Thought for the Day :)

Mid week Humour: Happy Halloween!!! :D

                                                             Wizard of Id: By Parker and Hart

A long long day...

I left this morning for work at 6:15 am and came back home at 7:15 pm. Today turned out to be an unexpectedly long day... Work was busier than usual coz of the month end craziness. The phones were constantly ringing, people continually interrupting and the things to my to-do list kept increasing..

So after an absolutely exhausting day, I leave work and none of the rickshaw guys are ready to go to the area where I live. So I take a bus to get down at a particular place(where I can have access to more rickshaws) and after boarding the bus the conductor told me the bus ain't going that route. I was like 'great' !

But obviously this was not the end of it. The bus did not reach its destination, as there was another bus broken down in front which caused traffic hassles... So I got down and walked to the nearest bus stop ( which was still far off)

Fortunately after sometime a rickshaw guy was ready to take me home... Oh joy!.. Which of course was short lived as my rickshaw broke down, halfway...waaaaaah!!! ( by this time I think I was too tired to even be angry)..waited again for another rickshaw to have mercy on me and take me home.. thankfully a really decent one did :D

Normally I take 20 mins to reach home, but today it took an hour.. It definitely was a struggle to be joyful in the situation, but yet God reminded me of the times  I reached home at ease  :)

God Said it, I Believe it, That Settles it..

I am always amazed at God's timing and His sovereignty. Just yesterday I posted on Trials and how important it is to focus on Christ while we go through them. I have been listening to a series of sermons on Proverbs by Sovereign Grace Church.

So this morning as I went for my morning walk, the passage was on Proverbs 3: 5-12. I just looked up to God and said "Yeah I know, you want to drill it into me that I need to trust you with my whole heart and not lean on my own understanding "

Something that stayed back with me was a statement that Mark Altrogge made "God said it, I believe it, that settles it". It is not the information that you believe about God, but remembering who He is, and that He wants our ultimate good. He desires that we completely trust Him :)

I was really encouraged by this portion of scripture and the sermon, so I thought I'd share it with you:) Have a good week trusting our God in every area of your life :)

Here is the link to the sermon, if you want to hear it (Dated 15th Sep 2013). Who are you going to trust?

Trials

Trials either bring the best or the worst in a person. The past couple of months have not been particularly easy for me. I remember making a prayer unto the Lord sometime back saying, “Lord help me like you, Christ like, humble compassionate etc etc. Yup He took me at my word and very lovingly gave me a set of trials. 

Let me be honest here, I don’t like trials. If I could just have endurance,character, hope (Rom 5: 3-4) without going through tough times, I would be a happy girl. But it does not work that way. Some of the most humble people that I have interacted with have gone though the severest trials. Trials are good, hard as it may sound they are made to make us more like Him. Jesus Christ did not have it easy when he was on the earth (1 Peter 2: 21 22), they why do we, His followers, expect that it will be easy for us?

Something that I have learnt while I am going through a tough time is to continue to keep my focus on Christ. I need to constantly remind myself of his steadfast love, His goodness and His sense of justice( and His many other attributes). The one question I ask myself during a trial is “What am I thinking of God right now?”  Do I continue to believe that He is my shepherd and that He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters? (Psalm 23)

I am not writing here to dish out advice, but I talk from my own failings and how graciously the Lord has taught me the last few months that He loves me and cares for me much, and He has not forsaken me or left me alone in these times.

One of the passages that I kept going back to is from 1 Peter 1:6-9. Will end here with the verses :)

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while,if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9, ESV) 

Video of the Week: Mercy :)

I remember going for this gig at Hard Rock Cafe . As the band started playing, my friends said they sound a lot like 'Dave Mathews Band'. This was the first time I heard about them.Went back home googled and downloaded their music :) The video for the week is a song from their recent album 'Away From The World' Enjoy! :D

Post mid week humour :P

I know I am late for my weekly doze of humour, but its never too late to laugh;)

Salvation a Gift

Good to be reminded again that salvation is a gift from God :)

A Whole World Hangs on a Word

by John Piper | October 22, 2013

Sometimes a whole world — a whole theology — hangs on a word.

Consider the word “this” in Ephesians 2:8. Does it refer to “faith” or “grace” or both? Is faith a gift of God?

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from you; it is thegift of God.

What does “this” refer to? “And this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” What is its antecedent? The question is not settled by the fact that in Greek “this” is singular and neuter, while “grace” and “faith” are both feminine. “This” is just as ambiguous in Greek as it is in English.

Faith As a Gift

But consider these four pointers to seeing faith as a gift in Ephesians 2:8.

1. When Paul says “this is not from you, it is the gift of God,” he seems to be referring to the whole process of grace-faith-salvation. That may be why “this” is neuter and not feminine.

2. But more important than that is the way Paul uses the phrase “by grace you have been saved” back in verse 5. In verse 8, he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Back in verse 5, he said, “When we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him.”

This is striking. Paul breaks the flow of his sentence in order to insert “by grace you have been saved.” And he does it precisely after saying, “When we were dead, God made us alive.” Why does he insert “by grace you are saved” just here?

