Two Marriages and Three Meetings

Chandrapura and Jalandhar

This month, the Lord gave me the opportunity to participate in three meetings related to the weddings of two different couples. The first one was a brother I have known for the past decade. Though I have not been able to shepherd him as I should, still he reckon me as his spiritual brother and invited me for one of the most important meetings of his lifetime. He is in his forties and has remained a bachelor for long enough. Last year when he was to meet the sister he has found, he along with his father and mother came to meet me for fellowship and prayer. As requested I prayed for them. A few days later, he called to praise the Lord and thanked me for the prayer that the sister said "Yes” to him. A few months later, he called and invited me to join his engagement meeting in Jalandhar. And this year, he invited me to the actual marriage in Khambra in Jalandhar and also to the reception at his hometown in Chandrapura, Jharkhand. I considered his invitation before the Lord and felt peaceful to oblige to the two meetings, one for his wedding and the other for his reception. I also fellowshipped with my co-working brothers and planned a ministry literature trip together with attending these meetings.

In all the meetings  I simply followed their arrangement. I traveled along with his family by car from Delhi to Jalandhar and stayed in a house prepared for the family’s stay. The duo was prepared by the Lord and his family paid the price to come all the way to Jalandhar for a very important meeting, the marriage meeting of their son. But as went to the marriage venue, organized by a brother who has many followers in Punjab, I felt that enough care and attention was not given to this couple despite them being informed well in advance. We were made to wait for three long hours before the marriage actually could take place. But I used those three long waits to read the Life-study of Revelation on the New Jerusalem. In spite of being such a “mega” Christian organization, I felt that their treatment of the believers was pathetic. The key pastor himself did not even bother to come for the wedding but sent his representatives. The same thing was done for the engagement meeting last year. As a brother, I stood with the couple and prayed for them, and did whatever I could in order to shepherd them. Despite all the inconveniences amidst my busy schedule, for the sake of shepherding, I took the Lord's grace and was with them throughout the meetings; for the engagement, for the wedding  in which, on the family’s request I even signed as a witness on behalf of the groom, and also went to his hometown Chandrapura for the reception.

 At the engagement and reception, on the groom’s request, I shared the word from Ephesians 5 on marriage. I pray that the Lord would bless the marriage for His testimony in Chandrapura and Jalandhar one day. All the price that I paid was not merely to please men to attend their marriage meeting, but to sow the seed of shepherding to shepherd them ultimately into the church life one day.

Bilaspur

The other wedding is in Bilaspur between a brother and a sister. We have been visiting the local church in Bilaspur a couple times for ministering the word to them. The key brother requested our presence to grace the first marriage in the church life in Bilaspur. Therefore, when we received the invitation, we detoured from our original plan and decided to attend the marriage as a way to shepherd the saints in Bilaspure, especially the leading brothers whose daughter was the bride. 

Without any prior information, we were requested to minister the word of God just before the wedding meeting began. Therefore, a brother and I shared the meaning of human life and the meaning of marriage life. In the midst of a few hundred people, we used the wedding meeting for the ministry of the Word. It was indeed the Lord's sovereign arrangement that we could attend the meeting and fellowship with a good number of saints, especially the leading brothers of the local churches in Chhattisgarh. This we did with the view of God’s economy of shepherding the saints for the sake of the church life in Bilaspur and the neighboring local churches who are on the way to take the scriptural way of meeting and standing for the Lord's testimony.

To both the couples in the two marriages, we gifted the Holy Bible Recovery Version, Leatherbound Burgundy, the best gift we could ever think of. The gift I received from the former marriage I gave as a return gift to the latter marriage.  

May the Lord bless the two marriages for His divine economy.

A Visit to Jalandhar

The Lord has taught me to read the situation at hand and seek His leading in every circumstance that I have been facing. When I was invited to attend a wedding meeting of a brother in Jalandhar, I could have easily excused myself as not an important matter. But as I considered before the Lord, I realized that the Lord is opening the door for me to travel and minister the word to the people in need. Though the invitation was for a wedding meeting, in reality, it was for the ministry of the Word. Therefore, I did not hastily confirm or deny whenever I received an invitation. Nor did I easily rely on my own feeling to accept or reject the invitation. Instead, I commit the matter to the Lord and follow the Lord's leading.

 

After attending a brother's weeding meeting at Khambra and signing as a witness to the groom, I felt my responsibility for the wedding was over and I left to meet other seeking believers. During my one-night and one-day stay in a brother’s home, I could attend three home meetings with seekers and enjoyed the rich flow of life through the ministry of the Word.

