Worrying about the right thing

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

“Why We Worry About The Wrong Things: The Psychology of Risk” was the title on the cover of the recent TIME magazine that captivated my attention. There is nothing in the premise that we did not already know, but it is exactly that reason why the article was so appealing. It hits home with all of us – this idea that we are all worried about the things that don’t matter, and somehow missing on the things that do. Jeffrey Kluger writes “We agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the U.S., but have to be cajoled into getting vaccinated for the common flu, which contributes to the deaths of 36,000 Americans each year. We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might be (but almost certainly isn’t) in our hamburger and worry far less about the cholesterol that contributes to the heart disease that kills 700,000 of us annually. We pride ourselves on being the only species that understands the concept of risk, yet we have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring probabilities, building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones.”1Whatever the reasons of our current psychology of risk, I think the premise is truer, and the problem deeper than we realize. We not only worry about the wrong things, we often ignore the most important things. Kluger says, “we worry about possibilities while ignoring probabilities”. Ignoring probabilities is bad, but the tragedy of our time is ignoring certainties. It is a certainty that we are not sovereign. It is a certainty that this body is deteriorating even after all the assistance from doctors and cosmeticians. And, then there is the certainty that has a probability of a 100% – the certainty of death.

Jesus while giving instructions to His disciples as they were being commissioned to go to preach the Good News took this to a higher level. He revealed to His disciples a certainty they ought to worry about more than even the certainty of death. It was the certainty of ultimate divine justice – “Do not fear the one who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Lest someone conclude that Jesus was trying to scare them, I better quote the rest, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

In other words, Jesus was saying, considering the sovereignty of God, and the value He places on you, He is the only one you need to worry about. One fear to embrace, and all other fears are overcome. One certainty to grasp, and the rest of the certainties, probabilities, and possibilities fade into insignificance. One question brought to light, and all others are overshadowed into irrelevance.

The one concern that rarely alarms us is the one that Jesus says ought to alarm us. Am I ready to face my Maker? Am I ready to stand before a perfectly just God? But fortunately, Jesus does not end there. He does not leave us with a worry that we have no answer to. Jesus, in the very next verse gives us an answer and an assurance. He says, therefore whoever confesses Me before men, Him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” In the last and final analysis, Jesus says that all that matters is whether we acknowledge Him.

What is your greatest fear? What do you worry about? Is it family? Health? Career? It is well to consider these issues, but even if all the worries were addressed, and all the questions answered, you still cannot escape the appointment that has been set for us all. In one of the essays by Dr. Ravi Zacharias on the September 11th tragedy, he asks, “Was it not ironic that one of the passengers who died in the American Airlines crash in Queens, New York, in early November 2001 had escaped the inferno of the World Trade Center tragedy in September?”(2) We all must stand equally guilty as fallen humanity in front a holy and just God. And the only cure for that is our acknowledment of the sacrifice of His Son Jesus for us. May I urge you to consider the claim of Jesus Christ today – “whoever confesses Me before men, Him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”

Danesh Manik

References:
(1) TIME Magazine, December 4th issue, “Why We Worry About The Wrong Things: The Psychology of Risk” by Jeffrey Kluger(2) “September 11, 2001: Was God Present or Absent? by Ravi Zacharias (Excerpted from a chapter of the book Light in the Shadow of Jihad: The Struggle for Truth by Ravi Zacharias (Multnomah Publishers, 2002).
______________________________________________________“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org . The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org. To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864

Doing what is fitting

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. Matthew 3:13-16

Jesus did not need to be baptized, symbolically or otherwise. Baptism indicated acknowledging sinfulness and repenting of it. Jesus was sinless and needed no repentance. Not only He did not need to be baptized, He was the object of baptism. Those who were getting baptized were responding to John’s call to repent. It was a preparatory symbol, because the Messiah was coming. Yet, Jesus insisted and chose to get baptized. The only possibly meaningful thing in the act of baptism of Jesus is the emphasis on His humanity, His willingness to identify with us, and the affirmation of the act of baptism. When asked by John, He said that His baptism was fitting to fulfill all righteousness. In other words it was the proper thing to do. Fitting? What made it fitting? Baptism was a symbolic act, it was full of meaning, yet it was a human act, a tradition. You would think that Jesus would decide what was fitting, not tradition dictate what was fitting. Whatever “fulfilling all righteousness” may mean, one thing is clear: Jesus submitted to what was corporately fitting even when it was not individually necessary. And, He did it simply because it was a proper thing to do. Jesus embodied the humility of heart, and respect for that symbolic act in getting baptized. I think there is a lesson in Jesus’ action for our age to hear.

