Open Heavens July 7, 2015: 'Love Must Be Reciprocated'

Topic: Love Must Be Reciprocated [Tuesday July 7, 2015]

Memorise: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. -John 15:10.

Read: John 15:9-10 (KJV)

9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Bible In One Year: 1 Chronicles 23:25; Luke 18:35-19:10

MESSAGE:

God loves us so much the He gave us Himself as a gift. Giving Jesus Christ to die for us was the same as giving Himself to us (1 Timothy 3:16). But He did not stop there, He went further, pointing out to us in Romans 8:32 that:

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.”

However, love should be a two-way exchange, and not one-sided. If you love someone and your love is not being reciprocated, after a while, something will happen to that love. That love may grow cold or even die. The same applies to the relationship between God and us. If you check through the scriptures, you will learn that whenever God does something for someone, He expects them to do something in return. It is one thing to be loved and another thing to abide in that love. While you were in your sins, God demonstrated His love for you by sending Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, to die for you. When you respond to this divine initiative by repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you will be washed by His blood and forgiven. After this, God increases His love towards you, and when you reciprocate, that love increases.

Love begets greater love. If you want to sustain or increase the love that God has for you, reciprocate His love. In today’s reading, Jesus tells us that when He came to earth as a man, He was loved by the Father; but to sustain that love, He had to keep the Father’s commandments. What the Father expected of Jesus is what He expects of us today. There is no way you will continue in God’s love when you deliberately break His commandments or refuses to obey Him. If He has loved you, He expects you to love Him too. He expects your obedience. He also expects you to love other brethren. How have you reciprocated the love of the Lord? Even though afflictions, persecutions, angels, Satan, what we see and what we can’t see cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39), disobedience, manifested by violation of His word, can deal that love a terrible blow.

Action Point: List some things you have never done that you can start doing to reciprocate the love of God. Do them from today!


Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
culled from http://www.flatimes.com/

The "Busy" Christian- Is it a Satanic Invention?

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken". "So let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" shouted his angels. "Keep them busy in the non essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,"he answered."Tempt them to spend,spend,spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles".

"Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work! Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!"

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders.Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions." It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there.

We're Back!

Ok!

So we've been out for a couple of months long long while, sorry about that *sheepish grin*.

But we're back now and back with a whole lot of information for you! 

A post every other day is what we are promising today. Something to make you a better singer, minister and person after reading it.

Stay tuned!

How to Connect Deeper with your Audience when Minstering

While this should be true of any singer singing any style of music, Gospel/Christian singers really should be striving to connect with their audience on a much deeper, more personal level.

If you”ve chosen a great song with a powerful, relevant message, then most of your audience should feel at some point that you are delivering a word straight from God directly and specifically for them. Today we’ll discuss 3 things you can do to instantly start connecting deeper with your audience.

1. Open Your Eyes!

Every song you sing is like a conversation with the audience. It’s like a mini-sermon or a direct message from God. Imagine then, if you heard that your friend was going through a terrible time and you wanted to encourage them. Would you look at the wall behind them or your feet or simply spend the whole conversation talking to them with your eyes closed? Or would you look right at them and deliver the words that God placed on your heart to give them?
That is why it’s important you look into the eyes of people in the audience when you sing. If your eyes are closed the entire time your audience feels disconnected personally. Even if they’re enjoying the performance they’re not likely to feel that deep personal sense of connection if they’re watching someone who seems to be in their own world, completely oblivious that they’re even in the room. While there will always be moments in the song you’ll close your eyes briefly, every singer should endeavor to make eye contact with members in the congregation while you sing. Keep your eyes moving from one person to the other. Move from one side to the other and front to back, briefly making eye contact with someone in each section as you sing a certain line or make a certain point lyrically. This makes the person you’re looking at feel like God is speaking directly to them through you.

2. Make your facial expressions match what you’re singing!

Facial expressions are seldom given much thought at all when we sing, but they are very important. Going back to the point I made earlier about how singing performances are like conversations with your audience, you can imagine how irritating and/or just plain weird it would be to be having a conversation with someone where their facial expressions are serious and stoic even though the subject matter is funny. Seems obvious when you relate it to having a regular speaking conversation. Yet quite often you see singers-Gospel singers especially- singing songs about joy or happiness but never smiling.
Make sure you really spend time with the lyrics of your song and understand the central message. Get in touch with the emotion that you feel when you read the lyrics in the verses, for example. Then make sure that when you sing them, your facial expressions show those emotions. This has a powerful effect on the audience when you combine it with eye to eye contact. Remember in order to connect deeper with the audience you have to draw them into a personal conversation with you. You can’t have a conversation about anything you have any feeling at all about without showing facial expressions that match what you’re feeling. The same should be true when you’re singing.

3. Use body language!

It’s quite common when you’re engaged in a conversation with someone to be animated. We all use head gestures, hands, body language and the like to help us visually express what we’re saying. Every singer should do the same thing during a performance. If you’re talking about going higher, or singing about Heaven, why not point towards the sky? If you’re singing about uncertainty or not knowing, shrug your shoulders. If you’re saying to the audience “He will”, then declare it by looking directly into someone’s eyes, pointing at them and emphatically nodding your head up and down. If you’re saying “I know for myself” then pat your chest and let your audience see that.
These are all very simple things we all do in every day conversation. Things that make face to face conversation such a powerful way of expressing a point. There are things you want to say to someone that you don’t want to say over the phone. Why? Because of the visual power of face-to-face conversation. It stands to reason then that taking these elements into your singing performances will draw your audience into your message and speak directly to them. And that’s when a song moves from a “performance” to ministry.

Evaluation Exercise on May 1!

Yay! Finally!

Our evaluation exercise holds May 1, 2014 at 9am.

Are you a current chorister in RCCG Hope Centre, or you've been seriously comtemplating becoming one?

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