The Trap of Moral Decline!

 

Technology, politics, education and materialism have all overpromised and underdelivered. These have only worsened the human conditions of anxiety, depression, restlessness, loneliness and suicidal thoughts. People strive to be wealthy, comfortable and in absolute control of their life. Satisfaction becomes relative and keeps pushing the boundary with every satiated desire. When the heart is restless it finds everything legitimate. In the process the person hurts himself and others.  The author of the book of Proverbs in the Bible, King Solomon states, ‘a wicked person desires evil; he has no consideration for his neighbor.’. 

The moral degradation in this modern era is unimaginable. Describing about the culmination of evil in human history, the Bible states, “evil people and imposters will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.”. It says, they will become bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived becomes part of lifestyle of many. We see people are becoming less human and alarmingly godless. Hannah Arendt puts this beautifully, “The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.”.

Those that go with the flow, accommodate whatever comes their way, giving in to their instincts with no moral standard. They end up faltering again and again. The Bible describes about such people, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”. If we read the verse carefully, it does not say accommodate evil due to ignorance, but it is due to the hardening of their hearts.

Howard Thurman states, “the real target of evil is to corrupt the spirit of man and to give his soul the contagion of inner disintegration.”. It is true that once the spirit of man is corrupted, the person goes from bad to worse. There is little hope for him to come to sanity. Man by nature inclines to do bad unless his heart is conscious and sensitive towards good and evil. This does not however come naturally or by any religious influence, because religion by design exists for its own purpose. We are all imperfect beings and will be facing judgement determining whether we will inherit heaven or hell eternally. But then, God has already made a provision for forgiveness of our sins and has perfected us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of calvary. The greatest joy one can derive is through the transformed heart and assurance in Him.  You can make a choice to follow Christ and ask for forgiveness from all the sins you have committed and be set free to be good and do good. No wonder Jesus always emphasized on a clean pure heart rather than an approved religious person. He makes all the difference in your faith life, and you can receive Him by faith. 

 

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Everything is a boat!

C S Lewis uses ship as an analogy to clarify the purpose of human being. He stated when a ship is on the high seas, it must answer three important questions. 

• First is how to keep from sinking which refers to ‘personal ethics.’ 
• Second is how to keep from bumping into other ships referring to the ‘social ethics.’ 
• Third, why the ship is out on the high seas in the first place which refers to the ‘essence of ethics.

How true! We all must ensure that regardless of being a ship or boat, it should stay afloat. This means we must take care to keep it in a sailing state and then the other two follow.

Everything that exist serves a particular purpose. If you carefully observe all the non-living things in your house serve a specific purpose. At any point it fails to serve the purpose it is discarded. How do we understand this in connection to life’s purpose? If non-living things can serve a specific purpose, then how much the purpose of God. We are all created for a purpose. The Bible states that we are God’s masterpiece because we are made in His image. 

Gunder Gunderson states this in plain poetical lines so profoundly referring life to a boat. 

“Everything's a boat.

We all know buying a boat is a big deal because boats take lots of upkeep

But everything's a boat.

Everything we buy takes storage, or attention, or security, or maintenance, or upgrades.

Seneca said the things we own, own us.

Everything's a boat.

May our first concern be our purity, not our publicity; our depth, not our reach; faithfulness, and never fame.” 

If you compare your life’s philosophy to a boat, then you would realise you have to be careful in what you choose because at the end it is going to take the space in the boat.  You may find the need of getting everything you see but it can risk the boat. The boat of many people is overloaded and in a verge of sinking, maybe some boats have sunk already due to, too many unnecessary things that has taken the space. How are you going to choose the right thing for you? 

Let us not forget that we are not just the body, but a soul too, that longs to connect with the GOD of heavens and the earth, the Savior who has the power to forgive the sins of the mankind and in whom we also have resurrection. Sadly, as we fill our boats with our own the gods - the god of money, possession, pleasure, power, fans, etc., none makes an impact on our soul and the way we ought to live. Like the writer who stated, ‘Everything is a Boat’, today we live in a society and culture where everything is a god or for that matter anytime someone can be made god. Truth most often is a missing element. 

