Month: March 2020

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Our response during a Pandemic! : 1 Thessalonians 2:17 – 3:5

Good morning church! My name is Jinson Thomas and I’m one of the pastors at the Gathering Community Church.

We are going through a series titled “Abiding Faith” from the letter of 1 Thessalonians & I’m thankful to God for the opportunity to encourage you all through the Word this morning. The fear and uncertainty of Coronavirus has gripped the entire world & as a result many nations are being locked down to contain the spread of the virus.

In the midst of this lockdown situation where we are away from each other, what is God trying to tell us? Let’s turn to 1 Thess 2:17 – 3:5 because I believe there are some very relevant principles to address our situation and lives:

17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,

18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

20 For you are our glory and joy.

Chapter 3

1Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker[a] in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Social Distancing –

It’s the most heavily used and to an extent the trendiest phrase within the last 2 months. This means maintaining physical distance or avoiding contact with people during an outbreak to minimize the exposure and transmission of an infection.

This poses a tension for God’s people because we realize that God has created us to be social beings! So, pastors and church leaders all over the world are praying through and figuring out what it means to be the church in a time when social distancing is a necessity.

At the same time the world and culture around us says things like “This is the one time for you to save the world by sitting at home and watching TV, don’t mess it up!” Is Netflix the solution for this season? Or does God intend something much deeper in purpose?

On the basis of today’s passage, I would argue that God’s intention during this time is to show His concern for us believers through the church & to show His concern for the world through the church.

After all, when we look at the situation and crisis when Paul wrote this letter, he wrote it to brand new believers who were probably just weeks or months old in the faith.

Paul and Silas barely spent a few weeks with them before they were driven out of the city due to severe persecution. That left these brand-new believers with their newfound faith, alone in a very hostile environment. You can imagine how pressurized they felt as new believers to undergo suffering each day.

And in the midst of this, God shows how concerned and present He is with them through the concern of believers like Paul, Silas and Timothy. But how can we develop that genuine concern for people? Does it happen merely by us making a list to contact 15 people everyday?

Planning is good but if it’s not fueled by genuine concern, it’ll not stick. If you’re at that place today where you desire true concern for the believers and unbelievers in your life, know that you’re not alone.

Like you I’m also figuring it out and I want to know how to do that biblically. So 4 Important Steps that we learn from this text:

1. We need to Understand that Identity precedes Concern

17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart (v17)

Right throughout this passage, we see a lot of familial language being used. Sometimes he refers to his relationship with the church like a parent is with the child. But sometimes he refers to them as “brothers”.

I think it’s important because he recognizes although they heard the gospel through Paul (he is their spiritual father) but yet just like them he is also “a sinner saved by grace” and “a child of God”. That is his first and primary identity.

Angela my wife and I have been reading a parenting book which spoke about this concept of identity. Many a times parents seek validation and acceptance from their children.

They derive their identity through the approval of their children. They spend 20-25 years of their lives trying to do that and then suddenly when the son or daughter leaves home for college or gets married, their world turns upside down & they lose their sense of purpose in life because God never designed them to find their identity in their children.

I think the same thing could be said about finding our identity in the church as well. If we’ve been looking for validation and acceptance from the believers in the church, then the moment something like this lockdown situation comes about, we feel this sense of losing our purpose in life & our faith seems weak and fragile.

And that’s when we resort to spending hours in entertainment, social media and many other sinful indulgences as an escape route.

And the hard truth is that whenever we find our identity in the believers instead of Christ, we don’t really end up loving them. Rather we see the believers in the church as a means to an end.

That’s primarily the main reason why we fail to show concern to our brothers and sisters in Christ. A lack of concern is primarily an identity issue NOT a feeling issue.

So I want to encourage you all this morning, if you’re at a place where you want to be concerned for people, it doesn’t start from you making a long list and a set of plans…it starts from you understanding your identity as a child of God first and not as a member of the Gathering.

It starts with understanding that you are loved and accepted infinitely through Christ Jesus. Only when your heart rests in that identity, will you be able to love & show concern to people not seeking to get anything back from them but with a genuine concern to care for them.

2. We need to Express our Concern

Another thing we notice in this passage, it is filled with affectionate language for the Thessalonian church. Paul says “You are in our hearts (v17)”, “We endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face (v18)” & “You are our glory and joy (v20)”.

