God is not obliged to bless me.

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave the opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labour. 
1 Corinth 3: 5-8

Yesterday morning when I was reading through this scripture portion and as I re-read it again felt ‘entitlement’ is something that is challenging the church and the society today. There are fight and desire for positions. It is not a present day phenomenon. It was prevalent in the days of the apostles. Apostle Paul, he encountered a similar situation when people said: “because I’m baptised or brought to the Lord by Paul I have a special place.” People feel that they need to be entitled to a position because of their seniority or they came to know the Lord through someone popular. Sometimes, leaders succumb to the pressure of keeping a rich donor – happy (who is not driven by the vision); give them positions in the church which ends up in the destruction of the vision itself.

People can feel “because I have given money, hold an important position in the society or have been in the church for a long time, I need to be given importance.” The self is the king nowadays, people run around to gratify their self. They move church if they are not kept happy by the pastor. They become bitter with God if they are not blessed and their prayers are not answered.  For them, God and leaders exist just to serve them. Entitlement is a place of destruction because it’s deceptive. Many leave the church because of it. They feel they are not treated well when they are not given position. People feel God is bad because they had to go through some tough times. People give up on the vision that God gives them because they feel they have not been rewarded well by God. Many feel that they should be rewarded because they have worked. There is entitlement even in the home. Husbands feel that because God has given him a wife to be his helper, she should help always. Wife feels that because the husband is called to provide, He should provide always. The children feel they need to be taken care of because they are they are children. Their parents work hard for them. Parents feel their children should fulfill their dreams and aspirations. Am I saying that we don't need duties and rights? No! If our duties and rights don’t proceed out of love then it will become a burden and the pressure of it will kill us.

Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy. The scripture is very clear about the sovereignty of God. He decides whether to have mercy on someone or not. That means that we are not entitled to anything. We can’t throw tantrum before God. If anyone does it, it means they are still “childish.” They have not attained maturity. So does that mean God is a violent dictator? Are we mere puppets in His hands? No! Even when the scripture says that He is sovereign in His decision. We need to understand the nature of God. What does the scripture say about his character? Exodus 34:6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth." God identifies himself as the compassionate God.

I have great respect for the prodigal son because he knew the heart of the Father. He knew that whatever his father was making was for him while the eldest son who was “ideal son” missed out to understand the heart of the father. The younger son took everything that was intended for him to splurge and he destroyed all the wealth that he got. Yet, he came back home knowing the heart of the father. (Luke 15:11- 32) What we need to know is that, though God is sovereign, His nature is that of a father. I remember how my father would not buy a shirt for himself yet he would give me money to buy new clothes. The heart of the heavenly father is to give to his son and daughter. God will not withhold anything that is good for us. Blessings can be delayed but that doesn’t mean that it will not come to pass. What we need to understand is that we are not entitled to receive anything from God. Then how do we receive the blessing from God? We receive because we are His children – our position (Gal 3:26) and because of His nature to bless. Entitlement makes us behave like hirelings and not Sons of the House. The hireling will stop working when he is not rewarded well when he is not given position but a son will always think of the family.

So every day i’m teaching and reminding myself every day that I’m not entitled to anything. Yet because I’m a child of God I can avail all of the blessing and inheritance from my heavenly Father. I’m finding that the more I feel less entitled the more peaceful I’m. I’m settling in my heart that God and His presence is my reward. I want to run and finish this race well. The pride in me is being dealt with. Once we feel entitled, pride just creeps in. It draws unwanted attention to our ‘self’. Paul knew it. That is why he humbled himself and said: “it is God!” We need to come to a place where we can say “it is you, God!” We will have our reward if we are faithful. The fact is it is God who causes the growth and not our charisma, skills, talents or our strategies. God can use all those but in the end, it is God. 

You are highly favored but you got to pay!

For each of the girls around the world waiting for her marriage, her dream would be to have a good marriage, have a loving husband and have kids and for the ambitious would be to have good career with all the others. Mary like any ordinary woman would have thought she too would be having a great marriage with Joseph the carpenter. That’s when the angel Gabriel comes when she was having a quiet time (I’m just imagining it) and greets her with words “Mary you have found favour with God and God is planning to bring forth the savior of the world through you."

I have read and heard this story many times and never felt anything great about it until this Sunday at the church when Holy Spirit prompted me to speak from the life of Mary to the church during worship. I had already prepared a sermon and was ready to preach it. Here is something that I learnt through this story of favour. 

