Editor’s Note

Praise the Lord. Greetings to you in the most matchless name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:25 “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” Our God defeated Satan on the cross of Calvary, thereby giving us victory over evil. We must always remember that our fight is not with the people of this world, but with the powers of evil. It is clearly mentioned such in, Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” With the death of Jesus on the cross, we have received the power to defeat the evil one. God has washed us by His precious blood and has made us whole and worthy to fight the good fight, and we must never lose this authority through our sins. Psalms 91:13 “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.” See, God has given us such great authority as His children!

Nothing should deter those of us who are strong in faith with God. If we continue in faith with God and praise God, every obstacle and hindrance will crumble down and we can face any ‘Pharaoh’ in our lives. Only faith-filled praises will part the Red Sea and swallow our enemies. As given in Isaiah 12:6 “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee,” always remember, our God is a great God!

As much as we praise God, He will bless and prosper us. What did Paul and Silas do in the jail? They did not displease God by sinning or murmuring against Him. Instead they praised God with great joy and delighted him greatly with their praise. God heard their praise, broke their chains and delivered them. The jailer too got converted in the process. When God is with us, victory will always be ours.

As much as faith is important, holiness is equally very crucial as we cannot do anything for the Lord without the two together. Leviticus 11:45 “For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” God knows that we cannot become holy on our own, hence He gave His precious blood for our sakes. 1 Peter 1:15 “But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;” The Lord God was born into this world, He lived for us and died for us; He gave us His love and His word; then finally shed His precious blood for us. Even today He desires the same out of us, viz. He desires us to be holy and righteous before Him. The moment we sin, we lose our Father-Child relationship with Him. Our Lord God says again and again ‘Be holy as I am holy.’

Our God has brought His people from different places and planted them in one place. He is in our midst and says in Leviticus 20:26 “And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.” God has plucked us out from other fields and planted us in His own field. Our God is a Holy God, thus we must also be holy to receive His blessings and authority in our lives. Our God has given His word of promise in our hand, and if this promise is not fulfilled in our lives we must question ourselves.

Yes, God has overcome this world to give His people peace. God can change places of darkness, sorrow and tears and bless these places to prosper them. God has separated us from darkness and brought us into His light, made us His people, and given us His authority in this world. That is why God continues to tell us ‘Be Holy as I am Holy.’

Do continue singing praises to God in every situation of your life.

Till we meet again,

Pastor Saroja M.

 

Praise the Lord. I am Achsah Patel. I wish to testify of the Lord’s work in my life in helping me pass my SSC Board exams. Also, my sister Damaris was promoted to the 9^th Standard without any classes. I give all glory to Lord Jesus and I also thank Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers for me and my family.

*Sis. Achsah Patel – Jogeshwari.

Praise the Lord. A year ago, I had no job for a long time and due to some reason or the other, I used to keep losing my jobs. I then called the Rose of Sharon Prayer Tower for prayers. The prayer warrior counselled and prayed for me continuously.  I thank the Lord that I have now got a job once again. Thank You Jesus. Thank you to the prayer team of ROS Church.

*Bro. Satish – Nagpur, Maharashtra. (ROS TV Program Viewer)

Praise the Lord. I hereby testify of the wonderful work of Lord Jesus in my family. We had a family property under dispute. Our aunty had taken us to court and the case had been going on for some time, so we were unable to build anything on our land. On a particular date, the Police authorities told us to bring our documents. When my brother Ashish went with the papers, I called up the Rose of Sharon Prayer Tower. The prayer warrior prayed for me fervently and within 45 minutes the police cleared all our papers and gave us permission to build. I thank and praise God for His immediate answer. I thank Rose of Sharon Church for their prayers. Thank You Jesus.

