The Gospel

Counting our blessings during Dad’s Brain Surgery :)

It’s been an eventful week since Dad’s brain tumour surgery. I have seen God work in ways that has not only made me to trust Him more, but also reaffirm that He is good and knows what is best for His children. I am not  just saying  because my Dad survived the 10 hr long surgery. We were kinda prepared for the worst.

God chose to spare my Dad’s life and we keep reminding him every time he is discouraged or feels he not feeling completely well. Even in circumstances like these it is good to remember God’s blessings in all situations.

Some of the things that came back were:

Dad’s accident and head injury in 2012 turned out to be a blessing ( even though at that time it did not make sense to any of us); else the tumour would not have been diagnosed.

God gave much wisdom and physical strength to the doctors, nurses and staff that performed the surgery.

Dad’s reflexes were good post surgery and no memory loss :)

Saw the body of Christ come together in prayer (from different parts of the world and was reminded again that we are united by the blood of Christ)

Rejoiced yesterday as we got a better room in the hospital.

Naiesha and I had to only take a day off and could be flexible at work.

Also praising God for good health even though we were doing daily 12 hr shifts, with work/hospital rounds/cooking cleaning :)

All in all, it was a week where I learned to depend on Christ even in little things..like waking up early mornings ;)

:)

Polar Vortex and our God

A reminder of just how Great and powerful is our God :)

Bundle Up and Behold God-Josh Blount

Tuesday I went for a short run after work. It was 4:30, and the temperature was 15°. I hope to regain feeling in my face by Easter. Aerobically speaking, I think I could have achieved the same result by pouring burning oil into my lungs. Now while you may not be dumb enough to go for a run in the recent cold weather, if the multiple headlines using the words “Polar Vortex” were true, many of you experienced temperatures equally as cold if not colder.

So here’s a question: what can we learn from a cold spell? (Apart from “Stop running, you idiot.”) Is there anything a polar vortex can teach us about our God? Actually, there is. Listen to this description of God from Psalm 147:16-17:

“He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?”

Who can stand, indeed? When the temperatures plummet as they have in the last few days, we stand witness to a fresh glimpse of the power of God. Our weakness and frailty before creation is brought starkly to our remembrance. Despite all our modern technology, our synthetic fibers and engineered heat systems, the best we can do is minimize the effects of the cold. If we attempt to face the frigidity without any protection, we will suffer the consequences. The power of the cold is a display of the power of God.

There’s also another aspect of God’s character shown: his goodness. Why isn’t our planet constantly bombarded by freezing, sub-zero temperatures? What makes the majority of our world, most of the time, a warm and hospitable place for weak humans to live? The goodness and wisdom of the Lord. Yes, scientifically speaking it has to do with weather patterns and atmosphere and ozone and all that – but as Christians we understand that’s just another way of describing the wise and loving care that God has lavished on our planet. God created a world that would sustain human life, and even after our rebellion against him he still sustains us and makes our lives possible. The cold we’ve been experiencing will pass. Warmth, spring, and summer heat waves will return. But imagine if God instead unleashed the full power of his cold on our planet – who could stand then? Polar vortexes demonstrate not only the power of God, but also his goodness to men and women on planet Earth.

The polar vortex may have left, but it’s still winter. Cold temperatures are the order of the day. So when the mercury plummets again, make sure you bundle up. Instead of a run, maybe stay home and drink hot chocolate. But as you bundle up to face the cold, remember to behold the power and goodness of our God and Creator. Who can stand before his cold?

To Remember Who sits on the Throne

Something that has been coming back to me recently is God's absolute control over every single situation. There are times when I do forget this truth and get so bogged down by things around me that I tend to lose focus on Christ. Justice is something I have been struggling with lately.

