Know my thoughts

Helpers in Christ Jesus

2011-01-14T13:43:00.001+05:30

We read of two special people who identified with Paul in his profession. Aquila and Priscilla had a great part to play in the life of Paul. Although we find very little mentioned about them in the Bible, their lives and their ministry are very valuable lessons for each of us. Paul beautifully testifies of the them in Romans 16:3,4

Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

Think about their ministry and the impact they had not just on Paul but on also all the churches of the Gentiles! We read further in 1 Cor. 16:19 that they had a church in their house.

However its worthy to trace down their beginnings. In Acts 18 we read briefly about their interactions with Paul. In the first few verses of the chapter we see them together tent-making. Later down from verse 18 we see them going with Paul to Ephesus. And then in the close of the chapter in verse 26 we see them teaching and instructing Apollos more perfectly in the way of God.

Through these few verses we see a valuable lesson being taught to us. A basic outline of the ministry of a disciple of Christ is being drawn out here. Along with Paul as a tent-maker, Aquila and Priscilla would definitely have more reasons to talk about Paul today. Listening to Paul, watching and observing his life and ministry would have been a time of rich learning for them.

Then we see them going along with Paul to Ephesus. Now they not only get to be observers of his ministry but to be a part of the ministry. They get to learn, exercise their gifts and be of service to God along with Paul.

And finally we see them with Apollos. There is no Paul around now. There is no one to look up to or guide them. All the lessons they learned thus far, they would have to apply it in this their ministry with Apollos. What a moment it would have been!

Who are the Pauls in our lives today we can look up to? It’s important to note that months were spent with learning with Paul. Much of our early lives is spend learning from the lives and testimonies of different people and hand in hand learning with them. Then comes those years of life where we need to apply all those things we’ve learnt; a God-given specific individual ministry that we got to strive in one day. And what a blessing it would be for us to receive a testimony like that which Aquila and Priscilla received from Paul and the churches of the Gentiles!

A Companion’s Ministry

2011-01-14T11:16:00.001+05:30

When we think about Paul’s ministry, the names of those many people who accompanied him in his journeys comes often to our mind. And to think of the fact of taking a journey with a great servant of God does in itself bring all those Goosebumps running over your skin. Imagine the thrill and excitement, the people from different cultures you get to meet, the soldiers, the priests, the kings and all those other in power you get to meet, the various churches across the world you get to have fellowship with, the sacrifices to make, the persecutions you would have to face, the blessings to enjoy, the teachings to learn, and best of all to have someone as great as Paul to be your mentor, guide and partner in ministry.

At the same time, think of Paul who couldn’t have done his ministry without his companions.

Acts 18:5 - And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

Think of the impact that the fellowship of Silas and Timotheus had on Paul. They came with tidings from Thessalonica about how the disciples of Christ fared after the persecution they faced by the Jews out there. They would have shared stories about the trials they had gone through and how God had been their help and support. Paul would’ve inquired about Jason whose house was assaulted by the Jews. Undoubtedly, Paul’s heart and soul would’ve been living each moment as they shared those stories and experiences.

Now think about the impact of their fellowship on Paul. “Paul was pressed in his spirit…” His heart became so burdened for the unbelieving Jews that he was pressed in his heart to testify to them that Jesus was Christ. What a ministry Silas and Timotheus had!

Who are the Pauls in our lives that we can minister to? Think about the ministry we do and how valuable our ministry can be to another person’s life. What is our response?

Facing Reality

2011-01-12T15:14:00.001+05:30

Away from all the hopscotch and the rush of Mumbai, spending time with Sam Mathew uncle, George David uncle and others in Sawantwadi, Mhow and other places in Madhya Pradesh was really a refreshing and a pleasant one. Away from all the crowd, vehicles, media, peer, turmoil and responsibilities, a much needed break was underway.

In a some remote village surrounded by nature and simple people who really aren’t much concerned about all these pleasures of this world, all I did was to spend time getting life’s distorted puzzles together and getting perspectives aligned with God. Further being in the company of God’s people whose life in itself is an inspiration and challenge for me, practical examples were being laid down before me as I thought over life’s many purposes.

As the train roared passed those crowded stations of Mumbai, I was taking my journey back to where I belong. While the passion and enthusiasm was still burning within me, there came Mr. Satan knocking at my heart’s door with a truck load of world’s pleasures I wanted to leave behind saying. “Face it or not, this is reality!” It didn’t take long for me to realize the rush of emotions that Satan was bringing in. Bombarded with hundreds of hoardings and banners, the crowd, the colourful people, their pitiful living conditions, the monotony of living, the competition, the poverty, the violence, the sex abuse, the political big dogs, the purposelessness of life here, the anxiety, the wretchedness…I was left stumped and silenced! This indeed is reality and I had to face it. I couldn’t blind my eyes to all this evil and wretchedness. I was humbled to my knees before God in heartfelt spiritual cries and mourning!

It still doesn’t seem to make sense to live life in this way that the world offers. The choices this world offers is so not what God would want me to follow after. Thinking about his ministry, the passion of his children to serve him, the working of Christ in the lives of many, the teachings that I learnt through those days away are all far too valuable to comprise with the things of this world. And yet being in this world and not of the world, I am daily being pressed hard by Satan’s evil forces. One thing that you could pray for is that I do not fall into the hands of the evil one.

Mission Mhow – the call

2011-01-11T12:03:00.001+05:30

It started with a prayer. Long before, a month ago, during my college exams, in the bedroom all alone a prayer seeking for God’s guidance and his will to be accomplished in my life was offered.

Soon after my exams, I would have a vacation for a few weeks. And then it would be that same old story of not knowing what to do during the vacations. And after those few weeks would get over, I would look back wondering how exactly time flew by and not having done anything profitable, It had been in my mind to do something worthwhile this vacation. My friend had suggested that we two do an internship in some company. It sounded good to me, but yet wasn’t convinced about the idea. On the other hand, I had this desire to go and visit and spend some time with some of the servants of God labouring for God in different parts of India. I put both these desires to God in prayer and let him lead me. I shared my desires among my close friend group and asked them to pray about it.

Exams got over on the 28th and I still didn’t have any of these plans of mine working. It was rather hectic during those days, since after my exams had a lot of incomplete work to finish up. However, everyday as and when I remembered I put my hearts desires to God in prayer, hoping that he’ll show me his way and will for me.

I inquired with my friend about the internship plan and nothing much seemed to be happening with that plan. And with the trip plan, I hadn’t yet informed my parents as yet and time was running out. I further didn’t have a clear vision as to where to go. Nepal and Mhow were two of the places I really wanted to go to. Other places were Goa or Jharkand. If I really had to get tickets to any of these places, it had to be now or never. Tickets would soon run out as it was holiday season.

Then one evening, I gathered a little courage and told my mom about the trip I wish to take. She spontaneously told me to pray about it. I was happy that she liked the idea. Soon later I informed my dad too about it. He too looked pleased with the idea. It was the 31st of Dec. My mom, shared this idea with my aunt who readily replied that even my two cousins from Pune, Benji and Blesson, would like to join.

I was more than excited! With no tickets in hand and no plan actually in mind, I searched for trains over the internet to Mhow. And not to my surprise, all trains were full. No seats available in any train!

As i scrolled down the list of trains carefully, I came across this only train, a holiday special, that ran twice every week during Dec – Jan. And there were seats available in it! Immediately I got my dad to book three tickets on this train. The trip was happening!!

I immediately thanked God. It was as if that train was specially running for us exactly to our needs. It felt like God sent a Silas and Timotheus to accompany me on my journey, when I heard that my cousins were also coming along. It assured me that God was in control and we were in his will. I was deeply encouraged and thrilled!

We left to Indore on 3rd Jan 2011 on our way to Mhow for a week long trip.

Listen, Respect & Learn

2010-12-29T16:35:00.001+05:30

He listened to
The heavens roar, the earth quake,
The wind blow, the leaves shake,
And then the voice of his Creator,
“Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?”
Then learnt and fathomed he his wrong.
Job repented in dust and ashes.

Today the message is very simple and straight. Listen, respect and learn.

Let’s start with this article itself. I’m not going to be quoting any fancy examples or bringing out any deep thoughts from the scriptures. Still, however plain, long, boring and familiar it may look, read on, listen on.

We need to listen! That’s the first thing we need to learn. There is so much talking and noise around the world. Everyone wants to talk and make their point be heard across, we not being excluded. We may have so many better stories to share, could be better gifted to expound from the scriptures, may have better solutions to a problem or we may be gray haired which in itself explains a lot. Still, listen.

It takes efforts to listen to the other person and their opinions. Sometimes, it might even call for some amount of sacrifice. On the other hand, that someone might not have anything big or important to share or that something may not even appeal to you taste. So what? Listen. By doing this you show that you respect them. Respect and patiently listen to others and their opinion because there will definitely be something you can learn through it. Further, listen and don’t just hear. We can hear things and shove it out through the other ear. But listen patiently! Take a step ahead and think over what you hear.

Respect the person irrespective of age or qualification and appreciate what the other person’s got to say even though they be advices. Advices are the hardest things to listen to, keep aside respect. And advices from a person who hardly knows anything what we are going through, is bitter. Advices from whomever it may come, listen, respect and learn something from it. Oh, yes, it’s difficult to respect what we listen.

You know, we human beings are very selfish. We all the time are looking out for things that please us, things that we need, things that can benefit us. We spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves, thinking about our problems and worries. But would we stop and look around? Look at the world we live in, the so many people that we come across everyday. Look at the so many things happening day in-and-out around us, and listen.

Listen to what the people got to say; listen to what the world is crying out for; listen to the problems that the people are facing. Listen! There are so many lessons to learn from the things around us. Give them some time and listen to them, and they will listen to you and respect you. Not only will they respect you, but you will also learn a lot from them and about them. We miss out on so many things that make life beautiful, just because we are so selfish and don’t listen.

One of the greatest things that keep us from practicing this is the ‘I know it all’ attitude. You may have skipped many lines above maybe because there wouldn’t have been anything much to learn or you would have read something like that before. So what if you read it again? So what if you hear that same old message again? There certainly will be something for you to learn.

The ‘I know it all’ attitude or problem comes basically because of pride. It’s hard to accept this. But here is where I wish to stress. After being in this similar ‘I know it all’ problem, I’ve realized that this is a very important thing to practice to come out of it. Sometimes we claim we know everything, all the rights and wrongs, all the problems that we are facing, the best solutions to go about a problem and we don’t give any much value to what the other person got to say. Hey, please keep the ego aside, and learn to listen, respect and learn from every opinion and from every person.

Listen to others and don’t disregard certain people because of some pre-formed notions that we have of them. We tend to ignore old people because of their monotony or their old-style talks and practices. But there’s a lot to learn from them, through their testimony and years of experience. Listen and respect because it might be something that’s going to help you a long way ahead and make you wise someday.

Let me sum it up with this verse:

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. (Pro 1:5)

Two Face

2010-12-29T16:29:00.001+05:30

It’s an easier job to take a pen and paper and preach when compared to how humungous a task it is to be consistent and striving in practicing what you preach. It gets more complex for you as a writer when you are being observed by many people beginning with your family as to whether you are living up to the talks that you preached. Further, when people look up to you, or people are encouraged by you, or even when they pray for you, the complexity involved in living up to those standards increases.

Let people have their say of opinions; but at the end of the day, it boils down to whether you can look back at the day gone by and find yourself having lived a life acceptable to God or not. It’s then when some things seem to just not be happening the way it should be. A vibrant and growing Christian life gets so easily sidetracked and forgotten through our everyday routine that we start getting comfortable living a bland and passive Christian life. Doing spiritual things become so much a routine that things such as quiet time, evangelical ministries or church ministries just become mere activities and dead routines which leaves us with a feel-good feeling. It’s important to say that we just satisfy our flesh by doing all these kind of spiritual activities. It’s easy to organize activities, volunteer, co-ordinate things, sit hours and hours together involved in a certain work, all with a Christian tagline attached to it, and yet at the end of it leave aside the important things of making sense of the Word of God in our lives. So often, we, like Martha, are found elsewhere but at the feet of the Lord.

It’s important to emphasize again that these just fulfil the lust of the flesh, if you skipped reading that before. Because it’s something very hard to digest that everything that we profess to do for God can be counted of no value in the sight of God. If you really can put yourself in my shoes and try understanding what it means to be in such a situation, you would only dread being a victim of such a sin.

In our other life unseen to others, we tend to play around with the pleasures of this world and at the same time with the things of God, as if it really doesn’t matter. Sometimes I wonder as to what exactly should one label a Christian such as I who professes a certain lifestyle and practices another. Pathetic? Maybe. It’s easy to put on a show to others. But the real me finds himself doing a little for God, doing a little for Satan; giving some time for God, giving some time for Satan; talking a little good, talking a little sin. It’s such an irony to be a Peter and at the same time yet another Pharisee. How often do we find ourselves stuck in this bland, lukewarm and passive Christian life! On the flipside, we realize all of this and yet, still find ourselves doing those same things over and over again. It sometimes just leaves you thinking about how worthless a Christian you are. At such
junctures, so often, we second with Paul on his strong words, “I am the chief of all sinners.” Sometimes we stare at those verses stuck around on the walls of our room engraved with God’s commandments and wonder how we could so easily break that same commandment over and over again. And sometimes as we glance through those beautifully coloured picture hangings of God’s
promises, all we do is just sigh because we don’t even find ourselves worthy of those promises. At such junctures, it then just feels a little too shameful to ask God again for forgiveness.

I thank God that he has given us his Holy Spirit that pricks us and convicts us through his Word about the mistakes in our lives and presses on that we change our lives. And I’m happy that God doesn’t spare us nor does he flatter us with soothing words when we come to his presence. His Word is as a two-edged sword that pierces our soul deep within and admonishes us in the areas we are wrong.

It’s never too late to give up living this sin. It’s a challenge for each one of us to give up this double life. In chapter 4:8-10 of his epistle, James exhorts and encourages us with a simple message. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” It’s amazing to see how God still loves us in spite of how pathetic we are. In spite of how unworthy a people we are, he is still seeking out for us like the prodigal son’s father who searched day in and out hoping and praying to see any signs of his son. It’s for us to return to him. We can’t be neutral or self-sufficient. We have to serve God or Satan. It’s for us to discard these two faces.

A fresh feather and ink

2010-07-15T21:22:00.000+05:30

It’s been a long time since I’ve written. Why? Maybe laziness, lack of time, laptop failure could be some of those valid excuses I could throw out in my defense. But greater, it was a question that kept bothering me - why write? I mean, what’s the point of writing? You spend a lot of time just meticulously phrasing your sentences so that it just gives the right feel to the article and to the readers. But at the end of it there isn’t any much satisfaction with the product.

The last time I wrote something was for Harvest Times (HT). But that was shabbily written. Since then I just kept losing my interest to write. It was a more painful experience trying to write when you knew that there wasn’t anything much up there that you wanted to convey. And what frustrates me are articles (including mine) that just take away precious space, time and effort, all, without conveying anything good. And it seemed like mine were becoming the same. So I stopped writing.

Recently a message kind of shook me up; a message from the parable of the talents mentioned in Matt. 26. What spoke to me was the fact that the talent given to the unfaithful servant was taken away from him and entrusted to the faithful servant. It made more sense to me then to just take a moment and think over this very familiar parable than to think over a brother or sister for whom the parable might be just perfect. It grieved me then to realize that I was not using the gift given to me. Maybe God would have sighed, “What a waste of a gift…”

Well, if I don’t use the gift given to me it might as well be given to someone else who will make better use of it. It became important for me to somehow get my hands back to my pen and paper, scribble a few lines or something. It just made me realize the value of the gift given to me. The church walls seemed no longer fascinating. Caught in my memories, I could hear people who were encouraged by those articles I wrote coming and encouraging me once again. Everything seemed to just connect well. The point - I must get back to writing!

The very fact that I look at writing as a gift given to me, is not a big surprise. I barely could imagine myself writing a few years ago. But I believe today that it is purely a gift from God that has equipped me to write and convey his message through those feeble words.

So here, once again, I'm back to my paper, but with a fresh feather and ink. With a renewed purpose to communicate what God has taught me. It's my prayer that God blesses this gift richly in the days ahead.

Don’t be afraid to change

2009-12-10T15:06:00.001+05:30

Paul changed! This news would’ve made headlines the next day in the local newspapers. But this meant trouble for Paul because he was going to be attacked and severely punished by his early associates since he would be a serious threat to them.

Analyzing the current scenario, Paul was inviting a lot of troubles even to the extent of death. For someone to take such a life-changing decision needs immense courage and emotional firmness. But what I see here beyond the complexity in the decision is a simple step of faith. Paul was so captivated by his encounter with Jesus Christ that he was left astounded. All that he could do was to just surrender to the call of the Master. Would Paul have actually analyzed all the problems that could arise, he would have never taken that decision. But Paul took a leap of faith, yes, a leap of faith, and went on to become one of the greatest heroes in the history of the church.

Here’s what Paul had to say years after the incident took place in his life, “Then I came unto the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: but they only heard say, He that once persecuted us now preacheth the faith of which he once made havoc; and they glorified God in me.“ (Gal 1:21-24 ASV)

The change in his life had a far reaching effect. His change left a prolonged impression not only in the people who knew him personally but even among those who he never had seen before. He was regarded as an unseen hero among churches where he never had been before. What a blessing indeed! Though the change meant for Paul difficult times ahead, it was but for the blessings of thousands, or should I say, millions around the world.

Paul over here is leaving an important lesson for us to learn. I look back into my life to see so many areas where I fear to tread. Areas of my life among my friends, in church, in college and in society at large where there are certain things I hope for the better, but…sigh…things are just too complicated and difficult to navigate through. Relationships which are hard to maintain because of constant hurt and lack of concern from the other side; problems which might have risen because of petty issues but now are too huge to even contain; misunderstandings at first but now it has led to enmity and hate.

So many a times we are found on the wrong side, stuck in bad decisions or even held by our ego. Had we taken a right decision, or had we paid heed to some advises things would have been so much better. Sometimes it could be something as simple as bad mood that could have developed into an argument. Sometimes it could be my brother or sister with whom I would’ve have had an argument which now is difficult to sort out. Sometimes it could have been my anger that blew out of control but now when I think of it, I was just being foolish. Sometimes it could have been a certain lifestyle which I practiced since early but now seems clumsy or foolish.

Whatever be it, we are so many a times faced with such minor or major situations in life which we hope that it gets sorted out but it just doesn’t happen that way! We know the right from wrong, but just can’t follow the right. It’s over here that Paul encourages us to do what he did. Take a leap of faith. Paul knew the troubles that he was going to face and the consequences of his decision. But that didn’t seem to be bigger than the blessings of his decision. He wasn’t afraid of changing. He went ahead and took a leap of faith and left it all upon God to take care.

Our problems may seem too big to sort out. But hold on! Take a leap of faith and go ahead and face your problem. Try to sort it out. Try to find a solution to it. Don’t be afraid of changing. Yes there may be direct consequences of our actions which we may have to face. But that’s ok. Your step of faith will indeed be a blessing. It may not be seen in immediate. But like Paul, you may keep discovering the blessings of your faith even years after your change. We also see that they glorified God because of the change in Paul. You may also be a cause for people to thank God because God is working in you and you have changed. Much more importantly, since your leap of faith is what God is expecting his child to do, you will be a bringing a smile to God’s face.

Would you change like Paul? Paul began to see the blessings of this step and still saw it years after his conversion. Can you give up some costly things in life for the better? Taking a leap of faith may come with a lot of problems. But with it will be countless blessings even beyond your imaginations. Are you afraid to change? Don’t be! Because one day, others will glorify God through you!

ROCK ON!!!

2009-08-17T21:34:00.000+05:30

Behind those large king-like royal red curtains, I saw a glimpse of what I’d love to be, a dream almost touchable and true. The music echoed more elegantly than ever. But now every next step takes me away from that stage reminding me the reality. It’s over! I pack up my keyboard neatly in its case. In that bent posture, I look behind and try to relive the excitement and ecstasy. Then I lift my guitar to detune it wondering whether this dream really can be detuned.
Another day, I found myself rushing to catch the 12:39 slow local to Andheri from Dadar. Suddenly, a gentle, melodious and sweet sound caught hold of my ear. On my left, was standing a blind beggar piping his flute beautifully. I paused for two seconds and then continued to run. Within few moments that music got muffled away in the noise around. Wondering whether I could one day hire him to play for me or if we could just sit together and write some beautiful music, I looked behind searching for him. But the crowd thronged, covering me with the grim realities of life.

Another day, I found myself watching a movie. August Rush. The movie was about a small boy who realized his talent for music and went on to become a prodigy. It made me smile. Gentle shivers ran through my body. Every second reminded of my childhood fantasies and dreams. It felt like my dreams were being sketched behind those glassy screens. Soon the movie ended. The screen went blank. It felt like waking up from sleep. Will my dream just remain a dream?
Dreams. They envision us to accomplish great feats in life. I dreamt about becoming a great musician. As a child, music didn’t mean anything much to me. Piano classes, though interesting, felt a little like a punishment. I dreamed of playing the piano well but that demanded hardwork which I couldn’t give. If at all I listened to songs, they were Christian. Secular songs were a strict ‘no-no’ at home. So with no much exposure to music, music wasn’t appalling at all.

Then it all began to change as I entered college. With music more or less a fashion, the need to adapt to the current society’s trends and choices in music were felt. So in that attitude I began trashing songs which didn’t match up to that level. To that my friend advised me, “You really can’t judge the song by how much it appeals to you. This song would have actually touched someone else.” True, in my attitude was a complete disregard to the inspiration and labor behind the making of that song. But what really made me think was that the song would’ve touched someone else!

Every song carries a special tune and rhythm which appeals to certain groups of people. For example, a band which I love, Mokshraag, writes songs which have a North Indian style of music in them. To the North Indians, those songs are THEIR songs. They can very well connect to the lyrics of the song mainly because the song was composed in their own music. It took me time to understand this that if a song isn’t appalling to me, it doesn’t need to be bad, simply because every song is not written for me.

I’m reminded of the time we taught in Sunday school a song, ‘What if Cartoons got saved?’ It was a different kind of song, more hippy and choreographed than the normal Sunday School songs. “WHAT???...Cartoons?” they exclaimed. They beat their ears again and said, “Cartoons??” They had all the difficult times making their cramped-up bones doing those actions (you know teenage problems). But lastly time ran out saving them from more self-made embarrassment.

“Arrghhh…what is that noise?? It’s giving me a headache!”
“Just chill maa…wait I’ll change the song.”
This isn’t an unusual scene at home when I play Rock music aloud. My parents can’t stand Rock music. In similar views, my grandmother finds all English songs unspiritual when compared to her Malayalam songs. Some of my friends can’t digest jazz or blues. Others prefer oldies and conventional choir performances.

I would believe that a song can be better evaluated by its lyrics, can’t it? In church the favorite song amongst the Hindi speaking brethren is “Yeshu tu acha hai…” I would wonder why they loved that song so much. It really didn’t have any of those profound lyrics I was searching for. But yet, it was their ‘national anthem’.

Different people, different tastes; different generations, different likings; different songs, different groups! But yet, something in common – music. Music is like a work of art! From the greatest Maestros and prodigies in music to the insignificant beggar who pipes his flute to earn his living, music is painted in these beautiful and diverse colors. It can make the listener dance, laugh, cry or even dream along with the artist. This common language enjoins the diversity in us humans hailing from different backgrounds, to make music the thump and rhythm of our heartbeat.

To appreciate music just as it is was a lesson important though difficult to understand and accept. And yet I’m still learning. All these rules could be very well applied to Christian songs and safely, that too. But secular songs?

Once I found myself in a group of shocked and alarmed people when I was caught casually humming a secular song. It was a by-product of the rules written bold and loud: “No secular music. Full stop.” Why? Well, it does not edify, bad lyrics, they are not Christian; are the couple of notable reasons.

However, there are so many secular songs with beautiful lyrics and superb music. For me to simply accept those reasons were difficult. But is this why I listen to secular music; for good music? I asked myself. Hmm…difficult to answer. Honestly, I never much listened to secular songs. If at all I listened to them, I listened to only those that my friends thought were good. It was an unknown compulsion or say, a pressure that made me want to listen to secular music. To hear all my friends talk about different songs and I stand amongst them clueless was disheartening.

But my whole funda of listening to secular music gradually changed as my interest to learn better music developed. I began searching for songs right from the oldies to the modern age music through all artists and genres. It didn’t matter if others thought it good or not, I began developing my own taste. But there were songs that influenced me otherwise from which even now I prefer keeping a distance. Some of those songs directly affect the weakest areas of my spiritual life, from which I caution myself even more.

Hmm…ok. Today I listened to Elvis Presley, Hillsong, Pink Floyd, Ernie Ford, Steven Curtis Chapman and Switchfoot. It’s funny you know, because a few years back I wouldn’t have even heard of these people or listened to such kind of music.

Music has revolutionized you and me. Yesterday while travelling by bus, I saw an old man plugged in listening to music. An old man!!?? I wonder what song he would have been listening to. Music has that something in it which attracts everyone whether young or old to listen to it. Most of the time, I listen to music because it simply delights me. At that time, I really don’t bother to follow the lyrics, neither I’m worried about the technicalities behind the music, but just want to sit back and enjoy music as it is.

Once in college, my friend once grabbed my mp3 player and started listening to some songs on it. I geared myself to answer all his possible queries because the songs on it were Christian. After a couple of minutes, he looked up surprised and said,
“Man!!...I’ve never heard of these artists…”
“Yeah…I know…” looking a bit put-off, I said gearing up for more embarrassment.
“But this is good music!”
“Ehh…what…You like them?” shocked, I said.
“Yeah…what kind of music is this?”
“They are Christian…Christian Rock…”
“I really like them…Can you give me some of them?”
“Yeah…certain…certainly…”

Now doubly shocked, I was amazed at the sudden change of events. My expectations were crushed and I began redefining what I thought cool and not. Christian Rock is cool, I asserted! It didn’t matter to him that those songs were Christian. What attracted him was the music. Interestingly, he still likes those songs and shows interest for more. More importantly, one day maybe through these songs I’ll be able to communicate the gospel of Christ!

Can I? Is it possible? I play the ‘G’ chord on my piano. I hear it echoing through the auditorium. “Wow that is melodious!” On stage is my college band. Next is our performance. The red curtains lifts.

Shepherding

2009-06-30T13:04:00.001+05:30

“And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.” (1Sa 17:14-15)

Saul is busy recruiting soldiers for the biggest battle he ever faced. Ahead is standing Goliath, a man almost double his stature, challenging him for a fight. Saul scrambles through his forces to find the perfect man for the battle against Goliath. The scene is quite tensed. That’s when we see the three brothers of David bravely stepping forward for the battle. But David, although he could have followed his brothers to join the army, went back to Bethlehem.

David had something more important to complete. He had to feed his father’s sheep. David, a shepherd, well knew his flock of sheep. He knew how scared they were of the wild animals and how easily they could get into a mischief if left alone. So when David was faced between a choice to feed his sheep and fight the battle with Saul, he chose an option which was stupid, rather which was completely secondary as compared to the battle. Who would give more importance to some flock of sheep over a battle that threatened the whole of Israel? Was feeding some flock of sheep more important than the salvation of the Israelites?

Jesus before ascending up to heaven gave the commandment, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations...” (Mat 28:19 ASV) The commandment to make disciples was something that Jesus stressed upon throughout his life and ministry here on earth. There were people who followed Jesus for their benefits but didn’t look forward to anything spiritual. Jesus stayed away from these people. However there were very few who stuck with Jesus. While preaching the gospel was important, making disciples of those who heard the gospel was even more important for Jesus.

In these times when we stress a lot on witnessing and preaching the gospel to the unsaved, the church has fallen short of the commandment to make disciples. Making disciples is like feeding the flock of sheep. When this world keeps getting wickeder day by day, the chances of the flock of Christ drifting away is great. At these times, it becomes the duty of the shepherd to feed his sheep. God has appointed some as Elders over the church to specially shepherd his flock of sheep. The duty of the elder being awesome compels him to take extra care to nurture the spiritual health of his flock. However it’s not only the role of the Elders to make disciples but each one of us has to play a part in this ministry.

But it didn’t mean that David couldn’t go for the battle. We see David leaving his sheep under the care of a keeper before going for the battle (I Sam. 17:20). It reminds us that while making disciples is important witnessing too should be done along with the spiritual health of the flock being taken care of.

Lessons in prayer from the life of Samuel

2009-06-30T12:54:00.001+05:30

Throughout the life of Samuel we see a beautiful portrayal of humility in the sight of God and complete dependency on him. Samuel, a man of prayer, had a passionate prayer life that epitomizes these very things.

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And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. (1Sa 8:21)

Here Samuel was placed in a very difficult situation. He had to mediate between the people’s demands for a king and God’s disapproval to that demand. He wasn’t allowed to take any decision without God’s permissive will. At the same time he was constantly being pressed by the people who ignored God’s protest to their demands and insisted more for a king.

Samuel communicated what God told him to the people and tried to persuade them to listen to God’s voice. But alas, they weren’t going to budge. So helplessly Samuel went back to God with their demands and rehearsed them in the ears of God. It’s strange because God would have already taken note of the people’s insubordination to him and yet Samuel rehearsed the whole situation back to God.

