Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

Today’s Scriptures have one thing in common: It is the profile of a widow. In ancient times, widows needed protection, otherwise they would suffer terribly without help. On one hand, in the OT God commanded the prophet Elijah to be fed by a widow. It turns out as we would expect, she was on her very last meal, yet this is the person God was entrusting his servant to, for his sustenance. It doesn’t seem to make sense right? We usually expect to send a guest to a home that is well to do, instead of one that is poor/ lacking. God does nothing, without a clear purpose: His servant was sent in that household for a reason: to save her and her son. What a clear picture of the character of our God reaching out into the world, to bring Salvation and deep healing into our lives. We also see this same divine care/compassion for a poor widow in the NT: Jesus was in observation mode in the Temple. There she was: A poor widow simply putting two coins in the Temple treasury, which btw was everything

Jesus asked questions that I think should be at the center of our study. How we respond shows our position in relation to the Kingdom of Heaven. Twice Jesus asked: What do you want me to do for you ? Initially, this question made me think about my own struggles and my most pressing need to be sorted out. What is it that you want God to do for you? Will your choice address your physical needs or your spiritual needs? God cares for both. How hard is it for us to recognize our need to amend our whole way of life to conform to the Bible's New Testament life? Is this the bottom line we are afraid of? That we won't be able to follow Jesus fully? Often our wants and desires show how less concerned we are with our souls’ welfare. Jesus cares about our total healing; a life full of joy and peace. To be perfectly honest, nowadays joy and peace are the most missing or rare ingredients in our lives, why? Because it’s easy to approach life the wrong way: We all have ideas of what will mak

Why is it important for all Christian believers to study the profile of the rich young ruler? What was he like? What does his life and attitude teach us about our own lives? He is described as a wealthy, good-quality kind of person. Folks, he is us! A person with influence, who has made it in life by his achievements, and we can see it with the kind of respect he gets in the world. He has the right perspective too! He recognizes something valuable in Jesus the Son of God. He worshiped Jesus and asked him a significant question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Those of you who are checklist people, you would love the rich young ruler. By the way, this is how I imagined him to be: He had cross-checked everything in his life! He had succeeded in many things, but this question of everlasting life was still daunting to him. Jesus was his perfect link to it! Of course, he had done well his religion homework ever since he was young! He had obeyed God’s commandments! That's e

We are unfished products until we meet Christ. What I mean is, we are untransformed until we meet Jesus and become transformed into His likeness. That’s why we often see ourselves in the story of the children of Israel. The Bible describes the rabble among them at the time when they had just been divinely rescued from their Egyptian slavery. We would think they would be grateful to God but Moses was faced with an angry mob. Israelites were craving for Egyptian food. They alarmingly forgot their own character as God’s people and threw a fit: Very disgraceful and ungrateful! They couldn’t wait to be in the promised land and expected a champagne lifestyle all the way. No, there is a bit of suffering on the way to where God is taking you. God is definitely willing to lead us. The trouble is: we act strangely like Israel when we face suffering. We grumble and forget the mountains that the Lord removed for us to be where we are now. Moses couldn’t deal with it. The letter of James attempts

The letter of James delivers a sharp rebuke to all of us with regards to the words that come out of our mouths. With just our tongue, we are able to bring so much destruction beyond belief. Case in point: World War 1 began with bad words. Wrong words can give offence to the wrong ears, and the result can be the fall of empires, or the wiping away of complete nations. I want us to consider the weighty responsibility that God has given us when he granted us speech. Do we use our speech for the healing of nations or for their destruction? There is power behind our words. The words that we utter can create situations. Funny enough, that’s exactly how our God created the world. He spoke creation into existence: “And God said: Let there be light.” I spotted a similar occurrence in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus asked his disciples: “ But who do you say that I am ?” Peter answered: You are the Messiah . That confession itself was powerful because it created a huge amount of faith in Peter’s life.

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Jesus declared. Those are puzzling words that only the Spirit of God can illumine our understanding regarding the mystery behind Jesus’ words. Have you ever been misunderstood? I guess that’s a yes. It can be painful. For those who have lived in countries that do not speak your language? You understand. Jesus had laid out exactly in no uncertain terms what he meant by our having communion with him. To his audience, it sounded gross and unthinkable. So, Jesus had to ask: “ Do you take offense at this ?” We take offense all the time at things in our earthly Kingdoms. Life in God’s Kingdom is different. Maybe some mystery we won’t understand, but our spiritual lives need to be nourished in God’s Kingdom. If not, first anemia and starvation in the death zone. This is what I call the implications of life in God’s Kingdom. For e.g. If you live in America, you have to follow its laws. It won’t matter