"Live from Godliness and not from giftedness"

"Live from Godliness and not from Giftedness" This is a powerful statement and bone chilling fact not given much thought to. All of us are blessed with unique gifts and we operate best from this dimension. God has bestowed each of us with unique gifts and talents, usually we fail to recognize that unique gift or talent. In Romans 12:6 it says “According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts…” and in Mathew 25:15 in the parable of talents It says He gave talents “depending on each one’s ability..”. It is crucial that we wait on the Lord first, to identify our gifts and talent and thank God for the same. Paul in 1 Cor 9: 15 says ‘Thanks be to God for the indescribable gift’. God has a purpose behind every gifts, talent or skill that He has blessed us with. Therefore consciously recognize God who has blessed us with the gift and unique talent and operate the same for His purpose and glory as said in Isaiah 43: 7 "Everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.” 

  We all can vouch many great people who are highly gifted and talented used by God soon lose track and become busy to gratify themselves for their personal reason. It does not start all at once, it is a slow progress towards self-glory and selfishness. It is possible to operate best fulfilling one’s own desires, and yet not be pleasing to God at all. Samson is a character that comes immediately to my mind. A man with an extraordinary strength gratified himself from wrong sources. It did not go long, God had to bring the story to an end, though His purpose was accomplished in many cases through Samson. It is usually obvious to find natural leaders tend to lean on their giftedness, and so, fail to see the deceitfulness of sin And here the quote best fits, “Live from Godliness and not from Giftedness”

In Romans 11: 29 it says “.. God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable” it will be wise on our part not to play around this. God is definitely gracious but at the same time, he is a consuming fire. In Hebrew 12: 5 it says “… My son do not take the discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him”. We see many gifted people who in churches (especially in leadership position) and out there in the world who claim to know God are completely disintegrated from what they believe and speak to how they live and portray themselves, it is a sad fact. The reason again stands  out to be the  above, because they live from giftedness and not from Godliness. Mind, it will not go Long.

In case we are very fast in trying to achieve too many things from the  giftedness point of view, then let us cautiously slow down loving Jesus more and prove that love by pursuing holiness in order to live from godliness and use the Gifts from the godliness point of view and not the other way around. We are tempted to think that the more powerful we become, the better we will battle any vulnerabilities and sin. But the exact opposite is true. The more power, influence, or prestige we possess, the more temptable we are. The strength of sin feeds on our sense of strength. This is why we are warned that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Beware, Sin overpowered the strongest man Samson, it can take you out, too. The great leader became an entertainer for the enemies and dies along with them. God demand is Holiness and Godliness, lets consciously operate from this dimension in order to make our gifts a  blessing. I suggest we meditate Psalms 15 prayerfully where ‘the description of the godly’ is so meticulous.

Lord who can dwell in your tent?

Who can live on your holy mountain?

The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness,

and acknowledges the truth in his heart

who does not slander with his tongue,

who does not harm his friend

or discredit his neighbor,

who despises the one rejected by the LORD

but honors those who fear the Lord,

who keeps his word whatever the cost,

who does not lend his silver at interest

or take a bribe against the innocent

the one who does these things will never be shaken.

Blessings

David Raj

How do you like to define yourself?

It is obvious nine out of ten times we would not give a true estimate about ourselves. In fact, we convince ourselves we are good because of how we carry ourselves and also because of the respect we have earned in the society, workplace, Churches etc.  If by chance we hold a leadership position then it can make things even more difficult to realize and acknowledge who we are in reality. We get used to the praises and honor which furthers our conviction we must be a good and pious person. In the book of Proverbs 30:12 it says “There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes yet is not washed in its filth”. Agur in this chapter predicts a generation, a mass who will hold on to this false sense of identity and purity. John Ortberg terms it as “Pseudo-Transformation”. The great danger that arises when we don’t experience authentic transformation is that we will settle for what might be called pseudo-transformation. 

