Month: January 2023

DEMOCRACY

What is Democracy?
The power to form the government rest on the people, the people have the right is choose or vote their leaders.
It is giving the freedom to the people to choose their government provided they are in an unbiased environment.

Democracy provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in which the freely expressed will of people is exercised. People have a say in decisions and can hold decision-makers to account. Women and men have equal rights and all people are free from discrimination.

Why democracy is important?
True democracy promotes values like religious freedom, worker rights, human rights, right to quality education & health care, social justice, right to get elected, voting right, RTI by create more secure, stable and prosperous country.

Democracy is from God.
God when created mankind gave the option to choose between the tree of life ( Word of God ) and tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( man created religion and ideology ).

Example of how mankind loses its democracy
Adam by deceit was made to believe a lie by which he lost his authority to rule over earth and many other right, he lost his democracy that is to eat from the tree of Life.

What is an undemocratic government? When the power and government rest on a person or an organisation with an ideology and vested interest rather with the people. They do not work in the interest of the people. Example of undemocratic government Ultra-nationals Communist Religious rule Military rule King ship etcAll form of dictatorship How serious is this in the eyes of the Lord?

Genesis 11:3-4 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

The people were about to come under one leader which was a great danger that is all the people will come under one man control. Genesis 11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. HE even divided the earth.

Why choosing a worldly government over Jesus Government is dangerous, this is explained in verse 1 Samuel 8: 11 – 17

1 Samuel 8:6–7 — The New International Version (NIV) 6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

Characteristics of an undemocratic government , unequal wealth distribution

1 Samuel 8: 11
11 He said, “This will be the custom of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots.
12 He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and those ⌊to do his plowing⌋d and to reap his harvest, and those to make weapons of war and the equipment for his chariots.
13 He will take your daughters as his perfume makers and as cooks and as bakers.
14 He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive trees and will give them to his servants.
15 He will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give it to his high officials and to his servants.
16 He will take your male slaves and your female slaves and the best of your young mene and your donkeys and ⌊will use them for his projects
17 He will take a tenth of your flocks,g and you yourselves will become his servants.
Basically, people are made to work for the Undemocratic government and Pay taxes, nothing more the government expects from people.

Sol.Dr.Benedict

TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED

James 4:14

Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Man`s life is but a vapor, which appears and then vanishes away. He can be healthy today and with sickness on tomorrow. Take a page from the virus pandemic. What he has today cannot be certain that he shall have it the next day.

For yesterday has gone and tomorrow may never be ours. We have no clue about tomorrow, because each day comes with its own surprises, troubles, pleasures and sorrows. For one does not know what tomorrow may bring. Man can be assured of the present time. For however long life is, no one can be certain of long life. Scripture speaks of three score years and ten, yet, no one can be sure of arriving to it. (Psalm 90:10)

Tomorrow is in God`s sovereignty and not ours.

Psalm 90:12 – Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

I always ponder, “Is my today tomorrow?” Sometime back my daughter met me and made a request which I promised to attend to the next day. In my words, I told her meet me tomorrow to get what you requested for. So the following day she asked me “Mama, is today tomorrow?” The tomorrow you talked about, is it today? Are we in the tomorrow you promised? I pondered about it and realized that time draws closer to us with each day that passes: tomorrow will soon become today: today will soon become yesterday: yesterday will soon become bygone days and bygone days will soon become history.

The truth is, the finish line draws closer to us with every day that passes, seconds soon become minutes; minutes become hours; hours become days; days soon become years and the years soon become a lifetime.

