The World Hates You

 

If you are a man or woman of God, the people who are around you (Some may be Christians or not), they will make fun of you. The World around you hates you if you are a person of God. People may call you as Spiritual and all.

            Almighty God himself says in Psalms 22: 6-8 about him and his people “But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me, they shoot out the lip, and they shake the head saying. He trusted in Lord, let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” In Isaiah 53:3 it clearly says about Jesus Christ, how people will behave at him... “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not”.

            When Jesus Christ came to Earth we can see people making fun of him many times. For example in Mathew 9:24 “He said Make room for the girl is not dead, but sleeping, and they ridiculed him”. Before when Christ was crucified we can see in Mathew 27:29 “When they had twisted a crown of throne, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying Hail, King of the Jews”.

            Bible also tells about the people of God who suffered in Hebrew 11:36 “Others had trial of mocking and scouring, yes and of chains and imprisonment”

            So when these kinds of insults comes in our lives there is no need of being sad, because we are the people of God and what ever happens to the people of God, God will take care of them. At the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the sprit of God people said in Acts 2:13 “They are full of new wine”.

            Still now if we haven’t faced these kinds of problems in the future we will face these problems. Since the people of God will face problems, with the help of God they will overcome all the problems.

            A young man had many friends. When he was studying in the school, he was addicted to all kinds of worldly pleasures. But when he came to degree, he stopped and turned to godly ways. But other friends who were with him couldn’t believe that this man changed. When ever they see him they will make fun of him. What happened was that he didn’t care of what happened.

            If we take the example of Jesus calls ministry, many people don’t like this ministry. But they don’t care about that people instead they will pray for that people. So what happens … God is blessing that ministry.

            God speaks about the people who hate Gods people in John 15: 18-27

“ If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you”  So if someone says something against you he says against God. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you”

“If they kept my words they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they do not know him who sent me”. “He who hates me hates my father also”. The person who hates you hates GOD. So we should pray for that people. Because that is our duty to make the kingdom of God comes, So that people should be free from their sins. But still God says “But when the helper comes whom I shall send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will testify of me” and God says we will witness there testimony because we are with him.

            When we face these kinds of situations we must pray for the people who did that so that one day they will also testify God. There is no need for any quarrel with them. Just pray for them and God will take care of the rest.

            May The Lord provide you His Spirit and strength to face these situations boldly and be focused in your vision in Jesus name

Why Conversion?

“Conversion” is the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another. From long time this word has being used to create tension between two sets of people who possess different religious faith. People are getting murdered because of being accused of religious conversion.

There is a term called “Forced Conversion”, which they term as someone getting converted to another religion/faith forcefully, through money or any worldly gift. Even changing religion for the reason of getting married is added to this term. Yes, this is being happening in lots of places.

There is a lot of misinterpretation going around about a person who is a believer of Jesus Christ. The world calls him/her as a Christian.

When you read and meditate upon the word of God, a Christian, or a follower of Christ is

·        Not the one who has a name mentioned in Bible

·        Not the one who attends church regularly

·        Not the one who takes part in all the activities of the church

·        Not the one whose personal certificate mentions his religion as Christian

The Bible teaches us that you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3: 26). So when you are a child of God, the Spirit of God guides your life. You won’t be doing what your sinful nature carves (Galatians 5: 16, 17). That means when you are forced to do evil, like the worldly people, you will get a guilty feeling that this is wrong. So there will be a constant war inside you between the sinful nature and Spirit who is guiding you. So you are a person in Christ not by your works or because of your forefathers, nor is your name mentioned in a church register, but just because of your faith. And if you are in Christ, you will obviously do good works.

Once you are in Christ you will have the peace and joy in your heart in all situations of your life. Your love and care for others will increase and you will have a compassionate heart to help others to have that same peace and joy in their heart. More than that, God wants everyone to have that peace to fight against the evil because devil always does things in your life to see that you are defeated and depressed. So God wants his children to have a smile in every situation and praise him and have his guidance in their life and see the nations being blessed and yield blessed harvest (Psalms 67).

According to the bible even though a person does have a Christian name, there will be a point in his life when he decides to follow Jesus. Charismatic believers term it as “born again” experience. So actual conversion happens, even when a so called Christian who accepts Christ as his saviour and follow Jesus. The same happens to people from other religion also when they accept Christ, even in their home.

