Empty and Noisy

 

 I know the saying Empty vessels make more noise. Empty, dry, and purposeless is what we often feel deep inside of us? No doubt we are living in a noisy and dusty world. If not mindful, our minds can easily become dirty and our life seems purposeless. 

One rainy afternoon as I stepped outside my house, I saw an empty water bottle tossed on the road making its squeaking noise as it gets hit by the tires of the cars and trucks. This thought flashed in my mind that it is similar to a life without purpose, empty, wandering on the road of life here and there and not serving its purpose. I pondered on that and asked myself does that resemble my life at this juncture?

A life well lived in the past does not guarantee a life of purpose in the present. Every day needs a reminder of who we are and for what we are made for? Also, every day demands the renewal of our minds to understand our purpose in this life.

We do a lot of stuff every day to keep ourselves awake, busy, and occupied and still, it is possible that we feel empty and hide our emotions behind the carpet of the busyness of work. But God in His wisdom knew our hearts are weak, lonely, crazy, and most often empty.  The noise of our silence within us is bothering and makes us ask why we are living such a life?

Surely our silence is guilty silence before our Holy God. God in His great Love and Mercy sent his only son Lord Jesus to save us from this wretched condition of our hearts and mind to have a right standing with God and experience the plethora of His peace and His grace in our lives. The greatest delight in this life is to have meaning and purpose in knowing that we are adopted into the family of God and called children of God (Eph 1:5).  

The question is do we know this God who is so Merciful, so Loving and All-knowing?

Let our minds be deeply saturated with God and His presence every day to overcome fear and Sin. We need to humbly meet God every day (10-15 mins) with all our load of trouble and heaviness of heart.  It is our individual responsibility to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Prov 4:24; Ro 12:1-2; 2cor 11:3).

Enjoy God in simple ways for this is the chief end of man in this life!

What to do when we don’t know what to do... (Lockdown days)

1. Thank God that you are alive and able to breathe the air. Ask God why he has spared you?

2. Don’t be gripped by fear and anxiety as many leave this world. God is in complete control and our lives are in His hands.

3.Don’t be greedy to hoard more things. Spare for others and lend a helping hand to someone who is in need.

4. Skip a meal in a day (if you can) and feed the hungry and the needy ones (Isa 58).

5. Learn to be quiet in the presence of God and be silent before God.

6. Spend ample time in reading God’s word and meditate during these stormy times and record your notes as God speaks.

7. Keep yourselves industrious at home, cultivate a new habit, and share those fun experience with others.

8. Learn and master a new skill during this difficult time, that which can help you in the days to come.

9. Make a call to a friend who is in need of help, someone who is lonely and depressed that you can be a source of encouragement.

10. Set aside your mobile phone /gadgets for some time and spend quality time with your loved ones.

11. Create a blog and personally journal your thoughts about God, people whom you love, things that you cherish most.

12. Be wise and take all precautions in protecting yourselves (wear a mask, sanitize) and your family.  

13. As you wash your hands repeatedly, be reminded that the blood of Jesus alone can remove the dirt of your hearts (1 Jn 1:9).

14. Please do not forward immediately any fake news that you receive without verifying it. Let’s stop the lies.

15. Stay away from negative people and be positive in your thinking.

16. Learn to smile at others, it is contagious. You will not lose anything.  

17. Trust God, and do not fret (Psl 37).

18. Serve God in whatever ways he open doors for you (Rev 3:8).

19. Be always thankful!

20. Keep the faith and keep going through all your storms.

FOUR END-TIME ETHICS

1 Peter 4:7-11

⁷ Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. ⁸ Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰ Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (HCSB)

Background:

Date – (62-64 AD) – Nero’s time

AD 70 - Destruction of Jerusalem temple.

Also, it was a time of severe persecution.

“…‘the end of all things’ here is the entire end of the Jewish economy in the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the holy people… It is quite plain that in our Lord's prediction the expressions ‘the end,’ and probably ‘the end of the world,’ are used in reference to the entire dissolution of the Jewish economy” (Expository Discourses on 1 Peter, vol. Ii. Pp.292-294).

These are vital signs of a healthy Christian life.

1st Ethic - Be watchful for Prayer  v.7

·       Many of us could possibly become weary of praying. Especially times like this. Easily we become prey to the devil and stop praying.  

·       Luke 18:1 – Lord Jesus said to his disciples – don’t give up praying.

·       As we are living in last days – make prayer a non-negotiable discipline in your life.

·       If we fail to pray now we will fail to pray even later.

·       It is time for all of us to be watchful and pray. 

     2nd Ethic - Love one another intensely v.8

·       Today we know relationships are falling apart. Losing its value & meaning.

