From the Desk of Valson Abraham

In some way, the heart of each person is heavy or broken because of tragedy, injustice and/or violence to oneself or family members or friends. We are all subject to decay and death whether we are righteous or unrighteous.

No person on earth has suffered more—and deserved suffering less—than Jesus Christ. As we consider why bad things happen to good people, we must consider the suffering of Jesus Christ.

The night before His crucifixion, He told His disciples in the Upper Room, “In this world, you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Except for John (and Judas the betrayer), each disciple died a martyr’s death.

In this world of sin, decay and death, no one is immune from suffering, not even the Lord of the universe who stepped into this world to overcome it. Overcoming suffering involved submitting Himself to suffering and gaining victory over it so that we might do the same.

How did Jesus “overcome the world” of sin, decay and death? Briefly, I offer the following for your further consideration:
1. He remembered Who He was. Jesus never abandoned His eternal relationship with His Father in Heaven. If we place our trust in Jesus Christ, we also have a relationship with the Father God who has known us throughout eternity and made us joint heirs with Christ, a chosen generation and royal priesthood.
2. He recognized His vulnerability to suffering. None of us is immune to suffering. Becoming a Christian does not change our vulnerability to suffering.
3. He recognized that His Father God controlled His suffering and would use it for a higher purpose. If we place our trust in Jesus Christ, we can know that our suffering is also under God’s control and will accomplish redemptive ends for ourselves
and others.
4. He saw ultimate victory through His suffering. Satan thought he had the upper hand at the cross, but his plan backfired. God aims to do the same for us in our
own suffering.
5. He prayed for Himself. Jesus didn’t want to suffer any more than we do. He was honest before His heavenly Father and prayed for a way out, yet always submitted Himself to God the Father. Unlike Jesus, God may deliver us from our suffering, but if He doesn’t, we can know that He has a higher purpose.
6. He prayed for others affected through His suffering. Before His crucifixion, He prayed for His disciples and all of us. Later, he prayed for those who crucified Him. We should also pray for those we love, who love us and also those who hate us.
7. He expected and received vindication through His suffering. Jesus never saw Himself as victim but as victor. Even suffering can bring victory for us (see Romans 8:28).
8. His suffering enables Him to feel our pain and to redeem us. In a similar way, our suffering bonds us with other suffering people to give them saving hope.

In these ways, Jesus overcame the world. In our suffering, may we trust the One who suffers with us. May all who suffer come to know Him and His victory in suffering. May each of us become a testimony to others through what He does in our own tribulations.

We all know people who do well in their studies and go on to succeed in life while others do not. Are some people born to success while others are not? Is this their fate in life? Not necessarily.

Often, the person who faces more obstacles achieves the most success while the privileged accomplish little. This is because of attitudes borne out in small, daily decisions that lead them closer to, or farther from, the successful life.

The individual decision seems small and inconsequential, but their cumulative effects are life-changing.

Little decisions ultimately determine who we are and where we spend time and eternity. It is important what we decide in our attitudes toward money, relationships, clothing, sports, art, entertainment, internet use, social networking and even use of cell phones.

Some people may object and say, “But we live under grace, not the law. What I do about these things is no ‘big deal’ as far as my salvation is concerned.”

That is only half-true. We may be saved, but we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be judged according to what we did with the grace He has showered upon us. Do we use God’s grace as an excuse to pursue our own pleasures? Or do we use God’s grace to bring glory to Him and accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the lives of others, receiving personal blessing God’s way?

The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes—reminds us that we accomplish God’s will on this earth as we decide the issues of life. From the Wisdom Literature, we glean specific principles and practices that guide our everyday decision making and are pleasing to God.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with eating a big steak dinner with a large piece of apple pie. But these indulgences can defeat the purposes of a runner. A runner who intends to win his race will not succeed if he gives himself to eating heavy meals and big desserts.

Do we intend to win the race of life? If I am truly committed to the kingdom of God and to the Lord Jesus Christ, certain decisions of life will bring me closer to fulfilling God’s will in my life. Other things will take me further away.

I must decide to do those beneficial things on a daily basis that reinforce my commitment, even if that means giving up those things that are not necessarily wrong in themselves.

I have known people called of God to fulfill certain roles for His kingdom. But they have postponed making those daily decisions that would enable them to fulfill that call because they have been more interested in doing other things—good things, but not necessarily the best. Time has passed, and now it is too late for them to give their best to Jesus Christ who gave His best for them. Now they live with incredible regret.

I highly recommend the writings of Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. You will not only receive blessing yourself, but you will bless others and spread His Good News to those who do not yet know it.

All of us carry roles in our society that identify who we are. Some of us are doctors, lawyers, farmers, business people, etc. In our families, we carry identities as “father,” “mother,” “brother,” sister,” “cousin,” etc. Some of us are ministers and missionaries. But should we consider these important roles the ultimate definition of who we are?

