25 David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped

How many times have you insisted on doing the best for God? Insisted on giving Him the best offering or praise? Insisting is a very demanding word. This offering was a demanding one. It was as if David was saying, this is going to be a personal offering from me, and God HAS to see that. He has to honor it.

Araunah was offering David to take the oxen and use it for his offering, at no cost to the King. David could’ve easily said “YES!!! I’ll take it all; this is going to be easier than I thought.” But David knew that the offering that God was looking for wasn’t a cheap, free or hand me down offering. He was looking for an offering that had been purchased just for Him, something special.

Nothing we bring to God should be cheap, or unworthy of a King. This goes for everything in your life. We shouldn’t give Him the last 5 minutes of the day, or the change in our pockets. Everything presented to our God should be well thought out, and with a good price tag on it. King David knew this, and he was a King!

In reading this entire chapter, the verse that impacted me the most is verse 24. David didn’t even hesitate, he instantly reacted. He said “I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing”. It’s so easy to give things up that don’t cost us anything. It’s easy to give cheap things up. These are not the kind of sacrifices God is looking for. He is looking for the best; He is looking for special and unique.

Verse 25 says that God answered David’s prayer. Our blessing, our answer is at the other side of that special offering.

Often times we pray for something, we’ll get upset when we think our prayers weren’t answered, and quickly give up. Well, a word that has changed my life is Mathew 15:21-28. Pastor Chacon preached a sermon “God blesses those who never give up” based on these bible verses. This woman was so desperate. She refused to accept God’s “No!” How many times have you asked God for something and He’s said “No?”. The logical thing would be to say “ok, thank you anyway!” I mean, He’s God right? WRONG!

At times God is testing our faith and asking us for more. How strong is your faith in Him? Does that miracle you need, seem so far out of reach? It’s not! This woman BEGGED. Yes! The bible says she begged for Jesus to help her. She pleaded, she worshipped. She did everything she had to do to get His attention. At first He just ignored her. Mathew 15(NLT)23 But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.” Ouch! This would easily be enough for someone to give up. But this woman was different; she didn’t care if she annoyed those around her. She was going to keep begging, pleading and worshipping until He acknowledged her and heard her out.

Sometimes begging is not enough. We’ll come to church begging, pleading, screaming for answers and miracles to happen. What about Him though? Let’s not be selfish and forget why He created us to begin with. He created us to worship Him. Once this woman ran out of ideas, her faith took her to worship Jesus. It was only after she worshipped Him that He acted in her favor. Her faith had reached a different level, a level of worship.

Psalm 81:6-7 (NLT)6 “Now I will take the load from your shoulders;
I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
7 You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
I answered out of the thundercloud
and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend. She couldn’t understand how God could forgive her; she said “I couldn’t forgive me!” That’s what’s so great about Him, I told her. He isn’t like us, as humans we judge, criticize, hold grudges and purposely hurt each other. God is nothing like this. All He wants is to forgive us, He wants us to turn to Him and come home. God wants us to have a true repentance and Let Him in! Luke 24:47 (NLT) “…There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.” It’s there for us; we just have to choose it.

So are you ? are we fools to even ask for forgiveness? For redemption? NO! because we will never deserve it. You will never save up in your piggy bank for it. Do not fall into the lies satan tries to tell you. God paid the way; He paid the way so that we could choose it. If we don’t accept His redemption or His “rescue plan” for us, than His son died in vain? No one else will do what God our Father did for us. Why did the prodigal son’s father rejoice after his return? If your child goes missing, wouldn’t you celebrate their return? This is our wonderful God, the one who waits for us with open arms, hoping for us to come home. He is hoping to embrace us once again.

So when you find there is no hope, no way out. Hope in Him! The word of God says that his redemption overflows, meaning it’s more than enough. Psalm 130:7 (NLT)
“.. hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows”

Many times I’ve met people for a brief 5 or 10 minutes in the waiting room or random places. Selfishly thinking about myself and why I was there, I failed to see the opportunity God was presenting. Every time you meet someone, it’s our duty as Christians to speak the truth to them. It’s like knowing that someone’s going to fail at something and not warning them.

We are to do as God has commanded. God has brought us here to spread the good news. Think about how lost you would be if God hadn’t used someone to preach to you?

“UNSELFESHNESS” should be an important word in our Christian walk. Jesus is our greatest example, since He laid down His life in the most unselfish act. So, next time don’t be afraid or timid. Satan can rob great blessings this way, great miracles that God is trying to perform through you!

God is unlike any other person you will ever meet. God is love, not someone who gives it and takes it back whenever they feel like it. He created love; He is the author of it. So, if God is the creator of Love and happiness, why is it that we don’t seek Him to obtain these things??

Many women put their entire faith in a man and vice versa, which is incredibly dangerous. Don’t make your husband, wife, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, leaders etc, idols that your happiness depends on. The truth is, at one point or another they will let you down. When this happens, your whole world is flipped upside down and for what?? A mere human! this is the nature of humans, we fail.

Now, don’t get me wrong. God will bring people in your life, relationships and friendships that are a demonstration of just how much He love us. These will be wonderful, but this is only after you build up the most important and eternal relationship with God, you will start to see how He guides you. The Holy Spirit is like a best friend, someone who will start to guide you as to who should and shouldn’t be in your life.

I like this version of this particular verse (God’s Word) Matthew 6:33 “But first, be concerned about his kingdom and what has his approval. Then all these things will be provided for you.” This verse is a reminder that the most important relationship, our concern should be with God. His approval of you is more important than anyone else’s.

