MERCY MULTIPLIED

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Verse for Today
2 Corinthians 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions.

We are privileged to enjoy the highly personalized ministry of compassion that we receive from our Heavenly Father on a daily basis. He knows us and our situations and see us with compassion, mercy and love. It is His desire that His children do not go weary and without comfort in this world, as if they are orphans. He sends us His comfort in different ways. His presence goes with us. His Spirit and Word live in us. His love encompasses around us. His grace flows to us continuously like a never-ending stream. His messages come to us through His messengers, like Paul, who receive it from Him for us. He touches our lives through others around us who are touched by Him. He listens to our prayers and cries as a patient father. He has abundant resources in His reservoir to minister unto our every affliction. He deals with us in compassion and understands us even when we feel lonely and are rejected, forgotten and forsaken by those around us. When we go through afflictions of one kind or another, He knows all about it and comes to us to fill us with Him and touches us in a special way. He strengthens us to go through our situation so that we can come out of it stronger in our faith. Each of our situations is our opportunity to taste and see Him and His grace to us. So as we go through each of our our situations, we are able to learn to trust Him more and more to keep us going and face new situations with courage and confidence. When we have such a Heavenly Father who is full of compassion and comfort, there is no reason for us to live in misery, feeling that all hope is gone. He welcomes us to go to Him with all our pain and suffering and tell Him all about it. But even before we tell Him, He knows all about it and prepares ways for us to face every situation. But as His children, He expects us to tell Him about our situations and leave it with Him to sort out.

Dear friend, you and I are blessed with such a Heavenly Father who feeds the sparrows and all the other living creatures. We know that all His creation is working for us so that we can live comfortably. His power is made available for us to draw from, in order to use it for our needs so that we can live for His cause here on earth. When there are snags on our way to follow Him, we do not need to stop and fret about it, but submit it to the Father who helps us to walk through these hindrances to continue to walk towards our destination. He is with us in the trouble and affliction and will not leave us nor forsake us. He comforts us as we face tough situations and encourages us to go through it rather than retreat. In His mercy, He carries us through the situations and brings us stronger to face greater troubles in the future. Our life is thus a series of new situations which are known to the Father ahead of time. His mercy never runs dry and it is on us as a divine fountain. In sorrows, He is our comfort and in troubles, He is our shade and shield. Under His wings, we can find peace, love, joy and strength. These experiences equip us to live stronger day by day and make us ministers of His mercy and compassion for the sake of His other children who are going through such afflictions. Our experienced hands in the stream of seemingly never-ending troubles need to touch those who are weak in faith, and strengthen them to experience the strong hands of this same Father of all comforts. May we find comfort in this loving Father and turn around to become comforts to our co-sojourners?

2 Corinthians 1:5 - For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Thought for Today
When comfort is shared, it multiplies several folds and becomes a source of courage and strength to the weary souls around us.

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GRACEFUL BEHAVIOR and

PEACEFUL RELATIONSHIPS

Friday, August 13, 2010

Verse for Today
1 Corinthians 1:3 - Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is unusual for a person to write a letter to some close friends and give them grace and peace. If we understand the world in which the writer and the receivers of the letter lived, it would be easy to realize the significance in extending grace and peace. It was a time of lack of grace in behavior and dealings. Because of this, things around were so unpredictably chaotic. There were threats and challenges in life because it was a life of faith which the enemies of gospel did not like a bit. They were not willing to allow peace to prevail. They treated these early Christian believers brutally. They were deprived of their personal belongings and were made homeless. Even their relatives were unwilling to accept them because of their faith. They were not enjoying peace around them and this has affected their inner peace in no small measure. Knowing their situation very well, the Spirit of God enabled Paul, the writer of this letter to greet them with grace and peace. They were reminded by Paul that they could enjoy graceful dealings by the Lord because He treated them as His dear children, in spite of their circumstances and situations, and over and above their weaknesses and failures. He also reassured them of the peace that passed all understanding in spite of their situations. Today we can read these lines in Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth as if it has been written to us, because we live in a world where we do not find graceful and peaceful dealings among people. Most people wear various kinds of masks suitable for the occasions and purposes, and 'act' their parts out rather than dealing with each other in grace. Even those who have received the grace of God in their lives seem to have not been able to produce graceful behavior and conversations. Thus peace is rarely enjoyed by people, because those who got peace from God are not living in peace and passing a peaceful aroma around.

