Be a God Chaser

Human nature is to want more. We’re all pursuing something. It is not bad in itself to pursue our family, career, business, name and fame. However, nothing we do to advance ourselves will have its full impact unless we first become God-chaser.

Too many people today are spinning their wheels without success. Jesus said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33). In my experience, most people want to pursue God but they don’t know how. Today we’ll discuss becoming a God-chaser.

The first thing we have to do to become a God-chaser is to make a decision. Until we make a quality commitment to put God first in our lives, we’ll not be living up to our full potential. You may not be anything right now but when you become God-chaser, you’ll have everything in Him. God has been on your side all your life now it’s time for you to form an alliance with God.

Jacob in the Bible is a perfect example for us to learn from. He was a cunning man. He didn’t consider anyone as long as he had his way. Integrity was not his strength. He cheated his own brother out of his inheritance over a bowl a soup. One day Jacob had an encounter with God. He repented from his troubled past and then he wrestled with an angel until daybreak. Jacob became a God-chaser! The angel blessed Jacob; gave him a new name (Israel) and a new nature. Everything in his life began to change from that point. He became the Father of the nation of Israel.

One of the characters of a God-chaser is humility. This is so simple yet it is so hard. Humility means dying to our flesh and self-will. A true God-chaser doesn’t try to control his/her own life but one who surrenders to God. Humility will make you bow before God and rise before men. Moses was a self-made man growing up in the house of Pharaoh. He thought he was something until he killed a man. Like most of us men, he had a lot of ego. It took God forty years in the wilderness to humble Moses. But when God was through He made Moses to be the savior of a nation!

Friend, today you may be going through your wilderness. Don’t be anxious if it’s taking you longer than you expected. I assure you, it won’t take you forty years. Life may be uncomfortable now. Don’t try to hurry the process. The good news is when God is through molding you, you too will make history. He will not only change your destiny but of your family and generations to come down your bloodline. When you put on humility and become God-chaser, He will promote you beyond your wildest dream.

Raised in a Buddhist family in Korea, Cho was dying of tuberculosis at the age of seventeen. A girl came to visit him daily to share Christ with Cho. He couldn’t resist God’s love for him and Cho became a God-chaser. He was healed of tuberculosis completely. Cho started a small church with only three people. Today, Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho has the largest church in the world in Seoul, Korea with a membership of over one million people! God-chasers are history makers. God wants to make history with you!

Friend, no matter what you’re facing today, God is waiting for you to return to Him. God is not mad with you; He’s madly in love with you. He wants you to surrender your life to Him. If you give Him the broken pieces of your life, you’ll rise from your ashes. He will take nothing from you without giving you something far better. If God’s love could reach a cheater like Jacob and a murderer like Moses, He can certainly reach you. Make a decision today. Become a God-chaser. I guarantee your life will never be the same again. I’m praying for you!

“Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself” (Luke 10:27 The Message).

Click Here to Spread the Message of Hope: www.buildinternational.org

Book Sandy Anderson as Speaker: Call 972 800 4346, Email: buildinternational@sbcglobal.net 

Stay Inspired: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BUILD-International-Ministries/113937368637778?ref=hl

Get Back Up

Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes it can feel like there are more down than up. Everyone goes through periods of discouragement and failures. It’s not falling that keeps us down but our failure to get back up.

How fast we get back up when we fail determines how successful we become. Great men and women learn to get up quickly. There’s nothing wrong when you have a bad day, bad decision or even a bad year but there’s nothing right staying and wallowing in our wrong choices. The sooner we learn to get back up the faster the scenery of our lives will change.

When we fall, one of the first things we have to deal with is our own conscience. For a Christian, the Holy Spirit is there to convict us. The Spirit never condemns us but He gently steer us back to God. On the contrary, the enemy is the accuser of the brethren. The sooner we accept our wrongs, take ownership and repent from our wrong ways the sooner we’ll experience God’s power of restoration and reinforcement to get back on the road to success.

I know many people who made a mistake years ago but are still sidelined by their wrongs. They forgive others but they cannot seem to forgive themselves. Being trapped in the mistakes of our past is a miserable prison. Some believe that they’re out of reach from God’s mercy. Just the opposite is true. In the Old Testament our sins were barely covered by the sacrificial blood of the animals. In the New Testament, our sins are not just covered but they’re eradicated. They’re gone forever!

