Would it go well if He examined you??

We all look good and our work justified until we are assessed. Beside God do we also hold ourselves accountable to someone who can check on us and help us overcome personal and private challenges? Or, are we self-made superheroes assuming we can manage all on our own, probably because of our maturity, the position we hold and the name we have earned? Let’s not forget we are blessed with families, Church fellowships, friends, mentors to whom we can share our struggles, our successes and our progress, as this helps us in moving forward to fulfilling the divine purpose of God.

I would like to refer to the story of Job and the plight he was in and the dramatic discussion comprising of reality, philosophy, half-truths (by Job’s friends), and then of course the sovereignty of God made conspicuous at the end. One can learn much about God’s sovereignty than just to settle our thoughts about getting things restored double at the end.

A pointed question Job raises against his friends who use half-truths and perception to condemn him and it goes like this, “Would it go well if He examined you? Could you deceive Him as you would deceive a man?” Job 13:7. Let us not forget that we cannot do away with assessment and examination, it is just inevitable. And therefore, Job reminds and warns his friends to refrain from just making up words against Him.

You will be examined.

Hezekiah was doing things well and relied on God in most part of his life but then at one point he started overestimating himself. His pride took the better of him. His status changed when he had abundant riches and glory. We learn that the Babylon’s ambassadors visited him to inquire about the miraculous sign that happened in the land and it says “. . God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart.” 2 Chronicles 32:31. He tests our motives, our intention and our love for Him. We just cannot practice our spirituality in isolation and for our living.  It says in the book of Romans 14:12 “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” 

Your work will be examined

Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 3: 13  “. . each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.” At the end for sure, but definitely in the earth too.  Is your project achieving the desired outcomes? In the past has it created an impact through your work? Would you be able to showcase the results meticulously? Do we really have a monitoring system to assess if our work is really making sense? It is good to create a Monitoring Framework for your project, organization, Church to assess the impact. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) commonly asks these three questions: 1. Are we doing the right things? 2. Are we doing it well? 3. Are there better ways of doing it? Challenge with these questions because it is just not worth to be ashamed at the end when we stand before the King our God with our work burned to ashes because it isn't qualifying the standards.

Blessings. 

Surviving thin years-through a strategy built in fat years!

“Who is like a wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter?. .” Ecclesiastes 8:1

One can be considered extremely skillful to have an ability and wisdom to decipher and simplify the most complicated things, that can range anywhere from solving a mystery, creating a strategy, building a road map, creating an impact, etc. I like the way King Solomon poses this brilliant question here, “who is like a wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter?”.

One man stands out distinctively when it comes to understanding the times and building a strong action plan for the future - the man I am referring to is Joseph. He was a man of understanding and had a divine spirit to understand the dreams and interpret the same to an action plan. You may want to look at an earlier article I had penned down about Joseph building a strategy: Building a robust strategy

Build a strategy in the fat years to sustain thin years.

It is said in Proverbs 27:12 NLT “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers consequences.”. Joseph did not just stop with interpreting the vision to pharaoh but was able to go beyond, he was able to suggest a plan of action (Genesis 41: 34-37) and assign a person who is both ‘discerning and wise’ (Genesis 41:33). Joseph built a strategy during the seven years of great abundance in order to sustain the famine. An important lesson to learn, building a Right Strategy and choosing the Right person to carry out the plan of action is very very important. Jim Collins in his book 'Good to Great' talks about having the right person on the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

Let me make a comment here, at least in this case, the advent of the national level crisis was predicted much in advance and Joseph with a divine anointing had an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming crisis. It may not be so in every case, you may be taken unaware and there may not be a definite period that will be shown to you in advance as to how long the crisis is going to last. Nonetheless, whatever the case maybe, it is crucial to work out a plan, a strategy that will sustain you or your ministry during the difficult period.

Usually we all like to plan for good days a time of abundance and when it arrives, we just want to take a long breath and relax and want to enjoy the days of prosperity. Let me give you an example in my case during my good days I was able to create few insurance policies hoping that will help me during my retirement. Amazingly it served the purpose in my current situation when I am compelled to help the mission and Churches to integrate the Holism (Restoring the early Church model) and to manage all ends meet with limited or no resources. 

What I planned for future sustainability was serving the purpose for the current. God helped me to learn this powerful lesson about purpose and I penned down this way, “Find the purpose of God for your life and be prepared to spend, may be all your resources if needed to accomplish the purpose. Do not use purpose as an advantage to gather resources hoping to ensure your security. It will miserably fail you.”.  Even Jesus demanded the same when He said, “Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” Luke 17: 33. Losing your life, your everything for building the kingdom of God draws His attention towards you. May God help you and your Church to align your vision/mission to a strategy that will create an impact

Blessings.

