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
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
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
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
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
Paul declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 NIV). He considered himself obligated to share his faith to everyone, both to the wise and foolish (v. 14). And therefore he was eager to preach the gospel. One another
Most of us see people acting against us or circumstances that are against us. Often we blame the devil for everything that seems to be working against us. But those who are given a purpose in their life from God should learn to see people and circumstances as obeying the will of God. This is
Pride is a Christian’s great enemy. It builds a wall between us and God. And we do not know that we’re headed for disaster until we fall.
The worst kind of pride is spiritual pride. It puffs us up. It makes us feel as if we’re doing something great for God and God owes us
It is not possible for man to understand God unless God chooses to reveal Himself. Even when He chooses to do so, it will be a bit by bit revelation. This is because of man’s limited understanding and the separation between sinful man and a holy God. Even then, until the time of Jesus in
“What’s your name?” sounds common enough. Yet at this point in time when Jacob is asked that question it is loaded with meaning.
Jacob is now coming back to the land of promise from where he had fled twenty years earlier. He had deceived his father and brother then. Later he, in turn, was deceived
Sometimes others know us by the company we keep. This is because the persons with whom we spend most of our time influence us for good or for bad. Their speech patterns, their goals and ambitions, their love and hate, their hobbies; all rub onto us. When this influence is strong others note it quickly.
Tests in life are common. From childhood we have faced tests in examinations. But none of us have liked or welcomed the idea of facing tests. Yet they came at set times. The purpose of these tests was to find out how much we knew about what was taught. Most of us, in spite of
Most of us are familiar with the story of Esau selling his birthright. In Esau we find a contempt for godly or spiritual realities. That is what we have to learn from his despising his birthright (Genesis 25:34). He gave up his birthright which included great spiritual blessings for some stew and bread. Do we
How it should tease us to think that a branch in a tree tries hard to remain where it is and tries all the more harder to bear fruit! Indeed, no branch does anything like that. It simply remains where it is. That is, it remains connected. In that connection it finds its link with
Choices confront us almost every day. And the choices we make have consequences. Some choices impact us for a short time, but others can affect eternity. One such choice is about serving God. It is not just about one or two decisions. Instead serving God is an attitude of choosing for God on a daily
We all face the problem of peer pressure. When all others are doing something we also feel the pressure to go along with them and be one of them. Often the crowd is after doing the wrong things. And they compell us to do the same. Some of those things might be popular even. So
