Sampark December 2009: His voice today

There is a children’s story that has serious lessons for the grown ups. A king had a minister with a very strange habit; for everything the minister would say “Everything works together for good” and the king would laugh away as foolishness this statement from his trusted and honest minister.

One day the king was practicing sword fighting with his trainer, when the trainer missed and the sword hit the king’s hand, cutting off his finger. The minister standing there, like he always did, said, “Everything works together for good.” The king, in pain and irritated, ordered “Put this useless man in the prison; let him enjoy all the good behind bars.”

After some months the king went on a hunt, in the dense forest he got separated from those with him, and fell into the hands of some tribals. The tribals were for a long time looking to offer a human sacrifice to their deity. Now this able bodied person had landed into their hands, they did not waste time and started preparation to sacrifice the king. As the king was brought to the altar for sacrifice, one of the tribesmen noticed that a finger of the king’s hand was missing. He immediately called out to halt the sacrifice since sacrificing a person with any defect could anger the deity and bring trouble. The king was released because of his missing finger, and he made his way back to his kingdom.

Upon reaching his kingdom, he sent for the minister from the prison, and said to him, “Today I have accepted what you always said, that everything works together for good. Had this finger not got cut; my head would have been cut off. But tell me one thing, you spent so many days in the prison, what good did it do to you?” The minister replied, “Sir, whatever the Lord does, He does for our benefit for He is a good God. Had I not been in the prison, I would have gone with you to the hunt, and though you escaped from those tribals, they would have surely sacrificed me. Therefore everything together works for good.”

Maybe in today’s difficult conditions I cannot see anything good; but tomorrow I will see that my Lord has turned everything ultimately for my benefit.

John Bunyan remained imprisoned for twelve years and prayed for his release but for twelve years there seemed to be no answer to his prayers. But the Lord made a good thing out of his imprisonment. In those twelve years God made him to write a book – Pilgrim’s Progress, said to be the second most read book in the world, after the Bible.

Not here but there

There are many ‘How to’ books on various topics in this world, to teach you to – live a good life in this world, to earn good money, to achieve a good position, to have a happy family etc. if you are not a Christian believer, you can give them a try, maybe something might click and you may manage to acquire something.

We have many dreams for our lives, but not everything happens the way we want it to happen. The Lord Jesus never gave any assurance that in this life we will always have wealth, fame and success. But He gives us an assurance about a glorious life hereafter. A life that is beyond our imagination, of things that we have never seen or heard about; He has made available such a future for us (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10).

Black cat in a dark room

We do not need to know everything, but we need to the One who knows everything; and He can only be known through His Word. If we try to know God through our intellect and knowledge, it will be like “A blind man, on a dark night, searching for a black cat in a dark room.” A person living in darkness is unaware of where his life is headed. He is preoccupied in pursuit of money, position, pleasures of the world and in his family. Eventually when his eyes will open, he will find himself in a place where he never wanted to be, but it will be too late by then and all ways to turn back would have been closed.

The god of this world blinds us, and so does the glitter of the things of this world e.g. the glitter of money, of status, of sex, of possessions etc. But God’s Word enlightens our eyes so that we may see ourselves clearly. A day will come when this sun shining so brightly will be darkened, the glitter of this world will deceive us and then for many only an eternal darkness will remain.

Words are not mere words but power

The Lord has woven His unique love in His Words. If a man says, “Friend, don’t be afraid, I am there;” his words have nothing to validate the assurance. But when God’s Word says “Fear not, I am with you” to me; it gives me a renewed vigor. His voice speaks to my spirit and enables me to know what I really am and mean to Him. God’s Word has always encouraged me. He has converted all my defeats into victory. Even if I stumble, I don’t fall because a hand upholds me – the hand of God; and I know that even the clutches of death will not be able to take me away from His grasp.

Amazing

My Lord is an astounding Lord, everything about Him is amazing. His love is amazing, His works are amazing, His birth was amazing, His life was amazing, His death was amazing and what He has made ready for me after death is also amazing. All our words are not enough to speak of His mercy and forgiveness.

Words inflict worse wounds and more pain than stones. Many people often thoughtlessly hurl words at others that continue to give them pain for the rest of their lives.

