With Chance, Merry Christmas

Everyone likes a happy ending movie . Everyone wishes that the the poor beautiful girl married the handsome prince and lived happily ever and after. Everyone likes a happy story.

The mood of Christmas is in the air, the message is in our hearts.

"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son", Jesus was the revelation of God's love.

But I believe that my Master had another message as well when He sent His Son.

Jesus is, God saying, "Here, HE is your last chance".

Since the devil corrupted the human race, the one thing we all do in common is play the blame game. Blame each other and get kicked out of Eden, we do this all our lives. This eats our joy and most importantly our potential.Our potential to be what our Maker really made us to be.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

You started off with zeal, but somewhere down the road, you lost track of your route.Now you find yourself in a place that is truly detestable. A life steadily drowning in a deluge of secret sin.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

Nice words no longer heal your wounds, you've seen that no relationship kept its promise. You are thirsty and distraught but every love you find is a shallow puddle. You are betrayed and bitter.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

You thought, life could not be any better.Your world was perfect.Suddenly everything came crashing down. Before you could realize what's going on, you were buried inside rubble and debris.You are bruised and bleeding but no one can help.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

With the economy tumbling down, your future is turning its back on you too, you don't find the opportunities which promised you a great life there any more.You are afraid and confused wondering how you will journey in a strange and different world all by yourself.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

You feel you are living somebody else's life, feeling overtly responsible and completely lost track of your passion and purpose. You are just dragging your life along, instead of living it.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

You feel that you've worked too hard and deserve a luxurious break, but that seems impossible,considering the pressure,competition,responsibilities on your back, life just seems to get harder and complicated everyday.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

You have tasted every good thing in life, but still there is a vacuum that refuses to settle. An emptiness that sucks your peace, making you feel worthless and your life meaningless.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

No one cares to see the jewel that you really are, no one cares to recognize your rare potential. You don't fit in the crowd, because you are special. But people call you strange.Even you can't understand yourself, and absolutely clueless about what you will amount to.

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

Things have begun to slow down, and you wonder, if everything you ever slogged and sweat for is really worth it. The greatest question of life become to strike real on your face."Is death really final?" "Where is my journey from here?" "Can anything be done about my not-so-perfect past?" "Am I really hopeless?"

If it is you out there, Jesus is your last chance!!

Christmas, by itself is only the beginning of a story that began in a tiny place called Bethlehem, the angelic choir or the royal gifts alone don't make it a happy story. Surrendering yourself to this Last Chance given to you by God can recreate the magic of Christmas in your life and in your home, and spark the beginning of a spectacular journey and a glorious destination, with the Master Himself.

Many are dying everyday without knowing that they have a Last Chance, and many of our brothers and sisters are forced to depart their earthly bodies so that the rest of the world may see their Last Chance.

Have you used your Last Chance?
Have you helped someone see their Last Chance?

Wishing you a Merry Christmas filled with true Christmas joy!!

Living with my Last Chance and enjoying every bit of it..
Callie

Laboring Queens

The last week was berserk.

Mumbai, the most energetic metropolitan of India was paralyzed with fear when terrorists attacked 11 busy and populated places on 26th November.The Taj luxury hotel, a prestigious 105 year old heritage building was under siege holding in custody many hostages. The Oberoi Trident Hotel was also victim to the same.The Nariman House, which is a Jewish outreach center in the city was seized and assaulted leaving 8 of its inmates killed. The total number of confirmed fatalities of the 2 day Islamic militant attack sized up to 195 and more than 300 people were wounded.

In Tamil Nadu, torrential rains created havoc.86 persons died, and thousands became homeless.Roads became inaccessible, and standing crops in over 100,000 acres of land became totally submerged in flood waters.

I was reading the book of Esther as a part of my daily devotion and in seasons of crisis, such as these times, I've learnt many lessons for my own life from the life of Esther.

"...Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" [Esther 4:14]

The Background

King Xerxes ruled over a kingdom that stretched from India in the east to Egypt in the west.

The lives of all the Jews living in this Persian empire were threatened by the order given by King Xerxes who in-turn was poisoned by minister Haman, an anti-semitic.
One Jew was safe, Haddasah, who rose to be a queen and was later named Esther.

