Experience of Christ in Functioning

I have been trying my best to gradually withdraw from many of the functions that I have been functioning in the church life in Gurugram with the view that other new and younger brothers can pick up the burden and the church go on. To this extent, I have also completely given up inwardly many crucial responsibilities to some brothers and to a particular brother who came to serve in the church in Gurugram from abroad. Postivbely, to encourage more to serve. Negatuively, I somehow felt that I should not be the cause or hindrance for the Lord's blessing His church. 

As the church, we have been very much struggling to gain increase for the past several years. No matter how hard we tried or what new method we took, the situation has not changed much. The saints have been shepherded and new ones too have been shepherded to some extent, but the significant increase that we have been praying for is yet to happen. Every end of the year, we come before God in regret for our failure in not gaining the increase we had planned for at the beginning of the year. And in the beginning of new year, we pray and plan for an increase. But so far, what we planned and what we gained did not match. There was some lag somewhere every year. Sometimes I used to think, perhaps, I may be the one causing the hindrance. But I should not self-condemn myself too and fall under the attack and deception of the enemy. This may yet be another trick played by the devil to kill my function. But I hope that many serving ones can be shepherded to take the lead in shepherding the saints in the church.

Two weeks  ago, something unimaginable happened in the nearby city where some of our brothers were imprisoned. One brother from abroad who actively has been serving with us in the church had to leave the country due to an emergency situation. In a day's time, everything changed. It was a shocking surprise to us and for the church. Now, with two key functioning brothers rendered functionless, I had no choice but to actively function again. The very functions that I gradually decided to give up, I needed to actively function again. Perhaps, the Lord wanted me to learn more and be perfected. Though I wanted to perfect others, I needed more perfecting first. Somethimes, its hard to understand what the Lord actually has been doing. But I simply follow the Lord's leading and accept whatever He arranged for the church. I am just His slave. No opinion, but perfect submission to His sovereign arrangement.

Beginning from the last Lord's Day, my active participation in the church functions have been recovered back again. The very functions I gave up for others I needed to take them up again. I believe in the Lord's time, He will bring more serving ones in. Until then, I function as a member in coordination with other members of the Body for the sake of the Lord's testimony. In the past almost twenty years I have been witnessing the rise and fall of serving ones number in the church in Gurugram. The number has been fluctuating as the saints in the church life come and go, it has always been a flowing crowd. Some families came into the church life and they had to migrate out due to their jobs or family situations. Some families stably remain, my family is one of them. As long as the Lord allows us to be here, we will be here. We will simply follow the Lord as He leads. After all, we are for Christ and the church only.

Lord, gain more serving ones to function and perfect all of us to serve in sweet coordination for the building up of the Body expressed here in the local church in Gurugram.

Shepherding in Home Meeting

The Lord opened the door for shepherding the local people of my community DLF-1. Every Friday we would go for a time of shepherding in one home of a new believer. The Lord's speaking during the last week's meeting was on the Bible. After the truth pursuing concerning the Bible, a new young brother asked the practical way to read the Bible. That question opened the door for me to share on the practical and easy way of reading the Bible daily. In fact, that night a daily assignment was given to all to read the Bible every day. My son, along with another two teenage boys were present including my wife and the mothers of the other two boys. To help the young people in this way is a real shepherding. Only the word of God can speak to them directly provided they read the Bible to listen to God's words. Though the speaking was especially for the teenage boys, the lesson was also equally for the teenage boys' mothers. Slowly but gradually, shepherding is going on among the local people and all our saints.

Weekly, I also have a phone call "home meeting" with around seven brothers who are being shepherded into the church life. As time permits, I have been doing this week by week with one goal of ministering Christ through prayer and touching their spirits to touch the Lord. Only this way of touching the Lord as the Spirit in their spirits is the way they can be shepherded. As some of them are not yet baptised, I would not compel anybody to be baptised apart from faithfully teaching them the truth concerning baptism. I leave the choice to them. Except for a few of them, I have not been able to meet in person. but what I could do, I did my best; shepherding them one on one. The result I leave it to the Lord.  