Did he make God look deaf? No. I think that in this very act, Samuel showed what it meant to be humble and completely dependent on God. He didn’t really think it appropriate for him to take any decision. Hence he approached God with all humility asking him for help. Samuel was a people’s man. The people loved him and respected him. And in all this, Samuel loved the people equally. He corrected them from God’s word occasionally and guided them when necessary. He understood their feelings and recognized himself with their emotions. That’s why when he went back to God in prayer; he went as a negotiator to God. He brought forth the people’s feelings to God. That’s why we see him ‘rehearsing’ the whole situation to God. And what was the outcome? God listened to the people’s cries!

Was it because of Samuel’s intercessions? I fail to see God listening to the people’s petitions without Samuel being there as a mediator.

When was the last time we went to God interceding for someone else fervently? Are we concerned for our fellow brethren’s needs even though they may sound not important? It makes it doubly important for God when you bring your brother’s need to him in prayer. Can we do this for our family, church and even our nation? Let us approach God with all humility and dependency on him and pray just as Samuel prayed.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent (passionate) prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (Jas 5:16)

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Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: (1Sa 12:23)

After appointing a king over Israel, the people realized their mistake in asking for a king and ran back to Samuel that he may intercede with God for the forgiveness of their sin. In the process of replying back to them, Samuel makes this stunning statement, “God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you.”

Samuel considered praying for his people very important. He expressed a deep feeling for them and prayed ‘without ceasing’ for them. He went to the extent of considering it as a sin to cease praying for them. As James puts it in James 4:17,

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Samuel was determined. He didn’t allow any of his humanly excuses hinder his prayer life. He chose to be faithful in his prayer life. He chose between an easy life and a hard labored life. He spent a lot of time towards the growth of his people in the Lord. He ensured that he taught them the good and right way. ‘He lived for others’ as simply put. And all of this was backed up by a strong prayer life that empowered him to work for the people.

Where are we today? Busy in our work? Lost in the busyness and concerns of our life? Could we be like Samuel, passionate in prayer and seriously concerned about the needs of our people?

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Be still and hear

2009-06-16T15:01:00.001+05:30

As they were going down at the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us (and he passed on), but stand thou still first, that I may cause thee to hear the word of God. (1 Sam. 9:27)

I picture myself in that situation which Saul was in. It wasn’t a really comfortable decision for Saul to make when Samuel asked him to wait back. Saul had to rush back home because he was already very late and his father began to worry for him. Also he was asked to let his belongings and his servants go ahead him back home. Further what Samuel told Saul was to wait for a while which has its root in the Hebrew word meaning ‘a span of hours’, or ‘a day’ etc. So it wasn’t going to be fast for sure.

And what was Samuel asking him to wait for? That he may hear the word of God…! It looks easy and simple at the first glance for Saul to listen to Samuel but that came with some difficult decisions. If we read further, God blessed him for obeying his voice and chose him to be the king of Israel.

I wonder when was the last time I actually waited and was stilled before God’s presence so that he could speak to me. Today my quiet time lasted for less than 10 min and I can but little call to mind what God taught me today morning. I have my huge list of prayer needs for God day in and out. But it really bothers me because it has been a long time since I last sat and waited upon God to cause me to hear his word.

God wants us to take out some of our time from the busiest and the most urgent situations in life we are in and wait and listen to his Word. Maybe the answers to our problems may lie in those solemn moments with God or maybe God would want to communicate something totally different to us. But where are we?

It’s not easy you know. Saul had to leave behind his belongings and companions to listen to God’s word because that was what God required him to do. It’s much more important for us to realize that God wants us to separate ourselves from our busy lives so that he can talk to us. Let them pass on ahead us. It’s not that we cannot catch up with them later. God wants us to honor him first. As he says in 1 Sam. 2:30, “…for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

Better done than said

2009-05-28T21:42:00.001+05:30

Worship….Worship and worship….that’s what I’ve been hearing from so many months in church and in youth meeting. And it was really nice to get so many of my doubts cleared off. But now came the bigger part – to get it into practice. More important than the Sunday morning worship in church, it was necessary for me to start worshipping in my day to day life.

And as each day kept passing by, I kept thinking as to how did I worship God today. But at the end of the day, those questions weren’t getting answered. I was left confused as to whether I was found as a faithful worshipper or was I found lacking. Knowing that worship isn’t just words of praise but living a life that pleases God, for me to practice worship became more difficult.

I learnt that it’s only when you experience God daily and thus worship him that you are in a position to worship on Sunday. But at the end of the day, I needed to know what did my God mean to me? That was one question that I needed to get answer. I needed to discover my God more for worshipping him. Without that Sunday worship lacked depth and seemed empty.

In all this quest of discovering my God more and more, I was getting left behind in living a life that pleases God. But here’s what God told me then,

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (I Sam. 15:22)

It’s kind of surprising, God is more interested in me obeying him than worrying about worshipping him. But then God just turned the tables. While I was out to discover my God, he told me, “Wait…I guess you got to start with the basics…Obey my Word. Let’s forget a while about worshipping me, because indirectly by obeying my Word, you will be worshipping me. You don’t need to worry about discovering me now. You’ll learn it through experience. I am not that concerned about your worship as much as I am for your Christian life.”

These words shook me and actually awakened me. Strong as they can be, it pierced my heart. But can I again leave it on paper or will I put it into practice? Should I wait for tomorrow or start today? Some questions are better left put into action than answered verbally.

LIVING THE EASY WAY

2009-05-13T16:39:00.001+05:30

“Who’s got time to wait? Introducing Airtel’s 16Mbps broadband connection…so you’ll never have to wait.” I saw this ad flash across the screen and I sighed, “How I wish it was mine…!” It’s amazing how fast the world is progressing today. Today I fancy over luxuries like an iPhone or a Sony WAIO. But can I go ahead and buy it?

Yes or No - the only two possible answers to the question. But most of us lie in the ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Not sure’ category. We would have known this answer if we knew our scriptures well. But that requires time, efforts and perseverance in the scriptures. However on the contrary, we tend to be impatient, show slothfulness and quit easily when it to comes to living a Christian life. My desire is to take you through few areas in our Christian lives where we generally tend to show these weaknesses and pick up a couple of valuable lessons along.

1. CHRISTIAN LIVING:

We all wish to be spiritually mature Christians, sound in doctrine and having a worthy testimony in this world. But then on the other hand, we are too busy for God and in our Christian life, lazy and undisciplined. Subsequently we want to be spoon fed by other people and the church when it comes to the Word of God. Then we blurt out ‘Why??’ and again ‘But...why??’ when the Word of God requires us to make changes in our life.

Maybe the fault actually lies in us because we really don’t know our basics well and are not really keen on putting in the efforts to search the scriptures ourselves. Impatience is what I would label it as. Today, when everything is so easily available, why not an effortless Christian life too?

Even in our secular life we show impatience in our decisions. With the increasing luxuries around us, we tend to want more. It’s not wrong to want. But God teaches us to live to our necessities. Abraham did so! Though he was the richest person around and could have lived luxuriously, yet he chose to live in tents. Solomon, on the other hand, ran behind his ever increasing wants and found futility after his labor.

Repeatedly the Bible reminds that to our every need, God is ever present to provide it (Matt. 6:32; Phil. 4:19). But we fairly realize this truth. Maybe that’s why sometimes our prayers are not answered because our wants are more than our actual necessities. It calls us to introspect and check the decisions that we make daily.

Paul sums it up well in I Cor. 9:24-27, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

2. RELATIONSHIPS:

Some of the basic things that go into maintaining relationships are time and energy, the both being very scarce today. People have become so business-oriented that they don’t have time for their dear ones. It’s not their fault completely. The need to survive in this world compels one to work that much. And sometimes even with time and opportunity in our hands we barely are able to put in enough efforts to work towards a fruitful relationship. Maybe it’s because we are so succumbed by the pressure and the discomfort the world offers us.

Maintaining relationships is a costly affair. Relationships are not made in a day or two, but earned over a period of time. As we see in Rom. 12: 9-21, relationships are earned through the labor of love. It’s when relationships are earned there is sweetness and satisfaction in enjoying it. God when he ordained the church to function as one body, he meant this very same relationship. It’s a relationship that goes beyond saying ‘Hi’ and ‘How do you do?’ You need to earn it! It might require you to go out of your way, sacrifice your time and resources, and even put down your ego.

Most of the time petty issues and misunderstandings play a spoilsport in relationships. I remember the time when a close friendship of mine broke due to some misunderstanding. The process of reconciling didn’t take a phone call or two. It took me more than six months to earn back my lost friendship. It wasn’t easy though. It required me to show true repentance and live the ‘sorry’ that I said.

It comes back to the point that relationships need to be earned. It requires patience, hardwork and endurance in nurturing it. But this doesn’t come without God’s help. It is God who removes the monotony in maintaining relationships to something that you would love to do.

3. SOCIAL LIFE:

The society today is deprived of love. Day in and out we see fights, abuses, murders, suicides, wars, betrayal, anxiety, pain, cruelty and so many other things that dominate the headlines. It’s in such a world God has placed us as Christians to love this hopeless society with the true love of Christ.

It’s unfortunate that we play a very passive role in this regard. We choose to be onlookers to the evils around than lend a helping hand to someone hurt. We choose to keep our status and our ego in a crowd that boasts the same when it comes to doing things that may be below our status. We choose to condemn others of their wrongs, when we ourselves are many times guilty of the same. We choose to stick to our rituals and traditions that we claim as godly when it comes to sacrificing some of them to reach out to the society.

We respond to the government by cursing it. If not the government, we at least would have cursed the BJP, or the VHP, or the Bajrang Dal or any of those Hindutva groups. What different are we from them? We really love condemning the municipal corporation for their untimely and haphazard work. Doing so doesn’t even change the situation nor does it profit. It would rather profit if we could go out and sweep the roads ourselves than cursing the BMC for dirty roads.

We continuously classify and judge the so many different people around us and label them conveniently according to situations. We call some ‘samples’, others we label as ‘the cause for all the problems’, and others as ‘they are always like that’. We picture government officers, politicians and policemen as corrupt; the sweeper, beggars, etc. as inferior. We consider Muslims as a potential threat and Hindu fanatics as ‘enemies of Christians’. We disrespect and disown the Catholics and even those other nominal Christian groups we today conveniently label as ‘cults’. And then we claim that we are going to reach out to these people when we don’t even love them!!

We are all guilty of betraying our society! We preach that we live a witnessing life but are unable to keep a true testimony even in such small situations. We expect others to change, but we ourselves are not ready to change. If we truly claim to be living a witnessing life, we need to love our society, our government and our nation just as Christ loved us. It’s not a love that shows itself only when going to communicate the gospel or anything in respect to that, but it’s a love that lives day in and out among the people, respecting the society and honoring the nation and its values. And this requires a lot of patience, hardwork and endurance with the help of God.

We hear all this from the preacher’s mouth and at this time it might just sound the same. But in conclusion, this is a greater challenge for me than you because just as Paul said, “…lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

but JUST A CRY?

2009-05-08T22:05:00.000+05:30

Just a cry, that’s all he needs! But is it that easy for God?

“I saved you from all your enemies. I did so many things for you. And yet, you forsook me and served other gods. Why don’t you go and cry to them for help? I’m not going to save you. Let them save you in your distress!” God protests against the children of Israel (Judg. 10:11-14). It wasn’t adamancy that dominated his tone, but his heart-brokenness. He did so much for them and in return they mocked him and rejected him. Why should he waste his time over people who weren’t ready to obey him? Why?

I wonder how many times God would have protested against me because of how wretched a sinner I am. It makes me think that every time I keep on doing the same sins over and over again, God is hurt, heart-broken and disowned. And more gravely it would have made God think why he ever did choose me to be his son? Why? I disowned him and served other gods – my sins. Why should he ever take pleasure in being my God?

God isn’t an emotionless God. When I think of those times I sinned, I made my God look as a forgiveness-machine. But it’s so easy to forget that he too has us-like emotions. We see him weeping at Lazarus’s grave and crying bitterly in the garden of Gethsemane. And then on the cross he broke his heart out and cried! Why? Just for me!

He just didn’t cry for us and for our sins. I believe in those tears were hidden emotions just like us. Just like how we would express our hearts out to God in prayer or to our closest friends with all our emotions, he would have constantly cried to his Father. In those times when he went out into the desert alone to pray, it wouldn’t have been just prayer for strength and guidance; but a time to express his emotions to his Father. He got adamant, heart-broken, disowned, hurt when he saw his children sin. I think of God crying, complaining and expressing his hurt because of the many times, in spite of correction and love, I went back to my former sins and nailed him back to the cross with those sins of mine. And what more heart-breaking would it be to undergo that painful suffering again. In those tears that he cries for me everyday are hidden solemn emotions which I faintly can comprehend in my human wisdom.

“And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (Judg. 10:16). There is something so special about this grief that baffles me whenever I think over it. It something beyond human understanding and perception of how great a God we have. Simply put, just like a father would grieve if his child did wrong, the same way God grieves when we sin. He grieves with his soul – an outpour of emotions. Why? Just for me!

Just a cry, that’s all he needs to rush to our rescue. Yes it’s true. But it comes with a price – the tears of God.

Just a cry, that’s all he needs

2009-04-24T21:30:00.003+05:30

In and through the book of Judges we see the children of Israel sinning against God. God proved to them that he was a righteous God and wouldn’t tolerate sin. Neither would he behave partially in punishing them and punished their sin justly.

But even through all this, God was still a loving God. He loved them from the depth of his heart. He just couldn’t see them going after other gods and serving them. The minute he heard them calling out for his help, he ran to their rescue by sending prophets, judges and deliverers. He fought for them their battles with what great might and zeal and destroyed their enemies completely.

All he needed was just a cry that came out of a sincere and helpless heart; a heart that had lost sight of the road in the way, a heart that betrayed his God and ran after other gods, a heart so weak and dirty that kept falling into evil. And it was this cry that meant so much to God. It meant that his children had accepted their faults and wanted his help and forgiveness. It was just a true and sincere cry that broke the heart of God Jehovah that made a God so great and powerful, run to the rescue of wretched sinners. Just a cry, that’s all he needs.

Petra puts it beautiful in the song, Just Reach Out

Just reach out and He'll reach in
Take your broken heart and make it whole again
It don't matter who you are or where you've been
Just reach out, and He'll reach in

Understanding God’s purpose

2009-03-24T17:12:00.001+05:30

31^st December 2008:

We had gathered together as a church to refresh ourselves on the year that went by. It was a time to thank God for all his blessings and maybe a time to take a couple of decisions to revamp our lives. For the same purpose, we had a testimony time. Inspired by a couple of testimonies shared, I stood up to share my testimony.

There was one thing that kept inspiring me in my mind, a thought that kept provoking me to think deep, a desire to be of some use to God, a desire to know God’s will in my life, a desire to know his calling and his purpose in my life.

“I deeply desire to know his purpose, because I feel that he has called me for something important. This year I look forward to finding out his purpose in my life.” I sputtered words out in a jiffy with glaring eyes praying that the words become true.

15^th February 2009:

I called back to mind those words I said almost 2 months before. It was a Sunday morning. Unprepared for the worship gathering at church, I cuddled in my seat for what was supposed to be a long one hour of worship. Pinching myself away from sleep, I put in an extra effort to hear the others speak.

Still those thoughts kept ringing back in my mind. If I am here to live for myself, why live in the social and moral upbringings of life? Maybe there is a purpose that reaches its hands out to my fellow-brethren to understand their needs, to walk their life, to feel their pain, to wipe a tear from their eyes, to bring a smile in their wrinkled faces. If there is a greater joy in living for others, a greater happiness achieved in helping my fellow-brethren, a higher satisfaction attained in imparting love, it may perhaps be my purpose.

Then someone shared a beautiful meditation from the scriptures,

“Christ had his angels to strengthen him in his time of need. Even through the hard wept tears in the garden of Gethsemane, there were his angels to strengthen him. But on the cross, not even his Father neither his angels nor would anyone console him nor strengthen him. He was left helpless in agony and grief, crying in bitter pain and sorrow with no one there to neither wipe away his tears nor extend a warm hand of love towards him…He hung there just like an orphan!”

The picture of an orphan brought mixed emotions of joy and tears in my heart. Pictures of the countless number of children around me, children who were orphans, homeless, deprived of their childhood by child-labor, begging, and hardships of life, flashed through my mind. Was this my call? Am I called to go and serve these children, to be a friend to them, to help them socially and spiritually?

This thought really inspired me. It felt like as if God was talking to me. He was slowly revealing things he has planned for me in my life. Maybe this could be a part of something greater I am called to do, or maybe this is what God wants me to do. And still on the contrary, this perhaps wouldn’t be what God has really called me for. Only time will reveal, what God has written down in the pages of my life.

But if this is what God has called me for, from today I will start the journey beginning on my knees. I will pray every day as much it is possible in me that God may keep convincing me, equipping me and preparing me for his purpose in my life.

Does God still exist? – A case for existence

2009-03-24T17:10:00.001+05:30

It’s highly debated whether God exists or not. But it’s interesting when you take a look at the other side of the coin. Do you know why you exist? If you are here on this earth, it should obviously be for a purpose. Everything around us exists not by accident but with a purpose.

It’s on this very point few of us would argue on - the fact that the universe, evolution, man, etc. are all products of accidents and chance. But what is chance, what is an accident? An accident or a chance is a consequence of three or more people or factors involved at a same time, the third or the deciding factor of it taking place being a barrier or an obstruction. An accident never happens because two people after deciding to crash their cars together rammed into each other, but because their cars collided together due to some external or internal factor that could not be diagnosed or prevented at the required time. An accident is a direct interaction between two factors while the third factor or the deciding factor plays the role in defining it as an accident. Also an accident is something not desired at first though the product of it may or may not be pleasing. If evolution of man was a cause of an accident, what are the factors that caused the accident to happen?

The evolutionists define an accident as an outcome that was subject to the earlier event, and no longer being an accident as we think it to be. So then how is it an accident? Isn’t it just an expected process? But why is it an accident? It is because they claim that the possibilities of the event taking place are so little in an ocean of probabilities, and hence the event occurring is an accident keeping in mind that the accident was still subject to the earlier event. Here we see the accident taking place between man - the evolving animal, and the environment - the external conditions. But what was the barrier, or the accidental factor that caused the whole accident to take place?

An accident is not a desired event as discussed earlier. If evolution was an accident, was it a desired event? If the whole process is termed as an accident referring to both the evolutionist’s and creationist’s points of view, obviously, there would’ve been something else expected, something more probable to happen than probability of the evolution of man to what he is today, considering the probability of the evolution of man insignificant, and hence being termed as an accident. The whole theory of evolution is based on these facts of accidents and chances which when studied carefully are contradicting.

The basis of our existence being life is the very catalyst that distinguishes a human from a robot. Man in all his wisdom and abilities could at the most land up replicating the human body in itself. But can he give it life? Can he breathe breath into his nostrils and make it alive? I guess this is strong enough to acknowledge that man cannot in all his strength and abilities create man.

But doesn’t evolution explain the source of life? The human body without life is as good as a puppet or a sculpture. Evolution does explain how the human body evolved through millions of years and how by adaptations to the environment it perfected to what it is today. But it really doesn’t talk about how the human body got life. Look at it a bit deeper. The human body is made up millions of DNA’s that contain volumes of information. Where did the DNAs get life from? Could it all just have come to existence or evolved through time by chance? And what is chance again?

What is life? Life is defined by three things that make it so precious and unique – emotions, intelligence and purpose.

Life is exemplified through emotions and feelings. These make us different from a robot. Emotions define our lives, develop our character and give us a heart. Can the theory of evolution go further and explain how emotions, the things that add living colors to our lives, evolved through atoms and cells that are incapable of emotions? Assuredly, it’s not by chance.

Life is then defined by our ability to think. As science would put it, we are the most intelligent of all the animals. Our ability to think is governed by the circumstances around us. As infants we are void of understanding. But as we grow, our ability to think and reason sharpens, and it because of that we are asking these difficult and intellectual questions today. It is a process of maturity and evolving that sharpens our intellect and knowledge. So doesn’t evolution explain our intellect?

But to every intelligent mind there is at least an ounce of wisdom. Knowledge comes through learning but wisdom through experience. What is wisdom? Wisdom rests in the heart of him that has understanding. And understanding develops in a man that has the power to discern between right and wrong, good and bad. And good and bad is a direct indication that God exists. (How? – read at the end) If this is so, wisdom doesn’t come from an evolutionary process but is a divine gift of God.

Emotions, feelings, intelligence, wisdom all put together is what is commonly known as the soul or the conscience. Can evolution give an account of this? You and I are living masterpieces of someone so creative and wise, someone who we fail to recognize as God.

What is so special about life that makes it so complex to understand, so huge to comprehend and so exhilarating? We live from a child to a youth to an adult, walking the road of life from school, to college, to work, so that we can earn a name in this world, that we may be able to fulfill our dreams, achieve something in life, and create something new for this world and for ourselves. We all have our purposes in life and they may be so varied and vast.

But if we are here on this earth to just fulfill our purposes and die, how different are we from a robot, a computers or any other gadget that fulfills its purpose and expires? Why dream all those ambitions and sweat it hard to live it out, why ever live through all the sorrow and pain life has to offer, if our tomorrow is going to be robbed away from us unexpectedly? In that case, what have we gained or lost from life from the day we were born to the day of our death? Dust we are and to dust shall we return. “As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand” (Ecc. 5:15). If there is nothing we are going to carry with us at our deathbeds, none of our merits, none of our status, what is the purpose of life? If death is the ultimate thing that is going to happen to all of us, is there any purpose in living for today, forget tomorrow? Why don’t we just die even before we take our first breath in this world?

It brings us to an essentiality that there has to be something more to life, than it just ending with death. And if that is true, it would mean that there is life after death, our lives our immortal, and there is a God who would have given us this immortal life. But, being still adamant, why can’t life just end with death? Why should there be something more to life after death? Why can’t life just be defined by just fulfilling these purposes in life?

Till now we have been looking at the purposes we have in life. But as a larger question, what is the purpose of life? Why do we have this life? Why couldn’t we be like super robots that fulfills its programmed purposes and then perishes?

To make things simpler, let’s look at an example of a computer. A computer in its smallest forms is made up of thousands of executable codes and programs. But it’s not these codes that matter to the user, but the desired output he gets when he uses the finished product. That is the main purpose of the computer.

Our life is like the computer. From the time we are born to the time of our death, we are in the process of fashioning our life through the many and varied purposes we have. It’s when we die; the purpose of our life gets accomplished. But however, like every other purpose, there has to be a result to the purpose. And if that is true, there must be a Creator, a giver of life, a God who would require these results.

There is a time and judgment to every purpose. If I create a music player, I would want it to work when I switch it on and, obviously I would want it to work well. If I purpose to do medicine as a career, I would expect it to complete it in at least 5 years after which I would expect myself to be working. Every purpose in life is accompanied by a time towards its accomplishment and a judgment towards its result. If every purpose in life fulfills this law, truly the purpose of life should also fulfill this law. And if it does fulfill this law, truly there is a God who would judge our lives at his desired time.

And what is the purpose of life? It is important to take note that the creator defines the ultimate purpose of his creation. And if God does exist, truly, the purpose of the life given to mankind is defined by him. To know the purpose, we would have to search his scriptures diligently.

Concluding the topic I would like to summarize the facts and observations I noted.

Accidents cannot really happen as stated in the theory of evolution.
The reality of the soul is a case for the existence of God.
The purpose of our lives is proves the existence of God.

Keeping in mind all these facts, it’s wise to say that God exists.

“The very fact you exist proves that God exists!”

(Good and bad is a direct indication that God exists:-

If good exists, obviously there has to bad on the other side, and vice versa.
If that is true, there has to be a law that has defined the bounds of good and bad.
Can the law come from man? If yes then who then gave him that law?
Consequently, law doesn’t come from imaginations or opinions of man but from God.
If the last step is further argued by one who claims that the law could have just come into existence by ‘chance’ or by imaginations:-

Good or bad is never an abstract affair, but always in relation to a person or an individual.
It’s always a judgment passed by someone to another.
Keeping that in mind, it is necessary for someone to pass a judgment of good or bad and thus, is not a product of imagination or ‘chance’.

)

Does God Still Exist?

2009-02-19T18:15:00.003+05:30

Is this another religion freaking talk? Is this another religious enthusiast talking about God? Or is this the new generation talking about “Who cares a damn about God?”

Look at the world today and what do you and I represent in this world? A new generation, a new era, a revolution – that’s what we represent in our society. But look at our society; it’s come from a tradition and a religious background dating back to hundreds of years. How could they live under the misery of religion and tradition for these so many years?

Here are we, the new generation. It is we who create our world, carve new laws and live the lifestyles we choose. Science has far advanced in itself that we can paint every imagination in our minds into art so beautiful and complete. We indeed can look at these arts, the canvas of science, the luxuries we enjoy, the world that we own and sit back and enjoy.

Does God still exist? But hey, why do I need him? We have science at our disposal. We have conquered the moon, and now march ahead to mars. Science has equipped the nation with the best of weapons. It has created wings for man and given us fins to explore hidden depths. It has searched deep through the biology of nature and animals, penning down volumes of researches. It has provided a cure to most of the diseases. And well, it has satisfied our daily necessities and enhanced our living. Do we need God when we have science?

And why do we need God? All that he wants is our money, resources and time. His religious institutions take from us money and wealth all in the name of God. And what does he give in return? Nothing! If he ever gave anything, it was terrorism, corruption, violence, hatred. In the name of God, people go around killing hundreds of people, threatening people, assaulting people. Is this the God I’m looking at? If so, why do I need him? I would rather believe that he doesn’t exist. I still can survive without him.

And should God exist, would he bear the sight of this wicked world? Everyday witnesses so much violence, so many deaths, and so much pain. If he was a righteous God, wouldn’t he judge the wicked? But here is the world suffering under the clutches of terrorism, violence, rape, murder, hatred, robbery, racism, corruption, and so many other wicked things. What more? Here is a world being judged by natural calamities. A world where the sufferings people face never seem to end. Even the ray of happiness is stopped by some kind of pain. Would a loving God, a caring God, a just God, allow all these things to happen and that too to his creation, if it ever was his? Does God really exist?

What about rebirth, heaven, hell…??? Anyways if God doesn’t exist, why worry about these? On the other hand, they are all just another myth. Science proves through evolution that we are all from monkeys and going back to the dust once we breathe our last breath. And who knows about the authenticity of their scriptures. Some people would have come out with their own ideologies and myths. And others would have added their own stories into it claiming themselves to be gods. So why ever believe in all this crap?

Look at the world without religion and God. People are today bound by the laws of their religion. But without it, it would mean freedom. It would help people to express themselves much better, explore places unreached before. It would help bring education and enlargement to the doorsteps of every individual. He would no longer have to waste his time, money and resources for someone called God. Apart from an individual in himself, look at the country as a whole. A place where there is a united democracy. There wouldn’t be hundreds of political parties running around in competition for power. The law would be better written down. Maybe those will be the days when abortion will be legalized, gay marriages will be celebrated and so many other amendments will be made to the Constitution. Development in areas earlier prohibited by religious institutions will be ushered in. Maybe, that day, the world will be united together and it will admire a person as her leader. Wow, that will indeed be a great day!

Who needs God? The world would be a much better place only if God didn’t exist for people… Does God still exist? Now that’s an easy answer!

- (Part 1 of ‘Does God still exist’)

Confessions not meant for you

2009-02-19T11:28:00.001+05:30

Professing to be a Christian and being one is truly a challenge. It’s a greater challenge when you are asked to answer the questions the world throws at you. It’s not another day when you’re asked to stand up for what you believe in, what you profess yourself to be. It’s not an easy thing to speak out volumes at that time for each word that you say will be marked, noted down and maybe rehearsed back to you for a very long time.

My friends and I were hanging out in college after school hours. While we were enjoying our chats, one of them seemed to be rather busy in downloading some file from his friends mobile. It didn’t seem rather different or notice worthy, but however the others seemed rather fascinated with it. It didn’t bother my attention till they began talking over it. And to my surprise it was porn. Now that indeed troubled me at that moment. I began to feel restless being there at that time as I just couldn’t feel at home.

To add to my uneasiness, they were my good friends who were so enthralled by those porn videos. While I was just about to slip away, one of them noticing the restlessness on my face, curiously put forth this question, “Haven’t you ever watched porn??”

A numb silence griped my ears as the question echoed through my ears. As of a fact that literally shook me leaving me speechless. Other than God and me none knew my heart better. What could I say? Could I tell them that I too am a victim of this terrible disease? Could I tell them that it was my weakness somewhere down within? I was left stranded. How would they understand my problems are different from theirs, if they ever counted theirs as a problem? What they considered as a pleasure was a struggle for me. What they considered talk worthy, was a disgrace for me. Would they understand that I as a Christian am not supposed to be doing such stuff and though I hate it, it keeps sticking back? Would they understand all of this?

If I would have to agree, it would mean a completely different thing to them. It would make me no different than them. I had to choose between truth and lies. I had to choose between saving my identity and identifying with them. More importantly, I had to choose between the test of God and the temptation of Satan.