The first question that came to my mind was “what kind of favour is this?” yes there was a great blessing in this favour the savior was going to be conceived through Mary.  It was going to change her destiny and destiny of many. But have we ever thought about the shame that this favour was going to bring into her life and her family? How many young women want to get pregnant before marriage? None! Put this in the eastern context and see, where this is something unthinkable! This favour was going to put her, her entire family, Joseph and Joseph’s entire family into shame. See sometimes in our life God can ask us to do the impossible, ideas which are larger than us. Are we ready to give up our name? Are we ready to pay the cost for the huge vision that God gives us? God will bring us to favour but that favour will cost. It’s up to us pay the cost.

God disrupts the plan that we have.  As for Mary and Joseph they would have dreamt of a happy marriage, raising godly children, creating a home of their own and that’s when God sends His messenger to disrupt the plan that they had. Mary responded to the plan of God by saying that she is a bond slave to His will. By declaring that she is a bond-slave of God she was saying that the rights of her decisions were transferred to God. Are we ready to submit to the plans of God?

Position yourself for the miraculous. Mary positioned herself for the miraculous by obeying what God had plan for her life. She was bringing forth the savior of the World without any Human intervention. Till that time no child was born into the world without two adults coming together on bed. The world never imagined if something like that would happen. Mary prepared herself by her obedience to bring forth something that the world has never heard about, has thought impossible or never imagined. Even in our lives we have to position ourselves for the miraculous by our obedience to God. God is ready to do great thing through us that the world has never seen, experienced or thought of. The question is are we ready to position ourselves?

Don’t focus on our inadequacy. Mary being a virgin thought “how can I bear a child without a man?” Sometimes with what we have experienced and learnt we tend to think if something has to happen this is the way it should happen. But God is God of breaking impossibilities; he will make possibilities out of impossibilities (Luke 1:37). We don’t have to worry how it is going to happen, God will make it happen. If He has dreamt of something, he knows how to execute it. So stop looking at what is impossible to us and start focusing on what is possible by God.

Hope on the promises of God. When God asked Mary to stand with Him, He described to her what was in His mind. She was going to give birth to someone great, he will be the Son of God and will have an everlasting kingdom. (Luke vs. 31-33) God will share with us the outcome of our obedience; it is His promise to us. We have to cling onto it. We have to grow in intimacy with God to know what is in His heart. He is ready to share what He has in His mind about  the plan that He is going to execute through you. Mary partnered with God to bring in the Savior of the World, and she clung onto what she heard from the angel.

In our lives God wants to do something great. It depends on our response whether what He has planned in His mind is going to be revealed through us. We have to surrender, submit to and obey Him keeping aside the plans that we have made for ourselves. (His plan might be a onetime thing that will change the history of the world, a movement that starts through you or it can be anything in His heart of God.) Christ is not going to come to this world as a child again. He is going to come next as the King. Mary became a vessel to bring the 'Glory of God' to this World. Even now God is looking out for people through whom the 'Glory of God - Christ'  can be revealed in this world, are you that person? 

Chapter in context: Luke 1: 26-38

PS: I’m in no way endorsing the divinity of Mary. She was just a vessel that God favoured.

Who are you?

They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven '?" John 6:42

A question that always rings in our mind is this “Who am i? It’s a question that society asks us or it can even come from the people around us. The close ones, the far ones, everyone asks this question “who are you or who am i?” or might be, they themselves would have asked this question. And, this was the same question that Pharisees asked Jesus when they confronted him on His identity, “who are you?”  I loved the response of Jesus to their question, instead of arguing with them and proving that he is not the son of Carpenter. He chose to reveal who He really was. In verse 48 he says “I am the bread of life.” Many a times we face similar situation in our life. Don’t we? Where people question our identity? Unless we know, who we really are and what our purposes are, we will fail to live a satisfying and enriched life.

Jesus knew where he came from and whom he represented. He knew that he was sent to earth with authority from God the father (Matt 28:18) and he represented Him. He had a heavenly identity. He also had his purpose in clarity. Jesus clearly states that through believing in Him there is eternal life. So how does it become His purpose? Jesus was saying that His coming to world was to become a bridge, a pathway or on escape route for people to come out of darkness and also to bring restoration to the broken relationship with God and man. Another thing that really struck me was the comparison that he makes as him as the bread of life and manna. If you study the bible both came from heaven. Manna was sent by God and Jesus was also sent by Him but both had different purposes. Manna was sent to revive the physical man but Jesus came to the world to revive the spiritual man. a person who ate manna died after years because of old age or someother reason. But, a person who tasted Jesus, in the figurative sense, never dies. Jesus came to this world so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. Eternity is to know God, live with God and to enjoy His presence.

