Fight that F.U.D. - Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

FUD stands for Fear, uncertainty and doubt. It is a very powerful tool, sometimes used by sales people to conjure a problem and position their product as the solution. All three, are are mainly from a perceived situation or a perceived threat. It's a natural emotion. You can read more about FUDs here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt

Fuds are also a powerful tool used by Satan as well, because humans are very  susceptible to fear. These are so much more serious than sales fuds. They can in fact destroy us, if we are not strong.

 

As Christians , We face FUDs in our daily life, and when we do, we need to run into the word of God (note the word "into" not "to") and find our strength.

Paul's second letter to Timothy explains why we need not be susceptible to FUDs.

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".

The Bible is full of verses that give us to power to fight and overcome FUD. And not only fight it but convert it into Faith , Certainty and Determination. Faith in God the father to be with us, Certainty that He will support us in whatever we face and Determination to overcome, any adverse circumstance, with the help of Jesus and God the Father.

Let me draw on Gods promises, nay, a commandment, made through Joshua and Paul to give you that strength and certainty if you need it today, as I most certainly do.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Romans 8:28

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose".

Do we "Love to Hate"? - Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Hate.
Has hate overcome us? Do we really love our neighbors as we profess?
Have you ever heard the cliché, “no bond is stronger than two people who hate the same person?” It turns out there is actually some truth to that statement. You can actually read more about it here https://www.scienceofpeople.com/hate/.

But today, this is not about hate but why we profess love, but love to hate.

As Christians we are commanded to love our neighbor (which includes everyone in this globally connected world) as we love ourselves which essentially means we do not do things to someone , anyone (even on social media) we would not do to ourselves.
And yet we do.

Do we really know what love is? There are 15 attributes to love. Unless we can't tick all 15 towards everyone (including social media) we cannot claim to be loving. AND IF WE CANT CLAIM THAT, WE DONT LOVE. AND IF WE DONT LOVE, WE HATE.

Peter Druker said "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it". As an exercise, let's evaluate ourselves against these 15 attributes and see for ourselves. These attributes are based on 1 Corinthians, 13 Verses 4-8. 

Love is patient,(1) love is kind (2). It does not envy (3), it does not boast (4), it is not proud (5) 5 It does not dishonor others (6), it is not self-seeking (7) it is not easily angered (8), it keeps no record of wrongs (9).6 Love does not delight in evil (10) but rejoices with the truth (11) It always protects (12), always trusts (13), always hopes (14), always perseveres (15).


How did it go?  Can we improve? Of course we can. After all Christ did it and If we have Him in our life, emulating Him is our goal. 

Are you ready to face Goliath? Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection

Are you ready to face your Goliath? 

1 Samuel 17 Verses 34-49

34But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 38Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off.

King David was a man after Gods own heart. But he was also an ordinary man like you and me. He had qualities which we could use when we face our personal Goliath's, in terms of our challenges. These qualities were:

Bravery

David was a brave man. In 1 Samuel 17 verses 34 to 36 he states his qualifications to fight Goliath. His acts of bravery and his wins. I would like to know of a single man or woman today, who would fight a hungry lion to save his sheep. In this world of 8 bn people I know of no one, except one (to be discussed later). David was bravery personified. A man to acclaim and laud.

Humility

David knew he was brave, but he also knew his bravery came from knowing that he would not be harmed by the lions because his God was with him. And in verse 37 he gives all credit, all 100 percent of it, to God. He humbled himself before his God.

Faith

David's bravery also stemmed from faith. In ver 37 he states that God would protect him from Goliath as He protected him against the wild animals. His faith in God to fight Goliath came because he had known that his God protected him.

Complete dependence

When he was going out to fight, Saul covered him in his own amour, with sword and shield. But David did not know those and he could not manage. Instead, he depended on what he knew: God alone could protect him and grant him victory.

Like David, we too face our own Goliaths. They maybe situations or people, or even our own habits. How do we overcome? By being like David. Completely dependent only on God for our bravery and our victory. But first, like David, we need to be humble, have complete faith and dependence on God. 

And that's the hard part. Not the battle. 

Attitude of Gratitude : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Whatever our lot in life, we have a choice of gloating, groaning or gratitude.

"An Attitude of Gratitude is a regular habit to express appreciation for all different parts of life, no matter how small. If you concentrate on what you have, you'll always have more". https://www.yourlifeyourvoice.org 

While this is not a mantra, it is a good principle  because such an attitude creates a positive mindset and self healing, mentally and physically.

David did this regularly, thanking and glorifying our creator. Like David we too can choose to give thanks for ourselves, what we have and our life on earth. Feel positive. Feel good. Psalm 100, expresses this attitude. We can read it, pray it or sing it.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Understandably, people who are in some depth of despair, may not feel like praising and thanking anyone, least of all God. But in the experience of others who too have been in despair and sadness, if we develop this as a habit, over time our entire attitude to ourselves and  the world around us changes. 

Thanking and praising God, helps us to get up once again and move on and above all engages God in our daily life. 

What Happened to Grace? Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection.

Romans 12:18 : If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Lately there has been a lot of talk of Will Smith and Chris Rock. While that's a topic for the press and magazines, one wonders what happened to a thing called grace?

