God's Provision: Housing

Mathew 6:25, 33 Because of this, I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink; nor for your body, what you should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing?But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The Lord has been faithful in taking care of my housing since the time I got married. I never imagined that I could live in a millennium metropolitan city like Gurugram where the cost of living, especially house rent, is significantly high. It has been more than twelve years now, the faithful Lord's promise of "all these things" to be added to me has been true. Sometimes, I wonder how the Lord marvelously placed me in this city and has been faithfully supplying all my needs! House rent in a posh area of a millennium city and school fees are very high for three children, and many other day to day expenses. Despite all these, I praise and worship the Lord for His timely and faithful provision.

Since all that I have are from the Lord, I also do not want to waste any of the Lord's provision. I plan wisely and consider carefully for any expense and try my best not to over expend on anything. It is such a blessing to live and limit within the Lord's supply. Whenever there is an increase in any expense, I tried my best to avoid or reduce it as much as possible.

Recently, I even wrote to the school Principal of my children to consider a concession or discounts on siblings. She was faithful to tell me that she just joined the school and since the school has no discount policy she promised to take it up to the management for consideration. To my surprise, in the new academic year, the school provides a discount of 7% for siblings. Not too sure if this was done because of my request to the school, anyway, this is how I manage the expenses.

With the turn of a new financial year, my house owner proposed an increase of 10%. I kindly requested him to keep the same rent without any further increase and expressed my feeling to him over phone call and face to face talk. Then, he reconsidered and wrote to me the reduction he made to 5%, with a calculation of 2.5% increase per annum as he did not increase the last two financial years.  When I got the proposal for increment, I really considered relocation with a lesser rent. In fact, one night I had a strong burden to pray for a permanent relief from paying house rent month by month, year by year. But to buy a house in the city of Gurugram is beyond imagination. Only if the Lord miraculously provides, that is the only possible way to own a house in this city. I simply released my burden to the Lord that if He so wills, He may provide according to what He deems best.

When this thought of relocation was filling my mind, I considered and prayed if I should go ahead. My feeling was, I did not pay any lesser rent than anyone who lives in a better house. The main reason why I am still in the same house is, the Lord placed my family here and never gave me the leading to relocate. I have tried to relocate a couple of times, but every time the Lord did not lead me to go ahead. Even this time, I seriously tried to relocate, but the Lord spoke to me clearly that "I do not have my own choice, and it is a blessing not to have my own choice." This word came as I was listening to a Life-Study Radio Broadcast with brother Ron Kangas speaking. I really did not have my own choice. I simply submit to the Lord and continue to stay in the same house with an agreement to pay an increase in house rent. I trust in the Lord's simply word, He will take care of the increment too.

On the positive side, this house has been a blessing to my family; my children have an emotional connection to this house and would not like to relocate even if it is to a better house. This house has also been useful for the church meeting especially on Lord's days when the church meeting is held on the ground floor, my house will be for children's meeting and for the saints to take rest. It is also the best option for my office work as the office is on the ground floor and my brothers can easily take care of all the office works just like taking care of a house. This is indeed the housing the Lord has provided, and I have been living here for more than ten years now. I have been learning a lot spiritually, simply by staying in this house the Lord has provided. Praise the Lord for his provision of housing! 

What a blessing to be able to live by faith and trust the Lord!

Children's Awards

Year by year, the Lord has blessed our children's study. My wife has been laboring a lot with them in their studies and in every exam they all fared well with outstanding performance, mostly A+ or A. Till last academic year, my son has been awarded academic excellence and brought home certificates and trophies. And my elder daughter has not achieved that feat of my son's. But she has done fairly well too.

This year, surprisingly, my elder daughter and younger daughter have been offered a letter each for achieving academic excellence. Of the three who used to get award missed it. My son missed it in spite of his outstanding performance in studies. The ones who never expected got an award letter and the one who expected did not receive a letter. This incident was unbearable for my son. He was used to achieving awards after awards, and this is the first time he will be missing it. But it was a good lesson for all of them.

