Ministry of the Word to Udhampur

As we arrived at the house of the brother who hosted us for the meetings in the church he is shepherding, he initially wanted to have an ice-breaking fellowship where he wanted to clarify certain points concerning the ministry we represent. Looking to the Lord inwardly, with an exercised spirit, we answered all his queries to his satisfaction where he felt peaceful and joyful. Besides, at his request, I personally shared my testimony of how the Lord saved and called me to serve Him full-time. All these initial fellowships were indeed a good starter. Our relationship henceforth was established. And on the following Lord's day, he requested us to minister to his congregation for two sessions.

In two sessions, a brother and I coordinated to minister the word concerning God's eternal plan, expounding some basic Bible verses to help the believers understand what their lives are meant for: to receive God, contain God, express God, and represent God! We also ministered the need for growth in life by the inward life supply and spreading of the Lord's divine life from the spirit into the soul, and finally into the body as well. We also ministered on some basic God-man life exercises of calling upon the Lord's name, reading and pray-reading His word, and the need to spend time with the Lord. We also ministered on the assurance, security, and joy of salvation to help the belivers clear about their salvation itself.  Of course, after the ministering of the word, we also had a time of distributing the ministry literature and displaying them to the believers for their further pursuit of the truth.

The Lord richly anointed us and blessed the ministry of His word. The bishop, the pastor, and the believers were all overjoyed by the rich ministry of the word. The bishop and pastor themselves commented on how much they themselves were supplied with the Lord's speaking and further reported that the believers too enjoyed the Lord's speaking.  The bishop has also enquired if there could be a time in the future again for a revisit and more shepherding. We left the matter to the Lord to lead us in His time.

Just before we left the city, we also introduced the literature to the bishop and he took the entire set of Hindi ministry books along with an order for the Holy Bible Recovery Version and 10 copies of the HWMR God's Economy in Faith. In fact, I gift him my English HWMR copy as he was interested to study the truth.

The Lord has blessed our two nights and one day stay in the city. We have, by His mercy and grace, faithfully ministered the word as we were led to do so. We do believe that the seed of the ministry of the word sown into the hearts of the believers in this city will one day bear forth fruits unto the recovery of His testimony. Awaiting to witness that day, soon to be... 

Lord, recover Your testimony in Udhampur!

Ministry of the Word to Dhanoo

The burden for the spreading of the ministry of the word to Jammu and Kashmir has been brewing within my being. A brother who once enjoyed his church life in Gruugram has been inviting me to visit him. His invitation was the trigger point for me to follow up and consider visiting the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on his invitation, I fellowshipped with the brothers concerned and made plans for the ministry of the word literature journey to Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, this brother had called up a 'bishop' he knew and mentioned our visitation. Thereafter, this brother who is a bishop called me and all the planning was done. All the places that the Lord wanted us to visit in this journey were all prearranged by the bishop and his coworkers.

On this distribution trip, I felt it best to first visit the brother who had been with us in the church in Gruugram before he shifted back to his village, Dhanoo. Therefore, we began our ministry journey to Dhanoo.

In Dhanoo we spent one day and one night and had a wonderful time of fellowship with our brother's family. Our first visit to this village was a few years ago when his father was still alive. Now that his father was gone, he has taken up the responsibility of his father's burden for the Lord's testimony upon his shoulder. A couple of families used to come together weekly basis on the Lord's day for a meeting. Our brother has been shepherding them. Obviously, it was made known to us through our fellowship that our brother himself needs much shepherding. His wife herself has not yet been baptized. Though there were a couple of young ones, his cousins, who were also meeting with him, they need a lot of shepherding. 

One afternoon in our fellowship, we touched on the matter of God's eternal plan and the need for men to be saved first to receive the divine life in the spirit, and also the need for water baptism to prepare all the unsaved family members. So far, they have no entanglement in the organized Christianity. Therefore, we have the burden to shepherd our brother so that he can be gained to be a pillar for the church in Dhanoo one day. In his entire village, only his family has accepted Christ as their Saviour. Though he has many relatives in the village who are open to him and also to the gospel, a time of shepherding visit will be a good beginning to lay the foundation for the Lord's testimony in this village. 

