Daily Encouragement

March 8, 2009 - Jesus' Prayer For You

Meditation on John 17

In this intimate prayer of Jesus, He prayed for the accomplishment of His mission and through that He would reveal the eternal glory of His Father and Himself. (v. 1-5) He prayed for the twelve disciples except Judas to accomplish the mission also. He prayed for their joy, protection and sanctification. (v. 6-19 ) Then He prayer for you and me also. (v. 20-26)

Jesus prayed that all future disciples would be one in Him and the Father. That unity should be just as the Father and Jesus are one which is full of love for one another. This love between the God heads expresses itself through creativity and variety. So should our love among Christians show harmony in diversity and colorful expression. As the world see our glorious unity given by God, they will come to know Christ as sent by the Father.

The most amazing thing is that Jesus prayed that "the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." (v. 23 NKJV) That means that the love that God has for you is the same intensity of love as that of His love to His Son. Since God loves you and me that much, would it not be fair that you will love Him too?

Let us thank Jesus for His prayer for us and tell Him that we love Him and we also want to love one another.

March 9, 2009 - The Great I Am

Meditation on John 18

When Judas and the officers of the chief priests and Pharisees came to arrest Jesus, they were well prepared. Those detachments of Roman soldiers were at least two hundred in numbers. When they came to the garden at night and told Jesus that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus responded by saying "I Am He". At that moment, they drew back and fell to the ground. (v. 6) Why?

When Jesus said "I Am", He was revealing His majesty. For "I Am" is the name of God. Remember God's answer to Moses' question of "What is His name?" God's answer was "I AM WHO I AM." And He told Moses to tell his people "I Am has sent me to you." (Exodus 3:13-14 NIV) The name of God is glorious and powerful. So for a moment, when Jesus revealed Himself, people had to draw back for He is divine also. But the son of God at that time had decided to drink the cup which His father had given Him. So He as the son of man submitted to human government and took the road of the cross.

Jesus the great I AM has been the king of the universe. He acknowledged to Pilate, the governor that He was a king but His kingdom was not of this world.

His kingdom is entirely different from the earthly ones. He will make all things new. May we bow before Him now and confess Him as the great I AM, who has cared for us by redeeming us through his blood. He is also the great I AM who can meet all our needs. For He is______. You can fill in the blank!

March 10, 2009 - It Is Finished

Meditation on John 19

On the cross, before Jesus gave up His spirit, He said, "It is finished!" (v. 30 NKJV) The mission He was sent by the Father was finally accomplished, He had said to Nicodemus that He must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:15) He had also said to His disciples, "And I. if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." (John 12:32)

Yes, through His death on the cross, our penalty of sin is paid for and the way of salvation for mankind is finished. We do not need to do anything except to receive it. Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled on the cross, "Because He poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intersession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12)

Therefore the account of John carefully documented the death of Jesus, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out." (v. 34) When a person was still alive, only blood would come out from the wound. So the water indicated that Jesus was already dead. Later on when Nicodemus came to wrap Jesus' body with about a hundred pound of a mixture of myrrh and aloes and bound it in strips of linen, it was again a proof that Jesus' body was dead and immovable.

It was finished. The Scriptures was fulfilled. Now we wait for the resurrection.

March 11, 2009 - Jesus Cares For Your Spiritual Need Personally

Meditation on John 20

According to all the Scriptural account, Jesus had appeared to His disciples ten times before His ascension. Many times He appeared to them for the sake of one or few persons, e.g. Mary Magdalene, James, Peter, Thomas, the two on the way to Emmaus, the women. Here the Gospel of John recorded in details His personal appearance to Mary Magdalene who was the first to see Him after the resurrection. He knew the deep need of Mary more than anyone else. For Mark reported that "He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons." (Mark 16:9b, NASB)

Later on that Lord's Day, when Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples, Thomas, the skeptic was not there. So the following Sunday, Jesus appeared to the disciples again. It seemed that this time it was special for the sake of Thomas. After He saw the nailed prints on Jesus' hand and the wounded side of Jesus, He exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" (v. 28)

We can also imagine why Jesus had to appear to Peter personally. Peter was the one who denied Him three times. He needed to be restored. Also, James the brother of Jesus did not believe Jesus before His crucifixion, (John 7:3-5) Jesus had to appear to him so he could believe that He is the son of God. James later became the leader of the church.

