Genuine Faith

Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. 7Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), 1 Peter 1:6–7.

The Message

How will you know if a person is a real Christian? By his works, right? How will you know if a Christian really believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will save him? By his faith.

Trials and persecution will reveal who is the true Christian. During trials, do you really believe that God will save you? If yes, then you passed the test. If you say, “maybe, or I hope so,” then that is not genuine faith.

If you want to have genuine faith, you must be 100% sure that God will save you during persecution or any trials.

Personally, I’ve been to many trials, and every time I pray for God’s help, He always saves me.

Praise and glory to God!

This is the meaning of these verses:

For how can those who abandon their faith be brought back to repent again? They were once in God’s light; they tasted heaven’s gift and received their share of the Holy Spirit; 5they knew from experience that God’s word is good, and they had felt the powers of the coming age. 6And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Hebrews 6:4–6.

So, through trials and persecution will show that the person has genuine faith. If he doubted in God during trials, then he is in danger of being cursed by God and will be destroyed by fire:

God blesses the soil which drinks in the rain that often falls on it and which grows plants that are useful to those for whom it is cultivated. 8But if it grows thorns and weeds, it is worth nothing; it is in danger of being cursed by God and will be destroyed by fire.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Hebrews 6:7–8.

Which means that if you passed God’s trials, then your faith is real gold, but if not then it is worth nothing.

The reason behind this is how can a Christian be an example to others if he himself do not believe that God will save him? He is a bad testimony to others, and God will not be pleased!

Therefore my fellow Christians, stand firm. I pray that God will strengthen our faith so we may endure any trials or persecutions that come our way. So, God will be pleased and be a good testimony to others who don’t know Christ yet, in order for them to be saved.

The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Romans 10:11.

A New Year, A New Life

The LORD your God is with you;
his power gives you victory.

The LORD will take delight in you,
and in his love he will give you new life.

He will sing and be joyful over you,
as joyful as people at a festival.”

The LORD says,
“I have ended the threat of doom
and taken away your disgrace.

The time is coming!

I will punish your oppressors;
I will rescue all the lame
and bring the exiles home.

I will turn their shame to honor,
and all the world will praise them.

The time is coming!

I will bring your scattered people home;
I will make you famous throughout the world
and make you prosperous once again.”
The LORD has spoken.

Zephaniah 3:17-20 (GNT with Deuterocanon)

Happy New Year! (Moving On)

May the Lord Jesus Christ come to your life, and make miracles!

Fernando (Jun)

God Is Our Security

God Is with Us

God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

2 So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths;

3 even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence.

4 There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High. 5 God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid.

6 Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken; God thunders, and the earth dissolves.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8 Come and see what the Lord has done. See what amazing things he has done on earth. 9 He stops wars all over the world; he breaks bows, destroys spears, and sets shields on fire.

10 “Stop fighting,” he says, “and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world.”

11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Ps 46:1–11.

Crimson Sky

I would like to thank you for supporting me and sharing my work with others, to your friends and families. I thank the Lord for His goodness and mercy. May the Lord bless us and all His children. Merry Christmas!

It Is Not I

…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

American Bible Society, The Good News Translation with Apocrypha (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Ga 2:20.

Giving With Your Heart

Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath

8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9“Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you.” 10So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the gate of the town, he saw a widow gathering firewood. “Please bring me a drink of water,” he said to her. 11And as she was going to get it, he called out, “And please bring me some bread, too.”

12 She answered, “By the living Lord your God I swear that I haven’t got any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a drop of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death.”

13 “Don’t worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go ahead and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son. 14For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.’ ”

15 The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days. 16As the Lord had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), 1 Ki 17:8–16.

Another time, a man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing Elisha twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley harvested that year, and some freshly-cut ears of corn. Elisha told his servant to feed the group of prophets with this, 43but he answered, “Do you think this is enough for a hundred men?”

Elisha replied, “Give it to them to eat, because the Lord says that they will eat and still have some left over.” 44So the servant set the food before them, and, as the Lord had said, they all ate and there was still some left over.

American Bible Society, The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, 2nd ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), 2 Ki 4:42–44.

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

(Mark 6:30–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–14)

13 When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him by land. 14 Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick.

15 That evening his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves.”

16 “They don’t have to leave,” answered Jesus. “You yourselves give them something to eat!”

17 “All we have here are five loaves and two fish,” they replied.

