Renewed to Honor

During a recent worship service, a thought struck me while singing about giving glory to Jesus. I wondered if it would be appropriate to ask for glory or to claim it for oneself. This idea felt blasphemous, as it seemed to imply that one could steal or exceed God's glory. History is filled with examples of kings and rulers who sought such glory, only to end up as dust and bones. But then I realized that even Jesus, in his prayer to the Father, asked for glory: 'Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed' (John 17:5). How could Jesus, being fully God, ask for glory? The Chalcedonian and Nicene Creeds affirms the answer as said in the verse "He (Jesus), Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, (Philippians 2:6)". They affirm that Jesus, though fully God, did not cling to his divine equality but humbled himself. He is the only one who truly des...

Post tenebras lux After Darkness Light Portion: John 8:12 Why are we learning this?  To understand the Bible as a whole: The Bible talks from Genesis to Revelation that God is not unlike any gods that nations believe. He is a God who loves to be with people. He made people in His Image and wants to have communion - relationship - face to face meeting with people To understand the Trinity: We have seen what Trinity is: The Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God. They are not ⅓ God - each person is 100% God, and there is only 1 God. The 3 are One. Jesus is God: Jesus uses the same portion that God used in the story of Israel (I AM) to say that Jesus is the same God There are almost 300 times the statement is used Jesus used the Exodus to teach us the kingdom of God Portions we looked last time (Spiritual Darkness/ Need of Light) We too walked in darkness John 1:4, John 8:12, John 3:19-20 Psalm 139: 11,12 - Comfort in darkness + Psalm 18:28 Isaiah 9:2 - People who w...

  There are times we go through Spiritual Darkness. Here is a sermon I spoke on how the Spiritual Darkness is to an unbeliever and  to a believer.  John 1:4, John 8:12, John 3:19-20 Psalm 139: 11,12 - Comfort in darkness + Psalm 18:28 Isaiah 9:2 - People who walked in darkness /Physical darkness, Spiritual Darkness Luke 11:34-35 Psalm 119:130 - the unfolding of the Word gives light 1 Peter 2:9 - why we are called Revelation 21:23 - The future Additional Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tQdleC3YvYRqRTK0K3W0tBvJ7TJ4KDBXgxEcPTdzU7E/edit?usp=sharing http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/sermons/0031.htm

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. J ohn 7:37–39 (ESV) Story so far Last week, we looked at the question Jesus posed the believer? Are you following me because you saw the miracles and were convinced that I am sufficient or are you following me because you got he blessings and want more? This week we shall dwell into this topic even deeper. Also we been looking at John. John said "The word became flesh and tabernacled  among us" John 1:14 Timeline :  The book of John is not a literal or chronological narrative. The aim of the author is to explain who Jesus is and why is Jesus the reason for life. This is eviden...

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Summary: He knows our hunger - he has enough He does not care that we want him as king over our needs, but He wants to be our King. He came not to be useful, but to become precious He came to be sufficient In him there is eternal life He accepts our worship HE IS GOD - HIS WORDS ARE LIFE

Come and See! I never thought I would hear these words again. But my 2-year-old son just said that. I felt a rush of memories in my head. I followed my son to his playroom / our living room. In it he had arranged his toy cars in a perfect line and wanted me to see them. He obviously did not know the deep meaning that his three words brought to my memories. Three words that transformed me. Come and See. That was all that took for God to shake my life and as I study the Bible, I realize that I am not the first one whose life had been changed. ( John 1: 35-40 ) . It was in 2008 when someone told me the same. A brother in Christ had said that same sentence. I was on the phone with him, and asked him the following question in some manner "how do I know Jesus" and he just said those 3 words and my world was shaken. I followed what he said and took my motorbike and went to the place that he instructed me. There were about 15 people in all, 5 of them well known to m...

  Context of Communion Ex. 12:21–28 The Israelities hurried to make the bread and the lamb for the Lord’s Passover. A transition from Egypt to the promised land, the death of the first born and therefore the heir of the family for Egyptians, and the calling of the nation from a family. The first Passover made these things, and God in his providence has wisdom planned things for us too in that process. A nation from a family The family of Jacob had grown and been a a multitude of people. They were commodity and nobodies. God unites then as a nation A worshipper and a people ( Ex 12:1-2) God calls the Israel as not just a nation but as a kingdom with God as the King (Theocracy) Instituted by Christ Matt. 26:26 Mark 14:12 ( On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb...) Luke 22:19 Do in remembrance John 13 Forgiveness of sins of many Do in remembrance Thanksgiving as participation What we ought to remember Christ Death my...

    The New Testament was written in Greek. Yup, not Arabic like I once though. I was pretty sure it was not English, as you see living in Dubai, I was able to interact with many people from Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Syria. So, I expected  some thing of Arabic nature to be the language. Well Hebrew looks a lot like Greek letters written backward. And FYI Hebrew is written from Right to Left like Arabic.       Now many have written blogs and church write ups and essays and a lot of stuff on the topic Rhema. In Wikipedia, Rhema has a session  in theology too. So, what is this post about? Nothing too dramatic, but some thoughts of the mind. You see people who translated the original Bible especially the new testament, found it difficult to express the meaning of some sentences from Greek roots to English as there were no substitutes for many word and if there were a really passiona...