* STAY CONNECTED : 2 * PROMISE MESSAGE : 9 to 11 * PASTOR’S DESK : 3 * CFC & NFC : 12 & 13 * TEENS’ PAGE : 4 & 5 * EVENTS : 14 * WOMEN’S PAGE : 6 & 7 * LOCATIONS : 15 * CHILDREN’S PAGE : 8 * HOLY WEEK EVENTS : 16

• Through Online(By visiting our websitewww.throneofgrace.us or

our TOG App)

•Through Check(Payable to

““Throne of Grace Ministries” and mail to

122 Pendant, Irvine, CA 92620)

2

• Prayer Ministry• Worship Ministry• Children Ministry• Teens Ministry• Media Ministry• Outreach Ministry

• County Prayer• Fasting Prayer• Conference Prayer• 30 Minutes Prayer before the service

PRAYER

MINISTRY

GIVING

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are glad to reach you all through this newsletter and hope you all are being blessed reading this every month. By God’s grace He has helped us to complete 8 years of this Newsletter ministry. We thank Jesus for all His mercies and faithfulness all through these years; Let the Lord bless all those who worked for this Newsletter ministry. Please do continually pray for this ministry.

WWe pray for God’s presence to lead us as we enter into this new month of April. Every two months we have a fasting prayer at our church in Irvine. This month we have fasting prayer on the first Saturday, April 6th from 10am – 4:30pm, please join us as we pray for this nation, Israel and our needs. We also have few special services during this season of Resurrection Day, please see details below:

• Maundy Thursday Service - April 18th Thursday, 7:30pm - 9pm • Good Friday Service - April 19th Friday, 7pm - 9:30pm • Resurrection Day, Children & Teen’s Celebration - April 20th Saturday, 4:30pm - 6:30pm • Resurrection Day Service - April 21st Sunday, 9:30am - 11:30amPlease join these services and be blessed.

We are excited to announce Throne of Grace ministries’ first family camp that we are planning to have from August 1st to 3rd of this year at Alhatti Christian Center, Idyllwild, CA. If you would like to join us please contact us for more information.

TThere are many people in need of God’s deliverance and salvation in their lives and families; when we unite in prayer, God will bring a breakthrough in their lives and revival to this nation. In Throne of Grace Ministries, we have conference prayer during the week and monthly county prayers in all our locations. We encourage you to join in this prayer ministry.Let the Lord bless you all through this month according to His promise.

“...Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard...” - Luke 1:13

In His Service,PPastor Abraham K Rajan & Indira RajanThrone of Grace Ministries

3

APRIL 2019

Do you desire to be successful? You would say, Yes of course! I agree with you, I also want to be successful, and no one likes failures. The desire, thirst and longing to succeed in life is there deep inside of our heart and mind. Everyone aspires to be successful - in studies, in work, in life and everything we do. In Joshua 1:8, Lord Almighty gives the instructions to Joshua - This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. If you read carefully, Lord says that you will have good successsuccess – but what is good success? You may think a success is a success, what is a difference in good success, but there is a difference. Some of the definitions given for the word success in dictionary are - the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, the attainment of popularity or profit, a person that achieves desired ambitions/goals or attains prosperity etc. The world is teaching us to follow our passion, pursue the goals, our dreams, our visions etc. Here the focus is self-driven outcomes. However, Bible commands us to meditate on the Word of God, and obey, act and do according to the Word we meditate. Here the ffocus is obedience to God, and Good Success is God given outcomes in our life!

1. Good Success is reward for obedience to God: In Bible we have many people who are rewarded with good success by God for their obedience. However, in the eyes of this world and society, they did not appear as successful. Because in our society we are living in a comparison led lives – we compare ourselves to other believers, friends, prominent people in Media, Sports, and it drives us to toil and get frustrated. It seems success is a perception of our accumulation of wealth, power and influence.Look at the life of Noah, he obeyed God and started building an ark but the community mocked him, and thought he is crazy and lost his mind. When the flood came, Noah and his family were the only ones who had good success. You can see this pattern in the life of Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Abraham, Moses, David and so on. When we obey God, in the eyes of society, community and the world, it may look crazy, but in the eyes of God we are tremendously blessed to show His glory!

2. Good Success is God’s favor to us in our faithful effort and labor: Whenever we think about how to become successful - we connect this with our busy schedule, working 24/7 and multiple

4

YOU WILL HAVE GOOD

TEEN’S PAGE - Premkumar Thomas Augustine

jobs, read the books on how to become millionaires and mimic millionaires! We are willing to do whatever it takes to earn money, power, fame and influence, compare ourselves to others in our society, and want to be on top. However, the path to Good Success may seem weird because it goes against the fundamental world-view belief. The path to Good Success requires not just your effort and labor but also a lesson in faith – you need to believe that only God gives the success not my effort. However, you cannot be ignorant of your effort, Proverbs 21:31 states that, The horse is prepared for the day ofof battle, But deliverance is of the Lord. God’s favor is available to His children, those who believe in Him, trust in Him – one favor of God is worth 1000 plus hours of our effort and labor. As long as we believe and trust in Him, God will give us everything we need and want in His timing. If you search internet, you may find multiple secrets of success, but the Number one secret is Obedience and Faith in God and then you will always have an unfair advantage against others - that is heavenly, supernatural favor of God!