The next few moments were a literal face off with my friends. They looked at me with anxious eyes while I looked at them with confused and shocked eyes. It was a decision far too difficult for me to take at that moment. “Are you going to say something or not? Don’t worry we all watch porn and are frank about it. It’s ok if you watch porn,” my friend said again urging me to say something.

To them I was different. To them I was someone who was different in choices and decisions. To them I was someone they knew who wouldn’t go with them wherever they went. To them talking about porn was something that didn’t digest in me, was well known to them. In spite of all this, this question seemed rather interesting to them. They eagerly waited for my answer. But I still looked confused and awestruck by the question.

Could I be a hypocrite? Even before the question could actually digest in me, I held my nerves and nodded affirmative. But they weren’t going to leave me there. Another wanted me to speak it out. I mumbled, “Yes”. To that another asked to confirm, “So, you watch porn, right?”

The latter question was different from the earlier one. It was an open challenge thrown to me. Am I like them going to fall into this misery over and over again? Would I want to be a part of it again? Giving a second thought to it, I paused and then said, “No…”

When I look at them, I see them as people who were unknowingly addicted to porn. One of them said that he didn’t have anything to do at home. So he rather would watch porn videos than do anything else. Others would watch it passionately and faithfully everyday. Did their conscience ever prick them? Or was it just peer pressure and sweet addiction?

My “No” shouted louder than my “Yes”. What didn’t digest in them is that I didn’t want to watch porn. One of them said, “I’ve got a really good video. Maybe we can watch it together later sometime.” I was kind of embarrassed because it seemed to them as if I didn’t have resources. Hey I’ve internet at home. Can’t I use that if I want to get more ‘resources’? Did I look to them that dumb or innocent? “No, it’s fine. I don’t want to watch it,” I promptly replied.

I’m happy I looked dumb, weird, not cool, and different to them. But it meant a lot to me to be ‘God’s own fool’. Maybe taking that stand was difficult. It wasn’t easy to do all that without God helping me. Though I was spiritually very weak that day, God helped me. Yes, I’m not at all perfect. Yes, I’m not that good as I look from outside. And who would know that better than God. He knows how bad I am from inside. And what a way to open my eyes! And what a way to put me to shame in front of the world! And indeed what a way to lift me out of that shame through his grace!

And as Petra writes in one of their songs,

Just reach out and he’ll reach in Take your broken heart and make it whole again. It don’t matter who you are and where you’ve been Just reach out and he’ll reach in.

Called to be Victorious

2009-01-21T13:14:00.003+05:30

Being victorious, for me, is an overwhelming feeling of happiness and a God given achievement always cherished. However, it’s very rare that I experience victory in my secret life; a life that only God and I know page in and out. Subsequently , the victories that I experience in my secret life are some of my dearest. Maybe it’s because I understand what it means to be a miserable failure, what it means to be a loser, what it means to be defeated!

“Could this ever be true?” I shrieked out, “Does the Bible say, a person in Christ is a new creature, old things are passed away and, behold!...all things have become new?” Well I’m still trying to behold…through the last so many years. But…things just haven’t seemed to change. I just keep falling into the same old sins again and again. It’s not that I like to do it. I hate it! And the thought of it disgusts me. Although I profess the same, but my stand somehow deteriorates when I’m tested. Its like I’m so helpless and weak to fight against it.

And when did my old ‘things’ pass away, or did it ever go away? It’s surprising that it never left me nor will it leave me in this present world. All that happened was that it lost its authority over me. But it’s still there in me and that’s why I guess I keep getting my feet dirty all the time. As long as I feed my new God-given nature, that ol’ fellow will never grow. Assuredly, this is the first step to living a victorious life. That old fellow loves it when you don’t have that spiritual strength. That’s when he plays his cards.

Trying to fight temptations myself, I end up leaving God out of the battle field. I would bring in mine own strategies, mine own ways of fighting my secret sins, and would land up failing miserably. It is one thing to know that the battle belongs to the Lord and another to experience God fighting the battle for us (1 Sam. 17:47; 2 Ch. 20:15, 25:8; Ps 55:18). When God brought us out of the land of Egypt, his sole and main purpose was to be our God (Num. 15:41) and that he could be glorified through our lives. And hence he confirms that by assuring his children saying, ‘I AM, the Lord YOUR God’. He is not any god, but OUR God. We poor puny mortals get lost in our struggles and do often forget that God is on our side. Well, God too knows that and hence he’s given us his Word.

It is so important for us to get back to his Word, to study more about our God, to learn more about our struggle. We so many a times try assuming facts about what the Bible says because we have being hearing it over years. But what exactly does the Bible say? Who is this God we have on our side? Maybe this sounds like another preachy write up. But hey, that’s what I thought too sometime before. Till when I realized that I really don’t know anything much about my God.

Understanding who your God is strengthens you in your battle. Our victory is a cause for a big time celebration for him, and our loss is his loss too. You are the commander but keep in mind, the battle is his; the choices you make will decide the game. The right choice ensures you the victory, because you are not fighting the battle, but God.

To be able to take a right decision when faced with our secret sins requires God’s Word to guide you. We are so good in just doing a quick daily glance through the Bible. But I want to encourage you to take out some more time and study the passage you are reading. Being victorious is not something we can master in a couple of days but what we mature in through experiences. We are called to be victorious because God is on our side. It’s not a call that is a request, but an affirmation from God himself!

Along with the Word of God, we need proper Christian fellowship to back us up in our everyday life. Being in the company of God’s people encourages me in my spiritual life. The times when I’m down, there is the church that is able to push me ahead through some way or the other. Might be their enthusiasm to serve God, or their brotherly love, or their “Hi” and “Bye” handshakes, or their warm “How are you my dear friend” queries, or the discussions in our youth group, or those messages that leave me challenged, whatever they be, there are so many things that in some way or another gears me up for my spiritual battles. Fighting my struggles no more is a lonely affair. There is a huge army of fellow-brethren backing me up. Wow, now that’s a battle indeed!

On the other hand, the struggles I face really can’t be told to anyone. They might be so disgusting and horrible for people to even relate to it or to even believe it to be true. And if people can’t relate to it, it might as well as be a hot story for gossip. But how long could I keep all these things to myself. I needed someone who could understand my problems, counsel me, understanding the depth of my struggles.

Now when I look at my friend, as of a truth, it has made me accountable to someone at least. Now someone cares for me, knows me in and out, knows all those times I run around with a mask, knows those areas I’m prone to fall and can advice me and help me out at that time. Facing such struggles does put you down, make you lose your sense of direction; they make you so ill with God. You begin to get frustrated with life and yourself. At such times you need a shoulder to run to; someone who can put you back on right gear, someone who understands you and can relate with you, and help you even if it is in a very small way. It’s not that he is a perfect guy who can guide me out. He too is searching for answers like me. But we are no longer alone. I know that he is praying for me more sincerely than anyone else.

The Bible supports this friendship through the life stories of David and Jonathan, Paul and Barnabas, etc. Through experience I can say that it is very encouraging to have such a friend in your call to be victorious; a friend who understands you completely and someone with whom you can share all your problems.

“Flee away from youthful lusts” that’s what the Bible instructs us. Flee away from those pleasures that just give you momentary pleasure like drugs and alcohol. Avoid going to those areas will tempt you. Run away from the pleasures of Satan. Be alert in your battle because your adversary, the devil, is not only a roaring lion, but also an angel of light. Being victorious is a no easy task. So get up on your feet, sharpen your weapons, and get ready for the battle! Remember we are called to be victorious because God is on our side!!

BETWEEN GOD AND ME

2009-01-06T15:29:00.001+05:30

During the testimony time in church, one of my friends while sharing his testimony, exclaimed, “Only I and God know how we passed the exam!” Wow! Now that’s indeed a close relationship with God! Hey, it’s like as if he and God were walking through the same path of difficulty all along.

Maybe writing an exam is a struggle. But did you know that you are not writing that exam alone. God is there with you. God wants you to know that he has answers to your problems. He is that special friend who helps you copy when you are stuck in a problem. Not through unlawful means, but through divine help.

And hey, your struggles are not your own. Its God’s too! Your success is a time for celebration for him. And your failures do bring sadness and grief to his heart. God knows your struggle equally well as you do and better! He is the one who knows how well you have prepared for your exam, how well you’ve attempted the paper. You are completely open before him though you try hiding the results from others.

But be encouraged by the fact that he’s with you! Though you are open before him, he is not there to condemn you, but to help you. You never would have to walk alone, because through every step you take, he is ALWAYS there with you! His promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is unchanging and steadfast!

Experience that relationship between God and yourself. Reach the heights of his love, grasp the wideness of his ever-present presence, dig deep the depths of his wisdom, live by the strength of his power, experience the closeness of his friendship! I assure you, it is BREATHTAKING! If THIS IS OUR GOD, why do we need anyone else!

THAT SOMETHING SPECIAL YOU’VE EXPERIENCED IN CHRIST

2008-12-06T19:18:00.001+05:30

The next moment stunned them. Scales of darkness began falling apart as bright sun rays shone into their eyes. They slowly opened their eyelids and to their wonder, they could see! Jesus had healed those two blind men! They looked around in awe and wondered at God’s creation. Their excitement knew no bounds!

“Amazing!” a rich man exclaimed, “Who could give a blind man his sight back save God? Maybe the Jesus they were talking about is God…”

“Those lucky guys! They are my best buddies. They first came and told me what Jesus did to them. Wow, they can actually see! I’ve been here with them for ages but I’ve never seen them so happy. It’s not that temporary-kind happiness. But it’s special! They have really experienced something beautiful. Take me to Jesus, I too want this happiness!” a beggar exclaimed.

“Yeah, those two men…they would sit over there in that ally. Man they had some miserable lives! But now…I just don’t know what’s happened to them. They can see! They said that Jesus gave them their sight back. Could this Jesus really be the Messiah?” a street vendor remarked.

“No charges, absolutely free! Can you imagine? Jesus just gave them an invaluable gift,” a child excitedly said. “Wow! Jesus is the best!”

These two men really didn’t know how great and awesome that man was who healed them. They were just two ordinary blind beggars who begged their days for a living. All they knew was that this man had given them a new life, a new hope to carry on. No more had they to live in dirty streets begging for money. Jesus changed their lives and they deeply desired to share this good news with everyone. And that’s what they did! Hundreds of people came to know about Christ through them. Many were touched by their experience with Christ while many others greatly desired to meet this Christ. These two men didn’t have any great knowledge about Christ. But those few minutes they spent with Christ compelled them to go around telling others about their great Savior; from their best buddies to the street vendors, to women and children, and to the rich of the society.

Why do you love Christ so much today? What is that special thing you’ve experienced in Christ that always fills your heart with joy, that makes you fall down on your knees and worship him? Witnessing for Christ could be just telling others about that great thing Christ has done for you. It really doesn’t need to be fancied with attractive words of knowledge about God. But it can be something simple, something true, something that you really experienced in Christ that you’d love to tell others. That’s what those two men did. It didn’t matter to them how simple and frail their good news was, they just wanted to be witnesses for Christ. Would you share that special thing about Christ with someone today?

TRUE REPENTANCE

2008-11-27T14:31:00.002+05:30

It’s easy to break people’s heart. But to mend it back, through experience I say, it takes a very long time. Its painstaking for me to relive that day when a close friendship between two friends, who lived through years of childhood together, broke within a couple of seconds. Each time as I go back to that day, my heart breaks and my conscience hurts. That day brings me into light of how foolish and how careless I’ve been. But now I relive that day, just for the last time. But this time, with hope, with a much clearer conscience and with a burning zeal to never live such days again in my life.

While I kept arguing, he kept listening patiently. While I spoke out my mind, not my heart, clearly to him, a tear dropped through his eyes, but yet he kept listening patiently. It was like the phone didn’t have anyone else on the other line and I was talking like a fool. But now when I think over it, assuredly I say, I have been a fool. Misunderstandings did happen, otherwise why would I scream over the phone like some animal? And while I complained that he didn’t take an effort to work over the misunderstanding, I never took an effort to understand his pain. I just couldn’t put my feet in his shoes. It seemed like unthankful ground, it seemed like indifference. But was I the indifferent?

But all that didn’t make things better. In my haste, I called him up again making things worse. “Beep…beep”…and the phone was cut. Those ‘beeps’ made my heart to beat a hundred times faster. It felt like maybe that was the last time I ever spoke to him again. The very next day, I penned down an obligatory sorry letter. But he didn’t bother to reply. Again the next day, I beautified my words and penned down another obligatory letter. But he didn’t bother to reply again. While this continued for another few days, I tried to console myself that he might be just too busy to reply.

Through all this I maintained my stand that I was right and he was wrong though the letters spoke something different. But as I relived those days again, my conscience kept pricking me that I was the one at fault. I tried to put myself into his shoes to correct myself. I did find my mistakes, but his mistakes seemed greater to me than mine. But the guilt in my conscience didn’t spare me. It kept haunting me even in my dreams.

Even after a month into the incident, things didn’t get better neither did my guilt stop haunting me. Deep inside, I longed for a restoration. I longed for forgiveness. I longed to tell him that I’m sorry. But was this longing a true one? I wondered why years of such a close relationship should break within a few seconds. I began blaming myself for the whole situation. But all this just kept adding up to my guilt. In my pain, I again wrote down a letter to him. I was really afraid to talk to him personally fearing that I would land up saying something that would break his heart again. With high hopes I wrote a letter to him from a more sincere heart. But this time, I got a reply.

But his reply wasn’t at all nice. All that I remember in his reply is “I don’t want to be friends with you again”. This really hurt me to the core. I was even ready to go to the greatest possible extent to find my lost friendship. But this statement really put me down. Guilt got over me. I really didn’t find any pleasure in life.

I prayed to God earnestly to get me out of this mess. Even in my prayers I tried to goof up the whole incident. But God really wasn’t pleased with that. I had to be open at least in the sight of God. And if I wasn’t going to do that, God clearly told me that he wasn’t going to help me out of this situation. He made things difficult for me till I ran to my knees confessing myself before him. In his mighty love and grace, he made things better and restored me back my lost friendship. It didn’t happen in a day! It took another two months for me to actually begin talking with him like before. God was working, but it was a real test to my patience. If God wouldn’t have helped me control my emotions, maybe I would’ve done something foolish in the course of time.

Through this entire incident, God broke my ego. He taught me that it doesn’t cost much to accept that you are the one at fault. He taught me how to say sorry. He taught me to put in sincere efforts to take very good care of relationships. He taught me that relationships are not made in one day, but it requires a lot of patience and hard work from you.

Now when I look back to those days, I thank God for all that has happened. Though it took more than three months for things to get better, it was a journey never to be forgotten. You may say that I overdid the whole scenario. But though it sounds a bit too much for a person to do to get himself reconciled, its true of me! Why couldn’t he be the person to get reconciled back with me? Hey, why not I? If the love of God is really there in me, I should be the one to ask for forgiveness. And now as I read 2Cor. 7:11 God reassures me that he has honored my prayers.

“For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

Is this true repentance?

my SISTER and I

2008-11-25T13:17:00.001+05:30

My sister, this is especially for you. It’s kind of weird to talk to you through a blog post but it makes more sense to me as of now when I think over it. We live together under the same roof and yet when we see each other, we do have something new to say. You have your own thrills in life, the happenings around which you love to share it with others. But then there am I in the midst of your excitement, a difficult-to-smile kind of guy, listening to it patiently. Though I’m not bothered to say anything in the middle, I land up adding in a stern critic that says something like this, “What a pointless waste of time!”

When I look at my comforts, the privileges that I enjoy, wow, they are many. But it’s not the same when I look at you. Why is that so my sister, why? At times, I wonder if I am more special to my parents. Is it because I’m stronger than you, I don’t know? Is it because my masculinity is overpowering your feminism, I don’t know? Is it because, the world will accept me and not you, I don’t know? Is it because we were brought up learning that you are supposed to be confined to the four walls of the house, I don’t know? Is it because our culture taught us that your ultimate purpose was to have and nurture a family, I don’t know?

It’s recently since I started appreciating you. It’s recently since I started respecting you for what you are. I could never talk to you as freely as I’m doing to you nowadays. Maybe it’s because we understand each other better. We argue, we fight over various matters, we try landing into some conclusions, but I love it. We are yet young and the fancies of this world may soon affect us. But I will take all my care to see that you will always be precious to me. You are yet young, not in your maturity, but in your feminism, and you are exploring the world. It’s not that I’ve seen the world, but that I see it from different eyes.

My sister, don’t run behind your feminism because you will never be able to catch up with it. It’s not that being a feminist is wrong. It’s just that you’ve interpreted it wrong. The world taught you feminism is fighting for your rights. You should be treated equally, why shouldn’t you be? Why should demanding for what belongs to you, what you’ve been discriminated from, be wrong? Why should there be separate laws for males and females? I too agree with you that all these are wrong, and you should be treated equally. But as long as you run behind your feminism, the chains of masculinity will always hold you behind.

Fighting for your rights is fine and will work in a society which respects you. But in our society, though they respect you, they respect you otherwise. In our culture, you were always looked upon as someone delicate, full of grace, and a really shy person. But the sudden change in culture with the introduction of feminism turned out to be like an untimely birth of a baby. The baby grew but with deformities. And you, my sister, adopted that baby. The baby signified an alteration of the core principles of our culture. As this change was unexpected, it was rejected.

Maybe one of the best ways to come out of this wretchedness is to respect our culture. Sure, it’s not your comfort zone. But use culture as a tool to overcome male chauvinism. It would be foreign to go out of the bounds of a culture to teach people who are bound in the framework of that culture that they are wrong. But respecting the culture and being a part of it gives you opportunities to express your voice, your desires, your grief; your feminism! But this time, your feminism will mean much more to you than just fighting for your rights. You will achieve satisfaction without leaving anyone disappointed or ego broken.

When I look at you I see the beauty in God’s creation. I thank God for such a beautiful gift. I love the cakes, the ice-creams and all the special stuff that you make. And what do I do in return? Sit and watch T.V.! I love the enthusiasm with which you oft correct me when I go wrong. It does hurt my ego to receive a correction from you, but now, I take it as a challenge to believe in a change from different eyes. I thank you for those days when you stayed up awake late in the night waiting for me so that others aren’t disturbed entertaining me with canes and bitter-gourds in the night. What else…I do have a lot to say, but it’s my love for you that will say the rest. And still you are my bigger sister!

what does EVANGELISM mean to me?

2008-11-25T13:16:00.003+05:30

“What does evangelism mean to me?” This question oft stumps me in my shoes. At church I hear a commanding message, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel…” All that I take back from that message is ‘PREACH’. But, “WHAT DOES EVANGELISM MEAN TO ME?”

Rushing through my earthly morning rituals, I take my journey to college. As I approach the bus stop, out of the blue, a bus whizzes pass me. I run hard to catch it. But alas! The bus doesn’t halt. Disappointed, I hurl my feelings of anger at the bus conductor. “7:45 slow local to Churchgate has arrived on platform 2…“ On hearing the announcement, I run a 100 meter dash to the platform. I somehow make my way through the huddle of people and get into the train. “Who cares if they get hurt, as long as I’m safe in the train!” I struggle to breathe a sigh of relief when I hear some unmelodious instruments and people chanting “Om…Om.” To add well to my agony, a few poor kids walk up to me begging for money. In my rather suppressed fury I plead them to get lost.

En route, I pass by a temple. Looking at those people, I pity their wretchedness and console myself, “Thank God, I’m not one of them.” In spite of all the running, by the time I reach college, I’m 15 minutes late, welcoming the angry cries of my teacher. Thankfully, there are those cheery friends who without fail make up the day for me. Soon, the college gets over and I follow my routine promenade back home. On my way, I snack at the sev puri wala, quarrel with the auto rickshaw driver for the 1Re. change, bemoan the lousy cries of the beggar on the overhead bridge, and articulate my hundred complaints against the people in the bus and train.

Now at the end of the day, I still ask myself, “What does evangelism mean to me?” I never got an opportunity to witness today, my day was really bad. How can I witness in such adverse circumstances? At that moment, God in his grace answered,
“My son, it’s very nice to know that you’re actually concerned about evangelism. I do see the zeal in you to evangelize. But somehow things are just not working out for you. Unable to capitalize on opportunities, you stand puzzled on where to start and how to start. And today, well, you had the bus conductor, the beggars, some annoying people on board the train with you, and many others who somehow robbed you of those opportunities. But what if evangelism began with these people? You could have been polite with the bus conductor against whom you spoke roughly, and been gentle with the people at the station whom you pushed and hurt to get inside the train. You could have been more considerate to those orphans who begged you for some money. What if your teacher, your classmates, the rickshaw driver, the sev puri wala, the beggar, and the many people you met today, be people with whom you would one day share the gospel? If they ever are going to believe in the gospel, they got to see it in you first! Evangelism begins with a daily impersonation of the gospel of Christ. Evangelism must necessarily begin in the Jerusalem you live in. These people are a part of you furthermore they make or break your day. If you don’t care for them, what really does evangelism mean to you?”

TRULY! hypocrites

2008-11-08T16:00:00.004+05:30

First day at college, I make desperate attempts to keep myself updated with the new crowd. I search for new friends and in the process I find many of my old friends in the same college and we enjoy a hearty chat. Soon the bell rings and we hurry to our respective classes. The first day is really an exciting experience with everything new and many new people to meet. Within no time the first half of college gets over and we gather together for lunch at a place we secured for ourselves as our ‘adda’. As we ate our lunch, one of my friends asked me a question, “Are there any hot ones in your class?” At first, I couldn’t understand his question but then another friend slipped in a reply, “Hey, do you think he will be interested in those things? He’s not like us that he should be crazy after girls. Forget being crazy after the good ones. Am I not right?” I give a weird smile and mumbled, “Yeah, I guess…”

Look here or there, in school or college, in posters or hoardings, in television or internet, in newspapers or magazines, there is one topic that has fascinated the youth and teens – sex and love. There has developed a craze for sex and love among teens that they feel it need be an essential part of them. Sex before marriage has become so famed that the truth and sanctity of sex has been marred down the lane. While sex is an extreme, flirting, fleshly love, kissing, etc. have all become socially acceptable. There need be an essence of filth in the conversation of these people without which they feel they aren’t up to the standards of their peer group.

At the same time, to your disappointment, you are there in the midst of all this allure as a Christian, struggling with such friends. While they love to indulge in all these topics, you’re kind of confused on your stand. Though you know that all that they are talking is wrong, the talk just sticks back with you. It’s hard for you to confess that those talks would have enthralled you a little. But because you’ve to maintain a good testimony among your friends, you try hard to pay a deaf ear to their vain conversation. If they talk to you on the same, you slowly shirk away from them. But your fascination with the topic leaves behind with you a longing in your heart which you are unable to express. Aren’t you a hypocrite?

And there are times they crack jokes on sex, love, the opposite sex, etc. and laugh heartily. But you, as a Christian, cannot do so and pretend serious. You too want to laugh with them because it’s funny, but your conscience pricks you reminding you that you’re a Christian. While they laughed their hearts out and after a while forget about the joke, you find yourself still thinking about the joke and often laughing within yourself. Then there are times they see a beautiful girl pass by and comment on her and have fun on her. But you as a Christian turn away your eyes from such pleasures. You too like that beautiful girl, but you are unable to show out your pleasures. Your friends are observing your every move, and well, they count you as a good person. However, as soon as your friends leave, you wait back and take a second glance of your desire. Then there are times when you see your friends flirt around with the opposite sex. You know that flirting is wrong courtesy Bible. But you’ve never had such a privilege with the opposite sex and you long for such kind of a relation. Aren’t you a hypocrite?

You’re travelling in a bus when you see a bad hoarding pass by. You know that looking at it is wrong but since the first glance was left incomplete, the need for the second glance becomes essential. And since you are all alone, you turn behind and quickly grasp the second glance. Then there are other times when you open the newspaper to see a picture of a female dressed scantily. You then look around to see your parents nearby. You wait for them to leave and then hurriedly take a glance at the picture. Then there are times when you are at home all alone. You switch on the T.V. against the orders of your parents and watch a movie. That’s fine, till you see forbidden things and taste the forbidden fruit, desperately scrolling through channels till your desire is quenched. That’s the T.V., less talk about the internet. You know that all these things you do are wrong and displeasing in the eyes of God. But at the same time, your basic Bible knowledge saves you and you happily call back to remembrance that God forgives you ‘seventy times seven’. Now you’re a true hypocrite, aren’t you?

When you misuse God’s gift of grace, remember he’s hurt and crying. He hates hypocrites! Truly, fighting your flesh and your lust is not easy. You might be falling every 9 out of 10 times. When you do want to take a stand for God your flesh so often persuades you into doing things that displeases God. At these times you tend to resort to a mask so that the ‘true you’ will be hidden from others. Remember these struggles you face will be there with you for a long time and it’s not easy to leave behind. You need God’s grace and strength to overcome it. But running around with a mask will not lead to any solution. He doesn’t bother about your 100% attendance in church and the many number of spiritual activities you are involved in. You are just using God and his church as a stage for hypocrisy. Now that’s very hard for you to admit. Admitting it will mean you will have to make drastic changes in your life. God wants you to be open before him and before everyone. He wants you to experience his strength. The first step to making a change in your life is to accept that you are in need of a change. Take the first step and stop being a hypocrite!

TRICKS and treats of FOOTball

2008-11-08T15:55:00.005+05:30

GOALLLL!!!!!!.....I hear that and I go wild……wild if our team scored a goal and I go running around crazy happy else wild because I’m mad that the other team got through us. If the latter’s true….hope the goalkeeper isn’t anywhere around me else he is sure to have a bad day. Football is something that has captured the hearts of millions through ages. Die-hard fans of football travel the world round just to support their team. Wow that’s crazy football….I like it but it’s hard for me to digest. Anywz….football and me…we’ve been good friends for a long time…I’ve seen myself progress playing football…and blah blah…errr…did I say something wrong?

I categorize footballers into a couple of groups. It makes sense to call them footballers because each one of them thinks that they are the best or maybe another C.Ronaldo or Henry. Whatever, this is the best part of ‘gully’ football or ‘street’ football. Everyone believes that he’s got the best plan for the team. Going out of the conceived strategy finds nasty looks and whispers going down the field against the offender. Thus is born the groups of footballers.

Let’s talk about the group of not-so crazy enthusiasts who believe in playing football because their friends play it. These guys come down on the field just to kick the football around. It doesn’t matter to them where the ball is going to go, or into which goal he kicked it into, or if he just robbed the ball from his own player. What matters to him is that he gets to kick the ball. And if he doesn’t get the ball, he might be well satisfied with kicking someone else’s leg. And at the end of day, he will exclaim, “Wow that was a good game…wasn’t that?”

Then there are those who stand around and they just keep doing that throughout the whole match. “Can’t he pass the ball…?” he mutters to himself all the while standing away from the main game. If life will ever improve for him is when he actually get a pass and messes up the whole game. “What the hell….why did you pass the ball to me. You know that I wasn’t ready. You should have at least called out. Damn it…all because of you….” he exclaims aloud to the fellow who passed the ball to him and walks away with a big grin on his face as if he accomplished something.

Then there are those who believe in themselves much more that what they are capable of. They believe that they have a perfect plan jotted down and run ahead asking for a pass. The other team players see his confidence and readily pass the ball to him with high expectations. And poofff…he manages to kick it out or maybe just run over the ball leaving behind those high expectations. And then he will look back and scratch his head profusely and hush “that pass was a bit too fast…”

Then there are those who get fed up with the way his team is playing and when he gets the ball runs with it determined to score cutting past his own players. All that he can see is the goal and the ball under his foot. He does a trick or two along the way getting past those players who really don’t play well and in his determination continues running with the ball. Till finally when he is about to shoot, someone walks by him and slips the ball away from him. But alas!! He is too late to change plans, too late to shun away the nasty looks and too late to run away from the wild critics thrown out in the air. Frustrated he looks back and gives a sad look saying, “Come on…I thought you guys will help me…”

How can I forget those real passionate footballers? These are the guys who breathe in and out football - guys who stand out for hours trying to master the craziest football tricks. They can pull out of their sleeve some of the toughest football tricks. Well it is a treat to watch them performing these tricks, but on the field, they are no special. Where did all the tricks go?? They say, “The ball didn’t have sufficient air.”

Then there are they who oft complain that they have become old (…they are still in their early 20ies) and cannot play as well as they would actually play. They brag about their past and remember their old days when they kick the ball outside instead in the goal and say, “Oooh, how I miss those good old days…”

Then there are those who really play well. These are the players, everyone actually claim as the king of football on the field. They do perform, they do play very well and they do know how to maintain their reputation on the field. If you ever do want to spot these guys just look around for half-a-dozen players running like wild dogs behind a person trying to get the ball from him or else at least trying to trip him down.

