Forgive- Any upper limit? To what extend?

A group of Christian missionaries met in Delhi, India, with representatives of other religions to discuss their beliefs. In the course of their talks a member of a major non-Christian religion said to a missionary, "Tell me one thing your religion can offer the Indians that mine can't." The missionary thought for a moment and replied, "Forgiveness! Forgiveness!"

Forgiveness is an important teaching of the Bible. Jesus in his teaching stressed the need of forgiveness very much. During the sermon on mount, Jesus taught about forgiveness. At one point of time Peter came to Jesus and asked an important question. Peter wanted to have a numerical number as to how many times he should forgive someone. Peter also had a suggestion for Jesus. Is it seven times? You can find this in Matthew 18:21-35. I guess that since Jesus stressed on forgiveness many times during his teaching and since forgiving someone is not an easy thing, Peter wanted to know the upper limit. How many times? Till what extend should I tolerate. Till what point should I wait before I give up? Rabbis taught that people should forgive those who offend them three times. Peter was trying to be more generous and suggested the perfect number seven.

Jesus gave an interesting answer and continued with the parable of unforgiving debtor. Jesus said seventy times seven. It means four hundred and ninety (490) times. It’s not easy to count or keep tract of 490 times. Jesus was meaning that we shouldn’t even keep track of how many times we forgive. To say that I forgive is easy but to forget, it’s very difficult. That’s why we keep history and remember exactly the number of times someone has offended us. One story which I read recently was interesting and it clearly exposes our problem.

Eunice, a former missionary to Liberia, told a story about forgiveness. An African man worked for her, and one day she caught him stealing clothes from her house. "Please forgive me," he pleaded. “I did wrong. I promise not to do it again." She forgave him and allowed him to continue working for her. But less than a month passed before she caught him stealing again, "Look at you!" she said. "You've stolen again!" The bright fellow stared at her and yelled back, "What kind of a Christian are you?" Eunice, dumbfounded, had no idea how to respond. "If you forgave me, you do not remember it." the man said. "If you did not remember it, such a thing did not happen."

How true it is. I have seen people bring all the old historical events and problems when they discuss some issues. They have already asked forgiveness and said that they have forgiven. But our human nature tends to keep old things and its shows lack of genuine forgiveness from our side. Now in the parable, this man couldn’t forgive his servant who owed him much less compared to what he had to pay to the king. In the end the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. Jesus concludes the subject by saying that “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”(Matthew 18:35) It’s a strong warning for us. It’s very important that we forgive people from our heart. It’s also important that we forget what we have forgiven. It’s difficult. At least make a conscious effort not to speak about or argue about the matters you have already forgiven. Don’t dwell on the issues you have already forgiven. Just imagine if God brings back all our sins and put it in front of us every time we ask him forgiveness. We were sinners and we are saved by the grace of God and when we asked forgiveness he accepted us and forgave all our sins. Remember that our king has cancelled all the big debts when we asked him. Can’t we forgive the small things which other people may do against us? Let’s be genuine disciples and develop the habit of forgiving and forgetting.

Augustine once said - "if you are suffering from a bad man's injustice, forgive him lest there be two bad men.”

Joy at being forgiven!

“Guilty!” everyone guilty? Guilty of what? Guilty of over-parking? Guilty of lying? Guilty of arrogance and hubris toward the one God? Guilty of “borrowing” not to say embezzling? Guilty of unfaithfulness to a faithful wife? Guilty only of evil thoughts – or evil plans? Guilty before whom? Is a police officer following? Did anyone see? Will they be likely to notice it? Does he know about it? But that isn’t technically illegal, is it? I can make it up. I will give it back. I’ll apologize. I wasn’t myself when I did that. No one knows about it. But I’m going to quit. It’s a dangerous habit. I wouldn’t want the children to see me. How can I ever straighten it out? What’s done can’t be undone.” - Karl Menninger

Many times believers go around carrying the guilt of their sins or wrong doings. In many cases people don’t confess their sin. Sometimes people get used to some sinful actions in their life to such an extent that they no longer feel like confessing it or asking God’s forgiveness. It becomes a habit in their life. But deep inside of their heart they will know that it’s wrong and that will make them feel guilty. There are also people who confess their sin but still carry the guilt in their life. They don’t trust God to forgive them

The result of such life style is that you will never be able to serve the Lord or worship the Lord with freedom. The guilty feeling will always pull you back. It will always be there as a hindrance in your relationship with God.

