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need make us fearful. The same God who made Heaven and Earth, and the God who can snap it to cease and turn it as he pleases. The almighty loving God who watches out for those whose heart is perfect toward him.
art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Similar to Job many times over, this speaks of faith regardless Regardless of your troubles Regardless of everything around you and happening to you Inspite of all your problems Regardless of what he does Regarding only the Person himself Praising him who is the health of your countenance... No frown shall wrinkle your face Nor shall doubt settle in that He is almighty, supreme, over all things, and most importantly, your God - the one in whom you completely place your trust.
Sunil Noronha
Feb 24th
The period of Lent, is a time for us to reflect on not only the life of Yeshua haMashiach, but also our own lives. Let us all pray for God to reveal our trespasses that have bypassed our consciousness. May He reveal the stumbling blocks in our path of progression. Whatever hindrances we may have in lives, particularly in our hearts so we can turn away from them, and bring into fruition His plan. The plan made before the foundations of the heavens and the Earth were ever created. The plan not to harm us, but for us to................PROSPER. So lets seek to become what Hed have of us, be where Hed have us be and do what Hed have us do.
Vishal Chauhan
justify it. If is stating the obvious of course I have received encouragement. What one may ask? Any encouragement in Christ Here is what I have received my sins have been forgiven past, present and future. I have a relationship with God where I can talk to him and He talks to me. My salvation is secure. My prayers are answered. Since I belong to him, He fills me with His Holy Spirit who empowers and energizes me to live a Godly life.
Navaz D'cruz
to be like minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and purpose. This is an action packed, loaded passage. Id like to think about it phrase by phrase as I seek to align my heart to this plum line of truth. Like minded Does this mean uniformity, becoming a clone? Does this mean there is no room for originality? By no means! Grace celebrates unity in diversity. So what does it mean? Put in another way I think it means being of one vision/intent. Its not pulling in different directions, in other words, having one goal, working together toward a common purpose. Its a willingness to put aside the much exalted and celebrated individualism for a common good. Its willing to compromise wisely, its willingness to let go, to give ground to
getting all super spiritual and saying, Ill have to pray about it. A church or organization will make very little progress with that attitude in the ranks. Purpose The same as above. Am I running in a different direction or am I putting my weight behind that one purpose therefore being effective? There is so much food for thought here. But Id like to draw this part to a close quoting one of my favourite authors, Charles Swindoll. The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Navaz D'cruz
How true that is in my own life. When I count my blessings I am blessed yet again with a sense of abundance, gratitude, and generosity. Yet when I focus on what I still want, what I lack, then I become afraid and, sometimes, that fear that there is not enough makes me miserly, even angry.
dont have enough, that the answer to fear is to have more, that we ourselves are not enough. The messages are so regular and relentless that it is difficult not to surrender. Can it be, therefore, that part of being the community of Christ is to remind each other that God has given us enough? Enough to have, enough to share, enough to be happy in this life together. There are, I think, two choices in front of us to focus on our blessings and respond with the open hand of gratitude and generosity, or focus on our lack and respond with the closed fist of fear and anger. The choice, ultimately, is too difficult to make alone, and so we need each other to remind us of Gods abundance and love.
VC John
Lipsita Sahu
Mar 5th
In the wilderness I rest, waiting still, preparing, receiving this given gift of hope, of restoration and renewal. + In the wilderness I rest still, my hope can only be in you, only be fulfilled in you.
+ So here in the wilderness I ask only that you re-order my priorities, and as I meet you face to face, may I find that I am not only known by you, BUT infinitely loved. +
VC John
somehow prevented his crucifixion. She hasnt given up everything, taken up her cross, and followed Jesus in any demonstrable or dramatic way. She has simply done what she could do. And in that simple gesture of devotion and gratitude Jesus is anointed, purified, in a way that she could probably not even imagine. No wonder we still talk about her! Which brings us back to Jesus statement about the poor. In this light, Jesus isnt being cavalier or dismissive. Rather, he is saying that we have all around us ample opportunity to do what is right, to practice our faith, to love others as Jesus did. We will always, that is, have the opportunity to do what we can.
VC John
mountains or having everyone know your name but instead reflects a day-to-day commitment to live as Jesus did. Discipleship, that is, is doing what you can. So with that in mind, what can you do? What can we do together? What small gestures can we offer? Care for a friend, shovel a neighbors walk, read to a child, contribute your time and talent to an organization that needs you, work together so that fewer people will go to bed tonight hungry and cold. What? It doesnt have to be big. And, in light of Jesus words, we may well discover that, when done in faith, there is no small gesture.
