World Versus Word

UV 2770/10000 World Versus Word
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Isaiah 60 v 2
Today, darkness has covered the whole earth, all nations and all people of all races, classes, regions, groups, cultures. Yes, gross darkness has blinded the hearts of people with greed, lust, pride, folly, vices, perversions, faithlessness, hopelessness. The very things that they see with their eyes blinds them. The very light of the sun blinds many. The light of the sun can only be seen or felt. But the light of Jesus cannot be seen but can be felt, heard, tasted, experienced. The glory or greatness of the Lord has fallen upon those who have placed their trust in Jesus. We experience His redeeming influence and we then become a redeeming influence in the world among all nations, people, cultures, classes, groups. Darkness cannot combat the light. In a contest between the world and the Word, the Word shall overcome, shall win, shall prevail. As we saturate ourselves with the Word, we are filled with the light of the glory of the Lord. We shall overcome the darkness, even the gross darkness of this world. Whenever and wherever we see darkness in ourselves, our homes, our families, our children, our neighbours, our workplace, our colleagues, our cities, our states, our nations, our regions, our world, like the Lord God we can command the light to shine forth in that darkness, knowledge and wisdom to emerge out of ignorance, healing to emerge out of sickness and disease, strength to emerge out of weakness.
The glory of God was revealed in the fullness of grace and truth in Jesus. The glory of God is now visible in the Word. We are to see the glorious image of Jesus in the mirror of the Word in contrast to the gross darkness of hatred, ignorance, folly, violence, exploitation that covers all the earth and all people. We need to see the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus. We need to experience the power of Jesus in His name. As we see the image of Jesus in the mirror of the Word, we will begin to reflect His incandescent, unfading, indwelling Shekinah glory or greatness in and through our lives and our message to darkened minds, blinded hearts and dark world. We should be sure to remove the veils of disobedience, lack of reverence, fears, doubts, lusts, pride that keep us from seeing the Light and absorbing its rays. We need to comprehend and grasp the many dimensions of the infinite light or the love of Jesus.
We are called to absorb as much of the light of Jesus in us every day and then reflect it or shine forth with that light like solar panels absorb and convert solar energy into electricity. Jesus is the inexhaustible source of power. We cannot remain ordinary, listless, hopeless, frustrated in His presence. We have to shine forth with His greatness even as Moses’ interface with Jehovah made his face shine before all Israel. People who belong to the darkness and do not want to be redeemed will veil their faces and cover their ears and minds that they do not see the goodness and greatness of the Lord in us.
Prateep V Philip

Servant-Friend-Child Relationship

UV 2769/10000 Servant-Friend-Child Relationship
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you
John 15 v 15
As our relationship with the Lord is transformed, we are transformed. Jesus called His disciples to be His followers. Jesus focussed not on what He could get His disciples to do. He focussed on His relationship with them. He first stated that they are His friends if they obey Him. Then, He stated that their obedience was not that of a servant but that of a friend. Abraham was called a Friend of God for this same reason- His obedience to the expressed will of God. He was prepared to sacrifice his only son as God had bid him to. He trusted God enough not to question His will. That which the Father in heaven restrained Abraham from doing- sacrificing his only son Isaac, He did for mankind by sacrificing Jesus on the cross.
While we humble ourselves to consider ourselves servants of the Lord, the Lord regards us as friends. There are no secrets between friends. Jesus made a full disclosure of everything the Father in heaven had taught Him. He did not keep back any secret but revealed it all to His disciples. It showed His level of trust in them. What Jesus revealed to His disciples is now revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. He has revealed to us the mystery of the Trinity, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The Lord then escalates our personal relationship with Him from friends to children of the Father.
If full disclosure is made between friends, the sharing of the rights of the House of God, of a portion in the inheritance can be made only by brothers and sisters who are co-heirs with Jesus. Jesus shares with us His authority as the first born of God, His privileges and His power. He shares with us His spiritual character, His anointing, His wisdom, His victory. In other words, we are at the same time playing three roles: servants in terms of our willingness to obey and serve the Lord faithfully, friends in terms of sharing the knowledge of the Lord, children in terms of loving the Lord and being like Him in goodness, grace and power. Just as a servant is trusted and he is obedient in all things, we are to be trusted and obedient servants. Just as friend is faithful, we are to be faithful at all times. Just as a child is loving and respectful of his father, we are to be loving and respectful of the Lord.
Prateep V Philip

