Inspirational Story

A CHURCH is NOT a BUILDING. It is a group of REAL CHRISTIANS who FOLLOW their MASTER JESUS!!

Åρ☺ṧ☂◎ℓї¢ ℐᾔ﹩℘ḯґαт☤☺η :

A pastor transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service. Only 3 people said hello to him, most looked the other way. He asked people for change to buy food because he was hungry. Not one gave him anything.

He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was told by the ushers that he would need to get up and go sit n the back of the church. He said hello to people as they walked in but was greeted with cold stares and dirty looks from people looking down on him and judging him.

He sat in the back of the church and listened to the church announcements for the week. He listened as new visitors were welcomed into the church that morning but no one acknowledged that he was new. He watched people around him continue to look his way with stares that said you are not welcome here.

Then the elders of the church went to the podium to make the announcement. They said they were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation. "We would like to introduce you to our new Pastor." The congregation stood up and looked around clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle.

That's when all the clapping stopped and the church was silent. With all eyes on him....he walked up the altar and reached for the microphone. He stood there for a moment and then recited so elegantly, a verse from the bible.....

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.’

After he recited this, he introduced himself as their new pastor and told the congregation what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and bow their heads in shame. "Today I see a gathering of people here but I do not see a church of Jesus. The world has enough people that look the other way. What the world needs is disciples of Jesus that can follow this teachings and live as he did. When will YOU decide to become disciples?

He then dismissed service until the following Sunday as his sermon had been given.



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Joy — Jesus First, Others Second And You The Last

Three Carpenters

Three carpenters played a big role in the life of Richard Wurmbrand, an international representative of—and voice for —persecuted Christians in the twentieth century. One of them was a praying carpenter. The greatest of them was the Carpenter of Nazareth. The third was a godless carpenter. The first helped him to the Greatest, and it was for the glory of the Greatest that he met the third.

A praying carpenter

Richard Wurmbrand was a convinced atheist. Yet one day, he prayed to God. His prayer was something like this: “God, I know surely that you do not exist. But if perchance you exist, which I contest, it is not my duty to believe in you; it is your duty to reveal yourself to me.”

Richard was an atheist, but this gave him no peace in his heart. At this time of inner turmoil—as he later discovered—in a village high up in the mountains of Romania, an old carpenter prayed like this: “My God, I have served you on earth and I wish to have my reward on earth as well as in Heaven. And my reward should be that I should not die before I bring a Jew to Christ, because Jesus was from the Jewish people. But I am poor, old and sick. I cannot go around and seek a Jew. In my village there are none. Bring thou a Jew into my village and I will do my best to bring him to Christ.”

Something irresistible drew Richard to that village. He had nothing to do there. Romania has thousands of villages. But Richard went to that village. Seeing that he was a Jew, the carpenter showed him love. He saw in Richard the answer to his prayer and gave him the Bible to read.

Richard had read the Bible out of cultural interest many times before. But the Bible that the carpenter gave him was another kind of Bible. Richard later learned that the carpenter and his wife prayed for hours for his conversion and that of his wife. The Bible given to Richard was written not so much in words, but in flames of love fired by prayers. Richard could scarcely read it; he could only weep over it, comparing his bad life with the life of Jesus, his impurity and hatred with His love, and He accepted him to be one of His own.

Soon after Richard, his wife was converted. She brought other souls to Christ. Those other souls brought still more souls to Christ and so a new congregation arose in Romania. Richard had begun a journey with the Son of God, Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth.

Jesus the carpenter

In 1944, Communists seized power in Romania and Wurmbrand was sent to prison four years later. Labelled “Prisoner Number One”, he was placed in a solitary cell. After eight-and-a-half years he was released, but then re-arrested a few years later and imprisoned for a further five.

The suffering was intense. Deep beneath the earth, Wurmbrand and fellow believers in prison saw none of creation’s beauty—no sun, no moon, no stars, no flowers, no rivers, no Bible, no book, no child. They saw only the prison wardens and torture. The cells were soundproof. Perfect silence reigned there. There was almost nothing to eat. There was no colour, only the grey world of the prison.

Richard became tired, very tired. One night he said to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, you see, I have no brethren, no sisters, I don’t have your written word, I don’t have Holy Communion. I have none of these things, but you have spoken so directly to persons, even to very evil persons like Saul of Tarsus, who had been a persecutor and a killer of Christians, and you came and spoke with him. And as I have nobody to speak to me, would you speak to me tonight?”

It was an exceptional circumstance. When Richard said, “You, Lord, speak to me,” he heard the voice of Christ. His sheep hear His voice. Christ Jesus posed a striking question: “What is your name?” He asked.

