May 1, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
You are still my first love! It is a profound revelation that we are the ‘first love’ of Jesus. When His love settles on our hearts, we cannot help but love Him back. There has never been and there never will be another person who will love us so perfectly. Jesus made the ultimate declaration of love, when He put Himself on the line and laid down His life for us (that’s no small thing). He has swept us off our feet with breathtaking love, leaving the permanent imprint of His affections on our hearts. This encounter leaves us changed forever. That’s a lot of love right there.
Jesus calls us to love Him with all that we are (Matthew 22:37). Can we say to Jesus today, You are still my first love? Love and honour are the components of a reverential relationship. We must ensure the creep of familiarity never sets in to dislocate Jesus from being our greatest love. We cannot compromise our love by placing greater value on other objects of our affections. We must always be peeling back the layers of our lives and looking deep into our hearts to ensure that we are immovable in our love and looking, with an unbroken gaze to Jesus, the lover of our souls. Jesus, ‘You are still my first love’ must always be on our lips.
When we say to Jesus ‘You are still my first love’ it means He is not just our first love, but our in between love and our final, forever love. Jesus, you are still my first love.
So, friends, get your ‘first love’ on today.
Best days to come
Wen
Apr 29, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
God is able! No situation in our lives is beyond the reach and scope of God. It does not matter what our circumstances are, big or small, God is able.
If we are truthful, this statement can make us feel both assured and full of faith, yet apprehensive and fearing He is able but He might not. We have no doubt about who God is and His capacity to miraculously transform anything we face. Yet, a tension can invade our faith when God doesn’t respond according to our timetable for what we envision or expect. So, we shift our footing and become apprehensive. This tension can lead us on a pathway of trust or it can divert us on a pathway of doubt and disappointment. There is one reality in this life and that is God is God. That inherently makes God able and also willing. His sovereignty becomes the overarching assumption by which we live out our own stories. God is able and He is willing but He is also sovereign.
Ephesians 3:20 speaks of a transformative truth, declaring that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or imagine. Our role is to live in the light of this reality, asking Him to reach into every crevasse of our lives, to touch and transform it. We must take assurance in the fact that God is able and not allow our faith to remain in the prison walls of apprehension. Why would we allow apprehension to confine us when we have a God who is able. So, ask Him; ask big; ask boldly; ask for everything in every sphere of your life, big or small, and trust Him with every outcome, because He is able.
So, friends, get your ‘God is able’ on today.
Best days to come
Wen
Apr 30, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
I am a child of God! When we look into the man-made mirror of the world, we see a multiplicity of images that seek to define us. Numerous messages are coming at us that create false illusions of our humanity and seek to sink any notion of our unique identity as a treasured creation of God. The atheists tell us we are random products of chance. The naturalists tell us we are nothing more than material beings. Eastern philosophy tells us we have are all part of the whole. Modern day pop-psychology seeks to help us find our better self, but constantly comes up short. Those messages leave us cold. So, what is missing from this picture? The real mirror. The real mirror is God’s mirror that reflects exactly who we are. I am a child of God. What a different narrative it is to understand we are exactly who God says we are; His children.
What does a child of God look like?. We have a perfect, benevolent Father who intentionally and uniquely created us. We are distinctive, unconditionally loved, treasured, valuable, favoured, accepted, nurtured, protected, comforted. Our Father passionately and relentlessly pursues us and acts on our behalf. We belong to Him and can never be abandoned. We are safe. As a child of God we have the right to be everything God created us to be. Imagine that! I am a child of God. His DNA is woven into the fabric of my being and I have the right to be exactly who my Father says I am and flourish as He intends. And then there’s the fact that as a child of God, my Father just happens to be the creator of the universe. My Dad wears the Sherriff’s badge of the universe and his jurisdiction is infinite. I am a child of God, and nothing can change that.
So, friends, ‘God’s kid’ on today and nestle into your Father’s arms . Hillsong Worship reminds us today that we are children of God.