This was the question facing the Jewish leaders of the first century when they confronted Jesus Christ. From the time of Moses, they had identified themselves as “people of the law” by the scrupulous way they kept the various sacrifices prescribed by God. This was their role for more than a thousand years.

 But God never intended this to be their permanent identity. The crux of Jesus teaching is that they were to become a new people with a new identity—“people of the kingdom”—a kingdom to be ushered in by Jesus Christ. As Paul and the writer of Hebrews put it, the elaborate sacrificial system was a “shadow of things to come” (see Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1).

The sacrificial system was only a shadow, Paul says, but the “substance” of our identity is Jesus Christ. If we truly regard ourselves as “people of the kingdom,” we will stake our identity in Jesus Christ and what He has already done for us through His cross and resurrection to make us part of His kingdom.

As a whole, the Jewish people refused to accept this new identity. They refused to accept Jesus Christ as their authority. Along with the Romans, they conspired in His crucifixion. In so doing, they unwittingly made Jesus Christ the Ultimate Sacrifice prescribed by God that takes away the sin of the world, removing any further need for the old sacrificial system.

The law of God, given to Moses, was a very important thing for its time, but it was still temporary. It was a “shadow,” an outline of something even greater to come.

 In the same way, all the life roles that we play today in society and in our families, however important, are only temporary. Even ministers and missionaries must take care not to identify themselves too closely with their roles. In the end, Paul tells us, prophesies, tongues and knowledge will all cease.

Even the church will pass away, and even the heavens and the earth, as Jesus Christ returns to set up a New Heaven and New Earth.

It is always important for us to learn the elementary lessons of life, but none of us should remain in the first grade forever. Today, we have more revelation from God than was available 2,000 years ago. But the perfect revelation of God and His kingdom is yet to come. Even now, we still live in the “shadows.” The whole creation groans, waiting for this final revelation in Christ’s Second Coming.

But what about those in India and elsewhere who haven’t even seen the “shadows” yet? Hundreds of millions remain strangers to all we discuss here. God is not willing that any of them perish, but that all should come to repentance. India’s spiritual harvest is ready and waiting.

The role of a field worker during harvest time is temporary, but essential for prosperity and life. Let each of us do our God-appointed task until His harvest is complete.

There was a time not too long ago when reason was regarded as one of the highest virtues, and a theologian was regarded as highly as a scientist.

No longer. Today, reason has been replaced by emotion. This attitude has even infiltrated the church. “Don’t give me dead doctrines and theology,” some will say, “just give me the Holy Spirit.” Though this sounds spiritual, it is highly foolish.

Of course, there is a place in our Christian faith for feeling, but not at the expense of sound doctrine. God is an emotional Being who created us as emotional beings, but He is also a rational Being who has constructed the universe by rational laws. We are to love Him with our minds as well as our hearts.

To underestimate the value of good doctrine threatens the essence of our faith. Without sound doctrine, we can never know if we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit or an unclean spirit. A lack of sound doctrine allows Satan, the father of lies, to exploit and destroy gullible people while they feel warm and fuzzy.

In the Christian faith, doctrine is based upon facts. Christianity is not an idea, but a historical faith. Its doctrines are based upon the actual work and consistent character of God through Jesus Christ and His people over 2,000 years of recorded time.

These works of God in history are recorded in the Bible for all to read. Doctrines are formed on the basis of what God has done in real people, not upon an enlightenment experience someone had on a mountain top.

The life of Christ, his death and resurrection lie at the crux of our faith. People saw, touched and spoke to the living Christ. They experienced His healing, deliverance and mercy in multiple ways. More than five hundred people saw Him alive after His resurrection. If these events never happened, all of our religious emotion is wasted.

Our doctrines regarding God, Jesus Christ, sin, salvation, prayer, truth, repentance, baptism, the Holy Spirit, the holy life, eternal life and death, the Great Commission, the church, scriptural inspiration—all these doctrines depend upon historical facts, not arbitrary decisions made by people who get emotionally “charged” by them.

In Christian faith, religious emotion is never the beginning or end in itself, but the product of what God does in our lives. We can know what is or is not of God only if we have sound doctrines based upon God’s workings in history that help us to discern genuine from counterfeit.

We develop sound doctrine as we regularly study our Bibles and its record of God’s work. Soon, we begin to sense that certain ideas in our culture are right while others are wrong. We become less likely to become cultural victims and develop a foundation for true transformation by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2).

The Bible and sound doctrine are profound gifts of God’s grace. Let us grasp them, thanking Him who has given His life to free us from the enemy’s lies. Let us also remember to pray and give so that hundreds of millions of people in India still without this truth will walk out of darkness and into His Light.

