Exploring tomorrow's skill to stay safe!

 

Today's age has got this skewed assumption that they are lagging, outdated and lost. People are therefore in constant rush to be updated ensuring their safety and security in life. Since we are in the information age, gaining knowledge, constant effort to find meaning and achieving satisfaction index has become the primary goal of every person.

If you conclude this is life, then it's meaningless indeed. Concept of God can become baseless too. The Bible says, human beings are so uniquely created and made different than all the created things. Do you realise we are unlike animals who just survive to kill, eat and act based on their instincts? Sadly, this is how we as humans have also ended up operating, where selfishness, greed and deception are ruling human hearts in all quarters.

The constant rise and fall of economy, job loss, sickness or some unexpected crisis that saps all our savings have become common challenges. It was there all the time. However, you have survived and made it till now. You need to acknowledge it's not because of your own talents and capacity to make money that is sustaining you. World bank says, 60 million people are at risk of extreme poverty by coronavirus. Many never once thought they would lose their job nor expected their businesses to crumble. They have faced tremendous loss. Some have even faced fatal end despite of their richness. But on the other hand, we still see the poor surviving irrespective of their deplorable state of life.

You need to realise that human brokenness is due to moral failure and sins drag us into the dumps. Don't worry! By restoring your relationship with the Savior God, our life is restored irrespective of all losses and failures. Though your life on earth is limited, it's not meaningless because God is meaningful.  He has already made everything in favorable to all of us provided we develop a relationship with the creator. Jesus says in Bible, "I have come that you may have life and life in abundance". Your survival isn't guaranteed because you are smart, but for the simple reason that you are His creation. Therefore, you are already blessed with God's Providence and supervision in your life.

With each passing day skill and knowledge acquired is becoming irrelevant and needs to be updated constantly. But still we never learn a good lesson to find what is more important than the tangibles. You need to connect with God the creator, not the god you invented. I guarantee you, you will never be disappointed. 

You may find the link in Twitter to know more about God's plan in your life.

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True Freedom!

 

India was privileged to celebrate its 74th Independence Day on 15th August, 2020. It is always a joyous moment for citizens of a country to commemorate the freedom of their nation. Every country has a designated day to celebrate its country's independence. The citizens owe their gratitude to many, especially the freedom fighters who contributed to the freedom of the country. There are so many stories around independence, stories of people's sacrifices for their independence, which are indeed emotional.

No doubt our country is enjoying the freedom to live in our own terms and also ensuring to keep our nation from any infiltration's. But have you noticed that the tyranny now is not just from the outside, but also from the inside? We are forced to fight against so many odds in our country. There are people who spread the air of hatred in the name of religion, caste, creed, gender discrimination and status. So many Dalits are fighting for their survival because they are manipulated by the higher caste people. It is a sad but hard truth. We are the recipients of the evil of caste system which resulted from religion? Who would free our nation from such hate?

There is another area of hatred spilled in our country in the name of religion. Just to give you a little fact on the hate crime against religion, do you know hate crimes against Christians in India have risen by an alarming 40.87%? In spite of the nation-wide lock down the report records 293 cases of hate crimes against Christians including 5 rapes and 6 murders. A number of Churches have been burned down and many are languishing in jail without even a FIR.

Well, I am not intending to overwhelm you by all these facts, but this is the truth. I had an opportunity to work in tribal belts in different parts of country, worked amongst commercial sexual workers, but I tell you we have so much to fight against the discrimination, which is also used by some politicians to divide innocent citizens. Time to bring harmony and restore the love of brotherhood. Do you think it is possible?

The whole Bible is a story of love. Jesus demonstrated His love and emphasized to love one another irrespective of who they were in His time. Jesus reached out to the most unclean person, the leper, the outcast and downtrodden people. He left a legacy for us to follow His footsteps. True freedom is to be able to love irrespective of who the person is and reach out to them in need. Jesus kept emphasizing to love one another as we love ourselves. You can make a commitment to follow the God of love and contribute love and harmony in this country.

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Who Am I?

