Therefore, if any one cleanses himself from what is dishonourable, he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21(please read along with verse 20).

I want to ask a question “are you a vessel of honour” in every walk of your life, glorifying the name of God where ever you are placed? If you read the versus preceding, you see St Paul gives a metaphor about vessels in a house some made for honour and some made for dishonourable use. That means we have a choice to be a vessel of honour or a vessel of dishonour. Paul clearly sees three valuable virtues that can make you honourable vessel in the hands of the Lord in October.

You should be sanctified to be a vessel of honour:  Sanctification may sound high but it means to set apart. 1 John 2-15 to 17 tells us “Do not love the world or the things of the world. It is clear that a) the desire of the flesh b) desires of the eye and pride in possession is not from the Father but from the world. Does that mean you need to isolate yourself from the world? Read 1Thessalonians 5-21, 22, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.  Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do (1Peter 1-9). Then you become a vessel set apart to God.

 Be a vessel of Love: When Jesus walked on this world he was full of love and forgiveness. Love is a divine nature that has come from the Lord (John 3-16).You can glorify God only when you have Love and forgiving nature. Read Matt- 22-37,38, 39  The greatest commandment  is “to love the Lord your God and the second is to love one’s neighbour as oneself”. There is no greater definition than this for love.  In a nutshell, “love for God and love for others, who are made in God’s image. We need to forgive others as Jesus did. Read Ephesians 4-32; “be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” .You should forgive and forget so that they will not come to mind. Please read and practice Matthew 5-44,45.(NKJV)

Be a vessel of good work: Read Hebrew 13-16, do not forget to do good and to share with others, for such sacrifices God is pleased. Whenever possible, where ever possible do charity.  In Proverb 19-17 those who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. Dear ones every act of mercy will bring abundant blessings and even if you go through some problems in life the same mercy of God will lift you up.

May God bless you with Joy and happiness in October.

You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth (success) for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who give you the ability to produce wealth (success). Deuteronomy 8: 17, 18 

Today we are living in a global village were time and distance are irrelevant to the speed of communication. We have modern technology like iPhone, iPad, Tab which design our life style. Our emphasis on accomplishment is more resting on the “I” factor. We love to delight ourselves in every success and accomplishments. Though we are right in doing so, we often miss the “enabler” behind our success. That is what precisely the Lord reveals in the above Words. When you internalize your success in your thought and mind innocuously it breeds pride in you.

A) If you read Daniel 4:29 to 32 … As the King was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said “is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? Even as the words were on his lips the voice came from heaven about his displacement from the Kingship. The voice says that you will be like these till you acknowledge that the “Most High” is sovereign over kingdoms on earth. What stands out very candidly is the God’s zealous in not allowing the man to usurp the Glory of God even in his thought realm. Let us be careful about our attitude of mind.

B) We read about King Uzziah who became a king when he was 16 years and was guided by Zechariah. 2 Chronicles 26:15, 16 we read he was greatly helped by the Lord till he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He became unfaithful to God to burn the incense which is done by a priest. Here the pride brought disobedience to the law of God. Dear ones are we standing close to the line of demarcation between humility and pride? In 1 Corinthians 8:1, Paul tells us “but knowledge puff up while love builds up”. Steer clear from the comfort zone of pride.

Put on the garment of love. Love does not boast; it is not proud; it is not rude, and love never fails. If you have love in your heart it will manifest as humility in your action.  When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes Wisdom (Prov-11:2). Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take Advice. (Prove -13:10). The fear of the Lord teaches man wisdom, and humility comes before Honour (Prov-15:33).

Let us follow Jesus as our role model.  Though Jesus being the son of God, He did not consider himself equal to God .He made himself in human likeness and humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on cross. In your relationship with one another, have the same attitude of mind of Christ Jesus.

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord; and he shall lift you up higher and higher. God bless you.

Eric Sundararaj

The media news commentators are constantly talking about one thing in Chennai, India. They are discussing about the 50^th movie of Superstars Vijay & Ajith. Both superstars are going out of the way to make their 50^th movie really special by signing up with top directors to direct their movie & ensuring that there will be no budget constraints in creating a movie masterpiece.

It’s in this media frenzy that I suddenly thought that God has given us a masterpiece in the BIBLE that guides us in the way we should go to be successful in our life. I looked for books that may have a 50^th Chapter & I zoomed in on Psalm 50. There are very few books with 50 or more chapters anyway. So, what does Psalm 50 say?

