Apr 26, 2021 | Wens Pen
The kiss of the Father is a like divine kiss planted on the cheek of humanity. It is a metaphorical idea that images the deep love and affection of the Father. God is a unique Father who is smitten with us, His children. He is not the stoic, impassive type father who keeps His children at arm’s length, requiring them to earn His favour. Rather He nurtures and cherishes us, drawing us close to His heart. Although the kiss of the Father is a figurative way of describing God’s affection, His kiss has been felt across the universal family of humanity.The kiss of the Father is like a million raindrops landing on our cheeks as He affectionately demonstrates His love. It is a kiss that signals we belong to this benevolent Father. The kiss of the Father is the most powerful kiss a Father can bestow upon a child. It is a sacred, present, and eternal kiss that is indelibly left on the cheek of our souls. Most importantly, the kiss of the Father is not a pointer to the child. The child is not the focus of the kiss. The child is the beneficiary. The kiss of the Father is a pointer to the Father. His kiss is an action that points right back at the perfect love and acceptance of this faultless Father, who places an unbreakable seal of love over our hearts, securing us as His children.
The entire story of Scripture captures how God has kissed humanity. The Father kissed us at creation, at the height of our rebellion, at the cross, in the resurrection, in our salvation and He kisses us as a daily expression of His devotion, tenderness and love. We see a beautiful picture of the impact of the kiss of the Father in Luke 15:20 when we read about the prodigal son. The father had been watching for his son and when he saw him at a distance, he didn’t just stand there, hands on hips thinking “I’m going to wait for that boy to crawl his way through the dirt to me and then I’m going to teach him the lesson of the century”. Rather, he was struck with compassion. That father ran like the wind to the son, embraced him, kissed him and restored him and his privileges as a son. The kiss of the father was a powerful expression of utter love and acceptance. It left the son in no doubt to the status of his sonship. We learn from this story that the kiss of the Father is never determined by circumstances or the state of the heart. It is a kiss we never need to solicit or at any moment become eligible for. The rebellious son in this story was never not the son of the father and the father was always going to embrace and kiss his son. So too, the kiss of the Father in our story will always be the expression of His unsurpassed love and adoration as He runs to us, gathers us up in His arms and kisses us. Can you feel it? Can you feel the kiss of the Fathertoday?
So, friends, get your “Father’s kiss” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Apr 21, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
See yourself from God’s perspective. I recall going through a difficult time in my younger years that had me drawing conclusions about God based on prescripts I had created about myself. These conclusions were particularly awakened in one shattered moment of life. Yet, I also recall a life-changing, defining conversation with my mentor who made the statement “you must learn to see yourself from God’s perspective, rather than from a human perspective”. That statement hit me like an unstoppable spiritual Mack truck being driven through my desperate thoughts, mowing down my incorrect perspective of God and myself. I was repositioned on the solid foundations of truth. From that moment, the way I saw myself was never the same again. I began to see myself from God’s perspective.
How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself from God’s perspective or from the constructs of a human perspective? Throughout our lives, we develop ways of thinking about ourselves that filter how we see ourselves in relationship to God. These thoughts are often related to our self-worth, the need to belong, to be known, to be accepted and to feel validated. These thoughts mostly develop in our formative years in relationship to our family of origin and they play out as we engage in relationships beyond the borders of family. We lay out the measuring tape of life and benchmark our lives against the linear markings of cultural ideologies and the opinion of others. We give permission for human ideologies, culture, and other people to affirm if we are or are not okay. We are often found with automatic thoughts that dictate our self-perception; thoughts of condemnation, self-criticism, rejection, comparison, the need to perform to gain acceptance, insecurity, feeling unlovable, and a shaky sense of value. These human conclusions simply reinforce our fractured perspectives, causing us to misinterpret God’s perspective.
God’s perspective is so very different. Psalm 139:14-18 not only speaks of our unique, magnificent design as God’s created beings, it also tells us how precious we are to God. God, therefore, alone is qualified to carve out the touchstone that measures our worth, validates who we are, and reminds us we belong to Him. God holds the blueprint and He definitively declares who we are, enabling us to see ourselves from God’s perspective. If He says we are valuable, then we are valuable. If He says we are holy, then we are holy. If He says we are enough, then we are enough. If He validates our humanity, then we are validated as authentic human beings, approved by God. If He says we are accepted, we are accepted. If He says nothing can separate us from Him, then we are eternally bound to Him. If He says we are forgiven, even though we may not feel worthy, we are forgiven. If He says we are exquisitely made in His image with all the faculties of personhood, then that is what makes us uniquely human. If He says we are unconditionally loved, then we are loved without measure. There is no fine print that outlines the hidden rules and regulations to access His love. If He says we are free, then we are free and no longer charged as guilty. If God says He is unswervingly committed to us, then His commitment is forever and unqualified. If God says He paid the price to redeem us, then payment has been made in full and there’s nothing owing. If He says we are the crown of His creation, then we are the pinnacle of all He made. And this is just the start of His list that helps yousee yourself from God’s perspective. It’s time we let our Creator have the final say on who we are and when we do, we will be able to see ourselves from God’s perspective.
