Finding the Good in Evil : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

 Todays Reflection: Forgiving evil. 

Genesis 37: 26-28

Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. 28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Forgiveness is not blind. It's does not happen at the spur of the moment. It's a process.
I take example and inspiration from Joseph. Why and how did he forgive his brothers?
His brothers had sinned against Joseph and God. But God had a different plan. He wanted to use Joseph for ensuring continuity of his family.

Joseph forgave his brothers, after their true repentance. The Agape Bible study explains this so well and the following points are taken from here https://www.agapebiblestudy.com/Genesis/Lesson_18.htm

Joseph put his brothers through three tests -
"The first test was the brothers' three day imprisonment which was intended to cause them to come to terms with their sin against him.
The second was a test of their willingness to rescue their brother Simeon by bringing their brother Benjamin to Egypt and retuning the money Joseph put in the sacks of their pack animals.
The third was a test of their willingness to sacrifice their freedom for the life of their youngest brother, Benjamin".

Only after these were successfully completed, did real forgiveness set in because Joseph was sure that true repentance had set in. 

Forgiveness, while being at the core of the Christian faith, is not to be given away like bread. It is to be nurtured so that all ill feeling is got rid of completely, from both sides. True forgiveness happens after true repentance. 

Evil will happen. But if we look , and ask for Gods help, we can find good in evil. And when we do that we can either continue to hate the perpetuator of that evil or choose to find the good, praise God and forgive, after we are sure that there is true repentance and sorrow. If we don't find repentance,  it is still possible not to hate since we derived good from their evil act.  

Time and Opportunity: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." Ecclesiastes 9:11

God is good and great. He created the heavens and the earth and everything therein. He also created time to govern the earth. When Adam was created, God gave him the chance to practice his supremacy over the all earth and name the plans and animals. Yet, he blew it! 

Like God did with Adam, He does with all. He gives each of us time and opportunity. How we use them is up to us, because we have freedom of choice. The difference between the poor and the rich, the great and the not so great or small is simply this: The use of the time and opportunity available to them. 

Therefore, we must be  conscious of the time God has given to us  and alert to opportunities that He may present. And then, we must choose wisely on how to use them to become wiser and profitable, rather than corrupt that time and opportunity by using them for something contrary to God's laws or His will. 

For with the  time afforded to us and every opportunity presented to us, there is a corresponding responsibility as well. Choose responsibly. And live well.  

What's in a name? : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Acts Chapter 5 Verses 1-11

Yesterday we talked about what we are willing to offer God. We also talked about what God may accept.

As a sequel, today lets look at what God expects from us through two extreme characters in the Bible. Abraham and Ananias.

As we all may well know, "Abraham" means "the father of many". From a barren man to becoming the father of Israel was the blessing God gave Abram.

But do we know the meaning of Ananias? The name Ananias is a boy's name meaning "God has given". Ananias is a New Testament name of three different figures. The two good ones were a high priest and a disciple of Paul. The not so good Ananias was the husband of Sapphira who conspired to deceive the apostles and was struck dead.

What did he (the third Ananias) do to deserve to die?

Simply, he was trying to cheat God! Cheat Him of what He had given! Even his name means "God had given" and yet, he tried to go back on what he had promised. Both he and his wife.

What is the lesson to be learnt here? Don't we do it all the time, maybe not in terms of money, but in terms of other promises we may have made to God or in God's name, or other stuff which we know God wants us to do but we don't do it.

So what does God expect from us? Simply to follow the commandments He has given and to do what we have promised Him, or in His name. Abraham held back nothing including the life of his son. Ananias did not keep his promise. So who are we like? Abraham or Ananias? 

What can you offer? Our Daily Reflection

4 Tremble and do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
and trust in the Lord

We all want to offer God something - be it a tithe or some gifts for the church etc. But God has a condition - that our offering comes from a contrite heart, which essentially means that we are aware of, and stop sinning. Thinking about our actions and making choices that God approves of. The right sacrifices or offerings that God accepts are thanksgiving, praise, kindness, charity, tithes, and our bodies, ridding them of bad habits or practices we may have fallen into.  

What did Abraham think when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac? We will never know in this world. But God does not want sacrifice in the flesh, but sacrifice in the heart. Abraham was prevented from sacrificing Isaac and was given a ram instead, and for his willingness was promised great blessings. 

The big question is this: What are we willing to offer God? And the bigger question is- What  is God willing to accept? 

Not I but Christ: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

 Mark 5:  14-16 - 

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven

A verb is a doing word. Not static but active, just as our religion is.  Being active in Baptism is not only about going around preaching to the world but first about change in ourselves and then about showing the world.