·       1 peter 1:22b - By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart

·       Not only the love of many has become cold today, but it has frozen. Only God needs to break our hardened hearts and show us what love is – He demonstrated it for all of us on the calvary. Pure and sacrificial love.

·       Have you received or understood this unconditional love on the cross?

·       Ro 5:5 - Apostle Paul says – "God has poured out His love into our hearts through His spirit".

·       Spirit of God can help us in loving even tough and difficult people.

3rd Ethic  - Be Hospitable v.9

·       We are not living in isolated islands. We are living in close communities.

·       Now this pandemic has even made this more miserable. keeping our doors closed for others.  

·       Romans 12:9-13 - Apostle Paul also speaks this in the context of spiritual gifts.

     Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in   zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

·       How as families and individuals we can show this hospitality in times like this?

4th Ethic - Use your spiritual Gifts to Glorify God. Vv 10,11

·       Here in this passage, we see serving gift and speaking gift. Every believer in Christ will have at least one spiritual Gift. (1 cor 12, Ro 12, Eph 4, 1 Pet4)

·       If you ask me why there is no growth in our spiritual life? I would say it is because we haven’t discovered our giftedness yet.

·    Do you know what spiritual gift/ gifts you have? Discover it and use it. 

Conclusion

All these ethics will make sense only if you are born again.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead".   1 Pet 1:3

Believe in the Gospel and be saved. Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross. He was buried and raised on the third day. He will come back as he promised to judge the world and take us home.

Let God bless our hearts and give grace to all of us to practice these end-time ethics and bring glory to his name.

Note: This message was shared virtually on 22.4.2021 on the Memorial Thanksgiving service for late Mrs.Glory Jacob (My grandmother).

Amen!

Three Portraits of a Troubled Heart - Psalm 13

Intro

When life hits with many sorrowful events how do we react?

What we do during these difficult moments of life?

We ask questions to God?

     David’s circumstance is not clearly described for us clearly in this psalm – in one sense it is good for us. We can apply this psalm to any of our life situations.

      Are you going through any painful situation currently in your life? If then Read the following lines and allow God to speak to your situation and find healing and comfort from this psalm. 

Psalm 13

A Psalm of David. (ESV) 

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul

    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,

    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

 The stanzas seem to decrease in their magnitude or turmoil. At first, David cries out in anguish. Then he offers a gentler petition. Finally, he rests in the joy of knowing that God will answer him.

The psalm falls into three stanzas of two verses each: 1. The condition (13:1‑2); 2. The cry (13:3‑4); 3. The celebration (13:5‑6).

 1. Condition of our Hearts vv 1-2

 

·       We feel forgotten v.1a

God seems to be far away and we feel forgotten

What experience in your life makes you feel that you’re forgotten by God?

Feeling of estrangement due to sin?

 

·       We feel forsaken v.1b

God allows difficult situations to form our character. Sometimes feeling lonely is good, at least we get back to God from our despair

We often feel isolated from the human relationship and also from God himself.

Sorrowful v 2b

Subdued by enemies – 2c

Usually, our response could be: To waste our time not doing anything useful or we could work too much (workaholic) to hide our emotions.

 

Illus: A Scottish pastor was sharing in one of his sermons, that he will not do the following things when he is sad:

·       Not making any major decisions.

·       Not to write any letters.

·       Not to judge my spiritual life.

·       Not to judge others spiritual life.    

 2. Cry of our Hearts vv 3-4

It’s not a matter of why we cry? but to whom do we direct our cry?  v.3

Do we comfort direct our cries to God? He alone is concerned to listen to our cries and answer us in any situation.

 

Illus - My friend from Bangalore – who lost his mother and sister during this lockdown time. Lost his mother-in-law too in a month’s time and the whole family was grieving the loss of their loved ones.  It is really hard and painful to go through such grief in life.  

 

·       Our Heart before God v 3a

How genuine and real are we before God?

Do we pretend everything is fine in our lives?

Someone said: "The Heart of the matter is the matter of the heart".

 

·        Our Discouragements/ Disappointments/ Darkness v 3b,4

It can be any circumstance in our life. Bring to God and cry unto him.

we have plenty of examples in the bible who have gone through pain and sorrow in their hearts.

1.Elijah – 1 king 19 – depressed – we know the context who was Elijah in 1 kings 18.

2.Hannah – 1 sam 1

v.  3 Light up my eyes.

Hannah – her countenance changed.

Illus – famous Christian hymn - lines

When darkness veils His lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

3. Celebration of our Hearts vv 5-6

How can we celebrate when we are sorrowful?

How is it possible to rejoice in God when everything around us looks bleak and hopeless?

