Blessings for Sale --2

  

This blog is a continuation of the 'Blessing' series (The 1st part of the series can be checked HERE). As already discussed, blessings are the most misconstrued topic in Christendom. It's stuck to our psyche that devotion to God ends up in material blessings. This theology of Christians is not very different from the Hindus. Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune, wealth, and well-being is worshipped fervently by Hindus to get more wealth. It's weird that the God of the Bible is also looked upon in the same way. Also, the theology of being chosen by God is marked by one’s prosperity and poverty is because of one’s sins. This concept mirrors the prevailing caste system of Brahmins and Sudras.

There are pastors who believe that God gives you a 'key' to open blessings and such pastors have delusional goals of making it to the top 10 richest pastors in the world. Sadly, many have become Christian psychopaths preying on the sheep entrusted to them (Ezekiel 34:1), grooming in such false theology in people's minds. Peter on behalf of all the disciples’ clearly states to Jesus in Matthew 19:27, “See we have left everything and followed you. So, what will be there for us?”. I urge you to check the poignant response of Jesus in the subsequent verses.

Today, the Church finds it cumbersome to help the widows, fatherless, the orphans and the saints who are in aggressive mission work. It feels it has a greater calling and has come to the point of distorting what pure religion is in the sight of God. The Church is hoarding its resources and refuses to spend the funds got in God's name for those who mean the most to God - the widows, orphans, fatherless and the saints serving Him full time. We have become abusers of the very people that God wants to bless.

Riches need not necessarily lead you to the love of money. If that is the case, then people like Abraham, Job, Joseph and David would have been lovers of money. They are classic characters of the Bible who teach us how to channelize money to worship God. These men were rich but loved God, not money.

If the blessing of a man’s life depends on how much he has, then the lives of the rich and the famous – movie stars, pop stars and sports stars - would be examples to us on how we too should live and label it a blessing. Contentment is worth more than all the wealth we could possibly accumulate. The Bible warns us, ‘People who want to get rich ‘fall into temptation and trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge into ruin and destruction.’. (1 Timothy 6:9)

We need to understand this truth. God’s highest desire is neither to make us rich, nor to make us successful, popular or famous. God’s dream is to make us right with Him. Today, you find people misinterpreting this truth which talks about Jesus like this, “but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”. (Philippians 2:7-8). We brazenly misinterpret telling that God made Himself lowly to make us rich. We sell garbage by manipulation to the Church.

Having walked the faith journey for the last 6 years, I can confidently say favor and grace of God has always upheld me to be a revolutionary for Him and turn many to Christ and to His mission. Even through the abuse I faced in Christendom, I was able to focus on God's purpose in my life and learnt my lessons well. Fulfilling God's purpose in our life does not require riches. I urge you brothers and sisters to lead people to Christ without promise of riches and guiding them to love God for who He is. This will undoubtedly enrich their experience of salvation rich rather than filthy promising them out God will bless them with riches. For this "Lakshmi" is enough.

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Blessings for sale! Part 1

  

"Blessings", The one word loved and adored by all of us. However, we fail to notice how God used it for His purpose that impacted His divine mission. Today, as Christians we exploit this word 'blessing' more than any people who belong to other faiths. We are constantly bombarded through preachings which says, that God would  grant all the desires, make us heads, and we would reach the top. People throng Churches to see if the promises come true or not. What they really expect is blessing of wealth, name, fame and a life without difficulties or hindrances. Eventually, they come to know that this is a surreal life they are longing for.

In present times, we ridiculously equate luxury and riches to blessing. We quote Genesis 13:2 “Abraham was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.”.  Our deep longing for riches mars our interpretation of Biblical verses. As Christians we heavily lean towards the life of riches and wealth rather being content with a life of just our needs being met. The Theology of work project comments, ‘The writer of Genesis states early on the story about the creation of humans, “God blessed them” (Genesis 1:28). The word “blessings” or “blessed” is a central feature of the biblical story. Part of the blessing of relationship with God is very definitely tangible, in-the-hand stuff. And these material blessings are thoroughly integrated with the other benefits of knowing and loving the creator.’.

Dealing with this subject in Christendom is like walking on egg shells. No one wants to decipher the real meaning of the word from God's perspective because we are shaking the foundation of their age old beliefs. Money can be earned in various forms both good or bad. Let us analyze few instances in the Bible, to understand the perspective:

1. Joseph's brothers hate for him ended in trading him for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28).

2. Achan's greediness forced him to conceal the rich spoil, i.e. silver and gold for his future settlement (Joshua 7:21). 

3. Samuel, one of the greatest prophets, sons Joel and Abijah were corrupt dishonest judges in Beersheba. They profited by taking bribes to pervert justice (1 Samuel 8:1-3).

