Fellowship on Marriage

This month seems to be the time for a brother and a sister who have been faithfully waiting for one another in obedience to the brothers fellowship to wait for the prorpr time to take their relationship forward. Two years ago, a brother decided to consecrate his two years, to join the full time training. One regulation for such is to not have any relation with anyone so as to fully concentrate on his training. Likewise, the sister took the same fellowship from the brother to wait until the brother's training period of two years is over. 

Meanwhile, the sister was introduced to me and then to the church. Following a gospel preaching and shepherding, she believed into the Lord Jesus and got baptised. Since then, she has been regularly pursuing the Lord and has been regular in the church meetings. I also kept my words and did not mention anything about marriage to either of them or even to the brothers in the church. 

Last week, the brother has finally completed his two years training. Therefore, as the Lord arranged the time, I spent a personal time of fellowship with him concerning his marriage. Likewise, I also spent a time of personal fellowship with the sister in the presence of my wife. In this way, the two have been led to take the Lord’s way through fellowship and prayer. The next step is to bring them to the church brothers and their families.

This is how the Lord has been leading us to pray, wait, fellowship, and consider the situation of the saints so that they would be shepherded in their marriages and take the Lord’s way to go on, all for the Lord’s testimony. 

This is a lesson in fellowship on marriage matter. Still, we are in the learning process. May the Lord continue to lead us on and on in shepherding many young ones to seek the Lord’s perfect will for their life, especially for their marriage.

Channel of Offering

Offering from the Lord blessings is a healthy way to enjoy the Lord’s blessings. All that we have are all from the Lord. He is the Source of every good and positive things in the universe.

Though I had already offered from the blessing proceeds from our investment, I still felt I should offer more. However, since I also participated in spending for the matters related to the Lord’s work in buying things for the sake of meeting the need though I realy did not need them, and also spending from my own pocket for an outstation visit with the brothers, I kind of settled that my portion of offering was completed. However, I still felt I should offer more, and therefore, finally decided in prayer to offer more and did so to the local church bank account. Only then, I got inward peace and joy. 

Ultimately, everything we receieved were from the Lord. Even in offering, I must follow the Lord's inward leading by peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In this way, I was helped to manage my finance properly. The best financial management is done through offering and following the Lord's leading in money matters.

Besides, I also received some other offerings which werre to be offered further. There was one particular amount that I needed to decide, but the burden was for the needy saint sin Maniour due to the recent situations. So, I waited, prayed, and fellowshipped with the brothers in Imphal and Lamka. When it was made clear through fellowship, that pending amount too was transferred to a needy family in the church life in Lamka.

In this way, my conscience became clear, following the Spirit's leading in distribution of gifts to the needy saints. In this way, I have been blessed to be a blessed channel for the Lord’s blessing to pass through. 

Lord, grace me to be a blessed channel for Your life to pass through, even material offerings. 

Shepherding a New Family

The Lord knows when to give and bring jn the increase in the church. We  have been praying and shepherding the families the Lord gave us. With much labor, we look to the Lord for increase. In fact, the Lord can also give the increase as He wishes. Though we will not neglect our part in praying and shepherding whomever the Lord gives, the ultimate result is with the Lord. If He bless, the church is blessed. And He will always bless His church.

Two weeks ago, a new family came to attend the Lord’s Day meeting, a family introduced by one of our sisters. They came basically for spiritual food supply especially for the younger ones. For whatever reason they came, it was the Lord who brought them into the church.

The following Friday night, my family visited the new family upon their invitation for lovefeast dinner. We went and enjoyed a time of fellowship and dinner when they opened up about their family situation. We got to know them better so that we may know how to shepherd them as well. As a custom, may be, they gift an envelope before I left. Though I told them that this should not be done and that being the first time I would not disappoint them this time. But deep within, I felt not to use it personally, whatever the amount. Instead, I purchased some good ministry books and gifted it to them back. So I selected some good booklets and good ministry books suitable for the family and gifted them on the Lord’s Day along with the HWMRs for them to start diving into the minsitry.