VC John
conviction that he will die. And Judas is confronted with the fact that Jesus is not and will never be the kind of Messiah he expects. And so spurred by bitter disappointment and his own feelings of betrayal, he offers to betray his teacher to his adversaries. This is all speculation. There are various clues here and there that might point to this interpretation, but it remains speculation nevertheless. Yet if it is at all close to the mark, then it intimates a parallel to an earlier scene between Jesus and Peter. Peter too, imagines he knows what it means to proclaim Jesus the Messiah. And Peter, too, is shocked and disappointed by the possibility that Jesus destiny might be about shame and death, not power and glory...
VC John
on, but it does imply a simple trust that amid the pain and confusion that sometimes attends any of our lives, when we still try to follow, imperfectly, for sure, but trying to follow nonetheless. Which is, of course, why we go to church. This road is too difficult to travel on our own. Life is too complex and sometimes too painful to handle alone. So we seek out the company of other doubting disciples that we may encourage each other and in this way remain imperfect followers. Maybe thats the tragedy here: that when Judas was disappointed he had no one to turn to and, failing to find a company of doubting disciples, he fled for the company of haters.
VC John
these arrangements ahead of time. Why does this matter? Because it means that he was prepared for what was coming. The last meal he shared with his disciples, his confrontation with the authorities, the false trials, mockery, and crucifixion these things werent accidents that he somehow fell into. Rather, he saw them, was prepared for them, faced them, and endured them intentionally
observed (commenting, I believe, on just this scene) that there are two kinds of courage. The first is the courage of the person who reacts instinctively and bravely in the face of danger jumping into a cold river to save one who has fallen in. The second is the courage of the person who sees danger a long way off and resolves steadfastly to face it. Both are valuable; the second is harder to achieve. When we travel down this Lenten road to the cross, we do so knowing that Jesus set himself on this road not only before us, but also for us. Seeing danger a long way off, he nevertheless set out to embrace his destiny. All we can do is watchand give thanksand perhaps also do as he did by looking at those around us worthy of love because they, too, are people for whom Christ died.
VC John
from others. Betrayal. It is painful. And it is ordinary. And perhaps this is why our Lord experiences it, too. Because Jesus came to this earth, shared our life and our lot, suffering all that we suffer, that he might both sympathize with and redeem us from all that afflicts our life and condition in this world. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (4:15-16). Jesus knows what we suffer because Jesus suffered it to. And because it didnt finish him, we have his promise that it will not
finish us either. For whatever difficult or low places weve been or may yet go, Jesus has already been there. And where Jesus is now, we will also one day be. Thanks be to God.
valley of the shadow of death, and He does not seem to care? Do you feel prayers going seemingly unheard? Do you feel your efforts for the Kingdom are not precious to Him?
Praveen Deepak Mar 19th John 15:1-2 (Extra references: I Peter 4:12-13; Hebrews 12:5-11) - II
This verse tells me that in order for me to grow to fulfill His purposes and His purposes only, He must indeed let me go through the valley of the shadow of death. He knows the best way to teach me hard truths, to refine and purify me. And sometimes this involves feelings of abandonment, smallness, enormous feelings of having wasted efforts, and prayers not being heard.
If you are in a bad way today, God knows what He is doing. Do not mistake your circumstances to be His displeasure or His abandonment. It is only MORE PROOF of His deep involvement, His appreciation of how precious your faith is to His and how precious you are to Him. I can personally testify that when I come through the valley, He has taught me so much I never even knew I was learning. And I realise that He could only have taught me those truths in the valley. If I was in the plain, on level ground, happy and without a care, I would never learn those truths.
Praveen Deepak
Mar 20th John 15:1-2 (Extra references: I Peter 4:12-13; Hebrews 12:5-11) - III
Another reason God PRUNES us is to refine us. Isn't our prayer to Him primarily to enter into His righteousness? To become like Him? Well, if He is going to have to answer that prayer, hard times are ahead because we are full of sin. He is going to have to purge, cleanse and perform surgery, sometimes without an anaesthetic. Sometimes, He is going to leave us crying for a while. Sometimes, He is going to have to be harsh with us, so that we will learn how sinful we are. So, dearly beloved, let us remember John 15:1-2 in our troughs, valleys, and hard times. Let's
pray what David prayed when God confronted him with his sin - "David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men." - I Chronicles 21:13. Let us fall into the ever loving arms of our Lord! Be blessed!
things - a weary land, a wilderness, just a way, the sapping, burning shimmer of noontide heat, a burden every day. The Cross of Jesus is also indeed all of those things - the shadow of a mighty rock, a home, a rest. The most grisly scene on earth, is still all of those things. It's probably like that, because the Cross of Jesus is the ultimate answer to intimidation, brute power, cosmic violence, unbridled tide of red evil, the hot breath of hatred, and the purposes of the pit of hell itself. Imagine all of these spent over one frail human body. And one human life - mute, resigned, resolute. No talking back, no comebacks, no defense, no rationalising, no duplicity, no making it palatable. Nothing. Just mute resignation.