From these verses (John 6: 41-51) we can understand two things - identity & purpose! Jesus identified Himself as the Son of God and as the way to eternal life. His purpose was clearly defined - to give eternal life to mankind. Now, coming to us we need to understand our identity and the purpose that we have. If we chuck out these it will destroy our very being. The identity that God gives us is that we are His children. We are heirs to the kingdom of God. (Rom 8:17) We belong to God which means that we have heavenly identity. In john 17:16 Jesus says that we are not of this world. So when we believe in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior and walk in obedience to Him our identity changes from that of the world to that of Heaven. World is no longer the home for us but heaven is. The purpose that we have is to grow in intimacy with God and follow what Christ did. He healed, brought comfort to the depressed, strengthened the weak ones & destroyed the Kingdom of darkness. Remember you have heavenly identity and heavenly calling! And, sometimes, some people like the Pharisees might not understand it or they might not get it because of their wiring! For an earthly or world focused man it will be hard to understand the heaven focused or heavenly man. So be faithful to the calling that you have!

Sin!

Yesterday i had finished reading the whole bible. After reading the following fascinated me- evil and Sin is hard to purge! In Genesis, The flood was meant to wipe out all the sinful people yet sin remained. Then God chose Israel to become God's Righteous hand, take out nations that went against the commandments of God. Still, the nation that God called chose to walk in sin. Sin loomed at large. Through all this God was showing the mankind the need for saviour and the frailty human efforts. Jesus was sent to the world to die for man's sin. The One who can purge sin and evil. He came so that man will have the freedom to not to sin. ‪#‎livesinfree‬ ‪#‎goodfriday‬

Rulers and Nations

Rulers are representatives of God on earth. They are ordained by God to rule and reign over the subjects given by God. It is interesting to ponder into this fact of leadership and nations. Sometimes leadership is likened to the man on the steer who takes you on a way that is safe and will help you reach the destination. When I said leaders are representation of God on earth it means that they are here to keep the standards of God. But what if they are forgetting this very fact and do things that they like? Nations will plummet into destruction!

The time that we are living in, people around the world are scared, discouraged and disheartened by the things that are happening around them. Peace has become a rare commodity. Day after day the dailies come with people being killed and nations in chaos. The picture that we get to see of a day is not at all pleasant.  Even the nations that were known for peace and stability are on the news for the wrong reason. Am I trying to blame a people group or anyone? No!  What I’m trying to portray is the relationship between the leader and the nations that they lead. To explain it I would like to cite a story from the bible. Solomon was a king who was renowned for his wisdom and riches. People from different parts of the world would come to listen to his wisdom. He had the best of what one can get at that time. Starkly, towards the end of his life we don’t get to see a pleasant ending.  We see there is turmoil in the kingdom. We see people who till that time enjoying his reign resenting his rule. Now, what went wrong that Solomon lost his Glory? God had asked him specifically to lead his people in Godly ways. He didn’t want any other God being worshipped in Israel. Solomon choose to rebel against God who made him what he was. A reason that starkly stands out in the life of Solomon for his destruction is the love of “Self!” He lusted after women; he married women that he liked. “Self” can destroy you as a leader.  If you are too much of yourself you are on the path of destruction.

Now let’s move on to another leader from the bible. His name is Jeroboam who was the son of a servant at Solomon’s palace. We see that he is made the ruler of the Israel. He had the opportunity to lead the people in righteousness. But what did he do? In 1 king 12 we find him planning something immoral. He makes sure that people don’t worship the living God by creating an idol for them. By this he makes sure that he has allegiance of the people. Thirst for power can corrupt character. You can lead people away from God if you are thirsty for power. Jeroboam’s biggest concern was “what would I do if the people would leave me?” “What is the point being the king?” Imagine if Jeroboam had given His concern to God? For that we need to study the Character of our Eternal King - Lord Jesus. In the book of Philippians 2:6-9 it is said Jesus could have clung onto His divinity. He could have sat in the heavens as a God but he emptied himself to become like a man. Jesus was not thirsty for power. Jesus gave it up and later on we read that he is made higher than any other and every knee will bow before Him. Jeroboam is remembered for leading the people to sin. Jesus is remembered for rescuing people from sin.