As Christians, We expect grace from God. We pray for it and sometimes demand it. But what about us showing grace to our fellow men? If we expect grace, we need to practice grace ourselves. Humility, humor, forgiveness, gratitude,, compassion, accepting people for who they are, etc., everything grace comprises of are forgotten, it seems. We have a right to hit someone, the right to abuse, the right to take revenge - and we think we also have the right to Gods grace? Really? 

You may ask  what happens when someone hurts us? Such are the testing times of our own grace and faith in Gods word who said - "Vengeance is mine". It is not ours.

The Bible is full of verses which tell us that we need to share grace.

Ephesians 4:29 
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

1 Peter 4:10 
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

Matthew 5:7 
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

God's grace is free for us to to receive. At the same time it is free for us to share as well.  If you want to practice grace in your daily life, here is a good resource:  

https://themom-forum.com/bloglist/ways-to-practice-grace/

So far as Romans 12:18 goes, the responsibility to practice and show grace is ours. Lets find grace and share it. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection: K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S? Keeping it simple and straightforward. 

Lets' be honest. A lot of u are reading this because of the anagram? Wondering what it stands for, attaching different meanings etc., and in short making it a complex puzzle. That's natural. We love complexity and I call it the complexity syndrome.

So many business organizations also go through this complexity phenomenon as well, with the result they lose focus on what they started out to do.

And that is what happens in Christian life too. We can complicate it so much with dos and don'ts that we lose focus on the end. The means become the end.

For example, we are taught to follow the commandments, which most of us think are 10. Did you know there are 613 commandments in the Bible? Can I follow all 613? Probably not. But Christ made is simple and straightforward when He said in Mark 12: 29- 31: 


The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”


These two commandments sum up the all. If we love our God only, we place him above all else - money, time, people, family, etc, not letting anything or anyone take a priority over God.

 
If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will never ever hurt him or her or even think about it. Adultery, murder, covetousness - all are removed.

 
You get the picture. Let's not fall into the complexity syndrome and end up with nothing. Let not the means God has given us to live by, become the end.

Mid Week Message : The Two Principles of Forgiveness, Mrs. S. David, Guest Speaker

Our mid week message by Mrs. S. David inspires forgiveness as she talks about the two principles of forgiveness. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection : The Other side of Failure

There are times when the heavens seem shut and drought and barrenness and failure surround us in whatever we do. It must happen to everyone and we have nothing to do but wonder what went wrong? At such times friends, relatives etc offer no consolation. They can't because they themselves may not know the pain or outcome.

But there is one who knows. One Who had gone through worse and yet survived. Job. Job's story in the Bible, is the perfect example of holding God high, irrespective of His circumstances. Looking beyond the obvious as we say. Today his story can help us beyond and to the other side of failure and fear.

Of special mention are verses Job 5:17-26 

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

These verses give strength when they say that while we may go through the worst - the worst cannot kill us. 

We may not be spared the situation, but the situation cannot destroy us.
Today if you are going through such a phase in life, it maybe a good idea to read through the book of Job.

Are we prejudiced or racist? Pastor Rajiv's Message for the week:

It is shocking that in Christendom, slavery  and racism was rampant in America and Europe and other parts of the world, in some form or the other,   till abolished in the mid to end of the 1800s. But, in spite of several commandments, scriptures, parables etc in the Bible, against it's practice, in some cases even equating it with sin, the concept of race supremacy prevailed, leading to world wars and bilateral wars. Even now, name calling some one on their color or race or looks is prevalent. 

God is not black or white or yellow or brown. God is a spirit. He has not made anyone superior. 

Today, Pastor Rajiv talks about prejudices, from a biblical perspective and how we as Christians need to respond. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection: How to turn a blessing into a curse

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.”— Romans 1:25

Most of us have experienced highs and lows in life. We have experienced Gods blessings as well as downturns when the heavens seem to be shut. While that is a topic for another time, today I was prompted to share how we tend to misuse a blessing. I assure you it's very easy.

How many times, when we are blessed, say we got a promotion at work, do we imagine it is a reward for our work. We thank God for being recognized, but do we recognize God as being the cause, and we the effect and not the cause. Imagined strengths sometimes lead us to misplaced thanksgiving, and misplaced praise.

Self proclamation is another dangerous trap we sometimes fall into. The servant is not greater than the master and we are not greater than our Lord, no matter how great our sermon is, or how much we give to charity. All that was given by God. We were just a channel. Yet, while in word we acknowledge this, in deed we sometimes do not.

Our blessings are to be shared so that they become a blessing for someone else. Pass it on. Yet, do we pass it one? Apart from tithes do we actively look to pass it on?

Our God is a jealous God and He does not like it when praises and thanks giving which were rightfully His, to be diverted to someone else, including ourselves. It is to our detriment that we may give glory to the wrong person. In fact, when we 

God does not need praise. There is no lack in him. There is no “need” that God has which must be satisfied. He is to be praised because we must be grateful to the our creator and the author of our story. 

"Also, praising God is good for the one who praises him. There is something spiritually beneficial when we humble ourselves and praise him. There’s a spiritual benefit to worshiping him, to speak of him in terms of adoration. Somehow, someway God is there with us in our praises to him" - Matt Slick , Carm.org.