Sermon Series from Philippians (Pastoral Heart)

The Pastoral Heart (Philippians 1:1-11 )

Introduction:

Paul wrote this letter from the Roman prison to a church he had helped to be established. Paul and Silas (including Timothy and others) preached in this city and a prominent lady by the name of Lydia believed. Then Paul and Silas were put in Prison for casting out a demonic spirit from a slave woman who was being used as a medium by her master. This angered her master and attacked Paul and Silas, beat them up and finally put them in a high security prison. In the middle of the night, Paul and Silas began to sing songs and hymns to God while the other prisoners were listening and a strong earthquake went, breaking open all the Prison doors. In those days, they would not have the lights like in our days and it must have been pitch dark when the Jailer came out, believing that all the prisoners must have escaped. But in an amazing way, Paul was in control of the situation and none of the prisoners escaped. As a result of such a miracle, the Jailer, his household and possibly many other prisoners and guards believed in the Lord Jesus and a strong church was established in this very important Roman city; church at Philippi was possibly the first European Church to be established. It is likely that the first church met in the house of Lydia, a successful businesswoman, and being a commercial hub of and prominent city that bore the name it’s founder, the Philippi of Macedonia, who was the father of Alexander the Great; this church became the driving force for Paul’s further mission work in and around Southern Europe. Several times, they had financially contributed to Paul’s mission work and they continued to do so even after Paul was arrested, sent to Rome and put in prison. The church at Philippi may have begun some times in AD50 and may be it was after ten years that Paul was sent to Roman prison.

Hearing the news of their beloved founding pastor, the church of Philippi once again collected financial aid and chose a faithful brother by the name of Epaphroditus to take that money to Rome for Paul. Finally, Epaphroditus found Paul, but then he himself fell ill and nearly died. When the news of his sickness reached to Philippi, the believers were worried and Paul wanted to send this brother back to Philippi. When this brother was recovered from his illness, Paul sends him back to his home and along with him sends this letter of joy and thanks giving. It is a letter written by a Pastor and a missionary who deeply loves this congregation and the reason is the continuous partnership of sharing their finance with Paul. Paul is filled with joy every time he remembers the kind of maturity and the fruit this church was bearing. That is why this letter is also called a letter of Joy where Paul expresses his own joy while urging the Philippians to be joyful all the time; even in the midst of suffering. 16 times the word joy and rejoice occurs in Paul’s expression.

With this background, let us now go back into the text itself and find for ourselves what Paul the apostle has to say to us from this letter today.

For today’s passage, I have titled my sermon as “the pastoral heart”. I could have said, “A pastor’s heart” but then when I say a Pastor’s heart, it becomes limited only to the Pastor. Therefore, instead of focusing on a Pastor’s heart, although this section comes out of a pastor’s heart, I wish to find in this passage the Pastoral heart that we all can aspire to have. We may not be called to be in the full time pastoral ministry but we all can have the pastoral heart.

What do I mean by Pastoral heart? The word “Pastor” comes from the Greek word for “a shepherd”, a person who takes care of the sheep or cattle. The bible often pictures God’s people as sheep and God as the great shepherd. Sheep are the kind of animals that cannot survive without a guiding shepherd. That is why you see even today there are many shepherd dogs watching, guiding and warning the sheep to find their way and protect them from wondering. In Old Testament, especially in the book of Ezekiel, God’s calls himself to be the shepherd of his people, the sheep of his pasture. The famous Psalm of David, the Ps. 23 also pictures God as the great shepherd who tends his sheep in green pastures and beside quiet waters. The sheep need plenty of grass and enough clean and quiet water, not violently running river; they like to drink from a peaceful stream or a brook. In Ezekiel 34:13-17 (whole chapter), God promises to be the kind of shepherd who will graze his sheep in such a place.

Jesus also applied that title to him in John chapter 10 and said that he is that great shepherd Ezekiel prophesized. Jesus came to give abundant life and every time he looked at people who did not know God or did not hear his call, he was filled with compassion and in Matthew 9:35-36 said “People are like sheep without a shepherd” Lets read that passage “35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

So, a Pastoral heart is the heart of a shepherd, a heart filled with compassion. Jesus was the great shepherd. Even though he was the king, the prophet, and the priest, but in all of that he had this great shepherd’s heart. A heart that does not condemn people but calls them to a place of rest and peace; even the rebuke and condemnations spring from the compassion towards the people who otherwise are prone to destroy themselves.

Therefore, a pastoral heart is a heart filled with love and compassion towards all people but especially towards the people who are under the care of the pastor. It is God kind of heart. In this text, Paul expresses his loving and compassionate heart towards the Philippians believers, but we will use his expressions to find our own heart so that we can check if we have what we call the pastoral heart; a heart for others, a heart given to help and nurture of others. Now let’s see how this heart is expressed in his writing to the Philippians.

