Paulson Post

 I wrote a blog years ago with a similar title. However, I can't track it down now. It is lost in the Cyberspace. Now, I write these lines because another giant is fallen and there is a lot of wisdom that can be gathered from that fall. A great apologist is proved guilty of improper sexual behavior with his own employees. Since he is dead and gone no one can verify the truthfulness of the allegations with him. However, an independent agency appointed by his own organization that bears his name to inquire into the matter has confirmed that the allegations are true. The report was released by the organization that he founded and led till his death.  Though this particular allegation by three women were raised after his recent death and proven a few months later, he was not immune to allegations while alive. There were allegations about false claims he made about his educational qualifications. He stopped using the titles that he did not earn. There was an allegation about his mo...

Cutting the wood to sacrifice Isaac was the last thing that Abraham did when he set out for Moriah. He had prepared the servants, he had saddled the donkey and then went to cut the firewood! See the sequence of events:  'So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him' (Gen 22:3, ESV). He should have cut the wood the previous evening, before going to bed. Preparing the servants, and saddling the donkey could be in the morning. Taking time to cut the wood in the morning would certainly delay the journey. We can't explain Abraham's peculiar behavior; only some guesses. Maybe he was expecting God to intervene before they set out. Did Abraham think that getting up in the morning, saddling the donkey and getting the servants ready will send enough clues to God that he is willing to obey and expect him to ...

When things happen not the way we prayed for, it could mean that what we prayed was not in God's will. This is one of the many possibilities. Other possibilities are that we did not have enough faith in God when we prayed. As James says, we should ask in faith with no doubt. He said further that the person who doubts 'is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord' (James 1:7-8, ESV). Lack of faith, or prayer with doubt that arises out of a double-mind could be one reason why prayers are not answered. However, the possibility remains for prayers in full faith to be unanswered. It could be that what we prayed for is not in the will of God. I can think of the case of Paul where he says that he prayed three times for the 'thorn in the flesh' to be removed. It could be ailment that he prayed for healing. However, God did not answer his prayer for healing but just assured him ...

Doing good could be very tiring in many ways. I know it from my experience. I have helped people who pretended to be helpless. Moved with compassion, I shared my resources with them. Once I took the money that I kept for my children's school fees and pooled it with donations from other people to get a poor girl college education. She went to college but the first thing she bought was an expensive phone which most of her benefactors could not afford. She had the resources, it seems, for the college fees and also for the phone. We felt cheated. It had happened to me many times in one form or other. Every time, when I discover that I was cheated, or I realize that my money ended up in something that was not genuine, the will to do another good ebbs away. It requires so much will power and optimism to believe that this time it will be okay. But patience has its limits. Our moral stamina also reaches its boundaries. That is when Paul's advice to the churches in Galatia comes to stre...

Nowadays, we don't talk about  'conquerors' nor 'conquering'. Those words belong to the by-gone days when military victory was the by-word of human success. Roman military heroes were nominated to the Senate, were promoted or even became emperors on the basis of their conquest of foreign lands. The language has changed with the times. In our days, we talk about achievers, nothing much is left to conquer. However, the language of conquest still should prevail in some aspects of our life, particularly in the area of our spiritual relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. I prefer the language of 'conquering' over 'achieving' since it has the nuance of defeating something that opposes. However, though achieve also involve some effort from the part of the achiever, there may not be resistance from the other side. Spiritual relationship with Christ is one of love. He lavished his love upon us on the cross, and we respond to that love. We love because he fi...

I have developed a new habit. That is not to roll out of my bed as soon as I wake up, but to lie-in until I hear something from God for that day. God has been gracious. Most of the days when I wait in bed to hear his voice for the day, I do hear him as he puts a thought, a phrase or a prayer in my heart. On one morning last week as I was waiting he put this sentence in to my mind: 'I will never forsake you or leave you.' I looked up this verse in my Bible App; I was astonished. That sentence comes in slightly different forms in four places in the Bible! So, I decided to study all its occurrences. So, here is what I found. The first occurrence I found was in Deuteronomy 31:6. Moses encourages the people who are about to enter the promised land that their God 'will not leave you or forsake you.' In verses 1-5 he has narrated the story of God's leading of them and the victory he has given them in the past. Then comes this aphorism: 'He will not leave you or forsake...

