Joy Stealers!

We all have our own share of challenges which we go through, the intensity may vary from person to person but no one can imagine a problem free life. Let me list out three reasons that has a potential to spoil our happiness.

Tomorrows Fear:  If you notice most of our energy is expended in thinking how our tomorrows will look like. The negatives flood in as fear surfaces which disturbs our socio emotional health. Do we realize tomorrow is not guaranteed? Life is limited and uncertain. You can calm the emotions of your heart by trusting God the one who has made us. The wealth and all the resources we possess cannot assure peace and eliminate fear. God makes provision for all. The Bible says, “do not be anxious about tomorrow.”. Well you may say it is easy to be quoted of such beautiful hope but practically it is impossible. Let me tell you there is no hope beside God and this Corona has taught us that strongly.

Present Burden: Generally, the mothers & housewives at homes will tell the challenges they face when it comes to managing things for the day. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. How often, for many the day starts with a burden over so many things to get accomplished. By the end of the day it can actually be draining. And the present burden sometimes changed to be a never-ending problem. Jesus made this strong claim, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”. Does it call to covert? Absolutely no! The problem is we put our religious belief in boxes and we assume we need to fall in some category of creed. God should mean relationship not proselytizing. Do we hear that? It is all about relationship that makes the difference.

Past Regrets: This is another area where many struggle because of the mistakes they have committed, guilt accumulated and live in depression and privation. For that matter, no one is perfect and we all end up committing mistakes. Our past guilt and sin problem cannot be addressed by external factors or visiting a shrine, though temporarily we may find some peace. It is a heart issue and a spiritual problem which may have to be dealt at an entirely different level. The Bible warns us that the wages of sin is death. We need to be freed from our guilt to live happily and peacefully. Would you consider looking unto a God who can forgive your sins and set you free from all your guilt?

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Is life exhausting you?

If you observe, most of the things that we do in our life is so repetitive and mundane. It becomes part of our existence. In fact, some regular activities lead people towards ‘Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’ (OCD). Now for some of you may wonder what is OCD? It is defined this way, “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which time people have recurring, unwanted thoughts for that matter even activities, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make them feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions). ... Many people have focused thoughts or repeated behaviors.”

Does what life gives us bring happiness or peace in our life? I asked my 14 years old daughter how would she distinguish happiness from peace? This is how she explained to me, Example: “If I have to play PUBG or ‘clash of clans’, in the beginning the interest level seems to be so high and I feel so happy at that moment, but then it forces me to play more and more to experience more happiness just to find that it is culminating to mental fatigue and excitements is also fading away. But peace is when there is calmness in my heart and without any material things,  I still have the joy in my heart.”.

It made lot of sense to me. Frankly speaking one who finds peace and joy even in his/her loneliness is the person who understands the true meaning of life. The external situations can always be daunting, challenging and threatening but if you have God in your life you have perfect peace. The Bible says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.”.

We just wish sometimes things are different, but soon the different activities can also become so boring and tire us. C. S. Lewis explains this: "Heaven understands hell and hell does not understand heaven.... to project ourselves into a wicked character, we have only to stop doing something and something we are already tired of doing; to project ourselves into a good one we have to do what we cannot and become what we are not.”.

"Jesus came to remind us that we are bound to the temporal subsist without life's blueprint. Though we continue to exist, we miss life for what it was meant to be. He wants us to see what it means to live through the lens of the eternal. That takes place when He makes our lives His home. There, He has promised to bless us." Ravi Zacharias.

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Daunting season!

We are in a season of successive catastrophes hitting planet earth. Starting with global pandemic, to extreme hunger, now to locust swarms and then we hear the earth’s magnetic field weakening which means it can cause malfunctions in satellites and spacecraft.

Evil is surpassing to an unimaginable height. Even as things are culminating, the Bible records there will be a time when the earth will struggle and groan to keep the equilibrium and stability. In one place it is said that ‘the powers of heavens (sky) will be shaken.”. In most cases human beings are responsible for the disaster and evil, yet the age old question remains,  if there is a good god why does he allow suffering?

