Shepherding Care

Last Lord's day was as ordinary as it used to be. But what was special was, after the meeting, as a shepherding gesture I proposed to drive a brother's family back to his home, not knowing what would happen later.

When I drove the family home, I got to meet another spiritually dormant brother who hardly joins the meeting. I could spend some time cherishing him, then prayed with him. This one visit has enthused him to even come for the following week training of the church. It was very unexpected of him, who missed almost every meeting to suddenly turn up for a training, that too, a whole day training on the Crystallization-study of Ezekiel.

Later, with a brother, we went to visit a family who has not been in touch for five years or so. God had sovereignly arranged the visit in such a way that we could meet and spend solid time of fellowship with the entire family. Beginning with the father, then the son and then the mother. It was like a spiritual awakening for the family. All the three of them were very happy that we visited them, especially the father, who himself has been struggling in his life, in spiritual matters. The son wanted to have more personally time of fellowship which we fixed up for the following Lord's day, the mother also wanted to have more fellowship, and the father has already decided to regularly come for the church meeting. They, as a family, however are considering to start a Bible study in their home too as I proposed for their own benefit. May the Lord recover this family. This meeting was supposed to be just thirty minutes, as I proposed, but it turned out to be three hours long. And we did not feel time went so fast.

Later, I met another family again; mother and son. They were very happy with my visit. With few words of encouragement, I prayed with them. Though I wanted to spend more time in fellowship I had to rush to another family meeting.

Finally, I met another family who is undergoing intense mental pressure due to their grandma's hospitalization for almost two months now. It was just a cherishing time allowing the sister to pour out all her feeling, anxiety, concern, and my simple responsibility is to listen patiently to all she said. In that way, the burden deep within her was all poured out and I prayed for the family.

In words or in deeds, whatever the situation of the saints may be, cherishing them with human love and care, and nourishing them with the divine word and prayer, is a good way of shepherding. All the messages that I have been learning in ministry for shepherding has now been carried out one by one in reality. My next challenge is to bring all the saints to do the same work of shepherding care. Not I alone, but with the saints as the church, then the Lord will revive the church and gain a strong testimony, both in quality and quantity.

Lord, thank You for Your shepherding care. Shepherd us further to carry on the shepherding care of the church.     

Subtle Satan

Last week had been an intense attack subtly by Satan. How events unfolded were noteworthy; a life lesson for precaution. All attacks  were very subtle and it went from one degree to another degree. This attacks were mostly to do with my "Onesimus."  

Many temptations that befalls men are all planned out. It caught the believers unware if he or she is not living and walking by the Spirit and is not grounded and constituted with the word of God. Therefore, the basic failure of every Christian is do with the basic itself, which are very simple and easy. 

It all began with my cousin brother who missed the morning revival time, which is our regular time with the Lord corporately. Than, he missed out on corporate pursuit of the truth and prayer. Then he even missed out on the regular office service. Finally, he missed out any any meeting, either official, church, or family. I know what he has been struggling with; he simply cannot handle finance. The moment there is cash in his hand he will misuse it to his own ruin. For this reason I did not let him have hard-cash the past few months. But as he requested that he would be able to handle this time, I gave him a chance. Few days later, he fell into the same trap of misusing it.

To help him, I have prayed with him, for him, and done all that I could. I literally am running out of option. I often have also been battling between physical restriction and spiritual solution. Often, I weigh the latter more, believing in the work of the Holy Spirit rather than my own natural help. But I discovered, this alone did not suffice. When the physical restriction are not imposed it is too easy for weaker vessel to fall into the tempter's snare. So I tried both the physical restriction and spiritual means of shepherding him. The two must go hand in hand. As much as we trust in the Lord, there must also be corresponding physical support. Blind trust in spirituality may not work all the time. This is what I have discovered, at least. Praise the Lord for all the spiritual lessons.

