This Week With Jesus

  “God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion.”  (Jonathan Edwards) “What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.” (Hans Urs von Balthasar) “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” (John Wesley) “We may speak about a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.”  (Max Lucado) “We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.” (A.W.Tozer) “Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”  (R.C.Sproul) “When we are securely roo...

When the Christian faith becomes defined by who we are and what we do and not by who Christ is and what he did for us, we miss the gospel - and we, ironically, become more disobedient. Tullian Tchividjian The truth is the real Christian experience is truly about repenting every day because there is no Christian that doesn't sin. Stephen Baldwin I'm excited to create more awareness about the importance of giving the youth of America a choice. There's a 24-hour music channel. There's a 24-hour comedy channel. I believe there's a 24-hour gay channel coming. Why isn't there a 24-hour Christian channel that's edgy and hip and cool and new and different, like all that other stuff? Stephen Baldwin Some of us live a Christian life as if we're always under the stern, watchful eye of our Father and he is very impossible to please... No, God delights even in our heartfelt attempts at obedience. Kevin DeYoung If creators of Christian culture hope to produce work...

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. Francis of Assisi Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. Billy Graham My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world. Billy Graham Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Billy Graham The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that's really the essence of the Christian faith. Joel Osteen When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man, when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more h...

 

“Religion today is not transforming people— it is being transformed by people. It is not raising the moral level of society— it is descending to society's own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smiling, accepting its surrender.” - A. W. TOZER (1897-1963) These words reflect the true state of society and Christianity today. As Christians, do we embody Christianity? Or do we take what is convenient and ignore or justify the rest. Christianity is not a convenience. It is a way of life to be led by emulating Christ for the Glory of our Father in Heaven. Don't we pray that? When we help someone in need is it for Gods glory or our own? When we perform church activities, is it for our own name to be up in lights or for the body of Christ? When we pray for someone to be healed is it for Gods glory or because we just like that person? Do we use the church as a social and networking platform or THE house of God? Do we follow Christ with a zer...

                                           A Pastor in Haiti related this parable to make a very strong point. We relate it as it is: A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2000. Another man wanted to buy it very badly, but he was a poor man and he couldn't give the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house to the man for $1000. But the reduced price came with a stipulation. The owner would sell the house, but he would keep ownership of a large nail, protruding from over the front door. Several years later, the original owner decided he wanted to buy the house back. Understandably, the new owner was unwilling to sell. As a result, the original owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog in the street, and hung it from the nail he still owned. Soon, the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell to the owner of the nail. The Hai...

The coffee story is quite a common analogy to human nature. If you are carrying a cup of hot coffee and someone jostles your hand, the coffee in the cup (or whatever is in it) spills over. Similarly, in humans, hidden feelings, frustrations, fear etc spill over and out of us when our life is jostled by circumstances or someone's behaviour. We can take some ones advice negatively and react or some thing which hurts us. In our life stresses and "jostles" are inevitable. Consider the cup to be the heart and mind and whatever is in it to be the coffee. Whatever we fill in the cup is what will spill out, when jostled. King David's cup ran over with Gods goodness and provision in his life because he recognised God. He understood His works. He talked, God answered and he listened. David was Gods friend. King David's heart was filled with God. His cup ran over with God. Today let us meditate on ourselves: when we are under stress what spills out of our cup? Can I fill my ...

  "God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile." — Max Lucado "You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read." — John MacArthur "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." — C.S. Lewis "It is not the trials in your life that develop or destroy you, but rather your response to those hardships." — Charles Stanley "If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look 'little' or 'big.'" — Elisabeth Elliot "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." — Chuck Swindoll "The greater your knowledge of the goodness and grace of God on your life, the more likely you are to praise Him in the storm." ...

We all love ourselves more than other people, but we care more about their opinions than our own. Because of this we tend to do, or not do, things which maybe right in our conscience. But, doing the right thing is a priority in Christian life , following Jesus' way. He said   “ Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11 Isiaah 1 verses 17-20 lay it out clearly as well.  Pastor David Jacobs, commenting on these verses from Isiaah says - "It is not easy for the oppressed to stand up for themselves. Think about the downtrodden and unfortunate in history: the slaves in Egypt and the Americas, the Holocaust, or the plight of women in some parts of the world. It is difficult to hear their voices because they have no power. Nobody is listening. It is our duty, according to Isaiah, to listen and find a solution". What other people think should not matter. When Jesus ate with the tax men, he knew w...

                             "We can look at Job, we can look at Lamentations, we can look at the Psalms, we can look at so many heroes of the faith who at different times had questions, who faced unbelief, yet God kept them, and they continued, in their doubts, to lean towards God, to lean and doubt in a way that continued to keep them attached to the vine and seeking Jesus in all of it." — Laura Wifler "Every single thing He has ever or will ever say is true. The simplicity of faith is this: taking God’s Word for it." — Jackie Hill Perry "No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today!" — Joyce Meyer "Hearing how God is moving in other places encourages and inspi...

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching . – Francis of Assisi The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor – Charles Stanley Jesus’ mission is not to make converts, and it never has been. His mission is to make disciples. – Jim Putnam It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor. – Martin Luther The greatest proof that the Bible is inspired is that it has stood so much bad preaching. – A.T. Robertson We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first. – Oswald J. Smith Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself . – Leonard Ravenhill God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him. – Hudson Taylor The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me. – Donald Miller The world needs Christians who don’t tolerate the complacency of their own lives. – Francis Ch...

