stephen-on-bible

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?" ...

The last weekend, the Lord has given me the privilege to minister to the young folks in Mumbai. During the Q&A session, someone asked, “How to stay steadfast in my devotion to God?”  Don’t you suppose this is an intense struggle many of us often pass through? Enlarging Ordinary Devotions There are many who disappointedly ask, “I went to numerous seminars, camps and church meetings. I heard powerful messages, was set on fire for God and made great commitments to change. However, just after few days, the fire subsided and I returned to the same pathetic condition. I lost hope to change. How can I have my heart continuously burning for the Lord?” In fifteen years of my Christian life, after experiencing many such topsy-turvy moments, I have learned a secret, or rather a fact—the way to keep fanning our inner flame for God, the means to steadfastly maintain and enhance our spiritual fervency, is through consistent private devotions . The seventeenth-century Anglica...

Last month, a wonderful brother in the Lord gifted me a book Radical by David Platt . It is one of the few books in my life that I read in its entirety with great earnestness, even planning to read again.  As I read through the pages, I was deeply convicted and challenged to live a different life as a disciple of Christ Jesus. O, how I wished in my heart to buy as many copies of this book and give to as many Christians as possible, so that they would read and learn to live a crucified Christian life in this self-indulgent world! Well, when we look at the contemporary Christianity, don’t you suppose many of us who claim to be disciples of Christ seem to live a self-elevated rather than self-denial life, comfort zone rather than crucified life, earthly-minded rather than heavenly-focused life, world-like rather than Christ-like life and religious rather than radical Christian life? The aim of many who claim to believe in Christ appears to be this—earn a nice educational d...

Few days ago, after many years, my brothers and sisters and all our families had the privilege of meeting together for a time of fellowship. Wondering when we would meet this way again, I arranged a photographer for snapping photos of our families together. Wow, I thought, everything went on well!  But when we got the pictures in print, we were disappointed to see them as they came out with a very poor quality, like a mobile’s VGA camera. My younger brother was angry, went to the studio and yelled at the photographer for his crappy work. When I learned about my brother’s reaction, since the studio person knew that we are Christians, I felt concerned about the gospel and wondered—what would happen to the saltiness of our Christian testimony? Will our reaction become a stumbling block for these unsaved people to the receptivity of the gospel? What kind of message are we giving to the unbelievers through our conduct? Convicted by these questions, I immediately called t...