Safe

Psalm 18:16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.


Our plane was thirty thousand feet above sea level and it was aflame. The engine on fire and there was just the ocean below.

My assignment was to go to Germany where I was invited to preach and now I found myself on this plane about to burst into flames. Twenty minutes later we landed back to the airport we had boarded from, safe and sound. Two days later I was in Germany on my assignment on schedule.

The Lord was true to His promise, “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.”

Look at your circumstances and know that He is able to deliver you out of it. Just trust and obey.

Hide and Seek?

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Have you watched movies where one person is being chased and is hiding behind the trees in a wooded area? Everyone in the scene moves real stealthily so as not to give themselves away but one single move that makes a sound like crushing dried leaves brings attention to the target and then the pace escalates.

Now imagine Adam and Eve trying to hide from God. The scriptures say, “They heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day”.

The Psalmist rightly says in Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”

Yet like Adam and Eve how often do we forget that we cannot flee His presence? His footprints are indelibly marked on all of creation.

That the incident in the garden ended with a redemption plan stands as a covenant to this day. Instead of running away let us run to Him because His compassions never fail and He is just to forgive.

Truly I repeat as the Psalmist says..."Where O Lord, can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?"

Live!

Isaiah 60:1 Arise shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

Bombay has a population of over 12 million. Millions travel by train everyday to work. Whenever my daughters and a friend of mine would travel by train we would make sure to sing some gospel songs.It was way of sharing the hope and love of Christ.

On one of our trips after we got off the train a young girl came and tapped me on the shoulder. As our eyes met she asked if she could come along with me to my house. She said she wanted to talk. I had of course no clue who she was and what she wanted.
She was pretty quiet on the ride home.

When we got home she began pouring her heart out and told me how she had decided to jump off that very train to end her life that day. She said she felt hopeless and completely useless. She mentioned that the songs we sang brought her hope and life. Her dark world was filled with light and she decided to live.

A few hours later she opened her heart to Jesus and left with a smile and complete peace. Indeed His light had shone through for His glory.

Let us continue to be His light and let His glory shine!

Believe

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them].

It was the practice in our ministry with street kids not to raise any funds or ask anyone for donations for all our needs including rent, school fees and every other expense associated with daily living. So that left us only one recourse and that was to get on our knees and pray.

One day the boys were in dire need of some clothes for school. As was our practice we calculated the cost and then prayed for one thousand two hundred rupees which in dollars would translate to about twenty five.

That evening I was invited to a bible study by some friends. We had our usual Bible study and I did not mention anything about our need. After the Bible study the leader of the group handed me an envelope and to my surprise there was exactly one thousand two hundred rupees in it.

Of course my joy knew no bounds. I immediately drove to the Boy’s Home and was really excited to get the boys together and share the answered prayer. I think my excitement arose more from my unbelief than faith.

The boys gathered together, heard the good news said a prayer of thanksgiving and went back outside to play. As I was leaving I asked the youngest one why he was not excited and he looked at me quizzically and simply said, “I knew it would come…we prayed, didn’t we?"

That evening I learnt from a little child that when we pray we should believe that we have received what we asked.

Divine Order

Psalm 22:30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Psalm 22 is one of those prophetic psalms among all of the Messianic psalms.

It is prophetic in nature because when David wrote this inspired by the Holy Spirit, stoning was the method of capital punishment and yet he descriptively penned the crucifixion in detail.

There is always order in God’s work. He chose to have things in the order that is from the least to the greatest. Acorns are just a tiny little seed but see how big and wide the tree is.

Just a little mango seed planted in the ground will bring forth a huge mango tree that will bear hundreds of fruits if not thousands in its lifetime.

Jesus came humbly in a manger, a little seed, tiny and frail. He came wrapped in human form and was prepared for the cross before Him and even today it is accounted to the Lord.

Look around, the cross is still a symbol of love and forgiveness and let’s not forget the seed paid the price so that we may grow and blossom and be called the sons of the Most High God.

Got to Go!

Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD [is] a God of judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for Him.

In today’s high tech world there are so many ways of communicating right from the plain old phone to text messaging online that the receiver can read on his cell phone.

My daughters and I live in different countries and often use the computer to chat. Sometimes right in the middle of an interesting conversation one of us will text, “gtg”, in other words got to go, because something very pressing demands our physical attention.

How often do we hang up on a friend because a kid needs attention, or someone is at the door or simply because we don’t feel like talking anymore?

