Rejoice and Exult!

In a fellowship over dinner just few day ago I came to realise subjectively what it means to be reproached and persecuted by religionists. Never did I realise that the Lord's recovery is spoken against by religionists in my hometown, even dubbing me of spearheading the "movement." In fact, I never remembered an occasion fighting with the religionists. Every time I went to my hometown, I would only minister the word of God wherever and whenever I was requested to. In fact, to all whom I have ministered, all of them have received with much joy. And I had not faced one person questioning me on the authenticity of the revelation of the truth. Besides, wherever the Lord led me to minister, the issuing result is the people turning to God in a much more serious and deeper way, some even experiencing life transformation. Even the opening of the divine truth has led some seekers of the Lord Jesus Christ to take a stand for the testimony of Jesus in their localities as the local churches. No wonder, when light shines, darkness has to flee; when truth is revealed, falsehood has to recede; when the genuine testimony of the Lord are raised up, degraded religionists for sure would oppose and fight back. The pure work of God will stand the test of Satan's attack from all angles, but the gates of hades will never prevail against the builded church. 

This realisation of the religionists' attack reminds me of what the Lord said in Matthew 5:11.

11 Blessed are you when they ¹reproach and persecute you, and while speaking lies, say every evil thing against you because of Me.

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11¹ When we live a life for the kingdom of the heavens, in the spiritual nature of the kingdom and according to the heavenly principles of the kingdom, we are reproached, persecuted, and evilly spoken of, mostly by the religious people, who hold to their traditional religious concepts. The Jewish religionists did all these things to the apostles in the early days of the kingdom of the heavens (Acts 5:41; 13:45, 50; 2 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 3:8). Recovery Version

To such, my reaction is that I turned to the Lord and thanked Him for this opportunity to experience what He had said when He was on the earth. Indeed, it was a privilege to be able to experience such an undeserving honor. I rather felt humbled in that I was honored with such an experience of reproach. For the Lord will vindicate Himself in due time. Truth always triumphs! 

 

So "rejoice and exult!" is the word of the Lord. To be able to receive this ninth blessing is a real blessing indeed! To be ill spoken of, defamed, falsely accused, lied upon... all these are nothing new to me, as the Lord grace me to face these a decade ago when I came out of degraded Christianity to experience and enjoy Christ in a normal Christian life. And it wouldn't be any wonder if I continue to experience the same; it is the grace of God.

Praise the Lord for all "ill speakings" because of Jesus Christ! Therefore, rejoice and exult!

Matthew 5:12

12 ^aRejoice and exult, for your ^1breward is great in the heavens; for so they ^cpersecuted the ²prophets who were before you.

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12¹ This reward of the ninth blessing indicates that the results of the foregoing eight blessings also are rewards. This reward is great and is in the heavens; it is a heavenly reward, not an earthly one. Recovery Version

A Train Journey

A train journey from New Delhi to Chennai was not a strange trip to me any longer; for I had frequented the city for various reasons, ranging from academic to spiritual even to personal. However, the trip this time was special as the Lord's speaking during the journey was spectacular. As much as I was on a train journey literally, so much the more was I in a train journey spiritually. This reminds me of human life that begins from a source and ends at a destination. Between these two stations are the journey of life. The "bon voyage" of the journey depends on two crucial factors: the tract and the engine, of course, the passengers' coach is dependent on these two. 

In our life's journey, the tract that has to be followed is the word of God; the written word of God, the logos, and the Spirit's speaking through the written word, the rhema. These comprises the tracts. Upon the word of God with its logos and rhemas, there is the need for the "engine," the Holy Spirit, that drives the train. Basically, our life's journey too must be by the power of the Holy Spirit based on the word of God. 

Such was my experience in this trip. As I was reading and studying the word of God as my daily portion, the speaking of the Lord was so marvelous. 1 Kings 2:1-3 records the journey from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to Jordan, and finally the receiving of the double portion of the spirit of Elijah upon Elisha; a step by step guide for a normal Christian life to be clothed with the Holy Spirit for the economy of God.

