Why criticize others

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? The Lord will determine whether his servant has been successful. The servant will be successful because the Lord makes him successful - Romans 14:4 (God's Word).

Very often it is easy to complaint about the practice of this church and that church. We may say that church pastor do not teach Scriptures well, another one do not lead songs well. Or we may even say the pastor do not relate with his church members well. The list could go on.

Normally we are tempted to think that way.

But this afternoon, my friends and I were reminded of this verse from Romans 14:4. That struck us because sometimes we are critical of many people. Based on this passage, I should not say bad things about another servant. Jesus is their master, not me or anyone.

This provided a good perspective.

What I think I could do when we feel like complaining about another person or ministry, first pray for them. Talk with them if necessary.

Name of Jesus

Today we attended an Assembly of God Church at Daman. The pastor shared a very good thought from Acts chapter 3.

The context is about Peter and John  going to the temple for prayer when they met a lame beggar. As usual the beggar asked them for money. But Peter looked at him and said "Look at us". The beggar paid full attention, expecting something. Here is something Peter said that is amazing. He said:

• I have no silver of gold.
• But what I have I give to you. 
• In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene, stand up.

We know what happened. The lame beggar stood and became normal. Peter has Jesus' name with him at all the time. And he knew that well. Its amazing to realize that truth.

Paul said in similar lines in I Corinthians 2:2, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified". His intention is to let the Corinthians know Jesus. Nothing else.

I don't know how the next comment relate to the above. And I also read from the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:4 where Peter pinpointed to one incident that was essential commonality: Both the Jews and Gentiles received the Holy Spirit. Nothing more.

Daman

August 05, 2012

Its been a long time we wanted to visit and learn about the Indo-Portuguese spoken in this city. So finally, today we got to meet an Indo - Portuguese person face to face. We learned that the population of this language is dwindling down because many of them have migrated to Portugal, as Daman had been a Portuguese colony.

Below are some of the photos we took.

Entry gate to Daman, entering from Vapi.

Prince and Liahey at Daman bus station.

Ambassador is still used as taxi here.

One of things I noticed in Daman is there is almost equal development in all locations. We did not see best city areas, and neither extremely rural areas. It seems the development plans were positioned differently from other parts of India, where there is a huge city and then just 10 km outskirt are villages.

Vapi and Silvasa

VAPI
(3 August 2012)
Early this morning we arrived Vapi town in southern Gujarat. It took 27 hours on Jodhpur Express train from Bangalore.

Vapi Railway Station.

We then stayed in Jay International Hotel. A descent hotel just one km from the railway station.

Jay International Hotel, near Char Rasta.

In this hotel, I taught my friend Ajeesh a boxing lesson :)

Ajeesh taking a boxing lesson.

Here people speak Hindi well so we could communicate better. The Gujarati language, though has a separate script, has much similarity with Hindi.

Signboard of a shop with Gujarati word.

Other photos we took as we traveled around this city.

A Christian - run school on Daman Road.

A shopping area near Char Rasta, Vapi.

A truck on National Highway 8.

National Highway 8 passes through the middle of Vapi city.

A picture on the over bridge of Vapi railway station.

SILVASA
(3 August 2012)
Capital city of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, a Union Territory of India. Its just 15 km from Vapi city and there are plenty of shared auto at Rs 25 per head.

Entrance gate to Dadra & Nagar Haveli from Gujarat.

There are four major tribal groups in this Union Territory: Kukna, Dhodia, Varli and Katkari. The Museum located in the middle of the city has a display of the tribal culture.

Mahalaxmi puja

Mahalaxmi puja is a famous puja of Karnataka state. This year it took place from morning of 27 July to 30 July 2012. Our house owner invited us to this party. They provided nice sweets and we thoroughly enjoyed.

Here are some photos we have taken that evening.

Usually the items in the picture are kept till the end of the third day and then taken up for family use.

Call of God

Today our pastor Dr Joy George shared a great message from John 21:1-15. The message was, God is able to provide the needs of people who serve Him.

But what caught my attention was much more from his side comments or background explanation to the passage.

FIRST CALLS
He taught us it is not that Peter magically followed Jesus at the first call. In fact, there were two calls before he responded.

In the first meeting, Jesus gave him a new name Peter (from Cephas, John 1:40-42).

Second call is mentioned in Matthew 4:18-20. This time Jesus addressed Peter by the name Jesus gave him. This time Jesus specifically asked him to follow him. And he did.

Third incident happened when at the direction of Jesus, Peter and his friends caught a huge number of fish (Matthew 5:4-10). By then Peter left everything he had and followed Jesus.

I remember a friend's comment: God's call for ministry is intricate. There are multiple fabrics that God worn. There is no one event.

SECOND CALLS
After multiple calls, Peter finally followed Jesus as long as Jesus lived physically. Then when Jesus died, though Jesus already appeared to them twice according to John 20, he goes "fishing".

Jesus asked for love from John 21:15 onward. He challenged for another level of following Jesus. Not by sight by but faith, just as we are called for. To perform miracles, not watch Jesus do. Accepting God's power and our inability.

MY REFLECTION
I realized God does not call just one time. If he calls just once, none of us would come to ministry. Because we are concerned for many things in life. Knowing that Jesus persistently calls everyone.

So sometimes, I am not very worried when I see people whom God is calling but haven't responded yet. God is persistent and he will not give up.

I also need to keep my eyes open for other levels of commitment and intimacy he requires from me and my family.

I really thank my pastor for sharing this powerful message this morning.

Devotional Life

Recently my boss gave a book called Mentoring Paradigms by Edmund Chan. This is written in devotional style and very simple to read, but had lots to think about.

In one of the chapters called Three Arenas of Mentoring he talks about Devotional, Domestic and Developmental Life. His comments of Devotional Life struck me.

He says “Quiet time does not automatically become easier as one grows older. In fact, it becomes harder. Why? Because one can browse through God’s Word quickly and pick up a thought or two without much meditation and intimacy with God.”

He goes to say that we can have routine and discipline of having devotions without the encounter and the wonder. We can read God’s Word and miss the God of the Bible.

Quite powerful warnings! I shared this to a colleague. He has an interesting reflection too. He told me, God allows those dry times in our devotional life with God, to remind us that we need to depend on Him even in this area.

I need to keep this in mind as I grow older, now mid in 30s. To be able to learn new perspectives from the Bible, I change versions of the Bible occasionally. While in Bible school I got so used to NIV that I just know most of the words. Later I used Revised Standard Version for over two years. Now I switched to New Living Translation.

My desire is that a child-like curiosity and interest will continue to grow in mind in my daily study of God’s Word.