Imagine peeping into a phone of a sheep and finding this on the recent Google search – “pastures near me?”! Even if the sheep in our age were to own and use a phone it’s unlikely that this will feature on their Google search.
King David who was a shepherd by occupation wrote this:- The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. Psalms 23:1 NLT. This is coming from someone who knows his sheep well. A sheep’s security is founded on the assurance that all it’s needs are met, “I have all I need”. Hence, the sheep never has to worry about the next meal or pasture.
Ba ba bo sheep I have all I need!
Contentment leads to gratitude and prevents insecurity. Whereas discontent leads to ingratitude and disconnect owing to lack of submission to the leadership/authority. My Shepherd knows the pastures near me (in fact He knows each one of those pastures) so I needn’t waste my breath & time on searching for pastures. I may not like a particular pasture but the Shepherd knows that, this is the place I should be in for this season of life. What doesn’t make sense now, I’ll hopefully look back one day in retrospect and realise the grand picture which now evades me.
To please all men or to gain the applause of all men is impossible, if you voice your opinion you might offend someone who has a differing viewpoint, if you stay silent you might offend someone who is banking on you to support his/her stance. Whereas it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6); it is possible and feasible and logical to have faith.
This makes the applause of God and heaven attainable as compared to the applause of men.
Secondly, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8), unlike the wavering adulation of our fellow men. Jesus never backs down on His word. God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Numbers 23:19 NLT
Lastly, the Bible’s explicit stance on certain key ideas of culture and society leaves no room for ambiguity. The sanctity of life, including the life inside the womb, the intrinsic value of every human being created in the image of God, the sacredness of sex within the covenant of marriage, the creation of man and woman to complement each other in a hetero sexual union through marriage. The Bible is unequivocally pro-life and God values every individual regardless of race, colour or ethnicity, since He created them in His image and likeness, making all as equals.
We are meant to show God’s love for all (no ifs and buts), but we’re also meant to preach the truth in love, even though the truth may not go down well with everyone. In the 1st century the gospel was a stumbling block to the Jews and the Greeks considered it foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23). Speaking the truth may not help us win popularity contests, but it may cause someone to gain eternity. Popularity through compromise is detrimental to the kingdom of Heaven. Hence, the onus is upon the church to be Biblically correct before political or cultural correctness.
What if you lose popularity so that someone can gain eternity?
The author is Dr Susan John, currently working in Baptist Christian Hospital, Tezpur, Assam.
The following is her narration of the story – from fighting Covid as a doctor to battling it as a patient and the lessons learnt in the journey.
Over the past few months, our world has gone through much turmoil, unlike never before. Entire countries shut down, economies collapsed, schools and business were closed, travel restrictions were enforced and everyone was forced to stay home. Fear and uncertainty became prevalent, physical distancing and social isolation became the norm. We couldn’t move outside our homes without a mask, all because of a 0.1 um sized particle of protein (to get some perspective, that would be 1/1000th the size of a strand of your hair), talk about small.
We couldn’t thank Joseph Lister enough for teaching us about handwashing, even as we started adjusting to the new normal way of doing life. The entire scientific community grappled with understanding this stealthy little virus. All the health systems braced to rise up to fight this global pandemic.
I am also part of such a team, at a remote mission hospital in Tezpur, Assam. It initially began just as something that had originated from bats in China, and we were told to be prepared, and we did that. Over the next few months as the virus swept through the entire world, wearing PPE became second nature to us, even as now we had to triage all our patients. Strategies changed often. The senior doctors had to attend multiple seminars and webinars and pore through numerous guidelines, day in and day out. Finally, predictions came true as the peak hit India in July- August and cases started to surge.
We weren’t admitting COVID patients but we had to refer any suspected patients to the nearby government center. It broke our hearts every time we had to take tough decisions of referring sick patients. We had to say no, to desperate, sometimes angry relatives. We had to wear PPE through the heat of summer. The hospital was also struggling due to dwindling patient numbers and added to that the struggles of our patients who were not able to access care due to multiple reasons. We were trying our best, but life was tough and challenging, and we just needed a break…
Masked smiles
That’s when it struck, the virus had invaded…me!!
