Month: May 2022

Freed, US Blog

Freed To Love – Liberating Letters

May 23, 2022 by Percy Parakh

Galatians 5:1-15 NIV

Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 

4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 

10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 

12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 

14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

US Blog, Wonder

God Of Wonder Beyond Our Galaxy

May 23, 2022 by Percy Parakh

💫 ❤️ Amazing Skills 💖

🌞 The leader of our college singing group directed the group and accompanied us on the piano at the same time, skillfully balancing those responsibilities. At the close of one concert, he looked particularly weary, so I asked him if he was okay.

He responded, “I’ve never had to do that before.” Then he explained. “The piano was so out of tune that I had to play the whole concert in two different keys — my left hand playing in one key and my right hand in another !” I was blown away by the startling skill he displayed, and I was amazed at the One who creates humans to be capable of such things.

🙇‍♀️ King David expressed an even greater sense of wonder when he wrote, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex ! Your workmanship is marvelous — how well I know it.” Whether in people’s abilities or nature’s marvels, the wonders of creation point us to the majesty of our Creator.

🙇‍♂️ 🙇‍♂️ One day, when we’re in God’s presence, people from every generation will worship Him with the words, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” The amazing skills God gives us and the great beauty God has created are ample reason to worship Him. — ODB

If God has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound,
How beautiful beyond compare
Will paradise be found ! – Montgomery

The pleasures of earth cannot be compared to the joys of heaven.

🎊 Stay Blessed My Friend 😊 🌹

Needs, US Blog

My God Will Meet All Your Needs

May 23, 2022 by Percy Parakh

An Answer For Everything ❤️

🌞 Dad, can I have 10 dollars?” “Dad, can you help me with my math?” “Dad, what’s the capital of Maine?” “Dad, why can’t we get another car?” “Dad, I didn’t make the team.” The questions and requests and needs of my children seem endless. Whether they are in junior high, in high school, in college, or married, they never stop needing help.

🙇‍♀️ Often I can provide the help they need, but sometimes I am unable to come up with the answer or the solution. As much as I would like to, I don’t have an answer or the resources for everything. But I know who does. I know that God supplies all of our needs (Phil 4:19). And He knows when our requests are genuine needs, or when He must redirect our thinking instead.

🙇‍♂️ 🙇‍♂️ Consider this: When we think we are too tired to go on, Jesus says, “I will give you rest.” When we think no one cares, God says He loves us. When we can’t figure things out, God says He will guide us. When we need forgiveness, God says He will forgive us if we confess (admit) our weaknesses. God is our heavenly Father, who wants us to come to Him with our requests. He wants us to listen to Him speak through His Word. He has an answer for everything.
– J D Branon

For answered prayer we thank You,
Lord, we know You’re always there
To hear us when we call on You;
We’re grateful for Your care. – JDB

God never tires of our asking

Inheritance, US Blog

Receiving A Good Inheritance – Liberating Letters

May 17, 2022 by Percy Parakh

Galatians 3:18-29 NIV

18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Children of God

23 Before the coming of this faith,[a] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

What Are The Works Of The Law

In his letters, the apostle Paul warned the believers in the churches in Rome and Galatia not to place their hope for salvation in the works of the law. To the Roman Christians, he said, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his [God’s] sight” (Romans 3:20). To the Galatian believers: “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16; cf. 3:5). To justify is to declare righteous.

The “works of the law” are the actions performed to fulfill the Mosaic Law found in the first five books of the Old Testament. Keeping the Sabbath, being circumcised (the issue before the Galatian churches), eating “clean” foods, and other ceremonies are powerless to justify us in the sight of God. In addition, following the morality of the law (not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing) is insufficient to make us right in God’s eyes. No act on the part of sinful creatures can result in God’s declaring them to be righteous in His sight.

Why can’t the works of the law save us? First, because the works of the law can never be done completely. The standard is perfection, and that means “good enough” won’t pass muster. Paul explains to the Galatians: “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’” (Galatians 3:10, emphasis added). James further explains that anyone who offends in just one point is guilty of breaking the whole of the law (James 2:10). There are over six hundred individual commandments in the Mosaic Law, and breaking just one of them one time renders a person guilty. No one but Jesus ever kept the law perfectly.

