Entrusted With His Secret

We have been given an incredible gift. Jesus Christ came into this world two thousand years ago to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and to bring us back into a relationship with our Heavenly Father. Jesus knew God’s plan of grace before the world was ever created; “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
We are a fortunate people living in a uniquely blessed time; “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:20). Through faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin, we can now “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrew 4:16), knowing we have been made clean and our relationship with God has been restored.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2
“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”
I’ll say it again…we are a very fortunate people. Through no effort of our own, we have been born in a time where the “secret things of God” have been revealed. We have been given the opportunity to hear the full gospel message and believe. Thank You Lord!
But God has done more than just give us this opportunity to hear and believe, He has “entrusted” us with His message of Salvation. To prove faithful to His trust, we must live in a manner which holds up the gospel message for all to see. We are saved by a grace which cost God the death of His one and only Son. This grace must be cherished and honored with a life void of all compromise and hypocrisy. An understanding of His great love ought to cause us to surrender ALL and live each day to bring Him glory and honor.
Proving faithful to His trust also means we must confidently and accurately share His message of hope with all who cross our path. We must diligently study His Word and be prepared to share His grace through our words as well as our actions.
No matter how hard life may sometimes appear, we are truly blessed. We have been given a gift which can sustain us through our most difficult circumstances, and provide an eternal home filled with praise and worship. When the world beats us down, we can be encouraged that the Creator of the Universe believes in us. He has revealed His Son and made us stewards of His message of grace. Let’s live lives worthy of the trust we have been given. Let’s prove faithful to the great honor of being entrusted with His secret.

For more information, Prayers and counseling you can contact,

Rev. Adbhuta Rao. Garnepudi

Millinium Baptist Church

Nambur, Guntur (Dist), A.P, S.India.

VISIT US : http://www.sites.google.com/site/wordmini/home

MAIL US : wordministries.india@gmail.com

CALL US : (+91)9848150491, 9908054910

New Every Morning

God loved us so much that He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sin, that through faith we might be brought back into a full and intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father for all eternity. I think we often forget the magnitude of this love: we were dead and He provided us a way to live!
Lamentations 3:22-23
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
God has expressed His absolute love and compassion through the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. This forgiveness is total and complete for those who believe. When we place our trust in Jesus, we are washed clean – we become “a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And we continue to be washed clean “every morning.”
We all have days when our sinful nature wins a battle and we stumble. We have a day when our anger, pride, fear, or lust is brought to the surface and we “do what we do not want to do” (Romans 7:16). We may need to seek forgiveness and earn back trust from those we’ve hurt, but God’s forgiveness and love is free for the asking; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). We may lose some of the battles, but through Jesus, the war has been won.
Since we have been washed clean, and continue to be washed clean, we must stop walking as though we are still soiled. We are children of God and in the process of being conformed to the likeness of His Son. This process of growth and maturity – the process of victorious transformation – must continue each and every morning. We must shed the heavy burdens of past failures (and the fear of future disappointments) and walk in the freshness of His forgiveness.
Is our relationship with God fresh and new? Do we still comprehend the magnitude of love encompassed in the gift of forgiveness? Or have we grown complacent and cold? When was the last time our love for God was so fresh on our heart that we couldn’t help but say THANK YOU!?
We are invited to a relationship with our Heavenly Father; an intimate relationship which involves loving and being loved; a relationship which allows us to walk in victory for His glory and to be guided by the power of His Spirit. Let’s give Him our all and receive His all in return. Let’s rise up in His strength and determine to make our relationship of love new every morning.

For more information, Prayers and counseling you can contact,

Rev. Adbhuta Rao. Garnepudi

Millinium Baptist Church

Nambur, Guntur (Dist), A.P, S.India.

