I can understand when people forget my name, but…

Geoff?
Alexander?
John?
Mark?
Peter?

It cracks me up when people can’t remember a name as easy as Paul!! Especially real people with whom Paul has spent a considerable amount of time… It is funny because they are so genuine when they say “hey, so how’s Alexander been, is he coming to India soon?” aww, I’m laughing just thinking about it.

Dad wants him to change his name to Vardhman. Might be easier on the people here, even if Paul wont be able to say it himself. LOL

Stimulus

“Heartfelt verse
from a searching soul
so many words
fears
monsters
desires unfed
silent screams
wine, men and dreams…”

What about real life?
Wordsworth and Blake tossing in their graves
because poetry is dead!

I don’t understand your longing heart
I don’t care about your silent screams
I don’t approve of your cowardice
I don’t want to read your poetry.

If you would write a poem
Learn from my husband
he could teach you a thing or two.

I wont win a prize for this
No critic’s approving nod
But I speak the truth.

I have no lover but God
I desire no man but my husband
I keep strong drink far from me
I have no conflicts in my soul
I am free. I seek nothing more

I am content.

Can a free woman be a poet?
God is Judge.

I am content not to receive your award.
You cannot relate to me but I am content.

Q:    Where did George Washington keep his armies?

A:    In his sleevies

Regenerated

God has made provision for every kind of inspiration. Within the church and without, by way of acceptance and by way of rejection. Yes, a lion leading an army of stags is to be preferred over a stag leading an army of lions. The Lion of Judah has promised living water to all who thirst and I am thankful for relief from “lukewarmness” and especially in “holier than thou” comparisons to the world.

Thank you Maj Gen Nilendra Kumar. I cannot say this to you in person but I truly appreciate your book on Nani Palkhivala. I appreciate this book for the sincerity and generosity in praise for a man who is no longer alive to return the favour. I can certainly learn from the way in which these good words have been communicated. I also appreciate the noble and honourable values that have been exalted in the character of this man. I am challenged because if these things are true about this man, as they are about several great people who have been remembered in history, there is certainly a vast ocean of God’s grace that many in the church today have not begun to consider.

I am convinced that Jesus Christ did not die on that cross and rise up again to the Father’s right hand simply to see us wasting our lives in the former indulgences of which we were redeemed by His own blood.

Does God give less grace to one who trusts in Him and belongs to Him, than to one who doesn’t? Does a husband withhold from his wife the things he gives freely to strangers? The thought is absurd. Oh to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves! The Scriptures are inerrant, yes the Scriptures are sufficient — what I learn from Maj Gen Nilendra Kumar and from Nani A. Palkhivala is not new things which the Scriptures haven’t taught me — but that God has given such grace to common men that we are without excuse when we of regenerated spirit fail to surpass them all.

I heard Brother Paul Washer preach on Romans 12. He said that when we believe a lie we become transgressors. When Adam and Eve were deceived, they became transgressors. We need to repent of believing that God is not able to save us from our sin, we need to repent of believing that we do not have the victory He promised and gave us. If we have believed a lie we have disbelieved God’s truth. His grace is abundant. Come all who are thirsty, to the water of life, without price. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness WILL be filled.

Madhouse

Sometimes life seems meaningless except that sinners be rescued out of this madhouse called the world

The Narrow Way

It was Mad Angles last year, this year it’s Hippo Munchies.
The old isn’t making way for the new.
Shelf space keeps increasing, as if some kind of magic.

Will we receive this as if it’s our due?
Is the only part that bothers us, the queue?

Soul, don’t build bigger barns to stock earthly treasures as they rot!
Or will you eat and drink, be merry till you die?
Soul, as you feast on the returns of cursed ignorance,
God hears multitudes of starving children cry.
On judgment day, He’s going to ask YOU why.

FarmVille is not real life. Brown cows don’t give chocolate milk.
Takes a season, not 12 hours, to harvest rice.
And when you say “just 10 rupees for my favourite bag of Lays”,
Remember: there’s a cost beyond the price.
The 10% you give, will not suffice.

