Christian Thoughts

In this day and age where instant gratification is actively promoted across commercial sectors because of consumerism, certain Christian communities have effectively come to expect miracles on all occasions — to the extent of even seeking divine aid for not-so-desperate matters like  chasing alternate jobs with better terms (despite being disfavourably regarded by current colleagues ),  hoping own children ace school examinations (despite acknowledging their disinterest in academic studies) or  obviating need for tooth-decay treatment (despite protracted inattention to proper dental hygiene ).   Given this feverish mindset to look heavenward for help in almost every mundane situation, it may be worthwhile to glance back and check out what certain biblical characters went through.   The following representative list of illustrative examples ought to be helpful for a broad appreciation of what different OT characters had experienced during trying times beset ...

  As declared by the Son of Man, “ I am the way … [and] no one comes to the Father except through Me ” (John 14:6).   Additionally, believers have been specifically taught that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ ” (Galatians 2:16).   Given that these oft-quoted verses appear in the New Testament, the query that springs to mind is whether both of them are retroactively applicable to all who lived prior to the Messiah’s earthly ministry as well as those uninformed about God’s offer of salvation relayed since then by evangelists commissioned to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature [and] he who believes and is baptised will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned ” (Mark 16:15-16).   Available in another New Testament book is the divine assurance that “God our Saviour … desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:3-4).   This Pauline ...

Given the inexorable march of time, all living beings must eventually grow old (barring, of course, untimely deaths).   The steady stream of advancements in health science has nowadays enabled the post-retirement period of many a working adult to be stretched into several decades.   Believers concerned about these prolonged golden years being frittered away ought then to check out what did biblical characters in the senior-age bracket do.   It is natural to presume that the so-called poster boy  for our discussion here  see ms to be Moses whom God called to service only when he was nearing the post-golden age of 80 years; lest any reckons that Moses had earlier been idling away for 40 years in Midian tending to flocks, the Bible points out that “it came into his heart when he was 40 years old to visit his brethren” (Acts 7:23) ostensibly to help alleviate the lot of fellow Hebrews labouring under enforced slavery.   Even at 120 years of age, “his eyes...