Tag: Faithful

Camel’s Knees

~ Sowmya Gali

1 Thessalonians 5: 17

Pray without ceasing.

James, brother of our Lord was one of the pillars of the early church. He was the leader of the council of Jerusalem and a wonderful friend of other disciples. Although there are no solidified facts about who wrote the book of James, scholars ascribe it to James, the half-brother of Jesus. He may have been an eyewitness to several miracles of Jesus. He must have watched his brother, Jesus, from a distance. Only after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he may have realized who Jesus really is. From then on, there was no turning back. He dedicated his life in teaching, encouraging, and above all, praying. Beyond that, James was known for his piety and also as James the Just. He was a highly esteemed leader of the early church. History records that James spent several hours each day praying, interceding, and worshiping God. On cold stone floors in the winters and hot, crusty grounds in the summers, James must have knelt and spent hours communing with His risen Savior and best friend. Because of the hours he spent on his knees, they became calloused and wrinkled. Therefore, he was given a nickname of old camel’s knees.

We read the Gospels and are amazed at the teachings of Jesus. With his call to repentance and the offer of salvation, we commit to His Lordship. Now we read about the Acts of the Apostles and the trials they go through. These Acts inspire us to stand firm in the faith despite the circumstances we face. Following the Acts, we delve into the teachings of Paul who carefully lays out the importance and need of a Savior in everyone’s life. With his logical reasoning, historical perspective and practical approach, Paul explains and persuades us to lead holy lives.

As we are contemplating on the teachings of Paul, James comes along and smacks us in the back of our head with his letter. He then comes around, grabs us by the collar, now holds us captive and gives us only two options: either live for Jesus or die in sin. He then slaps us hard with his list of ‘to dos’ to live out our lives in faith and for the Kingdom to come. We either come to our senses and live for Jesus or run for our lives away from the Gospel. There is no sailing in two boats with James’ teaching. When we read his epistle, we can conclude that he lived out what he preached. He followed closely Jesus’ teachings. The last chapter of James describes the necessity of prayer and describes about praying effectively. He further adds that prayers offered in faith will bring healing, forgiveness and prosperity.

Calloused knees or camel’s knees mean several hours spent on knees in humility before the Savior, in awe of the King of kings and in submission to His Sovereignty. Are our knees calloused? Has prayer become the dominant and essential aspect of our lives? Do our knees testify of our humility before the King? James concludes his epistle with a call to prayer. For every aspect of our lives, we must first go on our knees in prayer. Moments of joy, moments of pain, moments of tears, moments of trials and every other moment of life calls for time of prayer. More than riches and glory, camel’s knees are a better and visible testament of whose name we bear.

From The Beginning To New Beginnings

~ Sowmya Gali ~ 2 Comments

Genesis 1: 1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…

The expansive galaxy we live in is spinning at an incredible speed of 490,000 miles per hour and requires 200 million years to make one rotation. We do not have an exact number of stars in our own galaxy. Our galaxy is spinning around to make its rotation. Beside our galaxy there are over billion other galaxies in this vast universe. Yet this complex sea of stars functions with remarkable order and efficiency. Whatever the world view about creation maybe; man with his finite mind may concur that we came into existence with a bang (Big Bang theory). However, it requires more than faith to believe that a supernatural force is behind this expanse.

Now that we can make an educated guess that the supernatural force could be God, the Creator, it begs to ask, ‘why’. Why did God choose to create a universe with billions of galaxies and countless stars? Among those stars He chose Sun and planet Earth for mankind. We can conclude that if a person is creative in nature, then they are very passionate about their creativity. They put all their energies and time to create something unique. Not that we are comparing God to a mere man, but just pointing to the known fact behind creative minds. Therefore, God being a creative one, put His love in everything He created.

Enter Genesis 2: 4. Until this verse, God or Elohim was the word used for God. When man came into picture, God had transformed into Lord God or Yahweh Elohim meaning breath of God or grace of God. The entire universe was created by His word but His prized creation required His hands and His breath. That is how much passion and care He put in to create us even to the point of breathing in His breath into us. When God wrapped up creation with creating man and woman, He looked at His creation and was thoroughly satisfied. His finished work was flawless and He admired and adored His creation. We are the product of His love. Genesis 1: 31 – God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.

As one year draws to a close and a new one begins, we all tend to make hasty promises both to ourselves and others. Often, we try to recollect what resolutions we made at the beginning of the year. We promise ourselves that we will be better people, more attentive to our spouses/children/parents and others in our lives, be more charitable, take better care of ourselves through diet and exercise. More often than not we fail. Why do we fail so utterly year after year? Yet we continue to make those resolutions. We fail because we try to do in our own strength. We are so overconfident of our success that we fail to rely on the strength of the One who is all powerful.

Therefore, instead of making several new resolutions that require a lot of human effort and less of God’s strength, let us make one resolution that would take care of the rest. Let us cry out to God like the Psalmist in Psalms 73: 28, “It is good for me to draw near God.” When we look towards the skies and beyond, we can perceive how finitely small we are. Our only effort would have to be that we draw closer to God and be confident of God’s unfailing love for us just like Apostle John. Instead of our continued belief in our unworthiness and our failings, we must possess an utmost assurance of God’s infinite love and confidence in us.

Now we are one step into seeing our resolution being accomplished. Once we are closer to God, we tend to behave like Him. Some of His Goodness rubs off onto us. We tend to become more forgiving, much kinder and irreverent to the things of this world. Soon we will come to a realization that beauty, wealth, power, love, marriage and worldly pleasures are good things but not the best. The best will always be loving God and basking in His love for us. That eventually leads us to the best possible life with complete joy and satisfaction right here on this earth when we are still living. For we know that, that is what awaits us in the future glory in heaven. Therefore, the best life we can have right now is by drawing closer to the One who loves us like no other.

When we confess how frail we are and the measure of our days on earth (Psalm 39: 4-13), then our depressing days will turn into dynamic ones. Yes, we all are bound to die one day if the Lord tarries. However, when our hope is in God, every day of our lives can be more meaningful. Even to the point where in death too we are alive. When we come to such a realization, we tend to walk out of our selfish cocoons and fly like butterflies. We won’t be looking at ourselves – our weaknesses, our failures or for that matter even our strengths. Instead, we’ll be looking at Him who strengthens us. His love for us causes us to forget ourselves. We will stand in awe of His awesomeness and yield to His amazing grace.

Therefore, beloved, for once try to make this resolution: draw close to Him who loves us like no other. He definitely will not disappoint us. When we can fathom how infinitely awesome our Heavenly Father, the author and finisher of everything is, then these trivial things that we lust after don’t matter. Beware of the side effects though – you might be acting like Him: forgiving easily, being charitable, compassionate towards the weak and suffering and always rejoicing.

May the God of abundant grace and abounding love bless you and prosper you in the New Year.