A "From", a "To", and a "Prayer"

To all who are chosen and loved by God the Father and are kept safe by Jesus Christ.

--- The Bible

The first two verses of the book of Jude (New Testament), contain only three sentences - a "from", a "to" and a prayer. They require us to look harder at certain of the Christian things we do...

The From:

Jude calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. He has real humility in calling himself a servant. He also establishes his wordly, family-relations... For those of us who try to style ourselves purely as children/followers of God, here's a tip - Family ties are important too, in establishing identity.

The To:

Jude doesn't say "To the believers..." Instead, he pointedly says "chosen and loved by God the Father"... This is a harder way of looking at it. A person could call himself a believer/Christian... but only a true follower of the Lord would be able to accept the title of being "chosen and loved" by God the Father. Amazing!

The Prayer:

He does not pray that they prosper; he does not pray that they believe, either. He simply prays for kindness, love and peace - few of the simplest, yet most important things for us who are "chosen and loved" by God the Father.

Questions to ask ourselves:

1. Do we consider ourselves servants or great disciples of Jesus?

2. Are we chosen and loved by God the Father, and kept safe by Christ?

3. What do we pray earnestly for? For kindness, love and peace amongst us believers, or something else?

Love in Faith

Your strong faith in the Lord is like a breath of new life. How can we possibly thank God enough for all the happiness you have brought us?

--- The Bible

Paul ends the 2nd chapter of 1 Thessalonians, by talking about wanting to come and visit the church at Thessalonica. He then continues in the entire third chapter, of how he's been dying to come and see them. However, this wasn't possible - and so he sent Timothy. Now, Timothy reports back to Paul, saying that the Thessalonicans are rocking as believers. This seems to simply blow Paul's mind away - he's literally gushing with joy, love and affection - for them. There seem to be only two things that he's praying about, for the Thessalonicans - that he'd be able to see them again, and that they would have an even stronger faith (verse 10).

Many a time, we are culturally bound and fettered to the confines of not pouring out our love to our fellow brothers and sisters. Even if God puts this love for them in our hearts, we're too scared of it, and we question it, and we ask ourselves if it's okay to love people this much, etc. But the point is - only believers and people who are really exhibiting strong faith would be able to bring us great joy and happiness. When we look at them, we would be really happy for the way our Lord is working in their lives. So we start loving the work that they do, and in turn, start loving these believers. This is not wrong. And it must be told.

As Akshay Cherian once put it, this world gives us such a hard time, as it is. There's not much point if we do the same to people around us - let's give each other a pat on the back. Let's make it a point that we constantly pray to meet with our fellow believers and that we would thank our Lord for the joy that they bring us. Let us also constantly pray, that their faith would grow stronger, day by day.

God bless you, folks. Amen.