Monday 20 August 2012

AUNT MARY

Ninety-One years of a memorable life on earth ended on the 16th of August 2012. Aunt Mary exited earth whilst still in her sleep. I thought i'd celebrate her life on my blog since she would surely be an inspiration to you just as she has been to me!

Aunt Mary was the oldest sister to my mother-in-law and lived in Byculla, Mumbai all her life. She lost her husband whilst the couple was still in their forties. Raising her three young daughters all by herself was a gargantuan task but her firm trust in Jesus carried her through that rough patch in her life. Later, losing her five year old grand daughter (in the pic above) to a strange fever, shattered her beyond measure. Another death followed, and that was of her beloved nephew Anthony, married, with three little girls! These earthquakes in her life never shook her from her strong relationship with Jesus.

Aunt Mary never grumbled nor murmured whilst going through her 'tests' of faith. She always had an encouraging word not just for family but for everyone in the block. Once all her daughters got married, she opted to stay alone in her little room in 'Stone Building'. Her daughters visited whenever they could but she always had the company of great neighbours, young and old.Her neighbours will miss hearing her booming voice responding to the Mass on television!

The last time we visited Aunt Mary as a family was last December. She loved to speak in Konkanni although she spoke fluent English. Although i met her very late in life, she had a special liking for me. Whenever i would visit her, she would hug me and kiss me incessantly! She loved to sing 'Mandde and Dulpods' and cooked excellent Goan food. She had the memory of an elephant! She would enquire about everyone in the family in Dubai and pray for their well being.Whenever i joked about she completing a century, she would pull my beard and say that her Jesus was going to take her soon.

She told me she was never lonely. She could see and hear Jesus very clearly. One thing she would keep saying to me all the time - "Jesus is all you'll ever need!"

Corrie Ten Boom said, “You may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” Jesus is not quite all we HAVE, and so we are reluctant to say that Jesus is all we NEED. The problem, dear friends, is not that we have too little, but that we have too much!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

HOAX SLAYER

Have you received the following message recently (or sometime in the past?)

NASA predicts total blackout on 23-25 Dec 2012 during alignment of
Universe.

USscientists predict Universe change, total blackout  of planet for 3
days from Dec 23 2012.

It is not the end of the world, it is an alignment of the Universe, where
the Sun and the earth will align for the first time. The earth will shift
from
the current third dimension to zero dimension, then shift to the forth
dimension. During this transition, the entire Universe will face a big
change, and we will see a entire brand new world. (
Note: The message was longer than this ... this is just an extract!)

The HOAX SLAYER website has the following to say:

Not surprisingly the claims in the message are complete and utter nonsense. NASA has made no such prediction. Nor has any other credible scientific organization anywhere else in the world.

In what is apparently an utterly lame attempt to make its outlandish claims seem more believable, the message links to a video featuring NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. In the video, Bolden does talk about family preparedness but makes no mention of planetary blackouts, universe alignments or even shifts to the zero dimension. The video can be
seen in its original context on the NASA website.

And, for the record, there is no mention of such an impending blackout anywhere on the NASA website. Nor are there any reports about it on any credible news or scientific websites.

Perhaps who ever penned this peice of nonsense to begin with meant it as just a leg pull. A really bad science fiction writer perhaps? And a master of understatement? The messages predicts a catastrophic, utterly world changing event but ends with a casual warning to avoid traveling in December! But whatever its motivation, submissions and comments indicate that the message is nevertheless causing fear and anxiety among at least a few of the more wide-eyed among us.


For those of you who are in fear of this predicted event, know that GOd has plans for you; plans for your prosperity and not for your destruction! (JER. 29:11)

Thursday 9 August 2012

ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL

HEBREW 6: 13 to 20
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”[a] 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

If any 'descendant' (that is you and i !) is able to understand what has been extracted from Hebrews 6 and is able to remind God of his OATH that includes, not just Abraham but ALL OF HIS DESCENDANTS, you will surely live a life where there's NOTHING BROKEN, NOTHING MISSING!

God bless Bro. Johnson Sequeira for his persistent reminders to us of this ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL!
(Please go to www.jcilm.info to know more about his ministry. Please try to attend his retreat asap! )

Tuesday 7 August 2012

DRY BONES

Brother Johnson Sequeira is preaching in Dubai again and yesterday was the first day. He was speaking on the topic of 'Dry Bones' from Ezekiel 37. It is so very amazing how God reveals to his servants the golden truths hidden in His Holy Word!

I assume you already know about Ezekiel's vision of the 'valley of dry bones' and how God asks him to prophesy on the dry bones. Lo and behold, the bones get covered with flesh but there is no spirit in the body! Then the Lord commands Ezekiel to breath into them and they come to life! (Please do read the whole chapter to remind you of the exact account of the vision).

Bro. J explained the above vision from a different perspective altogether. He compared the 'dry bones' with the 'dead situations' in our lives and encouraged us to prophesy over them 'in the powerful name of Jesus', BELIEVING that Jesus is alive and His Holy Spirit is hovering over us (just like in Genesis ... the Spirit was hovering over the 'chaotic' earth, waiting to move on God's command to bring order into creation!) to act on our behalf, to restore and give life to all the 'dead situations' in our lives.

The point was further straightened by Tanya's testimony of a total healing from cancer when she UNDERSTOOD the topic of FAITH (Hebrews 11:1) and got out of her desperation and got into the LOVE OF GOD and His FAVOUR. Every doctor's bad report was cancelled and she is now living a 'cancer-free' (Both physically as well as spiritually!) life! Imagine being given only 6 months to live by every doctor she went to for another opinion!

This is why the psalmist in Psalm 63 seeks the Lord from a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. It is the water of the gospel he seeks. He seeks to be bathed in the waters of Christ. (Psa 105:41) He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. When Christ went to the cross for the sins of His people the Rock of God was opened and then the waters of the gospel gushed forth in the dry places after He was resurrected the third day. Those dry places are the entire world to seek out His elect in all the nations.

This Ezekiel passage also points out the fact that a person is a dead bone before salvation and only God can make them live.