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Messages of Jose Anathanam and
the Covenant Ministries from |
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Messages of Jose Anathanam and
the Covenant Ministries from |
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In
Christ Jesus
Part IX
| WHO HAS TAKEN AWAY MY LORD? “They have taken away my Lord and, I do not know where they have laid Him” (John~20/13) This is the honest, sincere CRY of a person looking for her beloved, Lord Jesus Christ. In the days of His flesh on this earth, many sincerely followed Jesus Christ; to listen to His teachings, to receive healings and deliverance from Him and to receive all kinds of favours from Him. But; when His teachings became hard to listen to, many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. “Many of His disciples, when they heard it said, “this is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” After this, many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him” (John~6/60,66). These people thought; that they were true disciples; but they proved themselves wrong! Then there were the twelve disciples, to whom Jesus asked; “Do you also wish to go away?” (John~6/67). Representing the twelve; Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John~6/68-69). “And Peter also said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to Prison and to death” (Luke~22/33). But; when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus; all these disciples ran away; and Peter, who made all these wonderful proclamation had no difficulty in denying his master three times saying “I DO NOT KNOW HIM!” (Luke~22/57) And now, when these disciples came to the tomb, looking for Jesus, and not finding Him there; they went back to their homes (John~20/10). But this one person stood outside the tomb weeping and saying – “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him” (John~20/13). Because, she loved her Lord so much, she waited, and waited; until the Lord came to her and called out to her with all His love and affection “MARY” (John~20/16). But the others; not finding Jesus there, went back to their old life saying – “I am going fishing. They went out and got into the boat; but, they caught NOTHING” (John~21/3). Since they did not know the scriptures (John~20/9), they could not believe, nor experience that their Lord and Master had risen from the dead and was living among them; because, they did not, yet, HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. And so, the only thing they could do, was to look for His dead body in the tomb! Hence, the Lord’s messengers had to ask them, “Why do you seek the LIVING among the DEAD?” (Luke~24/5) And so, they had nothing to rejoice about. Some of them were sad discussing together about the things that happened to Jesus; how they have hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel etc (Luke~24/13-24). The only option left to them was to go back to their old work! FISHING; FISHING, and catching NOTHING!! It is very heart breaking for us; who honestly, sincerely and faithfully looking for Jesus among the Christian churches today and not finding HIM there; have to ask the same question – “Where have you taken my Lord? “If you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him?” (John~20/15) And the answer comes back to us from the Lord “WHY DO YOU SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?” (Luke~24/5) Although, many do not like to listen to, and accept this truth; It is a fact that, sincere seekers and lovers of Jesus Christ, cannot find Him in many many so called churches who call themselves the church and yet do not show forth anything of Christ! They do not speak about Jesus; they do not lift up the name of Jesus; they do not proclaim Jesus Christ of Nazareth in their so called gospel preaching; they do not have the power of the risen Lord; they do not exercise the authority of Jesus Christ and they do not have the Love and unity that Jesus Christ prayed for! On the contrary; what we see, is disunity, disharmony, fighting for leadership, looking for the respect of men; going to any extent to hold on to their worldly authority (which is not from Christ), putting burdens after burdens on people (when Jesus came to take away the burdens), putting fear into people, taking advantage of their ignorance, denying and speaking against the work of the Holy Spirit among sincere believers; criticising, joking and making fun of healings and miracles that the Lord is doing through HIS PEOPLE, presenting Jesus Christ in horrible and frightening looking creatures which they acknowledge as another way to God!! Oh! Where have you taken away my Lord? If Jesus Christ is alive; His mystical body (THE CHURCH) is alive and will be alive. When the first disciples; who had not yet received the Holy Spirit, began to look for Jesus, they could not find Him; because they looked for Him in the dead place. If you, then, look for this same Jesus in the dead places, you will not find Him there; FOR HE IS RISEN, HE IS ALIVE And HE LIVES among HIS PEOPLE, who have risen and is alive in Christ Jesus; who alone belong to the mystical body – THE CHURCH – who go about in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ; speaking the name of Jesus, lifting up the name of Jesus, proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ, unashamedly and without fear and the Lord Jesus Christ moves along with them confirming their - messages with signs and wonders, miracles and healings and showing forth the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mark~16/16-20, John~14/12). Look for, this Jesus Christ, among such people. You will find Him there. You will find His love, His joy, His peace and His power there, and there alone. Other wise; if you look for him among the dead who have no such power, no such love, joy and peace; you will go back sad, miserable, sick and unwanted and finally, you will go fishing and GET NOTHING!! Before Jesus came to this earth; there was a system; which held on to the commandments of Moses. They had their traditions, philosophies, theologies and ideologies. The people who belong to this SYSTEM, held on to their rituals, festivals, sacrifices, fasting and prayer methods. They claimed to be the descendants of Abraham and yet they tried to kill Jesus!! And Jesus said to them – “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did. You do what your father did. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because, you cannot BEAR to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (John~8/39-41,44,47) “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory” (1Corinthians~2/8) This Anti – Christ system, continued to exist, even after the crucifixion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. On Pentecost day, when the Holy Spirit came upon the hundred and twenty, gathered in the Upper Room, Jesus began to manifest Himself through this mystical body – THE CHURCH. And the same Anti Christ system began to persecute Him by persecuting His mystical body. And the leader was none other than the great religious man – Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul) – who, with all his religious piety, holiness, sincerity and faithfulness to the commandments of Moses, ended up persecuting Jesus Christ of Nazareth; so much so, that Jesus Christ had to ask him – “Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.” (Acts~26/14) This Anti – Christ system exists even today!! In a very DECEPTIVE way, this system exists among the so called Christian Churches; who give more importance to their traditions, festivals, rituals, ceremonies, theologies, philosophies, doctrines, rules and regulations, liturgies and prayers – OTHER THAN JESUS! These speak of the Church; but they never speak of Jesus!! They don’t seem to have known the Risen Lord personally! They seem to have gone looking for Him among the dead, and now go about fishing WITHOUT JESUS, and so get NOTHING. Unfortunately, they do not even know the basics of Christianity in an experiential way. They have nothing to proclaim to the people about Jesus, they have nothing to show the people concerning Jesus; and they do not lag behind in condemning, criticising, accusing and persecuting the real followers of Jesus Christ who belong to the mystical body – THE CHURCH. And so the people are forced to ask them this question, “Where have you taken my Lord?” And Jesus, who condemns such churches as DEAD CHURCHES (Rev~3/2), even goes as far as to call them “SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN.” (Rev~3/9) He asks the honest seekers – “Why do you seek the LIVING among the DEAD?” (Luke~24/5) “He has risen from the Dead, He is not here” (Mark~16/6). Flee from the tomb as they did (Mark~16/8) and meet Jesus with His disciples who are in perfect fellowship (Mark~16/14) IN CHRIST JESUS. |
The Covenant
People
P.O. Box: 20, Kanjirapally
Kottayam District, Kerala - India
