stephen-on-bible

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T his week, on June 26 th , I have passed sixteen years of my faith in Christ. It is on this day, in the year 1996, I was saved and transformed by the life-transforming power of Christ Jesus. At that time, I was 19 years and now 36 years old. If there is any wonderful and unregrettable decision I have made in my entire life, it is the decision to give my life to Christ in my very young life. Hallelujah! Stealing and Prospering A s I reflect on my past life, i.e. life before Christ, I feel ashamed of being a thief. I was clever at stealing from the time I was a small kid, stealing toys in carnivals. In my teens, I remember of once robbing a set of products from a big shop. My friend was a decent guy and was so afraid of joining with me in this theft. Nevertheless, I persuaded him not to fear and stole the products. Somehow I was observed and was caught outright. My friend and I were dragged to the nearby police station. When we watched other thieves badly beaten by the p...

John, an apostle of Christ Jesus, ends his first epistle with these words, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Knowing that this epistle is written to God’s people, this seems to be a strange exhortation, for we associate idols usually with pagan worship. Reading the entire epistle reveals that just like the Israelis of the Old Testament who were influenced by the pagan customs and often fell into the sin of idolatry, we do not see such a problem with the believers to whom John was addressing. So, what does it mean to "keep yourselves from idols"? It appears that John wasn’t addressing a physical idol to which pagans pay homage. It seems to be a figurative language, using the term “idol” to make a significant point. An idol is anything that takes God’s place, robbing the attention, passion and devotion which belong primarily to God alone. Although believers may detest worshiping pagan idols, it is quite possible for us to erect earthly things ...

2 of 3 2) The object of sexual stimulation should be the body of your own spouse, not sexually explicit pictures and videos wherein the other person’s body is viewed for sensual provocation.  Many don’t give careful thought to what happens when couples watch pornography together for the purpose of stimulating themselves to have sexual intercourse. Are they are not receiving sensual stimulation from others’ bodies, nakedness and sexual act? Don’t you think the bodies of other people would become more stimulating for them than the body of their own spouse? Who ultimately is your source of sexual pleasure—your own spouse or that sexually explicit person in porn? Here is a fact which many are unaware. Porn stars often build up the structure of their bodies for public attraction. Their breasts and genitals are enhanced surgically. They project themselves in such a sexy way that they become irresistibly fascinating. Now how does this impact the couple who...

  3 of 3 3) Watching pornography together may create more distance between one another, particularly during interpersonal problems. There are those who are misled into thinking that watching pornography together will build sexual intimacy in marriage. Let us examine this fallacy.  I think, we all agree that marriage is not always a bed of roses. There are good times and there are bad times. When times are good, a husband and wife may enjoy each other sexually, but when difficult times come, i.e. interpersonal problems, where do you think they may turn to satisfy themselves? When husband and wife offend each other and when wife is not in a mood to have sex with her husband, there is a great possibility for her husband to turn to porn for some physical satisfaction. He who is used to watch with his wife will now watch alone for his personal pleasure. This may even lead to addiction to porn, even to some extramarital affair, eventually leading to d...

 1 of 3 One day my wife and I happened to visit a married couple. As I was discussing about marital issues with them, the woman candidly asked me a question—“Is it okay for my husband and me to watch pornography together? Someone known to me suggested it is sexually healthy for a couple to watch porn together.” There are many misleading voices these days, saying—“Watching porn together is one of the best ways a couple can connect.” “Watching porn together strengthens your sexual relationship.” “Watching porn together adds fuel into your dry marriage.” I have even found an article entitled, “Couples who watch porn together stay together.” According to a debate on Times of India.com on whether couples are okay with watching porn together, 53 pct felt that it was perfectly natural, while 43 pct held it to be morally degrading. If this is the perspective in a more conservative and traditional nation like India, which is now becoming more liberal in moral issu...

In His discourse with the disciples, Jesus said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26). Many make a mistake in assuming that this question chiefly applies to unbelievers who run after the earthly things. But coming to the context, we learn that Jesus was actually speaking to His followers, to His disciples, to His future apostles, teaching them the cost of true discipleship. "What does it profit to us if we gain everything in the world, yet forfeit our own soul?" This serious exhortation applies to us, the leaders representing God, as to anyone else. As we live in this sinful world serving the Lord, are we not surrounded by numerous temptations to serve God with a worldly attitude? Is it not possible to do the Lord's work with selfish ambitions, eventually gaining the world but forfeiting our soul? Few days back I met a brother in the Lord who wrote a song, in which one verse goes like this, "You w...

