Sunday, July 9, 2017
Well Doing-the Key to Well Being
UV 2313/10000 Well Doing-The Key to Well Being
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Romans 2 v 7
Patience and persistence in “well doing” is the key to our well being. The hope of an abounding reward is the motivation of the faith worker. Even St Paul had his eye fixed on the incorruptible crown of glory that Jesus would place on his head as he finished running the good race and touched the finishing line. That hope gave him strength to endure all types of suffering for he knew that all the suffering in our lifetime is far outweighed by the glorious reward that awaits us in heaven.
The believer in Jesus seeks glory, honour, immortality and eternal life in Christ. Christ in us is the hope of salvation as well as glory. Whatever events overtake him, it is that hope that sustains him and makes him surge forward from moment to moment, day to day. We need to wait for the Lord patiently, work patiently in doing all the good we can in every way we can and trust in Him. As we wait for Him patiently, diligently doing the work entrusted to us, as we seek Him in our daily walk, we will have “Jesus moments”, moments when we are inspired by His presence, His word and His spirit. We will be strengthened in our inner man by His touch. The parts of our lives that are weak will be strengthened, the parts that are crooked will be straightened.
Our goals and priorities reflect our values. When we seek the Lord and His will in all that we do, we are on the path of glory, immortality, honour and eternal life. Every step takes us closer. Christ in us causes us to excel and shine for Him in this world of darkness. Like the farmer who is patient after planting the seed and waits for the harvest after many months of hard labour of ploughing, watering, fencing, trimming and transplanting, we need to be busy with the processes of well doing, expecting that it will bring forth good to great crop or fruit fit to serve the King. If we endure to the very end, our last breath of life on this earth, He will receive us with a smile and the words, “ Well done, you good and faithful servant.”
Prateep V Philip
Friday, July 7, 2017
B2B
UV 2312/10000 B2B: Blessed to Bless
The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
Deuteronomy 28 v 12
The covenant we have with the Lord is a seven-domain blessing covenant. The Lord’s reserves of blessings that He stores up for His children are infinite and comprehensive to meet every need in seven segments as symbolised in the seven colours of the covenant rainbow- spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, social, material and financial. In each of these domains, the Lord has reserved a variety of blessings. He sends these showers of blessing in due time upon each of us, not late not early but just in time, not once but repeatedly He tops up our blessings in each domain. It is the seven fold blessing of the Lord that makes a person truly rich in a holistic sense. As in the rainbow, each band of colour is proportionate to the others but for some, the yellow or red or violet colour as the case may be might be brighter and broader. But human beings with our short sighted vision and inadequate knowledge think only of measuring riches in terms of the material and the financial. Most humans run miserable lives using only these limited parameters to achieve and judge success. Success or wealth that causes the soul to be poor, anaemic, weak and listless is not success or wealth.
The Lord promises in this remarkable uni-verse to bless all the work of our hands. It implies that He will enable us to use all our talents and abilities and to even make up for the abilities and talents we lack. As the Psalmist David wrote, “He will establish the work of our hands.” In other words, He will enable us to do our best, take our wisest and timely decisions, give us counsel at every step and stage, inspire us with strength and give us help in times of need, bless our efforts with either success or learning to be better.
The experiences and wisdom we gain from these will enable us to be a real blessing to all nations. We will lend them wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We will be able to be a source of blessing to others instead of expecting anything from them. He will give us a dominant or leadership position – we dominate the world to serve, to make it better, to make it part of the kingdom of God and not to exploit it. We are blessed to bless or B2B.