One morning, this brother took us for sightseeing on a bike ride to a mountain where tourists have frequented for Cloud Camping and other hiking activities. The villages in these areas are scantily populated. As we rode through these villages, we called upon the Lord's name out loud and prayed for the salvation of these villages with the raising up of the Lord's testimony in these villages. We strongly believe that the local brothers can be strengthened and we can accompany them in the gospel preaching to evangelize the people there. 

May the Lord give us the wisdom to discern when to visit these villages again and how to shepherd our brothers' families so that through them, the Lord's testimony can be established and many other lampstands can be raised up as well. 

Lord, raise up the church in Dhanoo! And also save the people in Tikri area.

"Deathday" on a Birthday

The Lord has been faithful to me, leading me thus far to see the completion of my forty-fourth birthday and entering into the forty-fifth birthday of my human life on this earth. If the Lord were to grace me to live at least ninety years or so, He has led me to half of my life on this earth. Within these many years of my life which He has graciously granted me, I pray that He also fulfills the very purpose for which He created me as a human being. Since I was regenerated at the age of nineteen on 31 Dec  1997, I have been living my Christian life for twenty-five years now. My prayer has always been that I may enjoy and experience Christ daily and grow in the divine life unto maturity to be a living overcomer being built up with the saint in the Body for the ultimate fulfillment of God's eternal economy.

To me, I have ceased all the earthly and worldly ways of celebrating birthdays for decades now. My inner being would not allow me to do so any longer after I have grown to some level in the divine life. Nevertheless, I do thank the Lord personally every year on this specific day, for His mercy and grace being added to me for at least one more year. With the close family circle, I pray and thank the Lord for His grace all these years and look to Him for further grace.

Today, as I was spending time with the Lord in the morning, I was impressed by this one point of "Death Day". My "Birth Day" has become "Death Day" in a very positive way. I have been brought to a deep realization that my old man, my natural man whether good or bad, has to be put to death. Every new year should be a reminder of how much death have I experienced myself, and how much of the resurrection life of Christ have I experienced. I can well relate with Job when he confessed:

Indeed, I am worthless. What shall I reply to You? I lay my hand over my mouth.  Job 40:4

This is no self-introspection but a revelation that without the Lord I am indeed worthless. All that I am in myself has to come to an end. And all that Christ is to me be who I should be. Having seen the revelation of God's hand in my life, I truly echo what Job had declared: 

I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Jb 42:5-6

This is no new teaching, but in oneness with the word of the apostle Paul to Philippians:

To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Philippians 3:10

Today in our prayer and pursuit of the truth, I personally chose the hymn 426 by Br. Witness Lee which expresses my inward feeling of receiving God's light as I come before Him.

1      Remove my covering, Lord,
  That I may see Thy light,
  And be deceived no more,
  But all things see aright.

Chorus  
  Oh, may Thy living light, Lord,
  Scatter all my night, Lord,
  And everything make bright, Lord,
  For this I pray to Thee.

2 I hardly know myself;
  Deceived so much by pride,
  I often think I’m right
  And am self-satisfied.

8 I long to be unveiled,
  In everything made clear,
  No more to be deceived
  Or to my pride adhere.

Thank the Lord for His mercy to reveal to me on this day what this day should really be, a death day. Death to all of myself so that I may live out the resurrection life of Christ who lives in me. A self "deathday" on a wonderful birthday! Praise the Lord!

Baptism, Baptism, Baptism!

For the past few weeks, I have been on the gospel preaching spree with the saints in the church in Gurugram. To at least three groups of new believers, I have preached the gospel and led them to the Lord, and also expounded the significance of water baptism. With all my heart, I ministered to the new ones with a deep burden to help them through their newfound faith in Christ Jesus. I would not leave them halfway in their experiences of salvation. If I preached the gospel I must also preach the full gospel of believing and baptism together at the same time. I have become very confident in preaching the gospel and teaching the truth, no longer caring for human opinion and religious mixture. I must be straightforward and let the new ones know what they have done and what they should do. It was my responsibility to show to them the word of God.