I muse on those things and realize that God is so different. If you hang out with Him He will never give you any kind of a signal that He has “gtg”.

Here in Isaiah 30 He says that He will wait and wait not just to chit chat but to be gracious to us, to have mercy on us and then be blessed.


Don’t feel discouraged with chat sessions left half done, with conversations that did not finish or with friends or family abruptly saying, “gtg”. Remember... He is always waiting and there is nothing more important to Him than you.

Handmade

Isaiah 51:1-2 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD : Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.

Many years ago the Lord had me open my home to a young lady who was abandoned at birth. She was new to the faith and had a tough time growing up in an orphanage.

Over three decades in India it was not the practice of adoption agencies to take down leave alone keep any records of the birth parents. One day this young lady confided in me how she was always looking for her parents. She said she would scour the faces on the street to see if anyone resembled her and in her mind if they did, her next question was, “is that my Mom or sister, and is that my Dad or brother?”


As she grew in her faith and caught hold of this verse the Lord brought her peace and she started to seek to being more like Jesus.


Many of us in some way want some other heritage. We wish we were super brilliant, or super beautiful, or super something else. I believe when we look to our God given origin we can be super quiet.


Let us look to the patriarchs of our faith…Abraham and Sarah. Their obedience reaped them a rich harvest and a great blessing.


Both my parents are gone to be with the Lord and I have not a single piece of letter nor anything tangible to hold on to their heritage but I hold the Word of God as a tangible evidence of my heritage in God who made both Abraham and Sarah.

I was intentionally carved from my God who is my Rock and was hewn from His heart with an eternal purpose.

Under the Shadow

Hosea 14:7 Those who dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

When the trials of life hit us we tend to take refuge in different things.

Any refuge that we seek outside the shadow of our God is in vain. Our fainting from the trials and our stunted growth from bad circumstances can change when we take refuge in Him.

God has an answer for each of our situation; waiting under His protection prayerfully will bring forth the solution.

We need to be revived like fresh grain so others can eat of our testimonies and find strength. We need to grow like a good strong wine so that His Spirit from within us can reach a broken and dying world bringing hope and encouragement.

The scent of the Lord in our lives should draw all men to the Cross.

Ready?

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

Genesis 12:4a So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him;

In 1991 the Lord put on my heart to attend a conference in Florida in the USA. It was the first time I was going to be boarding a plane leave alone the first time setting foot on foreign soil all the way from India.

Almost 20 years ago the Lord sent someone to prophecy over my life that I will be travelling world wide. I was a new Christian then and did not doubt that but immediately got my passport made and exactly in a year’s time the Lord took me to two different nations and to the very house of the person who prophesied over me.

I was new and fresh in the faith and moved according to the Spirit and an unshaken belief.

What happens as we grow older? We always have more questions and always hesitate instead of keeping the freshness and being radical for God.

Abram did not sit and question nor try to analyze the command of the Lord…instead in a childlike manner he departed as the Lord had spoken unto Him.

Abram later was renamed Abraham and become the father of many nations. Where is He calling you to go today? Do not worry if the beginning of that bridge to that journey is in His heart...all will be well.

Homebound?

Hebrews 13:14 “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

For most of my growing years I lived in Bombay now called Mumbai in India. It has grown from a few thousand people to a metropolis of over 18 million people.

Millions travel by train everyday to work. Watching a train pull into the station and thousands get in without killing themselves is a wonder. The perseverance to get into the train, the determination to reach their destiny, is something quite amazing and almost breathtaking. Yes, breathtaking because if you are not careful you can get squished by the hundreds of people surrounding you, all wanting to get into the same train.

All travelling from one city to another, what determination and what perseverance!

What is our perseverance in seeking the city to come?

The writer of Hebrews says, “For we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Are we really seeking to go there? Are we doing all we can to press into holiness and godliness, the mark of citizens of heaven? I guess only each one of us can answer for ourselves this day, as we rush through life, boarding trains that either are going in preparedness to our heavenly destination or away from it.

Where Are You?

Genesis 3:9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

In the late 80’s I use to have a Bible study in my house for the local youth. I had been inviting one young girl for awhile and she never attended.

This particular day the Lord put on my heart to teach from the book of Genesis 3. Just when I reached Genesis 3:8 the door bell rang and there was this young lady. Having welcomed her, I continued the Bible study and when it came to “Where, are you?” I asked them the same question. The Spirit of God prompted me to ask this young lady if she had spent the better part of the afternoon at a seamstress.