Prateep V Philip
The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
Deuteronomy 28 v 12
The covenant we have with the Lord is a seven-domain blessing covenant. The Lord’s reserves of blessings that He stores up for His children are infinite and comprehensive to meet every need in seven segments as symbolised in the seven colours of the covenant rainbow- spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, social, material and financial. In each of these domains, the Lord has reserved a variety of blessings. He sends these showers of blessing in due time upon each of us, not late not early but just in time, not once but repeatedly He tops up our blessings in each domain. It is the seven fold blessing of the Lord that makes a person truly rich in a holistic sense. As in the rainbow, each band of colour is proportionate to the others but for some, the yellow or red or violet colour as the case may be might be brighter and broader. But human beings with our short sighted vision and inadequate knowledge think only of measuring riches in terms of the material and the financial. Most humans run miserable lives using only these limited parameters to achieve and judge success. Success or wealth that causes the soul to be poor, anaemic, weak and listless is not success or wealth.
The Lord promises in this remarkable uni-verse to bless all the work of our hands. It implies that He will enable us to use all our talents and abilities and to even make up for the abilities and talents we lack. As the Psalmist David wrote, “He will establish the work of our hands.” In other words, He will enable us to do our best, take our wisest and timely decisions, give us counsel at every step and stage, inspire us with strength and give us help in times of need, bless our efforts with either success or learning to be better.
The experiences and wisdom we gain from these will enable us to be a real blessing to all nations. We will lend them wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We will be able to be a source of blessing to others instead of expecting anything from them. He will give us a dominant or leadership position – we dominate the world to serve, to make it better, to make it part of the kingdom of God and not to exploit it. We are blessed to bless or B2B.
Prateep V Philip
Thursday, July 6, 2017
The Ultimate Good
UV 2311/10000 The Ultimate Good
Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
Psalm 4 v 7
Happiness that increases and decreases like the Sensex with increase or decrease of income or wealth or pleasure is not joy but an emotional yoyo. Joy is an anchor that holds in still waters and stormy, in the shallows and on the high seas of life. It is the sail that catches the fair wind of the grace of God that the human race most needs, the mark of the helmsman, the visionary leader. Joy is the gladness of the heart that is dependent not on any human or earthly circumstance but hinges on our intimate covenant relationship with the Lord. Corn and wine in the uni-verse are metaphors for increase in worldly goods. These might satisfy our need for food and pleasure but do not satisfy the longing of the soul to be connected at the deepest level with our Creator and Redeemer.
The joy of our hearts is put there by the Lord. It is the sense of assurance, security, hope and compassion that grows in us as we grow in our knowledge of the love of Jesus, the length, the depth, the width of His agape or unconditional love. This sense of joy makes us want to always return to His presence, to spend more time learning and loving at His feet. The gladness of our hearts should never cease or decline. It fills us with Shalom or holistic peace, well being and confidence.
Our joy remains constant like a thermostat while our happiness might increase and decrease with changes in our environment much like the mercury levels in a thermometer. One of the ways to maintain our joy at optimum or maximum level is to continually thank and praise the Lord for what we know of Him, recalling all our blessings and His love, mercy and grace towards us all our lives. Such a habit will enable us to discipline our unruly emotions that make our faith wavering and toss it about like flotsam on the sea surface. Our success is not determined by the external goals we set for ourselves but the knowledge that the Lord is with us, in us and for us. This is the “summom bonum” or the ultimate good of our lives in which all other subsidiary goals and objectives cohere or get included.
Prateep V Philip
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Celebrating Uniqueness
UV 2310/10000 Celebrating Uniqueness
Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exodus 15 v 11
The Lord God is our habitation. He does not need a man-made habitation like a temple or church or mosque to dwell in. When we move, He moves with us. He is our vehicle. He is unique in His character, power and status. No being in the spiritual realm or on earth are exactly like Him. We have the privilege of being made in His image or in His likeness. Though He is invisible, we can perceive Him, experience Him, taste Him. His visible image in all its fullness is Jesus. No human in history or even in the realm of fiction or imagination had done any of the things He did:He turned water into the best of wine. At the marriage feast at Canna where there was physical deficiency reported to Him, He solved it and brought a qualitative difference. He brought the dead to life, He healed the incurable, He restored the strength of limbs of the crippled, He restored sight to the blind, He healed leprosy, He commanded the stormy waves and winds of the Sea of Galilee to be still, He multiplied a small portion of food to feed a multitude. He spoke the greatest wisdom that mankind had ever known. He proved Himself wise beyond human knowledge and understanding. He rose from death. He ministered to many followers after His resurrection. He appeared in visions and dreams to many till the present generation.
