Experience of Christ: Official Shepherding

In the literature service, the Lord has placed me in a position where many decisions concerning the serving ones need to be taken. I fear and tremble before God as case after case of the serving ones were brought to me. My greatest fear was to misrepresent God in taking any decision whether in favor or against them. Handling people needs a lot of prayers and the Lord's wisdom to discern rightly what decision needs to be taken at the right time.

A brother's serious health issue was brought for fellowship. He had nowhere to look for help financially except to come for fellowship. He has already been suffering from a life-threatening disease. It took me a good while to pray about the matter and fellowship with a few other brothers until I was very clear what decision to take. In this way, I was also helped to trust the Lord, learn to fellowship, and also learn to coordinate in critical issues related to the serving ones. 

One big difference in the company I serve from the rest is, here, the serving ones are all saints and I don't treat them as "employees" who were hired and can be fired at any time. Instead, I reckon all the serving ones as my own brothers and sisters in the Lord and also in the company. 

Another brother brought his family matters for fellowship, and another two brothers brought their children's schooling matters and they were in need of urgent financial help, and yet another brother had been struggling in taking care of his family. Some serving ones were sick for months, and two serving sisters had issues with childbirth, a sister with serious health issues, and another sister with heavy pressure in her family life that she could not serve as she ought to. All these cases were brought to me, one by one. Thank God, I know only one thing, to simply relay their problems to the Lord and fellowship with my coordinator what to do. 

In all the above cases, the Lord gave me a clear leading in helping them financially or fellowshipping with them in a way of shepherding. And all of them were well taken care of, and are now continuing to serve. 

It was an amazing experience indeed! Case by case, the Lord led me in sweet coordination with other serving brothers to decide on what steps to take. Through all these, we have been experiencing and enjoying the Lord's shepherding. The serving ones were shepherded, and I too am shepherded. Praise the Lord for this official shepherding! 

Experience of Christ: Official Duty

Bearing responsibilities of the company the Lord has placed me into is my main official duty. The past two months had been a precious time of looking to the Lord and trusting Him, step by step, for the many official works that needed to be done on time. Though the works were done by others, it was my responsibility to make sure that they had been done. There were datelines to meet, and the workers did not bother a bit about the due dates. The onus was entirely on me to make sure that everything that needed to be done was done indeed.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs came up with a new law of filing INC-22A for all private companies registered in India. This is to filter out all bogus and fake companies operating within the country and are involved in a fraudulent transaction and money laundering. Though ours is a legal entity abiding by the law of the land, still we need to prove legally our authenticity by filing this form. Filing this form entails that all directors of the company have their DIN(director index number) verified and updated by applying for DSC(digital signature), KYC of the directors, with legal proofs of the company's premises. Since one of our directors is a US citizen, the process became even more complicated and time-consuming. For this reason, I have to bear the brunt of "official anxiety" by closely following up on getting all legal documents of all the directors on time. These processes were a great learning for me, to first of all trust in the Lord, and coordinate with the directors, and also with the accounts who would do the filing. Therefore, I am glad, the Lord shepherded me and led me all the way until it was done finally yesterday, the 13th June 2019. O what a relief! I simply thanked the Lord in mercies and faithfulness.

Before this, shares allocation procedure of the company gave me wonderful experiences of the Lord. After working on all the legal documents need for shares increase and allocation, which took me about three months, the CA blatantly told me that the laws have changed and that share allocation could not be done if the transaction for shares purchases exceeded six months. It was a shocking experience. I did not insist on my point nor did I argued with the CA for not updating me properly. But I simply looked to the Lord and that, if this proposal was for share allocation was from the Lord it would be done. Later, in the evening, I received a call from the CA that it could be done. A few days later, all shares allocations were done. This too was another precious experience of Christ in carrying out my official responsibility.   

Praise the Lord for all these experiences of Christ in carrying out official responsibilities!

