Do you have an answer ?

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Colossians 4:5-7

When we read the newspaper everyday, (I’m learning the habit with a lot of effort). We see different things and glimpse at different worlds. The law made, the law implemented, the law broken we get to read everything in there.

But do we have a Bible based Christian opinion about the things we read in the paper and exposed in the media ?

When two large democracies come together for a strategic partnership, God had the major say in it. Did we, the laborers in the kingdom seek to find out what it is ?

When war causalities rise in different parts of the world, and innocent civilians are killed, Do we spend time with God’s word to find out what is God’s answer to the pain ? No, we read and proclaim Psalm 91 for our protection.

When new tax , education and other civilian laws are being made, do we look for any precedences in God’s Word ? or is our response to it based on majority popular opinion ?

When we read about the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, did we just raise our eyebrows and say, “These are the last days!!” or did we find out why God despises it and what is God’s gracious response to them ?

When we read about the Naxal elements isolating certain zones under terror. Did we try to peek into their hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit to understand the reason for their frustration ?

Our eyes readily move, through every bit of the juicy rumours and gossips of the showbiz industry, but after reading and enjoying the whole of it, we make this face and become super righteous judges saying, “These people are living for their own lustful desires!! SHAME ON THEM “

Does it make sense when I say that we need to wait on God to ask Him to show us how to intercede for them ?

I believe that every Christian should have strong Bible Based opinions on every political ,economical ,social and cultural issue. This is a great tool for evangelism.

(I really don’t qualify to talk about effective evangelism because I haven’t yet led anyone to the Lord completely, but I am convinced in the truth of what I am saying)

It is easy to start a conversation from the day’s headlines.When we talk to outsiders , unbelievers, are we taking enough effort to work on our conversations to lead them to an understanding of God’s stand on the world He created?

Do we have an answer for everyone ?

When we do, we can lead them to the love of Christ.

Aspiring to read the Newspaper with the Bible in my heart and intercede for the horrifying reality that we live in.

Laboring Queens

The last week was berserk.

Mumbai, the most energetic metropolitan of India was paralyzed with fear when terrorists attacked 11 busy and populated places on 26th November.The Taj luxury hotel, a prestigious 105 year old heritage building was under siege holding in custody many hostages. The Oberoi Trident Hotel was also victim to the same.The Nariman House, which is a Jewish outreach center in the city was seized and assaulted leaving 8 of its inmates killed. The total number of confirmed fatalities of the 2 day Islamic militant attack sized up to 195 and more than 300 people were wounded.

In Tamil Nadu, torrential rains created havoc.86 persons died, and thousands became homeless.Roads became inaccessible, and standing crops in over 100,000 acres of land became totally submerged in flood waters.

I was reading the book of Esther as a part of my daily devotion and in seasons of crisis, such as these times, I’ve learnt many lessons for my own life from the life of Esther.

“…Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” [Esther 4:14]

The Background

King Xerxes ruled over a kingdom that stretched from India in the east to Egypt in the west.

The lives of all the Jews living in this Persian empire were threatened by the order given by King Xerxes who in-turn was poisoned by minister Haman, an anti-semitic.
One Jew was safe, Haddasah, who rose to be a queen and was later named Esther.

She had a choice, she could reveal her identity and fish an opportunity to save her kindred, but if the King was not convinced she could lose her life instantly. Or ; she could stay silent, and live in safety and comfort while her brethren were being massacred.

We know how Esther fasts and prays for 3 days to boldly confront the situation. She meets the king, despite the high risk involved, plans a perfect banquet inviting Haman, and gently revealed to the king his evil ploy , and further created opportunities to provoke his anger and completely destroyed Haman, along with his plan and secured the safety and progress of the Jews.

The Lessons

Some are called to be a queen in the enemy’s palace.

I am graduating in Engineering this year, I plan to do a masters in Business Administration and also want to be certified in various technologies.I see myself as an entrepreneur in the near future handling diversified products and services.

But do you know what I am called for?

I am called to be laborer in the field of the Lord’s harvest.This is not my wish list, but my confirmed purpose.

Every work, every degree, every business venture for me is an effort, an act of labor in my Father’s vineyard.

Esther used her position to maneuver the decision of the king preventing the annihilation of the Jews.She could not have done this, had she been an ordinary Jew girl.[Esther 5:3]

Sometimes God gives His children extraordinary position and power in this sinful world, not just because He loves to “bless” but because there is an assignment that He intends to complete through the position He’s given you.
*God uses those who are willing to be promoted but who are not willing to be assimilated.

Greater the position, higher the responsibility towards the Kingdom.

You need Prayer even if you are a queen.

It is strange how some of us label only a few as “prayer warriors”, and conveniently delegate the conscious praying habit to them alone.

