Where Human strength ends, God’s supernatural grace begins.

Grace is the ability given by God to do what we cannot do, and be what we cannot be with our own limited strengths. We fail to admit most of the time that as human beings we are limited in our strength and in our capacity. Does this mean God has forced limitation in mankind in order to force you to worship him and show his praise? Definitely not!

Why should He, if he is God? In fact, we need supernatural grace at all times. But sadly, we use God like the airman having a parachute but wishes that he will never use it. If you think you can do everything on your own that you have wisdom and the skills, then you will never receive the supernatural grace. It only comes when you humble yourself and recognize that you can’t move mountains that rise before you.

When we act without the grace of God, we are operating under natural laws, trying to do things by relying on your own strengths, and consequently doing evil. Looking for God’s strength is not confined to rites and rituals. It depends on seeking the true God and asking Him to transform us and lead us.

If we recall our school days prayers and one of it was “Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done..”. As it continues it has lines seeking for His help by articulating, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil”. A deliberate seeking of God for divine help to keep us from doing wrong and helping us to become “human” in true sense. You need God not to survive but to become a good human being and then build a relationship with God. May God help you to become a person who will be congenial in his relationship and stay blessed.

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Human Significance!

We are all aware of the fact that every thing we come in contact with, serves a purpose. Newer things are created and designed each day probably to increase the efficiency and benefit us to the maximum. The same is true when it comes to human lives. We train ourselves in a particular skill and competency to perform a specific job that may help us in our survival. But then, what are we known for as a person?

It is a known fact that the Lion, the king of the jungle is known for never feeding on a dead carcass. It is only known to hunt a live animal and tear the flesh with its fangs. The eagle too is known for soaring 10, 000 feet above sea level. And the eagle (especially bald eagle) is known to mate and remain with that same partner all its life.

What are you known for? What are your convictions? What are your beliefs? What are you known for that will determine your impact in life? And that has a larger impact on your belief system on God.

This example is stated by Paul Enenche, MD, which makes so much of sense. “When you are flying in an airplane and you look down from the window you will see the river crooked. Do you know why? It is because it wants to take the path of least resistance. So, it gives this way and that; always shifting direction. If you are not a person of conviction, your life will be crooked.”. Your conviction is primarily sourced from a God who adds value to mankind and impacts harmony and peace and not confusion at all cost.

A man with a strong conviction makes up his mind on what to do, and once he is convinced that it is the right thing to do, he does not change his mind about it, even if he gets hurt doing it. The Bible poses a question in a passage this way, “Who shall dwell with God? “He that walketh uprightly, and practices righteousness, speaking the truth from sincere heart, who keeps his word whatever the cost.”.

May we be known for living a just life, impact love, influence peace and promote brotherhood.

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Dealing with emotions!

Your mood is not your life. Your mood is a feeling. It can be temporary and fleeting. It can be birthed by mind picture, a conversation, a person or a momentary fault. Conversation activates memories and memories birth feelings. Emotions are supposed to be the indicators of reality not fabricated or framework of reality.

Greeks translate the human personality as Intellect, Emotions and Will. Emotions is key in coming to God, Feeling and fact has to go together. You cannot worship God without Emotions. The Bible cites a passage on emotional connectivity about Love. It goes like this, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”.

It is very deceiving to confuse your present mood swing with the actual quality of life. Sometimes a temporary fleeting moment may look to be a very good thing creating an escape from the drudgery, distress or disastrous circumstances in marriage or life, but may actually be in utter contradiction to the expectations and standards of God. These moments are glimpses of possibility but may not be the actual reality itself. If your life is miserable and you experience a fleeting moment of joy and happiness, examine it and find out the possibilities to make it better, provided the options are confined to a moral and ethical boundary.

Let me exhort you to approach God who is able to transform you and deliver true peace and joy beyond your feeling level. The Bible says, ‘Come all those who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.’. We all need rest, peace and joy at all times and it can really make sense if that comes without violating the rights of others and God.

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Self confidence or God confidence

Self-confidence comes with the definition of being self-assured in our own personal judgment, ability, power and qualities. Sure, self-confidence is something that every individual needs it, and it allows us to interact within communities. But sometimes, we can be relying on our self too much. I challenge you to look at your daily thoughts and emotions. When you find yourself getting frustrated, look at why you are feeling that way. Is it because you are thinking only about yourself?

If we recollect, during the childhood phase we depend on our parents for almost everything and learn to comply and adjust to the family framework. Of course, the sense of belongingness is high in this phase. But if we remember, there were times as children we stretched a bit more for our personal privileges and self-gratification.

Well! How do we take this, if our children want to use us the same way? Don’t we feel violated and sabotaged? Let us not forget God has nothing to owe us, it is the other way around. And most importantly let us always be reminded that God has tied Purpose to our life and that comes with boundaries too.

The way of this world is to discover our own strength.  Self-confident people are praised as role models for others to follow.  Yes, God has created us with unique gifts, talents, abilities, interests and desires.  We have a uniqueness the world needs.  We need to discover our uniqueness and live boldly in who we are.

However, our true uniqueness as a created being can only be truly discovered in communion with our Creator. Our God-given strength can only be revealed in relationship with God, as we surrender our self to Him the Savior, our shift from depending on our own strength to His; our own wisdom to His; our own resources to His.

