Let us gain each other through forgiveness

Every day, when I kneel to pray, for the smallest wrong I had done and for the biggest blunder, I ask for forgiveness from God with the assurance that I will receive it. For I know, God is love, and he wants me to get over my weakness and he won't deny me another chance to prove it to myself.

When we do something wrong - we are doing committing that sin towards two persons - primarily to God, and second to the person or group aimed at. Similarly, When we ask for forgiveness, God examines if our heart is as clean, and if we are as forgiving toward others who have offended us, as we want Him to be toward us. Given that we are mere human beings and God, the divine and sovereign power in the Universe, if we can't forgive someone for their wrong-doing or curses towards us, how can He forgive our offenses?

As a person, there are two things we oughta do:

1. Forgive anyone who has offended us, even if they're not regretful about it. Perhaps, they don't see it then. They'll realize it soon. Forgiving is a step towards healing ourselves more than anything
2. Ask for forgiveness from anyone who has offended us. It only requires a little humility and a heartfelt 'sorry'.

Any follower of Jesus Christ, ought to understand and strictly follow what the Bible clearly states: "God will deal with us likewise, if we do not forgive our brother." And I, for all selfish reasons do not want to miss out on God's forgiveness. Believe me, an unforgiving heart breeds hatred, and in that, we give the devil the throne of our hearts to rule over. It's only a path to doom for us.

Inasmuch as I may have wanted not to, I know that I have offended many, may be intentionally, sometimes not - To give names, there are many - for all such things, I earnestly seek each one of your forgiveness, hoping and assured, that in the kindness of your hearts, you will.

Especially people bearing the name of Christ are called to win over another by forgiving and removing from memory every negative feeling and every negative word that was uttered against you, your dear ones. You are all in all certainty good persons. Do not let any thought, or any act of the past withhold your forgiveness from each other.

I do understand that it is hard to put the past behind and forgive someone, but We do not gain anything by not forgiving our brothers. If we do forgive, we gain a brother. And, that, friends, is a godly act. Not just forgiving in your hearts, but also demonstrate it through your words and actions.

Let's talk, rebuke each other, and if one of us understands and repents, we have won to each to ourselves. I didn't want to sound preachy, but, this message had to shared with all of you since months. Couldn't put it away any longer.

Called to love, endlessly!

Do read my post written for the weekly meditation in the Butler Methodist Church blog here.

The last two weeks have been intense on me on the subject of demonstrating Love and Relationships. Perhaps my previous posts also indicate on that. Most importantly, I had a practical talk to take on Relationships in God's plan with the 'South-West Delhi EU students'. After I'd finished that and joined the EGF weekly meeting, we had Bro. Richard Masih again sharing about 'How we ought to Love', and be called 'the greatest lovers'. Well, that's the basis of all Christian living too. Love! And, so when it had come to write a weekly meditation for the Church, it had to Love! To love, endlessly, just as Jesus Christ does.

Why is Good Friday good?

The fact that Good Friday is good because...

Down the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem that day,
The Roman soldiers tried to clear the narrow street,
But the crowd pressed in to see
The man condemned to die on Calvary (place where Jesus died)
He was bleeding from a beating -
there were stripes upon His back
And He wore a crown of thorns upon His head
and He bore with every step
The scorn of those who cried out for His death
Like a lamb came the Messiah Christ the King
But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me
Down the Via Dolorosa (a narrow street Christ walked on way to
calvary) all the way to Calvary

The blood that would cleanse the souls of all men
Made its way through the heart of Jerusalem
Down the Via Dolorosa called the way of suffering
Like a lamb came the Messiah Christ the King
But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you
and me. Down the Via Dolorosa all the way to Calvary.

The miracle in the incident of Jesus Christ's death is that He brought salvation and reconciliation by his death for all the generations that were in eternity past, that are in eternity present and that which will yet come to be in future eternity! But it's not a sad day, for Jesus Christ rose up from the dead on the third day (when Easter is celebrated) and gave us victory over the bond of evil.

Salvation is at hand for anyone and everyone by God's abundant grace. All one needs to do is to ask for it in the name of Jesus Christ. Hope each of you experience 'His Love & Saving Grace'. Wish you a Good Friday!

How do we often Pray?

We plead for victory when Christ is in us as more-than-conquering life. We beg for Holy Spirit as through He were not already indwelling us, as though He were not yearning for our consent to fill and control us and produce His fruit in our lives. We pray for spiritual & emotional resources as though they were extra bonuses. We forget that they are part of our birthright in Christ.

O Lord of my heart!

Sitting in the church, this song was playing over and over again in my mind.. and I thought I'd share it here with everyone.. It's just a verbalization of my thoughts and feelings.. this lovely old hymn!

