His People

He will save his people from their sins. (Mat 1:21)

This verse being the first promise in the New Testament, gives a wonderful encouragement to all Christians and even others that Christ will save us from our sins. The importance of our meditation today is that this opportunity of salvation is not for everybody. The Angel, who speaks on behalf of God the Father, clearly says that this opportunity is only for “His People”. We need to identify who this category of people are and what characteristics are required in us to become His.

Deuteronomy 7:7-9 tells us, “The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh King of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands.”

Inheritance

The sole purpose of God’s love and affection towards Israel is because of His commitment towards the forefathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The pattern of inheritance is very clearly seen in the Old Testament. Many kings and people were pardoned because of this inheritance. Also one another reason for this is that God was using individuals to execute his plans.

The New Testament gives a very different approach to this.  John 1:12 says that “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. God did not make this covenant with our forefathers. He makes this agreement with every one of us individually. God has no grand-children. Everybody is a son/daughter to Him. This makes all of us highly fortunate and equally responsible too.

The Rejection Model verses the Acceptance Model

                2 Cor 3:9 says “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.”              The model in the Old Testament is evident that God chose one big race of people who were heirs of one man who was obedient and loving. The children were taught the law from childhood and were judged by the law. The law brought a lot of condemnation in Israel. Also, the law was weakened by the flesh of the Israelites. (Rom 8:3).

                The opportunity to overcome the flesh with divine support is given only to us. God had the model of having one big nation and removing disobedient kids. In the NT, God is presenting Himself before us (Rev 3:20) and we are expected to open our doors. So, we out of our choices, we choose to love Him and obey Him.

                In the NT, we are accepted as babies when we receive Christ. This is the concept of born again. Once we receive Him, we are expected to Grow. God measures individuals according to what they have learnt from Him. (Rom 2:12-16).

The requirements of the Law be fulfilled in us

Rom 8:4

In the OT, every individual person has to fulfil the law to stay in the herd. The NT is contrasting here. The NT says that “Jesus fulfilled the law” (Mat 5:17). The law is complete when Jesus died at the cross. We are expected to fulfil the requirements of the law. For this we have to understand why the law is given and wholeheartedly work towards fulfilling the purpose of the Law. The purpose can be identified at Deut 7:9 : “a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands”. God needs such a group of people who together love Him and keep His commandments and thus form the body of the Church. For this we should toil to ensure this purpose is served. This gives us reason for soul winning and pleasing God by giving to the Church / poor and all the other acts of kindness.

Receiving Him

                Not every person in the OT had a personal relationship with God. But, everyone in the NT had as they received Jesus. This receiving Jesus has two forms. Many doctrines take the easy route claiming that we may receive Jesus as their personal Saviour and that makes them saved when they get baptized. But the NT’s emphasis is a lot different that this teaching. Romans 10:9 require a declaration from us that Jesus is Lord. There are many references to Jesus that He is our “Lord and Saviour”. Jesus is first our Lord and then our Saviour. We have to accept and declare His Lordship in our lives for salvation.

                There is no mention of people receiving God in the OT. Rather, they were a chosen generation according to the blood line. They were expected to Love and honour Him. But we have to receive him into our lives. This means that we need to ensure that he is part of our family and our body in every moment of our lives. That’s a huge responsibility when we compare to our standards today. But, yes people did practice all these in earlier days. We read of the history when everybody sold their possessions and brought them to the church. That is not a requirement or law, but that is a state of selflessness which we all should pursue in our lives. In regular Christian lives, it is the opposite where we develop selfishness as we grow.

You were the fewest of all people.

We may compare this with Mat 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. This poverty in spirit is also an important quality of God’s people for Jesus clearly says that they will inherit the Kingdom of God. Poor in spirit does not mean “Spiritual Poverty” where we show off our humility / ignorance. This is different. The poverty should start from the spirit level and not just the emotions level (Soul). That would be not just showing off poverty but developing habits and characteristics according to the model Christ taught and lived. Examples are the Slap in one cheek plus others in Mathew 5:38-42. These characteristics should not come from our decisions made in our mind when we are confronted, but spontaneous and natural. That develops only when we allow the Holy Spirit to completely control us. We should read the Bible constantly (Heb 4:12).

Conclusion

            These qualities make us His Children. These are not specific qualities. It is a submission to constant cleansing and allowing God to our inner selves. May God keep us in His Herd.

