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- P. J. K
What is all this tumultuous agitation?
Scholars searching ancient writings, investigating and pondering the
meaning of life, until spiritually exhausted. Prophets rising to warn,
to predict, until proved false. Suddenly from all sides People strive
feverishly in search of the truth. Here and there a whispering is heard,
news of a growing fear and great expectations of something impending.
The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead rise and the poor
have the gospel preached to them. They speak of
God!
The search continues.. Does
it require a wise man to seek God?
What advantage has a wise man over a fool? Neither he can make his life
easy nor keep others happy. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, hence
turn away from all scientific knowledge, how should it, acquired by
wise men with laborious study, lead to the God head? Where does
science lead to? It just helps to elucidate, classify and arrange all
that is ready-made from the creative power. Whatever exists under the
sun has already been named but no man can comprehend what goes on under
the sun. What, after all, is knowledge? It is what the brain can
conceive, firmly bound to space and time. It cannot perceive eternity,
which is inseparably linked with the Godhead. The more the knowledge,
the more the grief.
The search continues... Does it require an obsession over a
church to seek God? Where does such an obsession lead man to? For with
much obsession comes much dissension. Heed not the dissensions of the
Churches. Christ Jesus did not concern Himself with creeds. After all,
what are the creeds today? A shackling of the free Spirit of man,
enslavement of the Divine Spark dwelling within you; dogmas that seek to
compress the work of the creator, and also His great love, into forms
moulded by the human mind. This indicates a dishonoring of Divinity.
The search continues... Awake! Awake! Awake! Look around
you! Listen to your inner voice! That alone can open the way! The way to
the highest lies open to every human being! Proficiency in learning or
a creed is not the gate to it! Did Christ Jesus choose His disciples
among the Learned Pharisees and Scribes or choose a particular creed?
Shatter the walls of dogmas within you, tear off the bandage, So that the
pure light of the Highest may reach you undimmed. Welcome The Holy
Spirit! Then you will soar aloft in exultation, jubiliantly, sensing all the
great love and power of the Father, which knows no limitations of
earthly intellect. you will at last know that you are a part of this
Almighty; You will grasp it easily and completely, unite with it, and
thus gain new strength daily and hourly as a gift, enabling you to
ascend out of the chaos onto the path of life's greatest
adventure.
Yours in Christ, P. J. K
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- J. Moses
Now Cain
said to his brother Abel "Let us go out to the fields",
and while they were in the fields Cain attacked his brother and killed him. Then
the Lord said to Cain "Where is your brother Abel?". "I don't know" he
replied,"Am I my brothers keeper?". The Lord said "What have you done ? Listen, your brother's blood
cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse. When you
work the ground will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a
restless wanderer on the earth". - Genesis
4:8-12
Heb 11:14 says
, Abel though dead "Still Speaks",
How
does he speak? He speaks through his blood. Genesis 4:10 says , "your brother's
blood cries out to me from the ground". Blood of Abel which is shed and is fallen on
the ground cries out and "Still Speaks "
. It
cries of its Righteousness, its Innocence, its Faithfulness and for Justice. The Father in heaven
hears the cry and he is not quiet, He brings a Judgement, He shows
His anger, He shows His vengeance, He says,
"its mine to avenge, I will repay". - Hebrews 10-30.
He calls Cain and punishes him mercilessly. The Father
is merciless towards those that touch His children. "For whoever touches you,
touches the apple of his eye". - Zechariah 2:8.
Cain became a curse, a
wanderer without an "address". Cain lost his identity, "When you work it no longer yields its crop".
- Genesis 4:12.
Cain would work without a salary. This is a
temporary punishment for Cain. Scripture speaks of an eternal punishment
to the one who loses his address, whose work is destroyed, who loses his
identity "Totally
". Revelation 19:15 says , "he treads the winepress of
the fury of the wrath of God Almighty".
In olden days the makers of wine used to crush
the red grapes in the wine press under their feet till the identity of the
grape is lost and the wine made. That is what Jesus does to the
enemy, he makes it to lose its identity.
