Recall Recognition Relationship

 

I was reading this verse from the Book of Isaiah a few days ago.  

The ox knows its master,
    the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand.” Isaiah 1:3

 

If we ponder on this verse it is about memory. The animals have a memory, God has a memory, however, alas the human’s memory seems to fail. What does having a memory mean? It enables us to recognize persons and places. The ox has a memory of its master and therefore connects with the master. The donkey often the butt of jokes for not having intelligence also knows where the owner's stall is. Despite grazing in the open freely their memory takes them back to their owner’s and their place of stay.

“my people” indicates the relationship God has with the people of Israel. While God is seeking out His people, his people are not able to connect with their God.

The Ox is aware of who its master is, and the donkey knows its dwelling place. The learning for us as Humans is to respond to the call of our Master and be aware of our eternal home.

Can we recall the goodness of God, Recognize His Divinity, and build our relationship with Him so that we are assured of our Eternal Home.

Emmanuel David October 2023

Finding Meaning in a Church Greeting

 

I was pondering the theme for this month’s Remarkable and thought it rather a difficult one to write about. However, listening to the services (sometimes twice on a Sunday), I heard these oft-repeated verses at the end of every service:

Minister: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Minister: Let us depart in peace.

People: In the name of Christ. Amen.

I thought I would delve deeper into this greeting that we so easily say.

The origin is Latin, and the exact words are ‘Dominus vobiscum’, which means “The Lord be with you.” The response in Latin is ‘Et cum spiritu tuo’, which means “And with thy spirit.” Later, in our contemporary translation, it was changed to “And also with you” so that the Lord is with our full being.

This greeting of the minister and the congregation is what unites each of us as the Church of Christ. So, as we leave the sanctuary, we are leaving with the assurance to each other that our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are with us.

We also affirm to depart in peace in the name of Christ. These are only 20 words; however, they give us assurance, affirmation, and a call to action.

Assurance: The Lord was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego at their moment of trial by fire. The Lord was present with Moses at the burning bush, and with His disciples during the storm, as well as with the two on the walk to Emmaus. We are affirming to each other that the Lord will be with us in the coming week, day, or perhaps even the next hour.

If this is so, what is the call to action? Having the Lord and the Holy Spirit with us would mean that our behaviour shows the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

A couple of months ago, after driving out of church, I was upset with someone in a public place, and Nazarene, my wife, asked me a provocative question: “Can’t we be peaceful after attending the church service? What witness are you leaving behind?” When we tell each other to depart in peace, in Christ’s name, we have a responsibility, and we hold each other accountable.

Hebrews 3:12-13 says, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

May our Lord be with each one of you.

Something to Think about

 

The Bigger Picture

It was a Saturday  afternoon, and I was pleasantly surprised when our friends dropped in. We made an impromptu decision to go to a close by restaurant.  It was 1:30, our driver Srinivas was having his lunch. Not wanting to interrupt our driver’s lunch we hopped into our friend’s vehicle as we headed for lunch. However, we instructed Srinivas to pick us up from the restaurant.

The usually reliable Srinivas was not to be seen and on top of it he was not picking the phone. On reaching home, we saw Srinivas fast asleep on the porch.

We had the right to be harsh with him even though he apologized profusely. But then we overlooked this incident saying “its fine Srinivas don’t worry” 

We went about our routines and Nazarene went upstairs and to her shock she found we left the balcony door open. Now things fell into place. Locks could not protect our house, which had been burgled twice over the last two years. “Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain”.

It took some time and then we realized Srinivas reneging on his duty to pick us up and sleep on the porch was perhaps a protection plan of God. We felt good for not being harsh on Srinivas.

Later in the evening, I narrated this lapse on our part to Srinivas and how grateful we are to God for His Protection. I asked him how he felt when he saw us walk home. He said he felt very bad and guilty.

Then I asked him how does he feel after I had narrated about this part and his role in protecting our house. He said that definitely he has seen God’s protection and care and he feels better now and resolved to do his duty even better.

 

26^th November 2022

Trust an unknown future to a Known God

Many years ago, I was called to the office of the CEO of the company I worked at. He informed me that he would not like for me to continue working with them, after which he asked me to resign. Conversations such as this aren’t typically pleasant and neither are their outcomes. As someone in HR, I had been on the other side of this conversation many times. Having been at the receiving end this time, I had to take it with equanimity.

I went home and told Nazarene, my wife, about this conversation and its outcome. Naturally, we felt disappointed and forlorn thinking about the future. We happened to be in the midst of shifting houses at that time and needed to clear some items from the old house. We therefore went to the old house later that evening to clean it up.

