An Appeal To The Body Of Christ

[John 10:10 NKJV] “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Friends, this is an appeal to the body of Christ. We have seen the work of the thief, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Most of us are in locations where there is a partial/complete lockdown and as the body of Christ we aren’t even able to come together as one, let alone do the good works that God created us to do [Ephesians 2:10].

Think of a human body completely dismembered with each part torn away from each other. How can such a body function. This is exactly our situation today with the Corona Virus placing us all in isolation and we can no longer gather together as one. We can no longer function as a body. This is certainly not what God wants and I would like to make this appeal to you that whilst you are isolated and unable to gather together, there is one thing we can do. Let us in unison gather our voices together and cast out the thief who does not belong in our midst. I would like to suggest that we set up a time that is most convenient for us and our friends/relatives/fellow church members and though we cannot gather together in one place, but we can let our voices be heard in unison and cast out the thief out of our midst.

Those who are near to my location (Pune, India), I desire that we take a few minutes daily at 4 pm (IST) and use our voices collectively wherever we are and speak/pray/sing so that we let the enemy know exactly who we are (yes, the body of Christ). If you feel you do not know what to speak/sing/pray, ask the Lord to guide you and be led by His Spirit, (do not let your words be vain repetitions – [Matthew 6:7]) all you would need to do is just lend your voice and do not just think out your prayer/song/words. For the Lord created the universe by His spoken word and not just by His thoughts.

We are made in the image and likeness of God and we ought to let our voices come out of our mouths and see this thing happen. We can release life and destroy the works of the enemy through our words [Proverbs 18:21 & 1 John 3:18]. We may be alone isolated in our respective homes but in Spirit we can come together as one body and can release the power of God through our voices. So, let us come together in Spirit at 4 pm IST (or a time convenient for you and your family/friends) daily and let us destroy the work of the thief.

[2 Chronicles 5:13-14 NKJV] Indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever”, that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Helping The Deaf

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 6

A summary of what we have seen in this series so far:

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 5

“You may rest easy. You have nothing to fear, my child. I will do everything you ask. Everyone in this city agrees you are a woman of virtuous character [Ruth 3:11 – The Voice]”

Ruth the Moabite was a widow who after the death of her husband, left her hometown, her parents and came with her mother-in-law (also a widow) to Bethlehem which was a foreign land to her.  Yet she found much favor from Boaz who allowed her to work in his field (with instructions to her coworkers to fully support her in her work and treat her kindly), not just that, she found so much favor that Boaz married her with the approval of all the elders in the land. Why did she receive all this favor? The above verse says that everyone in the city agreed that Ruth had a virtuous character.

God is interested in us having a strong character. Character is more important than our gifting and talents. Throughout the bible we see that God is constantly interested in our heart more than our appearance. “Take no notice of his looks or his height. He is not the one, for the Eternal One does not pay attention to what humans value. Humans only care about the external appearance, but the Eternal considers the inner character [1 Samuel 16:7 – The Voice]”

Note, God wants us to work on our character and not on our appearance. No one is born with a perfect character, we all learn and develop our character. When we are strong in character we are able to obey God and achieve things God wants us to do. We need God’s help to change and develop our character. So, what should our character be like? Let us look at Psalm 15:

1 Eternal One, who is invited to stay in Your dwelling?
   Who is granted passage to Your holy mountain?
2 Here is the answer: The one who lives with integrity, does what is right,
   and speaks honestly with truth from the heart.
3 The one who doesn’t speak evil against others
   or wrong his neighbor,
   or slander his friends.
4 The one who loathes the loathsome,
   honors those who fear the Eternal,
   And keeps all promises no matter the cost.
5 The one who does not lend money with gain in mind
   and cannot be bought to harm an innocent name.
   If you live this way, you will not be shaken and will live together with the Lord.
[Psalm 15 – The Voice]

This psalm talks about traits that are important to God. These traits help us enjoy continued favor and dwell in his presence. Our character must have these traits: Integrity, Honesty, Truthfulness, speaking kindly, not doing wrong, avoid slandering, hating evil, Honoring God and his people, keeping our promise, not seeking gain in help, not accepting bribes (nor offering them)

There’s lots to talk about each trait but we’ll take a brief look at them in my next post.