1. Pastoral heart is a heart of a servant (1a): the word servant is better translated if we put the word “slave”, Paul says that he and Timothy are the slaves of Christ. In those days, everyone understood what this word meant and even for the modern world, we are still living the painful memories of what it is to be a slave. I come from the Indian sub-continent where there is one kind or the other kind of slavery still in existence and people are still struggling to free themselves. But the ancient world was rather crueler and slaves had no freedom at all; they were master’s property. Paul himself was not a slave of any human beings, but rather he came from a well to do family. But when he met Jesus Christ, he chose to become the slave of Jesus Christ and since then he always identifies himself with this title. A servant or a slave is a person who is there to serve; this servant hood is not limited to serving Jesus only…it is serving Jesus by serving his people. Jesus very clearly told that whatever we do to the needy, the poor and the helpless, we do that to him. This heart of a servant is not motivated by anything other than the love and gratitude to God. A Pastoral heart has no other motivation in serving one another and that is why in Romans 12:3-8, Paul urges every one with whatever the gift God has given for the betterment of others, even if it is in serving, do it for others; and in Colossians 3: 17 and 23 again Paul says “whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord”. As far as pastor is concerned, I think it was Martin Lloyd Jones who is reported to have said to his congregation “I am your servant, but you are not my master” and this phrase has been a kind of catch phrase to many, but times have changed and Pastor is often considered to be the employee of the church. Church becomes the master of the pastor and therefore the very heart of a servant gets lost on the way. But the biblical mandate is for all of us, including the Pastors are to be the servants to one another; to build one another, to lift up one another. This task is given to us not by churches or organizations but by God himself. We serve and we are servant because we love God and we want to be part of what God is doing in saving the lives of many people. Jesus is our best example and he is also known as the servant of God. Sadly, there are times when we see all kinds of competitions in and among the people of God for power and position in the church and ministry. Even the 12 apostles were not free from such kind of a faulty idea of being a servant of God…James and John wanted to be the main leaders of the group but Jesus said to them “if you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all” (Read Matthew 20:25-28 25Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."). Jesus corrected their faulty sense of serving God by putting his own example where he lays down his life for others. People with the pastoral heart are those that are willing to lay down their times, their resources and even their lives for others…and Paul calls himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. What an honor it is to be a servant of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings…how wonderful it will be for us to hear “well done thou good and faithful servant” when we finally see him face to face! So, the pastoral heart is the heart of a servant… Secondly…

2. The pastoral heart is the heart of Respect (1b): After addressing himself as the servant, Paul then addresses the Philippian believers as “Saints”. Saint means a holy, righteous and perfect in character. Just as he likes himself being called a servant of Christ, Paul prefers to use the word saints when addressing the believers. For example even in writing to Corinth, a church where there were too many problems and believers were caught in many kinds of sins and division which he calls carnality (see 1Cor.1:1-3; 2Cor. 1:1-2), while addressing them, he calls them holy and saints! A Pastoral heart need to see others better than himself or herself. The believers might be far from perfect, they may have come from a lower section of society, yet a pastor ought to respect the members in the body of Christ. In many church traditions, the word saint has a high degree of respect. Today when someone address you, Hi! Saint Andy…..and so and so! How would you feel? Do you feel worthy of being called a saint? I don’t think so, we all are imperfect people but God see us in a different light, he calls us saints. Therefore, as a person with a pastoral heart, instead of seeing the failings of the people and disrespecting them and calling them with all kinds of derogative names, we need to address them with respect. We need to see them the way God sees. Thirdly………….

3. The pastoral heart is the heart of compassion (2): Paul wishes grace and peace to them. Grace is what we need from God because; even though we are called saints, we still are far from being a real saint in our actual experiences; we make terrible mistakes and fall short and therefore, a pastor needs to wish for the grace of God to those who are failing. Also, we need to wish peace with God and fellow human being. As good as the Philippian church was, they still had their struggles. There were two good women who were not getting along well with one another and possibility was there that there were also some false teachers. So, the thing that is most needed in a church is peace with one another. Grace from God and peace in our heart and peace in our relationship with fellow human beings. Just think how difficult it becomes when you do not have peace with your fellow co-worker? We all need God’s grace and peace and as pastoral people, as people who know God’s grace and peace need to have compassion on those who are under our care. Fourthly…………..

4. The pastoral heart is the heart of remembrance (3-6)

a. Remember to pray for the people with joy

b. Remember their contribution: no one can become who he or she is without the help of many people in life. Here in this passage, Paul was assisted greatly by this church and Paul never forgot their contribution. They were partner with him from the very beginning. They did not stop giving and for that Paul continued to pray for them. We ought to recognize other’s contributions in our lives and pray for them

c. Make them to remember to continue to carry one the good work: we all need each other’s help until we see Christ face to face when he comes in his day. Paul here helps them to remember that they are to continue in doing what they were doing and God himself will help to be able to do what they have already begun to do.

