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No one but Him

We went on a Disney Cruise trip to celebrate our tenth marriage anniversary. One of the days, we spent on the island of Castaway Cay, which is a private island. The entire passengers of that ship were on this beach. My boys and I were on floaters, closer to the shore. My older son cautiously stayed very close to the shore. My younger son was 4 years old then and I was in my floater holding onto his floater so that we were together. We did not realize that around 15 feet into the water, it was extremely deep. I thought that we were staying in the same spot close to the shore but we were drifting away from the shore. When my husband came back fetching a floater for himself, he saw that I and my younger son had drifted towards the deeper part. He swam towards us and grabbed hold of my son’s floater and took him to the shore.

Swimming in the sea wasn’t easy and he was all out of breath so he did not come back to get me but he went over to the lifeguard and told him that I am unable to paddle back to the shore and asked him to help me. In the meantime, the sky became dark and the lifeguards whistled for everyone to get out of the beach due to the danger of lightning strikes. I tried paddling back but I was going in circles in my floater.

As I was going in circles, suddenly I thought to jump off the floater by holding on to the handle and using it to swim back. My husband understood the stupidity of what I was about to do and immediately warned me not to jump off the floater – no matter what! So I continued trying to paddle back but in vain. As I looked around, it was only me left in the water. Everyone else had gotten out of the water for fear of lightning dangers. Now I started to get a little worried, as I was unable to make any progress and the lifeguards weren’t helping either.

When hope of help from man ends, the one who is ever so faithful helped me to see a floater rope that was tied from a lifeguard station in the water which extended to the shore. By God’s amazing grace, I quickly held on to that rope. Seeing that, the lifeguard told my husband that I will be fine and will get to the shore. I understood one thing – this rope was my hope of getting to the shore and I started to move step by step by holding on to the rope.

But, so unexpectedly, the rope slipped off my hand because I hurriedly let go of my hand before holding it with the other hand. And the rope started to slide over my leg. God gave me the quickest wisdom in that microsecond that if I let go of this rope, my situation was back to hopelessness. In that microsecond, God helped me to quickly grab hold of the rope with my leg as it was sliding. Then I quickly grabbed it with my hand and again started to move towards the shore, this time I was carefully making sure that I was holding it without letting it go. I made it safely to the shore.

As in the story of Joseph, his last hope seemed to be the cupbearer whose dream Joseph helped interpret. Joseph had no doubt that the cupbearer will be restored to his position in the palace. He asked the cupbearer to put in a good word to Pharaoh so that he could also be released from prison.

Psalm 146:3,5 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.

As expected, the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph. Two years went by. The hope that the cupbearer would put in a word to the King diminished to nothing. I imagine how Joseph’s emotions would have been. I wonder if he still had any faith left. Though day times would have kept him busy as he was in charge of the prison, the night times would have often left him with the question, “Where are You, God? Why would you let this happen to me? Are You the One who gave me those dreams?”

When there was no hope left to put on man, God came through in His never-failing faithfulness. In God’s time, Joseph stood before the King, just as He promised. The cupbearer was sent before Joseph. He stayed a cupbearer, but Joseph was raised to be the second in command to the King. We serve a God who alone is the promise keeper! Our help comes from Him alone and no one else. Amen!

Genesis 49:23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

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The Three Robes

Out of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph was his favorite. To show his favoritism, Jacob made a special robe of many colors for him. And Joseph waltzed around in his robe which made his brothers jealous and angry toward him. Joseph who was clueless about all this hatred added more to it by bringing bad reports about them to Jacob. This made the brothers even more furious and they no longer spoke kindly to him.

One day, Joseph saw a dream and he couldn’t keep it to himself so he shared it with his brothers. In his dream, they were all binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly Joseph’s sheaf rose and stood upright while his brothers’ sheaves gathered around his sheaf. Hearing this, the brothers snapped at him asking if he would rule over them. Another day, Joseph saw a dream again. This time he shared it with his father and his brothers. In his dream, he saw that the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him. This annoyed his father as well and he rebuked him for his dream.

