John Edward

19 Sep 2009: Grace and grace alone!

09/19/2009
 
“Blessed is the soul that has learnt that it’s from and through and only by His grace, for it shall never stumble”.
 
In the journey of life many times we start small. In such places it’s easy to depend on God and put our trust in Him. However in the height of power and success, when everything is going well do we still recognize our miserable state apart from Him? Do we still put our trust and depend on Him for everything? It’s so easy to be led astray during such times and exalt oneself rather than the One who had led thus far.
 
We must cultivate the habit of walking and clothing ourselves in humility everyday to prevent that. One of the ways is remembering who we are and were apart from Christ. Paul towards the end of his journey of life had probably accomplished more than any of the other apostles. He was the father of many churches. He had written many epistles and was honored and respected by almost everyone. However, he did not let that get to him. In his epistle to Timothy (which was written in prison towards the end of his journey) he calls himself as the worst of all sinners. Paul knew who he was apart from the grace of God.

08 Sep 2009: Amazing grace!

09/08/2009
The soul searched for peace and rest in the dark. Troubling thoughts and painful memories; longing for the daylight and peace of mind. The night seemed to reflect the state of a soul that had lost hope. In the midst of the poignancy, memories of the past flashed through; broken relationships, trying circumstances and the dreaded thought of turning away from the one that truly loved. Things would never be the same, enough had been said and done and now it was all over.
  
Just some days back, everything had been fine. Jesus had ridden the donkey with even the children hailing him as king. He had healed the sick in the temple. He had talked about the coming kingdom. The expectancy was high and every aspiration to rule and reign with Him seemed to be coming true for Peter. Then all of a sudden, Christ was betrayed, crucified and killed. Peter had deserted Him with the rest. Judas was now dead and Peter was in the worst state of his life, having cursed and sworn to have never known the Master.

21 Aug 2009: Dying to live!

08/20/2009
 
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”.
 
The eternal success of our endeavors lies in the life of Christ flowing from us to people. To walk in this life is an absolute necessity but a pathway not too easy.
One must first learn to die to his own self in order to discover this newness of life. For to proceed any other way is futile and does not bear fruit to eternity.
 
Elements of Modern Christendom sadly lack this life of (in) Christ, adapting  a way of living apart from the life of God, thereby deceiving oneself.