Knowledge@Work : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection

There is a difference between knowing something and putting that knowledge to work. Lots of people know their Bible. Some can even repeat memorized verses. Others can quote references at the drop of a hat.

But according Matthew 22 14, "Many are called but few are chosen".

This is paradoxical. God calls but does not choose all those He has called. Why?

In this context one wonders who will be chosen, how will they be chosen and on what basis?

The Bible is quite clear on this actually. God, calls, people hear, but not all listen and do what they have been told. The process is quite simple. Hear- listen- do.

Thus, the people who hear the word, fill their hearts with the word and practice his word in letter and spirit are the few who may enter the gates. Sounds easy but probably one of the most difficult to apply. 

Gods word is is a double edged sword. Bitter in its condemnation and sweet in its saving grace. And saving grace only happens when we are imbibing it and then applying and doing it. We need to do as Jeremiah did: eat the word of God. Like John did as mentioned in Revelations.

There are 3 states that emerge
A. We can hear it and disregard it
B. We can hear it and memorize it
C. We can hear it, memorize it, apply it and do it.

It is  the third state that the elect are from. It's the third state that separates the hypocrite from the  truly righteous. 

Ephesians 4:24

"....and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

Dig your trench! Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Dig your trench, a.k.a - The Leap of faith. 

(Note: Todays reflection is based on the KJV Daily Devotional). 

Background 

2 Kings 3 16 17

9 So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.

10 “What!” exclaimed the king of Israel. “Has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?”

Today's reading - 2 Kings 3 16-17

While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha 16 and he said, “This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. 17 For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. 18 This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; he will also deliver Moab into your hands.

Experimentally, people know where their help is to be found. In the reading, the Kings wanted victory in war but without the critical availability of water they started at a defeat. In such a situation  they were to dig the trenches in which the precious liquid would be held. How? They did not know. Yet the promise was that God would provide not only the necessary water but also the victory they were looking for. 

We have here a few lessons we need to learn and follow: First, there has to be  to be a readiness for the blessing from our side as well as God's. This must be done in faith, in the full assurance that the blessing is about to descend, in accordance with His will. 

Secondly, the provision will be made in Gods way not ours. We can stand on our head and tell Him various means for the provision but it will happen in His way.

Lastly, prepare for abundance because our Lord provides to beyond bursting point. Whether it is a victory or provision or saving grace. 

Think about this today. What blessings have we asked for?  What trenches am I digging? have we taken that leap of faith? 

Trust: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

The dictionary meaning of trust is "believe in the reliability, truth, or ability of something or someone"

As far as God goes my definition of trust is "Implicit and all consuming faith in being led by God".

This means that trust in God, leads to non dependence on anything else. Dependence on friends, relatives, money, house and just about anything other than God is completely and totally annihilated from our minds and lives. Our mind totally and truly stay on God and God alone. With this background let us ask ourselves - do we really trust God?

For if we don't trust God but ourselves and our abilities or friends, then we don't believe. And if we don't believe, then reading His word, His promises and His prayer really have no meaning.

Now can we honestly apply the above verse to ourselves and say - 

"You will keep me in perfect peace, because my mind is stayed on you and because I trust in you"

Your work is important to God: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

There is a fine line between our  religion and our work life and many of us do not know the difference. We tend to either completely  separate the two or let one completely dominate the other, relegating it to the background. Two dimensions, independent of each other - the spiritual and the physical. 

To get a Biblical insight into this lets read 2 Samuel 5:12 - 

" And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake".

This verse caught my eye today, because of the word "perceived" which means to become aware or conscious of (something) or come to realize or understand something. David understood very well that his kingship was from God, not his own achievement. 

David also realized that God was merciful because of the Israelites, who were His people. So David was placed by God, as King, with the objective of leading, protecting and serving God's people. 

So  two things emerge very clearly: 

A. What ever we are, wherever we are, we are placed there by the Lord and 

B. To fulfil His objective or purpose for us in that placement. 

As we progress in life, do we realize that wherever we are placed, we are placed by the Lord. And therefore we are placed there to do some work for Him. We need to achieve the purpose He has placed on us as well, in both work and personal circumstances. 

And therefore our duty is to give our 100% to our work and also, live our personal and work life according to God's word, fulfilling His purpose for our life.  

Two verses come to mind when we think about this - 

Colossians 3:23 
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, and 

Proverbs 16:3
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

David did not exclude God from his kingship and relegate Him to his personal life. He invited God to manage both. And he did both with zeal and excelled to become a great King as well as a man after God's own heart. 

How to Possess Possessions: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

 "...what do you have that you did not receive? ...." 1 Corinthians 4:7

How do you possess your possessions? By opening our hands. Sounds funny am sure, but think about this: when we are to receive we open our hands, but as soon as we have received, we close them.

This does not mean we are not grateful to God. We definitely are. But in my opinion, gratitude for blessings received for God is more than mere lip service. I like this four step approach. 

A. Thank God - praise him and glorify Him publicly and privately, which means we acknowledge that God is the provider of that blessing. In continuation of the opening verse, The apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question,

 "...Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" the implications being that we think we have achieved out of our own efforts and not from God.

And that is exactly what we have to stop.

B. Share - we need to keep that hand open and look forward opportunities to Glorify God by sharing. By this I don't mean just tithes. Peoples needs, peoples hunger, death, poverty, we have enough opportunities to demonstrate Gods love for man. To demonstrate this, I will point to the Sikh religion. As soon as they know that something is wrong somewhere, they are out looking for ways to serve people. During the pandemic they were feeding people. They landed up in Ukraine to help people suffering from the war. They did not wait to be asked. 

