Author: lovesark

(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

(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

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

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

The soldiers thought that He was a criminal. They cared not to know anything more. So they cast lots for His clothing (Psalm 22:18) while the Son of God was bleeding to death just above them for their sins too.

Before we find fault with those soldiers, let us look at ourselves. Those soldiers did

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We all grow discouraged when trouble comes. It is most difficult when people close to us turn against us. Sometimes the reasons for the trouble lie beyond our control. During such times how should we react to it? There are many ways to do so. Often we react bitterly against the person or persons causing

How many times in life have you started reading the Bible, but stopped halfway through? How many times did you decide to pray for others and missions at least for five minutes a day and just had that discipline broken in a week’s time? Even if all this is true, do not give in to

The greatest danger to Christian preaching today is that it relies more on the power of oratory, multimedia presentations and self-help tips. These things do not have the power to break strongholds of Satan and deliver the people from slavery to sin. For that to happen, the message of the cross has to be preached

How much should each one of us be grateful for God’s timely help in times of crisis! Without such help from God how easily most of us would perish! Oh, yes He is the same unchanging God (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8) and He still comes to the aid of His children when the enemy seems

Several young Christians often wonder how long their bondage to sin would last. Most of them have given up hope that they will be ever delivered from a life of continually falling into sin. Sin, the Bible says, is slavery. Like the people of Israel in Egypt and in slavery were given a message of

As many writers have pointed out, a dead person does not react to anything. Any pleasure that he enjoyed in life will not affect him anymore once he died. You can switch on the television show he loved best in life, but a dead person will not see nor listen. You can offer him the