Watch Your Step! - A Saturday Reflection

Ephesians 5 15- 17 - So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. (5:15–17 MSG)

Watch your step! This statement is so familiar isn't it? . Parents say that to children, people use that as a warning to others and so on. This is a life warning.

But read further, it is also guideline for every Christian.

As we travel a path carefully chosen according to His will, word and purpose, God presents us with so many opportunities. Opportunities to flourish and prosper, and also opportunities to say NO. Opportunities to lead an exemplary life. Opportunities to use our gifts for others.

We cannot pass our time mindlessly, but realize every second we live is an investment we make into life, a life after our physical death. 

Just to be clear, our first death, or our physical death, is the separation of  our body from our spirit. The second death, is the separation of our spirit from God and God's plan. 

Generally, people don't think much about their second death too seriously, specially young people. We are all pre- occupied with our physical death and how to prolong our physical life. But think this - if physical death is so fearsome to us, how much more horrible and painful the second death will be?

The question is can we save ourselves from this second death? The answer is YES! If we invest our life here in believing in,  and following, Jesus Christ, truly and earnestly, we can save ourselves. 

Why should we believe this? Because it is a promise from Christ - 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” Revelation 2:11.

That Serious Offence: Our Daily Reflection

If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. — Exodus 20:25

(Note: Todays reflection is adapted from the KJV Devotional, with some thoughts of our own). 

In an earlier  post, we had talked about "helping God". In our reflection today, we see how much a serious offence it can be !

Consider the quoted verse. Short. But with so much meaning and learning. God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labor might be seen upon it. What that tells us is this: Let not man add to God's Glory with his/her own understanding (tools) and human interpretation (wisdom). 

Our KJV study says - "  Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all" 

Essentially what it means is that we bend the law of God to suit ourselves or the world. Suit our beliefs, or our thoughts or our situations. Just as David may have done and all of us do. 

But: Isn't that fantastic to realize? All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions. And...attract a huge penalty!

Do our so called preachers really know this or understand this? Some advertise the Holy Spirit. Some Advertise the Word. Worst, some advertise the meaning. 

So many people are tring to make a business model 

The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man’s chisel or hammer will be endured. 

I may say today, I am a man/woman of God. I don't know if that is right. I may say today, I carry the Holy Spirit, that I know is correct,: but so do all of us. I may think, being a man/woman of God, in our understanding, we are different. Wrong again. If we think "I have converted/ baptized so many (husbands/wives/friends/others) therefore I am Holy - wrong again. God converts the Heart, we only follow a ritual). 

If some one has achieved sanctification, it is not our doing.  What Jesus declared to be finished is indeed finished. We cannot add or subtract. We cannot restart the process. Yet we do, don't we?  We add our own interpretations, our own understanding (in spite of being warned by the Lord - Lean not on your own understanding) and our own "Holiness" or spirituality.  

Do we know that there is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. 

Friends, lets put away our tools, our minds, our own interpretations and stick to what God has said. Yes, delve into His word, find original meaning through the original text or language, but for His and yours , do not "help" Him by spreading our own interpretation of His word. It has a deep and horrible consequence.  

KJV says this - 

"Many professors may take warning from this morning’s text as to the doctrines which they believe. There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord." 

Majestic words. And a majestic direction. 

God's word can ONLY have ONE interpretation and ONE meaning. Let's pray for wisdom to understand His meaning and direction,  rather than apply our own understanding while we spread His Word. 

The Greatest Commandment: Pastor Rajiv's Mid Week Message

Since Biblical times, there has been discussion and great interest by scholars on the question : What is the greatest commandment. Pastor Rajiv's talks about this in his message today.