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Lesson 4: The Water of Life

Sylvester Paulasir — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:49:08 +0000

It was hot. It was mid-day. No one would dare come all the way out to Jacob’s well to draw water in the burning sun. But she didn’t have a choice. She would rather bear the heat of the sun than the venomous heat from people. Yea, she messed up. She repeatedly found love at the wrong places. But how long is she supposed to go on like this? It would have been just another day if not for that stranger at the well. He was certainly defeating the purpose of coming out to the well at noon. He was intruding her privacy. Boy, was she glad He did! He offered her an imagery that was so simple and yet so profound. Ubiquitous as the water in her bucket and yet deeper than Jacob’s well. Living water.

Nothing theological about it. Just living water. She knew what it meant. Living water was a term used for running water as in a stream or a river. She must have looked around. No streams around. Ofcourse she knew that. What is He talking about? “Sir, you dont even have a bucket to get water from this well. How are you going to get me living water?” Ah, she took it literally. Its alright. Its a start. You dont have to figure it all the first time around. Then it gets interesting. He claims that this living water tricks your baroreceptors and vasopressin receptor systems in your body that you wont feel thirsty ever again. Sounds like a good deal. No more mid-day trips to the well sure sounds good. Again taken literally. Its time to get to the point.

“Bring your husband”….the Living Water has hit her core. The Living Water was sitting right in front of her. It has transformed and cleansed her life of sin. Quenched her of all her thirst and she thirst no more. Now she gets it. Do you?

Imageries…how would we understand things without them! It was water, the thing that we take for granted all the time. Because it was water the woman understood salvation that day. We know water. We know what thirst is. A child knows what to do when she is thirsty. Grab that colorless, tasteless thing and drink. Simple. The two thousand year old imagery is still relevant. We are still thirsty. What are you thirsty for? How long and how hard have to tried to quench that thirst? Dont forget….the Living Water that quenched the thirst of the woman at the well is still available. Take, drink and be satisfied forever. Simple.

Lesson 1: A New Order – A Different God?

Sylvester Paulasir — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:21:45 +0000

The story of the God of Israel picking up a group of slaves and turning them into a nation depicts the story of redemption of mankind and hence forms the backbone for the rest of the scripture. Nothing explains the power and patience of God and the weakness of humanity better than the story of exodus. This week’s lesson brings out a theme in the Pentateuch that is strange to me, a twenty-first century Christian: Order. As simple as this week’s lesson is, it made me think about the God I worship and the way the book of numbers portrays Him.

As you can imagine, getting thousands of people from one country to another on foot is not an easy task. There had to be a leadership and some order. To me, the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of order is rigid rules. The God of the Old Testament seems to be overtly concerned about rules and order. But Jesus in the New Testament condemns the pharisees and the scribes who were concerned about keeping those rules and order.

How about a Hebrew Jihad? The slaves who were unarmed and unskilled in war were organized into an army for war by the God of Israel to execute judgment on wicked nations. Its not just any war, but a holy war – a Jihad! In today’s world, war, especially jihad is looked down upon as a disaster or terrorism. Cultural differences between ancient Israel and the modern world aside, what I am concerned more here is the contrast between Yahweh’s approach toward judgment in the Old Testament and His words to love even our enemies in the New Testament.

The God who set all the tribes in order around the tabernacle and instructed the people not to intrude the holy sanctuary and punished the ones who violated his instruction with death is still the same God we worship week after week at churches. For some reason, order during worship has become more and more subjective.

The unchanging God (in His character) has definitely changed His way of dealing with His people over the centuries but what about order and rules? Is He still “that concerned about order?” or is He more….you know…. “liberal”? Jesus definitely sounds more “liberal” than when He spoke as Yahweh to the Israelites at mount Sinai. Is He fine with any kind of worship? any kind of behavior? any kind of religion? Nature tells me that He is still keeping the universe in order. The earth hasn’t slipped out of its orbit yet. As gracious as He is, He still desires order in our lives today.

Lesson 7: The Work of the Prophets

Sylvester Paulasir — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:44:39 +0000

I remember those Sabbath afternoons in India when my mom used to tell us stories about this woman called Ellen White. I don’t remember any historical dates or facts from those story times but the thing that stood out to me as a child was the fact that God used this woman in a powerful way to bring His message to the church. Approximately fifteen years later, I find myself living in Ellen White’s home country but the image of this messenger in the minds of the people of her own land today is sadly distorted by the numerous arguments against her prophetic role.

