A Loving Father...

When I was in grade 1, I was completely fascinated by a boy in my class. He was a brilliant boy who was good at everything. He topped not just the class but the entire grade. He always won the singing competition, the elocution competition, the general knowledge quiz and every competition in school. Every time the teacher asked a question, he knew the answer.  Every single time. And that really impressed me. I was so awestruck by him that I just couldn't stop talking about him.

My daddy usually picked me up from school on his cycle. I sat on a little seat on the cycle bar telling daddy all about my day in school while daddy pedaled me home. And all my stories used to be about this boy. I'd say "Daddy, it took Mahesh only 1 minute to solve the maths sum on the blackboard and the teacher made us all clap for him" and "Daddy, Mahesh won the trophy for the general knowledge quiz" and "Mahesh got selected to represent the school in the inter-school elocution competition". One time my daddy said "You really like that boy, don't you?" And my cheeks turned beetroot red.

That was the first time I realized what it meant to like a boy in a fuzzy way. I didn't know I liked him. But all along daddy knew. And while I was praising him to the skies, he was thinking to himself, "My baby girl has her first crush!" Throughout my school life, at the start of each new academic year,  daddy asked if Mahesh was in my class. He knew that would make me happy. He also knew I secretly hoped that we would be in the same class.

An earthly father limited in so many ways, knows his child's needs. Finite in his understanding and he understands his child's secret longings. Without explaining our feelings our parents understand what's going on.

But we have a Father in Heaven who surpasses the best earthly dad. This Father gave us salvation. I didn't ask for it. If He left it to me I would never ask. I would ask for a car, a house and a spouse, it would never cross our mind to ask GOD to save my soul. Now that I am saved by His grace I know that its no profit if I gained the whole world but lost my soul. I thank GOD for not answering those many prayers that would cause me momentary joy but a lifetime of heartache. I always miss asking what's best for me.

I constantly have to remind myself that just as He gave me salvation without me asking for it, He will take care of the other details too. He is not too busy to miss the details of my life or the desires of my heart. He knows the count of the hair on my head and not one of them turns grey without His consent. This comforts me - He knows what I need and He allows what happens to me!

The Road to Spiritual Authority & Leadership

Spiritual Authority and Leadership is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears.

It is attained by confession of sin, and much heartsearching and humbling before GOD;
By self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold uncomplaining embrace of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified.

It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us loss for Christ.

This is a great price, but it must be paid by the leader who would not be merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell.


                                                                                            Author: Samuel Brengle, Salvation Army

The Nathans In My Life

Last Sunday Pastor James preached a sweet message on King David and Nathan, the prophet of GOD. While King David was Israel's greatest king, a man after GOD's own heart, a man who loved the LORD and sought HIM, the man who wrote most of the Psalms, still he was just as prone to fall into sin as you and me are. And he fell. And sin has a way of blinding us and David was blinded. Then David's counselor and friend Nathan approached him and confronted him. David was quick to repent and get right with GOD. But that needed a friend like Nathan. At the end of the message, Pastor James challenged us to go make a friend like Nathan and that got me thinking.

I was blessed to think about all the Nathans the LORD gave me during one of the most difficult trials of my own life. And even though they spoke the truth, it was hard for me to receive their words. They were not rude or self-righteous in their delivery but GOD's truth has a way of penetrating our very souls not very different from a physical surgery to slice away a tumor. I am likening that to a part of our soul that is growing or feeding an unnecessary feeling or attitude. The purpose of this post is to share the counsel that still continues to bless me...

Suzan Silva taught me the Genesis 22 principle. She taught me to leave the things I hold dear on the altar and to look away. To freely give to GOD what HE gives me. That GOD has the power to resurrect or provide.

Susan Scheel helped me get over the introspection and recognize the enemy's strategy in my life. She always had a way of helping me see the goodness of GOD rather than my weaknesses.

Deepa Haksar who taught me that nothing and no one is more important than JESUS is. And when I was utterly cast down, she pointed me to JESUS. She told me that disappointments that prolong only go to say that I don't trust that GOD is in control in that area of my life.

