My Best Friend!

Tags

Bruised, Christianity, Cross, Crown of Thorns, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, die, eternal life, friend, God, Good Friday, Jesus, life, love, NLT, sin

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends – John 15:13(NLT)

I can’t think of a friend who would die for me, except Jesus… my best friend!

Jesus died on the cross for me. I nailed Him with my sin. And yet, He willingly lay down his life for the sake of the love He has for me. He was bruised for my sins, he was tortured for my iniquities. He deserved a crown of gold but He was crowned with thorns. He deserved a seat of honour but He clung to the cross. With bleeding brows and beating heart, He cried out – ‘It’s Finished!’. Did it? With His dying breath, He gave me life… eternal life. With His death, He conquered death, so I can live. Yes it was finished, the sacrifice was finished, the penalty for my sins was finished, once and for all, sufficient to give me life… eternal life.

Jesus, I cannot ask for a better friend that YOU. I Love YOU! <<Hugs>>

We sang this song in church today… a song that has a lot of meaning to me. Hope you enjoy it and feel God’s love for you.

Learning to Hear God – Precious than the Daisies

Tags

Bible, Christian, Daisy, God, Hearing, Solomon

Daisies along the pathway

God loves to talk to us and He talks only when we listen. He can talk to you just as He talks to any great prophet or a great man of God. The first step to hear God is to believe that God loves you as much as He loved the saints in the Bible. Listing to God speak requires faith and if you do not have faith, you can never hear God.

I for one always thought that God speaks to special people, people who are prophets, who know the scriptures by heart, who pray and fast all the time, who sing great and accomplish great things for God. I always had a little confidence in God willing to talk to me directly. I always had the  ”God can talk to me but I am not worthy enough” attitude. This led me to seek other people to intercede for me, asking someone else to pray for me. I always kept seeking others’ help to get me closer to God.

This kept happening until a couple of weeks back when I had the impression in my heart that God was willing to talk me directly. I brushed the thought away but my heart said God wanted to talk to me directly. As I walked that morning to work, all worried about the day’s trouble, I had no pleasant thoughts, nothing that would bring joy to my heart. I monotonously walked through the road as the wind blew past me, making me shiver with fear, doubt, worry and confusion. Just as I walked without any specific thought in my but definitely not in the best of my moods, I saw the beautiful white daisies sprinkled along either side of the path way. Immediately the following verse rang in my heart

“28 See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you” – Matthew 6:28-30

I brushed aside the tiny tear drop and then walked ahead with more determination, stuffing my head into more worry and fear and confusion. I reached work, well ahead of time. I wanted to work but my mind just wouldn’t listen to my command. “All right!”, I said out loud. “I just can’t take it anymore. I can’t work like this!”. I closed my work and opened WWW.CBN.COM, one of my favourite Christian sites. I decided to read the daily devotional titled “Weeding out fear“. I casually read through until I found this verse engraved within lines:

“And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” Matthew 6:30

Uncontrollable tears rolled down my face, for at that moment I realized His love for me… His unconditional love with which He resolved to bring hope to me that day. Not through a prophet or through a friend praying for me but He in person talking to me through His living Word.

God speaks through His Word and to believe in voice, you need to believe in His Word and in His love for your. Have faith, God can talk to you today!

WAIT!!!

Tags

Faith, God, love, no, not yet, wait, yes

Image by CmdrFire via Flickr

I have heard many say that God answers in 3 different ways – ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘not yet’. The answers ‘yes’ and ‘no’ are easy to comprehend. Although a ‘no’ from God can bring temporary pain, it is at least better than waiting without and answer! I have the experience of  getting ‘no’ as an answer for my prayers. I have asked God why, but He replies with “My grace is sufficient for you” or “Trust me.. I know best”. I have always felt comfortable with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but ‘not yet’ always makes me feel uncomfortable.

