Imrah Ministries

By Sidharth Mohandas

I have read the book of Job a number of times and have always wondered why God allowed Satan to bring so much suffering on blameless Job. The Lord brought the following verse to my attention:

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away [Job 1:20]

Though this verse has been used a lot by Christians when tragic strikes, I believe that it is a wrong understanding of God. We, of course, do know that Job did not have the revelation that we have today, and so with the revelation knowledge he had of God in his day, he was considered blameless by God.

However, from the above verse we realize that Job did know God as a Giver, but he also pictured God as one who wanted to take away the blessings he had. I believe God allowed Job to go through such a trial because He wanted Job to have a new revelation of Him. And that revelation I believe was that God is a Giver, and not a Stealer.

Once Job had this revelatory knowledge of God, he says to God: “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You” [Job 42:5] Job now saw God’s true nature as one who wanted to give and bless. And when Job’s understanding about God changed, we see God releasing His blessings on him twice as much as before [Job 42:10b].

What is your understanding of God? Do you see Him as one who sends sickness and disease on you or do you see Him as a Healer? Do you see Him as a Father or do you see Him as a Dictator? Do you see Him enjoyable or do you see Him boring?

2 Peter 1:2 says “Grace and peace be yours in abundance THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND OF JESUS OUR LORD.”. The door to an abundance of God’s grace and peace is knowledge of Him. This is one reason I strive to have the right understanding of Scriptures, putting aside human tradition and preconceived notions. A common thing I see among believers is that they allow their experiences to change God’s Word, instead of letting the Word of God affect their experiences. For example, if someone dies of cancer, and if they didn’t get healed of it, people establish that God sometimes brings sickness and disease on people. However, Scripture calls God the one who heals all diseases, and it also testifies to the fact that Jesus healed ALL those who came to Him in faith. The truth is, if you really want to know the truth, you can. We have no relative truths in the Bible, they are all absolute. God wants us to know Him clearly. And to unravel these mysteries about Him, He has given us His Spirit.

We need to ask ourselves today, are we willing to pay the price to get the truth and see it in action? I encourage you to be open to God today and accept what He says about Himself, don’t be deceived by some experience where God supposedly failed. Let God be true, and every man a liar. [Romans 3:4]

By Nick Shelton

Just this morning, I realized how much energy I consume in my life. When I mean energy, I am not simply referring to the amount of electricity I use in my apartment, but I am talking about the combination of work, transportation, movements, and exchange of goods that transpire just so that I can have a “normal life.”

For instance, this morning I had what I consider a simple breakfast – a bottle of water, a banana, and a piece of toast with Nutella (for those of you who don’t know - Nutella is a sweet spread that is like jam that is made of hazelnuts, chocolate, and sugar). On my walk to church, I analyzed the complicated process of getting all those ingredients on my breakfast plate.

• The toast – the slice of bread came from a multigrain loaf that consisted of wheat, rye, sesame seeds, millet, quinoa, and flax seed. The majority of the world’s wheat comes from America, so it would have needed to be shipped by boat across the Atlantic. Sesame seeds usually come from India, China, or the African nations – so this would have been an additional trip across an ocean. The other grains probably came from Britain, but since the Southeast portion of England which I live is not very agricultural, they probably came from various fields spread out in the country. The grains were then mixed at a mill then baked (even more energy). Then, shipped to the supermarket. Finally, I had to use more energy to actually make the slice of bread into toast.

• The Nutella – while most would consider jam to be a very easy food to make, this is not the case for this European spread. Nutella is made in Italy. The main ingredient is sugar – most sugar comes from the African countries and the Bahamas. The second ingredient is Belgium chocolate – so this would include cocoa beans which were probably grown in Africa, shipped to Belgium were the beans were made into chocolate, which would then have to be shipped to Italy. The other ingredient is vanilla which was probably grown in Madagascar. After all these ingredients are mixed they are shipped to a distribution center in Britain via boat, then finally a large truck delivers the jars to supermarkets.

• The Banana – Grown in South America, shipped across the Atlantic, passed through several distribution centers, until finally arriving at the supermarket.

• The Bottle of Water – Even the water I drank took a great amount of energy just to get to me! The water was taken from a natural spring in the Cotswold mountains about 75 miles away from me.

I hope my long illustration of my simple (yet very complex) breakfast did not cause you to lose interest. The point I was trying to make is how much energy we regularly consume in an entire day. If the above paragraphs just describe one small meal, think about what all it takes to deliver all your meals, to manufacture all your clothes, and to put together the computer you are using.

In our ordinary lives, we require massive amounts of energy to give use the things we want. However, most of us exert very little energy, especially when it comes to our spiritual lives. With all the energy we consume, one would think we could literally move mountains in our spiritual lives. But this is not the case, we devote very little of our energy to do what God desires.

Instead of being consumers of energy, I think God wants us to spread energy – that being to take the goodness that He has given us and use all our energy to spread this goodness to others. We have been given much in terms of energy; we should also desire to give much as well. The energy we consume should be used to energize our efforts in doing God’s will.

Luke 12:48 From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

By Sidharth Mohandas

“Bring them here to Me”, said Jesus to the disciples who said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish”. How was Jesus supposed to feed the 5000 that followed him? They were surely in a state of need, and they lacked food. What did Jesus ask them to do? He asked them to bring what they had with them. If you’re in a state of insufficiency, what you have with you is not what you need; it’s your seed to fulfill your need. So many people don’t see this. They hold onto the seed as though it’s their need.

Probably you’re not all that good with the instruments, and you wonder, “If I only could play better”. Or maybe you’re unable to love others the way you want to. Or you have a financial problem and what you have with you doesn’t meet you need. Whatever the lack in your life is, God’s simple instruction is to sow the seed. How do you sow the seed in the above areas? Play that guitar the best way you can for Him, love people the best way He has enabled you to, give your best financial offering and God will bring increase to you.

Friends, do you remember the widow at Zarephath? God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath and tells him that a widow would feed him there. When Elijah reaches Zarephath, he asks this widow if she could bring water and bread for him. She replies and says, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” [1 Kings 17: 12]. But look at Elijah’s reply: “First make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and BRING IT TO ME”. In other words, Elijah was asking her to bring what she had with her- to sow a seed. And do you know what happened? She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry. [1 Kings 17:15-16].

You must also realize that when God asks you to bring something to Him, He will ask you for something that you hold close to your heart. It may be a relationship, it may be the time you spend on the Internet, it may even be some hobby that you have.…I faced something similar some days back. The Lord asked me if I could give up my time with a close friend, and I wanted to hold back what He asked for. It wasn’t that He didn’t want me to enjoy my time with my friend, He wanted me to re-focus my eyes on Him. Just yesterday this friend said he couldn’t spend time with me as he used to because of some obligations. I felt terribly hurt, but later I remembered that the Lord had asked me if I were willing to give up the time I had with my friend. Looking back I can say, obeying the Lord is the safest place we can be in. When He tells you to bring what you have, simply obey.

Before I end, remember, what you have with you is a seed, not your need, sow it and reap a harvest.