Fifteen Years After

Fifteen years after, I got to meet an ex-classmate of mine in Bengaluru after one of our trainings held in the city. Fifteen years ago, he was a silent classmate I hardly interacted with. But our relationship as a classmate in our Master's degree is still intact. Now that we all are married and are fathering children, our perspectives in life have changed. Having met him have taught me one important lesson: Obeying the Lord to serve Him is the best decision I have ever made. Meeting my friends at college confirmed my decision all the more.

All the ex-classmates I have met so far are all doing well in life. They have all got married and are settled with a good job. Most of them even purchased a house or a land or a piece of property of their own. But they seem to have missed the perfect peace and joy of the presence of the Lord. In spite of a good job, high pay, and all the materialistic things in their possession, they seem to lack what I have been blessed with by the Lord - an inner peace and joy and satisfaction. 

When I met this particular friend, he took no time to reveal all the pressure he has been through at workplace and even at home with his health issue. Immediately, I could sense his need for inner peace and joy which only the Lord Jesus can give. I encouraged him to keep in touch and in fellowship with the brothers in the local church whom I also introduced to him. It was a very timely visit and I could pray for him and his family. By the way, I also took along two brothers from the church to meet him. Perhaps, the Lord would open the door for my friend to participate in the church life. By the way, a group meeting is being held weekly just nearby his house. May the Lord in His time and in His way lead my friend to the full knowledge and enjoyment of the truth. 

The Lord is so good and gracious to me, and He has been faithfully supplying all my needs in abundance; be it spiritual or psychological or even spiritual, the Lord has been so gracious to me. The joy of the Lord is my testimony to my classmates. Before I left, I had the burden to pray for my friend and his family and prayed for them.

I wish and pray that all my classmates, besides being professionally successful, they all also would also love the Lord and be one with Him in bearing His testimony. Hope one day, all the unsaved would be saved, and all the saved would also come to the full knowledge of the truth, bearing the testimony of the Lord Jesus together in the local church. 

Looking forward to the day I would be able to meet the ones I have not met yet even after fifteen years. 

God bless all my ex-classmates.

Perfecting

1 Kings 6:7

And the house, when it was being built, was built of finished stone, cut at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor ax nor any iron tool was heard in the house when it was being built.

Finished Stones 

The stones used for the building of the temple were all "finished stones". The finished stones have all been mined from where they were, perhaps, in a mountain or a valley or a plain or on the bank of a river. They were brought to the quarry where all works of breaking, cutting into a perfect shape for the building took place. There, in the mines and in the quarry, hammer, axe, and iron tools were used to work on the stones to bring it to perfection. Then and only then, they were brought to the site of the temple and were perfectly framed and fitted together, thereby becoming part of the temple. This is a perfect picture of perfecting for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church.

Quarry

According to the Bible, we were made of clay, however, through regeneration and transformation, we become stones for God's building. The significant part is the quarry where the mined stones were processed to perfection.

The Lord has picked us from various backgrounds. Now, wherever He has placed us, He is also perfecting us. Perhaps, at home with wive and children, at the office with colleagues and staffs, in the local church with the saints and new ones. All the happenings in our circumstances are all for the perfecting of us to be the finished stones so that we can be fitly framed into the building of God. 

No Sound

In the site of the building, no noise nor sound was heard. The finished stones were perfectly fitted in their rightful position and there is no adjustment done here. All complaining and murmuring were dealt with at the "quarry" of our Christian life. Only after all the dealings, the finished stones were brought for the actual building of the temple. Therefore, in the proper building of the church, there is no room for "noises and sounds" as the finished stones perfectly fit into one another at their appointed position and function.

What a revelation of the building work is this!

The point at hand now is, as a piece of stone, where are you? At the mine, or at the quarry, or have you been perfected to fit into the building of God’s house at the site of the temple? Consider and know where you are. Perhaps, still in the quarry, as this is the most likely place where we all are right now. All the sound of cutting by hammer, ax, and iron tools proves we are still at the quarry and yet to be perfectly finished.

I confess and acknowledge that I am still in the quarry. The sound of cutting is still clanking within me even if I have started learning to calm down outwardly. The Master Builder is faithfully working on me day and night, cutting and shaping me as He deems best. And I fully open and submit to the Master's faithful hands operating on me, as a Surgeon operates on the patient. Only the Master knows how longer He has to work on me. For His perfecting work, I fully give myself to His wise hands.

Lord, perfect me for Thy building. 

Statistics

Statistics, by definition, is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data.

It has been a year since the brothers serving the work of the Lord in India has been trumpeting the urgency and importance of maintaining the statistics of the church. I have to confess, I personally was not serious about the statistics of the church I serve, as my understanding of the need for statistics was so vague. My opinion used to be, quantity does not matter as long as we have quality. But the fact is, quality is derived from quantity. If there is no quantity, where will quality come from? Besides, the church in my locality is a small church and it does not warrant detail statistics. But that was my own view.

