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Vol. 7 / Issue 45 / May 27 2004

Contents of this issue

Editorial

Ideal or Model Church – II

Why Quran is not the Word of God? Part 6



News Items (Common to all issues) :

Standing in the Gap - Fasting prayer on 8th Dec.. 2015

Download Articles in Handheld Computers

Please Join us in "Peace Prayer Room"

Your Spam Folder

Hindi / Malayalam/Tamil Bible Online

Through the Valley of Death

Free Tutorials for your Kids!

Allah and Elohim - Are they the same God? Book

Free E-Cards

Online Games for you!



Editorial

By Sherly Isaac

Prayer is the most effective tool of a believer. Bible tells us about people who prayed and compelled God to change His decision for their lives. There were times when many of them were in great danger but when they prayed they got deliverance, won battles, were triumphant over their enemies, saved lives, saw mighty miracles and healings in their lives. But how could a person pray that may move the heart of God and bring miracles in his life? After all what is the secret of effective prayer?

You must be born again:

If you want that your prayers should be heard and replied properly, you must be born again or you must become sons and daughters of God. A person who is not born in your home cannot exert much voice as your sons and daughters could. If an outsider shares his problem with you, you may not consider it as important but if the same problem is shared by your kids, you will exert all your effort to solve that problem. There are differences between outsiders and a child born in your own family. Unless we are born in the family of God our prayers would not be properly taken care of.

I remember when I wasn't saved there were times when I prayed for many days earnestly and yet it seemed as if there was no one listening to my prayers at the other end. But when I got saved there were times that when I prayed I could see immediate results. You can become a child of God and being in the family of God you can enjoy His care and attention. It is not difficult to become a child of God. Bible tells us in John 1:12-13, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Praying in Spirit:

When you are adopted in the family of God, you can enjoy the supernatural care of God, His privileges and one of the benefits is that of the promised helper, the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised before He left this world. Jesus said in John 14:16, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever."

When Holy Spirit comes in ones life, He helps to pray. When we are weak, when we are in trouble and when we do not know what to do in those circumstances, Holy Spirit prays for us as we read in Rom 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Paul says in 1 Cor 14:14, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful."

God wants us to take the blessings which He has kept for us. He came in this world and gave His life for us so that we could get forgiveness of our sins and become His child. If you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, this is the day of your salvation. Tomorrow may be too late. Come to Jesus and invite Him in your life and receive His salvation which He prepared for you. If you are saved, you are eligible to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit as Jesus' disciples received on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2nd chapter.

Yes, you are not alone but God wants to give you the Helper who will help you, pray for you, guide you, comfort you, protect you and lead you in whole truth.



Ideal or Model Church – II

By Sheela Isaac

Last time we have meditated upon three aspects of an Ideal or Model church.

1. The First church was a saved and spirit filled (tongue speaking) church
2. In the first church, people were prayer worriers and intercessors
3. The first church was a Gospel preaching church:

We found that the first century church was a saved and spirit filled church. Only saved and spirit filled people were members of that church. Acts 2:47, “….And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” First century church was considered as an Ideal church, a praying and interceding church, and it was a missionary church, which used to send missionaries, prophets and evangelists to preach the Gospel (good news of salvation). You can read the previous message by clicking the above link.

Ok, now let’s see some more aspects of the first century church.

1. They all continued with one accord in the temple. They had a good fellowship.

Acts 2:46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, Acts 2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Bible says, they all continued with one accord in the temple. Who were they? These are the people who were saved and spirit filled. They were all one minded, alike people, who loved God with their whole heart and who tried to walk in God’s ways and holiness. Bible says that they were breaking the bread together, praying and praising together and eating food together. But look at today’s churches. Are these churches the same? Do these churches consist of only saved and spirit filled and God fearing people? I am sorry to say No. Today our churches are not like the first century church. If you are the only one person who is saved and spirit filled in your church, you may go through many troubles and sufferings. Others might hate you or consider you as a pest in the society. I read about the story of a man of God by name Rowlands. He was preaching the Gospel and bringing many to the saving experience. But many people hated him. Some people did witchcraft and gave him bewitched milk and banana to eat. Because of these kinds of things he had to go through many sufferings. In the beginning of his ministry he could not understand what was going on and he suffered from eating such poisonous foods. But later on when he found out the real problem he began to pray. Every time when food was served to him he prayed and according to God’s guidance he ate it and thus he could escape death.

Today what kind of fellowship do you have? Today our churches have become a place of witchcraft and all kinds of misdeeds because today our churches are filled with such people. I recall one more such incident experienced by a servant of God. He used to go to one prayer group. The people of that group were not saved. Once he was eating food with this group of people and somebody distributed desert to him. He spooned out from it a small portion and tasted it and he said, “The nastiest and ugliest taste it had which I ever tasted in my entire life. It tasted like very old moulded food. It tasted like some mouldy powder which was mixed in it. Then he decided not to eat it and just discarded it. After some time there was another person who was distributing the same desert. So out of curiosity he wanted to taste the new one to see whether the entire lot of desert tasted the same way or not. His curiosity arose because he was surprised to see that all the other people were eating it without any complaint. So he picked the new one and tasted it and to his surprise it tasted very fresh and good. Then only his suspicion grew and he was sure that something was mixed in that which was given to him.” He prayed that day that nothing bad should happen to him and God saved him from that poison. He said that it was not once in a time experience but he had that kind of problem more than once.