In John chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman and stones to kill her with, to the Lord Jesus. At the end of the chapter, they want to stone the Lord Himself. But for those who had stones in their hands for the Lord, the Lord had love, mercy and forgiveness in Him. Even today, for those who have taken up stones to hurt Him, He has love, mercy and forgiveness.

That which you are incapable of, the Lord can accomplish for you. He can turn your defeat into victory. Just trust Him and His words. If in doubt, taste Him and see for yourself (Psalm 34:8).

My life was odd

My life was weird

Many-a-times I was wayward

Every time He restored

My life, for me.

For the last 4000 years, there have been numerous attempts to destroy God’s Word – the Bible; yet it is the only book in the world that has been read the most for centuries.

Satan hates this book; therefore no other book has been attacked as much as this one. Many have tried to do away with it, even the Pope kept it out of sight till the 16^th century, but let alone destroy it, they could not even suppress it. Even today Satan instigates many to pollute its teachings and spoil its sanctity. Many people deliberately misinterpret and distort its teachings in an attempt to nullify the effects of its teachings; yet, everyday many lives are being changed by the living words of this book.

God’s Word is a book that is not limited by any religion, because this book does not teach about any religion. God moves and speaks in this living book. God has knit His love in this book; if you take away love from this book, you take away its very life force.

Often believers, especially new believers, are in doubt whether or not they have been saved. I harbored this doubt within me for many years. It is that Satan torments us with the doubt that your sins have not been forgiven. We allow this to happen because we do not pay heed to God’s Word and His assurance.

For the forgiveness of sins, His sacrifice on the cross is sufficient. Once we accept this and submit to Him, He transforms us into what even we cannot imagine about ourselves. By rejecting God’s love, we do not cause any harm to God, only to ourselves.

“If you hear His words today, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7).

Sampark December 2009: From where to where

I was born in Saharanpur (U.P.) in a Christian family. My paternal grandfather had plenty of land and property, and of his five sons my father was the eldest. After my paternal grandfather passed away, the four younger brothers demanded a division of property from my father. My father was not in favor of this division, but he had to bow to the demands of his brothers and divide the lands and property amongst the brothers. Due to this, our large home became a small dwelling place. This hurt my father very much; he became depressed, started to drink excessively and started to neglect the home, lands and cultivation and even his family. Things came to the point that those who had been employed to work in our land, by deceit, grabbed all our land, and whatever little savings we had got frittered away by my father’s habit of drinking. This brought us down to poverty.

Despite all this, we would regularly go to the Church and I would enthusiastically participate in all Church activities. If I was asked to do any religious work, I would happily do it.

If there was any convention or special meeting, I would go to attend it with my mother. I would read the Bible daily and attend Sunday School regularly. But all this had neither brought any joy within me nor any peace and comfort of salvation. I did all these as a religious tradition, and I had, in a way, become tied down to traditions and customs. My life moved on along these lines.

How it all happened

One day while returning from the House of God, a ‘believer’ friend of mine asked me a question, “Do you believe that you are a sinner?” I was very startled by her question and with self-righteousness I replied, “No, I am not a sinner; how can I be a sinner when I go to Church regularly, read the Bible daily and I have not done any bad things?” then my friend showed a verse to me from the Bible – Romans 3:23 where it was written, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Then she showed me some 15-20 more Bible verses. I had been reading the Bible for a long time, but that day these words came to me in an absolutely new way. I listened to every word very attentively, and God’s Spirit spoke to my heart. Then my friend asked me again, “Would you like to accept the Lord Jesus as your personal savior? If yes, then you can repeat this prayer after me.” I said, “Yes, I am ready.” As I started to pray the prayer of repentance from sins, I felt very light from inside. As I finished praying, I felt as if a great burden had been lifted from my heart and a joy that could not be expressed in words had engulfed me. That day I reached home a changed person and full of joy. I started to grow in the Lord from that day onwards. Now reading God’s Word took an altogether new meaning for me.

But my family, especially my father did not like this at all. His contention was that we are familial Christians then why do you need to do all this? To make me change my decision, my youngest uncle was called from Faridabad. But by God’s grace I stood firm in my resolve. When they failed to get me to retract my decision, they started to oppose me. To overcome this difficult situation I used to spend time in fasting and praying. As the days of prayer and of Bible study would come, I would beg my father with tears to allow me to go to attend the meetings. He would soften because of my tears and allow me to go, but on the condition that this will be the last time. The sisters of the Assembly stood with me through all my difficulties. Many times they came to our home and got my father to agree to send me with them to the House of God.

