Know your God.. !!

When I say “Know your God”, you will question me back, asking, do you think that I don’t know the God I follow..?

No.. I don’t say so, but I want you to really KNOW OUR GOD and be filled the knowledge of knowing our God. Let me show a verse, read Colossians chapter 1, verse 10. It says a something about knowledge of God. In Tamil bible (which I read J) it says as “Knowledge of KNOWING GOD”.  Do u think that the Colossians were not knowing God? No, they heard the Gospel and the Gospel worked wonders in them and they started to follow Jesus. (read the previous verses).

Then now the question rises, why then Paul should insist on Knowing the God.

Let’s meditate:

We too, fall in the same category, we heard the gospel and it changed us, and we follow Christ, and we proudly call ourselves Christians, we go to church, we sponsor ministries, BUT yet, there is a call today, which asks us to KNOW GOD.

When we pray, we praise different names of God like, Almighty, El-Shaddai,  Jehova Jireh, Elohim, etc., But when we finish our prayer, we tend to forget these attributes of our Lord and start worrying about the problems and challenges we face on that day.

Let me give you an example.

 Let’s say, that you are driving on a highway without helmet and was caught by a traffic sergeant. How would you react? We try to please him and try to get away from fine. We might say that it was very urgent and we forgot the helmet and will assure that we always wore helmet and will try to neutralize the issue.

Now, lets see the same situation again, think you are very close to the inspector or the police commissioner of the city. How would you react? You will not try to please him, but will show an air of superiority and would explain your relationship with the Commissioner and would get away from the problem very easily.

And, now think that you are the son of a Minister, and you are caught for not wearing helmet, how would you react now? You would not even switch off your vehicle, you would ask him his name, and would tell him that you can get him a promotion.

Now come on, let’s analyze the situation. The REACTION you had was different each time based on the BACKGROUND you had. When there was no one behind you to help you, you were polite and when there was somebody of power behind you, you never bothered about the problem.

Now think, is this the same way we react to problems in our daily life. You have somebody whom YOU called ALMIGHTY, JEHOVA JIREH behind you. And in that case, how should we react to the problems we face in our daily life. Do we really KNOW our God as ALMIGHTY? Do we really KNOW Him as JEHOVA JIREH? Think…

Think who is behind you, think of your background. You have somebody who loves you unconditionally, somebody who gave his Only begotten son for the love He had on YOU. You have somebody, who left His place, left His privilege to be GOD to be born as a Human and be tortured to death for YOU. You have somebody who has never done a single sin in His life, BECAME SIN for you. You have somebody, who suffered the most torturous death somebody could ever have for YOU. You have somebody who can order the rain and wind. You have somebody, who lives in the past, present and future.

IN SHORT, YOU SOMEBODY WHO CREATED THIS WHOLE WORLD FOR YOU.

In that case, how should we react to the problems and challenges we face? We will always have traffic sergeants in our life. There is somebody who always accuses us (his name is aptly accuser). There is always somebody who stops when we move forward. How should we deal with this problem?

Let’s take it even more practical.  Think of the problem or challenge you face TODAY? NOW understand that you worship THE ALMIGHTY, who can do EVERYTHING. NOW think that the person behind you is JEHOVA JIREH. You will now have whole new dimension of looking at the same problem.

KNOW YOUR GOD and know that you are BORN to WIN.. !!

Amen.

Jesus Appreciates !! - Part II

Hello guys,

Now lets continue with this again. Sorry for this delay, will try to post more often. :-) 

Lets focus our attention towards Mark 5th Chapter. Here we see 3 different miracles. 

1. The story of the demon - possessed man

2. The story of the lady who was suffering for 12 years

3. The story of the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader

All three are different and unique in their own way. Jesus works in the lifes of these people in 3 different ways. But the verse I would like to take for today's devotion is verse 34. Here Jesus appreciates the lady. He says, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your sufferings.

What a blessing..!! Go in peace and be freed…. I think I would give up anything for this kind of blessing. But now, I am more focused on the words which precede this blessing. DAUGHTER, YOUR FAITH HAS HEALED YOU. In the first part we saw that Jesus appreciates the FAITH of the centurion and here gain HE is seen appreciating the FAITH of this lady.

