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LOVE INTO PRACTICE

Of course, love is the highest form of spiritual as well as human faculty that draws someone’s affection, attention, care and responsibility upon the deserving person or situation. Love is too strong to convince and influence a person to do good to the beloved person. The living Lord Jesus Christ once asked one of His disciples, named Apostle Peter, whether he had supreme love for the Lord. The Apostle promptly answered positive and assertive. Then the Lord commanded him to love and take care of his followers to help them grow up spiritually for the glory of our Father in heaven.Our Lord asked that question three times to the Apostle and also commanded him to take care of the lambs, always with all sincerity, in His name. Today, He is also asking the same question to all of the believers and demands the same answer and action that the Apostle did deliver. In the context of Bangladesh, we have been applying certain system to introduce the living Lord Jesus Christ to the unreached people. We have been doing hard to saturate this country with His marvelous life saving teachings so that they may have a chance and ability to get the taste of salvation and eternal life through it. Certainly they must compare the unique teachings to other sorts of religious and social teachings. Since we have been working here, in Bangladesh, for last 25 years, the compassionate God, out of His unlimited mercy, made us rooted in this soil to glorify Him. He made us open to cordially receive, any evangelist, from any corner of the globe, for the sake of His kingdom. Over here harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few by number. We want to share our experience to the new comers in the field. We can assure you that, until now, the field is so open and ripen than imagination. People are very friendly and loving, ready to stretch out hands to assist you. If someone is really filled with and regenerated by the Holy Spirit and sent out by the Lord to evangelize this country, undoubtedly, he would be successful.May we request all of you, earnestly, not to try again, in setting up the table, that the Lord did overturned in the temple? We come across so many businessmen who do earn commercial gain in the name of evangelism. Practically they pollute the society spreading mere lies. A light shines in the darkness and people obviously see it even from distance. Those people confuse the new believers in the name of a concocted strategy that is an underground movement for the Lord. Well, faith is a matter of heart. Every believer must conceive and nurture it secretly. It takes root in the hearts, but its impact and impression are manifested in the broad daylight. Those people never stretch their hands of cooperation to the groups that have been involved in the practical evangelical works so long. We can compare them with the Pharisees and Seduces who had passed by the wounded person in the plea of religious duties.It is a matter of regret that, we come across few people, those who verbally claim that the Living Lord calls them out yet they ignore the field and opportunity for the works. They should come forward using all possible means to foster and enhance one another to render more vital fruits. They try to play dual game between the truth and the falsehood. They ask the believers to keep their faith under mask. Anyone may keep the teachings of the Lord apart from the influence of the culture or tradition, but the message must be kept & presented intact. There shouldn’t have any tendency to play a sordid game using the life saving message of our Lord. The present Govt. tries her best to implement the constitution that ascertained and assured equal religious rights to all people irrespective of color or caste. Obviously, the Govt. must be on the alert to detect all sorts of subversive activities, being done, in the name of evangelism or humanism.Dr. Billy Graham wrote that “when you come to Christ, that’s just the beginning, and now you need to live for Him. That means that the dominant feature of your life will be love- love for people next door to you, love for people who live on your block. Whatever the color of their skin, you love them. You go out of your way to be friends with people of other races. That’s how you love.” Request: Dear esteemed reader, if it goes convenient and suitable for you to pass on this Prayer Bulletin to your friends and missionaries you are at your liberty, please do it. At least they would get an idea of the field of Bangladesh and be able to pray and support for the ongoing evangelical works.

By: John Mark
Category: My Blog

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Evangelizing the misled world

