The Word and The World

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The Word and the World
J. Peter Daniel M.E.
First English Edition – January 2010
Glocal Youth Vision 2010 – Edition.
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Foreword
I am glad to see my younger brother following my footsteps to write. In the
cyber world, every Christian has to put his imprint or thoughts through blogs.
This book is a good model for writing blogs. “The Word and the World” is a
needed book for young Christians to stimulate their thoughts and provoke their
response.
There are three important things to understand about the Word and the World.
Real: God’s Word is real. It is the truth. In the midst of so many myths, ideologies, theories,
philosophies, dogmas, doctrines, traditions; Bible is the TRUTH. God’s Word is eternal truth and
there would be always several counterfeits resembling this, but they are not real and authentic.
Relevant: God’s Word is relevant in any contemporary situation. It is relevant for personal life,
family life, social life, spiritual life, moral life…etc. God’s word is alive and could transform the
readers and the society. Those who ignore God’s Word loose relevance in the world here and world
to come.
Relationship: God’s Word provides us the Way for relationship with God. It helps humanity to
be reconciled with God through Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, it provides right relationship for
Christians to have with the world. The Word of God provides resources to walk in the world being
in constant communication with God.
Each generation has to interpret the Scripture for their own generation. Peter Daniel has attempted
to interpret the Word of God for his peers and youngsters. The reflection questions are good to
understand the thoughts and ideas shared. Reflection would certainly lead to action – initiatives that
would benefit the Kingdom of God.
Congratulations Peter for writing this and I wish each reader may be blessed, edified and equipped
to serve God faithfully.
J.N. Manokaran
jnmanokaran@yahoo.com
Website: glocalleadersnetwork.com
Author of: 1. Christ & Cities; 2. Christ & Missional Leaders;
3. Christ & Transformational Missions 4. Christ & New Generation Youth.
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Felicitations
It is my pleasure and privilege to write felicitation for this book, “The Word and
the World” as I am one among the many who have witnessed the author’s closer
walk with the Lord and his constant persuading character for the practical
Christian life.
Jesus is the ideal model for a writer. He explained great truths from simple
parables and life incidents. Here he has related the world to the word and
challenges the believers to learn what our Lord wants us from the world and apply them according
to the word.
The author has expressed the truth simply and plainly and has given us a room for Reflection and
Discussion which will make our thought process progressive. This book requires the readers to
think critically and confront their own deeply held ideas and perceptions about incidents around the
world.
“Think globally; Act locally” is a famous quote. The author referred many incidents from local to
the global issues like Terrorism, Economic recession and Swine flu which are really reflecting his
global thinking.
One of the surprising aspects of the book is how the chapters have been arranged in a manner an
evangelical Christian has to have a stage of maturity in variety of areas in his life. Much of the work
in this book reflects his deep spiritual experience and yet, they have been seen fit to make it widely
executable in every reader’s life.
My sincere prayer and desire is that after you have had an opportunity to read this book, the way you
look at the world will change and your response to them will be rooted in the word.
May the Lord bless and shower His manifold blessings through this humble effort.
Dr. D. Pethuru, MD
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Acknowledgements
First of all I like to thank God for giving me the time and inspiration to do this great work.
I sincerely thank everyone who has encouraged me a lot in bringing out this book. Thanks for
pausing here as I acknowledge the support and help I have received from my wife Pearline Suganthy
and children Praisy Tryphena and Princy Tryphosa.
I also acknowledge the help of many highly esteemed Christian leaders and friends.
I am deeply indebted to my brother Rev. Dr. J. N. Manokaran and his family whose inspiration
motivated me to write articles in magazines, newsletters and also for his foreword. I also record my
sincere thanks to my father Mr. S. Joseph, who has supported me and gave useful ideas in this
endeavor. .
My sincere thanks are due to my beloved friends Mr Timothy, Mr. Ebenezar, Mrs. Sheeba, Mr.
Stanley and Mr. Arul Manohar, who have edited these articles from time to time .
I thank Dr. Pethuru for his felicitation.
I like to thank Mr. Rajadurai, and Mr. Jesudhasan, Mr. Stanley who has taken the responsibilities of
cover page design and all other related works to bring it in the form of Book.
J. Peter Daniel
Email: peterpearline@yahoo.co.in
Website: http://glocalyouthvision.wordpress.com
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CONTENT
Evangelistic Topics:
Where we went wrong (Ps. 51)
Peace in Perplexity (Math 2, Is. 9:6)
Purge Out (I cor. 5:7-8, Isa 1:25, Prov. 20:30)
9/11 and 7/7 (Gen4:1-15)
One Man (Rom 5:12-6:1)
Divine Love (John 3:16)
The Chief Physician (Math 9:9-13)
Reversible…. Reversible…(I cor. 15:1-19)
Discipleship Topics
God’s Gallery (2 Tim 2:20-26)
Cricket Creeping in…. (Math. 4:1-11)
Slur…. Slur… (James 3:1-12)
Short Cut Saints (2 Chr. 14:2-6, 16:1-6. I sam 13:9-12)
Believer Uses a Blinker (Ex. 4:1-14, Jh. 4:27-38)
Spectacular Spectators (Math 26:31-35, 69-75)
‘DAM’ Believers (Acts. 10”9-23, Math19:13,14)
A Bad Apple (Josh. 7:1-5, Gal2:11-13, John 21:1-19)
Lame Duck Believers (Lk. 9:1-6, 13:6-9, Math23 -28)
One more Year (Lk. 13:1-9)
Grab Christians (Lk. 10, Acts. 6:1-7)
Five Precious Stones (Math 25:1-13)
Standing in the middle of the road (I Sam 20:1-14, 17,17-29)
God’s Brand Ambassador (Math 5:13-16)
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Spiritual Mirage (Math 21:18,19)
Spiritual Prominence….(Math 18:1-4, Phil 2:5-11)
Great Reward (Gen 15:1-10, 14:1-17)
Red Car(D)pet (2 Tim. 4:7,8)
Single Mind (Ph. 1:21)
Shed the Sheath (Ph. 2:5-11, Gal 2:20)
Spiritual Inheritance (Ps. 33:10-15)
Momentary Lapses (Ps. 19)
Christian Ignorance (Gal 4:8-10, Gen. 1:1-31)
Spiritual Sham(E) (Malachi)
Prisoners of the past (Phil. 3:4-9)
Seesaw Christian (Ps. 51)
Recession – Economic Or Spiritual (Haggai 1:1-15, 2:15-18)
Burial Mound….. (Lk. 11:37-54)
Winer or Loser (Ex. 2:11-25, Gen. 37:1-38, 39:19-22)
You see to it? (Math. 27:3-5, 24-26)
S(w)in(e) Flu (I cor. 10:14-15)
Mission Topics:
Grooming youngsters for the Future (Josh. 1:1-18, Num 27:20-21,
Lk. 9:1-6, 10:1-12, 17-20)
White Already to Harvest (Neh. 1:1-11, 2:13,14, John 4:27-38, Rom 10:14-15)
Baton (Dt. 31:14-23)
Radical or Retreat (2Cor. 5:17-18, Heb 6:1-7)
On the move….. Acts. 18:1-6)
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WHERE WE WENT WRONG….
Ps. 51
“Let modesty take a back seat” says an advertisement displayed at a textiles show
room. Another ad on T.V. says, “Neighbors envy, owner’s pride”. “We ‘squeeze to
please” is written above the price list of a juice shop. All these ad gimmicks seek to
promote their own goods. However they have blasted the basic value system in order
to selfishly attract the buyers!
The value system in India is slowly declining. People think that

education will provide a value system that would improve the
students’ life. This view of thought went horribly wrong when the child
of today started to use the gun to quench his anger instead of
seeking better solutions from the “moral values” learnt. The moral
class failed to impart the desired value system.
Some people seek values from movies stars. That also has become a
mockery. Let’s take a flashback to the two prominent stars who
frequently visit the jail for their crime of indulging in terror against
humans and animals.
Some people think that riches and wealth will give them the required value system. The
sad stories of the Ambani brothers and the Mahajan
family reflect the fact that money can’t even solve
fights between siblings. The latter case saw brother
killing brother for the sake of money. The flow of money
can never increase the flow of values into a system.
The world evaded from providing the values which man is in need of to have a better
quality of life. When values diminish, man begins to behave like an animal, killing other
human beings without knowing the cascading effect on the victim’s family and the
society at large.
Many people have an opinion that the value system has to be embedded into a
person at birth or even before birth which would give a better effect. This theory lies
defeated after seeing the news splashed by the media. The value system has been
marred in the birth process itself. The child comes out of the womb crying and not
smiling! The reason behind is that the child has entered into a hopeless and helpless
world.
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In Ps 51:5, David said, “surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother
conceived me”. The root cause for the decay in the value system is the sin which has
entered into the human race. The value system has showed negative progress on the
chart due to the sin of man and not because of nature or fate.
The world has allotted a lot of money for safeguarding the value system for different
issues such as protection, preservation etc. The way out for this degrading value system
is to follow the Person who has lived in this world without any sin, corruption or blemish.
That Person has lived in this world already. That Person was testified by the king, high
priest and the people as a sinless man.
He said ”I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. He followed the rules and regulations by
giving the tax to the government and encouraged others to pay the taxes. He had
compassion on the poor, the sick and the outcasts. He had the courage to touch and
heal the lepers which was more than touching an HIV+ patient today. His values were
praised by many stalwarts.
He spoke of Godly values. He practiced those values. On the cross, He died to take
away our sin. He was buried and resurrected on the third day and ascended into
heaven. Now, He is with us to help us practice those values which He spoke about and
followed; the values which the world is still searching for. Jesus will come back again to
take all those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior.
The demolished value system can be restored by Jesus Christ. If you accept Him and
follow His steps, the world will become a better place!
For reflection and discussion:
1. Are we able to open our minds and see how the values have been portrayed in
the advertisements? How are you going to rebuild the values in society?
2. Jesus is the only way to restore the scattered values in this world. How and why?
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PEACE IN PERPLEXITY
Math. 2
Is. 9:6
Sometimes, the meaning of a word becomes applicable only when a contrary situation
happens in an individual’s life. The importance of the word ‘democracy’ was revealed
when an emergency was imposed in Pakistan. Iraqi people realized the value of
‘peace’ when they lost it during the tyrannical reign of Saddam Hussain in their country.
Over the recent days, I have undergone a lot of stress in and

out of the workplace and in the ministry. During those times, I
studied the book of Psalms which enabled me to identify with
David’s life which was studded with several stressful events.
The verses became more appropriate though had I read the
same passages before and it had a great impact in my life.
In the same way, the Christmas has to be seen in the light of the first Christmas.
Let us look into the following two incidents clearly and then compare them with the
birth of Jesus Christ.
A. Peace amidst Hopelessness:
The pregnant woman Mary and Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee
to Judea, to Bethlehem to register themselves as per the decree of Caesar Augustus. In
the olden days, traveling was never easy. It was a cumbersome and painful process
which was to be endured and not enjoyed. When the couple reached the lodge to
settle in for that night, the inn keeper sent them out just as how in India we even refuse
to give place for a fellow passenger who is sick.
The hope of settling for that night in the inn had gone (Lk.2:7). They did not know where
to go. However, God had arranged a manger for them. The insignificant manger
became significant due to the birth of Jesus, the visit of the wise men, the Star which led
them, the angels and shepherds who had come to worship the Saviour.
At times, God allows hopeless situations in our life to fulfill His delightful purposes. The
manger proved to be of greater use than the inn.
• The indication for the shepherd was very easy – as the manger was related to his
profession.
• The star stopped on the manager which was easy for the wise men to identify.
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• The place was also big enough for them to accommodate Jesus and the many
visitors.
Often, we get depressed and sad when things don’t go the way we desire them to.
God allows such situations for our own good to make us understand that God’s peace
is unbreakable and unshakeable always!
B. Peace amidst Utter Confusion:
The envious and insecure feelings crippled Herod after the Magi had outwitted him. He
ordered the killing of all the male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem and its
vicinity. The first Christmas had been a bloody event for those who were in Bethlehem. It
turned out to be a time of weeping and mourning in Ramah. No one was able to
comfort the bereaved families (Matt 2:16-18). In the midst of these horrific happenings,
the Prince of Peace was born in the manager. The message of Christ’s birth was
proclaimed to the shepherds and to the whole world.
In our life too, we face unacceptable situations such as accidents, natural calamities,
terrorism, sudden deaths, disease, illness, poverty, problems at work, unanswered
prayers and so on. What will Christmas this year mean to those in such situations? The
celebration of Christmas will be very difficult just as it was, two thousand years ago. The
celebration of the first Christmas was for the celebration of the birth of the Prince of
Peace and not for mourning for the tragedies. .
Very often we dwell in the scars of the past and incidents which cloud out the real
peace which God wants to give to each one of us. Christmas is not just about thinking
of our bad past. Instead we need to focus on Jesus Christ who has come to this world to
give peace to the world which the world cannot offer.
Let us remember that in this world we will always have trials and tribulations. The good
news is that even in the midst of perplexity, God will give us His everlasting peace
because He is the Prince of Peace!
1. Usually the king gives beautiful material gift. But God has given ‘peace’ as a gift
through His son. Do you plan out how to face the stress and strain in your life?.
2. Have you felt the presence of peace deep down in your heart?
3. Next week try to handover your problems to Jesus. And write down how you feel
in your heart.
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PURGE OUT….!!!
I Cor. 5:7-8
Isa.1:25, Prov. 20:30
Regular housekeeping keeps a room clean. Otherwise dust amasses on the surface of
objects. This looks like a thick layer blended with the object. The cleaning of a heavy
grime takes a long time and needless to say, it will be a laborious process.
Recently, I was stuck up with an airlock in the chilled water

pipeline during the commissioning of a central air
conditioning unit. It took a long time to release the air to
make the system functional. After removing all the air, the
unit started to function satisfactorily.
In our spiritual journey too, a lot of dust such as old

incidences, scars, emotional hurt, bitterness, physical abuse, child abuse etc. piles up.
This cripples our mind and thinking. At times it makes us feel low. It comes into our mind
often to commove our day to day activities. The psychologists have named it
‘depression’. It comes to a believer when the relationship with God soars or while
preparing the Bible study for others or during a superficial study of the Word of God.
The antidote for this is to perform the ‘Purge Out Therapy’ on a daily basis. If not our lives
would be affected seriously. Moreover, it mars the joy of salvation and feigns the
ministry too. As Christian believers, let us use the ‘Purge Therapy’ in a habitué to live a
happy and joyful life.
A. Purge Out the Old Leaven (I cor. 5:7-8)
The old leaven is mentioned as malice and wickedness. It has to be peeled off from our
lives and be replaced with Sincerity and Truth. The peeling off is not a one day event
since we are living in this world. This will make us dirty. It has to be subbed with new
leaven and new wine which God has given us through Jesus Christ.
B. Purge Out the Dross (Isa. 1:25)
The dross is the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals. The
formation of scoria takes place in our relationship with others. E.g. slip of tongues, slur,
hiding some things, playing politics, thinking one thing and then giving contradictory
information,.
Sometimes the slag may be an insignificant and an invisible one. To make it

conspicuous, it is better to evaluate the day’s happenings before going to bed and
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writing down what God has spoken through that circumstance. It helps us to clear our
impurities and look ahead for a better tomorrow.
C. Purge Out the Inmost Being (Prov. 20:30)
People of different faith try to control their physical desires by regular external self-
punishing acts. External beatings cannot purge out the inner parts. Here Solomon
instructs to punish the inward part, which produces the evil in our life. Dwelling a lot on
the self and inmost being makes us feel hurt and depressed. That’s why Paul said in Gal
2:20 “not I but Jesus Christ”:
Let us purge out the old leaven, dross and the inmost being and replace it with sincerity
and truth with the help of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
1. Are we able to forgive offenders without any preconditions?

