Christmas Wishes!

Christmas is not about Santa Claus but birth of Jesus Christ. He is the center of the Christmas story. Christmas is a celebration of God incarnated in human form to restore the relationship with each one of us. He was originally named Emmanuel meaning “God with us”. The beauty of Jesus’s story is not the end with His birth but victoriously culminates in His resurrection after His death, which gives us all the more compelling reason to celebrate a living God.

Jesus being born of virgin birth, in a place called Bethlehem, purpose of being the Messiah of mankind, His amazing miracles like healing the blind, lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons and many more were recorded by four gospel writers namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Jesus’s birth created history by splitting the timeline as BC and AD. 

The Bible is well scrutinized and thoroughly validated by historians, archaeologist. It was written by 40 authors, from 3 different continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, within a period of 1,500 years ago. With no contradictions, events, persons, places and governments mentioned in the Bible derive their historical roots from this. The Bible records that Jesus died on the cross, buried and rose again on the third day from the grave.

                                                       Hearty Gift

Jesus says, ”I live, you will live too” (John 14:19) and “But all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become the children of God” (John 1:12). Jesus is clearly looking for a relationship with us. He wants us to look up to Him as a father who is longing to help His children. All we need to do is sincerely invite Him to come into our heart. He is not interested in religious places built by hands. It is our heart that matters to Him and this living God wants us to celebrate His presence in our heart, not outside as a baby in a manger.

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Drawing closer to the season!

As we come closer to the end of the year 2021, quite a lot of emotions are likely to flood in for many. The pandemic and disaster have snatched many lives of loved ones in the family. And it is indeed a time to recollect the memories while we celebrate the season of hope and the coming new Year. I pray and wish that your life is restored and rejuvenated in this Christmas season irrespective of all challenges and crisis, probably you have undergone.

It is this time of a year, 2000 years ago in human history God decided to come to this world in the form of man to be the Savior of the world.  The Bible records the prediction of this man Jesus, thousands of years ago by prophets in the Old Testament. The place of birth, Bethlehem was predicted, the nature of His virgin birth was predicted, His crucifixion was predicted, His dying between two robbers was predicted and more importantly, His resurrection from the grave after three days was predicted, too.  And the good news is that all prophecies were fulfilled. All prophecies pertaining to Him, when carefully analyzed and validated was found in sync with the writers of the Bible. It had no contradiction whatsoever. The uniqueness of this man Jesus, unlike any spiritual leader or gods, is that He did not suggest a way, a method to reach God or instructed His disciples to start a religion. He did not dwell on the concept of erecting a structure of splendor and have His image worshipped there. Nothing of that sort is mentioned or desired in the holy book, the Bible.

He had the audacity to claim Himself God. He said “I am the way, the truth and the life...”. And then it is written that we are the temple of the holy one and His spirit lives in us. He wanted humans to be the temple and keep ourselves holy in order to allow God indwell human hearts. Even if all the Church buildings are razed down, we still have a temple, the human heart, where He desires to live provided it is kept holy.

Some ask how do you believe the Bible is accurate book that talks about a man who existed 2000 year ago? Let me explain this, After Jesus’ death in 32 AD, the four gospel writers wrote the four books on different dateline but all before 100 AD and the most important part is there are no contradictions whatsoever. Yet there are many who debate the authenticity. Let me point out an example from the life of Alexander, the great, an universal history written by Greek  historian Sikeliotes  (lived c 90 c to 30).  Notice the time interval!  Alexander lived in 330 BC but the earliest written record about him was available only in 30 BC.  Nearly 300 years apart! Yet no one doubts Alexander's existence or considered the written record to be unreliable. But the four gospels were written within the short time of Jesus’ life time in this earth. History and all social science vouch the authenticity of every detail recorded in this book. 

The Christmas season is not a miracle, but the story of this man Jesus who lived, crucified and is resurrected. He is in the business of transforming lives and we have hope in Him. I mean, hope for the present and future, our eternal destiny.  Santa Claus is not the protagonist of the Christmas story but Jesus’ birth and His resurrection is. Your belief on Him transforms you with Hope and gives a direction to live. So it’s the person Jesus who gives you hope and not on the season of the year. Your commitment to follow Him will either create or correct the history of your life.

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This is the continuation of Last week Blog. You May click HERE to read in case you have missed.

