Shalom

Don't be afraid, he said, for you are precious to God. Peace. Be encouraged. Be strong

Dan:10:19

O child of God, do not be afraid. Because you are precious to God. Because He is on your side. Because He is your everlasting Father. Peace. Be encouraged. Be strong. 

Whatever you are going through. Your eternal Father will take care. Peace. Be encouraged. Be strong. 

He will not let anything pass by you what you cannot bear. And if God is for us, who can be against us. Peace. Be encouraged. Be strong. 

He will not leave you not forsake you. Peace. Be ency. Be strong. 

Image credit:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalom

Disappointment with God

Why did God allow the marines to shoot at the innocent fishermen in kerala?
Why did God allow the gang rape in Delhi?
Why did God allow the mass shooting in the US?
Why so many die of hunger and famine in Somalia and other low socio economic countries?
Why these earthquakes and volcanoes and Sandies and Katrinas?

and to be personal

Why does God allow sadness in my life?
Why does God allow debts and sickness in my life?
Where is God when I am lonely?


Well few of these questions were troubling me for the past few days. At least after the main headlines in the newspapers for the past one or two months.

May be divine intervention there was an inner prompting for me to search what is the reason. Somehow my hands fell on a wonderful book called "disappointment with God" by Philip Yancey. He puts forth three questions.
             - Is God Unfair
             - Is He silent
             - Is He hidden
 After reading the book i thought may be i should write a summary of the book.

Well  now i have a different perspective for the disappointments in mine and the entire world.

summarizing the book is a tedious job. I know i cannot sum up the entire book.But an attempt to do so if at all it helps somebody who has a query.

the points which i would highlight might not be the exact answers offered. But it helps us to see things in a different perspective.

1.   Israel nation was directly intervened both personally and as a nation whenever there were similar issues.
but has situations changed for them? Did they stop rebelling. In fact they were directly blessed in food, in land, in kings everything they asked God He provided. But all they could offer Him back was rebellion and disobedience and rejection.
2. People say God doesn't intervene now. But the truth is He is intervening even now. But might not be the way people expect. Why do we expect God to react in a way we want Him to react.
3. Agreed God is a just God. But His love curtails Himself from reacting blatantly. His love expects every soul to love Him back and turn back to Him. If He keeps on reacting to every sin who all will be left in this world. For God says the wages of sin is death. And beware. For Him anger is as grievous as murder and lust is as grievous as promiscuity or prostitution
4. In old testament time Yahweh responded directly to Israel. In Jesus time He was there to actively get involved in healing the sick and feeding the hungry. In this present time it is the Holy Spirit who is actively working through the church. That means through people like you and me. Let me ask you a question. Those who criticize that God is not doing anything for the poor and the needy and sick what are those people personally doing for those sick and needy and poor in and around them. It is easy to say about Somalia or Nigeria and seem not to see your immediate neighbours who are  hungry and poor and sick.
5. God's priority is not physical deliverance. May be sometimes He uses that to bring many people to Him. But His ultimate purpose for you and me is spiritual deliverance. A deliverance from the clutches of sin. For which He died on the cross. If someone would understand this truth by any means He will do that. Man has the freedom to descend to deny God. (Though a person who denies God thinks of himself as an intellectual and superior to others who have blind faith). But will he be willing to ascend to believe God despite evidences.
6. Think in God's perspective. He is also grieved of the problems of this world. But more is His disappointment seeing the plight of this world, the sinfulness, the wretchedness.

Well as i said these are not answers for the questions. But they surely changed my perspective.

ultimately instead of being disappointed with God, we should face our disappointments with God.

You do not have to sit outside in the dark, if however you want to look at the stars you will find that darkness is required. the stars neither require it nor demand it      -- Annie Dillard

so have faith guys. do not be disappointed. His wonderful delivering hands are always there to take you through.

Moral of the story: Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in the reverse 

The creator God.

The first verse of the bible says

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth........Gen:1:1

well it has to be that serious that god chose to put that as the first verse of his word. that means if i dont accept the fact that our god is the creator god, i dont have any business with whatever is written after that
is it true?
well for me this was just like any other verses in the bible.after today i have realised that its one of the major verses in the Word. just like john.3.16, 1 john.3.16 or phil 4.4

today being a hartal day we a group of docs from st. john's hospital kattappana decided to explore the beauty of nature.
in kerala hartals have become part and parcel of the people here, just like Onam or christmas. it has become a national holiday where you can sit and relax. well this was one way of relaxing for us outside our normal mundane schedule of OPs and procedures

we set of early in the morning
led by a stalwart in this field, dr. james and my senior colleague dr. cherian

led by the team leaders

our destination was approximately 7 kms away... for me 7 km walk is like around the world in eighty days...phew.

but the beauty of the nature i was about to see kept me on.

two views of the hill we were trying to assail

as we went on James sir ( an old Bsc Botany turned ENt surgeon) and Joy chechi (a well known agriculturalist turned dentist) kept on bombarding us with their knowledge about the flora and fauna of mettukkuzhy and karuvakkulam

Rejoice in the Lord always.

well everybody knows where this vs is from.

is it really practically possible to rejoice in the lord always.

Don Moen, presently the President of Integrity Music, related  the following earthshaking story of tragedy and death, which led to the writing of one of Christendom’s most meaningful songs. Don’s sister-in-law, Susan Phelps, and her husband Craig, were involved in a car accident during a ski trip from their Oklahoma home to a resort in Colorado. Far out in the Texas panhandle their van was hit by an eighteen wheeler. A rear panel of the van was hit with such force that all four of the Phelps’ children were thrown out.

In the darkness they were able to locate all of their injured children by their crying -- all except one. Craig, who was a physician, finally located him beside a nearby fence. He was already dead. His neck had been broken.

As Craig picked up his son and tried to revive him, God said to him, “Jeremy is with me. You deal with those who are living.” They sat for forty-five minutes out in the wilderness waiting for an ambulance.

Don had been asked to sing for the funeral, so the next day while traveling by plane to Oklahoma, he began to read in Isaiah chapter 43 where God says, I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” He picked up his legal pad and sketched a song that the Lord was giving him He planned to sing it at the memorial service. When he arrived he found that the Phelps had already selected Henry Smith’s song, Give Thanks, for him to sing.

After the funeral Don, while holding Susan and Craig in his arms, said, “The Lord gave me a song for you,” and he began to sing God will make a way, where there seems to be no way. He later made a taped copy of the song for Susan to play on her small cassette player just above her kitchen sink. He knew that when all of the people had gone, and everything was said and done, that there would be days when she needed to hear that God was working in ways that she couldn’t see.

Don continued, “About two years later I was called to sing in a small church in Dothan, Alabama. Although I had never intended to sing God Will Make a Way in a public service -- I had written it just for that grieving family -- somehow I felt impressed of the Lord to share the song with those people. I did so, and it had a tremendous impact on them.”

Give thanks and God will make a way??? what amazing faith

Do miracles happen even now?

It all started from yet another quick decision of ours to go for a prayer meeting in Muvattupuzha. my sister and family was also there. They were also excited to see Esa after a long time.

The meeting was a grant success. there was an altar call and many people turned to the Lord. 

then this happened the preacher asked us to call in the name of Jesus to receive healing from His name. and in response many people witnessed loud that a miracle has indeed happened.

my first response was that of unbelief. (Definitely from the devil)

" Does these things really happen these days?"

" I mean these days miracles happen slowly right and through mediators like doctors"

" Was he really having a problem before?"

You know the same old question the snake asked Eve when she was tempted in the garden of Eden..." Did God REALLY tell you to eat everything in the garden?"

God knew i was not in the right track..Through the wonderful counsel of my wife He urged me to pray to remove my unbelief.

