Treading Dreaded Paths

We all love to tread paths that are well-trod. However, Jesus was different. He trod paths people dread to tread.

In most cases Jesus healed people by his word, without touching their body or the affected area. However, there were some exceptions. in the case of the deaf and the dumb man he touched his ears and his lips (Mark 7:33). In another case be touched the eyes of a blind man to heal him (John 9:7). These except in most of the cases the people touched him and were healed or he commanded the sickness or demons to go or pronounced healing.

However, he deviated from this in some cases. In the case of lepers he touched them to heal them (Mark 1:41). In the case of the dead he touched the bier or the dead body and raised them. In the case of the son of the widow who was dead and was being taken to the graveyard. He stopped them, touched the bier and the young man sprang up to life (Luke 7:14). In the case of the daughter of Jairus he held the hand of the dead body to raise her back to life (Mark 5:40 and Luke 8:54).

According to the Law of Moses, those who have leprosy should live outside the camp so that they don’t pollute others. Touching a leper made a person unclean. Anyone who touches the dead body should also become unclean and should live outside the camp. People feared the dead and the lepers and avoided both. However, Jesus did not.

In the story of Jesus healing a leper (Mark 1:40), the Gospel writer says that the leper came to Jesus. However, it is impossible for the leper to come to Jesus unless Jesus had ventured in to the territory where the leper lived with others from the rest of the people who considered themselves clean. In the healing of the ten lepers in Luke (Luke 17), Jesus was passing through the colony of lepers. This area designated for lepers between the two provinces (Galilee and Samaria) is a place that everyone who wished to be clean avoided. However, Jesus ventured through this land. Those who touched or carried the dead bodies were unclean. However, Jesus won’t hesitate to touch them. Jesus loved to do things that others dreaded to do. He trod paths that others dread to tread.

In recording in detail the healing of the leper and the raising the dead bodies by deliberately touching them, the Gospel writers are passing on an important message to those who want to emulate Jesus. Don’t shy away from the dreaded paths. Don’t follow the crowds along the well-trodden paths. The church has to deviate at times and sometimes stagger through paths the world hate to walk.

The disciples of Jesus had always followed his example of by treading the unfamiliar, untrodden, dreaded paths. Philip the evangelist had to move from the crowded streets of Jerusalem to the path in the wilderness where he met the Finance Minister of Ethiopia. He had to travel the wilderness road to meet the Ethiopian to introduce Jesus to him. Peter was hesitant to take the gospel to Cornelius who was a pagan. He had never visited a pagan in his house. However, God forced him to make that trip to Caesarea to take the gospel to a Roman centurion. Paul had to stray on to the Mars Hill in Athens so that he could tell the Athenians about the God whom they didn’t know. The history of the Christian Church all these two thousand years has been a history of treading the dreaded paths. It is a story of taking the gospel to lost, neglected, venturing in to unknown lands and it goes on. A church that remains in its comfort zones dies but the one that follows her master to the unknown and the unfamiliar thrives.

Demons in the Synagogue

Have you ever noticed that the first exorcism that Jesus performed was at a synagogue (Mark 1:21-28)! In the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark it says that ‘ there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit’ (Mark 1:23). How can a demon-possessed person survive in a religious place like a synagogue? Another reality that I notice is that nobody did anything with this situation of having a man with evil-spirit in the synagogue! Did he appear so normal that nobody knew he was a demoniac until Jesus drove the evil-spirit from him? Or did they just let him be there being unable to do something about it?

This story tells us something about the nature of possession by evil-spirit. First of all, they may look and behave like normal people. Secondly, don’t expect to find them only in weird places like grave yards, dark gullies of down town areas, or mental asylums. They can look very normal, could be hanging around religious places like churches and Christian fellowships.

There is yet another important aspect in this whole story. The evil-spirit that reveals itself. Nobody probably knew that this man has evil-spirit. Or nobody told Jesus that this man has evil-spirit. Evidently, nobody asked Jesus to get involved. Its all initiated by the evil-spirit itself. When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, the man with the evil-spirit couldn't stand it anymore and it spoke out revealing itself. It cried out saying: 'What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.' That is why Jesus had to rebuke and cast out the evil-spirit from that man.

