Ascension Day 2015

Ascension Day commemorates the ascension of Christ into Heaven. Observed generally by Catholics and Anglicans, Ascension Day, also known as the Feast of Ascension, occurs on the Thursday 40 days after Easter. It’s a critical event in the history of the Christian faith. Jesus’ ascension marked the completion of his ministry on earth, and upon his return to heaven he fulfilled his promise to send the Holy Spirit to guide the fledgling Christian church. And at the ascension, Christ’s disciples were assured that he would return one day. For many Christians, Ascension Day provides a sense of hope that the glorious and triumphant return of Jesus is near .It is a reminder of the Kingdom of God within their hearts, and of the ever-present Spirit of God, watching over them and protecting them, as they spread the light of Jesus' truth throughout the world.

Also see http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2011/06/7-proofs-of-resurrection.html

Acts 1:1-11

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Other descriptions of Jesus’ ascension can be found in:

Matthew 28:16-20

New International Version (NIV)

The Great Commission

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Mark 16:14-20

New International Version (NIV)

14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Luke 24:50-53

New International Version (NIV)

The Ascension of Jesus

50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

David Livingstone

"I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity."

David Livingstone prayed this prayer in all his crucial junctures. When he gave his life to Christ; when he was sent to the mission field; when he was found stranded with the kids burying his wife; and when he was leaving earth. In all the defining moments of his life, his heart was genuinely committed to Christ.

This is the Prayer.

  

"Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me; lay any burden upon me, only sustain me; sever any tie that binds, except the tie that binds me to thy heart and to thy service."

Read more about him here: http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bliving2.html

Here's a short story that I found interesting.

A. Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour then took Bailey to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly. “These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks,” he said. “You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.” (Our Daily Bread).

Finding Hope - Paul Gerhardt

From www.Sermonillustrations.com 

During the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, German pastor Paul Gerhardt and his family were forced to flee from their home. One night as they stayed in a small village inn, homeless and afraid, his wife broke down and cried openly in despair.

To comfort her, Gerhardt reminded her of Scripture promises about God's provision and keeping. Then, going out to the garden to be alone, he too broke down and wept.

He felt he had come to his darkest hour. Soon afterward, Gerhardt felt the burden lifted and sensed anew the Lord's presence. Taking his pen, he wrote a hymn that has brought comfort to many.

 "Give to the winds thy fears; hope, and be undismayed;

God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears;

God shall lift up thy head.

Through waves and clouds and storms He gently clears the way.

Wait thou His time, so shall the night soon end in joyous day."

See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htCkTwCAJ_Y

It is often in our darkest times that God makes His presence known most clearly.

 He uses our sufferings and troubles to show us that He is our only source of strength.

And when we see this truth, like Pastor Gerhardt, we receive new hope.

Are you facing a great trial? Take heart.

Put yourself in God's hands. Wait for His timing. He will give you a "song in the night."

God Will Fulfil His Promise

Genesis 21:5-7New International Version (NIV)

5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Sarah laughed twice.

The first time it was in unbelief because God had promised her a child in her old age. The second time it was with joy because God had fulfilled His promise. But between these two events she went through the most wrenching experience of her life.

A heathen king took her to his harem and would have violated her had God not intervened. Only a woman who truly loves her husband can understand what Sarah went through that night.

There's a lesson here.

Between praying for a miracle and getting one, you'll be tested, you'll grow, and you'll learn to trust God more than you ever thought possible. Plus, here's something else that's important to remember:

When you share your experiences with others don't just tell how you started or where you are today; instead, tell them what God brought you through, for those are the very things they're struggling with too.

Tell them how your faith was tried in the furnace of affliction before you came forth as gold.

 Don't leave them feeling frustrated because they claimed God's promise and haven't received it yet.

King Abimelech's tent where Sarah spent that terrifying night was in a place called Gerar, which means ‘The halting place'.

 Yes, there'll be times when you'll feel like your life has come to a screeching halt and you're getting nowhere. Maybe that's where you are today. If it is, please know this:

God will be faithful to you. Not only will He bring you through, but like Sarah, your joy will return as you watch Him fulfil His promise to you.

Testimony of Helen Berhane

- Kaley Payne (eternity.biz)

As we sit in an African restaurant I can’t help but think it a slightly incongruous setting. Sitting opposite is a woman who just three years ago fled severe persecution in Eritrea. While we eat our injera she talks about her experience through an interpreter. Before answering my first question, she asks to pray. And so, our heads bowed in the midst of meal orders, deliveries and menu queries, I get a taste of the extraordinary character and uncompromising faith of Helen Berhane.

Helen Berhane spent some time in Australia in August, travelling with Open Doors Australia, an organization helping to raise awareness of the persecuted church around the world.

