In His Time.......... with P.Ramachandran

The third danger that lurks a successful christian leader or pastor is the insensitivity to sin . During the initial formative days, the conscience is very sensitive towards sin. But as the years go by, a small lie becomes alright. Sudden outburst of anger is normal. Financial accountability is for the others. Cheating by exceptions is justified. Illicit relationships are acceptable. The list goes on. God's saving grace is taken for granted. Strangely these are the people who speak strongly against such deeds. This point is well illustrated in the life of King David. Remember in 1 Sam 24:5 - Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. Cutting a piece of cloth from Saul's robe pricked his conscience. What a tender heart. But notice the regression. As he fought the battles, as he became king and when he was established, one would have expected his conscience to become more sharper of not have the same level of tenderness. Regrettably it was

The second pitfall is Self-Righteousness . After some time of successful ministry, we begin to think that “we have achieved”. The self begins to rise thinking “How great I am”. That’s when statements like, “God you can’t do this to me” ....I have served you faithfully and this is what I get”. Doesn’t it sound familiar? Instead of realizing that it was God who gave the success, we tend to think it was ME and God. We think God owes us a favor because of what we have sacrificed. That was the problem with Jonah. Jonah was upset because he felt the people of Nineveh ought to die and for the simple reason he had prophetically said so. Now that God had relented, Jonah felt that, "God you made me look like a lier". Unknowingly the self get puffed up and tends to look down on the rest. Remember the Pharisee and the Publican. Luke 18: 11-12 - The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax

Preparations are underway for another field trip with some youths from PEC. The objectives are as follows: five church dedications (all planted by our church planters) One day meeting with our workers, about 60 expected to attend Tribal Bible School graduation Opening of new church planters training program in Hyderabad Visit another training center in Chitoor District New work in a slum at the outskirts of Hyderabad One night gospel meeting Its an hectic program in the hot Indian summer. Most of the travel is by train in the night and we work by day, just like building the walls in the book of Nehemiah. Please pray for the following: Finances. Target $7000. We have $3000 in hand. For God’s favor and protection and journey mercies. The youths of PEC will be impacted to serve in Missions and that it will be a huge learning curve for all of us That we will make an impact in the lives of the people we meet. Sign and wonders will be done in the Name of Jesus. For strength and unity in the

By the Grace of God, we have started training the second batch of church planters from Orissa. 10 young men will undergo one month of intensive training at the PEC Ecclessia Training Centre in Kaniyakumari. These men come from the persecuted state of Orissa. They are young and have a keen desire to study the word of God. After their training they will be our missionaries in Orissa. The first batch is already doing a great work in the state. Many people have taken the step of water baptism and the cells are growing. Please pray that people will come forward to support these missionaries who toil in areas where no people will want to go. The anti-conversion law is effective in Orissa.

In my journey with the Lord, I observed that Christian leaders are more prone to shortcomings than the average believer. Luke 12:48 - and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. It is not the rigors of the law that the leaders have problems with. Usually those things that the average believer takes seriously are often taken lightly by the leaders. These are the things that preachers very often pound from the pulpits but often lacks luster in the preacher himself. On the surface we are the best, in terms of ministry and family but there are many inner issues that need to be resolved. I found these to be true in my own life. Contentment with partial achievement After a while, we think that we have done more than our fare share In fact we think we have done more than the others, in terms of the ministry and we often pride about it. We have established churches, have a good congregation, good outreach work and that is great. The tendency then is to take a