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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