There is yet another unique aspect to this story. That is the evil-spirit manifested itself as Jesus taught or it is the teaching of Jesus that caused the whole episode of casting out the evil-spirit. The people in the synagogue were amazed by the authority of Jesus, they exclaimed that he has authority that is so different from the authority that their scribes had. However, though that was the response of the normal people, the evil-spirit had become so fearful at the authority of Jesus displayed in his teaching. When the man with the evil-spirit heard the powerful teaching of Jesus, it cries out of fear! The evil-spirit immediately realized that their end has come. The evil-spirit knew that the end of the evil has come when it cried out, 'Have you come to destroy us?' They knew the answer to that question is certainly, 'yes!'

The onlookers were surprised indeed. They were curious to know how Jesus would handle the situation; probably his teaching was interrupted by the evil-spirit that cried out in the middle of the sermon he was preaching in the synagogue. Exorcisms were not new to Jews of Jesus' day. There were Jewish exorcists in Jesus’ time as well. These exorcists used various means to drive out demons. Some would use certain prayers or incantations to drive out the demons. Some would use some medical preparations, or stones that have special qualities.
 However, this exorcism was different. Jesus did not use any means or media. He just commanded the evil-spirit to come out and it came out immediately! The words of Jesus alone is sufficient to drive the demon out of that man.

For me, this story is not very much about the evil-spirits though it is centred around a man with evil-spirit. It is about the power of the Word of God. As the Word of God is preached with divine authority, the kingdom of Satan begins to shake. No evil can withstand the power of the the Word of God. The evil one realizes that his end has come! This is an missing dimension in Christendom today. We only tend to identify the influence of the evil-spirit only if it is manifest. However, the Word of God has the power to uncover everything that is not pleasing to God and cleanse every mind of what is not pleasing him. There is a cleansing process that the Word of God can do and all Christians however, normal they feel should be subject to that process of cleansing by the Word of God daily.

Salt of the Earth

When Jesus said, 'You are the salt of the earth' (Matthew 5:13) he was reminding his followers of their inescapable responsibility. They are not called to 'be salt' or 'to become salt' but they 'are' salt. Thus the options are limited to just one: losing the saltiness and becoming salt without taste.

Salt is a universally understood symbol. Salt is used from time immemorial for purification, preservation and to make food palatable. Salt can preserve anything from humble lime to the mummies of great Pharaohs. Egyptians stuffed the bellies of the dead bodies with salt to remove the water and other liquids from the body. Then they applied salt along with other chemicals to preserve the corpses for millennia. Cooks all over the world add salt to food to make it palatable. 'Salt to taste' is that line which is so common in all recipes.

Jesus was defining the presence that his disciples should make in the world. They will be those who purify the world that they live, they will make life more palatable, and preserve what is valuable and noble than pull it down.

'Salt' also meant something more. In the Jewish thinking, to be precise in the writings of the Rabbis, salt is a symbol of wisdom. That is why Paul, one of the greatest Rabbis exhorted the Colossian church, 'Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person' (Col 4:6). The followers of Christ has to be full of wisdom so that their words are gracious and filled with wisdom.The idea of wisdom is explicit in the contrast that Jesus makes. The salt can lose its saltiness and become 'tasteless.' In Greek, the word used for 'tasteless' is same as 'foolish.' The disciples have two options. First, be salt or be wise. Second, be tasteless or be foolish! 

 

Jesus reminds us of the great task that is ahead of us who live in this tasteless world. Life is miserable for many. Poverty, deprivation, injustice, lack of inner peace, conflicts within and without make our world unpleasant. The presence of the followers of Christ in this world that has lost it taste makes it more palatable.

The world is losing the values that preserve the human race. Values like respect for life, the dignity of the human being are being eroded among many other. Great social institutions like marriage and family that have preserved our race so far are under attack. The world is losing its salt. The disciples have to enter the world and salt it again with their presence. The Church thus has the great responsibility to make the world more palatable, or liveable. The world needs wisdom to live. That wisdom is entrusted in the Church of Jesus Christ. 

However, the followers of Jesus can also lose their saltiness. Salt if not used could also react with other active chemicals and become something else even harmful chemicals. Just as salt that has lost its saltiness is thrown away and is trampled upon, the disciples who lose their saltiness will become laughing stocks before the world. That would be terrible.