I urge you to carefully choose the essentials that will help us survive well without sinking. Jesus stated, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” The component of soul is an integral and the important element imbibed in human body. What you choose from this materialistic world can make you helpless. You need a Savior, a God in whom you can find meaning in life and hope in eternal life. Jesus is the only way if you believe and accept Him as Savior to find forgiveness from sins, hope in this world and for eternity. Remember, Jesus is the only God who conquered death and was resurrected. This will change your entire course of life journey. Would you consider knowing Him more? 

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THE FOUR

Social Media – The Emotional Crutch of This World!

“To be heard” is a cry of every soul amidst frustration, disappointment and loneliness. To fill this dependency, social media has been converted to a crutch that the world is leaning upon. It helps us to express our emotions, find acceptance, get approvals to justify our beliefs and thoughts. This acceptance also fulfills our sense of greatness and provides a way of escaping reality. People fail to understand that hours spent on social media isolating oneself to escape reality is a false refuge. A book in the Bible called Proverbs states, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement.”

An apostle called Paul in the Bible states, “am I trying to win the approval of other people or of God?”. Life is not about how people respond, react and complement what you do. It is more than that as crisply put by John MacArthur, “Sin is what you do when you’re not satisfied with God.”. Allow me to illustrate an incident in the Bible which proves that social media existed 2000 years ago. The same Apostle Paul logically reasoned with the people of a city about the living God and was helping people to understand that gods made by hands cannot save them. A silversmith and craftsmen who crafted gods started a stir against Paul and his friends as they feared that if people believed in a living God, they would run out of business. There was a great commotion to get rid of Paul and his friends. The Bible states, “some were shouting one thing, and some another.’ It was an utter chaos very much like our present social media.

People are becoming extremely lonely, looking for something to gratify them. It is usually said, ‘the lonelier you are, the more addicted you’d be to social media.’.  You may feel this crutch is your companion to soothe you. But temporary gratification will not help you. This does not mean your career, friends, money or even religion can become your alternatives either. Unfortunately, these are also pursued for our own satisfaction and security. You need to find the truth that can fill the void in your soul. Your heart will find absolute peace when it knows the true God. It is Jesus who promised that peace to all of us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”. 

To receive this peace, you need forgiveness from all your sins. First you need to confess them and ask Jesus to transform you. This will change your sense of dependency on the world to a living God. He will be a solid rock on which you can stand rather than leaning on fragile crutches of this world. You may check on the link below and find an online Bible to start reading to know more about Him. 

 

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Leadership – An overkill of the concept today

 

Every institution, organization, religious establishment, profit & non-profit entity and individual allocate a considerable portion of their time, resources and efforts towards building a system of leadership qualities in their team members.  Positional leadership becomes primary for wielding authority. Greg Mckeon’s profound quote says this, “The 20^th century is full of “leaders” who made things unimaginably worse in their attempt to “make things better.”.  Nothing is more soul-destroying than leaders speaking nonsense. Mid-level and lower rank workers lament the incomprehensible gibberish spewed by their leaders in the form of expectations. Jargon filled statements aren’t just confusing -they’re constraining. Gibberish isn’t silly; it’s controlling. Vague words aren’t ineffective -they’re exhausting.  E .F Schumacher states, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”.

Leadership principle is dependent on you leading people by example and willing to be vulnerabe. There are thousands of authors and leaders who write and talk about leading people. Some leaders, borrow, mix and match ideas to influence but then to what extent is it creating an impact? Thomas Sowell in his observation states this, “Leading people into the blind alley of dependency and grievances may be counterproductive for them but it can produce votes, money, power, fame, and a sense of exaltation to others who portray themselves as friends of the downtrodden.”.