We have a tendency to refute anything that threatens our individualism. We love to denounce tradition simply because it is tradition, and reject something simply because it is old. Even in the specific case of baptism, numerous people have mentioned to me that they did not want to get baptized, because it was not a prerequisite for salvation. It is true that tradition has its dangers. It can be given an inordinate status. It can be very detrimental when the action becomes more important than the reason behind the action. For instance, some have mistakenly assumed the act of Holy Communion as an act that imparts salvation. Instead we participate in Holy Communion in recognition that He is our Savior. “Do this in remembrance of Me”, He said. It is an effect, not the cause. When effect becomes the cause, the letter has superseded the spirit. The Pharisees in the Bible had that problem, and Jesus rebuked them “you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone”.

In our day I think we stand at the threshold of an opposite danger. I am afraid that the sin of the Pharisees was that they were given to the letter of the law at the expense of the spirit of the law. We are now in the danger of interpreting the spirit of the law to an extent where the letter means nothing. They had stripped the message of its meaning by making the methods sacred. We have stripped the message of its power by methods that are impure in their motivation. They would not allow Jesus to heal on Sabbath. We expect Jesus to heal on demand! They made going to the temple so important that why you went did not matter. Today we have made going to the temple so irrelevant, as if the Lord did not deserve anything more than right intentions. The emphasis on individualism is just as prideful as the pride of the Pharisees in their tradition. We give respect only when it is deserved, we assemble together with only the believers we like, we participate in corporate worship only if it is convenient and pleasing, we serve only if it suits us. It has become close to heresy to comment on fitting attire, fitting language, and fitting behavior. The answer is almost always, “Where does it say so in the Bible? God looks at my heart!” While it is true that God does look at the heart, it is out of the heart that flow the issues of life. When we do what is fitting we embody the godly heart in that fitting action.

My prayer is that we return to realizing that while we have the freedom, by submitting to what is fitting, we are only imitating our Lord!

Danesh Manik
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“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org . The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org. To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864

A Response of Gratitude

”‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained ….”  Matthew 25:20
“Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, ….”   Matthew 25:24
 
Our responses, no matter how guarded, often reveal the heart.  FBI investigators know this.  In an article in the FBI enforcement bulletin, Special Agent Adams, cited the example of Susan Smith’s responses to the questions of the investigators that made her a suspect.  Susan Smith, if you remember, was the tragic story of the mother who deliberately let her car plunge into South Carolina’s Long Lake with her sons still strapped in their seats, and then told the reporters that they were abducted at gunpoint.  In her otherwise carefully crafted story, it was her words that betrayed her heart.  In her statement she had referred to her children in the past tense which tipped the investigators to suspect that she somehow knew they were dead. 
 
In the parable of the talents, the response of the man with one talent betrayed his heart.  If you are not familiar, Jesus told this parable of the talents in Matthew 25 to elucidate the concept of the Kingdom of God.  The master gives his three servants some of his money to invest.  To the first he gives five talents, the next two, and the last one, one talent.  He comes back, and the first two have invested wisely and doubled their money; the last one has hid it in the ground.  It is interesting to hear the response.  The first two start their response with, “Lord you delivered to me…” and then describe what they did with it.  The last one starts by saying, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you do not sow” and then goes on to give him his one talent back.  We see a surprising insight into the heart of the one-talent man from his response.  His words betray his heart.  The first two saw what they had.  Their words reveal it: “Lord you delivered to me …” .  The last one saw what he did not have, and made a judgment on the giver – “Lord I knew you to be …”.  He concluded that his master was a hard man, and expected a lot by not giving him much.  
 
