Month: June 2025

Maundy Thursday

So, this is Jesus’ teaching in Matthew chapter 5:29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Is Jesus telling us to be handicapped? No, He emphasizes how important it is to lead a Christian life, striving to ‘*Be holy as He is holy*’ to be spared hell, even if you have to keep yourself from sinning at the cost of losing the body part that causes you to sin. 

The sinful trait that the Israelites repeated constantly is that they were attracted by what other nations around them did. They were attracted by the idols that the ‘other nations’ worshipped. They demanded to have a king, as the ‘other nations’ had kings. Bringing into their circle whatever  ‘others’ had was a snare for the Israelites. God has called us to be ‘set apart’ from others, and not to do what everyone else does. Let us be careful to discern the doctrines that people teach to live however we like. Flesh does not naturally desire to strive for a holy life. The path to the Cross is what Jesus teaches, and it’s gotta hurt. Jesus fell down and could not carry the cross. It’s gotta hurt to carry the cross. Carrying the cross cannot be as easy as singing and dancing and doing all the sinful things. Every day, unless our ways demand us to be intentional about following Jesus, we are not on the narrow path that leads to heaven. 

The Holy Spirit is given to us to help us become more and more holy. *John 16:8 The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment*. The gifts of the Spirit are given to us to build God’s Kingdom. The anointing and the gifts of the Spirit should be protected by living a Holy life. It is not the other way around. It does not excuse anyone to live recklessly. 

God does not clip the wings off people today as soon as they fall in their Christian walk, like He did to Satan, who once was the highest worship leader in heaven. If that were the case, then we would witness so many fall to the ground.  *Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable*. For this reason, leaders continue to fly with the wings of their calling and their gifts. So, let us not be deceived by their gifts, but carefully watch for the fruits that they yield. And, if the fruit is good or poisonous. 

Also, people who do not carefully guard the gifts that they receive from God are the ones to whom Jesus would say on the last day, the scariest verse in the Bible. So, gifts are not to flaunt here on earth but to use them to build God’s kingdom. 

*Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!*’

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Honor the glory of God

As I play a song, hitting one wrong key, even if it is right next to the correct one, would sound like a big blah. I don’t deafly play without knowing that I hit the wrong key. Even with all my inadequacy, if I can tell when I hit a wrong key, how much more should we be equipped in the Word of God, in these end of times of which Jesus warned in all seriousness?

Leadership is what everyone desires, of course, to “serve” God. Unless someone is deeply rooted in God, it is a snare that many fail to see. People are drawn by the glitz and glamor of the title’s power and ignore that a huge accountability factor is attached to these titles on the day you stand before the Lord. The realization of accountability happens only if people value the accounts that need to be given to God more than the applause that they receive in this world. With responsibility comes accountability. 

Moses honored the glory of God more than being granted a nation of his own, than being a leader of God’s people. In today’s world, I don’t understand how people who claim to be leaders tarnish the Name of God by their sinful ways and cover it in the name of anointing. I don’t understand what kind of “anointing” does not demand holiness and excuse sinfulness. 

Obedience is not just doing what God says to do, it is also not doing what God tells us not to do. David was claimed by God as a man after God’s heart. Yet, when it came to building the temple, God told him to back off. As David’s hand was stained with blood from murdering an innocent man, David wasn’t allowed to build the temple of the Holy God. We ought to learn humility from David. Though David is the one who desired to build the temple for the LORD, and He was the one who remembered to bring the Ark of God(presence of God) into Jerusalem after a long period, he just humbled himself before the Lord, remembering all the goodness that God showed him thus far. He thanked God for whatever God had done for him was beyond what he and his descendants deserved. Abraham’s obedience was not just offering Isaac as a sacrifice, but also stopping the knife the moment God told him to stop. Imagine, if Abraham could not discern God’s voice in either of these times, what would have happened? 

I hate, – is that a too strong word?- well, I despise ‘leaders’ who don’t have any regard for the glory of God’s Name. I despise leaders who tarnish God’s name by their sinful ways. I despise ‘leaders’ who mislead the blind sheep who follow them blindly, straight to hell. Sometimes, some are made leaders on a whim, like Saul. It was not done on a whim of God’s plan, but it was on a whim for Saul as he was only going in search of his dad’s lost donkey and was anointed as king. Saul did not seem to have any much connection with God. He could not recognize Samuel as the prophet. Yet God gives the means and the time for them to grow deeper in the Lord. Being handed an honorable position and access to the greatest prophet Samuel, Saul had his chance to grow in the Lord and be obedient to Him. But he feared people more than he feared God. God still kept him as a king for 40 years and still, Saul got nowhere close to God and killed himself at the end. David, on the other hand, grew his relationship with God in the wilderness, anointed and yet humbly herded the sheep, could not stand it when a giant despised his God and was on the run for his life for doing the right thing. Twice God tested David, when he was on the run for his life, to see if David would jump ahead of God’s timing and kill Saul when he was at a hand’s reach. But David did not. He knew that God was able to keep His promise. 

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