Dispensers of the New Covenant this New Year 2007

Let this new year 2007 be a year of all things new, new strength to go on, new anointing of the Holy Spirit to fulfil God's work on this earth.

The Word of God says in "2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Every new year brings with itself a new hope and a new beginning, an end to the old. I decided to find out for myself what is required of us as new creations of the Living God and here are the lessons I found.

1. Sharing the message of new life, we have received in Jesus Christ
   Acts 5:20"Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life."


2. It is God's desire that we may live a new life- Romans 6:4 "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." We have buried our old life when we believed in our Lord Jesus' death for us and when He arose from the dead, we too have risen into a new life through Him and it is God's desire we too may live a new life.


3. Serving God in our new life through the Holy Spirit-Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. The old law required that you obey a code, with no attachment to the love of God nor knowing His grace, but Jesus sacrifice on the cross changes everything into duties of love.


4. Getting rid of the old life for our Lamb of sacrifice, Lord Jesus, has already been sacrificed 1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. We no longer need any more sacrifice for ourselves, so remembering our Lord Jesus has already been sacrificed for us, even before we deserved it, encourages us to get up out of the old life of defeat from sin and take hold of the new life and live it.


5. We as new creations are qualified by God through the new covenant of His body and blood, to be God's ministers 2 Corinthians 3:6 6[It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.(A) Can you imagine, God certifying as people of the new covenant in the new creation. It is for us to be dispensers, dispensers don't hold in it anything for storage, but for giving out, being filled anew and giving out. Their life is of pouring out and being filled. They will never have anything stale, all fresh, all new if they work well. Thats what God would have us be...dispensers of the new covenant.

How can we do all this work as a new creation?

1. Renew our attitudes-Ephesians 4:23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;


2. Put on the new self of God- Ephesians 4:24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.


3. The new self, as long as put on, continues to refresh itself with our Creator-Colossians 3:10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Conclusion: I was amazed to see, that God our creator made us a new creation so that we are dispensers. I wanted to know about all things new in the Word of God and most of the Word talks about our new life in our Lord Jesus. It is a glorious life. Dispensers are filled in, only when they're pouring out. Else we know they're not being used. Let us as children of the Most High God, being His new creation of the new covenant, become dispensers and share about the new life and build up the family of our Daddy in heaven.

Christmas-A Story of Surrender, Obedience and Blessings

Christmas, is to me a story of surrender, obedience and blessing.

Surrender: When the angel of the Lord came to Mary and declared to her, what was to happen to her. She responded 38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38). It was a difficult thing Mary was asked to do considering the atmosphere of those times. She couldn't have a child without a husband, else if found out, she could be stoned to death. However forgetting all the shame and ridicule she might go through, she rejoiced over what God was giving her. She even sang a song of praise upon hearing the good news the angel of God had brought to her. Didn't she know what would happen if people heard about it??? Yet she surrendered "May it be to me as you have said". Would we be willing to give up our honour or respect so that our Lord can work in our lives too?

Obedience:Soon Joseph would have seen signs in Mary being a mother, without him even being together with her. (Matthew 1:18) He wondered how could this be?? "Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18-20 )
This righteous man Joseph, believing the word of the angel did what the angel asked him to. 24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Matthew 1:24). He acted in obedience. The only way Mary could be saved from ridicule or being stoned to death, was her being with Joseph. It was important for Joseph to accept Mary just as she was, with the baby. Joseph obeyed God. Is there a limit to obedience, but when there is limitless obedience to God, the blessings are limitless too.

Blessing:Mary and Joseph were blessed with the task of parenting the most Holy most wonderful child of all, the Son of God, who would now be known as their baby. God identifying so personally, so genetically with his own creation. Can you imagine that!!! These two humans acted in faith and in courage in accepting God's will for their lives. Did they know they would be known and remembered every year at Christmas, I dont think so. Did they know people on the entire globe would know them? I dont think so. But they are known. They're obedience to God brought about the ultimate blessing to all humanity. The blessing of being reconciled with God. The blessing of knowing Jesus as their personal Saviour.

Conclusion: The blessing of baby Jesus being born to Mary and Joseph changed their lives forever, impacting the whole of the world along with their lives because of their surrender and obedience through faith, and that same blessing of our faith in our sacrificed Lord Jesus being born in our hearts has changed so many millions of lives, until this day and still does.

The invitation to partake of this joy of Christmas, the joy of surrender and obedience leading to immense blessings that overflow from one life to another, is still open. A life surrendered in obedience to know the Living Lord Jesus, still capable of impacting lives, like Mary and Joseph's lives did. A life that shines forth for the glory of God. A life that cares for not their personal profit, but for others. A life that not only changes itself through obedience and surrender to Jesus Christ, but also impacts and transforms families, neighbourhood and cities, towns and countries and the worlds is still available. Not a selfish life, but a selfless one. It has now been fulfilled, Mary did give birth to a child, they did name Him Jesus and He still saves people from their sins.

