Greetings to you in the most precious and wonderful name of our loving Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I trust that the year has started well for you and your loved ones and you have much to praise and thank the Lord for.
This is the thirteenth year since I have been working on and sending out �The Fragrance.� There are some readers who I want to thank, who are most appreciative and encouraging and it really boosts my morale, whereas there are some, who I don�t hear from at all. In fact, many have even shifted house and they haven�t informed me.With the result their copies of The Fragrance have come back to me. Sad but true!
Now I am requesting you to do something for me this year. I would like each reader to get 5 people at least, to buy my book �Crushed for Fragrance.� If they have read it already, then perhaps they can gift it to someone. For those abroad they can visit my web page and buy it online. For those in India, there is a new print being done right now. They can contact me through my web page and find out where it is available.This will not only help me to cover costs, but will spread the fragrance of Jesus far and wide. Thanks so much.
Love and God bless,
Margaret Newnes
www.geocities.com/margaretnewnes
My sister was admitted in Cama Hospital just adjacent to Victoria Terminus in Mumbai. She delivered a baby girl on 25th November 2008, but since her baby had slight complications, was kept in an Incubator. On the 26th November, my Mom and brother, along with 7 other relatives and I (totaling 10) went to visit her. About 9.30 pm, we decided to go home. We wanted to leave in two groups. Five left earlier and the rest of us were also leaving the Hospital. Suddenly after 15 minutes, the five who left earlier came running into the Hospital, shouting that Terrorists are firing bullets at the V.T. station.
�We all started running back into the Hospital as we saw two Terrorists entering into the building premises. They shot two security guards dead at the entrance. The 10 of us who are all believers in Jesus were cautioning people to hide in the hospital rooms and wherever they could. They all responded and went into hiding.
My mother and Aunty went to the 2nd floor where my newborn niece was, in the ICU. The rest of us ran to the 5th floor to be with my sister. There were many other ladies in the Ward. We tried to secure the doors but could not. We tied the gate with a piece of cloth and switched off all the lights in the Ward.
After a few minutes I noticed that a tube light in the corridor was on and so I went out of the room to switch it off. I could not locate the switch. When I turned back to head for the ward, I saw the 2 terrorists coming up the stairway and they were armed with AK 47 Assault Rifles & Guns. I could not run; one of them came directly towards me and pointed the Rifle at my chest and asked, �Where are the other people?� I replied, �I came running up the stairs.� At this time, my brother-in-law came out and they caught him too. They took us to the Ward and started looking around. They found another of my relatives who was hiding under the Nurse�s desk. They made the three of us stand with our backs to the wall, and they snatched our cell phones. They then told us to lie down on our stomachs and started loading their rifles.
They told us to stand up and asked us, �Who are you?� I didn�t reply. They then turned and asked my brother-in-law, �Are you Hindu?� To this he replied, �I am a Christian.� They asked the two of us and we too said, �We are Christians.� I saw my brother lying down, he pretended to be dead. They did not notice him I think, for they did not do anything to him.
�They took us into the Rest rooms and told us to call those who were hiding there to come out. My brother-in-law said to those locked in the Restrooms in Hindi,�Come out� but then in Telugu (language spoken in Andhra Pradesh)�Don�t come out.� (The terrorists could not understand this language). While one of the Terrorists was holding his Rifle towards us, the other went searching for people hiding in the Ward. He saw my brother lying on the floor pretending to be dead, but did not do anything to him.
He found an elderly man, and brought him out to make him stand with us. The old man kept pleading with him, � Don�t kill me in the Restroom, kill me here�. They caught him by his hair and pinned him on the ground. They told him to say �Allah� and shot him on the shoulder. We later found that the bullet went through his body and had hit the floor and they stabbed him on his back.. They again came to us and ordered us to stand with our faces to the wall. At this time I prayed, �Father I am coming Home, receive me;� because I felt there was no way of escape. To our amazement we found that the terrorist�s hands were not moving to shoot.
All the ladies who had delivered babies were hiding in the Consulting rooms on the same floor. They could not find them. They then decided to lock the Restrooms from the outside and proceeded to the 6th floor. They first killed two policemen on the 6th floor, then exploded four hand grenades. They were firing hundreds of bullets, spraying them on the walls, ceilings and empty elevators (we could hear the gunshots). I visited this floor a week after and photographed the walls. It seems that the Lord God confused them into wasting their bullets and ammunition.
In the meanwhile we were locked in the Restroom .... praying, interceding and binding the spirit of terrorism & death and were speaking life. No one came till two hours, and then ten policemen came and opened the doors. When the doors were opened, we saw the old man who was shot, lying on the ground, my brother who was unharmed and other people injured on the floor. We helped to take the injured to another Hospital. We came back to Cama Hospital and we opened the doors of the Consulting rooms and other rooms where the people were hiding to tell them that they are now safe. Although there were new born babies, they were all sleeping and none made any noise. I believe the Holy Spirit took control over the little babies and all were protected. There were also many ladies in the hospital whom God protected and kept them unharmed.
