More than Cakes,Carols and Santa...

 

It's that time of the year again...Christmas! Christmas reminds us of cakes, carols, Santa, Christmas trees, gifts, parties and a lot of fun. But amidst all the festivities, the message of Christmas is often overshadowed. The message of Christmas is one of hope and peace in a broken world where we have lost all hopes. There is a lot of suffering around the world today especially with wars, terrorism, natural calamities, outbreak of fatal diseases and so on. World leaders are rallying to organize numerous summits to resolve conflicts and ensure peace and stability. But the sad part is that there is no peace in the world even today.

2016 years ago, there appeared a man on the face of this earth. He was no ordinary person but He chose to be born in a manger and into a very poor family. There were ordinary people all around Him although He was the King of Kings. He was raised in Nazareth, one of the poorest villages of Palestine. Christmas marks the celebration of the birth of this man who impacted world history like none other, the Lord Jesus Christ. But in fact more than his birth, it is His life that has to be celebrated. His life was a gift to mankind, the greatest gift that is also free to receive. This is something that we miss out in the midst of this celebration. He willingly gave up his life so that man could save himself.

There is a problem more complex than terrorism or AIDS. This is something that cannot be solved by world leaders or the leading intellectuals of this world. The problem is SIN. The problem is complex because it is inherent in the very nature of man. We have a nature that is inherently sinful by birth. There is no medicine that can cure it. There is no treatment that can give remedy to this problem. The Bible says that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.  Does it mean that all mankind are sinners?. How can that be reasonable?. A flashback in time can trace the root cause. It is an undeniable fact that we trace our ancestry to a single family on this earth, the family of Adam and Eve who were the first created human beings on this earth. However, the disobedience of Adam and Eve to God’s command marked the entry of sin into this world and all generations on this earth following them have this very nature. How do we know this? We do not learn to lie, cheat or disobey but these have been our inherent natures that came out so very naturally.

As a result of our sinful nature, we are incapable of overcoming sin on our own abilities. Mankind has been trying so many different things to atone for the sins that pricked their God given conscience. Some say good works can save us from sin, Some say going to a pilgrimage place can forgive sins. But it still doesn’t clear man’s conscience of the guilt of sin. However, the good news is that somebody already paid the punishment of our sins. Jesus was the only person born on this earth with a mission to die for the sins of mankind. Do you know that he took the most gruesome punishment that ever existed on the face of this earth? Have you ever wondered why he had to die that cruel death? The cross is a picture of the punishment for all of mankind’s sins taken upon one person, Jesus Christ. There are animal sacrifices that people offer even today to please God and ask for forgiveness of sins. But they fail to realize that there was a great sacrifice already offered by one person on their behalf. We do not have to do any karma to compensate for our sins. We  have to repent of our sins and believe that sacrifice that of Jesus Christ who  died for our sins on the cross of Calvary.

Jesus did not establish a religion. He established a  way to God, a way which was previously closed because of sin. The only way we can reach God today is not with our good works but through the atonement of His Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, “ I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me”. Jesus offers us peace that can never be lost. There is a hope after death for those who believe in Jesus for He said, “ Those who believe in me though he may die shall live”. May we not miss out on the most important person of Christmas, Jesus Christ.  Jesus said “ Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”.  Jesus can heal any broken heart. He can restore any grave sinner. There is hope amidst all the chaos and troubles of this world. A hope of life through the Lord Jesus Christ. May God help you to receive this free gift of life. God bless you all.

Are You Still Running?

So, there is this race.

A 400m sprint. To win this race you have to follow the rules:

1) You have to run within your marked track. No shortcuts

2) To finish this race, you have to reach the finish line. If an athlete fails to reach the finish line, he gets no credit even if he ran faster than the winner. 

So how can you win this race??

• Follow the rules and try not to get disqualified (obviously)
• No matter what, reach the finish line. (because whether fast or slow, the whole point is to complete the race)
• Throw away and avoid anything that is going to slow you down or make you fall. (Tie your shoelaces, watch out for stones or ditches, wear comfortable clothes....)

These are the things you need to do ON track...

Ever imagined what has to be done OFF track?

• Daily exercises
• Good diet (all the obvious and very important things!)

Let us go one or two steps ahead and imagine this is the Olympics.. 

You are training for the ultimate 400m sprint in World history..

Now, what else will you do to make sure you will win?

• I know I would find myself a professional trainer (if i do not have one already)
• I would surround myself with people who are competing for similar races (you know, check out the competition!)
• I would Google the details of all those who have run this race before me in the previous years. People who won medals. People who lost. I would try and find all that there is to know about them - how they trained, what were the difficulties they faced, why they lost- everything. (I might even Youtube their previous races and watch every move they made on their most crucial day)

Can you think of some more ways to "get ahead of this game"?

