"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. 

Serving God

Serving God According Revelation by Faith

The book of Genesis reveals God's heart's desire for man to receive Him as food and drink, and thus being satisfied with God will issue in serving Him according to God and His revelation. Sandwiched between the rivers and the tree of life is man to work on the garden of Eden and keep it. This is the principle God set up for man to serve God.

The source of our service is God Himself. It is imperative for man to partake of God first to be able to serve. 

Gn 2:10And a river went forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four branches.
Gn 2:11The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that goes around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Gn 2:12And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
Gn 2:13And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that goes around the whole land of Cush.
Gn 2:14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one that goes east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 

Gn 2:15And Jehovah God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.

Gn 2:16And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely,
Gn 2:17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Rv 22:3And there will no longer be a curse. And the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His slaves will serve Him; 

Jn 4:14But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. 

Jn 4:34Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

All spiritual service begins with revelation. The revelation is that God desires to satisfy man first by feeding Him with Himself as food and drink, so that man can serve Him. Violation of this principle set up by God will result in spiritual death. For this reason, the sabbath rest commanded by God in the Old Testament demands man to enjoy God as rest first, else the judgment of violation is death. For this very reason, many servants of God face spiritual death due to a lack of revelation.

Is 30:15For thus says the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you will be saved; In quietness and in trust will be your strength; But you were not willing.

Examples of serving according to the natural man:

Uzzah's Hand: The Ark of God was to be carried by the serving priests, but a non-priest carried the Ark here.

2S 6:3And they set the Ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
2S 6:7And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the Ark of God.

Ananias and Sapphira: 

Ac 5:1But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a piece of property

Ac 5:2And put aside for himself some of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it. And he brought some part of it and laid it at the feet of the apostles.

Ac 5:3But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to deceive the Holy Spirit and to put aside for yourself some of the proceeds of the land?

Ac 5:4While it remained, was it not your own? And when it was sold, was it not under your authority? Why is it that you have contrived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.

Ac 5:5And when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and expired; and great fear came upon all those who heard this.

The difficult situation is the real test of the serving ones. Even without the test, do we still use Uzzah's hand and act deceitfully like Ananias and Sapphira? Be reminded of Uzzah's hand and never act naturally even in times of difficulties. May the Lord be able to gain a testimony among us that is pure. That we may serve the Lord by faith trusting in Him and never do anything without faith. 

1Ti 1:4Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.

Rm 14:23But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not out of faith; for all that is not out of faith is sin.

Seeing that we are not and that God is all, will keep us in rest and allow the great I Am to work in us and through us. This will cause faith to rise up within us; we will be resting and enjoying the Lord as the tree of life and the river of life. Thereby, enabling us to serve according to this revelation.

Lord, grace us to serve You according to revelation and in faith all the days of our lives.

Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Mt 28:19Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The past two years were barren years as far as the gospel preaching was concerned. the pandemic had stopped all physical going out to preach the gospel which we used to do every Saturday. Even when the pandemic seemed to be over, the gospel preaching was not fully recovered as it should have been. Therefore, the Lord in His mercy and sovereignty arranged a two-week propagation in the city of Gurugram. I was blessed to be able to participate in the gospel preaching in coordination with the saints and the trainees.

Lk 10:1Now after these things, the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to come.

Every morning and afternoon we came together to pray, pray-read the word of God, fellowship, and formed teams to go out. Every day we spent about two hours pre-lunch and another two hours post-lunch. Even the team was sovereignly arranged in such a way that we could learn to coordinate.

Announcing the Gospel House to House

Ac 14:7And there they announced the gospel.
Ac 14:21And when they had announced the gospel to that city and had made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.

This time I consecrated myself to participate in all the gospel preaching and actively involved in it. The Lord graced me to do so. Therefore, from day one, team by team we went street by street, house to house, door knocking for the preaching of the gospel in a selected sector in the city. Every time we went out, the Lord gave us some good contacts; to listen to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to call upon the Lord Jesus' name, to pray the sinner's prayer for salvation, to invite us into their home for a time to hear us out, to offer us something to drink as we ventured out in the peak summer time when the temperature was between 52 to 45-degree Celcius. But the outward condition did not matter to us at all. The power of God's grace was upon us that the heat that I normally find hard to bear meant nothing when I went out to preach the gospel. There was no change in the temperature nor the outward situation, but the change was within and upon me. The Lord covered me by His grace, and what was difficult outwardly meant nothing as the Spirit led me on. This is my personal testimony.

A Cup of Water

Mt 10:42And whoever gives to one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.
Mk 9:41For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name that you are Christ’s, truly I say to you that he shall by no means lose his reward.

Remembering the word of the Lord well, I personally would not reject whenever the new ones whose door we knocked on, offered us something to drink in the hot summer. They obviously were witnesses of our sweat as we stood at their doors awaiting their response, and when they did so, many of them were moved with compassion to at least offer a glass of water due to the hot weather. Many offered water to drink, and by faith, I always accepted the offer and drank. In that way, I got more opportunities to speak to them the gospel and interact with them, and on top of all, I wanted the Lord's words to be fulfilled in their lives. "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name that you are Christ’s, truly I say to you that he shall by no means lose his reward."

Counted Worthy

Ac 5:41So they went from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the Name.

Not all will receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. We did experience a few rejections and in two houses we were bitterly scolded, abused, and shouted at. But we never responded according to their anger and temper, rather we swallowed their bitter words with a smile and walked away thanking them. There were sons of peace who would receive us and there also were some who would reject us. Either in acceptance or rejection, glory be to God and we count it worthy to be honored with the blessing of the gospel!

Glorious Gospel

Lk 10:16He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.

Lk 10:17And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.

Lk 10:18And He said to them, I was watching Satan fall like lightning out of heaven.

The gospel is of the Lord Jesus Christ. We only represented Him in His gospel.  Whoever received the gospel received the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever rejected, rejected the Lord. In either case, whenever we came back from the gospel preaching we came with joy and rejoicing. For Satan was defeated and sinners heard the gospel and got saved. Only the Lord knows how many of the people we preached the gospel to,  got saved! And how many would be saved in the future as the word of God preached will not return void; it will bear forth fruits one day, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and others thirtyfold! As farmers, we simply sowed the seed of the gospel, the divine life, to people's hearts, into which the Lord will follow up to convict them and save them one day. In fact, much sooner than later.  The result is up to the Lord.

Praise the Lord for the glorious gospel preached in our city Gurugram! Lord, save the people of Gurugram for Your strong testimony!