Hidden (Krypto) Treasures

To get pearls, one must dive deep!

Trinity of God :: In the Beginning

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On June 27, 2011

In Christian, Trinity of God

The Bible starts out by recording, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1) and from the original text, the word that is used to refer to God here is Elohim, which is plural in nature. The Spirit of God moved over the waters of a dark and void world and God spoke and there was light. But is there a mention of Jesus Christ in creation? We find this in the epistle that the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Colosse stating that Jesus Christ was in the creation of all things and it is in fact for Him that all things were created (Colossians 1:16). So we see that the Trinity (triune God-in-One) was actively involved in the creation. However despite the three personalities, God is one. There is unity in these personalities. Jesus himself makes it very clear that He and the Father (God) are one, and whoever has seen Him has seen the Father.

We also see the plurality of God (in the personality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), evident in the creation of man for God says, Let us make man in our own image (Genesis 1:26-27). The words “us” and “our” in that statement makes it clear that the three personalities of God (God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit) were actively involved in the creation of mankind. In fact, upon the creation of man, man was made, a Spiritual being on a physical journey and not a physical being on a Spiritual journey for the Bible teaches us that when the breath of God was breathed into man, made from the dust of the earth, man being a “living soul” (Genesis 2:7). But sadly, many a times, we act as living bodies and dead souls.

Point(s) to ponder:
How are you/I on this spiritual journey?
Is your life dark and void? If so, ask God to shine his Light (Jesus Christ) on you.
God has been personally involved from the beginning, in your creation, but blessed is the person who has become a new creation, by placing their trust in Jesus Christ. Are you a new creation?
Let us live our lives as living souls and dead bodies (dead to the flesh) and not the other way around!

Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Our Father :: The Protecting Father God

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On June 24, 2011

In Christian

From the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples we can learn of many characteristics of the kind of God, Our Father, is. In this prayer, Jesus teaches us to request God to keep us from being tested/tempted and to deliver us from the evil one (the devil). This establishes the fact that God our Father is a Protecting Father. In the prayer of Jabez, one of the requests that Jabez made of God was that He be kept from evil and the Lord granted him his request (1 Chronicles 4:10). In other words, Jabez recognized that he needed God’s protection, because the evil one is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Just as David fought the lion and the bear that tried to snatch a single sheep away from his fold (1 Samuel 17:34-35), God the chief and Good Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4, John 10:11) would not allow any of us, not even one, who have believed in His Son, and put ourselves into the safety of his protecting hands, from being snatched away by the evil one. Jesus assured us of this when he said, no one can pluck those who are in Christ from the Father’s hand (John 10:29). To pray for God’s protection so that we do not succumb to temptation and to be delivered from the evil one is in a sense, uttering the same prayer of Jesus from the Cross, “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

Point(s) to ponder:

Have you/I surrendered our lives to God and placed our trust in Jesus to save us?
Have you/I asked God to keep us from being tempted and t0 rescue us from the evil one?
Have you/I committed our lives/spirit into the safety of God’s hand; for Our Father is a Protecting Father God.

Matthew 6:13 (NLT)
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one: …

Our Father :: The Pardoning Father God

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On June 23, 2011

In Christian

From the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples we can learn of many characteristics of the kind of God, Our Father, is. In this prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask God to forgive us our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those who sin against us. The not only mandates the condition that we must be forgiving of those who have hurt us, but more importantly, it establishes the pardoning character of God, our Father. In the five years that I have been a father, there has been times when our beloved son, Reuben has done something that disappointed and displeased my loving wife, Sangeetha and me, but as I reflect back on these fives years, despite that fact that we have disciplined him, I can’t quite think of anything, that we harbor or hold against him. We discipline, but we also forgive and for the most part forget. So how much more that God who fashioned me as a Father must be in his act of forgiving all of us, whom he has created in his own image.