I had asked the Lord, �Why did you allow 10 of us believers to be trapped by terrorists in the Hospital?� The Lord God answered me, �Because of your presence other people were saved.� My mind went to the book of Genesis, where Abraham pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah & God promised him, �If I find 10 righteous people I will save the city.�
Many thoughts came to my mind � It�s less than a month since I am married, will I die now? I thought about my wife and was interceding very powerfully during those hours. I had prayed, �LORD I don�t want to die now, I want to serve you. Nevertheless, I leave it into Your Hands, if I die so be it.�
Now I really want to use this New Life of mine for Jesus.
sent by
Aprile Remali Australia
This is one of her experiences:- On April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville, waiting to board the plane..� I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you. You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego.
�I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones. The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man.
I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I�d just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport�. An impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat; trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served up on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him. Let�s admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man. I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I�ve learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And maybe embarrassing. I immediately began to resist it because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. �Oh, no God, please, no.� I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into heaven, and said, �Don�t make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please I�ll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don�t make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please Lord!�
There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness. �Please don�t make me witness to this man. Not now. I�ll do it on the plane.� Then I heard it�. �I don�t want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.� The words were so clear, my heart leapt into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No brainier. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, �God, as I live and breathe, I want You to know I am ready to witness to this man. I�m on this Lord. I�m Your girl! You�ve never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am going to witness to this man.� Again as clearly as I�ve heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. �That is not what I said Beth. I don�t want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.�
I looked up at God and quipped, � I don�t have a hairbrush. It�s in my suitcase on the plane. How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hairbrush?� God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God�s Word: �I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.� (2 Timothy 3:17) I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story, my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterlies. I knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible,�Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?� He looked at me and said, �What did you say?�
�May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?� To which he responded in volume ten. �Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you�re going to have to talk louder than that.� At this point I took a deep breath and blurted out, �SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?� At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Long Locks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, �If you really want to.� Are you kidding? Of course I didn�t want to!� But God didn�t seem interested in my personal preference right about then.� He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, �Yes, sir, I would be pleased.� But I have one little problem.� I don�t have a�hairbrush.�
�I have one in my bag,� he responded. I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger�s old carry-on, hardly believing what I was doing.� I stood up and started brushing the old man�s hair.� It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted.� I don�t do many things well, but must admit I�ve had notable experience untangling knotted hair, mothering two little girls.� Like�I�d done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull.�
A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man�s hair. Everybody else in the�room disappeared.� There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me.� I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair.� I know this sounds so strange, but I�ve never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life.� I believe with all my heart, for those few minutes I felt a�portion of the very love of God.� That He had�overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while. The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God�s.� His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant�s. I slipped the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him.� I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knee and said, �Sir, do you know my Jesus?� He said, �Yes, I do.� Well, that figures it, I thought.
�He explained, �I�ve known Him since I married my bride.� She wouldn�t marry me until I got to know the Savior.�� He said, �You see, the problem is, I haven�t seen my bride in months.� I�ve had�open-heart surgery, and she�s been too ill to come and see me.� I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.�
Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we�re completely unaware of the significance.� This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I�ll never forget it.
Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane.� I was deeply ashamed of how I�d acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft. I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks.� She said, �That old man�s sitting on the plane,�sobbing.� Why did you do that?� What made you do that?�
�I said, �Do you know Jesus?� He can be the bossiest thing!� And we got to share.
I learned something about God that day. He knows if you�re exhausted, you�re hungry, you�re serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge.� He knows if you�re hurting or feeling rejected.� He knows if you�re sick or drowning under a wave of temptation.� Or He knows if you just need your hair brushed.� He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need! I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way ... all because I didn�t want people to think I was strange.� God didn�t�send me to that old man.� He sent that old man to me.
�Sent by
Phoebe Samuel Bangalore
So when we moved to Chennai and began looking for a house, he knew the search was more or less over when we found a rare combination of a giant Banyan intertwined with a Peepul tree outside the bedroom windows at No 23 Landons Road. The children�s bedroom has a delightful Mango tree that sways enticingly close, so that one can actually reach out and pluck mangoes while within the house. What more could I ask for? Apparently I could.
This is our 10th house move in the last 19 years of marriage. I have taken all the other moves with a spirit of adventure and joie de vivre, but this time something snapped. For various reasons this move was difficult for me. I sat glumly at our dining table looking out of the one �treeless� window in the new house. The dining room has a fairly large French window that opened out to a dismal view, in my opinion. All I could see was a black dingy house that hadn�t been painted for decades with moss growing out of the walls, and a pathetic looking Coconut tree with just three fronds sticking out vertically from the top like an old worn out bottlebrush. �If only they would paint their house, and this Coconut tree would behave itself,� I grumbled to no one in particular.