Progressive Experience

UV 2768/10000 Progressive Experience
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3 v 26

We should hope in the Lord, in Jesus, His word and His promises. We should hope and then wait. While we wait, our hope or confidence that the Lord is true to His word should be steadfast and not flag or waver. The Lord is preparing His salvation for us while we wait quietly. We ought to wait quietly, without any hint of murmur or complaint or doubt. We ought to wait quietly as a child trusts in her mother. We ought to wait quietly but not idly. We need to fill our waiting not with wondering whether the Lord will hear our prayers and act but with praise and thanksgiving at past answers we have received, the great deliverance, healing and blessings He has given us in the past. We should fill the waiting times with declaring the goodness, faithfulness and grace of the Lord. We fill the waiting time with labour, with diligence, with a constant drive for excellence.

If Adam and Eve had waited quietly for the Lord to appear, they could have asked Him how they could gain knowledge without breaking His command. There is no mastery without the Master, no creativity without the Creator. The Lord would not have kept man ignorant but opened a godly way of being knowledgable and wise, of enjoying power with responsibility but they were in a hurry to fall prey to deceit. Keeping faith with the Lord implies that we need to be patient. Patience is the soil in which the promises of the Lord grows. It might take a season or several seasons or even a whole generation or lifetime. Salvation is not an event but a progressive experience of the love, mercy, grace, power and faithfulness of the Lord.
Christ in us is like a mustard seed that is so tiny that it is initially not visible or felt. But over time and obedience and seeking the word and will of the Lord, the seed grows into a mighty tree. The man who places his trust in the Lord is not ephemeral like the grass that withers. His greatness is not like the glory of the flower that fades. He is like the patient farmer who waits many days and seasons to see the crop, the planting of his hands. He is like the athlete who invests in years of training to manifest his best effort in a few moments of running. He is like the soldier who fights all his lifetime to enjoy the spoils of victory or of salvation at the end of a life of faith and toil.

Prateep V Philip

The Way of Escape

UV 2767/10000 The Way of Escape
Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
Zechariah 2 v 7
Babylon is a symbol of worldly power and pleasure while Zion is the symbol of Almighty God. Babylon brought judgement upon itself. It was overthrown and destroyed by the Persians under King Darius. Jesus came to enable people to escape from Babylon to Zion. He is the Ark of the New Covenant to protect us from the flood of the wrath of the Lord. He not only provides the way of escape but He became the veritable way of escape for humanity. We are to hide ourselves in Him and have no part with the ways of the world. When we do so, we are protected from the ten plagues that fell upon Egypt that refused to obey the will of the Lord as revealed and spoken to by Moses. When we study the ten plagues, we see that there is a steady progression in the type of pain it caused: the water is affected, the air is affected, the health of people of Egypt is affected and finally, the plague of the death of the first born child of each Egyptian family.

