A Wretched Soul's Testimony: A Poem

Initial days of his college

Was without wisdom and knowledge,

Friends treated him with tomfoolery

You are a hopeless lad with a future indeed scary,

Every day he got stultify

Became frustrated his weakness always amplify,

As a young lad he lost dad

Gone crazy and behaved as mad,

Shattered life in a day

Felt as world has come to a stay,

Was lost in the world

Never cared for God’s word,

Hopping with the moods of carnal friends

He fell prey to the worldly trends,

Being addicted to worse habits of peril

Chained himself into the cage of devil,

Crime became his talent

In greed, lust and cheat he got blatant,  

Had money beyond measure

Tried things beyond fetter,

Boozing, puffing became a game

In vile field left no unknown name,

Mother became anxious in fear

Always rolling tears spending time in prayer,

Sister teased saying, you will became grass cutter

No doubt she was right according to his character,

God still had a plan for this sinner

Showed light and his life got cleaner,

Seeing state of own life, he sat down to cry

Very soon realized crying won’t help him fly,

Started working hard, gave himself to every try

Power from above came down with his sigh,

He became a new man no one can deny

Life became meaningful he started serving Most High,

Story is too long I fear ink may dry,

Hoping the tale of this life was ample, to call your heart before Jesus to cry,

Longings of your heart and sins of your hands, Only Jesus is big enough to pacify, purify,

Thereby, He alone can satisfy!!!









God bless 








Source: Penned by blogger in 2011

Read More

LARGER PICTURE OF SALVATION: THREE STAGES

A lot of people, in Christendom, tend to define salvation as something that is to do with one's deliverance from the bondage of sin and ticket to the heaven's entrance. Undoubtedly, this is the best short definition available of salvation. Bible even goes on to say that those who take the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved. We can't build the doctrine of salvation based on one or two verses of the bible. Every verse of the bible is true but to develop an overall understanding we need to read bible as a whole not just one verse. 

Therefore, looking at the biblical explanation of the concept of salvation in it's entirety gives us the larger picture of salvation. Because this gives us the answer to various questions, like; have we been already saved? Are we being saved ? Are we yet to be saved? Is our salvation incomplete? What is like to be saved? Can we loose our salvation? Do we have to work for our salvation? And many more questions in and around salvation tend to emerge as one tries to dig deep in the concept. 

There are many opinions to this problem which are already available, however, here I would like to talk of salvation not as something which is already done but as something which is still in the process.  So the first place to understand this larger picture of salvation and solve such problems is to look at salvation as a process and understand what all segments this process includes. And this larger picture incorporates various verses from the scripture to build the divisions and, in some cases, subdivisions of salvation. 

Attempting to boil down this concept of salvation with least complexity yet entirety leaves us with three segments in the process: justification, sanctification and glorification. 

1. Justification: the word justification, in the context of salvation, refers to man's right standing before God. Sin had marred man's image and caused him his just position before God Which man would never have been able to retain without the help of God himself. Consequently, God being the source of solution, sent His Son Jesus Christ to make propitiation for sin and die in the place of guilty man and his standing right before God. Man had no part in this segment to make himself justified except to make a simple response by putting faith in Christ's atoning work as a sign of acceptance of God's gift of salvation. God delivered us from the penalty of sin; that is eternal death. Interestingly, religiously speaking, this is the only thing that separates Christianity from soteriology of other faith-systems. In Christianity, it's God reaching man (objective work of salvation) but in other faith man teaching God. (Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3:28 Galatians 2:16, Romans 4:1-25, Galatians 2:21)

2. Sanctification: the word sanctification, in bible, refers to the process of purifying oneself from world and sin. Now Christ's work is over with the justification and our work begins with sanctification which is done through the help of Holy Spirit and Word of God. Though Christ has from the penalty of sin, the power of sin still exists in our existence and we are to overcome it by yielding ourselves to Holy Spirit and embodying scriptures which is called, in Pauline corpus, flesh-spirit struggle. The key purpose Jesus sent the helper after His ascension was to help us in the process of sanctification; Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin (John 16) and word of God sanctifies is (John 17). Theologically, this is how our human agency comes in activation by the use of human free-will to purge oneself from the power of sin which is the subjective work of salvation. Paul and James, both says work out your salvation and keep yourself un-spotted from the world which is the true religion. (John 17:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Romans 12:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Romans 8:9-11, Romans 15:15-16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:13)