Praveen Deepak
joy, or hope, or love, or freedom. Their very power to give life is in wordlessness. And in wordlessness I come to the cross. It is not the part of me that says things, that comes to the cross. The heart actually is wordless. And it is the heart which comes. And there, what I see shuts out words. Shuts out voices. Shuts out sound. I can imagine what Stephen felt in those last moments. Wordlessness. Soundlessness. And then, a strange, almost eerie, unreal calm. With a refreshing cool breeze which has the power to soothe and rest. To rejuvenate, refresh, percolate breath and life back into choked veins, and hearts, and minds.
Praveen Deepak
battle would rage all around it but he who came to its foot would not be molested. The ultimate, ultimate safe place. The one fortress in this world no one can conquer. Its sanctuary is eternal; its protection irrevocable. No one who enters will ever be taken to his doom by force. The ultimate unstormable citadel. Come away to the foot of the Cross of Jesus. Let the battle rage around you. Let the heat of the day burn unquenched. Let the burden bear down. None of these will touch you. Because you are in the safest place you will ever find.
Praveen Deepak
This is such an area of temptation. I need to keep a guard over my heart and motives knowing the heart is deceitful above all else. Every now and then its good to take a pit stop and take stock of what is going on in the boiler room of the heart. If I dont, busyness gets me or the success of what I am involved in can cloud/dull and even blind me to whats going on, on the inside. Jesus was always interested in what goes on in our hearts. Everything will be tested by fire (1Cor 3:12-15). So I would be wise to stop in my tracks every now and them and do a heart check up allowing the Holy Spirit to shed His light, wash and clean me which He does with much grace and love.
Navaz D'cruz
The dictionary tells me the synonyms of conceit* are egoism, egotism, narcissism, vanity. The dictionary tells me vanity is being inordinately proud of one's appearance, possessions, or achievements, given to ostentatious display, especially of one's beauty, worthless, senseless or futile. It is the very opposite of humility. Its thinking that only I can do the job well. What is the fall out of this? We dont train others to do our job. We think we are indispensible. We get very critical and condemning of other peoples efforts. We dont delegate. We are unable to encourage and appreciate the baby steps others take to grow their gifts. It also shows a lack of humility to realize that all our gifts and talents are Grace Gifts that we dont deserve in the first place. We owe it all to God and need to hold these things lightly.
Navaz D'cruz
thought patterns that constantly assail our minds. It will nudge us to look for ways to appreciate others. It will nudge us to release others, give others a chance to use their gifts. ...not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Look not only to your own interest but also the interest of others. This strikes a death blow to self ambition. When we put others betterment before our own we cannot exalt ourselves. We can only do one or the others. If we all had this attitude it would breed so much growth for everyone (including yourself because someone else will be looking out to your interests well). It will breed an atmosphere of acceptance, grace and security. It will breed an atmosphere of encouragement and appreciation and an atmosphere of wanting to mentor others so that they progress and get on in their walk with God
and all that God has called them to with no strings attached. It will mean that sometimes we have to let go of our lofty ideals/standards for the sake of unity, for the sake of brotherhood and oneness in Spirit ( without compromising your principles). But when you look at the big picture, when you look from Eternitys perspective it wont seem that ideal at all.
and does the very thing you sought after but in a wrong way. Jesus was offered power, and fame when tempted in the dessert. But he overcame selfish ambition and lowered himself to serve the interest of His Father in heaven thus serving us sinful men. The end result: it is not only glorious exaltation to the highest place but He has been given the highest Name the name above every other. Satan would like to deceive us into thinking we need to do this for ourselves how wrong!!! When we leave things in the hands of a sovereign God He works out things for our best, ALWAYS. When life rattles me, this is one of the passages of scripture I take refuge in and find great solace, comfort and assurance. I leave you with these thoughts may you know rest in knowing His way- aligning your heart to the plumb line of this scripture.
Navaz D'cruz
Mar 29th
Imagine a case if all that we believed didn't exist. If all that we bet our life on was not known to us. Thankful we are indeed that it now is. But if we did not the love of Jesus and then the joy of knowing God... Now that we do know Him, what piece of the puzzle does that complete? Through our Christian journey, it's easy to believe absolutely anything that can fall under the category of God's ways that are 'amazing', 'powerful' and any other such quality that we'd like to (and sometimes are taught to) attribute to Him. But what if these particular ways of His are simply figments of our imagination. God is not necessarily existent to satisfy our desire for a
swashbuckling divine saviour who will provide us the cushiest life we can think of.
necessarily for your comfort. You will end up filtering the anyway reality from the imagination in your head. You will have the real faith you need, not an over-rated one, in a God that truly does exist. If (and since) God is God, trust Him to lead you understanding of Him that is real, not imaginative.
