Calling of God

Only, if we have a clear CALL from the Lord,

1. a real Ministry will begin to fulfill God's plans ,
2. the Ministry will be blessed by the presence of God,
3. the Ministry will sustain inspite of trails and tribulations by the guidance of God.
   

Moses and Paul did a powerful ministry with a clear Call from the Lord.

Moses:

• Calling : God appeared in the burning bush and called Moses to do His ministry.
• Blessing : God didn't inform Moses that, Moses will divide red sea, bring God's people from Egypt with mighty miracles etc. Since, God called Moses to do His ministry, God blessed the ministry of Moses. Thats why the ministry of Moses was powerful.
• Guidance : Moses had difficult time with the Israelites. They dishonoured God frequently and murmurred against God. Several times Moses was discouraged and criticized by the Israelites. Inspite of all these, God guided Moses and sustained the ministry of Moses.
  

Paul:

• Calling : A light from heaven shone upon Saul and the voice of God clearly spoke with him. He became Paul and then the Holy Spirit seperated Paul to do His ministry.
• Blessing : God didn't inform Paul that, when Paul's dresses were put on sick they will be healed or Paul will rise a dead person back to life etc. Since, God called Paul to do His ministry, God was with Paul and blessed his ministry.
• Guidance : Paul was the only apostle who was bruished a lot and was kept in prison several times. Though he went through a lot of pains, yet he considered all his pains to be smaller when compared to the pains of Jesus Christ during crucifixion. God guided Paul in his troubles and sustained his ministry.

So, if we step into God's ministry, we should have following checklist.

• We should be clear about the calling of our Lord to do His ministry.
  
• Only if we are truly called, the ministry will be blessed and
  
• Only if we are truly called, the ministry will sustain inspite of loses and sufferings.

What is Sin?

According to Matthew 5:28, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. i.e., Just a wrong thought towards anyone in your heart is considered as Sin.

Sin is the only thing in this earth that separates us from God.

Matthew 5:8 tells Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God. Example - Jesus is sinless through out his life. So he's able to see the father God. Sin is so powerful that at one point of time Jesus himself felt that he is separate from God. (Matthew 27:46)

In this world there is no one sinless(except JESUS). In order not to become prey of sin, we should follow two things in our life.

1. We should guard ourselves by Praying(Matthew 26:41).
2. We should obey everything what Jesus had commanded us(Matthew 28:20).

When we follow these two, God is always with us (Matthew 28:20 - Promise of his Presence).

Work Etiquette - Part I

Genesis 39:2-6 , 20-23

The following points are revealed out of these passage,
1. God was with Joseph.
2. Joseph was given all the works and responsibility in Potiphar's house and in the jail. (Must have been given all the works and his masters sat down relaxly)
3. Joseph didnt say back even a single word that he was dumped with work.
4. Joseph obeyed his early masters and worked for God.
5. God blessed the households of Egyptian because of Joseph.
6. Joseph prospered.

Abstract of the above passage and points.... U have to remember thumb rule.... Have your fingers like that....

Thumb Finger: God is with me
Have a faith and bold declaration that God is with me.

Pointing Finger: I am working for GOD
Always take/say that the task, work or anything that we do is for God and not for our PM, SPM or whoever above us.

Middle Finger: I will be prospered at my work place
This is the tallest of all fingers, so as that i will be lifted high by God - easy to remember this point.

If we work for God, our reward will surely come from him. We might not got the recognition at our work place or might not got the proper salary hike or might not be encouraged by ur fellow colleages, don't feel bad.

Remember we are working for God and expect reward from HIM. He is more than able to lift us high at our workplace.

The following points are reserved for furthur discussions,
1. Joseph wouldn't have done all the work by himself. He must have delegated to his fellow workers and manage them - People Management. How to handle people at our work place.
2. Joseph would have told 'NO' or asked his master to rearrage the priorities of his work to accomplish all the works - Saying NO. How to say 'NO' when we are dumped with lot of work.

Waiting on God's Promises

How can we know God's plans in our lives? Are we waiting for the promises ? Do we forget His mercies , seeing the current situations? Here are two things to know!

Your current situation is not all. Things will change.