When he was fully in a defeated state, I quietly helped him by starving him with the physical abusive substances. Yet at the same time, I helped him to exercise his spirit and prayed together with him. This experience of reviving a weak brother has become my way of shepherding people these days.

As long as the Lord tarries His return and we are still alive on this earth, we have to face the world with all satanic attack. But thank God, Christ has overcame the world with its ruler, Satan. Our only responsibility now is to allow Christ to live in me and through me. 

I have been facing the same spiritual attack upon me, my family, and the church at large too. But the Lord has taught me a lesson of turning to Him in prayer. So I emphasized the importance of the church prayer meeting, personal prayer life, and the basic spiritual exercises like Bible reading, morning revival, truth pursuit, and fellowship with fellow members of the Body of Christ. 

Paradoxically, God allows many such attacks in our lives too; for if He wouldn't, it would never have happened. Since He allows in His sovereignty, there are lessons to learn. Not to let go the lessons is the best spiritual lesson to learn. Through such attacks, learn the lessons and we will be victoriously maturing in life.

Satan may and will subtly attack, for he exists for such, but we must simply take Christ as our lives and our living, and he will be, and simply, a defeated foe. Simple spiritual exercises are the best way to counter the subtle attacks of Satan. One need not be a spiritual giant to be an overcomer, a simple Christian with all the basic spiritual exercises suffice to live an overcoming life.  

Blending Fellowship

Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, think the same thing, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11 

Make my joy full, that you think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing, Philippians 2:2 

I am being graced and being blessed to serve in the literature service in India with my fellow brothers in a way of fellowship and coordination. Though we serve One God in the one flow of the one ministry of the age, we serve in different entities with varying functions and responsibilities. Thank God, as we have been serving in this way the Lord has sovereignly ordained; we serve in fellowship with one another and also in fellowship with some more senior and  matured ones. It was through the fellowship of one such matured brother who suggested that all the literature serving ones and those serving in overseeing the Lord's work should come together and have more fellowship and prayer that we began to meet on Tuesdays for the same.

Last Tuesday we just had the first of such fellowship. It was truly of the Lord that we were grant mercy to find time to fellowship. Our relationship and coordination became very sweet and dear. I can personally testify that it has indeed become sweeter and dearer than when we had such fellowship before. Though we serve the Lord together, sometimes, there were some feelings and thoughts within on some matters that did not harmoniously blend as it should be. It was simply due to the deficiency in fellowship. At some points, difference of entities that we serves seems to work as hidden justified barrier in many aspects of our services. Now that the entities that we are involved in have been growing by the year, and the Lord also has been blessing us more  and more, without a proper and adequate check and balance in coordination, it can subtly lead to discord. Fellowship, prayer, blending and building of the serving ones are the remedy to possible anomaly. The Lord knows best and He arranges such a fellowship. To me, this is a great salvation. 

Personally I am not an outspoken person. I have been learning the lesson of obedience, humility, and submission, taking the Lord as all these virtues. But I am not matured yet, and by virtue of my being on the process of growth and maturity, often I tend to go off-track, at least in my feeling or thinking concerning how things should be done. Therefore I need the Body to measure me and balance me. I believe the same applies to others as well. And such blending fellowship balances out different feelings, thoughts, and opinions; and such blending fellowship too will blend and build us into oneness and one accord. I worship the Lord for the timely speaking and leading of the Lord.

We brothers are on our late thirties or early forties, and the responsibilities we bear are great and important, even covering the entire nation. A little misstep or a little discord can damage the Lord's work and His testimony. Therefore, it is imperative for us to be tuned into the same mind, the same thinking, the same speaking; preserving and maintaining the oneness in the Body for the sake of the Lord's interest especially in this country.

Praise the Lord for the blending fellowship! May the Lord continue to grace us to go on in this way of blending, even blended fellowship, for the sake of His testimony and move in India. 

Adieu, My Neighbour...

