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Above the voices of the world around me, my hopes and dreams, my cares and loves and fears, the long-awaited call of Christ has found me, the voice of Jesus echoes in my ears: ‘I gave my life to break the cords that bind you, I rose from death to set your spirit free; turn from your sins, and put the past behind you, take up your cross and come and follow me.’ TIMOTHY DUDLEY-SMITH It is important to note that the first four lines of this famous hymn effectively says that the voice of Jesus echoes not only above "the voices of the world around me" but includes voices inside of me. The voices of hopes, dreams, cares, loves and fears. The Voice of Jesus is irresistible. It penetrates without opposition and calls us to Him. It is an excellent truth that when God decides to speak he is certainly heard! Without doubt! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death." (Revelation 2:10, 11 ESV) Lesson: A true follower of Jesus only dies once. Everyone else dies twice. Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

Steve Tobak sees the signs in a recent article for Fox Business on the “Lost Art of Discipline” : “...I rarely have a coherent thought before noon and my workdays are peppered with blood-pumping and synapse-sparking activities that bear little resemblance to what I do for a living. But throughout my career I have always sacrificed whatever I had to and pushed my people to do the same to ensure the job got done. And that’s getting harder and harder to do all the time. Granted, there have always been distractions – the archenemies of discipline – but these days, they seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate. And, more importantly, nobody’s immune, not even our business and political leaders…” “....Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently got himself embroiled in a ludicrous online debate over the gender constitution of his management team and board of directors... not a great idea, especially with an IPO on the way….Senator John McCain couldn’t get through a Senate committee hearing w

David Suissa writing in the Jewish Journal quotes this startling statistic of the level of persecution of Christians around the world.  ....But hidden in all the chaos is a monstrous injustice that has received very little media attention: The rampant persecution of Christians. “Few people realize that we are today living through the largest persecution of Christians in history,” Bruce Thornton, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, wrote on the institute’s Web site. “Estimates of the numbers of Christians under assault range from 100 [million] to 200 million. According to one estimate, a Christian is martyred every five minutes.”..... Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. (2 Corinthians 1:8 NIV) Lesson: There's no shame in suffering. We can bring and share it before others, even those who may use it to sneer at us. Why? Because Christian suffering is a privilege to share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ - as we patiently wait for his deliverance through the situation. And most importantly it is the way we get close to God as we grow to depend on him and enjoy his immediate comfort as the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

We can encounter things through movies that we might not otherwise get a chance to explore. This goes beyond mere entertainment. Movies provide a way to experience a myriad of situations with a measure of detachment that is impossible in real life. Rather than being shocked and ill-equipped to deal with these situations when they arise, it can be beneficial to safely explore these issues through cinema before being faced with them in real life. DOUGLAS M. BEAUMONT From Message Behind the Movie by Douglas M. Beaumont. This is only the third book I have read on making sense of cinema. What I found very helpful in this book was its tips on understanding how the story line develops. Most of the books I have read so far take it for granted that the viewer can easily grasp the storyline of the movie. When in fact we are quite poor at understanding story, which of course makes it difficult to disentangle the main message of the movie and its underlying worldviews. Copyright © Chol

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God  (Colossians 1:9, 10 NIV) Lesson: God is genuinely pleased and excited when you live a life worthy of Him. When your whole life is God first, your desires second. When the first question you ask when you wake up is, 'how can I make God pleased and excited today?' He delights in that. It's quite amazing when you think about it because God is very big! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

Snell’s law describes how light rays bend when they pass from air into water, as they do when the sun shines into a swimming pool. Light moves more slowly in water, much like the hiker in the snow, and it bends accordingly to minimise its travel time. Similarly, light bends when it travels from air into glass or plastic, as when it refracts through your eyeglass lenses. The eerie point is that light behaves as if it were considering all possible paths and then taking the best one. Nature — cue the theme from The Twilight Zone — somehow knows calculus. STEVEN STROGATZ One of many anecdotes I picked up from Steven Strogatz's recent book ' The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Mathematics, from One to Infinity '. It is a "pop-maths" book designed to re-introduce the subject to people who have long forgotten it! Well worth the read! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors.  (2 Chronicles 16:12, 13 NIV) Lesson : it is not sufficient to go to the doctors, we must also approach the Great Doctor! Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

It doesn’t matter how exotically righteous you are. It doesn’t matter how pure you are in your dealings with [sin]. It doesn’t matter how strong you are against temptation. Your standing with God is never based on your righteousness, but on his. His perfect life, his acceptable death, and his death-defeating resurrection guaranteed your standing with God. All of your sins past, present, and future have been covered by his blood. His righteousness has been attributed to your account. So even in your moment of greatest failure, you do not have to hide from God or fear his presence. Your penalty has been paid and eternal acceptance has been granted, so you can run into God’s presence, lost and broken as you often are, without fear of his rejection. Grace guarantees your forgiveness, pays the penalty for your guilt, and lifts the burden of shame off your shoulders. - PAUL DAVID TRIPP ( Source : Sex and Money, 2013) You simply can’t preach forgiveness to yourself enough! We need t