I think that our lives are shaped by how we respond to what has been given to us.  Do we look at what we have and what we are to do with what we have, or do we look at what we do not have.   The man with one talent devalued his gift, and lost it.  It was taken from him and given to the first one.  If we will value what has been given us, we will have more; if we devalue what has been given us, we will loose all.  Jesus ends the parable with “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” 
 
Much of our problems begin with the way we view our gifts, our possessions.  Whether we see what has been given us and value it, or what has been withheld, and devalue what is ours.  It is written of Esau that “he despised his birthright.”  He did not value what God had given him and sold it for a bowl of soup.  The Israelites in the desert looked at manna that was provided, and thought of what they did not have – Egypt’s spicy foods.  Adam and Eve fixed their eyes upon one thing withheld from them, ignoring the whole earth that was given them. 
 
Are we valuing what has been given us?  Friend, are you obsessed with the job you do not have instead of giving thanks for the one you do have.  Are you worrying about the spouse you do not have instead of thanking God for the one you do have?  How about all the other possessions, the talents & gifts?  This thanksgiving, may the Lord change our perspective and we look to what God has so graciously given us.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
 
Danesh Manik

Thanksgiving

He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him  the salvation of God.”
Psalm 50:23  

I am glad that there are ceremonies, traditions and holidays, especially the ones that recur.  They connect our scattered lives to a meaningful whole, and provide an opportunity to contemplate.  This week we mark the beginning of what is popularly called the “holiday season”, and there could not be a more appropriate holiday to begin it than Thanksgiving.  I am glad that this holiday urges us to pause and give thanks; it causes us to ponder on things we ought to be thankful for, but I think the significance of thanksgiving is much deeper than that. 

It may not be very obvious, but I suggest that of all the holidays, thanksgiving is perhaps the most deeply religious holidays.  I say that because the very act of giving thanks forces the question of sovereignty.  Who are we giving thanks to, and why?  The moment I thank someone, I am admitting that I am not self-sufficient, that someone else has contributed to my well-being.  Thanksgiving is acknowledgement of something “good” and the one who made that good possible.   It is no wonder then that the Bible makes thanksgiving the gateway for Salvation. 

In Psalm 50, the Psalmist says, “He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.”   How does thanksgiving prepare a way for seeing the salvation of God?  It is because thanksgiving begins with acknowledgement, and so does salvation.   Before any one can accept Jesus Christ, they must be thoroughly convinced about their absolutely hopeless condition.  They must acknowledge that they are incapable of coming to God.  They must accept that salvation cannot be earned, and confess that without the sacrifice of Jesus they are lost.  It is interesting that Bible uses the same word for “thanks” as it does for “confess”  Because at the root of both is acknowledgement – of self inability, and God’s ability, of self boorishness and God’s bounty!  And the deeper the realization of this, the more intense and real is that giving of thanks.   When Revelation gives a picture of Heaven, it tells us that continually in Heaven, sinful men made just gather around the Holy Throne, casting their golden crowns and do not cease from thanking God, and singing “Worthy, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory, and honor and praises!”    The distinctive of heaven is that it will be filled with “thankful hearts”.  It is because it is a truly thankful heart is a heart that has acknowledged the mercy and goodness of God, and accepted with graciousness the sacrifice that God gave in His only Son, Jesus Christ.  I pray that this thanksgiving, we not only give thanks, but come to a personal realization of the One we are giving thanks to.   

Danesh Manik
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“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of  Jesus Christ.  If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org .  The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org.  To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org  with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864

Too Late! Too Late!

“Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps”  Matthew 25:3-4
 
We previously observed in this text that following God was not always the easiest or the most expedient thing to do.  We saw the necessity of sometimes doing the inconvenient and what seems like an impractical thing.  (Click here for the devotional “Doing the inconvenient thing”). 
 
I wanted to make one more observation from this very direct parable of Jesus.  Often foolishness is not a matter of a continual failure of taking the right action.  It can be manifest in one single but very important decision.  The five women were declared foolish by a singular action of not taking that necessary ingredient – the oil for their lamps.   The whole idea of a lamp is to be lit, and oil is that which enables the lamp’s central purpose.  Without oil, lamp is merely infrastructure.  It is bones and flesh without the soul.  It is pretty and decorative, but with no life.  Oil is like the soul of the lamp, and by neglecting oil they neglected the very reason of their possessing the lamp.  Is it possible that they simply took that crucial ingredient, oil, for granted?  The externals were more important, but oil, of course, oil can be found whenever needed.  But it was not the availability, but their possession that mattered. 
 
