EDITOR’S NOTE

Greetings to you all in the matchless name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ! God is good all the time and I thank my Lord that it is only by His grace and mercy that our ministry’s completing 13 glorious years and stepping into the 14^th year- as the Rose of Sharon Church celebrates its anniversary on the 14^th of July, 2017.

In these 14 years I have gone through many tough experiences as well as many good experiences, but I have forgotten all my difficult days and thank my Lord for all the good things He has done for me because of which my Lord has blessed me more and more. When Stephen was preaching the Lord’s words, the Jews were angrily gnashing their teeth. Their faces were filled with hatred but Stephen’s eyes were not upon those who were ready to stone him, and he was not worried about his situation. He lifted his eyes to the heavens expecting an answer. This expectation brought him a vision of heaven. He saw 3 sights:

1) He saw the heavens opened

2) He saw God’s glory

3) He saw Jesus standing on the right side of God the Father.

What a beautiful vision!

This is the only place we see Jesus standing by the Father’s side. In other places the Bible shows Jesus sitting at the right side of God. Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Mark 16:19 “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

When Stephen was being martyred, Jesus could not sit. He stood up. When the Son of God stood up, all the Host of Heaven also stood up, the angels, cherubim,seraphim,the four beasts and the 24 elders were waiting to welcome Stephen.When Stephen was praying to God to take his soul,the Jews were taking stones to hit him with.

My beloved children, are you also facing the same situation in your lives? Are people of this world turning evil and standing as enemies against you? Lift up your eyes and look to the Lord who carried the cross and died for you even before you were formed in your mother’s womb. When you lift your eyes to Him,He will set a table before your enemies and anoint your head with oil and your vessel will overflow.

You won’t see the terrible sea and waves that Peter saw;neither will you see the people gnashing their teeth and throwing their words like stones upon us.

Let your eyes only behold the Lord who loves you. If you are faithful in few things, the Lord will honor you.Matthew 25:21 “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Isaiah 49:18 “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doth.”

Worldly people will see all their enemies surrounding them. But God’s people will all the more see God’s grace and glory in such situations.Psalms 34:7 “The angel of the LORD encampment round about them that fear him, and deliverer them.”

Let your eyes be upon the Lord always, He will fulfill all your heart’s desire.

Let the Lord bless you all till we meet again.

Pastor Saroja M

Praise the Lord. As per policy within the new company I am working in, the newly appointed Team leader doesn’t get any increment. I told Pastor Saroja about it and asked her to keep this matter in prayer. By the Lord’s grace and mercy, I got even more than what I had expected. I give all glory to Lord Jesus for this miracle in my life. I also thank Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers for me.

*Bro.Hardik Patel, Goregoan.

Praise the Lord. I am sis.Adinafrom Asansol in West Bengal. I am testifying on behalf of my cousin sister who got married recently. A few days ago my uncle got a phone call from her in laws that she had been possessed by evil spirits and she was causing a lot of trouble there. My uncle called for prayers from the Rose of Sharon prayer tower. The prayer warrior prayed for his request for his daughter. When my uncle went to meet his daughter after a few days he found her perfectly fine and in right senses and she was talking and behaving very well. We give all glory to God for His healing and this miracle in my cousin’s life. Thank you Jesus!

 *Sis.Adina, West Bengal (viasms)

Praise the Lord. Our Lord is so good! I was to appear for my 12^th Standard Board exams and I called up Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers to help me succeed through this. She assured me of her prayers. By Lord’s grace I cleared my 12^th Standard with very good marks and also got admission to a good college for my further studies. I give all glory and honour and praise to Lord Jesus for doing mighty things in my life. I also thank Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers.

*Bro.Umesh Rathod, Mira Road.

Praise the Lord. My mother was admitted to Kohinoor hospital for high blood pressure, high sugar, fungal infection and breathlessness. The breathlessness was so severe and serious that it almost took her life away. She was rushed to the ICU. We informed Pastor Saroja about it and as always Pastor was praying for her. I and my entire family was so scared seeing my mother suffering and there was no improvement. We all were praying and calling on God to heal her. Finally after 12 days she started feeling better and could breathe independently without support. God had healed her of all her sicknesses. We truly believe it’s only by God’s grace and Pastor Saroja’s prayers that my mother has got a new life. We glorify and thank Lord for His bountiful mercy on my mother and our family.

