HOPE IS FAITH IN FUTURE TENSE

Looking forward with confidence and expectation is what we say as HOPE. We always put our hope on a hard surface like a tree stump or a rock. But the hope that God gives us is more than a tree stump or a rock, on which we can climb over and jump confidently with joy, holiness, endurence and boldness.

1 Thes4:13-5:11 describes the Lord's coming and the main purpose of this passage is hope and encouragement. We need to wear the hope of salvation as the helmet and encourage others by words of hope. Hope is something that we desire, it has both the subject and the object. And both the subject and object of what we desire is hope.

David says," I put my hope in God, my Savior and my Lord, I will praise Him. Why are you downcast my soul and why disrupted within me?". Many of our soul is in this situation, we are all burdened with the cares of our own. But are we casting our burdens on God and hoping for the best? Our desire shall be anything, looking to come out of financial crises, marital problems, seperation, future studies, unemployment, childlessness, addiction, success of our children, loss of beloved ones or health problems. Put your hope on God for He is stronger than a rock.

If you put your hope in God, you should
1.Never be sad again. 1 Thes 4:13 says why are you sad as if you have no hope in God.
2.Praise God. Ps42:5 and Ps71:14 says David put his hope in God and kept praising Him.
3.Encourage one another with words of hope. 1 Thes5:9-11 says we have to keep encouraging others to have hope in God.
4.Be strong and courageous. Ps31:24 says so.
5.Trust only in Him. Ps33:17 says horse is a vain hope of victory despite its great strength.
6.Wait patiently. Ps 33:20 and Ps130:5 says God protects and helps those who wait in hope.


Our days are like shadows without hope(1Chr29:15). God gives us hope to live as He has promised(Ps119:49). And those who hope in Him will renew their strength and flap their wings like eagle, where they run and never grow weary, they walk and never faint(Is40:31). Jesus christ died on the cross and He rose again to give a HOPE for tomorrow. Hope is faith in future tense.

RICH IN MERCY

Mercy generally means an authoritative person showing compassion to somebody who is under him. Our God is a great king, we are His subjects and from Him we receive mercy a million times. We can never do anything in return for His countless mercies.

Isaiah 55 speaks about God's offer of Mercy. He calls the poor, who are hungry and thirsty to come and have corn, wine and milk for no money. He relates this to the "LIFE", the life filled with blessings, honor and glory. He is a merciful God, He gives everything free, He even gave His life freely for us.

God's mercies are always rich(Eph2:4). He wants us to receive the best things in life which we have never thought of. Our thoughts are more humanly but not His. His thoughts and ways are much different and always higher than ours, high as the heaven from the earth(Is55:8-9). His mercies come down like the snow and the rain, very gently, not letting the crops to be destroyed but to grow. The mercies He showers from heaven are blessings and promises that are compared to snow and rain here. It will reach us slowly and gently not to destroy us but to grow us perfectly. God's mercies are perfectly timed.

Let's always wait for His mercies patiently. The mercies which started to rain is not going to go back to heaven unless the 'task' is done. His task is to make us happy, He is capable of changing our sorrows to happiness. His mercies will never fail us.

TO RECIEVE HIS MERCY:

1.We should never feel tired waiting for His mercies.

2.Keep begging God continuously(Job41:3)

3.Cry out for mercy(Ps6:9, Ps28:2,6)

4.Ask forgiveness from sin(Ps41:4, Ps79:8, Prov28:13)

5.Seek mercy as a promise(Ps51:1)

6.Plead like a poor man for mercy, humble yourself(Prov18:23, Dan2:18)

7.Desire mercy(Hos6:6, Mt12:7)

8.Show mercy to others(Zec7:9)

9.Fear God(Lk1:50)

10.Believe Him(1Tim1:16)

11.Approach with confidence(Heb4:16)

Let's try doing all the above mentioned things to receive His mercy because God has mercy on whom He wishes to have mercy(Rom9:18). Remember, we are not going to be saved because we are righteous, but because of His mercy(Tit3:5). Mercy triumphs judgement.

GOD'S WRATH

"....for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand? Rev 6:17 "

Many of us don't like talking about God's wrath and many churches do not stress on this topic. We always think of God as a meek and forgiving God. But it is highly necessary for us to understand that God does get angry and He is capable of punishing us in His wrath, when we don't follow His instructions. GOD IN BIBLE IS NOT THE SAME GOD WHOM WE HAVE IMAGINED.


I would like to discuss God's wrath under four sub-topics here.

1.God's wrath is ETERNAL: God makes a note of all our sins in His book and He seperates us from His children and punishes us at the day of His judgement. Dan12:2 says, at the day of His judgement everyone will come alive, some will have eternal life and some will suffer from His ETERNAL wrath.