I wonder if we sometimes take God for granted. We are so focused on the externals, that we forget that singular ingredient that makes the rest of our lives meaningful.  We take our soul for granted, and spend time thinking about the rest of the things in the world – our physical needs, our future plans, our dreams and goals.  All that is infrastructure, the essential is the soul.  I have said it myself, and heard it one too many times, and perhaps you have said it or heard it.   The argument goes like this: “I ought to be paying attention to the eternal condition of my soul, but right now is just not a good time.  Maybe when the kids grow up, maybe when I have finished this thing, or achieved that goal.  After all God is loving and patient, isn’t He?”  I heard somewhere this fable of Satan.  Satan was overheard suggesting to his imps “Make them believe that there is no God, make them believe that there is no hell, but most of all make them believe there is no hurry.”
 
We may measure foolishness by a person’s constant ineptness in judgment, and praise someone for being wise when they have made decisions that have garnered success, but God puts all the weight of foolishness on one single decision – on our relationship to Him.    Have we forgotten the soul at the expense of everything else? 
 
Tennyson in his poem, Guinevere, puts the idea of this parable as poetry in the mouth of a maid singing to Guinevere, who has been discovered in her adultery. 
 
Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill
Late, so late but we can enter still
Too late! Too late you cannot enter now!
 
No light had we for that we repent
And learning this the Bridegroom we relent.
Too late! Too late! ye cannot enter now
 
Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet
O let us in though late to kiss his feet
No, no too late, too late you cannot enter now!
 
I pray that we do not take our soul, and our relationship to God for granted, and one day hear the dreaded words, “Too Late! Too Late!”
 
Danesh Manik

Doing the Inconvenient Thing

Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps”  Matthew 25:3-4
 
There lines in our text are from one of those parables of Jesus where the main message is readily apparent, yet the scenario for the story seems too stretched and unreal, especially if we look at it with the eyes colored with modern western civilization.  If you are not familiar, let me quickly take a moment to fill you in.  Jesus relates this parable about the five foolish and the five wise virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come.  All ten are ready in every way except the five foolish ones have come without oil for their lamps.  Of course, in a day without cell phones and such, no one could accurately predict when the bridegroom would arrive.  Not only was the communication limited, weddings were a big event (they still are in my birth country of India), and the culture put a lot of emphasis on propriety, going to great lengths to avoid what might be considered as an insult.  The bridegroom shows up at a late hour and the bridesmaids are sleeping.  The five foolish ones suddenly realize they have no time to get oil to fill their lamps.  The five wise were ready and were welcomed, the five foolish were not ready and locked out, and Jesus makes the application of the importance of being ready.  “Watch therefore” is the keyword he leaves for his disciples.  

The only noticeable difference between the wise and the foolish is the lack of oil for the lamps.  They were all invited, they all went, they all had lamps, they all slept, they all heard the cry, they all rushed to meet the bridegroom, except five of them had not brought oil with them.  They had everything but oil!  Apart from the very important lesson of readiness, I would venture to suggest a couple of other lessons that the foolish women teach us. 

I can only conjecture here, but it is not unreasonable to say that they did not carry oil because it was inconvenient and impractical. Carrying oil can tend to slow one down.   It is messy, and can get quite cumbersome.  They perhaps reasoned, “Are we really required to bring oil with us?  We are not sure of when the bridegroom may come.  It is a very practical and smart idea to not bog us down with oil – we can always buy it when the time comes!  After all the most important thing is to be there when the bridegroom arrives, isn’t it?”

Following God is not always the practical thing to do.  Nor is it always the easiest thing to do.  It is sometimes very messy.  Sometimes it slows you down.  Sometimes it puts you at odd with the more practical thinking people.  It is often practically expeditious to cover the truth.  Remember, the decision to crucify Christ, when viewed from a purely human perspective, was made for the sake of expediency.
 