VISIT US : http://www.sites.google.com/site/wordmini/home

MAIL US : wordministries.india@gmail.com

CALL US : (+91)9848150491, 9908054910

An Unblemished Sacrifice

During the days of Moses, God established specific laws for sacrifices. God called for animal sacrifices to teach His people the seriousness of sin and to prepare the way for Jesus. God taught that when a sacrifice was offered, it was to be pure and without blemish: “If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:3).
Approximately 900 years after the sacrificial law was given to Moses, God used the prophet Malachi to call the people back to a true heart of worship. Since the time of Moses, the people of Israel had gone through many highs and lows in their worship and were currently on another downward spiral. The priests had become very casual with the sacrifices – they had lost all sense of reverence and had ceased to offer God their absolute best.
Malachi 1:7-8
“You place defiled food on My altar. But you ask, `How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?”
With the perfect and acceptable sacrifice of Jesus, the need for animal sacrifice has ended; “He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood” (Hebrews 9:12). Through faith in Jesus, our sins are completely forgiven; “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). Faith in the sacrifice of Jesus has become our final sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin – we have been perfected by His blood.
However, each of us who have experienced God’s mercy and grace are now urged “to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1a). We are to offer this sacrifice not to earn or even maintain our Salvation, but because “this is our spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1b). A true understanding of God’s grace in granting us eternal life ought to compel us to a life of thanksgiving and sacrificial worship.
But when we leave His presence for the pleasures of this world, we create blemishes on our heart; and when we practice or give approval to sin, we become spiritually crippled and diseased. We must present ourselves to God and allow Him to use us for His glory. He deserves our very best! We should offer ourselves with a pure heart, without selfish ambition or pride, and free of worldly compromise.
God has given us all we have, made us all we are, and is leading us to all we will become. Let’s worship and serve Him with the best we have to offer; let’s present our lives to Him as an unblemished sacrifice.

For more information, Prayers and counseling you can contact,

Rev. Adbhuta Rao. Garnepudi

Millinium Baptist Church

Nambur, Guntur (Dist), A.P, S.India.

VISIT US : http://www.sites.google.com/site/wordmini/home

MAIL US : wordministries.india@gmail.com

CALL US : (+91)9848150491, 9908054910

 

Be Still And Know

The presence of God is a wonderful gift which is available to every believer. No longer is His presence confined to a specific location or available to only a few; “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). But the gift of His presence requires discipline in order to receive and maintain. We don’t earn this gift; but we live in such a noisy and hectic world that we simply miss His blessing unless we are willing to actively order our time and priorities – and this takes effort!
We are all given the same 24 hours in every day. Yet most of us generally try to put far too much into this precious time. We become frustrated with the constant busyness, but when given the opportunity we add even more to our schedule. Each of our activities may be good, but the result is often a frantic pace void of the true blessings from God. As our activity level increases, it becomes more and more difficult to hear God and nearly impossible to ponder the meaning of His truth; the contentment of walking in His presence is most often missed. For this reason, God gives us a gentle reminder – actually, He gives us a firm command.
Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
There are many things in life which are good – many good people and good activities that require, or at least desire, our time. While God definitely calls us to serve and minister to one another, we must understand that constant busyness hinders our ability to hear God. To maintain effective communication with God and nurture a sense of His peace, we must make time, and put forth the “effort,” to simply stop and rest in His strength.
Perhaps the Psalm writer knew we needed a great assurance and trust in God in order to be still: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (Psalm 46:1-3). God will always be at our side as a source of strength. We need not fear being still!
We must never forget that what our Heavenly Father desires more than anything else is for us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). We must not forget what Jesus says is most important: “…only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42).
As we see our pace beginning to increase, let’s draw near to God by quietly worshipping Him and giving thanks for the awesome gift of His Son. Let’s protect our schedule such that we have time for God’s very best. Let’s receive and enjoy His true blessings as we make time every day to simply be still and know.

For more information, Prayers and counseling you can contact,

Rev. Adbhuta Rao. Garnepudi

Millinium Baptist Church

Nambur, Guntur (Dist), A.P, S.India.

VISIT US : http://www.sites.google.com/site/wordmini/home

MAIL US : wordministries.india@gmail.com

CALL US : (+91)9848150491, 9908054910

Are You Under His Care?

The Bible uses many word pictures of salvation. Consider some of them.

Salvation is like a Rock  ~  “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation” (Psalm 95:1, c.f. Deuteronomy 32:15). 

Salvation is like a Horn  ~  “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2, c.f. Luke 1:69).

Salvation is like a Tower  ~  “He is the tower of salvation to His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore” (2 Samuel 22:51).

Salvation is like a Helmet  ~  “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head” (Isaiah 59:17a, c.f. Ephesians 6:17).  

Salvation is like a Shield  ~  “You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great” (2 Samuel 22:36).

Salvation is like a Lamp  ~  “For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns” (Isaiah 62:1). 

Salvation is like a Cup  ~  “I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm116:13). 

Salvation is like a Garment  ~  “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10, c.f. 2 Chronicles 6:41, Psalm 132:16).  

Salvation is like a Well  ~  “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).    

Salvation is like Walls and Bulwarks  ~  “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: ‘We have a strong city; God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks’” (Isaiah 26:1).

Conclusion  ~  “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).