Yet, I will Rejoice in the Lord!

The following two scripture passages are favorites of mine, because they portray what steadfast faith really looks like. As long as we live under the sun and within the tent of skin called body,we cannot escape anxiety, doubts or despair, when disappointment, failure, and loss come our way.

It is in such times, these scriptures come alive and speak to me what true faith looks like. If I say, I trust in the Lord, then I need to truly trust Him irrespective of the circumstances. For me to do that, I need to be firmly rooted like the tree planted by the river Prophet Jeremiah speaks of, or be like the farmer Habakkuk writes about.

In Jeremiah 17:7-8. the prophet beautifully puts it in the following way.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree
planted by the waters
Which spreads out its roots by the river
And will not fear when heat comes
But its leaf will be green
And will not be anxious in the year of drought
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.


Prophet Habakkuk, who might stand smaller and considered minor in comparison to prophet Jeremiah, goes even higher to illustrate a man of steadfast faith as follows:

Though the fig tree may not blossom
Nor fruit be on the vines
Though the labor of the olive may fail
And the fields yield no food
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold
And there be no herd in the stalls-
Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17-18


In the Message version, Eugene H Peterson paints the above scenerio in our
day an age setting for easy understanding.

Though the cherry trees don't blossom
and the strawberries don't ripen
Though the apples are worm-eaten
and the wheat fields stunted
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty
I'm singing joyful praise to God
I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.

Can you imagine yourself in the shoes of the farmer who had lost all his crops, sheep, and cattle, yet chooses to not to give into despair, but to rejoice in the Lord instead.

How awesome could that be such faith in God's eyes! Everything you've hoped and worked for to flourish have vanished like an illusion. Yet, the farmer seems unaffected by the turmoil. How? Because that man puts his trust in the Lord and not on the things he possessed.

Jeremiah calls the man blessed, because his hope in not what he has or what he gets in the future; His hope is the Lord. So, when he faces adversity or financial dryness, instead of panicking and wasting his time in worry, he looks up to God with hope. Because he had experienced God's faithfulness in the past, he had learned to face the future with confidence.

What a testimony would it be, when we, who claim to have faith in God display such faith in times of loss and turmoils. I pray that we stand worthy to be called such men and women of faith Jeremiah and Habakkuk write about in their books.***

Father's Day

It's Father's Day today, the day set apart to honor Fathers all around the country. It's the day fathers receive all kinds of gifts from their children varying from "I love You, Daddy!"mug or teddy bear from a preschooler to gaudy colored tie with sparkling beads from a preteen to a handyman tool from a bell boy son to a paid up vacation from a CEO at pharmaceutical company.

I remember a hillarious episode in the Crosby Show on Father's Day, where Crosby brings out of storage a boxful of Father's Day gifts he had received and one by one pulls out in front of his children. By now the children had grown up to be young adults and when they look at the gaudy silk tie with sparkling beads, the belt with twinkling lights, the flowery cap with a protruding antenna Crosby put on to display, their eyes pop up with unbelief. None of the gifts look useful to their father at any age, but they were given with love and with the allowance they could afford to buy. The father knows it and that's why he has cherished every one of it without casting them away.

That's what the Father's day is all about. It's not the gift you give the father values, but the love with which it is given. Even a word like "I love you Dad!" over the phone or a tender touch of the son or daughter on sick bed would melt even a hardhearted man.

I grew up in a country where no Father's or Mother's Day were celebrated. Because of that I had no chance of writing a Father's Day card or giving my dad a gift on such a special day honoring him. In fact, I never had a chance to give my father a wrapped gift at any time. I was barely eighteen, when my dad passed away so suddenly of heart attack.Unlike here, children never got allowance or worked outside home to earn some money to call their own.

Lack of gift giving didn't mean lack of love, and the parents as well as the children knew that well. Parents expected love, respect and obedience from their children. And the children looked for love, responsiblity, and security from their parents. I didn't grow up telling " I love you Dad" or "I love you Mom" as my children do here. Neither did my mom or dad spelled it out in words that they loved me. I didn't wait to hear from them either, for their care and action spoke much louder than any spoken words.

