Prayer Letter - June 2009

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Cor 5:17

How big is your gospel? Or how small have we made it? Or, to take the questions from our Scripture passage for this month: What does it mean to be truly a “new creation”. What does “new life” truly mean? These are questions I’d like to address in this month’s devotional. The more I have been thinking about this, the question I have been asking myself is this: Does this “new life in Christ” begin and end by being born again? Is there more to this exciting transformational experience than just personal salvation? Please do not misunderstand me. Not for a moment am I denying the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ extends His grace to us and takes control of our lives by forgiving our sins and accepting us as into His family. But surely there must be more to this than just that? Why would God have gone into all that trouble of sending His son if it was only for saving of souls - important as that is? I see His mission statement in Luke 19:10 of coming to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk 19:10 KJV) as being much larger in scope. After all God soooooooo loved the world (Grk - kosmos) that He created with so much love. Wasn’t it the great Dutch Reformed Theologian and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper who said at the turn of the 19th century: In the total expanse of human existence there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'? And if God is going to set the world right through the introduction of His Kingdom which was inaugurated the moment the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, He will do it through His redeemed people – people He died for. People who will faithfully take up the mandate that God originally gave humans, created in His likeness to exercise wise stewardship over this beautiful world. To do so by reflecting His character of goodness, compassion, mercy, wisdom and creativity.

But what is the link? I’d say that the link is Easter. It is Christ’s resurrection that confirms God’s O.T. intention that He is doing a new thing! When Christ rose from the dead, it was God’s confirmation that the old has gone and the new has come. Thus since we, as His redeemed people have also undergone the same resurrection experience through our conversion, the Apostle Paul calls for a new orientation of heart and mind (Col 3:1-4), an orientation that would want us to fulfill God’s desires for His world – the desire for justice, generosity, love, forgiveness and healing. Is this too utopian? Too idealistic? I think not. If the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1Jn 3:8), that work being the enslavement of people to greed, covetousness, sexual immorality etc, then the destruction of the devil’s work on Calvary’s cross should result in freedom. Not just freedom from bondage (which is what salvation assures), but freedom to serve God in His Kingdom!

But the resurrection brings us more hope. Something that very few people have thought about. As one of the world’s foremost Christian thinkers, Bishop N.T. Wright has stated in his recent book Surprised by Hope, we need to first debunk the idea that our Christian hope for the afterlife should be a disembodied, eternal bliss spent amongst the clouds and angels of heaven. This, of course, he says is a Platonic myth. A kind of dualism that rejects physicality as inferior and is slated for destruction!! This gnostic-like myth pervades our Christian culture and is Bible denying! The New Testament, depicts a very different future where physicality and matter are good and even more substantial than they appear to us now. The Christian hope for the afterlife depicts a redeeming of all of Creation. That redemption includes our resurrected and glorified bodies, located within a context where the formerly exclusive dimensions of heaven and earth have been fused together in “new heavens and new earth”. Such an idea is so unbelievable, but yet as the Bible affirms in so many places, is true! So, have we missed the point?

If this is true (and it is), then is this issue – bodily resurrection versus non-physical spirituality - merely an academic matter? No. There are some very practical and vital issues to address. When we turn to Paul, the verse that has always struck me (though often in a slightly incorrect context) in this connection is 1 Corinthians 15:58. The Apostle Paul has just addressed the longest and most complex of issues in any of his letters, discussing the future resurrection of the body in great detail. How might we (Bishop Wright asks) expect him to finish such a chapter? By saying, “Therefore, since you have such a great hope, sit back and relax because you know God’s got a great future in store for you”? Not a chance! Instead, he says:

“Therefore, my beloved ones, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”

What does he mean? How does believing in the future resurrection lead to getting on with the work in the present? Quite straightforwardly, the point of the resurrection, as Paul has been arguing throughout the letter (and sadly we refer to this passage mostly during funerals), is that the present bodily life is not valueless because it will die. God will raise it to new life. Remember Jesus Christ after His resurrection? He is the “first fruits” of what God has already planned to do with each one of us. So what you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it. And that applies to the various vocations to which God’s people are called. What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future.

Think about it. How big is your Gospel?

More in July

Shalom!

Staff & Family Retreat-28th to 30th May 2009

The Haggai Institute Staff from all over the Country along with their families enjoyed a three day Retreat at Brooklands Christian Guest House, Coonoor. Highlights: Sessions on family taken by Mr.& Mrs. Rajmohan Satyadev was heart touching as they spoke with examples out of their own lives. Sightseeing to Ooty, Coonoor Tea plantations & special dinner hosted by the Coimbatore Alumni Association at Hotel Taj Coonoor, where we had the National Talent show. Camp fire night where wonderful games were organized and the team really could get to know each other better. Prayer time: Each family shared their prayer concerns with another family and prayed for each other. Action songs, lovely food, breathtaking sceneries and much much more.

We, the Haggai Institute Staff firstly thank God and secondly all our Donors who made this event possible for us.

• The successful operation of Mrs. Martha Khan, Secretary of Lucknow AA.
• Mr. Donald Pant’s son Raunaq & Mr. Ravi Kumar Kati’s daughter Lydia, who successfully passed their 10th CBSE examination.
• The seminars conducted in the month of May: Eastern Region: Barackpore; Western Region: Belapur-Navi Mumbai; Southern Region: BHEL Trichy, Coonoor SS, Mettupalayam SS, Chennai, Kodaikanal SLS, Oddanchathram, Tirunelveli; AP Region: Hyderabad NS; Central Region: Ambikapur, Barielly; NE Region: Jijikapara.

Please Pray For:

• Alumni Get-together scheduled at Trichy dated 4th & 5th Jul’09 with Mr. R. Rajkumar & Prof. Jeyakar Chellaraj as Guest Speakers.
• Faculty Development Seminar scheduled dated 22nd – 24th Aug’09 at Nagpur.
• Regional Alumni Get-together for Central Region scheduled 28th and 29th Sep’09 at Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
• Mrs. Suvarna Rani Gandham, Society Member, who is unwell.
• The bereaved family of Mr. T. G. V. Naidu, former Society Member, who passed away on 14th Jun’09.
• Suitable candidates for the posts of Regional Director for Western Region & Area Manager for Northeast Region.
• The upcoming State Level Seminars in 2009: Nasik 14 – 18 Jul, Chikhali 4 – 8 Aug, Belapur-Navi Mumbai 12 – 16 Aug, Pondicherry 12 – 16 Aug, Coonoor 14 – 19 Aug, Vijayawada 21 – 26 Sep, Coonoor (Eng) 26 – 30 Sep, Coonoor (Tamil) 26 – 30 Sep, Yelagiri (Eng) 29 Sep – 3 Oct, Yelagiri (Tamil) 29 Sep – 3 Oct, Pune 12 – 16 Oct, Kolhapur 19 – 23 Oct.

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 June 2009

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.

Yours in Him,
Paul Balasundaram