Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Finding Hope when you are depressed by the smallness of your life

I was reminded of Jesus' humanity recently when I was sitting in my room. As I thought of my own family members, friends who have achieved so much while in comparison I seemed to be doing so little, my thoughts made me feel smaller and smaller. Insignificance, unimportance and inferiority swept over me. Have you ever felt like that? Do you feel depressed by the smallness of your life? If so, praise Him for His eternity.

As I read Revelation 1, He spoke to me to praise HIM for his humanity and for His eternity of Jesus Christ. Verse 8 says that " I am the Alpha and Omega."(Rev1:8). This title describes the eternal omniscience of Jesus Christ. The alpha is the first letter and omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Through the alphabet, all of our words, all of our wisdom and all of our knowledge are expressed. Jesus is the beginning and end of the alphabet, the summation of all wisdom and knowledge.
What does the omniscience of Christ mean to me personally???I
It means I have always been on His mind. Think of it. The most important Man in the universe has always been thinking of you and me! Wonder of wonders! I have never been out of His thoughts. Even He hung on the cross, He was thinking of me by name, dying for me by name! And when He rose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday, He was raised with me on HIS mind. And not only is He eternally omniscient, He is eternally omnipresent: He is "the lord God who is and who was and who is to come.."(Rev1:8) My dear friend not only He is thinking of you, he is with you right now. Whatever the situation you are, He is there with you.
What does His eternal omnipresence mean to me personally???He is fully present in every age, every generation, every culture and every nation. If Adam and Eve knew Him as they walked with Him in the cool of the day, if Enoch walked right into heaven with Him, if Abraham knew Him as his Friend, if David knew Him as his Shepherd, if Mary Magdalene knew Him as a liberating grace why can't I know Him? If He is eternally the same, fully present in every age and every generation, then I can know HIM for assurance. His omnipresence brings comfort because I am assured He is fully present with me. His omnipresence also brings great safety in our life.Praise God for the eternity of Jesus Christ! He is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent! He is the Almighty (Rev 1:8) Jesus Christ is all power, fully in charge. No one, nor anything is mightier than Jesus! What problem you are facing that is bigger than you are?

Praise God for the omnipotence of Jesus Christ. He is greater, more powerful than any problem or situation you or I will ever face.Hence God taught me to refocus on who Jesus Christ really is. Shall we all praise Him for His humanity, for His eternity and praise Him for who He is? Let's make time each day to praise Jesus for who He is? How? By reflecting on what He has said through bible?

Finally, how does praise of Christ help you if you are depressed by the smallness of your life? It helps you get your eyes off yourself as it puts your life in proper perspective. You and I cannot remain depressed when we maintain our focus on the person of Jesus Christ through praise. Shall we praise God by being preoccupied with Him, by making Him our first priority, by focusing on Him, by obeying what He says, then we all could find hope today?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A costly choice or lamentable choice

Dear Friends,

For our study, lets focus the life story of Lot, Abram’s nephew in Genesis 13, 14 and 19, When Abram’s servants and Lot servants had a quarrel, Abram asked Lot to choose the land first to avoid the fighting among themselves. The proposal made by Abram to Lot was exceedingly generous. May be Abram and Lot were standing on one of the high mountains of Canaan, perhaps Mt. Hebron. Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the well watered, fertile plains of Sodom and the rich hills of Moab. It reminded him of the Garden of Eden, which he had heard from his uncle Abram. And Lot chose all the plain of Jordan for his portion and separated from his Godly uncle. Lot dwelt in the cities of the plains for a while, then he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Finally, he dwelt in Sodom, there he was elected to the city council. Bible scholars say that Lot lived in Sodom for 20 years.

What is wrong in Lot’s choice?

Without regard for anything spiritual, just for his own soul, Lot chose the rich plains of Sodom. His choice was not good, because he had too much love for this world and he had little concern for his own soul and the souls of his family. There were no prophets in Sodom but only riches. There was no alter at which to worship God in Sodom but only green grass. There were no believers in Sodom but only wickedness & worldliness. From the moment that Lot made his choice, he began to decline. He did not go directly into Sodom, but step by step, he hardened his heart and seared his conscience until he convinced himself, that the best thing he could do for himself, his family was to move into Sodom. He compromised all his Godly characters to inherit Sodom. Are we traveling towards Sodom step by step leaving Godly friends, fellowship and communion? How is our commitment with our Christ? Is it fading day by day? Then cry out to God to replace the first love back into our lives immediately!!

