“In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’S Passover” (Exodus 12:11). If you are planning an early morning trip with small children, sending them to bed in traveling clothes (except […]
“Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:7). Both Moses and Aaron had had crossed the age of retirement when God entrusted them to speaking truth to the powers of this world. Moses brings to the job only forty years of experience shepherding his father-in-law’s […]
Everything was as usual as Moses led the flock to the sparsely vegetated landscape around Mount Sinai. As the sheep moved from one bush to another Moses followed them playing his shepherd’s flute. He noticed a bush far away in the fire. Dry grass and bushes catch fire in the Mediterranean sun where the day […]
The spiritual essence of human life is determined by the choice between two persons who demand our loyalty. One is God and the other is his antagonist, the Devil. The followers of Christ have already made their choice by choosing God and shunning the Devil. However, the Devil will not leave them so easily. He […]
The Psalmist prayed on behalf of her community “give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless” (Psalm 108:12). One of the reasons for this prayer is the psalmist’s confidence in God. The psalmist was sure that “with God we will gain victory, and he will trample down our enemies” (Psalm […]
The Bible is the story of people responding to God in faith but also of those who doubted him. Genesis is the book of the beginnings of many things. The origin of the created order, human life, sin, and the list could go on. But it also records the origin of faith and doubt. Sin […]
Cheerfully she soars, gleefully glides
Over roaring sea, despite raging storm
That’s the strength I need, Lord
To strive in today’s tumult.
(A poem on the sea gull).
Jesus taught that praying is committing to act; he expects us to commit to what we pray for. The disciples whom Jesus asked to pray for laborers are the first batch of laborers that he had in mind. They may pray for more laborers like them, but they cannot shun their personal responsibility to be harvesters that they prayed for. Praying for a cause is committing to that cause. Without that commitment prayer turns useless.
The role of mere rationality in Christian spirituality. The limitations of human reason to understand reality in its fullness. How faith helps us to know God’s reality the way God has revealed it.
“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!” Psalms 57:7 Can anyone sing when surrounded by hungry lions? When surrounded by enemies who intend to harm us there is no time to sing or to think of singing. But the Psalmist says, “My heart is steadfast, O […]
Paulson Pulikottil 