 

The first meeting was with two families in Jalandhar City. As the two families gathered to meet, the Lord gave me the burden to minister on the need for daily breathing, drinking, and eating the Lord. I quoted all the relevant Bible verses I ministered to them about the need for the breathing of the Holy Spirit by calling upon the Lord's name day by day, moment by moment; the need to drink the Spirit by asking the Lord in prayer, every day; and the need to read and pray-read the word of God in a way of eating the Lord. All these basic practices of the Christian life are the urgent need of every believer to live and grow in the Christian life. The saints were so supplied by the ministry of the word that they even requested me if I could come again and minister to them and other saints too.  My standard reply was, "As the Lord leads, please pray."

 

The second meeting was with my host, his wife, and his parent. The Lord gave me a word on husband and wife loving one another, being one with one another, and praying together as much as possible to maintain the love and oneness between them. As I ministered the word with a few life experiences, they were so supplied, especially the father of the family, and echoed that they needed such a speaking at that time.

 

The third and last meeting was with a family that also runs a tuition center for high school students. The word the Lord gave to me was on the need to be pure. Quoting from the Bible, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God from Matthew 5:8, I ministered on purity in seeking the Lord. As Christians we should seek only the Lord and nothing else, we should learn to seek only Him as the blessing and nothing else. He is the Lord and he knows all our need, in time, He will provide sufficiently. I use the life testimony of Adoniram Judson, Graham Steward Stains, Watchman Nee, and my own testimony. As I shared the need of learning to be pure, the sister of the family started crying, being so touched by the testimonies, and the sacrifices of many men and women of God. I do believe, their concept of seeking the Lord for outward and physical blessings has been nullified. And that they would learn to be pure to seek the Lord only and trust in Him for all their needs instead of seeking for it.

What a wonderful visit to Jalandhar! May the Lord continue to speak to all the brothers and sisters and gain them for His testimony in Jalandhar!

Ministry of the Word to Yamunagar, Ambala, Kurukshetra, and Bahadurgarh

In this distribution trip, our plan was based on a few contacts we had in a few cities and town. I  basically looked at the map and based on the Haryana map, tried to connect the dots and drew a path for our jouney. Thereby, though these four cities were not the target, they became a part of it.

In Yamunangar, a brother who has been in touch with some of our brothers gave us hospitality in his congregational setup. We spent most of our time shepherding this brother who received the free Rhema literature many years ago. This time, it was more of a one-on-one shepherding visit to gain him. Before we left the city, we were able to meet only three pasors to whom we introduced and distribute the ministry literature.

In Ambala, we met a brother who was introduced by a brother from Karnal. After that, we visited a sister and her husband who we have known for many years in Gurugram. It was more of a brotherly visit.

In Kurukshertra, we visited a small Christian group who were under the grip of persecution from the lcoal people. Sicne the time we visited was late in the night, we could not spend much time. But with the little time we had, we introduced the ministry literature to whoever was present at their meeting hall. Becasue it was already late night when we arrived this village, we thought of staying back for the night initially. But later, we realized that there was once a situation where the locals were not happy with outsiders visiting the Christian believers. That was the Lord's leading to tell us not to stay for the night in Kurukshetra but move forward to Karnal as the Lord wanted to do His work in Karnal the following Lord's Day.

In Bahadurgarh, our last destination for this Haryana trip, we met two young brothers who were from a Gentile background and just came to serve the Lord. They were jealous for the Lord though their understanding of the word of God and the Lord's ministry was very basic. They were not clear about the deeper truth related to life, growth, transformation, and the mystery of Christ and the church. But somehow, we explained what the ministry is and clarified some of their doubts concerning the Christian faith.

Thus, with this last stop, our ministry journey to Haryana was completed for this time. What awaits is the follow-up of this first ministry literature journey. The following journey will be for shepherding and recovering of the Lord's testimony in all these places in Haryana.

Ministry of the Word to Karnal

Since the time the Lord burdened me to visit Haryana, I had a brother in mind who once purchased a good number of ministry books for his congregation. In fact, he called me once or twice for the ministry books, and he became a contact point in Karnal. As we visited him this time, I had a strong feeling within me that we should be visiting him and staying with him on the Lord's Day. That was the inner leading. For, we could actually stay in places like Ambala, Kurukshetra, or other cities, but the Lord's inward leading was that on the Lord's day, we must be with this brother in Karnal.