4. Judas traded Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He meets the Chief Priest to know what he would get in return if he hands over Jesus to them. The ransom satisfied Judas and he starts working on a successful plot (Matthew 26:15-16).

5. The Chief Priests with no shame or remorse bribed the Roman soldiers with a large sum of money to tell a lie about the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:12).  

Well, if money is a blessing from God then the above incidents from the Bible do paint a sordid picture indeed. Money that we so desperately long for was used to kill our Savior and also tarnish the very fact He rose again. Let's ponder over our misrepresented thought process on 'blessing' before we delve deeper into this series in my upcoming blogs.

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Secured yet Scared!

 

The ones who are established with a stabilized income source are the ones who are most scared of losing their security. They want to do everything to ensure nothing is disturbed. Putting this in a Church context, the Church leaders and Pastors are careful that they don’t say anything that can cause offense, even the right and hard stuff. The fear of losing people and income threatens their security. So, they ensure to speak everything favorable to the crowd. They hand pick verses from the Bible that talks about encouragement and blessing of success.

The celebrity preachers have found this mantra and keep speaking words of success, prosperity, goodness and wealth. They are always in demand. People are willing to get them at any cost because they are tied to their personal prosperity. Micaiah’s are rare to be seen today. Let me take you to 1 Kings 22 where it talks about the Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab. Ahab the wicked king befriends Jehoshaphat and urges him to go with him to fight Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings22:4). Jehoshaphat was unsure about the whole thing but wanted to oblige based on the word from a prophet. Ahab had readymade 400 prophets (22:6) and were summoned. They all prophesized favorably and predicted victory. Because the spirit of the Lord was pricking Jehoshaphat’s conscience he wanted to check if there is any other prophet beside these 400 Prophets. Somewhere down in his heart Jehoshaphat could sense something is wrong. Then we notice Prophet Micaiah is contacted and instructed what to say. 1 Kings 22: 15 The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs and speak favorably.”

Micaiah was far from being compromised with cheap thrills of money or security. And this is what he said, “As the Lord lives, I will say whatever the Lord says to me” And he was harder to Chenaanah when he mocked Micaiah. As a consequence, we are told Micaiah was put in the prison and instructed to be provided with little bread and water until King Ahab returns. Micaiah ends the conversation with these lines, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.”. The end for the king was a disaster as we learn from that chapter.

 Security at the cost of Mission can be very costly. I have been going to various trainings and speaking assignments in Churches. I have been personally instructed several times to mellow down, speak favorably, so that the crowd is happy and not offended. This is utterly sad and unfortunate state. In my faith journey, I am ready to risk everything for the sake of the Gospel and I wouldn’t budge from the true Mission God wants every single person to follow. As Dr Eric Mason points this out, “The popular preaching of our days is going to catch up with us! We promise people that if you follow Jesus that He’ll bring your dream to pass. We have made better entrepreneurs, dream chasers, and personal purpose Gurus than we have disciples.”. As long as the crowd is successful the Church assumes they can be successful and secured. Can we strip such false security and disturb the people in your Church who have lived comfortably all their lives? Every soul is a Church lying vacant for years, some for decades. They become the student of the Church all their lives. We need revolutionaries not just good Christians. Jared Wilson stated this powerful statement, “The mission is to make disciples of Jesus. Don’t settle for just well-behaved pagans or self-righteous Pharisees.”

 

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Church Protected Mission Ignored! Part-10

 “As he approached and saw the city, he wept…” Luke 19:41

I want to thank you all took the effort to read all the series under this topic “Church Protected Mission ignored”. This is the last series under this title. The intention of this blog is not to bring forth good content and excite the reader but to bring about a stronger conviction towards the mission. Church is inclusive of Christ’s Mission to the lost soul. However, in the process of busy managing the Church, mission to the unreached has suffered. We all want to believe everything is working well in our ministry and stay satisfied. In this series I am trying to bring about the missing elements and all that we intentionally and unintentionally overlook. We need a revival in our Churches. As Leonard Ravenhill stated, “In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts.”.

We are all familiar with the shortest verse in the Bible and can say without hesitation, “Jesus wept”. We see this happen in two incidents. I would like to dwell on one of them. But then why did He weep? Allow me to put in context the incident where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. How much He yearned that the people in the city would believe the Messiah and find the truth. The Mission of Jesus was never to establish the largest Church in an identifiable, locatable place. It wouldn’t be easy for Jesus to do that way at all. In fact, it may now convince us to think that if He did that, no doubt He would have had the largest crowd of the century.

The Bible records the fame of Jesus spread throughout the region. The Bible says "Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan." (Matthew 4:24-25 CSB). Jesus could always have followed the model of establishing everything in one place. People would have anyhow reached Him. Instead, He kept on moving as recorded in Matthew 9:35 "Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.".