Jesus demonstrated to the world that God is unique. He is glorious in holiness. He is fearful in praises. He is doing wonders. In one word, He is awesome. A sense of awe and reverence leads us into worship and wisdom. Jesus is the true and real life superman, super human being who shares His power and attributes with ordinary people like you and me. Salvation, glory, power, honour and blessing belong to Him and comes to us from Him alone. We are to be fearful of His righteous judgements. We are to be always conscious of His holiness, justice and mercy. That kind of consciousness will fill our hearts with a sense of His glory and grace.
We are to constantly walk in the ways of the Lord. We need to study the word and be steady. The Lord will do wonders that eye has not seen nor ear heard. The Lord is not only unique in power and nature but He likes to do what is unique in our lives. We will be recipients of miracles of provision, healing, deliverance, transformation, restoration, vindication, elevation or promotion. This uni-verse is extracted from the song that Moses sang after the remarkable deliverance the Lord gave the Israelites led by Moses, the amazing promise that He fulfilled of leading them into their own land, the land promised to Abraham. The testimony of the Jewish nation is that the Lord is faithful to His covenant to a thousand generations.
Prateep V Philip
Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exodus 15 v 11
The Lord God is our habitation. He does not need a man-made habitation like a temple or church or mosque to dwell in. When we move, He moves with us. He is our vehicle. He is unique in His character, power and status. No being in the spiritual realm or on earth are exactly like Him. We have the privilege of being made in His image or in His likeness. Though He is invisible, we can perceive Him, experience Him, taste Him. His visible image in all its fullness is Jesus. No human in history or even in the realm of fiction or imagination had done any of the things He did:He turned water into the best of wine. At the marriage feast at Canna where there was physical deficiency reported to Him, He solved it and brought a qualitative difference. He brought the dead to life, He healed the incurable, He restored the strength of limbs of the crippled, He restored sight to the blind, He healed leprosy, He commanded the stormy waves and winds of the Sea of Galilee to be still, He multiplied a small portion of food to feed a multitude. He spoke the greatest wisdom that mankind had ever known. He proved Himself wise beyond human knowledge and understanding. He rose from death. He ministered to many followers after His resurrection. He appeared in visions and dreams to many till the present generation.
Jesus demonstrated to the world that God is unique. He is glorious in holiness. He is fearful in praises. He is doing wonders. In one word, He is awesome. A sense of awe and reverence leads us into worship and wisdom. Jesus is the true and real life superman, super human being who shares His power and attributes with ordinary people like you and me. Salvation, glory, power, honour and blessing belong to Him and comes to us from Him alone. We are to be fearful of His righteous judgements. We are to be always conscious of His holiness, justice and mercy. That kind of consciousness will fill our hearts with a sense of His glory and grace.
We are to constantly walk in the ways of the Lord. We need to study the word and be steady. The Lord will do wonders that eye has not seen nor ear heard. The Lord is not only unique in power and nature but He likes to do what is unique in our lives. We will be recipients of miracles of provision, healing, deliverance, transformation, restoration, vindication, elevation or promotion. This uni-verse is extracted from the song that Moses sang after the remarkable deliverance the Lord gave the Israelites led by Moses, the amazing promise that He fulfilled of leading them into their own land, the land promised to Abraham. The testimony of the Jewish nation is that the Lord is faithful to His covenant to a thousand generations.
