Jesus' death and resurrection

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. (Romans 5:10 NLT) I have read many times this verse, but never realized the dual effect of Jesus's death and resurrection on me. I always believed that through Jesus's death on the cross and resurrection I am saved from eternal death. But now I can clearly see the two step process. Jesus's death on the cross washed away my sins and made me righteous with God the Father, restore friendship from the enemity. Step 2 - Jesus' resurrection saves me from the eternal fire, which would happen in the final judgement (Revelation)

Dad , your love and values continue

Beera Sundar Rao

A responsible son, caring husband, loving dad. Wonderful singer, tireless helper and a man of his word. Your love and values continue in your son and also daughters. Your sacrifices as well as all your good deeds to many, turned into blessings for us. Thank you Dad, for inculcating in us values and love for God and to help others as much as one can. You live in our lives through everything we learnt from you.

Rest in Peace

It pays to give

In these hard economic times, the one thing that is heard over and over is economic prudence, saving, and how to make the dollar go farther. This is all good and necessary, no doubt. Come the season of giving, Christmas, all Non-Profits vie for the donations, and we hear a lot about giving, generosity etc. How does this stack against getting the dollar go further?

Logic and basic math, says I cant part with my dollar. Got to be like the chipmunk that stores all the walnuts for winter. I got to hold on to all for the uncertain days ahead. Then at church I hear a message on generosity and what Kingdom Math is. What is Kingdom Math ? Well, basic math tells me if I subtract 2 from 5, the result is 3 But Kingdom math says if I subtract 2 from 5, the result is 9. WHAT? In other words, subtraction is multiplication.

5 -2 = 3 x n

What is this 'n' ?

It made me wonder how I can understand the above from the Bible. And here is what I found.

God commands me to love Him with all my mind, soul and being, and also my neighbor. How do I love God and my neighbor? by letting him do His will through me, and relying on Him for everything. By being kind and generous to my neighbor. Another point is stewardship, everything and anything I own or have is given to me to be a steward. So when I give or be generous, I am actually tapping into a source that is God himself. Of course, one needs to be wise and balanced in all actions. What I want to point out is You can be generous when you realize that you have a store that never runs out. That store is Jesus. Only those who clearly are conscious what they have, can be generous.

God provides, I know this from my personal experience, and also from His Word (Bible). This is counter intuitive, as everything that economic prudence or storing for the rainy day or if you think there is nothing you can give , tells me is no to be generous. But if you go ahead and in FAITH, take that plunge to be generous, whether in way of money, time or talent, you will see for yourself how Kingdom math works. This is not prosperity preaching. When you give something without expecting in return, just see how that affects you.

Take a Generosity test Drive, kick the tyres, go for a spin........

Repentance - all you ever wanted to know about

"If lost, follow GPS - God's Plan of Salvation"  - From the Sign board of Bellingham Baptist Church

Repentance is a key concept to understand God's plan of Salvation, yet is a difficult one to grasp. There are different shades or degree of repentance that is taught by churches, and one is confused by the multiple versions of repentance taught or understood. Of course, there is no other way to understand and know what Repentance means, but from the Scriptures and  personal  experience. I came across this resource that I found clear, with Scriptural backing and helps one to understand what the Scriptures talk about Repentance. Questions like, What is true repentance, after one repents, can one sin? What happens when after repenting one falls back in sin etc. I went through a quarter of the content and was able to find answers to most of my questions, that helped me understand godly repentance.

Click here Repentence to go to the page, it is a very long page.

A Prayer that you and I can offer daily

"Lord, today I want to do what You say regarding contentment; I want to have a calm and gentle spirit. I don't simply want to call myself a Christian. I want to be known as a genuine servant of God because my life demonstrates the truth I say I believe. Help me this day to face everything and deal with everyone with a gentle and quiet spirit. Help me to be content, even though things don't go my way.
"Help me today with diligence, Lord. I tend to lose sight of the goal as the day wears on. I'm a good starter, but I don't finish well. Help me to do a quality piece of work and not to give in to the mood of the moment.
"And, Lord, help me, when You begin to bring to pass these qualities in my life, not to call attention to them, but just to let them flow out of my life in glory to You. Help me to become Your servant, Your man, Your woman."