Proverbs: 27:1 – Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

We mustn’t brag about our plans or sink our hopes in them. God wants us to hold our dreams and plans loosely and say “Not my Will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

^{Brother and sisters in Christ, the bitter truth is that every human being is closer to his /her grave today than yesterday. Do not waste your life thinking you have all the time in the world. The life each of us living is not a rehearsal, it is a reality. Time is constantly in motion, so we have to keep moving. Those great visions each one of us has planned to achieve in future, do them now because delay means decay. The future you have been waiting for is now!}

Prayer

On Lord, help me to live the life I was meant to live and make the most of every moment beginning today. I receive the impartation for urgency and the grace to fulfill my destiny on time, in Jesus Name. Amen

Sol.Fiona

Jer 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.‘

An axiomatic scripture, I have a personal experience to have seen the power of this word of God. God is challenging the prophet to call on Him, pray unto Him with an assurance that He would show GREAT and MIGHTY things, we cannot comprehend the infiniteness of this GREAT God with our “little mind.” Have you ever tried calling up a family or friend when in distress or disturbed and find the phone busy, unanswered? God challenges us to dial Him any time we wish to.

Prayer is imperative lifestyle of a believer. Luke 5:16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. If Jesus prayed often to God the Father with the confidence of a child, how much more would we have to. It is communication with God our Father whom we can call Abba, we can boldly approach His throne of grace any hour, Heb 4:16. Prayer is fellowship with God the creator, sovereign authority of this universe, who gave us the privilege to call Him, Abba. Our relationship with Him begins with a prayer as well, (Rom10:9).It is praising Him, thanking Him, asking for your need and to say sorry about some things. Can you build a relationship without consistent communication? No, it’s like watering a plant. Prayer is not running to the Father with a “I want this..” list. I wouldn’t feel nice about my children treating me as an ATM machine, would you? 

Our Heavenly Father wants to talk to us and hear from us. 1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Please note the word ‘according to His will.” In Matthew 6, Jesus taught how to pray and He said in verse 10, “Your will be done”. 

How will we know the will of God? Of course, the scriptures! When we pray, we will know what God has to say about our situation, there is nothing in this world for which God doesn’t have a solution. For our Heavenly Father both, the fig tree and the mountain are of the same size.  He is God after all!!! He is the best solution provider.

The condition for hearing our prayers is, we must acknowledge and confess our sins. Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Mark 11:24-25, says we must forgive others who do wrong unto us.We must thank and praise Him for all He has done for us until now, declaring without Him nothing was done, says the bible.

We approach God in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. John 16:24, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” Praying is not iterated and reiterate the same thing repeatedly, not chanting. When we pray, we must trust the integrity of God, the word of God is proven, we must not doubt God, He honours the word above His name.

^{James 1:6-8. It’s the word of God that fortifies us and gives us understanding and the dynamics of the operations in the Kingdom of God. God does not change but prayer transforms us. May God grant us a meaningful prayerful life!}

Sol Lalitha Menon

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, ……”

Proverbs 13:12

There would be hardly any soul living on this earth that would rejoice or at least be calm when the desired or planned thing doesn’t happen in life. How does one feel when he doesn’t see the very promise of God getting fulfilled in his life?  No matter what how much faithful a man is to God, that very discouragement creeps in and makes his heart sick giving a way to none other than the enemy. The devil knows well that the greatest thing he can use against a believer is discouragement because a believer is never really defeated until he is defeated on the inside and this is not something that a believer will ask the other to pray for rather he will be sinking inside of him and ultimately will loose on life. That’s why God’s word we need to proclaim on ourselves all the more when this very subtle disease starts eating us up. .. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalms 42:11) (Psalms 42:5, Joshua 1:9)

Claim God’s promises even though they look like a delusion, illusion in the present time.

 Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

(Deu 7:9, Phil 4:19, Isa 41:10, 46:4

Surrender yourself to God.