 

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 4

“For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield [Psalms 5:12 – NKJV]”

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 3

“Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful. [Deuteronomy 8:18 – NLT]”

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 2

“If a tool is dull and no one sharpens its edge, the work will be harder; the advantage of wisdom is this: it brings success. [Ecclesiastes 10:10 – The Voice]”

Success, Growth and Promotion from God – 1

“There is no one on earth who can raise up another to grant honor, not from the east or the west, not from the desert. There is no one. God is the only One. God is the only Judge. He is the only One who can ruin or redeem a man [Psalms 75:6-7 – The Voice]”

During the early years of my career, I began to rely greatly on knowledge and experience. At this point in my life, I was far from God though I believed in Him, yet I did not have a relationship with Him.

Springs of Living Water – Our Heart And Mind

In the last post, we saw that if we would like good stuff to come out of our mouths, we’d better guard our hearts because that’s what determines what gets into our hearts and eventually out of our mouths. But how easy is it guarding our heart? What about stuff that has already got into our heart? Can we undo the bad that we got into our heart, in the first place?

Springs of Living Water – Our Speech

We all know that our speech should be good because “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” [Proverbs 18:21 – NKJV] and that “The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain” [Proverbs 10:11 – NLT]. So, we are told to speak good and positive things. But this does not happen automatically. We are successful at times and not so at other times. Let’s look at why this happens?

About Me

How would this fit for an ‘About Me’ page?

So Good

There was no beauty in you
Your friends were few
One of them betrayed you
Rejected by many who were related
Scorned by the educated
Yet you loved those who were hated

Perspective

What would I be without you
My life would be so blue
All that I thought was good
turned out to be rotten wood

Story From Song Titles Alone

For all the music buffs, this is a post that tells a story using song titles alone.

O Death! Where is your sting?

Death is not the end of existence as some perceive it to be. Whether you are in Christ or not you will never cease to exist. Your existence is for eternity. Death is merely a separation. Physical death is the separation of the body from the spirit (and soul). The spirit (and soul) will continue to exist for all eternity.

The Stereogram Effect

Take a look at this picture. Click on it to enlarge. What do you see?

A Good Representative

Several years ago, I was once hanging out with a good friend and it being a hot summer, we decided to have some ice-cream. I quickly suggested a well-known ice-cream store chain that was nearby, but my friend wasn’t interested. He said he had such a bad experience from that store that he’d never buy ice-cream from any of their outlets again. We settled for a different ice-cream store and he began to relate his nasty experience with the previous ice-cream outlet as we licked away our cold mounds of delight. I said to my friend “What you said is right, they shouldn’t have treated you that way and it makes perfect sense to be upset with them, but my question to you is ‘Do you think that the ice-cream company believes that such behavior is OK, or could it be that the staff was ignorant or untrained and made a mistake?’”. “Well”, he said, “It doesn’t matter to me because it was unfair to me and I have every right to not go there again”.

Are you quick to listen and slow to speak?

For a very long time, I found it very hard to resolve certain conflicts that I got into. Sometimes I felt “What’s the point?” and would resign myself to think that the other person would never understand. He or she is different and I am different and they have no clue what’s in my head or in my heart and I don’t intend to spend eternity explaining that to them. I believed that was one area of my life where I was the weakest and I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to dig deeper into this area ever. I’d rather talk about something else.

Bearing with one another in love

[Ephesians 4:1-2] “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love”.