Now if these three groups of people were to be baptized, there would be a dozen new ones brought into the kingdom of God. Though I told them what the Bible says, I left the final choice to them without any coercion from my side. As much as God respects man's free will I also respect man's free will too. Clarifying the biblical truth is my duty, and obeying the word of God is their duty. I must not shrink back just because they are new or because I must be careful in this line with laws passed which can be misused in relation to the faith in Christ. The truth is the truth and I must preach the truth. 

While preaching the gospel and teaching the truth faithfully to others, I and my wife also have been praying for the salvation of our own children. In fact, it has been about two years since we have been praying for the salvation and baptism of our own children. But we would not put pressure on our children concerning any matter of the word of God. We led them to the Lord, teach them the truth, and pray for their salvation daily as we would do to other new ones outside of our family circle. The Lord remembers us and hears our prayers.

For the last three days, there was a teenager training in New Delhi. This time four children from the church in Gurugram attended. In fact, last year and the year before, I was still hesitant to send our children as they were still too young then. But this time, it was perfectly alright now. They also were very excited about this training, for the Lord has been preparing them for such an encounter with them personally. 

Yesterday, my wife called me to let me know the good and surprising news that our eldest daughter wanted to be baptized. My first reaction was, if she initiated it on her own, praise the Lord! In fact, this is what I actually wanted. As a father, I have been praying for my children daily, preached and taught them the truth of the Bible at times, and prepared everything I felt necessary for their salvation and growth in the divine life. But I left the matter of the final decision to believe and baptize to my children. I wanted them to have their own realization and conviction that they themselves would take the step to decide for themselves. Since this was the case with my daughter, I was very joyful within. I thank and worship the Lord for answering our prayers. In fact, last night my only personal prayer burden and also with my wife was for the baptism of our daughter especially and also for the other teenagers.

Praise the Lord! When we take care of others, the Lord also remembers our own children, What I wish for others to do, I wish for my children too. The Lord in time accomplished everything we have been praying for, according to His will. Especially this most important decision in a person's life: to believe and be baptized, to be born of God to be a child of God.

My daughter has made her most important decision in life. I am very joyful about her decision. At age fourteen she believed and was baptized according to the Bible (Mark 16:16). May the Lord continue to grace all our children to grow in grace unto full maturity that they even be living overcomers to be pillars for the Lord's testimony, build up the church, the Body of Christ, prepare the Bride, and bring the Lord Jesus back! 

Today, we all went to witness the baptisms of the teenagers in New Delhi. Especially, our daughter's baptism and other saints too. I personally prayed for her at her baptism and took a video as a memory of her baptism.

Lord, thank You for saving the children You blessed us with!

Lesson from Traffic Light

Yesterday was a busy day for me. After all my official works and personal time of reading the Bible, I visited a new brother who took me to a place where I spent about two hours fellowshipping on the family of three new ones concerning God's purpose in the creation of man and the significances of baptism. 

When I came back home I needed to pick up my wife and some other sisters who attended the teenagers' training in New Delhi. Deep within me, I wish I could avoid all these outward pickings and droppings as I had other things to do. But my sense of responsibility could not be neglected. Therefore I went to pick up the sisters.

When I picked them up at a metro station, I had a plan of dropping each one of them in sequence. But when one sister suggested something different, I dropped my plan and followed the suggestion. While I was driving them, at Bristol Chowk junction, Sikanderpur, I drove through an amber light which was a sign of warning. Yet when I just crossed the traffic point I was stopped by the traffic police for an alleged violation of the traffic light. 

I stopped the car at the police's commanded and handed my driving license to the officer at his request. I explained my action to the officer that it was an amber light and not red light. But he would not pay heed to my version and threatened me with the suspension of my driving license for three months. It was at that moment I learned the practical lesson of just standing still and turning to the spirit to seek the Lord's wisdom in dealing with the situation. On the roadside, I was made to wait for about an hour as the traffic police were busy with other vehicles that broke the rules. I waited and waited and looked to the Lord on how to handle the present situation I was put into.