Perhaps you are craving for graceful and peaceful atmosphere where you live, and getting exasperated in not being able to find peace. But we know from the Bible that we can have peace and grace from the Lord Jesus Christ which ought to transform our lives and behaviors. Peace and grace of the Lord ought to trickle down from our whole being so that it would soothe the wounded lives which are around us. Our dealings need to be salty so that it would heal the wounds in others. We should drip drops of consolation, comfort and joy to cool down the dry lives which we encounter each day. When peace and grace abound in us, we should overflow with kindness to touch the painful lives of others around us. As we share the peace and grace of the Lord with others, we abound in it more and more by the working of the Spirit of God in us. This would enable to touch more and more lives. If we abide in Him, we would never run dry, but become full to overflow continuously. This is possible only if we cultivate grace and peace in our lives, for which our lives ought to become fertile fields soaked in tears of continuous brokenness. Grace and peace will grow a hundred fold only if the field is soaked with tears of repentance and brokenness. Remember, we need to allow God's peace and grace to lay hold of us in a dynamic manner so that it will produce fruit which others will be able to enjoy. All trees are for others and all fruits are for others to enjoy and so is the life of a child of God. Today let our lives be the reservoir of peace and grace which will flow from us towards the dry lives around us so that there will be similar fruits in those fields for the glory of God.

James 4:6 - But He gives us more grace. That is why the Scripture says: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble".

Thought for Today
If we do not share the grace and peace given to us by God, we are hiding it under our flesh like the man who got one talent.

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HERALD OF HIS PEACE

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Verse for Today
Romans 15:29 - I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

Whenever we get godly visitors, it is a great blessing to us because it gives us great opportunity to have fellowship. It is a time of joy and sharing of concerns. It is also a time to discuss matters related to the Lord and His Word. It helps us to pray together and share the joy of the Lord. We often forget our problems and difficulties when we have God's children visit us. They often have words of comfort and encouragement for us. Some times, they need encouragement from us also. So godly visitors are God's gift to us for a time of mutual edification and strength. If they are people who live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it will be all the more beneficial because they come with the full measure of the blessings of Christ. They are often sent by the Spirit to us to encourage us. They have quite often short message from the Lord, which are much linked with their experiences. They come as Christ's ambassadors to us. They are the heralds of the Lord who are sent to meet our spiritual and emotional needs.

Dear friend, have you had some such visitors lately? When they come, do you take advantage of their visit by talking and sharing spiritual things? On the other hand, have you been visiting some needy Christians lately? Are you going for a chat with a weary saint, or is your visit part of formal obligation because they also made a visit to your place some time ago? Are you going to gossip or criticize others? Or are you going with the express conviction that you are being sent by the Lord as His ambassador to convey some messages of comfort from the Lord? Of course, if you want to be of use to the Lord in the lives of needy people around, you should have such a desire to have a ministry of visitation. Paul had such a ministry and he kept going from place to place and wherever he went, he carried the full measure of the blessing of Christ. The fullness of the blessings of Christ in Paul was not a quality in him because of his apostleship, but because of the intimate time he has spent with the Lord and because he was receiving comforting words from the Lord to be given to others from the Lord. If we want to follow the example of Paul, we need to sit in the presence of the Lord in sweet fellowship and learn at the feet of the Master. When you thus share in the glory of the risen Lord in His presence, you will be filled with His glory in a great measure which you will be able to pass on to the needy people around you. People would then consider your visit as that of an angel, as was the experience of some believers in the early church. We all could be angels to others, which literally only means that we are messengers to others. What better ministry can we have here on earth other than becoming angels of the Lord to convey His love, care, concern, joy, encouragement, comfort and love to others around us? Shall we also thank the Lord for sending some angels our way to strengthen us so that we will not get unduly discouraged by the circumstances and situations.