In that exciting book of Exodus where we read of some of the most dramatic works of God, we also encounter some of the most tedious reading.  It is that page after page of God’s instruction manual,  the excruciatingly detailed blueprint of tabernacle construction.  Build it this tall, this wide, this length, and using that material.  Use so much wood overlaid with so much gold.  Now build the altar – this high and no more, and on and on it goes.  As I read through this, the first thought that occurrs to me is, ”Lord this is highly impractical, not to mention very inconvenient! They are in the wilderness and they have to carry this around.”  Why not just let them simply worship you in their hearts?  Why add more time to their transit?  Why not wait till they get to the promised land?  I suggest it is because when it comes to following God, we do not do what will bring us the greatest pleasure, but we do what will bring Him the greatest glory.  We do not worship to get an emotional high, but we worship because He is worthy of worship. 
 
The New Testament too is filled with very impractical commands.  Consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 5.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you”.  It is certainly not convenient to walk the extra mile, and very impractical to turn the other cheek.

To be ready for God means to sometimes do what seems very inconvenient at the moment.  The rich man in the Bible, the saddest figure in history in my opinion, walked away from Jesus because of the inconvenience of having to give up his wealth.  Others walked away when they did not like or understand the message of the cross.  May we ask ourselves are we taking the easy route?  Are we doing what is practical and convenient in our pursuit of God?  We cannot meet God on our terms, it must be on His terms.  And that includes the, sometimes very impractical business of keeping the lamps trimmed and full of oil even when the bridegroom is not in sight.  It includes the inconvenience of carrying of the cross!  May we be found ready when He comes!
 
Danesh Manik
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“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of  Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org .  The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org.  To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org  with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864

Good or Bad?

“Praise the LORD; for the LORD is good..” Psalm 135:3 

I was not surprised when my three year old daughter interrupted me with the question, “Daddy, is he a good prince or is he a mean prince?”.  I am quite used to the various variations of this question by now.  “Is he a good bear?”,  “Is she a mean sister?”  and so on.  Somewhere in my trying to entertain my kids, one day I started making up stories, and soon it has become one of their favorite activities.  We have created quite a few adventures together.  But one thing never changes.  Every time a new character is introduced, my three year old daughter will interrupt me to ask me if that character is good or bad.  Before she wants to know the name, or how great the character is, she is interested in knowing if the character is good? I think her simple question tingles of that great philosophical quest of man.   

Man, consciously or subconsciously, in every encounter wants to know if the person or creature he encounters is good? Consider our normal conversations.   Two friends meet, and while talking they realize they know someone else in common.   More often than not, one of them will say, “O, so-and-so, he is a good man”, or “she is really a nice person.”   Or, occasionally the reverse of that.  Nevertheless, we are always engaged in a quest of judging everyone we encounter by some internal human standard of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.    GK Chesterton, in his book, “Heretics”, alluding to the story of “Jack the Giant Killer” refers to the same thing when he says,  “Jack was the champion of the enduring human standards, ……Jack was quite unimpressed by the question of whether the giant was a particularly gigantic giant.  All he wished to know was whether he was a good giant–that is, a giant who was any good to us. What were the giant’s religious views; what his views on politics and the duties of the citizen?  Was he fond of children–or fond of them only in a dark and sinister sense?  To use a fine phrase for emotional sanity, was his heart in the right place?”

I suggest that man, made in the image of God, cannot erase this moral code written in his heart.  He may explain it away, he may maul the standard, or attribute it to something else, but in its essence he cannot deny it.  He knows that there is something that is “good”, and that something that is “bad”.  And instinctively, his heart desires that which is good.   The Psalmist in the Bible is quite exultant when he declares, “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!”   Man may rejoice in this absolute standard of goodness.  It is because the Lord is good, we rejoice and praise.  It is because He is good, we can trust in Him.  In that perennially favorite story by CS Lewis, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, as the children get ready to meet Aslan the Lion, Lucy hearing the description that Mrs. Beaver has just given of Aslan, says, “Then he isn’t safe?”  “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good!”  God too is not safe, but He is good!  The Psalmist may praise God for His power, He may praise God for the great things He has done, but all of those things would only cause dread, not bring forth praise, if He were not good.   But there is something that even the Psalmist could not gauge.  He only had a hazy experience and assurance of God’s goodness.  What the Psalmist could see dimly, we can see clearly in Christ!  In God we see the essential goodness, and in Christ we see the practical manifestation of this goodness towards us.  In Him we see the perfect standard of goodness.  Paul, writing to the Romans, said, “do you despise the richness of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”  Any one seriously looking at cross of
Calvary where Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for us cannot but be moved to repentance by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ.  Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good! 

