Voice of His Glory

By R. Bhakther Solomon

Today is a good news day, as Ms Mercy, wife of Mr Madhi Vijayakumar of Mission of Loving Shepherd, India, has organized this gathering at Uthukottai. She requested I share a few thoughts on Christianity. Because the participants are from mixed religious background, and are mostly women from nearby villages of Uthukottai, I have decided to introduce the Bible and mention a few episodes from Genesis, the first Book of the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546282631

Book preview

© 2017 R. Bhakther Solomon. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/20/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8204-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8263-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

CONTENTS

Revealed Word of God

Chapter 1     Bible

Chapter 2     Book of Psalms

Chapter 3     1 Timothy

God’s Calling

Chapter 4     Renew Your Calling

Chapter 5     Called for Specific Task

Chapter 6     Understand Your Calling

Chapter 7     Humble in Your Calling

Chapter 8     Connect People towards Calling

Chapter 9     God’s Calling to Serve the Country

Life and Work of Jesus Christ

Chapter 10   Birth of Jesus – Christmas

Chapter 11   The Birth of Jesus Christ and Its Significance

Chapter 12   Jesus the Messiah

Chapter 13   The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ

Chapter 14   Teachings of Jesus Christ

Chapter 15   Resurrection

Chapter 16   The Significance of Resurrection

Chapter 17   Risen Lord Jesus and His Presence with Us

Good News/Evangelism

Chapter 18   Proclaim the Good News

Chapter 19   Gospel Message to the New Believer

Chapter 20   Churches around the World

Chapter 21   God’s Grace

Chapter 22   Purpose of Life

Chapter 23   Look Forward

Chapter 24   Fasting to Fulfil God’s Will

Chapter 25   Lent – Transformation of Life

Sufferings

Chapter 26   Pain, Suffering, and Miracles

Chapter 27   Sickness and Healing

Chapter 28   Human Pain and Suffering

Thanksgiving

Chapter 29   Thanksgiving

Chapter 30   Harvest Festival

Chapter 31   Punishment

Chapter 32   Migrants and Refugees

Chapter 33   Good Governance by Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Chief Ministers

Authority of God

Chapter 34   BJP – Surprise of God

Chapter 35   Yoga

Chapter 36   Retirement

Chapter 37   Jesus’s Letter to All of Us

PREFACE

In February 2013, I felt, that as per His calling, I’d go wherever He wanted me to go and be with the marginalized. Since then, whenever I meet a group of people, I give a message from the Bible. The group in such meetings is mixed ones, with more non-Christians. At the end of every month, I publish the message with few deletions or additions as a news bulletin called Voice of His Glory.

The bulletin not only contains the message but also a few select news items from around the globe pertaining to Christianity. This bulletin is sent to a few friends and colleagues, regardless of religious affinity. For the few who regularly received this, felt that I should compile the preaching as a book. I talked to several people about publishing a book: Retired CSI Bishop Rt Rev Pothirajalu of Madurai Ramnad Diocese, Rev Dr M. Gnanavaram, former principal Tamil Nadu Theological, and Rev Issac Sundar Singh, a progressive pastor from Kanya Kumari District.

Rt Rev Pothirajalu felt that it would be a good study guide for theological students. Dr Ganavaram though that it would be a good guide to both laity and pastors. Rev Issac Sundar Singh rearranged the chapters under different themes. I am grateful to all.

I added one chapter called Jesus Letter to All. I added this after my recent visit to seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Since 1980, the good Lord has been so kind and merciful to me, and He took me to different nations. However, this was the first time I took seven clear days on a religious pilgrimage to places that are of great historical importance.

God has also enabled me to publish another book, Amazing Grace Continues, which gives an account of my professional journey for the last forty-five years. I am bringing this book in time so that my son can get it as his birthday gift.

I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His grace, my parents for their prayer to God to make me a useful vessel, and to my wife and children for sparing many months and years away from home for doing social Gospel amongst the most marginalized.

