Thanksgiving

"Judge nothing before the appointed time;  wait till the Lord comes" (1 Cor 4:5) This is the age of "Be-fast-or-get-lost!" Living in a fast world has trained us to be fast; often way too fast, rather hasty. But look at the marvelous patience of the Carpenter of Nazareth at odd circumstances. Now, it was a woman caught redhand in adultery. The accusers were Bible teachers and Temple leaders. They demanded a verdict from Jesus. But He bent down and began writing on the ground as though He did not hear. As the leaders kept on questioning Him, He replied, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." They were convicted and left one by one, leaving the woman before the One who alone had the right to stone her. Jesus then told her, "Neither do I condemn you!" (Jn 8:1-11). His patience with love towards each of us is just the same. Jesus did not act on impulse. He calmly analysed the situation. He thought about the ac...

"Be sober and vigilant" (1 Pet 5:8) The devil is equally, if not more, active during seasons of aggressive evangelism. Being aware that he has very little time left, he goes all out to somehow spoil the harvest. His counter-activities may take various forms like reviving of anti-Christian forces, spreading false philosophies, performing signs and wonders in the opposite camp and so on. These things leave the enthusiastic enquirers and baby believers bewildered. Pray for the new believers to stand firm in faith and for a mighty manifestation of God's power to swallow the "serpents of the Egyptian magicians" (Ex 7:8-12). God blessed Paul with the salvation of many souls honouring his three month labour in the city of Ephesus. Then weeds appeared. Some of those who did not believe got hardened in their hearts and they started speaking against the gospel message. This obviously shook up the new believers. In order to preserve the fruits of his labour of ...

"Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send out labourers  into His harvest" (Mt 9:38) Everyone of us ought to be in the Father's business of soulwinning. We are saved to save others. God desires that each of us be active in bringing the lost to Him. After the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus said, "Even so it is not the will of your  Father  who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish" (Mt 18:14; 1 Tim 2:3-5). Jesus is the true Vine, but remember his  Father  is the Vinedresser? (Jn 15:1). We often say that fruitfulness is a necessary mark of the disciples of Christ. Do we realise that the purpose of fruitfulness is to glorify the  Father  (v 8)? The purpose of all good works is to glorify the  Father  in Heaven (Mt 5:16). Jesus compared soulwinning and evangelism to harvest. He said that the  Father  is the Lord of the Harvest and we are to pray to Him to send out labourers into "His" harvest (Mt 9:37,38). I...

A story which clearly states the difference between our dreams & God's plans and shows how beautiful and perfect are God's plans  

"All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution"  (2 Tim 3:12) No Christian can escape the school of suffering. That is part and parcel of God's plan. No one other than Jesus suffered mentally and physically as Job did. We might profitably learn from Job's example how to face suffering. Job gave praise to God for everything including his suffering. He stated, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21). Job says that all things whatsoever that happened to him were but God's provision, received from His hand. This is not an exaggeration. Note that in the very next verse the Holy Spirit endorses and approves Job's statement. We are admonished to give thanks to God in everything (1 Thess 5:18), and make our requests known to Him with thanksgiving (Phil 4:6). Job said, "Shall we indeed accept good from ...

"Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind" (Col 4:2)  Prayer is the underlying power to effectively wield any weapon of the whole armour of God (Eph 6:13-18). Therefore the devil does all that's possible to weaken our knees or divert our mind. Here's how you can defeat his mind-oriented strategy. Apart from maintaining a spirit of prayer "always" and "without ceasing," choose that hour for prayer when you are really fresh. Prayer involves mind, spirit, soul and all. Jesus often chose the early hours of the day for His secret communion with the Father. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the Founder of China Inland Mission, spent several hours in private devotion each morning before sunrise. He testified that the sun had hardly seen him on knees! Prayer means going to the Throne of Grace. We have access to the same by the blood of Christ. A conscious acknowledgment of the power and the merits of the blood gives us a strong footing against...

"So what, if the sinner does evil a hundred times and still live so long? Only those who fear God will live so well!" (Eccl 8:12) It is but natural to wish for a long life. Irrespective of one's life-span, be it forty or eighty, the one thing that gives value to our life is walking with God in daily obedience. Instead of asking God for long life we must pray, "Lord, help me to walk in obedience as long as You will let me live in this world." That was the prayer song of Zecharias: "To grant us that we might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life" (Lk 1:74,75). Mature saints understand life here on earth as a preparation for life there in eternity. Taking the Great Commission seriously in times like these may shorten one's life because of fatigue, illness and martyrdom. With the revival and resurgence of Hindu militarism, Moslem funda- mentalism and tribal religionism, aggressive evangelis...