It does not matter what we have done, where it be idolatry, dishonoring God’s name or his day, dishonoring our parents, murder, adultery, stealing, lying or coveting, or how far we have run from God, when we address him as Our Father, which we can only do if we have been redeemed by His Son Jesus Christ, He can’t help but forgive us and remembers our sins no more. The vilest offender can receive a pardon from God, irrespective of the gravity of the offense committed, because God the Father, is a pardoning Father God.

Point(s) to ponder:

Matthew 6:12 (KJV)
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Hebrews 8:12 (KJV)
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Our Father :: The Providing Father God

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On June 22, 2011

In Christian

From the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples we can learn of many characteristics of the kind of God, Our Father, is. In this prayer, he teaches us to ask God to give us our daily bread. This establishes the fact that our God is a providing Father. Additionally, it also reflects the fact that God the Father is one who is willing to meet us daily. Jesus asserted this fact when he asked us to consider the birds of the air, which neither sow, nor reap nor gather, yet God the Father provides for their needs (Matthew 6:26). Interestingly, the Bible also records of birds (ravens) that were used by God to provide for the sustenance needs of God’s prophet, Elijah, twice daily (1 Kings 17:1-8). God as a Righteous Father is ready and willing to provide his children of what they ask him (Matthew 7:11), for He is a Providing Father God, but the important thing is that we must ask God (and not anyone else) – Give us this day our daily bread.

Point(s) to ponder:
Our asking of God not only affirms that God is a providing Father God, but it also demonstrate our ongoing (daily) dependence and reliance on Him to provide for our needs.

Matthew 6:11 (KJV)
11 Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:26 (KJV)
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

1 Kings 17:1-6 (KJV)
1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.


Our Father :: The Powerful Father God

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On June 21, 2011

In Christian

From the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples we can learn of many characteristics of the kind of God, Our Father, is. In this prayer, he teaches us to praise and give glory to the Name of God, our Father, and seeks that God’s kingdom comes and that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). He ends this prayer, by affirming that the kingdom is of God, and the power and the glory is God’s forever and forever (Matthew 6:13). If there is a kingdom there must be a King. While God is a Father to those redeemed by Jesus Christ, He is also a Powerful King. In fact, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, not someone to be trifled with.

Jesus came and preached that the Kingdom of God is near. God’s kingdom is not in word, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). It is  the power of God that transforms men and women from sinners to saints; from unrighteousness to righteousness. No one who is unrighteous can enter into the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). Only those who have been imputed righteousness, because they have believed in Jesus Christ (i.e., born again believers) can see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3). The Kingdom of God is not only a powerful kingdom, but it is also a righteous kingdom for God is THE RIGHTEOUS one and all who inherit his kingdom will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ Jesus. So when we pray to God the Father that His kingdom comes, we are indeed praying that righteous is imputed and that everyone believes in Jesus Christ, for without that exchange of our sinfulness for God’s salvation, one cannot see the kingdom of God or Him as a glorified and Powerful King.

Point(s) to ponder:
Are you part of the kingdom of God i.e., have you been born again? 

Matthew 6:10, 15 (KJV)
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
13 … :For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

John 3:3 (KJV)
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Our Father :: The Paternity of God

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On June 20, 2011

In Christian

We celebrated Father’s day 2011 on June 19, 2011 and I wondered as to what kind of Father, our God is? As I wondered, I realized that the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray not only addresses God as Father, but in it, are hidden many characteristics of the kind of Father that God, Our Father, is. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he started out by addressing God as ‘Our Father’. This establishes the Paternity of God. However, even in our natural self, we don’t go around calling anyone other than our earthly father (biological/foster) as our father. In the same manner, only if we have been born into or adopted into God’s family, can we address God as Our Father. So how can one be born into or adopted into God’s family or in other words, what would give someone the right to address the Almighty Creator God as ‘Our Father’?

