Marbaniang, Domenic

Stanley Milgram, Yale University psychologist, began a series of social psychology experiments in July 1961. He discussed his experimental findings in an article published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology in 1963, and later in greater depth in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. Objective Milgram wanted to understand how many officers under the Nazi regime could follow brutal orders from authorities without showing resistance though it was evident that their obedience to such orders caused pain to others. Milgram wanted to research how far people could go into obeying orders from an authority that caused pain to others. The Experiment 40 men were recruited for the lab experiment for $4.00 per hour of their time. The recruits were introduced to a shock generator developed by Milgram. The shock generator had on it switches that could generate shocks at increasing levels: starting at 30 volts and increasing in 15-volt increments all the way up to

"The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us." (Tit 2:11-12 NKJ) 1. Grace of God appeared in the Incarnate Word And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (Joh 1:14, 16-17 NKJ) 2. Grace of God appears through the Inscribed Word Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace (Act 14:3 NKJ) 3. Grace of God works through People of the Word But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1Co 15:10 NKJ) Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may im

God wants each of us to be filled with His Holy Spirit and be loaded with the gifts of the Spirit for His ministry. He wants to use each one of us: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all" (1Co 12:7 NKJ) We are members of His body. No man would ever want any part of his body to be left unused. Nobody would say, "I will shut my nose off and not use it". God wants to use each one of us. However, the question is do we want to be used of God? Really? There are two things spoken to us in 1Corinthians 12-14 that are essential in the pursuit of the gifts of the Spirit. 1. Zeal and Intense Passion for the Gifts "Earnestly desire the best gifts. (1Co 12:31 NKJ) "Desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. (1Co 14:1 NKJ) The word for "desire" is zeloo and means "intense zeal". It is the same word from which the word "zealot" comes. The zealots were a terrorist group, a do or die

There have been some who have argued that the psalms of David must not be preached from because of the moral failures of David. The same is lamented of Solomon. However, we know that the Spirit's inspiration overrules the time-bound fluctuations of human character. Not that the text is detached from the author; but that changes in the author do not invalidate the text that has been written. 1. Absolutes declared in the text are not invalidated by any lack of moral conformity and consistency in the author/writer. 2. The authenticity of spirit in the composition of text at a particular time is not invalidated by the lack of authenticity in the author at some other time. 3. The text becomes free of the author at its moment of publication. The author becomes accountable to the text; not vice versa. 4. The text influences how one interprets the text; similarly, how one interprets determines what one gets from the text. Thus, the song is independent of the songwriter as far as truth and

The chorus in heaven is "How Great Thou Art!" The chorus in hell is "How Great I Am!" The focus of heaven is "Thy Will Be Done!" The focus of hell is "My Will Be Done!" The prayer of heaven is "That ALL men may be saved" The prayer of hell is "That MY brothers may be saved" ....

"The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." (1Co 14:32-33 NIV) One certain characteristic of God's work is order and peace. Wherever God is at work, we are certain to see order and propriety. A look into the Creation account will tell us that God works in an orderly fashion. A look into God's instructions regarding the construction of the Tabernacle of Wilderness tells us that God is a God of order. A look into the life and ministry of Jesus tells us that He worked in an orderly fashion. The way He asked people to sit down while His disciples distributed food, the way in which He instructed what the healed were to do, the way in which it is testified that his clothes were folded into a corner when He rose from the dead are proof that He did what He said - He worked as He saw His Father work. THEREFORE, any preacher who acts in a disorderly fashion and blames that on the Holy Spirit is guilty of blasp

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1Cor.13:13) All that one needs in the world is faith, hope, and love. All that God has given to us in this world is faith, hope, and love. No matter what, hold on to faith in God and in His Word. His promises will never fail. Believe what God's Word says and do it. Study it. Share it. Live by faith. Also, never give up hope. Hope relates to a positive expectation about the future. Expect good things to happen, good things to come because of who God is and what He has promised. Expect good results of what we do by faith in God. The promise is that God will work out everything for good to those who love Him. Never allow confusion or fear or anxiety to take the place of hope at any cost. Keep hope on the highest watchtower and hope will protect your heart. Then, continue to love all. Love God with all your being. Love other people as yourself. Let the love of God spill out in the way you

The Mirror recently reported another case of a UFO sighting and, this time, the head of an alien was supposedly sticking out of the UFO captured in a picture on Google Earth. ( The Mirror ) A year ago, a few videos on YouTube claimed to have been taken from various angles showed images of a brilliant object descending on the Dome on the Rock in Jerusalem and suddenly shooting up. There have also been reports from the Vatican of interest shown in the extra-terrestrials. (See Vatican, Aliens, and LUCIFER (Excerpts) ). There are those who suppose that stories of supernatural events reported through mythology and legends might have connections with visits of aliens on earth. Some like Van Daniken have accrued much fame through such themes that went viral through his book Chariots of the Gods . Number of theories have sprung up since then. History Channel has been showing a program called Ancient Aliens that tries to look at mythical stories for traces of aliens in the past. UFO sightin

