Alone in the crowd!

  

As the news of the Pandemic poses new threats each day, panic, doubt and fear seem to surge in every human heart. The recent developments of double mutation of the virus raises serious concerns over the credibility of the vaccines and medication. However, people are still willing to be treated with hope. We thank God for the encouraging news of so many people being cured and their lives restored. Kudos to the Medical science and Health department who are constantly trying various approaches and inventing different medicines to treat people.

What is more serious and life threatening than the virus is the considerable number of people around the world who are feeling lonely. The sense of loneliness is troubling them and disorienting people. People are alone in the crowd. Due to constant threat to their jobs people assume they have become dispensable. Suicidal tendency is increasing among people of all age groups. Constant fear of tomorrow and the burden for the present is daunting. Human identity is dictated based on the employment and wealth status.

Another cause for people to feel the sense of loneliness is when they compare with others who are financially independent, leading them to emotional misery. People are becoming insecure by the day and it is becoming insidious. Nothing can kill contentment and feed insecurity like comparison. But remember: every weakness of ours, God knows in greater detail than we could ever imagine. Even if we can’t get our act together, our identity is secure and completely intact in Him because in Christ, who we are matters more than anything we can or cannot do.

Even religions are not helping people in this crisis. And the problem for that is people are so dependent on religion to make them happy. Apparently, now in this crisis religion is having less impact in our life. C. S Lewis puts this brilliantly, “I don’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity”. The Bible gives us some serious authentic information about the end times, which I recommend that we read. It says, “There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places, all these are beginning of sorrows.”. God wants people to draw near to Him and find salvation, hope and strength in Him. As humans have an expiry date, the earth also has. Let's stop taking the place of God and reach out to the Savior for the forgiveness of sins and find hope of eternity. We may be alone in the crowd but if we trust in Christ the Savior, He is right there beside us to help and comfort us. Our commitment to God will change the entire situation whether physical or spiritual.

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Abuse of the Universe - A Pandemic Perspective!

  

We are all familiar with the slogan, “Make this world a better place to live in!”. We would agree that it takes not only an individual but also the society, to make this happen. Googling on this topic, we would find many sites giving tips on making the Earth a better and a safer place for human existence. Various areas of study are covered like ecological, environmental, social and philanthropical to make this dream a reality. However, what's missing is the heart issue, which is key to why one should make earth a better place and why we need each other. People selfishly bother only about them and their family, totally ignoring the larger society.

‘Abuse’ usually is referred in the context of one becoming a victim of verbal, physical, domestic, emotional or sexual. But I feel all the scamsters, terrorists, murderers, rapists who flee a particular country squandering of its wealth or taking lives of people find refuge in another country and use it as their hideout. To me this is also a form of abuse. They are clever enough to convince the nation of refuge to protect them and overlook their crime. I would like to call this as "Abuse of the Universe".

Being witness to all of this, would you agree with me that Pandemic is God's judgement on us humans? They may have tricked governments and laws and gone scot free but can they escape the Pandemic. The virus can enter their hideout and kill them. Now, that's the power of God.

God of the Bible addresses the problem of sin which has infected the entire human race and defiled it. But we humans live unconcerned of our guilt as long it doesn't affect our security. The selfishness of humans is incomprehensible. Vaccination for Corona may be found, but what about the human debauchery and human wretchedness? Is there a way out? Even in this pandemic there are people who look for opportunities to rob, loot and cheat people. There is no vaccination to clean our heart from the sin problem. The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death.".

Religious rituals can never transform someone to be a better person. We need a God who changes our heart and life, transforming us to love and respect others. Almighty God set an amazing example of love by making the biggest sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for mankind, so that we can receive forgiveness for our sins and receive salvation. Forgiveness from all sins happens not in a place or in doing something to achieve it, but in a person, who died for the sins of entire mankind. Once we receive forgiveness for our sins, through His power we will be filled in our hearts with love and respect for people, which overflows even to the universe God created for us. Human transformation is one of the greatest miracles that can happen to someone.  A pure heart and a clean soul can fight any negative vibes and join hands with the fellow citizens to spread God's love and impact the universe, positively.

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Resurrection special!

 

It is that time of the year people commemorate the holy week around the world, including Good Friday and Easter we celebrate today. Let me make this point, sometimes the greatest events in history, either becomes an occasion to mourn or celebrate with heavy feast and booze, as seen in many cultures and religions. The true essence of the “why’s” are lost most of the time. By the way, people think how does it even matter to ponder over the “why’s”, as long as they have a reason for fun and be in high spirits. In many cases facts are muddled up with made-up stories, and become a reason for celebration and exercising power, and a commodity for money transaction.