One of the greatest mistakes Peter made was to deny Jesus three times. In most of our minds that was the unforgivable sin. But Peter knew better. After walking, talking and hanging around with Jesus, he knew the power of God’s love and mercy. Peter wept bitterly and repented from his sins. Later, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon Peter, he became a transformed man. The same person who denied Christ three times was now preaching to thousands and proclaiming the Gospel fearlessly. Historians say Peter was crucified upside down because of his faith. What brought such radical change in Peter’s life? He learnt the secret of forgiving himself and allowing the Holy Spirit to revolutionize his life.

Not all people make serious mistakes like Peter. Sometimes we get angry with our kids and we let that eat our day. At times we lose patience in traffic or long grocery line and we allow that to affect the rest of the day. When we get rejected by a sales call or a negative email, we can get easily discouraged. When the best client leaves us or we lose our job, we can be upset for days. Many people never recover from hurt and betrayal. I say this in love but there has to come a point when we have to forgive the offender or ourselves for our own good. We have to get up quickly and move forward in life.

Walt Disney was fired as a newspaper editor on the grounds that “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. The proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it will only attract riffraff. Friend, don’t let your mistakes hold you back. Your wrong choices don’t define you. They’re just expensive lessons you’ve learnt.

Today, I urge you to take inventory of your life. Don’t hang on to the past mistakes and disappointments. Today is a new day. God’s mercies are new every day. Give your mistakes to God and allow His Holy Spirit to empower you again. You’re not washed up. God didn’t sideline you. You’re still in the game. Like Peter and Disney, there’s a comeback waiting for you. Remember, the difference between success and failure is the person who gets up one more time than the other. Let’s start over. I’m praying for you!

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again” (Proverbs 24:16 NLT).

Click Here to Spread the Message of Hope: www.buildinternational.org

Book Sandy Anderson as Speaker: Call 972 800 4346, Email: buildinternational@sbcglobal.net 

Stay Inspired: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BUILD-International-Ministries/113937368637778?ref=hl

God’s Thoughts on the Lost

Lately my life has been surrounded by people who are passionate about sharing the Gospel with those who are hurting, crying and dying. What is God’s heart for the lost?

I’ll tell you, the closest and dearest thing to God’s heart is lost souls. He is not sitting up their waiting to punish us but the burning desire of His heart is to reconcile man/women to God. It’s God’s will that none should perish but have eternal life.

Religion is mean and condemning but God is love. In the heart of God is mercy. God hates sin but He’s not repelled by the sinners; He is drawn to redeem us with the blood of Jesus. Yesterday, I met Dr. Pool who is a Cardiac Surgeon. His testimony touched me deeply. He’s the only doctor I know who prays for each of his patients out loud. He’s healing the heart of his patients in more than one ways.

I’m fully convinced that God is speeding up the harvest all over the world. Recently I met a young man who used to be a member of a Satanist Church right here in Dallas. After God saved him miraculously, he began to debate with a young lady about the Gospel. All her life she has been a Mormon. After talking back and forth for about six months, she gave her life to the Lord. Today, they’re happily married and can’t wait to share the love of Jesus with others. I see God is working intensely to reconcile man to God everywhere I go.

Many Christians look at our society and gasp at where our culture is heading. It is easy to throw up our hands in the air and give up in despair. This is what happened to Paul in the Bible. Once He was in a city that was so filled with idols that he was filled with righteous indignation. Yet, before he left that city Paul’s heart was filled with compassion; he preached the Gospel to them and many came to know the Lord. Friend, let’s not gripe about what’s going on in our culture instead take the time to share Christ with those who are lost. Love – conquers all!

In the heart of God is mercy. We too must not condemn people but show them God’s mercy. Once, the religious leaders caught a woman in the adulterous act. They dragged that woman to Jesus wanting his approval to stone her. I always wonder why they didn’t condemn the man! Jesus loved the sinner and He still does. He said those that are without sin cast the first stone. Everyone left. He was the only one without sin qualified to cast the first stone. But He didn’t. He showed mercy, forgave her and said, “Go and sin no more.” Friend, if you want to be like Jesus, quit stoning people!

What is the value of one soul? The Bible says that Jesus crossed the sea to reach one man who was filled with demon spirits. Today people are in all sorts of troubles, some are filled with demon sprits and they cannot help themselves. Yesterday, I met a young man. His marriage is falling apart. He told me that nobody would counsel them for more than two times. They want them to go to the “professionals.” Sadly, people don’t want to help unless they’re paid! Where is the heart of compassion? Jesus crossed the sea to set one man free. We should have compassion for our fellowmen.

