kosarajuraj

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes - these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand" (Psalm 130:3). One of the most common questions every person wrestles with in life is this: "God, if You are loving, just, and all-powerful, why do You allow good people to suffer?" Many choose not to believe in God because they cannot adequately explain this...

Why doesn't God do something about the evil in the world? Sometimes I wonder if God even cares about the bad things that happen to people today. I don't understand why He doesn't just destroy everything that's evil. One of my favorite preachers of all times Evangelist Billy Graham quite rightly answers: I suspect almost everyone reading this has asked themselves the same   question, because evil is real, and at times our world seems completely in its grip. And to be honest, we don't always know why God allows evil things to happen. The Bible talks about "the mystery of iniquity" -- and that's what evil often is: a mystery (2 Thessalonians 2:7, KJV). But the Bible tells us two important truths about evil that we need to remember. First, evil doesn't come from God; He didn't create it, and He doesn't cause it. Evil comes instead from the Evil One -- Satan -- who is absolutely opposed to God and His goodness. It also comes from wit...

In his article One God, Two Worlds, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein has described a wonderful description about One God as against many. There is a story told about a rabbi fighting for religious freedom in communist Russia. One morning as the rabbi prayed in synagogue, three men rushed in and arrested the rabbi for his actions. Facing a council of determined men, the rabbi reaffirmed that he would not give up his religious activities. One of the agents pointed a gun at his head and said, “This little toy has made many a man change his mind!” The rabbi replied, “That little toy can only intimidate men with many gods and one world. But I have only one God and two worlds, so I am not impressed by your little toy.” What an incredible display of courage and faith! As the rabbi explained, some people have many gods. They are beholden to many things – people, jobs, money, passions, and so forth. In addition, for many people, this is the only world that matters. Some deny the exis...

In 1962, the Mariner I space probe was scheduled to travel to Venus and provide information to NASA scientists. It never got there, as it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean four minutes after takeoff. An investigation was launched into the cause for the crash and was later traced to the computer program directing the spacecraft. It turned out that somewhere in the program a single minus sign had been left out. For some people, living out the basics of the Christian faith isn't exciting enough. Too insignificant. Not brave enough. However, the way a follower of Jesus handles small things, both in attitude and execution, determines to a large extent how they will handle larger things. We live in a society of wanting more. There is always something else to want, to have, to own, leaving us feeling that there is no such thing as enough, let alone the possibility of having too much. Whatever it is that we have, we believe that we need more. But while having too much seems...

I read one of Pastor Adrian Rogers snippets about Christian life which goes like this: I’ve heard it said so many times that it’s hard to be a Christian. Where did you get that? You didn’t get it out of the Word of God. It’s not hard to be a Christian. Listen, the Bible says that “the way of the transgressor is hard” (Proverbs 13:15), but it’s not hard to be a Christian. I’m having a wonderful time serving the Lord Jesus. You say, “You mean there’s no suffering?” There’s suffering in this world whether you’re saved or lost. You’re not going to get out unbent, unbloodied, or unbowed. But I want to tell you, there is joy in the Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus is the One who makes the sufferings of this life worth it all. I know some of you are carrying heavy loads of exhaustion. Free living might sound like a promise for other people, but not for you. Perhaps you are dealing with a constant strain in your life. God sees you, friend. He knows your struggles. He’s able to...

I liked the article written by Whitt Madden. It is a good piece of work. It is also very true as Whitt says five very different roads claiming a variety of different things.   “So many roads to nowhere” as the song goes… Two of these are masquerading as “Christian” beliefs. One claims to believe in nothing, but even that statement is an oxymoron, and the other two resemble nothing of the God in Scripture.   So which one of these roads leads to Jesus? the Bible makes a very bold claim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him.   None of these five roads will lead you to that conclusion, as you will see further into this study. We continue in our series – Who Determines Truth? by taking a look at five really popular and very different systems of belief.  Five different roads, but do any of them lead to Jesus? The text for our study is John 14:6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way...

As God incarnate, Jesus Christ is omnipotent. His power is seen in the miracles He performed—His numerous healings, the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44), calming the storm (Mark 4:37-41), and the ultimate display of power, raising Lazarus and Jairus’s daughter from the dead (John 11:38-44; Mark 5:35-43), an example of His control over life and death. Death is the ultimate reason that Jesus came—to destroy it (1 Corinthians 15:22; Hebrews 2:14) and to bring sinners into a right relationship with God. The Lord Jesus stated clearly that He had power to lay down His life and power to take it up again, a fact that He allegorized when speaking about the temple (John 2:19). He had power to call upon twelve legions of angels to rescue Him during His trial, if needed (Matthew 26:53), yet He offered Himself in humility in place of others (Philippians 2:1-11). Jesus is God and we are not. Most of us get that. But what we dont always understand is that God loves us just as...

We know that He is always walking with us.  We know that He sees everything we are struggling with and everything we are going through.  We know that He sees what we need, and we know that He will provide it for us.  Praise Him today for His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence, and rest in the knowledge that He will never leave you or forsake you. Even though Israel had seen the invisible God in action, they still wanted something familiar that they could see and shape into whatever image they desired. In doing so, they were ignoring the command he had just given them: "You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea" (Exodus 20:4). They may even have thought they were worshiping God. Their apparent sincerity was no substitute for obedience and no excuse for disobedience. Our great temptation still is to shape a god to our liking, to make him convenient to obey or ignore....

The story of how God made everything is, naturally, at the very beginning of the Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." (NLT, Genesis 1:1-5) That was the first day of God's creation. On the second day, God created the sky. On the third day, God created the land, the oceans and all the plants. On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon and stars. On the fifth day, God created the birds, fishes and other sea creatures. On the sixth day, God created all the land animals and people. On the seventh day, God rested: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh da...

God exhorts us to honor father and mother. He values honoring parents enough to include it in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12) and again in the New Testament: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:1-3). Honoring parents is the only command in Scripture that promises long life as a reward. Those who honor their parents are blessed (Jeremiah 35:18-19). In contrast, those with a “depraved mind” and those who exhibit ungodliness in the last days are characterized by disobedience to parents (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2). Obviously, we are commanded to honor our parents, but how? Honor them with both actions and attitudes (Mark 7:6). Honor their unspoken as well as spoken wishes. “A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke” (Proverbs 13:1). In Matthe...

Here is the gospel: Man is hopelessly, eternally lost. Left to his own devices, he will not only destroy himself, but everything and everyone around him. But on a cross hung a bleeding, dying Savior who said, "I am doing this for you." We are saved through the shed blood of Jesus. In a perfect world, Christians would be people without any disagreements. Unfortunately this isn’t a perfect world, it’s a fallen one, and even the Church sees its share of conflict between members. Pastors argue, Churches split, and professed Christians hold grudges against their brothers and sisters. This last one is something I particularly struggle with. A few years ago I was in a really bad place; I was feeling hurt and angry because of something some other Christians had said to me. Christ lists three ways people show their ill-feelings toward others. Cursing indicates verbally denigrating others and working to destroy their reputation; gossiping. Hatred implies an active, pa...