An object of faith to relate

Col 1:15 Message


We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created.




Since ages man always seeks an anchor, an object that he can relate to in anything he does. God, the Father is Spirit, and He commanded not to form any image or idol for worship. But we see even as He was instructing Moses, on mount Sinai, the people of Israel wanted an object that they can relate, see, touch and worship as their God. Mankind has been all along had this yearning to have an object of faith. As part of God's redemption plan for mankind, He satisfied man's yearning by sending His son , Jesus Christ to be a human. Mankind was given the opportunity to satisfy that desire to have an object of faith, worship - but what happened? Men rejected God's offering and instead decided to crucify Jesus. What does this tell? Man cannot make the right choice, even for something he desires. We are incapable to satisfy ourselves. But through the Father's grace, all of us who have been called to see Him in His son Jesus, now have an object of faith, that we can touch, talk, relate to. We now by believing in His son Jesus worship God in Spirit and Truth.
Thank you Father for your grace, and Jesus for being obedient to leave your glory an riches, so that we can worship the Father through you.

Mom's first death anniversary

Time flies, its a year since my mother passed away. I should have been in India, attending the Anniversary Prayer Meeting at Vizag with my family. However due to work situation, I chose not to be there.  Even though mom is not here, she always lives in my memories. My family and my sisters' families are testimony to her love, commitment and values. As I recall the memories,  I am reminded of her and dad through Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.


All our loved ones who passed away are urging and cheering each one of us here in our race that is set before us to receive the crown from the Almighty. That is such a refreshing thought and strength for me, especially when I am low.


Mom and Dad, you are up there cheering us on towards our goal. Love you always.

Who is the sower?

Scripture: Mark 4 : 1-20

Parable means beside , cast

Ordinary language to an ordinary audience
Extend the parable of the sower -
Focus on the title - what is it about? It's about the Sower
Questions - 
Why did the sower spread the seed over the different types of earth?
This method of broadcasting was used extensively in the parts of Galilee. 

The sower is the person who spreads the word of God. He has abundance of God's word. So he is extravagant. He does not worry about the people. He just broadcasts the good news. The good news should be like seed. Small, containing the ability to take root and sprout. Not one that is hard to understand and hard to take root. It is the responsibility of the sower to have the kind of seed that will Sprout. The next point is that it is not the responsibility of the sower to worry about the type of earth. That is something God and His Spirit will take care of. By means of cultivation, and fertilizer, infertile earth can be made to be fertile. But that is the job of the tiller.

So the Kingdom of God is people who go out and broadcast His good news to all types of people.

What do others see me as?

Rev 10:1
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

A special angel? A special representative of Jesus Christ, reflecting his glory. Remember Moses' face when he came down from Mt Sinai after being in the presence of God. His face was so bright that folks could not face him. When you spend time in the presence of God, His glory rubs on you in some way, that WILL be seen by others. What do others see in me/you?

Peace and Joy on earth

In this season we are all enveloped by the spirit of festivity. There is no escape from the marketing pitch by companies wanting to get us the perfect gift, the constant stream of holiday music, invitations for Christmas events - within the Church/Fellowships and at work. Listening to the group which says "Get Christ back into Christmas", you are convinced that they are right and feel unhappy at the barrage of activity aimed at eliminating the word Christmas, to be replaced by Holidays. And of course, you are under pressure to get the gifts for your family, for the teachers/bus drivers of your kid's school, send cards ..I am lousy at this !!