Then there are people like me who can nicely fit into all the above categories (guess not in the last one) and still stand aloof the field and say, “Man! These guys can’t play as well as me…”

QUICK takes

2008-11-07T15:56:00.002+05:30

The Great Crash:
As 2008 began, the investors and traders began the year just like us with new commitments and better initiatives to boost trade and speed growth. The SENSEX began at around 10,000 and steadily progressed like as if it would conquer great heights. And soon within a couple of months it did and conquered the 20,000 mark. Then like as if the fuel got over, amidst the party and celebrations, the bull came crashing down. Investors lost millions of rupees and thousands went bankrupt. The uprising engineered the richest man in the world, but the downfall threw-out the biggest loser in the world, and yes he was once upon a time, the richest man. While the downfall wasn’t local but global, India was lucky enough not to be as badly hit as the other countries. The government rushed in to the rescue shelling in cash and bailouts, ensuring liquidity in trade (I don’t know what this means), etc. to ensure companies don’t go bankrupt and lose out in the race. While most of the money traded in the process is just mere paper and ink and not hard copies of the same, a loss or a gain is just a matter of erasing or adding a couple of zeros from your profit of 100,000. The misery of the Great Crash was the number of people who committed suicide. Young families were found dead because they went bankrupt. Even till now cases are being reported of such suicides.

The Marathi ‘manoos’
He got arrested, well to our curse and discomfort. He was put behind judicial bars, so that we could be barred in our own houses. People say he is their Savior. But I find him as a nuisance. He is Raj Thackery. Not that I support or like the Thackery family, but this guy is a real big nuisance. He would be having hundreds of people just to scratch his arms or legs when a mosquito bites him. That’s the kind of support he enjoys. Following the tradition of Shivaji Maharaj, the Thackery family are on the roads trying to ensure that every Marathi ‘manoos’ enjoys all comfort and privileges. Wow, that’s dedication and commitment to a cause! I love such commitment but I hate his attitude. I hate his methodology. I hate the echoes of his footsteps. All that he does is resort to violence and aggressive agitation so that his word is counted as law. What is better to do - see your car being smashed up or sit home and watch other cars being smashed up? Obviously the first one, unless you own a car factory. That’s what he does to ensure he is law. Yup, to ensure that he is law.

Recently he launched violent assaults on North Indians who came to the ‘city of dreams’ to see their dream unfold its wings. These poor people didn’t know that their wings would soon catch fire and disappear into pits of misery. Then he sent out inciting and provoking messages to the North Indians asking them to evacuate Mumbai. Well even the police fear this guy. Even if they try act fearless in the media, bribes would shy them down to their former state. That’s the police – a group of people struck by corruption and ignominy.

He talked in the media like a king and challenged the police to arrest him – and that’s what they did. He got arrested, his supporters ran out on the streets with stones and sticks and the city griped in a hidden fear. Most of the people were barred behind the four walls of their houses fearing the worst. I love this guy’s commitment, but I hate his approach. Why does he have to resort to violent agitation to get his cause done? Why does he have to disrupt the whole society and defame the society? What does he think of himself - someone greater than the law? Isn’t there a better way to develop a society and bring progress to your community?

The Revolutionist
He came, he saw and he conquered. He shook the world with his ideas. He won hearts of millions through his speeches. He stepped down to the level of children, the young guys and well, also stood up firm, collar to collar amongst the best in the society. When he stood to speak, the world wondered, when he spoke, the world admired, when he ceased speaking, the world applauded. They wondered because he is not their own. They admired because he spoke their hearts out. They applauded because they ‘believed in change’. “Yes! We can”, “The change has come”…he echoed down these mottos into the hearts of the people and into time and history. An Afro-American, he’s writing a new era of change in the history of America. Hail, Barack Hussain Obama – the revolutionist.

While America was cumbered under the fears of her crashing stock market & her economic woes, her miserable state in Iraq, her children crying for cheaper education, the gays and lesbians fighting for recognition, her standards going down in the world, there arose the revolutionist and addressed the nation the answers to her grief.

His first speech, “The audacity of Hope” got him a Grammy. But his victory speech, as the critics say, lacked quality. He’s just began his presidency, but how long will it survive? The world has put their trust in him. Will he uplift their hopes and deliver? Will he be able to paint his incredible speeches into works of art painted into the heart America? Will he be able to overcome his immaturity in politics and mature into a President? Will be bring in ‘the CHANGE’? Will he indeed be a revolutionist?

PAINTING A NEW ART WITH COLORS OF MEMORIES AND LESSONS

2008-10-09T16:17:00.002+05:30

Time’s running real fast. It’s already one year into writing my blog. One year of painting a new art with colors of memories and lessons I learnt in life. I look at my blog and can today exclaim “WOW!!” Couple of years back I never would have imagined myself writing like as of today…forget the idea of writing a blog. Well I know that I’m not at all up to the level of professional writers. And all the gRamMaticle misTAkesS that keep occurring frequently in my blog makes me laugh as I read back through it.

My blog has frequently got its wardrobe changed with new layouts and designs. But after all, all the design just sticks to the predefined templates provided by blogger (Hey BLOGGER we need new better looking templates and more flexible ones!!!). Unfortunately I do not know much of HTML and thus cannot a create better one. Recently my sister started writing a blog for the first time (ohh my gosh…I forgot to add her blog to my blog links…hope she spares me…) and happily it was my turn to give her out my pieces of advices on how to run a blog. But she got a better hand in one area. She found a cool template for her blog via the internet. And my dulled out brains forgot to think of such a stupid thing. And now I’m stuck with this template. Well not that I don’t like the present one, but I out of competition put my googling skills on the run and found out cool new templates for my blog. I uploaded one, but that didn’t work and so a few couple more. Suddenly one of them worked, and whoa I was all ready to see the new attire of my blog. But ‘Crrrraaaasshhh’….(that’s how it actually sounded in my dulled out brains…) my ideas shattered into micro-granules that immediately flew away with the wind. The blog looked completely messed up with all my widgets scattered here and there haphazardly. In the process, I was asked to delete some widgets before saving the new template. And my happy excited –at that time stupid- conscience said OK and voila…3…2…1…the widgets got deleted. DUhh myself…those were very important widgets!! And I forgot to backup the details of those widgets. And all my one year’s data vanished away as though it was never there. So then back to square one, I went around searching the net for those widgets. Thank God they are back again!

That’s about the widgets and the junk on my blog. Coming to more important things…posts…writings…articles…etc. I’ve seen myself improve in my writings and my style of writing slowly has changed, till lately, as some feel that it has changed a lot. I don’t understand such things though…I just write because I love to, because I feel I should improve my life, because I feel there has to be a vision for every mission, because I feel there need be a change in this world beginning in my life…blah..blah..blah…I can just keep writing on that. It really encourages me as I read through my previous posts, because the thoughts and the lessons I learnt so far has been immense. The scripture portions I elaborated on touches me today as I read though it. Sometimes I wonder if I really have written those thoughts but I thank God for his leading in those thoughts. There were times of ups and downs in my blog. Sometimes I could post up to 5 posts every month, but then it gradually decreased to a hard worked 3 posts every month. There were two-three months when I didn’t post at all anything. As I look back to those days today, I realize that the cause of it was my spiritual failures and struggles I lost. And there are some posts too which when I read today, I find myself not agreeing completely to those posts. But I want to leave those posts as they are, because it refreshes me on my thoughts I left behind.

A very big complaint I received was, obviously, I write too big posts or say, ARTICLES…I know that it’s really difficult to read something as big as 1200 words in a single sitting. I write this big maybe because my essays are not a precise writing or because I want to make my point loud and clear or maybe because I just want to keep on expressing myself till I’m satisfied. Sorry for that, but I hope to make stuff a little bit smaller. Ooops already 750 words…chalo..now I got to stop….

Ending with, I want to first thank God for giving me this gift of writing and for helping me thus far in writing this blog. Also I thank all of you who faithfully are reading my blog and even all of you who do once in a while peep in (remember it’s open to all - 24x7 hours). A special vote of thanks to Joe who helped me mature this blog and develop in me a ‘skill’ to write. Thanks to his invaluable critics, my writing has improved thus far. While reading my blog do spare a few minutes and post a comment if you feel like. It encourages me. Anywzs…Enjoy Reading Everyone!!...and be a part of my blog. Thanks.

FLIPPING THE COIN IN ORISSA…WELL NOW…TAILS FROM HEADS

2008-10-09T16:15:00.001+05:30

Recently I interestingly scrambled through the pages of The Week magazine getting myself updated with its cover issue. However, as if it was unexpected, the cover issue turned out to be on the violence against Christians in India, esp. Orissa. With all the violence going on around, The Week’s focus brought into light a rather different view of the whole situations with respect to Christians. They made the whole situation look like as if the Christians are to blame for it. While the Christians got persecuted and beaten up and some to the extent of even being killed, the cover issue flipped the coin in Orissa. They got in people from the opposing parties to speak up. While the opposition readily spoke up their mind, it embarrassed me slightly.

Back to square one. The VHPs the Bajrang Dal and the other opposition cried aloud their agitation and anger into the pages of The Week. They alleged that the Christians were ‘presenting their gods and goddesses in a bad light’. While the issue of forced conversion was still there present in their allegations, they focused more on this new allegation. The head of the opposition stated that they would continue their violence and attack on churches if the Christians wouldn’t stop forcedly converting and presenting their deities in a bad light. And they stated that if the Christians would stop doing the same, they would too stop their violence.

So what is this ‘presenting their deities in bad light’? It all started when they attacked a church and found a book which accused the gods of the Hindus of various things and thus presented their deities in a bad light. It was this issue that really got into their nerves. But now what was wrong in that? Don’t we have the freedom of speech? Can’t we exercise our rights and speak out our minds to the world? If we do feel that there is something bad in someone else’s god, don’t we have the right to say so?

I guess not!! If you can’t believe it, believe it because God says so, because the Bible says so! If we turn the pages of the scriptures to Exodus 22:28 we see that God tells us not to abuse or speak evil of any god. And here we are writing books and volumes of books over each god of another religion, abusing them and presenting them in a bad light. Well I may argue that God calls the other gods as gods having eyes but can’t see and ears but can’t hear, etc. It’s weird because God didn’t abuse them at all. He just presented the facts as they were. Whether it be an idol of Jesus or an idol of any other god, the fact that an idol is inanimate will always be true. So did God ever abuse any other god? I guess not. If we see the life of Jesus while he lived on this earth, he never disrespected other people’s gods. He gave people the liberty to choose between him and the other gods. So if God didn’t use his liberty as a sovereign God to disrespect any other god, how can we use our so frail liberty to portray any other god in a bad light? Respect all gods, whether you feel that they are true or not.

ORISSA VIOLENCE

2008-09-22T16:08:00.003+05:30

Churches vandalized, people burnt to death, people shot dead, Bibles and biblical literature burnt, people forced to deny Christ at gun-point, people’s houses burnt and property damaged, many forced to leave the State while many are homeless staying in fear in the forests, children tortured along with women, others chopped to death for standing for their faith. And the worst is that this is just 10% of the news. While the rest is hidden from the media and the world, the worst is feared to be much more dreadful.

Why the whole mess? It all began when someone killed a Hindu sage. While who the murderer is, is still a mystery the Hindu’s claim that the Christians were behind the murder. The media reports on what the Hindu’s claim,

‘This sage was a great reformer in that place. When he observed that Christians were involved in forcedly converting the Hindus to Christianity, he took a pioneer’s step and went around preaching Hinduism. He began propagating Hinduism like how Christian missionaries propagate Christianity. He began to equip youth to stand for their faith and not fall into the lure of Christianity. The tables turned on him when he was murdered by Christians who saw his ministry getting more and more prominent and their business going in loses because of his reformation. While he was loud on the fact that Christians were bribing Hindus with material attractions, he claimed that all this was a business for these Christians and they were earning in profits. Seeing all this lure and people from his own faith falling into this lure, he stepped out on a journey for reformation and thus gained respect and name in that village.’

On the other hand, the death of this sage didn’t exactly cause the violence to erupt to this big an intensity. As the media flourished the news of this murder, the prominent Hindu communities in Orissa erupted and thought this as the best opportunity to attack the Christians. A long time enmity between the Hindus catered towards the Christians finally broke into a mass violence after this incident. A group of Hindu fanatics, the VHPs, began the violence while other groups like the Bajrang Dal joined in the attack. Orissa is also infamously known for burning alive the Christian missionary, Graham Staines, along with his sons while they slept in their car. This heinous act was done by one of these Hindu groups. Keeping all this in mind, Orissa was a prime hotspot for torture of Christian missionaries. While the Hindus lost their stand on the Graham Staines issue, they now hope to recapture their stand on this issue. Right now they see themselves in the forefront leading the battle and heading towards a clear victory against the Christians.

Then there is the Christian community being tortured and persecuted. They are fleeing helplessly for safety. While the churches are shut on account of violence, even the Sunday morning worship gatherings are very rare. And it is not a particular group of Christians that are being targeted, the Catholics, the New Life fellowship ministries, the Brethren community, etc. are all being targeted together. While the Hindus claim that the Christians in Orissa are forcedly converting Hindus, there are many Christians who stand for their rights and deny the Hindus on their argument. Though the Hindus are huge in majority in Orissa as compared to the feeble population of Christians which barely go up to 1% of the total population of Orissa, yet there is a huge fear coupled with hatred being felt among the Hindu crowd against this feeble number of Christians.

Coming to the issue of forced conversion, what is forced conversion? How in earth can one convert a person to another religion forcedly? Is it by bribes, by lure, by material attractions? Karan Thappar, a prominent journalist and a Hindu himself famously known for his debates on ‘Devil’s Advocate’, correctly pointed out that a person who changes his religion on account of these temptations was never ever loyal to his earlier religion. Religion is an expression of freedom, a freedom which you express when you believe the god which pleased you. If at a certain point in life, you feel that another god pleased you much more than the earlier one, the Constitution of India legally allows you to change your religion and follow your new god. Following after a religion or god, comes from the heart and not from your mind. It is an expression of love not an expression which can be bought by bribe or lure. Unlike other religion, where there is a certain procedure to be followed for you to accept a new religion, Christianity does not follow any such procedure. Whereas becoming a Christian is a renewing of your mind and a change in your heart. It is not something that can be written down on papers which claim that you are a Christian; neither can Christianity be bought by money. It is an abstract expression and never a material expression. Hence, where is the issue of forced conversion?

If at all one claims that he was forcedly converted to Christianity, it’s eminent that his faith in Christianity was just a mere show for greed and not a real conversion into Christianity. And why did he ever leave his previous faith for Christianity? He left that god to believe in another God just for the sake of greed. He wasn’t at all loyal to either of the gods. What a fool is he! And there are the other groups of people who go around supporting these fools. Here, the Hindu fanatics, who just need an issue to create strife and fear among the society in the name of religion. They are going around destroying churches and killing people, for what?? In support of these disloyal people who converted themselves into Christianity and came back and told you that they were forcedly converted? What a pity! Add misery to your shame!

It’s kind of weird when you look at the whole situation that has erupted. Hindus are fighting against the Christians for forcedly converting many Hindus to Christianity. But what do the scriptures say? The Hindu scripture says that you have the freedom to worship any god, whether it is one of the millions of the Hindu gods, or Jesus, or Allah, or any other god from any other religion because all gods are one. And the Hindu scriptures makes it well marked that worshipping any of these gods will attain you salvation in the end. So where is the issue of forced conversion? If you are ever interested in your brother attain salvation, don’t be worried about his faith because irrespective of his faith and god, he will attain salvation.

I appreciate the tolerance the Christians have shown towards the whole situation. Except in one or two cases where they retaliated back, everywhere else they showed tolerance and patience. I remember the time when the statue of a Hindu god was marred and the whole city went on an uproar. However, the reaction exhibited by the Christians was exactly the opposite in this incident. While the media flashed the picture of the cross of Christ being broken into pieces, the whole community of Christians remained quite. Not that they accepted the situation, but silently suffered the defamation. If I was a Hindu and had Jesus as my god and would have seen the statue of my god being smashed up, I would have brought the whole nation to a standstill till justice was done. Hats off to the Christians for holding firm to the lessons from the life of Christ!

If you are a Hindu, wake up, its dawn! Night’s far spent, awake to rationalism! Know what you believe! If you are a Christian, don’t sleep for the times are too hard and will keep getting harder! Follow the pattern of Christ and walk through the narrow way till the end.

SEX & THE CITY AND AN UNSCRUPULOUS SPIRITUALIST

2008-09-17T11:27:00.006+05:30

“Help!! It’s coming after me! Help!!” I cry, but in vain. There is no one there to save me or help me. I look to heaven and cry for help, but I don’t have faith to sustain it. I run helpless falling into the pit of despair. I look around to see all darkness, feel all darkness and be all darkness…

I walked into the world and heard “Sex…wow!! Its life, dude! Its life!!” I opened my eyes and observed. I open my mouth and enunciate,

“From when did sex become so big a craze? From when did people adopt sex as a cult religion? From when did the world begin to talk over sex publicly and implement laws for it? From when did love redefine itself to sex? From when did smiling at another person indicate love? From when did kissing on the cheeks become lip locks with the opposite sex? From when did girls become hot chicks for trade? From when did ‘looking’ at the opposite sex become fascinations and wet dreams? From when did people begin to explore their own bodies intriguing themselves in new realms they think are unseen to many? From when did discovering the other sex become so mesmerizing? From when did the woman behind the veil begin to strip in a movie? From when did, not watching pornography, become socially weird? From when did sex sell as drugs and hotcakes on the street? From when did sex and pornography become the biggest industry in the world? From when??”

Maybe I was not born at that time. Maybe I’m not alive now. Maybe it’s all just an illusion and I’m sill sleeping. Maybe it’s all just a made up fairytale. Maybe I’m blind and deaf to not perceive it. Maybe I am an alien in this world. Sex…hey…I’m hearing that word for the first time. What’s that??....por…no…gra…phy??...that’s something new to me…anyways, dude, listen…I’m a spiritualist.

I walked into the church and heard “Salvation, justification, redemption, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine’…”. I opened my eyes and observed. I open my mouth and enunciate,

“Why didn’t the church talk about sex? Why was it considered as an unspeakable sin and a taboo? Why were my parents so hesitant to even talk about it? Why was mixing with the opposite sex banned? Why was every person sidetracked and watched continuously? Why wasn’t sex education given at the first place? Why were people reluctant to disciple and help them over these issues? Why are 90% of the youth stuck in the problem of sex? Why are so many youth addicted to pornography? Why is the internet and the television used for things other than its purpose? Why in spite of all this, they still claim their innocence? Why is the mask so prominent? Why??”

Maybe the church thought that such kind of a thing can never happen. Maybe they thought that it was all just a fairytale. Maybe they thought that teaching doctrine in church was more important than these. Maybe they thought that these people are still babies. Maybe they thought that knowledge in the scriptures and being present in church is the essence of man. Maybe the church is still under the influence of sleep…Wake up!! The night is far spent, O you church, awake to a dark morning!!...Sex…and church??...a white blasphemy…hey you listen, we are all spiritualists.

How would a spiritualist know such things? True, he is innocent, unblemished by this world. He is a man just born into this world who abides by the scriptures, page in and page out. He is lives an exemplary lifestyle. Hey but that’s with a spiritualist…not me.

Yeah, I’m too one of them, but just that I one day I thought I’m missing something special. I walked into the world and what a welcome! They brought me into the banqueting house as I discovered my lusts on something as sweet as wine. While the moon arrayed itself in beauty, I arrayed myself in robes of pleasure. I danced and had merry, till I was overtaken with ‘wine’. Then suddenly as I feasted, everything began to disappear. I awoke from my pleasures and looked behind to see the feast disappear leaving behind it shadow of filth and rottenness. As sunlight shone through the dark room, I saw my ‘wine’ bottle lying under my legs. I picked it up to see a label imprinted on it, ‘POISON’. I knew I had been doomed. As the day turned to another night, I found myself still stuck in this place. Suddenly the room lit up, music began and the huge banqueting table reappeared. I ran towards it as history mirrored itself to this another day. I ran and asked the gatekeeper, if this was heaven or hell. He said, “He that comes here never goes back again. If you define heaven as this glorious place, well, then THIS IS HEAVEN. Welcome to ‘Hotel California’! Welcome to the city of sex!”

I touched, I felt, I liked and I enjoyed it. It seemed as if no one else knew about it and I thought I discovered something fascinating. I fantasized it and made it a daily routine. It dripped like honey, sweet to taste. It filled my soul with feelings incomparable and made me desire for more. Till one day I realized that everyone craved for it.

Vexed and famished am I in the city of sex. Look here or look there, everywhere I find pleasures for mine eyes. Pleasures they are, as sweet as wine that satisfies my lust and kills my soul. Vanity of vanities though they be, yet I look at them and embrace them with a kiss. Sold myself to the city of sex in trade of some pleasures, I am a slave under the rod of my master. I run, but the city never seems to end. I hide, but his devils find me out. I cry, but I’m a bond slave till I die.

How painful is it, to live under such a burden and offence! How gruesome is it to suffer under the cruel chains of this wicked master! Through all this my soul is vexed day in and out. My daily battles become struggles for victory. But victory is soon marred by the victories of defeat. It’s so difficult to live a Christian life in this city of sex. With sex all around and even your friends enjoying themselves in the pleasures of sex, I stand on sinking grounds. I hush and giggle with them. But immediately my conscience shouts out loud that I’m a child of God. I shun myself away from the second glance when with them, but indulge merrily the second glance alone. I say no when they offer me porn, but… unscrupulous me! I then say wholesome lies to cover my unwholesome heart. Vexed by my desires and lusts, I give myself up for a little while to enjoy the pleasures of this life. A reckless spiritualist indeed!

A spiritualist undoubtedly I am, walking along in pride. Shouting loud my profession, I walk in white robes of disguise. What need I fear when there is no one to watch over me? God…well, he’s up there! What need I dread if I can run away from my own conscience? If there is something that I know very well in the Bible is that God will forgive me seventy times seven.

You? Fear you? Never!! You don’t even know me. You can’t even step into my shoes. Rather, you would know these things better. Yup, you…you, not me…! Haven’t you walked on the streets of the heaven of pleasures? Come on! Don’t bluff. It’s written on your face. Wasn’t this your experience that I just shouted loud? Kick yourself to your honesty. You are guilty! Your heart would’ve skipped some beats as you read it. See yourself being exposed! You laughed at me when you saw my mask falling off now I laugh at your misery…you hypocrite! You…you are a sex freak! Shun away!! Run away!! Run away from your own conscience. Run away from your guilt. Run away from the darkest side of your life. Run away before anyone sees you. Run away before you are caught in your misery. Run away before your mask falls down. Run, you reckless freak, run!!

“It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away, it’s a slow fade when black and white turns to gray, thoughts invade, a choice will be made, a price will be paid, when you give yourself away, people never crumble in a day, it’s a slow fade.

-Casting Crowns”

Confessions of a Reckless Spiritualist

2008-08-23T11:04:00.001+05:30

I write now, for better or for worse, writings that fade that soon will be history, gone with the wind
With ink of tears that hope to brighten up tomorrow though I stand knocking the doors of darkness
Scribbling my life on white-washed tombs within which lie a mockery of victory
I run! Trying to outrun my shadow of defeat but faint I realize it’s now my identity
What shall I say? Where should I start? All these thoughts run down a chill of guilt through my spine
If I could take one step backward and change the course of time, I wouldn’t be one step closer to fading away into despair
A Christian they call me, a born-again believer I claim to be
But as I scribble the first line trumpeting my faith, I see my mask falling off revealing my true identity

JUST AS you got a routine in life, I too have one. Just as you read your Bible while sometimes out of a necessity and by the time you reach the tenth verse you are half asleep, I too have a similar ‘Bible fiesta’. Just as life goes on day by day and you stand wondering at the end of the day ‘what different was life today from yesterday?’ my routine too is written down on similar pages. An unknown compulsion that drives my soul into the routine, a feeling of emptiness that creeps in if I stumble apart from my routine, a sense of pride that develops and runs up my spine as the routine becomes more profound and a sense of hypocritical achievement that I cater to at the end of the up-fall.

Being ruled under the mastery of my routine, I realize that living outside my routine is trespassing unfamiliar territories. It’s become a compulsion that I ought to follow or face consequences that can shatter the essence of my pride. To avoid the fallouts of the downfall I put on a mask of hypocrisy disguising myself to others as ‘a perfect one’-on par their conclusions. Becoming famous as ‘their perfect one’ soon gives me comfort in that mask. The mask soon gets embedded into my character and becomes my identity. The routine becomes me as I wear that mask and I become that mask. Then pride rises to unconquered heights and attains a feeling of immortality. Then I stand and look down to the world and sculpt a statue of my routine - I sculpt my god.

ANOTHER DAY at church and with the Sunday School Anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks, a lot of work had to be done. Song, skit practices and a whole lot of other practices left to be done; Saturday evening was a little exciting. Through all the hustle and bustle I managed to finish off with the practices and reach home before my dad turned red and blue.

On my way back home, I misplaced my music player in an auto rickshaw. At first I thought I would have left it back at church, and made desperate attempts to find it at church but in vain. When I realized that there was no way for me to get it back, I sat down in disappointment. It was dear to me. “Come on, it’s just another music player…nothing precious,” I told trying to console myself. But somewhere down beneath I felt a deep loss within me. I wasn’t crying for the music player, but a kind of sadness filled my heart. That night as I slept I sat thinking about myself. No more bedtime music. That night marked a change. Just silence and thoughts hovered about me. As thoughts dawned over me, I groaned and cried bitterly from within when I realized what exactly I lost.

HOW DOES it feel to be an addict? Bad, bad and really very bad…that’s what I can say through years of experience. Addiction can shatter one’s life and can destroy his character. Secret addiction is more destructive. It can devastate one’s self-confidence and can put him under a burden of guilt leaving him shattered. An addict finds himself caught in a fix between the false character he puts on for the outside world and the true character he dearly hides from the world. Telling an addict what he’s doing is wrong, will not lead to any conclusion or change in his life. Well, firstly, he would have heard that a thousand times from similar ‘advisors’ while secondly, he too admits it! An addict loves a person who can guide him out of the mess he has created. Well, I’ve not written a theory of assumptions, it’s my experience. When I look at my life now, I just hate and am disgusted by the mess I’ve created.

MY LIFE was not at all cool through that whole week, at least in the sight of God. Oft getting into stuff that didn’t please God, I ruined my entire week. As the desire for sin grew in me, I got desperate to satisfy myself. It would have been fine if had this been a sudden problem. Frankly, it’s been following me for over a decade! And the solution for it…well, I have a God who forgives me and he will ALWAYS forgive me. Taking advantage of his grace I ran into gutters of stinking water which seemed to me as rivers of pleasure and comfort. This whole stuff breaks my heart as I write it.

THERE HAD to be something done! Being stuck in such a misery for a long time, I had to do something to come out of this mess! But how? Every time I tried to pull myself out, I kept sinking deeper. I needed help and desperately. I would sometimes cry before God when I was all alone just asking him for his help. I knew his promise that he is always there to help me but… When temptations stood a test against me, I would try hard to let go my desire for pleasure, but just couldn’t succeed. Sometimes, I would feel that I was too weak to claim God’s strength. Other times I would give up myself to pleasures, willing. Caught in a net of self-made failures, was I running away from his presence?

I found friends who tried to help me and guide me out of this mess but their efforts just strengthened me emotionally. The advantage, they helped me make myself responsible to at least someone. To some, I could talk freely about the problems I face. But at a certain point I realized that even they are not perfect. They too were facing similar problems. They too were still fighting themselves out of their problems. Their help would just encourage me of the fact that I am not alone in the struggles of life; there are people with similar struggles too. Again, one really wouldn’t seek advices from such friends but just encouragement. Once stuck in a mental framework that I am not alone in these struggles, I would land up getting disarmed and lazy in my fight getting myself back to the routine I created for myself! Somehow, all this just couldn’t provide me a real solution.

I was caught in a maze of reckless decisions that changed my life into a routine of failures. I was just running around a bush making no sense of my life. With no good solution to the mess, the routine created for me a mask of hypocrisy for a disguise to the outside world. I knew the mess I created of my life, but didn’t have the courage to admit it to myself, though I would readily admit it to my friends. It seemed as if the road ahead kept getting darker with no hope whatsoever. Through all this the mask kept getting deeper embedded into my character until it became my character, and I became the mask.

IF ANYTHING could be done, only God could do something. And Praise God, he acted. That night he spoke to me as I sat in the emptiness of my heart crying for something I lost unknown by me. As he silently whispered to me what I lost, I was completely shaken when he told me that I had lost him. I had lost Jesus! Me, a person so famously known to others as their perfect one, a person who people always saw as walking with God, suddenly lost Jesus! It may not sound fascinating enough to convince an addict, but it convicted me powerfully. I stood emotionless at the thought. God had to take away something material to make me realize the pain of losing Jesus. More than my pain, I realized the pain that God had to go through. As silence hovered around me, I sat down to listen to the whispers of God, for the first time, as he began to testify about me.

At this juncture I realized the mess I had created. I shook myself to tears of repentance. I got myself to admit the situation I was miserably stuck in. Things were completely a failure. Attending church, getting involved in spiritual activities, being active in church, with all those other church activities just proved to be a stage for hypocrisy. To hide the guilt that stayed hard with me after my routine of failures, I would make myself ‘visible’ in church. I had to admit this fact. All these years I just couldn’t admit this fact. Admitting it would prove disastrous to my pride. Admitting it would mean to make drastic changes in my life. It was just too big a thing personally for me to admit. The fact that I was using God and the things of God most of the times as a stage for hypocrisy really pained me. Faint are my memories when I’ve actually done something for God out of a true heart. The rest jumbled up into a platform to cover my guilt. As God kept blessing me in my life, I kept bundling them into the baggage of my routine. With all the things I claimed to be doing for Jesus already bundled up in that routine, I started taking pride in my routine. It became my mask of hypocrisy. It became my essence of worship. It became my god!