Is it not because he wants to make clear the true nature of grace? He made you alive when you were dead — by grace you are saved! This grace is God’s free act of giving life to the dead. By inserting “by grace are you saved” immediately after saying “when you were dead, God raised you,” he shows that this saving grace is not caused by our participation. We are dead when it happens to us. This saving grace is resurrection of the dead.

So when Paul gets to verse 8, one of the reasons he repeats, “By grace you have been saved,” is to describe how we experience this divine miracle of being raised from the dead. He adds “through faith.” “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” In other words, the life God creates by grace out of death is experienced in our believing. Our believing is what this new life does that grace creates. So faith is the creation of grace. Therefore, it is part of the gift in verse 8 that is not from ourselves.

3. This is confirmed in verse 10 when Paul actually uses the language of “creation” to describe our new life as believers: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” The language of “creation” confirms that when God “made us alive” (verse 5), we were not part of the cause.

Things that are created do not cause their creation. The existence of a new believer is a “creation in Christ Jesus.” And that confirms that this new believing is part of the gift in verse 8. Our faith is a gift of God.

4. Finally, consider that Paul says the same in Philippians 1:29 — that our faith is a gift: “It has been given to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Literally: “It has been given to you to trust him.”

A Different World

So when Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you, it is the gift of God,” part of his meaning is that our faith is a gift of God. It is a divine creation. It is the work of grace when we were dead. It is not “from ourselves.” Therefore, our faith is the mark of being chosen by God. He chose to give us faith.

A whole world — a whole theology — hangs on a word. “This is not from yourselves.” “It is the gift of God.” That is, faith is not from yourselves. Faith is a gift of God.

To believe this changes everything. You live in a different world if you believe this. We will be discovering the wonders of this world for all eternity.

Half of My Heart...

Video of the week:John Mayer. that's all I am gonna say ;) Enjoy one of my favorite songs!!!

Mid Week Humour :)

A Lil Bit of Perspective...

I take the public transport to work.Usually its a bus or a sharing rickshaw ( what ever comes first). They are the cheapest mode of transportation than taking a private rickshaw, which would cost you 3 times. 

At that point I still was quite ungrateful for the sharing ricks and argued with them if when they would charge me 5-10 bucks more.

Couple of months back I had a surgery and could not take the bus to work and hence HAD to take the private rickshaws. This obviously cost me a bomb. My expenses on travel went from 50 bucks to 200 bucks a day. I had no choice as my health did not permit me to take the bus.

The fare for the rickshaws just got hiked yesterday, which increased my woes.. So today I thought, let me just wait and see if I can get the sharing rick, which I did. The guy was quite adamant and said "Madam it will be 25 rupees" I was thinking in my head ( Fella if you would even say 50 rupees I would have said yes, as it would still be less than the whopping 100 rupees I spend one way)... Its funny how a lil bit of perspective can change the way we look at things...

Get On Your Boots...Yeah ;)

I am posting the video of the week a day earlier as I will be off for church camp tomorrow:) My favorite song by U2 is the one below.And what could get better than a live performance...So enjoy and Happy Weekend y'all!!!! :D

Mid week humour :)

Singing with the Saints

Last weekend was kinda a bummer as I ended up with a really bad migraine and I could not go to church. So today I was really looking forward to worshiping God with my brothers and sisters in Christ :D

But something that I really enjoyed the most was just to sing with the saints unto our great God. The unity that we have in Christ always amazes me. In that one room, were people from all over India, but the fact that we could give thanks to one God bought much joy to my heart :)

One of the hymns that we sang today reminded me again of Christ's perfect sacrifice and His grace. Here are the words :)

Wonderful grace of Jesus,
Greater than all my sin;
How shall my tongue describe it,
Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden,
Setting my spirit free;
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Refrain

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;
Wonderful grace, all sufficient for me, for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious Name of Jesus.
Praise His Name!

Wonderful grace of Jesus,
Reaching to all the lost,
By it I have been pardoned,
Saved to the uttermost,
Chains have been torn asunder,
Giving me liberty;
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful grace of Jesus,

Reaching the most defiled,
By its transforming power,
Making him God’s dear child,
Purchasing peace and heaven,
For all eternity;
And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Just A Kiss

So the music video for this week is from Lady Antebellum. I came to know of them,when I was watching the Grammy's a few years back. I liked them instantly :)

 Here is one of my favorites from their recent album "Own The Night"...Enjoy :)

Less is More

I love these minimalistic posters..My favorite character is below :) For more click here

God is in Control

The past couple of weeks have had its share of ups and downs. There were moments where I could not stop crying..moments of joy when I just looked around me and thanked the Lord for friends and times when I could not make sense of things happening in my life.

But in all of this something that I knew was that God was in complete control. I don't mean to use the term flippantly and be insensitive to someone when they are goin through a tough time. But those days when I really could not figure out why things were going the way they were, the only comforting thought was that my God is good and He has His best interest in mind for me. 

One of the verses that came to my mind from the bible was from  Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

That encouraged me to get my focus back on Christ and not dwell on the situations around me :)