She was the queen, but she fasted and prayed for 3 days in order to confront the situation with the king.[Esther 4:15]

Fasting is the act of humbling your whole being to the sovereignty of Almighty God.Prayer is the result of my yearning to be connected without interruption to the Heart of the Master.

Esther did not ‘brainstorm’ or try ‘six thinking hats’ or operate on ‘metaphorical thinking’ ,or ‘Fuzzy thinking’ or ‘mind mapping’ or ‘Synetics’ , to solve her crisis situation; instead she prayed.

I don’t deny the power of creative thinking, but that comes second to the power of prayer. Don’t just do it, Pray first; a prayer of humble submission.A prayer of total acknowledgment of the authority of God. The Master will then speak His strategy and plan for action.

Because she prayed,

1. she found favor in the eyes of the king and found an opportunity to meet him,[Esther 5:2]
   
2. she came up with a strategy to throw a banquet inviting Haman ;[Esther 5:4]
3. God made the king have swings of insomnia which compelled him to read the old diaries where he read the account of how Mordecai had saved his life from an assassination plot years before.He was reminded that he never rewarded him,so early next morning the king make arrangements to reward him.[Esther 6:1-10]
   

All of this further made way to complete her assignment.

On the day of the banquet, Esther intelligently provoked the king’s anger by exposing Haman and his evil plot and caused him to be hung in the gallows that he arranged for Mordecai.[Esther 7:1-10]

Divine providence will not come your way, without continuous conversation with God.

Give up your present and step out in courage and faith.

Hadassah, gave up her comfortable average, ordinary Jew girl’s life, and proceeded to venture out into an entirely new world, to become a queen in a pagan palace. She had to undergo 12 months of beauty treatment and preparations before she could enter the contest and qualify to be King Xerxes’ new queen.[Esther 2:12-18]

It is easy to play a safe game, and stay secure. But it needs tremendous courage to get out of your comfort zone and dare to take the challenge.It takes preparation and perseverance to be promoted.I believe Hadassah believed that she was not ordinary material, so she stepped out and she made a difference in the lives of millions of Jews.

Once she became queen Esther, she did not settle for luxury, and allow her self to become a slave to the new life that had got hold of her, instead she stepped out in boldness risking her life by deciding to reveal her Jewish origin, saying “If I perish, I perish”.[Esther 4:16]

As a Christian, we need to face battles in every day life, because we have a very powerful enemy who is afraid of our very powerful potential given to us by our omnipotent Father.

We have a choice, we can fight and move forward or grumble and remain where we are.

You make the decision.

Will you step out in faith and take a risk, and reap the benefit, for yourself and many others whose whose eternity depends on you?

“…Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”[Esther 4:14]

Will you step out to serve?

It was unfortunate though, that recently when I was cleaning a wardrobe my eyes fell on the gift I had given a loved one.

My mind raced back remembering where I had bought it, how many other different gifts I considered before my mind set on this , how dear and precious this loved one was, that I wanted to get something that would help the person in a special way.

And not just that, I had penned down a few words straight from my heart. The words too were there glaring at me.

That cherished gift that I had presented with a lot of noble intentions was lying there, uncared for, unnoticed, and unused.It stung my heart hard.I was angry and disappointed wondering if the person ever understood the value of what I had bought and I wished if I go right out and give that person a piece of my mind. But my Master had other lessons..

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

I realized recently, that the gifts God give us, does not come with a bright red wrapper, that we usually expect, I also doubt that if God always uses dramatic visitations to impart his personal gifts to His children.But since, we get carried away looking for tags and wrappers, we miss the point and don’t identify the many gifts God has given us.

It is my imagination that after God created me., my basics and my framework without which I cannot survive on the planet. He took me to His secret place and placed several special, precious, and unique gifts in my life., because thats what people do to what when they call someone as their “prized possesion”…they give them things immensely valuable.

My Master does things differently, not just because He is God but because His love is Higher and His ways greater, and because He is my Father. He chose not to make the gifts reveal themselves from the day I was born, but only after I personally identify and acknowledge and honour those gifts.

It is the responsibility of everyone who claims to be a ‘born-again’, ‘spirit-filled’ Christian to honour the gifts given by God. Failing to do so, is a clear sin.

I believe firmly and I have experienced personally, that when we begin to serve, the gifts that God had embedded in our framework start to show up.

• For a long time, I wasted a lot of my thinking fuel trying to figure out what exactly I was good at, I was brainstorming, meditating and tried every other tactic to find out my gift. Nothing helped, it only made me feel worse and one fine day, I gave up, concluding that gifts were meant only for special people, not for an ordinary girl who’s just struggling every day to keep her Christian life intact.