Suppose someone were to ask you, “How is your spiritual life going these days?” Quick —what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? My first thought would be how I was doing at having a quiet time—praying and reading the Bible each day. If I had prayed and read the Bible for several consecutive prior days, I was likely to say that my spiritual life was going well. If not, I was likely to feel guilty and downcast. So, prayer and Bible study became the gauge of my spiritual condition. As long as I did those two things I could go through the day confident of God’s approval. Spiritual disciplines are not a barometer of spirituality. The sad fact as quoted in the book “Too soon to quit” by Warren Wiersbe; “Many people become burdened because they think God measures their spiritual performance on the basis of certain disciplines. The truth is both challenging and liberating.”. The true indicator of spiritual well-being is growth in the ability to love God and people. If we can do this without the practice of any particular spiritual disciplines, then we should by all means skip them.

Allow me to present the possible premises to understand our true identity:

1. You are what you think,

Thinking precedes our action In Proverbs 23:7 it says “For as he thinks himself, so he is..” NASB. It is estimated that our brains produce as many as 30,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day depending on how 'deep' a thinker we are. Further it is said that we have 42 thoughts per minute and in that 65-80% of our thoughts are negative and four positive thoughts are needed to change one negative thought. This is precisely why God in despair estimated man accurately and said “…that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5). What you feed your mind with is very important. Paul while sending Tychicus in Ephesus instructed him to bring few things he left in Troas, they are the cloak, books and parchment (2 Timothy 4:13).  Books (Food for your mind) and Parchment (food for your soul). This is what will saturate you with His love and you become more like Him. It will also help you to remain holy while you are alone, most of the time we go astray while we are left alone. It is said “You cannot sit and do nothing and be good”. Be engaged with Christ always.

2.You are how you respond and reach spontaneously,

C S Lewis puts this fantastically, “What a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding.” C S Lewis further adds the excuses we provide to when we are taken off guard and our common responses are, “the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself.”. Psychologist calls it as “Unconsciously competitive” where we are successful without being reminded to accomplish certain activities to attain the status.  Matthew 12: 34 says “..Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” KJV. What comes out as a display normally and spontaneously is what has filled your heart in abundance. John Ortberg in his book “The Life you Always Wanted” quotes “God is not impressed by what we say we will do – he is impressed by what we do when we are put under pressure. Progress in life and in ministry happens when you are tried and tested, and you pass the test.” 

Format your Heart!

“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices” Colossians 3:9 NASB

This particular behavior “not to lie” is insisted usually on children assuming that only children lie and we are free of it. The fact is We are all liars. Hold on, do not close the article immediately, I would want to bring the facts and research done by Pamea Meyer who is an American author, certified fraud examiner, and entrepreneur. Described by Readers Digest as “the nation’s best-known expert on lying”. You may watch her ted talk on lie spotting, the link is enclosed at the end of this article. 

Lying is a cooperative act. This is the truth number one. Think about it, a lie has no power whatsoever by its mere utterance. Its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe the lie. Sometimes we're willing participants in deception for the sake of social dignity, to maintain friendship and for various other reasons known to us alone.

Research:

On a given day, studies show that you may be lied to anywhere from 10 to 200 times. Now granted, many of those are white lies. But in another study, it showed that strangers lied three times within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. 

• We lie more to strangers than we lie to coworkers.
• Extroverts lie more than introverts.
• Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do with other people.
• Women lie more to protect other people.
• If you're an average married couple, you're going to lie to your spouse in one out of every 10 interactions.
• Now, you may think that's bad. If you're unmarried, that number drops to three.
• It is said more than three-quarters of lies go undetected

  Lying's complex: The truth number two about lying is it's woven into the fabric of our daily life and our business life. We are deeply ambivalent about the truth. We parse it out on an as-needed basis, sometimes for very good reasons, other times just because we don't understand the gaps in our lives. We are against lying, but we are covertly for it in ways that our society has sanctioned for centuries. It's as old as breathing. It's part of our culture, it's part of our history, and all the time part of our carnality.

 It's starts really, really early. How early? Well babies will fake a cry, wait to see who's coming and then go right back to crying.

• One-year-old's learn concealment.
• Two-year-old’s bluff.
• Five-year-old’s lie outright. They manipulate via flattery.
• Nine-year-old’s, masters of the cover-up.
• By the time you enter college, you're going to lie to your mom in one out of every five interactions.
• By the time we enter this work world and we are breadwinners, we enter a world that is just cluttered with spam, fake digital friends, partisan media, ingenious identity thieves, a deception epidemic -- in short, what one author calls a post-truth society. 