Most of the leaders, especially politicians bank on people’s dependency to impose their strength. Unfortunately, it ends up in oppression and manipulation. True leadership is “Servant-Leadership” which Jesus Christ taught. Contrary to our knowledge of leaderships as to win, conquer, walk over people, succeed and overthrow, He flipped the script and taught that true leadership is about serving, kindness, mercy and compassion. These attributes sum up a “Servant-Leader” 

While it may be argued that some of the current leaders already possess these attributes there are some hidden self-centered agendas connected with this façade. With Jesus who healed all sickness, from born blind, to born deaf and mute, lepers, paralytics for 38 years, raised dead people, was resurrected Himself after being crucified and lay in the tomb for 3 days, was speaking things that even His enemies was surprised, baffled and said, “Is He not a carpenter’s son?...So where does he get all these things?”.  He asked to show another cheek if someone strikes, go an extra mile when someone was in need, to love their enemies and bless them. Mathew a scholar records that through His ministry, He touched ‘all’ 175 towns and villages of Galilee. 200,000 people would either have met Jesus or have known someone who had. Not just with His sermon but received some benefits including the healing from their stubborn sickness and many people liberated from demon possession. 

With all His divine power, Jesus still explained that a leader should be a servant first. He demonstrated it by washing the feet of His 12 disciples who went across the world after witnessing His resurrection to talk about the forgiveness of sins and hope of eternity. If one takes the courage to learn about His claims, to believe and accept Him as the Savior, that person is transformed to be a new creation, not with any religious identity. This relationship with Him will change the course of your life. Would you like to know Him more? Check the link to learn more.

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L I S T E N BEING S I L E N T!

We are all aware that with the same letters are used to form the words ‘Listen’ and ‘Silent’. You cannot listen unless you are silent. We are bombarded with advice and suggestions that our noisy mind fails to make smart decisions and wise choices in important points in life. This is the result of not silencing our mind to listen. The loudest sound gets the most attention. We have lost the power to calm our spirit and be silent to listen to the right voice, from God and from the right people. If you don’t know where you’re going, distractions will look like opportunities and deceive us.

While listening to people we can notice that their talks are self-centered, i.e. it’s about them. Even if one of the people want to respond and help, the other person is not prepared at all. Ernest Hemingway cites his observation with these words, “when people listen completely, don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”. This is so true, I believe. People are filled with various cares of life as well as overwhelmingly ambitious. Jesus’ statement, “For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks,” is true indeed. What takes the most space in our hearts is what we most ventilate.

There are souls who long to be listened to. As a good sane human, it is our duty to listen to one-another without being judgmental at all. I understand the brevity of time, as each of us have their own pressing agenda. But as a child of God are we prepared to listen and help those who are hurting? In the book of Proverbs, it is said "It is shame to speak before listening". It is important that we listen intently. If you are struggling in this area, then you need help.

You cannot smother your heart and the noises around you to listen patiently. But it depends on what and whom you believe. Jesus was a great listener and always ready to help people struggling with sin, sickness, and questions in life.  If you are too tired or busy to listen, you can reach out to Christ Jesus who invites all who are weary and heavily burdened to find rest in Him. For He promised by saying, “I will give you rest.”. Too often we allow the voices of our past, our mistakes or our insecurities to drown out God’s affirming voice. We struggle to believe that God could be pleased with us, especially when we’re acutely aware of our shortcomings. But Christ love and pleasure in us isn’t based on our performance; it’s based on our identity as His children.  Prayer is talking to God who is not dead but alive. By this parameter, Jesus who rose from the dead is alive and is willing to listen to you. You can listen, grab a Bible and read to understand what it is saying. This is the highest selling book in the entire planet earth that has the power to transform you, be a person who can listen to someone, demonstrate your love and kindness to the person. 

 

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Using God and people for convenience!

 

Self-focus plagues today’s humanity. It’s all about them and use family – parents, children and relatives for personal advantage. If our heart were to be sliced, the core would be selfishness. We all strive and walk over people even though we are unclear of our destination. God also is not spared in the process. He ends up being used for our personal gratification.