The Joy of Sharing God's Blessing

Sixteen years ago when the Lord called me to serve Him full-time, I had a fellowship with my mom and dad concerning the Lord's clarion call. But my parent strongly objected to it as they wanted me to work and support the family. But God's calling within me was so strong that I stood firmly for my decision to serve the Lord full-time. It was then that my father became very upset and shouted at me, "I have been supporting you till today, and now you want to go your own way?" My innate reply was, "Dad, it's not my way, it is the Lord's way." And I further told my parent, "Thank you for supporting me till today. From now on, I will not receive anything from home. But if the Lord blesses me I will share the blessings of God with you."

Time and again, the Lord honored the words I spoke to my parent in faith in 2003. Since then, He has been so faithful to meet all our needs, beyond what we can ask or think. Since then, we have been sharing the blessings of God with our family back home in terms of finance and in many other ways and things, physical, psychological, and spiritual. The source is the Lord, and we are being graced to be the channel of God's blessings even in physical and financial matters too.

This time around, our house construction in Imphal is going on. At least for a three-fold reason, my wife and I feel good to share the blessings of God again. Firstly, to continue to fulfill the words of faith spoken when the Lord called me to serve Him. Secondly, as a shepherding supply to our family as the eldest son carrying out his responsibility in the humanity of Jesus, and thirdly, to shepherd my younger brother who has been taking care of the family matter at home and to recover him to the Lord and to the church life. Besides, I also have a burden that the house properly constructed can be useful for the Lord's move; the living room could be used for the meeting of the saints, as the local church in Imphal meets often in my house, and it can also be useful for the hospitality of the saints. For these purposes, we felt good to participate again this time with Rs. 2,00,000 (Two Hundred Thousand rupees) for the house construction. Therefore, as of today, the entire amount has been transferred in four installments of Rs. 50,000 each.

Along with all these financial sharing, as a family, we could fellowship and pray together once a week. Our love for one another and our bonding and blending with one another has been strengthened. Inwardly and outwardly, we all feel good about what the Lord has been doing through us. There has been so much peace, joy, love, and care for one another since we decided to share in the Lord's blessing. This is the joy of sharing the blessings of God, this time with my own family members. In this way, my prayer is, all that we are and have, be for Christ and the church. And we can truly declare as a household, "But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah." Joshua 24:15b

Praise the Lord!

The Joy and Blessing of Offering

Acts 20:35 In all things I have shown you by example that toiling in this way we ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

1 Corinthians  4:7 For who distinguishes you? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though not having received it?

Job  1:21 And he said, Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, And naked I will return there. Jehovah gives and Jehovah takes away; Blessed be the name of Jehovah.

All that we have we are from the Lord; He is the source of all blessings and supplies. He has been faithfully supplying all our needs great or small, even beyond what we can ever imagine. He provides richly according to His riches much beyond our mere human needs. As a loving heavenly Father, He blesses us freely and gives abundantly. To all His goodness and greatness, we can only thank and praise Him. 

Romans 11:36 Because out from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

When such a loving Father has bestowed upon us His blessings richly, offering Him back from what He has given is the least, we, His children could do. This is exactly what my wife and I have been graced to do.

We have been graced to offer the three plots of residential land that we purchased a few years ago in Chennai for the present need of the land that the churches in India are purchasing for the blending and training of the saints in the churches in India. Therefore, we mailed a brother personally:

Dear Brother .....

As the Lord blesses, it is our blessing and honour to be graced to participate in the Chennai Land Project. As this is also our consecration to the Lord through the church in Gurugram as our family offering, it will be helpful to know the value as valued by the brothers for our information to the church. 

Amen to whatever the brothers' valuation of the plots is. Please do let us know the valuation to be informed to the church in Gurugram.

May the Lord gain us much more even through this experience.

In Him,Palmei & JaneIt is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35b  

After several months, I received a fellowship from the brothers that the lands could not be sold at the present time and they plan to transfer it to the church society. The actual need of the moment is cash that can be used for the project. I told the brother that I can offer cash instead, from another investment after prayer and fellowshipping with my wife. 

We did have a fellowship and we agreed in one accord to offer cash instead, from another investment, then we transferred the money online, and wrote a mail to the brother again.

Dear Brother .....