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all..

Through Praise, we can be...

“Sorrowful, yet rejoicing”, and “Learn to triumph in Our Hope”

Through Praise You Can:

• Strengthen your Faith

• Tune into God’s enriching Presence: God inhabits the Praise of His people. He is seated on the throne of our praise.

• Activate God’s Power: Praise is that slender nerve that moves God’s mighty hand. Consider the King Jehoshophat’s battle, how the Lord had delivered him through Praise and Worship.
  

• Profit more from your trials: Praise can turn Trials into Triumphs. Praise will help us identify that ‘Distressing circumstances are God’s blessings in disguise’. Praise so that you’re faith strengthens and quality of endurance is produced in you. Praise is a catalyst that speeds up God’s maturing process in your life.
  

• Help you experience Christ ‘as’ your life: Any born again Christian is “dead to sin, but alive to Christ”. Death does not necessarily means being annihilated but being separated. It means our innermost being is separated from sin, it is no longer our nature and we no longer need to let it be our master. Our sin springs from our old sinful tendencies that are no longer our true identity.
  

• Demonstrate God’s reality in a Secular & Materialistic society: Refer Romans 11:33-34. Secularism means God and his will has no part in our lives.
  

• Overcome Satan and His Crafty Strategies: Even the highly educated have turned to Spiritism, to the occult and Satan worship. He gets us preoccupied with him in ways that seem to be strategic to our spiritual warfare. It’s a serious mistake to underestimate Satan’s power, but a tragedy to overestimate it. Any Praise thwarts Satan. Make your praise more powerful by coupling it with God’s word, which is a double-edged sword.
  

• Bring Glory & Pleasure to God: This is something no one but you on this earth or in heaven can give: “the love and adoration of your heart”. Sometimes people try to attach praise unto an indifferent or self willed life, hoping for an emotional lift or special visible rewards. And sometimes, even a disobedient Christian can get into a mood of worship or experience high while listening to Praise music CDs and cassettes. After all, pagans worshiping false gods also experience times of ecstasy. But neither a disobedient Christian nor the pagan honor the true Living God. So how can their praise be a joy to God?
  

Worship is more than emotional turn on. It includes offering ourselves to God, to be His servants, to do His will – nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. It means we radically change our goals. We chose basic life goals that are centered in Cod: to know Him better, to love Him with all our being, to do His will at any cost, to Glorify Him and to please Him.

“O Lord Jesus, my beloved, may I be a joy to thee”. Out of such surrender & worship flows the kind of Praise that fully honors and glorifies and delights God!

Giving thanks in every Situation...

(...continued from 31 days of praise)

Sometimes when we are down, we really are upset and disgusted with the situations. We sometimes feel, 'How long will this be - rejected by the society and sometimes even left by God!' At such times, do we really feel thankful? Doesn’t thanking in such a situation mean hypocrisy? How then, can we be thankful in times of distress & trouble?

The Holy Bible doesn’t command us ‘to feel’ thankful in every situation. It doesn’t command us to ‘manufacture positive feelings’. Instead, it commands us to ‘GIVE THANKS’ whether you are in good situation or in bad, whether you are experiencing high or low. A man of God put it this way: “To give thanks when you don’t feel like, it is not hypocrisy; it’s obedience”.

31 Days of Praise

A book I purchased some 3 years ago authored by Ruth Myers.. It was a good refreshing one, I found it so useful, that I just passed it onto someone and asked him to keep it passed on.. A few quotes from this..

• We need to cultivate a lifestyle of Praise which is the basic response that our Lord God looks for.
• Worship is a beautiful crown adorned with two jewels. One jewel is Praise; the other one is Thanksgiving.
• Of all the gifts we offer, the chief gift is offering ourselves.
• Praise and give thanks for three things: “Who He is; What He Does; and What He Gives.

Will put up more from this book shortly..

Our savior does not cast us off!

As I keep diverting my focus that leads me away from the Lord and realize it, I can't help but think of Kefa (Peter), to whom Jesus Christ said, that He will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Later on, during the trial of Jesus, Peter disowns Jesus thrice, and declares not knowing Him.

Being the Lord of all the heavens and the earth, Jesus surely knew what wrong and right things Peter would do, but He still chose to bless him with the keys of the kingdom of heaven without any conditions whatsoever. Well, knowing all our weaknesses, is it not an evidence that our Savior will not cast of us off? I was encouraged these lines I came across in a ' Our Daily Bread' reading:

Our Savior does not cast us off
because we fail or turn aside;
He wins us back through ways of love
That in His love we may abide

"God can transform tragedies into triumphs"

Amen!