2. The past resurrects then and there from our subconscious mind. Not able to
forgive our own kith and kin for their actions. The habit of lifting other person’s
attitude in our hearts that leads to pull you backward in your life. List out the
unforgiven past and keep it before God.
3. Analyze your life whether there is any hidden agenda/sin affecting the family or
society.
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9/11 AND 7/7
Gen. 4:1-15
Suicide bombers assassinated Late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, eminent,
energetic, enthusiastic leader. After this incident, terrorist
organizations used the same strategies to destroy the fabric
structures of the country. E.g. Suicide bombers attacked twin
towers by hijacking the passenger’s plane on 09/11. Suicide
bombers attacked underground railway station and bus in
London on 07/07. Suicide bombers launched attack even in
Egypt and other countries also.
The world devised so many plans to combat terrorism

by waging war and making beautiful statements like
“War on terrorism” “Global struggles with violence
extremism”. The end result is failure. The root cause of
terrorism is an individual selfish motive. Terrorists are not
born but their own attitude develops them as one.
Terrorist means fulfilling his own selfish desires, murder,

taking vengeance, and killing. If we think in this line, the Bible clearly reveals the
character of a terrorist in Genesis chapter 4 itself. The name of the person is Cain. Cain
brings some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. He keeps the good
portion. His brother Abel offers fat and first portion as an offering. This incident reveals
Cain’s selfishness. The slogan goes on “The selfish attitude alienates us from the
society.” The disapproval of Cain’s offering leads him to anger and downcast. Slowly
the anger developed hatred towards his brother.
Selfish attitude and hatred made him devise a cunning plan to kill Abel. He murdered
his brother. The reward for his action was that God made him a wanderer all his life.
Terrorists are not only killing others etc. But the Bible says that those who have evil
thoughts in their hearts will also come under that category.
E.g. 1. Anyone, who is angry with his brother, will be subject to judgment.
2. Anyone, who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin.
3. Anyone, who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
4. Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery.
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The simple and effective antidote for terrorism is the following three verses from the
Bible.
consider others better than yourselves Phil 2:3

Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, Matt 5:44-45
Jesus said the first commandment 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Second is like it: 'You shall love your
neighbour as yourself. Matt 22:38-40
As a glocal youth has a role in this world to combat terrorism by spreading Jesus’
message to all the people. I am challenging you to spread God’s message effectively
throughout the country and win many for Christ.
1. Inner attitude is revealed in our day to day life. God sees the inner heart. Are
we able to clean it every day by His precious blood?
2. The obscene pictures or movies spoil our thought and mind. It cripples our life.
How are we going to take it away? Plan it and do it with the help of God.
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ONE MAN....
Rom 5:12-6:1
A man has the capability to change his course of action by taking proper or improper
decision. The choices are many in this world but choosing the best depends upon the
individual. A few leaders will take decisions after analyzing the pros and cons. Some
will take hastily.
Recently, Skipper Rahul Dravid had been given a chance to take a decision after
winning the toss in Test match against England. He had a choice of fielding or batting.
He took fielding which led to a great defeat. The decision of one man affected the
entire team as well as the country.
A. One man – First Man:

The first man in the history made a wrong decision which affected globally. “The first
deviation of the line will mar the entire picture”. In the same way one man – first man –
Adam’s mistake affected the beautiful world. Sin entered the world through one man,
and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned
(Rom 5:12-6:1). Adam brought condemnation, disobedience, curse and trespass to this
world. He has become a pattern for this world.
If the wrong decision of one man has to be rectified, then, one who is
sinless and able to rescue men from the curse, condemnation and sin
has to offer himself.
B. One man – Last man.

God gave a gift of His own son to revert the decision made by Adam.
He came to show His love in this way: while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. He removed our iniquity and justified us by shedding His
blood on the Cross. (Without shedding blood, there is no forgiveness). He once again
restored this broken relationship by His death.
The first man Adam brought death by his wrong decision, but Jesus Christ brought
redemption from sin through His resurrection. He made the sinners righteous and
delivered man from death to eternal life. He turned Adam’s generation (race) to
God’s Race by His death and resurrection.
If we have faith in Him and have been justified, then we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us believe and accept Him, so that we will have a peaceful
relationship with God.
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1. One man spoils the human race. The last man restored humanity. Lets examine
ourselves and find out who we are following.
2. The evidence of following the last man will be revealed in your way of living. Are
we living as a witness ?
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DIVINE LOVE
John 3:16
“Face is the indication of what is inside the heart”. This

statement is true and applicable to all. Men face anxiety
when things are now working out favourably for them. Few
people blame the fault on others. Some of them accept it
as their own fault. The attitude varies from person to
person. People like accusing others easily for their faults.
Recently the media has started to pinpoint Saddam for his mischief. Every one cast
their vote for his death. No one was willing to forgive him for his deeds. Even the
Christian society refused to pardon him.
One of my friends told me that we wouldn’t forgive the person who had done a grave
mistake even if God forgives him. God’s love is different from others’. If Jesus is here in
this Christmas surely He would forgive Saddam if he went to him. His love is greater than
our love. His love is divine love. Let us look out how valuable His love is!
A. Unconditional Love:
Terms and conditions are the preliminary discussion between clients and
suppliers. The human love is no exceptional in this matter.
Many relationships break due to conditional love. E.g. “If
my wife loves me I will love her” - told by a man married for
just two months.
God’s love is a voluntary one. He took the first

voluntary step by stooping down to our level to lift us to be
His child. He accepted us as we are just like the prodigal sin.
He never asks us to clean up our bad habits to have
fellowship with Him.
Let us emulate our Lord’s unconditional love to others by taking one step further
to help others.
B. Universal Love.
The globalization is a catch word today. The people are thinking about global
after the intervention of internet and other gadgets. Our God has uttered the word
‘Global’ when He sent His son to this world (Global) (Jn. 3:16). He didn’t send His son
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especially to one region or one particular community or caste. He sent Him for His
created world.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, do we love each and every one in this world
irrespective of colour, region, language, caste, church background, denomination
background? Let us think so that our love may be a universal love
C. Unique Love.
God’s love is a unique one. He loved each and every individual. He called
them by name. He called ‘Samuel’ ‘Zacchaeus’ and so many. Each and every one is
precious in His sight. He lavished His love on us by shedding His blood for us.
Let us show God’s unique love to our neighbors, friends, and relatives in a unique way.
D. Uniform Love.
God’s love has no hierarchy. He loves everyone in the same degree. He loves
poor and rich, educated and illiterate, handicapped and healthy, refuge and slave,
terrorist and non terrorist, black and white in a same balance.
Let us analyze ourselves how our love differs from person to person.
It is a time for us to show our life not only in Christmas time but throughout our life.
Let us replace our nature of pointing others using ‘U” words by these ‘U’s’ like Universal,
Unique, Unconditional and Uniform love.
1. List out the person whom are you not able to forgive or forget. Pick up one
person’s name and find out the reason for not loving him. Think about yourself.
What would happen if God hadn’t forgiven you?
2. Unloving people groups – untouchables, socially outcast people. How would

you feel if you were born in that society?
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THE CHIEF PHYSICIAN
Matt. 9:9-13
“Just a tiny prick on the wound; initially, it will be painful; after that, it will be alright”
the Nurse informed the patient named Maran in the treatment room. Actually, he had
come to the Hospital with a swelling on his right thumb. The
damage had occurred when he had tried to close the main door
in his house. Initially, he didn’t care about it. After a week, it
developed into swelling which was posted for operation.
While the nurse was conversing with him, a Doctor in white coat
entered the room with a stethoscope. Quickly, he explained the
procedure step by step to Maran. His heartbeat had gone up
when he listened to the words of knife, scissors, stitching, etc.
Slowly, the Doctor finished the procedure and prescribed
medicines for alleviating the pain. After a week, Maran entered
the Doctor’s cabin and showed his healed hand and expressed his gratitude to the
Doctor. Moreover, Maran quite forgot the prick and the pain.
This episode teaches lessons related to life. The outward appearance of the swelling is
actually indication of inward damage. The cure of the swelling
depends on the healing of inward part. For complete cure, the swelling
has to be operated to remove the pus as well as administer antibiotic
medicine to suppress the virus and bacteria.
Similarly, the world has been immersed with evils such as social injustice, casteism,
terrorism, drug addiction, immortality, debauchery, same sex marriage, rivalry among
brothers, divorce, accumulation of wealth in one place and poverty in another. The
outbursts of evils are due to the inward selfish attitude of people. For instance,
gratification of sexual desire leads a father to rape his own daughter of nine years with
a help of his wife and greed for wealth leads one to kill his own son to get rid of a curse,
and so on.
These evils are like the wound and have disturbed whole human race. People try to
undo past, present and future ‘karma’ by doing a lot of outward religious activities. It
hasn’t either cured their inner turmoil or delivered them from evil. It has aggravated the
problem instead of alleviating it. One of the scholars said that he wanted to do good
things but he was doing evil. He wanted to escape from this but no one can do it.
Who will help this type of a wretched person?
We have tried our best to untangle ourselves from the spider’s web but ended up with
a new problem. In the end, we feel lonely and depressed because of our attitudes
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haunt us day and night. It may be a relationship problem, emotional hurt, hurting
others, cheating, etc.
We have to realize and accept our inability to deal with our own problems. The
acceptance of inadequacy helps us realize that we need a specialized physician who
can clean and transplant our heart. The human doctor cannot perform this type of
operation because they have studied to treat the patients physically. In this operation,
we need a doctor who is flawless and sterile from all those evils.
If you are in this situation, it is better to start searching for a specialized Doctor; just we
are finding out the right Doctor for our kind of disease. The first question is how to
recognize such a person? First of all, the person should not have done any evil or sin in
one’s life time on earth. Secondly, the birth of the person should be different from other
persons’. Otherwise, the inborn nature of evil comes as a default. Thirdly, the person
should endure hardship and death just as we do. Fourthly, the person has to face the
consequence of death. Fifthly, the person has to resurrect from death.
Second question comes, who is that person? It is better to analyze the criteria. The fifth
point deals with the resurrection as per the sequence. The word ‘resurrection’ has not
been attached with any leader. It has been credited only to Jesus Christ who has
resurrected and is living today. His tomb was left open. He came to this world with the
purpose of delivering a people from power and presence of sin. He lived and died for
us. His birth was unique and different from normal.
Third question rises, what do we have to do? For instance, the doctor should get
permission from the patients before touching them. Similarly, Jesus Christ is being
standing at the door of our life and knocking at our heart. He will not enter unless until
we open the door because the key is with us. Once we open our heart to Jesus Christ,
then He will come and dwell and dine with us. We have to confess our sin as well as
confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord who has incarnated as human after setting aside all
His power and glory. He substituted our place on a cross. He was buried on the same
day and kept in the borrowed tomb which was guarded by the soldiers. On the third
day, the stone was rolled away and Jesus Christ was raised and revealed to many
people before going to heaven. He promised that He will come back as He has gone
up to heaven.
The following prayer, done silently, will help you feel the burden rolling away from you.
Moreover, you will feel the presence of God and power of God.
“Lord, I believe You came to this world to die for me and my sin. I often try to act
as though I am a saint but I am a sinner when compared with your holiness. I
accept my sinfulness. I have to die but you have died for me and paid the
penalty of my sin. Thank You, Lord Jesus for being my substitute. Lord, please
accept me as Your child and give me a new heart, new life, new thoughts, new
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purpose, new Spirit and a new vision. Do come into my heart and be the Master
of my life. Please give me a peace which can’t be given by this world. Give me
a heart to seek You and know You more. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Amen.
This prayer makes you feel His presence in your life. You have to continue to be in
touch with God reading the Word of God (The Bible) and praying to Him about
everything going on in our minds and life, and have fellowship with like-minded people
who have accepted Him just like you.
1. Who is good doctor for Sin? Why is he good? How could he cure the sin?
2. What is sin? Explain briefly and why Sinless person has to die for sinful man?
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REVERSIBLE...REVERSIBLE...
I Cor. 15:1-19
“Irrepairable loss, critical condition, death, lost...” are words which people hate and
refuse to utter. These words are mostly used when loved ones are on the verge of
departing or already dead.
People, who lose their dear ones, expect them to come back to
life. This is not possible unless and until God does the miracle.
Once lost is lost and there is no way of recovering it. When I was
thinking about this, I got this word “Christos Anesti” – Christ is
raised. This word makes me think about the promise of
reversibility.
A. Resurrection reverses our sinful nature:
The moral decay, chaos, insecurity of the minority, war on

terrorism shows the real selfish nature of human beings. Selfishness
originates from sinful nature. The sinful nature was inherited from Adam. David said, “In
sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps.51:5). The result of sin is death (the wages of sin is
death Rom.6:23).
Our sinful nature can be reversed only through the blood of Jesus Christ. He died for our
sins and resurrected on the third day to give us power to overcome sin. He died to
release us from the fear of death.
B. Resurrection gives us hope for living:
People are dying without any hope of life after death. The resurrection of Christ gives us
hope. After death, there is eternal life. It gives us a living hope and a living faith. It
demonstrates the uniqueness of Christ. Paul clearly says in I Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ
is not raised, our faith is futile and we are still in a sinful state”.
C. Resurrection prepares us to meet God:
The resurrection gives a clear cut message that our God is a living God (Phil.2). Now, He
will come back to judge the world and not to save the world. During His return, all the
dead will resurrect and those who have accepted Him as their personal Saviour will
definitely meet Him. We will be changed from perishable to imperishable and
corruptible to incorruptible.
Let us rejoice that the Lord has given His one and only Son to die for us and resurrect on
third day to reverse our sinful nature. This has offered us a new hope of meeting Him
face to face when He returns to this world.
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1. Resurrection from sin is important for believers. List out the things that portray that
we are enjoying the joy of resurrection.
2. Resurrection from the past - After Jesus’ resurrection, He didn’t speak about past
troubles and turmoil. He spoke about future. Are we focusing on the future?
3. Resurrection from sin is important for believers. List out the things that portray that
we are enjoying the joy of resurrection.
4. Resurrection from the past - After Jesus’ resurrection, He didn’t speak about past
troubles and turmoil. He spoke about future. Are we focusing on the future?
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GOD’S GALLERY….
2 Tim. 2:20-26
India is moving economically and technologically at par with the developed countries.
The development has increased the lifestyle of the
citizens. Moreover the financial constraint in the past
has not been faced much by the present day people.
But the task oriented, work load, fame, self satisfaction
and coming up to the top has affected their quiet
movement, enjoyment, and rest.
The same phenomenon has entered into a Christian

