The Attractive Package of Free Privileges!

 

Life is wrongly defined as acquiring possessions, being rich, having limitless pleasure, holding power and so on. This has skewed our philosophies to the point of “do what makes you happy”, “find all the pleasures that satisfies your heart”, “if something channelizes money it’s ok to benefit out of it”. Every privilege is considered as a coincidence and a pleasant surprise.

The Bible talks about three things which the world constantly suggests. “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”. These are ever demanding and consuming to the point of stripping and robbing our dignity. The craving for worldly things starts at a very young age. Youth of today have exposure to adult information leading them to be sucked into the world of evil. Any benefit that comes for them free is a luxury brand. Most of us are victims because someone had an opportunity for doing wrong offered freely. That which the Bible calls as sin is never considered dirty or an abomination. It’s wrapped in an attractive package and once its opened, the person becomes a slave to it forever.

Most of the privileges and unexpected surprises turned  out to be a fishing hook that has completely entrapped them as prisoners.  Such people are struggling to free themselves only to realize that it has taken deep roots, and they are in their way to complete destruction.  In today’s world, visual stimulation through smart phones have converted lust into action. One of the authors of the Bible says, “we too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we are by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!”. 

God’s grace is available until one is willing to confess all the wrongdoings to the resurrected Savior Christ Jesus and find complete freedom. Your religious rituals are not going to save you because its purpose is money and power. However, it is weak to deliver you from addictions or bondages. Beware of free privileges that come along your way. There are thousands of ways evil is ready to deceive and entrap you. Your only hope to deliverance is looking to the savior to find hope, deliverance and abundant life, which Jesus has offered freely to all.

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Mastering our performances!

Meeting expectations of others in our life is a generic feature. We are expected to live up to the expectations of our friends, peer groups, society, workplace environment, which goes further to religious places too. Marion Woodman beautifully says, “Our parents expected a certain performance from us, and we tried to live up to their expectations. But when this happens, children learn to perform rather than be who they are, and the soul goes into hiding.”. Certain behavior and etiquettes are formed during the nurturing process but not necessarily it can impact the character. This can happen only with a change of heart without the need for disciplining or grooming. 

People behave and perform based on their environment to the point of mastering their performances in situations. Sadly, this does not help the longing heart or the soul rather it harms them. One's best performance in life does not necessarily fill the void one feels. Jesus became the enemy of the religious leaders of His time because He called them out on their performances. Their fakeness was evident in all their discourses of the laws. They were boasting in their knowledge and adherence to 613 laws of Torah derived from the Old Testament but failed miserably in the matter of mercy and kindness.

The religious leaders were hard hearted deep within that Jesus’ gentleness, grace, mercy, compassion, and kindness became a threat to them. Jesus Christ was not performing to the religious system and culture of that time. He was the true Messiah who healed the blind man by birth, lepers, and a paralytic man suffering for 38 years. He acted out His true self towards these people. Jesus spoke about compassion and mercy by summing up all the laws in these two greatest commandments i.e. love the lord with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and love the neighbor as oneself. Jesus never prescribed a set of duties to follow and be identified under a religious banner. He was addressing the issues of the heart. He said in one of His discourses ‘blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God.’. Your fake behavior or performance in the form of duties, rituals and obligations will not help you reach God. We worship God by making an image of God in different forms according to our imaginations and skill. God is not where you assign Him to be to keep Him under your control. The Bible says, He is spirit and whoever worships him should worship Him in spirit and in truth. The spirit of God is promised to abide in us and transform us. Stop wasting your time performing, come to the Savior and be transformed. You will be no more restless and lost. Remember, you are loved by God.  

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Freedom from self!

India just celebrated its 78^th Independence Day. Freedom is the most valuable gift people can receive. There were freedom fighters, martyrs who ushered in the era of freedom and soldiers who did carry on the baton by keeping our borders safe. We are obliged to be grateful and thankful for all their sacrifices. Collective freedom is existent but individual freedom is still a challenge. True freedom is not when the country and their fellowmen adhere to the laws of the country due to the fear of punishment, but ruled by his/her inner conscience, respect for God and love for one another. 

Today, countries are divided by power, racial tension, caste system, the rich and the poor gap, gender discrimination, religious system etc. Crime against women, children, elders, the money heist, financial scams, religious dramas that we are hearing everyday are bone chilling. Inner demons of everyone have kept him/her captive. The depravity and cruelty of each crime makes one think, is it even possible for someone to be so evil so sinful? We all fail to understand the existence of sin in each of us. Sin is immune to one’s religious upbringings, education or environment. Sin entices an individual to unleash all his/her potential to do harm and drags him/her to the point of death. The Bible says, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”.  

One of the Apostles in the Bible says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…”.  It’s not our religious rituals that helps us be a sane person. It is the presence of God in our hearts that makes the difference. We keep God out there in religious shrines and make Him a stranger to our existence. We make Him a dependent beggar by occasionally throwing offerings and doing some good works in a haphazard manner. 

