Monday, July 1, 2013

From The Doctor's Diary - 55- The Right Word

I was invited to speak at a convention in Tiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. The message that the Lord had given me to preach was the following: "We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!" But his wife answered, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this." (Judges 13:22,23) This is a happening in the Old Testament of the Bible where a childless couple meet an angel of the Lord who gives them the message that they are going to be blessed with a child. When Manoah, the man realizes that they had seen the angel of the Lord, he felt they were going to die, but his wife corrected him saying that,"If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have ......... shown us all these things or now told us this." My message that day was about dreams and visions that the Lord gives his children. I said, "If the Lord shows a blessing coming to you, pray that it may come to pass, whereas if the Lord showed something calamitous was going to happen, pray fervently that it may not happen and the Lord will hear your prayer and the disaster will be averted." I stressed the point that....."If the Lord had meant to kill, he would not have shown......" and when I repeated it, a man in the crowd raised his hand and shouted, "Praise the Lord." Later, after the meeting was over, the same young man approached me, shook my hand and said, "Thank you, that message was definitely for me. I had seen a couple of dreams last week, in which I saw my wife die. I have been very sad and depressed because of the same since almost a week. I believe the Lord has spoken to me and heard my prayer and will bless my wife with a long life. I prayed with him briefly. Travelling back, that evening, I marvelled at how much the Lord cares for each of his children. The Holy Spirit had chosen just the perfect verses to speak to one of his, who was burdened and feeling low. God is good, all the time. Praise his Holy Name.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

From The Doctor's Diary- 54- A house for sale

An old lady wanted to sell me her house. She waited for me to finish the morning consultations at my clinic in Kerala. When I saw her, I remembered that she was one of my patients but had not consulted me for a long time. When she told me she wanted me to buy her house, I smiled. I didn't want a house; even if I wanted, I didn't have the money to buy it. I told her the facts. She insisted that I take a look. Just to get her off my back, and considering her advanced age, I said I'll consider her request, though I had no intentions of going to her house. She gave me an address and I saw that it was on my way to work. I was tired from the morning work and drove home for lunch and the rest of my day was busy as well. The next morning, as usual I drove to work, having forgotten all about the lady and her house. But just as I passed the house, all about the lady and her talks suddenly came back in a flash. The house was just adjacent to one of the biggest Pentecostal Institutions in Kerala. I had by then passed her house, but felt a strong urge in my spirit to stop by and take a look. I put my car in reverse gear and stopped just outside the gate. She answered the door bell and was happy that I had come. As I entered the house, I saw 3 Bibles and 2 Christian song books lying on a table.
So you are a Christian? I asked. She laughed and said, "No, I am not." Then how and why these Bibles? I asked. She answered, "Since my house is so close to this Institution, many Pastors and Evangelist stop by to see me and pray for me."

Surely they must have spoken to you about Salvation through Jesus Christ."I interrupted her. "Yes, yes", she said, but I don't believe in all those things.
Then what's your belief about life after death? I asked, now realizing why the Lord had sent me to her house. I believe that after I die, I will be absorbed into the atmosphere, she said with confidence.
Here was an amazing scenario. This lady had been living so close to an Institution that churned out 100's of new Ministers of the Gospel every year and had been visited by many Pastors who must have spoken to her regarding salvation through Christ and she had presented several copies of the Living Word Of God, yet she was utterly lost and in her own imaginary world.

God, in his mercy, was giving her another chance to accept Christ as Saviour and had brought me to her house to speak once again of his agape love in sending his Son Jesus to the cross for her sake. I took time to  present the Gospel message to her and explained to her God's purposes in sending her to me and then sending me to her; the sale of the house, I said, was just a side story. She listened patiently, but seemed unhappy that I was not interested in buying her house. I left shortly after that, urging her to accept the things I had spoken to her.
A few days later, I came to know that she had sold her house and had moved to her brother's house in another district of Kerala. Whether she accepted God's gift of salvation remains a mystery to this day.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

From The Doctor's Diary- 53- Unity


There are three distinctive parts to the Prayer of Jesus found in John Chapter 17; Jesus praying for him to be glorified by the Father, Jesus praying for his disciples and Jesus praying for all who would believe in Him through the message of the disciples.

One of the things that stands out in this prayer is Jesus praying for unity, first among his disciples and then among all who would believe in him.

