Your Studies – Small, Medium or XL

Are you XL-ing???

What if someone gifted you a brand new planet, with state of the art built-in features including lush forests, golden beaches, majestic mountains and gushing waterfalls? And what if they appointed you King and Ruler of this dream planet?
You’d feel like a KING!

That’s how Adam must have felt, when God gifted him this Universe. Can you picture Adam walking around Eden, feeling the warm sunlight on his skin for the first time, feasting his eyes on flowers of every shade and colour, biting into the juicy sweetness of a luscious fig....

And then God said, “Adam, It’s TIME TO STUDY. I need you to name the animals.” Adam had to put his Eden-explorations on hold.... and get down to the serious business of ‘STUDYING’ thousands of animals and birds (at least 2500 proto-species).

Adam: Planet Earth’s First Student

If Adam was anything like the average student today, he would have named them “Chinnu, Munnu, Rinku, Tinku,” and been finished with the job in half-an-hour..... so that he could get back to the fun and adventures of exploring Eden.
But Adam did not do this! He spent time “STUDYING” each creature, its physical characteristics, its behaviour, its special talents....

·  He spent time observing the grazing patterns of the sheep, and he named the lamb ‘seh’ (which means “pushing out to graze”).

·  He observed the snake weaving through the grass, patiently studying it until it let out a soft hiss. And then he named it “nachash” (which means “that which hisses”).

Adam was created to rule. And through careful study, he equipped himself to rule

It’s Easy to pray on Exam Day:

“Lord, You Created Me to be the Head and Not the Tail,”

But Have You Equipped Yourself To Be The Head?

Why did God make Adam STUDY ???

God isn’t a kill-joy! God didn’t force Adam to study an Advanced Course in Practical Zoology, just to make him suffer.

Rather, God had a SPECIAL reason for making Adam study the animals. In the process of doing his studies diligently, Adam discovered something very important.

He understood that among all the created beings, he was unique! None of
the animals could compare with him! And he came to the realisation that
none of the animals could adequately provide him with the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual companionship that he needed.

After Adam had “learnt this important lesson,” the Lord provided him with the companion he needed.

Adam Studied Diligently....... And God Took Care Of His Future.

X-cel for an XL sized Reward – Colossians 3:22-25

Just like Adam, you too have been created to rule. And just as in Adam’s case, God has a special purpose for your studies as well.

But Your Attitude To Studies Will Make All The Difference...
- Don't just do The Minimum that will get you by

-        Do your Best

-        Work from the heart For your Real Master, for God,

-        Be confident that You'll Get Paid In Full when you come into your inheritance

-        Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you're Serving is Christ.

-        The sullen servant who does shoddy work Will Be Held Responsible

-        Being a follower of Jesus Doesn't Cover Up Bad Work.

(Col.3:22-25 – The Message)

What you SOW, that you REAP

Sow Sparingly Reap Small Rewards

Sow X-cellence Reap XL- rewards

By Deepika Samuel

Love and Don’t Lust

Love is both the most used and misused word. It is the most used because it is the deepest need of the human heart. Yet it is misused because it is often confused with another four-letter word - lust. In order to truly love and not lust it is critical to understand the differences between the two. Here are some…

Self-Seeking vs Self-Giving:

Lust is self-seeking. It asks, “What can I get out of this relationship?” - the focus is on selfish desires to be satisfied. On the other hand, true love’s focus is on the other person. It desires the best for the other person; it isn’t self-seeking but self-giving.

External vs Internal:

Lust only goes after external appearance. Think about the movies and songs in popular culture - everything is about the outward appearance. When beauty and charm fade away, lust runs after the next best thing. True love looks beyond surface-level beauty to the beauty of inner character.

Impatient vs Patient:

Lust does not wait! Lust wants what it wants, and it wants right now! It takes short-cuts. For example, sex is a beautiful gift reserved for marriage, but lust wants to enjoy it before marriage. However, love is very different - it is patient and waits for the right time.

Temporary vs Permanent:

Lust changes people as one changes clothes. As soon as lust gets what it wants, it looks for something more elsewhere. Lust is not committed and lingers only until it is fed. But love is committed and is not conditional; it endures for a lifetime.

Impure vs Pure:

A relationship that is characterised by lust can easily be identified - the thoughts, conversations, chats/texts and actions are all unholy and sexual in their content. As a consequence, people involved in such relationships often struggle with fear, guilt, shame, insecurity, etc. A genuine love relationship, on the other hand, is committed to purity. And because of this it experiences peace, joy and has nothing to hide.

After reading the differences, if you think the relationship you are in looks more like a lustful-relationship rather than one that is characterised by true love: repent of your sin of lust before God and receive His forgiveness which is available through the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross. You should also probably reach out to a godly mentor who can walk with you and provide guidance.

Positively, if you want to truly love, you need to know love and the Bible says God is love. To know this God who is Holy yet self-giving and long-suffering is to know what love is. Those who are truly born of Him by trusting in Jesus can love like He loves. And the more you let him work in you, the more He will transform you to be a ‘loving’ person by His Spirit.

By Vineeth Kumar

Ending well is more important than beginning

Every new year season, and especially this year 2022, we are overwhelmed with feel-good messages about New Beginnings – a clean slate, a blank page, a brilliant opportunity to start afresh. It is true that God, with His wonderful gift called TIME brings every single one of us, rich, poor, old and young, to the starting line of a new year.  Yet, in all this hype of a new start, we need to embrace the sober reminder, that the ending well is more important beginning.

What is the common life theme of Samson, King Saul, King Solomon, King Asa and Judas. They are all the poster boys of the thought-provoking adage – A good start does not guarantee a great finish. A crowd of people may turn up at the starting point of the marathon but only few people manage to reach the finish line.

Beginning is also important, but ending well is more important. Steven Covey’s Habit # 2 mentions that we should Begin with the end in mind. When we prayerfully make our annual plans we should never  ‘bite more than we can chew’. In the first few days of 2022 let us spend time imagining the last few days of the year, picturising, in our mind’s eye, the highly satisfying moment when we put a tick mark against the annual goal and thanks God for what He accomplished in our life.

The Apostle Paul was a brilliant example of finishing well. Throughout his epistles, and in his own life, we find nuggets of profound wisdom, on how to end well.  He knew that the city of Corinth hosted famous athletic events, so he liberally uses the metaphor of running the race.

I Corinthians 9: 24 - 27

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Our own individual journeys to the finish line requires the disciplines of focus, hard work, commitment, and consistency. Indeed, daily disciplines are the key differentiating factors to finish strongly.

Hebrews 12:11

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

My prayer for you for 2022 is that you need to start smart, struggle well and end with spectacular significance.  

Can Christians watch movies / tv with explicit scenes?

A growing section of the Christian community is echoing the belief that it is okay for Christians to watch movies or TV shows with sexually explicit scenes. Then there are those who strongly believe that any such content is a strict no-no for a believer. The discussion would be laid to rest and agreement reached if it was strictly black and white without any grey in it. Let us look at some of the arguments for and against.

On-screen explicit content is a grey area: It is easily understood and accepted in the context of an art documentary covering old art work containing explicit scenes (even Christian art) and exploring the subject matter, or an education film on some far-flung native tribes that are not used to being fully clothed. The reason given by those who subscribe to this view about fictional stories made for commercial consumption is that it is required to present the story, the actors do not really mean it, and the viewers anyway know that it is fictional.

It is a strict no-no for a believer: Would you peep into a room to see two people doing just the same things they are doing on screen? This is one of the first questions that one would be asked by people who hold the no-no stance. That watching something explicit on the screen can and will lead to lust in the heart of the viewer is a given. And, also that we are forbidden to do anything that might cause another believer to stumble or sin (Romans 14:21). Yes, it is true that sex is created by God and is inherently good, but what is depicted on the screen is mostly a distorted version – and sometimes abusive, damaging and hurtful.

The third group does not encourage actively searching for and viewing sexually explicit material in movies and TV show, but draws on the assumption that a Christian is mature enough to know the distinction between right and wrong, fact and fiction, helpful and hurtful. He is expected to be discerning enough not to complain about the explicit portrayal or make a hue and hue and cry should someone be consuming such content. They bring with them Romans 14:22 - Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the question is valid - Is everyone strong enough to make the right decisions and be unmoved with an onslaught on explicit content? And for how long could one stand strong without being slowly moved away from the path of righteousness?

Let us look at some other considerations that need to be taken: Sexual sin is no worse than other sins, especially if it is depicted on screen. Would it still be okay for a Christian to consume commercial movie and TV content devoid of the sexually explicit scenes, but with a good amount of lying, thieving, covetousness, violence and killing?

