Green Pastures or Darkest Valley, One Thing Remains

Recently, I was reading a very familiar psalm. I know it by heart. Many of you who grew up in a Christian home can recite Psalm 23 without a pause. But, that day, it was different. I didn't quickly brush through the well-known verses, which I was tempted to do. But I took the time to slowly read the six verses. Here are some things that stood out to me that day:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. - God is our shepherd who takes care of our every need. It means just that - 'every' need. He knows what you need physically, emotionally, spiritually and any other 'ly' you can think of, so that you would lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. How pleasant and sweet those words sound! Who doesn't want to be in such beautiful places? Green pastures, quiet waters and refreshed - I want to be there! Yes, all the time. Notice the first part. 'He makes me lie down...' When He makes you, just lie down and be still. Store up all the energy you can. You might need it later in the journey.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley. This is nothing like the earlier part, where everything was peaceful and perfect! Darkness and valley aren't good places to be. Wouldn't it be good if they were eliminated from our path, altogether? Of course. But we all know that's not the way life is.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Oh wait! It's not so scary, after all! 'Not perfect' doesn't have to mean 'not peaceful'. We can be in the darkest place, and yet be comforted and courageous. But, how is it possible? The key is that the Lord Himself is with us. In the height or depth, He never leaves. In the green pastures, He is there, leading me and refreshing my soul. In the valley, He is there, comforting me.

Whether I will be in the green pastures or the dark valley, I don't know. I will probably be travelling through both. But, one thing I know - He is with me. What an assurance!

That’s Not Fair!

Even a child feels the need to be fair. They say things like:
“Tell him to share the toys with me.”
“You had your turn. Now, it’s my turn to play.”

That does not change when we grow up to be adults. We say:
“All the work is dumped on me. No one else seems to be working. It’s not fair!”
“For all the hard work I did, I deserve better than that.”
“I want an equal share of it.”

He felt that need. Just like you and me. He wanted to be treated fairly. He did what we would think is the best. He took his problem to Jesus. He asked Jesus to tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him (Luke 12:13). Now, that request sounds quite reasonable. And what was Jesus’ reply to this man? He replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” This is no time to be fair. Only when we get to heaven, everything is going to be fair!

We are never promised that life would be fair. On the contrary! Jesus taught, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” (Luke 6:29,30) But, that’s not fair! And it wasn’t fair when Jesus was cruelly put to death on a cross.

So what do we do? Do good anyway! It’s easier said than done. But that’s what Jesus did, when He accepted death on the cross. That’s what He teaches us to do. “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.” (Matthew 5:39) Humanly, that’s impossible to do. But, with God, all things are possible. May He help us to do good even when we are treated unfairly.

Are You Rich?

Think about this: Are you rich?

If you are like most people, your answer would be "No". If you are asked to name a few people who are rich, you would have a few names. Interestingly, most people do not admit that they are rich. They would feel rich if only they had a little more than they have. That's an unachievable target! Click here to read Gallup's poll on what people consider rich.

I have never considered myself rich. Whenever I heard sermons about rich people or read verses about rich people, I have always thought they are addressed to someone else.

A sermon I heard recently helped me see things in a different perspective. There are people who think you are rich. If you are reading this from your computer/tablet/phone, you are probably rich. (I am rich too!) If you have more than your basic needs met, you are probably rich. Of course, richness is a relative term. That's exactly my point. If you compare yourself to a person who has more than you do, you appear poorer. If you look at a person who has less than you do, you are rich! As long as there is someone who has less than you do, you are rich!

Now that you know you are rich, is it a good thing or bad? We need to acknowledge that God is our Provider (unless the money you have is earned in ungodly ways). The Bible has a lot to say about the rich, the scariest of which is Matthew 19:24 ("...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.") When Jesus spoke about rich people, He must have referred to it more as the condition of the heart.

Many are quick to point out that money itself is not the root of evil, only the love of money is. While it is easy to get away saying that I don't love money, I must be careful not to want more than I have. "Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you." (Hebrews 13:5) After all, we follow a Master Who had to borrow a coin to illustrate His message (Mark 12:15)!

May the Lord help us to keep our eyes fixed on Him, Who is eternal and not on the fleeting earthly treasures that are of absolutely no value the moment you take your last breath.

Caught Praying

Daniel's co-workers were jealous of him. "The administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”" (Daniel 6:4,5) Soon, they came up with a plan - one that involved Daniel's prayer life. The only thing Daniel could be accused of was his prayer life!

Daniel's prayer life was so consistent that it was used as the basis for charges against him. He continued to pray three times a day, irrespective of the laws of the land. He did not increase his prayer in the time of need, nor did he shy away from prayer in an attempt to protect his life. He was consistent in prayer - same time, same place and same position, everyday. (Daniel 6:10)

People knew about Daniel's prayer life. The administrators and satraps knew about it (Daniel 6:5). Darius also knew how faithfully Daniel served God (Daniel 6:16, 20). Jesus did warn against making a show of your prayer. Jesus' warning was against prayer motivated by people's praises, like the Pharisees did. That's quite different from the way Daniel prayed. He prayed even when it could cost his life.