Mamta Jadhav said 'praise GOD!' even when there seems to be nothing to praise HIM for. Praise HIM for the salvation HE gave us. Just keep praising HIM for who HE is.

Luella Soans told me that GOD gives us tough lessons because HE knows we will take those lessons and learn from it. She showed me through her own life and choices that being teachable is most important during a trial.

Sandra Coutinho sat with me and unlike Job's friends she didn't say a word. For 5 hours I spoke and she listened. Then in the wise Sandra way she said, 'Don't let go of your faith in JESUS, because if you let go now, what will you hold on to?'

Cleo Fernandes, my dear brother and friend kept encouraging to look at HIM who at the end will stand on the circle of the earth. That I'm on my way to Heaven is the greatest joy, and that I will see JESUS face to face. He never let me get sentimental and he never once lost his cool.

Nisha Ewing always told me to take my disappointments to GOD and that applied for every situation of my life. And her husband Ben Ewing who wouldn't risk saying anything unwise but continued to pray. Their family held me close those cold and disappointing evenings and just prayed.

My mother who went through days and nights while I wept. She was resilient on my behalf. She too may have not understood what was happening. It isn't easy being my mum, and when I look back I know she will get a special crown for being the Godly mother only she can be to me.

And JESUS who has been the friend who stuck closer than a brother and poured HIS strength into my life. HE gave me these Nathans and prepared them to minister grace and comfort to me even before the foundation of the earth. As I type out this blog it amazes me to think that HE did this especially for me. Before what we call time began HE knew the exact moment this trial would strike me and HE made a provision for me through my friends' lives and counsel. What a great GOD I get to call my GOD!

Seeking YOUR Face

My Adullam

Is there anyone who hasn't been caved in? 

We have all had our share of prisons, pits, deserts, Red Seas and giants. A few weeks ago, I remembered a sermon preached by Ps Atul Haksar on 1 Samuel 22, David's ministry in the cave of Adullam. This remembrance was so sweet to my soul that I spent the entire Saturday reflecting on it.  

‎We could call the cave of Adullam 'The Church of Adullam' or 'Adullam Fellowship‎' or 'The Ministry of Adullam' because there we see a man of GOD, in the middle of the greatest crisis of his life, facing a life and death situation and yet, somehow, attracting those who were distressed, in debt or discontented. 

What was David doing differently? How could a man with his very life ‎on the line, minister to 400 distressed, in debt and discontented men? 

When I'm distressed I cry my eyes out. If I were in debt ‎I would have had sleepless nights, been sick with anxiety and over think my tomorrows. And when I am discontent I must but talk about it! Imagine having 400 'mes' in a cave! 

The Bible says these 400 men gathered around David and he became their leader. Now that's something. This where I pause, look at a life lived for GOD‎ and get inspired to be a David in my own calling. 

I don't think the 400 distressed, in debt and discontented men entered the cave together. May be the fame of David's ministry grew. Just may be, David's ministry began with one distressed guy. And that guy may have invited his friend. And we don't know how long it took for David's church to grow to 400 members. But David was surely doing something that was causing his ministry to grow within this demographic. 

If I were in David's place, I would wonder about what was going on. I'd ask the LORD "what's going on LORD, I thought you anointed me to be the King. What am I preaching and counseling for? What...do you want me to be a preacher now??" But David was on the move, heeding the voice of GOD and yielding to GOD in obedience. 

I live in a beautiful basement suite in North Vancouver. I live alone. Life is not all that I would want it to be, as yet. And it's so easy to feel caved in. At many times I am attacked by projections that may have paralyzed my capacity to serve GOD by ministering grace and comfort to the distressed, in debt and discontented people placed close to my life. But a child of GOD can't afford sentimentality or frustrated emotional capacities. 

Like David, I want my home, my hiding place to be an Adullam, a place where a weary person is refreshed and leaves a mighty warrior. To use my house and my resources and my very life to be about my FATHER's business...

