Recent Updates

It's almost 3 weeks since I wrote the last blog. I got bit busy with many things. First we had a fasting prayer and then I went to Dallas to attend ICPF Awake Camp 2008. In between I have changed the www.gospel-link.com site to a different server and hence lot of changes are happening in the site. It's not finished yet but I will try to finish it as soon as possible.

Now you can find some interesting stuff already out there. First if you are interested in watching Malayalam Powervision Channel then I have added a link here http://www.gospel-link.com/Live_Malayalam_TV.aspx

There is also a Malayalam gospel movie Arinjittum Ariyathae by IET. The link is http://www.gospel-link.com/Gospel_Movies.aspx . It's out there in the youtube and it has lot of hits and I think its a good gospel movie which explains some of the basic beliefs of born again christians.

I also have links to some live radio stations in Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam etc. I will be adding it soon and watch out for it. Some of them I am really enjoying and I praise God for enabling those people behind to do things like this. I am plannig to make gospel-link.com a real linking site. Time is always a constraint.

Now let me add few things about ICPF Camp. It was a great blessing to be there in the camp this year. There were different sessions for different groups and I am sure that everyone enjoyed it. The organizers did a great job with so many people attending the camp. My estimate is that there were more than 500 people. I got the opproutunity to meet some great men & women of God during the camp. I am sure that meeting some people were divine appointments as I could learn a lot from the life and ministry of many people. The theme of the camp was "Set apart for the glory of God'. Next years camp will be held in Houston.
ICPF is doing a good work among college students in India and now they are growing in US also. I am glad about that as I have few friends who are in the leadership of ICPF. My prayer is that God may continue to Bless and expand this minstry. You can find more information about them at http://www.icpf.org and http://www.icpfnews.com .

I want to write more about certain things I learned during the last weeks but then that will make this post too long. But I will try to add in the coming days.

May God Bless You!

Joy - Love Righteousness and Hate Wickedness

We see people running here and there to obtain joy in their life. There are many reasons contributing to the fact that people are finding it more difficult to find quality time or Joy in their life. Many are busy with their work while others are busy even though they don't know why they are busy. This may sound strange but that's the truth. Families don't get time to sit together and at least have a dinner. Television shows or other things take some houses dinnertime. Communications among family members are going down and it is affecting the children a lot. Some how people are not finding joy in their life.

So what is the solution to this. People have found out different ways to have joy in their life. Let me give some examples of most common ways in which people try to get joy. Some think that going out on a vacation is the solution. But what after you come back from vacation. Other people have other ideas like watching a movie, going to a night club or party, hanging out with friends etc. But what after 2-3 hours of movie or party? Then there are many who think drinking and indulging in sinful things give them joy. What they fail to understand is that Joy is not pleasure. Its something different.

I got this definition of Joy from somewhere. It says, "Joy is an essential spiritual practice growing out of faith, grace, gratitude, hope, and love. It is the pure and simple delight in being alive. Joy is our elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness of abundance. It is also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve others and be glad for their good fortune."

Now Bible speaks a lot about joy. In fact Joy is one of the spiritual fruit expected of a born-again Christian. But many times we see that people don't have this joy in their life. Many things can be said about this subject. But today I don't want to write much. I want to mention just 1 verse from Bible that tells us how to have this joy in your life. The verse is Psalms 45:7

"You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." (NIV)

The formula given here is simple but not followed often. It says that you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Then God will set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of Joy.

Now we can interpret it in many ways. But one thing I learned from this verse is that in order to be anointed by the oil of joy you need to do one thing- Love righteousness and hate wickedness. That’s a requirement. God promises you to place you above your companions.

Now the last thing - We may say that it's very easy. You may be a church going Christian. But hating wickedness requires a deep commitment to follow God. Loving righteousness also requires the deep commitment. We are living in a society and time when a person who love righteousnessand hates wickedness is considered as someone old fashioned and out dated. Pressure is always there to go after wickedness. Few examples are watching movies that has wicked philosophy, watching pornography, using abusive and filthy language etc. Now you may say I don't love these things but I am just ok with it. I am not that conservative.

But here the Bible is asking us to hate wickedness. I don't want to write much but want you to think. Do you really hate wickedness in your life or are you ok with wickedness. Do you really love righteousness or are you just ok about that also.

One way to find joy and joy in abundance that God provides is to love righteousness and hate wickedness.

May God Bless You!