God's primary purpose for your life

Myles in his book 'Reclaiming God's original Purpose for Your Life' talks about the misunderstanding of God's intent. He puts it this way, "Misunderstanding intent guarantees a waste of time, talent, energy, gifts, and resources. Unless we know what God intended, everything we do will be a waste of time. That is the problem with religion. Religion, at best, is humankind’s best guess at God’s original intent. Most religions focus on trying to get God’s attention, which is the wrong approach. We already have God’s attention. The key to life and purpose, however, is to get God’s intention.".  

God’s original intent—and His continuing purpose—was and is to extend His invisible heavenly Kingdom to the Earth, to influence Earth from Heaven through the rulership of His earthly children created in His image.

Now what do you think is the primary purpose for every individual who submit to His rulership?  One clear mandate is the great commission for all. But how many of us are able to influence others with this mandate. You need to, and that's your responsibility. Apostle Paul in his book to Timothy says, "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season. .'2 Timothy 4:2 CSB. Is your heart burning with the desire to take the gospel everywhere?

Now let me narrow down the primary purpose of every individual which is found in Genesis where God articulates the primary mission for Abraham. It says, "For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him.” Genesis 18:19 CSB.

Hold on! Did you get it right? This should be such an eye opener for all of us. Your primary responsibility is raising your family in godliness, to help every member in your family do what is just and right. If you build your family in godliness you are actually making way for the Lord to sweep the nation with the gospel of redemption. In building your family you actually build a community. The Lord's greater vision depends upon the individual submission to influence, inspire and lead one's own family first. Your family knows who you are and if they see you holy, godly and Christ-like, then your message outside will definitely create an impact. Do not reverse the process. It should start with you and with your family first.

Blessings

Pure & undefiled Religion- Part 2 (Domestic violence)

Domestic violence is a heinous crime and rampant all over but sadly, the importance to address it with high priority remains missing. The term domestic violence often brings to mind the concept of a battered wife. It is also linked to child abuse. Even if the children are not physically injured, watching or hearing a parent being abused can have severe psychological implications. In most cases culture itself supports abandoning of the women and they have nowhere to go to. Diane Langberg comments this way “It is amazingly easy to be both anesthetized to the surrounding culture and blinded by it. Sadly, that can mean we do things, agree with things and even adamantly protect those beliefs simply because it is our culture."

The Bible strongly demands, "Speak up for those who have no voice; Open your mouth, judge righteously" (Proverbs 31:8-9). Ray Ortlund comments, “When we stand up for someone being mistreated, we make Justice a felt reality in a time of crisis. But if we decide to sit it out, play it safe, keep our heads down, we hand people over to misery and wrong. God is watching.”. Since the Church is a structured entity it can easily address these issues with proper training's and awareness and with the help of the Holy spirit.

It is important the Church understands this major area of concern and start addressing it in all possible ways. Talking about widows, let us know that ‘Widowhood’ is not a status by itself, it can be the result of multiple reasons. It may not always result by the death of a spouse. There are cases where spouses just desert them and never come back, cases where spouse is forced into prostitution, cases where they are physically abused beyond imagination and then there are cases where the fathers abuse their own daughters and therefore as a wife and mother of her own children, in many cases, part ways and result in a state of widowhood. But unfortunately, in our society women are the ones who are framed for unethical reason justifying the males.

Campbell Morgan comments, “When sanctuaries tolerate abuse and violence, in their midst we leave the abused without a taste of our God of Refuge. Sanctuary means not being complicit with those things that make a sanctuary a necessity.”. Church is the only hope to bring healing and protect such vulnerable people. When Apostle James talks about pure undefiled religion (James 1:27) he is not categorizing the widows based on situation. He strongly makes a point to look after them.

Diane Langberg Christian Psychologist for Trauma survivors makes this staggering comment, “Many women have been sent home by church leaders to be beaten, taunted, screamed at, humiliated, and used wrongly, sometimes to death.  The church must learn to recognize domestic violence for the evil it is and be an understanding agent of protection, healing and hope.”. How many Churches today are trained and prepared to handle this professionally? Can we the Church be conscious and sensitive to the vulnerable group around us? Isaiah while prophesying on the future glory of Israel compares the Lord's love and kindness to the deserted wife, Isaiah 54:6 “For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit. .” May we understand the heartbeat of the Lord towards the broken and vulnerable.

Blessings

Pure and undefiled religion- Part 1

Thousands of books are out there to define what and how a Church should look like. Every Church has their own definition and interpretation of their Church confining to the denominational framework. However, the theology may look like, God keeps the Church in the prime position to reach out to the dying souls. It is a mandate that every individual is supposed to be part of the Church fellowship which are believed to provide ample opportunities for believers in the work of the mission (not limiting to getting money for Church needs alone), then serving those who are in need and speaking for those who cannot speak.

Our twenty-first century world is filled with human conflict, religious stagnation, secular cynicism, and oppression by immorality. It is the responsibility of the Church to rise up and do something about it.