As per the fellowship of the brothers that you conveyed to me during the SOT in Trivandrum concerning the three plots of  VIP Housing Urban Grounds 2 that we offered for the Chennai Land Project, that it could not be sold at this time and the consideration to transfer the land to the church in Chennai society. We felt good to pay cash directly instead, as our burden is to offer for the Chennai Land Project. Though the amount in cash we have from another investment is not as much as the three plots purchased value, still to meet the need and also to fulfill our consecration to the Lord, we have transferred Rs. ----------------

All that we have is from the Lord, and we count it all joy and blessing to be graced to participate in the Lord's move in India.

May the Lord gain us much more even through this experience.

In Him,Palmei & JaneIt is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35b  

Thus in this way, we have been graced to experience the blessing of giving from what the Lord has blessed and given to us. In the word of Job, Jehovah gives, and we give back to Jehovah, blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Gurugram Propagation: Open Homes

1 Timothy 2:3-5This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 

God desires all men to be saved and for this He needs us, the believers, to cooperate with Him in His gospel move. For this very purpose and burden, as the church in Gurugram, we formed teams and went out to door-knock houses in selected sectors-55,56,57, Suncity, and DLF 3. Our schedule in door-knocking was consistent for a month with the coordination of the trainees from Taiwan and India. The Lord indeed bless such a coordinated move in the Body and graced us with some open gentile families.

A husband of a family who has a Christian mother but has been married to a non-Christian wife who has been inclined towards idolatry has been maintaining his Christian touch a secret. Yet in time, the Lord discovered him through the door-knocking and he revealed his true identity. Since then, we have been been having home meetings in his home. 

The first time we went, we preached the gospel right away and led them to call upon the Name of the Lord. Then, we requested if we could meet them again and again. They were open, therefore we went and read the Bible together with them regularly. So far, until Mathew chapter 6 has been read and studied. When we were in chapter 3 on the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ we expounded the truth concerning baptism. They even agreed to be baptised. Yet a very subtle opposition from the enemy stopped them. We did not push it further, instead continue to shepherd them through the study of the word and leave baptism for a proper time. May the Lord save this family. 

A family who had a miraculous connection with the Lord Jesus was met. The mother in this family had a mouth cancer for which she was operated. While on the process of operation, according to her, she died for a while, saw her soul left her body, and was taken up to heaven to meet the Lord Jesus. Yet, she came back to life and the vision she saw disappeared. Since then, she and her husband has a hidden thirst to know more about Jesus. They even had been to a Christian group for a while which they left as they were hurt by the Pastor's preaching against idolatry which made them close completely for any further Christian meeting until we met them again through door-knocking.

With this family we had a good number of meetings in their home. We preached the gospel and they believed into the Lord Jesus Christ and called upon His name. They also came once for a meeting, and we had Bible studies in their home. This family confessed to us that they are seeking and searching for the reality of God and they are very inclined towards the Lord Jesus. They wanted to study more and would like to embrace the Lord with the whole household. May the Lord save this family. 

A younger couple were open to us in our first visit. They also hailed from a strong religious background. As we started visiting them, we preached the gospel and they believed into Jesus and called upon the Lord's Name. We then began a Bible study in their home until the time of their children's exam and will continue once the exams are over. This family also attended the church meeting twice on Lord’s day. May the Lord save this family.

A family of nine ladies was contacted through door-knocking. In the first three meetings with them, the gospel was preached and all of them believed into the Lord and called upon His name. They also came for a Lord's day meeting. Since they all believed, we also explained to them the meaning of baptism. Later, the male member of the family strongly objected to the gospel and their believing into the Lord Jesus. We do not give up on them, but continue to pray for the household salvation. May the Lord save this family. 

There are a couple of families who have similar stories. Gospel preaching is a spiritual battle; a direct fight between God and Satan. We do not give up on any of this family. We'd rather continue to pray for them until they all are saved, and we baptised, and brought into the church life. 

Our labor and prayer for all these new ones will never go in vain. The gospel propagation in Gurugram is bearing fruits. 

May the Lord gain a strong testimony in Gurugram. 

