I am not done yet! Pastor Rajiv's daily Reflections

John 20:7 "and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself".

Why would the Son of God, who had just conquered death, bother to pause and leave His tomb tidy?

According to the tradition of that day, after a servant set the dinner table, he would wait, just out of sight, until the family had finished eating. If one of them was done, they would rise, wad up the napkin and toss it onto the table -- the signal to clear their setting. However, if they got up from the table, folded their napkin and laid it beside their plate, the message was "I'm not finished yet." The folded cloth served to whisper to those who listened, "I'm coming back!"

And He did, as we all know. But why come back AND stay for 40 days? to do what? Jesus knew He had a lot of business to attend to, primarily to serve the singular objective of the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:19–20 contains what this Great commission is: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you".

In the coming days we shall see what were those tasks and why they were important enough for Jesus to have spent 40 days, before His ascension. We shall also see why they are important today an d how 12 people created a movement of 2.5 Billion people today! 

After all, the Great Commission is still alive.

Operation Sting

The Heavenly Gazette

Monday edition

STING OPERATION SUCCESSFUL ! 

It is with a great sense of relief and joy that we report that the sting operation we carried out against Satan, headed by the son of God, is concluded with an immense victory against his satanic  forces. 

According to our correspondent on Earth, God's son, Jesus, as He is known on Earth,  has succeeded in the most impossible task of standing in for the world's sins - past present and future, by offering Himself as the required sacrifice, ensuring the  humans down on earth can follow their original charter of being Gods people. Our correspondent has also been promoted and will remain on Earth after Jesus to ensure His work continues.

He further reports that Satan, along with his cohort was laughing in delight on Friday, when silly and selfish humans killed Jesus, little realizing that Jesus would over come even physical death and rise again. Today they have realized that no force in the universe is equipped to overcome God, our king.

We are also happy to report that Jesus's  resurrection means that eternal life is granted to all who believe in Him, meaning that those who do, are potential citizens of our heavenly world. We welcome all the new applicants as they qualify. Human followers of Jesus have been tasked with the job of maximizing applicants  by spreading Jesus's teachings and increasing His followers on Earth so that we can increase heavenly citizenship.  

While Satan and his forces tried their best to sow doubts about Jesus being the son of God, His resurrection rebuked all that and provided final and undeniable proof that He is really the Son of God and that He had overcome both deaths once and for all.

The resurrection further affirms Jesus of Nazareth  as the King and Lord of the new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth, which is our Kings plan.

Some key humans were excited to know that Gods love for humans was proven in sending His son and our brother to the earth to be crucified and killed, in keeping with His promise to save the world. Jesus's love for humankind was what kept Him hanging on that cross, despite the extreme physical pain and finally, Gods love for His son, proving the sons heirship, which resurrected Jesus from the grave, defeating satanic forces and opening the door once again between humans and  God.

Perpetual Victory

The satanic world never realized what was going to happen and what was the actual plan of God. While they cheered and celebrated, Jesus neutralized their threat completely, triumphing over sin and spiritual death, once and for all. 

Our Lord the king has ruled that today should be celebrated by all, in heaven and the earth where humans now know that they can die to their old way of living and resurrect into a new life with Jesus Christ. They are calling it Easter. For followers worldwide, the importance of Easter will be in  praising and acknowledging Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, and His glorious assurances of eternal life in heaven for all who believe in Him. On the practical side, every Easter will be an opportunity for Christ's followers to crucify their old self and resurrect into a new life in Christ. In fact, one senior follower of Jesus by the name of  שמעון בן יונה (or shimon ben yonah) is quoted as saying-

"Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Meanwhile Jesus has a few chores left and will be returning to us after 40 days. Mr. Moses and Mr. Elijah have been requested to accompany Him on His return journey.

Easter Blessing

1 Peter 1:3 3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

HE IS RISEN. CHRIST JESUS IS RISEN INDEED. 

Lord God, You loved this world so much, that you gave your one and only Son, that we might be called your children too. Lord, help us to live in the gladness and grace of Easter Sunday, everyday.

Let us have hearts of thankfulness for your sacrifice. Let us have eyes that look upon Your grace and rejoice in our salvation. Help us to walk in that mighty grace and tell your good news to the world.  All for your glory do we pray, Lord, Amen.

And now....

May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year bring peace and happiness to you and those you hold most dear. And may Christ, Our Risen Savior, always be there by your side to bless you most abundantly and be your loving guide , in your journey of prosperity, in your job, your health, your family and your walk with Jesus. Amen. 

Why the "Good" in Good Friday? : Pastor Rajiv's Good Friday Message

 

Who Killed Jesus? : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection

 I DID

YOU DID

   WE ALL DID. 

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.