Footsteps to Zion

Did you know that our God loves gardens?  In fact, the Bible says that He planted the Garden of Eden Himself (Gen. 2:8-9). He didn’t just create them in an instant as a fully-grown garden. Instead, He planted the trees there and made them grow out of the ground. But more importantly, do you know what is the most precious garden to the Lord out of all the gardens in the world? It is not a physical garden but a spiritual one – it is the garden in our hearts. In a sense, when we become Christians, God plants a garden in our own hearts. It is this garden in our hearts that He carefully tends, protects, and inspects. And as any good gardener, God looks at the garden of our hearts looking for certain characteristics that are well-pleasing in His sight. What then are these characteristics that we should cultivate in the garden of our hearts? 1. It should be enclosed. Song of Songs 4:12 A garden enclosed Is my sister, my spouse, A spring shut up, A fountain sealed. Satan ...

No one ever wants to be in a storm. People generally believe that nothing good could ever come out of storms. This goes for physical storms and even more so for the unseen storms in our lives. But is this belief really true? The answer to this question lies in an account in the Bible of the time when the disciples of Jesus went through a very dark storm themselves (Matthew 14:22-33). From this story, we will seek to understand why God allows storms in our lives and how we can have the victory that God meant for us over our storms. STORMS IN OUR LIVES The story begins with the disciples getting into a boat at night, as Jesus commanded them to. Unbeknownst to them, they were about to get caught in the middle of a mighty storm. But more than just stormy weather, their situation speaks of the kind of storms we can go through in life. Storms are when we feel away from God. “And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when eveni...

In Psalm 27:4, King David declared “ One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. ” Do we have the same heart as King David, desiring to dwell with the Lord not just in eternity but also here on Earth? In order for us to dwell with Him, our lives first have to become suitable dwelling places for His presence. While God wants to dwell with us, there may still be things in our lives today that hinder this. So how do have the same heart as King David, a heart that will be a home for God? Our lives have to be in order. A house has to be in order and organized for it to be maximized . It cannot serve its purpose well if furniture and appliances are not in their right places. It can also be stressful to live in a house that is filled with clutter. That is why we always ensure that our living spaces are in order and free of clutter so that it is...

Rest is such a necessity yet is a rare find to many. Everybody wants it but not all know how and where to get it. There is a road that leads to rest that is available to all and it is a path that can be found in the Scripture. Each of us has our own cares and anxieties in life. There are times when we find ourselves so stressed out that we just want to give up. But instead of worrying, striving, and succumbing to defeat, the Apostle Peter encourages us in 1 Peter 5:6-7 to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us in due time, casting all our care upon Him, for He cares for us. The Greek word used for “casting” in this verse is “ EPIRIPTÓ ” which means to throw upon or to place upon. It is used in the same context of the triumphal entry of Jesus when the disciples threw their clothes upon the colt (Luke 19:35).  It implies totally letting go and letting the other person receive and carry the burden. The word “cares,” on the other hand, is from the Gr...

Source: www.LumoProject.com All of us, in different ways, have been once lost and found; then lost and found again and again and again. Luke 15 has three parables that show man’s tendency to drift away from God. But they also show us the heart of God towards the lost because God is in the business of finding the lost. The Lost Sheep In Luke 15:1-7, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd who is willing to leave the 99 sheep to search for one missing sheep. We are very much like sheep. We easily veer away from the Lord, the Shepherd of our souls. In Isaiah 53:6, God said that we all, like sheep, have gone astray. In 1757, a pastor and hymn writer named Robert Robinson penned the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." He was just 22 when he wrote the song yet at a young age he knew his own capacity to drift away from God (Source: Wikipedia). Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O tak...