Prayer Letter - December 2008

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Rom 12:2 (New Living Translation)

We have been discussing the need to think christianly (as opposed to thinking secularly) about everything in the world. This is the essential aspect of the call to love the LORD our God with all our hearts, souls, strength and minds.

We also said that the Christian mind will have a set of pre-suppositions within which it will think about the issues of life. We had discussed 2 of them in October:

1. A supernatural orientation

2. An awareness of evil: This second aspect of Christian thinking was brought out so starkly on the 26th of November. We need to name “evil”, acknowledge its presence in the world, but also remember that God has done something about it.

There are four other aspects to “thinking Christianly” that we need to look at in this concluding part of this devotional.

3. A proper conception of Truth: For the Christian, truth is supernaturally grounded.  Truth today is so often whim and fancy or opinion – it has no basis. Christianity is not a man-made construct and we must beware of playing with it and the Bible as though we can change God’s truth. God is not an abstraction but a Person. Christianity is not a religion of theories but a belief of facts – a baby born, a body nailed to a tree, a Person resurrected from the grave!

The Christian mind tries to grasp the concept of objective truth and bring that to bear in its thinking about all of life. But it must be revealed. And that happens through the work of the Holy Spirit. Remember the Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-18. Belief in Jesus Christ is belief in the Truth (Jn 14:6).

4. An acceptance of authority: Christian revelation and the Christian Church must command a wholehearted allegiance from disciples of Jesus Christ. For we are by definition people who accept the revelation and the Church for what they are, the visible vehicles of God’s divine action in the world. That which is divinely established and divinely guaranteed calls forth from us no “maybe perhaps approach” but a bending submission. But it is not blind submission. It is carefully considered and comes after firm conviction and this is tough! We live in an age of individualism and self-sufficiency. But if the Word of God and the Church are sources of God’s authority in our lives they deserve total submission through bended knee and not “turned backs”.

5. A concern for the person: The Christian conception of the human person is a high one because God created man and woman in His divine image. He became human, taking upon himself our nature and therefore exalting it for all time and for eternity. We must recognize this as the significance of Christmas. The fact that God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God is proof of the extremely high calling of man. We are called to love and respect others – especially those who are less advantaged than we are- even as Christ loved us to the point of the cross. And that means making love work in the day to day areas of our lives.

6. A “Stewardship” orientation: The Christian life actually shows life’s positive riches as derived from the supernatural.

It teaches us that to create beauty or to experience beauty, to recognize truth or to discover truth to receive love or to give love is to come into contact with realities, which express the Divine Nature. Christianity is life-affirming and not life-destroying. We should not be seen as kill-joys or wet blankets, but we do not promote hedonism and materialism either. A living Christian mind will outline, especially for the young, a Christian stewardship, which makes sense of and gives value to all of creation – including life itself. It makes sense of issues that otherwise promote lawless individualism and lead to insensitive exploitation

Summary: There is no Christian mind. We need to re-capture it by reading the Bible more and better and adopting pre-suppositions reflective of Biblical thinking. That is we need to learn to read the Bible not just in a devotional way but in an intellectual way, looking for the great principles of Scripture to guide and shape our thinking and depending on the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. This then provides us with a platform for discourse with those who do not know Jesus Christ, reminiscent of the great Apostle Paul who could do that with Jews and gentiles, philosophers or common people.

So this Christmas, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Shalom!!

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Praise God For

• Jaipur Alumni Association Meet held dated 3rd Nov’08 & Meeting held for the Alumni at Chandigarh dated 29th Nov’08.
• New office bearers elected for Ludhiana Alumni Association, Rev. Dr. K. Koshy – President & Mr. Rajan Daniel – Secretary.
• Alumni Get-together and Annual General Meeting held for Trichy Alumni Association dated 22nd Nov’08.
• Alumni Get-together at Mettur Dam held dated 16th Nov’08 and Annual General Meetings held for Tirunelveli, Pondicherry & Nagercoil Alumni Associations in the month of Nov’08.
• South Strategic Meet and Spiritual Retreat scheduled at Riviera Suites, Cochin dated 7th & 8th Feb’09.
• Dr. George Chandy (former Director of Christian Medical College & Hospital at Vellore) a Haggai Alumnus and also a faculty for the subject Leadership, who has been awarded the most prestigious award for a Medical Doctor in India, The B. C. Roy Award.
• Pune Alumni Association, Executive Committee Meeting held dated 9th Nov’08 & Nasik Alumni Association, Executive Committee Meeting held dated 29th Nov’08.
• Chhattisgarh Alumni Get-together held dated 13th Nov’08.
• The successful completion of Staff Prayer Day dated 2nd Dec, Staff Meeting dated 3rd Dec and National Executive Committee Meeting dated 4th Dec 2008.
• The fruitful conduct of All India Alumni Get-together with an attendance of 85 participants dated 5th & 6th Dec’08 held at Operation Mobilisation India, Secunderabad.
• Haggai Institute National Society, Annual General Meeting scheduled 24th & 25th April’08.
• The seminars conducted in the month of November: Northern Region: Seemapuri-New Delhi, Ambala; Southern Region: Tuticorin (2), Madurai, Pondicherry, Vellore SS, Madurai; Eastern Region: Purulia; Western Region: Vyara-Gujarat, Miraj; Central Region: Raipur, Tilda, Chapa; NE Region: Tura; AP Region: Kakinada, Vijayawada NS, Jadcherla.

Please Pray For:

• Forthcoming North India Regional Council Meet scheduled 14th Feb 2009 at New Delhi.
• The Northern Region Coordinator’s Meet scheduled 10th Jan 2009.
• New Coordinators to be appointed in Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttaranchal & Himachal Pradesh.
• Mrs. Usha Abraham, wife of Mr. Thomas Abraham for complete recovery from kidney problem.
• Suitable candidate for the post of Regional Director for Western Region.
• Elections to be conducted for Raipur Alumni Association dated 18th Dec’08.
• The political situation in Northeast Region & also for the elections to be held at Mizoram.
• Suitable candidate for the post of Area Manager for Northeast Region.
• Leadership of the Haggai Institute Northeast Regional Council & for the rescheduled meeting of the Executive Committee of the Regional Council.
• Alumni Get-together held at Karimnagar dated 26th Nov’08 with an attendance of 10 Alumni.
• Mr. Kumardas, Regional Coordinator-AP Region’s promotional visit to Palakol & Rajahmundry dated 16th to 18th Dec’08.
• The upcoming State Level Seminars in 2009: Rajahmundry (for women) 12 – 17 Jan, Bhatapara 21 – 25 Jan, Pune 21 – 26 Jan, Patna 3 – 7 Feb, Ibrahimpatnam 23 – 28 Feb, Pune 24 Feb – 1 Mar, Lucknow 9 – 13 Mar.

NS – National Seminar, SLS – Special Leadership Seminar, SLSD– SLS for Doctors,
In-house - seminar fee is not disclosed as it is a sponsored seminar.

Please Note: We seek your prayer support for all these National Level seminars coming up. We also solicit your assistance in the recruitment of suitable candidates for these seminars. For more information regarding these seminars please feel free to call us at 040 27131209, 27141221 & 32928823 or email at hiindia@haggai-india.com also browse our website: www.haggai-india.com

Seminars in December 2008

Note: Please be informed that you can now deposit your donation Cheques/DD’s favouring ‘Haggai Institute’ directly with our account # 01262560000416 in any branch of HDFC Bank. Please do intimate our office the deposit details indicating your name, the amount and the date of deposit.

Dear Readers,
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and all your family members and friends a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year 2009!

Yours in Him,
Paul Balasundaram