This Week With Jesus

Life can sometimes make you feel hopeless: death, disease, misfortune dog our footsteps. No matter what happens in our life, there is hope. God is there. When we come to God in prayer, we do not come with our own righteousness but with a humble heart, seeking His great mercies. Sometimes, in the midst of our struggles, it may feel like God is not listening or paying attention to our cries, but, if we do as Hannah did, pouring out our soul for the Lord, God will hear our prayers. We come before you in awe Lord, acknowledging your greatness and magnificence. We humbly approach you with our prayers, knowing that you are the one who hears and answers. As we navigate through the challenges of this world, as well as our own personal challenges, we ask for your guidance and wisdom. In times of uncertainty may we find solace in knowing you are with us and your purpose for our lives will prevail. Almighty father, we praise you and thank you for your deliverance and protection of some of the peo

We have often said a single quote can teach us more than a sermon. Today's quotes are on the theme of faith - "It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters."  - Mother Teresa "Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light."  - Helen Keller "It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable."  - Maya Angelou "What is to give light must endure the burning." - Eleanor Roosevelt "In God's eyes our words have only the value of our actions."  - St. Ignatius Loyola "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."  - Martin Luther King Jr. "What does the Lord require? Only to act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."  - Micah 6:8 "Faith is the bird that feels the lig

RC Sproul once related a possibly not so well known story: "After the Korean War ended, South Korea was left with a large number of children who had been orphaned by the war. We’ve seen the same thing in the Vietnam conflict, in Bosnia, and in other places. In the case of Korea, relief agencies came in to deal with all the problems that arose in connection with having so many orphan children. One of the people involved in this relief effort told me about a problem they encountered with the children who were in the orphanages. Even though the children had three meals a day provided for them, they were restless and anxious at night and had difficulty sleeping. As they talked to the children, they soon discovered that the children had great anxiety about whether they would have food the next day. To help resolve this problem, the relief workers in one particular orphanage decided that each night when the children were put to bed, the nurses there would place a single piece of bread i

The Little Foxes Did you know foxes love grapes (among other fruits). In fact, the term  "sour grapes"  comes from the story of the fox who tried to eat the grapes on a branch but couldn't reach them so after several failed attempts he gave up muttering - "they would have been sour anyway" Learn what the Bible has to say about these sweet little creatures. Click Here   Repurposing Failure How many times in life we take a decision or done or not done something only to realize we have blown it? When failure stares us in the face we dread the result with that sinking feeling, with the knowledge of the outcome of our failure? But guess what? We know of at least 5 Biblical characters who went through failures and yet built on it for success. Click Here to read more   

On thinking about the subject line one decided to research it and came across a beautiful and meaningful post about this. We could not help but share it with you, our readers.   Withholding from God By Erika in Symphony of Praise “You did what?” My mouth dropped open as my husband told the story. I couldn’t believe it. “God told you to sacrifice our son? Abraham, what is wrong with you? Where is Isaac? Where is my son?” Abraham calmly replied, “He is outside with the servants tending to the animals. He is fine Sarah”. “Okay, let me get this straight! You bound my son to an altar. You treated him like an animal. You lifted a knife to kill him, and you say everything is fine?” “Sarah, what would you have me do? Disobey God? God told me to take our son . . . our Isaac . . . our baby . . . our heir . . . our life. Isaac was to be sacrificed as a burnt offering to God. I didn’t question. If God gave him to us, God can take him from us. Our son was God’s before he was ours.” I saw Abraham s

  Comforting God, you promise to be with all who suffer in mind, body, and spirit. We pray for those whose bodies and minds are captive to disease or injury and for those whose minds and spirits are captive to grief or fear We pray today especially for those affected by the school shooting in Sanski Most, Bosnia, for those harmed by the spread of mpox in the Congo, and for all the people of Israel, Palestine, the Ukraine and elsewhere whose souls and bodies are captive to war and injustice. Give us your compassion, so that we might proclaim with our words and our actions the hope that comes from your loving presence. We Pray for a revival among Christian families across the world.  We prayer for the Pastor in Australia who needs sustenance and strength to recoup from his illness to be able to continue God's work. We pray for a lady in India who is undergoing medical tests and needs prayers for all to be fine. We continue to prayer for a senior in India who is a patient of Parkinson

Every human being has a secret place where he or she retires from time to time, when they seek solace or rest from the world. This place is deep in the recesses of the mind, in a museum of memories. It's like a room which may house all the fantasies, ambitions and dreams. But that's all this secret place can be, a fantasy, which cannot provide or change reality, no matter how much we try. But, if we let in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit into this secret chamber, and fill it with their knowledge and presence, the secret place starts becoming a reality because we see the physical manifestation of the works of this Triune in our life. The peace one enjoys with complete freedom from worry, having put off the mountains of our "what if" problems in the hands of the triune, beats any form of escape.  When they occupy that secret chamber, there is no room for anything else. We long to meet them and talk with them. Our wrong doings and our problems become minuscule and fade aw

