Volume 6 Issue 41

Turning one's heart away

 “When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was”. 1Kings 11:4

Loving God with all your heart is the 1st commandment of God.

Solomon loved his wives more than God. He did many things which were pleasing to God. But he placed God in the second place and his wives in the first place.

So whatever his wives told him, he was obliged to do. These ladies turned his heart away from God.

It is not what you do for God  that counts, but where you have placed Him in your heart is what matters. Nobody else from outside will be able to know or measure your value system. But God will look only into your heart. He searches the deepest intentions there, the motive of every word you utter and every decision you take.

Isa 66:2.  Says:  “But I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

Where one has placed God in his heart can be measured this way.

"Trembling at his word"

If the  Holy Spirit convicts you through the Word of God, (e.g. disturbs your sleep, disturbs the routine actions of your mind or body using one verse) if you tremble when you read or meditate His Word, you can be happy.

Positive signs! God is in the first place                                                                                                   

Matthew: 24: 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.

As per the above verse Love in the society has grown cold and wickedness has increased. With growing wickedness and without love among the people, the society will destroy itself. To transform this state the Lord has revealed to his children through Sr Angelica to start a social movement to proclaim love of Jesus, hence Transformation India Project was started in the year 2017.

The first meeting was held in Trust conference hall Nungambakkam on 06-04-2017 and the project was launched in a National meet held at Padapai on 16-06-2017. Transform India Project is a social reformation project which is based on the greatest commandment of God that is Love.

John: 13:35  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Only by loving others we will prove ourselves to be disciples of Jesus, hence it was made mandatory for Troop Church members to spend two hours per week in social work. This news of love was taken across India and TIP program was held across many states.

Medical camps, training institutes, tuition centers, skill development training, natural farming, gardening, water conservation, old age home, waste management, counseling centers, tailoring and similar social activities were conducted. Believers were encouraged to take these social activities among the less fortunate and needy. New entrepreneurs were encouraged with plans based on these social activities and Love.

On 11, 12 August 2018 TIP skill development program on Natural Farming was held in Dr Charles Elders Community, Chennai. Fifty people attended the program and gained knowledge and developed interest in Natural Farming. Mr Sunil John from Nagpur came down to Chennai to teach the principles and biblical basis of natural farming. Theory and practical training was given to the participants on natural farming.

These are the ten steps of natural farming

1)         Dedicating the land to the Lord

2)         Land preparation

3)         Planning

4)         Seed and seedling preparation

5)         Care and maintenance of the garden

6)         Using and preparing organic fertilizer

7)         Pest control using natural method

8)         Proper harvesting

9)         Seed procurement and preservation

10)       Thanks giving to the Lord

Acts 20: 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered to my own needs and those of my companions. 35In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”…

Mr Sunil John is a disciple from the state of Kerala who went towards the northern part of India to do the Lord Ministry. During the persecution period in Madhya Pradesh he decided to work with his own hands to support the ministry hence he worked on natural farming and formed Faith garden. With this initiative he supported his own family and ministry without depending on others. From Faith garden Mr Sunil John produced traditional plants with high yield without using chemicals and insecticide. This principle of natural farming was taken across India and many benefitted.

He also encourages people doing full time ministry to support their lively hood by self-employment rather to depend on others for support. He helps believers live in the society with dignity by helping them with entrepreneurship .His team gives lessons for establishing cycle repairing shop, plant nurseries, Flower shops, Flour Mills, Rice Mill, Oven and electricity less Baking,water conservation (rain water harvesting, sand water filters), fisheries, Aquaponics, Cockerel Farming, Odourless Poultry, poultry farms, tailoring shops, etc.

Transformation India Project was also launched with the same motto. The project aims to bring the love of Jesus among the society and help believers live in the society with dignity and self-respect. The project aims to enable a person too unconditionally help the any person in need. The parable of the Samaritan, who unconditionally helped the half dead man, is our example. Let us all take this message across India and transform people life into Christ. Amen                  

Violence against Christians Ratchets up in Southern India

 HYDERABAD, India, October 9, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Christians in southern India are increasingly living in fear as the level of violence against them continues to rise, sources said.
 
The southern states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala saw at least 60 cases of persecution of Christians in the first nine months of 2018, compared with 36 such attacks in the first nine months of 2017, according to religious freedom advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)-India.
 
Although none of the states’ governments has explicit connections with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), commonly known as the political arm of the Hindu extremist Sangh Parivar (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates), the RSS volunteers are found throughout regional, secular parties, sources said.
 
“In Tamil Nadu, RSS activists are provoking the Hindus in their speeches at public gatherings to cause communal tension,” the Rev. Sagaya Raj, deputy secretary of the (Roman Catholic) Tamil Nadu Bishops Council told Morning Star News. “The current situation is alarming – our state was a peace-loving state, and we lived in harmony. The recent attacks on Christian community are very disturbing.”
 
