Dear prayer partners,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
New York Tamil Church
Pastor Suresh Ebenezer invited me to speak in the New York Tamil Church on 1 May. Brother Jayant introduced me to this congregation.
Corner Stone Fellowship, Philadelphia
God enabled me to once again this fellowship as invited by Pastor Visuwasam Dhanaraj on 2 May. I shared from Acts chapter eighteen.
GLOMOS teaching
God enabled me to teach in Kolkata GLOMOS (13-15 May). It was a great joy to meet several old students who have done GLOMOS I earlier. It was also connecting with friends like Arun Sarkar and have meaningful time of discussion and fellowship. It was good to meet Sis Sheela who was healed miraculously by our Lord and used wonderfully as His instrument. Gautam Ghosh the co-ordinator made my stay comfortable and translated for three day. It was a joy to meet a young emerging leader, Samuel Masih, his wife Sangeeta and and son Jirah. They have wonderful ministry among the slum dwellers.
Teaching in Kalimpong for Nepali students (17-19 May) was a great joy. Kiran Sharma is the co-ordinator and his daughter Sneha were of great help. Students got better perception, new ideas for effective ministry and strategic vision of evangelism.
Siliguri Writers’ Vision Workshop
Joshua Pradhan and Jinoy Jacob organized the Writers’ Vision Wokshop on 20 May. There was an enthusiastic participation of leaders from various organizations.
George Pega, who says, I am one of his mentors came to meet me from Gangtok, Sikkim and had some time of fellowship.
Centre For Contemporary Christianity
God gave me an opportunity to teach through Dr. Siga Arles to students in CFCC pursing their M.A. and M.Th. in Holistic Child Development from 27-29 May. I taught them for three days on “Understanding Children in India”. It was a fruitful and purposeful time with the students.
Ceragem acupressure thermal therapy
Rosy was introduced to this alternative therapy by a Christian neighbour. It is a Korean (Chinese) native treatment (with jade stone that produces far infra red ray when heated)that helps restore nerves and facilitate good blood circulation. Two weeks treatment has helped her to improve in her health. The frequent headaches, sleeplessness, asthma, ulcer and thigh pain has subsided. This treatment does not require any oral medicine or injection.
Hosanna exams
Hosanna is writing her fifth year final semester exams. She has written that the fees for her final year has been increased. Please pray for the needs.
Camps
Summer was camps and guitar classes for Thambos. He attended New Life Assembly of God Youth Camp and Navodaya camp conducted by Friends Missionary Prayer Band and was able to take some of his classmates along with him. He has scored 79 percent marks and would be joining four years Bachelor degree (Under Graduate) programme in Information Technology in Easwari Engineering College affiliated to Anna University. Please pray for his needs also.
New Book Writing
The next book I am writing is: Christ & Families. Since, I have local programmes only in the month of June; I will spend considerable time for writing the book.
Vision: 1000 Quality leaders and 1000 strategic churches
Partners
We need committed leaders to be our partners in the ministry. We need volunteers to help us in our research, managing website and helping in preparation of study materials. Volunteers need not be located in Chennai, they could be from any part of the world. We also need donors and supporters for sustain our family and ministry.
