I want to define the word “pure†before I go on because like the word “sensual†we have a distorted idea of what it means. Imagine a bath tub full of clean water…let’s say it is made of 50,000 water drops. Now take 1 drop of black ink and drop it in it: is the water in the bath tub still considered to be clean? The answer is no, it is not. The biggest problem with lust in North America is that North Americans don’t have an accurate view of what an immoral, sexual, and sensual sin is! Christian girls think that wearing tight jeans is actually dressing godly! Or that showing a little cleavage is actually dressing modestly! Christians think having a girlfriend or boyfriend who they are not planning to get married to, nor ready to get married, nor know God’s will in this matter, holding hands, or… read more
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From this point on I will try to use the word ‘sensual’ more often when I describe a sexual sin, because I think a lot of Christians indulge in the sensual, thinking it is ok as long as they have not went far enough to commit the physical sexual sin. This way I think we will be able to connect the world ‘sensual’ with ‘sinful’ better. 3) Remind yourself of God’s promises to you. You see, a lot of His promises to us are conditional, for example, if you are careless with money He is unlikely to entrust you with a lot of money. So ask yourself the question: if you are lustful man or woman, why would God give you that godly wife or husband you desire? It is important to remember that God doesn’t just say “no†to sin, He almost always has something better in mind. I… read more
I was was surfing the TV channels and I saw the title of one show called “Dirty Jobs†so I settled down to see what it is about. There was a young woman in her 20’s wearing a full body white suit that even had a head covering and some kind of plastic window to see through. She was talking about how important her suit is because if her clothes get the smell from her job it would be almost impossible to get it out, besides the smell is intolerable! She also said the suit protects her from many diseases her job may expose her to. By then I was thinking, “What does she do?!†She obviously wasn’t a bee handler because bees don’t produce a terrible smell! She obviously wasn’t a nuclear scientist or a lab technician of some sort, because the setting was in the afternoon in a… read more
I am going to talk about a topic most would consider to be very sensitive, and that is, pornography. So if you don’t feel comfortable reading about it please stop whenever you like to. I will talk about it from my personal experience and will not to focus on porn or talk about it in details, as my goal is not to assist others to indulge in sin but to glorify God for the freedom He has given me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19 First of all I want to say that talking about being addicted… read more
For some reason I, and I believe many Christians, are aware less of God’s just nature than any of His other characteristics. We seem to forget that His justice is just as powerful and important as His love, grace, mercy, and absolute control and power. This is evident in our preaching. We seem to try to strip the message of the cross from God’s justice, anger, vengeance, and hatred towards sin. I believe the consequence of this is the absence of godly repentance, and false hope in salvation. Somehow in our minds the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, is not quite as present as the Lion of Judah, the Lord of Lords. May be we are scared to think about God’s justice because we don’t like to think about the day when we will stand in front of Him and give account for our actions. Or may… read more
It is easy to spot if we show favoritism towards certain people, and more than likely we do, because the environments we grow up in usually program our brains to hold prejudgements in regard to many aspects of life including people. Ask yourself simple questions such as: Which country has the most talented people? Which group of people are our friends and which are our enemies? Which group of people are more likely to believe in Jesus Christ? Which group of people have more potential to follow God? If your answers are anything other than “no oneâ€, then more than likely you do show favoritism. I know this first hand because growing up as a Christian in a Muslim country meant that I was an outsider. I was considered “dirty†(unclean), and an “infidel†(in Arabic the word is: Kafir), and sometimes simply called “Christian†just because I am Christian…. read more
I feel utterly inadequate and unworthy to share any Biblical truth with anyone, because how can a law breaker like me promote the same law he breaks? I am no less of a hypocrite than anyone else ever lived. But if every Christian stops sharing Biblical truths because he or she is not perfect then the gospel will not be preached anymore. Joseph Reassures His Brothers – Genesis 50:15-21 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the… read more
When I first came to Canada at the age of 17, I was put in an ESL class (English as a Second Language) and so, one day I was sitting with an Iraqi classmate who was drawing a Swastika, and our teacher (who was a Jew) saw his drawing and got upset with him. I didn’t understand why she got upset, and so, I told her, “Ms., he is just drawing, what is the big deal?!†I think my comment made her even more upset, because in lunch time as I was sitting in the library another English teacher who knows me came looking for me. He talked to me for a couple of moments about why Jews hate Swastikas. I had known that Hitler was a “bad guy†and all of that, but I had no idea he targeted Jews specifically. You see, in the Middle East a lot… read more
About a year ago every time I went to pray I felt uneasy, like something was missing. I think I knew what it was but I ignored it thinking, “Is this really from God?†But after few weeks I decided that’s it: I was going to do something about it! The problem was that I didn’t take very good of the environment, and that bothered me a lot. Mind you, I never throw garbage in public places; since my childhood my mom had taught me to carry my garbage with me until I come across a garbage bin or even take it all the way home. I always turn off the lights and electronics when I don’t need them. But I felt that there is much more to do. So I bought one of those recycle bins from Wal-Mart and I’ve been recycling my papers and soft drinks cans ever… read more
