Sampark February 2011: Send A Little Bit Of Happiness

A husband said to his wife, “Look! How beautiful the moon is.” The wife replied, “If you have to, then say something novel; the moon has always been so. Have you taken your medicines? Take them; else you will forget them again.” The Husband replied, “Okay, I will take them just now.” The wife again asked, “Did the younger one call today?” The husband replied, “Yes he did. He was asking if there is anything required at home, to let him know, he will arrange to send it.” The wife said, “Then you should have told him that if possible, send a little bit of happiness!”

Having earned and received so much in life, yet so destitute that to pine for just a bit of happiness. This is because money can never buy happiness. People spend so much money to be happy; some even destroy their bodies in search of happiness. When there is no happiness left in life, then man starts craving for death.

The actualities of life are so harsh that they break down a man. Man is unable to live the way he wants to live. What a person desires, things do not turn out that way. He has to suffer what he never imagined he would have to. Why is man so restless? Sickness, problems, deficiencies and lack have made him bereft of all happiness. After all, what can a man do? You should know the truth, whether or not you accept it. Sin is the root cause of all problems, and like termites, is eating away all our happiness. Has the curse of sin affected your happiness too?

There is nothing more miserable than sin. One single sin makes us useless. There is none amongst us who has no sin. To eliminate or decrease sin is beyond human capabilities and neither can religion be of any help in this. If Christian religion could have made man worthy then there would have been at least 30 million worthy people in this world. Sin is increasing in this world, and wherever there is sin, there is its curse too. The curse of sin has made this world so nasty that you never know what someone may do to you at any time. Millions of women and children are subjected to such horrible atrocities that you will be aghast to know of them. The world is full of wicked people.

The Place Nobody has Ever Returned From

Religion blinds people to realities; people go and offer large, valuable and precious sheets of cloth to cover the tombs of the dead but are blind to the destitute naked beggars standing and shivering in the cold winter there. In communal riots a pregnant lady’s stomach was ripped opened, her unborn female baby was pulled out and then both of them were thrown into fire. So much of similar blood-shed is happening all around and this spilt blood is crying out. Is God not watching all this? Why is He tolerating it? What’s the point? Why does He not do something about it? He can do everything that is required in a moment, but His desire is that not even one person may perish; that somehow everyone may repent and be saved. It is for this reason that He is tolerating; but man is bent upon making this world a living hell before going to eternal hell himself.

Our pride does not allow us to stoop. He who cannot stoop will be unable to look into his heart. Our heart too is stubborn; it deceives us and prevents us from humbling ourselves. Today are you happy and content with your life? Will everything really be okay? Or are you playing around with the thought that we will see what happens. One who has no remorse for his deeds, how can he ever be penitent for them?

Turning Those Our Own Into Strangers

All that you think for yourselves may not be good for you. I ask you a question, how are your words; words that you speak to your spouse, to your children, to your family, to your neighbors? Do you extract revenge from others through the barbs of your demeaning words? It is these words that turn those who are our own into strangers and cause distances to come in between hearts. May be you have been treated very shabbily. But if you keep pondering over the evil things being done to you, you will keep filling yourself with evil thoughts and will never come out of this situation. You will keep burning with a desire for revenge and will crush your own happiness.

You can come out of this negative situation only if you take a firm decision to come out. God’s Word tells us, “Overcome evil with goodness” (Romans 12:21). This very moment say a prayer, “Lord Jesus, enable me to think of good for them and to do good to those who have done evil to me.” Your enemies may be helpless to say any prayers for you. But you be of help to them and pray for them. Always be on the lookout for the opportunity to be of help to them. If today you sow goodness, you will also reap a harvest of goodness; not just here but even in eternity.

Come to a decision and say a prayer now itself.

Many thoughts will try to keep you from saying the prayer, but if you stand firm in communicating with God, then everything will turn out to be alright. Life is very uncertain; one never knows when it will slip away. Now is your opportunity; now is the time to decide. Do it now, else delays will only lead to further increasing of distances.

