Thanksgiving

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation" (Js 1:12) Temptation is not sin, but yielding to temptation is. We usually blame someone or something for our failure. A study of how Adam and Christ handled temptations gives us many practical lessons. * How many temptations Jesus overcame eventhough temptations flooded upon Him one after another. Though in the Scripture (Mt 4) only three temptations are recorded, we know for sure that the devil departed from Him only "until an opportune time!" (Lk 4:13). A particular temptation stops or weakens when we yield. Because Jesus never yielded, the devil kept on changing his tactics and intensifying his fury. So the Bible says, He was tempted in "all" points. For Jesus the temptations were a series and He overcame whereas Adam failed even at the first single temptation. Folks commonly complain, "How can I withstand if temptations come one after the other?" No one but Job other than Jesus ha...

"Add patience to self-control" (2 Pet 1:6)     A 16th Century Bishop used to say, "Self-control is nine-tenths of Christianity!" Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) commented, "Intemperance is one of the greatest—if not the greatest—of all evils known to mankind." King Solomon warned, "A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls" (Prov 25:28). Uncontrolled temper is an ugly fruit of sin. It's a wolf too ferocious for the flesh to tame. Our only hope is to let Christ transform our temper. Temperance is self-restraint in feelings, words and actions. One of the paradoxical commandments in the New Testament is, "Be angry, and do not sin!" (Eph 4:26). I understand the meaning of this passage better from a modern paraphrase of the New Testament: "If you are angry, be sure that it is not out of wounded pride or bad temper. Never go to bed angry—don't give the devil that sort of foothold....

"He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4) David before Goliath! A lad before a giant! A shepherd boy before a champion! With the armour Saul gave David, he could not even walk (1 Sam 17:38,39). David's brother got angry with him (v28). The King underestimated him (v33). The enemy cursed him (v43). But David had his strength and hope in the Lord (v45). He challenged Goliath, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (v45). When we set out to do missionary work we might meet with intimidating powers, but we don't need to be terrified by the giants of science, technology and modern machinery. One man plus God is the maximum! There is no match for that. We need not be afraid of the Goliaths of today — oppositions that arise in the form of unfair "laws," direct and indirect intimidations and...

"Though He was Son, yet He learned obedience  through the things He suffered" (Heb 5:8)    Disadvantages in life usually keep us humble and obedient.Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was one of the  most godly and successful American Presidents. He had a difficult childhood. His formal schooling was for less than a year. He failed in business in 1831 and was defeated for the legislature in 1832. The next year he again failed in business. His fiancee died in 1835. He was defeated for speaker in 1838. When he got married, his wife became a burden for him. Only one of his four sons lived past age 18. He was defeated for congress, Senate and vice-presidency. But he was elected as President in 1860! There is no one without failures in this world. For those who love God no failure is final. Failures, crises, suffering, losses, disappointments and such things belong to the same category. In the providence of God, all these can be redemptively used to learn obedie...

"Those who are well have no need of a physician  but those who are sick" (Mt 9:12) God works through natural as well as supernatural means to bring health to His people. There is not a single reference in the entire Bible that condemns medical help. Dr. Ambrose Pare confessed, "I bandage, God heals." In answer to his tearful prayer God promised Hezekiah the King through Prophet Isaiah that He would heal him. "Then Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs... So they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered" (2 Ki 20:5,7). Did the Prophet underestimate the healing power of God by prescribing a herbal medicine to a leader of God's people? Or did the apostle Paul undermine the miracle-working power of God by recommending medicinal wine to a young leader in the Church? (1 Tim 5:23). Jesus did not condemn the woman who spent all her money on doctors. Rather He comforted her and cured her (Mk 5:25,26,34). If sickness is a punishment from the Lord, ...

"Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind" (Col 4:2) Prayer is the underlying power to effectively wield any weapon of the whole armour of God (Eph 6:13-18). Therefore the devil does all that's possible to weaken our knees or divert our mind. Here's how you can defeat his mind-oriented strategy. Apart from maintaining a spirit of prayer "always" and "without ceasing," choose that hour for prayer when you are really fresh. Prayer involves mind, spirit, soul and all. Jesus often chose the early hours of the day for His secret communion with the Father. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the Founder of China Inland Mission, spent several hours in private devotion each morning before sunrise. He testified that the sun had hardly seen him on knees! Prayer means going to the Throne of Grace. We have access to the same by the blood of Christ. A conscious acknowledgment of the power and the merits of the blood gives us a strong footing against th...

"He who believes and is baptised shall be saved" (Mk 16:16a) Water Baptism is not an invention of a man or a Church. God the Father instituted it (Jn 1:33). God the Son commanded it (Mt 28:19). The apostles inspired by God the Holy Spirit instructed the believers to be baptised (Acts 2:38). The early Church consistently practised it (Acts 2:41; 8:12; 9:18; 10:47). The only person who never needed to be baptised was Jesus. Even John tried to prevent Him. But Jesus said that it was to "fulfil all righteousness" (Mt 3:15). No spiritual experience is a substitute for water baptism. Cornelius the military official had his prayers answered and alms approved before God. He was even baptised with the Spirit and spoke in tongues. But Apostle Peter "commanded" that he must be baptised in water (Acts 10:1,2,45,46,48). Water Baptism is an outward expression of an inward experience. It is a testimony of our identification with the death, burial and resurr...

"God has not given us a spirit of timidity,  but of power and of love and of sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7) "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts 19:1,2). This was the very first question Paul asked a group of disciples. Not without reason. This is still the most important question for every Christian. The initial reception of the Spirit is called in the New Testament by various names: The Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11; Acts 1:5), Enduement with power from on High (Lk 24:49), Filling (Acts 2:4), Receiving (Acts 2:38; 8:15) and Anointing (Acts 10:38). Oh the glorious "Promise of the Father!" (Acts 1:4). A rightful inheritance for every child of God! Folks encounter certain common problems while seeking the Gift of the Spirit. Because these are not tackled, we have simply too many chronic seekers who are never able to appropriate this blessing. First, the problem of  fear.  Some seekers are very apprehensive lest they would ...

" Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor 6:14)   Many a young Christian has ruined his life because of unholy alliance in marriage. Marriage is a yoke. The Bible forbids unequal yoke (2 Cor 6:14). "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Dt 22:10). Both the Old and the New Testaments strongly condemn intermarriage with unbelievers. Intermingling the "holy seed" with the unconverted is called as "trespass, transgression, iniquity and guilt" (Ezra 9:1-6). Even a widow who is a believer is not permitted to marry an unbeliever. "She is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes,  only  in the Lord" (1 Cor 7:39). Even if your parents press you to marry an unbeliever, for whatever reason, you can firmly refuse. Obedience to parents also must be "in the Lord" (Eph 6:1). If you have fallen in love with an unbeliever, break the affair unless your fiance or fiancee gets genuinely convert...

"God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7b) One of the commonest questions of Christians is, Is tithing compulsory? This is the question of a thankless heart. For all that God has bestowed on us, the tithe, that is the one tenth, is the minimum we can give Him to thank and honour Him. Abraham tithed when there was no law of tithing (Gen 14:20). His was a voluntary act of thanksgiving. His grandson Jacob voluntarily promised God, "Of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You" (Gen 28:22). This voluntary practice became a law of God to His people when the Nation of Israel was constituted. The Law given through Moses says, "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord" (Lev 27:30).The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day were tithing of even "mint and anise and cummin," but they left out justice and mercy and faith. So He taught them that...