He told me if i could do it 2000 years back, then why cant i do it now?

If i can do through doctors, why cant i do it now?

 Last came a boy, He was holding a sling in his hand(something you use to brace up your hand in case of a bone fracture)

he testified he had a fracture about one week back and he couldn't lift up his hand. my initial response was Not possible. then he lifted up his hand and showed everyone. there was a huge roar of HALLELUJAH. still i was unmoved. Then his parents were called on to stage. Mother told that they were sure to see a miracle today. Such was her faith. Then his father unbuttoned his shirt to show plaster on his left upper chest. Being a doctor i could identify it as clavicle brace. and they went on to say even the hospital' name where they took treatment.

i sat back to think. see this cannot be gimmick. they cannot fool everyone sitting there. they cannot prepare so well to tell a lie. this has to be real. this has to be a MIRACLE.

logically i started to accept that thus a miracle has happened.

the choir went on to sing

" I believe, you're my healer

I believe you are all i need

I believe you're my portion

I believe you're more than enough for me....

Jesus you're all i need"

I told my self that i believe. And i told the devil that i refuse to unbelieve.

Actually then and there another miracle happened. I STARTED TO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES.

Moral of the story: Never take God lightly. Do not challenge his ability. He is all powerful. just like he changed a rock hearted person like me, He could do that to you as well. light heartedly i can say---- dare to challenge God to be changed

Exam time....... it is time to praise the lord

Well..... this is not something which happened today. but its worth blogging.

may be it would be useful for MBBS students...this happened about 6-7 years back. When i was doing my undergraduation in Govt. Medical college Kottayam.

May be few of you might have heard of it from me.. but its worth hearing once more...coz all glory is to god...

it was ophthalmolgy exam time.

as a christian this was the year i started thinking as a practical christian..means i started taking practical decisions for god..one of which was not to cheat in an exam. to put it in black and white, it is easy. but to practise it was extremely difficult bcs, internal medicine exams were so structured. there was a 10 mark essay question, few 1 mark short notes and few 2 mark short notes apart from MCQs. so if you lose on essay, you are doomed

once you get the question paper, the first thing you confirm is whether the essay is something which you can blast or be blasted. so this day, when i saw the essay, i was in a total black out. coz neither had i any clue as to what the diagnosis was, nor could i choose to disobey god in the promise i gave. coz this was one of the major first decisions i took for god and couldnt back out.

i had huge temptation to ask my colleagues what it was..

you know the situation. when a red amith with horns on his head and tail sits on your left shoulder and a white angelic amith on your right shoulder and argues out on your decision.

but this time i had to face a huge strong devilish amith. it was a huge struggle. but by god's grace i said a big NO.

well i decided to give god some time. i went on writing the other questions.

just half hour left for the exam to get over. and i was done with the other questions..still the temptation rose up. BUT I DECIDED TO CLOSE MY PEN AND PRAY.

that made the difference for sure

15 mts later as if i was seeing a clear vision.A BOLT FROM THE BLUE, the answer just popped up into my mind. and not only that, the page in the book with all diagrams just picturised in front of my eyes...

Diagn: POST INFECTIOUS OPTIC NEURITIS

emfi biennial conference and a sort of get together

its been almost two months since we as a family thought of attending the emfi biennial conference in mahabalipuram.we dint have that sort of a commitment to attend the conference, but god had different plans.
we realised it was god's plan when we found ourselves face to face with "N" no. of problems..baby's health, travel and many more.
it was then when we realised that god wanted us to go for it, bcs he had amazing things to be done through this conference because we sensed the devil being restless.
so we decided to do the right thing. to pray as a family regarding this.
slowly but specifically we found that all the complications getting solved by his grace, and there was a lot of clarity now..
we felt his push saying "Go"
there is a lot to be written about the way he led us intrain and the time we had with dr. beena in shaping us up (after long time)