The commercialization of Christmas is here, and it is here to stay. I do not know if you listen alot to Christmas music and got drifted into the Christmas jingle, or in fighting your urge to splurge you felt small at the shopping mall or you may have even faked a smile if your friend had asked about your plans for Christmas. We are increasingly overpowered by the commercialization and it takes a lot of insight and spiritual discipline to recognize (and to re-discover)the Christ event . . . Obedience to God might take us through embarassment, ridicule and public disgrace. And doing the right thing is to look for an easy way out. But that may not be the RIGHT thing to do. The strength of what we believe in is measured by how much we are willing to suffer for it. O Come all you faithful” , O come to Bethlehem and come let us adore him - Jesus born in Bethlehem for us.

There are many brothers and sisters who feel that because they have sinned and failed God at some time in their past lives, therefore they cannot fulfill God's perfect plan for their lives now. Let us look at what the Scriptures has to say on this matter, and not lean on our own understanding or our sense of logic. Whatever your blunders or failures, you can make a new beginning with God. And even if you have made a thousand new beginnings in the past and have come to failure, you can still make the 1001st new beginning today. God can still make something glorious out of your life. While there is life, there is hope. All people - young and old - can have hope, no matter how much they may have failed in the past, if only they will acknowledge their failures, be humble and trust God.

In recent months there has been a lot of political, religious and now the killing assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. As we reflect upon this Psalm and think about the current situation, our hearts are filled with pain to hear about problems described as “Chaos” by news headlines. Please pray for Pakistan, that God may bring peace and stability in the country.  Also pray for political and religious leaders that they would fear God and make wise decisions.  Please pray for the Church, leaders and believers that God will protect them and use them to share God’s love to many people. May the Lord grant His special grace to the church to continue in firm confidence in God and to rely on His presence, through His Son Jesus Christ, who came to this earth, as “God with us.”

Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is a 'festival of lights' celebrated especially by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. This festival is spread over three to four days and is one of the most anticipated times of celebration. Homes are lit with hundreds of deeya (clay oil lamps) during the season, to signify victory of good over evil. The day of Diwali is the highlight of this celebratory mood. Families get together to start the day with oil baths, then exchange gifts and sweets, followed by the most exciting event of the year - family fire works. Fireworks begin before the crack of dawn and go well into the day. No amount of description is sufficient to capture all the excitement and celebrations associated with the Diwali festival. You have to be there to experience it.

Do not let yourself be deceived by Dangerous Christianity. Arise, what we need today is a Biblical Christianity! Biblical Christianity offers God’s love with holiness, blessings with obedience, forgiveness with repentance, heavenly joy with godly sorrow, crown with cross, peace with righteousness and grace with godliness. It teaches faith in Jesus with fear of God, immersion of water along with diversion from sin, believing in Christ with transformation of life and following Christ by dying to self. It presents the narrow way Jesus taught. It teaches to fight a good fight of faith, take up one’s cross, deny self, endure suffering, renounce the world, hunger for righteousness, make every effort to live at peace with others, witness Christ to the lost and share generously with the poor and needy. 

Forget sex appeal. Let me introduce feminine-appeal. Feminine-appeal in my definition is not conforming to the ways of the world, but knowing and appreciating how God designed you as a woman and walking up to that noble calling of being a real woman! When a girl knows that, she walks with confidence. God cares about how we live our lives. We are to be ladies worthy of respect, honor and grace. We have a specific and valuable purpose that God gave us. May your eyes be opened with realization from God of that fulfilling power of femininity! Modesty in appearance and behavior allows us to become our full potential. Therefore, modesty should be embraced.

In our day and age with a fast-paced culture of busy…busy…busy, virtualised community with cellphones and texting, and an internet generation of bloggers and myspaces, we don’t completely understand what it means to become disciples. Disciples in that day age meant ‘pupil of a teacher’ . . . . Many times we want Christ to be our Savior but not our Lord. We want citizenship in heaven, without becoming Christ’s love-slave on earth. We desire freedom in Christ, without accepting the cross-lifestyle. If we truly desire to become followers of Christ, we must first become disciples and embrace kingdom discipleship.

Why do we need to think and act green? What does climate change have to do with spirituality? Right from the word go Biblical teaching underlines that creation was God’s handiwork and He considered it good! Stewardship of that good creation is then a divine mandate. In Genesis 2:15 we see that Adam and Eve were given the task of working with God in tending creation. But as a result of sin we also recognise that creation groans in pain (Romams 8:22). The call issued to Adam to work with God is a call that is just as relevant to us here today. We are called to tend and care for creation and help usher in God’s shalom into this fractured world. This is God’s world and His desire is that His children will be good stewards not only of their time and talents and treasures, which are essentially His gifts to us, but also of the world, another valuable gift of His. In that reckoning climate change has everything to do with spirituality. 