Contrary to His model, we want to be locationalized, stabilized and build without moving an inch. We follow the wrong path for revival and expect it to happen. Are we serious about following the pattern our Lord Jesus has left for us?

 Our master was not able to control His emotions when He saw the city which had the Messiah yet missed the opportunity to find the savior in their lives, He wept. Today, many of the mission headquarters are found in the prominent cities. The purpose of its existence is not always channelizing to Mission work. The Organisation, Ministries and Church building survives, however. But the true mission sadly has become an enterprise. True mission is the replica of Jesus’ 1-12-72 model in all possible manner that I presented in my 3^rd series. Ray Ortlund states, “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.”.

For most of us we think all is well with our ministry and Church as it still survives. The surviving is sadly gauged by the success of fund flow. If Jesus happened to live in body in our times. I am sure Jesus would have wept over many Churches existing and thriving devoid of His presence. How saturated is your city with the Gospel? Are you seriously moved with compassion? Are your eyes welling up with tears?

Jesus wept in two instances as we all know. 1. Over the city and 2. Over the person in the case of Lazarus. Today the so-called Christians are dead like Lazarus for years and yet not buried. Spiritually dead without the mission. All are taught to be busy and concerned enough to protect Church structure and facility in order be religiously sacred. When will we be concerned over lives and city? Protect the mission and carry the mission He has left for us to ardently follow.

   

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Church Protected, Mission Ignored! Part-9

           Holistic Mission

God is holistic and therefore the Church mission is holistic too! It is an integration of spiritual and physical component. Jesus’ intervention was both physical and spiritual. His mission statement in Luke 4:18-19 states, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”.  The greatest two commandment is an emphasis to love God and love others. Loving others is not necessarily a spiritual deal always. It is demonstrating the gospel of love in action.

David Bosch reminds with these words about the purpose of the Church, “the Church is both a theological and a sociological entity, inseparable union of the divine and the dusty.”.  The early Church carefully followed the holistic model of a Church. They existed with a vibrant evangelism model, active Church fellowship and with a structured social intervention. Acts 4:32-35 displays a divine purpose of the Church movement. “ Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. ³³ And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. ³⁴ Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, ³⁵ and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”.  Is this ever followed in today’s Church fellowship? This has become almost impossible to be followed today. Then, they never rationalised much. It was spontaneous expression of commitment to the holistic Church mission model. The outcome of this approach is found in Acts 2:47 “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”. The movement received favor from the community and then we see daily people were saved and were becoming part of the Church fellowship. Today many Churches are stagnant with zero growth and in many other cases people just float from one fellowship to another.

Quite often James 1:27 is quoted, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”. How many Churches are taking it seriously? Today even the most vulnerable the widows, orphans, the abused are hardly recognised by majority of Churches today. Their value is gauged by how much they are able to give to the Church. They are spoken as an example where Pastors challenges the congregation by saying, if these people can pay why not others. All becoming  part of business transaction. We live in such a pathetic condition unfortunately.

We cannot pass by without referring to Job who fits into a perfect category of following the Holistic Mission. He was not only a righteous and blameless before God but was reaching out to the poor, needy and the vulnerable. Read this carefully, Job 29:11-17 “When the ear heard, then it blessed me, And when the eye saw, then it approved me; ¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried out, The fatherless and the one who had no helper. ¹³ The blessing of a perishing man came upon me; I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban. ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame. ¹⁶ I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know. ¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth.”. Church, is this your model you are following? How are you preserving the mission? Is the Church consciously willing to stand with the poor and the needy? Karl Barth notes that when we see an image of the cross, we would do well to always include the other two crosses next to Jesus. Jesus spent his dying moments associated with the lowest of the low, keeping company with those the world condemns. The point of the gospel writers telling the story of Jesus next to two thieves is not to emphasise  who believed in him and who didn’t. The major point (my opinion) is to locate God.

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Church protected Mission ignored! Part-8

 Boasting on experiences than Christ’s mission!

 2 Corinthians 12: 2-7 “I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago…”

Experiences can be misleading when it is preached and forced upon to be a doctrine. Today, in Christendom there are innumerable expressions and each denomination cling on to one which best suits them and make it a mandatory requirement to be part of the Church. It becomes an identity for the Church.  We Christians and Churches are gravely divided over our personal spiritual experiences and vision. Ecumenism is a superficiality in Christendom. Just coming together once in a while and talking about unity is not what Jesus emphasised.

Christians are supposed to be united in the mission; God entrusted us with it. There is one mission given to all and i.e., to go and make disciples. Why are we so choosy over doctrines and mar Christian faith before the world and create an offense which prevents them to stay away from Christ the Savior? I understand that there are many doctrines and cults that prohibit giving glory to God and don’t acknowledge Jesus as only way and the Savior of the world. I am not referring to them.  But dividing over experiences, liturgies, worship & expression of the Holy Spirit are creating a void from the actual mission Christ gave to the Church.