Gilgal was a place where God's people were circumcised to deal with their flesh (Josh. 5:2-9); Bethel is the place to give up the world and turn to God absolutely, taking God as everything (Gen. 12:8); Jericho, the first city that Joshua and the people of Israel had to defeat when they entered into the good land, signifies the head of God's enemy, Satan (Josh. 6:1-27); and the river Jordan, where the New Testament baptism began, signifies death (Matt. 3-5-6 and note 6,2). To cross the river Jordan, Elijah struck the water with his mantle, which typifies the outpoured Spirit, the Spirit of power (v.8). The Spirit of power dealt with the river of death so that the way was opened for Elijah and Elisha to cross over. All this signifies that in order for the age to be changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our experience, we must deal with our flesh (Gal;. 5:24), give up the world and turn to God (1 John 2:15-17), defeat Satan (Rev. 12:11), and pass through death (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 2:20). Recovery Version footnote 1 of 2 Kings 2:1.

Life's journey as a normal Christian life to fulfill God's New Testament economy is much the same. Subjectively in experience and objectively in truth, there must be the dealing of the sinful flesh, the leaving of the world to absolutely be for God, the defeating of Satan by the Lord's leading and the overcoming of death by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, these are what a normal Christian experiences in his life's journey. The issue of this experience is the receiving of the outpoured Spirit typified by the mantle of Elijah, and then the "tearing of our clothes into two pieces" in verse 12, signifying that we no longer treasure what we are and what we can do. With all these experiences, we are fully transferred from the Old to the New Testament.

This will result in our living and services being blessed by God. If one take a proper "train journey" of life, he will be a man of God filled with the Spirit of God and there will be the manifestation of what He is in all that he does. This is the precious lesson I learned from my train journey; a journey that taught me lesson of life.

This enjoyment of the word has become my portion as I shared the same with the serving ones in the office here in Chennai today morning. What a blessing that I can be a part in this train journey!

Bon voyage to the train journey of life!

Gospel Living

It has been my burden to preach the gospel in season and out of season as far as practicality allows.  Generally as a church I go with the saints on Saturdays evening. However, yesterday, it was raining the whole time and was not conducive to go out to a park. While I was studying the word and praying, I received a call from a brother inviting me for a dinner cum gospel preaching.

After we had a wholesome meal with the gospel friends who were young engineers, the burden to preach the gospel was realised. These two friends became our gospel candidates. One of them I have already met and he received the Lord already, but needs a lot of shepherding for spiritual growth, while the other was a brand new one. To the new one, we preached the gospel in a friendly way. As we ministered the word, the Spirit moved in him, and he was so convicted and convinced that he called upon the Lord's name and received the Lord. Right after the sinner's prayer with him, he clarified certain doubts about a Christian life. We presented the word as it is and gifted him the New Testament. In fact, we read some verses together. It was a wonderful evening of love-feast and gospel feast. 

The Lord was so faithful in giving us some to whom we can preach the gospel to. Even when circumstances were odd and going out to contact became impractical, still He arranged someone, somewhere, somehow to preach the gospel to, and then lead them to salvation.

The gospel is of Jesus Christ; He died for the sins of mankind. In fact, He is the Savior. Only that we, believers, have to pass on the good news of salvation to mankind that it may be applied to them in reality. The burden that I had for the gospel preaching was honored by the Lord, so He arranged people, place and time to release that burden.

Where there is a burden, there is a way. As long as one has a burden from the Lord, the Lord will always honor the burden and make way for the burden to be released. This He will do it, especially, in the matter of gospel preaching. Praise the Lord!

May we be those who are burdened by the Lord for the gospel and may we be those who live the gospel living; always burdened for the gospel and leading men to God.

Lord, burden me with Your burden to preach the gospel and bring people to You all the time. Make me a one who lives the gospel.      

Two Speakings

Time will reveal who is who in the eyes of the Lord. As for myself, I am optimistic type and always trusted in people, not because they are trustworthy, but because I trust them in the Lord. And I do continue to trust the Lord that if the ones I trust are not really trustworthy still the Lord would somehow work in them to make them truly trustworthy.

Of late, I have been "dealing" with two brothers whom I trust them despite some manifestation of "untrustworthy-ness". Though their words at times are "white-lies", still I trust them with the burden of perfecting them ultimately in this matter. The issue at which this matter of trust is in the matter of money. Money, indeed, is a true litmus test, of blue or red. No wonder, the Lord Himself said that there are two masters, God or mammon- material riches, which is measurable in monetary matter.