Isaiah 61:1b - He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

Thought for Today
It is a great privilege to carry messages of comfort and encouragement to the weary and the downcast.

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PERSECUTORS MIGHT BECOME SAINTS!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Verse for Today
Romans 12:14 - Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

All who want to live a godly life in this world will have persecution. This is because our godly lives are based on God's righteousness and grace which is diametrically opposite to that of this world. Thus when we follow God's pattern for our lives in this world, we are in essence challenging the standards of this world and turning this world upside down. This was how the Lord Jesus lived on this earth. He did good throughout His earthly life and continued to do good even when persecuted. He kept suffering mockery even in the pubs of Palestine and in the hands of the religious leaders who were trying to practice the Book which was written about Him. The people who ate the bread He broke and distributed shouted out against Him and were willing to trade Him for a riotous Barabbas. Even then He did good till the end. He prayed to the Father to forgive the people who brutally killed Him. He gave eternal life to a thief minutes before His death. When His beloved disciples John and James asked Him to bring down fire from Heaven to burn all His oppressors, He only rebuked them. He also warned His disciples that they will be persecuted because of Him. His message of forgiveness was practiced by Stephen when he also prayed for the Lord to forgive the religious mob which stoned him to death. But it is likely that we develop thoughts of revenge and curse because of the cruel things that people do against us. In the wake of gossip, slander, character assassination, oppression, suppression, misrepresentation, denial of justice and truth and ganging up against us, we might development thoughts about calling fire from Heaven to destroy those who oppose us. But such thoughts are not from the Spirit of Jesus. Instead, we are expected to pray that they be blessed by the Lord and not treated according to their acts of vandalism.

Have you been tempted to curse those who wronged you? Instead, ask God to forgive them and bless them. When you develop thoughts about curse or punishment for them, you have to recognize that such thoughts are from the enemy and not from the Lord. His desire for us is that we bless them and pray that God would bless them. If we try to convict them of their wrong doings, they will not become repentant. The only person who can give them repentance is the Spirit of God. If they have grieved and quenched the Spirit, it would be difficult to get convictions from the Spirit. So we will have to pray that they would get convicted by the Spirit through brokenness from the Lord so that they will feel sorry for their acts of unrighteousness against us. Let the Lord deal with them according to His mercy because if He deals with them on the basis of their wrong doings, it would grieve us also about the terrible predicament they would be in. Let them enjoy mercy and grace from the Lord to live a spiritual life and serve the Lord. If our oppressors are unsaved people, let us pray that they get saved so that their old life with its sinfulness will be forgiven and wiped away by God and that they will become saints. The Bible teaches us about the experience of Job and Paul who prayed for their oppressors and those who judged them wrongly. Let us use such examples to remind ourselves of our own failures and weaknesses and get ourselves cleansed so that our daily walk with the Lord will be without hindrance.

2 Timothy 4:16 - At my first defense, no-one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

Thought for Today
It is for us to pray that God deals with our oppressors graciously rather than to call judgment on them.

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GIFT TO THE GIVER

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Verse for Today
Romans 11:35 - Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?

The religions of the world teach that man should give to God so that he will get blessings from God. So there is a big business going on around the world where people give to religions with the thinking that they are giving to God. But God does not desire any thing from man, because God does not lack any thing. He owns the whole universe and so no one can give any thing as if God exists on the mercy of these givers. This truth leads us to another truth which tells us that God doesn't give man any thing on the basis of what he is trying to give God, because no one can give in any large measure to the creator and sustainer God to make him qualified to get any thing back from God. God does not need any thing from us and His giving is not on the basis of the small coins we give Him, but on the basis of His character of being a giver. He gives on the basis of His mercy and according to His measure. He gives in a lofty manner and spreads His goodness to all humanity very liberally. We do not need to please Him by giving any thing to Him in expectation of any thing in return. When God gave to man, He gave the best that Heaven had, and that was His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for the sins of man so that man will have a way to get back to God. He has given His Son to all, and in and through Him, God will give us every thing we need for our life and devotion. Our responsibility is to receive the gift God has given us and respond accordingly. We ought to give ourselves to God's purposes in the world on the basis of what God has given us and not the other way around.