Hillary, an undergraduate English major commented, “God allows terrible suffering in the world so, he might be either all-powerful but not good enough to end evil and suffering, or else he might be all-good but not powerful enough to end evil and suffering. Either way the all-good, all-powerful God of the Bible couldn’t exist.” Some find unjust suffering to be a philosophical problem, calling into question the very existence of God. For others it is an intensely personal issue. They don’t care about the abstract question of whether God exists or not —they refuse to trust or believe in any God who allows history and life to proceed as it is.

What explanation suffices in the time like this? Let me point out a story from the history. It is said as recorded in the Bible that there was a time when the Israelites were in the bondage under Egypt for 400 years. Finally, the Israelite's were led to freedom by Moses a man chosen by God to lead them to the promised land called Canaan in 13^th- 12th centuries BCE. The movie Ten commandments portrays a glimpse of history. It is said the people of Israel quickly forgot the great deed and rebelled involving themselves in all types of debauchery. The Bible records they were punished with natural disaster. “He gave crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.”.

Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life. Let’s call this the “moral improvement” view. Christianity teaches the very opposite. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, He comes to forgive and save us through His life and death in our place. God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who humbly admit their failures. God still loves us and is willing to forgive and restore things for us. We are the creation of the divine God.

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Natural laws vs Spiritual laws

As we continue to hope and trust things to get better, we battle with doubts and at times even be skeptical over God’s sovereignty. In the core of the heart we anguish why God is not doing something? Probably we want Him to reconcile with what we believe with what we see in front of us.

Let me elaborate on this, just as there are natural laws that governs the physical universe there are spiritual laws that governs the spiritual realm. The natural laws for example, the law of gravitation and so many other laws that we are familiar with are all confined and subjected to its principle of functioning. Have you wondered what the Spiritual laws are that binds the universe? One such law written in Bible is about the moral law i.e. sin, which says, “the wages of sin is death” and in another place it states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”.

We cannot work in an office where there are no goals to be reached, no outcome to be met and no milestones to be achieved. We cannot just exist without achieving the results. Similarly, our grave sins and selfishness has an impact too. And we are recipients of God’s wrath.

We are all guilty of sin. We are inherently selfish, both in small, subtle ways and in bold, dramatic ways. When we commit adultery or murder in our hearts, to God we are just as guilty as those who have committed such acts. At least, that’s what Jesus said. Mother Teresa so beautifully describes God's trust on mankind when she remarks, “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” We all in some way have tampered the trust and freedom given by God and used it for our selfish ends. Trust God and pray things to become better, at the same time do not let go of justice and righteousness.

Just because we don’t see God, I mean the real God who we cannot actually limit by our design, doesn’t mean He is powerless. Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King Jr. When it comes to faith, there is going to be waiting involved. You cannot just be bound by natural laws, and create your own spiritual laws and standards to suit your living. God is still God and is waiting to accept us and restore life in us.

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Hope - The need of the hour!

As the nation continues to combat with the pandemic, we are desperately waiting for the Government, science and health departments to soon come up with appropriate measures to keep this Pandemic from affecting lives and ensure protection. The fear of death has gripped every heart, however famous and powerful one might be. Let me reiterate, Coronavirus did not introduce death to this world, death already existed.

The Bible records God did not intend to create people and want them dead. It was the first man who disobeyed and tampered with the freedom of choice that resulted in sin and death being introduced. The Bible states, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned.”. Do you know that it is estimated approximately 150,000 people die each day across the globe?

No one is excluded, no one is spared of the risk. I emphasize this phrase quite often  “No one is completely free from the risk”, because it reminds us that we are all human, however divine we may try to pose ourselves. We don’t have control over death. Many rose over a period of time and claimed to have the answer to man’s problem, gained a big following, but were utter failures because they couldn’t guarantee their own immortality. After their death ‘Trusts’ were formed, faith was institutionalized, and sadly in many cases faith was also commercialized.

The great religious meetings which were conducted in the past has now switched to the virtual platform keeping hold of their followers, but no one has an answer to the problem. The best measures are still not a fool proof method. Let us understand we are not on the other side of the situation where we can guarantee things, but just predicting things to create a difference.

We definitely need divine intervention. We need God to be merciful unto us, forgive our grave sins, grant life and that too life in abundance. Since the Bible states, through one man many were made sinners and death was the result, it also states that through one-man's death on the cross we were made righteous and we find life.  There is hope in God and our lives do not merely end on this earth. Let us look unto God in humility and ask for His divine forgiveness and restoration.

