The Legend of The Fourth Wise Man Or Dont Wait for Christmas

Did you know there was a 4th Wise man who didn't make it? 

Long ago in the late 1800s a man named Eric Van Dyke wrote a short story about a "fourth" wise man (accepting the tradition that the Magi numbered three), a priest of the Magi named Artaban, one of the Medes from Persia.

Like the other Magi, he sees signs in the heavens proclaiming that a King has been born among the Jews. Like them, he sets out to see the newborn ruler, carrying treasures to give as gifts to the child - a sapphire, a ruby, and a "pearl of great price".

However, he stops along the way to help a dying man, which makes him late to meet with the caravan of the other three wise men. Because he missed the caravan, and he can't cross the desert with only a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures in order to buy the camels and supplies necessary for the trip. He then commences his journey but arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the child, whose parents have fled to Egypt. He saves the life of another child at the price of another one of his treasures.

He then travels to Egypt and to many other countries, searching for Jesus for many years and performing acts of charity along the way. After 33 years, Artaban is still a pilgrim, and a seeker after light. Artaban arrives in Jerusalem just in time for the crucifixion of Jesus. He spends his last treasure, the pearl, to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery. He is then struck in the head by a falling roof tile and is about to die, having failed in his quest to find Jesus, but having done much good through charitable works. A voice tells him "Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40)[4] He dies in a calm radiance of wonder and joy. His treasures were accepted, and the Other Wise Man found his King.

This is a story, but isn't the fourth wise man like us? We want to worship Jesus in spirit and in truth but miss the bus so many times. However, as the wise man did, we can still use our time to be of service to our Lord, using the gifts we have, to lay at His feet, in His service. 

Champion Wrestlers

Jacob, famous as a con artist, found himself conned, a liar deceived, and a manipulator outmaneuvered. His life mirrored the meaning of his name, "heel-catcher," a term that implies following someone closely to overtake or deceive them.

But, Jacob is also famous for wrestling with God for a blessing, which was anyway intended for him all along. While this episode is quite funny, does it not sound familiar?

We too, are constantly wrestling with God to get His blessings - in the way we think we deserve. God wants to give it His way and we want ours. Sometimes, the wrestling looks a bit like negotiating with God, and at other times it looks like reminding God of his promises while asking him to act.

But sometimes, our pride and arrogance, intelligence, come in the way. Let us learn to accept in humility rather than demand in arrogance.

Like Jacob, let our encounters with God be to demand a blessing according to God, not demand our desires according to us.

Like Melanie Campbell says- "Many people know about God, but never have a true, life-changing encounter with Him. Knowing what God has done for others isn’t the same as understanding what He has done for you".

Revival in 4 Steps

In continuation of his post on Revival, Pastor Rajiv today outlines the steps we could take to experience our own revival.

Remember, God has designed revival to begin with his own people who are called by his name, people like you and me who have called on the name of Jesus. 

As a revival process, God’s first call for his people is to humble themselves. 

How? Firstly, by recognizing and confessing our need to seek God in all things – spiritual and material. Our independence to be overcome by Dependence. We need humility to constantly guard against spiritual pride because spiritual pride results in self-centeredness, according to Hawkins. (Note: In Colossians 3:12, the word humility in Greek means “humbleness of mind or lowliness of mind”, and it’s the same word used in Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3, and 1 Peter 5:5. It is in this attitude of the heart that we came before the Lord, admitting that we were wrong; we are sinners, repenting, and asking Him to be our Savior because being so crushed by the turmoil of sin and darkness of the world, we recognize there is no place to turn but to God, in other words with a broken spirit). Therefore, in order to be truly humble we need to bring a broken spirit before God.

Secondly, we are to pray and call out to God earnestly. If we are to see true revival, we need earnest and fervent prayer. In fact, every true revival has been the result of fervent and earnest prayer. We have seen what happened when the early church prayed and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Prayer invokes the Holy Spirit and for any revival to take place we must be filled with the Holy Spirit who will give us the courage to speak the word of God with boldness.

Thirdly God demands that we seek his face. Hawkins holds that if we spend as much time in our prayers seeking God’s face as we do to seek His hand to help us, we would be much nearer to our own personal revival. (Note: To seek God's face is to turn from any wicked ways, to look to his presence, strength, and precepts and NOT LOOK BACK.)

And finally, we must turn from our wicked ways. Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin, and this is the greatest obstacle to revival. Just confessing our sins and feeling sorry for them is not enough. We need to forsake them altogether, (In thought, word and deed) because that is true repentance.

