What’s stopping you?

When it comes to spiritual matters, people can either be superficial in their approach or evade it and set aside for later. But if it is to do with religious obligation no one has a problem, because that doesn’t demand intense commitment involving body, mind and soul. Physical matters are always high priority because it is tied with our livelihood and spiritual matters are seen as a channel to fuel and fulfill those physical needs. 

People often prefer external religious rituals over personal relationship because compliance demands far less from the core of who we are than genuine connection. Religious obligations have clear rules, boundaries, and checklists. You know exactly when you are "done" for the day. A personal relationship with God requires surrendering your will, which feels unpredictable and vulnerable.

“True religion” centers around righteousness, justice, morality, conscience and so on. These are not spiritual obligations but because of our sinful nature it does not settle-in easily. The guilt stops people from contemplating on things that promote sanctity and holiness over rituals and duties. There is an incident in the Bible where it refers to Paul who denied the deity of Christ in the early part of his life had a personal encounter with Jesus. He preached about Him and His resurrection which did not settle well with the Jews. They accused him of profaning the temple. People were nearly wanting to put him to death. He was taken by the soldiers, imprisoned and was bound with two chains. His trail was prolonging and he had to present his case several times before the authorities and governor. 

There is this Roman Governor Antoninus Felix and his wife Drusilla were interested in what Paul was defending about. So, he was called several times to hear from him what he had to say about God and spiritual matters. At one time when the governor Felix with his wife Drusila who was also Jewish, sent for Paul and listened to him on the subject of faith in Christ Jesus. While Paul was explaining he spoke about righteousness, self-control and judgement to come. The Bible records that the governor Felix became afraid and replied, “leave for now, but when I have an opportunity, I’ll call for you.” Where did Paul get the idea of morality? None other than from Jesus. You would find in the gospel Jesus lashing out the religious nerds quite often because they  were keen in taking care of the spiritual obligations but ignoring the matter of the heart. He stated this, "woe to you, scribes and pharisee, hypocrites! You pay the tenth  of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law- justice, mercy, and faithfulness...".

You cannot refer to Jesus without referring to meaning, morality, repentance, judgement and eternity. Deep contemplation over such matters is usually unwelcomed by anyone. If life is certain, judgement is certain too. The Bible states, "each one of us shall give an account of himself to God" and therefore the matters of your soul need attention. The life of Jesus who made a provision for mankind through His sacrifice on the cross is the only way to reach God. He is the God who came to this world to make a provision for our sinful condition by His sacrifice and all who believe and accept Him as the saviour and Lord of his/her life experiences salvation and assurance of the eternal life. He is not a story but a reality. His, life, death and resurrection were a reality with verifiable evidence. You can know Him more to experience the true salvation and abundant life. 

 

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His Story is filled with His name!

It is amusing and, at the same time, silly when people are stubborn about their claims that Jesus is a foreign God or reduce Him to a story. Christianity is constantly under attack by all races, people, and religions. People readily believe mythologies, whether from the East or the West, but when it comes to Jesus, they downplay the historical record.

Examine the information I have provided here. The New Testament (Bible) reliability chart is the closest when compared to several figures, including Plato, Caesar, Aristotle, and Homer. It clearly explains that the Bible is a 100% accurate historical record and its narratives are verifiable facts. To assess a document's credibility, you can run the four tests below to evaluate the historical reliability of any document from antiquity.:

Internal consistency: This means there should be no confusion when you read any historical record. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament, you will find tremendous internal consistency. There are absolutely no contradictions, only different perspectives. 

Literary style: referring to places, names, and events. Example ( Luke 2:1-3 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So, everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.) The gospel writers use historical narratives, like a newspaper.

Archaeology: Archaeologically verifiable places like Bethlehem where Jesus was born, Nazareth where Jesus grew, Rome, and the Sea of Galilee.

The English gospels we have today are based on over 5,200 Greek manuscripts, all agreeing to a microscopic degree. No documents from antiquity come close to the New Testament (Bible) gospels in manuscript evidence. Hence, the overwhelming evidence is that the gospels are historically accurate. 

Matt Slick the president and founder of the Christian Apologetics and Research ministry states, “There are a lot of competing truth-claim systems in the world. How do we know we as Christians believe what is true and are not deceived? The answer is threefold.

First, Christianity is only as true as the person of Jesus. He fulfilled prophecies, claimed to be God in flesh, performed many miracles, died, and physically rose from the dead. Christianity is about Jesus, his claims, and his deeds. It is based on him, and it is only as true as he is true.

Second, Christianity is consistent with reason and facts, and it shows evidence of God's inspiration in the Bible.