Freedom On The Narrow Road

I want to share this testimony I read in the book 'A Chance To Die', a biography on Amy Carmichael's Life. She was an Irish missionary who came to India in the late 1800s. Carmichael's most notable work was with girls and young women, some of whom were saved from customs that amounted to forced prostitution.  In 1905 she founded the Dohnavur Fellowship. Young girls were dedicated to the gods by their families, and then usually forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests i.e Devadasi. Carmichael's fellowship transformed Dohnavur into a sanctuary for over one thousand children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.

So Amy Carmichael rescued this girl from the tradition of 'Devadasi' when she was only a baby. And Amy who was fondly called Amma in Dohnavur nurtured this child. Gave her a loving environment to grow up in. She taught the girl  modesty and simplicity. And when the girl grew a little older(i forget the name), she took her and showed her the Devadasis from a distance. And this rescued girl looked at the Devdasis in awe...in admiration. She was captivated by how lovely they looked - adorned with beautiful sarees and jewelry and make-up and fresh flowers in their braids. 

This "attractive" sight caused her to detest Amy. She thought Amy had robbed her of a great life bringing her to a place like Dohnavur. She grew up resenting Amy in her heart. Till she was of age, then she knew. Then she understood what she was saved from...She turned forever grateful!

Why I love this testimony!!!

I too grew up with wrong values...placing a very high value on dangerous pleasures. Just getting a kick from a crass lifestyle thinking it was so cool. Attracted to the every things that shine and glitter! 

But JESUS came and HE delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling that I may walk before HIM all my days (Psalm 116:8-9) HE showed me the way I should take - the narrow road with narrow mindedness. This gave me the abundant life. You can have this life you know...And the world will look and detest you for taking this route just like the rescued child detested Amy... but the life HE gives as we walk close to HIM on this very narrow road for two will be a light for the rest. 

Many will take this route too because they will clearly see what it did in you and for you and through you!

Hello My Name Is !

By Matthew West

Hello, my name is regret

I’m pretty sure we have met

Every single day of your life

I’m the whisper inside

That won’t let you forget

Hello, my name is defeat

I know you recognize me

Just when you think you can win

I’ll drag you right back down again

‘Til you’ve lost all belief

Oh, these are the voices. Oh, these are the lies

And I have believed them for the very last time

Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, I have been set free

"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing

Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I am no longer defined

By all the wreckage behind

The one who makes all things new

Has proven it’s true

Just take a look at my life

Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I've been saved, I've been changed, I have been set free

"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing

Hello, my name is child of the one true King !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The way we choose with GOD....

When we cannot see our way
Let us trust and still obey
HE who bids us forward go
Cannot fail the way to show

 Though the sea be deep and wide...
Though a passage seem denied
Fearless let us still proceed
Since the LORD vouchsafes to lead

                        
                                    - Anonymous

Jobs, Careers and GOD

I had this post in mind for a very very long time now... because a few people who are so close to my heart, have eeither been looking for jobs, or have been searching for a job that truly satisfies. Whatever be the situation you find yourself in, I pray this post will bless you.

For most of it, my life has been a struggle, like everybody elses. At one time, I so wanted to be a teacher. I worked very hard towards it. I tried so much to get into a very presigious teacher's training institutes in my city. But my application was rejected on the grounds of ill-health even though I wasn't ill. So I got discouraged and gave up that dream.

Then I wanted to be a chef. But dad who is a veteran in the Hotel Industry, wouldn't let me pursue that. I gave in after a long hard fight with him.

There came a time when I considered social service as a choice for career. Soon that didn't go anywhere. In my heart I always knew I wanted a job that would make a lasting difference. But didnt quite know what it was, or how to move ahead that road.

The year I graduated in Pychology and History, mum enrolled me into a course of Human Resource Management. I didn't understand half the things they spoke about. I was least interested. Yet I went through the whole course. Somehow I did well...

So from here began my quest for a job that would truly satisfy me. Something that gives life purpose and meaning. For the next 10 years I worked, outperformed at every level in my corporate career, but didn't experience the joy of a job that satisfies one's soul.

Why am I telling you all this ??

Because I know of someone who helped me and is ever willing to help you!

