Spring of Hope

The Samaritan woman in John's gospel chapter 4 would be the kind of people I would like to see in my church as leaders. If you have someone like this woman, you can with the help of God, lead a powerful church. Interestingly, I don't know her name, but I know everything else about her. It is difficult to guess her age, but we can see that she has lived through a lot. I can tell you that she is a Wild and Wonderful Woman. Jesus encountered this woman at noon time (sixth hour). In the middle east countries, It is unusual for people to walk around at noon time due to the intense heat. A writer says, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.” But this woman was out there doing hard work. Women at that time used to like such gatherings in the evenings as they used this time to socialize. Maybe, this woman did not want to be with other women or may be she ran out water unexpectedly. Whatever the reason was, she was a bold woman on the move. I want to believe ...

A group of Christian students was asked if they feared for the danger of hell or the danger nuclear war in their lifetime. All of them answered nuclear war. I am almost certain most of you here will agree with them. Indeed, most people are more concerned with the dangers of nuclear war than the dangers of hell in their life time. The truth is that the danger of hell is far more real, far more certain, infinitely more terrible, and more imminent than the danger of nuclear war. Jesus said, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all." (Luke 17, Matt 24). People asked Jesus about the end of the world, when he reminded them about the days Noah and the days of the son of man. It takes wisdom to recognize the time and to respond. They got to worry about their present time more than worrying about...

Most people like sunny days as opposed to dark and cloudy days. There is even a class of medical classification for the negative effects of cloudy days on our mind and body. We tend to speak of the beauty of any given day in relation to how much of the sun and sky we are able to see. However, the scripture encourages us to view the clouds as a place to experience the presence of God. “God’s way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet." (Nahum 1:3). Even though sorrows and sufferings may bring rain drops of tears in the clouds, it is through those clouds that we can feel the presence of God. Often we get caught up in the sight of the clouds that we lose sight of who is on the chariot. "God makes the clouds His chariot" (Psalm 104:3). Throughout the scripture, we read that God descended to the people in the clouds. In Exodus 19 we see that "a cloud covered the mount and the glory of the Lord abode on Sinai"(Exod. 24:15,16). A clou...