This Week With Jesus

Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths you would have me go this coming year. Show me your vision for me a d Guide me in your truth and teach me. for you are God my Savior, my provider, and my protector and my hope is in you all day long, every day. Your thoughts and plans for me will give me an expected end. Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old and yet are new every morning, in your great faithfulness. So I do not lose hope. Do not remember the sins of my youth, of past years gone by, and my rebellious ways, but forgive me my transgressions, according to your love remember me, for you, LORD, are good. Yet, even as I am your work in progress, help me, in all things shewing myself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, and good speech. Fill our homes with your presence, for me and my house, have and will, serve you. And in this coming year, and years after that, renew our strength and that of our children, and

  As we near the end of 2022, we cannot but recall the horrid years the world has spent since 2020, those dark Covid times. And every now and then, even now, we see that pandemic raising its ugly head. We cannot forget the mass graves in New York, the mass of funeral pyres in India, the daily death counts in China, Europe and the world, and the constant fear of death looming over our heads. No one in this world was spared loss, directly or indirectly. Sadly, some did not survive. They went on ahead to prepare a place for us. For those who did, that time was spent in fear and or heartbreak.  Today, in retrospect, what do we feel and think? What have we learnt? The past defines the future and There is one truth which has kept many of us going - 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us. The truth is that we all have come through the worst, with the Lord’s help. Each o

  It’s our 1st Anniversary! Yes, we are ONE year old. It’s been a year since Pastor Rajiv and his team started sharing his messages and other reflections. We wish to thank our readers and contributors through the year and on this occasion share a special reflection. In the Upper Room today , Terrie Hellard-Brown recounts a miraculous Christmas experience which we would like to share here - "As worship leader in my church, I always planned the Christmas worship services with great care and excitement. One year I asked a soprano named Rebecca to sing “O Holy Night” during the last Sunday morning service before Christmas. As the date approached, Rebecca called me and said, “I keep feeling like God wants me to sing ‘O Holy Night’ in French. Is that weird?” I told her I thought it would be glorious, and that if God was leading her to do it, then she should. Our church had an English-speaking international congregation with 15 countries represented weekly. We were not aware of any atte

People who are alive today, possibly are witnesses to the biggest tragedies the world has seen. The world wars, epidemics, nuclear accidents and the latest being Covid. During this covid time I doubt there will be a single person or family who has not lost a friend or a family member, near or far, or has not been affected in some way. But the very fact we are here today is because of the grace and mercy in our life. When one journey ends, another begins. For some maybe on their second journey, but for us we can only say "Father, thank you for your grace and mercy in our life today. Truly we have walked through the shadows of death, but your grace has been with us throughout" "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". As we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate that this day God came down to be with us. Today He stooped to conquer () so that we could have a life .  So

In continuation to our post of yesterday, another thought that comes to mind is - is Christmas all about giving or is it about receiving? There is not one human in this wide world who has nothing to give. Everyone has something and everyone has time. Time for children, for parents who live their life now through you, for the elderly who are lonely, for the sick who need some care. Each one of us has a need and each one has something to share. Our needs are known to God. God has given us His gift. But what will we share? What present will we lay at the manger?   If we come to him with gifts, then we put him in the position of a needy person, and we become the benefactors, which is incorrect. We live on His grace, His provisions and His protection.  Therefore, the only gifts that we can bring Jesus are gifts of praise, thanks, longing, and neediness. And out time for His creation. 

Come Christmas, and the business of gifting starts with a bang.  I know the excitement one gets when we receive a gift, but I have also seen the excitement and love of people when they give a heartfelt gift. From their childhood, my children have loved to give something, from time to time. Maybe a piece of candy wrapped loosely, or a drawing made at school, some pastries when they were older. Thier excitement knew no bounds looking at our joy. Even today, they do the same things, surprise gifts, surprise visits and more. Their eyes still shine, and their delight is in seeing the joy of their parent. As I sit thinking about them and the joy, they bring to us nearly every day, in terms of the love they share, I wonder what God would have felt when He gave us the priceless gift of His son' life? Was He excited that He would save mankind? If I am called upon to gift Him something, what would that be? Today, the Advent season calls from us a spirit of generosity that is often not seen i

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? There's a story about an abbey in a forest where the monks were so happy they sang while they worked and prayed and people flocked to them. Then something changed, and the cook started fighting with the gardener and the shepherd with the houseman and the singing stopped and people stopped coming and the Abbot didn't know what to do.  So he went to visit the wise man in the woods. He said to the Abbot, t ell them the Lord is in their midst . He went back and told them what the wise man said. The cook thought to himself, what if it's the gardener. The shepherd wondered if it was the houseman. Everyone began to treat everyone else as if he was the Lord. Soon the joy returned to the Abbey and the singing and