Third, unlike the Christian faith, all other religious systems are either unverifiable or internally contradictory.”

For the Christian, the ultimate expression of truth is found in the person of Jesus who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the father but through me..." (John 14:6). Jesus, who claimed to be divine, performed many miracles and rose from the dead, said that He alone was the Truth. He was either right or wrong. There is no in-between. If Jesus is wrong, then Christianity is wrong. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we should abandon our faith because He would be no different than anyone else. If Jesus is not God in the flesh, then we should denounce Him as a madman because you can't claim to be God and be sane -- unless the claim is true. Therefore, if what Jesus said about Himself is true, then Christianity is true.

His deeds are remarkable and extraordinary. For example, there are incidents where Jesus gave sight to those who were born blind and raised people from the dead. Therefore, in John 9:32, the author records: “Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind.”  The author strongly endorses the verifiable facts of History. You can read for yourself and know more. Jesus stated, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." 

I encourage you to find this book, the Holy Bible, in your own language. Start with the book of John in the New Testament. You will find clarity, purpose, and assurance in His promises. 

  

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Choked up!

There are times when all of us, at some point of time, get choked up due to personal loss, pain, crisis, and privation in life. It doesn’t matter if you are wealthy or poor; troubles and problems in life visit everyone, irrespective of who we are. Some crises pass with time, but some seem to be perpetual and unending. The blessings that boost us and the storms in life that hit us are both necessary to maintain sanity in life. No amount of wealth, influence, or connection can take us out of what we are going through.  And please don’t blame it on karma, an ideology that we squeeze in when we lack a sufficient answer to life problems. 

Jeremiah Knight, Author and co-founder of The Reformation Resurgence and a pastor, states, “Faith is not about using the future to escape the present. Or vice versa. Faith is about knowing that Christ is present in the future and the present.” Christians believe Christ Jesus exists in the past, present, and future. You may wonder why I do not name other gods and religions when there are thousands? It is just because the Bible is the only book that is cohesive when referring to incidents, events, places, and characters. All are verifiable factors in history and archeology. Dates match, events match, and every single detail matches, including the life of Jesus. 

Jesus’ resurrection overturned all the tables in history. His resurrection, everything He said are credible. Timothy Keller, an American pastor and author, in his book “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,” stated, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”. This is a powerful statement. What are you waiting for? There are open sources you can cross-check. It’s best to start reading the book of John in the Bible to find a detailed narrative about who Jesus was and what He said about life, death, and the afterlife. There is no ambiguity at all. 

Talking about choking up, Jesus, in one of the parables of the Sower, was stating how the Sower went to sow the seed and some fell along the path, some fell on the rock, some fell on the thorns, and yet some fell on the good ground, and He was narrating the consequences in detail. He referred to the seed as His word. The seeds (His word) that fell among thorns were choked by many factors. “As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches and pleasures in life, and produce no mature fruit.”

It is interesting that Jesus referred to being choked by worries, riches, and pleasures.  We usually assume that when one is overwhelmed with pain, it is because the person is possibly encountering worries. But not necessarily. Many are wounded more by riches and pleasures than by worries. When evil cannot shake you through pain, it will distract you with pleasures. You cannot fight this battle alone.  You need someone more powerful than you, beyond human power, to help you when you are choked by worries, riches, or pleasures. Jesus is the right fit because of who He is, the life He led, His sacrifice, death, and resurrection. You can commit your life to prayer and study to know Him better and be transformed with peace and purpose. 

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ABSOLUTE DEADNESS TO A THRIVING LIFE

 

You have worked hard in your job, but it was you who got laid off. Unfortunately, you are in the age bracket where no one is going to hire you. You taught your child well and brought him up with all good morals, but he is deep in addiction, and there is no coming back. You had an amazing friendship, but it is now broken beyond repair. You have a chronic illness, and you are buying time with no hope for the future. Dear friends, this is what “absolute deadness” looks like in our life situations. It’s a place in life where every option has been covered, and all hope is lost.

 

We are not alone in this journey. Centuries earlier, there lived a man called Job whose life is narrated in the Bible. He was a man of integrity, feared God, and was extremely wealthy, with a large family. The Book of Job states that he lost everything on a single day except his integrity and fear of God. When he lost everything, ““He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”” Job 1:21 MEV. Wow… what a perspective! In the “absolute deadness” of his situation, he blessed God’s name. To give a crux of the story, Job goes through some serious suffering before being given double what he lost. 