Sampark February 2011: Endures All

It is a unique story. It has been written and translated into two thousand four hundred and fifty four languages and has been read by billions over the ages. Millions read it every day even today and it keeps transforming the lives of numerous every day. I will tell you another story to help you understand this unique story.

The Characteristic Of That Beautiful Love

On a high rock stood a tall house and on the highest minaret of the house was a statue of a lamb. Somebody asked the owner of the house, “Why have you put this statue up their? Doesn’t it look very odd?” The house owner answered, this strange looking statue reminds of a strange incidence, “While this house was being constructed, a laborer fell off the construction, onto this rock but escaped unhurt; do you know why? There was a lamb standing here and the man fell on the lamb. The lamb died but the man was saved. If the lamb had not died, man would not have been saved. If the lamb had not been here, then the man also would not have been here.” A very strange thing, difficult to comprehend, but true; my death was certain, had Jesus not died for me, I would not have had this wonderful life. Had He not borne the agony on the cross, I would not have had this joy in my life. He is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

The story of His love is the story of the Cross. May God grant me the ability to convey this story to you; and to you to comprehend this story of the Cross. May the Lord reveal His love for you to you today and may this love draw you to Him. I am not writing this for merely telling you something, but my prayer is that your life may be transformed.

Why Does A Person Die?

I will ask you a question – why does a person die? Is it because of age, of accident, of suicide, of bombs and explosives? The Word of God tells us that man does not die of any of these; he dies of his sins “for the wages of sin is death.” Jesus did not have this sin nature of man in Him, therefore He could not die. Then why did Jesus die? Because He took my sins upon Himself. This one death has shaken the whole world. This one death has transformed so many lives and given life to so many that it is unparalleled in the entire human history. He rose again after death; He has life – life that is worth living.

Very Difficult

It is very difficult to love some people; we may hate them but God loves even them. The corrupt, drunkards, gamblers, fornicators – God loves even them. God loves even His enemies. This is the beauty of God’s love. The beauty of His love keeps people bonded to Him. Love is the most powerful. No power can destroy it. Who can separate us from God’s such love? (Romans 8:31)

Man loves sin so much that he is willing to do anything for it. God loves a sinner so much that He is willing to do anything for him. What has not God done for persons like you and me?

Covetousness is sin,

But man does everything for it;

Fornication is sin,

But man does everything for it;

Pride is sin,

But man does everything for it.

But love waits, it endures everything; yes, endures even the death of the Cross. God is love and He is waiting for you. He is putting up with all that you do because He still has hopes from you.

When I Met Myself

When I met my actual self, it was then that I realized what a great hypocrite I am. I am not what I appear to be; neither am I the same as I think of myself to be. My dark deeds were so innumerable that I was ashamed of myself. My secret life was darker than the darkest night. The Lord brought this utterly defeated man from the state of defeat into eternal victory. Maybe there are some amongst you who are reading this who are tired and ashamed of their own selves and have lost all hope. Maybe your dreams have not been realized; you may have hoped for much but achieved very little instead. Maybe your sins have been so reprehensible that you may feel extremely embarrassed to talk about them. But today you have an opportunity to change every loss into gain. Today somebody is telling you, “Behold, I will do a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19). In this New Year, He will make all things new, it is His promise.

Defeated Yet, We Are Not Permanently Defeated

If you are losing your courage, remember, to loose courage is to invite defeat. The fact is that we are not defeated yet. He is capable of transforming our every loss into victory; to bring us out from every discouragement into hope. Did you know this happened in my life by a small prayer, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” As soon as Christ came into my life it became radiant. If Christ had not been on the cross, my shameful life story would have been exposed before the world.

There is no enemy so strong that Christ cannot defeat him.

There is no problem so big that Christ cannot sort it.

There is no addiction so severe that Christ cannot extricate you from.

There is no sin that Christ cannot forgive.

There is no obstacle that Christ cannot remove.

His capabilities are far beyond than you can ever imagine them to be (Ephesians 3:20).