The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly the wonder of all wonders. It seems that the more we know our God the more we realize there is so much more we don’t know. Yesterday as I moved to the back of the streetcar I smelled this terribly disgusting smell of someone who really needed to take a shower. The smell was so strong almost all the streetcar smelled bad except the very front of it. I immediately moved back to the front and sat there, but even there the smell was so overwhelming I was considering getting off of the streetcar, that’s when I realized how terribly disgusting I—a sinful person—must be to our Holy God. I mean, the difference between two human beings is finite no matter how much of a physical cleaning one of them needs. But the huge gap between a completely vile creature and… read more
Fracture mechanics is the science of studying sudden-failure phenomenon. Materials have a yield strength (the stress under which they will yield) but in many cases materials fail at applied stresses below their yield strength. We Christians have also a spiritual yield strength—a spiritual potential–but in many cases fail to reach that potential because we fail at spiritual levels way below what we are capable of. The Bible is full of such examples, such as: the sin of King David with Bathsheba; King Saul; and of course Samson. Why do structures fail at applied stresses lower than the known yield strength of their material? That’s because all structures contain small flaws (cracks) determined by their material and processing. We, Christians, all have small flaws determined by two things. First, our natural spiritual strengths and weakness. It is a fact that some people are naturally servants, or preachers, etc; and others naturally… read more
About a year ago as I got off the bus, two Mormon missionaries standing at the intersection started talking to me. They offered me some reading materials but I refused them and told them that I was a Christian. We spent few minutes discussing our different beliefs. They said, “Just like in the Old Testament times there were prophecies, God sent prophecies to speak again to us about 200 years ago.†I asked them, “Why did God decide not to talk to us through prophecies in those 1,800 years between the ministry of Christ on earth and 200 years ago?†There were no answers. In the summer (I think) of 2006 a friend in Windsor, Ontario took me and my uncle and his wife to her church. It was a small church and I had never been there before. As soon as the service ended this old woman came directly… read more
I am so happy to be a Christian; I would’ve rather not have been created, than live life without my heavenly Father. I love to praise Him. I love to sing to Him…my favorite song to sing to Him is “How Great is Our Godâ€, and that’s for the simple reason: it is the only song I can sing without butchering very badly! LOL! I am not writing this because of my easy life, actually this morning I cried my heart out and I didn’t even find a taste in my breakfast because my heart was crying inside that I could not feel anything on the outside. But we can either choose to draw closer to Him through those extremely troubling and painful times, or we can choose to drift away from Him. The Bible mentions many names, more than anyone can remember, but only few names stand out from… read more
Another capture of a park bench; don’t they just look so romantic? And because I think they are romantic they remind me of something happened about two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I was working with a co-worker who is new to Canada (he has been here for only four months) and has been married not long ago (he celebrated his first wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago). He speaks English but a bit broken; he certainly speaks better English than I did when I came to Canada. He is truly a joy to work with because he is very easy going, funny, and hard working, that’s why I usually work with him. We were just talking while working, and he told me about his first wedding anniversary being that week, and how he used to work as a marine engineer back in his home country, and so on…. read more
For the last year I’ve been struggling with doubt off and on…from the little things to the big things. Some days I feel that nothing can shake my faith, and other days I feel nothing can make it continue. So recently I’ve been going to God asking Him questions about this and that, and why did this happen and why that didn’t happen, etc. I am determined to face this struggle head on and overcome it, rather than just let it make me drift away from trusting God. God’s faithfulness is probably His most important attribute to me. I simply must know that He does not change, keeps His promises, does not mislead us, makes His will clear, guides us to His best at all times. And He has given me many promises concerning an issue I’ve been facing for quite sometime. All those promises add up and confirm each… read more
Every day on the subway on my way to university I pass by this cemetery, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and in the morning it looks so beautiful from outside: the sunlight going through the trees and people are walking through it. It looks peaceful so I decided last summer to visit it and take some pictures. I visited it on a beautiful summer evening but I didn’t take any pictures because the awareness of death’s reality and ugliness was all around me. (I only took one picture on my way out.) So I decided to visit the cemetery again but this time not to photograph its natural beauty but I wanted to capture the reality of death. I settled for this capture because as sure as the yellow and white lines separate so our souls will leave our bodies one day. Death is one of the most misrepresented facts of life…. read more
