When natural calamities come with unprecedented force, which brings along with it death and widespread destruction, it is natural for the human mind to probe the reasons behind it. The rational mind tries to probe the natural factors behind it but a spiritual mind can make sense of it only with reference to spiritual activity. Silently or otherwise, the spiritual man asks, “God! Did you send this calamity on us? If yes, why?”
The Kerala floods which we all witnessed in these days is still fresh in our minds. With hundreds of lives lost, thousands of people displaced from their homes and billions of dollars lost in damages, that too in a place where Christians have a dominant presence, questions regarding God’s role in all of this is not far from the lips. I heard two Christian leaders proposing two contradicting assessments of the same situation. One said, God has sent it as a judgment upon us due to the increasing sin within the church. Therefore, we need to repent and turn to God. While another asked, how can God do this to a people who have served Him faithfully in this nation? Continue reading “God and the floods”
This is the first book review that I am publishing on this site and it is a joy for me to introduce to you not just the book but also the author, who has had a great impact on my life and thinking. He is John Piper. With 33 years of pastoral experience, he has also been a prolific writer with many books to his credit. Although, my engagement with his writings has been largely limited to articles written by him on his online ministry platform, 
The Psalmist asks, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” and he answers his own question by saying, “By guarding it (his way) according to your word” (Ps. 119:9). And yet we need only to ask any young man or woman how easy it has been to keep his or her ways pure in accordance with God’s word and most responses would range from simple disappointment to utter despair. They will tell you how difficult it has been to even understand or accept the word of God, leave alone the very ability to walk by it. And the Gospels show us that this condition prevailed among Jesus’ disciples too, before something drastic happened in their lives. And that drastic action was taken by God at the Cross of Jesus Christ.