Faithful hope of the Triune God (Lamentations 3:22-26)!!

 “The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 

The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.  So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:22-26)

According to the circumstances, many may project God who He is in their minds.  For example, when situations exactly go their way, people may believe God is a genie in the bottle and praise Him wholeheartedly with gratefulness.  However, when circumstances don’t turn out what they expect them to be, they may think and feel that God has forsaken them.  Overall, people may depend on God in their entire devotion according to their situations and live their lives without God in their non-desperate situations.

 

The truth is that God has loved all humans from the beginning, regardless of their misdeeds.  God’s abundant love upon them is unconditional and constant (Lamentations 3:22-23).  Otherwise, He wouldn’t create them and give them free will, or would create people and not give them free will, because God already knows they will rebel at some point.  God also wouldn’t send Jesus Christ, His only beloved Son, to be atonement of their sins.  Although His heart breaks when misdeeds happen, it does not mean that God has forsaken people.  He is waiting for them to repent and come to Him (2 Peter 3:8-9).  As He is faithful to His abundant love upon all humans, they have to choose between coming to Jesus Christ and having their right to be called as God’s children, or not coming to Him and doing and solving things on their own strength.

 

Coming to Jesus and believing in Him wholeheartedly by accepting Him as their Lord and Saviour lets people receive eternal life, even in physical lives.  Becoming God’s children and accepting God’s help are not the signs of weakness, but of true strength.  As God has created all people in His image, these reveal who they really are and acknowledge God is their heavenly Father and Creator. Hence, those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and have followed Him should keep holding to their hope in the Triune God—God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit—even if life becomes challenging with reminders of His faithfulness (Isaiah 40:28-31). It’s in the challenging times, we can test our faith, and if we feel our faith is weak, we should keep asking God to increase our faith and pray for His wisdom to navigate our lives in godly ways (James 1:2-8).

 

Meditate on God’s faithfulness (Psalm 36:5-9) and hope (1 Peter 1:3-9), and ask yourself this question: “How can I increase my hope and faithfulness in the Triune God?”

Eternal Life (John 11:25-26)!!

 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

Many non-believers believe all good and perfect people go to heaven or born again into another earthly life when they die, so they work very hard to be perfect ones.  They also may believe one-off acceptance to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour is one-way ticket to the Kingdom of heaven, so they may accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour according to their good timing or accept Him as their Lord and Saviour in the very last minute of their physical death.  Overall, humans believe they are to enjoy their earthly life abundantly.

Yes, we are to enjoy our earthly life abundantly until the end, as Jesus has said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  However, He also has proclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).  Furthermore, John 3:16-18 has stated,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Jesus didn’t come into the earth to offer all people one-way ticket to the Kingdom of heaven.  Yes, He is the only truthful way to heaven, as God sent His only beloved Son into the world to be crucified on the cross as an atonement of our sins (Hebrews 2:14-15).  However, Jesus’ sacrifice also allows us to start new lives in Him, starting new lives through faith in Jesus, which includes eternal life (Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17).  This means we can experience eternal life in part, even in physical lives on earth, by accepting and believing in Him as our Lord and Saviour and doing whatever God has called us to do with the guidance of His Spirit (Titus 2:11-14).  For example, as I became a true follower of Jesus in the late 2011, I have accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour since then.  After two years, God has given me the writing gift to spread the good news of Christ.  Therefore, I wrote devotionals over 5 years, articles for a several years, and started to write devotionals again from a couple of weeks ago.  Nonetheless, God desires us to be in relationship with Jesus, so we can know and have a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus (John 14:6-7; 17:3). 

“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

When Jesus was put to death on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Matthew 27:50-51).  God’s presence dwelt inside of the temple, where high priests only could go in and offer sacrifices to God for their people’s sins once a year, but since the temple’s curtain was torn, God’s presence became available to everybody anytime and there is no need to bring sins to high priests anymore.  Jesus Christ became the ultimate high priest (Hebrews 9:6-15; 10:1-18).  Not only Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Kingdom of heaven, but He also went there to prepare places for His followers (John 14:1-6).  When humans accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they receive their citizenship of heaven, as eternal life is God’s free gift to those who follow Jesus and do His will wholeheartedly (Romans 5:6-21).

Meditate on Titus 3:3-8 and Romans 6:23, and ask yourself this question: “As God’s free gift is eternal life through faith in Jesus and Jesus’ followers receive their citizenship of heaven, how shall we have our eternal lives to full potential?”

Springing Up!!

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

How many of us like the past things, such as good and awarding experiences?  I don’t know about you, but I do.  I graduated the Bachelor of Applied Theology on May 24^th, 2025.  It is so crucial to get the knowledge of God as much as possible, so I wanted to go on doing Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Theology and then, Master of Applied Theology, if possible.  I even posted what I will write about in my thesis on Facebook before the graduation. Although assessments were challenging, I loved digging deep to Scriptures and theology through scholarly sources.  Biblical and theological studies deepen my relationship with the Triune God through faith in Jesus.  However, as my Grade Point Average score is low, it has not been possible to further my studies in Carey Graduate School, which includes Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Theology and Master of Applied Theology.  Nonetheless, I am glad that I also took ‘Introduction to Christian Leadership,’ the micro-credential paper, even after the Bachelor of Applied Theology.  Besides studies, I love Carey community because it is one of the communities of Jesus-centredness.

The context of Isaiah 43:18-19 is that Isaiah prophesises God’s mighty power in comparison with His redemption of Israel by bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, where they were held as captives (c.f. Exodus 13:17-14:31).  As God desired Israel to believe and trust in Him entirely, He wants them to forget His former redemption to them.  This does not mean they should literally forget it and not to inscribe on records of God’s works for their future generations.  Of course, they should note His former miracle for them, but what God meant is He has more miracles to show His faithfulness to Israel, instead of just former one. Although the Israelites were not perfect, they were God’s children.

As God has created all of us, we are His children as long as we believe in Jesus Christ (John 1:9-13).  Although Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as an atonement of our sins is the greatest story in the history, God wants us not to dwell on it and His past miraculous works upon us forever.  Instead, these are the reminders of His faithfulness upon us and God desires us to move forward through faith in Jesus (Philippians 3:10-14).

In my case, I love Carey Baptist College so much and wanted to stay over there forever.  However, I guess God has closed doors on me to do postgraduate studies and it is time to put my faith into practice that I can be a Christian author.  Hence, I believe improving my devotional-writing to the point that I can contact publishers and get ready to publish 1-year devotional booklet publicly, instead of just online, is my first step of becoming a Christian author.  Although I cannot go into Carey Graduate School to study further after my Bachelor, I firmly believe God is not done with me yet and trust His plan for me, even though I cannot see it completely yet.  In fact, His knowledge and wisdom are unsearchable (Romans 11:33-36).  It is up to us whether we believe and trust Him through faith in Jesus entirely or not, regardless of the level of our belief and trust (Hebrews 11:1, 6).  This is what following Jesus and trusting God means.

“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. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Meditate on Jeremiah 29:11-13 and 2 Corinthians 5:17, and ask yourself this question: “Am I only relying on God’s past works/miracles through faith in Christ, and if so, how I can move forward with Him?”