The Pain of Rejection!

Rejection is the single most common emotional wound we sustain in daily life.

Mark R. Leary of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA has this to say about rejection: ‘In many ways, hurt feelings can be regarded as the “rejection emotion” in that people's feelings are hurt by events that connote that other people do not regard their relationship with them to be as valuable or important as the individual desires, thereby leading them to feel rejected’.A great deal of human emotion arises in response to real, remembered, or imagined rejection by other people.

When scientists placed people in functional...

The Five Treasures

Pastor Isaac of St. Peter's Church, Semmenpet, Chennai is a very dear man of God who visits us without fail on our birthdays and wedding anniversary. Every time he comes, he will bring a Word from God. This time when he visited us, he spoke to us about five treasures that a man must seek in this life. They were Jesus, the Bible, the Church, a righteous man's home and of course heaven. Without accepting Jesus there is no way to heaven for Jesus said that He is the way. The church is the fellowship of believers. The Bible says in 2 Tim 3:16,"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness". I thought these four treasures were very obvious but the 5th one was very perplexing to me....

The Master Key

I happened to read the book by Ronald Dunn on faith titled, "The House that Grace built". It ministered to my heart and I want to share it with you!

Dunn says that salvation is like a house built beside a busy highway. He was born on that highway and was following it to its destination. As time went on things became more difficult and the backpack that had been issued at the beginning had grown heavier. One day his attention was drawn to the side of the highway to a magnificently constructed house. Over its narrow front door, a sign announced ‘Whosoever Will May Enter and Find Rest'. Somehow, he realized that if he could reach the inside he would be saved from the highway and its destination. He tried the front door but, it was locked. Why would some...

The Tragedy of Unbelief

Have you ever watched a cricket match or any other match for that matter? Recently we had the opportunity of watching the State Level Invitation Basketball Tournament for Indian Bank trophy in Chennai. The finals were played between the Indian Bank team and the Income Tax team. Both teams were very good and equally strong. It was a nail-biting match. It was anybody's game until the end but in the final minutes, the Income Tax team scored and won the trophy! When we watch a match, ball by ball, we will be very tense not knowing how the match would end. But the same match, when we watch the replay, we are not tense at all. Why? It is because we know how the match ended. Faith is like that!

Unbelief is the thief of God's blessings. But faith is a possessor!...

The Manifestation of Faith!

Billy Graham says that according to the Bible faith will manifest itself in three ways. It will manifest itself in doctrine—in what we believe. It will manifest itself in worship —our communion with God and the fellowship of the church. It will manifest itself in morality—in the way we live and behave as long as we live on planet Earth!

Abraham took his son to Moriah to sacrifice him fully believing that God was able to fulfill His promises to him in some way. Abraham told his servants, “… the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” (Gen 22:5). Obedience to the Word even at a great cost is a manifestation of faith!

When Potiphar’s wife enticed Joseph, Joseph said that he cannot do that great wickedness, a...

Faith, like a Mustard Seed

It is amazing how Jesus used everyday things to teach great truths! Jesus has taught us a great lesson about faith using the mustard seed. The mustard seed in Israel was a small seed but it grew up to be a big tree, large enough for the birds of the air to find shelter. The first-time Jesus talked about the mustard seed was in a parable teaching about the kingdom of heaven. On another occasion, Jesus used the mustard seed to teach about faith. In Caesarea Philippi, a man asked Jesus to heal his son who was possessed by a demon (Matthew 17:14-21). His disciples had tried but had been unable to heal the boy. However, when Jesus rebuked the demon, it came out of the child. The disciples were amazed and asked Jesus why they were unable to heal the man's son. Jesus said t...

Association

I had been desiring to see sunset and sunrise at Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari) for a long time. We had been to Kanyakumari many times but we used to go in the morning and return in the evening. So, this time we made an earnest attempt but as the Lord willed we could neither see the sunset nor sunrise due to thick clouds! Instead, we were able to see the Thiruvalluvar statue and visit the Vivekananda Rock Memorial which we had not done earlier. Standing at the Vivekananda rock brought to my mind his words about ‘association' which I had read sometime back.

Swami Vivekananda had explained ‘association' as follows: "The raindrop falls from the sky; if it is caught in the hand it is pure enough for drinking. If it falls in the gutter, it's value drops...

Teach us to Number Our Days!

Many prayers of Moses are recorded in the Bible and Psalm 90 is one of them. Psalm 90 is attributed to Moses and it makes it the oldest of the psalms, dating back to some 3,000 years or more. It might have been written after the death of Miriam and Aaron towards the end of Moses’ life.

This Psalm is always read during the funeral service because here Moses asks God to teach him to number his days! When compared to God who is eternal, Man’s life is truly short. Psalm 90:4,5 says, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” and we are like the grass which grows up. We do not know the years God has ordained for us.

Sometimes somethings upset us. It may be due to some people or some events from t...

The Third Dimension of Faith

Every believer is saved by faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith."This faith results in believing the perfect sacrifice of Jesus and exchanging our sins for the righteousness of God! This is the first dimension of faith. The Philippian jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and Paul and Silas told him “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:30,31). This is the first dimension of faith.

There is another dimension to faith. It is something other than the saving aspect of faith. We say that we need faith to move the mountains in our lives. We say that we need faith to receive healing. This faith is also a gift to the believer in order that we might rec...

A Changed Life

We do not have much information about Matthew even though he is the author of the first and the longest Gospel in the New Testament. We first meet Matthew in Capernaum, in his tax booth on the main highway (Matthew 9:9) collecting taxes. Tax collectors were notoriously corrupt because they extorted far and above what was owed, to ensure their personal profit. Because they were working on behalf of the Roman government, no one dared complain about their deeds. Matthew was named Levi (Mark 2:14) before being called by Jesus. We don't know whether Jesus gave him the name Matthew or whether he changed it himself. It is a shortened of the name Mattathias, which means "gift of Yahweh," or simply "the gift of God."

Matthew displayed one of the most...