Holy Spirit, Our Teacher

John 14:26

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

This faith we have in the Holy Spirit is an important doctrine for all Christians to follow sincerely. Christians, now a days have clearly ignored this message. The reason for this ignorance is again a plan executed by the devil where our concentrations have been diverted towards many other things.

It is a commandment that we depend on the Holy Spirit for teaching. Whatever we learn anywhere else has no assurance of leading us towards Christ. The anywhere else can even be preachers, some specific bible verses, articles etc.

The trend now is to research the Bible in Hebrew, Greek or other language or archaeology based studies of the Bible. Some of us show a lot of interest in visiting the Holy Land. This pursuit is OK if the dependence is still on the Holy Spirit. If we keep boasting about our choice of the Bible Versions (Tamil, KJV, NLT etc...), it shows that we depend on the translation. We are forgetting the important truth that the author is dwelling inside us.

We all know the History that the Bible was inaccessible for 15 centuries after Christ and everybody did not get that opportunity to learn the word of God. This does not mean that everybody headed to hell at that time. It was the Holy Spirit’s guidance and our dependence of Him.

We should read the Bible by depending on the Holy Spirit and NOT other resources.

Also, when we try to boast of our Knowledge, we discourage poor believers who cannot have the opportunities or time to learn. This action of us is clearly sin. Let us encourage them to depend of the Holy Spirit.

Mary & Martha

Luke 10: 38-42

The incident of Mary and Martha gives us wonderful insights for a successful Christian progressing life. This meditation is aimed to be a deeper search for information from these verses and how better we may obey.

      1.       The fundamentals:

The primary message from this incident is what our priorities should be. Nothing else is important than bringing ourselves to the Lord’s feet and learning from him.

      2.       The Gospel

One aspect of the Gospel is that God loves us and wants to give us everything we need unconditionally. He is not bothered receiving anything from us. This unconditional love is also what we learn here. Every other religion wants us to work and earn salvation. Here, God gives us for free. All we have to do is sit at his feet and receive.

      3.       Serving the Lord

The illustration we learn from this incident focuses on the purpose of Jesus’ arrival to our homes. In this time, we do our best in making the Lord happy. We work, evangelize, do social work and make every effort to please him. God expects us not to please Him by serving, but receiving from Him. We should receive teachings from His word and obey. This makes Him happier and fulfills his purpose. Everything else is good, but just obeying than making human efforts is highly regarded as is the sole purpose of our Lord’s visit.

      4.       “Mary Also sat at the Lord’s feet”

The KJV Bible (and also the Greek originals) use the work “Also” in verse 39 meaning Martha was learning from the Lord, but Mary was continuously learning without getting bothered about other things like her sister. This continuous and steadfast devotion is mandatory for Christians. Just being in and out is meaningless.

      5.       “One thing is needed”

The human mind always leads us to the pursuit of many things that we think are real necessity. Like world peace, family security, financial stability etc. We worry and keep working hard to earn these. Jesus says that “ONE” thing is necessary. Every other thing isn’t. This one thing is our salvation which we get from the Lord’s feet by accepting Him as our only personal Savior and learning from Him. 

Love the LIGHT

Jesus is called as the light a lot of times in the Gospel of John.  John, according to scholars concentrates on the personality and deity of Jesus. The focus is that we should understand Him and love him. Others focus on his ministry, kingdom etc. Remember Mathew records the verse “You are the light of the world” whereas John writes the following utterance of Jesus: “I am the light of the world”. Both the verses are true and are said in different contexts.            

This meditation is about how we should look at Jesus to be our light from a few verses from the gospel of John. This will be helpful for us to understand Jesus more.

      1.       This is the condemnation

Jesus mentions that the absence of light and love of darkness itself is the condemnation or final judgement. One thing we should understand is that “We have not experienced heaven.” Or precisely, no one has yet. Jesus has always been promoting the ways to reach the Kingdom of heaven, but did not promote the Kingdom by mentioning its goodness. Maybe it is beyond our capacity to understand what heaven is like. Remember, in Revelation 21:17, John mentions that the angel used earthly measurement. Then there should be different scales in heaven. All things we use, measure, live and dress are all designed for man to live in this earth.