Ask The Value Of Life

My friends are unable to forget my mistakes. Though I have apologized for them, but at every opportunity they recall my mistakes time and again; mistakes which my Lord has forgotten and erased. There is a world of a difference between the forgiveness of man and of God.

I had only one motive in telling this story that you may believe in the story of Christ. Ask the value of life from the person who begged for death and did everything he could to die but death kept evading him, every time he reached out for it.

It was my habit to repeat the same things for which I would apologize. But it is His habit to maintain the forgiveness He has given. Even when I persisted in my tendency to do reprehensible things, He did not shy away from offering me forgiveness. How is it that He can love me so? With a very tender touch of His hand on my head, He speaks to me, “You are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). He assures me:

All is yours,

The promises are yours,

Heaven is yours,

The owner of Heaven is yours,

Because, you are mine.

What was I; what has He transformed me into.

What love! What forgiveness!

What a life!

How amazing is my Lord.

All I do is to sing of this love and tell others about it. Now it is up to you what you do of it.

Sampark February 2011: Please See, There is A Mirror is Here

My name is Pushpa and I was born in a Punjabi family residing in Faridabad. Our family had migrated in 1947 partition of India from Multan in Pakistan to Faridabad in Haryana, India.

From the beginning I was of a religious nature and used to keep fasts. It was in 1984 when I was in class 8^th, I had gone to meet a friend of mine but she was not at home. My friend’s mother asked me to come and be with her for some time with the intention to share about Lord Jesus with me. She asked me if she could pray with me, and I consented. Her prayer seemed odd to me because she was praying with her eyes closed and had nothing in front of her to pray to, I found this very difficult to understand. But all that she told me about Lord Jesus I believed with a simple faith. When I came home, I shared all of this with my elder sister, since being the youngest in the family I used to share everything with her.

One Sunday morning, my friend’s mother took me and my two sisters to God’s house for worship. There we heard about the love of Lord Jesus from a servant of God, that day itself me and my two sisters accepted the Lord Jesus as our personal savior and from then on we also started to read God’s Word. In the neighborhood where we resided, some Believer sisters used to gather once a week for prayer and we also got the opportunity to go there. In that prayer meeting, all of the ladies would open their Bibles and share what God had spoken to them. But I could not understand how God talks with them? When I asked a lady about this, she explained to me what it meant and how God talks, so I also started to pray, “Lord please talk with me too and forgive all my sins.” Once, while I was reading God’s Word, I came across a verse – Isaiah 44:22 – “I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” I felt very good after reading this and for the first time I realized God had spoken to me. Since then I started to live in the fear of God every day of my life. I was now certain that my sins had been forgiven and I was afraid of doing anything sinful in Lord’s sight.

I remember an incidence; there used to be a fair in our locality. I had gone to the fair and I stole a mirror from one of the shops put up there. When I reached home, I became very restless within and I realized that I should not have stolen, so I decided to return that mirror back to the shop-owner. But what worried me was that when I return the mirror, the shop-owner will give me a thrashing for stealing from his shop. So I thought that like I had slyly picked it up, similarly I will also put it back in the shop. But the Lord did not allow it to happen so, and I went and confessed to the shop-owner what I had done, apologized to him and returned the mirror. He was very happy to learn that there are children in the world today who come to return what they have stolen. On another occasion, I had a quarrel with a lady. Though I was not at fault, I still went and apologized to her. Seeing all this, my parents did not prevent us from going to the worship meetings on Sundays, since they realized that their children were not doing any wrong things in their lives.

So I kept attending the fellowship of Lord’s people and we also started to understand some of the things that we learnt there. There we had been told that if we fasted and prayed for something to the Lord, He surely listens and answers the prayers. In another incidence, my class 9^th results were due to come and I knew that I had not answered one question paper well and I was afraid that I might fail. So I decided, I will not go to the school to collect my report card till the Lord assured me of my result and I sat at the Lord’s feet in fasting for this. I kept on fasting and praying to the Lord about it, and the Lord one day assured me of my success through a verse from the Psalms. Believing and trusting through that verse that the Lord will give me success, I left home to go to the school to collect my report card. While I was on my way to the school, I came to know that not only have I passed, but passed with very good marks. Then and there I thanked the Lord. Similarly through many other little-little things the Lord continued to increase my faith.

