Choosing the good part!

When Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the good part, He was not in fact trying to condemn Martha or even finding fault with her. Jesus was just stating the reality of things. First of all, Martha was not joyous with her serving God through what she was doing. Instead she was both distracted and upset with the state of affairs. Her attitude was not very conducive for appropriating the things of God. What is even more striking is that Jesus was commending Mary for reaching out for the best. There will be some who will always be serving and doing the preparations. But there will be few who will be sitting at the feet of Jesus, not to receive any physical miracle, but solely because they are longing for the life giving word. The reason Jesus spoke highly of Mary was because He knew how less saints there would be, who will truly desire to be in His presence more than anything else. It is not that they are not hard working or not willing to serve others. But what they supremely desire is to sit at His feet and if given a chance, they would not miss it for anything else on earth. 'Whom have I in heaven but you; and besides you I desire nothing on earth' - is the heart cry of the true saint.

God cannot be taken for granted, forever!

God's nature is always to bless and therefore, we can see that even among the unsaved, God does not want to draw them back to Him through trouble or distress. God could have used many means of torment to bring people back to Him but His main weapon is love and blessing. The reason why people still suffer are two fold. One is due to inherent evil in man because of which they betray and exploit each other and end up in all sorts of trouble. The other is when God judges people due to the ripeness of their sin and reveals His righteous nature to them which He cannot hide for long. The righteous nature of God demands that God punish people for their sin and when He judges, it is a sign of something worse to come. He is however delaying His final judgment and in the meantime, man is enjoying the fruit of God's inherent goodness, not knowing that the goodness of God should lead to repentance. It almost seems like man is taking advantage of God's goodness but sadly, it will all come to an end. God cannot be taken for granted, forever. 

God hates war!

The Old Testament is full of war and violence and it is important to know that God is not promoting or propagating death and destruction as a normal way of life. There are many saints who are almost apologetic about God's actions in the Old Testament and we somehow feel that we should cover up this righteous judgments of God. Now, the wrath of God is something that we do not want to think about and yet, we understand that our God's ultimate glory is when peace pervades the universe. What we should conclude is that God hates violence and destruction and longs for the wolf to dwell with the lamb and the lion eating straw!...Isa 11:6-9. One striking example of the heart of God is regarding David building the temple. After all his victories and God helping him in his battles, David took it for granted that war and peace go together. But God's directive shocked both David and Nathan. 'David shall not build me a house because he is a man of war and has shed blood'. What an amazing glimpse into the heart of God. May His peace rule our hearts. 

Spread it thick and nice!

I have noticed that there are quite a few saints who are very committed to the Lord Jesus but do not think that they have much to gain from being very involved in the life of the local church. The preaching is usually on topics that they already know about and the worship times are good, but they are not able to enter more fully into it because they have places to go and things to do. They will show some enthusiasm only when asked to do something important. It is not that they do not love the brethren. It is just that they are involved with more than just the activities of one local church. 

What they do not comprehend, sadly so, is the example of Jesus who gave His all to the twelve. In a deeper way. In trying to serve the many, we can lose out on deepening our relationship with the few. I believe that ultimately what the world should see is not how much we do but how much we love each other. No matter what our ministry is, it is only in the context of the local church that relationships can be built and love can be expressed in depth. It is our tragedy of our times that we think we carry love but do not have a place to deposit that love, except maybe within the context of our own family. Surely our love should extend beyond the four walls of our home, but it cannot be spread too thin at the same time. Let's spread it thick and nice.

If only!!

I have come to a place in my spiritual journey where I am cautious about everything that I think I have. I am examining even the love that I have. Is it really something God given? How much of it springs out from my own self and what good will it do if it arises mainly from myself? O God Almighty, may I contain more of you. Only if I have something of you is it really worth anything. All of my love is worth nothing because it has its limits. That's all that it is. It is a vapor which is here today and gone tomorrow. It cannot last. It seems to be of benefit but it cannot bless beyond a point. O Jesus, how I long to spread more of your love. Sweet Jesus, I desire that more than anything else. It can make everything so different. It can change everything. It can add colors to the rainbow called life. It can spread joy and happiness even when there are imperfections all around. Come Lord Jesus and fill our lives with Your blessed presence. May we revel in what you can give to us in Your grace. All glory to You alone. 

We need preaching and teaching!

