“The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire; it hath bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, subdued evil instincts, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by the clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm.

Humility is one of the many mysteries of Humanity. It is one of those elusive ideas that are difficult to describe yet almost intuitive to understand. Everyone has a basic understanding of it, But when asked what it is, few are able to answer. Recently, I was in that difficult position. I was searching for words, a means to communicate, what exactly it means to be humble. And to tell the truth, I probably wouldn’t understand my own answer if I was the questioner… So, here I try to rectify the issue.

Since I wrote my last post on the topic of the Fear of the Lord, something’s been bugging me. In that post, there is one topic that I have left untouched and upon that very topic, I have based my reasoning. I have stated that, “You should obey the Lord, when you don’t know what is right and what is wrong.”. This statement assumes at least some knowledge about what is right and what is wrong.

Proverbs 1:7: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (ESV) Interesting. Isn’t it? Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It is one of those verses of the bible that is quoted so many times that we don’t even think about what it means. When I was in school and exams came, pastors and believers reminded me of this verse. Meaning, if you fear the Lord, you will pass your exams with good marks.

Last Friday, there was an ICPF retreat here in Ahmedabad themed “What makes God smile?”. It was good. Better than expected (Or should I say as expected, since God is the master of doing the unexpected!). During the retreat there was some time allotted for a question and answer session. I love those sessions. I love them because I love questions. Questions are those peculiar creatures that go Pop! in people’s heads at random times and then do Kaboom!

First of all, let me define my terms. What do I mean by social evolution? Well, it’s a close companion to the theory of evolution. It basically states that all of our social behaviors have evolved for millions of years and are still evolving. You should note that this evolution has no direction. It doesn’t understand if it’s going up or down or left or right or if it’s going round and round.

There it is. Everyday, before my eyes. Following me everywhere. Like my shadow. A quiet but eager witness. My companion. It is there since I was a child. As far as I could remember, it was always there. When I was young, I used to play around it. It was everywhere in my little world. Everywhere I went, it was there. I used to tell others about it, but I realized nobody else could see it.

From 12th to 15th November, I had the privilege to attend ICPF leadership camp. It was a great time of blessings. There were many sessions taken on the topics like of leadership and especially on what it means to be a christian leader. And in each of the talk there were many contrasting elements between a christian leader and a secular leader. However, nobody talked about why there was such an contrast, and that for a good reason.

Here’s something that I’m thinking/learning about for past one month. It began as a simple question that many people legitimately ask, and one that I have asked myself many-a-times. The question is this: Why did God allow the devil to do as he wished with Job. Why did Job suffer? I’d like to share my thoughts on the subject. Prelude The book of Job is one of the oldest books in the bible.

Today, in the ICPF cell group, there was one question raised that I had already dealt with in my mind. But haven’t documented the answer anywhere. Writing helps me refine my thoughts and give a structure to what is otherwise, like a maze. A maze only I can solve. Because I created it. And nobody can look at it, because it’s inside my mind. However, since I haven’t documented the answer, the answer to this little question was like a maze in my mind, and when this question was raised, I did answer it, however, wasn’t able to answer with the clarity I would have liked to answer with.

I have often wondered what is the meaning of the following bible verse: John 8:32: and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (ESV) It seemed a very strange preposition. Know the truth, and the truth will set you free. If truth were a physical object, like a sword, I would have thought, it means, learn using the sword, and it will set you free. However, I thought, truth is just an abstract concept of mind.

Many-a-times I have asked myself this question. What does it mean to worship. I did a quick lookup in a dictionary and in it, to describe what is worship, words like love, admiration and devotion are used. All of these can are very interesting. If you have read my previous posts, you might know my semantic analysis of the different aspects of the subject matter and describing it’s inner working. However, I feel as if I were to do the same to this topic, I wouldn’t be doing justice to it.

For past few weeks, I have been pondering upon the subject of freedom. I have been asking myself different questions about it. And through this questions I have learned a great deal about freedom(at least, I like to think so). I have found some things that are absolutely astounding. So, in this post I’d like to tell you what I have learned. In this study of freedom, I’d like to present to you six different topics.