This Week With Jesus

The name of this post in truth, should have been Science and God. But we view science and religion as being diametrically opposite, though they go hand in hand.  Science explains the "how" of God and His creation while religion explains the "why" . For example, it can tell us how it rains but cannot tell you why it does or does not rain and why should it rain. Why do we die? Science can tell us how we die but cannot explain why we die. The fact is the world and all that is in it, is part of God's creation. And God uses His creation to bless us or deprive us, according to His will and judgement. For example, we have completely disrespected nature, Gods creation, throughout the ages and today we are paying the price of that disrespect and destruction. The "how" is what science helps us to understand, so that we truly appreciate what God has done, and praise Him in awe and wonder. This understanding of the "how" of creation inspired King David

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

                                                      Prayer is Where the Action is - John Wesley Does God see? Does God care? Scripture calls us to believe that God really does see, know, and hear. The question is do we call?  Today, we thank God for the recovery of your servant in Australia, in India and those who were sick and needed your intervention.  Today we request you, our readers, for prayers for all these people. We do not know them nor they us. Yet we believe, your prayers will help them and give them hope:  Brandi says - Can you please pray for God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, Mother Mary, The Angelic Hierarchy, The Saints, all those that help us, me (Brandi), my family and my friends. WE are going through a very challenging time right now and could really use your prayers. Thank you! Tanu Prays -  Heavenly Father I come before you praying for resources and money to build our family home, I pray for your blessings and favor, remember me and my family in a special and mighty wa

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

  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

                                           Studying Gods word is essential to a Christian, and prayer is essential to be able to study and understand Gods word & put it in practice. Yes, it includes intercession, it includes a call for help, it includes thanks and praise, but prayer is so much more. Prayer is essential in studying the Bible. Asking the Holy Spirit for understanding and guidance can illuminate passages and reveal deeper truths. Prayer also helps apply the Scriptures to one’s life, aligning actions and decisions with God's will. (Crosswalk) But most of all, that prayer helps us to dwell in the secret place of the "Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty". So today, we pray for our own daily devotions, where the Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand the message God wants to convey. We also want to pray for: 1. A Pastor in Melbourne who needs continued strength and healing to become fit to continue Gods work. We than God for His bl

                                                  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

                                                    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

How wonderful to know that Christianity is more than a padded pew or a dim cathedral, but that it is a real, living, daily experience which goes on from grace to grace. Jim Elliot The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ . Norman Vincent Peale I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else . C.S.Lewis If only Jesus' followers shared his personality. That one shift alone would correct so many of the ridiculous and horrifying things that pass for popular Christianity. John Eldredge The great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. John Gresham Machen For Christians, they need to access the power of Jesus and not look

  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. For Upper Room readers who have requested prayers- Kait   requests prayer saying: Please pray that God relieves the pain in my body after a hard days work. Please pray that God will allow me to fulfill his calling for me for a long time. Thank you God for the many blessings you bestow RN requests prayer saying: Please pray my doctor’s appointment goes well tomorrow. Thank you so much. Jlow requests prayer saying: Prayer for my freedom. God bless those who are not. For a senior in India suffering from Dementia . We pray for her peace as well as strength for her caregiver. Please pray for Jim . Pray that he can work thru an issue that happened today. Pray for it to go well. John requests prayer saying: Please pray that my dad's hearing will be corrected and that at least one of his

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

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

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

Voltaire once wrote: “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” There’s a lot of wisdom in that. A man questions what he /she genuinely wants to know, yet a fulfilled life isn’t so much determined by what you know as it is by how willing you are to learn. We can memorize the Bible and quote at the drop of a hat and answer any question in a Bible quiz and still not know Jesus. Memorizing verses is good, but knowing their meaning in your life is important too. Knowing Jesus can take a lifetime. It's a lifelong process. Every time one reads the Bible thoughtfully, a new picture of Jesus emerges. Jesus as a son to Mary; Jesus as a son to God; as a friend; Jesus as a carpenter; as an ordinary human; as a God; as a Godly human; as logical; as wise and so on. Different stories paint a new picture of Jesus. So, today let us determine to learn more about Jesus, studying His life, His character and His thoughts, because He is the ideal we strive to become. That is the first s

                                                   

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. 

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

Remember Job? A character of much importance in the Bible. Some people joke and say that he innocently became the subject of a bet between God and Satan. Except that God does not gamble.  God also does not need to give points, but He did point Job to His truths. Yet, even today,  we humans want proof points. Proof of His creation, proof of His presence, proof of His love for us. We sure know about Him, but do we really believe in Him until he shows His presence? Humanity needs case studies like that of Job to show others of things like faith, Gods love, Divine intervention etc. If you look at it, Job is a typical human and, in the story, God lists out all the proof points you and I need that He exists, and He is God the Creator. He also gives proof points that He is the nurturer and the provider; that he is the protector of His creation and finally that He is the power that keeps the balance in His creation. The Story of Job is an important one for us. Not because it teaches us how to

                                                                                                                                Image: Scout Life Magazine Prayer is a pillar or actually the cornerstone of Christian life.  A typical prayer may include giving thanks, intercession, blessings, praise etc.  And we may ask for help with the problems and challenges we face. Tom Clark from Life, Home and Truth has this to say -  ... "do we always pray for the right things?  Let me illustrate this with a paraphrase of a story by Peggy Porter on  usscouts.org  that I read many years ago. Eight-year-old Gilbert had only been in Cub Scouts a short while when the scoutmaster handed everyone a block of wood, four tires and a sheet of instructions, and told them to go home and “give it all to Dad.” Unfortunately, the dad part was not an option for Gilbert, so the block of wood sat untouched for days as a befuddled Gilbert struggled to figure out what to do. Finally, without a better option, Gilb