You can send your contribution to any one of the accounts: J.N. Manokaran, HDFC Bank, Madipakkam Branch, Chennai: Account No: 011110000 30570 Or Rosia Selvi, ICICI Bank, Kilpauk, Chennai: Account Number: 027801 500223 Or mail cheque in the name of one of the names to: J.N. Manokaran, 6B1 Doshi Flats, 59 Chetty street, Ayanavaram, Chennai 600023, India
Please visit the website: http://glocalleadersnetwork.com/main/
Yours in His Vineyard,
J.N. Manokaran
Upcoming schedule
2010
12 June Bethel Endtime Church, Leadership training
16 June kirubai.org
Port Blair, Andaman
29 June Chennai Transformation Network
5-10 July School of Leadership, Oddanchatram
9-11 July Cochin – Immanuel Highland Fellowship
9-11 Aug Bengaluru, 4/14 Window South India Conference
16-22 Aug Chandrapur
20 Aug India Missions Association, National Conference, Nagpur
27-29`Aug Madurai – Pastors’ Seminar and Writers’ Vision Workshop
September Word of Christ Church, Germany
September Word of Christ Church, Italy
27 Sept – 1 Oct Power2Change, Leadership course, Vancouver
3 October Indian Hill Bible Church, Chicago
14-16 October IBL, 60th anniversary, National Conference
13-16 October Global Network of Christian Indian Leaders International Conference, Christian Centre in Valley Stream, New York
25-28 October Centre For Contemporary Christianity, Bangalore
29-30 October Chennai Insights, Institute of Journalism
4-8 November National – City leaders training, Chennai/Hyderabad
12 Nov Mission India Board meeting, Nagpur
19-21 Nov MUT Book consultation, Oddanchatram
29 Nov-
5 December Centre For Contemporary Christianity, M.Th. Classes
2011
12-15 January CMS, UBS, Pune
1-3 February TOPIC, National Conference, Dimapur
15 March Piperia, Madhya Pradesh
30 March South Holland, US
March Costa Rica & other South American countries
September Impact of Globalization Conference, Puerto Rica
Looking for Elijah they missed the Messiah
J.N. ManokaranEvery generation had a group of people who were sure that the Second Coming of our Lord would happen during their lifetime. May be, when they observed the world around them; they saw sins, immorality, injustice, oppression…etc abound, certainly more than their previous generation. This accelerated their aspiration and desire to see Lord Jesus coming back to reduce and stop the injustice and immoral excesses of humanity. So, they tried to read the Scripture and interpret prophecies concerning the Second Coming in their own context. It is no wonder the ‘honour’ of being the anti-Christ has been accorded to hundreds of personalities around the world. And many fixed the exact date for His Coming and failed miserably. Some were so sure that they sold their property and gave it away for good causes as they did not want anti- Christ to use their money. Many preachers declared that the Coming would happen in their own generation.
In this generation could not be an exception to the trend. Today also there are numerous ‘end time’ preachers around the world. They are specializing in interpreting the Prophetic bible texts to the context of this century. And many are popular and declare certain things with certainty. Earlier, it was said we are in the last days; then the last day; the last hour; and now the last second…may be the last nanosecond. Unfortunately, some are so obsessed in this task that they make wild interpretations of the scriptural texts.
Pharisees, Saducees and Scribes failed
The last book of the Old Testament, prophet Malachi declared that Elijah would come before the Messiah comes (Malachi 4:5). Malachi was the last prophet and there was no Word from the Lord for nearly 400 years. So, this prophecy was very significant. These great scholars were looking for the Messiah, but struck with Elijah. They were sure that Messiah will never come before Elijah appears in the scene.
Interpretation of Prophecies
Prophecies are indicators; and like puzzles. Interpretation is not easy and is not for private interpretation or innovative imagination. And the details are in several bits and pieces. To put them in right order is a real challenge. Finite human beings do not have the depth of knowledge to interpret prophecies accurately. But some preachers think they are competent enough to interpret and do damage to their own credibility and to the Global Church.
Fulfillment can vary
In the history, we have seen people described many persons as anti-Christ, and all of them were pretty sure. The candidates were politicians, dictators, business leaders…etc. But, it was not so. We can easily recognize ‘spirit of anti-Christ’ but unable to pinpoint any one as the anti-Christ.
The religious leaders of Israel were looking for Elijah and thought he would come back literally as he was caught up to heaven in a chariot of fire (II Kings 2:11). But God fulfilled this prophecy in a different manner. Lord Jesus Christ said that the John the Baptist has fulfilled the role of Elijah. (Matthew 11: 13-14) But, John the Baptist is not the reincarnation of Elijah as some Eastern religious prophecies teach, for he himself denied that he was Elijah (John 1:19-21). The prophecy meant that a prophet (John the Baptist) would come before Messiah with similar ministry type.
The fulfillments of prophecies are not according to our expectations, but according His will. Our expectations and imaginations may not match His will or plan. So interpreting the End Time prophecies is risky and could be misleading.
What should we do?
Always be alert: As Christians, we should be ready for His Coming always. If we are obsessed with End Time prophecies and their fulfillment, we will miss the mark. The Pharisees were hanging on to one prophecy of Elijah and missed the Messiah.
Praise God for the prophecies fulfilled. That would certainly increase our faith. It will also help us to understand that God fulfills his prophecies in his own way and not according to our expectation or anticipation.
Be focused: We ought to be focused on the ministry God has given each one of us. Our primary ministry is to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Lord Jesus Christ as John the Baptist did for His First Coming.