In our predominantly male-dominated Indian culture, it’s looked down upon if people especially men express their heart and feelings. What’s promoted is the alpha male, tough guy persona who has no emotions. And that also somehow translates within the church.

I understand that personality types can differ from person to person. Some people will be able to express themselves at length but others might find it hard to do. But I think it’s good and important for us as God’s church to be able to express our affections and concern for each other.

I’m not saying that we need to be sentimental and over-emotional but in a way that is natural to us, we should be able to verbally express our concern and affections because it communicates care especially when people are going through a very difficult time.

Look at the way our God expresses Himself in Jeremiah 31:3-4:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt”

And let me tell you my own experience has been that even the most rough and tough person (although they won’t show it) seeks and appreciates concern. During this season of COVID-19, the impact is such where even the spiritually mature would struggle with fear, uncertainty and loneliness.

Assured with your identity in Christ, I would encourage you especially in your conversations with your brothers and sisters, please don’t shy away from expressing your pure affection and concern for each other. They need to hear those words of concern being expressed.

3. We need to Respond to the Concern

Being assured of our identity in Christ, and having expressed our concern, we need to now do whatever is necessary according to our ability to help meet the need/concern.

2:18 – We see how that concern has driven them to make several attempts to go back to Thessalonica despite being kicked out of the city. because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

3:1-3 – Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker[a] in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions.

When there was no option left, Paul and Silas decided to stay back and instead send their beloved coworker Timothy to check on the believers and also encourage them in the faith. Paul didn’t say “I’m the main church planter and only I need to be the one to go back there.”

He didn’t say “Timothy is my dear Son in the faith, one of my best and most faithful disciples and a super encouraging dude so let me keep him with me for my personal edification”. No, when it reached that point where Paul couldn’t go back, he was willing to send his best resource and his best friend to encourage a suffering church who needed him the most at that time.

And we see how Paul’s concern was not just for their physical well-being. Yes, persecution was also real & physical at that time. But Paul’s deeper concern is how this persecution was going to affect their spiritual well-being.

Will they still continue to love, trust and obey Jesus or will they abandon Him? I really appreciate the calls that I was able to have with some brothers this week where they asked me about my spiritual walk. It just brought so much of refreshment to my soul.

One of the questions that I always appreciate being asked is “how is your heart?” Not that always my heart is doing great but I think it somehow is able to sift through my intellectual faith and dig deep into my heart.

And I really believe true believers in Christ want to be asked those questions, they want to be challenged with those questions even in seasons when things aren’t going great spiritually.

In those in whom the Spirit dwells, there is a deep unrest with their spiritual life and they are waiting for a Christian brother or sister to challenge them and also point them back to Christ. I want to encourage you all even though this is a season of social distancing, please make use of technology to respond to the concern for your brothers and sisters.

And remember that our desire is not in just making sure that the brother or sister is doing physically well during this pandemic, but that their heart is still responding to Christ. That is true Christian response of concern.

4. Impact of concern

There is an impact that this concern generates. I find it interesting that in spite of the encouragement & concern that was expressed and shown to them with the sending of Timothy, Paul doesn’t tell them that the suffering will go away.

Rather in chapter 3:3 he says: For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

I think sometimes many of us do have a romanticized view of the Christian life. We don’t believe in prosperity theology of health and wealth – we know that’s wrong, unbiblical and harmful to the church of God. But yet in practice we don’t see suffering or anticipate suffering as essential to being a follower of Christ.

Think about it – if God was only about health, wealth and prosperity, then it means that He is absent and distant from me in times when I’m going through suffering, pain and poverty.

Instead in the Bible we see our God who understands our suffering, is present in our time of suffering, very near us during our moments of suffering and moreover uses suffering as a tool to redeem people from every tongue, tribe and nation to Himself.

We see this clearly displayed in the suffering of Christ on the cross through which we are redeemed and set free from our slavery to sin to live for Him eternally. And if God can redeem sinners like us through the suffering of His Son, then He can most certainly also use COVID-19 as a tool to redeem people to Himself.

I want to end with a true story of a doctor treating COVID-19 patients in Italy – the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic which is recording almost 1000 deaths every day.

“Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine that I would’ve seen and lived through what has been happening here in the hospital for the last three weeks. Right now we are no longer doctors but mere sorters who decide who should live and who should die.

Up until 2 weeks ago, my colleagues and I were atheists; this was normal because we are doctors and we have learned that science proves that God doesn’t exist. I always laughed at my parents when they went to church.

9 days ago, a 75-year-old pastor came to us with respiratory problems. He had a bible with him and it impressed us that he was reading the Bible to the people who were dying and holding their hands. We were all tired and discouraged doctors – physically and psychologically spent and so we found that we were listening to him.

We realized that we have reached our limits of what man can do. We need God, and we have begun to ask for his help, when we have a few moments free. We cannot believe that we who were once fierce atheists are now seeking for interior peace by asking the Lord to help us resist so that we can take care of the sick. Yesterday the pastor died.

Despite the fact that in the last 3 weeks we have had over 120 people die in our unit and we are all exhausted and feel destroyed, he succeeded, despite his own condition and our own difficulties to bring us PEACE that we no longer hoped to find.”

A COVID-19 infected 75-year-old pastor was able to bring peace through the gospel to atheist doctors. One thing I can say is that the people I’ve been speaking to over the last couple of weeks are genuinely open to God at this juncture. They are all looking for PEACE.

We know the PRINCE OF PEACE!

So to close let it not be Netflix, television or anything else that defines how we respond to this time of lockdown. Being assured in our identity in Christ, expressing & responding to the concern to our brothers and sisters, can we now look outside of our churches to impact the city with this story of PEACE?

God has divinely ordained the church to show His concern for the people within and also the people outside the church.

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Daily Devotional

Treasuring this Objective Truth

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32

Truth can be Subjective or Objective. Subjective truths are based on one’s personal belief, opinion and experiences, and it may be true or false; whereas Objective truths are confirmed by study and are universally accepted. Then there is ‘Absolute Truth’, which is beyond the reach of humans; let’s call it a mystery.

The Gospel of Jesus – God the Son becoming human and living among us to carry the sin and its repercussions on the whole world upon himself – past, present & future is not just a subjective truth spoken and confessed by individual believers based on their experiences, but it is also an objective truth verified by pieces of evidence produced through various streams of study and research.

It is, therefore, crucial for every man and women to be introduced to this truth because knowing the truth of the Gospel is what gives meaning to life and an all-consuming purpose to pursue. It also allows us to filter out all other subjective truths passed on to us through traditions, fables and fairy tales, allowing us to live in true freedom.

Brothers & Sisters, let’s cherish the truth of the Gospel, hold it closer to our hearts and count its rewards and benefits not just in this lifetime but for eternity in heaven.

Lord, help us cherish the truth of the Gospel every day and every night without ceasing.

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Daily Devotional

The Invaluable Reward of Humility

“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” – Isaiah 57:15

The God who dwells in the High and Holy place also promises to dwell in us – but only those with a humble and contrite spirit.

To dwell means to take possession or occupying the space. In the above passage, God reveals to us that He desires to occupy the space in our heart but to occupy the space in our heart it needs to be empty – no other occupant demanding possession of that space.

In man, the self has possession, the self-will has mastery, and it is simply impossible for God to dwell or rule when self is on the throne.

If we are not careful, even in believers, our self tends to secretly not allow God to make our heart his dwelling place because for God to take control means losing our ability to control.

Therefore, if we truly desire to experience God’s nearness within our hearts, a breaking down of self is necessary and such breaking down could be painful.

Friends, humility is not just a posture we take on the outside but its the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance. In our case having a low view of our self and a high view of God who wants to use our earthen bodies for His glory by making it His dwelling place which He can mould, shape and direct according to His will to accomplish great things through us.

Lord, help us value this invaluable reward of humility, allowing you to take full control of our lives and use it for your glory.

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Daily Devotional

Need for Humility

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

Have you ever wondered why humility is such a big thing for God? Why do we see Him often calling out His people to humble themselves before Him?

In the context of the above verse, God has been time to time sending judgment upon His people in the form of drought, locusts, or pestilence. But the people were ignoring his commands and doing what they thought was right in their own eyes. What God wanted to do for them was to show them his act of kindness, love and care through the instructions He was giving them. But instead, people were exhibiting pride and self-reliance.

