This Week With Jesus

Did you know there was a 4th Wise man who didn't make it?  Long ago in the late 1800s a man named Eric Van Dyke wrote a short story about a "fourth" wise man (accepting the tradition that the Magi numbered three), a priest of the Magi named Artaban, one of the Medes from Persia. Like the other Magi, he sees signs in the heavens proclaiming that a King has been born among the Jews. Like them, he sets out to see the newborn ruler, carrying treasures to give as gifts to the child - a sapphire, a ruby, and a "pearl of great price". However, he stops along the way to help a dying man, which makes him late to meet with the caravan of the other three wise men. Because he missed the caravan, and he can't cross the desert with only a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures in order to buy the camels and supplies necessary for the trip. He then commences his journey but arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the child, whose parents have fled to Egypt. He saves

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

  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

  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

Matthew 20: 21 21 “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” Man's natural instinct is to strive for Glory, small or big. The question is who's Glory? Self or God? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God". Yet, some people credit all their successes to their own knowledge and hard work, (much like Nebuchadnezzar and his self-praise regarding Babylon, Daniel 4, 28-37) relegating God's grace to church circles at best, and some not even that. Some even preach the gospel, inspired by themselves and uninspired by God, for their own glory as speakers or knowledgeable people. We thus become idols to ourselves. Romans 12:3 ... According to Paul Tripp in TGC, Typical signs of self glorification (among others), are - Parade in public what should be kept in private. - Be way too self-referencing. -

Did u know that Satan also blesses. He is not deaf. He too hears when we ask God for some blessing which may or may not be His will for us. The devil works with counterfeit information and what we have asked for, he will send us as a counterfeit blessing. Terms and conditions attached.  The exact meaning of the word "counterfeit" is something  made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or defraud . And without knowledge and wisdom to discern, a fake, seems to be genuine.  This is why it is wise to pray for discernment so that nothing passed us by surprise, and we miss what God really wanted for us. 

In the 70s there was a very famous song called American Pie. It was a chart buster and remains popular till this day. A line in the song is very thought provoking and it says, "I saw Satan laughing in delight" .  Strange, isn't it? But think about it. What makes Satan delighted. Do you and I delight Satan? We spend so much time on developing our lives to delight God and trying to follow it, we seldom stop to think what about our life delights Satan. Let's think about it today. Possibly because we are a material society, we believe what we see, therefore we have a far-off belief in the spiritual wars we face and hence don't take the trouble to know our enemy - Satan. Big mistake because then we severely underestimate the tactics and character of our enemy. In the ancient Chinese military classic, The Art of War (attributed to Sun Tzu), it is commented, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know your

  Today we have chosen the theme of Faith and Hope and bring you a post and a song. We hope you enjoy these.  Leap Of Faith can be read here  King of Heaven a Paul Baloche song rendered by Voices for Glory, the Bethel Methodist Chruch Choir can be heard here 

Have you noticed how angry so many people in the world seem to be? They are angry with themselves, with their jobs, with their governments, with other people, with stores, with products with life, with their surroundings, in short nearly everything. According to the Gallup Global Emotions Report, anger around the world has been rising since 2016, with 23% of respondents now feeling angry on any given day. That's about 2 billion people being angry every day. Wow! What makes people angry though? Harvard Health says one of the main reasons is a sense of powerlessness. But a kind of overarching reason maybe the difference between what we expect and what we get in life. This is not to say one can't have dreams to work towards, dreams are goals, not expectations. Problem is the outcome of anger only leads to more trouble and holding it in causes health problems. So what do we do? Let's see what the Bible says . The Bible showcases expectations not just as the anticipation of an o

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

  Why did Peter start sinking when he tried to walk on water? What did he do wrong? Did he lose faith? Did he waver? As Pastor Rajiv expands on this important story and the critical lessons for us today, here is a brief summary of that event.  Peter, one of the disciples, responded by saying, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." Jesus invited Peter to come, and Peter stepped out of the boat and began walking on the water toward Jesus. However, when Peter noticed the strong wind, he became afraid and began to sink.

The celebrated Scottish preacher, James Stewart, made a statement explaining ....: "It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His Kingdom; and that He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them." This fact actually transforms our mental attitude toward our circumstances. Our cribbing and self-pity over issues we face, weaknesses we have and lack of resources, all fade away once we acknowledge all and yet commit to being ready to serve. We maybe financially broken, physically challenged or mentally destroyed, yet we are of use in His kingdom. How we will be used is left to Him. Let's take a look at some of our Biblical greats who served God . As a leader, Moses need to be a great speaker yet he couldn't speak straight. Jacob was deceptive. Abraham, too old to father a child, begot a nation. Did you know Elijah was

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

                                                 *Image taken from Wikipedia Adapted from the KJV devotional. "But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you"; Matthew 5:44 KJV Easier said than done! What does it take to forgive someone and love them despite of what they have done to us? "When Jesus says to love your enemies, does that mean allowing them to continually abuse you, maltreat you, or claim access to your life? Jesus Christ specifically gave us healthy tips on how to show God’s agape love to our enemies: to speak blessing upon them when they curse us, to pray for them that use us and persecute us, and to do a good thing for them when they are in need, even if they hate us. We can powerfully show God’s love with healthy boundaries toward our enemies. Loving them doesn’t mean allowing them to step all over us or abuse us . (But it also means we do

 Lamentations 3:22-23 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness ". There is a traditional story in Africa which goes like this - "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” That is nature. Each does what they were created to do.  For us too , every day is a new day, a new promise and a new beginning. Another chance to be what the creator wants us to be. To do what He wants us to do. Another day of hope for the brokenhearted. Another chance to live. Another chance to experience His love. What should we do with this new day? This new beginning? Will it be the same as yesterday or will it b

  He Hears AND He Answers