5. Fifthly, the pastoral heart is the heart of affection (7-8): Deep personal relationship comes out of the pastoral heart. People who do not have the pastoral heart cannot develop deep and lasting friendship because they are caught up in their selfish desires, but a pastoral heart longs for relationship. Paul longs for this church, he wants to come.

a. They share in Paul’s suffering and success because they are in it together

b. Paul longs for them with the affection of Christ

6. Pastoral heart desires the best for others (9-11)

a. Love may grow in knowledge and depth

b. That they may know the best

c. That they may be true saints

d. That they may bear the fruit of righteousness

In conclusions; Pastoral heart is a heart of a servant, it is a heart of respect, heart of compassion, heart of affections and it is the heart that desires the best for others. As a body of Christ, let is pray for this heart to be given to us. That in this place, we may have the heart of a servant, heart of respect, compassion, affection and that we may always pray for others to achieve the best in their lives. Amen!

Summarizing the year 2009

Time of change

It is indeed a challenge to transition from Nepali speaking church to an English speaking one.  But the Lord has been good!  Click and See the link

Hope Church; one of the Nepali churches in Nepal

We began in 1993 as a prayer meeting in Pastor's home.  After three years, in 1996, we were formerly known as Hope Church.  The nation at that time was losing all hopes and we saw that apart from God, there was no other hope.  The situation is still the same but the power of the Cross of Christ is able to give hope to many Nepalese.  Currently, Hope Church in Kathmandu is able to pioneer four more daughter churches outside of the the capital.

When Charity Married Christian Missions

Bhojraj Bhatta

Charity (giving to the poor and needy) is an ancient Hebrew concept recorded in their Scripture and practiced from time immemorial; not a philanthropic concept but a concept rooted in the very idea of the justice of God. God is a just God and therefore he demands his creatures, the humans, to practice social justice by extending charity to the poor because no one chooses to be poor but happens to be poor due to the circumstances beyond one’s control. Therefore, a Hebrew, i.e., as the people of God, has a God ordained responsibility to look after the welfare of the poor and the needy in order to maintain the privilege of being the people of God. The key scriptural teaching on the topic is recorded in Leviticus 25 and particularly the verse 35 captures the concept of Hebrew understanding of tzedakah, which the Amplified Version attempts to translate it with its full force as; “And if your [Israelite] brother has become poor and his hand wavers [from poverty, sickness, or age and he is unable to support himself], then you shall uphold (strengthen, relieve) him, [treating him with the courtesy and consideration that you would] a stranger or a temporary resident with you [without property], so that he may live [along] with you”.

Starting from this verse as the highest degree of charity where the self-respect of the beneficiary is not taken away, Moses Maimonides, a 12th century Jewish philosopher and the expert of the Law of Moses, categorized the eight degrees of charity that vary in their level of nobility. According to Maimonides, the lowest form or the first degree of charity takes place when one gives to the poor and needy grudgingly. Second degree is when one gives less than what is supposed to be given but gives it cheerfully. Third degree is when one gives only after being asked by the needy. Fourth, when one gives before being asked as he sees the need. Fifth degree is when the beneficiary does not know the benefactor. Sixth, when the benefactor does not know the beneficiary. Seventh, when neither the benefactor nor the beneficiary knows each other. Eighth and the highest form of charity takes place when there is a sense of mutual partnership based upon mutual respect in which the benefactor strengthens the hands of the beneficiary so that the weaker party does not fall into poverty. This highest form of charity also can be done in three different orders; first, it can be done by offering help without any condition so that the weaker party can stand on his/her own feet. Second, it can be done by offering a job or a share in one’s business, and third, by offering a loan so that the weaker party can become strong enough and return the favor without any loss of self-respect and dignity.

In all these degrees of charity, the most important element for Maimonides was the preservation of human dignity and self-respect of the beneficiary. Just because one becomes poor due to the circumstances beyond one’s control does not take away the God-given human dignity from that individual and therefore, the one who is not poor needs to realize that human worth does not consist on material possession but on how one relates to God and fellow human beings as Hillel the great Jewish teacher had said that the sum-total of Torah is to love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, Charity to the poor and needy has continued to be one of the cardinal pillars of Jewish society in every age, and Christian concept of giving is directly derived from the Jewish traditions and writings. Jesus made this principle crystal clear when he put himself in the place of the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and the prisoner and whatever the people did or did not do for any of these above mentioned categories of humans, they did it to him (Matt. 25:35-40). Jesus never failed to emphasize the need to give to the needy, and remembering the words of Jesus on this topic, Paul quotes his words “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts. 20:35) because somehow in the practice of charity there are only a few who can do it in the sense of the highest degree as defined by Maimonides where the recipient’s self-respect remains intact. Otherwise, in one way or the other, the recipient feels falling short of the dignified humanity when s/he finds the self in the state of a beneficiary.

But the fact of the matter, as Jesus said, is that we will always have the poor and the needy among us (Matt. 26:11) and therefore, the act of charity must continue regardless of its varying degree of nobility until the complete justice of God is achieved in the coming reign of God. Until the kingdom of God is fully realized, we must do all we can to practice the act of charity with the aim of doing it from the highest degree and history is filled with examples of such charitable works. The Roman Catholic Church is better credited for this noble task and examples of many saints like Francis of Assisi, who, while selling his father’s merchandise, saw a beggar, ran after him and gave away everything in an act of charity for which he was painfully ridiculed by peers and badly scolded by parents that broke his heart. But he went on to inspire millions of others and today we hear names like Francis Xavier, Mother Teresa and so on.

