Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Jesus once looked toward His disciples and said to them, “You are the salt of the earth”. This is found in Matthew 5 : 13 and is a very interesting expression. Today, when we think of salt, the first source that comes to our mind is the ocean. Water from the ocean is collected and evaporated using the sun’s heat or boiling to leave behind a residue of salt and other minerals which is purified and then employed for various uses. The second source that some may think of is salt that is mined, mined from natural sources. An example of this is pink salt or Himalayan salt. In Israel, there is a different source available to mine salt. Yes, they too could use salt obtained from ocean water but there was a simpler source nearby. Fun fact: Himalayan salt is not really from the Himalayas. Israel’s geography...

Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. The above words are lyrics to a childrens action song I had learnt back when I was a kid. I had no reason to not believe it exactly as I sang them. A 'little' faith can move mountains. True, right? Right? Well, that is not what Jesus was talking about. Infact, Jesus was probably alluding the opposite. The statement is found as such in Mathew 17:20 and also in Luke 17:6. To provide context, in Mathew Jesus is addressing the question of why His disciples were not able to drive out a demon from a possessed boy. In Luke Jesus is responding to the plea of His disciples to 'increase their faith'. Now, a mustard seed is infact a tiny seed. It is not the smallest seed as some would have us believe. No. Infact there are other seeds far smaller. The orchid seed for example is microscopic in size, nearly invisible to our eyes. Despite the fact that it is not the smallest seed in nature, its small size was definitely important in...

(A summary of a sermon shared by Mr. Johnson Baby of the Ebenezer Brethren Assembly, RK Puram, New Delhi.) In the book of Ezekiel 47 the prophet continues to see a vision of the millennial kingdom. In this vision, he is accompanied by a man who is never named or described.  This man guides Ezekiel through the vision and here shows him a river that is at the very least (a cursory measurement) a mile or two wide from bank to bank, a river that is gushing out from under the threshold of the house toward the east. A very unique vision that can have various Eschatological interpretations, especially in the light of the New Jerusalem, I would like to look at it from a devotional point of view and link it to our daily Christian experience. Before we begin however, avid students of the Bible would quickly find similarities to the river mentioned in the book of Revelation 22 that flows through the New Jerusalem and that river is seen to begin at the throne of God. I do like to think that bo...

Diamonds are incredibly fascinating pieces of carbon rock found on the upper mantle and crust of the earth. It is one of the hardest substances known to man and is known in western society by the phrase, “A woman’s best friend” owing to its over-hyped, cinema promoted use in pre-wedding nuptials and marriage proposals.                  Diamonds are also especially of interest because from the perspective of geology and most mineral sciences they would be termed garbage if it were not for someone who thought of the idea of using it on engagement rings with the conveyed perception that bigger the diamond the more the man loves you.                     However, this carbon-based substance has a wide variety of uses today in various industries owing to certain properties that make it a uniquely useful tool. Diamonds are ra...