Remember therefore from whence thou art Fallen

Yes, that is the call that God, the Almighty Father has been giving to the Israelites in the past and to the contemporary Christians. To build the context of discussion, let’s read following few verses from Bible: Isaiah 1:11 He says, "Do you think I want all these sacrifices you keep offering to me?”.
Isaiah 1:14 “I hate your New Moon Festivals and holy days; they are a burden that I am tired of bearing.”

As we read the above verses we find that there are indeed few things that our God is also sometimes tired off. We find that God is really not pleased by the unworthy and monotonous sacrifices that Israelites (the chosen people of God) have been presenting religiously before God. To understand as to why God is considering their sacrifices as burden in Isaiah 1:14 we need to read Isaiah 1:4 "You are doomed, you sinful nation, you corrupt and evil people! Your sins drag you down! You have rejected the LORD, the holy God of Israel, and have turned your backs on him.". It’s really disturbing and heartbreaking to know that the nation that was once so close to God, is now being hated by God to this extent that He is not willing to accept anything from them. The reason is simple to understand. If we give attention to the last portion of Isaiah 1:4 it says that Israelites have rejected the Lord and have turned their backs on Him. Even though this has been said about the Israelites of past it holds equally true for the modern day Christians as well. Its not Bulls or Rams but the present day Christians also sacrifice to God and that sacrifice is our Praise that we present through our lips. We must understand that even though we are offering sacrifices of Praise through our lips to our Father in Heaven, at times they are burden to Him. Isaiah 1:15 further says "When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood.” Now this is something that all Christians should seriously note. Meditating on above verses will help us understand the reasons of our failure as a Christian. As I was reading all these passages I was trying to correlate these verses with the life of a Christian today. Isaiah 1:4 says "...You have rejected/forsaken the LORD...". Its easy to overlook or bypass this verse thinking that we are born again Christians and so it does not apply to us but pausing on this portion for a moment will help us understand that the Christ who should be our eternal part throughout our day to day Christians life has just become a mere entity confined within the walls of Church. As an example, Many times we find Christians, who sound so humble and sweet inside the church, but we find them arguing unnecessarily on petty issues with other people in their vicinity. Problem is even though we have not rejected Christ in totality but we are unable to carry Him along with us always especially when it’s our golden chance to become a facade of Christ in this world. We continue to reject our Christ and Our heavenly Father at many instances of our routine lives. After reading Isaiah 1:15 that says "... No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood.” I just casually tried to stare at my hands whether my hands are really covered with blood but I found nothing. It so happened that suddenly I was reminded by the Spirit of God about 1John 3:15 "Those who hate others are murderers...” I was dumbfounded when I read that verse. Knowingly or unknowingly, we start judging and hating our fellow Christians on trivial things. At times we turn a blind eye to the pleas of our fellow Christians on the pretext of our spoiled relationship with them. We forget this small truth that God considers us like a murderer if we nurture hatred for our fellow Christians for whatever reasons. Bible Says, Many times we ourselves are the biggest stumbling block to the faith of our fellow Christians (1Corinthians 8:11, 12). All these things God have been telling to His very own people (and the so called today's born again Christians too).
Just to conclude my words with a word of warning mentioned in Revelation 2. After commending the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2: 2,3; God's spirit suddenly brought out a serious problem in the Church of Ephesus and it's that, "But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first. If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lamp stand from its place." -Revelation 2:4,5. If we give a careful reading, these words were told to the church of Ephesus (i.e. to the born again Christians), God is urging members of Church to "Turn away from their sins..." Well In plain words, this precisely means that God is telling us to Repent Again and get renewed again in our Christian Faith. Someone rightly said, “In heaven, God will not ask us why we sinned; He will ask us why we didn't repent”. It’s a wakeup call that reminds all of us that Repentance is not a onetime process that makes us eligible for getting baptized in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy spirit but it’s indeed a continuous and a never ending process for a true Christian. We need to examine ourselves continuously without miss (Psalms 139:23, 24) to keep ourselves properly tuned to the will of God while we run the race of faith on this earth.