"21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:19-21)

My little tulip

A few weeks ago, me and my husband planted a tulip in a small pot. We watered it, but nothing happened for almost 4 weeks.

Later I found a weed growing in it. My husband asked me to stop watering, as we didn't want to grow a weed. I said, the tulip seed is still in the pot. He said it must have died by now. Well I said, if not anything we can atleast say we grew a weed. (We weren't successful with another plant we tried).

A few more weeks passed and you know, a tiny little green shoot has started showing.

Here I've posted a picture of the little baby tulip, still growing.

Lesson: I would have given up on watering the plant(my plant that I have been praying for, for so long),but in all this I remembered how God's love is constantly at work in our lives. The best Christmas would be when Jesus is truly born into our hearts. When our loved ones are born anew into the family of God. If you've been praying for your loved ones and you know your loved one has had an opportunity to listen to God's Word, rest assured God's seed has been planted and it will bloom one day. Today, you might see some weeds in the pot, but take heart, once the seed is there, continue to water it with your prayers and the Word of God(Ephesians 5:26) one day you will see the flower come pushing through the earth.

Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Never give up, God did not give up on us, even while we were yet sinners, God sent His Son, that whosoever would believe in His Son Jesus, will not perish but have everlasting life.

Have a very wonderful and blessed Christmas.

Oh by the way, that weed that was growing, it died, almost around the same time, the tulip shoot came up.

Deal or no Deal?

Background: Elisha has passed away and Israel now is under oppression from Hazael, king of Aram. Elisha had prophesied earlier, that Hazael would oppress Israel after killing the king of Aram and taking his place. The Bible says in 2 Kings 13:22-23"22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "

Lesson: If you read the previous and next chapters you'll find there were many kings that got a chance to rule Israel and Judah, but none of them were sincere as David was. They all went astray or obeyed God partially. Yet God was gracious to them , every time they were oppressed, or they sinned, or someone attacked them...and all other problems that they had....because of His covenant with Abraham!!!
I wanted to see the details of this covenant, and in order for us to truly appreciate verse 23 from 2 Kings 13, we'll have to go back atleast a 1000yrs from this verse, to the time of Abraham.
In Genesis 15 we read the details of God's covenant with Abraham. In their times, when 2 parties were entering into a covenant, they would walk together between halves of a heifer, a goat, a ram and dove and pigeon. "9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half."
This covenant would mean that they would share their sorrows, their joys, their wealth, their lives, to the point that if any one of the parties be in trouble, the other would be there to defend them even at the cost of their life. Almost meaning the life they lived would no longer be only for oneself but for the other person too, as if one man.
And God went into a covenant with Abraham that day " 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river [d] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-"
You know what is the most beautiful part of this covenant?-- Abraham didn't walk through it, only God did. In verse 12 you'll find " 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him"

Conclusion: The past few days, with all these holiday shopping and all, everyone wanting to get the better end of the deal, the shopkeeper for their profit, the end user for the cheap and best, no one wants a bad deal, but God kept showing in my heart, He was always willing to be at the bad end of the deal, so that I would get the best of it.

He chose to be poor that I might be made rich.

He chose to die, that I might live.

He chose to be wounded, that my sins be forgiven.

He chose to exhange His beauty for my ashes.

God knew, a mere man and his descendants wouldn't be able to fulfil the covenant, it meant death to the one who failed to keep the covenant, yet He walked alone, between the covenant symbols, while Abraham was put in deep sleep. All Abraham had to do was to believe in God's unfailing love.Thats the kind of God we have, willing to take up everything for us, in order that we will see His love and love Him back. Thats my Living God, who loves me when I'm good, and loves me when I'm bad. He loves me in my joys, He loves me in my sorrows. He made a deal with a mere man, Abraham, who couldn't return anything that God could do, and God remained faithful even till this day, to the same covenant He made with Abraham so many thousands of years ago. If you do not know this Living and Loving God, here is your chance again, to make the deal, you have nothing to lose. For those who lose their life in Him, have found it. So here's the question Deal or no deal??

An Associate Child of God

Background: 2 Kings 13:20-22 "20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "
These verses bring me to the end of Elisha's valiant life, in the Living God. It was amazing for me to see that even though, Elisha had passed away, his bones still had the power of God. In Acts 19 we read "11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." More than that, even with our Lord Jesus, when the woman with the issue of blood, touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was healed.

Lessons I learnt:

1. Associate-When we hang around someone too long, we start getting impressions of that person on our life as well. In our terms we call it to "rub off on"-meaning: to become transferred or communicated to by example or association". Elisha had been associating with God so closely that God's power rubbed off on him, even to his bones. God's power was so intense on Jesus and His disciples that even the inanimate objects like clothing carried the power of God. I had never thought of associate as a powerful word, probably because I hear of it more in a business perspective, but it is, it even goes as far a meaning "union". The Amplified Bible expands associate as [closely and habitually]. So can you imagine what can happen to our lives, when we closely and habitually associate with our Lord Jesus.


