Begin the day with God

Did you have a good start this morning? How do we commence the day?

I assure you there is the perfect way to begin the day. Begin the day with God.
"My voice You shall hear in the morning O LORD; in the morning I will direct it to You. And I will look up." Psalm 5: 3 (NKJV)

Before you talk with others, talk with God. It is important to keep our relationship with God right.
                                               
                                                “In the Morning” by Ralph  Cushing

I met God in the morning

When my day was at its best,

And His presence came like sunrise

Like a glory in my breast.

 

All day long the Presence lingered;

All day long He stayed with me.

And we sailed with perfect calmness

O’er a very troubled sea.

 

Other ships were blown and battered,

Other ships were sore distressed;

But the winds that seemed to drive them

Brought to us a peace and rest.

 

Then I thought of other mornings

With a keen remorse of mind,

When I, too, had loosed the moorings

With the Presence left behind.

 

So I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way.

You must seek God in the morning

If you want Him through the day.

Jesus in the midst

We normally join our brothers and sisters on a Thursday morning for prayers at The Salvation Army Headquarters, Bishan. We are part of the world wide Salvation Army prayer chain.

Every Monday morning we join the Peacehaven Nursing Home Staff for breakfast followed by prayer meeting. Staff attendance is voluntary. Although we are not part of the staff, we are welcomed to participate. It's always a joy and privilege to join our brothers and sisters in Christ for prayer fellowship.

We always sense the presence of our Lord right in our midst. We are reminded of the promise given by our Lord which says,  "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

After the eventful days following Good Friday and the Resurrection a  group of ten nervous and fearful disciples gathered behind closed doors. There was no record of what they were discussing, but I guess they might be recalling the days prior to and after the crucifixion. Perhaps they were wondering what would happen next.

Suddenly, Jesus appeared in their midst.

Events happening in our region and all over the world give us concern, but let us have faith for God is still on the throne and nothing can shake it. He is our Creator of the universe and our Sovereign God is in absolute control.

I've been pondering over the phrase -  Jesus in the midst. Read John 20: 19-23 When we meet for Prayer and Christian Fellowship, our Lord is in the midst.

1 JESUS IS IN THE MIDST OF OUR PROBLEMS

Problems confront us every day. Problems bring perplexities. It is comforting to know that right in the midst of our problems and perplexities our Lord is present in our midst. We are not alone.

Notice, He breathed upon them. The breath of God at Creation meant physical life, and the breath of Jesus Christ in the new creation meant spiritual life. We believers have received the baptism of the Spirit at the point of conversion and the daily infilling of the Spirit when we seek His presence. Life has its problems and perplexities, but thank God He is in our midst to share our problems.

2 JESUS IS IN THE MIDST OF OUR PAIN

There are issues in life that bring us pain. For example, a dear friend of relative is suddenly taken ill or had a serious accident. Or we hear of someone we know killed in a bomb blast while on holiday in the foreign land. Or we might hear of a church member who has decided to give up his faith in God.

We share the hurts and pain of others. Our hearts are burdened with grief. We meet in prayer and suddenly our Lord appears - we know He is our midst to share our pains.

3 JESUS IS IN THE MIDST OF OUR PRAYERS

My wife and I have our own private devotions in the morning. We also have our prayers together before we end the day. When visitors come to visit us, we end the visit with prayer. God answers prayer.

Sometimes we get the answer to our prayer immediately, at other times the answer is delayed. God has His reasons for delayed answers. There have been occasions when in His wisdom He has chosen to deny our requests. However, it is comforting to know He is in our midst to answer our prayers. God knows our needs and He wants the best for us.

Our Lord bids us pray. He has given us the promise. "Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open unto you." Luke 11: 9

Let us seek every opportunity to pray be it personal or corporate.

National Day - Sunday 9th August at Changi Corps

National Day celebrations

It was good to begin the day with worship. We joined our fellow believers praising the Lord.

It was a good meeting. In our eighteen years of retirement, we've not heard a Singaporean give the national day message! So for the first time we heard the sermon given by Singaporean Lieutenant Joyce Ng. It was a good message well presented - "Let Charity and Justice Flourish in Our Nation" based on Micah 6:8 and Proverbs 3: 27-30. You can read the outline of the sermon if you turn to the Changi Corps Facebook.

What an encouragement to us to listen three young ladies giving their thanksgiving testimonies - Vanessa Tan, Jaime Yeo and Cleone Tan. In between the verses we sang the song "Count your blessings name them one by one.

Good to see so many wearing red and white, even though different shades of red. What thrilled me was to see a number of non- Singaporeans dressed in red. They just wanted to identify with us Singaporeans.

The National Pledge  was recited in four languages - English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. We sang some of the Singapore songs too!

In the afternoon, we joined our son and family to watch the national day parade. We had the family dinner there.

It was a great day for us. Thanks be to God.

Majulah Singapura!

Today is our National Day. The nation celebrates its 50th year of independence.

We got up early this morning and the first thing I did was to thank God for this another new day. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

I had my prayers and devotion. I prayed for our Government - the President, the Prime Minister and the his cabinet. The 50 Day Devotional published by Love Singapore has the list of leaders  - the Government, the civil service etc.

God has blessed our nation. The future is unknown, but we keep our faith, for God holds our future.

In a short while we shall be joining the folk in worship at our Corps (Church). We pray for the church of which The Salvation Army forms a part. Pray for the church and its leaders that they will remain faithful.

SG50 Film 1965

We've not been to a cinema for a very long time. What a joy to be invited by our grandson David and his wife Yurong, and grand daughter Rachel to join them watch this soul stirring film at Tampines Mall. Our hearts were touched as we viewed the old scenes of Singapore, the racial riots and the destruction. Thank God for good, strong leaders who gave of themselves to the nation.

All over the world there is racial and religious tension, resulting in loss of property and lives. We thank God in Singapore the various races are able to live harmoniously together. Thank God for our founding fathers Lee Kuan Yew and his team. We cannot take this racial harmony for granted. We pray that God will enable our leaders and people to live together in peace and harmony.

The lessons we learn - appearances can deceive us; things are not what they seem. So let's guard our thoughts and our tongues.

"And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself."  James 3: 6

As we celebrate SG50 let us not forget to pray for our nation and its leaders that Divine wisdom and grace be granted them to rule wisely.

The Serenity Prayer

Most of us are familiar with the Serenity Prayer written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
It's been quoted many times.

O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed,

The courage to change what can be changed,

and the wisdom to know the one from the other

The most well-known form of the prayer attributed to Niebuhr is a late version, as it includes a reference to grace not found before 1951.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

 

He Touched Me [Live]

This beautiful song is found in The Song Book of The Salvation Army No. 475
I've been much blessed singing this song. I use the Song Book besides the Bible for my daily devotions