I have been in situations where God had asked me to wait. I go to Him for help and He tells me ‘Wait, your time hasn’t come.” I ask Him “How long Lord”, for which, He tells me, “Your days are in my Hand. Your time hasn’t come”. I then start thinking that maybe, just maybe, I am outside His will and maybe my prayers aren’t right. Maybe that is why I do not get an answer. He answers with a smile and tells me, “You are well within My will, my beloved. I make you wait on a purpose. I make you wait so that you can grow and start trusting Me completely.’

Oh, Now I get it!! When I turn back and look, every time I have waited, I have had bloomed and blossomed. Waiting has produced beautiful virtues – patience, perseverance, faith… Waiting has taught me to trust God alone,  to let go of all human help, to not lean on my own understanding and knowledge. He makes me wait till I humble myself before the Lord, willing to be led, willing to surrender, willing to sacrifice.

‘Not yet’ is the most beautiful answer to a prayer. It means God cares for you and He is waiting for just that perfect moment – when the self dies and God’s glory shines through the answered prayer.

P-E-R-S-E-V-E-R-E

Tags

Faith, God, insult, life, Noah, persevere, shame, trust

Noah did everything as God commanded him – Genesis 7:5 

This verse is the proof of Noah’s perseverence and unshakable faith in God. I meditated on this verse and it occured to me that what Noah did wasn’t something ordinary. You and I may have failed the test of faith, if only we had been in a similar situation.

When Noah is first mentioned in Genesis 5:32, he was 500 years old. When Noah entered the ark, he was 600 years old. We do not know how long it took Noah to build the ark but at the maximum it took a 100 years. Even if it was just 10 years (from a pessimistic view), imagine the kind of task he did in a place surrounded by people who lacked morality and respect. People would have rediculed him for creating such a huge structure for a reason that sure sounded silly. He would have been the laughing stock, the crazy guy in the neighbourhood. Maybe Noah at times wondered if he was doing the right thing but he persevered. He pressed on. He kept moving forward.

Noah was asked to built an ark, a huge ship like structure for him, his family and all the animals. Building a huge structure in those days must have been very very difficult. There weren’t huge machines like today. Imagine the huge logs and wooden planks that Noah would have moved one by one, without any help from other skilled workers. You should check out the dimensions of the ark that God instructed him to build Genesis 6:14–16. He had 3 sons but building an ark with just 4 people isn’t easy.  Lifting the heavy wood, moving them, fixing them, cutting them – Noah must have worked real hard for a goal that sounded stupid. To top it all, he had to face the rude people around him.

What would you do if faced with similar situation today? What do you do when people around you do not understand your mission and when they spit rude comments on you? Are you ashamed when people insult you or ridicule you? How do you feel when you have too much to do, all by yourself? How do you react when God asks you to do something out of the box? How do you handle peer pressure? How long is it before you give up? Do you persevere in your God given mission like Noah or do you give up because of the circumstances around you? Do you have enough faith to trust God like Noah did? If you choose to trust God and persevere, rest assured, He will see you through. Your perseverence can bring awesome results for the Glory of God. Trust in Him and you will not be ashamed.

God’s Google Map

Tags

Canaan, God, Google, Google Map, Map, Moses, Red Sea, Steven Curtis Chapman, Way

 

Image via Wikipedia

 Have you ever felt like nothing is going as planned. You know where you need to go but all the ways to the destination seems to be either under construction or blocked. Does it seem like you are never going to make to your destiny? I have been through it. One moment I felt my dreams were coming true and my road was smooth. But suddenly I hit a dead end. My destination is still clear but the road is blocked. The Isrealites and Moses had been through it as well. They knew they had to reach Canaan but they saw this huge Red Sea. I complained when my road was blocked. The Lord was quick to show me that He has a different Google Map in His hands. He said something that meant, “Sit back, let me handle the route for you!”.

