Tag Archives: jesus

Oct 13 2014
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Lydia and All of Us

Throughout the centuries, men have tended to regard women as inferior. This judgment upon women is a judgment upon God who made women and can only quench the Holy Spirit in men who make such judgments.

Lydia is a good example of God’s great work through a woman. Overnight, the history of Europe began to change because Lydia heard the voice of the Holy Spirit speak through Paul. She responded and became Europe’s first convert.

Because of her faithfulness to the message she heard, the gospel spread to those around her, like a stone whose ripples spread out over a pond.

Lydia serves as an example to both men and women of how the Holy Spirit can work in anyone to change the world in the name of Christ.

  1. God opened Lydia’s HEART to do a work of grace in her life. God alone ordained her time to come to Christ and to use her conversion as a means to ultimately change the direction of a whole continent and the rest of the world. Through her witness, her entire household believed and received baptism. Through her and her household, the church at Philippi was born. That church became a strong witness for the Lord and served as a model for future churches. All of this began with the conversion of one woman. There are no small people in the kingdom of God. We must open ourselves to all that God chooses to work through our lives.
  2. Lydia opened her HOME for God’s servants and fellow believers. Like Lydia, we all show our gratitude to God by the way we treat God’s servants and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
  3. Lydia offered her HANDS to minister to others. Lydia took Paul and Silas into her house to nurse their wounds from jail and beatings and help them recover. A helpful spirit is not just “woman’s work.” A helpful spirit is an effective witness for Christ in men and women alike. A helpful spirit is a spirit of salt and light that preserves and enlightens families, cultures and nations with the power of Christ.
  4. Lydia had a good HEAD for business and practical affairs. Lydia was a prosperous businesswoman. Lydia is a good example of a wealthy servant–one who regards all wealth and personal possessions as gifts from God to serve Him and others in need of His transformation.

Since Lydia’s generation, the Spirit of God has worked in the hearts of other women to do great and mighty things. Think of Amy Carmichael who ministered to girls caught in forced prostitution. She modeled ministries in India later founded by men.

Think of Monica, mother of a wayward youth named Augustine who became one of Christianity’s most influential theologians because of her prayers.

Think of Susannah Wesley, mother and faithful teacher to 19 children including John and Charles Wesley.

Think of Elizabeth Elliott, wife of martyred missionary, Jim Elliott, who took up her husband’s mantle and served as God’s instrument to change a savage culture for Christ.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we depend upon God’s Spirit. Let us all thank God for such boundless grace that works in so many ways. Let us especially make sure we accept all the grace He reveals through His chosen women.

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Jun 03 2013
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The Source of Abundant Life

“Religion…is the opium of the people,” wrote Karl Marx, considered the founder of modern-day Communism and icon of secular humanism.

Opium is a drug one takes when he or she feels hopeless, weak and depressed and has no realistic approach to a better life. To Karl Marx, Christianity was an opiate because it kept a person from fulfilling his own agenda for a “realistic” and better life.

Karl Marx did not know about Jesus’ “I have come” statements. Jesus plainly tells us, “I have come…to fulfill the law…to reveal the Father…to bear witness to the truth…to serve others and give my life as a ransom for many…proclaim freedom…call sinners to repentance…seek and save the lost…give life in abundance.”

I have come Statments of JesusThese are positive statements of purpose, not to deaden our pain and hopelessness, but to give life new meaning, love and fulfillment. Jesus Christ comes to put us back in touch with God who leads us to a life beyond human capacity to think and imagine. He leads us to a loving Father, to the truth that sets free. He leads us to a supernatural power to live full and productive lives in partnership with God the Father that multiplies into hope for those around us.

This is not “pie in the sky, bye and bye,” but for this life as well as the life to come.

God’s abundant life and love is anything but an opiate. As we trust Him, He awakens our senses, lifts us above our circumstances and transforms individuals, families and nations by awakening our dead spirits.

Jesus’ “I have come” statements declare His purpose—to put God’s redemptive plan into effect. Jesus claims a power that no other person can claim because He is the Heaven-sent One.

Karl Marx is right about one thing, however. Religion can become an opiate–if it conflicts with God’s plan for our lives. Both the Pharisees and Karl Marx had their own “religions.” However different they may have been, they had one thing in common—they relied on the opiate of self-sufficiency. This is the false notion that we can “do it alone,” whether we try to obey God’s law or revolutionize society.

These are illusions—drugs that deaden reality of our true condition before God and our ability to transform our situation. These drugs make us “feel good”—while we actually kill ourselves. People who “feel good” hate to be reminded they are following deadly pipe dreams. They may fight back and get nasty and destructive about it.

This is why Jesus said—prophetically, it turns out, “I have come, not to bring peace but a sword.” He foresaw the day when those drugged by the opiate of self-sufficiency would kill Him, persecute His followers, and say all manner of evil against Him and them.

Jesus proved his detractors wrong through His resurrected life which has multiplied itself hundreds of millions of times since.

This Good News of the kingdom, Jesus tells us, will not stop until all peoples on earth have heard it. That includes all of India. Even anti-conversion laws will fail to stop it, and may even help to speed the Good News along.
Let each of us make sure that we live in God’s abundant grace so that we may effectively take that Good News to those who have not yet heard it.

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Dec 05 2012
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A Reason to Celebrate

Indians are a festive people.

Each Indian-based religion has periodic festivals that involve millions of people, elaborate preparations and great expense.

Christians have more reason to rejoice and celebrate than any other religion on earth. As Christians, we have an assurance of salvation that no religion can offer. The Christmas season should be a time of festivity and joy, celebration and triumph that transcends the frantic secular holiday that it has become.

While Hindus go all out in celebrating mythical gods, we celebrate a God who came and lived in our midst, in real time. People spoke with Him, touched Him and experienced His healing word and power. Even a cynical Roman centurion at Jesus’ crucifixion recognized Jesus’ divine nature in human flesh when he proclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

Christian faith involves a personal relationship with the maker of the universe. We are members of a royal family. God is our mighty fortress, our loving Father who loved us even before He created the universe. Our privileged relationship with Him is based upon unfathomable grace. We have opportunities, right now, to experience eternal life even in our mortal and flawed bodies and imperfect circumstances.

We must recognize and celebrate all of these things. We need special occasions when the presence of the Holy Spirit is so strong that everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, can experience a small taste of heaven and glorify God.

Such special times may involve food and fellowship and can become non-threatening and revealing evangelistic events for non-Christians. Indian culture is especially conducive for enjoyment of rich foods with many kinds of wonderful flavors and textures. These things can become symbols of the rich blessings that God has given. The presence of God will do even more—to fill that empty place in their spirits as they hear believers testify to the work of the Lord in their lives.

An increasing number of Indian Christians are learning to adapt traditional Indian musical and art forms for Christian worship and praise. These new musical and art forms are an opportunity for Christians to share what God has done in our lives. These things can become tangible expressions of God’s transforming power in the culture.

Some Christians are hesitant about getting too festive. After all, huge Hindu festivals often become excuses for outright carousing and crass merrymaking. Past large festivals have resulted in extreme mob actions and panic, such as stampedes that cause deaths of hundreds of men, women and children. But Christians should never avoid opportunities for communal expressions of thanksgiving and joy.

As Christians with so much to celebrate, we should consider having more festivals by which to celebrate our faith. We should celebrate, not as an end in itself but because we have a story to tell, a testimony to share, with the whole body of believers and the community at large.

May our faith never become merely a collection of abstract religious beliefs but a relationship with the living God that causes us to celebrate with thanksgiving and praise.

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