Paulson Post

Death speaks volumes and we tend to listen more carefully to our dear ones at the death than when they were alive. In the recent past, four deaths spoke to me powerfully. One is of my friend who died suddenly before reaching the fiftieth birthday. A man of full of plans, things lined up to do for God was suddenly called to glory. The other was the death of a two little children of my Sunday school aged eleven and nine years in a road accident. Their dad, a cousin and the cousin's granddad also died in the same accident. It was very painful to watch two kids and their dad aged just 38 lowered to the same grave in three coffins to be laid side by side. They had dreams, plans and aspirations for life, but God had different plans and none of us could question his plans nor should stop him doing what he willed for them. I had to take a serious look at my life. I have plans, most of them are certainly things that I want to do for God. However, every planning requires some assurance of t...

But before we take our journey to that side of the grave we need to make sure where we are going. Please make sure where you will end up before that transfer from this life to the other happens. A few days back, a teenager in Pune killed himself by hanging. He was from a well-to-do family happy family, got a lot of love and care from his elder sisters and brothers. However, he decided to die just to satisfy his curiosity. A lesson in his Marathi textbook about the martyrdom of India's freedom fighters made him curious about death. He used to ask his parents and teachers what happens after death. The answer his parents of this Hindu boy gave seems not to have satisfied him nor of his teacher. Finally, he decided to find out by himself. The police told the press that he committed suicide in order to find out for himself what happens after death. When he killed himself, he was not sure where he was going and what is going to happen to him. People were always fascinated by what happe...

" But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel" (Philippians 2:22) Great leaders are not always born but nurtured by people whom God had blessed with grace, wisdom and experience. However, an attitude of submission, obedience and willingness to learn is what is expected of those who would like to be used by God. The house where my parents live was built long before I was born. However, I have memories of this house being renovated to add two new rooms: one on the first floor which later became my room. The carpentry team consisted of a father and his two sons; both sons were married and had small children. The father had the drawings and consulted my father occasionally and the sons just took instructions from their father and slogged. The father would take break from hammering the chisel on the wood occasionally, have a smoke and walk around the structure that is coming up. The sons worked si...

Many of the modern Christian leaders were not physically attractive nor did they come from families of high social or economic standing. They were very ordinary people, from very ordinary circumstances but God used them beyond their limitations. I can think of William Carey who was missionary, bible translator, linguist, and educator. He was an English cobbler! Pandita Ramabhai was a young widow, from a poor Brahmin family and just four-feet tall. William Seymour was a black, son of former slaves, a railway porter and blind in one eye. God used him mightily at the Azusa Street Revival. How can God use us? The answer to this question can be found in 2 Timothy 2:20-21 where Paul uses the metaphor of pots and pans in a big house. “In a large house there are articles not only of godl and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanse himself form the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the M...

What are the privileges of those who serve God? Psalm 16, most scholars agree is about a person who has become a priest of Yahweh. The psalm describes his resolve not to serve any other gods and declares his exclusive loyalty to the God of Israel (Psalm 16:1-2). One of the privileges of the priests in Israel was to eat part of what was offered to God. It could be portions of the sacrificial meat, or could be the Show Bread presented before Yahweh everyday (Lev. 22:7). The psalmist refers to this in verse 5: “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot” (KJV). Sometimes husbands and wives or lovers express their love by sipping the drink from the other partner’s cup. That’s one way of saying “I love you”. In some religious communities, during their feasts, they eat from the same plate to show their solidarity. In verse 5, Psalmist considers God as his partner, from whose cup he has the right to drink. That is the privilege of serving God. God is no...

Humility is to live our lives in such a way that our self-image does not stand in our way of serving others and God. Our motto should be “strong and quality inside, humble outside”. Christians need to be people with a soft-crust: approachable, loving and lovable. In Ephesians 4:2, the Bible exhorts those who believe in Christ to live a life worthy their calling. Those who believe in Christ are not just mere believers, but they are children of God and thus belong to the household of God. The call is thus to live lives in a manner fitting the values and ethos of the family of God. One of the shared values in the family of God where every believer in Christ is a member is “humility”. In Ephesians 4:2, Apostle Paul wrote: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” The word translated as “being humble” means, “having a humble opinion of one's self”. It is not having self-pity or having a low self-estimate. Rather it is having a proper self-estimate ...

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more that all that we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...." (Eph 3:26) The new “health and wealth” gospel that is being preached to us actually making us put a cap on what God can do for us. We should leave it to God, to his will. The ultimate purpose of Christian life is to glorify God and not to limit God. The new gospel of prosperity that is being preached is one of “name it, claim it”. The argument is that human words have power to make things to happen. It follows from this reasoning that God will grant anything that we ask specifically. Promoters of this “gospel” say that we need to clear in our imagination and be specific about our prayer requests. For example, if you are praying for a car, don’t just pray for a car, they say. Pray for the specific model, specific color, etc. However, I find this teaching and all its reasoning contrary to the Word of ...