Best days to come
Wen
Who You Say I am By Hillsong Worship
Who am I that the highest King
Would welcome me
I was lost but He brought me in
Oh His love for me
Oh His love for meWho the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I’m a child of God
Yes I amFree at last He has ransomed me
His grace runs deep
While I was a slave to sin
Jesus died for me
Yes He died for meWho the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I’m a child of God
Yes I am
In my Father’s house
There’s a place for me
I’m a child of God
Yes I amI am chosen, not forsaken
I am who You say I am
You are for me, not against me
I am who You say I am
I am chosen, not forsaken
I am who You say I am
You are for me, not against me
I am who You say I am
I am who You say I am
Who the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed
I’m a child of God
Yes I am
In my Father’s house
There’s a place for me
I’m a child of God
Yes I am
Apr 28, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
Fight, yes, fight the good fight! Media reports heralding the downward curve of COVID can lure us into a false sense of security where we rest on our laurels and let our guards down. But we must continue to fight. This physical reality also highlights a spiritual reality; a parallel track we travel on in our journey of faith that calls us to fight the good fight. 1 Timothy 6:11-12 calls us to fight the good fight and to exchange the riches of this world for the riches of eternity.
To fight assumes something is worthy of the fight; that something valuable is at stake. We notice two words that call us to battle and one word that secures the battle. The first word is ‘pursue’; to go after godliness and godly character (that’s valuable and worth fighting for). The second word is ‘fight’; to offensively engage in the battle and to stare down it’s barrel in the might of Jesus and all He has invested in us. Both words are action words but also faith words. The word that secures us in this battle is our ‘eternal life’. It is a sealed position of victory. Our role is to co-labour with God, in engaging the fight, always knowing our victory is secure because of Him. To fight means we intentionally keep our guard up, continuously laying hold of Jesus.
We have an enemy who is a strategic player, who prepares a precise, targeted assault. If our guards are down, we are vulnerable to these attacks. But, remember, to fight the good fight is to shift the victory curve in our favour.
So, friends, get your fight on today.
Best days to come
Wen
Apr 27, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
Where does our help come from? In a time when the familiar things in life feel fragmented and the flames of fear are being fanned in our minds as we face unprecedented times, where does our help come from? In asking this question, it will lead us somewhere.
Psalm 121:1-2 suggests that we can scan a multiplicity of horizons, all promising to materialise as a source of help, but there is only one true source of help and that is God. The Psalm is extraordinary because, not only does it tell us that God is our help, it gives an all-encompassing context that underpins our confidence. God is the maker of heaven and earth. That is a monumental declaration. In other words, if God is the creator of all things, He is beyond capable of being our help. As vessels who sail on seas that are sometimes tumultuous (as they have been in recent days), there is no safer harbour to secure help than in God, who stretched out His arm and created all things. Where does our help come from? God. Unparalleled and unquestionably, God!
So, friends, get your help on today.
Best days to come
Wen
Apr 24, 2020 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone,
Let us begin. Mother Teresa had a profound little saying “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” Whilst this little quote sounds simple, it is layered with meaning.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Creation was a purposeful act of God and all of life has immense value. God created ‘today’ as a gift which is crowning with all sorts of opportunities and possibilities. God has graciously made us the custodians of our time every day and gives us the responsibility to engage with this gift in a way that honours the value of the gift. Today when you contemplate your day, how will you begin? ‘Let us begin’ means we give consideration to what God places in our hand as we scan the horizons of a fresh day. ‘Let us begin’ means we will not waste today, even if we feel constrained by circumstances. Today we can be intentional in how we love Jesus and serve others. We all start with the same gift. So, what is the music you will play on the strings of today? Will you play? How will you play and leave the unique hallmark of what God has placed in your hand today? Will you begin? What will your life-song be today? Let us begin.
So, friends, get your ‘today’ on.
Best days to come
Wen