I badly wanted it to be just a normal cold, but the rapid test came positive, and strongly positive at it, and I had to be isolated, in my hostel room, for the next 17 days. There were a few questions at the back of my mind, like why was this happening? Did I do something wrong? But then there was also this calm assurance that God had allowed this and that He would carry me through. His reassurance was that, “In all things God works together for good, for them that love God, for them that have been called according to His purpose”. I could trust Him.
It was tough the initial few days, with the fever and blocked nose, and my parents back home who were concerned for my well-being. But that settled soon.
It was a bit lonely so I tried to keep myself busy reading and leaning in more to God in my desperate situation.
I never realized I was so dependent on others in my life, in the form of the constant help that my friends provided during this period. Getting me the essential things that I needed.
And I did eventually have a quick recovery from the sickness, without having very bad symptoms. All glory to God and because of the prayers of my loved ones and special thanks to my mother who kept doctoring me from so far away..
But if there is one important lesson that I have learnt from this whole exercise, is that I was too self- sufficient, self- reliant, self- confident, in my work, and relationships and even the things I thought I was doing for God.
All of a sudden all the plans that I had made for the next two weeks had come to fail. Even my efforts to be productive during the break were failing. Not because my intentions were bad, but because I had to realise I couldn’t do it in my own strength. I was infact feeling burdened, frustrated and burnt out.
Much like Moses who had to run away and hide after taking things into His own hands, by trying to kill the Egyptian, we want to do great things for God, but before God uses us He has to break us, till we learn to rely on Him completely, despising our every effort, saying like Jesus, “ I do nothing of my own accord, but only what I see the Father doing.”
He wants us to rest and abide in Him and seek our direction and purpose from Him. Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” ( John 15)
We can spend our whole lives doing the ‘works’ of God, but in the end God will have to say, “ I don’t know you, away from me you evildoers” , if it was not done according to His will, and how do we know His will ? Only through spending time with God and His word and He will reveal it to us through His Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
In the parable of the ten virgins, all ten were waiting for the bridegroom, carrying their lamps with them, five of them who were foolish, ran out of oil, the other five of them who were wise, made sure they had extra oil for the whole duration of the wait, and that is the oil of intimacy, that Jesus, is asking us to cultivate in these last days, if we are to be ready for Him.
So as the world is going through this pandemic, God is reminding us to be still and know that He is God, He is asking us to cease from our striving. He doesn’t want servants, He wants friends, intimate friends that is, with whom He can share His heart and His secrets.
Daniel 11:32 says, ‘ But the people that know their God, shall be strong and do exploits’.
Will we be set apart and Holy? Will we be that priestly generation that will dedicate themselves to draw close to God and to stand in the gap for our people and represent Him to the world? Will we be the prophets calling down the reign of heaven on earth, by praying prayers that are after His own heart?
Will we say like Samuel, or Abraham, or Moses, “Here I am, I am available, you can have it all, you can use me God”?
Before Christ, cross was a symbol of the brutal Roman capital punishment, a public shaming and mutilation leading to death reserved only for the worst of the criminals.
It was considered a curse for the Jews, for the law said that it is a cruse to be hung on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23).
After Christ, the cross became a symbol of Faith Hope Love.
Faith: John 1:12 (NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
Hope: Colossians 1:27 (AMPC) To whom (saints, holy people) God was pleased to make known how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory.
Love: John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
The greatest of these is love.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT
If God can take a symbol of curse and death and transform it to a symbol of hope and love then it can definitely do super abundantly more than you can ask or imagine to transform any situation in your life.
