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In more than three decades of my Christian life, I have been blest by 2 types of Daily devos'
(matter not exceeding 500 words) in universal Christian literature. Not only those Devos'
which have a different theme everyday but also the ones which revolve around a certain
theme over a period of time, say a fortnight, have richly edified me. In fact, both
styles have their own inherent advantages. If the former style caters to the varying
spiritual needs of a christian from day-to-day, the latter aims 'to ground'
a child of God in a certain subject in order he derives the full benefits of the
deep insightful study of a certain topic, spread over a fixed span of time.
In my Daily devo page, I have consciously tried to go in for 'a blend of both the
styles' whereby within a constant theme, I would be aiming to focus on different
facets of it which admittedly is a closer imitation of the 'Constant theme' style
than the 'Varying topics' one.
Having dwelt on the topics
- “The Christian journey”
- “ The Conquest of Canaan” and the
- “Lent season”.
in the previous months, now in the months of April and May, considering that
post resurrection of Christ (one of our concluding themes’ you would remember
in the meditations of March, was Resurrection), birth of the Church was a
landmark event in Biblical history, I want to cast the spotlight on the Book of
Acts (which records the birth and growth of the Church). This would ensure to a large
extent continuity of thought albeit under the ambit of new subject.
Once again, let me wish you a happy and an edifying read…
Suresh Manoharan
April 15th
Detecting the counterfeits
“Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about
the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else,
urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.
I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches…–
Jude: 3,4
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Whilst dwelling on one of the factors (being rooted in the Scriptures)
that contributed to the Early Church’s growth and vitality, we had concluded
our meditation yesterday with the emphasis on the need to be well grounded in the Bible.
For one more day, let us look at the importance of immersing ourselves in the Scriptures.
Doubtless while it would feed our souls (a well read Bible is the sign of the well fed soul affirmed
a wise saint), it would also equip us with the knowledge to detect at once the counterfeit teachings.
As the above-captioned scripture portion bears out, Jude one of the brothers of our Lord was
quite concerned about the wrong doctrines, which threatened to infiltrate the Early Church,
courtesy some ungodly people. Just as our Lord prophesied
(Matt 24:11)
heretics with their various
cults (Mormons, Jehovah witnesses’ etc are the modern-day equivalents) throughout Christian history
have always tried to weaken the faith of His chosen ones’. The best way to detect a wrong teaching
is to know the correct one, just like knowing how a straight line appears enables us to spot at once
a crooked line.
Say Dear Christian “are you so well grounded in the original that you can detect a counterfeit instantly”?
Prayer:
Father, we praise Thee for giving us the Canonized Bible, we have today. How wonderfully, You are using it to
keep us in the right track. We praise thee, once again. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.
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