“The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.” (1 Samuel 10:61 Samuel 10:6
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
6 And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.  

WP-Bible plugin). The past week was one of those times when my mind’s running 100 kilometers per hour! It was so far my tightest, most hectic week so far since we had our H4U Ozamiz outreach. No. I’m not complaining. The truth is I enjoy what I do. It’s always an honor and a privilege. But sometimes you get tired too, physically, mentally and emotionally. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

“How did I make it through. How did I accomplish those things needed to be accomplished?”

So looking back to that week I pondered, “How did I make it through. How did I accomplish those things that needed to be accomplished?” And the answer is clear – the ministry of the Holy Spirit! Have you ever looked at ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things in the kingdom of God and wonder how they do it? Our mistake is that we look only at the person rather than at the power behind the person – the Holy Spirit.

The subject of the Holy Spirit evokes uneasiness among some. Excesses they’ve seen in the past come to mind and, as a result, they want nothing to do with Him. Then there are the thrill seekers who think there must be emotional drama manifested or the Holy Spirit wasn’t present, so they feel disappointed. Both are extreme positions that require balance. The Holy Spirit is our divine Helper – that’s how Jesus described Him. He’s not just an observer but an active participant in the believer’s life: strengthening, advocating, interceding, and helping. (I say we can use all the help we can get!) In our own strength, the Christian life is impossible. The Holy Spirit gives us the help to pull it off.

Let Him fill you today, let Him pour His life in you, and then let Him flow through you!

So what does the Holy Spirit do? Jesus said, “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14John 16:14
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.  

WP-Bible plugin). That’s the Spirit’s primary task – to point people to the Savior and in doing so bringing Him glory. Everything else He does is built upon that. When He gives gifts, when He heals, when He manifests Himself in any way, it is for the sole purpose of glorifying Jesus. And how does He glorify Jesus? One way is through us, His people. He empowers us to do that which we cannot do on our own strength! Yes, there’s power available for living and for service!

Beloved, the Holy Spirit wants to take your ordinary life and help you to do extraordinary things for His glory. Let Him fill you today, let Him pour His life in you, and then let Him flow through you!

What exactly is grace? And is it limited to Jesus’ life and ministry? You may be surprised to know that Jesus never used the word itself. He just taught it and, equally important, He lived it. Furthermore, the Bible never gives us a one-statement definition, though grace appears throughout its pages . . . not only the word itself but numerous demonstrations of it. Understanding what grace means requires our going back to an old Hebrew term that meant “to bend, to stoop.” By and by, it came to include the idea of “condescending favor.” If you have travelled to London or perhaps heard or read about it, you know royalty – the most famous was the late Princess Diana. If so, you may have noticed sophistication, aloofness, distance.



Every time the thought of grace appears, there is the idea of its being undeserved.

On occasion, royalty in England will make the news because someone in the ranks of nobility will stop, kneel down, and touch or bless a common person. That is grace. There is nothing in the person that deserves being noticed or touched or blessed by the royal family. But because of grace in the heart of the queen or the princess, there is the desire at that moment to pause, to stoop, to touch, even to bless. Someone said it best: “Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace.” To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn’t deserve it and can never earn it. Receiving God’s acceptance by grace always stands in sharp contrast to earning it on the basis of works. Every time the thought of grace appears, there is the idea of its being undeserved. In no way is the recipient getting what he or she deserves. Favor is being extended simply out of the goodness of the heart of the giver.

And the greatest demonstration of grace is the cross of Calvary. There the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, stoop down to save us from our sins. Undeserving as we are we receive His love. What kind of love is that? It is a love that is more concerned about making the object of love feel loved, than it is in making the lover feel loved. The lover is willing to sacrifice, to make any sacrifice necessary just to make the object of love feel loved. That is what God did. It is the kind of love that does not regard itself, but unselfishly goes to the cross & sheds its blood, & gives its life so that there might be hope for those of us who are hopeless without it. That is “agape” love.



