Life is an amazing gift of God. It is a privilege to spend each day on this beautiful world created by an awesome God. When He created the world, He saw everything was good. Adam and Eve were given all the authority to rule over the whole world. They had the uninterrupted fellowship of God all the time. It is so glorious to think of such an experience. My imagination makes me to leap in joy whenever I dream of such a fascinating state of life. We all desire to have such a world. But, alas! Adam and Eve lost it tosatan.

I believe the greatest mistake that Adam and Eve committed was hiding their sin and running away from the presence of God. We can be sure that if they had confessed their sin, our great God would have forgiven them. But, they did not do it. This made God angry and He cut His fellowship with them and with all of us. It was like surrendering to satan by forgetting God. What a shame?

This is true even today when we turn away from God whenever we sin. But, as children of the most high God, we have the wonderful privilege of going back to God in repentance. This was made possible by the great sacrifice that our loving Lord Jesus gifted us by dying on the cross. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness".. What a comfort we can draw out of this beautiful verse.

Sin is terrible, and continuing to live in sin without repentance is even disastrous. God knows all our weaknesses. He can understand all our temptations because He was tempted in the same way like us and yet was without sin. May be we have sinned too much, but when we truly repent and confess our sins, God cleanses us and forgives us in a whisker. The Bible says in Psalms 103:12 "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us". 

It is a wonderful feeling to leave all the burden of guilt at the throne of grace and receive forgiveness. If some of you happened to read this, I believe God is speaking to you personally to get into the presence of God and confess your sins. It may be anything, may be the ugliest sin. We may think that if others come to know of this they may spit on us. But, don’t worry, the one who is inside us is greater than anyone in the world. He says that he will forgive all our sins. We can walk with our heads held high if we don’t run away from God.

Never make the mistake that Adam and Eve did. Let us be people who fear God out of love. We are all vessels molded by the great potter. He knows those little rough particles in us. All that He expects is that we call on Him for help!. Remember that "whenever sin abounds, grace abounds much more". Don't get me wrong here as this is not a license to sin. I want to reach out to all of us who are broken because of sin in our life and apply the balm of the love of Jesus on our wounded hearts so that we are healed.

Thanks,

Brucelin

He was signed by Real Madrid for 60 million Euros!!!, he plays for Brasil. He is one of the fearsome forwards of the current football world…yes, I’m talking of Kaka. The magnificent player from Brasil. I have seen and loved Brazilian football since the 80s and they are my favourite football team. I have seen them win 2 world cups and many more laurels. But what I saw in their last world cup victory, made me stand up and take notice of their testimony @ work.

After their victory, many took off their jerseys and they had these words ‘ I belong to Jesus’. They knelt and prayed on the field, they worshipped on the field. The same thing happened in their recent confederations cup final win. They prayed on the field, worshipped on the field with billions watching around the world!!!. What a testimony at work. Do we need to say more?.

After the match, in the interview on the field, Brazilian skipper Lucio said something in his native language pointing the words on his T shirt, which read ‘I Love Jesus’.

Are we able to be as a testimony like this in our work place?. It is not necessary that we need to wear such T Shirts to our workplace and only they can communicate our testimony. It is about what our life communicates about Jesus to others. Are we true to what the Lord wants us to practice in the work place?. It is not enough to be holy on Sundays, we need to live it right through our work and be a testimony in all that we do at the work place.

We have a mission at our work place. We are there for a purpose. That is our mission field. We are in a place where the church cannot come in. We are in front of people, who may not know Jesus and will not come to any gospel meeting. You take a deeper look and everyone is in need. Do they know the truth?. The truth which will set them free as per John 8:32.

Do you pray for people whom you come across in your work place and do you look for a chance to share the gospel with them?.Doesn’t your way of life make them question and there by provide you an opportunity to share the gospel?. Please have a look at your life and have a check whether you are reflecting Christ in all that you do at the workplace.

Your life may be the only Bible others get to read

(The Author – Rajiv R G (Rajiv Rajamoni George) is a CIO with an IT MNC in Chennai)

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.