The greatest example we can find is a Jew called Saul. He was a hard-core Jew that he did everything to oppose the name of Jesus. He got authorized by the Jewish priest to persecute the people who follow Jesus. While going to persecute people, of course he would have heard about this Jesus. But one day he got stuck by this same Jesus. That changed his life and he became Paul, the one who wrote majority of epistles in the bible (Acts 26)

Another example, from India, is a man called Sadhu Sunder Singh. He was a core believer of another religion, even burnt bibles at young age, who was about to take his own life, got a dramatic vision of Jesus Christ. Immediately he got inner peace and took the decision to follow Christ and share about the one who gave him peace.

The word persecution comes along with the word conversion. Conversion happens only by God, not by people. But the people who share God are being persecuted. When Jesus lived in this world, he told about how it’s going to be. God is going to send you among wolves. But you need to be aware that you are going to get persecuted. You will be judged by the world. But in all these, walk with God and He will guide you what to tell. Everyone around might hate you because you follow Christ, but stay still and don’t go away from the Lord as you have seen his glory in your life (Mathew 10).

Apostle Paul went to places to destroy the people who followed Christ. Once Jesus Christ came to his life he went everywhere he can to preach Jesus Christ (Galatians 1). Once you know this salvation, you will understand the real believers in Christ are just a small percentage from among the so called Christians. The burden inside you to introduce this Jesus Christ to others will increase and you will find different means to reach the world with the good news.

May The Lord help you to understand Jesus Christ and the peace he gives and guide you to go ahead in life.

Light in Darkness

God created Adam and Eve and gave them a beautiful world to live and enjoy. But sin came in the midst of them and the world became sinful, wicked or dark through them. “This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light” – John 3: 19, 20.

From then on, people started living in dark, evil world. While some of them wanted to know God and live a faithful life, lived accordingly, while others enjoyed darkness. From Genesis 5 onwards, we see the life of Noah, how he was different from others around him.

In this world, today, you can see people, who enjoy darkness and sinfulness and live, lusting, insulting and gossiping against other people. Some characteristics of people who live in darkness are mentioned in Galatians 5: 19-21. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”

Today, we see worldly people hunting the ones who go after God. They tell gossips, and try to mock and laugh at their sufferings and persecutions. “With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbour, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered” – Proverbs 11:9.

In the midst of all these troubles, in the month of December, you should always remember and get encouraged by the loving God who prophesied about a light in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel”. God sent that light, Jesus Christ, whose birth is celebrated on this month everywhere.

God loved everyone in this world and for their redemption, made Jesus to be an ultimate sacrifice for their sins, so that they can be free from the darkness and have light upon their life.

There are people who do not know about this light and there are some who knows about Jesus, but have never tried to experience Him. When you experience this light your way of life will be changed into a new direction towards the cross. If you are a worldly person who goes behind lust, sadism, gossip etc, once you experience the light, you will leave every evil in your life, encourage others and live a Holy life, pleasing God.

To have this light, it’s free. Call upon the name of Jesus, ask forgiveness and accept him as your saviour who made you free through his death and resurrection. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” – Acts 3: 19.

May this month be a month of this divine light in your life and may you shine and guide others towards this light and enjoy the ultimate salvation and holy life in Jesus name, Amen

St. James

James, the disciple of Jesus was the brother of John, another disciple of Jesus. They were both called the sons of thunder. He is called the James – the greater to distinguish him from other Apostle James (brother of Jesus). Their mother’s name is Salome. This mother asked Jesus to keep both her sons in his both sides and Jesus replied whether they are willing to take the cup Jesus is going to take (Mathew 20).

As Jesus commanded His disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (Acts 1: 8), St. James preached in Jerusalem, Samaria and all Judea. He even went to Spain to preach the gospel. He is the patron saint of that country.

Once when he was preaching the gospel to Jews, they caught him and King Herod sentenced him to death. He was smiling all the way when they took to behead him. It is said that the person who helped them to catch James, seeing this joy in James face, openly asked for forgiveness and accepted Christ as his savior. He too was sentenced to die.

