The Outside-Inside Upside

UV 4171/10000 The Outside-Inside Upside You ( spiritually) blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and plate ( examine and change your inner self to conform to God’s precepts), so that the outside ( your public life and deeds) may be clean also. Matthew 23 v 26 The upside of the outside-inside divide in the human being is that it is possible to turn around our topsy turvy values once we give priority to God in our lives. Then, the things that really matter, the internal and the eternal will begin to rule, dominate, lead, guide the external, the superficial, the behavioural, the material aspects of our lives. Jesus, the Author of Life, of Human Life, the Human mind in the uni-verse points out to the priestly class and to us, here and now, that the inside of the human being needs to be first cleaned. We need to conform to God’s precepts and image in our inner being. There are ways to do it in our everyday life. We need to lean on God, glean from His word daily in order to keep our inside clean. The outer world dirties us even as a child playing in mud cannot avoid being dirty and getting his clothes muddy, too. The Lord has given us pure white clothes or robes of salvation in Christ, the Word. We need to purify our insides, too to be pure, holy, wholesome, worthy of Christ. We can wash ourselves with His word which is the water of eternal life. We need to mind our minds more than even our business. The word renews our minds on a daily basis. It recharges our minds, revitalizes our thoughts, emotions, intentions. We need to take every thought captive to Christ by arresting any negative thoughts, attitudes, feelings then and there, at the starting point. We need to arrest bad actions, gestures, reactions, habits since we are to have the mind of Christ. Our minds need to conform not to the negative patterns of this world but the positive, wholesome patterns of His word. Saturating our minds with His word, filling it with His thoughts and thoughts of Him is a way to incarnate the Resurrected Redeemer in our lives. The ROI or return on intelligence is immense, infinite when we absorb the wisdom of the word in the things we need to do, the things we need to avoid, the choices we need to make, the choices we need to abhor or avoid. Instead of getting baked to the moulds of this world, the living, active, powerful, life-giving and enhancing patterns of the word will shape our character, our communication and even our career.

Holistic Health, Peace and Prosperity

UV 4170/10000 Holistic Health, Peace and Prosperity Behold, ( in the restored Jerusalem) I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace ( prosperity, security, stability) and truth. Jeremiah 33 v 6 The world has discovered through the current pandemic that health is the true or real wealth that we should all seek. Of what avail is all the wealth in the world, if our health fails! Ultimately, nothing in this fallen world can redeem a fallen man. We are misplacing our hope and trust if we trust anything or anyone in this world. When we are restored in Christ back to the Creator, God, Jehovah, He promises to give us health and healing. Jehovah declared to the Israelites, “I am Your Healer.” Jesus healed all the people who came to Him for healing different afflictions. We do not hear of Jesus, Himself suffering from any ailment. He is One Physician who does not need to heal Himself. He healed the spirit, mind and body of people with a variety of afflictions. Today, we need mental health, emotional health, physical health, spiritual health. If health is our first requirement, an abundance of peace and truth is our second and third requirements. Jesus, being the Prince of Peace restores peace with God to all believers. He also restores peace within ourselves. He restores peace among ourselves, peace in our families, with our spouse, with our children, with our neighbours, with our colleagues. Peace in this uni-verse has three significant dimensions- prosperity, security and stability. Happiness from the biblical perspective consists of health, peace, prosperity, security and stability. Having been restored to health, peace, prosperity, stability by the Lord we have a role to play to maintain or sustain it. We need to be focused on the Lord and His word. Our minds should not be wavering in its desires and goals. We need to be anchored, rooted, established in the word. To such the Lord promises perfect peace. We should not think, speak or do anything that adversely affects such peace. We need to lean on the Lord, glean from His word in order to be clean. Then the Lord will bestow on us His shalom- which is a word that stands for holistic health, holistic peace, holistic success, holistic strength, holistic wealth, holistic security.

Spiritual Resilience

UV 4169/10000. Spiritual Resilience So he said to them, “ Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” And they could not solve the riddle in three days. Judges 14 v 14 Whatever the enemy, the roaring lion, satan throws at us, humans, with the help of the Word, Jesus, the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Ebenezer, Emmanuel, the Prince of Peace we can emerge from it stronger, better, sweeter. Jesus solved the riddle of life and of sin in three days from His death to His resurrection. Hence, the killer is defeated, the tempter is routed, the strong one is bound. Death is defeated, death is overcome, conquered, made toothless and clawless so it cannot hold us to ransom. Jesus by surrendering to death on the cross achieved two things at one go- payment for man’s sin and the right to eternal life being given to mankind. He, then, is the source of our spiritual resilience, sustenance and of our thriving forever. We go through tough and rough situations in life not to cause us pain, not to sadden us but to make us stronger and better. The man or woman of faith is victorious and an overcomer in any life situation. Samson’s riddle holds in it the secret of the gospel. Death till the resurrection of Jesus caused fear and panic in any human, high or low, rich or poor, strong or weak but Jesus solved the puzzle, the riddle of how man can live forever in His sacrifice. Samson wanted thirty linen tunics from his in laws to be if they could not answer the riddle he asked. But Jesus by solving the age old problem of mankind clothed us with wholesome salvation. Today, we continue to be vulnerable to the first or physical death but this is compared by Jesus to our routine of sleeping for often He referred to the dead as merely sleeping. We are freed from the fear of guilt, of judgement in the hereafter, freed from the secondary death or eternal death, the experience of continual dying, continual suffering. The powerful enemy death had been rendered innocuous and harmless. Freed from the bonds of sin and death we now have the sweet experience of spiritual freedom. We can now go from strength to strength till the Lord calls us home. Our lives freed from the sting of fear and shame are to be lived in fellowship and joy with the Lord. For the justified in Christ live by faith and not by fear and the sanctified in the Spirit live in joy.

