Special Meetings

Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget hospitality, for through this some, without knowing it, have entertained angels. 

Remember those who are imprisoned as bound with them, those who are ill-treated as being yourselves also likewise treated in body. 

(Hebrews 13:1-3, RecVer)

This week, we are blessed to have two saints visiting the church in Gurugram. Despite the ongoing situation of our brothers' imprisonment in Mathura for over a month now, the church life goes on with much intensity. The saints have learned by now that it is indeed the hand of God in all these for His intensified move in North India especially among the saints. Though we were very worried initially and, in fact, were gripped in some kind of fear, now all that is gone. We learn to accept whatever God allows. He knows what is best for us for His testimony. Though denied bail twice at the magistrate level and session court, we did not lose hope or heart. We still pray and pray, and the Lord will do His work in His way in His own time. The saints all over the world are aware and are praying day by day. In the midst of this, our enjoyment of the church life goes on, it intensifies, and is being uplifted!

Last Lord's Day, Tuesday, and Thursday, we enjoyed the regular meetings like never before. The saints' participation grew in number and the nature of the meetings was uplifted. In addition to having saints visiting us from Pretoria, South Africa, and Bengaluru, South India, the saints who rarely joined the meetings before also joined. The group meetings were revived. In this way, brotherly love continues. And with these saints visiting us, we were shepherded to give hospitality. 

A visit of a brother was special to me as he was one of the brothers coordinating with me in the initial days of the church life in this locality some eighteen years ago. Though the Lord has allowed him to migrate to another locality and later he took up jobs leaving his full-time service, the Lord has been faithful to him and his family. Through thick and thin, he has been braving through hard times. Though he was on a business trip, I took his visit as an opportunity for me to fellowship and blend with him and also exercise giving hospitality, which I am still learning.  In this way, Hebrews 13:1 and 2 became very subjective to me. 

Yes, let brother love continue no matter what the situation of the brother may be, and not to forget hospitality, perhaps, I might be entertaining an angel. With this view, I also took him to join the Life-study pursuing meeting and then dropped him at New Delhi Airport T2. Though he insisted on going by metro, deep within I left the need for me to drop him by car, which I did. In fact, that turned out to be the longest drive I ever had to the Airport. A drive of two hours which generally would take about forty-five minutes. The traffic was terrible and I could hardly drive at about 10-15 km per hour. But that gave us more time to fellowship as we snailed through the capital city congestion. In all the fellowship, I was very much restricted by the spirit not to opine on anything good or bad. My responsibility was just to give hospitality and pay heed to whatever brother felt to share. No opinion. We are all in the Lord's hand. He is working on each one of us.

Besides, last Wednesday a couple of saints visited the brothers in the prison in Mathura and gave us a very encouraging report about the situation of the brothers. They were all rejoicing. Physically, they all had a good time of rest; doing nothing but eat and sleep. Last Lord's Day, when one sister mentioned the need to rejoice in the midst of trials, I quoted a verse and we all sang together the verse.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4

These were all the special meetings the Lord blessed the church with these days even as He brought us to experience Hebrews 13:1-3.