I had no idea where she was but simply asked her that question. There was such a move of the Lord in that place she wept and said, “Yes I was at the seamstress for two hours”, she then bowed her head and closed her eyes I believe at the revelation that God knows her whereabouts.

At the close of the Bible study she gave her life to Jesus. In the years ahead she married a wonderful Christian man and together they serve at a hospice for people with Aids. Her life went on to being a fragrant offering unto the Lord.

Let us ponder and ask ourselves, “Where am I?” Hopefully, near the heart of God doing His will everyday.

Doing What?

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Exd 35:31 And He hath filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;

Exd 35:35 Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, [even] of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work.

The man in this picture has a unique gifting. He cleans jaw bones of sharks and sells them. With all my culinary skills I would never be able to clean a jaw bone of a shark..let alone sell it! I had the privilege of meeting this old soul who was sitting and carving a jaw bone. He did not have much in way of possessions except an old beat up boat and a great carving knife...but he was happy! He had found his gifting 50 years ago and was faithfully adhering to it! He seemed content doing what he knew to do best...under the Baja sun!

So what are your giftings? Do you write, paint or are you a fantastic cook? Maybe you can sing beautifully or play a musical instrument; maybe you are good with numbers or a great juggler. How did we become this way? Yes, our parents or other adults nurtured us, and gave us right opportunities.We worked hard at being where we are or a teacher helped us in our formative years.

In my late teens I worked as a teacher at a visually impaired school. Some of my students were great musicians and I would be amazed at their dedication and how they spent hours practicing and perfecting their talent but at the end of it all the Lord says, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God….in all manner of workmanship. As they would say in the King James Version, “what manner of workmanship do thou excel in?” It is not of your own doing but by the Spirit of God.

Let us give Him thanks for our talents and then put them to use for His glory.

But Noah

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

I often wonder how the great patriarchs conversed with God. The Cross is a symbol of Christianity and no matter how deeply one believes or maybe does not believe at all many sport the cross as a fashion statement or perhaps it makes them feel religious and or safe.

You and I know that there is historical and archeological evidence of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ yet, how difficult it is for us to sometimes believe that we have found grace in the eyes of God because of His Son. And back to the question I wonder how Noah knew that he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord?

If he could accept that statement by faith and act upon the will of his God then today we are much more blessed with the actual revelation of the Cross 2000 years ago. You and I have found favor forever and to us the Cross is not a fashion statement nor worn just to make us feel religious and or safe but a statement to remind ourselves that we have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It makes me sing on the top of my voice..."Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." A wretch indeed saved by the grace and power of God!

Mindful of Me

Psalm 8:3, 4 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

I have had the privilege of flying to different nations as the Lord opened doors for me to serve Him. No matter how dejected I am or uncertain about things I am facing, the images of the clouds, the earth beneath and vastness of it all as I fly high above in an airplane are always enough to restore my spirit.

I look down in amazement and wonder at the sun that shines above the clouds, as the moon peeks in through the clouds and the miracle of it all as I travel in the skies and have a whole new perspective to the words, “what is man that you are mindful of him?”

Somehow everything begins to falls into place and I am reminded of my place in the universe as a child of a God who created all that my eyes can behold and more.

What an amazing loving God and His power has no limits. Cheer up...help is on the way from the Lord of the Universe! Jesus!

A Waiting Father

Psalm 28:8 [When thou saidst], Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

We are living in perilous times and those perilous times have caught up with us. We are made to believe that everything has to be instant. Instant food, instant internet, instant phone connection and the list goes on and on.

The principle of God’s kingdom is a little different though, if I may say. There is nothing instant. Nothing instant about God coming down, as a babe in the manger, nothing instant about that long walk to Calvary. Nothing instant about being constantly whipped and lashed at till the blood flowed. Nothing instant about hanging on the cross until the last breath and yet we are in a hurry.

We have been programmed and allowed ourselves to be programmed in believing that we can have a hurried meeting with God and then begin our day. Let us remember today that God is not available at our command rather He is waiting as a Father to commune with His child. He is longing to hear our hopes and expectations for the day and our gratitude for things past. Let us seek Him and give Him all the time He deserves. Let us give Him our lives.

He Knows

Matthew 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David [are] fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon [are] fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ [are] fourteen generations.