*Bro. Shibu& Marina, Kurla

Praise the Lord. I was suffering from indigestion with a stomach upset and severe loose motions. My stomach was hurting a lot due to this. I did not take any medicines thinking it will get alright by itself. But the next day the same condition continued and no food would stay in my stomach. Then I believed and in faith drank the prayer oil. That night by God’s grace I could sleep peacefully and from the next day I was perfectly alright. I give all glory to Lord Jesus and I also thank Pastor Saroja for praying over the prayer oil.

*Bro.SubramaniPilley, Jogeshwari.

Praise the Lord. I had a boil on my back which was very painful. I showed this to Pastor Saroja and requested her to pray over it. She earnestly prayed over it and by God’s grace the boil has vanished with no mark left behind. I give all glory to Lord Jesus. I also thank Pastor Saroja for her fervent prayers.

*Sis.Bharti Mohite, Kalina.

Praise the Lord. Though I have been working in a government school for the pastfour years, I had not received my appointment letter. Every time whenever my file was sent to the head office, it would get rejected due to the subjects I had graduated in. The government had issued a new rule wherein only those candidates whose final yearsubjects were Maths, Physics or Chemistry, would get approval. As neither of these were my subjects, I had told of this matter to Pastor Saroja and she assured me of her prayers. Where, for this post people were paying huge amounts, in a miraculous way the Lord gave me the appointment letter without spending a single rupee! I give all glory to Lord Jesus and millions of praise for such a great miracle in my life. I thank Pastor Sarojafor continuously praying for my job  and my Lord for hearing these prayers. Thank you Jesus.

*Sis.Esther Patel, Goregoan.

Special Meeting – 2 June, 2017

Praise the Lord!

I thank my Lord Jesus Christ for His grace on me,   who blessed me with one more year to serve Him.  Every year on 2^nd  June, that is my Birthday, I always invite a Special Preacher to share the Word of God.

This year the special preacher was Sister Sangeeta from Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu and by God’s grace we had a wonderful service!

May God bless the preacher who had come to share the Word of God. I believe God has blessed all my brothers and sisters who attended the special meeting.

May God continue blessing the Rose of Sharon family, including me. Do continue to pray for me and my ministry.

May God Bless you all.

Pastor Saroja M

Our Treasures Vs God’s

The cheerful little girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them, a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. “Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?” Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face. “A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2.00. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma.”

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked  if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere, Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night as he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?”  “Oh yes, daddy. You know that I love you.”  “Then give me your pearls.” “Oh, daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess, the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember daddy?  The one you gave me. She’s my very favorite.” “That’s okay, Honey, daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?” “Daddy, you know I love you.”  “Then give me your pearls.”  “Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper.”  “That’s okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. “What is it, Jenny? What’s the matter?” Jenny didn’t say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, “Here, daddy, this is for you.” With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny’s daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her the genuine treasure.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that He can give us beautiful treasures.Isn’t God good? Are you holding onto things that God wants you to let go of? Are you holding on to harmful or unnecessary things, habits and activities that you have come so attached to that it seems impossible to let go?

Sometimes it is so hard to see what is in the other hand but do believe this one thing…

God will never take away something without giving you something better in its place!!

Wait for the Vision to come to pass

Acts 2:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:” In the Bible we have read of the visions people received and how they came to pass. Remember there is always a time gap in seeing visions and having these visions come to pass. Prophet Habakkuk writes in Habakkuk  2:2-3 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” When Habakkuk was shown a vision, God asked him to pray for the vision and wait for its time to come to pass. If we also examine Joseph’s life, God had given him many visions and Joseph shared all these visions with his family. Genesis 37:7  “For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.”

This vision revealed how God would bless Joseph in the worldly way. Genesis 37:9 “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” This was a vision of spiritual blessings. Joseph should have waited for these visions to come to pass before sharing them with his family; but since Joseph shared the visions immediately with his parents and brothers, there was animosity created amongst them and they were jealous and angry with him. If Joseph had not shared these visions at that time, he would not have had to face the problems that he actually faced in his life.

