HOW I MET JESUS!?

Born into a middle-class Christian family, I grew up as a typical teenager. Constellations, galaxies were those that fantasized me. Gravity played huge on my heart. I loved reading sci-fi. I loved the good and the bad as well. In fact, the world and all its ways seemed good and comfortable to me. The need of a supernatural being for the existence of human and its survival seemed pointless. I always had a strong desire to become a scientist but my perceptions and views started to melt to the point of being as close to an atheist. I did well in my school. I was more self-dependent and overconfident. I had deluded that my future would be what I design with my own hands. I dreamt of companions with a similar mindset who would sit, smoke, drink and have fun for life. I was okay with guys who could flirt with me and had a choice to pick a boyfriend to make so called love. I was addicted to the unusual music that invoked lustful thoughts in me. I had insane plans, foolish desires, misguided ambitions, vain hopes, unwise theory, goofy atheistic leanings, whacky reasons that support my ludicrous outlook. Self-help books didn't work, for they satisfied me only in the moment that took an eye to blink but later, everything leapt out empty. I went church in delusory and never approved to be a Christian nor stood for Christ. Like how far the east is from the west, so was I away from God. As a rebellious teen, I was not okay with people at church. Somehow I knew Christ's Holy but hadn't realised that this person would actually breathe life into my soul. Though I knew gospel that Christ is the redeemer for all our sins for all those years, this truth din affect me. I think that was the time God saw me. As I listened to the gospel, week by week, on Sundays, I had been convicted. It took a year to squeeze out that the world around me was a fake. People around me who praised me for what I am not, were unreal. As unsubstantial as a dream, I was living a wretched life, that had no hope, no peace. The sermons I have started listening to brought a strong conviction in me. But then, I haven't given my self completely to God. I fought between surrender and disobedience. Finally, God has let a situation, a circumstance that blew me off for eternity. I had struggled for one whole week but had none to help. Deep down I knew only God could help me give peace for eternity. But for that, I had to make a lifetime decision of serving Him, til the end. And that's it. All the scenes started playing like a reel. I cried and cried and repented of all my sins. I felt the wounded hands comforting me with love and compassion. When home, I opened the scriptures(Bible), right there God talked to me with the promise. An assuring promise of an everlasting love. He told that he has gifted me His salvation and would stay with me and love me forever. What a great promise!! Peace overflowed and flooded my heart like never before. Great joy! I did not know whom to share with. Tears of joy running down my cheeks. I now knew whom to trust and depend upon. After a week, all the music I had collected for years perished miraculously. God has put a new song in my heart, a new spirit, new life and new me. Despite the futuristic plans I had made, I found out that God always had a purpose for my life that would lead to His will. There is one and only one God who could speak, could search your thoughts, listen to your story, heal your heart and transform you into a new being. He is Jesus Christ.
Peace be. Blessed be.

REDEMPTION

“O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” Psalm 130:7

The act of redemption can make sense in two ways. According to the theology, it is an act of delivering from sin or saving from evil and then it somehow leads to salvation. The other in the corporate sense is the act of purchasing back something previously sold. Well, we know Christ is the only Redeemer we have, who can actually redeem us from every sin with his immense yet redeeming love. So that's how a believer concludes that the redemption is only at the cross and is found nowhere else. Now if you consider the second case of defining redemption as an act of gaining back something, yet again you find it at the cross(Hebrews 9:12). While we sold our souls to the sin, Christ was the one who bought us at a price and redeemed us. Is this the kind of similar facet I was talking about in the first case? Of course yes! Why do you think I had to emphasize more on this particular cognitive content is that the meaning of the Biblical Redemption is probably a confused concept in many of the modern-day churches. Galatians 3:13 says, redemption helps us receive the promise of the Spirit. But the act of redemption in the present-day is being subjected to more as physical honour, more material and more financial. The meaning of redemption is taking the other routes. This has quite surprised and stunned me for what the church is teaching. Physical, health and financial as the aspects of redemption? Has these anything to do with the Spirit? Alright! If we talk in those terms, Matthew 6:32 says, "Your heavenly Father knows that you need them". He provides us what we are really in need of. He knows that we are in need of food, health, a place to dwell...... to live in this world.  But it doesn't mean that if you have got none of these, you have no redemption. That's not true. To make it more clear, "FOR YOU KNOW THAT IT WAS NOT WITH PERISHABLE THINGS SUCH AS SILVER OR GOLD THAT YOU WERE REDEEMED FROM THE EMPTY WAY OF LIFE HANDED DOWN TO YOU FROM YOUR FOREFATHERS, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, A LAMB WITHOUT BLEMISH OR DEFECT." 1 Peter1:17. Ah! and that's it. That's the truth. Silver, gold, wealth all these are perishable. God has given us something which is imperishable that is the Spirit of God. And the promise of the Spirit comes from redemption(Heb 9:12). God rescued us from the darkness, He brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in Him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13, Eph 1:7, Ps 130:7). Nowhere in the Scripture did I find, worldly issues, as the aspects of redemption, but the true and biblical redemption is about forgiveness, the Spirit and Jesus himself. Watch over what redemption is according to you. Blessed be.

