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January 30, 2008

Convinience and Call

Dear Friends,
Today when I woke up the Lord was brought this song in my language that is deep and touched me to the core.
We have made if thus far
because you Shepherd us
in bad and in good protected us
glad tomorrow is in your hands
as we love and continue to live
in your miracles
I live and continue to live because of God's miracles. I stay and continue to stay because of God. Recently the Lord brought a choice in my life between convenience and truth. We live and do everything we can to get convenience. When you see the TV ads you will see how much we are after convenience. You can see that creeped in the Christian community which is trying to do ministry at the least convenient way. There is nothing wrong to have convenience. But when it governs our thinking of living and relating there is a big trouble.

Many of us who lead God's people are trapped, knowingly or unknowingly, in the convenience dilemma that will touch our core values. The sad thing is,most of us are not even aware of it. This is not new you can see it through out salvation history. To remind you one; the Israelites were in the wilderness and so inconvenienced that they demanded to go back to Egypt.
I have recently learned in a very hard way to look what God has called me to do though mostly it inconvenienced me and others. The Church needs to watch lest it sacrifices God's new movement for the sake of organizational convenience and familiarity. Those choices and changes we are making are happening because what God is doing in our communities is at stake. As McManus, points out the church is an organism that brings changes in all of its aspects.

As I said many times, because some people try to put others in a box of their own they find it very difficult to accept the growth and the change God is doing in our lives.

But God who calls a fisherman, a forgotten Shepherd, a given up farmer like Gideon, or a death row hopeless like Mordecai he called people whom you would not expect to be part of the kingdom. If anyone recognize that they would not have a problem with what God is doing in the lives of the people who are not expected to be on the top column of the suburbia Church shelf.

Here at RISE TOGETHER MINISTRIES God is allowing us to to take unusual steps in making sure not just justice and mercy, but biblical justice and mercy is applied in our lives and others. I personally believe that I am the least to deserve God's grace and mercy. Because I am one and on the top of the worse. But God has extended that mercy to me. Just like those workers who did not like what their masters paid to the latecomer workers(Matthew 20). God decided to pay attention to me to the least one and bless me. Some people may not like that. But it is the master's decision and when it comes the master's decision no one can have an option.

And that love and extended grace made me to love and stay with people who would not be lovable or acceptable otherwise. To some people of "order and importance," that is not acceptable. Others who have received grace and mercy from God joined in the work.

My pastor was preaching about prayer this last week. One of the important thing God has taught me from his sermon is Prayer is entering God's character. It is not being able to explain his intellect. It is willing to be loved and accepted by him. It is allowing God to do new things in our lives. Some people try to figure out what he is thinking or even try to figure out God while he is inviting them to share his heart and his grace. What a loss!
Because some people are not willing to move with the God who creates new things does not mean God stopped working. If the God I worship is a God who has been put in the box of some suburbia mentality I would have gone long time ago.

The God I worship is a God who allow me to enter his heart and be loved by him. Out of that grace and mercy come. It is an experience that make me joyful and move me in the new direction that he designed for me and the community I am privileged to serve.

The more I think about it the more I love the work I do; and the more I fall in love with my God. I do not think I will allow anyone to take that away from me because they are not willing to move out of their box.
I love God and more that that it is a great joy to be loved while you are broken!

Posted by kishawork2 at 07:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 25, 2008

Touching Jesus

Dear Friends,
This morning God was speaking to me through my pastor. Do you remember that lady in Israel who was bleeding for 12 years before she came to Jesus? The message was about her. She was not suppose to touch any one, she was not allowed in the temple. She was suppose to be outside of the city. If she was to follow the culture and crowd of that time she was not allowed to touch any one, let alone Jesus.

But when She was desperate she came to Jesus. Against the crowd she made her way through and gripped Jesus' cloak. she was instantly healed. Most of the time though we do understand how much we need Jesus we do not do the most unpopular thing until God bring us to our desperate hour. As my Pastor suggested, God has seen her first and that helped her to come. All the desperation and the bleeding helped her to decide to come to her solution at last, thank you Jesus!

to me the beginning of this year was like that. In the past 4 years one of my brokenness was the fact that I did not want to upset any one. At my own cost, because of the community I serve and in the name of not to be in trouble.
I avoided confrontation, I avoided fight even when it is worth fighting. I waited till the last minute. Just like this woman, when I am desperate I came to Jesus and did all the things I did not want to do. Interestingly, that is when I saw Jesus working in me.
One of my friends was telling me last year, in the midst of the pain that I was going trough, God is growing me to become a leader who tells people the truth in the context of justice and mercy. Though it has been a bumpy ride, because of my disobedience to God, it is one of the best changes God made in me. My desperation brought me to Jesus. Because of the fear of rejection and not wanting to be uncomfortable; I waited until the last minute to make the choices and changes that I needed to bring to myself and to the people I serve. The more I did not want to confront people, including those who hurt me, to avoid confrontation the more I became miserable.
God brought me to the hour of my desperation and I was able to walk with him and there is healing and restoration. Believe me it seems easier to go with the crowd, and may be continue bleeding until God brings you to the healing. But it takes, to most of us, a lot of desperation to crack thorough the crowd and get the grip of Jesus. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a pleaser institution it is a counterculture movement. It is not an institution that tries to catch-up. It is a movement that is a forerunner and changes times.
Because God is moving me in the direction I never planned there will be people who would be upset and mad. Because of the cross cultural movement I am in, and most people choose not to cross, when things change I know I would be levelled and may be rejected. But because this is the healing movement of God I had to make difficult choice and changes because of the Justice and mercy of God to me and people I chose to serve.

My last four years again and again, taught me that it is possible to be a crowd that seemingly follow Jesus but not really come into grips with him. It take one desperate soul to see Jesus with all of his might and go against the odds. In this ministry, where I am constantly reminded that I am alien and Immigrant; I had to pay a price I never expected because of people who chose not to apply humility and servanthood in a cross cultural context. But the God who crossed from heaven to earth helped me to grow and touch many lives regardless of my delayed obedience. The God who chooses one person in the midst of the crowed who probably missed him is walking with me everyday regardless of the crowd's view of me. Many people have the mentality of making everything as normal and routine as much as they can so that their comfort zone would not be shaken.

The new year started with that desperate call to Jesus and he is proclaiming a year of Jubilee to me and the people I serve. I am free and I am loved and called by God with who I am. I am one of a kind as each one of you are.
I am not naive to forget that there are people who may consciously committed to be different from me. But I am learning to listen to God, only God. If that is a mistake it is worth making. I am trusted the God who gives life to the dry bones and stops a 12 year bleeding.
THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted by kishawork2 at 01:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack