God has provided you with many opportunities to serve in His house. You have risen to meet the call and now you have experience to show for it.

Psalm 90:17 says “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands.”

​God wants you to prosper and acknowledge Him in all ways in the running of your household.  Apply that principle to your CV and you can show future employers how valuable your contribution can be.

Praise and Worship songs performed:

1. Great is the Lord
2. What a Beautiful Name - Hillsong Worship 
3. My Abba - New Creation Worship 
4. Thank You for The Cross - Mark Altrogge
5. My Tribute - Andraé Crouch
6. Shout to the Lord - Darlene Zschech

Pastor Prince sees the Lord with His hand raised in the posture of being yearning to bless you. 
2019 is going to be different from all the years before. 
A tsunami of blessings is coming your way. You will be swept away by the waves of blessings! 
God is preparing to rain showers of blessings on you.

Your job is to prepare bigger vessels. Prepare for growth, for increase, for enlargement. 
You’re not going to be at the same level you were this year. 

2019 is going to be a year for singles to receive the manifestation of their life partner. 

Our vile bodies are going to be transformed into a glorious body when the Rapture happens in the future. 

Jesus is bodily at the Father’s right hand. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. It’s the same but a different form.
Jesus is no longer localized like when He was on earth, but He is now everywhere through the Holy Spirit.
He will come back bodily for us at the Rapture.

When Jesus was on earth, He demonstrated that He is the Lord of Time (turning water into wine) and Space (healing the nobleman’s son).

All beauty comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. The created cannot be greater than the Creator. 
Multiply the trait that you love in your loved one by a thousand times and it’s still not as beautiful as Jesus is. 

Praise and Worship songs performed:

1. Oh Come Let Us Adore Him
2. Mary’s Boy Child 
3. Joy to the World 
4. Feliz Navidad
5. Silent Night
6. Mary Did You Know

Jesus was not actually born on December 25th. He was most likely born around two months ago, around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. 
But we can be thankful that God has given us a day to celebrate Jesus’ birth. 

God gave us free choice. He will not use His power to affect or influence our free choice. We are a free, moral being. 
God didn’t want to create robots to worship Him. He wanted us to choose to love Him out of our own free choice.

We are free to choose, but we can’t choose the consequence of our choices. 

Adam and Eve had access to everything good in the Garden of Eden. They were free to enjoy the lavish abundance there.
God made man last during Creation so that man could enjoy everything that He had created.

God made one tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told Adam not to eat from that tree, if not he would surely die. 
Death is something foreign - God did not design man to grow old and die.
God calls Death an enemy. 

God’s dream is to make man the recipient of all His blessings. 

God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil so that man could exercise his free choice. 
If there was no alternative choice, free choice wouldn’t be true. 

Satan was an outlaw spirit and he had no jurisdiction on earth at that time.
Therefore Satan possessed the body of the serpent and tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam and Eve ate, fell and Death came into the world.
Man bowed his knee to Satan and gave the earth to Satan. 
The earth which God gave to man was given to Satan. 

When you follow God you will always win. Satan can never beat God.
Before the earth was created, Lucifer rebelled against God and was cast down to where the earth was and banished from heaven.
Lucifer was very jealous because the earth was his domain before he fell, and now God had created man to dwell in his domain. 
God told Adam and Eve to replenish the earth. That means that the earth was once ‘plenished’. 
Lucifer and his angels once dwelled on where the earth was. 

No one actually forces us to do anything. Even being angry is a matter of choice. 
When Adam sinned, he said “the woman you gave me made me eat” - he blamed God and Eve at the same time.
Eve blamed the serpent. We tend to play the ‘blame game’.

God made man from the dust of the earth. God breathed a spirit into man and he became a living being. 
When man dies, his shell of a body returns to dust, but his spirit lives on forever and must be housed somewhere - either heaven or hell. 

Genesis 3:15 - This is the first prophecy in the Bible. 
At the cross, Jesus crushed Satan’s head and Satan bruised Jesus’ heel. Jesus was hurt in the process of defeating the devil. 
For God to create man, He only had to speak. For God to redeem man, He had to bleed. 
Jesus is the prophesied ‘Dragonslayer’/‘Serpent Destroyer’.  

“I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”” (Genesis 3:15 WEB)

Dog ownership in Singapore has risen considerably in the past few years, with over 62,000 canines providing love, companionship, and unconditional friendship to families. Pet numbers (including cats and other animals) as a whole are even more impressive, with numbers estimated at over 825,000. If you have a family with children and you would like to make it bigger and more active in 2019 with the addition of a pet, how can you ensure that you do the right thing by your pet and your children, and that your pets gets all the loving care that God intended?

​Before looking at individual things we can do to foster a good relationship between our kids and pets, it may help to see what the Bible had to say on the subject. In Luke 12:6, Jesus spoke of the power of faith, referencing sparrows. He noted that sparrows may have been sold for a couple of pennies, but “not one of them is forgotten by God.” Psalm 147:9, meanwhile, describes how God ensure that all living creatures, including ravens, had enough food. Genesis notes that God created human beings in His own image. It was his intention that we should take care of all creatures on the Earth the way He cares for them… and for us. It is important to understand that when we are dealing with pets, we are very much God’s representatives. We must ensure they are fed, medicated, and loved, to honor the role that God gave us as their keeper.