We need to listen to the preaching of God’s Word because God can minister to us through His Word. He can give us revelation. He can give us understanding. His Word is living and active. It can bring conviction. It can produce a lightness of spirit. It can cause deliverance to the soul. 
However what need to see is that we need to be taught from the Word of God as well. To be taught means that we do something more than just listen. When do we say that we have learned something? It is when we begin to do it and gain practice in it. The teaching can benefit only when it is accepted and worked out. In fact, the teaching has no power in itself. It can work only when it is heard and applied. It begins its activity only when the hearer says yes to it. 
Why do we need the teaching?  It is the equipment on which we build our spiritual muscles. When we obey the teaching, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to form our inner man. We are allowing the seed to grow. We are becoming more and more like Jesus. 

The shadow and the substance!

It is important to have a clear picture regarding the way the Old Testament saints approached God. They are some who even think that any one in the Old Testament times could approach God only through the priests and in the temple only. What we need to know that the Law of Moses was given as a shadow of the heavenly reality of worship and prayer. People could enter into the actual (heavenly) presence of God even in those times e.g. Daniel who prayed from his room thrice a day. However two things have to be noted regarding the shadow and the substance (true worship) - 

1. The people could not assume that the shadow was the substance. Meaning that just by doing the rituals prescribed, they could not enter into the actual reality of the presence of God. It pointed to the substance but was not the substance itself. 

2. The shadows could not be laid aside even though the O.T. saints could have a foretaste of the substance. Even David had to follow the prescribed ordinances even though he received an understanding that sacrifices were not what God was satisfied with. They had to use the shadows even while reaching out for the substance. 

Not just the fruit!

When we think of the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, most of us see it as a simple act of disobedience and some even wonder why God had to censure in such a manner. Well, among a few things, what we sometimes do not see is that Eve primarily fell to that temptation because she began to have visions of grandeur. She heard that she would become like God and she toggled with that dreadful suggestion before giving in to it. Another thing that we do not usually notice is the name of the tree itself. God did not just tell them not to eat of that tree but He also gave them the name of the tree so that they would know why it was forbidden. Do we realize that evil entered the world because Adam and Eve allowed it to happen through eating the fruit? It was not just that they began to know about good and evil. They began to know about good but was unable to bring it about in a consistent manner. In the same way, they started to know about evil but was unable to prevent it from taking over. What they did not realize is that only with God's help could they succeed either in doing good or in fighting against evil. Evil came in only because man chose to let it enter and so, man ultimately is responsible for its progress as well even though the devil schemed to bring it in.

Surrender without commitment?

There has been confusion in the church regarding the biblical teaching on commitment and surrender. Some have gone so far as to say that surrender is the more godly thing and commitment is more out of human effort. Well, it is true that without surrender, commitment is meaningless but to commit myself and all that I have to the Lord is an act of surrender in itself. Surrender means to let go but God is also asking us to use all that we have, for His glory and therefore, to commit ourselves is a practical out working of our act of surrender. Romans 6 is very helpful here where we see that we are called to yield ourselves to God AND the members of our bodies to righteousness. Both surrender and commitment are presented here and it seems to be a natural out working in each other. We are exhorted to surrender our life to Him but Paul goes further by demanding an evidence of that surrender which is manifested by committing our body to acts of righteousness and not to evil. True surrender demands a life long commitment to His ways. 

Lessons of failure!

One of the lessons that I am learning deeply nowadays is to guard my mind and to keep myself in Him as I go through the valley of tasting failure and defeat in trying to work out the will of God in my life. In trying to progress in my spiritual journey, I took upon myself the challenge of praying the prayer of faith. I wanted to test that word of promise from God and bring glory to God by asking and receiving in His Name. Little did I know that God was testing me, instead. The anticipation of success gave way to despair when I did not receive. I knew that God was causing me to examine my inner self and learn from what transpired inside. I was more inclined to be disappointed with God and then with myself. It took some time to realize that God was calling me to go through the emotions that failure brings in its wake. I had to feel both for myself and for others who are going through disappointments and struggles in their lives. All my plans being brought to naught was a very intense experience. How I longed for some relief and couldn’t find any.
 God then began to cause me to consider people who went through sicknesses or persecution while they were actively serving God. There was not much that I had lost except not having my desire fulfilled, but think of people who have lost everything, even while they were walking with God. 
I feel more crushed than I realize when I see others enjoying peace, even while going through intense battles not of their own making. May God teach me His ways and equip me to fight the good fight of faith. 