My wife and I encouraged our son that he has done his very best, he has got a very good mark, and it really doesn't matter if he misses an award this time. We also used this experience to encourage him not to be proud of any special achievement, but rather be humbled, and continue to do his best in studies. He finds it hard to bear it and wondered if his studies were not properly rewarded. He quietly released his emotion with tears, and we stood by him to encourage him and prayed with him.  

Overall, the Lord has blessed all of them. Our prayer for them is that they all will grow up to love the Lord, reverentially fear the Lord, and serve the Lord ultimately in whichever way. We are the guardian of the Lord's children and commit them all to the Lord.

God bless our family!

Home Sweet Home

The Lord has blessed us with a house in my hometown, Imphal. Though I hardly live there, mom and dad, sister and brother lives there. As the eldest son my responsibility is to take of my parent. As I am serving the Lord here in another city, my younger brother has been bearing that responsibility of taking care of mom and dad thus far. So I deem it best to help in whatever way I can as the Lord blesses.

Recently, I have been receiving phone calls from my dad, sister, and brother about the house construction going on. With all the money they had, they have started the work of building the first floor of the house. Deep within me, I have a burden to participate in whatever way, in however much I can. So I took the matter to the Lord in prayer and also fellowshipped with my wife. We both feel good to participate in the construction work from the saving through the Lord's supply.

When my younger brother called me for the need, I took that as an opportunity to fellowship with him and pray together. I encouraged him to turn to the Lord and that he be fully recovered back to normal Christian life and normal church life. As a brother in the Lord, much more than being a brother in the flesh, I encouraged him to consider three things. First, his spiritual life be fully recovered back; second, he initiate a conference call for all the four of us, siblings; and third, he create a WhatsApp group where we can fellowship on the house construction. A week later, he heeds to the fellowship and we had our first sibling phone conference call.  

My burden to all my brother and sisters was made clear. I am serving the Lord full-time, and all that I have is the Lord's blessings. The Lord has been more than faithful to meet all my needs. It is only out of God's blessing that I can, in turn, supply the need of the family. I encouraged all of them to trust the Lord and that in everything we must work together in oneness and thereby command the Lord's blessing. Besides, through the care for one another in physical needs, the Lord may blend and build us together. And all that we do must be with the view of the Body. The house under construction now must be useful for the Body, for the meeting of the saints, and for hospitality. I even charged them to separate one entire hall for the meeting hall of the local church there. The fellowship was concluded with prayer. We thank the Lord for bringing us together online and for using physical needs to meet our spiritual needs.

The group created for our fellowship is "Home Sweet Home." May the Lord bless the house and make it a home sweet home.

Office and Church Responsibility

This month has really been very hectic, not in a negative sense, but very positively. Two important matters occur simultaneously; office and church responsibility: The five weeks propagation in Gurugram with the saints from FTTT and FTTND, and very important and urgent official works need to be accomplished before the due date. I had no choice but to attend to the official responsibility and at the same time also participate in the church propagation. I have been learning to balance my time and take care of both.

In my official service, the Lord taught me a very important lesson of trusting Him in every matter. We had to file a Share allotment as per the Board Resolution of the company. After labouring to gather all important documents for three weeks, I was told bluntly by our CA that it could not be filed. The reason given to me was absurd. The investment by Shareholders has to be within a time period of six months. I never heard of such a rule? I have even confronted the CA with my past experience of filing the same without this clause. But he squarely rejected my application with his own reason with a tag that "the company laws have been updated." I simply requested him to relook into the book of company law and do the necessary. I maintained my calm as I explained to him that I had done all the hard work according to his suggestion, and that how could he simply reject the filing? 