I was blessed to have a noble, compassionate and a very responsible man as my father, whom I called Pappa. I never grew up hugging, playing or joking with my father as my children do with my husband. It wasn't norm in the culture I grew up at that time. Out of respect, I spoke with my father only when I needed to. I loved him dearly and I'm always so proud to be his daughter. The day he died, I felt as if my world collapsed. I couldn't accept his death for almost an year. I never told him "I love you Pappa!" or gave him a Father's Day gift, but my father knew it well I loved him very much.

On this Father's Day, I like to thank my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with so many good things. I want to thank Him for giving me the best father and giving my children a great dad. The best gifts I can give my Heavenly Father are my obedience, reverence and love. He values my time spent with Him and the talents He had given to be put to good use. Although, I wasn't accustomed to say "I love you" to my earthyly father, I've grown to say "I love You," to my Heavenly Father almost daily.
"Happy Father's Day!" to all those who are blessed be to be dads. Take the blessing seriously and responsibly and you'd never regret it. Your children will thank and remember you forever for the love, discipline, provision and protection, you've given them to have a secured life.

The Hiding Place

If not for the old lady, who lived next door, my uncle and aunt wouldn't have been sitting in a church hall that evening. As usual they would gone to a cinema theatre to watch a movie on that Saturday evening. A revival meeting would have been the last place anyone would have expected to see them. Though uncle grew up in a church going family, and attended church to please his family in his early years, he showed no interest in church or God once he became an adult.

Now, in his forties, he had everything he had dreamed of- a steady job, a beautiful and devoted wife, five children and a house beside the sandy beach. He was floating high and enjoying life with no desire or time for God. It's at this time, his neighbor started inviting him and aunt to accompany her to church. Every time, uncle had some excuse to give the old lady and shoo her away. But then a four-day revival meeting started to happen in the city, close to their place and their good neighbor pleaded with uncle and aunt to join her at least for these meetings. Because my uncle and aunt loved this kind lady, they agreed to go with her this time with one condition. Never again, she should bother them with such request.The old lady agreed, and so they went.

The preacher's message that evening on the " Fall of Adam" greatly touched my aunt's heart. In silence, she asked God to open my uncle's ears too to hear the message as she did. To her surprise, she noticed my uncle keenly listening to the preacher as he read Genesis :3 from an old King James Bible. During the sermon, when the preacher suddenly raised his voice and called out, " Adam...Adam, where are you?" something strange began to happen. My uncle, who was seated in the middle row in the hall, heard those words very different from what the others heard. In his ears, the preacher's words sounded as if God was calling out to him -" Abraham...Abraham where are you?"

The first thought that popped up in his head was Am I hiding from God like Adam? Where am I hiding? What would I tell Him if He asks me?
A chill ran down his spine. The calling sounded so real and convicting, he realized how "far gone" he was from God. Like Adam caught in the spotlight of God, my uncle too searched for a place to hide. Finding neither bushes to hide nor Eve to blame on he bowed his head and started to sob like a child.

On that night, when the preacher gave the altar call, my uncle scurried down the aisle along with my aunt and surrendered his life to Christ. From that day onwards, he spoke of nothing, but the love of Christ to whoever came across his path. It didn't take long for him to decide to give up his high paying job to become a lay preacher and a radio evangelist for the Back to the Bible ministry in South East Asia.

Even in his dying moments, he demonstrated how much he loved the Lord. At the hospital, where he was laying in bed one afternoon, the patient on the next bed offered him a newspaper to read. But my uncle politely refused the offer, by telling him that he was too excited to meet his Lord that he had no time to read the newspaper. With that, he closed his eyes for the last time and went to be with the Lord at age 62, after a brief illness.