R. Bhakther Solomon

CHAPTER 1

Bible

Introduction

Today is a good news day, as Ms Mercy, wife of Mr Madhi Vijayakumar of Mission of Loving Shepherd, India (MLS India), has organized this gathering at Uthukottai. She requested that I share a few thoughts on Christianity. Because the participants are from mixed religious backgrounds – mostly women from nearby villages of Uthukottai – I have decided to introduce the Bible and briefly mention a few episodes from Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

The Bible is the only holy book in the world translated into more than two thousand languages. Millions of copies are sold every year and read by people from all countries and all walks of life. It has been publically burnt. Its possession has carried the death penalty for some of its readers. But all efforts to exterminate the Bible have failed. Now it is universally honoured and read. It was written over a period of about fifteen hundred years, covering both BC and AD times. It was written by about forty authors of different breeds: kings, prophets, and ordinary people. God chose these humans under divine inspiration. God could have conceived and caused men to compose such a perfect book, which some call the Divine Library. Bible is a library of books. Jesus is the core of the book.

The Bible is comprised of sixty-six books with two major divisions, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament has thirty-nine books, and the New Testament has twenty-seven books. Times and places are most important in the Bible. The Bible talks about the love of God towards mankind and their redemption.

It is good to acquire a copy of the Bible and start reading. It is a treasure to have as one as your own valuable possession. There is a popular saying that if you carry the Bible with you, God will carry you. You can read the entire Bible within two years.

Genesis

Let me now introduce the first book of the Bible: Genesis. It has fifty chapters. One can read Genesis within a month by spending fifteen to twenty minutes every day. It was believed to have been written by Moses. Genesis deals with the origin of the world and living creatures, Adam and Eve and their sons, the first murder in the world, the destruction of the world by the flood, Noah and the first boat builder of the world, the building of cities and a tower by people to reach the top, the birth of different languages, the birth of Abraham and his sons Ishmael and Issac, and their descendants. It gives an in-depth view of Abraham, the master of faith, and talks about his son Isaac, Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve children. It talks more on the life of Joseph, the sale of Joseph as slave, his rise to power, the migration of Jacob’s descendants to Egypt, the death of Jacob, their growth in numbers in Egypt, and the death of Joseph at the age of 130.

Origin of the World

The book Genesis opens as follows:

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. Earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen. 1:1–2)

Creation

In the beginning there was nothing, and only God was there. The world in the beginning was in an uninhabitable condition and was also uninhabited. God took six days (three plus three) to make it as we see it today. In the first three days, He took to make the environment good for habitation. The next three days, He made the environment suitable for life to survive. God did this within a matter of six days, and He rested on the seventh day. Thus the earth is decked with flowers, and the heavens were studded with the jewels of sun, moon, and stars so that all aspects of universe might be admired.

Creation of Humans

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Gen. 1:27–28)

Creation of Adam and his wife, Eve

Adam (aged eight hundred) was the first man created by God in his own image. He made Adam from mud and breathed His breath to him (Gen. 1:27–28). Adam had no earthy father, mother, brothers, or sisters. From Adam’s bone, God created Eve. He then placed both of them in the wonderful Garden known as Eden with one restriction: not to eat any fruit from the tree of knowledge. Man and woman disobeyed God’s direction. The disobedience of the first instruction by the first couple was instigated by a serpent (the devil). The act of Eve and Adam in eating the fruit from the forbidden tree resulted in the couple being driven out from the garden. Adam was punished in relation to his work. Eve was punished in relation to her family.

However, before driving them out from the Garden of Eden, God clothed them with the skin of a lamb. It was the first sacrifice of an innocent lamb and shedding of blood by God to save man from his sin. After about four thousand years, God himself allowed His only son Jesus Christ, an innocent lamb, to be killed to save mankind from sin.

Adam and Eve had children. The eldest son was named Cain, and the second was named as Abel. Cain was the first child born to a mother. The former was a farmer, and the latter was a shepherd. The brothers offered separate sacrifices to God. Abel offered the best breed from his cattle to God. God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s fruits. This made Cain angry with his brother, and he killed him. It was the first murder in the world. Envy was responsible for the first murder. A pattern emerges here: bad people hate good people. God was so upset that He made Cain run away from his place and put a black mark on his forehead so that people would identify him as a murderer and would kill him.