3. Glorification: glorification refers to an event in the time of Christ's return when believers will inherit glorious/heavenly body and will completely be freed from the presence of sin. This time is not known to any man but will only be for the ones who have completed the above mentioned two (justification and sanctification) process of salvation. This is where man will not only be freed from the penalty, power but also from the presence sin. (Romans 8:30, Philippians 3:21,  1 John 3:2-4,  1 Corinthians 15:51-54, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Romans 8:17)

This BRIEF analysis sums up the biblical doctrine of salvation which is very complex in nature but quite significant for believers' understanding. The objective work of salvation proves God's omniscience and sovereignty as He initiates the work of salvation and the subjective work of salvation without violating privileges human free will to partake in the divine work of salvation. Such knowledge/information must overwhelm our heart with joy and worship. 

Source: A sermon preached by blogger at a convention in Jammu & Kashim 23, 24 March 2017

Read More

The Armour of God #5 The Helmet of Salvation

इफिसियों 6:17 और उद्धार का टोप, Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation.

5. The Helmet of Salvation: The Protection of Thoughts (cognitive faculty)

"WHAT CONSUMES YOUR MIND CONTROLS YOUR LIFE"

Helmet becomes quite important when it comes to traffic. And mostly, Indians, make all efforts to avoid helmet unless police is around. Brain is understood to be most vulnerable and vital organ of human body. In Bible, king Abimelech lost his life because he encroached a city without helmet and a lady threw a stone in his head and his skull shattered into pieces. Judges 9: 53. 

Even an improper use of helmet may be fatal. For instance Goliath gave way to the stone of David. Even in wars headshots are most rewarded and expected if you want to completely destroy your enemy. In spiritual war, this helmet of salvation is not for the protection of your head from any physical stone, bullet or accident but unseen evil thoughts. I remember playing shooting video games, which was then my favourite, headshot were given 100 points which was far more than other shots. 

Satan is also interested in getting 100 points. More than your body he is interested in attacking your head, your thoughts.

Jesus said, "even if you thought sinful you have committed the sin", James 1:15, "when passion becomes pregnant gives birth to sin". This could be the thoughts of sexual perversion, discouragement, failure, inferiority, suicidal, weakness, pride and what not?

In the case Job, Satan tried physical assault but failed then he uses head shots by attacking his feelings and emotions. Job's friends and wife came to inflict pain on him psychologically. All words of discouragement. And today also he does the same. You may be looking well from outside, good job, income, family settlement but he is working inside your mind. Like a termite eating you from within. Satan sends negative thoughts, feeling of discouragements, defeat, loneliness, lostness, dejection, sexual perversion and what not? So in such context wearing the helmet of salvation means remembering that you are victorious. No matter what kind of a negative thought Satan infuses into your neurones, you always come out victorious. You don't linger in evil thoughts. Salvation is a victory given to you freely for which you have not fought but Jesus Christ has and won the battle over Satan. So now you can live victoriously by embodying helmet of salvation. 

In the case of Israel again this attack could be seen. They had already been delivered, now they are far far away from the land of their enemy but Satan comes to attack with thoughts; remembering the things of the old land and they ended up loosing their salvation and miserably died. So this mental or psychological attack of Satan can get so fatal that you can't even imagine. Today, many Christians are not being physical attacked with disease or apparent demon possessions as much they are attacked in their cognition. It's hard to even recognise that Christians are attacked. In Bible there are many examples, as such David was with sinful thoughts, Elijah was attacked with the spirit of fear, Judas was attacked with suicidal spirit. All of these attacks are cognitive in their nature.

When you think about the process of salvation, it's actually cognitive in nature. It takes place in the mind, faith is in the mind, accepting Jesus is in the mind. The verb 'believe in Jesus' is actualized in the mind which results in one's salvation. 

So we must protect OUR MIND with the thoughts of salvation and victory. Bible says, above all, guard you thoughts, heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, Proverbs 4:23. By setting our thoughts on the things of above. Colossians 3:1-2, Philippians 4:8.

GOD BLESS !!!

Read More