If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonourable, he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work - 2 Tim 2:21. If you want to be clean and available you have to keep yourself from corruption. Yes, some of us may be strong enough to not be swayed by explicit content. No, some of us may not be strong enough to not be impacted by what we see on the screen. It definitely seems convenient to stand in the grey area while justifying ourselves and leaving the others to be responsible for ourselves. But the Lord knows our hearts, our intentions, and weaknesses. And, we know them just as well. The easiest way to put this would be – watch at your own risk. What is at risk when do watch explicit movie and TV content? Will you survive the risk? Who else are you putting at risk?

By Santhosh Vennamalla

How to be good stewards of money?

“If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.” – Billy Graham

During my final year of college, I dreamed of that job, with a big fat salary that would finally help me spend “my” money, “my” way.  Growing up we did not see a lot of money, with only my dad earning and raising four girls.  I thought my dad made some poor financial decisions, as in, he deferred paying our fees only because that money went to help someone who came to him with a need.

I understood things about money like EMIs, mortgage, investment, e-payments but not Christian stewardship. Perhaps, you are like me. Over the years, The Word, Christian mentors and writers helped me understand this vital aspect.

Some basic tenets about Stewardship we need to understand are:

·       God owns everything

Christian financial stewardship begins with a deep understanding that God owns everything, is sovereign over everything, and in Jesus all things hold together. It is natural that we desire to own stuff. You may feel justified to say “mine” like I did. I pray these scripture portions make it clear that God is the creator and owner of everything, including us.

Exodus 19:5; Leviticus 25:23; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1; 50:10; 89:11; Haggai 2:8; Romans 11:36;Colossians 1:16-17

Therefore, we can’t embrace financial stewardship while thinking “mine”. 

·       God gives us the ability to create wealth

Salary/Business Profits may be perceived as the reward for hard work, acumen, intelligence, and good qualities one is bestowed with.  Can one not then claim to be owners of the wealth created? King Nebuchadnezzar’s thought so too, his great pride-filled sin was thinking that all he had was because of him: Daniel 4:30

It is sheer arrogance to think we create success, influence and wealth. The blessings we have, even if we worked to acquire them, are all from God’s hand. Have you ever wondered how you have come to have the talents, the intellect, the opportunities, or the health? Everything comes from the hand of God, even if we work hard.

…for it is [God] who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. – Deuteronomy 8:18

A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. – John 3:27

We all probably acknowledge this. But the proof is in living out this truth.

·       God’s glory should be the focus of our stewardship

Using God’s gifts for God’s glory has a primary connection to our thinking about money. So, then you may have questions, should I not buy a house or a car or even go on a vacation? Yes, we could. At a Bible study, I learnt if God gave you a house, open your home for ministry, gave you a car, give a ride to the elderly to church. Everything we do should serve him. The psalmist even prayed for God’s blessing so that God could be seen. Our life in Christ is all about God’s glory – not our own. That’s what it means to be a faithful steward – using God’s resources to bring Glory to God.

Psalm 67:1-2

·       God believes in planning

So, we should plan too. The Creator planned things out before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Each of us should be living according to a budget. A budget that gives us the discernment between a “want” and a “need”. It should set a threshold so that greed and extravagance do not overtake contentment. No over-burdening debt! Above all, it should necessitate greater giving to God’s kingdom. A budget enables you to live within your means.

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty (Proverbs 21:5).”

Take help from a wise friend or godly financial planner, especially when it comes to setting long-term goals. “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22)

·       God expects us to be good managers with what is entrusted

A good steward, faithfully oversees the protection and expansion of the assets God has entrusted to manage.  While finances are only one aspect of stewardship, they are a critical aspect. Giving first to God and His work is our recognition that He already owns everything and that we are responsible to wisely manage these resources for His purposes.

In God’s established world we are merely the managers, reporting directly to Him. He has entrusted us with the freedom, responsibility and opportunity to manage the things put in our care.

And what a trust that is! As His caretakers, we should not be lazy or irresponsible but rather work hard with integrity. Be wise and creative in choosing how, when and where to use the resources He’s placed at our disposal.

In conclusion, let us ask God to make us wise stewards and help us in making financial decisions. Don’t trust your money to take care of you but be subject to his ruling in your life because he will never forsake you. His provision is always more than enough because in God’s economy there is more than enough for everybody

By Mrs. Caroline Wycliffe

IS HOMOSEXUALITY, A SIN?

                        These are the days of Adam and Steve, the days of drag queens and drag kings coming to the forefront of society. Days of fluidity of gender and the third gender. LGBTQs, once an oppressed community are becoming the ‘in’ folks, in society today.

                        Sin is the transgression of the Law, the law God gave humankind. The Lord God was the brilliant designer and creator of the entire universe. The Genesis Creation Week account clearly states that God created them male and female. God realised, we find in Genesis Chapter 2, that man was lonely, and fashioned a custom-made made creature, a woman, to suit his needs.

                                    The pivotal verse on human marriage in Genesis 2:24, states that man and woman will leave their parents and cleave to each other and become one. The act of sexual consummation is that between a woman and a man.

                                    Satan wanted to pervert this beautiful God-given gift of sexuality. One perversion he made was homosexuality :men to have unnatural sex with other men. And the women also did likewise. These perversions are not something new. They were seen in ancient Near East. Homosexuality was predominant in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah during the times of Abraham and Lot. God warned these cities, judged them and burned them because of their evil ways, including their homosexuality.

                                    Jude has this to say, "Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."

                                    There are no two ways about it. It is in black and white in the Law. In Leviticus 18:22, Moses proscribes homosexual conduct. He says, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." An abomination is something which the Lord our God abhors. And we as His children also have to abhor it. We cannot practice these unnatural practices if we are His children.

                                    Paul condemns homosexuality in no uncertain words. He says, "For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice."(Romans 1:27-28)

                                    "But we are made that way. We have this predilection, this nature. Times have changed now. We are not in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah. In these modern days, we can do what we want to do, and you have to let us have our freedom," they say.

                                    As human beings, as friends and colleagues of ours, we continue to love and care for these people. But our faith is that the Word of God, the Bible is inerrant. As it challenges the same-sex relationships point blank, we cannot condone such relationships.

                        We do love and forgive these brothers. We offer the pardon of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour to them. Only they must be quick to turn away from that sin, repent and seek forgiveness from the Lord. The Lord will surely forgive them and help them to stay straight and in Him.

                                    The Divine designer made us in order to have sexual relations, a man with a woman and not, a man with man or a woman with a woman. These are perversions of the sacred gift of pure sexuality which the Lord had given us.

                                    These types of sinful practices are abominable to God. God abhors such practices.

                                    In this permissive world today, the LGBTQ community is being uplifted. It is not politically correct to say what we are saying. Laws are being changed and same sex marriages are legalised in many countries. In these circumstances, we, as believers in the Bible need to take a stand.

                                    If we indulge in them how can we have peace with God? No brothers, this cannot be possible. We have to reject and put away from us these practices. If we had indulged in such things, we can ask God and He will heal, He will forgive us and He will receive us. We can be sure of this.

                           It is very strange to find that the evil one has so blinded people that they believe in same-sex marriages and same-sex churches. Homosexual men and women are being ordained as Pastors and Bishops. How far have we gone from what the Lord wants from us? May God help us. Let us love these brothers and sisters while firmly rejecting the sin they commit!

By Dr. M. Anthony David M. D.

Creative Communicator for Christ

PLEASURE PRESSURE

We are in a day and age where we are fighting poverty! Let me explain – families with a minimum of four people are struggling to survive in a four-bedroom flat. Youngsters are finding it really difficult to manage with an old apple I-Phone, as they do not have sufficient money to afford the latest one (thought the difference is just a few thousands). I have come across a few humble people, who are willing to work in the same company for over 3 years, in spite of no assurance of a hike of over a lakh. 

THE PARADOX

Humor aside, that’s where we stand today. Once upon a time, in a relationship-oriented world we were looking for ways to communicate with people and therefore we invented the cell phone; today however, the importance has been shifted to the phone we speak on rather than the person we speak to. Again, there was a time when we wanted to click pictures to store memories; today, the shift has been made towards the clarity of the picture instead of the memory of the moment. Some time back we were in a hurry to get to work on time; today, we are more bothered about the car we arrive in and not just the time. Many similar changes have taken place…. Like the shift that has been made from a few intimate real-life friends to a few hundred online-friends. Childhood visits to villages have now been replaced with an artificial journey into a video game. Today, the option is not to simply choose the best but to conquer beyond the best.

