Image courtesy Mike McCune. Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Every athlete starts off with the motivation of the gold medal. Every training session, every correction by the coach and every attempt in the selected event is an effort to improve oneself for the time of victory, of crowning and of glory. Every athlete looks forward to the time where his name is announced and they walk up the podium to collect the price. It is the same with the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us to be occupied till He comes, to…

Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Paul had a call from God. At the time of his salvation, God already willed in His plan to use Paul for an important mission unrevealed in the Old Testament: that of adding the Gentiles to the church of God. It was to be difficult to break new ground and change the mindsets of the Jews. Paul was to go through terrible hardships and…

Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; The church in Rome was taught by Paul to have mutual affection for one another, as a family has affection towards one another. The church, when organised, is like a family working and serving together in a locality that God has brought them to. It has been appointed into the same family and into a specific place to preach the gospel and to teach the new believers to honour the Lord and to serve Him. The church, functioning as a family, is to have affection for one another based on brotherly love (“be kindly…

Image © 2011, Timothy Lee. Used with permission Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue Brotherly love is the affection that one feels for a brother. It is the unpretending open expression of the heart of a brother in Christ for another. It is the result of the salvation that Christ has brought through the His Gospel. Salvation in Christ puts those who have trusted Christ as their Saviour into the Kingdom of God, and makes us all the family of GOD. When we are in the local church, God has designed to bind us all together by the heart. Brotherly love, therefore, is the essential ingredient that God uses to…

Image © 2011, Timothy Lee. Used with permission Joshua 3:3 When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. The children of Israel were preparing themselves to go into the promised land. Joshua had commanded the spies to see the land and they brought back a good report: God had already gone before to prepare the way. As a reader of this wonderful passage, we can see that, in the mind of God, the time was now – the situation was ideal, the hearts of the people ready…