Pray Secretly

For today's memory verse, I want to share with you Matthew 6:6. The Bible say, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

In this verse we are instructed to pray secretly. When we pray we do not pray to the people around us but to our loving Father. We are not talking to the people around us but to our only wise God. Hence, there is no need for us to broadcast our prayer and to let others know that we are praying. For when we do that, we might get the glory that is due to God.

One reason I am thinking why God gave this instruction is to help us concentrate while we are praying. If we are alone and we shut the door close, there is less distraction and our mind can focus more to our God.

If we obey this, God's answer will be given to us openly and even without telling to others explicitly, they will definitely see God's reward to us.

May you have a rewarding day!

A Love Theory

I've been tagged by Mommy Joy of A Momma's Journal with this meme. This is my first time to be tagged. I tried to follow the instruction and the result is true.

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger? There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

* Thumb represents your Parents.
* Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings.
* Middle finger represents your-Self.
* Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner. & the . . .
* Last (Little) finger represents your children





Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back.
Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip. (As shown in the figure below):
Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later. Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)...., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)...., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day. Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse). You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT..... because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!! Please try this out and pass............. ISN'T THIS A LOVELY THEORY?

Now, I want to share this theory MEME to:

IT Mom's Corner, Lourdes' Mia, Brown Pinay & A Blessed Life

When should we pray

Today's memory verse is in Psalm 55:17. Psalm 55:17 says, "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." In this verse, the Bible tells us the time we should pray. Not only in the morning, but also in the evening, and noon.

In our busy life as mother, wife and sometimes as employee, we neglect our prayer life. We forget that our strength and power comes from our mighty God. We put our prayer life in the end of our priority list.

Anyway, it is not too late to start. We can re-prioritize our schedules and make our prayer life and other things for God on the top our list.

Have a prayerful day ahead!

Prayer in the Morning

What is the first thing you do in the morning? Some people would answer, "I open my eyes". Great! What an intelligent answer

Seriously speaking, what comes to your mind whenever you woke up everymorning? Is it the yesterday's unfinished tasks in the office? Is the unending household chores? Is it the filing unpaid bills?

Would you agree that whatever your comes to your mind the very minute you open your eyes is your God at that moment? So if the first thing that popped-up your mind is your household chores, your god is your house. If your tasks in the office, then your god is your work?

In Psalm 5:3, The great kind David declares that he would pray unto God in the morning. And this is our memory verse today. Just to help us be reminded that we ought to pray every morning. The mere fact that God allows us to wake up is something that we should already be thanked for. And we should also seek God's guidance and protection for the entire day.

This is my personal experience. Whenever I forgot to pray before I leave my bed, I noticed that my day is chaotic. I messed with my job. My mood is not good and I do not finished anything.

That is how God reminds me that I did not prioritize Him.

So for today's memory verse, we will qoute David's prayer in Psalm 5:3. The Bible says, "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."

May you have a prayerful day!

Pray Without Ceasing

Our next theme would be about Prayers. I will share verses with word(s) containing the root word "pray". So the word maybe prayers, praying, prayerful and anyword with "pray" in it.

To begin with, let us start with the easiest verse. Our memory verse for today is in I Thessalonians 5:17. The Word of God says, "Pray without ceasing."

Even when I was still a kid, I always hear this verse, "pray without ceasing." But I do not fully understand it. Only when the word "cease" was added to my vocabulary, I realized the meaning of the verse. But another question popped-up in my mind? Is a non-stop praying possible? Then God allows me to read an article which answers this question. The answer is YES. Praying is talking to GOD. As the acronym ACTS implies, it is an Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. And these things can be done simultaneously with the other things that we are doing. We can silently pray while we are riding on a bus going to our office or school. We can think God's goodness when we feel the heat of the sun on our skin. We can say always say Thank you Lord whatever we do or we can silently request God to give us favor before men whenever we meet new people. We can do it if only we are determined to do it.

God wants us to continuously communicate with HIM.

Salute Our Pastors

For the culminating verse for our series, our last memory verse for the theme "Pastor" is in Hebrews 13:24. The Bible says, "Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you".

What comes to your mind when you hear the word salute? For me, I always associate salutation to military or police officer. Isn't before a military subordinate talks to his superior, he salutes first. Before he leave his officer, he will salute again. And I remember that COCCs salute CAT officers when they meet them in hallways or corridors.