Now there was a new god in my life. One that was made up of failures, one that was an addict, one that didn’t have its own identity, one that was an hypocrite, one that despised the true God. Each one of these characteristics built this god-my routine. In the pursuit after this new god, I left behind my Savior. I left behind my true God. I outran Jesus! I lost Jesus in the pursuit behind my routine. This fact really broke my heart. As God kept talking to me in that night, I lay silent to hear the voice of God who cried as he spoke to me. His tears washed away my guilt. His pain strengthened me to leave my past. It gave me courage to face every day with strength from above. It helped me find a purpose in my life. As I end these confessions, my thoughts still stand afresh to the whispers of God that changed my life. If there had to be a change in my life, only God could do something!
Lots more to write on this, but for now, I limit myself. I want to leave you with this sincere plea; Never outrun God.

Jepthath’s Sacrifice

2008-08-21T21:33:00.001+05:30

It seemed as if the night didn’t seem to end. The clouds had covered the moon. Heavy rains lashed through the night. Lightning slashed through the dark clouds as thunders ran shivers down the spines of many. The night was never so dark since years. A certain unusual unrest ran through the camp. Not a soul was visible on the streets as the elders of the camp made their presence felt around. People sat in their houses in anxiety fearing uncertain futures. As time passed, minutes seemed to be hours as people eagerly awaited the word. Suddenly, a rustle ran through the forests. A shadow cut through the forests, as a man riding on his horse came towards the camp. The elders girded up their loins and made their hands firm on their swords. As the man approached near, silence chilled the hearts of the elders. He removed his sword and raised it high in the air and cried out with a loud voice,

“Hurrah!! Hurrah!! We’ve won…we’ve won the battle. It’s all over! We’ve won!!! The LORD God of Israel and Jepthath has defeated the Amorites with a great slaughter. Jepthath and his army are now returning back and will be here soon.” The victory cry echoed through the camp. Immediately the trumpets played the music of victory and people came running out of their houses in joy and happiness. The long sting of the night was over. Relief and comfort broke the barriers of anxiety and uncertainty. As celebrations began, the family of Jepthath was getting ready to meet their champion of war.

They weren’t just happy as the others were, their joys knew no bounds. Jepthath had just achieved something which the others dreaded and had proved everyone wrong. Although it was past midnight, the joy of victory echoed through the wilderness. Jepthath’s wife ran to the farm and chose the best of the lambs and got herself preparing a grand feast for her husband. Jepthath’s daughter was planning something very special for her father. She ran to the nearby houses and called all her close friends. Her excitement knew no bounds. They got together and prepared a big welcome ceremony for her father.

Morning dawned. Birds chirped sweet melodies and the cock crowed its familiar tone. The sun shined its first rays of light as the dark clouds gave way to a bright new morning. Preparations were still going on in the camp when suddenly the trumpets sounded. Far away yonder, light shone through the forests. Horses and chariots paved their way through the woods as people marched their way to the camp.
“Here comes Jepthath! Here comes Jepthath!!” the messenger cried out his lungs. A wave of excitement ran through the camp. From the old to the young, all the people gathered themselves together at the entrance of the camp to welcome Jepthath and his army. Jepthath arrived with his army as the elders of the camp greeted them with a great pomp. He got down from his chariot, and gathered the attention of the crowd. He thanked God Jehovah for this great and awesome victory. Then he looked onto the multitudes standing besides him and cried with a loud voice, “Glory to God, we‘ve won the battle” Then the crowd roared in excitement and the shouts of victory echoed through the forests.

Jepthath, now all tired and worn out after the battle, longed for the company of his family. Then he looked around the crowd for his family. But they couldn’t be found. He ordered his chief general to search for his family. While they searched through the crowds, a small girl came running making her way through those hundreds of people and saluted Jepthath. “My lord, my lord, your family awaits your arrival at your home, “she told him as she tried to raise her soft voice over the mad rush of celebrations around her. Jepthath was all surprised to hear that his family didn’t come to meet him with the others. Disturbed, he saddled his horse and went towards his house.

As he arrived close to his house, he saw from afar lights arranged in a rather interesting pattern with the whole street decorated. As he approached closer, he saw a group of young girls and boys dancing in front of his house. A huge crowd of people had already gathered around his house by then. He got down from his horse and walked towards his house. Music got louder, and the celebrations got wilder. These young girls and boys put out a fascinating performance for Jepthath through music and dance. Then as he approached the door of his house, his daughter came dancing out of his house dressed in her best apparel and sang songs and played music on her timbrel.

Jepthath walked towards his daughter to hug her when suddenly his heart skipped a beat. His hands and feet began to shiver and his smile sulked. His joy broke like a jar of clay and despair got hold over him as he stood taken aback. “Alas, Alas…” he cried out walking backwards as if he had seen something terrible. He fell down on the floor and took the mud of the ground and covered himself with it renting his clothes. The whole crowd stood shocked. Music stopped. Not a sound was heard in the camp. His daughter seeing this sight stood speechless. She immediately threw down her timbrels and ran towards him.

Inside in the kitchen, Jepthath’s wife was putting her final touches on the feast that she had prepared for Jepthath. Her heart was overflowing with joy on hearing that Jepthath had arrived home. She just couldn’t wait to see him. While she dressed herself to meet her husband, one of her maids came and told her that something had gone wrong outside. Suddenly her daughter came running home crying and weeping. The beautiful dress that she wore was all muddy and dirty. The timbrels were missing in her hands. Things didn’t at all seem alright. She cried out and told her mother, “Mummy, something terribly has gone wrong. Something has happened to daddy. He’s crying and weeping. He’s even rent his clothes! Come quickly!!” Before she could even finish, her mother ran outside the house. At the doorstep, Jepthath’s wife stood dumbfounded at the sight she saw. She ran towards her husband who lay like a dead man on the ground. She fell down on to the ground and wiped of the mud from his body and tried to lift him up. Her tears covered his body. Then her daughter came towards him crying and weeping.

When Jepthath saw his daughter coming towards him, he got up and started walking away from her. He pulled out all the decorations in anger. He broke the instruments of music. He took the lamps that lit the place and threw it on the ground. No one moved as everyone stood shocked. “No!! No!!...” he cried in dejection. He then walked towards his daughter and caught her on her shoulders and shook her crying, “Why? Why, my daughter, why? Why did you have to do this?” She didn’t know what to say as she was all confused. He then bent down on his knees near the feet of his daughter and looked to the ground and softly said,
“Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back…” He then lifted his head to the heavens and cried, “I cannot go back!!…” he cried in disappointment, “LORD why did you have to do this? Why? Why only her? My only daughter! Take me instead of her. Why??” He kept beating the ground and throwing mud on his head.

He then took his daughter apart and privately told her, “My daughter, I’m sorry. I know you will never forgive me on this.” He paused and cried. “What is it my father, what is the matter?” she asked him looking worried. He gathered up courage and went to close to her ears and whispered to her, “My daughter, I have vowed a vow before the LORD that I will offer to the LORD as a burnt offering, anything that first comes out of the door of my house. And you were the first one to come out. You my daughter, you!”

She shoved him off her shoulders and stood astounded. She slowly turned her face from him and left him weeping out there running towards her house. She barged in her room banging the door right on the face of her mother who didn’t know anything about the vow and locked herself in her room and started crying loudly for hours and hours together. Soon the whole camp came to know about Jepthath’s vow. The whole camp stood shocked at the whole incident. Celebrations were suspended and silence was observed in the camp.

Evening ushered in sooner than ever. As the sun began to set, Jepthath went over to the top of a mountain and sat there overlooking the sunset. Thoughts ran through his mind. The day of victory turned out to be a day of great loss. His hands shivered as he thought of his vow. Killing his daughter!! He just couldn’t think about it. He cursed himself for making such a foolish vow before the LORD. And now he couldn’t go back on his word. He bowed himself and sat weeping and crying for his daughter. He was completely shattered and broken. No one dared to come close to Jepthath. It was all silence in the camp. Suddenly, a hand came from behind and embraced Jepthath on his shoulder. Jepthath turned behind only to see his daughter standing. She caught his hand and lifted him up and hugged him. As tears flowed, emotions expressed itself through silence and tears. She then bend down on to her knees and told her father,

“Father, my father, if you have opened your mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth; For the LORD has avenged you of your enemies. The LORD has done so great a thing for you. I am ready for whatever you’ve promised the LORD. But please give me permission that I may go up into the mountains with my friends…” she said broken and crying. “Let me alone for two months for I want to weep with my friends because I will never get to enjoy marriage. I want to bewail my virginity,” she broke out in tears and sat down on the ground weeping. Her father lifted her up and hugged her dearly and told her, “My daughter, you may go. Certainly go.”

Early next morning, she got up and embarked on a journey with her friends to the mountains and bewailed her virginity for two whole months. At the end of two months she returned back home and submitted herself into the hands of her father. She still was a virgin and never had any relationship with any man. Jepthath then performed before the LORD according to his vow. What kind of an agony Jepthath would have gone through while sacrificing his daughter! Indescribable indeed! He sacrificed his love, his only child for a person who loved him greater than anyone. At the same time, the sacrifice of his daughter was unspeakable. She gave herself, willingly, completely to God. Amazing! The whole camp stood amazed at the commitment of Jepthath and the sacrifice of his daughter. Yearly, for four days in a year, they remembered Jepthath’s daughter for her great sacrifice.

Hip! Hip! Hurray!! Here we go for Children’s Club…

2008-07-18T13:32:00.009+05:30

“WITNESSING….and me? Hey that’s not my cup of tea,” I would shyly mutter and slowly squeeze out of a conversation. Witnessing is something that is not meant for me, is an idea by which I would stand. I always felt that God has specifically assigned each person a role to play and not everyone had the talent to witness. For me witnessing was not sharing the gospel by mouth but a lifestyle. While the latter I strongly believed in and tried to practice, I would shun away from the former. Doing the latter was much easier for me. But sharing the gospel…to my friend…or in public!!...well, those things and myself never got close to each other. The only instance in my life I shared the gospel to my friend got me asking myself many questions about my belief in God.

Fear is what lurks deep down within me each time I am faced with an opportunity to share the gospel. How will I start?...what will I say?...what if I am not well prepared?… what if he interprets the gospel in a wrong manner?…what if he rejects it?…then will I ever be able to show my face again in front of him?...will we still be friends?? Hundreds of such questions would bombard my mind as I would stand succumbed to these unanswerable questions. Then I would clam down myself by convincing my shattered mind that witnessing for me is just a lifestyle. Witnessing as a lifestyle is what I still believe, the first step towards sharing the gospel. But how long!!!...how long will I remain in the first step of sharing the gospel. Indeed a child can never remain a child, he has to grow up!

“GOOD MORNING teacher…” Being welcomed by little children to another day at the Children’s Club, I walk in with a whole new zeal and with a completely different approach to life. “Well children, how was your last week…” that question would usher in a collection of stories and incidents that happened to these kids last week. “Very nice, today we are going to learn the story of a man who built one of the bigggggest ships in the world…Are you ready for the story…?” And before I even can complete my last sentence, there is a resounding “Yes teacher!” echoing in the classroom. “Okay, here we go…” With that it feels like as if I am sitting in the seat of a pilot with a whole bunch of naughty little kids sitting right behind me all geared up to enjoy a beautiful ride through the whole world…the Bible. Well, at times I had to pull the brakes in between to see to that all the children sit in their seats and before the plane could crash I had to get back to the pilot’s seat and continue on the flight…difficult job indeed…guess pilots should get some training from me…lol!

The ride in this plane is one of the craziest plane ride you will ever get and remember its FREE! From BC.4000 to AD.30 to AD.2008 to AD.2010…time travel has never been so easy! From India, to Egypt, to America, to Europe and back to India and not to forget, you get to stop a couple of times in Israel too! From ships to toy cars, from Indians to Israelites, from friends to enemies, from fighting in school to doing homework in the bus, from flicking someone’s pencil in school to dropping a bomb in Iraq, from Power Rangers to David and Goliath, from sin to the gift from heaven, from religion to true faith, from ‘Grumblers’ to some of my favorite action songs like ‘Twelve men went to spy on Canaan’, from flashcards to movies, from puppet shows to getting ‘Zonked out’ in games…etc…all that included in a single package that comes just for 0$. Amazing, isn’t it? Plus the added advantage of travelling in this plane is that you get to play a lot of games and sing some amazing choruses. And here comes my favorite, chocolates…for all those who perform the best in the class. Wish they would give me some chocolates for being a good pilot...

6 DAYS…18 HOURS per day…10 sessions per day…tons of homework and projects…can you imagine?! But that’s what I guess has shaped me into a pilot today…a pilot of a different kind. A pilot who is qualified to fly toy planes into the clouds of Biblical stories. Those days were more than a training ground for me. It equipped me with a better insight to the role that I am supposed to play. It kindled a small fire of courage and boldness in me. Though I faintly could see the results of the training during those days, now I can better understand the role that I can play to be much better armed for my Captain of the Hosts.

“CHILDREN DO you know that there is someone who really loves you…much more than your mummy and daddy? He wants to be your friend…yes YOUR friend…and he has a very big gift to give you…do you want this gift?” Child evangelism, that’s what I call it…that’s what the Child Evangelism Training Programme has trained me up to be - a child evangelist. Weird profession indeed! But that’s what the greatest Child Evangelist thought good for me.

Children constitute around 40% of the world’s population. India being the second most populated country in the world has a majority of children in this census. And among the so many people that die everyday, children are too a part of it. Many of them are fighting dreadful diseases like AIDS and cancer because of which they live in uncertain futures. Many of them live below the poverty line and face each day from hand to mouth. Many of them are deprived from education, leave aside quality education. Living in a city like Mumbai, I see hundreds of kids everyday…kids who though living in one of the richest city in India, still are under the dreadful claws of poverty.

Well, I can write a lot about the miserable condition these children live in but when I see them there is always a bright smile lit up on their faces. That really challenges me. They enjoy their life. Though they live in such poor conditions, they are satisfied with what they have got. They can laugh and smile through all the problems they face. Might be because they really don’t have any thing much to lose. The saying ‘The riches of a rich man adds up to his sorrows’ is true. Looking at the conditions that these children come from humbles me to my knees and teaches me to be grateful to the blessings that I’ve got in my life.

Flip the coin and see the other side of life. There are children from the higher class too. Children who enjoy all the pleasures life has to offer them. Never would they have worried for their daily sustenance. While reaching out to the earlier class of children is easier, it is very difficult to reach out to the higher class of children. But it really doesn’t call me to forsake this higher class of children. That’s when the Children’s club comes in.

“CRASH, BANG…heyy!!!...what was that big noise I heard over there,” screamed Noah. “Shem I told you to take care of that plank of wood. Remember that plank of wood will have to take the weight of two elephants. And if you plan to destroy it now, you are going to have a tough time with the elephants…the elephants…they are ten times your size and are nasty and untidy.” I remember those days in Sunday School where I learnt the story of Noah something like this…“There was a man called Noah….he was a righteous man….but the world was wicked….and hence, God destroyed the earth with a flood…...but Noah was saved in an ark…..and they lived happily ever after.” All that I got through that story was a lot of information, but scarce anything precious to take back home. But here are a bunch of children who are experiencing the story of Noah in a completely different way. Not just another Bible story with a ‘fairytale’ kind of ending, but a Bible story with a thought or two to carry back home. Through pictures and slideshows, through dramas and emphatic narrations, through daily life examples and history, it all adds up to a fun filled time of learning precious truths out of the Word of God.

Irrespective of which background the child comes from, he is sure to have learnt something valuable and have had fun along with the learning. While ‘Learning Bible Stories with fun’ is a part of the Children’s Club’s activities, its main motto is to evangelize. Through these Bible stories, we bring out the problem of sin and God’s remedy for it. Thus presenting the gospel to these children in a very simple way through which the child can easily understand the gospel of God. This is what the Children’s Club aims at and God has been blessing this ministry thus far.

SO…WHAT is a Children’s Club? A Children’s Club is as the name suggests a club for children - a club with a different motto, a club with a different music, a club that caters to every class of children, a club that reaches the gift of God to children. Once in a week we invite children from our society and the neighboring societies for an hour of Children’s Club. There are Children’s Clubs that are held even in slums and small hutments. These Children’s Clubs caters to every group of children irrespective of their caste and background.

NOW I am growing. No more a child in witnessing. No more one way witnessing. But taking the further step in life, I go on now to take witnessing from being just a lifestyle to speaking up for Christ. Well my feet still trembles and shivers as I stand in front of children teaching Bible stories. It’s not a child’s play, no way! It requires me to be prepared well before hand with my lesson. And still those questions do come in my mind - questions that pushed me down to humble myself before my fears. But now I face these questions with solutions to it, not allowing those questions to push me down but facing them bravely. As I look forward in life, I see myself wanting to do a lot for my Savior. But now I take one step forward in accomplishing a service for my Master as his humble servant.

Being a Good Samaritan

2008-05-24T20:23:00.001+05:30

It’s very easy in life to point fingers at the other person and put the blame of the whole situation over his shoulders. But on the other hand very few dare to put their self in the shoes of the other person and experience the problems that they are facing and going through. Being a Good Samaritan necessarily comes with a price. It needs one to take out a lot of time and efforts and care. Our Lord in the parable of the Good Samaritan expounded clearly how the good Samaritan took care of that man who was beaten and left half dead on the roadside. We see the Good Samaritan binding up that man’s wounds, pouring in oil and wine over his wounds, setting him on his own beast, bringing him to an inn and taking care of him. Being a Good Samaritan is not advising someone of his wrong but it requires one to be walking through the path of his problem, all the while helping that someone carry himself his cross to the shoulders of Jesus. It’s very easy to run away from the situation with the impression that that wounded man will arise and bind up his own wounds and walk alone to the hospital for help. But that’s not what Christ instructed us in his Word. He says in 1^st John 2:5 that a person who truly has known Christ, will have the love of God perfected in himself. Further in verse 9 and 10 he says that a person who abides in Christ will love his brother.

We see a very beautiful incident in the scriptures through the story of Elijah of how a Good Samaritan came to the rescue of a depressed and lonely Elijah. Elijah was really very depressed on hearing that Jezebel was out to kill him after that he had disproved the prophets of Baal and killed them. So out of fear, he ran into the wilderness seeking to save his life. Elijah, a man of God, a person who always depended on God for his every step, was here running away from someone who seemed to him to be much mightier than God at that moment. Elijah had forgotten that God was on his side and no one could harm him unless God permitted so. Elijah not only forgot God’s providence but also started grieving his complaints towards God. His complaint was that the children of Israel showed no signs of repentance and were out to kill him as they killed the other prophets of God. He claimed to have been very passionate towards God and have served him jealously. But instead of a good reward, only evil and difficulty surrounded him. He felt that God really didn’t love him much and wanted to question God about that. So he ran towards Mt. Horeb in search for God’s love and answers to his questions.

The journey to Mt. Horeb would take him 40 days and nights and it was around 400 miles distant. The journey indeed would be great for Elijah. With no food and water for 40 days and nights it would be really difficult for him to travel through alive. Also the terrain wasn’t an easy one. Mountains and valleys were on his way and the heat was unbearable out there. God saw Elijah even in this condition and instead of accusing Elijah of his faults and his unsteady faith, he sent his angels to strengthen him. They fed him with food and quenched his thirst. Not once did he send his angels but twice. He doubly strengthened him for his journey. And truly God is a faithful God who didn’t leave him but sought him out of his misery and showed him his love and reassured him that he was a God who really cared for him.

Here I want to emphasize the role of the angels. All that we read about the angels is that they came and touched him waking him out of his sleep and asked him to eat and drink warning him about the journey ahead. Being a Good Samaritan is playing the role of the angel out here. Firstly we see that the angels were sent by God with a purpose to strengthen Elijah in his time of trouble. A Good Samaritan should always realize that his ministry is initiated by God with a specific purpose in mind. Secondly, we see that the angels touched Elijah. Elijah was very weary at that moment and depressed. The touch of the angels would have provided him a feeling of warmth. A care that he longed for could be felt through that touch. It would have assured him that there is someone who knows and can feel the problems that he is going though. It is very important for a Good Samaritan to have this touch of an angel. It provides an emotional support and strength. It assures the weak that there is someone who is really caring for him. However, without this touch, you really can’t help your wounded brother. Thirdly we see the angels waking Elijah out of his sleep through that touch. A Good Samaritan’s touch should wake up the other person from his spiritual slumber. It should make him aware that his quest for seeking God’s love cannot be accomplished by a spiritual dearth. Fourthly we see that the angels provided him food to eat and water to drink. Waking one up from his spiritual slumber should always be followed by providing him spiritual manna to strengthen him. The dearth of his heart should be quenched through the holy manna of the Word of God. Fifthly we see the angels warning Elijah that the journey he is going to take is great. A Good Samaritan should always take care that the person he is catering to should be made aware of the road ahead. The path for Elijah was not an easy one as we saw earlier. It requires one to know thoroughly the problem through which the person is going through. It requires him to place himself in the shoes of the other person and walk with him that path. Warning him about the journey ahead is simply preparing him spiritually to face the problems in the wilderness.

Through all this we realize that some precautions should be taken. We see that the whole process is initiated by God and guided by God throughout. We see that the angels didn’t feed Elijah with food but let him feed himself. And lastly we see that Elijah, once he was prepared physically by the angels to undertake his journey, was left alone by them till he reached his goal and found his answers. Gearing up the weak spiritually is the main objective of a Good Samaritan. Finding his ‘God of love’ is a journey he has to undertake alone. The spiritual preparation should be good enough to last for those 40 days and nights in the harsh wilderness. That’s what the role of a Good Samaritan is.

Being a Good Samaritan is not advising someone of his wrong but it requires one to be walking through the path of his problem, all the while helping that someone carry himself his cross to the shoulders of Jesus.

Where does your faith stand?

2008-04-26T11:24:00.001+05:30

COUPLE OF months back, my friend and I were walking back home from college during which we landed on talking about God. The walk began getting interesting when I inquired about his faith and belief in God. He was a Hindu.
"God...?...," he said, "we've got so many gods and as statistics say, around a million..."
"Wow," I replied, "so which one do you believe in?"
"Me...for me all gods are one and believing in any specific god as such varies from people..."
"Yes, I do know that, but which god exactly do you believe in?"
"Well....being born and brought up in Mumbai, I believe in Ganesh."
"What about other gods?"
"Its really confusing, man! So many gods! You choose the one that's comfortable for you or the one which your family upbringing acquaints you with..."
"Ok...I heard that each of these gods have levels or positions and very few people worships the god that exists right at the top, while most of the people are comfortable worshiping the others..."
"huhh...this is news to me...is there such thing as the greatest god in our religion....maybe no one told me such a thing....yeah maybe there could be a god over the other gods...who knows?"
"hey...that's fine....its ok..I, too, heard it from someone else and maybe its not true. Anyways, tell me, do you think that each of the gods are passionate about his people?"
"Yes.."
"We know that each of these gods have their own group of people worshiping them..."
"Yes..?"
"If they are passionate about their worshipers, don't you think that if they worship any other god, they will be hurting the feelings of the earlier god....you understand...its like giving the other god more preference than the earlier one..."
"No....all gods are one....ya...but it could be true...?"
"So, do you think worshiping more than one god can make the latter god sad and feel deprived seeing you worship someone else other than him...?"
"Yes...but who knows..after all they are gods...myths... no one has any evidence about these things and all the texts are mere writings by people... or myths. Even Christianity....can you prove its authenticity...no, isn't it...what evidence do you have about the authenticity of the scripts."
"Authenticity...they are authentic, written by people who were inspired by God. There are many scrolls from ancient times still available..."
"But...you know that these writings could be framed very craftily...could be just a story or a fable written by people...its like they frame a story with an end result in mind"
"No..what will it profit them writing a fable and expect people to believe in it. On the other hand a fable cannot inspire, transform and change people. The Bible did!!!"
"Frankly, I'm really confused. Actually, I really don't believe in god, as such. Because my upbringing and situation compels me to believe in one, I blindly do so. I also don't know my scriptures well and have no big interest to find out more on the same. Just chuck the topic...its landing to no conclusion. Maybe we can talk on this later. There...I've reached home....bye.."

COUPLE of days ago I was on my way back from classes and was coming back home along with my college friend. He was a Jain by religion. Jains are those extremists kind of people who believe that even killing a tiny creature such as a germ is a sin. They do not tolerate any kind of violence. We were talking about our schedule for studies when curiously he put forth a question,
"Don't you go too many times to church?....I mean is there some kind of a necessity or compulsion on you?"
"No, rather its my wish...," I said, "It completely depends on me to go or not...."
"Compulsion in the sense of your parents forcing you?"
"No, I go regularly because it is my wish"
"Ok...," kind of surprised looking, he replied.
"What about you? Doesn't your religion compulse you to go regularly and worship god?"
"hehe....I barely remember the last time, I went to a Jain temple. On the other hand there is no compulsion as such."
"Why? Don't you have an interest or are you too busy?"
"Its not the question of being busy. I can take out time if I want. But things just don't happen."
"Your parents would be going regularly, wouldn't they?"
"They go more frequently than I do though they are not regular."
"Do you people worship one god or many gods?"
"We have 24 important or main gods whom we worship...maybe there are more gods... I don't know"
"So do you worship all these gods or any one?"
"Nah....we worship the god that is there in our temple. In different temples there are different gods. We worship the ones that are kept in our temple."
"That day I saw you go along with my other friends to worship a Hindu god."
"That really doesn't matter. All gods are one. Whether Hindu or Christian or Jain. I remember going to church when I was small...."
"But do you know, what you are doing contradicts each other..."
"I did....didn't understand?"
"What I meant was, on going to a church you accept a fact that there is only one God but at the same time, on going to a temple would mean that you are accepting the presence of millions of gods. As clearly seen, the ideas of each, completely contradict each other."
"No...that's not what I believe in...all gods are one...it doesn't matter in whom you worship."
"Anyways, tell me more about your god."
"these were people who were in this earth long time before but people never did any sin and thus through their good deeds, after death, became gods."
"Hmm..."
"These people attained "moksh" or "salvation" because of which they are gods."
"So can that matter to you...I mean, can you also get "moksh"?"
"Maybe...if I live a completely sacred life."
"If you manage to do so, you will attain "moksh" and become god."
"God!!!.....no..."
"But you just said that gods have attained moksh"
"Yeah...but..," a bit confused, "do you know something, I really don't know much about these things. What I have been told, I believe in it."
"Ok, so are you convinced in what you believe in?"
"Yes,,,ess??...Yes!!"
"That's good. Now coming back to the point that man became god due to his good deeds..."
"Yeah..."
"Do you believe that God is the creator of this world?"
"Yes.."
"So if he is god everything that you see around here, even the ground that you stand on, is created by him."
"Yes," he said confidently.
"Now, man became god. But when he was still man, he was living on something called as 'earth', which you claim was created by god. If earth existed even before god came into existence, then there should been a god before that who would have created the earth."
"Yeah,,,I'm getting your point..." completely confused and yet unsure, he said.
"Now look at the other side, if man became god, god would too have limitations as man."
"its possible, who knows?"
"So you see the theory of man becoming god cannot actually be possible. On the other hand god becoming man could be better reasoned out."
"Dude, see I am not sure at all on these things. What our religious teachers communicate to us, that's what we believe in."
"That's fine..."
"Fine??.....I am really ashamed. I do not know my scriptures well. You know your scriptures well...."
"Then why don't you get back to your scripture rather than blindly believing in what others say."
"Its a big work. Our religion consists of a number of texts and reading that would take ages. And I got no time for that now. Studies is more important. Religion will come into play when I turn old....maybe then..."
"Maybe you won't be alive till then"
"Yeah that can also happen. You've really made me think today and the topic is very interesting though arguable. I've got to go now....bye...."

TWO personal experiences with my friends I have penned down here. You would have been able to judge how firm their belief was in their religion. Tomorrow if someone comes and asks you about your faith and religion, will you be able to prove it and stand for it? I am convinced in what I believe in and can prove myself, too. Will you be able to do the same, irrespective of which religion you belong to, can your faith take a test of fire? Its up to you to decide.

Three things my Father told me

2008-04-01T11:01:00.005+05:30

LIFE TRULY brings you the best. What may be the worst in your sight is all in God's plan,the best he had planned for you. Life is really very interesting when you are able to educate yourself with the small things that happen in your daily life. It is then that you realize the beauty of the things that God has ordained life to offer an unique creation of his.

My father is one person who I admire a lot. He's really slow to speak and swift to listen, pondering carefully on the things that he has heard and then speaking out wisely. Its a very good quality to possess and not a few pursue it. through this past year, I recollect my experiences with him and take back with me three things he told me which marked a phase in my life.

