Family Fellowship

An afternoon and a morning time of my short stay at home was well utilized for family fellowship. I enjoyed a good time of fellowship with my dad concerning many matters he wanted to let me know. My burden was to simply listen to whatever he had to say and comment whenever needed. In all his fellowship, I could see the Lord’s hand, especially, in his boldness in standing for the Christian faith and testimony when challenged by the village authority to compromised on traditional and ritualistic celebrations. I also gave suggestion for practical matters concerning the welfare of our family.

A morning time fellowship with my Aunt's family was very sweet too, as we all stood together for the Lord’s testimony in the village. Despite threats to compromise in our Christian faith, we all agreed to stand at all costs for the Lord’s testimony.

A time of fellowship with my nephews too was very timely. Since the village environment is not healthy for children's studies, I encouraged them to pay attention to education now before it's too late. To my nephew who is to marry soon, I encouraged him to have a new start after his marriage as his Christian life has been dwindling for many years now. The divine seed in Him has to be revived through fellowship in the church life. Then, I prayed for him and his marriage which is due in a few days' time as I will be missing it due to my pre-planned schedules. I firmly have faith in the Lord that all my family members and even my whole village would be saved soon!

Lastly, as I was being dropped off to the Airport for my return journey back to Gurugram, I fellowshipped with my beloved younger brother on important family matters. In fact, this was the only time I got to fellowship him. I shared my concerns to him about his children's education, the need for him to stand faithfully in the Christian faith without any compromise come what may, and also encouraged him to take initiative in caring for family needs whenever necessary.

By the way, the Lord reminded me of my words spoken in faith in 2003 to my parent that I would share the Lord's blessing with them, therefore, whatever the Lord blessed me in financial offering, I handed it to my mom to be shared with my dad too. Then, I kissed my mom's cheek to bid her goodbye for the time being. Then, I gathered all my family members at home and prayed for each one of them, blessing and committing them to the Lord. Thus, we bid good bye, shaking hands, and I left to catch my flight. It was a well spent time; short yet sweet. Praise the Lord!

Lord, bless our family!

Fellowship with the Brothers in Imphal

In Imphal, I was on my last destination in this ministry journey since 6 December. The only burden was to spend time with my family, mom and dad, brothers and sisters. Yet, when the brothers in the church in Imphal came to know about my visit, whoever were available came for a time of fellowship. We had a wonderful and timely brothers' fellowship, arranged impromptu at my room in my house.

The importance of seeking the Lord’s presence in all matters was my burden for all the brothers. To this effect, I shared my own testimony as well, how I enjoyed and treasured the Lord’s presence. This will usher the brothers in one accord and bring blessings to the church. I also encouraged them to love the Lord and love one another, to forgive all offenses and forget them altogether, and pursue the Lord together in the church life.

Despite the ups and downs of many brothers and the saints, I encouraged all the brothers to shepherd one another, and meet for brothers fellowship at least once a week. As they presented their burden to buy land for meeting hall, I told them that if all the saints love the Lord, buying land will be spontaneous through the saints' free will offering. Many saints have their own land and, in fact, many have purchased new plots for their own, which proved that money is not the matter to buy land. The matter is the saints' heart and willingness to offer for the Lord's testimony. After I shared, they all amen the burden released. I believe the Lord has been working on each of the brother's heart and they will definitely cooperate with the Lord in His move. Amen.

Lord, bless the church in Imphal.

Fellowship with the Saints in Lamka, CCPur

As a brother in Christ, the saints in the church in Lamka arranged an evening meeting where a brother from Aizawl and I fellowshipped with the saints. The church life is full of fellowship and blending for the building up of the Body of Christ.

After two brothers shared briefly on how the Lord raised up the church in Lamka as well as in Aizawl, I was given the time to fellowship on whatever burden the Lord burdened me with. In fact, in my morning Bible reading on Exodus, the Lord told me to share the practical experiences of the sanctification of the serving priests.

