The Fastball

It is 39 years since my father was called to glory. He used to tell this story often. A little boy once went to a local shop to buy something. An old lady was there and when she opened her purse to pay the shopkeeper, the coins fell down and scattered. A one rupee coin rolled and came to rest just next to the boy's feet. A battle raged in the little boy's mind! He quickly shifted his foot a little bit and covered the coin. It was the fastball that bowled him out!

We have all been there some time or other. A quick lie or a temper flare-up or a temptation has caught us like that ‘fastball'. Any amount of determination and any amount of self-discipline cannot overcome sin because sin is so deeply rooted in our nature. This type of overcoming through s...

The Heart of Barnabas

Some time back I was asked to preach on the text from Acts 11:19-30. As I read the passage and meditated on it, one person stood out and that person was Barnabas. When the news of a number of people from Antioch believing in the Lord Jesus came to the church in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to discern what God was doing in the lives of the new believers. When Barnabas saw the grace of God in their lives, he encouraged them in their new faith. ‘Barnabas’ means “son of consolation or son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36).

Barnabas played a major role in the life of Paul. When the newly converted Saul/Paul came to the Christians at Jerusalem, they fearfully avoided him. But Barnabas took Paul and brought him to the apostles and spoke up for him (Acts 9:27). Barnabas pl...

The Presence of the Lord

When the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, asking him to go to Nineveh to cry out against it, Jonah decided to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But as we see the story unfolding, we can well understand that he was not able to escape from His presence at all! David observed this in Psalm 139. David says that God knew everything about him, even his sitting down and his rising up. God understood even his thoughts and his words even before he could speak! Psalm 139:7,8 says, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? ​​If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there". So, Jonah could not escape from the presence of God!

The Bible shows us another picture through the vi...

His hands, His feet…

When God created Man, the Bible says that He created us in His image! But God is Spirit (John 4:24) and hence there is no form or shape! Then what is this image or likeness the Bible is talking about? God created each one of us in His moral likeness. That is to say that God created us with a capacity to love, forgive, and to have compassion just like Him!

Jesus touched the leper; welcomed women and children; dined with the sinners; washed the disciples' feet; and went about ‘doing good'. Jesus had compassion on those who were suffering. Jesus was moved by the grief of the widow of Nain who had lost her son; Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. He was in the ministry of reconciliation and restoration!

If we are sensitive to the prompting of the...

When the roll is called up yonder…

My mother was a pianist, a violinist, and a good soprano singer. And my father sang bass. So, there was a lot of singing at home. We lived in Neyveli at that time. I remember Boniface uncle but do not remember the others. They used to come home to sing from the Songs and Solos and the A&M Hymnal.

One of the songs that were frequently sung was

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.

written and set to music by James M. Black, in 1893 in Pennsylvania.

It was truly one of my favorites and I used to sing it with great gusto. I was...

Do not remember the former things

I recently had an opportunity to listen to Mrs. Bharathi Baskar, a famous Tamil Pattimandram speaker (an inspirational speaker). She is a chemical engineer and is the Vice President of Citi Bank. She made some very valid points when she spoke about a ‘dustbin'. She pointed out that every home has a dustbin to hold trash and many times our own fridges double up as ‘trash' containers holding old stuff. More than that she pointed out that our own hearts and minds become the greatest dust-bins holding hurts, regrets, and pain of all the years past!

How very true! I have heard people say that discouragement, dejection, and disappointment are the tools of the devil. When we hold the past hurts and the unkind treatment we have endured from the hands of the peop...

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

I had been wanting to visit Tranquebar, the place where the first Protestant missionary Ziegenbalg had lived and worked for a long time and the Lord gave me that opportunity in March 2018. Ziegenbalg was born in Germany, on 10 July 1682 to poor but devout Christian parents. Ziegenbalg responded to the King of Denmark’s call for a Christian mission to spread the Gospel in India, an...

No Man is an Island!

During my school days, one of my English lessons was an essay titled “No Man is an Island”. I do not remember who wrote it or the entire essay but his thought has stayed with me ever since. The author explained how Man is a social being and how we need each other to live. No one can truly succeed or even survive when isolated from others. Mankind is connected at different levels, physical as well as emotional. Now the whole world has shrunk due to technology and has become a ‘global village’ and even the economy of one nation depends on other nations!

When we see the anatomy of ‘sin’, again, ‘no man or a woman is an island’. No sin affects only the person who commits it. At one level, it affects the spouse; in the next level, it affects the children and at another...

Me and my God!

An abusive childhood, a loveless marriage, a debilitating disease, a traumatic sickness, or a financial loss, they all need a double portion of God's grace. We have no control over such situations in life. Some of it is allowed by God and sometimes some things are the result of our foolish choices or the result of our sin. Whatever be the reason, we cannot run away from it. We have no option but to live through it and endure it until the Lord Himself intervenes to change that situation. That is why God's unmeasurable grace is so very important!

Such trying situations truly shape us to be who we become in life. Some turn away from God and in so doing and lose hope and the will to live. But when we turn to God, God in His mercy sustains us; protects us; f...

The Emmaus Road!

When we read about the disciples on the Emmaus road in Luke 24:13-33, what impresses us most is the condition of the disciples! They present a very dismal picture; a picture of doubt, defeat, and discouragement. The disciples Cleopas and his friend had been hoping that Jesus would redeem Israel. But instead, Jesus had been crucified! Their hopes of restoration had been completely dashed and now they were confused beyond measure because some women of their group claimed that Jesus was not in the tomb and that He was alive!

The Emmaus road is about the disappointed, the discouraged, and the disillusioned people. It is about those whose expectations have gone unmet. It is about those who are being crushed by life’s circumstances. Surely all of us have walked that r...