Second, the law was never intended to justify anyone; it was given to show us our sinfulness and to reveal the perfect holiness of the Lawgiver (Romans 3:20). Without the law, we would not know what sin is (Romans 7:7). The law is holy because God is holy. Just as a straightedge reveals the crookedness of a line, so the law of God exposes our lack of holiness. No one measures up to God’s standard (Romans 3:10). The law cannot justify; it can only condemn. No one can stand before a holy God on the basis of his own efforts, even if those efforts include a hearty attempt at keeping the works of the law.

If the works of the law justify no one, and serve only to reveal our own sinfulness and our desperate state, what are we to do? The Bible offers the only solution to the problem of sin: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Romans 3:21–22). This is why “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, NKJV).

We can only be declared righteous “by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28), and that faith must rest in the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). To continue to attempt to earn a place in heaven through the works of the law is to ignore the sacrifice of Christ: “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21).

Father, India Blog

My Father Is The Best Mother On Earth

May 16, 2022 by Percy Parakh

Had tears running down when I read this?

Read on….. He was watering the plants in the posh gardens of an International school, heat and dust didn’t seem to affect him.

“Ganga Das, Principal Ma’am wants to see you — right now”…The last two words of the peon had lots of emphasis on them, trying to make it sound like an urgency.

He quickly got up, washed and wiped his hands and headed towards the Principal’s chamber. The walk from the garden to the office seemed never ending, his heart was almost jumping out of his chest.

He was trying all the permutation and combination, figuring out as to what has gone wrong that she wants to see him urgently…He was a sincere worker and never shirked his duties…knock knock…

“Madam, you called me?” “Come inside…” an authoritative voice made him further nervous…Salt n pepper hair, tied neatly in a french knot, a designer sari-sober and very classic, glasses resting on the bridge of her nose…She pointed out towards a paper kept on the table…”Read this”…

“B..but Ma’am I am an illiterate person. I can not read English. Ma’am please forgive me if I have done anything wrong… give me another chance… I am forever indebted to you for allowing my daughter to study in this school, free of cost… I could have never ever dreamt of such a life for my child..”

And he broke down almost trembling: “Hold on, you assume a lot…we allowed your daughter because she is very bright and you have been our sincere worker.. Let me call a teacher in, she will read it out and translate it to you… this is written by your daughter and I want you to read this.

“Soon enough the teacher was called and she started reading it, translating each line in Hindi…It read-“Today we are asked to write about Mother’s Day. I belong to a village in Bihar, a tiny village where medical help and education still seem like a far fetched dream.

Many women die every now and then while giving birth. My mother was one of them too, she could not even hold me in her arms. My father was the first person to hold me.. or perhaps the only person.

Everyone was sad.. as I was a girl and I had “eaten up” my own mother. My dad was instantly asked to remarry but he refused. My grandparents forced him by giving all logical, illogical and emotional reasons but he didn’t budge.

My grand parents wanted a grandson, they threatened him to remarry or else he would be disowned…He didn’t think twice… he left everything, his acres of land.. a good living, comfortable house, cattle and everything that counts for a good lifestyle in a village.

He came to this huge city with absolutely nothing — but me in his arms. Life was tough, he worked hard day and night.. raised me with tender love and utmost care.

Now I understand why suddenly he developed a dislike for things that I would love to eat when there was only one piece left in the platter…. he would say that he hated eating it and I would finish it considering that he did not like it…. but as I grew older I realised the reason and what sacrifice is all about.

He gave me the best possible comforts beyond his capacity. This school gave him a shelter, respect and the biggest gift — an admission to his daughter…If love and care defines a mother… then my father fits in there.

If compassion defines a mother, my father fits in well in that category too…If sacrifice defines a mother, my father dominates that category. So in a nut shell.. if a mother is made of love, care sacrifice and compassion… MY FATHER IS THE BEST MOTHER ON EARTH THEN.

On Mother’s Day, I would like to wish my father for being the best parent on earth… I salute him and say it with pride that the hardworking gardener working in this school is my father.

I know I may fail this test after my teacher reads this — but this would be a very small price one would pay towards an ode to the selfless love of my father. There was a deafening silence in the room… one could only hear soft sobbing of Ganga Das….

The harsh sun could not wet his clothes with sweat but soft words of his daughter had soaked his chest with tears…. he was standing there with hands folded. He took the paper from the teacher’s hands… held it close to his heart and sobbed.