After this, my faith began to be actually tested by my family. When I refused to participate in the traditions and practices of our family, my father who was very stern by nature imposed many restrictions upon me. He felt that since my elder sister was no longer under his control, he will in no way allow me – the younger to do the same. Since my other sister and my brother did not want to offend my parents, so they stopped going to the Sunday worship and other meetings of the assembly. Since my elder sister was working, so after her days work she would directly go to the meetings from the workplace itself, but my going was being prevented. I was always on the lookout for occasions and whenever there was an opportunity to go to the market, I would go to the meetings from the market; while doing this I was caught many a times, but my Lord never forsook me. Whenever there was a festival, knowing that our father would try to force us to fulfill the religious obligations, myself and my sister would both go and hide in the toilets. Many times I was even thrashed for my stand. One day, while thrashing me, my father asked, “Will you still follow your sister’s footsteps?” I don’t know how I did it, but I answered, “I will not follow my sister but will follow my Lord.”

After that came the issue of my sister’s marriage. She was determined to marry only a believer but my father was not willing for this. We kept on praying and somehow after some time he agreed to her marrying a believer. This was a unique event for our family and my father had to face the ire of the community for his consenting to do so. Though with an unwilling heart, yet he married off my sister to a believer. Her husband had a very friendly nature and because of this my father’s behavior towards me also softened. After four years of marriage, my sister’s husband passed away, my father was very dejected. He asked me to go and be with my sister and help her over the weekends. This also provided me the opportunity to go the Sunday worship services in the Lord’s house.

After this my father started to ask my sister about my marriage, and thanks be to the Lord that I too could marry a believer in 1997. My husband is always committed to the Lord’s work at all times even at odd times. After my marriage, the Lord has blessed me not only with spiritual blessings, but all kinds of blessings. The Lord has given us a daughter and a son as His blessings and I thank the Lord for all that He has done for me. Despite all this, if ever I feel myself to be alone, the assuring presence of the Lord and His peace, which is beyond words, fills me. Many times I have doubted my Lord, but He has never left me alone. He has always remained good to me. The Lord be thanked, that I who was not His daughter, he picked me out of this world and made me His daughter.

- Pushpa, Faridabad, Haryana.

Sampark February 2011: He Spoke, I Heard

The police had surrounded the village. Each and every house was being searched for things that had been stolen and hidden in houses and those found were being impounded along with the house owners. Samir was very restive and apprehensive. His problem was that had the stolen goods been few or small, he would have somehow managed to hide them somewhere, but how to hide five gunny sacks full of sugar; and where? If caught, he would be thrown in jail. He waited for nightfall. In the darkness of the night he started carrying and throwing the sugar sacks into the well in the backyard of his house one by one. By the time he brought the fifth sack, he was exhausted and in throwing the sack into the well, lost his balance and fell inside the well. He started to yell for help, his wife raised an alarm, and the villagers gathered and somehow managed to pull him out of the well. But he was badly hurt from the fall and by morning he succumbed to his injuries. His last rites were done and he was buried. Later when people drank the water from the well, they started to wonder “How has the water become sweet?” They concluded that surely Samir was someone special from god. By evening the grave of that thief had become decorated with flowers and candles; it soon became a revered place and then the day of his death started being commemorated annually and people began to worship him.

Worship Wonders

Man has the tendency to worship something or someone – either from fear or for selfish desires. People may even start worshipping a man because of some marvel he may have done.

It is a sign of the last days that people will have a tendency to believe in wonders and marvels and become followers of those who perform them; the Lord had already warned us about it beforehand. Amongst the prophecies and signs of the end times given by Lord Jesus about 2010 years ago, one was “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders …” (Matthew 24:24). All over the world, many preachers are deceiving the people by wonders and marvels nowadays.

