BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing English E-magazine Aug 2019 | Page 13

precepts of God and lost his anointing. Christendom
is filled with such backsliders. They not only
disqualify themselves to enter into heaven but also
leave a bad testimony thus becoming a stumbling
block for others. Let us not fall into this category of
people. Let us shine for God and lead a witnessing
life.
We need to be watchful in our priorities
also. When we are careless, we lose our vision. We
get distracted. Gradually, at times even without our
knowledge, we dethrone the Lord from the throne
of our hearts and crown something or somebody
else as our king. This position can be usurped by our
love for money, power, position and the like. Even
family and ministry can dethrone the King of kings
from ruling our life. We may still go to church, read
the Bible and attend prayer meetings. But they do
not hold the same significance. Church becomes a
community centre, Bible reading becomes a duty
and a treasure hunt for promises and blessings, even
prayer meetings are just to comfort our wayward
heart. Once we lose our personal intimacy with our
Lord Jesus, all our so-called ministerial activities are
in vain. When we meet Him on the other shore, we
may say that we have accomplished a whole lot of
things for Him. But He will reply, "I never know you"
(Lk 7:23) because we have lost that personal
relationship with Him. That was the case with the
foolish virgins. They never realised that they were
careless in their preparatory work and when they
realised it, it was too late to repent. Let this not be
true in our lives.
Watchfulness in Christian Walk
The Bible (word of God) and prayer are
two boons to mankind. Through the Bible, God
speaks to us. It is the roadmap for us pilgrims to
reach heaven. Through prayer, we communicate
with our Saviour. When Jesus, the very Word of God
was in His bodily form on the earth, we find Him
praying with all earnestness to God the Father. This
should be our model, dear friends. We should not be
satisfied with mere hearing of the messages in the
Sunday church service or still worse listening from a
preacher in the television. A believer depending
exclusively on the preachers for their spiritual food
has become the norm of the day. Hardly people turn
the Scriptures to feed their souls. Preachers too are
not interested to wait on the Lord. They just present
some other preacher's message which they have
taken from the YouTube. Preaching has become a
fashion in the Christendom. People love to be called
as conventional speakers. The Scripture, "For the
time is coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but having itching ears they will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own
passions," (2 Tim 4:3) is being fulfilled in these days.
Preachers are lifted up based on their
talent to speak or sing. It is pathetic to observe that
they never grow in the Lord and also deceive their
hearers. Instead of meditating and practicing the
Word, preachers just want to preach, preach, preach
and perish! Their personal life does not reflect the
sovereignty of God. When questioned, they answer -
'Spiritual life is different from secular life!' Isn't this a
life of hypocrisy?
Some years back, I underwent a short
term training in seamanship where we were taught
on how to navigate a ship. Navigating a ship is no
small feat. We do not have any routes and roads
there. But a route map is available. Hence, the
navigator has to calculate the nautical miles and
steer the ship accordingly. Even a small mistake will
make a great difference. It is believed that Captain
Edward J. Smith ignored the warnings about the
icebergs in the sea. Only when they came to a
quarter mile close to the ice berg, did they realise
the danger. But by then it was too late. They couldn't
completely avoid the iceberg which led to the fall of
the unsinkable Titanic.
Personally I am convinced that we need
to meditate the word of God till we hear His voice
and pray till we are assured that He has heard us. It
should neither be a duty nor a routine. Not listening
to God's word properly leads us to wrong practices.
Slowly, they breed into wrong teachings and when
left uncorrected they beget wrong doctrines. Such
August 2019| www.bymonline.org | page 13