After his death, when his radio ministry was about to be discontinued, my aunt courageously stepped forward to carry on the ministry. " It's the Lord, who pushed me to do that," she always proclaimed. Truly she demonstrated what Philippians 4:13 says-"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Otherwise, how could a shy, stay-at -home like her with no college education or proper training could carry out a radio ministry, as well as become the managing editor of a Back to the Bible publication?

A few years back, she passed away at the age of 95 with the satisfaction of serving her Lord to her fullest. I don't know how many thousands of lives, my uncle and aunt would have impacted by their ministry. It all happened because some good neighbor took them to a gospel meeting to hear God's message. Even my life was touched by their love for Christ.

As a child, I looked forward to uncle Abraham's visits. In fact, he was the first born-again Christian I ever met. During his visits, I enjoyed listening to the Bible stories and waking up in the mornings to the clanging of his tambourine and songs of praises. His love for Jesus sparkled through his eyes and bubbled through his words that I couldn't help, but fall in love with Jesus at a very young age.

In my teen years, he anchored my faith by sending me gospel tracts and books of godly men like Sadhu Sundar Singh, D.L.Moody, Billy Graham and others. You wouldn't be reading this blog, if not for my uncle, who brought me to Christ. My uncle and aunt wouldn't have had a ministry to share the love of Christ, if their neighbor hadn't persisted in inviting them to attend the revival meeting. Otherwise, who knows we too might have found a hiding place to get away from God.

Some of us may hide behind the wall of wealth, power, pleasure and even good works to avoid anything to do with God. But God love us too much to ignore us. He keeps on calling our names. Sometimes, He devises storms and hardships to get our attention and to make us come out of our hiding places. The longer we stay in the hiding place, greater will be our regret in our later years We are better off to choose God as our Hiding Place than to find a hiding place to get away from a loving God.***

He Knows.

I was in no mood to smile or laugh at my husband's joke when I got up from my bed this morning. Something was bothering me and I couldn't fathom what it was. Thinking that prayer and praise would uplift my spirit, I dragged myself to the place in our living room where I usually do my morning devotion. I didn't feel like kneeling down to pray or opening the Bible to read. So, I took out my devotional Prayer, Praises &Promises that was atop my Bible and flipped it open to a page randomly in the hope of finding something to cheer me up.

And, there before my eyes blinked the title He Knows in big bold letters. And the reading for the day was taken out from my favorite psalm 37. Because I just flipped open the book to a random page, the date on the devotional didn't correspond to the day I read it. But the scripture verses and the message looked as if it were perfectly chosen for me at that very moment.

Yes, He knows. That's for sure, I thought as I read through the passage. It didn't take too long for me to realize what was bothering me this morning. Only yesterday I had been watching the recorded program of Suze Orman's rules for financial wellness and her advice on how to  avoid financial pitfalls in today's economy crisis.

When I clicked the remote button off, and got up from my couch I had the satisfaction of having learned something on money matters. Little did I realize at that time how learning about investments and stacking for retirement would trigger my anxiety about our financial uncertainties on the unconscious level. Worry must have crept in while I was asleep,causing me to wake up this morning suliking.

Years back, I had been more of a worrier than a warrior.  Naturally when your better-half decide to give up a dependable salaried position and become an entrepreneur, when you're a stay at home mom taking care of two young kids, worry become your constant companion. 'What if's' question kept me awake at nights.

Thankfully, the faithfulness of loving God in those trying years made me to rely on God more and to fear less of the 'What if's?' Because fear and faith cannot co-exist, I opted to not to give into worry unnecessarily. It is never easy to give up on something you're accustomed to, but with prayer and practice, even worry could be overcomed. That doesn't guarantee a worry free life. It only means that I wasn't a chronic worrier I used to be. Bouts of worry shows up from time to time and this morning was one of such morning, I suppose.