The Axe that Floated

UV 4168/10000 The Axe That Floated The man of God said, “ Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut off a stick and threw it in there, and made the iron (axe head) float. 2 Kings 6 v 7 The axe was borrowed and Elisha’s disciple was desperate when he seemed to have lost the axe in the Jordan river. It is a metaphor today for the losses or threats of loss we face in our lives and work life. Elisha, the man of God accompanied his disciples when they went to the river side. A leader should be with his team when they are at work. In a crisis, they have someone to turn to. The leader should turn to God for a solution to any crisis, man-made or natural or spiritual. God can do the impossible when the human heart is in faith and alignment with His heart. He can make an iron axehead float. He can turn around impossible situations in our favour as we cry out to Him even as Elisha’s disciple cried out to him. In this covid pandemic, many people are burdened with financial debts, money owed to somebody or to the bank with nothing in sight to retrieve the losses. But when we turn to the Lord and cry out in desperation but in faith and hope, He will make the axe head float. There are some things that lie with us to do just as Elisha took a stick and asking the disciple where it fell, he threw it in the same area. We need to do all that lies with us. In the course of the last thirty four years of my professional and personal as well as familial life, there were many occasions when our borrowed axe head had fallen in the water. We cried out to the Lord and He saved us in all these situations when we faced some imminent loss or suffered the loss already. No situation is beyond redemption for us as long as we know the direction in which we are moving and we are holding onto our hope in Jesus. For an iron axe to float, it requires nothing short of a miracle. It also needed the faith of both the disciple to trigger it and Elisha’s faith in God and self to move to action. Faith obtains supernatural favour or grace for us and grace causes the miracle to happen. Tears and anxiety will turn into laughter, joy and sheer relief. The miracle happened not so that Elisha could boast of his ability or power or even faith but to boost the faith of the faithful, to vindicate the words and actions of the man of God.

Throw Away Worries, Embrace His Love

UV 4167/10000 Throw Away Worries, Embrace His Love Casting all your cares ( all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all) on Him, for He cares about you ( with deepest affection, and watches over you carefully). I Peter 5 v 7 It is an act of humility as well as trust to entrust all our concerns, worries, anxieties to God for it shows we are acknowledging that we cannot handle it on our own, that we believe God can and will take over our worries and handle it effectively. The basis for such trust is the love of God for each one of us. His love is absolute not relative and hence, He has come the extra billion miles for each of us in sending His Son to pay the price for our moral and spiritual failings. We just need to stand where we are in silent acknowledgement of such love, in wholehearted acceptance of His love. We are to cast both our frowns and our crowns at the feet of God. When we are in a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, our Saviour and Sovereign, we only need to render our hearts to Him and not rend it. We only need to surrender the totality of our past, present, future, our whole being to Him, our eternity. When we do so, we have entered an O-zone – or a zone of His omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. We are in a safe zone, a fail safe zone, a zone of total trust and zero fear. No hair of ours can fall without His specific knowledge or permission. No one can touch us or harm us for we are the apple of His eye. He is ever watching over us even when we are not vigilant or back sliding or careless. We are therefore, to cast all our earthly burdens on Him. He promises to lighten our burdens- physical, financial, spiritual, emotional, relational. Not a moment are we to waste or fritter away in bitter thought but try to get better in all things by His grace, with His constant help. He also sends the Holy Spirit to help us, encourage, enable, empower us to help us endure. With His help, we should learn from the patience, gentleness and humility of Jesus. All the words we utter as well as our inner thought needs to be positive, confessing, affirming faith in the unquenchable love of God, the overwhelming, awesome power of the Lord.

Grace Delivers Us from All Graves

UV 4166/10000 Grace Delivers Us from All Graves Then you will know (with confidence) that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and made you come up out of your graves, My people. Ezekiel 37 v 13 The Lord delivers us not only from our physical graves once we are dead but the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, financial, professional, relational, familial graves too. He is the Life and the Resurrection and His power of resurrection is working in us for His glory, by His grace, all the time and reviving, restoring us from the dead, the inactive, the ineffective, the powerless, the decadent, the lifeless in all the realms we are engaging in. He does it all the time as we are His people and He is committed to our total well being in the here and now as well as in the hereafter, the eternal, the internal and the external. He sends His angels to remove the large boulder at the cave grave of all our domains. By His reviving, restoring, resurrecting us, He gives us evidence and utmost confidence that not only He is the I Am, the self existent, uncreated Creator, the Source and Fountainhead of all life and wisdom and power but that He loves us and He desires to be good and do good to us in our limited, finite days even on Earth before He receives us to hold us close to His bosom. We realize that He alone is praiseworthy, belief-worthy, trustworthy, awesome I Am. He is the I Am who is all powerful, He is the Being who is all loving, He is the Being who is ever faithful, He is the Being who is ever wise and gentle. The grave has no claim on us. He has declared us as His children, His representatives on Earth, His viceroys to exercise power and authority over the works of death of the enemy. Death held a sting for all mankind hitherto as it was the beginning of the great unknown. No one knew what lay beyond and behind it. It was irrevocable. Death or hamartia or tragic failing or falling came due to human sin and bondage to sin. But Christ, the first ever Conqueror of the grave, of death has removed the sting of both the grave and death. By His physical resurrection, Jesus rendered even ultimate physical death powerless, revocable, reversible and the doorway, the gateway to eternal, abundant, joy filled life in His presence.