2 years ago I heard the testimony of an aspiring basket ball player. He trained hard and did all he could to make it on a team. But on the opening night, because of a fowl (or something like that), he injured his ankle. Doctors said he could never play professional basket ball again.
He said he wept... On his knees he asked GOD to work HIS divine will out for his life. Even as he prayed that, he was afraid that GOD's will could be to send him on a missionfield in China. And he thought he could have been martyred there or persecuted by the Chinese for sharing the Gospel. So he prayed, JESUS give me a job I'd enjoy as much as basket ball !
And yes, GOD answered that prayer... today Bill Alexon is the Chaplain for the Boson Celtics NBA Team... He enjoys every micro-second of his job and he gives GOD all the glory !

I prayed that prayer, when I first welcomed JESUS into my life. And HE answered my prayer too !!!

Do you know what I do today for a living?
I work for an NGO supporting street boys in the city of Mumbai. I have been able to use the things I learned in Management college, and the skills I acquired through those 10 boring years to make a lasting difference. I teach Sunday School and love it to crumbs. I return from work tired and satisfied, fulfilled and excited !!!

If you are where I was 4 years ago, would you try JESUS? Would you give HIM your life, and I promise you, HE will give it back more meaningful... Ask HIM today to give you a job, a career that will use your talents. The kind that you'd enjoy as much as basket ball :-)

Romans 8:28 For we know that GOD works all things together for the good of those who love HIM and for those wo are called according to HIS purposes.

1Corinthians 2:9 No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has percieved what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM.

Many Prayers,
Plakilla
 

The father who loved his son......

Consider this story I recently heard…

The day is over and you are driving home. The radio tells about a faraway village in which three persons have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu of unknown origin. It’s kind of interesting.

On Sunday, coming home from church, you hear another news release. Only now it’s not three villagers in some remote part of India, but thirty thousand persons in a city near that remote village. Tonight all the major news channels carry the story.

By Monday morning mysterious death is the lead story. For it is not just India; it’s Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran. And before you know it, you’re hearing this story everywhere. Medical authorities are calling it the mystery flu. Panic strikes. The Surgeon General is advising that once the mystery flu is contracted, it lies dormant for about a week. Four days of unbelievable pain and suffering follow; then death—certain death!

Britain closes its borders but it is too late. South Hampton. Liverpool. London. All contaminated. 

It’s Tuesday morning when the President of the United States makes the following announcement: “Because of a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been cancelled.

”Wednesday night. You are at a church prayer meeting. Somebody runs in from the parking lot shouting, “Turn on a radio! Turn on a radio!” The church listens to a little transistor radio held to the pulpit microphone: “Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu.”It has come to America! Within hours it seems, this thing sweeps across the country.

Medical personnel–the best we have–are working around the clock. No progress reported. No antidote found. Efforts seem futile. Oregon. California. Arizona. Texas. Florida. South Carolina. Massachusetts. It’s just sweeping in from the borders.

And then, all of a sudden, the news comes out. The code has been broken! The antibody has been isolated. A cure is imminent. An antidote can be made. But blood is needed: pure, uninfected blood of a very rare type. And so, sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is being asked “to go to your hospital and have you blood analyzed. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly to the hospitals.

”When you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, a long line of friends and neighbors are waiting to be screened. Nurses are running about in the waiting room and patient rooms taking blood, labeling it, and handing it to couriers who whisk it down the hall to the laboratory. You patiently wait with your family to get into the hospital. Then more nurses come on duty and start working frantically among those in the parking lot.

Finishing with your family at last, the attending nurse says quietly, “Wait here in the parking lot until we’ve finished the test.” She then hands the labeled vials to a courier and moves to the next family. You stand with your neighbors, staring into space, scared, wondering if this is the end of the world.

Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He’s yelling a name waiving a clipboard. What? He yells again. Your son tugs on your jacket and says, “Daddy, he’s calling me.” Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy.“Wait a minute! Hold it!”The young man says, “It’s okay. We want to make sure he doesn’t have the disease. He has got the right blood type.”He leads your son away.