In December 2011, ABC News carried the story of an anonymous Kansas City woman who received $6.1 million, the largest unclaimed money award in U.S. history. Generations ago, her ancestors had invested in a long-forgotten company, and she was the lawful beneficiary of all that had accumulated. The story also said that throughout the U.S., $32 billion of unclaimed money is waiting for its rightful owners. Sometimes, those waiting funds can be huge.
The lesson here is obvious: when we do not claim our inheritance, we may lose out—big time. 

The Bible tells us that His chosen people lost out on their inheritance—big time. God gave to them the land promised to their forefather Abraham hundreds of years earlier. Claim all the inheritance, God told them through Joshua, their leader, and He would drive out all their foes. But compromise their integrity with godless peoples, temper their obedience, and marry pagan women, and they would suffer indescribable hardships.
Israel’s inheritance from a gracious God went beyond value in time and money. God’s great inheritance carries with it great blessings that can bless untold multitudes of peoples. This is always God’s heart—to bless as many people as possible with the inheritance He gives us. Anything less than the best becomes a snare, a trap, a whip on our backs and thorns in our eyes.
But history shows that the Israelites forsook the blessing of God. They compromised with the world. They forsook the precious inheritance of God for what is passing and trivial.
They forgot God. The nature of God’s inheritance includes not only what He gives, but reflects the nature of God Himself. With God, inheritance is always relational, because God is relational.
Like the Israelites, God has also blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He has chosen us before He created the universe. He has adopted us as His children. He has redeemed and forgiven us. He has showered upon us the riches of His grace. He has given us an inheritance whose height, depth, width and breadth are without measure. He made this available to each of us at no cost to us but the highest cost for Himself.
May we not let God become a stranger to us!
“Delight yourself in the Lord,” writes David, the man after God’s own heart. Become enamored with the perfections of God. Let God’s perfections become the model for the way you live your life. Recognize in God the fulfillment of your deepest desires.
There is no love like God’s love, no joy like God’s joy, no peace like God’s peace, no patience like God’s patience, no kindness like God’s kindness, no goodness like God’s goodness, no faithfulness like God’s faithfulness, no gentleness like God’s gentleness, no self-control like God’s self-control.
God’s inheritance exceeds monetary value. What He is willing to give exceeds our ability to imagine. God is delighted when we take His challenge to stretch our imaginations to take in all of His grace and claim all our inheritance.
But there are still millions of people in India and elsewhere who still have no idea what we are even talking about. If only they knew—God’s inheritance awaits for them as well. Let us make sure that they do not miss out on what God intends for them!

I offer a few thoughts of what I think the results of the U.S. Presidential election mean for the future, not only of the United States, but also of the Great Commission.

I know that many fellow believers were deeply disappointed by this outcome and are distraught. I have heard some say that the results are a sign to them that the Second Coming of Christ must be very near.

For me, the disappointing results are actually a blessing. Many people have prayed for revival of the church in America. At the same time, they have hoped for a different outcome in the election. This indicates to me that they have prayed for revival, not truly knowing the sorry state of the church. Such prayers that lack true knowledge have little power with God.

Praise God, now we know what we have not known before! Now we can pray with real focus because we actually see how badly the churches’ walls have crumbled.

Until he witnessed the crumbled walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah did not pray in earnest, if at all, and nothing happened. Only when his eyes were opened did he pray with power that moved God to act. God’s intervention brought rebuilt walls, both physically and spiritually, to a defeated and demoralized people in a way that Nehemiah could never have foreseen.

Do the election results portend the imminent return of Jesus Christ? Not necessarily. Matthew 24:14 plainly tells us that Jesus Christ will not come again until the gospel is preached to all peoples. Clearly, that Great Commission vision is unimportant for most of America’s professed believers. That will not change any time soon, unless…

The faithful remnant of God’s people who see the crumbled walls of a church and nation become like Nehemiah. They must mourn before God, confessing their sins, the sins of their forefathers and their corporate failure to wisely occupy the land with which God has blessed them. Instead of blaming secularist and godless people for the decay, they must admit they have welcomed godlessness through their own failure to “occupy until He comes.”

When we take upon ourselves humility, confession and repentance, God will act. Franklin Graham recently wrote, “Elections matter, but to change a nation, repentance and submission before God matter more.”

In a way, we should not be surprised at the election’s outcome. We who pray for revival must know that revivals come from the hand of God, and God shares His glory with no man. It is very likely that a different outcome would have resulted in mixed messages and delayed the very revival for which we pray.

God knows what He is doing. His first concern is for His people and the spread of His gospel. These things give Him greatest satisfaction and glory. In that spirit, may God grant us all wisdom to pray better and wiser prayers, knowing that our prayers are heard and can still ultimately lead to the best years we have seen yet.

To discover and to display Christ—this is the purpose of all ministry.