In principle, I would not resort to something unrighteous. If I truly committed the offense I was willing to pay the penalty for it whatever the cost. I, therefore, took time to browse the web on my mobile searching for people's comments on such situations. I also went through the government traffic rules.  My case was not a red light jumping which I would not do with all good conscience. But it was an amber light for warning which according to my knowledge of the rule is a warning that I should slow down or pass through depending on the congestion on the road. There were comments online that amber light is not a red light therefore depending on the officer in charge, he can either penalize me or let me go. I simply gave myself to the Lord in prayer and to the police. I surely do respect them as a man, myself, learning to live under the authority of God in the kingdom of God. 

When the two officers on duty finally came to deal with my case, I asked them, "Sir, tell me what must I do now that you charged me with a traffic violation when it was an amber light?" They replied that I shall be charged Rs. 5,000 and my driving license suspension for three months. If that is the righteous judgment of the authority I was willing to comply with it.  Then I told them that I did not have cash at the moment and requested if I could pay by a card or via digital payment, but they insisted that I should pay only by cash. I had no choice. I checked with the sisters in the car if anyone had Rs. 5,000 in cash at hand. Then one sister had Rs. 4,000. I took that with a promise to return and tried to collect more from others. Then the police officer changed his mind and interrogated me further.

He asked for my name, occupation, and residence. Without any tension, with calmness, I answered their queries. Then, they themselves changed their mind and said they would not charge me with the purported offense they accused me with initially. They toned down their voices and said, "Sir, you have a family. We don't feel good for your family to stay in the car and trouble them for this. We will still charge you with a traffic rule violation, genuine challan issued in your name, and pay Rs. 1000. We are not doing anything further." I simply said, 'Thank you, Sir!"

I was issued a challan for Rs. 1000 with a printed receipt, then they returned back my driving license, and showed me on their system that they only charged me for the seat belt. I paid the fine and drove off to drop the sisters at two different locations. 

I believe there are lessons the Lord wanted me to learn from this incident. From my side, concerning finance and learning to follow what I had originally planned in dropping the sisters. From the sister's side too, I believe they should learn not to give too much opinion.

In all these, the Lord is sovereign. This transpired when I have been dealing with new ones, leading them to the Lord, and when my wife told me our daughter wanted to be baptized. For sure, the enemy's threatening hand too was involved. But trusting in the Lord, with all boldness and a good and clean conscience, we move on. This is a lesson from a traffic light.

Lesson on Financial Management

Last few weeks I had a wonderful experience dealing with my wife's and my mobile phone. First, it was my wife's phone that had a problem with charging, and then my phone whose screen went blank. In trying to solve these two phone problems I learned a precious life lesson on finance; to save or not to save.

When my wife told me about her phone problem I tried to repair it at the earliest but I was too busy and wanted to do it fast and cheap. First I took it to a shop nearby that wanted to charge me Rs. 1500. But I decided to repair in another local market a kilometer away from home. When I went there it was repaired for Rs. 600 only. But a few days later the same charging problem, occurred. But every time I took the phone to the repair shop, I was told that it was alright and the man did not want to do anything further. Today morning the phone went completely drained out of battery and I had no choice but to repair it immediately wherever. At first, I thought to go to the same repair man as I already paid him, so I could save on the repair cost. Somehow the Lord did not allow me to go there and arranged my circumstances that I could not go there though I planned to. Therefore, I went to the shop nearby, and this time the same shop that I took the phone to before, agreed to replace the charging port with Rs. 700, which I readily agreed to, and it was repaired finally.

With my phone when I enquired about the cost of repairing I was quoted Rs. 3,500 for the first copy and Rs. 5000 for the original screen from Samsung. But I was in a hurry and needed the phone immediately and went to the local market and repaired it for Rs. 2,200. It worked for a couple of days and everything went blank again. When I took the phone to the repair man, I was told that the repair had no guarantee and they will not be responsible for anything after the work; no refund, no replacement, nothing. Therefore, I had no choice but ended up buying a new phone due to the urgency of the need. 