Five tense minutes later, out comes the doctor and nurses, crying and hugging one another. Some are even laughing. An older doctor walks up to you and says, “Thank you , sir. Your son’s blood type is perfect. It’s clean and it’s pure. From it we can make the vaccine.”As the word begins to spread all over that parking lot, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying.

But then the grey-haired doctor invites you and your wife into his office where your son is lying on a gurney.“We didn’t realize that the donor would be a minor,” the doctor explained. “We need–we need you to sign a consent form.”You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is left blank. “H-h-h-how many pints?”And that is when the old doctor’s smile fades and he says, “We had no idea it would be a small child. We weren’t prepared. We need it all.”“But-but–”“You don’t understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We-we need it all! We need it all!”“But can’t you give him a transfusion?”“if we had clean blood of his type, we would. Now please sign.”In numb silence you do. The doctor takes the clipboard. “I’m sorry, we-we’ve got to get started. People all over the world are dying.”                                                                                                                                    ~Author unknown

If this were your son, could you leave him and turn away as he is crying and asking, “Mom? Dad? Where are you going? Why are you leaving me?

”How would you feel if the next week, when a memorial service is held for your son, some people just sleep right through it, and some didn’t even come because they decided to take the boat out to the lake, and others came and smiled and only pretended to care?

Would you want to jump up and shout, “My son died!! Do you even care?” Would you just want to shake them and tell them how ungrateful they are? Because of the sacrifice and the blood of your son the whole world has been saved! Is it too much to ask that you take an hour or two each week to remember why you still have life?

I wonder if this is how God feels.I believe that in order to really grasp the concept of what He did for us you have to make it personal. 

Put yourself in His place. Imagine this being your child in this story and then imagine if Jesus was your son. Think about all those people who didn’t deserve to be saved, yet, they were.  When we can think of this great sacrifice in this way does it make you sad? Does it make you want to be a better Christian?

When I heard this story read, I immediately wanted to be better. It helped me understand what God did when He gave His Son to die a cruel death for me.Christians are commanded to remember the Lord’s death on the first day of each week (Act 20:7). I will certainly be mindful of this story as I partake of the Lord’s Supper on Sunday morning.

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TwitterFacebook6GoogleNOVEMBER 23, 2013BY MEGANCHRIST, CHURCH OF CHRIST, DEATH, RELIGION, SACRIFICE

Working Out

Have you noticed the high value people place on working out, striving and conforming ?

People will not only strive to strive but they will also put a trip on people who wont ! We love being strict with ourselves and others...

Yesterday I overheard a conversation between two people speaking about their strict gym routine and diet plans. And how a break in routine discourages them from continuing their activity. Once they take a break they find it very hard to get back...

The more they spoke, the more I saw the law at work and how it binds people. Often times we break the law and find it hard to get back. We love lying there in our failures. When time goes by we feel like we've served our 'self-inflicted' sentence and grant ourselves release. Like as if that was required of us in the 1st place.

But JESUS is not like that. HE is gracious and expects us to be gracious. HE says a righteous man will fall down seven times and yet he rises up and goes on. But the wicked fall down and lie there (Proverbs 24:16). The Biblical definition of a righteous man is someone who is right with GOD and not someone who is always right.

Do you want to be the righteous man of Proverbs 24:16 ?
Begin by inviting JESUS into your life. Say JESUS I accept that I am unable to keep doing the right thing. I keep failing. I sin. YOU sent YOUR SON JESUS to pay the full price for my sins. HE took my sin to the Cross. HE died, was buried and on the 3rd day HE rose again. HE is alive. Because of JESUS I will go to heaven and enjoy everlasting life !

If you prayed this prayer, you are born again. You are made righteous.

Gracism...A Higher Standard - Ps Mike Robinet

Some of the most popular preachers preach that grace has no demands. But Bible theology teaches that grace makes us righteous. Rom 8:2-4 what the law didn't do for me GOD sent JESUS to do for me !

GOD's grace alone makes me righteous. Trusting only in JESUS's blood. Just receiving JESUS's grace even though I didn't deserve it.