That Season of the year!

We have arrived at that time of season where the whole world is gearing up to celebrate Christmas, the favorite time of the year. Our homes get a new outlook with cleaning, painting, Christmas decorations, setting up of the manger scene and so on. Christmas has become more than a ritual, it's looked upon as a time to celebrate, display one's wealth and relax. Religious festivals become opportunities for celebration.

But I apologize for breaking this warped up bubble of belief. Christmas is not a religious festival of delicious cakes, Christmas trees, Christmas bells, Santa Claus, etc. It is about a true story in history, a happening which history vouches for a man named, Jesus who lived on this earth between 4 BC to 32 AD. The fact that underscores the pages of history is that his birth and death was not a finality in His story, but an added facet to the celebration is His resurrection from death. If we were to clear away all the trees, lights, wreaths, candy, chocolate, mistletoe, gifts, hot cider, eggnog, silver bells, festive music, Santa Claus, reindeer, and elves – the Church of Jesus has got to the core of the celebration, which is documented in the Historical book, the Bible. It says, “In the beginning was the word, ..The word became flesh and dwelt among us, we  observed his glory as the one and only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”. And then the fact both History and Bible records is “that he was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.”.

Prof Bart Ehrman, a world-famous historian working in University of North Carolina says regarding historicity of Jesus as, “In my experience as an historian, I have met and interacted with literally 1000’s of historians and scholars, and almost all of them have no issues in accepting the historicity of Jesus Christ. Christ mythicism is not even considered as an option among the scholarly circles!”

Another historian, Tacitus is considered unanimously to be one of the greatest historians by scholars. He was a patriotic Roman senator and his writings show no sympathy towards Christians. He refers to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, Annals (c. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44.[35][36][37]. The relevant passage reads: "called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus." Scholars generally consider Tacitus's reference to the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate to be both authentic and of historical value. He is also considered as an independent Roman source about early Christianity that is in unison with other historical records.

With all of the above evidence portrayed, we are all left with a choice as to how we are going to view Christmas, this season. We can consider Christ a myth, blissfully ignoring the fact that He lived, died and rose again and is a living God or embrace the truth recorded in the Bible and celebrate the birth of Christ in a meaningful way. J I Packer states, “The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity-hope of pardon, hope of glory- because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.”. Are we willing to take time to know Jesus, this Christmas season, to find out the real reason for His birth?

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Reference:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_for_the_historicity_of_Jesus

Black money with dark intentions!

 

Money as we know is a universal tangible commodity. The world has gone berserk with money, which a regional proverb aptly summarizes as, ‘show the currency note, even a corpse will open its mouth.’. It has become the final goal for any activity under the sun. Though the means look noble in many cases, the motives and intentions are still alarmingly spurious.

Sometimes the intention to make anything and everything a commodity mars relationships, defiles good works and pollutes a noble cause. Max Lucado points out a powerful thought which says, ‘we all lean on lesser gods at times. Status. Popularity. Money. Grades. A cool car. The ‘right’ friends. Whatever we think will carry us through. But none of these gods satisfies for long. We don’t need an “over the Rainbow” god, we need the one who created rainbows.".

Some struggle to make ends meet, some go over the board hoarding it to the extent that it can never be consumed and the money is sufficient for next 20 to 30 generations. Yet they are never satisfied and pursue relentlessly. History has constantly reiterated that money whether black or white doesn’t give people the security, satisfaction, and purpose. Rather, on the contrary, it makes people more selfish and insecure. Today, we are in a time where exploiting someone’s innocence, taking advantage of people for benefits, making subtle adjustments to cheat one another, intending to make extra money are all common. But what we fail to realize is that it will still not be enough. However, noble the cause maybe, it still boils down to profit and loss. It's always winning at the cost of one’s loss.

The term black money becomes profound as the motives of people are dark, evil, selfish and sinful. People have become cruel and abominable in the process. You will hear many cases where people even use the religious places to convert black money to legitimize white money and continue to accumulate wealth.

Selfish accumulation of wealth and unhealthy obsession with material things can never bring contentment. What promises security leads to perpetual insecurity. True security is only faith in a true living God who can fill your heart with contentment and peace. The Bible says “we enter the world penniless and we leave penniless. Wealth provides only a false security. …quit being . . . obsessed with money which is here today and gone tomorrow’." The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all our money? Francis Bacon puts the essence of money so beautifully as, “Money is like manure. It’s not good unless it is spread around.’. We cannot equate material possession to God. Your commitment to God should reflect on how you value and respect each other. Jesus is the God of History, who is in the business of transforming lives. Your commitment to follow Him opens up a new world of hope, purpose and meaning to life.