If just darkness is condemnation, imagine then how great and magnificent heaven could be.  No, we cannot imagine with our human brains. The focus of Jesus’ ministry was totally the Kingdom of Heaven. But, even if we have preach about heaven, we think that it is practical to live, save and pursue earthly wealth. This attitude should change. This attitude shows that we are pursuing darkness instead of light. This light is at the end of the tunnel showing us the path. Heaven is going to be glorious and will give us many kinds of happiness we could never imagine with our earthly experiences. Thus, it is not fair for Indian Christians to long for Switzerland or American country sides as what we have in heaven is beyond all the beauties we have heard of. Our focus now should be just to get there by doing his will.

      2.       Light that shines in the darkness

John 1:5. When there is light, darkness should be removed. But, here darkness is also present while the light is shining. John says that darkness did not overcome this light or Darkness could not put off this light. So, darkness was not equally powerful, but somewhere near the power of light. This shows the power of the devil. We take things very easily and think that by “casting away” the devil, he runs away. The reality is that he is very powerful and controls the whole world for more than 6000 years now. Just because one is saved and baptized does not make him clear from the devil’s darts. The devil uses every kind of weapon to attack. Sometimes sentiments, sometimes fear, sometimes anger, money, inheritance and everything we are weak at. It is important for us to remember that we have to continually strive hard to resist the devil.

                The light shines in the darkness. Even though there is darkness all around, the darkness which is so powerful could not disturb the light. This shows the purity and uncompromising nature of the light. This light which is the life of Jesus himself was so pure that no temptation could even disturb him. This power is given to us also as the Holy Spirit. However powerful the devil is, we have POWER to overcome him.

3.       Light has come into this world. (John 1:9)

Not after Crucifixion, but when Jesus was born. This Light that God shows is the life Jesus lived as a model to us. This life is what we are expected to meditate and compare with ours. This light enlightens everybody unconditionally. We should imagine that this light is brightly shining in the world. The faith we should have is that in the whole world being completely dark, the only hope is the light that shines. This light gives us a path that leads through righteousness towards glory. Every individual has the opportunity to be enlightened. But to be enlightened, we need to “come in to the light”.

This first exposes our actual selves to us and the light. This is important in every Christian’s life. A will to be cleansed is required. Jesus always has invited people and had never been a uninvited visitor in people’s lives. How stupid it is to ignore this love filled, sincere and the only hope giving invite. We should constantly compare our life events with that of Jesus’ life and understand how we fail and give way to darkness.

      4.       Purpose of The Light

                Jesus had the guts to claim that “I am the Light of the world (John 8:12)”. This light is not to be lit and decorated. This light is to be followed (v12). This light enlightens us about our sinful nature (John 1:9) and then keeps moving towards holiness as per this verse. This light visits every portion of our inner selves and enlightens on what areas are to be cleaned. Remember, Ps 119:105 where the light is for the path and not for our rest or anything else. The purpose of light is that we have to keep moving. There is nothing called static Christianity. Just being saved once or changing the religion and name is never enough.

                Likewise, when we are the light, we should make others (fellow believers) to progress in their lives.1 John 1:7 says “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Unless we have good fellowship, there is no trace of light in us. The light makes us understand how equal we all stand before the light remembering our previous dark state. We should also understand that fellowship is very important for Christian maturity.  This is not a stage or a sign like the speaking in tongues which may be optional. Fellowship is mandatory. This is the reason we all need to be part of a local church.

5.       A little longer (John 12:35)

This is a direct warning to us. The light is still shining among us as we still have opportunities to learn about Jesus. We have the Helper dwelling inside us to guide us. This comfort will not be for long. There will be a time where there will be utter darkness and we will have to keep walking to survive. We’ll be doomed if we do not.  

The verse says that if we do not walk in the light, darkness will “come upon” you. This is scary. Presence of darkness is different from coming upon which means “over comes”. That means darkness will control us rather than the light. This warning has not to be taken lightly. Christians should ensure progress and if not, be sure of darkness controlling us.

      6.       Men Loved Darkness (John 3:19)

The world not just sins with fear, but it is in a state where everybody enjoys sinning. There are many people who boast about sin. Jesus dislikes this state to a level where he calls this condemnation. The truth is that these men have not experienced life outside darkness.  So, they claim to be comfortable here. When the light is shining this love towards darkness keeps them away from the light. As believers and the “lights of the world” in this time, we are expected to show light to those who are in darkness.