I believe only a believer in Christ can rejoice in all circumstances. (Phil 4)  

It needs lots of grace from God. 

Illus – I know a student in the college where I teach who is a good singer. She plays guitar and sings. Recently one student who was attending an online class – passed away a couple of weeks back. His death was sudden – and an early one.  This person was from the same village and  Knew him very well. And her heart was deeply saddened and she refused to sing that morning.

David’s situation did not change but his perspective changed. This is what God expects from us too.

3 reasons for celebration

·       Trusting in God’s Steadfast love v. 5a

·       Rejoicing in His salvation v 5

·       Singing, because of his goodness v 6

 

Conclusion

How about the condition of our hearts as we read this psalm?

Are we really able to sing to the Lord joyfully? Or do we pretend before others?

Bible gives us hope - Only in New heaven and in new earth – storms will be finally stilled – no more cry – no more pain.

Jesus said in john 16:33

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world”.

Illus: Recently in 2020 I was attending AIPC (All India Pastors conference) I came across a book named the valley of vision – edited by Arthur Bennet. prayers of the puritans. Few lines that comforted me are as follows:

“that the valley is the place of vision. Lord,

in the daytime, stars can be seen from deepest wells,

and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,

thy life in my death,

thy joy in my sorrow,

thy grace in my sin,

thy riches in my poverty

thy glory in my valley”.

 

Application  

1. Cry unto God – Be real & honest in your emotions before God.

2.Learn to rejoice and Sing in all circumstances. 

God bless!

 

Tribute to my dear Ammachi (1924 – 2020)

Missed a valuable person today (22-04-2020) from the face of the earth. It was a grim reminder to me that death is inevitable. One day I too will face it.

Glory Maragatham was her name. She was born in a small town in TamilNadu, was married to Mr. Jacob, a made for each other couple. She was a teacher in govt high school in Karur and served as Headmistress in various schools in Tamil Nadu.  She has four children, 8 grandchildren, and 11 greatgrandchildren. God has blessed all of us abundantly. As listed in proverbs 31, she was a prudent woman, blessed by God to be a blessing to others.

All the grandchildren call her dearly ‘Ammachi’. She is close to all of us. She was really a prayerful woman, a devoted person, and a woman of faith. She was consistent in her faith life and prayed for all of us.

I still remember she is the one who taught me the old Tamil song Magizhvom Magizhvom for the first time during my school days when she came to our home at Ooty. She was a good geography teacher and taught me during summer vacations.

On every birthday of mine for several years, I remember she sends money-order through the post and with a postcard handwritten with lots of love and scripture promises. She remembers every need when we share with her and she prays earnestly with concern.

She loves eating sweets (poolipu mittai) and shares with us after every meal. She took care of me like a mother when I was working in night shifts in Bangalore. She checks on me whether I had food or not before I sleep. She was such a sweet and loving grandma I had.

How can I forget that she came to my wedding in 2012 to Hyderabad from Chennai and blessed me and Vasantha. We as a family cherish every moment spent with Ammachi. I could not even imagine how she could travel such a far with all her weaknesses. She is really a strong-willed person.

Thanks to God as we could recently visit her and spend time with her and sang songs with her. I still cherish her humor. With a grateful heart, I thank God for all these memories to recollect on this day. There are many more memories that I could not describe in my words. But I cherish those in my heart.

I learned about prayer from her life. To keep praying persistently to God even when the answers are delayed. Also, I learnt how important to intercede for others. One day personally she said to me I never pray for myself; I always pray for others. That really challenged me. 

Her life was well-lived. A simple and plain life. She was 96 when she entered eternal glory. She lived life to the fullest for God’s Glory as her name sounds. A good example to all of us. I salute her for leaving a legacy to our family. Let her soul rest in peace in God’s presence. One day I will see her in eternity. This is the hope of Resurrection for all those who die in Christ.

No Jesus -No Heaven; Know Jesus -Know Heaven. Amen!

Why our prayers go unanswered?

At times we don’t see answers to our prayers. We even feel sometimes lets not pray. At the end we try to conclude that our faith is so small and God is ignoring our prayers.

Below are the seven reasons as a reminder to check why our prayers are unanswered.

1. When we cherish sin in our hearts

Psl 66:18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened”.

Jer 4:14 “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer” - JC Ryle

We battle with sin every day in our words, thoughts, and in deeds. Can there be a day in our lives without sin? As rightly said by Bishop JC Ryle sin chokes prayer. Sin and prayer are like oil and water and they cannot go together.  

Let us determine not only to confess our sins to God but also to renounce them to find God’s mercy (Prov 28:13).