Last Tuesday morning my wife informed me of my neighbour being taken to hospital on a car in a very serious state. I simply reckon it must have been a heart attack and after the consultation with the doctor, proper medication must have been given and nothing to worry as such. But on the same night, I saw an ambulance parking on their courtyard, and in the morning the next day, throng of people crowed their house. By that time I guestimate that he must have passed away. Yes, I guessed it right.

Later, I visited the bereaved family to enquire and console them. They simply explained the reason for the death was an impromptu heart attack, the first and the last. The decease was the elder brother of  a joint-family and a wealthy and religious man. He had been taking a walk almost daily with his wife as we could see them go out. Death had caught him so suddenly. Irrespective of how much care one has taken on his health or well being, when the time come, it just came. A very natural death but very untimely and unexpected.

 

This news has left a deep impression in me, and in our morning prayer and pursuit, I chose a hymn, Life at best is very brief.  https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1043

Life at best is very brief,
Like the falling of a leaf,
Like the binding of a sheaf,
    Be in time!
Fleeting days are telling fast
That the die will soon be cast,
And the fatal line be passed,
    Be in time!

Be in time! Be in time!
While the voice of Jesus calls you,
  Be in time!
If in sin you longer wait,
You may find no open gate,
And your cry be just too late:
    Be in time! 

Fairest flowers soon decay,
Youth and beauty pass away;
O you have not long to stay,
    Be in time!
While God’s Spirit bids you come,
Sinner, do not longer roam,
Lest you seal your hopeless doom,
    Be in time! 

Time is gliding swiftly by,
Death and judgment draweth nigh,
To the arms of Jesus fly,
    Be in time!
O I pray you count the cost!
Ere the fatal line be crossed,
And your soul in hell be lost,
    Be in time! 

Sinner, heed the warning voice,
Make the Lord your final choice,
Then all heaven will rejoice,
    Be in time!
Come from darkness into light;
Come, let Jesus make you right;
Come, receive His life tonight,
    Be in time!

The fellowship and prayer we had was on the need for urgency in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and bringing people to salvation. Especially the ones we cared for and who are not yet saved. 

Since the time we moved to the house where we are right now, the first burden I had was to pray for the salvation of our neighbour in our community. We did have a good relationship as neighbours but not dear enough to freely go and preach the gospel. When his son got married, a brother and I attended his marriage and gifted the Holy Bible, Recovery Version. That was best gift I could think of. Thereafter, thrice I had met him for some enquiries, and in of which a brother, who is also my house owner, preached the gospel to him.

Something has been hindering us from freely and directly preaching the gospel, though we have been praying from them quite often. When the sad news of his demise was known, I could simply call, "O Lord Jesus!" Now, the burden is on the family members of the bereaved. Only the Lord may grace us to preach the gospel and bring them to salvation in a cordial way, and not to regret until another death strikes.

We did attend the "prayer meeting" for the deceased. We could only let our neighbor know that we do care for them and did our best to maintain a cordial relationship. Much more than this, the gospel has to preached as much as we prayed for them. Lord, save them!

Life, indeed, is very brief. I must aggressive labor to preach the gospel and bring sinners to salvation. This incident is a wake up call.

As for now, adieu, my neighbour...

But not another one without the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Proper Pattern

1 Thes.1:5-7 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became a pattern to all those who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.

Note from the Holy Bible, Recovery VersionThe apostles not only preached the gospel; they lived it. Their ministering of the gospel was not only by word but also by a life that displayed the power of God, a life in the Holy Spirit and in the assurance of their faith. They were the pattern of the glad tidings that they spread.

1 Thes.2:8-9 Yearning in this way over you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you became beloved to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail: While working night and day so as not to be burdensome to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

2 Thes.3:9 Not because we do not have the right, but in order that we might give ourselves to you as a pattern that you might imitate us.