BEING IN one of the most crucial years of one's life (as some may say), studying was everything. After a couple of months of continuous classes for around 6 to 7 hours a day, studies really would get a hold on my nerve. Bored and stressed out, I would frantically try finding out a way to relieve this stress of mine. It was then when I resorted to computer games, as a source of stress relievement. Things were fine for a while till i started getting hooked on to it and started becoming desperate, if I didn't get to play it. My mother would get frustrated and would complain that I was becoming an addict to gaming. Well, I still debate on being called an addict for I hated such a comment because it brought out the guilt feeling in me and made it hard for me to accept my condition.

Hearing such comments, I would start feeling very uncomfortable because my ego wouldn't allow itself being subjected to humiliation. Thus to suppress such comments, I would rather ignore these wordsand continue on doing the thing I liked the most. Later, on my mother insisting my father to take some action, I was asked by them to refrain from using the computer. But the crave was just too much for me to handle, and somehow I would find my way through to sit on it for at least half an hour.

One fine day, or should I say, one bad day, when I exceeded the time alloted to me to sit on the computer, my mother, frustrated, called up my father at office. Adding a pinch of salt to the complaints (as usual). she fired them through the phone line to my father. My father, quite upset, requested her to hand over the phone to me.

The next thirty seconds, he gave me a stern piece of advicewhich really shook me. He exclaimed, "Its gone far enough. Remember you are living in my house and if you got to live in it, you GOT to live by the rules layed down for it!!"

It was as if I was a stranger to him at that moment. 'Our House' had become 'His House' to him and well, it was like as if I was a paying guest or someone like that. Those words reallt pierced through me. I was really saddened hearing such a statement proceed out of my very own father's mouth. Would he have to do such a harsh thing to discipline me? What was once a mere entertainment had somehow turned into an addiction which then started controlling my life by laying down its own norms and regulations all the while making me lay aside the rules layed down for me in the house. But as time passed by, those words worked within me as a cure to my addiction. not fearing the consequences if I disobeyed his word, but looked forward to obey his voice and avoid the unthinkable. Though gaming still is a passion in me, I have learned to not allow the game to control me but rather play it as mere entertainment.

BEING AN active member among our youth group in church, I would find myself regularly engagedin various activities. I really had a desire to see the youth of our assembly growing together spiritually. My freind and I had prepared a feedback form for the youth gatherings, for the youth to fill in their suggestions and areas of concern which they desired to find a solution to. It wasn't an easy job as it required a huge input of time and efforts.

At the same time, tests were going on in my classes and I had to prepare for it. The marks I got in my previous tests were disgusting and I'd always commit myself in getting better marks in the next test. However, things would never work out as planned,and I showed no signs of improvement. It was during these tests, I was penning down the information for the youth meetings. That day, I fared miserably in the test and I had given up all hopes of faring well in the next test. Since I was stressed out, I thought I'll take a break for sometime with my friend and get those feedback forms sorted out to which my father echoed a ready 'NO'. But since I had to go to the market, I informed my mother that I'll be coming a little late, the purpose behind which was not disclosed. A trip to the market and back would not take more than 15 minutes, but for me, as it seemed to them, it took half an hour.

On informing the reason behind the delay, my parents got very upset. Firstly, I had gone down without taking the permission of my dad and secondly my mother had asked me to first take permission from my dad, to which I gave a deaf ear. My father was very angry for not listening to him. he didn't know what to say. As I took my books and pretended to start studying, he loudly muttered some words which really broke my heart. He said in a low tone, " You fooled me....you fooled me...." his face had turned red and he walked out of the room with a tear in his heart. I felt really ashamed and disgusted with myself for having been unfaithful to his word. I was the most trustworthy person in the house but at that time I had brought down all the respect to dust. Not only did he lose his trust on me but also was he broken from within. Not only did he shed a tear that day but even God. For what? Why did the whole thing happen at the first place? Because I disobeyed and went to do something that I considered as a spiritual effort rather than an activity. God would've never been honored by those efforts of mine because I rebelled against the voice of my parents. Its here when I learned, "Its better to obey than to sacrifice."

AMBITIONS AND goals are set by everyone in their lives. The decision that one makes regarding his carrier is one of the most crucial decisions he has to make. However, in my case life hasn't been so pleasant with me in helping me to decide for myself a carrier. Hundreds of different options around, but I didn't know which was the best path I could adopt for myself. It was always my desire to do something creative and different, but never knew where i could apply my potential to the maximum extent. I would really envy those people who would strive hard to achieve their goals. I would feel really ashamed when someone ask me as to what is my preference after I graduate from High school because I would've no answer. I soon lost interest in studying hard too.

Couple of days back I was recollecting the number of times my friend would ask the church to pray for him for his exams. This really made me feel ashamed as I had never asked God till then to help me find out the best carrier I was eligible to. That night I sincerely expressed my heart towards God and asked him to guide me in choosing a carrier. The reply came very soon and in the most unlikely manner.

The last of all the tests that I had to give had ended and I still showed no signs of improvement. My father was really disappointed at my performance. That night, he switched off the T.V. early and gave me a 10 minute lecture. What he told me perfectly made sense. He really didn't have much to say but what he said was this, "I've got a plan for you....but....you are not studying hard...." The rest that he told me, I barely bothered to listen to. But the one statement really stuck in my mind. No one had ever told me such kind of a thing before and no one ever showed an interest in helping me find out a carrier for myself. I was so comforted and happy within to know that even before I asked for help there was already someone searching out for me the best carrier that suited my likings. It was something that charged me up to put in my hard efforts. Why do I have to take thought about tomorrow when there is already someone who is concerned about my tomorrow.

That night as I thanked God I remembered his words, "Take no thought saying what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we be clothed with? For your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things." (Matt 6:30, 31)
"Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right"...not because God commanded us to do so, but because it is a servie that brings joy and pleasure to both the parents and God.

The Concept of human spirit and its relationship with God in the Old and the New Testament

2008-03-27T20:09:00.005+05:30

Question: Was the Spirit dead or alive in the old testament??
The Bible says that in order to worship God, you need a relationship with God.
In order that our spirit should worship God it should be alive which has been done when we accepted Christ as our personal Saviour.
Further, it is not possible to worship God either understand the things of God without our spirit having an interaction with the Spirit of God.
Man died spiritually(i.e. to say, his spirit died though it existed in him as a 'dead' spirit) when the first man Adam sinned. His spirit was then only made alive when he accepted the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.
How is it possible that the people who lived before Christ could worship Christ, if their spirit was dead ?... like Abraham, Job
Was it the sacrifices that they offered in the old testament that pointed out to the death of the coming Saviour on the cross, something that made their spirit alive?

Answer:
1) Let's see what is the role of our spirit.
Our spirit is the only way by which we can have a relationship with God. God cannot be approached through our soul and feelings. It is only our spirit that can communicate to God. God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit. When our spirit is dead, it is not possible to have a relationship with God. With our spirit dead, we are more like 'intelligent robots'.

2) How does our spirit communicate with the things of God or put in another way, with God himself?
The natural man (i.e. our dead spirit) cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them; because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14). Thus it is clear that we have to be spiritual (i.e. our spirit needs to be alive) to have a relationship with God.

Further it is the Spirit of God that teaches our spiritual man the things of God. We can never know the things of God unless the Spirit of God reveals them to us. But it is the Spirit of God that knows the things of God (1 Cor 2:11,13). There are certain things that we know of God which are freely given to us by him through the word of God (1 Cor 2:12). We can know these things only if the Spirit of God reveals them to us.

3) When is our spirit made alive?
Our spirit died when the first man Adam sinned against God. After that we see the second Adam i.e. Christ coming to this world and defeating Satan and sin and paving a new way to God or rather showing the world the only way to God. Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour becomes a child of God and the Spirit of God indwells in him. That is when the spirit is made alive.

4) How is the spirit made alive?
Rather than the redemptive work of Christ on the cross of Calvary, it was when we accepted Christ as our personal Saviour that our spirit was made alive by God. Note carefully, it was the faith that we had in Christ i.e. God that made our spirit alive. That is Justification by faith was the only way to God and the result of our faith, our spirit is now alive! Now who makes our spirit alive? Note that the Holy Spirit doesn't play any role in making our spirit alive. The new spirit is what God gives us (by the transformation of our old spirit through Christ) Ref. I Cor. 2:12.

5) What about the old testament times?
Well, Justification by faith was the only criteria to the way of God and that was the only way to God even in the old testament times.
We see Paul urging in his letter to the Hebrews, that it was only through the faith one had in God, were they saved and they could enter God's rest. We see in Hebrews that most of the Israelites didn't enter God's rest because of unbelief (Heb 3:18,19). God's rest here doesn't talk about the land of Canaan that God promised to the Israelites but heaven. We see God swearing to himself in his wrath that no one that believed in him could enter into his rest (Heb 3:11).
Also we see in Hebrews 11:6 that it is impossible to please God without faith. He who comes to God must believe (complete faith) that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him - the reward, salvation.
Apostle Paul further writes in Hebrews 3:14, that it is necessary to hold steadfast the faith that we have in Christ till the end.
The Israelites were such kind of people who believed God for their own gain and in their convenience. They turned to other gods when they didn't see all their wishes being fulfilled in Jehovah. That showed their faith wasn't steadfast with God and it wasn't consistent.
Till now we saw that even in the old testament times, Justification by faith in God held firm. And as we saw earlier that it was only through this faith that one's spirit was made alive in God and thus one could have a relationship with him.

6) So what is the answer?
Now answer to the question is yes, it was alive even in the old testament times but only through true faith in God. And that is how great patriarchs like Abraham, Job, etc, could worship God and have a relationship with him.

7) So what about the sacrifices in the old testament?
Sacrifices only depicted the work of Christ on Calvary. Through those sacrifices one could obtain forgiveness of his sins. It doesn't in anyway make your spirit alive. The latter can happen only through faith and not through fulfilling the law and it's works, i.e. through sacrifices.

8) What about the Holy Spirit?
We saw earlier that it was we can never learn the things of God unless the Holy Spirit of God teaches us those things.

The Holy Spirit permanently resides with us in our hearts while we are here on earth till the day of rapture.
In the old testament, I believe that the Spirit of God was there working among people though it didn't permanently reside within people's hearts. It only started residing permanently in the hearts of those who believed from the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit taught the things of God to only those whose spirit was made alive through faith on God. It is kind of stupid to say that the Holy Spirit wasn't working in the old testament times on this earth, because God himself is triune and works together in everything, though each one of the triune Godhead has a different responsibility.

9) What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and the Old Testament?
While in the New Testament, we receive the Holy Spirit immediately when we accept Christ as our personal Saviour. The Holy Spirit as mentioned in the New Testament plays specific roles. Christ promised us him as a Comforter, in I Cor. we see him as a teacher, in Gal. we see him as a Shepherd, etc. While the role of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is only for the edifying of the believers and nothing more, the Holy Spirit doesn’t play any role in our spirit being made alive. This is important to be understood if have to proceed further. Each person of the triune Godhead plays a specific role. It is God who gives us a new spirit while it is the Holy Spirit who works through our new spirit.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit had specific roles to play. Leaving that point temporarily aside we will look at another important thing.

God communicates to believers (i.e. people who put their faith in God) through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. He doesn’t communicate with us directly. We have a relationship with God because of the blood of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Note each of the three persons in the triune Godhead playing a different role.

In the Old Testament, God would directly communicate with his people. The Holy Spirit wasn’t required to have a relationship with God. We see God directly revealing his word to prophets and his elect. The Holy Spirit was sent only upon those people who had faith in God. The mission of the Holy Spirit was specific and not of that to establish a relationship of man with God. As we see in the book of the Judges, God first rising up his chosen. Then the Holy Spirit came upon the chosen when he had to be the judge of Israel (Judg. 3:9, 10). Since he already had a relationship with God (i.e. his spirit was alive through faith in God), God sent his Spirit upon him to judge Israel. The Holy Spirit was given for a specific purpose to the people. Its purpose being specific is seen in many incidents in the Bible. Bezaleel the son of Uri was filled with the Holy Spirit for the construction of the tabernacle (Ex.31:2, 3), the Spirit of the Lord was given to the seventy elders who was chosen by Moses for ruling Israel along with Moses (Num. 11:25), etc.

Secondly we see that the residing of the Holy Spirit wasn’t permanent as we read in the story of Samson that when he cut his hair, the Holy Spirit departed from him (Judg. 16:20). We read earlier that it had come upon him (Judg.13:25) and later when he accepted his mistake and realized his mission for Israel, the Lord strengthening him for the last time. The Holy Spirit was given to people as the power of God to help them do his service. It is obvious that God would choose only those people who had faith in him i.e. those whose spirit was alive in him.

As I end this discussion, I conclude by urging each one of us to recheck our faith and see where exactly our faith stands. Whether it can be drifted away by every wind of the world or whether it is firm in the sure foundation of the Word of God. Let’s strengthen ourselves in the Word of God wanting to know what exactly what God does teach through his word and learn from his word rather than depending on others.

Corruption and me...?

2008-03-14T12:27:00.003+05:30

The world really would have been a better place to live in had there been lees of greediness and corruption in this world. As people get richer, no barrier is too big a hurdle for them. With money in their hands, bribing people to move to their fantasies is now not uncommon. Uncommonness to sincerity and honesty is fast growing with more and more people resorting to a hazardous but an easier way out, through corruption.

As I sit back at the close of my examinations, I count all the blessings of God through the way in which he helped me thus far in my exams. But when I look back at those days, I see a dark fringe that really mars the whole examination system that I am soon going to leave behind.

Examinations were never so easy for students this year, like any other year as I suppose. Even if you didn't know half your portion well and you barely have any time left, don't worry, there's always a third way out. But be sure to keep along with you a few hundred bucks in hand, and whoa, life becomes simple. You might be in the merit list too, who knows?

Corruption has so mightily swept the examination system that I guess it will never recover again. I remember the incidents that took place during my practical exams. There would be an external examiner who would come for supervision along with the other professors in our college. It wouldn't be even for half an hour that you would find her doing her job. The other professors would take her out for some 'tea and snacks' and return late. During that span of time, peons and teachers would usher in answers and help to all in need. Some students would even pay 'tips' for the same. Well you would counter-argue by saying that they would obviously help the students from their college and......it only practical exams!!!

If that wasn't enough corruption, the decline of the examination system carried on to the main papers. In some colleges, before the examination would begin, peons would leak out the question papers. In other colleges, examiners would read out the answers to the students and help them out in their paper. In other classes copying wasn't a big deal with the professor most of the time outside the classroom or sleeping, yea sleeping!! Others would allow them to copy instructing them to study better next time and come prepared for the exam....next time??....well that is possible only if he fails!

Well if you think I am bluffing, I don't know how to bluff. The stuff is so true and scary, that it really leaves you baffles at times. In a world ruled by competition, every single mark counts. That which separates a good student from a weak one a couple of years ago would have been these marks. But not so now. It really acts detrimental to those students who really works hard. They get left behind with other corrupt people getting a better piece of the cake with no effort.

But what is my stand as a child of God? Do I follow the footsteps of the world? You would probably say no, and to say that is easy. But when I look back at those exams, sometimes I would really thank God for his grace that was sufficient for me. With everyone walking the wrong way, the wrong way soon becomes the right way though it is actually still wrong. Sometimes I would so eagerly long for just a small tiny bite of the cake...and the temptation gets more stronger when you are in a fix not knowing the answer to the question. As corruption sweeps into the world and carries away people with it as the chaff that is blown away by the wind, I as a child of God will not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

Takins a stand for him

2008-01-29T12:39:00.000+05:30

There is this incident that always comes afresh to me when I think about standing for what I believe in.

It was in a small local church in a remote village in a state ruled by extreme Hinduism. The church consisted of merely 50 new believers who were new in their faith in Christ. They left behind their customs, traditions and practices of their past. Even though mocked by their relatives who hated them, they continued strong in their faith.

One fine morning, when they were gathered in church, Hindu workers came there and disrupted their gathering and made a havoc out there. They threatened those Christians to forsake Christ and return back to their old faith, otherwise they would have to leave the village and find some other place for shelter. It was a hard time for those believers who choose rather to follow God than these people. Not even haivng a mode of transport available, they packed their belongings and left on foot walking around 75km to another village which sheltered them.

The local evangelists took initiative in talking to the village head in granting them some permissions and relief. However, they were not allowed to return to the village until they forsook Christ. But they were given permission to gather on Sundays in the church there. So every Sunday they made their walk to the church trough 75km of dry deserted roads, all the way, just to worship the Lord together.

Such immense faith and stand for Christ, I find myself hard to understand the purpose behind them doing so. Well they were new believers and would have all the possible reasons for returning back. Also their living and cultural background would have forced them to leave their faith. Also they were people who lived from hand to mouth and not a little poor. But I still wonder at their faith they had in Christ and would not compromise on the things of God.

I find myself ashamed looking back at the so many things I've compromised for the world. Would I be able to take such a great stand daily for Christ? Would ny faith stand firm in such hard testing times? Mya the grace of God more abound on me at that time.

With the T.T.E.

2008-01-18T12:50:00.000+05:30

What is it that makes me look so suspicious or what is it in me that people always have a third eye constantly watching over me?

Christmas was never more exciting than last year. I was traveling down from my classes back home. i got down from the train at my destination along with my friend and walked to the over head bridge. On the way the T.T.E. requested us to show him our tickets. My heart skipped a beat. It had completely run out of my mind that my train pass had expired that day and I had to renew it before traveling. Well, I got completely freaked out and sowed him my expired pass and he caught me!
crunch....crunch...popcorn pls....
err....sorry...pls continue...

I tried giving him hundreds of reasons fo forgetting to renew my pass but he wouldn't bulge though if I was a female, I would have been let go without burning a hole in my pocket. He took me to his cabin as my friend accompanied me along. (I think he might have got disgusted with himself for having a friend like me!) We tried convincing the T.T.E. out there too. In that cabin I saw a couple of people standing there who also were accused of traveling ticketless. At that moment, ran through my head, dozens of thoughts of what my condition would be after sometime. The T.T.E. penalized me for traveling ticketless with a penalty of Rs.250. As for me, I carried only money sufficient for travel and to have so much money was something that took place once in a blue moon. Why did the T.T.E. have to catch only me? What was in me that made me look like a violator of the law?? Luckily that day my friend had cash and so he payed the penalty for me. I owe it to him for myself not being in greater trouble than what I had already been in.

It seems to me that history will never leave teaching me that traveling ticketless will always be penalized. The last time I traveled ticketless was in my school days and no prize for guessing if I was caught or not...

I had apparently lost my bus pass. So I had an FIR launched which gave me the privilege to gain a duplicate of the original. It should have been obvious to me that I would have to but tickets till the day I got my duplicate pass. But I decided to travel with an excuse of having my pass lost. And what a coincidence the T.T.E. had to catch me that day. It tried to convince him that I had lost my pass and had applied for a duplicate one. But he asked for a proof. But I told him that I that I had left the FIR sheet home. It seemed to him a completely cooked up story and won't it? He charged me with a fine of Rs.13. It was shameful on my part of not even having that much cash in hand but had to ask my friend who I met in that same bus accidentally. Poor fellow, he had to shell out his savings for snacks too.

Doesn't the proverb, "A friend in need is a friend indeed" always come true for me and hope it will ever be true.

You can never escape the arms of the law and that's not a joke at least for me. Only time will tell if another T.T.E. will catch me for violating the law due to my 'uncool' ideas. And maybe I'll look less suspicious in future. Maybe......don't laugh...I am in grief...sob,sob...

Pointing Fingers

2008-01-11T13:07:00.000+05:30

A very well said proverb that if you point a finger at another be sure that there's always the other four of your own fingers pointing back to you. But how far do we realize that it is so many a times true.

It is very easy to put a blame on someone else or be a part of the group that is against the accused. Well, I remember the incident our Lord had to put up with . The woman that had been caught in adultery was accompanied be a huge mob of self righteous Jews who tried to test the Lord's lordship through his verdict on her. But Jesus instead of reacting very harshly to the situation acted very wisely by not saying a single thing against her but asked each one of those Jews to examine themselves and see if they have done no wrong. In the end we find that none of the Jews remaining there to accuse her. Convicted by their own guilt they left and went their own way.

How many a times do we find ourselves in the place of those Jews pointing fingers at those whoo have done wrong. It is very easy to accuse someone's commitment and interest for God by his absence during the weekly meetings in church. Though it is very difficult to find the pros of one person but easy to degrade the person's dignity through the continual accusations of his kons.

The biggest failure of man is the inability he has to accept his failures because of his pride. When you go through your own failures you realize that you are more degraded in your self than the other person. " Judge not and be not judged," that's what the Lord says and further, " How is it that you can see the mole in other's eye but not the plank in your own eye?"

Each person in this world has got an unique story to tell and that's how God has made man unique in his own image. Only when you are able to put yourself in the shoes of the other will you realize that the cross he is bearing is much heavier that yours. Then pointing fingers wouldn't be as easy as it was.

It is better to counsel someone through an "helping relationship" that understands the need of the other and finds himself walking through the path the other has to follow guiding him along. Accusations can leave behind a feeling of hatred and broken hearts that can last for a lifetime. It is better to talk tot he person on a personal basis than having him humiliated in front of the whole crowd. That is why, Jesus waited till each of those Jews went their way so that he could correct her with correction so powerful that she could accept it in all humility though not being humiliated. Though he being God Almighty and the Holy Judge of his Creation could easily use his finger to point out her fault, yet he stooped down and used those same fingers to write something unknown. I guess what he scribbled in the sands would have changed the lives of both those Jews and that woman caught in adultery and made them realize that they are standing before the Judge of all the earth.

Michael Card puts this whole incident beautifully through this song, Scribbling in the sand

Scribbling in the sand

Amidst a mob of madmen
She stood frightened and alone
As hate filled voices hissed at him
That she should now be stoned
But in the air around him
Hung a vast and wordless love
Who knows what loom at his lesson
He was in the middle of

At first he faced the fury
Of their self righteous scorn
But then he stooped and at once became
The calm eye of the storm
It was his wordless answer
To their dark and cruel demand
The lifetime in a moment
As he scribbled in the sand

It was silence it was music
It was art it was absurd
He stooped and shouted volumes
Without saying a single word
The same finger
Of the strong hand
That had written ten commands
For now was simply scribbling in the sand

Within the space of space and time
He scribbled in the sand
They cam e to hear and see as much
As they could understand
Now bound by cords of kindness
They couldn't cast a single stone
And Jesus and the women found that they were all alone

Could that same finger come
And trace my souls sacred sand
And make some unexpected space
Where I could understand
That my own condemnation pierced
And broke that gentle hand
That scratched the words I'll never know
Written in the sand

Doing things God's way

2008-01-05T16:10:00.000+05:30

I remember the time in Sunday school, last year, when we as the youth of the assembly had to present something for our Annual Sunday School Anniversary program. Three of us, fascinated by a song, decided all in the last moment the day before the program, to sing it. We got someone well trained in guitar to play for us the song. The next day we sang it. But to our disappointment, one of the three microphones weren't working, the other a too soft and the third too loud. Instead of it sounding melodious it sounded all noise and confusion.

Recently, on December 31st for our thanksgiving meeting in church, we as a youth group decided to present three songs along with a short message attached with each song. We worked hard towards it and practiced regularly. Before we could present it, we first began with a prayer as a group together. That was a real encouragement to each one of us to sing to the glory of God rather than to shell out our talents. The singing went on perfectly well and the crowd was really touched by those songs and the messages. To my surprise, people who we expected to say that our singing was bad, too complemented us. It was encouraging and I thanked God then.

It is in through such situations in life, God wanted me to learn to depend on him for everything. Even though the task be small, he expects us to put in our efforts to the fullest and leave the rest to him depending on him to help us out in our work.
In the first incident that I mentioned to you, I really find it hard to say to myself that it was the lack of dependency on God that brought out such a bad result, though I would strongly feel that we put in our best efforts and talents and it was the microphones that weren't working well. To accept the failures in life is a huge step that one needs to take. That is why it took me a lot of courage and also realization of how God wants things to be done, for me to write this article. While in the second incident, I really felt that it was God working through us than our talents in music. When we depended on God, he did what he had to do the best.

Walking back through my phases of life

2007-12-31T12:55:00.001+05:30

Sitting back at the end of this year, I really find myself in mixed emotions of what has happened to me through this year. Situations in life that made me sit back and take a second thought about myself. Times of learning and times of corrections, times of joy and times of deep sorrow, times of testing and times of failures; all this molded myself to what I am today. I find myself really hard to express myself and am incomplete in front of God.

This year began with studies that completely drained me out. For the first few months, time flew as it were just 8 hours per day. It was a new atmosphere for me for this was the first time I joined a coaching classes for studies. It was something I didn't preferred to do but somehow coped up with it. As time went by God was teaching me all through those months certain lessons through times of testing and troubles to really depend on God.

Earlier this year, God gave me the boldness to testify to the world that the he was indeed the Lord of my life through the water's of baptism. Baptism initially meant to me just a ticket to partake in the Lord's supper in the church. But then as time passed by, God really taught me what exactly does it mean to be baptized into the body of Christ. It meant to live like him. It meant from then on the world would recognize me as a Christian. But I still ask myself this question, "Does the world really see the Christ in me?" I really find myself unworthy to answer this question before God. As times would change and fashions would change I would find myself soon getting accustomed to those activities. But at the same time, I engaged myself a lot in the church activities and hated to miss any church meetings or activities. I would take pride in this that I could regularly attend the church activities and despised others who would find some excuse for being there. But God still loved me and corrected me hard. When I would hear sermons statements such as "coming to church regularly doesn't prove that you are growing as a Christian" really would prick me. He put situations and tests before me that made me come back home and think, "where was I wrong, what have I done wrong?" though I considered myself perfect in whatever I did. But then God put down my pride and made me to be humble before him, accept my failures humbly. It was only after that I could really find myself being used in the ministry. He taught me that the church is not my toy but his masterpiece and it is not I who can do anything for the church but God that does something through you.

God has blessed me with so many spiritual gifts that I could discover this year. Areas in life where I thought I could never be used, God is using me in so many ways. It was this year that I learnt that I could write stuff. It wasn't easy for me in the beginning to write a blog and keep updating it regularly. But God helped me find a purpose in writing too. Internet is such a wide spread media that even a small thing spreads like wildfire. God gave me a vision to reach out to this world through this blog and I could see him help me throughout. In church, he helped me use my talents in the singing ministry. Also he has helped me use my talents in the various children's clubs that have started. I could never find myself lacking anything because when I look back at the things that he has given me, it is a thing so wonderful almost too wonderful to be that God could love me so much.

"Could God really love me so much?" Its very difficult for me to answer this question but find myself surviving each day because of his love through all my unworthiness. When I look at my life and its failures, I find myself ashamed and depressed to think that I am such kind of a person who can give up myself to fulfill momentary pleasures of the flesh. Adolescent problems really troubled me much and I still pray to God daily to help me through these years. Pride in knowing much and being blessed in so many ways than others sometimes would take over myself. My personal life at times wouldn't quite live up to the claim that I made to be a child of God. I would really rebel against my parents and would try to find out all the possible faults in them. It was an age that I at the beginning found it cool in hanging out with my friends but later as time passed by God taught me to define the purpose of everything I did according to his will and use the stuff that he has given me for his glory. It was only then I found a satisfaction in everything God helped me to do and blessed my work. I could see myself really edifying others and being truly used in the church.

Various camps and programs that were held build me up spiritually. Much much more things God has done to me and I remember his faithfulness to an unworthy creation of his. I have put before you a quick glimpse of what my life has been this year.. Though I've put things n a hidden and general view, I really find myself able to relate each and every phrase written down here. AS this year goes by, I'd say, "It's the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in my eyes."

request to you readers

2007-12-20T17:04:00.001+05:30

I am kind of busy now a days and dont get much time to sit and write an article on the computer, that's why I am a bit late than usual in getting them posted. Forgive me for that.

However, I have got a lot of stuff to share with you which I have come across and been learning hope you bear with me.

A hectic mixed day

2007-12-08T17:00:00.000+05:30

Today was a very mixed day for me. All the possible things that shouldn't have happened happened. It was in the college, my friends and i was sitting in the library preparing my journal for practicals.

The day before I got hold of my mp3 player which was with my sister, when she came home for holidays. So I loaded it with plenty of new songs and was eager to listen to it.

So in the library I thought instead of just wasting time by just writing the journal, I'll listen to the player too along. It was against the library rule to use any gadget from our side in the college. I didn't care and didn't bother because the 'bad' supervisor wasn't there around.
After sometime that fellow turned up and saw me with the mp3 player and confiscated it along with my identity card. I was so shaken and scared at the first place. He wouldn't return it though I begged him a lot. Well as though that scare wasn't enough, he added to the whole incident a fine of Rs.200\- That really bugged me. I wasn't such kind of a person who could escape easily with such fines. Forget telling it to my parents, they would 'kill' me before giving me the cash. Begging to my friends wasn't my cup of tea. Pleading and putting a sad sorry face before people isn't what I am famous for, you would know that better. Well my friends insisted me to stay there longer and keep bugging him, who knows if he could change his mind. But that fellow wasn't in any mood of changing his mind but frightened me further by telling me that he would take me to the principal and increase the fine.