The other day I went with a friend of mine to purchase a bicycle for his 14 year old nephew. It came as a shock to us when we were introduced to one, with 24 GEARS. Our single response was apparent in the question - when is he going to use all those gears?? (probably on a voyage). A second shock was reserved for the time the salesman began to talk about additional disc breaks, in the latter part of the introduction. I’m sure you’re not amazed, maybe these incidents are not alien experiences to you. You probably know of somebody whose credit cards out number the number of card slots in their wallet. Yet, the same person is burdened by a huge loan, if not struggling with bad money management skills. Or take Shahrukh Khan for instance. The reason Shahrukh’s smile is back (after a track record of flops) is due to his team, KKR, which managed to knock off the trophy for IPL 5. If you notice, the examples I mentioned above are not of people struggling for the basics, ROTI, KAPADA, MAKAAN. These are people swimming in a pool of luxury, possessing far beyond the basic essentials. Yet they find themselves drowning under pleasure pressure.

PRESSURE PLEASURE

Okay! So here’s the point! This is not an article about some stranger you never met. This is about us – yes, you and me. We are all in this arena of pleasure pressure. The game is on, and we are in the hot seat. The only difference is that we are at different levels. We are constantly juggling, trying to strike a bargain between our convictions and our pleasures. The only problem with this game is that we never seem able to win; somehow satisfaction is never guaranteed. Therefore, we end up switching from pleasure to pressure…. finishing up under a huge pile of pleasure pressure.

PURPOSE

If life is just a game of pleasure pursuit, the end result at best is dissatisfaction, despair, disappointment…. if not outright boredom. WHY?

Because of the creation saga, as recorded in Genesis 1.  When God created the universe, he created it with a Purpose (that would suit us) and He saw that it was good and pleasurable. When God created us, he created us too for a Purpose (to be loved by Him, and to reciprocate by loving both Him and others).

So this is the point, and this is what we tend to miss out on, in the game of life –

The Pursuit Of Purpose Gives Us Pleasure;

But The Pursuit Of Pleasure Alone Leaves Us Purposeless And Disoriented.

God doesn’t want to give you just Pleasure – He wants to give you Himself, because He IS Pleasure. However we have made Pleasure our God.

Today if you are after pleasure, there is one message God is communicating to you – you who are the crown of his creation, and it is this: purpose and pleasure are inter locked in Him, and any other pursuit apart from Him will only leave life devastated and eternally empty.

DISASTROUS DISABILITY

It's one of the ‘tuffest’ things to grasp; but nothing yields better results than this. We loathe it. We consider it our worst nightmare; while it is our well wisher that brings dreams to reality. We despise it; while it desires the best for us. It's name, for us, is synonymous with pain; but it's single objective is to give us gain. It's a ruthless coach that has the attitude of give-me-your-all-or-give-me-nothing! But we think it intrudes into our space and takes captive of our life. We run away from it, avoid it, ignore it, suppress it. We explain it away with excuses. It's so simple that nothing we do regularly can be done without its assistance. We know it and we stand accused by it! Got it now? Discipline!

Our surroundings are the best analysts. They tell us more than we want to hear. They either accuse or applaud us based on our discipline levels. If you're a disciplined person, your office table looks cleaner, your appointment schedule smarter. Your bathroom fresher and your bed room happier.

The reason you couldn't finish your project on time, or buy groceries for home on time is because you weren't disciplined. The call you promised to return or the meeting you postponed indefinitely could have been avoided, if only you were disciplined. It's so practical that some of us can think it isn't that spiritual. Discipline is such a Godly principle, that even if the devil were to succeed, he must have the discipline to persevere.

Discipline can turn a runner into a champion, a chiseler into an architect. It can make a preacher out of a passionate follower. It can bring an astronaut out of a star gazer. A loving-serving husband out of a demanding-bossy man.

Am I saying that discipline is the "only" thing that enables us to be successful and complete. The answer is both No and Yes. No because we need other things as well. Yes because, it enhances everything. Everything will be sharpened by discipline. It's God's tool in making us like His Son - Jesus Christ (Make sure you read Hebrews 12:5-11)

If you are convinced that you need to be coached by God to discipline you. Then read on.

Four Discipline Drivers

1.      Stop thinking like a stupid - Think the truth

Read this verse and you'll get a hang of what I'm saying. Proverbs 12:1  Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. (You see that, I'm vindicated now for using the word stupid). Like any other godly principle, discipline also begins by thinking correctly. People who don't have the truth at the heart of their thinking won't grow this attitude. Truth should not only be learnt by us, but we must be mastered by it. Which means for a believer of Jesus Christ, he must allow God's Spirit to take control of his/her core being (heart, mind & soul) by submitting to the truth, revealed in His Word. Those who do so, will see the power of God's truth electrify their lives and become busy in incorporating and living a disciplined life. The Bible calls it being transformed by the renewing of mind. Only one of the two things can guide your thinking, a. God's Word(the eternal truth) b. Your thoughts (which are but assumptions). What coal is to a diamond, our thoughts are in comparison to God's Word. Without the truth of God's Word, all common sense will leave us only learned stupids. I'm neither joking nor intimidating. That's the plain truth.

2.  Love discipline to love knowledge - Learn to love what matters

I often prayed (like most of us do) asking God to wake me up in the morning to beat my laziness or keep me from gobbling up more food than I should in greed(may be this isn't your problem,  but you know what you prayed for). But I often felt the Lord’s silence on these issues, until I was shot by this verse - Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge. What? I love knowledge. After all, the most powerful thing in the human kingdom has always has been knowledge. Everything (including technology) is boosted by knowledge (may be that's why it's called information and technology). But the Holy Bible says, that a person who doesn't love discipline  cannot love knowledge. In other words, none can truly benefit from knowledge(love knowledge) until he learns to love discipline. The command here is not to be disciplined, but to love discipline. This is what the Spirit of God does in a person who each day submits to His authority. He begins to put His desires in us(Read Rom 8:5). Discipline is a Godly attitude (observe the prayer life of our Lord Jesus Christ, It's an incredible example of the highest discipline practiced). We tend to love things that are worthless and useless. When we submit to God's Spirit, He sets our minds and hearts on things that are of Him and He even makes us love what He loves.

3. Identify and work on the easiest area - Apply SCS

This is sanctified common sense. Follow this illustration now. The opposite of a disciplined man is a lazy man - sluggard is the name for him. A lot of space is given in the book of proverbs to this man (not for his merits, but for his maladies). Take a look at what He is doing in Proverbs 26:14 - As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. if you are like this guy(pardon me) but the easiest thing you can do is to think of a plan to overcome this area of indiscipline. (Please wait before you can dump on me all those complaints of how you tried trusting the alarm to wake you up, kept the window curtain fully open hoping the piercing morning sunlight will disturb your sleep, etc.) It is not easy, but neither is living easy, but each day we practice it. Don't we? Listen to the words of a successful man, "my powers are ordinary, it's the application(of what I learn)that makes me successful"- Isaac Newton. Stop worrying and trying to set other things right. Work on that one area which is the easiest. I'm not at all saying, that, if you struggle with waking up in the morning, somehow it becomes easy just because you followed the first two steps (thinking the truth and loving discipline). No it doesn't become easy. But sleeping early(the day before), eating on time(and eating the right amount of food), working hard enough through the day (and according to the scheduled time) so that you are tired enough to sleep. All these things contribute. This is what becomes easy. And then gradually your habits also will be altered. This is what I call - Sanctified Common Sense. Apply it!

4. Practice - This is the salt of this habit

What salt is to the curry, practice is to discipline. As the proverb says "practice makes man perfect", we shall truly become perfect. Many loose their talents because they don't sharpen them. They don't like taking their talents to the garage of daily practice to sharpen/modify/upgrade their talents. And hence the reward is mediocrity with misery waiting to be its companion. I'm writing this to myself as much as I write this to you. One of the reasons I'm writing this is to sharpen my gift of writing (thanks for being a part of my shaping process - you chose to read this article!) Can you think of one thing that you learnt without practicing? Discipline in different areas of life needs practice. Practice is difficult only to those who want a good return without investing anything in the bank. Like Krish Dhanam said "You can pay now and play later or play now and pay later". Pay now!

If you read this. You are in a dangerous spot now, if you choose to leave and do nothing about it. Take a pen or open a notepad and write down one/two areas in which you want to be disciplined. Write them down and immediately pray. Ask God to forgive you for being an indisciplined person and allowing this sin to ruin you. Ask God to become your Lord and leader in every area. If you have not surrendered your life to Jesus Christ as your saviour, do it now. After you pray. Think of a plan with God's help to overcome that sin.

Everyday we can choose to live with the pain of regret or the pain of discipline!

Choose the  latter!

THE BOUNDARIES OF FREEDOM

It is generally thought that freedom and boundaries are two contraries. The notion is if there is freedom, then there are absolutely no boundaries, and if there are any sorts of boundaries, then it is no freedom at all. However, true freedom is exercised in the confines of three indispensible elements.

1. FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY:                                                                                           

A life of freedom without any responsibility mocks the very process and the effort that was put in to attain that freedom. It not only cheapens the effort that achieved the freedom, but also inevitably brings the person back into slavery. For instance, if there is a young man who is brought into financial freedom by his father’s hard work, and he begins to use the money irresponsibly, he is not only making light his father’s efforts but sooner or later will get into a financial bondage. This same truth pertinently applies to Christians. We have been set-free from the bondage of sin by the great sacrifice of Jesus, and with this new life of freedom comes responsibility. When we fail to live responsibly, we make a mockery of what Jesus has done and end up in slavery.

2. FREEDOM AND ACCOUNTABILITY:

One of the ways freedom is sustained is through accountability. The moment accountability is shunned freedom is in danger. For example, as long as Adam and Eve were under the authority of God, they were free. The minute they rejected the authority of God, they were no longer free. This truth is vividly illustrated in the story of the ‘prodigal son.’ As long as he was under his father he was free, the farther he went from the authority of his father, the deeper he was in the pit of slavery. And yet, as soon as he returned to his father, he was free again. In the same way, a Christian will be free as long as he lives under the authority of God. The second he gets out of it, his freedom is under threat.

3. FREEDOM AND MORALITY:

Today freedom is understood as, “doing whatever you want, whenever you want, and however you want.” A person who lives with this kind of a philosophy will not only encroach on other’s freedom but also end up enslaved by the very pleasure he pursues. The only way to maintain freedom is by living within a moral frame-work, which is given by God. The Israelites were freed from the Egyptian bondage but to help them continue to live free, they had to live according to the moral law given by God. In the same way, a believer must live according to the truth of God’s word which, not only sets us free but also keeps us free.

By Vineeth Kumar

STUDYING THE HOLY BIBLE AS GOD INTENDED IT - Part 2

3.     READ THE HOLY BIBLE CHRIST CENTRICALLY

and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel

Christ Jesus is the center of the Holy Bible. He is the subject of God’s redemption. He is both the subject and the object of God’s Work. The ‘first Gospel’ proclamation by God Himself makes it unmistakably clear that His Son is the “Seed of the woman”, ‘Satan’s head crusher’ and the sinless substitute, who is the Sacrifice of God to redeem mankind.

In fact He and His work are inseparable and that is what Salvation is. His identity reveals His work. Many facts are explicitly stated in this first prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m offering a few that I found in this verse, a. The offspring will be a ‘virgin born’, b. The Seed will be a ‘male’, c. The Seed is a ‘singular person’, d. The inseparableness of God and the Seed (“I will put enmity….. He shall bruise your head”). See the correlation between God initiating this battle and the ‘Seed of the woman’ accomplishing this task. He must be a human to be the ‘Seed of the woman’, yet at the same time, He must be above the fallen angel to judge him, hinting at the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ.

The crux of His identity is revealed in the cross, since on the cross both the ‘bruising of his heel’ and the fatal blow to the enemy of ‘bruising his head’ took place. While bearing the wrath of God on one side, on the other He rescued us from the eternal wrath of God. Hence the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is prophesied, anticipated and indicated in the OT and perfectly accomplished whereby completing the work of salvation in the NT.

This verse is the OT’s anticipation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. The Lord Jesus Christ understood, interpreted and preached the Holy Bible in the same manner and so did the Apostles. The following verses provide the proof:

Luke 24:25-27 - And he (the Lord Jesus Christ) said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Acts 2:23-24 - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

To read the Holy Bible and not see the Son of God is like enjoying the sunlight everyday and not knowing that the Sun exists.

 4.      READ THE HOLY BIBLE END CENTRICALLY

and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel

The words in the first prophecy anticipate a time in history when the salvation of the Lord will come to fruition. This presents a timeline to follow and to use as a trajectory to consider while studying the Holy Bible.

History as a whole can neatly be divided into two halves. The first being a preparation for the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man as the Savior of mankind and the second half as a preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Groom of the Church and the Judge of the world. Consider the following verses:

Revelation 13:8 - All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

Galatians 4:4 -But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 

Revelation 1:1-3 - The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

“The Lamb (the Lord Jesus Christ) was slain from the (before the) creation of the world”, but was born “when the fullness of time had come”. And now we await a time when He will come back to receive those who received Him as their Savior and Lord and punish those who rejected His offer of forgiveness and eternal life.

In the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, both the salvation of mankind and the judgment of Satan took place. Now it is the time for people to repent of their sins and receive forgiveness and eternal life in His Name. The final application of this salvation happens when He returns to redeem those who received Him to be with Him forever and also to judge the enemy by casting him into the eternal lake of fire along with those who reject Him.

This theological timeline is seen throughout the Holy Bible. This is how both the prophets in the OT and the Apostles in the NT wrote and applied the Scripture to themselves and the believers.

Therefore, when you read the Holy Bible, based on where you are in your study, seek to understand the timeline and read it with the ‘end’ in mind.

5.      READ THE HOLY BIBLE MAN CENTRICALLY

Although only the first set of human beings were the audience when Gospel was proclaimed for the first time in Genesis. 3:15. The whole of humanity is a recipient of this Gospel.

Beyond any shadow of doubt these following verses make it clear that the Gospel is for humanity as a whole.

Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,    

Revelation 20:15 - And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Acts 4:12 -  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 20:31 - but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

2 Peter 1:3-5 -His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Do you want to know what God intends to speak to you? Then know for sure that He wants you to know that He loves you and has planned and accomplished His glorious salvation in His Son long before you and I were even born.

The Holy Bible is addressed to you. You are God’s special and only recipient of this message. Read it with yourself as the centre, while Christ and His salvation as God’s main message for you.

6.    READ THE HOLY BIBLE GOD’S GLORY AS THE CENTER

This can never be overstated, it may at best be understated. God, the Creator and Redeemer of man does all things for His own glory. Creation displays the glory of God, Christ is the glory of God. “In the first act of creation we see His hand, in the second we see His heart”, as someone said.

That is why the Holy Bible says:

Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.

 And His glory is the reason for it all:

Romans 11:36 - For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

He is the center of Heavens worship: 

Revelation 4:11 - "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." 

Dear reader, you are given, life, breath and everything else (Acts 17:25) so that you would reach out to the Holy Bible and read the good news of everlasting life in Jesus Christ. God’s desire is that you may know His Son and enjoy His glory forever. Your journey begins here, by knowing how to study and apply God’s Word to your life. To neglect it, is to neglect your eternity, beware!

May the Lord help you to study the Holy Bible the way He intends it to be studied.

By Cyril Nehemiah

STUDYING THE HOLY BIBLE AS GOD INTENDED IT

GOD’S MAGNUM OPUS

It is a treasure that is incomparable in its worth, inexhaustible in its resources, inextinguishable in its power, inexorable in its effect. The greatest of all that the universe possesses and can ever possess. It is the life of the believer, the only message of hope to the perishing, the dread of the enemy. The vilest of sinners are saved by it, the weakest of saints are sanctified by it. In it we have the mind (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) and the message of God revealed to us from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). It is voice of God, in written form – The Holy Bible. To have the Holy Bible in your hands is the greatest of all privileges a human being can have and to know and receive the message of God is life and eternal life.

Yet the one book that is unused, misused and even abused by many professing believers is the Holy Bible. It is tolerable if the world is at loggerheads with the Holy Scripture, however it is sad, when many believers don’t read, meditate, dig deep into the mine of God’s treasure trove, on this side of eternity. “If I were the devil, one of my first aims would be to stop folk from digging into the Bible.”1 said J.I.Packer, a theologian of our times. It seems like it is working well with many a believer.

THE OBJECTIVE OF MY ATTEMPT

While I’m not attempting to teach you how to study the Holy Bible (as I’m learning too), my prayer through this attempt is to help you see the Scriptures as God intends us to and grow in understanding God’s purpose, in giving us the Holy Bible.

The all-encompassing nature of God’s Word over our lives is stated in 2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

Each word in these two verses is loaded with life transforming truths. “All things pertaining to life and godliness” have already been “granted to us” by “His divine power”. These “all things” that we need for “life and godliness” have been given to us “through the knowledge of him” , and this knowledge “has been granted to us(in) his precious and very great promises” (which is the entire Holy Bible). The effect of knowing God through “His precious and very great promises” is that “you (believers) may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire”.

UNDERSTANDING THE BIG PICTURE

Most of our Bible reading is done with a “consumer mindset”, meaning our attitude is like “what do I get from this passage?”. While practically speaking that is where all Bible study must lead us to, we ought not to begin there. Otherwise, such a mindset will make us become choosy in our reading, interpretation and even in our application. We must and early so, learn to adapt the method and the mindset God Himself has given us in His Word. The Holy Bible is not in the least a collection of wise sayings with deep spiritual insights that benefit us. Nor is it some mystical book with incomprehensible dogmas. The Holy Bible has one main storyline, structure and summary that both define our life on earth and determine our eternity thereafter. God Himself has delineated this storyline, structure and the summary of the Holy Bible in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis. We need only to stick to it to learn how to study His Word. 