This week’s lesson attempts to remind us of Ellen White’s prophetic role to the Seventh-day Adventist Church by comparing her ministry with those of Old and New Testament prophets. Before we jump into the different roles a prophet assumed and see how Ellen White was invited to assume similar roles, we need to deconstruct the popular definition of a prophet. Oftentimes, a prophet is seen just as a foreseer, whose role is to predict future events as God reveals them to him or her. In fact, foreseeing is one of the roles of the prophet but not the only role.

The author of the lesson highlights five roles of Biblical prophets and explains from incidents in Ellen White’s life where God called her to fulfill those roles. The roles are: preaching the gospel, guiding God’s people, reproving sin, communicating God’s will and predicting the future. For a casual reader some of the roles like preaching the gospel, guiding God’s people and reproving sin may sound like things that every leader in the church is called to fulfill whether they assume prophetic role or not. That is very true but to me the purpose behind mentioning those roles is to point out that Ellen White stands in the tradition of other Biblical prophets who were distinctly called for those very roles.

This lesson is not an apologetics for the role of Ellen White but a reminder to the believers to take her counsel seriously. Seriously doesn’t mean blindly. In fact, most of the controversies about Ellen White and her role that exist today stems from blind interpretation of her writings. A careful interpretation of Ellen White’s writing taken in context will undoubtedly be a blessing for us and for generations to come just like those of the prophets in the Bible.

Are you sure Jesus is alive?

Sylvester Paulasir — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:16:32 +0000

Christianity hangs on the story of Easter. If the account of the gospels about Jesus’ resurrection were false as the high priest and his men claimed in the first century, then Jesus would become just another radical teacher who attempted to revolutionize Judaism but then failed miserably on a Roman cross. If the story of Easter were a hoax, then hundreds of thousands of lives that were lost on account of the faith in that risen Savior would be meaningless. If the story of the resurrection were a fable, then who are we praying to when we start our prayers with the phrase, “Dear Jesus…”?

“But that’s where faith comes in. You just have to believe” you say. I concur. I have that same faith that you are talking about and that’s why I personally believe that Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth was the incarnate Son of God. And I also believe that it was this Jesus who died for my sins on that humiliating cross one Friday evening and rose up from His mortal sleep on a Sunday morning. He is risen! Yes, He is alive! I almost sound like I am preaching, don’t I? I sometimes wonder if we have faith enough to preach but not faith enough to live. Allow me to explain.

‘Belief through our heads’ means ‘to accept the facts as true’. We have no problems with that, do we? This kind of belief is enough to sound like a Christian even to get up on a pulpit on a Sabbath morning to preach. This was the kind of belief that the Angel was inviting Mary to embrace when he pointed to the empty grave. It was this belief that the apostle Thomas was struggling with until Jesus Himself appeared among the disciples. May be this level of faith is enough to celebrate Easter. But there is more.

‘Belief through our hearts’ is what I am challenging you to embrace today. It means ‘to live as if the facts are true’. It is one thing to believe with our heads that Jesus was raised from the dead but it’s quite another to believe with our hearts and live as if Jesus is alive. This belief through our hearts can transform our lives like never before. If we believe that Jesus is alive, why do we act as if He is not when we hurt Him by our horrific sins? If Jesus is alive, why do we just stop with talking and listening about Him and not pursuing a relationship with Him? If Jesus is alive, why do we live like unbelievers when we don’t trust Him to carry us through the simplest of problems?

Are you sure Jesus is alive? If you are, why don’t you live like He is? Why don’t you start a conversation with Him today? It is never too late!

Circle of Freedom

Sylvester Paulasir — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:09:32 +0000

I went to the beach not too long ago. And I saw you there. We longed to see the ocean but once we were close to it, we trembled with uncertainty. That’s when we heard the Lord saying, “Fear not. I am with you. Go forward”. Filled partly with excitement and partly with fear, we both decided to make some changes before the waves approached us.

I drew a circle around me on the sand and so did you. Then we both looked up and promised the Lord that we were going to stay in the circle no matter how high the waves ebb. We were utterly sincere. And sure enough, we stayed in the circle but not for long. We saw the waves eroding the marks on the sand slowly but steadily. Now, we obviously moved from where the circle was but did we really break the promise that we made to the Lord? After all, there is no circle anymore.

Have you found yourself in the story yet? If you are still wondering what this story is about, it’s about you and I and our New Year’s resolutions. We were at the boundary between somewhat certain sand called 2007 and very uncertain waters called 2008 just a month ago. We wanted to clear certain things up in our lives before the waves of life from 2008 approached us. So we decided with sincere hearts to draw a circle around us- the circle of change, a resolution. We were excited about the circle and we finally thought we were in the circle of freedom. Little did we realize that this circle would soon disappear in the horrendous waves of daily routine.