Even today, the same truth holds good. If God shows visions, we must wait upon God patiently till this vision is established in our lives. We must not reveal it to anyone, rather we must pray about it. As explained by Prophet Habakkuk, the time gap between seeing visions and it coming to pass is a crucial time which we must patiently wait upon. God showed Joseph first the worldly blessings that He would shower upon him and then the spiritual blessings that would follow. Because Joseph shared the visions with his family, they were jealous of him and hence his brothers planned to kill him. Here we see Joseph should have waited upon God till the visions would come to pass in his life. We too must learn to wait upon God in prayer, when God gives us visions, rather than going about in our sinful ways upon this earth. This time gap becomes precious in the sight of God as the evil one is also watching us. We must save ourselves from the enemy who will bring upon us several hindrances, sorrow and pain to ensure that the vision must not be established in our lives. Joseph had to face a lot of struggle with his family members, where the evil one wanted to defeat the purpose of God in Joseph’s life. But in the end the victory is God’s, for God gave victory from all his sufferings and pains, and God’s promise was established and fulfilled in Joseph’s life.

Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” We must run towards the goal for the prize i.e. the calling from God through Jesus Christ. Our belief, our prayer must be focused towards the goal (vision) that is kept before us. In Abraham’s life, God had given him a vision. Abraham shared this vision with his wife Sarah; both accepted it and stood firm on it and waited upon God for this vision to come to pass in their lives. Sarah never grumbled or murmured about the time that this vision took to come to pass. Genesis 12:1-2 “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:” God’s vision for Abraham was that He would make of him a great nation, make his name great and make him a blessing. This vision was given to Abraham and even Sarah his wife followed it and believed in it. In the Bible, we know of many women who were strong with the Lord God. They did good works, but there were some who did evil too. One of the good women was Nabal’s wife who did so much good, while Job’s wife did evil. But here in in Abraham’s life, we see how Sarah stood by her husband till the vision was fulfilled in their lives. This was her faith. Later in their life we see that Lot and his family also joined Abraham when they separated from their original families according to the will of God. The vision was Abraham’s, hence though Lot became a part of this vision it was only temporarily. Lot had to leave Abraham mid-way in his life. It is very important for us to know that when there is no vision, we cannot be a part of those for whom God has given the vision; they will not remain entwined for long with the ones for whom the vision was meant. They have to leave mid-way. A vision is a great blessing from God, the one who gets a vision gets God’s grace, mercy and kindness upon them. They are truly blessed. But those that do not see the vision, leave mid-way, akin to when it was time for Abraham and Lot to separate. Lot chose whatever seemed good in his eyes in the worldly way, and he chose Sodom and Gomorrah – eventually to be the cities of destruction; unlike Abraham and Sarah who remained entwined with God till the end so that the vision would come to pass.

God had made a promise to Abraham. Genesis 17:4-5 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. God gave a vision to Abraham first, then God also made him a promise. Sarah believed in the vision and also in the promise till it was fulfilled. We know that Hagar came into their lives, but since Hagar was not a part of the vision and promise that God had given Abraham, she too had to separate mid-way. It was eventually only Abraham and Sarah who stayed strongly with God in faith right till the end, to see God’s vision being fulfilled in their lives.  Hebrews 11:12 “Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” It was only by faith that Abraham and Sarah stood by the promise of God. In getting a vision and letting it come to pass, the time in between is very important. This is the time to wait upon God prayerfully. Sarah’s womb was dead and Abraham was in his ripe old age, but they still remained entwined with God and prayed in faith upon the vision and promise God gave them. As the Word says ‘Abraham became a father of many nations.’ God’s promises and visions are true and forever and they will never fall to the ground, but it is our duty to stay entwined with God in prayer till these promises come to pass. As we have seen in the story of Joseph, he had to wait 30 years for the vision to be fulfilled in his life. Similarly, Abraham and Sarah too had to wait many years for the vision and promise to be fulfilled in their lives. We too must wait upon God patiently; it may be days, months, years, decades for the vision and promise given to us by God to be fulfilled in our lives, but during this time we must remain entwined with God prayerfully and in faith.

