This Week With Jesus

                * 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

                                     1 Timothy 4: v 3-4  3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. A good lie is usually hidden within the truth. As a citizen of Gods world, it is important to be able to uncover a false narrative. Had Adam and Eve been able to cut through the smooth lies of Satan, man would not be where we are. We think that if part of what we are told is true, then the rest of it must be as well. Media is a perfect example of how this works whether the lie is hidden in a picture, music or written message. The best example is Satan in the garden of Eden, when he gave a explanation of why God did not want Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit. It was plausible, it was based on an aspect of the truth, so they fell for it. They did not stop to think of the qualities of God: That H

"It's not enough to avoid doing wrong; we need to be doing good".  Ms. Francis Taylor This is such a powerful observation from Ms. Taylor and puts a double responsibility on us. Our Father sees what we do in secret but He rewards openly.    Here is a wonderful act of doing good, related by Lilly Phillips, in Quora "A man was asked to paint a boat. He brought his paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright red, as the owner asked him. While painting, he noticed a small hole in the hull, and quietly repaired it. When he finished painting, he received his money and left. The next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a nice check, much higher than the payment for painting. The painter was surprised and said “You've already paid me for painting the boat Sir!” “But this is not for the paint job. It's for repairing the hole in the boat.” “Ah! But it was such a small service... certainly it's not worth paying me such a

Genesis 37: 26-28 Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. 28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Forgiveness is not blind. It's does not happen at the spur of the moment. It's a process. Let us take example and inspiration from Joseph. Why and how did he forgive his brothers? His brothers had sinned against Joseph and God. But God had a different plan. He wanted to use Joseph for ensuring continuity of his family. Think about this: If Joseph had been left alone to be a shepherd, would he have ever become the Egyptian second in command? Probably not. Would the race have survived? Probably not. But God does not work on probabilitie

 

                                            One of the four pillars of management is planning. It is also a natural outcome of living - we make plans for every minute of our day. For our careers, our families for every aspect of our life, we have a plan. We, each also have a certain vision for our life as well, which we plan to achieve. Some plans fructify into the desired result, some don't and some actually have the opposite effect . Then we quickly alter our plan to cater to the new realities we face. What we don't realize is that God, our creator, also has a plan for us and  one which does not change (that's the scary part) . Therefore, the degree of success of  our  plan lies in its proximity to Gods plan because we all have a God given purpose and which needs to be fulfilled. End of the day, God is NOT a rubber stamp!  Incidentally, the word  “plan”  appears 205 times throughout the books of the Bible. It begins with and concludes with Revelation; such is the importan

  Starting with 12 followers 2000 years ago, Christ has a following of more than 3 billion people today. This is unprecedented growth. So how did it happen? The simple answer is sharing . Sharing the spiritual and the physical blessings, sharing Gods word and sharing strife. And that is our mandate even today. Sharing God's word doesn't always mean evangelizing to people who don't believe in Him. Sometimes, it means getting together with other believers and strengthening each other as well.  Today, we have one simple request to make of you, our reader: participate with us and share these posts in your Christian friends circles.  “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.” Someone, somewhere needs to hear God so please help us to spread the word as far and wide as possible. God Bless you.