There can be various expressions of happiness, for example, one may jump with joy, another may just be excited without any physical movements. Let me quote few examples, King David was leaping and dancing with joy before the ark of the covenant. It was an expression of extreme happiness and gratitude before God (2 Samuel 6:14,16). Does it mean this experience is the copyright of true worship and that it should pertain to a particular Church denomination? Not at all! Expressions are not a theology.  The Bible says, King David was wearing an ephod made of fine linen consisting of two pieces covering both back and front (Exodus 28:6-8, 31-32) And there are some serious comments referring him to be almost naked. Are we then ready to follow even that? Another example I wish to state about King Saul, which is recorded in 1 Samuel 19:23-24. It says, “So he went to Naioth in Ramah. The spirit of God also came on him and as he walked along, he prophesized until he entered Naioth in Ramah. Saul then removed his clothes and also prophesised before Samuel; he collapsed and lay naked all the day and all that night. That is why they say, Is Saul also among the Prophets?” How do you translate this? Now, can this expression be a standard for prophesying? Stop confusing expressions and experiences to the Biblical mandate entrusted to us.

Today, Churches are fighting over so many doctrines. One major thing is over tongues and prophesying. Though Bible has given a clear parameters over the operation of spiritual gifts, yet there are many who are ambiguous and contradictory over this. How do you bring this all together? Let me take you to Paul’s revelations who at one instance narrates a little on his vision to third heaven. But most importantly want to refer a sentence that he emphasises. 2 Corinthians 12: 2-7 “I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the  body I don’t know God Knows . . . was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak. . . especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore , so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. . .”.  The most important thing in this for me is when he says this happened fourteen years ago. If it was us today, we would immediately develop a new language, a new doctrine and a new theology with a Church denomination and a training school. For Paul that was a revelation and a personal experience, and he did not tamper with the main mission to spread the gospel.

Church, your mission is not your spiritual experiences and your personal vision, but rather being successful in mobilizing your Church to win souls for Christ. Enough of building frameworks and walls to secure your Church. Let Christ’s mandate, the mission be nurtured and released.

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Church protected Mission ignored! Part-7

 

image by amenic181

John 12:24 “… unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”.

I recollect my experience working on a social project for a tribe in India. The terrain was not conducive at all for farming due to the extreme unlevelled land. Moreover, this terrain received very less rainfall compared to any other places in the state. Hence, our organization granted funds for levelling the ground and introduced hybrid seeds for a high yield. This initiative brought life among the tribal people because the yield was unimaginably high and helped solve few perennial problems like family migration, school dropouts and other issues. As a sustainability plan, the concept of seed bank was adopted where the seeds were preserved for future sale and use.

I thought I will use this concept of seed bank and draw parallels to unfold the work of the mission through the Church. The seed bank is not a preservation storage cell where the seeds are supposed to remain there forever. There may be variety of seeds, which are preserved in the seed bank, but all seeds are there to be sowed in the field. Unless we just want to have it for a public display, I am sure it is never meant to remain that way.

Seed is life and seed belongs to the field. Every person who finds the Savior and becomes a disciple is a seed to be sowed. This however is downplayed in Christendom, more specifically by the Churches today. Churches preserve the seed in their bank and ensure their yield is converted to money and benefits the Church institution. Let me remind and quote of what Jesus said about the concept of sowing. In John 12:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”. If you know the context in which Jesus says, you will notice it was said in response when the gentiles expressed their desire to Philip by saying this, in Verse 21 “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”. If you want to see a desperate life wanting to see Jesus then you should be prepared to sow the seed in the field, there is no other alternative.

Paul says the same in 2 Corinthians 9:10, “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, [h]supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”.  Notice the words “seed to the sower”. Pastors and Missionaries, if the seeds are supplied to you, it is for a divine grandeur purpose connected with Christ’s mandate, the Great Commission. Do not over-preserve it to make it useless. Many members today are seeds who are and who will never be sown back. They will be taught to stay inside the box and be there faithful all their lives, like fishes in the aquarium. And then we hypocritically and superficially declare we need revival in our churches and in our cities. We Churches and Christians involve in all kinds of prayer, like, intercessory prayer, Esther’s prayer, Nehemiah’s prayer, etc. and plead for souls, but least bothered with the seeds God has already entrusted to us. Are you seeing the deception dear people? I am deeply concerned and mourning over the grave superficiality of Christians today. It is time we repent. We are happy over the Sunday celebrations because it gives us power, adds wealth, and adorns us with status. At the end of the day seeds are wasted away. The members come and go week after week as a ritual. Churches are happy with the numbers because their institutions are preserved. The fertile land is ready, but the seeds are withheld from sowing. Church, since you are the seed bank, preserve it but then soon find ways to sow it back. Preserve the Mission not your Church institution.

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