She had a choice, she could reveal her identity and fish an opportunity to save her kindred, but if the King was not convinced she could lose her life instantly. Or ; she could stay silent, and live in safety and comfort while her brethren were being massacred.

We know how Esther fasts and prays for 3 days to boldly confront the situation. She meets the king, despite the high risk involved, plans a perfect banquet inviting Haman, and gently revealed to the king his evil ploy , and further created opportunities to provoke his anger and completely destroyed Haman, along with his plan and secured the safety and progress of the Jews.

The Lessons

Some are called to be a queen in the enemy's palace.

I am graduating in Engineering this year, I plan to do a masters in Business Administration and also want to be certified in various technologies.I see myself as an entrepreneur in the near future handling diversified products and services.

But do you know what I am called for?

I am called to be laborer in the field of the Lord's harvest.This is not my wish list, but my confirmed purpose.

Every work, every degree, every business venture for me is an effort, an act of labor in my Father's vineyard.

Esther used her position to maneuver the decision of the king preventing the annihilation of the Jews.She could not have done this, had she been an ordinary Jew girl.[Esther 5:3]

Sometimes God gives His children extraordinary position and power in this sinful world, not just because He loves to "bless" but because there is an assignment that He intends to complete through the position He's given you.
*God uses those who are willing to be promoted but who are not willing to be assimilated.

Greater the position, higher the responsibility towards the Kingdom.

You need Prayer even if you are a queen.

It is strange how some of us label only a few as "prayer warriors", and conveniently delegate the conscious praying habit to them alone.

She was the queen, but she fasted and prayed for 3 days in order to confront the situation with the king.[Esther 4:15]

Fasting is the act of humbling your whole being to the sovereignty of Almighty God.Prayer is the result of my yearning to be connected without interruption to the Heart of the Master.

Esther did not 'brainstorm' or try 'six thinking hats' or operate on 'metaphorical thinking' ,or 'Fuzzy thinking' or 'mind mapping' or 'Synetics' , to solve her crisis situation; instead she prayed.

I don't deny the power of creative thinking, but that comes second to the power of prayer. Don't just do it, Pray first; a prayer of humble submission.A prayer of total acknowledgment of the authority of God. The Master will then speak His strategy and plan for action.

Because she prayed,

1. she found favor in the eyes of the king and found an opportunity to meet him,[Esther 5:2]
   
2. she came up with a strategy to throw a banquet inviting Haman ;[Esther 5:4]
3. God made the king have swings of insomnia which compelled him to read the old diaries where he read the account of how Mordecai had saved his life from an assassination plot years before.He was reminded that he never rewarded him,so early next morning the king make arrangements to reward him.[Esther 6:1-10]
   

All of this further made way to complete her assignment.

On the day of the banquet, Esther intelligently provoked the king's anger by exposing Haman and his evil plot and caused him to be hung in the gallows that he arranged for Mordecai.[Esther 7:1-10]

Divine providence will not come your way, without continuous conversation with God.

Give up your present and step out in courage and faith.

Hadassah, gave up her comfortable average, ordinary Jew girl's life, and proceeded to venture out into an entirely new world, to become a queen in a pagan palace. She had to undergo 12 months of beauty treatment and preparations before she could enter the contest and qualify to be King Xerxes' new queen.[Esther 2:12-18]

It is easy to play a safe game, and stay secure. But it needs tremendous courage to get out of your comfort zone and dare to take the challenge.It takes preparation and perseverance to be promoted.I believe Hadassah believed that she was not ordinary material, so she stepped out and she made a difference in the lives of millions of Jews.

Once she became queen Esther, she did not settle for luxury, and allow her self to become a slave to the new life that had got hold of her, instead she stepped out in boldness risking her life by deciding to reveal her Jewish origin, saying "If I perish, I perish".[Esther 4:16]

As a Christian, we need to face battles in every day life, because we have a very powerful enemy who is afraid of our very powerful potential given to us by our omnipotent Father.

We have a choice, we can fight and move forward or grumble and remain where we are.

You make the decision.

Will you step out in faith and take a risk, and reap the benefit, for yourself and many others whose whose eternity depends on you?

"...Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"[Esther 4:14]

Will you step out to serve?

It was unfortunate though, that recently when I was cleaning a wardrobe my eyes fell on the gift I had given a loved one.