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15

The context of these words set the backdrop for understanding the way one ought to study the Holy Bible. Man created in the image of God, deemed as the vice-regent of God’s creation, allowed Satan to deceive his wife eve and so chose to rebel against God’s glory and brought about sin and its curse on the entire human race. The words spoken by God here to Adam and Eve while judging Satan form the storyline and in many ways the structure and the summary for God’s Word and work. This gives us a broad outline to study God’s Word and thereby also gives us the lens through which to view humanity, history and even eternity.

Hence I lay down an approach and a mindset or a lens we must view the Holy Bible with in the remainder of the article.

1.      READ THE HOLY BIBLE GOD CENTRICALLY

“I will….”God is the speaker here. He is the speaker throughout the Holy Bible, that is why it is God’s Word. He is the subject of the Holy Bible, the supreme character, the author of human story, redeemer of mankind. He is the mover of history, the worker behind every scene, the planner, executor and the accomplisher of all that He purposes. Therefore, we must read the Holy Bible God-centrically. It doesn’t mean that God is always the one who is speaking, but He is always the One who speaks whenever we read the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is written by 40 different authors, over a span of 1500 years in three languages in various settings, however the Holy Spirit is the one who inspired the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21). Hence to not read the Holy Bible with God as its central figure is to miss the purpose of it all. While God speaks to us from His Word, we ought to remember that He is the focus of everything and gloriously so.

While many believers show great interest in knowing God’s will for their lives, few care to accept it when God revealed it in His Word. God’s will for our lives is God Himself!

2.      READ THE HOLY BIBLE REDEMPTION CENTRICALLY

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;”

The storyline in the Holy Bible is a storyline of war. There’s one main hero, one main battle, one victor and one great victory and one great defeat. This is the story that defines every story in human history, and determines everyone’s eternity. And there are only two categories of people, those who belong to the Victor and those who reject Him. This battle and the battle ground and the victor and victory are all determined by God. God is the initiator of this battle, the battle is between Satan, the fallen Angel (and his seed) and between the woman and the Seed of the woman. The battle is the redemption of mankind that God achieved through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the central message of the Holy Bible. This is the Gospel message. Prophesied and promised in the Old Testament, accomplished and applied {to those who repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ (John 1:12)}in and through Jesus in the New Testament. The entire Holy Bible is a story God’s redemptive work in and through His Son Jesus Christ to display His glory.

This is a progressive battle. Therefore the Seed of the woman and His victorious work is revealed progressively throughout the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is a preparatory ground for this coming Seed. The pictures of redemption (Gen. 3:21), the chosen people of God (Gen. 12), the promises of God (Gen. 12:3, 26:4, 28:14, 49:9-10), the prophecies ( Psalm 22, Isaiah 53), the practices in the Temple and many more of these are all a shadow of the coming Seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hence when you read the Holy Bible read it with the redemption story as its central theme. If you don’t understand the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in all of your Bible reading then you are not reading it the way God intended it to be read.

The following saying is attributed to St. Augustine, “The New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament”. That is so true.

The remainder of this article will be published in the second part. May the Lord enable us to read His Word the way He intended us to.

Bibliography

1.      J. I. Packer, quoted in Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 78). NavPress. Kindle Edition. (http://chucklawless.com/2020/10/10-11-20-sunday-quote)

By Cyril Nehemiah

A LETTER TO THE PILGRIMS WHO REACHED 2021

Dear Co-pilgrim,

If you are alive to read this, then wish you a happy new day. We ought to be grateful for each day that we are alive, that is one of the many lessons we learnt as a humanity in 2020. The Holy Bible says, that “..He(God) Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and breath and everything else”(Acts 17:24-25). We are all beneficiaries of this eternally generous & benevolent God – our Creator.

We are now well past a week into the New year, and what can be a better time than this to clear the spiritual fog off of our eyes and set our vision on things that will reap not only annual benefits but eternal. While the pursuit of perpetual novelty is the default setting in the human heart, the secret to finding it, is not in the endless pursuit of the unknown but, is very much in the disciplined path of the known. Call them resolutions or whatever you may want to, but these truths are time tested and history proven. They are as old as the earth, as reliable as gravity and as unshakable as the universe. These seemingly simple desires and disciplines of our heart, when left unguarded and unattended to become the reasons for a believer’s backsliding. None of us can change the year that’s gone by, but we can work and end the new year well with the Lord’s help.

1. REVELATION - LET YOUR DAY BEGIN WITH GOD’S REVELATION

In our media ransacked world where “everything (seemingly) demands our attention”, we will find it hard to discipline ourselves to seek God by setting time aside to study and apply His Word to our lives. However, if you don’t take the time to set this discipline right in your life, then you are planning on losing a million battles. Knowing God is not a part of life, it is life and eternal life (read the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17:3). Let us learn to turn away each day from those wild and unruly deceptive thoughts that wait at the door of our heart and mind to pounce on us as soon as we wake up. Go straight to the Lord and seek His face in His Word and spend devoted time in prayer. If praying and seeking God was the most important thing for Jesus in His day (Mark 1:35), how much more important it ought to be for us. To know God is everything in life, EVERYTHING.

2. RELATIONSHIPS - THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN YOUR LIFE IS YOURSELF – GROW EACH DAY IN KNOWING YOURSELF

After God, the most important person you need to know, love, relate to and nurture is yourself. For out of this grows our attitude and approach to every other relationship. Not many give enough thought to getting to know themselves, but the Scripture lays a great emphasis on it. Who we are is determinative of what we do. Our actions are a reflection of the attitudes of our heart. So how does one get to his/her self? Here’s the answer. “The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” (Proverbs 20:5). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10). Look at the connection between the two verses mentioned above. “The man of understanding alone knows the the purposes in his own heart and in the heart of another” and that “understanding” is a result of “the Knowledge of the Holy One”. There’s no shortcut dear friend to knowing yourself. For otherwise our Maker would’ve made it abundantly clear. So, do it the way the Lord commanded us to. The more you begin to know the Lord, the more you will able to know yourself in the light of who He is and why He made you and saved you. The greatest command the Lord Jesus Christ gave us is to “Love God with all that you are and to love your neighbour as yourself”. Remember it is an eternal triangle: God, me and my neighbour. We can’t and won’t be able to love those whom God placed in our lives, unless we get to know ourselves.

3. RESOURCES – WHO YOU ARE MUST PRECEDED AND DETERMINE WHAT YOU DO AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

God is a worker and a great worker. None works like Him. The very first thing He wrote in His Word is about His work: creation, and the rest of the Holy Bible is about His new creation in Christ. As people who know Jesus as our Saving Lord, we ought to grow into His likeness in our spheres of work. Listen to the words of the wise man, “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13). Whatever you are, be it a student or an employee, heed to the wisdom of God’s Word: “take pleasure in all your toil”. Remember you working hard and finding satisfaction, is God’s gift to you, as much as it is your worship unto the Lord. “You”, are not what you “do”. You “do”, whatever you do, because of “who you are”. Your work doesn’t define you, rather you define your work, because God gave you eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ. You are a child of God, working in God’s world reflecting God’s glory. Go to college/ work to show what God is doing in your life by enjoying God given resources while you become a resourceful person to all those who meet you.

4. REFLECTION – PROBABLY THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO END THE DAY

Has the phone taken our freedom away? How on earth is it that we don’t have the time to reflect anymore? To reflect is to review the day with God being your audience and Judge, and you being the spectator-participant at the same time. It is an attitude of revering the Lord because you value the relationships and resources He entrusted to you, and now you want to know how you fared through the day. “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” (Psalm 4:4-5). It is this kind of reflecting and pondering in our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit that enables us to offer the right sacrifices and put our trust in the LORD. We repent of our sins and we rejoice in His everlasting mercies and we receive His grace for our pilgrimage. Take time to sow and nurture this habit.

Will we be alive to see another year? If by His grace, we are, will we be people to whom the Lord can entrust more joy of His revelation, relationships and resources? May the Lord help us do so.

Yours-in-pilgrimage,

Cyril Nehemiah

A GAZE AT GODS GIANTS

Susanna Wesley (1669-1742), although she never preached a sermon or published a book or founded a church, is known as the Mother of Methodism. Why? Because two of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children consciously or unconsciously will, applied the example and teachings and circumstances of their home life. Their early purpose was to help people reshape their own lives for the better and almost before John and Charles knew it, they were shaping a movement that would reform not only individuals, but the church and the society of England. Because they behaved purposefully and methodically in the Holy Club they organized at Oxford, other less disciplined students who had not had Susanna for a mother derisively called them "method-ists". The Wesley brothers accepted the term as a badge of honor for their growing movement.