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Say Yes or No!

 

We all are looking for answers, especially the ones that match our expectations. But what answers are we really looking for exactly? The answers vary based on life matters, relationships, business deals, promotions, expecting someone to become an accomplice to our selfish desires, consensual sex, etc. Selfishness rules human heart. We want all the answers to be yes alone, even though there is an option for no. It is because we are intolerant to 'no's, in a patriarchal and male chauvinistic society like ours.

Superficially people fight for human rights, but the weak and the vulnerable still struggle choice-less, especially the poor and religious minorities who are forced to say yes to all the brutalism and vandalism by religious bigotry and the ones who are powerful and classify themselves to be from upper strata of the society. India for example, is known for the tagline, ‘unity in diversity’, maintaining solidarity, yet you will find innumerable cases where people who are called as minority and from different faith being persecuted, their rights violated, false allegations raised against them and many are languishing in prison too. They just want people to say yes to all their selfish, political agendas.

In history, at any given period of time, we notice that people with power and money assumed that they can manipulate things to their favor. Let me quote an incident recorded concerning Jesus, which is a historical fact. According to the prophecy told thousands of years ago it was stated that a Messiah will be born in Bethlehem who will have the power to forgive the sins of the mankind and they can reach God because of the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But the religious bigots thought Jesus was getting famous because the Bible, the historical records states ‘He was going about doing good’, casting out demons, healing sick of all kinds and raising the dead too. The religious Jewish leaders couldn't handle this because Jesus's widespread fame was unnerving and they felt powerless.

Promptly, Jesus was put on an unfair trial and with false allegations. He remained silent to all the accusations, surprising the high priest who insisted Jesus to say yes or no to his question. The question was, are you the Messiah? Jesus said, “I am” which is recorded in the Bible. And the temple high priest and all the accusers were angry at the answer. They went crazy and alleged, “what further need do we have of witnesses?” And said, ‘you have further heard the blasphemy’ and they condemned Him to death.

You don’t have to say yes and comply to the deception just because you are forced to, or because you are too naïve. In case you are a person who is a victim of manipulation and accusation and you feel dejected, don’t lose hope. A God who was nailed for His innocence understands your plight. The story did not end on the cross and in the grave. But He rose from the dead and said, I will come back as a king to judge the world and the righteous will inherit the kingdom of God and the wicked to condemnation. You can make a choice to ask Him to come into your life and transform you into a new person and protect you from all the evils working against you. You have a choice to say, “yes’ or ‘No’.

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Hide and Seek - is that your relationship game?

 

Photo Credit Sakshi Manga

Increasingly, I have come to observe that relationships are becoming less and less intentional, genuine, voluntary, honest and truthful. It's becoming more on need basis. Only if we benefit from that person, do we even take the time to connect with them. I am not sure if we should call this superficiality or the 'new-normal' etiquette, but it has a name. It's called selfishness.  Sadly, the poor, the needy and the vulnerable are left with no choice but to accommodate this behavior. How we relate with each other reveals a lot about the person we are and has a direct connotation of how we treat and relate with God.

The new behavior may be the new normal, yet it is unbecoming. People either avoid speaking to one another directly or substitute through social platforms. We choose our circle, customize relationship to our expectations and use it to our favor. In all of this we fail to realise that the binding factor in a relationship is love. Its starkly missing and has made relationships artificial. A writer in one of the book in the Bible, inspired by God writes, "Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.". 

The direct implication is love for God overflows as love for people. No wonder Jesus summed up all the laws and commandment in two greatest commandments, 'and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’. When this is done genuinely from a clean heart, the second commandment, love your neighbors as yourself is spontaneous and intentional. This will undoubtedly reflect in our honest love for others.

Relationship need not always be business oriented and a self-profiting deal. It has to be honest and a genuine reflection of the love of God. Only Bible estimates this and states, 'God is love'. In its true sense, Jesus demonstrated His love on the cross of Calvary for the sins of mankind. And we find salvation believing Him and living with a transformed new self. Jesus is the embodiment of love. When we accept His lordship and follow Him, the love and respect for each other reflects in all areas of our life.

