A Macedonian Call

Though my plans were already fixed, I was always flexible as the Lord leads. One night I received a surprise call from a sister stating desperately her concern about her family condition whose husband is a brother, perhaps, more than an acquaintance of mine. In fact, a very dear brother in the Lord and a very close friend of mine. Gauging the urgency and need of the call, I prayed over and considered it before the Lord how to render some shepherding, as much as the Lord allows. But left it to the Lord for His confirmation. 

Surprisingly the next day morning the Lord confirmed the call as I was reading the "Macedonian call" in Acts 16, and the lady saved in the obedience of that call was "Lydia". So was also the sister who called me. When I received this solid confirmation from the Lord, I changed my plan and made a plan to visit them for fellowship, prayer and shepherding. Praying and trusting the Lord to speak His timely word for the full recovery of my brother's family for His testimony.

Acts 16:

9 And a vision appeared to Paul during the night: A certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him and saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.

14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple-dyed goods from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God, was listening, whose heart the Lord opened to give heed to the things being spoken by Paul.

As planned, I did visit them, all the while, looking to the Lord for His feeling, speaking and leading. As and when I got the opportunity I would minister something of Christ from the word and experiences to them, mostly related to God-man living and the need to be filled with the word and the Spirit; more practically of spending time together as couple to pray and fellowship. Though my experiences were trivial, still I would testify to them and shepherded them. At times, specific and other times generic; here a little, there a little. For about two days and nights I mingled with them, blend with them and ministered to them. We also delved at large on a particular matter of matrimonial concern. Though being a naive myself, still with whatever I have learned and understood, I have faithfully ministered, using some Bible verses with readings from the ministry books. All the time ending in prayer, looking to the Lord for His grace.

The Lord knew how much time I needed to spend with them and He arranged it accordingly. He even had to cancel an appointment with my cousin brother, and even had to delay my return flight ticket at least by an hour, so that I can spent extra one hour in fellowship and prayer before I left. In fact, the last one hour turned out to be the climax of my two days stay there. I enjoyed a lot, I believe, they too.

In factual term, it was indeed a "Macedonian Call." The Lord indeed opened up the heart of a sister and her household! May the Lord fully restore and recover this precious family for His testimony in that city!

Mission Impossible

On March 15, 2012 a brother was baptised whom the Lord led me to meet and preached the gospel to, and who from being a mediocre student hardly succeeded in life before his salvation became a successful person who even went on to  win some 16 international and 6 national records till date and keeps counting; and who was also honored with an honorary doctorate degree by an university from UK in recognition for his rare achievement, and also who by the classification of Indian society belongs to the priestly upper caste. With this brother I have been praying, and also have been praying for him mostly that he may be stabilized to become a pillar for the Lord's testimony in Gurgaon. Whenever he needed help, either spiritually or academically, he would come and we would fellowship, pray and chalked things out together. He is not just a brother whom I am shepherding but also who shepherded me in prayer.

Of late, he had been struggling and fighting against a social evil that is predominant in this part of the world, a caste-system that forbids marriage of different castes. As he had a relationship with a girl of a different caste, out of his love and zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ, he eventually witnessed to her and she even believed into the Lord Jesus Christ. However, he maintained a strict moral relation until he would marry her. For that marriage, which they both hoped for, underwent a fierce spiritual, social and psychological battle. Now and then he would update me of the situation, but we would only leave everything to the Lord in prayer. For graciously we could do nothing but could only pray and pray and pray. Thank God, at least, we were very good at praying as we had no other choice.

Few months ago, on the advice of his friend he came to discuss a plan of marriage even against the wish of the girls' parent. But in spirit, we fellowshipped with him to cancel such a plan, as they were not of the Lord but just human maneuvering. Instead we prayed together and turned to the Lord that He would intervene somehow. He accepted the fellowship and went back satisfactorily. From that day we decided to pray every day over the phone, by all means, and that he also would pray and read the word everyday. Only when he is ready, will the Lord make everything ready. He took the fellowship seriously. 

As we kept praying almost on a daily basis for months, the strong opposition due to inter-caste marriage, which perhaps, was a social taboo for some villagers seemed to grow stronger by the day. Yet, we did not stop praying nor would we give up. We prayed not only for the marriage, but also for the complete salvation of the girl and her whole family, for the Lord's testimony in Gurgaon and Bhiwani. The faithful God knows the best and in time He answered our prayer.