Prateep V Philip
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Supreme Choice
UV 2309/10000 Supreme Choice
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
Deuteronomy 11 v 26
Every day we have a choice before us to make it a blessing or a curse. God does not curse, He only blesses. Absence of light is the darkness that limits, confounds and confines us. His presence is blessing. His absence is curse. A blessing expands, multiplies, magnifies us. A curse limits, weakens, divides us. We are blessed if we cling to the Lord, cleave or inextricably mingled in our thoughts, words and decision-actions as well as feeling-reactions with the Word or the commandments of the Lord. We are blessed as we read, meditate, do the commandments of the Lord, believe His promises and His character, willingness to act on our behalf, trust in the salvation He provides in Jesus and in His might and grace. We choose a curse when we disregard His word, His salvation, His commandments and His promises and disbelieve His character. It is therefore, within each man’s reach to be blessed.
The same word of God when ignored and disrespected becomes the book of the law that condemns us before God, a stumbling block on which we fall and get cut. It also contains the promise of the Spirit which when believed in faith becomes the source of freedom, wisdom and blessing. It becomes Jacob’s ladder- a metaphor for the two way personal communication between the Lord and us. Even though the choice of blessing is apparently the better and greater one, why is it so few or fewer choose it? Why is it the default mode of human beings to choose darkness, to choose to be cursed? The answer lies in the lack of faith or the inability to perceive the invisible, immortal, eternal, sovereign God who rules over all things.
The path of blessing is the road less travelled. It is not as if that if one day we have chosen the path of blessing, the next day automatically we would be travelling on the same. Our decisions and choices every day affect the path we choose. Our relationship and communication every day with the Lord matters. We need to cleave to Him for dear life for He is both life in all its abundance and eternal. Nothing in life and no one compares with Him. We do not see Him but we experience and sense His presence. We enjoy His love that the word describes and offers. His love is the light that blesses us in both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of life. Once we make the supreme choice set before us every day of our lives, all other lesser choices will fall in place. The light we receive from our faith will illuminate our paths. Any other choice might even have the appearance of light but we would find at the end of the day that we have been deceived.
Prateep V Philip
Monday, July 3, 2017
Loving Cover
UV 2308/10000 Loving Cover
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4 v 18
The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” This uni-verse gives the testimony of St Paul that the Lord delivered him from every evil attack. The first evil that the Lord delivered Paul from was his hostility to Jesus and misguided dedication in eradicating the followers of Jesus and every vestige of their faith. We too need to pray for those who wrongly, unjustly or wickedly attack us, that the Lord deliver them from such evil. Jesus went on to glorify His name in and through the life and work of St Paul- he became the most avid of followers and conveyor of the good news that man can hereafter live forever if he reposes faith in the name and work of Jesus. Not only had Jesus delivered Paul from evil but turned him into a source of good for many generations including his contemporary world. In addition to being an ambassador of Christ in many nations of the then known world, he laid the doctrinal foundations of the faith in his many epistles or letters that he wrote to those he had ministered to.
The Lord had delivered Paul also from the mouth of the lion: from dangers to his life in captivity to Jews, Romans and others, from natural calamities, shipwreck, earthquakes, prison, mobs and so on. Likewise to this day, the Lord delivers us from the mouth of the lion while we travel, while we carry on our day to day activities. He stands beside us and strengthens us while we face hardships, obstacles, crisis in our lives. He sends his angel to strengthen us, to preserve our lives as he did with Jacob, with Daniel, with Peter and Paul. The Lord preserves us from falling into temptations of the flesh or of the mind: lusts as well as pride or ego. He sensitises us and keeps us continually humble so that we can be continually receiving grace or help from Him in all situations of our lives. The enemy does proxy boxing through some human agents by instigating them against us but the Lord will shield us as we yield to Him and enable us to have victory. He will turn the evil they planned against us to our own good.
Sometimes, we may be knocked down to our feet by the hard punch of the enemy but the Lord enables us to rise again, to walk and not be deterred. The Lord has committed that He will preserve us till we reach His heavenly kingdom. He will not fail or forsake any of us as long as we hold on to our faith. He longs to cover us as a mother hen covers her chicken under her wings. We can and do run for such loving cover to Him whenever we come under enemy fire.
Prateep V Philip
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4 v 18
The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” This uni-verse gives the testimony of St Paul that the Lord delivered him from every evil attack. The first evil that the Lord delivered Paul from was his hostility to Jesus and misguided dedication in eradicating the followers of Jesus and every vestige of their faith. We too need to pray for those who wrongly, unjustly or wickedly attack us, that the Lord deliver them from such evil. Jesus went on to glorify His name in and through the life and work of St Paul- he became the most avid of followers and conveyor of the good news that man can hereafter live forever if he reposes faith in the name and work of Jesus. Not only had Jesus delivered Paul from evil but turned him into a source of good for many generations including his contemporary world. In addition to being an ambassador of Christ in many nations of the then known world, he laid the doctrinal foundations of the faith in his many epistles or letters that he wrote to those he had ministered to.
The Lord had delivered Paul also from the mouth of the lion: from dangers to his life in captivity to Jews, Romans and others, from natural calamities, shipwreck, earthquakes, prison, mobs and so on. Likewise to this day, the Lord delivers us from the mouth of the lion while we travel, while we carry on our day to day activities. He stands beside us and strengthens us while we face hardships, obstacles, crisis in our lives. He sends his angel to strengthen us, to preserve our lives as he did with Jacob, with Daniel, with Peter and Paul. The Lord preserves us from falling into temptations of the flesh or of the mind: lusts as well as pride or ego. He sensitises us and keeps us continually humble so that we can be continually receiving grace or help from Him in all situations of our lives. The enemy does proxy boxing through some human agents by instigating them against us but the Lord will shield us as we yield to Him and enable us to have victory. He will turn the evil they planned against us to our own good.
Sometimes, we may be knocked down to our feet by the hard punch of the enemy but the Lord enables us to rise again, to walk and not be deterred. The Lord has committed that He will preserve us till we reach His heavenly kingdom. He will not fail or forsake any of us as long as we hold on to our faith. He longs to cover us as a mother hen covers her chicken under her wings. We can and do run for such loving cover to Him whenever we come under enemy fire.
Prateep V Philip
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Faith, Courage, Strength and Hope
UV 2306/10000 Faith, Courage, Strength and Hope
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Psalm 31 v 24
Our heart is the focal point of our lives. More than the strength of our minds, bodies or limbs it is the strength of our hearts that fill us with courage to face the slings and arrows that the enemy throws at us. If our hearts are filled with hope of receiving the help of the Lord, we will be encouraged or filled with courage and faith. Hope is the oxygen of our souls by means of which our spirits live. Every time we read or receive a promise of the Lord, it releases oxygen into our innermost being. All the time we retain, remember, meditate, claim and thank the Lord for a specific promise, our spirits are breathing the spiritual oxygen and we are energised to act.
When our hearts are filled with hope, we are prepared to wait for the Lord to act to fulfil His word or promise to us. We wait with an attitude of expectancy and thanksgiving. We do not complain or fret. We do not become anxious to hasten the needles of the clock. We will not act in haste and repent at leisure. We will be at peace with ourselves and we will await the leading of the Spirit. There may not be any outward or physical or visible sign of the fulfilment of the promise but we rejoice as if we have already received or experienced that which was promised or that which we hope for.
Our faith in Jesus produces hope, our hope produces patience and courage, our courage produces inner strength. Our inner strength further reinforces our faith and deepens our dependence and intimacy with the Lord. This is the cycle of blessing that flows in our lives. Sometimes, even in the event of the extreme opposite of that which we hope for happens in real time, we do not give up hope but rejoice that we have done the will of the Lord. When we demonstrate or manifest this kind of faith, hope and joy in the Lord, we become witnesses in flesh and blood of the grace of the Lord. The uni-verse states that the Lord shall strengthen to a certainty our hearts as we wait with hope in His salvation. Sometimes, the Lord takes away the things we cherish in life or in this world as He wants us to experience that Christ in us and Christ alone is the hope of glory. Our greatness or fulfilment of hope is realized only with Christ in us and we being rooted and growing in Him.
Prateep V Philip
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