Chandigarh: A Detour

Chandigarh was not in the itinerary for the ministry of the word literature journey this time. The church was already raised up a few years ago and and the saints are going on in their church life. As we were in Shimla with a brother, he asked me to talk to his sister who received a set of the ministry books in Hindi from him and read it, and was so touched by it. As I spoke to her over the phone, she testified of how much she enjoyed the ministry of the word and that her life has been transformed. At that instant, I told her that on my way back I would pass through Chandigarh and that I could drop by. Her innate response was, "Please come, Brother!" I reckoned that as the Lord's clarion call to visit Chandigarh.

A brother and I arrived late in the night in Chandigarh. The husband of that sister who initiated the visitation came to pick us up at the bus station. He then dropped us to a very nice hotel which he booked for our hospitality, and then took us to his home for dinner. It was over dinner fellowship that the couple testified to us all of how much blessed they were with the ministry of the word. Especially the sister who went on testifying her enjoyment of the Lord through the ministry books in Hindi. She quoted from the books, The All-inclusive Christ, The Glorious Church, A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, and The Spiritual Man 3 Volumes. The brother also testified of how he emphasised on the inner life and cared life much more than work. To their fellowship we added that we should live and serve by the principle of life rather than the principle of the flesh. Isaac and Ishmael in the Bible were two examples we fellowshipped on. As the fellowship went on late into midnight we had to pause and decided to continue the following day.

Over the special breakfast sister prepared for us, we continued our fellowship on life and also introduced the ministry books the following day. As the fellowship went on, a good number of young people joined, and our fellowship took a new direction. I was burdened to help these precious young people with the word of God, therefore, we ministered the truths concerning The Ministry of Human Life, The Assurance, Security, and Joy of Salvation, The Precious Blood of Jesus, Calling Upon the Lord's Name, and encouraged all the young ones to live a life of loving the Lord in their young age, to read the Word, pray, and also be studious students to be a testimony among their friends and relatives.

We all sang their Hindi song together, taught them a new Hindi song, "We will sing to the Lord with our spirit," called upon the Lord's Name outloud together, and also prayed together. The presence of the Lord was so sweet and rich, they were so full of joy, and the brother even tried to offer "money" to us which we politely rejected and thanked him instead for his time, and also for the wonderful and lovely hospitality. We had to leave as we need to catch a bus for our way back home, so the brother dropped us to the bus stand. 

What a blessed time of fellowship we enjoyed in Chandigarh! May the Lord continue to work in them and recovery each one of them for His testimony in Chandigarh! 

Prayer for the Nation

1 Timothy 2:1-2I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men; On behalf of kings and all who are in high position, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity.

Our country being the largest democratic country in the world, the attention paid during the national election within and without was noteworthy. We just had an election and the result of the election garnered a mixed responses; some doubting the mishandling of EVM machines tampering it in favor of a certain party, while others were elated to the core of their party's thumping victory win in majority, yet others kept mum in owe of being shattered in their election dream. Only God knows the truth behind all deeds, He will righteously judge in His own time. 

This election was well followed and watched upon. Many prayer groups had been praying for this election, and prayed for the will of the Lord to be done. Though there was a hidden expectation within the people who prayed, as far as I know, we all prayed for God's will. The believers have an inclination towards a secular party as this election was fought on two ideologies: one, fundamental religious nationalist and the other, liberal secular nationalist. Keeping our opinions and views aside, the hard lesson learned was to accept the Lord's final decision. 

Many believers have fasted and prayed for 72 hours in the beginning of the election and repeated the same towards the end of election and before the counting and declaration of the results. The exercise was good and laudable, as the believers were united together to pray. For whatever matter, prayer is always good. Whatever the result was, still the believers have done their responsibility in prayer. Now that the results have come, we simply just thanked the Lord for His sovereignty. 

Now our responsibility is to exhort that petitions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men; on behalf of kings and all who are in high position, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity. Now, whoever party won, as a citizen my sole responsibility is to pray for the rulers that God would give them the wisdom to rule this country and pave the way for the intensified spread of the gospel of the Kingdom, for the salvation of the many unsaved, and for the raising up of His testimony all over the country. 

God bless India! India for Christ and the Church!