GRACE- In My Life

GRACE, the name my parents chose for me is God-ordained. GRACE means unmerited favor. I was an unworthy recipient of the GRACE of God on 18 August, 1992. God lifted me out of the clutches of death on that day. I had finished my studies in an Engineering College in 1991 and was working as a lecturer in a college in Salem, Tamilnadu.

On 18 August, 1992, when I was returning from my job, the bus in which I was travelling from Salem to Mettur Dam got into an accident, killing five people on road. What was thought to be a road accident turned worse, as the bus caught fire (the diesel tank had exploded) which was sudden and roof-high to start with. I was sitting in the middle of the bus, closest to the fire. The bus also had illegal fuel carried for sandal wood smuggler, Veerappan who was living in our area then (which we came to know later). The bus was also in a tilted position and so reaching out to the exits became all the more difficult. Seeing my co-passengers getting scorched one by one in a fraction of a second, at the same time, desperately yet consciously thinking that I have not achieved much in my life, I started to scream, “JESUS, save me.” The vanity of beauty and status flashed before me. The more I screamed, the more I inhaled smoke and started to choke. Almost at the nearest proximity of fire engulfing me, I was thrown and my head got struck in a half-closed window. The window had horizontal rods across it .  So there was not much space for a human-size to squeeze out. It was at this point of realization, something, which I would call as a miracle, happened. With no feel, of either extricating myself, bruising myself, or leaping, I was standing out in a safe place, gazing at the by-then, fully scorched bus. It did not take time to realize the GRACE of a miracle in my life. An angel had carried me out. About thirty people died in that accident (some of them were my close friends). I realized that God by showing his GRACE on me had an added purpose through me, with a fresh lease of life.

God’s plan started to work out. My testimony traveled many places like a wild fire. One evangelist who had heard my testimony suggested to my father about my marriage with a servant of God who then was working with the National Missionary Society of India. Every thing worked out very well and very fast. Suresh, my husband (not yet then!) and his family members came to our place and saw me and in a week's time, we were engaged. Our marriage was solemnized on the11th November in the very same year. The accident changed the entire course of my life.

After marriage I was into jobs related to my engineering specialisation for a while. My husband was a pastor with the Evangelical Church of India then. Finding more fulfillment in the job of a pastor's wife, I resigned from my job of a Production Engineer in Teletherm Instrumentation, Chennai.   I then joined as an evening college student for a MA program in Christian Studies in the Hindustan Bible Institute. Even before I could complete it, we had to move to Kolkata as a family in 1998 on a mission of reviving a run-down Bible School. By this time God had given us a gift of a son after six years of marriage.

In Kolkata, God prospered whatever our hands found to do. We developed the Bible school from its run-down state into a seminary with full-fledged activities. Many students of this Bible school are instruments of peace and joy working all over the world today. In the city where Mother Teresa worked, we were into social work also, choosing to work among the poor. A "Happy Home" for destitute children also came up. All of our Kolkata mission was team work and the Kingdom of God was built in and around the city. Worship centers came up even in the remotest villages of the Sunderban islands. Praise God!

We had to move to the city of Bangalore thereafter where I had the joy of completing my Doctorate in Ministry at South Asia Institute of Christian Studies (SAIACS). We were part of a mission agency named, "Charis Seva Mandal" (CSM) through which we reached out to the socially and geographically neglected people in the Sunderban Islands near Kolkata in West Bengal. Under Charis Institute of Leadership Excellence (CILE), the training wing of CSM, we gave Bible training to laity. We served in ACTS ministries, Bangalore briefly and then served for a term in the National Missionary Society of India, head quartered in Chennai. As we are Methodist ministers from the Bengal Regional conference we moved to Bhubaneswar as pioneering missionaries of MCI in Odisha.

During our brief time of ministry there we could develop a city congregation but had to move to South India after talking a leave from the Methodist church because of some personal challenges. We now live in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. We are freelancing ministers as of now.

18 August, 1992 was the reason for both our marriage and our ministry. My husband has been a constant support through the many years of marriage and ministry. Today what I am is because of the GRACE of God that was showered upon me on the 18th, August 1992. That GRACE is the reason of my sustenance every passing day. Praise be to God the Almighty for His Amazing GRACE. I want to conclude with this word of blessing for all of us!

"God is able to make all GRACE abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work!" (2 Corinthians 9:8)

What if the Worst Offenders are Christian Leaders?

A lady shared with me her experience that is quite common in the roads of Bangalore. She was walking in the path meant for pedestrians. A motor cycle nearly bumped on her. Not even noticing who the motorist was, she caught hold of the shirt-collar of the offender. To her surprise she found that he was a city-police. How often we find the same scenarios in Christian families, churches and organisations, where the worst offenders happen to be regular church-goers, bible-lovers, worst of all pastors and bishops? I am citing two cases of such offences from the Scriptures and the ways they were dealt with.

A group of the people of Israel who lived in exile, including the priests and the Levites trespassed the laws of God. These Yahweh worshipers and most of all, leaders married from non-Yahweh backgrounds which they were not supposed to do (Exodus 34:16). God used Ezra, a priest to deal with this unfaithfulness of the leaders (Ezra 9:2). Ezra was altogether a different priest because the Bible tells that he had devoted himself to read, practise and teach the word of God (7:9-10). Now we know that the offenders of that day and today can read and even teach the word of God, but not practise them! What did Ezra do on seeing such an offense? He was appalled and tore his clothes, pulled his hair and interceded to the Lord and confessed the sins of the people (9:5) . The fear of the Lord gripped the community to an extent that the offenders confessed their sin and agreed to get rid off their foreign wives (chapter 10).

The Corinthian church had sexual immorality within the church. Paul adds a shameful note here to say that, that was a kind that does not occur even among non-Christians (I Corinthians 5:1). Paul’s advice here was not to associate with such offenders and he even says to expel such a wicked man who is in wolves clothing in a community of believers (v.9-13). Paul adds to the offenders’ list the so-called Christians who are greedy, idolaters or slanderers, drunkards or swindlers. The question is: how to judge Christian offenders and who will judge? Paul says that the ones inside the church have to do that (chapter 6). And what if the judgement is unfair? The judges inside the church may wrong the one who raised the issue. But Paul says it is better to be wronged, cheated than to wrong and to cheat (v.7-8). Paul fears the worst too, saying “Dare not take it to legal courts,” because exposure of such sins of Christians in front of unbelievers puts God’s name in vain (v.6). Even in cases where offenders win, the Bible says that such people will not inherit the kingdom of God (v.9).

The Bible expects a practical-Christian to deal with the worst offenders within a Christian community based on Biblical principles. In unfair judgements, it is better to be wronged, cheated than to wrong and cheat. And it is better to choose to glorify His name than to gain glory by winning a case! After all, is not following the counsels of God the "best" choice than choose to do anything else?