As we live in this world ruled by Enemy, we at times knowingly or unknowingly step into muddy waters of Sins and so its critical for us to cleanse ourselves daily with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (Psalms 51:7) and eternally enjoy the Joy of Salvation that comes from our Father (Psalms 51:12). Let’s stop blaming and judging fellow Christians and let’s pray “Lord, reform Thy world, beginning with me.”.

God Bless You,
Bro. Santosh Thankachan

The Misplaced Faith?

Sometimes back I got this interesting forwarded article by mail. It does have point to make so I thought it worth to share with you all Christian friends here in this post. Here it goes…

In a small town, a person decided to open up a brothel, which was right
opposite to a church. The church & its congregation started a campaign
to block the brothel from opening with petitions and prayed daily
against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to
open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the brothel and it was
burnt to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the
brothel owner sued the church authorities on the grounds that the church
through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible for the
destruction of his brothel, either through direct or indirect actions or
means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all
responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons for the
act of God. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over
the paperwork at the hearing and commented:

"I don't know how I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a brothel owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church that doesn't."

How often we try to pray by Faith but Fail miserably to assess the results of our prayers by Faith.

My dear Brothers and Sisters, Can we dare to stand by our Faith?

God Bless You,

Santosh Thankachan

Have you seen the mirror today?

There is hardly any day when we forget to see the mirror though it depends how much time we tend to spend before the mirror. Even though being one of those ordinary objects at our home “Mirror” is perhaps the only lifeless object that dares to be honest with us at all times.

When I look in the mirror in the morning, the first thing I observe is, myself. My rugged look and untidy appearance is something that my mirror points to me very plainly and without any fear. I wonder why a small trivial thing like mirror finds its place in Word of God, Bible.

Bible Says:

If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like. - James 1:23, 24

How wonderfully Apostle James compares, the Word of God with a mirror and draws a conclusion worth seeking our attention. Apostle says when we listen to word of God and fail to bring it into practice we deceive ourselves as a Christian. The quality of mirror is that it speaks honestly to us. If we are looking untidy it never says that we are looking good instead it brings our true picture in front of us. Our trust and subsequent reaction on the mirror decides how we are going to impact others.

The more time we spend with the mirror the more it helps us to identify the scars, flaws and filth surrounding us.

Holy Bible for a Christian is indeed a true mirror. When a Christian spends his time with Bible, it reveals the spiritual blindness, moral deficiencies and sometimes his fake righteousness too. Most of the contemporary Christians have built around themselves a cocoon of worldly thoughts and a layer of disguised spirituality that stops them to rise and act according to word of God. Their inability to mend their ways after encountering the Word of God, further deteriorate their spiritual conscious. The moment we see mirror we tend to organize our physical appearance just because we want to present ourselves to the world in a pleasing manner. As long as we are in front of mirror the process of self adjustment and correction continues but the moment we look away from mirror, slowly and steadily we tend to forget how we looked. We continue to assume that there is nothing wrong with us and that others are comfortable with us. One day while I was getting ready for office I forgot to see the mirror and went to office being unaware that my hairs were uncombed. When I came back home and saw myself in the mirror, I found that how untidy were my hairs. I wondered what everyone in the office might have thought about me. I felt bit embarrassed too. Sometimes though people around us won’t complain or comment about our shortcomings directly but they do note them.

Bible Says

“Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his Word; instead, put it into practice.” - James 1:22.

Notice the use of word “just” by apostle. He admits that listening to the Word of God is important but he also suggests that just listening alone is not sufficient. We must act according to the Word of God and try to follow it sincerely in our day to day lives and practice it diligently.

Do we remember, when was the last time we followed that timid voice of Holy Spirit?

When was the last time we acknowledged our sins and filthy ways in front of God and sought His help?