I left the accountant office in a state of shock. My mind was wondering how all the other board members and the brothers involved in this matter would feel after doing all the hard work and even contemplated writing an apology letter for the mistake. But deep within, I turned to the Lord to let things happen and honor the fellowship that has been done with the brothers. I had no option, but to simply pray and pray. Later, in the evening, the CA called me saying that it may be possible and they will try to file the Shares allotment. O what a sigh of relief! A few days later, I received a confirmation from the government that the filing was successful. I simply praised the Lord!   

A similar incident transpired with the updation of our company's KYC with all the existing directors' KYCs. All KYCs were done until the due date of today, the 25th April, except for a brother who is a foreign national. Things turn out to be complicated by virtue of his being a foreigner with a  directorship in India. I was pushing the CA to do things on time, but due to lack of documents, my pushing only irritated him. I turned to the Lord in prayer to handle this matter as well. The Lord just confirmed deep within that all is well and it will be well. Well, the due date has come, and the work was not done? But the miraculously the government postponed the final filing date to June 15, 2019, and gave me a breather time to finish all the works. Even, in this matter, I experienced the Lord's keeping grace.

On the propagation side, till date, the Lord has released 10 baptisms and 10 solid open homes for follow up shepherding as we prayed. Both office and church responsibility were being carried out simultaneously, and the Lord is faithful to grace me on and on.

Besides, an official letter for one of the international trainings that will happen in India for the first time and for this a lot of WhatsApp, Skype, and email fellowship have been going on. After many adjustments and exchange of emails, finally, the official mail was sent out today. This was another responsibility among others.

Experiencing the Lord's leading and blessing all these days amidst busy schedules...

Christian Apologetics

On my way back from the literature journey in the first week of this month on a train, I had been considering upgrading my qualification in my service. I had just then been fighting the theological battle of defending the truth the Lord has blessed His recovery with. Then, I wrote a mail to a brother concerning two matters:

Dear Brother K____,

Two matters I want to fellowship with you:

Learning Greek 

I feel the need to learn Greek again though I have already gone through the course six times, I still feel I have not really learned enough. If you would allow me to join the online course again, I want to listen to your lecture and go through the course as much as possible. Please let me know.

Researching on Christian Apologetics

These days I have a burden to pursue an online or part time research on "Christian Apologetics" to learn to dialogue with Christian leaders and theologians in India, to defend the truths the Lord has recovered through brother Nee and Lee of which we are introducing, distributing, and propagating, and to critique the notions surrounding denominational Christian beliefs and practices. 

I believe some saints are already doing it, if so, I can learn from them. To this extent, I am considering to join some good theological online or part time course, even to have a reputed theological standing while defending the truths.

I have been learning to write for about ten years now. Till date I have written 987 articles/posts and blogged them as "My Good Land" based on my personal experience and enjoyment of the Lord through the ministry of the word. I want to improve my writing skill to that of a scholarly standard.

These are my personal feelings only, I feel good to fellowship with you as a brother, personally, and as a serving one in the literature service, officially.

I also feel these learnings will help me in my service. 

Please let me know how you feel about these. 

I just poured out to a brother what was boiling in my heart then. Later, I received a reply from him, and what impressed me was what he wrote concerning the second matter of Christian apologetics. 

As to your other question concerning Christian apologetics, my one question is this: Can you say definitely that your burden is from the Lord? I would strongly advise you not to touch this realm without His commission.

I was glad that a brother seriously considered the matter in fellowship and replied accordingly. Though I did not reply back as I felt that I need not prove to anyone that the burden I had is truly from the Lord. In fact, I wrote the mail because the Lord burdened me. To me, anything from the Lord or anything of the Lord, it will manifest in its own time by itself. I would be a fool to try to prove that my burden is from the Lord. Time will manifest.

As far as Christian apologetics is concerned, I have been indirectly and informally involved since 2003 when the Lord led me into the church life in His recovery. I have been attacked since then, and psychologically persecuted by some fellow Christians who hardly read anything of the ministry. Their "theological" attacks have been so untheological and unprofessional as most of them are based on hearsays or partial understanding of the ministry with an intent of misaiming. In all my literature journey to different parts of India, I have been "fighting" and functioning as a Christian apologetic, though without a formal theological degree. By the way, the Lord graced me to visit all the states of India from 2006-2018. And all these years have been that of researching on Christian apologetics. 