Judging Ourselves Forestalls God's Judgement

UV 4165/10000 Judging Ourselves Forestalls God’s Judgement But if we evaluated and judged ourselves honestly ( recognizing our shortcomings and correcting our behaviour), we would not be judged. I Corinthians 11 v 31 Instead of falling under judgement of God, it is wise for us to judge ourselves. At the same time, we ought not to judge others as it is the prerogative of God. We cannot arrogate to ourselves the power or right to judge others. We are to look at others with mercy and grace and consider ourselves severely. The yardstick we used hitherto to judge others we need to change its direction towards our own selves. Each of us have different kinds of shortcomings or weaknesses. Some of it are supportive weaknesses like the little finger enables the other bigger fingers to form a strong fist or to get a good grip. Some are manageable weaknesses which we can regulate. Some are absolute negative weaknesse that have the potential to destroy our souls, minds or bodies or any of these, for example, an addiction to liquor, pornography and so on. We need to recognize these early enough and pray for grace or power to overcome these deadly shortcomings. Some weaknesses are temperamental or emotional weaknesses like the tendency to fly into a violent temper with even a small provocation. These need to be combatted and overcome with the help of the Holy Spirit, with much prayer and even fasting. Some weaknesses might be a morbid level of fear or anxiety. Again, we need to get the help of Ebenezer, the God who not only accompanies us but helps us on a continual basis. There are apparently two stages in our fight against our own inner weaknesses- first, we need to be aware or recognize our weaknesses, our failings, our flaws. Second, we need to take corrective steps or measures to avoid, reduce, overcome the weaknesses. The uni-verse tells us that we need not be ashamed of our weaknesses or ignore it but be fully aware, own it, take responsibility for dealing with it, get help of the Lord and overcome it, reduce it, avoid it, turn it into a source of strength. Jesus asks us to be ruthless with the absolutely negative weaknesses like lust for He says, “If your left hand causes you to sin, cut it off.. If your right eye causes you to sin, it is better to gouge it out.” We are to chip away regularly at the beam in our own eye that keeps our vision blocked, keeps us from realizing our God-given potential, use our abilities or resources effectively. The beam of light the Lord flashes into our blinded eyes removes the beam that blocks our vision and enables us to see our own weaknesses as one of the above categories. He, then, gives us the grace to overcome each weakness or use it as a support for our strengths. Weakness is part of human nature and the power to overcome comes from God. Weakness is even needed to understand that we are frail, vulnerable humans in need of supernatural help. It is needed to keep us humble and dependent on the Lord. In fact, even our strengths can turn into a source of weakness when we over rely on it, over leverage or gloat on it.

Remembering Leaders and Mentors

UV 4164/10000 Remembering Leaders and Teachers Remember your leaders (for it was they) who brought you the word of God; and consider the result of their conduct (the outcome of their godly lives), and imitate their faith ( their conviction that God exists and is the Creator and ruler of all things, the Provider of eternal salvation through Christ, and imitate their reliance on God with absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness:. Hebrews 13 v 7 We are to remember those who led us to Christ. Those who laboured hard to minister to us. We are to imitate their lives and their faith. God had used them as His messengers to kindle our faith. When we honour them, we honour God. Hence, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Imitate me even as I imitate Christ.” We are to model ourselves on the godly example set by godly leaders and not the blind leaders of this world. We need to spend time with them to understand their motives in serving God and emulate their sense of purpose and mission. We are called to emulate and not to adulate the leaders the Lord has used to bless us. In no way, do they take the place of the Lord in our lives. Our focus should be on Jesus but at the same time, we should not forget our debt to the human leaders He used to groom, prepare, train and teach us the ways of God. Their lives and examples should be an encouragement to us to be faithful. We need to be generous with our time and our help to them in times of need. Remembering also means we need to uphold our pastors, evangelists, elders, prophets before the Lord in prayer on a daily and constant basis. We need to pray for their protection, their work, their ministry so that they continue to be strengthened and established in the Lord, that the hindrances in their paths be removed, that they be guarded from temptations and persecutors. The way we remember our teachers is itself a sign and mark of our own faithfulness to the Lord.

Called to a Life of Wisdom and Power

UV 4163/10000 Called to a Life of Wisdom and Power But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. I Corinthians 1 v 24 While those who are not called or chosen to believe Christ, the gospel is either a stumbling block ( to Jews who cannot accept that God can be a human and that He can be crucified, put to death and then resurrected) to their faith or foolishness ( to Gentiles). But the uni-verse states that to both Jews and Gentiles who are called or chosen to believe, the gospel is God’s power to save and His wisdom. The philosophers, the intellectuals, the religious, the scholarly cannot understand the message of the gospel. It is in their eyes utter folly to believe that Jesus, the Son of God was crucified to pay for humanity’s shortcomings and resurrected to fulfill the hope of humanity to live forever. God chooses the less wise among the humans, those who may even be regarded by the intellectuals and philosophers to be unlearned and foolish, the ones who are not significant in this world, the ones who are despised and treated with contempt, the ones who are weak to believe the message of the gospel. He does so that no man can boast that he was saved by his own ability or goodness or wisdom. To those who are called to believe Jesus is not just the wisdom of God but the wisdom from God, the manifestation or personification of the righteousness of God and the redemption plan of God. We who are the misfits, the rejects of this world have been selected, chosen, called unto salvation in Christ. Hence, we are to be emptied of our selves, of our pride, of our claims to be wise, good or powerful. When we are emptied of ourselves, we are ready to be filled with the power of God- the Holy Spirit to live a sanctified life. The justified live by faith, the sanctified live in joy. We are chosen by grace, sustained by grace and led to victory and eternal life by grace. It is grace from beginning to end. If we are called to the good fight, the great race where Christ receives us with an unfading crown at the finishing line, it is not our own strength, wisdom or power that is at work in us but the strength, wisdom and power of the Lord.

The Assurance of Longevity

UV 4162/10000 The Assurance of Longevity With a long life I will satisfy him and I will let him see My salvation. Psalm 91 v 16 The justified shall live by faith also means that the justified shall die by faith. If we confess in faith, profess with power and agree with the uni-verse and other concurrent promises of longevity strewn across scripture, longevity is assured. If we confess or declare the opposite too that will come to pass. Even non believers know of the power of self fulfilling prophecies, the power of the tongue to invite both life and death, health and sickness, good fortune and calamity, joy and sadness. As believers, we need to constantly recall the best, call the best into our lives and cull out the worst in our beliefs, thoughts, words, actions and reactions. Longevity is also a promise given along with the commandment to honour our parents ( Ephesians 6 v 2-3). Again in Proverbs 3 v 1-2 it promises that if we do not forget God’s law, keep His commandments in our hearts, He would add length of days, peace and long life to us. In Deuteronomy 4 v 40, it states again that if we keep His statutes and commandments, He will prolong the days upon the earth. In Proverbs 3 v 13-16, it reiterates the promise of longevity if we find wisdom and understanding. The same is stated in Proverbs 9 v 11. Psalm 92 v 12-14 promises that we will be fruitful and flourishing in old age, implying not only longevity but also the quality of life and legacy. Exodus 23 v 25-26 promises a full life span for worshipping the Lord. It also promises a healthy and fruitful life. Finally, Proverbs 10 v 27 guarantees that the fear of the Lord will add longevity to our lives. Hence, we do not need to fear death even in the midst of this world wide "coward" pandemic. We will obey our call to go when it finally comes, not a day earlier or a moment earlier. While we live we should realize and value every breath and moment and do the best we can with it. The uni-verse does not stop with longevity but promises that after a long life, we will enjoy eternity with the Triune God. So it is a double bonus that is assured to every believer- concurrently eternal life and long life running together to merge into eternity after our deaths. Though this is the norm for believers, the sovereign will of God might call some faithful early, unexpectedly or sometimes after a premonition of an early departure. We ourselves should not contribute to it by our declaration of faith, carelessness, habits. Our hearts instruct what our mouths should speak and the word of God instructs the heart. The word of God, then is our compass and not our own sense of right and wrong.

Planned Departure

UV 4161/10000 Planned Departure Who appeared in glory, and were speaking of His departure (from earthly life), which He was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. Luke 9 v 31 The face of God shone on Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and thereby, His appearance and clothes became radiant and glorious. When the Lord’s face shines on us as it is promised in Numbers chapter 6, our faces would also radiate the shekinah (unfading, effulgent) glory of God. For this to happen our times of prayer need to be intense and deep like Jesus. Our lives need to receive the full approval and approbation of the Lord. As Jesus fulfilled the will of God and not His own, He became the recipient of such approval. When He obeyed the waters of baptism when John the Baptist baptized Him, He fulfilled the will of God concerning the initiation of His public ministry. The Holy Spirit descended on Him, manifesting as a pure white dove, reflecting the purity of the Giver and the Receiver. At these points in time, Jesus was in complete communion and extreme intimacy with the Father. The end of the ministry of Jesus on earth was a planned event, foreseen circumstances, not accidental or unforeseen. It was a planned departure from this earth back to heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father. Jesus spoke just before the transfiguration of His need to suffer, to be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes and be put to death, and of His resurrection on the third day. It was not a surprise or a shock sprung on Him suddenly. His departure was painful but His comeback, His resurrection was to a much greater extent -glorious and joyful. In this current second wave of the covid pandemic, many believers known to us have also departed. Was it a planned departure? Yes, they could not have died but for the will of God. The Lord decides the time and the manner of our departure. It is not, therefore a cause for shame or disappointment though it certainly entails much grief, sense of loss, loneliness, suffering for the bereaved families. The comeback, the resurrection of the lost loved ones like that of Jesus is also glorious and joyful. Hence, Jesus referred to the dead invariably as sleeping persons with the sole exception of His weeping at the mouth of the cave grave of Lazarus, perhaps to admit the pain that the temporary separation caused to humans. As ordinary and mortal humans, we cannot plan our departure but we can rest in the knowledge that the Lord has planned it for us. He may not give us a clue ahead of the appointed hour or time. But we need to be prepared, ready at any moment with our lamps full to the brim with oil, our hearts filled with hope and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Paul reflected this readiness to depart at any time in his writing, “For me to die is gain, to live is Christ.” In other words, living is profitable, productive,beneficial, useful, joyful on account of our faith in the Risen Saviour and dying is profitable, gainful, joyful as we are united with the Risen Lord. Our faith in Christ alone equips us, enables humans to overcome the greatest fear, the most painful sting- the fear of death.

