Are you a namesake Christian?

As a child I enjoyed reading story books and needless to say, my favorite was the Bible. Growing up in the customs of the Syrian Jacobite, the only time I read the bible was during the evening and morning prayers. And it was never by choice because it was either I read the bible or else look forward to a very good spanking from my father and I thank God for such fathers. One day when I had exhausted the collection of story books in my possession, I turned to the Bible...I don't remember exactly why...maybe it was a Sunday school I had to study for or maybe there was a story of Jesus that had caught my attention. But the minute I started to flip the pages, I realized that I had stumbled upon a treasure cove of rich and fascinating stories that was to keep me preoccupied for hours on end. Peter Pan unfortunately got the backseat of my car. How many of us are familiar with the story of Peter Pan?

The difference between Bible and Peter Pan was that the stories in the Bible were as real as the waves on the sea shore that I could see, hear, touch and taste and Peter Pan was like my footprints on that same seashore were those waves struck, one minute my footprints were there...the next it was gone but the reality was that the waves still remained. So you had a good understanding of the Bible at such a young age one may ask. Certainly not...my daddy told me that the Bible was written for me by Jesus and that everything written in it is real and true...that's why I believed it was real...because my daddy said so and I thank God for such fathers. Amen. So if I can blindly believe and trust the words of my father of flesh and blood...how much more should I believe of Him who made me in His image, who blew His breath of life in me and finding me in sin gave the ultimate Sacrifice on the cross that my soul may not perish but live with Him for eternity, it's a revelation that became my reality through the work of the Holy Spirit in me.

One of my favorite story in the Bible is of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. After four hundred years under the bondage of slavery, their backs riddled with stripes from their taskmasters whip, their body weak and sore from their back breaking work, their freedom trampled in the dust of Egypt, God brought them out through His prophet with a strong and outstretched arm, to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey, to their promised inheritance, to their promised land...to their land of rest. They sang the psalm...To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth forever. To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever. And overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea for his mercy endureth forever. To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth forever yet in their hearts they were saying...we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing else to eat other than this manna, before our eyes. What a bunch of ungrateful people right? Well its time to look in the mirror and see how many times we have drawn toward God with only our mouth and honored God with only our lips. And guess what, I found myself standing among those ungrateful ones weeping at the door of my tent because I got manna to eat while my neighbors who don't even call upon the same God that I do and whose feet are quick to do wrong, the wrongs that are defined by the Bible; they are enjoying what I saw as the best that this world has to offer. My eyes and my heart deceived me. I was blind to see that these neighbors are set in slippery places and are cast into destruction which comes suddenly upon them and they have no peace because their lives are always consumed with terrors. I began to ridicule my position purchased by the blood of the lamb when I started to look at myself as to who I am according to the standards of the world rather than who I am through the blood of Christ. Its time to remember and trust in Him who in our times of utter distress and desperation held us by our right hand and guided us with His counsel so that we may draw near to Him and declare all his works. We, my dear brethren are living a victorious life in Christ Jesus through the face of all odds thrown at us, not to sit and murmur or grumble or be jealous but to declare all his works. Victorious life in Christ Jesus in the face of perils, trials, temptations and even death, that my dear brethren is the true Christian living. Have we forgotten that the children of Israel grieved God to the point that He said, "this generation will not enter into my rest"...of the thousands that set out from Egypt...all fell by the way save two that entered into the promised land. Stop looking at Egypt...it is not our promised land...don't let its beauty and wealth intoxicate our hearts and cause us to fall in the wilderness.

Our inheritance is to enter into God's rest. Our inheritance is to enter into God's Menoah. Menoah is the Hebrew word for rest. To understand where our rest is, I want to ask if anyone finds anything familiar about the word Menoah??? Yes, that's right it has the name Noah in it...and I want to carry your attention to the ark floating on a world destroyed by the great flood. We read that Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded but not finding a rest for the sole of its feet, it returned back to Noah's hands. The turbulent waters of this world will never give us rest...we will keep looking for it but will never find anything to put our feet on, for we are not of this world and neither will this world give us any rest but our world is up above, where we are right now heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and our place of rest is when we are back in the hands of our maker. The world can be in a state of total catastrophe but as long as we are in the hands of our maker, we have peace because He who died on the cross of Calvary and was buried; who rose up on the third just as He had declared when He was in flesh among us and who now sits at the right hand of God; the same gave the testimony that He has overcome the world. We have peace, dear brethren,  because Jesus declared that He has overcome the world. The peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