It is challenging to experience God’s grace, goodness and favour when we exhibit pride through our words, attitude and actions. A person with a prideful heart will always resist others from showing them acts of kindness because he/she thinks that they know it better, that they are self-sufficient, wiser than others and capable of taking care of themselves without the help of others. Their pride always hinders others from approaching them in love.

Brothers & sisters, if we are not careful, there is always a tendency in our heart to display pride and resilience towards God and others. As a result, even when God wants to approach us with love, care, concern and show his favour, He is unable to do so. This is not because He is incapable of blessing us but because of the resistance in our heart displayed through pride and expressed in our words, actions and attitude.

If that’s how the condition of our heart is, then we will fail to experience the full measure of His grace and love towards us. Isn’t that’s why He calls us to first humble ourselves before Him?

And maybe even in this season of a pandemic outbreak, God is calling us to humble ourselves, pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways so that He can give a listening ear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.

Lord, help us to humble ourselves before you and approach with a heart of total surrendering.

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Daily Devotional

Call to Love

“Love one another; as I have loved you” – John 12:12

One of the things we desire the most in times like these is to be at peace with God. When we are at peace with God, the same transcends into every other aspect of our life, in our relationship with our spouse, our children, our extended family members, our spiritual family and other relationships. It helps deal with conflicts, mishaps, misunderstandings and all sorts of difficult circumstances.

To be at peace with God is to know that we have a right standing with Him. Most importantly, to feel His loving embrace and forgiving heart even when we make silly mistakes or get into big troubles.

Thankfully, when we sit down to pray, read and meditate on the scriptures, we realise that God’s loving-kindness towards us is bigger than what we thought and imagined. The extent of His great love blows our mind. We see how Jesus, while he walked on the earth hanging out with the twelve disciples whom he knew, had selfish motivations, were self-absorbed in their world, and that some of them would even betray Him. Yet, He invested in their lives, showed them his immeasurable love by carrying theirs and our sins on himself and suffering a brutal death on the cross for our sake.

Brothers & sisters, this is how we ought to be loving one another and all other people in this world whom we come in contact. They may be selfish and self-absorbed, have wrong motivations, some may even betray our trust, but our call is to show love and treat them in a manner in which we expect Jesus to show love and treat us. We might even have to endure pain for their sake, but that’s how we ought to love them in our heart. At times we may also have to distance ourselves and stay silent, but do it all in love.

Lord, help us to love one another just as you have loved us.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Mark of a Healthy Church – 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

We are currently doing a sermon series called ‘Abiding Faith’ as we are going through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. The passage we will be looking at today is 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, and if you have your bible or an app you can open and read with me.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved-so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

Being part of a Sunday worship is not enough
Being part of a community group is not enough
Having being born in a Christian family is not enough
Having being called Christian, a follower of Jesus by others is not enough

It takes a lot more than these to be called a true & faithful follower of Jesus. 

The mark of a strong and healthy church is not in the strength of its numbers, not in its well-organised services and bible studies and community groups, it is not in its electrifying singing time, and it is not even in its online presence.

The mark of a strong and healthy church is in the quality of its people.

In our passage today Paul is calling out and thanking God for the church, the people of God. He is highlighting some of the great qualities these men possessed that made them different. So, let’s listen carefully to what he has to say about the Church in Thessalonica.

And as we hear and learn from these verses let us come with an open heart, examine ourselves before God and allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction and lead us into repentance and faith making us a strong and healthy Christian and a healthy church.

There are three qualities of the church that Paul is thanking God for, the first one is that …

•  They received the word not as the word of man but as word from God

In verse 13 he writes “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

When Paul and his associates went preaching the gospel in Thessalonica and teaching from the scriptures, the people didn’t just hear the word as its coming from the mouth of Paul or other men, they heard and accepted it as if it were the words of God himself. And Paul says that which you believed to be the words from God is at work in you. What an encouraging thing to say.

Their attentive ears and their attitude towards the word of God brought the Gospel alive in their hearts and is now at work in them.