Hebrews 12:1

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,.."

We are all running a race, a spiritual one - where we look ahead to a finish line that is the Ultimate purpose of God in our lives of faith. Think about all those points we just discussed:

• Following all the race rules 
• Keeping our spiritual body fit with daily feeding from the Living Word of God
• Have good spiritual "Trainers" or Mentors who will guide you to do well
• Surround yourself with people running similar races like your own - Not so that you can be better than them, but so that you can always be encouraged to keep running.
• Learn about all those sprinters who have finished this race ahead of you.. because they form the great cloud of witnesses today who proved that God is eternally faithful, even when we are not. Read about their victories, their failures and how they overcame in the end from the Bible.
• Watch out for every obstacle or hindrance that might come in your way.. Throw away anything that will slow you down or make you fall..

At this point, let us wonder about ourselves..

How long has it been since I started this race? How many years since I began running? 

Am I still running the same race I started 10 or 15 years back? Or am I running another one now?

Am I still running?

I have a message for all those who are in this race..

For all those who have either stopped or slowed down..

"THE RACE IS NOT OVER YET"

Did you notice that the whole point in running this race is to reach the finish line? It's not about whether you came first or not. It is about whether you are still running this race.

Everyone starts out well.. Christian life and testimony all blessed to begin with. The joy of sitting in His presence so satisfying that nothing else matters. But over time, we slow down. We fall. If we choose to give up at this point, we will fail to reach the full purpose of Him who created us. There is no credit if you gave up on this race halfway through.

So, will we win this race, even if we fall?

Yes we will. As long you keep running and reach that finish line - YOU WILL WIN.

Let us consider the different hindrances and sins that affect us in this race, so that we can be more alert of what is happening around us today. All sins are hindrances but not all hindrances are sin. Actually, all hindrances might eventually lead to sin.

Our practical list of sins are easy to identify, like black and white - A few examples: Lying to superiors at work or lying to parents or children, cheating in exams or with money, stealing, envying people around us, coveting what they have, pride of being part of a good Christian family or heritage, - to round it all up - Lust of the flesh, Lust of the eyes and the Pride of life..  

These things are never going to get you to that Finish line.

What could the hindrances be? I came up with a list of my own - 

• A 'workaholic' attitude (being too busy to simply focus on a higher purpose in life or to look ahead to that finish line),
• Loving family or friends more than God Himself (so much that you change tracks and start running in directions that they want you to run, instead of what He has planned for you to do),
• Fear of death, sickness, failures (simply wondering if it will be all worth it in the end)...

I am sure with a lot of reflecting you can come up with some of your own too..

Now, what is the first reaction to tripping and falling in real life? 

Anyone who falls will always look around first to see if there were any witnesses to the embarrassing event. At least if the person is conscious and not in too much pain! Then comes the choice to whether get up from the ground or not..  

Even in our spiritual life, we do not want others to see or hear of our falls.

Our failures. Sometimes, we choose to pretend it never happened, even with God. 

Psalm 32:3-5  

"When I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me;

my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you

and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”

And you forgave the guilt of my sin."

The joy of forgiveness can be experienced only in true confession that comes with a commitment not to continue in sin.

Psalm 32:1,2

"Blessed is the one

    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit."

1 John 1:10

"If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."

But read this verse that is more familiar to us:

1 John 1:9

" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

God wants to forgive us. He offered His Son- Jesus Christ on that cross, to die instead of us just so that He could offer us pardon. He has forgiven every sin on that Calvary Cross so that He could have us for His own.

But if Christ has already forgiven us, then why should we keep confessing our sins to Him?

• Every time we confess, we "take sides with God", we recognize our sin as truly sin and we show that we are willing to turn away from it.
• With every confession we clear all the dark clouds of sin so that the Joy of being in the 'warm sunlight' presence of our God becomes more attractive to us. (Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.")
• It helps us to recognize our tendency to sin and rely on more on His power to overcome it. Sinning is always a possibility for a child of God, not a necessity.

Let me encourage you with these words..

1 Corinthians 1:8-9 "He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Our God is faithful, and He will always continue to be faithful.

"Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

Hebrews 12:12-13

Let us get up from where we have fallen today. Let us strengthen our weak arms and legs so that we can run this race to the finish. 

The race is not over yet.

Keep running :)

#Martha

Failure..Feel like giving up?.Do I have another chance?...

