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

God is not impressed with the works of our hands when our hearts are not refined by the work of His Hand.  That's the lesson we learn from the episode in 1 Samuel 15. God's instruction to Saul was very clear in verse 3 -"Destroy the Amalekites and leave nothing behind". Saul did just as he was commanded except he saved the king and the best of the cattle.(verse 9). Saul gave two seemingly good reasons for his actions: The soldiers did it They saved the best cattle so that they can offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord. Doesn't it sound brilliant. It was done for a very good cause -Worship to the Lord. But God had a very different opinion, In verse 11 -  “I regret  that I have made Saul king, because he has turned  away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”   Two key lessons we can learn from here: Don't pass the buck. Accept responsibility for your mistakes and the mistakes of your subordinates. Saul readily shifted the blame on his

Gal 5:22-23 -  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,   gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. One of the saddest thing in Christendom today is that in spite of being born in a christian home, attending church for more than ten years and sometimes holding spiritual positions, our behavior is a far cry from what the Apostle Paul writes in the above verses. No matter how many beliefs we hold and profess to confess, it makes no sense if it does not result in a change in behavior. More often than not, the traits of the flesh, Gal 5:19-21 - sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions   and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like are more visible than the fruit of the Spirit. A change in the behavior (external) can only take place if there is a change in the character (internal). The molding

Nine people took the step of water baptism. It took place at the Krishna River in Guntur District. The work there is being pioneered by our church planter Pst JayaPaul. Praise God for the new additions. After his training,  Pst Jayapaul has been working in this village, Chennai Palem, Vemavaram Mandal in Guntur District.  He is also working in five nearby villages. Bishop Nehemiah was there to officiate the service. We praise God for these church planters who have the passion to work in these villages.

This morning I was invited by Pst Aow, to speak at His Arrow Church at Jalan Pemimpin, Singapore. It was vibrant church. I spoke on the topic of " Living on God's Agenda " as seen from the life of Jonah . I call the book of Jonah as the Book of hearts as it deals with the: The heart of the prophet The heart of the people (Nineveh) The heart of Providence (God)  Jonah did not live on God's agenda but had his own agenda. God's agenda was as follows: Ex 19:6 - And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.   Isa 42:6 - I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;   Isa 60:3 - Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jonah's agenda was centered on himself and the nation of Israel. He did not want the

Christian life is not just keeping our heads above the water but its walking on water.  In Mathew 14:22-23, we read about an amazing miracle of how Peter walked on the water. The scriptures tell us that the disciples were on a boat and was "buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it."   T here was a great storm. Jesus then appears on the waters and at Peter's request, He beckons Peter to come to him. The rest is history in the making.  Peter becomes the first man, other than Jesus, to walk on the water. Unfortunately most of the time we only emphasis the fact that Peter sank. Can you imagine, there were waves all around, the wind was strong and buffeting the boat, the other disciples were reeling in fear. But there was one man who took the bold step of faith and was able to conquer all odds. He walked on water, while the others were trying to keep their heads above it.  That's how our Christian life ought to be. In the midst of every kind o

The trip was from 26 Oct to 4th Nov. The team comprised Pst John Daniel, Bro James Ng, Bro Issac Babu and myself. This was the most challenging and adventurous trip I have ever undertaken. We departed on 26 Oct in the evening for Chennai and the next day arrived at Bagdogra, staging through Kolkatta. We visited a pioneering work in East Nepal, started by one of our church planters who was a graduates of our PEC School of Ministry. Its located in a village and the work is coming up well and about 30 members gather for worship. This congregation is ready for a new church building. We were blessed to see how the work was progressing in Nepal. Currently there are 7 church planters in Nepal who need support.   The next few days we traveled winding roads up the mountains and visited and dedicated 7 churches. One in Sikkim, two in Darjeeling, one  at the Bhutan Border and three in Assam. The roads were treacherous in some places. In some places there was no road. It was truly