Apostle James gives the best definition of what religion is, in fact what Pure religion is, “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. This is fascinating, talking about undefiled religion? It is not a about, Baptist, Methodist, AG, Brethren and the list can go on. It is the body of Christ in spite of the differences.

The most important part of the verse that talks primarily about two major areas, 1. Looking after orphans and widows, 2. Keep oneself unstained and let me with all audacity make this point. A Church is not a Church if it is not caring for the most deprived people group. James is not just asking to take care of the poor, but to look after orphans and widows and deserted. To do this the Church needs to be well structured and intentional in its effort, and have a right understanding of the responsibilities of the Church.

Recently, I was shocked to hear the Pastor of a mega Church from India making this comment from the podium which said, if there are people who are divorced in the Church they should get out as the presence of God will not hover around in the Church and that was the most derogative remark you could ever hear from a pastor with large followers following him. It reminds me of what Cal Thomas writes, "The problem in our culture... isn't the abortionists. It isn't the pornographers or drug dealers or criminals. It is the undisciplined, un-discipled, disobedient, and Biblically ignorant Church of Jesus Christ." (Christianity Today, April 25 1994) When I quote Church, it is all of us. I am pressed to touch a little in my next article on domestic violence, abused and deserted single women.

The sanctuary of God is to be a holy place that provides a refuge from evil, as well as a place of refuge for the poor and oppressed. Diane Langberg Psychologist for Trauma survivors makes this comment, “Is the church of our Lord Jesus Christ willing to shed light in dark places and be a refuge for the brokenhearted and crushed?  If she is not then she is serving another god rather than the Holy One who became a babe.”. In Psalms 68:5 it says “God in His holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows. ”. 

J D Greer puts it beautifully, 'I see many churches failing to play their part—either as cultural prophet, speaking truth to power, or as being the faithful citizens committed to blessing the “city” in which God has placed us (Jeremiah. 29:7). I think we run the risk of either being too political or not political enough.' May God bless you as you take up the mandate of the Church and make difference in the society.

Blessings.

Churches - Then and Now

If you have to discuss on Church effectiveness, you may not be able to explain it without referring to the early Church pattern referred in the Bible. The early church was established in the midst of extreme conditions, challenges from the political arena, legalistic community and also from Jewish community. Yet the fervor and high growth rate was remarkable.

If you notice, the early church never settled for mediocrity nor maintained status quo. Apostle Paul to 1 Thessalonians 2:14 remarks “For you brothers and sisters become imitators of God’s Churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. .”. The Churches of Judea are probably selected for example, not as being the oldest and best organized Churches but the most afflicted, both by want (Acts 11:29; 24:17; Romans 15:26), and primarily by persecution from the “Jews”.

Strong bonding and fellowship in the early Church is what stands as a distinguishable trait in the Church then, which is rare in the Churches now. The trust level was high, and they ensured that there is no one who suffers either spiritually or materialistically. It was the leaders and apostles that ensured the management of resources not to amass wealth for themselves but to take the contribution and charity gifts (Acts 15:17) to the suffering fellow saints.

Today there is something called “Know your customers” (KYC) in business corporate world. Every individual is required to submit a KYC to banks, mobile service provider, business entities and in any places of dealings that connects a person to a larger world. What about Churches? Does the Church leadership know the members well? Is there a database with complete information of the Church members? Or is it expected that the congregation should only know the pastor & leadership? In some cases, both the members of the congregation or the Church leadership are least concerned to know each other. Ray Ortund Puts it beautifully, “Church life can be immeasurably happy, humane, uplifting or unspeakably painful, brutal, degrading. I’ve seen both. When it is former, the gospel has sweetly subdued that Church, when the latter, worldly agendas have taken over and are defrauding and plundering that Church.”.

Let me state a view honestly with no intention to throw stones, but to help the Churches, leaders and individuals to think. Working with close to 100 Church denominations I have rarely seen Churches know the congregation well and have customized programs catering to the need of the poor in the Churches.  In mega churches you are identified based on the tithes you give and in some cases it’s the membership fee, these data for sure will be recorded. But what about your complete profile? What about your abilities? Does the Church have an effective outreach or social program where you can be part of? Or is it expected that you just give the money for the program and the Church takes care of it without you?  Does the Church have a social program catering to the need of the people? "The worst that can happen to a church is not catastrophic disaster but the tragic nothingness, the empty inconsequentiality, of dull "success" -- with a faithful doctrinal statement, good attendance, money flowing in, but it isn't for Jesus, and the Spirit has departed." Ray Ortlund

It is seen quite often people quote the book of Malachi to talk about tithes which says “Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. .” Malachi 3: 10 Great! ‘food in my house’, food for whom? Early church brought all their personal resources to share and meet the needs of people who were suffering. Therefore, they were called the “highly favored Church”. (Acts 2:47) There are many who come to the Church languishing in poverty loneliness and in pain. Do we even know them? Do we have food to feed them?

You may refer to my earlier blog on imitating the Church: Imitate me Imitate my Church

Blessings

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.