Summer Meditations
When I take an up close, personal look at my faith, I am most amazed not during times of relative peace and security. Rather I am most amazed at what this relationship I have with Jesus does for me when I walk through tough times, when I’ve made mistakes, when the road ahead is marked with uncertainty, or when I feel the weight of some heavy burden on my shoulders. There is this overwhelming sense of God and the reality that my life is firmly in his grasp.More than ever I look at the brokenness of the world around me,…
Suicide is said to be the third-leading cause of death in India.Isn’t it astonishing to know that a mortality rate of 120 000 people committing suicide in India would mean more than 300 suicides per day, not less than 14 suicides per hour and one suicide in every five minutes? Moreover, isn’t it heartbreaking to come to know more than 400 000 people attempting to commit suicide in India would disclose about 1100 attempted suicides per day, about 46 attempted suicides per hour and one suicide attempt in every one minute and thirty seconds?
Why can't we be real before God? Tell Him what we feel, confess to Him
if we are perplexed or confused, share with Him our fears and dreams,
and ask Him to show us which way we should proceed, all the while
expressing our confidence in His love, wisdom and power. What is going
to succeed, an honest and sincere cry for help, or a pronunciation of
the right words without any conviction behind them? The Bible is so very true when it says that we do not receive because we do not ask (Jas.4:2). Is it not silly of us not to receive the things God wants to give us just because we would not ask? How 'poor' we can be because of a silly understanding of being positive!
Solomon gave a piece of advice to people that they should not be excessively righteous (Eccl.7:16). What does this mean except that we should not take righteousness to extremes? Isn’t it true that some well meaning people foolishly extend themselves beyond what God requires and, as a result, end up in an unnatural, unrealistic and impractical approach to righteousness or spirituality? . . . . But in seeking to be really godly, they went beyond what God wanted, and they got sidetracked with silly little issues (e.g., “not touching”), missing the main point (Matt.23:23-25).Like Paul said, all these types of foolish ways look as though they will make us godly (Col.2:23). But they are deceptive. Generally speaking they make us feel superior to others around us. When we begin to go in these directions it does not look as though we are making a mistake. We think we have found a secret of godliness. But even though the deviation may be small in the beginning, ultimately it leads us far away from the goal.