Jesus, the Healer

  Jesus, the Healer

Matthew 14:14

When I was 11 years old, I found my mother on her bed, struggling to breathe. My first reaction was to fall on my knees and pray for her healing. By the next day, she was better, and she never again experienced that same symptom.

CPR trainers teach that the first step in an emergency is to call for help. That’s good medical advice. But we should also develop a reflex of crying “Help!” to God.

The Great Physician is able to heal. He created us and knows every mechanism in our bodies, down to the most minute detail. Sometimes He chooses to take away the problem immediately when we ask, and other times, in His love and omniscience, He allows the ailment to remain. Seeking a doctor’s help is often His plan for us—but He also wants us to come before Him with our need, acknowledging His ultimate power and ability.

Scripture is full of stories about the Lord healing physical, emotional, and spiritual sicknesses. For example, Old Testament accounts tell of divine healing for barrenness (Gen. 17:18-19; 21:2) and leprosy (Ex. 4:6-7). And then in the New Testament, all it took was a touch from Jesus and wholeness was restored for people with all kinds of infirmities. Jesus also gave His disciples authority to heal in His name (Matt. 10:1).

As you read Scripture, notice how often God healed people—and how He valued their faith. When in need, ask for His help. He may grant your request immediately, or His plan might be to bring greater good down the road. Either way, walking closely with Him is always the healthiest and wisest choice.

Pray to the God of the Impossible - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Pray to the God of the Impossible - Christ’s Commission Fellowship


Jeremiah 32:17, 27
17“Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You… 27 “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?”
The one thing that would greatly impact our prayer life is how much we personally know who God is – His Word, deeds and character.
It will take us eternity to know God but the more we decide to get to know God day by day, the more we will trust Him completely and obey whatever He tells us to do and not do. The closer our relationship with Him, the more we know that He is the God of the impossible.

God Created the Heavens and Earth
God amazingly created the heavens and the earth by His great power and outstretched arm. He set the sun, moon, and stars in place with exact specifications and functions (Psalm 8:3). If anything He created is more or less than what it is, it could damage and destroy all of His creations. Our God intricately created everything with order and precision. This amazing display of God’s handiwork is a solid testament of how awesome He is.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. – Psalm 19:1
God is too marvelous for us to comprehend, too wonderful for us to understand. He is the God of the impossible in more ways than we realize.
We stand in awe when we think about the glory of God in His majestic creation of heaven and earth. Our God created this vast expanse out of nothing. He is the God of the impossible; nothing is too difficult for Him.

The God of all Mankind and History
Who are we that God is mindful of us? He marked each one of us for His specific recognition. He is constantly engaged in our lives. In fact, He knew everything about us even before we were born.
God saw our unformed body when we were inside our mother’s womb. He knitted and made all the inner delicate parts of our body (Psalm 139:13-15). God made each one of us unique.
God is the God of world history. He is the God of the past, present, and future. When we read history, we see God’s Hand was there the whole time. History is His story.
God is the God of our personal history. God knows our story. He saw us before we were born and sees all the days of our life. God is constantly watching over us, day in and day out (Psalm 139:16-17).
When we begin to doubt our God, we can be encouraged by this quotation from Jose Navajo’s Mondays with my Old Pastor:
“My responsibility is to think about God. It’s God’s responsibility to think about me.”

The God of the Impossible (Jeremiah 32)
During the time of Babylon’s rule over Jerusalem, God told Jeremiah to buy the field at Anathoth from his cousin Hanamel. Jeremiah obeyed even though it seemed unwise because the land was being overtaken by the Babylonians. But Jeremiah knew God. He trusted and obeyed because he knew that God is the God of the impossible. God told him that houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in that land. This would happen past Jeremiah’s lifetime but he obeyed for the sake of future generations.
The most impossible situation any human being can face is his eternal separation from God because of sin (Isaiah 59:2). Human intervention, religion, resolution, good works, rituals, and sincere efforts cannot solve this problem. But the God of the impossible made a solution to this impossible situation. God gave His one and only Son, Jesus, for all our iniquities - His life for our life.
Knowing the God of the impossible begins with a personal relationship with Jesus when we surrender our lives to Him as our personal Lord and Savior. It is the beginning of experiencing the God who can make all things possible according to His great plan and high purpose.
Because God is the God of the impossible, therefore we should pray, we should trust and we should obey God regardless of our situation. Many times, God will not change our situation according to what we are praying for but He will change our hearts, perspectives, and desires so that we will be completely surrendered to Him whether the circumstance changes or not.

