Alongside

Another eventful and tumultuous year is pulling down the curtains and we are at the threshold of stepping into a new one with new hopes, new resolutions, great expectations and excitement. What has been the biggest takeaways, the big learning curves, the eye openers, the high and low points of this year? It is good to look back before we get all exited and dressed up to usher in the New Year. For some it has been an amazing year of blessings, of fulfilment of Gods promises, of lives impacted, open doors and breakthroughs in our lives. For some of us it has been a mixed bag of ups and downs, great excitement and great pain, pure fulfilment and terrible losses and for some of us it has been a pretty bad year in many ways with sickness, financial troubles and personal losses. But whatever it has been, it is very important that we hit the pause button for a moment and look back and take stock of what God has done in our lives before we step into a new year. In Psalm 103, King Da...

“ But David found strength in the Lord his God ”.  An amazingly beautiful and inspiring verse hidden in 1Samuel 30:6. David and his motley crew of men had just been humiliated and sent back from the battlefield by the Philistine generals with whom he had aligned for some time and living with in Ziklag. To make matters worse when they returned to Ziklag, to their horror they found their place raided by the Amalekites, their wives and children were taken captives and everything that they fought for was gone.   The response of these battle hardened fighters was pretty unusual, they cried!! in fact they wailed! Do men cry?  Brave men don't or should not cry and show weakness right?  Isn’t that what we were told from childhood?  But here Bible records that these tough men cried loudly till they had no strength left to cry. Probably some might argue, because it was an all men group and no women were around, they cried. No inhibitions in...

The fast paced world that we live in, constantly in a state of flux, with rising uncertainties, changing mores and notions, fads and ideas, finding that balance has become an increasingly arduous task. Young families who have started out with great promise and excitement are facing the maximum brunt, not being successful in handling it, they are going into a tail spin ending in terrible stress, break up and total mess. Pressure at work, scrambling to meet deadlines, handling finances, finding time for personal growth and faith, taking care of health, family- being a loving husband and a caring father,   socialising, finding your creative space and pursuing one’s passion, the list goes on and on. Honestly one might be wondering how on earth can I find time to manage all these. The pressure and stress might be getting onto our heads, there are many who have given up and taken refuge in alcohol and there are alarmingly innumerable marriages on the brink of divorce or have already...

The effects of post- modern and post-liberal theology on the church in general and on the Christian faith has been slow but steady ­­and the signs are ominously becoming visible each passing day. This slow churning has resulted in a form of progressive Christianity which brilliantly camouflages in myriad ways, often very subtle and not easily recognisable  or identifiable by even well-meaning Christians. Remember it is always packaged as progressive and colourful  as the bible calls it “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. It is not easy to pinpoint these half-truths and grey lies even for a well trained eye as it does not hold out as a coherent systematic thought or theology. It has embedded itself, widely scattering in different aspects of historic Christian faith making those slight twists and turns of deception. But the fact is that these deceptive teachings have deeply impacted and confused the body of Christ in such a way that we will find ourselves in no time on a dangerou...

Is it okay for a worship leader to be in a live-in relationship and still be leading worship? Is it okay for a Christian leader to have an extramarital affair and continue to lead?  Is it okay for a believer to be in a same sex relationship? What do you say when a Christian leader misappropriates ministry funds for personal gains and continues to be in leadership? How can a believer be addicted to pornography and go on as usual? Is it okay to get a tattoo done on our body because even Joyce Meyers wants to get one?  Is it okay for a believer to live in sin? How do you respond when a mega church pastor says that he needs a private jet to travel around and he mischievously twists the word of God to convince his people to finance it? What do you do when you hear about rampant corruption, power politics, manipulations, sexual immorality, false teachings and absolute lack of integrity among so-called brethren? Is it okay to live without any ethics, personal integrity, morality...

Once again what Pele, the great footballer called as the "beautiful game" is here, the greatest spectacle on Terra-firma, fans madly rooting for their  countries and going crazy about Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar. Excitement, triumph and  tears will be witnessed.  Sleeplessness nights before the small screen has commenced. But have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of these superstar-gladiator like footballers? Their struggles, pain and the tremendous amount of pressure of expectations to win, perform or perish; How do they respond when they come face to face with tremendous pressure?  What gives them the inner strength to overcome that kind of pressure?  What is the ultimate Prize?  Is it winning the world cup or is there something more to life than that? Is there a greater purpose to life? To find out...... Watch Six amazing footballers talk about their life, how they overcame pressure and how they won the ultima...

A question which many of us mere mortals constantly struggle with? A question that has the propensity to make ordinary well-meaning people to compete, cut down, indulge in power play and dirty politics ultimately culminating in divisions, conflicts and destruction. This is not a question limited to the so called dog eat dog secular world of corporate, professional or political arena. This is very much a reality and a part and parcel of the Christian world. In fact the question, “Who is the greatest?” was asked by none other than the disciples of Jesus. We read that in Luke 9:46 and Mathew 18:1. This was not the first time that question was raised, many centuries ago Aaron and Miriam had asked a similar sounding question to Moses in Numbers 12:1, where they ask, “Is Moses the only one that God Speaks through? Hasn’t He spoken through us?” and if you go back in time to the roots and try to trace the origin of this question we will end up in Isaiah 14:12-17 which records the fa...