Life Changing Reality

A life-changing reality is a profound shift in one's understanding of themselves, the world, or both, leading to a significant alteration in their values, beliefs, and ultimately, their life path. It's not merely a new piece of information, but an experience, insight, or realization that fundamentally alters one's perspective. It is the tipping point, after which one experience triggers change in thought, action and priorities.

John 9:25 states: “He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”

This verse reflects the testimony of a man who was healed by Jesus, emphasizing the transformative power of faith and healing. The context of this verse highlights the man's acknowledgment of his previous blindness and newfound sight, symbolizing spiritual awakening and understanding.

The blind man in this story went through such a change when he experienced a life changing reality: Jesus. And he could not deny Him because he could not deny his own miraculous healing.

Another life changing moment and reality is written about in John 8, 1-11. What would that woman have felt when she saw Jesus at work? While the then law stated that both - the man and woman caught in adultery were to be stoned, here she alone was being made a scapegoat in the politics of the Pharisees.    Jesus was and is life changing. 

But the ultimate life changing reality is the resurrection of Jesus because it empowers us to change and transform into a new life.  It changed the world and changed us.

Can you think of one life changing reality that you experienced?

One reader of this blog wrote - 

"For me it was experiencing the time of Covid. It made me realize that God's protection and provision surrounded me, not just in Covid times, but, thinking back, it was present at each moment and each stage of my life. That reality and it's realization changed me forever".

In this Holy Week, review your situations in life: were any of them life changing? Will, or did, the crucifixion of Christ alter anything? Will the Risen Christ change anything? 

Or, come Monday, it will be "Business as Usual"? 

A Woman of Substance

 

The Bible features many amazing women who played significant roles in various narratives. On this International Women’s Day, we would like to highlight one such woman – Rahab, a Canaanite woman who helped Israelite spies and later became part of the lineage of Jesus.

Rahab is a significant figure in the Bible, known for her bravery, faith, and role in the Israelite conquest of Jericho. Her story is primarily found in the Book of Joshua, chapter 2, a powerful example of faith, courage, and redemption. Her actions had a lasting impact on the Israelite history and the lineage of Jesus Christ

To understand the importance of her role, we must first understand why Jericho was so important to the Israelites?

In the biblical account, Jericho holds significant importance as the first city the Israelites encountered after crossing the Jordan River into Canaan around 1,400 BCE. The story highlights the miraculous destruction of the formidable Wall of Jericho, which fell after the Israelites marched around it for seven days, bearing the Ark of the Covenant. This event symbolizes not only a pivotal moment in the Israelites’ conquest of the Promised Land but also serves as a testament to their faith and obedience in following divine instructions.

Knowing the importance of capturing Jericho, the Israelis sent spies into the city to do what spies do: Ascertain strengths and weaknesses. If these spies had been captured or killed, the morale of the Israelis would have gone crashing to the ground. After all, if they could not capture the first city they encountered in the promised land, what would they do for the rest? They probably would not have attempted to war with Jericho, their faith in God would have been shaken and a defeat at Jericho could have delayed the Israelites' conquest of the Promised Land. Jericho was a key entry point into Canaan, and losing the battle would have hindered their progress and possibly prolonged their efforts to take possession of the land. They knew that.

And that is where Rahab mattered. She made sure that the spies were NOT captured and the Israelis went ahead and did what God wanted them to thus fulfilling the promise of divine intervention and Gods plan. She had faith in God, His promises and His power even though she was not an Israelite. 

Rahab's story is a powerful example of faith, courage, and redemption. Her actions had a lasting impact on the Israelite history and the lineage of Jesus Christ. Rahab is commended for her faith in the New Testament. She is mentioned in the "Faith Hall of Fame" in Hebrews 11:31, and James 2:25 highlights her righteous deeds.

Do read about Rahab today. Her story is a powerful reminder that our past does not govern our future and faith, courage, and positive choices can lead to transformation and a meaningful legacy. Her example inspires us to believe in the possibility of change, take risks for what we believe in, and live out our faith in God in tangible ways. 

Our Prayer Partner: Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message

Today we going to continue our series of messages on prayer based on O.S. Hawkins’ book the prayer code.

