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God Visits You at Your Work Imagine being at your work place and some stops by to give you a message. You are told that God is in town. I do not know how many of us will make haste to go and see him. Many of us do not associate our workplace as the place to meet God or be about his business. We have adopted the stance of “separation of God and work” as if it is written somewhere in a legal code. There is no such thing. It is as bogus as “separation of church and state”. You can not separate a person from his God while at work neither can you separate a state from the God of the people of that state. Today in Luke chapter 2, we read about shepherds at work whom God visited on the job. Luke 2: 8-20: 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good new

God’s Vision and Our Questions There comes a time when God gives us His own vision of what He wants to accomplish through us. Most often, we may not have any personal interest in the assignment or at least from the onset, it does not look like we have any immediate thing to gain. I consider such visions or assignments as coming at the “Kairos” moments – meaning “Where time and destiny meet”. There are not too many of those opportunities or kairos moments in our life time. The young Mary, engaged to Joseph as we read in the first chapter of Luke had a kairos moment. Mary’s encounter with the angel is contrasted with that of Zacharias in that there is no indication of Mary praying to God to have a baby for God. On the contrary, we see Zacharias and Elizabeth had been praying to have a child. In other words, God initiated both visions but Zacharias was connected to a present need while Mary’s was not. It is apparently clear that Mary did not ask for it. Luke 1: 26-38 (Also read Matth

Our Visions and Questions As U.D and I experienced our 15 years of barrenness without a child, I often worried that I may become mute or dumb before seeing God’s miracle of now Jonathan. Why would I think that way you may ask? When you read the first chapter of Luke, and compare and contrast the two different questions of Zacharias and Mary, you are careful of the questions you ask God when He gives you a vision. Zacharias and Elizabeth had been without a child for a long time though we do not know how long. Like all of us, they had the need, desire and aspiration to have a child. They had prayed and fasted and perhaps almost given up (as we can deduce from Zac’s response in the story) and then an angel shows up with good news. Luke 1: 11-20 11Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has

Introduction to the Gospel of Luke My first introduction to Theophilus was at the burial of my father. I was 11 at that time. At the grave site, the officiating minister while praying kept shouting Theophilus, Theophilus …… At that age, I did not know what Theophilus meant and why he kept repeating that name since it was not my father’s name. After the burial and as days passed, all we children (my cousins and nephews) would make fun of the occasion as we would shout Theophilus to each other. It was funny at a very serious occasion but it has stuck with me. Who is this Most Excellent Theophilus? The Gospel of Luke was an account written by Doctor Luke to Theophilus. Luke 1: 1-4 1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good a