In one case, a mob of nomadic Hindus in Veppur village, Vellore District, on Sept. 13 attacked an elderly Christian woman as she took her usual late-evening walk while they were celebrating the birthday of the Hindu elephant god Ganesha in a procession.
 
As Hindus were carrying a Ganesha idol, four members of the mob stopped her and rebuked her for using the road, Christian resident Esther Moses told Morning Star News.
 
“One was yelling, ‘You converted to Christianity, and you are an ‘untouchable’ – how can you use the road when our Vinayagar [Ganesha in Tamil] is passing from here? You are impure, and now you made the road impure by walking on it,’” Moses said.
 
The rest of mob also reviled her for “defiling” their festivities, she said.
 
“They became very aggressive, so that they started beating her,” Moses told Morning Star News. “The entire neighborhood belongs to nomadic tribes – they are not upper castes over us, yet the Hindu gypsies hate us and treat us like untouchables.”
 
Church members who live on the same street rushed to rescue her and were also attacked, she said.
 
“It is not just about the Ganesha procession – they always had problems with Christians using the road,” she said. “They warned us several times in the past. They tell us, ‘We belong to RSS, and you are Christians. We cannot both walk on the same road. If you see us passing by, go inside your houses and don’t come out until we are gone.”
 
More than 10 Christians sustained minor injuries, including a father and son who took strong blows to their heads and noses, Moses said.
 
“The goons in the mob were heavily drunk,” she said. “They started hurling stones at the Christians who came to rescue the elderly lady.”
 
Pastor Emmanuel Paul of the Tamil Nadu Synod of Pentecostal Churches told Morning Star news 13 injured Christians were admitted to a government hospital that night. They were later transferred to Christian Medical College hospital in Vellore.
 
“The boy who suffered the nose injury was gasping for breath, his nasal bone was fractured,” Pastor Paul said. “And his dad received blows on his head and was bleeding heavily.”
 
Moses’ husband, a convert from a nomadic Hindu tribe, planted a church in the area about four years ago.
 
“At least 50 believers gather for worship services every Sunday, and this road off our street is the only route that connects us to the church,” she said.
 
Church leaders submitted a written complaint, and police registered a First Information Report (FIR), but they said they have no indication that any action has been taken against the assailants.
 
Tamil Nadu

RSS members from Tamil Nadu’s Erode District on Sept. 2 stormed into a Sunday evening prayer service at a Christian’s house in the Chennimalai area.
 
As the Christians had just moved into their new home, the gathering also included a house-warming party, a local resident identified only as Ponnaiyan told Morning Star News.
 
“The Christian family prepared a vegetarian meal and had invited all the neighboring families, and also their church members and relatives, over for dinner,” Ponnaiyan said. “At first, the RSS members disrupted the prayer service, then they raided the kitchen. They were searching for beef [forbidden in Hinduism].”
 
Ponnaiyan said he has never been so disgusted.
 
“For the first time, I saw a family’s kitchen, utensils, fridge and dishes being searched for beef, just because they are Christian,” he said. “The RSS people had put their hands in the food searching for beef, making it unsafe to consume.”
 
The next morning he notified political party officials, activists and Christian leaders, saying that the matter must be brought to Superintendent of Police Sakthi Ganesan, he said. With members of all political parties and the synod present, Ganesan showed little concern for the issue, he said.
 
“To our disappointment, Ganesan simply said, ‘This is a very common thing’ and was not at all moved by the incident,” Ponnaiyan told Morning Star News. “He said those words on record in front of the media.”
 
Pastor Nehemiah Christie, director of legislations and regulations of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches and ADF-India’s Tamil Nadu state coordinator, was among witnesses representing the matter to the Erode police official.
 
“We told Ganesan that it’s a violation human rights, and the police must take action,” Pastor Christie said. “But he answered back that Christians run churches without permission. There was no sync; we are highlighting a serious problem a Christian family faced because of their faith, and he was talking about church permission. It was very disappointing.”
 
Ganesan is the the same officer who registered a counter-case against a victim of attempted sexual assault against an Erode-based pastor’s wife, as reported by Morning Star News in July.
 
Among southern states, Tamil Nadu alone has recorded 37 incidents of attacks against Christians, out of a total of around 170 reported throughout India in the first nine months of this year, according to ADF-India.
 
ADF notes in its campaign celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights that it is sadly ironic that Christians are persecuted in a country with a long tradition and legal framework of freedom of religion.
 
Article 18 of the U.N. declaration asserts that believers have the freedom to practice their faith “in teaching, practice, worship and observance,” ADF notes in its campaign to obtain signatures supporting the Geneva Statement on Human Rights at www.ImHumanRight.org.
 
Forced to Demolish Walls

In Telangana state, a pastor visiting the site of his house under construction in Tadvai Mandal, Kamareddy District, was attacked by Hindu extremists from the RSS.
 