The theme of psalms 32 is the true joy which comes with forgiveness. We have to ask God to forgive our sins and then only He will give us real happiness and relief from guilt. David says that what a joy for those whose disobedience or transgressions are forgiven and whose sin is covered. Again David says about the joy of those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt and whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

But there was a time when David refused to confess his sin. He was silent about it. During those times his body wasted away and he groaned all day long. Day and night the hand of God’s discipline was heavy upon him and his strength evaporated like water evaporates in summer heat. Many times we can also have such times in our lives. We know it’s all going wrong but still we try to keep silent or refuse to confess our sin. When we read psalms 32:5, David says that finally he confessed all sins to God and stopped trying to hide his guilt. He took a decision or said to himself that he will confess his rebellion to the Lord. When he did this the result was that God forgave his sins and all his guilt was gone.

The key to receive forgiveness and lead a guilt free life is to confess your sins to God and stop trying to hide your guilt. There are people who say that you don’t have to worry about your sin and there is no need to confess it as Jesus has already died for you. There is no need to worry about the guilt as Jesus has already forgiven your future sins also. You just have to change your thinking. But it’s not a biblical teaching but a lie from the hell to destroy people’s relationship with God. Proverbs 28:13 says that “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” 1 John 1:8-10 says that “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

Let’s not deceive ourselves but rather experience the Joy which we receive at being forgiven.


Yours in Christ,
Tinku Thompson

Having a right Relationship with God!

“Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.” Psalms 24:3-6 (NLT)

In psalms 24, David is asking a question. The question is who may climb the mountain of the Lord? And who can stand in the holy place. In the very next verse he gives the answer to this question. There are three things mentioned there. They are:-

1. Only those whose hands and hearts are pure.
2. Who do not worship idols.
3. Never tell lies.

Our God demands that our hands as well as our hearts should be pure when we come in to his presence. There should not be any activity which we do which can make our hands and hearts impure in the sight of God. In the sermon on mount, Jesus told that blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. We should not worship idols. Many times we think that idols are only the idols made of human hands. But when we carefully examine the word of God we can see that there can be many other things which can become idols in our life. Sometimes it can be a person whom we adore or love and give a place more than God in our life. Many times this can happen without our knowledge. Always make sure that you are giving first priority to God in your life. Never tell lies. We are living in a culture where it’s difficult to lead a life without telling lies. Sometime at our workplace or in order to get some benefit in our life we tell lies. Sometimes people tell lies with the intention of glorifying God’s name. They give false testimonies or add things to sound better and convincing. Make sure that you don’t fall into that trap. But only speak truth with love.

David continues and says that such people will not only climb or ascend to the hill of God but will also receive Lord’s blessing and have right relationship with God their savior. Many times we struggle to maintain our relationship with God. These verses tell us some of the basic things needed in our life to maintain a good relationship with our God. I want to encourage you to make sure that you have a good relationship with your God. That’s the most important relationship in your life. If you have a good relationship with God then all other relationship will fall in the right place. Without having a good relationship with God, it’s very difficult to have a good relationship with other people.
Sometimes we say that our circumstances are not allowing us to lead a life in close walk with God. A Christian should not permit circumstances to affect his relationship to God, but rather he should allow his relationship with God to affect his circumstances.
Above everything else in your life make sure that you have right relationship with your God!

Yours in Christ,
Tinku Thompson

Is Purity more precious than life?

"Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives" 2 Peter 3:11

Holiness is an important subject of the Bible. Bible clearly tells that our God is holy and He expects us to be holy. God says that “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19: 2). Many times God asked his people to consecrate themselves before He did wonders among them.

When we read about the revivals which took place, one common thing we see is that people where confessing their sins and turning back to God and had a deep desire to lead a holy life. Some of the fiery preachers of yesteryear's where known for their preaching against sin. Exposing the lie of enemy and encouraging people to lead a holy life in the sight of God was one of the main subjects. But times have changed. Nowadays mostly we hear compromising messages. Preachers are concerned and focused about preaching what people want to listen. The attempt is mostly made to make people comfortable and make them feel that everything is going good and fine. Changing the word of God to suit people’s lifestyle is a big deception. The result of such practice is that disciples are losing their saltiness. Christians are no longer able to make an impact since there is not much difference between a believer and non-believer. Everything a worldly person does is done by people who claim to be Christians. Somehow we have gone so much into the world that world has got into us. That's why we don't feel any regret or feel anything when we are leading a sinful life. As long as we go to church once or twice a week we feel that everything is ok. Many Churches makes people comfortable. For some people spirituality has become a weekend activity. I want to put down a provoking statement here. If you are leading a sinful life and still feels very comfortable attending your church then its time you think twice. A church service and the sermon should lead you closer to God and for that to happen, your sinful life style has to go away. You can never get close to God if you continue in your sinful life.