She visited churches across the country, speaking to other Christians about her experience in Eritrea. She has also written her autobiography, a powerful account of the persecution she faced as a vocal Christian in a country that ranks eleventh on Open Doors’ World Watch List for the most dangerous places for Christians. Helen can only be called a serial evangelizer.

A member of the banned Rhema Church – a minority evangelical church in Eritrea, Helen was well known to Eritrean authorities and frequently imprisoned for preaching the gospel in the country’s capital, Asmara. “The police would capture me and ask "When are you going to stop this?’” said Helen. “They all knew me and I would come in and out of prison. When I would arrive, the other inmates would say ‘Helen’s back! Welcome!’” But after releasing a recording of her gospel music, Helen faced her toughest trial.

Separated from her young daughter and taken to the notorious Mai Serwa military camp, she was imprisoned for almost two years, spending much of that time in a shipping container masquerading as a prison cell. In her book, Helen describes the cell: “The container was no more than twenty feet long, so we were packed closely together. There were eighteen of us inside. We were given a bucket as a toilet and allowed out once a day to empty it,” she said.

Yet even in the rancid conditions of her imprisonment, Helen sang.  She speaks of her desire to praise God despite her circumstances. “Even though we were in a dark situation, we could not suppress the word of God. We praised God in spite of the fleas, the lice and the heat. We could not be prevented from singing – even in captivity.” But singing praises to God meant severe punishment for Helen and the other women who joined her in worship. 

Helen is reluctant to describe in detail the torture that came as a result of her stubbornness in Christ. “They would handcuff me and fasten my ankles together too tight so the pain is excruciating. They left us there the whole night – I was in too much pain to sleep. I concentrated on the stars, because if I let myself think of my legs the pain became unbearable.”

Helen and the other prisoners were frequently promised release if they signed a document declaring they would no longer preach. But Helen refused, instead looking for ways to continue to share her faith in captivity. It was Helen’s Christian witness that forced the guards to separate her from the other prisoners. She spent four months in solitary confinement. After a severe beating for being discovered writing Bible studies for another prisoner, Helen was taken to hospital with fears she would never walk again. From there, Helen’s family helped her flee to Sudan.

“It was a miracle – I felt the hand of God on my situation. By his grace, I was free.”

Evan Peet, National Development Manager at Open Doors Australia, said Australian Christians could learn from people like Helen. “For Western society, it’s so easy to view faith as something that ‘works for us’, and that is constantly changing,” he said. “But for Helen, faith is steadfast, the foundation she is built on. People like Helen do anything to live out their faith. Yet here, too many of us don’t go to church when it rains.”

Mr Peet says bringing Helen Berhane, and others like her, to Australia, is mutually beneficial. “We want people to pray, support, give – to be aware of what’s happening to Christians overseas and advocate for them through government. That’s what we can do for them. But they have so much to offer us too.”

Now living in Denmark after being granted asylum, Helen is humble about her experience. “As I see it, what I’ve gone through isn’t that much at all. You might think that because of all the things I’ve faced, that I am strong. But there are so many others that have walked where I have walked, and there is so much I still have to learn,” she said.

‘Song of the Nightingale’ by Helen Berhane with Emma Newrick is published by Authentic. Click here to purchase it from Amazon India

Jonathan Gofort

- Anonymous

Jonathan Goforth was one of the greatest foreign missionaries of his era. He was an instrument used mightily by God in the early 20th century. Goforth was born on a farm in 1859 near Thorndale in Ontario, Canada. The seventh of eleven children, he gave his life to Jesus Christ at the age of 18 and soon commenced his ministry of winning others to faith.

The young Canadian met Rosalind in the spring of 1885. She had been praying for a husband who was fully dedicated to God and His work. Later that year they were engaged after Jonathan asked Rosalind, “Will you join your life with mine for China? And will you give me your promise that always you will allow me to put my Lord and His work first, even before you?” She immediately replied, “Yes, I will always.”

Rosalind soon got her first taste of the sacrifice she would encounter during her life as the wife of Jonathan Goforth. Her dreams of an engagement ring were dashed when he told her that the money he would have spent for a ring was instead used to purchase Christian literature.

After arriving in China the Gosforth’s settled in northern Henan Province,  which was to be their home for decades to come. The early years of ministry in Henan proved difficult, and the powerful revival that God brought to China through the Gosforth’s in the early 20th century almost never took place.

During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, Jonathan was almost killed by bandits, who hacked him with swords to his back, neck, and head. He managed to escape with his life by the providence of God. Jonathan returned to China in 1901 a changed man. He had been grieved by the dead Christianity he encountered at home, and was also dissatisfied by the luke-warmness he saw among the Christians in China.