The non-threatening, approachable King

In the events associated with the birth and infancy of Jesus we hear the unique message that he has for the world then and now. Christmas decorations depicting the Baby Jesus in a manger are integral part of the displays during the season. It is a reminder that God comes to the human race in the most non-threatening way, in the form of an infant. Jesus Christ came to this world in the form of a baby born in a manger outside an inn in Bethlehem. Babies are innocent, they have no enemies, they have no prejudices. All babies are cute and adorable. We love babies not for their eloquence or even for their achievements: they are unable to speak and they haven't achieved anything yet. They don't threaten us in any way! It is the most non-threatening form God can incarnate. His purpose was to make a dwelling in the hearts of people, so he chose to be in the form of a baby.

Besides this non-threatening presence of God in our midst, Christmas also reminds us of the approachability of God. The night he was born, a host of angels appeared in the skies and sang praises to God. Their singing woke up the shepherds who were watching their sheep in the open field. The angels told them the exact place where the newborn Jesus could be found. The shepherds followed the angelic instruction and worshipped him in the manger. The shepherds were people of the lowest rung in the society. For their sake and the sake of all those of their rank in society, God chose a manger to be born in. A cosy bedroom in a large house is an ideal place for Jesus to be born. However, that would make him unreachable for the poor for whom he came. So, he chose to be born in a manger of a stable which is outside an inn that was approachable to the poor. We don't have to worship God from a distance, he meets us in places where we can find him. God, though transcendent breaks the barricades the society has erected and comes to the aam admi.

However, Jesus more than a mere baby. What drew people to him as a baby was not the fact that he was adorable but the fact that he was worthy of their worship. Another story associated with Christmas is that of the kings of the 'East' visiting the baby and paying him tribute. These kings were probably astrologers who gazed the stars and saw 'his star' in the sky and followed it to the place where Jesus was born. According to scholars, they might have travelled either from present day Iran or India two places where astrology flourished. It might have taken many months of travel for them. Jesus was not in the manger anyway for such a long period. It seems appropriate to think that he was in a place where the royalty could walk in. The kings visited him and worshipped him. They presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, valuable gifts from the East. This symbolic act of paying tribute was to accept his authority over them. He is not just a mere adorable child but a king over other kings.

Jesus came to rule the hearts of men and women of the world. To give them a new standard to live by. To challenge the evil social systems and decadent moral values that corrupted the society. Christmas thus reminds us that God has come to human beings in the most non-threatening, approachable way to claim his place in our hearts. To rule it in such a way that a just, righteous societies are built up.

The 'God-deficiency' of our days

'God is closer to me than I am to myself,' said Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), the German mystic and theologian of the bygone days. He went on to say that God is close to the wood but the wood doesn't realize that. That's true. God is closer to us but we don't realize the fact of God's nearness to us.
This insensitivity to God's nearness is caused by those things that have exiled God from our consciousness. It could also be that that many of our worldly concerns, cares and the like has created a wedge between us and our God and we let that gap grow as time went by, thus distancing us from our God.
We have many things that can take the place of God in our life. There are many rivals to God and we have consciously or unconsciously give these rivals to God the place of God in our lives. These are things that engage each moment of our lives. Our busy life, life's priorities, the things that demand our attention, those things that we adore have engaged our minds so much that we don't have time to realise the presence of God around us. These make us so insensitive like wood to the presence of God.
We then become like chidren who left their parents hands and were finally were lost in the crowd. Some search frantically for their parents to be united with them, some don't even realize that they are lost. This is what has happened to most of us. We have deliberately travelled too far from our Father who want to be closer to us.
One reason for wandering away from the Father is our own false self-confidence. We are made to believe that we are independent and we can do things without Him. As children grow and are more and more used to their world, they develop a sense of independence. That make them to dare to venture out themselves. This independence resulting from the false self-confidence is what makes us less and less aware of the presence of God. We are certainly less aware of what we don't make use of at all.
Jośe A. Pagola a Spanish bible commentator thinks that the problem of the modern world is not atheism but a 'God-deficiency' that we experience. We may not deny the existence of God but we don't acknowledge or experience God as much as we ought to. God is there, but we feel a deficiency of him in our lives.
This God-deficiency in our lives is the reason for all the ills of the modern day. Our world has turned more violent than before, because we in short supply of the God of love. We are merciless to women, children, the unborn, the poor etc, because we are deficient of the God of mercy.
God created the world centered around him, beautiful. The Bible encourages us to live our lives centred around him. God in the Old Testament had his presence in the midst of his people in the Tabernacle. He led his people through the wilderness. Jesus invited us to abide in him and promised his presence in our midst. He is ready to dine with anyone who opens the door of his heart for him. However, our insensitiveness, our God-deficiency and the lack of the God-centredness of our lives has thrown us off balance. There is a great need to return to God.
The devotional masters always tried to 'centre' themselves before they prayed, studied their scripture or even before they wrote. Everything has to be activities centred on God and proceed from the great awareness of him around and in us. This is why learning to centre our lives on God, whenever we feel that we are away from him is important.
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The Jericho Luncheon

Jesus once told the parable of the treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). A man who knew there was treasure hidden in a field sold all that he has and bought that field. He paid a price that is much higher than the actual price of the field. For the owner of the field and others this man appeared to be a fool. Though the owner of the field was selling the field, this man was in fact buying the treasure. The owner could see only the field but the buyer sees a treasure in it.

This parable applies to all who have sacrificed all that they have for the sake of the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish. The best illustration of this parable is what happened in Jericho during the visit of Jesus when he met Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).

The Bible says Zacchaeus was a chief-tax collector. A chief tax-collector is someone who was in charge of many tax-collectors or had the right to collect tax from one or more tax-districts which he might have delegated to others. What this means is that he was doubly hated. He was hated by the tax-collectors who worked for him for demanding too much and also by the ordinary people who were struggling under the burden of Roman taxation who hated all tax-collectors!

He was the symbol of exploitation, collaborator with the Romans who economically and politically oppressed the people whom they ruled. Nobody liked Zacchaeus and his class. However, tax-collectors had a life of their own, they partied together and there was plenty of money to spend on lavish parties.

Zacchaeus was very curious but was short in stature. His curiosity was so much that he resorted to climb a tree to get a good view of Jesus. Certainly he might have heard a lot about Jesus, otherwise he would not have longed to see him. It seems that he also had some knowledge of what Jesus was preaching. Otherwise, he would not have told Jesus what he is going to do with his ill-gotten wealth (Luke 19:8).

Jesus carried with him a large crowd wherever he went. Besides the disciples and others who followed him wherever he went, there was also people from the places that he was visiting. In this large crowd that Jesus drew around himself critics were not rare. The critics who surrounded him would question his words and actions. At times they tried to harm him also.

Now, for these critics, meeting Zacchaeus was probably okay. But Jesus inviting himself to the house of Lazarus for a meal raised many the eyebrows. Their criticism was valid! A meal is more than having food. We need to be careful not only what we eat but with whom we are eating. Inviting someone for a meal, or having a meal with someone means that we share their values. We are in the same party! Seldom does enemies get together for a party unless to celebrate the end of their hostilities. If we don’t like a person we don’t like his parties also.

Having a meal with Zacchaeus means Jesus is his kind: A collaborator with the tax-collectors who support the Roman occupation of Judea to exploit his own people. A meal with Zacchaeus, that too with the knowledge of the public (Jesus invited himself to Zachaeus place in the hearing of the crowd) simply means Jesus endorses what Zacchaeus does. Jesus' is risking his reputation and making a public statement about where he stands: that he is with the oppressors and not with the oppressed. Having a meal with Zacchaeus, for the critics means that Jesus is with the imperial government and its collaborators.

Jesus and Zacchaeus have something to sort out. Do they belong to two parties or the same. If same who is on whose side? The solution was simple. One of them has to join the other. Who should do that? Should Jesus say that he belongs to the class of Zacchaeus or should Zacchaeus declare that he belongs to Jesus?

Zacchaeus knew he cannot have a meal with Jesus unless he joined Jesus party! So he "stood" (Luke 19:8). This word is powerful. Though this word means standing literally, it is used also in the sense of standing up to, resisting, etc. In Ephesians 6:11, the same Greek word is used to ‘standing against the schemes of the enemy.’ Here Zacchaeus thwarted the criticism of the crowd, and stripped them of their ammunition before they can fire the first bullet by changing sides. He is no more a tax-collector who exacts money but a new person. He will give away four-fold of what he has unjustly collected and give half of his wealth to the poor! His decision shut the mouth of the critics: Jesus is doing nothing wrong in having a meal with him, because they share the same values.

