sjbci.org

Oh, For A Flash of His Glory !

Ding Guevarra — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:37:11 +0000

“Did I not say unto you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (Jn 11:40)

Oh, for a flash of God’s glory in our times! For our generation to believe and return to our God. For the

church of the Lord Jesus Christ to relentlessly reach out to this generation that they may believe the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior of the world.

These last nine years, the LORD has not lifted up the burden from my heart to pray,seek, and, wait for revival. A burden He placed April of 2001. A burden

and conviction that we, the church, have to carry until finally,the REFRESHING time have come in the presence of the LORD. A revival that is not week-ends emphases . Not a revival that last for few days and is gone.Nor a revival that is confined to a few and a single church! It is an extraordinary presence of God that shall bring about remarkable and unusual number of dying believers back to God and non-believers rushing to house of God for mercy and forgiveness.A revival that shall start in maybe obscure a place but then shall spread out and touch the ends of the Earth.

Evan Roberts prayed for revival for eleven years before the Lord has manifested Himself in their midst. In his heart he had received an assurance that God shall touched 100,000 of his countrymen back to Him.Little did he expect that soon this mighty working of God shall cross countries and oceans and continents that will touch millions more. It took about 12-14 months for the Holy Spirit of God to raise these hundreds of thousands in Wales.Evan Roberts believed and saw the glory of God. The glorious reviving of the church and salvation of sinners.

How long will it take then for the Spirit of the Lord to raise say 500 million believers today? Thirty years? So be it. Let us believe. Let us believe that God is ready and willing to stretch His hand and grant us a mighty revival that will spread around the world. God willing, that we may live in years of revival. What is thirty years in God’s eternity clock? Nothing, not much I suppose! If apostle Peter can say that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years for us (2 Pet 3:8) then what is thirty years ? JUST A FLASH OF HIS GLORY ! Yes, the glow of His divine presence may blast for few seconds for Him, but to us, it’s lifetime. Oh,for a flash of His glory in our times for His name’s sake.

Our time is the height of rebellion against God. We insist that ,man with man and woman with woman,living as husband and wife is just, fair, and, right. We insist that prayer in public school should be out; we insist that praying in public ending in Jesus name is a no-no!; we insist that public display of the Word of God in public buildings is unacceptable; we go through litigation about the legality of planting cross on government own lands; legalized abortions and introduced no-fault divorce in several states. Where are we heading? This is a “generation’ that has lost its proper bearing and moral excellence.Our moral compass is broken.We are unashamed and unrepentant! We forgot the GOD of our fathers! Our fathers who called upon God for guidance and moral excellence! Our fathers who trembled before the presence of God because of His holiness.

This is the time to insist that only by the grace of God Almighty that we can find our ways again. Let us return and call upon His name. Oh, for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ ,called by his name, humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways… then and only then that He will hear from heaven and forgive our sins and heal our lands!

Yes for this lost “generation” becoming a righteous generation.

Oh, for a FLASH of God’s Glory today.

…BUT I GIVE MYSELF TO PRAYER!

Ding Guevarra — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:24:05 +0000

David must have been broken man! In Psalm 109 :22 we read:”My heart is wounded within me!” He wasn’t a perfect man void of

sin nor weaknesses free.Fact is, fingers can be pointed at him for good reasons.And his heart called to be “after the heart of God”

later, be unmasked as full of lust and deceit.

Yet despite these,he remain fearful of God. Once his sin pointed , he came to God with a crushed heart. Asking for mercy and re-creation

of his heart. Fractured saint but great repentant sinner!

Wrongly accused, he can be so broken! Yet would not lift his hand to strike back. He would retreat to his God and ”… give myself to prayer” (v4).