The Father hears the cry of his son -
Jesus , "Sprinkled blood of Jesus
that speaks better things than the blood of Abel". -
Hebrews 12:24.
The blood which is Most Holy, Precious, Powerful -
the
Blood of Jesus
that cries, that which cries for
the world, for the perishing souls, for the sick, for the poor,
for the wounded, for the crippled, for the blind, for you and for me. When
the blood of the "Son of God" cries, the Father reacts, He responds, He
rushes, He comes down, He takes an action.
"For when you did awesome things that we did not
expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you". - Isaiah 64:3.
Yes, the mountains tremble when the
Lord comes for the rescue of his children.
In my distress I called to the Lord, "I Cried" to
my God for help, from his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before
him into His ears. The earth trembled and quaked and the foundation of
the mountains shook, they trembled because, "He was Angry". Smoke rose
from His nostrils, consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals
blazed out of it. He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He
drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from
my foes who were too strong for me. He brought me out into a spacious
place. He rescued me because He delighted in me." - Psalms 18:6,7,8,16,17,19.
The Lord responded his way when David cried,
would not the Father respond when the Blood of His Son cries unto Him? Yes,
He responds. He brings Justice. He punishes the wicked. The Lord responds and comes
to your help because he delights in you.
So, cry out to the Lord in your times of distress.
He will never ever let you down because more than you it's the
Blood
of Jesus
that's interceding for you.
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- D. Jesse
The glory of God, The Bible says
"The Heavens declare the
glory of God" - Psalms 19:1.
The very purpose of
creation is to show God's glory. By looking at the firmament, the
millions of stars hung upon it, the brilliant sun in the solar system
including all the nine planets together with asteroids moving
irregularly in space this way and that way, the man on the earth
understands that there is a great person behind all this creation who is
called 'God Almighty'. Man only enjoys what God
has created - Ever since the heavens were created, they are declaring
God's glory, His Wisdom and Power.
King David after looking at the great creation of Cosmos exclaimed,
"What is man that thou art mindful of him?" - Ps.8: 3-4.
This means, he considers that 'man' is not
in such a position as that of the Heavens declaring or displaying God's glory.
Now we have reason to think and agree with King David in
this aspect, because 'man' has lost glory of God. The Bible says that
"all have sinned and have come short of the glory
of God". - Romans 3: 23.
It is
very clear that because of sin he himself is not glorious and such man
could not show forth the glory of God - what a sad thing it is!. As part
of God's vast creation, it is 'man' who miserably failed to bring glory
to God - Whereas the rest of the creation still retained its glory and
showing it forth down through the time immemorial. Even the greatest
scientists are unable to understand the thought behind the millions of
galaxies from which the light rays have not so far reached our Earth -
The radius of curvature of space is calculated to be 1,26,000 crore
miles. Lord Jesus
came down to the earth to save this miserable man
and put him back on the heavenly track to glorify God. When
Jesus Christ was born in this world two thousand years ago, Angels declared,
"glory to God in the highest...." - Luke 2: 14.
With
the birth of Jesus, the Son of God , a hope
was given to the fallen man to bring glory to God
That's
why salvation of man had to cost God the very life of His Son. Christ
died that man might be made free from sin and regain from his fallen
condition. By virtue of salvation in Christ Jesus, man had got the
golden opportunity to glorify God. How can man, having obtained
salvation bring glory to God? There are three ways of declaring the
glory of God.
One
is by means of
Praise and Worship: Man can bring glory to God by singing praises unto Him who brought
salvation to his soul. That's how we offer our worship as a Church on
the Lord's day and sing praises unto His Holy Name. We, as
God's people pour out our Praise and Worship. The word of God says,
"Who so offers Praise glorifies me" (Ps. 50:23).
Are we Praising God?
The
second
way of glorifying God is by
letting our light so shine before men that they may
see our good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven. - Matt. 5:16.
