Life is an amazing journey. It can be euphoric and exciting and at the same time equally frustrating and anguishing. This is what makes life so thrilling and unpredictable. As days and years roll by, we grow from time to time. For some, each year is a stepping stone towards their long cherished goals, and for some others, it is a slippery ground as the quality of life deteriorates and slides towards the lowest point.
As we look closely into these events, all depends on the choices that we make. At every stage of our lives we are destined to make choices and that’s what measures our success, or writes our failure. As this New Year 2010 approaches, let us take a moment to analyze the choices that we made in 2009, and delve into the outcome of those. This is one of the most important things that we need to do at the start of the New Year.
It is true that we need to make resolutions for the New Year, but if we choose not to learn from the previous year’s failures, we cannot make the New Year exciting. We need to take the good things into the New Year and leave the worst one’s behind. We should be determined to make the New Year special for us and for that we need to be mentally prepared and wise enough to make the right decisions.
We all make resolutions on diets, finances, education, entertainment and what not…but we forget one most important thing. The Bible says that “Every perfect gift is from God”. Everything in this world belongs to Him. But the sad thing is that we receive so many things from Him, and forget Him amidst the celebrations and the busy schedule that we have. God stands as a silent and lonely spectator, closely watching over us.
We must also understand that it is God’s amazing grace that makes us to run in this world. It would be a matter of seconds before we come crashing down on life, if God’s grace does not abide in us. Every day we hear news of wars, accidents, serious diseases, job losses, relationship breakdowns and so many other infirmities of life. What shielded us from these things? It is grace.
God gave us the greatest gift of all by sending His son Jesus Christ to the cross, so that we may be happy. But sadly many of us have not still accepted Him as our personal savior. It is one of the most important choices that we should make in our life. It is the one choice that decides where we our eternity. He promises joy and peace in this life as well as eternity.
Why don’t we make this greatest resolution to accept Him this New Year? , maybe we made a resolution to accept Him and spend time with Him last year, but we didn’t do that. It is not late yet, let us renew that and rededicate ourselves to Him. Trust me, it is the most important decision that we would make in our lives, and we will never regret for that.
If you had made that resolution or renewed it, Please pray this prayer.
Prayer
Loving heavenly father, I come to you at the start of this New Year just as I am. I cannot change myself. I am so wicked and sinful. Wash me and cleanse me through the blood of Jesus Christ. I want to become a new person and want to experience the joy and peace that you offer. I believe you have accepted me. I give you all glory and honor. In Jesus name I pray. Amen
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Be joyful always
Joy is something that we long to have all the time. Many of us still think of happiness and joy to be the same. But there is a vast difference between the two. Happiness is situational but joy is everlasting. We can experience happiness whenever something of our liking happens. A new car, a new house, something good happens in our family life and so many things like this brings us happiness. But how long does it last?. May be for a day? or a week?. Thats what most of us are used to and that is why there are lot of pain and frustration left in our life and we are always not contempt with what we have.
The fascinating thing about Bible and a life with Christ, is that in contrast to the worldly system, here we find everything to be eternal and everlasting. The world's offering to us are momentary,but with Christ everything is eternal. Be it peace, joy, salvation, everything is unlimited and available freely, because everything is paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary.
Apostle paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, that "Be joyful always" and in Phillipians 4:4writing from prison, he says "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!".
How could someone be so joyful and think about others when he is in a dark prison cell, where everything seems gloomy and hopeless?.Where lies the secret?.
Well, the secret lies in the fact that Apostle Paul always trusted in the heavenly abode, the Lord Jesus Christ and He was the source of everything for him. This is what made him to praise, sing and shout all the time. Though he was persecuted and beaten, he always rejoiced because Christ was in him.
What about our condition today?. Are we struggling to live with contempt and always dreaming of something that we don't need at all?. Are we not satisfied with the blessings God has given us currently and pursuing after things that are not meant for us and in the process lose all the peace and joy?.
Dear friend, turn back from such a state of mind and make Jesus Christ, the source of all our providence. We will not lack anything when we trust in Him and we will be filled with joy beyond every measure that we can ever think of. Would you make that shift in your mindset today?. God bless you!
The fascinating thing about Bible and a life with Christ, is that in contrast to the worldly system, here we find everything to be eternal and everlasting. The world's offering to us are momentary,but with Christ everything is eternal. Be it peace, joy, salvation, everything is unlimited and available freely, because everything is paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary.
Apostle paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, that "Be joyful always" and in Phillipians 4:4writing from prison, he says "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!".
How could someone be so joyful and think about others when he is in a dark prison cell, where everything seems gloomy and hopeless?.Where lies the secret?.
Well, the secret lies in the fact that Apostle Paul always trusted in the heavenly abode, the Lord Jesus Christ and He was the source of everything for him. This is what made him to praise, sing and shout all the time. Though he was persecuted and beaten, he always rejoiced because Christ was in him.
What about our condition today?. Are we struggling to live with contempt and always dreaming of something that we don't need at all?. Are we not satisfied with the blessings God has given us currently and pursuing after things that are not meant for us and in the process lose all the peace and joy?.
Dear friend, turn back from such a state of mind and make Jesus Christ, the source of all our providence. We will not lack anything when we trust in Him and we will be filled with joy beyond every measure that we can ever think of. Would you make that shift in your mindset today?. God bless you!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Do you want peace?
"Peace" is a word that has been used so frequently amidst us. There are lot of organisations striving to bring peace into the world in many ways. We all try to bring peace into every aspect of our life. But the hard fact is that inspite of all these efforts, we find the world still longing for peace.
Peace has different meanings and context for each of us. Some of the common thoughts about peace are
1. Peace abides when there are no problems in life
2. Peace can be brought in if we have the wisdom to solve the problems of life.
3. Peace depends on situations and relations.
Friends, if any of us think peace is all about the above listed things, then we haven't understood the real meaning of peace.
Then what is peace?. How can we be peaceful amidst turmoil? How can peace abide in our families?. These are some of the questions that come to our mind. Let us dwell on these things below.
As everything has a source, peace too has a source. That source is not human, it is divine. We can never create peace, unless we are at peace with God. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 "God will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in Him". and in Numbers 6:26 we find "The LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
The above scriptures clearly reveal us that only God can send peace into this world and He had sent it long time ago when He sent His only son Jesus Christ into this world 2000 years ago. In Isaiah 9:6, we read that Jesus is the Prince of peace, and only He can fill our hearts with peace.Ephesians 2:14 says "For he himself is our peace".
We can never have the eternal peace inside us if we have not found Jesus Christ. We have to turn away from our old sinful ways and seek Him. We read in Isaiah 48:22, that there is no peace for the wicked. If we still have secret sins in our life, we can never have peace.
The first thing we need to do is to be peaceful within ourselves. For this, all our sins need to be forgiven. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, He cleanses us and makes us clean and peaceful. Then we can radiate this peace to our family and in turn to all others who are around, and finally to the whole world. This is what needs to happen if we have to have a peaceful world.
Each and every person need to reconcile with God first. This is the starting point. Without this, there is no beginning in our efforts to establish peace. The peace that God gives will withstand all the trials in the life as we would not be depending on anything earthly for our peace. Jesus said in John 14:27 that "My peace I leave you". That peace is still there, but we need to cling on to it.
It is not too late yet. Would you open your hearts to Jesus this Christmas season?. Probably we would have celebrated so many Christmas's in our life. But let us try to make this Christmas something special for ourselve and those who are around us by reconciling with God and giving that peace to others.
Prayer:
Loving heavenly father, I have come into your presence with a desire for peace. I believe that only you can give me that. I confess all my failures and sins to you. Wash me with the blood of Jesus and make me clean. Make me a new person. Let this Christmas be a turning point in my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Peace has different meanings and context for each of us. Some of the common thoughts about peace are
1. Peace abides when there are no problems in life
2. Peace can be brought in if we have the wisdom to solve the problems of life.
3. Peace depends on situations and relations.
Friends, if any of us think peace is all about the above listed things, then we haven't understood the real meaning of peace.
Then what is peace?. How can we be peaceful amidst turmoil? How can peace abide in our families?. These are some of the questions that come to our mind. Let us dwell on these things below.
As everything has a source, peace too has a source. That source is not human, it is divine. We can never create peace, unless we are at peace with God. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 "God will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in Him". and in Numbers 6:26 we find "The LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
The above scriptures clearly reveal us that only God can send peace into this world and He had sent it long time ago when He sent His only son Jesus Christ into this world 2000 years ago. In Isaiah 9:6, we read that Jesus is the Prince of peace, and only He can fill our hearts with peace.Ephesians 2:14 says "For he himself is our peace".
We can never have the eternal peace inside us if we have not found Jesus Christ. We have to turn away from our old sinful ways and seek Him. We read in Isaiah 48:22, that there is no peace for the wicked. If we still have secret sins in our life, we can never have peace.
The first thing we need to do is to be peaceful within ourselves. For this, all our sins need to be forgiven. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, He cleanses us and makes us clean and peaceful. Then we can radiate this peace to our family and in turn to all others who are around, and finally to the whole world. This is what needs to happen if we have to have a peaceful world.
Each and every person need to reconcile with God first. This is the starting point. Without this, there is no beginning in our efforts to establish peace. The peace that God gives will withstand all the trials in the life as we would not be depending on anything earthly for our peace. Jesus said in John 14:27 that "My peace I leave you". That peace is still there, but we need to cling on to it.
It is not too late yet. Would you open your hearts to Jesus this Christmas season?. Probably we would have celebrated so many Christmas's in our life. But let us try to make this Christmas something special for ourselve and those who are around us by reconciling with God and giving that peace to others.
Prayer:
Loving heavenly father, I have come into your presence with a desire for peace. I believe that only you can give me that. I confess all my failures and sins to you. Wash me with the blood of Jesus and make me clean. Make me a new person. Let this Christmas be a turning point in my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sexual immorality
1 Corinthians 6: 9-11
"9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
We live in a world which is full of filth and immoralities. Everywhere we turn around we see lawlessness, quarrels, slanders, adultery and all the corrupt things. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?". Good and bad can never coexist together, as light and darkness cannot!.
Everyone of us were born into this world with sin inside us. No one except our Lord Jesus Christ is exempt from this, even the greatest saints who have lived in this world. Each one of us would have lived according to the pattern of this world filled with filth and garbage before we came to Christ. This was the life to gratify the desires of flesh. The blood of Christ cleansed us from all the sins and made us new creations. This is what we call the experience of salvation and starting a new life with the power of the Holy spirit.
We should not forget the sacrifice that Jesus Christ did on the cross to rise us back from spiritual death. But sadly, many of us, though we claim to be born again, still live a defeated life, as slaves to the passions, lust, fame and other worldly things. Paul is very clear in writing to the Corinthian church that anyone who indulges in wickedness will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
It is very straight, that either we please God and enter heaven or still live pleasing the world and its attractions and end up in hell. The choice is ours to make. No compulsions of any sort, as they are of no use. It is God's desire that not even a single soul should be lost and thats the reason that He is delaying the judgement. But there is a day coming when Jesus will come back and take His children to be with Him forever. We need to make a choice today. It is my prayer that none of you reading this would be caught on the wrong side on the day of the second coming of Christ.
Would you please surrender your life to Christ now?. It is very simple. Make a commitment to Him by asking Him to come into your life. As you pray this prayer, mean each and every word in it. As you complete this prayer earnestly, God would have made you a new person. A glorious life follows you in Christ. God Bless You!
"Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."
"9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
We live in a world which is full of filth and immoralities. Everywhere we turn around we see lawlessness, quarrels, slanders, adultery and all the corrupt things. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?". Good and bad can never coexist together, as light and darkness cannot!.
Everyone of us were born into this world with sin inside us. No one except our Lord Jesus Christ is exempt from this, even the greatest saints who have lived in this world. Each one of us would have lived according to the pattern of this world filled with filth and garbage before we came to Christ. This was the life to gratify the desires of flesh. The blood of Christ cleansed us from all the sins and made us new creations. This is what we call the experience of salvation and starting a new life with the power of the Holy spirit.
We should not forget the sacrifice that Jesus Christ did on the cross to rise us back from spiritual death. But sadly, many of us, though we claim to be born again, still live a defeated life, as slaves to the passions, lust, fame and other worldly things. Paul is very clear in writing to the Corinthian church that anyone who indulges in wickedness will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
It is very straight, that either we please God and enter heaven or still live pleasing the world and its attractions and end up in hell. The choice is ours to make. No compulsions of any sort, as they are of no use. It is God's desire that not even a single soul should be lost and thats the reason that He is delaying the judgement. But there is a day coming when Jesus will come back and take His children to be with Him forever. We need to make a choice today. It is my prayer that none of you reading this would be caught on the wrong side on the day of the second coming of Christ.
Would you please surrender your life to Christ now?. It is very simple. Make a commitment to Him by asking Him to come into your life. As you pray this prayer, mean each and every word in it. As you complete this prayer earnestly, God would have made you a new person. A glorious life follows you in Christ. God Bless You!
"Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The troubled conscience
God forgives our sins when we repent and believe in the name of Jesus Christ and trust Him. Satan is an accuser and one of his primary goals is to elude the clarity of our conscience and as a prowling lion, waits to devour us. The devil sows seeds of doubts, anxieties, confusions and everything possible to rob us of the peace that God offers us.
All these things are because the devil feels insecure when we cling on to God and decide to give up our own “SELF”. Satan knows that he cannot fight against us when we are with God and so he uses our own selfish desires to separate us from God. Let us never fall prey to this well known trick of satan by which he has brought many down.
We need to drive away the devil in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in James 4:7“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. As we are reading this article, let us take a moment to analyze whether we resist the devil all the times by submitting ourselves to God, or we depend on our own strength and get defeated all the time.
We are in a spiritual warfare with the enemy. We can never win over him by our own strength. We need spiritual weapons to fight the spiritual battles and only God can provide it to us. The full armor of God is needed for the battle. We need to put all our plans and strategies away and trust in God’s protection and the victory that He has given us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Ephesians 6:11-18 says “11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”
Whenever we are confused and bogged down by the worldly trials, the enemy rejoices. We should not allow this and should always be aware of the wonderful fact that no matter whatever happens, two things are for sure.
1. If we live, God is with us.
2. If we die, We will be with God
The next time when we are confused about forgiveness from sin, let us remember 1 John 1:9“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
All these things are because the devil feels insecure when we cling on to God and decide to give up our own “SELF”. Satan knows that he cannot fight against us when we are with God and so he uses our own selfish desires to separate us from God. Let us never fall prey to this well known trick of satan by which he has brought many down.
We need to drive away the devil in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in James 4:7“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. As we are reading this article, let us take a moment to analyze whether we resist the devil all the times by submitting ourselves to God, or we depend on our own strength and get defeated all the time.