What kind of churches do we have today? Can these churches be called model church? No. You might never know what kind of poison you may come across eating in the name of fellowship or what kind of witchcraft is applied to the food which is offered to you. The first century church was a model church and today we need that kind of churches.

2. They continued steadfast in Apostles’ doctrine:

Here Bible speaks about the people who were added to the church. Please note that only those who were saved (Acts 2:47) were added to the church and not others. And these people continued steadfastly in apostles’ doctrine. What peter, paul Jesus’ disciples were preaching they continued in that doctrine. They followed the teachings of Jesus. Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

What was appostles’ doctrine?
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

It speaks about three things.
1. You must repent to get saved (repent for the remission of sins)
2. Get Baptism after salvation (repent and let every one of you be baptized)
3. After salvation you’ll receive Holy Spirit (and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit)

These are the doctrines of the Apostles’ and of Jesus Himself. How many of our churches believe and follow these doctrines today? The other day I was talking to a woman. She said, “our church doesn’t allow Pentecostal style preachers.” I was a little surprised though I knew it very well. This statement clearly declares that our mainline churches do not believe in the teachings of Bible nor the teachings of Jesus. That’s why today our churches are trampling the very words of Jesus under their foot and they disrespect it. Now what is Pentecostal teachings? The same as peter and paul and Jesus taught. They teach Salvation, they teach anointing of the Holy spirit (with tongues), Holy spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, they teach baptism after salvation like Bible describes. Bible also says the same thing in Acts 2:38-41. Then why do we have problem in following Bible I don’t know. At the same time the people who have never read the Bible who never knew what is in the Bible support all the wrong doctrines of the mainline churches and call themselves to be saints.

Now let’s see what the mainline churches believe in:
1. All are saved during child baptism
2. All are having anointing of the Holy Spirit, because they received it during the child baptism
3. Child baptism is the right kind of baptism

Alright, my question is where does Bible speak about all these things? Can you show me a single verse from Bible to prove your point? I would appreciate if anybody could find the verses for me because I don’t find any. Can you give me a verse from Bible which says that all the Christians (born in a Christian home) are going to heaven. Which verse from Bible says that all the churchgoers are spirit filled. I can’t find any. We don’t know what is in the Bible. So we believe whatever our pastors or church fathers preach from the pulpit right?

I believe in Bible that’s it period. I believe in 100% of what Bible says and that is the only final authority for our faith and not in our church fathers and man made doctrines. Let us not fool ourselves. The first century church believed in the Apostles’ doctrine. Let’s also believe that and follow the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ who is the only one who can save us from hell fire.



Why Quran is not the Word of God? Part 6

By Sherly Isaac

Last week we saw that, no one knows who the author of Quran was and that the copies of Quran were burnt while only one copy was kept. Without a prophet how could any one ever know which copy is legitimate or authorized and which one is not? Today we will look at the purpose of scripture writing.

Purpose of Scripture Writing:

We read in the Bible that when God created this world, He looked and saw that this world was beautiful and wonderful. He was happy with His creation. Proverbs 8:30-31 tells us that God was delighted to have fellowship with the sons of men or human being as we read in, "Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men."

Genesis 3rd chapter also tells us that God used to meet them in the garden at the cool of the day. God created human being for having fellowship with Him but He never intended to have this sinful and ugly creation as we have today. Everything went well until the day Adam and Eve sinned against God and fell short of the glory of God. When they sinned against God, they could not stand in the presence of Holy God. They were sent out of the garden of Eden and they were separated from God. But God who created human being for fellowship, had the same longing to bring the human beings back to the first position from where they fell.

So God gave the Law to Moses and that Law contained sacred rules how a person could get forgiveness of their sin, how they could meet God and how they could have fellowship with God and live in His presence forever. The whole Bible's centralized theme is how to redeem the fallen human, how to make them meet God and how to give them eternal life. Jesus came for the very purpose and He gave His precious life for us on the cruel cross. He shed His blood for sinful human being so that we could come out of our sins and live a holy life and have fellowship with living God.

Bible says in 2 Tim 3:16-17, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

But if you read the Quran and Hadith you can understand that there is no forgiveness of sin, salvation of soul, fellowship with God or eternal life ever offered in Quran or in Hadith. Quran says in Surah 23:102-104. "Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy,- they will attain salvation: But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls, in Hell will they abide. The Fire will burn their faces, and they will therein grin, with their lips displaced. "

Also in Surah 7:8-9 The weighing on that day is the true (weighing). As for those whose scale is heavy, they are the successful. Those whose scale will be light, will be their souls in perdition, for that they wrongfully treated Our signs."