Lets now try to understand the situation. This lady was suffering for 12 years continuously. And she had met all possible physicians; she had spent whatever she had on this. She got worse and not better. She is tired on all this. She now realizes that Jesus is her only hope. She has HEARD about this carpenter doing miracles, and she is following Him now with the crowd. She BELIVED that all she had heard is true. She now understands the supremacy of God. She again didn’t expect anything from Him, but she THOUGHT in the mind that if SHE would just touch HIS clothes (in tamil it says “the corner of his clothes”), she would be healed.

And she “TOUCHED” and she was healed immediately. 

Praise the Lord!! Amen!! And then Jesus turns back, enquires and she comes to the fore and THEN, Jesus appreciates her. 
We can clearly see here that the miracle is initiated from HER END, she went ahead, and touched the cloak, and the miracle happened. So to have a miracle in life we should initiate the miracle from our end. 

Now lets analyze the sequence:

1. She Heard
2. She Believed
3. She Thought
4. She Touched

If we compare our own faith with this lady, we may not even cross the second point.

MANY of us hear – yes we hear a lot about Jesus.

SOME of us believe too – that Jesus can do miracles in our lifes.

But only FEW of us think that Jesus is above all our problems and needs,  and we tend to solve our problems ourselves.

And a VERY VERY FEW of us exercise that faith and belief into practice.  That’s the saddest part.

This lady on the other hand exercised her faith and was appreciated and we know that faith without deeds is useless (NIV) (in NKJV this kind of faith is said to be a dead one)

And to show the power of faith which is exercised, I would like to add one more point. Even Jesus was not able to stop this miracle. In verse 30 we see, Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him, only after the miracle had happened. I am astonished to understand that Jesus Himself is not able to stop power going out from Him. This is the power of faith which is practiced.

And like the icing on the cake, He appreciates..!!!

Lets start exercising our faith and get appreciated..!!!!

AMEN.

Jesus Appreciates!! - Part I

Yeah.... Jesus Appreciates...!!!

We have heard many phrases like " Jesus Saves, Jesus Lives, Jesus Smiles, Jesus Calls, Jesus Redeems., " and many more.. and we forget one important thing.. JESUS APPRECIATES too. Isn't that encouraging, to think that the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings is ready to appreciate you and me..?

It is really really encouraging to me. As humans, we all yearn for appreciation and recognition. And some of us are ready to anything just to get recognized in a crowd. But being the followers of Christ lets not use our might and strength to only get recognized and appreciated by people, but should be yearn for appreciations with our Lord. 

Lets read some phrases from the bible to find out who got appreciated by our Lord Jesus.

MATT 8: 10

Here Jesus appreciates the centurion. "When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith"

Think of this scenario. Why would Jesus appreciate a gentile and put ahead of all Israelites ? What is so special in this person? Lets read the whole passage and understand the happenings MATT 8: 5 - 13

This centurion is meeting Jesus for his servant. What a leader he is..!! he is compassionate on his servant and wants his servant to be healed. Nowadays, we cannot see a leader who is so compassionate on his sub-ordinate. (working in an IT company, i had my own share of GOOD leaders.. lol). But again this man not only is compassionate on his sub-ordinates but also understands the supremacy of Jesus. He proclaims that he understands that Jesus has authority over everything. He BELIEVED that Jesus can do anything and everything.  

And then, Jesus says "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith"

So if u yearn to be recognized by Jesus, follow these things:

1. BE COMPASSIONATE (Ephesians 4:32)

2. LIVE IN PEACE WITH EVERYBODY (Hebrews 12:14)

3. UNDERSTAND THE SUPREMACY OF OUR LORD (Psalm 33:9)

4. HAVE FAITH ON GOD (Mark 9:23)

So dear friends, lets not long for appreciations and recognition from these mortals who surround us. But lets put our mind and heart together and work towards that recognition and appreciation which will give us eternal glory..!!

Amen.

to be contd: