The Vertical Perspective Because God doesn't always do things the way we think He should, it is difficult to appreciate that maybe some of the disappointments and hurts we experience are part of His plan for our lives. But ask Joseph, Job, and some of the "heroes of faith" whose lives and characters were fashioned through difficult circumstances.
Free Will~~ A Personal View According to the biblical account, Adam and Eve made their choice and the result is a sin-infested world with their future generations having the propensity to act in opposing ways to God and His original purpose for mankind. And we are still experiencing the effects of this choice billion of years later.
Spiritual Frustration Do you ever pray and pray as if your prayers feel as if it’s in vain? We usually assume our prayers hold no ground with the Creator just a water bowl with many holes. Praying for world peace is something almost all of us seek, yet it seems world peace is something we aren’t able to achieve--it’s something of a fantasy.
Yes, Jesus Loves Me! Jesus loves me. What a thought! The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Creator of all things, Emmanuel, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, did in fact love me. Sure we have all heard it – God loves you - numerous times before, but suddenly I had a fuller realization of what it meant to be loved by my Heavenly Father. Yet even with that realization, I can fully appreciate that I have just only scratched the surface of coming to grips with the awesomeness of this divine love and what it meant.
Cleared For 'TakeOff' Missions! Oh, the call to missions is not something that the average Christian takes seriously. For whatever reason, we seem absolutely confident that this area of ministry is solely for pastors and other church leaders....Yet in the divine plan of God, every soldier in the Army has been commissioned to missions.
The Power of the Tongue I remain fully convinced that the Body of Christ, generally speaking, has yet to fully understand the power of the tongue. In this context, it is not so much the use of the tongue as an instrument of praise and worship, but moreso its use as an instrument of evil.
In The Hands of the Potter It is worth noting that before creating man, God declared everything He had created “good”. Of mankind, He made no such pronunciation, suggesting that in His heart, our God knew that unlike all His other creations , the one created in His own image would require constant remoulding.
More Than You Can Bear? It is important to know that God gave Satan permission to test Job, but in granting such permission, He placed limits on how far Satan could go (Job 1:12, 2:6). For the child of God, this is of absolute importance. Regardless of our circumstances, God has the devil on a leash!
New Year's Resolutions According to the experts, most resolutions are broken within the first week of the New Year, yet despite the futility, some of us start the year committing to changes we hope to carry out during the year.
You Are Special Science tells us that no one else has our set of fingerprints. We can find someone who looks like us, walk like us, act like us, and have any number of characteristics just like us, yet if we pass away and a million babies are born into the world, none of them can take our place.
Tweens and Teens "Sharing The Gift" The closer you get to Christmas, the more excited you become. You can’t wait for Christmas morning to arrive. You wonder if that new Play Station 3 is hidden among your gifts. You hope for that iPod you’ve hinted at all year. Whatever it is, you can’t wait to see it.
"Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" How many of us have not asked the same question at some point in time in our lives? Times when it seems that God is/was nowhere to be found? Times when we have stood at our respective Jordans, be it sickness, the death of a loved one, financial and / or marital problems, trials, abandonment, hurt, to name a few, not being quite sure how we would get over. The devastating feeling of loneliness, as we feel that even God Himself has left us to fend for ourselves.
Are You Walking Alone? To the spirit filled believer, the presence of God means everything. The thought of being somewhere or in any situation where this Presence does not abide is not one that is entertained. Yet in our everyday lives, we often make the mistake of proceeding without making sure that we remain in the presence, and in the will, of God. Decisions seem to be made on the basis of our own evaluation. We often pretend as if we cannot bother our Heavenly Father with the routine things of our lives choosing instead to take matters into our own hands. More times than not, we fail miserably in our own efforts.
Get Out of the Boat! I happen to think that one of the biggest shortcomings of most Christians is a belief in God that does not translate into unwavering trust. While some of us profess a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and can perhaps quote any text from Genesis to Revelation, there seems an inherent reluctance to embrace the Sovereignty of God in our day-to-day lives. It is my belief that God desires to do for us far more than we can ask or imagine, and if we could only grasp the realization of Mark 9:23, that all things are possible to them that believe, we would see a move of God in our individual lives that would leave no doubt about the awesomeness of our God, and His desire to bless us in all areas.
The Power of the Tongue There are not very many people who at some time or another have not experienced pain, hurt, shame, or disgrace, as a result of a person or group of persons’ careless and sometimes deliberate use of an unbridled tongue. Characters have been assassinated, reputations destroyed, spirits broken, lifelong friendships ruined, and seemingly irrepairable damage have been done by some members in the Family of God.
Change Your Language! I do not think that most people, including Christians, understand the impact of their words on their respective circumstances. Someone once said that words are like containers and they return to us that which we speak or declare. In doing a study of our reference text, I discovered that the Hebrew word translated “tongue”, could also be figuratively interpreted as “language”, and the Hebrew root word translated “power”, could also be translated to mean “direction”. If we use these substitutes in the verse above, it would read: “Death and life are in the (direction) of the (language)”!
The Last Word - Ultimate Authority! Every Christian should recognize the power and intent of the enemy. He is the destroyer of our relationships, our families, and our nations. He is like a roaring lion walking about, seeing whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8), he comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10), but what is more important to recognize is that he is not the final authority; he does not have the last word. This enemy will ultimately be destroyed by Him who has the final say!
Is God Deaf? Most religious people would probably consider our lead question sacrilegious. Perhaps some would even venture to consider it blasphemous. Yet, in the reality of most of our Christian lives, we have pondered that question in the face of many unanswered prayers....Is God Deaf?
Too Stressed to be Blessed! Have the pressures of life sapped your spiritual energy? Are you too stressed to be blessed? This article is for you.
The Demand for Freedom In "The Demand for Freedom" writer David Ramgeet takes a look at how the views of Christians are sometimes wrongly perceived.
Black African peoples in the Bible This month David Ramgeet writes a commentary on the unfair exclusion of Black African peoples in the Bible and tries to set the record straight.