Jacob’s sons went to graze their sheep in a distant place. Jacob sent Joseph to visit them and see if they were doing well. As Jacob reached the place where his brothers were, they recognized him from a distance in his special robe. They grew furious and plotted to kill him and throw him into one of the pits. But Reuben, the oldest brother, suggested throwing him into the pit, in the plan to let him escape later. So they stripped Jacob from his special robe and threw him into the pit.

As they saw Ishmaelite merchants heading to Egypt, they decided to sell Joseph and make a profit out of him. The Ishmaelite merchants sold Joseph to Potiphar who was the captain of Pharoah’s palace guard. Meanwhile, Joseph’s brothers dipped his robe in a goat’s blood and sent it to their father and made him believe that Joseph got killed by wild animals which left Jacob to mourn in sackcloth.

The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered and he lived in the house of Potiphar. God gave success in everything Joseph did and he was made in charge of Potiphar’s household. Joseph was a well-built and handsome young man. Potiphar’s wife approached Joseph with wrong intentions to which Joseph wouldn’t yield. One day, as she bothered him again, he asked her, “How can I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?“. She caught him by his robe but Joseph left his robe in her hands and ran outside. Potiphar’s wife used that robe to cook up a story against Joseph and he was thrown in the prison.

The LORD was with Joseph in the prison and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So Joseph was put in charge of all those held in the prison. A while later, Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker were put in the same prison. One day, they both looked down in spirit and so Joseph inquired them. They both shared a dream they saw and they could not understand the meaning. Joseph instantly interpreted the meaning to them which happened exactly as he interpreted. On the third day, the baker was impaled to death while the cupbearer was sent back to the palace. Joseph asked the cupbearer to put in a good word about him to the King so that he can be freed from prison. But the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph.

Two years went by. Joseph was still in the prison. One day, King Pharaoh was very troubled as he saw two dreams, one after the other and he could not understand what they meant. As he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt to interpret the dreams for him, no one could. Then the cupbearer remembered Joseph in the prison and informed the King. The King sent for Joseph to be brought before him. Immediately, the officials got Joseph ready to go before the King and they put on new clothes and a grand robe on him. Joseph interpreted the King’s dreams by giving glory to God Almighty who is the source of all wisdom and hidden mysteries. The King put Joseph in charge of the whole of Egypt and took his signet ring and had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command.

Joseph was stripped from his first robe, he let go of his second robe and he was raised to honor with the third robe.

Psalm 105:19 Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose.

1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Trust Him and rest on Him. He knows what He is doing! Amen.

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In the details

A friend in church asked me to do an art for a specific verse. The verse he gave me is

Isaiah 32:18 NLT My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.

I felt very excited to do this art and landed on a picture for reference and started working on the art. I spent so much time on painting the rustic house, focusing on the details of the wood and such. I felt very happy with the outcome of the art. As I shared the picture with my friends to get their opinions, a friend said, “It seems the house needed lots of work”. I felt touched by those words because it is true that I put so much effort into the house. What struck me is that if a mere art can reflect the effort that is put into it, how much more would reflect as we strive to live a holy life? In the same manner, if we are ignorant in our spiritual walk, then the fruit of the flesh takes over and makes us unworthy of heaven, as it says in

Galatians 5:19,20 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

It takes no effort to indulge in the fruit of the flesh as it is a slippery slope and one thing leads to the other. But the fruit of the Spirit needs lots of work and constant self-analysis.

1 Peter 1:16 Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”.

If we start to focus on each area of our life and bring it captive to God, we will start to become more and more like Christ in us. Amen!