The Ark of Noah, the Flood

Years rolled on, and many generations were born. The world was inhabited by wicked people. God felt sorry for creating mankind. He wanted to wipe out all wicked people from earth because He found that more and more people were going away from Him and had become wicked in their attitudes and behaviour (Gen. 6:1–6). He thought it better to destroy all people.

Mankind had become so wicked evil, violent, and corrupt that they were not fit to live. Of all mankind, only four men and four women were spared because they did not go with the great sin draft. Noah was free of sinful seed, and his family line was perfect. God selected Noah (aged 950), the grandson of Enoch, who was a righteous person and walked with God. Enoch warned the people about their bad behaviours, and it had no impact on the people. God selected Noah – a noble soul, a righteous man, a blameless one – as the saviour of mankind.

God ordered Noah to build a boat of the width of one to the length of six times (Gen. 6:14–15). It is now believed that the boat building has this formula of one to six. No wonder that Noah was the first boat builder.

After forty days of continuous rain from sky and also water coming out from the ground, the world was submerged in flood waters. After 150 days, God made the boat rest on the mountain called Arafat, a place now in Turkey. Then the inhabitants – birds, animals, and humans – moved out after 365 days from the boat and spread out around the earth. Noah and his family, with selected animals, were saved. They came out from the arch doors, which were opened for many more days before it was shut down. Likewise, the door of Jesus coming is opened today. If we ignore it, we will perish. After that, God promised Noah that henceforth he would not destroy the world with floods. As a covenant, he made the rainbow to appear in the sky (Gen. 9:12–16). Perhaps the origin of different colours and combinations in various shades came from the appearance of the first rainbow.

God’s power over all seas, rivers, springs, and streams is clearly taught in Scripture (Ps. 104:10; Ps. 107:12, 35; Job 12:15; Gen. 7:11). Thus when He punished the wickedness of the earth by means of the mighty flood, He broke up the fountains. After more than 1,600 years of human history, the race was so corrupt morally that it was not fit to live. The gruesome fact of the flood is that this was His first covenant or contract or promise to the people. We live in a world full of promises and contracts. Whenever you see a rainbow in the sky, first think of God’s wrath on wicked people and their ultimate destruction. If we continue to be wicked even after knowing Him, wrath may also come on us! His mercy and grace protect and bless noble people.

Building of a Babel Tower (Gen. 11:1)

Everywhere, people spoke only one language. Because there was nothing much to do, our forefathers at Babel, the native name of Babylon, built a city and tower. People wanted to construct a tower through which they could reach God. People wanted to do things in their own way and not in God’s way. People wanted a milky route between the sky and the earth. We are self-centred, constitutionally rebellious in nature, and insecure, and so we want to do things our own way. It is of great interest to note that what our forefathers wanted to do about few thousand years ago, our scientists and astronauts are trying to do now. Incidentally, recently I read from a newspaper report that a few hundred people have booked tickets to go to Mars. What will happen to them on the way to or at Mars? God only knows.

God came down to see what the people were doing by way of construction. He found that all the people were speaking in one language, and hence they could easily communicate with each other while building the tower. God wanted to make the people not able to communicate with each other in pursuit of an unwanted exercise of building cities and a tower with pride. He introduced many languages amongst the workers on the construction site.

At Babel, God confounded the language men spoke and defeated their attempt to create a central city to defeat the divine purpose. As a result, people could not complete building the tower. God then scattered people across the face of the earth. Thus were born different languages, cultures, and arts (Gen. 11). According to a few scholars, before the construction of the Tower of Babel, the languages spoken and written were in pictorial form. Therefore it is now believed by a few that the Chinese language was one of the pre-Babel languages. (I may be a false teacher, or it’s a false interpretation of the Bible’s words.) Some writers believe that the pre-Babel language was Hebrew.