Whatever your stage of spiritual condition now, pray to Jesus who cares for you and will meet your need. (1 Peter 5:7)

March 12, 2009 - The Greatest Breakfast

Meditation on John 21

On the third appearance of Jesus to the disciples who were fishing, His first question to them from the shore was, "Children, have you any food?" (v. 5 NKJV) Their answer was "No." That was in the early morning.

Then Jesus instructed them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. Then they caught a great multitude of fish even though they caught nothing the whole night long. Not only they caught so much fish, but also when they got to the shore, they found that Jesus had prepared breakfast for them already with bread and fish on a fire of coals. Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." (v. 12)

Imagine, the resurrected Jesus cooked breakfast for them personally. That must be the most delicious and fantastic breakfast the disciples had ever tasted. Jesus cared for the physical health of His children. He wants His children to eat breakfast! And He also would make sure that our daily needs are provided. (The great catch)

After the breakfast, Jesus asked Peter three times "Do you love Me?" As Peter answered yes three times, Jesus told him to feed His lambs, tend His sheep and feed His sheep.

That indicates to you and I this is the way to show our love to Jesus.

If you do have a habit to eat your breakfast in the morning, would you tell Jesus that you love Him and would feed and tend His lambs and sheep?

March 13, 2009 - Witness For Jesus Everywhere

Meditation on Acts 1

Dear Dr. Luke, the physicians (Colossians 4:14) had written a document of the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Now he wrote the second document of the planting of the early churches in Acts. In chapter one, he recorded Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit for witnessing, the prayers of the early disciples in waiting for the Spirit and the election of Matthias to fill the vacancy left by Judas to be the witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.

Let us concentrate on Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (NASB) The Holy Spirit was given primary for the purpose of giving Christians power to witness for Jesus. The where seemed to give an outline of the Book of Acts: in Jerusalem (Acts 1-7), in all Judea and Samaria (Acts 8 - 11:18), and even to other parts of the world (Acts 11:19 - 28:31).

Sometimes in our application of this verse, we have neglected one important word, "both". This word in Greek is "te" and is right before the word, Jerusalem. In many translations, it is not there. But I am glad that the New American Stand Bible retains it. The original King James translation has it too. When the word, "both" is included, the application of the procedures in witnessing will be different. Yes, we should begin witnessing in where we are and gradually spread to other parts of the world. But we should not restrict ourselves in witnessing to our locality and neglect our neighboring towns. Our churches do give money to support missionaries but we do not witness to people in the next town where there may be great spiritual need.

I am talking about planting churches. Many churches refuse to engage in this greatest method of witnessing- planting churches. They think that we have so many needs ourselves, we have so many people who need Jesus in our town, so we should do well to build our church first before we plant another church. They think they are applying the strategy of Acts 1:8. But the word "both" indicates that we should do all witnessing simultaneously. We should witness in our town, we should witness to the people next town as well as supporting missionaries and engaging in short term missions. Doing one does not exclude the others.

Besides, when we plan a church in another town, more of our old saints and lazy and unchallenged saints will be involved and revived. Many more people will come to know the Lord. It is not easy. But we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.

March 14. 2009 – The Coming Of The Holy Spirit

Meditation on Acts 2

On the fiftieth day after the Passover, the Jews celebrated the first fruit of their harvest. It was on this day the Holy Spirit came upon all the disciples signifying that there would be great harvest of souls to come into the kingdom of God. (v. 1)

There came a sound from heaven, the rushing mighty wind, divided tongues of fire sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. (v. 2-4) These were the signs of the first coming of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus.

The Holy Spirit gave them utterance to speak other tongues. These were the languages of those Jews who gathered for the festival in Jerusalem from different parts of the world. Those were the native tongues from Europe, Africa, Iran, Turkey and other places.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter preached to them with the message of the fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The people were convicted and repented of their sins. As a result they received forgiveness and the Holy Spirit themselves and there were about three thousand of them baptized that day.

Would all believers receive the Holy Spirit? The answer is yes. For Peter was quoting the Scriptures said, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh..." (v. 17 NKJV)

Today if you have repented of your sins, accepted Jesus into your heart and confessed that He is your Lord and Savior, you are saved and are filled with the Holy Spirit too.

He will empower you to witness to people of all cultures beginning with those who are close to you.