30Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.[b]”
39“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
”If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would[c] do the things Abraham did. 40As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41You are doing the things your own father does.”
”We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
As I was seting up this blog for the first time this morning, I received a text from my pastor Pastor Rem giving me our weekly devotional readings. I felt that I should share my devotions and make this blog my journal. You are welcome to share your thoughts.
Today’s devotion really spoke to me. It made me realize that we should meditate on the word of God daily, every hour, every minute. You may feel that it is excessive but just read how God want’s it done - “Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” God wants us to remember and keep his words, imagine gusto niya bago matulog at pag ka gising mo, siya ang nasa isip natin. We should also share them with our children, no matter how young or old they are, it is our responsibility to share to them God’s word. God demands our time, our whole being devoted to him. We are made to worship him, that is our purpose, worship does not start and end in church. Our lives should be our testimony to the world and we should worship God with our lives.
I thank and praise God that I was able to attend the Times of Refreshing (T.O.R.) seminar at CEMI. The seminar is about rejuvenating or refueling the fire in your heart to bring back the passion you had for Jesus. Well at least that is what it did to me and more.
It has taught me how to become a pastor to my family, I have always guided my children through example and now I do it even better with daily prayer and devotion and with confidence knowing that I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit to guide me.
I now have a devotional and a prayer life. I can read books on almost any topic and research on new technologies and learn photography without tiring, but I do not read the Bible regularly. I pray but not the way that I SHOULD pray. I now have a personal devotional time and a devotional time with my wife and family. I follow a program to read the Bible daily. It is astonishing to realize that I reach over an hour doing my devotion and reading the Bible, where in before I can’t even last 10 minutes.
I have learned to pray the way the Lord Jesus taught us. You should pray for the Kingdom Of God to reign over men and that his will be done over men. If God’s Kingdom and His will reign over us then it follows that his blessings will pour out to us. I don’t even have to pray for what I need, I pray for what God wants, “Your Kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, this is what our Lord Jesus prayed for and this is what we should pray for. I pray that God will use me and my family to spread his word and establish his Kingdom on men.
