Roadworks everywhere, we are under construction (1 picture + 1experience with the Lord) 30 days challenge

Well, it looks like I gave no broadband access again, so I will have to go ahead and post via mobile, and then tomorrow I will edit the article and then put some more links and do some more formatting. I probably need to get into the habit of writing a bit earlier on the blog, not that close to the midnight... Lord Jesus, my habits! I'm definitely a work in progress - and I hope there's a progress; I hope the Lord is going on in me and in us...

1 picture today - Roadworks Everywhere, we are under construction!

This picture was taken at one of the many sites in London these days, especially as the evening falls. London is getting ready for the 2012 Olympic Games, and so everywhere in London there are Roadworks, re-pavings, closed roads during night time for refurbishment and replacing the asfalt, etc. Sometimes main streets have only one way open during the night - Roadworks and under construction! There's improvements to the main streets, the enlargement of streets, the fixing of streets with problems, creating some parking space, putting up more traffic signs, etc - see the www.tfl.gov.uk/roadworks link to find out more!

1 experience With the Lord today - we are all "under construction"

I think we all should wear this sign whenever we meet with people or with those who are around others - we are in continual Roadworks, under construction all the time. Just when you think that now you learned a lesson in a particular area or with a certain person, you realise that you still need to be open and continue learning to adapt, to speak to others, to shepherd people, to listen to people, and to be around others. It may be only at the end of our life that we may be fully perfected and matured, but until then, we are all under construction!

In our personal life with the Lord, we are under construction! The Lord intends to work Himself into us and make us His expression, but we are so stubborn that EVERYONE else sees that we need to give up on some things or just drop it in certain situations - yet WE DON'T!!! We are struggling with the Lord step by step, and we don't give in to Him that easy. And this is good - it is the Lord is the One who operates in us both the willing and the working! We struggle with Him, we "defeat Him", we give in to Him... Sometimes we may think that now we are open and we cooperate with Him, but it is still Him in us strengthening us to allow Him to operate in us... - we're a mess, we're under construction, but the Lord does not give up on us!

In our work life or our student life - we are under construction, and there are many roadworks. We may get along with some people, but there are still others who just don't really like us... Or maybe sometimes we don't get along with anyone... Eventually we realise that the problem is not anyone else in our environment but the problem is ME - I am the problem! I need the Lord to work Himself into me, to transform me, to conform me to His image, so that I may get along with people and learn to work together with them. If we want to speak to them about the Lord - we either don't do it at all or we overdo it... But the Lord is there, right by our side, waiting for us to turn to Him... He's right inside, desiring that we would turn again to Him and open to Him... - He in us can do so much...

In our family life, and in all other aspects of our life - we are "under construction", there's roadworks taking place in us. The Lord wants to have a way in us, to create some avenues in which He can move freely... - there's "construction cones" and "roadworks signs" everywhere in our being - we're almost like a construction site, where you need to be careful when you visit, where you step, what you do... O, Lord... But just like Abraham in the Old Testament, through mud and water, we want to allow the Lord a little more ground, give Him a bit more of our cooperation, so that He would make His home in our hearts!

... it all starts with the little things in our life, the things we think are trivial and not that important. It starts with our time with the Lord in the morning, when we personally turn to Him by calling on His name first thing in the morning! We can breathe the Lord in even while in the shower, and we can open to Him even while brushing our teeth... Our morning time with Him is vital - it is like eating a good and healthy breakfast in the morning, something that will sustain you through your most productive part of the day!

In the little things during the day, when we have a break or we need to use the restroom - we can turn again to the Lord and breathe Him in. We can simply call on His dear name from all of our heart - sometimes we can do it audibly while most times we have to do it inwardly... Take a breathing-on-the-Lord-break, and then go back to studying / working / writing / doing things. If we keep in touch with the Lord like that, our spirit will be active, the Lord will have a way to speak something to us, and He can make His home in our whole being! He can re-arrange things, He can adjust the level of our expression, He can adjust and regulate our tone or the way we dress... - it's not us imposing rules on ourselves because the Bible says so, but it is the Lord in us with our full cooperation that does things and adjusts us + supplies us!