He deserves it!

One of my bigger endeavour these days is to focus my mind on the things of God and to meditate on Him without allowing my thoughts to wander within a short span of time. God. As I draw closer to Him, I find it more and more disturbing that I can so easily lose my attention and fail to give Him the honour that is due to Him. Surely He deserves all and I have to give Him the glory that is due His Name. The very fact that He has provided a way to approach the very throne room should leave me in awe of Him. He is not only the One who provides for me physically but He is the very sustainer of my life. Every day, I wake up because of Him. He is the One who literally keeps me from falling and guards my very steps. All that I desire right now is that I would be able to find His presence as endearing and sufficient in every way. I want to think of Him and focus all my energies on restoring my life to bring it in line with His.

Playing God without knowing it!

What I am noticing in some believers who think that they are mature, is a spirit of presumption and a propensity to boast in their spirituality. It comes in all kinds of ways and is not easy to discern. For example, someone will come to you and say that God has certain unfulfilled promises for this person or that person, which God has revealed to them and they are waiting for that to happen. Others will say that they have asked God for certain things to happen and it will surely come to pass. Still others will claim that God asked them to fast and pray for so-and-so and those prayers are key to that person’s spiritual growth or deliverance. In all these, there is a subtle hint of spiritual pride and arrogance which can be discerned only by few, because it all sounds so spiritual. The danger in these attitudes is that of ‘playing God’ without even seeing it and a sense of superiority which is so distasteful to God and an anathema to Him.  

Two reasons for failure!

It is with growing trepidation that I find that we may have started our spiritual journey well and then find ourselves hindered either due to a lack of understanding of the true tenets of our faith or due to giving more importance to the workings of the natural man. We can so easily find ourselves depending on religious acts to get a hold of true spirituality and that is a vain endeavor. The sanctification process has to be carefully understood and there should be no stress or weight given to what we can achieve if we try hard enough. We cannot afford to give a picture that our natural strengths can be coupled with His to gain that kind of growth which we all wish to have. We cannot work from both ends. We need to give up to gain. We need to yield in order to achieve. Our strength has to be exchanged for us. That is the secret of the kingdom manifesting in us. 

Be the lioness that you are!

I have come across many ladies who say that they want to marry someone spiritually more mature. Now that is a good desire to have but to insist that it has to be so, is troublesome. The verse that we usually find quoted in this regard - Eph 5:26 is misunderstood. Husbands need not wash their wives with the water of the Word.  It is talking about Christ doing that and giving us an example in this respect. The husband need not lead the bible study at home! No husband sanctifies the wife. God sanctifies them both. 
I would say that women in some cultures feel inferior in every respect and therefore they find it good to follow their husbands in everything. I would rather point out that women, even though equal in the Lord, have learned/decided to submit in every other area. Maybe they are more financially astute but they still want to submit.Why not learn to submit to a husband who may not be as spiritually astute as they are? In fact, that may be the more necessary thing in their life, rather than submitting just because they feel they are inferior which is easy to do. Come on, ladies, be the lionesses that you are!

Promise Problem Provision!

It seems quite spiritual to pray and ask for God's will alone to be done in a particular situation. It is also a safe prayer to pray and very often it doesn't show us anything about the level of faith that we are function under. Sometimes, to receive a promise and then to hold on to it seems the more difficult thing to do. We often think that once we are sure about a promise given from heaven, then all our doubts automatically disappear. However the opposite is usually the case. All hell tries to keep us from persevering in faith. Abraham had to believe in hope against hope even after the promise was received. There is a glory in faith that holds on to what was promised without letting go. To ask and receive may not seem very spiritual but we may be standing on higher ground than just a passive waiting for the crumbs to fall from the Master's table. 

Down here and not up there!

One of the thoughts that keep coming back to me is regarding how much we need to understand our role here on earth after we are saved. Somehow there is this sense that I need to disengage from the world to have any meaningful relationship with the Lord. I try to push myself into thinking 'heavenly' thoughts and not really succeeding. I feel that maybe I should stop thinking about things down here and have an ascetic mindset. I do not see that Jesus warns us about having worrying thoughts about life, and did not tell us to stop thinking with a clear mind. Pushing away certain thoughts doesn't help too much. What is more important is to replace worrying with trusting. We need to remove fears and start believing. Emptying our mind doesn't work. What should work is meditating on the greatness of God and finding out what He wants to do in my life and through my life. Down here.