After their deliverance we find Israel thirsty for water after three days into the wilderness and when they do find water at Marah, they cannot drink from it because it was bitter and what did they do? Like many of us in our struggles they found it convenient to murmur against God. Don't we also go through such moments in our lives where we question God's decisions for us especially when those decisions are very quiet ones. We could be beating our drums the loudest, singing or rather screaming at the top of our lungs or even doing the chicken dance which by the way I regard as the many new practices and forms of worship that has now entered into the Church. Yet the Lords answer is an absolute silence. That is something that has always caught my attention about God, its not when He speaks but when He is silent. When God is silent there is a need to worry and a time to retrospect, but I will leave that as a topic for some other day. When God is silent...that is the moment of your deliverance. That is the moment when you go before him with a broken and contrite spirit which God cannot refuse, rather than the muck and show you put before the congregation. When God is silent...that's when He is actually in the process of breaking and molding you again. When God is silent is when your questions are being truly answered.
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We all have dreams and desires and God has blessed us all with enough and maybe even more than we could ask for. I have heard some preach out of context the book of James when they speak about wealth, riches and prosperity, quoting latter part of Jam 1:5 and verses 6 and 7,  they say that they will receive from God if asked in faith and without wavering and that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So if I asked God for a million dollars in faith and without wavering, I will receive it from him who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. But if I am double minded and wavering, I can kiss those million dollars goodbye. Is that truly what the Scriptures say? James 1:2-4 says, Count it joy when we fall in divers temptations, that the trying of our faith brings out patience and when we allow patience to have her perfect work in us, we will be perfect and fully developed without any defects, lacking in nothing. And then the word goes on to tell us to ask God for wisdom which will guide us through our times of divers temptations, if we are found lacking in it. So we are to ask for wisdom with an unwavering faith if we are found lacking in it and the wisdom from God shall be given unto us. We have conveniently twisted the word to suit our new theology of asking God for anything in faith regardless of whether it is in God's will for us. Asking for a million dollars is in itself a temptation to satisfy our lusts but let our prayers be like the words of Agur in the book of Proverbs which says "remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. I know who I am in the flesh and God knows me even better than I know myself and thats why He said in James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. The blood of Jesus was not shed for us to trample it under our feet but that we may be found perfect just as He is perfect. Here is a food for thought, have we ever stopped to think that when God has prospered and blessed us abundantly and in that abundance when we buy our self a BMW or build ourself a great mansion, we are denying the needs of that Pastor or that man of God working in God's vineyard or a brother of the faith, who would be on his knees before God weeping and praying that God would wipe away the tears of his children and feed and clothe them. When we could have chosen something lesser that could have met all our needs and comfort and used the rest to serve God's purpose through us, we chose to spend it on the lust of our eyes and pride of life. And we have the audacity to question why God doesn't hear our voice? I reiterate the Word of God, Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. We may say but what if I am giving to the Lord greatly and still have a plenty to spend on myself. Then we are blessed but make sure that material and spiritual pride doesn't seep in and stop us just inches away from the finishing line. You may say, brother Shibu, what you say is not practical Christian living, well I have come to the understanding that practical Christian living is not cherry picking from the Bible either. How many of us can say that we do no murder, we do not commit adultery, we do not steal, we do not bear false witness and we honor our parents and love our neighbors as our self. How many of us can measure up to that standard? If we consider that we have spiritual maturity and self sacrificing character, then listen to the words of Christ who said, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. We have reached the spiritual maturity and character to even correct our Lord by saying "that is not practical Christian living". Careful thought must be given Christ's response when the young man went his way in sorrow. Careful thought must be given to the words that it was not directed only to the rich men of this world but also to all rich men...even to those who keep the commandments of God. We have become teachers to Christ and not teachers of Christ. There is nothing practical about Christian living because Christian living is by faith alone. Those are the words echoed by our fathers from the pages of Church history..."sola fidae",  they said, by "faith alone". Faith in whom? Yes,  in Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, the one who was, who is and who forever will be. And as the song goes...

Brethren like the Samaritan woman we look for water that could never quench our thirst but Christ said that He is the living water and whosoever drinks from the water that He gives will never thirst again and that is our destiny.Do you want to know your destiny then please read Revelation 7:16 and 17.

16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

With that hope in our hearts I end my words may God continue to bless us.