The Lord will never give up on us - once He came into us, He's here to stay! So He set up the perimeter in us and wants to work Himself into every part of our being... - today we are in this process of "roadworks" and "under construction" where the Lord gains our cooperation bit by bit, where He is making His home and bringing in His kingdom into our whole being... - we love Him so much for never giving up on and for continually operating in us!

We are Those Who Knock On Doors - One Meaningful Thing I did Today (30-day challenge)

Busy day, Monday. At work we have a huge backlog from the weekend, while at the same time the responsibilities increase with requests, emails, issues, payments, calls... In a large company, I suppose, there's lots of boring and regular / routine stuff happening, but not in a medium size or a small company... or in a company that's continually developing, evolving, and being revolutionized by the internet sales and internet development! Anyways, enough about work ;) what I really enjoyed today and what touched me was the fact that,

Realizing that We are Those who Knock on Doors - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

We had the brothers' meeting tonight and we enjoyed the fact that the Triune God didn't "talk to us from the heavens, trying to get us all perfect and holy that we may join Him up there", but rather God came to "knock on our door". The Triune God is the First One who went door-knocking by becoming a man, becoming what we are, coming to our door... that He may come in! In incarnation He came to us, right where we are, to be with us and knock on the door of our heart - not by forcing us or threatening us, but by loving us!

Even now after we received the Lord, He is still knocking on our door - He's at the door of our heart, wanting to come into every part of our heart and take over, make His home there in our heart(Eph. 3:16-18). When the Lord comes in, He makes His home in our heart and makes our heart His home. And then He starts re-decorating, re-arranging, and re-modelling everything in us because He wants to feel at home in us! That's why we are going through a process of transformation - so that we may be a suitable and delightful home for our Lord Jesus!

The result of the Lord making His home in our heart, as we open the doors to every part of our inner being, is that He makes us the same as He is! He is the One who comes to knock on our door - and we are made the same as He is! We are those who go to knock on people's doors - sometimes we do it physically by going out door-knocking to seek out the hungry and thirsty sinners, and other times we go to visit the saints and the new ones to bring God to them! This is so wonderful - we become Christ's duplication and reproduction!

I have never seen this before - the fact that the Triune God comes to us "door-knocking" and we go to people "door-knocking"! When we approach people on the street to ask them if they know the Lord Jesus, we start knocking at the door of their hearts. Actually, it is the Triune God in us knocking on the door of others' hearts through us. That's why the Lord Jesus said that we shouldn't worry what to say, because the heavenly Father will speak in us! All we need to do is present ourselves and give ourselves to the Lord - make ourselves available to Him!

So today the Lord sends us out two by two to go and preach the gospel, and the way we want to take is by knocking on doors! I have done this before together with the saints in several cities and even several countries, and it is a challenging and exciting thing to do - going out with the saints on the gospel by knocking on doors! Hallelujah, we can go out one with the Lord and one with one another in the Body of Christ, having the Triune God going in us and through us to visit people in their homes! ... - this is what I was impressed with the most, and something I'm praying for to see more - see what's on God's heart about door-knocking...

On Time 4 the LTM + Thorough Cleaning - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-days challenge)

The most meaningful thing a human being can do - before the Lord's return with His kingdom or him being raptured to the heavens - is to enjoy the Lord and worship Him at the Lord's Table Meeting on the Lord's Day! Praise the Lord for this privilege! The Lord's Day is a new beginning - it's the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection from the dead, the real Sabbath, the day in which we all can gather to enjoy the Lord together, remember Him, and eat + drink together in the Lord's presence! Which brings me straight away to...

One Meaningful Thing I did Today - On Time for the Lord's Table Meeting + A Thorough Cleaning!