In 1990 I was to sit for my school board exams but the examination dates were during the days of a special meeting being held in Dehradun. By God’s grace, I gave the first priority to the Lord and His Word. I went to Dehradun to attend the meetings as well as went the next day to give my exams. The Lord never disappoints those who trust in Him and love Him. The Lord gave me very good marks in my exams. This further strengthened my life in the Lord and helped me to grow better in Him.

What I received from Him

The real test of my faith came after the marriage of one of the sisters of the Assembly, because after that elder brothers and sisters of the Assembly started to think about my marriage too. But I was not interested in it since I knew the condition of my home. I did not want anybody to get worried about me and face problems, for I used to think who would marry me after knowing the condition of my home. But I had come to know that the elder brothers and sisters of the Assembly were working to arrange my marriage. One day I was called from my home, I knew what I was being called for. So I had decided that when they ask me, my answer will be ‘no’. But the Lord spoke to me from Ephesians 6:5, “be obedient to your masters” and so I consented to be married to Ashwini, and I was asked to pray about it.

I was ready to pray but was afraid of my parents’ reaction to this, when they would come to know of it. While praying on this subject, the Lord gave me promises from Jeremiah 31:21 and Psalm 45. This also confirmed to me that this arrangement was from the Lord. So I accepted this proposal without any doubt in my heart. I saw that the Lord does not keep His children in any uncertainty. So He gave my future mother-in-law and my future husband peace about this proposal from His Word. Thanks be to God, I was married to Ashwini on 6^th January 1994.

My mother-in-law was a source of great encouragement to me. When I would score good marks in my studies, she would be happier than me and encourage me even more. She taught me many spiritual things. She was a very dedicated servant of the Lord and till her end served the Lord uncompromisingly. In her last days, I had gone with her to a doctor, and she said to me, “Dear daughter, as the Lord has loved us, you too love Him with all your heart.” This touched my heart deeply. Two days after this she passed away in a road accident. Now I am carrying on the Lord’s service she used to render. This is a great joy that comes from being a servant of the Lord.

For the Lord’s glory, I want to share with you that my family life is really wonderful. In the last 15 years of our married life, there have been no quarrels in our family. If ever there is any issue, we lovingly sort it out on the dinner table, smile at each other and enjoy our meals. My husband is an ideal husband, father and son. He has a high ranking and responsible post in the government, but by God’s grace he is a humble man. He too serves the Lord, spends time with us, and is also instrumental in bringing up our three sons in the fear of the Lord.

I thank God that He has given me a family that lives in His fear. I thank all those who have been praying for me and my family. The Lord has remained faithful in all things, small or great, in my life and will continue to be so. The Lord is good to those who trust in Him. Praise be to the Lord!

- Vinita A. Masih, Najafgarh, New Delhi

Sampark December 2009: Introspection

A boy, about 4 or 5 years of age was beating up the son of a neighbor. His father, who saw him do this, scolded him, called him back into the house and asked him “Why were you beating that boy?” The boy replied “He had hurled a mother’s abuse at me.” Enraged, the father said, “Then you should have given him two more blows” and got busy in his work. After a short while a middle-aged lady came screaming into his house, “Your son has made living in this neighborhood miserable; just look at his nerve, he has again come into our house, slapped my son twice and run away.” The father got very angry and yelled at his son “Hey you, why did you beat him again?” Innocently, the boy replied, “You only said that I should have given him two more blows, I did it.” Now the father was left groping for a way out.

I was that boy. Such was the environment I was brought up in, where being vain, proud, violent and abusive was the norm. There was a terrible gloom of death in my house. I had 5 brothers and sisters, none survived. I had just stepped into adolescence when my father also passed away.

I myself did not know why I was still alive and for what. I had received a lot of hostility from those who were my own, so I did not feel my own to be my own. There was nobody whom I could really call my own, the few that were, did not behave like relatives. Relationships were just for namesake, there was no depth in them, rather there was a lot of disaffection. I did not want to live. I often hated myself and tried to commit suicide many times. I would go to sleep with a sense of helplessness and frustration, but with a small ray of hope in tomorrow.