Principal got up.. offered him a chair, glass of water and said something… but, strangely the crispness of her voice was taken over by a surprising warmth and sweetness….”Ganga Das.. your daughter is given 100/100 marks for this essay…

This is the best essay ever written about Mother’s Day in the history of this school. We are having the Mother’s Day gala event tomorrow and the entire School Management has decided to invite you as the Chief Guest for the event…

This is to honor all the love and sacrifice a man can do to raise his children… to show that you do not have to be a woman to be the perfect parent…And most importantly this is to reinforce/appreciate/acknowledge the strong belief of your daughter in you, to make her feel proud.. to make the entire school feel proud that we have the best parent on earth as stated by your daughter.”

“You are a True Gardner, who is not only looking after the gardens, but also nurturing the most precious flower of your life in such a beautiful way….””So Ganga Das, will you be our Chief Guest for the event?

Purpose, US Blog

According To The Bible, How To Find Purpose In Your Life

May 16, 2022 by Percy Parakh

The Bible is very clear as to what our purpose in life should be. Men in both the Old and New Testaments sought for and discovered life’s purpose. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, discovered the futility of life when it is lived only for this world.

He gives these concluding remarks in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Solomon says that life is all about honoring God with our thoughts and lives and thus keeping His commandments, for one day we will stand before Him in judgment. Part of our purpose in life is to fear God and obey Him.

Another part of our purpose is to see life on this earth in perspective. Unlike those whose focus is on this life, King David looked for His satisfaction in the time to come. He said, “And I—in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

To David, full satisfaction would come on the day when he awoke (in the next life) both beholding God’s face (fellowship with Him) and being like Him (1 John 3:2).

In Psalm 73, Asaph talks about how he was tempted to envy the wicked who seemed to have no cares and built their fortunes upon the backs of those they took advantage of, but then he considered their ultimate end.

In contrast to what they sought after, he states in verse 25 what mattered to him: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (verse 25). To Asaph, a relationship with God mattered above all else in life. Without that relationship, life has no real purpose.

The apostle Paul talked about all he had achieved religiously before being confronted by the risen Christ, and he concluded that all of it was like a pile of manure compared to the excellence of knowing Christ Jesus.

In Philippians 3:9-10, Paul says that he wants nothing more than to know Christ and “be found in Him,” to have His righteousness and to live by faith in Him, even if it meant suffering and dying.

Paul’s purpose was knowing Christ, having a righteousness obtained through faith in Him, and living in fellowship with Him, even when that brought on suffering (2 Timothy 3:12). Ultimately, he looked for the time when he would be a part of the “resurrection from the dead.”

Our purpose in life, as God originally created man, is 1) glorify God and enjoy fellowship with Him, 2) have good relationships with others, 3) work, and 4) have dominion over the earth.

But with man’s fall into sin, fellowship with God is broken, relationships with others are strained, work seems to always be frustrating, and man struggles to maintain any semblance of dominion over nature. Only by restoring fellowship with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, can purpose in life be rediscovered.

The purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We glorify God by fearing and obeying Him, keeping our eyes on our future home in heaven, and knowing Him intimately. We enjoy God by following His purpose for our lives, which enables us to experience true and lasting joy—the abundant life that He desires for us.

Hope, US Blog

Hope For The Future – Liberating Letters

May 11, 2022 by Percy Parakh

Romans 8:18-30 NIV

Present Suffering and Future Glory

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 

24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[b] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 

30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Tactics, US Blog

The Enemy’s Tactic Is To Entice People To Believe His Lies

May 11, 2022 by Percy Parakh

The enemy is not everywhere. He can only be where there is an opening for him. The enemy doesn’t know everything, and he doesn’t know what you think.

He only knows what you say. So watch what you say. If you say, “I hate my life and I don’t want to live anymore,” the enemy will help you get what you say you want.

Or if you say, “I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and God will enable me to live the life He has for me because I pray in Jesus’ name,” the enemy is powerless against your prayers in Jesus’ name and can do nothing.

