Active Religion, Absent relationship!

According to some estimates, there are over 4,000 religions, faiths groups, and denominations that exist around the world today. Researchers and academicians generally categorize the world's religions into five major groups: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. This blog is not intended to portray religion based on rank, but it intends to bring a paradigm shift to a relationship with the one true God. Today, religions are gauged based on the number of followers, number of shrines present in a particular state or the country and the general country census. More often than not, in the name of religion hatred, antagonism, and war are promoted dividing people.

Any religion that cannot facilitate love, brotherhood, harmony, and oneness should be re-examined to know where lies the gap. You can check my blog titled, “Are you a Protector? where I have mentioned that we are trying to protect God and religion. I keep reiterating that people’s sentiments to shrines and places exceeds actual belief in God. Religion demands a few hours in a particular day of the week, for that matter every religion has special auspicious days and people comply by visiting the religious buildings on that day as part of their duty. But Jesus’ teaching only focuses on relationship with God. Jesus from the Bible deconstructed the idea of religious building.  Jesus in one of His conversations said this, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”.

Jesus’ teaching was not just about good moral values, but a true depiction of His character. His sermon and preaching always referred to the kingdom of God. His famous sayings were this, “repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”. He did not refer to an afterlife with new incarnation but being with Him in eternity. I refer and claim His saying for the fact that He is the only person in entire human history who rose from the dead. This is the game changer for me personally. People’s lives are transformed including dangerous criminals. They find hope in Him probably more so on His teaching.

During my conversation with people with an honest quest to find the truth, I have requested them to read the Bible at least once with an open mind to know the truth. Let me echo with Josh McDowell who said this, “there are non-Christian sources of information about Jesus, such as Suetonius, Celsus and Thallus, but Tacitus and Josephus alone suffice to establish Jesus’ historicity.”.  You may browse or refer to their testimonials regarding their claims about Him. Today, in many parts of our Country, Christians schools and hospitals who do noble service are condemned of converting. The act of love and charity are used by fanatics to blame them. I believe what Christians are attempting are to follow the great commandments said by Jesus, i.e., to love God with all our soul, heart, mind, and strength and love our neighbour as oneself. Another fascinating truth from the Bible says, “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the spirit of God lives in you?”  Keep your heart clean for the living God to live in you and transform you.

 

 

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Reference:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/visualizing-religions-worldwide/#:~:text=According%20to%20some%20estimates%2C%20there,Buddhism%2C%20Hinduism%2C%20and%20Judaism.

Is self-reliant sufficient?

 

We live in a time where we are impacted by situations either good or bad, like political atmosphere, environmental changes, social conditions, financial turmoil, inflation, religious worldviews and job pressure. Sometimes it is just impossible to hold on to one place or position. The external pressure is too high to resist the change.

The skills and knowledge that made a difference once, have become outdated now. People are struggling to cope up with high demands in career, jobs, and industries that are part of one’s day to day lives. Career developments, career counselling, social agencies and job agencies claim to have solutions for people’s insecurities. In pursuit of finding a way to be compatible, self-reliant and self-sufficient, we think we can survive.

We hope our best efforts brings success and eventually be on our own. We assume all the factors including God should support our idea of life and enable us to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. King Solomon one of the writers in the book in the Bible states, “I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skilful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, be being in the right place at the right time.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11 NLT Bible). We would agree that the above fact is a reality. The self-reliant and self-sufficient person is not always the one who is successful.

Talking about right place in this context just means that one remains in the center of the will of the creator. What we usually tend to assume when referred to god is our religious identity and the religious building. I am referring to knowing the one true God in a pluralistic worldview. People tend to assume what they believe is right and can lead them to the creator.

Finding truth has become a matter of preference for many. This person, God incarnated, Jesus claimed, “I am the way the truth and the life...” And this was proved by His miraculous virgin birth, the life He led, His death and resurrection. Trusting on Him changes the course of our lives. Sometimes it is a blessing to be able to rely on the savior for the insignificant details of our life. He holds our future, though it may look like we are self-reliant and self-sufficient with our wealth, position and confident we can find anything for ourselves. But this is far from the truth. If you are forced to depend on God and trust Him in your today and tomorrows, then it is surely a blessing.