Dear friend, have you received God's gift of the Savior and the salvation and taken it as God's special gift to you? If so, it means that He has purchased you from the clutches of sin and Satan. Now you are not yours, but belong to God. He has put the seal of His Spirit on you and so no one else can take you away from God. But, even though you are God's, He will not take you by force, and wants you to give yourself to Him as a sacrifice. He will accept only voluntary gifts and will not take you by force even though you are His. If you give yourself to Him, He will receive your consecration and use you the way He wants. He will put you to best use whenever and wherever He is pleased and will take glory out of your life. While He makes use of you, He will meet all your temporal needs for food, shelter and clothing so that you can continue to live a life of full surrender to His will. So, your life is not one where you give God some 'bribery' in order to get a few material favors from Him. God is not in this kind of a worldly business of taking some small gift from you as a means to 'bless' you. In fact, He has already blessed you with all the blessings of the Heavenly places, and there is nothing to add to it. The only blessing you can have is to pass the blessings you have received from Him on to others and thus become a blessing to the people around you. But if you have not given yourself to God as a token of your gratitude and worship, you are a debtor to Him. Remember, whatever He has entrusted with you has made you His steward and He expects you to manage all these resources for the Master to get all the credit and benefit. By the way, have you given yourself willingly and joyfully to God who already owns you? It involves your whole body, mind and heart, all that you have which He has given you, and all that you are. If you have given yourself to God, then you are living on God's resources and time for Him. All that is pleasing to God is what ought to please you and you are satisfied with all that He allows you to pass through. Are you a satisfied person today because you are expected to live on God's terms and agenda?

Job 41:11 - Who has a claim against (God) that I must pay? Everything under Heaven belongs to Me.

Thought for Today
When I live daily on God's terms, how can I be less than the happiest and most contended person on the face of the earth?

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IT'S ALL YOURS FOR THE ASKING

Monday, August 09, 2010

Verse for Today
Romans 10:12b - for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him.

We live in a world where every one is in need of something or the other. The needs vary from physical or material, to financial, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual. Each person has these needs in varying degrees and they use different means to meeting these needs. One feature of all of these needs is that the more we meet these needs, the more we crave for these and the desire never ends. So all of man's efforts in this world are to meet his needs and he uses all possible methods to reach full satisfaction which sadly eludes him. Most of these needs cannot be permanently satisfied, and in most cases, the more we have, the more we crave to have in larger quantity. We go for higher qualitative methods to meet the needs as well. God has physical resources to meet physical needs of people and He gives it to us in the measure in which we need it, and He gives also to all the living creatures. Often there is disparity because some people get and keep more for them. In spiritual matters, the need is met when we go to God asking, seeking and knocking at His door. It is like going to an ocean and taking a hand full of water and drink, but cannot claim that we had the whole ocean in us. God can be experienced like this. When we have spiritual food and water from God, it satisfies, but gives us a deeper desire to know Him more and imbibe into His person more and more deeply. But the amazing truth is that God is abounding in rich resources to meet every need in His own way, based on the divine principles which we find in the Bible.