The Bible states, ‘for you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”’.This is only possible when one can repent from all sin and surrender his/her life to Jesus who forgives man from all sin. You can unlock your life by repenting and confessing your failures to Christ Jesus and ask for His help. The Bible further says, “Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. Those who are born again because of what God has done will not keep on sinning. God's very nature remains in them. They can't go on sinning.”.  This is brilliant and assuring. It is all about Jesus who is not like any of us or any of the so-called gods who lived in human history. He is the resurrected savior the hope for all of us.  You can choose to know him more.  

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The Greatest Solution Provider!

Suffering demands answers. We feel it’s unfair to experience the pain or crisis we are going through. Unfortunately, we overlook the fact that we live in a dark world, filled with wrongdoings known as sin. Difficulties, hurts and disappointments are the different blotches left in our life’s canvas. “Desire” alone is not the culprit as our religious philosophy dictates. It’s our moral failures that add fuel to the fire, worsening our situation. We try all humanly efforts to control the intensity of the crisis. 

In a crisis or suffering, money takes the center stand as some of us believe it is the gateway to solve all of life’s problems. We are driven to acquire it at all costs, by all means, and maintain wealthy connections. In times of sickness, we believe in visiting religious shrines expecting a supernatural intervention. In the pantheistic worldview, we use gods for our convenience, regardless of the fact whether we have gained god’s attention. Truth and answers are always found abandoned, under the rubble of cheap belief systems, superstitions, myths, and evil practices. Lies are thriving because its benefits from any means. Witchcraft, occult, and painful religious practices today appear as solution providers and fail midway. They come with a big price, but are unable to help or deliver a person.

Do we have a true answer? 2000 years ago, a man named Jesus appeared in human history, as a fulfilment of prophecies written thousands of years ago, as a solution provider. But no one is willing to accept His claim irrespective of all that He did, the marvelous lifestyle He led, and His resurrection is the gamechanger of all human problems. The twelve disciples who were with Jesus travelled years later to different parts of the globe. Their priority was not to promote Christianity as a religion, but to share Jesus as savior to the wretched conditions of human life and to have hope after death.

They echoed the message of Jesus who commanded people to repent from all sins and accept Him as a Savior and follow Him. All the disciples were prepared to be tortured to death for their faith in Christ and what they experienced in Him. And they were so kindhearted, that they risked their life to talk about the solution to problems of life and death. We fail to connect with the savior, instead we try to find all possibilities that look like a solution. When we have accepted His salvation in our hearts and have fellowship with Him, He turns our history to victory. He indwells our heart, transforms our perspective and helps us in time of need.  Crisis no longer has power to hurt or break us. It just builds our hope strong in Him to find purpose and direction in life.

 

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You are Alive, It’s a Miracle

You are divinely protected every moment even though you may absolutely have no clue, provided you are from a medical profession. Did you know 0.01% of the potassium in your body is radioactive & that all the thorium & uranium in your body is radioactive? Did you know that if those radiation levels where any less would be detrimental to your health? One of the physicists Hugh Henry, worked for 26 years at Varian Medical Systems. In his article he explains why a low exposure to radiation enhances your health and extends your lifespan. 

The recent landslide in Wayanad, Kerala in India have plunged Kerala into mourning with the death toll now exceeding 344. Officials worry the number could climb higher, as more than 250 people remain missing. The catastrophe, destructions, loss of life in some form is continuously happening.

We live in a false sense of satisfaction that our good health, nutritious food and medical check-ups will increase our longevity. Not true! Our life can end at any moment, but it is by God’s mercy that we are protected miraculously, and we need to be grateful for that. The Bible states, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?... You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”. God has blessed us with all privileges, yet we mess up every day by creating our own new world.

The actual design of this universe was created not by an unknown, immoral god. Unfortunately, many have no clue about him. They refer to Him as “the god from above”, “the God who is everywhere”. But let me remind you, He is a God who created the Heaven and the Earth by His word and created man in His image. He was evident when He was incarnated on this earth and lived among people. The Book of John in the Bible states, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the father, full of grace and truth.”.

The world is not willing to accept Him because He addressed the problem of sin, death, and afterlife. His Birth, His holy life, His crucifixion and resurrection proved that He was not a mere man but a God who came to show the way to heaven. He is alive and indwells human heart if we are willing to give up our selfish sinful deeds and accept His love He demonstrated on the Cross. At any point of time, we have less than 1% chance of being alive and it is by His grace we are protected and extended. We enjoy the privilege of life and the privilege to live forever after death depending on our willingness to accept Him here on earth to live with Him in Heaven or face judgement and go to eternal damnation.

  

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Reference:

 

Joseph R. Dwyer and David M. Smith, “Deadly Rays from Clouds,” Scientific American (August 2012), 55–59.

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Dip your finger to cool my tongue!