It wasn't hard for Daniel's conspirators to catch him praying. They knew exactly when and where they could catch him 'red-handed'. How easy is it for others to catch you praying? Can you be accused of your prayer life?

I'm Now a Mom!

Me, a mom?? Hard to believe. It was as if yesterday when I was a carefree kid. But it’s been four months since I officially became the mother of a cute little guy!! John Baruch made his entry into the world on December 13th, 2012. He was expected to be born four weeks later. But God’s timings are different from ours.

It was my 36-week scheduled doctor visit. Danny had taken permission from office to take me to the doctor during his lunch break. As soon as I entered the hospital, my bag of waters broke (which means labour is near). The doctor examined me and I was admitted in the hospital for labour. Isn’t it too early? I am not even full-term. As Danny and I sat there that afternoon, recollecting all that had been happening, we knew God’s timings are perfect and He had been preparing us for that day. Not just us. Even our home was all set for the arrival of our little one. The crib was ready, so were his clothes and the car seat. We had even bought diapers. It surprises me that we were so prepared four weeks in advance, more so since Danny usually prefers doing things at the last minute. Friends had gifted us a variety of baby things. Yeah, friends whom we had known for hardly eight months in this foreign country!

In a few hours, I’ll be delivering the baby, how did we feel? Of course, it was a mixture of feelings. But if I have to point to one, we knew that God is in perfect control. It was just the two of us at the hospital. My mom was supposed to come in another two weeks, but her first grandson decided to come earlier.

Rewind to ‘one year back’…

A few months into our marriage, I came across this Bible passage in Luke 1:16-18. It’s about John the Baptist. (“He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”) As I read this, I just prayed that the Lord would give us a child like that – one who would bring many people to the Lord. On New Year’s Day, as the church service was going on, Daniel looked at me and said, “We are going to have a child this year.” Months passed, and it was in the month of May that we found I was pregnant.

That brought mixed feelings in me – Excitement, joy, fear, anxiety. How am I going to go through the childbirth part? I’ve heard much about the ‘unbearable labour pain’. When I cringe in other kinds of pain, I’ve sometimes had older women ask me, “if you are not able to bear this pain, how are going to bear labour pain?” I too had that question in mind. Early in my pregnancy, I had to make a choice. I will have to worry about the impending labour pain for the rest of my pregnancy or cast my worry on the Lord and just enjoy the pregnancy moment by moment. But, I didn’t know what to pray for. Should I pray for a painless delivery or a shorter labour? The verse which says, “By thee have I been holden up from the womb; thou are he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.” (Psalm 71:6) was a great encouragement. Now, I knew what to pray for. I just asked that God’s Presence would be real during the delivery.

Whenever I was faced with questions, discouragement or physical weakness, it was God’s Word that uplifted me. I learnt some of my pregnancy lessons from the life of Elizabeth, John’s mom. Some people who prayed over me quoted verses about John the Baptist. I just thought to myself that our baby should be named John, if it’s a boy. When we found out we’re having a boy, we decided to name him ‘John’. Danny suggested ‘Baruch’ after the scribe of prophet Jeremiah.

12/12/12 was the day I was admitted in the hospital. It was around 9 PM, when I started to feel the pain, though contractions had begun in the afternoon (pardon me, if you are not familiar with these terms. Anyway, it might be good to know them. Perhaps, it will be of use later on). In the hospital, women in labour are offered an epidural (pain relieving medicine injected into the spine). Most women take an epidural. Though I am not against taking an epidural, Danny had encouraged me that I could do it naturally with God’s strength. I had told my nurses that I don’t want an epidural; but I might change my mind about that. The pain started getting intense. Danny stood by me, encouraging me, playing Praise and Worship music, praying and reciting Scripture verses. I kept asking the nurses, “how much longer will it take?” As the pain started increasing, I had a thought about taking some kind of pain relief. Just then the nurse examined me and said I am almost ready to deliver. If it’s going to be just some more time, why bother with the pain medication? Then came the long awaited moment at 01:08 AM – and there he was! A little squealing human being drenched in blood and fluids. Tears of joy filled my eyes as all those moments of pain just faded away in the joy of holding my little baby.

On the day of birth

Four months have gone by so quickly, and it’s fun being a mom – though it’s not very easy. Trusting in the Lord to help me be the godly mom that He wants me to be, not a perfect super-mom that I wish I could be!!

A recent picture

Seek First '_____'

In August, it had been a few months for us in the US and we thought it’s a good time to buy a car. Till then, we had been walking to nearby stores; sometimes, we took the less frequent public transport; most times, kind-hearted friends offered us rides – especially for Danny to commute to his workplace. We got the money ready for the car and started looking for cars within our budget and as per our requirements. We searched the internet, told friends. All along, we knew in our hearts that God would provide the right vehicle at the right time. But we need to “do our part”, right?