How many of you have heard of the term “prayer partnership?”

Prayer partnership is when two people tie up and make a pact to pray together at the same pre-decided time even though they may be located at different places.

Now we may not be practicing prayer partnership in our own lives even though it is a practice that brings considerable blessing but all of us each one of us who are believers in the lord Jesus Christ has a prayer partner.

Surprised? Yes, the holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

He is with us all the time, he searches our hearts & helps in our weaknesses and, above all intercedes for us according to god’s will.

The Holy Spirit lives in the life of every believer who has called on the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

Hawkins explains that our bodies are the holy spirit’s Holy place and because he is in us, he does on our bodies what our lord Jesus Christ does for us before God the father & makes intercession for us.

The holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

We can learn more about the holy spirit by asking 4 very pertinent questions.

Firstly a ‘what question’ - what does the holy spirt actually do? " likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses".

The holy spirit helps us to pray. In other words, He lends a hand.

How? By coming alongside, and taking part in our prayers and making our prayers more effective.

Paul reminds us that “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”,

Why? Because we are weak, and we do need help especially when it comes to praying. A help which is not available to us through self-help books. It is only available to us from our prayer partner - The Holy spirit.

So that is what the holy spirit does: it helps in our prayer life.

Then we ask a ‘where question’. Where does the holy spirit help us? It helps in our weaknesses.

Hawkins reminds us that many of us are not very healthy when it comes to an effective prayer life.

Jesus saw this in his disciples who could not watch and pray with him for even an hour in the garden of Gethsemane which was the time of his greatest need.

This is why he sent us the holy spirit whom he called the helper so that he could help us where we are weak, and the truth is that we are pretty weak in our prayer life.

Here Hawkins cautions us about the fact that just because we have a helper does not mean that we allow the helper to help us.

There are many who resist the Holy Spirit, some grieve the Holy Spirit and some quench the Holy Spirit.

You may ask How? By never acknowledging the need for his help and continue to live in unconfessed sin.

Why does the holy spirit help us in our weaknesses? “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”.

This word ‘ought’ is a very crucial word in the New Testament and appears over one hundred times.

The Greek word that translates to the word ‘ought’ in a majority of these 100 times means ‘must’.

So it is most important that it is not just that we ought to pray but we must pray.

Hawkins explains the reasons why we do not always know how we ought to pray.

He gives the example of Paul praying three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed.

The reason that we do not know how to pray as we should is that we cannot see into the future.

We need help, we are weak, we are always confusing our wants with our needs and we do not know what is best for us.

That is why the holy spirit helps us in our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

And finally a ‘how question’ - how does the holy spirit helps us pray? “But the spirit himself makes intercession”. He pleads on our behalf before God the father.

Hawkins gives the example of the good Samaritan who came upon a badly wounded man on the road. He got involved and interceded on the man’s behalf, took him to an inn, paid his bill and met his needs.

This is how the Holy Spirit works in our prayer lives. We are weak like the wounded man in the story of the good Samaritan. In our weakness we do not know how to pray or what to pray for, but the holy spirit comes alongside us and pleads on our behalf.

A crucial key to understanding how the Spirit helps us is that he knows the mind of God and always prays according to the will of God.

Romans 8: 27 "now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God".

The spirit leads us to the will of God for our lives.

Yes, we can find God’s will through scripture where we know many things for certain because they are plainly stated in god’s word. But there are matters of which we may not be very certain, so this is where the spirit comes in and helps us because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Hawkins points out one very crucial point: He points out that are many who have god’s word but are unaware of the spirit. Others have the spirit but are without god’s word.

We need the Holy Spirit so that we can find God’s will and we need to yield to the Holy Spirit because he intercedes for us according to the will of God.

So, what is the takeaway from this message today?

We are not alone we have an effective prayer partner in the Holy Spirit who knows god’s will for us and helps us pray in God’s will so that God’s will may be fulfilled in us and for us.

Amen!

Thy Will be Done

 

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. I am sure we repeat this line daily if not more. We repeat it without meaning though. Honestly, do we really do anything, or even want to do anything, to bring about Gods will on Earth? Or the prayer is just words we have memorized and recite. Do we even know Gods will?