Protestant church is also equally filled with people who achieved great feat of remarkable charitable work even though at times the over emphasis on the doctrine of “justification by faith alone” minimized the value of charity and ethical works. People like William Colgate (Colgate-Palmolive), whose business brand covered the globe, is known to have given ten to fifty percent of his profits to various charitable institutions. George and Richard Cadbury inherited their father, John Cadbury’s small chocolate enterprise and turned it into a worldwide business. Cadbury brothers not only inherited their father’s business, but they also inherited his strong faith in God and dedication to charitable works. Unheard in their times; they treated their employees with utmost respect and provided them with everything that a normal business owner would need to have a loving home and healthy family with full access to life and leisure. They also saw that their father’s wish to make their locality free of alcohol was a way of serving wider community because John Cadbury believed that it was alcohol that made people poor and rob them of joy and happiness from their families and therefore, the Cadburys committed their lives and earnings in replacing the alcohol with drinkable chocolate and tea; after a century of George’s death in 1922, their desire to make their locality free of alcohol lives on and even the giant of a departmental store like Tesco cannot sell it in its local units there. Such stories of great charitable works by Christians could be found in every nation of the world; the difference might be that they had no one to document their story.

But the dawn of modern Protestant Christian missionary movement brought a new dimension to the age old concept of charity; a new dimension in which the innocent and the noble face of charity has been badly marred or destroyed. This modern missionary movement primarily began in societies where the protestant doctrine of God’s election and predestination was dominant; these societies placed a higher value on themselves compared to those which were non-Christian and considered as either heathens or savages. When William Carey tried to persuade his home church for the evangelization of the inhabitants in the islands of South East Asia and Oceania (he was touched by the writings of James Cook, an explorer who discovered and described about the inhabitants of these Islands on his journals as savage tribes so different and lost from the rest of civilization), an elder stood up and yelled at Carey saying, “young man, if God wants to save the savages, he does not need your help, he can do it himself”.

But people like Carey, Judson, Hudson, Livingstone and Brainerd were the ones who took upon themselves the God given mandate of evangelizing the heathens in every possible land, it was a sense of knowing that all men are equal and are in need of a savior who can not only see them free from sin but also from the savage life style. These early trailblazers of modern mission did not care so much about material possession; rather they gave their very lives for the sake of the people of their dream. But as the fruits of such missionaries work began to reach to the civilized world (western world), the disparity between the savage and the civilized also began to come to the fore. Wherever the colonial conquers went, they were only interested in exploiting the savages, but when the missionaries came along, they saw the exploitation and the suffering of the inhabitants in the colonies. Prior to the arrival of the colonial rulers and their missionary companions, these savages and the natives of the lands had their own way of life and sense of identity. The Chinese, Indian, African and the Native American civilizations had been in existence for thousands of years before they saw the faces of European conquerors and missionary compassion. These civilizations had their own set of values and worldviews, but when the European civilization, empowered by the biblical revelation and scientific discoveries, confronted them, the futility of their value system and the credulity of their worldview became apparent. The missionaries from the European civilization saw the sufferings in these lands and attempted to alleviate it through possible charitable contributions from the people in their homeland. In order to enlighten the populace in their homeland for the great need of charity in these colonies, the missionaries began to look for ways and means of communication; they began to write about these needs and the backwardness of these savages. As the means of mass communication developed over the centuries, the missionaries used them to their best effect and the whole western world came to know the limitations of these people and the limitless possibility of helping them wherever they may be found. The age old Charity found herself being married to modern Protestant Missions and the result was the birth of Inferiority followed by Deception.

The trailblazing missionaries like Carey, Judson, Hudson, Livingstone and others accomplished their monumental missionary achievements by maintaining utmost respect for the natives in their mission fields. They literally laid down their lives in the mission field (For example; Carey came with one way ticket and never returned to England for the rest of his life). They buried their children and spouses in the lands they felt called by their God. So long as these kinds of missionaries were in the mission fields, they embodied the highest form of Charity that Maimonides described. They did it for the love of their fellow human beings with utmost respect. As long as they were alive, they refused to give birth to either pride or pity; superiority or inferiority.

But as the romance of these early missionaries faded away, a new breed of missionaries began to arrive in these lands with their ship loads of western material comfort that exposed the nakedness and the destitutions of the natives in the mission fields. The charity became institutionalized and the missionaries became the mediators between the benefactors and beneficiaries. Mutual love and respect died, but inferiority and deception came alive in the minds of the natives while the missionaries tried in vain to wear the garment of Charity. The missionaries enjoyed the garment of Charity because it gave them immense sense of self-worth and leverage over the lives of their spiritual subjects. Over time, the distinction between a missionary white man and non-missionary white man disappeared.