We can address God as Our Father, only if you have been born again into God’s family. To be born again is to be redeemed by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Redemption comes by believing in Jesus Christ; believing that He is the Only begotten Son of God, and the Only Way to God the Father (John 14:6). Without believing (through faith), we cannot receive the Spirit of adoption in our hearts and without being adopted, we cannot address God as ‘Out Father’. The Paternity of God comes with the free gift of His Spirit being poured into the hearts of all who believe in Jesus Christ. When we believe, we receive as an inheritance the very essence of God which is eternal life, overcoming death and its power. When we believe in His Son Jesus Christ, God accepts and adopts us as His very own.

Many a times in the Bible, we see God saying, “I shall be their God and they shall be my people”, but in the consummation of the Scripture, from the book of Revelation, we see how God says to all who overcome by believing in Jesus Christ, “I will be his [her] God and he [she] shall be my my son [daughter]” (Revelation 21:7), implying that God will be ‘Our Father’.

Point(s) to ponder:
Can you address God as ‘Our Father’? In other words, “Have you been redeemed by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ?” i.e., Have you believed in Jesus Christ, God’s Only begotten Son? i.e., Have you been adopted into God’s family?

Matthew 6:9 (KJV)
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Galatians 4:4-7 (KJV)
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Jesus practiced what he preached

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On June 17, 2011

In Christian

Jesus preached: Greater love has no one than one who lays down his life for his friends (get reference).
Jesus practiced: He laid down his life for not just his friends but his enemies as well (Romans 5:10)

When one lays down his/her life for a friend, that love is deemed great. Then what kind of love is it, where one lays down his/her life for a enemy? Such love is far greater than great love.
We must practice what we preach as well just as Jesus did. While we were still sinners (enemies of God), Jesus died for you and me. He went beyond practicing what he preached. How about you/me?

Romans 5:8-10 (KJV)
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

John 15:12-13 (KJV)
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

God Letters – Not junk mail

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On June 16, 2011

In Christian, Quotable Quotes

Every time, I get our mail, I often wish that there was a law against “unsolicited / junk mail”. The contents of these junk mail letters go straight from our mail box to our trash can or shredder.

Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth that those who have believed in Jesus Christ, are epistles (letters) of Christ, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God  (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). It is an astonishing thought to realize that we are God letters, but at the same time, it is also apprehensive to realize that if our lives are not in sync with Christ living in us, someone who opens and reads our life letter may end up throwing the content of our lives, which is Christ in us, as trash.

Jesus said, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify God the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). American evangelist, preacher and publisher, Dwight L. Moody, accurately and eloquently said “Out of one hundred men, one will read the Bible, the other ninety-nine will read the Christian.”

Points to ponder:
1. What would someone read your/my life as?
2. Will it be as something that is of value or will they consider what they read in you/me as trash?

2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (KJV)
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Matthew 5:16 (KJV)
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Blessings and Obedience

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On June 15, 2011

In Christian

In the old testament, the decree was, if you obey my commandments, you will be blessed (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)
In the new testament, the decree is, I have blessed you so obey my commandments (Ephesians 1:3-4)

Think about this: Just as blessings come as result of obedience; Obedience must come as a result of being blessed.
How can we obey God? If we love Jesus, we will obey God’s commands (John 14:15) and it is easy to love God who blesses us with ALL spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (KJV)
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Ephesians 1:3-4 (KJV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Cease and Cease Not

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On June 14, 2011

In Christian

The Bible counsels us to Cease from doing evil and to repent by reasoning with the Lord  (Isaiah 1:16-18).
The Bible also counsels us to Cease not from praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

And come to think of it, these two counsel are related. We can learn from Jesus’ words that to cease from doing evil, we must cease not from praying.
If we watch and pray (without ceasing), we will not fall into temptation (to do evil) (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38).

Isaiah 1:16-18 (KJV)
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)
17 Pray without ceasing.

Mark 14:38 (KJV)
38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

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