Marbaniang, Domenic

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks of two strong things that persuade and constrain him to preach Christ: 1. The Wrath of Christ . "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men..." (2Cor. 5:10-11) 2. The Love of Christ . " For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." (2Cor. 5:14-15) [All emphasis mine]

Place: Living Word Chapel, Sanjaynagar Date: Sunday, April 29, 2012. The Written Form is Adapted from the Sermon and includes a few extra verses withing the []. "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor.4:18). The Bible makes a very paradoxical statement here. It tells us that we can see the unseen and calls us to fix our eyes not on the visible transients of this world but on the invisible constants of divine reality. Our human eye is an amazing member. It is something like a very advanced camera, equipped with lenses, a capturing wall called retina, and wires called optic nerves to a processing and storage system called the brain. However, the human eye sees only a very small range of the wider spectrum of light. Our visibility is confined to only the light range between the infrared and the ultraviolet. We only see a very small percent of even light; and, our sight is limited to what l

by Guest Author Rita A. Schulte Marry a whore. Keep her as your wife. She will betray you continuously, but you must love her and never leave her. You will be rejected continuously. You will be seen as a fool. Your life will be painful. Your reputation challenged. You will need to trust me. You will need to depend on me. You will always need to forgive, always show unconditional love, and always remain faithful in spite of your feelings of betrayal. Who would ask such a thing? ---God did—of the prophet Hosea. Why? He likes using the dramatic to drive home a point. God uses real-life people like you and me to demonstrate the commonality of our struggle. But the purpose of this story illustrates something profoundly deeper. God is telling us the story of his heart here. By using the sanctity of the marriage bed, and its defilement-- something he knew we could understand-- he shows us something of his pain regarding the betrayal of the children of Israel. Did you catch the part about Hose

Patience is the steel of character, Patience is the strength of the inner man, Patience is the final factor In the test of God's perfect man. Patience will keep you through fire, Patience will keep you from the heat of the day, Patience will keep you from all desire That seeks to destroy God's complete man. Patience is the test of faith, Patience is the test of love, Patience is the test of hope In God's goodness towards men. Patience cannot be bought by money, It isn't gained through ascetic pain. Yet, Patience need not be gained so, for Patience is the gift of the Spirit within every man. "The fruit of the Spirit is...patience" (Gal. 5:22) "let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1:4) "In your patience you shall possess your souls." (Luke 21:19)

They say that it is impossible to serve God without money. But Peter said to the lame man, Silver and gold have I none but what I have I give to you. And he gave him what the world couldn't give. That is divine ministry. The modern day worker would like to set up an organization for the lame and raise for them money instead of giving what God has called us to give- the Name of Jesus. Interesting that Jesus never taught His disciples to make ministry needs known to the world. He simply assured them that the Father will provide. But modern day ministries are consumed by the need to raise funds. But they can't even get in a decade what Peter got in a day without money, by only the Name of Jesus. To say that money is necessary is one thing, to say that ministry is impossible without money is a biblical mistake. To build the work of God on anything other than the True Foundation, Jesus Christ is self-defeating. God has ordained that the needs of the ministry be supplied by the acts

A Satirical Story by Harishankar Parsai (1924-1995) Translated from the Hindi “Sadachar Ka Taweez” Uproar arose in a certain kingdom that corruption had spread wide. One day the king called the courtiers and said, “The people are crying out that corruption has spread out all around. But, I’ve not been able to see it till this day. Tell me, if any one of you has seen it!” The courtiers replied, “If it hasn’t been seen by Your Highness yet, then how can it be seen by us?” The king said, “No, it is not so. Sometimes that which is not seen by me may perhaps be seen by you. For instance, I never see bad dreams, but you may be seeing them.” The courtiers replied, “Yes, we see them; but, that is just a matter of dreams.” The king said, “Still, search the whole kingdom and see if you can find corruption anywhere. And, when you find it, bring me a sample of it so that I can also see what this thing looks like.” One courtier replied, “Your Highness, we won’t be able to find it. We have heard th

Past is left behind like a frozen piece of concrete; Future ahead is spread out like a giant misty sheet. The parted Past is of us a part; Future, still transcendent. Invisible Future yanks us out of Past’s grave-like sleep; It pulls us to its infinite bosom of possibilities deep. Death is a terror to those who have failed to be transcendent. The flesh cleaves to the dust to return to the dust; The spirit reaches upward to the starry sky: Ego shall fade, so shall every pulsation of lust; But, the wise shall shine like the stars of the sky. © Domenic Marbaniang, 2012

In Epistemics of Divine Reality , I have argued how the empirical approach to knowledge would attempt to jettison metaphysics. In the early 1920s, a group in Vienna called the Vienna Circle tried to annunciate the death of philosophy by founding a school of philosophy called logical positivism . The group was composed of mainly mathematicians, physicists, sociologists and economists, but no professional philosophers. So, their utter dislike of metaphysics can be understood. But, it is interesting that one attempts to overthrow philosophy by constructing a school of philosophy. But, that contradiction in terms is natural to any form of empiricism that seeks to avoid the rational. The Law of Verification that they proposed was what dealt a death-blow to the theory itself. It was itself unverifiable (of course, because the philosophy was not empirical itself). The two World Wars did reveal, if not anything else, this one thing that philosophy was not dead. Nazism might have some evoluti

In 1995, while waiting alone in a van for his colleagues who had gone shopping, Wilson Burhankar, presently Senior Associate Pastor at the Fellowship Church of Itarsi, fell into ecstasy remembering the awesome goodness of God in his life. It was his first year in the Seminary as a teacher and his first year as a full-time Worship Leader at the Itarsi Church. He remembered the ill-battered lifestyle that he had lived prior to knowing Christ, the drunken boozes, the street fights, the nights spent singing at religious gatherings, and the continual stress and pain inflicted on his family because of his sin-laden lifestyle. But, one day the Lord changed his life all over. He came to the Seminary and underwent three years of theological training. The greatest surprise came when Dr. Thomas asked him to consider to stay back and minister here as a worship leader. Inside he felt totally unworthy, and yet was confident of the grace of the Lord. As he sat in the van considering these things, the