The Pass Over promises: Our Daily Reflections

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor" 

Please read the complete  Exodus Chapter 12 

The Passover or Pascha as it is called in Judaism, dates back thousands of years, but is as true today as it was then. At that time, the blood of the sacrificed lamb was used to identify Jewish households and spare them the agony of death.

It is as true today because we who believe in Christ, know that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb to spare us the horrors of a second death, the death of our spirit. This Passover was fulfilled in Christ, whose blood was shed to free humanity from bondage to sin and death.

The first Passover held three important lessons for us today:

1. The way to freedom is through the blood of the Passover lamb, our Jesus Christ.

2. We must be ready at all times to flee from our slavery to sin.

3. Gods promise of sparing believers is as true today as was then, with the scarification of Jesus.

4. Jesus (the sacrificial lamb) is personal as well as communal to be shared with people who do not have Him in their life. 

Furthermore, we need to remember that the Passover is all about Jesus! He came as the Lamb of God. His blood redeems us. By His death, judgment was turned away and the power of the enemy was broken. We were released from bondage and oppression. We were set free to enter into God’s promise. Everything in Passover is a picture of Jesus! Every element points to Jesus!

What is the connection between the Pasha and Easter? If Passover is largely about Egypt, Easter is largely about Passover. The Passover is a reminder of Gods promise, which He kept through Jesus. Easter is about our ressurected life. The Passover is communal, while Easter is personal. R R Reno in the Wall Street Journal has this to say

"I have come to see that Christianity’s most important day recapitulates Passover. Both days (Passover and Easter) face head-on the daunting power of death—and both announce God’s greater power of life"

Let us prepare today to celebrate life, our new life, gifted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us thank God for this covenant and Jesus Christ for this redemption. Lets remember the people who brought us to Him. Let us remember and thank mentors who explained Him, the Pastors who talked about Him Sunday after Sunday and all those, in whose life we saw His work.

Easter week Day 3: The beginning of the end - Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Matthew 24:21 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will".

Please Read Matthew 24 and 25 - The Olivet discourse.

As we trace the 7 days of Easter in the last few days of Jesus's earthly life, we will understand how important these days were in terms of various messages our Lord left for us. 

Today, the third day, Jesus decided to share Gods vision for the future of mankind. He did this through what we know as the Olivet discourse. Jesus knew that 3 days later He would be physically dead. He wanted His disciples to look beyond His death, to Gods vision and things to come. He wanted his disciples to have a common vision of where they were heading, as ambassadors and apostles of Christ.

The Olivet discourse is just that. Here Jesus talks about and prophesies events and signs which will pave the way to His return. It's very important for Christians to know and understand this so that our vision, our view of our life as followers of Christ is clear, allowing us to have a shared vision with Christ.

We will be covering the discourse using notes from Pastor Rajiv's various messages. You can read them here.

Day 2 - Was Jesus in a bad mood? : Pastor Rajiv's daily reflection

The Monday after Palm Sunday.  was Jesus in a bad mood?

One story in the New Testament sticks out like a sore thumb and that is the Fig Tree episode. It can be found at Matthew 21 verses 18 and 19

18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

Why would Jesus curse that tree? It was in full foliage but with no fruit as it was not the season. So  was it the trees fault that it had no fruit? Why curse it?

I think Jesus used it as an example of people who promise a lot but deliver nothing. The non seasonal green foliage of the fig tree held out a promise of fruit but there was none. Complete hypocrisy!

This symbolism today extends to all believers, demonstrating that genuine faith is more than just outward religiosity; true, living faith must bear spiritual fruit in a person's life.

This was further underlined by His reaction in the temple that Monday, when He threw out the tradesmen operating on the temple premises.

Many of us today can learn a lesson from that fig tree and the temple cleansing. Jesus's anger was righteous anger knowing that 4 days later He would be sacrificed for these very people who were hypocrites, defiling Gods House and pretending to be God fearing and God loving. Knowing that the very people who welcomed Him yesterday, would be baying for His blood. Knowing His sacrifice was seemingly in vain.

How sad and broken would Jesus have been Knowing that?

2200 years later that question is still valid: We need to ask ourselves this Monday, are we making Jesus angry and sad or making Him smile?

7 days to Easter, 7 things to learn: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

The Donkey and the Horse. 

Matthew 21:10 "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"

Yesterday we talked about how we view Jesus Christ. Today we take that up a notch.

For Israelites who thought Jesus was a conqueror of the Romans, it must have been a disappointment to see him enter Jerusalem on a donkey! A king should be riding on a horse. The donkey on the other hand signifies peace. Jesus clearly demonstrated that He came in peace.  

Secondly, He came, not to rule over people and nations but to rule their hearts.

Simon the zealot exhorted Jesus to pronounce a rebellion, but was gently put down by Jesus.

There must have so many who would have been disappointed in Jesus, because He wasn't what they thought He was.  Maybe that is why the crowds turned against Him.

Today Jesus is not entering Jerusalem. He is entering our hearts. Our welcome will be pretty much decided by how we view Him. As a savior, what does He mean to us? . Provider, Brother, God, Helper, Teacher...? How do we view Jesus? Will we hail him one day and betray him the next or will we keep Him alive in our resurrected hearts? 

Scapegoat or Savior? Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Did Israel believe in the Messiah? Of course they did. Just like you and me.

Whether they believed Jesua was the Messiah is another story. They had imagined the Messiah as a great military leader who would give them freedom from the oppressive Romans. After all, that's what they thought was promised. And that's what they believed. And that is how they treated Jesus till they realized that such was not the case. Then they turned on Him, crying for His blood. 

Like the Israelites of then, each of us have a picture of Jesus in our minds, and treat Him accordingly. some picture a shepherd, some a king, some a preacher. How many of us picture Him as a scape goat ? (A scape goat is a person who bears the blame and/ or punishment for something they have not done).

Today the question to myself is: Do I treat Jesus as a scapegoat or as a savior?

If we think of him as our scapegoat, we have not truly accepted our fault or sins, which in turn means there is no repentance because we never accepted it in the first place. This is true whether it is Jesus or any other person or thing.

On the other hand, if we treat Jesus as our savior, we believe he not only took our sins on His head but more than that He gave us a forgiven and ressurected life, a new life, wherein after our repentance and His forgiveness, we become a new people He will be proud to call His own.

The key word here is repentance and forgiveness, both of which are based on the acceptance of our sins, not passed on to someone else's head. No scapegoat.

Tomorrow starts the countdown to Easter. In this season can we stop seeing and treating Jesus as our scapegoat but pledge to become a new people, after Gods own heart, ressurected to a new life. Through Jesus Christ, who was the sacrificial lamb for OUR very own sins.

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.