We are in a spiritual warfare with the enemy. We can never win over him by our own strength. We need spiritual weapons to fight the spiritual battles and only God can provide it to us. The full armor of God is needed for the battle. We need to put all our plans and strategies away and trust in God’s protection and the victory that He has given us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Ephesians 6:11-18 says “11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”
Whenever we are confused and bogged down by the worldly trials, the enemy rejoices. We should not allow this and should always be aware of the wonderful fact that no matter whatever happens, two things are for sure.
1. If we live, God is with us.
2. If we die, We will be with God
The next time when we are confused about forgiveness from sin, let us remember 1 John 1:9“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Grace in action
There are many areas in our life where we lack wisdom, intelligence and even the desire to work hard. Even after our repeated efforts to improve our personality, we are not changed. I hope many of us are in such a situation in our workplaces where others are too smart than us and we feel most of the time lacking something.
There was a weight lifting completion. A number of champion weight lifters strongly built with heavy muscles participated in it. They kept on practicing rigorously with the latest techniques and supervised by the best coaches. On the day of the competition, when everyone expected one of the well known lifters to win hands down, an unknown person who was little known and was frail won the event. No one has ever seen him practicing. Now, this is Grace. This is what David had when he encountered Goliath.
All the well trained soldiers in the Israeli army were afraid of Goliath, but David without much training and effort killed him. Maybe to the world, David would have looked like a fool when he told that he would fight the Philistine. But God chooses the weak to shame the strong.
It is grace that we need to fight the battles of the world. We need to surf in the wave of grace which comes on and on without stopping. I am not saying that we need not work hard; we need to put our best efforts in everything. But ultimately it is grace that counts.
To sum up everything, God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12: 9 “"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Let us never forget this whenever we are downcast and disturbed by our weakness. Grace is one of the most powerful weapons that God has given us through Jesus Christ to wipe off our imperfections. Let us never take it lightly!
There was a weight lifting completion. A number of champion weight lifters strongly built with heavy muscles participated in it. They kept on practicing rigorously with the latest techniques and supervised by the best coaches. On the day of the competition, when everyone expected one of the well known lifters to win hands down, an unknown person who was little known and was frail won the event. No one has ever seen him practicing. Now, this is Grace. This is what David had when he encountered Goliath.
All the well trained soldiers in the Israeli army were afraid of Goliath, but David without much training and effort killed him. Maybe to the world, David would have looked like a fool when he told that he would fight the Philistine. But God chooses the weak to shame the strong.
It is grace that we need to fight the battles of the world. We need to surf in the wave of grace which comes on and on without stopping. I am not saying that we need not work hard; we need to put our best efforts in everything. But ultimately it is grace that counts.
To sum up everything, God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12: 9 “"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Let us never forget this whenever we are downcast and disturbed by our weakness. Grace is one of the most powerful weapons that God has given us through Jesus Christ to wipe off our imperfections. Let us never take it lightly!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Trust in God
Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”
Whenever God puts us through some very tough and unfavorable conditions, we should not fret about it. It is to develop that character toughness in us so that we are not dismayed by anything. He also wants to make us strong to accomplish marvelous things in the future. David had to fight a lion and a bear before he could bring down Goliath and subsequently become the King of Israel.
When we really depend on God for everything sincerely, it is absolutely certain that He will take care of all our needs. We need to “Trust” God. Trust is something which cannot be 10% or 50% or even 99%. It should always be 100%. Suppose if we have to travel from city X to city Y in an aero plane. How much would be our trust on that aero plane and the pilot? I don’t think anyone of us will take that flight with 90% trust. The same applies to our walk with God too. We need to trust Him completely. God honors such people who put their trust in God alone and that is when He would start working in our lives.
There are many of us reading this who are dismayed in our lives after trusting so many people close to us only to find out the emptiness of that trust. But, God is not like human beings to change His word. When He commits something, He will make sure that He does that. It is His character to honor those who trust in Him. I would encourage you to read through the lives of Abraham, Joseph and Daniel to see how God lead them when they trusted in Him. If you are in the brink of failure, cheer up, it is not too late to call on our loving Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”
Whenever God puts us through some very tough and unfavorable conditions, we should not fret about it. It is to develop that character toughness in us so that we are not dismayed by anything. He also wants to make us strong to accomplish marvelous things in the future. David had to fight a lion and a bear before he could bring down Goliath and subsequently become the King of Israel.
When we really depend on God for everything sincerely, it is absolutely certain that He will take care of all our needs. We need to “Trust” God. Trust is something which cannot be 10% or 50% or even 99%. It should always be 100%. Suppose if we have to travel from city X to city Y in an aero plane. How much would be our trust on that aero plane and the pilot? I don’t think anyone of us will take that flight with 90% trust. The same applies to our walk with God too. We need to trust Him completely. God honors such people who put their trust in God alone and that is when He would start working in our lives.
There are many of us reading this who are dismayed in our lives after trusting so many people close to us only to find out the emptiness of that trust. But, God is not like human beings to change His word. When He commits something, He will make sure that He does that. It is His character to honor those who trust in Him. I would encourage you to read through the lives of Abraham, Joseph and Daniel to see how God lead them when they trusted in Him. If you are in the brink of failure, cheer up, it is not too late to call on our loving Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
God is the source of wisdom
During the last few days, I didn't write any articles. I want to share about something that God did for me recently. It may seem so trivial, but the impact and strength that it gave me is unexpressible in words.
I work in IT. I am neither a computer geek nor have any extraordinary talent in computers. I found myself lacking in many skills when compared with others. People were too intelligent at work when compared to me. I was so frustrated when I could not complete my work and meet the expectations. I have learnt a lesson in my life as not to depend on anyone other than God. There was a time that I tried different strategies to increase my intelligence. I would read a lot of personality development articles, try to solve puzzles etc..etc..but nothing really helped.
I prayed earnestly that if God is the source of all wisdom, and if grace is something which is for an undeserving person like me, and if God is the fountain of grace, then I wanted to get drenched in that fountain called grace. I got a revelation that it is not intelligence that counts but all grace. The Bible says "My grace is sufficient for you". Paul says in Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". The next day I went to work not as the same old person. I went with a new attitude, and with a deep vindication that His grace is all that I needed. Believe me friends, I am now able to do my work with least of the efforts. This is the power of grace in action, when we empty ourselves, and surrender completely to Christ.
It is only when I saw my unworthiness, that I could see God pouring His grace on me. This testimony of mine may not be so dramatic, but I want to reach out to everyone who is frustrated because of lack of intelligence and wisdom. Please pour out your inability to God, and He will fill you with His grace to such an extent that you will be amazed at the outcome.
I work in IT. I am neither a computer geek nor have any extraordinary talent in computers. I found myself lacking in many skills when compared with others. People were too intelligent at work when compared to me. I was so frustrated when I could not complete my work and meet the expectations. I have learnt a lesson in my life as not to depend on anyone other than God. There was a time that I tried different strategies to increase my intelligence. I would read a lot of personality development articles, try to solve puzzles etc..etc..but nothing really helped.
I prayed earnestly that if God is the source of all wisdom, and if grace is something which is for an undeserving person like me, and if God is the fountain of grace, then I wanted to get drenched in that fountain called grace. I got a revelation that it is not intelligence that counts but all grace. The Bible says "My grace is sufficient for you". Paul says in Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". The next day I went to work not as the same old person. I went with a new attitude, and with a deep vindication that His grace is all that I needed. Believe me friends, I am now able to do my work with least of the efforts. This is the power of grace in action, when we empty ourselves, and surrender completely to Christ.
It is only when I saw my unworthiness, that I could see God pouring His grace on me. This testimony of mine may not be so dramatic, but I want to reach out to everyone who is frustrated because of lack of intelligence and wisdom. Please pour out your inability to God, and He will fill you with His grace to such an extent that you will be amazed at the outcome.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Water to Wine
John 2:1-11
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." 11This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Jesus went to Cana in Galilee with His mother and disciples to attend a wedding. In the Jewish tradition, it was customary to serve wine in the wedding as it meant to be a source of joy for them. At this particular wedding, the wine was over before everyone finished dining. We know the miracle that Jesus performed there and the outcome was that everyone had more than enough tastier wine and it ended on a happy note.
We will focus our attention to what we can learn from this miracle. John calls all the miracles as signs. It implies a spiritual truth. Let us break this down and learn from it.
Wine was over
The wine was over soon because it was manufactured by people. The happiness that each and every one of us tries to manufacture in our lives will dry out soon. Whatever we consider as secure will be shattered one day and our needs will be exposed. Nothing in the world will give us the security that our life demands.
Water into wine
Lord Jesus asked the servants to fill the six jars with water and then He asked them to serve it. It became the tastiest wine. This shows us that God will change our sorrows into joy, our despair into hope, and every weakness into strength. But we need to take all our waters to Him so that He could change. The Bible says in John 16:20 that "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy".
Tastier later wine
The wine that was served later was tastier than the old one. When the Lord blesses whatever we have, it will give us the greatest satisfaction of all. The life that we live with the Holy Spirit inside us will be the best phase of our life. The old wine signifies our old life where we lived in sin under the dominion of the evil one, and it has to come to an end so that we could be born again with the Holy Spirit. This is the transformation that happens when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!". We are renewed in our minds and our lives become joyful and peaceful.
If we have not tasted the new life so far, let us surrender our lives to the Good Shepherd, Lord Jesus Christ now and become the best fruits in His vineyard.
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." 11This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Jesus went to Cana in Galilee with His mother and disciples to attend a wedding. In the Jewish tradition, it was customary to serve wine in the wedding as it meant to be a source of joy for them. At this particular wedding, the wine was over before everyone finished dining. We know the miracle that Jesus performed there and the outcome was that everyone had more than enough tastier wine and it ended on a happy note.
We will focus our attention to what we can learn from this miracle. John calls all the miracles as signs. It implies a spiritual truth. Let us break this down and learn from it.
Wine was over
The wine was over soon because it was manufactured by people. The happiness that each and every one of us tries to manufacture in our lives will dry out soon. Whatever we consider as secure will be shattered one day and our needs will be exposed. Nothing in the world will give us the security that our life demands.
Water into wine
Lord Jesus asked the servants to fill the six jars with water and then He asked them to serve it. It became the tastiest wine. This shows us that God will change our sorrows into joy, our despair into hope, and every weakness into strength. But we need to take all our waters to Him so that He could change. The Bible says in John 16:20 that "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy".
Tastier later wine
The wine that was served later was tastier than the old one. When the Lord blesses whatever we have, it will give us the greatest satisfaction of all. The life that we live with the Holy Spirit inside us will be the best phase of our life. The old wine signifies our old life where we lived in sin under the dominion of the evil one, and it has to come to an end so that we could be born again with the Holy Spirit. This is the transformation that happens when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!". We are renewed in our minds and our lives become joyful and peaceful.
If we have not tasted the new life so far, let us surrender our lives to the Good Shepherd, Lord Jesus Christ now and become the best fruits in His vineyard.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Grace and Faith
God stretched His hands
down towards me
invited me to know Him
that was GRACE
I stretched my hands
up towards Him
yielded me to know Him
that was FAITH
GRACE and FAITH
together magnified
pulled me from sin
led me to salvation
down towards me
invited me to know Him
that was GRACE
I stretched my hands
up towards Him
yielded me to know Him
that was FAITH
GRACE and FAITH
together magnified
pulled me from sin
led me to salvation
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Peace
Jesus said "My Peace I leave unto you". If we lack peace, one of the reasons
is that we search for it emotionally. Emotion varies and is temporary. Only
ONE person can give us the peace that we desire. That is our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the source of peace. Amen!
My heart yearns
My soul longs
My eyes search
My conscience pleads
I feel high and low
crushed and fresh
anxious and calm
dry and flowing
All that I long
for peace and joy
evaded me often
in my emotions
There I found
emotions are futile
they change like clouds
run like a river
Peace is eternal
available free
All that I have to do
set my foot on THE ROCK
is that we search for it emotionally. Emotion varies and is temporary. Only
ONE person can give us the peace that we desire. That is our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the source of peace. Amen!
My heart yearns
My soul longs
My eyes search
My conscience pleads
I feel high and low
crushed and fresh
anxious and calm
dry and flowing
All that I long
for peace and joy
evaded me often
in my emotions
There I found
emotions are futile
they change like clouds
run like a river
Peace is eternal
available free
All that I have to do
set my foot on THE ROCK
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Great redemption
When we think of that amazing transformation that happens in us when we are born again, it really is awesome to imagine the mercy of God. The instant conversion of a sinner to a saint is the outcome of a supreme sacrifice that God made for us. I am publishing this poem with a hope that it would touch all of us who read this.
It has three section, first talks about our fall,the second about the redemption and the third about the coming of Christ. I believe this sums up everything.
God created man
to rule the world
satan tricked man
made him a slave
From ruler to slave
what a pity
God's mercy stepped in
Grace poured out
It needed a man
who would be perfect
and could smite satan
to rescue the lost
God sent His own son
What amazing love?
A supreme sacrifice
to redeem His world
There came the son
He fought for me
willingly died on the cross
and put the devil to defeat
He rose again
to be my hope
sent His Holy spirit
to be my guide
This I am sure
one day He will be back
to take me home
for ever and ever
It has three section, first talks about our fall,the second about the redemption and the third about the coming of Christ. I believe this sums up everything.
God created man
to rule the world
satan tricked man
made him a slave
From ruler to slave
what a pity
God's mercy stepped in
Grace poured out
It needed a man
who would be perfect
and could smite satan
to rescue the lost
God sent His own son
What amazing love?
A supreme sacrifice
to redeem His world
There came the son
He fought for me
willingly died on the cross
and put the devil to defeat
He rose again
to be my hope
sent His Holy spirit
to be my guide
This I am sure
one day He will be back
to take me home
for ever and ever
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wrestling thoughts
Many of us find it very painful to control our thoughts many times. It is our thoughts that control our life. We will gain victory over negative and blasphemous thoughts only when we surrender them to God and receive His grace. I wrote this poem so that it would encourage all those who are troubled with uncontrolloble anxious thoughts.
There was a battle
fought in my mind
a great wrestling
of two envious forces
I tried my best
to seperate them
but all in vain
the battle went on
one fine day
My eyes were opened
I could see two spirits
"self" and "God"
There was a decision
to be taken with precision
to choose between the two
before judgement
I looked at the world
found so pleasing
"self" triggered to be chosen
I knew not what to do
But there was a plan
which I knew not
that God had for me
even before I was born
He chose me before
I thought about Him
only a simple act needed
to yeild to Him in faith
The fight ended
"grace" won over "self"
the crown was eternal life
and peace on earth
There was a battle
fought in my mind
a great wrestling
of two envious forces
I tried my best
to seperate them
but all in vain
the battle went on
one fine day
My eyes were opened
I could see two spirits
"self" and "God"
There was a decision
to be taken with precision
to choose between the two
before judgement
I looked at the world
found so pleasing
"self" triggered to be chosen
I knew not what to do
But there was a plan
which I knew not
that God had for me
even before I was born
He chose me before
I thought about Him
only a simple act needed
to yeild to Him in faith
The fight ended
"grace" won over "self"
the crown was eternal life
and peace on earth
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Life Trekking
Hebrews 12:1
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"
Trekking is a great adventurous activity. Trekkers, while trekking on
unknown places, look for sign posts to find the routes that can be trekked.
If they choose some route which has not been explored, they are in danger
of getting lost. The most comforting thing for a trekker is to find some
foot prints in the route that has been taken. It gives them a great feeling
and assurance that someone else has already travelled that road!.
Life too is a trek in many ways. There are lots of unexplored areas in our
life. We all live inside a small circle, restricting ourselves to very
minumum activities. But, believe me friends, God created the world for us
to enjoy with Him. When we go alone with the world, we land ourselves in a
pit. But when we take God with us in each and every mountain that we climb
in this life, we will not be defeated.
God has already explored all the areas of life. Lord Jesus came to this
world and lived a complete life. He was very much human like each and every
one of us. But, one thing is that He was with out sin. He has gone through
all the temptations, trials, frustrations, disappointments and what not?.
Whenever we go through a rough patch or an unknown situation in our lives,
we need to believe that Christ has already conquered that. This is the
victorious Christian life friends!. Believing in the finished work of Jesus
and accepting Him as our Lord and Savior sums up our life on earth and life
eternal.
He offers a complete life on earth plus heaven for us the moment we
surrender ourselves completely to Him. May be there are many things that
are not clear for us. Life seems like an unsolvable puzzle when we try to
live alone. But, Living the life along with Jesus and the Holy spirit is
awesome. He is a friend, counsellor, and above all the God almighty. "Never
trek life alone".
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us"
Trekking is a great adventurous activity. Trekkers, while trekking on
unknown places, look for sign posts to find the routes that can be trekked.
If they choose some route which has not been explored, they are in danger
of getting lost. The most comforting thing for a trekker is to find some
foot prints in the route that has been taken. It gives them a great feeling
and assurance that someone else has already travelled that road!.
Life too is a trek in many ways. There are lots of unexplored areas in our
life. We all live inside a small circle, restricting ourselves to very
minumum activities. But, believe me friends, God created the world for us
to enjoy with Him. When we go alone with the world, we land ourselves in a
pit. But when we take God with us in each and every mountain that we climb
in this life, we will not be defeated.
God has already explored all the areas of life. Lord Jesus came to this
world and lived a complete life. He was very much human like each and every
one of us. But, one thing is that He was with out sin. He has gone through
all the temptations, trials, frustrations, disappointments and what not?.
Whenever we go through a rough patch or an unknown situation in our lives,
we need to believe that Christ has already conquered that. This is the
victorious Christian life friends!. Believing in the finished work of Jesus
and accepting Him as our Lord and Savior sums up our life on earth and life
eternal.
He offers a complete life on earth plus heaven for us the moment we
surrender ourselves completely to Him. May be there are many things that
are not clear for us. Life seems like an unsolvable puzzle when we try to
live alone. But, Living the life along with Jesus and the Holy spirit is
awesome. He is a friend, counsellor, and above all the God almighty. "Never
trek life alone".
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Song of a soul
God gave me the grace to write this poem yesterday.Please read and hope will find it useful.
I dont know why I am here
Each moment is bitter
An hour is like a day
and day like a year
I tried to do many things
Many dreams have I dreamt
and lived in those dreams
those were the sweeter times
I spend my times in despair
My heart and soul is bitter
Thoughts tossing up like waves
I knew not my life's purpose
As one day I heard a voice
That was so familiar to me
It did not promise me gold or silver
but peace and joy for ever
I looked around to see
could not see anyone
Looked through eyes of faith
found the LIVING ONE
That day I found my purpose
I came to myself
The only reason for me to live
To glorify and praise God
I dont know why I am here
Each moment is bitter
An hour is like a day
and day like a year
I tried to do many things
Many dreams have I dreamt
and lived in those dreams
those were the sweeter times
I spend my times in despair
My heart and soul is bitter
Thoughts tossing up like waves
I knew not my life's purpose
As one day I heard a voice
That was so familiar to me
It did not promise me gold or silver
but peace and joy for ever
I looked around to see
could not see anyone
Looked through eyes of faith
found the LIVING ONE
That day I found my purpose
I came to myself
The only reason for me to live
To glorify and praise God
Downcast soul
A downcast soul is one of the difficult things to comprehend. We may be downcast because of so many reasons. It could be because we dont have a clear goal and purpose, or it could be because of much sin in our lives and we can think of so many things that might take the sweetness out of our souls. We read about this in Psalms 42:5, The writer says,
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God."
As we read across Psalms 42, we find the agony and frustration of a downcast soul. Even the bones suffered mortal agony due to the impact of the stress. We all know about stress and its impact in our lives. It leads to all other medical complications and spiritual dryness. But there is one more dimension to it. Stress could be considered as a test. We see in Bible that many of the mighty men and women of God were subjected to stress and we need to learn how they dealt with it.
The basic test that stress poses is this "Are we trying to control it by triggering our emotions? or, "Do we trust in the promises of the almighty God?". Here lies the secret, if we try to put our minds at work, we can never beat stress because our problems are too bigger for our small intelligence to solve. Look at how the Psalmist handles this situation. He says,
"Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God"
Dear friends, many of us reading this might be under unbearable stress in our lives. We may even think as why we need to exist in this world. But, Let us shift our focus from our problems towards God. Our huge problems are nothing in front of such a glorious and powerful God, at whose voice the earth shakes. Shall we praise Him? Shall we lift Him up?. When we earnestly ask God and surrender our "self" to Him, we can be assured that He will deliver us.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 "28Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.".
If the stress that we undergo today leads us towards our loving saviour, that would be the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon us. Let our downcast soul trust God and find the needed rest in Him!
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God."
As we read across Psalms 42, we find the agony and frustration of a downcast soul. Even the bones suffered mortal agony due to the impact of the stress. We all know about stress and its impact in our lives. It leads to all other medical complications and spiritual dryness. But there is one more dimension to it. Stress could be considered as a test. We see in Bible that many of the mighty men and women of God were subjected to stress and we need to learn how they dealt with it.
The basic test that stress poses is this "Are we trying to control it by triggering our emotions? or, "Do we trust in the promises of the almighty God?". Here lies the secret, if we try to put our minds at work, we can never beat stress because our problems are too bigger for our small intelligence to solve. Look at how the Psalmist handles this situation. He says,
"Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God"
Dear friends, many of us reading this might be under unbearable stress in our lives. We may even think as why we need to exist in this world. But, Let us shift our focus from our problems towards God. Our huge problems are nothing in front of such a glorious and powerful God, at whose voice the earth shakes. Shall we praise Him? Shall we lift Him up?. When we earnestly ask God and surrender our "self" to Him, we can be assured that He will deliver us.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 "28Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.".
If the stress that we undergo today leads us towards our loving saviour, that would be the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon us. Let our downcast soul trust God and find the needed rest in Him!
Friday, August 28, 2009
whenever you sin
Life is an amazing gift of God. It is a privilege to spend each day on this beautiful world created by an awesome God. When He created the world, He saw everything was good. Adam and Eve were given all the authority to rule over the whole world. They had the uninterrupted fellowship of God all the time. It is so glorious to think of such an experience. My imagination makes me to leap in joy whenever I dream of such a fascinating state of life. We all desire to have such a world. But, alas! Adam and Eve lost it to satan.
I believe the greatest mistake that Adam and Eve committed was hiding their sin and running away from the presence of God. We can be sure that if they had confessed their sin, our great God would have forgiven them. But, they did not do it. This made God angry and He cut His fellowship with them and with all of us. It was like surrendering to satan by forgetting God. What a shame?
This is true even today when we turn away from God whenever we sin. Every one of us are sinners. We all sin day in and day out. But, as children of the most high God, we have the wonderful privilege of going back to God in repentence. This was made possible by the great sacrifice that our loving Lord Jesus gifted us by dying on the cross. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness".. What a comfort we can draw out of this beautiful verse.
Sin is terrible, and continuing to live in sin without repentence is even disastorous. God knows all our weaknesses. He can understand all our temptations because He was tempted in the same way like us and yet was without sin. May be we have sinned too much, but when we truly repent and confess our sins, God cleanses us and forgives us in a whisker. The Bible says in Psalms 103:12 "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us".
It is a wonderful feeling to leave all the burden of guilt at the throne of grace and receive forgiveness. If some of you happened to read this, I believe God is speaking to you personally to get into the presence of God and confess your sins. It may be anything, may be the most ugly sin. We may think that if others come to know of this they may spit on us. But, dont worry, the one who is inside us is greater than anyone in the world. He says that he will forgive all our sins. We can walk with our heads held high if we dont run away from God.
Never make the mistake that Adam and Eve did. Let us be people who fear God out of love. We are all vessels molded by the great potter. He knows those little rough particles in us. All that He expects is that we call on Him for help!. Remeber that "whenever sin abounds, grace abounds much more". Don't get me wrong here as this is not a licence to sin. I want to reach out to all of us who are broken because of sin in our life and apply the balm of the love of Jesus on our wounded hearts so that we are healed.
If you would open your heart to Jesus, I want to praise God for that. Please do send me a note at the contact email given at the top right corner of this blog. God bless you!
I believe the greatest mistake that Adam and Eve committed was hiding their sin and running away from the presence of God. We can be sure that if they had confessed their sin, our great God would have forgiven them. But, they did not do it. This made God angry and He cut His fellowship with them and with all of us. It was like surrendering to satan by forgetting God. What a shame?
This is true even today when we turn away from God whenever we sin. Every one of us are sinners. We all sin day in and day out. But, as children of the most high God, we have the wonderful privilege of going back to God in repentence. This was made possible by the great sacrifice that our loving Lord Jesus gifted us by dying on the cross. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness".. What a comfort we can draw out of this beautiful verse.
Sin is terrible, and continuing to live in sin without repentence is even disastorous. God knows all our weaknesses. He can understand all our temptations because He was tempted in the same way like us and yet was without sin. May be we have sinned too much, but when we truly repent and confess our sins, God cleanses us and forgives us in a whisker. The Bible says in Psalms 103:12 "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us".
It is a wonderful feeling to leave all the burden of guilt at the throne of grace and receive forgiveness. If some of you happened to read this, I believe God is speaking to you personally to get into the presence of God and confess your sins. It may be anything, may be the most ugly sin. We may think that if others come to know of this they may spit on us. But, dont worry, the one who is inside us is greater than anyone in the world. He says that he will forgive all our sins. We can walk with our heads held high if we dont run away from God.
Never make the mistake that Adam and Eve did. Let us be people who fear God out of love. We are all vessels molded by the great potter. He knows those little rough particles in us. All that He expects is that we call on Him for help!. Remeber that "whenever sin abounds, grace abounds much more". Don't get me wrong here as this is not a licence to sin. I want to reach out to all of us who are broken because of sin in our life and apply the balm of the love of Jesus on our wounded hearts so that we are healed.
If you would open your heart to Jesus, I want to praise God for that. Please do send me a note at the contact email given at the top right corner of this blog. God bless you!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Spiritual paralysis
Mark 2:3-5
3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
The passage before us today is an interesting one. Jesus was in Capernaum and was preaching. A large crowd had already gathered there. It is at this time, some thing remarkable happened there. Four men carried a paralytic to be healed by Jesus. As they could not make their way to Him, they opened up the roof and lowered the paralytic to Jesus, and He healed him and forgave his sins.
There is a great encouragement for us while we study this passage. Many of us are spiritually paralysed at times. There is always a valley in our spiritual life, when we feel lonely, desperate, worthless and exhausted. The very existence becomes a question for us. God seems far distant and unreachable. It is at this point of our lives that God expects us to be lifted up by our fellow believers. Christian life is a life lived along with the community. It is not an isolated life.
God expects every one to help others spiritually. There will be times in each one's life where they need the help of others. We need to reach out for help from other believers. God honors when others plead for us. That is why we are all one body in Christ. We need to balance each other. We are all one family with Jesus Christ as the head. This gives a great comfort to all who feel lonely. Every one around the world go through such feelings.
Let us be people who care for the well being of others. Let us all be united in the spirit of Christ and be sensitive to the need of the fellow believers. It would be a great blessing if we live together and support each other in Christ. Remember that "Christian life is not a life lived in isolation".
3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
The passage before us today is an interesting one. Jesus was in Capernaum and was preaching. A large crowd had already gathered there. It is at this time, some thing remarkable happened there. Four men carried a paralytic to be healed by Jesus. As they could not make their way to Him, they opened up the roof and lowered the paralytic to Jesus, and He healed him and forgave his sins.
There is a great encouragement for us while we study this passage. Many of us are spiritually paralysed at times. There is always a valley in our spiritual life, when we feel lonely, desperate, worthless and exhausted. The very existence becomes a question for us. God seems far distant and unreachable. It is at this point of our lives that God expects us to be lifted up by our fellow believers. Christian life is a life lived along with the community. It is not an isolated life.
God expects every one to help others spiritually. There will be times in each one's life where they need the help of others. We need to reach out for help from other believers. God honors when others plead for us. That is why we are all one body in Christ. We need to balance each other. We are all one family with Jesus Christ as the head. This gives a great comfort to all who feel lonely. Every one around the world go through such feelings.
Let us be people who care for the well being of others. Let us all be united in the spirit of Christ and be sensitive to the need of the fellow believers. It would be a great blessing if we live together and support each other in Christ. Remember that "Christian life is not a life lived in isolation".
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Outlier effect
The Outlier is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell and it is one of the best selling books on the New York times. I did not get a chance to read through the entire book, but one thing in the book got my attention. In this book, the writer shares something about the 10,000 hours rule. He tells great things can be accompolished in this world if we put our efforts for 10,00 hours. It can be in any field. It translates to 2 hours daily for 10 yrs and the duration of years gets reduced if more hours are put in every day.
He goes on to quote about Bill Gates, The Beatles, and about his personal experience as well. Everything sounds great!. On reading this, I got a revelation. People were able to accompolish so many worldly things by putting these mammoth efforts. But, the Lord opened my eyes to this wonderful thought. If we could spend 2 hours a day with our Lord, How great that would be?. The greatest privelage one can get is to communicate with the maker of this universe. The greatest acheivement is to proclaim the gospel to a soul that is heading towards the hell. We can be sure that the reward in heaven for such an act would easily surpass all the earthly honors.
If we spend time with the Lord daily, We would know Him better. Knowing God is the greatest thing that we can ever imagine. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Phillipians 3:4-9
"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith"
It is a different thing to know about God, but Knowing God is something special. It is like this, we all read about famous personalities and their life. But it is different to know them personally and have friendship with them. We must know God and for that we need to spend time with Him. Let us give our time to God, whatever possible,may be 15 mins a day atleast. This would change us completely. We will never remain the same. God would make us more than conquerers in everything.
He goes on to quote about Bill Gates, The Beatles, and about his personal experience as well. Everything sounds great!. On reading this, I got a revelation. People were able to accompolish so many worldly things by putting these mammoth efforts. But, the Lord opened my eyes to this wonderful thought. If we could spend 2 hours a day with our Lord, How great that would be?. The greatest privelage one can get is to communicate with the maker of this universe. The greatest acheivement is to proclaim the gospel to a soul that is heading towards the hell. We can be sure that the reward in heaven for such an act would easily surpass all the earthly honors.
If we spend time with the Lord daily, We would know Him better. Knowing God is the greatest thing that we can ever imagine. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Phillipians 3:4-9
"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith"
It is a different thing to know about God, but Knowing God is something special. It is like this, we all read about famous personalities and their life. But it is different to know them personally and have friendship with them. We must know God and for that we need to spend time with Him. Let us give our time to God, whatever possible,may be 15 mins a day atleast. This would change us completely. We will never remain the same. God would make us more than conquerers in everything.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Swine flu
Psalms 91:7
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
The world is reeling under the snare of Swine flu. Governments across the globe are trying their best to control it. People are scared to death because of this epidemic disease. We try to prevent it by wearing masks and taking other precautions, but nothing seems to work. Have we ever thought about God amidst this epidemic?. The verse before us today clearly says that He is able to save us from the deadly pestilence.
The definition of pestilence goes like this "A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death"(source:Wikipedia). How true is the word of God. Dear friends, nothing could ever happen in this world without the knowledge of the one who owns this world, our loving Lord Jesus Christ. He is everything. All the situations and circumstances are under His mighty control. We as His children have the amazing privilage of taking all our sickness to Him in prayer.We need to also remember the people affected by this and pray for their healing.Always remember that only God can take away this disaster from the world.
But the sad thing is we forget all these. We worry along with the world,that these things might also happen to us. Let us step on to the pedal of faith and approach the throne of grace with boldness as children of God. These are situations given to us to get back to God. Through these things we understand that we cannot do anything without God. Let all of us reading this, if we are away from God, take this time to look to God and receive His mercy and forgiveness. His loving arms are always stretched towards us. This is the period of grace!Now is the time of salvation!.
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
The world is reeling under the snare of Swine flu. Governments across the globe are trying their best to control it. People are scared to death because of this epidemic disease. We try to prevent it by wearing masks and taking other precautions, but nothing seems to work. Have we ever thought about God amidst this epidemic?. The verse before us today clearly says that He is able to save us from the deadly pestilence.
The definition of pestilence goes like this "A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death"(source:Wikipedia). How true is the word of God. Dear friends, nothing could ever happen in this world without the knowledge of the one who owns this world, our loving Lord Jesus Christ. He is everything. All the situations and circumstances are under His mighty control. We as His children have the amazing privilage of taking all our sickness to Him in prayer.We need to also remember the people affected by this and pray for their healing.Always remember that only God can take away this disaster from the world.
But the sad thing is we forget all these. We worry along with the world,that these things might also happen to us. Let us step on to the pedal of faith and approach the throne of grace with boldness as children of God. These are situations given to us to get back to God. Through these things we understand that we cannot do anything without God. Let all of us reading this, if we are away from God, take this time to look to God and receive His mercy and forgiveness. His loving arms are always stretched towards us. This is the period of grace!Now is the time of salvation!.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sin as cancer
Cancer is a dreaded disease. The very thought about it makes us feel sad and doomed.It is a condition which is not known in the beginning, and then it spreads rapidly affecting all the cells and finally brings the entire body to a halt. But, if it is diagonosed early and treated, there is cure.
But I want to share with you something which is most serious than cancer. May be the consequences of cancer stops in this world, but the one which I will speak about today has its consequences to eternity. I am not sure how many of us take "Sin" so serious.We might live a life giving no importance to sin at all,and enjoy its pleasures to the maximum. We cannot even deny the fact that sin gives pleasure for a while. But, alas after that the guilt of sin makes us as fugitives and captives throughout our life.
The Bible says that the "Wages of sin is death". There is absolutely no denying of this fact. If we sin, we will die. There is no alternative. One sin will lead to another and as cancer, in the course of time there will be nothing left in us, except sin. We will be rotten with sin and die.
It is serious business to deal with this sin, and overcoming sin is very easy. We need not do anything to overcome it. Yes, I repeat we need not do anything, because we don't have the strength to overcome sin. We have to believe the fact that Jesus Christ carried all our sins and died on the cross of Calvary for us and sin was defeated on that day. If we beleive this and accept Jesus as the Lord of our lives, we get freedom and deliverance from sin.All the sins including those secret and personal sins that we do every day, the inward sins and everything bad in us will be transformed into the goodness of Christ. This is the greatest miracle. The conversion of a sinner instantly into a saint, because of the finished work of Jesus.
I want to drive this point deeply to all who read this. There may be someone reading this with heaviness of guilt, and the defeated life of sin and the inability to gain victory over it inspite of repeated attempts. Dont be discouraged, there is hope in Jesus. We need to stop trying and leave it to Jesus. This is the secret to victory. You know something, the victory that Christ gives over sin is like this "We will hate sin in the same way that we hate cancer". This is the complete victory. May God bless us and help us to live a victorious life.
But I want to share with you something which is most serious than cancer. May be the consequences of cancer stops in this world, but the one which I will speak about today has its consequences to eternity. I am not sure how many of us take "Sin" so serious.We might live a life giving no importance to sin at all,and enjoy its pleasures to the maximum. We cannot even deny the fact that sin gives pleasure for a while. But, alas after that the guilt of sin makes us as fugitives and captives throughout our life.
The Bible says that the "Wages of sin is death". There is absolutely no denying of this fact. If we sin, we will die. There is no alternative. One sin will lead to another and as cancer, in the course of time there will be nothing left in us, except sin. We will be rotten with sin and die.
It is serious business to deal with this sin, and overcoming sin is very easy. We need not do anything to overcome it. Yes, I repeat we need not do anything, because we don't have the strength to overcome sin. We have to believe the fact that Jesus Christ carried all our sins and died on the cross of Calvary for us and sin was defeated on that day. If we beleive this and accept Jesus as the Lord of our lives, we get freedom and deliverance from sin.All the sins including those secret and personal sins that we do every day, the inward sins and everything bad in us will be transformed into the goodness of Christ. This is the greatest miracle. The conversion of a sinner instantly into a saint, because of the finished work of Jesus.
I want to drive this point deeply to all who read this. There may be someone reading this with heaviness of guilt, and the defeated life of sin and the inability to gain victory over it inspite of repeated attempts. Dont be discouraged, there is hope in Jesus. We need to stop trying and leave it to Jesus. This is the secret to victory. You know something, the victory that Christ gives over sin is like this "We will hate sin in the same way that we hate cancer". This is the complete victory. May God bless us and help us to live a victorious life.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tears in Heaven
"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, and said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said, 'Lord, Come and see.' Jesus wept. And so the Jews were saying, 'Behold, how He loved Him!" (John 11:33-36).
Jesus went to the house of Mary and Martha after the death of Lazarus. As He entered that place, He saw the sisters weeping along with the other jews. Jesus was deeply moved with compassion and grief. He wept there. This shows the heart of our loving Lord. He is so tender and merciful. He loves each and every one of you reading this in the same way that He loved Lazarus. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Whenever we are filled with sorrow and grief and weep inside us, let us not forget that Jesus Christ sheds tears for us. He is such a loving Lord.
Let us not be disheartened if we dont have anyone to share our feelings and longings. No one can care for us as Christ. Even we may be forsaken by our parents or spouses. But, I believe that the more we are forsaken in this world, all the more Jesus loves us. What an amazing difference between Godly love and human love!. If anyone of you is reading this with a heavy and lonely heart, I encourage you to go right away and pour out your heart to the Lord.
As we read on the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha were filled with the joy of their lives when they saw jesus rising their dead brother. The same joy can be ours today. We may dead to the world and to our family and forgotten by everyone. But, Jesus Christ will rise us up today and make us soar to heights that we have never imagined. We will be transformed and renewed to the amazement of others who might have insulted us. This is the power of our matchless Lord. Remember this clearly, "Whatever seems to be the end with us, is the beginning with Christ". Dear friends, let us never forget that there is one who sheds tears for us in Heaven.
Jesus went to the house of Mary and Martha after the death of Lazarus. As He entered that place, He saw the sisters weeping along with the other jews. Jesus was deeply moved with compassion and grief. He wept there. This shows the heart of our loving Lord. He is so tender and merciful. He loves each and every one of you reading this in the same way that He loved Lazarus. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Whenever we are filled with sorrow and grief and weep inside us, let us not forget that Jesus Christ sheds tears for us. He is such a loving Lord.
Let us not be disheartened if we dont have anyone to share our feelings and longings. No one can care for us as Christ. Even we may be forsaken by our parents or spouses. But, I believe that the more we are forsaken in this world, all the more Jesus loves us. What an amazing difference between Godly love and human love!. If anyone of you is reading this with a heavy and lonely heart, I encourage you to go right away and pour out your heart to the Lord.
As we read on the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha were filled with the joy of their lives when they saw jesus rising their dead brother. The same joy can be ours today. We may dead to the world and to our family and forgotten by everyone. But, Jesus Christ will rise us up today and make us soar to heights that we have never imagined. We will be transformed and renewed to the amazement of others who might have insulted us. This is the power of our matchless Lord. Remember this clearly, "Whatever seems to be the end with us, is the beginning with Christ". Dear friends, let us never forget that there is one who sheds tears for us in Heaven.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Jesus Cares
1 Peter 5:7
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"
Anxiety is a terrible disease. It exists in all of us at some point of time. We become so anxious about our future, about the prospects of our jobs,marriage,and some of us are so concerned about the well being of our family and friends and we spend most of the times worrying about things that will never happen. Anxiety is directly related to insecurity. We become anxious if we don't have things put in the proper place. We never feel secure and try to find our own solutions to make us secure.
But we never get that security by any of our efforts and plans. We find ourselves on a slippery ground always. Dear friends, no creations can give us the security we long for. There is only one who can help us and He is our great creator. We as creations will feel secure only in the loving arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. He shelters us under His wings as how a bird protects its younger ones. He is the solid rock where we can set our foot upon without doubts and worries. Turn to Him today!.
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"
Anxiety is a terrible disease. It exists in all of us at some point of time. We become so anxious about our future, about the prospects of our jobs,marriage,and some of us are so concerned about the well being of our family and friends and we spend most of the times worrying about things that will never happen. Anxiety is directly related to insecurity. We become anxious if we don't have things put in the proper place. We never feel secure and try to find our own solutions to make us secure.
But we never get that security by any of our efforts and plans. We find ourselves on a slippery ground always. Dear friends, no creations can give us the security we long for. There is only one who can help us and He is our great creator. We as creations will feel secure only in the loving arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. He shelters us under His wings as how a bird protects its younger ones. He is the solid rock where we can set our foot upon without doubts and worries. Turn to Him today!.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Turn away
Hebrews 10: 26-31.
26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God.
28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony
of two or three witnesses.
29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has
trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the
blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit
of grace?
30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"and
again, "The Lord will judge his people."
31It is a dreadful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.
The passage before us today is a very alarming one to all who never took
the expericence of salvation seriously. Many of us may say that we are born
again christians and we may even think that we have many great spiritual
expericences to share. All of this is well and good. But, what about those
sins that are still in us?, those secret sins that no one else knows about.
Do we keep on committing those sins and enjoy the pleasures of it?. Some of
us could be in a state wherein our conscience has become so hard that we
dont feel that we are wrong.
Sinning deliberatly will make God's wrath to fall upon us on the day of
judgement. It would be the most terrible thing that we could never imagine.
God is a consuming fire. The wrath of God will destroy us if we keep on
sinning after accepting Christ. What is a deliberate sin?. After we are
born again, the Holy spirit of God comes into our life. He instructs and
teaches us. When the thought of sin enters us, He ignites our consicience
against sinning and this is what creates a dilemma in us. Most of the time
we face this dilemma. When we yeild to the spirit and turn away from sin
,we glorify God. When we yeild to the sin, we deliberately commit the sin
inspite of the warning that the Holy spirit triggered inside us.Another
type of deliberate sin is when we plan something and commit it for our own
pleasures.
The good news is that still we are in the period of grace and God looks
with mercy at each and everyone of us. He is ready to pardon us even if all
throughout our life so far we have kept on sinning. It takes a minute to
confess our sins to turn back to God and receive His forgiveness. He will
give us a clean heart and an everlasting life filled with joy and peace.Why
do you want to miss that?. Jesus is knocking at the doors, open it for Him
today!
26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God.
28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony
of two or three witnesses.
29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has
trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the
blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit
of grace?
30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"and
again, "The Lord will judge his people."
31It is a dreadful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.
The passage before us today is a very alarming one to all who never took
the expericence of salvation seriously. Many of us may say that we are born
again christians and we may even think that we have many great spiritual
expericences to share. All of this is well and good. But, what about those
sins that are still in us?, those secret sins that no one else knows about.
Do we keep on committing those sins and enjoy the pleasures of it?. Some of
us could be in a state wherein our conscience has become so hard that we
dont feel that we are wrong.
Sinning deliberatly will make God's wrath to fall upon us on the day of
judgement. It would be the most terrible thing that we could never imagine.
God is a consuming fire. The wrath of God will destroy us if we keep on
sinning after accepting Christ. What is a deliberate sin?. After we are
born again, the Holy spirit of God comes into our life. He instructs and
teaches us. When the thought of sin enters us, He ignites our consicience
against sinning and this is what creates a dilemma in us. Most of the time
we face this dilemma. When we yeild to the spirit and turn away from sin
,we glorify God. When we yeild to the sin, we deliberately commit the sin
inspite of the warning that the Holy spirit triggered inside us.Another
type of deliberate sin is when we plan something and commit it for our own
pleasures.
The good news is that still we are in the period of grace and God looks
with mercy at each and everyone of us. He is ready to pardon us even if all
throughout our life so far we have kept on sinning. It takes a minute to
confess our sins to turn back to God and receive His forgiveness. He will
give us a clean heart and an everlasting life filled with joy and peace.Why
do you want to miss that?. Jesus is knocking at the doors, open it for Him
today!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Supreme love
“The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'” —Galatians 5:14
As the followers of Christ, We try to do too many things to make sure that
we have a right conscience before God and human beings. But, many a times
we miss a very simple yet important command that is over everything else.
It is "Love your neighbour". Neighbour can be any one, may be people near
our homes, co workers in office, people whom we meet every day in shops. In
short everyone whom we come across each day in our life are our neighbours.
Now let us take a moment and analyze whether we really love others. Even if
we love, what is the motive of that love? Is it for our favors and gains?.
If we fall short in this, let us ask God to make us love others with a
clean heart. God was so loving and self-less that He sent His own son Jesus
Christ to the cross to save us. This is supreme love and let us grow more
in Christ and be transformed into His likeness.
Now the next time, if you get to see some one you hate the most, pray that
God will make you to love that person. This is how we can love others
practically. It is difficult, but with Christ, all things are possible!
yourself.'” —Galatians 5:14
As the followers of Christ, We try to do too many things to make sure that
we have a right conscience before God and human beings. But, many a times
we miss a very simple yet important command that is over everything else.
It is "Love your neighbour". Neighbour can be any one, may be people near
our homes, co workers in office, people whom we meet every day in shops. In
short everyone whom we come across each day in our life are our neighbours.
Now let us take a moment and analyze whether we really love others. Even if
we love, what is the motive of that love? Is it for our favors and gains?.
If we fall short in this, let us ask God to make us love others with a
clean heart. God was so loving and self-less that He sent His own son Jesus
Christ to the cross to save us. This is supreme love and let us grow more
in Christ and be transformed into His likeness.
Now the next time, if you get to see some one you hate the most, pray that
God will make you to love that person. This is how we can love others
practically. It is difficult, but with Christ, all things are possible!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Complete surrender
Matthew 26:39
"Yet not as I will, but as you will"
This was a remarkable prayer that Jesus Christ prayed at the garden of
Gethsamane. As He was also like us in flesh, He too had the agony of
death,which is the disconnection of fellowship with His Father. It is here
that we learn a powerful lesson from our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us this
incredible lesson that really sums up our life as Christians. He says “Not
my will, but thy will be done”. This shows the complete surrender of His
will to God the father.
This is how we too need to live in this world each day, every second and
moment. Nothing less than a total surrender is accepted by God. We can
never be in the fence having one foot for our will and another for God's
will. God requires complete surrender of our will to Him. This is the
secret for a victorious Christian life. Let us pray that God may grant this
gift to us today.
"Yet not as I will, but as you will"
This was a remarkable prayer that Jesus Christ prayed at the garden of
Gethsamane. As He was also like us in flesh, He too had the agony of
death,which is the disconnection of fellowship with His Father. It is here
that we learn a powerful lesson from our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us this
incredible lesson that really sums up our life as Christians. He says “Not
my will, but thy will be done”. This shows the complete surrender of His
will to God the father.
This is how we too need to live in this world each day, every second and
moment. Nothing less than a total surrender is accepted by God. We can
never be in the fence having one foot for our will and another for God's
will. God requires complete surrender of our will to Him. This is the
secret for a victorious Christian life. Let us pray that God may grant this
gift to us today.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Following Jesus
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
As we meditate on the above verse, let us ask ourselves a question. Why do
I follow Jesus? or Why should I be following Jesus?. Let us answer this
question very earnestly. Most of us follow or try to follow Jesus for our
life's guidance, provisions, blessings and many other things that are
aimed at our well being. There is nothing wrong in depending on Jesus for
all these things. But, our primary and foremost aim should be to follow
Jesus out of our love for Him. We should remember that Jesus is our
"Savior". We are all corrupt people who should have been destroyed by the
wrath of God. Our hearts should rejoice in awe of the fact that it is
because of God's supreme sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ on the cross of
calvary, that we are saved.
Let this thought be always on our hearts and let Jesus Christ reign in our
hearts always. This should be out of an act of love, and not out of a
pre-requisite to receive His blessings. The Bible says "Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and all these things will be given unto you".
If you are far away from Jesus Christ, get back to Him now. He is eagerly
waiting for you!.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
As we meditate on the above verse, let us ask ourselves a question. Why do
I follow Jesus? or Why should I be following Jesus?. Let us answer this
question very earnestly. Most of us follow or try to follow Jesus for our
life's guidance, provisions, blessings and many other things that are
aimed at our well being. There is nothing wrong in depending on Jesus for
all these things. But, our primary and foremost aim should be to follow
Jesus out of our love for Him. We should remember that Jesus is our
"Savior". We are all corrupt people who should have been destroyed by the
wrath of God. Our hearts should rejoice in awe of the fact that it is
because of God's supreme sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ on the cross of
calvary, that we are saved.
Let this thought be always on our hearts and let Jesus Christ reign in our
hearts always. This should be out of an act of love, and not out of a
pre-requisite to receive His blessings. The Bible says "Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and all these things will be given unto you".
If you are far away from Jesus Christ, get back to Him now. He is eagerly
waiting for you!.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Overcoming life
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives
in me."
We all wake up every morning with new dreams, resolutions and plans. We
want to make the day as best as possible. We plan to break that addiction
in our life. We try to suppress our feelings and emotions so that we don't
do anything wrong. In short we put ourselves in a cage with our ideas.
Well, if everything works according to our plans, we can continue doing
this through the rest of our lives. But, it never works that way. The
reason is each and every one of us is corrupt by the nature of "sin" in our
lives. We dont have the strength in ourselves to overcome this. Millions
around the world are going through this routine each day and it is always a
failure if we think that we can solve all our problems.
If you have a thought that we can live a victorious christian lives by our
own strength, then I would like to take you back to what apostle Paul
realized long back. The secret is as christians "we" are already "dead" and
it is no longer "we" who live but it is "Christ" who takes our place and
lives for us.
The choice is ours. Either we can ask Him to live our life, or we can
continue with our self-discipline, motivational and other techniques and be
independent of Christ. But,Bible says there is a way that seems good to a
fool but the end is destruction.
The way of the cross is the path to an overcoming life. There are no short
cuts.
Accept Christ today and get freed of the yoke and bondages!. Allow Him to
fight the battle!.
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives
in me."
We all wake up every morning with new dreams, resolutions and plans. We
want to make the day as best as possible. We plan to break that addiction
in our life. We try to suppress our feelings and emotions so that we don't
do anything wrong. In short we put ourselves in a cage with our ideas.
Well, if everything works according to our plans, we can continue doing
this through the rest of our lives. But, it never works that way. The
reason is each and every one of us is corrupt by the nature of "sin" in our
lives. We dont have the strength in ourselves to overcome this. Millions
around the world are going through this routine each day and it is always a
failure if we think that we can solve all our problems.
If you have a thought that we can live a victorious christian lives by our
own strength, then I would like to take you back to what apostle Paul
realized long back. The secret is as christians "we" are already "dead" and
it is no longer "we" who live but it is "Christ" who takes our place and
lives for us.
The choice is ours. Either we can ask Him to live our life, or we can
continue with our self-discipline, motivational and other techniques and be
independent of Christ. But,Bible says there is a way that seems good to a
fool but the end is destruction.
The way of the cross is the path to an overcoming life. There are no short
cuts.
Accept Christ today and get freed of the yoke and bondages!. Allow Him to
fight the battle!.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Answers for prayers
Psalm 40:1
" I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry"
God hears and answers all our prayers.
The answers are always one the following
1. yes
2. No
3. There is a delay for the answer.
We are very happy if the answer is "Yes". We are upset when the answer is
"No". The third answer seems to be very painful. It tests our patience. But
the secret to peace and harmony is waiting patiently for the Lord to answer
our prayers. One thing we should never forget is this "God answers each and
every prayer of our's" and all the answers are for our well being.The
timing of the answer is always "His" and not "Our's". Let the Holy Spirit
of God open our eyes to understand this truth and fill us with that peace
that only He can give us. Next time, when we get frustrated for something
that God is not answering us immediately, let us remember the word
"patience" and wait on Him.
" I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry"
God hears and answers all our prayers.
The answers are always one the following
1. yes
2. No
3. There is a delay for the answer.
We are very happy if the answer is "Yes". We are upset when the answer is
"No". The third answer seems to be very painful. It tests our patience. But
the secret to peace and harmony is waiting patiently for the Lord to answer
our prayers. One thing we should never forget is this "God answers each and
every prayer of our's" and all the answers are for our well being.The
timing of the answer is always "His" and not "Our's". Let the Holy Spirit
of God open our eyes to understand this truth and fill us with that peace
that only He can give us. Next time, when we get frustrated for something
that God is not answering us immediately, let us remember the word
"patience" and wait on Him.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Just Do It!
By Bill Keller
source :www.liveprayer.com
Jesus said in Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for him who believes."
The Nike sporting goods company used a very simple but powerful phrase in one of their recent ad campaigns, "Just do it." This is going to be a little different Devotional today. I want to take a moment right now before you do anything else and simply ask the Lord to open your heart to hear this message today since it has to do with faith. Now, let me ask you a question. What is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done? Maybe it is to see a certain place or do a certain thing. What is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done?
The writer of Hebrews defines faith in Hebrews 11:1 as, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Note the key words in this definition are SURE and CERTAIN. True Biblical faith is not something we simply hope for, but we are SURE of what we hope for. True Biblical faith is not just a blind leap into the dark, we are CERTAIN of what we do not see. That is why Jesus told us that, "EVERYTHING is possible for him who believes." Not a few things, not certain things, not most things . . . EVERYTHING!
Today, I want to challenge your faith and encourage you to fulfill your dreams. As I share with you often, this journey through life is very short. It is over before we even know it. We know the Bible teaches us that tomorrow is promised to none of us, that each day is literally a gift from God. We must treat each day as the precious gift it is and make the most of it. Too many people live their lives in those "ruts." You get comfortable in making life work for you on a daily basis and get locked into a routine that you rarely if ever deviate from. You complain how boring life is, how unexciting life is, when the problem is not life but the way you choose to live it each day!
Over these past 20 years, I have ministered to and walked with hundreds of people from 10 to 97 in the final days of their life. In almost every case the person shared with me their regrets about things they had always wanted to do but didn't, places they had always wanted to see but never went. Now, in their final hours of this life they felt bad for not having taken the time or made the effort to see and do all of the things they had wanted to do.
Let me ask you again, what is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done?
Here is my word for you today, my challenge. Sit down with a paper and pen and answer the above question on the paper. Write down what it is you have dreamed of but never done. Maybe you always wanted to see the Great Wall of China. Write it down. Maybe you have always wanted to learn how to ride a horse. Write it down. There is not one person reading these words today that doesn't have something you have always wanted to do or some place you have always wanted to visit. Everyone has a dream they have not seen fulfilled.
After you have written down what it is you have always dreamed of, take that paper and pray over it. Pray in faith that God is going to let you see your dream come true. God is not some magic genie in a lamp that we rub and make wishes to. However, God is the One who promised that, "Everything is possible for him who believes." God is the One who promised to, "Give you the desires of your heart." As a follower of Jesus Christ you have very right to hold God to His promises. There is no dream that is too big for God!!!
This journey through life is exciting, exhilarating, and can be a wonderful experience. What I find in so many lives I deal with each day is that they have allowed the trials and tribulations of this life to overwhelm them to the point they have stopped dreaming. They are simply content with not living in turmoil and have forgot how to dream, let alone believe their dreams can come true.
Your life, just like your relationship with the Lord will be exactly what you choose it to be. We ALL have to face the problems that life throws our way. That is simply part of living in this sin-filled and fallen world. There are always problems, things that don't go the way we expect or like. The key is do you allow the problems of life to choke off your joy? Do you allow the trials you face to steal your peace. Do you allow the challenges of life to rob you of the abundance Christ promised you?
I love you and care about you so much. I want to encourage you to start living each day in faith, the faith that "everything is possible for him who believes." That doesn't just mean being victorious over the day-to-day trials of this life, but seeing your dreams fulfilled as well. I want to encourage you today to take the piece of paper you have written down whatever you have always dreamed about and work to make your dream a reality! God will help you.
Don't listen to the liar satan tell you don't have the money, you don't have the time, it can't be done, or any other lie he will tell you to discourage you. Who are you going to believe, the liar who says your dream won't come true or God who promised you that "everything is possible?"
This message today is MUCH deeper than just challenging you to make your dream come true. Once you do whatever it is you have dreamed about, once you make that dream a reality, you are going to want to make your next dream come true. After you see that dream become a reality, you will want to make the next dream come true. Over time, you are not just living life, you are making the most of each day and instead of simply dreaming, YOU ARE LIVING YOUR DREAMS EACH DAY!
Jesus promised us, "Everything is possible for him who believes." Don't dream it, DO IT!!!
source :www.liveprayer.com
Jesus said in Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for him who believes."
The Nike sporting goods company used a very simple but powerful phrase in one of their recent ad campaigns, "Just do it." This is going to be a little different Devotional today. I want to take a moment right now before you do anything else and simply ask the Lord to open your heart to hear this message today since it has to do with faith. Now, let me ask you a question. What is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done? Maybe it is to see a certain place or do a certain thing. What is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done?
The writer of Hebrews defines faith in Hebrews 11:1 as, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Note the key words in this definition are SURE and CERTAIN. True Biblical faith is not something we simply hope for, but we are SURE of what we hope for. True Biblical faith is not just a blind leap into the dark, we are CERTAIN of what we do not see. That is why Jesus told us that, "EVERYTHING is possible for him who believes." Not a few things, not certain things, not most things . . . EVERYTHING!
Today, I want to challenge your faith and encourage you to fulfill your dreams. As I share with you often, this journey through life is very short. It is over before we even know it. We know the Bible teaches us that tomorrow is promised to none of us, that each day is literally a gift from God. We must treat each day as the precious gift it is and make the most of it. Too many people live their lives in those "ruts." You get comfortable in making life work for you on a daily basis and get locked into a routine that you rarely if ever deviate from. You complain how boring life is, how unexciting life is, when the problem is not life but the way you choose to live it each day!
Over these past 20 years, I have ministered to and walked with hundreds of people from 10 to 97 in the final days of their life. In almost every case the person shared with me their regrets about things they had always wanted to do but didn't, places they had always wanted to see but never went. Now, in their final hours of this life they felt bad for not having taken the time or made the effort to see and do all of the things they had wanted to do.
Let me ask you again, what is something that you have always dreamed of but have never done?
Here is my word for you today, my challenge. Sit down with a paper and pen and answer the above question on the paper. Write down what it is you have dreamed of but never done. Maybe you always wanted to see the Great Wall of China. Write it down. Maybe you have always wanted to learn how to ride a horse. Write it down. There is not one person reading these words today that doesn't have something you have always wanted to do or some place you have always wanted to visit. Everyone has a dream they have not seen fulfilled.
After you have written down what it is you have always dreamed of, take that paper and pray over it. Pray in faith that God is going to let you see your dream come true. God is not some magic genie in a lamp that we rub and make wishes to. However, God is the One who promised that, "Everything is possible for him who believes." God is the One who promised to, "Give you the desires of your heart." As a follower of Jesus Christ you have very right to hold God to His promises. There is no dream that is too big for God!!!
This journey through life is exciting, exhilarating, and can be a wonderful experience. What I find in so many lives I deal with each day is that they have allowed the trials and tribulations of this life to overwhelm them to the point they have stopped dreaming. They are simply content with not living in turmoil and have forgot how to dream, let alone believe their dreams can come true.
Your life, just like your relationship with the Lord will be exactly what you choose it to be. We ALL have to face the problems that life throws our way. That is simply part of living in this sin-filled and fallen world. There are always problems, things that don't go the way we expect or like. The key is do you allow the problems of life to choke off your joy? Do you allow the trials you face to steal your peace. Do you allow the challenges of life to rob you of the abundance Christ promised you?
I love you and care about you so much. I want to encourage you to start living each day in faith, the faith that "everything is possible for him who believes." That doesn't just mean being victorious over the day-to-day trials of this life, but seeing your dreams fulfilled as well. I want to encourage you today to take the piece of paper you have written down whatever you have always dreamed about and work to make your dream a reality! God will help you.
Don't listen to the liar satan tell you don't have the money, you don't have the time, it can't be done, or any other lie he will tell you to discourage you. Who are you going to believe, the liar who says your dream won't come true or God who promised you that "everything is possible?"
This message today is MUCH deeper than just challenging you to make your dream come true. Once you do whatever it is you have dreamed about, once you make that dream a reality, you are going to want to make your next dream come true. After you see that dream become a reality, you will want to make the next dream come true. Over time, you are not just living life, you are making the most of each day and instead of simply dreaming, YOU ARE LIVING YOUR DREAMS EACH DAY!
Jesus promised us, "Everything is possible for him who believes." Don't dream it, DO IT!!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Responsibilities in work
Many a times we become very happy when we come to know that our managers/superiors at work are on leave. We feel so much of freedom and think that the day is ours. Do we get this sort of feelings?. Are we feeling irritated or upset when we see our managers or if they call us?.
These are clear indicatios that we are not fulfilling our responsibilities properly. We are gripped by fear and uncertanities when we do not fulfill our tasks properly. There is always a sort of lack of confidence and anxiety in our hearts when we fail in our work.
The Bible says that we need not be afraid of anyone or anything other than God. But we must respect everyone and be at peace with them. We should walk upright and be very active and energetic in our works. We shlould be people that others look for help. We should always be bubbling with energy and enthusiasm that Christ gives us.
Jesus Christ was never afraid of anyone. He did all His responsibilities without the slightest of the failures. He was completely perfect in all that He did and He fullfilled His responsibility of carrying our sins on the cross and sacrificing His life for us.
A true child of God will be perfectly at ease with everyone under all the circumstances.
These are clear indicatios that we are not fulfilling our responsibilities properly. We are gripped by fear and uncertanities when we do not fulfill our tasks properly. There is always a sort of lack of confidence and anxiety in our hearts when we fail in our work.
The Bible says that we need not be afraid of anyone or anything other than God. But we must respect everyone and be at peace with them. We should walk upright and be very active and energetic in our works. We shlould be people that others look for help. We should always be bubbling with energy and enthusiasm that Christ gives us.
Jesus Christ was never afraid of anyone. He did all His responsibilities without the slightest of the failures. He was completely perfect in all that He did and He fullfilled His responsibility of carrying our sins on the cross and sacrificing His life for us.
A true child of God will be perfectly at ease with everyone under all the circumstances.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Memorizing scriptures
I read this article regarding the importance and power of memorizing the verses from the scripture. I am publishing it here so that we may read and implement this as a practice in our daily lives.
First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated.
Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).
Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified” (Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61).
One of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later (Richard Bucher, "Martin Luther's Love for the Bible"). Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, “Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory,” in order to confirm what he had found.
So here are a few reasons why so many have viewed Scripture memorization as so essential to the Christian life.
1. Conformity to Christ
Paul wrote that “we all, . . . beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18)) If we would be changed into Christ likeness we must steadily see him. This happens in the word. “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:21). Bible memorization has the effect of making our gaze on Jesus steadier and clearer.
2. Daily Triumph over Sin
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. . . . I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9, 11). Paul said that we must “by the Spirit . . . put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the “sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.
3. Daily Triumph over Satan
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight (Matthew 4:1-11).
4. Comfort and Counsel for People You Love
The times when people need you to give them comfort and counsel do not always coincide with the times you have your Bible handy. Not only that, the very word of God spoken spontaneously from your heart has unusual power. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” That is a beautiful way of saying, When the heart full of God’s love can draw on the mind full of God’s word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.
5. Communicating the Gospel to Unbelievers
Opportunities to share the gospel come when we do not have the Bible in hand. Actual verses of the Bible have their own penetrating power. And when they come from our heart, as well as from the Book, the witness is given that they are precious enough to learn. We should all be able to sum up the gospel under four main headings (1) God’s holiness/law/glory; 2) man’s sin/rebellion/disobedience; 3) Christ’s death for sinners; 4) the free gift of life by faith. Learn a verse or two relating to each of these, and be ready in season and out of season to share them.
6. Communion with God in the Enjoyment of His Person and Ways
The way we commune with (that is, fellowship with) God is by meditating on his attributes and expressing to him our thanks and admiration and love, and seeking his help to live a life that reflects the value of these attributes. Therefore, storing texts in our minds about God helps us relate to him as he really is. For example, imagine being able to call this to mind through the day:
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:8-14)
I used the word “enjoyment” intentionally when I said, “communion with God in the enjoyment of his person and ways.” Most of us are emotionally crippled—all of us, really. We do not experience God in the fullness of our emotional potential. How will that change? One way is to memorize the emotional expressions of the Bible and speak them to the Lord and to each other until they become part of who we are. For example, in Psalm 103:1, we say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” That is not a natural expression for many people. But if we memorize this and other emotional expressions from the Bible, and say them often, asking the Lord to make the emotion real in our hearts, we can actually grow into that emotion and expression. It will become part of who we are. We will be less emotionally crippled and more able to render proper praise and thanks to God.
There are other reasons for memorizing Scripture. I hope you find them in the actual practice.
source www.desiringgod.org
First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated.
Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).
Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified” (Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61).
One of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later (Richard Bucher, "Martin Luther's Love for the Bible"). Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, “Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory,” in order to confirm what he had found.
So here are a few reasons why so many have viewed Scripture memorization as so essential to the Christian life.
1. Conformity to Christ
Paul wrote that “we all, . . . beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18)) If we would be changed into Christ likeness we must steadily see him. This happens in the word. “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:21). Bible memorization has the effect of making our gaze on Jesus steadier and clearer.
2. Daily Triumph over Sin
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. . . . I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9, 11). Paul said that we must “by the Spirit . . . put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the “sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.
3. Daily Triumph over Satan
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight (Matthew 4:1-11).
4. Comfort and Counsel for People You Love
The times when people need you to give them comfort and counsel do not always coincide with the times you have your Bible handy. Not only that, the very word of God spoken spontaneously from your heart has unusual power. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” That is a beautiful way of saying, When the heart full of God’s love can draw on the mind full of God’s word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.
5. Communicating the Gospel to Unbelievers
Opportunities to share the gospel come when we do not have the Bible in hand. Actual verses of the Bible have their own penetrating power. And when they come from our heart, as well as from the Book, the witness is given that they are precious enough to learn. We should all be able to sum up the gospel under four main headings (1) God’s holiness/law/glory; 2) man’s sin/rebellion/disobedience; 3) Christ’s death for sinners; 4) the free gift of life by faith. Learn a verse or two relating to each of these, and be ready in season and out of season to share them.
6. Communion with God in the Enjoyment of His Person and Ways
The way we commune with (that is, fellowship with) God is by meditating on his attributes and expressing to him our thanks and admiration and love, and seeking his help to live a life that reflects the value of these attributes. Therefore, storing texts in our minds about God helps us relate to him as he really is. For example, imagine being able to call this to mind through the day:
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:8-14)
I used the word “enjoyment” intentionally when I said, “communion with God in the enjoyment of his person and ways.” Most of us are emotionally crippled—all of us, really. We do not experience God in the fullness of our emotional potential. How will that change? One way is to memorize the emotional expressions of the Bible and speak them to the Lord and to each other until they become part of who we are. For example, in Psalm 103:1, we say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” That is not a natural expression for many people. But if we memorize this and other emotional expressions from the Bible, and say them often, asking the Lord to make the emotion real in our hearts, we can actually grow into that emotion and expression. It will become part of who we are. We will be less emotionally crippled and more able to render proper praise and thanks to God.
There are other reasons for memorizing Scripture. I hope you find them in the actual practice.
source www.desiringgod.org
Pharaoh’s dream and my experience
By C. H. Spurgeon
"And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows."—Genesis 41:4. NIV
PHARAOH'S dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry. My seasons of coldness have frozen the warm and pleasant glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm. My fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace.
If I neglect prayer for even a short time, I lose all the spirituality I had attained. If I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the palmerworms of self-indulgence lay my heart completely desolate and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing whatever. How anxious I should be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favored hours!
Backsliding leaves me far away from the prize of my high calling and robs me of the advances I had laboriously made. The only way my days can be as the "fat cows" is to feed in the right meadow, spend time with the Lord in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. O Lord, keep me far away from the curse of leanness of soul. Let me not have to cry, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" Instead, may I be well-fed and nourished in Thy house, that I might praise Thy name.
"And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows."—Genesis 41:4. NIV
PHARAOH'S dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry. My seasons of coldness have frozen the warm and pleasant glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm. My fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace.
If I neglect prayer for even a short time, I lose all the spirituality I had attained. If I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the palmerworms of self-indulgence lay my heart completely desolate and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing whatever. How anxious I should be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favored hours!
Backsliding leaves me far away from the prize of my high calling and robs me of the advances I had laboriously made. The only way my days can be as the "fat cows" is to feed in the right meadow, spend time with the Lord in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. O Lord, keep me far away from the curse of leanness of soul. Let me not have to cry, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" Instead, may I be well-fed and nourished in Thy house, that I might praise Thy name.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
In the midst of trial
In the midst of trial we tend to throw our arms up and cry, “God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”, not fully understanding the significance of such trial. How many can honestly say that they welcome trials and tribulations? Not I for sure. Yet in our Christian faith, we must at some point partake of the cup of Jesus. It is only through this drinking that we come to understand our walk of faith and grow strong in its ramifications.
Jesus was Lord and He knew the reason for his sufferings, the purpose for which He came. This is the great paradox of our Christian faith, the “great mystery of the cross,” that is mentioned in the Bible. And yet through the dire image of the cross comes our greatest blessing, our greatest joy, our greatest hope. How unhumanly conceivable! To the world, the cross is foolishness, as Paul the apostle so rightly states. But God did not choose what would be ordinary or common sense to save the world. It is this that should ground our faith. For after all, put yourself into God’s position: Would you choose something common to save the world, or would you choose something that would require intense belief because it was so contrary to majority opinion? When we view the cross from this perspective, the scales fall from our eyes, and the blinding light shines through.
Now in the midst of trial, we should look to the cross as our saving grace. This is hard to do as we are human and weak by nature; and yet the spirit be willing, the flesh is always weak. Now here is something to consider that might help in our struggle: the realization that Christ knew His purpose, yet we know this only through our faith. Although this knowledge could never attenuate the physical suffering He experienced—as God designed it this way—Christ was in a position that we could never be. How precious might we be in His sight then, as He watches us, knowing full well we have neither the resources nor essence of His most beloved Son, to go through trials while we cling tenaciously to our faith? And though we stumble and drop our cross, yet He knows how noble our efforts in the midst of trial.
Let us not be ashamed therefore by what the world throws our way. All this is part of His divine plan. Let us be comforted by the knowledge that Christ suffered—yet He was God; we suffer—yet we are men.
By Joe Pagano
source : http://www.mathbyjoe.com
Jesus was Lord and He knew the reason for his sufferings, the purpose for which He came. This is the great paradox of our Christian faith, the “great mystery of the cross,” that is mentioned in the Bible. And yet through the dire image of the cross comes our greatest blessing, our greatest joy, our greatest hope. How unhumanly conceivable! To the world, the cross is foolishness, as Paul the apostle so rightly states. But God did not choose what would be ordinary or common sense to save the world. It is this that should ground our faith. For after all, put yourself into God’s position: Would you choose something common to save the world, or would you choose something that would require intense belief because it was so contrary to majority opinion? When we view the cross from this perspective, the scales fall from our eyes, and the blinding light shines through.
Now in the midst of trial, we should look to the cross as our saving grace. This is hard to do as we are human and weak by nature; and yet the spirit be willing, the flesh is always weak. Now here is something to consider that might help in our struggle: the realization that Christ knew His purpose, yet we know this only through our faith. Although this knowledge could never attenuate the physical suffering He experienced—as God designed it this way—Christ was in a position that we could never be. How precious might we be in His sight then, as He watches us, knowing full well we have neither the resources nor essence of His most beloved Son, to go through trials while we cling tenaciously to our faith? And though we stumble and drop our cross, yet He knows how noble our efforts in the midst of trial.
Let us not be ashamed therefore by what the world throws our way. All this is part of His divine plan. Let us be comforted by the knowledge that Christ suffered—yet He was God; we suffer—yet we are men.
By Joe Pagano
source : http://www.mathbyjoe.com
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Truth shall set you free
We see a lot of people around us addicted to different habits. Where ever there is addiction, peace is lacking. Frustration, fear and dissatisfaction loom larger in life. Spending each and every day becomes a burden. spending a day seems like spending a year and such is the hopeleness of life for many. Is there hope in such a situation? Is there comfort and shelter? Is there a solution for depression and anxiety?
The answer is a big "Yes". We need not depend on alcohol, drugs and sleeping pills to aid us in our times of frustration. We need not dream of peace when peace is very much a reality and readily available. We need not gain sympathy from human beings when it is of no use. Some of us might have tried everything in the world to be peaceful, but all the efforts might have been futile.
If money, influence, drugs, sex, music, movies etc etc...cannot bring us peace, what else is there for us to try...?
The only answer to the problems of life is "Jesus". Try Jesus, and He is the answer to all our problems. He is the way, truth and life. Where there is truth there is deliverance and the truth is "Jesus Christ". John 8:32 says "know the truth and the truth shall set you free". Let us try Him today...We will never be disappointed. All that we need to do is earnestly ask Him to come into our life and take control of it.
The answer is a big "Yes". We need not depend on alcohol, drugs and sleeping pills to aid us in our times of frustration. We need not dream of peace when peace is very much a reality and readily available. We need not gain sympathy from human beings when it is of no use. Some of us might have tried everything in the world to be peaceful, but all the efforts might have been futile.
If money, influence, drugs, sex, music, movies etc etc...cannot bring us peace, what else is there for us to try...?
The only answer to the problems of life is "Jesus". Try Jesus, and He is the answer to all our problems. He is the way, truth and life. Where there is truth there is deliverance and the truth is "Jesus Christ". John 8:32 says "know the truth and the truth shall set you free". Let us try Him today...We will never be disappointed. All that we need to do is earnestly ask Him to come into our life and take control of it.
Overcoming life
Are we struggling with certain sins in life that we are not able to come out of them?. Is there some sins that we try to suppress for a while and then they come back with greater magnitude and destroys our peace completely. It makes us feel even more guilty. Is this the condition of our spiritual lives after being born again?. It means that we are still living defeated lives. God never wants us to live like this. He wants us to be overcomers in everything.
Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross of Calvary so that we can live an overcoming life. If we are not living such a life then we are defeating the purpose of God. There is a great news for all who are living a defeated spiritual life. Jesus Christ has already won us the victory. We need to believe this and apply this in our lives. We need to exchange our lives with Jesus.
It means we need to give all our weaknesses, worries, problems, temptations to Him and get His victory in return. This is the secret of a victorious Christian life.
We never realize this and try to overcome all the things on our own strength and we are defeated. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness". We need to surrender all our problems to Jesus Christ and forget about it. His grace and power will overcome all the uncertanities in our life. Only believe and all things will be perfect in God's own time. Amen!
Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross of Calvary so that we can live an overcoming life. If we are not living such a life then we are defeating the purpose of God. There is a great news for all who are living a defeated spiritual life. Jesus Christ has already won us the victory. We need to believe this and apply this in our lives. We need to exchange our lives with Jesus.
It means we need to give all our weaknesses, worries, problems, temptations to Him and get His victory in return. This is the secret of a victorious Christian life.
We never realize this and try to overcome all the things on our own strength and we are defeated. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness". We need to surrender all our problems to Jesus Christ and forget about it. His grace and power will overcome all the uncertanities in our life. Only believe and all things will be perfect in God's own time. Amen!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Gaining the world
Mark 8:36
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"
St. Augustine described soul as follows "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body". The soul is the seat of our personality, traits and intelligience. The soul was formed when God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam when he was made of dust.
We live in a world which is very fast and fancy. It is very certain that our souls will be lost permanantly if we do not repent and come to Christ for salvation during the period of grace now. I believe things would always be fine till one day when disaster will strike us,and we will be left alone in the wilderness. The soul which found its happiness through the vanities of this world, would be tortured in the hell by satan.
We may gain everything in this world by our intelligience and abilities. We can become world renowned celebrities. We can accumulate money for generations to come. We may have the most powerful posts of this world. But yet if we have not met Jesus Christ and surrendered our lives to Him, everything is vain and would be like garbage on the day of judgement. Hell is a very cruel place to be in. It is not as easy and cozy as we may think. The very description of hell would run fear down our spines. Satan is in the process of accumulating people to be thrown into hell.
Let us never fall to satan's trick which blinds our eyes and thoughts from the need of salvation. Jesus Christ can give us the peace that we long for today. He can just blast away satan if we surrender our lives to Him and allow Him to be the Lord of our lives. Christ is too good a person to rule our lives without us inviting Him. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks all the time. We need to hear it and allow Him to come inside.
I challenge that life would not be the same once Jesus is with us. He will give us all the needs of this world and eternity. We can live without fear, anxiety and confusion if Christ directs us. There is no safer place to rest than the rock Jesus Christ. Heaven is such a glorious place. A place of eternal joy and a place where there would not be any sorrow. Jesus Christ holds the keys to Heaven.
I would plead you to surrender your life now to Christ. Time is running by..and we never know when the period of grace would come to an end. There would not be any oppurtunity to repent after that. Once the doors are shut, it would be all over. Now is the time of salvation. Repent and enjoy life with Christ!. Remember all the greatness in this world is garbage when it comes to eternity.
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"
St. Augustine described soul as follows "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body". The soul is the seat of our personality, traits and intelligience. The soul was formed when God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam when he was made of dust.
We live in a world which is very fast and fancy. It is very certain that our souls will be lost permanantly if we do not repent and come to Christ for salvation during the period of grace now. I believe things would always be fine till one day when disaster will strike us,and we will be left alone in the wilderness. The soul which found its happiness through the vanities of this world, would be tortured in the hell by satan.
We may gain everything in this world by our intelligience and abilities. We can become world renowned celebrities. We can accumulate money for generations to come. We may have the most powerful posts of this world. But yet if we have not met Jesus Christ and surrendered our lives to Him, everything is vain and would be like garbage on the day of judgement. Hell is a very cruel place to be in. It is not as easy and cozy as we may think. The very description of hell would run fear down our spines. Satan is in the process of accumulating people to be thrown into hell.
Let us never fall to satan's trick which blinds our eyes and thoughts from the need of salvation. Jesus Christ can give us the peace that we long for today. He can just blast away satan if we surrender our lives to Him and allow Him to be the Lord of our lives. Christ is too good a person to rule our lives without us inviting Him. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks all the time. We need to hear it and allow Him to come inside.
I challenge that life would not be the same once Jesus is with us. He will give us all the needs of this world and eternity. We can live without fear, anxiety and confusion if Christ directs us. There is no safer place to rest than the rock Jesus Christ. Heaven is such a glorious place. A place of eternal joy and a place where there would not be any sorrow. Jesus Christ holds the keys to Heaven.
I would plead you to surrender your life now to Christ. Time is running by..and we never know when the period of grace would come to an end. There would not be any oppurtunity to repent after that. Once the doors are shut, it would be all over. Now is the time of salvation. Repent and enjoy life with Christ!. Remember all the greatness in this world is garbage when it comes to eternity.
Bricks Of Life
I came across this wonderful story in the internet. Many a times, we too are very busy with all our fantasies and fancies in life, that something has to break us to grab our attentions.....Read on...
About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh
was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too
fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months
old.
He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and
slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted
out, but a brick sailed out and-WHUMP! -- it smashed into the Jag's shiny
black side door! SCREECH...!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and
tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been
thrown.
Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against
a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who
are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he
went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of
money. Why did you throw it?"
"Please, mister, please...I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!"
Pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would
stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the
parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell
out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his
wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.
Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took
out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that
everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder
JaguarXKE-a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar.
He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone
has to throw a brick at him to get his attention... Some bricks are softer
than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at you.
For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has
positive answers
You say: "It's impossible"
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
You say: "I'm too tired"
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say: "Nobody really loves me"
God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 13:34)
You say: "I can't go on"
God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
You say: "I can't figure things out"
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say: "I can't do it"
God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)
You say: "I'm not able"
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: "It's not worth it"
God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)
You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
You say: "I can't manage"
God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)
You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)
You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)
You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)
You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)
About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh
was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too
fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months
old.
He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and
slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted
out, but a brick sailed out and-WHUMP! -- it smashed into the Jag's shiny
black side door! SCREECH...!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and
tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been
thrown.
Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against
a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who
are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he
went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of
money. Why did you throw it?"
"Please, mister, please...I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!"
Pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would
stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the
parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell
out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his
wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.
Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took
out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that
everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder
JaguarXKE-a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar.
He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone
has to throw a brick at him to get his attention... Some bricks are softer
than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at you.
For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has
positive answers
You say: "It's impossible"
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
You say: "I'm too tired"
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say: "Nobody really loves me"
God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 13:34)
You say: "I can't go on"
God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
You say: "I can't figure things out"
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say: "I can't do it"
God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)
You say: "I'm not able"
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: "It's not worth it"
God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)
You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
You say: "I can't manage"
God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)
You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)
You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)
You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)
You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Slothfulness
I came across this article and found it to be an eye opener for me personally. I am posting it here and pray that it would open the eyes of many who read this.
Proverbs 19:15
"Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep;
and an idle soul shall suffer hunger."
Slothfulness is doing a job s-l-o-w-l-y. It is d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g a job and resenting the effort it requires. It is a lazy attitude and effort toward work; and it starts a vicious cycle. Laziness saps your energy, slows you down, intimidates your spirit, and puts you to sleep.. Laziness begets more laziness, until you are a worthless bum. It leads to, “I’m too tired to do anything; I think I’ll take a nap.” Soon you are too “tired” to even eat (19:24: 26:15)!
What are the consequences of laziness? In a godly world, you would starve to death! The Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible does not allow lazy people to eat (20:4; II Thess 3:10)! An idle soul – a person not moving and working – shall suffer hunger! Because you are lazy, noble employers will not promote you or pay you very much; you will stay in lowly jobs and get poorer and poorer (10:4; 12:24; 13:4). You will soon not have enough to eat..
What is slothfulness? It is acting like a sloth! What is a sloth? The sloth is a mammal that lives in the trees of South America. They move very slowly – upside down. They are the slowest land mammals and travel very sluggishly on the ground (only 5 feet in a minute). When moving through the trees upside down, they travel at a quicker speed (about 12 feet in a minute). Sloths are very lazy animals and sleep an average of 15 hours per day.
Each day brings several tests to prove whether you are a sloth or not. One is in the morning, when it is time to get up. What do you do? If you roll over, cuddle yourself under the blankets, and wish you did not have to get up, you are a sloth. Solomon mocked your antics in bed as resembling a door on hinges, rolling back and forth in the comfort of your covers until poverty has fully destroyed you (6:9-11; 24:33-34; 26:14)! The diligent man is thankful for another day, a place to work, and things to do; he gets up and going!
Another daily test is when you face an unpleasant task, like a sink full of dirty dishes, or a large lawn needing to be cut on a very hot day. You will either, jump on the job and go at it with full strength, or you will tell yourself how miserable it is that you have to work so hard, and groan and moan all the way through it. Don’t be a sloth! Don’t think about how hard a job is! Think about how thankful you are for health, strength, sunshine, lawnmowers, grass, and having your own yard! Get out there and make it look great!
The hard worker gets done first, enjoys working hard, has a sense of accomplishment, and is rewarded by God and men. He is going somewhere! He drives his new car past the yard of the slothful and sees him trudging behind his mower. The slothful man finishes much later, complains about everything, is crushed by a defeated and exhausted spirit, and has his used car repossessed. Fire that bum! The hard worker is happy, promoted, and asking for overtime! The slothful man desperately just wants to take a nap!
It is all about attitude. And your attitude is a choice. If you get up slowly and wish you were still in bed, you will sap your energy and put yourself in slow motion. If you start a job with a sigh and resentment, it will seem like a mountain and take forever. Every job to the slothful man has a hedge of thorns in the way (15:19)! But if you leap up in the morning, thanking God for another day to serve Him, you can be done with several jobs before noon, have a full sense of accomplishment, peace, and joy, and be a great success.
It is a choice. Don’t sit. Don’t think about what you need to do. Don’t think about it being hard. Don’t think about how long it will take. Start the first job now! Get at it! Don’t think! Work! Before you know it, the task is over; you are refreshed by the joy and reward of a job well done; you are rejoicing in your abilities; and men will promote you.
A street bum, a panhandler, who sits and sleeps all day near his park bench, began with a choice one day not to work hard. One day of not working hard made it easier to be slothful the second day. In just a few days, he had lost the habit, conviction, drive, and joy of hard work. He lulled himself to sleep, the sleep of a bum. Sloth! Open your paper bag and drink your cheap wine! Fall down in the gutter and sleep in your own vomit!
The cure? We could rid the country of bums by ending social assistance to such people and firing all slow employees. Our nation’s productivity would leap! Prosperity would abound much more than it does. Starvation is the best teacher of good work habits (16:26; 20:4). Men have a universal tendency to be thankful and motivated about working, when their belly button gets closer to their backbone! If our nation stopped protecting and subsidizing the slothful, men would learn to work, or starve! Either way, society and the workforce are purged of those unworthy of food and drink. What glorious wisdom!
The cure for yourself? Don’t make excuses (22:13; 26:13,16). Get to work! Learn that extra time in bed is a horrible waste (6:9-11; 20:13; 24:30-34). Get up! Attack your job with fiery zeal, as to the King of kings; and think about working for kings, for that may be your next promotion (22:29; Col 3:22-25)! Work is pleasure and a privilege to the godly man, and he will be content with whatever abilities and job God brings his way.
Parent, this is a great lesson to teach your children each day. It does not matter who discovered Bolivia, that the atomic number for titanium is 22, or that Spanish for nachos is nachos! But it does matter how children get up in the morning and attack their tasks for the day. Hard work and a zealous attitude are not the properties of any race, nationality, or temperament; they are rather the marks of the children of God. If you have learned the wisdom of God from this proverb, you will not subsidize or protect slothful children.
Christian reader, the lesson of this proverb applies to all areas of your life, not just employment, washing dishes, or cutting the grass. It includes your attitude and efforts in your marriage, in child training, in personal devotions, prayer, and the worship of God. Are you ambitious, committed, energetic, and fervent in all these duties as well? There is only one way to live and approach our responsibilities – all out for the glory of God!
Never think for a minute that this doctrine is unique to the Old Testament. Paul condemned slothfulness in the New Testament (Rom 12:11; I Thess 4:11-12; Eph 4:28). He ordered the churches not to let lazy people eat (II Thess 3:10-12). And he called for the exclusion of any church members compromising these orders (II Thess 3:6-15). The grace of God that converts sinners, and the proper preaching of His Word, will transform men from the slothful habits and thinking of this lazy and spoiled generation.
Our blessed Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul were diligent workers. Jesus often did not have time for leisure (Mark 3:20-21; 6:31). He didn't want night to come, because He would have to quit working (John 4:34; 9:4; 17:4)! Paul labored more diligently than the other apostles (I Cor 15:10). He preached during the day and worked at night; he preached during the night and worked during the day (Acts 18:3; I Thes 2:9; II Thes 3:8).
There is no room in the kingdom of heaven for lazy and slothful people (Matt 11:12; Luke 9:62; 13:24; I Cor 9:24; Phil 3:14). Neither Jesus nor Paul was slothful, and they are both our examples (I Cor 11:1). They put their hands to the will of God and did it with all their might, just as we should do the various duties God has given us (Eccl 9:10).
Proverbs 19:15
"Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep;
and an idle soul shall suffer hunger."
Slothfulness is doing a job s-l-o-w-l-y. It is d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g a job and resenting the effort it requires. It is a lazy attitude and effort toward work; and it starts a vicious cycle. Laziness saps your energy, slows you down, intimidates your spirit, and puts you to sleep.. Laziness begets more laziness, until you are a worthless bum. It leads to, “I’m too tired to do anything; I think I’ll take a nap.” Soon you are too “tired” to even eat (19:24: 26:15)!
What are the consequences of laziness? In a godly world, you would starve to death! The Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible does not allow lazy people to eat (20:4; II Thess 3:10)! An idle soul – a person not moving and working – shall suffer hunger! Because you are lazy, noble employers will not promote you or pay you very much; you will stay in lowly jobs and get poorer and poorer (10:4; 12:24; 13:4). You will soon not have enough to eat..
What is slothfulness? It is acting like a sloth! What is a sloth? The sloth is a mammal that lives in the trees of South America. They move very slowly – upside down. They are the slowest land mammals and travel very sluggishly on the ground (only 5 feet in a minute). When moving through the trees upside down, they travel at a quicker speed (about 12 feet in a minute). Sloths are very lazy animals and sleep an average of 15 hours per day.
Each day brings several tests to prove whether you are a sloth or not. One is in the morning, when it is time to get up. What do you do? If you roll over, cuddle yourself under the blankets, and wish you did not have to get up, you are a sloth. Solomon mocked your antics in bed as resembling a door on hinges, rolling back and forth in the comfort of your covers until poverty has fully destroyed you (6:9-11; 24:33-34; 26:14)! The diligent man is thankful for another day, a place to work, and things to do; he gets up and going!
Another daily test is when you face an unpleasant task, like a sink full of dirty dishes, or a large lawn needing to be cut on a very hot day. You will either, jump on the job and go at it with full strength, or you will tell yourself how miserable it is that you have to work so hard, and groan and moan all the way through it. Don’t be a sloth! Don’t think about how hard a job is! Think about how thankful you are for health, strength, sunshine, lawnmowers, grass, and having your own yard! Get out there and make it look great!
The hard worker gets done first, enjoys working hard, has a sense of accomplishment, and is rewarded by God and men. He is going somewhere! He drives his new car past the yard of the slothful and sees him trudging behind his mower. The slothful man finishes much later, complains about everything, is crushed by a defeated and exhausted spirit, and has his used car repossessed. Fire that bum! The hard worker is happy, promoted, and asking for overtime! The slothful man desperately just wants to take a nap!
It is all about attitude. And your attitude is a choice. If you get up slowly and wish you were still in bed, you will sap your energy and put yourself in slow motion. If you start a job with a sigh and resentment, it will seem like a mountain and take forever. Every job to the slothful man has a hedge of thorns in the way (15:19)! But if you leap up in the morning, thanking God for another day to serve Him, you can be done with several jobs before noon, have a full sense of accomplishment, peace, and joy, and be a great success.
It is a choice. Don’t sit. Don’t think about what you need to do. Don’t think about it being hard. Don’t think about how long it will take. Start the first job now! Get at it! Don’t think! Work! Before you know it, the task is over; you are refreshed by the joy and reward of a job well done; you are rejoicing in your abilities; and men will promote you.
A street bum, a panhandler, who sits and sleeps all day near his park bench, began with a choice one day not to work hard. One day of not working hard made it easier to be slothful the second day. In just a few days, he had lost the habit, conviction, drive, and joy of hard work. He lulled himself to sleep, the sleep of a bum. Sloth! Open your paper bag and drink your cheap wine! Fall down in the gutter and sleep in your own vomit!
The cure? We could rid the country of bums by ending social assistance to such people and firing all slow employees. Our nation’s productivity would leap! Prosperity would abound much more than it does. Starvation is the best teacher of good work habits (16:26; 20:4). Men have a universal tendency to be thankful and motivated about working, when their belly button gets closer to their backbone! If our nation stopped protecting and subsidizing the slothful, men would learn to work, or starve! Either way, society and the workforce are purged of those unworthy of food and drink. What glorious wisdom!
The cure for yourself? Don’t make excuses (22:13; 26:13,16). Get to work! Learn that extra time in bed is a horrible waste (6:9-11; 20:13; 24:30-34). Get up! Attack your job with fiery zeal, as to the King of kings; and think about working for kings, for that may be your next promotion (22:29; Col 3:22-25)! Work is pleasure and a privilege to the godly man, and he will be content with whatever abilities and job God brings his way.
Parent, this is a great lesson to teach your children each day. It does not matter who discovered Bolivia, that the atomic number for titanium is 22, or that Spanish for nachos is nachos! But it does matter how children get up in the morning and attack their tasks for the day. Hard work and a zealous attitude are not the properties of any race, nationality, or temperament; they are rather the marks of the children of God. If you have learned the wisdom of God from this proverb, you will not subsidize or protect slothful children.
Christian reader, the lesson of this proverb applies to all areas of your life, not just employment, washing dishes, or cutting the grass. It includes your attitude and efforts in your marriage, in child training, in personal devotions, prayer, and the worship of God. Are you ambitious, committed, energetic, and fervent in all these duties as well? There is only one way to live and approach our responsibilities – all out for the glory of God!
Never think for a minute that this doctrine is unique to the Old Testament. Paul condemned slothfulness in the New Testament (Rom 12:11; I Thess 4:11-12; Eph 4:28). He ordered the churches not to let lazy people eat (II Thess 3:10-12). And he called for the exclusion of any church members compromising these orders (II Thess 3:6-15). The grace of God that converts sinners, and the proper preaching of His Word, will transform men from the slothful habits and thinking of this lazy and spoiled generation.
Our blessed Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul were diligent workers. Jesus often did not have time for leisure (Mark 3:20-21; 6:31). He didn't want night to come, because He would have to quit working (John 4:34; 9:4; 17:4)! Paul labored more diligently than the other apostles (I Cor 15:10). He preached during the day and worked at night; he preached during the night and worked during the day (Acts 18:3; I Thes 2:9; II Thes 3:8).
There is no room in the kingdom of heaven for lazy and slothful people (Matt 11:12; Luke 9:62; 13:24; I Cor 9:24; Phil 3:14). Neither Jesus nor Paul was slothful, and they are both our examples (I Cor 11:1). They put their hands to the will of God and did it with all their might, just as we should do the various duties God has given us (Eccl 9:10).
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Holy Spirit Can Minister To All Your Needs
By Zac Poonen
In 2 Kings 4: 1 - 7, we read of a preacher’s widow who was in debt. It’s a sad thing when husbands die and leave their wives with a debt. That’s something all of us should avoid at any cost. And preachers especially should avoid getting into debt, because that is a bad testimony. Now the creditor had come to take away her two children as slaves to repay the debt. Elisha asked her what she had in her home. She replied, “Nothing, except a jar of oil.” She called the jar of oil “nothing” and yet the solution to all her problems lay right there. The Lord asked Moses something similar in the desert, “What do you have in your hand.” He only had a shepherd’s staff. That was enough. With that staff, he split the Red Sea, brought water out of the rock and led Israel right up to the borders of the promised land. The widow in Zarephath (whom Elijah visited) had only a small bowl of flour and a little jar of oil. But those contained the solution to all her family’s problems and saved her and her son from death. We too may have some ability that we don’t value and say, “I can’t do anything with that.” But that may be the very thing the Lord wants to use.
This jar of oil here is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes those who serve the Lord say, “I don’t have much money or knowledge. I am not gifted or clever. I don’t have any supporters to give me money. The needs are so great for the Lord’s work. What shall I do?” So you ask them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” “Yes.” “Then what else do you need?”
This woman did not realize that the solution to all her problems lay in that jar of oil. Elisha told her, “Go and borrow many large vessels from all your neighbours. Then go into your room, shut the door, and keep pouring from your jar into these vessels. They will all get filled up. Don’t let other people see this miracle. Do it in secret.” (2 Kings 4:3, 4). This was just like Jesus said, “Go shut the door and pray and fast and give your gifts. Don’t let anybody see you do these things.” (Mt.6:1-18).
A man of God must have a secret walk with God where he has dealings with God, before he can stand up in public. Shut the door and you can experience the Holy Spirit ministering to all your needs. Then open the door and share that with others. Thus you can clear your debt.
We have a debt to the whole world – to give them the gospel. Paul said, “I am a debtor to Jews and non-Jews, to the cultured and to the barbarians - to everybody - to give them the gospel of God.” (Rom.1:14)
We also have a debt to the whole church – to every believer – to show them love. The Bible says “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.” (Rom.13:8).
How are we to clear this two-fold debt – to share the gospel with the world and to love every child of God? Is it money we need or human abilities primarily? No. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. That was what Jesus told His disciples to wait for (Acts 1:8). That is what Paul told Timothy to kindle afresh within him (2 Tim.1:6)
Shut the door and seek God in secret. Pursue after love and seek earnestly for the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and especially for the gift of prophecy (1 Cor.14:1). You can then go forth and clear your debt. That is the message of this passage of Scripture.
That widow filled every vessel she could find. She not only cleared her debt with that oil, but blessed and enriched her neighbours too – for she must have sent those vessels back to them full of oil. That is our calling too – to bless our neighbours and everyone we meet. This is why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
In 2 Kings 4: 1 - 7, we read of a preacher’s widow who was in debt. It’s a sad thing when husbands die and leave their wives with a debt. That’s something all of us should avoid at any cost. And preachers especially should avoid getting into debt, because that is a bad testimony. Now the creditor had come to take away her two children as slaves to repay the debt. Elisha asked her what she had in her home. She replied, “Nothing, except a jar of oil.” She called the jar of oil “nothing” and yet the solution to all her problems lay right there. The Lord asked Moses something similar in the desert, “What do you have in your hand.” He only had a shepherd’s staff. That was enough. With that staff, he split the Red Sea, brought water out of the rock and led Israel right up to the borders of the promised land. The widow in Zarephath (whom Elijah visited) had only a small bowl of flour and a little jar of oil. But those contained the solution to all her family’s problems and saved her and her son from death. We too may have some ability that we don’t value and say, “I can’t do anything with that.” But that may be the very thing the Lord wants to use.
This jar of oil here is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes those who serve the Lord say, “I don’t have much money or knowledge. I am not gifted or clever. I don’t have any supporters to give me money. The needs are so great for the Lord’s work. What shall I do?” So you ask them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” “Yes.” “Then what else do you need?”
This woman did not realize that the solution to all her problems lay in that jar of oil. Elisha told her, “Go and borrow many large vessels from all your neighbours. Then go into your room, shut the door, and keep pouring from your jar into these vessels. They will all get filled up. Don’t let other people see this miracle. Do it in secret.” (2 Kings 4:3, 4). This was just like Jesus said, “Go shut the door and pray and fast and give your gifts. Don’t let anybody see you do these things.” (Mt.6:1-18).
A man of God must have a secret walk with God where he has dealings with God, before he can stand up in public. Shut the door and you can experience the Holy Spirit ministering to all your needs. Then open the door and share that with others. Thus you can clear your debt.
We have a debt to the whole world – to give them the gospel. Paul said, “I am a debtor to Jews and non-Jews, to the cultured and to the barbarians - to everybody - to give them the gospel of God.” (Rom.1:14)
We also have a debt to the whole church – to every believer – to show them love. The Bible says “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.” (Rom.13:8).
How are we to clear this two-fold debt – to share the gospel with the world and to love every child of God? Is it money we need or human abilities primarily? No. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. That was what Jesus told His disciples to wait for (Acts 1:8). That is what Paul told Timothy to kindle afresh within him (2 Tim.1:6)
Shut the door and seek God in secret. Pursue after love and seek earnestly for the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and especially for the gift of prophecy (1 Cor.14:1). You can then go forth and clear your debt. That is the message of this passage of Scripture.
That widow filled every vessel she could find. She not only cleared her debt with that oil, but blessed and enriched her neighbours too – for she must have sent those vessels back to them full of oil. That is our calling too – to bless our neighbours and everyone we meet. This is why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Proverbs 15 :16
Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Get your priorities right! Solomon, who tried everything life can offer, compared things for us, so we can avoid perplexity and the pain of wrong priorities. What is better – being poor with the fear of the LORD, or being rich without it? The answer is simple! Make the fear of the LORD most important in your life, for it has great reward and will save you from trouble. In other words, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Tim 6:6).
Who cares what’s in the bank, if you know the living God and His Son Jesus Christ? It does not matter what you are eating or wearing, or where you live! The fear of the LORD is a gift from heaven in your soul, for the world has none (Rom 3:18). Many thousands of martyrs burned slowly and painfully at the stake with great hope and peace, for their hearts were filled with the fear of the LORD. They would not bow to any man, confess any heresy, nor defraud their Savior or His scriptures of even one jot or tittle of glory.
What did Solomon conclude after testing every possible means for human happiness and purpose in life? Read it: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl 12:13). There should be no questions in your mind. This is the most important thing for you to find and keep.
This is no servile fear of miserable anxiety and debilitating intimidation – this is the awestruck reverence and overwhelming affection for the blessed and glorious God that fills the soul with confident joy! It leads to angry hatred for sin and passionate craving for holiness. It causes sober trembling before His blessed word and eager desire to learn more. It leads to a life of godliness and love with fruit the world can never bear.
The real issue here is the fruit of fearing God – godly living in truth and wisdom. Note the contrast with “trouble.” And compare these similar statements: “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right” (16:8). “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich” (28:6). “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked” (Ps 37:16).
Fearing God will bring peace and joy, confidence and contentment, and all the blessings of heaven (10:22; Ps 112:1-3; 115:13; 128:1-6; 147:11; 145:19). Guaranteed! Why would you want anything else? Treasure by itself is vanity and vexation of spirit, as Ecclesiastes describes in detail; but it is even more so with the trouble that comes from not fearing the Lord (12:21; 19:23). Even poverty can be okay, if you fear the Lord. If all this is true, and it is; then great care must be used to marry and live with one fearing the LORD (31:30).
Get your priorities right! Solomon, who tried everything life can offer, compared things for us, so we can avoid perplexity and the pain of wrong priorities. What is better – being poor with the fear of the LORD, or being rich without it? The answer is simple! Make the fear of the LORD most important in your life, for it has great reward and will save you from trouble. In other words, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Tim 6:6).
Who cares what’s in the bank, if you know the living God and His Son Jesus Christ? It does not matter what you are eating or wearing, or where you live! The fear of the LORD is a gift from heaven in your soul, for the world has none (Rom 3:18). Many thousands of martyrs burned slowly and painfully at the stake with great hope and peace, for their hearts were filled with the fear of the LORD. They would not bow to any man, confess any heresy, nor defraud their Savior or His scriptures of even one jot or tittle of glory.
What did Solomon conclude after testing every possible means for human happiness and purpose in life? Read it: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl 12:13). There should be no questions in your mind. This is the most important thing for you to find and keep.
This is no servile fear of miserable anxiety and debilitating intimidation – this is the awestruck reverence and overwhelming affection for the blessed and glorious God that fills the soul with confident joy! It leads to angry hatred for sin and passionate craving for holiness. It causes sober trembling before His blessed word and eager desire to learn more. It leads to a life of godliness and love with fruit the world can never bear.
The real issue here is the fruit of fearing God – godly living in truth and wisdom. Note the contrast with “trouble.” And compare these similar statements: “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right” (16:8). “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich” (28:6). “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked” (Ps 37:16).
Fearing God will bring peace and joy, confidence and contentment, and all the blessings of heaven (10:22; Ps 112:1-3; 115:13; 128:1-6; 147:11; 145:19). Guaranteed! Why would you want anything else? Treasure by itself is vanity and vexation of spirit, as Ecclesiastes describes in detail; but it is even more so with the trouble that comes from not fearing the Lord (12:21; 19:23). Even poverty can be okay, if you fear the Lord. If all this is true, and it is; then great care must be used to marry and live with one fearing the LORD (31:30).
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