As a leader it is imperative that you would be known for good. Recently when I read about the president of the US of America – Barack Obama making gay and lesbian marriage legal, the thought that that came to my mind was that where is he taking the nation? Please don’t get me wrong here, no i don't hate gays or lesbians! I would love them as Christ has asked me to love them. But I’m against what they do. I’m against their act because it is blatant disobedience to ordinances of God. Barack Obama would be known for his landmark decision but I shudder at the consequence of it. Adam the first man of creation made a landmark decision of eating from the prohibited fruit. If that were to happen at this time he would be hailed a hero, just because of he went against the flow. But I believe every time a crime happens here on earth his heart would cringe. It was the consequence of his one decision that put the whole mankind is under sin. That is a great and heavy burden to bear. As a leader you should think about the consequences of your decision. 

God puts leaders in places so that they can lead people to God. Here in India, we are watching a turn in the political atmosphere. It is sad to see leaders going behind things that are non-essential. It is the right of every citizen that he or she lives a safe life. No matter what they are, which community, gender or religion that they represent. Now I would sound hypocrite if I’m saying this and the paragraph above I had written about gays and lesbians. What about their freedom? They need to be free able to take decision, live safely where they are! But I would stand against their belief in their sexual desire. Which God prohibits, I would not want them to be killed or abused because they are like that. I would not want to look down on them. But I want them to look up to heaven because our life just doesn’t end here. We have an eternity. 

Leaders wherever you are, nation, state, church, college, school think about your people. As a leader you would want the people under you to feel safe, respected and honored. If they don’t then you need to think of your leadership. Leadership is not given to us to jump on the heads of people. It is an opportunity to serve God’s people. Value them! You have been placed by God to lead them in righteousness, peace and ultimately back to God. We are just pointers to God. If God is not revealed through our life, we have lived an unsuccessful life! Listen to warning that God gives us in the book of Jeremiah 23: 1-4

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are [a]tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord. 3 “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will [b]tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

What is my intention?

These days I have been reading the book of Job during my morning quiet time with God. Maybe some of you might have some idea about the book of Job. If not, let me give you a brief story of Job in the bible. The Holy Scripture says that Job was a righteous man. He was god fearing and wealthy in his time. So one day satan goes to the presence of God and tells him that it is because of God’s blessings that makes job follow Him and if he is to take it off from job, he will reject God. Eventually, after hearing satan's case, God allows satan to touch Job’s possessions but not his life. Soon, satan wrecks havoc in job’s life, everything that he owned is destroyed and even his own children are killed. Job has sores all over his body and he is in great pain. At this time seeing his plight three of Job’s friends reach out to comfort him.

In this meeting with Job, his friends criticize him saying that it is because of his disobedience that he is suffering. He is hailed with condemnation by his friends. If you would listen to what his friends had to say, you will find that they were saying the right things. But there was something wrong in what they were trying to do, their intention were not right! Bible tells us that job was a blameless person before everyone.

He didn’t go steal, kill or do any kind of harm to anyone. Sadly, his friends were trying to provoke him to think that it is because of job’s sins that tragedy had hit his home. A lesson that I learnt in my life in this scenario is “do I advise people with right intentions?” Why do I say what I say? What is the intention behind it? When I thought about it there have been instances in my life where I was saying the right thing with the wrong intentions!

Wrong intentions are poison within us, it stop us from growing. We might be saying the wisest thing in the whole world but if it is backed by wrong intention the whole point of saying it is gone! Just gone! When we try to create guilt inside a person through our advice or want to prove that the other person is totally wrong. The more bitter we get! And, sometimes we might loose the person. We as children of God are called to be wise with our words and intentions. Trust me, if we are to speak with genuine concern and love it will bring about a great difference in a person's life! Even when I write this let me tell you I'm also pushing myself to be more careful, a little more cautious when I speak. Scripture in the book of Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life is in the power of tongue! If we have such dynamite power in this small organ in our body let us be more careful.

Let me close this with this one real life story. Recently one of my friend, met with an accident and was taken to hospital.On reaching the hospital the doctor told her it is because of her negligence (when it was not the actual case) that accident had happened. She was then taken to a ward where she was shown other patients and the doctor said like this “you should consider lucky, only little (few wounds) has happened to you compared to them!” 

Watch your Doctrine!

We are living in times in which we hear different kinds of messages spoken from the pulpit. We have the prosperity messages, the grace messages and many others that don’t take prominence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against any of these messages unless it topples over to the extremes.  The point that I like to make here is that we can speak what we want, provided there are people, place and position. But all that we speak might not be good to the body of Christ. It can hamper its growth. Can we do whatever we feel like in the church? The answer is big “No!” God has given us the authority to speak things that will nurture the church, its people and help in the advancing of Christ’s kingdom.