Susanna was a remarkable woman. She certainly never went to university or had any of what we would term formal education; that simply was not available to women in 17th century England. But her father taught her to read and to think for herself and as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Susanna Annesley was the youngest of 25 children, so it seemed unexceptional to her that she gave birth to 19 children (including two sets of twins). At the age of 19 she married Samuel Wesley, a congenial and bright young clergyman whose father was also a Dissenter, John Westley. After 1662, Westley had chosen to travel from parish to parish preaching, thereby setting another kind of example for the grandsons he never lived to see, for he died young.

After living for a few years in London and in South Ormsby, Samuel and Susanna moved to Epworth near Lincoln, where they remained until his death nearly 40 years later in 1735. Of the children born to them, ten survived to adulthood: three sons and seven daughters. Despite the Wesleys' poor financial condition, all three sons earned M.A.s from Oxford. All three were ordained in the Church of England. The eldest, Samuel Jr, became a teacher at Westminster in London and helped his family generously by sending home money and by taking Charles especially under his wing when the younger brother came as a student to Westminster. Samuel Jr later became head of Blundell School the Free Grammar School in Tiverton, Devon.

Samuel Jr was already in London but John was about five and Charles a babe when in 1709 a fire destroyed the Epworth rectory in fifteen minutes one cold February night. Homeless, the family was forced to split apart: for a while two daughters looked after by an uncle in London, other children staying with friends nearer home. Susanna's 19th child was born a month later and not for the first time in her life was Susanna deeply sad and almost immobilized by shock and grief. Yet she seems to have survived, and with a great determination to unite her family and to save her children's souls. This, she wrote, was indeed her focus for twenty years of the prime of her life.

It was now, after the rebuilding of the rectory, that Susanna more than ever regulated home life in order to reassure her family of stability and to reestablish the necessity for order and priorities by which to live a useful life. The Wesleys arose at 5:00; each hour of the day was assigned to specific activities.

She set aside an hour each day of the week for a particular child – Thursdays, for instance, was Jacky's (John's) day. During this hour she would inquire after the state of their soul on its journey as well as their progress, fears, expectations, and goals in other endeavors. Thus began lifelong habits of regular self examination.

In addition to letters, Susanna Wesley wrote meditations and scriptural commentaries for her own use. She wrote extended commentaries for instance on the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments. Alas many of these were lost in the rectory fire, but many survive. The most accessible means to her writings is Charles Wallace's excellent and important Susanna Wesley, Her Collected Writings.

Susanna Annesley Wesley was a remarkable Christian woman. One can only wonder to what she would apply herself were she alive in this 21st century! But she was not of the 21st century; she was of the 17th and 18th centuries and it is in that context that, tucked away in a small town, she planted seeds in her children's minds that engendered the Methodist movement. From her frequent illnesses and no doubt the often poor health of others in the family suffering the wants of poverty grew a lively concern for clinics for the poor. From Susanna's effective home schooling grew a recognition of the importance of education and schools for the indigent; from this grew too schools where the unskilled could learn trades to lift them from poverty and dependence. From her own love of learning and habits of independent thought grew the respect for differences in persons and beliefs. From her determination to provide regularity in a world of disorder grew a method for bringing creative, positive, Christ-centered change. From her example and methods grew Methodism.

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A GAZE AT GOD’S GIANTS - E. STANLEY JONES

Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland January 3, 1884. He was educated in Baltimore schools and studied law at City College before graduating from Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky in 1906. He was on the faculty of Asbury College when he was called to missionary service in India in 1907 under the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He traveled to India and began working with the lowest castes, including Dalits. He became a close friend of many leaders in the Indian Independence movement and became known for his interfaith work. He said, “Peace is a by-product of conditions out of which peace naturally comes. If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.”

In 1925, while home on furlough, he wrote a report of his years of service—what he had taught and what he had learned in India. It was published in a book titled "The Christ of the Indian Road" and became a best seller. It sold over a million copies. Other books followed and certain books or single chapters became required reading in various theological seminaries or in degree courses at government colleges in parts of the world.

His work became interdenominational and world-wide. He helped to re-establish the Indian “Ashram” (or forest retreat) as a means of drawing men and women together for days at a time to study in depth their own spiritual natures and quest, and what the different faiths offered individuals. In 1930, along with a British missionary and Indian pastor and using the sound Christian missionary principle of indigenization. (God’s reconciliation to mankind through Jesus on the cross. He made Him visible as the Universal Son of Man who had come for all people. This opening up of nations to receiving Christ within their own framework marked a new approach in missions called "indigenization") Dr. Jones reconstituted the “Ashram” with Christian disciplines. This institution became known as the”Christian Ashram.”

In the months prior to December 7, 1941, he was a constant confident of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Japanese leaders trying to avert war. Stranded in the United States during World War II with his family in India (because the only overseas travel allowed was for the military), he transplanted the Christian Ashram in the United States and Canada, where it has become a strong spiritual growth ministry. During this time, Dr. Stanley Jones spent six months in North America, conducting city-wide evangelistic missions, Christian Ashrams, and other spiritual life missions and the other six months overseas. He preached and held Christian Ashrams in almost every country of the world.

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation work in Asia, Africa, and between Japan and the United States.

In 1947 in the United States, he launched the Crusade for a Federal Union of Churches. He conducted mass meetings from coast to coast and spoke in almost 500 cities, towns and churches. He advocated a system through which denominations could unite as they were, each preserving its own distinctive emphasis and heritage, but accepting one another and working together in a kind of federal union patterned after the United States' system of federal union.

In 1950 Dr. Stanley Jones provided funds for India’s first Christian psychiatric center and clinic, the now noted Nur Manzil Psychiatric Center and Medical Unit at Lucknow. The staff includes specialists from India, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America who had given up lucrative practices to serve in this Christian institution which serves thousands of patients.

In 1959 Dr. Stanley Jones was named “Missionary Extraordinary” by the Methodist missionary publication World Outlook.

In 1963, Dr. E. Stanley Jones received the Gandhi Peace Award. Dr. Jones had become a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. It is noted that later in time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement.

In December 1971, at the age of 88, while leading the Oklahoma Christian Ashram, Dr. Stanley Jones suffered a stroke that seriously impaired him physically but not mentally and spiritually. He was severely impaired in his speech, but dictated onto a tape recorder his last book, "The Divine Yes", and in June 1972 gave moving messages from his wheel chair at the First Christian Ashram World Congress in Jerusalem.

He died January 25, 1973 in India.

Whatever our creed, we stand with admiration before the sublime character of Jesus

                                                                                                                                E. Stanley Jones

A GAZE AT GODS GIANTS

I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.                                                                         – Hudson Taylor

"He must move men through God — by prayer," that was the philosophy of J. Hudson Taylor, first missionary to the interior of China and the founder of the China Inland Mission. And from that December day when as a teenager he heard from Heaven, "Go for Me to China, "this young Englishman set out to prove his philosophy. That he did so successfully and miraculously makes for some of the most exciting reading in the records of evangelism.

After his call Taylor first moved from the comforts of his home with his parents and two sisters in beautiful Barnsley of Yorkshire to Drainside, Hull, a poverty-stricken, depressing area named after and notorized by its foul ditch. Taylor had gone there purposely to work for a doctor and accumulate a little medical knowledge, and also to accustom himself to something of the loneliness and dangers of living in a strange land where his only companion would be God.

It was at Drainside Taylor learned one can trust God with his last cent. He had been called out late one night to witness to and pray over a sick woman with starving children. As he tried to pray, his words choked in his mouth because he had in his possession a silver coin that would answer his prayer and alleviate their sufferings somewhat. "Hypocrite!" he heard his heart condemn him. "Telling people about a kind and loving Father in Heaven — and not prepared to trust Him yourself, without your money!" He gave them his last coin -- only one bowl of porridge between him and poverty! As he ate that last meal he remembered the Scripture, "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord."

The next day he received a package. In it was a gold coin — worth ten times the silver coin. Taylor cried out triumphantly, "That's good interest! Ha! Ha! Invested in God's bank for twelve hours and it brings me this! That's the bank for me!"

Thus at nineteen years of age, Taylor learned he could trust and obey God in every area of his life. There were many lessons to learn, but at the first he learned that a man can take God at His Word. Three years earlier he had taken Christ and trusted Him as his Saviour. At sixteen years of age Taylor had already been disappointed and sated with life. He found the religious life of his parents very dull, although he attended church very dutifully with them. He really desired horses, hunting, luxuries. Alone at home one day he looked for something to read. He picked up a gospel tract and began to read it. At the very same moment seventy miles away his mother was earnestly praying for her son's salvation. That same day Taylor prayed — his first prayer — and it was answered. He was converted to Christ!

