Ephesians 5 15- 17  -  So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. (5:15–17 MSG) Watch your step!  This statement is so familiar isn't it? . Parents say that to children, people use that as a warning to others and so on. This is a life warning. But read further, it is also guideline for every Christian. As we travel a path carefully chosen according to His will, word and purpose, God presents us with so many opportunities. Opportunities to flourish and prosper, and also  opportunities to say NO . Opportunities to lead an exemplary life. Opportunities to use our gifts for others. We cannot pass our time mindlessly, but realize every second we live is an investment we make into life,  a life after our physical death.   Just to be clear, our first death, or our physical death, is the separation of  our body fro...

When the earth in all its splendor was created, as was man, his one bounden duty was to manage the earth and its resources, animals, plants et all. Every part of nature creates and supports another part. Except man. Nature is still providing human beings at this point in time, but it's anyone's guess for how long. Man takes away from nature and gives nothing in return. Nature is one of God's beautiful creations. Through nature, God is able to teach us, speak to us, and provide for us. For this reason, we can find in scripture that we humans are called to protect all of which He has created . And this is our greatest failure , that we have not protected and renewed Gods gifts to us, exploiting His gifts. Our greed, materialism and our selfishness reign supreme. God said in Ezekiel Chapter  34:3 "You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock". So what do we do about it? How can we replenish...

Some time back I was having a business lunch with a person from a non-Christian background, for some business planning in the following financial year. As our food was served, I dove into it, but this person bowed his head for about 10 seconds and seemed to have prayed. I asked him and he said he was giving thanks to God for his food. He had picked up the habit in school. It is called saying grace and is fast being forgotten. Sometimes we’re so busy worrying about the future that we overlook what we have already received, taking everything for granted.  Food is one such blessing that we have started taking for granted. But look at the stat's. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 150 million and 10% of the world goes hungry even today. That's more than 800 million people! Today, saying grace before a meal is slowly being forgotten. We specially do not say it when we are outside or in a business lunch or dinner, though I think it is an admirab...

The truth will set u free. What does it mean? God's word is the truth and God’s word offered us not only freedom from fear but also perspective and hope. Our unknown future is extremely frightening. But let's look at another perspective. Do we really know our future, even in parts, that when we face uncertainty, we become fearful? Do we know our next one second from right now? When we plan for the future, do we even know if we will live to see that plan? There is only one certainty: that is uncertainty. At first, we let our fears overwhelm us. Lies and assumptions take root in our minds and grow ferociously. Fear chokes us. Yet, we claim to trust God. This is not really trust, when we are so afraid! So how do we create that trust, which gives us peace and freedom from fear?  The simple answer is, ASK HIM! How do you build trust in another person? By knowing that person! Similarly, Firs we need to know God. And we can do that only if we read His word....

A partnership is always formed in order to attain a known objective, such as providing a service to the public with some benefit for the partners.  In our religious life we too are invited to partner. In fact, throughout time, Biblically, every patriarch had a partnership agreement with God to achieve some objective. T hey were called covenants. Today, we can all have our personal covenants with God as well, for our personal needs or for someone else. There is an old hymn with  the following verse "I can only spread the sail; Thou! Thou! must breathe the auspicious gale.” There is deep meaning here about a partnership or a covenant between us and our maker, creator and keeper. We must do our part and God will do His. Don't forget, man was created to partner with God in achieving Godly objectives of keeping His world beautiful and maintained and while we endeavor here on earth, we need the driving force to come from God. Here are a few pointers for a successful partnership or a...

Decision making is a much debated and much learnt subject with courses and books to guide us in our professional development. We are told there are multiple building blocks to this Decision making process, and which qualify the quality of our decisions. But one building block no one really talks about is the state of our mind when we are taking decisions. If we do so in a state of panic and fear, we are bound to make mistakes as our analytical abilities goes down. Psalm 37 verse 5 gives us the key to making good decisions when it says Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. In addition to committing we also are given multiple resources, like wisdom, peace and understanding. James 1:5, says If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Proverbs 1:5, NIV let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance. Proverbs 11:14, NKJV Where there is no counsel, th...

Can you sleep amid a storm? Can anyone?  In all honesty, left to ourselves I don't think anyone can. The fear of uncertainty created by a storm just does us in. But someone did. While on a boat, in the middle of the storm, someone was fast asleep while others were going crazy with fear.  If we take a storm in the figurative sense, we all face it many times in our lives and most times reacting negatively (in fear and panic) with a crushed spirit to those around us, hurting them as well as hurting ourselves. How great it would  be if we could sleep through them, unconcerned about our post storm future! Here is the thing. We can. The man who slept through the storm was able to do so because He had peace within Himself. He didn't have a care about the future because He knew the future.  Today, He has promised us that same peace and it is ours for the taking. He asks us to cast all our cares upon Him and in return take His peace to enjoy.  This has some very practica...

Flowers bring beauty and serenity to our lives. On every occasion we present flowers to our friends and family, to bring cheer to the day. Think about how a flower, becomes a flower and presents its beauty to the world and there is so much we can learn from it. But what is more important is this:  a flower blooms where it grows. It does not say I will grow here but bloom there. It does not put conditions to it's blooming. It simply shares its beauty and its scent, wherever it is. It does not put-up conditions for sharing either.  But we people do, don't we? "I wish I had more money so I could feed the hungry". "I wish I had more time, to visit the sick, or the widows, or lonely people around me". Or simply, "I can't come to Church because my car is in the garage".  Sounds familiar? Sure, it does, we do it all the time!   Let us remember some key instructions -  .. ... ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for y...

There is a chorus which goes - God is good all the time.  Believers also constantly tall about the goodness of God. That is till our prayer requests are not answered in the way we expected, then we are not so sure. To honestly say God is good, we must have an acceptance of His will over mine and that He knows best. If our prayers are not met in the way we expected, so be it. It does not mean He is not so good, but that he knows much better than us, as to what is good for us. So - A. We need to believe He knows better than we do and will choose the best way in the right time, which will maximise the benefit for us, even to the point of death. and B. His will is over mine, and which will make my journey easier. God’s goodness shows up in our lives every single day. Although we often think of his goodness when something big happens, his goodness abounds all the time--in every hour, minute, and second of the day, in the smallest of things around us. Here are five examples of his goodne...

"Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." - Micah 7:8 (NIV) It is easy to trust God when everything is going well. But when something terrible happens, it is easier to turn our backs on God. Often when we experience grief, loss  and pain, we get lost in the struggle and cannot see God’s guiding light. We may even fall away from our walk with God. But sometimes it is in those dark times that we can more clearly see the light of God shining through. Our source strength and hope. Our duty therefore, inspite of circumstances, is not to wallow and Instead, live on the three principles of what God asks of His people: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with Him . This is our strength. The rest to be left to God, because He will uplift us far and above our troubles.