​It is important to research well into the needs and character traits of each pet before bringing one home. Depending on the age of your child, certain pets may not be suitable. For instance, iguanas are cute and often sought after by little children, but they need to be trained to go against their natural ‘scratching’ instincts. This will take various hour-long sessions, so unless you can train your iguana prior to taking it home, this pet might be best left for when a child is a little older.

​Passage of the Day:
“Jesse said to David his son, “Now take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers; and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news.”” (1 Samuel 17:17-18 WEB)

I think we can probably all agree that David’s calling was to become the king of Israel. 
However his journey to the throne did not happen instantaneously, but was a turbulent, drawn-out process. 

Today I want to focus on the beginning of his journey. Prophet Samuel had anointed David as king in replacement of Saul.

By God’s sovereign will, the soon-to-be warring armies of Israel and the forces of the Philistines encamped in the region of Judah, where David lived. 

“Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.” (1 Samuel 17:1 WEB)

When God has a plan for you, He will even orchestrate world events to create an opportunity for you.

As we can see in the passage of the day, God created an opening for David by leading Jesse to send him into the battlefield to deliver a “lunchbox” to his brothers and the soldiers. He was tasked to be a humble delivery-boy.

Maybe you’re feeling like God has prepared you sufficiently and you’re raring to serve the Lord in a grand way. 
“Lord, let me start a revival leading to millions of salvations. I will stand on a huge stage and evangelize for you!”, you might be thinking. 
Or, “Lord, I’m ready for the next level of success. Prosper me and make me a millionaire! I will be generous and plant many new churches, halfway houses, and orphanages for You!”. 

What if the Lord wants to kickstart your calling by starting small? 
Can you put aside your ideals of grandeur, humble yourself like David and be a delivery-boy?
Don’t miss out on becoming king just because serving your brothers with a package of food is something beneath you - in fact, kings are anointed to serve the people, not to be served. 
Thus says the Lord:

“Indeed, who despises the day of small things?...”” (Zechariah 4:10)

“Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.” (Job 8:7 WEB)

Don’t get me wrong, David wasn’t tasked with a menial job because he wasn’t ready. No, he was. 
He had prior training and preparation from the Lord when he killed the lion and the bear. 
David was able to kill a Philistine giant because the Lord had already taught him how to place all his confidence in Him, not in his own strength. 
All the men of Israel were fearful because they were looking at their enemies and at themselves, but David looked to the Lord. 

“David said to Saul, “Your servant was keeping his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go! Yahweh will be with you.”” (1 Samuel 17:34-37 WEB)

Before the Lord uses you for your calling, you will undergo a process of training and preparation just like David, where He will teach you how to trust in Him. 
He won’t use you out of the blue - there is an order to the way God does things. 
He will be the Judge of when you’re ready. Trust in His timing, not your own. 

Praise and Worship songs performed:

1. Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Charles Wesley
2. What a Beautiful Name - Hillsong Worship
3. Because You Love Me - New Creation Worship 
4. You Laid Aside Your Majesty - Noel Richards 
5. O Come O Come Emmanuel - John Mason Neale

This is a simple three-point sermon. 

1) Know that Jesus has done it all. 

We cannot base on outward appearances when we invite friends to church. We don’t know what they’re going through inside.

Focusing on your problems causes a lot of problems in your body. 

Jesus who had no sin became sin for us. We took His place of blessing and He took our place of cursing. 

Hell is a real place. 

Matthew 25:31-46 - This describes the Final Judgment. 
Grace is all about what God has done for us. 
Under the new covenant of Grace, our part is to believe in Jesus. 
The righteous are not conscious of their good works because they are focused on Jesus. 
Unbelievers also do good deeds, but their own righteousness is like dirty rags before God.
We are saved for all eternity. This security gives us confidence in Christ.  
When you walk with the Lord, He will not just bring you to the place of break-even. He will lead you to a place of no lack. 
Jesus clothes us with white robes of righteousness so that we can enter into the presence of the King.
Focus on the Lord. He is your deliverance and the Source of your help. 
Most of us take care of our bodily hygiene, but how many of us take care of our mental hygiene? 
Many of our minds are cluttered with wrong believing. 
As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. 

““But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’ “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’ “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”” (Matthew 25:31-46 WEB)

Ephesians 2:5-6 - We are seated with Christ. 

“even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:5-6 WEB)

Colossians 3:1 - We are seated with Jesus at the right hand of God. 

“If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1 WEB)

“By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:24-27 WEB)

There was a man sometime back who said to me that it’s wrong to seek the eternal rewards when serving God.
He called them “toys” and said that he would rather serve out of pure love for Jesus. 

It sounds rather noble and pious of him, but what does the Bible say about eternal rewards and how we should view them in relation to serving the Lord?