My mind raced back remembering where I had bought it, how many other different gifts I considered before my mind set on this , how dear and precious this loved one was, that I wanted to get something that would help the person in a special way.

And not just that, I had penned down a few words straight from my heart. The words too were there glaring at me.

That cherished gift that I had presented with a lot of noble intentions was lying there, uncared for, unnoticed, and unused.It stung my heart hard.I was angry and disappointed wondering if the person ever understood the value of what I had bought and I wished if I go right out and give that person a piece of my mind. But my Master had other lessons..

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

I realized recently, that the gifts God give us, does not come with a bright red wrapper, that we usually expect, I also doubt that if God always uses dramatic visitations to impart his personal gifts to His children.But since, we get carried away looking for tags and wrappers, we miss the point and don't identify the many gifts God has given us.

It is my imagination that after God created me., my basics and my framework without which I cannot survive on the planet. He took me to His secret place and placed several special, precious, and unique gifts in my life., because thats what people do to what when they call someone as their "prized possesion"...they give them things immensely valuable.

My Master does things differently, not just because He is God but because His love is Higher and His ways greater, and because He is my Father. He chose not to make the gifts reveal themselves from the day I was born, but only after I personally identify and acknowledge and honour those gifts.

It is the responsibility of everyone who claims to be a 'born-again', 'spirit-filled' Christian to honour the gifts given by God. Failing to do so, is a clear sin.

I believe firmly and I have experienced personally, that when we begin to serve, the gifts that God had embedded in our framework start to show up.

• For a long time, I wasted a lot of my thinking fuel trying to figure out what exactly I was good at, I was brainstorming, meditating and tried every other tactic to find out my gift. Nothing helped, it only made me feel worse and one fine day, I gave up, concluding that gifts were meant only for special people, not for an ordinary girl who's just struggling every day to keep her Christian life intact.

When we give up, God starts up. He gave me few mundane unappealing opportunities, and waited to see if I'll serve.Serve like a servant. A great man of God once said, "You know that you serve like a servant by seeing your reaction when you are treated like one."

I stopped looking for 'big' things and started serving in small things for ordinary people whom I meet everyday,little then did I realize that through that I was serving an extraordinary God.The more I gave myself up for serving, slowly but gloriously I began to see different gifts in my life unveiling everyday.The truth was that my loving Master, did not put just one gift, (actually I was searching for just a single one!!) but several interlinked and related gifts in my life.

People who complain, that they are not talented or gifted are those who've not really stepped out and dared to serve. God's gifts will remain wrapped up and sealed all the days of your life if you are not going to decide to serve. Serving is not a gift by itself meant for a few who are 'called', rather it is the vehicle for any gift to actually operate.It is God's "Directions for use" for your gift. Unless you embrace this, you cannot use it, honour it or even identify it.

"As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God's many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor]."1 Peter 4:10[Amplified Bible]

• Another thing that stops us from stepping out is the fear of making mistakes. This is one thing that am fully convinced about. As long as you are going to be afraid of messing up somewhere, you'll be doing nothing.

I've also made this observation from my own life. I have never been a 'perfectionist', but I have been a very skillfull fault finder. I used to find fault wih everyone and with everything . Becuase of this attitude of mine, I was afraid to be used, fearing that people would find fault with me. God changed this attitude of mine, and taught me that it was not my business to judge others' works.

Once this changed, I stopped seeing mistakes and started embracing every opportunity. When I let down the burden of judging the acts and works of others, my life became easy and free to do the things that God had wanted me to do.

• I gave lack of recognition as an excuse for not using my gift. But that's not the purpose of God's gift.God does not give gifts to His children to impress others but rather to impact others.You need to be a boss to impress, but you need to get dirty and stoop down with your serving attitude to impact lives for the Master.That's when your gifts begin to surface and shield you with power to administer God's grace in the lives of others.

Today, I don't know of any who are blessed or comforted with what I write but I know of many, who began to write for the Master's glory after seeing me write!! Maybe God will bring up an annointed writer from among them who will touch the hearts of millions with the healing power of my Master. Can you see how I am used?

When the Master returns, He's going to be very angry if he finds your gift unnoticed, uncared and unused, because the gift in your life is an exclusive one.

Your gift has an assignment that bears the responsibility of many other lives which it has to touch, heal and transform.

Will you step out to serve?