Biblical Thoughts

    Psalms 91: 4 says His truth shall be a shield and a buckler. How can truth become a shield? Natural mind can see a piece of metal becoming a shield, not a piece of truth. First let’s look at how we turn a piece of metal into a shield? We shape them into a shield, hook them onto our hand and then use them against the fiery arrows. A piece of metal becomes a mighty weapon in the hands of one who decides to use it. A piece of truth can play a similar role. The best example is found in the life of Jesus. When satan came to tempt him saying, Turn the stone into bread (Math 4:3), he refuted him by quoting the Truth from Deuteronomy, that Man shall not live by the bread alone but my every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut 8:3). He kept quoting from scripture till satan fled. Here Jesus used an Old Testament Truth against satan. Adam faced a similar situation in the Eden Garden. In both the cases the temptation was about eating the forbidden food. But Adam...

  Jesus was both divine and human. He is one among the trinity who took the human form. He was on the earth, in flesh facing life. He descended into a fallen world from heaven where pain, sorrow, appetite, and hardships are not. How did he cope with this transition? How could he be divine while being human? How did he remain divine through the earthly ordeals? He lived an extremely short but disciplined life of Godly habits. Those are radically different from what the world teaches. What shall we learn from those habits of Jesus? ·          He stayed on God’s will Jesus’ parents took him to Jerusalem when he was twelve years old for the Passover feast. On the way back they found him missing in their company. They returned to Jerusalem in search of him. When they found him, he said to them, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? (Luke 2:49). Jesus was focused on being in his Father’s wi...

  Who was Pontius Pilate? Since AD 6, Romans have been appointing their own governors or perfects to rule over the tumultuous terrain of Judea once it became a Roman province after the deposition of Archelaus, one of the sons of Herod the Great. Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor appointed by Emperor Tiberius from AD 26 who grabbed a permanent place in the crowded pages of human history as a person who approved the crucifixion of Jesus.      Pilate’s long tenure of ten years as a governor suggests that he did what fairly pleased the Roman empire. The office of Pilate exercised military, political, social, judicial, and economic power. He ratified capital punishments, even appointed the Jewish high priest, and collected taxes & tributes for Rome. Pilate was based in Caesarea a city 90 km away from Jerusalem. When he visited Jerusalem, he stayed in Herod’s palace built by Herod the Great which served as...

  Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong, fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you (Isaiah 35: 4)   Common perception is that Jacob suffered and slogged under a cunning Laban, remained underpaid and finally fled from his presence penniless, after a prolonged period of betrayal spanning 14 years. This is yet another misplaced belief from Biblical history which warrants immediate correction. Jacob vs Laban Jacob was a covenantal man by nature. While Esau preferred a bowl of red stew to his birthright, Jacob judged its supreme significance and grabbed it. When his mother shared a devious scheme to grab the blessings of Isaac, he responded to her and took hold of it. When Isaac his father instructed him to find a wife from the plains of Aram (Paddan-aram) he travelled all the way from Canaan to meet his mother’s brother Laban only to be in the covenant. Though his impulsive conduct landed him in ...

  Jesus was in the wilderness fasting for forty days and forty nights. After a prolonged fast he was hungry. Though his spirit was strengthened by the communion with God, the flesh was weak and weary craving for a piece of bread. Then the tempter arrived in a manner much similar to how he did with Eve in Eden garden presenting the stone on the ground pleasing and delightful to the eyes. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to becomes loaves of  bread (Math 4:3)” asked satan to Jesus. Hunger is the best mode of temptation on a hungry man. For a bowl of stew, Esau had sold his covenantal birthright when he returned hungry from the field. Unlike what Eve did by indulging in a friendly dialogue with satan where he led her to her downfall systematically, Jesus launched a scathing attack on satan by quoting the scriptures for he knew, Word is the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17). Jesus replied, “it is written man lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes fr...

  Paul’s second missionary journey was unique in many ways. Paul began his journey from Antioch along with Silas. He went through Derbe and Timothy joined him at Lystra. They together journeyed through Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit forbid them to speak a word in Asia. They came to Mysia and attempted to go to Bithynia but the Spirit would not let them be. So they reached Troas and camped there. In the night Paul had a vision. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him to come to Macedonia and help.   Vision was a confirmation for Paul. From Troas, Paul and team set sail to Samothrace, Neapolis and finally to Philippi, a Macedonian city named after the father of Alexander the great. How an arduous journey from Antioch to Macedonia it would have been? Why did the Holy Spirit insist them to go to Macedonia? A great agenda did not greet them in Macedonia. On the Sabbath day they went to the riverside to a place of prayer where they met Lydia who was a seller of pu...