Jesus knew the answer—but He wanted to make Wurmbrand think. In that moment, Wurmbrand could not reply to Jesus, “My name is Richard,” for he had once read of a Richard in church history, unjustly sentenced to death for murder in time of persecution. When the executioner had difficulty in fixing the rope, Richard had bowed before him, apologised, asked if he could help, and died with a big smile on his face. Wurmbrand feared to say “My name is Richard,” for what if Jesus should say: “Are you like that Richard?”

He feared too to say “I am a Christian,” for first-century Christians had gone to their death under the Romans saying “Christianus sum” [“I am a Christian”], and he was not as courageous as them.

“What is your name?” Jesus had asked. “Jesus,” Wurmbrand replied, “Jesus, I have no name, allow me to bear your name.”

“That is what He really wishes from us,” Wurmbrand later commented, “Paul understood it: ‘Not I live’—not the old Paul, not the new Paul . . . Not the wicked and full of vices, not the very good and full of virtues, the ‘I’ has been abolished, ‘not I live but Christ lives in me’.” In the English language, ‘I’ is written with a capital letter, Wurmbrand would note: “I am something very, very important, capital letter. And Jesus tells us: ‘Whosoever wishes to come after me should cease to write ‘I’ with a capital letter, whosoever wishes to come after me should deny himself’. His brother, his fellow men should come first, God should come first, and he somewhere in the rear.”

Years of prison passed. The Christians faced hours of brainwashing daily. And they were hungry, hungry for Holy Communion, the remembrance of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For years they had not celebrated it—and yet, they had nothing.

At once, the Christians had an illumination. They had! They had something called “nothing”. What was the value of this “nothing”? The prisoners had nothing and were nothing to the wardens. Yet in those half-dark, subterranean prison cells, they began to think of the value of the “nothing”. The beautiful world, the wheat, the vineyards—God had made them out of nothing. So “nothing” was a very valuable material, indeed, the basic material from which Holy Communion was made.

And in Job 26 it says that “God hangs the earth upon nothing”. “Nothing” was therefore the most resistant material upon the earth. To have “nothing” was to have something very valuable and resistant.

Then also there was St. Paul, who said “I am nothing”. If Wurmbrand was nothing, then he was like St. Paul!

The Christians decided that they had been foolish not to rejoice in having and being nothing, and that on a Sunday morning they would take Holy Communion—with nothing. Having signalled to each other on the cell walls, they took in their hands “nothing”, and thanked God for it. “Christians are simply thankful and grateful,” Wurmbrand later remarked. They blessed the nothing, the beautiful nothing. They remembered the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which had been broken for them; and then they took another “nothing” and blessed that, too.

“When you are a child of God who takes a cross upon himself,” Wurmbrand continued, “and know, ‘I am a nothing,’ it’s much too big a privilege for me even to say that ‘I am a cross-bearer’. I would not dare to shout loudly ‘I am a Christian’, because I know what a great thing [it] is to be . . . a Christian. Then God takes possession of your soul, Christ reigns in you”.

A godless carpenter

One night, Wurmbrand was interrogated by a colonel of the Communist Secret Police; the colonel’s name, in English, meant “carpenter”. He threatened to shoot Wurmbrand if he did not betray all the secrets of the Underground Church (the Church of the persecuted).

At that moment, God gave Wurmbrand such quietness. “Put your hand on my heart, and if my heart beats frightened,” he told the colonel, “. . . then you have the right to doubt that there is a God and there is eternal life, but if my heart beats quietly, serenely . . . I go to my Beloved One, then you should know there is a God and there is an eternal life.”

“Never will I release you! Let Him, what is His name, release you! Never will you see Westminster Abbey!” shouted the colonel.

“Well, Colonel,” replied Wurmbrand, “His name is Jesus, and He is the Son of God, and if He wishes, I will be released, and if He wishes, I will see Westminster Abbey too.”

Years later he was released, but the colonel placed in prison—and Wurmbrand did see Westminster Abbey. There he bought a card and sent it to the former colonel: “Do you remember what you said to me? . . . Well, He has released me,” wrote Wurmbrand, “He’s Jesus, He’s the Son of God, and I’m now at Westminster Abbey, and He can release you too, and you should also believe in Him, and if He wishes, you can even see Westminster Abbey,” he wrote.

Jesus the Carpenter gave His life gladly for us, even singing to Gethsemane, the garden of agony. And He is coming again.

—See Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ and “The beauty of nothing” (recorded address).

Trust In Relationship With God, Not Religion

Åρ☺ṧ☂◎ℓї¢ ℐᾔ﹩℘ḯґαт☤☺η :

People who do not take God at his word to trust Him, do not have the rights to expect God's goodness to keep continuing in their lives. God has prescribed only one way for sin's cure, one truth to receive His one heavenly life, those who heed it will reap the benefit. People who trust in religion often stumble at Jesus the stumbling stone, but those who trust in Jesus and continue to do so by throwing themselves at the mercy of God and His faithful Word, will live within the goodness of God for the rest of their lives and for eternity of joy which is awaiting for them.