A practical righteousness because of GOD's grace. The law couldn't cause me to want to serve GOD but HIS grace makes me want to do that.

Sometimes we distort grace by saying that grace takes away my responsibility. Grace doesn't diminish my responsibility but JESUS said grace increases it.

To whom much is given much is expected Luke 12:48.

If I understand grace, there are things required of me than others. Grace makes us more responsible. The person who understands grace is the most responsible Christian... Grace says I want to read the Bible, I want to pray, I have to do things that are right things... Grace doesn't diminish responsibility but increases it. JESUS said to whom much is given much is expected !

GOD has allowed me to go to a good church that teaches me the Bible, to go to a Bible college, to serve GOD and do GOD's will. What other person than me has a bigger responsibility. True Theology has a higher standard than the law.

So many people are afraid of the law. But if people really understood grace they would accept it. Because grace has a higher standard than the law !!!

The fruit of Grace has a higher standard.
Grace gives us the power to fulfill the standards set by the law.

Galatians is the book of grace. Its totally in grace. We have total liberty in CHRIST. No tradition, no church law, no rules - free from rules and free from law. But we don't use this as an opportunity for the flesh.

Grace is freedom to obey our Savior.

When it comes to soul winning there is something greater than compassion, the freedom to obey our Savior.

JESUS didn't die on the Cross simply becos HE loves you... Because it was the FATHER's will !

Grace gives me the freedom to say yes to JESUS ! We will be greater soul winners if we do things because of the freedom to obey because of grace.

Grace says I can but for JESUS I won't !!!

Red Sea

Have you come to a Red Sea place in your life ?
Where inspite of all you can do
There is no way out, there is no way back.
There is no other way but through ?


Then wait on the LORD with a trust serene
Till the night of your fear is gone;
HE will send the wind; HE will heap the floods.
When HE says to your soul, "Go on...."

In the morning watch 'neath the lifted cloud,
You shall see but the LORD alone,
When HE leads you on from a place of the sea
To a land that you have not known;

And your fears shall pass as your foes have passed.
You shall no more be afraid;
You shall sing HIS praise in a better place.
A place HIS hand has made.

GOD Answers Prayer - Mary Slessor

I can testify with full and wonder-stricken awe that I believe GOD answers prayer.

I have proved over long decades, while alone as far as man's help and presence are concerned, that GOD answers prayer.

My children whose very lives are a testimony that GOD answers prayer.

I am at perfect peace, far from my own countrymen and conditions, because I know GOD answers prayer.

We live from hand to mouth. We have not more than will be our breakfast today, but I know we shall be fed, for GOD answers prayer.
                                                                                                                                     
                                                                       

                                                                        










  - Mary Slessor   
Served as Missionary in Calabar 38 years of her life

Praying Hyde

It was to the Punjab that the son of an Illinois Presbyterian minister, John Nelson Hyde, felt led to begin his lifetime of missionary endeavor. At the time of his posting, he was one of only five missionaries in a territory holding nearly one million non-Christians. Progress was slow, but measured. In a letter to his seminary after his first year in India, Hyde wrote:

Yesterday eight low-caste persons were baptized at one of the villages. It seems a work of God in which man, even as an instrument, was used in a very small degree. Pray for us. I learn to speak the language very, very slowly: can only talk a little in public or in conversation.”

Hyde's inability to master the complex native languages was due in no small degree to his partial deafness. To the dismay of mission authorities, he devoted most of his time to Bible rather than language study, displaying the withdrawn intensity of a visionary rather than the engaging demeanor of the traditional missionary. In time, however, Hyde gained a certain fluency, though he never lost his zeal for Scripture. With periods of outright persecution by natives, and few, if any conversions, Hyde began leading his fellow missionaries in intercession for India. So deep was his call to prayer that by 1899 he began spending entire nights face down before God. In a letter to his college he wrote:

Have felt led to pray for others this winter as never before. I never before knew what it was to work all day and then pray all night before God for another… In college or at parties at home, I used to keep such hours for myself, or pleasure, and can I not do as much for God and souls?”