GOD IN TIMES OF TROUBLE

No one in this world is without trouble. Every now and then, we happen to encounter them. 'In this world, you will have trouble,'-John 16:33. Two kinds exist according to what I observe in my daily life. One is the consequence of sin done in the past which keeps you away from God. The other is deep. It is something which helps you seek God constantly. Mostly, Christians who have a sensitive relation with God can relate to this. He lets you undergo a testing period in your life. It might be patience, passion, faith anything else that God wants you to become strong at. Though you know God has a plan and a purpose for your life, you cry at the same thing again and again, comparing others' situation with yours. I've come across this lately. But last night, an interrogative yet effective passage that God spoke through the book of Job has opened my eyes.
               "Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Can you direct the constellations through the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct? Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind? Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods? Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lions’ appetites as they lie in their dens or crouch in the thicket? Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?" -Job 38
              God does, God knows, He knows. He always knew what to do with our lives. He had a purpose from the beginning. Your help comes only from God. The Psalmist says 'I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.' These tests and troubles, only help us get closer to Him. They don't stay longer but it is God's will for us to seek and praise Him even in the times of distress and struggle. Luke 12:24 says 'Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!' Look only unto Him. It's okay to endure hardship but with faith. This makes us good soldiers of Christ Jesus. _2 Tim 2:3.
Blessed be.

21st Century Church!

Where is this going?

Photography by Mercy Susanna

The Modern Day Church looks nothing like the Early Church. Agree? I strongly believe that the set of values the early church has inculcated is quite different from that of the present day. The commitment and the passion it had put in worshipping God is priceless. Christ's always the head of the Church(Eph 5:23). It's heart craved for the Word of God. Never being independent, it had lived on the bread of life alone. Obedience in everything was the key. Where is the 21st Century Church going? We have tonnes of denominations rising against each other tearing the God's holy temple - the body of Christ into countless pieces. Despite owning dozens of Bibles, the modern Church runs through the Biblical illiteracy. A two-hour sermon becomes a boring teaching and the priest on pulpit equips puppet making skills to entertain the crowd that never had experienced salvation instead indulged in every kind of impurity, be it a hint of sexual immorality, greed or lust. I see the ignorance spreading like the wildfire in the stubborn hearts of most of the so-called Christians, not wanting to receive the Word of God. The elders of the Church wanted themselves to be distinguished as leaders, pastors....... but not as the servants of God. Instead of depending on God for every need, most of the gifted preachers are enslaved by money. (You cannot serve both God and Money. Matt 6:24). Why use God's name in such an utter despair? Blaspheme!! Is this not grieving the Spirit of God? How can the Modern Church present itself as a pure bride to the King coming in Love? Persecution in the Early Church strengthened the faith of the Christians. No matter how it was put to pressure for bearing the name of Christ, it had suffered the consequences for Christendom. How many of the present day-Churches would be ready to suffer persecution? Very few! ("If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." I Pet 4:16)

Let us not be among the unfruitful church singing songs of praise with mouths but not with the hearts. As the children of God, let us walk in the light of God but not in the ignorance and stubbornness. All that God seeks is an orderly worship with the right conscience. It's not too late to repent. Like the early church, let us prepare our hearts to receive and be obedient to every word that comes from the mouth of God.  

(What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the Church. 1Cor 14:26) 


Scriptural References: Ephesians 5:23, Matthew 6:24, 1Peter 4:16,1Corinthians 14:26

FINDING FIRST LOVE

                   It's been quite a rough road seemingly uncomfortable to explain and confess my unwilling deliberate efforts. Maybe, in my walk, I had experienced this a lot many times, but have I never put it in lines which indeed had a very great effect so far. I'm just guessing the same happens with you. The walk of our faith isn't an inclined linear graph. Many times, we fall, we rise, we waver, we battle...But there are conscious acts which hold against God that we don't want to get rid of. In few circumstances, we sin unwittingly, though we hate lurking around, still, we give in. Such kinds dwindle away our innocencies that we would no more be the ones, God had found in a squalor. Those impeccant faces had been lost. You being a born again Christian, God knew, you had a soul that always fired for Him in the beginning. He knew how remarkable your faith had been in the yester years. But He also knew how the seeds of pride uprooted, accumulated your heart, and how you had fallen from a height forgetting the first of loves. God's gonna deal the same with the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2. He says, 
    "I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."
On a positive note, God talks to the church of Ephesus (here we), that it has gone through the hardships, trials, testings, persecution, inward wrestling etc.

    "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

The over righteous filthy rags has separated us from our first love. The self-seeking disobedience made our salvation hang in the air. We toiled digging black deeps to satisfy our wrecked souls revetting homes that are supposed to be broken. Enough. God holds this against us.
    "If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

    "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
Well, the Scripture's unmistakable caution does not only correct, every time you repent, but it makes you understand the lucid love of Christ. Even though your sin is too fathomless to forgive, His compassion is boundless, His mercy is immense. How many times ever we rise and fall, He's got our backs. But the point is how often do you remember Your First Love...?!

  

 THE LAST DAYS

A Poem By Mercy Susanna

Photography by Mercy Susanna

Headlines read plague abound

Death and mishap lurk around

Would barely make a secret blend

Drawing lines and glance of tend

We are humans out of dust

Losing love for all the lust

Could we brave out mighty blow?

Jolted roaring thunder glow!

Wash us, cleanse us, inside-out

Let go of dirt, we muse about

Sin and guilt, help overcome

Bind our faith till Jesus come