Before we even think about salvation... we have to check if we love light or darkness. There are traces of love towards darkness in all of us. Let us allow the light to proceed into every area of our minds and life for removing this desire. This desire is sufficient to make us evil. Jesus gives the opportunity to only who believe and come to the light. The desire for righteousness should be complete. We need to convince ourselves first that we are in deep trouble by being in the dark and we really need to come out of this darkness for salvation. This process may be painful, troublesome and cause us lose a lot of pleasure we currently “enjoy”. Let us remember “Blessed are those who thirst after righteousness”. 

      7.       Put your trust on the light (John 12:36)

This is the next level. There are many events in life where we do not trust in Him. Mere walking is not enough. We are required to trust in the light, ignore human reasoning to become Sons of the Light. This only makes us shine among darkness so that we bear witness for him. Trusting points at total dependence and moving fast in the path the light takes without questioning. 

Qualities of Christ in Us

In the book of Philippians, the church in Philippi is understood to have
i. Given good gifts to Paul supporting his ministry.
ii. Is worried about Paul’s imprisonment
iii. A start of confusion by Jewish leaders in the Church who emphasize circumcision and other Jewish standards.
iv. A need for spiritual growth.

In this context Paul, in a few verses introduces some qualities as qualities in christ. Let us medidate on this.

1. Affection of Christ

1:8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
This verse explains that Paul, once a supervisor of massacre, has become such a soft person who misses his fellow brothers. Paul makes sure to declare that this affection was not sourced at his own self. The love of Christ is so huge that it changes the recipient’s complete attitude towards his fellow men. The love of Christ hopes and truly wishes that every person in the fellowship will be great contributors and performers in the Lord’s ministry (v 6).
The love of Christ makes us think about others, carry their burdens in our hearts and pray for their salvation even though we are in deep trouble and in chains. (v 7)
The love of Christ makes one pray that not just his own self, but all the believers to grow up in the knowledge and insight of the Lord and attain great heights in righteousness. (v 9-11)
All these qualities are expressed in just in this context. We have plenty more examples in the bible. The study here is that if we are not affected by Jesus’ affection and if that affection does not change our attitude like Paul did, it means that either we have not valued the affection the Lord Jesus Christ has showered upon us at the cross, or it makes us ungrateful animals.
As in Mathew 5:40, 41 true selfless actions should be shown even though we are being insulted. This is the expectation of Christ.

2. Joy in Christ  (1:26), (3:1) and Rejoice in the Lord (4:4)

The bible clearly differentiates worldly happiness which comes from satisfaction of the flesh with the happiness in Christ.
This joy comes to us when we are blessed with fellowship. This is an example of how we treat fellowship at Church or other places we are given. Good fellowship has no jealousy in it. Good fellowship first respects, honours and then receives with extreme happiness.
Also, in these contexts, Paul clearly explains that though we have no reasons for rejoicing with the situation, the presence of Christ gives us enough reasons for rejoicing not just once but indefinitely.
1. When we are in sorrow or when we think that we may be tormented for Christ.
2. When confusion comes
3. To build good character
It is important to tackle these problems by rejoicing.

3. Hope in the Lord Jesus (2:19)

Hoping in the Lord is described a lot of times in the Bible. Ex: Ps 130:7 where Israel is asked to put its hope completely in the Lord for redemption. All other occurrences are very similar in the Bible.
But, here in this context, Paul uses Hope in the Lord for a very different purpose.
Paul’s companion or co-worker Timothy’s character is praised here. He is described as a completely selfless human and a sincere worker.
The hope Paul has is that the church in Philippi enjoys the presence, service and encouragement of Timothy or himself (v 2:24). The reason Paul involves Jesus in this hope is an emphasis on the will of Christ in the matter. Otherwise, the reason for Timothy’s visit may be to exalt the ministries of Paul or to show that Paul has a subordinate who is very obedient. Here, Paul wants Timothy to visit Philippi but only for the purpose of God to be served.
In all our hopes, desires and plans, are they in line with the will of Christ? Our human hopes are defined on standards the world made. Our hopes should be so selfless and pure that Christ’s will is executed in our lives and the world.
1 Cor 15:19 says that it is a pity to have hope in Christ for this life alone.