Testimony – Victorious

[1 John 5:4 (NKJV)] “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith”

Some of my favorite verses – 2

Here are more verses in tag cloud art…

Some of my favorite verses – 1

These are some of my favorite verses in Tag Cloud Art. I think they are pretty obvious but see if you can identify them. More to come….

Are you the coming one?

[Matthew 11:3] “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

Meditation

 

The dictionary defines meditation as “The act of giving your attention to only one thing”, in other words when your undivided attention falls on or focuses on only one thing, you are meditating on that. How about that? If I were to channel all my undivided attention on God’s goodness, I would be meditating on God’s goodness likewise if I were to put all my attention to worrying about the future I would actually be meditating negatively about my future.

The Freedom Of Creativity

I recently came upon a post that discussed how creativity could be a burden. How the world is losing originality and needed more genuine and authentic creative ideas and those who needed to use creativity in their profession were having a hard time in exploring new territories. I respect the author of this post as this concerns his work and to an extent, I would also agree that a lot of recycled stuff is filling this world. We get to see a lot of new products, stories or ideas that aren’t really new; they are just the same old stuff in a new package.

Our bundle of joy

Testimony – Deliverance From Deception

[Psalms 37:40 (NKJV)] “The Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him.”

Testimony – Mute Can Speak

[Luke 1:64 (NASB)] “And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God.”

A Spiritual Embrace

Yesterday my little baby Grace and I had an awesome time with God. As we spent time in worship we were lost in His presence. I experienced God’s embrace through Grace’s tiny little hands as she held on to me. I saw a great peace upon her and immediately after that she slept peacefully though it wasn’t yet her time to sleep.

One of the songs we were listening to was a Hindi/English worship song ‘Yahweh’ which you can listen to by clicking on the song name. The lyrics and it’s meaning is given below.

 

Yahweh By Yeshua Band

Yahweh (6)                                                 

Jo tha kal jo hai aaj aur hamesha               — (He who was, who is and who will always be)

Yahweh (2)                                                

You are holy God almighty Worthy is the Lamb (2)

Worthy is the lamb (2)

Ho aashish aur aadar, mahima teri                 — (Blessing, honor and glory be unto you)

Hum Gaaye gungunaaye ek hi naam (2)        — (We sing, we croon about one name alone)

Yahweh (4)

Hallelujah I will sing

Glory to the king of kings (2)

Dear Mom and Dad

Dear Mom and Dad,

This I want to say to you
How much I love you.
When I look at days gone by
I can never forget how hard you’d try
How through the most difficult of days
Your love you showed us in so many ways.

We always felt safe and secure
even if the times were sore
You never let us feel lost
But worked hard and fought no matter the cost
You never thought of your own interest
But always sought to give us your best

Dad, you have always been an inspiration
Never giving up in any situation
How you’ve had to sacrifice
Providing for us came at a price
Though by many misunderstood
You were strong and withstood

Mom, your tender loving care
I just cannot compare
Working tirelessly through the day
Non-stop without a holiday
How it would break our heart
To see from your eyes a tear depart.

And maybe there were times that went
Things were said that were never meant
When I look back I can only say
Wish life gave a chance to ‘replay’
But come what may, we’re there beside you
We love you so much and you know it’s true.

And what inspires us the most
And this definitely deserves a toast
You’ve stuck together
In good and bad weather
It’s been a long fifty years now
Since you both first took your vow.

Life’s not been easy t’was tough
But together you’ve shown us sure enough
That when we’re there for each other
Come sun or rain it won’t matter
As each others hands you hold
See how silver has turned to gold.

Happy 50th Anniversary celebrations!

Kingdom Culture 1: Victory is already here.

The mind of Christ (given to a believer) has an eternal perspective. Victory has already been achieved!