We must wait upon God, for His time is the right time for His promises to be fulfilled in our lives. I waited for 10 years to become a Pastor and 9 years before I came forward to preach the Word in His holy temple. God spoke to me, gave me visions, made revelations, but still I waited patiently upon God and in faith, before I could be used for His glory. It is the same for each one of us. When visions and promises are given to us we will succeed only when we patiently wait upon Him and His time, for the same to be fulfilled in our lives. We should wait in unity with God. He is an unchanging God and His promises and Word will never change or fall to the ground. The Word says “Heaven and earth will pass away, but God’s Word will never fall to the ground.” Romans 4:19-21 “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” During the gap time of seeing the vision and it coming to pass, Abraham and Sarah continued to praise and worship God and wait upon Him in faith for His time. They knew that the God who gave Abraham a vision is a true God and a living God. They continually praised and worshipped Him and hence did not feel the weakness in their bodies.  Even after reaching an old age, they never feared about the weakness in their bodies and were never sorrowful. In our lives too, when we forget the visions and promises God has given us, we start feeling tired and weary. We start fearing life and become weak. But here we see in Romans 4:19 “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:” Abraham was old with his body weak, and while Sarah’s womb was dead, yet in the time between seeing the vision and it being fulfilled, they only praised and prayed and waited upon God in faith. The prophet Habakkuk says in Habakkuk 2:2-3 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” We must remember the promise of God given to us, then we will never grow weary and weak, we will never be sorrowful and in pain, and we will forget our age and the weakness that comes with old age. When God’s love is in our hearts and His fear is in our life, we will never be discouraged or weakened. Our desire for God will only grow greater and greater. Where two or three are gathered in the name of God, there will never be a lack of anything in that place, and when a prayer is made it will be answered.

Abraham and Sarah remembered every word spoken by the prophets and wise men and they only praised and glorified God. Daniel 12:3 “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” As Prophet Isaiah spoke in Isaiah 8:18 “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.” These are God’s words that Abraham and Sarah remembered and prayed and thus remained entwined with God. They believed that God’s visions and promise would come to pass in their lives and continued to strengthen their faith.

Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua had decided never to go back to the god’s that they had left behind in Egypt, and that he and his family would continue in faith to serve and worship the living God. The Israelites were in bondage and enslaved for more than 330 years in Egypt. But God had given them a promise in Exodus 3:8 “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” For this promise to be fulfilled, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Here we see that between the vision and the fulfillment of the vision there was a 40 years gap. In these 40 years, God was with the Israelites in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God took great care of them in the wilderness. Here too, we see that the Israelites should have kept calm and continued in faith, praying and worshipping God. Instead, they murmured and grumbled and put God to the test. Hence many of them perished in the wilderness itself. God took 40 years to fulfill His promise to the Israelites. We too must never disbelieve God’s promise given to us or grumble and murmur like the Israelites. In our families, when a promise is given to us, we must obediently wait upon God in faith, believing that it will surely come to pass. We must continue praising and worshipping our God for this promise. David says in Psalms 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” This is David’s faith that he would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In our lives we too must have the same faith, for our God is alive and He is a true God. Our God gave His life for us, from this we know how much He loved us.

John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” Jesus is the door, and it is only if we go through Him that we will get salvation. Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. He is our God who came down from heaven to earth for our sakes. He is the way, the truth and the life.    This is the same faith that David had, that we read in Psalms 23:6. Without the Lord Jesus Christ there is no other way. 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” The apostle Paul says ‘Jesus Christ is the only way and just as I follow this way, similarly you too must follow the same way.’ There are no short cuts to receiving salvation. We know the life of the apostle Paul when he was Saul. He was a rowdy person and persecuted those who followed Christ Jesus. He was responsible for demolishing churches and splitting congregations. But in the end, he learnt the truth and God captured Him.