I wondered how it would have been if Moses had jumped up down at the banks of Red Sea and cried, “Hey Lord! What are you doing? Can’t you see there is a sea? Are you crazy? We need to reach Canaan and there’s a much better route to reach Canaan. Red Sea is not the way to reach Canaan! I cannot make boats for all these people to cross over! I’ve got the route map in hand, You better take me through the right route!” LOL! Well, I guess lot of us behave that way. We create the route map or carry our own Google Map to the place we want to reach. But, most of the times God’s Google Map is much different than our’s. We see the Red Sea, but God see’s the way inside the Red Sea.

I love the song by Steven Curtis Chapman

God is God and I am not 

I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting

 

God is God and I am man

 

So I’ll never understand it all

 

For only God is God 

Only He sees the path through the Sea, we see only a part of the big picture He is painting. Moses and the Isrealites saw the Red Sea, but God had planned for one of the biggest miracles in Biblical history. If you are stuck today, remember, His ways are better than your ways. He can create a way right through the Red Sea. Throw away your map and let God use His Google Map to get you to the promised Canaan. You won’t be disappointed!

Abundant Life – Part 1

Tags

Abundant Life, After Life, Blessing, eternal life, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, life, love

We often times believe that life in this world is nothing but sorrow and we are born to suffer for the entire life.. I have seen many Christians who suffer in their lives believing that that is the “Will of God”. There are many other Christians who believe that we have to suffer in this life to get a great after life. They believe that today I cry but I will rejoice in heaven. I will have a mansion in heaven and I can have a harp in my hand and sing as long as I want. Mansion and harp are great, but what about today? The Scripture says “ I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” – John10:10b. God intends to bestow abundant life both now and and forever, which is the afterlife. Look at the Psalmist. He says “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” – Psalms 23:6. In the first half he is confident that he will have goodness and mercy in this life on earth and in the second half he is confident he will dwell in the house of the Lord, the eternal heaven forever. Do you have the same confidence? Are you living a messy life today and hoping that you will have a perfect after life or are you living an abundant life both now and forever?

Some people believe asking for earthly blessings is a sin. Some people don’t pray for themselves. Some people believe taking up the cross everyday means wearing a grim face all day long with no joy and hope. Being a Christian is exciting. It is up close personal relationship with the Maker of heaven and earth. It is an intimate love relationship with the King of Kings and God of Gods. I bet God wants you to smile and be happy. Remember what the scripture says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” – Philippians 4:4. God did not create you to be grumpy! He created you to be like Him, to reflect His character. Now, I don’t think God is all that grumpy. Lighten up! Rejoice in the Lord knowing that He loves to see you smile. I bet He laughs and smiles with you every time you are happy and rejoicing in Him. I bet He loves to bless you and bless you abundantly. Seek God and claim your abundant life today!

God is is willing to give you abundant blessing pressed down and shaken. But are you ready to accept the abundant life that flows from the cross of Calvary? Are you sick today? Are you without a job? Are your finances all goofed up? Are you having a troubled relationship? Are you totally messed up and living at the dead end? Turn to God and ask Him for abundant joy, peace, love, mercy and goodness. Ask and it will be given. Ask till you get it. Don’t give up and don’t blame the Will of God later without asking for your blessing today. It’s in your hands to claim the heavenly blessings.

Jars of Stone

Tags

cana, jars, Jesus, love, miracle, stone, surrender

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. – John 2: 6-11

This is a famous incident in the Bible. Jesus performing His first miracle in a wedding at Cana in Galilee. I get to hear about this incident in almost all Christian weddings. Verse 6 says, there were 6 stone water jars that were used for Jewish rites of purification. These jars were used to store water that was used to wash the hands and feet of the visitors. Can you imagine then, where these stone jars could have been kept? In any tradition, such jars would be kept outside, a place not so special, a place that is not very clean. Those jars weren’t the most beautiful vessels, those were cut from stones, mostly uneven. These were not royal utensils neither were they vessels of glory and yet Jesus chose those stony jars to perform His first miracle. I wonder why Jesus couldn’t use other expensive utensils available in the wedding. But then, that’s the heart of Jesus right? He always chose the humblest of people/ things to reveal His glory. Who would have imagined that the most Holy Son of God, God personified would be born in a lowly manger instead of a king’s palace or who would have imagined that the Messiah would walk and talk with sinners while He lived on the earth? Six lowly stony jars would go down the history, they would be mentioned in all weddings across the world, who would have imagined that such unclean jars could become vessels of beauty in the hands of the Creator God.