The next morning I heard my son gasp when he drew back the Dining Room curtains, and I went over to inspect. I saw a crew of painters setting up their scaffolding and scrubbing down the black walls next door. I felt like a spoilt child demanding her own way, and now a bit embarrassed for having got it. �I�m sorry if I disturbed You Lord,� I offered as an apology. �I didn�t really mean it, not seriously anyway. I know that You are busy with so many other things, wars all over the world, and elections, and poverty and crime and, and�it wasn�t that important really, I was just expressing my opinion.� I finally stopped talking and heard Him say, �You didn�t disturb me. I am your Father and I delight to hear my children. I heard your opinion, and I also heard the cry behind it, and the unuttered prayers. Enjoy!�
The painters worked industriously for a whole month till the house next door was transformed into a sparkling white, which is a delight to the eye. The coconut tree also miraculously �behaved itself� and sprouted new palms in an aesthetic symmetry.
We even have bright green parrots visiting every now and then which just adds to the charming view. Every time I sit at my dining table now I think, �If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow, how much more, will He clothe you, O you of little faith.� (Matthew 6:30)
Patricia D�Souza Chennai
At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the son�s tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. �It�s a crow, a crow�. A little after, the Father again asked his son the 4th time, �What is this?�This time the son shouted at his Father, �Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times �IT IS A CROW�. Are you not able to understand this?� A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary :-�Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window.
My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child�.
While the little child asked him 23 times �What is this�, the Father had felt no irritation in replying to the same question all 23 times and when today the Father asked his son the same question just 4 times, the son felt irritated and annoyed.
So..If your parents attain old age, do not repulse them or look at them as a burden, but speak to them a gracious word, be cool, obedient, humble and kind to them. Be considerate to your parents. From today say this aloud, �I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child.
They have always showered their selfless love on me. They crossed all mountains and valleys without seeing the storm and heat to make me a person presentable in the society today�.
Say a prayer to God, �I will serve my old parents in the BEST way. I will say all good and kind words to my dear parents, no matter how they behave.��
Sent by
Linda Lou Pierce Kuwait
A girl went to her friend�s house and she ended up staying longer than planned and had to walk home alone. She wasn�t afraid because it was a small Community and she lived only a few blocks away. As she walked along under the bike trail Diane asked God to keep her safe from harm and danger.
When she reached the alley, which was a shortcut to her house, she noticed a man standing at the end as though he were waiting for her. She became uneasy and began to pray, asking for God�s protection. Instantly, a comforting feeling of quietness and security wrapped round her, she felt as though someone was walking with her. When she reached the end of the alley, she walked right past the man and arrived home safely.
The following day, she read in the newspaper that a young girl had been raped in the same alley just twenty minutes after she had been there. Feeling overwhelmed by this tragedy and the fact that it could have been her, she began to weep. Thanking the Lord for safety and to help this young woman, she decided to go to the police station. She felt she could recognize the man, so she told them her story.
The police asked her if she would be willing to look at a lineup to see if she could identify him. She agreed and immediately pointed out the man she had seen in the alley the night before. When the man was told he had been identified, he immediately broke down and confessed.
The officer thanked Diane for her bravery and asked if there was anything they could do for her. She asked if they would ask the man one question. Diane was curious as to why he had not attacked her. When the policeman asked him, he answered, �Because she wasn�t alone.. She had two tall men walking on either side of her.�
Amazingly, whether you believe it or not....
you are not alone !!!
Sent by
Ruel D�souza Chennai
A. Psalm 117.
Q. What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
A. Psalm 119.
Q. Which chapter is in the centre of the Bible?
A. Psalm 118.
FACTS:-- There are 594 chapters before Psalm 118.
There are 594 chapters after Psalm 118.
Add these numbers up and you get 1188.
Q. What is the centre verse in the Bible?
A.Psalm 118:8.
Does this verse say something significant about God�s perfect will for our lives?
The next time someone says they would like to find God�s perfect will for their lives and that they want to be in the centre of His will, just send them to the centre of His Word.
Psalm 118:8----- �It is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in man.�
Now isn�t that odd how this worked out....
or was it God in the centre of it?
sent by
Deborah Bhanojirow America
1. Your thumb is nearest you, so begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is as C.S.Lewis once said, � a sweet duty.�
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders Pray for the President, leaders in business, industry and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion.They need God�s guidance.
4. The fourth finger is the ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble, or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
5. And lastly comes our little finger, the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, �The least shall be the greatest among you.� Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.
Don�t tell God how big your storm is;
tell the storm how big your God is!!
sent by
Eslinda Louzado Bangalore