Last Sunday, I had gone to this beautiful church named Calvary temple for the English service. I was much impressed by the sound of the drums though they used only a Roland octapad with 2 extended crash and ride cymbals which were electronic. Followed by the praise and worship was the testimony time. They showed three testimonies among which the second was quite shocking to me, where a husband and wife were living in a house with a sweet young daughter. The mother had her influence in the cine world and the bad day came when one of the workers in her industrial firm trapped her by his attractive words promising for a chance in a lead role in the upcoming movie, and the young and innocent mother fell prey to this and the whole family was at once shattered. The mother left their family and moved in with her colleague to start their living together life. While, the father of the daughter started to search for her mother in every place in their locality and wherever he thought she would possibly be in. But he found her nowhere. His life started to deteriorate day by day as we all know how its difficult for a man to stay away from his wife not knowing where she is. I remember Bro. Augustine Jebakumar has mentioned in one of his sermon, "Though I am spiritually strong and having a close relationship with God. If I don't see my wife for a day or two, my body begins to not work. And I am quite frank and I take no shame in saying this." As days passed, the brother who trapped his wife having enjoyed all the pleasure with this young woman, he betrayed her the next day when he wanted to avoid her. The young mother pleaded with him but nothing worked. Disappointed mother started packing her things to get back to her husband. When she entered, she could feel a sense of death atmosphere in her house. Looking at her husband turning half mentally ill, she fell at his feet and asked for forgiveness. The husband having a kind and innocent heart, forgave her and the family united together. One thing that I started to think from this incident was, there are seldom such forgiving natured people in this world who are ready to accept their wife's mistakes that happens in an accident. I was very sure its Gods work and only God could give such a heart to people and no one else can.
The sermon was about prayer which pastor Satish kumar started to deliver in English. He started with the verse from Genesis 4, where the third or fourth genealogy of Adam had their children from Seth and Enos. "When Enos was born, they all began to call the name of the Lord". Once upon a time, a person used to visit the church very often, ceaselessly praying to God for a job. When he finally got a job offer as per his wish. He started to work for the firm that provided. After a while, when the pastor saw him in a road pavement, the pastor questioned him, "Brother, I don't see you in church these days. Whats the reason?". For which, he replied, "Pastor, I got little busy with my new job and there are too many responsibilities that are delegated to me". I want to quote something from the above dialog that I have put forward. Did you listen for what purpose he visited the church regularly? It was for a job. Did he get the job? Yes. What made him not come to the church now? Its the job. Should that happen? No!! No!! You get a blessing from God and the blessing should never turn into a reason for your getting away from the Lord.
Similar situation happened with a business man where his profits were not satisfactory at first because of which he started praying to God earnestly to get his business profitable. Once he started getting enough profits, he stopped praying. The reason is because the profits that are coming in made him stop going to church and stopped him the time he was spending with God.
Brother and sisters, I would want to quote another scenario that where a prince was arrested in one of the highest pillars of the kingdom. He was looking desperately for someone to help me get out of the chamber. One day, there came a young man passing by, he shouted to his total strength, the young man never minded him. But once again when the young man came to pass, the prince dropped a bracelet from one of his arms. The young man found that surprising and took that bracelet into his pocket. But now, instead of going his own way, the young man started to look for another bracelet in the same region. Now, the prince who is imprisoned again shouted to his throat, but the young man was still searching and searching in the same region for another treasure. The prince dropped his other bracelet right on top of his head, and that's when he shockingly realized, Oh! the bracelet was dropped by the prince and it was not a luck or of fortune.
My brother and sister, lets not make God throw a stone at us but he will assuredly do that if you stop to listen to his words and keep an active connection with him.
Adam and Even lived in the garden Eden. When the serpent came to tempt Eve, it said, "Just take a bit of that fruit from the vine of good and bad. I promise, you will not die". But children, that's when sin entered into this world. Satan encouraged Eve saying, "See, you didn't die as the Lord had told you. He is a liar.". Eve having convinced by the Satan's talk, she shared the fruit also with Adam and both of them became sinners right from that time. One would argue as the satan said, Adam and Eve didn't die. If you read Genesis chapter 5, you would see Adam, Eve, Cain, Enos, everyone lived almost 900 years. But once they reached around 900, they all died. Adam died, Eve died and Cain died. Do you know why Lord waited till that time? Its because he is a gracious Father. He is not a God who is going to punish us immediately after we sin. He gave us the freedom to choose between good and bad. Even if you fall to sin, he gives us time to get back to his arms. Use that crucial time to repent and get your sins forgiven. Our Lord is gracious, abounding in mercy.
Let not satan tempt you anymore. Be strong and know that there is a God for us to depend on who is stronger than any wind that comes against us.
Lets pray.
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