Now, through the help of brothers from Taiwan, I have been educated to see the importance of maintaining proper statistics. Statistics is not merely numbers on paper. Every number on paper represents the saints. With careful study and interpretation, the real situation of the church is spelled out. It is like the high priest reading the Urim and Thummim and interpreting God’s speaking concerning the Israelites.

By various real-life examples, the Lord has been educating me to maintain proper statistics of the saints in the church in my locality. The result of a student's mark sheet is a numerical record of his or her academic performance. It is a clear pointer to his academic caliber. All parents care for these numbers on the report card of their children. And this is a universal standard of grading in all works of life. So is with spiritual matter too.

God numbered His people, He even has a book called "Numbers". The Lord Jesus too counted His sheep, numbered them and even named them.

John 10:3
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Matthew 18:12
What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and seek the one that has gone astray? 

As per the definition of statistics, the statistics of the church is the report card of the church, it spells out exactly the real condition of the church. Number don't lie.

The number of the saints for the following reveals the saints and the church's real condition:

Those attending the Lord's Table Meeting, those who prophesies, those who attends the prayer meeting, those who goes out to preach the gospel, those who goes out to shepherd the saints and new ones, those who pursues the truth by reading the Bible and the ministry books; all these numbers reveal the true condition of the church.

At least, I have been made clear concerning the importance of maintaining proper statistics. 

May the Lord grace me to be a faithful servant-steward in my service to Him in my serving the church by maintaining accurate statistics. 

Prayer

One of the main burdens in the training for the full time serving ones this time at Bengaluru is prayer. Prayer is the key driving force for our Christian life and a Christian work. Prayer must be the first thing a Christian must engage in, before any other services. Prayer must be the source and supply for anything and everything in the Christian life for the church life.

Evangelist Billy Graham had penned three keys for evangelism: prayer, prayer, and prayer. Hudson Taylor had his share in his China Inland Mission with his famous statement, basically of serving the Lord in China: Only through prayer, what was impossible and difficult at best would eventually be done. All servants of God have one thing in common in their ministries whatsoever, prayer. 

In serving the Lord, the first and foremost matter to be taken care of is personal prayer. This is not a once for all but a daily, moment by moment matter. Without an intimate personal fellowship with the Lord, how would one know how to serve the Lord? Without being one with the Lord in prayer there can never be "serving the Lord". 

Besides, the service to the Lord is a Body matter, there is an inevitable need for the leading and responsible brothers to come together in one accord for prayer. Only by such corporate prayer can the brothers know how to shepherd the church. The strength and weakness of a local church are determined by the degree of the prayer of the brothers who oversees and shepherds the saints in the church. 

And much more, all the saints must too stand together in one accord as the church in the church's prayer meeting. The prayer meeting of the church is one of the most important meetings of the church. The church's prayer moves and directs the hand of God in His move. 

Be it personal, family, service, or church, every matter must be prayed for and prayed over thoroughly first. The speaking of the Lord was and still is very strong concerning prayer. I was deeply convicted of the loopholes I allowed in my prayer life. For whatever reason, I should never compromise on prayer. I was freshly awakened to re-establish a strong and stable prayer life. In addition to the normal prayer life I have, I have been graced to re-establish my prayer life. Besides, I am also being burdened to help the saints and the church in my locality to strengthen our prayer life. Therefore, I posted the following to the church in Gurugram's WhatsApp group. 

Prayer Burdens1 Thessalonians 5:17Unceasingly pray.
1 Timothy 2:8I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning;
Daily Personal Prayer at least 30 minutes daily, the more the better.
Daily Family Prayer at least 30 minutes every day. 
Weekly Church Prayer Meeting: Every Saturdays at 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Dear saints, consider this burden of prayer seriously before the Lord. We all should pray that we have a regular and stable prayer life: personal prayer life, family prayer, and church prayer meeting.
Romans 12:12Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer.
Ephesians 6:18By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.
Philippians 4:6In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Colossians 4:2Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.
Much grace to us all.

In order to help the saints practically to have a regular, strong and stable prayer life, I also suggested ways to achieve this, by setting time to pray. 

Set Time to PrayTo pray, we need to set time to pray. Fix a definite time every day for prayer.
For personal prayer, we may consider spending 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the noon time, perhaps after lunch, 15 minutes in the afternoon, 15 minutes in the evening, and 15 minutes in the night before going to bed. In this way, at least 1 hour 15 minutes can be sanctified for personal prayer.
Similarly, we can set time for family prayer; morning, after morning revival or evening, after dinner or before bedtime. If your family are not yet saved, it is good to make an appointment with a brother or sister for phone call prayer.
Do your best to attend the church's prayer meeting on Saturdays.
By these ways, we can sanctify and consecrate our time for prayer. Otherwise, the devil will make you feel busy and eat away all your time.
Lord, recover our prayer life!