I have been through the thick and thin with these brothers involving money matters. And many times, there were reason not to trust them at all, if not ever. Somehow, the Lord restrained me from any form of condemnation or judgement within. Rather, as  I brought the matter before the Lord, I still have peace to trust them, for reason still not clear to me. I believe the Lord wants me to shepherd them even in money matter, perhaps, even through me?

To add more oil to the burning fuel, every time I heard of these brothers it is almost negative. This often cause me to shrink back a while and ponder over again of their integrity. Even my own feeling often condemns them as unfaithful. Yet again, as I turned to the Lord, all these cloud  of confusion faded away. And am not sure how long these two speakings, either of good or ill, will be oscillating like a pendulum. Perhaps, when time "stops?" 

Still, in the Lord, I trust them. And I hope I will continue to trust them until the end, only by virtue of being my brothers in the Lord. And I believe, ultimately, they will be perfected to be trust worthy one day. This is my hope, and this is my prayer for them too. 

Despite all that I have heard about them, yes, even despite my own feeling about them, the Lord still grace me to trust them. Whatever speakings I hear of them, either good or bad, still I will still trust them. The two speakings will gradually become one speaking, the speaking of Christ, concerning His children. 

To my discernment, often this kind of two speakings is an attempt of the enemy to create discord among brothers and create enmity, hatred, and finally divide and destroy God's children. With this discernment, I would in no way give in to the enemy's lies. And still continue to trust my brothers in the Lord, and pray for them and perfect them to be pillars for the Lord's testimony ultimately.

Lord, fill me with Your speaking only, concerning any person, matter or thing. Let any two speakings be merged into one speaking of the Lord, concerning anything. And that I may heed to Your speaking only.   

Shepherding : Our Family

These days the Lord in His mercy has been recovering the fellowship within my own family. All these while it has been that my shepherding is mostly for others who are not physically related to me. The Lord has been gracing me to visit families on a regular basis, shepherding them. Not that I neglected mine own, but paying heed to the need of time. Somehow, the Lord also has been gracing me to pray with my family and my wife has been so cooperative and good in handling the family affair which I entirely left to her, and I have been fully concentrating on the need of the saints and the new ones. 

As my sister and some other sisters came to stay with us these days, the need for setting up our own home meeting arose; as some of them are very new in the Lord and in the church life. I took this as an opportunity for shepherding. So we set up our family meeting every evening after dinner for prayer and fellowship, and every morning for morning revival and prayer. 

Giving hospitality to the needy is a real blessing to us. Because of them, as a family we could spend more solid time to pray and pursue the Lord together. In shepherding others we are being shepherded. Not only so, even our neighbour's children joined us for the morning revival every morning. They are also blessed. Every one is blessed by this simple act of hospitality at our home.

The Lord truly blessed all the meetings together, as I myself could testify in my own life. All my personal morning revival or sometimes just with my wife is now very much strengthened with the whole family and neighbour joining us. We are so shepherded.

Besides, every time we meet, the Lord has something to speak to us, some specific burdens were released for the young saints regarding their living, education, character, church life etc. And our prayer life is strengthened very much. Our burden increased, our prayer life increase, our enjoyment of the Lord also increase. What a blessing!

For such family shepherding, the Lord sent some to our family and they all are a blessing in disguise. 

The Lord has His own marvelous way of taking care of all our needs, both physical and spiritual too. The best way I find is a time spent together in the word, in prayer and in fellowship, as a family. It's a real blessing to have our own family meetings everyday. A lot of perfecting work happens here within the family; besides the blending, bonding and building. How I wish all Christian families to have their own family home meetings! Herein is the way for love to flow through among us, and herein is the way to know each others' situation and perfect one another, and herein is the way to live out a God-man family life. 

Lord, our family is for You. Bless our family meetings and perfect us all to be Your testimony as a family. 

Let's Go Papa!

Saturday is usually the day we go out to preach the gospel in the evening as a church here in Gurgaon. Last Saturday, somehow I was waiting in prayer for the gospel preaching and also for some to join me in going out, as I would prefer to go out with some saints. For some reason, no body turned up, except my five year old son. He knew that it was gospel preaching time as he used to go out with us on Saturdays.