One of the privileges of being born in India is that you may most likely fall in love with cricket. My children and I love playing cricket. But there is something funny and weird I find when I play cricket with my two kids. When Joy, my eldest son, does the bowling, he demands that I should hit the ball in a way that it would fall straight into his hands. If I play in a way that makes him difficult to catch the ball, he thinks I am not batting well, even playing unfair with him. And when I do the bowling when Joe, my youngest son, does the batting, he demands that I should bowl in such a way that the ball would go straight and hit his bat, making it easy for him to hit shots. If I don’t, he thinks I am unfair with him and don’t know how to bowl. To my kids, a good cricket player is the one who makes it easier for them either to catch the ball or to hit shots. But to us grown-ups, it sounds silly, killing the challenging excitement of the game. We also know that if they co...

  3 of 3 Practical Applications for Today's Churches T herefore, what can we learn from the early church model? What changes can we bring in our churches for the spiritual welfare of people? What makes it possible for the church to grow not only in numbers but also in faith? Here are my practical suggestions: 1) I believe, it is good for churches to gather as small communities. There are many advantages in doing so. Here are some of them: gathering in inexpensive places (large house or a medium-sized hall) paying more personal attention to all creating more room for one-another intimacy motivating body ministry or one-another ministry holding believers accountable having fellowship meals doing both evangelism and good follow-up making discipleship possible and effective expending money wisely preventing leaders from burn-out building churches as a family community rather than like a formal company with CEO and officials Can you see micro-churches are mo...

    2 of 3 Early Church Model C onsidering the ineffective issues and practical problems we observe in the mega church setting, if I am asked which is an effective model, I would simply point out to the early church. No doubt the early church grew in numbers, perhaps much more growth than what we witness today, if not in steady numbers (for we have more population than the first century), at least in rapid growth. But there are two things to consider: First, the growth of the early church in numbers should not be understood in light of our modern day mega church growth. When church growth is mentioned, it is in relation to the overall growth of the church in a city or town or region. For example, when in Acts 9:31 it is mentioned that the church grew in numbers, it grew in Judea, Galilee and Samaria.   This church growth is not about an individual church growing in a particular locality, eventually becoming a great crowd or a mega church. Indeed, th...

     1 of 3 N ot long back I had a shocking experience. I was speaking to a woman who was sharing with me about attending a mega church in my city. She is attending this church for many years and finds it exciting to be a part of its service. And then she shared with me that there is also a bible study being conducted every week in her house by another group. Do you know who they are? Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I was shocked to hear this. I asked her whether she knows who Jehovah’s Witnesses are. She has no idea about them. This woman is attending an evangelical mega church since many years, yet she didn’t know that JW is a cult in which many sincere people are entangled by its false teachings. The members of JW have penetrated her house to digress this family from some of the cardinal truths of the Holy Bible. When I explained to her who JW's are, she was taken aback. Now this woman is passionate for God and sincerely loves to follow Christ. But s...

Last night, I had the privilege of personally listening to mission-centered testimonies shared by a wonderful couple. The interesting thing is, this brother is neither a full-time Christian worker nor a pastor or a preacher, not even a bi-vocational worker leading a church. He, along with his wife, is a simple believer but devoted to God’s mission. This young brother is working in a Muslim populated and prosperous country. He works for an automobile company and is living in this rich nation for a couple of years. Multitudes of people, including Christians, particularly from the Asian countries, leave their hometown and go to this country. Do you know why? To earn wealth, acquire material possessions, buy good property in their hometown and then return back to their native place at their convenient time to settle comfortably with their family. But this brother is quite different. He is not material-centered, earthly-minded and comfort-oriented. His passion is, as he works, h...

One of the fascinating things we remember about our Christian life is our ardent passion for God when we had come to know Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. In retrospect, many of us express how passionate we were during the early stage of our Christian life, how we used to pray and meditate on God’s word and how eager we were to share the gospel with others. But what happened as the years went by? Should we say we have become cold in our heart, lukewarm in our passion to live for God and lazy in disciplining our inner life? Did we become more worldly than godly in our passions and pursuits? Did we begin taking things that matter for eternity "more easily"? There are some, in fact there are many—when they become more familiar with the knowledge about God and with His word, instead of developing more craving for Him and longing to live for His glory, they slide into frivolous attitude toward spiritual disciplines. Can we dare say we do not belong to such group?...