There are at least two essentials of watchfulness: 1. To be aware that there can be an attack, an attempt to steal, an attempt to destroy anytime. The very fact that watchfulness is called for is because there is a possibility of attack. As long as we are in the world, we must watch. Even a second of slumbering or slight can prove fatal. 2. To not consider oneself as immune to attack. Anybody who thinks that he is immune and above any such attack has become presumptuous and stands in danger of a fall. Paul warned anybody who was thinking he stands to beware lest he fall (1Cor.10:12). We need to keep pressing on forward relentlessly until we have run the race and our time of departure from earth has come. There are no moments of casual vacationing for the Christian as far as spiritual watchfulness and warfare is concerned.

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD. (Jer 9:23-24 NKJ) The world remembers Jeremiah as the "Weeping Prophet" of the Old Testament. He wept for a nation that never responded to his cries to repentance. He wept because he knew that their contempt of God's Law, their lack of seriousness and sincerity towards God's Word was nothing but an invitation of misery, calamity, and death. He wept because their self-opinion was too loud for them to hear what God was saying. He wept because it seemed that God Himself was exhausted of all opportunities to repentance that He could allow this nation anymore. God commanded Jeremiah, "Do not pray for this people, n

The Biblical institution of marriage is clearly between one man and one woman. The Genesis account is the foundation of our understanding of Biblical marriage. God created a woman for the man, when he was alone. Adam named her "Woman", declaring that she was the bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. The scripture states: And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Gen 2:23-24 NKJ) God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great wickedness in those cities. One of the wickedness practiced there was homosexuality. We get our English word "Sodomy" from Sodom. When God sent his angels to destroy that city, the men of the city, on knowing that strangers had arrived, went crazy to have sex with the men. Such was their wickedness. (Gen 19). The Biblical Law sti

On Thursday, June 19, 2014 (Yesterday), the Presbyterian Church USA voted in favor of gay marriages and to allow the clergy to preside over gay weddings. Reportedly, "the authoritative interpretation passed 371-238 (61 percent in favor), and the constitutional amendment passed 429-175 (71 percent in favor)." ( Pres-Outlook ). According to Jeff Karoub and Rachel Zoll, The top legislative body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted by large margins Thursday to recognize same-sex marriage as Christian in the church constitution, adding language that marriage can be the union of "two people," not just "a man and a woman." The amendment approved by the Presbyterian General Assembly requires approval from a majority of the 172 regional presbyteries, which will vote on the change over the next year. But in a separate policy change that takes effect at the end of this week's meeting, delegates voted to allow ministers to preside at gay weddings in states wh

CHARLES Finney’s Power from on High documents miraculous incidents of supernatural results in ministry in his life. Finney emphasizes on the need of the power of the Holy Spirit for any spiritual results in modern day ministry. The story of his experience has an electrifying effect: I was powerfully converted on the morning of the 10th of October. In the evening of the same day, and on the morning of the following day, I received overwhelming baptisms of the Holy Ghost, that went through me, as it seemed to me, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this. Oftentimes a word dropped, without my remembering it, would fasten conviction, and often result in almost immediate conversion. Sometimes I would fi

One thing that painfully marks the face of humanity is divisiveness. We are severely fragmented. Among the many things history has bequeathed us are divisions - divisions that seem eternally fragmentary--linguistic divisions, cultural divisions, political divisions, social classes, and so on. Each of these trickles further down into innumerable divisions. For instance, with regard to religious divisions, it is no longer just a matter of being divided over being a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu; the fragmentation rifts further into Protestant-Catholic, Sunni-Shia, Varna-Avarna, ad infinitum. Historical Overview of The Present Crisis in Iraq In Iraq, the present crisis is religio-political. The Sunni-Shia conflict goes back to the 6th century AD. The bone of contention was about the legitimate successor of the Prophet Mohammed. On the death of the Prophet Mohammed, Abu Bakr, was elected as the Caliph. The Prophet's son-in-law, Ali, opposed it, but didn't press further. Subseque

THE BIBLE tells us: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." (Pro 18:21) Jesus declared: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Mat 12:34-37) James tells us: "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boast