In the language of science; after knowing for centuries that the Sun is stationary, every morning we call it a Sunrise. Likewise, white missionaries wore the garment of Charity for so long that even today when a destitute white man walks in the streets of India, China, Africa or anywhere else in the so called third world or former mission fields, he ignites a powerful spirit of expectation in the minds of the natives. In my own nation, when a wealthy Nepali family walks in the restaurant or hotel, the reception would be very cold. But when a white back packer hunts for a cheapest meal and a room, s/he would be surrounded by the whole staff willing to offer anything s/he demands. Such reception is not from the heart of hospitality but from the mind of expectations because when Charity had married with European Christians missions, inferiority was born and deception was the second child. After the death of Charity, their mother, Sister Inferiority and brother Deception have been most successful in modern native Christian missions.

A Window into My Past

I was born in a Hindu Brahmin family that was very proud for their higher social and religious place in the society. The Bhatta caste in Hinduism comes from the higher priestly family. In addition to the priestly caste, my father was very much into astrology. For him, everything and everyone on earth has astrological correspondence. Generally, in a traditional Hindu family, when a son is born, the parents should call their local priest (skilled in astrology) to draw up the horoscope that forecasts child’s personality and future based upon the position of the planets in relation to the zodiac sign under which the child is born. It so happened that I was born in a time that meant the imminent death for my father. The only way for him to avoid his death was for both of us never to see each other. In such a case, the priest would advise the mother not to feed the infant or give it away to someone far away. My mother kept me alive and finally left me at her parents' home.  

My grandma took care of me until I was 11. Meanwhile back in my home, another priest had a new look at my horoscope, and helped my father change his mind. Finally, with great hesitation and reluctance, my father agreed to bring me home in my 11th year. When I heard that I had parents and that I was going home gave me a new kind of hope because from the age of seven, I had been asking questions about my life and had never found any answer. I had visited many temples around our village, tried to read Hindu Scripture that my grandfather and mother made me to read for them as I learned to read and write. But there was no answer as who I was and where I had come from. So, the news about my origin was a great relief and thought that my prayers had been answered.

The day I came home, there was a big religious ceremony going on in my home; villagers were gathered and my family was busy with all kinds of rituals. As I arrived, I was washed, and was given white clothes to put on and they made me to enter the sacred room where my father was performing the religious rituals with many other priests. Someone guided me to the entrance of that room and told me to go and bow-down to father. As I entered the room, there were about seven men and did not know whom to bow to. So, I went to the man sitting nearest to the entrance; he happened to be one of the priests and kindly showed me who my father was and for the first time I saw my father and bowed to him as they made me to sit on a mat next to him and take part in the rituals for appeasing the deities so that my father would not die. As I sat there in that room, I tried to steal some glimpses from my father, but I saw him only focused in the rituals and never turned an eye towards me. He seemed to be very much full of anxiety and uncertainty.

As the day died down and all the villagers went home, I was hoping that my family would gather around me and welcome me. I was told that I had two elder sisters, two younger sisters and one younger brother. Except mother, everyone seemed to be hesitant to come near and my father went out with his friends and came back home very late. I was given a place to sleep but could not fall asleep and knew when father came home. I gave him the benefit of doubt, thinking he must be tired and may be from tomorrow he will speak to me. But the next day came and went, but my father never looked at me and never said a word. Finally, without realizing a year had gone by without my father speaking to me and having any kind of conversation. In an agrarian society, life for the children can go on without much social interaction and my life took a lonely path. After a year of silence, I found my father to be very angry man and soon his anger was expressed with severe beatings. I found out that he loved his younger son so much that no one was allowed to mistreat him. My inner loneliness was turning into an expressed anger but I was afraid of my father, so I expressed my anger over my younger brother. This brought the wrath of my father on my head and since then, it was a constant beating and mental and verbal abuse that left me totally detached from reality. My emotional, mental and physical condition began to deteriorate.

One day, when I was about 13 or 14 years old, a group of young people visited our school and were selling bags of books with fraction of money. I too bought a bag of books, but when I brought home, father saw the books and he destroyed them all. Somehow as he was burning them, I had hidden one book along with my school books. The title was “friend of all” and it had many pictures in it. But the book remained unread somewhere in the house until I was 16.  By this time I had abandoned my faith in religion and gotten into the company of communist friends who taught me the Darwinian view of life and Marxists system of politics. After spending considerable time with them, I thought that I found the meaning of my life; revolution for national liberation from tyranny.   But deep in me, I was far from real liberation and peace of mind. I was so angry with my father and my anger turned into depression and began to contemplate about suicide. I saw no end to my misery; I saw no one who could liberate me on a personal level. As I contemplated on taking my own life, I had this urge to take revenge on my father who had brought this misery in my life. I became a violent man and finally left home because I could not stay without trouble anymore.

When my father saw that I was determined to destroy my life, and was also afraid that on the process of destroying my own life, I might harm him as well. So, he sent message to his eldest daughter who was married in a faraway town. He asked her if she and her husband could do something about it. I had never met her husband, until that time; when they heard about me, my brother-in-law came to the place where I was living because I had refused to go home. As he met me, he gave me a book.  To my amazement, it was the same book that years ago I had bought and saved from being burned. I had never known that he was a Christian; he had married my sister in an arranged marriage in a fully Hindu religious way. But the title of the book “friend of all” once again drew my attention and this time I was able to read it with full attention. It was in this book that I saw the man named Jesus reaching out and touching people who were lost and forgotten by the society; he appeared to be the person who could provide the personal liberation that I was longing for. Much later would I know that this was the gospel of Luke! That day, my brother-in-law offered me the chance to come and live in his house so that I could finish my high school. 

