PRAYER FOR SYRIA

by Mercy Susanna

Beseeching Grace - An International prayer Collection

Oh LORD!

I pray for the people in Syria.

You let Your light shine on the Palmyra Mountain,

And spread the waters on the Aleppo plateau.

God who quench our thirst,

I thank you for the Lake Assad.

Breathe life into the city of Damascus,

hold the province of Homs in Your right hand.

Bless the land of Syria O LORD!

Establish the territory into Your everlasting Realm.

As it abuts Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan

make these nations the instruments of Your peace.

Shed Your heartstrings on them,

as Your compassion is greater than the Great Sea-Mediterranean,

higher than the Mount Hermon.

Since whole nation is horrified at violence,

I cry for all adust and desolate barren souls.

Transfuse Your Love into devoured families that lost homes,

Bestow Your warmth, aid and relief on them.

Look onto those, whose education has been disrupted,

and the ones who has the threat in the future prospects of career.

Heal the sick and provide the better health care systems.

Father! Awaken us to the needs of Your children

We are touched by your solicitude and

We find fervour in Your eyes

Let the needy not be forgotten

I, as a mortal, humble myself before an everlasting God,

for the eternity of the believers in Syria who respond to Your call.

You Oh! sovereign LORD, the ruler of nations, will hear from the Heaven and

will forgive our brothers and sisters and heal them.

LORD! I believe, amid of poverty and brokenness around,

Your grace is at work, for You are the life and the hope;

Forever and ever.

In the name of precious blood of the lamb,

Christ Jesus,

Amen

By Mercy Susanna

Beseeching Grace-An International Prayer collection. Just released— This free ebook includes over twenty-five beautiful prayers for a variety of countries around the world. It was written by talented authors with a desire to enrich your devotional time with God can be read or downloaded here https://drawneartochrist.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/beseeching-grace-draw-near.pdf

Under an oak tree

Though it is her favorite sport, Annie refused to play basketball. She kept low watching the cheerleaders. Her fierce eyes grew cold.  She put the joy of her trey aside but plunged herself to fight the haunting dark shadows. "Ann! Annn!" her mom shouted. She unwillingly hit an angle, but her mom couldn’t catch a glimpse of her. She could still smell that scent left behind her scarf. As soon as she got home, she washed it with a fine detergent. Her mom, "Honey! What are you doing?" She rolled her cold shimmered eyes, " Nothing". She tried to rub off that stingy incense from her mind. She scurried upstairs and fell on the bed like a corpse. She didn’t move but couldn't help staring at that crimson scarf placed on the table. She shut her eyes tightly hoping something would change.  In the morning, she woke up to the sounds of chaos in her head, more annoying than an alarm clock. She sat up gazing at the bells that hung down from the ceiling of her room, where depravity took its place. But nothing changed. It was just another day. She went down to the backyard, retrieving her loathful bygone. She sat helplessly under that old oak tree, clutching her knees close to her chest as if she cuddled a baby. She got drowned within nowhere in the midst of the silence. She has never heard this silence, so loud.  She fought the nausea as she was unable to hear of it anymore. She decided to burn that crimson scarf and right there she did it with all passion hoping she could get rid of it. But the stench is still on her mind chasing her, not leaving her even for a second. She fastened her shoe lace, took a bicycle and headed towards the beach. Poor Annie did not realize that, this incense never died instead crept into her very nerves.

Staring endlessly into the horizon, while the waves from a distant rushed to sink her feet, she dig her fingers deep into the sand. She took a handful of it and threw out aimlessly in the sea. Nothing changed, things remained the same. She could still smell that stench he had left on her scarf though it was burned. The cauterized notions kept pricking her. She felt the blood taking waves swiftly in her body from the head to the sole, her heart beating faster than ever. A rupturing trauma churned her stomach to grave. Smoke poured out of the nostrils of the air. The infernal stench now has odorized into every cell in her body. All she wanted is to disappear. She wished she could go along with the waves rushing back to the cradle. She closed her lids causelessly for a moment. She heard someone whispering into her ears with a sweet voice, "I will deliver you because I love you!"  All of a sudden the voice has made everything calm. The waves rising up and down with all estrangement deep inside her heart came to a sudden halt. The quarantined isolation unexhausted her nerves without leaving her in bewilderment. She deemed to believe the voice, with a reckoning faith. It was the first time she heard of Jesus from her Sunday school teacher preaching at the temple last Sunday.  She heard it again and got up from that place. She realized it was Him. She scampered towards her home like a scuttling worm.

She then took a Book covered in black, placed in a dusty rack. She rode her bicycle in haste. She entered the gates of the temple behind her school lane. To her amusement, she wept in silence. Coming back to her room, she looked in the mirror and smiled a little. The shadows under her eyes have disappeared. She saw herself as a brand new creation. A slow voice behind, she felt someone calling her, “Annie, dearie!"  It was her mom. In a flash, she hastened towards her, hugged and kissed all over her face. "Ann, Honey! Where have you been?" Her brown eyes turning blue, she said, “Mom!” her eyes shining vigorously.