The Holy Word for Morning Revival from "Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ" Week 3, The Pattern of the Apostle Paul in Cooperating with Christ's Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd people for the Building Up of the Body of Christ has left a deep imprint on me, of my need to be, if not yet, a proper pattern. Only the Lord knows if I have been a proper pattern or not. If to my own judgement, I may be far off, but I deeply long to be a proper pattern to the saints, seekers and sinners alike. With this longing I also have deep realisation that I cannot be a proper pattern by myself, for the only proper person is the Lord Jesus Himself, and without Him living in me and through me I have no way to be a proper pattern to any one, not even to myself. This message has been a classic message on being a proper person.

God cares for our person more than our work. In fact, our person is the Lord's work. Without our person being proper, the Lord's work we do can never be proper. The Lord Jesus Himself has set a perfect pattern, the apostles followed the pattern of the Lord, and now is our turn to be that pattern to the men of our generation at this time wherever the Lord has placed us.

A living testimony is the need of the day. The apostle could boldly say, "you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake" because they lived out Christ, the proper and perfect pattern. And with such living, the apostles, especially, Paul shepherded the saints with his very own life. The best way to shepherd people is by being a proper pattern to them, in words and in deeds. Paul did exactly that by living out Christ. And the same must be done by us, especially me, to live out Christ and be a proper pattern.

The best quotes are directly from the ministry books published by Living Stream Ministry from the title book mentioned above.

1. The apostles were struggling and speaking the gospel to the Thessalonians in the boldness of God (v. 2).
2. The apostles were free from deception, uncleanness, and guile (v. 3).
3. The apostles were first tested and approved by God and then were entrusted by Him with the gospel; hence, their speaking, the preaching of the gospel, was not of themselves to please men but of God to please Him; God proved, examined, and tested their hearts continually (v. 4; Psa. 26:2; 139:23-24; 2 Cor.1:12; 6:6; 7:3).
4. The apostles were never found with flattering speech or with a pretext for covetousness (1 Thes. 2:5):
5. The apostles did not seek glory from men (1 Thes. 2:6a):
6. The apostles did not stand on their authority or dignity as apostles of Christ (1 Thes. 2:6b):
7. The apostles cherished the believers and yearned over them as a nursing mother would cherish and yearn over her own children (1 Thes.2:7-8; cf. Gal. 4:19; Isa. 49:14-15;66:12-13):
8. The apostles not only imparted the gospel of God to the Thessalonians; they also imparted their own souls (1 Thes. 2:8):
9. The apostles considered themselves as fathers in exhorting the believers to walk worthily of God, to have a walk that will enable them to enter into the kingdom of God and usher them into the glory of God (1 Thes.2:11-12):

I am literally running out of words to add anything further. The truth is complete and the need of the hour is the experience of this truth. I have seen and witnessed people who serves the Lord and who are either a proper pattern or the opposite. The result itself, to the eye witnesses of the world, is obvious. Words cannot commend further than deeds. And such an exemplary living is the living expected and required of the believers today. 

Thank God, there are brothers and sisters who are still alive and are matching such a pattern as revealed in the Bible. I praise the Lord for them and pray that all the saints can be living out Christ to be proper patterns for the world to see. The world is yet to see the living out of Christ among Christians today. Only if Christians are serious about their Christian lives and desperately seeking the Lord to live out Christ, the world would watch in wonder, and many will be saved from world to bear the Lord's testimony.

It has been my prayer that all the Christians would be revived and renewed to take Christ as our lives and living, and live out Christ to be proper pattern to the people around us. Such living is the God-man living that every Christian should live out. It has been my prayer that I live out Christ as my life and be a proper pattern; not only me, but with all my family, and with all the saints in my locality, and even globally. This is what the world is waiting for.

Lord, grace me to live You and be a proper pattern.  

Shepherding Over Phone

Tapping the power of modern technology I have been using phone as a means of shepherding people whom the Lord has brought under my care. This month was kind-of intensive in this shepherding care. Three particular cases are worth mentioning as there has been God's hand behind the scenes.