He was the first apostle who shed his blood for Christ and got mentioned in the Bible. His body was taken to Galatia, Spain and honoured till date.

His feast is celebrated on July 25^th.

Even today, the most persecuted people in the world are the people who are following Christ Jesus. The followers of Christ are not forcefully converting anyone, but still they are persecuted. It all started with Jesus and it will continue until Jesus comes back with His power and glory.

May The Lord be with you and help you to understand the love and compassion of Christ Jesus, repent your sins, accept Him as your saviour, and live a Holy life pleasing to him.

Comfort in Resurrection

There are fairy tale messages about faith in God and salvation. Those messages tell us that when we are saved in Jesus Christ, all our problems will be gone and rest of our life will be like heaven. The word of God tells us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mathew 16:24).

When we are in this world, we have to face troubles, temptations and tribulations. Certain problems come to our lives which are pre-planned by God Himself. In the word we see the life of Job, the suffering he went through, which was allowed by God. When we face these situations, God will sent His Spirit to comfort us and guide us to take the next step in life.

In the book of Ezekiel, we can see Israel’s sin in the first 16 chapters. It explains how the children of God will be taken to captivity. But Ezekiel 17 motivates the people that God is promising them that they will grow. Here it speaks about a plant which God himself plants. The book tells that the plant will produce branches and bear fruits. No matter how bad things are, God is always at work. Ezekiel is motivating the people, no need of having partnership with Egypt to go against Babylon. He tells them to be faithful to God and God is going to defeat the enemies by himself. You can’t fight your battle with the materialism, but by obeying God, God will fight your battle.

To have God with you and to fight your battles, you need to be righteous before God. It is easy to show before the world that you are faithful, but it should be shown before God, who knows your heart. Mathew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven”. Jesus, the Messiah is the leader of the way to eternal life. Salvation is for the repentant, not for the arrogant. To walk along with God, we need to read the word, delight in it, mediate upon it and live according to it (Psalm 1).

There are certain mysteries which happen when you truly accept Christ as your saviour. The good seed of the gospel sown in the world and sown in the heart produce wonderful effects. The mystery is that we do not know how the spirit of God, by the word makes a change in the heart. The word of God, when received in faith is in the heart a work of grace. The prophets do not live forever, but the word which they preached, is doing its work. God carries on his work insensibly and without noise, but without fail.

The amazing example is the mission and evangelism which is happening around the world. Recently I saw a video where some group of people stopping a man of God and taking the pamphlets from him and tearing it down. What amazes in these incidents are, the men of God are not having a sword, or a gun or any knife. They go with the word of God and these groups are afraid of this word. This itself is the proof that the word of God is so strong. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). These are the incidents which God show us to increase our faith in Him.

The parable of the growing seed in Mark 4: 26-34, shows us how the Spirit works in us and also how the Spirit work to bring people to salvation. A man scatters seeds on the ground. Whether he sleeps or not, he don’t know how the seed sprouts and grows. Spiritual growth is slow as a plant. Don’t expect a new convert to have fruits of the Spirit altogether. Sower is the one who knows about the love of Christ. But behind the scene God is working to bring the people to him, which we don’t know.

Here in the world, sowing spiritual seeds leads to troubles and persecutions. Apostle Paul finds his comfort in the fact of the resurrection that Christ promised. In 2 Corinthians 5: 1-17, he tells our suffering bodies will soon be exchanged for painless glorified bodies. The difference between a grain of mustard seed and a great tree, is nothing to that between a young convert on earth and a glorified saint in heaven (John 12:24).

If you are a person who has no idea about salvation and Jesus Christ, you cannot please The Holy God who created Heaven and Earth because of your sin. Only remission from sin is shedding of innocent sinless blood. So for helping and saving the world, God came down in human form, took all our sins and died, shed the blood and gave salvation. Now, the salvation is free, but free to all who accepts this Jesus as their personal saviour. You need to have the faith in Jesus to accept him. When you accept Christ, leave worrying about the future, because as I mentioned above, you will experience a mystery which the Spirit of God does in your life. I pray that you who are reading this will experience the presence of the Spirit of God and will be guided towards the love of Christ, to live a faithful, holy life.