As I read the book, I was greatly attracted to the person of Jesus Christ.  I had never thought in terms of that book or Jesus Christ having any kind of relationship with the religion called Christianity. I thought that my brother-in-law randomly got the book to give me as a gift. One day I took the book to a friend who was much older to me, had finished university education, had a good government job, and was considered to be the wise and successful man of the village. I wanted to ask him if he could help me to know more about the man called Jesus. As I gave him the book, he was shocked to see it and tore it into many pieces and threw them into the village air that took away the pieces of my dear book to many different directions. As he tore the book, a cold chill went into my spine and an unknown fear hit me. He warned me that such books have some kind of magical power and if someone reads them, the person will be either insane or lose mental stability. I left him there screaming at me, feeling sad that the book I was in love with was destroyed (In a few months, that person died with no apparent reasons).  Finally, I came home and found the same old book, hidden in the midst of all our school books. It was already dirty and dusty but the message of the book started to hit me home every time I read it.  

I decided to go and live with my sister’s family. It was the first time I had visited their house and saw that there were many other books. I learned that my brother in-law was actually the leader of this underground church.  As I stayed with them and the first Saturday came (Nepali Churches worship on Saturday), three more men came to their home and sat in a room and called me too. As we sat there, they began to pray, sing and some one gave a brief speech. I still remember the first speech, it was “where does my help come from? My help comes from God” (the preacher has now gone to be with the Lord). There I was asking the same question from my early childhood and the man there says that there is a God who is interested in helping us and this God has come to us through Jesus Christ. In my heart, I decided to find out about this God.  I was given the New Testament to read; I finished it in no time.  The verse that stuck to my mind was Matthew 7:7 where it says “ask and it shall be given to you”. I had many questions and here there was a possibility of my asking being answered.

My sister's family did not know but secretly, I began to talk to Jesus, but the longer I stayed with my sister’s family the more confused I became. The kind of Jesus I saw in the Bible and the kind of Jesus they believed in appeared to be different. The family life, the kind of controversy about the finances being misused in the name of church and mission had infected this group of new believers who were fighting with one another for money and power for leadership. On top of that I had brought all my troubles with authority figures along with me and my relationship with brother-in-law broke down.  But one day I found another book in that house, the title was “God who answers by fire”. Somewhere in all these coincidences, I began to see some kind of mysterious pattern. This book opened my eyes to see how God has a plan for every person, and the things that had happened in my life were not by accident, but were ordained by God.  I wanted to know this God.  I had thought that Jesus was the best human being to follow, but there was no proper understanding of him being the Son and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Then, God brought another incident; an English preacher by the name of Norman Mitten came to visit my brother-in-law and he spoke to our group. His text was from the gospel of Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

As Norman began to expound the gospel to a group of about seven of us, I had a strange burning sensation in my chest. Whatever he said, it was as if he was reading my heart with absolute certainty and for the first time I recognized that my biggest problem was not my father, but my sin. The way to God, his help, and answers to my questions is made possible by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The meeting finished without any fanfare. There was no altar-call or prayer for anything or anyone. But a fire had begun in my heart and did not know how to quench it.  The following day, I went to a nearby bush alone and asked Jesus to come and save me from my sin. Since my relationship with brother-in-law was already broken, I could not ask his help. So, I asked other members of that group as what I must do in order to be fully forgiven of my sins. The person said that I had to take water baptism (this was a group that placed a high value on baptism by immersion for salvation). When I said to the group that I want to take baptism, they were taken aback. For them, I was anti Christian because I had opposed their leader and had expressed certain views that were contradictory to what they thought. It was a great danger for them to baptize me because if I was not a genuine believer, I might report to the police of my becoming Christian which then can put the leader into seven years in prison.  Finally, there were two more people who were getting ready for the baptism and I insisted to be included into the ceremony.  They arranged the baptismal program along with two other candidates and took us to an Indian border town in North India.  In the year 1985/6 (can't remember exact date due to the dual dating system in Nepal), I was baptized in an old Indian church (Church of North India) and since then, it has been a life of adventure filled with joy and pain, laughter and sadness but in everything, God’s amazing grace has provided the strength needed.

