Story of the Refrigerator:5B
Sunday morning was a busy day. We used to follow the Sabbath meticulously as per the instructions of LEF; when we were in Lef we just obeyed whatever they instructed, though it was not according to the word of God, I mean, though it was legalistic, and a sort of oppression on the congregation, as we should wear only long blouses, and pale color sarees, and no exams or interviews on Sunday, not even buying a green chilli on Sunday, no travelling , no news paper, no liftng or shifting, no job, no no no no , all nos, whichever , don't do this don't do that, was the rule of the day.
But God was looking at our hearts, and ignorance and giving us the bounty of those rules. God said, proverbs 16:4 the Lords works everything to its proper end, even the wicked for a day of disaster. Psalms 68:18 God took gifts from people, even the rebellious.
Yes, God gives us some time to go into our self righteous ways, legalistic ways to worship Him, it doesn't mean that we are completely right. Every rule from the authorities should be obeyed--some obey some do not--but as long as you accept an authority, and want to stay under that banner ,you are bound to obey them as long as it do not contradict the word of God-as in case of idol worship, but all other things should be obeyed.
Do you think that the 7th day Adventist, and Church of Christ and other sects of people are not answered by God, they are, but God looks at the people who are innocently cheated, and He has a plan for every one who really worship Him to take them out and give them light in due course of time. Some people use the banner of a church but behave as they like . If you do not like to obey them in totto, get out of it, but do not be in it and behave as you like it.
Self Righteousness exhibited by the works of man is never accepted by God. In fact Jesus touched every commandment of God, all the ten commandments of God. He said, He has come to fulfill the Law not to destroy it. Thus saying He has intensified the Law, much more, like Adultery, is not just committing an act but even the adultrous look is condemned by Him. so is the Lie, He said your word should be 'yes' if you say yes, 'No' if you say no, any thing which comes more than that is of Devil'.
So He intensified the commandment of ' do not speak lie' so also every commandment was touched by Jesus, and He said about Sabbath, that He is the Lord of Sabbath, on the other hand He actually nullified the rules of Sabbath by healing the people, and thus rejecting the teachings of the Pharisees, let us not be cheated by the rules of the people when they quote from the Law and try to oppress us.
I was following them, But God was great enough not allowing me to suffer beyond my capacity. I will tell that story how He intervened in right time to help me out of this oppression in miraculous way.
So that Sunday morning we concentrated on our legalistic Sunday, and no talking of any worldly things. Even children were not supposed to play or talk anything else except Bible stories.
That Sunday was as usual run smoothly, without my annoyed face or words etc. In fact I was rejoicing in the Lord, which was not known to my dear husband or children.
On Monday morning , he left for the office at 6 am as usual and I prepared breakfast and lunch for him as usual, and sent him off. Later before departing to college and children to school we used to have 15 minutes prayer together every day.
The minute we gathered together to pray, on the mat, my daughter asked me,'mom what happened about the Fridge? Dad is going to buy ?"
Sweet faces and I looked at my son's face also, both are looking into my eyes anxiously, I smiled and said,' My dear ones, God told me to pray much, so we have to pray for the fridge and He will give it."
When I looked at those sweet faces, I do not know why I said so, but I added , "But we have to pray secretly, your dad should not know that we are praying" I smiled. May be I wanted to teach them that our requests should not be known to man but to God alone. Especially this prayer for fridge should not be known to my husband, because I do not want to influence his sentiments 'that children also praying and he would need to buy it ' etc etc. -----
so immediately, my ever - questioning son, asked me, " Why mom? why we should pray secretly why dad should not know" ---
Great question, how to tell these little sweet fellows, about the secrecy of this prayer request, , any way I answered him without any other thought ,instantly like this," If you pray louder, two small little little devils will go and sit in the ears of your dad and tell him, 'don't buy the fridge, do not buy don't buy so we have to pray secretly.". I said.
Then this time my daughter asked me ," What happens if we pray secretly not loudly? ' - "If you pray secretly , two angels will go and sit in the ears of your dad and tell him 'Buy the fridge, buy it buy it"--My answers for my little children used to be slow steady and with fondling tone.
Now both of them are looking at me with wide eyes as if great revelation of God is known to them. Immediately they knelt down, putting their little heads right into the floor, all of it,if at all the floor was sandy their heads would dig a deep hole there, then started to pray very very slowly. Even I could not hear their prayer, such was the secrecy they maintained .
Oh, you do not know the joy in my heart to see my two little angels praying like that. Any way there was not much time to talk about this issue so I sent them to the school, and I rushed to college.
That day he came home by 9 pm earlier than usual time. His blue and white wired basket was with some papers and books along with the Lunch carrier, you know it was 4 boxessteel carrier, long one.