But have you asked yourself what Christmas means to you? Is it the festivity? nothing bad about this.. the gifts? hmm not sure if you foot the bill etc etc. Well it may mean depending on who you are. To a child, it may mean Santa, gifts, the tree. To a youngster, it may mean gifts (again), fun with friends. To an adult, it may mean food, pressures of the season. But whoever you are friend, somethings don't change. Let us go down memory lane back to 2000 years ago, and try to see what changed?

Sometime between Spring and the first rains falling in October, in Judea, a child was born to Mary in Bethlehem. You know the story. Mary, a virgin is chosen by God to deliver a son, named Yeshua who is God becoming a human to be one of us. I am not going to go into the Christmas story in the gospels. But instead let us look at the conditions then. It was a crowded place in Bethlehem. Due to the edict of Caesar, Bethlehem was packed with people -- just like the shopping malls now. Mary and Joseph could not get a place to stay, just like you cant find a parking spot. Everyone were busy enough not to pay attention to a fully pregnant woman and her husband. Life's too busy to slow down. Too many things to do, attend. And then the baby is born. But then the angels appear to the shepherds and tell them about the baby. They go seeking the baby. Now why do the do this? Are'nt they supposed to stay with the sheep and keep watch over them. So they neglect their duty, and decide to check out the mystery that was revealed to them. I am pretty sure they were shell shocked with all the angel thing, that they were overwhelmed, but chose to seek the mystery. Would we do that? Say an angel appeared to you and told you some good news, and then an angelic host appears glorifying God, what will be your reaction?

Well, Mary and Joseph did not have an easy time in Bethlehem. Finding a spot to rest was hard. Nothing was conducive. Sounds familiar? Jesus, even then was not welcome into this world. The prince of this world was indeed hard at work, making it hard and difficult. And then Herod felt threatened by the news of the birth of the King of Jews, and decided to take action. Kill all male children up to the age of 2. Sounds like, lets get rid of Christ in Christmas. But what happened? Jesus grew to be the man He was to be. He died, conquered death, and rose again. He completed what was necessary. He gave/gives His Spirit to all who repent and accept Him as their Savoir who took the punishment that is due on them, and gave eternal life.

But since that time, all out effort is underway to replace Jesus by things like Santa, tree, mistletoe etc etc. But does this change anything? no- because God reigns, and His will is being implemented. If you know His will and are sure that you have the Spirit of God in you, then you are sure about the outcome, your's and God's. Oh there are times of doubt, because the prince of this world is a master counterfeiter that he will scam you. But get back to rest on God, trust in His Spirit to hold you, get you up. Friend - Jesus said don't worry, so much that you are paralyzed with fear. You see, fear is a beast that will cause you to freeze if you allow it to get under your skin. This is up to you. You need to decide whether you trust in God, Who has finished doing all and is Victorious and is offering everything to you to be victorious. Or do you want to be bothered by all the distractions that you worry and get busy so much that you forget that , Jesus has already won the victory and is offering you the peace and joy for your spiritual self?

Do you want that peace and joy? Jesus said - Seek the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. He said, I am the Way, the Truth and Life.

May you have the peace and joy in your heart given as a gift from Jesus.

Happy Christmas.

Tamara Lowe raps - you gotta hear her

The Key to Success

Are you one of those who wish that there is a manual for success? Take a walk in a bookstore like B&N or Borders, you will find many a book that under the covers they will give you a recipe for success. Of course, the author would be the success if you buy one!!

Many a Christian, including myself wish that a clear direction from God Himself would be great, especially in prayer. I found such a direction and want to share. I am pretty sure you all have read the Gospel from Mark 11: 22-25

22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 

This is how I understand and apply it:

V22 - What we should do - Trust in God - Cause
V23 - Effect - if you trust in God,  in God all things are possible.
V24 - instruction: believe that you will receive everything you ask in prayer. This is an extension of the trust that you put on God.
V25: Continuation - I am still in prayer. In prayer, the first thing I need to do is to forgive anyone who has offended you. Without this step you will not receive the power of God. This is because your Father has forgiven you and that is why you are in His presence. God wants you to be like Him, so you too should forgive others the first thing in prayer, when you are pleading God for something.

