This Week With Jesus

Today, we cover a book named "Time to Rise and Shine" by Janice Riley, a dear friend, book publisher, and ordained minister. She and her husband Rob, a professional and short-term missionary, have visited India, Honduras and the Dominican Republic for revival meetings. Their mission trips included construction projects, prophetic training, community outreach and more. The book highlights the changing needs of Christianity in today's world and the need for a Christ-like response to people and situations. According to Janice, "this book is a heart’s cry to come and be transformed into the likeness of Christ, calling the Bride of Christ into her destiny, her identity. While The Church has been told what to do, given the top five ways to make it happen and a comfy seat to sit in while they watch the sage on the stage preach one more sermon, and enjoy one more musical performance by the worship team, religious tradition has assembled a mass of spectators to watch a specia

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! - Benjamin Franklin This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. - C.S. Lewis I believe there are too many practitioners in the church who are not believers .- C.S. Lewis Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends. - Henry Ward Beecher Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. - Charles Spurgeon Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite. - Charles Spurgeon Experience tells us that each man most keenly and unerringly detects in others the vice with which he is most familiar himself .- Frederick W. Robertson Steal the hog, and give the feet for alms. - George Herbert The Pharisees broke Moses' tables into pieces, and, gathering up the fragments, took to themselves what part of duty they pleas

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

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."

                                                    As we relax on Saturdays, its time to not only think about ourselves but also all those people who need our prayers and support. We are sharing some prayer needs so that we all can support each other. We want to pray for peace and normalcy to prevail in Bangladesh and protection of minorities there.  We ask for divine intervention:- For a Pastor in Australia and a senior citizen - : We pray for healing and strength allowing him to continue his work for God.  For a senior in India suffering from Dementia .  We continue to  pray for her peace as well as strength for her caregiver. For a senior in India suffering from a debilitating back pain , we ask for prayer of strength and healing.  Tanu requests prayer saying : Heavenly Father I thank you for the wonderful organization where you have blessed me and other families with a job. I continue praying that you look at us with mercy and favor, protect the organization from individuals who d

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

In his book, Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay (Bethany), Craig Brian Larson writes: "In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. "But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion mil

With Thanksgiving around the corner next month, Pastor Rajiv talks about the importance of giving in a Christian's life.    As Thanksgiving approaches, we may consider submitting a part of our blessing to God, which, in todays world which is tantamount to sharing His Blessings with others as well. Pastor Rajiv talks about the importance and more, of sharing God's Blessings with others who may need what we will share.  Lets us thank the Almighty for deliverance from a pandemic which hit the world after a century; for our deliverance from it and other evils which may have befallen. From hunger, as even today 345 Million People Are in Hunger Crisis while the haves waste food (40% of the food produced in America is never eaten and. if just half of the food waste worldwide were recovered, we could end World Hunger).  In this context and background, Pastor Rajiv's message is ever so important.