Journey with Christ

Recently I was watching a movie on Richard Wurmbrand. In that he mentions that God tells us not to fear and there are 366 verses in Bible for each day to help us fight our fears. Thus began my journey to search and find the 366 verses of Fear Not. Well initially I was excited as I found few verses. After 150 verses it became difficult to find them. I searched all over the internet to find them and could not find it.

Bro. Zac Poonen mentions that opposite of Faith is Fear. So I began to search for all the verses that will help to build faith and cast out fear of sickness, fear of death, fear of loosing job and many more. Well I did find around 180 verses to be courageous and not to fear. The remaining are all promises from God’s word which show us his care and love for us.

You can click on the below link for a free printable of the booklet. You can download and access it on your computer as well and use it to give it to your teens and youth in your church as gifts. Hope this will be a blessing to you.

Click here Fear No More.

I was reading through the book of Revelation for my daily meditation and the Lord spoke to me through the 7 letters the apostle John wrote to the churches. Something that the Lord spoke to me specifically was from the letter written to the elder at Ephesus. Revelation 2: 2-3 Jesus says ” I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men….and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary”. Yet, the Lord says I have this one thing against you “you have lost your first love”.

What surprised me was their actions were right and God will definitely be pleased with their works. The did not grumble while working, they did not grow weary of doing it. Their work did not become mundane to them. It was not all happy for them, they had to suffer so many things and it says, they endured all that suffering for God’s name. Yet, God says you lost your first love.

What should I do when I have lost my first love? In Revelation 2: 5 the Lord asks them to do 3 things. I call it the 3 R’s – Remember, Repent and Redo. God asked them to remember “Where” they had fallen. NOT WHEN OR HOW BUT WHERE. He doesn’t want a date, not an event but a place in my heart. From which area in my heart have I fallen short of God’s glory. So I decided to do just that ; to remember and as I laid down thinking about my childhood many memories flashed through.

As a child I enjoyed going to church, I loved Sundays because my parents would take me to church. I went early so I could sit in the front row with other children and I watched the entire mass. While the priest was giving the Eucharist to people; I used to keep my mouth open and watched people come and receive the Eucharist. I was never allowed to enter the altar because it was a Holy place. So I assumed only through serving on the alter I could get close to God. I questioned the priests and brothers who would come as to ‘why I am not allowed to serve at the alter’. My only desire was to get close to God.

From the time I could read Bible on my own and I read gospel of John, I always loved John because John 13:23 says “Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved”. Jesus loved John likewise John also loved Jesus. It tells us how close John was to Jesus, so much that Peter pushed John to ask Jesus who was the betrayer. I wanted to have the same closeness with Jesus like John had.

My assumption was completely wrong, God was more interested in having a relationship with me than I was. He taught me I could be close to God even if I was not serving at the alter. He gave me the assurance to call Him “Father”. He taught me my body is the temple of God and he longs to dwell within me. He taught me I could not just enter the Holy place but also the most Holy place because the veil was rent and Jesus showed me the way to enter into the most Holy place.

This is what the Lord showed me- I was so involved in doing His work that I did not make time for Him. I had lost the longing to be close to God because of all the works. So now that God has helped me to remember this, what should I do next?

Repent- Now we have to repent, pray and submit the area where we have fallen from our first love for God.

Redo- Revelation 2:5 Jesus says “Do the deeds you did at first. What deeds were God talking about? When I was born again and baptized there was only 1 thing I had to do. Jesus had washed all my sins and had given me a new white robe and I did not want that to get stained. I was very sensitive to sin which God had revealed to me in my life. I wanted to read the word of God. I wanted to know Jesus intimately and spend time with Him. These are the deeds that God asks me to do again.

In verse 7 Jesus invites us to be over comers. So with Holy Spirits power we can overcome this short coming as well. God is interested to set things right in my life. He wants me to be close to Him. So I put my faith in Him who can bring to completion the work which he has started.

