A Call for Repentance!

A Call for Repentance!

A boy was caught stealing apples from the kitchen in a boarding school.  He was brought to the chaplain.  “Now you must confess your sins, and ask God for forgiveness,” he counseled.  The boy prayed, “Dear God, please forgive me for taking seven apples from the kitchen.” “But I thought you told me that you stole five apples,” the chaplain asked.  “Yes, but I am including the two I am going to take tomorrow” the boy answered.   As someone puts it, “Repentance is not feeling sorry on Sunday for what you did on Saturday which you will do again on Monday.” (David Wong, Make them Laugh and make them Learn, Story 18, BAC Printers, Singapore)

The Gospel writer Mark records that Jesus proclaimed the good news of God by preaching repentance.  He followed in the footsteps of John the Baptist who also preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4 &15) The Old Testament tradition of the prophets was their message to God’s chosen people to repent of their sins and escape from the punishment of God.  However, the Israelite's rarely responded to the prophet’s call for repentance.  The exception was the people of Nineveh who repented all the way from the King and his people along with their animals adorning the sack cloth. (Jonah 3:6-10)  God’s chosen people eventually failed to repent and received their judgment of being exiled from the Promised Land.  

Today, the call for repentance is for us who declare our faith in Jesus Christ.  Repentance is not an onetime act.  As forgiven sinners, we need to repent of our sins frequently as we are still being sanctified until the day the Lord takes us home or his second coming.  We need to repent of our complacent attitude towards God, our compromising moral conduct and our corrupted mind towards one another.  It is pride, the age old origin of sin that is a stumbling block for repentance. 

Let us beware of complacency, reject compromise and repent of our corrupt mind that God in His mercy will transform us by the renewing of our mind. (Rom 12:1-2) May we pray for one another as we humble ourselves and say “Lord create in us a contrite heart, a consecrated life and a cleansed conscience”! God has promised that when we in humility repent, there is forgiveness and healing. (2Ch 7:13-14)  Let us experience this forgiveness and healing everyday! John Amalraj

There’s No More Sting in Death!

There’s No More Sting in Death!

Benjamin Franklin, inventor and one of the founding fathers of USA writes “...but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.  There is a sense of finality to death, that even though we know it by instinct, as human beings we always seem to forget.   As the images of the tragedy in Sri Lanka unfolded on Easter Sunday – it appeared to be an irony.  Christians celebrating the day of resurrection as the bombs changed the world of hundreds of men, women and children – bringing an abrupt end to the festivities. 

The reactions of their country’s ordinary Christian men and women to this tragedy brought back the hope of resurrection in a way the world may find it difficult to understand.   It was like when the hopeless, frustrated and fearful disciples were attempting to make sense of the tragedy behind closed doors that the presence of the resurrected Jesus in their midst brought a sense of bewilderment and unbelief along with new hope for the future.

Recently, I went to visit our family doctor to consult on a minor health issue.  When I entered the clinic, I found that they were re-painting and changing all the furniture.  I was happy about the new look.  I was soon ushered into the doctor’s cabin and there I found another doctor sitting.  So I enquired whether my family doctor was out of station.  She replied “No, he passed away two weeks ago after a heart attack and now we have taken over the clinic in his place.  I was shocked and surprised.  The familiar family doctor was dead and now everything has changed in the clinic within a fortnight.  The finality to death in our present life was vivid, but the hope that one day I will see him in heaven was comforting and encouraging.

Paul exhorts the Corinthian church saying that Christ is the first fruit of our resurrection.  Since Christ was raised, we will also be raised and our bodies will be changed from mortality to immortality, perishable to imperishable.  He then goes on to emphatically challenge, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  …. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Cor.15: 55-57).  The hope of resurrection gives us the courage to face death and its finality with a cry of victory.

We trust that beyond death – Jesus’ resurrection gives us a new hope – the hope of resurrection.  Very few people around us know this truth and hope.  May we share that hope of resurrection with those around us every day! John Amalraj

The Basin and The Towel!

The Basin and the Towel!

It was the special service on Maundy Thursday evening in our Bible College where I was a student more than twenty years ago.  The worship leaders desired that the congregation of students and faculty partly re-live the experience of the night before Jesus was betrayed.  There were towels and basins filled with water beside every row of seats.  The faculty were each assigned to sit in one row of seats in the chapel.  As the service proceeded, the time came for the foot washing and the faculty took the basin and the towel and started washing the feet of their students seated in their row.  To my surprise, I was seated on the same row as the Principal.  The strange feeling of my feet being washed by the Principal made me realise my unworthiness.  I can never forget the scene – the humility of the Principal as he knelt and washed my feet.  He revealed the love of Jesus not just on that night but every day of the college life.

Foot washing was an eastern custom extended as a sign of hospitality to guests.  It was the duty of the servants or slaves in the household.  Jesus turns the world of his disciples upside down as he takes the towel and the basin and washes their feet.  Peter reacted to this very naturally, initially unwilling for the Master to wash his feet, later surrendering himself completely to the extent he wanted a ‘bath’. (John 13: 1-17) It was a lesson on humility for all leaders that even though we may hold positions of authority over the others it is for the purpose of serving and not for bossing over others.

Often as leaders in our home, church, neighbourhood, workplaces, marketplaces and our country we want to get our way in doing things.  We do not care about those whose feet are dusty and may need the intimate personal touch of being cared for by the leaders above them. Foot washing has now become a ceremony in a traditional church and also used by politicians for gaining popularity.   We are called not to be spectators of the ceremony but participate in taking the towel and the basin and washing the feet of those whom we serve. 

As we meditate on the suffering, death and resurrection of our saviour and Lord Jesus, let us commit to a life of humble service for one another.                                John Amalraj

Chosen For A Purpose!

Chosen For a Purpose!

There was a shy boy who was standing in a corner even as the Sunday school teachers were assigning roles in the Christmas nativity play to the various children. This little boy has always been given the role of the multitude of angels or the group of shepherds.  Nobody thought of his talents much and he was never in the limelight.  They could not find the right match for the role of ‘Joseph’.  One of the teachers looked up and then said, “why not we try this shy boy by giving him an opportunity”.  He was chosen to play the role of ‘Joseph’ and his joy knew no bounds.  He did his best on the final day and everyone appreciated him and wondered where he was all these days.

The feeling of being chosen from among many competitors is different.  Whether in school or at a work place – being chosen for a role makes us feel very special.  The people of Israel were chosen not because they were numerous or they were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was out of God’s love that he chose them as His own people, redeeming them from slavery and blessing them (Deut 7:6-9).  God chose the Israelites that they will be a holy people and priests for the nations. Jesus when he was talking to his disciples said that he had chosen them so that they will go and bear fruit that will last (Jn 15:16)

Later Peter the apostle in his letter to the early Christian believers who were scattered due to persecution encourages them by saying that they are a chosen people and God’s special possession (1 Pet 2:9).  In a world where it is not easy to live out our faith and stand out, the only encouragement is to know that we are a ‘chosen people’.   Wherever we are we can live a life that is counter culture to our society and show that we are the ‘chosen people’. 

Jesus warns that because we are chosen and entrusted with much responsibility, much more will be asked of us (Lk 12:47-48).  God told the Israelites through Amos that even though they enjoyed the privilege of being chosen, they will not escape the punishment for their disobedience (Am 3:2).  As the chosen people of God we are called to live a life of holiness in obedience to Christ.  This is the purpose of our being chosen. This is what will bear fruit – fruit that will last.

Let us pray for one another that we as God’s chosen people will live holy lives and bear fruit for His glory!                                                        John Amalraj