Evangelizing the misled world is the clarion call of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the promised Savior, the Light of the world. He is the Lamb of God who must ransom the sin of the world. He is the incarnation of love, compassion, truth and justice of the unseen God. He came to this fallen world at His own appointed time, lived and dined with men. He taught them the Truth of God who is full of holiness and compassion. He tried His best to open the spiritual eyes of the religious leaders, but they did not want to follow Him. He did fulfill the responsibility of bringing the lost people back to the Father. He redeemed the sinners of the world at the cost of His own sinless life. He died on the cross at the mount of the skull outside Jerusalem, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day. Before His ascension to heaven He commanded His disciples to herald the good news of salvation, which He prepared at the cost of His holy blood, to whole nations. But to fulfill that mission the disciples would have to wait for the anointment of the promised Holy Spirit sent in His name. The disciples received the said Holy Spirit and spoke the Good News of Salvation (Gospel) in such a way that the then world was perplexed. The recipient became astonished hearing them, the group of unschooled people. But the disciples immediately and candidly declared that all things had been possible for the intervention of the promised Holy Spirit. The inspired, zealous, committed and sanctified disciples had poured out their entire devotion with all belongings to build up the Church for the glory of the Lord. They left no stone unturned to saturate the then world fogged under the power of the Devil with the message of enlightenment. It was their moral and social obligation to learn and preach the Word of God. We can cite one fact as an example of the immediate result of their preaching that in a single campaign three thousand sinners had committed their lives to the living Lord as their personal Savior and Lord. They used to assemble daily in group-study and spend their time in sincere fellowship. Instead of severe persecutions, tortures and killings they did continue the set works entrusted upon them by their own beloved Lord. They encountered all sorts of risk to herald the life saving message to the lost souls. Because of the prioritization on evangelization they could face any consequences and pay any cost to fulfil the call of the Master—the Supreme Being. It is not so certain, how long and how consistently the believers in Christ Jesus had been practicing and preaching the Gospel in the society. The light shared to them might have been dimmed because of the impact and attraction of the lustful world. The spiritual position of the believers, in general, perhaps was choked by the evils of the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and boasting of possession do not come from the Holy One but from the Devil.Just to prepare a piece of land, for farming, it needs to be ploughed several times. Without uprooting the obnoxious bush, plantation of choice seeds would be of no use. If by chance they germinate yet they would not grow up because the shrubs and weeds will choke up the seedlings. In such a state the problem, no fertilizers and water will do any good to the seedlings, but will strengthen the shrubs and weeds instead. Are you sure how, when and where thick darkness covers? And how the darkness could be dispelled? And what is the easiest way to illuminate any room full of darkness?The answer is very easy! Just lit up a lamp and see the exclaiming result. In this connection, a story came to my mind; I like to narrate it for you. Certain rich man had two sons. He started thinking of his successor, who should be wiser of his two sons. Just to take a test of talent the rich man gave them equal amount of money, one coin each, to buy something, as per their choice, to fill the hall. Accordingly, both of them went to market for purchasing things that would be enough to fill the hall. The elder searched seriously for the cheapest and yet larger amount to cover to room. Finally he found a heap of hay and happily bought it and returned home. In front of his father he started scattering the hay he bought, but that was not enough to cover the room, so he sighed. In the mean time the younger returned, apparently with nothing. The father asked him to show what did he purchased to cover the room. With a smile and humbleness, out of his pocket, he brought a candle that he bought. He, then, lit it up, immediately the room was filled with beam of light. Then the father could understand who was the real talented boy and would become the successor to him.I am not sure about the exact date of reappearing of the darkness in the room, which was once illuminated by the Lord. The torch passed on by Him to His chosen ones might have gone asleep. In the mean time the cursed devil had planted tares in the field of wheat. Is it wise to pay attention on hay neglecting the candle? Hay is for fodder and the end product of it is cow-dung. But candle is made for holding light, though it itself is not light. Though all men are created in the image of God, but few of them know and believe that. A living soul is to be a real abode of God. This sounds somewhat incredible but thus God inspired in the Scriptures. God has been calling all the broken hearted to come to Him and to take a fresh bath with the Holy Spirit. He asks us to arise, shine, for our light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon us. He warns us about the darkness that covers the earth. He also tells that thick darkness is in the hearts of the people. But the Lord rises upon us and His glory appears over us. Of course, we must be in Him to be strong, humble, wise, submissive and committed because Jesus, the Lord of Lords and king of kings, humbled Himself unto death & even death on the heart rending Cross. May I please draw attention of all the missionaries, Church-based-Organizations and even all other Organizations being financed by the donations, to those people who give the donations? They are those people, who are waiting eagerly to see light shining instead of the darkness, to reschedule plan of action, to serve the choice plants, letting aside the obnoxious shrubs. We want to develop the country, but not the rogues. We pray and struggle hard to see the disciples of the Holy One working everywhere for His glory. It is not wise to nurse up a band of ignorant folk who would flatly deny the grace of God upon them. We must reason our plan of action in the light of the Holy Scriptures. I deem, if possible, the key persons of all Organizations should be manned by the people sincerely committed to God the Father and Creator of the Universe. Finally, to be transformed into His likeness and to go onward beaming His light upon the world, we must abide in Him constantly. We were called to be the light of the world and we would shine by the power of the Holy Spirit before them. Every one has a living hope in Christ Jesus, that is, if anyone abides in Him, he becomes a new creation, his old things have passed away, the newness has came by the works of God (2cor5: 17). May the God of love and compassion be with you always until His Second Advent!

By: John Mark
Category: My Blog

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Love administer All

If love does administer all the humanity, most of the present systems and superstructures would become useless. In that state even banking system, defense and security system, arms and ammunitions would be of no use any more. All the instruments to harass men would not be required; love would solve the misunderstandings among and between them. We are born and brought up in immorality and spiritual darkness. We have learnt all the twisting mixture of goodness into badness; truth and falsehood influence our personal and social attitude and emotion. We are not free from the influence of the present perverted social and commercial system that has been developed on the gradual practice and slow erosion of morality that is the demand of manhood. The divine love makes someone a new creation, harmless and beneficial and useful fostering up humanity for the glory of our Father in heaven. Through Jesus Christ the pinnacle of love, perfection, holiness and righteousness were manifested into reality that the earthly man could glimpse. God Himself is love. There is no room for fear in love. The present world is not only developing in arts & technology and monetary trafficking system, but there has also been much progress in brutality, enmity, antagonism and sinful harmfulness. Trust is already withered away. Hard cash is needed for handling-taking over things from one another. Only God can turn this system upside down. In the day of Pentecost, following the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the disciples they were turned into new creations, capable to perform on behalf of the Holy One of God.Originally, man was created in the image and standard of the holy and righteous God. But regretfully, being deceived by the cunning policy of Satan, they lost those divine qualities, and became the stooges of the Satan. At the time of creation they were asked to resist Satan, and to come near to the merciful and holy God; instead, they have resisted the Holy One of God and sided with the dark way of the Devil.Now, none does dare to think otherwise.During the deteriorated era of Noah, common people failed to imagine such a devastating flood to wash away all. Though, it is incredible to us, yet that had happened to destroy all futile maneuvers to replace that of the mighty Lord. We are not fortunate or unfortunate enough to witness such a flood, but following cats and dogs for two hours most of the roads and highways turn into flowing cannels. In the 1998 almost seventy percent of the city of Dhaka was inundated for nearly one month. During the Arch of Noah continuous outpouring for 40 days had washed away all the living beings including men. Noah and his family along with pairs of every animal and plants survived in the gigantic ship.What is the role of money for the survival of the living being? Does any animal need money for its survival and longevity? We need all the natural elements for our life and gradual outgrowth. When we have love for one another we take care of each other.

By: John Mark
Category: My Blog

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