“Trust” is a key word. When you trust in God, it’s like you sign your life over to be guided by Him. The Holy Spirit will take over; it’ll let you know when you’re making the wrong decisions, when you’re in a bad relationship, when you’re in the wrong place. This is why the bible speaks so much about putting all your trust in God, because he knows us better than we do!! He knows what’s best for us, but He needs us to trust Him to get us there. Trust your entire life over to Him. 1 Peter 4:19 says “…trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.”

It’s around this time every year, that people start to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. He deserves more than just a week of recognition though, He deserves our entire lives. If He gave His life for you, what will you give Him in return? I think it’s funny how people want to physically suffer like He did, in order to somehow feel closer to Him. Ridiculous! I know! Reading His word and remembering His sacrifice daily will get you closer to Him. He paid the way for you and me. He paid so that we could be free and live for Him.

His great sacrifice is for you to remember what you’re worth, God’s only son!! You are worth His blood and you were worth dying for! Now isn’t that worth celebrating?? Bring Glory to His name by obeying Him. Show Him honor and praise and never forget what He did for you. Never forget where He picked you up from, and where He has taken you.

Romans 1:4-5
And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. (NLT)

Don’t dedicate a week of fasting and prayer and then forget about Him the rest of the year. Dedicate your whole life to serving Him. We will never repay His sacrifice, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about celebrating it everyday and reminding Satan of his defeat and our Victory in Christ. It’s about taking every burden, every sad day, every lonely day and laying it before Him. Praise God regardless, because of what He has done for you! No one else can do what He did. Go back to that cross daily and remember His sacrifice. Rejoice, for there is a God in heaven who loved and continues to love you with His amazing mercy and grace!

PS: Santa doesn’t exist either, but we’ll get to that sometime in December!

Like that child that came home using foreign language, sometimes we walk into situations and do the same. Reading Luke 5 & 6 God tells me that the first to be criticized was His son. If He can overcome criticism why can’t we? Why do we allow others criticism of us, determine who we are?

Let’s speak in confidence like Jesus did. One thing that’s amazing to me is that He knew their bad thoughts; He knew their plots and schemes against Him. He knew the terrible things they said about Him. Did He run to a corner and self loath? NO! He never let it get to Him!! He kept going on His journey to the cross. He did this so you and I could know better. Now that we do, let’s put it to practice!! Don’t allow anyone for any reason to derail you from Him, and only accept His image in you!

A love that wasn’t forced on me
But one I couldn’t fight off
A unique love that responded
To a desperation call

Everyday I will cling
To this special True Love
Let me stay in love with You forever
Become ruler of my heart

Encouraging each other is something that the disciples learned from Christ. It’s so important that you be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. There are days that you’ll share a word with someone and it happens to be the exact word that they needed. As humans we are weak, we get sad, emotional and we fall. How great is it that we don’t have to be alone though? We have God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit and our brothers and sisters in Christ. For someone to feel alone that’s a lot of company to have!!

Reading these verses in Acts, God spoke to me. We need to encourage and help each other, no matter how busy and no matter what situation we might find ourselves in. Paul understood this, He went to such lengths that they landed him in jail. All Paul did was help a woman in need. Paul travelled to revisit far away places just to re-encourage his new brothers and sisters. Paul realized how important it was to go back and re-affirm their faith in Christ, lift them up in case they had fallen and strengthen their relationship with God.

OK! Before I forgot let me mention this: There will be some people however, that God will instruct you to stay away from. Acts 16: 6…’The Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at the time’. Some people are used strategically by satan to come and destroy you, be very careful and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom.

Ok we’re back!! So, what a cool job we have huh?? God has given us the power through His word to encourage and help one another. This word really spoke to me, as I have so many friends and family members in need of help. I have made it my responsibility to help them and encourage them, to be a light in the dark place they find themselves in. Not just to encourage the non-believers though, but also my brothers and sisters like Paul did. This is just one of our duties and responsibilities as Christians.

God did many great things with Paul, but this was because Paul was obedient and listened to Him. If you want God to use you in this way, You have to be willing to go to great lengths to do the work of God!!

God can’t do anything with you until you allow Him full access. Until you let Him come into your life and take over. This is called “Discipleship”. Mathew 16:24 (NIV) says “Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. When you are no longer the one behind the wheel, that’s when we take the step into discipleship, to be followers of Christ. It’s to let go of being masters and directors of our own lives and allow God to lead us instead.

Think about this, you cannot be a disciple if you aren’t following anyone. Have you ever heard of a student without a master? Or a famous person without loyal fans?. Well this is what we are, faithful followers and loyal fans of God. Going from that person who accepted the Lord to a disciple, can be challenging though. This transition is such a critical step in your walk with God. In my church we call it “Consolidation”. Taking you from the person who took that leap of faith, into becoming a true disciple of Christ, one that can be sent out to lead others and do God’s work to extend His Kingdom.

This transformation that will take you to become this great disciple can only be done through faith. Taking that little bit of faith you had in the beginning of your walk and multiplying it every day. Growing in faith is important, but what will get you to grow in faith?. The best way that I have found, is to read His word. Read His word every day; drink it up like the H20 you need to keep you going, or caffeine in my case. Fuel yourself every day with His word. This is the only way you will know whether you’re obeying God and doing His will. How do you know if your building something correctly if you don’t read the manual? Same thing with your life, you need His word to build up your faith in Him and get to know Him.

Let God transform your life!! I guarantee that if you nourish your spirit with His word, your life will be transformed. You will not be the same person and you’ll be on your way to discipleship!