Rev Francis Taylor has this to say -

"When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In the Psalm 40:6-9, we pray that we delight to do God's will. I wonder if we really mean what we pray, or if we just say the words. First, we need to think about what God's will really is. When we read the Scriptures we see certain themes – justice, peace, and especially, love. These themes run through the Old Testament as well as the New. We are told to take care of the poor, the most vulnerable in our society. We are asked to remember that we were once strangers in the lands we now occupy. We are told to treat others the way we want to be treated, to forgive. These are not easy tasks and sometimes we do not "delight" in doing them. We want justice but not if it interferes with our comfort. We want peace, but our speech is often loaded with violence. We say we want to be forgiven but find it hard to forgive. We don't always welcome the stranger, and we sometimes suspect the poor of being responsible for their situation. When we continue to read this psalm, we read a confession of sorts admitting that we often fail in doing the will of God. We also hear the author asking for God's mercy and faithfulness. We need to look at ourselves with honesty and see how we can work better to bring about God's will on earth as it is in heaven."

Pastor Rajiv's New Year Message

 

Delimiting God

Is it possible for mere, fragile, and mortal men to limit the Almighty, Omnipotent, and Supreme God of the universe? Sounds like a foolish question, but the answer is YES! 

We limit God by our lack of faith, disbelief, and by trying to confine his power and abilities to our own understanding and experiences, essentially putting boundaries on a limitless being: this can manifest through fear, pride, self-reliance, and not fully trusting in his promises or guidance.

When we doubt God's ability to act or fulfill his promises, we effectively limit his power in our lives. This doubt may not be explicit, maybe unstated, but there all the same. 

Let us Consider Psalm 78: 

17 BUT THEY SINNED EVEN MORE AGAINST HIM

By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tested God in their heart

By asking for the food of their fancy....

This is especially tragic if you read it after you read verses 12 to 16!

Why is there doubt & unbelief? Firstly, because in our small minds, we compare Him to Humans, unconsciously.

Trying to understand God's actions through our own limited perspective can lead to restricting his capabilities.

Second, fear takes control of our minds and hearts when we are in extreme situations. Letting fear control our thoughts and actions can prevent us from fully trusting in God's plan.

Pride and self-reliance is another cause. Believing we can handle situations without God's intervention limits our reliance on his power.

Why does all this happen? Simply because of the Ignorance of scripture and our own inexperience of God in our life because we never recognize His hand and His work in our own life nor know about His work in the lives of all the Biblical characters.

Not studying the Bible and understanding God's true nature can lead to misconceptions about his power and character.

Without recognition of God and His ways and what He wants from us, we start prioritizing worldly pursuits over God's will which can restrict our access to his blessings.

The disconnect with God and His word, causes a difference of views as well. We expect Him to fulfil our needs, yet we do not realize that His understanding and knowledge of our needs is very different to ours: we tend to blur the line between our needs, wants and desires. Our unfulfilled desires add fuel to the fire.

Finally, our own nature and mental makeup of testing everything, leads us to test God as well. Throughout the Bible we see that the Israelites testing God. They want to see if God will truly fulfill His promises. They asked for food and God indeed gave them food. They asked for water and God indeed gave them water. In spite of all these, the Israelites were ingrates. It seemed that nothing could convince them of God’s power, faithfulness, and love. Just like us.

Moving on in the Psalm-

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,

And grieved Him in the desert!

41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,

And limited the Holy One of Israel.

In Verse 42 the Psalm tells us, “They remembered NOT His hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.”

There, you see? Whenever we forget about God’s might and powerful ability to help us in our troubles, we limit Him. When we doubt God’s love and mercy toward us, we limit Him. Instead of believing that He can provide all our needs, we tend to solve our problems by our own effort. We forget about the many miracles in the past that God had already done for us, because we do not recognize them.

AND THAT IS THE KEY! 

The day we start recognizing God's hand in our life we will start believing and unlimiting Him in our lives. And to do that we need to know Him (through His word) talk about Him, read about experiences others have had of Him and talk and walk with Him. So today, let us review our whole life till date - whether of 20 years or of 80 years or 100 years. Review each momentous occasion, good or bad, and Gods hand at work each time. 

