Nichi4urthoughts

02/03/2024

I am reminded of a story in Acts 5, about Ananias and his wife, who lied about the amount of money they received selling a piece of property, and kept that money for themselves. When Peter confronted them about this, saying that they lied to the Holy Spirit and to God, they both fell down and died.
When I think about it, I'm thankful that God wakes me up every morning, despite all my shortcomings and all my sins.
The Bible tells us that God's mercy is new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Every morning is another chance to repent and turn back to God. A new opportunity to be right with God. Don't miss that chance. Thank God for this new day and be reconciled with Him.

25/02/2024

21/02/2024

Love is more than just saying “I love you” to someone or enjoying the good times. It’s an action that we’re called to do even when it’s hard. When we love, we show who we represent: Jesus. May this verse remind us to keep our hearts in check and to pursue loving others the way Christ loves us.

See a list of our memory verses here: https://ccf.org.ph/52-week-scripture

20/02/2024

“What do you think? If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go and search for the stray?” — Matthew 18: 12 CSB

20/02/2024

12/02/2024

God has promised: if you seek Him, you will find Him
Condition to the promise: if you seek Him with all your heart.

"String of pearls" verses connected to this:

"Seek and you shall find..." -Matthew 7:7

"Love God with ALL YOUR HEART, with all your soul, mind and strength." - Matthew 22:37

08/02/2024

The 4 truths of the Gospel

18/01/2024

Two things about Baptism

First thing, in the context of salvation, baptism is not a requirement to be saved. In Ephesians 2:8, it says "For it is by grace you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." So, salvation is thorugh faith - in Jesus Christ (read John 3:16 - whosoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life)

However, in Mark 16:16, it says "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Does this mean that baptism is necessary? Not quite. As you'll notice, Jesus expound further on the subject by saying - "whoever does not believe will be condemned". It is noteworthy to know that Jesus is intentional in his teachings and commands. This means that every word He says is intended and with a purpose. Now, in the latter part of the Mark 16:16 verse, Jesus no longer mentioned baptism which emphasizes that belief or faith in Him(Jesus) is the key factor to NOT be condemned. But why mention or include baptism in the verse? Thus, we go on to the 2nd thing about baptism.

Second thing, bear with me as this will be quite long. Baptism is a public declaration of one's faith in Jesus Christ. It is synonymous to a twitter post or facebook update saying that a user is "In a relationship". Looking in the new testament, there is no explicit verse that says baptism is a public declaration. It is rather implied. We need to look at the verses that narrate the circumstance in which Jesus was baptized by John the baptist. One - Jesus came to John while he was baptizing people in the river Jordan - where many people are present and unwittingly becomes eye witnesses of the event. Remember that Jesus is intentional. If baptism was meant to be done in secret or privately, Jesus would've probably sent some of his disciples for John and instructed him to meet with him at night in the river Jordan to be baptized. See? Public - witnessed by many.

Next, as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17) God the Father declared Jesus in front of all the witness that He is His Son whom He is well pleased. Declaration. Although in this verse it was God himself declaring Jesus to be the Son of God. And so, baptism is a public declaration. Initially, it was God (and Jesus since the Father and Jesus is one) declaring that Jesus is the Son of God. Likewise, we, as followers of Jesus Christ, when we are baptized, declare publicly that we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

I believe there's a verse that explains why Jesus said that whoever believes AND is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:!6). In Luke 9:26 - Jesus said "whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man (Jesus) will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory(Jesus' second coming) and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." We all need to ask ourselves why don't we want to be baptized? What's stopping us? Are we ashamed or afraid of what other people might say or do? If we are - ashamed - then Jesus will be ashamed of us when He returns. You know what that means. Conversely, in Matthew 10:32, Jesus said "whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. One more thing about Jesus - He keeps His word.

Lastly, when Jesus asked John to baptize Him, John tried to deter Him by saying "I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" (Matthew 3:14) Jesus replied "Let it be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. (v15) "To fulfill all righteousness." We know that Jesus never sinned which means He is righteous/good (1 Cor 5:21) - but still He got baptized to fulfill all righteousness, setting an example for His followers to do also. A bit of a trivia: Baptism isn't explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament. It was, however, performed by God, to the world! This was when God sent the great flood to kill all men because they were evil. All, except for Noah whom God deemed righteous and Noah's family. Read Genesis 6 and 7. The Flood wiped out all evil (men) from the face of the earth. Baptism came from the greek word "baptizo" which means to dip or plunge, or to immerse. Baptism is a symbolic Christian ritual of being cleansed from evil. Symbolic because getting baptized doesn't actually cleanse us of sin. Jesus does, through faith in Him. There is only one condition to be baptized - to truly believe in Jesus Christ (Acts 8:37) This is because of the Gospel. The gospel is summarized in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."