Good Friday and Easter are the events in the world calendar which overturns all so-called religious incidents in human history, upside down. Let me categorize the whole thing into two categories. The first category is there are innumerable heroes, gurus and so-called gods in all religion who were born. They lived like one of us, some married, practiced polygamy, had children and after one point, gained prominence and followers during their days on earth. Some crowned themselves as saints, made enormous wealth, waged wars, and their stories came to an end after their death. As a remembrance, their followers later erected temples, monuments and shrines to worship them. The second category is the mythologies with imaginary stories that have been existing for years. It is there, probably to emphasize a moral theme. But ultimately most of them end up in celebration. Some are celebrated violently, some exuberantly just trying to fulfill the rites and rituals. As we try to understand these histories, we notice there is always a story of birth and then gained prominence during the course of time and thereafter came death. With that, things came to an abrupt end. Later, their fans and followers took it forward from there.

But none in human history matched the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Every single event concerning Him was prophesized thousands of years ago, recorded in the Bible, authenticated in world history with absolutely zero contradiction. We read one of the fascinating events where Jesus predicted His own death and His resurrection from the grave after three days. Jesus makes a remarkable statement, which came true and has been recorded in the Bible like this, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice voluntarily. For I have authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again..”. The story, where Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for the sins of entire human race and rose again after three days, is what is celebrated today as Easter.

Today, human beings are trying to find salvation by their own means and still have no peace and contentment. One of the famous verses in the Bible narrates the central message of the Bible saying, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”. Belief in Jesus Christ transforms your life and gives you the assurance of salvation and eternity. Let me quote this event of Good Friday and Easter from the Bible which validates the central message and core to Christianity, “that he was buried that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures appeared to Cephas then to the twelve, then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time most of them are still alive.”.

Jesus is alive and that makes Easter special and therefore we have a reason to celebrate. You and I have a hope in this life and for the life to come.

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Whirlpool of disappointments!

 

We lose control over our life and regret our mistakes as things fall apart. At times, we are confident of doing everything right, yet spiral out of control battling frustrations and disappointments. Is this how life was meant to be? Not really. It's interesting to note that some people with meagre income and simple living standard exhibit absolute satisfaction and less anxiety than wealthy people. The wise man, Solomon in his book in the Bible states, “better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasures and trouble with it.”.

This takes us to the root question, how satisfied are we with our lives? If we are not satisfied with our life,  we start working on impulse, fulfill selfish wants, resulting in "out of control" lifestyle. Our satisfaction starts depending on external factors, which embody unfair parameters. So even if we lead a fair life we still reap adverse consequences because we live in a world with selfish expectations.

For many of us, the pace of life has accelerated to an unadaptable frenzy. The dilemma whether we have done enough or there is so much more to achieve, constantly hangs like a dagger above our neck, leaving us feeling like failures. Obviously, there are many reasons as to why many things we do looks disappointing and having less control.

Our level of control in a situation depends upon our internal state of mind and heart. When we are not at peace in our mind and heart, we end up with deeper levels of frustrations and disappointments, because of our inability to define satisfaction. Monetary benefits or rewards are not designed to give human being a perfect satisfaction. It is our longing for a true God, a Savior and finding satisfaction and peace through that God, that will make all the difference. In modern days, people have made even gods a commodity. Finding a true Savior will alter your life mechanism. Confess your sins and your failures to Him and find perfect peace and deliverance from any addictions and bondages. Jesus promised absolute peace that the world can never give. Through His resurrection we have hope to live a life of perfect peace and zero disappointment.

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Inhumanity!

 

Why do you think people respond to evil and cruelty that they witness happening around them so differently? Have you wondered about it? When it happens to them, their response is different than when it happens to anyone beside them. Let me underscore, we all have inbuilt moral characters that differentiates us from animals. God has created us with a moral framework; the understanding of right and wrong and then with emotions which is the ability to love people and feel sympathetic when someone is in pain and suffering.

But then most of the people we deal with today, it could be in the family, friends or in the workplace seem to be so different and apathetic. And quite often we raise this question why people are so inhuman? Human beings are becoming more and more selfish, unapologetic and cruel these days. Lots of philanthropic organization are striving to model the act of kindness which captures people, and You also find videos of individuals demonstrating the acts of kindness in public places which captivates our heart.

Have you come across this caption so often finds in so many places and as portrayal which reads “God is love?”  But then it just remains as caption only and has no impact on people. Do you notice from where this caption come from?  Well, you find it in the Bible where in one of the books it is written, “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”. So, we can surmise by saying the one who has the God of love speaks about love and becomes kind in all his/her act.

