Marbaniang, Domenic

DR. KURIEN THOMAS (1922-2000) was a pioneer of the Pentecostal movement in central India. He came to Itarsi, the heart of India, in 1945 and laid the foundation of the Pentecostal Church there. In 1962, he began the Bharosa Bible School which grew on to be known today as Central India Theological Seminary. In 1967, he became the first Chairman of the Fellowship of the Pentecostal Churches in India. Dr. Thomas was a prolific writer in Hindi, English, and Malayalam. He was editor of Satyadoot , a continuing Hindi Christian monthly, and was author of several books. Kurien Thomas: God’s Trailblazer in India and Around the World , written in 1986, was his autobiography. Kurien Thomas was born on 9 January 1922 at Ranny, Kerala, into a Keralite Syrian Orthodox family that traced its origins to the first converts of Thomas the apostle of Christ. In 1939, during a gospel meeting in his village in Kerala in which the renowned Pastor K.E. Abraham ministered, Kurien gave his life to Jesus. Hungr...

Oswald J. Smith, The Challenge of Missions , pp.63,64 In Acts 19:8-10, 18-20, we have a marvelous example of the Pauline method. In two short years, we are told, all those in Asia heard the Gospel. Asia covered a territory of approximately 50,000 square miles. There was a mighty revival. Books belonging to various false cults were burned publicly. The upheaval was so great that books costing thousands of dollars were burned. How did it happen? Paul took charge of a school and taught every day. Most certainly he did not travel throughout Asia and evangelize the country himself. So far a the record goes, he stayed in one place, but he taught others; then they in turn went everywhere preaching the Gospel, with the results described in the 19th chapter. Wherever he went, he "preached and taught" (Acts 14:21). That method cannot be improved upon. It will work everywhere. The West Indies Mission has proved it. They started in Cuba with a Bible School. Not a church, mark you, but a ...

When silence seals the lips of friends, You let me know You are here; When cold confusion darkness tends, You shine Your light over here. When dull seems destiny, far unseen, You still keep walking, closely by. When friends fear failure will strike my knees, You stand to hold and lift me high.

Whenever a new word enters the market, there are many who wish to grab it and use it to express or verbalize concepts that occur to them. However, it is important to avoid sporadic use of expressions without understanding them in their original usage. It can lead to confusion of language. Two terms that are becoming more popularly used, in addition to "mission", are "missions" and "missional", and they require proper definition. Let's look at some popular definitions of these terms: Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God's People --Mission is all that God is doing in his great purpose for the whole of creation and all that he calls us to do in cooperation with that purpose. (Analogy: Science) --Missions is the multitude of activities that God's people can engage in, by means of which they participate in God's mission. (Analogy: Sciences) --Missional is to have (Analogy: Scientific) Ed Stetzer, Missions vs. Missional? --Mission is the...

For peace and harmony to exist in any pluralistic society, it is important to have respect for all religions. Those who wish to be respected must also show the same respect for others. In the past, religion has acted as a great dividing line and has spurred and continues to provoke among some incidents of violence and hatred. We must learn to respect other religions, but what does this respect involve? 1. It means to respect fellow humans as humans, first of all, as our neighbors. It means to show ourselves as good neighbors to them. 2. It means to respect the religiosity in humans, their quest, their pursuit for spirituality, for purity, for a good life, for a transcendent ideal that lifts us above the world of mere brutes. 3. It means to respect the confessions of saints, of communities, regarding their longing to know the unknown, to be delivered from darkness to light. 4. It means to respect their literature of wisdom and deep meditation on serious life truths. 5. It means to respe...

Remember God is faithful. In the midst of difficulty, acknowledge God is faithful. The faithfulness of God gives us courage , comfort , confidence . 1. Faithfulness is an Attribute of God . God is absolutely reliable, absolutely trustworthy, absolutely steadfast, absolutely constant. Faithfulness of God speaks of the stability of God in a changing world. What was once considered sin is now considered a weakness. Values are changing. But, we have a changeless Christ who is faithful. 1Cor. 1:9 - God is faithful. Psa. 36:5 - Your faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Man cannot outstretch it . No matter where you are, His faithfulness can reach you. The extensiveness of His faithfulness. Psa. 119:9 - Your faithfulness is unto all generations. Man can never outlive it. The everlastingness of His faithfulness. Lam. 3:23 - Great is Your faithfulness. The exceedingness of His faithfulness. Man can never outmatch it. 2. Faithfulness is an Activity of God. The Bible tells us how God was fa...

God's faithfulness must be seen in perspective of 5 attributes of God: 1. Omniscience - He knows everything 2. Omnipotence- He can do everything 3. Omnipresence - He is within our reach 4. Truthfulness- He cannot lie 5. Immutability - He cannot change. An understanding of these attributes gives us Courage, Confidence, and Comfort in times of trial. Divine Immutability 1. God's Character never changes (James 1:17; Mal.3:6) 2. God's Truth never changes (Isa.40:8; Matt.24:35) 3. God's Purposes never change (Psa.33:11) 4. God's Love never changes (Psa.100:5) 5. God does not change His Mind (Num.23:9) 6. God's Words do not change (2Cor.1:20).

"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent (nacham). For He is not a man, that He should relent (nacham)." (1Sam.15:29) …the LORD regretted (nacham) that He had made Saul king over Israel. (1Sam.15:35) There seems to be an apparent contradiction between the above two passages: the first tells us that God never regrets; the second, that He did. This again seems to conflict with the idea of immutability or the unchangeableness of God. …the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17) But, does historical information in the Bible contradict the idea of divine immutability? Well, 1Samuel 15 is not the only case we are told about divine repentance (or regret or change of action). Remember that we aren’t talking of ontological immutability here (i.e. as related to His being); we are talking here of moral immutability – that God is unchanging in His decisions and moral character. In the book of Jonah, we find again the issue of d...

Paradox: a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement which, when investigated or explained, may prove to be well-founded or true. For instance: Scientists say that Light is a wave, and then also say that Light is a particle. Now, something cannot be both a particle and a wave at the same time. Thus, when you look for light as looking for a wave, light appears to behave like wave, and when you look for it as a particle, it appears to behave as a particle… TEXT: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1Co 10:13 NKJ) However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew (azab) from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart. (2Ch 32:31 NKJ) Reading: At that ti...

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1Jo 1:9 NKJ) The universe is not a free lunch. Nothing is free under the sun though some may think it is or wish it is. And if we see or receive something that is free, it is because somebody had paid for it. Somebody has got to pay anyway. -In any act of charity, the giver incurs the expense -In any forgiving of debts, the creditor has to bear the loss Generosity is a great virtue because God Himself is generous. Forgiving others is a great virtue because our God Himself is a forgiving God. But, then we generally understand that man cannot be compared with God. It is understood by some that God is only and just the “Wholly Other” the One who has no comparative in this universe. Sometimes, you may have heard people say, “Well, I’m not God; God can forgive so much, but I am not God” We read about the miracles of Jesus and are stunned by the greatness of power. We read abou...