What we embarked upon as mission impossible took a new turn as we kept praying, trusting in the Lord. Last week, I received a call, heralding me of a sudden turn of event and change of mind by some one who vehemently opposed the marriage due to caste system. The God of impossibility made all things possible, He yet again separated the Red Sea and the way was open. Praise the Lord!

Last Saturday, the 25th of July 2015, the marriage was solemnized. And today, the 27 July 2015, as the church here in Gurgaon, we had a testimony meeting and baptism of the sister who already believed and had been waiting for this day for her baptism, to live a normal Christian life for the church life in Gurgaon.

This is indeed is a mission impossible made possible in Christ through much prayer.

It was a glorious moment both for the couple, and the local church here as a whole. May the Lord fully stabilize this couple and their families for the Lord's testimony in North India! 

Impossibility in man is possibility in Christ for God's economy!

Serve as Slave (2)

In addition to the post on "Serve as Slave" on April of this year (http://palmeichung.blogspot.in/2015/04/serve-as-slave.html), the Lord re-spoke the same thing again. This time with deeper understanding on the truth part and on the experience part as well. 

The motive of serving the Lord as slave is because of love. I serve God because I love God. 

Exo. 21:5-6 - But if the servant plainly says, I  love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; Then his master shall bring him to God and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

The only pure motive and pure way to serve God is because of love for God and His church and His saints. So because of love, one gives up himself by offering his body as a "living sacrifice" a reasonable service to God (Romans 12:1) with the Lord Jesus as a pattern in Philipians 2:5-9.

These matter touched me so much so that I studied the truth over and over again and wrote a hymn on it. Later, I shared these to the brothers who serve with me in the office and also in the coordination in the Lord's move here. This very hymn is a source of encouragement to me even as I sang the same hymn to myself as to the Lord. 

Prayer and Consecration : Serve as Slave

Dated : 19th July 2015

Touched and impressed by the Lord's speaking again and again on the truth concerning serving as slave, after an in-depth study of the truth, this hymn was composed.

Tune : #1043 “Be in Time!” 

Meter : 7.7.7.3 with chorus

Time: 4/4- D Major

(Exodus 21:5,6)

1         Master, we love Thee o'er all:

      We love Thy church, Thy household,

      We love Thy saints, Thou begot.

      We love Thee!

      In love we'll not go out free,

      But at Thy door we'll stand be,

      Only to listen to Thee.

      O Master!     

            O Master! O Master!

            We love Thee and choose to serve Thee, O Master!

            Bring us to Thy presence dear,

            To heed to Thee, bore our ear,

            That we serve Thee forever,

            O Master!

      (Philippians 2:5-9)

2    Jesus Christ, the Slave-Savior:

      God incarnate, emptied all,

      Humbled on this earthly ball.

      Slave-Savior!

      Found in fashion as a man,

      Unto death e'en obedient,

      Death of a cross for all man.

      Slave-Savior!

            Slave-Savior! Slave-Savior!

            Save us from ourself to serve Thee, Slave-Savior!

            Imitating Thy pattern

            In life, and in spirit burn,

            To serve Thee, our sole concern,

            Slave-Savior!

      (Matthew 24:45)

3    Make us faithful, prudent slave:

      Faithful in things great and small,

      Faithful towards Thee in all.

      Faithful Slave!

      Prudent towards all Thy saint;

      Wise in dealing all affair,

      Timely feeding, proper care.

      Prudent Slave!

            O Master! O Master!

            Make us faithful and prudent slave, Master!

            Faithful to Thee in all things,

            Prudent to saints in feeding

            Healthy food and perfecting,

            All Thy saints! 

      (Philippians 2:5,17; 1 Corinthians 4:1, 6-13; 9:19)

4    Savior, save us from ourself:

      In love to serve Thee as slave

      With spirit of sacrifice.

      Serve as Slave!

      No rights claiming of our own,

      No pride, boasting, opinion,

      But humble and obedient.

      Serve as Slave!

            Serve as Slave! Serve as Slave!

            Make this our reality, Master!