Lying on the floor in the living room amidst all the dust was half of a poster that I purchased when I started working in the early eighties. Here it is:

Nazarene noticed it and pointed it out to me. We both stood still for a few moments and felt the Lord Himself speak to us. We felt a reassuring calmness and we reaffirmed our Faith in God. Over the years, we’ve grown in our spiritual life. God has been faithful to us despite various troughs and valleys thereafter.

Now, as I reminisce about what happened so long ago, I am awestruck by God’s blessings on me. I superannuated as Director of TMTC a few months ago. When many in the world were laid off, I was asked to continue beyond my retirement age, which was an added blessing. We have all enjoyed good health, the love and affection of family and friends and the opportunity to work, contribute and make a difference. I am living a future that was unknown to me so many years ago and it is all because of God’s grace.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33,  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

As we close 2021, my family and I express gratitude for the year gone by and look forward in hope to 2022.

We wish you good health, peace and happiness for 2022 and leave this assurance “ Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a Known God.”

 Wish you a blessed 2022

Ask Seek Knock at Christmas

 

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9)

This is a verse from the Bible where Jesus tells us to perform three actions: to ask, to seek, and to knock. Jesus goes on to explain the outcome of these actions in the next verse:

“For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:10)

 

My parents were deeply involved in Christian Literature work during their lives. For Edward David, my dad, writing, translating, and editing Christian literature was his vocation and profession. However, my mom, Queena Celestina Komali David, got involved primarily to support my dad with editing the Telugu Christian Hymnal, Bible Concordance as well the revision of the Telugu Bible. As they sat and worked together, they would naturally discuss and disagree on certain things in each session.

During one such session, my mom asked my father what his understanding of the verses above was. My dad responded in a manner similar to how most of us would: he said that these verses were about asking God for something for one’s own self. Many of us would interpret these verses from our own perspectives as well, viewing these as promises to fulfill personal wishes.

 

Mom listened to his explanation carefully. She then spoke, providing her own understanding of these verses as follows:

“Ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on you;

Seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness first in your life

Seek for the lost souls;

Knock at the closed hearts of the people.”

 

What a beautiful interpretation! I unfortunately did not witness this incident, but dad narrated this to us a few months after Mom passed on to eternal life in 1994.

Therefore, this Christmas do remember the words of the Lord and may the prayer of Queena Celestina David inspire you to ask for God’s blessing, seek beyond yourself and knock on greater challenges.

Happy Christmas.

Emmanuel David                                                                     Christmas 2021

Gratitude through Generations : Thoughts on Psalm105

 

One morning, as part of my own meditation, I read all of Psalm105. I didn’t plan to read it; I just happened to read it. This Psalm essentially asks people to worship and trust in the Lord, because of what He has done for us.

This Psalm has 45 verses, wherein almost about 600 years of history is captured, from Abraham to Joshua. Isn’t it amazing?

Let’s think a little bit about King David, who writes this Psalm. Can you imagine almost a thousand years separate him from when Abraham lived.  It is also almost  350 years after the Israelites went into Canaan. Now consider this, At the time when  King David  was writing this Psalm, he did not have access to the internet, nor to libraries in the same way that we do today.

There are a couple of things we can conclude about King David and his context. The first and the most obvious one is this: King David was a well-read man who had access to all the literature of that time. Second, there was some sort of thorough way in which history was recorded. Either it was meticulously passed on through oral tradition or it was carefully recorded in writing. Third, King David was a poet. His poetry was deeply reflective. He was able to connect the history of that time to his context and relate it to God’s faithfulness to His People.

Isn’t it amazing? Despite a 1000 years separating Abraham and King David, the king was able to connect various elements of Israel’s history right from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the travails of Joseph. Here, he speaks of Joseph’s role in prison and then as a helper to Pharaoh and it goes on. We then come to the birth of Moses, the captivity of Israelites in Egypt and how they lived for several years. Then arrive the plagues, miraculous signs in the plagues and then the journey of the Israelites across the Red Sea and giving them food through manna. He also opened the water from the rock,  All these aspects are captured by David in one single Psalm!

What struck me through all of this is the fact that we have a living word. At different levels and at different times, you will see that the mercies of the past and the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all fulfilled. Thus, when we look at our current context, the Psalm 105  can inspire us to recount the faithfulness of our Lord over the past generations. We have an opportunity to connect God's Faithfulness from our  ancestors to our present times and Praise our Lord. 

The Creation of Adam- Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel

I had the opportunity to take this picture 2018