Friday, May 17, 2013

Follow the Best, the Rest will Follow

UV 755/10,000 Follow the Best, the Rest will Follow. This is what the Lord says- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “ I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” Isaiah 48 v 17 This uni-verse is spoken not by mere man but by the Lord God Himself. He is our redeemer. A redeemer is one who purchases us by paying a price. He paid the price of our sin with the death of His Son Jesus, thereby He redeemed us. Jesus was introduced to me as the “ best man”. My mentor said, “ Why follow the second best, when He is the best.” He is the best because no one can better who He is in terms of His character, what He did in terms of His deeds and what He said in terms of His teachings. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an instance of symbolism or tokenism by God to redeem man symbolically but an example of absolute and total redemption won at an incalculable cost to the Redeemer. He redeems us from eternal death. He redeems our character. He redeems our families. He redeems our work life. He redeems our talents and abilities. He redeems our finances. He redeems our relationships. He redeems our time. He redeems our past, present and future. He redeems our hope. He redeems us in all of our circumstances and situations. Once He has saved us, our lives become His responsibility. It is said that when we chase perfection, we catch up with excellence. When we follow Jesus, excellence overtakes us or takes over our lives. As Job said, “ My Redeemer lives.” My Redeemer not only lives, He helps me live a successful life. Many management gurus teach many principles and habits for success and effectiveness but they cannot accompany or walk the path with their students. As a result their principles die a natural death or they become a martyr to the principle. They cannot provide the inner strength to follow what they teach. Jesus walks the path with us. He imparts the strength and wisdom from within to follow Him. He teaches us what is best for us. He re-orders our sense of priorities. He impresses on us that the kingdom of God or His rule in our lives by means of His laws is the highest goal we can set for ourselves. We need to follow His laws in order to avoid loss. To put it positively, we need to follow His laws in order to profit or benefit from His Shalom blessings. He has our best interests in mind and will do anything required in heaven or earth in order to advance it. We often think that He does not have professional expertise in the domains of our interest and tend to ignore or keep Him out of these areas. But, the Lord says, “ I will direct you step by step in your career, in your business, in your family life.” We might be the Managing Director of a firm but Jesus is the Managing Director of our lives. He has invested heavily in us with His life and He is not going to take a ‘hands-off’ approach. This is the reason that instead of us affirming that He is our God, He is affirming, “ I am the Lord your God, your Redeemer.” Effectiveness is knowing the right direction in which one is to move. He shows us the right direction to take in every area of our lives. It is not as if we will not have struggles. The very words “ the Holy One of Israel” implies that God will be with us in our struggles for Israel means “ struggle with God.” When we accept Jesus as our personal Saviour or Redeemer, the payment for our shortcomings, our sins, our failures, our judgement that we live fully now and live forever in the hereafter, we stop struggling with God. God is no longer only a concept, a chimera, an impersonal force but the most important and the best person in our lives. Since He is our Redeemer, we no longer belong to ourselves but to Him. Our souls are pledged to Him forever. Our personal struggles will not cease though we long that if only they would not increase. But the Lord will be with us and in us and before us in the midst of our struggles even as we submit to Him, acknowledging that we cannot face it alone and knowing that we will triumph with Him by our side. He who saved me at the cost of His precious life, who won eternity for me- will He not be able to redeem me from these temporary troubles? Prateep V Philip

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