Connecting with God–The Role of Faith

(Part 10–Your Relationship with God)

There are different kinds of faith mentioned in the Bible. We will look at three ways to understand faith.

First of all, the Bible talks about saving faith. This faith is not in a set of do’s and don’ts. It is not a a philosophy. Instead it is putting your

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The God Who Encourages You

(Part 9–Your Relationship with God)

Christian life has been compared to a race. You might grow tired during running.
Christian life has been compared to a fight. You might grow weak during the battle.
Christian life has been compared to a farmer waiting for his crops. You might grow tired of waiting patiently.

But Christian

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Your Father in Heaven

(Part 8–Your Relationship with God)

Earthly fathers are not perfect. Some of them are even known to abuse their children. So it is not easy for us to understand the loving nature of God the Father. Unlike earthly parents, God is not imperfect. He combines love, wisdom and discipline in dealing with His children.

The

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What Does God Require of You?

(Part 7–Your Relationship with God)

We all have strange ideas when we think of what God requires of us? Is it that God wants us to do some mighty things for Him? Does He want us to go to some foreign land as a missionary? Is God asking me to teach a Sunday School class?

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Friendship with God

(Part 6–Your Relationship with God)

Did you know that God loves to be a friend with you? Even though you might first not believe it, it is true. Jesus called His disciples friends because He shared with them whatever God the Father taught Him. And He expected them to do whatever He said to them.

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A Simple Lesson-Praise!

(Part 5–Your Relationship with God)

Most Christians learn this simple lesson only years and years after they come to have a relationship with God. But if you can start at this point, then you’ll enjoy your relationship with God much better.

After the initial joy of becoming a Christian, a person is soon faced with … Read the rest

The LORD Is Your Shepherd

(Part 4–Your Relationship with God)

One of the first verses a Christian becomes familiar with is Psalm 23:1 which says, The LORD is my shepherd. There is a sense of belonging here. How blessed a truth this is. You are not alone in this world. You have someone to guide you and care for you.

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Gift, Grace, Glory

(Part 3–Your Relationship with God)

This world is performance-oriented. So we also think that we need to do something to earn God’s favour and blessing. Though obeying God brings God’s blessing to us, our salvation does not depend on our doing something. Yet many people do not realize this.

They go for pilgrimage to various

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Love, Not Fear

(Part 2–Your Relationship with God)

When you fall in love, you become deeply aware of the other person. Suddenly, the other person becomes very real to you. He or she is often in your thoughts. The same thing is true with our relationship with God. It is characterized by love. Most Christians fear God. That

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Your Relationship with God

Part 1
It is sad to see many Christians live all their lives without a relationship with God. They might attend church, read the Bible, participate in prayer meetings and do all kinds of charity. Yet they lack a real, loving relationship with God. I hope that you are not one among many who value

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God’s Concern, Your Concern?

Is God’s concern our concern too? He is more concerned about the salvation of people than anything else. God had made it very clear when He spoke to Jonah.

God gave him a second chance to preach (Jonah 3:1, 2). Jonah did so. But in his heart he did not want the Ninevites to be

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A Broken Heart

There is value for broken hearts in the kingdom of God.

#1 First of all, the value of a broken heart lies in humbling us before God.

Psalm 51, for example, is the song of a broken heart; that of David. He was a man after God’s own heart meaning that he had given first

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Two Kinds of Responses During Trouble

Our true nature is seen when we are in trouble. Proverbs 24:10 (NIV) says, “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!” Those who trust in God are in no way exempt from trouble. It comes to them. Jesus too had given us sufficient warning about this. He said, “In this

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Like Clay in the Hand of the Potter

Clay that is soft can be made into something useful. If some defect is found in it while it is being made into a useful vessel, it can be pressed back into a lump and remade. But once it is hardened with a defect, like the stubborn people of Judah who refused to repent, the

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What He Opens No One Can Shut

The strongest door in this world is the closed door of the grave. If anyone is dead, he does not come back. But we trust in the One who is risen from the dead; who has broken open that strong door. Therefore we need not doubt when He says: “See, I have placed before you

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Return to Your First Love

Love grows along with years. The quality of time spent together increases. It leads to better understanding, sympathy, appreciation and greater joy in being in the company of each other. Perhaps words are less spoken as years go by. This is how love grows.

Though love is best understood like this in a human relationship

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Man Does Not Live on Bread Alone

Food is essential to life. And there are different kinds of food. Some food provide nourishment while some others please the eye. Others appeal to our taste. Most people toil for the food they eat. But some live to eat food. Such people have made food their object of worship.

Even though God provided the

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Live Your Life As Strangers

Strangers are immediately recognized in a neighbourhood. What reveals their identity so quickly? There are many factors. Their dress, behaviour, patterns of speech or different language, questions they ask for directions, sometimes their own confession that they come from another part of the land all help identify them as strangers. Though they are now in

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A Sacrifice of Praise

Praising God is often associated with worship meetings. It is also associated with singing, dancing, clapping of hands or lifting up of hands in praise. Sometimes, enabled by the Holy Spirit, praise happens in languages foreign to the speaker which is understood as speaking in tongues. All this is part of praising God and generally … Read the rest

Let Us Throw Off, Let Us Run, Let Us Fix Our Eyes

You might have seen athletes take off their outer sports jackets before they run. This is to reduce the weight on their body so that they can run more fast and with ease. The Christian life here (Hebrews 12:1) is shown as a race happening under the expectant eyes of spectators. This scene is not

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Are You a Slanderer?

Slander is widespread in Christian circles. Many have not understood this as sin. Now what is slander. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines slander (verb) as: “to make a false spoken statement about somebody intended to damage the good opinion that people have of them.” Many Christians feel happy and derive a sense of satisfaction when

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Be Holy

Is holiness achieved by running away from a corrupt society? No. Not at all. Let us take a quick look at two reasons:

First of all as Jesus said wrong things proceed from within; from our hearts (Mark 7:20-23). And our hearts are always with us wherever we go.

Secondly, Jesus, the Sinless One, lived

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Priorities–God First

If your excuse is, “I don’t have time to spend for God,” then read on . . .

One of the unforgettable images God used to get the attention of the people of Jerusalem was this: “You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Haggai 1:6). It talked about

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Boasting

Many people like to boast. It comes naturally to them. For others it is a deliberate attempt to impress others with their own importance. But boasting is not good for a Christian. It is written: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). The future

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Power Made Perfect in Weakness

The images Paul uses to show weakness are two: one, he speaks of “treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7) and “a thorn in my flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Both these images are used to show that God’s power is made available to us in our weakness. It warns us that nothing much of

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Now Amnon Had A Friend

What a precious thing friendship is! But what a dangerous thing friendship can become when your friend is someone who gives you wicked counsel. As far as Amnon, David’s son was concerned, he had a friend (2 Samuel 13:3). His name was Jonadab and he was his cousin too. Yet when he came to know

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You Are the Man—The Power of the Story!

Often truth comes to us in stories. So it happened to David. He had coveted his bodyguard’s wife, committed adultery with her and had murdered her husband. Then he married the widow and had a child by her. But David at this point in time was walking so far away from God that he never

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According to the Plan Shown You

When Moses was told to set up the tabernacle he was repeatedly asked to do it according to the plan shown him on the mountain (Exodus 26:30) while he was with God forty days and forty nights. Why this strict instruction? Because it pointed to truths about Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for sins. The

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Examples, Warnings, and Encouragement

Why has God given us a record of the Israelite history? At least one of the reasons is given in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He says that the events that happened to the Israelites are given as examples and warnings to us.

First of all it is important to note that all of the

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