Danesh Manik

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“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of  Jesus Christ. If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org .  The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org.  To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org  with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s
Anchor, India International Church,

3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI
48864

The Hunch Back of Israel

“And behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” … and  immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”  Luke 13: 11-12
 
It must have been an exciting service to attend.  Luke, a doctor himself, describes this healing scene vividly and in great detail.  A woman bent over for over 18 years goes to the synagogue where Jesus happens to be preaching.  Aren’t you glad when Jesus is in the house? God can move anywhere, but will certainly move in His house!  Sure, the lightning can strike anywhere, yet, lightning is drawn to that metal rod, so also the Lord’s power is drawn up in His house.  We often don’t realize how many pains we bear, how many doubts we carry, and how much misery we hang on to when we consistently ignore going to the House of God.  But I digress. 
 
This woman suffers perhaps from one of those other painful conditions of the back where the curvature of the spine has been permanently misaligned.  It probably causes excruciating pain for her to even try to straighten it so she has gotten accustomed to being bent over.  Much like when you wake up with a sprain in your neck, and by the end of the day you have learnt to avoid the movement that causes the pain.  You learn to walk with your head tilted a bit.  You learn to be a hunch-back.  Yet, she is a daughter of Abraham, and a worshipper, and she goes to the synagogue.  Jesus notices, calls her, and says, “Woman you are loosed!”   And she is set free!  In an instant the One who had spoken the world into existence had spoken, and the woman was delivered.  The Bible says that she was immediately straightened.”  She came to the service as a hunch back, and went home with a straight back. 
 
May I engage your imagination here a bit.  This woman was bound up for 18 years, and she had accommodated her lifestyle to being bent-over.  Imagine if this woman who glorified God now goes back to her home.  As she enters her home, she realizes the door is short.  After all she never needed a door too tall – she was a hunch back.  Even the chair she sits on is accommodated to her.  The table she dines from is low so she can eat as a hunch back.  In fact, as she walks around and does things she unconsciously hunches back – that is what she is used to.  Her world has been accommodated.  Everything around her has been accommodated to her hunched back.  Before she could “in no wise lift herself up” but now she sometimes “does not want to lift herself up”.  She hunches sometimes because it is easier than to stand straight up.  It is a demand of the miraculous deliverance that she recreate her world without, and her habits within if she is going to live with the full benefits of her deliverance.  If she will not do that she might as well have been left as a hunch back!  May I say that that is often the demand we ignore.  We want the miraculous regeneration, but will not meet its demand to do what it takes to live a life purchased for us by Holy blood!  We often tend to live as hunch backs after being loosed! 
 
There was a time when sin had full control.  There was a time when nature caused it so you could in no wise lift yourself up.  You were in bondage.  You were in darkness and confusion.  You tried yet had no understanding.  In all your efforts you could not lift yourself up.  Then Jesus came along, and proclaimed – “You are loosed”.   You believed, and you had a miraculous regeneration.   You felt it – you had been straightened.  But then you faced daily life.  And the world was more accommodated to your being a hunch back, and though loosed you started walking around as a hunch back!  A hunch back due to their posture can see more of themselves, and lot less farther.  When we live like one, we cannot see much beyond our own desires and become short-sighted. 
 
I do not know the source of this story, but a story that sounds like the Beverly Hillbillies is told of a man named Yates who operated a sheep ranch in West Texas during the great depression.  The business was in dire straits, and he ended up living on subsidy.  His days were full of care and financial concerns for the family until a seismographic crew explored his land and found oil.  Eighty Thousand barrels  a day from the first well!  He spent his days in poverty because he did not know what he possessed! 
 
Friend, are you finding yourself accommodating to the world around you?  Living as a hunch back when the Lord has loosed you?  Do you know what you possess?  One of the lies we believe is that we are only human and over time we will overcome our infirmity, and so we keep on living like hunch backs.  But God in Jesus has provided us the power to overcome our infirmities.  We do not have to live with besetting sins.  We do not have to live in despair.  We only need to run again to Jesus and hear the words, “You are loosed!”. 

