Promise Verse

First Sunday after the Epiphany

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Promise Verse

 

Promise Verse 05 January 2023

 

Being Called – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

 

When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them authority to choose. Devil took advantage over it and made them to choose sin. Every human have the right to choose between right and wrong. Even most of the countries in the world give their citizens the right to choose. But if they choose something against the law, they need to face punishment.

Same way, even if you are called by God, He gave you the right to choose your path. Lord will provide you with His word and wisdom, but it is your authority to choose. We are living in an evil world. A man of God may get persecuted in this world. Even it happened to Jesus Christ.

Before starting His earthly ministry, Jesus was tested and tempted by Satan (Mathew 4). Jesus overcame it by the word of God. It shows us that we need to be thorough with the word of God. Children use to study and byheart the word for competition. Word of God should be kept in heart and when you face problems and temptations, it should be spoken against the problems to overcome it. If you are called by God, like Jesus, you will be tested continuously and you need to have the word of God in your heart.

When you walk with God and when God calls you, the people who comes against will be from your own family and neighborhood. Jesus went to Nazareth where he was brought up, and the people rejected him. They considered him as a son of carpenter. They were not able to digest the anointing of God upon His life. People consider you according to their plan. If God’s favor comes upon you the people wont be able to comprehend it and they will be the first one to hate you and be against you. When Jesus told about their attitude they got angry and even tried to kill him. But since God’s anointing was upon Him, he walked in the midst of them and went away (Luke 4: 21-30).

Jesus never stood there and challenged them. But He showed the maturity and walked away from them. As the follower of Christ, we are not here to challenge anyone or to debate with anyone. We are here to spread love of Christ to others. We need to show the same maturity Jesus showed where ever He got rejected and persecuted. For that you need to have a compassionate heart of love. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul asks if you have all the gifts of the Spirit and don’t have love, you gain nothing.

If you don’t have the love of Christ in your life, the call of God is not going to do anything in you or around you. Luke 4 shows you how Jesus reacted to the ones who came against Him. Same way, flee from the temptations and be full of love and peace to be a role model and be a blessing to everyone. May The Lord’s grace be with you this week as you go ahead and face it with maturely and with love.

Living for Jesus

 

“You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

     When problems surround our life, we believe our God has given up. We may even think of leaving every thing and end our precious life. Most of the people even me have been in these situations. I am taking about the people who suffer from pain from their relatives or from some diseases or some loss in Job or wealth or sudden death etc.

    Sadhu Sunder Singh, a great man of God once told – “Leaving a life for Christ is very easy, but to live a life for Christ is very difficult”. Yes if you want to die for Christ, it is very easy job as terrorists are there to help you out. But in this sinful world where trials and temptations are there, living a life for Christ is very difficult. But in that also, our faithful God leaves us his word – “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” – (Psalm 34:7)

Once a great man told, if you didn’t face any issue the whole day, that means you must be going in a wrong direction. Yes there are problems all around. But as people who trust in God, our comfort is not behind the worldly pleasures, but behind thy word.

Some people when faces with tough situation will go for other options, like seeing an astrologer to see whether their time is going good or not. You see, Astrologers are calculating every thing according to the rotation of Earth and Planets and Moon around the Sun. Their main reason for the calculation depends on the Sun. For them Sun is the center of everything. But my dear brother and sister, the God whom I serve is the creator of this Sun, Moon and all the planets, even the time. In his word, when Joshua prayed to stop the sun and moon for sometimes, God answered his prayer. (Joshua 10:13-14) (2Kings 20: 9-11). NASA computers performing the astronomical calculations have also found that a day is missing (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-a001.html). So I don’t need to go to an astrologer to see whether my time is bad or where the Sun is, but I will go to my God who made time and the universe. He takes care of me and makes a way for me from no way.

Even in this world when Jesus was there, he had to go through lost of trials, temptations and persecutions. But he was not moved by anything; instead he fasted and prayed to God for everything. When you see his disciples, every body had gone through tough pain and trials in their lives. But they stood faith in the highest one, even to their death. When we have any problems we go and see the men of God, servants of God. They will comfort and console us and council us. Have we ever thought of how their life is? To your information, ask any servant of God personally, and they will tell how much problems they are going through in this world.

Devil is the toughest hard worker in this world. So it will try to defeat a man of God through various situations. They might get problems in family, Job or from any one. But the true servants of God, still in the midst they will keep their faith in God and they will continue their glorifying God with more strength from the Holy Ghost whom they ask.

Yes dear friends, problems will come to our life, but their will be a way to come out of it. Just be in the presence of God alone and pray to God in Christ Jesus name who took all our problems in the cross. Cry to God and he will comfort you with his powerful spirit. Just wait and think how you can with his help overcome the situation. Just think what things you are doing against his will. Stop all and pray to him for the help. Surely he is a merciful God and you will get his mighty help from above. As the psalmist says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

Now don’t ever think of ending your life because of problems as that is not a solution as you are sinning against your God. Your body and soul belongs to him and you are the temple of his spirit. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17). When you are God’s temple, remember to keep your self clean even in midst of all your problems.

