Your sins are forgiven | Manna for your Soul

Have you felt like you've just hit rock-bottom? 
Are you emotionally exhausted?
Do you frequently go through bouts of remorse and regret?

I know how it feels because I used to go through endless cycles of remorse and every time I hit rock-bottom, it looked like I was falling further deeper. Until I was born again to the word of God. 

I'll let you in on some of the secrets - 

• Not everyone is responsible for your problems. We are responsible for the crises in our lives. Relationship crises aside, it is important to realize that we are all very fragile beings. 
• Be aware of whose hospitality you seek, because there could be more than meets the eye (Proverbs 23:7).
• If you are filled with forbidding and anxious thoughts then you will bring despair and gloom. Like looking out of gloom-tinted glasses, everything appears bad. Experts will tell you to fight thoughts with thoughts, but if you want complete healing, try the Word of God (Proverbs 15:15)
• You are not a work in progress. You are not an accident. You are exactly what God says you are. And you have exactly what He says you have. So when someone asks me, 'Have you seen God?' I simply show them a mirror. Because you look and are exactly the way He is.
• Think thoughts that are consistent with what God wants you to think and you will be transformed (Philippians 4:5-8). They have the power to keep you in bondage or liberate you. Your mind is the gateway to your heart. Scientists have proven the power of the mind and successful people around the world have told that if you want to be successful, you need to think like a champion.
• Mat 8:13 says 'It shall be done for you as believed. Spoken or not uttered.'. Seeing is not believing. Believing is believing. Do you believe? Throughout the Bible, we have compelling stories of believers who found favor in the hearts of man and the sight of God only because they believed.
• In Mat 9:29, God also asks us to have that unquenchable desire to be forgiven, more than merely asking for healing. Because like the way Jesus forgave her and healed her from within (in Luke 7 : 48 & 50), God is waiting to forgive you and heal you. If only we confess our sins. And here's a curious translation of a popular phrase in the Bible  - Every time, the Bible says 'in order that', it means to fulfill prophecies, because forgiveness of sins show the authority of God.
• Don't ask for miracles in your life. Because He is already doing what He needs to do to get you what you need. Throughout His earthly ministry, scribes felt He was blasphemous. Yet Jesus knowing their hearts, didn't retaliate but went about performing miracles to fulfill the Messianic signs. 

Every Sunday, we sit at church all solemn and 'sacred', but only God knows what and where our hearts are. 

So while anyone (with the right tools and magic and sleight of hand) can heal and perform miracles, not all can say your sins are forgiven. Only Jesus had the power to heal and the authority to forgive. He is the only proof that everything can become new again.

If only we trust Jesus for our needs, he is not only ready to meet but exceed our physical and spiritual needs. Are you?

Righteous! | Manna for your Soul

The way of the righteous person 
I don't know about you, but I feel everybody today think they are righteous. 
The papers are filled with news of people who are angry at other people and people who want to protest against something or someone they don't believe in. 

We are all guilty of succumbing to righteous anger every once in a while. 
But sometimes we go overboard. Way overboard and that's when it gets toxic.

So, what is that fine line? Thankfully, the Bible has just the advice we need. 
Psalm 1 talks about righteousness. 
Breaking down the verses in the Psalm, we'll see there are 3 laws.

First the Law of dissociation. 
The wise man will guard his path and will have stability, grace and prosperity.
Say kind words and be considerate. 
On the contrary, the evil will become empty, futile and forgotten in time. 

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, the famous American baseball player once said 'If you don't know where you are going, you won't know where you are when you get there'. True story!
Matthew keeps talking about the blessed man and about how the wise man will know how much of the world he needs in his life. 
Jesus has always preached and practiced how we must never allow ourselves to be of the world.
Because when you associate yourself with the ways of this world, your spiritual journey slows down. You'll realize you begin to walk with sinners, stand among the corrupt and sit with angry men.
Over the last couple of years, roasting celebrities in public have become vogue. Instead of talking good about people, our culture is  slowly turning into one where we want to talk bad about people and enjoy it.
Like how Eve did in the garden, calling ourselves Christians will not absolve us of our sins when we begin to compromise our values.
Like the story of the frog that gets cooked to death, what used to make us feel guilty about is now widely-accepted because we are now accustomed to declining moral and spiritual values. 

The second law within Psalm 1 is the Law of delight (Psalm 1:2-3)
A righteous person is someone who waits on the Lord.
They are spiritually grounded and know who they are. 
They know the Lords word and yes, they are prosperous in everything they do. 
Like the headlights of a vehicle that lights the darkened path ahead, the word of the Lord is a lamp to our feet.

In my years of struggle, I've prayed. Sometimes more earnestly than other times. But yes, I never stopped praying.
Over time, I've felt I was being pulled to Him like like the roots of a tree that reaches out to a water source (Jeremiah 17:8)

The third and final law is the Law of division (Psalm 1:4-6)
We may say Christ Christ and sing glorious hymns to Him and call ourselves everything holy, but those who have not acknowledged God in everything they think, say and do, from them the God will depart.
Matthew 7:23 says 'He will say - 'I never knew you. Depart from me'. Oh how shattering will that moment be! There won't be a greater sense of gloom, despair and hopelessness than when He tells me that I am not welcome in Heaven. 
But for the person who loves the laws of Christ (Joshua 1:8), getting to Heaven is just the beginning of everything joyous - Matt 25:33.

Its our choice. And that will have everything to do with how and where we will be on the judgement day.