This Week With Jesus

  "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path..." Epipremnum aureum – a tropical vining plant, in the Araceae, found in Northern Australia through Southeast Asia into China, Japan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan , also known as money plants are very popular indoor plants in these countries. Like all plants, they need water and sunlight. Recently, one made a strange discovery: a money plant in the room, next to the windows, turned and strained its stems and leaves towards the window! We turned its direction and in a few days it turned back towards the light. At least to us, this was a strange phenomenon. What was obvious was that the plant would strain to get life, from the sun and get energy through the process of photosynthesis, which is the process by which plants get life and spread oxygen for our benefit.  What gives us life? Food and water, yes, but like what the sunlight was to the plant, Gods word is for us. It converts negativity into positivity, fear to h...

For many economists and marketers the concept called Bottom of the Pyramid is like the ultimate market. Essentially it demonstrates that the least economically enabled people are the vast majority located at the bottom of the pyramid. As you go up the pyramid towards the apex, economic power starts increasing with the most powerful at the top of the pyramid. It is interesting that the Son of God, sitting at His right hand, chose to be born into a family at the bottom of the pyramid of those days. How do we know this? When Mary had to make the offering for the atonement after the birth of Jesus, according to Leviticus 12:6–8, she could choose between a lamb, pigeons and turtle doves, which were the cheapest and affordable by the poor. Mary chose pigeons, as described in Luke 2:22–24 where Luke explicitly says that Joseph and Mary take the option provided for poor people (those who could not afford a lamb; Leviticus 12:8), sacrificing "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons....

* Picture credits: The Chosen Read John Chapter 3  John 3 is a very familiar chapter to most Christians which talks about a very senior Pharisee named Nicodemus. While John 3 has many teachings for us, one question that does come up is who was Nicodemus? Was he a follower, believer, enemy or what? Being a very senior Pharisee, one does wonder about his interest in Jesus. Nicodemus did believe in Jesus but his beliefs were safely hidden away in the night. It was only after Jesus death that he came into a public demonstration of his faith and belief. Sometimes one wonders, are we like Nicodemus? Do we practice our faith in safe privacy in the dead of the night? Do we get too carried away with our professional duties, professional friends and other worldly demands and Jesus takes a back seat while our other priorities take the driver's seat? Sadly I think it does happen that Jesus becomes a guest in our life, relegated to the night, when no other priorities take importance. We learn a...