When we share we should not allow the receiver to thank us and think we have given from our own bounty, but let it be clear it is from the Bounty of God. It is not we who should be thanked but God.

C. His to Him- seek out ways in which we can use His blessings to glorify Him. Be proactive, not wait for opportunities to come to us. Above all be passionate. Because to be proactive, one has to be passionate. 

D. Do not misuse. Sadly this is one of the biggest problems with us all. We do not remember that as receivers of blessings we are only care takers. We need to use those blessings as responsible Christians, for His glory and our needs.

I will end with this Bible verse from 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work".

Passion over Pain: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Passion over pain : A Mothers Legacy.

Have you ever thought what is passion? Although not the generally accepted context, I think Psalm 39:3 describes passions so vividly -

"I felt a fire burning inside,
and the more I thought,
the more it burned,
until at last I said:
4 “Please, Lord,
show me my future"

As we can see, the passion to do Gods will is of prime importance in whatever we have been chosen to do by God.

Today, think of the passion of a mother. She performs the role of a caretaker, chef, housekeeper, guard, adviser, saver, driver, nurse, governess, primary health care giver, discipline creator, relationship advisor, Bible teacher, moral guide, and on and on and on.

If we had to hire someone for all these roles, think of what it would cost; think if someone had to do all of this or even part of this, how tired that person will be. But more than that think of one single human being doing all these things- driven on by passion and fulfilment of a God given purpose.

We definitely need to thank God and our respective mums for all we have received - "honor her for all that her hands have done" (Proverbs 31:31) but of equal importance is to  continue the legacy that she has provided of doing the work God has given us with a passion equaling hers.

Like her, be passionate about what God has called us to do for our jobs, for His purpose and for our families, balancing our act so that not one of these becomes our idol but do justice to each of these.

Happy Mother's Day to all.

Design Thinking : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

In the professional world, "Design Thinking " is a powerful, tool/process to organize and point your thoughts to a desired action, especially in the creation of solutions.

Thoughts are powerful stuff. Thoughts lead to dreams. Dreams to desires. Desires to demands. demands to plans, plans to actions and actions to achievement.

As we can see, thoughts are the precursor to action and achievement. Whatever our input thoughts are, the action will be in the same direction.

It is the same in the spiritual world. If we indulge in spiritual thoughts, the action and achievement will tend towards the spiritual. If we allow thoughts of coveting, it will lead to acting on it which could be disaster. If we have thoughts of hate, we will end up destroying relationships. If we only think of ourselves, we will do things only for ourselves as well.

For Christians, thought control therefore is extremely critical. Paul says in Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things".

Why is thought control so important? For two reasons -

A. Thoughts influence our actions and effect our spirituality as well as physical actions.

B. God speaks to us through our thoughts. Hence it is crucial to keep our thoughts devoid of evil so that God can fill us with His knowledge and plans. He will talk to us if we still our minds and listen.

Here is what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13-
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ"

3. God gave us free choice but our thoughts and desires influence that decision. Deuteronomy 30:19 says

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!"

So friends, this was the power of our thoughts. Let me end with this verse and advice from Paul in Romans 12:2

"Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect".

So you're a Christian : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Devotional

So you're a Christian! What are you doing about it?

Starting with 12 followers 2000 years ago, Christ has a following of more than 3 Billion people today. This is unprecedented growth.


So how did it happen?

A simple answer is sharing. Sharing the spiritual and the physical blessings, sharing Gods word and sharing strife.
And that is our mandate even today.

Sharing God's word doesn't always mean evangelizing to people who don't believe in Him. Sometimes, it means getting together with other believers and strengthening each other as well. 

Today, we have one simple request to make of you, our reader: participate with us and share these posts in your Christian friends circles. 

“Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”

Someone, somewhere needs to hear God so please help us to spread the word as far and wide as possible.

God Bless you. 

Give God a Chance: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Psalm 22:1

"For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?"

David starts Psalm 22 with this cry from the depths of his despair and our Lord cried it out as He hung on the tree.

Like David and Jesus, haven't we all felt forsaken at some point in our lives? Maybe today? When it seems everything is going against us? When it seems even the God we believe in has turned away?

There is nothing wrong if one feels like that. Our Christ felt it as well. But what does one do in such a situation?

1. Question God. God is our father, he listens to us, hears us and answers us. If we have some doubt, we should question Him and I believe He will answer.

2. Sit still and listen for His answer. "Be still and know that I am God" is Gods instruction to Israel to stop their frantic war activity and let God do His work. The same holds true today. 

What we should not do is panic and do many things to help ourselves or grumble and start calling friends and family hoping for some help or advice. In all this frantic activity where is the faith and belief in God ?

Where is the chance we give to God to do His work? Most importantly where is our acceptance of His will to be done? Did God answer David's prayer? Sure He did. David's was one of the most successful Israeli kings. Did God help him? Sure. 

The Bible contains so many instances of how God helped His people, instructions to them on how to receive His help etc. Why not fall back on His word and ask Him? 

Checkmate!

Hebrews 2:14-15

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives".

The greatest gift God has given to mankind is Jesus Christ. When mankind fell due to it's disobedience in the Garden of Eden, the devil thought he had destroyed the vision and dram of God for humanity. Little did he know that God is the creator of all things and never runs out of ideas and sent His son Jesus Christ to destroy sin by offering Himself on the cross. He brought the promise of unconditional love, unending hope and eternal life to every person who believes in Him. 

But the strangest thing about this gift is that it is for everyone. If I have received it today, it becomes my duty to pass it on. Pass on that hope. Pass on that love. And pass on that promise of eternal life.

Satan was checkmated and he will be defeated again and again and again and again.....