Case #1

A brother called me up when I was in Allahabad concerning his mother-in-law who had serious health issue and was hospitalized. Though it was surprising, to me it was God's sovereignty. Not that I rejoiced in her illness, but that it was a channel for good. As far as I know, this was the Lord's doing; and I encouraged my brother to visit and pray for her. Perhaps, this might be a time of reconciliation and beginning a new chapter in their relationship as it was somewhat strained by misunderstanding. This was also related to his family life, and decision made by his wife and in-laws did not seem to go in line with the word of God, concerning the choice of work place and caring for children. I just prayed over the phone and encouraged my brother of what would be best to do in this situation; to first of all pray and then visit the ailing mother-in-law, and take care of the family as an exhorting father.

Case #2

Another brother had called me up again and again with a question on assurance and security of salvation as he had fallen into a grave sin of adultery. He had repented and confessed his sins to the Lord but the guilt within him did not die so soon; he had become a victim of Satan's accusation again and again. I had to spend time with him over the phone explaining the preciousness and effectiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ, and to pay heed to the word of God and not on the enemy's accusation. I later discovered that he had not be praying personally nor reading the Bible regularly. Every time he called I encouraged him to spend enough time in prayer, even quantify with at least an hour a day, and also read the word of God daily, at least a chapter a day. I appreciated his genuineness, but I need to lead him to pray and come to the word regularly. Many believers have fallen to become a victim of Satan's subtle accusation based on past sins, and perhaps, even present weaknesses. Every time he called, after fellowshipping we prayed over the phone and he testified of how much he has been encouraged.

Case #3

Another brother too called to confirm to me last week that he wanted to meet me as he has been convicted by the Lord for his straying away from the proper practice of the church-life. He expressed his deep longing to come back and be recovered for the Lord's testimony. It seemed he has been deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit that he wept before the Lord and prayed to be recovered back. He even wanted a proper baptism as he felt his life, all this while, has not been as it should have been. To me, all that who called for fellowship, I considered dear and would do my best to help in all possible ways. 

By all means, at all times, shepherding has to be carried out. There are many sheep in need of proper shepherd. Though the Lord is the only proper Shepherd, He shepherds through his shepherds whom He has been shepherding. I believe, I am one of the sheep the Lord has been shepherding so that I could in turn shepherd other sheep in need. 

Praise the Lord for the good Shepherd who has been shepherding me and others, even gracefully through me. 

Lord, Thou art the good Shepherd, shepherd me to shepherd others as Thou would.

Lesson from My Niece

Two years ago my niece came to stay with us for her schooling. Though she is my niece, I reckon her as my own daughter and a sister in Christ. She has been blessed by the Lord with good grade and has been a blessing to our family as well. I used to encourage her to study well and wished that she could get into the best college in New Delhi for her college education. But the recent turn of events has shaped my mind in caring for people. 

As a brother, guardian-father, and well-wisher, I deeply desire her to get into the best college in Delhi University. But the cut-off were so high that she could not get the desired subject and the desired college until the third cut-off list. When she finally got one, it was in the top-eight college in DU for her subject. I was a little disappointed and she could not into the college I wished her to, but later accepted the fact and realised that God knows best.

One Lord's day she prophesied in the prophesying meeting too that the Lord dealt with her and gave her the college in south though she wished to be in the north. The Lord is sovereign and amening His arrangement is a great blessing. 

This incident has even changed my view and hope for her. She must continue in her studies, be in the church-life, be trained in the truth for two years, and follow the Lord's further leading.   

Sometimes, when our wards and children are good in studies, its tempting to have a bright academic dream for them without any thought of them needing the Lord more than just a good career. Often, our consideration is education, job, and marriage, first. And much later, serving God or being for the Lord. I am no victim of such dreamer. But the Lord adjusted my thinking, view, goal for my own wards and children. All these things are needed, but the Lord must be first; and through all these things, the Lord's purpose must be served.

This is a simple yet crucial lesson that I learned from caring for my niece. Now the Lord has been blessing my children too academically. I need the Lord's grace to care for them according to God for God's eternal purpose.