Christianity is a way of life, not a religion of do's and don'ts only. When we choose to practice it, our psyche and our behavior, change. It effects the choices we make, the people we meet and the language we speak. It effects how we work, our profession, our relationships with people, and with the world.. In short it brings about change within us. This change is then visible to the world which acts as an example for others. But how do we do it? 

As practicing Christians, We need to ask ourselves, is there a change in me? Create a measure. It may be a good idea to honestly list out things which are in us and not in the Word of God. Am I fond of gossip? Have I stopped. Am I gluttonous? Has my gluttony reduced. Am I prone to abusing, cursing or swearing? Has my language changed. Do I condone immorality? Have my views changed. Has my empathy factor increased?

These are just examples. Each one of us have our unique set of traits that are un Christ like. These changes are not done overnight. Time needs to be set aside daily to imbibe Gods word. Please not I use the word imbibe which means to absorb, not just read. This is a change in itself. For example, take the 7th commandment. Thou shall not commit adultery. I may not be in the literally sense but I maybe doing exactly that in the figurative sense by adulterating Gods word or letting other things get priority over God.

These are some of the changes we must bring about, before, like Paul, we can say not I but Christ lives in me.

Your Will, Not mine : Pastor Rajiv's Mid week message

 "Not mine, but your will be done"

All we have is time: A first hand account of God's work

I, you and we belong to a world where more is less. We want more of everything, from food to clothes to cars, to education and other luxuries. When we get what we wanted, we dream and want the next level. We want it for ourselves as well as for our children, which is natural. And our children want the same for their children. And the story goes on till it can no longer,  because we die. And we spend the last few years of our lives deciding who to give what, of what is left of what we have collected.

So we spend 20 years dreaming, 40 years acquiring and then the last phase where we are giving or rather planning to give.

Covid broke that vicious circle for me. 

I and my family were stuck in a foreign country for more than 2 years. We had planned travel for 1 month but spent  2 years and more. Everything we had was in our home which was locked up and deserted. We had to learn to manage on less. Less money day by day, less clothing, less fashion, less friends, less access to things we took for granted in our country like education, etc etc. Everything was less except food since our hosts, my brother and his family saw to all our provisions.

And we survived. Professionally, I gave the option to our small team to go out and find a job. Most did. One stayed. And i am most indebted. 

Personally it was a challenge as well.... I have a closet of numerous coats, an overcoat and numerous woolen pants. And here I was stuck in winter with none. I prided my self on clothes and dressing. That pride went down the drain. But we survived.

We survived without a car, without travel, without shopping, without our luxuries which we thought were necessities. We who never boarded a bus, travelled in busses and trains and walked. And we loved it!

Through these two years all we had was time. 

To think, to review our lives and figure out how to make it better. And we did. Not in terms of money. not in terms of riches. Only in terms of experiencing God's love. and His hand on us. 

Yes, God's hand was on our family. Our elder daughter who got left behind earlier was able to travel abroad and join us against all odds. An answer to our prayers, because we were having our own plans of getting out and being with her in her place of posting. 

Our hibernation in fact protected us. I know that with my business travel in India, I would have been sure to get Covid. Not only this, numerous encounters with Gods hand at work showed us He was with us always.

Since we had time we started deepening our devotions. Started understanding more, reading more following more. And the more we imbibed from His word, the more satisfied were, the more happy we were. Our desire for the material turned into a desire for His knowledge and truth. And all of this, was prompted by Rev Rajiv Shipstone. 

In the meanwhile, The pandemic changed my life with one single change - I lost the desire for more things and gained the desire for more of His word.

Today I am back in my natural habitat. But the first thing I did on my return was to empty out my closets, give away shoes, clothes, artefacts and miscellaneous stuff which I had held onto for years and years. That stuff filled a full room.

With desires being gone, that empty space got filled with Gods word, and a strange thirst to know more.

And hence today I quote 

"Two things I request of You

(Deprive me not before I die):

8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;

Give me neither poverty nor riches—

Feed me with the food allotted to me;

9 Lest I be full and deny You,

And say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or lest I be poor and steal,

And profane the name of my God" 

The key line is "Give me neither poverty nor riches.... "Feed me with the food allotted to me" which translates to a prayer we all know, "give us this day our daily bread". 

Our Father in Heaven... Holy be Your name,

May your Kingdom come,  May your will be done,

In my life. 

Give me today my daily bread, and Forgive me for all those times I doubted you. Forgive me when I spoke against you, when I grumbled on my situation. When I thought you were missing in action. Help me to let go of all doubts and issues I have with my brethren. Protect me from the evil which surrounds me, of ill health, of ill thoughts and son on. 

for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.