2. When we turn a deaf ear to Gods word

Prov 28:9 “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination”.

When was the last time we implicitly obeyed the word of God in our lives? Today, we have lot of opportunities to hear Gods word through various ways. What is our response to Gods word? We read most of the time for sake of others, showing how much knowledge of the bible we can display. God demands obedience on our part, not mere knowledge. James 1:22 exhorts us to be doers of God’s word rather than mere hearers of His word.

3.When we pray with wrong Motives

Jas 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions”.

Our Motives could be sinful or self-centered. I know it’s quite difficult to analyze our motives every time we pray. Let us be conscious in the presence of the Lord not very careless with our words when praying. We often pray lengthy prayers for God to listen to us and our prayers seems to be unanswered. Let us pause for a while and give careful consideration towards our motives. May God heal our sinful and self-centered motives. 

4. When we are self-righteous and not humble before God.

Lk 18:9-14 “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The parable explains it all. Humility is prerequisite in our prayer life. Sometimes we are too proud to be humble and boast about ourselves like the Pharisee in this parable. God hates self-righteous attitude in our lives. Rather let us be clothed with Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s humility in our lives.

Let us learn to pray with humble hearts and set aside all our self-righteous attitude.

5. When we pray without Faith

Mk 11:22-24 “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”.

One thing God admires in us when we pray, is our level of faith and not our fluency. Max Lucado says ‘It is not the quantity of words rather the quality of words’ that matters most in prayer.

God’s word reminds us “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6).

Faith has become a rare commodity today. In Luke 18:8b the Lord tells when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?

(You can read my earlier blog article on prayer – ‘Try these ‘add ons’ to your prayer life’) posted on 16^th Feb 2010.

6. When we have unforgiving spirit towards others

Mk 11:25-26 “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”.

We can offer lengthy prayers. We could be sound in our theology of prayer. But if we don’t have forgiving spirit towards others, it is not easy to get answers for our prayers. 

As we received forgiveness from God let us demonstrate our gratitude towards Him by forgiving others (Eph 4:32b).

7. When we rely on our own strength and not on God

2 chron 20:12b, 15b, 18a

Observe the following words of King Jehoshaphat:

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 chron 20:12b)

King Jehoshaphat sets an awesome example to all of Gods people by completely depending on God and to trust firmly that the battle belongs to God (v.15b).

In v 18 – “Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord”.

Is our life going without prayers? I would encourage you to make prayer your daily spiritual exercise. It is not just praying only during the time of crisis. Everyday let us come before God and have an appointment with Him. God loves to hear our prayers. What really hinders us to go to God in prayer? Is it our unanswered prayers? If then consider these reasons. 

Thank you. God Bless!

O' what a Day to Remember!

I recollect this day in the year 2001 how Christ made a difference in my life. I accepted Him as my personal Lord and savior (7.4.2001) through a simple way but it has changed my life’s direction and goal. As I look back from now, I don’t have any regrets in making that decision. He has always been faithful to me (1 Cor 1:9).  On this day I contemplate the joy I had that very night I received Him in my life. All I had was a simple childlike faith to go to Him and confess my sins and by faith received Him as my Lord and Savior.

In this brief post I like to share how I led to that decision on that day and how significant it is. So that if you have not received Him in your life, you can confess your sins and receive Him by faith as your Lord and Savior. Will you? Trust me you will never regret for making this costly decision.

As I was young and energetic youth I was so active in attending church meetings regularly and had many Christian friends, also went to lot of Christian camps but still my heart was far from God. I still haven’t surrendered my life to God. I attended a youth meeting in our church at Coimbatore on 7th of April. That very afternoon I have come to know how John Stott, a good Christian evangelical writer, received the Lord in his life during his school days.

I dropped the preacher after the meeting in my bike to the nearby stop. While driving the preacher asked me have you received Jesus in your life? I just nodded my head but deep within I know who I am. That very evening I started to search my book shelf and found a book named ‘Truth about Jesus’ by John Stott. I started reading this book because I heard about this man that afternoon. Coming to a particular chapter –chapter 10 – ‘Reaching a decision’, Stott expounds the verse Rev 3:20 poignantly. It meant a lot to me that evening. I believe I was convicted by the Spirit of God and I confessed my sins to Him and with tears received Him through faith. Truly it was joy filled night to me. I ran to share to one of my friend next day morning about my new spiritual experience. He too was excited and prayed with me. O’ what a Day to Remember!

I beseech every reader of this article to think about your own life. Have you received Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?

Delay not for making this decision. Your life will be safe in His hands. God has a good plan for your future (Jer 29:11).  

Don’t try Him, rather Trust Him in simple faith!