believer’s life. This is one of the strategies of Satan to divert the attention from knowing
the ultimate purpose of God in our lives in this busy world. We have to be cautious and
swim against the tide of this world by utilizing the opportunity to do His purpose in this
world.
In Bible, God raised a lot of people in a particular situation to accomplish His purpose in
this world. God raised Ruth, a gentile woman in an appropriate time to bridge the gap
in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. He brought Esther to save His chosen people. The law
of storing food is still alive (food corporation of India) which was imposed by Joseph
during the famine in Egypt.
God shapes His people according to His will to do His task at the right time. Let us refer
2 Tim 2:20-21 to know more about this.
A. Criteria for a noble purpose:
In 2Tim 2:20, Paul mentions two type of purposes, one is noble and another one is
ignoble. The criteria for being an instrument for doing a noble purpose is that the person
has to be Holy and blameless (v.21 Eph. 1:4). Holy is a word which means the internal
where God lives in our heart. The blameless is an external word which resonance the
internal holiness to the outside world. The world has to give credit that the believers are
blameless.
We must flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace,
along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Tim 2:22-23
B. Commitment to Masters’ Noble Purpose:
The good work is mentioned about doing His ministry in this world. Jesus fulfilled God’s
ministry. In the same way we have to fulfill God’s calling in our lives. God sent Jesus
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Christ. In the same way Jesus sends us to this world to do a global evangelism (Mt.
28:19) and to make a mark in the history.
C. Chose to do His specific noble purpose:
A large house is filled with different articles made up of different materials. The value of
the material depends upon the material used to make it. God also wants to be in the
gallery to show how far we have eagerly sought His will in our lifves. This will be revealed
in the end when we stand before his throne.
Let us be ready to fulfill His criteria to take up His purpose, the commitment to do His
purpose and find out His specific noble purpose in our life. So that in the final judgment
God will make us to stand in the gallery according to the life that we have lived in this
world.
1. Are we being in line with Noble or ignoble purposes? What is God’s purpose
in your life?
2. Do you have personal vision and mission statement?
3. Evaluate your spiritual life, Are you appointed to this world for the noble
purpose?
4. What does God want me to be?
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CRICKET CREEPING IN....
Math. 4:1-11
On 28/11/05, I tuned my television to the Doordarshan channel for news. It was a

disappointment, as the DD channel was telecasting the live cricket match of South
Africa and India. I looked at the bottom of the screen to read the headlines. Nothing
was being displayed. I wondered whether cricket has
become more important than what’s happening
around the World. Which one has to come first?
In our personal life, in many occassions important things

have been replaced with unimportant things and vice
versa. The strategies of Satan are to deviate and distract
us from reaching the proper destination. Satan’s
weapon is the same that he had used 2000 years back,
to deviate Jesus Christ from His plan and purpose. Let
us analyse Satan’s three important weapons.
A. Useless things become useful things:
The Satan is to convert useless things to become useful things in a believer’s life. He did
the same thing to Jesus by requesting Him to convert stone into bread. Similarly, he
distracts us by evoking to accumulate wealth and earn more money to maintain our
status in the society. It is not wrong to have earthly treasures. These treasures should not
cloud us to worship the source of all treasures Jesus Christ. Let us store the heavenly
treasures of bringing souls to Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus’ word uttered to Peter,
“Follow me, I will make you fishers of men”.
B. Sharp becomes unsharpened:
Satan slants God’s word to use it for his own purpose. He shows the one side of the
Bible verse and hides other verses. He tried to deceive Jesus by showing the promise
verse and hiding the verse, which Jesus stated to overcome the temptation.
The strategy of Satan is to give importance to let out our emotions by praise and
worship service not for correcting Word of God. This type of services has replaced the
importance to God’s word. People will deluge to the church where the pastor is
soothing the heart with God’s promise and prosperity messages. It is better to sharpen
our character, life and attitude by His (s)word. Let us remember 2Tim. 3:16, 17. All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.
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C. Temporary becomes permanent:
Satan attracts us towards temporary things to make us believe that it is permanent

happiness. He stimulated Jesus by promising to give the whole world but requested
Jesus to worship him. He uses the weapon by showing the temporary world as a
permanent one. Many times, we give excuse for permanent spiritual things like prayer
meetings, fellowship, venturing for God’s work but we spend the time to watch the
cricket match etc. Let us seek the permanent and eternal things by obeying His will
and doing God’s ministry.
Let us correct our priorities by giving first place to God and His kingdom. Ida Scudder
said “He came to build God’s kingdom not a medical school”. Are we willing to build
God’s kingdom in
1. What is our priority in our life? What is our vision in our life? If it is not clear then
make it clear and have proper mission statement.
2. Every day remember to dedicate your life to him for His guidance.
3. Try to focus on the permanent life that is in heaven.
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SLUR... SLUR...
James 3:1-12
A little baby's language is neither easy to define nor easy to comprehend. However
everyone loves to listen to the joyful gurgles the baby makes and enjoys its talk
thoroughly. Yet the same child-like speech is not acceptable from us "grown-up
children". We need to be responsible for every word we express. Sometimes we let out
words without our control and simply justify it as “slip of tongue”. It shows our inability to
control our language.
On 08th August 2006, a one-day cricket match between South Africa and SriLanka took
place at Colombo. During the match, Dean Jones, the former Australia batsman who
was on air as a commentator made a casual remark during the commercial break -
“The terrorist has taken another wicket.” He was talking about the South African
batsman Hashim Amla, a devout Muslim. Unfortunately for Jones it was relayed across
the world. One wrong word ‘terrorist’ marred his name as well as the core values of the
game in a split second.
On 19th September 2006, Sania Mizra, the Indian tennis superstar said in Kolkata that
she had to assess every word she verbalized. An "if to but" from her lips could create a
national crisis. If a secular person is analyzing every word she speaks then how much
more careful should a spiritual person be!
In the Bible James 3:1-6 talks about the tongue using three important words.
A. Bit:
A bit is a piece of metal held in a horse's mouth by the

reins and is used to control the horse while riding. For us human
beings, the origin of the word comes from inside our heart
(Matt.12:34 – 35). If our heart is filled with God’s presence then
pure and encouraging words will come out from our mouths. Let
us fill our heart with His word and speak His words to others. (Col.
3:16).
B. Rudder:
A rudder is just like a steering wheel which guides a vehicle or a ship to the right
direction. It equates with the tongue which leads the whole body. The
spiritual person's life should be controlled and maneuvered by His
Spirit. Isaiah 30:21 says that God guides our way by speaking to us. Let us
listen to His voice and channelize our life according to His command.
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C. Fire:
Just as a small spark destroys the whole forest our tiny tongue can muck up our
life as well as the lives of others. Instead, we need to master and steer the tongue with
the help of filling our heart with the Word of God and His guidance. If we do the above
then our words will be powerful and will bring transformation in the lives of others.
Let us control and direct our tongue with His help and spread His gospel across
the globe like a wildfire!
1. Try to find out the cause of loose words in our life.

2. Plan strategies to avoid slur with the help of God for the next few days.
3. Put bid to control the stirring – how are we going to do it.
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SHORT CUT SAINTS
Read: 2 Chr. 14:2-6, 12, 16:1-6
I Sam. 13:9-12
Computers have the provision of shortcut icons which help us to reach the desired
location by cutting short the usual procedure. These save both time and energy but
sometimes it ends up with some problems.
Recently I drove my car from Tambaram to Egmore in

Chennai. On the way there were several flyovers without
proper signboards. I took one flyover and landed up in
another lane that was leading to Avadi (in a completely
different direction). It took a few u-turns, some tensed
moments and a lot of wasted time amid the confusion to
get back to the correct lane.
Similarly in our spiritual life, we love to take shortcuts to accomplish certain tasks with our
own ways. Sometimes, we do it and then go to God for ratification or end up facing the
consequences. In just a few moments, we end up in the wrong lane and start cursing
our own actions. .
In the Bible, there are a few examples of those who took shortcuts.
A. Asa the King: 2 Chr 14:2-6
Asa was the son of Abijah who ruled Judah for ten years. Asa did what was good and
right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places,
smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah
to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey His laws and commands. His
nation enjoyed peace without any war as long as he relied on the Lord for all his deeds.
From 2 Chr 14:12, we see that Asa defeated the Ethiopian army by relying on God
during that time.
In the thirty sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and
fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering Asa’s territory. The
economy came to a standstill and famine crept in due to the siege (2 Chron 16:1-6).
Asa immediately took silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of
his palace and sent it to Benhadad, king of Aram who sent his army to fight Israel. King
Baaha heard of this and returned to his own country. God sent his seer to warn Asa for
relying on the Lord’s treasure and the king of Aram to send king Baaha back. He
rebuked him for taking a shortcut to complete the task without getting proper
guidance from the Lord.
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B. Saul the King: 1 Sam 13:9-12
The Israelites cried out before God for a king. God anointed Saul as the king through
Samuel the prophet. One day, the Philistines assembled for war on one side while his
own men scattered on the other side due to the late arrival of Samuel to offer the burnt
offering. Saul was in a hurry to get his people together and send his army to fight the
Philistines. He began to play the role of the priest which was against God’s
commandment. Samuel rebuked him and prophesied about the person who would
come after him.
Even in our own lives, let us wait on the Lord, get His guidance and do everything in
accordance to His will. We need not take shortcuts which will be unacceptable to the
Lord. Let us always keep in mind that God’s will done in God’s way will never lack God’s
resources!
1. Note down the area where you are not able to wait on the Lord to act. Specify
one or two incidents and analyze.
2. Next one week, try to think twice before speaking / Taking up the matter to
higher ups
3. Jolte down the benefits of going slow.
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BELIEVER USES A BLINKER
Es. 4:1-14
Jn. 4:27-38
A horse rider uses a leather eye-patch sewn to the side of the halter which prevents a
horse from getting distracted. It helps the rider to guide the horse in accordance to his
will. The leather piece used for this purpose is called a blinker.
Today, many cult groups / Pastors / so called evangelists use blinkers to prevent the
sheep from going away from their folds. Many teachings against
marriage propagating celibacy, treat your spouse as a sister or
brother, teachings against sporting a mustache / wearing of jewels /
propagating unkempt hair under the pretext of not conforming to the
world, prosperity theology – blessings, positive confession – Humanistic
psychology, etc. These trivial matters have become a leather eye
patch blocking our vision to hide the need around us. This attitude
may damage our spiritual life and cause us to loose the purpose of
being in this world to do God’s will.
Let us see some of the examples who have used the blinker in their eyes.
A. Esther uses a ‘Blinker’:
Esther was a captive from Jerusalem, living in Persia (India to Ethiopia) as a refugee.
She was also an orphan but God had brought her up through Mordecai her uncle. God
lifted her up from a small place to the king’s palace after the ousting of Queen
Vashtifor her disobedience to the king. The blessings of God had become an eye
patch and made her unable to see the things distant to her room. She was not aware
of things going against her and her community even though she was at a strategic
point of origin of the law. She was unable to see the happenings inside and outside the
palace.
The silence of Esther showed that she was wearing blinkers on her eyes. For removing
the blinker, Mordecai had to send a severe warning message regarding the threat to
Jews community by Hamman, prime minister through Hathach. Esther woke up after
hearing the strong word from her uncle.
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In our life also, we are sleeping or pretending to sleep when the need of the people is
brought to us. We are unable to open our eyes to see the things out of our box as God
sees.
B Disciples use a ‘Blinker’:
Jesus was speaking with a woman about the living water. At the time, disciples had
gone to procure food for Jesus. When they returned back they offered the food. But
Jesus said that he had food which the disciples didn’t know. Jesus meant the food
means doing the will of God. His will is to preach the Gospel to the world.
The disciple’s eyes were on the physical food instead of spiritual food which Jesus saw
differently. After this incidence, Jesus commanded them to open their eyes to see the
need in and around the world.
Let us remove the blinker from our eyes and open to see the need in and around the
world. Jesus is coming soon. So we need to think about preaching the gospel at every
nook and corner of the world.
1. Identify the blinker that hinders you to see the truth of God’s word.
2. Try to find out, why do you procrastinate to do God’s commandments
3. Am I dwelling mostly on day to day need / activity oriented ministry and
forgetting the need of savior.
4. God cried for Jerusalem. Are you able to cry for your city?
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SPECTACULAR SPECTATORS
Math. 26:31-35, 69-75
If a child gazes steadily at an object sans action nor reaction for a long time, the
parents begin to worry about the growth of their child. The development of a child is
gauged by his/her activities, movements, speech etc. Parents become paranoid if their
child prefers to be inactive.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, skipper and wicket keeper of India’s ODI and
Twenty20 cricket teams announced that he watched cricket only for
a few moments to see his favorite batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar
play. He preferred to rather spend most of his time on the ground
practicing and honing his cricketing skills. A cricketer has to be in the field playing
instead of just watching others play.
Similarly, the growth of the believers depends upon their active participation in building
God’s kingdom. The silent spectators are the greatest threats to God’s ordained global
mission. God requires watchmen who are involved actively in His work. He does not
need watchers who wonder what is happening. God wants a go-er and not a sender.
God wants a performer not a talker. God wants an achiever not an assigner. God
wants a builder not a dreamer.
Let us glance at some salient points of the dangers of being spectators.
A. Peter sat in the Wrong Place:
The fiery speech of Peter in Matt 26:3535 (But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with
you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same) had ended up in
him sitting in the wrong place among the guards at the courtyard and watching Jesus
Christ. Though, he did not dare to go near Jesus he wanted to watch the proceedings.
Many a time, we prefer to sit at a wrong place and watch wrong doings happening
around us. We remain oblivious to the evil and don’t to even raise our voice against it
let alone fight against it. In the Roman Colossuem, people
loved to watch the Gladiator games which involved two
warriors fighting one another to death.
B. Telemachus, the Monk who created History!
One day when one such fight was going on, a little monk
named Telemachus (whom God had led to Rome) could not
bear it and ran down from the back of the gallery shouting “In
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the name of Jesus, Stop!” He came to the edge of the arena and jumped in and stood
in between the gladiators repeating “In the name of Jesus, Stop!”
The stronger warrior who was about to kill his rival looked at the Emperor who signaled
to kill the monk. Even as the sword pierced him, blood gushed out and he shouted one
more time, “In the name of Jesus, Stop!” and he died. That was the last gladiator game
which ever took place in Roman history (January 1, 404 AD). Three days later, the
Emperor issued a decree to stop gladiator games forever. One man’s action brought to
an end a horrendous game.
Telemachus created history that day. Let us think about our life. Are we sitting and
watching or actively participating in the enhancement of God’s kingdom? Let us
commit our lives to let others know that our Savior lives!
1. Are we just sitting and watching the missionary work by giving money? Then we
have to practice to penetrate into the field to do God’s work
2. Are you sitting in the living room and commenting about the missionary work or
evaluating the preacher? Then you are spectators. Now, better evaluate and plan
out for one week to correct it.
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‘DAM’ BELIEVERS
Acts 10:9-23
Matt. 19:13,14
Water is one of the natural resources that God has provided for us. It flows for the
benefit of people those who are living in the nearby areas. In addition, it fetches
income and productivity that makes people flourish
economically.
Man has erected dams across many rivers for producing

electricity as well as for irrigation. But this affects the survival of
people, who are dislocated and their irrigation facilities and
freedom are affected.
God has called us to be channels of blessing to the world. But

the flow of blessing is being stopped due to the man made
dams, such as crooked attitudes, preconceived ideas, traditions
etc. Let us see how God’s blessings are being blocked and
how it can be demolished for the effective flow of God’s
blessings through us.
A. Disciple Peter builds a dam of Tradition:
Disciple Peter had the privilege of hearing sermons directly from the Lord Saviour Jesus
Christ against keeping of Sabbath as a tradition and about keeping the other laws. In
addition, He heard the last commandment of ‘go all over the world to preach the
Good news (Gospel)’. God had also given him the key for unlocking the gates of
Heaven.
Peter has forgotten all the teachings for the sake of keeping an insignificant
tradition/mindset of discriminating against Gentiles. God has demolished his mind
block by showing a vision regarding eating of unclean animals. It is a pathetic stature
of a disciple even though he was with Him for 3.5 years.
In another incident, God spent a few minutes with the Samaritan outcast woman which
changed her life as well as the lives of the villagers. The reason is that the truth has set
her free from all the bondages so that God’s blessings have flowed from her to villagers.
Let us shed the mindset that is hindering us from preaching the gospel to others.
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B. Disciples behave as a dam: (Matt 19: 13, 14):
The disciples had started behaving like a dam by refusing to allow them from coming
to Jesus Christ. But He rebuked the disciples and compared the children to the
kingdom of heaven. Jesus entertains everyone equally irrespective of age, creed,
caste religion etc.
In another place, Andrew introduced the small boy with five loaves and two fishes to
Jesus Christ. By this, Jesus Christ has done a miracle and explained the great truth of
bread of life to the crowd.
Nowadays the pastors, elders and preachers are erecting a dam to follow their
footsteps in each and every area of their life instead of guiding them towards Lord
Jesus’ Christ. Due to this a lot of Bible believing believers have become slaves to saints
after being freed from sin. Due to their enslavement, many potential believers have
drained their talent for the sake of obeying them.
Let us evaluate ourselves, whether are we helping others to find out the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ or we are erecting a dam. Let us lead people to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
1. Are we a channel blessing of bringing people to God or are we a stumbling