Then stand straight up and resist everything that forces us to be a hunch back again! 
 
Danesh Manik

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“A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of  Jesus Christ.
If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org .  The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org.  To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org  with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864

The doctrine of “Let”

“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”  John 16:26-27
 
I was listening to a recording of one of the 20th century’s foremost Evangelist, Leonard Ravenhill.  The recording had begun abruptly, and had caught the portion of his prayer before he began his message.  There was the unmistakable quality of Ravenhill’s earnestness, and authenticity that even time and technology could not conceal.  But what struck me about that earnest and powerful prayer was his use of the word, “Let”.  Every other sentence in the prayer started with that word, “let”.  Let God’s will be done, let this happen, let that not happen, and so on it went.  As I thought about his prayer, it became apparent that all of his prayer pivoted on his understanding of that word, let.  All that fueled his earnestness, all that made the prayer meaningful was his theology of that simple word, Let! 
 
I submit to you that any prayer is only as meaningful as our theology of that word, Let.  Think about it for a moment.  Why should anything change when a man or a woman, kneeling, with eyes closed, in all piety declares “let something happen.”  Unless we understand what we mean by the word, “let”,  all our praying is really a very pathetic and a laughable exercise. 
 
There are at least three things we acknowledge when we say the word, “let” in our prayer, and the extent to which we understand these three, reveals the efficacy of our prayer. 
One, we are acknowledging the sovereignty of God.  We say “let” because we acknowledge that He is sovereign and omnipotent and can allow or disallow things to happen.  That He is the ultimate enabler.  Knowing that, we ask God to “let”.   All reasonable men in all centuries have understood this to be true and therefore praying is a universal experience.  Here the Bible affirms us that we are right.  The very first chapter in the very first book of the Bible tells us that all the known and unknown worlds revolve on this simple word, “Let”.  Ten times it tells us that God said “Let there be…” and it was! 
 
Two, we reveal the extent of our submission to God and affirm that His will is good.  And when we say to God, “let”, we also say to ourselves “let go” because we know God is omniscient, and good, and he knows more than we do.  It is safe to trust in Him.  The Bible affirms us here also.  What is the Lord’s prayer if not simply an exposition of the word “let”?  Let your will be done here on earth as it is in Heaven! We are submitting to the will of Heaven because we know that the will of Heaven is good.
 
But the most important thing on which all of the effectiveness and the reality of prayer revolves around is what it reveals of our relationship to God.  Universally, men have agreed upon the Sovereignty, and goodness of God.  True, He is sovereign.  True, He is good.  Yet, why would an omnipotent and good God listen to my “let” and act?  What gives me assurance that my prayer is heard?  I say that this aspect gives prayer its true meaning.  It is this precise reason that validates my prayer.  Here is where I suggest all of that earnestness and power in Ravenhill’s prayer came from.  He believed with an unshakeable conviction that God loved Him.  He had looked unto Jesus, the crucified and risen Savior, and trusted in Him, and in that confidence, he could use the word, “Let” with all intensity because it was infused with a heavenly assurance based on this relationship to Jesus.  He could be assured that His heavenly Father had heard his prayer, and he expected God to move the Heavens to “let” his prayer be answered. 
 
Jesus, in his parting address to the disciples as He was getting ready to go to the cross said, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”   He was simply affirming that their prayer would be heard by God because they loved Jesus.  It is still true.  Our prayers are only as effective as our understanding of that word, “let”,  and that word “let” in prayer carries  only as much assurance as our relationship with the One we are praying to.  
 
Friend, you pray because you believe God is sovereign and good.  That is excellent.  But the true sweetness of prayer is in the relationship to the One you are praying to.  And through Jesus you can have that assurance!  “..For the Father Himself loves you , because you have loved Me..”
 
Danesh Manik

Overcoming Discouragement

“Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another? ”  Matthew 11:2 

Frank Boreham in his collection of essays entitled, “Mountains in the Mist”, writes of the Australian explorer, Hamilton Hume.  Boreham describes the time when Hume and his party were famished and exhausted, and wanted to return home. 
Hamilton saw the mountain range in front of them and urged his team to go on.  He was sure that the answer lay immediately past the mountain.  The team climbed the mountain with much enthusiasm but to their dismay found that all they could see was miles and miles of bush country ahead of them.  They named the mountain, Mount Disappointment.    