We are to live in this world no longer as children of Babylon but as children of God, children of Zion. Babylon was known for its moral decadence and overindulgence. It implies that we need to repent of anything in our lives that offends the Lord. Our hearts and spirits need to be on the same wavelength as Jesus. We should die to our old selves and live to our new selves in Jesus. We do not rely on the means of this world to make ourselves great but we rely on the mercy and goodness of the Father revealed through His Son Jesus. He sets us free from the power of both sin and death though we still confront the presence of both sin and death in this world.
We rise in life not by worldly power or might represented in ancient Babylon but by the Spirit of wisdom and meekness represented in Jesus. Like Noah and his family were safely deposited on Mount Ararat, as the flood waters of sin and decadence recede, we will be safely deposited on the Rock of ages- Jesus. Just as Noah and his family stood for a fresh start or a new creation, we are a new creation in Christ and have a fresh start every time we draw close to Jesus, repent and resolve to change for the better. We are parented and taught by the Lord Himself. There is no hope of revival in Babylon but in Zion, we are filled with hope of revival. We can rise on wings more powerful and enduring than the wings of a Phoenix – of prayer and the promises of the Lord even as we firmly align our vision and our feet with the paths indicated by the two commands of Jesus to love both God and fellow human.

Prateep V Philip

Comprehensive Bread

UV 2766/10000 Eternal Bread
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luke 11 v 3
This uni-verse represents the supplication dimension of prayer. We need to petition the Lord for our daily and total needs not because He does not know what we need but as a sign of His sovereignty, our dependence and our faith in His role as Jehovah Jireh, Provider, Father and Husband. We are not to be “rich” towards God, saying we do not need Him or need anything from Him. Each of us need daily inputs of various things: food, clothing, shelter, transport.. But beyond these mundane requirements, we have daily need of food for thought, for knowledge, for wisdom, inputs for the emotions, for the spirit and soul. We have a daily need for rest and recreation. We have a daily need for fellowship, communication and friendship. Jesus asked us not to labour for the food that spoils or perishes but for the bread that endures to everlasting life. He referred to Himself as the Bread sent from heaven which we should partake daily. He is Bread for satisfaction of spiritual hunger, Bread for forgiveness, Bread for the change that true repentance brings, Bread for healing, Bread of deliverance, Bread of blessing, Bread of power and strength. Jesus is the key to the satisfaction of every level of need depicted in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We will find strength, energy and holistic well being in Him to meet the day’s challenges as well as have reserves that will last for eternity. On the cross, He voluntarily submitted Himself to be split into the divine elements, Bread and drink needed for our victuals replacing the need for all rituals. This we commemorate in the holy Communion or the Lord’s table.
Jesus is the metaphoric roll of bread that the Midianite soldiers saw in a dream at the time of Gideon that rolled down and destroyed the enemy camp. His Word supplies us all that we need from day to day, all our lives. There is no fear that the supply of God’s grace runs out. He gives us our portion in all aspects of our lives as His grace is all sufficient. Bread when consumed becomes part of our bodies and reaches the cellular level of our being. Likewise, Jesus invites us to consume Him so that He is part and parcel of our being, supplies what we need at the deepest level of our being. We are to be contented and thankful for that portion that He gives us. As long as our needs for the day are met, we need not worry about tomorrow or the future.
Jesus is the unleavened Bread. There is no yeast of insincerity or vanity or pride in this Bread. He is the Bread who transforms the eater. It is worthwhile to note that Jesus did not refer to Himself as the Bread-giver but the Bread itself as He is completely focussed on fulfilling every aspect of the plan of salvation for each individual. Jesus is the Bread given by the Father to satisfy the need of man for eternal life. While He asked nothing for Himself, He gave Himself totally for us. Our first response can only be one of love and gratitude. Our next response is that since our hunger is being satisfied on a daily basis, to share this Bread with others to satisfy their longing and fulfil their need.

