October 2021 | Service of Love
Most times, we don’t put those two words together. We think of “fierce” as aggressive, destructive and fearful, and love as soft, tender and peaceful. But “fierce” has another side to it—heartfelt and passionate intensity. This definitely describes the character of Jesus’ love.Th...Read More
The United States of America or any other democratic nation that elects its President or Prime Minister experiences election frenzy when politicians will promise, and people will vote for, what can never be perfectly realized by any human chief executive, no matter how talented, experienced or sin...Read More
God's Work Made Manifest in Us
John records the story of the healing of a blind man by Jesus in Chapter 9:1-7 and then details in the following thirty-one verses the reactions of four groups of people and the story culminates in the blind person recognizing Jesus as the Son of God and “worshipped Him” (v.38).&nbs...Read More
The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same
The role of women has changed little over the past 2,700 years. I want you to compare what women are saying about their roles now with what was said in the year 1,700 and what we read in Proverbs 31, which was written around 700 BC. Author Linda Weber, in her book writ...Read More
Jesus Christ: Light of the World
Lloyd Ogilvie, pastor and one-time Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, originally came from Scotland. One evening, in his native Scotland, he was walking outside without a flashlight. It grew dark. He tripped on a rock and fell down. He put his hand forward to push himself up and fe...Read More
What We Believe makes All the Difference
Many people say they believe in Jesus, but what we believe about Jesus makes all the difference.In John 7, Jesus’ own brothers give a good example of this. They “believed” in Jesus, but they believed He was a magician and a secular Messiah. They saw Him as a celebrity who needed to break o...Read More
God Bless you with His Grace and Peace in the new year of 2021. I pray you experience His Love, Joy and Goodness in abundance. We have just celebrated the birth of our Savior and Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. It is necessary for us to remember why we celebrate the coming of this Child an...Read More
Praise God that He has “overcome the world” for the gospel of the kingdom in the middle of the continuing pandemic.In John 16, just before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”...Read More
Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, came into the world to restore peace with God and peace among human beings. Throughout India and the world, billions of people search for peace. Most people look for peace in the wrong places.Christians say the only true way to peace is through Jesus C...Read More
Light in the Darkness: Extreme Times, Christ's Opportunity
In these days of confusion, chaos and crisis, we are wise not to attribute this primarily to political/social causes, but to the darkness in our hearts—our deep ignorance of God and of ourselves, and our willful blindness to God’s righteousness that reveals our fallen natures.Even as Christians,...Read More
The Christian and the Trials of Life
How should we as Christians regard such a time as this? Some of you may have the coronavirus. Others of you may have friends or loved ones who have suffered or even died from it. Others of you have lost or are about to lose your livelihoods. Still others have faced shortages in food and other ...Read More
A significant event in the life of Solomon is recorded in 2 Chronicles 7. The Lord appears to Solomon a second time in a dream. Solomon perceived that it is God who spoke to him. Whenever God touches us, we know in our heart and realize that it is a supernatural intervention. Solomon realized th...Read More
Faith Healing and Medicine: Biblical Perspectives
The Great Commission is fulfilled only when we witness to a loving and gracious God who is sovereign in all things. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” we read in Psalm 24. This galls Satan and his human allies. They want to banish God from His creation a...Read More
Dear friend,One day, a breathless man came running up to John Wesley, the well-known preacher and revivalist, and shouted, “Sir, your house has burned down! Your house has burned down!”John Wesley calmly replied, “No, it hasn’t because I don’t own a house.”“But Mr. Wesley, sir,...Read More
The Importance of Second Doctrine or Truth
There was a time not too long ago when “Theology” was regarded as the queen of all sciences. Theology comes from two Greek words: Theos (God) and Logos (Word), literally “God-Word” or Word of God”. Take the words such as psychology, sociology and biology. Psychology is the “study of...Read More