Sure, it may seem like we didn’t do anything to break the promise that we made to God on New Year’s Day, because after all we were as sincere as in the previous years. But deep down inside we know that we lost the freedom that we enjoyed for the few days or even hours being inside that circle.

I don’t know what your New Year’s resolution was and I don’t even know if you broke it already. If you haven’t broken your resolution, you belong to a distinct group of dedicated individuals who stand above millions of people on this planet who broke their resolutions in the very first week. May God bless you to keep on keeping on! But for those of us who have already broken our resolutions, I am not here to offer consolation but rather humble counsel.

The days of the New Year are rapidly getting old but that doesn’t mean our resolutions should. Although I don’t know what your resolution was, I know for sure that it was something good and it must have pleased God. Shout out saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and by all means draw the circle again. Maybe you expected a sudden change, a complete U-turn in life like I did. And maybe, that is not the will of God. Paul had to continually draw his circle again and again as he struggled with his thorn in the flesh. The Bible doesn’t say, ‘Righteous don’t fall’ but it says, ‘Righteous man falls seven times but he rises again’ (Proverbs 24:16). With God’s help, never give up. Rise up and draw your circle of freedom throughout the year till the enemy becomes tired!

My Best Birthday Gift

Sylvester Paulasir — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:11:39 +0000

One can almost blindly attribute the word ‘happiness’ to a wedding celebration. It is true that not all weddings turn out to be happy. Or in other words, not ‘everyone’ in every wedding party is happy. But I certainly was, when my cousin got married at my grandma’s place in India the day before my fifteenth birthday. What could be more fun than wearing your best attire, hanging out with family and friends, and tasting some of finest Indian recipes? Just as I had expected, the grandiose day came to an abrupt end right after lunch. The one who interrupted my day of fun was my dad. I was actually anticipating that awful moment when my dad would ask me to go with him to Madurai, my hometown, which was about five hours away from the wedding so that I could participate in the annual sporting event at my school.

There was more than one reason to grumble and make excuses for me not to go with my dad. First, I would have done almost anything to stay back with my friends and enjoy the rest of the celebration. Second, I was never a big fan of track events. The last time I ever participated in a track event was five years before when my friend pushed me to fourth place in a 200-meter dash. And now, I was supposed to run an 800-meter dash with much better-trained athletes. “Just give it a try,” said my dad with an intentionally strict tone, which almost sounded like ‘you better win’ as we were on our way to Madurai that afternoon.

To make matters worse, we forgot our house key, which forced us to find shelter in someone else’s house. When I woke up the next morning, everyone at home, starting with my dad wished me “happy birthday!” but I was anything but happy. If only I had stayed back at grandma’s place, I would have gotten quite a lot of gifts, I thought. And that was nothing close to the ‘pre-race syndrome’ that I was going through. My system was flooded with adrenaline just by the thought of the race that I was supposed to run in couple of hours. The fear of failure haunted me to such an extent that I could barely eat breakfast. This is my worst birthday I said to myself as I walked into the stadium.

“This is the third and final call for athletes who are participating in the 800-meter dash”, announced the commentator. Winners from the previous year seemed to be much calmer than I was and lot more confident of their victory. The race began. I tried my best to stick with the crowd during my first lap. At the end of the first lap, I saw majority of the athletes slowing down except for one student who was in the leading position. With just 300 more meters to go, I made sure I followed that one student. The racecourse curved around for our final 100 meters. With friends and schoolmates yelling from the podium, I remember looking up to see my dad at the finish line, shouting and waving as if asking me to speed up. I still wonder how I sped up to win the race, but the next thing I remember was my father holding me and people congratulating me. At the end of the day, we did go back to my grandma’s place and my relatives showered me with different kinds of gifts, but I knew clearly in my mind that none of those gifts could compare to the prize I received at the finish line.

This experience of mine taught me a very important spiritual lesson that I will never forget. The choice is not always between good and bad, but also between good and better. Having fun with friends was good, but participating in a race which created a wonderful memory was better. Getting birthday gifts from relatives and friends was good, but the accomplishment on the finish line was better. Similarly, getting a good education, finding the right life partner, earning more money and even having fun in life is good, but there is something far better – developing an eternal relationship with God.

A short conversation everyday with the God who loves you enough to let nails run through his palms will make everything else in life look insignificant. The sad part is, sometimes the ‘good’ seems better than the ‘better’ to our sinful selves. We get so absorbed into what we think is ‘important’ that we often forget the most important in life. As vulnerable as I am, I humbly ask that if you haven’t had a conversation with Him today, run toward that Father who is shouting and waving for your love. It is never too late.