In those days he used to bring many story books, Bible pictorial books from the office. God provided all wonderful books for our children, as one man who used to come and sell those books in his office. Such books I never saw them again in any book store later. Those books are still with me, and my daughter often ask me , even now, 'mom that monkey story book is there or not? or some other story she was fond of , yes those books are still preserved in our little library even now.
When my daughter saw those papers, when her dad went to the washroom to have a bath, she pulled the papers and shouted loudly,
'o mom these are fridge papers!!'
'o mom these are fridge papers!!'
I was amazed and looked at her , and said,
'o you should not shout, and said" keep, keep those there only" hurriedly I signed to her with my both hands moving up and down.
'o you should not shout, and said" keep, keep those there only" hurriedly I signed to her with my both hands moving up and down.
She laughing kept those back. I told the children to go to beds, and that I would tell them bed time story later I serve dinner to their dad' So happily they obeyed me and went to bed.
At the dining table he said,
'Leela today I went to bsent road in vijaywada, ( I was telling myself, umm' common you have to tell me why you went there') but I did not exhibit any curiosity on my face and asked him as a matter of fact,
'why did you go?'
'Leela today I went to bsent road in vijaywada, ( I was telling myself, umm' common you have to tell me why you went there') but I did not exhibit any curiosity on my face and asked him as a matter of fact,
'why did you go?'
He answered me
I went to see Ratnakumari the wife of the slained politician Vangaveeti Ranga, she is on hunger strike. (suppressing the laughter in my heart I asked him,) '
Why, You don't have any other work, except to see such scenes?' I got up from the table on pretext of bringing some thing from the shelf. Now he had to blurt it out, the much awaited information; ,'
I went there to inquire about the Fridges, to know which one is the best. ' I told myself { yes dear sweetest husband, common, you have to come to the right point right way now} ... still suppressing my smiles of the heart, I said, as if nothing is there to be happy,
'Oh is that , which is the best?' He said, I came to know its Kelvinator" There ended the conversation, I did not prolong it. Knowing pretty well, that all glory and honor should go to His name. He said,
'tomorrow I applied leave, we have to attend the engagement function in Kathepiveedhi, and before going there we will withdraw the money from the bank and buy the fridge in 1 Town."
I went to see Ratnakumari the wife of the slained politician Vangaveeti Ranga, she is on hunger strike. (suppressing the laughter in my heart I asked him,) '
Why, You don't have any other work, except to see such scenes?' I got up from the table on pretext of bringing some thing from the shelf. Now he had to blurt it out, the much awaited information; ,'
I went there to inquire about the Fridges, to know which one is the best. ' I told myself { yes dear sweetest husband, common, you have to come to the right point right way now} ... still suppressing my smiles of the heart, I said, as if nothing is there to be happy,
'Oh is that , which is the best?' He said, I came to know its Kelvinator" There ended the conversation, I did not prolong it. Knowing pretty well, that all glory and honor should go to His name. He said,
'tomorrow I applied leave, we have to attend the engagement function in Kathepiveedhi, and before going there we will withdraw the money from the bank and buy the fridge in 1 Town."
What I said , I do not remember. But what I remember is while going to Andhra Bank the next day on scooter behind him, I pinched him on the shoulder and said,"
"Hey dear gold , you were asking me whether it is God's will or not to buy the fridge, now you must know God told me He would give the fridge, and it is His will. that is the reason you are buying it now" and he laughed along with me.
"Hey dear gold , you were asking me whether it is God's will or not to buy the fridge, now you must know God told me He would give the fridge, and it is His will. that is the reason you are buying it now" and he laughed along with me.
On the way to the 1 town we met Jeevarthanm Uncle, we stopped and wished him. When he asked us where we were going I told him about the fridge purchase. and requested him to come along . At the shop, we could not find the fridge in blue color, In those days we both used to buy every item in the house in blue color, blankets, buckets, anything. so on that pretext, my husband said
,' oh there is not a blue color fridge we will order for it"
,' oh there is not a blue color fridge we will order for it"
OOOOOOOo my, this is too much, I requested Jeevarathnam uncle to come aside and told him 'to tell my husband not to postpone the purchase but to buy it then and there'
He went inside the shop and told my husband' Ammai (my daughter that is me) likes even this light green color, so better take this Naina ( my son that is he) haha , so My great bossy husband cant but to buy the fridge, and yielded to the request.
That's the end of the great story of the Fridge in our home.
Soon after three days of the purchase, 5 members team came to our home to conduct Youth Retreat in our college. They were with us for three days, I too could go along with them because I used to prepare nice chicken curry and other curries and keep them in the fridge the night before and attend the Retreat along with them and participated in soul winning processes. I still remember we had a harvest of souls in that Retreat.
