20th May 2024

FCI Ministries

20th May 2024

JOHN CALLED BY JESUS

May 20, 2024 • Dr Zubeda Sing, Pastor Zubeda Sing

Being loved is the most powerful motivation in the world! Our ability to love is often shaped by our experience of love. We usually love others as we have been loved.

Some of the greatest statements about God’s loving nature were written by a man who experienced God’s love in a unique way.

John, Jesus’ disciple, expressed his relationship to the Son of God by calling himself “the disciple Jesus loved” (John 21:20). Although Jesus’ love is clearly communicated in all the Gospels, in John’s Gospel it is a central theme. Because his own experience of Jesus’ love was so strong and personal, John was sensitive to those words and actions of Jesus that illustrated how the one who is love loved others.

Jesus knew John fully and loved him fully. He gave John and his brother James the nickname “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), perhaps from an occasion when the brothers asked Jesus for permission to “call down fire from heaven” on a village that had refused to welcome Jesus and the disciples (Luke 9:54). In John’s Gospel and letters, we see the great God of love, while the thunder of God’s justice bursts from the pages of Revelation.

Jesus confronts each of us as he confronted John. We cannot know the depth of Jesus’ love unless we are willing to face the fact that he knows us completely. Otherwise we are fooled into believing he must love the people we pretend to be, not the sinners we actually are. John and all the disciples convince us that God is able and willing to accept us as we are. Being aware of God’s love is a great motivator for change. His love is not given in exchange for our efforts; his love frees us to really live.

John’s life was completely transformed by his relationship with Jesus, he went on further in his life to have a deep relationship with the Holy Spirit and thereby he was given the honour of writing the Gospel of John. He was called, he heeded the call. He was called to change and he accepted whatever was required of him to make that change, so we today can be changed through the words of John and the expression of God’s love for us. Embrace and enjoy the love of God through your relationship with him. Like John you and I will be changed and transformed from the inside out.

CONFESSION/PRAYER

Holy Spirit you have shed your love in my heart, this love is my starting point of my love walk. This love casts out all fear and helps me to accept others through the love that you have placed in my heart. I am changed and transformed by this love.

31st May 2024

May 31, 2024 • Dr Zubeda Sing, Pastor Zubeda Sing

Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” I love this account of Paul’s life. It gives me hope. It tells me that no matter how bad a person is, or how far to the left he has gone, our God has the power to turn them around. Paul was killing the church, here comes Jesus and turns him around, literally drops him off his high horse and makes him the church. Awesome! That is the God we serve. Paul went from breathing out threats to being threatened. He was the accuser of the church, yet he became the victim of abuse once he followed the Lord. Jesus turned his life around. Where he once had hatred and a heart full of accusations, Jesus filled him with his love. He was the most passionate disciple in winning souls to Christ. He had studied the word of God and was filled with the letter of the word. When Jesus came into his life, the Holy Spirit gave him revelation of the word on the inside of him and empowered him by his love to speak this word with power and win many souls to Christ. Paul was a man who listened and obeyed. Once convinced, he convinced others. Family, we are called to do the same. Whatever your thoughts may have been, ask the Holy Spirit to turn you around, to become a lover of God’s people and one who wins souls. You are needed in the kingdom. The love of God has been shed abroad your heart so you can reach out to this dying world and become the hope the world needs. CONFESSION/PRAYER Holy Spirit turn my life around as you turned Paul’s life around. Show me the things you need me to see and help me to hear the things you need me to hear. Show me the opportunities you have set up for me so that I do not miss your voice or the things you have called me to do. I want to be all you have called me to be.

30th May 2024

May 30, 2024 • Dr Zubeda Sing, Pastor Zubeda Sing

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2COR1V3-4 Our God is the God of all comfort. No matter what you go through, God will comfort you and strengthen you so that you can make it through the difficulties of life. He will never allow you to go through more than you can handle, actually in all you will go through, he will provide you with the necessary help and comfort you will need to go through it. He says he will never leave you nor forsake you. I cannot say what it is you will go through, each of us will go through different things, but be sure of this very thing, he will only allow the things, he is sure you can handle. In and through it all, Jesus is right there with you. He is growing you and maturing you so you can be all He has called you to be. Lay down fear and do not worry about the questions that have not been answered, in the way of life, as you keep going, God will give you the answers you need. He is an ever-present help in the time of trouble. He has your back. He is your defense and protector. CONFESSION/PRAYER The voice of the Lord is like the sound of many waters, but he is soft enough to whisper comfort to me. In the chaos of life, you are my strength and shield. When I am weary, you make me strong with your strength. I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

29th May 2024

May 29, 2024 • Dr Zubeda Sing, Pastor Zubeda Sing

As a medical doctor, Luke knew the importance of being thorough. He used his skills in observation and analysis to thoroughly investigate the stories about Jesus. Luke 1v3-4 Luke was called of God to be a scribe (writer) for the apostle Paul. Paul received the revelation from God and Luke wrote down everything Paul would speak to him about. God chose Luke as he was a man given to be thorough and researched the stuff he heard. He was a man who studied with Paul and was familiar with Paul. In writing for Paul, God touched this man’s heart in a way that caused his life to turn around. He was not one of the disciples, yet in his research of the master, he found every word to be true, so he became one of the writers of the Gospels, the gospel according to Luke. He had studied to be a doctor, God turned him into a healer of hearts through the word of God. He wrote the accounts of Jesus and the disciples through the eyes of a physician. He spoke about the healings of Jesus because his calling as a physician saw things that no one else would see. Read the gospel of Luke and you will see who Jesus was as our great Healer. You may have studied to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or whatever you felt you were called to do, but God has called you to be a son and daughter of the most high. You can still be in the job you are doing right now or in the business you are running right now but listen for his voice to tell you, what it is you are really called to do. A friend or counsellor to those you come in contact with everyday? He has placed in you a love that can reach out to those who need love and care for those in need of care. I am not sure what he will ask you to do, but I know this, that you will be refreshed and satisfied once you hear his voice and do what he has called you to do. When he tells you to speak, speak to that person he has placed in your life at that moment and you will be fulfilling his call on your life. I know you can do whatever it is he has called you to do. CONFESSION/PRAYER Holy Spirit help me to speak to the people you send into my life to speak to. Help me to hear as you hear so that I can answer accurately and be a blessing to those in need. Give me your wisdom so I can answer a matter wisely. You are the God of all comfort so help me to comfort others through your comfort.