that are always overflowing and new every morning.  Only when he has remembered who God is then hope begins to break forth.

     The importance of having hope can never be over emphasized.  Hope is like a life-jacket.  It keeps one afloat when he is in an ocean of difficulties.

       As we face another year, we don’t know what it holds for us.  There might be challenges and trials along the way, but what’s important is that we have God on our side.  Never, ever lose hope.  However, in times when you feel hope is slipping and fading way, remember that God’s mercies is the key to finding hope and our decision to recall God’s mercies and focus on Him would simply be unlocking that hope that is found in God alone.