What is new in us?

Before we were saved, our spirit consisted of essentially our deadened heart and our defiled conscience. We were spiritually dead because our heart was unresponsive to the things of God even though it could hear the voice of the conscience. The conscience by itself could not lead a person to God but it brought guilt and a sense of defilement within. 

After being born again, the Holy Spirit united us with Christ. Our spirit is now alive because of this work of the Holy Spirit in our heart and it is now responsive to God. It is called a new heart because it is now a heart of flesh and we say we have a new spirit because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and connecting our heart and conscience to God. God did not place a new spirit inside us when we received the new birth. Our spirit which was dead because it lost its connection to God has been made alive. Let us not think that we received some new thing apart from God. It is His life that made everything new. 

The Blood of Jesus!

Many of us understand the power of the blood and what the shed blood has wrought for us. The sprinkling of the blood over the heart cleanses us from an evil conscience and gives us the boldness to approach His throne of grace. However 1st Peter also talks about the sprinkling in the present tense, meaning that its work also has to be appropriated. There are few who actually claim the efficacy of the blood into their lives in a more active way. The reason is twofold. First of all, we do not fully trust in the work of God for our sanctification but rely more on our abilities and strengths to please God. Secondly, we do not see how powerful is the blood of Jesus in cleansing our hearts and restoring us back to God. We do not how much importance the Father gives to the blood of His Son. Every time we fall or defile ourselves, if only we knew that the blood is the reason why the Spirit of God is ever willing to purify. We do not look at our eagerness to change or our desire to be renewed. Instead we see how the sprinkling of the blood is necessary to bring change and we eagerly claim its power. 

He carries us through!

It is a wonderful thing that God takes the glory in our sanctification process. It is the Holy Spirit who is constantly and gently prodding us along the way. Everytime we falter, He guides us along the way and everytime we show a lack of faith, He is quick to encourage us to move on trusting in Him. It is therefore vital to boast in Him for our growth, rather than to think that we alone are responsible for the way we grow in Christ. He not only shows us the Way but He is the Way. He is not only our Shepherd who guides us but the One who carries us on His shoulders. We are not somehow trying to make it but He is our victory banner. He is our sanctification and the sooner we realize that, the better off we are. 

All I need to do is earnestly call!

It is so very precious to receive light from heaven on truths that we have already given assent to, and yet hasn't taken deep root inside us.  There is a glory that shines on revelation brought forth by the Holy Spirit which feeds our inner man and strengthens the soul. Recently during a prayer time, even while I was using and calling on the Name of Jesus, the fact that I am calling on a Savior who alone can save, hit me with force and clarity. All I need to do is to earnestly call and have a mindset that as I lean onto Him, I will find every lack or imperfections sorted out. He alone is Savior and He alone can save. Light came upon my soul in such a striking fashion because I was all the while using the Name without seeing how utterly necessary it is to completely depend on its power. He is the Savior of all men, especially of believers (1 Tim 4:10) should free me from all my struggles to save myself. I am free from depending on my ability to extricate myself from all my shortcomings. All I need to do is earnestly call. O the  joy of calling on the One who can save to the uttermost!

Attitudes- 2

What we don’t realize is that our new attitude has come because we have decided to do something with our old ones. For instance, we should be saying, ‘I should not be thinking like this about this person because I am now saved’ or ‘I should stop trying to draw attention to myself’. We are working with our old way of life. Our new attitudes do not usually appear just like that.  God is offering the nature of Christ to us but we need to take a hold of it by an act of the will. Along with mentioning-'God has given you Christ', Paul also says, ‘Christ should be formed in you’. A person who has been born again may show tremendous change because of the power of the new birth but his old attitudes will still surface after a time. It did not disappear but had just become dormant. It has to be brought low by an act of the will. The fight inside has to take place at some time or the other. The more you win your internal battles, the more you are being transformed. The thing to note here is that this not just a victory based on an act of the will. The Holy Spirit has to reveal our weaknesses and He also needs to strengthen us to fight. Only He can reveal the true state of our heart. Only He can guide us to Christ.