What is the meaning and purpose of baptism? Does baptism guarantee our salvation? Is this why Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples and baptize them?Praise God for His wondrous grace by which He provides everything we need for our salvation. Salvation comes to us by grace...Read More
Generational Curses and God's Grace
Imagine yourself wading in the ocean on a warm day. Someone has warned you that the riptides are especially strong today, and it is not a good time to wade, but you ignore the warning. A sudden wave picks you up and carries you out to sea. The ocean current is too strong for you, and you find...Read More
Dear Friend,“Abide in me...he who abides in me bears much fruit.” This is the essence of maturity.Jesus spoke these words to His disciples just before His crucifixion. They are not mystical or religious words, but relational. God is sovereign. He is also a Person we can know and trust....Read More
Marks of a Spirit-filled Church
Years ago, the late Billy Graham, held one of his large evangelistic crusades in a certain city. A prominent minister of that city was approached by a reporter who asked him how he thought the crusade was going.The minister grumbled, “Billy Graham has set back the churches of this city fifty...Read More
Holy living means learning to live as God Himself.God’s central quality is His holiness. His holiness makes Him incomparable to all others. His holiness is the one outstanding quality about which the angels sing. When Isaiah saw God in the temple, God’s holiness caused Isaiah to cry out,...Read More
II Kings 22 records how young King Josiah ascended the throne following years of idolatry, a time of darkness when even Solomon’s temple, once dedicated to God’s glory, became filled with pagan idols. One day, Hilkiah the high priest found the sacred scriptures in the temple, forgotten and...Read More
“Weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28). “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).Countless painters have painted the scene of Jesus’s crucifixion or dramatized it on film. There is a natural tendency among many people to regard the cross...Read More
Dear Friend, Whether in India, Europe, Africa or America, addiction is a major problem. Gerald May defines an addiction as “compulsive, habitual behavior that limits freedom of human desire.” In other words, an addict is a slave. Whatever holds an addict’s attention to this degree has ...Read More
Twenty-year-old Eric Percy, after drinking, got into a loud argument with his girlfriend about 3 am that carried over the neighborhood in the early morning quiet. Finally, with curses that woke everyone, he jumped into his car, turned on the engine, and screeched around the corner. His car accelerat...Read More
The Shoot from the Stump of Jesse
A dead, dry tree stump lies forgotten and neglected in the corner of the yard, covered with weeds and snails. Someone cut down the tree long ago, but no one remembers (or cares) who cut it down or when it was cut down. But one day, a shoot begins to grow from the dead stump. It gro...Read More
Christian Attitude Toward Finances
In recent days, we hear much about and perhaps experienced the penalties of living with a bad economy. The more we learn about the roots of the present distress, we realize that many supposedly “smart” people in responsible positions have made foolish decisions that violate simple principl...Read More
“When we all get to heaven…”Many Christians regard this as the “ultimate” of the Christian life. This is important, but Jesus revealed a far greater and more dramatic destiny for the Christian: His Second Coming. It is the day, not when we leave earth for heaven, but when...Read More
"Encourage One Another with These Words"
There is no doubt about it. We live in troubled times, and they seem to be getting more troubled. In Kerala, we know this by experience as we recover from the worst floods in recorded history. But even these floods, as destructive, terrible and grievous as they are, pale in co...Read More
Demons and the Problem of Evil
Demons are real.Many times, I have encountered them in my ministry. I have heard the testimonies of other people who have encountered them. I have personally cast them out of possessed people and seen the dramatic transformation that took place afterwards. Demons are a difficu...Read More
Someone has defined commitment as “dedication to a particular organization, cause, or belief, and a willingness to get involved.” This definition governs many churches and organizations, but this definition of commitment is insufficient for the church of Jesus Christ. At heart, ...Read More
The Essence of Christian Unity
Christian unity is one of the most desired-and most misunderstood-qualities of the church. In John 17, Jesus prays for unity among His disciples and those who would hear their preaching (that includes you and me). What did He actually pray for?He did not pray for a one-world church under ...Read More
Jesus' Resurrection-Truth or Fiction?
