WordToday

  ♫ Lay down the burden of your heart, I know you'll never miss it. Show your Father where it hurts, And let your Father lift it. ♬ watch here Or if you prefer, here is the equally lovely ORIGINAL VERSION    by Jesse Winchester, which I must one day sing to my daughter too . For bed-time stories, we were reading scripture with the kids and got to the story of young King Solomon conversing with God.  At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 1 King 3.5   Thinking that this could be an opportune time to find out their hidden concerns in life, I turned first to my son and asked, “If you were Solomon, what would you have asked for?” “Uhmm, I think I would want to be king forever!” “And why would you want to be king forever?” I probed. “Dad, do you think President Uhuru can afford to have pizza whenever he wants?” I knew where this was heading and so I quickly turn...

What a friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer  …….  Are we weak and heavy-laden,   Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Saviour, still our refuge—   Take it to the Lord in prayer (you can read or listen to the poem/hymn  Here!   )   Joseph Scriven’s adult life was marked with tragedy. First, he had to give up a promising military career due to ill health. Then he lost his fiancée in a drowning accident. To deal with his sorrow, he sailed away to a distant land to seek a fresh start. There he fell in love again but as fate would have it, he lost his second fiancée to pneumonia. Thereafter, devoted himself to helping the destitute around him. He became known as  “the man who saws wood for poor widows and sick people who are unable to pay”.   It was during this time of sad memories and humble service that he wrote this poem to encourage his a...

  “My style was impetuous, my defenses were impregnable, and I was ferocious.” -Mike Tyson. Tyson is considered one of the best heavyweights of all time. In his boxing career he won 50 of his 58 fights- 44 of the 50 won through knockouts. He was also a man of supreme self-confidence as the quote above implies. When it comes to spiritual battles, I wish I had the faith and courage to match Mike Tyson’s confidence. How can I do this? How can I, a mere man, contend with this seemingly invincible enemy? Indeed, how can anyone on earth resist him?  You see my friend, God has put in our hands, portent tools that we can use against the Adversary. Paul put it this way; For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought t...

  James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.   Working from home has been quite the experience- a daily assortment of work, unexpected interruptions, swinging emotions, impossible moments and very rarely, rest. In this mix I find the children’s uninhibited impulses and dialogs to be the most poignant. My son, after watching cartoon versions of Mr. Bean, insists on following me as I go for my daily ‘quiet-time’ walks. To be clear though, he does not actually follow me, and neither are my walks quiet. Instead he keeps walking into my path as he gives a word for word running commentary of the clips he has watched. I am not quite sure why it is important for...

I was enjoying a lazy Saturday morning warmly tucked in bed when my daughter burst into the room and shook me urgently. What was the emergency?   Daughter: Dad, I want you to come downstairs.   Me: Why, has mum come back (from jogging)? Just in case you are wondering, earlier on, I had a small argument earlier with wife about my fitness habits (or lack thereof). Since I’ve never won a morning argument, I mumbled something about being as fit as a fiddle. She retorted, rather angrily, with; “…indeed you are pure muscle!” . I took this as compliment and promptly drifted back to random Corona thoughts. Anyway, my conversation with daughter continued unabated; Daughter: No dad, just come downstairs! Me: No, this is my morning to rest. Now, I don’t know whether this describes it properly, but without uttering another word, she gave me a look that lay somewhere between pleading and a warning (not sure how women do it). I promptly got out of bed. I got ...