            Grace us spirit of service,

            Grace us spirit of a slave,

            Grace us spirit (of) sacrifice,

            O Master!

      (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Romans 14:7,8)

5    The love of Christ constraints us

      To live to Christ ever thus,

      To serve Thee, Christ, till breath lasts.

      To live Christ!

      All we are, and have, will be, 

      Our spirit, soul and body,

      For Thee, to live unto Thee,

      We offer!

           (Romans 12:1)

            O Master, we offer!

            Willingly, we offer up our body.

            As a living sacrifice,

            Paying our life as a price

            For Thy eternal plan-wise,

            We offer!

  

Nehustan

Nehustan, meaning “a piece of bronze.” 

In Number 21:4-9, the Israelite became impatient on the way around the land of Edom and complained against God through Moses for lack of food and water and loathed the light bread of God’s provision which triggered the anger of God ensuing in sending forth serpents who bit to death many of them who rebelled. Then on their pleading for prayer for deliverance from the serpents, God charged Moses to make a fiery serpent, to set it on a pole, and everyone who were bitten had to see it to live. That bronze serpent, a type of the redemption of Christ accomplished at the cross, was the means for salvation. However, in their superstition, the Israelite regarded the bronze serpent as an idol, which was called “Nehustan.”

Hezekiah, the king of Judah, in 2 Kings 2:1-8 broke down all the idols including that piece of bronze, which many deemed as worthy of worship. This deed of dealing with idolatry brought him prosperity, and Jehovah was with him.

What the Lord spoke to me in this regard was the need for dealing with superstition, even those that sounds scriptural or spiritual. God is God and there can be no substitute for Him. Even today’s Christian's crucifix or commonly known as “the cross” in form, picture, sign, ornaments etc. are all idols. The reality is Christ, and He cannot be replaced by any person, matter or thing. 

Our “Nehustan” must be dealt with, broken down and completely destroyed. There must be no religious symbol as such, as believing into Christ is not a matter of religion, but a life relation with God in Christ. And there must not be and cannot be any substitute for Christ.

Furthermore, all forms or idols or even images of religious deities, even for the Christians like “Jesus”, “Mary” and “the cross” must all be torn and broken down. God cannot be drawn by an artist, or printed on a piece of paper by a printing machine, or sculptured by a sculpture. God is Spirit, and can be worshipped, touched, experienced, enjoyed only in the spirit. A genuine Christian will have nothing to do with these substitutes. To do so would be following the custom of the nation in their religiosity or superstition or spiritual blindness. In fact, that would be idolatry. May the Lord fully deliver all His children from all falsehood, religiosity and superstition.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness. John 4:24  

O Young Man!

It was indeed an urgent reminder for the need for prayer with burden for the young ones in the church life. Though my burden has been always on the new ones and saving people, still I cannot overlook the young ones in my own backyard. When fighting the battle outside against Satanic kingdom, the safeguarding of and within our own kingdom must be taken care as well. In subtlety, the enemy will for sure attack the vulnerable ones by all means.

The recent incident of a young brother’s disappearance for a couple of days, creating scene at his home with emotion running high and sending shock wave across acquaintances, was a tap on my shoulder to heed to the growing juvenile amidst the glowing glitters and glamour of the tempestuous world. My whole being was on intercessory prayer, prayer for the safety and protection of the young man and the Lord’s covering against the attack of the enemy on the Lord’s testimony in our locality. To me, it was a “spiritual warfare.” I do not condemn anyone for this, but rather was convicted of my lack of shepherding. As much as I shepherd “others” I must shepherd the ones within my vicinity and closer proximity. Children and relatives of the serving ones of the Lord needs much more shepherding and prayer.

On the contrary, this incident also was a litmus test for our care of one another. Through thick and thin, we learn to stand together as one family. Despite the enemy’s attempt to overturn us, we stood together more firmly; in fact, I can testify, our care for one another grew much more. Whatever humdrum the enemy managed to commemorate, our care, concern and prayer was made more firm. Praise the Lord!

An insight to me through this incident: Teenagers cannot be caged in a family zoo, they need to hangout often, not in the company of gentiles, but with those of the same flock, the children of God. Herein is also a lesson for the need for the young one’s outing and blending under the overseeing of the matured serving ones.

