Beloved in Christ Ministry

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.’ ” (Exodus 6:6, NIV) TODAY’S WORD When the Israelites were in slavery, they were forced to make bricks all day long. They were given quotas that were almost impossible to meet. And at one point, Pharaoh got upset and had the supervisors take away all the straw they needed for bricks. They had the same quota, but they had to go find their own straw. No doubt they prayed, “God, please give us straw. God, You know these supervisors are going to get upset. We’re not going to make our quotas.” They had been pushed down for so long. They had such a limited vision when they were praying for more straw. In effect, they were praying to become a better slave. God said, “That’s too small. I don’t want to make you a better slave. I...

PSALM 91:3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.   Today, we hear of new strains of viruses which were unheard of only a generation ago. The world has yet to find cures for them and many people are afraid of being struck down by these viruses. But as believers, we are not  of  the world, though we are  in  the world. (John  17:15 –16) So our protection is not of the world, but of the Lord. And when we say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust,” (Psalm 91:2) then what follows is not “maybe”, but  surely  He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. A couple in our church can testify that surely the Lord delivered and protected their two young children during a Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) outbreak, which claimed a few lives in Singapore not long ago. When their four-year-old daughter started vomiting and...

GENESIS 8:4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.   For 40 days and nights, it rained so hard that the whole world perished, except for Noah and those who were with him in the ark. At the end of 150 days, on the 17th day of the seventh month, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. In Hebrew, the word “Ararat” means “the curse is reversed”. The waters of judgment receded, causing the ark to rest on the mountains of Ararat, on new ground where the curse is reversed. And it happened on the 17th day of the seventh month on the Feast of Firstfruits—the exact date that Jesus rose from the dead 4,000 years later! When Christ rose from the dead, we were raised together with Him. (Colossians  2:12 ). We who are in Christ our true ark stand on resurrection ground where the curse has been reversed (Galatians 3:13 ), where diseases, poverty and failures have no right to operate! A church member shared how God...

ROMANS  14:17 …the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.   If we are supposed to seek first the kingdom of God every day (Matthew  6:33 ), then we should know what the kingdom of God is in the first place. I used to think that the kingdom of God was the mission fields and that to seek it meant doing missionary work. Then, I realized that the kingdom of God was not something outside you flowing in—“the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking”, but something inside you flowing out—“righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. So to seek first God’s kingdom means to make it a priority every day to have your inner man flowing with righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is not your own righteousness based on what you do. It is not good works. It is a gift from Jesus who is your righteousness. (Romans  5:17 ; 1 Corinthians  1:30 ) God wants you to be established i...

ROMANS  8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?   Some Christians mistakenly believe that God gives and also takes away. At funerals, we sometimes hear the minister say, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” I remember an occasion when I was looking at a baby who was suffering from cancer. I heard one of his family members comment, “You can’t be sure what God’s will is. He may or may not heal.” What that person meant was that although the Lord had given the parents this baby, He might later take the baby away from them. Job displayed this very same attitude when he received the news that he had lost his property and children. Thinking that God was the source of his problems and not knowing that it was actually Satan who had come against him, he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord...

ROMANS  8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?   The pastor of our Hokkien and Mandarin congregations, Pastor Mark, used to suffer from certain health problems before he became a Christian. His doctor told him that he had to be on medication for life. He also had a huge financial debt. But when he caught hold of the teaching that he is God’s beloved, he believed it totally. He also believed that nothing could be greater than God’s love for him. Today, Pastor Mark is off medication and completely delivered from that debt. God caused him to triumph over his sickness and debt because he cannot be defeated when he knows that he is God’s beloved. Tribulation, distress or persecution cannot stop your heavenly Father’s love from working on your behalf. His love for you is bigger and stronger than your financial woes, marital problems or health concerns. And when God’s hea...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew  6:10 , NIV) TODAY’S WORD   God longs to give you a glimpse of heaven while you are here on earth. He wants to show you His plan and bring it to pass in your life. Have you ever thought about how God’s will is accomplished in heaven? In heaven, God’s will is automatic. There are no opposing forces, no doubt, no enemy or anything that would come against His will. On earth, His will is done in our lives, first, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior; and then, we must choose to come into agreement with His will on a daily basis through our thoughts, our words and our actions. On earth, we have to stand against the forces of doubt and darkness. We have to refuse those negative, self-defeating thoughts. As you open your heart to the Word of God and invite His will to be done in your life, you are coming into agreement with God. And when you get in agreement with G...

Dear Isabella, As we enter the second half of this year, I want to encourage and challenge you to speak words of life. You have the power to set the destiny for your life...by what comes out of your mouth. The Bible tells us in Proverbs  18:21  that life and death are found in the words we speak. No one gets to decide the words that come out of your mouth except for you. You have complete control over what you choose to say. Your words have the power to set things in motion, good or bad. They’re like little seeds that you plant in life. When your words are filled with faith, hope and promise then you’ll enjoy the fruit of them. But if they’re filled with discouragement, fear and other negative things, you won’t enjoy your life. As we start the second half of the year, let me encourage you! I speak hope, favor and new life to you. You are filled with God-given destiny and passion. You are everything God has called you to be! I declare this in Jesus’ name over your life today...