"Yes, Hon!” she bit her lip, waiting keenly for an answer.

"Mom! Jesus loves me!" A huge creep on her face, hugging even more tightly, as it lasted for eternity. She couldn't smell that stench again. Never the stench! Never again!!

Description: Annie, an 11 year old fictitious girl encountered a strange situation in her life, close to molestation, by a 35 year old man. He left the stench of his indecent acts for her. Her inclusion in it, kept badgering her thoughts. An 11 year old girl would probably not know the exact meaning of this absurd mistreatment. Yet she undergoes a mixed tinge of feelings. She created a space in her heart which was clergy and stingy. She has reminded that there is someone who could take away her burden when she has heard from her Sunday school teacher.  When she had let some time and space for Jesus to come in and take over her mental anguish, her faith expanded in Him. She was never that timid little Annie, but turned to be a wise and a bold teenager. Her faith in Christ has been justified.

Photography by Mercy Susanna

Y E S H U A

Under the argent beam of moonlight, she called out names at the corner of the street. She tried to capture young men with her eyelids. “Come in, let me fill you with the deepest desire you have. Let's drink deep of love. Come let’s enjoy ourselves and spend the night together.” Men walked clinging to their bottles filled half with wine. Watching and waiting, as the dry leaves rustled in the breeze, she saw a man dressed in white, pass by. Jingling earrings hanging down her shoulder, she came towards him with her neck outstretched. She put her hand on her hip, a creep so cunning on the face and rolled her painted eyes, “What’s your name?” He turned and watched her in silence. His eyes filled with compassion, perplexed her. She couldn’t look into his, for longer. A lump formed in her throat, she couldn’t breathe for a while. Her mouth went dry. The lines on her forehead disappeared. Her face calm and still, eyes filled with tears washed her inside out. Quiescent ripples on her lips; with a hushed voice she called him, “Yeshua!” In a flash, she picked up her scarlet robe behind and draped it around, in disguise. Falling on her knees she cried out, “Lord! Lord!! How hast thou looketh into these eyes of a harlot?” He touched her famished soul with His. Conciliation steadied her fickle heart. He saw her profound regret. He said with an intense tenderness, “Woman! Your sins are forgiven. I’m making you a pure bride. Never look back.”




Storytelling
Based on Scripture-Proverbs 7-17,18; John 8:11

E V E R L A S T I N G

"Your kingdom is everlasting kingdom,

 and your dominion endures through all generations.

 The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing."

Psalms 145:13-16

Our God Almighty is powerful, compassionate, merciful and gives everything in abundant. He is faithful and not partial. He loves everyone equally. But we think that He does not, as every person is different , for the things we possess. Some rich some poor. Some fair some dark. Some weak some strong. Some good some bad. Some blessed some cursed. We do fight these questions in our head. But God loves everyone of us equally. That is how and why He gave His one and only Son to the whole world. Not some, but everyone as mentioned in John 3:16. Yet, we desire to sow the bad seeds and buy destruction to our lives. We live in bliss, ignoring the common grace which was shed as the blood on the cross for every human. We reap what we sow despite being good or bad. Let me quote from Galatians 6:7-8 "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps  what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Believe that God is ever faithful, ever loving, and everlasting. 

Blessed be! :)

Photography by Mercy Susanna

“Yes I am coming soon”

Revelation 22:20

Many of the people around the world do not believe that there is a place called Hades (Hell) for the sinners who do not repent when Jesus himself evidently spoke of it in His first and the second coming as well. Scriptures are obvious to open the eyes of our hearts to understand the kingdom of God and know the about the perilous voyage too. This domain is being effaced in the present coevals.

“I say to you that many will come from east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:11-12. A vivid verse line from the Bible tells us that Jesus here spoke about the Heaven and the Hell. An apparent description is shed light on.

"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!  If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” Matthew 18:7-9.

In verse 8 and 9, Jesus said, subjects which are impure or unrighteous will not enter the Kingdom. Instead it will be thrown into Hell. Sin has to do with the eternal fire and sinless, the eternal life. Jesus is the One who holds the keys of Heaven and Hell as well. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”  Rev 1:18. Unless there is repentance, nor we accept Christ as the Son of God and believe in Him and follow Him, we cannot enter the Kingdom. Jesus often discoursed of repentance before our death and of forgiveness in every way possible, may it be through parables yet sermons.

Repent before you die!

Few of us puff up in our hearts that we’ve never sinned. Now and again swell our minds that we never had committed a murder, nor adultery, nor a sin which is enormously huge, so why should we repent, and of what? As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12 “Even from the birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies. Their venom is like the venom of a snake.” Psalms 58:3, 4 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. We are sinners since our first cry, since we set our foot on this planet. Until and unless you have Jesus, you cannot enter the Kingdom. Whoever has set this pride in their hearts that he is sinless and is in a touch-and-go misconception yet in a mordacious delusion that he is going to Heaven without Jesus is a fool. No man is sinless, except the One who came from Heaven, Christ Jesus. And no one could creep in the realm of Heaven without Him. “No one has ever gone into Heaven except the one who came from Heaven-the son of Man.” John 3:13.