No other name
But the name of Jesus
No other name
But the name of the Lord
No other name
But the name of Jesus
Is worthy of glory
And worthy of honor
And worthy of power
And all praise

People in our times are ready to trust anything they see, except God and His Word. God and His Word are one. Jesus was the Word who was foretold to come and fulfill God's salvation. Now Jesus is the Word who has come and fulfilled God's salvation and He Himself has become our salvation. This is what good news really is, you need to do nothing to deserve God's goodness and favor of God in your lives, but all you need is to trust Jesus with all your heart and hope in His Word.

D.L.Moody's words are worth recalling here, Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment, Trust in money and you may have it taken from you. Trust in your reputation and some slanderous tongue may blast it. But trust in God and you are never to be confounded in time and eternity.

Do not be afraid of anything. Just trust in God and make Him your refuge and strength by holding on to His Word. He will protect you with His providential care.

May God help all of us to trust afresh in His promises which are given by Him in His Word, and may we never lose our joy and peace by keeping ourselves from praising Him for His wonderful salvation. May we not be religious to lose all the benefits of God which are given freely through His Son Jesus, but may we trust His living Word in the flesh [i.e Jesus Christ] through whom the written Word from heaven gets fulfilled in our day to day lives. If God is for us working on our behalf as we have trusted His Word of salvation, who can be against us? None...stay in rest as you pass the tests of life through your trust!

Much Blessings....

Apostle Abraham Israel

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A Couple Of Touching Poems

COME ON TO SING CHRIST'S BIRTH! — A Poem By Abraham Israel

"O the heavenly angels that sing along,
Come and join us for Christ our King is born,
Look not in the palaces for lowly He is in a manger,
So that you and I could be richly forgiven and cherished forever.

O all who sing with us join in with the heavenly choir,
Not in heaven but in a mall where Christs name is glorified,
Look not in to abundance of buying, but sharing through the voices,
The thousand voice of praises in unison glorifying the Master's birth.

O come all ye faithful saints to declare what He did for you and me,
Let all the world come to know that it is Christ alone who can redeem you and me,
From sin, sickness unto death, to joy, peace and life eternal to give as exchange,
None but Him can change your life, and make it new and help you renew each day anew.

Have no shame to sing before the world the greatest anthem sung for you,
It is Christ my Savior the Lord of life who has become the Lord of my life,
Let every one hear your song, with Christmas bells ringing around for all to see,
The baby who grew and died for me, not just for me but you too if you believe and see!"

YOU RAISE ME UP! — A Poem By Abraham Israel

"You raise me up when I am down,
When my heart is burdened I wait for you;

In silence you always come and sit awhile with me,
When I sit with you, you raise me up;

When you raise me up I can stand on mountains,
I am empowered to walk on stormy seas;

When you raise me up and keep me on your shoulders,
That is when I realize no matter what I go through I am strong.

As I am still and wait here in the silence,
You raise me up again to more than I can be;

As my restless heart beats so imperfectly,
I feel no life..no life without you, my heart hungers more;

That is when you come and I am filled with wonder,
And I see the glimpse of eternity that raises me up to more than I can see!"

Much Blessings....

Where Are You Laying Your Treasure?

Åρ☺ṧ☂◎ℓї¢ ℐᾔ﹩℘ḯґαт☤☺η :

John D. Rockefeller of USA was the first millionaire and the first billionaire of the world. Had shares in all the companies of the US. But he was very greedy for money and very stingy; was a very unsatisfied man. Someone asked him, “When will you be satisfied?” He replied, “When I get one more dollar!” He was 58 and was suffering from a sickness called alopecia: all the hair on his head and face disappeared; his body began to shrink like a mummy. He could take only a cup of milk and a few cookies. Doctors gave him six months to live. Newspaper editors who hated him for his selfish nature wrote his obituary in advance anticipating his death. One night he began to think, “When I die can I take one dime into the next world?” That night he reached out to God and something marvelous happened: his sickness disappeared, began to have appetite and could eat good food. Began to give away money to the needy, founded the Rockefeller Foundation for Medical Research. Penicillin the wonder drug of bygone years was invented in this research organization. He found the right meaning for living. He brought forth fruit in old age. He died when he was 98!

Ponder And Learn :

What can we learn from this above wonderful story of this great man John D. Rockefeller of USA? We should realize that When we die, we cannot take one dime or one coin which is the least value in most currencies of this world into the next world. That is why Jesus said, " 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."" (Matt 6:19-21). In other words, if our heart is full of selfishness to acquire the riches of the whole world and still if we have no peace and good health to enjoy it in this life it is totally a waste of activity, how much more in the next life we who cannot take anything with us when we die will suffer miserably if we continue to live irresponsibly towards God by selfish living and lose the eternal life that He has ahead for us. If our heart has set its love towards the treasures of this earth, we will never be able to collect treasures in heaven for our future life. So Jesus says, do not set your heart to acquire earthly treasure but rather set it to acquire heavenly eternal treasures for yourself and your family which will stay with you for eternity ahead. We also learn that all our material and earthly treasures comes in to our hands, to use it to collect heavenly treasures for our eternal life.

John D. Rockefeller of USA may have been the first millionaire and the first billionaire of the entire world, but he had no satisfaction with what he had and how much he had because the Bible says that those whose heart are after money will never be satisfied (Eccl 5:10). When he was 58 and was suffering from a sickness called alopecia: all the hair on his head and face disappeared; his body began to shrink like a mummy. And as he could take only a cup of milk and a few cookies and finally doctors gave him only six months to live, he must have realized how his life is a gift from God that has been misused for his own selfish ends for which he had to give an account to God very soon after his death as it has come very close to him (Rom 14:12; Matt 12:36; 2 Cor 5:10). Seeing the news paper editors estimation of him in this lowly state must have made him also realize that how a good name is to be chosen in this life than great riches that nobody values (Prov 22:1). Finally realizing his deep poverty in his spiritual life, he reached out to God and something marvelous happened. God decided to heal him and extend his life so that he could live a different life than his previous wasted selfish life. Then John D. Rockefeller became a giver who selflessly started giving all his riches to many many people in need and began to work for the betterment of humanity which is suffering, as a result the Penicillin wonder drug which has saved millions of dying men and women till date was invented in Rockefeller Foundation for Medical Research which acted as a crucial research foundation of his to help all humanity from dying prematurely. This made God rejoice and gave him a long life and meaning for living. His repentance towards God brought great fruit of godliness and paved way to lay up treasure for Himself for his own eternal life ahead so that he could be also a billionaire in the life to come where God will honor him for his selfless service towards humanity.

I encourage you to leave behind your wasted years which you lived for yourself selfishly and start to live selflessly for others so that you could also like in the life of John D. Rockefeller could be fruitful towards God and lay up great treasures for yourself for the life to come. If you are already living sacrificially towards others for God, I encourage you to continue in it because your reward is great in heaven where you will live forever with God.

Much Blessings....


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Substitutionism Or Propitiation Or Substitutionary Propitiation?

Åρ☺ṧ☂◎ℓї¢ ℐᾔ﹩℘ḯґαт☤☺η :

Our spirit comes in to eternal union with God through salvation, when we accept Christ's substitution on our behalf. Our spirit, soul and body comes in to restored fellowship with God when we appropriate the advocacy of Christ's propitiation. Jesus died both as substitute and as a propitiation. Substitute to save us from sin, propitiation to help us overcome sin after we are saved. So both are right! This is substitution in action — "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21, BSB). This is propitiation in action — "1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:1-2). We confess to our High Priest Jesus the Christ of all our ongoing sins, so that He might advocate and propitiate [bring back] the continuance of God's favor over our lives (Heb 2:17-18; 4:14-16). Propitiation is an action of our confession to Jesus Christ that agrees with God's perfect standard of His law to say that we have failed and sinned, so that Jesus might exhibit the perfect sacrifice of Himself before our Father God to find back the favor of His Presence after we did wrong, the act of confession on our part and Jesus advocacy on our behalf representing before Father God will always restores and regains the fellowship of our Father's Presence (1 John 1:3-4, 7, 9). Only when there is a substitution, there can be a propitiation. So Christ death for us is substitutionary propitiation which was once and for all time fulfilled by God two thousand years ago and then reminded day by day before God by Jesus Christ our advocate in intercession for the favor of God to continue for all sinners like us, as long as we humbly confess our sins and let Him be faithful and just to forgive our sins.

Much Blessings....


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God Lightens My Path — A Poem

Åρ☺ṧ☂◎ℓї¢ ℐᾔ﹩℘ḯґαт☤☺η :

"God lightens when our days are dark and gloomy,

He gives his strength when we have no strength,

The day of mourning suddenly changes in to morning for us,

Every dark corners of our heart peeped through by His glorious golden light,

The golden splendor and the silvery light together in one will seem so bright and beautiful,

Till the dawn in full splendor arises and the morning star shines brighter and brighter till the noon day comes,

Then God does seem to clearly whisper deep within, 'Though the night is darkest before the dawn, yet this glory is for you to hold till you see each dawn break forth in to noon day within.'

I said to myself then, 'Hold on the glory of faith that pleases him, may you my soul wait till you hear the songs of birds cheer you up and with expectation see the dawn break forth in to sun shine glory by the One who turns all the darkness in to morning for you each day.'" — Abraham Israel


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