joyancejames

Author: joyanceshalomjames

  • Your Love never fails!

    “Nothing can separate even if I run away

    Your love never fails

    I know I still make mistakes

    But you have new mercies for me everyday

    Your love never fails”

    Your love never fails by Jesus Culture

    When Abba had to find a parallel to illustrate His love for us he chose a mother’s love. Mother’s love is the best we humans can get as far as unconditional (agape) love is concerned. And He said that even if a mother’s love fails still mine won’t. Truly it is unconditional with an unlimited warranty. Just as a baby doesn’t have to strive to earn its mother’s love or attention similarly neither do we have to strive to achieve our Father’s love. He can’t love us more that He already does because He’s given His best-Jesus, His son to demonstrate His love.

    If God loved the human race through the murder of His Son won’t He love us through our failures? If He ever kept a standard to qualify for His love then no one ever would, so He passed out an open invitation for all the mankind through His son. Love finds the way when everyone else gives excuses; it sees the gold in the garbage. But being as imperfect as we are, will we be ever worthy of such love? That’s the most fascinating part of His love: you don’t have to change for God to love you, but rather allow His love to change you! Accepting Jesus makes us worthy of the Father’s love and the Message Bible puts it beautifully in Romans 8, “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing-nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable- absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”

    your-love-never-fails-3

  • Break me to make me

    As I write this I’m just a few days into my Orthopedic residency and it already seems ages cause the days feel longer and the nights shorter than in my days of freedom. Paradigm shift is one phrase which aptly describes my predicament which among others involves the hospital becoming my first home and my hostel room an unaffordable luxury!
    In the past few days, I’ve journeyed through different stages of sleep deprivation and starvation not to mention the crankiness and frustration that builds up alongside. I discovered that I’ve an uncanny knack of catching up for the lost sleep: I can literally nod off while standing, doze off while talking to someone, snooze and then drool over my history sheets which I decorate with my illegible handwriting! Apart from my sleep (mis)adventures I realized that my entire days schedule would be dictated by someone, at times I’d be expected to run errands like a headless robot! And this is just the beginning of an arduous journey.
    But through all of it this a beautiful realization dawned that I had to be broken to be made into something more beautiful. He is the Potter and I’m the clay, the process may be painful, the furnace unbearable and the way unfathomable but the end product is definitely beautiful. I’ve tasted and seen that His grace is enough. Like apostle Paul I can say, “whatever I’ve, wherever I’m, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Phil 4). As I sleep-walked through the hospital corridors at unearthly hours I found myself singing songs of praise. I’ve seen the miracle that happens when Christ displaces the worries at the center of our lives.

    I’m reminded of a song:
    “In the dark, in the light,
    In the morning and night
    In the good, in the hurt,
    In the places I hide

    When I rise, when I fall,
    You’ll be there through it all
    At the start, at the end
    In the center of, the center of it”
    Center of it by Chris August

  • Lessons from a thief!

    Sentenced to death by the worst form of ancient Roman execution on the hill called Kranion in Greek, a punishment he justly deserved for the life misspent in depravity, he paused just moments before his final breath to take a decision probably one of the handful good ones he ever took. He responded to a silent altar call on the cross, while his comrade on the other side mocked at the One, He saw more than just a dying savior.

    While the disciples sorrowed over their broken dreams which according to them was an unforeseen end of their Messiah the elated Pharisees planned on their victory celebrations  and the Roman soldiers prepared to clear the mess this thief hanging next to Jesus had a moment of introspection followed by the conclusion that he needed a Savior. He saw something which all of them missed and he responded to his conviction. It might force some to think that isn’t it too late for this enlightenment but Jesus clears every doubt when He accepts His dying prayer. He probably never even heard the Lord’s Prayer let alone praying it, but this unconventional sinner’s prayer in his final moments changed the course of his eternity.