2. Realise-Can we know God's power has rubbed off on us or not?? We may not know immediately, but the people who will see us, outside of us, they will know, because they will experience it. I had a friend who I used to like a lot for her happy nature, she had a british accent, soon in a few months I was sounding like her, no, I didn't know I was sounding like her, other people told me so. Well I liked that accent a lot so I didn't mind that. You see, we will not know, even Moses did not know his face was shining after he had met God, people were afraid when they saw him and then he realised something was different about him, his face shone. Exodus 34:28-30.


3. Demonstrate-For us who are already steadfast about our Living God, believing is seeing.(Hebrew 11) but for those who do not know, they would need to see first in order to believe. What best example there could be than to show through our lives. People read us first through our behaviour and then our words. Our words will have no impact, unless our life can demonstrate it. Before we can even share the gospel to anyone, we must have our lives in close and habitual association with our Lord Jesus, once we've got the association right, you're life automatically starts demonstrating signs of the Saviour in it, may not be to you, but definitely to others who see you.

Conclusion: We may have a heart to serve the Lord, but we may not be finding an "opportunity". Looking at the example of Elisha's bones, I don't think Elisha might have had a clue what his bones could bring about. Also, for Paul, I don't think he would have himself been aware of the power his handkerchiefs were bearing. For both Paul and Elisha, they could share God's love and power with the obvious crowd, but their lives bore far more results than that. Their associated life with God, touched the obvious before them, and also those in the bakground who had watched him from far. Our lives are capable of being an example of association with the Living God and touch lives far beyond the obvious. No matter how dead we may feel, when our lives come in contact, in associations, with the Giver of Eternal Life, His life flows right through us and people will see the results of the association.

Strike

Background: Here's an episode from Elisha's life. He asked the king of Israel Jehoash, to bring his bow and arrow with him and shoot out the east window. Then a strange test, Elisha asked the king to take the arrows and strike the ground. "He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."

Lesson: Elisha was disappointed and rather angry with the king of Israel, to have not shown diligence in striking the ground. The enemy is not a friend. We've got to have passion for the victory-My prize is to see all my loved ones entering into the kingdom of God, young and old. Jesus wanted His home in heaven filled with All of His loved ones, and for that cause, He diligently persevered and didn't dilly dally in making the utmost sacrifice, a filthy rag like me should have never deserved. How desperately do I love my loved ones to be so moved that I sincerely did something about it.

An episode from my life-My brother Abraham, had been sidetracked for a long number of years, did all the things wrong that we could have possibly thought of. Whenever I went home from college for my summer vacations, I would be broken hearted to see the amount of pain my parents were going through because of his behaviour. In my final year in June when I went home I was soooooooo agitated by the entire atmosphere at home, I couldn't stand it any longer. For the first time in my life, I felt indignation rise up inside of me against the evil one trying to take away my brother, and I prayed the longest and most sincere prayer I had ever prayed with tears and longing and agonising, with my parents. From that day on I continued to pray for my brother every day, with my best friend Mary, at college. Then in October, my brother called me at college (he had never talked to me properly before that) and the first thing he said was "I want you to pray for me right now". Now in our hostel the phone would be in a common area where everyone would come and hang out, I felt awkward but I wasn't going to let go of the opportunity I had found. I prayed. My brother listened quietly on the other end, without so much as a word. At the end of the prayer, he said "I am feeling so much better now". By the end of that year in December my brother went for a Holy Convocation through our church and was baptised in water and gave his life to the Lord. I met him on the 31st of December and my heart was sooooooooo overjoyed to meet him, like having a brand new brother. Beautiful, peaceful, humble, loving caring, wanting to share of God's love. Now during his wayward days, he had destroyed his career and after 5 yrs from that incident, God has blessed him with a wonderful job now and he is doing so well. He recently received an award for being a good employee, in the 1st month of his work!!!

Yes I struck the arrow 1 time, 2 times and definitely 3 times like the Israelite king and I was going to give up, when I read this chapter from 2 Kings 13 and God's Word encouraged me, not to give in like the king did and to keep on striking the enemy with the sword of the Word of God until he is completely destroyed.

Conclusion: I encourage you my brother my sister, to not give up, but to keep on. If we've become luke warm, lets ask the Lord to ignite the fire of Holy desire in our hearts, that we may win souls into the kingdom of God, no matter how difficult the situation may look, we've got a Saviour Who can sympathise with us, because He has been there and He never gave up, even when I didn't deserve it, he went ahead and hung on the cross for me. Let's take up our crosses, for His yoke is easy, let's work with passion for the one thing that pleases God, to be united with His loved ones. Us and our families. God's family.