Carol Gossman

Before the world began, God had you in mind and He had designed a plan for you to be victorious. God brought you and me into the world at the perfect time to fulfil a destiny that had been predetermined to succeed. In the book of Revelations, Jesus is described as the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. In other words, before God started the world that we call home, He put in place the things that would ensure its success. We think of Jesus being crucified in the year AD 33 or there about. But in fact before time began, Jesus and the Father had a conversation in which the crucifixion was determined. Outside of time, Jesus was sacrificed so that when God started the clock the end was already a foregone conclusion. It is a rigged race! There can be no other outcome but…

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The nature of God vs nature of Satan

God is a spirit, so is Satan a spiritual being. God usually communicates to us through our spirit, Satan communicates to us through the flesh (senses, thoughts and feelings).

Awoken From Coma – Testimony

[Mark 16:17-18 NKJV] “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

It’s a pleasure to share this testimony of a friend who was actually the first person Sylvia and I led to Christ. His name is Raphael and he considers us as his spiritual parents though in age he is elder to us. He asked me to share this to as many to glorify the name of Jesus so here goes:

Darling daughter

Our darling Grace
When we look at your face
Our hearts melt within
We love the way you look at us
through those sparkling eyes
Oh my dear how we love you!

You are the most precious gift
Any parent could ever have
And we love your every little move
The way you wiggle and coo
and make us come close to you.
Yes our dear baby, how we love you!

There are plenty of times
when we’d think we’d be upset
if grown-ups did what you do
But that’s what makes you ‘You’
You are special and you belong to us
Grace we love you and you’re so fine!

No matter how tired we are
All that tiredness disappears
With your one sweet kiss
We love to hold you in our arms
And carry you around for hours
You know we love you and how that’s true!

Broken Bone Testimony

[Psalms 34:20 (NLT)] “The Lord protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!”

[Proverbs 3:8 (NLT)] “You will have healing for your body and strength for your bones”

Marriage Restoration

Faith 3 – Abraham’s Faith

“Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them” [Genesis 15:5 – NIV]

Faith – 2 (Faith, Doubt And Unbelief)

Today we continue with the series on Faith and this time we examine what Faith Doubt and Unbelief is.

Faith – 1

I have written about Faith in several of my posts, so I thought I’d just collate them together in a sort of series for anyone wanting to have a look at it together. So all of the content you see in this series is available in several of my earlier posts but because they are quite old it would take you time to find them. I have chosen the starry night background that you see for this topic for a reason which you will get to know a couple of posts later in this series. If you’ve read my very old posts on faith then you will already be knowing why. I hope you find this useful.

By Grace Through Faith

Christ in Me and I in Christ

Short sayings of Jesus

A loud and clear message in these short sayings of Jesus

Thank you for Grace

 

Dear Father God
You got us awed
How from above
You showered your love.

A Contemporary Psalm 51

1 I give thanks for having mercy on me, O God,
According to Your loving-kindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
For blotting out my transgressions.

Come My Beloved

 

Come My Beloved

You are beautiful.
You are precious to me.
No words can express my love for you

I long for you.
I wait patiently for you.
Nothing can hide my affections for you.

We are meant to be one.
We are meant to be always together.
No one can separate you from me

Fruit of the Spirit

[2 Peter 1:3] “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue”

[Galatians 5:22-23] “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Do you find it difficult to love somebody?  Whether it’s circumstantial or whether it’s just the nature or character of the person that bothers you. Know that it is your flesh that is talking to you. Love is a fruit of the Spirit. When you were born again you received a new nature which bears the fruit of Spirit. Who will you trust? Your flesh that tells you that you cannot love that person or God’s word that says you have a godly kind of love for the same person?

Original Sin

What is Original Sin?

God’s grace and the work of faith

i Pray

I pray ….

Crushing Satan under our feet

“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” [Romans 16:20 – NKJV]

Did you know all kinds of temptations are an opportunity to crush Satan under your feet and glorify Jesus? So whenever you are faced with a temptation ‘Rejoice!’ because here is an invitation to do just what God wants you to do and you are not alone, His Holy Spirit is with you to help you.