Let me now move to one important personality mentioned in the Bible, Abraham. Up to the time of Abraham, the events mentioned in the Bible covered many centuries of history. The chapter on Abraham proceed in slow motion.

Abraham

We see Abraham as a great man of faith in Genesis. The writing on Abraham gives us a clear account of his walking with God. Despite being seventy-five years old, no child was born to him. God told him to move to a new land and added that he and his descendants would become a great nation. God wanted Abraham to come out from the heathen ways of false religious worship of ungodly false idols (Josh. 24:2; Gen. 12:1–4). Abraham and his wife, servants, and nephew Lot (his brother’s son) moved to a place called Canaan. He went out not knowing where he went.

In few occasions in our lives, God advises us, directly or through someone, to depart from old ways, start a new life, and move to a new place. How many of us have taken that as a serious calling and embarked on a new journey? Please do take a few minutes and think on this. God’s ways of calling or selecting a person has nothing to do with him or her being a righteous person.

While in Canaan, Abraham migrated to Egypt for a short period. In Egypt, Abraham was a man of weak character who told lies in order to save his life. He was a man of failure as well.

Sarah, a woman of remarkable beauty, was Abraham’s half-sister. They had the same father but not the same mother (Gen. 20:12). But when Abraham told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister (Gen. 12:13, 19), he lied in that he implied that Sarah was wholly his sister and not his wife. Again, after twenty years we see a flaw in his life. In front of Abimelech, the king of Philistine, he denied Sarah as his wife. When Abimelech discovered that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, he acknowledged his wrong and was grateful that he had been prevented from disgracing Sarah. It is true of our lives also. In many places and instances, in order to save our lives, we run away from the truth and justice, resorting to falsehood.

In the Bible we see Abraham as a man of faith, truth, trust, and righteousness. When Abraham and Lot amassed a large amount of cattle and servants, there arose frequent friction amongst them, and Abraham’s servants and Lot’s servants fought each other (Gen. 13:6–7). Abraham amicably solved the issue by offering Lot an opportunity to select a place of his choice and settle down independently, saying that he would accept whatever Lot left out. In this instance, he proved himself as a man of magnanimity. Live and let others live. This democratic principle must have its root in Abraham’s life.

Faith

Because there was no child for years, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, allowed her husband to have a child through her servant Hagar. The boy born to Abraham and Hagar was known as Ishmael. Though God had promised Abraham would become a nation of his own, after about twenty-five years, nothing had happened in his life. One day three godly persons would land in his place and would inform him that within a year he would get a child. His wife, who was very old and had not conceived, heard about this, and she laughed about the stupidity of the prophecy. Nevertheless, within the next year, she would give birth to a boy, and he would be named Isaac.

A few years later, family friction would rise between Hagar and Sarah. Hagar and her son Ishmael were driven out of her master’s place by Sarah. What we can’t do, we want others to do – and when they do it, we get jealous! Domestic harmony was destroyed by those very means Sarah had adopted to increase her happiness. But then God has a purpose in the life of Ishmael, and his descendants would become many nations in history. He was the father of the Arab nations. It is now believed that Mohammad, the prophet of Muslims, was a descendant of Ishmael, the first son of Abraham. Incidentally, the Muslims consider Jesus Christ the second prophet.

When Isaac was a boy, God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice his son born of his wife. Without any hesitation, Abraham obliged the request of God and took him to Mount Moriah to sacrifice Isaac – an extraordinary gift to God from Abraham. When Abraham was about to strike Isaac with a sword, God stopped him from the act and commanded Abraham not to harm Isaac. Years rolled on, and Abraham would take his relative’s daughter, Rebecca, as Isaac’s wife. He would be blessed with twins, Esau and Jacob.

Esau and Jacob

Here we see two sons. The father preferred one, and the mother preferred the other. Why, we don’t know. Though Jacob was considered a cheat, he was favoured by God. Jacob utilized the desires of his brother for good food and would first take away his brother’s inheritance right by offering him good food to eat. Second, Jacob engineered things with his mother so that he would get the blessings of his father due to his brother by disguising himself as Esau. He created animosity with the brother.