I don't know how you are in this respect, but many people I know - myself included - tend to be late especially for this, the Lord's Table Meeting. I don't know, maybe 5-10 minutes late... and sometimes I have no problem with this! I come late to the meeting, and "it's fine" with me... This doesn't mean I have a habit of being late, just that - due to unforseen or unplanned things - I somehow get to the meeting a bit late! When I get there, yes, I do exercise my spirit and participate, but recently I have been shined on by the Lord and convicted concerning this.

How comes I'm never late for work? Actually, if I'm late, I apologize, I promise I won't do it again, etc. How comes when I attend important outward events that I care for - I'm never late? How comes I'm never late when I'm supposed to meet someone at a certain time we both agreed on? How comes I'm never late for interviews? How comes I'm never late for the train or the plane - rather I plan to be there 30mins ahead or hours even? But... when it comes to meeting with the King of Kings at His table, when it comes to meet with the saints - the sons of God - to bring God praise and worship... I have almost no sense of guilt?

This is not to put guilt into people or even into me - but the Lord Jesus, the living Person within us, has something to say about this. Just contact Him and ask Him about it! That's what I did, and I was rebuked, corrected, adjusted, and exposed... so today, even though I had to take the tube (and not the bus as I used to) I made sure I was there right at 10.00am! O, the joy! O, the flow! O, the praise! I was sitting between two dear brothers and as we prayed and praised, the Spirit with our spirit... was so rich and so moving! Praise the Lord... Paying the price - YES, there is a price to pay! - to be on time at the meetings can also bring you some more practical experience and enjoyment of Christ!

This is also true about the home meetings, the prayer meetings, and all kinds of meetings - somehow we tend to get late (for various reasons) to the meeting, and... it can become a habit. Especially when you're young this is more true... In the Full Time Training you just CANNOT be late - and you learn to be regulated in this, in order to be a proper human being and a proper vessel in the Lord's hands. But what about when no one is demanding this from you - when there's no "serving one" that gets you to the meeting, but you have to do it yourself? Would you be early / on time because you just love the Lord? When we meet with the saints - this is the greatest joy on earth! It is here that our spirit never faints, and our lives are filled with worth!

The second thing, as mentioned in the title, is... THOROUGH CLEANING! I'm not sure you YOU are in this, but I both love and hate cleaning! I love cleaning and I love being clean, but at some points in time I just don't want to / hate cleaning! This doesn't mean that it's clean / messy in my room / place all the time, but it means that things pile up, the cleaning gets delayed, other more important things get in the way, etc - and the cleaning part sometimes gets forgotten! It's even more difficult when you have your own place - you don't live with people, parents don't see you to be on your case, you can "do what you want"... but many times the divine life in you and even your inward sense of being a clean-proper-human-being bothers you to CLEAN - and CLEAN THOROUGHLY!

When the divine life comes into us through our regeneration - when we are born again to be sons of God - we start a new life, and there's another Person in us. The Lord is very real and very practical. Though you may not feel anything when you tell Him daily, Lord Jesus I Love You! - yet when the time comes, when there's a practical thing happening, the Lord will be real to you within and He will speak to you specifically. He is not at peace with me enjoying the Lord in my room when my room is in a mess! Many times I repent to Him about the state of my room, the state of my heart, the state of my PC, my facebook comments and pictures, my twitter comments, etc... The Lord has something to say about everything we do/say/are! And the more we listen to Him, though we may do outward things in fellowship with Him, the more we gain Him!

So... please accept my apologies again for "using myself as an example" - I'm not different than anyone else and I'm not "special"; rather, I believe we all have this kind of experiences... - but the Lord somehow needs to make His home in our heart more! The inward enjoyment is expressed outwardly in a practical way by having Christ lived out in us - we become Jesusly human, human yet divine, proper human beings living Christ! ... to cut the story short, after such a wonderful time at the Table Meeting today there was a bothering in me, and when I got home, I was strengthened and motivated within to clean my place! Dusting, wiping, hoovering / vacuuming, washing dishes and cleaning, putting things where they belong, ironing the shirts (30mins of ironing!), arranging things, getting 2 loads of laundry done + putting them up to dry, putting out the trash / rubbish, etc... - these are just some of the things I had to do....