Similarly, I also have been spending time with my son every night. Going out with him to fellowship and pray together. I also encouraged my wife to go out for prayer with my daughters, which they have been doing regularly. Besides, we also have our daily family home meeting mostly for prayer. In this way, through home meetings,  shepherding has been going on.

May the Lord grace us to take this way of shepherding at homes daily and weekly all the days of our lives.

College Students Fellowship

For some reason or other, the college students meeting that every church with college students is supposed to have has not been practical in the church in Gurugram. Though we used to have a very active college students' meeting in the past, of late nothing has been happening. Partly because there are already other meetings that the college students join regularly. In addition, I had been traveling a lot in the past few months and was not even physically present to take care of the college students. Two weeks ago, the Lord's speaking through the fellowship was quite clear that we should be reviving the college student's meeting. Therefore, we recovered the meeting after all the meetings on the Lord's Day ended. 

The burdens the Lord gave me for the college students were all very basic. I wanted to help all the young ones establish a strong and stable personal prayer life. I wanted them to go before the Lord and be under the shining light of the Lord. Only the Lord's light and life supply can shepherd them and make them grow. Of course, I will do my part in shepherding them too. But I confess, the real Shepherd is only the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So, I did my best to help the young ones in their personal prayer life, reading the Bible regularly, being revived every morning by morning, and interceding for their unsaved friends and classmates. So that, as a student they can bear at least one fruit for the Lord before they graduate from the colleges or universities. I also encouraged them to have a prayer book or spiritual diary where they can record their experiences and enjoyment of the Lord which is the greatest treasure that one can acquire in this age and that will last unto eternity. All the other treasures will vanish when one dies physically. In addition to all those, I also told them to seek the will of the Lord in prayer for all things giving my testimony as an example.

To me, if I can help the young ones in these areas, I think my burden will be fulfilled for the young ones. I am not too keen on other things that they already have been practicing. For example, truth pursuing, they have pursued a good number of ministry materials on a regular basis. As long as they stay in the church life, the ministry of the word will never be lacking. But what I felt they needed the most was what they had not received much help for. A time of fellowship with them to fill the gap of whatever they might have missed out in the church life. One other goal for all the college students is that they should be shepherded to join the full-time training after they graduate from the college. All the young people are for the Lord and they must be gained when they are young.

Lord, gain all the college students in the church here and make all of them useful vessels to You for Your divine purpose.

Enjoying Christ as the Jubilee

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.” Luke 4:18-19

Excerpt from the ministry HWMR Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1), week 5.

Jubilee means having no worry or anxiety, no concern or care, no lack or shortage, no sickness or calamity, and no problems whatsoever but, rather, having all benefits; hence, all things are pleasant and satisfying to our heart, and we are free from anxiety, at ease, excited, and exultant—Psa.  103:1-5; 116:1-7, 12-13, 17-19.

We need to enjoy Christ as the reality of the freedoms and blessings of the New Testament jubilee— Luke 4:18-19:

In order to enjoy Christ as the reality of the jubilee, we need to spend time with the Lord day by day to listen to His word and be infused with Him; we need to follow the pattern of Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His word—10:39:

She was at the feet of the Lord Jesus and not at the feet of anyone else; she was drawing near to the Lord; no method is better than coming to Him moment by moment, loving Him, worshipping Him, unceasingly fellowshipping with Him, and remaining in His presence.

She sat at the feet of the Lord, meaning that she put herself in a humble position in order to receive the Lord as grace (1 Pet. 5:5); humility is not belittling ourselves; humility is ignoring ourselves, negating ourselves, and considering ourselves as nothing.

She was sitting down; quietness before the Lord is often the source of spiritual strength (Isa. 30:15a); man’s eyes and thoughts often are distracted to the outside world; those who are busy with a wandering mind and vacillating thoughts cannot receive revelation easily.

She was listening to the Lord’s word; the words that the Lord speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63) in order to dispense Himself into men; her listening to the Lord’s word afforded the Lord the opportunity to communicate Himself to her so that she would continually receive the Lord and gain Him.  