 

The solution to absolute deadness is to wait with hope. Lewis B. Smedes, a renowned Christian ethicist, theologian, and author, said, “Waiting is the hardest work of hope.” During this wait period, there are few serious questions we need to ponder. They are:

 

What is happening within me?

What is happening around me?

What is going to happen through me?

 

These three questions are absolutely crucial because they will dictate your internal, external, and spiritual well-being during this waiting period. Hopelessness during the waiting period can stir up monsters within us that we never thought existed. They come in the form of self-pity, jealousy, envy, greed, and ungratefulness. These corrupt us and hurt those around us. We become more toxic and incompatible.

 

The reason to ask ourselves these questions is to find out whether we are viewing this situation God-centric or self-centric. If it’s self-centric it is unbearable, if its God centric its uncertain. Hence, we will rather be self-centric and throw our emotions around than wait on God’s beautiful timing and embrace uncertainty. The Bible says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible.". Luke 1:37 (Bible). 

 

One thing we fail to understand is that “absolute deadness” situations attract God’s divine intervention. Now, why do I say that. There is a couple named Abraham and Sarah who were given a promise that their descendants will cover the earth. They waited 25 years for the promise to be fulfilled. God created the nation of Israel from the dead womb of Sarah, and she gave birth to a son when she was 90 years old. There was a man named Lazarus who was Jesus’ close friend. He died and was laid in the tomb for four days. Jesus cried, comforted his grieving sisters, and call him out from the grave after four days. The man walked out. In Jewish tradition at the time, it was believed that the soul hovered near the body for three days before departing. Waiting four days ensured that death was permanent and undeniable, emphasizing the miraculous nature of his resurrection. So was Jesus’ resurrection. Max Lucado, a well-renowned author and a pastor, says, “Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks.”

 

These events prove that Jesus, the living God, is waiting to speak to your “absolute deadness” situations. It is when His absolute power is unleashed. Maybe you are facing one right now, and it has made you bitter and hopeless. Put your trust in the living Jesus, as "He has made everything beautiful in its time….." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV). It’s the timing that is the game changer, dear friends. It is the waiting period that is the focus. It is not acquiring the blessing but the purpose it serves that will transform your life. Seek Jesus to have a personal relationship with Him and see how He transforms your “absolute deadness” into a “thriving life”.

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Battleground!

With war being fought in so many countries, we see a swift change in the global political climate. The world has become a battleground. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): Reports over 130 active armed conflicts globally—double the number from 15 years ago—affecting around 60 countries and involving hundreds of non-state armed groups. The death rate is increasing at a high speed. There are about 150,000 to 174,000 deaths every day (averaging around 58 to 63 million deaths per year). 

Apart from these physical wars, even as individuals, we fight our own battles every day. The greatest battleground is our mind, where different battles are fought continuously. Some we win, but there are many we lose every minute. Our mind is never at rest. Thousands of invited thoughts, uninvited thoughts, and conflicting ideas flood our minds constantly. We are impacted by it always. The major battle we fight is the moral battle, the battle between right and wrong, truth and lies, holiness and unholiness. These are embedded in the many daily decisions we make, which are influenced by what we believe, what we worship, what we watch, with whom we associate, and many such factors. 

What do you do to win the battles of your mind? Let me state this: our mind is influenced by the quality of thoughts. Sadly, most of the thoughts we encounter are usually negative and evil. The Bible records that God saw that man was constantly thinking evil. “When the LORD saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.”. You cannot change the way you think by your own efforts. You need the help of God. A clean mind is the result of a clean heart. When your heart and mind are pure, you encounter few battles.  Religion cannot purify your hearts and minds. You need Jesus, who made a sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and offered forgiveness for all our wrongdoings when we confess them to Him. This is not a matter of religion but a new relationship that helps us to ground our faith in Him. Christianity is a relationship with Christ which transforms your entire life from inside out. Your mind is more stable when you trust this living God. I am presenting Jesus as the solution. He is the only person in all human history who rose from the dead, and that means He has the solution to all your problems in life. 

 The Bible also states that we don’t always fight all the wars with flesh and blood: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.” The force of darkness, the evil one, is very much active. It constantly allures us and defeats our moral thinking to default and feel sick about it. The result of sin is the guilty conscience that leads us to do more wrong and lose every battle to become a victim. If you notice, Paul, the author of the book of Ephesians, states, “to take the full armor of God.”.  This means to study the word of God, the Bible, because it is the word of the living God, not a mere religious book of the Christians. The Bible has the solution to man’s problem of brokenness. Jesus is the answer to all your crises. Do you wish to know Him more? 

 

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When the excitement gets dampened!