Yea. Its easy to say that. So hard to accept this when we are going through tough situations. We see someone in our shoes in the scriptures. Naomi!

Having lost, her husband and her only two sons, what hope could have been left to remain in her heart? We can read all about this in Ruth chapter 1. But God had a greater blessing for her through her daughter-in-law Ruth, in whose lineage came king David and thus Jesus Christ. Surely the mention of her name in Bible, takes its place.

Who knows? The trouble which you are going through at present may take you to any height. May be not immediately, but surely you will look back to see.

Waiting for a promised blessing is not easy. But still not impossible

You know the hype God gave Joseph. What an young age! What a dream!! In flesh I say the envy of their brothers is not an injustice. God promised him in his dream that everyone else will bow down before him, this little fellow. Was his dream fulfilled immediately? This dreamer was looking for a crown. Came only furies, pit, slavery, prejudice and prison. Burst of balloons?? Not really. Yea, the path was hard. If you read closely, in all these tribulations, the Bible says 'God was with Joseph'. You can read the word of God saying this repeatedly!

You know what after prison. He became the no. 2 in Egypt. He was responsible to feed the entire bereaved nation and the neighbours during the great famine.

Yea, promises will come true. It will take its time. But surely the word of God will not fall to ground without accomplishing its purpose.

Cost of Salvation and Discipleship

1.The cost of salvation/redemption

A Preacher was walking along a country road. He met a young lad coming in the opposite direction, carrying a cage. There were three small birds inside - wet, shivering, and frightened. The lad had just caught them. Preacher asked him, "what are you going to do with them?" He said, "I'm going to have fun, I'll poke them, torture them, to my heart's content". Preacher: "how long will you do that? Won't you get tired?" The lad laughed and said, "I have a cat who loves birds, they'll become my cat's dinner".

Preacher said, "How much do you want for them?". Lad: "why do you want these ugly birds? They can't sing, they're not beautiful ..." Preacher: "just name the price!" Lad: "I can get other, better birds for you". Preacher: "no! I don't want any other birds, I want only these ones". The lad asked for a high price, the Preacher paid up, and the lad ran away.

The Preacher release the birds. He took the empty cage to his Church and narrated a conversation between Jesus and Satan. Satan had just returned from earth and was gloating: "I've trapped all these foolish people. I've made them marry and divorce, to hurt each other with words, to murder and steal, to rebel, disobey, and make themselves miserable and other miserable." Jesus asked, "won't you get tired of doing this?" Satan: "when I get tired I'll put them in hell, and let them burn forever and ever". Jesus said: "how much do you want for them?" Satan: "you don't want these foolish people?" Jesus: "I do want them". Satan: "they'll deny You, will not accept You as Son of God, will spit on Your face, drive nails into Your hands, ..." Jesus: "name the price". Satan: "ok. I need all your tears and all your blood". Jesus: "it's done". And He humbled Himself even to the point of death for us.

Jesus paid such a high price for our salvation. We can never pay Him back. The least we can do is try to follow Him, be His disciple ...

2.The cost of discipleship

If we plan to do something important or big, don't we sit down and plan things out? Getting ready for marriage. Buying a house/land. Buying a bike/car. Looking for a job. Similarly, we need to sit down and analyze ourself, if we want to become His disciple.

This is what Jesus expects of us, if we want to become His disciple:

1. Give Him the first priority every day.
There should no one, or no other thing which takes precedence over Him. We need to make sure that we give Him the first priority every day, not just today. We need to seek hard, and find ways to be with Him, get to know Him better, get into a strong relationship with Him ... a relationship that is stronger than any other relationships we have.

2. Find out His plans and purposes for our life and fulfill them.
This is our cross. It is not as heavy as Jesus'. He suffered alone. But because He overcame, we can be sure of our victory, and He is always beside us. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We can easily carry our cross, when we give Him the first priority every day.

3. Emulate Him, do as He did.
In everything we do, we need to check it we're doing as Jesus would do. What would Jesus do? That's a good question to ask, whenever we need to do something important, or make some important decision. Empty ourselves more of our "self", and fill ourselves more of Jesus.

You want to follow Him at a distance? Or, you want to be close to Him? If you want to be close, you know what it costs ...