Lord, thoroughly clean my inward being! No separation or cloud between me and You! Shine on us, Lord, and may there be no hindrance. Keep speaking to us. Even in practical things, Lord, we want Your presence. Re-arrange the "furniture" in our heart, and strengthen us to cooperate with You even outwardly in our room, our house, our family, among the people we work / study with... Make us real Christians, real God-men!

Baptizing a Brother into the Triune God - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

Wow, it's almost midnight, and I just got home from the wonderful home meeting with the saints in East London's place! The best thing to do on a Friday night after a full week, in spite of your tiredness, is to get yourself into a home of the saints and just BE there! When your body is presented as a living sacrifice for the church life (Rom. 12:1), you will get the benefit of being revived, refreshed, renewed in your mind, supplied in your whole being, strengthened into your inner man, and filled with life! I mean, how can one still be tired and down when all the saints enjoy the Lord while singing,

So why not open up and call His name, O Lord! / Find your spirit where His grace has been outpoured! Call His name / Taste His grace / Exercise before His face! / He's longing and yearning, / He's hoping and waiting / He's ever desiring / For you to turn to Him!

HE KNOWS your deepest thought - your every situation! He understands your heart, He knows your history! Wow, there's nothing in His way - He's just waiting for you to say, Lord Jesus, My wondering heart I give to You! Once we open, we give our heart to Him, He comes in and makes His home in our heart - He strengthens us with power through His Spirit into our inner man! And so here it is,

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - Baptizing a Brother into the Triune God!

Baptism - in the Poland camp 2011

I have never met this brother, but the Lord in His sovereignty has arranged that a brother who is now in the hospital would have a friend, and this friend of his wants to receive the Lord and be baptized! I don't know how the Lord does it, but He's definitely the best at being God and arranging everything for His economy! So this new brother came to our home meeting tonight and we knew, He Wants To Receive the Lord and Be Baptized! So we just enjoyed the Lord, spoke the gospel, called on the name of the Lord together, and put our brother into the water!

To be saved is so simple - you just need to call on the name of the Lord! This person that I have never ever met, through believing into the Lord, became my brother in the Lord IN AN INSTANT! Regeneration is instantaneous! Then, as the Bible clearly says, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved"(Mark 16:16), we took our brother and we put him into the Triune God! We baptized him into Christ, into the Body of Christ, into the death of Christ, and into God Himself! It is such a privilege to be there, where the Lord receives an offering, a real sacrifice, a saved sinner through grace who gives himself and his whole being, his whole life, and his future to the Lord!

What a wonderful decision - to believe into the Lord and to be baptized! To cut off the past, renounce the old man, by publicly declaring that you love the Lord and you want to follow Him from now on! Into the water goes the old man, and he stays there; out of the water comes a new man, a new brother, in the newness of life! I am continually amazed at this simple yet wonderful principle of the divine life - it is real, it happens before our eyes, and we're in it by being in the church life! When we heard that this brother wants to get baptized, another sister ALSO got baptized - a new beginning, a river-crossing, a leaving back all the doctrines and forms, everything of the old, and being brought into the newness of the Body of Christ!

You've gotta love the church life! You've gotta love the Lord! You go to the meeting sooo tired, barely making it there, and you are strengthened within by your singing, opening, fellowshipping, calling, praying... by your inward turning to the Lord! And then, after you're brought to your mingled spirit, you never know what happens next - all you know is that you're one with the Lord, and you're watching Him doing it all in you, for you, and even as you! What a way to have the "real party" on Friday night! Praise the Lord for the church life - filled with babes and sucklings, those who learn through lots of mistakes and failures to Praise The Lord! Praise the Lord for bringing us into His Kingdom! [this article is STILL being edited...]