We must receive the Lord Jesus as the real jubilee in us; if we have Him, we have God as our possession and can be delivered from the bondage of sin and Satan to have real freedom and rest—Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:13-14; Col. 1:12; Matt. 11:28; John 8:32, 36:

The jubilee is an age of ecstasy. The New Testament age is an age of ecstasy, and a Christian is a person in ecstasy. 

I was very much supplied by the ministry speaking to me directly on how practically I can enjoy the Lord Jesus as my jubilee. In the midst of all troubles and trials, when all the happenings around me may not be that enjoyable, but I can be in the reality of jubilee by spending time with the Lord. In fact, these days, I have been spending a lot of time in prayer. At least an hour for personal time with the Lord, another hour for reading His word, another hour for corporate prayer and pursuit of the truth, and yet another time for family prayer and church Life-study pursuit. During these hours there were lots of communication between me and the Lord when I poured out my entire being in prayer to Him. Whatever concerned me, I expressed them to the Lord. Whatever burden the Lord imparted to me, I poured them out to the Lord. In this way, through spending time with the Lord, I could enjoy Christ as my jubilee. The real joy and ecstasy is the presence of the Lord Himslef in every situation. Thank the Lord for prayer that brings my relationship with the Lord real and enjoyable.For this very reason I encouraged all the saints, my family members, and all the young ones to spend time in prayer with the Lord, time and again. 

The real outward situations these days are exact opposite of the truth concerning jubilee. In fact, these are times when the jubiklee should be enjoyed in reality in the midst of all contradicting sitatuioons. In Mary as a pattern, we must quietly sit at the Lord's feet, humbling ourselves, and listening to His word day by day to enjoy the joy of jubilee.

May such a living of jubilee be my daily living all the days of my life.

Experience of Christ in Considering Serving Ones

September 2024 is a very critical month for me. Many important events transpired in this month. Some were truly unexpected, some were planned, and some were made to happen. Nevertheless, the Lord allowed them all for the good of His move in this country.

Officially, I have been sensing the need to gain new serving ones to meet certain needs in the literature service. One of them is to take care of the IT monitoring. In addition, a brother has been requesting for a new serving brother to coordinate with him in the distribution. This matter was brought up to me a few years ago but things did not materialize. And this month, as I visited the Chennai office, I had the innate leading within me to visit a brother who has been taking care of this matter as a volunteer for now. Through his fellowship, a new sister was introduced. Later, I also spent time with a couple whose husband was being considered for the distribution and the wife for the IT service. In just one afternoon, I was able to fellowship with whoever needed to fellowship with. Though the decision was not taken immediately, at least the fellowship of the need was done. By the way, I also enjoyed the Lord's anointing upon me as I fellowshipped with these saints. This experience further encouraged me that the matter was of the Lord. Though I am officially in a position to decide, I should not act independently from God nor from my coordinating brothers. I fellowshipped this matter with the key brothers concerned. And all of them felt good about it. But still, I would like to wait for a few more weeks to pray over, as I usually did for any matter great or small.

As I waited on the Lord, finally the Lord confirmed to me to go ahead and send an email to bring the new serving one into service. All necessary fellowship with the leading brother in the church and with my own co-director and co-worker in the literature service was also done. Only on the last day of the month, 30th September, I confirmed the matter to the serving ones concerned. Now, the matter was clear and the brother would start to serve. 

In a similar manner, another two serving ones matters came up for their continuity in services as the assigned project ended last month. Their continuation needs to be decided, and this month, I had to make a decision. The Lord gave me the grace neither to confirm nor reject, as I needed to wait for my coworking brother to also consider together with me. But for now, until the final decision is taken, they should work on finalizing books for printing.

This experience of the Lord even in recruiting new serving ones was a wonderful experience. Whether the serving ones will turn out to be the proper ones or not, the Lord knows. I am just His servant carrying out the work on His behalf, He is the One who decides everything. He knows best. 

Lord, bless all the serving ones in the literature service in India.