Since I was alone with my son, I considered to stay back and pray instead. But my son kept asking me if we should be going for gospel preaching. My only faint consolation us, "Let's us wait for sometime." But deep within my decision was not to go out and stay back to pray instead. As we sat and waited, we prayed together for the Lord's move in Gurgaon, and called upon the Lord's name together. But after the prayer, my son emphatically said, "Let's go Papa!" I kind-of tried to divert his attention in stating that we would stay back to pray. But he kept on insisting, "Let's go Papa! Let's go...." until my heart melted to give in to my son's pleading.

I took that as an encouragement and the Lord's speaking to go out and preach the gospel, no matter who joined me or not. Then, I finally decided to go and told my son, "OK, Let's go..." Before going he reminded me to take more Hindi and English tracts that we would give out freely to many people in the park. He was so excited and excited me too.

We drove and he himself directed me which way we should take to go, to the gospel preaching spot, as he was familiar with the day, the time, the way and the place. 

There on the park, we had a wonderful time of meeting people, preaching the gospel and leading people to pray- leading them to the Lord. My son was my coordinator when nobody turned up to be so. He encouraged me to preach the gospel when I decided to stay back and pray instead. He became my coworker in the Lord's vineyard. What a blessing!

After preaching the gospel for about two hours I was so full of joy. How many people really received the Lord, only the Lord knows. I have no idea how much joy there would have been in the heavens when sinners received the gospel and prayed in Jesus' Name. But this I know for sure, I was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit as a result of preaching the gospel. And that too with my son in his initiation. And he was very happy too. On our way back, after a humid and hot weather, I decide to give a small reward to my son and bought him an ice cream. Oh my, he was so happy, and I too. 

Yes, "Let's go Papa" has been ringing in my year since then, to remind me to preach the gospel in season and out of season. "OK Let's go...to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ!"  

Greek : My "Father Tongue"

A year and a half has elapsed since I began my study of Greek, my "Father tongue." The Lord has been gracing me thus far to labor on this "divine language"; at times hard and at times so-so. Nevertheless, the fact that I am learning my "Father tongue" has always been a source of encouragement to me, to go on in my Greek studies. Especially when the actual translation of the Greek text to English was carried out as an exercise, I was full of joy that I can actually work on the text of the apostles. What a blessings! 

Besides, the good teachers and the state-of-the-art facility to learn this language online is definitely an added blessing. I have been a student for 20 years for my academic profession, but never once had I any joy of achieving something spectacular even in my academics successes. They were just deemed, by default, as demanded of a student. But Greek is different. Its not just for knowledge nor for education nor for personal achievement, but for God's economy. This divine goal has made studying Greek even more interesting. As a child of God isn't righteous that I know my "Father tongue" well? Of course, Hebrew is there too, but now, with Greek first.

The recent exam was a real experience indeed. I did my best to study thoroughly over and over again, both the online and text book material. Studying, memorizing, reviewing and self testing again and again. If I could study so well for my academic scholarship decade ago, why not for my "Father tongue"? I like studying it so much so that I ended up memorizing almost every table that were available for studies; of course, devising my own technique of memorization. The more I studied, the more it became easier, and I kept studying till I was 100% confident to take the exam aiming for a 100% score. 

Though I tried to fully concentrate on Greek, still my conscience would not allow me to neglect my official duty, nor family responsibilities nor the church responsibilities that the Lord graces me to bear. Amidst the closing deadline for exam, still the Lord enabled me not to neglect any of my responsibilities. To meet the need of the time, I deferred taking my Greek exam a couple of times until a day before the dateline.

When all my responsibilities at hand were accomplished, the Lord gave me time to finally review whatever I have studied, in fact, I studied all that need to be studied. And then took the exam, trusting the Lord's grace. In answering of every question I was 100% sure of the answers; questions by questions I answered them all without an iota of doubt. And finally when it was all done, praise the Lord, the ensuing result was 100%!

Though this may be trivial to some, to me it is serious and divine. I would do my best for the Lord and the Lord would grace me His best. A righteous Father will always reward His children who mean business with Him. 

Life at hand is of the Lord and for the Lord, and must be lived as such. As such pleases the Father and desires His children to be such. So is my heart in carrying whatever the Lord leads me to. 

Father, grace me to be found faithful and prudent for Your divine economy even in my learning of Greek, my "Father tongue".