So, friends, get your “God perspective” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 30, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The ultimate love story. Everyone loves a love story and we humans happen to feature in the greatest love story of the ages. God has drawn the shape of His love-heart around us, inviting us into the ultimate love story. 1 John 4:9-10.
The love of God for humanity truly is the ultimate love story. God’s love for us is like a King-sized accent upon humanity; a cosmic punctuation mark that sends a message around the universe that we are the object of His affections, the treasure of His heart, and the lover of our souls. In the ultimate love story, our Maker strides towards us, leans in every day, gazes into the eyes of our humanity and kisses our souls with an eternal kiss, reminding us we belong to Him. His love is a lifelong, unbounded, timeless love that dances us through life (in the good and the difficult) and into eternity. His love is unreserved. He never breaks His gaze. He speaks every love language. His love permeates every nook and cranny of life and we get to bask in the sunlight of His love forever. He has placed His unbreakable seal of love over our hearts as the guarantee of His unrivalled pledge of love.
As we read the ultimate love story in the Scripture, we see this majestic King of heaven, who loved us so greatly, He left His throne to search for His beloved and subjected Himself to unthinkable suffering and shame to find and claim His bride. From a human perspective, the love of God is truly unimaginable. It is inexplicable. Yet it is unmistakable, irrefutable, infinite, and irresistible. Even in our corrupt, broken, and offensive, fallen state, God chose us to be His precious, beautiful bride and placed the eternal ring of love upon the finger of humanity, binding us to Himself forever. We don’t have to jostle for His love. We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t need to prove our worth. We don’t need pretence. We don’t need to compete for His love. Nothing can or will eclipse His love. He will never faulter. We are irreplaceable to Him. We are breathtaking to Him and He literally moved heaven and earth to mount His redemptive campaign to make sure we know that we are unconditionally loved, accepted, and held securely in His grand embrace. Now, that’s the ultimate love story.
So, friends, get your “love story” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 23, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The precious promise box of God. A special part of our childhood growing up was our Mother’s ‘precious promise box’. It was a small box containing a collection of Bible verses, printed on small scrolls of paper, that all fitted snugly together into the promise box, each bearing a promise of God. Every day we would use the little tweezer-like implement to select a scroll and we would read out the promise together. This little compendium of treasure was like picking out a piece of gold that would make us rich for the day.
God’s Word is full of His promises; promises that are precious as we encounter life. As the grand designer of all things, God has sewn every person of faith into His grand patchwork of life. He has joined the pieces of life together with His promises and embroidered them upon His creatures as ornamental expressions of His faithfulness and goodness. There are thousands of God’s promises. Think about that. Thousands of promises, each bearing the signature of the Promise Maker. Knowing God’s promises are for us is one thing, but knowing they flow out of His character makes them a certain thing. As the expression of who He is, God’s promises give us the assurance that no matter what things we face in life, God will pin his promises on us at every turn. The precious promise box of God is His ‘yes and amen’ (2 Corinthians 1:20); His guarantee that as sure as reality hits, so do His promises. For example, just to name a few. When anxiety hits, the promise of His transcendent peace infiltrates our troubled thoughts. Philippians 4:6-7. When there are times of loneliness, the promise of His presence will be intimately ours. Isaiah 41:10. When fear hits us, the promise of His perfect love will banish fear. When we feel broken, God promises to bind up our gaping wounds. Psalm 147:3. When we feel overwhelmed, God promises to lift the weight off our shoulders. Matthew 11:28-30. When we grieve, God promises to comfort us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. When we are tired, God promises His rest. Matthew 11:28. When we feel lost, God promises to locate us. Luke15:4-7. When we feel unknown and our voice feels silenced, God promises to hear us. John 10. When we scan the horizons of our lives and feel the pinch of the temporal, God promises us the eternal. 1John 2:17. The precious promise box of God contains endless promises.