In the above two cases, I wanted to save money and tried my best to control my expenses. The more I tried to save money, the more I ended up spending. Then the Lord impressed me within that He has given me sufficient money to pay for the cost of repairing and also supplied me sufficiently to buy a brand new phone. When there is a need to use money I need to use it. I did nothing for luxury or for anything beyond my necessity. All that I spent was for what was actually needed. 

I felt cheated by the repairman in the local market. There indeed was a thought to vent my anger some way or the other. But the Lord indicated to me inwardly and outwardly to not visit that shop ever again, though I seriously wanted to. I forgave the person who cheated me on the two mobile repairs and on top of it, I learned my lesson on financial management.

The lesson is, to spend where and when it needs to be spent. Money comes,. money goes, it is the Lord who provides to meet all my needs. Trying to save money under the guise of financial management will not solve the problem. I should not be a lover of money but be a lover of men so that through the gospel as many as possible can be saved. Money should not be an obstacle in my pursuit of the Lord, and I shall not love money.

Similarly, for the last two weeks, there had been a gospel preaching in the city. For this, I also did my best to participate in the gospel preaching with the trainees and saints among the local resident of the city. For this, I need to use my car and joyfully spent money on fuel. In the same principle, use money when needed, especially for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For the love of money is a root of all evils, because of which some, aspiring after money, have been led away from the faith and pierced themselves through with many pains. 1 Timothy 6:10

Surprise Brotherly Visit

Love one another warmly in brotherly love; take the lead in showing honor one to another. Romans 12:10

An elder brother came to visit the literature office last Monday.  I was not aware of who he was until he introduced himself. Initially, I was not sure if I should spend time with him as another brother was with him. As a host, I felt my responsibility was to simply give him hospitality by serving him water, coffee, and snacks. But after all these formalities, I felt the need to sit with him to listen to him what he had to say and why he visited us.

He is a doctorate degree holder in a branch of study in Vedanta and a born-again believer from Brahmin background whose close relatives also believed into the Lord Jesus Christ. As from such a background, he went through a lot of persecution from his community yet those did not deter him from following the Lord Jesus faithfully. On the contrary, he became a testimony to many of his community members and has now been serving the Lord full-time though independently. He happened to be a friend of one of our brothers in the church life and has touched some crucial truths the Lord has recovered through the ministers of the age. He was very impressed with some basic fundamental truths on Christ being the life-giving Spirit (1 Corn. 15:45b) and calling upon the Name of the Lord. 

In fact, he has been a freelance evangelist and a traveling preacher who is being invited by different Christian groups nationally. But in his heart, he has a deep appreciation for the ministry of Brother Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and to his own testimony, he has been pursuing the truths and ministering the truths to the people he has been invited to minister to.

When he requested for ministry books I displayed a good number of selected titles. On sensing his hunger and thirst for the truth, I felt the burden to gift to him whatever ministry books he would like to read. Though he wanted to purchase, I decided o give him as gifts and pay for him through the offering I received recently. 

As we were fellowshipping, it was lunchtime and I felt the burden to invite him over for lunch. The matter being decided promptly, I felt it best to take him to a restaurant nearby. Therefore, we went and had fellowship over lunch at a restaurant serving Chinese cuisine. Before he left, he also enquired about the Holy Bible, Recovery Version, which I included along with the other books as a gift. He was so thankful for the time of fellowship, the hospitality, and the gifts of ministry books.

I have no idea why the Lord brought him to us and why we had such an impromptu fellowship with these many gifts. I believe the Lord has something to carry out through this newly established brotherly relationship. Perhaps, a breakthrough among our fellow Christians for the spread of the ministry of the word and also for the recovery of the truths among many of God's children. Of course, nothing is an accident in a believer's life. Therefore, in time, the Lord will manifest the reason for this surprise brotherly visit.

Lord, bless my brother and make him a channel of blessing to many of Your seekers and lovers.