The common way to cover the lies is through rationalizing (rationing the lies) if we are spotted. John Ortberg quotes “We are driven by two primary motivations. One, we want to receive selfish gain. We want to avoid pain. We want it so much that we are willing to lie or cheat or deceive for it. We want what we want, and we’re willing to cheat to get it. Two, we want to be able to look in the mirror and think well of ourselves. That means we all want to view ourselves as basically good, honest, honorable people. Clearly these two motivations are in conflict with each other.”. Doesn’t it look scary? This can go rampant if we do not ask God to help us and then be cautious and sensitive when we utter every word. Psalmist cries in his prayer “Help O Lord for the godly man ceases to be, Faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another, With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.”. Psalms 12:2-3. Lying mouth reflects the status of your heart. Jesus said in Matthew 5:37 “But let your statement be ‘Yes, Yes” or ‘No, No’; anything beyond these is of evil.”. NASB. Can we be conscious to work  in this area?

Blessings,

David Raj.

Recommended link: https://youtu.be/P_6vDLq64gE

Superficiality - the crises of the inner man.

How familiar are you with the word 'superficial'? One of the definition Cambridge dictionary points out is, "appearing to be real or important when it is not true or correct". In Oxford dictionary it is described as 'Lack of thoroughness, depth of character, or serious thought.". It is a greater challenge in this current age to differentiate between original and counterfeit. Everything looks so alike, I am sure everyone at some point of time would have faced the struggle identifying the original, be it in a commodity or truth in a person. We live in an age of superficiality, hypocrisy and deception which has become a norm of life in the planet unfortunately. 

Think with me on these attitudes which we display it so often; how genuine is our greetings? How sincere are we when we inquire about someone’s welfare? Do we mean when we say, I will pray for you? How about giving promises to someone? What do you think about the prayer we do in a gathering? How are we while we are in the pulpit, or while we are leading a worship or playing music? How sincere are we when we happen to maintain digital relationship, are we managing it to fill the gaps by sending periodical messages? All of this can be confined to a superficial level and not bothered about it in our conscience.

Richard Foster puts it beautifully "superficiality is the curse of our age. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”. It is sometimes so true that we long and wish others are real to us and not be superficial. Would you take a few moments to ponder over the question Solomon poses in the book of proverbs (20:5) “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?” We may want to propagate and display so much about ourselves in order to maintain a sacred position among the people. Sadly, we have to be reminded quite often that the Lord weighs our hearts (Proverbs 24:12) weighs our motives (Proverbs 16:2) and tests our hearts (Proverbs 17:3) God is looking for faithful and honest people not somebody whose “niceness” is so temporal and displayed in selected context and situations. Charles Swindoll quotes “The most regrettable truths about the life of faith; faithful people sometimes abandon their faith to become temporarily faithless” Paul in 2 Timothy (3:5) warns us about people who will be "holding to the form of godliness"

 I have struggled with superficiality in my life and it was not easy to break it, let me warn you if you do not take all the effort to address it and shred it then for sure it will break you and leave you barren at some point. For a certain period of time even with superficiality we can survive, for many it is a lifestyle I am not referring to them. Warren W. Weirdness in his book “Too Soon to Quit!” puts it beautifully, ‘We can “manufacture results” without praying, but we cannot bear lasting fruit that glorifies God. Without prayer we can build a crowd, but not a spirit-led Church, and we can give religious speeches, but not life changing sermons that expounds Gods truth.’

You need to find your true identity in Christ to be a person used for His divine purpose. God is looking for a faithful person not superficially faithful who are dwelling on ‘feel good factors’. Kindly take this into cognizance that the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith but settle for mediocre version of it with superficiality. Whom are we trying to please anyway? Even Churches are falling prey to it sadly. Warren W Wiersbe quotes. “Sanctuaries become theaters, worship leaders become entertainers and everybody is happy except the Lord. The Word of God and prayer are minimized, booming music is maximized and the gospel is merchandised. This may be one way to build a crowd, but is it God’s way to glorify Jesus Christ and build a church?"

 Let us consciously try to break superficiality, which has an effect on our relationships, prayer, reading His word, helping people, posting messages in social media, our family, in Church, the list is endless. Ask God to reveal your heart to you and break your terminal niceness and the person who you are not. Honesty with yourself about yourself your abilities and lacks, your accomplishments and disappointments, your brilliance and stupidity, your desires and needs will make you the person you want to be, live the life you were meant to live, find the answers you need to find. May God bless you.