4. Knowledge of the Lord (3:8)

The verse says that nothing can be compared to the knowledge of Christ. Worldly knowledge is not appreciated anywhere in the bible.
In Col 1:9, Paul clearly says that we grow in the knowledge so that Christ may be pleased by seeing us. All other purposes of this knowledge goes to wastage.
In Isaiah 1:3, we can read that even oxes and donkeys know their masters, but Israel does not. It means that the expectation on Israel is higher, but it had failed by not knowing who its master is.
It is very important that when knowledge in Christ grows, we should humble ourselves more and more and glorify Christ. We need to ensure that Christ is pleased by our mature actions. Otherwise knowledge becomes wasted.

5. Righteousness in the Lord (3:9)

We all claim to be righteous according to our own measures. But, being in the new testament covenant, it requires all of us to attain the righteousness that comes through Christ.
We may get a great deal after a good bargain. After paying the person, we may be happy that we have paid in full and feel right. But the reality is that the seller may got hurt as he had to sell the product for a much lesser price because of your bargain. There is a major difference with our own standards and that of Christ.
For Righteousness in Christ may be attained in two steps:
i. Through Faith (Phil 3:8,9).
ii. Through Obedience (Rom 6:16).

These are not two distinct paths towards righteousness, but together constitute the path.
We should consider obedience a part of faith (faithfulness) and so, Righteousness through faith is made true.

6. Riches in Christ Jesus (4:19)

This is the final goal we all have to be rich and prosperous.
The new testament of the new covenant never does speak of Riches in the world. In fact we are expected to hate worldly riches and pursue riches in Christ.

For a true Christian, riches in Christ (Ep 3:8 onwards) are translated as:
i. The opportunity that we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
ii. Access the hidden mysteries.
iii. Strength for the inner being.
iv. And plenty more...
All the riches the bible gives us are of the spiritual kind. This means that the purpose of our worldly living is for the soul to reach God in his likeness. All other purposes become void.
In this context, Paul says that all their needs are met with the riches in Christ. This means that all our needs (spiritual or material) will be met by the riches in Christ which is spiritual.
Mat 6:33 (Seek ye first the kingdom of God...)

Conclusion

To conclude, we should see that we desire many qualities and blessings. But, our actual pursuit should be towards all those qualities in Christ. That is, measure every quality according to the standard of Christ himself. Involve him in our hopes, desires, love and happiness.

Exodus 3,4 - A few thoughts

These two chapters in the Holy Bible present a wonderful conversation between God and Moses. This conversation was written first hand by Moses himself and has great values. Let us meditate these chapters in detail.

1. Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals.

Taking sandals off was customary in those times and represented reverence. This can be compared to men tying their towels on their tummy in south India when they pose in front of land lords some decades back.

Before even God introduces Himself or any other dialog, God first wants us to be in reverence in his presence. This can be compared with “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Pro 1:7).

The first step even before knowing God or stepping into anything spiritual is reverence. Without that quality nothing is worthy in God’s presence. This is a commandment which should be taken fearfully.

2. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

This sentence gives us a clear hint that Moses was brought up as an Egyptian. We can see that when Zipporah identifies him in Chapter 2. But, God uses him to lead and deliver his people out of Egypt. This is a great encouragement for us.

God does not say “I am your God” here. Unless we accept Him, he does not claim to be ours or claim us to be His. This is one important step we should take in Christendom. By being brought up as a Christian never implies we are one.

In Cp.2:24, we see that God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the reason why God mentions this to Moses and wants Moses to repeat this to the Israelites multiple times. When we are in trouble or even when lost totally and have forgotten the Almighty, He remembers and helps us recollect his blessings and the covenant he made with us. But, God does not save unless we accept and worship Him. He does his job of helping us remember how great He is.

3. I have come down

God created the universe, the earth and everything in and out of it with mere words. But, one thing that God does not do is manipulate men’s minds. Our mental qualities are not controlled by God. This is the reason why God personally comes down to earth and fights in a very ethical way. He wants the Israelites to trust Him and the Egyptians to take the decision of sending Israelites out of Egypt. So, He personally comes down and acts so that His people are delivered.

This should be compared to Jesus’ arrival. When we were afflicted in sin, God came down as Jesus for our deliverance.

We do not have any event in the bible that says “God made somebody obey or love Him”. It is a choice given to us. Our requirement is to Love him (The greatest commandment).

Also, we should understand the kind of trouble God goes through in this process. To win our acceptance, He keeps trying again and again. The whole dialog between God and Moses will clearly demonstrate this.