The Open Door

UV 4160/10000 The Open Door I know your deeds. See, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut, for you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not renounced or denied My name. Revelation 3 v 8 The door that the Lord sets open before a child of God -no man can close. If we are faithful in using whatever the Lord has placed in us, with us and if we remember and honour His word and do not deny our faith in Jesus, then the opportunity the Lord is giving us cannot be taken away either by the enemy or by any human or organization. The Lord knows us inside out and outside in. He knows our hearts and our minds. He knows our issues and challenges. He gives us the key to open locked portals in the spiritual realms by exercising our faith in specific promises. Each promise of God is like a spiritual province we can dwell or reside in. What He has decreed for us at the very beginning is set in motion by our faith, through our prayers, through our claiming the promises, by abiding by His commands and heeding His warnings. The less we rely on our own limited strength and the more we lean on the Lord, appropriate His infinite strength, wisdom, grace, the wider will open the door of opportunities for growth, for joy, for peace, for our upliftment, enlargement, development of potential will. The enemy is also crouching at the door of our hearts but we need to deny him access to our hearts and minds. It is the word we have stored in our hearts and release with our mouths that acts as a salt, a repellant to repulse the tentacles of the leech of sin that could suck up our hope, our vitality, our confidence in the Lord. The word “DOOR” is an acronym for our Destiny Ordained, Organised by our Redeemer – Jesus. He is always at the door of our hearts, knocking to let in His miraculous power, His immense strength, His mercy, His goodness, His love. He can break down walls, iron doors, bronze gates to let us enter our inheritance in Him. No one can stop us. The authorities, the world, the forces of darkness cannot ever stop us from realizing our goals, fulfilling our purpose for the greater glory of the Lord. Nothing is impossible for Him. Nothing is unbelievable. Nothing remains pending or hanging unfinished if we are depending on Him. God brings things to speed in our lives. He neither bull dozes nor dozes. He executes wonders through His word stored in us. The gates of His grace and blessing are never closed but remain open 24 x 7 into the years of our life of faith. Adoration or worship of God is not an obligation, a burden, a wearisome responsibility but a way to be set free, to remain free from the shackles of this world, a natural outflow of a supernatural realization.

The Righteous By Faith

UV 4159/10000 The Righteousness By Faith For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith ( disclosed in a way that awakens more faith). As it is written and forever remains written, “The just and upright shall live by faith.” Romans 1 v 17 Faith lead to righteousness and righteousness leads to faith. God is righteous for He needed the payment for unrighteousness to be redeemed by His Son, Jesus Emmanuel. He did not overlook sin but paid an absolute price. We are therefore, justified by faith in the payment made through the death of Jesus on the cross. Having believed this, we are now required to be upright, righteous and to live by faith. Justification came to us totally free of cost though God paid an absolute price but it casts on us the obligation of sanctification. We cannot return to our old selves, our old lives, our old sinful ways of thinking, feeling, doing things. Living by faith in Jesus requires us to model our lives on Him. We are to focus on Him as the author or pioneer of our faith, the One who triggered faith in God in us. Thereby, we are to overcome the world and its temptations. Sanctification implies that we die to ourselves and live for Christ. We need to surrender our goals, plans, abilities, talents, past, present, future and eternity to His hands. Just as we cannot justify ourselves, we cannot sanctify ourselves. We need the help of the Holy Spirit and we should cooperate with Him in our daily lives. We are declared by the Lord to be righteous by faith. In other words, nothing we do or do not do can make us righteous. We are righteous by grace. But we do have a responsibility to pay attention to the Word, to the whispers of the Holy Spirit in our inner being. We do not ignore or idle our talents, abilities, intellect but we rely on the Lord’s grace than on our own limited knowledge and ability. The Spirit of God teaches us all the things we need to know and leads us from day to day in every way. We might fall or fail in small or big ways but we need to pick ourselves up again, seeking the help of the Lord to walk upright again. If we persist in our faith, the Lord promises we will be victorious in Him. He prepares us for the eternity He has set in our hearts even at the beginning of time.

The Re-created Image of God

UV 4157/10000 The Image of God So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1 v 27 We are created in the image of God and not vice versa- God is not created in our image. The image of God does not mean that we look like God or God looks like us but that we can think, feel and express, have a sense of right and wrong like God. As we are created in the image of God, we were given the authority over the earth and all in it, living and non living. We are to live as if we own the earth, sky and sea, dominate all creatures but serve each other since each is created in the image of God. No one among us, humans, are less of a ruler than the others. We represent God on earth even as we resemble God. We are to primarily use our capacity to think, feel, express as well as the faculty of conscience to be like God. There is of course, historically, a gap between who God is and who we are. God sent His Son, Jesus aka Emmanuel, aka Christ, aka Saviour and Lord to the Earth to bridge this gap by His grace. Jesus is the exact likeness of both God and man. No one has seen God, the Father but if we have seen, known, believed the Son, we have seen and known the Father. Jesus exercises godly authority over demons, over diseases, over infirmities, over sin, over death, over nature, over material objects. He willingly submitted to earthly authorities as it was the will of the Father and it pleased Him. He dominated the two things man could not dominate by virtue of His sin- sin and death. By making Jesus the “good root” of all humanity who believed His name and His word, we are grafted or added to the royal lineage of King David. The uni-verse also says that the natural order God created for procreation or multiplication of mankind is Adam and Eve, neither Adam and Steve nor Madam and Eve. As “supernaturalised” citizens of the kingdom ruled by the King of Kings, Jesus, we are to live on earth to represent the authority, the image of God on earth. Every fellow human also represents the image of God whether He acknowledges God or not. Hence, we are not to judge, condemn, mock, exploit any other human. The image of God in us is who we are projecting ourselves to be in Him, in Christ. Man believes in recreation or his pleasure and satisfaction while God believes in re-creation or making us a new creation, re-created in His image. Jesus pointedly said, “ If you who are evil know how to give good things to your children when they ask, how much more will the Father in heaven give to those who ask the Holy Spirit.” It implies that in our mission to be a new creation of God, the best and only gift we can ask or hope for is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be the image of God on earth.

The Word and the World

UV 4156/10000 The World and the Word For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandments, beguiled and completely deceived me, and using it as a weapon killed me ( separating me from God). Romans 7 v 8 Without the commandments of God, we would not know what is sin. So through the commandments, we realize that we have sinned. We are enslaved to sin. But set free by grace, by faith in Jesus. We are made alive in Him. Spiritual death is separation from God. Eternal life is union with God. Instead of being slaves of sin, we are now slaves of God, slaves to righteousness. While earlier it was natural for us to sin, it is now natural for us to be righteous and unnatural for us to sin. We now see sin for what is is- deceitful, beguiling, persuasive. In the Garden of Eden, satan deceives Adam and Eve into disbelieving God’s word. They are deceived into accepting lies as truth. Untruth had been weaponized by the enemy to cause spiritual death of man. They had chosen the lies of this world over the truth of the Creator. Since our eyes are opened to see such deception, we have chosen or been chosen to believe the truth of the gospel over the lies of this world. We, now believe the unadulterated God’s word over the words of the enemy or the words of man. There are thus, three kinds of word, the word of God, pure and simple, the word of the enemy, impure, complex, deceitful, the word of man, mixing the word of God with the word of the enemy. In becoming slaves of righteousness, slaves to God, we are set free to be the supernatural being we were created by God to be. Earlier, we had the option to sin. Sin is not an option for us, now. Though it seems as if our freedom to act is now restricted, we are actually enjoying a larger measure of freedom now. We are set free from the bondage of sin, we are set free from the fear of death and final judgement of our guilt. Sin is not only separation from God’s love, it is also condemning us to a life of shortcoming. We are living like the prodigal son away from the Father’s munificence, generousity, away from our supernatural inheritance. In contrast, being a slave of God, a slave of righteousness entitles us to a life of abundance or hyperbole ( opposite of hamartia). Instead of tragic failings that marked our erstwhile life, we enjoy a life of grace, freedom, abundance, eternal life in union with the Father. In short, we are not slaves but rulers of the supernatural world with limitless influence in the natural world since we have access to the infinite resources, power, wisdom of God.

The Manna that Never Spoils

UV 4154/10000 The Manna that Never Spoils He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, ( a substance) which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand ( by personal experience) that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 v 3 Our lives are often like the Israelites wandering in the desert of Egypt for forty years. The Lord allows us to wander till we find our life in Him, our path in His Son Jesus. Only when man is humbled, does he even begin to understand the extent of God’s grace, wisdom and power. He teaches us through our personal experiences in the desert of life. We, like the Israelites will realize that the most vital aspect of life that sustains us, nourishes us, empowers, enables us, is the word of God. The promise and the hope it triggers is more significant than the promised land. The presence of God is more important for our sustenance than His blessings and presents. We learn how to live, how to live well, how to succeed, how to be victorious over sin, over our frailties, vulnerabilities, weaknesses, difficulties, crises, how to overcome our enemies, our antagonists, our opponents, how to find and enjoy peace, how to obtain eternal life- all from the word of God. When Adam and Eve chose to believe the word of satan over the word of God, satan’s promises over God’s command and warning, they fell from grace. They lost their place as the crown of God’s creation, next only to the angels in spiritual importance and power. When our faith is restored to trust in God’s word, we are restored to Eden. We can eat of the fruit of the tree of wisdom and the fruit of the tree of eternal life. In fact, the word makes us not only consumers of wisdom and eternal or abundant, infinite, spiritual life but also its producers, distributors, messengers, workers. God’s word is the manna from heaven that is bitter like medicine in our mouths and minds but sweet and health-inducing in our inner being. This manna does not spoil. It can be stored in the heart and soul. It satisfies our spiritual thirst and hunger, heals, delivers, empowers, enables, strengthens. Every word and phrase in God’s word has power of life. When applied it is like foundation rock but when it is only heard but not revered, obeyed, it is like water off the duck’s back.