And to this less but sublime hidden character of him I am lured. He not only a man of songs but also a warrior in prayer.Beyond the seeing eyes of men, he fasted and prayed.This mighty warrior, a swordsman of no equal, a giant-killer, leader of men,wrestle with God in prayer and has a soft knee. Said he, “my knees are weak through fasting” (v24). It dawn on me, he is mightiest when he’s on his knees before the presence of God and not when mounted on his horse leading his men to charge. He knows where the true greatness can be traced. On knees. And his brokenness? Look at his enumeration:

v.2 …the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me.

…they have spoken against me with a lying tongue

v3 … they surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause

v4 …in return for my love they are my accusers.

Swords, arrows and spears seem not to hurt David, but words, words of false accusations wounded him deeply.Rightly accused he would come to God broken, wrongly accused, he was a devastated man. In both occasions though, end in the presence of God. He falls back to God.

I think of David a lot of times these days. There are uncanny ways where we servants of God fat the receiving ends of suspicious and malicious talks.Lying tongues put around us tales that hurt us and in some way destroy us. But the thing here is not what is thrown at us but if we hurl back. In case of David, he gave himself to prayer, but I don’t question his ability to let his sword strike.Heads will roll for sure! Oftentimes this is the opportunity,unknowingly, we missed. The opportunity for the inner man to grow in prayer because we let go our own way of confronting our “war”. It has a place, I know, but prayer will lead us to a much different way…the way of God. Come to think of it, His is best, and David knew it all along, thus he comes to God. Thus in like situations we need not throw back.

This to me is a simple lesson to learn that canl help us manage future encounters. When arrows start to fly by us, and arrow throwers are beside us,we need not to throw back. These arrow throwers shall have their season but we know their ends. When we retreated to prayer, God becomes our shield and defender.A mighty refugee.A strong tower and deliverer. We learned this from David:” I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth…He will STAND at the right hand of the poor to SAVE him from those who CONDEMN him” (vs30-31)

Let us give ourselves more to prayer. Let God deal with arrow throwers, he knows what to do. Remember,(this time with old saying), he who walks around and throw mud,is the one who loses ground ,yet and bitter still, has the dirty hands.

True Love Waits Slideshow

Marchesa Ababa — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:31:10 +0000

South Jersey Bible Church Int. and One Hope In Christ AC youth came together for a weekend of studies, sermons, and activities to seek the Word of God, and make their commitment for purity and holiness, and abstaining from sex before marriage.

We really thank all the participants, teachers, leaders, the parents, and the church body for supporting such an endeavor. To God be all glory for such a powerful weekend. We’ll keep you in prayer to continue to make a daily commitment to follow God in holiness. It was an amazing experience to see you youth surrender wholeheartedly to His will for you.

I hope those seeing the slideshow will be blessed. We hope the pictures say a lot.

Announcements: Week: Aug.9

Marchesa Ababa — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:59:53 +0000

Revival Praying: Thanksgiving and Answered Prayers

Healing fr. weeks of severe coughing/colds after laying of hands and prayer for Pstr. Ding and Pstr. Jun
Family Retreat’s Redemptive value over last year’s family Retreat.
Giving has increased. Thank God for changing our hearts towards tithes and offering, living in obedience to God’s Word.
Baptism of 5 Believers, for God working in their hearts.
For praying partners that attend the weekly prayer times. Thank God for those who faithfully come to pray for the church members’ burdens for the lost and coming revival among God’s people.

Prayer TUES, WED, THURS
The members are reminded to come on any of these days to come pray between 7-8pm at the building. Bring a prayer partner or come alone. Stay for an hour, or stay for 10 minutes. Request a prayer item and pray for one written on the index cards found inside of the basket at the back of the pews. Let’s pray, brothers and sisters. Do you believe in the power of prayer?

Choir
Reminder to choir members that we’ll be meeting next Sunday 9:30am sharp to rehearse for the selected number that will be shared during next Sunday’s service.

An honest thank you for those who continue to serve. When praise demands a sacrifice through your time and effort, despite your schedule and fatigue, you’ve managed to say YES. God bless you for such an offering.

Body and Soul
Reminder that Body and Soul is every Saturday morning, this month at the Jardinico’s residence. More info: click on the respective banner on the right side module.

South Philly Pastoral Need
Continue to pray for TCGS-SP for their pastoral search. Remember that in more than 2 years, they haven’t had a pastor. We need to step up on our prayers regarding this urgent need.

Child of the King

Marchesa Ababa — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:53:10 +0000

After some discussion, for Em’s 5th birthday, Perze and I bought her a crown pendant. I explained to her that no matter what or how she feels, she can hold that pendent on her necklace and know that she is the child of the King, that she will always be loved and forgiven.

Today, my five year old, Emma did a little naughty act of biting her crown pendant, thus deforming an innocent prong on her beloved Tiffany’s charm. Having caught her in the act, I calmly took it from her and told her she lost her privilege of wearing it. Then you could see in her face, the swelling of emotion floodgates trying to hold in the tears, until they spewed out, down to her chin, as she mumbled sincere apologies. I explained that this wasn’t an isolated instance, but that it was to be added to the perpetual acts when she had not taken care of it. That led to a very difficult task of closing the watery floodgates of her tears.

Determined to be immovable with my decision, I walked with her and Zienne as we window shopped. Emma remained very unusually quiet, seemingly surrendered to my conditions. Minutes passed as we finally made a stop in some store, and as I was sliding hangers one by one, she raised her voice from mute mode and asked,“Mamam, am I still a child of the King?”

It surprised me.

It humbled me.

So I said, “Emma, you will ALWAYS be a child of the King.”

Ambivalently, with both remorse and relief, she held back her tears, and almost stumbled on her response, “thank you, mamam.” After that, she felt so more at ease, as if the assurance was also forgiveness.

Romans 8:14-17 explains, “14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Thinking back at such a simple question, I’m wracked with how enormous that reality can be, to be a child of the King. No matter the precious a gift has been given to us, tangible blessings from the Father, treasures of great worth that we end up toying with, whether with indifference or irresponsibility, we can hand it to Him, deformed or destroyed, and He still will call us His. The relationship of child and Father, yes, is a great deal of messiness, because we, as sinners, are messy; we can take the beautiful and the sacred, and profane them. But the same relationship offers us an openness with our Father, one that allows us the freedom to cry out to Him.

And yes, God has given His ultimate precious gift to the world, His Son, Jesus, because the sin of man needed a blameless sacrifice. He was deformed and even suffered and died, but never destroyed. And with His resurrection, to all who believe Him as their savior and Lord, living a life that reflects our spoken devotion, we enter into that familial relationship with Him. And despite our perpetual acts of disobedience, bouts of pride, innumerable shameful perverseness, possessive habits of sin, grace abounds and forgiveness is intertwined, without lines, within His love. We can give Him the beauty He has given us, deformed by our careless hearts and hands, and He will still call us His. This does not give us authority to abuse His grace, because He pierces through each heart for the truth in the relationship. But once a child of the King, what can truly sever that exceptional bond? For it says, “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38:39).

Sometimes, we hold on to those deformities for so long, wrapped tightly in our guilt, feeling as if it weighs down our worth to walk with the Lord again. But if you are led by the Spirit of God, you are a child of God. And you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom you can cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom.8:14-15). We have the freedom to cry out to God and call Him Father. Renew your relationship with Him. You will always be a child of the King!

Thank You Lord!

Pstr. Chilton’s Message 2nd Night of Retreat 2010

Marchesa Ababa — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:33:33 +0000

Pastor Chilton’s sermons from SJBCI’s Family Retreat 2010 on Fireproofing the Family are now available for viewing.

These videos are a great reminder for those who attended, and need to listen to the messages again. They are also of incredible benefit for those who were not able to attend. We GREATLY encourage you to take some time, to meditate, to be accountable, to learn, and truly to be blessed by God’s intentions for the family. Click on the thumbnails, as the sermon is divided into 5 parts.