This Week With Jesus

Did Israel believe in the Messiah? Of course they did. Just like you and me. Whether they believed Jesua was the Messiah is another story. They had imagined the Messiah as a great military leader who would give them freedom from the oppressive Romans. After all, that's what they thought was promised. And that's what they believed. And that is how they treated Jesus till they realized that such was not the case. Then they turned on Him, crying for His blood.  Like the Israelites of then, each of us have a picture of Jesus in our minds, and treat Him accordingly. some picture a shepherd, some a king, some a preacher. How many of us picture Him as a scape goat ? (A scape goat is a person who bears the blame and/ or punishment for something they have not done). Today the question to myself is: Do I treat Jesus as a scapegoat or as a savior? If we think of him as our scapegoat, we have not truly accepted our fault or sins, which in turn means there is no repentance because we ne

FUD stands for Fear, uncertainty and doubt. It is a very powerful tool, sometimes used by sales people to conjure a problem and position their product as the solution. All three, are are mainly from a perceived situation or a perceived threat. It's a natural emotion. You can read more about FUDs here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt Fuds are also a powerful tool used by Satan as well, because humans are very  susceptible to fear. These are so much more serious than sales fuds. They can in fact destroy us, if we are not strong.   As Christians , We face FUDs in our daily life, and when we do, we need to run into the word of God (note the word "into" not "to") and find our strength. Paul's second letter to Timothy explains why we need not be susceptible to FUDs. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". The Bible is full of verses that give us to power

Hate. Has hate overcome us? Do we really love our neighbors as we profess? Have you ever heard the cliché, “no bond is stronger than two people who hate the same person?” It turns out there is actually some truth to that statement. You can actually read more about it here https://www.scienceofpeople.com/hate/ . But today, this is not about hate but why we profess love, but love to hate. As Christians we are commanded to love our neighbor (which includes everyone in this globally connected world) as we love ourselves which essentially means we do not do things to someone , anyone (even on social media) we would not do to ourselves. And yet we do. Do we really know what love is? There are 15 attributes to love. Unless we can't tick all 15 towards everyone (including social media) we cannot claim to be loving. AND IF WE CANT CLAIM THAT, WE DONT LOVE. AND IF WE DONT LOVE, WE HATE. Peter Druker said "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it". As an exercise, let&

Are you ready to face your Goliath?  1 Samuel 17 Verses 34-49 34But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 38Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to

Whatever our lot in life, we have a choice of gloating, groaning or gratitude. "An Attitude of Gratitude is a regular habit to express appreciation for all different parts of life, no matter how small. If you concentrate on what you have, you'll always have more ".  https://www.yourlifeyourvoice.org   While this is not a mantra, it is a good principle  because such an attitude creates a positive mindset and self healing, mentally and physically. David did this regularly, thanking and glorifying our creator. Like David we too can choose to give thanks for ourselves, what we have and our life on earth. Feel positive. Feel good. Psalm 100, expresses this attitude. We can read it, pray it or sing it. 1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

Romans 12:18 : If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Lately there has been a lot of talk of Will Smith and Chris Rock. While that's a topic for the press and magazines, one wonders what happened to a thing called grace? As Christians, We expect grace from God. We pray for it and sometimes demand it. But what about us showing grace to our fellow men? If we expect grace, we need to practice grace ourselves. Humility, humor, forgiveness, gratitude,, compassion, accepting people for who they are, etc., everything grace comprises of are forgotten, it seems.  We have a right to hit someone, the right to abuse, the right to take revenge - and we think we also have the right to Gods grace? Really?  You may ask  what happens when someone hurts us? Such are the testing times of our own grace and faith in Gods word who said - "Vengeance is mine". It is not ours. The Bible is full of verses which tell us that we need to share grace. Ephesians 4:29  Let

K.I.S.S? Keeping it simple and straightforward.  Lets' be honest. A lot of u are reading this because of the anagram? Wondering what it stands for, attaching different meanings etc., and in short making it a complex puzzle. That's natural. We love complexity and I call it the complexity syndrome. So many business organizations also go through this complexity phenomenon as well, with the result they lose focus on what they started out to do. And that is what happens in Christian life too. We can complicate it so much with dos and don'ts that we lose focus on the end. The means become the end. For example, we are taught to follow the commandments, which most of us think are 10. Did you know there are 613 commandments in the Bible ? Can I follow all 613? Probably not. But Christ made is simple and straightforward when He said in Mark 12: 29- 31:  The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 Love the Lord your God w