                                                  Life is lived on trust. When we consult a doctor or an architect for example, we trust that the outcome of their work will be good for us. When we board an aircraft, we trust the pilot and the technology to reach our destination. When we eat our food, we trust the farmer has not used dangerous fertilizers. Even when we cross the road we trust the walk sign. When we sleep, we trust that we will wake up the next morning. In all these situations where we trust, we trust fully. No halfway trust, no partial trust. There is no such thing.  When we completely trust all these things throughout our life so easily, why is it a challenge for us to trust God who made, maintains and runs all these things that we, so easily, trust? Jeremiah 17 Says   "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves rem

Matthew 16:2-3 "He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Man predicts weather, stock trends, economic performance, poll results and what not. Anything that has a binary chance is what we attempt to predict, based on trends and indicators we recognize. The sad part is we don't recognize Gods signs in our own lives. God does not ignore anyone. He sends His indicators amd messages of where we are headed as well as ways to turn back and change course, to each one of us. Do we recognize them? Do we change course and follow His road signs to His way? We need to be able to read the signs in our lives. We even have a "guidebook" to help us. Yet, many miss the turn. Because we need to reach our destination safely, we need to p

Image from Lara Love's Good News Daily Devotional How often have we asked God, Lord, what do you want me to do today?  We need to remember God created each one of us as an individual. He did not create another like any of us; our fingerprints are unique; our DNA is unique, and we are made in a specific and tailor-made design and just as He made us unique, God has a specific and tailor-made design for each one of our lives. Paul first asked the question ‘who are you, lord? Why? Because the 'who' is important and because it is not about us, it is about Him. It is not what we want to do but what God wants us to do. The important thing is that God did not just simply know us before we were born, He had an ordained and designated job for us to do that no one else could do. Just as God ‘ordained’ Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations and Paul to be the missionary that he was, he has a unique assignment for each one of us too. And knowing this truth makes the question Lord, wh

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

Jacob, famous as a con artist, found himself conned, a liar deceived, and a manipulator outmaneuvered. His life mirrored the meaning of his name, "heel-catcher," a term that implies following someone closely to overtake or deceive them. But, Jacob is also famous for wrestling with God for a blessing, which was anyway intended for him all along. While this episode is quite funny, does it not sound familiar? We too, are constantly wrestling with God to get His blessings - in the way we think we deserve. God wants to give it His way and we want ours. Sometimes, the wrestling looks a bit like negotiating with God, and at other times it looks like reminding God of his promises while asking him to act. But sometimes, our pride and arrogance, intelligence, come in the way. Let us learn to accept in humility rather than demand in arrogance. Like Jacob, let our encounters with God be to demand a blessing according to God, not demand our desires according to us. Like Melanie Campbell s

 

In continuation of his post on Revival, Pastor Rajiv today outlines the steps we could take to experience our own revival. Remember, God has designed revival to begin with his own people who are called by his name, people like you and me who have called on the name of Jesus .  As a revival process, God’s first call for his people is to humble themselves .  How? Firstly, by recognizing and confessing our need to seek God in all things – spiritual and material. Our independence to be overcome by Dependence. We need humility to constantly guard against spiritual pride because spiritual pride results in self-centeredness, according to Hawkins. (Note: In Colossians 3:12, the word humility in Greek means “humbleness of mind or lowliness of mind”, and it’s the same word used in Ephesians 4:2 , Philippians 2:3 , and 1 Peter 5:5 . It is in this attitude of the heart that we came before the Lord, admitting that we were wrong; we are sinners, repenting, and asking Him to be our Savior because

Revival refers to a spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy or stagnation in the life of a believer. It need not necessarily mean a movement but can be personal as well. Most, if not all, of us need a revival from time to time. Pastor Rajiv shares his thoughts today on revival. The first question is "why revival"? What is the need?  First let’s refer to this verse from ‎2 Chronicles 7:14 “ If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves , and pray and seek my face , and turn from their wicked ways , then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”. This verse answers the "who", the "why" and the "how". It is extremely crucial especially at this point in time for the world we are living in because we all need healing. We need forgiveness. These are words said by God on the dedication of the temple by Solomon, and yet, it is so distant from our world today when churches are empty, church attendanc

  The Tipping Point  :  Fire in the belly of every believer The Wind and the Sail  : Partnering with God

 

Not many of us like to be corrected, whether by a true friend, a parent, a partner or even God! We also do not like "change". We are happy to continue in our state of ignorance, rather than correct ourselves.   Chipotle Biti has this to say about correction.  "It is far better to be smarting from the correction of a friend who cares for you, instead of being led on the wrong path by people who try to deceive you with false approval. If you choose to base your life on positive feedback only and you block out any form of correction, you will end up with the wrong people advising you" . Such a situation has been the ruin of many a leader, and many Christians. In fact, it is equally harmful to always give false feedback which a lot of us do in the name of "motivation".  It's tantamount to "bearing false witness".  She goes on to say - " Correction is necessary for our growth as Christians . We need correction in our spiritual lives in order

I love the game of scrabble. Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon. Once played, no play can be taken back or withdrawn from the board. Scrabble is so much like human speech. We use words which have a standard meaning, which send a message to the other person and which cannot be taken back. In scrabble the player makes points with each word and creates a score to win or lose, likewise our words create an effect on others, making some impact. Positive or negative. Our words are important and powerful, and definitely not to be wasted. Words should be a testimony to the grace that is working in our life. If one has experienced grace, is aware and grateful for it, it will show in our words. Our words commu

"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