God's Plan to Plant Us

UV 4152/10000 God’s Plan to Plant us I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My ordinances and do them. Ezekiel 36 v 27 God pours His Spirit, the Holy Spirit on His people. The Holy Spirit is the great Enabler. He enables us to remember, understand, interpret, apply, appropriate, obey, believe the promises and commands of God. He teaches us step by step, day by day, moment by moment. He helps us store His precious word in our hearts. We are given a new heart or a new set of attitudes towards God, man and nature by imbibing the Word. He gives us a new spirit to trust and obey His word, to walk according to it. By faith we are grafted onto the True Vine, Jesus. Thereafter, the word is our food, our fuel, our sap that rises in us to encourage, empower, enable us to do the will of God. Anything short of the will of God is ill and will not do us good. Hence, we do not look to the hills or persons of influence and wealth and power in this world. We rely on the Holy Spirit to burn His word into our hearts like the ten commands were burnt by the flame from the finger of God into rock. Our hearts that were previously insensitive, unbelieving, cynical, sinful become soft like soil that is ready for planting through a process of irrigation and ploughing. We no longer want to focus on our plan but we desire to be a plant for the Lord to reveal His splendour. In short, each of us becomes not just a witness for God and Christ but we are the very evidence of God and His goodness on earth. Everything we speak and do, we do as representatives or the elect of God. We are not like the world’s elites who rise in prominence due to their wealth, glamour, talent, abilities, enterprise, hard work. We rise and shine by His grace. We do not arrogantly ask for proof of His existence but we become proof of not just His existence but His absolute goodness or grace.

The Magnitude of the Attributes of God

UV 4151/10000 Magnitude of The Attributes of God Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgements are like the great deep. O Lord you preserve man and beast. Psalm 36 v 6 The righteousness of God is compared by the Psalmist to the great mountains. His wisdom is deeper than the Marina Trench, the deepest point in the oceans of the Earth. He is powerful beyond understanding, wise beyond our capacity to appreciate. Yet, it is not in these attributes that humans should take pride but in His great love. For In His love He preserves all life forms, both human and animal. Not a blade of grass grows on the other planets in the solar system but on this Earth, He lavished His love in nature and revealed His love for us through sending His Son on one mission to the Beautiful Vineyard planted by Him- the salvation of you and me. Yet men choose to live like beasts, not acknowledging their Creator, not living lives pleasing to the Redeemer who has given us all things, all blessings in heaven and on earth. When we perceive His holiness, His righteousness, His great power, His sovereign might, we should regard it with awe and reverence. When we learn of His judgements in His word, we should seek His wisdom. When we experience His love in Christ, we should share His love with man and beast. The love of Christ is transformational. We become redeemed or new creatures as we receive it, experience it. As St Paul wrote, “Oh to understand the magnitude, the length, the breadth, the depth, the height of His love..” The love of God is greater in its dimensions than anything He has created in the wide universe. It takes a whole lifetime to get even a glimpse of it. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to even begin to grasp or get an inkling of His great love. If many men and women and children of God have perished in this pandemic, it is not for want of love of God for He preserves both man and beast but as they have fulfilled their purpose on earth and have been called to their heavenly home, to dwell in the very bosom of God, sit on His lap and enjoy the fellowship of Jesus, His Son.

Victory by Faith

UV 4150/10000 Victory by Faith And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets, Hebrews 11 v 32 Each of the characters mentioned in the hall of faith fame had their strengths, weaknesses of spirit, mind and body. Samson, for instance, was strong of mind and body but not of spirit. Hence, he fell to the seduction of Delilah. Gideon was strong of spirit and mind but he fell to the temptation of self glorification towards the end of his life. David was strong in spirit and mind but he fell to the temptation of adultery and murder. Joseph was strong in spirit and mind and he did not fall to temptation of adultery but as a young lad, he provoked his brothers’ jealousy by speaking of his dream of dominance of his family and siblings. The way we are created, our spirit, minds and bodies have both strengths and weaknesses or vulnerabilities. These strengths and weaknesses manifests as successes and failures in our lives but faith is the faculty by which we can overcome our own weaknesses as well as threats in the environment. Faith gives us access to the supernatural, infinite power of God. It enables us to avail and appropriate the grace of God. Faith also gives us the access to supernatural wisdom. Solomon was strong in mind and spirit but he indulged his flesh with a thousand wives and concubines. Though given supernatural measure of wisdom, he compromised his faith in Jehovah, the God of Israel in order to please his many wives. Jesus alone being strong in spirit and mind and full of grace and truth and the Holy Spirit yielded to no temptation of spirit, mind or body. Hence, He alone is worthy among men of praise, worship, adoration and imitation. He is worthy of our faith. By our faith in Jehovah, the Father in heaven, in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our own weaknesses, vulnerabilities, threats and triumph in faith and life. The enemy is strong in spirit and mind. Hence, we, who have so many vulnerabilities and weaknesses are urged to wear the full blood armour offered us by faith in Jesus. Like Joshua, we are to combat 31 kings ( princes of darkness) and overcome these. It is almost as if we are to fight one king every day of the month. We are to bring down strongholds like Jericho’s walls by our prevailing and growing faith. But the reassuring aspect of faith is that it is not we who need to fight. We only need to take a stance of faith by claiming a promise, brandishing a word of God like a spiritual sword, declare and decree in faith and the Lord will secure the ultimate victory. What is guaranteed is that even though we have a temporary setback in the physical or mental realms, we will have ultimate victory in the spiritual realms.