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You will never go unnoticed!

It is innate human desire to be noticed, counted, looked upon all the time. And to this purpose people struggle and strive to keep themselves in the spotlight. People fear that if they do not constantly stay at top leadership or always succeed, they will soon be forgotten, lose their value and be worthless. This becomes our driving factor to define ourselves with accomplishments, successes and improving our social status. Unfortunately, religions of our age have also contributed to division and hierarchies that spotlight some and ignores or demeans the others. We find our position in our homes, society and in the place we identify ourselves the most. In this pursuit, we inadvertently end up disturbing the balance of peace and harmony.

If there is one thing this article wants to reassure you is that you can never go unnoticed by the sovereign God who has created you. If this truth seems absurd, it could be because of your clouded idea of God today, which is hiding Him from you. Due to contradictory and conflicting stories we have about God we seem to become more superficial today. Most of the stories of God have become the source of man’s creation and imagination which is why there are so many different versions of the same story and some need censoring as they can never be taught or introduced to children. Jesus is the only story not only of the fact that His existence is authenticated by history and archaeologists, but also that He rose from dead and promised to prepare a place for us and return to take us where He is. That is the core message of the Bible. However, we tend to discard truth if we do not wish to belong to it, even if its 100% genuine.

When Jesus’s story is truth then let me reiterate this, you can never be forgotten, and you will never go unnoticed. You don’t have to try finding God. He has found you already. He knows your condition and brokenness and is always available if you would like to call Him for help. I can relate with this truth in my life because for some years I was available for people who were in need, who were broken and who needed comfort. I never had the guarantees of the world, especially a regular income. But my needs were never unnoticed by my God and my creator. When we are in deep sorrow and feel lonely, our God is closer to us. As Jennifer Rothschild states this, “No matter what your situation is, God sees your tears. He hears your cry. He is mindful of what scares you, stresses you, and saddens you. He not only notices your tears, He knows why they’re falling—and He always responds with concern and care.”. Stop looking up to gods created by mere human beings. You may continue believing but in the end you will be disappointed. Jesus’ resurrection is the problem solver for the entire world. Would you like to try Him?

 

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When it is only about me!

 

Courtesy Barbara

When everything is only about self then life’s perspective changes. We become demi-god, eventually wanting people to serve us and oblige to all our expectations and absurd goals. People are casually walking over each other in the name of professionalism and bureaucracy.  Collaboration and trust are thrown carelessly in conversations to convince people to oblige to one's wants and selfish goals, hurting people, both in corporate and personal level. These people have a name and they are called Narcissist.

When it is all about self slowly and steadily, they become a Narcissist. If you carefully observe their traits, they are hypocrites pretending to have moral standards, feelings, and conscience but, they possess none of these. They will lie, cheat, insult, abuse, and disrespect you, but in return will expect fidelity, respect, time, and energy spent only on them. They can do whatever they want, however they want, but expect you to remain loyal and perfect all the time. They don't have to hear from you that they have hurt you. They already are aware they hurt you and just don't care.

Psychology can categorize them as narcissist, but Bible calls it sin. Sin trains you to think it is all about you and you ought to love yourself more than anybody in this world, because at the end of the day your survival matters.  Jesus contradicted this view as it was not about Him at all. The more the enemies humiliated Him and persecuted Him; the more He spoke about loving His enemies and praying for them. You will find in most of the religious scriptures that there are stories of Gods waging war, building personal kingdom, creating their own space and even stories of lust and sex are recorded. The so-called holy structures as historical monuments of India are carved with obscene images because it was all about somebody's personal preferences layered under religious category for acceptance. 

Understanding the greatest sacrifice Jesus made on the cross of calvary which demonstrated His love, the writer states this in the Bible, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.".  You may wonder is this even possible, but with learning about Christ your transformation becomes evident. Jesus called people to learn from Him. He said this, "...learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Do you see an assurance. Visiting a Church may not have an impact on your character or life. You need to talk to Him in your simple language (in prayer) and invite Him to your heart. When you give your life completely to Him. He indwells and takes control of every area of life. Your nature changes and you become like Him. The Saviour of the world demonstrated His greatest power by laying His life for the whole. We humans need His love to replenish us in full so that we make a better family, society, and a community.

 

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