No one can have such joy and happiness as I had with my fridge purchase. I do not think any one with lots of money could have such joy in their heart as I did have in my heart. God's gifts are different, and they bring joy and blessing to us. Yes The Help in the form of Fridge made my life blessed in that Retreat and after.
God gifts are immense and variety, they fill us with joy and awesome silence, getting a gift from a friend gives a, great joy, and how about getting a gift from God? try and get one from Him
Joanna wrote:
Oh my!!! Aunty!!! That was indeed a blessing. Our God answers prayers, sees the desires and oh! What a joy to receive from Him. We had a similar story. We were not allowed to buy a fridge for a long time because it was vanity. But with the ministry growing, mon working, we going to schools with so many other mouths to feed in the church other than our immediate family, a fridge was becoming more and more a necessity. We kids did not know that our parents were not allowed to buy. They were praying and praying for many months. It's so weird how God answers prayers, when we went to Madurai to my grandmothers house one May after the May retreat, June 1 was my birthday so she asked me what I want, immediately without thinking or knowing what I was asking I said a fridge!!!! Can you imagine what my parents reaction?? They said NO!! But my grandma put a bundle of money in my moms hand and said its for my granddaughter. Not for you. .
God works in amazing ways!! Yes you're right about sabbaths Aunty .....it says in Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
I wish we don't judge others religion by what we do on the lords days.
I'm so glad to be a part of the one to enjoy the fridge as soon as it came in!!!
Oh I wish we still had those meetings in st. Theresa's. It built my faith, it taught me to witness.
Praise be to God
,Therefore we too tried not to cook but it was not possible so we did not cook the non veg.. hahah well, Life would be very complicated when you to take the law by letter, because the letter kill us, that's what Paul said once, take the essence of the commandments, God blessed a day in his creation, It should be a blessing to us, He took rest in it, it does not mean He wants us to sit in a corner and sleep, Because He finished His work he took rest. I wonder we human beings ever could finish our work in this life and could say I finshed everything and no work for me even on monday? Its just postponing our work for the next day. God blessed the 7thday because there is no more work to do. and its long long day See the scriputres, I wrote a blog on it too, God willing I will post it one of these days, or u can go to my blogspot and find it there. Any way in brief i can say Gen 2:2 says, He finished ALL HIS WORK BEFORE THE 7TH DAY See after the sixthday there should be sunrise to start 7th day and sun set to close the 7th day, nooo there is not any sunrise or sun set to say its 7th day... Moses gave us law, and commandements for the sake of Israelites, it is good to keep in certain ways, but It should not be imposed on christians, Even Israelites they themselves are not following it. God tore off the temple they were proud of once, by giving the sacrifices of the cattle, Jesus thrashed them not to do so. Our Lord in his short period of time on this earth, talked about everything we need to know.
Well coming to teaching of the children, do not hide any truth from them, tell them we need to love God every day, in fact Sun day is a day to worship the Sun by Romans in the time of Constantinople, //whatever, because we got one day holiday, we need to concentrate more on worshiping and serving God, coming to the exams, and tests, .. Its sheer legalistic, you want to follow the law and tell the world that you are self righteous or love God and tell the world how merciful He is... Your conscience will tell you.Teach them how to take care of the sick, take them to the hospital or orphanage, and make them to serve people, give them good books to read, spend time with them, and pray with them, cook good food for them to enjoy in the presence of God, There are many many things to do, on Sunday, in stead of not doing many things and being oppressed worrying about what is right what is wrong, and so is your children. I will write a blog on sunday in our home.. we followed it meticulously, to the core of the letter, but its not the truth, God blessed us in spite of it, but only because He was merciful, not because of our works... ,
God gifts are immense and variety, they fill us with joy and awesome silence, getting a gift from a friend gives a, great joy, and how about getting a gift from God? try and get one from Him
Joanna wrote:
Oh my!!! Aunty!!! That was indeed a blessing. Our God answers prayers, sees the desires and oh! What a joy to receive from Him. We had a similar story. We were not allowed to buy a fridge for a long time because it was vanity. But with the ministry growing, mon working, we going to schools with so many other mouths to feed in the church other than our immediate family, a fridge was becoming more and more a necessity. We kids did not know that our parents were not allowed to buy. They were praying and praying for many months. It's so weird how God answers prayers, when we went to Madurai to my grandmothers house one May after the May retreat, June 1 was my birthday so she asked me what I want, immediately without thinking or knowing what I was asking I said a fridge!!!! Can you imagine what my parents reaction?? They said NO!! But my grandma put a bundle of money in my moms hand and said its for my granddaughter. Not for you. .