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Handmaid of the Lord

As I sat at the watch-night service at church, pushing all my prayer requests to God to use me in more and more ways in 2023, (surprisingly I didn’t have any other requests than being used by God ) and I remembered something God had answered in 2022. In 2021, after amma went to be with the Lord, things were really difficult with dad. While juggling all of that, I had a deep desire up to the point of obligation that I wanted to use all the talents that God has given me for His Kingdom’s work. I started to even fret that if I don’t use my talents, God was going to ask me when I stand before Him. I started to earnestly pray for open doors. And my gracious God did open doors for me in 2022 in such a way that I was able to raise a big amount this year. I have contributed more than what I raised for Missions. If I had $40 at a time, I would add $10 and make it $50 and contribute.

The missions God graciously enabled me to support this year through my contributions are

Calvary Missions
Calvary Mission – Rwanda eye surgery camps
- Open doors USA – to distribute bibles in persecuted places
  - Compassion – malnourished kids
    - GEMS India
    - Homeless people in our areas
    - Elohim gospel ministries
      - Wayside shelter

I am just filled with gratitude towards God as He honored the desire of my heart and opened doors for me and gave me a purpose. My prayer is that God will make me into a vessel that will be useful for His Kingdom in many ways and not just one or two ways.

Also, God who is not a debtor to anyone provided me with the finances ahead of time to be able to cover the costs of the inventory. I was stuck in my job with no raise or promotion for 10 years. Last year God miraculously gave me a promotion and raise and so I didn’t have to worry about the expenses. Isn’t God awesome? Glorify our God with me.

Isaiah 41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, ‘you are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away’.

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Back to the trail

Today is December 31st – the last day of the year. I came across an article about a hiker lady in her 60s who was hiking thru the Appalachian trail which is considered an extremely challenging route. The hiking started well with another hiking partner. But due to circumstances, her hiking partner had to return back and this lady continued by herself. One day, as she stepped off the trail into the woods, she got lost. As she desperately tried to get back to the trail, she went in circles deeper into the woods. She tried to get help in whatever ways she could, by leaving trails of her stuff, tying her blanket on the tree for attention, and such. As her husband didn’t hear from her as expected, teams were dispatched to find her. Even when she saw and screamed for help as she saw helicopters, they could not see her through the thick trees. She grew physically exhausted and mentally weak. She completely ran out of food too. Finally, she wrote a final note to whoever would find her to inform her husband and daughter and to hand over her things to them. She was found 2 years later, as a skeleton inside her sleeping bag in her tent. Such a heart-wrenching story!

I do not know anything much about hiking. But as I read through the comments, there were several tips people had posted that a hiker is expected to be aware of. If they step off the trail to relieve themselves, tie a rope to the tree in the trail and then take the rope with them inside the woods so they can get back to the trail without getting lost, keep a satellite phone and so many such tips. As I read through these comments, I wondered if this lady went into such an extremely challenging trip underprepared?!

I couldn’t help but think of how an earthly hiking trip can go so wrong when attempted underprepared, how about the journey towards eternity? Like this hiking trip, are we underprepared without the knowledge of The Way, The Truth, and the Life – Jesus? John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Like this lady who did not have a phone that can connect through satellite regardless of the deep woods where she was, are we trying to live and find our way out without knowing how to connect with God Almighty who is the only One who can take us out of any deep situations? Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. And He alone is the promise keeper. May we hold on to Him who has promised us to lead our way till eternity with Him.

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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Holiness – MANDATORY

1 Thessalonians 4:7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.

When my younger son was two months old, we took him out to the mall for the first time on a Black Friday. That night, he had a very high fever and we rushed him to the emergency. The doctors wanted to rule out the possibility of any infection and so wanted to do a spinal fluid tap. They suggested that I wait with my older son outside as it would be hard to watch the procedure. As I stood in the hallway with my older son, I cried out to God. As I stood there crying out, a thought kept coming again and again. That was about me listening to movie songs during that time. As my younger son would cry every time I kept him in the car seat to drive to my older son’s school, I started to listen to movie songs to help me focus on driving and not be distracted by his crying. I realized that listening to secular movie songs is a downward spiral. It makes us more and more addicted to listening to it and it corrupts our minds and thoughts. As I felt like it was God convicting me of this new habit, I cried out to God to forgive me and not punish my son for my mistake and that I will not listen to movie songs any longer. By God’s amazing grace, my son did not have any infection. When the results of the spine fluid came, it was ruled out as fever due to being in a crowded place.