The enemy is not even close to being as powerful as God. Only God is everywhere, all-knowing and all-powerful. Keep that firmly in your mind.(Excerpt from Stormie’s book, “The Power of Praying Through Fear”)#ThePowerofPrayingThroughFear

Real Jesus, US Blog

Why You Might Not Be Worshipping The Real Jesus

May 5, 2022 by Percy Parakh

The real identity of the church is in proportion to her identity with the real Jesus. But, too often, the believer’s identity is with things pertaining to a form of Christianity based on doctrinal fads and theological biases or a leader’s personality—shaped within a “Christian” subculture built on its own ideals, philosophies, and traditions, combined with a particular brand or flavor of God created in our own image, and not with Christ Himself.

“It seems to me that, if we get one look at Christ in His love and beauty, this world and its pleasures will look very small to us.” —D.L. Moody

“Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image.” —A.W. Tozer

“There is a God we want, and there is a God who is … And they are not the same God.” —Patrick Morley

“As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. No one can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.” —Albert Einstein, Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 26, 1929

“The wicked have fashioned a god who will not hold them accountable.” —Carter Conlon

“Too many Christians want a manageable, domesticated Jesus who makes no demands on their time, money, words, social life and sexuality. In the midst of this great and growing deception, God is looking for uncompromising believers who are committed to proclaiming the truth of the gospel and not the counterfeit Jesus of Western Culture.” —Anonymous

“Too many of us have constructed a “god in a box,” a god whose job is merely to pander to our needs, desires, and ambitions.” —Anonymous

“We offer a motivational, pep-talk, feel-good, self-help, personal-empowerment Jesus rather than the Jesus of the Scriptures, and, in doing so, we damn our hearers rather than deliver them.” —Dr. Michael L. Brown

“Sadly, I think many in the community of believers cling to an Americanized gospel which equates what is biblically true and reliable with being part and parcel of various right-wing political agendas. Actually, Christianity itself in the U.S. and many other nations has been interpreted (and by virtue of this) rewritten to gel with sentiments and ideas that actually run contrary to what the Messiah taught and advocated (Torah-based Judaism), e.g., unbridled capitalism and the greed it is predicated on and the corruption it engenders and promotes.

I dare say if Yeshua HaMashiach physically visited most American churches, He would not recognize what was being taught and advocated as being remotely like what He articulated and lived.” —Dr. Anthony G. Payne

In order to have the true image of Christ built into your spirit, you must consider the entire body of His life, example and teachings. For instance, if you focus only on the account of Jesus going into the temple and overturning the tables of the moneychangers in a fit of righteous indignation and driving them out of the temple with a whip, you would be led to believe that Jesus is angry with people day and night.

Your image of Him would be that He is looking for a reason to punish you instead of bless you. Having this mindset of the Son of God would make you think of Him as a religious fanatic filled with rage, which puts Him closer to being a candidate for anger-management classes. This image does not inspire love, faith and praise in the human heart.

On the other hand, and this happens much more frequently, if you focused your image of Him on His encounter and exchange with the adulterous woman whom the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to stone, you probably would come to the conclusion that Jesus never gets angry, never judges, and is just the sweetest, most gentle person.

This image would probably cause you to act presumptuously, believing that Jesus always understands you and your sinful issues and will let you get away with anything. This mindset would eventually lead you to believe and live in an unscriptural mercy. In the West and nations that have been influenced by the false Western gospel, this is the image of Jesus most are familiar with, and their conduct is derived from such a one-sided perception.

Yet neither conclusion would be right within itself, because both sides are Him, and we can know Jesus and His person only as we study the full body of His life and teachings.

If most Christians represented the real Jesus, many people would more easily believe in Him, for, when He is presented in the true light of the Scriptures, the average human heart would be irresistibly drawn to Him.

What we behold is what we eventually become.

When we behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror (this means, at least in part, to behold Him in the mirror of His Word and by the Spirit’s unveiling of Him to your spirit), we will be gradually transformed by the Holy Spirit into that same glory and reflect the brightness of that image out to the world.

“But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18).

Many are convinced that they are faithful Bible believers but, in fact, worship a feel-good, self-help, motivational, and manageable Jesus — one which the Bible refers to as “another Jesus” (1 Corinthians 11:4)—one contracted from an idolatrous image they’ve built up in their minds, based on sentimental Western values.

This counterfeit Jesus makes no demands on their time, money, words, social life or sexuality. In the midst of this great and growing deception, God is looking for uncompromising believers and real disciples who are wholeheartedly committed to proclaiming the real Jesus.

Are you serving the Americanized version of Jesus or the real, biblical Jesus?

