“Can a Christian marry an unbeliever?” Hold on. But… Wait… First, “Can I date a non-christian person?” We get asked these questions very frequently.
Why is God not ok if you date or marry someone of another faith? Why would God not be ok?
Acts 16:25 - where Paul and Silas sang in the jail cell - is a familiar verse. Generally, that is where we start our discussion. But it doesn’t make sense. Why would someone who was snatched in the streets of Philippi; stripped of clothing; tortured; and then thrown into prison; why would they shout victory?!
I’m going to talk to you about the Philippi Incident:
For the last 2-3 months, I’ve been stuck to the Book of Acts. I can’t seem to move past it. I’m beginning to realize the power of the Word and what God wanted to do in the lives of Apostles. It is called the Acts of the Apostles, but it really should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
The Bangalore Times reported on a survey concerning sexual relations: “If a recent survey is to be believed, Bangalore is the place for casual sex.” Another survey report in the Times of India highlighted the approximate percentage of casual relationships throughout India. A few of those findings are as follows: Mumbai: 54.4, Delhi: 40.6, Goa: 39.7, Kolkata: 27.1, Bangalore: 25.7, Pune 19.2, Chennai: 6.4
I am certain that this situation (whether exposed or not) is the same for other cities and places around the world.
According to researchers, the rise in promiscuity has been attributed to changing lifestyles, excess of free time, spur of the moment desires; and the influence of alcohol and substance abuse have been identified as key factors.
[This post is a part of the Guarding the Heart power series. If you missed the earlier posts, you can view it here.]
During my childhood, one of the constant cautions that came from my mother was about friends. She would do everything to make sure that I had the right friends. In fact, certain times I would not take the fact very well that I could not hang out with certain friends. It took me years to figure out that she was right and that friendships could mould who you are.
God takes friendship very seriously that he refers to only two people as his friend in the Old Testament. Today, the Facebook world has made it so hard to differentiate your real friends; whether they are just acquaintances or someone you associate with.
[This post is a part of the Guarding the Heart power series. If you missed the earlier posts, you can view them here.]
I hesitated to blog about this. Especially because I feel I am yet to completely master this. And I do not know if I will ever master it fully either. I think either way I owe it to you, my readers, to blog about the good things as well as the ones that are hard to share.
As I began getting involved in ministry at a very young age, it came naturally to me to trust blindly and love everyone around me. I placed some people on a pedestal in my life. It took me time to learn that people (even, men of God) are not perfect.
Out of the many scars, the deepest of them were by my closest friends who spoke negative words into my life. Without mentioning too many details, a particular man of God once said I should never try writing as no one would read it. When I was about to publish my first book at the age of seventeen, he asked me, “Who will buy them?”
“How can I guard my heart?” the pastor’s wife asked me with all sincerity. I realized then that it could not be a mere one line answer but whole lot of areas that we need to be aware of or else the enemy would take advantage of the most precious part of our life – ‘our heart’. And still somehow, we rarely pay attention to study this in detail.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” This verse even though true in the natural, however does not talk about the physical condition of the heart but the intellectual, and specially the ethical core.
Why does the Bible say the ‘heart’ is the source out of which all issues of life flow? Our minds have the ability to register and make notes of how our heart feels. It thereby allows decisions to be made based on how the heart feels in a particular occasion, many times even subconsciously. Continue Reading