Bring it to Me!

Every time the anger roars in your heart. Bring it to Me.

Every time you feel like nobody hears you. Bring it to Me.

When you think it isn't fair. When you think it isn't true. When you can't think at all.

Bring it to My feet, and I will make an altar from your suffering.

The above words are from Angela, a mother who is going through a tough time. Read her blog for details. I just couldn't help but cry when reading her posts.

Jesus said: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Once when faced with a hopeless situation, I forgot all scripture ... I just couldn't pray. Like Angela said, "when you can't think at all", which is what happened. And I denied God. I started saying, there is no God. I'm so ashamed to think about that moment. But thank God for His tender mercies. When others knelt down to pray, I poured my heart out too and got His peace.

I pray that when we're facing the worst crisis of our life, we'll remember Jesus' call: Bring it to Me!

You took the fall and You thought of me

A long time before I was born ... in a far away place unknown to me .... there was someone who went through excruciating torture and inhuman treatment .... he was spit upon ... despised ... mocked .... and all for no crime of His. He could've very easily silenced all His accusers through His unparalleled wisdom. But He didn't. At a snap of His fingers He could have struck down all his enemies. But He didn't.

He humbled Himself to the point of death. Just so that I can escape eternal punishment, He allowed Himself to be tortured to death. And through it all, He thought of me .... What? WHY? Who am I that You're mindful of me? What did I do to deserve Your gift of life?

And He said ....
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" - John 15:13

He called me friend! He's still alive ... His name is: Jesus.



Compared to all the best that this world has to offer - power, riches, fame, ... - Jesus is above all. There's nothing greater than knowing this Jesus as my best friend. And He wants to be your best friend too!

P.S.: Paul Baloche and Lenny LeBlanc, wrote this beautiful song: Above all powers. They have written, how they came to write the lyrics for this song.

Can't wait to see daddy!

Just the other day, a thought was shared in our prayer fellowship, which is a simple but profound one. It goes like this ...

We ought to come before God, not like a beggar, but like a child. Everyone who receives Jesus has rightfully become a child of God (read John 1:12-13).

The beggar keeps begging for this and that. Just like that, when we go before God the Father, we shouldn't keep on asking for this and that.

The child, on the other hand, is longing to see dad come back home in the evening. S/he is waiting at the door, stretching to see if s/he can catch the first glimpse of dad returning home. That's the kind of eagerness we need to develop - longing to see God the Father's face. Spending time with Him. Getting to know Him more and more.

Photo courtesy: Afroswede

Introduce Jesus: the only hope!

When the parents are slaves to alcohol and drugs, the children suffer. In a clinic in Ukraine, lie many young children suffering from tuberculosis. They are either orphaned or abandoned by an abusive family.

But there is also Oksana Chernota, a volunteer who tells the children about Jesus. Every week she goes to the clinic to sing with them, play games, and teach them the Bible.

"My heart is just for them, to teach them the Bible because that is their only hope. There is no other hope but God," she said.

"You have to play; you have to talk to them; you have to know their need; what their pain is; what their sorrows are; what they like to do. Then they open their hearts, then they attach to you, and then you can show them what Jesus can do for them," she said.

The doctor says many of these children have stopped smoking because of Chernota's influence.

Jesus said, "do not stop the little children from coming to Me". An abusive family, a drug-addicted parent, no roof to call as their shelter, no assurance of their next meal - all of these can stop them from reaching God's love. That's when we need to be God's hands, God's feet and share the love of God in a practical way.

Remember, God didn't stop with words of love toward us, but sent His only Son to suffer and die for us. He is a God of action. We need to be His children of action.

No Other Name?

Acts 4:12:

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

A Christian is supposed to believe that Christ is the road to life, to heaven and to eternity. But in doing so, either knowingly or unknowingly, directly or indirectly, he seems to condemn the world’s majority population to eternal hell. Is this right? Is this justified? What’s the rationale for this belief?

Let’s go back to Jesus. Did He believe in eternal hell-fire for unbelievers? Did He claim that He was the ONLY way? When doing so did he ever realize that there are millions around the world who’d never know Him? Did He ever care that his claims if true would literally throw millions of people in the danger of hell-fire? Did Jesus have a heart to claim that?

Spending eternity in hell - is that so easy?

There can be only two reasoning here: Either Jesus did not claim that He was the ONLY way (or) He did claim but he has given everything in our disposal to prevent people from spending their eternity in Hell.

If Jesus had a heart and claimed that He was the only way, I can easily visualize Him as follows:

1) He would have warned about hell so many times
2) He would have stressed on final Judgment so many times
3) He would have shown the urgency in proclaiming the Gospel – either He Himself would have proclaimed or encouraged others to do.
4) He wouldn’t have considered His life or His disciples’ lives more important than winning souls
5) He would have done everything possible to win as many as possible.

For all of the above, The Gospel of Matthew says a big yes!

Jesus talks about Judgment and hell-fire in almost every chapter of Matthew. How good will it be if we – who identify ourselves as Christians – lived every moment of our lives with thoughts on eternity! How good will it be if we ask God to make us a blessing to the fallen world! How good will it be if everyone did everything with the sole purpose of populating heaven!

Jesus is coming soon! Whether our lives are short or long, the only thing that will stand is how much we have lived up to our calling.

Let’s get on straight with the Bible. Let’s not be content anymore with our traditional styles of preaching or doing ministry or worship. Rather let us look unto Bible to learn what it conveys and what it asks us to prioritize. Let us try to imitate how Jesus ministered, how Paul and the other apostles ministered.

Keeping the Bible as our sole authority let us read and meditate on the following verses (Matthew 10) and allow God to share His burden.

As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Whoever publicly acknowledges Me I will also acknowledge before My Father in heaven. But whoever publicly disowns Me I will disown before My Father in heaven.

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.