The final step in God’s recipe for revival is God’s delight. God’s delight is forgiving the sins of his people if they are truly repentant and turn from their wicked ways. His promise is that He will hear from Heaven he will forgive our sin and He will heal our land.

God delights in healing our hearts, healing our homes and everything around us because it appropriates his sacrifice on the cross and does not render His death in vain. He is willing; He is waiting, and He is longing for us to call on His name in prayer and seek his face (get to know Him) through his word and turn from our wicked ways so that he can fulfil his promise.

The big point for us to remember here is that that prayer and revival go hand in hand. 

There can be no revival without fervent and earnest prayer.

Course Correction

Not many of us like to be corrected, whether by a true friend, a parent, a partner or even God! We also do not like "change". We are happy to continue in our state of ignorance, rather than correct ourselves.  

Chipotle Biti has this to say about correction. 

"It is far better to be smarting from the correction of a friend who cares for you, instead of being led on the wrong path by people who try to deceive you with false approval. If you choose to base your life on positive feedback only and you block out any form of correction, you will end up with the wrong people advising you". Such a situation has been the ruin of many a leader, and many Christians. In fact, it is equally harmful to always give false feedback which a lot of us do in the name of "motivation".  It's tantamount to "bearing false witness". 

She goes on to say - "Correction is necessary for our growth as Christians. We need correction in our spiritual lives in order to ensure that we are reflecting God and His love and righteousness. 

We also need correction in other aspects of our life. We can never know everything or get everything right. When we are corrected, we are alerted to the areas in our lives that we need to work on. When we work on those areas, we become better people. If we don't receive that correction, how will we grow?". 

If we are open to correction, the best advice we can get is from God's word. It covers every aspect of life - both spiritual and everyday human life. Sometimes God puts people in our lives who provide us the guidance. God loves us and will always desire the best for us, no matter how wrong we are. 

Correction may be hard to receive, especially from the people we love, and more so when we are chastised by God, but it is worthwhile. The people who love you will always desire to see you become the best person you can be. In order for that to happen, they have to correct you when they see that you are headed in the wrong direction. For a Biblical perspective consider Proverbs 3:12 (NET): "For the Lord disciplines [corrects, chastens, punishes, scourges] those He loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights."

People who are trying to use you will not care about what is best for you. They will only be concerned with how you can serve their hidden agenda. They will take advantage of your shortcomings in order to gain a one up on you.

S.C.R.A.B.B.L.E

I love the game of scrabble.

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon.

Once played, no play can be taken back or withdrawn from the board.

Scrabble is so much like human speech. We use words which have a standard meaning, which send a message to the other person and which cannot be taken back.

In scrabble the player makes points with each word and creates a score to win or lose, likewise our words create an effect on others, making some impact. Positive or negative.

Our words are important and powerful, and definitely not to be wasted.

Words should be a testimony to the grace that is working in our life. If one has experienced grace, is aware and grateful for it, it will show in our words. Our words communicate the grace we have experienced.

A high-ranking corporate executive described what happened when he had not known grace. He said -

"Many years ago, as a professional manager I prided myself in my hard-hitting attitude and cold-hearted professionalism at work; letting nothing come in the way of success, whether people or circumstances. And when facing bottlenecks, my words and temper ripped people who I thought were responsible. Many years later, I realized those words, attitudes and temper were not a strength or a tool as I had thought, but a product of my own fear of failure because I did not know grace. And because I did not know grace, I could not show grace. "

Words are powerful tool to share the grace we have received.

In a world filled with hopelessness and uncertainty, let us use our words to share grace and bring hope. Can we practice charity in our words and use them to convey blessings, not curses? How many of us can recall the words someone spoke that pushed us past something we were dealing with, encouraged us, sparked creativity, or gave us confidence?

It's time to pass it on and heed Paul's advice when he says in Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Walk on Water: Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message.

 

Why did Peter start sinking when he tried to walk on water? What did he do wrong? Did he lose faith? Did he waver?

As Pastor Rajiv expands on this important story and the critical lessons for us today, here is a brief summary of that event. 

Peter, one of the disciples, responded by saying, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." Jesus invited Peter to come, and Peter stepped out of the boat and began walking on the water toward Jesus. However, when Peter noticed the strong wind, he became afraid and began to sink.

True Power!

The celebrated Scottish preacher, James Stewart, made a statement explaining ....: "It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His Kingdom; and that He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them."

This fact actually transforms our mental attitude toward our circumstances.

Our cribbing and self-pity over issues we face, weaknesses we have and lack of resources, all fade away once we acknowledge all and yet commit to being ready to serve. We maybe financially broken, physically challenged or mentally destroyed, yet we are of use in His kingdom. How we will be used is left to Him.

Let's take a look at some of our Biblical greats who served God. As a leader, Moses need to be a great speaker yet he couldn't speak straight. Jacob was deceptive. Abraham, too old to father a child, begot a nation. Did you know Elijah was suicidal? The great Gideon started as a coward and ended as a conqueror. Samson was a womanizer. Rahab was a prostitute. David was an adulterer and murderer. Job was bankrupt. Noah was a drunk. In fact, he is the first drunkard mentioned in the Bible. Yet God used them all magnificently! 

True Power therefore, does NOT lie in our human achievements, competencies or knowledge but in the shadow of the most high. 

Throughout scripture we see God using imperfect people for the sake of his perfect mission. The weakest become the strongest.   

Pastor Chuck Swindoll comments thus - "Once you are convinced of your own weakness and no longer trying to hide it, you embrace the power of Christ".

Thus, in our weakness we become powerful, all powerful through the power of Christ.

Where are we today? Weak and broken? Jobless? We still have opportunity and time to donate to God. Living in a country where religion is banned? Here is opportunity to share hope. Let us not use our weakness as an excuse. 

Let us use it as our power, received from God to serve God and humanity.

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The Higher you Grow, the deeper you must Bow*

Have you noticed how the tallest trees bow the most before the wind, while humans (mostly) bow before none, not even God? 

1 Peter 5 Ver 6 remains a verse in the Bible, to be referred to once in a while. 

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time".

Commenting on this topic, Chipo Biti wrote - "When we try to live our lives according to impulses inspired by pride and our egos, we are simply setting ourselves up for failure. There is no good that can ever come from thinking that we know better than God. When we try to rush for opportunities that we are not ready for, we simply end up setting ourselves up for embarrassment.

When people are not used to delayed gratification, they believe that they deserve to get whatever they want whenever they want it. This is not a wise way to live. When this happens, we ignore God's instructions and we choose to follow our own way instead because we believe that it is far better than the path that God has planned out for us".

The problem is humans have been conditioned to be goal oriented with complete dependance on self. The truth is we think God is just a helping hand and we are the main cause of our success or failure. We are so proud of our own knowledge, we become so arrogant that we lose the ability to recognize our own arrogance.

"But", Chip Biti says, "the truth is: we cannot do anything significantly meaningful without God. If we try to live our lives on our own terms it means that we are turning our backs on God."

Genuine humility lies in the fact that we put God's will, direction and timing before our own desired outcomes. The Bible defines humility in Proverbs 22:4 as - "...the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life." (Please read "fear" as reverence). It not only defines humility it also states it's benefits.

It is of critical importance that along with other things, we pray for genuine humility to fill our lives. 

Humility is an important characteristic to develop as a follower of Christ, because "pride and arrogance" are the biggest barriers to a relationship with God.

It’s hard not to gloat about the praise, glory and all the accolades that come our way. But humility requires us to point that recognition back to God.

* Old Chinese saying

The Lion & The Gazelle

 Lamentations 3:22-23

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness".

There is a traditional story in Africa which goes like this -

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” That is nature. Each does what they were created to do. 

For us too, every day is a new day, a new promise and a new beginning. Another chance to be what the creator wants us to be. To do what He wants us to do. Another day of hope for the brokenhearted. Another chance to live. Another chance to experience His love.

What should we do with this new day? This new beginning? Will it be the same as yesterday or will it be different?

As we go through life, we pass through three phases: youth, when you read and believe the word of God; middle age when you experience His word and the retired age when you relate it to personal experiences and share it with others as living evidence and in fact become the evidence.

Every day is a chance to build ourselves in whatever phase of life we are in. It is also a choice: to live for us solely or include God and fellow man in our day. To be a crutch for someone, to give someone life, as we build our own. Every day is a chance to evidence "agape" to the world.

Everything in Gods wide creation gives something to someone. What can we give?

A life worth living is of one who gives life to another. 

Just as God gives us hope, become hope for someone. As He gives us provisions, become a provider for someone. Become "love" for some. Become a helping hand or a listening ear to someone who needs. Or simply let someone know you are there.

We need to ask God every morning - "what would you have me do today? Who would you like me to reach out to? What would you like me to say?"

There is no time to waste another morning. When the sun come up tomorrow, let us be running to His will and instruction.

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Imp Notice

Pastor Rajiv invites anyone who may need prayer to simply comment in the box below mentioning what they may like prayer about. You may also write to him confidentially at rshipstone@yahoo.com

According to His Will: Pastor Rajiv's Mid Week Message

 

He Hears AND He Answers