In hard times like these, when we are going through a threat like Coronavirus – where people, news channels, neighbours, office colleagues are constantly talking to us – where everyone’s giving their views and opinions about the current situation and how to react to it, what is our source of truth? Where do we draw our strength from? What is at work in our heart?

Brothers & sisters, it is only the word of God that can be our source of truth, the only hope for our heart in such difficult times.

The scriptures, preaching of the word and others devotionals are how God communicates to us, giving words of instruction, rebuking us of our sin patterns, encouraging our hearts in difficult times, provoking us to live a Holy life, worthy of His calling. As Pastors and leaders when we prepare our sermons we pay very careful attention not to speak or present to you anything that is not in the purview of the scripture and we even hold each other accountable to it.

The transforming word of God was at work in the life of the believers in Thessalonians, but for the word to produce transformational results in their hearts, they needed to trust God’s word with the right attitude and a desire to walk in unconditional obedience.

Imagine you’ve been given a new responsibility at work, a new project to handle. And while your manager was training you for the job, explaining the process and instructions as per the guidelines given by the company CEO – instead of paying attention you were distracted on your phone or some other things, you said: “chod na, yeh manager bak bak karat rehta hai”. What do you think the result will be? We will make a wreck of the job and even ruin the company and the CEO’s reputation. 

Now, when we ignore reading the Bible, not giving heed to the preaching of God’s word. If that’s the attitude we carry, then aren’t we risking our lives? God who made the world, God who knows the end from the beginning expects us to give Him a listening year and trust His word and not what the world has to say.

When we read or hear Gods word, do we see them as man-made fables written to entertain our itching ears or do we see them as from God, the Holy one. If we believe these words are from God we will pay full attention, protect it, guard it, set reminders for our heart.

While we are in Sunday gatherings, in bible study groups, in GC’s we will make every effort to align our heart and mind to make sure we get it right, that we are not missing the point. And even if for any reason we sometimes fail to make it for these gatherings, we will still make an effort to get hold of God’s word by other means.

Brother & sisters, if you are in a place where you feel fearful with the spread of this deadly disease, you don’t have hope in your heart, or you feel depressed and lonely while you are isolated in your home…. my encouragement to you is pick up your bible and hear God, I promise you will see your faith increasing, your hope growing and sense the arm of protection of our loving Father.

The second quality Paul mentions in that …

• They became imitators of the Churches of God in Christ

In verse 14 Paul writes “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea”

They didn’t just heed to Gods word but to grow healthy they started imitating other churches and other believers. It doesn’t mean that they started imitating each other’s dressing style, worship style, talking style etc. But I believe they imitated each other’s Faith, [Pause] imitated each other’s responses to the call of God over their lives, [Pause] their response to sufferings and most importantly imitate them in preaching and spreading the good news of Jesus wherever they went.

Imitating each other is a good thing, that’s the primary way in which we learn and grow. Children imitate their parents and family members, younger ones imitate their older ones. Jairus sometimes finds it annoying when Amaze imitates whatever he does, but isn’t that how are programmed to grow. Paul writes to the Corinthian church saying “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”

As Christians it is healthy to imitate each other, apart from all how we imitate each other as mentioned earlier, we can imitate healthy marriages, imitate servanthood, imitate prayer life, we also imitate faith-filled responses of other strong believers when we go through troubled times.

But beware, the greatest hindrance that keeps us from imitating each other’s Godly life is Pride, don’t let your pride tell you that you know it better and that you don’t need to learn from others.

As a church and as your leaders, we actively fellowship with other churches in our network to learn from them, to find encouragement from them and to imitate their godly pursuits. I can’t express the number of ways in which I have benefited from such Godly imitations, helping me grow stronger in the Lord.

Beloved, don’t sulk in your pain, sorrow and fear, but identify the areas in which you are struggling and find a godly role-model whom you can imitate so you can grow as a follower of Christ.

If you are not able to meet a brother and sister physically, pick up your phone and call them. As your pastors and leaders, we and our wives are always available to speak to you. Pls, do not hesitate to do so especially in times like this.

Don’t let these circumstances to draw us apart from each other, rather let it bring us, even more, closer to each other.