Psalms 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. (Matthew 11:28, 1 Peter 5:7)

We see the characters of Bible, how they inspite of their prolonged struggles, encouraged themselves in God and became victorious at the end. Right from Abraham who was waiting on the Lord for the promise of having a heir to be fulfilled to King David, who inspite of being crowned as King, was tired of fighting with King Saul for his kingship, Elijah & Moses who were zealous for the Lord but even after showing great miracles, were disappointed to see the hardness of heart of the people they were ministering to and Jesus who although knew that He will be rejected by people, was in flesh and therefore was in deep distress before drinking that cup of persecution and suffering. When they were tempted by dejection, disappointment, how can we be spared? We are the partakers of the suffering of Christ and we have the same cup lying before us. (1 Cor. 10:13) Let’s encourage ourselves in the Lord. (James 1:2)

Testimony

_{Even after receiving Jesus as my Savior, there came a point in my life when everything looked a fallacy, a myth and I lost all hope in life. The scar became a deep wound. One prayer and I was revived again. After that there is no looking back and now by the grace of God, even the mountain like problems look like a heap of pebbles, easily tossed and set aside.}    

Prayer

Holy Spirit, be with us in our every trial and temptation in life, help us to remember and meditate on all good things in like as per Phil. 4:8 and conquer over all our fears, dejection, disappointments, failures in life. In Jesus most precious name we ask. Amen

Sol. Neha

^{Until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.}

Psalm 105:19

Joseph was falsely accused and charged with a crime which he did not commit. The prison was so cruel.

“They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons”

Bible says word of the Lord tested Joseph in prison.

Dear child of God, the Lord has spoken to you and called you for a specific purpose. The Lord has spoken to you on a specific verse. Today are you living with that verse? Are you keeping this verse in your heart? Are you praying on this verse so that you can practically live as the verse says?

You may have to pass few tests when you are trying to keep the verse in your daily life. It may seem to be difficult for you to keep the verse and follow in your life. Today the Lord wants to encourage you. You are passing through a moulding phase. The word of God is refining you. You need to be proved true to the word of God. Please don’t give up. When Joseph was tested like this, Bible says that

But while Joseph was there in the prison,  the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Gen 39:20,21

The Lord will be with you and deliver you from all affliction.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Mark 4:17

Trouble or persecution comes because of the word of God which we heard or preached. We need to face the test for the word which we heard, accepted and preached. It could be trouble or persecution. I have been preaching on forgiveness for few years. I faced multiple persecutions from those around me for no reason. Many times, I wanted to give up preaching forgiveness. One day the Lord spoke to me and encouraged me with below verse.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Matt 5:11

Thank God for all the afflictions and glorify Him. Stand firm on the verse and the Lord will lift you up in due time.

For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; Hebrews 6: 7

We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit as the Lord pour upon us and also bear fruit according to the verse. Then we will be blessed by God.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8: 28

So, you can be confident that all things work good for your life and commit your life completely in His hands for the perfect will of God. Thank God as you progress through each and every step by His grace.

Sol.Benjamin

“For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

‭‭I Peter‬ ‭2:19-25‬

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

‭‭I Peter‬ ‭2:1-3‬
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:5-11‬ ‭

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:7‬ ‭

The whole Bible is full of such incomprehensible gracious qualities of our Saviour.
As I was meditating on these scriptures at Gods feet the innate goodness and absolute Love of the Lord was revealed to me. Despite knowing everything about me ( us) God keeps on extending Grace upon Grace on us ( John 1:16) allowing us time to mend our ways ( 2 Corinthians 3:16) despite our weaknesses and shortcomings.

One major revelation and conviction God gave was that He knows everything about me
much more than I know about myself. Everything that happens is with His knowledge and consent.

What ignominy Jesus bore on the Cross is simply beyond our comprehension the total rejection persecution and condemnation He faced despite being sinless.
He could still gracefully say ‘ Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they are doing’.
That is the ultimate benchmark of forgiveness set for each human soul on the Cross by our Savior where He crucified His ‘I’ (+) before the will of the Father.

This forbearance we are taught only with the help of the Holy Spirit when we learn to have a mind of Christ ( Philippians 2:5) who did not take offence to any adverse allegation that came Jesus way. ( Mathew 11:19; Mark 2:16; 3:22 ).