Mark9:43-48 prooves that He will remember our sins ETERNALLY for He says cut off your hands or legs or eyes that sins and throw it in fire, its better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one hand or one leg or one eye than to be thrown into hell.

He is a jealous God: says He will punish the children for the sins of their fathers to the 3rd and 4th generation(Exo20:4-6). David knows about this God, so he ask's for God's forgiveness on His Nation(Ps85:5). God wants us to accept Him and obey His commands. If we are not going to heed His words, remember His wrath is going to be eternal as said in 2Thess1:7-9.


2.God's wrath is TERRIBLE: God's wrath is terrible like a blazing fire. According to Mt13:41-42, He will send His angels to gather all those who have sinned and did evil things, to throw them into the fiery furnace. Also says, He will come on a day when we dont expect Him and will punish us TERRIBLY for the sins we have done and throw us where there is crying and gnashing of teeth(Mt24:50-51 and Mt25:30).

Job4:9 tells God's anger destroys everything like a storm. Rev18:18-20 best describes the last days on earth for those who are not God's people.


3.God's wrath is TOTALLY DESERVED: Reading this article will make you think, do i deserve God's wrath? Did i do anything that big to deserve such a big punishment? Yes, anybody not obeying any of His commands is worthy of God's wrath. All His commandments are equally important, stealing or lying is no way inferior to killing or adultry. Lying for our convenience and disrespecting parents does count.

If you remember the story of King David, Bathsheba and prophet Nathan(2 Sam 11 & 12), Nathan makes David realize the sin he has committed and God punished David's child. Sometimes we do certain things which makes us happy but that does not please God. God will remember even such sins and punish us at the right time.

Many at times, we dont realize our own stink, we will know only if somebody tells. Though our stink(sin) is small, remember God is infinitely holy and clean. Think about that... God will not let you enter heaven when you say 'i stink very little'. Repent from sin and never do it again, humble yourself completely and ask God for His undeserved blessing(grace).

4.God's wrath is ESCAPABLE: Isn't that a good news??? God never wants us to suffer His anger. He always chose us to lead a sin free happy life. 1Thess5:9-10 says that, 'God did not want us to suffer His anger but receive salvation through Christ who died for us'. According to Ps30:5, His anger lasts only for a moment but His favor lasts a lifetime. Let's find favor in His eyes and escape wrath.

This topic would have been a little heavy for our hearts but it's all true. We are accountable for everything we do on His judgement day. The day is near, be ready to escape God's wrath.

BATTLE AGAINST SIN

We have to battle sin in order to receive life that is controlled by spirit. When we are controlled by our body, it results in death. But when we are controlled by the spirit, it results in life (Rom 8:6).

A person controlled by body becomes an enemy of God, he does not obey God's law and does not belong to Christ. But when you are a person controlled by the spirit, you are raised from death (given life) as Christ was raised from death by the spirit that is in us (Rom 8:7-11). We also become God's children (Rom 8:14,16).

Paul says that he sees a different law at work in his body - a law that fights against the law which his mind approves of, which makes him a prisoner to the law of sin. Also adds, Thanks be to God who is rescuing him from it through Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 7:23-25). So when we are tempted to do any sin, we need not harm ourselves by plucking out our eyes or cutting our hands, instead ask God to rescue from our human nature. Put to death the sinful action and you'll live though your body dies (Rom 8:13). God will rescue us by giving peace and crush satan under his feet (Rom 16:20).

Everyone who sins is a slave of sin (John 8:34). A slave of sin does not belong to God's family but a son belongs to there for ever (John 8:35)

Engaging in daily battle
We have to fight the daily battle against sin. We are tempted to sin by several means. But we being God's children ought to fight against sin by

• Memorising Bible verses and telling them again and again in our mind, not giving any room for sin to come in.




• We can have Bible verses pasted at our place of work (eg. kitchen, office table..) which can remind us to keep satan away from his work.




• Reading Bible, not just for the sake of reading but meditating on it and getting filled with God's presence.




• Listening to God's message / music and involving ourselves by singing and giving praises to Him.




• Telling God's love and good news to others wherever we can, however we can & to whomever we can.




• Asking God for forgiveness (praying) for the sins we have done.




• Taking steps to get rid of our sins / temptations and not turning back to them. Say to the sin/satan that God is in me and I'm with God.

According to Hebrews 4:16, lets approach God's presence confidently where we receive mercy and find grace which will help us to fight the daily battle against sin.

