Desperate Moves!

With every passing day, life is becoming increasingly complex filled with anxieties and apprehensions. The growing uncertainties has made people paranoid towards even regular activities, which were once their lifestyle. They have become disconcerted and disoriented. I am sure we all remember this phrase ‘the new normal’, which was so much talked about and promoted during the initial stages of Covid-19. We were educated to accept it and alter our response accordingly. However, the new normal is becoming a threat to human race. What humans plotted behind closed doors is now played globally, reaping the consequences, big time, increasing humanity's desperateness by the day.

There were few news articles from India, which I found disturbing and questionable. It posed a challenge to human sanity.  Desperation has led people to try out strange things and making bizarre comments with know-all attitude. One such comment made by the member of the parliament is “drink cow urine” to be protected from Covid-19. Yet another comment was made by another minister last year whose promotional video went viral, where he claimed that consuming a certain brand of thin lentil flakes (Papad) would help a person produce antibodies to fight the novel coronavirus. In another incident, it was seen people from a particular area thronging to visit a particular place to apply cow dung and cow urine to boost immunity, which doctors and scientists condemned vehemently.

Desperation, fear and religiosity are making people to try bizarre and crazy methods. We all want back our "old normal". Understandable, but does that give us the leverage to try crazy stuff? It is noticed that pursuit of God in crisis makes people turn living creatures into god and look for solutions in them. It is said in the Bible, “Claiming to be wise, they (people) became fools.”. Stop looking for God in shrines, holy places, in creation and in your creation of things. One of the fascinating passages stated in the Bible where it provides us the antidote to all problems, i.e. to have God-encounter. By this, I don't mean visiting the so called holy places. It says, “Pursue Peace with everyone and holiness-without it no one will see the Lord.”. To have God-encounter you need to be holy and pure in heart and not mere washing of your body. You will find many religious books suggesting ways, methods on how to perform rituals. But Jesus invites you and me to be cleansed of our sins and be holy and meet God. It is up to you to make a call to find the Savior in your life. You are not saved by your good works or through your desperate moves but by God- encounter.

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Reference:

Hindustan Times

The Hindu

The Times of India

The Emperor's New Life!

 

I had the opportunity to watch the fairy tale drama "The Emperor's New Clothes" this week and it brought back memories of the humor this tale brings. At the same time, it just blew my mind not only with the simplicity of the message but also with its relevance today, ringing a note of caution. For the unversed, let me just narrate the story in a crux. There is this emperor who is totally self-immersed and indulgent in dressing himself up in different clothes and increased his wardrobe at the expense of the taxpayers of his country. The story goes that two cons escaping from the police, come to his country, realise the Emperor's vain pursuit, come up with a plan to con him and run away with the money. The plan they devise is to play on the Emperor's vanity. They make the Emperor believe that they are top class tailors who are skilled at weaving an invisible material that's so exquisite and beautiful that "an incompetent worker or a man who is stupid cannot see". The story continues with all the Emperor's loyal subjects in fear of looking incompetent and stupid ended up being fooled along with the Emperor who spends a lot of his wealth for nothing. Later, the Emperor parades the town wearing nothing, all the while imagining he was wearing an exquisite dress. It takes a young child to call out his nakedness and realised his stupidity. As all fairy tales end with a positive note, he becomes a generous king, ruling with wisdom and truth.

What struck me most about this story was that it resembles our current life. We have become so vain in our pursuit for money, power, possessions and comfort, masking the deepest fear of looking incompetent and stupid before the world.  We were too blinded to realise our purposelessness and were also forcing our families to align to our purposelessness, eventually spoiling their lives too. Our love for money, and possessions power have played the perfect cons in our lives stripping our souls of dignity in leading a noble life and made fools out of us.

Lo behold! Along came Covid19 like the young child in the story, which called out the beggary of our depraved lives, laughing at our vain pursuits and making us stark naked of our purposeless life. The money, possessions and power we chased at mad speed are unable to protect us from the deadly pestilence or buy our breath in time of need or a get a decent burial/cremation.

Wake up my dear "Emperors and Empresses!". It's is God alone who can end this reality in a positive note. In these deadly times we need a living God. Thank Him for sending a pestilence to call out our naked, pathetic lives. Somehow, we played "god” and have pushed Him in the sidelines of our vain life so dangerously that He is in the verge of dissipating from our lives. The Bible says, “So turn to me and be helped—saved! — everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only.". Let's pursue the true and living God, who created us for a purpose by clothing us with truth, righteousness and dignity we all strive for. Jesus is the only one who could help us to end this real-life story in a positive note, for His glory! You may click the link to make a commitment to follow Him!

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Corona - A Real Pearl in a Fake World!