Fourteen generation from Abraham to David, fourteen from David until carrying away into Babylon fourteen from carrying away unto Christ. Oh the preciseness of God! Sometimes we are hasty in the midst of our trials and feel God has forgotten us. He created time.

If it was fourteen generations between one time and another not fifteen or sixteen or thirteen for that matter know that He has not forgotten you. In due time He will come, He will deliver and fulfill His word to our lives.

Joseph in the prison, Daniel in the lions den, Job in his intense suffering, God did not forget any of them. Neither has He forgotten you.

An Everlasting Invitation

Genesis 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

Looking back on my childhood I realize that I was not invited for all the neighborhood birthday parties. How many of us as little kids are perplexed by the fact that we are not invited? Now that we are all grown up we know how that works.
The people that are celebrating cannot invite everyone on the block. Those that are close to them or even those they feel obligated to call for their party, for one reason or another are invited. As I was reading this scripture today I realized how broad the invitation of our God is.
Whenever He comes on the scene He wants us to be there to celebrate with Him. His invitation to you like to Noah today is “Come”! Today we understand that He sees us as righteousness because of Jesus Christ. That “Ark” that become our shelter and has promised to see us safely through.
He invites us today, “come”. Let us go then and enjoy the presence of the Lord and know that He has invited us not because He feels obligated but simply because He loves us.

Put In My Heart

Nehemiah 2:12 And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I [any] man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither [was there any] beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon

As I was walking on the beach listening to the book of Nehemiah on my little old tape player these words caught my attention, “what my God had put in my heart”. How many times when we are called to do something do we just ignore it or brush it aside? As a people that walk with God we should ponder and inquire of His Spirit if that thing that has come to our hearts is from Him. If from Him then when and how does He require us to carry it out?

As we step into a new day let us keep the lines of communication clear and open between heaven’s mercy seat and our souls, lest we miss what He put in our hearts. Let it be our prayer today, "Put in my heart oh God your will and then give me the grace to accomplish it".

He Will Go Before You

"For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you;
and the God of Israel will be your Rereward [literally, Rear Guard]"
(Isaiah 52:12).

It is always fascinating to watch a convoy of cars before and after a VIP. They get that privilege and honor because of their position and status. No matter how old or young we are I am sure at sometime or the other we wish there was someone to protect us at all times.
This morning we can lay hold of a promise that means exactly that and more. It is a promise of God that when we are led by Him and go out in His timing and not out of fear or presumption He will go before us and also be our rear guard.
I like the thought and it brings me much peace knowing that my Heavenly Father has my back covered. I do not have eyes at the back of my head but I know that He watches my back and protects me from things unseen and from the ploys of the enemy. Let us state this morning with much confidence, “The Lord does go before me and He is also the one watching behind me. He is my Van Guard (the foremost division or the front part of any army) and my Rear Guard.
May the blessings of the Lord make you rich in everyway and no sorrow be added to it.

The Merchants of Our Soul

Nehemiah 13:20-21 So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.
Who is standing outside the gates of our soul to do business with us? Nehemiah was very strict that no one should stand outside the gates of Jerusalem and trade on the Sabbath. He warned the merchants that if they would continue to do that he would lay his hands on them. It says in verse 21 “from that time they came no more”. Who are the merchants vying for our souls?
Are we on the alert about those that maybe wanting us to stray from the great Shepherd of the sheep? Let us gird up the loins of our mind and set our face as flint so that no one except He who has purchased us by His blood is entitled to do business with us.
Let all other merchants stay outside and by our persistent position in Christ they will flee and not torment us any longer.

Just The Simple Things

Just the simple things

"For who hath despised the days of small things?" Zechariah 4:10a

Just a humble little melon but yet so intricately beautifuly inside out! For many years the melon was not really among my favorite fruit.
Then six weeks ago I was struck by a stomach disorder and since then the humble little cantoloupe has been my best friend. The cantaloupe has many health benefits ranging from helping with healing from fever to disorders of kidney and bladder.

So many things in life we take granted for. The little buds about to blossom, a lady bug going merrily on its way, the hummingbird that visits your garden daily and on and on. But though all these things are small they still had a smaller beginning.

Their beginning was in the Word of God, small but powerful. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord spoke and everything was created and it goes on and on.
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.Genesis 1:11

Do not be discouraged the God who created all these things all said,"For nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37.

When you see a little humble thing that is created...remember where it came from and then remember the POWER behind it. Your situation is not impossible...with God ALL THINGS are possible!