House2HouseMD

We have sinned I am amazed how much we humans pretend and try to convince ourselves that we are perfect and have never sinned. It comes out clearly in the way we react to other people’s sins. We make such statements as “How could he/she do that?” We also say, “Look at what so and so did”. Most of the time, we block out the memory of our own past sins or even recent (like minutes ago) ones. Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry are at best in helping us forget the reality of our sinful nature by entertaining us with amusement and also glorifying sin. Amusement has a tranquilizing effect whereby you become norm to that side of the brain that asks questions and take things seriously. Please don’t get me wrong, we need to laugh often (since the Word tells us it is good medicine) but the laughter does not have to come from minimizing sin. The World does not want to hear nor confess these words, “We have sinned” because they don’t want to deal with God’s solution for sin wh...

The Ram and the Goat Some of us may remember our Elementary and High school history lessons of ancient times. I remember studying about Alexander the Great. A great soldier who conquered any one that came against him. He was very impressive. Little did I know that Alexander the Great was prophesied in the Bible to reign. And he did reign and his reign ended abruptly as prophesied in the book of Daniel. In our lesson for today, we continue with the visions and revelation given to Daniel by God. Chapter 8 of Daniel is a continuation and an enlargement of two segments of the visions in chapters 2 and 7. Today we study about the Ram and the Goat and learn more about the Medo-Persian kingdom and the Greece kingdom. Our God who created all things knows all things. God knew exactly when these kingdoms would reign and how they will shape the world through their influence. The Greek philosophy is still influencing the whole world today. Some of it good and some are not so good and/or outri...

The End of Time Why should we care about the end time and end-time prophecies? The answer is simple. It is part of God’s design and it is recorded in His word for us to study and to be unaware of His plan. The world we live in will end and God’s plan is to reconcile (an accounting term) all things at the end. In other words, there is a day of balancing when “all things will be made equal”. Sin will be judged and righteousness and justice will reign. Having been covered by Christ righteousness, I am looking forward to the end because it comes with completion and rewards. We will rule and reign with Christ. This is very exciting and I hope you are looking forward to the END. In Daniel 7, God gave Daniel revelations of the end and the end times. Daniel 2 (the dream of king Nebuchadnezzar) and the rest of chapters 8-12 are pictures of the beginning of the end, the end times and the END. These are difficult and challenging chapters to study so we ask that the Holy Spirit who is our teach...

Pressed On Every Side Heat is necessary in our lives. The ordinary heat of the oven cooks our food; the heat of the sun grows our food and gives us warmth. There other heats that are necessary but that can hurt us while the same time doing us good. It is the heat of the pressure from within and without. We are like orange. We need pressure to squeeze the juice out of us. As believers in Christ, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given to death for Jesus sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body”. 2 Corinthians 4: 7-10. This was Apostle Paul describing his life and ministry. In Daniel 6, we see that Daniel who had the “Spirit of God...

Generational Curse? - Like Father Like Son There is a great fear that all of us face and often we are reluctant to admit that it exists. It is the fear of repeating our parents’ mistakes. Growing up, you saw what your father or mother did in either raising kids or the handling of money or serving God, and then as an adult, you swore you will do it differently. As an adult now, you are seeing the same patterns and you are wondering what is going on and who can deliver me from these fears? Some may call it “generational curse” or other names but the fact remains that it hunts all of us. Personally, I disagree with the “generational curse” labeling because it offers us a good excuse not to change. If you want to talk about “generational curse”, then let’s go all the way back to Adam and Eve and not just to our immediate parents. In fact, the serpent (Satan) was the one cursed because he deceived Adam and Eve to sin. “You are cursed… and I will put enmity between you and the woman an...

Pride Before Fall The more we study the book of Daniel and read about king Nebuchadnezzar (king Neb), I keep remembering Saddam Hussein. He was the strong man of Iraq (which is part of the old Babylonia Empire). Saddam became too strong and killed anyone he wanted at any time. He almost proclaimed himself a god until his time ran out. The world cheered the day Saddam was hung. In Daniel 4, we read about king Neb’s time running out. He had a dream that will forever humble him. Someone said that pride is a chip on the shoulder and most often you are not aware of it until someone else tells you. We are all full of pride and the lowest form of it is self dependency or reliance (proclaiming oneself a little god). You may disagree but you have just displayed your pride. It is a sin that plagues both the rich and the poor. Lucifer (aka Satan) is the master of pride (Isaiah 14:12-13) and passed it on to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5). There is only one medicine for pride and that is humiliation or...

Even if God does not Deliver We have seen numerous civil disobediences by people who are opposed to oppressive regimes and policies. The one that the World watched with horror was the stand-off at Tiananmen Square in 1989 when the Chinese communist massacred students who demanded reforms. Many die for various courses in opposition to injustice. There are still some Christians who die in defiance of denying their faith and God. Often we are willing to obey God and worship Him when we know the expected outcome. Today we come across three Jewish youngsters who are willing to worship God at all cost regardless of the outcome. We also come across king Nebuchadnezzar (king Neb) whom you would think may have learned his lessons as a result of previous encounters with the real God. Unfortunately, king Neb had not and would again test the sovereignty of our God. How many major life-events does it take for humans to see God’s supremacy? What did it take and for how long did it take us to see a...