And the final quality Paul mentions is that …

• They suffered for the sake of the Gospel

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose al mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved-so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

Their faith in Jesus was not just a decorative badge they carried around but it invited trouble and persecution from their fellow men. Jesus said in John 16:33 “In this world, you will have tribulation”, and especially when you are a follower of Jesus.

Often we desire that our suffering would end, but please believe me when I say to you that suffering is good and you ought to be rejoicing when you suffer for the sake of Christ. You know why? Because in our sufferings on earth for Christ we get to share in the sufferings of Christ. Isn’t that a wonderful experience.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:13 “to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

Paul writes in Corinthians 1: 5 “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.”

I don’t know what kind of sufferings you are experiencing at this moment, maybe suffering because of your faith in Jesus, or maybe suffering because of the responses of this broken world in your office, in your society. When we go through such sufferings its a reminder that Christ endured the same suffering and much more for our sake, dying for sinners like us and mending our broken relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let our sufferings draw us closer to Jesus in repentance and faith in Him and his saving grace

The believers in the early church when faced with trials and testings, instead of breaking down and giving up, endured it with joy knowing that the experiences were drawing them closer to Christ. Let us also, therefore, embrace such sufferings with joy.

Brothers and sisters, my hope and prayer for us all this morning is that our hearts would be inclined to grow as quality Christians, not cold or lukewarm but hot, super hot for Christ. And that will happen as we take God’s word seriously, use our free time to dive deep into scriptures and engage with it in a meaningful way. Remember Psalm 1:2-3 “those who delight in the word of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night, are like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

We will also grow super strong when we are together, connected in love, encouraging each other, imitating each other in the Lord and when we endure suffering with joy.

Let’s pray!

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Daily Devotional

Jesus won’t give up on us

“… his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground…” – Luke 22:44

On the Mount of Olives, while Jesus was praying and asking His Heavenly Father if He would be willing to take the cup of suffering away from Him, the scripture says his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. The mental pressure arising from our Lord’s struggle with the temptation to give up burst opened his pores and sent forth great drops of blood which fell on the ground. Yet He did not give up on us, rather pleaded with His Father for His will to be done.

Brothers & sisters! This gives me great hope. Our Lord so dearly loves us that he endured such great pain and agony for the sake of our sin, rebellion & iniquities. This should give us great confidence that no matter what our circumstances look like, Jesus will never give up on His beloved children, even if we die today He promises a great future in heaven, we have a room for us in heaven. John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

Our response in return should be 100% trust in Him and His saving grace for everything in this life and eternity. This should also give us the courage to withstand all sorts of temptations, endure the mental pressure to give in, but never give up. Instead, go to our heavenly Father for help and ask for His will to be done, no matter what the consequence may look like.

Lord, Thank you for not giving up on us and help us also to follow your example when faced with temptations of any kind.

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Articles

The Good Ol’ Days

Nostalgia is a funny thing. It appears suddenly, seizes you and holds you down, rendering you immobilized for any amount of time that it sees fit.

I would be lying if I said that I never felt that twinge of nostalgia every now and then. I remember this one particular instance, after I moved to Mumbai from Dubai, I was sitting at home early one evening and the rays of the setting sun splashed its yellow and orange hues on the cupboard that was facing the window. As I looked upon these colors, I was immediately taken back to my days in Dubai as a kid, where I used to see the same colors on the cupboard in our bedroom.

Then it happened, the yearning for the days gone by, my childhood days where I grew up with the comforts of home and not a care in the world. As these thoughts went through my mind, I start experiencing a tightness in the chest, and I would find myself sighing and staring into nothingness for a considerable amount of time.

Recent Reflections

As I was thinking back on this episode, I wondered why I longed for those days so much. Why this sense of longing and loss?

Don’t we all experience this kind of yearning? It could be for our childhood days, college days or any other point in our lives that we yearn for. Why do we do it? I daresay it’s because we truly believe that the old days were better than what we’re experiencing now, that those were indeed the good ol’ days. What we’re experiencing now is far too painful or dull, and we wish we could be taken back to days that weren’t the case.

Without downplaying what you might be going through currently, I want to point you to a direction that has made me yearn for “the good ol’ days” lesser than I used to.

