Paulson Post

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Heb 12:1, NLT). I am always inspired to go after a challenge when I realize others have gone before me. It need not be high-risk adventures like walking through a long, dark, narrow tunnel, bungee jumping in a remote location, or paragliding over a deep gorge. It could be any mundane aspects of life, where bold, confident action is involved. Christian life is an adventure. It is a journey to the invisible, eternity or our life with God that we never been to through unfamiliar territories. In this journey every step is stimulated by faith in Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But still, when tempted to give up hope and confidence comes from the realization that we are not alone but there are others who have already com...

Rain is a universal phenomenon. All over it rains, except maybe in deserts. The phenomenon of rain is a process of recycling water. Rain fills the waterbodies. Then, water in rivers, lakes, and oceans evaporates and it rains down again, repeating the cycle.   Despite how heavily it rains the total amount of water on earth remains always constant.  However, it rains differently in different places and seasons. It is almost time for monsoon in southern parts of India. During this season dark rain clouds travel from the southern tip of the country diagonally across past Myanmar. On its way it refreshes the land except the north-western fringes of the country. The down pour is heavy at the center of its path and lighter on the edges. Though an exaggeration, the people in the south-western tip of India (Kerala) where the monsoon begins its cross-country travel say each drop is one bucketful. It is so heavy and loaded. It lashes the ground so harsh sometimes uprooting small pl...

 Last week I spoke at the 100 th death anniversary of Volbrecht Nagel, a German missionary to the South Indian state of Kerala. Though he was in Kerala only for two decades, the songs he composed are still sung in the churches. They also have made into cinematic music. Some are translated into 21 plus Indian languages. He is still remembered, and his contributions are extolled by Muslim, Hindu, and Christian Orthodox academics though he was a Christian Brethren missionary. Also last week was the first anniversary of the death of a famous apologist of our time. During his lifetime, he faced many allegations against his character. A few months after his death, an investigation by his own organization revealed serious character flaws and sex scandals in his life. The organization that he founded published apologies to the victims of his un-Christian behavior on their website. Now, the organization that he founded has removed all references about him from their website, his books a...

 Aside from claiming many lives, the Covid-19 pandemic also affects the mind. People panic and dive deep into boredom. Cambridge dictionary defines panic as "a sudden, strong feeling of anxiety or fear that prevents reasonable thought and action and may spread to influence many people." Anxiety can be caused by real or imaginary perceptions of threat and harm. Panic is also a type of fear triggered by our perceptions. Perceptions that trigger panic may be present or absent. In addition, panic is especially undesirable because it prevents people from thinking or acting rationally. Panic impairs their ability to rationally think and act. Panic drives many people to explore tips about healthy living, avoiding, or managing Covid that are available all over the internet out of panic. There are many factors that cause panic during the pandemic. First, we are isolated by lockdowns, social distancing, fear of death, the loss of friends, etc. Suddenly, our support systems ha...

‘Could you introduce yourself briefly, please?” This question was part of the opening ritual of almost every meetings that I have been to. Likewise, an inevitable question in any job interview was, ‘tell us something about yourself?’ Though every member of the interviewing panel had a copy of the candidate's resume, this question was also part of the ritual. The answer to the question was indicative of the candidate’s confidence and self-image besides the communication skills. Following the pattern of letter writing in the Greco-Roman world that he lived, Paul greets the churches in Rome to whom he wrote the letter with a self-introduction. However, his introduction was unique in many ways. First of all, it was rather unusually long (1:1-6), six verses! Unique it was in another sense too. He just mentioned his name, ‘Paul’ and his job, ‘Apostle.’ He said that he is an apostle for the Gospel of God. Then the rest is all about Jesus! The part about him was unusually short. He beg...

We have never experienced love that is comparable to God's. Human love is conditional.  Unattractive people are hard to love. Even though it was my first visit, the lady at the post office counter greeted me with a very friendly smile. I visited that town after 30 long years. She acted as if she is meeting a friend, but her appearance scared me so that I did not greet her or smile back. The left side of her face was charred, and she had lost the left eye. Her gums and teeth were visible since the left portion of her lips were burnt too. Her smile was frightening.  A young man, envious of her relationship with another person, threw sulfuric acid at her face, disfiguring her. As a result, her real lover abandoned her since she was no longer as beautiful as she was before the accident. It turned out that we were friends at school thirty years ago, which explains her friendly smile. At school, I remember her as a vibrant and winsome girl. One of the conditions we set for pe...

If the chief goal humans is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism has expressed, then human beings ought to be in the look out for reasons for glorifying God. God's glory revealed in nature is indeed the most explicit stimulus for glorifying God. A second realm which impels us to praise God is what he has done in our lives. Put it another way, praise of God happens when we acknowledge what God has done in our lives.If that acknowledgement doesn't happen we will be singing praises to ourselves or to anything other than God. The Psalmists pour out praises to God because they maintained hearts of thankfulness to God. For example, the psalmist who penned Psalm 116 says, “How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalms 116:12-13). In the Bible, the cups are described in terms of what they are made of or what they contain. For example, a silver cup is one made of ...

When Jesus said, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32) he was talking about himself who is the way, the truth and the life. However, it was based on a larger principle that God expects us to be seekers of truth. God expects us to be truthful as well. As the debate with his opponents progressed Jesus made a frontal attack on the devil and all those who model devil in their behaviour: "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! (John 8:44). What characterizes those who follow Jesus and those who follow Devil? Those who follow Jesus have a penchant for truth while the opposite camp has a penchant for lies. This is an observation I made recently while studying h...

There is an Indian saying: Silence is the glory of the wise! It means the wise person keeps quite and by implication it means the fool keeps talking (certainly all nonsense!). But silence at times could be malicious, dangerous and even a grave sin. So let us say that like tumors, silence could also be of two types: the benign ones and the malign ones. In his vision of God Isaiah confessed: "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (Isa 6:5). The word "ruined" could be a mistranslation. It is equally possible to translate it as "been silent" though many modern translations still follow the KJV in this regard. The translation "silent" fits the context too. The sin of the people of Isaiah has to do with speech (unclean lips) and the cleansing that God does has to do with speech. Moreover, the commissioning that Isaiah receives is to speak! Al...

I looked up Wikipedia for a definition of the word "Devotion" and was surprised to find that in Christianity "devotion" is identified with Bible Study. And that is very much true. When someone says that s/he had devotion in the morning what they mean usually is that they read their Bible. However, the meaning of the word is quite different from studying the scriptures. Devotion is being devoted to someone or something. It is ardent love or surrender in love. Many Hindu Bhaktas understand and practice devotion in that sense. However, in Christian spirituality we often tend to forget this aspect though it has a very prominent place in the Bible. For example, Jesus asking Peter if we love him more that all that he has is certainly a demand for ardent love and total surrender in love (John 21:15). Loving God is a dominant theme in both the Old and New Testaments. See for example the command in Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with a...