My tired and defeated self

Now desired a new life

Wanted a renewed freshness

Looked for a new happiness

This man living under the tag of a religion

Craved for deliverance

From circumstances, from addictions

From the bondage of bad habits

This one searched for redemption

In despair, tired of the old self

This one wanted something new

I wanted to be good but could not be (Romans 7:18). I used to think that I am right, and did not care about sin or curse. But things fell into place when someone said – ‘sin’, your sin is the reason for all your restiveness and frustration; this curse of sin can only be undone by the forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness, which only the Lord Jesus can give. A small prayer– “O Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner” turned things around for me. It was not my religion that changed, but it was my life that really underwent a sea change. I received a joy unspeakable and beyond all my imaginations.

My past is full of my dark deeds, and even today whenever I sin, I fall in my own eyes and detest myself. Don’t know why I sin? I know that I should not do it, still I do it; I don’t want to do it but something compels me to lose control and do it. Many a times I have made so many promises to the Lord, yet I still do what I should not. And yet, the blood of Jesus is still available to me, it cleanses me from all my sin even now. He has remained faithful towards me despite all my shortcomings and failures.

Today my body has gone frail and my body’s condition speaks its own age. All my qualifications have become inconsequential. I don’t even remember all that I had learnt or all that I had achieved. All I remember is that soon I will be departing from here. Now I live waiting for the time when my heart and its heartbeat will get disassociated, then everything will get left behind and my friends will wrap me in a white sheet and pack me off with the final farewell. I know that gradually my own will also forget me and I will remain only as a distant memory.

There was a time when a large crowd walked with me but today I see that many of them are no longer with me. Some lost the way, some changed and moved away while others fell away. But my God did not change, He has never left me nor forsaken me. There are some who lift me up by lifting up their hands to pray for me. It is because of their company that I still stand.

Written in the innocent blood of Christ

This message was for me

Behold! I make all things new

I don’t desire

A heaven that rains fire

I desire a new heaven and a new earth

Where love flourishes and abounds

Religion did not reach me to God

Religion that instigates massacres

And turns humans into cruel fiends

Such religion I don’t require

No religion shed its blood for me

Religion only sheds the blood of others

I want God not religion

The God who shed His blood for me

Every man is a living grave

Buried in him is humanity’s corpse

And man carries this dead weight around

No more for me men worse than ghouls

Now a new rejuvenated human being I want

In a world full of people

Every man is alone inside

A deathly silence shrieks within

Problems abound and fear stalks the heart

A new heart – free from fear is my cry

Everyday I have to fight with my nature. This game of ‘win or loose’ is being played in me for many years now, and my defeats have been more than my wins. But a hope still lives in me: my Lord will never leave me nor forsake me. With age many problems keep changing and worsening. Many worries also live and grow alongside. Hope still raises its head that everything will eventually be alright. Not everything that happens happens as we want it to be. But God’s Word assures us: “Everything works together for good.” There is goodness even in defeat. Every defeat reminds me that on my own I cannot go through even one day properly. So I keep my hands stretched out to the Lord “For when I am weak then I am strong.” This assurance from God’s Word still infuses strength in my life.

My complaints are not against God, only against myself. If I am distraught it is with my own self and my nature. So my request, please accept me only as a fallible human being, believing me to be anything more than this will be fraught with danger; anyone who considers me to be anything more will be mislead. I have never been able to do that which I wanted to do, never been able to live the way I wanted to live. God has blessed me with many things – respect, love and blessings but I have frittered away many of them; shame and remorse torments me – why did I do it? I now have only this prayer – Lord, the life that is left for me, let me not waste it.

All through my life I was habituated to receiving, now before I depart I want to give something. I want to give something that will fill the lives and hearts of people with joy.

I know my worth; I know that besides the Lord I am not worth anything. There is only one prayer that I have:

I have plumbed the depths of a fallen life

Those depths despair me, my plea to You

Hold on to me O Lord till soul and body part

Till then may I cling only to You

Sampark December 2009: Living – a compulsion, not necessity

The philosopher Nietzsche used to say “God is dead.” Nietzsche’s father, brother and family members were clergy men. He grew up with them, observing them. Consequent to his experiences with them he grew up to say “Just stay and live with these clergymen, and you can no longer have any faith in religion. We have killed the God for whose name they have murdered so many.”

