House2HouseMD

MARY Christmas Let's listen to Mary, as she spoke after being filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1: 46-55 46 And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. 49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. 50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. 54 He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.” What do you and I want to be filled with in this season of our lives? Apostle Paul admonishes us:

“An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:20-23 God has fulfilled His promise to all the earth. Jesus has been born, died and rose from the dead. He has saved us from our sins if and when we believe in Him and trust Him for our salvation. Every waking moment, I am reminded of my inadequacies and my need for Jesus who has saved me from all my sins. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but acco

Welcome The Son of God May I shock you to say that it is not “Christmas” season. Why? Because Christmas season has become associated with the worst in all of us - greed, hoarding, ingratitude, unforgiveness, drunkenness, fake smiles, pleasing people unnecessarily and being irresponsible in spending money we do not have and accumulating debt, family in-fighting, store fights (like this past Black Friday) and the list goes on. Well it is not just during the Christmas season but all year round and all of our lives that brings out the worst in all of us. Sin is our nature and it is not necessarily what we do. We need a Savior and we need tomake peace with God. It is for these and other “worst” sins that the “Son of God” was given. Let’s go back to the beginning of this season as pre-ordained and announced by God. The Son of God who takes away the sins of the whole world has come. That is the joy of this season and not the new gadgets and clothes we give and receive. Do you have th

Thank You Lord A couple of days ago, I read a Scripture that caused me once again to realize who God is and what He has done for me and how much He loves me. Before I share the Scripture with you, it became clear to me that familiarity breeds contempt. Just as Jesus said, a prophet is not honored in his home, I realized how my familiarity with Jesus and things of God have caused me to be in contempt and to devalue who He is to me and what He has done for me. The same is true for all my other relationships and may be true in yours too. I read “3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” Philippians 2. As I meditated on this scripture, I realized that I am in no way in complete or even near partial obedience of putting others first. I said to myself, Lord I cannot do this and have no power to do so. It

Do you Love Me More than These? Each of us has some form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). When it is sever and mostly in children, then you can add the H – Hyper In-attentive or Active (ADHD). No wonder the most popular drug for American school children is Ritalin (more than 2 million prescriptions per year). Like children, like adults. I am not a doctor but you can check the facts and life stories around us. Jesus was the great physician to make the diagnosis in Peter, the apostle. First he was very hyper active (walked on water, cut off someone’s ear, etc.). Eventually, Peter manifested the deficit to attention. In his last encounter with Jesus, the Risen Lord and Savior, Peter is told the truth – you have lost focus. Read with me as Apostle John records this encounter. Have you lost focus and attention to God’s calls? John 21 21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.[a] It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus[b

Our Doubts and Unbelief You are probably saying, “Why is he blogging about doubt instead of faith which we all need”. I say, why not “doubts”? Have you ever doubted yourself? I have. If I can doubt myself, what about doubting God whom I cannot even see? I have doubted God too and still doubt Him when my mind wanders off. Other people’s experience cannot stop our doubt of God. That was the case of Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus. Let’s read of Thomas’ encounter after Jesus rose from dead as recorded by Apostle John. 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. 19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw th

Christ Had to Rise from the Dead In accounting, a transaction is not completely recorded if the debits and credits are not in balance. In the ultimate transaction that was conceived by God before the world began, Christ had to die. But if it had ended just in his death only, it would not have been a complete transaction and would be no different from all other deaths. Why did Christ have to rise from the dead? Let’s study together. Here is a summary of the resurrection account as recorded by Apostle John. Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other discip

The Injustice on God – The Cross The injustice done on God at the Cross brought us our justification to righteousness, our salvation, continued sanctification, and our final redemption. What was this injustice? As we investigate, it will help us understand what Christ did for us and cause greater appreciation for His sacrifice that paid for all our sins now and forever. We should not have any doubt of our final destiny with God. Here is injustice as captured by this headline on April 9, 2013. “Innocent Man Released From Prison After Spending 42 Years For Arson Conviction. Faulty fire science has contributed to another wrongful conviction. Louis Taylor, who spent 42 years in prison wrongfully convicted of setting a hotel fire in 1970 that killed 29 people in Tucson, Arizona, was released last Tuesday. New methods of the investigation showed that there was no evidence of arson as the cause of the 1970 hotel fire”. Here is another one on March 23, 2013, “Innocent man (David Ranta,

Failure is not Fatal How many of us have failed God? Failure here being defined as outright sinful disobedience; and/or good intentions we promised to carry out but at the end did not. I live in this world and I have done both – the sinful and the good intention not being done. May be you will honestly agree with me that we are in the same boat. We are not alone and should be encouraged by the life of Apostle Peter in today’s study. Peter failed but he was not a failure; and it was not the end of his world because of Jesus. Peter had the ultimate good intention failure. I say ultimate because Peter was warned ahead of time that this failure was going to happen. Listen to Jesus, “36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” 37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.” 38 Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life

