Psalm 111:1 "Hallelujah"

Recently I came across what is known as an acrostic Psalm. Psalms 111 and 112 are acrostic Psalms. It simply means that the first letter of the phrases in the Psalm correspond to a Hebrew alphabet. Both these Psalms have 22 phrases with each phrase representing the alphabets. Also these Psalms, 111-118 were learnt by heart by every Hebrew child. So that means, if you were to ask a Hebrew child, “A for?” and he would reply back with the first phrase of the Psalm and so forth. So is this how they taught their children their ABCs?! The knowledge about the Lord was ingrained deep inside the Hebrew children.

However, interestingly, the Psalm 111 begins with “Hallelujah”. This phrase is outside the acrostic pattern described earlier. So can we now say that “Hallelujah” comes before the “ABCs”? Or in other words, praise is so important that it comes before even the very basic things of our life? Or in still other words, praise is so important that we should teach it to our children even before we teach them ABC? Or in still other words, praise is so important that it is praise that we should utter first before we indulge in communication of any other sort with anyone? I think we can. Praise comes first. Praise should precede everything. Psalm 33 says that praise is comely for the upright. It looks beautiful on the upright. It’s the best fit if the upright is approaching the Lord himself. Nothing looks as good on him as praise!

So let’s adorn ourselves, ready ourselves, with praise at all times especially when we approach Him. As David follows up in Psalm 111, let’s praise Him with our whole heart. Whatever be our situation, God Almighty deserves our praise, so praise him always.

The truth about Valentine's Day

In 3rd century Rome, the god Lupercus, the god of fertility, was also said to watch over the shepherds and their flocks and keep them from the hordes of wolves. So the Romans celebrated a feast called Lupercalia to honor Lupercus so that no harm came to them. As part of the purification ritual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats and a dog to the god, and after drinking wine, they would run through the streets of Rome striking anyone they met with pieces of the goat skin. Young women would come forth voluntarily for the occasion, believing that being touched by the goat skin would render them fertile.

Additionally, in honor of the goddess Juno Februata, the names of young women were put into an urn and these were drawn by lot. The boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year, which began in March.As the pagan Roman Christianity became prevalent, Roman priests attempted to Christianize (Romanize) the ancient pagan celebration of the Feast of Lupercus, as well as, all the other pagan traditions and customs. They changed the name of the Feast of Lupercus to St. Valentine's Day, and in order to give the celebration further meaning and to eliminate its' pagan appearance the Roman catholic priests substituted the drawing of Saints (Roman idols) names for the names of the young women. The youth was supposed to emulate the life of the saint whose name he had drawn. By the 14th century they reverted back to the use of girl's names.

With the passing of time the Christo-pagan holiday of Lupercus complete in "Sheep's Clothing" became another clever guise for one of Satan's counterfeit Holy Days now called holidays. According to legend, there were seven men named Valentine, who were honored with feasts on February 14th. Two of the stories appear to link incidents that could have given us our present day meaning of St. Valentine's Day.

There is only one source of "True Love" and that source is "The One True God of Love, Yahweh, our Creator." Anything less than a life filled with the Holy Spirit, focused on Yahweh (who was revealed in Jesus Christ) and a life obedient to the Commandments of Love, is not Love; but "Lust."

No True Believer can observe this day without dishonoring their relationship with God. Go away Valentine’s day or rather,“Go away Lupercalia”. Disciples of Christ Jesus should stay away from the Valentine celebrations because of it spurious, ungodly and evil beginnings.

Luke 19:13 ‘Do business with these until I come back.’

This portion is a part of the famous “Parable of the talents”. Thought most of us know it quite well, I want to just highlight something that was impressed upon me recently. God has entrusted each one of us with talents, abilities and resources. His expectation from us is that we do business with these, trade with it.

No, it’s not the call to make it a profession rather it’s a call to engage daily (regularly) in some activity with what God has given us.

Let me just brainstorm and randomly bring up different aspects that are a part and parcel of usual business we do on this earth:
Investing, giving away at a benefit or a loss, seizing the right opportunities to enter and exit from a scenario, making short term and long term objectives and targets, promotion of the activities for the benefit of the trade and not of the individual, continuous improvisation (by research and development), always having edge over competition, equipped with right tools and techniques, awareness of trade specific and general market sentiments, giving a personal touch, periodical evaluation of business, audit by external agencies, maintaining quality standards, delivering value to beneficiaries, human resource (man power) utilization and management, customer satisfaction, borrowing resources for better and greater throughput and a better leverage, associating with geographical or trade-wise similar businesses, proper, periodical and timely reporting to authorities, access to right utilities, progress and growth, plough back of benefits, distribution to a wide spectrum of beneficiaries, proper, timely and sensible logistics, consistency, accreditation from recognized agencies, allocation for unseen expenditures and future expansion, and last but not the least, fees and taxes.

Looking at it from the modern-day business standpoint, it a tough ask and a very demanding task. If we were to apply these principles in our application and utilization of our talents, abilities and resources, we all will definitely be found wanting on many fronts.

However there is relief for us. God has only asked us to trade it. He has neither specified the results nor his expectations. He has only asked us to trade and engage in an exchange rather than sit over it. These are His things, entrusted to us from some time. He can rightfully expect benefits to accrue from it, however, he has not made it mandatory, at least in his proposal.

Let’s spruce ourselves up. Become more serious and committed at the Lord’s commission. God bless.