Prayer

^{Heavenly Father, Thank you Father for coming in search of us. Enable each living human soul to have the abundant Grace of forbearance, patience and self control as you were tested and enable us to have a forgiving heart. May your unconditional love rule and reign, rest and abide in our hearts in Jesus name. Amen}

Sol.Jasmine James

For this saith the Lord, you shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water, that you may drink,both you, and your cattle and your beasts.”

2Kings3:17

Any crisis in the life of a person of faith is an opportunity for the Lord to reveal His love,grace and glory.We only need to turn to Lord to seek the word of wisdom and word of knowledge in such crisis.He will surely lead, guide,provide, protect and deliver us.

The above verse is a solution given by the Lord in such a crisis, where the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edomite marched against the Moabites. There was no water for their armies in the valley .Jehoshaphat,the king of Judah with the other kings went to Elisha the prophet to enquire about the God,s plan.Elisha called the musicians to worship the Lord,(2kings 3:15).The word came to him to ask them to dig ditches to collect water in the valley.(V3:16).God filled the ditches with water and also enable them to have the victory.

Worship, praise,and thanks giving precedes miracles and prepare the soil for the work of the Lord.Whenever we have to face the adversity we too should bow down in worship and praise. In doing so we invite God into our circumstances and invoke His power in our lives.Then our wells of life instead of running dry would be overflowing with supernatural blessings.

^{Valley is a metaphor for the time of depression or a time of challenge in our lives.It may be a financial, relational,professional business or ill health .Rain or water is a symbol of blessings or provision by God. Those are the blessings only God can provide.He will accomplish what He had promised.}

“I the Lord have spoken it; it shall come to pass ,and I will do it”.

Ezekiel. 24:14.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise “.

2Peter 3:9

When we are in the valley of drought, don’t look at the clouds or sky, look to God with a believing,trusting and thankful heart.

We should prepare our hearts and lives to receive the rain(blessings) before it occurs. The weaknesses and challenges in our lives may be the ditches in the valley, which God will fill with blessings,abundance,deliverance and victory.The sign of abundance of blessing is a precursor of victory.The Lord will fight for us and give us victory. “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace”.Exodus 14:14.

We need to stand on the promises of the Lord and believe that He is. Jehovah Jireh. ,the provider as well as Jehovah Nissi ,the one who gives victory.

If the believers in time of adversary turn to the wall—Jesus.,He will answer with supernatural provision or intervention as He did in the wedding at Cana. We need to believe that everything is possible for God .

“…………with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible”. Mathew 19:26

_{Heavenly Father help us to have an unwavering faith in you and your promises.Give us the grace to remember always that nothing is impossible for you.}

_{In Jesus name I pray
Amen}

                                    A PERFECT MODEL TO CHRISTIANS

Isaac the promised son of Abraham, went to to Gerar, because there was another famine in that land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. He went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. God appeared to Issac and said “Live here, I will be with you and bless you. It is all because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws and commands”. In Gerar, Isaac’s status was similar to that of Abimelech, for ,we understand that his dwelling place was closer to the house of the king of that land. This is an example that shows how God elevates His people, when they trust and obey him.

God bless such people abundantly and give them provision and protection during the time of famine.
Isaac loved his wife truly and they were a loving couple (Gen 26.8). In Gerar, he feared that he would be killed by those people because of his beautiful wife Rebecca. So he told to them, that she was his sister. God made this wrong concept right through the king himself.

Abimelech warned all people “Any one who ill-treats this man or his wife will be put to death” (Gen 26.11). Isaac was a man of meditation and prayer. It was through his prayers, his wife got children too. God blessed Isaac. In that Land, Isaac sowed seed and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because, the Lord blessed him. He continued to prosper and became a very rich man and he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many Servants. It made philistines feel jealous of him.