Are you avoiding or too ashamed to connect with people to maintain honest communication? I am not talking about connecting with someone who is abusive and manipulative, but with those who are in our sphere of influence and in our circle.  It is actually rude and manipulative if we are willing to use only social platforms and replace them with actual communication and maintain a relationship. Let us value each other and honor one another. The Bible says, “value others over yourselves.". When we value and estimate others we will be willing to establish genuine relationship by all means.

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Child, Am I a Hero or a Villain?

 

Wishing you all dear Children a very happy Children’s Day!

I really hope the word "happiness" still rings with meaning as the pandemic has muted all celebrations dampening the spirits. Childhood has its share of carefree joy and minimal set of responsibilities that every adult envies. But with the world's demands and nature's prodigies one wonders will the frivolity of childhood be a thing of the past.

Today, children are trained and instilled in their tender minds that life is all about studying, aim for high scores academically, pursue a high paying job and earn lot of money. All along they are also taught that they have to achieve this with their own personal strengths, never once teaching them that they are God's masterpiece and it's important that they start giving Him due adoration in early stages of life.

For parents it has always been a rat race to somehow make their children excel than other children in every aspect, hopping and dragging them from one practice session to another, all along neglecting the fact that their Heavenly Father is longing for His children to have a relationship with Him. As parents we have failed and robbed our God of His glory and we are forcing our children to do the same unconsciously and at times intentionally. As of now children have heroes who are dangerously flawed and who teach them that they can live an immoral life and can still get away with it if you have loads of money. Today, if children are into drugs, unrestricted gaming and watching prohibited content, it is because we as adults have failed in our responsibility as parents.

How many of us as parents taught our children what morality is? Have we taught them not to cheat? Yes, you heard me right. Today, with online exams, due to the pandemic, has revealed blatant disregard for integrity, with children cheating at the drop of a hat. I am sure this will resonate if you are a teacher reading this article. There have been instances where mothers' group chats in WhatsApp discuss how they can lie to the school authorities for late submission of projects. Parents are even pampering their children to the extent of writing the online exams for them. If our own morality is skewed, what will we teach our children? Do we as parents even realise that we are harming our children to the point of distorting their view of God and morality? Then why do we lament when our children don't make it in life or worse because of all our pressure push them to take their own life?

If we as parents do not clean up our act and live a life close to God, then our children will only end up having movie stars and mafia Don's as heroes. Parents need to understand we are the heroes for our children. The Bible says that children are an inheritance from God. It means that we leave a legacy. But it weighs heavily upon us as to decide what that legacy would be. With the help and guidance from God we need to be the hands of God that shapes these tender minds and hearts directing them towards a Heavenly Father who 'fearfully and wonderfully' made them for a purpose. We will be responsible for destroying the purpose of their lives because of our stupidity and rebelliousness and God will hold us accountable.

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Wobbling Standards!

 

Photo credit: ICA

Constants like values, morality, ethics and standards are dangerously shifting and changing in the age we live in. Movements in social media and rallies on the streets support this wobbly belief system. Today, every individual is convinced that it's his/her right to believe what he/she thinks is right, including values and standards in life. There are theories that supports this view and one of such belief cites, "Belief doesn't require something to be true. It only requires you to believe it's true.". Strangely, if we try to validate this in context of our family and children it has a disastrous connotation.

Through the ages prominent individuals who made significant contribution to the society through their inventions and discoveries have uttered unverified thoughts that still echo as the final word for ethics in the society. Take for example Marcus Buckingham who states, "The best way to find out whether you’re on the right path? Stop looking at the path.". How do we understand this? In reality if we follow this, we are sure to mess up our lives. We cannot afford to live in fool's paradise. We live in the danger of assuming that if an intellectual sets standard, it should be right; failing to understand it can be skewed to suit the individual's convenience. It is important to analyze from where one channelizes moral ethics, values and standards as the source is of utmost importance.

Another prominent personality, Shakespeare stated, 'there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.'. Famous personalities in art, literature and science tampered with standards, life ethics and God, leading many astray. Standards are never meant to be wobbly and definitely are not the result of thinkers. As a society, we are mostly shaped by religious ideologies framed on certain standards, which are relative. For example, in one culture polygamy is allowed, another supports polyandry, yet another supports monogamy. Such contradictory standards devastate society and individuals.