“And this is what you shall do to them to sanctify them to serve Me as priests: take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish,” (Exodus 29:1, RecVer)

Footnotes from the Recovery Version 

To be qualified to serve God as priests, Aaron and his sons had to be sanctified, to be set apart by being marked out. The mark that set apart, sanctified, Aaron and his sons to be the priests was the filling of their hands with the offerings, signifying the filling of the believers with the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) through their subjective experience of Him as the reality of the offerings (Heb. 10:5-10). The steps in sanctifying Aaron and his sons included the washing away of their uncleanness (v. 4), the covering of their nakedness by the priestly garments (vv. 5-9), the dealing with their sinful nature through the sin offering (vv. 10-14), and the feeding of God with the burnt offering (vv. 15-18) and God and the priests with the peace offering (vv. 19-28). This was not merely a consecration or ordination of Aaron and his sons.

“Then you shall slaughter the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the lobe of the right ear of his sons and on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the rest of the blood on and around the altar.” (Exodus 29:20, RecVer)

To serve God as priests, our hearing (ears), our working (hands), and our walking (feet) must be cleansed and sanctified by Christ’s redeeming blood. We must learn how to listen to the word of God (cf. 21:2-6; Isa. 50:4-5; Luke 10:38-42), to do what is required by Him, and to walk according to His way in serving Him. In Lev. 14:14 the same procedure was used in the cleansing of a leper, indicating that in the eyes of God we sinners who have been ordained to be His priests are unclean, like lepers.

Based on these truths, I ministered on the practical steps to be sanctified to serve the living God as priests. In the washing by the word of God, I released my burden on helping the saints to love the word and read it daily to be reconstituted with the truths. In fact, I challenged them to take a pledge before the Lord to read through the Bible at least once in a year, to which many saints said amen. Then, I shared on the need to not trust our self and natural man and the need to be covered with Christ as our clothing, then I shared on the need to deal with our flesh by taking Christ as the sin offering, meal offering, and peace offering. Finally, I also gave examples and practical help how our ears need to be cleansed, filtering all worldly noises but listening to the word of God; how our hands need to be cleansed by working righteously, especially in money matters, of not bribing nor borrowing but being clean, faithful, and righteous; and how our daily living should be proper before God and man, in morality and being a living testimony of Jesus.

Having ministered thus, I also showed the way how we can be practically cleansed. The truths may be high but the ways are simple; being revived everyday through prayer, calling upon the Lord’s name, morning revival, and the enjoyment of the word of God; and by being in the church life in fellowship with the saints.

The Lord anointed the ministry of the word and the saints responded after the speaking by sharing the portions they were convicted of and enlightened by. Many of them offered prayer for grace to be sanctified and, indeed, serve as priest.

May the Lord's hand follow His words, and may He bless the saints in the church in Lamka to be a glorious golden lampstand.

Reunion with My Classmates

While in Lamka, one of my classmates, in fact, my good friend at school took the initiative to invite a few other classmates to get-together on 22 Dec 2021. I just went as invited, not knowing what to share.

Seven of my high classmates who were in town turned up for the reunion. They all wanted me to share on how I became who I am today. Since they all wanted to know what kind of ministry I am involved in, which church I belong to, and how I came to serve the Lord, I looked to the Lord inwardly and shared whatever was needed to help them understand what I felt may help them understand.

My classmates' request opened the door for me to testify of what the Lord has been doing in my life. His wise and sovereign hands in my life was shared as a living message to my friends. In between there were intersections to comment on what I had been through. I am glad they got the message through the testimony itself. Praise the Lord!

We had photo sessions and on their request I prayed for all of them, especially, the family of the one who took the initiative to reunite. 

May the Lord work in all my classmates, as most of them are Christians, that they may love the Lord and that they may also grow in life unto full maturity.

Three Hundred Miles

After my burden was released at Aizawl, I was planning to leave for Lamka-CCPur to visit the saints. A brother from Aizawl insisted that he would come along and drive me from Aizawl to Lamka. I felt good about the proposal and amen his fellowship.