Sometimes, mothers ignore or aid the wrongs that are committed by her children. Here, in fact, the mother not only ignored the wrong doing but helped her son to cheat his brother and father. After this event, Jacob panicked. On the advice of his mother, he fled to his uncle’s place. Here, he worked very hard for many years and then married his two daughters. He had twelve children. He had two sons through his second wife, Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. They were his favourites. Joseph was the most favoured child. After serving his uncle for a period of more than twenty years with his two wives and children, Jacob returned to his native place to meet his brother. On his way, he wrestled with God and was renamed Israel.

Joseph’s Story

Joseph was the second youngest son of Jacob. Joseph’s brothers were very jealous of Jacob’s love for Joseph. Joseph’s brothers were also offended by Joseph’s dreams, which foretold that his brothers and even his parents would bow down to Joseph. It’s no wonder that once when he went to see his brothers in the field, they plotted against him. First they wanted to kill him, but then they changed their minds and put him in a deep pit. They pulled him out and sold him as a slave to traders. His own brothers sold him as slave. Likewise, Jesus’s own people rejected Him.

Joseph was not spoiled by humiliation or by honour. After two or three exchanges in the slave market, he would land in one high-ranking Egyptian official’s house as a slave. He was very handsome! Here in Potiphar’s home, he was blessed, and everything of Potiphar’s house was also blessed. Then Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, but he ran away from her. Her anger at him for not obliging her request resulted in her accusing him of rape, and as a result he was sent to jail. However, due to his good conduct in jail, Joseph would get good favours in the eyes of jailers.

At this juncture, please recall some of the situations and circumstances we have faced wherein our honesty and integrity were put to the test to uphold truth and justice. How did we face such situations?

In jail, Joseph would meet two palace staff: the king’s cup-bearer and the baker, who had plotted against the king. They were imprisoned with Joseph, and he cared for them. One day both of them dreamt of strange events. The dreams would aptly be interpreted by Joseph, and as he interpreted, things would unfold for both the prisoners. The cup-bearer of the king would be reinstated in his position, but the baker would be hanged. After a few years, the king had two dreams, and nobody was able to interpret them. Because the cup-bearer had earlier benefitted from Joseph’s interpretation, the king called him from jail.

The king was pleased with Joseph’s interpretation and the possible outcomes foretold. The king appointed him as his number two (maybe the prime minister) to take care of the follow-up actions of the dreams – seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of drought.

Invisible God arranged the circumstances to be favourable to Joseph. About two decades ago, Joseph was all the way down in the social ladder as a slave, and then he went all the way up in the social ladder as the prime minister.

Twenty-two years after Joseph had been sold as a slave, his brothers would land in Egypt to get grain during the second year of drought. As soon as they reached Joseph, Joseph knew that the newcomers were his brothers, but he would not reveal himself to them. Even though Joseph’s brothers had a face-to-face meeting with their brother, who was once sold as slave, they did not know that the high-ranking official in the palace was their younger brother. He would for some time be both hot and cold with them. This would make them to repent within themselves for the crime they’d committed against Joseph. Eventually, Joseph would reveal himself to his brothers. After this, his parents and all his brother’s wife and children in total would come to Egypt and would settle in Goshen, the fertile land of Egypt. Years rolled by. Jacob died, and the Genesis book ends with the news of Joseph’s death in Egypt at the age of 130.

Lessons Learnt from the Book of Genesis

☐ Creator and Creatures: In the beginning, the world was without any form, and there was nothing except God! God made the entire universe as we see it today. He is the creator and is also in charge of the universe. This world is made by Him as His home. He wants to dwell in this world. Humans are given an identity by God in this world. The creator is separate from creations, and worshipping His creations is idolatry. From Him, all powers flow to people. He is our God, and we are His people. Creation has the right of ownerships.

We also learn birth is painful,

Life is hard, death is certain.

☐ Worship Him: We come as the result of His word, and as citizens of His world, we are expected to obey to his commandments and instructions so as to have a