Advice for B’lore church

(GB Message)

Venomous schemes of Satan against members of the church

Thirty years ago, I witnessed a scene that is vivid to me even today. I was in Calcutta, and the institute where I was employed (IIM) was at that time situated on the Barackpore Trunk Road. Being a highway in the city of Calcutta, it was a road with very heavy but fast-moving traffic at speeds up to 80 kmph. I did not usually need to cross this road because I used the institute bus. Once I happened to cross that road myself. It was a double road. I crossed the first road, stood on the traffic median till the traffic from the opposite direction thinned and then ran across to the opposite pavement. There was no problem except that I had to wait for a long time on the traffic median between very fast-moving vehicles on both sides.

As I was returning to the institute by the same process, I saw a good-looking dog with four or five puppies trying to cross that road.

Gist of talk with B’lore church

(Murali’s notes about GB Message)

• You reiterated the genius and craftiness of Satan. We are totally inadequate to stand against his wiles unless we seek the strength and help of the Holy Spirit.
• He is behind the ministries of god men and miracle workers. It is disheartening to note that even some of our own congregation members wanted to attend such meetings.

Christian weddings in earthly style

(GB Message)

The Bible does not tell us anything about how a Christian wedding is to be conducted. We know that Jesus was present in the Wedding at Cana. It is my personal opinion, but I feel that the Lord would not have enjoyed the worldly celebrations very much. A crisis arose in the wedding as they do in many weddings. They ran out of wine, perhaps due to inexperienced staff or some other mis-management. To run out of wine would be a disgrace in a Jewish wedding, and Mary desperately approached the Lord with this problem. His spontaneous reply was, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?” He used the word “Woman” instead of a more familiar term such as “Mother”. This word, while not necessarily being disrespectful (as in 2 Sam 16:10), shows that Jesus distanced Himself from the son-parent relationship on that occasion.

Wedding days in many circles are associated with distress and calamity. Invariably, the poor end up many times poorer after a wedding. In India, the practice of giving dowries has destroyed many a family.

Church to clear confusion and train

(GB Message)

Church is where confusions are cleared

A confused person may be:

• So confused that he is not aware that he is confused
• So used to it that it does not occur to him to seek any solution from it
• Driven to seek a solution

Rather than dwelling on the first two cases and get confused ourselves, let us deal with the third one; at least there is a search involved in it.

Single man/woman in the church (Church response)

(Church response to question and GB’s comments)

Question:

In case a person has to remain single on account of non availability of a godly spouse, is it possible to remain single and pure until a suitable spouse is chosen?

Principle of the Lord’s Supper

(GB Message)

Bearing in mind the seven points noted below is important if we must understand the principle of the Lord’s Supper and partake of it meaningfully and biblically. Believers generally are familiar with every one of these points but are liable to overlook them because of their flesh (Gk: sarkikos). Remember that if we are not alert, we give Satan and the evil forces the upper hand. These evil forces are ever antagonistic to spiritual people. Satan has caused so many churches to become spiritually lethargic and stagnate. On the other hand, living and dynamic believers and churches with such members survive.
“for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” Gal 5:17-18.

Single man/woman in the church

(GB Message)

Our elders from the beginning have directly or indirectly communicated to younger people that the sexual urge cannot be suppressed and that marriage is a necessary step in life. This is a misleading teaching that has led some into sin.

Sex must not be compared to other human urges like, food, water, clothes, shelter, and the like without which we cannot live. The natural man is governed by most of the urges that the animals experience. This tendency has slowly percolated into dead churches and into churches like ours also.

As far as the believer is concerned, sex is to be considered differently and not like it is in animals. That is where a believer in Jesus Christ becomes different from the animals from the time he experiences spiritual regeneration. This is where our elders have bungled in not teaching this properly because they themselves were not taught properly.

Was election an arbitrary act of God?

(GB Message)

The theology of Election has given rise to many a confusion and resulted in the production of voluminous books containing hair-splitting explanations, making the remedy worse than the disease. The following are some of the various questions about Election, which usually confuse believers or give rise to dangerous conclusions.

• Once saved is for ever saved. Is it correct?
• There are many who are very different from us in spiritual status. Is it because they were not chosen by God?
• If God has chosen only some before the foundation of the world, He has rejected the rest. Why is it so? (The usual reply that He has every right to do so is not every edifying though we cannot reject that either)
• “Many are called” Does that mean that some were not even called.

Covenant relationship

(GB Message)

These are the last days. Most of the churches we see carry on without a semblance of godliness. This is an indication and a warning to every one of us that the satanic spirits are actively engaged in swallowing up churches. In Peter’s epistle we read of Satan personified as a hungry lion who walks about seeking whom it may devour. In these days, Satan seems to be swallowing entire churches instead of individuals.