block for others to come to Christ.
2. List out the things which you are thinking a stumbling block for the people
to come to Christ and give as solution for removing the blocks.
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A BAD APPLE
Josh. 7:1-5
Gal. 2:11-13
John. 21:1-19
A team works when the members work with mutual understanding to reach the
earmarked goal. It leads to an upward growth of individuals and the organization. But
if one person has opposed the process then the whole team moves in a downward
trend. This affects the growth, unity and team work.
A recent survey explained that one "bad apple" can spread negative behavior like a
virus to propel officemates downward or act as a
means of destruction in a good team. – ‘Conflict in the
workplace’ a study conducted by California team.
Terence Mitchell, co-author, a professor of
management and organization says that the negativity
of just one individual is pervasive and destructive and
can rapidly spread. One more research scholar said
that the bad apple that spoiled the barrel and a single
"toxic" or negative team member can be the catalyst for a group's downward spiral.
The consequences of a bad apple, negative behaviour are portrayed in the Bible
vividly. Let us look at some of the passages to know about our standing.
A. Achan (Josh 7:1-5):
The Israelites captured many nations and marched towards Canaan under the
leadership of Joshua and with the help of God. When they were on the verge of
getting into Canaan, they were chased by the small country Ai from the city gate as far
as the stone quarries and were struck down on the slopes. They eventually lost a lot of
soldiers. Joshua was unable to accept the defeat. So, he tore his clothes and fell
down at God’s feet to know the reason behind the Calamities they had faced. God
revealed to him that it was due to the disobedience of one person, God’s presence
had departed from the camp.
Joshua tracked down the culprit by screening every clan, down to every individual.
Finally he found out that Achan the son of Carmi had taken the devouted things and
hidden them in his tent.
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Due to one man’s mistake, the whole team of soldiers bore the consequences. Let us
analyze whether we are on the problem side or in the side of the solution.
B. Peter Gal 2:11-13, John21:3:
On two occasions, Peter led others to make a wrong direction. One incident is
portrayed in John 21 and is about taking the first step to resort to fishing. The other
apostles joined him and went fishing. God restored him and put him back on track by
asking him three different questions, all of them meaning the same. Finally he wept and
God was later able to use him mightily.
On another occasion, he simply withdrew from the Gentiles to avoid unnecessary

friction with the circumcised group. Due to this behavior, the Jews and Barnabas
followed him.
Let us analyze and see if we are withdrawing from a team due to peer pressure or
because of being unable to cope with the problems. Let us be a partaker of God’s
kingdom and also to be part of solution.
1. God wants you to be a channel of His blessings. Are we really a blessing to

others?
2. Analyse our life whether is there any hidden sin that is affecting the family,
society.
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LAME DUCK BELIEVERS
Lk. 9:1-6, 13:6-9
Math. 23:23--8
The President’s post is the highest and most poweful in America. But during the
elections in 2006, many of the powers of the president Mr. Bush were
clipped. His power went to democrats who started controlling him.
The news papers portrayed him as a ‘lame duck president’
The Christian believers also living like this, even though God has
given them power and authority to exercise them (Lk. 9:1-6). In the
Bible, Jesus Christ spelled out two words related to the word ‘lame
duck’.
A. Fig tree:
The fig tree has to produce fruit. It is the indication of its growth. If it is not producing
fruit, then it is waste for the soil and also for the place occupied by it. It is better to
throw it and use the place for some other purpose. (Ref Luke 13:6-7), Then He told this
parable. A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on
it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three
years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it
down! Why should it use up the soil?
Christians have to produce fruit by His power so that the world will recognize us. This will
make others to come to Jesus Christ. Let us live up to the expectation of our Lord Savior
Jesus Christ and exercise His power in our life to bear more fruits.
B. White Washed Tomb:
Jesus used the word “white washed tomb” to refer to the Pharisees. They are the
people who never go or allow others to enter in to the kingdom of God. Their outside
life is decorated but inner heart never matches with that. God hates the people with
dual personalities. (Ref. Matt 23:27-28) "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside
but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. (V.28) In the
same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous but on the inside you are full of
hypocrisy and wickedness.)
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Jesus correctly pointed out that they have a name in the society but there is no inner
life. They are just like a tomb which has name outside with no life inside.
In our lives, we are teaching, preaching, and training others to come to Christ. We
have a name in the Christian circles. Do these activities match with our inner lives? Do
our souls have life revived each day in His presence? Let us evaluate our lives today in
His presence and correct it.
1. God has given the power for utilization. Are we utilizing for His glory and to
spread His gospel to this world?
2. People want to be identified by the world. So they will do according to the
world’s desires. Shall we evaluate whether we are going along with the stream.
3. List out the insignificant matters which you have expected from others and not
materialized. Compare it with the grace of God has shown to you. The issues will
become nothing before the presence of God
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ONE MORE YEAR…
Luke 13:1-9
The living room is the place where family members get together to discuss family as well
as contemporary problems and other issues. These discussions always revolve around
either the person who has instigated the problem or victims involved or about the
politicians (who always seem to be a root cause to many problems!). Most of the time,
such discussions (sometimes lead to arguments too) end up condemning or giving a
clean chit to the particular person involved. Invariably, we all love to give our opinions
and pass judgment on everything that happens around us (irrespective of whether we
are involved in it or not!) This is a regular feature for most of us in our day to day life.
Similarly, the pre New Year week is the time during which the media reviews the
happenings of the past one year. The highs and lows are analyzed and predictions and
trends for the forthcoming year are talked about.
The last weeks of this year are ending with terrible violence. First was the mind-blowing
terrorist-based assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Next was
the horrifying episode of school students shooting their own classmate right inside the
school campus as an act of revenge for bullying them. In another incident in Noida, an
engineering college student shot his classmate who refused to hang out with him.
After hearing about the above happenings, a lot of questions popped up ….What went
wrong? Where is the value system? Is it the problem of the media? Is it the problem of
improper upbringing? Is it the problem of urban and rural cultural division? Is it the
problem of minting money?
In Luke 13: 1-5, Jesus read out the news happenings of that day two thousand years
ago. Then He told that the victims were not greater
sinners than those who were living. He concluded that
the people, whether victims or the unaffected had to
repent or they too would perish.
Many times, we compare ourselves with others and say

that we are better than so and so. But God has warned
us not to do so but think and evaluate our own life in
God’s perspective. In the following verses Jesus narrates a
parable.
A. God expects fruits:
A person who had planted a fig tree expected fruits from it. When it did not give the
expected result he called it as a barren tree. It had no use to either man or to the soil. It
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only occupied space. It affected the growth of other plants. It sucked the resources of
other trees without much outcome.
The barren spiritual life of a person affects the place where he/she is planted to be a
witness. They will only fill the space without causing much impact in that area and the
purpose of being placed in that area (for instance, our work spot ( place of study)
would be defeated.
God expects us to bear fruit which will be everlasting.
B. Man pleads for one more year:
A barren tree is used for firewood and not for any other purpose. In the Bible passage,
the man who had been tending the vineyard requested the owner of the garden to
give a grace period of one more year so that he could try out two things.
1. Dig around it - To make the water flow through it freely and be
absorbed by the root of the tree. This was to strengthen the
root Eph 3:17
2. Fertilize it. Luke 13:8-9 – To protect it from decaying
C. Man gets one more year:
The owner gave one more year, a last chance for the tree to bear fruit. If the tree failed
then the tree would be cut down.
God has given us one more year as the extension of His grace. He is expecting us to
bear His fruit for this forth coming year. He is expecting us to bear fruit instead of
comparing and condemning others.
Let us take a resolution as a Christian believer to bear more fruits for His glory.
1. God has given us grace to find out the fruits in our life. Are we able to bear the
fruit or not? What are the difficulties in bearing fruits?
2. Read Eph. 3:17, Luke 13:8-9 and grow in God’s guidance
3. Try to bear fruits in your house
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(G)RAB CHRISTIANS….?
Luke. 10
Acts. 6:1-7
A child likes to move from one direction to another to grab the things which are
scattered on the floor. The toddler’s moves depends upon the
attraction of the object. The attraction of one thing wanes
when the child sees a more attractive object. This process
goes on and on till the child becomes tired.
Recently, one of my young friends was part of a team that

conducted a conference on Radiotherapy. They had
designed a logo which portrayed a crab that was partially
trapped within an atom. With great curiosity I asked him to decipher its meaning. He
explained that the crab signified cancer which can spread in all directions and destroy
the body. However the atom symbolized the radiation treatment which was a powerful
tool in destroying cancer cells. The logo showed that the battle of the crab and the
atom was an ongoing struggle and more and more innovative techniques were being
developed to defeat cancer.
Many Christian believers are also like the crab, moving aimlessly in different directions
for different types of ministry and churches depending upon their likes and dislikes.
Several crab Christians never prosper and never really allow others to prosper too.
In our Christian life, God uses each and every one according to our abilities and talents.
As a Christian, we have to find out His will and Purpose for our life and move towards
the goal. Otherwise we too will be like a Crab without any proper aim.
Let us refer two passages to understand the clear direction of a Christian’s life.
A. Focus on Primary Aspect (Acts. 6:1-7)
During the apostles’ period, the Greecian Jews among them complained against the
Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of
food. These types of complaints and criticism are a part and parcel of the ministry. It is
better to use the criticism and complaints as a tool for development of the ministry
instead of going into a depressive mood.
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The disciples analyzed the complaints from different angles and brought out a beautiful
solution without compromising their stand. They formed a separate group who were
interested in this type of activity. They stuck on to their prime focus of preaching the
Word of God. They anchored to the primary aspect of taking the Gospel to whole world
which also lead them to bring the Gospel to India.
B. Focus on the Vital Aspects:
Battery charging is essential for cell phones, laptops and other equipment. The
performance reveals the level of charging. In the same way, the level of ministry
depends upon the time spent by the Christian in the presence of God.
In Luke 10th chapter, God clearly gives His expectation from the believers. He sent
seventy disciples to go to the nearby village by giving them a list of instructions to follow
(v.1-12). They went and returned with the joy of seeing demons submitting to them in
Christ’s name. However Jesus asked them not to rejoice about the submissive demons
but rejoice for their names were written in Heaven (v.17-20).
In the next verse, He explained the meaning of neighbor with a parable of The Good
Samaritan. He pointed out that we are the neighbors to the person who is in need. The
object of the neighbor in the question has been turned to the subject in the end of the
story (v.21-37).
At last verse of the chapter, He demonstrated another significant aspect at Lazarus’

house (n the village of Bethany) where He stayed. At that time Martha who was busy
cooking, expected Jesus to send Mary to help her in the kitchen. In response, Jesus told
her that preparing meals or doing many things was not the vital stuff. The most vital
aspect was that Mary had chosen to spend time at the feet of God.
Luke 10 starts with the sending of the missionaries and ends with the central theme of
spending time with God. Without His presence the ministry and minister are in vain.
Let us focus on our calling and the vital aspect of spending time with God. Thereby we
will not end up as C(G)rab Christians
1. Could you please check your primary focus during the past one year.
2. Note down the areas where you drifted away from God’s path
3. Plan to come back to proper godly focus.
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FIVE PRECIOUS STONES
Math. 25:1-13
In the 18th century, a buyer did not have freedom to choose products according to
their desires. They had to abide by the market availability. (Sellers’
market). In the 19th Century, the situation changed a bit in the
favour of buyers. In the 20th century, the options are wide open to
the need of the buyers. The buyers have a lot of choices to make.
Due to these recent changes, the business man has found it difficult
to penetrate into the market.
Similarly the 21st century students have varieties of fields, colleges and courses to select
and pursue their career. Moreover the question pattern for the examination has
changed into multiple choice questions from conventional types.
Today, many of them are living in this 21st century with the 18th century outlook. Shalini, a
believer from a staunch Christian family secured high percentage in the pre-university
exams. She wanted to pursue her career in engineering field, especially in the IIT. She
applied only to the IIT and not to any other engineering college or other degree
courses. The entrance results were published. She failed to get through the exams.
Now she can not enter into other engineering ordegree colleges since all of them had
closed their admissions.
Like Shalini, many people have damaged their careers due to the wrong teaching of
“ask in faith, God will give whatever your request” by some of the believers. This type of
teaching has no room for God to intervene in our life. If you refer to the Bible, we can
see lot of examples where people kept the options open.
A. David went with an option:
David ventured into the battle field with five precious stones instead of one stone, even
though God promised to handover Goliath to him. For this, we can’t brand David as a
sinner or faithless person.
God has promised the victory but He hasn’t given a blueprint to fight. David used three
important T’s – Trust, Tools and Training to win the battle. As a believer, follow the
footsteps of this great king to face this competitive and contemporary world. Let us
keep our options open so that God can fulfill His will in our lives.
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B. Five wise virgins went with an option:
Matt 25:1-13, describes that ten virgin’s had gone to meet the bridegroom. Among
them, five were wise and the other five were foolish. These wise virgins kept a jar of oil
as an option to rekindle the fire. The bridegroom came and took the wise virgins for the
wedding banquet. The door was shut for the foolish virgins.
Let us go with our options open and with an open heart to God our Saviour. He will do
miraculous things in our lives.
1. Do you have the tendency for keeping options in your decision making process.
2. Is it possible to accept the failure of your own mistakes when making a choice?
Otherwise do you blame others?
3. How to keep options in day to day life – Take some cases and practice it.
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STANDING IN THE MIDDLE
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
I Samuel 20:1-14
I samuel 17:17-29
A media has covered the episode of beating the girls in public in a manner of
protecting the culture. It has been broadcasted repeatedly in many channels. The crux
of the matter is that the VHP volunteers went into the pub and chased out the girls in a
violent manner. The media persons stood and covered the whole incidence without
helping the people or stopping the violence happening in the
pub. 'Standing and watching’ is the attitude of the
contemporary generation. These type of people are the ones
standing in the middle of the road.
The Christians have also fallen into the category of those

