The Crushed Rose: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Someone defined forgiveness as the sweet smell given by a rose as it is crushed! 

What a powerful expression of forgiveness. In our experience, the closest expression to it that  we have experienced is that of Graham Staines. 

In 2003, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his family were evangelizing in a remote part of the world, when one night, as Staines slept with his two sons in the back of their vehicle, some people set fire to the car and burnt the three of them alive. Staines was survived by his wife and one daughter. The murderers were caught and went on trial. When Mrs. Staines was asked for her comments, she simply said, "I forgive (them)" ! 

In 2005, she was awarded the fourth highest honor a civilian can receive in that country  in recognition for her work . In 2016, she received the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice.

I cannot ever imagine what Mrs. Staines and her daughter must have gone through and what courage and faith it must have taken her to say those words. What can be more heartbreaking, similar to the crushing of that rose, and yet the sweet smell of her forgiveness was experienced around the world and maybe in heaven.

She truly brought to life the following verse

Ephesians 4:31-32

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

She did as Christ did. She did as Stephen did. When we have such great examples of forgiveness before us, why then is it such an issue and difficulty for us to forgive? How often we say - I am too hurt to forgive. Was our hurt more than Mrs Staines? How often we declare a conditional forgiveness. Did Jesus put conditions on us, His murderers, before He forgave us? NO. He simply said - “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Pastor Rajiv's Mid week Message

 

Are you trustworthy ? Daily Reflections

You trust God. Can God trust you?

“But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust.” (Numbers 12.7).

That’s God speaking, by the way. Very clearly differentiating between those of His people He can trust those He can't.

There is a lot of discussion and talk around the fact that we need to trust God and have faith in Him at all times. Very true. But very clearly, we need to have God trust us as well!, which may not always be the case as we can see from the opening verse.

This is a game changer! Think about how God can build His trust in us. But first let's think about how we can lose Gods trust. Let's talk about Trust Breakers and Trust Builders. What are they ?

Trust Breakers

A. Broken promises when we were down in the dumps praying for God's helping hand? And have we kept that vow?

If we haven't that's a trust breaker right there. Did not the Israelites, Gods own people, break His trust and wander around in circles for 40 years?

B. God at the center of me at the center? Who do I give priority to? God or ourselves? If a crucial meeting comes up on a Sunday do we miss church to attend that meeting? And if we have had to for some reason, have we gone to an alternate service to make sure we have kept our meeting with God as well?

C. Have we created idols in our life? Money, homes, cars and so many more.

D. Have we kept the Sabbath Holy?

There are so many more ways we possibly have not lived up to Gods direction or expectation. Meditate and think and take corrective action.

Trust Builders

Dependability

Trust is dependability – a deep confidence in someone. We tend to trust people who are reliable, who are consistent and who don’t change with the season or the wind direction in the same way Gid needs dependable people, like Abraham or Moses and so many more.

Gratitude

If we acknowledge that God is our creator and that our time on earth is a gift, as is health, wealth , business, family, occupation - then we must also acknowledge the fact that we owe Him big time! It's not our own abilities, but His grace and gifts of those abilities which we have used to be where we are. A word of thanks and acknowledgement would be a nice gesture don't you think? As we get up in the morning do we thank Him for the rest, the day and another day added to our life?

Horizontal relationships

Do we make an effort to develop and nurture relationships with others, forgiving mistakes, mindful of hurting whether through speech or action?

A good way to learn trust building  would be to read, understand and meditate on how to adopt the commandments into our lives. At least make the effort and slowly it will happen.

God needs people He can trust!

What's in a name : Pastor Rajiv's Reflections

"You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

What is your name? 

Shakespeare debunked the name theory when he said what's in a name? to quote "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" ;

Biblically, names of people were important. So important that God chose them at times. So now, the question is do you determine your name or does your name determine you?

Biblically, God changed names of people to determine who they would be. Consider Abram becoming Abraham, Jacob becoming Israel, Simon becomes Peter the rock.

Names are deeply important to human beings, a crucial way of understanding not just the world around us, but each other. 

A surname roots us in history and family tradition. For example, the name 'Adam' is so common in Western society now that one might not think to enquire about its meaning. However, the Hebrew word Adam doesn't simply mean 'generic first human' but is rather likely derived from the Hebrew word Adamah meaning 'ground'. Adam was formed "from the dust of the ground" and so, his name (and the general Hebrew name for 'man') is rooted in how mankind began.

Jesus Himself is given many names. He is the Christ, which is not his surname, but rather the royal title for the Jewish Messiah – New Testament scholar N.T. Wright translates 'Jesus Christ' as 'King Jesus'. His first name is a common Jewish name 'Yeshua', which is derived from the word meaning 'to rescue/deliver'. 

Matthew states : "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) Matthew also describes Jesus as 'Immanuel', which means 'God with us', because, familiar though it may be to us, Matthew was highlighting the radical truth that Jesus the Messiah was indeed God himself dwelling with mankind.

Biblically naming was serious business and today we must take our own name - Christians, seriously as well. God has chosen us and given us His own, Kingly name, as we are called "Christians" after Christ,  which means that we are to show the qualities of Christ in our lives. Just as our legal or human names showcase our pedigree, family history or lineage, being a Christian has to reflect Christ's teachings and His love for us, as we live and interact with each other in this world. 

Now you decide who you are! 

Note: References are drawn from Joseph Hartropp