But is there a constant moral standard in reality? To find unwavering standards one has to find an unchanging moral giver. It will do us good to observe His life and contribution to mankind. Jesus was the epitome of holiness and truth. Pilate the governor during King Herod’s rule in Jesus' time remarked, 'I find no fault in this man.'. A God who had a power to rise from the grave after three days as He told the disciples while He was alive could have kept Himself from being crucified, waged a war and destroyed His enemies like any other gods portrayed in this world. But He choose to die so that we can get forgiveness from all our wrongdoings and find salvation.

Jesus demanded that we take utmost care of our heart to keep it holy because He indwells in our human heart and not in a religious building erected as a result of discrimination, competition and business enterprise. He claimed "I am the way the truth and the Life". Life here and after death makes sense because He was resurrected from dead and promised us eternity in heaven. I recommend you get a copy of the Bible, to know what is so different about Jesus' story than all the stories in the world.

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Conditional ingratitude!

 

I am sure we all are aware of the term conditional bail. Conditional bail is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, i.e., bail granted imposing certain conditions on the person who is getting bail. These conditions are at the discretion of the judge granting bail. Similarly, Conditional Gratitude reflects some of the essence of the meaning. We have reached a time period and age where people are thankful based on conditions. Since the needs of the people are enormous and unending, one is not able to appreciate and express wholesome gratitude, unconditionally.

If the hearts of humans were to be dissected, selfishness would occupy the core of it's being. We would agree that almost every day we receive help from some source or the other. Maybe a little kindness from someone we know or from even unknown strangers. But to what extent the acts of kindness impress upon our hearts? We are constantly on the lookout for big favors, big time help and attention from everybody, all the time. Sadly, this is how it works today. As long as people keep receiving favors, they are happy and display their feigned appreciation. The moment they find they are not receiving any more favors, they can be unkind towards the same people who helped and even worse turn against them. This brings me to my topic, gratitude is mostly conditional. Let's learn to appreciate people genuinely. We will all cease to live, someday. Let's not cheat ourselves. Let's commit to be honest and grateful without any boundaries.

There are many positive quotes which says, ‘Appreciate one another’, ‘be thankful’ ‘be grateful’, ‘be unbiased’, etc. But why have they not had any effect on us?  It all starts from the basic fact of how thankful are we to our creator. The Bible talks so much about love, and the demonstration of God’s love to mankind. Our hearts need a full surgery (not physiological but spiritual) and be recreated with love and gratitude. It says in the Holy Scriptures, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”. Selfish heart is the result of sin and guilt. Can we confess our attitude of ingratitude and ask the Savior to forgive our sins and guilt? We will doubtlessly be transformed to be a genuine, loving and kind person who spreads love and selflessness around.

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SIN IS MY BRAND; CAN I GET A DISCOUNT?

It was interesting to read different news articles for the past few months, that caught my attention. They are revealing an uglier side of our existence on Earth. However, today the uglier our life is the more fans or followers or subscribers, we get. Our depravity has become our brand. Today, by going to a gala semi-nude, we have caught the world's attention and created a brand for ourselves. We can be a grown man taking drugs, yet our child-like looks and our recognisable family name can make us a future movie star material, creating a brand.

Well there are many 'Stan Swamys' who are languishing in jail for standing up for the rights of the poor but what juice is there in having compassion for them? It's their own disgrace they have to deal with. They don't have the looks, or the family name or the body that we are crazy about and they are not worth our attention, standing up for the injustices they face.

Sin has become our brand. The world has reframed its morality and has introduced relative truth. It is increasingly pushing the boundaries of unethical behaviour that the more depraved we are the more recognition it offers. The founding fathers of any nation for that matter, worked within an ethical framework. They have become like dinosaurs, fascinating but extinct. To make them our role models in the present world is a bleak possibility and a sense of impossibility is increasing with times. If this is the case with humans, what chance does God stand?

We are foolish enough to pacify God with our rituals thinking we have tricked Him into discounting our sins. We have even created gods like money and power which conveniently do not teach us morality. The Bible describes the present generation accurately as, "Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things." It can't be further from the truth as we can unflinchingly spend 37,000 Pounds or 38 lakhs for four to dine, which could be a sum that can save the life of a person or family. But it’s easy to blame it on the higher socio-economic status and it’s perfectly ok to be an idiot, emotionally.