 

"Be thankful for the bad things in life. For they open your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention before." - unknown. Nothing could be far from this truth, which the pandemic has taught each one of us. It has showed that there are a lot of things that are totally beyond our control and we don't own anything in this world, which includes even our breath.

We chase, fight, struggle and lose our peace over things which are not going to accompany us once our journey on this Earth is over. Somewhere, over time whole mankind has been blinded by money and material possessions, having lost sight for the purpose for which we have been created in this world.

We are attracted by fake things - fake role models - like movie stars, fake sense of religiosity - like rites and rituals, fake sense of security - our money and possessions, fake sense of belonging - like social media, fake governance - like corrupt politicians, fake information - rigged media. The list is endless. But somehow these have infiltrated our existence and dictated us to live fake lives.

Thank God for COVID19, which has woken us all from slumber, drunk in our own deceptions. It has slapped reality on our face and shook us up to see what really matters - celebrating precious life and knowing the importance of God in our life. It has made us realise that we cannot play games with God and twist His arm to design our lives the way we want it.

We as mankind have failed God miserably. The Bible says, "Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.".  We have made a fool of God with our actions and have mocked Him time and again prioritizing riches which the Bible says, "... For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight".

Friends, it's important we surrender to a living God. The Bible says, "God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.". If each of us are alive today, reading this article, it's because He hasn't treated us as our sins deserve.

Today, make a resolution not to be consumed by the things that once deceived you and blinded you to the fact that you need a living God in your life. A God who can hear your cries in your deepest torments and bottles up your precious tears not letting one drop fall in vain. Would you like to know Him? Surrender, ask Jesus Christ to come into your life and repent of your sins. Say to Him, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.”

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The biggest challenge- Insensitivity to the core!

 

Amidst the unrelenting pandemic the  news of the arrival of a new strain of virus that's 15 times more virulent is unnerving.  To make matters worse, humans have become harmful with scamsters lurking and prowling to hunt the poor and hapless. Money over human lives has become a grave concern for the nation as a whole. The recent news stated, “as people look for oxygen and medicines, scammers use payment apps and WhatsApp to steal money from them.”. (Source: India Today). People are using any means possible to loot and make the best of the situation. Law and order has become an equal priority along with people dying on roads and hospital hallways.

Cruelty and apathy reign, fueled by political ignominy. The Bible tells us, “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.”. When those who are in power hold on to corruption, the people, rather the followers walk with heads held high in confidence to loot and ravage people. The Bible further adds in this line, “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.”.

In one of the states in India, the government protects its cows more than people with oximeters and masks but records among the highest in human casualties in the country (Source: Tribune India). State of depravity has crossed all limits with value and esteem for people totally disregarded.

To conclude, I want to remind that the creation story of mankind as recorded in the Bible says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”. Humans are the supreme creation of God but how we value still remains a matter of concern. Do not forget, each of you are God's Masterpiece and you will always be in the highest order of His creation. Your commitment to acknowledge Him and follow Him gives hope to live a life of abundance and safety. Jesus promises, "I will never leave you and forsake you.".

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References:

India Today news

Tribune news

Dying is easy, but living isn't!

We are bombarded daily with news of death and medical emergencies. It has become a challenge to save lives, globally. People state various reasons for the death of Corona like deficiency of vaccines, medicine shortage, lack of oxygen, ICU facilities, proper treatment, the list is endless. The point is death seems more easy than being alive in these tumultuous times.

I am compelled to think why would God refrain from His wrath and not punish the human race who clothe themselves with corruption to survive at the cost of other’s lives even in this critical time period. Cheating, political chaos, cruelty and defiance are in dancing frenzy. Needless to say, even religions with so-called holy places are becoming hot spots for death.

Just imagine the chaos if every religion starts celebrating a holy place that belongs to their god, promotes it and make people converge from all over. They turn out to be disaster spots followed by unnecessary deaths during this time. By making one place holy does that mean God disowns other places?

Let us not forget, each day around the globe, a little more than one hundred and fifty thousand people are dying out of common causes and it has increased multifold by the pandemic. Death is inevitable but death is not permanent. I want to give hope that there is life after death. Jesus who died on the cross according to prophecies foretold based thousands of years ago made an incredible impact in history and human life. This is the reason the deity of Christ stands completely distinct. He made a claim which is recorded in one of the books in the Bible called John which was written between A.D 85-90. He said, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God….I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am you may be also.”.

Any history of the major religions depends on the credibility of the source book and the test it stands in terms of content, authenticity, compatibility and absolutely non-contradictory. The Bible passes all tests and still stands number one best seller in the world. Therefore, the claims of Jesus stands true because He is only one who was resurrected after death and promised life after death. You have hope, dear friends. Trust on Him and find forgiveness from all your sins through prayer. He will make you clean and holy. Life becomes meaningful even after death. God will definitely protect you from all odds when you follow Him honestly and ardently.

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