Speaker: Ricky Sarthou
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Holding Fast to the Faithful Word

Holding Fast to the Faithful Word

Titus 1:5-9

In today’s passage, Paul gives Titus guidelines for selecting church elders. At the end of a list of desirable conduct and character traits is an essential qualification that applies to every believer: holding fast to Scripture. It is necessary that we, like the first-century elders, demonstrate an unwavering commitment to God’s Word in order to nurture and guard the church.

We can’t use the Bible to defend our faith and assist others unless we study. And knowing its truths isn’t enough; for them to be effective, we must apply them.

Christians appreciate Scripture’s power to encourage, comfort, and heal, but too often we keep our knowledge to ourselves. We may feel uncertain about sharing, but God provides courage and brings to mind pertinent verses when we’re willing to speak. As we practice His ways, our wisdom will increase. We’ll begin to recognize hurting people and will learn how to exhort them in sound doctrine, as Paul suggests. The apostle also bids believers to confront those who contradict true faith—this requires courage and discernment. When we study and live out sound biblical principles, we will quickly recognize false doctrine. And the better we know God’s Word, the more readily we will be able to find passages that challenge counterfeit teachings and support our own beliefs.

We can’t all be elders in the local congregation. But each Christian is a member of God’s church and responsible to gain biblical knowledge. In that way, we can discern correct doctrine, defend our faith, and encourage the downhearted.

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Love at Its Best - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Love at Its Best - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

The church that pleases God is a loving church.

A man asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment. Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” Everything that we do must be motivated by our love for the Lord. This love will naturally overflow toward loving others.

Let all that you do be done in love. – 1 Corinthians 16:14

But to do this, you must first know God in a personal way. Everything you do for the Lord will feel like a chore unless you have a personal loving relationship with Jesus.

LET LOVE BE YOUR HIGHEST GOAL

What is your number one goal in life? If comfort, affirmation or having fun matters most to you, then your decisions and priorities will naturally follow. According to the Scripture, love should be your greatest aim (1 Corinthians 14:1). Your number one goal must be love because God is love.

HOW CAN YOU LOVE AT ITS BEST?

1.         Accept God’s Love – 1 John 4:7-8

You love God because He first loved you (1 John 4:19). You cannot love people without God’s love in you. You rely on God’s love (1 John 4:16a) when you find it difficult to love the people around you. We may be tempted to find excuses not to share Jesus with others.

2.         Choose and Commit to Love – Deuteronomy 30:20

You cannot force anyone to love because love is a choice and a commitment. You cannot just fall out of love; you either choose to love or not to love.

3.         Don’t Fall in love but act in love 1 John 3:18

You love God because He first loved you (1 John 4:19). You cannot love people without God’s love in you. You rely on God’s love (1 John 4:16a) when you find it difficult to love the people around you. We may be tempted to find excuses not to share Jesus with others.

4.         Love at all times – Hebrews 13:1

Your character is the sum of your habits. If loving is something you can turn on and off, then you are not loving at all.

The most loving act you can do is share the love of God with others. God loves them and He doesn’t want them to perish. Because you love God, you will love whom He loves. You will obey Him to love others as you love yourself, not out of duty but with delight in action.

Speaker: Bong Saquing

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Influence the Heart - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

  Influence the Heart - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Your values and objectives in life will determine your parenting style. As far as the Bible is concerned, the most important thing you can do to your children is to teach them to love God with all their hearts. Biblical parenting produces children who are excited about the Lord because their parents are in love with Him. This is heart parenting. The heart is where lasting transformation happens. If the heart is not transformed, the change in behavior is only temporal.

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE PARENTING

Build Relationship (1 Corinthians 15:33)

Spend time with your children. The closer your relationship is, the greater your influence will be. The closer children are to their parents, the more they are influenced by them and less by their peers.

Listen (James 1:19-20)

The key to knowing and influencing the heart of our children is listening to them. Listen more. Talk less. Do not lecture. The more you listen, the more you will understand them. The more you understand them, the more you can influence them.