Christopher Voss puts it so beautifully, “remember that people are not against you, they are for themselves. Which is why curiosity, empathy, mirroring, and labelling work like magic. It’s not about you. It never was.”. When you ponder over the statement it convinces us to be selfish and self-centered. The old age barter system is used in relationships also. 

When we study the life of Jesus we see His selfless behavior. He was God in human form who never desired the pleasures of life for lust, and kingdom expansion. He had a divine purpose, i.e. to die on the cross shedding his blood for the ransom of man’s sins. He came to make a provision for your sin and my sin. He didn’t die on the cross because He was helpless. He who rose people from the dead also rose Himself from the dead. He was that powerful, yet He gave Himself as a sacrifice so that you and I can experience forgiveness of our sins and lead a guilt free life. He wanted us to enjoy life after death in eternity with Him. 

Once a student questions Karl Barth the theologian by asking a question,

Student: “Sir, don’t you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?”

Barth: “No, God has not revealed himself in any religion including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus”. 

It may look like an arrogant statement, but it is so true my dear friends. The Bible states in 1 John 5:12-13, “The one who has son has life. The one who does not have the son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”. Most of us are clueless. We are stuck with religiosity or hold on to mythological gods. We compartmentalize ourselves based on religion and blind ourselves from the truth.

The truth is in Christ Jesus who rose from death and made a way for mankind.  Stop assuming gods are for our convenience. To a larger extent this has become true because making gods is a multi-million-dollar business. We become gods because we have crafted them ourselves based on the unverified stories and imagination. Rather I urge you today to take an effort to know the truth and treat yourself and others the right way.   

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The Shape of your Soul!

Everything that exists has a particular shape and form. Shape and form today has become an integral part of human existence defining our brand and identity, and our recognition depends on it. However, have we ever given thought of the shape of our soul. We hear people say, "he/she is a lovely soul". Though it sounds heavenly, how do they draw that conclusion? One thing that is made clear is that a physically toned body can only attract a longing for intimacy but it is the pure love, warmth, care, kindness and brotherhood that sets apart the soul in the divine realm. It is far more eternal than temporary.

We hear it philosophically that man is composed of body, spirit and soul. However, only the body is open to diagnosis and treatment, whereas the soul is connected with its maker. Today, soul has become a matter of philosophy and is subjected to each one's interpretation. The Bible is specific in this matter and describes appropriately. You can rely on it because it is absolutely non contradictory and simultaneously completely cohesive. In the narrative of human creation the Bible states "the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.".

The supreme creator of heaven and earth did two things in creating man. First, He formed him from the very dust of the ground, and, second, He breathed His own breath into the nostrils of Adam. This distinguished man from all of God’s other creatures. This one passage contains three significant facts about man’s creation.

 

1. God alone created man. Man did not evolve under the influence of blind, meaningless forces.

2. We are made in His image,

3. He created us male and female as stated in the Bible. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.".

We vainly spend a lot of our energy, time and resources to build our physical body; philosophically and ritually connect with religion for our identity. Our efforts to build our body deteriorates with age and it succumbs to mortality. The recent news of the world’s ‘most monstrous’ bodybuilder Illia Yefimchyk who died of a heart attack at age 36 shows the amount of fitness he could gain but yet all the efforts could sustain him only so long.  It’s our soul that connects with our creator, eventually shaping us not only to be a good person but also to have faith in Jesus Christ qualifying us to be with Him, i.e. in Heaven. You need to read the Bible once before you reject the God of the Bible. Atheist Friedrich Nietzsche wrote,“If one were to prove this God of the Christians to us, we should be even less able to believe in him” ; and “It is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments.” . Obviously, Nietzsche’s disbelief was based on his will, not just his intellect. 

 

The shape of your soul is the vibe that your family, friends and people around you feel it and find the hope that you have in this life and in the life to come. When your soul is intact with the saviour Christ Jesus, life becomes meaningful and purposeful. You are not under the whims and fancies of the so called religion but your faith rests on the fact and evidence in Jesus Christ. The shape of your soul takes the image of Christ the savior.

 

 

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News- bodybuilder Illia Yefimchyk