Right after baptism, I went home with the hope of reconciling with my family.  But my father he could not accept the fact that his prodigal son is now turning to Christianity.  It took another 10 years for me to go back home.  By this time I was married and had my son with me.  In order to break the ice, I took my Indian wife and three years old son to home, hoping that when he sees the daughter- in-law and grandchild, his heart may melt. It did melt, but only to the point of general formality. I could feel how uncomfortable he was with us being in his house.  And it took another 10 years for him to admit his mistakes. In 2007, we heard that he was very sick and had become very old and frail. I and my wife visited him. As we arrived at his home, it was about noon time. There was no one else in the house, children had gone to school and my mother and brother’s family were working in their field. As we went about the house, we saw the old man sitting way back in the garden, turning his face away from home. I went from behind and called him; he was surprised and tried to get up but could not. I grabbed him in my arms and helped him to walk back home. It was the first time that I had held my father; I had never known his touch or embrace. Within me, I was weeping, but had to put up a brave face so that the old man would not faint to see me crumble. For the first time, the old man confessed his failings and released me to do whatever makes me happy. As I saw his painful tears running down his boney chicks; I could not hold anything back and told him that the only thing that would compensate me of my robbed childhood is when I see him confess his sin to Jesus Christ and accept him as his personal savior. He neither denied my wish nor accepted; and realizing his social stature, I gave him an easy and wishful suggestion - “even if you cannot accept him in public due to the fear of your religious society, accept him in the privacy of your heart”. I am not sure how long my old man will live, but it is my prayer that when he leaves this world, he would have made his peace with his creator.

Hope Church Soccer Team

Illegal Nepalese Dilemma

 Dilemma of illegal Nepalese in Korea

Many Nepalese come to Korea with the hope of earning money and securing their future, but the three year time period for their stay here as legal workers is just enough for them to pay back the debt by which they came to Korea and send some for their families to have few new items in their homes.  The first year is simply spent in getting used to the basics of life and work environment in a foreign land and some give up their dreams and return.  But those who manage to stay for three years; they get used to the culture and society and become accustomed to the way of life.  They pick up the language, and know in and out of their working environment.  When they are just about to live and work in Korea without much difficulty in terms of language, food and culture, time comes for them to go home. 

At the same time, the home country continues to go from bad to worse every year.  As they communicate to their family members, everyone suggests them that it is better for them to stay in a country like Korea illegally than coming back to Nepal where there is no hope of doing anything.  As the three year period comes to a close, they run away from their working places and start working as illegal workers.  Many companies do prefer the illegal workers than going through the hassles of hiring the legal ones; beside, the illegal ones already are good at work, language and adjustment where as the new ones will have to be trained all over again.  So, the illegal Nepalese workers have no problem of finding the employment.

There are about 3 thousand or more illegal Nepalese working in Korea, but the latest crackdown by the government has become so painful for these friends whose hopes lie in their being here so that they can continue to work and send money for their families in Nepal.  They wish to stay here for few more years so that they could save some for their future and at the same time wait for their nation to be a place where they could live and work without fear and uncertainty.

However, many Nepalese are caught by the immigration officials these days and some are already held in detention centers, waiting for their time of deportation.  They had plans, hopes and wishes, but all of them are now dashed, not because it is a bad thing to go home, but because, for Nepalese, home means, absolutely no job, insecurity, extortion by the Maoists and criminals and even kidnap and death.  The Maoists and criminals know that a worker from a country like Korea does have some money for them to extort.  As they wait in the detention centers, their minds become restless.  On the one hand, they hare happy to see their family members and loved ones that they have missed so much, but on the other hand, when they think of the over all situation in Nepal, they feel helpless and lost.

The political situation in Nepal is getting nowhere and there is a strong possibility of bloodshed and perhaps a total control by the Maoists.  Economically, there is absolutely no condition for any investment or entrepreneurship.  Except in the monsoon season, there is no electricity for more than 15 hours everyday, constant transport strikes and closers of normal life have completely paralyzed the nation.   Factories and businesses are being taken over by the workers who are being brainwashed by the extreme communistic ideology of Maoism; businessmen are running away from the nation for their lives.  Departmental stores and shopping centers have become like hunted houses because the workers demanded more than what the owners could pay them and government loathes them with heavy taxes.  Security wise, when one leaves home, one does not know when or whether he/she will be able to come back, and for those who do have wealth and property, life is very uncertain; the constant news of kidnapping and killing for ransom have taken away their sleep and hunger.  Parents wait anxiously for their children to return from school and breathe a sigh of relief when they see them safely home.

With this kind of a picture in mind, a Nepali feels safer in Korea even if it means living like a fugitive, but a thought of going home creates a panic.  Deep down in the heart, everyone wishes to go home but the present reality of Nepal sends a chilling sensation in the spine every time the thought of deportation comes to mind.

Academics with Affections

Academics with Affections

Coming from Hindu religious background and atheistic (communist) indoctrination, my journey into Christian faith was an adventure of academics and affections. I was born into a devout Hindu family that faithfully observed their religious duties and astrological signs. My father would not leave the house for any emergencies unless the signs in the sky were right for him to do so. For a man like that, the birth of the first son was a major event and every detail surrounding the birth had to be recorded in the birth-scroll (horoscope) as soon as possible. Two meters long scroll was prepared for me and unfortunately, the priest discovered that my birth had taken place in one of the most inauspicious moments in the Hindu calendar; my birth ushered father’s death. The only way to avoid his imminent death was for him not to see me (a Hindu father generally would not see his new born child until the priest prepares the horoscope). The priest explained that so long my father does not see me, he would live and gave them two options; either the mother should stop feeding the infant or give the infant away to someone never to be remembered again. I was lucky! When I was nine days old, my maternal grandmother took me away; eight hours’ journey to her distant village. I stayed with grandmother until I was 11, never knew where I had come from. By the time I was seven, I had begun to pray to various Hindu gods about my origin and destiny. Meanwhile back in my home, a different priest had a look at my horoscope, and he discovered that I was not at all a danger to my father! The first priest had made a horrendous mistake!