The Year that Was....

Did you ever feel that 2024 slipped away from you? Like you lost precious time to struggles, disappointments and mistakes? It can be disheartening to look back and see the time which has seemingly been wasted. But take heart for our God is a restorer of time.

One of the most poignant examples of restoration is found in the book of Joel, where God promises to restore the years that the locusts have eaten: "I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you" (Joel 2:25). This promise of restoration is not merely material but also spiritual, as God calls His people to repentance and renewal. The locusts symbolize the trials and challenges that have plagued our lives devouring our joy, peace and blessings. But God in His infinite mercy declares that He will make up for the lost time.

Throughout Scripture, God is consistently revealed as the Restorer of the Broken, offering hope and healing to a world marred by sin and suffering. His restorative work is a testament to His love and faithfulness, inviting all to experience the wholeness found in Him.

In contrast, how much time do we do we spend on things that truly matter? Stress, anxieties, anger, sadness... Is this how God intended us to wisely spend our time. 

Responding to Change

Well, it's that time of the year when we all decide to bring in some change in our lives, even though that resolution may fade in a week or two.
So, we thought we should delve into the biblical perspective of change and how to respond to or react to it.
To start with, let's understand change.
Change is a transformation. Change can be internal or external. It can be good or bad. Our reaction to it can be acceptance, rejection, or (as it happens most of the time) silent condonation of it.
How does the bible view change? The Bible is very clear we need internal change. That is because God and His principles never change (even though His methods may). If we need to be more like Him, we need to change. Our old self has to die and be replaced by our new self. This new self then needs to shine so that people around us see the Goodness of our God, encouraging external change in the environment. The Bible gives enough guidelines of what is to change in ourselves and how, before we can hope to see change in our environments.
Mahatma Gandhi also said - Be the change you want to see.
The other change is external change. We know that growth requires change. Many people believe we should also change our morals, ethics, and beliefs to accommodate changes in profession, culture and lifestyles. But sometimes changes in our environment are detrimental to the Christian life, and our relationship with God - aka sin.
Sin brings about a negative change that altered not only Adam and Eve’s behavior and thinking but also their very nature. As a result, their environment changed, along with all of human history. In our sin, we lost our perfect environment and were left to wrest survival from an unforgiving planet (Genesis 3:17–19). Change had come, and it was not a good change.
As Christians our response to change, good or bad, really depends on our desire for changing ourselves, as well as our willingness. At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus found an infirm man who had suffered his condition for a long time. Interestingly, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). A strange question with a logical purpose. Before the Lord introduced the man to lifelong change, He wanted to know: do you really want this, or are you more comfortable with your life of begging and living off the charity of others? Are you ready to change?
So how do we respond to external change?
A. What we tend to do is Rationalize or Bend Gods word to make any change suitable to ourselves. This is not a good idea.
Changeable humans do not have the power or authority to change God’s Word, and only the foolish will try. Being judgmental is a small example.
B. In continuation, we should be rejecting certain changes instead of adapting ourselves to those changes. With Gods help, and the guidance of His word, we can select what we accept, reject or condone. We should embrace change, no matter how hard it is, when it comes from God, and similarly reject it, no matter how hard it is, no matter what sacrifice we may be needed, if it is not. If we resolve not to accept or accept, the Holy Spirit will guide us through and provide the strength and protection we need to see it through. (Philippians 4:6-7)
C. All change starts in the mind. Therefore, our mind needs to know what to measure that change against. For that we need to read and internalize Gods word. Internalizing does not mean memorizing, but understanding the different aspects of the subject and its application. That scale will determine what we value enough to adopt.
D. Respond to Jesus. He was sent to change us, to lead us into a relationship with God as was originally planned. However, if we do not respond to His leading that change will never happen.
In summary, our response to change is a 4-step process:
First we must identify whether that change is in line with Gods principles.
Secondly, we must desire to accept or reject that change, want it and determine to make it.
Thirdly, realize we are not infallible. We need Gods help to cross that chasm.
Lastly be willing to be led. Trust in Him and depend on him.