Devotions (Page 6)

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12 This weekend is our annual Family Weekend! We’ll be gathering from Saturday to Monday of the long weekend to seek God together as a church family. We look forward to seeing many of you there. As I think about this week leading up to Family Weekend, the verse from Romans 12:12 comes to mind. It begins with the encouragement to be joyful in hope. I’m personally joyful…

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and…

I’m not sure who needs to hear this… but sometimes it is possible for the next steps forward to be: SLEEP! Apparently when I was just a newborn, by mum was concerned and literally called the doctor to ask if something was wrong because I slept so much! After she confirmed that I was eating and… eliminating waste… like I needed to, the doctor chuckled and told my mom to be thankful because it sounded like she had a daughter…

There’s a worship song called “Hosanna in the Highest”. No, it’s not by Hillsong. It’s more upbeat and a song I heard in Mandarin on the weekend. As I was singing along and glancing at the lyrics, the line “Be exalted, oh Lord my God” stood out to me. In Mandarin, it goes 被高举，哦主我神 （Bèi gāo jǔ, ó zhǔ wǒ shén） Now, my Mandarin is not amazing. I knew there were quite a few words/phrases to refer to God in…

We had the privilege of hearing yesterday from three different speakers – the Lee family, Ada, and Rodney – as they shared about some of the things that they’ve been involved in as part of the LifeSpring family. The Lee family shared about their mission trip to Thailand and the seven places they travelled, where they visited pastors, missionaries, children, and churches. Ada shared about prophetic ministry at LifeSpring and the growth that they’ve seen over the last several months. Rodney…

At intercession on Sunday, Ada got us to meditate on Matthew 6:9-10: This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’” As she opened up the floor for people to share what they got, I heard something deep come from the mouth of Abby. Just when I thought she was done speaking, she dropped another “gem”. She shared that…

Last Sunday, we had our Wildfire Sunday, where the youth led the entire service from introduction to closing prayer. They did an amazing job, and I was personally very blessed by the entire service! I’m so thankful for the effort and energy they brought from everything to ushering, worship, MC’ing, testimony, and message. It reminded me of a passage that I spoke on a few months ago from Ephesians 2:5-7. It says, “You are saved by God’s grace! And God…

Sometimes, the Lord gives us a difficult task. Be it a discipline, a project, or caring for a difficult person, it’s often easy to just give up. In Moses’s case, the task was to lead the Israelites to Canaan. Planning and executing a family trip is no piece of cake, but taking a family the population of a small town (at the very least) is overwhelmingly difficult. The Israelites gave up as soon as they got thirsty (and they weren’t…

You know how we often talk about being aware of what God is doing around you? “Be aware of his presence…”“Consider where in your life God is at work…”“What is God speaking to you in the everyday, mundane moments?” Well, on Wednesday, God spoke to me through the Toronto Public Library. Yes, that’s right. Even the public library rules and regulations can speak to us about the heart of God. Back in October 2023, there was a massive cybersecurity attack…

When Mae-Tuin told us the title of her message was “the plank,” I immediately thought that she was referring to the plank exercise, which is balancing on your toes and forearms as you hold the rest of your body off the ground for a long period of time.  I thought to myself, that is a great analogy for patient endurance. I don’t care what you tell me, planks are hard! But instead of talking about the plank exercise, she took…

The LifeSpring family had another amazing privilege of having one of our Board of Directors speak on Sunday. Mae-Tuin has been serving the LifeSpring family faithfully for many years in the children’s ministry and now as the secretary of the Board of Directors. I, Gabe, have personally had the privilege of journeying with Mae-Tuin in Lifegroup and in Lead Well. What I have seen is that Mae-Tuin is a woman who genuinely loves God, a heart that seeks Him, and…

Exodus 33: 12-17 12 Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you’ve been telling me, ‘Lead these people forward.’… 13 Now if you do think highly of me, show me your ways so that I may know you and so that you may really approve of me. Remember too that this nation is your people.” 14 The Lord replied, “I’ll go myself, and I’ll help you.”15 Moses replied, “If you won’t go yourself, don’t make us leave here. 16 Because how…