In my eleventh year, the news came that I had parents and I was going home! Reluctantly they did bring me home and for the first time I saw my father, brother and sisters! About mother, I had seen her before many times but nobody had told me that she was my mother. She used to visit her family and then take me in her arms and silently cry and I had no idea that she was my mother. Sadly, even after I came home, my father refused to look at me and talk to me and my joy of finding my family ended there.

As a bewildered teenager, I lost my faith in religion and got into a communist group. Spending few years in their indoctrination campaigns, I thought that I had found my destiny. But in an amazing way, I met Jesus Christ (which is a different story all together) in my 17th year and did I realize what life was all about; questions of my origin and destiny were settled forever and from the age of 19, I entered into the full time ministry as an itinerant preacher without having any formal theological training. Later I was persuaded to go for formal theological education which then led me to a reputed Bible College in a Southern Indian city of Bangalore. It was there in that college that my life was refined for a lasting Christian service; after four years I received my Bachelor of Theology degree along with academic excellence award. I had the privilege of being mentored by wonderful men and women of God from various parts of the world whose influence still adds new impetus every time I am reminded of. Some filled the place of my father and others filled the place of a brother but not every one of the mentors under whose ministry I sat was able to leave a lasting legacy behind; some were dry and detached from what they taught.

After 8 years of full time ministry in the area of theological education and church pioneering, I had another chance to go for Master of Divinity course at Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology in Seoul where once again had the privilege of meeting many more men and women of God, some of whom had great academic achievements in their lives. But there were others, who also had great academic credentials, but their academic credentials were coupled with deep emotional affection for their students. As a mature student after years of ministry experience, I was greatly touched and impacted by their personal affections and academic excellence. I was able to re-evaluate and correct my own way of learning and teaching to my students.

Finally, another opportunity to further my theological education came my way and the Lord led me to do Master of Theology and Doctoral studies at Asia Life University in Daejeon. The university is relatively young and much of the infrastructure is still developing, but compared to the schools I have studied in and taught at, the ALU leadership and the professors possessed higher degree of affection for their students. The affection I found in ALU is coupled with high degree of respect toward students as co-workers in the kingdom of God regardless of their nationality and level of learning (which is a rarity in Korean context). Almost all of the professors have earned their doctoral degrees from prestigious universities in the US, UK and elsewhere, and have the reason to boast for their academic achievements. But they demonstrate such a depth of humility and camaraderie inside as well as outside the classroom that demands highest respect from their students. I am grateful to God for the privilege of being a part of such a wonderful place and I am sure the Lord will use these men and women of God to impact countless lives. It is my prayer that the professors that I have studied under in many of these schools would continue to strive for their academic excellence but would not forget to cap their academic caliber with affectionate countenance; without the affections of the heart, the dry and cerebral academics alone will not be able to leave a lasting legacy behind for their students to cherish.

As I reflect on the influence of my professors in my life, I am reminded of the two great Jewish Rabbis; Hillel and Shammai who had titanic struggles with one another for ascendency and influence during the either side of the first century. Hillel was known to be a man of great affection and tremendous influence among the Jewish populace while Shammai was a strict legalist who lacked compassion and wider following, but both were among the finest minds of their time. Shammai outlived Hillel and tried to eradicate Hillel’s influence by weakening the house of Hillel through all means, but according to the tradition, a voice from heaven nullified Shammai’s position on the Law (Yerushalmi Berakhot, 1:7) and till today, it is the position of Hillel that has survived as a testimony to the power of a teacher who possesses academics and affections.

One of the reasons why scholars and theologians lack affections in their academic life can be understood on the basis of their relationship with suffering. Hillel was born in Babylonia, and at the age of 40 he went to Jerusalem to study the Torah and for the next 40 years (Hillel is thought to have lived 120 years) he went through a lot of opposition, rejection, suffering and pain where as Shammai was on the side of persecuting Hillel and had relatively comfortable life compared to him and failed to express compassion to his fellow human beings. Most of the arm-chair scholars who have never faced suffering of any kind in life are wonderful to read but terrible to have relationship with. Such theologians neither can adjust in any local church nor are they able to run theological institutions and thus they resign themselves away from people in the company of their books. But of course in the area of scholarship, affection void of academic depth is equally ineffective to impact students’ life. I am fortunate to have met many wonderful people of God who have touched and transformed my deranged mind and damaged emotions so that today, every time I stand behind a pulpit, a podium or a lectern, I too wish to leave something behind.

Ministry at Sooyoungro Nepali Church, Pusan

During Chusok holidays, we were invited by Sooyoungro Nepali Church in Pusan to share the word of God. Our theme was "Living as Aliens", not just from one country to another, but our life here on earth is a pilgrimage, we are strangers in a foreign land until we reach our final home, a city whose builder and maker is God himself.


We also spent a day in a famous Heundae beach in Pusan!!