God has called us to be holy. In everything we have to reflect the character of Jesus Christ through our life and holiness is an important area. You may ask why there is so much emphasis in our church on this. We are called to live holy and godly lives. Again 1 peter 1:15 says that "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;”

Few days ago I read some facts about Ermine which was taken from Our Daily Bread. I want to share it with you

“In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives little animal called the ermine, known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it. “Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don't set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn't enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life”.

We are called to preserve our purity in the sight of God. In this world we are called to lead a holy life. We have a short time in this world when we compare it with eternity. Make sure that we are not compromising and missing the blessings of God in our life.
So be Holy since our God is a Holy God.

Yours in Christ,

Tinku Thompson

Minnesota Pentecostal Assembly & Some concerns

It’s sometime since I wrote any blog. Lot of things kept me busy during the last few months. Some of you are aware of MPA but some of you may not be. We started a Pentecostal church in Minnesota. As far as I know, it’s the only Pentecostal church in the state which conducts service in Malayalam. We have services held in English and Malayalam. Right now I am giving leadership in this church along with few other brothers. So its keeping me very busy. Keep me in your prayers.

It's exciting as I have always enjoyed being part of something which is getting started or which is very small. It's not the first time when I am part of a ministry which is at its beginning stage. I trust in a God who gives growth and believes that if your motives and intentions are clear in the site of God then He will bless you. It's a different kind of challenge to stand for God when nothing is established. For about 1.5 yrs before MPA started I had been part of some big churches and enjoyed my time there in a different way. It was good to sit and watch. But fellowship factor is main issue. Christian life without fellowship with other people is just useless. Don't take me wrong. Fellowship is a big factor which I missed in churches. In this generation I feel that somehow the meaning of church is understood in a different way than the way it is in Bible. For many people, just attending a church for 1 hr on a Sunday or Saturday is everything. They think that's all it takes to be a Christian.

One particular incident is worth mentioning here for all the readers to understand some facts. I was at a Pentecostal church on a Sunday morning. Since the church belonged to a major denomination, I was expecting that there will be a good message from the Bible which will be my manna for the week. I will elaborate on manna for week sometime later if you haven't got it. Anyway I came crying out of the church. The preacher showed a clip from some movie. Explained the story of the movie. Explained how the hero and heroine got together in the end after going away from each other. I am not joking here. Not even a single verse from the Bible was displayed on the screen. If it was an evangelistic meeting or something of that sort then it would have made some sense. The point is somehow the world has got into the church in a big way. Hollywood has captured the church pulpits also. The word of God is getting pushed to back for making churches "SEEKER-FRIENDLY".

There are many incidents like this to share. But for now back to MPA. Few of us started meeting for prayer meetings and then as per the guidance of Holy Spirit went ahead with MPA. I don't want to go into to much of detail at this time. You can visit www.mnpassembly.org for more information. But we as a church are focused on three areas. They are

1. Worship and Prayer
2. Discipleship
3. Evangelism
   

Our mission statement is "To make disciples who will make disciples". Discipleship is a subject which is very close to my heart. Right now we gather every Saturday and Sunday for meetings. Saturday meetings are held at a church facility in Eagan, MN. Right now mostly the songs are Malayalam and English. Sometimes in Hindi also. Hindi is my favorite language anyway due to many reasons. If you are looking for growing in the Lord, looking for solid word of God which will challenge you against compromise and fellowship which is not intended to increase church attendance but to help you become disciples of Jesus Christ then feel free to join us. One more thing - we are bit conservative and not liberal. Hope you understand what I mean by it. At MPA we will not customize things to make you feel comfortable in the way you are from a spiritual perspective and from the point of standing for the word of God. At MPA we will pray and try to build each other so that we will grow towards perfection.

Weekly messages and bulletins are updated every week. Feel free to visit us if you stay or come anywhere near twin cities in Minnesota.

Do visit the church website for few more details. www.mnpassembly.org

God Bless You!

Worship - Some Thoughts

I would like to add a post here about something I thought will be beneficial for everyone who reads my blog. In our church discussion group, someone brought these points and questions. I wrote a response to that. I thought of sharing it here so that it can be beneficial for many others. I was greatly blessed by reading it, thinking about it and by responding to it. So just thought of sharing it here. May be someone else can throw some more light in to it.

So the points or questions :-

1. Worship & Music - These days most Christians are confused between worship and music. For most of them worship=music. They can not even comprehend any other form of worship. As for me, being in the presence of the Lord, meditating in His goodness, mercy, love and grace is worship. For that, music is not necessary. When we sing a song, which is very familiar to us, there is a good chance of singing it without meditating upon its meaning.

