This Week With Jesus

* the Free Dictionary How many times in life we take a decision or done or not done something only to realize we have blown it? When failure stares us in the face we dread the result with that sinking feeling, with the knowledge of the outcome of our failure? But guess what? We know of at least 5 Biblical characters who went through failures and yet built on it for success. You see it is not the failure itself that Hurts us but our reaction to that failure . And there are enough examples in the Bible. But God does not turn His face away when we fail. He loves a good come back ! Look at King David - he broke half the commandments! David coveted Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:2-3), committed adultery with her (2 Sam. 11:4) effectively stealing her from Uriah (2 Sam. 12:9), lying to him (2 Sam. 11:12-13) , and eventually having him murdered (2 Sam. 12:9). The prophet Elijah had such a major burnout he ran and hid himself. And what about Paul's awful history, Peter's denial,

Management has a new Mantra these days: Leadership . Leadership courses are being taught all over while management consultants and coaches specialize in Leadership. According to McKinsey, a very respected consulting firm, Leadership is defined as a set of behaviors used to help people align their collective direction, to execute strategic plans, and to continually renew an organization. In short, it addresses one of the activities of management know as influencing. But Leadership is nothing new and the Bible is full of examples of Leadership. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Saul, the apostles, Joseph and so on, all appointed and mentored and led by God, the greatest leader of all. If God produced so many leaders, and is the greatest leader, is it not worthwhile to understand how He defined leadership?  because it logically follows that His definition and therefore His method, would be the best. To understand this, we need to remember that leadership stems from management, which stems

  We are not Robots. We all have the ultimate freedom - the freedom of choice. “Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee” (Moses 3:17). As did Adam, we are also free to choose between good and bad and live our life the way we choose to. These choices reflect both in our professional and personal lives. I can choose to make good decisions or bad decisions for both.  God has given us this gift of free will, the freedom to choose. Why? Because He would have us as His children, not as His slaves or robots . God created humanity in the image of Himself and called them to partner with Him in expanding his creation. But partnership requires trust, so God trusted us and gave humanity the freedom to choose.  So, we can either choose to work and live with God, following His wisdom or we can choose to live our life, according to our minds and heart. Sadly, humans often make the choice to trust their own wisdom over God’s, and our own understanding while making choices.  Like Ur

  Sometimes, challenges can lead us to complete inactivity and paralyses. We do not know what to do or where to go. This is not new.  Read 1 Samuel Chapter 14  to see what I mean. Saul was paralyzed and sort of gave up fighting the Philistines because they outnumbered him and had superior war technology.   But while he sat under a tree in dejection, surrounded by his six hundred men, Jonathan decided to take some action. He reasoned with himself and his armor carrier, in complete logic built on his faith in God's promises, on why and how he could possibly defeat the Philistines alone, only assisted by his armor carrier. It is worthy to note that the carrier did not flinch from his duty, and supported Jonathan verbally and in action. From all human aspects, Jonathan took a leap of faith, supported only by his belief. How many times are we faced with similar hopeless situations and succumb to inaction like Saul? Jonathan lays out the perfect example of battling our own fears, by goin

Sometimes, challenges can lead us to complete inactivity and paralyses. We do not know what to do or where to go. This is not new. Read 1 Samuel Chapter 14 to see what I mean. Saul was paralyzed and sort of gave up fighting the Philistines because they outnumbered him and had superior war technology.   But while he sat under a tree in dejection, surrounded by his six hundred men, Jonathan decided to take some action. He reasoned with himself and his armor carrier, in complete logic built on his faith in God's promises, on why and how he could possibly defeat the Philistines alone, only assisted by his armor carrier. It is worthy to note that the carrier did not flinch from his duty, and supported Jonathan verbally and in action. From all human aspects, Jonathan took a leap of faith, supported only by his belief. How many times are we faced with similar hopeless situations and succumb to inaction like Saul? Jonathan lays out the perfect example of battling our own fears, by going a

  Today's Reading -  Genesis 1 and 3 and Luke 16 1-13 We trust God, maybe in totality, but a question we need to ask ourselves is this: can God trust me? This is a personal question and needs to be probably asked by each of us of ourselves. Unfulfilled vows, so small we may have forgotten. Unkept promises to God and to fellow man, misuse of resources provided by employers, friends, or God Himself, are all indicators of untrustworthiness.  Man has a white washed memory, that is, we tend to forget things which are not convenient, even though we had committed to them. So it is not easy to remember. When we ask of ourselves, in complete honesty, we need to make the effort and remember where all we committed such acts of omission. In the professional world, the hallmark of quality is simply doing what we have promised to do. But do we ? Do we do personal stuff on the employers time? Do we use official resources for personal work? Do we use God given talents for His use or do we just ig

Deuteronomy 11:13-16 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; I think the most heard of principles and religious laws would be the 10 commandments. In fact there are 613 commandments in the OT. Somewhat impossible to follow isn't it? And the Jesus summed them up into 2 and made life so much simpler. The quoted verses somehow indicate blessings for those who follow His commandments as mentioned. Going further, one wonders if there are commandments or expectations God h