Praying! And answers to prayer! That became the passion of his life. He learned to move men through God by prayer. He asked no man for any material thing. He laid all needs before his Lord. That doctor he had worked for at Drainside had suggested to his young assistant, "Taylor, please do remind me when it is time to pay your salary. I'm so busy, you know, I'm quite likely to forget." And forget he did. But Taylor remembered that in China he would have no one to ask anything of, only God, so he simply asked God to remind the doctor.

Three weeks later the doctor remembered — but only after he had banked his money. Taylor was broke. It was Saturday. He had no money to pay his rent. He had no money for food. He prayed as he worked until ten o'clock, glad he would not have to face his landlady. As he prepared to leave, the doctor surprised him, "What do you think? One of my patients has just come to pay his bill! He's one of my richest patients and he could have paid me by check anytime. Yet, there he is, bringing in the money at ten o'clock on Saturday night." Then he added, "By the way, Taylor, you might as well take these notes. I have no change, but I can give you the balance of your salary next week ... Good night!"

Taylor's prayers were answered. He could not only pay his rent, he had money in hand for weeks ahead — but more than that, he had proven again: God answers prayer and moves men. He could go on to China!

And he did! There were storms at sea and miraculous deliverances in that five-and-one-half months' journey to China. There was civil war when he landed at Shanghai, rebels holding the city. Fires, famine, fearsome circumstances were fought by the young missionary on his knees and God delivered him. And at the age of twenty-two, eight months a missionary, he also found himself responsible for supplying the needs of newly-arriving missionaries, the Parker family.

Taylor ministered in the river towns, married a wife and saw many miracles in converted Chinese. But on June 25, 1865, he made his move to minister to the millions of China "West of the Mountains, South of the Clouds, North of the Lake"--Inland China. At Brighton, England, on furlough, he opened a bank account: "Ten pounds" (Fifty dollars) in the name of "The China Inland Mission." His initial goal was twenty-four workers. The next May the twenty-four sailed. Then there were seventy more. And another hundred. And finally more than eight hundred missionaries ministered across the far-flung miles of China's interior. Truly this man of faith and fortitude had mastered in the ministry of moving men through God by prayer.

J. Hudson Taylor died in 1905, before the communist takeover of his beloved China. His days were days of extensive and effective evangelism. Multitudes of converted Chinese will rise up in Heaven and call him blessed. And many Christian workers whose lives were challenged and changed by the contagious Christian character of Taylor will follow in their train.

God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.

God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.

There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.

The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.

A GAZE AT GOD’S GIANTS

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom

Early Life

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, Netherlands, near Amsterdam into a deeply Christian family, whose acts of generosity and social commitment had been recognized since a long time. Their house was always open to any needy person. Known as "Corrie" all her life, she was the youngest child, with two sisters and a brother.

Seeking a Vocation

At age 23 she was jilted by a young man named Karel whom she loved, who ultimately married a woman from a rich family. After the death of her mother few years later, Corrie attended bible school but failed her final exam.  However, she later received her diploma. Corrie trained to be a watchmaker like her father and in 1922 became the first woman licensed as a watchmaker in Holland. Over the next decade, in addition to working in her father's shop, she led Bible classes in public schools and taught Sunday school and organized and ran a network of youth clubs for teenage girls, in which she gave spiritual instruction as well as classes in performing arts, sewing and handicrafts.

World War II Changes Everything

In May 1940,   the Nazis invaded Netherlands. And the quiet life of Corrie was changed forever.

The Germans started persecuting the Jews with an intention to destroy the whole Jewish community. Corrie felt obligated to help the Jews to survive, considering them as "God's ancient people". Corrie’s house soon became the center for a major anti-Nazi operation. Corrie, who had grown to think of herself as a middle-aged spinster, found herself involved in black market operations, using stolen ration cards, and eventually hiding Jews in her own home.

The Dutch underground arranged for a secret room to be built in her house, so the Jews would have a place to hide in the event of an inevitable raid. Corrie sacrificed her own safety and suffered a moral crisis over the lying, theft, forgery, and bribery that was necessary for her to do to protect the Jews from being killed. Through these activities, Corrie saved about 800 Jews' lives.

Capture and Imprisonment

On February 28, 1944, Corrie was betrayed by a fellow Dutchman who told the Nazis of the ten Booms' activities and the Gestapo (Nazi secret police) raided her home. All the ten Boom family members were arrested and imprisoned for being part of the resistance movement, including Corrie's 84-year-old father, who soon died in prison. Corrie and her sister Betsie were remanded to the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp, in Germany.

The conditions in the camp were hellish and life was unbearable; both Corrie and Betsie were forced to perform back-breaking manual labor. But Corrie and Betsie spent their time sharing Jesus' love with their fellow prisoners. They yearned to show them the love of Christ. Many women became Christians in that terrible place of hatred and misery, because of Corrie and Betsie's witness to them. 

While in the concentration camp, the sisters used their secret Bible to hold worship services for the other prisoners. These services blossomed into a multi-denominational taste of God's Kingdom. Corrie wrote, "..Either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the text we would translate aloud in German, and we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and back into Dutch. These were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb."

Betsie died there in the death camp in December 1944, and Corrie was released miraculously twelve days later due to a clerical error. Her release happened one week before all the women in the camp her age were killed.

Work After War

 Corrie realized her life was a gift from God, and she needed to share what she and Betsie had learned in Ravensbruck: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.” Corrie forgave those who tortured her, murdered her family, ridiculed her, hurt her in the most unimaginable way; God’s intense love persuaded her to forgive as Christ forgave.

Corrie established a post-war home for other camp survivors. At age 53, Corrie began a worldwide ministry that took her into more than 60 countries in the next 32 years! She testified to God's love and encouraged all she met with the message that "Jesus is Victor”. She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching God's forgiveness and the need for reconciliation.

She received many tributes, including being knighted by the queen of the Netherlands. She authored many books and wrote a best-selling book, The Hiding Place. On April 15, 1983 the precious heroine of the Christian faith finished her life on earth. 

Corrie ten Boom is nothing more (and nothing less) than a common woman who accomplished extraordinary things being filled with Holy Spirit.

“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us,  every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation  for the future that only He can see.” 

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

THE ULTIMATE QURBAN

Love is considered to be the greatest of all virtues, and the highest expression of love is self-sacrifice. Furthermore, there is no greater sacrifice than to lay down one’s self for the sake of another. Some say a mother’s sacrifice for the child is great. Some others say a person giving up his life for his lover, just as ‘Jack’ gave up life to save ‘Rose’ in the movie Titanic, is equally great. Still many others believe a soldier dying for his nation is the most laudable of all sacrifices and rightly so. But is there a sacrifice that supersedes these great sacrifices?

The dictionary defines sacrifice as “destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else,” and that “something” is generally something precious and worthy. People will very rarely give up their lives for another. Even if they do, they do it for their own - those who love them or for something/one worth dying for. But will someone die for his enemies? Will they die for criminals? Will they ever die for someone like Kasab? Why? Simply because they don’t deserve it! But the Holy Bible says, ‘Jesus died for us while we were still sinners’ (Rom. 5:8). In other words, Jesus died for us when we were still His enemies, when we still jeering at him with clenched fists. He died for us criminals who deserved nothing less than death. He died for those who blatantly deny even His existence. He died even for those who put Him on the Cross. He made the greatest sacrifice of all in that He, who knew no sin, became sin for us, by dying the ugly and horrible death of the cross—a sentence reserved for the worst of criminals.

Furthermore, even if people lay down their lives, they do it for another human being, not for Cockroaches. No human being will ever want to become a Cockroach and die in its place to rescue it. But that is exactly what Jesus did for all humanity. Philippians 2:6-8 says, “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” He did not have to do that but He did it!

The sacrifice of a person must be acknowledged and honored every year; but the only right response to the sacrifice of Jesus is not just remembering it once a year, but living a life of complete surrender and gratitude, giving Him praise, honor, glory and worship for all eternity. For this is the ultimate ‘qurban’ the world will ever see.

By Vineeth Kumar

FORGIVENESS

Usually as human beings, we forgive based on our own terms and conditions. Our forgiveness always goes with our own definition of it. I heard the following statement many a times from many people “there is a limit”, I can’t forgive any more, enough is enough. But let us try to understand and think about God’s call for us to live lives higher than what you and I think. It’s not mere human life living on this earth, but with the life of Christ in us making this place (earth)a better place to live.

Let us try to understand different levels of forgiveness.

The First (Leviticus 4:35)

When anyone sinned against God in the OT, that person should do a few things to receive forgiveness from God.  In the same way, when people wrong us and when they try to offer us something by saying sorry and asking for forgiveness, we should forgive them that is the first level of forgiveness.

The Second (Matthew 18:21-22, Luke 17:3)

Here Jesus talks about the unlimited forgiveness we must show, whether he /she asks for it or not. The principle is, when someone offends you, you and I got to forgive them 77times (meaning with unlimited forgiveness).

The Third (Luke 7:44, 47-48)

The woman in this passage never asked for forgiveness, but Jesus saw her repenting heart and he forgave her. You and I should forgive people by understanding their sorrowful heart for what they have done to us.

The Fourth (Luke 23:34)

Here Jesus shows the extent of his heart of forgiveness when he offers forgiveness though when on our part, we neither know our sin against God nor realize it. But by our sin have offended God greatly. But the Lord gave his forgiveness to all of us and He is appealing to God the Father for our forgiveness so that we may be without guilt even when we don’t have the realization of all this. This is the kind of forgiveness we are challenged to model. You might ask if this is possible. YES, it is possible with Christ Jesus, Ephesians 4:32. When you are trying to learn to forgive others from your heart, you are demonstrating God’s character.

Forgiveness is a godly character, since in forgiving others we are showing mercy, Matthew 9:18. Jesus saw the need for forgiveness so He gave forgiveness, and we should understand that a person who offended us needs our forgiveness.  Bitterness and unforgiveness are powerful than dangerous poison and spread faster than corona virus, and by the time you realize it, people around you become your enemies. It effects your relationship with others and you can’t find a friend.  You will feel terribly lonely.

Doctors say that 67% of small allergies and sicknesses (stomach pain, head ache) people have because of an unforgiving heart. Unforgiving heart is not good for you and for others and also it effects your relationship with God Mark 11:25. Finally your heart of unforgiveness will ruin your total life.

“Remember when you think a person has offended you, he/she has actually offended God. And God who is infinitely holy is offended infinitely. In other words, when He who is infinitely holy is offended infinitely has chosen to forgive, how much more we who are infinitely less compared to Him ought to be willing to forgive. When God has forgiven do you think you are holier than God? (When you say I can’t forgive a person you are saying you are holier than God-by John Mac Arthur)

“Abraham Lincoln once said "Die when I may, I would like it to be said of me, that I always pulled up a weed (wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants) and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

My dear friend, our longing is for a joyful life deep inside. Here your Creator, your loving Father, Almighty God is ready to give you that joyful life which you and I want, even though we don’t deserve it. Can you let forgiveness flow from your heart? Can you plant flower in the place of a weed? Dear friend this is my prayer for you and God’s desire too.

By Tulasi Kiran

IYFC Hyderabad

The above quotation is from Dr. John MacArthur’s sermon. The writer doesn’t remember the exact location of the sermon, hence the citation is not provided

LIFE AS GOD CALLS IT

Life for a believer is a completely different package. We live by standards that are different from that of the world, run a different race, and find ecstasy only in God. He alone becomes our supreme joy; and His will our highest aim. The gift of life is a privilege to know Him and to serve His purposes. If life is God’s gift, his call to know Him is the miracle of miracles.  The most supernatural thing that one will get to hear in a lifetime is God’s call.  So mysterious is the call that one can go bizarrely berserk until the Lord helps the individual look at the bigger picture. This is a feeble attempt to beckon you to look at the bigger picture.

Strange - His Voice

God getting man’s attention is as surprising as everything else that follows. The way God reaches out to a man is too good to sometimes even believe it. Life is too short to guess His ways. They are simple and sublime, stunning and soothing, apprehensive and comprehensive – all at the same time.  Check out the way God spoke to all His people in the Bible – simply incredible. Moses – from the burning bush, the most unexpected medium; Ezekiel – in Babylon, the last place an Israelite could expect God to show Himself (definitely not in a pagan land). Peter – on the sea side, while catching fish; Paul – on the road side, while trying to kill people. The INDESCRIBABLE – becoming the inevitable in his approach. Each time God met an individual they were shocked to believe, but the response has been destiny changing. Each time God’s voice was heard, it had the sense of strange-ness without betraying the simplicity. Today, it’s impossible for some to believe that God can directly speak to us daily through the Bible – the Word of God. We believe He can give us a promise from His Word, or can grant us a breakthrough, or even give us a message to preach. But can He speak to us personally? Can He speak as clearly as hearing someone across the room? Can He speak like a friend? For some it is difficult to believe. However, for those who want to hear Him, He still does speak!

Stranger – His Choice

Crazy as it may sound, God likes to surprise the world by showing them that His foolishness is wiser than their wisdom. Look at his choices. Each choice was STRANGER than the other. God’s pick for His mission has always been either the simple or the simplest. Only an ALL- Wise, ALL- Powerful God could choose people such as these and still accomplish great things. None could guess that God would prepare a shepherd turned Son-of-Pharaoh, in the Mediterranean peninsula for 40 years to make him the solo leader of a national immigration – Moses. A slave who lost all his luck and was betrayed by every opportunity would never have thought that he would become the savior of the then starving world – Joseph. God’s choice to knock down the heavy weight champion of his time was “THE KEEPER OF A FEW SHEEP” (as called by his own brother) – David. A fear-prone, low self esteem guy was God’s best choice to fight the enemy, whose cavalry was probably a hundred times bigger than his entire group – Gideon. Our God is the same yesterday, today and forever. His choices are still the same – He still picks the most unpredictably weak people. It doesn’t matter even if it’s YOU!

Strangest – His Mission- Submission

With His strange choices the Lord gets to do the strangest things. His mission for us is as grand as His choice.  His mission for all His Missionaries (both in the OT and in the NT and in Today’s World) is just one thing – SUBMISSION! Be it Moses who led a Nation out of slavery or Paul who led the Gentiles into Salvation – Their Mission was to first Submit to the Lord. In fact, before any commission comes submission. Many a times we ask this one question with different expressions – “What is God’s will for my life? What’s the purpose of my life?” The answer is His Mission. In other words– SUBMISSION! Anything apart from submission is not His will. Before we can submit to him, He gave us Himself completely! Now, before He can show us His will – we must surrender ours. Before He can call us for his work – we must commit ourselves.

Think about this! If God didn’t choose you – you wouldn’t be living to read this. But because He did, surrender to His voice, since YOU are His choice.  

ON BEING A FOOL!

A while ago, I logged into my Facebook account and came across a post on God updated by a friend. Under that post was a comment posted by his atheistic friend that was dripping with sarcasm and mockery. I was not very surprised because we live in an age where belief in God is viewed as unintelligent and absurd. It is totally written off by many as outdated and old-fashioned. Some have viciously attacked it and went on to call it as the ‘opium’ of humankind. On the other hand, to deny the existence of God is considered to be cool and intelligent and that is why people like Ernest Hemingway say, “all thinking men are atheists.” However, if you turn to the pages of the Bible (Ps. 14:1; 53:1), only fools say in their hearts, “there is no God.”

It is foolishness to deny God’s existence because the indications of God’s existence are not obscure but present in all of creation. The Psalmist looks at the heavens and declares that they reveal the glory of God (Ps. 19:1-2) and he looks at the complexity of the human body and pours out praise to God in utter astonishment (Ps. 139). The Apostle Paul takes it further and says, “God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen” in creation, even “His eternal power and Godhead.” It is so clear that none of us are without excuse (Rom. 1:20).  

Criticizing theists, the famed 19th century atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “faith means not wanting to know what is true.” The faith he meant here was probably blind faith – a leap into the dark. However, the evidence for the existence of God from nature itself is so compelling and overwhelming that it makes one wonder if it takes more (blind) faith to say there is no God.

Although on the surface, it seems more like an intellectual struggle for the unbeliever to believe in God, the problem is actually moral. The word ‘fool’ mentioned in Ps. 14:1 & Ps. 53:1 does not carry an intellectual meaning but moral. The fool here is morally corrupt and in order to continue in his corruption, he removes God from the equation to completely eliminate all accountability to God. It is a blatant suppression of the truth (Rom. 1:18) for the love of sin. In the midst of this cover-up while professing to be wise, in actuality, they become fools (Rom. 1:22).

Man, since the beginning of time, has tried his best to live apart from God, to be his own god. However, with all his attempts to wipe away the name of God and to escape from accountability, the inescapable truth is that we cannot meaningfully live without Him, and will someday have to give an account to Him, who is the Judge of all Humankind. Therefore, the right thing to do is not to suppress the truth about Him but to acknowledge Him as God, revere Him, give Him the honor and glory that’s due Him, and live under His loving authority.

by Vineeth Kumar