media men. They have also started to watch the ‘damasha’
even though the things are going wrong in front of their own
eyes. For instance, Christian believers know that the pastors
are preaching the wrong doctrine of prosperity theology.
These people never say a word against it. It is equivalent to
standing in the middle of the road or driving a car in the neutral gear. These people
are those who waste their own time as well as the time of others. In addition, some of
the followers fall into the trap by following the model.
In Bible, we see characters of this type
A. Jonathan:
Jonathan knew that his dad Saul was wrong in the way he was treating David. Even
though Jonathan helped David, he forgot to rebuke his dad for his wrong doing. It
encouraged Saul to multiply his sinful attitude in dealing with his successor David
The reason may be that Jonathan didn’t want to come under the curse of his dad.
Secondly, he gave usual respect to his dad that would have been the culture those
days. Thirdly, he had a mentality of playing safe on both the sides to earn a good
name. Jonathan’s life ended in the battle field along with his father.
B. David’s brother :
David’s elder brothers were watching the display of Goliath’s talk day after day. They
didn’t step in to the battle field for fight. His brother David came to the battle field to
give food to his beloved brothers. At that time, he heard the terrible voice of Goliath
from the opponent side in the battle field. He enquired his brothers to know about the
statement of the opponent. His brothers rebuked him for coming to the battle field.
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They chased him out from the battle field. At last the story ends that David came out as
a victorious man. His brothers were also watching his brother fight from a distance.
A person standing in the middle of the road never allows other person to come forward.
He puts a lot of obstacles like discouragement, infusing fear, terrify with the past
incidences, brainwash with good words. These types of people are very dangerous.
They are just like the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Let us evaluate our self whether we are in the following category.
• Are we standing in the middle of the road when the situation wants us to
stand up and move ahead?
• Are we ready to confront with the wrong things in the society?
• Are we able to stand up against the false doctrines?
Let us take a stand like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and rebuke the
wrong doings happening in and around us.
1. List out the areas where we are unable to take a stand for the Lord
2. List out the reason for not being able to stand for the cause.
3. Practice how to stand for the Lord.
4. God wants us to finish His given race in this world. Shall we examine our life and
find out the position of our tracks.
5. God wants us to continue till the end of life without any pull back.
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GOD’S BRAND
BRAND AMBASSADORS?
Math 5:13-16
Each individual reflects someone in the world. Small kids resemble their parents who
resemble their own parents. Students represent their
schools/colleges. Employees represent their companies. The
image of parents, schools, or companies depends on the
behaviour of the individuals.
The 18th Commonwealth Games at Melbourne 2006

commenced on 15 March 2006. The Indian athletes represented
one billion Indians. Before the opening ceremony, Indians had
lost their credibility due to the misbehaviour of the 35 year old
masseur Dewan Nabi with a Games worker. The shameful
behaviour of one player dented the image of India. Good
conduct is more important than winning gold medals.
Believers are to reflect the true God. The world calls us as strangers but God has called
us to be representatives of Him. God’s name will not be glorified if we live a careless or
worthless life.
God expects our life to be like salt to the society. Matthew 5:13
S A L T Salt has three vital qualities:
A. It Preserves:
A pinch of salt preserves a food products. God chooses the little faith, a small group of
12 disciples, unwise and unlearned men, to shake the world.
The small group / individuals have a power to preserve God’s
values in this wicked, dying world. But remember, the One who
is in you is greater than the one who is in the world, 1 John 4:4-
5, 2 Kings 6:16, 2 Chron. 32:7-8, and Romans 8:31.
B. It Penetrates
The pinch of salt penetrates into every nook and corner of the food product.
Penetration starts, and only then the preservation starts. God called us to penetrate
(go) into this world. A student can study the method of fishing but, to catch fish, one
has to go where the fish live. Penetration means to go inside the world to preserve the
people from destruction by preaching the Gospel.
C. It Performs:
The pinch of salt performs irrespective of season, time (7/24/365) and substance.
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“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season,” 2 Tim 4:2.
Delay in performance will decay the substance. The believers have to work as God’s
representatives without any break. A break in God’s ministry will break our relationship
with God. Some people apply for one year sabbatical from ministry after their marriage.
This may lead them away from the ministry for the rest of their lives.
Let us analyze our lives and see if we are Preservers, Penetrators and Performers just like
salt in God’s Kingdom. God calls us to be salt to the earth to bring His kingdom to earth.
1. Society needs you to preserve it from decay. Your life is utilized for preserving the
society. Is it possible to preserve the Biblical values?
2. God wants you and me to penetrate into this world. In what ways are we
penetrating in to this world. Is it possible to do it? It is easy to do it? If it is not
then list out the hindrances to reach out the unreached.
3. A lot of Christians are attending church only on Sundays. After that they will go
into non coverage area. The pastors or evangelist can’t reach out to them. As
Christians are we performing 24X 7 as a disciple.
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SPIRITUAL MIRAGE...!
Math.21:18, 19
“Incoming calls…free for lifetime!!”, “Just pay Rs. 999/- for a brand new cell phone +
free talk time!” These catchy advertisements bait the customer easily with their
tempting offers. The advertisers never reveal their hidden agenda which only benefits
them. Advertisements are illusions which trap the unwary customer into buying their
products.
A couple of months back, as I was driving my car to Chennai with my family and my
friend Timothy, I saw a puddle of water on the road at a distance. I prepared myself
mentally to swerve in order avoid the puddle of water. However, to my real surprise, as
I reached the spot, it was just dry road with absolutely no trace of water! I was simply
amazed to see this repeatedly happen over and over again as we went along.
Timothy, who is a physicist, explained that it was a mirage. A mirage is an optical illusion
in which atmospheric refraction by a layer of hot air distorts or inverts reflections of
distant objects. In short, a mirage is something illusioary and unattainable.
Many people are seeking to quench their spiritual thirst (which exists in every man) by
going after the worthless mirages offered by this world. They are wandering everywhere
to find real peace, real joy and real happiness. All they find is real emptiness. Many a
time, they approach Christian believers only to find out that they are spiritual mirages
too! Believers, whose lips and life styles do not match with their beliefs and faith in Jesus
Christ. Jesus branded these people as white washed tombs whose insides were unholy
and dirty.
A. Let us see Jesus’ stern reaction to a mirage (illusion) in Matt. 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves.
Then He said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
1. Jesus Expects:
Jesus saw a tree by the road which resembled a fruit bearing tree. When He went near,
He found leaves, branches and roots, but no fruits. Fruits are the evidence of growth of
a tree. Jesus expects us to bear fruit and be salt and light to the world. But as believers
we end up being spiritual mirages without light and salt
2. Jesus Rebukes:
A purposeless life is as good as a dead one! Jesus knew that

a fruitless tree only would occupy space being useless to the
land and would stunt the growth of the neighboring trees by
taking up their nutritive food and water. So Jesus rebuked the
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tree not to bear fruit. The tree withered.
God has placed us in different places and positions so that we may be like an oasis in
the desert. Let us spread the aroma of Jesus Christ to this world and bring many people
to Christ by our behavior, attitude and actions. Instead of being a worthless mirage, let
us be a life saving oasis to make a real difference in the lives of the dying people
around us.
1. Do we live like a fig tree without any fruits? God searches fruits from us. Is it
possible to bear fruits in your lives?
2. Is your spiritual life is an oasis or a mirage.
3. List out how others are evaluating our life. Are we being a fruit bearing tree or a
barren tree?
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SPIRITUAL PROMINENCE....
PROMINENCE.....?
.....?
Math. 18:1-4
Phil. 2:5-11
Every human has a tendency to portray himself different from others. He spares no
effort to stand out amongst his peers. Just as much as a scientist wishes to zoom into
fame by getting recognition for his achievements, a journalist too wishes to get all the
glory for reporting some fantastic news before anybody else.
The two words, `prominence’ and `pride’ are two of Satan’s

sharpest tools used to destroy the spirituality of a Christian. A
few months back I happened to be at the sports day of my
elder daughter’s (Praisy Tryphena) school. I was eagerly
watching all the events and was busy looking out for Praisy
who was competing in two of the races.
In due course of time, it was the turn of the preschooler’s to race. The first event
involved running 25 meters (that’s because preschoolers have very short legs!) to pick
up a basket and drop two colourful balls into it before running to the finishing end. The
bubbling preschoolers lined up. The shrill sound of the whistle rang out and the children
began their race. They got their baskets and put those beautiful balls into the basket
and waited till all had done so. Then they all ran together to the finish line. All the
children who ran finished at the same time. The surprised judges could not decide on
the winner. The event was repeated only to get a similar result. There was no individual
winner. The unselfish nature of the innocent children left all the parents shell-shocked.
This event echoed me the following verses.
Matt 18:1-4, tells how spiritual prominence was becoming more prominent when his
disciples asked Him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus didn’t give a
lecture on maturity or psychological counseling or suggest a course on personality
development as this present generation would have done. Instead He called a little
child and had him stand among them and thought them great lessons
A. Become
Jesus warned the disciples about having exalted opinions about themselves. He knew
that such an attitude would wreck havoc within the fellowship of the believers. The little
children did not desire to be prominent. That was why Jesus asked His disciples to
become like little children.
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‘Become’ and ‘behave’ are two different words. To ‘Behave’ like children would
mean to act with immaturity (in a childish manner). Instead to ‘become’ like little
children would mean to put on their character of meekness and humility. True spiritual
humility comes when we realize our inadequacy which leads us to depend more on the
Lord than ourselves.
God does not want us to strut around like proud peacocks donning our cloaks of self-
righteousness. Jesus showed us the way of humility when He became nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant. As much as He humbled Himself, God exalted Him to the
highest position (Phil. 2:5-11). True spiritual humility will result in the greatest rewards in
heaven
Am I proud and arrogant about my spirituality? Let us analyze ourselves and became
like little children for this is a prerequisite to enter the kingdom of heaven...
1. The word competition has entered into Christian circle. Church has elections for
nominating the elders. Many believers have become victim of these
phenomena. Shall we find out why we compete with others? Whether it brings
God’s glory to the situation.
2. Observe the child for few days and try to imitate their character.
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GREAT REWARD
Gen. 15:1-10
14:1-17
A man strives hard to get a good name or fame. A sportsman likes to win the first prize.
Politicians try to implement the poll promises to get the votes from the people. The
world distributes the cup, medal, rolling shield etc for the highest achiever.
The reward at first may seem glamorous but it loses its appeal soon. A famous tennis
player once won the Wimbledon tournament. When a journalist asked her how she felt
after her feat, she said, “I felt happy but the felicitousness receded slowly within a span
of time.” This trend of seeking appreciation has crept into believers’ lives too.
In the Bible, we see the paradox in Abraham’s life. Abraham won the great battle with
Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him (Gen 14:17). The king of Sodom tendered a
great reward to Abraham. But he turned down and told: "I have raised my hand to the
LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will
accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that
you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.'(Gen 14:22-24). After this incident,
God granted two promises in his vision. (Gen.15:1)
A. God is the reward:

“God became a reward for Abraham. The creator of this world has become
the great reward for the creatures.” Many times, we are exploring for the appreciation
from the world. If it dodges then we will go through depressions or sleepless nights. Here
Abraham declined the goods (Gen.14:21), So God rendered himself as a reward for
him. First of all, we have to disdain the insignificant worldly rewards. Then God will be
our reward. Let us have our Great Global God (3G’s) as the Great reward in our lives.
B. God is the shield:

Abraham and 318 trained persons fought with the four kings and
the soldiers to liberate Lot and his family. Abraham won the
battle without any causality because his God was the shield for
him. He never expected his trained men/skill/experience to be
his shield. He acknowledged that only the Most High God
delivered the enemies into his hand. (Gen 14:20). In our lives, we
are considering a lot of things like fame, amassing money, paper
publishing as a defending mechanism for us. Let us depend on
God so that He would be our shield.
Let us proclaim that Lord Jehovah is our reward and our shield.
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1. The fame and other trivial achievements are shield and reward for us. God’s
measurement is different. He wants you to accept Him as a shield and reward.
2. Are you ready to accept him as your shield and reward?
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RED CAR(D)PET
2 Tim 4:7-8
The course completion certificate is given to one who has completed the course
successfully. This certificate is a prelude for getting degree certificate. The children’s
promotion depends upon their attendance and performance. The athlete has to
complete his race following all the rules for his result will be decided. The end result will
always be considered after completion of their course or degree, etc.,
It is better to finish rather than starting. The statement becomes true to Golden
ball winner and France Captain Zidane. He started his
carreer in the streets and ended up as a street fighter before
11 million people watching the FIFA 2006 football Final world
cup match. He used his head to butt the chest of the
opponent instead of butting the ball. His career ended after
the red card shown by the umpire.
In Bible, we see a lot of people finish their race abruptly. Losing the focus is the
main reason for this. E.g. King Solomon. God gave him wisdom and wealth but he
ended his life in worshipping pagan gods. King Ahab disobeyed God by giving
freedom to the enemy. King Saul disobeyed and lost his kingdom. Samson started well
but ended his life with pagan girl.
Some finished the race successfully. King David started well. In between, he
missed the path. Yet, he came back and finished his race successfully. Paul said “I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now
there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will award to me on that day- 2 Tim 4:7-8. John the Baptist started and finished the race
successfully.
Jesus commanded the disciples to work out the cost before following Him. He
gave the examples of a king and the builder as examples to explain the project of the
unfinished task (Luke 14:28-33). In New Testament, Jesus and Paul used the word ‘finish’.
A. Jesus used the word – ‘Finish’:
Jesus came to this world to finish the work which His Father had given John
5:36. In the cross he uttered the word ‘finished’. God expected us to complete the
spiritual journey which we have started after accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. He
has given a command to carry it on to completion till the return of our Lord (Ph. 1:6). Let
us carry his promise and move towards completion.
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B. Paul used the word ‘finish’: Acts 20:23-24
Many will participate in Marathon race. In the initial stage few will back out.
After an hour most of them will back out. Finally only a few will complete the race. The
spiritual race is to complete, not for competition.
Let us fight the good fight and finish the race (2 Tim 4:7-8) by fixing our eyes on
the author and finisher of life (Heb. 12:1) so that our Lord will welcome us with a red
carpet to His kingdom.
1. God wants us to finish His given race in this world. Shall we examine our life and
find out the position of our tracks.
2. God wants us to continue till the end of life without any pull back.
a. What type of gravity force is pulling us away from the track.
b. Do you have an assurance of getting the reward.
3. Write down what type of work you are doing now. Is our performance good or
do we need to improve it. In what ways we can improve it.
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SINGLE MIND
Phil. 1:21
‘‘Once the mind has competing bosses, the individual starts to have arguments with
himself about what to concentrate on. In that state it is hard to muster the single-
minded focus needed to make runs consistently at the highest level.’’
Often the reward is the greatest competition to performance and
when that starts to come first, performance declines. With Shane
Warne and Sachin Tendulkar, two of the greatest sportsmen of the
last fifteen years, the body has started coming in the way as well.
Chappell believes that Tendulkar is struggling with his
mind and his body and with conflicting thoughts that can
therefore arise. ‘‘If he (Tendulkar) is to return to his best
then he is going to have to recapture the thinking
process that allowed him to dominate bowlers. Because
his focus is not clear he often finds himself looking for
cheap runs on the leg side early in his innings. Early in his
career, when his mind was clearer he would walk in and meet the
ball with the full face of the bat.’’
In our Christian journey also after some time we feel depressed, dejected,
declined and deviated from the first love and zeal for Jesus Christ. This is time for us to
compare our present life with our joy in accepting Saviour as our personal Saviour. Find
out whether our focus on Jesus Christ was clouded with worldly things just like cloud
blocks the sunshine. Let us focus our life on Jesus Christ and bring our thought life into
the right track of pleasing the Lord Saviour Jesus
Let us recommit our life for Jesus. Let us do God’s will, God’s ministry and live a
life pleasing in God’s sight. Let us focus on God given vision. Let us remind Paul’s word in
Phil.1: 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
1. Write out your focus in your life? Is your behavior and attitude matching with the
focus or contradicting it.
2. If the focus is clear then we will be able to reveal it to others just like Paul. Are
others able to find out our focus clearly? If not , find out the strategies to make it
known to others.
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SHED THE SHEATH
Phil. 2:5-11
Gal. 2:20
Man becomes very stressful when he pushes himself beyond a limit to fulfill the
expectations of the world. It leads him to manipulate, pull others and push himself
forward. This type of gimmick will happen when the person wants to show who he is. In
one word, the world calls this as EGO.
The dictionary meaning of ego is “An inflated feeling of pride in