*Sis. Jyoti – Jodhpur, Rajasthan. (ROS TV Program Viewer)

Praise the Lord. I would like to thank our Lord Almighty for the wonderful work done in my daughter Shelly’s life. We were searching for a nice and God fearing life partner for her and by God’s grace we received a marriage proposal from Pramod’s family who is also a member of our Rose of Sharon Church. We told this to Pastor Saroja who agreed to it and even Pramod and Shelly agreed to accept each other as their life partners.  By the Lord’s grace, all the wedding functions went through smoothly and nicely. I give all glory and honour and millions of thanks to our Lord Almighty Jesus Christ for giving us such a good and God fearing life partner in my daughter’s life and I also thank Pastor Saroja for her prayers and blessings for Pramod and Shelly.

*Sis. Elizabeth David Arikswamy – Jogeshwari.

Praise the Lord. My son Anurag is 7 years old and was not eating for the last few days. Whatever he ate, he used to vomit. Medicines did not work. Then I contacted the Rose of Sharon Prayer line. The prayer warrior prayed for my son. Today he is all fine. He started eating the same day. Many thanks to Lord Jesus who healed him. And thank you Rose of Sharon prayer team for praying for him.

*Sis. Sharin – Gangtok, Sikkim. (ROS TV Program Viewer)

A baby boy David was born to a certain family. The mum was so excited that she hardly put him down. One day she left him sleeping and went to the garden. When she was there, the house caught fire and she ran back home as fast as possible to save her only son. People tried to stop her but they didn’t succeed. She went in and found the baby untouched. Unfortunately her hair caught fire as she was going out and she started burning. It was very bad for the rest of her life because she had to live with a scar.

The boy grew up and became very rich and shifted to town. But in the real sense, he was ashamed of his mother scar’s. when people asked him, he would say, “I don’t have someone so ugly in our family as my mother”.

One day his mum overheard how his son was telling people and she was very disappointed. She decided to travel to town to explain to his only son what had happened and the reason behind her ugliness. But unfortunately, the bus she was traveling with got an accident and the mum died instantly. The boy heard of the news, and felt very happy. He then rushed to the village and found people sad. He just passed them and went direct to her mother’s room to search for important documents. He was shocked to find her MUM’s oldest DIARY BOOK written,

Date: 5^th Sept 1980: I was announced the WINNER OF MISS TORONTO BEAUTY CONTEST.

Date: 14^th Jan 1982: My husband Tonny Gateson passed away in road accident and left me six months pregnant.

 Date: 2^nd July 1983: I saved my only son David from a fire and I ended up losing my hair while scars left on my face.

David felt too bad and started crying, but it was too late !!!

More than this our Lord Jesus has loved us all. He has proved His love on the Cross of Calvary. As the word says in Isaiah 53:5 “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisements for our peace was upon him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Accept Lord Jesus in your life, before it’s …..

TOO LATE!

Pastor Saroja M

Don’t give up… be victorious

Romans 2:7 “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:” I remember a story of two frogs who both fell into a pot of curd. Both tried their best to get out of the pot. As they tried harder and harder, one frog got very tired and gave up the fight and died of exhaustion. The other frog did not give up the fight, it kept going round and round… in the meanwhile the curd began to form into butter. Now the frog got on to the stiff butter and jumped out of the pot. The moral of the story is that we must never give up our fight or get tired with life easily. It is the same with our spiritual life too; we must never get tired or weary trying to live a righteous and truthful life for the Lord. Many a times when we try much, the evil one brings hindrances into our lives, so that we may get tired weary and stop trying to lead a righteous life. But we must continue to strive to live for the Lord and not fear the works of evil upon us. There are servants of God who are striving hard to continue in the Lord’s service. There may be a righteous person who is also striving hard to live a good life for the Lord. When a person strives to live a righteous life or wants to do something for the Lord, the devil will firstly come against them to either make them weary, tired or to destroy them. But it is important for us to win the fight against the evil one.

Nehemiah too had to fight such a fight. He began to rebuild Jerusalem for God. But the evil one tried to come against him. We must be aware that when anyone decides to do something good for the Lord, the evil one will rise against them. Nehemiah 2:10 “When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.” Here we see how Nehemiah wanted to rebuild Jerusalem for the Lord God and how people discouraged him.