My baby girl, Faith is almost 10 months, she’s always loved being carried around on her daddy’s arms. She would always hold on to our clothes whenever we pick her up but recently she started grasping, a tight-grasp as if hanging for life. If she fears someone is going to take her away from us (stranger-anxiety) or we are gonna put her down when she wants to be carried around, she will clinch on to my clothes so tightly that we’ve to break her grip first to put her down. A baby may think that it’s her cinch, her hold on her dad that’s preventing a fall but in actually it’s the dad’s hold on her that sustains the embrace.
“Absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our master has embraced us.” Romans 8:39 (The Message) It’s not our strength or doing but His embrace that allows us to weather storms and uncharted waters.
We’ve had a stormy weather past couple of days, with some heavy rains and thundering. Whenever there is a loud frightening thunder, Faith will hold on even so tightly and pull herself closer as if to sink in my embrace.
This is something that Covid 19 did for the world; a study done in University of Copenhagen said that level of prayer searches (Google) in March 2020 was more than 50 per cent higher than the average during February 2020. The top English-language Bible on Google Play and App Store was installed almost two million times, the highest amount ever recorded for March, according to Appfigures.
May the trials and storms of our lives push us closer to the heart of our Father, deeper into His embrace rather than pull us away. May our trials function to underscore our need for a savior, our Father. May they function to highlight the preposterousness of the delusions of our self sufficiency.
One Saturday in AD. 29, in the middle East,
The world was silent
It was a Sabbath
Disciples were waiting
Mary and the women were waiting
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were waiting
The high priests were waiting
The Romans were waiting
The tomb was waiting
Heaven was waiting
Heaven was silent
The prophets had foretold, Jesus had reminded that good Friday would not be the end. All was forgotten while waiting on Saturday.
Mary and the women were waiting to embalm the dead body of the savior, Peter and others were waiting and pondering over alternative career options. The high priests and their folks had probably postponed their celebration to after Sabbath.
Saturday is the day between good Friday and resurrection Sunday. It’s a day of waiting. Waiting for the unknown. As I write this, the world is stuck in a Saturday, the virus came, saw and conquered. We’re living in unprecedented times when the world has been brought to a standstill by an invisible enemy, living in the aftermath with no surety of the future.
Sometime before Sunday morn, the tomb stone rattled, and there was no body to be embalmed. When Jesus met them again He reminded them again that He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets; their fear gave way to awe and wonder.
As we live, not knowing what tomorrow brings, how we live through this protracted Saturday of waiting period will have far repercussions in to our future. If we forget His promises then our waiting will be fearful just like that of Peter and his friends, so let us look back on His promises, reminisce the past victories God has led us into.
Because He lives we can face tomorrow, choose faith over fear. There is hope for tomorrow and we shall come out stronger.
I can’t think of a more opportune time to write this than now, when social distancing has deleted hugs and embrace from our daily life! Physical touch is of utmost significance for humans especially babies and this has been validated by tonnes of research.
Faith has always been a sucker for my embrace, ever since she was a couple of weeks old. In the winters she needed me to pick her up, walk around and sing her to sleep. (Singing over Faith is featured in the post – Lessons from my fatherhood – I, https://joyancejames.wordpress.com/2020/01/31/lessons-from-fatherhood-i/; you can check it out of you haven’t)
Mother’s embrace
Soon she formed a habit which required me to carry her, walk around and put her to sleep at night and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Shalom and my mom used to tell that she’s addicted to my body heat and I’ve spoiled her by always carrying her at night.
Few things in life are better than having your baby girl sleep on your chest, listening to your heart beat.
Daddy’s embrace
To the mankind starved of physical touch, hugs and embrace, Jesus invites us to fall into His arms. In this season of segregation and isolation it is natural to become lonely and depressed, but remember that there is an embrace that transcends distance and fears.
“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.”
Romans 8:39 (Message Bible)
Wherever you are may you always find yourself in the embrace of the Father above.