Affirm (Ephesians 4:29; Proverbs 18:21)

Words impact lives. Many people look for affirmation elsewhere because their parents did not affirm them. Positive words affect your children positively and conversely, negative words affect them negatively. Be intentional in your words. Do not use words that tear them down. Speak encouraging words that will build them up even when correcting them.

Be a Good Model (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Modeling is the most effective way of teaching. Your children copy your positive and negative actions. You cannot tell them to do something that you yourself are not doing. They become what we are.

Cast Vision (Proverbs 29:18)

Vision gives direction in one’s life. The greater your vision, the greater the motivation you will have to achieve it. Parents must see the potential of Christ in their children. Parents should impart to them God’ grandeur and His special purpose for their lives. They need to teach their children that their present choices will impact the future.

What legacy are you passing on to your children and spiritual children? Begin to apply the principles of Biblical Heart Parenting to influence the hearts of your children and your spiritual children today.

Speaker: Peter Tan-chi

Discipleship Begins at Home - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

  Discipleship Begins at Home - Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Europe was once the bastion of Christianity. When you look at their flags, you see crosses. Why? They used to be Christian nations. Not anymore. Today, churches there have become museum pieces. This is a powerful reminder that Christianity is one generation away from extinction.

Since Christianity is not passed on automatically, it is very important for discipleship to begin at home. Just because you love and follow Jesus, it does not mean that your children will also love and follow Jesus. Parents have to wake up to the reality that they need to nourish and train the next generation in the ways of the Lord.

The family is the link for faith to be passed on to the next generation. Parents, not Sunday school or the youth ministry, remain to be the greatest influence in their children

THE PRIMARY ROLE OF FATHERS

Ephesians 6:4 tells us that parents, especially the fathers, have a very vital role to play in connecting them to God. In our society, there is this prevalent idea that the father’s job is to make money and provide for the family. The mothers, on the other hand, are expected to take care of the children. But the biblical model is for fathers to assume the primary responsibility of helping their children become godly.

HOW CAN YOU BE AN EFFECTIVE FATHER?

A father is not to exasperate his children. Instead, he must nourish and instruct them in the ways of the Lord. A father exasperates his children by shouting, saying negative words, being sarcastic, criticizing them, and having unrealistic expectations. A father must be what he wants his children to be because they will become what he is.

A father should copy God who is the Perfect Father. God knows and provides for our every need, not always our wants (Mt 6:31-32). He only gives us what is good for us. God affirms and blesses His children (Mk 1:11).

Children, there are no perfect fathers. Many of you have been deeply hurt by your father. But we are to forgive our parents and respect them no matter what (Eph 6:2). God promises to bless us if we obey this command.

Parents, until you experience a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father, you will find it hard to effectively disciple your children. Be connected with God first and pass on this personal relationship to your children. Discipleship begins at home, and it begins with you.

Speaker: Peter Tan-chi 

Living with Purpose

  Living with Purpose

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Have you ever been so preoccupied that you’ve wondered, Where has the day gone? It’s one thing to lose track of an entire day, but what about your whole life? That’s going to be the experience of some Christians when they step into heaven and give Christ an account of how they spent their time. If they’ve simply drifted through life, they will wonder, Where did my life go?

A salvation decision isn’t the end goal for a believer. God has a specific plan and purpose for each of His children. Sometimes it’s a lifelong calling in an area of service, but it could also be a specific task He has for you at particular time in your life. The only way you’ll fulfill God’s purposes is by setting goals that align with His will and taking specific steps to achieve them.

Paul was an effective servant of Christ because he followed the Spirit’s guidance, relied upon divine strength, and actively set goals to fulfill his calling as an apostle. He didn’t let fears, doubts, or hardships keep him from accomplishing God’s will. How about you? Have you been living purposely for the Lord, or are you seeking your own goals? You may be very successful in the world, but from the Lord’s perspective, spiritual passivity always results in a squandered life.

Perhaps God has given you a passion or interest that simply needs cultivating. Or maybe you feel a prompting but hesitate because the task seems beyond your ability. Seek God’s will, and He’ll guide you into it. At times this may feel uncomfortable, but you’ll never regret taking on the challenge.