It is true that God performs miracles and gives healings, but there is some purpose and plan in His doing so. He did not come just to show us miracles and give us healings. Therefore our faith should not be in wonders and marvels but in the Living Word of God.

There is a difference between books and Holy Writ. Once read, a book becomes old. But the Holy Writ keeps renewing us as we study it day-by-day and over and over again. It starts dwelling within us and changes us bit by bit into its own likeness. Every time we read it, it remains fresh and new for us and keeps renewing us. When thoughts of sin rise up in our hearts, this Holy Writ becomes a shield for our thoughts and hearts. It is our safety cover when we confront evil and when discouragement strikes us; it counter-attacks the discouragement and assures us, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). This Holy Writ speaks to me – I will convert every defeat of yours into victory.

By this Word I learn of the nature of God; and it makes me wonder what if God been of the same nature as I am? What then would have been the course of history? In that case this world would have come to an end a long time ago and heaven would have been a desolate place; and a single hell would not have sufficed for all I would condemn. Lord be thanked that God does not have the same nature as I have.

God’s Word tells me about the nature of God, of His forgiveness, His love, His mercy. It is because of His forbearing and forgiving nature that I am saved and remain saved. This love, mercy and forgiveness of His, I have come to know only through this Word. God’s Word is not only a part of history, but within it is found the secret history of my life and of yours.

Nobody likes a mirror that shows us as we actually are; who wants to see that? A candid mirror will show me my true condition, but we don’t like such mirrors. What I have placed before you is the mirror that reveals your actual self.

It is easy to hide the sun; just close your eyes and the sun will disappear and darkness will appear, and you may say that you are standing in the light, but within is only darkness. If you close the doors of reasoning, then no matter what light is brought to you, it will only be darkness.

The Foolish, Wise and the Prudent

There are three kinds of people: foolish, wise and prudent. God’s Word tells us that foolish are those who listen but do not accept, fall down but do not rise up again; they commit mistakes but instead of learning from their mistakes they repeat their mistakes “A dog returns to his own vomit and a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). Wise are those who do commit mistakes but learn from them and do not repeat them “For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16). God’s Word records the mistakes and their sad consequences of so many people. Prudent are those who learn from what is written in God’s Word and avoid repeating those mistakes.

News that you may be ignorant of

Every morning the newspaper full of vicious news is laid at our door steps. The irony is that if the vicious reports are not there, then news does not seem to be news to us. But God’s Word has news for you; news that you may be ignorant of – news of life, of abundant life. That you may receive life and abundant life; that you may have joy, abundant joy. God’s Word has the power to transform, if it sinks into your heart, it will bring life with it. In it is the life that causes a man to live even if he dies.

Defeat turned to Victory

If you are discouraged by your circumstances and are giving in to them, you are inviting defeat in to your life. The fact is that we are not defeated yet. Had God’s Word not recorded the stories of defeated people who turned victorious, how could it encourage me to live? Did you know that when I see the story of my life in this Word, then a discouraged person even like me receives a new hope? My God will never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). He will change all my defeats into victories.

I am happy that you are reading this Sampark, because I am going to give you good news, one that is for today tomorrow and eternity. You are blessed because you are reading this. Satan and his demons do not want that you read this and believe. Listen very carefully; this message is not from me but from God and from His Spirit. By not believing you will be insulting not me but Him. If you read this good news and keep it to yourself, your joy will not increase, rather will decrease. If you want this joy to remain in you always, then spread this good news around, and you will find that your joy is increasing. Will you do this?

If you say that you do not know how to share this news and if you are not sure what to share, look carefully at that which you are holding in your hand – this printed magazine, go ahead and share it with someone else. When you do so, your joy will increase and bear fruit.

Has this Word of God spoken to you? If this Word is pricking you somewhere, then there is still a residual spark of spiritual fire within you. Even if your life is just emitting some smoke, the smoke is proof that there is still an ember within you. Therefore God’s Word says, “A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench” (Matthew 12:20).