your superiority to others” and “Your consciousness of your own
identity”. Kenneth Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute
Manager said “I define ego as Edging God Out”.
Ego stimulates to live under the constant pressure of consciousness

of worthiness. This leads to unnecessary stress and strain. Let us look at two needles
needed to puncture the ego.
A. Humbleness:
It is not like pretending as though we are aught in this world. The hypocritical humility is
a mockery of Christian life. Billy Graham said "Nowhere in the Scriptures does this word
carry with it the idea of being spiritless and timid. It carries the idea of being tamed, like
a wild horse that has been brought under control".
The model for humility is described clearly by Graeme. He describes Billy Graham’s
humbleness like this: "I was on an elevator with Billy when another man in the elevator
recognized him. He said, 'You're Billy Graham, aren't you? '"'Yes,' Billy said. "Well,' he
said, 'you are truly a great man.' "Billy immediately responded, 'No, I'm not a great man.
I just have a great message." His quick response is due to intimate relationship with God.
Jesus set aside all His identity as Lord, to identity with us as a human, and took the
nature and appearance of a man. (Phil 2:5-11).
B. Self-Perspective:
Man has two problems: One is viewing himself in the elevated position and the second
is expecting others to view him as he views himself. One of my friends pats himself
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saying that he is a good programmer. He feels inferior and he says this often to
overcome that.
We have to change our outlook by substituting ‘I’ with ‘Jesus’. Paul in his letter to
Galatians 2:20, He engraved like this, “Not I but Jesus Christ”. Billy Graham said "If
anything has been accomplished through my life, it has been solely God's doing, not
mine, and He—not I—must get the credit."
Let us have humility and supplant ‘I’ with ‘Jesus’ so that we can shed the ego in our
lives. This is a life time process so exuviate it daily.
1. Humbleness blossoms in our life when we live closer with God. How was our
personal devotion through the last one week. Is it possible to walk as Enoch
walked?
2. Chart out a plan for increasing the quiet time and to feel God’s presence in our
life.
3. How are we viewing ourselves in our day to day lives?. Are we measuring with
God’s scale or others scale or on your own scale.
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SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE
Ps. 33:10-15
Every father likes to grant the very best to his children. Be it expensive toys or mouth-
watering chocolates or any special present which costs him. Children too wish to inherit
all what their parents possess. As parents, are we really imparting beautiful and elegant
futures to our children? If we evaluate the state of affairs, we will find that we are
rendering them a bleak future. It means that the next generation is
inheriting violence, environmental pollution, poverty, disasters etc.
In line with this, Kiran Desai named her book as “The Inheritance of
Loss”. It got the Man Booker Prize 2006. Her extraordinary new novel
manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every
contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism,
economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence.
If we refer to the Bible (Ps. 33), we see that the inheritance of the
believers is different from what the world inherits. As believers we can expect to inherit
three special things from above.
A. Inherit Lord’s Plan: (v.10)
Just as an architect’s plan is postulated for constructing a building, an

automobile engineer too needs a plan to assemble a car. In the same way our creator
has a unique design for each one of us. He reveals His excogitate after foiling the plan
of the nations. Many times, our plans crop up from our desires. These have to be
extinguished first, for then only God can reveal His Plan to us.
His Plan stands forever. He maneuvers us from the womb to the grave and from
the grave to heaven. In heaven, Jesus promised that He would provide a good place
for us (John. 14. 3)
B. Inherit Lord’s Purpose: (v.10)
A building’s plan reveals its location and dimension. However, it never unveils the
purpose of the building. A plan without purpose is vain. In this verse, The Lord reveals His
plan knitted with His purpose from His heart.
There are two purposes in an individual’s life. One is the general purpose which is
common to all, while the specific purpose may vary from person to person. The general
purpose is to please Him. Each person has to find out his/her specific purpose from God.
God’s purpose is not for one generation only. It has to pass on to successive
generations too. Let us pass on God’s purpose to the next generation!
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C. Inherit God is the Lord: (v.12)
Just as an engineer forgets the architect and his plan after constructing the
building, we too tend to forget the Provider of the Plan due to our busy schedule and
even due to our trying to fulfill God’s purpose in our life. These activities and even the
blessings we receive can cloud the Source of the blessings and the Giver of the Plan.
Let us make God as the most important priority and thus live a more abundant life as
the Lord Jesus promised!
1. List out the things that we are willing to give to our Children. Discuss about the
priorities.
2. Have we inherited God’s plan and purpose in our lives? God’s plan will reveal
when our plan ceases.
3. Inherit God is the Lord will make this material world seems to be nothing
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MOMENTARY LAPSES?
Ps. 19
Several accidents happen due to tiny human errors or split-second lapses on the
driver’s part. These lapses often prove to be expensive with disastrous consequences.
Momentary lapses also lead to law-breaking.
Along the same lines, the world has gone one step further to consent the law breaking
by redacting words such as lapses, mistake and so on. A Punjab trial court awarded
the death sentence to 30 year old Amrit Singh for luring an eight year old girl and
molesting her. On finding her alone he raped her in a field. She died due to excessive
bleeding. He appealed to the Supreme Court for reducing the sentence. In a shocking
verdict, India’s highest court reduced the sentence and validated it by stating, “The
way the girl was raped may have been brutal, but it could have been a momentary
lapse on the part of Amrit Singh, seeing a lonely girl at a secluded place” (14 Nov, 2006
0058 hrs IST Times News Network)
The Bible (Psalm 19: 12 & 13) gives us a step by step procedure of what follows
momentary lapses.
A. Errors:
The INSAT 4c rocket failed because the propellant regulator in the failed engine
had much higher discharge coefficient in its closed
condition. The reason for this could have been an
inadvertent error in manufacturing, which escaped the
subsequent inspection and acceptance test
procedures. The error caused the exchequer 1600 cores
of rupees and damaged the name of the scientist.
In our lives such errors can be avoided when we

walk closer with Jesus Christ. The Word of God warns us
when we go in the wrong directions (v.11). Let us mediate on His word and live
according to it.
B. Hidden Faults:
Piling up of errors leads to the second step of hidden faults which when secretly
kept inside, harden our heart and make it like stone. These hidden faults pop up now
and then to disturb our normal state of life just like the ugly pop-ups on the internet..
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It is better to allow radiant God’s Word (V.6) to penetrate our life to remove all
our hidden faults.
C. Deliberate Sin:
Hidden faults cause a person to deliberately sin and traps him in a bottomless pit
of endless sinning and covering it up by more sins Unless we address the grey areas of
our life it will be difficult to get out of the bottomless pit of sin. We must openly ask God
to intervene and change us completely
Let us pray to the Lord to give us strength to live a life pleasing to Him, the
Redeemer and the Rock (v. 20).
1. ‘Error leads to mistake, Mistake take you to sin, Sin takes you to eternal death’ –
Are we conscious about our errors? Do you have a sensitive heart to identify
your own errors?
2. In March 2009, Mr. Chavan, a businessman raped his daughter for nine years. He
said to the court that it was a mistake on part. He pleaded for release. Let us
analyze are we hardening our heart even though the mistakes are pointed out
to us.
3. List out our attitude towards telling the truth, ‘yes’ means ‘yes’ and ‘no’ means
‘no’.
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CHRISTIAN IGNORANCE
Gal 4:8-10
Gen. 1:1-31
A grown up child shows a little bit of childish character in their behaviour. It takes some
time for the adolescents to shake away the infantile character. The parents disdain the
baby character in striplings because it will affect the development of the child.
Similarly, the spiritual child tends to follow the former ways which he resolved not to do
when he accepted Christ. The former ways crab the growth and freedom in Christ.
One of the students described like this after referring to the verse John 8:32. “The
Christians have a lot of freedom when compared to other faiths.” The statement is
almost true. Nevertheless many are not able to enjoy it due to their desire to follow the
ancestor’s tradition, rituals and customs.
Recently the Hollywood Superstar Amitaabh Bacchan

forced her daughter in law to marry a Peepal tree at
Benaras and a banana tree at Bangalore to overcome
astrological (mars bearing Manglik as per the horoscope for
removing dhosham) differences with her fiancé Abhishek
bachan.
It penetrates even into Christian believer’s life by keeping the dates, seasons,
celebrating different types of functions like installing Main door frame in the constructed
building, full term pregnancy celebration, teenage girl attaining puberty, installing
green bamboo in front of house to commence the wedding ceremony etc. in the
name of prayer and thanks giving meetings. Not only that, we use the same type of
stuff like banana, coconut, candle, 14 types of rice, fruits etc. without knowing the
symbolic meaning behind this.
The custom has filtered into Christian faith so that the world is not able to identify true
Christians.
Paul rebuked the Galatians in Gal 4:8-10, formerly, when you did not know God, you
were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God-or
rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and
miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are
observing special days and months and seasons and years! By observing the dates
and times, we are showing the ignorance…no no.. denying..............
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A. God’s Creation:
God created the beautiful world for man to enjoy it. God Himself
acknowledged His creation each day by saying Good (Gen.1:4,10,12,18,21,25. In the
sixth day, He saw the whole creation and said ‘very good’ (Gen.1:31). The word good
means moral excellence and superior to the average. God created everything well so
there is no need for us to consider one day inferior to another day. If we give
importance to the days and times then we are disbelieving God’s creation. All the
days and season are equal in God’s sight. In Matt 12:8 Jesus said,” For the Son of Man is
Lord of the Sabbath."
B God’s Salvation:
Aiswarya Rai married an idol to pass on her mars bearing manglik

dosham(curse) so that the dosham should not pass on to her fiancé and their family..
These types of rituals are illegal. Moreover it carries punishment of untouchables. As a
Christian, we believe Jesus Christ has removed away our dosham in the cross once for
all. There is no need to do any rituals or customs to get rid of dosham in our day to day
life. If we do it we are crucifying Jesus Christ on the cross once again.
C. God’s coming:
The return of the Lord will take place in any time, any season. God never
expresses an auspicious day for His coming. He will come like a thief. It means some
countries has night other countries it may be a day.
As a glocal member, try to think globally before giving in to any rituals or seeing
the date and time. The time is not uniform to all. It will differ from place to place. So it
is better to treat each and every day as God’s gift and grace.
1. Muslims are legalistic, Hindus are traditionalist, and Christians are in between not
knowing where to go. Are you in this category? God has shown His way to us
not the forefather way. Let us analyse are we in the path of Jesus Christ.
2. Jesus died on the cross to remove curse from us. If God has removed then why
are you imparting to others by our cursing words.
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SPIRITUAL SHAM (E)
Malachi
Children pretend that they are at par with the cartoon characters like Wincy, Barbie
and superman. Sometimes it becomes their habit. It is revealed in their behavior. This
continues for a while then their originality disappears slowly. At last, they forget their
own individuality. It makes them lead a pseudo life.
The make believe attitude in Christian believer’s life is

very dangerous. It is just like the window of a shop
showing off its things. But the real man is hidden behind
the mask. The end of such Christians is a pathetic one.
As the time goes by, they think that whatever they are
doing is correct. It leads them to justify their way of life.
Moreover, they are not conscious of drifting away from
the Lord.
A. Self Satisfied life:
This spiritual sham leads to the popping up of the selfish spiritual nature. The mind is fully
occupied with the applause and appreciation of past and it devises strategic plans to
do things to get more appreciation in future. This leads to a self satisfied spiritual life.
Israelites completed the building of the temple in 516 B.C. It made them think that one
duty or achievement to God was over. But God’s plan for Israelites was not only to
build the temple but to go beyond the border to magnify His name (Mal. 1:5, 11, 14).
Their achievements clouded and crippled their spiritual life. In this situation, God had to
raise His messenger Malachi to warn them.
Many times, we as a believers are satisfied with conducting programs, retreats,

conference, seminars etc. This achievement should not overshadow God’s will for the
future course of action. Every day, we have to sharpen our lives to move forward. For
that, Malachi stresses two things
1. Burden for the Word of God (Mal. 1:1)(KJV)
2. Fellowship with believers (Mal 3: 16)
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B. Senseless Life:
The spiritual sham leads to spiritual leprosy. The make believe attitude leads to a
senseless life. In Malachi, the Israelites asked eight important questions to God. The
questions reveal their dead spiritual life. Each question starts with ‘In what way’ (6times)
and ‘yet you say’ (2times). See the references below:
'In what way have You loved us?' Mal 1:2.
'In what way have we defiled You?' Mal 1:7.
“In what way have we despised Your name?' Mal 1:6.
"In what way have we wearied Him?" Mal 2:17.
“In what way shall we return?” Mal 3:7.
“In what way have we robbed You?” Mal 3:8.
Yet you say, “What have we spoken against You?” Mal 3:13.
Yet you say, "For what reason?" Mal 2:14.
We, as believers have to live a sensitive life so that we will be able to listen and do His
work according to His will.
C. ‘Service for profit’ life:
The spiritual sham comes up when we start doing God’s work expecting returns. The
investments for God have no returns in this earth. God’s work is based on the God’s
love only. Israelites had done God’s work in expectation of reward in the earth.
In Malachi 1:10 we see, that the people do God’s work with the intention of getting his
blessings. This is revealed in Mal 3:14.. ("You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did
we gain by carrying out his requirements...)
Let us live a Christ centered life, sensitive to God’s voice so that we can serve others
with God’s love.
1. Are we satisfied with a achievement like being a treasurer, a small pastor.