During the process, we realised that ‘car’ was all that we were talking and thinking about. “How about this one... or that?” It’s quite true that we needed a car. We can’t keep asking people for a favour every day. But had we forgotten to just trust in God and be still? We both knew that’s what God was asking us to do at that time. Oh come on, we can’t literally “be still” in this case, can we? We need to do some search and research. We went ahead and did. Finally, one deal worked out for us – well, almost. We proceeded to negotiate with the seller. We were going to make the payment, when we realised that this was fraudulent. Thank God, we were stopped at the right time. It wouldn’t have taken us too long to have paid all the money we had at that time and kept waiting for the car forever!

After we recovered from the shock, now again, time to resume our car hunt. But this time, God’s Word was crystal clear – the very familiar verse, “But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) ministered to me. From the previous verses, we know that ‘all these things’ refers to our physical and immediate needs. Like most promises in the Bible have a command, this one does too. We need to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness. In our case, we decided to stop looking for cars, because that was occupying too much of space in our minds. That was a difficult step. We had to hold each other accountable on that. The other thing was to focus our minds on God, serving Him and praying for those who have not yet seen the Light. What about the car? We had learned the hard way to ‘be still’.

After a few days, when we got an opportunity to testify about God, Danny shared about how God had stopped us from being a victim of fraud. One person who was listening to it came and spoke to us later saying that he knows a good car dealer and he can help us get a car! Later that week, he took us to the car dealer and helped us decide on a car that suits our requirements. We drove back home in that car and we’ve been using it for the last few months.

At times, it’s hard to be still and wait for God’s timing and ways. But when we do, we can only exclaim in wonder at the way He works! I realised that God is able to work as much as we trust Him with our lives. God has put us on earth on His mission – that is, to seek His kingdom. When we do that, He takes care of all our physical needs. Yes, literally.

When an employer asks its employee to travel on business, the employer takes care of all his expenses. All he has to be concerned about is the task at hand. He would be a fool to spend all his time trying to meet his expenses and neglect his task. But, too often, isn’t that how we live? We spend all our time and effort in meeting our immediate needs that we forget about the greater purpose for our life on earth. The danger is that the worries of this life can go to the extent of choking the Word of God! “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22) Let us be careful to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our race.

“... That They May Be One”

Before Danny and I moved to the US, one of the things we prayed for is that we would get to be part of a “good” church. I remember someone asking us if we plan to go to an ‘Indian church’ or a ‘white church’. We said we were ready to go just wherever the Lord leads us. Of course, at that point, we didn’t really know what those titles meant. On our first Sunday in the United States, we googled for the nearest church and we went there. We walked about 20 minutes and reached Grace Outreach Center, a non-denominational, multi-cultural church. We could actually see people from different nations and different cultures attending church and also serving in the church. Though we hardly saw Indians that day, we were so comfortable there. Nobody stared at us as strangers, instead so many of them welcomed us warmly to the church.

Now, as we have become members of Grace Outreach Center and as we get to know more people personally, we get asked a lot of questions about our culture and our faith in Christ. But at the end of our conversation, we realise that we can identify with each other because we share this unique relationship with Christ. Our skin colour is different; we have cultural differences; we think differently, but because we are washed by the blood of Jesus, we have the same purpose; we have the same values and priorities. It’s a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ that people from different nations come together to worship Him. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

I believe this is just a small glimpse of what heaven will be like, when nations and tribes stand in God’s Presence in unison. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9)

Across the globe, God speaks to His people through His powerful, unchanging Word. It amazes me to think that God’s Word, which was written centuries ago, is still relevant to everyone, irrespective of culture, nation and time period.

On the other hand, it pains me to see ‘exclusive churches’. We have created divisions in the Church for the sake of denominations, nationalities, languages and even castes (at least the caste doesn’t feature in the name of the church)! ‘Korean church’ or ‘African church’ or ‘Indian church’, for example, is an oxymoron! In a way, isn’t that racism within the Church? A church is supposed to be inclusive of everyone. Of course, such churches might exist for different purposes and I am not to judge their motives. But if we can work, ride and shop with people from other countries, what stops us from worshipping God together with people from other countries? “But, there’s the language barrier, especially for those who are new to church” you may say. You might want to read again what happened on the day of Pentecost:

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:5-11) That’s the power of God! They didn’t each have a church in their own language. People speaking different languages came together as one. For these foreigners, it would have been like it would be for me to hear an American preach or testify in Tamil! But, that’s the way the Spirit of God works when we come together in unity. So, instead of human methods, let us allow the work of God's Spirit.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” (John 17:20,21) Why don’t you and I be the answer to Jesus’ heartfelt prayer? As believers in the Lord Jesus, let us stand united. Let the One thing that unites us be the Blood of Jesus Christ, not just denomination, language, nationality, native place, caste or any other man-made interests.