Pontius Pilate: To Jesus And what is 'truth'? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours? What is truth? Pilate’s answer to his own question could be a question asked in despair. How do we know right and wrong, good and evil, what is the right thing to do in any situation? How can anyone believe in a universal truth that transcends this world of suffering and despair? Whatever his motive, he didn't get an answer because the truth was right there, standing in front of him. Today we, like Pilate, do not recognize the truth. The truth was standing in front of Pilate, to be judged to die or to live. Bob Kaylor says "For Pilate, anything that got him advanced in status in the eyes of the emperor was truth. Truth is whatever you decide it is, whatever is most pragmatic, kind of like throwing darts at the wall and drawing targets around them. Actually, Pilate would have been right at home in the 21st century, where truth is always relative."...

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” -  Matthew 19:2 6 God works. And He does not do things with a wave of a magic wand, but through people like you and me. We all can be used for good, in some way, big or small. Let me relate a short story of a simple act of kindness and love, which I happened to have witnessed. "Every place in the world has two common things: street food and the hunger. One day, a person, call him X (since I do not know his name), saw some enticing street food being cooked. It was a rainy day and the smell of the food, hot on the stove, was more than he could resist. He walked over to get some packed for himself. As he was waiting with the rest of the customers, he noticed a small girl, maybe 6 or 8 years old, dirty, filthy and obviously hungry. She went from person to person begging for some food. Most people ignored her; the shop worker scolded her half heartedly; he had seen enough hungry folks to...

                                  “When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.” —James Hudson Taylor “Joy is the infallible proof of the presence of God.” —Madeleine L’engle “Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.”—Elisabeth Elliot “For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”—Saint Teresa of Ávila “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”—Garth Brooks “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”—C.S. Lewis “Christ literally walked in our shoes.”—Tim Keller “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”—Saint Augustine

Man giving his own slippers to a child. (The Kindness Blog) It’s a paradigm shift… Let’s look at this from 30,000 feet… At the end of the day… Let’s get our heads around this… The world us full of buzz words and jargon. I guess they make the speaker feel a little wiser and knowledgeable and "in". Dis you know that Christianity too has a lot of buzzwords ? One of the many is "The Living Word" . Yes we all know what it means but do we really live it? Jesus said many will say Lord Lord... Matthew 7:22. Yes, Jesus is the living word from God to us. His ressurection proved that. The problem is unless we don't live the word it's a dead word as far as we are concerned. He also made it so simple: love and honor God above all else and love people. Do we love people apart from Sundays in church? Do we help our neighbors even if it's inconvenient? If someone Need's medical support, though we may not be doctors, we could arrange for them to meet a doc. Or if som...

  The Boat with a Hole - A short story. Read it HERE Quid est veritas: what is truth? Pilate's key question, we are still trying to answer today. Read it HERE

Pastor David Jacobs, trying to understand his mothers forgiveness asked her, "Would you be able to forgive me of I had committed murder?" She answered - "You will always be my son. I would not approve of what you did but I would be there in jail, visiting you whenever I could." So would God!  This leads to a thought: what does forgiveness from God look like?   I would guess pretty much the same. When we sin, He would still love us and still guide us, if we wished, but He would not approve of what we had done. David's story is a case in point. He broke the 6th, 7th and 10 commandments and had to pay the price, yet God loved Him. Like David, we sin all the time, yet God sacrificed His son to save us from complete annihilation. Just as knowledge of the depth of our mother's love fills our heart with joy and gives encouragement to abstain from hurting her, understanding the depth of God's love also gives us that desire to not hurt him, but try and please Him...

  If you had a choice between winning or losing what would you choose? This is a story of Shay, shared by a well-wisher, friend and a social worker. In this story there is no hero, no punchline and yet brings tear to the eyes. This is how it goes: "At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature prese...

"Are you afflicted and burdened excessively? Do you feel as if you're under such intense pressure these days that you are close to despair? I have some surprising news: you're exactly where God wants you to be. It took all these years to get you this low, this needy. Now, look up!" That was Pastor Chuck Swindoll. This statement can make us wonder if our God is a sadist. But, if you have ever lived by grace alone, if His grace alone has ever been truly sufficient, one can understand what Pastor Chuck means. But why should God want us to be at our lowest?  Firstly, God wants us to be reliant on Him and His grace alone. Not on self or money or power or position. He will take away all such crutches and teach us to walk independently with Him. This is critical because of point no 2 - Second , blessings given us by God need to be shared. His blessing needs to flow through us - not stored in us. On our own, we will never allow them to flow through us to others unless we ha...

Have you noticed how the tallest trees bow the most before the wind, while humans (mostly) bow before none, not even God?  1 Peter 5 Ver 6 remains a verse in the Bible, to be referred to once in a while.  "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time". Commenting on this topic, Chipo Biti wrote - "When we try to live our lives according to impulses inspired by pride and our egos, we are simply setting ourselves up for failure. There is no good that can ever come from thinking that we know better than God. When we try to rush for opportunities that we are not ready for, we simply end up setting ourselves up for embarrassment. When people are not used to delayed gratification, they believe that they deserve to get whatever they want whenever they want it. This is not a wise way to live. When this happens, we ignore God's instructions and we choose to follow our own way instead because we believe that it is far better than t...