Vision Alive

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom . Shalom is used as salutation by Jewish people at meeting or parting, meaning ‘peace’. Shalom means  peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquillity.  Shalom doesn’t mean ‘absence of problems’ or ‘absence of trouble’. Rather, the word refers to a sense of calmness both internally and externally, no matter what the circumstance is. Christmas is always associated with peace as much as it is associated with love and joy. In Isaiah 9:6, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would be the Prince of Peace. And when Jesus was born, angels sang of peace. Luke 2:14 - Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Christmas, or coming of Jesus into the world, brought us peace in three ways. 1.        By coming into this world, Jesus brought us peace with God. Romans 5:1 says ‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God...

  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Galatians 4:4 What does fullness of time mean? It is like eagerly waiting for something and suddenly the time comes very appropriately. Like a ripe apple ready to be picked. In this context Paul describes a moment in history when everything was in place and the stage was all set for Christ to be born. The birth of Christ did not happen all of the sudden. From the beginning of creation, this plan of God of sending His Son into the world was revealed. It started in the Garden of Eden when God promised that one day the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15). Centuries later, in Genesis 12:1-3, God told Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Years later, God said that the sceptre would arise in Judah (Gen 49:10) which meant that Christ would be born in the tribe of Judah. The promise narrows down from Adam to Abraham to the...

  When you count your blessings, it means you’re being grateful. It helps you recognise and admit God’s favour and mercies even over little things in life, that would’ve possibly been overlooked. It makes you more and more positive and optimistic. Simply because, you can’t be pessimistic and grateful at the same time. You can’t be murmuring and thanking simultaneously. God led the people of Israel miraculously out of the land of Egypt. Their eyes saw wonders that no one had ever seen before nor after till date. ·        The Red Sea was parted so they could cross over the dry land, the same Red Sea drowned the Egyptians. ·        God fed them with manna throughout their journey in the wilderness. ·        He was their pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day. ·        Lifting of Moses’ hands brought victory to Israelites from the Amalekites. ...

Acts 27 is a familiar chapter that talks about the shipwreck of Paul. Paul undertook three missionary journeys in his lifetime. This is Paul’s fourth and final missionary journey to Rome, where Paul was taken as a prisoner and would be tried before Caesar. Along with 276 other prisoners, Paul was travelling in a ship from Caesarea to Rome. This missionary trip is largely different from the other three. During the other journeys, Paul chose to travel to places he wanted so he could further the gospel. Not so this time; he is now a prisoner and had to go where he was taken. And the bad news is that the ship would soon go through a storm. These three verses are easy to ignore, because they are full of some names, names of places and names of men. However, these verses point to the favour of God that was so extensively available for Paul in the midst of the hardships that he was going through. Every individual mentioned here were not there by chance. You will find that God had specia...