Therefore, let us not dare to challenge God? We will be disappointed. Let us cultivate confidence in God not merely for our personal advantage but because He is almighty and the creator of the world. He wishes to give that which will bring peace and abundant joy to us.

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Doing wrong is not wrong, but getting caught is- What's your view?

What do you think is the difference between a person behind bars and the one who lives free? It can just mean (most of the time) that the one who is free hasn't got caught yet. Someone defined ‘experience’ this way, ‘the act of doing things in a way that he or she does not get caught’. If you notice most of the hardcore criminals manage to walk free using power, money, religion, politics and so on.

Another interesting thing to observe is that some of these things may be perpetrated by the government itself to promote divide and rule policy. Still it cannot be justified. “Errors do not cease to be errors simply because they’re ratified into law.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri.

Today most of us hold on to this philosophy, ‘Doing wrong is not wrong, but getting caught is wrong’. Leo Tolstoy puts it this way, “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”. The power of majority is another thing that is used for justifying the evil and atrocities. In the words of St Augustine, “Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”.

So, how do we differentiate what is wrong and right? Definitely not on the philosophy that says, it is just different so therefore it can’t be wrong. You cannot celebrate on a thing which is different when it is evil because one day it will turn around to bite you for sure. Such philosophies are impressive only if personally we and our children are not affected. But that does sounds selfish, doesn’t it?

In Bible it says ‘the truth shall set you free’ and it helps us to reach to Him to experience the freedom from evil and things that are wrong. This is only possible when you experience His grace and mercy to live a life that can add value and blessing to the family and to the community. Today, some religions give rights to people to make war and obliterate life. How do we convince ourselves to justify such wrongs? The Supreme power is love, and therefore the Bible keeps talking about love all through its scriptures. If you hold on to the love of God, you would automatically let hold of the grasp to do or support things that are wrong. 

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Greater Love!

If you were in pain, which friend (or friends) would you want by your side? Why?

Which friend would you definitely not want around when you’re in pain? Why?

I thought this is so important and talks about the importance of having someone whom we can trust upon and count upon. We live in a world where every other thing we do confines and falls under a business transactions bracket, which includes our relationships too. We want ROI (Return of investment) for all that we do. There is always a selfish hidden unsaid agenda that keeps running in our minds.

Shiv Khera in his book “You can win” states that there are these two types of friendship.

1.    Friendship of pleasure 2. Friendship of convenience.

In Friendship of Pleasure we choose friends who can engage with us for fun, having a good time together, sometimes regularly or sometimes at fixed intervals. Again, this is conditioned on how each person is willing to spend the money. But when we notice the other persons spending capacity is going bad we don’t want to keep him/her close anymore.

The second type, ‘Friendship of convenience’ is conditioned to these three factors, ‘Proximity’: We want friends who are convenient to socialize, even for that matter our helping them in time of crisis is sometimes affected by proximity. And then the second category is ‘Usefulness’. We do not want to lose friends who are resourceful and well-connected. As long as we are benefited, we have a great attitude about them but the moment same friends are not much useful we don’t want them anymore. We have all the demands and we want our friends to comply and still keep helping us in spite of all our changing moods. Sadly, this applies to majority. Basically, selfishness and self-centeredness rule our heart. The third category is ‘Common enemy’. We come to know a particular friend, though you don’t like him/her but the same person does not like the person you don't like, we tend to patch up and become friends.

How true it is, isn’t it? The Bible always talks about the message of love. Love your God with all heart and love others as yourself. And it defines friend by these words, ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend’. Jesus demonstrated his love and expects that we demonstrate too for each other and spread love and harmony to build a remarkable community.

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Is "More" the "New" life mantra?

We are in this mad urge of getting rich. We are oblivious to the fact that we are already rich the way God has created us. The truth is we are rich no matter where we stand on the economy scale. That’s not the case everywhere. And it certainly hasn’t been the case throughout history. What’s more, there are households of three, four, or more people where there is a single earning member. And with that one person’s earnings, the entire family can amass sufficient money for food and shelter for the entire family throughout the month. In many cultures, that’s inconceivable and for most people it's a luxury. In another side of the world majority of the family members, which sometimes includes children, are also forced to work, yet lack basic needs.

When you’re hungry and thirsty, "more" simply means food and water. That’s certainly understandable. But once you are to fed and hydrated, more graduates to basic safety and security. Let me emphasize “There are some things money can’t buy.” It can neither buy the priceless things in life nor can it buy hope. There’s no amount of money that can guarantee you hope in any or all circumstances.

 And that tells us that God has designed the creation model this way so that we all understand that materials and commodities cannot replace the needs of our heart. The wisest king Solomon goes on to paint a rather grim picture of what can happen when our hope migrates. In fact, the writer concludes that he would rather not be rich so as to avoid this threat. He says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord God?’.

Money in almost all the countries are losing its value and worth. Banks are no more a safe option.  How are we going to face a situation like this? It's a clarion call for us to humbly acknowledge that God who is the creator does not become powerless because of the mess we humans have created. We can still reach out to Him and be sheltered under His divine protection. God in the Bible states, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.".

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