So, that meal was not Jesus endorsing Zacchaeus but Zacchaeus endorsing Jesus!

The cost was high! Much higher than the cost of meal they shared. The cost was so high that Zacchaeus probably may not be able to host another luncheon like that again. This decision might make him bankrupt, but for Zacchaeus what was important was to share the same values as that of Jesus, the Kingdom values, by bidding farewell to oppression and exploitation. That is worth more than what he was parting with--his ill-gotten wealth. He was parting with all that he had because he was simply trading it for a much precious treasure: the Kingdom of God. He bought a field selling all that he had, because he eyed a treasure in it.

Conversations with a Muslim Friend

I had an aisle seat; so I was waiting for the other two passengers in my row before I buckle up to have a nap. I haven’t slept the whole night thanks for this red-eye flight. A young man and his wife walks towards my row; it seems they are going to be my co-passengers for the three hour flight in economy class. He was about 27 with a thin but medium long mustache and a Muslim cap. His appearance was evidence that he is a devout Muslim. To confirm my conclusion he was accompanied with his wife who wore a black purda. Only her eyes were visible through a slit on that black gown. I looked away as I made way for them to get to their seats. The young man let his wife go to her window seat and then turned to me. "Uncle, how are you!” the young man asked me in a very friendly tone. That woke me up and I made an eye contact with him; his friendly smile conquered me.


I wanted to sleep, but he won’t let me. He kept talking always punctuating it with this respectful "uncle.” I managed to have a nap but when I woke up he started massaging my right arm though I protested. He claimed that he was trained by his uncle to massage. However, I enjoyed the soothing effects of the massage and I let him; I badly needed it though. He then massaged my arms, my head, shoulders as I listened to him.


He is an engineer, studied in the UK. When he realized that I too am a UK alumnus he was excited. His wife had all her education in the Madrassa and never been to college. She has done eight years studying the Holy Quran, the Hadit, Shariya and so on. She is in fact qualified to be a teacher in a Madrassa.


Our conversation meandered through various subjects into the topic of a good moral life. It all started as I quizzed him on Islamic banking, a subject that I am keen to learn. That conversation made me realize that in all religious there are people who would like to live upright lives. Its ture that religions create in their followers a quest for ethical lives.


He told me how one can avoid lying. "When someone bargain with you” he said, "if you are a merchant, you don’t have to lie.” For example, you don’t have to say that you got it for a certain price, and can’t sell it less than that. It could be a lie to convince the buyer. Instead, an ethical merchant just need to say that it is the lowest price that he can sell. No explanations needed.


He had some useful tips on overcoming jealousy too. We often are jealous of people’s achievements, that’s human. However, if we can bless the person who has made an achievement, we can overcome it. For example, if your neighbour buys a new car or had a salary hike just bless him and you can overcome jealousy. That was a very useful tip!


Positive mind-set is very important. So my friend says "masha allah” ("God has willed it”) when he see someone doing some good work. When we see someone sweeping the street, washing the car or helping a blind person cross the road, whisper "masha allah” in order that such good works will prosper and then obviously the whole world will be filled with such good works. I liked it also. It is a very creative way of having a postive outlook on life around us.


I was a keen listener so far. It was my turn to talk. I have learned a lot from him and I also praise God that there are many in the world who like to live upright lives pleasing God. I told him I strive to produce the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit as a believing Christian. I struggle to love, to be patient, to be kind and so on. I told him I struggle to rejoice in the success of others and long to see a world full of happiness, good works, zero corruption, etc. "I do it” I told him, "slightly differently.” I may not use the expression "masha allah” because it is foreign to me. He was so pleased to find another person with a mind-set similar to his.