 This story is a perfect picture of the church today. We are singing, preaching and talking like chickens. We have even mastered how to be ‘saved sinners’ and tolerate sin, sickness and poverty. However, when someone tries to tell us we are eagles, we refuse to believe it, choosing rather to live as chickens. If we could just get the revelation and allow a seed of the Word to be sown in our hearts, that seed will grow and we will soar high in heavenly places in Christ Jesus far above all principalities, power and might and every name that is named! Ephesians (1:17-22) A time is coming in the earth when there will be many SONS walking in the likeness of Jesus, the Son of God – the firstborn-again person who showed us what a human united with God could do on the earth. There will be a manifestation of the Sons of God that will invade the earth in a greater way than is already happening. 

In July 2000 God captured the heart of a South African Christian businessman, Graham Power, with a vision based on 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." South Asian Connection joins the local and global community of believers in saturating the world in prayer. We encourage all South Asian Christians to be an active part of this move of God in your family, cell-groups, church and community.  To learn more . . .

Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross! Therefore [because He stooped so low] God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  And every tongue confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11 Amplified Bible. 

An oft-quoted Bible verse in Christian discipleship programmes is 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" But the new disciple soon finds out that at least in his case this Scripture is not experienced. He wonders why. He dares not ask others about it. He struggles within himself, sometimes even for years, without finding a satisfactory explanation. May be, dear reader, you are in such a condition. The total change promised in this text seems to be out of your reach. You are however constantly bothered by the question, When will I ever change?

Eversince a child, I had a severe stammering problem where I could not even speak clearly or read a simple sentence fluently. Though, I went to a speech therapist, there wasn’t much improvement. As a consequence, I was always afraid to speak in public as I did not want to be ridiculed . . . Be faith inspired as Jasbir Dhaliwal proclaims with confidence "I have come to believe that  nothing is impossible with God and He makes all things beautiful in His time."

Achieving excellence in everything is man's greatest struggle in life. We want to excel in everything we do—in academics, knowledge, skills, jobs, finances, possessions, business, etc. There is nothing wrong in excelling in these areas of life. In 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Paul commends the church for their “faith, speech, knowledge, complete earnestness, and love” (v-7a). But he says, “SEE (v-7b) that you also EXCEL in the grace of GIVING.”  We seldom think of excelling in the area of giving. Giving is one of the most important characteristics of a believer. When Christians learn to give, they learn to share in one of the greatest acts of God. Because God gives, we learn giving from God Himself. 

Why manage time? We all have a choice either to live life aimlessly or live life with a purpose. To lead a life with purpose we need to prioritize and structure our lives. And what is the ultimate purpose in life? I believe the answer is to discover GOD'S plan for our lives and act upon it. And GOD has given us enough time to accomplish HIS purposes in our lives. Read on and be blessed as Junu Thomas leads you in a process in time management.

In May 2003 God gave Sanjeevan Chandrabose, a 16 years old student in Oslo, Norway a vision...to reach the global Tamil community with the love of God through radical, cutting edge means. This vision has grown from an online song portal to become the prime Tamil Christian Multimedia website with its first ever WAP site for Tamil Christian mobile users, the world's first 24/7 live Tamil Christian WebTV and the site with the largest collection of Tamil audio & video songs. Sanjeevan dreams BIG for God and is now focussing on a new generation of media and mobile technology...broadcasting Jesus on the airwaves.

2007 is going to be an interesting year for me. I say this because there's a number of things that's changed within me. I have actual goals for the new year and I'm actually excited at the possibility of doing some really cool things.

Prophet T.B. Joshua, popularly known as ‘The Man In The Synagogue’ is the Founder and General Overseer of the SCOAN. He is 43 years of age and God is using him mightily to bring about salvation, deliverance, healing and the manifestation of God’s supernatural powers to multitudes around the globe. They include the healing of HIV / AIDS, cancer and barrenness; deliverance from demonic spirits; restoration of sight to the blind, life to the limbs of the crippled, and many others. Read on about the National Healing Campaign with TB Joshua to be held in Singapore between 27th November till 3rd December, 2007 . . .“The age of miracles has not passed. The miracle worker is still alive; His name is Jesus Christ.”

A wise man of God recently told me, “The opportunity of a lifetime has to be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.”  Wow.  What a profound statement.  And so true.  God gives us opportunities to make a difference in the lives of those around us.  Those opportunities are here today, gone tomorrow.  We can either seize those opportunities as they come and make a positive impact in people’s lives, or we can let the opportunities pass us by, and in effect, make a “negative” impact . . . . Sungeeta Jain, in her eloquent article, makes a case for the power of words in the destiny of your own personal life and in the lives of others.

  Joni Ereckson, from a healthy teenager to a quadriplegic, did not allow her handicaps to overcome her heart's desires and aspirations nor did she harden her heart and turn away from God. The underlying element that caused Joni and people like her with physical, emotional, psychological or even economic challenges to act differently is courage. Courage is not only the opposite of despair, it is also acting or moving in spite of despair. Dr. K. Abraham, a clinical psychologist with the University of St. Thomas in Florida, USA and President of LifeChangers Broadcasting shares six practical ways to develop courage in the midst of life’s circumstances, complexities and challenges.