I do believe in time, the Lord would perfect me in this matter according to His words: 

In meekness correcting those who oppose, if perhaps God may give them repentance unto the full knowledge of the truth, 2 Timohty 2:25

Holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching of the apostles, that he may be able both to exhort by the healthy teaching and to convict those who oppose. Titus 1:9     

The will of the Lord be done! Amen! 

Office Fellowship: Diligent

The Lord has entrusted me with a responsibility of fellowshipping with the literature serving ones. I have never felt that I am worthy to be able to oversee the services of the serving ones. Now, I have no choice. I have to be faithful to the responsibility the Lord has assigned to me. Therefore, I gladly accept this charge, trusting in God's grace to be a faithful and prudent steward.

Of late I had received a couple of emails from three serving ones concerning their situation and the way they serve in the office in Chennai. When I first saw the mail it pricked my heart. I was convicted that things were not right and that I am responsible to step and sort out the problem. Yet, I was fully aware that without the Lord's anointing I could not do this. As I have been feeling, I never deem myself to be able to oversee the serving ones especially when things are not going right, and when they have problems among themselves. I had no choice, but to step in.

After much prayer and consideration before the Lord. I wrote an email to all the office staff, calling for a time of fellowship. 

Romans 12:7a

Or service, let us be faithful in that service; 

Dear Brothers in Chennai Office,

In the light of the recent feeling concerning our service and coming to the office on time, it is not a good testimony that we are not honoring the fellowship we had the last time. All serving ones in Chennai office agreed in mutuality to come at 10 AM, which usually was 9:30 AM, as we are very considerate about your family and personal situation. It really is not the outward time schedule, but it is the person that is always the problem. If we are sincere in our service to God, let us exercise to be faithful. 

Considering this, let us fellowship on 8th April 2019, Monday at 10 AM as per the set office time. Please be at the office and we will fellowship on timing and other related items.

Much grace to us all. 

In Him, 

Palmei 

On the 8th morning, I asked all the serving ones in Chennai to pursue a message on DILIGENT Chapter Five, The Character of the Lord's Worker by Watchman Nee. Few points, excerpt from the book.

What is diligence? It is the opposite of slothfulness. It is not shirking from responsibility. A diligent person does not try to reduce his work to nothing. On the contrary, he tries to create work out of nothing. In the Lord's service, it is quite possible for us to take a day or two of rest if we do not look for work. We should not be those who stand around idly waiting for something to turn up. If we work only when work turns up, we are not diligent persons. A diligent person is never idle; he is always looking for things to do. He is always pondering, praying, contemplating, and considering before God as to what he should do. Unless he exercises himself this way, he can find himself with nothing to do. If we only act "according to the book," we may soon find that there is not much of a book left. We should expect to find much work in our service to God. We should discover many needs. We have to pray much to the Lord and look to Him all the time. We should open our eyes, and as soon as we find something that needs to be done, we should do it. After we finish a job, we should wait on the Lord and look to Him again. And as soon as we find more to do, we should tackle it. Following this, we should seek God's will again, and take on yet another task. This is what it means to serve God. The Lord said, "My Father is working until now, and I also am working" (John 5:17). We must never change this verse to read, "My Father is resting until now, and I also am resting." Laziness is not our way; our way should be, "My Father is working until now, and I also am working.

A diligent person always waits on God. As soon as he is free, he goes to the Lord and looks for things to do. He is always seeking an opportunity to work.

The word in Greek for diligence is spoude or spoudazo. It is also translated as zeal, earnestness, eager, and haste (Rom. 12:8, 11; 2 Cor. 7:11-12; 8:7-8, 16; Heb. 4:11; 6:11; 2 Pet. 1:5, 10; 3:14; Gal. 2:10; 2 Tim. 2:15; 4:9, 21; Titus 3:12; Jude 3; 1 Thes. 2:17; Eph. 4:3; 2 Pet. 1:15; Mark 6:25; Luke 1:39).

