Doing a better daily devotional

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Are you spending time with God every day consistently (i.e daily devotional time)? How long do you normally spend your time with God? Though it is not the matter of quantity itself, it still shows how serious you are in spending time with Him. For example, if you only spend 2-3 minutes everyday for your daily devotions, then it is at an alarming stage (especially if you have already been a Christian for years).

If you are longing to have a better daily devotional time with God (i.e consistent, longer, and deeper), these tips may help you out. They are not the “must-do steps”, of course, because each person may have different methods or preferences in a sense. So, feel free to share yours as well in the comments section below.

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Why did God punish David for doing a census in 2Samuel 24?

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If you read 2Samuel 24 (or 1Chronicles 21), you’d find that God punished David for doing a census. The reason is not explicitly written on the Bible so there are lots of interpretations on this.

One of the most popular “theories” is because David did not rely on God anymore but on his own army’s strength (hence, why he tried to find out the strength of his military power). I tend to go for the other one – because David wanted to take pride of his own army.

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Treasures in heaven

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Matthew 6:19-21 says:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rustdestroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What is Matthew trying to say here? Treasures in heaven? What are those? Some kind of savings in a heaven’s bank of some sort? Some kind of a currency to buy stuffs when we are in heaven? Is this supposed to be our purpose for living at the moment? To do good and work for God so that we have more of these treasures?

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Only by Grace

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Note: This is a guest post by Yohan Setiawan

Plus haut
iko / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Hi guys,

I wrote this song a couple weeks back. It all started by a thought. I was thinking about how unworthy and filthy we are as sinful people. Yet, God with His great great love would send His Son to die for us. So that we would have a way to be with God. How amazing is that? He has chosen us specifically to be His child and we could be with the Father.

The first verse is about our confession and how we were before we received God and how God took us and nurtures us in Him despite our rebellious nature. Ultimately, He cleansed us as white as the snow with His Holy Blood. This is the greatest gift that one could ever imagine. What a wonderful God we have. Every row in this serve is deliberately started with the word I to explicitly show our self-centered-ness and our struggles as believers trying to grow.

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Following the will of God – my admiration to Noah

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Noah's Ark Toy  Skirball Cultural Center Los Angeles
Al_HikesAZ / Foter / CC BY-NC

Each one of us has one or more “idols” in the Bible. People that we admire, such as Jesus, Daniel, or Paul (probably one of the most popular ones). But these few years, I have grown my admiration to Noah. Now I rarely hear people actually admire Noah. I mean, yes, we know his story and we’ve heard countless of sermons on him too.

But personally, how far do you know his struggles and admire him for it?

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A tree in the midst of storm

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English: Tree by the road No guessing as to wh...

Image via Wikipedia

There are times when we are deeply troubled and pondered whether our convictions in God’s plan were fake, were shrouded by our own feelings. Problems, things we expected that never happen, plans that seem to go wrong, and many other “storm” in our lives.

A post shared by a friend that she took from a devotional reminds me (and hopefully you) about a tree in the midst of storm. A tree, planted by God. It’ll never fail, it’ll never fall, no matter how hard the storm is.

Let us be that tree. Let us be strong in what ever darkest valley we are enduring at the moment. Let us be content in God’s love, grace, and perfect plan no matter how hard it may seem.

If we were sure before that our conviction was planted by God Himself, why doubt, oh, soul with little faith?

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How to hear God’s Voice – Part 4

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This is the last part (Part 4) of “How to hear God’s Voice” series. Please make sure you read How to hear God’s Voice – Part 1 first before you read this one through.

 

praying

Image by ater_unda via Flickr

 

In the last part (Part 4), I will discuss about the “WHAT” factor – What if we are still unsure? Especially for major decisions, it is imperative for us to really know that it is the voice of God’s. Following our “intuition” is going to cost us grief in the future if we are not in tune with God’s will.

 

Then I’ll close it with the “WHEN AND WHERE” – when you feel God is silent or just doesn’t care with what you are going through at the moment. Or when you just can’t seem to hear His voice or answers to your prayers.

 

 

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How to hear God’s Voice – Part 3

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Moses and the Burning Bush, illustration from ...

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This is Part 3 of “How to hear God’s Voice” series. Please make sure you read How to hear God’s Voice – Part 1 first before you read this one through.

In Part 3, I will discuss about the “HOW” factor – How goes God speak to us? If you’ve been asking that you’ve never heard the voice of God, you are definitely wrong. He has spoken to you so many times but you probably weren’t aware that it’s God’s.

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