Most of us may want to get married at some point in our life. Some of us might have dreamt of it from our childhood and waiting for a prince charming. For us Christians it does not end there; it does not even end with marring a perfect guy. It is much more than we imagine.

Every Jewish wedding (most wedding celebration) has 3 important stages

1. Betrothal (Engagement)
2. Wedding Preparation
3. Wedding feast

Betrothal is an engagement where you make a formal announcement to agreeing to marry a person. In Genesis 21:18 Jacob agrees to marry Rachel, and he also agrees to work for her father Laban for 7 years for her. Now we are also betrothed to Jesus when we accepted him to be our savior. Jesus paid a huge ransom for us. 1 Peter 1:18 says “HE paid a ransom to save us from the empty life we inherited from Adam and it was not paid with mere gold or silver which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” Like Jacob in old testament, Jesus also had to pay a price for his beloved – His life. In Isaiah 43:1 it says “DON’T BE AFRAID FOR I HAVE RANSOMED YOU, I HAVE CALLED YOU BY NAME AND YOU ARE MINE.”

What happens after 2 people are engaged? Now is the preparation time. As per the Jewish custom the groom has to go and prepare a house for himself before he takes the women to be his wife. Also, the wedding feast will have lots of food and wine which they need to prepare. During this time the bride faithfully waits for her bridegroom; eagerly waiting for him. Now all those who have accepted Jesus as savior has to prepare by judging themselves and wait faithfully for our bridegroom to come. In John 14:2 Jesus tells his disciples “I am going to prepare a place for you“. Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us (His bride), so we can be with Him always. So, what does a bride have to do? Like it says in Matthew 25:4″ The wise virgins took oil in flask along with their lamps”. Oil represents love and Holy Spirit. We must be filled with Holy Spirit daily to love the Lord from the bottom of our hearts with pure devotion and wait upon him. Matthew 24:42 says” We must be on alert and faithful for we actually do not know when the Lord is coming”. So be faithful in the things he has given us. Over come the evil sin while we have the opportunity, do good and be humble and then one day it will be announced that the groom is coming and on that day we need to be ready to go with him. The Lord is not slow about His promise of coming as it says in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” So, don’t ever think He is late but He is always on time so when the time comes be ready with your garments.

Finally the last celebration is the wedding feast when the bridegroom comes and the bride is ready in her best clothes and looks beautiful. In Rev 19:7,8 it says ” His bride has made herself ready“. How has she made herself ready? She judges and sanctifies herself day after day that is how she is ready and she takes every opportunity to do good to others, this is her own righteousness. Verse 8 says” It was given to her to cloth herself in fine linen, bright & clean“. How can we ever be clean before this holy God? Only by the blood of Christ, so we must accept the righteousness of God to cloth us. With all this done the bridegroom “Jesus” comes in all glory to receive his bride “Church”.

Not everyone who has startd the to be His bride will enter into the marriage. Some stop at being betrothed, some in preparation stage. On the wedding feast all who look and take part at the wedding will see things which ” No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Cor 2:9. The eyes of the bride will constantly be upon her bridegroom who loved her even when she was a wretched sinner and transformed her into a beautiful person with his love. She will look upon Him with an aw and admiration and a sigh that the wait is over and she is where she always belonged at home in His arms.

I pray God will give me grace till my journey to be His bride is complete.

The reason I have this blog is to give to others what God has given to me freely.

As a young Christian girl I have a lot of questions. I want to know what the Bible teaches us on a specific topic? What is appropriate and inappropriate in the eyes of the Lord? What is acceptable and pleasing to God? Through my meditation on God’s word and what the Holy Spirit reveals to me I want to encourage others with my journey with Christ. As a young Christian with a goal to be more Christ like in my nature and to prepare myself as a bride of Christ there are struggles which I go through. So I want to encourage others who are struggling and have the goal to be the bride of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:23 ” All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify”. There are lot of things in this world that are lawful but not profitable to God and his kingdom. This blog that I write, I don’t want the readers to draw to me, instead I want you readers to be drawn to Christ – the one who makes all things beautiful and can change our life.