Second Peter 1:5-7 says, "Adding all diligence, supply bountifully in your faith virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, endurance; and in endurance, godliness; and in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, love." This is diligence. Peter used the phrase and in six times. This shows that a diligent man always adds to what he has; he is not content with what he has. We should cultivate this character. We should always add to what we have and never stop. There must always be the "adding...and in." We must push ourselves all the time. This is the only way to see results.

Everyone who knows God and who is useful in His hand is diligent.

After pursuing, I asked each one of them to share from the book. Through their sharing, they confessed and got the answers to the questions concerning themselves and their service. I was especially glad that the brothers opened up and confessed, even asked forgiveness for the mistakes they have done. I simply have to echo what has already been read and understood from the ministry. Issues concerned were addressed and the servings had a new beginning. 

Having convened such a meeting of the full-time serving ones in the literature service, I should myself learn from all of them, and learn to be diligent indeed.

Lord, make me a faithful and prudent slave. Lord, may I experience You as my faithfulness and fruitfulness in my service.

Live Online Program

A brother from Taiwan visited us for a day and invited us to his weekly live Bible study program. He used to serve with us here in the church in Gurugram a few years ago but has moved back to Taiwan to serve in the training center. He is one of the brothers whom I respect as a one who is solidly constituted with the truths and a very good pattern for saints to follow. It was indeed a blessing to meet and fellowship with him again, in fact, much more blessing to participate in his live talk show.

The live internet talk show over Skype was telecasted live on Facebook. We began with an introduction on "Incredible India!" After briefing the audience with the nation India with her unity in diversity, we also testified of the Lord's move in relation to the ministry of the age. The history of the Lord's move in India was presented until the present time with what the Lord has been doing all these years. We also mentioned how one of the international trainings would be conducted in India on the thirtieth year of the Lord's move in India.

We also briefed on the literature service, how it began in 1995 and what the Lord has been doing since then. A special presentation on the translation of the New Testament Recovery Version into six Indian languages and the seventh one to begin soon was also done.

As the program went on, queries from audiences were handled simultaneously. The first query was on "the ten golden years" of India. To me, the golden years are the years of the Lord's marvelous move through the gospel preaching, propagation in different cities, and the spread of the ministry of the word. In these golden years, the Lord has saved and gained many seekers, and raised up many local churches; till date, 180+ churches taking and standing on the ground of oneness.

The second query was on how we shepherded the new ones and seeking ones. We did this through the introduction of the ministry books. Some good books we used are, The Economy of God, The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, The Glorious Church, The Normal Christian Church Life, The Orthodoxy of the Church, and A Genuine Ground of Oneness. We also used Shepherding Materials, 6 volumes with 96 lessons. We also gave testimonies of how the Lord recovered and raised up local churches through the seekers reading The Economy of God, and The Orthodoxy of the Church.

The third query was on matters needed to be taken care of by those who would come to India for the propagation of the ministry. On the practical side, there is a need for language skill especially that of English to minister the word of God to people. There is also a need for much prayer, burden from the Lord, and being anointed of the Spirit for the preaching of the gospel to the people of India. We also gave testimonies of many brothers and sisters who had come to India for propagation in the past, and how they could lead many people to salvation, including baptism, despite their minimal language skill. The Lord truly anointed their burdens and led many to salvation.

Finally, we also concluded with a testimony of the practice of the God-ordained way and the church life in our locality, Gurugram. And on a lighter note, conclude the talk show with a request for prayer for India and an introduction to famous Indian tea.

I have no idea how many have watched this show, but I do believe the Lord has arranged this for the benefit of the saints whom the Lord has burdened for India. May the Lord bless all the audience and burden them for His move in India. 

God bless India!