The God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, truly amazes me that He could associate Himself with us sinful humans in spite of His holiness. He came so that we may have a relationship with Him and gave a defined moral framework. But time and again we have rejected Him. We have been stubborn in receiving Him in our heart saying, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?”. We know once He enters our heart, we will need to clean our act, so it's better to reject.

Sin allures us with its pleasure but will make us pay a hefty price in the form of consequences. There won't be any discounts or no cost EMIs. We will all have to pay in full, with interest. The Bible says, "Start worrying about yourselves. Worry about your own sins and God’s coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way.” For this very reason Jesus loved us so much that He willingly died for our sins and rose again in order for us to have a real relationship with Him and not some surreal experience. Only with His forgiveness can we even imagine receiving any discounts for our multitude of sins.

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Reference

1. Harpersbazaar

2. Stan Swamy

3. Higher socio economic status

4.  4 Diners spent Rs 38 Lakhs

Shelter of Hope!

Photo Credit: Darkly Written

We are never completely free of fear in spite of our confidence and courage to face circumstances when life throws a low curve ball at us. We do buckle under the threats of fear and scram for a place to hide. People's hidden intentions and selfish motives has made the world a dangerous place to live in. We have become commodities on which the world is preying on our innocence every day.

Our vulnerability has become a playground, for the exploiters, with no boundaries. Our immediate reaction is to find safety behind the powerful, the influential, the wealthy and the 'godmen' hoping they have the power to protect us. Unfortunately, we fail to recognise that these are mere human beings like us and our experiment with them ends in disappointment.

In one of the Books called Psalms in the Bible, the writer pleads to God to help the poor and the vulnerable from the wicked. The description states, “He (wicked) waits in ambush near settlements; he kills the innocent in secret places. His eyes are on the lookout for the helpless.". In present times the rich and the powerful prey upon the poor and exploit the vulnerable than the poor robbing the rich. Stories of the vulnerable seeking protection behind the walls of justice soon realised its flimsiness and the walls collapsed on them turning them into casualties rather than emerging as victors.

Is there any hope of living in safety? Yes! We do in a living God. In all my blogs I try to point out to a living God because even gods are countless in religions. In pantheistic worldview gods are innumerable. Anything and anyone can be a God. in fact, you and I can also reach the state of Godhood according to some major religions. And that is why we have so many godmen in our land today. Sadly, religions of today thrive in money, politics and corruption. How do we find a true historical God who claimed to give life, refuge and shelter in Him? Unless we find a God, who is not limited to stories but have a history of Him being risen from the dead, we cannot depend on him/her for help.

Let us seek help from a living God, than merely hiding behind makeshift walls. The problem is that the walls we raise to protect us can became a barrier to the kind of transformation that we truly and deeply desire. We can only be safe in the presence of a living God. History records the resurrection of Jesus. This undeniable fact was attempted to be suppressed over the ages but the transformation stories of many lives is still powerful to give us hope. We can fully open ourselves to this God. Whatever is in our hearts and minds is perfectly safe to open up in the light of God’s loving presence. Whatever is broken can be restored in this light, whatever is soiled can be cleansed in this light and whatever is bent can be made straight in this light. Would you like to take shelter in Him?

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Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is 'deceptive' of them all?

 

The queen in Snow White's story was asking the wrong question to the mirror and it isn't a surprise she was getting the wrong answer each time. If she had asked the question posed in the title of this blog, she would have got the answer she was longing for all the time, 'It is you my queen'. The world is not very different today. Everywhere or every person we meet is deceptive, that suffocate us with their depravity and leave us gasping for breath.

Entities of all kind like media and governments have become a trap to the society. Information is no more about truth but more about what stimulates or manipulates people's mind. In the process of making profit out of viewership or subscribers the safety and well-being of the people are trampled. If you are a pedophile or a serial womanizer enjoying porn, you are guaranteed with better anonymity and safety of personal information in the dark web than those of us who just have social media account as a leisurely getaway.

A recent article on Facebook whistleblower (Please refer to the news article at the end of this blog) was an eye opener and confirmation of my fears that what I hear or see is never true. It's all about profit at the cost of societal and individual destruction. They feed on our strong human emotions like love and hate. Sadly, negative the emotional outburst towards an issue, greater are the crowds thronging to the posts. We endanger our children by allowing them to use these sites, that thrive on bullying, body shaming and instigating them to the point of taking their lives.