Nehemiah 4:3 “Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” Here his detractors said ‘so what if Nehemiah is building the walls of Jerusalem for the Lord God, even if a fox climbs on it, it will collapse’. Here we see how the people spoke against Nehemiah. Nehemiah 4:9 “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” The people wrote to the King against Nehemiah, asking what would happen if Nehemiah built the city walls. Nehemiah now chose people amongst the Israelites to pray for the building of the city. He wanted prayer warriors to pray day and night for this purpose. We must remember this, whenever we stand for the Lord or want to accomplish God’s work, the devil knows it and he will bring hindrances into our lives. When we love the Lord God much, the devil will try to bring ways to separate us from the Lord. In different ways the evil one will work in our life. It is at this time we must stand firm and strong as the frog who did not give up his fight in the pot of curd, but instead kept struggling and resisting defeat. It was because it kept on the fight in the pot of curd, that the curd churned in butter and helped the frog jump out of the pot. The devil brings many fights and trials into our lives, but we must not weary of them; we must not give up our hope and faith like the frog who died, but rather we must be firm like the frog who survived the fight. We must continue our good works for the Lord and look forward to diligently complete the work that we have started, for it is through our good works that the Lord God will be glorified and we will gain life.

Luke 18:1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” Jesus Christ spoke in parables about how to get victory from the evil one. Our life also is a defeated life; for as sinners, even as the robbers on the Cross on either side of Jesus, in different ways we are of the same type.

Before the Lord God came into our life, our lives were sinful, but we have been saved like the robber on the Cross who accepted his sins at the very last moment on the Cross and was thus delivered by Jesus Christ. The robber realized his sins and unrighteousness on the Cross during the last few minutes of his life and told Jesus ‘Remember me in paradise.’ Jesus Christ replied to him ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’ Yes, we may be great sinners in different ways, we may have betrayed God by telling Him something and doing another thing altogether; there is no goodness in us nor are our works worthy of praise. Nothing of ours may be right in the sight of God. Today let us be like the penitent robber on the Cross, let us be naked like him on the Cross and cry out to our Lord God saying ‘have mercy upon me Lord, I wish to spend my life with you, You alone can deliver me from my sins.’ Jesus will cover our nakedness with His shawl of love. It doesn’t take time for God to heal us and forgive us of our sins, but it is we who keep ourselves away from God and His light so that our sins are hidden from Him. When we go away from His light, we try to hide our sins. But how long can we keep away from the Light for one day we have to go to the Lord God for deliverance from our sins? One day we need to go to Him for our peace and happiness. Why should we not go to Lord God today… why not now? Let us confess our sins and ask for forgiveness and get deliverance today and start living a fulfilling life of victory. Our God has come for us sinners, for those who are lost in sins and who are sick and needy. If we think we are great, we are fine and not sick, then God has not come for us. Before God we are sick and needy, for in different ways we have wronged God through our thoughts and deeds. In different ways there are sins within us and we are all lost sheep. God has come to rescue the lost, sinners and the sick and needy. Let us seek and find Him today.

 In the Holy Scriptures we know the story of the two men who came to the temple of God, one was beating his chest and crying out to the Lord ‘I am a great sinner.’ God answered his prayers and delivered Him from his sins and thus he took blessings from the Lord and left. The other man, a Pharisee, prayed ritually according to the law about all the good he was doing for mankind and this world. He went away empty and did not get deliverance from his sins. In the sight of God we are all sinners, for sin abounds in this world. The Lord has already said ‘will I see faith and righteousness in this world when I come again?’ That time has come now. Today we are all sinners before God in different ways, either we are sick or we are lost; if we bow down before God today and truly confess our sins, just as Jesus forgave the robber on the Cross, He will also forgive us. The Pharisees and Sadducees cursed Jesus and falsely blamed Him and put Him on the Cross. Jesus quietly bore all and was crucified. The same God is with us even today, He is ready to forgive us today. We must only strive to do good works for the Lord and He will bless our works. 2 Corinthians 4:1 “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;” Our works must bring glory to God alone, either singing praises to Him or reading the Bible or giving testimony for the Lord. In doing every good work we must never be weary or tired and give up. We must always remember the story of the two frogs; the one who was tired and weary died, while the other one who struggled through all the trials and tribulations won in the end and gained life. In our life too, we must be diligent in every work we do for the Lord and keep giving Him praise and honour. Romans 2:7 “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:” Who will God give eternal life to? Eternal life does not come suddenly, it has to be strived for. Those who strive for righteousness, God will bless them with eternal life.