3. Good Success includes eternal, infinite blessings without any limits: The best thing about Good Success is that we have it now in earth and we will have it later in heaven for eternity. Success that everyone pursues, along with its material possessions and accolades are limited to this life only. Alexander the Great was a great Greek king. As a military commander, he was undefeated and the most successful throughout history. During his return from one of the battle, he fell very sick and knew his death is near. Therefore, he asked his Army Generals that his final wish is it to put his hands outside thethe coffin. People surrounding him all were very curious, but no one dare to ask the reason. Alexander’s most favored general kissed his hand and asked: “My Majesty, We will follow your instruction. But can you tell us why you want us to do it this way?” After taking a deep breath, Alexander said: “I want everyone to understand that I came to this world in empty hands and I will leave this world also in empty hands.” Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived surrounded by extreme wealth and everything a man would ever want reminds us in Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all isis vanity.” What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? Jesus said in Mark 8:36 - For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul. Good Success is about saving our soul and have eternal life with Jesus. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man; The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” - 1 Corinthians 2:9

Here, I want to remind you of three key points we meditated: • We should give priority to Meditate Word of God - not just read, but also meditate with the help of Holy Spirit. (Psalm 1:1-2 states Blessed is the man who meditates His law day and night) • We cannot stop in meditation of the Word of God, but we need to obey what Holy Spirit is teaching us, and try to act/do them in our day to day life. (Deuteronomy 29:9 states - Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.) • Have faith in God and be faithful in your effort & labor, you will get the supernatural favor of God!! (Psalm 5:12 - For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.)

Let us ask Jesus to give an understanding heart, and His grace to obey His Words and faithfully put our effort to do according to His Word, we will have Good Success! God Bless You!

5

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

GGreetings to you all my dear sisters in Christ on this new month, April. During this season we usually meditate on, how our Lord Jesus spent the last few days on this earth, His crucifixion and resurrection. As I was praying about the message for this month, God taught me many things about ‘gratitude’. Keeping a thankful heart all the time is not easy for all of us especially when we are going through some troubles in life. When we go through hurt or injustice it could be difficult to find reasons to thank God but we need to ponder our hearts and keep our gratitude alive! We need to do this because thankful heartheart is a powerful weapon against the enemy who often comes to steal, kill and destroy our joy. God has been good to all of us. We need to keep our eyes upon Jesus and remember to thank God for all His goodness. Let us see from the scriptures some people who kept a thankful heart in good and difficult times.

1. Thanking God for His goodness:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!For His mercy endures forever. Psalms 107:1

In the gospels we read about the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus when they called out to the Lord in a loud voice and said “Jesus, master, have pity on us” (Luke 17:13). Although everyone was healed of their leprosy only one of them came back to Jesus and thanked Him! We all pray to God when we are in need but do, we always remember God’s answered prayers? We must remember to thank Him for all He has done for us before we present our current needs before God. In response to this leper’s thankfulness Jesus asked “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to

GRATEFUL HEARTWOMEN’S PAGE - Indira Rajan

6

give praise to God except this foreigner?”. Today God is looking at each one of us with same expectation, let us begin each day by giving thanks to our God.

2. Thanking God in difficult times:

King David went into the tent and sat in front of the Lord. “Who am I, Almighty Lord,” he asked, “and why is my house so important that you have brought me this far?

2 Samuel 7:18

AsAs you read 2 Samuel chapter 7 you will see that God had given David peace from all his enemies and he had placed the ark of God in the tent. David started to have a genuine desire, to build a temple for God. However, God spoke to prophet Nathan and said that it will not be David but his son who will build the temple for God. David could have easily become upset and angry with God because the temple could not be built by him during his life time. At the same time God gave a promise to bless David’s descendants. David chose to humble himself and thanked God for His greatness and mercies! In awe and thankfulness to God, David gave counsel and all precious things that Solomon would require to to build the temple. David accepted God’s plan and aligned his heart with His plan and purpose.

Similarly, we should have a heart to surrender our desires to God and thank God for His plans and His will in our lives. In order to have a grateful heart firstly, we need to love our God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37) Secondly, we should be willing to carry our cross daily and follow Jesus. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for

My sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8: 34- 35)

Jesus did not promise us a trouble-free and comfortable life but He promised to be with us always. When we take our eyes off ourselves and keep our eyes on Jesus, we will begin to have a thankful heart. It is important to teach our children to be thankful to God and the people around them. Have a blessed month. God bless you!