When we met this brother, he invited us to join their leader's meeting on a Saturday morning where we introduced the ministry literature. But after that, we went to Ambala and then to Kurukshetra. Due to time constraints, we thought to stay back at Kurukshetra, but the Lord did not give us peace for some reason. So, almost at midnight, we arrived at Karnal, our brother's place, and stayed in their meeting hall.

On the Lord's Day morning, while we had fellowship over breakfast we got to learn our brother's testimony of how the Lord led him to not involve with many things, including ritualist practices of Christianity. Since 2012, he stopped all the common practices of Christianity as a religion and set apart himself to serve the Lord in the purest way he felt best. When we visited him on the Lord's Day, which happened to be Easter Sunday which he stopped celebrating, we were fully open to the Lord for whatever he would like to do.

After breakfast, this brother came and requested me to share the word of God on the Lord's Day meeting. He further said that he never invited any brothers to ever share the word in his congregation since he came out of Christianity in 2012. But that day morning, he testified that the Holy Spirit told him to invite us to minister the word in his congregation. Therefore, a brother and I coordinated to minister on the need for eating, drinking, and breathing the Lord for our normal Christian life.

After the meeting, the brothers and his family gave us love-feast and testified that they all enjoyed the Lord's timely speaking. Then this brother, placed order for all the ministry books in Hindi, the Holy Bible Recovery Verison, and also HWMRs for the whole congregation o use.

Then I became very clear why the Lord gave me such a feeling to spend the Lord's day in Karnal with this brother and not any other place. This brother has a network of serving ones all over Haryana. He and his group are practicing the little truth that they know, and he has the burden to gradually teach all the believers in his network to practice the Christian life as he understood from the bible.

I do believe the Lord will soon recover this brother and the groups meeting with him. So that one day, there will be a rich harvest all over Haryana.

May the Lord bless this brother and all the believers and serving ones with him. May the Lord give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation as they read the ministry literature to see the vision of God's economy concerning Christ and the church so that one day, the local churches be raised up among all these villagers under his shepherding care.

Lord, raise up and gain the church in Karnal!

Ministry of the Word to Rohtak, Sonipat, Joshi, and Panipat

A brother who claim himself to be an apostle and started a ministry in his name gave us hospitality in his small tent for a night stay. The next day morning, we spent time with him introducing the ministry literature which impressed him so much. He was the stepping stone the Lord used for us to lay our foot on Rohtak. From there, we went to visit some other Christian leaders. We could not meet much despite being so many Christian present in the city because the key leaders had gone to other cities for some other work and we only had one day. After meeting all the people that we could meet, went to Sonipat.

In Sonipet, we met the biggest Christian group's pastor. We spend over two hours with him, introducing the ministry books. He was so impressed by the depth of the truth. He eagerly received the ministry books. Apart from him, we were not able to meet others as it was Good Friday and many pastors were busy with their own meetings. The only few pastors we could meet, we were able to introduce and distribute the ministry books.

Through one of the pastors who met us in our hotel room in Sonipat, we were introduced to another pastor in Joshi, a village in the suburb of Panipat. There, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with a brother and his family who serves the Lord among the local people. He was so interested in the ministry literature that he even asked what would be the way he could join us. Well, we helped him to know that we are all serving the Lord and that, with the proper vision of God's eternal purpose, in fellowship, we can serve the Lord together. As the Lord leads we may visit them again in the coming days.

In Panipat, we met a brother from the North East, Manipur, who had come to this land for the gospel. We listened to his testimony of how much persecution he had faced in the past. Yet he never gave up. Rather, he continues to serve the Lord in this city and gain a good number of local people. We were so impressed by his testimony. 

To all these dear brothers who have been serving the Lord in these parts of the state, we were sowing the seed of the ministry. These brothers have paid the price to establish themself among the local people and now they still have to pay the price to be brought into the full knowledge of the truth. We believe that the Lord has been using us to usher these dear brothers who have already been serving the Lord to a fuller knowledge of the truth so that the churches the Body of Christ can be built up on the ground of oneness one day.

The Lord is the Lord and he will do His work in the best way at His best time. Lord, raise up Your testimony all over these cities.

Ministry of the Word to Kalanaur, Bhiwani, Kohlawas-Dadri

Kalanaur
With a contact given to us by the Christin brothers in Jhajjar, we came to Kalanaur on our way to Bhiwani. Here we were in the home of a brother who is a Pastor and also the leader of a Christian social movement that also has some political connection with the state government. As we fellowshipped with this brother and introduced the Holy Bible Recovery Version, he was so impressed by the truths expressed in the footnotes. He testified that he has been searching for a study Bible like this for many years. Now, he finally found one! Immediately he placed an order for the Bible. 

