Do we Meditate?

Psalm 39 (full chapter)

Meditation is a powerful tool for us as Christians. No wonder there’s a counterfeit for this act.
When Joshua took over from Moses, it was a huge role / a big gap to fill – but, God gave him a key to succeed: MEDITATION

Often people think of meditation as something complicated.
But we all do that every single day of our life, even without being taught how to do it.
For eg: Do we know how to worry? The answer is YES, almost all the time.
That is, meditation - dwelling on something which is negative.

Meditation is nothing but thinking about a certain thing over and over again. So, there can be negative meditation, as we just saw – ie: when we start worrying about an issue / being anxious / dwelling on impure thoughts / etc.

Meditation leads us to something – usually an action.
Hence, the need and challenge for us to fill ourselves with Godly thoughts, so our actions are geared towards living a holy life-style.

There is a wonderful reflection of who we are as human beings in God’s perspective in this chapter (Ps.39): that we are mere phantoms (one who comes and goes without a trace – in light of eternity), like a breadth that can’t be traced.
And in light of that kind of life, how we relate towards these 3 things becomes a very key issue:
a) Sin (vs.1)
b) Tongue (vs.1,2)
c) Wealth (vs.6)

And we see in the opening verse that David is pro-active in making a commitment to watch his ways. If he didn’t, he would be ensnared in this fleeting world.
The good thing about this Psalm is that, David in his usual style unlocks the mystery as to how to go about it – and that’s what we see in vs.3 - “My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue”.

Here we see a positive reflection of who God is and seeing ourselves in that light. And it helps David to keep his focus right.

There are scores of NT reference, where we are called to dwell on things which are godly (cf. Col.3:1-17; Heb.12:2; II Peter 1:3-11; Rom.12:1,2; I Cor.1:26; Phil.4:8,9) – which will yield positive results.

Those who dwell on earthly things bring out the acts of the sinful nature (cf. Gal.5:19-21). Usually, dwelling on such things, lead to actions which are devastating to self and others.


As we are about to enter another year - let’s keep our eyes fixed on our Lord Jesus. As we reflect on Him and allow His Spirit to kindle us, we will be prompted to live a life-style reflecting His image and also perfecting our likeness to Him who formed us.

The Advent Message

I don't mind repeating this one again ... as it is the passage of the Advent. This was posted on: Friday, December 12, 2008, entitled:
Wise men can trip too - BUT, we don't have to!


Matthew 2:1-12
"The Visit of the Magi / 3 Wise men"

The advent season is always a good time to read the story of Jesus' birth.
As I was reading through that story yet again, I was quite intrigued when I read the verses above, as to what constitutes to being 'wise'?
The normal criteria which we might want to list down is not evident in the lives of these 3 wise men.



We know nothing about these 3 men, other than the fact, they came from the East and they were wise - supposedly 'learned'! They knew how to read the stars and signs and interpret the times.




There is an old saying in Tamil:




Literally translated: "Even the elephant can slip".



1) vs.2 - these men first of all, assumed the 'King of the Jews' must be born in a palace.
It's a natural assumption for anyone to make - so, let's excuse them here.

2) vs.2b-8 - when the King heard that the magi's had come to worship the new born King he was disturbed & all Jerusalem with him.
Reason: There was no baby born to Herod, at the palace.
Going by historians, Herod was insecure and had this fear that he might be dethroned by another, who is not from his lineage.

It's strange that the entire nation is disturbed by this news. Why?
Perhaps, they didn't want a coup!


Given this background, King Herod calls for a meeting of his counsel and finds out more about this King who was born.
Then he summons the magi's in SECRET and finds out the exact time they saw the star first, and tells them to make a careful search for the child and let him know, so he too may go and worship the child.


Look here: When the wise men mentioned that they came to worship the child to Herod, he and entire Jerusalem were disturbed by that statement; but how come the 'wise-men' were not disturbed by this news from Herod?
Surely, they should have sensed something - but they didn't!!! Very strange.

- And what were they doing there anyway, all this while?


3) vs.9,10 - When they realized that Herod's response was not in the affirmative, they continued on with the star leading the way.
- The star lead them in the first place, but then they assumed and headed off to the wrong place (that's what we call, 'running ahead').

Now that they didn't find what they wanted at that place, they continued following the star again.
Why didn't they do this all along???
It seems like the star was always out there to guide them.
But they stopped following.