Hope this helps! Nichi 4 ur thoughts! CTTO of the image

03/01/2024

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:3‭-‬4‬ ‭NIV‬‬
[3] "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..."

01/01/2024

Happy new year, everyone!

29/12/2023

There’s more to the gospel than just being saved. It transforms us to be more like Jesus and enables us to look forward to the day when Jesus comes back and we can live in glory with Him forever!

26/12/2023

‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:11‭-‬12‬ ‭NIV‬‬
[11] And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

24/12/2023

Our hope has come
Through Jesus the Son
The Word became flesh on that night
Oh our hope has come
To give us new life
Born to die for humanity
Rose to reign for eternity

Lift your head and rejoice for our hope is here! ✨ Worship with us as we sing our song "Hope Has Come". 🙌---HOPE HAS COME.Words & Music by Dorothy Baylon an...

18/12/2023

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Wherever you are, He can hear you and He prays for you to God the Father. You just have to believe. So come to Him, pray and believe that He hears you and will answer your prayers.

26/11/2023

My prayer for you...
May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.

Have a blessed Sunday!

05/11/2023

The cost of obedience (to God) maybe high but the cost of disobedience is much, much higher .

05/11/2023

If the basis of peace is God, the secret of peace is trust.
- J.N. Figgis

31/10/2023

Did you know that there are 3 things that God cannot do?

“WHAT GOD CANNOT DO” I heard that there are 3 things based on this verse.

John 3:16, says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

1. God cannot love us more than He does because He already loves us to the utmost.

2. God cannot give us more than He has given us because He already gave us His most precious Son Jesus Christ.

3. God cannot make salvation any simpler because it is a gift that we receive when we simply believe in His Son the Savior.

Love you guys! - Joby

30/10/2023

The key to knowing God's ways and His thoughts is to know His character. You need to spend time reading His word.

30/10/2023

Pray, even if all you can say is "Help me, God!"
Pray even if no words could come out of your mouth. He knows. You just need to have faith in Him.

“GOD KNOWS” No one knows you more than your God. In the midst of our pain, hurt, suffering and tears we have a God who is intimately aware of our whole being.

He miraculously formed us while in our mothers’ womb and has been by our side forever. We can rejoice and take comfort that we have a loving, faithful Father who knows and cares for us.

Love you guys! - Joby

24/10/2023

It isn't that God is slow in keeping His promises; He is patient because many for whom Jesus died haven't repented yet. The Redeemer isn't done with His redeeming.

His amazing love translates into amazing patience.

12/10/2023

Sometimes, if you're uncertain of what (or what not) to do, remember this verse:
1 Cor 10:31 - Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Ask yourself, "if I do this, will I be able to glorify God with it?" Or "will God be pleased with me if I do this?"

Nichi4urthoughts

12/10/2023

God's promises are like stars; the darker the night, the brighter they shine!
D.Nicholas

09/10/2023

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the Engineer.
- Corrie ten Boom

Whatever we have to persevere through, in the grand scheme of things, won't last very long.
Our life span is but a tiny, tiny window in the vista of ETERNITY.

Focus on the eternal. The first step is to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who He is and what He has done; He died on the cross for you and me. Then surrender your life to Him and let Him take charge of your life.

Have a blessed week ahead!

29/09/2023

No amount of "good deeds" can save us. Only our faith in Jesus will.

But faith without action is dead. So isn't that good deeds? "Action" here is not the act of doing good just for the sake of doing good, or because we want to be saved and go to heaven, but "action" here is OBEDIENCE to God's commandments and teachings. If your faith is true, you will want to obey, you will love to obey God. You don't have to, you have your own free will. But because you have truly surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, you want to obey because you love Him who first loved you and you don't want to hurt him, not anymore.

So to substitute the word "action" with "obedience", I would say "Faith without obedience (to God) is dead."

IMHO, Obedience is the manifestation of true faith.

Thoughts?

Good morning!