As AI revolution continues to flourish, man is becoming increasingly dependent and helpless without it. AI is in the verge of replacing almost anything. No doubt, it is exciting to know what people once struggled to find out in hours can now be accessed in seconds. Advertisement agencies have started to amplify it and show it as the solution to almost all the issues including life problems. With this as the background, the thinking over naming it differently other than AI is being debated. Countries wanted to call it as “super intelligence”. Reuters state, the U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the official order for U.S. government agencies to use the term "super intelligence" (SI) in documents. 

Have you noticed that if AI replaces the reality, then the excitement can quickly be dampened. Let me explain it to you, why? Today almost everyone is addicted to short reels. You don’t know what is real and what has been created by AI. Many short reels of different categories, based on people tastes, floods their phones. You would not believe how people are cheated to believe the stuff they watch are real, when in truth they are AI generated. People get emotional watching certain content but the moment you prove it to them that it is not real but AI generated, their excitement level drops instantly. Somewhere deep in people’s hearts they want to be excited, but on one condition, that it must be real and not fake. 

People are truly excited and moved if what they consumed is the truth but is it the same when it comes to the matter of life and God? We are comfortable with what does not challenge our minds and hearts because that allows us to live in our terms and morality.  You tell them the truth they don’t like. People look for truth through closed minds and ignore the facts. You have all answers to life and eternity in the scriptures, the Holy Bible. It is the only book which is perfectly cohesive and provides all the answers you are looking for.  But try telling someone about it, you are seen as proselyting. Bertrand Russell in one of his writing’s states, ‘Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.’. Blaise Pascal states this, “truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

The most powerful truth claimed by Jesus in the entire human history is this, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live”. But how many of us are prepared to see through what we believe and logically analyze if it is the truth. Everyone has found a God and a belief system that he/she follows for ages. Rarely anything contemplates about the serious life questions, where have we come from? is there a meaning to life? And what about life after death? You find all the answers in the Bible and in Jesus because He was resurrected from death and defeated it. He claimed to be the truth and life and promised if anyone who believes in Him will live. True excitement is found in the truth. The truth is Christ lives and He is not a dead God. Believe in Him, read the Bible once if you haven’t in your life, you would find Hope seeping in through His truth and joy in abundance. 

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The Fake Reality!

The “Shorts” reels revolution in social media has saturated everywhere and everyone. It has fundamentally rewired how we consume information and interact with the world. Everybody is busy scrolling the shorts. As an outcome, the attention span of people, small and big has been also severely impacted by these short reels. People are looking for content to their taste but forget that they have actually lost the taste they are looking for. 

It’s all revolving around instant gratification. Traditional media requires patience (example: waiting for a plot to develop). Shorts deliver the "punchline" or peak excitement within 15 to 30 seconds. Every swipe act like a slot machine. The brain releases dopamine (the feel-good chemical) because it doesn't know if the next video will be exciting, shocking, or boring. Through the scrolling, a pattern is set and the algorithm coded keeps providing content based on which one clicks and the longer the person watches. 

Some of the psychological impact of this behavior are:

Reduced Deep Focus: The brain gets used to high-speed stimulation. As a result, slower, high-effort activities like reading a book, studying, or sitting through a long meeting feel agonizingly boring.

Continuous Partial Attention: People, especially children and teenagers, are losing the ability to sustain focus on a single task. They constantly feel the urge to switch tabs, check their phones, or look for a quicker source of entertainment.

Mental Fatigue: Despite feeling like "relaxation," constant scrolling actually overloads the brain with fragmented information, leaving people feeling drained and anxious.

Every behavior and pattern is an indicator of the state of the human soul. The engine of our being is the soul and the cognitive mind and body just follow. It is not the other way around. When your soul is right with God you are at peace even when you are not doing anything. Sin affects our relationship with God. Ernest Hemingway once said that if something is moral, you feel good afterwards; if immoral, you feel bad afterwards. That’s the popular view of sin – many have lived by it. But it’s not a biblical view. Biblically, sin is an attitude of wanting your way instead of God’s way and that comes with all types of consequences. Guilt is the immediate consequence of sin which influences the physical body, psychological and spiritual aspects of a human being. 

Repentance means to change your actions concerning your sin. It involves agreeing with God that you were wrong and that you do not want to continue to commit that sin. God cannot tolerate sin. The Bible states, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” (Habakkuk 1:13a Bible) “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5a Bible). But when we approach Christ Jesus, we receive forgiveness that removes guilt, stain and restlessness. You don’t find the need to gratify yourself with stuffs that create more hunger for something which makes you a victim of it. You can make a commitment to know Him more and live a life with freedom and purpose. 

  

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