O Young man, may this be a reminder. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, I have no pleasure in them; Ecclesiastes 12:1.

Proper Person

The work of a person depends on the person of the work. What he does and how he does and why he does depends entirely on who he is. Methods, ways and means are secondary to the outcome of the person himself who does it. His work expresses and represents who he is. If he is proper, the work he does will be proper-that goes without saying. So here is the need for a “Proper Person.”

In serving the Lord, or in doing anything, the being of the person is of utmost importance. I have been so impressed by this matter of my need and the need of my fellow brothers in Christ to be proper person. To our blessing, we have the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect pattern of the proper person. Even apostle Paul dare say, “Become imitator of me” in 1 Corinthians 4:16. Having patterns before us, I must be faithful to imitate Christ and the apostles, in life and in spirit, trusting the supply of life and grace to be like them.

This “imitation” entails many things, prominent ones among them would be “Character.” In one of the recent speaking of the Lord, I was reminded again of my need to be “discipled,” disciplined and exercised in my daily living with proper scheduling of time. In an organic way, doing the right thing at the right time for the right cause or purpose. May the Lord grace be to be a proper person.

In my recent fellowship with the serving ones I have emphasized this matter again and again; the need to exercise our character to be proper person trusting the Lord’s grace. Only then, with prepared vessels the Lord can pour out His blessings. Faithfulness in service and fruitfulness in productivity of both quantity and quality will be the result of a proper serving one.

Lord, make me proper person.

Rejoice and Exult!

In a fellowship over dinner just few day ago I came to realise subjectively what it means to be reproached and persecuted by religionists. Never did I realise that the Lord's recovery is spoken against by religionists in my hometown, even dubbing me of spearheading the "movement." In fact, I never remembered an occasion fighting with the religionists. Every time I went to my hometown, I would only minister the word of God wherever and whenever I was requested to. In fact, to all whom I have ministered, all of them have received with much joy. And I had not faced one person questioning me on the authenticity of the revelation of the truth. Besides, wherever the Lord led me to minister, the issuing result is the people turning to God in a much more serious and deeper way, some even experiencing life transformation. Even the opening of the divine truth has led some seekers of the Lord Jesus Christ to take a stand for the testimony of Jesus in their localities as the local churches. No wonder, when light shines, darkness has to flee; when truth is revealed, falsehood has to recede; when the genuine testimony of the Lord are raised up, degraded religionists for sure would oppose and fight back. The pure work of God will stand the test of Satan's attack from all angles, but the gates of hades will never prevail against the builded church. 

This realisation of the religionists' attack reminds me of what the Lord said in Matthew 5:11.

11 Blessed are you when they ¹reproach and persecute you, and while speaking lies, say every evil thing against you because of Me.

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11¹ When we live a life for the kingdom of the heavens, in the spiritual nature of the kingdom and according to the heavenly principles of the kingdom, we are reproached, persecuted, and evilly spoken of, mostly by the religious people, who hold to their traditional religious concepts. The Jewish religionists did all these things to the apostles in the early days of the kingdom of the heavens (Acts 5:41; 13:45, 50; 2 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 3:8). Recovery Version

To such, my reaction is that I turned to the Lord and thanked Him for this opportunity to experience what He had said when He was on the earth. Indeed, it was a privilege to be able to experience such an undeserving honor. I rather felt humbled in that I was honored with such an experience of reproach. For the Lord will vindicate Himself in due time. Truth always triumphs! 

 

So "rejoice and exult!" is the word of the Lord. To be able to receive this ninth blessing is a real blessing indeed! To be ill spoken of, defamed, falsely accused, lied upon... all these are nothing new to me, as the Lord grace me to face these a decade ago when I came out of degraded Christianity to experience and enjoy Christ in a normal Christian life. And it wouldn't be any wonder if I continue to experience the same; it is the grace of God.

Praise the Lord for all "ill speakings" because of Jesus Christ! Therefore, rejoice and exult!

Matthew 5:12

12 ^aRejoice and exult, for your ^1breward is great in the heavens; for so they ^cpersecuted the ²prophets who were before you.

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12¹ This reward of the ninth blessing indicates that the results of the foregoing eight blessings also are rewards. This reward is great and is in the heavens; it is a heavenly reward, not an earthly one. Recovery Version