I’m not sure when she actually started her thumb sucking, but what started as an innocuous thumb sucking has now bloomed into obnoxious hand (sometimes even fist) sucking. While medicine says that finger sucking is a normal activity in infants, it should be considered a problem only if it persists beyond 3-4 years. Although normal for her age, Faith’s (my baby girl’s) finger sucking has definitely taught me couple of life lessons.
Oh, I thought the finger tasted better!
Firstly, finger sucking is a non-nutritious activity; in our lives when God has ordained for us a nutritious food at a scheduled time, we are caught sucking our fingers, trying to satisfy our hunger ourselves. Instead of readying and developing an appetite for what God has in store for us, we run around in circles trying to have it our way (very much like the baby sucking on her fingers).
Secondly, finger sucking is also a grim imagery of our impatience. Instead of “in His time”, we want it right now, and that causes us to rely on our own wisdom and strength (read- sucking fingers).
My finger is my pacifier
Sometimes I wonder if Faith would develop scales (just like the fishes) on her fingers, due to constant exposure to wet environment! Finger sucking also has the risk of introducing unwanted germs into the mouth, in a similar vein when stray away from what God has in store for us we invite unwanted troubles for ourselves.
Among the other deleterious effects is that, finger sucking can cause baby to gag and vomit too. Not only is the finger sucking non-nutritious and the “not-so-cute” part of bringing up a baby/child, it can also cause baby to gag and vomit the precious feed received from the mother. Excessive finger sucking can also cause baby to lose appetite for the mother’s milk, same thing that happens to us when we lose appetite for God when we’ll filled ourselves with the junk of having it or way.
As for my baby Faith, finger sucking is normal and I won’t punish her for that except dissuade her in gentle ways as I can; but for us adults it is essential and beneficial to be led by the finger of God than trying to suck on our own strength.
May we never forget that the God who promised the promise-land also provides the manna in the wilderness.
Our finger sucking (relying on our own strength) can pacify us (but for a moment) but only Jesus can satisfy us.
The intra-uterine (womb) journey from single cell to the approximately trillion cells is 9 month long. 2 parental cells fuse to make one which multiplies into a cluster of cells. Fast forward a few stages we’ve an embryo, few weeks down we’ve a foetus. By the end of 9 months we’ve a baby who is eligible for life outside the womb. Early stages are a far cry from the final baby, unrecognizable in form, but the Psalmist says that God sees our unformed substance in the womb.
Each stage of the journey isn’t lovely and doesn’t even come close in beauty to the final baby, but each step of the process is as important to the baby.
We, human beings are imperfect beings, we’re work in progress. Each step of our process is not as lovely or compares to the beauty of what God has intended for us, but each step is essential to what God is making in us and through us.
We are in a process, be it any stage of our life. Remember that every process has a purpose which is essential to it’s product (outcome).
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
Philippians 1:6 (Amplified Bible)
Singing over my baby girl (Charis Faith Joyance) has become my new favorite pastime. Never knew worship songs could qualify as lullaby, but listening to her father sing has that effect on Faith, irrespective of the lyrics or the genre.
The prophet Zephaniah writes to the people in the 6th century Jerusalem in Zephaniah 3:17 NLT
For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”Here is a picture of our heavenly Father taking delight in us, calming us and singing over us. My daughter, Faith has allowed me to experience that delight of the Father. She has learnt to recognize her father’s voice and cease from crying in order to listen. She’s infact taught me that in order to recognize & listen to the Father singing over me I must quiten down.
The most amazing thing is that my baby listens to my voice even without understanding what is said or sung. Our expression and language is too much for her to comprehend, yet she remains calm and stares intently as if holding on to my every word. Most of the times we do not understand the song our Father in heaven is singing over us. His ways are higher than our ways, human mind and intellect wasn’t made to understand and grasp it all. I’ve learnt to be still and know that He is there.
Here’s what separates us, earthly fathers from God: God the Father always knows what we cry for even before we cry.“Even when I don’t feel He is working
Even when I don’t see He is working”He never stops working, singing over us.
Are we listening?
Calm and composed in her father’s arms! 
joyancejames 