By God’s grace, I kept my promise for close to a decade by not listening to movie songs. Down the line, my promise from the emergency room turned lukewarm and I would listen to these songs occasionally at work while juggling multitasking. I soon noticed a pattern whenever I started to listen to these songs, I would land on a problem from which only God could save me and I started to understand that maybe that was God’s way of reminding me of my promise. Soon after this decision, by God’s grace, I became part of the worship team in our Indian church. From then on, I had set my mind that I will neither listen to nor sing secular movie songs with the same mouth with which I would sing worship songs. James 3:11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? By the strength God gave me, I never wavered from that decision. Though I wasn’t striving to do holy living during those days, this decision had been a starting point. Eventually, God honored that stand and turned around my life and gave me the desire to live in a way that pleases Him, to strive to live a holy life, and not to ignorantly please my fleshly desires.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 God’s will is for you to be holy.

Though many would justify secular songs by saying that it is “just music”, it is not “just music” As we know that Satan was an angel in heaven who was the highest worship leader and fell to his doom due to pride, he knows how to use music to corrupt human minds. I have felt the addiction that secular music brings to our minds. Though while listening, it would feel so entertaining, it does no good to our soul. It simply gives a temporary pleasure while getting us all tangled in this downward spiral. On the other hand, Christian hymns and pure worship songs that praise and glorify God brings so much peace and joy that is unexplainable regardless of what heavy burdens we go through. Devil is so cunning that he infiltrates even the worship songs these days. We ought to be careful about being carried away simply by the tunes and the words of worship music also and carefully analyze if it truly brings worship to God or it exalts oneself.

1 Corinthians 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

As believers in Christ, we are called to strive to live a life that reflects the holiness of Jesus. Even though we cannot attain holiness in our own strength and ability, Jesus should be at least able to see that we are striving hard to live holy and thus He would help us to live holy.

Galatians 5:16 Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.

We are naturally drawn to the music of the world. But we are having to discipline ourselves to listen and sing only His worship for the same reason as above. Our Christian walk is like a glass of pure milk. Every worldly thing that we allow into us is like a drop of poison added to the milk. If the poison itself is white in color, the milk would still look white, but would we drink it?

Jesus was able to boldly say that the devil had nothing in Him because He did not allow anything of the world to be found in Him. In the same way, may we not give any room for anything that belongs to the devil. There is no middle ground. It belongs either to God or the devil. In everything that we do, may we carefully check if it belongs to God or the devil? Like Daniel, may we set it in our hearts that we will do only what honors God! AMEN!

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Fishy Expedition

After taking a break from doing any gardening or outdoor activities for the past two years, I felt very eager to get back to it. That included keeping fish in a barrel with a lily plant. Though I was going to be out of town for more than 20 days, I still went ahead and bought the lily plant and 3 goldfish. The goldfish is cheap to buy, just around 30 cents each and so their life seemed so worthless as if it didn’t matter even if they died. I fed them every day till I left on my trips.

I had no hope that they would survive till I got back home as I was going to be away for almost a month. When I came back, I continued to feed for a couple of days but I did not see any signs of these fish in the water. They never came to the top of the barrel. The water was murky and with algae and so it was impossible to see them. So I believed that they all had died and hence stopped feeding them. Though I had no reason to believe that they were alive, I kept saying a small prayer that they would come to the top so I could see them. And one day, they did come to the top as if a miracle. I saw just two of them. I felt very happy that they were alive. Now I thought the third one must have surely died. I now kept praying that one day all three would come up together. And that happened too. One rainy morning as I looked through the window, all three of the fishes were on the top. I felt incredibly happy that my small insignificant prayers were answered. From then on, I started to take better care of them.