This purpose is especially evident in the apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. Someone has called Ephesians “the Rolls Royce of the epistles” because of the succinct way it sets forth the vision, ministry and mission of the church.

Paul did not intend this letter for the Ephesians only, or even as a circular letter to the other churches of his day. Rather, he addresses it to “the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” That includes you and me.

As a missionary inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul foresaw the day when the gospel would spread from generation to generation, from people to people until every people and language group had received the Good News. At least 80 generations after Paul’s missionary journeys, we have the gospel now because faithful men and women passed Paul’s Ephesian message to us.

After setting forth a breathtaking gospel vision in the first three chapters, Paul tells us in chapter 4 how this vision will go forth among believers and into the world—through those called of God as (1) apostles, (2) prophets, (3) evangelists, (4) preachers and (5) teachers.

These are people whom God has given and prepared for special tasks. Using different spiritual gifts, their purpose is to help (1) perfect the saints, (2) to prepare the saints for their own callings (3) the work of ministry, (4) to bring unity of the faith, (5) to bring about a measure of the fullness of Christ, (6) stability and discernment of truth and (7) growth in Christ.

Paul envisions these five kinds of ministers, not as professional workers, but as men and women who know God and help others to know God.

Learning to know God is a process that never ends. It begins on earth and continues through eternity. It is a process of maturity, and Paul sets forth the evidences of mature faith in the fellowship of believers and especially in families between husbands, wives and children.

Paul anticipates future generations who hunger to know God and will gladly hear and receive the Good News. At the same time, he also anticipates opposition. In the end, he reminds us, all opposition, no matter how visible it may appear, comes from an invisible spiritual enemy, and he shows us a strategy by which to effectively combat it.

Paul’s succinct vision and his strategy for ministry and mission that we find in Ephesians is just as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago. It lies at the heart of our own ministry at India Gospel Outreach, at India Bible College and Seminary and all of IGO’s training institutions throughout India.

It is our goal to remain faithful to the vision, ministry and mission that has been faithfully transmitted to us. Each of you who has joined us in faithful prayer and support has also been true to this great work of God that has come down to us.

Let us continue to pray for the new generation now in training at India Bible College and Seminary and elsewhere, and our recent graduates, that God will multiply the effects of their ministry until the gospel has been preached to all people in India and around the world.

Because Jesus Christ is both divine and human, His final words on the cross
reveal not only the work and character of God but also God’s intention for us in a
broken world.

“I thirst.” The One who comforted grieving hearts, healed the sick, raised the
dead and fed the hungry now experiences suffering Himself. In this sinful world, no
one is immune from suffering, not even God as He voluntarily absorbs our suffering
humanity in His own person.

Like Jesus, we are called to help those who suffer, but we should also expect to
suffer in this world ourselves. Not only does God take on our suffering, but He shows us
what we must expect ourselves.

“It is finished.” Jesus completed the work for which He came to earth. Although
He was only 33 years old, He said and did everything necessary to accomplish His
mission. Suffering and death did not prevent His earthly purpose but became a tool
in its fulfillment. In this sense, the enemies of Jesus, both earthly and spiritual, utterly
failed to neutralize Him.

How many of us complete the work for which God made us? Death is the enemy
of the person without God. Earthly life seems so absurdly short because we seem to
accomplish and say so little of permanent significance. Within a century after we are
gone, most of us are totally forgotten by succeeding generations.

How to overcome this final absurdity is the ultimate question of all persons,
whether they are prince or peasant. Only God has the answer to this ultimate question,
and He carried it in an earthly body subject to suffering and death.

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (from Luke 23:46). I know of people
who curse in their last moment of life, or scream in terror as death overtakes them. But
Jesus ends His earthly life with complete trust in His Father’s ability to vindicate His
life, suffering and death.

Jesus died a physical wreck on a Friday afternoon, His earthly body bloodied by
thorns, whips, nails and spears, His spirit seared by the mocking men who slandered
His holy and sinless name and life. But on Sunday morning, Jesus rises from the grave
in glory, demonstrating His final authority over pain, suffering and death.

Jesus tells us, “Whosoever believes in me shall not perish but have eternal life.”
“Trust me,” Jesus says. “What I accomplished from Good Friday to Easter Sunday
can become yours as well as you trust me” (from John 3:16).

Trust Jesus to use your suffering as a tool to accomplish His purpose in your life.
Trust Jesus to help you accomplish the purpose for which God created you. Trust Jesus
to help you safely enter death’s door into glory.

Long before you take your last earthly breath, you can experience the
resurrection power of God in this life, just as Jesus did. As Paul says: “But if the Spirit
of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from
the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”
(Romans 8:11).

As we live from day to day, let us remember this wonderful news, and let us take
the Good News to all in India who thirst for the righteousness of God and the answer to
life’s sufferings.