God works in amazing ways!! Yes you're right about sabbaths Aunty .....it says in Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
I wish we don't judge others religion by what we do on the lords days.
I'm so glad to be a part of the one to enjoy the fridge as soon as it came in!!!
Oh I wish we still had those meetings in st. Theresa's. It built my faith, it taught me to witness.
Praise be to God
I firmly believe the Holy Spirit in you will lead you in all truth. By telling people do this and don't do this, we are building walls around us and encouraging everyone to becoming judgemental. Then it leads to carrying tales to the leaders and so on and so forth. Coming from that background, I still catch myself judging people. I am absolutely thankful for the light we've received in the fellowship but see, it maybe the same thing as we were taught. After much prayer on this topic, This is what we taught our kids. ..On the Lords day, we do things that honor the Lord specifically. We try to do things that make God happy. We Do our best not to do the regular things we do on weekdays rather ask ourselves are we honoring God? My kids love Eric Liddels testimony. The kids know what we do and what we don't. But the problem I'm addressing here is naming things and saying don't do this, don't do that, do this, my parents were blamed for not preaching against the sabbath. But what do students who need to honor God in their studies do? Not write exams????? In America its easy to live by those rules because it's the weekend but in India, what do kids do? I know a lot of them who have never written entrance exams to med school (me included) because it was the Lords Day. How far can we go to judge others? Let's judge ourselves.
We keep sabbath by continually putting our Rest in Jesus. Sabbath is given for two distinct purposes and sabbath on Saturday is eternal and Sunday has not replaced Saturday. It doesn't matter when we choose to worship , Sunday, Monday .?As long as we recognise our rest in Jesus we fulfill sabbath. And yes we are not to judge anyone on how people observe sabbath, feasts.Worshipping God on Sunday is different from recognising our rest in Jesus. People Could still observe Lords day of resurrection but fail to abide in the rest of Jesus.
SABBATH is not about Gathering to worship. on Sunday sabbath is not even on Sunday.Technically Sabbath is on Saturday.Sunday is the first day of week and the early believers assembled to worship on sunday commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus christ(Acts20:7) , which was on first day of week.
The Ekklesia hasn't replaced sabbath by gathering on Sunday. Its about recognizing the Eternal Sabbath that we have in Jesus our Savior.Saturday has been set apart by the Creator for Israel's rest and to remember two events: the Creation Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11)and the Redemption from Slavery Sabbath (Deut 5: 12-15).
Many people don't realize that the 10 Commandments were given twice in the Torah. All 10 are the same of course in both chapters of the Torah. But the Sabbath Commandment was given for two distinct purposes. Read them both in Ex 20:8-11 and Deut 5:12-15.
Calvary did not do away with the need for our bodies and our minds and our spirits to recognise rest to commemorate and memorialize our Mighty God. Calvary brought it all into fulfillment in our Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
HE IS OUR SABBATH REST SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, AND FOR ETERNITY (Heb 4:9)
The church is now under the New Covenant in which Jesus is our rest. We are not to judge one another on what day we worship or the food we eat or how we choose to pray. Christians aren't replacing the Sabbath by worshiping on Sunday. The Sabbath on the 7th day is eternal. Yet there is not one verse in the New Testament that commands believers to rest only on the Sabbath. Why ?
We find our rest in Jesus Christ.
SABBATH is not about Gathering to worship. on Sunday sabbath is not even on Sunday.Technically Sabbath is on Saturday.Sunday is the first day of week and the early believers assembled to worship on sunday commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus christ(Acts20:7) , which was on first day of week.
The Ekklesia hasn't replaced sabbath by gathering on Sunday. Its about recognizing the Eternal Sabbath that we have in Jesus our Savior.Saturday has been set apart by the Creator for Israel's rest and to remember two events: the Creation Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11)and the Redemption from Slavery Sabbath (Deut 5: 12-15).
Many people don't realize that the 10 Commandments were given twice in the Torah. All 10 are the same of course in both chapters of the Torah. But the Sabbath Commandment was given for two distinct purposes. Read them both in Ex 20:8-11 and Deut 5:12-15.
Calvary did not do away with the need for our bodies and our minds and our spirits to recognise rest to commemorate and memorialize our Mighty God. Calvary brought it all into fulfillment in our Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
HE IS OUR SABBATH REST SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, AND FOR ETERNITY (Heb 4:9)
The church is now under the New Covenant in which Jesus is our rest. We are not to judge one another on what day we worship or the food we eat or how we choose to pray. Christians aren't replacing the Sabbath by worshiping on Sunday. The Sabbath on the 7th day is eternal. Yet there is not one verse in the New Testament that commands believers to rest only on the Sabbath. Why ?
We find our rest in Jesus Christ.