Evaluate yourself – Is your life focusing on God’s work and also giving God the
glory through our work.
2. Cell phone has an option of switching over to silent mode. Nowadays Christians
are using that option to still the voice of God. Pretending not to listen to His
calling and thus not obeying him.
3. Doing God’s work with expectation is just like doing business. It is sin to expect
favor for doing His ministry. Why are we doing God’s ministry?
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PRISONERS OF THE PAST
Phil 3:4-9
A Rear mirror is used to view a vehicle that is coming from back. It has been installed
centre line of the vehicle near to the driver’s seat, second mirror on right hand side and
third mirror on the left hand side. The driver has to glimpse the mirror to align his vehicle
according to the need and press on towards his destination. Sometimes he has to
adjust the vehicle by steering the wheel to left or right with the glance of the rear
mirror.
The use of the rear mirror is minimal and for few moments. Some of the drivers glare on
the rear mirror and forget to see the front view. It leads to an accidence and loss to the
property of others. For instance, the driving school instructor has instructed one of the
students to look both the rear mirror often to navigate the car according to the rear
vehicle. He also mentioned to the student not to look only rear mirror but used it for
few moments.
In believers life’s journey, many times we have been dwelled in past glorious
experience, emotional hurts, bad experience which has curtailed us to see the future
properly. In addition, the bad experience has become a focal point in our life. The
past incidences have to be considered as a rear mirror to look and learn from the
incidence.
Paul in his experience he has written a lot of principles related to looking forward and
move forward in a Christian journey.
A. Press on:
Paul wrote in Phil. 3:4-9 as an accountant by providing loss and gain statement. He
considered his experience, confidence in the flesh, status, religious knowledge, zeal for
traditions etc. in the loss column and excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
Knowing the power of His resurrection and fellowship of His suffering in the profit
column. At last, Paul mentioned that he is putting all the loss behind of him and
reaching forward to the profit of knowing Him.
In Jesus life also, He never mentioned about His miracle to any one or in His preaching.
He kept His focus on saving the world from sin. Just like Jesus, we have to put behind
past glory which we have done for the Lord, scars and experience behind and think
about Him and move forward.
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B. Press toward the upward call:
The road has a lot of humps and bumps that have to be crossed to reach the
destination. It may blur our vision when we are travelling in bump or hump. But we
have to press on towards the destination without turning back. In Phil 3:14 Paul asks us
to focus on upward call of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His call is moving upward
to Him.
Many of Christian believers are living without purpose even though they are born
again. The life without purpose is just like tree with green leaves without fruits. As a
believer, we ask God to give us a vision to move forward according to His call.
As we have entered into New Year, let us put behind all the sorrows, happiness, scars
and press on to reach the destination with the help of His call and vision.
1. Which mirror are we looking most of the time. Are we moving forward by fixing
our eyes on Jesus.
2. What is God’s call? Are we looking on upward call and moving further or looking
back through the rear mirror always.
3. Whether our life is clouded with past glory of God’s ministry and missing the
important of doing His will and Pleasing Him.
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SEESAW CHRISTIAN
PS. 51.
Children are not stable enough to fix their mind in one particular activity for a long time.
They are used to deviate from one type of activity to another activity.
The unstable character in children is depicted in a recent days children’s movie. I

recently saw a movie called ‘Sherk II’ along with my children.
The hero of the movie started and ended as an Ogre. In the
intermediate period, Ogre changed into a Prince to please
his father-in-law -a king to get his blessings. After overcoming
the wicked god mother and villain, he turned again to an
Ogre to please his wife who liked him to be Ogre and not a
prince.
The life of believers resembles the Ogre. They change

according to the need of the situation or people. Their life is
like an object floating on the sea shore. It moves but comes
back to the same location. Otherwise, they can be called
seesaw Christian.
King David sinned against God. After that his spiritual life was
tossed here and there. So he penned down Psalm 51. He
pleads God using three important words ‘Create’ ‘Renew’ and ‘grant’
A. Pure Heart (51:10):
Man can create robots, computers etc. by using God given brains. He can also
mix-up DNA and other characteristics to bring out another Photostat of man by cloning.
But he can’t transplant a pure heart.
This can be done only by the creator. God promised to remove a stone heart to
give a heart of flesh. Ezek 36:26. This heart will receive the word of God gladly and
provide the fruit of thirty, sixty and ninety. Let us ask God to create a pure heart in our
lives.
B. Steadfast Spirit (51:10):
“Slow and steady wins the race” - Old statement, but it is true in a Christian’s life.
A Christian’s life should be a consistent life till to the end. Consistency is not in just one
phase of life but it should be in wholesome development. Globalization brings
consistency in the quality of the product through out the world. This makes us buy the
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same product anywhere in the world. Let us ask God to give us a steadfast spirit to live
a consistent life in every situation.
C. Willing Spirit (51:12):
The consistency of a Christian’s life depends upon the Spiritual nourishment. This
gives sustainability and growth in our spiritual life. Let us ask God to grant a willing Spirit
to know more about Him by reading the Word, praying to God and having fellowship
with fellow believers.
Let us ask God to create a pure heart, to make room for a steadfast and a willing Spirit
to dwell in our pure heart. So we can live a steady life till the end.
1. Dead wood floats here and there. It has no life to stay in one place to bear
fruit. Those lives of those who are not anchored in the Lord will be in
jeopardizes. Are we a dead piece of wood or living wood? Analyse
yourself.
2. Check periodically about the character of your heart and spirit.
3. Israelites had a murmuring spirit. God hates that. Let us ask got to give us a
spirit of steadiness.
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RECESSION – ECONOMIC OR SPIRITUAL???
Haggai 1:1-15,2:15,18
Indeed, recession has fetched gloominess in the world. Even, the ruler of the nations
has not able to unearth the reasons or solutions for the same. But the repercussion of
the problems are well known by the closure of unshakable business, rise in
unemployment increase in suicide rate. The questions rise
to each and everyone that why good God has plunged
uncertainties into the earth while the economy was
booming with development of IT and other fields.
If you flip into the Bible, we will see the same incident
happened to Israelites, who God has chosen to be His
representative of whole nation. Come with me to the Book
Haggai to get the glimpse and solution for the
contemporary issues.
A. Identification of recession:
The recession has never come in one day suddenly just like magic. It has penetrated
slowly and steadily. For instance, pin hole in ‘HEPA’ filter (used for bone marrow
transplant patient) has become useless because it won’t filter dust particles carried by
the air. It ruins the sterility and safety of the patient. Similarly, Haggai 1: 6, 7, we are
seeing that the people are toiling for keeping their life as a state of art. The word
‘sown’, ‘eat’, ‘drink’, ‘clothe’, ‘wages’ reveals their quantum of their work and luxurious
lifestyle. At last, it has ended up in flushing out in a tiny hole (Haggai1:6b).
Secondly, Israelites has looked much for their hard labour but all were crashed down to
nothing. Booming of real estate has become murky. Blossom of share markets has
become sour.
B. Reasons for recession:

God has brought Israelites out of slavery to their promised land of Jerusalem to build
God’s temple. But these people have started to build their own houses(Haggai. 1:4).
They have completely forgotten the purpose of coming back to God’s chosen place.
First, they have said that the time has not come to build God’s house (Haggai 1:2).
Whereas, they have built their own houses. Displacement of priority has caused the
damage to their life as well as to the nation.
Secondly, Haggai has repeatedly given a wake up call of “consider your ways”
(Haggai 1:5,7,15). For, their ways were drifted away from the path of God. They started
to choose their own path just like a prodigal son.
Thirdly, Israelites worked and offered unclean offerings to God (Heb. 2:14). They have
neglected God in their life. In our life, we are giving meagre amount as a tithe to
pacify God and forget to fulfill His mission. God never accepts our own way. He
wants us to do His will in our life.
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C. Originator of recession:
The Americans are struggling to conclude about origin of the recession. Experts are
blaming Globalisation, mishandling of resources, finance policy etc. The prophet
Haggai has clearly mentioned that God has brought the recession on Israelites. In
Haggai 1:9, God has blown it away whatever they brought it to their home. He called
for a drought on the land and the mountains on the grain and the new wine and the
oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labour of
your hands (Haggai 1:11).
D. Solution for Recession:

Obama, the President of USA won the election by coining a word ‘Change’. But he is
not able to change even iota of the problems. The problem is lingering and becomes
worst than before. The recovery of recession is clearly depending on our ways. Here
we are seeing that God is challenging the Israelites to look forward of blessings before
laying of stones (Haggai 2:15,18). God showers His blessings when we think in our heart
to do His ministry in this world.
Let us consider our ways, shed off the selfish life and move on to do God’s work for His
glory so that the nation will prosper.
1. Recession has made a great impact on the society. How do you feel about
the recession. It is from God or man made myth.
2. Recession has any spiritual link. If it is so, how to find out the solution?
3. Doing our own work and ignoring God’s work has affected Israelites life.
Suppose if we ignore God’s work what will be the effect?
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Burial Mound……
Luke 11:37-54
Last month, one of my colleagues celebrated his Birthday for the sake of celebrating
it. Because, he hated to know that he is growing old. Moreover he thought that it is a
reminder of nearing to grave. It shows that he was not able to accept the fact, the life
is short.
In a short span of life, the people are living as dead even

though they are alive. Jesus has pointed out the same in Luke
11:37-54. He picked out the specific group of people who are
living but they are living as though there is no life in their lives.
Let us see the title and their activities that God has explained
in this passage.
A. Living graves:
A Burial mound is a place for burying dead people. In Middle East, there is no
identification of dead person just like name and duration of life on this earth. It looks like
a 6 feet hump all around the places. There is no surprise if the same place may be
turned in to construction site or landscape of ‘twin towers’ in the near future.
In verse 44, God had specifically mentioned Pharisees and Lawyers as a living grave.
They were known by all of them because they were sitting on the higher places and
expectation of applauses from his people. Robes were flowing from top to bottom to
show their strength. They were famous law makers and then breakers of their own law.
God had equalized them with grave. Because their deeds are clean outwards (v. 39)
but inward parts were full of greed and wickedness. Their activities were more important
than their attitudes. They lifted one law as to be followed but left alone other laws.
Making the law has burden for other people but not willing to help them for a moment.
In our present day to day life, we are seeing a lot of people are living without Christ like
characters and biblical values. Further, there is no thin line between the world and the
Christian believers. Their lives are equivalent to nameless graves that everyone walks
over it. Living but really they are dead.
B. Build the tombs:

Living graves people will build the tomb for prophets and saints (v.47) who lived during
their father’s time. The reason is to hide their father’s iniquities and to escape from the
curse of forefathers’ sin. Likewise, present day Christians have started to build a lifeless
structure (tomb) just like symbolic of washing the feet, talking lengthy about
apologetics without having any purpose, arranging irrelevant programs, procuring
more advanced gadgets (sound system, LCD, gospel vehicles) to show the fellow
Christians and the world that they are doing God’s ministry. But they have left the core
of bringing new souls to Church everyday.
God calls Peter to leave fishing job, a profession of caught and killed. He was asked to
take up the life giving job of catching the men. Let us analyse ourselves, are we
77
building the tomb or are we living as a tomb in this world. If we do God’s work in
bringing souls then we are catching the men for giving eternal life. Let us realize that
we are here to seek the lost to give a life through Jesus Christ.
1. Do we useful to the people / society? List out the attitudes which are
equivalent to living grave. How to overcome it.
2. Do we do dead work or Do we do regenerating work of bringing Gospel to
this world.
78
WINNER OR LOSER
Ex. 2:11-25
Gen. 37:1-38, 39:19-22,
The trend of the younger generation is to have victory in all the fields. They are not able
to accept the word ‘failure’ or ‘defeat’ or ‘loser’. This has been clearly indicated in the
cricket scenario. The cricketers will be praised when they win. But they will be ruined
when they fail to win. The failure is a bitter pill that will take long time to digest it.
As a Christian believer, it should not take longer time to digest it. If it is so, then first, it will
raise a lot of doubts about God, besides anger against God and starts to blame
ourselves and finally it ends up in depression. For instance, my
family has prayed for my driving license everyday. The younger
one has prayed everyday in family prayer. Test date has
come. I failed on the test. I have to reappear again after two
month. I informed to my wife about the failure. She took it at
the right sense. After some time, I received SMS from my wife’s
phone stating that I am a loser with crying smiley. I was angry
with the message and answered it that the failure is not final. I
went home and found that my elder daughter has sent the
message to me. I talked with her for 10 minutes about what
made her to send the message. She told that God is not
answering our prayer. I explained her that God will provide
everything according to His will not by our own desire. Later on, I
understand that God has allowed the failure to teach my
daughter about the Great truth of God’s way of answering our
prayer. Ultimately, I am a winner even though I failed in the driving test.
In Bible, we are seeing that failures are a way for teaching the people to use them for
God’s future ministry. Moses drove away to wilderness after murdering Egyptians. God
trained him for forty yeas wilderness life that has helped him to lead the people in
wilderness for forty years. There were ups and downs in David’s life. He was chased for
40 years by Saul, after God anointed him as a king. This experience has given him a
support when he fled from his palace due to Absalom. He learnt how to be in high
position and also abased when the situation called for. Joseph was in wilderness and
Potiphar’s house. He learnt the life as a slave as well as to manage Potiphar’s house
that has made him to manage the food grains for whole country.
79
We have to understand that God allowed certain things in our life that will be painful in
the beginning stage but it will be good to us as well as to others in a long run. (Rom.
8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose”).
Let us consider failure as a stepping stone of our spiritual growth. So, we move forward
with a hope of growing in to perfection.
1. Do we able to accept the failure in our life? Explain any incidence which has
happened in your life that has failure which has turned out to be a stepping
stone in your life.
2. How do you feel when failure comes in your life. Whether will you take it as a
challenge or you will go in to depression.
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“YOU SEE TO IT?”
Matt 27:3-5, 24-26
“Brother, Pray, God will deliver you from all your problems” – usual statement comes
forth from the Christian believers after listening to the problems or
issues of person. It is just like telling indirectly, look after your
problems by yourself. It is easy to wash our hands by pointing
towards the direction to God. It is true to focus the problem to
God. But there are certain times or situations, people come to us
with guilt of doing some mistakes or seeking solution for their own
problems in their life. It has to be dealt properly otherwise it will
aggravate their problem, sometimes it leads to depression.
In Bible, we see in two occasions the same statement has been used to send the person
away by washing their hands.
A. Judas, the betrayer: Matt 27:3-5
Judas was purchased by the chief Priests to execute their schemes. Planned move of
capturing Jesus Christ was worked out beautifully. So they were very happy. At that
moment, Judas went to meet high priest to confess his own sin and guilt. But the high
priest who is in the position of counselling and interceding for others has used Judas just
like a disposable cup and uttered the word, “what is that to us?”
The chief priests have forgotten their duties and sent him with his own guilt. He
committed suicide. If the high priest could have counseled him then there might be a
change in his life. Many times, just like a high priest we forget to take some time off to
counsel others when they are coming to us with a need. In addition, we are not giving
adequate counseling to the people according to their needs. For this, we need to
have closure walk with a Counselor Jesus Christ who can put His word in our mouth to
counsel the counselee.
B. Pilate: Matt 27:24-26
Pilate has tried his level best to release Jesus Christ from the accusation of Jews. His
wife also warned him not to do anything against Jesus Christ. But he was not able to do
so, due to the persistent shouting from high priests. At last he washed his hands and
handed over Jesus Christ to their desires by uttering the same word “You see to it”.
As Christians, we have to stand out for the truth and contend for faith. Instead, of we
are giving in to the whimsical of the world pressures that leads to give up our values,
ethos, vision and mission of God’s calling in our life.
81
We have to evaluate ourself and see whether we are standing out for the justice or
giving up our values to the pressure of this world.
Let us take a stand for Christ, counsel the friends with the help of the counselor and
bring many to His fold.
1. Do we have enough time to counsel the needy person in your life? Do you
counsel the person with the help of God.
2. Do you have experience of sending the person away when they come to
you for counseling. What is the reason for sending him away.
82
S(W)IN(E) FLU
1 Cor 10:14-15
Swine flu has aroused the panic level higher all over the world. People are cautioned
via Media and other contemporary technologies. The talk of the town is also swine flu
rather than anything else. The schools are closed to curb the spreading of this disease.
The precaution measures are implemented effectively by arranging mask and
guidelines for protecting from the diseases.
Recently, I went to school for paying fees for my children. I was screened by the
paramedical staff before entering into the school. I wondered how the people are
afraid of a tiny virus that has the capability of endangering human life.
In this world, we are thinking of protecting our body from the attack of virus. But we are
reluctant to take any precautionary measures to prevent the attack of evil around us.
Many a times, we are not scared of evil virus which is producing within us and also not
aware of the evil flu that passes on to our offspring.
Let us see how the instruction of swine flu that will help us in escaping from the evil flu.
1. Keep one meter gap from the affected person:
The ministry of Health in Bahrain has advised us, to keep one meter distance from the
sick patients and to instruct the people to avoid hugging anyone even a child as well.
Everyone has obeyed and followed the instructions without fail.
God has given a lot of instructions to deal with evil flu,

which damages our spiritual life and takes away our
eternal life. In Ps.1.1, God has commanded us not to
walk, stand and sit with evil person. It means, we have to
avoid them completely.
Paul said to flee from evil, sexual immorality (I Cor. 6:18),