Today morning I was reading 1 Timothy 4:16 “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” (NASB) In this particular verse we find Paul teaching timothy four things.

1.  Pay close attention  to yourself
2.  Pay attention to what you teach
3. Persevere in doing the two above
4. Ensure the salvation of your people and yourself

I would like to expound on these four requirements that Paul expects from timothy. Paying close attention to our own life is what we least do. We would like to watch other’s life, write comments about it and bicker that “no one is good!” But what Paul instructed Timothy was “Timothy, please guard your life!” Why was Paul so particular about it? To get a clearer picture of it bring your thoughts to the present times, what do we see around us? We see many falling, both Lay and fire brand preacher! Why is that so? This happens when we forget the fact that we need to rein our lives. Exactly what Paul was asking Timothy to do! Rein your life, bridle your thoughts, and restrain your actions! When we forget this fundamental thing in our life, we place ourselves in great jeopardy. If you are working for company what does your life speak? If you are a minister at church or in any ministry what does your life speak? This day God is asking us to take responsibility of our lives. We need to be aware that our lives are been watched and learnt from. If we are planning to raise a godly generation, we must start doing it now with our lives first! We must keep our lives accountable – to God and to man! I can’t run away from my responsibility from being a godly man in this godless generation. I need to evaluate what am I doing with my life? Where am I standing in my life? What is the message that my life gives? I need to do a self-appraisal of my life!

The music fades, lights turn on and every eye and ear is drawn to this shadowy figure that comes onto the stage. The spot light is turned towards this shadowy figure and in front of you stands a young man with charming smile and the whole place is drowned by the applauds of people admiring him. Here comes the preacher of our times! As ears wait anxiously, he starts speaking, word after word. Soon an hour passes, he walks away leaving an elated crowd. I sometime wonder where we have forgotten to speak the heart of God rather than messages that can increase crowds or will excite the ears and minds of people. Have we forgotten to rightly divide the word of God? To give the word of God as it is! Why do we have to polish and embellish the message to suit the likings of people? Did we forget that every wrong message that is given by the preacher or teacher can end up sending people to hell? Paul instructed Timothy to take responsibility of his (Timothy’s) message. He didn’t allow him to speak whatever he felt or came to his mind. He asked Timothy to scrutinize the word before presenting to his congregation lest he should lead them straight to hell. As the scripture says it is the truth that saves (John 8:32). And as minsters of God if we do not take the responsibility to speak the right Word, we are waiting for God’s judgment and wrath. We are not called to speak our gospel.  If you are someone who is doing this or have done this I beg of you to turn away. We won’t lose anything if we have to lose few people in our congregation. Imagine if we have to give up our eternity with God, that would be the greatest lose and failure in our life.

Do I say that I’m exempt from all this because I have written this? No! I have the same responsibility as you have, to live the right lifestyle and give the right word. I can’t live a life of sin. As Paul instructs Timothy to persevere in the right doctrine or teaching. I too have to persevere, with me you will have to. We are God’s team, more than representing our church or ministry we’re representing the kingdom of God. If we are doing anything that detrimental to it then we’re actually misrepresenting the kingdom of God, God, His character and everything He represents. What does persevere mean? “Whatever happens I’m going to keep on going and I will accomplish what I desired” simply it means “never giving up attitude.” Even if the whole world is speaking a message contrary to the word of God, I should stand for God. We might be beaten, mocked or disassociated; even then we have to persevere. It's heart of God for us to stand for the truth. Persevere in leading a life that is sinless! Today’s world invites us to galore of temptations! We are seeing immorality on the rise; the enticing desires of the eye can become cumbersome on our walk with God. Still. God is asking us to persevere. We have a great reward with God if we will persevere.

Last but not the least, Paul concludes by saying “Timothy if you do the above, you are going to ensure the salvation of people and yourself.” As ministers of God it is also our responsibility to ensure the salvation of people that we see on Sunday and other days. What does ensure mean? Oxford says “make certain of obtaining or providing” if you are a pastor or teacher of the word. It becomes your responsibility to ensure that people in your congregation walks with God. Is it something hard to do? I believe it is not! Why?  We have the spirit of God in us, who would lead us to victory. Praise God! What a God we have! With God we do not have to struggle to be victorious! If we walk with God daily and listen to him we are going to lead a life of victory, seeing our walk there would be people who would want to follow the truth. Be ready to rightly divide the word of God. Be ready to walk away from sin. God is waiting for a generation of people who can walk in the truth, are we that generation? 

-Vinal Raj R