Blessings,

David Raj

$ v/s local currency

Restoring the early Church model is the prime purpose of this blog where the Holistic Church approach (fellowship of the believers, Biblical mandate, and ministering to the needy) stands out distinctively.  It is observed that the Churches give up social intervention (ministering to the needy) because there isn’t promising flow of ‘foreign’ funds. 

Most of the churches or Christian organization when contemplating funds for their social activities immediately approach government bodies who authorize legal flow of foreign funds into the country. The churches put in a lot of hard work to seek these funds. It’s not a bad idea in itself but the ministry to the needy and poor is definitely not confined only to foreign funding ($). Mobilizing the local resources which Jesus modeled and emphasized are usually overlooked, which I will be talking about shortly. Craig Greenfield the founder of “Alongsiders International” comments "So many foreign-planted churches never multiply. These churches are just not replicable. Often, they are not even sustainable.". The reason is simple churches bring lots of funds inside to quick fix the broken situation and later it becomes the norm. I wish to derive few principles that we read in the Bible that gives us a perspective of generating and utilizing local resources:

  Getting the perspective right:

 If our intention to establish social intervention program only to build our financial security then we will be identified with Judas sooner or later. The Bible records about Judas this way, "Now he did not say this because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief; and having the bag (the money box, the purse of the Twelve), he took for himself what was put into it [pilfering the collections]"John 12:6 AMPC.  Judas had a ministry with Jesus Christ which was well established but when he sought to build another ministry - taking care of the poor with Jesus’ offering for his personal benefit - his ministry, in fact his existence started to crumble leading to his downfall.  Later it's revealed that he didn't even care about the poor, he cared about the money hence being called a thief. Judas missed his faith in Christ (the very source of his resource) when he weighed Him against money. At the end he lost the money, ministry and most important of all his relationship with the Lord – the very essence of his calling. Get your intention right before you are identified with Judas. As it is said your intent precedes content.

 Jesus encouraged an extreme reliance on local resources:

Let’s infer what Jesus modeled when it comes to finding resource.  In my long experience working with churches and Christian organization I have noticed the creating of social program in most cases is to get the ministry to be noticed, bring it to limelight and pave a platform to raise more money. “Calling the twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town …’” Mark 6:7–10. Jesus commands that they depend on local resources while they are in the mission. The disciples witnessed it, which they report to Jesus after their return. After all the learning the disciples find the urgent need to feed 5,000 people! That would take some feeding program. Yet to learn their lessons well the disciples suggest that Jesus should send the crowds away. The need is simply too great! When Jesus rejects this idea, they consider using their money to bring in food from the outside. Again, Jesus refuses. He knows that this approach might solve the immediate problem but He had a bigger picture in mind. He was helping them to learn lessons about sustainability and trust for the future. Finally, a little boy was willing to share his bread and fish. Local resources are found. They lift these up to God … And the rest is a miracle in the happening.

Development Project model:

At the outset it is important to take note of the early Church model where the social intervention program was institutionalized to avoid services happening as onetime event. In Acts (6:3) We learn seven reputed people who were anointed and filled with wisdom were appointed to structure the social project for the Church. Let’s take a look at a development project and ask ourselves: Is this replicable? Let’s say you are living in a place with a lot of malnutrition and hunger. People are struggling and kids are missing meals. They are hungry. So, you think, I’d better start a feeding program. People need food. I can raise money to buy food. Problem solved! Just as in the church planting example above, you will certainly have solved the immediate need. Hungry people will no longer be hungry—as long as you are around to raise money to buy them food. This may actually be the only response possible in an emergency situation. But what happens when the next crisis comes along? The local people have “learnt” from your model and they know just what to do. They need to raise funds from outside to solve their problems. Unfortunately, they don’t have the contacts or resources like you did. An opportunity for growth and true transformation was gravely missed. But what if instead of a feeding program, your smart development worker developed some way to encourage those with food to share with those lacking food? A plan to create a self-help model, build their skills competencies add structure. This is exactly what is required to build stability and sustainability and more importantly help move from RELIEF to REHABILITATION. 

Jesus showed us the way.

By centering local resources and looking to God for miracles, we can ask and positively answer the question—Is this replicable?

Blessings