"However, AB,” I said (AB being the initials of his name), "I am trying to do my best and I know that I am not perfect.” Sometimes, the success of my friend is of such magnitude that it takes me a few days to overcome my jealousy and tame myself to bless him. I bypass so many people who do good works and forget to bless them. When I stand before my Creator one day (as all of us will) what guarantee that I got that I will enter the Paradise? How do I know that while on earth I had met his criteria of righteousness? "Dear AB, this question has been bothering me!” I told him sincerely. "I realized that I cannot live a life pleasing God by my own strength. I needed help.”


"However, I found help,” I told him, "in prophet Jesus.” "He was willing to help me because I consider him more than a prophet.” He is my saviour as he has condoned all my sins so far. He is my righteousness because I have put my trust in him. He is my model for ethical life. However, whenever I stumble and fail, I am sure he will come to help me. I am not living on my own strength but by his grace. I am sure, when I stand before my Creator one day, he will say to me "well done my son!” "You have tried to live according to my example and what I have revealed in the Word of God.” Jesus will tell me that day, "You have some failings but since you have put your trust in me and depended on my grace than your strength I ignore your failings.”


AB was very keen and attentive, he was all ears. He has found another person like him, trying to live a life that pleases God. But I hope he understood that my way of pleasing God is different from his. I "struggle” to please God because of the weakness of my flesh. But I live with the confidence that my saviour will make up what I lack since I trust in him. The trust in Jesus that is the difference between us.


Then the captain announced that the plane is going to begin its descend to Kuala Lumpur. Our conversation has to be wound up. But I am so pleased and thankful to God that in his plan he gave AB and me, two like minded people to raise to a new level in our thinking and challenges for life. That was indeed a divine appointment.