Since they are new to the church life, we would continue to pray for them and shepherd them in every possible way. The Lord has brought them and I trust, He will also keep them faithful for the Lord’s testimony in Gurugram. 

It is altogether upto the Lord to bring people into the church. We have exhausted all possible ways we could possibly think of, to gain new ones. Only the Lord can being people into His flock. Our responsibility is to cooperate with Him in gaining people for the Lord.

So far, we have been shepherding them according to what we sense their needs were. I do believe the Lord will continue to shepherd them through the ministry of the word. 

Lord, preserve this new family for Your testimony in Gurugram!

A Day of Training

Right after I was healed from my bodily weakness, I was with the short-term trainees for a day of training classes. In fact, I was healed the very morning I was to take the classes when the whole week I was mostly taking rest. 

The first two classes in the morning in coordination with a brother were on what is life and what is the experience of life. A brother first did the truth presentation and I followed to release the burden. 

In the first class, I released the burden on the need to experience life in addition to merely knowing the truth concerning life. I even asked each one to recollect the day they first believed into the Lord Jesus or got baptised. The burden was to help them know the eternal and divine life of God is reality and that the best way to know life is by experiencing life.

On knowing the experience of life, I gave an example of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:1-22. Through the personal experience of life, Saul, a persecutor of Christ became a propagator of Christ. What changed him was the experience of life! When the Lord met him in the form of a great light, he believed into the Lord when God touched him and he touched God. There was a spiritual transaction between God and him that resulted in being a totally different person. In both the classes, the Spirit's move was so strong. The trainees echoed their reception of the ministry of the word with strong prayers.

The result of experiencing life in which God passed through man and man passed through God is man becomes a tranformed person. God's life was dispensed into him to make him God-man. All that a man needs is the dispensing of God. This transforms a person and also fulfills God’s eternal purpose.

In the afternoon, I had a class on Bible reading and prayer when I presented the truth points from Life Lesson on the same subject and gave practical ways with testimonies of Bible reading and prayer life. The burden the Lord gave me was to hlep all the young ones to inculcate in them a habit of daily Bible reading and prayer. This is a foundation for their Christian life, for their growth and function in the Body. 

Meanwhile, my wife and other sisters coordinated in cooking for all the trainees, both lunch and dinner. In this way, the church in Gurugram enjoyed the grace from the Lord to participate in the training by supplying spiritual and physical food to all the trainees.

The day was a well spent day. After the class, I also got to visit a distant family who came to Delhi for medical treatment. And then, as a family, we also visited another family for dinner in the night. The whole day was a day of ministering the word and fellowship. Praise the Lord for His grace to participate in His move!

A Week of Weakness

A few days after I came back from the ministry literature journey, my body became weak. However, due to the responsibilities I bear as a father in the family, as a brother in the church, and as a director in the office, I did not take much rest. I still went on and on to do what I felt I should do. My body could not take too much load and I felt sick. Even in sickness, I still did my best to read my Bible and pray. Though for a few days I was not able to go out for prayer as usual. Still, I prayed as I took rest in my bed. My body weakness went on for about a week and I did not resort to medicine. I prefer to let my body rest and fight the disease back. So, I let my body heal itself with proper rest and adequate diet. 

This week of bodily weakness was a time of rest for me. Otherwise, I would not have given my body so much rest. During this time too, I learned that the Lord wanted to teach me a lesson on health, especially in my eating habit. Rice and spicy chilly that I liked so much and ate in every meal were reduced. Besides, I also cut down on my food consumption drastically, perhaps by about 30 to 50 percent. This was a timely medical advice in real life. Without such time of body weakness, I would not have learnt this precious lesson. Thank the Lord for His timely visitation of grace!

This week of weakness had changed my schedule altogether. I was supposed to spend time on my Hebrews class and complete what was left out, but my plan could not be carried out due to this unavoidable circumstances. I accepted the Lord’s sovereignty. He knows what is best.

Gradually, after a week of rest, my body recovered back. And in fact, the Lord healed me just in time to be able to function in the short term training classes that were scheduled for me. All things indeed worked together for good.