4. I will be with you

Moses who was brought up as a prince should have great talents. But, he was scared on the situation by telling God that “Who am I? What qualities are you seeing in me to give this great responsibility”?  God does not comfort Moses here by telling that “Hey, do not undervalue yourself. I have given you enough training” etc. God answers this with “I will be with you”.

This is the only quality that is required for achievement. Whatever goodness and talents may have, or however discouraged we are, the event of God being with us will enable us fight against mighty kings and dictators.

In the later verses we can see that God says “I will bring you out”, “I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt”, “I will give you favour in the sight of the Egyptians” etc.

This is not just for Moses. We all have this wonderful opportunity of having the Holy Spirit inside us. This comfort is a lot more than that of Moses. God was with him. The Holy Spirit lives inside us knowing our every move and leading us in every situation however small and delicate it is.

5. I AM WHAT I AM

The Eternal Name of our Father God. God says “I AM there for you. I AM responsible.”  I am present and active. You should not worry because I AM there.

There is nothing else that can be compared with what I AM.

This also points to the truth that I will be what I AM. Do not expect me to compromise on anything. You may be in different generations or families or where ever. The Father does not change. We are the citizens of His kingdom and we are expected to change and move towards gaining his full Acceptance.

The Christian way is really interesting. First God works to gain our acceptance. This is Grace. After this we keep working to gain His acceptance. This is Faith.

This pattern will be seen in our lives. The miracles God does are not for our comfort and happiness alone. The purpose of miracles is to build our faith towards Him. As we grow up in spirit, we are expected to handle situations ourselves with God’s strength.

6. You shall be to him as God.

When God gives us responsibilities, delegation is not right. God ensured Aaron gets his responsibility as the high priest in due time. But, this responsibility as the spokesman is not what God desired.
Giving away responsibilities or sharing them is not what God is happy about. The responsibilities are individual and God does not evaluate us as a group. But, He expects us to work as a group with fellowship and love towards each other. We need to ensure that individual tasks are completed in a group environment. The evaluation is done individually. In a church or anywhere else... delegation is God’s work. Let us not give away our responsibilities.

7. God met Him and sought to kill Him.

When God has called us for a higher calling, it is very important for us to analyse deeply for what disqualifications we have. Negligence in this can be fatal. Even a single act of disobedience can cause this. We may have excuses like “God, I was bought up as an Egyptian and now settled in Midian for 40 years”. Disobedience in spite of knowledge is not at all tolerated by God.

God was merciful and gave Moses time till he started towards Egypt. But, the real action started when Moses meets Aaron and starts testifying. Before the start of God’s work, it is important for us to double check any disobedience we are displaying deliberately.

Conclusion

These two chapters show how God comes down to our small and stupid un-belief and keeps encouraging us and does whatever He should to make us believe. It would have been great if we start believing as soon as God calls us. But, we keep questioning him and display our distrust. God is patient and kind.

This meditation is not a complete study of the two chapters. These are just a few thoughts. We have lots to learn from these chapters. Let’s keep on meditating.

A few Good Friday thoughts

1.   Luke 23:43 "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

This was to one of the criminals who were crucified with Christ.

But, Mathew records that (Mat 27:44) that both the rebels insulted Christ.

This is not a contradiction. Jesus was hung on the cross for 6 hours and there should have been many other events not recorded by all the four gospel writers. We should translate this as one rebel at first insulted Christ and then repented after seeing Christ.

The lesson we learn here is that a person has hope of forgiveness and salvation even minutes before his death. This person was bad enough to be crucified. He was bad enough to insult Christ during the worst time of Christ. But… he got saved.

However lost we are and convicted we are, we have hope through Christ.

2.   John 19:28 “I am thirsty”.

This is the only event in whole lifetime of Christ, it is recorded that Christ asked men a favor for himself. Yes, He is divine and almighty, but in the cross, he was very much human and separated and forsaken by God the father.

His physical conditions became very weak at that time causing him dehydrate and was pushed to this state.

Many physicians say that Christ did not die due to bleeding; He died due to suffocation as his chest was so pressed as the whole weight was on the hands.

God Almighty took all this discrimination, pain and death so that we could be saved.

3.   All the four gospels do not elaborate the crucifixion or the pains Christ had, they just say “He was crucified”. But, Peter’s denial is so elaborated. The criminal’s salvation is elaborated. The Holy Spirit influenced the writers to write so. This shows a wonderful example of Christ being unselfish and not focusing on Himself or the price He paid. But they focus on the result i.e. “Salvation” and our guidelines to attain that.