John the Baptist was standing on such a mountain when he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was really the promised One or was there another.  One can so vividly sense his heart, tender yet utterly discouraged, as he asks this question.  John was born miraculously heralded by the prophetic voice of the angel.  He had a singleness of a privileged purpose that was proscribed for him.  He was to be the one to make way for the Lord’s coming.  This singleness of purpose drove him to the wilderness, it sustained him on a diet of locusts and honey, it burned in him a zeal to call the people to repentance.  He had then seen Jesus, baptized Him, witnessed the testimony of the Dove descending and the voice of God resounding.   He had climbed the mountain!  But at the end of it he found himself in Herod’s prison awaiting execution.   He had climbed mount disappointment.  And in this he sends a message to Jesus, “Are you the Coming One, or is there another?”      There are many reasons for becoming discouraged.  Sometimes it is simply “despair of wounded self-love” in the words of Francois de Fenelon.  Sometimes it is because others we depended on have let us down.  Sometimes our expectations were unrealistic.  But there is a discouragement that is the worst of the lot.  It is the discouragement that sets in at the sight of the greatest and the surest hopes being dashed.  It is the discouragement of hopelessness and despair that creeps in when one has done all one can, worked as hard as possible, and come to the mountain top only to find a silent harshness staring back.    It is interesting to read Jesus’ answer to John in his disappointment.  He answers “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  Why was this an appropriate answer?  Jesus was pointing him back to the very foundation of his calling.  He was to prepare the way for the Lord.  He had done so very well.  He had prepared the way and now the Messiah’s works were being done.  He was to decrease so Jesus could increase.  That’s exactly what had happened.  “Go and tell .. what you hear and see..”  Personal discouragement was to be overcome by looking at divine accomplishment!  His encouragement was to lift his eyes from his perspective and look at what God was doing on the foundation he was called to lay.    

Often, our most severe discouragement comes when we feel we have been doing the right thing, we have zealously done God’s will, fulfilled our calling, and we find ourselves discouraged because all we have done seems to have resulted in nothing.  There seems to have been no sense of personal fulfillment like we expected.  The circumstances seem to be almost unfair.  In those times our answer is the same – meditate on what God has done and is doing.  Look at the divine accomplishments and persevere.  God will not  leave us, for he recognizes and honors the life that was used for His work to be accomplished.  I don’t know about you, but I face discouragement from time to time.  In the recent past I developed a habit that has helped my perspective.  I created what I call “The Barnabas File”.  Barnabas as you know was the nickname given to a disciple named Joseph in the book of Acts because he was the “son of encouragement”.  This file is a collection of notes of encouragement from people who have been ministered to by the Lord, of journaling of events in which I have seen God so clearly move, miracles that I have witnessed that He has accomplished in my life and in many others, and many other blessings that God has so freely given.   And every time I have a personal discouragement, I open that file and look at the divine accomplishments, and I see beyond mount disappointment.  By the way, Hume and his team persevered and crossed mount disappointment, and were successful in their journey. 

I pray if you are discouraged, would you look at the divine accomplishments.  There is a mountain that does not disappoint.  The name of it is Calvary.   Will you see the miracle of Calvary that makes you whole?  Will you hear of the great things God has done, and take courage. 

Danesh Manik
___________________________________________________________________________ “A Soul’s Anchor” is a daily inspirational message prepared to challenge your mind, inspire your heart, and motivate you to anchor your soul in the person of  Jesus Christ.  If you know a friend who would enjoy receiving “A Soul’s Anchor” in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up by emailing us at subscribe@asoulsanchor.org .  The messages may also be read at our website, http://www.asoulsanchor.org.  To unsubscribe, please email, unsubscribe@asoulsanchor.org with your email in the subject line. To change to a weekly instead of a daily subscription, email weekly@asoulsanchor.org  with your email in the subject line. For receiving messages by mail, please write to us at A Soul’s Anchor, India International Church, 3654 Okemos Rd., Okemos, MI 48864