Kingdom and Righteousness of God

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you"

I must confess that I had taken the verse out of context too many a times. I have not given it a second thought and had taken it for granted that it simply means to seek God and everything will fall into place.

The Lord's Spirit opened my eyes tonight to understand better what these Words really mean.
First of all, the "Kingdom of God" as many knows is not so much a place or location. It is where the rule of God is. It is when the submission of hearts of men to God is established. The Kingdom of God is right HERE! Here where I stand WHEN I submit completely to God my life, my thoughts, my actions and my entire being. It is when I commit wholeheartedly the best AND the worst of me to God, knowing that there is nothing that I can do to be more holy, nor anything that I can do to make God love me less. Where and when I submit to God prostrated, there the Kingdom of God is.

What about "His righteousness"? I believe that His righteousness describes God's character. Whatever God deems to be holy and right.

So, to seek first God's Kingdom and righteousness is to seek to completely submit to God's will, ie: seek to do God's will and all the things that God deems right; and stay clear of the things that God despises.

I write this so that I will remember it the next time I forget. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. My brain cannot retain all that the Spirit is giving my heart and head, but thankfully God also provided the computer and internet to supplement my lacking. God is Great!!

Dave the Saved

Blessed 2010

A very Happy and Blessed 2010 to everyone!!

New year often marks the beginning of a lot of things. People tend to think of fresh starts, putting behind past mistakes and look forward to newer and better things to come.
Thankfully for me, God has given me a similar hope, but more so because each and every failure I make, I can INSTANTLY wipe clean and start all over because Christ has promised that He would have removed the stains of my mistakes from God. His sacrifice on earth and on the cross has "cleanse" me from all my errors that otherwise would have condemned me in more ways than one.

In retrospect, the year 2009 reflections leads me to think and count the blessings instead of the problems and troubles that has passed. World economy has begun to recover, and I believe so have lives been restored in the year that passed. The iPhone 3G was introduced(although I haven't got one) and Michael Schumacher announced that he will be back in the race next season of F1. That's good news, isn't it?

Life went on with relative good health for me and the people around me. Praise the Lord.

I just pray that in this coming 12 months, churches around the globe will be restored and the spiritual leaders revived to walk with God. It is rather disappointing when church leaders, pastors and such people of God fall. Of course, they are still human. But I can understand how easily one could do God's work, and forget to walk with God.

World peace, environment recovery, end violence...I suppose those are what we would continue to pray for in the year to come.

But we can all certainly look forward to God's promise of a renewed spirit and the working of the Spirit to enable us to serve Him better this year. And I press on to the goal of serving our Lord. Only pray for me that I might persist and have the Word be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Extremism or Simply Obeying?

I'm back after a long long long sabbatical. The past months has been of much awakening for me. I've really been challenged to live a life of Christ, die to myself and to take up my cross.

It became clearer to me that if I want to live a life of Christ, with Christ, I cannot linger on to my current self-focused(a gentler word for self-centered) attitude.
I was reminded that I cannot be raised with Christ if I do not participate in the dying with Christ bit. Meaning, a total and complete death to self. As Paul noted, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain".
I cannot see how I can hang on to somethings with my left hand and do the works of Christ with my right hand accomplishing the dying to self prerequisite.

I use to think and ask God to help me put Christ in my workplace and everywhere else I go. I've even learnt practical examples such as saying a little prayer before I send out an email to clients, as if in partnership with Christ for the daily businesses I go about in the office.

However, I missed the ENTIRE POINT. My focus has always been doing well at my workplace. Perhaps even subconsciously hoping for recognition and a better career in the future.
What's wrong with that, you say?
Well, nothing except that I've not been called into being to pursue a career, accomplish a great task or advance my stature.

I've been CALLED to love God, to build my relationship with Christ. In Rick Warren's acclaimed book "Purpose Driven Life", he noted that man will never find his purpose in life as long as he is looking in the wrong places, such as his personal wishes and dreams. Take special note that in Genesis, God created Adam to have fellowship with Himself. Christ came to die for us also so that we might be restored to have relationship with God. Our purpose IS to return to our ORIGINAL PURPOSE for being and our SOLE INTENDED REASON, which is to fellowship with God.

How does THAT fit into our life on earth? Our workplace? Our church? By working our focus toward the things of heaven. By reminding myself to live in eternity with God.
If I were to put God first in my life, career will not matter anymore. My sense of security from the advancement of my financial state and job in the future dies. My dependency on God for all that I need is realized.

I know that when my mind, heart, soul and strength are focused on God and how He wants me to live with my fellowmen, I will have nothing to worry about (Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you - Matt 6:33).

And so, in knowing better the truth about my life, I struggle. It is next to impossible to live my life 100% to God at work. Each time I meet a client, report to my boss, interact with my colleagues, drive on a busy highway, my human nature tries to take over. But what is impossible with men is possible with God. So we give glory to God. And I struggle on. And more so I come in constant fight against doing what I should not do, and not doing what I should be doing.

I pray that God will constantly hold my hand in my struggles, that I may gladly submit my life and struggles to Him, until the day I come back into His presence.

To God be all glory and honor.

Dave D Saved

Child-like Worship

Simply a blessing...
If we can remember and learn to worship with the same child-like faith...



Kaitlyn Maher, the 5 year old who was the youngest ever Top 10 finalist of the hit TV show "America's Got Talent" when she was only 4, sings an original arrangement of the song "Above All" at Christian Fellowship Church's (CFC) Worship Concert on 5/1/09

Do.Re.Mi...Rejoice always...

Let's do this...really a sunshine out of nowhere...Just to remember that we have lots of things to be joyful over, just a matter of mindset.



Dave D Saved

Paul Washer: Clothed In Christ Jesus

A sermon I found very encouraging. It's a wake-up call and reminder to many of us Christians.
Do take some time out to view this.



Dave D Saved

A Dog Named Mace

An article a friend shared with me....enjoy...

A mechanic who worked out of his home had a dog named Mace.
Mace had a bad habit of eating all the grass on the mechanic's lawn,
so the mechanic had to keep Mace inside. The grass eventually became
overgrown. One day the mechanic was working on a car in the backyard
and dropped his wrench, losing it in the tall grass. He couldn't find
it for
the life of him, so he decided to call it a day.

That night, Mace escaped from the house and ate all the grass in the
backyard.
The next morning the mechanic went outside and saw his wrench glinting
in the sunlight.

Realizing what had happened he looked toward the heavens and proclaimed,
"A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound, that saved a wrench for me"