Knowing God - Eternal Life Defined Please let me introduce you to Martin. I met Martin (17 years old) in the park yesterday Sunday morning. He was sitting on a bench alone smoking something but not cigarette. It was just the two of us in the whole park. I told him that Jesus loves him. I asked him if he died today if he will be in heaven and he said no. I asked him why and he said because he has sins. I explained the gospel to him and prayed with him. His countenance changed and he smiled about the good news of forever forgiven in Christ. I gave him a hug from Jesus and committed to praying for him. Martin said he was kicked out from our local high school and then his mother sent him to a military academy and he has been kicked out too. With school starting today, Martin said he does not know where he may go to school because his mother has to do some paper work to get him back to school. Please pray that Martin makes peace with God and that the word of God will be planted in his

Our Helper, the Holy Spirit Anybody need help? I do, seriously and now. You and I have help in the person of the Holy Spirit. We all cry out for help from time to time. God is our helper, and ever present help in time of need, trouble and at all times. We cannot live the life of Christ without His Holy Spirit. Don’t run on empty. Be filled with the Holy Spirit through His Word. Jesus was leaving His disciples behind but He was not leaving them alone. Being the Son of God and one of the Godhead, Jesus made the greatest promise of all time to His disciples. Let’s examine what Jesus promised His disciples and what he said regarding the Holy Spirit. Jesus called the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter: “Summoned, called to one's side, esp. called to one's aid; one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate; one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor; in the widest sense, a helper, succourer, a

“The World Hates You” We spend most of our lives trying to convince everyone around us to like us. Hollywood, the Media, the Government, the Advertising world representing Commerce/Economy thrives on this fact. It sells and there are lots of money being made in this base desire of us - We want to be liked. Who doesn’t? I don’t want to be hated by anyone. Sorry, my wish and expectation to be liked is contrary to the truth of the Word of God. The Truth Himself (Jesus) tells us that. Get over your popularity contest. Stop being shocked by people’s reactions. But Jesus is not saying this to everyone but only to those who are His. If you are not of His, you may likely have success in being liked by all. Jesus explained this hard truth to His disciples during the final days and hours before leaving them behind as He proceeds to the Cross to die for their sins and our sins. What a moment of truth and candid conversation with the One who loved them the most. We need to have candid co

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled No child wants to be left alone without knowing where his parents are. Children are afraid of the dark or even the daylight when they are not sure an adult is in near sight. I witnessed this today. My son Jonathan wanted to go to the bathroom. We were in a nearby bedroom but that was not enough to assure him of our closeness. He had to ask his sister Grace to standby the door while he used the bath room. You may say it is an unusual fear but we all have been there either as a child or an adult. Imagine being with Jesus and He announces to you that He is leaving you. The worst of it is that where He is going you cannot join Him at this time. I don’t know about you but I will be troubled. Jesus knew that and He tells the same to His disciples on His way to the Cross. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” John 14:1. Why did Jesus had to add believe in God and believe also in Me? For our hearts not to be troubled, we

Love One Another The Trayvon Martin murder trial and the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman is on our minds, so we might as well talk about it. It is clearly a tragedy because Trayvon is dead and two parents and loved ones are grieving. Lord, may you continue to comfort the Martin family and use this event to draw them closest to you. You may have your opinions about the verdict and I have mine too. My verdict is that we are in a fallen world and there is evil and evil people, and hatred and all of these are engineered by no other than the devil himself. Satan is the real enemy (not people) and we should hate him and his works with the greatest passion. This brings us to what Jesus wants and desires for us. But before that may I remind us that the hours of Sunday 8AM – 2PM are the most segregated hours of the week in the United States. It ought not to be so. Before we celebrate on one hand or pointing accusing fingers to the world’s justice system, we the Church should look inw

“For this Cause I came” (Why are my here on earth?) We have all heard the counsel of the motivational gurus, “Set goals and follow it and you will achieve success”. Here is goal setting explained. “Jot down the goals you want to reach. Look at each goal and evaluate it. Make any changes necessary to ensure it meets the criteria for a SMART goals: (S = Specific, M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Realistic, T = Timely). Specific - Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen. Specifics help us to focus our efforts and clearly define what we are going to do”. (http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/goal-setting-tutorials/smart-goal-setting). There is some utility and validity to the above goal setting guideline. However, it starts us of with the wrong premise that we in ourselves know what we want to do and why we want to do it. In other words, it assumes we brought ourselves to this earth and therefore will accomplish whatever we want. “What you want to happen”