What is God’s thought about the world? Millions in Asia are racing towards eternity without hearing the name of Jesus. They’re into idolatry but they don’t know any better. We just came back from China touching over 3,000 lives. The communist government says we cannot preach the Gospel but God is working in China, India and other parts of Asia where the world’s most unreached people live. Should we live in the luxury of America and forget about the crying, sighing and dying world? God forbid! Let us have the heart of love and compassion like Jesus. The closest thing to the heart of God is the salvation of mankind. You and I are called to be ambassadors. We have the Gospel of reconciliation. Like my friend Dr. Pool, let us also share Christ with as many we can. For God so loved the world… We too must love people!

“We have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart” (I Corinthians 2:16 AMP).

Click Here to Spread the Message of Hope: www.buildinternational.org

Book Sandy Anderson as Speaker: Call 972 800 4346, Email: buildinternational@sbcglobal.net 

Stay Inspired: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BUILD-International-Ministries/113937368637778?ref=hl

Reach Out to the Prodigals

We all know people who used to be on top, active, serving their family, church and community. Then life happened and they just fell off the radar. We lose touch with people quickly. Sadly, many people never “recover” because they went through some setbacks and nobody reached out to them. This is really tragic!

 

When God brings people to your mind, take on the prodigals. We don’t know what hell people go through in life. When we take the time to reconnect with them, it brings hope and healing into their lives. Instead of having a superior attitude, we can minister to them and bring them back to the blessings of God. The Bible says, “Those who lead many to righteousness, will shine like the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).

 

When people go through tough times, they tend to withdraw. We’re not accustomed to connect on a deeper level. We’re superficial. If someone’s going through a difficult time, we don’t like to get involved. We think, “It is none of our business.” We should not be busybody but we should always try to reach out to our brothers and sisters. Most of the time people want to help but they don’t know how. Today we will look at a few simple ways we can bring back the prodigals.

Tell people you love them. This is the most powerful phrase you can ever tell a human being. During their time of trouble, people don’t need our mouth; they need our shoulders. The closest thing to the heart of God is hurting, sighing and crying people. If we can somehow communicate that we love them regardless of why they’ve fallen away; we can win people back. When we’re winning a person back to God, we need to be extra sensitive to their feelings. They have been hurt. Now is not the time to preach. They need our love and affirmation. Love conquers all!

I have a friend in Nepal who was invited to the church as a young man. At the time this young man was a drug addict. His friend kept inviting him to church in a very mild manner way. My friend came to church just to get his friend off his back. Before he entered the church, my friend noticed everybody took off their shoes outside the church. This is the culture there. Always needing money for a fix, my friend took mental note of the nice shoes and decided to leave church early to steal those shoes. When the service started my friend experienced an amazing peace during worship. Tears began to run down his cheeks. But his mind was still on the shoes he was going to steal. Although he wanted to leave, the Holy Spirit convinced him to stay another ten minutes and anther ten and another ten… When the service finally ended, my friend went down the aisle to give his life to the Lord. Today, after twenty five years, my friend is a pastor, supervising many churches. Consider how it all got started. It happened because a friend cared enough to reach out to another. I’ve learned that God will work on people but it is our responsibility to put people in the right environment.

Yesterday, I was making some phone calls to invite friends to come to a men’s group I go to. Some of my friends have not been there for a while. Being the man of faith that I am, I wasn’t expecting a positive response from most of them. But almost everyone I called was glad to hear my voice. Most of them committed to come to our group. I’m looking forward to reconnect them to God again. Men need other men to stay on fire. It didn’t cost me anything to make a phone call. Imagine what we can achieve collectively if we all took a little time to call on our prodigal brothers and sisters.

Another way we can bring lost souls back is by giving them a sense of belonging. Let them know we need them. I remember a TV show from the eighties called Cheers – where everybody knows your name. This is what is missing in many relationships. People don’t feel like they belong. I know churches where thousands attend and thousands leave from the back door never to return. Why is that? People never felt like they belong there. They didn’t feel needed. When we send them a card, a phone call or just show up at their door unannounced, they know we care and they will return. When people stop noticing you, missing you and caring for you then you’re in real trouble.

Friend, let’s reach out to the prodigals in our lives. With just a little bit of effort, we can win them back to the fold. If you are a prodigal yourself, let me reach out to you. We’re not here to condemn you. We’re here to bless you, lift you up and help you. Nothing you’ve done can separate you from the love of God. We’re here for you! Friends, let’s reach out to the prodigals in our lives!

 

“I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them. I will comfort those who mourn” (Isaiah 57:18 NLT).

Click Here to Spread the Message of Hope: www.buildinternational.org

Stay Inspired: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BUILD-International-Ministries/113937368637778?ref=hl