Walking by sight:-

Lot walked by sight and not by faith. In Genesis 3:6, we see that, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes, she took the fruit of the forbidden tree”. Walking by sight is the cause of most of our failures and sorrows. Abraham walked by faith and not by sight. That was the reason he could able to inherit God’s blessings in his life.

What did Lot gain by his separation from Abraham and journey to Sodom?

Nothing at all. Instead of gaining, he was the loser. In Genesis 14, we see the battle between 4 kings with five, they took all the good of Sodom and Gomorrah and they took Lot who also dwelt in Sodom and his riches and departed. When Abram came to know, he and his armed servants redeemed Lot and his property and all the riches of Sodom & Gomorrah, but still Lot returned back to Sodom. When I read this, I felt bad for Lot. How ignorant he was for not knowing God’s will in his life. His mind was targeted with Sodom’s riches and not to have fellowship with God. I don’t find Lot building an alter for God to worship in Sodom either. Even God’s providential dealings are insufficient to move Lot’s heart as his eyes and heart were fixed to Sodom’s riches. Lets ask ourselves, where are we now? When our own plans and selfish dealings don’t work, are we still lingering at the same place for trying to succeed? May be this is the right time for us to allow God to deal our lives once again. Are we like Lot going back to Sodom after seeing failures?

In Genesis 19, we see 2 angels found Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom, when Lot requested angels to partake of the hospitality, but angels preferred to abide in the street, this again confirms that Lots heart was far away from God’s presence. He compromised all his Godliness to please Sodom riches. Angels reluctance to enter Lots dwelling is in contrast with their fellowship with Abram. The utter meanness and selfishness of lots character was exhibited when he proposed to sacrifice his daughters to the men of Sodom in order to secure his own preservation and peace. The powerless of Lots testimony appeared in the response made by his sons in-law when he warned them that the Lord was about to destroy the city. He could not even gain a single soul for God when he was 20 years in Sodom. Lots words had no weight because of his previous way. How pathetic it is to experience in a Christian life. How is our testimony today? Is it powerful or powerless like Lot? The angels laid upon Lots hand while he was lingering and delaying in Sodom, which again confirms that where his heart was and how he loved that wicked place?

Lots choice of residence was completely dependent upon immediate and temporal needs and not on eternal spiritual blessings. His life on earth was a wretched failure; there was no witnessing for God and no blessings of God upon his family. His wife turned to be a pillar of salt and all his life, he left face to face with fruit of his own awful sin in the dark cave.

Lot is a concrete warning, a danger signal, for all Christians who feel a tendency to be carried away by the things of the world. May the God of Abraham help everyone to make a costly choice for the glory of God? Amen.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Trust in the Lord

Dear Friends,

Proverb 3: 5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.”

What do you mean by Trust in the Lord?

Our loving Lord Jesus requires you and me to live in dependency upon Him. “Trust” means, we are depending upon God and placing our life totally in His hands. To trust God, we have to believe the word of God and we must depend upon His word.

Ok, when we trust God, what do we get?

The dependency on God yields “Prayer” in our life. Prayer less occurs when we depend on ourselves. How is our prayer life today? When Jesus Christ was on the earth in the human form, he regularly prayed to our Heavenly Father, we see Him going to solitary place for prayers. Even when Jesus depends God completely why can’t we trust Him with all our heart? Are we praying for everything in our life? Are we dependant towards our heavenly father for our needs? How is our dependency in our spiritual life?

God wants us to come to the place where we can admit that we are hopeless and helpless on our own, so that He can call us to a declaration of dependence as we humble ourselves before Him in prayer & worship.

I have noticed my little child saying, “ I can do it myself.” But at the end, she makes a mess of things and cries for help in frustration. How often is this the situation in our own lives as we first try to do things ourselves and only in time of crisis call out to God for help? God is calling us to put away the childish way of thinking we can do anything without our creator. In humility, we need to draw near to God and confess our inadequacy and complete dependence upon Him.

Secondly dependency on God yields, “Resting” on our God. It is leaning on His ability and not on our own. It also brings wisdom, direction, strength, healing etc from our loving Lord.
In john 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I am in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do NOTHING.” Here we see the Gods word concerning our ability to function properly apart from depending upon Him.

Lets go to our dear Lord to revive our dependency and trust in our Lord. May the God of Jacob help us to depend on our true God so that we could have constant prayerful mind in our lives. God of Jacob reminds me that, we also cheated many times like Jacob, but still our God gave his wonderful name to Jacob to teach us that He still concerns our week ness. may God bless everyone to trust and depend on His ability in our daily life. Amen.