With the thousands of promises at our disposal, why not go to the treasury of God’s precious promise box, begin to explore the jewels in His treasure chest and when the enemy wants to strip us bare and leave us bankrupt, the jewels we discover in God’s precious promise boxwill keep us rich and become a valuable, ongoing reserve. Always remember we don’t just read about God’s promises, we are the recipients of God’s promises. So, what is one precious promise of God that is, or has been a jewel in your life? Take that promise, write it on a little scroll, place it in your own little promise box and be assured that God will be faithful to you, not only with that one promise but with all His promises as you continue to open God’s precious promise box.
So, friends, get your “promise” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 9, 2021 | Wens Pen
The varying seasons of life. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of the varying seasons of life. It also highlights that no season is the same and as we navigate these ever-changing chapters, we must adjust our sails as the winds of change blow through our lives. Some seasons see us spinning our wheels out of control, other seasons delight us with a brand-new pair of shoes that will walk us into new frontiers of accomplishment and celebration. Then there are seasons that sting us with the frostbite of loss or seasons that leave us sun-kissed with love. We bump into the realities of life as we weave our way through the varying seasons of life and move along the timeline of history.
As we look at Ecclesiastes 3, we see patterns of life; cycles, time, and rhythms that will inevitably occur in our lives “under the sun”, impacting our deepest longings. If we dwell too long in this single space, we may draw conclusions that there is a certain recurrent emptiness, even meaningless in life. So, we need to read wider than just the contrasting counterparts expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 such as life and death, weeping and laughing, destroying and building, mourning and dancing and so on. We need to link up with verses 11-14 that shows us God is the one constant throughout the varying seasons of life. He is the one unchanging reality flowing through every season and His sovereign, eternal hand upon us allows us to have a hope that becomes the anchor for our souls as we navigate the terrain of the varying seasons of life. It is God that points us past what can sometimes seem absurd and to Himself as He redeems all things. We see that God does not leave us with the sense of meaninglessness but with the reminder that He is Lord over the sun under which we dwell and sovereign over us. He has struck eternity into our hearts and links our destiny to His eternal purpose on earth and in Heaven, as He makes everything beautiful in His time. God is outside the confines of the cycles, time, seasons and rhythms of life. And so, these perimeters that God draws around us on earth with the varying seasons of life will be lifted, as a direct consequence of the eruption of the resurrection of Jesus over death when our time on earth is done. This births in us immense hope. Suddenly, we have a passage through the varying seasons of life accompanied by hope and on into eternal life, through Jesus. One day, the winds of change will blow no more as God redeems the varying seasons of life and lifts us into the place of eternal restoration, redeeming the varying seasons of life, making them new and beautiful in His time.
So, friends, get your season on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 9, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The fifth Gospel is not part of the Cannon of Scripture; but it is the Gospel in action. The Gospel message is a powerful written message that brings hope to humanity, but the fifth Gospel is the living testimony of Christians who are the visible expressions of the of the written Word. Philippians 1:27-28. As Christians it is our call to walk on a pathway of credible faith. As the truth of God’s messages is lived through us, others look on and assess if they too want to walk on the pathway that secures their salvation and restores them to Jesus. The fifth Gospel means our lives are a living apologetic to the truth. We point people to reality, we show them who God is, we demonstrate how community works as we genuinely and sacrificially love each other, encourage each other, forgive each other, and provide for each other’s needs. As we live out our faith coherently and consistently, the fifth Gospel becomes a credible story of hope and an irresistible invitation for others to find the fulfilment they witness in us.
But we also need to stop and ask an important question about the fifth Gospel. What are we communicating through this fifth Gospel? Are we broadcasting the truth or a distorted version of the truth? How will people read our story that is to bear witness to God’s metanarrative of life and redemption? God has left a fairly big pair of shoes at our front doors, to step into when He calls us to walk the talk. Thankfully, He doesn’t leave us to walk in those shoes alone. He comes alongside us, does up our shoes so they miraculously fit our feet and He leads us, if we will follow Him to be a visible expression of His truth. Our walk as we live out the fifth Gospel is to compliment the inspired, written Word of God by being an inspirational witness that heralds such a compelling message, others will be stirred to want what we model. People are reading the story of our lives continuously and interpreting the message we send. As Christians, we are not living the typical story of a fallen humanity. We are living an alternative story of a redeemed and hopeful humanity. The fifth Gospel is a call for us to live a counter-cultural story that allows people to draw conclusions about the message of truth. Is the fifth Gospel we are living out desirable to others? Do they see that even though our lives are broken, the authentic love of Jesus is fused into our personal stories, continuing to transform our lives as we participate in God’s grand the story of redemption? The fifth Gospel is our everyday opportunity to show others the love of a Saviour who went to great lengths to bring them back into the fold of love and truth. And so, there is a unique opportunity to co-labour with God by living out the fifth Gospel.
So, friends, get your Gospel on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