Running ahead sure messes up things not just for us, but for many others as well.
A little later, we read that there was a massacre of boys less than 2 yrs. old (vs.16-18), as per the time given by the so-called wise men to King Herod in secret!


4) vs.12 - it took a visitation from God, in the form of a dream, with a warning for them to return by another route - otherwise, they could have well messed it up again.


When God guides us, He wants to lead us too!
Many times we assume a lot along the way and loose focus on His guidance and leading.
Here assumption, got the better of the 3 wise men.
I can understand if it is just one guy messing it up, but 3 of them, all at the same time? Well, it's possible, and with wise-men at that!

Let's take NOTHING for granted. Hearing God and following Him is a process, which shouldn't stop. It's ongoing. Let's stick to it!

When we wander off, it takes a while to realize that we are in the wrong direction, but God waits for us patiently to return.

May this season bring new hope for all of us; and may we all move forward into the New Year with a renewed hope, as we commit to follow Him and in His steps.
Let's not run away from His leading or His guidance!

May CHRIST be the reason for this SEASON!
Merry Christmas!!

Are we far from Hearing God?

II Kings 1:1-18 (full chapter)

This chapter reveals the death of King Ahaziah in Samaria, of the Northern Kingdom.
This also reads for an interesting story - as it's not just about the death of a bad king - but there are principles for us on 'how to live'.

In a nutshell, this is what happened. King Ahaziah falls through the lattice from his upper room and injures himself. And he sends messengers to a pagan god, Baal-Zebub of Ekron .. to see whether he would recover from his injury.

Now, the thing to note is: Ahaziah is the King of the Northern Kingdom, Israel - and he was in its capital, Samaria. As far as we know, there was no righteous king in the northern kingdom [there were 19 kings in all and 1 infamous queen]. King Ahaziah was the 8th king, since Jeroboam-1, took over the northern part of the Kingdom – which was divided after the death of Solomon.

This is the Kingdom which was set-apart to reflect God among the other nations. Sadly, right from the start, there were no proper role-models for any of the Kings to follow. Time and again, a prophet would be raised to warn the people – but the kings were always ruthless and ran after the gods of the pagan world.
Ahaziah was no exception – he followed the ways of his father Ahab (cf. I Kings22:52,53).

As the messengers from King Ahaziah head out towards Ekron to consult an evil medium, Elijah appears to them and gives them the message from the Lord (vs.3), “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?”

And they go back and report this to the King.
As soon as he hears these words, he asks them what kind of man it was and as they described, he knew it was Elijah, the Tishbite. He recognized because it was the same prophet Elijah, who also predicted the death of his father, King Ahab (cf. I Kings 21:17-29; 22:29-38). And Ahaziah, who took to the throne after his father, knew about the punishment that God meted out to him.

Perhaps, that’s the reason why he sent a captain with 50 men (cf. II Kings 1:9). They invite the wrath of God upon themselves and as per Elijah’s word; fire comes down from heaven and consumed them (vs.10).

Somehow the word gets to the King, and he sends another captain with 50 more men (vs.11). Here we see the arrogance of the captain in demanding that Elijah comes down to meet the King; and they too meet with the same fate (vs.12).

The King is still persistent that he sends a third lot (vs.13). This captain seems to be a bit wise when he approached Elijah, perhaps he was scared for his life after he heard of the plight of the other 2 groups who had gone before him(vs.13b,14); and the angel of the Lord guides Elijah to the King.

Elijah speaks the same word as he did, when he first met the messengers whom the king had sent. And it seems like there was no positive response from the King.
Earlier we saw that his father was humble and mourned, when he heard the verdict and God relented from doing certain things during his life-time. Here, Ahaziah resigned to his fate, and it so happened as Elijah predicted (vs.16,17).

As I mentioned earlier, there were no role-models in Israel for this King to follow.
Even though he was desperate for guidance, in that he sent to find out from other gods, when the Word of Lord came to him, he was in no mood to listen.
Perhaps, he had gone so far away from the Lord that he failed to connect with him.


How far are we from His presence?
Are we so far away, that we can’t hear Him, when He is speaking to us?
Are we desperate to consult another medium for guidance?

Let’s not stray away too far .. He is there to guide us and He wants to speak to us.