 

It was the qualifying heat of the 5000 m women’s heat at the Rio Olympics held in July this year. After several months of intense preparation, some of the world’s best female athletes were at the starting point on the race track to compete in this long distance race. As the race progressed to around 3000m with a few more laps left something unfortunate happened. New Zealand’s runner Nikki Hamblin and American counterpart Abbey D’Agostino had a collision on the race track which led both of them to fall on the race track. Abbey was able to get up get up quickly but Nikki lay on the ground. What happened next, surprised everyone. Abbey ran to Nikki and helped her to get on her feet. She gently said to her “ This is the Olympic race, Get up we need to finish this”. Although limping due to the fall, Abbey and Nikki progressed to finish the race at last. Surprisingly, they qualified for the finals based on petitions from both teams. Although, they didn’t win the finals, they were awarded the “Pierre De Coubertin” Olympic medal for displaying the spirit of sportsmanship which has been only given out 17 times in Olympic history.

Failure..! That’s the last thing we would want to talk about. Why talk about failures when we have a lot of better things to think about?. We have a human tendency to cover up failures and only portray success. That is what we see from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God and tried to cover up their mistakes. But we see a righteous God who continues to pursue a sinful man even when all his efforts ended up in failure. We have numerous biographies of people in the Bible. The uniqueness of the Word of God is that it shows people just as they were including both their failures and successes irrespective of their background. The Bible doesn’t say that everything went right with people but it rightly shows the increasing human tendency to commit mistakes. We see that many men of God committed mistakes like Abraham, David, Moses, Elijah etc. There were many people who were big failures in life in the genealogy of Jesus Christ and even in the Hebrews 11 in the list of the heroes of faith. Why were they counted as righteous? Because God displayed His love for us while we still sinners, while we were still without strength so that the power of God’s grace might be displayed in our lives. It is the transforming power of God’s grace that we see in every situation. Where our efforts failed, where we ended up in failure, there we see the power of God’s grace empowering our weaknesses to strengths. We see ordinary people in the Bible who failed miserably but being used in extraordinary ways.

Elijah’s Example ( I Kings 19:4)

Here, Elijah had just completed a successful ministry at Mount Carmel. He was able to see Gods power and providence there. But we see here that he became afraid because of the words of Jezebel. I Kings 18 is filled with the Mount Carmel experience, the blessed experience of God showing his victory over the false prophets of Baal. He is in a higher spiritual ground right on the top of the mountain. But, in the next chapter we see a big contrast. Here, Elijah has run away from Jezebel and come to Beersheba, the desert. The lonely empty experience of the desert. What happened to the mighty Elijah?

He wanted to die. He thought of himself as a failure. We see how quickly Elijah has changed from being a mighty one used by God in chapter 18 to wanting to end his life in this chapter. The amazing thing here is God does not give up on him even when he wanted to end his life. God prepares food for him (v.6). He walks for 40 days and comes to the mountain of God in Horeb where he tries to hide in a cave having given up all hope. But still God never gives up on Him. He asked Elijah “ What are you doing here, Elijah.?”. God displays his power to Elijah on the mountain. He restores him back with his assuring Word.

Elijah could not see his life beyond the words of Jezebel. That was it. The queen of the land had decided to kill him and he was sure that will all her influence in the land he was going to be captured and killed. But we see that God had greater plans for Elijahs life. We often go into failure not knowing what the future holds . We are not to sit here and perish just like the others of this world. God had greater purposes still to be accomplished in the life of Elijah even when he had given upon himself. We might think that we are big failures. We have repeated the same mistakes over and over again. But , God wants to remind us that he wants to begin a new chapter in our lives. He wants to accomplish His purposes in our lives even when we find ourselves in the desert in Beersheba, in the cave disappointed of being a failure, running away from what God wants to do in our life. He wishes to bring us to Mount Horeb. He wishes to use us for the expansion of His kingdom. Today God asks us the same question he asked to Elijah in the cave, “ What are you doing here Elijah ?”. Elijah had a great ministry ahead of him. He was given the task of appointing Kings, anointing Elisha as the next prophet etc. Elijah was asked to come out from the cave and stand on the mountain. God wants to come out of our comfort zones and rise up. There are many ministries lying ahead for us. He wants to use us in ways we wouldn’t imagine. The question is Are we ready or Are we still in the cave of our life?

Some important realizations we need to understand regarding failures

We have an increasing tendency to commit mistakes because of our inherent sinful nature. (Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall- I Cor 10:11)

We may commit countless mistakes, but it is important that we rise up from our mistakes immediately (For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again-Proverbs 24:16)

God never gives up on us even when we fall. (Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand- Psalms 37: 24)

God’s grace is sufficient to cover our failures no matter how far we have gone (In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace- Ephesians 1:7)
 

'Prone to wander Lord I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart, O take and seal it

Seal it for thy courts above'

(Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Robert Robinson)

 God Bless you..!