Idolatry (I Cor. 10-14-15), evil desires of youth (2Tim 2:22).
In the Bible, we see that Joseph fled away from the
youthful lust and sexual immorality. Just like him, we have
to run away from evil flu. One of the Bible teachers
requested the youth congregation to follow 3:3:3 formulas when speaking with opposite
sex. He explained that we have to keep 3 steps distance from the person, 3 (Physical)
persons (Should not say God is there) has to be there and 3 minutes conversation is
allowed. This formula is applicable for the married ones too.
83
2. Take precautionary Measures:
Swine flu has the capability to pass on to the next person via coughing, sneezing etc.
To avoid this, the government has recommended safety precaution method of
providing masks and using sanitizer. Similarly, the precautionary measures have been
spelled out in Bible to fight with evil flu. First, the word of God will protect us from the
evil. That’s why, meditating and delighting in the word of God is more important than
anything in this world (Math4:4, Ps. 1: 2). God instructed Moses to educate the Israelites
to teach the word of God to the children by talking with them, when they are walking,
lying down, getting up and tie them as symbols on hands, doorframes (Deut 6:5-9)
Secondly, we have to pray to God to deliver us form the evil one and also not to lead in
to temptation. These two prayer points are important in everyday walk of our life.
Thirdly, we need to have fellowship with fellow brethren to escape from the evil flu.
God has asked us to commune with one another, share the burden with one another.
This will give us boosting to move forward in our spiritual journey.
Let us come to the Lord to get His guidance to flee from evil and also to protect from
evil temptation and forces. If we live like this we will surely cast away evil flu from our
life.
1. Compare swine flu with sin flu? Differentiate between swine flu and sin
flu?
2. Do you affect by sin flu recently? How did you get into the problem – by
your own desire or you have been forced to take a decision.
3. How to avoid sin flu in your life?
84
GROOMING YOUNGSTERS FOR THE FUTURE
JOSH 1:1-8
NUM 27:20-21
LUKE 9:1-6,10:1-12,17-20
Greg Chappel, the coach of Indian Cricket team has been quite firm on giving
youngsters a chance at regular intervals. He said that, resting important players from
minor tournaments could be considered besides using the
rotational policy to groom the youngsters and make them
ready to step in when key positions become vacant.
"This is one lesson the Australians learnt two decades back

when they had almost all their senior players quitting at the
same time. It's much easier for a few youngsters to come
into a team of experienced players than all of them
coming in together," he said.
Great Chappell’s principles of grooming youngsters or

mentoring second line leaders to take up positions of new
responsibilities are neither new nor innovative one. This has been already revealed in
the Old Testament where God trained successive leaders to take up His ministry.
Effective training needs the following 3A’s.
A. Associate:
God promised His presence to Joshua to do Himalayas task of taking the Israelites to
Canaan. Leaders have to be with their successors during their trials and difficulties. A
successful successor develops by the support given by the trainer. Proper support is not
to squeeze them but to comfort, appreciate and encourage them.
B. Assign:
Moses gave Joshua small assignments such as fighting with Amalekites and spying on
Canaan. Joshua did the job well.
Assigning work has two important elements authority and responsibility. The successor
needs authority to take decisions to get the job done. Moreover the people under the
successor will respect him because of his authority. (Num 27:20-21).
The responsibility is to complete the assignment within the stipulated timeframe.
85
C. Anoint:
God anointed Joshua as the successor of Moses before his tenure came to an end. The
smooth transfer of leadership did not affect the Israelites. Since Joshua had been
trained earlier, he was able to effectively lead the people with the help of God.
Jesus Christ trained 12 disciples during His period of three years ministry. They went on to
accomplish his ministry to the ends of the earth. We are doing ministry for many years
and even decades. How many disciples have been sent out from our homes. How
many Joshua’s have we raised from our areas?
Let us take this as a challenge and develop leaders in the local level to go out to do
the ministry in the Global level.
1. Do you have the mentality to train the youngsters to take up your job? Or do you
feel nervous to talk about it? Find out the reason.
2. Next week allot a significant job to your subordinate along with responsibility and
authority to complete the job.
3. Try to encourage even though they mess up the work.
4. Try to get the feedback after completion of the task.
86
WHITE ALREADY TO HARVEST
Neh. 1:1-11 2,13-14
John. 4:27-38
Rom.10:14-15
When Nehemiah heard that the wall of Jerusalem had been broken down, he wept
and prayed to God earnestly. God opened the way for Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah surveyed the city and its walls to know the status before building it. (Neh
2:13-14).
Information is important for missionary

work. Jesus Christ taught his disciples to
do three important matters before
venturing into the field.
• Open your Eyes

• Look at the Field
• Harvest the Yield
A. Open your eyes:
Disciples showed their concern for Jesus by urging Him to eat (Jn.4:32).
However, Jesus explained that finishing the work of His Father was His food (John 4:32-
35).
The eyes of the disciples were confined to earthly elements - just like food and
other temporary things. But Jesus saw it in God’s perspective. He directed his disciples
to open their eyes to empathize the heartbeat of God. They heartbeat of God is
“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" (Isa 6:8). Isaiah responded positively. Let
us open our inner eyes to see God’s plan for the perishing world.
B. Look at the field:
Secondly Jesus turned the disciples’ view from physical hunger to spiritual hunger
of the Samaritans by saying, “look at the field”.
If we look around us we can observe that many souls are passing away without
knowing the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Let us go, walk through the length and breadth of the land (Gen 13:17), God will
give us this world.
87
C. Harvest the Yield:
The Samaritan woman’s testimony brought the whole village to Christ. The village
was harvested by one Samaritan woman.
The rural and urban areas are already white for

harvest. God has commanded us to reap the harvest. In
Rom 10:14-15, Paul says,” How, then, can they call on the
one they have not believed in? And how can they believe
in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can
they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they
are sent?
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Let us move forward as soldiers for Christ to the world to reap the harvest of God
created people.
1. Nehemiah had surveyed the land and prayed before venturing in to do God’s
ministry. Take out your area. Gather information through internet, friends etc.
Pray with likeminded people. Start venturing to do God’s ministry
2. List out the action plan for doing His ministry.
88
BATON.
Dt. 31:14-23
Tom was an athlete, specialized in relay race. After his studies, he got a job in
sportsman quota category in a reputed institution. As a representative, He went for
national relay race. The team’s name was announced. They took their position. After
hearing the whistle sound, Tom, the starter, ran fast to give the baton to his team
member. In the time of transferring, the baton slipped from his hand. The team was
disqualified.
Tom’s mistake made the team to stop from proceeding further.
In the same way, the improper transfer of leadership will affect the
institution to move forward to reach the goal. God’s way of
transferring leadership is described in this passage.
First, God reminds us that the leadership position is temporary. If the leader realizes this,
then he will never take pride in his position or achievements. In turn, he will nurture
another person to take up his responsibilities.
Secondly, God commissioned Joshua who was associated with Moses (Josh. 1:1).
Joshua was raised and trained by God in all aspects to take up the leadership position.
E.g. Caleb and Joshua gave correct report and entered into Canaan. The second line
leadership has to be developed and commissioned by the present leader from their
own place.
Thirdly, God never changes even if the leadership changes. His promise never fails
irrespective of person. In Josh 1:5, God said that as I was with Moses, so I will be with
you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. God’s promise of presence is an antidote of
fear. God was dealing with Joshua personally as he dealt with Moses. Our God is a
personal God.
Finally, God reveals the mind of Israelites. God prepared Joshua by revealing the
situation and nature of the Israelites. The leader should explain the situation and roles
and responsibilities to the successor. This will make the successor prepare to move
forward in the time of struggles and hurdles.
Let God give us His grace to transfer the leadership in a proper orderly manner.
89
1. If God hadn’t transferred the Leadership from Moses to Joshua, what will happen?
In the same way what will happen in our departments and institution?
2. Are we delegating our work to our coworker/junior students? If so, are we explaining
the situation and giving the authority and responsibility to complete the work?
90
RADICAL OR RETREAT
2 Cor 5:17-18.
Heb. 6:1-7
Keziah was a girl child born to the lovable family of Daniel and Deborah. The parents
enjoyed the development of their child. They noted down each and every moment of
the child’s development in a diary. Keziah grew up as a normal child. At her second
birthday celebration, parents turned back the pages of their diary and read out their
writings before the relatives and friends . It was amazing for them to review the 24
months of their child’s growth. They found that each stage of the growth had less
resemblance to the previous one.
The internal development is also revealed

externally. The external appearance of a beautiful
butterfly comes out from the internal development of the
ugly caterpillar. No one likes the caterpillar. But after
its development into a butterfly, it never goes back to the caterpillar stage.
The Christian development is in the radical changes that are in an upward and forward
movement. There is no retreat in Christian life. Many a time, a force of gravity acts
against and restricts us to move forward. The emotional hurts of the past,
criticisms, failures of the past, absence of affirmation from the loved ones, stress in office
work, politics, gossip etc., makes us to walk in the downward spiral of spiritual life. The
shadows of the past life pull us down from climbing up in our spiritual life.
Let us go to the scripture and find out how we have to move forward in our spiritual life.
A. Let us go on to perfection Heb. 6:1;
Paul says to Corinthians that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5:17-18. This is the foundation step for entering into the
Christian life. The laying of the foundation for the building should be one time. In the
same way, going back to elementary principles of Jesus Christ again and again is a
mockery of all things becoming new. Paul writes in Hebrew 6:1 that the Christian has to
move towards the perfection. The word ‘retreat’ is not in the dictionary of the Christian
soldiers.
The college students never go back to the elementary school to study the basics.
1. One thing we have to do. Forget what is behind (Phil

3:13). It includes our past history, hurts, tragedy, bitterness,
91
signification etc. Jesus Christ never dwells in the past glory or insult or criticism etc.
2. Moving toward what is ahead, focus your life completely on Jesus Christ.
B. Let us bear fruits Heb 6:7:
The tree grows upwards and bears fruits. The fruit is the indication of the quality of the
tree. If the fruit is good, then the tree is good and vice versa. The
indication of the Christians moving toward the perfection is
bearing good fruit. The fruit is a blessing of the person who is
cultivated. In the same way, Christians should be a blessing to
God and to others.
Let us put behind the past, let us bear fruits for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and
move forward towards perfection to reach the goal for the prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus.
1. Jesus Christ never blows His own trumpet about His achievement to His disciples
or to the people who found fault with him? Shall we look front and move
forward instead of blowing our own trumpet. – Analyse what we have to do to
look upward.
2. After resurrection, Jesus didn’t exaggerate the pain and sorrow which He
underwent during crucification. Find out how far we are portraying our trivial
suffering in pulpit speeches by adding flavor to that. Let us identify the stumbling
block which is pulling us backwards. Come to God and find out how to
overcome it.
92
ON THE MOVE…..
Acts. 18:1-6
Today, the people in this world are migrating from one place to
another. The women also join this bandwagon by moving to
different countries, to carry out their work. The rural youth has
moved to nearby cities. The youth in one city move to another city
or even other countries depending upon their requirements. The
movement is a part and parcel of life, which was not the case in
the nineteenth century. In Bible, we see that God has told Adam to multiply and fill this
earth. It means to go throughout the world and inhabit it. Recent technologies have
fulfilled the same. This is the reason that the world has named itself as a “Global village’.
Moving from one country to another country is a great calling of God to many stalwarts
in the Bible. Let us see how and what were the reasons for God to move people from
place to place.
A. Persecution moves us:
Jesus Christ, as a child moved from place to place with the

help and guidance of the Lord. His move has been recorded in
Mathew as a prophecy of Old Testament prophets. The wrath
of the king has made the prophecy and God’s will fulfilled in His
life.
In our life too, God allows some of the persecutors to drive us away from our comfort
zones to fulfill His will in our life. God allowed persecution through Pharaoh so that the
Israelites could run away from Egypt with the help of Moses. Aquila and Priscilla were
moved from Corinth due to Persecution. It helped them to take care of Paul as well to
mentor Apollos
B. Need moves us:
God’s plan is beyond imagination and no one can comprehend. He took Joseph and
Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem . Though the move may look insignificant but it was a
significant move for the shepherds. Due to this,the shepherds had the oppurtunity to
come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
The movements of Jesus benefited not only for the shepherds but also Simon and Anna,
the servants of God who were waiting for Messiah.
God wants us to move from one place to another not only for reaching out the
unreached soul but also for the benefit of the servants of God. It is good for us to be
ready for the move whenever he calls us to do so.. He may call us to leave our own
comfort zone like own house, car, salary to another place where you may not have
such comforts. Are you ready to move for the dying soul as well as for God to revive His
servants?
93
• Be in tune with God’s frequency.
• Expect the move
• Accept the move when it comes.
• Enjoy the move
• Be willing to move
• Be ready to move again.
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J. Peter Daniel M.E.

First English Edition – January 2010

Glocal Youth Vision 2010 – Edition.

Author of: 1. Christ & Cities; 2. Christ & Missional Leaders;

3. Christ & Transformational Missions 4. Christ & New Generation Youth.

I thank Dr. Pethuru for his felicitation.

Where we went wrong (Ps. 51)

Peace in Perplexity (Math 2, Is. 9:6)

Purge Out (I cor. 5:7-8, Isa 1:25, Prov. 20:30)

9/11 and 7/7 (Gen4:1-15)

One Man (Rom 5:12-6:1)

Divine Love (John 3:16)

The Chief Physician (Math 9:9-13)

Reversible…. Reversible…(I cor. 15:1-19)

God’s Gallery (2 Tim 2:20-26)

Cricket Creeping in…. (Math. 4:1-11)

Slur…. Slur… (James 3:1-12)

Short Cut Saints (2 Chr. 14:2-6, 16:1-6. I sam 13:9-12)

Believer Uses a Blinker (Ex. 4:1-14, Jh. 4:27-38)

Spectacular Spectators (Math 26:31-35, 69-75)

‘DAM’ Believers (Acts. 10”9-23, Math19:13,14)

A Bad Apple (Josh. 7:1-5, Gal2:11-13, John 21:1-19)

Lame Duck Believers (Lk. 9:1-6, 13:6-9, Math23 -28)

One more Year (Lk. 13:1-9)

Grab Christians (Lk. 10, Acts. 6:1-7)

Five Precious Stones (Math 25:1-13)

Standing in the middle of the road (I Sam 20:1-14, 17,17-29)

God’s Brand Ambassador (Math 5:13-16)

Spiritual Prominence….(Math 18:1-4, Phil 2:5-11)

Great Reward (Gen 15:1-10, 14:1-17)

Red Car(D)pet (2 Tim. 4:7,8)

Single Mind (Ph. 1:21)

Shed the Sheath (Ph. 2:5-11, Gal 2:20)

Spiritual Inheritance (Ps. 33:10-15)

Momentary Lapses (Ps. 19)

Christian Ignorance (Gal 4:8-10, Gen. 1:1-31)

Spiritual Sham(E) (Malachi)

Prisoners of the past (Phil. 3:4-9)

Seesaw Christian (Ps. 51)

Recession – Economic Or Spiritual (Haggai 1:1-15, 2:15-18)

Burial Mound….. (Lk. 11:37-54)

Winer or Loser (Ex. 2:11-25, Gen. 37:1-38, 39:19-22)

You see to it? (Math. 27:3-5, 24-26)

S(w)in(e) Flu (I cor. 10:14-15)

Grooming youngsters for the Future (Josh. 1:1-18, Num 27:20-21,

Lk. 9:1-6, 10:1-12, 17-20)

Baton (Dt. 31:14-23)

Radical or Retreat (2Cor. 5:17-18, Heb 6:1-7)

On the move….. Acts. 18:1-6)

The value system in India is slowly declining. People think that

For reflection and discussion:

Over the recent days, I have undergone a lot of stress in and

A. Peace amidst Hopelessness:

B. Peace amidst Utter Confusion:

For reflection and discussion:

Isa.1:25, Prov. 20:30

Recently, I was stuck up with an airlock in the chilled water

In our spiritual journey too, a lot of dust such as old

A. Purge Out the Old Leaven (I cor. 5:7-8)

B. Purge Out the Dross (Isa. 1:25)

Sometimes the slag may be an insignificant and an invisible one. To make it