This Week With Jesus

  "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path..." Epipremnum aureum – a tropical vining plant, in the Araceae, found in Northern Australia through Southeast Asia into China, Japan, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan , also known as money plants are very popular indoor plants in these countries. Like all plants, they need water and sunlight. Recently, one made a strange discovery: a money plant in the room, next to the windows, turned and strained its stems and leaves towards the window! We turned its direction and in a few days it turned back towards the light. At least to us, this was a strange phenomenon. What was obvious was that the plant would strain to get life, from the sun and get energy through the process of photosynthesis, which is the process by which plants get life and spread oxygen for our benefit.  What gives us life? Food and water, yes, but like what the sunlight was to the plant, Gods word is for us. It converts negativity into positivity, fear to h

For many economists and marketers the concept called Bottom of the Pyramid is like the ultimate market. Essentially it demonstrates that the least economically enabled people are the vast majority located at the bottom of the pyramid. As you go up the pyramid towards the apex, economic power starts increasing with the most powerful at the top of the pyramid. It is interesting that the Son of God, sitting at His right hand, chose to be born into a family at the bottom of the pyramid of those days. How do we know this? When Mary had to make the offering for the atonement after the birth of Jesus, according to Leviticus 12:6–8, she could choose between a lamb, pigeons and turtle doves, which were the cheapest and affordable by the poor. Mary chose pigeons, as described in Luke 2:22–24 where Luke explicitly says that Joseph and Mary take the option provided for poor people (those who could not afford a lamb; Leviticus 12:8), sacrificing "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.&qu

* Picture credits: The Chosen Read John Chapter 3  John 3 is a very familiar chapter to most Christians which talks about a very senior Pharisee named Nicodemus. While John 3 has many teachings for us, one question that does come up is who was Nicodemus? Was he a follower, believer, enemy or what? Being a very senior Pharisee, one does wonder about his interest in Jesus. Nicodemus did believe in Jesus but his beliefs were safely hidden away in the night. It was only after Jesus death that he came into a public demonstration of his faith and belief. Sometimes one wonders, are we like Nicodemus? Do we practice our faith in safe privacy in the dead of the night? Do we get too carried away with our professional duties, professional friends and other worldly demands and Jesus takes a back seat while our other priorities take the driver's seat? Sadly I think it does happen that Jesus becomes a guest in our life, relegated to the night, when no other priorities take importance. We learn a

(Contd.) Why did Paul address this question with such urgency and you can hear that urgency in his words. It was because some false teachers in Corinth were preaching that there was no resurrection of the dead. They were of the view that once you die that was the end. The reason for this line of thinking is that some people treat god’s word arbitrarily. They take parts that they like and reject others that they don’t. And mind you some preachers do that even today. But if God’s word is the authority then all of it must believed even if there are some parts which may be difficult to understand.  Paul’s message to the Corinthians and to us is that to deny our own resurrection is to deny Christ’s rising from the dead.   And denying the resurrection of Christ destroys the very essence of the Christian faith which is eternal life through the risen and ever-living Jesus Christ. In verses 14 to 18 Paul makes 4 very crucial points. A. Denial of the resurrection

Bible Reading 1 Corinthians 15 verses 12 to 22 If you like to listen to politicians and world leader interviews the journalist interviewing the leader will sometimes ask the leader a question around what he or she would do if faced with a certain situation. The political leader in most cases dismisses the question with this response ‘that is a hypothetical question and I do not want to answer it’. That is because the politician does not want to be led into making a public statement that could hold him or her accountable in the future. But today we are going to consider and seek answers to a hypothetical question a question that is extremely critical to our Christian faith. Last Sunday we celebrated Easter which is also resurrection Sunday. We celebrate the rising of our Lord from the dead never ever to die again. The question is:  what if there was no Easter? What if there were no resurrection?   Most people would refuse to consider that possibility and like the politician, put it down

The word hypocrite comes from a Greek word that means “play actor.” A hypocrite is someone pretending to be something that he or she is not in order to receive recognition or gain. Matthew 21 18 and 19 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. This passage is a shocker! To anyone who reads the Bible, Jesus, son of God comes across as a meek, non-aggressive, unselfish person who would not be harsh to anyone, especially if they showed harshness to them. After all he said blessed are the meek. That same person who, when beaten, humiliated and crucified did not react and in fact prayed for the forgiveness of His torturers and murderers. Now how is it that such a person curses a tree, simply because He was hungry and the tree had not produced fruit, though it had a foliage of lea

One often wonders why God took the Israelites to the "land of milk and honey" or the Promised Land, through such a circuitous route for 40 years when a shorter route was available? In our modern minds it is difficult to grasp this as it is difficult for us to accept the wait for deliverance when we are struck by our own problems, or our own red sea. But God had His reasons then as He does now. An analyses of the red sea experience throws the light on this and we quote from the Messianic Bible.com for a wonderful and thought provoking article, helping each one of us to go through our own waiting period and our own Red Sea.  We urge our readers to do read this HERE OR click to read below.  https://free.messianicbible.com/holiday/crossing-red-sea-god-brings-us-long-way/