The fact is that the humanity itself, for whom God sacrificed Himself, though living, is as good as dead. If a man has no fear of God, he is controlled by a craziness. Atheism also causes a craziness. The pride of knowledge rendered Nietzsche insane and he eventually died insane.

An atheist lives a perplexed life. Many questions haunt him – how did it happen? How did the creation come into existence? What will happen after this life? He lives a restless life in an effort to disprove the existence of God. The faith of an atheist rests on baseless assumptions. They argue that if God can exist on His own, why not the earth? They ignore the fact that God and earth cannot be equated. It is foolish to bring them under the same logic for unlike the earth, God was never created, He Is! He is eternal, whereas the earth and all its things are temporal. Everyday, things of the earth are born and die.

Some believe that God does exist but their thinking is tied down to religion, not God. In general, our society is built of such ‘religion’ minded people. They can do anything for their religion. For the sake of their own religion, they can kill those who follow another religion, they can burn their innocent children and devastate their dwellings too. Only ‘religion’ can instigate people to commit such heinous acts, never God. Those who love God also love human beings and being humane; while those who love ‘religion’ have no concern either for humans or for being humane.

Just review the condition of our society; man has become more frightening than a venomous snake. In an isolated place, one is more afraid of meeting a man than a snake. Nowadays people’s efforts to prevent intrusions from harmful animals are far less than those made to safeguard themselves from intruding human beings. An occasional person dies, bitten by a snake; but the toxins and poisons of men are destroying so many daily.

Our unrighteousness is the same

Our religions may be different but our unrighteousness is the same. Whatever be our religion, our works are similar, the condition of our lives and our families is similar. A disparate family exists together under one roof. The father lives in the ego of his being ‘the father’; the wife never misses an opportunity to recount the ‘favors’ she does to the husband – given this, done that etc. If the husband happens to reply in kind, it precipitates a disaster. For whom the heart ached at one time, has now become a heartache. The children are pre-occupied with themselves. Relatives have more of mutual tensions than relationships; they may ‘get-together’ but their hearts do not. Nobody knows when a blood relation will trick them. Whom to believe and whom not to, is very difficult to discern. Behind a smiling faces lurk hearts that curse. We do not even realize how many deceptions are hidden behind each smiling face we meet.

Though just a jest, this anecdote serves to illustrate the conditions in many homes. After another domestic quarrel, the husband got very angry, determined to commit suicide, he went to the market, purchased poison, consumed it and lay down on his bed to die. He did not die, but became quite sick. The wife yelled back at the husband, “See, isn’t this is what I keep telling you – properly check what you buy, but you never listen to me. Again you have gone and wasted money on a spurious thing and come out a loser!”

This may not be the state of your family, but in many homes the husband-wife relationship has soured. They may continue to live together, but their hearts have grown apart, within themselves they are as good as divorced; for them living together has become a compulsion. Often when a husband and wife separate, people say, “They could not understand each other.” But the fact is that the actual knowing and understanding of each other’s true self begins only with living together under one roof, even if they may have known each other beforehand.

Doors and pains

Even though we may not be aware of or understand the pains of another person, nobody is bereft of pains and problems. As an example, you will not be able to fully appreciate the travails of a balding man. Firstly, what are the limits till which he should wash his ‘face’ when he has to? Then, going to a barber’s shop is quite an embarrassment, what will the people sitting there say? They may not articulate anything, but their side-glances and then a sly smile hurts deeply. Even the barber is put to the test, what to trim and from where, and what to leave! His payment, should it be for trimming the hair or searching for it? We may not appreciate the problems others have, but every one of us has problems.

Seeing a foreigner, some beggars stretched out their hands, begging for money. The foreigner first made ready his camera, and then reached into his pocket for some coins. Instead of giving them the coins, he did a strange thing, he scattered the coins on the ground. The beggars leapt to gather the coins, jostling each other to pick them up, while the foreigner started to click and record this scene in his camera. A man was watching all this and felt very bad. After the foreigner had left, he said to the beggars, “That man will go back to his country and publish those photos in the magazines there. How humiliating it will be for this country, and what will their people think about us, did you at all think about this? A beggar answered, “Sir, we know all this, but our hungry stomach does not; and if you can, then do something about our sorry condition instead of this lip service.” We have many sermons on problems but no solutions to them.