Galations 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” When we continually strive to do work for the Lord, we must never give up hope and faith in God, in the end we will gain victory. When we sow a mango seed, we will reap mangoes and not jackfruit. Whatever seed we sow today, we will reap its fruit tomorrow. Thus if we sow coconut we cannot expect Jackfruit. That will never happen. In the Kingdom of God too, we will reap only what we sow. We know how the devil deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and said ‘if you eat the fruit of this tree, you will be enlightened and become like God.’ They went against the command God gave them and ate the forbidden fruit. Because of their disobedience they were put out from the Garden of Eden. Our lives need to be lived in the manner wherein if God says do a particular work we must accomplish the same and give glory to God. The fruits for the works we do, we will bear in due season. Today, we may think it is difficult and the road ahead is really tough, we may fall again and again but we must learn to rise for the Lord God. He will never leave us orphans, but will give us the reward and fruit in due season.

Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” We must never be weary to do good works for the Lord or support the works being done by God’s children. The righteous will have to face persecutions in many ways, again and again the devil will try to suppress us – but our God will keep delivering us from all the works of the enemy. Our love, our thoughts and our works should always bring glory to God alone. In spite of the many clashes that come against us in our lives, it is God who looks deep within our hearts and gives us victory. Many of us think we can fool God, we have a double nature – one to show the outside world and one within us. This is our foolishness, for we must always know that God looks within, into our heart and not outward. Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” For the desires of the heart to be fulfilled, we need to be entwined with Lord God and not the people of this earth. The Bible says ‘Cursed is man who puts his trust in man.’ When we put our faith and trust in God alone, He will prosper us and fulfill our every heart’s desire.

The devil always tries to keep us away from God and brings hindrances in our lives; but it is God who will fulfill all our heart’s desire and He will guide us to turn left or right. For this to happen in our lives, we must be entwined with Him. ‘Delight thyself also in the LORD and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.’ We must always be truthful before God and not cheat on Him, then He will fulfill every desire of our heart. Proverbs 24:10 “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” During times of trouble, if we lose faith and hope, then our strength is very poor. At that time we must always be entwined with God and we will be strengthened once again. Many of us, at such a point in our life go away from God, remain disappointed in Him and try to go away from His light. Remember, when we are entwined with the Lord, we will get victory from all our trials. We need not run helter-skelter like the people of this world who keep running here and there during troubling times. The Word says ‘those who are tired and weary come to me and I will give you rest.’ This promise of God is for His children and not the people of this world. Yes, the children of God must put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone, for yesterday, today and tomorrow our God will be the same. It is we who are hesitant to give ourselves into God’s hands.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Our God is love, when one door closes for us He will open ten more doors for His children. God will never let us bear trouble more than our capacity to bear, for He himself came as a human being into this world and suffered pain and humiliation like us. He will give us only that much suffering that we can bear. When trouble comes into our lives, it is accompanied by pain and sorrow. Troubles bring sadness in our lives. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” When we decide to walk in God’s righteous ways, the devil will bring hindrances in our life. There will be persecutions in our lives when we are true followers of God. We each have to carry our own Cross in our life. However much is our sorrow and pain in life, if we keep the Cross before us and walk, we will get victory and bear fruits in our life. We cannot sow mango seed today and expect Jackfruit tomorrow. Thus, let us not be foolish in our life, but wait upon God with Him by our side.