The Goodness of God

God is good and has been good to me. Does God have to be good to me? Not really. Yet this God, whom the Bible describes as holy and just, has been good to a wretched and rebellious sinner like me, and all of this is because of someone who took away my wretchedness and rebellion to make me clean and a friend of God. The cost of making me right before God was borne by Jesus Christ, when he gave himself up for me on the cross.

This is just the beginning though. Now that I have been made right with God, through faith in what Jesus Christ has done, the face of the Lord is now towards me, and the goodness, blessing and mercy reserved for his children are now available to me. Whatever God means for me, he means it for my good.

Here’s the kicker, it doesn’t just end with me being made right with God, but I’m being renewed each day, and my capacity to understand and fathom the depths of God’s character, his love, his wisdom is on an upward trajectory. The depth in which I know God now is more than when I was 21, it’s more than when I was 16, I didn’t even know and believe in God when I was 12! There is no greater prize, I see, than being able to say with increasing confidence and desperation that “I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2).

Mourners with Hope

Nostalgia is not always a bad thing but it can leave us dangerously dwelling on the past while forgetting all that’s good today and the hope we have for the future. We are not a people who wistfully sing “those were the days of our lives” as the song by Queen goes but we have hope of a final redemption, as the Lord promised to come back and take us with him, to be with him always. (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Rejoice in hope (Romans 12:12) dear friend, and fight the threat that nostalgia so often brings to take you down.

Note: This article first appeared in Quiricus.

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Daily Devotional

The Painful Reality

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23

Every day is painful, it comes with its share of pain and sorrow and no one is exempted. Often times we think money and fame can take away this pain, unfortunately, that’s not true either.

The reason for this pain is the brokenness within us, a broken relationship with the One who created us for His good pleasure. After creating this wonderful world, God created us in his image and likeness and gave us a free will to choose between right and wrong because He wanted us to willingly choose Him over our sinful desires.

Unfortunately, the pain we experience in our day to day life is because the first man and women God created made the wrong choice and thereby, fractured our relationship with our loving heavenly Father which had its repercussions like the punishment of death, not a physical one but spiritual death.

{repercussion: an unintended consequence of an event or action, especially an unwelcome one}

How else do you expect spiritually sick people to behave? Nasty, abusive, liars, crooks, selfish, thieves, rapists, adulterers, even eat unhealthy food for self-pleasure causing sickness and diseases in the human body.

Thankfully God himself came to our rescue by sending his only son, Jesus Christ to bear the punishment of our sinful choices and to die a terrible death that we deserved, once and for all – past, present & future. Those who repent and believe in Jesus’s life, death & resurrection are made spiritually alive, and even though our physical bodies will perish, our soul will enjoy eternity in heaven with our loving Father.

Yet though we are spiritually saved, as long as sinfulness in the heart of men exists, this brokenness will always rub on us. Hence, we need Christ more and more each day to cleanse, heal and revive our hearts.

Lord, we are thankful that you receive us in your Kingdom through your son Jesus, help us also to daily repent of our sins and trust in you as we walk through this broken world.

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Daily Devotional

Our Strong Connection with Heaven

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1

When life looks uncertain – whether its a risk of losing a job, risk of losing a loved one, risk of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, risk of contracting a deadly disease, what we really need is a sense of strong connection with God, an anchor to hold on, and without it, we can easily crumble under pressure, fear, anxiety and depression.

Beloved, it is our strong faith in God that enables us to have this strong connection with heaven. Firstly, our Faith in Christ, him calling us out of sin and justifying us, him sanctifying us daily from our indwelling sins, his promise that he will take us with him to heaven. Secondly, in his providence and protection over us while we are on this earth, preserving our lives for the Glory of His name until he decides to take us away. 

Faith is the hope and strong assurance that even though when we can’t experience the blessing we always wanted, the healing we always longed for, the kind of job we dreamt about, the life partner we always yearned for with our naked eyes, we still live and breathe knowing that God will surely bring it to pass at the right time accordingly to His will, and if by any chance it is delayed or cancelled, having faith that He has something better planned for us. – It is this kind of Faith that honours Him and helps establish a strong relationship with Heaven.

Therefore, let us also have faith that soon everything will change, the threat of Coronavirus will be subdued and eliminated from this earth and we will live and breathe freely.

Lord, help us to activate our faith and never lose hope in difficult times.