Christobel Rajesh

MY MONEY? I DON'T THINK SO

You might have heard lot of sermons on money in Church. Why do we talk more about money? Because

• Jesus talked more about money


• God rewards those who earnestly seek Him and faithfully follow Him


• God owns everything


• Heart is where your money is

In the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:1-13), there was a rich man who had a servant to manage his property shows he had lots of money and he believed his servant. But the servant was wasting his master's money. Here God is compared to a rich man and we are His servants and he has entrusted His money to us.

How are we utilizing His money?
* Helping the poor and needy with food shelter and clothing
or
* Helping to build churches or sponsoring a missionary
or
* Sponsoring a child in his/her studies or meeting his/her health needs
or
* Buying things to beautify ourselves
or
* Spending money in casinos / races / drinks / drugs

God always wants us to use His money in the way He likes because it is His money. We get from Him and we can't pay Him back in anyway.

There are many ways God encourages to handle His money. He says

1. Sell all your riches and give it to the poor (Mark 10:17-29)


2. Appreciates the poor widow who put the last coins she had (Mark 12:41-44)


3. Visits Zaccheaus house who gave half his belongings to the poor and paid 4 times to whom he had cheated (Luke 19:1-9)


4. Give it in such a way that not even your closest friend standing next to you will not know (Mat 6:1-4)


5. Appreciates the Samaritan who poured the oil and wine and also paid the inn keeper 2 silver coins to take care of an unknown man (Luke 10:2-37)


6. He encourages to pay due taxes (Luke 20:19-26)

There are lots of parables that speak about money and how God wants us to utilize it.

Here in the parable of shrewd manager He says

• Be faithful in small matters and God will make you charge over large ones


• Should be faithful in what belongs to others than what belongs to us


• Nobody can serve two masters (money & God). He should hate one and love another


• We are all accountable for the money we receive from God on the judgement day.

Money gives joy. So spend the money the way He teaches you to spend and receive eternal joy.

Always remember - IT IS HIS MONEY HE HAS ENTRUSTED YOU WITH.

Christobel Rajesh

GRACE DECAYS

This topic may sound a little wierd. But go ahead reading, it has deeper meanings.

In Christianity, the word GRACE refers to sovereign favor of God for mankind. It is a free supernatural gift from God which man cannot earn or deserve or merit or cannot claim as a right. Grace is forgiveness of sin and not a licence to sin. John 8:11 tells that Jesus forgave a sinner by grace but He commands the person to leave the life of sin. Jesus himself did not use the word "GRACE" many times in Bible. But he is a gracious God and His preachings (parables) were based on grace, which teaches us to forgive any sin regardless of the unworthiness of its recepient. Examples of grace include prodigal son, good samaritan and lost sheep.

Paul's letter to Romans describes a lot about God's grace and glory. Humankind is born in a state of sin, the sinful nature is inherited from the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden. So this confirms that we enjoy God's grace. But does that mean we can go on sinning so that the grace may increase. By no means!!! We died to sin; how can we live it any longer.

Sin leads to death and grace leads to eternal life or righteousness (Rom 5:2). We need to accept that we are sinners, if we try to prove ourselves that we are right in obeying God's laws, then we fall from God's grace (Gal 5:4) [Grace decays].

Sin is guilty of breaking God's law and Christ appeared to take away our sins because he has never sinned. So whoever accepts Christ will not sin and whoever continues to sin has not accepted Christ (I John 3: 4-6). We receive grace through Jesus Christ. When we don't receive Him we lose grace [Grace Decays].

We receive grace through Jesus Christ when we obey Him and His laws. God gave us the laws, He wants us to obey them and He also tests us (Exo 15:25). There is a simple Biblical incident which illustrates the decay of grace when we disobey God's commands. The Israelites complain about hunger to Moses and Aaron and God graciously rains heavenly food - Manna and Quails to them and God commands them to collect the food only for that day. But there were people who disobeyed God's command and collected more than what they needed for a day. They all found the food full of worms and smelt rotten and were decayed the next morning (Exo 16:1-20) [Grace decays]

My dear friends, God's love never ceases, His grace is new every morning.

Christobel Rajesh

OPEN UP THE SENSES TO FEEL GOD

Senses are physiological methods of perception, in simple words they are faculty by which outside stimuli are perceived. There are five classical senses (viz. sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch) that are taught to us since childhood. But neuro-science has proved that there are at least seven senses in humans. It is classified by the sensory type cells which respond to specific kind of physical energy. Let’s not go into the physiology of senses but reflect how characters in Bible sense God’s love, and how are we going to open up our senses to feel God.

SIGHT
Do you know: Apart from two senses of sight (viz. color and brightness) there is a third sense that has popped up – Dimension.