I know, I have flicked the title of Jackie Chan's 1998 movie, but it best describes today gender orientation battle. On June 16, 2020, The US Supreme Court ruled protecting LGBT rights in the work place. This gives the LGBT to fight for recognition with their employers. But the employers have a greater headache - deciding which bathroom to allot for them - male or female. Employers my sympathies.

What on earth is transpiring in our minds when we have confusion whether we are male or female. The Bible says, "But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female." Now we all can agree regardless of religion this is the simple truth. Even the animal world has accepted this whole heartedly and obeys its creator by following this pattern. It's because our Heavenly Creator has given us the right of choice, we human beings have complicated ourselves in the name of relative moral reasoning and pleasure. We have come to a point where some of us are raising our children to be gender neutral.

I wonder what we achieve by changing our gender that which we can't achieve by being the gender we were born. Helen DeGeneres, the talk show host is gay who is so generous to her guests in her show, but off late news reports claimed that she is mean to all her staff. Now if changing your gender can make you a better person, I am all for it but unfortunately it doesn't change you as a person. 

People have started pushing their children to decide on their own, in some cases force to decide to become the opposite gender. Dear friends, we are in danger of incurring the wrath of of our Heavenly Creator, ".... the Lord , your Redeemer who formed you from the womb,....". Instead let us acknowledge to God as it says in the Bible "Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.".

God was so careful and intense in forming us in our mother's womb and intended to create us male and female with a purpose. What makes us decide we know better than Him? Let us recognise it is our rebellion in its ugliest form. It's not about being homophobic. We can't live a lie. If we can't fulfill our purpose as the gender we are born, we can be doubly sure we won't be able to by changing our identity either. If you are a parent, I plead that you pray over your children that your generation will grow learning the truth and glorify the Heavenly Maker through the legacy you leave by fulfilling His purpose, being the gender they are called to be.

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Precious Possession

Recently, it's all over the news how a famous actor who recently committed suicide in India was cheated of all his life savings by his girlfriend. It's brings immense emotions for us to ponder how one could betray someone who totally trusted that person. It's all the more surprising that an intelligent man as the actor is claimed to be, can fall for such a scam. That's love my friends!

It's unwise to totally trust people because the Bible clearly says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?". The Heavenly Father when He created us created us with a vacuum which can be filled only with His love. We have utterly missed the mark by loving everyone and everything else other than our Heavenly Father and we pay the penalty by pain or sometimes death.

God intends us to live a vibrant and love - filled life. Though we missed the mark our Heavenly Father once again gave us the chance to find the true love and purpose in Christ who demonstrated his ultimate love for us. The Bible puts it this way, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.".

We need to come to terms with the fact that a man/woman can only love us so much. There are limitations and conditions to that love. At times there are even ulterior motives. But God’s love is everlasting. What that means? He loves us regardless of our moods, our brokenness, our ungratefulness and our sinful life. His love abounds in our mess - more the mess, more the love. Only He understands your everyday battles of life. Remember God made you. He didn't create you to abandon or forsake you. Christ love for you is unwavering and guaranteed. Lean on Him for pure genuine love. You will never be disappointed. More so you will be absolutely protected by Him, for the Bible says, “....—for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.". You are His precious possession. Rest in that fact.

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Disappointed being good?

In the world of varied cultures, multiple religion, diverse ethnicities, we have established our own creed, logic and philosophies as to how one can become good. Even an ordinary person on this planet thinks he knows a way to become good. I wish every human being on earth contemplates on becoming good and takes all effort to be a good human being. Sadly, human goodness fails to be good in its true sense. The ultimate breakdown of human failure in becoming good is resulting in undesirable consequences today. Yet, it is important that we strive to unleash the goodness in us in order to heal one another and heal our land from this deadly pandemic outside, and the infection of sin inside us.

To my observation the reason for not being able to sustain the goodness is because we are trying to attach a reward to becoming good. The problem is one expects everything to go well with them when they strive and become good. This thought process is false and not guaranteed. Even the basic premise of religion says, that if you try hard to be good, things will go well for you. It's is a flawed philosophy. If you read the Bible, you will notice that Jesus lived a perfect life, yet He suffered. He suffered during the rule of Pontius Pilate which is historically recorded. It is recorded that after Pilate carefully examined Jesus remarked, “.. I found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse Him.”. (Bible). And if you study the history of Jesus you will notice that He was the epitome of perfection and holiness.

