stephen-on-bible

How we live as Christians is quite essential. We are called to holy living. We are exhorted to be the light of the world. We ought to live good and do good to others. Yes, our life speaks far more than our words.  And the statement, “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words,” supposedly said by Francis of Assisi, is a good challenge to Christians to focus on living an exemplary lifestyle. Having said that, here is a caution: Although the significance of practical Christian living cannot be undermined, I have seen there are those who have gone to such an extreme that they just focus on living an exemplary life without verbal communication of the gospel. They say, “Your life itself is the gospel. You don’t have to necessarily speak the gospel. Whether in neighborhood or in workplace, simply live a good life and that declares the gospel. People should witness the gospel of Christ Jesus by seeing your life, not by hearing your words.” Now, there is an element o...

After having church fellowship, my wife and I were returning back home along with our children. As we were waiting at the crossroad to take the right turn, the vehicles before me started to go ahead. I began to follow them, but when I saw the red signal still on, I immediately stopped. There were honks behind me, signaling me to keep going, but I didn’t move. My eldest son, Joy, began telling me, “Papa, let’s go. Vehicles are going. Why did you stop?” I replied, “The red signal is still on.” He said, “So what? No problem. Others are going. Go.” I was trying to explain to him how as Christians it is not the right thing to follow the crowd in doing wrong. Then he said, “This is just signal; it is not Jesus. This has nothing to do with obeying God.” I find many of us are like my seven year old kid who assumes how we live our daily life and what daily choices we make has nothing to do with God and spirituality. How many of us act (we may not admit) according to the following myths...

Last Friday, on March 30th, 2012, we conducted a gospel meeting in our training center. It was a joy to witness the presence of unbelievers who came to listen to the message apprehensively. The one who ministered to the participants, brother Vimal, came from Gujarat, which is one of the challenging states in India for gospel work. For the entire time, he shared his wonderful testimony—how he came to Christ from a strong Hindu background and how his life and family were radically transformed by the power of the gospel of Christ.  What struck me in his testimony was his marriage life which went through severe crisis and crumbled. He and his wife came to such a point of bitter experience towards each other that they eventually got divorced. Then came a time in his life, when he was in utter despair, he heard the gospel of Christ Jesus from a pastor, who was a former Muslim, and was convicted of its truth. He put his trust in Christ and witnessed amazing change in his heart. ...

Interestingly, this week I met two different people in two different circumstances. They both knew what pain is and what it is to go through suffering, but both have cultivated worldviews that are polar opposites. Turning Away The first incident I would like to share happened this way. Ashamed of being not so active in evangelism, few days back, I decided, along with my wife, to go to a public place once a week, in the evening, and share the gospel of Christ Jesus. When we went this week, we saw a person sitting on a cement bench. I went near to him and initiated the talk. After our initial talk, when the time came to speak about God, he started to blurt out his angry feelings. He shared how he lost one-third of his left hand in an accident occurred in a company for which he was working, and how, as a result of this accident, his marriage that was fixed called off. He went on expressing the various difficulties he underwent, like finding a good job and so forth. He is now...

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised" (Pr 31:30). Everytime I connect my laptop to Internet, the home page of the company that offers Internet automatically pops up. I generally ignore viewing it, but recently, when I was about to close the home page, my eyes fell on the title, “Celebs without Make-up.” Being curious to know how they would appear, I clicked the link and saw the pictures of the top admired Indian actresses who makes hearts flutter. To my surprise, I found a world of difference in how these celebrities looked with and without make-up. I realized, much of their beauty projected in movies and ads is superficial. Granted that the beauty of these women is authentic, but does it not still fade away over the years? Are you aware of the beauty which is genuine and that which never fades off but shines even brighter? Physical beauty comes and fades away, just like the flower which blossoms and withe...

Introductory words: It is no exaggeration to say that we are living in an age of sensuality. Starting from television and movies to mobile phones and Internet, we are constantly bombarded with sexual content, be it partial or explicit. It has now become only a matter of touch on remote control, on enter button or a click on mouse to indulge oneself in sexual immorality. There are so many folks in our day, including the nice and sincere ones, living a life of bondage to pornography. There are untold people who are secretly addicted to porn. Sadly, they suppose there is no hope of deliverance from this addiction. Thus, the following interview is posted with a hope that such hopeless people will find hope. May be you are one among them and this message is for you. Note: The following interview was done using open-ended questions. I put it in writing, edited myself and sent it to Prem for his final approval. Also, the actual name of the interviewee has been changed to Prem Raj f...

One day during this week, I went to pick up my children from school. As I sat on a cement bench, waiting for my children to come, a cute little girl came and sat beside me. Now I cannot endure myself to stay silent for a long time, except with a book before me or in mode of prayer or when I review the Scriptures that I memorized. I wasn’t engaged in any of these, so I turned and started conversing with her. I learned she is in third class, perhaps 9 years old, one year elder than Joy, my eldest son. As I was asking questions and getting answers from her, I casually asked her, “What’s your dad doing?” Her voice went low and responded, "I don’t know." I was a bit surprised and asked her again. She replied the same. This time, not being casual, I questioned, "Don’t you talk to your dad?" She replied with all innocence manifesting on her face, "No." My curiosity became intense and I asked, "Is your dad always serious?" ...