The passage of the day shows Moses in the famous chapter in the epistle to the Hebrews featuring the ‘Heroes of Faith’.
The words of praise for Moses’ faith says that Moses looked to the reward. 
He counted the eternal rewards as far more valuable than the temporal riches that he could enjoy in Egypt, and the Holy Spirit recorded it as a demonstration of his faith. 

If it was wrong to serve the Lord and look forward to eternal rewards, then pray tell me why Moses is applauded for doing so? 
If that were true, he should be condemned for serving God with an ulterior motive and not be celebrated for his faith. 

Jesus Himself taught about eternal rewards, and told the listeners to lay up for themselves imperishable treasures in heaven instead of temporal treasures on earth. 

““Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21 WEB)

If it were wrong to seek eternal rewards, then He wouldn’t have taught that. He would just say to focus on Him, love Him without desiring any reward other than Him. 

Passage of the Day:
“She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” When she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was troubled to death. He told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man.”” (Judges 16:15-17 WEB)

When you saw the title of this devotional, you may have wondered, “What can I possibly learn from that evil, traitorous woman?”

If you really meditate on the text, you will realized that she did something worthy for us to emulate, except in a good way. 

To give you a context about Delilah, she was a Philistine woman whom Samson (a judge who was anointed with great physical strength) fell in love with. 

The lords (leaders) of the Philistines bribed her to find out the source of Samson’s great power. 
Fueled by greed, Delilah proceeded to repeatedly ask Samson to tell her his best-kept secret. 

In the passage of the day, we see Delilah nagging so much that Samson was annoyed to the point of death. 
This woman knew how to “press-in” and “persist” - something that we need to apply when we pray. 

What motivated Delilah to be so dedicated to her mission? 
Her eyes were set on the reward that lay ahead of her. 
She was promised a generous amount of silver in exchange for her betrayal. 

“The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”” (Judges 16:5 WEB)

She trusted that the lords of the Philistines would fulfill their end of the bargain so much that she didn’t give up, even when Samson lied to her three times:
She had put in the effort to arrange three ambushes for Samson and they all turned out to be failures. 
Delilah had great faith in her would-be rewarders.

When we pray, do we ask with unbelief in our hearts, or are we like Delilah, who had complete faith in the sureness of her reward? 

The Bible says that we must believe that God will reward us when we seek Him - whether in prayer, in studying God’s word or in service to Him. That kind of faith pleases Him. 

“Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6 WEB)

Delilah bugging Samson for the answer she wanted reminds me of Jesus’ “Parable of the Widow and the Unrighteous Judge.

“He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” (Luke 18:1-8 WEB)

To draw a comparison, Delilah is like the widow and Samson is like the unrighteous judge. 
By repeatedly coming to him with her request, Samson eventually gave her what she wanted. 

If you study the parable carefully, Jesus said that God will quickly avenge the saints who are crying out not once a day, but “day and night”! 
Pray and keep on praying - don’t give up until you see what you’re believing for. 

Praise and Worship songs performed:

1. Come Let Us Adore Him 
2. Anthem of Grace - New Creation Worship
3. Finished - New Creation Worship
4. Jesus Shall Take the Highest Honour - Chris Bowater

Rev. Col Stringer has a new book: “From Stressed to Blessed”. Out of all the books he has published, "On Eagles Wings" is still his personal favorite. 

2 Timothy 3:1-2 - The word “grievous” is only used twice in the Bible. It means ragingly insane.
The other time is when Jesus was speaking to the Gaderene demoniac. 

“But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,” (2 Timothy 3:1-2 WEB)

We live in an self-obsessed world. Everything is about “I”. The solution to your problems isn't to go on vacation. When you go overseas, you still bring your biggest problem with you: yourself. 

It’s not just about what you eat but what eats you. Stress is a dangerous toxin in your life. 

Hebrews 4:1-3 - We all want to experience God’s rest.
Those who believe enter the rest of God.
What you believe in your heart will determine where you spend eternity. 
You have a choice of what you believe. God has set before us blessing and cursing. 
God simply wants us to believe. 

“Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” (Hebrews 4:1-3 WEB)

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 
What we believe in our hearts will eventually come out in the words we speak. 

Smith Wigglesworth was a man of faith who shook the world. He even raised people from the dead. 
The only book he read in his life was the Bible. He didn’t even read the newspaper.
His secret was that he believed God’s word.
Once, he prayed for a man with a cancerous growth on his face and the tumor just dropped right off onto a plate. This man walked in faith and believed God's word! 

I highly recommend that you get Smith Wigglesworth's books. I was so inspired by his faith. Get them here. 

The Apostle Paul admonished his mentee Timothy about the grave danger of pursuing the trappings of wealth at the expense of his faith.

In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul did not sugarcoat it - “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 
​
A majority of divorced couples today cite financial issues as the main reason or at least a catalyst for their separation.

In most of these cases, it could be about financial impropriety by either spouse, a lack of open communication or even the frustration of unachieved goals - they are not on the same page when it comes to how to manage money in marriage. 

Either way, it all goes back to the failure to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in all things, including finances. By placing Him at the center, you can be able to build a strong culture of financial management and consequently, a much stronger home.