My Precious Rubies

  At the garden As we read through the Bible, there is a beautiful thread of instances where we see God speaking with man. The creation account in Genesis records God speaking with Adam in the garden every day. God talked to him about his work, gave a command to follow and even brought all the animals and birds He had created to Adam so he could name them. It was a friendly relationship, more like a mentor guiding his student. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17 But the very next chapter captures the events that lead to this communication breaking down due to Adam’s sin. God called Adam as usual in the cool of the afternoon. But this time Ada...

  Matthew chapter 21 records the incident of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Soon after Matthew records that Jesus entered the temple and drove out the money changer and those who sold doves within the temple premises. On hearing that Jesus was in the temple, many who were blind and lame came to Jesus and he immediately healed them. There were 2 sets of people who were witnesses to these miracles.  (i) Chief Priests and scribes and (ii) the children. However, as we read the following verses, we can observe that the same incident has very different impact on these two different sets of people and evoked starkly different reactions from both. Matthew 21:15 says: But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant Jesus had done a “wonderful thing” by healing the blind and the lame. People were rejoicing, children were crying out saying, “Ho...

  Often, we hear testimonies of how God spoke to someone through the Bible. But some of us may be wondering, “I have never had this experience. I have never felt that God was speaking to me when I read the scripture”. If this is the way you feel, do not be discouraged. There are a few clear principles in the Bible that help us overcome the problem and hear more clearly from God. And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. Mark 4:33-34 PRINCIPLE #1   Jesus speaks to us as much as we are able to hear   Jesus is always ready to speak to us. So, it is our eagerness, earnestness and our willingness to hear and obey which determines how much we hear from Him. Nicodemus came to meet Jesus one night. Jesus spoke to him about being born again. But Nicodemus questioned Jesus saying “Can a man enter his mother’s womb to be...