You cannot always attach a reward to anything and everything. Everything cannot be reduced to a commodity though it seems that way. Just because things are not promising, do not abandon your aspiration to become or remain good. Another important factor to be considered is that our goodness has to be attached to God whose moral and ethical values are beyond human comprehension. All I am saying is that it is crucial to relate oneself to God not religion, because if the good in human being is marred, it is religion that needs to be blamed actually. Let me pose this question, who introduced caste system and branding God’s creation as untouchables? Is it not religion? Therefore, if you notice the way we categorize every individual is biased and based on the classification given by religion. 

God should be beyond these man-made scams of classifying people and dumping one another. Reach out to a Savior who exemplified ultimate goodness and complemented it with divine love. Do you know you replicate who you worship? Do not limit God to your imagination attaching reward and benefit to everything. Such a thing can make you happy temporarily and when you realize it's unrewarding, you abandon being good in the process. 

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Is fear Natural?

We are all in a journey moving forward. Survival is one of the components of life but not the ultimate goal. We are God’s unique creation privileged to be part of this beautiful universe and with human connection. We all face challenges and we do have ups and downs, but life carries on for each one of us in its own special way. One of the biggest challenges we all face is fear when we keep progressing especially. At times we notice things are falling apart and we have less control over it.

Fear is a universal experience. Even the smallest insect feels it. It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

Here comes the God factor, when naturally we are inclined towards God to address our fear, we use religions as a gateway to reach God for help. Let us understand, embarking on the spiritual journey is like getting into a very small boat and setting out on the ocean to search for unknown lands. With wholehearted practice comes inspiration, but sooner or later we will also encounter fear.

Alice Walker puts this beautifully, ‘Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.’.

We have always imagined God as a means to achieve our ambition, fulfill our wants, which most of the time turns out to be selfish ones, fill our money bags with cash, use it for our entertainment, use it to destroy lives, create human domination, use it to gain political strength and to intimidate one another. When things are slightly different from our expectations as we experience currently, battling with pandemic and catastrophe breaking upon us, we feel under powered.

Bible cautions us and at the same time assures us on abundant life. It says, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”. You have a fair chance to make a choice to put your trust on God and find balance and serenity in life.

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The Intimate Truth!

What is that in us that makes us want to believe in a lie? Is it our ignorance? Or our superficial life style? Or our selfishness? Yes, you heard it right - selfishness. Our believing in a lie could start off as ignorance but even after knowing the truth we still want to go with the lie because we have got comfortable with it or we want to be accepted by the majority.

God our Heavenly Creator made us for one simple reason, to have a relationship with Him. The catch here is once we have a relationship with God we have to mirror His character in our day to day life. This is the most inconvenient part in this demand. So as humans best do, we have taken the short cut to having various religious rituals. Here starts our selfishness. Because we want to carry on with our agendas and not follow God's commands, we have created rituals which are a lie. Let's be honest! Do you really think if we perform some ritual we can become pure with having zero intimacy with God. We have come to believe the lie that by being ritualistic we are intimate with God. The means has replaced the destination. That's a big "NO" my friends.

God says in the Bible, "I am the way, the truth and the life." God our creator made life simple for us being the embodiment of truth but we find it so hard to believe our obeisance to God could be that simple by accepting Him as "The Truth." The very fact of the statement makes us stagger because we have believed in a lie for generations that an all powerful God demands complicated worship. We thought we could fool God by all our rituals but not surrendering our true self to Him. We prefer to give importance to rituals and continue with our depravity of mind but never wanting to surrender ourselves to God because deep down we know we need a major overhauling. 

My friends, let start being honest with God. For starters let's be truthful to our Heavenly Maker. All He expects from us is an intimate relationship with the one He created " fearfully and wonderfully". Begin to give importance to Him keeping your selfishness aside and change yourself if needed. Your rituals are not going to take you to heaven. It's your intimacy with Him.

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