Focus of the Heart

UV 4149/10000 Focus of the Heart For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12 v 34 What we value most in life occupies our hearts and minds. Jesus is saying that the location of our hearts shift to where our treasure is located and vice versa. If we value money, it will fill the heart, too not just our wallets or bank accounts. It will push out all other important aspects of life like God, salvation, eternity to the background. Therefore, we need to constantly ask ourselves, “What do I value the most in life?” Scripture offers the key and asks us to give priority to God and His kingdom values. We are to value eternal life in Christ over everything else, including our own family or children. We are to value it over health, wealth, pleasure, privilege, position, good name or reputation, security. We must be mentally prepared to sacrifice these in order to obtain eternal life in Christ. Our hearts do not have too much space to accommodate a variety of desires and priorities. We need to choose what we fill it with. The heart is at the cross section of our foremost desires, hopes, beliefs. It is the central place or locus of our existence. Our lives revolve around it. Hence, we need to focus on the locus, Jesus who alone can promise us forgiveness of God and eternal life or salvation. It is our birthright that we should not barter away like Esau for a pot of meat. It is non negotiable, most valuable and we cannot put a price tag on it. Only when the love of God takes a grip on our hearts, will our hearts otherwise described as wicked, beyond cure, be “circumcised”. The unnecessary layers are excised out by the Holy Spirit, the immaculate surgeon of the human heart. The process of emptying the heart of the world and filling it with the Lord, His word, His Spirit is a daily and continuous one. Our hearts are obsessed with what we treasure the most in our lives. The Lord always examines our hearts to see what we are focused or obsessed with. David placed his personal relationship with God reflected in the Psalms far above his political ambition, his wealth, his power, his family, his future. This is the reason that despite commission of virtual adultery and murder, David is extolled as one whose heart is after God. If we fill our hearts with valuable wisdom, the word of Christ, we will regard all other gain like St Paul as mere waste or garbage. We are ready to even stake our lives on it.

Spiritual Exercises to Expand Healthy Living

UV 4148/10000 Spiritual Exercises to Expand Healthy Living And which of you by worrying can add one hour to his life’s span? Luke 12 v 25 Jesus asks us the rhetorical question to make us realize that by not worrying we can add hours to our life span. By prayer, God added fifteen years to the life of king Hezekiah. By prayer and meditation on the word of God, we can add to our lives both quantitatively in terms of the number of days and qualitatively in terms of the richness of life, thoughts, emotions, relationships, achievements, service, contributions, legacy. There are 31112 verses in the Bible. Hence, if a man meditates on even one verse per day, he would have meditated on the entire word of God in the course of 85 years of a lifetime. By the same measure, I would have meditated on a third of the Bible when I complete my target of meditating on 10000 promises. Fear and anxiety detracts from the quality of life. Even our hormones are organized on a dual basis of positive and negative. How we think affects which hormone is secreted by the relevant endocrine organs or cells. If we think positively, the happy hormones or endorphins are secreted and add to the quality of our feelings. If we are angry, upset, frustrated, our stress hormones are detonated and it causes uncontrollable explosions in our relationships and reactions. It is in our hands to maintain and even enhance our mental and emotional equilibrium. Apart from prayer and meditation, there are other spiritual exercises that are valuable. Spiritual factors and exercises contribute seventy five percent or a major portion of our health while diet and physical exercises contribute the balance of twenty five percent. Praise and worship is an example of spiritual exercise that can relieve us of stress as we focus on the Lord and the beauty of His countenance. Spending time listening and understanding the problems others are facing will give us a perspective that our own challenges are much smaller in comparison. Being grateful for the blessings received, the countless things we take for granted, is another great antidote to worry. Serving others takes our minds off our own issues.

Pruning to Bear More Fruit

UV 4147/10000. Pruning to Bear More Fruit Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He ( repeatedly) prunes, so that it will bear more fruit ( even richer and more fruit). John 15 v 2 Jesus is the True Vine and each of us is like a branch. The Father in heaven is the vinedresser and He prunes the branches so that we bear more and richer fruit. Our purpose, then, in being grafted to the True Vine, Jesus is to bear more and better fruit. Jesus is the good root to which we are affixed. We cannot bear fruit except we remain in Him and His word. His word is the water that cleanses, feeds, softens, nourishes us. The Lord God prunes us through life’s tough experiences, trials and tribulations. We develop patience by enduring much suffering. Pruning can be personally painful for the pruned branches. A part of us is cut off so that fresh and renewed growth in Christ is possible. We should not resent such pruning but welcome it as the way to make us more useful, more blessed, more fruitful. The more we willingly yield to God’s will by studying the word and obeying it, the less the need for the Lord to prune us. The parts that are less fruitful or barren are more likely to be pruned. There is also a warning that we must heed that the Lord will cut off the branches which do not yield any fruit. It implies the Lord is examining us every day like a good gardener to see if we are yielding good fruit. The fruit the Lord is giving priority to is the nine fruit of the spirit. The Holy Spirit, God in us, is like the sap that arises along with the water, the word in our stems to produce joy and hope in abundance. The nine fruit are the qualities of the character of Jesus. The branches cannot be very different from the Vine. We need to reflect the DNA or divine nature of Jesus in our lives and only then can we be described as being spiritually fruitful. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to examine us every day and suggest. In that sense, unlike the vine branches, we play an active and willing part in our own growth and in bearing fruit. Pruning requires some tools and implements like scissors. Our mental equipment, knowledge, concepts are helpful tools to prune us such that we bear the right kind of fruit. Most of the nine fruit are expressed or manifested in our verbal and non verbal communication. Improving and enhancing our communication is a practical way to improve our fruit bearing. A plant cannot prune itself and therefore, we need to ask the Lord to prune us every day in the areas where we need to change, limit ourselves, grow, expand, develop.