Category: Blackboards

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Throughout the Old Testament, God told his people that a Messiah was coming. There were many prophesies about the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of the them! Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ, the Messiah. God’s promise of salvation went into effect the day that Jesus was born.

Isaiah uses four names to describe the Messiah. These names have special meaning to us.

Wonderful Counselor: He is exceptional, distinguished, and without peer, the one who gives the right advise.

Might God: He is God Himself.

Everlasting Father: He is timeless; He is God the Father.

Prince of Peace: His government is one of justice and peace.

Although we give each other gifts at Christmas, never lose site of the greatest gift of all – Salvation! God loves you so much that He gave His Son, so that you might live forever with Him. No gift is greater than that. I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope that you will take a moment and reflect on the wonderful gift God has provided through His Son Jesus! God bless you.

Jeremiah 50:34

Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their case…

Ruth, a young, poor and childless widow in the Old Testament, lay at the feet of Boaz, her potential kinsman-redeemer. (Ruth 3:7) As a rich and close relative of her in-laws, Boaz had the power to redeem her from her plight. Ruth was simply obeying Naomi, her mother-in-law, who had told her to go and lie down at Boaz’s feet. In the Jewish custom of those days, this was a posture which said, “Please redeem me for you are a close relative.” Notice Boaz’s response to Ruth: “And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request…” (Ruth 3:11)

Boaz is a picture of Jesus who is our kinsman-redeemer. He is our kinsman, having been born into this world as one like us. And He is our Redeemer because He redeemed us at a great price when He shed His blood for us on the cross. As your Redeemer, not only is Jesus willing, but He also has the power to restore to you all that you have lost. He will thoroughly plead your case, causing only blessings of wisdom, deliverance, restoration, provision and liberty to come out of your situation!

Just as Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet, the feet of Jesus is the place of redemption and blessings. Both Jairus the synagogue ruler (Mark 5:22) and the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:25-26) fell at Jesus’ feet. And there at His feet they received healing for their daughters.

When you take your place at Jesus’ feet, looking to Him for help, expect to receive His blessings. There is nothing to fear knowing that as Boaz did for Ruth, Jesus, your heavenly Boaz, will do for you all that you have requested!

Psalm 1:3

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

When darkness covered the face of the earth, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) When a certain man paralyzed for 38 years lay helpless at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk,” and immediately, the man was healed, took up his bed and walked. (John 5:8-9)

You don’t say such words unless you see something others don’t. God does not see the way man sees. Man, however, must see the way God sees. We must see the vision of the Almighty.

The prophet Balaam saw the vision of the Almighty when the Spirit of God fell on him. As he looked down from a mountain at the camp of the Israelites, he found himself saying, “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel! Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters.” (Numbers 24:5-6) Balaam would not have said this unless he saw Israel not in the natural, but as God saw it. At that time, the Israelites were a discontented lot, always murmuring and complaining in the wilderness. But when God looked at them, He saw them like flourishing gardens planted by the rivers – fruitful and prosperous.

God wants you to see yourself the way He sees you – “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper”. So see yourself like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in your season. See yourself as one who will not wither, whose health will not fail. See whatever you do prospering! See the vision of the Almighty. Whenever you see your situation through God’s eyes, you will find that your situation will change because when you see as He sees, you allow Him to work as the Almighty in your life!

John 14:7

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

You may have heard that just because you ask God for something, it does not mean that He will give it to you. Quoting 1 John 5:14-15, he said that we first have to ask according to His will before He hears and gives us what we ask of Him.

Of course, we do not ask for things that are against God’s will or Word. But what is normally implied in the earlier statement is that we don’t always know what God’s will for us is. But didn’t Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”? (John 14:9) This means that if you want to know what the Father’s will, mind, heart or attitude toward you and your family is, just look at Jesus in the Gospel stories.

So if your child is sick, is it God’s will to heal him? Well, look at Jesus and see how He ministered to children who were sick – the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter who was demon-possessed (Mark 7:24-30), Jairus’ daughter who was dead (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43), and the widow of Nain’s only son who had died and was about to be buried. (Luke 7:12-15) Jesus cast out the demon. He raised the dead. He healed them all!