In 1906 Goforth was preaching in a remote town when he fell under heavy conviction. The Lord commanded him to go and reconcile himself with a Christian brother. Goforth tried to argue with the Lord, pointing out that the point of contention was the fault of the other man. He tried to continue preaching, but his message was awkward and without power. He stopped speaking, bowed his head, and promised the Lord he would go and see the man immediately after the meeting. The whole spiritual atmosphere of the meeting changed, and many tearful confessions of sin were made throughout the congregation. In the following months the same happened at every meeting Goforth spoke at. The Holy Spirit moved in a mighty way, and many wrongs were made right.

For the next decade Jonathan Goforth led revival meetings all over China. Often he would preach for eight hours a day, to crowds of up to 25,000 people. Thousands of sinners experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and multitudes of Christians were awakened to a more vital relationship with God. The meetings were often characterized by public confession of sin and repentance. A series of revival meetings was arranged in the Goforth’s home town of Anyang. So many people were gripped with the fear of God that they desired nothing more than to confess their sins and be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Another of the missionaries heard many school boys confessing their sins publicly, in deep anguish of spirit. The missionary mocked this in his heart, believing the boys were just mimicking the earlier confessions of the adults. He didn’t believe teenage boys could possibly perform the kinds of sins and depravity that they were confessing. Gradually, however, the Holy Spirit had mercy on the man and he too came under the transforming power of God. He admitted his pride and foolishness, and vowed to never again pretend to know more than the Holy Spirit.

Goforth wrote, During these last days a number, who had held out up till then, felt that things were becoming too hot for them and tried to run away. But they found out what a difficult thing it is to escape from a seeking God. Some only got half way home, when the pressure became so unbearable that they had to turn around and come back. Others got all the way home, but, finding no relief, they returned.

Before the revival there were only about 100 Christians in Anyang, out of a population at the time of 250,000. Today the gospel seeds that were sown a century ago have produced a bountiful harvest in Anyang. There are presently about 200,000 believers throughout Anyang City and the surrounding county. The population is just over two million, meaning that today one in ten people in Anyang are followers of Jesus! The efforts of the Goforths and Chinese pioneers laid the groundwork for a wonderful harvest of souls for the kingdom of God in Anyang, and throughout all of Henan Province.

The town of Guangshan was visited by Goforth in December 1915. During eight days of meetings there, 154 people were baptized and thousands more heard the gospel for the first time. One of those who came to Christ was a man named Yang, a former champion boxer.

He had been the greatest prize-fighter in the region, and nobody had ever knocked him out. Many had lost their fortunes betting against Yang, and they consequently harboured a grudge against him. When news got around that the great fighter Yang had become a Christian, his enemies saw it as an opportunity to get revenge on him. One day, while Yang was in the marketplace, a mob of men surrounded him and almost beat him to death. He was found by some friends and carried home. The missionaries wanted the perpetrators arrested, but Yang begged them not to get involved, and refused to bring charges against his attackers.

A few months later he had recovered from his injuries and was again seen walking around the town. His enemies were furious, and decided this time they would finish him off. Yang was so terribly beaten the second time that for months his family despaired of his life. He slowly recovered, and again insisted that no charges be brought against the thugs.

Goforth recalled, As soon as he had recovered, he went around the country preaching the gospel. He died a few years after I met him. But it was not before he had led many of his old enemies to Christ. He left a church of 600 members in his own village, and ten other churches scattered throughout the surrounding country.

Thousands of people entered into relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time. Many Christians repented of their sins and found new freedom in their lives. People who had stolen items from their neighbours returned them, and sick marriages were restored to health. Many opium addicts were wonderfully and powerfully delivered, and never returned to the drug again. Perhaps the greatest result was the new unity and love that developed between Christian leaders.

For almost 50 years Rosalind proved a wonderful partner to her husband. Five of their eleven children were buried on Chinese soil. Rosalind never doubted Jonathan’s love for her, but she often struggled with the level of intense commitment he had to the Lord and his work. In the early 1930s Jonathan’s eyesight started to diminish. He became totally blind and the Goforths retired to Canada in 1934, where the man dubbed ‘China’s greatest evangelist’ went to his eternal reward two years later at the age of 76.

Easter 2015

Happy Easter everybody!

Please go through these links for posts on the blog related to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter:

2009
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2009/04/hosanna-sunday.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2009/04/maundy-thursday.html
Good Friday
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2009/04/easter.html

2010
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2010/04/way-of-cross-malayalam.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2010/04/way-of-cross-for-children.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2010/04/marys-way-of-cross-narrated-by-angelina.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2010/04/way-of-cross.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2010/04/why-we-celebrate-good-friday.html

2011
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2011/04/happy-easter.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-birds-eye-view.html

2012
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2012/04/maundy-thursday.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2012/04/for-god-so-loved-world-that-he-gave-his.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2012/04/easter-2012.html
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2012/11/what-was-in-jeremys-egg.html

2013
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2013/03/praise-be-to-jesus-now-and-forever.html

2014
http://kiranmj.blogspot.in/2014/04/easter-2014.html