Gospel Meeting

It was on the 1st of December that we had our Gospel Meeting after a long gap. Though we preached the gospel, brought new ones to salvation and baptism, and have home meetings regularly, we lag behind in gathering our new ones for the gospel meeting. As a church, we prayed and fellowshipped and felt good to have one. Therefore, all preparation was made ready.

This was like a new beginning all over again. The Lord gave us much peace in our arrangement of services. The sisters all coordinated for the physical food preparation and the brothers for the spiritual food of gospel message. As we have been praying for this meeting, the Lord gave us a very good coordination and also brought a good number of new ones.

The unique nature of this meeting was that the two testimonies of salvation were shared by a sister and a brother who were both saved from a Hindu background and both of them are native Hindi speakers. They both testified in Hindi. That was one key point in the gospel meeting among the local Hindi people here in Gurugram.

Besides, the main message of the gospel meeting was also translated orally to Hindi with the concluding word on leading the new ones to receive the Lord with an explanation on baptism. 

The message was taken from the gospel of John 6 and 7 on taking Jesus into out "boat"  and coming to the Lord to drink of the Spirit to be satisfied. 

John 6:16-21

And when evening fell, His disciples went down to the sea, and they got into a boat and began crossing the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. And because a strong wind was blowing, the sea was churning. Then, when they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they became frightened. But He said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid.  Then they were willing to take Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

John 7:37-39

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. 

The hymn on "Coming to the Lord" was sung over and over again as a prayer to come to the Lord.

I hear Thy welcome voice,
  That calls me, Lord, to Thee,
For cleansing in Thy precious blood
  That flowed on Calvary. 

I am coming, Lord,  Coming now to Thee:Wash me, cleanse me in the blood    That flowed on Calvary.

The meeting was truly blessed by the Lord. Out of two gospel candidates who received the Lord, one of them got baptized! 

Though this was officially a gospel meeting, it was also a time for the new ones and the saints to gather together. After the meeting, the saints enjoyed a good time of fellowship and blending over the lovefeast dinner.

Such a gospel meeting should be more frequent and regular as a harvest of the labor on gospel preaching. Praise the Lord!

May the Lord save more and more people for His testimony.

Time with a Brother

Two weeks ago a brother from USA came to visit India for a training class at FTTND. By the way, he also spent a couple of days with the saints in the church in Grurugram. I was privileged to be able to pick him from the Airport, drive him around, and took him to different meetings of the church. In fact, I have been learning how to give hospitality to the visiting saints. I have enjoyed much hospitality in many localities in different parts of the world. As much as I enjoyed the saints' love and care, I am reciprocating the same within my capacity. 

Time with the brother was a good time of learning for me. Not merely in physical matters of taking care of a "guest" but much more in the matter of spiritual and mutual fellowship. Every time I drove him, we enjoyed praying together for different burdens as the Lord led us to pray. At times, we fellowshipped on different matters and learn from one another. In fact, it was this brother who inspired me in the matter of giving hospitality to the saints. Because he himself was the one who took care of us when we visited California last July. He had been with us and driving us around the entire Bay area of California, and took us to different localities for fellowship, blending, and church visit. I personally was very impressed by his sense of duty and responsibility despite he not even been a "full-timer." He really served us like a full-timer. To me, he was a wonderful pattern in serving the saints and the church, though he himself had not officially served a full-timer. Praise the Lord for such a wonderful pattern; a very human yet divine way in which he cared for us. It was a blessing to learn from him and a privilege to be able to serve him when he visited my locality. 

Praise the Lord for such a brother!

Family Day Out

Last Friday being a holiday for my children, my wife and I decided to take a day out with all the children. The day out was mostly for the purpose of health checkup from Tibetan healthcare center using natural cure technique for healing. I have heard of this technique from different people but have never gone myself. I decided to go and find out for myself by consulting the "doctor" and checking them out. Perhaps, that was the first time all the members of our family did a health consultation. Though we did not have any specific disease, for health sake, we got some naturally blended health products. It was more of a prevention rather than cure approach and backed up with health supplements.

Besides, we also enjoyed a time together over Tibetan meal. Eating out as a family was overdue for our family. We clubbed the matter of eating out and health check-up together and enjoyed a family day out.

Time with the family was much needed. Despite my busy schedule I often need to spend time with my growing children. They are very precious; my wife and I are really blessed with wonderful children. My bonding with my children, especially my son, became sweeter and sweeter these days. The two girls are sometimes too smart to handle; they know exactly how to convince me with what they want from me. Out of my love for them, in most cases, I comply with their "demands" as I deemed them OK for their ages for now. The point is, spending time together with the family is a great joy! Family life is God's gift. Family life also typifies, in miniature, God's big family life- the church life. What a blessing to have a family and be a part of the family! 

God bless my family! God bless the church life!