Don’t say, “We can never know God’s will. Sometimes He heals, sometimes He doesn’t. He may bless us, but He may also take away our blessings.” The Jesus of the Bible never made anyone sick. He never made anyone poor. He made the little become much with 12 baskets full of leftovers. (Matthew 14:20) He gave a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish to fishermen. (Luke 5:6-7)

The Jesus of the Bible loves to heal, deliver, prosper and save people. This Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) And He says to you today, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” So you can know God’s will for you. You can see what He will do for you when you know the Jesus of the Bible and what He did.

1 Peter 5:7

…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

It does not matter how tightly knit our families are or how many close friends we have. When we go through a difficult time or trial, we still feel all alone and that no one really cares or understands.

Martha knew that feeling. She had on one occasion cried out to Jesus, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” (Luke 10:40) Jesus’ disciples also knew what it was like to feel small, alone and in trouble. They cried out, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” when they were swept up in a terrifying storm. (Mark 4:38)

Today, maybe the cry of your heart is also, “Lord, do You not care that I am left all alone…that I am going under…that I am perishing?” The Lord does care for you. He loves you so much that He wants you to cast all your cares upon Him – not just some but all your cares. He wants both your big and small cares. There is nothing too small or big for Him. If it is a care in your heart, He wants you to cast it upon Him.

When the apostle Peter wrote “casting all your care upon Him”, he was talking about the continuous act of casting all your cares upon the Lord. As a care comes, God wants you to cast it to Him. That is the lifestyle He wants you to adopt. Why? The verse gives us the reason – “for He cares for you”. You are casting all your cares upon the One who loves you, and who left all of heaven to come and die for you. That is who you are casting your cares to. It is not just any person, but it is the One who gave His life for you!

When you are going through a difficult time, God wants you to believe that you are never alone because He Himself has said that He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5) As the object of His care, He will take care of you for the rest of your life. You are never alone and always cared for!

Matthew 1:23

“…and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

God has promised you His constant presence (Hebrews 13:5), but are you conscious of His presence every day? When you are conscious of His presence every day, you will experience a peace that gives you rest, joy inexpressible in your spirit and a power that nothing in this world can offer. In fact, you will begin to be peaceful and powerful like Jesus. You will speak and behave like Him. This is because you cannot be in God’s presence without His beauty, love, peace, power and glory rubbing off on you.

So how do you practice being conscious of God’s presence? Start by seeing God with you in whatever you do and wherever you are. For example, at your business meeting, see the Lord there in the meeting with you, guiding you in your thinking. And you can be sure that His presence will bring clarity of thought and wisdom to you. You will find yourself flowing with great and sound ideas.

If you are going for an interview, see the Lord there in the interview room with you, putting answers in your mouth. Your nervousness will melt away as you see His favor on you bringing on smiles and approving nods from the interviewers.

Perhaps you are going for surgery. Well, see the Lord in the operating theatre with you, guiding the hands of the surgeons. Your worries will dissipate because nothing can go wrong in the Lord’s presence.

When you become conscious of God’s presence in your life, worries and fears will have no foothold in your mind. You will see Him maximizing your joy and fun, and prospering you in what you say and do!

Matthew 28:18-19

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…”

When God created man, He gave man authority to have dominion over everything on earth. (Genesis 1:26) But when man sinned, he gave this authority to Satan. And when man’s authority was transferred to Satan, Satan brought in diseases, poverty, strife, bitterness, pain, loss and death. He messed up everything on earth for man.

You might be thinking, why didn’t God just grab the devil by the neck and throw him out of the garden?

God did not do that because He is a judicial God. It was a man who gave away his authority to Satan. So it had to be a man who would legally take it back. And God has done this through a Man. His name is Jesus!