Psalm 50:23 says “Whoever makes an offering of praise gives glory to me; and to him who is upright in his ways I will make clear the salvation of God”

The Psalm 50, emphasizes on two things 1)God loves those who make offerings of praise to him 2) Those who are upright / righteous in their ways will receive salvation. The two things are again so interconnected. Unless one is upright, one cannot praise God with all his/her mind, heart & soul. So, simple logic, If A=B & A=C then B=C ˜ God loves righteous people

In my career, I have often found being righteous / upright a challenge. I have found it tough to tell my company that I am going to lead a prayer and will return after the prayer when it would have been easy to say I have a headache & take leave. But, this is one area where I can say with absolute certainty that I am righteous / upright before man & God. I know for sure that God will not bless any work that you do for him in the midst of deceit & so I prefer to be frank about it. I am not ashamed to tell my company that I am going out for 2 hours on permission to lead a prayer at “X” company. In fact, doing God’s work with the knowledge of my company makes me more responsible to work effectively so that God’s name is not taken in vain. If I was not effective / efficient in my work, people would say “he has time only to pray but not for work”. Now, people say “he is good at leading prayer and is also efficient in completing the work assigned to him”

Well, this is not an advertisement for me being righteous because other than the work place there are many areas of my life in which I fall short of righteousness. That does not mean I will stop trying to be righteous in every area. As the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 “For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them”. I will keep on trying to become righteous in all that I do because God has made ready my work for me & if he has made ready a work for me, he would not assign it to me unless I can complete it by remaining righteous. As the Bible says in Ephesians 6:10 “Be strong in the Lord & his mighty power”

My dear friends, being righteous is not easy, but we have to be strong and keep trying, as God promises in Psalm 50 he will reward us for our righteousness because, God loves righteous people.

God Bless You.

Joe was an young boy. He was the favorite son for his father. His father always got him the best dress available in the market. Life was straight and smooth for him. Straight and smooth until he had a dream. His dream was that he would someday become a great ruler or a king. He was very excited. He started telling his brothers about his dream in his life. No one encouraged him. Not even one. Instead they started to hate him. As he sat in the dining table, someone whispered, here is the great dreamer. Everyone got a good laugh at his cost. Sharing his great dreams in life helped him turn his brothers into his enemies.

One day as he was taking food for his brothers, who were tending the sheep at a distance place, Joe didn’t know that his straight life was going into troubled end. His brothers, put him in a pit. There was a turn in his life. Sometimes in order to reach the destination, life takes its own twist and turns. His only way of seeing the light, was seeing upwards. He thought he was going to die in the pit. So he sat at the corner of the pit. But suddenly he was reminded of his dream. He thought to himself that this is not the way life will end for me. Though he found nothing in common with where he wanted to be and where he was now, he said to himself, this is not the end. His dream started to give him hope. Sometimes in life, when we feel like we are in a pit, and life seems to have come like a hurricane upon us, the only thing that sustains us is a promise or a dream that we have. No matter even if no one encourages us, our dream starts to carry us. We need to have dreams and vision in our life.

Suddenly Joe found a rope coming down the pit. The very brothers who put him in a pit, as they saw a group of travelers, thought, let us make use of him and have some money. Here comes another turn in his life. From pit to become a slave.Now, wait a minute! did he not dream of becoming a king? Yes of course. But look where he was now. It seemed that he was heading exactly in the opposite direction. Thats how life is sometimes. But Joe, knew God was in control. Though it seemed, they used him and got money, God used them and brought Joe, a step closer to his dream. He uses your enemies to help you achieve your goal in life.

So now Joe was in Egypt. There came the next turn in his life. He was sold toan officer in Egypt. He was a bit comfortable there. Though he missed his home and his family, he was sincere in his work. He started to gain confidence and everything at last seemed to fall in place. His master saw his sincere work and promoted him to position next to him. Joe was happy. He thought he was “settled”.

But his master’s wife thought otherwise. She was nagging Joe to cross the limit. But Joe’s answer was “How can I do this against God”. Against Whom? Not his master, not his tradition. His baseline for not sinning was God. Unfortunately he was not appreciated for his integrity. Instead he was sent to prison with false accusation. So here came the next turn of his life. When he thought his life came together, all hell broke loose. Remember his dream was to become a king. But now he was in the prison. May be God Thought the best way to enter the palace is through the prison. God has his own way of doing things.

Now I visualize Joe as the most depressed person on earth. He had great dreams but now he must have thought he was nowhere near it. Actually he was so close than ever. From pit to Portipar’s home to prison. But Joe was not downcast. He started being sincere in prison. Sincere in prison?? Sincere as a King seems to suit Joe’s Dream. But Sincere in prison.Isn’t it Bizarre?? No matter where he was, Joe was Sincere. You never heard him grumble or complaint in the pit or as a slave or now in prison. He could have said, when I get to the throne I’ll work hard. No. He was sincere in a prison. There in prison he was promoted. When you are sincere and when the Lord is with you, even if you are in prison you will be promoted.

One of his friend whom he had helped by interpreting his dream, was released. So Joe, told him to make arrangements to get him out by speaking to the King. But his friend forgot him. An unthankful friend didnot make Joe be unthankful to God. He waited. He worked hard. Until the KING got a dream. He was confused. (Throughout this story I see dreams bringing confusion :)) Joe interprets for the king. The king is stunned and he makes him ruler over Egypt. At last his dream is fulfilled. His final turn in life brought him to his destination. Pit, Slave, Prison and Palace was his path. Through twist and turns in his life Joseph at last came to the reality of his dream. It is easier to go straight in life, but twist and turns mayhelpto reach destination.

Do we have great dreams for our life? Desires that seem impossible. Does your situation seem tough and trying? Don’t be discouraged? The ONE who gives great Dreams and Desires will Direct you to your Destination in life by His Divine Grace.