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Showing posts from January, 2011

Book Review: Sabbath, by Dan Allender

I selected this book “Sabbath” by Dan Allender because I was eager to know more about Sabbath. The author’s idea is Sabbath should be a day of delight instead of following a strict set of rules and considering is as a burden. This really made me think about the meaning and reality of Sabbath. He starts of by asking us to consider three main assumptions 1.Sabbath is not a Good idea, but it is one of the Ten Commandments. 2.Sabbath is a day of delight and not a day off or a day of vacation. 3.Sabbath is a feast day that remembers our leisure in Eden. With these assumptions he proceeds on to write about the Sabbath pillars, purpose and performance. The like what the author says about delight. He says, “Delight doesn't require a journey of thousands of miles away to taste the presence of God, but it does require a separation from the mundane, an intentional choice to enter joy and follow God as he celebrates the glory of his creation and his faithfulness to keep his covenant to re

Bonsai churches

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As we were discussing about the churches in Tamil Nadu, the leader of a church growth organization said there are so many “Bonsai” churches here. I asked him what he meant by Bonsai. He went on to explain that Bonsai is a type of tree that is grown in Japan. They are trees that are grown in pot and it can be kept in your table. They are very much alive. They grow only to about 7 inches maximum. They even produce fruits. So whatever tree you want, you can grow that at your table. For instance, if you want to grow a coconut tree, you can buy one bonsai coconut tree and keep it on your table. It will grow up to 6 inches and it even produces tiny coconuts for you. Though these Bonsai trees are beautiful and bear fruit, they are useless. The real purpose of this tree is not fulfilled. These Bonsai trees are also very expensive. He went on say that most churches are Bonsai churches. They are alive, beautiful and expensive. But they are useless and they fail to fulfill its purpose. As he sai

Blessed or MORE Blessed!!

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Have you noticed how people use the word “blessed”. I have been observing on this for some time. I have been “blessed” with a baby, I am blessed with a good spouse, I am blessed this year because I got a promotion at work, and I am blessed with a job in an MNC. The basic point of all these statements is “I am blessed because I have received something”. Though I am not against this and I agree that all these are blessing from the Lord, this year I am going to strive to be MORE blessed. Do you want to know how? (Thanks for nodding your head, let me continue.) The secret to be MORE blessed is written in Acts 20:35. “It is MORE blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE” Acts 20:35 (emphasis mine) These words were quoted by Apostle Paul and he says that these are the Words of Lord Jesus Himself. I think this is one of the words of Jesus that is not mentioned in the gospels. They are the unwritten saying of our Lord Jesus and Paul quotes them. I think he might have learnt this from the disciples of