DAY 3: All of us grew up with different images of fathers. Some fathers are physically present at home, but they don't engage with their kids. Some grew up knowing their father as an important man doing very important things, but as he grew older, he realized he wasn't among the important things his father was busy about. And the list goes on. 

God is your Father and let this be your sole reference of how a father should be. Today, may you be reminded that while people and earthly relationships fail, our Father in heaven never will. 

For your further reading, our Gospel today is Matthew 9:14-15.

This Lent, come as you are and let God embrace you. 

Share with your family and friends and let's journey together! 

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DAY 2: Learn today that the first step of our Christian life is not to work, to do, to strive, or even to love—but first to be loved. 

God loves you as you are. He accepts you totally. 

For your further reading, our Gospel today is Luke 9:22-25.

This Lent, come as you are and let God embrace you. 

Share to your family and friends and let's journey together! 

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Listen on 

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DAY 1: Lent is more than just giving up your favorite things. Lent is not about you doing something for God, it is about God doing something for you.

Let’s make this Lent a different kind of Lent. Ask God to reveal Himself to you during these 40 days of knowing Him more and allow Him to do something new in your life. 

Welcome to Embraced! Today, Ash Wednesday, we start the Lenten Season. We invite you to enter into a 40-day personal prayer time with God and let Him meet your deepest needs in five ways—as our Father, our Leader, our Provider, our Healer, and our Protector.

As we journey in the coming days, we encourage you to:

LISTEN to the Word that will touch your hearts.

WATCH stories of hope and victory from ordinary people.

PRAY in silence and be alone with God.

REFLECT on His messages and share them to bless others.

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Our spiritual life also has two main parts—religious behavior and relational behavior.

Fruits all about how we relate to the people around us.

Here’s the simple equation:

• Leaves = Religious Behavior

• Fruits = Relational Behavior

Message: God is looking for fruits-- not leaves.

To bear fruit, you need leaves.  But all the leaves in the world cannot bear fruits without the most important ingredient.  The leaves catch the energy of the sun and transform it into food for the fruits.

In the same way, all your religious behavior and human effort cannot produce the right relational behavior without the source of all Power—God Himself.  Because you cannot give what you don’t have.  You need to receive love to give love.

So here’s the complete equation:

• Leaves = Religious Behavior

• Fruits = Relational Behavior

• Sun = God Himself

John the Baptist’s entire ministry consisted of two actions: 1) he called people to repentance, and 2) he pointed people to Jesus.

Because repentance can only be fulfilled if you follow Jesus.

Because only Jesus is our Sun.

Only Jesus is the source of our power.

Move towards Him.

Prayer: Jesus, I thank You that You have given me all that I need to act out my faith.  By your supernatural Power at work in my life, I choose to act, to move.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

The Gospel of Matthew

Dawn of an Era

WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT:

Today, we start a new series within the Gospel Matthew, titledDawn of An Era. We’re now leaving behind the Christmas story and are now diving into Jesus’ public ministry. Yes, that’s a 30-year jump, and obviously, you must be asking, “Gee, what did Jesus do during those 30 years?”

Talk 1: Tough and Gentle

Talk I, Tough and Gentle, introduces us to the man called John the Baptist.

The simple but powerful message of Talk 1 is Receive His Mercy.

John’s message isn’t very popular today.

He said, “Repent of your sins and turn to God...” (v.2)

People don’t like hearing calls of repentance.

Talk 1 point out why most people don’t like calls to repentance.

Most people imagine John the Baptist to be an angry, hairy, scary guy. Talk 1 presents John the Baptist as tough and gentle as Jesus.

When Jesus called the proud to repent, He was tough, but when He called everyone else to repent, He was gentle.

Father, I live, breathe, and exist in, through, and by Your Mercy. Without Your Mercy, I die. So today, I open the doors of my heart very wide to receive an overflow of Healing Mercy. So that those around me who are thirsty for Your Mercy can drink deeply from the fountain of your Love, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

This is Talk 7, the last Talk of our series, Birth of The King.  (Tell your friends that at the Feast, we celebrated Christmas until end of January. 😀)

Today, I’d like to preach on the message, “God sees your greatness.”

Let’s open the Word and find out how God defines a great person:

But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee 23 and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:22-23 NLT)

When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your external weaknesses.

He doesn’t focus your sins.

He only sees who you are deep inside you.

He sees your core value.

God sees your greatness.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for seeing goodness, and kindness, and holiness in me. Give me Your eyes, for on my own, I cannot see what You see. Free me from seeing only the present, help me to see my glorious future, in Jesus's name.

Today, I’d like to preach on the message, “Walk out of your Prison.”

Before we read today’s Bible story, I need to give you a little backgrounder for those who missed last week.  Joseph and Mary, carrying baby Jesus, had to escape Bethlehem, travel some 65+ kilometers away, to hide in a foreign country because the insecure, cruel, paranoid King Herod wanted to plant a spear through the chest of baby Jesus.  And the Holy Family became refugees for 3 years.

Here’s what happened next: When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”  So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there.  (Matthew 2:19-21 NLT)

Prayer:  Father, I declare that You are my Liberator.  You are setting me free.  You are opening prison doors and breaking the chains that prevent me from living the life You want me to live for You.  I receive Your gift of freedom, in Jesus's name, Amen.

Yes, life is unfair.  Accept it.  Don’t deny it.  Don’t live in Lalaland.  

Because even if your life is unfair, your problems will not have the last say.  God will have the last say….

In due time, you will be rewarded.  

In due time, evil will be punished.  

In due time, you will receive your vindication.  

In due time, God will have the last say, and it will be good.

I believe that every morning, God gives you an opportunity to press the reset button of your life. Especially now as we start a new year. And a new decade!

Let go of the past. Start anew!

You may have lost some battles in 2019, but that’s only from a short-term context. God never thinks in that way, and if we want to follow Him, we must learn how He thinks. God always thinks long-term.

And from the long-term context, you already won.

This 2020, will you be the good guy or will you be the bad guy? Warning: In the short term, bad guys win. But it will be short-lived. At the end of the day, good guys win. You already won.

In past talks, we shared about how Adam was called to be God’s Image-Bearer, His Representative, and thus, Channel of Abundance.

Alas, he bungled it. Instead of trusting in God’s Love, he took matters into his own hands and defined what was good and evil apart from God.

But here’s the good news: God never gives up on us. (Have you noticed this in your life? I thank God that I’m not God, or I would have given up on me years ago! Shucks, I wouldn’t have created me.)

Throughout the storyline of the Bible, despite repeated and massive screw-ups, you’ll see how God kept calling us to go back to our role as His Representatives on Planet Earth.

Practices Abundant Giving And Abundant Earning

God is raising up a generation of generous people who earn a lot so they can give a lot.

I want to invite you to think in abundance, to earn in abundance, and to give in abundance too.  Earn as much as you can so you can give as much as you can.

Because the purpose of wealth is to love others.