This shot is very dear to me because it reminds me of when we first came to this wonderful country Canada. We arrived in Toronto late of 1999, and I had just accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior few months prior. I didn’t come to know Jesus through a pastor or a person’s testimony—I accepted Him through reading the Bible and few books by Josh McDowell mainly “More Than a Carpenter”—so I didn’t know what it means to accept Jesus. When we arrived here we were not lonely in the sense that we didn’t have anybody because almost my mom’s entire family have been living in Canada for quite a long time. I found myself very lonely on the inside and kind of emotionally disoriented because I was in a strange country where I didn’t feel like I belong. That’s why I started talking to Jesus whenever I… read more
I woke up around 5:30 this particular morning and I had to take this photo! It is a photo of the moon above Toronto seen through my bedroom window. I love the red shade in the curtain, the ceiling, and my table lamp. My alarm clock says “5:49â€, and that’s because I spent 20 min in the balcony listening to the birds, watching the moon, but mostly taking photos. I even took a 30 seconds long video of the birds chirping (He he! I learned the word “chirp†from Dr. Stanley!) . But it is this photo, taken from inside, that captivated me mostly. This photo reminds me of certain times. You see when I go to crowded places for a prolonged period of time, I like to take few minutes to be alone with God. I’ve never told this to anybody because the people who know me, think that… read more
This is my classmate Katya who is an Orthodox Christian from Russia. Katya has an amazing voice—the best I have ever heard in real life. She can sings anything from a deep voice like Louis Armstrong in What a Wonderful World to an angelic choir voice which she does regularly at her church. She has an excellent control over her vocals even though she has never taken any singing lessons! Her voice is a true gift from God because she is a very, very talented singer and it is true joy listening to her sing. The godly women in the Bible are amazing. Just few weeks ago I was thinking about Hanna, the prophet Samuel’s mother. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 1:10-11, “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts,… read more
In the last year or so I’ve been encountering the number 316 a lot—almost every few days. I am encountering the number everywhere: digital clocks , watches, street numbers, my professor’s laptop battery life, homework, receipts, pay checks, etc. Few weeks ago my dad was watching an Iraqi TV station because Iraq was having its second elections and on the top right corner of the screen the number 316 was displayed! I asked him about the number and he said, “That’s the election ballot number for some political party.†Every time I see the number 316 I remember John 3:16. This has been very encouraging to me because recently I have been uncertain about my place in Christ. Before it was very easy to come pray because I had a much closer relationship with Him, but now it is much harder. But when I remember 316 it encourages me to… read more
This red leaf was on the wall of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. It was one of many leafs on a long stem running horizontally on the wall. I would say the stem run for more than 5 meters, and since I had my mini tripod with me, I decided go rest it against the wall and shoot a super macro shot. However, all the leafs were too big for a super macro, so I ended up going up the stairs alongside the stem all the way to the end to this little leaf; it was the last in the long string of leafs and it fit perfectly in my camera’s super macro zoom. That’s when I remembered the verse: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.†Psalm 118:22 That incident kept me thinking that day. This little leaf was so much… read more
In 2006, I was walking to work around 7 AM and my heart was very heavy burdened to the degree where it felt as if I was dragging my feet. I asked God why He was allowing that heartache to continue, I needed to understand! What He said caught me by surprise, He said, “I’ve always loved you!†I started crying on the road, I didn’t know what to think, what to feel, what to say. Somehow He knew why I had that heartache: I was looking for love, but I didn’t receive it, while all along I had access to a fountain of eternal and perfect love pouring out from Him. The only person who truly showed love me while growing up is my mom. I cannot describe to you how much she loves me. The daily sacrifices she makes, her service for me (and her awesome cooking!) are… read more
Before I became a Christian I used to hate the phrase “blind faith†as it represented ignorance to me. And I believed that’s what Christians wanted me to have in order to become a Christian like them. As a new believer I still hated that phrase because I believed that I became a Christian based on logical thinking because of the overwhelming evidence supporting Christianity’s claims. Ten years later I am starting to think that blind faith is true faith. Let me tell you how I came to start thinking that blind faith is important. About three weeks ago around 5 in the morning I heard a very sad news; this news was so tragic to me that it was by far the saddest and most painful experience I have ever been through. I was so sad and shocked I couldn’t even cry. For the next several hours I was… read more
Have you ever read those statistics or articles about how for many people, the holiday seasons are the most depressing? Well, it is true. I am one of those people who feel lonely in the holidays. Christmas has always been the most depressing season for me, mainly because my birthday is around Christmas and I have never been fond of my birthday. But that does not mean I don’t like to be among people. Actually it is the opposite: people feel depressed in holidays because they feel that they don’t have any meaningful relationships. That’s why it is so important that we, Christians, be generous and hospitable in those times. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ~1 Peter 4:9 In the holidays my family and I are sometimes invited by relatives or friends to spend it with them, but somehow I’ve always felt the happiest when I went to… read more
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