When we give up, God starts up. He gave me few mundane unappealing opportunities, and waited to see if I’ll serve.Serve like a servant. A great man of God once said, “You know that you serve like a servant by seeing your reaction when you are treated like one.”

I stopped looking for ‘big’ things and started serving in small things for ordinary people whom I meet everyday,little then did I realize that through that I was serving an extraordinary God.The more I gave myself up for serving, slowly but gloriously I began to see different gifts in my life unveiling everyday.The truth was that my loving Master, did not put just one gift, (actually I was searching for just a single one!!) but several interlinked and related gifts in my life.

People who complain, that they are not talented or gifted are those who’ve not really stepped out and dared to serve. God’s gifts will remain wrapped up and sealed all the days of your life if you are not going to decide to serve. Serving is not a gift by itself meant for a few who are ‘called’, rather it is the vehicle for any gift to actually operate.It is God’s “Directions for use” for your gift. Unless you embrace this, you cannot use it, honour it or even identify it.

“As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].”1 Peter 4:10[Amplified Bible]

• Another thing that stops us from stepping out is the fear of making mistakes. This is one thing that am fully convinced about. As long as you are going to be afraid of messing up somewhere, you’ll be doing nothing.

I’ve also made this observation from my own life. I have never been a ‘perfectionist’, but I have been a very skillfull fault finder. I used to find fault wih everyone and with everything . Becuase of this attitude of mine, I was afraid to be used, fearing that people would find fault with me. God changed this attitude of mine, and taught me that it was not my business to judge others’ works.

Once this changed, I stopped seeing mistakes and started embracing every opportunity. When I let down the burden of judging the acts and works of others, my life became easy and free to do the things that God had wanted me to do.

• I gave lack of recognition as an excuse for not using my gift. But that’s not the purpose of God’s gift.God does not give gifts to His children to impress others but rather to impact others.You need to be a boss to impress, but you need to get dirty and stoop down with your serving attitude to impact lives for the Master.That’s when your gifts begin to surface and shield you with power to administer God’s grace in the lives of others.

Today, I don’t know of any who are blessed or comforted with what I write but I know of many, who began to write for the Master’s glory after seeing me write!! Maybe God will bring up an annointed writer from among them who will touch the hearts of millions with the healing power of my Master. Can you see how I am used?

When the Master returns, He’s going to be very angry if he finds your gift unnoticed, uncared and unused, because the gift in your life is an exclusive one.

Your gift has an assignment that bears the responsibility of many other lives which it has to touch, heal and transform.

Will you step out to serve?

Am I carrying my Cross?

A new spree of attacks on the Christians in the already blood smeared Orissa started on August 24th 2008. Tensions were always there in the place, with Swami Lakshmanananda, the religious guru, who worked for the uplifting of the people but wanted to tuck them safely inside Hinduism. He vehemently opposed Christian Mission works, quoting what he said “I will work till I chase away every Christian who wants to make this land , a Christian land.” He was killed on the night of 23rd August by Maoist rebels. The only reason remaining to spark the beginning of a fresh uproar of violence.

There is also an ethnic conflict that exists beneath the iceberg.The fight for ST status for the dalit Pano Christians. If you are eager to be a more informed Christian then visit the links at the end of the post for more insight.

I really didn’t know how to start writing this post. I spent a week getting angry and forwarding prayer mails, another few days narrating stories of horror and violence to everyone, another few days asking God questions, another few days goggling up stories and videos on Orissa and another few days praying. All throughout I badly wanted to sit down and put everything that came to my heart on the blog.

I am still clueless about what to write. God has all the answers but the truth is that I can’t find the right questions to ask Him.Neither am I matured enough to talk about what we must do in these times of persecution.

So I decide that I am not going to write about the persecution, or about the bodies burning nor about the many who have only the forests left to call as their homes, nor about the girls being raped,nor the hundreds who are being forced to reconvert with the knife ready to sling open their throats, neither about the many who have no hope, no future for the next conceivable days of their life.

I am an ordinary happy Christian girl whose maximum crisis could be a flunked exam, or a bad day at college.I’ve not witnessed a real accident, or even a fire breakout. I don’t know what it feels like, to lose my family,my friends, my house or my church.So I was wondering if it was practically possible for me to empathize with the persecuted in Orissa, or am I just a victim to a sudden burst of emotion?

As I started looking deeper , God showed me a scripture, “If any of you wants to be my follower,” he told them, “you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34 [NLT])

What’s this cross that Jesus is asking me to bear? I thought of various things, but all of them led to only thing -“death”. Afcourse victory through death, triumph of Jesus, salvation of soul..but ultimately the common denominator is “death”. Death of what??Jesus was telling me, “You can’t follow me just as you are,only if you carry the corpse of your identity (the cross) can you follow me.”