Ministry of the Word in Keralam

Today, as we were on the ministry of the word journey in South Keralam, two similar and interesting things occurred.  

We were given an appointment with a principal of a Bible college at 10 am. As we arrived at his place, he was not to be found. Later, we were told to attend a meeting with the college students and I was surprisingly asked to minister the word. I simply followed whatever the Lord had arranged. As the students were singing worship songs, I looked to the Lord and considered what to minister. I had no idea what was going on, nor what to minister. However, I took the situation as arranged by the Lord and waited for the Lord’s leading.

When I was called to minister the word, I went to the podium, and then the word of God came to me. I knew exactly what to minister; God's Eternal Plan. Starting from Genesis 1:26 through 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 15:45; John 3:16,15;1:12,13; 6:48,57,63 and Matthew 4:4, I ministered on the creation of man with three parts to fulfill God's purpose and all the steps God took to fulfill it, and how man can fulfill God's purpose through regeneration and growth in life unto maturity. The burden God gave me was released and I concluded the meeting with a prayer. All the attendants were all from North India, Hindi-speaking brothers. 

Later, we went to another Bible college. There too, I was asked to minister the word without any prior information. When I was introduced, welcomed, and called, then only the Lord gave me the words to minister. I basically introduced the Holy Bible Recovery Version and showed Bible verses with their deep meaning and revelation contained within. I used Genesis 1:1, 2:7, Proverbs 20:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Matthew 1:1,3,6,16,21,23, the subjects of the four Gospels, the notes on the Son of David, and the four women in Matthew 1. All these explanation and exposition put together formed a message to the Bible students. Later, a good number of them purchased the Holy Bible Recovery Version. 

Surprisingly, in the two Bible colleges in the South, majority of the students are from Hindi-speaking North Indians and a few North East Indians. I ended up ministering to the Hindi-speaking students in South India. 

God is sovereign. Though the enemy tried to close the door of the gospel in the North, God sent the North Indians to the South to study the Bible and receive the ministry of the word! The Lord just sent me from the North to minister to the North Indians in South India. What an arrangement! Only the all-wise God can do this. 

Today was the ministry of the word to the Hindi-speaking brothers and sisters fron North India in South India. This was the Lord’s doing and, indeed, it was marvelous! 

Lord, bless India!

Shepherding in Keralam

During the one day gap between the conferences in North and Central Keralam on the 26th June, we had a time of shepherding visit to a family and ministering the word to a seeking believer in Palakkad where the saints are.

In the home of a brother and sister who have drifted away from the church life, I was asked to share something suddenly. Within a few seconds, I exercised my spirit and released the burden the Spirit gave at that moment, for the couple. The ministry of the word was on experiencing and enjoying the presence of the Lord even in the most difficult circumstances. When faced with situations, it is easy to blame the situations and drift away into the world or self or sin. The easiest way at such time was to be carried away by the ongoing current. Or even to pray for deliverance from such situations. But the Lord’s way was not merely deliverance, but His presence in the situation and turning it into a pleasant one as the Lord turned the blazing furnace of fire into a pleasant place for Daniel's three friends. There was no deliverance but His presence. By understanding God's way, one can gain God through all circumstances and grow unto full maturity to become the prepared Bride to fulfill God's eternal purpose. The fellowship was so timely and the couple prayed according to the words spoken.

Then, we visited a brother in his assembly hall where I was surprised by the sight I saw inside the hall. The bookshelf was almost filled with Malayalam HWMRs and on the table, the latest issue of Malayalam HWMR. I was asked to minister on the New Testament ministry and I did so with Malayalam translation for about an hour until I fully released my burden. Later, the brothers continued to fellowship directly in Malayalam. After such fellowship, the key brother purchased all the title books in Malayalam and a box of Malayalam New Testament Recovery Version. 

This experience became a strong testimony for us as we referred the same in all the three place of blending conference to encourage the saint to pay the price to buy the ministry books, pursue and be constituted with it.

The Lord indeed has reserved and preserved His seeker of the truth even in different Christian groups! O what a sight to behold the ministry books in the meeting hall of Christians who are still in different group! The ministry is for all.