2. Are we created to worship? - I hear this statement very often, but I can not find a scriptural basis for it. I believe that we are created for a purpose, which is to glorify His name through our life, and, of course, to spread the Good News.

3. Worship as a means to gain something - this is a new teaching. If you need something, worship the Lord. I don't think worship is supposed to be used to gain something from God. Those who are in favor of this idea are referring to the
deliverance of Paul from the jail. Let me ask you something: how many times was Paul imprisoned? Why didn't he just worship every time to release himself?

Ok here is my response:-

Dear Brother,

Your thoughts and insights are valuable and helpful in understanding about worship. I would like to add few things here quickly which I think will help in making few things clear.

Before responding to your individual points let me make few assumptions clear. When we talk about the subject of worship, it can be thought in different ways. Different people have different ideas. But I believe that truly from a Biblical perspective, worship is not confined to the singing of songs. For that matter it is not even restricted to the time when we get together or sit specifically for that purpose. Any act which glorifies God can be said as an act of worship. In another sense Worship is also defined as the activity of glorifying God in his presence with our voices and hearts. That's another way of looking at it. But all aspects of our lives are supposed to glorify God. Also in the Old Testament Sacrifice was an important part of worship. We can read Romans 12:1-2. Our life needs to be a living sacrifice. It's the big picture about the subject of worship.

But in this discussion for now I don't what to go in that scope. Praise and singing songs is also part of worship. We glorify God by doing it. I agree that worship is not equal to music in any way. But music and singing songs can be part of our worship. So everything you said like meditating and all can become a kind of worship.

Now from a laymen or from a common Christians perspective it's not that way. As a church when we address we need to keep everyone in mind. Because of the way few things are projected in churches as a whole, the people have got some wrong ideas. But it will take time to change that. People will have to come to maturity to understand it. Till that time we can only pray and work towards it.

Now about singing songs I agree with you that we can sing songs without mediating on its meaning. That's a kind of problem with us. I have personally found it. I think that's something we need to change at least when we sing songs with the intention of praising God. We sing for different reasons. One reason is to help us relate more to God. It depends on the lyrics of song. During my last message and in the past also I have said that we should try to meditate on the meaning and sing. It will become more meaningful and helpful if we can do that way. But many times we are disturbed by many things. So many thoughts pass through our mind. Some of those may have nothing to do with God. Even though we sing but we are thinking of something else.
The truth is not there. One reason for this can be that we are now experts with wording and we don't need to think too much about it. It's like the days we started driving for first time and how we drive now. With practice, our concentration level decreases in the main issue and we can focus on other things while doing the primary thing. It's like talking on phone while driving or listening to message or thinking about something else. We take the turns automatically. It's a human tendency. But the question is - Is it good?

I would say we should try that when we gather as a church, we should free our mind from everything and Worship God in truth. So if we are clapping our hands and have our eyes closed then to be true we should be meditating on God. Otherwise I think the first element of truth is lost. We are just acting. Let me tell you a personal thing. Sometimes when I am singing a song and everyone is clapping their hands and I find that I start meditating on the message I have to deliver during the service. At that time I try not to sing and pretend to be singing and praising. So we all can have that type of experiences. But the main point I think is to try to develop an attitude and habit in which you are doing everything with truth. I am not sure if it's only my struggle or there are someone else also who have this kind of experiences. That's my point in encouraging people to meditate on the meaning and then sing. From a personal experience I have felt that its more beneficial and helpful for us to do a meaningful worship. So I agree that worship is not equal to music or even singing songs.

At this point I would also draw everyone's attention towards a concept I will call as "hearts cry language". Everyone has a language in which they are most comfortable. You feel more secure and comfortable in that. Mostly it's a person's mother tongue. Let me explain. People
who came from Kerala ( a state in India. Malayalam is the language spoken by people there) and are used to Malayalam worship will feel happy and more at home when we sing Malayalam songs. But that may not be true for a person who was brought up in USA. That's why we see the language conflict. Nobody is to be blamed for this. Its a natural thing. Again singing songs in which language will have a big difference to the church attenders. I have done some study about it and found that its a problem which we cannot ignore. That's why mega churches start with services in different languages. We feel most comfortable in that language which I call as “hearts cry language”.

At MPA (that's my church) when we say we are a bilingual church then I would like to think from the perspective of 2 people. One who only knows Malayalam and one who only knows English. My test is to see if both can understand every part of service and message and can both enjoy to the same extend. If not then we calling a church as bilingual is meaningless. So we need to develop a framework in which both these person's can fit. I know it's a challenge but its worth attempting. That's just a side note to throw light on the issue of language in worship.