Folks in this passage, the only part that is figurative is V23; Verses 22,24 and 25 are literal and direct instructions. Read the passage and meditate on it and do it. You will find what I meant in saying - "The Key to Success "

2010 July 4th FW

7 Must Have Soft Skills

If you are a IT and Project Management professional, it is highly relevant; if not you can still benefit by reading this. Successful professionals invariably differentiate themselves because of "soft skills". What is a soft skill ? Wikipedia says "Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people.^[1] Soft skills complement hard skills (part of a person's IQ), which are the occupational requirements of a job and many other activities." .

For further reading go to 7 Must Have Soft Skills - Part One

Who is a leader and how do you know?

This is an excellent read to know the difference between Management and leadership

What Leaders Really do

RI & MA Christian Family Conferences

The annual Family Conferences for RI & MA are being held on 7/25/10, and 7/31/10. Rev Dr Prasanna Kumar, a man of God from India is the keynote speaker. He is speaking on Victorious Christian Living at RI Conference and Power of Prayer at MA Conference. Rev Prasanna Kumar is blessed with the gift of healing.

Bible - Word of God

What is the book since the era of printing started that has been printed the most, sold, bought and revered the most? It's the Bible. For Christians the Bible is the one thing in their life that is tangible proof of their faith. You can touch it, mark the verses, write your notes. Yeah, its the common thing any self-respecting Christian would say. But what about doubts, questions about the contents, books, authors etc? 


As someone who grew up in a home where I was taught to revere, respect and treat The Book - holy, growing up I just took it as told, as I respected my mother. But then as I grew older, I started thinking objectively, digging deeper, how the different books in the Bible came together, who wrote them, their history etc. And of course I had my questions why only the current 66 books should be considered as the Bible, why not other books? In this age of Google and information explosion and deluge, you can be overwhelmed by the information available. Sifting through all that requires one to be diligent, which would be another post some day!!.


At the same time I was aware of the sufficiency of scripture, and its authority. Today reading a devotional that described Billy Graham's story, the light dawned on me what it is all about. Let me share the Billy Graham story first - 


Taken from the devotional of Pastor Jack Graham

"In his book The Journey, the great Billy Graham writes about coming to a point in his life of reconciling himself to the Scriptures as the complete and authoritative Word of God.
You see, early in his ministry, a friend had challenged Billy to change the way he talked about the Bible. His friend said that Billy's approach was outdated and irrelevant. And for a while, doubts swirled Billy Graham's mind.
Finally one night, sitting alone in a cabin, he thoroughly examined the Scriptures and what the prophets and apostles said about God's Word. And a little later on a walk in the forest, Billy knelt by a tree stump and prayed these words: "Oh, Lord, there are many things in this Book I don't understand. ... But by faith I'm going to accept it as Thy Word! And from this moment on I'm going to trust the Bible as the Word of God!"
From that day forward, when Billy preached, he confidently proclaimed, "The Bible says...!" And that message changed the world!"


I have come to know the attributes of God through the Bible (only by His grace). I now have this wonder, thankfulness and my total insufficiency when I look at Him. That is why through faith (strengthened by the scripture) I rely on Jesus for everything. I connected Billy Graham's experience, to mine. Yes I dont understand all that is in the Bible, but this I understand who God is, and I trust Him, and that He is in control, He reigns. Through the ages if He allowed the books to be 66 working through people, I will trust Him that the Bible is complete and authoritative Word of God. What I was missing is that I was focusing on the book and not on God. It is not about the book, but it is all about God, that is what the Bible is. Praise God for His mercies and His ways to open my heart and eyes.

