May 16, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
I am the Light of the world (John 8:12). These seven small words spoken by Jesus have a monumental impact. To understand the impact of light, we need to compare it to its counterpart; darkness. In a metaphorical sense, light and darkness describe two opposing spiritual realities. Darkness is the territory where people are blind to the reality of God and seek to navigate life without the illuminating lamp of God’s truth. Light is transformative and as it penetrates the darkness it reveals what is hidden, creating visibility. Think about what it feels like to be in a pitch black place. We lose our sense of orientation and clarity. To find our way we take tentative steps and risk stumbling and colliding with objects that are obscured from our view. When Jesus says I am the Light of the world it means He ushered in the light of God’s kingdom, igniting the wick of redemption with God’s truth and reality. Jesus orientates us to life and purpose with unmistakable clarity. As He completes the transaction of redemption, depositing His light into our lives, the transformation is complete. We are no longer in the dark.
As a result of this illumination and transformation, Jesus then says you are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). These seven small words also have a monumental impact. Jesus never intended the light of Christianity to remain in the private sphere of life. As we embody the light of Jesus and our lamps burn brightly, we help others to step out of the shadows and darkness to find Jesus, the ultimate light. As the light of Jesus becomes a lived reality in and through us, we become beacons of hope that point to Jesus, the Light of the world. Today you are the light of the world. How will you let your light shine to be a beacon of light and hope to others?
So, friends, get your light on today.
Best days to come
Wen
May 8, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
I am who God says I am! The provocative question, “who am I” is continuously hurled at us, casting a shadow over our value and birthright as a creation of God . It’s “game on” as the enemy strikes at our humanity through a vicious assault on our identity, seeking to constrain us by the prison bars of lies. What better way to keep us from being all God created us to be by inciting a destructive groundswell that resulted in an identity crisis. The voice of the enemy is resounding loudly around the earth with a potent message of disapproval about who we are. The enemy has relentlessly stirred the pot, seeking to seduce us into believing it’s on us to invent our own identities and continuously improve ourselves. Are we good enough? Do we measure up? Are we acceptable? Are we fast enough on the performance treadmill? Have we proved our worth? Question after question to undermine who we are. BUT! Our identities are not contingent on the answer to these questions because I am who God says I am! (Read Genesis 1:27 and 1 Peter 2:9, just for starters).
What a relief it is to understand who we truly are and realise we don’t have to prove a thing. I am who God says I am. We don’t have to invent our identities. We are exactly who God says we are. Our identities are determined by ‘whose’ we are and how we are made. The fingerprint of God marks us as exquisite creations of God, unique, image-bearers, the crown of His creation and of great worth and value. Nothing can invalidate our God-given identities. Phew, so our identity is ascribed by God and not by the constructs of our own attempts. Well that just took all the wind out of the enemy’s sales. I am who God says I am.
So, friends, get your God-ascribed identity on today.
Best days to come
Wen
May 7, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
God is our hope. One of the words on our lips in seasons of difficulty is hope. Culturally speaking, hope is often assumed to be synonymous with a wish that is blown out into the wind on the wings of optimism. It is tentative, anticipating the wish may be fulfilled by some slim, mysterious passage of good fortune. At best it is an attempt to change an outcome through positive thinking. At worst, it is the ‘wish upon a star’ and hope for the best mindset. But really, where is the assurance of things hoped for? (Hebrews 1:1). Wishing has a flimsy mainstay and the lever of control is chance.
Biblical hope is about orientation where the focus is God. It is not subject to the changing winds of circumstances. It is an assurance, anchored in the character of a faithful God whose promises are inextricably bound to who He is. What God sets in motion will always come to fruition because He is a promise-keeping God. Biblical hope is immovable because it is orientated around God. The lever of control is God, not chance. Our role is to wed hope and faith, orientating around God’s faithfulness and to confidently wait for the fulfilment of His promises. God ignites the flame of hope. It is fanned through faith and trust and it grows brighter as it is continually fuelled by God’s eternally reliable hand. In other words, true hope is not what we wish for but who we place our faith in. God is our hope.
So, friends, get your hope on today.
Best days to come
Wen
May 6, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
In the treasure box of God is a profound statement: I will never leave you or forsake you. We live in a world where abandonment is a defining feature. We suffer loss, particularly in relationships and people are more ready to ‘exit stage right’ than to stay when life gets ugly. Coiled around our innermost being is the need to know we will not be abandoned, bereft or rejected. Jesus says I will never leave you or forsake you. There is an irrevocable promise residing in these words. This promise is not dependent on our ability to earn God’s favour or to work hard to secure His approval, enticing Him to stay. No matter what the circumstances are, Jesus will never leave us. Ultimately we will never find ourselves alone in the ruins or shackled by abandonment, because Jesus simply won’t leave us. He will get down in the ruins with us, offering His hand of friendship and the familiar warmth of His presence and love. By His very nature, Jesus is a stayer.
Before we ever face times of difficulty or fear; fear of abandonment, rejection, loss, loneliness or even isolation, Jesus sets His seal upon our hearts, promising to be ever-present, a faithful companion who whispers into our spirits “I am here; I am with you; I am staying; I will never leave you or forsake you”.
So, friends, get His presence on today as Matthew West reminds us that God is the God who stays.
Best days to come
Wen
May 5, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
The first and last, the alpha and omega, the Great I AM, there is no other (Revelation 22:13). We live between the bookends of this eternal reality. The narrative of our lives fits into the metanarrative of God’s story where His bookends are eternal.
Think about the magnitude and mystery of this. Our lives are one finite, but highly valuable thread in this eternal tapestry. Without Jesus we would not actually have a beginning. Without Jesus, our end would not have the hope of eternity. But here is Jesus, the great I AM who spans the entirety of our lives whilst also spanning eternity. Imagine this! Jesus, the first and last, the only one who can lay claim to being the Great I AM, who is creator of all, omnipotent, omniscient, transcendent, eternal, the reference point for all of reality and the director of history, thought enough of you and I to sweep down, entering into the temporal, finite dimensions of earthly existence, confining Himself to time and matter (all of which He created and controls), in order to redeem us, offering to love us intimately and perfectly.
The implications of this for us as finite beings is extraordinary, that a person of the magnitude of Jesus, personally joins Himself to us and lovingly presses into every part of our lives. There is no greater place of contentment and no safer place to nestle than in Jesus, the first and last.
So, friends, get the Great I Am on today.
Best days to come
Wen
May 4, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
What a Saviour! A number of years back, I read a quote from one of my favourite authors, JI Packer. As I read it, I wept. I knew what my salvation meant but unexpectantly, it was like I had ventured into an age old gold mind, unearthing riches that had always been mine, but suddenly I could really see the gold. What a Saviour! I felt shredded and put back together all in the one moment. Everything came into sharp focus and my exclamation was “what a Saviour!” The dimensions of my salvation are magnificent. He actually loves and redeems all of me. Here is the quote:
“There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me . . . He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), . . . He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself . . . There is, however great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend and has given His Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose.” [1] That’s gold right there! And you and I stand in these shoes. What a Saviour.
So, friends, get your salvation shoes on today.
Best days to come
Wen
[1] J I Packer, Knowing God, (London, UK: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1973), 39-40.