Now if this was a topic of debate, the point of contention would be who is fueling who? Is it that as people we have become deceptive or have we embraced deception because of the constant bombardment from all quarters? If we are honest, deception is a heart matter. Whether we are deceptive people or have embraced deception it's because we have failed to be within the moral framework of God. We live in our own debauchery. The Bible says, 'Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one! We need to also know that the God of all creation who formed us, ".. knows deceitful men; He sees wickedness also. Will He not then consider it?".

The world desperately needs a thorough cleansing of the heart and it can be done through repentance and submission to the only true and living God, Jesus Christ. He gave His life willingly so that we may live a life of abundance now and for eternity. Once Jesus lives in our hearts, we are transformed human beings. He should be the mirror of our hearts and only His approval matters or should matter.

 

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Reference:

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/five-things-revealed-facebook-fb-whistleblower-should-worry-you-156098

The Facebook Whistleblower

Dissatisfaction Quotient!

 

Defining needs and wants are important in order to understand people's dissatisfaction at any given point in their lives. We notice people confuse their needs with their wants. Maslow's theory of Hierarchy of needs addresses this with clarity. It comprises a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. These are categorized in three broad areas as basic needs, psychological needs and fulfillment needs. Under basic needs we look for food, water, warmth and rest, security and safety; under psychological needs, the need for intimate relationship, friends, prestige and feeling of accomplishment take over and; finally, under fulfilment needs, people find there is a need to achieve his/her full potential and to engage in creative activities based on what one wishes.

If we intently notice, the needs in all the three categories are a continual means to satisfy our appetite only on a temporary basis whether it be physical, emotional or psychological. Therefore, the two broad truths are 1: that we are temporary and finite and 2: identifying and pursuing the permanent and eternal alone can mitigate our dissatisfactions. We are all continually trying to spend more time, loads of money and maximum energy in fulfilling our temporary needs hoping to be satisfied permanently. In all of these we fail to attend to the need of our soul because of which all of our activities, pursuits and experiences still leave a vacuum in our hearts, giving us a sense of loneliness.

The need of the soul is to find the Creator and Savior. This does not mean following the religion of the majority, or the religion of our family or what impresses us. We need to find a God whose credential and the Lordship is not conditioned on the survival of religion but on truth. When we keep our temple, i.e. our hearts, clean for the Holy God to live in it, that's when we reach a point of complete contentment. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”. Today, people misconstrue God to be in temple visits, altar worships, offering incenses and flowers to the images and statues. However, Jesus' emphasis was only on purity of heart. He demands are not religious buildings or images but acceptance of Him by faith to enjoy true peace, long-lasting satisfaction and hope of eternity.  In true sense when our Soul meets the Savior, it finds rest and is fully satisfied.

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Why Lie?

 

The biggest challenge today is to find truthful people. Acquaintances or strangers we meet in our daily walk of life do not guarantee us truth. It doesn’t matter if the person has a saintly appearance or displays ethical values or is involved in humanitarian work, yet we cannot take the person at face value and believe all that he/she has said is truth alone. The level of deception in which a man operates irrespective of his/her identity is huge.

In one of the books in the Bible a sharp question is raised and it says, “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?” . To a larger extent people portray their good side for selfish ends. John Ortberg in one of his book states, “we are driven by two primary motivations. One, we want to receive selfish gain. We want to avoid pain. We want it so much that we are willing to lie or cheat or deceive for it. We want what we want, and we are willing to cheat to get it. Two, we want to be able to look in the mirror and think well of ourselves. That means we all want to view ourselves as basically good, honest honorable people, two motivations are in conflict with each other.”

Liespotting by Pamela Meyer is one of the top 20 most popular Ted Talks in Youtube. She claims, that on any given day we are lied to from 10 to 200 times. Sometimes these are the empty words the heart does not accompany the lips; we have been deceived. We wish people would simply tell us the truth. People are no more worried about self-image and self-worth. From the matter of small things to big things, people tend to twist a story with a pinch of lie and present it. Speaking lies is the matter of the heart, and the more one tries to cheat others by speaking lies it not only hurts oneself but also God. Jesus emphasized in almost all His teachings and discourses that evil proceeds from the heart of man and defiles a person.