As we continued to introduce the ministry literature, he was also very interested to read the books,. Thereafter, he selected a good number of ministry books in Hindi and placed orders. He also brought along another brother who is a Pastor of another Christian group. The two brothers enjoyed a time of fellowship through the ministry of the word. A few days later, this brother called me up to express his gratitude for introducing the ministry literature, especially the Holy Bible Recovery Version, and also proposed to come and meet me in person in Gurugram along with other Christian leaders.

At the right time, the Lord will recover His chosen ones for the raising of the church in Kalanaur. The seed of the ministry has been sown. In time, the Lord will cause the growth and bring forth the fruit for the Lord's testimony in Kalanaur.

Bhiwani
The only Christian employee in his government department in the city, a seeking brother was introduced to me by a brother from Jhajjar when they first met at a Government function in his department. Since then, I have been in contact with him and he has been inviting me to visit him in Bhiwani. This time around, we came to this city to this brother's house for the spread of the ministry of the word.

For two nights, we were given accommodation in his house, and for two days we went to different parts of Bhiwani for the introduction and distribution of the ministry literature. After we accomplished our task in the city, we moved on to another city. But on our way, we dropped by Kohlawas-Dadri.

Kohlawas-Dadri
We were welcomed by a Christian leader in Kohlawas village at his house. He also gathered together all the pastors serving in and around his village. This brother has a wonderful testimony. Once he got saved, he decided to serve the Lord full-time and was fervently preaching the gospel. In fact, because of his gospel preaching work he has been persecuted, beaten, and threatened by the local people, even by the local police. But he was not deterred by all these outward threats. In return, he prayed that he would continue to preach the gospel and save the entire villagers. And shepherd many young ones to become like him serving the lord full-time. His desire has been granted by the Lord. Through him, a good number of young brothers gave their lives to serve the Lord in and around Haryana.

As we introduced the ministry literature, this brother placed an order for the entire set of Himid ministry books, for himself and also for other Christian brothers in the village. They gave us wonderful hospitality and fed us with their local specialty for our dinner. After having prayed with them and also for them, we left for another city.

May the Lor recover his testimony in this village soon, through these brothers who have been serving the Lord among the locals.  

Ministry of the Word to Rewari and Jhajjar

A bother who was brought to salvation eleven years ago and now living in Jhajjar is one of the key contacts that led us to this city. Geographically, to travel from Gurugram to Jhajjar it was convenient to pass through Rewari, another important city. Therefore, Rewari came into the distribution plan. Though we did not have many contacts in this city, we somehow got a number from Rhema free distribution database. So our only meeting in Rewari was with this one brother who is a Peon in a Government college. He was also our first contact in the city and we were glad to preach the gospel and fellowship with him concerning the ministry literature. After praying for the city and also this brother we left for Jhajjar.

In Jhajjar, our brother welcomed us to his residence cum school. It was a meeting after many years. In fact, I met him after he has become a father of two children. Professionally, he has become very busy and successful. But spiritually, he has not been shepherded properly. At least I was glad that his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is still going on. He still continues to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and trust in the Lord. Despite his wife, family, and the people surrounding him, his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is consistent. His need now is to move forward and grow in the divine life to the extent that he openly confesses his faith in the Lord and also stands for the Lord's testimony openly in Jhajjar. Our brother has also invited us to visit him at least once in a month for fellowship. 

He also ran a restaurant where he treated us to his specialty for dinner. And after that, I met his family, his children, and we had a prayer in his office. For the night stay he accommodated us in a very nice hotel in the city.

The next day, we had a meeting with a group of Christian leaders. Initially, they were all very suspicious of the ministry. As there had been, in the past, some Christian groups came to the city and spread a wrong teaching extrabiblical to the Bible. Moreover, there were frequent persecutions in the city from the Gentiles. Thereafter, we understood fully the reason why they had to treat us in a cautious way in the beginning. 

But when we started introducing the ministry literature and showed the truth of the Bible through the literature, they began to see the depth of the word of God. And how orthodox we have been in our teaching and they opened up to us. They even thanked us for the wonderful Christian literature we introduced to the city. Our meeting became very fruitful. It cleared off all misunderstandings, and now they were open to the ministry. They received the ministry books. Besides, we also ministered on the truth concerning the church which really touched some of them deeply. In all our fellowship we used relevant Bible verses to back up the words we ministered.  In fact, they also gave us some contacts that we could meet in another part of Haryana. 

So having thus released our burden in Jhajjar, we left for Bhiwani. 

May the Lord gain His remnants for His testimony in Jhajjar!