18 “Then bring them here to me,” Jesus said. 19 He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over. 21 The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.

American Bible Society, The Good News Translation with Apocrypha (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Mt 14:13–21.

The Message

If you will notice in these passages, the Lord multiplies the food when someone gives food. Being poor is no excuse because the poor widow gave what is left to Elijah, and food multiplied. Another man gave food and became enough with leftovers! And of course, the Lord Jesus multiplied the five loaves of bread and few fishes that someone gave to feed more than five thousand people. If you read the times in the Bible when there was a famine, these giving and multiplying of food happens.

Remember, Joseph? He was in prison when he interpreted the dream of the pharaoh’s baker (loaves of bread)? Joseph cannot give anything to him because he was in prison, but he gave the baker a revelation of what would happen. After that, there was a severe famine that only Egypt had food because of Joseph.

Who is the Bread of Life? The Lord Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life. Whoever eats His bread shall live!

In these times of lack, as foretold in the Bible, the people of God never suffer any lack. They are flourishing and prospering, overflowing of the Lord’s goodness and grace. Nothing can contain His love for us that it overflows to other people. My cup runneth over.

Son Of Righteousness

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

Spurgeon

For He Is Greater

We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We shall cast down the powers of darkness which are in the world, by our faith, and zeal, and holiness; we shall win sinners to Jesus, we shall overturn false systems, we shall convert nations, for God is with us, and none shall stand before us. This evening let the Christian warrior chant the war song, and prepare for to-morrow’s fight. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).

No weapon formed against us will prosper. May the Lord give us victory in this battle, and so give glory to God!

In Praise of God’s Goodness

“Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good; his love is eternal!” 2 Repeat these words in praise to the Lord, all you whom he has saved. He has rescued you from your enemies 3 and has brought you back from foreign countries, from east and west, from north and south.

4 Some wandered in the trackless desert and could not find their way to a city to live in. 5 They were hungry and thirsty and had given up all hope. 6 Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and he saved them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight road to a city where they could live. 8 They must thank the Lord for his constant love, for the wonderful things he did for them. 9 He satisfies those who are thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

10 Some were living in gloom and darkness, prisoners suffering in chains, 11 because they had rebelled against the commands of Almighty God and had rejected his instructions. 12 They were worn out from hard work; they would fall down, and no one would help. 13 Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and he saved them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of their gloom and darkness and broke their chains in pieces. 15 They must thank the Lord for his constant love, for the wonderful things he did for them.

16 He breaks down doors of bronze and smashes iron bars. 17 Some were fools, suffering because of their sins and because of their evil; 18 they couldn’t stand the sight of food and were close to death. 19 Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and he saved them from their distress. 20 He healed them with his command and saved them from the grave. 21 They must thank the Lord for his constant love, for the wonderful things he did for them. 22 They must thank him with sacrifices, and with songs of joy must tell all that he has done.

23 Some sailed over the ocean in ships, earning their living on the seas. 24 They saw what the Lord can do, his wonderful acts on the seas. 25 He commanded, and a mighty wind began to blow and stirred up the waves. 26 The ships were lifted high in the air and plunged down into the depths. In such danger the sailors lost their courage; 27 they stumbled and staggered like drunks— all their skill was useless. 28 Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and he saved them from their distress. 29 He calmed the raging storm, and the waves became quiet. 30 They were glad because of the calm, and he brought them safe to the port they wanted. 31 They must thank the Lord for his constant love, for the wonderful things he did for them. 32 They must proclaim his greatness in the assembly of the people and praise him before the council of the leaders.

33 The Lord made rivers dry up completely and stopped springs from flowing. 34 He made rich soil become a salty wasteland because of the wickedness of those who lived there. 35 He changed deserts into pools of water and dry land into flowing springs. 36 He let hungry people settle there, and they built a city to live in. 37 They sowed the fields and planted grapevines and reaped an abundant harvest. 38 He blessed his people, and they had many children; he kept their herds of cattle from decreasing. 39 When God’s people were defeated and humiliated by cruel oppression and suffering, 40 he showed contempt for their oppressors and made them wander in trackless deserts. 41 But he rescued the needy from their misery and made their families increase like flocks. 42 The righteous see this and are glad, but all the wicked are put to silence. 43 May those who are wise think about these things; may they consider the Lord’s constant love.

American Bible Society, The Good News Translation with Apocrypha (New York: American Bible Society, 1992), Ps 107:1–43.