7

Do you like Waiting? Most of the time we hate it, feel disappointed, sad and even angry. In spite of it sometimes we have to wait for what we need. Our God is a loving father. He always answers our every prayer. He grants us all the desires of our heart even before we ask Him. Sometimes He expects us to wait for His appointed time. During this period of wait, He guides, teaches and changes us more like Him. Do you actually know many people waited like us in the Bible? Abraham waited 25 years patiently for the birth of his son Isaac. Joseph waited 13 years for the promise of God to be fulfilled in his life. David waited over 20 years to become the king. People of Israel waited 40 years to reach the promise land. Even Jesus waited 30 years before starting His ministry. Wow, they waited for years while we are noteven ready to wait for hours. So how do we handle this waiting in our life? Does Bible guide us? Yes, Waiting is a quite bored period in our life, but that doesn't mean we have to be idle while waiting. Bible teach us what we need to do during this time. 1. Pray without ceasing 2. Believe God is hearing all your prayers and be patient. 3. Encourage yourself with the miracles God did in the past. 4. Don't be afraid, Trust Him with all your heart. 5. Finally Praise and Thank Him for the blessings yet to come. That’s it. Now waiting has becomeway easier. Hence, while we wait for the LORD, our strength is always renewed, we mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, and we shall walk and not faint.

WAIT UPON THE LORDCHILDREN’S PAGE - Abi Vijay

8

Abraham 30 yearsJoseph 25 yearsIsraelites 13 yearsJesus 20 yearsDavid 40 years

No.Started praying from Date

Date I receivedBlessings

Prayer Points

God wants to give this verse as a promise for us for this new month. Very often we go through discouragement because we are not sure if God is hearing our prayers. When we have been praying for a long time and haven’t seen any change in our situation we go through this kind of discouragement. But our God is a Prayer answering God! He listens to our prayers and works on behalf of us. Today we are going to meditate on how God works for our prayers:

1. Prayer changes impossible into possible:

But the anBut the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” Luke 1:13

God is listening to your prayers, He will your life by bringing to pass things that seem impossible to you today!

Here we read that an Angel from God appears before a priest named Zacharias and first thing the angel said was “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard..” For a long time, Zacharias and his wife had been praying for a child, the angel of God brought good news concerning their prayer! Bible says that Elizabeth was barren and both of them were well advance in age (Luke 1:7). Although they did not have a child both Zacharias and his wife were righteourighteous, prayerful and continued to serve God. The angel met with Zacharias when he was serving as a priest in the temple of the Lord. As his prayer was heard, he was told that his wife Elizabeth who was barren will bear a child and he will have joy and gladness! Prayer will enable a barren woman to bear a child, prayer will make an unfruitful life to be a fruitful one, in places where there is no hope prayer will bring hope. Those who are waiting on the Lord in prayer willwill never be ashamed. Things that seem impossible will be made possible through fervent prayer. Prayer will bring joy and gladness.

9

Zacharias,

for your prayer is heard...”- Luke 1:13

“...Do not be afraid,

PROMISE MESSAGE

2. Prayer brings deliverance:

“And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Mark 9:22

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

HeHere we see a father asking Jesus to deliver his son who was distressed by a spirit causing him to often be thrown in water and fire to destroy him. So this father cried out to Jesus for his son’s deliverance. Jesus said to him “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”. This man had some faith and some unbelief yet the Lord seeing his tears answered his prayer by delivering his son from the evil spirit. We also see in another place a mother prays for her daughter:

““And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

Matthew 15:22

Here we see that her daughter went through much pain and distress but Jesus answered the prayer of the mother for her faith, even though she was a Canaanite.

TToday, as parents you could be praying for your children, maybe your children are not suffering because of an evil spirit but they are going through some other issues; it could be a weakness, a sickness or an issue in their school/college or it could be a problem they are facing at their work place. When you pray for your children God will deliver your children from all their troubles. Prayer of a mother or father will definitely bring a blessing on their children. Not only for your children, if you are praying for your deliverance, God will answer you. Perhaps there is something that has kept you in captivity for a long time, take heart! Jesus is able to deliver you from your captivity.

10

3. Prayer brings revelations:

And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So, he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.” Acts 10:4-6

HeHere we see Cornelius was a man who prayed to God always (Acts 10:2). His prayer came up to God as a memorial so an angel from God was sent to visit Cornelius to tell him what he needs to do next. He was asked send men to Peter who will tell them what they must do. According to these words from the angel, Cornelius sent his men to invite Peter and prepared himself and his household to hear the word of the Lord. So, when Peter came in their midst and was sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God fell on all of them. As a result of one man’s prayer his relatives and close friends who were ininvited to hear God’s word received such a great blessing from God! When we pray to God, surely God will reveal to us the things we need to do next!

Even in your life, through your prayers God will reveal to you what you need to do next and these revelations will bring a great change in your life. So never give up on your prayers. Your prayers are coming before God as a memorial. He will remember your prayers and do miracles for you. Let the Lord bless you and fulfill your heart’s desires through this new month promise message.

11