A Jesus Freefall is when you tell Jesus to take all control and let him only possibly be the person who sees you through. You tell him you will take anything he gives you and that doing without anything else is absolutely fine by you. Speak your heart out but ask nothing as a matter of right. When you do that, you truly have no faith issues. Your existence becomes as much less about you than it truly becomes about him.
call so that they get to sleep eat well enough and get people to get the places of meeting ready and inform the people to attend the event. They simply went, of course replete with instructions. One dimension of how we have gone wrong is when we seek to ensure a comfortable way forward. We, for some reason, should know how things will fall in place well before we leave and must check up of the arrangements thereof till the moments arrived. While I agree that, when we have the option to do that we must, it should never be an issue when we don't have the option.
that Abraham felt when he just went must have been awesome. Of course, he had a lot with him and not so much to worry about, but he had NO clue where he was going. He just went where he was told to go. I can imagine Abraham, if he was asked to do it today, letting the wind hit his face and feeling the sweet wind of the adventure the Lord would be bringing up on him. Not that it would be very easy in worldly terms, but I thought we leave those terms of reference behind when we choose to follow the Lord. The (truer) intrinsic blessings outdo any possible thing in the whole wide world. Also, just simply going, paints a rather noncorporate picture of how we are reaching out to the world. It is not a pretty picture, one that is akin to buying tickets to a concert that you want to see or a play or a movie you want to go to. And, while it is nice to attract people with pretty pictures, we must consider what we are attracting them to. Are
we saying come have a good time and not telling that we have a message implanted in the programme that will tell them about Jesus secretly? When ever did the actual first step to Christ become one that is desired, wanted or is found cool by a person who has not met him yet? That moment of the encounter when the poverty of the spirit is brought to light and the degenerate heart is confronted, something that only be done by Christ himself? Is that moment something that is designed to be enjoyable, wonderful and nice? Does a corporate approach facilitate this entry into Christ?
Sunil Noronha
Apr 4th ...For generations, the questions have not
changed. The quest of the soul has remained the same always. The answer to it is not
painted in pretty pictures that corporate ministry only allows. It is a difficult decision when the moment of confrontation comes and must not be sold in any easier form. It should be either sold in completeness or not sold at all. The fact that the option must remains open, through the lives of the Gods people around them, does not change. Lastly, as people in ministry, we are not fully polished and round. We also are being worked in by God as He wants to work in other people through us. We cannot present a polished picture because we are not polished people. We cannot seem, in the least, self righteous. A picture that is rough around the edges is the picture that is one that is only completely true to all of us. So the question is now, have you just simply GONE as yet?
Sunil Noronha
Apr 5th
The Cross was where the blood was shed The Cross was where for your sins He bled The Cross: There your heart forever turned The Cross: A place your indebted to and a passion you forever yearn It's not a mere event that upstaged the world and turned it right side up for the very first time. It's the place where a journey in Christ takes root and it's the place which that journey never leaves or forgets. It's not one you visit once a year. The Cross is alive and kicking every second after you paid your first visit, like when you never leave its foot thereafter. If your life is not defined by it, you need to set the root back at the foot of the cross. As
you do that, think about what it is and what it means today, down to every last detail. What does it really mean to have the cross define your life? What does it mean when that stands true for each step that you take every day? How do you not only celebrate it as an event, notion or a symbolic piece of wood or metal?
Sunil Noronha Apr 6th Hebrews 11:6; Lamentations 3:25; Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Chronicles 16:9 - I
As we seek God, the right foot forward is always the right start. Seeking and sincerity are the essentials of a rightly guided journey. The right foot forward is always seeking sincerely and seeking open
endedly. When you seek, you are not looking for something in a certain specific place. Then you may as well just go ahead and get it from there. When you seek, you don't know the way. You search for it, not knowing what it is, but something of what it tastes and feels like, going with the yearning for it. It's like wanting the taste of, say, sugarcane juice except that you don't know what it is, and trying every possible juice till it satisfies the taste you desired all along.
Sunil Noronha Apr 7th Hebrews 11:6; Lamentations 3:25; Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Chronicles 16:9 - II
To do this sincerely is to do this with all
your heart, truly, truly desiring it, and taking on that desire to wherever it leads you. When we seek sincerely, we seek to learn. We don't know what it is we're looking for yet. We should be ready to dive deep into the search for the thought of which makes our hearts beat with joy. This is a continuous exercise that will define your Christian Walk. To seek. To search. To be sincere. To desire. To dive in. To find to joy of getting your hands dirty with the Truth of Jesus. To do this repeatedly as he reveals and shows you new things in His time. To have a heart that's available and perfect toward him. To always be ready to learn the next new awesome thing God wants you to know.
Sunil Noronha
Contributors: Navaz D'cruz Colin D'cruz Praveen Deepak VC John Lipsita Sahu Vishal Chauhan Sunil Noronha