The religious rituals one observes from any religious standpoint cannot forgive and clean a person and help the person to lead a guilt free life. It may help to smother the guilt for some time but it would resurface with an uglier face next time. We need a Savior to live a guilt free life. Every lie and deception we practice is a sin that needs to be forgiven for our life to be transformed. To live a clean life, you need a holy God to indwell your heart. Jesus is in the business of transforming lives. 

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Are Your choices letting you down?

 

We make choices every day that are sometimes insignificant with no effects or those that affect us and others. God’s greatest gift to man is the freedom to make choices, but right choices taking His moral framework into consideration. He did not create us as programmed robots but blessed us all with a freewill. However, true to our sinful nature we misuse this divine privilege in every sphere of life. No one can deny the fact that decisions, whether right or wrong, were made with full awareness. Our conscience always alerts us. The heart is the indicator for moral values. The Bible says, “ ..the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their conscience confirms this.”.

During childhood our choices were dictated by our parents and in adulthood our choices became solely ours because of our independence. We believed our choices will never put us down. In the new age with independence achieved at a very early age due to economic stability, youth believe they are wiser and better decision makers than their parents. They make choices while dangerously overlooking any parameters of moral standards. If the purpose of our life is solely Self, we will soon end up hurting ourselves due to selfish choices.

It hurts, when bad choices are made and we end up bearing the effects of those choices. Everything in our life is a result of a choice we once made. If we want desirable results then we need to make moral choices. We need to follow the moral giver, who is God, the basis on which we receive a moral standard. In other words, we need to allow God to indwell in our heart because the living God is happy to reside there. This will have a profound influence in all the choices we make and impact us to lead a quality life. This defines the ultimate success we are all longing for. It's not just about making a living. All make their living anyway. A God of love and a Savior who can forgive our sins and lead us to the path of abundant life expects us to make decisions trusting Him and making Him the Lord of our lives. He helps us find purpose of our existence. Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and life in abundance”.

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Living Zombies!

 

Our youth are in real danger, I mean in grave danger of being unfruitful and barren. To understand my lamentation, I urge you to read the article given at the end of this article. The world today has dictated its conditions and deceived youth into believing that there is nothing more important in life than hard work and acquiring wealth. Everyone seems to have the Midas touch (Refer note below). However, youth seem to be waking up to the reality that they are becoming more like Tantalus (Refer note below).

Today, governments are paying youth to build their family encouraging them to have children. Countries are having abandoned houses in villages with no legal heirs to claim or care for them. It's a glaring reality that the concept of simple family life was long lost in generations much earlier. For example, Japan's third of its population is above 60 years, while its youth make up only a fifth. The need for money and material status has replaced the very fruit of our existence - to be fruitful and replenish the Earth.

The Bible says, "Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.". Children spend their entire life studying hard to get into prestigious colleges and carve out an envious career for themselves but at the end they fail to realise that they forgotten the basics of life, i.e., to build families. Do we even realise why we were even created? Why should God provide us with all the amazing human faculties? Is it to live like zombies and to write off our souls to slog it out for a mere human business venture? Where have we all gone wrong in our rationalization?

If you have been totally misled, allow me to realign the thought process before we hurtle headlong towards disaster. Our primary duty is to know the true living God and have a meaningful relationship with Him and secondary is to build a Godly family that carries the very same legacy of living in the fear of God and having a meaningful relationship with Him. Even King Solomon who was the wealthiest and wisest king who ever lived on Earth came to this final conclusion, "...The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you." If we have to take King Solomon's advice seriously, it's good to ask ourselves, will our Heavenly Creator ever would want us to live like slaves having unfruitfulness and barrenness in life? God's aim for our life is to be fruitful and multiply. What God had on mind when He meant fruitful was not earning money and increasing material possessions, "But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.".

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References:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/28/economy/china-japan-korea-youth-intl-dst-hnk/index.html

https://youtu.be/l8wWoQ3_F00

The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch.

Tantalus is a figure from Greek mythology who was the rich but wicked king of Sipylus was made to stand in a pool of water but never able to drink from it and quench his insatiable thirst as it drains whenever he bends down to drink. As an added frustration, he was positioned below a tree but can never quite grasp the succulent fruit that hangs from its boughs.