Abraham was sad because he did not have a child in his life, but God took him out and showed him the stars in the sky and promised him ‘your descendants will be like the stars in the sky.’ Why did Abraham receive such a marvellous blessing from God? It was because he was always entwined and obedient to God. We also know in the Scriptures of the story of the man who was laid up 38 years at the Bethesda pond waiting for his healing. God did not forget him and at a certain time Jesus came and healed him. His patience paid off for he stayed put at the pond and God remembered him and came and healed him. John 5:8 “Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Jesus said ‘Rise up and walk.’ The man obeyed Jesus, and along with his obedience he also got the strength in his limbs to get up and walk and thus he was healed. It was his faith in God that kept him at the pond for 38 years. His patience finally paid off. We also know the story of a woman with an infirmity for 18 years who could not look up but was bent downwards. Jesus met her in the temple and healed her. Luke 13:12-13 “And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” It was a Sabbath day when Jesus came to the temple and healed her. Luke 13:11 “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” In God’s time this lady received her blessing. God always blesses us in His time when we wait upon Him patiently. For 18 years the woman had been coming to the temple to hear the Word of God. God’s grace does not come upon us suddenly, He watches over us, sees our faith and trust in Him, our patience to wait upon Him and then He blesses us. In His time, He blesses us, like he healed the man at the Bethesda pond after 38 years and the woman with the infirmity after 18 years.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” God has made all things to be used in its own time. Mankind will never understand nor know how, but God fulfills His every work in His time alone. In this world God has accomplished every Word in His time. It is important for us to be with God and get victory in all the works that we do for His glory. We must never be disheartened with the sufferings, trials and tribulations in our lives, rather we must be strengthened in our lives.

In different ways our life is blessed. Once, when a log of wood was put into a fire, a snake from within the log came out. It is important in our life to let the ‘snake’ come out from within us so that we may receive our blessings.

May this Word bring blessings in everyone’s life. Praise the Lord!

Pastor Saroja M.

Praise the Lord. Greetings to all our dear readers in the most powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Last month Mrs Saroja had come to our Rose of Sharon Home to celebrate her daughters 5^th birthday along with her husband. She brought some birthday caps for all the residents and a beautiful birthday cake for everyone. The young birthday girl enjoyed along with all the elderly people who celebrated her birthday by cutting her cake and singing the birthday song. All the residents were very happy to see the little girl and were having a lot of fun with them. May God bless this family who included us in their daughter’s birthday celebrations.

Do pray for all inmates that our Lord Jesus keep them in good health.

Praise the lord

Praise the Lord!  As we progress into learning newer stories from the bible, this month the little kids learnt the ‘Parable of the Rich Young Man’ and the ‘Parable of the Sower.’ They learnt that we cannot just be hearers, but doers too of the word of the Lord. In the Parable of the young rich man we see that he lacked for nothing but when the time of test came to give away his riches he lagged and lost eternal life.  Similarly, they learnt that the word of God is the seed the sower has sown. Accepting it and bearing the fruit in our lives is in our hands. If we choose to let go of the word, our life would be like the seed that fell on the rocky ground and withered away when the heat beat upon it.

The bigger kids learnt about the life of Daniel – how uprightly Daniel and his friends stood in the face of trials. They learnt how Daniel, right from refusing to eat the Kings delicacies to bowing down to the idol built by the King refused to do what was wrong in the sight of our Lord. They also learnt of Ruth, who in spite of having lost everything, chose to accept our living Lord and was blessed abundantly… she was the one from whose lineage Jesus came from.

Overall our kids learnt that when we choose to put God first, even the toughest test become easier. And like Daniel you can come alive from the lion’s den.

Do continue to keep our little ones in your prayers.

 “JESUS YOU ARE GREAT”

Praise the Lord. I was suffering from knee pain and waist pain since many years. No medicines were of any use to me. Suddenly, since three days I could not walk at all.

My son Aslam Khan then called the Rose of Sharon Prayer Tower. The prayer warrior prayed for me and within a few days I was completely healed. I can also walk and do my normal work.

Thank You Jesus a million times over! I also thank the prayer team of the Rose of Sharon church who prayed for me.

Sis. Lachatin Bai

Kondagaon, Chattisgarh.

(ROS TV Program Viewer)