Hebrew Learning: Quiz 1 & 2

Hebrew, the language in which God chose to write His words in the Old Testament, has now become the language that I have been graced to learn. I never imagined that one day I would be able to learn Hebrew. Neither did I imagine that one day I would learn Greek. Thank God, Greek was learned and I completed the course. Now this year, in August, I started learning Hebrew.

In the first section, I spent a lot of time learning the very basics of Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet, vowels, syllabification, and pronunciation. These were the basics and the most difficult parts of Hebrew language. The instructor himself reminded us that we should spend as much time as possible learning these basics as the mastering of these would make the future learning a lot more easier. Therefore, I took his word and did my best to study and study. In fact, I spent a lot of time studying, revising, practicing, and memorizing. After I was confident enough to take the quizzes, I took them. As the first attempt would be the final mark, I had to be well prepared before my first attempt. The truth was, I desired to attempt only once and aim at a perfect score.

In the first Quiz, I score 100% to my own surprise. In the second quiz, I made two silly mistakes and scored 90%. Though I was a little disappointed by my silly mistakes, I accepted the fact and learned the lesson of not being overconfident in anything. Because of my overconfidence, I did not review my answers properly and made the silly mistakes. I overlooked some phrases and thought my answers were all correct. But, as far as the concepts were concerned, I think I studied them well and knew them well.

In this Hebrew learning, though I myself am not a translator, I believe the Lord has been preparing me for something for His divine purposes in the future. As of now, I only have a vague understanding, but when the time comes, He will let me know why I have to spend so much time and energy learning Greek and Hebrew when these languages are to be learned mostly by translators for their translation services. The Lord has a special plan for me and I know it. May the Lord's will be done in time.

As I continue to learn, I look to the Lord for His special grace so that I can complete this Hebrew learning with the grade required for me to fulfill His divine purpose in the coming days. On the one hand, I trust the Lord for His knowledge, understanding, and skill, and on the other hand, I carry out my responsibility in paying the price I need to cooperate with Him.

Lord, grace me on and on and make me skillful in Hebrew for Your own sake.

Life Lesson: Being Straightforward

And said, O you who are full of all deceit and all unscrupulousness, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? Acts 13:10

Forsaking the straight way, they have gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. 2 Peter 2:15

To take the straight way of the Lord or of the truth is to live an upright life without crookedness and bias, without unrighteousness. In my walk with the Lord these days, I have been reminded time and again to be straightforward in dealing with matters, things, and people. The straight way of the Lord is the way of the truth and the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never was crooked or hypocritical. To Him, a yes means a yes, and a no, no. Nothing in between. Just straightforward. This is the lesson I am learning these days. 

Even as I was blogging about this experience, a phone call came and a brother suddenly asked me for some money for the reason that it was an emergency. Having learned from my past experience, I cannot be diplomatic any longer. I straightforwardly asked him for what purpose, to which he replied he could not tell with the people around him. So my reply was that it was not proper for me to give money just like that and that I did not feel good as it may affect even our brotherly relationship. I simply exercised myself to be straightforward. A no in my inward being must be a no in my outward reaction.

In many other cases of dealing with different people, I learned to exercise my spirit and discern the matter properly first. Once I was clear, I said a straight no or a yes. My yes should not become a no, and my no should not become a yes. This is a matter of righteousness. 

By nature, I used to be a kind and soft person who could easily sympathize with people. Sometimes, this character of mine had been taken advantage of by a good number of people who knew me. In fact, in some cases, I had been cheated. But now, the Lord has taught me to be straightforward. If I discerned that certain things were not proper according to the truth of the Bible, I must reject it right away. I must not try to beat around the bush and somehow try to justify it to please others. Even in spiritual matters, I must discern what things were appropriate for the time, not meddle with every person and matters just because they are people in the church and the matter is "spiritual." I am now learning to be straightforward in all my dealings. Be it personal, family, church, official, or even with other people. Even in money matters, I must spend where there is the need to spend and not spend where there is no need to spend. In fact, to be straightforward is also to live a simple and pure life. In the matter of faith and in the matter of living, I must be straightforward. 

Lord, grace me to be straightforward in all my dealings and relationships.