"My name is Legion, Sir!"

We have too many a response to describe who we are. Most often we like to show the images we displayed in the social network, the designations we hold, the news about us in the air. But who are you really, behind the avatars you’ve created for yourself? What are you masking? What are you afraid of? What are you hoping for? Where are you going?

Jonathan Martin in his book ‘Prototype” comments, “We are subjected to a thousand different voices competing for our attention. We present images of our lives through Facebook, Twitter, or other alternate realities, that are perhaps more reflective of who we want to be than of who we really are. It’s so easy to manipulate our “identity” to suit the differing expectations of our home, school, work, religious, and social communities.”. Never before have we had so many forms of communication at our disposal, and yet our sense of loneliness and alienation has reached epic proportions. In an age of relentless self-expression, do we have any idea who we really are?

Whether or not we believe in the reality of demons, a truthful response to the question for many of us would be, “My name is Legion . . . for we are many.” Many voices, many activities, many interests, many influences. It will be worth recognizing the true you in order to make a meaningful journey. It can be sometimes the self-righteousness that can have a better advantage of us, and we want to present ourself differently.

John Rice in his book “Good Man Lost” puts it this way, “Self-righteousness is the most wicked of all sins because it covers sin, excuses sin. It leaves no room for penitence, which God so greatly desires, and feels no need for mercy, which God is so willing to give. It is the most dangerous sin because it is the one least likely to be confessed and forsaken and least likely to be brought to God.”.

What would fascinate all regarding you is the very fact that you are close with Jesus. If you notice in this case, it wasn’t the sight of a tormented man injuring himself with stones that frightened the Gerasenet people. Similar to our present days, they had become accustomed to all the noise and violence. Not even the spectacle of two thousand hogs running headlong into the Sea of Galilee could supersede the sight of a former demoniac sitting next to Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, that struck fear in their hearts (Mark 5:15).

People would rather see the demonized man continue to harm himself than the terrifying possibility that his transformation raises new avenues for what it means to be human.

In another case it is recorded that people were amazed to see something strange in disciples and it is recorded like this, “When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.”. Acts 4:13 CSB. All that will matter if you are the exact mould of what God wanted you to be. Your genuineness and unambiguous life in Christ will attract every other person. You don’t necessarily have to present different profiles.

Blessings.

Holism- Faith and works!

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 CSB

A partial gospel results in an empty religion. We end up with either a privatized, individualized spirituality that never quite walks in the real world or a set of obligations and activities that aren’t animated by a lively Spirit of God. The Churches and the disciples of Christ are bound to deliver a full gospel which embodies Holism in all form. What Do I mean? I mean we exhibit the gospel of love in action at all cost, and James calls it as Pure and undefiled religion. There is no dichotomy between being spiritual and religion. Greg Paul author of Resurrecting Religion says "Spiritual or Religions? its not a matter of choosing between them. We need to be both. I don't mean we should be both. I mean we need it.".  

James further highlights the strong correlation between Faith and works and explains how the same makes a complete religion. His pointed questions demands that we make our faith full of action failing which the faith is bound to suffer death. Can we ponder on the question raised in the book of James 2:15-16 “If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them “go in peace, stay warm and be well-fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?” CSB. When we fail to respond to the needs other than the spiritual we inadvertently can display partial religion. We the disciples of Christ and the church are bound to reach to the concerned needy with the Holistic approach.

The poverty that we witness in our times is getting even more complex than it actually displays. Robert Chambers's systems approach to poverty is a powerful tool. He talks about the interconnection among the six elements of the poverty trap in the figure displayed below. Each is linked to and reinforces the others. A problem in one area means problems in another, and it is easy to see how the result can be greater and increasingly intractable poverty.

 Mother Teresa once said, ‘… the poor come to all of us in many forms. Let us be sure that we never turn our backs on them, wherever we may find them. For when we turn our backs on the poor, we turn them on Jesus Christ.’ Love for the poor is not an optional extra. It is at the heart of the New Testament. It is evidence of living faith: 

‘If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right’ (James 2:8). Your love is shown especially in what you do for the poor (v2–7), the hungry (2:15) and the needy (2:16). ‘Kind mercy wins over harsh judgement every time’ (James 2:13, MSG).

 As believers in Jesus and being part of the body of Christ-the church, we are called to live differently. Your faith must be evident by your deeds. All the way through the New Testament, these two go together. As do words and actions; proclamation and demonstration; the transformation of individuals and the transformation of society. As John Calvin put it, ‘Faith alone justifies, but faith which justifies is never alone.’ You cannot earn your salvation. You are not saved by your good works, but you are saved in order to do good works (Ephesians 2:9–10).

Blessings.