Soul! If footmen wear you out, how will you with horses contend?
If earthly standards are too high, how will you to the skies ascend?
Soul, be afraid of God, not man, for one of them you WILL offend.

Your blessings come not from your work, but from that Blessed Weekend.
And fruit, not all your filthy rags, will in that Day your faith commend.

If I repent, what shall I do? My church says faith is good enough?
Yes. John said this, preparing the way for God’s Son:
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Two tunics? You need only one.
Go, share your food where there is none.

——–

“Factories upon factories set up to make the same thing. Aisles and aisles stacked with different names for the same thing. Milk is milk, it comes out of a cow, what can you possibly do to make it different?” — Paul

My December Office

http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic

Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. — Psalm 73

“The Excellent Wife” by Martha Peace: I studied chapter 1 of this book today and it looks very promising. I am learning a lot about my heart, probably beyond what the author would have intended; for this reason I am glad that Scripture is the foundation of this study “for the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart“. Interestingly, “The Excellent Wife” which I am studying and “The Exemplary Husband” which Paul is studying, are written in complementary design. Some chapters are designed as his leadership and my response. I think by God’s grace there is a lot to learn from the labour of love found in these books. May the Lord be pleased to find in us a reflection of Christ and His church.

Shivers. Goosebumps. Faith, hope and love. With God all things are possible.

I Know It’s Called A Beetroot.

But that’s about all. I can’t cook at all yet apart from really basic things… I used to be terrified of how I was going to please a man who has a brilliant sense of what goes and what doesn’t go into a good meal. But I’m not scared anymore because he is a man seeking things of God and he’s not fussy about rich tastes. I still want to learn so that I can honour and serve him but I’m comforted knowing he’ll be more than happy with rice, lentils and sliced fruit if that’s the only thing I can ever manage properly. God is so good to me.

[28 November 2009. 8 pm. On the phone to Paul]

Paul:
I bought that purple thing today, you know the vegetable, which leaves colour on your hand. What’s it called, a radish? No, it’s not a radish.

Aridhi:
Beetroot, maybe?

Paul:
Yeah! Beetroot! I’ve never bought one before, so I called Mum and asked her what to do with it, whether I could eat it raw or if I had to boil it or fry it, etc. So she told me to fry it with onions and then I put tomato sauce on it and it gave it such a deep purple colour, and my hands were all pink, and I used it as sauce for my pasta. It was very rich, and so yummy.

Aridhi:
Oh Paul, I’m awful! What are you going to do with a wife who can’t cook? I don’t know how to make anything.

Paul:
Aww, you don’t have to know these things. I know how to cook. But it doesn’t mean I don’t need you, I need you to know things of God, that’s all.

Aridhi:
Really?

Paul:
Of course. I want to present you pure before God. If you weren’t right with God, I would ask you to get out of the kitchen even if you did know how to cook. You have to be right with God.

——–

This man of God is currently reading a book called The Exemplary Husband, by Stuart Scott. Brother Paul Washer says in his sermons sometimes, “what would marriages in this country look like, if men sat down and said, ‘how can I love my wife and give myself up for her?’ And if women would ask, ‘how can I honour my husband?’” It is a rare, rare blessing to find a man like Paul who does not say “how can I get more out of my wife” but devotes himself to caring for a daughter of God with the sacrificial love of Christ. He is exemplary, already. My heart overflows with prayer for His blessing and for me to learn also to honour him as is fitting towards a son of God.

35x Discipline

Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’? For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death. If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’; then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’ “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.

– Job 33.13-30

The Lamb Is A Lion

Weak from the journey, the long traveling days
Hungry to worship, to join in the praise
Shock met with anger that burned on His face
As He entered the wasteland of that barren place

Priests and the merchants demanded some proof
For their hearts were hardened and blind to the truth
That Satan’s own law is to sell and to buy
But God’s only way is to give and to die

And the Lamb is a Lion who’s roaring with rage
At the empty religion that’s filling their days
They’ll flee from the harm
Of the Carpenter’s strong arm
And come to know the scourging anger of the Lord

The noise and confusion gave way to His Word
At last sacred silence so God could be heard

- Michael Card