Yes, a jar of stone am I, not so worthy, not so great, and yet my Creator chose me… He chose us all… to reveal His glory through us. Let us humbly surrender into His mighty hands, and He will make great things out of us.

Can God Love Me?

Tags

Jesus, love, sin, sinners, unconditional

This is question that all of us (at least those who believe there is God) ask in some point of our life. We know we are not worthy of God’s love as we have sinned. Yes we all sin. No one can say we are sin proof. If we said so, then we are liars (and lie is a sin )
So we know we sin. We lie, we get angry, we talk bad things about people around us, we make rude comments, we swear, we live the life we want to live indulging in improper/illegal relationships, we get ourselves addicted to drugs, we give false testimony, we covet others’ property, and the list goes on and on and on… it just gets worse… With all this sin in us, can God ever love us? God is Holy, He has no sin Him and He expects us to live a sin free life. But on the contrary, we were conceived in sin, and live in sin throughout our life time. We try to do our bit of good work (feed the hungry, educate a child, help the poor, take care of the pets, clean the streets, support a noble cause and what not?) , trying to nullify our sin, but actually, none of our good deeds can take away our sins. The good deeds that we do will definitely be rewarded, no doubt but our sins are still lurking around us. A sin is a sin, and no amount of good work is going to nullify our sins. We are still left with our sins. Does that mean our situation is hopeless? Should we die with sin and should we be condemned forever? This is question that most of us ask. We always say – “I have sinned, God isn’t gonna like it, so He is not gonna love me”.

Well there is something that we must all remember, God is not surprised by our actions. He understand our weaknesses. In fact, Jesus understands all of problems because He took the form of a man 2000 years ago and endured all the difficulties that you and I encounter in this world. He knows our weakness better than us, and so it is not difficult for Him to love us despite of our sinful nature. Is guilt taking away the peace in your life? Turn to Jesus today, He loves you more than anyone else in this world.
Check out Romans 5:8. It is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. God loved us while we were yet sinners! His Love is unconditional. Its not because we were good people that He loved us, we knew we are all sinners and yet He chose to love us anyway! A lot of people love you today, but your Creator and your Savior Jesus loves you more! That’s the good news!

So can we continue in sin? God will love me despite my sins, so that means I can continue with my sinful life right? No, God is Holy and He expects us to be Holy. He understands our weakness as well. So what can we do? Keep our weaknesses in prayer. God will help us to fight back sins. A recent survey said people who believe in God have better self control than those who don’t believe in Him. Ask God to help you in fighting sins, He will be more than happy to help you out. So cheer up, God Loves you anyway!

Prosperity after turning to God

Tags

Backslide, Blessings, Children, God

What is it that I get after returning to God? Why should I return back to the Lord? These are questions constantly asked by many backslid Christians and non believers. Read Deuteronomy 30 to get the answer. This is one remarkable chapter. If you read the previous two chapters, there are all the possible curses that God spells out on people who turn away from Him. You wouldn’t want such curses even on the worst of your enemies. But does God leave that curse to haunt you forever? The good news is… NO. Deuteronomy 30 says exactly that. God says he will bless you if only you turn back to the Lord with all your soul and heart. An even better news is that He not only blesses you but also your children and the generations to come. That is exactly what verses 6 and 9 tell us. Our God is a God who loves to bless us, if only we let Him bless us.

Today, He is willing to bless us. All we need to do is turn back to Him and worship him with all our hearts and souls and strength. May all the blessings mentioned in Deuteronomy 30 be ours for now and evermore.

God Bless!