By now it had become time for practicals and that fellow insisted that I go and do my work and come back with the money. About the money, I am almost broke always and do carry money enough for travel and pocket money is something I never get unless if I do some savings here and there. Now by this time that fellow had gone out for some work. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I went and asked the peon to hand it over. He was willing to but the supervisor turned out to be more clever. He locked the draw and went. Then we went searching for him franticly but couldn't find him. But when he came back, I wasn't alone. I bombarded him with the suggestions of my friends who accompanied me to help me out. Finally he put on a very "I'm doing a favor to you" kind of a face and handed it over to me. When he realized that I was broke, he lost hopes of getting money for his evening snack. I think so that is why he handed it over to me.

In class, it became a public talk among my friends. Everyone I met asked me about hat happened. It was kind of embarrassing. Though all that mix up and tension was enough, my friends started bugging me in the class. They started scribbling on my rough book, though it wasn't one sided. After sometime, someone came up with a brilliant idea of throwing water on me. While writing the journal they made sure that they pour some water on my T-shirt. I was helpless without water. My friend reminded of his past incidents of how we poured water on him in school, joined in the cheer team. It was a wet day in class, though they landed with all the possible types of scribbles on their book which was my only hope of offense.

It was indeed a good ending to a bad experience. I enjoyed the day a lot.

The value of life

2007-12-05T12:48:00.000+05:30

How frail is a human being. How easily does he fall ill and succumb to diseases, fall prey to accidents and mishaps. Life could begin for some today and end today itself. While some people who have so many ambitions and aims in life find themselves unfortunate to die very early, leaving behind wealth and possessions for which they have labored sweat and bread for it.

The other people who are unfortunate to have been born with some kind of an illness or disease or deformation of body, find themselves ruined in life, stuck in a bed or a wheel chair for life. Its very sad to think about the things they miss in life and how unfortunate they are that they cannot live a normal life like many of us.

Recently while I was traveling by train back home from classes, I saw a boy walking on the platform waiting for a train. From far he looked like a normal fellow. But as my train approached closer, I took a closer look at him because there was something different in him. When I saw him, I was completely taken surprised. His face was just mere skeleton. The whole face was burnt and he was left with just a little flesh on his face. He looked so gross.
That time I thanked God for what I am and his grace upon me and for keeping me safe thus far.

Another incident that really grossed me out. The other day my mother had gone down for a walk and she saw a huge crowd gathered at a close by junction. It was a man who had been run over a truck. If that wasn't bad, let me tell you more. That man had been run over by a truck on his head. His head disintegrated into small pieces and his brain squeezed out all over the place. After a while, people couldn't even find traces of his head and blood kept oozing out of his body. People scrambled around and gathered mud to put on his body to stop the bleeding. Then they covered his body and waited for the responsible(police, ambulance) to take over.

The next day we came to know that that man who died was a colleague of my friend's father. That man had a good day at work that day. That evening he was traveling to the school to pick up his two daughters. But who knew that was the last day in his life...

When I look back I just got to say that I am thankful to God for what I am, how he has preserved me thus far. Every step that I take is according to his will and all planned in his sovereign will. The good health that he has given me, for keeping me from harm and illness is all just by his grace and his mercy upon me.

Life is so small and unpredictable, who knows what can happen tomorrow or the very next moment.
Give thanks to God for what he is to you, thats all that we can do and lets live for Christ.

Will a man rob God?

2007-11-24T16:18:00.000+05:30

Can a man rob God? Is it possible for a puny creature like man to rob God from his riches and honor? Will a man rob God? Will you rob God? Can you rob God? Are you robbing God?

God created man for a single purpose, i.e. to have fellowship with him. Funny, but now-a-days man want to do everything else than fellowship with God. Atheism has grown to such a extent that in a couple of years it will have the majority of the population of the world under it's clutches. People are now days beginning to say, "It is vain to serve God. What profit is God to us?" People have begun to call the proud happy, they that do wrong as righteous and they that tempt God are set free. Well the world is reaching its last times as mentioned in the Bible and prophesied years ago. The world is robbing God of what is due to him and that is evident from the present situations we live in the world.

Now, what role do I play in this discussion? Aren't these for the people who do not believe on Christ? I am a Christian and how can I rob God? I am his child and how can a child rob his father of anything? If I am robbing God of something, what is it?

The Israelites were famous for turning to other gods and worshiping them. God hated that and punished them severely. He said his name is Jealous. He is a very possessive God and he hated to see them worshiping other gods which were their own imaginations.
How much do we find ourself in the shoes of these Israelites! We do not worship other gods but do worship so many other things more than god. So what is worship?

Worship according to the dictionary means adoration or attributing worth to something.
Worship is "a performance to show your honor, reverence, adoration, worth or admiration to someone else much more esteemed by you." Worship is a lifestyle. It begins with a right attitude and ends with a right action.
It is something you involve yourself and not an attitude alone.

God looking at the present Christians says that you have cursed me with a curse.
Can we curse God? Curse....?
He further says that you have robbed me even each one of you.
Me...robbing God? Me...?

God wants your offerings and tithes i.e. your worship. He has created man to have fellowship with him, i.e. worship him, talk to him as a child talks to his father. If we don't worship him we are robbing him of what is due to him. We are programmed by God to worship and have fellowship with him and if we don't do that, it would be better that we should be discarded and put in waste. He says that by not worshiping him we are putting him under a curse. Its hard to believe that but that's what he says (Malachi 3: 8,9).

So what does God expect of me? How am I supposed to worship God? Well worship is an expensive affair. When a guy goes out on a date with a girl, its assured that the guy's going to burn a hole in his pocket. It requires a lot of preparation and understanding. How can we worship God without knowing him? It requires one to be in his presence for a quality amount of time. One's offering has to rise up as a sweet smelling savor. Worship is a daily affair and not a Sunday 'prayer'. Its a lifestyle and a pattern of life. Worship is not just saying to God that you love him and adore him but showing the same to the world, practicing the same in one's daily life. Worship is like telling your parents that you love them and proving it to them. God doesn't get flattered by words and offerings that do not prove themselves are a waste to him.

The blessings for a worshiping believer are great. The Lord will continuously purge the believer under the refiner's fire and make him clean that he offer a righteous offering. He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings so much that there won't be any more room to contain it. They that fellowshipped with God fellowshipped with each other and God hearkened to them and answered their prayers and wrote it in his book of remembrance. He kept them as his jewels and spared them from his wrath. Then shall the world see the difference between the wicked and the righteous and return back to the living God. All the people shall call you blessed and the church, your house shall be called a delightsome land.

Prove God your worship. God expects each one of us to give him what is due to him. Lets look back to our lives and see whether we are robbing God of what is his, are we putting him under a curse. And lets remember that worship is celebration, celebration for what God has done for us and what he is to us.

I minister....but.."Is it enough?"

2007-11-20T09:53:00.000+05:30

Two years ago, our church had arranged a child Evangelism Program (CET) for those people who were interested in ministering among children. After months of prayer and preparation, this program was conducted exclusively for 40 trainees for 6 days. Training was intense through sleepless nights and great hard work put in by each trainee, they slowly learned the basics of child evangelism.

The results of this program was seen a couple of months later when few of them who were led by the Lord decide to start a Children's Club (CC) at their local area. A Children's club is a small gathering of children (mainly non-Christians) from a local area. Started with one now has gone up to five and they plan to have a sixth one. The objective of the CC is to teach the Word of God to these non-Christian children through songs, stories, memory verses and games and thus share the gospel of Christ to these young hearts. Put together all the CC, we have around 150 children attending the CC regularly! Praise God for that.

This ministry slowly started growing and this month our church could organize a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for these kids. After much prayer and seeking God's will, this 3 day long VBS was organized for the children from all the 5 CC. Praise God we had an average of 135 children who attended this VBS. Stories were taught from the Bible, new songs were taught, memory verses were taught, games were played, interactive sessions were conducted for these kids and much more, so that the word of God could change the lives of these children

When you look at these children, they come mainly from the poor sector of the society, living in slums and people who can do a little more than live from hand to mouth. However, when you go to pick them up for the VBS, they are out of their bed in a jiffy and hurriedly they will make sure that they be there along with a couple of friends. Even before the song starts they come prepared with a list of their own songs which they have learnt before during the Children's club. They sing their lungs out during the singing sessions which sometimes makes us ashamed because we would never have heard the church sing together so loud. The enthusiasm in them is always vibrant those three hours of learning and fun. By time, they forget about their problems and worries and participate in each activity with a smile coupled with joy which we hardly find in people now-a-days.

Behind the scenes, there were many people labouring hard for these ministries. People volunteering right from the youngest to the eldest. People who took leave from their jobs to make it sure that all go well. People who ensured that the children could be transported safely. People who took the initiative in getting the snacks ready, in getting the various arrangements for gifts and stationary possible. People who spent hours preparing from the Word of God to teach these children. People who ensured all the people be informed so that they can pray regularly for the VBS. People who spent hours in the presence of the Lord in prayer and intersession for this ministry. People who played music and sang songs, did the choreography for the songs.

Only few has been mentioned and a lot left unmentioned. We had around 50 volunteers who actively participated in ensuring the VBS went well. An encouragement to the assembly and a new warmth to the volunteers who were challenged to serve God.
"Its the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes."

"But is it enough?"

"Have all that we have been doing enough? Should our ministry be restricted only to that level? Should we constrain ourselves and contain the love of Christ?"

Certainly no!
A ministry is just a stepping stone to expand it for God at various levels at various fields. The harvest is ready but will the laborers be few? Serving God cannot be just restricted to a mission field. It spreads to and first begins at the church where we have fellowship with our brethren. Its the love of God that motivates each one of us to his service. It manifests itself among the society in which we live and slowly reaches out to this world. It understands the need of the hour and fulfills a humble ministry towards it.

We serve not people but God. Therefore let's glorify God through the ministry. God doesn't look at the amount of stuff that I have done for him, neither looks he at how many people came to know about the service I did for him, nor does he look at the merits I have in church. God, well, just looks at the attitude with which I serve him. He's not bothered about the level of service that I have done for him, but he is worried whether I did it for Christ or not, whether I did it in the right spirit. He calls us to an humble service keeping behind the strength of self.

A parable Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 20:1-16
A well known parable it is. But the message conveyed in the parable is very important. The laborers who had come early in the morning were the selected lot of skilled laborers who boasted in their merits. Hence they argued with the Lord over their wages and settled to a penny. But the people who were hired later weren't the skilled lot of people and bargaining for their wages weren't their cup of tea because they were forced to be happy with whatever the Lord gave; after all they were slaves with no merits. At the end of the day we see the Lord giving each one of them equal wages from the last to the first.

The Lord wasn't worried about how much they served him but was looking at their heart to see whether they did it actually for him. The skilled lot of people boasted about their art in labouring while the other lot didn't have anything to boast about. At the end of the day, the fellow who worked for 12 hours earned the same wages as that fellow who worked for 1 hour.

Lot more to learn from the parable but time suffices me. Denying your self by surrendering yourself to the Master's will as his slaves, not expecting anything from him, laboring for him with a humble heart and with the right attitude is what service can be defined as.

At the end of the day, one who has served the Lord sincerely should say,
"We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." (Luke 17:10)

God has blessed each one of us with so many talents and spiritual gifts. Let's identify them and use them for his service, for his ministry, for his glory.

I am really keen on knowing what are the different ways you have served God and what are the different ways in which we can serve God and thus reach out to the church, the believers, friends and the world as a whole. Please comment

Could you spare me some time?

2007-11-02T13:43:00.000+05:30

It all started when Satan seemed rather happy and pleased, came to God wanting to tell him something. God looked at Satan and saw the gleam on his face and asked him what the matter was. Satan told him, “Lord, you have failed. I was going to and fro the earth only to find all the so called modern servants of Christ failing in the areas where their ancestors stood firm.” So God sent out Michael to go and see whether the report was true or not.

Michael found Noah sitting all alone in his study room. So he asked him, “Noah could you spare some time for God?”

Noah said, “Shh! don’t disturb me. I am working on a project. It’s a huge ark. Its got to carry 10,000 odd passengers…lots of efforts needed to be put in it…Maybe, some other time.”

So Michael went to Abraham. Abraham was sitting under the moonlight looking up to the sky quite worried and while he kept uttering something to himself. Michael asked him, “Abraham, could you spare some time for God?”

Abraham lost in his own thoughts said, “I wonder what God might have meant by saying that my seed will be as the stars of the heaven. You know it’s kind of weird; I don’t even have a son. Well if it is going to be true, I’d at least have to know how many children I will have. Yea, so don’t bother me now…1005, 1006, 1007…1200, 1201, 1202…”

Disappointed Michael went to Joshua. He was sharpening his sword near the river Jordan. He asked him, “Joshua, could you spare some time for God?”

Joshua rather busy said, “Lots of planning to be done. Jericho is a big city. To bring it down by just marching silently around it…ehhh…that’s going to be difficult. These people…these people you know, they are never silent. Maybe because of them the wall will never fall down...then, I’ll chop their heads and feed it to the caterpillars. Why, how come you could only find me…isn’t there anyone else? I’m busy and tensed too…”

Silently after receiving a mouthful from Joshua, Michael went to Job. “Well he is God’s most respected servant, maybe, he will listen to God.” So he asked Job, “Job, could you spare some time for God?” Job was on the top of a mountain preparing an altar.

Job all frustrated said, “My children…they are so useless. They have to keep sinning. Well am not I the righteous man and I got to do all the sacrifices for them? Now I don’t have any cattle left for sacrifice. I’ll pray to God that my children too perish with the cattle…less talk about my wife. Don’t bother me now. I am all irritated or you know what will happen…”

So Michael went to and fro, here and there to each of God’s so called modern servants who failed to live up to the expectations of God, but couldn’t even find one who could spare some time for God. Disappointed he went back to God and gave him the report. God told him, “Michael, you haven’t yet asked one person. Go to the person who is reading this article and ask him the same question. Let’s see whether he will be able to spare me some time.”

The Unprofitable servants

2007-10-15T11:58:00.000+05:30

I remember Mordecai's response to Esther when she as a queen wasn't taking any steps to save the Jews:

"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

A parable that Jesus told his disciples about the talents that were given by the lord to his servants:

"But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strowed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strowed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Another parable that Jesus told to his disciples about the great feast that was made by a certain man:
"Then said he(Jesus) unto him,
A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse...
So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."

You might be wondering what exactly I am trying to tell through this article. Read further.

Recently our church had begun with a new meeting: Hindi Bible Study -- for the people who couldn't understand English and wanted to learn the Word of God. We didn't expect much people to take part in this meeting. But the response we got was overwhelming. Not only did we get a good response but also the number of people attending gradually started increasing. The people that attended this gathering were mostly the poor and the blind, people who do not have a good family, and the newly converts. They now-a-days make it a point to come even for the prayer meetings.

Well, a very important thing to notice here. Now a days we don't even have time for God and his church. We think that we have enough knowledge from the Bible and are living a 'spiritual' life. Attending church and being a part in the various church activities has become of no importance. That's why we see so less a number of people eager for God and excited to do something for him. As Mordecai said to Esther, God wants us to learn this very lesson; if we are not available for God and are lost in our own cozy life, God will refuse to use us for his ministry. He doesn't need people who do not need him. But he will raise up people from areas so unprofitable to make them vessels unto honor and fit for the Master's use. Keeping this in mind lets read those two parables again and see where exactly do we stand.

The Unseen Mask

2007-10-06T11:11:00.000+05:30

People tend to develop a respect or a kind of affection to a person whom they admire or try to imitate. Imagine yourself being in front of the person you admire the most, say, Thierry Henry. You know that he is the greatest footballer around and getting an autograph or a tip or two on your football skills would be something amazing. I doubt if you had other friends along with you, giving them an opportunity to meet him or talk to him would be something irrelevant because at that moment the world revolves only around the two of you.

Each one of us has someone or the other we admire. It may be our bosses in our work place, it may be our parents, it may be our teachers or it may be someone in the friend circle we hang out with. We try our best to make our impression prominent over there that we can gain their attention and respect from them. I remember the people I admire. Its like when I’m with them, I tend to forget the kind of life that I live, and tend to walk in their footsteps, try to follow their lifestyle, try to talk they way they talk.

It is this mask we carry around that is so many times unseen by others but unknowingly or knowingly silently seen by ourselves. We tend to put on their character and their lifestyle over ours just that we can become like them. The hidden craving in us, forces us to imitate them in our lives, changing the “old me” to a “new he-on-me” This mask can be good or bad all depending on the person we try to imitate.

We are a new creation. No more the old man lives in us since the time Christ came into our lives. He has given us a new body. But have we put on Christ or is the world still lurking around with those stained garments? He has given us new robes of righteousness, but have we put them on? It is the ‘mask’ of Christ that should be seen in our lives not the mask of this world. But we most of the times find our ‘masks’ not on ourselves but on some old cupboard caught in all the possible cobwebs. It is when we adorn ourselves with this ‘mask’ of Christ, will the world see the Christ in us.

“Munna, Allah par barosa rekho…”

2007-10-06T11:05:00.000+05:30

Lately, I had been to the barber shop. Entered in to find no customers, but two barbers sitting together eating and chatting. Lately, the two of them were managing that shop, since the others had gone to their native place. As I entered in, one of them offered me some of their snacks. I in a hurry said “No” as I was getting late to go back home and expected them to get my hair cut as soon as possible. Out of the two of them, one of them was old and the other was of my age. Realizing that I was in a hurry, the older man stepped in for cutting my hair. By that time, the younger fellow too got a customer.

I was a frequent customer in that shop and they knew me well. They were people who enjoyed talking to each other as they did their work. They would joke, laugh, and comment on various situations and all those kind of things. The older man would call the younger fellow “Munna” i.e ‘my child’. Though they weren’t of the same blood yet their relation was as of a father and son.

As time passed by, the younger fellow started uttering something and began complaining about something. He seemed troubled and worried. The older man kept telling him, “Munna, Allah par barosa rekho…” i.e. to say “My son, have faith on Allah” They were Muslims and the older man seemed more religious out of the two. He kept advising the boy to keep faith on Allah and not worry about the problem that he was facing. But the boy didn’t seem comforted and kept orating his complains. Yet the older man didn’t give up but kept advising him to have faith in Allah. He told him that nothing is impossible with Allah; just trust him. As the conversation kept going, the younger fellow began to feel comforted through those advices.

This small incident that happened really made me to take out some time to just think about myself. Times when problems arise, when situations seem not going my way, how much I fail in putting my faith in God! I say, God is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in times of trouble, but how many times have I actually asked God for his help in faith? Putting my trust on him even in the smallest of situations was something I found lacking in myself. Though these people did not know the true God was, yet they had faith in their god. We Christians after coming to the right knowledge of God, fail in exercising our faith in God. Let’s strengthen our faith in Christ and look to his will for everything.

Joseph of Arimathaea

2007-10-01T12:54:00.000+05:30

After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, a man named Joseph from the city of Arimathaea came and begged Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate shocked to hear that Jesus died a couple of hours earlier than the expected time, failed to believe that the message was true. After conformation, Pilate agreed to release the body of Jesus to this man.

Joseph was a devout man known for his good works. He was a counselor. He was also a God fearing man who waited for the kingdom of God i.e. Jesus Christ. Mention of Joseph in the Bible is really short; just 4 verses dedicated in three gospels. Four things about what he did is mentioned in the Bible – he begged for the body of Christ, he took it down from the cross, he wrapped it in clean fine twined linen and he lay it in a new sepulcher that was carved from a single rock.

God really appreciated the small unseen duty that Joseph did. That’s why we read about him in the Bible. When Christ was alive, everyone loved to be there besides him to learn of him, to see miracles, to receive his blessings. But when he died, very few were there to repay him at least by giving him a proper burial.

Through the four things that Joseph did, we see an immense act of worship coming from a true heart that actually recognized the person of Christ. He was in very close fellowship with God. He could see the beauty of Christ even in that marred face on the cross of Calvary. This is the first lesson we need to learn; only by developing a close fellowship with God, will you be able to admire the person of Christ. Only then can we be able to worship Christ in Spirit and in truth.

Next we see him begging for the body of Christ. Here we can see the act of humility. He put away his self, his qualification, his status among the people to come and worship this person who had given him all of those things. Why should Pilate release the body to any one who suddenly comes out of the blue? It was the act of humility that made Pilate to agree upon releasing the body to him. We, when we come to worship Christ, come with all our qualifications, status and oratory gifts to out do the others who have also gathered along with us for worship. Christ accepts worship only from a heart that has no merits of its own. Once the self comes in our worship, that’s when we see only our self and not God. That’s when we begin to see only what kind of a life lived before coming to know Christ rather than seeing the work of Christ in us. Worship is defined as adoration. Understand the meaning of this word itself defines the pattern given to us for worship.

Next we see him removing the body from the cross. While removing it, he might have seen all those scars and bruises that were there all throughout the body. He realized the pain and sufferings that Christ had to go through. He could partly understand the sufferings of Christ. This is the next thing that worship calls us to. Only when we ourselves see the scars and bruises on his body, will we be able to realize the intensity of sufferings that he had to go through. Worship requires us to see the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary, the sufferings which we had to suffer, he took upon himself. Every step that we take in removing the body of Christ from the cross will make to realize more and more the beauty in the work that Christ did for the redemption of our souls.

We then see him wrapping the body in a clean fine twined linen cloth. It was traditional for the priests to wear a linen cloth. Joseph understood the purpose behind the death of Christ. Christ had come in to this world to bridge the gap between God and man. God’s law stated that, without the shedding of blood it is impossible to please God. It was the priest’s duty to plead to God for the forgiveness of a man’s sins, by killing a lamb on the altar. But such kind of forgiveness was temporary and continuous shedding of blood was required. Christ became the Priest and Lamb for our sins, so that once and for all a sacrifice could be made so that we could have forgiveness of our sins. Worship requires us to understand the deity of Christ on the cross of Calvary. He being God Almighty, came down in the form of man, humbled himself even unto death on that cross. He became a Priest for us and an offering for us too. All this again reminds us of the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Lastly we see him giving Christ a proper burial. He put him in his own new sepulcher. He gave him an honorable and worthy burial. It was not a very rich burial as we see no spices or ornaments, etc. being used. Neither was many people participating in the burial. So how was in worthy enough for the King of kings? The worship that outpoured from the heart of Joseph was one of the best burials that one could give Christ. Christ accepts something that is from a true heart and considers it great, like we see in the case of the widow who cast in two mites. Christ requires worship that comes from a heart that is sincere and true. We need to give him the honor and glory that’s worthy unto him.

Let’s look back into our lives and see in how many areas we fail and how can our worship be acceptable in the sight of God as a sweet smelling savor.

"You and I were made to love..."

2007-09-26T12:32:00.000+05:30

"It is the feeling of insecurity...", one of my friends who had gone out of India to Dubai for a trip replied after seeing the way the assemblies today lack true fellowship and closeness. He went on to say,

"the insecurity....you know, they anytime could be thrown into jail, their visas could be canceled, anytime they could be ripped through by a bullet.....no one knows. They stand for a belief that is so contrary to the Islamic ideas persistent out there in Dubai. It is this feeling of insecurity that drives them with a heartfelt longing of being together. Knowing each other and understanding each other's need and problems has become a part of their day to day lives. Crying over petty issues had become a thing of the past. Not knowing what would happen of them the next moment, they carry on their lives together, rejoicing in one's happiness and mourning in one's grief. Not worried about their family background or their caste or how rich and poor they are, they cherish the closeness and joy that arises through sweet fellowship...."

In a city like Mumbai, one hardly finds time to cherish and enjoy the freedom we have as a secular nation. Not a nation governed by a particular religion, but still have the freedom in practicing and propagating your belief. It is this freedom that we so often take it for granted and misuse it. That feeling of insecurity is not the driving force in us. In countries like the US, UK...where the whole country is governed by a 'Christian' government, living as a Christian is not an issue. That's why we find so many people today turning to atheism. No closeness in the family results in divorce, desperateness, depression, resort to drugs,sex just to find a feeling of being loved.

While countries like the US faces such problems, not claiming that such problems do not exist here in India, where do we stand? The need to know my brother in Christ has been lost. The need to comfort the one who is sorrowing, the need to lend a helping hand to the one who cannot walk alone, to be a friend in deed has seldom troubled us. The love of Christ has so fainted in us that we many a times even fail to have fellowship with God.

We got time for our studies, we got time for our work, for our idiot box, for our spider's web, for our meal, for our games, for our friends, for our mobiles, for our laziness, for our ambitions, for our gadgets knowing that all these are vanity and will perish as the flower that fades away. Yet we in our business forget our Creator and frame ourselves to be gods of our own lives.

"You and I were made to worship, you and I were made to love..." songwriter Chris Tomlin poetically emphasizes. That was the basic duty to which every creation of God was called to. God desires that every creation would come to him with a heart of worship. The fellowship we lost in the garden of Eden has been regained on the cross of Calvary but with a very costly price. How much more should we cherish this fellowship!! Only when we devote time to sit at his feet will we learn the beauty of our Lord in his holiness and Majesty. Then will worship outpour from a true heart that has seen God face to face.

Tonight there might have been a brother or a sister in need of your help and comfort or who would have just needed you to be with him or her to be a moral support. Where were you? Were you lost in your selfishness? Or were you at his heart's doorstep catering to his needs? That's where we all need to question ourselves. true fellowship arises only when we realize the need for it, only when the love of Christ reigns in us. Lets evaluate ourselves and examine our hearts as to where exactly do we stand.

Completely stressed out

2007-09-19T17:38:00.000+05:30

We had this Environmental Project to submit. Our professor informed us well in advance a week before the date for submission. Now that wasn't good news. I was in a group of three. The other two in my group were girls from my college. That wasn't a much big issue. But as you know, you always tend to follow what they say. So we agreed to meet in college for completion of the project...that was a day before the submission. But plans got changed when they requested me to come to their house instead to college. That was fine to me and fixed a time with them.

While leaving home, my mother just casually asked me as to where I was going. I informed her on the same just to hear a tantrum of hundreds of questions that I got as a 'soft' reply. Coming from a Christian family that's a bit conserved on its ideas regarding this world, it wasn't unusual and I expected such kind of thoughts because I was going to a girls house. But it was wise to not keep it a secret and land up into much more trouble. Reaching their house was a big adventure. They lived in Dadar(W) and I landed up in Dadar(E) searching for their house. Then after asking directions to almost everyone I crashed into, I finally managed to reach there an half an hour later. Worked on the project and returned home only by 6pm. Started with a short prayer asking for God's help and started writing the project...Went on till dinner and realized that I had a lot still remaining.

Sat up in the night, with a heavy head, till about 1am. Sill had a lot more to write. Next morning I had to go for class early in the morning. So slept with a very confused mind as to go or not for the class. If I hadn't completed the project by the next day which was the deadline for its submission, I would lose a whole precious 20 marks. So I slept deciding not to go for the class. Next morning got up early and started writing the project, not knowing the vastness in it, I prayed a short prayer skipping my morning quite time. Scrambling here and there for printouts and pictures, I managed to finish the project only by 11am. Rushed to the college knowing that I was already late and was going to be jacked for that. On my way I remembered that I had forgotten some important papers that I had to carry along. My heart almost skipped some beats. Luckily that day, I could submit the project and get my other work done too, thanks to my friends who helped me out.

Happily I returned home, leaving behind a very big burden. Remembered those short prayers that I prayed along all throughout and thanked God for his help. I really credited God for helping me because I felt it would have been virtually impossible for me to complete the project in time. After around 9 hours of writing, it felt so light and peaceful without having that burden to carry around.

That night I got the biggest shock of my life. While laying down to sleep I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten in all that mess and hurry, to write my name on the project!!! My heart apparently stopped. Couldn't think about anyway out. Submission's done. Those 9 hours of writing, the stress in it, no sleep, missed class....would all that go in vain?? I just couldn't sleep that night. Did God do this purposely?? Would he forsake me in the end? Would he not pay heed to all those prayers I prayed to him? I was shaken thinking these things. Once again I prayed to God and asked him for his help. But that night I couldn't sleep peacefully.

The next day, I just couldn't concentrate in my class. After class immediately went to college and tried to do something. Our professor was the kind of guy who would fire you black and blue till you are really ashamed of yourself. However, I couldn't meet him and asked a peon for help. He found the problem a no big issue and readily understood my problem and helped me out. Thanks to his efforts, I could heave a sigh of relief that day.

Through all this I realized that God will never forsake his children. Some way or the other, he is always there to help them out. But all that we need to do is to ask of him his help. So many a times we leave the house even without a simple prayer of 'God help me'. We tend to forget that every step that we take is by his grace and strength, not by our merits but by his favor. Lets not forget to always ask God for his help though the task be small or great.

Livin' in hope

2007-09-13T09:42:00.000+05:30

Recently my grandfather passed away into his eternal home of rest leaving behind his footsteps that can never be erased and which continues to inspire and challenge all those who wish to follow that path which he trod. A man firm in his word and spontaneous in action, this man was one hardworking person who never allowed another to wipe away the sweat from his forehead.

At a ripe old age of 83, battling through cancer, he walked each step towards his earthly destiny with courage and complete dependence on the one who held his hand right from the time he stepped out of his mother's womb. 55 years of service to his Maker, he served in awe and sincerity greatly following the footsteps of the one who made him. As he breathed his last breath among his loved ones who watched in grief as he said goodbye, he left behind a smile on his faint lips and a tear of joy that rolled down his cheeks comforting hearts.

