Treasure in Jars of Clay

By SHASHANK SR

This book captures the mind of the author as he delivers sermons with fresh outlook. These talks expound on the Bible and relate it with the post-modern, post-truth world of ours. The sermons are relevant to our times and the issues we face, thus they make for good, reflective readings. The topics relate wo issues of personal faith as well as global changes.

 

Sermon Topics: 

Pandemics, Perspectives, and a Pattern of Christian Response

Treasure in Jars of Clay

Ministry of Reconciliation

The Pursuit of Excellence and similar headaches!

The unseen and terrible Cost of Lies

Another student suicide, peer pressure blamed

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shashank Rawat
• Release date: May 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201144425

SHASHANK SR

Shashank S. Rawat is a perennial thinker and an occasional writer. The author loves listening to God speak through the Bible and his desire is to help others do the same. He works among university students in eastern India with UESI, an evangelical student’s movement, helping them to grow in Christ-likeness.   

Book preview

Treasure in Jars of Clay

A collection of six sermons

Shashank SR

Copyright

All rights reserved!

Contents

Pandemics, Perspectives, and a Pattern of Christian Response.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

Ministry of Reconciliation

The Pursuit of Excellence and similar headaches!

The unseen and terrible Cost of Lies

Another student suicide, peer pressure blamed.

Pandemics, Perspectives, and a Pattern of Christian Response.

Can Covid-19 kill God?

Don’t be shocked by that outlandish question, the answer may well be an emphatic no, but one cannot deny or ignore the complicated context of that question. We are all living in difficult times when all the blessings of modernity have somehow failed to find solutions to the problems we face. Lives continue to be in lockdown in the face of a novel-virus. These times of social distancing have also peeled off the hidden layers of social discord not only in the USA but also closer home. Common problems can often bring neighbours together but today India seems alone in its backyard. Add to all this, swarms of locusts and a cyclone like never before, the whole narrative takes up biblical proportions.

In times such as these, lament is natural but what we see around us is also hopelessness. Hospitals are slowly getting overwhelmed, emergency services face a shortage of personnel, lives continue to be affected and lost at an exponential rate. Despair has forced many to question, doubt and even deny God. In these circumstances, many of us may find ourselves torn apart between a desire to help and the dread of it being beyond any help. This isn’t an easy thing to endure, to see our loved ones slip into doubt and unbelief, but all is not lost, hope continues to shine like a lighthouse in the distance.

This isn’t the first time when suffering has caused people to question God’s existence or his goodness. Neither is the apathy and indifference of today’s generation towards the Creator anything new. Nietzsche, when he observed the society of his time, he saw a similar indifference, and he came to realise that the pursuit of knowledge has made God immaterial and what is immaterial is already dead, such was his conclusion. Yet, the body of Christ continues to live as the Universal Church – in places persecuted but not perished, in others flourishing and some others struggling but very much alive.

How can the 21st Century follower of Christ, a member of this living body of Christ respond to the accusations of its death and lack of necessity – what shall we do, what can we do. This article seeks to explore Christian response to similar situations in History and present a way forward in our present circumstances. Let me first begin with good news – Christ seems to have a knack for being pressed but not crushed.

God is Dead or so they thought...

Nietzsche, wasn’t the first to pronounce God dead, Jewish leaders and Roman executioners returned home after crucifying Jesus assured of his death. They may have also felt relief after quelling this short-lived Jesus movement just like the many others they had already dealt with. Little did they know that the third-day death-defying miracle would soon turn their world upside-down. What is death to the Triune God? Perhaps, nothing but a moment or maybe not even that! The tomb was empty, Christ