Prateep V Philip

Level Praying Ground

UV 2765/10000 Level Praying Ground
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
Isaiah 45 v 2

The Lord promises to go ahead of us even as He led the ancient Israelites from bondage to freedom, from slavery in Egypt to their own land. Joshua and his army of freed Jews had to defeat 31 powerful kings before they gained control of the promised land. Likewise, to enter our promised land, to have the promises of the Lord fulfilled, the enemy places many impassable obstacles, massive difficulties, barriers, hazards in our path to freedom from sin, death and curses. But in this uni-verse, the Lord promises to go ahead of us. We need to wait for the Lord to take the lead in our lives.
In real life, we can never have a level playing ground but we have access in Jesus to a level praying ground. When we kneel in prayer, the Lord goes ahead of us as an advance guard and straightens the crooked places that lie in our path. While we close our eyes in prayer or submission to the higher intelligence, wisdom, character, love and power of the Lord, we will see with our inner eye the mountainous challenges before us levelling out, the valleys or our weak spots being strengthened and reinforced, the demolition of all forces and factors opposing us and the will and purpose of the Lord. He will enable us to overcome our challenges and be victorious whatever be the odds against us. Our faith is often so weak and our knowledge and understanding of the grace and power of the Lord is so untrue and unreal that it causes us to tremble with fear. But once we understand that He, Jesus, is the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty God, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Eternal King, the Prince of Peace, we will realize that nothing is too difficult for Him, nothing absolutely is impossible for Him. He can tear asunder gates of bronze and cut through iron bars, implying all that opposes us will melt in His presence.
In army operations, a patrol party and a mine clearer goes ahead of any movement of troops into unknown territory to detect and do away with booby traps. Likewise, before we endeavour to do something new, we should ask the Spirit of the Lord to go ahead of us. He will clear many things that are not physically visible to us but can prove hazardous. He will also detonate or destroy any barricades or barriers that impede our progress. He will fill every valley and level every mountain that lies in our path. Every mountain we cross or every hurdle we clear will increase our faith level and our understanding of who the Lord is. This is precisely the reason why the going for a believer is never smooth. Though the going is tough, we are assured of ultimate victory. Our faith imparts the quality of resilience and tenacity to our lives. Our courage and confidence are bolstered as we know we are never alone.

Prateep V Philip

Blessing and Response

UV 2764/10000 Blessing and Response
There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.
Exodus 23 v 26
Just as every right has a corresponding duty, every blessing has a corresponding responsibility. This promise of the Lord to Israel in this uni-verse has three benefits or blessings that we need on earth: none shall miscarry, none shall be barren and He will grant us a full span of life. The other side of this coin of blessing is responsibility. We are responsible and accountable to the Lord for our lives, our children, our resources and the use of our time. Children are a heritage from the Lord and great shall be the blessing upon the children of believers of Jesus. Due to the influence of the contemporary culture and values, in many countries, children are being considered a burden and couples try to avoid having children. They do not want to be responsible adults. This runs counter to the will of God that we multiply and replenish the earth. We should trust the Lord that He will provide all that we need in bringing up children including wisdom, protection, provision and guidance.
The promise of a full life, that we would live to a ripe old age is another blessing that only the Lord can guarantee. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were “gathered” or they died after living a full span of life. David and Job also died when they were quite old and had done all that the Lord had intended that they do in their lifetime. It is not as if we should have longevity but there should be a quality about each day of our lives. We need to diligently seek the Lord every living day. Like the psalmist in David, we need to number each day, appropriate the grace of the Lord, repent and change in the areas of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, make wise choices and decisions and do the very best we can for the Lord in all that we attempt. The promise that none shall miscarry implies that the Lord’s hand is upon us from the womb. He is intimately involved in our shaping and the circumstances of our birth.
The concept of “ barrenness” is not just physical but it is also spiritual. No believer should be like the fig tree that did not bear any fruit. It could not therefore satisfy the hunger of Jesus and his disciples. It was accursed and it withered. The Lord is hungry for the spiritual fruit of our lives. We cannot partake of all the blessings, teachings and experiences of the Lord’s love and grace and yet be barren. Our words are the fruit of our lips and we need to be careful regarding our speech. We should use it to praise God and not to curse men. Our words have the power of life and death and we should be wise in the use of words so that we are seen as agents if not angels of life and not of death, hurt and harm. Our children are entrusted to us by the Lord. We need to bring them up with godly character and reverence for the Lord.
Prateep V Philip