However, I couldn't put my finger on it to say what was worrying me at that time. But He knew. Yes, God who knew me in my mother's womb, knows me too well after all these years too. It's amazing He seems to know more about me and my needs than I know about myself. Until I opened devotional to read, I had no clue what was bothering me. But God knew. How am I so sure. Otherwise, why should I randomly flip open to a page that stares back at me with the words, He Knows? Or read like punching lines at the end of the page as below?

" Take comfort in knowing that God is intimately aware of your needs. ..Do you have pressing needs? Leave them with Him. Trust Him to provide them and resist the urge to look ahead and worry. Concentrate on what God is doing for you today"

If I've the ears to hear God's audible voice, I would have definitely heard the same thing from Him. Instead, I heard Him speaking through the words of the author Warren W.Wiersbe in the devotional.

Being a writer myself, who had written a devotional column for some years, I'm humbled as well as overjoyed to know how God guide us to write the words in order to speak to those He choses to speak. Yes, He knows !***

Where is God?

Where is God? Who is God? What is God?-these are some of the questions we are familiar with. In times of peril, even those who believe in God wonder about the whereabouts of God. Many debate and deny the existence of God, because they cannot equate a loving God with a suffering world.

How could a loving God allow poverty, violence, injustice, tornadoes, tsunamis to happen in the world and do nothing about it? they ask. Where is  a loving God when a child dies of hunger? Reasonable question. We wish we could give a satisfying answer. But we are unable to do so with our limited love and understanding.

It's here I'd like to share a story, which Mother Theresa wrote in her book, "Where there is Love, there is God." A man once came to Mother Theresa's place with a prescription from a doctor. His child was dying in the nearby slum in Calcutta, and the prescribed medicine could not be found in any part of India at that time. It had to be brought from England. There was no way the man could get the medicine from abroad to save his child. He had neither money nor influence.

As the man and Mother Theresa were talking, another walked in with a basket of medicines. To equip the mobile clinics that served the poor all over the slums in Calcutta, workers from Mother Theresa's organization, went around gathering half-used medicines from houses around the city. On that particular day, the man was bringing all the half-used medicines that he had collected on his rounds.

Mother Theresa couldn't believe what she saw in the basket the man handed to her. On right on top of the basket was the exact medicine that the doctor had prescribed for the dying child. She writes, " I just couldn't believe because if it was inside, I would not have seen it. If he had come before or after, I would not have connected. I just stood in front of that basket and kept looking at the bottle and in my mind I was saying, Millions and millions and millions of children in the world- how could God be concerned with that the little child in the slums of Calcutta. To send that medicine, to send that man just at that time, to put that medicine right on the top and to sendthe full amout that the doctor had prescribed."

Where was God that day? He was there, right in the middle of the situation, working through the man who went out to collect the half-used medicines on behalf of sick and dying people in the slums of Calcutta and through sacrificial love of Mother Theresa who toiled for the poor and outcastes of the society in India.  God is love. He is everywhere . Up in the heaven and down on earth looking for you and me to be hands and feet.  He needs us to be the channels through which He could display His undying love and compassion to the hurting world. His heart weeps when we choose to turn the other way and leave the hurting world go unattended.

God made a beautiful earth for us to live in. But when sin entered, evil followed and made the place imperfect with man made potholes. Nature does act up with vengence at times and bring disasters to our surroundings.  In the middle of such devastation, God shows up and bring help and healing through compassionate people who donate goods, feed the hungry and build or rebuild houses. God need our partnership to heal, comfort and build this broken world. The question is "Are we willing to co-operate with Him?"

So, the next time when someone asks me " Where is God?"  I need to pause for a  moment before I give the answer.  I need to examine myself first  to find out whether I've  failed in anyway to represent God's love and care to him for him/her to ask the question.
"Where there is love, there is God. God is Love."

Are we displaying God's love to others? If not, don't be surprised when someone asks "Where is God?"  Action speaks much louder than words and remains longer in memory!
" Preach the gospel all the time. If necessary use words."- St. Francis of Assisi.***

A Mother's Prayer on Mother's Day

On this Mother's Day,
I thank You Lord for blessing me to be a mother of two lovely daughters,
 and for have given me a godly mother.

