Heralds Digest

  “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭43‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ ‘Let there be light’ remains the most powerful declaration that ushers in the beginning of God’s creation. And just as without light is darkness, the activities of darkness, gloom, and lukewarmness are devastating in human lives until the light appears. Unfortunately, the help of man and promises of artificial light have always produced false hope and disappointment in life. For example, the psalmist has suffered quite disquieting in his soul on the account of false hope in man, until the source of true light was approached for intervention. “ Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me“ remains a humble cry to the Lord, who is always waiting to declare ‘Let there be light’ . And as the righteous of the Lord remember the finished declaration of light over the darkness of sin through the resurrection power, the victory is...

  “As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭42‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Whenever the coming of the King of kings becomes the delight of the righteous, nothing will be able to keep them down in the valley of despondency and discouragement. Unfortunately, a distraction into the pursuit of self-glory, self-honour, and self-recognition always find reason in all who delight in them to fall into a state of despair. And as long as it is difficult and almost impossible for anyone to compete dominantly with the ever-changing standards of performance in our world, no one can find a self-made solution for the breaking of his bones. Inspired by the call to focus on the praise of the Lord alone, the righteous souls can praise God permanently. As soon as all rooms for th...

  “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭42‬:‭1‬, ‭4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Just as everyone knows that the panting for the water brooks represents the desire for life, man in search for life’s entertainment instead of the entertaining life is distracted from the source of true refreshments. Even before these realities came to the psalmist’s remembrance, he did confess that he used to go the way of the multitude in search of entertainment without life. Whereas, the essence of the resurrection power is the provision of life, and the freedom from path pants instead of pure pants. Life happens to everyone as we pant in the paths for the source of livelihood, relevance in the community, and productivity in workplaces. But do we really have to b...

  “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ If the children of the preacher in the days of king Solomon can struggle with their father’s instructions, it is not far fetched why the distraction from the divine guidance through Christian parents in our days of social media is alarming. These days, children listen more to secular social influencers online more than spiritual influencers at homes and in the churches, even if they can be forced to attend. Notwithstanding, the scriptural path to divine blessings remains the same: “ Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors ”. The digest of the word of God during believers’ daily devotion is the daily dairy; and it is the only path to fruitfulness, fullness, and favour in life. While other gates play games with the hearts of m...

  “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me. But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up, That I may repay them.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭41‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ When William L. Clay says “ This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests ”, he sounded like the psalmist inspiration: No permanent familiar friends, and no permanent envious enemies, only permanent marvellous mercy of God. While David had the experience in Ahitophel, and Jesus Christ had the same experience in Judas Iscariot, frequency of believers’ experiences on the subject-matter is not news. What will always be news for different individuals is how the marvellous mercy of God is being treated, as life happens. Unlike the psalmist who focussed on repaying the mercy of God, many people often pick offense and are ignorant of the Sovereignty of God, through the interchanging activities of both enemies and...

  “Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.” Psalms‬ ‭41‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Everyone knows that problems are solved by contributions and not by criticism. That’s why constructive criticisms are contributions toward solutions to problems in life. And whenever poverty of the basic necessities of life is considered a problem, all resources are channeled towards solving the problem by holy hampers. When the scriptures say “ Blessed is he [holy hamper] who considers the poor ”, it implies that God recognizes the ministry of holy hampers as the extensions of His mighty hands of provisions for the needs of the poor. Unfortunately, it is self-centeredness that turns holy hampers to hurtful hackers in our world. Therefore, instead of priding themselves in the skills to hack into the joy of people with negative criti...

  “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!”” Psalms‬ ‭40‬:‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ When the Lord says ‘Seek and you shall find ’, the promise embraces the distinction between the quality and the quantity of the seek. While sound seek produces sound find, sick seek equally gets sick find. Naturally, the world is wired by the desire for everything that seems to appeal to the flesh, including right pleasure, right wealth, right standard of living, right position, etc. While there is nothing wrong with this right stuff, the polluted world does not offer any of this right stuff with absolute respect for righteousness. That’s why the scriptures admonished believers to ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness ’; then the right stuff will follow naturally. Likewise, the psalmist declares ‘Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You ’. Only the seeking of God and His revealed righteousness on a...