From "Self" to "Selfless" (Dreams of Joseph)

Joseph, (11th Son of Jacob) is a very well-known character from the Old Testament.

The Name 'Joseph' means "May Jehovah add/give increase".  Joseph was gifted with Dreams / Interpretation of Dreams.

But God used this Gift in Joseph to make him Grow/Mature in God. As we read about these dreams, we will realize how God molded Joseph through each dream.

First stage: (Only "I or me" and "No God" Stage)

Genesis 37:5-9 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

 -> We observe the words "I" and "Me" but no mention of God in these Dreams. Many times in our Spiritual Life, we go through this stage where our words/dreams are restricted to only I, Me and you. This is "Only Me and No God stage".

Second stage: (Both "God" and "Me" Stage)

Genesis 40:6-8 - 6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. 

7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”

8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

->  In this Dream, Joseph uses the word "God" but also uses "Me". This is "Both God and Me stage". This stage is better than the first one, but still there is no complete surrender to God! In this stage, we allow God to work in our Life but still have our own way/view on it.

Third stage: (Only God and No "I or Me" Stage)

Genesis 41: 15,16 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

16 "I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

-> In this Dream,  Joseph replies to Pharaoh, "I cannot Do it" but "God"!! This is the Stage where God wants us to be at all times. All of Joseph's gifts are completely surrendered to God.

In Galatians 2:20 Paul makes this daring statement,

" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

-> Let our "I's" and "Me's" be totally crucified with Christ. And all our Desires / Dreams / Visions be completely surrendered to Christ so that He may Break us, Make us and Mould us according to His will. When our Lives reach this stage, God will make us the real Joseph (To Add / Increase).

Which stage are we in our walk with Christ??

Prayer: "He must increase, but I must decrease" John 3:30

God Bless you!

 

 

 

Do You Get High Fever?

 

It was in the month of June in the year 2016, I had to travel to nagercoil to attend my best brother Giftson's wedding. We were staying in Whitefield, Bangalore.

My daughter Miracline was about 4 years old and was/is so much attached to me. When she was about 1.5 years old, My wife Asha used to work as a nurse in a hospital, where every 2 weeks she had night shift. So, I was used to putting my daughter to sleep and she longs to see me every evening before going to sleep.

So whenever I go out of town, I will have to prepare my daughter's mind, atleast a week before, explaining that, in that weekend, I will not be available at home. I did the same thing before travelling to Nagercoil.

As I reached Nagercoil, I was so happy seeing Giftson getting married, though I missed my family being with me. After the reception dinner, While I was getting ready to start back to Bangalore, I heard from Asha that Miracline was having high fever. I was desperate to reach back soon. I couldn't sleep properly in the bus.

When the bus reached Attibele in the Morning, Asha insisted me to take a cab and reach home soon and that we can take Miracline to Hospital. When I reached home, I was literally running up the stairs to see how my daughter is, she was sleeping inside the bedroom. When Miracline realized I was back home, she came running to me and hugged me. I checked her forehead to check the temperature, to my surprise there was no fever. Asha and my mom were also equally surprised that the boiling temperature had suddenly turned cold.

As we were thinking what could have happened, I heard Asha tell "May be its Dada Fever" :) I felt happy seeing Miracline playing normal.

After this incident, I felt God asking me this, Do you get High Fever when you don't spend time with the Heavenly Father, even for a day?

Let's make every effort to seek God each day of our Life, keeping in mind that even missing a day would feel like High Fever!

Psalms 27:4 " One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple"

Lessons from tuning a Guitar

This happened in 2006, about 5 years ago but yet so fresh in my heart. It was a bright, sunny morning and it was around 8 am. I was getting ready to lead worship in our church in Mysore. Our church was/is a small church about 30-40 people in all. A good percentage of the congregation is floating type as there are trainees from Infosys and others are there in Mysore because of work. While the trainees get posted to different places after their hard-fought training the others move out once they change companies.
Just like every Sunday morning, I took out my guitar to tune it. As I started to remove the dust that is struck in the fret/strings of the guitar, I realized that I have to clean all the dust/sin in every area of my Life before coming to the Lord’s Presence.
Anyone who plays guitar would know, guitar sounds the best when all the strings are properly tuned. There is a nice and simple way of tuning the guitar. It goes like this, the 1st string “E” has to be tuned to the standard tone “E” which I had it in my mobile. The 5th fret of the 2nd string has to the 1st string “E”. The 4th fret of the 3rd string has to be tuned to the 2nd string “B”, the 5th fret of the 4th string has to the 3rd string “G”, the 5th fret of the 5th string has to be tuned to the 4th string “D” and the 5th fret of the 6th string “E” has to be tune to the 5th string “A”. In simple words, the 1st string has to be tuned to the standard note, the rest of the strings in relative to each other.
As I was tuning the guitar, God taught me this. If I have to lead worship, I have to be tuned to the standard note “GOD” and every member of the congregation has to be tuned with each other so that we make a melodious music (meaningful worship) unto the Lord. How wonderful it would be if we all are tuned to each other with “GOD” as our standard note.
Let’s clean our life by the blood that is shed for us on the cross of Calvary and let’s be tuned to God first so that others can also be tuned.

“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” I Corinthians 11:1

Coconuts or Coconut tree

Its 6 months since I got my Ford FIGO car. I must say it’s truly amazing to drive. But I was always having this problem of where to park it near my house. There was an open space adjacent to couple of houses nearby. But twice or thrice people saw snakes passing by through the bushes in that area. Sometimes it was really scary to park it there when I come late in the night.
I, Asha and mom were talking about this and how to tackle this. Just 2 weeks back, I started parking the car in front of my house but there was a coconut tree, in which the coconuts were ready to fall anytime. And this might really damage the car :(
After giving good thought to it, I brought this to the notice of the owner, requesting to cut the coconuts in the side where I park my car. Of course the other option was to put up a temporary sheet above. But both options dint workout as the owners thought putting temporary wouldn’t look good for people who see and not ready to cut the coconuts also :(. We left this issue to God and I continued parking my car in front of our house.
What a surprise! On Saturday morning (it was early morning for me 10.00 am:)), I got a call from the owner (of course they live in the first floor) asking me to take the car outside as they wanted to cut off the coconut tree. Immediately I went out to see what’s wrong with the coconut tree, I found out that it was touching the wires that were passing above. And soon the corporation people came, removed the wires temporarily, 2 other guys were also there, they cut the tree off in about half-an-hour. Now I can park my car comfortably without any fuss.
Through this small incident, I learnt that God cares for even our smallest prayer. Not only that His answers are better than our thoughts & Prayers. I also learnt to ask God for the coconut tree rather than the coconuts 

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…..” Ephesians 3:20