When life becomes a burden

“Tension” is a word that you can find in every aspect of life. ‘Tension’ if you are married, ‘Tension’ if you are not. ‘Tension’ if you have children, ‘Tension’ if you don’t. ‘Tension’ if you get a job, ‘Tension’ if you don’t. ‘Tension’ if a person is lean and thin, ‘Tension’ if he is fat. Many illnesses keep us in ‘Tension’. Hope starts to fade because of problems, man looses heart and with questions like – what, how tormenting him, soon fears engulf him and then life becomes a burden.

No matter how grand an education, job, house and possessions one may have, if there is no peace in life and the home, they are all futile. Having gained everything that the world has to offer, if there is still discontent, then what is the gain of it all? The cause of problems is not the lack of money or worldly goods; they are there because of our pride, our vanity, the desire to take revenge, to humiliate the other person. Many have illicit relations, bad habits and have made life miserable not only for themselves but for their families too and yet they behave so insolently as if they are ‘all-in-all’ and can do anything.

From the stone-age till this computer-age, man has been able to change so many things, but the one thing he has been unable to change is his nature. Most of us want that our politicians should change their character, our police should change its methods, our government employees should change their ways and our officers should change their behavior. We sincerely desire this change, but how many desire to change themselves, their nature, their character, their family life? How many actually make any efforts to bring about this change in themselves? The condition of the world now is such that neither we ourselves nor our world can be tranquil. Yesterday had its problems; today’s problems are no less, and tomorrow is waiting with even worse problems.

If in the midst of all this, death were to steal us away, it will dump us into an eternal problem. Whether you believe it or not, ‘SIN’ is the root cause of all problems. All of us have sinned, its nature, severity and vileness may vary. Whether you are traveling in the First Class or in the Second Class, the destination remains the same; whatever be the severity of your sin, the outcome is the same. Dear reader, only the Lord Jesus can deliver you from sin. That is what He came into the world for. By associating Jesus with a religion called Christianity, we insult Him, because He did not come for any religion or race or region; He came for the whole world. He is for everybody and loves everybody. He loved the world so much that He sacrificed Himself for everybody’s sins, so that you and I can be partakers of an eternal joy and wonderful peace.

One prayer will change everything for you; you have no need to undergo any religious conversion. Just one prayer, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner, and forgive my sins.” Only 12 words, seeking forgiveness, will remove forever all your penalty of sin.

All that is hidden in you

I have to write all that you have kept hidden within you. Maybe some dark shameful deeds committed at some time and now concealed from the world. These deeds, these sins that you & I have committed, till when will they remain hidden? At some time they will be manifest, if not now, then later; if not in this world then definitely in the next. Sin has to pay its wages and nobody can escape receiving them; at best they may keep it in abeyance for a period, but at some time the wages will be paid into our accounts. If this ‘SIN’ account is not settled and cleared in this world, then it will drag us into an eternal predicament in the next, from where no deliverance will ever be possible.

The voice of the Lord speaks lovingly and directly to the heart. However hard you may try, this voice brings out your actual self before you. It exposes all your dark deeds very clearly before you; and in face of his reality man is taken aback. But, the same Lord will change everything too; all you have to do is ask Him for the change. He will transform everything; just take a step towards Him. Just open the door, The Light is waiting to stream in, dispel all darkness and enlighten your life. All the waiting and aloofness is only from your end.

The present times will soon change into such dreadful times that even if you want to repent, you may not be able to do so. Therefore it is time to take cognizance and break out of the reverie. To lose your darkness accept The Light, to lose fallacies accept The Truth.

I have now committed these words to print and sent them to you, so that through them the voice of God’s heart can reach your heart. He does not want you to perish. One prayer has the power to transform everything for you – your present, your future and your eternity – “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.”

All I can do is encourage you; it remains for you to make the decision. At this very moment you can taste the Lord’s goodness and blessings through just one plea – “Lord Jesus accept my prayer and have mercy on me a sinner.”