Any person devoid of God becomes a sophisticated animal. You cannot expect much from such people. Life revolves around them; they do not care to think about others at all.  I hear about stories in families too, where sibling rivalry and dumping each other with hatred and envy takes the front seat. Well I am not referring to sibling rivalry when they were kids but mostly when kids grow up and have families of their own, their priority and preferences change.

The act of love does not vary based on your preference. If you are a person impacted by this God who says God is love and you allow Him to transform you, then you become like Him. You become more and more kind, compassionate and approachable. You find a purpose in your living. Life is full of meaning when you accept the Savior and make a commitment to follow the God of love to spread the rays of happiness and love. You will find providence and divine guidance all your life.

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Lasting satisfaction!

 

Human beings are strongly emotional, extremely rational and highly intellectual but unfortunately, we use all of that to get only what we want and to meet our selfish desires. Instincts and feelings also play a part in this selfish endeavor. But the truth of the matter is, they leave us with emptiness in our hearts because by nature they are temporary. In this age of consumerism, everything is commodified, trivializing our joy and excitement, thereby, making our wants unappeasable.

C S Lewis calls this core desire “the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work.”. The “unappeasable want” is an every day experience for each of us in varied degrees. The sad part of human history is that we have learned to live and adjust to temporary happiness and satisfaction but hardly garner our emotions, intellect, instincts to desire true, noble and lasting joy that can bring about absolute contentment in human hearts.

Our happiness and joy were never meant to be commodities, which results in fragile relationships. For the pieces of the puzzle to fit perfectly in our lives we need to align our desires to know God. Not a God of imagination and fantasy but a God who is  alive and active in human lives. Randy Alcorn in his book "Heaven" puts these lines beautifully, “We may imagine we want a thousand different things, but God is the one we really long for. His presence brings satisfaction; his absence brings thirst and longing.”

Let us remove the religious framework from our minds as it will fail us at one point. Any religion for that matter is only a set of do’s and don’ts. We may satisfy our selfishness by complying to a set of rites and rituals. A relationship with a God that transforms lives and creates lasting contentment in human hearts is what really makes the difference. In the Bible, Jesus states, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”.  Your commitment to God impacts your longing.

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Happy Women's day!

 

Tomorrow the 8^th of March the world will be celebrating International Women’s day. Wishing you all a Happy International Women's Day in advance. I know it's amazing to be a woman whether married or unmarried, whether with children or without them, pursuing a high-profile career or dedicated in raising God-loving, respectful children. The world tries to put women in a box and suffocates them with its demands but time and again you have proved you are free spirited and no amount of domination is going to curtail the amazing amount of potential and talents your Heavenly Father has lavished upon you. You have shined and soared despite of your hurdles in life and bounced back from every setback when life threw a curve ball at you. Nothing now or later is ever going to change the fact that you are God's masterpiece and you will always be looked at by your Maker who the Bible says, "fearfully and wonderfully" made you. For Him you will always be a WOMAN - Wonderful, Outstanding, Marvelous, Adorable and Nice. Honor Him with all your, heart, mind, soul and body because He has great things planned to happen through you. Surrender your life to your creator and make only Him as master and center of your life. He is waiting to unleash His power through you, to transform your family, community, society and the world at large.

Allow me to express your worth in the following poem celebrating the fact that womanhood is hailed not just on March 8th of every year but every day of your lives:

Wonderful are your attributes that God has bestowed on women,

Kind, compassionate, loving and caring are the nature that adorns you;

But these are the very same virtues that turns out to be a bane,

Making women naive and vulnerable to human predators.

 

Outstanding are your iridescent shine wherever you are placed,

Don't hide behind the shadow of patriarchy,

Diminishing the gamut of potential your creator has lavished upon you;

Stand up for the dignity you deserve

And be a beacon for the generation you serve.

 

Marvelous is your strength in times of trouble,

Deftly bearing the weight of the burden in raising godly children,

To be responsible adults in a society so vile,

Turning their focus on the Heavenly Father

As their rock and refuge in a world uncertain.

 

Adorable is your passion for your fight for your counterparts,

Who are battered, bruised, looted and humiliated;

Your voice raised in #Metoo or similar movements,

Bringing hope and justice for the voiceless,

Ushering in happiness in a life forlorn.

 

Nice are your balancing acts like a trapeze artist,

Excelling in your family life and career,

Others have chosen to joyfully embrace motherhood and homemaker;

Whatever may be your calling don't forget to honor your Heavenly Creator

Who has called you "Woman" for such a time as this.

As conclusion let me remind you of what the Bible records in the creation story, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.". Culture may perpetuate patriarchal society, suppress women's potential but in the sight of God you are precious and full of worth. Uphold the dignity with which He created you and don't settle for anything less as you are God’s image bearers. May God bless you and protect you all.

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