We set off for the journey at 5:20 AM on 21 Dec 2021 from Thuampui, Aizawl. We drove about 15 hours on the state highway to arrive our destination Lamka at about 9 PM on the same day. It was, indeed, a long long drive over the mountains and hills, and ditches and valleys. The beautiful landscapes all along the road entertained me; I could see the beauty of God’s creation and often wondered why many natural resources were left untapped. Here and there, I took photo shots and marveled at the greatness of God, the Creator.

Though the road was dusty as extension work on the highway has been underway, I appreciated the government of India's effort to build a four lane highway. This should have been done decades ago, any way, now the work is in progress. 

The excavation work on the hills and mountains were indeed great, though we had to be blocked a couple of times due to road block from the excavation. Due to such work, we took more time than usual and could not reach our destination in time. 

In fact, the saints were waiting for us to welcome us even as a brother had prepared a Lamb feast for lovefeast dinner. Due to our delay, we could not have meal together with the saints as planned; they left before we arrived. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our Lamb meal with our host's family, my first time to feast on Lamb's meat, followed by a short while fellowship and prayer, and off to sleep.

It was indeed a wonderful three hundred miles journey; enjoying God’s creation and His presence all along. Praise God for the safe journey and the adventurous 15 hours' road drive!

A Time with a Brother

One of the brothers who has completed his full time training and finished his Master's degree from abroad came to fellowship with me about his personal matters. I had to take a time out after a lovefeast dinner at another brother's home to listen to this brother what he had to say. One important principle in helping the saints is to listen to what they have to say and even listen to what they did not say or intend to say. In this way, discerning the actual condition of the saint, one can render necessary help through fellowship.

The Lord is the Lord and I did not dare to direct him in any way. I could only fellowship in general and lead him to look to the Lord until he is clear about what the Lord’s plan is for him. In a way of fellowship I shared how I sought and found the Lord’s will in my life, and thereby, obeyed it through His grace. Some keys points in determining the Lord’s practical leading are:

• Peace and Life Within
• The Word of God 
• Circumstances
• Fellowship in the Body

After our fellowship and prayer, he became clear about not going abroad again for further studies, giving time upto the end of this year for a final confirmation for his friendship matter, and seeking the Lord’s will in his service.

Through fellowship, the Lord cleared up many confusions, and we both enjoyed a brotherly fellowship. 

May the Lord lead my brother and give him a clear sky on all the matters he brought to fellowship. And may He be gained to be a useful and faithful vessel to the Lord.

Introduction of the Holy Bible Recovery Version

Two whole days, 18 and 20 Dec, I spent with the brothers in Aizawl to meet with the key Christian leaders in Mizoram whose head quarters are located in Aizawl. A brother who has been serving as a distributor for the ministry books in Mizoram had made all the necessary appointments.

As Christian brothers, we were welcomed wherever we went and whomever we met. We met with the leaders of the following Christian groups:

• Salvation Army
• Baptist
• Presbyterian 
• Pentecostal
• Holy Church 

The Lord gave me the timely word to speak to all the Christian leaders I met. As I introduced the Recovery Version, the anointing of the Spirit was richly felt; He gave the proper utterance, the right verses to quote, and the striking footnotes to show. All Christian leaders we met were so impressed by the two significant features of the Recovery Version; accuracy in translation from the original Hebrew and Greek and the 15,000 extensive footnotes that serves as study notes. Along with the English Bible, I also introduced the upcoming Mizo New Testament Recovery Version. One manager of a Baptist book room purchased 100 Holy Bible, Recovery Version, 50 leather-bound and 50 hardbound. Other Christian leaders have promised to bring it to their committee meeting for the final order.

The Mizo Bible has resulted in the gospelization of the entire Mizo population. The Mizo Recovery Version will result in the churchization of the Mizos. Only the Lord can do this through His living Word. 

May the Lord bless the Mizo speaking Christians with His timely and living Word.