God has been talking to me a lot about opening up to Him just the way I am. Church and religion has complicated this idea of a beautiful relationship with lots of so called “laws”. You need to have this robe of righteousness wrapped around you to come to His presence…you need to be holy and upright to call unto Him….and the list just goes on.

Knowingly or unknowingly, these restrictions prevent us from coming to the throne with boldness by constantly reminding us about our unworthiness. Today I would like you to introduce you to a woman who came to Jesus with a baggage of sin. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7, we read about a sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped it with her hair and anointed him with an expensive oil.

If we understand the context of this scripture, we will see that this woman was an uninvited guest at the Pharisee’s house. This Pharisee had invited Jesus to dine with him. Though Simon, the Pharisee called him teacher, he did not have a welcoming heart. He might have called him just for a social status..or may be to have an opportunity to appraise Jesus with many other Pharisees.

In those days, when a guest arrived at a home, it was courteous to receive the guest with a kiss, a bowl of water to wash away the dust off their sandals and a little perfumed oil to adorn their hair. This Pharisee failed in his hospitality. May be there were many others whom he considered important than Jesus. Far away from the crowd, there is this woman, behind Jesus…sitting next to his feet. She is pouring out her heart. Tears are just flowing that it slowly started wetting his feet. For every tear that falls..she wiped it with her hair(remember..in those days, putting a woman’s hair loose was considered to be disgraceful), anointed his feet with the perfumed oil.

How did this woman get into this house? How did she get the courage to come into a place-a gathering of self righteous people-without inviting? Didn’t she understand the baggage she carried…it was not only heavy….but was a mess.

Let me show you the differences in attitude of two different people in the same place. This woman knew that she was a total mess…but considered herself in need of forgiveness and therefore a savior. Whereas, Simon the Pharisee was pleased with himself and thought that God would be too. He was a small debtor…He had kept the “laws” and so was righteous in his own eyes. May be few wrongs..here and there and a justification..”After all we are all human”. And the sacrifices he has offered would definitely cover all those tiny miny sins.

Today, we claim ourselves to be with Jesus…in the same room..fellowshipping with Him…How is our attitude? Do we have the boldness to come into His presence…just the way we are…may be we might have been messed up…confused…doubtful. Are we able to share our thoughts openly with Him or are we like that Pharisee holding onto that hypocrisy of ‘self righteousness’. Remember, when actions in a relationship are forced because of duty..it becomes a ‘LAW’…but when they are done out of love…they are simply called ‘LOVE’…and that is why the CROSS erased the LAW.

God Bless,

Rani John

I was reading the book of Nehemiah the other day and a verse from chapter 1 caught my attention. Verse 3 reads like this “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

There is a remnant of exile in the city of Jerusalem. They have escaped the days of captivity and has come back to the land of Jerusalem. But they still are in disgrace and trouble because the city shows the aftermath of captivity. Its walls are broken and gates have been burned down with fire.

Here, Nehemiah, hearing about that remnant of people and the city of Jerusalem, is crying. He fasted and mourned for several days and cried unto God for them confessing his sin and standing in the gap for them.

Most of the time, in our urge to reach out the unreached, we forget about the people who are in the city of the chosen, still facing the aftermath of captivity. They are in the land of Jerusalem, still experiencing the strongholds of bondage. It could be depression, anger, temptations, resentment, confusion or bitterness. Its mainly because they escaped the captivity and returned to the land of living, but the walls of the land is still in ruins…its gates are burned down.

They need to be restored. Their souls need to be encouraged and strengthened. Their walls should be rebuild slowly so that they will once again feel safe and secure. Today, this person could be you. The door to your soul may be torn down. Just like Nehemiah, spent time with the Lord and He will restore you to your prior glory.

May be you know someone who face this kind of a reproach even after being a child of God. Do not ignore them saying that someone else will build them up. You have a responsibility to stand in the gap. They might be in a difficult position to rebuild their own walls. Take the effort to help them..ask Lord to use you to restore them. More than anything else, pray for them. Take every effort to bring one stone at a time and rebuild their ruins…so that one day they will be restored to their former glory.

God Bless,

Rani John

For today’s devotion, I would like to share with you  a very familiar scripture from the book of Exodus chapter 17. There we read that the people of Israel has come to a place called Rephidim and there was no water for the people to drink. And so they quarreled with Moses.

Moses cried unto the Lord because of their grumbling and God asked him to take his staff and walk in front of the people to the rock of Horeb. God promised Moses that He will stand before him by the rock of Horeb. He was asked to strike the rock and the water will gush out of the rock for the people to drink. Moses did exactly so and water gushed out of that rock.

How often do we wander in the wilderness of impossibilities with similar rocks of possibilities around? We look at those rocks and say…”Water?? From this rock..No way!” We rather look for springs in that wilderness…isn’t it?

But this rock of Horeb had to bring forth water from within…because the creator was standing next to it. Most of the time, we try hitting the rocks without God standing in favor to us. Till you approach an impossibility with God on your side and the good old staff of prayer in your hand….the impossibilities remain hard as a rock.

Today, look at your impossibility and say…”God is standing with me and you will have to change yourself to a possibility for me..because the creator is on my side.” Strike it with prayer and you will see victory gushing out from those hard situations.

God Bless,

Rani John