' Who touched my garments? ' Jesus asked. The answer of his disciples was rather sarcastic: 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, "Who touched me? "' They are right, there is a big crowd; there are so many people who rub against him, and he cannot move around without touching anyone. It is senseless to ask who touched me in such a crowd. However, for Jesus, it was a special touch. It is not like the touch of the hundreds of people around him. He felt the healing power going out of him at the moment of that touch. That touch is thus different from all other touch. When Jesus insisted on identifying that person who touched him, a woman came forward from the crowd trembling. She had touched him from behind the crowd so that she will not be identified. She had many reasons for remaining anonymous: shame, being woman in a majority male crowd, more than that with that annoying constant bleeding she is defiled. Whatever she touches and whoever touc...

'By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life' (Psalm 42:8, ESV). Living fully immersed in the presence of God is the greatest of all experiences. The psalmist says that the whole day he experienced the love of God. Quiet hours of the night is his time to respond to the love that God has showered upon him in songs of prayer. His songs are prayers to God whom he calls 'the God of his life.' The expression 'God of my life' means, the God to whom I owe my life. God is the master of my life, who directs it every day by his steadfast love. Most of us who have to slog eight to twelve hours a day doesn't have much time to experience God. We hop from one task to another without any time to think about God who is the owner of our lives. Though each moment is filled with his acts of love towards us, we seldom recognize that. The Psalmist is different in his attitude. In every task and in every achievem...

'You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.' Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV). Jesus said, 'you are the light of the world.' He did not ask his disciples to be the light of the world or to become one. By default, every disciple of Jesus is the light of the world. The only option is where the lights are placed. It could be covered by a basket so that its light is not visible and useful in any way or it could be mounted on a lampstand. If mounted on the lampstand it will give light to all those who are in the room. In short, the option is to be useful or to be useless. The light ought to shine before others. Being a lamp and being the light are also different. A lamp can choose not to be lighted and not to give out light. However, disciples are not just lamps, they are lighted lamps. Jesus also added that they shine ...

The literature on anxiety is aplenty. YouTube has a lot of advice from experts and non-experts on how to cope with anxiety. I don't want to add to these. What I offer here is a personal insight into the spiritual aspects of anxiety. Anxiety is a type of eclipse, like the lunar or solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse happens when the shadow of earth falls on the moon making the moon invisible to those on earth. But the moon is still there. It is still visible to the Martians! Anxiety works similarly. It casts our own shadow on God so that he becomes invisible to us. God is not in hiding but is hidden to our eyes because our own anxious self is casting the shadow on him. Then we blame God for hiding from us as the Psalmists often do in their prayers. God is not hiding, but we have made God vanish from our consciousness. That is why the Bible says 'Do not be anxious about anything!' This is very much in line with what Jesus taught: ' Therefore I tell you, do not...

Jesus invited the crowd that followed him: ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ' (Matthew 11:29-30). The modern mind may be puzzled when a religious guru invites people to come under a yoke. First, most of us living in the age of cars, planes and metros, may not have even a yoke. Those of us who might have seen one know that it is something that joins either a pair of burden-carrying animals to each other to pull a cart. So, we usually attach ideas like subjugation and suffering to this symbol. However, that is not what Jesus meant or his hearers might have understood. For the pious Jews who were Jesus' audience that day yoke carried meanings more than subjugation. In their religious writings 'coming under the yoke' was a metaphor for being obedient to someone, especially the Law of Moses which guided the life and faith every Jew. When som...

'For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy' (Psalms 72:12-13)  There are times when realize how frail we are; these are times when ll the self-confidence that we have gathered over the years vanish. Coming to the limits of our strength is a scary experience. In such times, faith in God strengthens us. God strengthens those who are weak and needy. He is willing and able to help them. The only thing we need is to realize our helplessness and reach out to God in faith trusting in his mercy and power.

"Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!" Psalm 66:20 (ESV). What does answered prayers demand from us? Most of us seek God when we are out of our depths in adversities. We feel the need of God when we reach the end of the ropes. However, God is a kind God; he answers us when we cry out to him from the depths of our adversities. Every answered prayer requires from us to learn something more about the character of God. The psalmist shares with us what he has learned from God when he cried unto God, and he graciously answered his prayer. He learned that God still loves him. Answered prayers reminds us that God hasn't 'removed his steadfast love' from us. This is the response of a grateful heart; to believe that we are objects of God's ardent love.

