If My People

II Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

The boy walked along the ocean shore... trying not to stray. He looked up to his Father saying " Dad I want to play." His Father looked upon him, with love showing in his eyes. "Do what you want to, my son... but do not leave my side."

"I would never leave you daddy, I love you way too much." But the boy took a step away, out of his fathers range of touch. He walked through the surf, The waves tickling one toe. "If I take one more step in... " he thought "Father will never know."

His father called out to him, "Son, to me remain true." The boy thought with glee... At the moment I don't need you." His Father felt a sadness, But he held his tongue. Sometimes lessons need to be learned... even when so young.

The boy stepped out a little further... the water covering his waist. His Father spoke with urgency... his father spoke with haste. "My Son come Back to me," he said " The day is almost done." Not yet, Dad," the boy yelled, " I'm having too much fun!"

But the Boy did not have his fathers sight... So he could not tell... The Tide was coming in fast... There would be no time to yell. "Father!" he tried to scream As the water covered his head. "I need you now daddy!" was what the boy had said.

And in a single instant his father was by his side. "I thought you left me daddy... I thought you went to hide." The Father looked upon his son... a tear streaming down his cheek. The Boy looked upon his father. and cried the sobs of the meek.

"I would never leave you son... For I love you just the same. " "I was only waiting... for you to call upon my name."

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Adapted.

Why I know God is there

This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering that I have seen...

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children?
If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!
That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Most people think of the word Ego and think that it means your "arrogant" or you think that you are "better than others". Is that truly the definition of Ego? Is that the only example of Ego?

Absolutely not. Ego is an invisible shield planted around yourself to protect yourself from the outside world. Ego shows up in all sorts of ways.

Ego is being "shy" and not wanting to talk to people. Ego is fear of what others might think of you. Ego is self critical and refuses to accept compliments. Ego is a lack of trust for people because your trust has been violated. Ego is living inside of a comfort zone, because you are afraid of failing. Ego is thinking that everything you do is perfect or striving for perfection. Ego is taking the credit when it doesn't belong to you or not liking it when someone else gets credit. Ego is giving up on the persistence God implanted in you. Ego is being closed minded. Ego is not allowing yourself to learn and grow for fear of the responsibility that comes with that. Ego is not forgiving because you feel justified in your anger. Ego chooses to take offense to what others say or do. Ego is self righteous and critical. Ego is false humility. Ego is oppression and not wanting to move past the past. Ego is having to be in control of everything. Ego is thinking nobody can do it better than you. Ego is an inability to admit you need help. The Ego needs to "keep up with the Jones". Ego needs to appear like everything is perfect when it isn't. Ego is a victim. Ego is pride.

This is only a few examples of Ego. We all comfortably wear our Ego. We just need to make the choice daily to take the invisible shield off and be the true person God intended for us to be. He is in control, he knows our path, he is ready to take on ALL road bumps in our path. If we hand over complete control to God and not try to live it alone, our Ego will safely be left outside the doorway of our life.
In short, Ego is Edging God Out.

Adapted

Tested faith

Dr. Werner Gitt relates the following story. He says: "Since my childhood, I am particularly fond of Sunflowers. One year, after planting sunflower seeds in several places in our garden, a kind of parable occurred to me about the growing plants. Some grew quite near the house, under a roof, protected from the wind. These grew very rapidly and reached a height of 3 meters but had thin stalks. Others stood in the open, where they were soon "attacked" by the wind and developed an appropriately strong stem and roots.

One day a storm came and broke or knocked over the stems of the well protected sunflowers near the house, while the sunflowers standing in the open easily survived the storm, because they were accustomed to challenge. In the same way", Werner says, "tested faith will stand fast against tribulations and temptations".

Some Christians think that they're called to wrap themselves up in an "Insulated Christian Environment" - distanced totally from the world - almost in a Christianese Communal Cocoon." But this is NOT what God has in mind for His people. Jesus said: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world".

We're not called to hide away from the world but to Go Into It! - knowing we're covered by God's Grace. To live IN the world, but not LIKE the world. We're called to be Overcomers - last time I looked, you could only Overcome something by actually facing it, you can't do that by sticking your head in the sand.

Faith is tested and strengthened only by facing and resisting the adverse winds - not by hiding from them.

To swim against the flow, we must first step out of our "protected", "comfortable", and "safe" little fish bowl, and into the big pond where a world headed for the great waterfall of destruction, desperately needs to hear what we have to say.

Adapted.

Why God became man!

There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm community in which they lived.
They were to talk about Jesus’ birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.
“That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?
That’s ridiculous!”
So she and the children left, and he stayed home.
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump.
Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn’t see more than a few feet.
When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought.It’s warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.
So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize that it could mean for them.
The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away.
He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn.

Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

“Why don’t they follow me?!” he exclaimed.

“Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?”

He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.

Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.

He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!” Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”

Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese-blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come.

Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:

“Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!”

Adapted.

Rest in the Lord

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: - Psalms 37:7

Recently, a large freighter was reported driven aground during a fierce storm. When the gale winds subsided, rescuers went to the stranded vessel's aid and tried to free it. First, they tried to push the ship off the sandbar. When that didn't work, they attempted to pull it off. Finally, they removed some of its cargo, hoping that by lightening the load, the ship would float free. Nothing worked.

"There's only one thing left to do," said one of the shiphands. "Wait for the tide to come in." They did and the natural action of the sea freed the ship from its bondage.

Sometimes we become bound by uncomfortable circumstances such as sickness, financial difficulty or job complications, and we long for quick release, instant release. We try all sorts of freeing maneuvers in hopes of lightening our load. We implore God to intervene, but time is often the healer. His answer--difficult though it may be to accept--seems to be "wait."

When we accept His timetable, however, a natural action takes place. Like the tide which freed the great ship, a life force that has been operating from the beginning goes to work and in due time our problem is solved. The wise among us accept God's timing as perfect--never too late, never too early, but always on schedule.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Source: Unknown

The Compass

An old sailor repeatedly got lost at sea, so his friends gave him a compass and urged him to use it. The next time he went out in his boat, he followed their advice and took the compass with him. But as usual he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land. Finally he was rescued by his friends.

Disgusted and impatient with him, they asked, "Why didn't you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!"

The sailor responded, "I didn't dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast."

That old sailor was so certain he knew which way was north that he stubbornly tried to force his own personal persuasion on his com- pass. Unable to do so, he tossed it aside as worthless and failed to benefit from the guidance it offered.

Perhaps you, like I, have spent some time in a sailboat. Relying on the boat to keep us afloat we slide across the water propelled by a gentle breeze. Yet within the confines of the shores, I had the opportunity and responsibility of guiding the rudder to determine the direction of travel.

Is that not similar to living within the will of God? As Christians we must rest upon God to sustain us, and upon the breath of his Spirit to empower us. Yet within his moral boundaries, we each have the opportunity and responsibility to determine our course.

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. - Jeremiah 7:23

Source: Unknown

The Dowry Deception

Written from an Indian perspective.

Dowry is one of those social evils that is now being widely accepted if not encouraged in the Indian church. First, I would like to emphasize that this ain't a men vs women issue. There are men who oppose it and women who support it. In this post I would like to look at dowry from a biblical perspective.

I Corinthians 6:9-10 (emphasis added)

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Its too obvious to escape one's notice, that dowry is all three - thievery, covetousness and extortion. Forcing the bride's family to pay-up is nothing short of robbery - whether taken in as dowry or as marriage expenses. Dowry in itself is covetousness - an ungodly lust for someone else' wealth. This is one of those sins that has been severely condemned in the Bible. Finally, as inferred from real-life cases dowry is usually an extortion that continues to extend even after marriage.

Apart from its social implications, this passage from the first epistle to the Corinthians makes it explicit that dowry has eternal consequences too. For those who had already fallen into this trap, there is only one solution - pay it back! Well that's what Zacchaeus did. And that's what's called as genuine repentance.

Its only highly unfortunate that several pastors actually encourage this practice and some even demand tithe out of it!!! O Church of India awaken!!!

Are we idolizing the Bible?

No, we don't. I phrased the question to attract readers. I often face arguments by certain religious people that I over-emphasize the Bible - almost elevating it to a status next of God. I'm afraid that's what I do. Because the Word says of itself, (emphasis added)

John 1:1,14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 15:3

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

II Timothy 3:16

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Of course, the Book containing the verses is certainly nothing more than any other book. But the words in that blessed Book, is certainly nothing short of divine!