“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55: 8-9

How do we know the will of God? Is His will knowable? How can we be sure?

Should I look for burning bushes and thunderous voices when I try to find the will of God? Should I put out a fleece to determine His will?

So many questions we often ask. So many are asking. What are the answers? Find out this Sunday as we kick off a new series called FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, a preaching series about finding the will of God in a world of noise and different voices. Join us during our 9am, 11am or 5pm services. See you here!

What Jesus did on the cross for us will never get old. It continues to baffle humanity’s finite minds more than two thousand years after the actual event happened. Philosophers, religious thinkers, scientists, ordinary men and women, they all marvel at the implications of the coming of Jesus that culminated at the cross of Calvary.

God came down, not to bring judgment but to draw men to Him. To show mercy, not to condemn. To heal, not to bruise. To show love, not to pour out vials of terrible wrath. To save humanity from the power of sin. To bring freedom to the captives. To open blinded eyes. To declare the good news of salvation to the race of men, even when we didn’t deserve it.

In the next two weeks, Victory will have a new preaching series that focuses on the great exchange that happened on the cross. What does the cross mean to you? What does Jesus mean to you? Join us in Victory Caloocan and find out the message of love and salvation in the cross of Jesus.

Yet in their last moments, they stood in defiance to the religion of their heathen emperor. Jehovah was their God even at the point of death. No, they will not budge. No, they will not compromise. Let the fires rage and burn them to ashes. Let the cruel power of the emperor take their lives away. They will never, ever bow down to other deities.

At the brink of martyrdom, these trio made a memorable speech that until today, still sends shivers down my spines: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

With those words, they were thrown to the burning furnace. But something unexpected happened…

Join us this Sunday to follow this riveting story to its glorious end. As we conclude the INTRUSION series with the story of these proto-martyrs of the gospel, let us ask ourselves this question: if my faith will get me into trouble, will I make a stand or back down in fear?

1. He was fed up with a life of defeat. He knew the stories of God’s miraculous deliverances of Israel but as he looked around the realities of his life and the whole nation, he couldn’t see the traces of God’s greatness.

Are you fed up with always being defeated by life’s problems? Are you tired of always losing to the enemy’s tactics?

2. He recognized his limitations. He came from the least of the tribes of Israel. His family was the least from that tribe. He was the least in the family. Gideon knew he was a nobody. He hoped for deliverance but he was also realistic of his limits.

Humble people are most positioned to receive grace from God. Gideon was not bitter that he was the least among his own people. He just didn’t know God can use him.

3. God broke through his limitations. How? He talked to God. (According to scholars, it was actually Jesus who met Gideon, not just an ordinary angel. In theological parlance, we call this a theophany- a physical appearance of God in the Old Testament.) He believed the promises. He acted on the promises.

We can break free from our limitations and weaknesses simply by having God speak over our lives. Talk to God. Pray. Believe. Act.

NOTE: This story of Gideon contains the part where he put out a fleece to test the will of God. How do we explain this? Is it Biblically correct to test the will of God this way?

Answer: No, this is not necessary in our time. We have the Holy Spirit now, Gideon didn’t. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirits. The dynamics of our communication with God has changed after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Family. That’s the reason why. When God thinks about us, He thinks of us in the context of our families. Families matter to Him. He cares about how fathers lead, how mothers show an example of godliness and how children obey their parents in the Lord.

In Victory Caloocan, we want to see godly families being built up in the faith, families where Christ is the center and families where the name of Jesus is talked about everyday. That’s why on March 31, we invite parents to join us for the first ever parenting foundations seminar here in our church. Contact us if you need information. We’d love to help you.

It was God himself [who tested Jacob]. This teaches us that our faith is tried by God, and whenever we are tested, he descends into the arena to try our strength.

At least it is God who tests our faith. At least it is God who tries the strength of our character. If we are to struggle, at least we struggle in the hands of a gracious and kind God because in His hands, there is mercy when we fail and sustaining power when we falter.

A practicing swordsman is better off training with his master than be cast off into the hands of a ruthless enemy in a real combat. In his master’s hands he can learn the art of fighting. In enemy’s hands, he can be destroyed.

The best thing about Jacob’s wrestling with God is that it was God who tried him, not Satan. God means to strengthen us while Satan seeks to destroy us.

Originally posted at JojoAgot.com.

Join us this weekend for another exciting sermon series: INTRUSION. For the opening salvo, we will be talking about the life of Jacob and his famous daybreak wrestling with the Angel of the Lord. Why did he wrestle? Why did the angel asked for his name? What is the significance of his limping? Do we even have to care about this ancient story?

Stay tuned…

On February 26, we did our volunteer weekend. Volunteer weekend is a time for anyone in the church to sign up to any of the seven key ministries that we do. It is also a time for long time volunteers to renew their commitments for the next twelve months.

The following are the available ministries we have:

Administrative Support

Communications

Creative Support

Kids Ministry

Music

Technical Production

Ushering

If you missed the volunteer sign up last week and you would like to help, just leave a comment below or send us an email. We’d be very glad to find a place for you.

There are many variations to this. Sometimes the choice is between the good, the better and the best. At times, it’s between the bad and the lesser evil. But is this Biblically sound? Now that’s a good question.

A cursory glance at the basic teachings of the Bible, we learn of humanity’s total depravity. Meaning, our ability to discern and choose what is spiritually sound is impaired during the fall of man in the garden of Eden. As a result, our gut feelings could no longer be trusted. Our hearts are no loger reliable.

Jeremiah 17:9 echoes exactly this same sentiment. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” Ouch.

Some quick questions should be thrown here: On what, then, do we base our moral compass? To whom do we listen? What will be the basis of our conduct?

Find out this Sunday as we tackle this question in all our three services at Victory Caloocan. We are on the second week of our three-part preaching series called LOVE DIFFERENT. Join us or look for any Victory congregation near you.