The 49-year-old pastor on the morning of Sept. 10 received a call from a worker of the local electricity board who informed him that he would set up the house’s electrical wiring and connection. He had travelled about 25 kilometers (15 miles) to reach the site and was waiting inside for the line-worker, said the pastor, whose name is withheld for security reasons.
 
“Four men barged inside and started beating me,” he said. “They said, ‘How dare you construct a church here?’ and abused me in extreme vulgar language.”
 
They told him they would take him to the village council to ask about the construction and dragged him to the council office, he said. Not finding the council president, they telephoned him and asked about permission.
 
“They punched me in my stomach and back at the council’s office, and then they brought me back to the construction site,” he said.
 
The four assailants, all in their mid-30s and identified as Mudaam Narsimhulu, Srinivas Reddy, Raghava Reddy and Padaganti Rajeshwar, forced the pastor to demolish the walls of his house, he said.
 
“I could only destroy only a portion of the wall and was exhausted,” he said. “I told them that I can’t do it and pleaded them to leave me. But they took me to the police station and asked the station house officer to book a case against me that I was constructing a church in the area.”
 
He told the officers that he had documents showing that he had secured permission and that the construction was legal, and Tadvai police booked the four assailants for attempt to murder, public nuisance, voluntarily causing hurt, causing hurt with dangerous weapons, mischief causing loss or damage of over 50 rupees and promoting enmity between classes under the Indian Penal Code.
 
Within 10 days, the attackers were released on bail, he said.
 
“I am still living in fear and have not gone to Tadvai village since the day of attack,” the pastor said. “It is a spacious plot of 500 square yards. Our desire was to establish a house church there so a pastor can reside with his family, and the believers from Tadvai and neighboring villages can gather for worship and prayers.”
 
The Kamareddy Regional Pastors Association (KRPA) reported the attack to the local member of the legislative assembly, he said.
 
“He assured us that the matter will be taken seriously, but later we found out that the elected member is a close associate of the assailants and was trying all means for their bail,” he said.
 
A KRPA leader said those accused are the same RSS members who attacked pastor Steven Paul about six months ago, also in Kamareddy District.
 
“We informed the police that the four accused are repeat offenders, and the police assured us that further they will be categorized as rowdy sheeters [repeat offenders],” said the KRPA leader, who pastors a village church in Kamareddy. “There is severe opposition to church gatherings and gospel sharing in Telangana state as well, and in the coming years it is only going to escalate. We request prayers so even if we are put to severe persecution, our faith may grow stronger.”
 
The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist BJP, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.
 
India ranked 11^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution.     

2018 Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Christian Congolese Doctor Who Helps Rape Victims

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has selected two recipients for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, including Christian gynecologist Denis Mukwege, who has dedicated his life to caring for victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

Mukwege, nicknamed “Dr. Miracle” for his specialized procedures, received the award alongside Nadia Murad, a young Yazidi activist who survived being kidnapped and raped by ISIS members in Iraq. 

The Nobel committee selected these two recipients saying that both winners modeled “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.”

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said that his Christian faith was a massive influence on his decision to pursue medicine and his strategy for patient care. The son of a Pentecostal minister, Mukwege told NPR that he was inspired to become a doctor after traveling with his father to pray for the sick. Mukwege attended the University of Angers in France to study gynecology and obstetrics.

Over the past 20 years, Mukwege has treated tens of thousands of women in his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu which he founded in 1999 with the help of the Pentecostal Churches in Central Africa (CEPAC).

The hospital provides care for women, many of whom have been gang raped by militants.

Mukwege told NPR that he works “not only to treat women—their body, [but] also to fight for their own right, to bring them to be autonomous, and, of course, to support them psychologically. And all of this is a process of healing so women can regain their dignity.”

During a keynote speech last year at the Lutheran World Federation, Mukwege challenged the audience saying if Christians do not live their lives faithfully among their communities and neighbors, “we cannot fulfill the mission entrusted to us by Christ,” a mission he has spent his career trying to fulfill.

Mukwege, 63, has been met with great support from Christian organizations in his fight against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the DRC. 

“Dr. Mukwege’s incredible work with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo inspires me, and many of us,” Rick Santos, president of IMA World Health, said in a statement on Friday. “We are honored to call him and Panzi Hospital a partner in the effort to eradicate SGBV in a place where it is so pervasive.”

Christianity today reports that 3.9 million people have been killed and more than 40,000 have been raped in the decade since the civil war broke out in the DRC in 1996.

The Global and Mail has said of Mukwege that he is “likely the world’s leading expert on repairing injuries of rape.” 

Panzi hospital also offers services beyond surgery and injury repair. The institution also offers therapy, legal assistance, community resources, and help reintegrating into the community for their patients.

Mukwege encourages other Christians to be a light in the ever darkening world and to consider “the credibility of the gospel in the 21st century, to liberate the grace that we have received by making the church a light that still shines in this world of darkness through our struggles for justice, truth, law, freedom, in short, the dignity of man and woman.”