The question
before us is are we making our light shine forth among men? Are we
capable of giving our spiritual and new life to others
around us? We say we have received 'new life' from Lord
Jesus Christ but is it made known to others? If we say
in the affirmative then we bring forth glory to God. A Christian is
the one who emits Heavenly light which he has
received from God, the heavenly Father. When we do not shine forth
as lights in this world, it means there is darkness in us - Darkness has no
capacity of emission as that of light. Only light has got the capacity to
travel with a velocity of 1,86,000 miles per second. People around us
should enjoy the good works in us in the name of Lord Jesus.
Thirdly
, a man in Christ Jesus can bring glory
to God by his fruitful Christian life. After salvation, every Christian is
expected to grow spiritually and bring forth fruit in abundance. Our Lord says,
"Here in is my Father
glorified.......that ye bear much fruit". - John
15:8.
What kind of fruits?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law. - Galatians 5: 22, 23
There
are nine kinds of fruits in our Christian life - If we say we do have
those fruits in us, it means we are declaring the glory of God. Dear
friends, let us examine ourselves in the light of God's word, whether
we are really showing forth the glory of God, in our day-to-day lives.
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- T. J. P. S.
Vardhan
Ephesians 4: 26,27 -
"Be angry and do not sin, do not let the
sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil."
Growing in the Lord and
control of anger is a very important aspect. In the above verses
Ephesians 4: 23,24,25
Paul says
"Put on
the New Man and be renewed by the spirit of your mind."
By getting angry we grieve the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:31 says "Let all
bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking be put away from you".
Ephesians 4: 32 says "be kind to one another,
tender-hearted, forgive one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you".
Jesus Christ
while telling his disciples, told them about the need for forgiveness. In
Mark 11:25, He says "Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone,
forgive him, that your Father in Heaven also forgive you your trespasses."
In the Lord's prayer it is very clearly said
"forgive our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespasses against us" You are
enjoying with the Lord to forgive one another.
In Colossians 3:13
it is said
"a believer has to forgive one another as Christ forgave us".
In the changed life of
a Christian, the child of God is said to love other Christians.
In John 3:15 It is said "he who hates his brother
is a murderer."
A Christian should love his enemies. It is said
"love your enemies and bless those who curse you and
do good to those who hate you..."
In all this
Jesus Christ, our Father, our Lord has put it as a burden on
us, the need to follow him strictly. Sometimes it so happens that if you allow
the Holy Spirit to lead/rule, Holy Spirit naturally takes up our mind control
and spirit control.
I was saved in the year 1984 and started
praying, asking the Lord to lead me. I never realised that leading of
the Lord would be so difficult. By nature , I was an
angry young man. At the drop of the hat I used to get
angry. However, I learnt the same when the Lord started working in me anything that
is against the Spirit of the Holy Spirit will not be allowed to
remain in us.
In 1985, I remember
an incident in my life. It was hot summer and there was scarcity of
water in Hyderabad. One morning a tanker was supplying water to the
Colony. I went to collect water. My neighbour who came in between
started pushing me. Though, I tolerated it for quite sometime, I could
not tolerate it any longer. When he was pushing, I turned back and I
said if he pushes me once more I will break his head with the vessel I
was carrying. Instantly the Lord spoke, "my son you had been a bad
witness", "but why Lord, you have seen what that fellow was doing". Lord
said "Yes, I have seen but I don't expect my son to get angry". I was at
the end of my patience. Lord said "how many times did I forgive you?" I
said "I can't count" then he said, "forgive your brethren, if you want
to be my son you have to learn patience and love.
There was another
time when I got into an argument with my wife. She and I were having a
heated discussion on an issue and it was time for her to go to school
(she was working as a teacher). She stepped out of the house in anger.
And I was angry, I offered to talk, she refused and I was saying O.K.,
that serves you well. She went away to school and I came to the house
and it was time for me to go to office. I knelt down to pray. However, I
was unable to pray. I was examining myself why I am unable to pray. The
Lord then spoke to me that I had a fight with my wife, He said, "you
spoke harshly to your wife" I told Lord "why should I not, you have seen
how she was discussing, she has no logic." God said "I know all that but
you should forgive her". I said "but Lord how is it possible." He said
"dont talk, if you want to follow me you must do what I want you to. You
must learn to love your wife. "Suddenly the verse came to my mind, this
was from 1 Corinthians
13:5
"Love doesn't behave rudely, does not seek its own, it
is not provoked, thinks no evil:" I started writing
that verse on a piece of paper to send it to my wife. I was filled with
the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. Then I realised that anger and
hatred prevented my prayer.