In 1904, Indian Christians and western missionaries gathered for the first of an annual series of conventions at Sialkot in what is today Pakistan. To support this time of spiritual renewal, John Hyde and his friends formed the Punjab Prayer Union, setting aside half an hour each day to pray for revival. The results of their prayers were plainly seen at the Sialkot Convention as a special anointing fell upon those gathered. Year by year the prayer union fasted and prayed, and at each convention a growing urgency for evangelism and intercession filled each attendee. John Hyde emerged as the prayer leader, and all were amazed at both the depth of his spiritual insight, and the ferocity of his burden for India.

By 1908, John Hyde dared to pray what was to many at the convention an impossible request: that during the coming year in India one soul would be saved every day. Three hundred sixty five people converted, baptized, and publicly confessing Jesus as their Savior. Impossible -- yet it happened. Before the next convention John Hyde had prayed more than 400 people into God's kingdom, and when the prayer union gathered again, he doubled his goal to two souls a day. Eight hundred conversions were recorded that year, and still Hyde showed an unquenchable passion for lost souls.

At the 1910 convention, those around Hyde marveled at his faith, as they witnessed his near violent supplications, "Give me souls, oh God, or I die!" Before the meeting ended, John Hyde revealed that he was again doubling his goal for the coming year. Four souls a day, and nothing less. During the next twelve months John Hyde's ministry took him throughout India. By now he was known as "Praying Hyde," and his intercession was sought at revivals in Calcutta, Bombay, and other large cities. If on any day four people were not converted, Hyde said at night there would be such a weight on his heart he could not eat or sleep until he had prayed through to victory. The number of new converts continually grew.

It was in Calcutta that friends persuaded Hyde to see a doctor about his rapidly deteriorating health. The years of travail had obviously taken a toll. Yet no one expected the medical examiner's incredible diagnosis. John Hyde's heart had shifted out of its natural position on the left side of his chest to a place over on the right. It was unlike anything the doctor had seen before, and he warned Hyde that unless he got complete rest he would be dead in six months.

In fact, Praying Hyde lived for nearly two more years, long enough to see a wave of revival sweep through the Punjab and the rest of India -- and long enough to have his own personal vision enlarged. Before he died, he shared what God had shown him:

On the day of prayer, God gave me a new experience. I seemed to be away above our conflict here in the Punjab and I saw God's great battle in all India, and then away out beyond in China, Japan, and Africa. I saw how we had been thinking in narrow circles of our own countries and in our own denominations, and how God was now rapidly joining force to force and line to line, and all was beginning to be one great struggle. That, to me, means the great triumph of Christ. We must exercise the greatest care to be utterly obedient to Him who sees all the battlefield all the time. It is only He who can put each man in the place where his life can count for the most.

A Childlike Prayer

At the Wednesday evening prayer time, Zia, a little girl of five joined our group to pray. We were quite eager to intercede for the pressing prayer requests the Church received. As we began to pray little Zia whispered in my ears telling me that she wants to pray too. I was weary of interrupting the group with this request. Then, I didnt want to discourage her either.

I asked one of the women if we could let her pray. And Zia began praying:
"JESUS bless my friends... bless Ann and Hannah and Gavin and Zarina and Ayesha and Suzan and Cheryl and Angel and Ronald and Philip and Jack and George and Mitchelle and Mariane and Analise and Anabelle and Lisa and David and Samuel and Victoria and all my van friends. And JESUS please also bless my friend Giselle. Help her because she gets everything wrong in her books. JESUS help her so that the wrong changes to right. So that when her parents open her books they can see the stars and say vow"

By the time she reached the fifth name I wondered how long this list was ! Then I wondered if we will have enough time to complete our other prayer requests. In the midst of all these thoughts GOD just showed me this child's heart. Her love for the kids who ride in her school van. Her tender heart to pray for each of them by name and her loving concern for the kid who isn't doing well in school. And yes, her sweet desire to want Giselle's parents to appreciate her. Above all else - she approached the Throne of GOD boldly and confidently and by faith  !

I love such prayers. Praying like I know GOD. Praying knowing HE answers...