I noticed a few things in this. The first time we tried goldfish in clean water, they all died. But even in this dirty algae-filled water, they survived fine, and still, they didn’t lose their beautiful orange color. Even when their lives seemed worthless, God still kept them alive, just as He feeds the birds of the sky.

Luke 12:6 Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

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Handmade for a mission

As an answer to my prayer, our church hosted an artisan fair to sell our handmade crafts.

By God’s grace, my booth had a great sale. As always, God came through! This opportunity itself was an answer to my prayer from last year when I asked God to give me a greater purpose. Since the day pastor announced this, I had been staying up late every night to make at least one art each day. I felt super excited and very hopeful about raising a good amount which I wanted to give entirely for the missions. God’s faithfulness is beyond what I can fathom. Every now and then, I do spend time and money at the craft store and never worried about the bills that would add up because I always enjoyed doing these handicrafts. God is not a debtor to anyone and the way He compensated me for the expenses even before I hosted the booth – one of my managers recommended me for recognition at work and I got reward points which I could redeem and I received it this week.

As we started to set up our booth, the disappointments started. It was windy and my idea to display the arts didn’t work. My spirit had gone completely down and I had no hope left that I could sell anything. My kids and I held hands and we prayed giving it all into God’s hands. Within 5 minutes, Kavitha stopped by at our booth and she suggested putting up the bookmarks to display which would hold up better against the wind. It worked! We quickly got a hang of how to greet the people who stopped by and start the conversation. By the end of the day, our CIC friends also stopped by and contributed generously and we finished well.

Some of the miracles from this event are

A missionary who is supported by Calvary and serves in Japan stopped by my booth and I felt so happy to talk to her. In my opinion, missionaries are the ones whose life holds much value before God. While this sale is being done to support missions and for a missionary to stop by – it is like a confirmation.
I had made some pieces of jewelry in the past years which I had listed on so many craft sites and they never sold. I had given up on their selling but at this fair, I sold almost every one of those.
At the end of the day, I had sold 16 pieces of art.
Today the miracles continued. After the church service, I bumped into a lady who had bought a bookmark and she started talking to me and so amazingly she started to share a couple of prayer requests. Even she kept wondering how she was saying all these things to me as we had never met before.
When I was disappointed about being unable to display the arts, my husband came up with the amazing idea of displaying them in a creative way. If not for that idea, we could not have displayed the art which I had worked hard on for a month. Jayden got great compliments from a school teacher for his marketing skills.

The reason I wanted to support missions is that it is an easier way of storing our treasures in heaven. There are lots of parts in the world where even a small dollar amount would add up to a big amount. Life is short and eternity is forever. We tend to spend our time making our life in this world comfortable and yet not knowing how long we would be here. Rather it is wise to focus on storing our treasures in heaven to make our eternity comfortable.

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The most Secretive plot.. and yet

Jeremiah 17:9 “The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. No one can understand how deceitful it is.

At the spring time of the year when kings go out to battle, King David stayed back by just sending his troops to fight the battle. He committed adultery with Bathseba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite while Uriah was fighting David’s battle at the war zone. David who was certified as a man after God’s heart went spiraling down in his sinful ways. A lustful look which was not plucked off the root soon enough sent him spiraling down the crooked paths of deceit.

Just like how Adam and Eve’s one disobedience cost them everything, we learn that it doesn’t take much to lose grip of everything and fall on one’s nose into the pit of sin. Starting with adultery, followed by betrayal and murder is how sin works. Sin is a downward spiral. Immediately after this, David was informed that Bathseba was pregnant with his child of adultery. To cover this up, he calls in Uriah from the battlefield to the palace and asks him to go to his home to be with his wife Bathseba hoping to convince that the child is Uriah’s. Unimaginable crookedness from a man like David!

But Uriah didn’t go to his house. Instead he slept at the door of the king’s house. When David asked why Uriah did not go to his house, Uriah replied, “The ark of Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? I will not do this thing“.