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one. (John 17:11)

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20, 21)

From the above verses, we can infer that, "If the world has to believe that God sent Jesus, there would have to be unity among the disciples and believers."

Jesus wanted the Father to protect the disciples by the power of his name, so that they would be one. A difference in opinion among the first disciples would be disastrous and Jesus prayed specifically that, that may not happen. Because of Jesus' intercession, the disciples were able to take the good news to the nations even amidst persecution. Sadly, unity is one of the things that is lacking now among believers; this Jesus knew from the beginning, would happen and so he prayed. Even among Bible believing Christians there is so much of discord.

Even now, Jesus expects and intercedes for all believers to be one. The enemy on the other hand is always working to divide the body of Christ. Whatever be the Bible adhering denominations that we attend or refrain from attending, the things that would matter in the end would be what Jesus once spoke to his disciples and the people who crowded to hear him....
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)

The Apostle Paul's prayer for the believers in Philippi speaks how much he desired unity among them.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (Philippians 2:1, 2)

Christians Unite!, so that Christ may be known to the world and God be glorified.

Friday, June 8, 2012

From The Doctor's Diary-52- Make yourself available to the Lord

My audio messages are put up on a site called Podomatic and when I checked one day, the new audio messages were played 3 times from a place on the map which I couldn't identify easily. On placing the cursor on the place, the name " Magyarország" came up. Now that was some place that I had not heard of before. I googled the name and found it to be the Hungarian name of Hungary. Wow. I was amazed. I checked another site through which I can track my visitors and found someone from Szeged,Hungary had visited my site and downloaded 2 documents, one named Poison and the other, my daily devotional "365 Blessings." Praise the Lord.

 What immediately struck my mind was how the Lord uses our gifts and talents for his glory according to his desires. Wonder whether the visitor realized that all this was no coincidence. The fact that stands out clearly is that if we make ourselves available to the Lord, he will use us. Brings also to mind the story that Jesus once said, "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money." (Matthew 25:14-18)

 The time is coming when we will have to give an account to the Master who is returning, regarding the talents that he has entrusted us with. Regardless of where we are, we must make ourselves and our Christian work available to the Lord for his use. He will use us and our work, if we are willing to make ourselves and our work available to him. He is not bound by time or space as we are. All glory be to the Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Triune God.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

From the Doctor's Diary- 51- Deliverance from the enemy that pursues


A new venture for Christ was initiated by me and family in March 2012 and as the work took root, there was immediate opposition from the enemy. And this time it was bad. It started with a headache that I experienced while at the clinic. By the end of the day it was severe and I took some analgesics for the same and went to sleep with my head feeling heavy. When I woke up the next morning, the ache had eased a bit but my neck was stiff and I had excruciating pain on turning my head to the left side. It was terrible and I took more analgesics. I checked my blood pressure and found it unusually high. I was in a dilemma; was the high blood pressure causing the pain or was it the other way around? I could not even wear my tie as the pain increased immediately. We prayed as a family and also asked for prayer support from our church members.  I took some tablets for the high blood pressure too. While in prayer, one of those days, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that this was an attack by evil spiritual forces against the gospel work that I had initiated recently.

The neck pain and stiffness continued for a week. On our day of worship, we as a family sat together and worshipped the Almighty instead of attending Church. I spoke the Word from Mark 16, wherein we read of  the women going early in the morning to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body with spices. The thing that they were worried about though was……"Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" (Mark 16:3). But the miracle had already taken place. To their amazement, they saw that the large stone was rolled away for them.

After worship, as I relaxed, I noticed that the stiffness in my neck was no longer there. I could move my neck freely. God had wrought a miracle. I praised God for his mercy and compassion. That afternoon, we had to go out for lunch with a few friends. After lunch, I felt a distressing pain on the right side of mid-back area. Now what was this I thought? I had received deliverance just a couple of hours back. “The enemy doesn’t give up easily”, was what the Lord brought to my mind as I sat in prayer. As I pen this, I remember how Pharaoh and his men pursued the Israelites, though the Israelites had found freedom from the Egyptians by observing the Passover. God did a miracle then and the Israelites walked through the Red sea to safety, while the pursuers were drowned. Here and now, I rebuked the evil forces while in prayer and by the end of the day, I was free from the back pain as well. God is good, all the time. I praise his holy name.