Let his presence fill you and read thy word and lead a life which pleases God instead of a worldly one. Just trust in him and believe that he will make a way from no where. That is our God. Praise be to him only.

Blogged on March 2010

GIFTS - Second Sunday after the Epiphany

 

In the book of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul mentions about some spiritual gifts that is been given to the body of Christ. It is been given to the members of the body of Christ. If you are a member of a church, you may not receive it. Only way to receive the gifts is that you should be a person who has repented your sins before Jesus and accepted Him as your personal Savior. He died for your sins, and as you have repented and accepted Him, you are a new creation.

When you join a club or a new company, they give welcome gifts to welcome you. Same way, once you are in the family of the body of Christ, God has special spiritual gifts for you. Keep in mind the gifts are not any money of anything to eat. The gift is not between you and another person. No other people are involved in the gift God is going to give you. It’s all between you and Almighty.

Before receiving the gifts, you need to understand that Christ is the head of the body of Christ. We cannot live without head. Our head directs our body into meaningful activity. Christ guides us into all activity (1 Colossians 1: 15-18; Ephesians 1: 22-23; 4: 15-16; 5: 23).

If Christ is the head of the body, believers of Christ are the body. As a believer you are part of the body (Romans 12: 5). Believers from every race, color, land and nations are all part of the same body.

In our human body, if one part or member is not working/ paralysed, it affects the entire body. Similarly every member in Christ’s body is very important to Him. Every member in Christ’s body is a share of that body (1 Corinthians 12: 27). As in our human body each member has a particular function. All members do not have the same use. Every member has his own function.

Each part of our body is different from each other. Same way God made each of us different from anyone else. God made us who we are and placed us where we are for the good of the whole body for His own glory. So being unhappy because our gifts are not the same as another person’s make us judges of God. Our gifts may not seem as important as another’s gifts. Always understand the gifts God has for you are just right for you. Each of us should benefit from the other’s gifts (Romans 12: 5). Our feet carry us to our food. Our hands carry the food to our mouth and our mouth eats it. But the whole body profits.

Gifts received are to be used for the purpose for which they are given (Mathew 10: 8). The purpose is not fulfilled when the believers fail to use the gifts and if they use them selfishly and without love. Faithful use of spiritual gifts brings glory to the giver and blessing to the body (1 Corinthians 4: 2).

May The Spirit of God provide you with the gifts as you live a life with love and peace in Jesus name

Feeling Anger

 Every body is bound with Anger. Every one of us has the courage to tell to others that we have one more personality in us – that is Anger. By telling this to others we think that we have done something very great. By giving this type of statements to others just think… What will we get? Many may say that we will get respect from others. Is this the way to get respect from others?

            Sometimes we get angry because of others. Sometimes our friends or may be our enemies does something against us. We get angry. We even react with that anger. When anger comes into us we think that we can destroy our enemies. How can we destroy our enemies? Is it through anger? We can’t destroy a person with anger. The only way to take revenge to a person is by forgiveness. What ever he does just forgive him or her. At first he won’t change. But gradually he will change.

            There once lived a boy. He was weak in his studies. But he believed in God. Some of his relatives didn’t like him. As he believed in God even though he was weak in his studies, God gave him blessings. The relatives told bad things about him to the people. So people didn’t talk to him. Any way he came to know about the situation. At first he got very angry. But then he went to God and prayed to him, asked him what to do? Suddenly his anger went down and he didn’t react. His relatives didn’t stop. So everyday he will come in the presence of God and what ever he wants to say he will say to God. After being with God he will forgive every thing his relatives had done to him.

            We may ask one thing. What will we get if we forgive others? Let me tell you, this boy who went to God and forgave, he was blessed. People understood that whatever they heard about him was totally wrong. So they liked him and loved him more than in the past. What happened to his relatives? God stopped blessing them. They couldn’t get any thing in life. But what the boy did was that when all bad things were affecting his relatives he went to God and cried for them. God heard his prayer. God blessed his relatives. What happened to him? He was blessed with double measure.

            Friends, this is a true life story. You can also be blessed like the boy. In the Holy Bible God said these words – “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12: 19-21)

            Even God wants us to be a nice person. He doesn’t want us like a man or woman of anger. He wants us to forgive one other and be helpful. In Scriptures God says – “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4: 31, 32)

            Many people make New Year resolutions. Let us make this year’s resolution as to forgive others, doesn’t matter what ever they do. Let us put Jesus Christ in our heart and do what he did – Forgiving others. As God says in the Holy Bible – “For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.” (Hebrew 10: 30)

Blogged in January 2003