In a number of
situations like this, I have seen that anger prevents our prayer and
prevents us from getting blessed by God. While growing in Christ it
is very essential that we allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives and
we should be prepared to be moulded. May the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Power of the Holy Spirit guide, protect and lead you
all.
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1.Who
carried the letter from the Bishop of Jerusalem to the Roman Pope Urban-II,asking
him to raise an army to deliver Jerusalem?
2.When did the first Crusade begin?
3.Who headed the first Crusade?
4.Where was the spear found wherewith the soldier pierced the Lord?Who
gave its location?
5.Who advised the first Crusaders to March seven times around the City
of Jerusalem to capture it?
6.When was the City of Antioch taken by the first Crusaders?
7.Who
instituted the Second Crusade and when?
8.How many lives were lost by believing and following the vision of Stephen
the 12 yrs. old French Shepherd boy?
9.Why did the fifth Crusaders refuse the offer given by the enemy to
cede the entire Palestine?
10. Who led the final Crusade in 1267?
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- Pastor John A.
Sweigart
Does
the Bible teach predestination? Does God know where I would end up before
I die, whether I would be saved or lost? If so, do I really have a choice?
The Bible indeed does teach predestination but not in the sense that some of our
Christian friends take it. Here is the key passage from Romans 8:29,30 "For whom he did foreknow,
he also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he
also justified: And whom he justified, them he also glorified."
It is important
to remember that all Bible teachings are subject to the witness of the
entire Bible. In other words, we must take everything the Bible says on a subject.
In the case of predestination, We must compare scripture like:
"Whosoever will let him take of
the water of life freely, "Revelation 22:17.
Obviously, God is calling us to make a choice.
If
that choice has already been made for us,
Then verses that emphasize man's free will would be mockery. Why would God
want robots for His Kingdom? A robot or a puppet cannot return love for love.
Love is one possible where there is freedom of choice.
Predestination,
therefore, means that God has destined us for glory. He has a beautiful
plan for our lives, and every provision has been made for our justification,
sanctification and glorification. The emphasis in predestination is
that God will never renege on His part of the covenant provisions. However,
we have a right to refuse to follow that plan. I hope all this helps.
And I hope you have chosen Jesus for your life.
- By Pastor Jim
Why is spreading the
message of Christ's saving power so important for the end time ? What
I mean is why should there be so much emphasis on missionary work at
this time?
There was never been
a time when it wasn't important to spread the message of God's saving
power in Christ Jesus. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 tells
us this. Additional in Matthew
24:12-14 , the Olivet Discourse, Jesus
says, "because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of most will
grow cold, but he who stands firm till the end will be saved. And this
gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony
to all nations, And then the end will come."
It is particularly important
that we preach the Good News now, for we are in a period of great receptivity
and relatively little opposition. The more we preach the more will hear
and the more will be saved, For "How can they call at the one they have not
believed in? And how can they believe on the one they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching them?...Faith comes from
hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of
Christ." - Romans 10:14,17
Finally, the book of Revelation makes clear
that God's remnant people during the last years, months, weeks, days
and hours of earth's history are actively proclaiming the everlasting
gospel with one purpose on view - that as many as possible may be with Jesus in His
Kingdom - Rev 14:6-12.
Missionary work is not just leaving
one's country and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to other cultures.
There is a wild and fertile mission field right around each of us in
our friends, workmates and acquaintances. Wouldn't you love to see all
of them in heaven? That is the reason for the emphasis on the mission
work right now. We don't know how soon Jesus will come. Why miss the
opportunity to tell others of His saving grace right now? God bless
you as you seek to know Him and do His will.
- By Pastor John A. Sweigart
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