So there is no need for man to starve in spiritual matters and go to other people, philosophies, institutions or religions to meet these needs. Man can go to God who is spirit. He has great resources which are all kept for His children who ask Him. Children have a right to get it from Him because He is their father. But in order to qualify to get these spiritual resources from God, man has to first become a child of God by accepting Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord. God has given His children a guarantee on His own name that if they ask Him, He will surely give, because He is willing to give and He has enough and more to give to those who genuinely desire deeper things of God. So why are a lot of people starving for spiritual food today? It is because they do not ask. Jesus said that if we first seek His kingdom and His righteousness, all the necessities of life will be added to us. His reservoir is full of good things and He gives only good things as gifts to His children. Dear friend, are you lacking in the basic necessities in life? Your place to start is a deep desire for God and for His kingdom, and as He gives you wonderful spiritual experiences, He will also give you all your necessities so that you can live to glorify God in this world. So please do not hesitate to ask God. He is the greatest giver and the owner of the greatest and most desirable resources in this universe. If you are not receiving, it is likely that you are not asking with importunity, and not putting God as your first priority. Remember, all that God has is yours through Jesus Christ and you need to possess it all by faith and through prayer, to enjoy and to give Him all glory for it all.

Psalms 9:10 - And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Thought for Today
The Children of the Heavenly Father will not lack any good thing because the Father's Warehouse is full of good things which are for His children simply for the asking.

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MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE FOR THE NEEDY

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Verse for Today
Romans 9:16 - So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Man in his pride and arrogance often thinks that his achievements in this world are because of his ability and smartness. This feeling is often reflected in the claims they make about their accomplishments in this world. Sometimes, God's children also fall into this bait by the enemy of their soul, to boast and feel elated in their self esteem when they speak about their successes and gains. God's children also have to examine to see if all that they have is filthy lucre which they gained through unscriptural and unspiritual means. But the Word of God underscores the truth that all that the Lord gives us through His means, including our salvation, are not because of our abilities or intelligence, but because of the mercy of our God. He shows compassion to us and allows us to enjoy certain privileges and opportunities. These are for us to feel confident in the Lord that He is with us and that He is the one who meets all our needs. It thus helps us to continue to trust Him and grow in our faith in Him and His promises. These accomplishments are for us to be more humble before the Lord and to praise Him more and more for His grace and mercy to us. We should never forget the fact that we exist and move forward because of Him alone. Our gains are not because we make the right decisions to do something or because we run around to manage our affairs well. Any proud claims make one wonder whether what we have is from the Lord or earned by us through ungodly means. Such claims are the ways of the world. God's children do not have any right to trust in the self because our self is crucified with Christ and is daily killed. All our strength and power are like a vapor, and had it not been for the Lord, we would have been wiped out from the face of this earth. So we need to attribute all that we are and all that we have to the Lord and continue to submit ourselves as living sacrifice on His alter as a sweet smelling savor for the Lord to get full and absolute glory from our lives.

Dear friend, are your accomplishments coming from the Lord or from your self and its competence? Are your achievements originating from your sharp mind and tactical moves or are they coming to you as a gift from the Lord? The simple fact is that the Lord is pleased to entrust certain resources with us so that we can use it all for His glory and for the extension of His kingdom. We are not to claim it to have come from our abilities, but to attribute it all to the Lord's mercy and compassion. He forbids us from putting it into our selfish use and enjoying it for our own gratification. Even if we have some resources in excess of our basic needs, they are to be used for the Lord's cause. Remember, we have to be willing to loose what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot loose which is awaiting us in our eternal home in Heaven. Our health, basic material possessions, education, knowledge, experience, relationships, positions, privileges, prominence, ministries and all the abilities will all be lost from us when our lives end here on earth. But once we are ready to attribute all of these to the mercy of God and use it with the spiritual wisdom which He has given us, for His glory and for the furtherance of the gospel, we will make eternal investment out of it. We will see the results of this when we stand in His presence. The Lord expects us to live a life of continuous brokenness and the feeling of being zeroes before Him and confess like King David and Gideon that we have no qualification to enjoy anything that we have today. Let us submit all that we are and all that we have at the feet of Jesus and confess that it has all come from Him out of His mercy and loving kindness, and continue to thank Him for His benevolence.

Lamentations 3:22 - It is because of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.

Thought for Today
Receiving from the Almighty out of His unfailing mercy and then claiming it to be out of our smartness is utterly illogical and the greatest form of ingratitude.

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