    Wonder if he heard the angels singing this in the background as He took this eternity changing decision:

    “At the cross x 2

    I surrender my life I’m in awe of you

    Where Your love ran red where my sin washed white

    I owe all to you x 2…”

    Love ran Red by Chris Tomlin

    When Jesus accepted him, He snatched the thief from the throes of Hades and brought him to His kingdom of Heaven. “O death, where is your sting?” cause the dying thief did not perish because he believed in Jesus but entered eternal life with the Father. The thief never saw or celebrated the Easter or Pascha but he never needed to because he entered heaven with Jesus and he probably did singing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…”

    And herein lies the lesson for us all that, “All have sinned and fallen short the glory”, we all need a Savior; the sooner the conviction hits us the better it is. If you are just one prayer away from that life changing decision then don’t wait till your final moments because there’s no guarantee that you’ll be offered a similar moment of introspection like this thief. It is never too late; you’re never too far because “Calvary covers it all”.

  • My 5 String Guitar!

    The chronicles of Jagdishpur continue: as a solution for my monotonous solitude we decided to revive an acoustic guitar from ruins. But alas, when we finally succeeded we realized that we didn’t have the first E string! That’s how I got my 5 string guitar. The next day when I offered the guitar to a friend to play he replied that he couldn’t play it since it didn’t have the E string so it wouldn’t sound melodious and surely it would lack the richness and tonal quality of a 6 string one.

    But as I played it I realized that it wasn’t that bad either and God even gave me a new song on a 5 string guitar! Then I even played it in the hospital chapel devotion and the people seemed to enjoy the music totally oblivious to the lack of one string.

    This led me to grasp the life-lesson He wanted me to learn: our lives are like this 5 string guitar- Incomplete/Imperfect but what matters is the skill of the one who is playing the instrument. In His hands all the imperfection fades out and we find our completeness in Him. Our inadequacies make way for His competence; the Master’s proficiency covers and drowns out our depravity. He doesn’t need a Taylor or a Fender when He can use a humble country made guitar which makes itself available to the Master. He doesn’t look for ability but rather availability because He gives the ability, there goes this famous saying, “He doesn’t call the qualified but He qualifies the called.” Paul writes about God’s selection criteria in 1 Corinthians “and God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is low born and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are” (Amplified Bible)

    God created all the awe inspiring beauty around us out of nothingness and He can do the same to your nothingness and void. Sometimes it takes long and the wait is tedious but He doesn’t follow our schedule, He has His own and He is never late. He created the visible world in 6 days out of a void and he will do the same with your void too.

    I’m reminded of a song as I wrap up this article:

    “I wouldn’t choose me first if I was looking for a champion

    In fact I’d understand if you picked everyone before me

    But that’s just not my story

    True to who You are You saw my heart and made something out of nothing

    I don’t need my name in lights I’m famous in my Father’s eyes”

    He knows my name by Francesca Battistelli.

    IMG_20160322_145251
    A caricature of me with a guitar! (6 string one though)

  • Never alone!

    All His promises saying “I will never leave you…” came alive in a new dimension when my work commitments as a Doctor took me to a mission hospital in a remote, nondescript village (read jungle): Jagdishpur in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The remoteness of this place can be gauged by the fact that this place even baffles Google when you inquire about it! On reaching my destination on the first day my mobile network betrayed me leaving me disconnected with the world outside the hospital and it took me a couple of days to establish connection.

    It is in this solitude that I realized that Christ is enough and I learnt that “Whatever I have and wherever I am I can make it thorough anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4 The Message). I realized as the lyrics of the song by Hillsongs says, “Christ is enough for me, and everything I need is in you.”

    When we stare at the sun for a moment, all else around us fades, similarly when we focus on the Son (Jesus), everything else fades into oblivion. As the lyrics of the famous song, “When all things surround me become shadows in the light of you…” I experienced the solitude & social seclusion fade away when I fixed my eyes on Jesus.

    Then there were night calls from the hospital which I’d to attend and walk the distance from my room to the hospital in the dead of night sleep-walking on paths carpeted by autumn leaves. Every rustle of the leaves would quicken the senses fearing some creeping or crawling fiend would jump out with my next step. In those eerie moments He filled me with a fuller measure of His love and reminded me of this beautiful song:

    “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
    Your perfect love is casting out fear
    I will fear no evil for my God is with me and if my God is with me whom then shall I fear?” You never let go by Matt Redman

    Another song that I’m reminded of as I now muse over my experiences is:

    “You were singing in the dark
    whispering Your promise
    even when I could not hear
    I was held in Your arms
    Carried for a thousand miles to show
    Not for a moment did You forsake me” Not for a moment (after all) Meredith Andrews

    Indeed when His loves fills our hearts to overflowing it also fills us with the assurance of the surety of His promises. As John puts it best, “Perfect loves casts out fear”.