Regarding the question of are are we created to worship- its a good question which can be debated for a long time. But I don't think we can say an absolute No. A more appropriate statement would be - We are not created JUST for worship. Worshiping God is also one purpose. It holds true when we understand worship in the real sense and not just to singing songs. We do have a purpose in life. We should preach gospel and glorify God. But we cannot ignore the worship aspect. It's again an issue of balance. The Bible has so many verses which points or encourages people to worship God. There are many in support of praising him. There are so many verses in Psalms. Then Jesus himself said that a time is coming when true worshipers will worship God in truth and spirit. Hebrews 13:15 says that "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name." Then Ephesians 5:19 "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord"

So without bringing too many verses at this point I would say that we are not created JUST for worship but worship is also a purpose. In eternity we will be worshiping our God for sure. Revelation too have references of people doing the activity of worship (Rev. 4 & 5). Again when I say this I am keeping the Worship in big context as every act we do which glorify God. We are not created just to sing. But worship to Creator God should be an important and integral part of a Christian's life. Otherwise we are missing a big part of our purpose in this world. I am willing to elaborate this point more if needed.

Finally worship as a means to gain anything is a wrong teaching. It will not be correct if someone says that you worship and you will get something. It will be similar to prosperity theology in some sense. I think blessing is a by product of worship in the sense that God is pleased or happy with true worshipers who seek Him with whole heart. God sends his blessing upon such people. It's supported by Bible. In the Old testament its very much there. Even in New testament we see that.

Paul's deliverance was an exceptional story and we can't make it as a doctrine for deliverance. But it can be used as an encouragement in regard to worship. There is a difference in taking some thing as a doctrine and using something from Scriptures for encouragement. We need to distinguish between these two things. There are many other morals or lessons to be learned from Paul being in prison. Then the other side is that there are other occasions in which God worked when people where praising or worshiping God. Again if you think worship from just singing and clapping perspective then it fails. But when you see it from correct sense then it hold true. I don't remember any time I used Paul's example just for supporting deliverance. If I had then I may be in my ignorance. May be for encouraging purpose. I think that anyone who uses it as a doctrine for deliverance is wrong. But anyone who uses it to exhort or encourage people can be accepted if the person is using it in correct context.

These where some of my thoughts. If God willing then one day I would like to take the subject of theology of Worship and talk about it. But I agree that worship is one of the most misunderstood subject in Christian circles today. It's in both ways. People who have praise and worship ministry emphasize it more and give an impression that it's everything. It's extreme in one way. Then there are many people whose ministry interest lies in something else like preaching or teaching and who focus on life's purpose and evangelism. They try to present this subject in a kind of negative way and focus mostly on their subject matters. In that situation its extreme in other way. As a result people do not sing songs during church service. They will not clap hands. They will start focusing on other aspects and kind of start thinking that its a the way to do things. I had a friend in India who was a very good Christian in the sense that he had a good knowledge about Bible. His clarity about scriptures and things -amazing. I could not get anywhere near. But one thing I have noticed was that during the church services when everyone will be singing songs and praising God, he will be reading his Bible. Most of the time he will be doing it. No respect to the worship leader who may be asking people for singing or praise God. Sometimes I feel that it's bit arrogance to do that in a church service. If someone does that occasionally then its fine. May be he is meditating or Spirit of God has revealed something to him. But doing it all time is bit odd. That's my personal view. I am of the opinion that we should respect and participate in everything which is scriptural. The main thing is that we need to strike a balance. We should not be so much influenced with one things that we start looking down on other things.

Again worship should be an important part of a Christian's life. But it should be in true sense and we should worship God in TRUTH and SPIRIT.

Sorry for being little long but hope that it gives a better view of the subject. Again thank you brother for bringing this subject up as it was a blessing for me also to think and it will definitely help me in studying about this subject in depth in coming days.

Mark Hitchcock on Dec. 21, 2012

December 21, 2012 is a widely discussed subject. There are people who believe that world will come to an end or something will happen. Way back on July 6th 2007, I wrote a blog on it when this subject was not that popular. This blog was read by many people and even listed on a website on this subject. You can find it here http://tinkuthompson.blogspot.com/2007/07/biblical-response-dec-21-2012.html

You can see it on december122012.com at
http://www.december212012.com/articles/religion/Biblical-Response.htm

Mark Hitchcock has written a book on it. He gave a talk about it at Credo House@ Reclaiming the Mind ministry. If you are interested in knowing more about this subject then go to this link and watch the video.
http://vimeo.com/6990852