David gave it another try. He invited Uriah to the palace again to eat and drink and made him drunk. David hoped that Uriah would go home after being drunk. But Uriah, even in drunken state, slept diligently at the King’s gate. As David’s crooked plan did not work out, he wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter, he wrote, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die”. Unimaginable fall into crookedness in a wink of the eye, right? Once Saul did the same to David by sending him to the toughest battles hoping to get David killed. David was not killed in Saul’s plot but Uriah got killed in David’s plot.

After the mourning period was over, David married Bathseba and the son was born. So far it would have seemed to David that he successfully covered up everything. Because he had completely forgotten that God saw everything. So the LORD sent prophet Nathan to David to rebuke him of this sin. Nathan said to David as mentioned in 1 Samuel 12:9-15

“Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

¹¹“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. ¹²You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad day light before all Israel.’You are not going to die.¹⁴But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for^[a] the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

And the LORD did just as He said. He struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David and it became ill. Regardless of how much David pleaded with God for the child, the child died on the seventh day.

God forgave David as soon as he repented but consequences could not be escaped. In this story, mostly our focus is on David as he is the decorated King who was praised as after “God’s own heart”. Bathseba is also equally guilty because she did not oppose or correct David’s act. The forgotten and the overpassed character in this story is Uriah the Hittite. This man had the sincerity and the zeal for the ark of God and his job of fighting the war for Israel. This man was betrayed by his wife in an instant with no second-thought and by the King who had the authority and the resources to cover up his mistake. Even Uriah did not have any way of knowing about the chain of injustice done to him- if not for God who sees everything and who does something about it.

God is the defender of the ones who suffer injustice. God did justice for this poor man by bringing what was done in the dark to light.

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

This is the cruelest plot mentioned in the Bible. David might have easily fooled the people but God can never be mocked.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

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How deep the Father’s love!

As the song “How deep the Father’s love for us” was sung during the Good Friday service, I broke down into tears. Even with us who are in the Christian circle for ages, the love of God-the Father towards us to send Jesus His Son to die on the cross for us is quite un-understandable. Those who are not in this circle yet have even harder time understanding the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

Though the Father’s love is vast and indefinite, I got a tiny glimpse of how a father’s love might look like. Love itself seems undefinable. My father went to be with the Lord in March. He was in coma for 4 weeks. God gave me the privilege of helping with my father’s last journey by reading the Word, praying for him and reconciled with him resulting in an amazing bonding. We had a sour relationship for quite a while. God spared me from regret by removing all bitterness from my heart. I asked my father to forgive me and conveyed to him that I realized very late that I did love him much – loved him enough to plead to Jesus for his eternity in heaven.

Doctor had told me in the first couple days that he will not sustain after removing from the ventilator. But by God’s amazing miraculous grace, my father started to breathe on his own. Not one day, not two days but for 21 days. Everyday I read the Word to him, talked to him a lot just as if he was conscious and prayed. Though there were times I couldn’t understand what God’s plan for my father was, each day made accomplishments in my life. Even before I got to the hospital, God had given me a word, “The yoke will be removed from my shoulder”. During this time when my father continued to breathe, God removed so many yokes from my life. As I wrote down the happenings of each day, I saw that each day accomplished something in my life towards my good future. It was like my father, even in his unconscious state, might have requested to Jesus to make provisions to protect my future and then to take him. I truly felt like there was probably no father in this world who would have done this for his child. Of course, behind this amazing happening was God’s grace towards me and my father.

If a father who did not have a great relationship with his daughter could do such a loving deed, how much more love would our Heavenly Father have for us?

Hebrews 9:22 Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Without forgiveness, no one can enter into God’s Kingdom. And the only other place with doors open wide is the hell. So, God sent His only Son, to suffer extreme pain and humiliation and then to die on the cross for us, to pay our debt in full. The Father’s love is so deep and vast. It is un-understandable for our little human wisdom. This is a glimpse I got of a father’s love from my own father. May we ever be grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father and the sacrifice of Jesus and for the guiding and comforting presence of our Holy Spirit Lord! AMEN!

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