    Certainly once in Christ, we’re never alone!

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    The lake at Jagdishpur

  • Defined by love!

    As I grow up I’m assured of my identity and who I am in Christ but how do the people around me perceive me?  Jesus told His disciples in John 13 that in the same way that He loved them, they are supposed to love one another. Further adding He said, “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples – when they see the love you have for each other” (The Message).

    I have been called to love my neighbors, but wait who exactly is my neighbor?

    Neighbor is my obnoxiously loud and uncouth person living next door,

    Neighbor is the inhumanely demanding boss,

    Neighbor is the egocentric bully, who cherishes picking on me,

    Neighbor is the impatiently furious store clerk yelling at an “innocent” me,

    Neighbor is the biased coach who preferred an amateur over an “experienced” me in fact my neighbors also include the lot for whom I’m as inconspicuous as a fly on the wall. My neighborhood also comprises of those who didn’t believe in me or in my dreams and who never gave me a second thought. But as if to interject my pessimistic rant something beautiful happened and it is described in John 1, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood”.

    Hanging on the cross Jesus offered forgiveness to a world which didn’t ask for it cause they never felt a need! But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them…”, before He said “It is finished”, because without forgiveness it wouldn’t be finished. He presented forgiveness before repentance and acquittal before the trial or conviction.  He epitomized love because He loved an undeserving world. I love Him because He first loved me and I love others because He showed the way.

    I’m a recipient of an unmerited favor and undeserved love can I become giver of what I have freely received?

    When “His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me and on and on it goes” (One thing remains by B Johnson & J Riddle) can I “live like there is no tomorrow and love like I’m on borrowed time” (Good to be alive by J Gray).

    “If not me, tell me who will be like Jesus to the least of these” – Kings & Queens by Audio Adrenaline.

    As apostle Paul puts it without love I’m just a clanging cymbal and it is by love only that I’m defined and people will know I’m His disciple and a child Of the King.

  • Already there!

    When I’m lost in the mystery
    To You my future is a memory
    Cause You’re already there
    You’re already there
    Standing at the end of my life
    Waiting on the other side
    And You’re already there
    You’re already there
    Already there by Casting Crowns

    We are unfazed by tomorrow’s uncertainties cause the One waiting for us is already there and He is sovereign!

    He promised never to leave nor forsake us, no wonder David could not run from His Spirit, David realized that neither the ocean depths more the mountain heights can hide him from God! Then Paul exclaimed, “there is nothing that can separate us from the love of the Father”. Our part is to trust Him one day at a time and be unperturbed by the challenges of an unknown tomorrow.

    We are myopic (short sighted) we just see the present but we don’t need the horoscopes or the stars to tell us about tomorrow, because the One who put the stars in their place is already there in our tomorrow!
    Our future is too wonderful for our meagre minds to comprehend so our myopia is a blessing in disguise!
    Go out and live this day- Carpediem!
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  • The Most-read Gospel!

    It is not the gospel written on tablets of stone or on ancient manuscripts of papyrus or sheepskins or the contemporary inked ones sold leather bound, but it is the Christ of the Christ-ian that is read the most!

    “Ah, friends of the Christ, in the world today
    Are many who watch you upon your way,
    And look to the things you say and do
    To measure the Christian standard true:

    Men read and admire the Gospel of Christ
    With its love so unfailing and true,
    But what do they say and what do they think
    Of the gospel according to you?

    You are writing each day a letter to men
    Take care that the writing is true;
    ‘Tis the only gospel that some men will read,
    That gospel according to you”
    -The gospel according to you
    Anonymous

    We are God’s workmanship created in Christ to do great works! And He is a master Craftsman who makes no mistakes and His creations come with a life time validity!

    We are meant to be light bringing out the God-colors into the world (Mat 5 The Message). Doesn’t matter if you’re a candle or a torch or just a flickering spark cause in the end all the 3 strive to dispel the darkness around them!

