The Living Word

A friend of ours who had read my book, “Engaging with God’s Word Through the year 2017”told me this: He said, “I can hear your voice; I can hear you speaking to me when I read your book.”I was amazed when I heard it!

Isn’t that what God wants to hear?When the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and other writers of the Bible to record His Words for us to read, did not God want us to hear His voice and hear Him speak to us?

The Word of God (The Bible) is living. We know it for the Bible tells us so. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, …….“(Heb. 4:12). When Man was formed, “LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;…” (Gen 2:7). The Bi...

Faith and Action

King Hezekiah was one of the good kings who ruled Judah. The Bible says in 2 Chr. 29:2 that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Because of the apostasy of Ahaz, his father, the Temple of the Lord was shut and filled with debris. As soon as Hezekiah came to power, he opened the doors of the Temple. He ordered the Levites to sanctify themselves and then start repairing and cleaning the Temple. Then Hezekiah restored the Temple worship with sacrifices and singing. After restoring Temple worship, Hezekiah observed the Passover and sent letters to all Israel calling them to return to the Lord! The commitment and zeal of King Hezekiah is very commendable and whatever he did, he did with all his mind and all his soul!

What impressed me most was the action...

Man-pleasers or God-pleasers?

King Jehoshaphat was a godly king of Judah. His reign coincided with the rule of Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram (Jehoram) kings of Israel. We read about Ahab and Jehoshaphat in 1 Kings 22. When Jehoshaphat visited Ahab, Ahab invited Jehoshaphat to go to war with the Syrians to redeem Ramoth Gilead. Ramoth Gilead belonged to the tribe of Gad. It was a Levitical city and one of the cities of refuge east of river Jordan. But at that time, it was under the control of the Syrians and Ahab wanted to reclaim it. Jehoshaphat agreed to go with Ahab but wanted to inquire of the Lord before launching out in battle. Ahab immediately gathered 400 of his prophets who prophesied that they can go to war and that they will have victory.

We can actually feel the uneasiness and discomf...

A Very Present Help!

When we read about Abjiah, the King of Judah in 1 Kings 15, we see an overwhelmingly negative picture. We read, “And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 15:3). In 2 Chronicles 13th chapter, the Chronicler records another incident. In the 3rd year of Abijah’s reign, Jeroboam, the King of Israel came with a mighty army of eight hundred thousand chosen men. Abijah set his valiant men of war, four hundred thousa...

The Dry Bones Live!

Long time back, I heard a Pastor speak from Ezekiel Chapter 37, in an engagement. It was an unusual passage for an engagement! He pointed out that, in the valley of dry bones, when all the bones started getting together, they did not randomly join together. Each bone joined with the right bone in the right skeleton. Probably this accounted for the rattling sound!! ( Eze 37:7). In the English Bible we read it as, “… the bones came together, bone to bone”. In Tamil Bible it is written as,“…ஒவ்வொரு எலும்பும் தன்தன் எலும்போடே சேர்ந்துகொண்டது .” 
So the Pastor concluded, that the bride and the groom of that day had looked all around and found the right bone to be joined in holy matrimony!

It was an interesting thought, no doubt. As I thought about it more and more,...

The Power of Two…

Recently, I was reading about draft horses which are very large, muscular animals that, throughout history, have been used for pulling great loads. A single draft horse can pull a load up to 4,000 Kgs or 4 Tons. But two draft horses pulling together can actually pull three times as much. If the two horses that are pulling together have trained with one another and have worked together before, the two trained horses in tandem can actually pull 16 Tons, which is a load four times as heavy as either of the horses could pull by themselves!

God knew the power of TWO and that is why He created man and woman and instituted marriage. That is why He sent the disciples two by two to proclaim the good news. Jesus promised in Mt 19:20, ”For where two or three come toge...

The Kite on a String

A kite was flying high. As she soared above the treetops, she looked down on the house tops and smiled in glee. She felt the tug on her string and she thought if only she was not restrained by that string, how much higher she could fly! She felt she could even fly over the moon! What the kite did not realize was that without that string holding her, she could not be flying at all and if the string snapped at some point, then she would have crashed and come to nothing. All those who have flown kites know this to be true!

I heard this story many years ago, on our 20th wedding anniversary from (Late) Rev. Bramwell. I do not remember the text on which he preached that day but this story has stuck with me ever since.

Many times, we think we are being restraine...

The Man who built on the Rock……

Jesus gave the example of a wise man and a foolish man when He taught about who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 7:21-27). Very commonly we hear this story being interpreted differently. The wise man is supposed to be the one who built his life on Jesus, the Rock and the foolish man was the one who did not have Jesus in his life.

If we read the above passage carefully, it very clearly says in v24,26, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house on the rock……But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand”.

Both the wise man and the foolish man had ‘known’ Jesus. Both ‘listened’ to His words. Whi...

Experiencing God Today

Henry T. Blackaby in his book ‘Experiencing God’ says that during Bible times, people came to know God through specific experiences. Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. When the ram for the sacrifice was provided providentially, he came to experience God as a “Provider”. Hagar had given up on life in the desert of Beersheba. But when God opened her eyes, she saw a well of water. Hagar called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Moses at the Red sea was not intimidated by the situation but experienced God as the ‘Deliverer’.

In the same way, we too experience God in many ways in our own lives.

Who am I, O Lord God?

King David was not a saint. He went through trying times following his fall. He had problems from within himself as well as from within his family. But David constantly sought the Lord and strengthened himself in the Lord. That is why God found him as the ‘man after His own heart’.

God communicated three things to David through Nathan (1 Chronicles 17:7,8). “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a name like the name of the great men who are on the earth”. God also said in v11, “I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom” and in...