Science and religion always contradicts. God created man in His own image, but science says man evolved from the apes. Today we read in the newspaper that Adam and Eve were not a couple and they did not have a family. This is science again contradicting God’s creation of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. The evil one will always be against the Word of God and bring confusion into people’s minds. When Lucifer thought that He wanted to become greater than God, the Lord kicked him down to the earth and today he rules this earth. But remember, victory is always the Lord’s. We also know the story of the Tower of Babel. People wanted to build the tallest tower to reach heaven, but we know that God will never give His glory to any man. God changed their language and in the ensuing confusion where people could not understand each other’s language, shattered their plans of building the tower. We know that the person who built the gigantic and most sophisticated ‘Titanic’ ship, never thought it would drown during its first journey itself. Remember, no man can challenge God and take His glory. The truth is that man can do nothing without God. 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”

Isaiah 51:1 “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” Our God has picked each one up from a pit in different forms. We must never forget the stone from which we were hewn or the pit from which we were dug up. Till the vision and promise of God is fulfilled in our lives, we should remember these words. Like Abraham and Sarah, we should also remain entwined with God as long our promise is not fulfilled. Psalms 138:7 “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.” When we are entwined with God we will boldly say ‘though I walk in the midst of trouble, God will revive me and hold me by His right hand and save me’. God will always fight with the enemy for our sakes and with His right hand He will bless us and grace us with salvation. Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” When we keep ourselves entwined with God, we make God happy with our righteousness, and we will never be defeated. God will take care of us. Even in the worst situations, God will take care of us. Ephesians 2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” We who were dead in our sins, God has given us life with His grace and mercy. Today, we have been delivered from our sins only by His forgiveness. Salvation is a gift from God to us, and hence we can commune with him as a son or daughter to a Father, or as a friend to a friend. God can deliver us even when we are dead in sin, hence let us commit our lives into His hands. When God gives us salvation, no one can take it away from us. Ezekiel 37:3 “And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” God’s hand was upon Ezekiel once and He spoke to Ezekiel and showed him how the dead could be revived. Ezekiel 37:6 “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” God showed Ezekiel how the dried bones could be filled with flesh and resurrected once again. We see here that the vision that God had given Ezekiel was for and about the Israelites. Their lives were like dry bones and yet God would revive them again. Ezekiel 37:12 “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”

God’s Word gives us life. Psalms 119:25 “ My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” When our life is sinful, we are like dust and are similar to the fleshless dried bones. But God’s Word can revive us once again. John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” However great our sin today, God can revive our dead lives. He can give life to our dry bones and strengthen our faith. There is power in the Word of God. Romans 4:19-21 “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” The more we believe in God, the stronger is our faith. Psalms 71:20 “Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” David’s faith in God gave him victory in every battle of his. When we continue to praise and glorify God, He will lift us up from all our troubles. Let us read the passages from Psalms 119 and strengthen our faith once again. Psalms 119:40, 50, 93 “⁴⁰ Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.    ⁵⁰ This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.  ⁹³ I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.”

Let this message bring blessings to each one of us. Praise the Lord!

Pastor Saroja M

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praise the Lord!

In this month during general class at Sunday School, we learnt a short story. This is a real life story of engineer John Roebling who engineered the building of Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years.In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with Long Island. However the bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind and deep in his heart he knew that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else and he shared his vision with his son Washington, an upcoming engineer.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration,they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but a few months underway, a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was also injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to talk or walk. That’s the time their friends and people around ridiculed him saying “We told them so,” ¬ “Crazy men and their crazy dreams,” ¬ “It’s foolish to chase wild visions,” and so on and so forth.

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built.In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task.

As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, it seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude. The above story taught us about determination and a never say die attitude.

In the Bible when we learn t the lesson on Noah’s ark we see how from time the Lord had given Noah the vision to build the ark, he ensured that the ark was built as per all the specifications given by the Lord. During this period, the people ridiculed him saying he was a fool and what he was doing was insane.However Noah had a clear vision and was determined to complete the work given to him by the Lord with perfection. The result we see was that when the whole world was destroyed, Noah with his family was saved.

Thus we learn that in today’s times our vision needs to be clear in what we need,to achieve our ultimate goal – viz. eternal life. In spite of the hurdles, insults and challenges that we would face in our day to day life, we constantly need to be determined to reach our goal of eternal life.

Joy Salins