After his first treatment, the doctors gave him three more months to survive. But God's will in his life was that he should be with his loved ones for another three years just to teach them some qualities....qualities such as patience in serving and suffering, joy in sorrow, hope in despair, strength in weakness, love in fellowship....I still remember the words uttered by his son on the deathbed of his father, "Even after he came to know that he was diagnosed with cancer he softly said,
"If it pleased God for me to carry this burden in my old age, I will carry it" ."
It is easy to say such things but he was a man of action.

He had this hope that after his death he would be with Christ. This hope gave him courage and strength to walk his pilgrim journey. He looked forward to those mansions ready for him in heaven and not worried about the earthly complexities. All throughout his life he fought a good fight and finished his course, leaving behind an example for people to follow.
The hope that burned in his heart burns in the heart of each one of us who knows Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, too. This hope assures us daily that if we die today we will be with our Lord. A hope that separates each and every believer from the fantasies of this world that corrupts the very deity of Godhead. A dying world in which people perish and fade away in their own fancy imaginations of what life after death would be, this hope is the only sustenance of our salvation.
Christ came into this world and took the punishment of our sins on himself that through his death the curse of sin could be removed from us. But this hope is living in us today because we do not worship a dead God but a living God who rose up from the grave on the third day. If Christ wouldn't have risen from the dead our faith would've been in vain and would've been like any other. Anyone who confesses with his mouth that Christ is Lord and believes in his heart that he has died for his sins, he too enjoys this hope.

So what is this hope?? As I began with, my grandfather went away with this hope that he would be in heaven after his death. And we too can cry with hope cause we know that our goodbye is not in vain. Do you have this Hope??

Remebering those ol' skool days

2007-08-28T12:54:00.000+05:30

How quickly time has passed by. When you were in school you would always want to get out and graduate soon. But now sitting back in college I think, “…Hmm…wish I was in school…”

From the eighth standard I really began enjoying school. Memories rush in as I think about these days. The in thing at that time was Pokémon cards. They would sell like hotcakes. K.C., Ross and I had a group of our own in collecting these cards. The funda behind these cards was to trade it with your friends who were really stupid and get the most out of your trade. Everyday we made it sure to get at least a couple of new cards. Ross was the rich guy…on whose pockets K.C. depended (chillin…). Keaton (K.C.) was just the trader with sweet enticing but not so convincing words. The worst part was after making a good collection some crazy guy would find the right opportunity in school and flick it away from us. Mainly it happened when the cards were with me. But never give up and you will succeed…From the kids in the lower classes to the 10^th standard-ers everyone had a craze for these cards. Then came the rules from the school to which no one gave any heed but took the greatest of the precautions in hiding them. For e.g. my friend once came to know that his class was going to be checked for these cards. Immediately he put his cards into his tiffin box and luckily that day he got saved from the teacher. Phew...the cards were partly mine too.But all that ended in a misery when after continuous flicking of our cards our final collection got lost after Ross realized that his bag was torn on his way back from tuition. Who can forget the 4 musketeers who were always out of the class with a 'science project' bahana. K.C., Ross, Marlon and myself were working on a project for a forthcoming science exhibition. Before making the final one we had to submit to our class teacher a summary and a small model of our project. On submission the comments we received from them were...'kaccha..kaccha'...'very poorly built'. As compared to the other students who had brought in a working model ours was some kind of a tattered toy. Still impressed by our idea, they selected ours for the final day. From that day for a month, we used to bunk at least 4 lectures (chosen carefully) in order that we complete our project.Though it was just 10% work and 89% time pass....it was the most fun time we had out there. Also the sports day and other events clubbed together helped us bunk more...hee..hee...As time passed we had to hurry up with the project as the date for submission approached. Though the event insisted on working models, we just stuck some motors here and there....voila...the project's done....imagine if we actually had put on some cool working model, we would have been called 'Newton' or what? Even during the exhibition, Pokémon would never leave us. Till one day, Ross got fired black and blue by a female volunteer from that school for getting these cards. That was the eighth standard.

Ninth standard was a call to captaincy. Appointed along with some of our friends including Marlon, Joel as vice-captain of our respective houses. Our role??...well to mind other people's business....you know the secret pleasure in doing so... Principal had asked us to detain all those who came late for school and bring them to his office. we were so cruel...even a minute late and we would shut the door. During rainy season, anyone coming with colored floaters other than the regular black color were caught. That was our job and we were excellent in it. Our captains were the laziest, at least mine. He would ask me to do almost everything and happily watch along doing nothing. During the sports day, we were supposed to take care of our houses and select proper players out of the whole class who would run out on hearing that there were selections going to be held that day.A lot of bunking, followed by sitting on the grounds doing nothing or sometimes 'illegally' play football with our friends on the ground.Talking about football, that was the first time (as I suppose) we had an inter house football tournament. Though our house landed up coming third (second last!!!), my friend and I got a reward for the best goalkeeper and player respectively. Shocking isn't it? But our honor was a small finger sized trophy which had to be returned in a week's time.....sheesh...so disgusting. Well that was the time I was encouraged to play football and joined the school's football team....Nicknames were a hit during that time and all thanks to Joel. As the rumour goes (its true??!!!), during religion class, Joel was asked to pray. He landed up praying "Give us our daily pears and apples" instead of "Give us our daily bread". So What? That wasn't funny...But from that day onwards we started calling him apple and pear to the extent that the whole class became popular with the nickname and ragged the poor fellow. Best part was that his aunt was our class teacher and out of curiosity joined in sometimes. Taking revenge, he nicknamed me "Krabby" dedicated to 'SpongeBob Squarepants' and Rhys as "Bhakra" of whom we drew crazy pictures. Also Marlon as "Hairy legs" as the reason is so obvious. Eighth standard also witnessed the rise of a cool athlete, Marlon. Eighth and Ninth were also an artistic era. Sketches of Dragon Ball Z was a must on the last page of every book.

Tenth standard was never a that big tension for me in the sense of studies. Had to join classes for the first time. In school our class landed up getting the strictest of all the teacher as our class teacher. She was almost as short as Mustafa(the shortest guy in our class). Yet she didn't allow her stature to take advantage of her but she bullied the whole class. Pramila teacher's (our English teacher) favourite pick was Joel....thanks to his brilliant long English essays(and the aunt influence??) that year, unfortunately they didn't appoint me as the captain of my house realizing that I was bunking a lot?....hahaha...Football was a secondary goal too. Months of intense practice during the summer vacations, practices at school as early as 6:30am....though it lasted only for one hour during the school days....it was fun and kind of a good experience. But during the league I could hardly get a good chance to play...thanks to my brilliant eyesight....you know spectacles aren't allowed. During school days we would report to class only after he first lecture because our book was never complete. The best player in our group was Anukool. He rocked in football and was also a champ in hockey and athletics. Well he was the perfect sports guy in our school and a brainy fellow too. He got 89% in his boards. "Quest que cest?..." "Bonjour"....that's the memories that quickly pass by as I think about the French lecs. Probably she was the sweetest and most nicest prof around. THe coolest prof around was Yadav Sir....the teacher from 'U.P.' I think that he's done a master's in Bihari English and a bachelor's in Mumbai Hindi. "Calendar give you...", "last second boy...", "get you up...".....never before you would have heard such professional English. Well he teaches us Hindi not surprisingly. One incident that happened in our class....a boy one day brought a roll of string and passed it all around the class making a webtrap. Poor Yadav...he walked straight into it and got himself entangled. Yeah not forgetting, he will never leave the class without those "accidental" chalk stokes on his 60's black pants. Another day someone placed an onion on his chair and not forgetting the chewing gum. The picnics too were cool. Got permission from my parents to go for the picnic at Water Kingdom after a gap of two years. Luckily that year I didn't loose my spectacles. Preliminaries came and went still not much improvement on the report card. Going for the board exams for the first day, I reached late. Among our friends, there was this guy who wore the same T-shirt all the 15 days of the exams. Was it a lucky T-shirt or what? Our school was the most happy when the results came. After I don't know how many years, our school got 100% pass percentage. Teachers were so excited...an extra day off from work. The farewell party was somewhat an organized flop show...!! After the party we as a group went to bandstand for some quality time of timepass. Lot, lot more to write but I don't think you would continue reading further.....that was the tenth standard...an experience always to remember

Thought from the scripture: Call to complete dependance

2007-08-10T12:18:00.000+05:30

Mark 6: 7 - 9

'And he called unto him the twelve and began to sent them forth by two and two: and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they should take nothing for the journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.'

The Lord was giving instructions to the disciples before they take the journey to the ends of the world to preach the gospel. The disciples of Christ were between the age group 16 - 30 years. People in the prime of their lives, full of energy and aspirations....called out by Christ to be witnesses for him....wouldn't that be real challenging...leaving our comfort zone to follow someone who claimed to be God.....can you picture yourself in their shoes?....It would have been the biggest turning point in their lives....and the most difficult one too. The verse does not literally mean 'no scrip,...' it actually should be interpreted as 'take no thought of your scrip.'

'Carry with you no scrip.' What's a scrip? As per the dictionary definition a scrip is a legal certificate of your land or property. The disciples had left behind everything to follow Christ. They were going out on a mission.....who knows when they would return....maybe they'd lose their property and shelter as a price to pay for the call. Whatever, the call that Christ asked them to follow was a costly one indeed. They were poor people as we read that they were just fishermen and some loafers. Christ through this instruction asked them to be pilgrims on this earth. Christ had promised them that he's going to prepare for them mansions in heaven. Indirectly Christ called them to complete dependence on him, to be as pilgrims looking for a heavenly city whose builder and maker was God where neither moth or rust would corrupt.

'Take no thought of bread.' The disciples were normal people like us. Imagine living without food for a day! Your stomach would immediately start grumbling. So did it mean that they were supposed to go around begging for food? Even if they carried food, it would get over in a couple of days. Then what? Christ called to dependence on him even on daily things. It required much faith and to have such great faith needed a lot of grace from God. Christ said when he was being tempted be Satan, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the Word of God."What is the bread that we depend on in our day-to-day lives? Maybe our studies, our profession, our job,....In our Christian pilgrim journey such things can take more priority in our day to lives. That is why Christ told do not take thought for such things, he will provide and will provide us the best.

'Take no thought of the money in your purse'.....did that mean that they were supposed to be broke and beggars? They had left their profession for following Christ...how would they survive??....no money??Here too they were called to dependence on Christ. An illustration could best explain this. A father would never despise his child when he asks' him something needed. On the other hand the child need not bother as to how his father would provide it to him. he just had to believe in him. Would they have sufficient money to carry on the day?....all these would distract them from them from the mission that they had been called to. When riches increase in our daily lives, sorrow will also increase. For a disciple on a mission it would be more justified for him to concentrate on the mission than on the things that make up the mission. a verse to sum it up, "the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."

'Carry no two raiments.' So it would mean that they go around in their 10 days old stinky attire? Here the second raiment means a mask of hypocrisy. It is better to carry one label of yourself than carrying two that just increases the weight. Disciples of Christ...call to be witnesses for Christ....but they also had a human nature that could show itself out many a times. That's what Jesus told them not to carry along but put on only one raiment that pleases God. Hypocrisy is the biggest weakness in a Christian's life. As time passes by one could start getting weary and tend to fall. Keep it aside and walk a true Christian life was the instruction Christ gave them.

Christ didn't end his instructions there. He encouraged them by telling them two things, 'carry a staff, be shod with sandals'.

The staff is used by a shepherd for guiding his sheep. The staff here represents the word of God. It is the word of God that guides, corrects, encourages...During the mission one could get weary...getting back to his word is the best solution at that time. when things go wrong getting back on your knees and seeking God's help is the best way out. They were going to preach the gospel of peace. If they weren't prepared for the problems and tests, they would be utter failure in their life.That is why Christ tells them that they should be shod with sandals which is the prepartion of the gospel of peace.

We find many practical applications of these in our day to day lives. Lets look back into our life and find where we stand in our pilgrim journey.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt : A Scientific Approach.

2007-08-03T11:46:00.001+05:30

Have you ever thought as to how exactly did the plagues of Egypt originate? The incident occurred around 4000 - 5000 years ago. Archeology can barely find evidence of the Great Exodus of the Children of Israel. Scientists have now found out means of explaining the 10 plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.

The ten plagues of Egypt followed kind of in a continuous sequence each as a consequence of the earlier. Pharaoh had commanded all the male children born to the Jews to be destroyed and cast into the river Nile. This could have resulted into extreme contamination of the river resulting into the death of many fishes too. This could be the reason for the river turning into blood all of a sudden. This incident could have forced the frogs from the river to come out of the river and hence lead to thousands of frogs pestering the Egyptians. The next two plagues could have been to the mysterious death of all the frogs. The plague of the lice and the plague of the swarm of flies would have been responsible for the next two plagues i.e. the sudden death of all the livestock of the Egyptians and the plagues of the grievous boils on the Egyptians. Since insects are an excellent carrier of diseases, it could have resulted in the quick spreading of the disease.These were just one phase of the ten plagues. Six done...four more to go. The Lord then sent heavy hailstones followed by a plague of locust that devoured everything organic on the land and then followed by complete darkness for which some experts do comment that it could have been due to a great sandstorm. Well the tenth plague is one the most baffling one. Only the firstborn of the Egyptians died all at once and not even one Israelite was harmed. One of the possible explanations to this is, the 9 plagues that devoured Egypt earlier could have taken a great toll on the Egyptians. The severe hail and darkness can have serious effect on the mental structure of one's body. Egyptian customs insisted that before a famine or a natural calamity the firstborn should be fed twice his normal diet. The Egyptians didn't have any cleanliness rituals as compared to the Jews. All these could have resulted into the death of the firstborns of the Egyptians.

Then came the crossing of the Red Sea. There are four theories to it.

First: It could have just happened the way it is written in the Bible..i.e. a strong east wind came and separated the Red sea. scientifically proved that such kind of a thing can happen. But the kind of weird thing in this theory is the strong wind...never was such a strong wind seen before.

Second: A possible tsunami could have receded the water making a pathway for the Israelites to pass through. but the weird part of this theory is the exact timing of the tsunamis. They hit the shores as soon as the Israelites crossed the waters....!!!

Third: A possible volcano could have created a temporary pathway for the Israelites to pass through.

Fourth: The English Bibles misinterpret the Sea as the Red Sea....but it is actually the Reed sea...such a sea could be a lake or a shallow river bed making it possible for the Israelites to pass through.

Other questions that arise are, 'why did Pharaoh harden his heart?' , 'How many people actually left Egypt?' , 'Did Pharaoh really release the Israelites or did they flee?'

Egypt was one of the most advanced countries during that times. Pharaoh could have had a number of scholars advising him from time to time about the plagues of Egypt and giving him a scientific explanation to those events. Taht is why he could have hardened his heart.

The number of people that actually left Egypt in the original translations are written as 600 'elphs' (if I am right??). An 'elph' could mean 'a thousand' or 'a clan'. the word could have been misinterpreted as 'a thousand'. Archaeologists states that if there were truly 600 thousand people, there would have been remains left behind in their footsteps. but to date, no such evidence was obtained.

Egypt was constantly under pressure to a strong Mediterranean group that threatened Egypt and warred with Egypt during the times of the plagues. This greatly could have weakened Egypt due to which the Israelites could have possibly escaped.

The 10 plagues of Egypt are one of the most baffling incidents in science. Though science cannot give that convincing explanations to the events but they help us to look at the plagues of Egypt in a different way and well for me, it makes me once again think of God's greatness and omniscience.

Thought From the Scripture : Provoking God

2007-07-27T13:09:00.000+05:30

We are living in a age where sin burns and consumes people in their lusts and devices. In such a situation God has placed people like us who are supposed to live like Christians. Its like sheep surrounded by lions..we won't get harmed unless we wander out of the fold to see how 'beautiful' the mountains are.

We are placed in this world as Christians to be a testimony to the people around. But I personally think, living a true Christian life is the most difficult thing to achieve in this world and it is guaranteed that one cannot live a life up to the expectations of God without his much-needed help. Scripture instructs 'flee away from sin'.....that's when you start wondering what exactly does it mean to flee away? When you are alone and faced with the greatest weakness in your life it is very rare that you can escape from the sin safe...In such a situation you think..."Just once more...it'll be alright...anyway God is a gracious God, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy...well he will forgive me" ...knowing that this is not the first time you said such kind of a thing before falling into sin. That's when we start provoking God.

The people of Israel when they sinned willfully, the punishment upon them was not famine or drought but instant death. Even if they were caught breaking any of the laws, they were stoned to death.

The scripture says in Hebrews 10 : 26,27 "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."

I sill imagine is God really that strict? Though he is a righteous and holy God yet his compassion is so great! If I would count the number of times I sinned willfully....man! how on earth am I alive? The most severe punishment I would have got was a bad stomach pain or something like that.

the scripture further goes on to say in Hebrews 10 : 29 "....Of how mush sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under feet the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

The moment I read this verse I was deeply moved remembering that the verse strictly meant for people like me. I thank God that he still loves me and will never fail to do so.

The other day, my friend and I spent a lot of time discussing on this subject and the areas in our life where we fail. I thank God that he provided me such kind of a person who I could freely interact with and talk about the problems that I face. One thing that he told me that really pricks me when I am on the verge of falling...."Imagine what would God feel when I sin....He would be crying up there in Heaven...."

We are so shameless that we forget to cry for our mistakes but make God cry!! The Lord himself says "Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense it." If God would have revealed his true nature to us, which is hid by the blood of Christ, I doubt if I would have been there to write this article today.

Let's take a stand to say "NO" to sin and change our ways. I know it is easy to preach but extremely difficult to practice(at least in my case) and when it comes to our secret sins. Rather than provoking God through our sins lets ask God for his grace daily with a true heart to help us to carry on each day.

Agrawal Classes.....my 'XIIth' tension

2007-07-27T12:25:00.000+05:30

A much hyped classes known generally for generating toppers...that's the thought every Agrawalite steps in the classes with. "One day, my name will be engraved along with the toppers in Agrawals"...these are the kind of thoughts everyone gets when they step into the classes for the first time. Nut faint they know that the aspiring thoughts will last for only a few weeks or say a few lectures till they realize ..."Am I really in the right place or am I stupid?" You start dividing your batch based upon their IQ level...than as friends. You start realizing that you are not smart enough to be with the brains neither can put in hard work i.e. studying for 5 - 6 hours!!!

So you mix around with both the groups hoping you will get the qualities of both.

Them comes the judging of the professors. As people normally say...you tend to develop a liking for those who are able to impress you the first time you meet them. Some turn out to be very good who can take you to another level of understanding along with fun and excitement. But there are others who really put you down or with whom you can't get along with; either they are too boring or you are too sleepy(remember we have to get up at 5:30am).

'9 : 50am'.....

"tring tring......' '........beep beep......'

"Come on leave us yaar...!!!....we have to eat!!!!"

.....the alarms start ringing.....restlessness mounts although there are still 10 minutes remaining of the break. During the break if you happened to go down to breathe in fresh air....you will find that the whole footpath is crowded with the hungry, vicious, nerdy animals....oops!!!...Agrawalites. The other day a passer by asked me whether there was a program or a party going on or what??...Can't he see that we are the aspiring loyal nerdy - yet hardworking hungry students of Agrawal Classes??

Tests are a once in a month affair and they never bother you except on the report card that is sent home.that's when the restrictions start. Well the tests are kind-a tuff with no optional questions. The worst part is that you have to give a test for around 7 to 8 chapters together and not just on subject but two!!!

You will rarely find people getting marks between 65% to 80%. It will either be more or less.well I fall in the latter!

That's Agrawal classes in short. An experience you will never forget and will always be profitable.

Praying in Hindi!!!

2007-07-14T12:00:00.000+05:30

How would it feel when someone comes and tells you to pray in Hindi....when you are person who barely can pronounce Hindi the way it is supposed to be pronounced (you know that the best!!!!) .....or if you the kind of guy who always talks in English and always finds the opportunity to escape from someone who knows only Hindi......

It was Friday evening Prayer meeting in the church. We had a new person who joined us recently for the prayer meeting. Well he knew only Hindi and could understand only Hindi. My friend and I were sitting together with him. We never ever before prayed in Hindi. What should we do? We were in a big fix. We couldn't allow him to go and sit with others because well they didn't know him well and also he was knew in the church. We couldn't just abandon him. Took out a moment and then we decided to pray in Hindi.

Imagine being asked to talk in French when you just know only the ABC's of French. That was the same way we were feeling. My friend decided to open by taking the challenge and praying in Hindi. He prayed well though he prayed only about half the time he would normally pray. By that time my another friend came and he could pray in Hindi. I heaved a sigh of relief thinking that he would take him aside and pray with him separately. But no!!!! that didn't happen. He took his turn and continued the prayer time. All during his prayer I was preparing for my prayer...The big-big Hindi phrases that I never used even in my Hindi essays in school. Well it was my turn after him. I shrugged with a sense of doubt in myself and started my prayer...with long gaps in the middle I somehow managed to pray for at least one-fourth the time I normally pray. Though the Hindi was horrible....it was an experience never to be forgotten.

Revisiting seven/eleven

2007-07-12T17:37:00.000+05:30

One year has past and yet those horrible sounds keep echoing in your minds. The bloody pictures of those people who fell a prey to those antisocial elements in our society, still are vibrant.Bodies after bodies just scattered apart on those tracks where 181 people met their earthly destiny.Chaos all around as the rest 1000 people watched knowing that they could have been one of them. Scars left behind in their mind never to be erased or healed till they meet the same destiny.

Just seconds after the plot succeeded hundreds of people were out there on those tracks placing those bricks back on the wall. through the smallest of the gaps they pulled out people who failed to open their eyes ever again.Soon help poured out from all the areas as though those people were your own blood. Unity undefined and yet so great kept alive the hopes of those who survived the blast.

Before the police and the ambulance, it was the media who got out there to that horrible site.'First Pictures' of those bloody scenes flashed across the screens of millions of people of which some watched their hopes die as time passed by. Investigations began as the blame-game slowly arose out there in the political chambers. Hospitals got crowded as thousands of people gathered to relive their lost hopes. Hundreds joined hands as they rushed to the hospitals to donate life to the dying. Hundreds of doctors worked overtime as patients kept pouring in. And it was evening and the day closed with a shimmering light yet burning in the hearts of the relatives of those 181 people.

A force greater than the force that ripped apart that train from its very strength brought together the city of Mumbai barred neither by religion nor creed nor caste nor sex. That night behind the scenes hundreds of people worked together to see that the city is back running on those very tracks very it once fell. Lets take out a minute to just salute all those who left their comforts and leisure to help those ailing and helpless victims of the seven/eleven blasts.

Though the city runs today, and the world keeps spinning again, hundreds of people are still out there who will never be able to live a normal life ever again. As you revisit every moment of that gruesome day, I'm sure that a chill will run down your spine.

"Why don't things happen the way you think that they should go?"

2007-07-12T14:58:00.000+05:30

Why don't things happen the way you think that they should go? The other day I really had to take out time and answer this question. What is the purpose of all the things, the time I spend on perfecting it? All the hard work put into it just goes in waste...the mind and the creativity behind a project is all shattered when someone rejects your idea.

I think that God too had to take out time and answer this very same question at least once and most appropriately when his creation disobeyed him. That was the time God had to ask himself "What is the purpose of me creating mankind if they do not worship nor honour me. Man! these people are rebellious and if left on their own will surely never obey me. Didn't I have a wonderful plan for them? But they've have made their own plans. Ain't I the one who is all knowing, but they now think that they have become like me. Didn't I provide them with everything they wanted? Weren't they all sufficient? yet they coveted for that forbidden fruit! Did I make a mistake in making them??" I'm sure that God would have really questioned himself (though it is completely in man's perspective and contrary to God's character).

Why do people die or leave you when you think you are very close to them? Plans in life to get into this college, graduate in this field from a well known college, get into this job in this company, get married to this person and yeah all the other things that hurriedly follow.Well all these things do come into your mind but the moment you don't surrender your plans to the hand of God, its hard to say but you make God ask himself that very same question again!!

That’s where I fail and do fail many a times still. The day I go out on my own abilities that day I'm sure to fall.

The reason for this is as simple that you are interfering with what God has in store for you

It applies even for the things you do for God.The time and effort you spend behind it would all go in waste if it is not in the will of God.

I had to learn this the hard way and still do learn when I try to be the 'omnipotent one'. We had the monthly youth meeting started for the first time. My friend and I prepared a couple of new songs and practised well for it. Well since the program for the youth meeting was assigned to me, I took the whole responsibility of the meeting on myself and took pride in it too somewhere deep inside. But when the youth meeting started, it was like no one was even interested in singing those songs (though everyone looked forward to the games and the food more). Further incidents during the meet really tested my ego and my emotions. For the next few days, I was continually troubled with the thoughts. "Where did it all go wrong? Why wouldn't they cooperate? Why wouldn't they understand the hard work and efforts put behind preparing it? Why? Why??" But I never thought "Ha, I was the wrong man out there. I'm the one who is at fault. I was the one who insisted that the meeting should go the way I wanted it to go. I was the one who was becoming too selfish and not allowing God to work!" But praise God. After a couple of days God brought to light my faults and corrected me to the right way. had I allowed God to work & not my ego....well that day would have been a much more profitable than it was.

These times do come in our lives when we do not allow God to work through us and that’s when the problems start and all those self-questions. At these times we emotionally confront with our inner-self as a reflection on a mirror and begin to question ourselves..."Why don't things happen the way you think that they should go?"

What you wear?

2007-07-09T12:32:00.000+05:30

It was a Friday prayer meeting...I like usual came 5 - 10 minutes late...

I saw one of my friends standing out waiting for his mom...He had gone out and had come directly to church...well he wasn't dressed well for the church.

I asked him why was he waiting out. He told me that he had to change. Well it sounded a bit weird because he didn't have to actually change. He was coming from out and though it was late he still decided to come. No one would say anything to him if he had worn what he was in at that time. Also he had a quite good excuse. But he didn't do so. He changed his attire and then came to church.

But if it was me in that place, I would have come in with all those excuses and made myself sound quite reasonable.

This incident really made me to look back and see where am I standing. How do I dress and come to church. For other places I can wear whatever I feel. But when I come in the presence of the Almighty God do I dress like that man who came to the wedding feast without a wedding dress? The punishment for that man was severe.

God wouldn't punish me at this time...yeah he is a gracious God...merciful and compassionate God...and anyway why is God so worried about my attire...It should be my heart that matters...na??? .....these are the excuses that everyone can make and personally I would've made.

We are living in times that give us freedom in everything. But can we misuse these freedoms in Church...???

God expects me to be a testimony to this world. What I wear is what the world knows me by. The decency I have in my attire is what separates me from this world...though my behavior and testimony play the major role.

Let's us look into our life and see wear do we fail in this areas. I was touched by this small incident, maybe you would too be....

Know my thoughts

Helpers in Christ Jesus

A Companion’s Ministry

Facing Reality

Mission Mhow – the call

Listen, Respect & Learn

Two Face

A fresh feather and ink

Don’t be afraid to change

ROCK ON!!!

Shepherding

Lessons in prayer from the life of Samuel

Be still and hear

Better done than said

LIVING THE EASY WAY

but JUST A CRY?

Just a cry, that’s all he needs

Understanding God’s purpose

31st December 2008:

15th February 2009:

Does God still exist? – A case for existence

Does God Still Exist?

Confessions not meant for you

Called to be Victorious

BETWEEN GOD AND ME

THAT SOMETHING SPECIAL YOU’VE EXPERIENCED IN CHRIST

TRUE REPENTANCE

my SISTER and I

what does EVANGELISM mean to me?

TRULY! hypocrites

TRICKS and treats of FOOTball

QUICK takes

PAINTING A NEW ART WITH COLORS OF MEMORIES AND LESSONS

FLIPPING THE COIN IN ORISSA…WELL NOW…TAILS FROM HEADS

ORISSA VIOLENCE

SEX & THE CITY AND AN UNSCRUPULOUS SPIRITUALIST

Confessions of a Reckless Spiritualist

Jepthath’s Sacrifice

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Being a Good Samaritan

Where does your faith stand?

Three things my Father told me

The Concept of human spirit and its relationship with God in the Old and the New Testament

Corruption and me...?

Takins a stand for him

With the T.T.E.

Pointing Fingers

Doing things God's way

Walking back through my phases of life

request to you readers

A hectic mixed day

The value of life

Will a man rob God?

I minister....but.."Is it enough?"

Could you spare me some time?

The Unprofitable servants

The Unseen Mask

“Munna, Allah par barosa rekho…”

Joseph of Arimathaea

"You and I were made to love..."

Completely stressed out

Livin' in hope

Remebering those ol' skool days

Thought from the scripture: Call to complete dependance

The Ten Plagues of Egypt : A Scientific Approach.

Thought From the Scripture : Provoking God

Agrawal Classes.....my 'XIIth' tension

Praying in Hindi!!!

Revisiting seven/eleven

"Why don't things happen the way you think that they should go?"

What you wear?

31^st December 2008:

15^th February 2009: