Glorious Sunday

 

It's been a while I penned down the weight of my thoughts, as I reflect upon the resurrection of Jesus, thoughts flooded my mind. Every Sunday we often start the week with a fresh beginning. As the sun dawns on Sunday morning, we start the day with lot of hopes and dreams. However, as we navigate through the week, we often get exhausted by the chores, struggles, and difficulties of this world. In the midst of all the chaos, hurting, and disappointments in this fallen sinful world, we all look for hope in our bleak situations.   

On the day of resurrection of Jesus, it is not just another Sunday, 

it is the Sunday, that broke the history of mankind forever, 

the Sunday that dawned hope for the human mankind, 

the Sunday that destroyed the chasm between God and man, 

the Sunday that changed the lives of many forever, 

the Sunday that turned down the lives of many, 

the Sunday that brought the lost sheep back to the shepherd, 

the Sunday that gave hope to many, 

the Sunday that quenched the deeper longing of human heart, 

the Sunday the Almighty God entered our undeserving human heart. 

How often do we take time to understand the depth of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross? How often we reflect upon the greatness of the resurrection of Jesus and the hope that brings to our lives? I hope that let this Sunday is not just another Sunday, May God open our eyes to understand the depth of the work of Jesus on the Cross and what it meant to us personally. Let us take off our minds and hearts from all the burdens, chores and distractions of this world and focus on the work of Jesus on the cross. May His resurrection renew our minds and transform our hearts into His likeness, and fill our hearts with His peace and joy that He alone can offer us.

Happy Easter  

The Blessing of Giving

In a world of consumeristic mindset, we tend to give or invest only when we get benefits in return. It was considered giving as loss and receiving as gain in our society. We always ask God to fill our cups with overflowing but we hesitate to empty our cups for the sake of God. But Jesus has emphasized more on giving than receiving as Apostle Paul claims in Acts 20 : 35 that Jesus says 

"It is more blessed to give than to receive". 

Though giving is often associated with money, Jesus has talked about giving not only in terms of money but our time, energy, resources and our lives. He did not separate our lives from giving. After the creation of mankind, the first offering to God was given by Abel and Cain. Genesis 4:3-4 says 

"Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil...... while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock....". 

It clearly shows that Abel had given himself to the Lord (more than his offering) by giving Him utmost priority of his life by offering the best portions of his flock. Though Cain is also interested in offering to Lord, he did not have a heart to give first and foremost place to God and thereby offered only some of the fruit of the soil. God is not interested to settle only in some areas of your lives, He is looking for your utmost attention and priority by complete surrender as Abel did as it says in Genesis 4:4-5 

"God looked with favor on Abel....... but no regard for Cain" 

Even when Jesus saw a poor widow offering all she had, it drew the attention of Jesus as He says in Mark 12 : 44

"Everyone gave some out of their wealth but the poor widow gave all she had to live on in spite of her poverty." 

God looks at the intention of your giving more than your offering. The Almighty God does not need our giving to build his kingdom but He yearns to have our utmost love as He himself gave his one and only begotten son on the cross to redeem us from our sins. We often wonder how much are we supposed to give ? When people confessed their sins and asked John what are they supposed to do ? I often wonder why John says to give one shirt to the poor, if you have only two instead of three. It shows that we are supposed to look at the needs of others the same way we look at the needs of ourselves. Bible talks a lot about giving than any other subject as it is full of examples with people, who have offered sacrificially to the Lord and people, who are stingy in their offering.     

In our christendom, we can observe people, who falls in four categories of giving.

Ungiving - people who are not willing to give though God bless them abundantly

Limited Giving - people who are willing to give only some of what God has given them like Cain did

Liberal Giving  - people who are willing to give generously, but only after their needs are met 

Sacrificial Giving - people who are willing to offer sacrificially in spite of their own needs being unmet like the poor widow.

We are so sincere and committed to things where we can have benefits in return but we think a lot to invest in things where we don't get anything in return, though it is beneficial to others. But Jesus says in Luke 6 : 35 

"Love your enemies. Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting anything in return " 

Let us examine our lives, where are we in terms of our giving to the Lord. Are we willing to give to the works of the Lord, poor and needy sacrificially without expecting anything in return or we are stingy in our offerings in spite of all the blessings that God has blessed with ? Let us pray God to transform our hearts to the point of sacrificial giving and be a blessing to the people around us.

Vulnerability and Illusion of Power, Fame and Wealth

Power, wealth, and fame are the some of the factors, which are considered to be successful in our modern society. We put lot of our efforts, time, and energy to achieve these factors to be successful in our lives. Though it seems to be very attractive, enticing and captivating, it will soon end up in fleeting pleasure and makes you empty. Solomon, who has enjoyed all the pleasures of the world with incredible wealth, power and intelligence says in all his wisdom

"Everything is fleeting and meaningless .............under the sun".   

In other words, if we become self sufficient with our achievements and wealth and take God out of the picture, whatever great your achievement can be, whatsoever wealth you acquire, it will be meaningless and fleeting. Though God does not oppose us to be wealthy or to achieve great things as He is the source of all blessings, He wants us to seek Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and trust Him alone, who can satisfy our spiritual, emotional and physical needs. Though it is not evil to have wealth or power or fame, it makes you vulnerable to be self sufficient and turn away from God, if your heart is not right with God. There are many servants of God, who has been chosen by God, but failed to withstand against the temptations of power and wealth, yielded to the fleeting pleasures, turned away from God with tragic ending by ruining their lives. Jeroboam was one such example, whom God has chosen to be the king of Israel. Though he was very diligent and industrious and capable leader, he failed to trust in God and obey his commands. He started off well but ended up in a tragic manner. Initially, he did not chase after power and relied on God though everything around him seems to be contradicting to the promise he received from the Lord. After becoming a king, he failed to trust in God, started to be anxious in securing his power and life and set up a religion of his own convenience, misleading the people of Israel from the ways of God. Even though God gave him second chance to repent by sending a man of God to Jeroboam,  he rebelled against God instead of repenting from his sins, and eventually, lost his power, life and brought disaster on the people of Israel.

Even in our lives, God might have blessed us with lot of riches and blessings of the world. But our attitude towards the worldly riches reflects our relationship with God. Sometimes, we may feel self sufficient with all the riches God has given us and feel secured in our wealth and achievements, thereby failing to honor God with our lives. You don't even need to be a wealthy person to fall into the traps of worldly riches, you can be moderate in your economic status, but if your heart is not right with God, you may soon succumb to the traps of the worldly riches. God might have given us second chances or warned us to set right our lives, how are we responding to God's warning? Are we still rebelling against God or repenting from our sins ? God sent Samuel to confront Saul, but Saul did not admit and repent from his sins and lost track of God's purpose for his life. God sent Nathan to confront David, David was broken in his spirit and repented from his sins. Though David did great sins of murder and adultery compared to Saul and Jeroboam, God forgave David when he repented and called him "a man after God's own heart". No matter, how dreadful our sins are, God is willing to restore us, but are we willing to confess and repent from our sins ?  Let us examine our attitude towards the worldly riches and reflect on our relationship with Jesus lest we may lose track of our vision and fall into the temptations of wealth, fame and power.

Are you a fan or follower ?

We are living in times, where entertainment is one of the lucrative fields such as movies, sports, social networks, etc and celebrities are considered as icons of our society. We celebrate, admire and even try to imitate their looks and costumes of the celebrities, whom we admire the most. We love to have a pic with them or spend some time with them. But we cannot have a personal relationship with them. We can have personal relationship only with the ones with whom we can share our lives and love their presence even if we don't get benefits from them. When Jesus was in this world, he was also considered as a public figure, who was popular among the crowds. When he was ministering people, many people went after him, some for miracles and signs, some for healings, some for accusing him, etc. But unfortunately, only a few recognized and followed him by completely surrendering themselves.

In our present times, we can see that christianity has spread all over the world but unfortunately the sacrifice on the cross has been diluted and most of the christians today have become mere admirers of Jesus looking at him only for benefits but not for Himself. Most of our churches have become stadiums full of fans, who are enthusiastic admirers cheering and being entertained but leave Jesus when they leave the church failing to enrich their lives. In chapter 6 of John gospel, we can see the picture of huge crowd following him. But when Jesus offered himself and invited them to follow Him, fans went home and the crowd thinned out. Jesus was not interested in fans looking only for benefits but he is looking for ardent and committed followers. Jesus did not try to stop them from leaving him, in fact he looked at the left out disciples and asked them whether they also want to leave Him. He says in Luke 9 : 23 "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." He sets up the prerequisites of two qualities to follow Him, one is dying to self and other is to carry the cross. Dying to self refers to dying to our own plans and desires and obey to His plans completely. Cross represents the symbol of suffering and sacrifice. Until and unless sacrifice is demanded, true commitment does not come out. Relationships are often tested only during the trials and crises. As long as things goes the way they expect it to be, everyone love to be in their relationships. But when things does not happen the way they want it to be, relationships starts to fall apart if it does not have deeper commitment. Even the left out disciples have also been tested from time to time to see whether they have the deeper commitment to follow Jesus.

We can have a deeper commitment to Jesus only when we can have complete surrenderance to Him. He does not want us to keep him off the limits in certain areas and complete surrenderance only in few areas. When he started to preach in the sermon on the mount, he talks about every area of our lives : our anxieties, finance, relationships, work, etc. he does not want us to surrender keys only in a few areas but to surrender the master key to him with complete obedience, because he is not interested to merely change our lives but to turn your life upside down with a brand new life. He is not interested to settle in our lives in a small box of religion or ritual of few minutes of prayer whispers in morning and evening and few hours of christian meetings. He expects us to love him with all our heart, because he first loved us unconditionally when we are still sinners and sacrificed himself on the cross to redeem us from our bondage of sins. C T Studd rightly said that

"Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last."

Jesus loves to have an intimate relationship with us, the way Jesus had with the father. But are we willing to love him not for benefits but just to be in His presence. If we look at the history of christianity since the ascension of christ, we can clearly see that disciples are the ones, who are game changers of the world. They are the ones who have created a difference among the lives of the people and effectively shared the love of Jesus through their lives not just by mere words. Are a fan or follower of Jesus ?

- Inspired from external sources

Are you acting in faith or fear ?

Life is a tide of crest and troughs, where there will be peaks of celebration, joy, happiness, success and valleys of trials, temptations, suffering, failures.

As Bethany Hamilton, a committed believer and renowned surfer says " Life is a lot like surfing… When you get caught in the impact zone, you’ve got to just get back up. Because you never know what may be over the next wave."

It is very true that sometimes when we are caught in the impact zone, we stumble, get confused, loose hope and succumb to sorrow and depression. But Paul says in Philippians 4: 6-7 " Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything....Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. ...."

In the Chapters 13 and 14 of I Samuel, we can see the response of two people, who are going through a tough time, where one acted in fear of people but the other acted with faith in God. We can see the ironical behavior of a father and son, where the father Saul acted in fear that his army was dwindling, philistines are attacking and disobeyed God by offering the burnt offering to God, which was supposed to be done by Samuel. He was looking for God's favor without having patience to wait for God's time. On the other side of the story, we can see the son of Saul, Jonathan acting with faith in God. He took his armor man and creeped near the philistine army and started attacking the Philistines trusting that God will deliver them into his hands. Though he was alone with his armor man facing a vast army with innumerable soldiers and huge number of chariots, he remembered the great things God has done in the past and trusted that the God whom he worships is powerful than the vast army and He will fight on behalf of him.

Many times in our lives, we try to fight the battle on our own. When we are caught in the impact zone of our lives, we fail to realize that the one who is within us is greater than the one who is in the world. We try to look for help from people, our job, our relationships, our money, and act in fear of our circumstances and succumb to depression eventually hurting our God as well as ourselves. When we get depressed, it not only hurts us but also our Lord because He wants us to be filled with the river of living water but we fill our hearts with fear and depression. David says in Psalm 62 "Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." Let us introspect our lives and ask God to help us to act in faith but not in fear. It is easy to trust in God when everything goes fine in our lives but our true faith comes out only when things become tough in our lives. Are you trusting God even at times when you are caught in storms and things goes out of your control ? Let us examine our lives and ask God to help us to trust him at all the times of our lives.

Only One Life By C.T. Studd

Two little lines I heard one day,
Traveling along life’s busy way;
Bringing conviction to my heart,
And from my mind would not depart;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgement seat;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice,
Gently pleads for a better choice
Bidding me selfish aims to leave,
And to God’s holy will to cleave;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill,
living for self or in His will;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

When this bright world would tempt me sore,
When Satan would a victory score;
When self would seek to have its way,
Then help me Lord with joy to say;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep,
In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;
Faithful and true what e’er the strife,
Pleasing Thee in my daily life;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Oh let my love with fervor burn,
And from the world now let me turn;
Living for Thee, and Thee alone,
Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say,”Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

                                                                  - C T Studd

Tragic Ending or Blessed Ending

When the race was about to start, most of the athletes will be very enthusiastic and energetic to win the race. Unfortunately, some may loose the pace of their race, some may get injured and some may get lost before completing the race. Only a few will make it to the end and finish the race with flying colors. As Paul rightly says in I Cor 9 : 24 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize", it is very important to be consistent and complete the race than just a mere beginning. It is a general tendency to take resolutions during the start of a new year. But only a few will be consistent in their decision till the end of the year. When we look at some of the lives in the word of God, we can see a lot of people, who faithfully started their relationship with God but failed to complete well, which ended up in tragic ending.

Eli started with a faithful relationship with Lord for many years. But when we look at his last days, he was cursed and died due to the failure of being a responsible father. Iscariot Judah started well and followed Jesus though many deserted Him, but failed in the end. Saul was chosen by God and started with a humble beginning, but failed to be a successful king, struggled with self-esteem and lost track of his vision and finally committed suicide.

