Under His Wings!

My mother, Indrani Asirvatham, was a pianist.  She also had a sweet soprano voice.  During my college days, we used to choose songs with meaningful words from 'Songs and Solos,' and we used to learn to sing.  We just sang by ourselves as the words ministered to our souls!  This was one such song!

Under His wings, I am safely abiding;

Though the night deepens and tempests are wild,

Still, I can trust Him—I know He will keep me;

He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

The Purpose Driven Life

Pastor Rick Warren, the author of 'The Purpose Driven Life,' says we do not find our life's purpose because we start at the wrong starting point, ourselves!  We did not create ourselves, and so we cannot find the purpose of our existence by looking within us as Eastern religions suggest.  If someone makes a gadget and gives it to us, we cannot understand its purpose unless the designer tells us!  The Lord of the Universe has created us, and only He can tell the purpose for which He created Man.  The Bible says, "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, …. All things were created through Him and for Him" (Col. 1:16).  That means we cannot understand...

You are not forgotten!

Movies and documentaries of the Second World War fascinate me.   The strategies employed and the meticulous planning behind every victory are worth understanding and appreciating.  They are great to read and watch because we know the final outcome.  I read an account of a rescue mission in WWII  history sometime back.  When the US Army was forced to retreat from the Philippines, some of their soldiers became prisoners of the Japanese.  By early 1945, only 513 men were alive at the Cabanatuan prison camp.  In an astonishing feat, 120 US Army soldiers and 200 Filipino guerrillas outflanked 8000 Japanese soldiers to rescue the POWs.  Alvie Robbins was one of the rescuers, and he later described how he found a...

Christmas disillusionment

I love to read Calvin and Hobbes's comic strips written by cartoonist Bill Watterson.  The main characters in this strip are Calvin, a six-year-old boy, and his (toy) tiger, Hobbes.  In one story, Calvin makes a long list of his expected gifts from Santa.  His Mom takes the list and reads it with much apprehension.  She knows that Calvin will be a sad little boy on Christmas day because she cannot buy any of the items on that list!  And that got me thinking, will I be happy or sad on Christmas day.  The level of joy at Christmas is directly related to what we seek at Christmas.  What would make your Christmas wonderful and satisfying?  Think about it.  Is it find...

To whom did Jesus come

Awe and wonder mark the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.  Now, notice to whom the angels first go and share the good news.  I might have expected the angels to have gone to the Temple to tell the religious leaders what God was doing.  They should have gone to the governor and let him know that something extraordinary was happening in Bethlehem.  They should have gone to Herod.  After all, he was the king of Judea at that time.  They should have told Herod that God was doing a great thing in Bethlehem and that the King of kings had been born.  But the angels, instead of telling the elite and influential, announced Messiah's birth to a bunch of shepherds.  Of all the p...

Run to Win

As we near the end of the year, we are reminded of the many who have been called to glory!  Some have been plucked away in the prime of life and some have finished their innings.  Those of us who are still running, have to be careful to run our race carefully till the end.  Paul uses the illustration of a runner in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 to describe a Christian. When we think of sports, we know that some will get disqualified. Some may fail to reach the goal. All run, but only one receives the prize. Even great players have a bad day! Not everyone can participate. It is all for a select few.  But in Christian faith, the call to run is for every believer!  All of us can finish well and receive eternal life. If it is just for a select few, I will not be...

God of Hope!

Hope is a tricky word.  Oxford Dictionary defines it as, 'a belief that something you want will happen.'  But we use it as an uncertainty only.  If we say, 'I hope you are coming tomorrow,' it means the person's coming is doubtful!  Dr Curt Richter, a scientist, took a dozen rats and placed them into buckets half-filled with water to test how long they could swim before giving up.  Unsurprisingly, the rats gave up and sank after just 15 minutes.  In the second experiment, they did the same as above, but right before the rats gave up, they plucked them out, dried them off, let them rest for a few minutes, and put them back in for a second round.  Now, the rats swam much longer than t...

God’s Guidance!

Parks in our neighborhood (Anna Nagar, Chennai) are not very big, so my husband does not like walking in those parks.  We usually walk along the sidewalks in Anna Nagar.  The sidewalks on significant roads have maintenance holes covered with covers at regular intervals.  My husband always says that we should not walk on those covers.  So whenever I see a cover, I hear my husband in my head saying, 'Walk around it.'  It is challenging not to listen to his voice, so I invariably walk around it!  In every believer's heart, we can hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit pointing us in the right direction, but obeying or ignoring it rests with us.  When we get angry with someone and utter...

Worthy of God’s Blessings!

There is an incident recorded in Luke 10:1-12 where Jesus sent His followers out two by two.  Jesus gave clear instructions, asking them not to carry money, a bag, a knapsack, or sandals.  Whenever they entered a house, Jesus instructed them to say, "Peace to this house." Jesus said if a son of peace were in the place, then peace would rest on him, and if not, it would return to the disciples!  There is a profound principle here!  Just because someone pronounced a blessing of peace, peace will not be in that person's life; he has to deserve it!  When people pray for us, they pronounce many blessings upon our lives.  We sometimes stand in long queues to get prayed over with blessings so that o...

A Prayer of David

Psalm 142 is titled 'A Contemplation of David,  A Prayer when he was in the cave.'  David calls this prayer a 'maskil' or a Psalm of instruction because of the lessons he had learned while in the cave that he desired to teach others.  The cave was probably Adullam cave, mentioned in 1 Samuel 22:1, and Psalms 34 and 57 are also associated with this period of David's life.  David prayed when he was in the cave and every time he faced oppression.   Charles Spurgeon says if David had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in caves and in distress, it would have been better for him.  While in the palace, David arose from his bed, looked down from the roof, and fel...