We should follow this example, but not forget the price He paid.

Being Spiritual

“The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4)

In modern ages, we have a lot of Christians who regard themselves higher than others as they are “Spiritual” and others are not.

But, unfortunately The Holy Spirit is only being portrayed or spoken of while worshipping and not during other times. We really have to understand why this is wrong.

Worship in Spirit

“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24 KJV)

Please note that the first instance of the word “Spirit” is capitalized and the second one is not. This clearly means that the first instance ONLY points to The Holy Spirit and the second one does not.

We need to understand the meaning of “in the spirit”.

In Hebrews 4:12, we read “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The soul is the portion of us which emotes, thinks and the definition of a person’s characteristics. Remember animals have no soul, but we have. The Sprit is further inside. The words we hear reach the soul (or mind). Only God’s words have the capability of tearing apart the dividing screen of soul and spirit and then reaching the spirit within.

The words in the sprit are actually effective than the words in the soul.

Now, worshipping in the spirit means “Worshipping in our own spirit” which means a worship that does not start at our front level emotions or mind, but from our spirit inside. This explains “worship in truth”. Worshipping in just the outer mind is not truthful, worship from our spirit is.

We should understand that just worshipping while being filled with the Holy Spirit does not make us spiritual. The roles of the Holy Spirit should be understood for that.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s arrival in us.

  1.       We receive REGENERATION

(Titus 3:5). The Holy Spirit does not improve us from what we are. We are regenerated. All our old self is completely destroyed so that a new person is born.  If we receive the Holy Spirit and continue being the older person, then either the spirit is wrong or we are controlling Him.

  2.       We receive TEACHING

John 14:26

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

There words are from Jesus Himself. It is so comforting to have a teacher inside right? Who corrects us every time we fall. If we forget the words of Christ which bring life, the Holy Spirit helps us remember them.

  3.       We receive POWER.

(Acts 1:8) We are weak to stand against the world. When we testify Christ, we will face insults and pressure to stop. The Holy Spirit will strengthen us from inside.

We also should understand that our flesh is weak and will make us sin. The Holy Spirit will help us overcome by giving us strength.

  4.       We receive WISDOM

(John 20:22,23) This wisdom helps us decide on whom we forgive and whom we dare not. Yes, we should forgive and love our enemies. But, Christ himself yelled at men who made the Temple a business place. In Mark 9:42 we read that Christ does not forgive those who cause new believers to sin. We get to have a wonderful wisdom of deciding when to show forgive.

  5.       We receive AUTHORITY.

Again from the above verse, Over the devil and enemy, we receive authority when the Holy Spirit fills us. We have the authority to stop the enemy's actions.

  6.       We receive COURAGE.

When Peter , a simple fisherman was questioned by the High Priest and other authorities, He was “Filled by the Holy Ghost” and stood up and directly condemned them.  (Acts 4:8)

It was not just peter, everybody who had the Holy Ghost in them , spoke in boldness (Acts 4:31)

  7.       We receive UNITY

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32). When they were filled in the Holy Ghost, they were in one heart and soul, meaning their intentions were all the same.  The men of that time went to the extent of selling their property, possessions and sharing.

  8.       We see VISIONS

Acts 7:55, when Stephen was about to be killed, the Holy Spirit filled him and make him look steadfastly up and concentrate on Christ. We should notice that the Holy Spirit did all these before the first stone was thrown upon him. How much love our God shows upon us.

  9.       We get INSTRUCTIONS

In Acts 13, we read that the Holy Spirit took care of every action they did. Precise directions and plans were given to the apostles on what they should do. The apostles submitted themselves to the Holy Spirit.

  10.   We get HAPPINESS

(Rom 14:17). This happiness comes to us through the fact that we are made righteous.  It does not stop there, we get Hope to move on in Christendom.

All these experiences should be present to prove the Holy Spirit’s existence in us.

The Holy Bible is very particular about the “Fruit of the Spirit” (5:22,23). All these characteristics will be displayed in a person if the Holy Spirit is present. However, even if the Spirit is present, some trees will be barren with no fruit. They get the treatment of the fig tree (Mark 11:12, 13).

Are we just worshipping God in the Spirit or have we completely submitted ourselves to Him? The word SPIRITUAL means “belonging to the Spirit.” Do we really???