By His death on the cross, Jesus righteously restored all that man had lost. That is why, just before He went back to heaven, He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…” Those words tell us that He has transferred His authority to us. The same authority that He had over the storm, evil spirits, sicknesses, diseases and even death is now ours to use.

So when there are reports of a flu epidemic and of young children falling sick in the media, know that you have dominion over the epidemic. Declare, “By the authority given to me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, this flu virus will not come near my children. I plead the blood of Jesus over them.”

If you have been told that your family has a history of heart disease, take dominion and declare, “By the authority given to me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I destroy every form, manifestation and hereditary cause of this disease. By His blood, my family has been redeemed from this and every other curse.”

The authority which has been restored to us is not just the authority on earth which man had before the fall, but Jesus’ unquestionable and complete authority in heaven and on earth!

Romans 4:17

…God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

There are times when we look at ourselves and don’t see what we can become. But when God looks at us, He sees what we can become by His grace.

When Jesus first saw Simon, whose name in Greek means “reed”, He changed his name to “Peter”, which means “rock”. But did Peter instantly become someone with the characteristics of a rock – solid, stable and unshakable? No, for a long time, he continued to act like a reed that bends every which way the wind blows.

On one occasion, when Peter saw Jesus walking on water, he took a bold step of faith and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Then, as he was walking on the water, he saw the violent wind, got scared and when he began to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:28-30) Another time, he said, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33) Then, a few hours later, he denied knowing Jesus not once, but three times. (Luke 22:54-62) Yet, throughout his reed-like behavior, Jesus kept calling him “rock” until one day, how Jesus saw him began to take root in him. That day, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter stood up to preach and 3,000 people were saved! (Acts 2:41) Peter had indeed become a rock, a pillar in the early church.

That was how Jesus transformed Peter. And that is how God wants us to change the people and situations in our lives. God does not tell us to call those things which exist as they exist. What is the point of stating the obvious? It is not going to change anything. No, God tells us to call those things which do not exist as though they did, and they will!

Deuteronomy 28:4

“Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.”

Would you want to buy a chair that Jesus made? Even if it cost $1,000 most probably would because it would be of superb quality. Whatever Jesus did, He did it with perfect excellence. And because Christ is in you, the things which you produce will be of exceptional quality too. That includes your children, who will be champions. Deuteronomy 28:4 says, “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks”.

God was using terms that the Israelites understood since they were farmers and shepherds. Today, “your ground” is the place of your work. This means that “the produce” of your work shall be of excellent quality. That is not all. God promises that quantity will always follow quality because Deuteronomy 28:11 says that the Lord will “grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body,” which means that you will have plenty of children, “in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground,” which means that your business will flourish and you will be a leading producer in the area of your specialty.

Your excellence and plenty do not come by your efforts. They come by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who paid for you to have divine provision – “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich”. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Jesus was made destitute of all material things at the cross. He had nothing! As He hung on the cross, He watched the Roman soldiers gamble for His robe. His last possession on earth was gambled away. He became poor, so that you could be blessed with the excellent and the plenty!

Matthew 10:30

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

As much as you might like your wife and daughter, I doubt that you have ever bothered to count the number of hairs on their heads.

Every day, your hair drops. Yet, God knows how many hairs are left on your head. And He also knows how many are growing back! He knows because He bothers to count them again. When it comes to you, He always has time for every little thing about you.

So when Jesus said, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” He was not exaggerating. He never exaggerates. He means what He says and He says what He means. So for the Lord to say that the very hairs of your head are all numbered means that He wants you to know that He is very interested in you and has intimate knowledge about you – your body, family, finances, relationships and everything in your life!

He knows the pain you have been having in your body. He is aware of the financial worry which you have been keeping from your family. He sees how your nasty boss is treating you. He understands the hurts you have been keeping in your heart.

Your heavenly Father wants you to know that as long as something concerns you. God knows you intimately. He knows every small problem you are worried about and every single burden you have. And when you approach Him for help, He has all the time for you as if no one else exists. That is how valuable you are to Him and how absorbed He is in you!