Let’s learn from David when he cries to God:

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. - Psalms 51:4

When word of God reaches us and convicts us of our sins and unrighteousness, we can say it’s a mirror that is being honest with us. And when we being the true child of God listen to that true voice, admit to God that we are indeed weak and ask for God’s forgiveness and help of Holy Spirit to combat our sins, trust me, we are acting honestly to our Almighty Father in Heaven.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters, how long will we continue to deceive ourselves? Its time to seek Lord’s Help and His Grace to follow what Holy Spirit is telling us to do? Jesus himself has said:

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." - Mark 14:38

So let’s pray to God to do His good will and let’s not forget to gaze the mirror (Holy Bible) daily.

God Bless You,

Brother in Christ,

Santosh Thankachan,

New Delhi, India

Have you seen the mirror today?

There is hardly any day when we forget to see the mirror though it depends how much time we tend to spend before the mirror. Even though being one of those ordinary objects at our home “Mirror” is perhaps the only lifeless object that dares to be honest with us at all times.

When I look in the mirror in the morning, the first thing I observe is, myself. My rugged look and untidy appearance is something that my mirror points to me very plainly and without any fear. I wonder why a small trivial thing like mirror finds its place in Word of God, Bible.

Bible Says:

If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like. - James 1:23, 24

How wonderfully Apostle James compares, the Word of God with a mirror and draws a conclusion worth seeking our attention. Apostle says when we listen to word of God and fail to bring it into practice we deceive ourselves as a Christian. The quality of mirror is that it speaks honestly to us. If we are looking untidy it never says that we are looking good instead it brings our true picture in front of us. Our trust and subsequent reaction on the mirror decides how we are going to impact others.

The more time we spend with the mirror the more it helps us to identify the scars, flaws and filth surrounding us.

Holy Bible for a Christian is indeed a true mirror. When a Christian spends his time with Bible, it reveals the spiritual blindness, moral deficiencies and sometimes his fake righteousness too. Most of the contemporary Christians have built around themselves a cocoon of worldly thoughts and a layer of disguised spirituality that stops them to rise and act according to word of God. Their inability to mend their ways after encountering the Word of God, further deteriorate their spiritual conscious. The moment we see mirror we tend to organize our physical appearance just because we want to present ourselves to the world in a pleasing manner. As long as we are in front of mirror the process of self adjustment and correction continues but the moment we look away from mirror, slowly and steadily we tend to forget how we looked. We continue to assume that there is nothing wrong with us and that others are comfortable with us. One day while I was getting ready for office I forgot to see the mirror and went to office being unaware that my hairs were uncombed. When I came back home and saw myself in the mirror, I found that how untidy were my hairs. I wondered what everyone in the office might have thought about me. I felt bit embarrassed too. Sometimes though people around us won’t complain or comment about our shortcomings directly but they do note them.

Bible Says

“Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his Word; instead, put it into practice.” - James 1:22.

Notice the use of word “just” by apostle. He admits that listening to the Word of God is important but he also suggests that just listening alone is not sufficient. We must act according to the Word of God and try to follow it sincerely in our day to day lives and practice it diligently.

Do we remember, when was the last time we followed that timid voice of Holy Spirit?

When was the last time we acknowledged our sins and filthy ways in front of God and sought His help?

Let’s learn from David when he cries to God:

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. - Psalms 51:4

When word of God reaches us and convicts us of our sins and unrighteousness, we can say it’s a mirror that is being honest with us. And when we being the true child of God listen to that true voice, admit to God that we are indeed weak and ask for God’s forgiveness and help of Holy Spirit to combat our sins, trust me, we are acting honestly to our Almighty Father in Heaven.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters, how long will we continue to deceive ourselves? Its time to seek Lord’s Help and His Grace to follow what Holy Spirit is telling us to do? Jesus himself has said:

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." - Mark 14:38

So let’s pray to God to do His good will and let’s not forget to gaze the mirror (Holy Bible) daily.

God Bless You,

Brother in Christ,

Santosh Thankachan,

New Delhi, India