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“Why do you run beating dust in the air? Why do you hurry as if the world needs your care? Hey, the world’s on its own, buddy; You ain’t gonna make it any inch better! Come, enjoy some rum, be a good bum; Let’s gulp some spirit and get into the gutter!” - Domenic Marbaniang, Stranger (2014) SLOTH (ACEDIA) has long been regarded by the Church as one of the 7 Deadly Sins. It has been associated with torpor, listlessness, carelessness, apathy, lethargy, idleness, and boredom. The Bible regards sloth as wickedness (Matt.25:26; Tit.1:12), the cause of poverty (Prov.24:30-34), and filled with vain desires and gluttony (Prov.21:25,26; Tit.1:12). A slothful man, the Bible says, is brother to a great destroyer (Prov.18:9). To associate with a lazy man is to invite destruction to home. The Bible warns us against being slothful. Following are few kinds of sluggards that we find in the world: 1. The Lazy Messenger: He is as sour as vinegar to the teeth and as irritating as smoke to the eyes of th

Writing should not be just a means of communicating one's thought; it should be the moment of letting the Spirit speak into the writer's soul, the moment of intimacy with God, the moment when we are willing to let go off the old wineskin in order to take in the new wine. The writer must continually and diligently inquire, question, evaluate the thoughts before putting them into writing. He must weigh them on the scales of Scripture, logic, impact, and relevance. This will certainly need revisions, deletions, and improvements. The writer is, thus, a researcher, an evaluator, a strategist, a logician, and a scribe at once. A writer is a photographer of thoughts. A Christian writer is a minister of God with the vision to communicate God's liberating truth to the ends of the earth.

Message from Day 2 of the Church of God 91st General Annual Convention, Kerala 2014. Translated Language: Malayalam (Message begins at 52minutes, 55secs)

Nothing is more harmful than the doubt that the Bible is governed by prejudice. The reason should be clear: doubts about the Bible being prejudiced are bred in a mind that has begun to question the infallibility of Scriptures; but, truth and prejudice cannot stand together. Now, there are some who would say that it is impossible to be unbiased at all; everybody brings some kind of pre-judgment (pre-judice), pre-understanding to a text or event. What we already have believed in determines how we interpret anything else. Thus, women in some cultures would find biblical texts regarding head-covering as axiomatic, while women in other cultures might find them very oppressive. The very fact that there are a number of interpretations (some in defense of affirming that the rule is mandatory; others in defense affirming that the rule is mandatory only in few cultures; some others doubting that the commandment is prejudiced) tells us that pre-understanding has a great bearing upon one’s interpr

1. It is God's will that all humans come to repentance (2Pet.3:9) 2. God calls man to repentance 3. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Matt.9:13) 4. Repentance is granted through the Sacrificial Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation of Christ (Acts 5:31; 11:18 - Note: Both to Jews and Gentiles) 5. God grants repentance (2Tim.2:25) 6. Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Jesus' name to all nations (Luke 24:47) ->John preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel (Acts 13:24) What Leads us to Repentance 1. Goodness of God leads us to repentance (Rom.2:4) 2. Godly Sorrow leads us to repentance (2Cor.7:9,10) 3. Message of sincere correction leads to repentance (2Tim.2:25) 4. God's rebuke and chastening leads us to repentance (Rev.3:19) Repentance Involves  1. Knowledge of the Truth (2Tim.2:25) 2. Coming to senses (2Tim.2:26) 3. Extreme grief over sin (Jer.8:6; Matt.11:21) 4. Zeal for God (Rev.3:19) 5. Verbal confession  (a) of remorse

Apathy may be defined as the absence of interest, empathy, sympathy, concern, and care. It is the breeding ground of evil. There are at least three sources of apathy that are evil-prone: 1. False Understanding (Ignorance, Dehumanization, Deindividuation) It may come from a false understanding of facts regarding life and the world. Philip Zimbardo highlights two mechanisms that steer the mind towards evil: dehumanization and deindividuation. If a person treats other humans as less than humans (dehumanization), then he cannot sympathize (feel along) with them. Similarly, if one can't see the other as persons, one cannot sympathize. For instance, it is easier for a man to push a button to launch a missile and kill thousands, without feeling moral pain, than for one to kill people in person. This is a form of "ignorance" in which you "do not know" the others; they might just be numbers and statistics. Daily Example: People who feel nothing about, but feel exultant,

The three little imps dozed off and snored recklessly as the last plenary of the Ministers’ Conference dragged on. Beelzebub, flying through the mid-air, saw this and shot a fiery dart that ended with a burst of sparks over their heads. They woke up with a start. “It’s the Prince!” Snob cried. “Yes, it is!” Vague confirmed. “He looks fiendishly soured!” Crafty rejoined. “Is it time to sleep and dream recklessly while time steals away our only opportunity?” Beelzebub demanded. “We’re sorry, Master” Crafty replied, “But, it’s difficult to keep eyes opened when these ministers and theologians open their mouth!” “Nevertheless, you’re required to keep them open!” “We’ve wound up the clock, master.” Snob argued, “All their actions are timed and preset. A quick flight over their heads would instantly give evidence of our superior accomplishment.” “I’ll see,” replied Beelzebub and flew away. The very next instant he came back with eyes wide open. “What is that guy talking about?” “About some o