Dear Isabella, As we enter the second half of this year, I want to encourage and challenge you to speak words of life. You have the power to set the destiny for your life...by what comes out of your mouth. The Bible tells us in Proverbs  18:21  that life and death are found in the words we speak. No one gets to decide the words that come out of your mouth except for you. You have complete control over what you choose to say. Your words have the power to set things in motion, good or bad. They’re like little seeds that you plant in life. When your words are filled with faith, hope and promise then you’ll enjoy the fruit of them. But if they’re filled with discouragement, fear and other negative things, you won’t enjoy your life. As we start the second half of the year, let me encourage you! I speak hope, favor and new life to you. You are filled with God-given destiny and passion. You are everything God has called you to be! I declare this in Jesus’ name over your life today...

LUKE  7:13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”  My friend, there is no trial, difficulty or challenge we face today that our Lord Jesus cannot identify with. The moment we experience a trial, right there and then, because He “was in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews  4:15 ), He feels it too and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus’ compassion for you is the same compassion He felt for the widow at Nain when He saw the dead body of her only son being carried out of the city gate to be buried. (Luke  7:11 –15) It must have been terrible for her to experience the death of her only son after having already experienced the death of her husband. What a horrible thought to be left all alone in the world with no means of support! When Jesus saw her, He was moved with compassion and said to her, “Do not weep.” Now, some religious leaders might also be moved to approach her, but only to say, “Look sister, so...

Oh, God, I need more power! Please…please…please give me more power, LORD! Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I have. In fact, some years ago I was praying along those lines, earnestly beseeching God to give me greater power to minister. It was a fine, very spiritual-sounding prayer. But The LORD interrupted me right in the middle of it. ‘Kenneth,’ He said, ‘where would I go to get you more power?’ The question stopped me cold. ‘No one has more power than I do,’ He continued. ‘And I’ve already filled you with My Spirit. I’ve put within you the same miraculous force that created heaven and earth, the same supernatural strength that raised Jesus from the dead. Where am I going to go to find something greater than that?’ The point was clear. As born-again, Holy Spirit-filled believers, you and I don’t need more power. We simply need to more fully release what we’ve already been given. We need to allow the Spirit of God within us to flow through us in greater measure. ...

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NKJV) TODAY’S WORD   Did you know that with your words you can either bless your future or curse your future? Your words have creative power. If you want to know what your life is going to be like  five years from now , just listen to what you’re saying about yourself today! Too many people go around saying, “I’ll never get well.” “I’ll never get out of debt.” “It’s flu season. I’ll probably get it.” “This marriage is never going to last.” Then they wonder why they don’t see things turn around. It’s because they’re calling defeat into their future. They’re calling in mediocrity. Don’t let that be you! When you get up in the morning, no matter how you feel, no matter what things look like, instead of using your words to describe your si...

PSALM 91:5–6 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,   nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. During World War II, German planes bombed London. Houses were leveled. But there was one that remained standing amidst the rubble. Its owner said that when she read Psalm 121:4, which says, “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,” she told the Lord, “Lord, since You don’t sleep, then there is no point in both of us keeping awake. I will sleep while You keep watch.” And she did, while the Lord protected her and her house. In 2005, terrorists attacked London’s public transport system. That day, a Singaporean girl found herself unexpectedly late for work and could not get to the train station in time to board her usual train. When she finally neared the station, she realized that it had been bombed just a few minutes earlier. Her mother, who worships in our church...

PSALM 91:14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.   Jesus was in a house in Bethany when a woman came to Him with an alabaster flask containing very costly fragrant oil. She poured the oil on His head. (Matthew 26:6–7) This woman loved the Lord. She had set her love upon Him. But those who were present considered what she did a great waste because the oil could have been sold for an amount equal to one year’s wages, and the money given to the poor instead. Even Jesus’ disciples were indignant and asked her, “Why this waste?” (Matthew 26:8) But Jesus defended her, saying, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me.” (Matthew 26:10) Not only that, He accorded her the highest honor when He added, “Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (Matthew 26:13) Two thousand ...

2 CORINTHIANS 4:8–9 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;   persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… Before you were a Christian, when something sad or bad happened to you, you cried until you had no more tears left. Your heart simply broke into pieces, and you felt trapped, depressed and totally defeated. But after having become a Christian, when something bad happens to you, you may still cry, but you feel comforted inside. You are sad outwardly, but your heart isn’t heavy. You don’t understand why, but deep down inside you, there is something lifting you up. That something buoyant, which is rising from the inside of you, is the life of Christ in you! You cannot be completely distressed because Christ in you is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) who says to you, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be af...