There were times in the past few months where it seemed that people who did wrong were getting away with it.That's when I really had to come under His word and turn to His truth and remember that God is just and no one gets away with doing wrong. It might seem at the moment that the wicked have victory over the righteous, but that is not so. I love how the Psalmist puts it in  Psalm 37 :1-2

 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

Later on in the Psalm ( vs 5-6) he encourages us to commit our ways to the Lord

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

Most of the time  I want to take matters into my own hand forgetting my Lord and Master is still alive and on the Throne and He does have things under control. I need to continually focus on His attributes and His promises and rest in  them.

Psalm 75

God Will Judge with Equity

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

We give thanks to you, O God;

we give thanks, for your name is near.

We recount your wondrous deeds.

“At the set time that I appoint

I will judge with equity.

When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,

it is I who keep steady its pillars. 

I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’

and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;

do not lift up your horn on high,

or speak with haughty neck.’”

For not from the east or from the west

and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup

with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

and all the wicked of the earth

shall drain it down to the dregs.

But I will declare it forever;

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

Thought for the day

Where is that silver lining?

I know people say that when you blog for a long time, you later end up running out of topics to write about. I have so many things in my head right now that I want to write, but I never seem to get a decent train of thought. This has been going on for a while now. I know things have been a little rough lately and they don’t seem to be getting any better. But I really hope that this cloud of gloom would pass soon and there would come a time when things will be joyful again.

We all struggle with routine and I more so. I like when everyday does not look the same. But now I guess I don’t mind routine. I would like things to settle down a bit and maybe go slow. I would like to catch up with my friends where we are just talking about the usual work hassles and traffic and not tragedies and disappointments.

I know I am learning to be patient in this season, but I really hoping to see the silver lining in that cloud.

Happy Friday :)

How do you read your Bible?

This post set me thinking on how I am reading my bible.

(Bible) Reading for Joy vs. Reading for Information

Erik Raymond 

Have you ever found yourself disinterested in the genealogies or lengthy records of people in the Bible? From time to time I find myself stepping on the devotional gas to speed past those names as if they are not important. I know better than this.

As Alan Jacobs observes in his book Reading in the Age of Distraction, too many of  us read for information rather than pleasure. We just can run through the words looking to pick out the meat and leave behind the bones (so to speak). What happens when we do this in a narrative like in Ezra 2? (This happened to me this morning.)

In this section the list of over 40,000 exiles are returning from captivity to Israel. If we just skip over it we miss the joy that the author is aiming to communicate. These people were living in a foreign land, displaced from their history and identity. They were removed from the hub of worship. They lived under the cloud of God’s evident displeasure. Not only could they not enjoy all of the blessings that God had provided them as his nation, they were made to see, breath, and even taste pagan culture in all of its dregs. Now, at this particular time, God was moving these people (listed in this chapter) back to the land to enjoy the blessings of God and restart the covenant community’s practice of worship.

When we skim over the names we miss the fact that these are real people, with real birthdays, real deaths, real sniffles; they had real issues: real fears and dreams. God was answering prayers and longings. He was bringing them home to be his people. There are some real morsels of delight there for us if we are willing to slow down.

Reading should be enjoyable not laborious. Bible reading should be particularly enjoyable for the Christian. This takes work for us however. Everything in the tide of our information culture says “skim” “skip” “fast” and “self.” We have got to force ourselves, or at leat preach to ourselves to read for joy rather than simply information. As you make plans to read the Bible in 2014 do so with joy because you get to not because you have to.

Moving from 2013 to 2014 :)

I am happy today is 1 Jan 2014. I think I have waited for 2013 to get over for a really long time. For me if I have to describe 2013 in one word, it would be "roller coaster". Some of the major highlights for the last year were :

- Visiting Mumbai after almost 20 years( and totally loving walking around Bandra 

- Getting a  job at KPMG

- First surgery experience

- AWAKE conference

- Fell in love and had  a heart break. 

- Goa trip in September

- The moment I held my passport in my hand :)

- Aambey valley- and the reception we got when we stepped out of our buses

- Getting Eeyore (a stuffed toy) for my 30th Birthday :D

- Going through the album of photos my sister made for my birthday, and thanking the Lord for    all my friends

- The Bangalore trip in December :D