Sense of sight is very important. You might have read how Jesus healed the two blind men on His way to Jerusalem (Mat 20:34), blind beggar Bartimaeus receiving his sight (Mark 10:52), incident at Bethsaida (Mark 8:25) and the most wonderful of all - healing the man who was born blind (John 9:7). Did you notice all of them testified Jesus and followed Him.

Being blessed with sight, have we testified God or are we guilty about them (John 9:41)? Like Balaam – whose spiritual eyes were opened to see God’s warning (Numb 22:31). Let’s open our spiritual eyes and overcome our spiritual blindness.


HEARING
Do you know: Sense of hearing disciplines our life because we learn a lot of things by hearing. It improves our communication (both verbal and non verbal) and language.

Jesus says he who has ears listen to me (Mat 13:9). He wants us to hear His words and have faith. Faith is believing the unseen. Romans 10:17 says: Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. For His words will not fail to do what He has planned for it (Isaiah 55:11)

There is an incident in II Chr 34:14-33, where Shaphan reads the book of the law of the Lord to king Josiah. When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes, wept, repented, humbled himself before God and prayed. Not only that, he made all the people in his country hear the word of God and made them serve the Lord.

Every Sunday God’s words are being read to us and God’s message is passed on. Are we hearing that with our spiritual ears and responding the way we are supposed to? If not let’s start doing it now and also make others hear His words.

TASTE
Do you know: Taste is a chemical sense which can sense sweet, salt, sour, bitter and now umami (an amino acid glutamate) which is found in meat and in artificial flavorings.

O taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8). All of us know this verse but have we ever thought whether we have ever tasted God? Take a moment to think about this. We all would have tasted God in one way or the other. Its through His love and mercy that we taste Him. We all are created with some kind of problem in this world for which God helps us to endure it through His love and mercy. King David sings these words of praise after he had endured the bad times in his life. Remember we all have a battle to fight with and God will fight that battle for us and give us victory.

Taste, food and hunger are inter-related to each other. It changes certain situation of life. It changed the life of Jacob (Gen 27), Israelites (Manna & quail – Ex 16:1), Jonathan (I Sam 14:43), Daniel (Dan 1:8-14) and many more.

Lets us keep our taste buds open to feel God. Let our soul thirst for Him (Ps 63:1) and lets go drink from His cup and be satisfied (John 7:37)

SMELL
Do you know: Smell is also a chemical sense. Nose has more than 100s of olfactory receptors which helps us to identify a variety of smell. Dogs have much keener sense of smell than humans.

Paul rightly describes the importance of each organ in our body (I Cor 12:17). Each part has its own role to play. God liked the odour that came from the sacrifice made by Noah, so He promised that He will never curse the earth because of man whose heart is evil from childhood (Gen 8:21). Isaac uses sense of smell to identify his son and bless him (Gen 27:27).

Smell is always related to appetite. So let’s have a good appetite towards God’s love. Let’s smell God’s love from the people and nature around us and also let others smell the same from us. Let’s not be like a dead fly in a perfume bottle which makes the whole bottle stink (Ecc 10:1), instead spread the sweet aroma of sacrifice (praise and thanksgiving) which God likes and will bless us.

TOUCH
Do you know: The study of touch in humans is called haptics. Touch seems to produce many hormones and convey different non-verbal messages.

Before I touch this topic let me tell you God is going to give you a perfect touch. He says: For whoever touches you touches the apple of my eyes (Zech 2:18). In old testament, there are a lot of “Do not touch warnings”.
Ø He told Eve not to touch the apple (Gen 3:3)
Ø He gave a list of forbidden items that’s regarded unclean (Numbers & Leviticus)
Ø Uzzah died because he touched the covenant box which only consecrated people can touch. (II Sam 6:7)



In New Testament Jesus touched and healed a lot of them. He touched
Ø Peter’s mother-in-law and the fever left her (Mat 10:15)
Ø A man with a dreadful skin disease and he became clean (Mark 1:41)
Ø A man who was deaf and mute started to hear & speak without any trouble (Mark 7:33,35)
Ø The little children who were brought to Him so that Jesus could touch him (Luke 18:15)


Among all of them the faith of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years is something admirable. She had a faith that if she touches the corner of His cloak, she will be healed. She touched it and she was healed (Mat 9:20-22). Let’s analyze if we have atleast 1/100th of her faith or are we like Thomas who wanted to put his fingers in His scars to believe Him (John 20:25). Never mind those like Thomas, God wants us to come and touch him (Luke 24:39).

To conclude our God is a God who has eyes that see, ears that hear, mouth that speaks, He can smell and feel things unlike other gods made of human hands which have eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear and mouth that do not speak (Ps 115:6 & Deut 4:28) and we are made in His image. Let’s thank God for the perfect senses He has blessed us with and let’s open up our senses to feel God.

Christobel Rajesh