And the greatest demonstration of grace is the cross of Calvary…



So when the Bible says that “God is agape love” it means that God doesn’t love us with just a surface type of love, but He loves us with an all-sacrificing love. He gives Himself completely to express His love. And this we never deserve…it’s grace from beginning to end! As we come to the Lord’s table today, thank Him for His grace and love undeserved!

Think about what it feels like to be lost. As a child, if you were ever separated from your parents in a store, I’m sure you can remember the terror of the experience; all you wanted was to be found. Being lost and alone can be confusing and frightening.

Jesus, who came to earth to fully experience human life, knew what it was like to feel lost and alone. Willingly leaving the presence of His Father, Jesus “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8Phil. 2:8
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. fashion: or habit  

WP-Bible plugin). On the cross, Jesus felt the separation from God created by sin. In perhaps the saddest words ever spoken, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46Matt. 27:46
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  

WP-Bible plugin). It’s true that Jesus experienced loneliness in the days and hours leading up to the cross as His followers and even His friends abandoned Him. But in those last hours, He felt forsaken by God and it was almost more than He could bear.

The truth is, separation from God is more than anyone should bear. Jesus took our place on the cross so that we would not be eternally, spiritually lost. All of the suffering and pain Jesus endured was for our sake: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5Isa. 53:5
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. wounded: or, tormented stripes: Heb. bruise  

WP-Bible plugin). Jesus experienced what it felt like to be utterly lost so that we can find intimacy with God. Though Jesus felt forsaken at the cross, He promises: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5Heb. 13:5
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  

WP-Bible plugin).

Just as the lost child cries out with joy when he or she is finally found, so the child of God can rejoice as one who is “found in Him,” as Paul said, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:9Phil. 3:9
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  

WP-Bible plugin). As we celebrate Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and victory over death this Communion Sunday, remember that Jesus was willing to experience ultimate separation from God so that you can find peace and will not be forever separated from Him. As the beloved song says, “I once was lost, but now I’m found.”

I shall not be in want

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Psalm 23:1Psalm 23:1
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
23 A Psalm of David. ¹ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  

WP-Bible plugin) – What a peaceful picture! David says, because the Lord is My Shepherd, “I shall not be in want” or “ I do not lack anything. Now, when someone says, “I shall not be in want,” we need to sit up and take notice because this is an age of discontent. As somebody once said: “I was a child. But it was adulthood I wanted – The freedom, & the respect. I was 20. But it was 30 I wanted – To be mature, & sophisticated. I was middle-aged. But it was 20 I wanted – The youth, & the free spirit. I was retired. But it was middle-age I wanted – The presence of mind, without limitations. Then my life was over, & I never got what I wanted.”



The half empty cup

Many people never seem satisfied, & almost everybody wants more. We live in a generation of the half-empty cup, and the content that fills the half cup is fear: Fear that we don’t have enough, fear that we are not valuable, fear of today and fear of tomorrow. Consider this: there are really only two options in life — If the Lord is my shepherd, then I shall not be in want; but if I am in want, then it is obvious that the Lord is not my shepherd. It is that simple. If there is emptiness and loneliness and despair and frustration in our lives, then the Lord is not our shepherd. Or, if anyone or anything else is shepherding us, we are never satisfied. If our vocation shepherds us, then there is restlessness and unsatisfying activity and frustration. If education is our shepherd, then we are constantly being disillusioned. If another person is our shepherd, we are always disappointed and ultimately we are left empty. But if the Lord is our shepherd, David says, we shall not be in want!



The Lord is my shepherd!

You see, the only reason that David could say, “I shall not want,” is because David could first say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It’s only when we have this relationship with God, when we call Him OUR shepherd, or MY shepherd, that we are truly satisfied and contented – and then we can say, “And I shall lack nothing!” Beloved, let Him be your shepherd today!