I understood, that God has placed many blessings in my life only as resources to reach out, instead I was using them to carve an identity for myself. Anything that happened outside my identity did not affect me much.That’s why I found it hard to empathize with the pain and suffering of my brothers and sisters in Orissa. That’s why it didn’t come to me naturally.

I’ve been a Christian for 7 years now, but I need to find if the ‘I’ in me is really dead.

I’ve been trying to follow Jesus, for my good, focussing God on myself, instead of focussing everything I have on God. The essential factor of Christianity is giving up yourself, but my version of Christianity is for me to become fatter. With this kind of attitude I can never really ‘know God’, ‘love God’ or ‘live for God’.

“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.”[Mark 8:35-NLT]

When my ‘I’ dies, then it’s no longer what “I want”, what “I feel”, or what “I think”, it becomes, what “God wants”, what “God feels”, and what “God thinks”. When this happens, everything that hurts the body of Christ will hurt me, the burden of the heart of Christ will become my burden, and His longing will become my longing.

I read a quote made by a pastor “Christianity will spread not by killing for Christ,but by dying with Christ so that others might live.”*

Killing my identity is going to be painful, but I need to inflict personal pain for the sake of corporate good, following the model of the cross is an inseparable part of my Christian experience.

Peter could handle Jesus being the Messiah. But he rejected the Messiah’s destiny of going to the cross. Why? Because Peter was worried that he might have to follow Jesus to the cross. That was why Jesus spoke also of the cross his disciples would have to bear (8:34). In not accepting all of Jesus’ gospel, his followers were in danger of keeping him at a distance and not listening to or understanding him**.

I wear a cross as a pendant, I feel proud when I wear it. Every time I look at it, I used to say to myself “I am the child of GOD” But now when I look at my pendant, I ask myself “Am I carrying my cross or walking without it and calling myself a child of God?”

Pray for our brothers and sisters in Orissa.

*Graduation Moments

**ILumina Concise Commentary

Dalit-Tribal rivalry

The Burning Issue

Right Rewards

The parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20) has many lessons to teach. Pastor taught us an important lesson from this parable the other day.

Out of the many vital lessons he had to teach I liked this particular one;
He said that ‘grapes’ required to be harvested as soon as they ripen otherwise they would fall on the ground and the harvest would go waste. The owner of the vineyard did not want this to happen, so he was ready to employ extra labour to complete the task as fast as possible. Pastor wanted us to understand the need for workers in the kingdom, because otherwise the yield would go waste.

There were parallel thoughts in my heart. The workers the master employed in the early hours clearly had their wage agreed upon, before they can began to work. But the others who were standing in the marketplace doing nothing, just trusted the master that He would pay them justly. And they completed their task faithfully. The master gave them the a denarius which was the same wage he paid to the earliest workers.

Sometimes, God calls us to do something when we are in our own busy life doing nothing for God. We are not sure,we feel out of place but we just trust God and begin to work. All throughout we are not sure of what we are going to be rewarded with, but we go on. The single driving force is our love for God’s kingdom and the trust on God.

If this is our case today, then.. This parable reinstates that God is just and He will rewards us justly and abundantly in the right time. The reward is not according to the calling but according to our faithfulness to the calling.

Matthew 20:4-5
He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

1Corinthians 1:9
God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

1Corinthians 1:25-27
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

The Great Commision

I am always filled with fear when I consider the expectations of God from my life. God loves me, I know that full well, but; Is He pleased with me? Am I always receiving from God and turning a deaf ear to the longings of God’s heart? Am I so caught up in fulfilling my own dreams that I’ve drifted from the original vision God had in mind when He created me? Have I become insensitive to the voice of God? Do I make Him smile?

My dad beams with pride when people say that I look like him or behave like him, if that’s going to be the case for someone who conceived me through flesh, I can only imagine the joy that will swell in the heart of my God when I live a life that reflects His Image, an Image in which I was originally created. My dad is a very ambitious person, a person I look up to as an inspiration. He does a lot of things for me, even before I can ask, but when I do something that he likes, even if it maybe very insignificant, he gets very excited, and he may deny it, but I know for sure that I can see the pride in his eyes.

I want to see joy in my God’s eyes when He sees me. I want my life to yield a harvest from which God will derive eternal pleasure. A life that will make its Creator proud. A life that lives for the Heart of God.The Heart of God is the dying people of the world. I don’t need a ‘calling’ to be able to build my Father’s Kingdom. It is my duty.If I boast of being a daughter of God and a partaker of His riches then I must be ready to give myself into my Father’s business. It is this commitment that I make to my Father that makes me His daughter otherwise I remain as a poor stranger who requires the mercy of God but cannot be a part of God’s vision.

I am God’s daughter and it is my duty to build His Kingdom..Our Kingdom.

Romans 8:17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

Matthew 28:19-20
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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”