Luke 3:7-9 says, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath” Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown  into the fire.” “Remember the height from which 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 lamp stand from its place.” Rev 2:5. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Rev 2:7.

John 3:3 says “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Being born again is an initial start and an essential maneuver to make a Way! Unless you repent you cannot taste this experience. But we refuse to acknowledge His voice as much as if we are profoundly deaf. When we do not lend our ears to Him but do things without His will, on the Day of Judgment, you got to answer Him. Even if you had done good things in galore with a rueful heart but disinclined to do the will of the Father, your are making a self-destructive swath!! "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.  God is giving us time to repent of our trespasses to help you get out of the way to the Inferno. But we are unwilling to repent and be in a false trance that everyone despite of his faith is going to Heaven. “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.” Rev 2:21. Search your thoughts and acquire denouement, without whom are you going to heaven? Without Jesus? Who will allow you to enter the kingdom of God? “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against with them with the sword of my mouth.” Rev 2:16. The time is near. Let all the pride filled in your heart crash. We were never righteous. We never become righteous through our deeds, for it says all our good deeds are like filthy rags without Jesus. They never straighten our paths to Heaven. It is only through Jesus Christ we are worthy to walk in those Golden Streets. He came into this world not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). This might revolt against our consciences but do not get offended by what it means, because Jesus wants us to be His children. He loves us and wants us to be with Him with the Father. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Rev 3:19-21.

“Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.” Rev 3:3,

 for, “I am coming soon” Revelation 22:20.

CHRIST THORN PLANT
(#euphorbia milii#mybalcony)
He wore a crown of thorn so we could wear a crown of life. John 19:2

Photography by Mercy Susanna

  All my rugged bristles dipped in red,

  Wreaked radiance to this demised life;

  You blossomed me forth into glorious crimson tinge,

And infused me with deeper fragrance.

Blest am I for I’ve tasted that precious blood,

I preserve Your name in mine:

I concede that I had left You in agony,

Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt as much as they did!

Story Behind: Christ thorn plant scientifically known as 'euphorbia milli' has very poisonous thorns. People say that the thorns of this plant were used to the make the crown for Jesus before he was crucified. Surprisingly I found this in my balcony and wrote a fictitious poem yet felt what it would feel if it were a human.

SOUL’S  DELIGHT…!

Every day you wake up with a deep thought of contriteness from the past and end up your day thinking about the same. Maybe, you have an unbearable sin to forget. But it knocks your door every now and then. Thinking about the same sin repeatedly makes you depressed, lost into some reverie. Your breath gets choked. Your stomach bears it as someone’s churning it to death. You need some air to let you breathe. Some good incense, aroma to draw a blank on your memories. You try making attempts to slip your own mind, and a chance for compunction. If you had had an instinct thought before, you would have been freed from this turmoil. Now you are between the hot and the cold. You are between the darkness and the light. You were something and now you are something. You lose control over the ticking bomb situations. You feel you are the only loser while rest of the world is winning. Even though you have faith, you fail to put up high. You made promises and tried sticking to the scripts. Where does your memory slumber when the temptations set ashore? What makes you sin again and again? You were so determined fixing your eyes towards the pinnacle. How is that you turn your back on Him? Why are you so distracted and almost put off now?Do you really think that you are strong enough to overcome such a battle? Are you scared to get on the front line? Why do you find no way to get rid of this continual transgression!

When and why, do you sin? When you are filled with good Spirit, no evil captures you. But when you are alone, and allow temptation to conquer, then the evil spirit breaks in your heart and steals away your joy making you null and void, absolutely nothing, empty, zero, nada…. Later it leads to fear, anger, depression, crushing your spirit to inferno. Therefore, it is no good to be alone. David had sinned when he was alone. He stayed off the battlefield. He was empty. When he saw Bathsheba he was filled with lust and sinned with her. This one sin has brought him a great disaster to his life. It took a long period of time for him to restore his relation with God. Idleness leads to sin. Many of us are in the same situation, being idle, being disconnected from God. We are unable to overcome the iniquities.

“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you” Isaiah 59:2

Romans 12:21 says,“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Do you really wanna overcome?Born again experience will next lead you to fight a battle. Temptations rise and overcoming becomes difficult. Then it is the best way to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit leads to more self - control. “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Galatians 5:16, 17, 18. So this is how you overcome evil with the Good Spirit and keep away from sinning. You would be victorious like Jesus who has defeated the death for the kingdom. Things which are not possible with a human are definitely possible with God. The one who tries not to grieve the Spirit is the one who’s gonna sit to the right of the Throne. Close your eyes and listen to the beat of your heart and thank God you are still alive to seek forgiveness and His kingdom. And Jesus is saying to you,"Come to me,my beloved;I will give rest, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28. So, are you ready to welcome Him again to fill you? When you do this “your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:2.

Blessed be.