In our relationship with Jesus, we might have started well when we got saved. We might have started our spiritual journey with lot of burden for perishing souls and passion to live for God but over the course of time, many of us loose track of our goal and waylaid by worldly attractions and shallow commitment with Jesus. Do we have a strong commitment to stand for Jesus to go to any extreme to pay the price whatever it takes or mere believers with shallow commitment. Jesus clearly says in Revelation 3 : 16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." C T Studd rightly said that "Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last." Acts 7 : 56 shows the beautiful picture of the son of man standing at the right hand of God to receive Stephen, when he was being stoned to death. How marvelous and blessed it will be to hear that one word "Well Done My Servant" from our master when we are reaching the end our race. Let us examine and recommit our lives with a strong commitment to live for Jesus till the end. 

Are you seeking self or God ?

Jesus said in Mark 16 : 24 "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

In this verse, Jesus told explicitly that discipleship starts with self-denial. Self - denial is the first step to our journey of discipleship.

Today, we are living in a self-seeking world, we all want to take control over our lives. We want God to satisfy our needs and bless us, we want our relationships to meet our expectations and please our desires. We want to make our dreams come true at any cost. We feel so depressed, so discouraged and downcast when things wont work the way expected it to be.

But God says we are not here to satisfy our desires and live our lives as we plan, we are here to please our creater and fulfill His divine plan and vision for our lives.

Self-denial does not mean having no desires or killing our desires, it means that placing the will and desire of God above our desires and placing the needs of others above our own needs.

It is perfectly exemplified in the life of Jesus. Jesus did not come to this world to fulfill his desires but to accomplish the plan of the Father. So God the father exalted the name of Jesus above all names.

When we are too much occupied to please our self,  we not only hurt our selves we hurt the people around us. Self-seeking always ends up in destruction.

Satan always uses our desire of self-seeking and exploits it to fall into his trap. He used the same template from the beginning at Garden of Eden to tempt Eve by luring Eve to gratify the desires of her eyes, which ended up in a fallen world. It used the same strategy to tempt Cain that he could not accept when God rejected his offering, which, resulted in murder. Even it tempted Jesus by claiming that it can offer whole world to Jesus if Jesus can worship him.

So let us examine our lives and discern the cynical schemes of devil whether we are too much occupied to please our selfish desires or we are placing our desires in the hands of our creater to be blessing for many people.

Is church enriching or entertaining ?

We are living in times where number of churches are increasing but number of disciples are reducing. Jesus did not want us to be mere christians, he yearned us to be disciples. Mathew 28 : 19 says "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,..." Though the number of members in churches are increasing, number of disciples are not growing. As one of the famous preachers R Stanley told that
"A sick church cannot save the dying world".

A good hospital is one, which transform patients to healthy people.
A good educational institution is one which transforms novice people to learned people
A good church is the one which transforms novice christians to ardent believers.

A good church is obliged to help a novice christian to grow in an intimate relationship with God, who can discern the voice of God, who can be a light and salt of this world and lead others to christ not just by mere words but through their lives. But unfortunately, today most of the believers are still like babies as Apostle Paul says in Hebrews 5 : 12 : "You have been believers so long now you ought to be teaching others........... you are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food".

As an ardent disciple of Christ, we are obliged to deny ourselves and have compassion for the needy people, who are yearning for their physical needs, financial needs, emotional needs and above all spiritual needs as Jesus says in Mathew 16 : 24 "Whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me daily."

We are obliged to be like the good samaritan, who demonstrated his love for his neighbor in action instead of the priest who might have merely prayed without showing it in action as James 2 : 17 says "Faith without works is dead".

As we are living in the end days, it should be our utmost priority  to introspect our personal relationship with God as well as relationship with fellow believers.

Let us all thrive to be disciples,  rather than mere christians. May God rekindle the fire of passion to burn brightly for our savior and draw the dying world to the love of Christ through our lives instead of being mere christians.

Imperfect Vessel in Perfect Hands

Lord, I surrender myself unto thee
    Take this weak vessel and use me Lord
      for thy noble purpose and for thy glory
Though my sins are like scarlet
      Turn it to as white as snow
Though my flesh is weak
      Turn my weakness to thy strength
Though i am a defective vessel
  Turn my deficiency to thy abundance

Lord, how great thou art
   you choose lowly and infallible vessel like me
   for the manifestation of thy glory
I submit to thy glorious hands
   as a brittle clay in the hands of a tender potter
Break me and mold me
   Made me and refine me
   so that I will be reflection of thine

Lord, fill my vessel with thy spirit
    Let me burn with the passion to live for you
    Let my cup overflow with thine peace
       Let your river of joy flow through me
    Let me be a vessel which carries thine presence
       Let people around me feel thine presence in me
    Let me be a channel of blessing
       for the people around me
     Let me be a channel to draw people to thy presence.