I pray this day,  whatever I'd learned from You and taught them
 they would wear like garlands around their necks to beautify them
.
They have seen my ups and downs,my strength and inadequacies
They have also  heard my prayers, heart desires and constant naggings

Guide them to choose the good and noble
And guard them from following any of my wrong and selfish doings.

Bless them with wisdom
And teach them how to wait on You in patience.

Let them learn to delight in You as I do
and dwell in Your faithfulness with confidence.

Waken their ears to listen to Your small voice
And direct them to walk in faith with no worry or fear.

Bless them to become godly mothers
and to carry the torch of love and faith

Help them to trust You for ever
And to pass down their faith to their children and to their children

 Yes Lord, it is this mother's prayer on this Mother's Day
that I ask You to bless me to have a godly generation down the  line.

When Mercy Shows up

Have you ever met Mercy? How does she look like? Just recently I watched Mercy on tv hugging a former drug addict named Fanny, who has been clean for the last six months and asking her, what she wanted. And Fanny replied amidst much sobbing and tears running down her face-"Prayers. I need lots of prayers to keep me off the street and drugs."

Fanny has been sober for the past six months, has a job to be proud of and wants to move out of her place so that she'd be away from her familiar, drug infected surrounding. She has applied to get a small apartment which she's confident that she could pay its rent of $65.00 out of her pay check and with government subsidies. She wants to turn a new leaf in her chapter of life and live with hope as others do. She couldn't have done without God and people like Mercy. That's why she needs prayers from you and me so that more Mercys will show up to help out more Fanny to get off the streets.

Mercy is not the real name of the woman, who looked into the eyes of the former drug addict with love. But mercy was what Fanny,the earlir drug user saw in her. No one else cared to look at Fanny or talk to her when she was loitering on the streets enslaved in drug addiction. All whom she knew or came in contact were men and women like her who smoked and smelled of drugs all day long.

No sane looking person ever walked her street or dared to talk to her or to any of fellow addicts until Mercy showed up.
Mercy knew the stories of many like Fanny who had been helped to go to the rehablitiation center to be cleaned up and how soon they get back to their addiction. Yet, she seemed determined to not to give up on them, but to love enough to feed, care and pray for them. That's Mercy spelled in kingdom love.

Mercy with another face shows up in another part of the country. Blessed with a husband to support her, Mercy opens up their humble home to shelter a woman released from prison. Unknowing where to go and what to do, the ex-convict just released from prison shades her eyes unable to face the glaring sun outside the prison gate. As she steps out crippled with guilt and fear of the unknown,Mercy meets her with open arms and beaming smile. That night,the woman who slept behind bars on a lice infected plank bed for six years slept like a baby under soft and clean blankets after a hot meal. Tears kept trickling down her face as the woman stirred in her sleep unbelieving the kindness she felt under Mercy's roof. breathe fresh air melt down in tears, when welcomed in love by Mercy and made to sleep in comfort with no judgement. at stretsteps into a car that takes her to in fear and guilt to face the world and

Mercy didn't stop with Jane. She went onto bring Mary, Tabitha,Stacey,Rita, Lucie and others into her home,after their release from prison.It didn't matter what crime each one did, Mercy gave the same welcome and comfort to everyone. Soon others joined hands to build a shelter to house these women, whom the world outside weren't prepared to accept, forgive or give a second chance. Because Mercy dwells, walks, talks, embraces and reaches out to those whom the outside world had forgotten, so many lives have been given a chance to hope, dream and build a better world as others do.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy," Jesus said.

"Mercy requires that we:
Keep short account of sin and injustice.
Have eyes to see beyond a circumstance and into the heart.
learn to desire the salve of mercy more than the satisfaction of punishment
Be willing to lay down our quick judgement and work on becoming compassionate."
(the above quote taken from Living life as a beautiful offering by Angela Thomas.)***