"For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalms 100:5 When I write this cyclone Nisarga is about to hit our coastlines. The weather department has issued a red-alert. It is likely to cause immense casualties. The  Coronavirus is lurking everywhere we go. Swarming locusts have reached deep south in Tamil Nadu in their flight from the North western deserts. They have already stomached most of our food supplies for the year. Surrounded by all these, we need a lot of faith to say that God's love still triumphs. It is an act of faith. These are times when our faith in a good and loving God is tested. We need the grace to say, in the midst of all these bad things, that God is good.

Many Christ-followers think that what they believe matters more than how they appear to others: colleagues, friends, and others with whom they have to rub shoulders on a daily basis. However, Paul corrects that mistake in the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians while discussing the issue of food offered to idols in the pagan temples in the city of Corinth. Pagan temples where animal sacrifices were offered had also meat stalls attached to them. There the meat offered to idols was on sale. When sacrifices were offered not all the meat is burnt on the altar. Only choices pieces were offered; the priests got a share of the meat before it was burnt on the altar. The worshipers were also given a portion to be shared among the family. All this meat showed up in the meat markets attached to the pagan temples. Probably it was much cheaper than the butcher shops in the regular markets. What is wrong with eating meat sold in the temple-precincts? For believers in Christ, it doesn't matter. T...

"How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done!" Psalm 19:1 (GNT) Is the locked-down due to COVID 19 dampening your spirit? To be frank, that is what I am going through at times. Work from home (WFH) is a good idea: travel time saved is great; more time for Netflix or Amazon Prime, to read and enjoy music. But I do miss friends, even the walk to the coffee machine and sipping hot coffee while planning the next things to do. As the sun sets and the night falls, I call it a day. Put away the work I had been drowning in. But still, that cold spirit lingers on. I am tempted to have another dose of caffeine to rev up my spirit. COVID has also ordered the vehicles off the road. They are no more spitting Carbon Monoxide to the skies. The cheerful sky displays its wonders once hidden behind the thick layers of pollutant gases. As I gaze into the wonders that the sky now puts on display, my dampened spirit warms up to the creator of these wo...

The Coronavirus has shut down the world. It has caused the death of thousands in China, hundreds in Italy and Iran. It continues to threaten life all over the world. However, there is a lot of wisdom church-goers can gather from the epidemic. Scientists say that Coronavirus spreads by physical contact only. It is not airborne. So, the best way to stay safe is to avoid physical contact. Shaking hands is an import from the West. Before colonialists and missionaries came to our shores (Indian subcontinent) we used to greet each other with folded hands--the Namaste! It is a grand, gracious posture! Why can't we go back to it? Stop passing the kiss of peace which some Christian traditions practice or the holy embrace in other traditions. None of this has any biblical foundations. Yes, Paul wrote to Corinthians 'Greet one another with a holy kiss' (2 Corinthians 13:12), but if he addressed the letter to Bangaloreans, he would have said, 'Greet one another with a holy Na...

Coronavirus is dreaded. The dread has affected all aspects of our lives. Hundreds have died, thousands are infected, the economy is on a downturn, international tourism has taken a hit, the list goes on. Why is this virus so dreaded to make the world look for cover? There are many other virus infections known to humans and show their heads again and again. But none of them frightens people so much as this one! There are two main reasons why Coronavirus frightens modern man than any other disease. First, this infection is sure to cause death. Secondly, scientists haven't come up with a cure or vaccine for this virus yet. The fear of this deadly virus is genuine. It comes out of the realization that modern man with all technological advances is still helpless before this puny little virus--puny in size only. However, sin is even more serious. It also causes death. Death not in the sense of the end of life, but even more seriously being cut off from God, the source of life. God...

Suffering happens when we lose control over the people and circumstances that cause our suffering. If we had control it would not have happened at all. In many cases of sickness, the medical systems could take control of the sickness to the extent of eradicating it permanently. But however healthy a person is, and however careful that person was in keeping good health, still, sickness does happen. This simply means that no one has absolute control over one's health conditions or any other conditions. Suffering should not be limited to sickness. We suffer due to problems in our relationships with each other. People may walk away from us, may turn hostile, may hurt us, etc all leading to immense suffering. There are no absolute means of living in healthy relationships; even if you try to the other parties may not. We have no control over their behavior. Given this scenario, the first thing that we realize when we go through suffering is the limit of our powers that we sometimes wer...