The key to Jesus Christ’s uniqueness is his historical resurrection. If Jesus Christ did not actually rise from the dead in historical time, then Christianity is a fraud. The Bible itself makes this claim in 1 Corinthians 15: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preach...Read More
“Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man,” said Oswald Chambers.The problem is that most of us, most of the time, turn that around. Even in the church, we must fight the tendency to reduce God to a sentimental being whose purpose is chiefly to make us happy and prosperous.Dr. Mart...Read More
What is the glory of God? The dictionary defines “glory” as “very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown; something that is a source of honor, fame, admiration; resplendent beauty or magnificence or prosperity; a state of absolute happiness, gratification, ...Read More
Contentment: The Road to Thanksgiving
In America, November is marked by a holiday known as Thanksgiving Day. The original purpose of the day was to set aside a time of thanksgiving to God for His many blessings. It originated with America’s Christian forefathers, the Pilgrims, who settled in North America “for the glory ...Read More
Danger of Following False Christs
A man looks at a sore on his neck that does not heal. He worries - is it cancer? The thought frightens and horrifies him. He asks advice from others regarding a good doctor. Someone tells him, “Oh, it doesn’t really make any difference which doctor you go to. J...Read More
We live in an age of trouble. Wherever we look, we hear of heart ailments. Millions of people die of heart ailments. A cause of heart disease is stress. We read in the newspapers about terrorism, war, violence, and starvation. This adds more stress to people’s lives.We also experience job and fami...Read More
Dear friend,One day, a breathless man came running up to John Wesley, the well-known preacher and revivalist, and shouted, “Sir, your house has burned down! Your house has burned down!”John Wesley calmly replied, “No, it hasn’t because I don’t own a house.”“But Mr. Wesley, sir,...Read More
Holistic healing - the harmonious relationship of body, soul and spirit - comes when we learn to live our lives governed by the grace of God.How do we know we are governed by the grace of God? I submit to you a simple test. Ask yourself this question: When were you saved? &nbs...Read More
Everyone Needs The Old Testament
A great error is making its way into the church and into our culture as a whole: the belief that we don’t need the Old Testament. We are told the Old Testament is too old, bloodthirsty and obscure to serve any further purpose. Let us cast aside this relic of the past, we are told....Read More
Your Call to Ministry Leadership
To discover and to display Jesus Christ this is the highest purpose of life and ministry.This purpose is especially evident in the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. Someone has called Ephesians “the Rolls Royce of the epistles” because of the succinct way it sets forth the vision, minis...Read More
“Stewardship is another term for fundraising.”How many times have you heard or thought that? This common misconception permeates our culture, even within the church, but it is heresy of the worst sort.Stewardship applies to everything God gives us, including our life experiences, our envir...Read More
Our children are our first mission field.We live in a turbulent world inhabited by troubled youth and children, alienated from their families and society. Apart from a dramatic intervention by God, we face a troubled future because these troubled youth grow up. Soon, they become parents themselves. ...Read More
We live in dangerous times. How easy for us to become alarmed, discouraged, to despair that God has abandoned us. We all need hope in our times - hope greater than wishful thinking, knowledge based upon fact. Hope greater than mere optimism. Hope based upon the Word of God, upon His...Read More
Queen Elizabeth has reigned for almost 65 years. We all know her face, and we know many things about her and her family. But if any of us sought to enter her private quarters at Buckingham Palace without proper credentials, we would be arrested and jailed. No one enters the presence of royalty...Read More
Twenty-year-old Eric Percy, after drinking, got into a loud argument with his girlfriend about 3 am that carried over the neighborhood in the early morning quiet. Finally, with curses that woke everyone, he jumped into his car, turned on the engine, and screeched around the corner. His car accelerat...Read More
Showing Grace to Graceless Parents
To effectively fulfill the Great Commission sometimes depends upon how we honor the most dishonorable people of our lives with God’s grace. This may include parents who mistreated, neglected and abused us. To a degree, we all experience dysfunctional families. All parents ar...Read More