Tagged

A list of tagged topics with verses from my daily scripture reading, which I would like to share with you all -

 

Isaiah's son (1) Isaiah 7:3 ("isaiah's son")
wow praise (1) Psalms 105:3-4 ("wow praise")
A direct directive to be followed (1) Ephesians 5:4 ("a direct directive to be followed")
to those who believed him (1) John 8:31 ("to those who believed him")
control your tongue (1) James 3:3 ("control your tongue")
how to be clean (1) Isaiah 1:16-17 ("how to be clean")
miracle like red sea parting (1) Joshua 3:16 ("miracle like red sea parting")
forgiveness (1) Luke 15:22 (forgiveness)
tongues, prophecy (1) 1 Corinthians 14:22 ("tongues, prophecy")
water (1) 1 John 5:7-8 ("3 testifiers of jesus- spirit" water blood)
all believers are priests (1) Isaiah 61:6 ("all believers are priests")
to lie (1) Numbers 23:19 ("god is not man" "to lie")
Joshua writes a copy of the law (1) Joshua 8:32 ("joshua writes a copy of the law" "the 1st copy?")
justice (1) Jeremiah 9:24 ("delight of god- love" truth justice)
1000 year rule by God (1) Isaiah 2:4 ("1000 year rule by god")
God talks to diviner too! (1) Numbers 22:9 ("god talks to diviner too!")
manna what is it (1) Exodus 16:15 ("manna what is it")

The Choice of Life and Death

I was reading my daily scripture portion from Deuteronomy 30, and verses 11 - 20 hit me bang, real hard. The section heading was " The Choice of Life and Death". In verse 11 God , Elohim, Yaveh is telling Moses, look what I have given to be followed is not hard, nor it is far off, and it is not in heaven or beyond the sea, that you say who will bring it to me?  But where is it? Now comes the clincher. V 14 - "But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it".

Honestly in all my life I did not hear this being preached or heard this portion of scripture. God is telling us the word is in my heart and in my mouth, so that I can do it. We tend to love the word, but what do we do with it. God is saying I gave you my word, placed it in your heart and in your mouth, to do what ? to do it. And in the next verses, a clear choice is given, the choice between life and death. Of course if I dont care about life or death , there is no need to do anything, but what if this is true. So the choice is clear and up to you. For those who have made the choice, one thing is clear. God called you to do his work, and He has put His word in your heart. That is all that I and you need.

Compliance Vs Commitment / Communication & Relationship

Mature Organisations constantly work on assessing the degree of Compliance and Commitment in their workforce. Leadership strives to implement policies that result in committed employees rather than just compliant employees. Studies have shown that if you succeed in having a committed workforce, productivity, innovation and the environment all together is positive. What is Compliance and Commitment? Webster's thesaurus defines Compliance as "a readiness or willingness to yield to the wishes of others" and Commitment as "something one must do because of prior agreement". A CEO would like to have his workforce be committed, rather than compliant. OK, let's ask ourself the question what am I - Compliant or Committed ?

Let me put it this way from the perspective of the Bible - Compliance is like following the Law, but Commitment is when you love your God with all your heart, soul and strength and follow Him, because of your agreement with God when you fell on your face, repented and accepted Jesus as your savior. When you are commited, because you love your God, you fulfill the law because you love Him. What does the Bible convey - Compliance or Commitment ? Those who think it is compliance, fail in being faithful, but those who view it as commitment - rise up even against all odds. I find that the core of Management theory is lot like what the Bible teaches.

Communication is critical in any organization. The type, frequency and channel used to deliver communication is critical in getting the message from the top to everyone. I place interaction and collaboration, equally important. When communication, collaboration go together, the result is a relationship. This is also recognized in the spiritual growth of a believer. Communication equals studying the Word. The Bible is the recording of God's communication to you. When you read the Word, it means that God is talking to you. That's one part of the communication. How do you respond ? It is through prayer. So without the reading of the Word and prayer, communication is not complete between you and God. You are also interacting in this dual activity of   reading the Word and being prayer, and this results in a growing relationship. All through the Bible, there is one single theme. God's relation with man. Do you have a relationship with God ? do you think that you have a relationship with God ?