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Who is our Savior?

We hear so many interpretations as to finding the cause and then the reasons why we aren't able to mitigate effectively and will it ever end? We all agree to a larger extent that we are ardently obeying and following the instructions by Government, health professionals, experts and now what? Any time in the history of pain and suffering when things are in grave danger, we think where is God? Since the Temple, Mosques and Churches remain shut. Being part of the social network I keep hearing some rough debates constantly being picked up trying to disapprove the existence of God and blame God per se, some picking the lapses of the Government and throwing sharp criticism over it, some condemning a particular country who they think is the cause for all problem. How does it matter to all of us is the question?

First time in history the whole world is battling together for survival. According to BBC, a total of 81% of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people have had their workplace fully or partly closed. Four out of five people's job is hit by pandemic. The outbreak is expected to wipe out 6.7% of working hours across the world during the second quarter of 2020. That is the equivalent of 195 million full-time workers losing their jobs.

It is time to look unto God whom we grieved with our wretchedness and most often tampered the freedom God has given to choose between right and wrong. Have you noticed when all things were working good and things were favorable we defined God, we defined religion, we defined who is big and who is small, we defined what is right and wrong, we defined moral law, we defined who the minorities should be, we defined who is entitled for privilege and who should serve us. Now when God had to bring things to a halt, our focus is turning on God to help us or we still think we can survive on our own?

Al Jazeera news reports that the global domestic violence have increased drastically and in India nearly one-third of women say they have experienced domestic violence. Misuse of power and role are at the peak unfortunately. And now with liquor shops opened in India people are flooding to get their share. The reaction though is ambiguous but for certain, cannot have a positive impact. Let me share some mixed comments published in twitter,

Let us understand because we are relationally intertwined, any breach of moral rules will adversely affect another. This may not be evident at the time, but the consequences will show up later. The hurt will compound with each small violation. God wants us to know Him and restore our relationship with Him. Can we ask God to have mercy on us? These are the words of Jesus in the Bible which says, “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”.  Dan Allender states “Crisis exists to remind us that we are fundamentally not in charge.”. God is in charge already. Can we set our ways right, perspectives right and restore our relationship with God and human beings with love?

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With the fragmented pieces of hope!

Times like this, when the catastrophe and challenges are extended with no clue of restoration, our hearts seem to give up on hope. Especially, the poor, the migrant labors and people living in slums are victims of hunger and deprived of basic necessities. Study says, more people are likely to die out of hunger than the Coronovirus per se if this is going to continue.

If you notice, people from all parts of the world especially the migrant laborers were stranded and left in utter despair without food and shelter. Thankfully, agencies like government, Non-governmental organizations and religious sects helped these poor people stranded with food, now and then. Since the lockdown came up so suddenly there are so many who are impoverished and walking back home to an extent of 800 to 1200 kms home. It is really pathetic! Governments from all parts of the world are making arrangements to help them return home.

Another side of the story is the war in most part of the world due to hatred, which was a perennial problem, has taken a temporary halt. Millions were dying including innocent children due to the hatred of mankind. But sadly, there are still cases in India where poor people in the name of caste and creed are secluded and not allowed to take water too from the well and not allowed to get anything from the shops. These discrimination are still a reality, clearly ignored by the media.

People question how to be hopeful in times like this when the dangers of being infected are continually bothering and many realities of hatred and seclusion are still prevalent but unaddressed. They are brought up merely for political reasons. Yes, dear friends, people are forced to deal with so many uncertainties. In the words of David Augsburger who says, “No one can live without hope.… It is hope that heals. Hope is the basic energy of civilization, of social existence, of individual life.”. 

There is one underlying reason why so many people near and far have lost hope: the group of people most responsible for offering hope to the world have failed to display it. Even if it is displayed sporadically it is exhibited based on color, caste and creed. The forces of evil want you to give up on hope so that it can lead you so far into a desert of despair that you’re left spiritually blind, deaf, and dumb. It is said in a Bible, “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his unfailing love”. 

Any challenges however serious it is cannot negate the existence of the creator, but only establishes the sovereign rule of God. He is at work restoring to the original form of love and to the purpose for which we are all created. We need forgiveness from our sins and from our rebellion from God our creator. Can we ask God to restore hope and be merciful to us?

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