Righteousness

Mathew 5:6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Righteousness is a quality or a characteristic which the bible keeps emphasizing upon. If we do not practice righteousness, we are doomed as per the bible. But, what is Righteousness and how do we gain this?

The first thing we know is that one of God’s characteristics is righteousness.

Psalms 31:1 says “Deliver me in thy righteousness” meaning that God, your actions are so perfectly right that you would not want to let me be unsaved. If you count my righteousness to deliver me, it will be a totally failed equation and there is no chance for me to be delivered. Please deliver me as you are good and righteous. Yes, we get to be saved not because we are good, but our God is good.

We understand this very clearly in Romans 3:26. As God was righteous, it was very unfair to let all our sins be ignored. They deserve severe punishment. But, it was his Amazing Grace that made God Himself take up that whole punishment.

Coming to our primary subject, we should understand that God expects us to be righteous. (Mat 5:20).

But, righteousness is not a qualification we attain by some deeds.

The Bible never tells us to attain righteousness. We are expected to give our best in trying. This should not be a mere desire that we want or long for. We desire richness, but need food to live. Righteousness takes that place where we cannot live without it.

For a better understanding, let us see how the Bible describes this…

      1. Righteousness as a PATH

Prov 12:28. “In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.” This path definitely does not lead to destruction. A path that gives us life and we escape death if we follow it.

All other paths are just called as “Wandering” in Ps 107:4-7. We can easily see that this statement is very much true in our lives. When we did not know Jesus, we had no motives, useless ambitions and meaningless lives. After Jesus came to us, we got a very wonderful purpose for living – for His Kingdom.

So, this path is not an option, but the only way to the good destiny.

The encouragement is that we are not expected to move alone in this path. God has given wonderful promises.

God introduces this path to us. (Ps 16:11). God directs us in this path. (Pro 4:11). God teaches us with procedures to move in this path (Ps 25:4). He watches over the path (Ps 1:6). He makes the path smooth for us to travel (Is 26:7)

In Romans 9:31, 32 we can see that our works does not lead us in this path, our faith does. We must depend more and more in Christ, humble ourselves and follow him to stay in this path or else we will stumble. In Hosea 14:9 we read that the rebellious stumble in this path. Any display of arrogance or self-acclamation is clearly contradicting to righteousness.

      2. Righteousness as an ACCOUNT.

We can read from Genesis to the epistles that “It was credited as righteousness”. Our deeds and importantly, our “Faith” is saved every time we display it.

This illustration emphasizes that God is counting our righteousness and we are accountable to Him in the end. And we get results out of out this account. The details in Romans 4 which explains Abraham’s faith will explain that God looks at minute details our faith to credit that into our accounts.

Like Abraham our deeds will be credited as righteousness if they display our faith on God. Just obedience on specific verses is not sufficient. Those can be seen at Pharisees and other lawmakers. Our thirst to righteousness will lead to a level where we not just obey the law, but try to please the Almighty in every action we do. 

      3. Righteousness as a Revelation (Rom 1:17)

“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed”

Yes. Righteousness was impossible till our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came. The righteousness we pursue is revealed through him. There was no role model till he showed his life. There was no hope for this path until the Savior delivered us.

But, this revelation is not just for us alone. As the previous verse states, we should not be ashamed in revealing this righteousness to everybody so that all men will be in this righteous path.

4.       Righteousness as a Gift (Rom 3:22)

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe”

This gift is for ALL. There is no room for boasting. All of us just believed in him.

      

       4. Righteousness as a Master (Rom 6:18)

“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

Verses 15 to 23 gives us a good explanation on how we should submit ourselves, offer our bodies to God so that he leads us towards holiness. Our freedom is from sin and bondage and leads to happiness and peace. This does not give us freedom to perform all our thoughts. The remembrance of being slaves to righteousness at all times, especially temptations will help us pursue in this path.

Jesus compares this longing with hunger and thirst as these two feelings surpass every other need in the human body. If we are real hungry we cannot concentrate in working, reading or even entertainment. The needs are required to be attended immediately. Likewise, when we sin or move away from God, it is necessary to stop everything else and then fix our relationship with the Almighty first and should not prolong.

The righteousness of God is so magnificent and huge for us to celebrate and depend upon. The greatest step in salvation is that God himself helps us grow righteousness in our lives. All we have to do is just believe and obey.