    The torch was not meant to light up the tiny cellar nor was the candle meant for the regal hallways! Each has its place and destiny!
    And a thing to remember is that we reflect His light, just like the moon, we light up and shine to reflect God’s glory.
    Can we say like Lecrae, ” I’m just a trail of star dust leading to the Superstar “?
    Does your cave seem dark? Think you need to shine brighter!
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  • Catty Persistence

    At the outset let me absolve myself and set the record straight (for non-cat lovers): I’m not a cat-lover/fanatic myself, but we need to take care of what God gives us! These feline friends, 3 in number spend the better and the greater part of the day in our backyard.

    Whenever they sense any human presence in the kitchen they start meowing. Though it feels annoying at times but it’s their perseverance and persistence that took me by surprise. Even though we don’t feed them regularly or give them milk daily but they’ve become a part of our backyard as much as the 2 coconut trees in the backyard. It’s as if the cats are there by default whenever we walk out into backyard and those beautiful expectant-staring eyes trying their best to make us guilt conscious when we venture empty handed. And every once in a while moved by their persistence we give them the left over fishes etc to enjoy. All the 3 don’t have the same level of resolution to hang around but in the end only the one which is present at the moment is awarded with a meal (leftovers to be precise)! But it’s not just the food, because it’s as if they have made a home here, they hang around not only to satiate their appetite but also play and sleep here because that’s what you do at home.

    How many times we lose out because we give up, here these kittens seem to have perseverance on a wholesale and are excellent teachers when it come to diligence. Our case unlike these cats is different in the sense we don’t have to meow our way to our blessing and our Giver (Father above) loves to listen to our voice. Do we just hang around a bit just for the blessing? Are we just content with the bits? Do we just seek His hand and not His face? As His children we are meant for more, if He cares for the sparrows, He all the more cares for us. The next time can we hold on a little bit longer?

    I think I’m hungry! Guess I’ll hang around my Father, not only to seek His hand but also His face.IMG_20160212_193538.jpg

  • Oh! Be careful little ears!

    ear

    We live in an age where we are constantly surrounded by ambient music, especially in an ethnically diverse country like India; there is always music if you choose to hear above the perpetual drone of traffic. Music genres have become brands and we tend to associate with those who have similar tastes. Music both lyrically and instrumentally is constantly undergoing metamorphosis to suit tastes of the generation X. Some might even argue that popular music has been reduced to loud noise along with lyrical degradation.
    Now here is a generation ordained by Yahweh as a chosen generation and a royal priesthood allowing itself to be victimized by the enemy’s ultimate weapon:- Music. Taking a cue from the Punjabi pop music culture which is currently the hottest fad of Bollywood movies; the lyrics in these beloved songs mainly concern with booze, heartbreaks, girls (in an obnoxiously derogatory sense) and more booze. The mystery here is to understand how a generation so educated and sophisticated chooses to enjoy such music.

    Continuing further, we’ll take another illustration of one of another beloved song by Bruno Mars, the lyrics go like this: “I could hold a grenade for you…”. So much for super-exaggeration and what about the One who actually took the nails and the cross for you!

    It is disheartening to see most of our Gen X hooked on to such senseless music. What is seen as a harmless relaxation means soon distorts our reality and perception about the most important things in life and when this delusion is extrapolated into our daily lives it wreaks disorder. Not only do the lyrics create delusions about love but it also celebrates careless lifestyle, persuades revenge and rebellion. And as one keeps on listening to it day and night totally oblivious to its side-effects we allow the Satan to bombard us with lies.

    It’s high time we believers stood up to take our stand to say “No” to the senseless music and be extremely careful to what we listen. God has blessed us with immense talent much more than what we realise, so the onus is now upon the worship leaders, song writers to come up with anthems of praise which will glorify the Creator, spiritually awaken and uplift the church and at the same time engage our generation and satiate their needs. It’s time to experiment and improvise, push our limits, strive for excellence and with God’s help we shall prevail. We’re meant to be light. Let’s shine His light and bring His hope to a despaired and disillusioned generation. The distorted world-view of love needs to give place to the Unconditional-Agape love that Jesus ushered, hopelessness that the media preaches needs to resign to the hope that Jesus brings.

    Let Hallelujah resound!