But what does salutation implies? For me, this is a sign of high respect for a person. In this verse, we are instructed to salute those who have rule over us, which none other than our pastors. Meaning, we are instructed not only to OBEY them, REMEMBER them, but also RESPECT them .

1 Timothy 5:17

In continuation of our topic for this week, our memory verse for today is in 1 Timothy 5:17. The Bible says "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine."

Although in this verse, it is not explicitly stated that the double honor only pertains to pastors, but in the phrase "they who labour in the word and doctrine," we can surely say that the one who is counted worthy for double honour is our pastors. Because they are the one who really labour in the word and doctrine. They diligently study the Word of God to make sure that they do not distort the Message of God and feed us with substantial food for our spirit.

I personally believe that we should give due respect to our pastor for they watch for our soul. They are our spiritual father here on earth. They care for us even though they are not related to them. They pray for us and they definitely love us as brethren in Christ. Is this not enough reason to give them the double honor?

May God give us the grace to continue to love our pastors and honor them as the Word of God instructed us to do.

Hebrews 13:7

Today's memory verse is still related to pastors. Our text is in Hebrews 13:7. The bible says "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

Yesteday, the Word of God instruct us to OBEY those who have rule over us. Now, we are instructed to REMEMBER them. Remember them when? Remember them in our prayers. As I mentioned in my previous post, pastors and minister are also human beings. They are not supernatural being who have supernatural power who cannot commit sin. Just like us, they are also tempted and there are times that they also fall into sin. Satan's eye is always on them because they have bigger responsibility to God and bigger influence as well with the people of God. If he fails or fall into sin, not only Him will be affected but if not all most of the members of the church or even the outsiders. The work of the Lord will be criticized by none believers and if the church does not have a solid foundation on the Word of the Lord, it may collapse.

So as members of the church who benefit on the Word of God spoken by our pastors, we ought to pray for them always. We should always remember them in our personal devotions. We should also remember their needs in our prayer and if we are able, we should also be generously sharing them our material blessings because our pastors are feeding us with spiritual food.

Hebrews 13:15

Today's memory verse is in Hebrews 13:15. This is related to our yesterday's memory verse. For those who came in late, we will be sharing verses about pastors to give us the correct standard in treating them.

Hebrews 13:15 says "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

In this verse, we are instructed to obey those that have rule over us, and that includes our pastors. Do we obey our pastor? Do we follow his instructions? The Word of God also tell us the reason. Three reasons are given in this verse: they watch for our souls, they are accountable to God for our souls." It is their accountability if they were not able to teach the whole counsel of God. If they keep teachings profitable for themselves or if they did not teach doctrines that they supposed to teach. If we are accountable for ourselves in the sight of God, our pastor has double accountability. They are accountable for themselves and for us. So we have to obey them because it would be for our benefit.

Jeremiah 3:15

Hey, welcome back! How was your weekend? How did God spake to you through the preaching of the Word? Were you blessed, encouraged, challenged or reproved by the Word of God? Were you able to remember to thank God for your pastor for being God's mouthpiece in sending you His Message?

Most of the time, we members of the church neglect our pastors. We often give them the least importance but most responsibilities. Sometimes, they even become the center of our criticisms and the recipients of our never ending complaints. Sad, but there are even churches who condemn their pastors for their mistakes forgetting that pastors are also human beings who are also susceptible to sins and temptations. They kick their pastors out from their church as if they are the ones who chose their pastors.

I was too blessed by God's message last night on our Sunday Evening Service delivered by one of the preachers in our church that I desire to encourage you to memorize verses that pertain to pastors. This is to encourage you to love your pastors and give double honor. I encourage you to join me as I memorize these verses and glorify God as we continue to study the Scripture.

For the initial verse, I want to share with you the text of last night's message. The reference text is in Jeremiah 3:15. The Word of God in Jeremiah 3:15 says "And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."

In this verse, it is clearly stated that pastor our from God's own heart. They were given to us, to teach us the Word of God, to help us understand it, to nourish our spiritual bodies through the preaching of the Word of God. We are not the one who choose them, but God. If it is God who chose them and put them in their position, only God can also take away that position from him. We as members of the church have no right to replace him anytime we want and choose someone who will fit to our own set of qualifications. Only God can fill-in the Pastoral's Office. If Satan is in process of deceiving us to afflict our pastor, let us be reminded that our pastor is given to us by God according to His own heart .

Let us continue to pray for our pastors that God may continue to use him for our spiritual growth.