In other words there is no way to know whether he or she is going to hell or heaven or whether he or she will get salvation or not until their last breath. In Islam salvation is based on good deeds unlike Bible where God has already paid the price in full for the salvation of our souls. Quran has kept its believers in dark but the Bible says that we can receive salvation or forgiveness of our sins in this world itself by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Bible says that there is no other name given for our salvation except Jesus as we read in Acts 4:10-12, "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Quran does not care about the problem of sin or sinful human being. There is no solution in Quran to deal with our sins. Quran is silent about forgiveness of sin. Our good deeds cannot save us. For example suppose a person kills someone and after killing, he goes to some other place where no one knows him. He starts a fresh life, gives much money to charities, helps poor and needy, does good humanitarian works. Will that erase his past sin? The fact is, no, his guilt of murder will follow him all the days of his life until he gets forgiveness of his sin. If his sins are not forgiven in this world then surely he is going to hell fire because he is a sinner who killed another person and his good works cannot save him. But unfortunately Quran does not have a solution for such person.

Muhammad the founder of Islam also lived in fear until his death, not knowing whether he will get into heaven or not. The same fear creeps in the minds of Muslims. They live in fear without having hope of a blessed future for them. In Hadith Volume 1, Book 12, Number 770, Muhammad was asked whether they could see Allah on the day of Judgment or not? Muhammad replied that on that day, Allah will call them, and As-Sirat (a bridge) will be laid across Hell and I (Muhammad) shall be the first amongst the Apostles to cross it with my followers. Nobody except the Apostles will then be able to speak and they will be saying then, 'O Allah! Save us. O Allah Save us.'

Then further he says that the Muslims will come out of the fire, though the fire would eat away their whole human body yet marks of prostrations will remain intact. At that time they will come out of the Fire as mere skeletons. The Water of Life will be poured on them and as a result they will grow like the seeds growing on the bank of flowing water.

Can you imagine what Allah had promised for Muslims? Hell fire, burnt flesh and body! But today I have a good news to tell you that when you are in this world itself, you can receive eternal life. You can get water of life that is freely given by Jesus.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:10, "Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."" And in John 4:14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

Dear friend, come to Jesus and have this eternal life so that you may never go to hell fire but have eternal life.




Standing in the Gap - Fasting prayer on 8th Dec.. 2015

As the Bible says in Ezekiel 22:30 "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it." And also the Bible says in Numbers 16:48, "And he (Aaron) stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped." We have fasting prayer every second Tuesday of each month. Our next fasting prayer meeting will be conducted on 16th Nov. 2015

Download Articles in Handheld Computers

You can now download articles in Palm Doc format for your palm handheld computer. It will work with any devise that has Palm OS and Palm Doc Reader installed. To download click on the link named "Palm Doc Format" i.e. at the top of this page by the side of each articles.

Please Join us in "Peace Prayer Room"

If you have any prayer request please join us any time at our New Chat Room at http://insearchofpeace.org/prayer If any of us available in prayer room, we will be praying online otherwise you can email your prayer request to feedback@insearchofpeace.org

Your Spam Folder

If you are getting this newsletter in your bulk/junk/Spam folder please hit the "not junk" or "not spam" button so that you could receive it in your mailbox. Also adding feedback@insearchofpeace.org email address into your contact list can avoid this email from ending up in your bulk folder.

Hindi / Malayalam/Tamil Bible Online

Now you can read Bible in Hindi online at http://www.hindibible.org
in Malayalam online at http://www.malayalambible.org
in Tamil online at http://www.hindibible.org?ver=tamil

Through the Valley of Death

As many of you know that in the year 2005, our dad was very sick even unto death. God miraculously healed him. We have compiled it in a book form. I sure believe that it will inspire you and encourage you greatly.

This book is available for purchase at JasmineCorp Store

Free Tutorials for your Kids!

Now you can learn Graphics and web designing online. These tutorials are free but you may need to get login ID by registering yourslef. Currently tutorials for Paint Shop Pro, HTML and Dreamweaver/Fireworks are available but in future more tutorials will be added.

Check the tutorials at:http://jasminecorp.net/tutorial

Allah and Elohim - Are they the same God? Book

Now available "Allah and Elohim - Are they the same God" Available at JasmineCorp Store, and "Is Jesus God?" Available at JasmineCorp Store,

Both books compares the Bible and the Quran and read eye opening facts about Jesus, God of the Bible, Allah and Islamic faith. I am sure that you want to read this.

Also read:
Book Title: Is Jesus God?
Author: Sherly Isaac
ISBN: 0759628092
http://insearchofpeace.org/books.htm

Free E-Cards

Send free E-Cards (Greeting Cards) to your friends and family. Its an easy way to stay in touch with friends and family. The website address is:
http://ecards.jcsearch.com

Online Games for you!

Now you can play games online at http://insearchofpeace.org/games




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