When we see Jesus as He is, glorious and altogether worthy of our deepest loyalties and affections, deserving of our total focus and supreme attention, we will catch fire inwardly and burn with holy fear, as the two did on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:31-32). Then a holy hunger for the Word will grip our hearts, and we will proclaim Him as He is.

This is an excerpt from the fourth book of a compelling tetralogy called The Real Jesus. 

Freed, US Blog

Freed From The Past – Liberating Letters

May 2, 2022 by Percy Parakh

Romans 6:1-14 NIV

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 

13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

New Normal, US Blog

Pray We Go To A New Normal

May 2, 2022 by Percy Parakh

I PRAY WE DON’T GO BACK TO NORMAL

1. I pray that the next time a friend grabs me and pulls me in for a hug, I actually take the time to appreciate the gift of their embrace.

2. I pray that when school resumes and people are dropping kids off, they take the time to thank the staff for the amazing gift that they give to our community.

3. I pray that the next time I’m sitting in a crowded restaurant I take the time to look around at the smiling faces, loud voices and thank God for the gift of community.

4. I pray that the next time I’m standing in church listening to the voices of praise and worship that I take a moment to thank God for the gift of congregation.

5. I pray that the next time I see a person or situation that needs prayer, I hope I pray as passionately and fervently as I have these past few weeks.

6. I pray that when I am at the grocery store that I take a moment to thank God that He provides us with the necessities of life and the amazing people who work so hard to keep us supplied

7. I pray that I never again take for granted the ability to hop in the car and visit a friend, go to the mall, go to a gathering, etc. So, truth is, I don’t want things to return to the way they once were. I pray that we take the lessons and challenges of the past few weeks and create a new normal. My goal is to pray more, love harder and truly appreciate the daily abundance of blessings that were so easily overlooked just a mere few weeks ago.

Be Blessed Today!** copied and shared **

Individualism, US Blog

Individualism, Enemy Of The Church

May 2, 2022 by Percy Parakh

INDIVIDUALISM – ENEMY of THE CHURCH by Andrew Strom

We live in an utterly individualistic and “self”-oriented age today. I’m sure few would disagree. Every advertisement appeals to ‘self’ in some way. We are taught from childhood to be completely self-contained, reliant on no-one, living in our own little bubble where we decide exactly what will take place.

We are often frightened to commit to any particular group or cause, any particular leadership. The modern man is an “individualist” to the core. “Don’t ask me to join or commit! And don’t tell me how to live my life!”

But all of this, of course, is the exact opposite of “Body”. It is the exact opposite of ‘Community’. And thus the exact opposite of the true Church. And yet millions upon millions of Christians today (especially in the West) are just as “individualistic” as the next man. Sometimes even more so.

As noted previously, the very first sentence used to describe the early church says: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”(Acts 2:42).That is the very picture of a BODY – not a pile of “individualists”.

They have GIVEN themselves to a group and a cause – a group with real LEADERS who are anointed preachers from God. But it is almost anathema for a modern person to give themselves to any group in such a way. We are far too suspicious and individualistic and untrusting to ever do such a thing.

And thus the question must be asked: Is it even possible to have a true “BODY” in our day? Is “CHURCH” (in the true sense) even a concept that we can understand? Or have the media and our entire culture so “individualized” us that true ‘Body’ is no longer possible?

You know, Christianity is not designed to be lived out by a pack of “individualists”. And half-committed “building-attenders” on Sunday mornings are not it either. Christianity is designed to be lived out CORPORATELY – the “Body of Christ” – an entity that can be seen and observed by people – full of the glory of Jesus.

A Body that corporately carries all the words and power and love and miracles of the King. So how on earth can such a “gathering” take place? How can the scattered remnant of today come together to form such a Body?

Well, it all starts with the anointed “word”. You notice in the above verse that these people gathered around a very specific thing – “The apostles’ doctrine and fellowship”. It is an anointed apostolic “word” being preached that is a crucial element in all this.

From such a ‘word’ everything else follows and comes into alignment. But the big question is – Could today’s “individualistic” types bring themselves to form a real ‘Body’ – even if such a word was being preached? Or is individualism so ingrained that even ‘apostolic’ preaching might not bring this about?

These are questions that every one of us should be asking ourselves if we ever hope to be part of a true movement of God in these Last Days.