 

There is a rich man and poor man’s story in the Bible where the rich man enjoys all the luxuries and comforts the world could provide and there was this Lazarus, a poor beggar covered in sores waiting at his gate longing to eat the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table. To cut the long story short the poor man goes to heaven and the rich man burns in hell. With parched throat he asks for a drop of water for which he was replied “…..,Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus (the poor man) received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”.

There are people in this world who want to live a comfortable life here at all costs and continue to lead a comfortable life even after death by going to heaven. I have known people who have expressed their desire for the best place in heaven at the same time leading such a depraved life here on earth. At the end of the day, it is the comfort that is their goal but never the right standing with God. We prefer to be as wicked as we could here on earth and then somehow feel the need to bribe our way to heaven by following religious rites and rituals with our hearts as hardened as ever with sin.

We live in a world where two of every ten toddlers are starving with no food for 24 hours or one whole day and at the same time the rich and famous splurging millions of dollars for pre-wedding festivities. The interesting point is that both these statistics are from the same country. Our richness is not an excuse to do as we please with no moral obligations. God gives us resources and wealth to be good stewards. And what does it mean to be good stewards. It is wisely spending our money on issues that would break the heart of God. Think with me here, would God prefer you to gift your wealth in filling the stomach of toddlers and infants or spend obscene amounts of money for someone to perform and dance on stage? As we get rich, we lose our sense of purpose, and we think that wealth management and acquisitions are our ultimate purpose and flaunt it unashamedly when opportunity presents itself.

The Bible  has some brilliant advice on the rich and poor and I prefer to quote some of them:

·       “the rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord made them both.”.

·    “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.”.

·       “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.”.

·     “A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.”

The crux is when we are more inclined to helping the poor from their misery, we are a blessing and honor God by doing so. If we willingly turn a blind eye, we are a cursed lot and wicked to the core. The God of the Bible has not minced His words and revealed His mind when it came to this issue. He sent His only Son Jesus to save us from our wretchedness so that our eyes will open from the blindness of our wealth and debauchery. The Heavenly Father loved us so much that He allowed His son Jesus Christ to suffer on the cross so that we repent of our sins and know His heart. His desire is to reign in our hearts and spend our lives with a heavenly purpose and that includes reaching out to the poor and releasing them of the poverty cycle. Invite this Living Water (Jesus Christ) in your heart so that you will live eternity with quenched throat. He is leaving us with the choice of whether we want to live eternity with quenched throat or parched throat. Choose wisely!

 

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References:

 https://thewire.in/health/india-has-the-highest-rate-of-zero-food-children-after-guinea-and-mali-reveals-study

 

Why is my hope sinking?

In general, we blame our life circumstances as cause for our hopelessness, ignorant of the fact that our hope is in being connected with God for our life matters. Moreover, if our understanding of God is distorted, then things fall apart even more. John Piper in one of his articles says, “Hoping in God does not come naturally for sinners like us. We must preach it to ourselves, and preach diligently and forcefully, or we will give way to a downcast and distressed spirit.”. The Bible gives the exact reason for why our hope is sinking. In the book of Ephesians in the Bible it is stated, “At that time you were without Christ...without hope and without god in the world.”. This is the primary reason why people struggle with hopelessness while desperately waiting for something. Did you hear in the sentence given, without god and without Christ? Yes, you heard it right. We live in a time where if you had to count all the gods worshipped in this planet earth, it will be in millions or may be more.  We don’t have a dearth for gods. Our gods are success, money, career, sex and so on. There are too many religious buildings and shrines. In a sea of gods, our sinful heart is lost plagued by restlessness and hopelessness. 

Don Wilton puts his thoughts beautifully “we have become an increasingly idolatrous people. God cannot be pleased. We worship so many of our blessings instead of simply thanking God and enjoying them. We worship sports, celebrities, clothes, money, church buildings (religious shrines), politics, positions, abilities, and capabilities. Idolatry is the worship of anything and anyone other than God.”. 

Sometimes we hope for things in which there is no hope. A car can’t bring true hope; it can bring a feeling of contentment and exhilaration, but not real hope. Financial stability can’t bring true hope; it can bring security and a level of ease, but not true hope. A spouse can’t bring true hope because a spouse’s abilities are limited to what he or she can control. True hope comes from the One who created hope: God. True hope comes by knowing a true God and trusting Christ even when circumstances are difficult. Only Christ claimed to be God and proved to be God by His incarnation. He came to this world fully human and yet without sin. The purpose of His coming is to make a provision through His sacrifice on the cross for our sinful condition so that whoever believes on Him will live now and forever. No defined formula but He proved this through His resurrection from the grave; therefore, we have hope on Him. 

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”  So how do you know if you have put your hope in God or on something else? By looking at what you have tied yourself to, in life, as your primary security source. How do you react when the rope gets cut to that source? That reveals how much hope you have placed in that versus in God. Can you find a Bible to know who Christ is in your life? As stated earlier in this blog, when you start knowing Christ and accepting Him in your life, then your perspective and your life changes forever and you see how God is guiding you and navigating you through the winding roads of life. The Bible states, “There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”.

 

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