Testimony

Proverb 18:21,”Death and life are in the power of the tongue “.

From the above verse it is very clear that we should always be careful to use our tongue for blessing others and not to curse anyone.We need to be vigilant in what we speak because whatever we speak it not only influences the life of that person but also influences and affects the life of his coming generations in a positive or a negative way.

We can see this in the case of Noah .He was extremely blessed and a righteous person but one day under the influence of liquor he cursed his own son Ham because Ham had seen the nakedness of his father and had told about it to his other brothers as a result Noah got annoyed and used his tongue to curse his own son.

Genesis 9:22. Ham had four sons.Canaan was his youngest son. He must have been the most pampered son among all but while Noah was drunk he did not bother for his son and Cursed Canaan to be the servant of all his sons’ servant.

Genesis 9:23. Shem and Japhet had covered the nakedness of their father so Noah blessed Shem and said in Genesis 9:26,” Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;and let Canaan be his servant “.

We see further in the genealogy of Noah ,Tereh was born and he was the father of Abraham.In Genesis 12:2,God made a covenant with Abraham and blessed him that he would be called the Father of the nations. In Genesis 12:7,God promised Abraham to give him the land of Canaan.
While reading Bible, we come to know how miraculously God helped israelites in dragging out the tribes that were staying there for the sake of His people, israelites.

^{God blessed israelites with Canaan. Now this country which used to be known as Canaan once upon a time is one of the most powerful country of the world today and is known as ISRAEL. Even today God is showering His grace upon this country.}

We know that Sodom and Gomorrah were also once upon the part of Canaan but because of their immoral ways God destroyed them.

Noah could have forgiven Ham and saved Ham from the wrath of God because it is written that if we forgive the sins of people, they will be forgiven.

Prayer

In Jesus name we ask Lord.

Amen.

Sol. Vatsala

God Gives Faith  

For by grace are you saved through faith,and that not of yourselves.Faith is a gift of God,not of works lest any man should boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9

If you are a born again believer,that seed measure and gift of faith has been given to you.                             

There are 2 types of Faith:-

A Gift of faith:-

It is mentioned in 1Corin12:9-.This is sovreign impartation of Gift of Faith from God to you. 

A. Developed Faith:-

lt is developed if you start out with 5-cent faith and it grows to 75-cent faith and then you could deal with any situation that you come across upto 75-cent  .Some of us are still remembering the one great moment of faith when a miracle took place through them but their faith hasn’t grown from that day until this day

B.  Sovereign Faith:-

lt can come to you in a given situation and a great miracle will take place. But when the situation is past, for which we needed the gift of faith, the faith that took you through it may not be there in you any more. Developed faith is something that will stay with you and work for you in any situation in which you find yourself as long as your problem does not exceed your Faith growth you will always be triumphant.                          

 Faith grows by Obedience  We must now discover how faith can grow in the life of a believer.We go from ‘faith to faith’ and ' Glory to glory' It depends how much your faith developed in your life Developed Faith will bring an increase of God’s glory resting on your life.Faith needs proper environment to grow.

The seed of faith need 3 essentials.                  

A. SOIL:-

Hearing God’s word. God told Ezekiel”Hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me.” Because faith comes by hearing the word of God.  

B. WATER:-

Obeying God’s word.When God speaks you either act on it or disobey. Disobedience hinders the growth because faith is released and can not grow until it has been acted upon. God says,”He. who has my word and keeps it,(acts on it),he it is that loves me.Faith can not grow beyond your disobedience.                             

C. Loving God:-

Gal 5:6.“ln Jesus Christ neither circumcision availed anything nor uncircumcision  but faith which worketh by love.”

We know that We have nothing in us that qualifies us to be called The Children of God, it is His profound love that brought Him into this world to die a terrible death and pay a costly price for our redemption.

Prayer:-

Thank you Lord for your love and what you have accomplished for us on the cross Amen.

              Sol. Noreen