God's people and Good people

Yesterday was a great day in my life! I had a big problem to sort out; but it was great opportunity to learn something directly from God.
The church I pastor had been worshiping in a hotel room for the last three years. After a wonderful service last Sunday, as I walked out of the "church”, the manager of the hotel called me aside to say that we have to move out. That means I will have to find a new place for next Sunday.
So, I started the hunt for places. Called up real-estate agents, sent text-messages to church members to pray and called leaders together to pray.
I started with a Parsi lady who runs a small nursery school from her mother’s cottage. Though she gave me an appointment at 5:00 pm I could not keep it since I was with a property dealer who was showing me places around. She waited for me till 6.00pm and got on with her other evening engagements. However, when I called her up again to reschedule my appointment, she was extremely kind to discuss the matter over the phone. She even called her mom on phone to persuade her to rent the place for us for Sunday mornings but failed. Her aged Mom (about 80 years) cannot have a group of people singing songs on Sunday morning till 1.00 pm; Sunday is her only quiet day. All the other days they have the small kids screaming and running all over the place. I understand. However, this wonderful lady, who is not a Christian but a Parsi was so concerned when I told her I have no place for church next Sunday. She thought for a moment and offered me her cottage! She added that it will be free of cost until I find a new place! She don’t want the church to be without a place to meet even for a Sunday. A Parsi, offering her cottage free of cost for Christian worship? Yes, there are lots of good people who fear the Lord outside the church. That was a new discovery.
My next stop was back to the hotel manager to plead again. I need it for another four-five weeks which will give me some time to find a new place and prepare the flock for a move. So, I walked in to the hotel. The staff who noticed me stood up respectfully, offered me a seat. The managers walked in and offered tea. I was not in a mood for tea. But one of them insisted, "You should have something!” So, I surrendered my lack of appetite before his kind hospitality. I told him why I need it for another four-five weeks. He listened carefully. They have done some Vastu and Reiki investigations on the building and found out that the place badly need renovation. They need to get it done before the IPL season begins in the first week of April, it is already March. The architect is going to pull down the fixtures and start the work next Saturday in order to meet his deadlines. But one of the managers added, "but we need the positive power of your prayers too for our business. We don’t want you to go away, we need your prayers in this building.”
So, he need to make sure the "positive powers" of my church’s prayer every Sunday in his building. So, discussion proceeded along those lines. So, we need to work out how that happens and they came up with a plan. In case the architect pulls down the hall in these four weeks time, they will get the basement ready for our service. If that is the case, then the "positive power" of my church’s prayers will go up and bless the building. Sure, we will have the building for service. I dont’ believe in the "positive power" of prayers, I don’t believe in Reiki and Vastu. All these are non-sense to me! However, I like the people who think that Christian prayers can do them some good and would like to keep some praying Christians around them! So, yesterday God worked for us and sorted out part of our problem. Yes, there are lot of people who are vulnerable to God outside the Church.
This is the lesson that Jonah had to learn in the hard way. For Jonah people of Nineveh are the most wicked ones. They should perish. In fact the whole world, the pagans who don’t know the true God should perish, that’s what Jonah believed. So, he ran away from an assignment to preach in Nineveh. He didn’t want them to repent and be saved.
So, he got in to a ship that was to sail in the opposite direction. But God won’t let him go and followed him in the sea too. The severe storm threatens the ship. The sailors threw their wares out in to the sea to make it light in an attempt to save their ship and their lives. Now, through casting lots, they found out that all these are because of one man—a disobedient prophet on board. Jonah was cool when he suggested that he be thrown overboard to the Mediterranean sea where hungry sharks roam. However, the sailors won’t. The pagan sailors has such a respect for human life, they would like to keep an Israelite though he may be the cause of all their woes. He had already told them that he worships the Lord who made heaven and earth. So, they have such great fear of this God whom they don’t know but who, according to this passenger is in charge of the sea! He had to insist and they had no other choice than get rid of this dangerous cargo which has come to them in the form of the disobedient prophet. Finally, they prayed, asked God’s forgiveness before tossing this man in to the sea! Pagans who fear the Lord and who are integral part of God’s plan, that’s a new lesson.
Now, the big fish with Jonah in his belly is speeding in the opposite direction of the ship towards Nineveh. It has an urgent commission. It has a precious cargo in its belly. It has to throw up this rebel prophet on the shores of the city of Nineveh before the digestive fluids dissolve him in his belly! He has to be in one piece! The fish cannot be as disobedient as the man of God is.
Now, in Nineveh, Noah preached his half-hearted sermon, in a "here it is, take it if you want” attitude. But the response to the one-line sermon was great! The pagans walked up to the altar in large numbers even before he gave the altar call. In fact, he was not planning one. Jonah could not believe his eyes! Even before he started playing "Just as I am without one plea, O lamb of God I come!”, there is a long queue, Usually he had to play it twice and repeat the altar call two or three times, keep telling people that all should have their eyes closed, use all sorts of gimmicks for the first person to get up and walk toward the altar. Then there will be a trickle of three to five people who line up before the pulpit. Now, here comes the entire city of Nineveh in tears beating their chests in repentance; men, women, youth, children, babies in their mothers hands, pets and even cattle following them to fast and ask God’s forgiveness. Jonah is stunned! This sort of things hasn’t happened in his crusades in Joppa or even in Jerusalem, in God’s own land! This pagan city is responding in a way that he never expected.
Oh, yes there are lots of people outside the Church who are vulnerable to God. I am reminded of what Woody Allen said, "more and more people are leaving the Church and getting closer to God!”

Making Christiana Talk

She must be in her high teens or touching the twenties. A cute, lean,
blonde she is. However, her face was without expressions, she seldom
smiled and hardly talked. Her movements were robot-like.
She stood behind the restaurant counter painted in black. The dominant
theme of the restaurant was black. Black counter, black table-cloths,
the pillars which held the glass panels giving us a view of outside
were also painted black. She, like all the other waiters wore long
black trousers, black shirts with long-sleeves. All that was visible
from that black drape was her white expression-like face, dead tired
eyes and her short blonde hair.
In short, she and her team in that blackish restaurant intensified its
melancholic air. My team ate three meals there for five days. We were
there in that country which was part of former USSR. Tired after long
meeting, we wallked in to the restaurant to be refreshed, but the
melancholic air of the restaurant made us more tired and sick even
though the food was really good.
My friend is fun-loving and he loves to talk, and enjoys jokes. This
is not the kind of surroundings that he like to be in. One day, when
he cannot stand the waiters who seldom greeted the guests, but was
duty bound, just placed the three courses one after other and cleared
them without a smile, he decided to pull out one of his tricks.
"Hi, Elvina!" he said as she was clearing the table. "Can I have a
glass of water?" She raised her head and looked at him and knew he was
adressing her. He repeated, "Elvina, I would like to have some water."
"I am not Elvina!" she retorted; but she was not angry! "Then who are
you?", my friend insisted to know. She smiled and said in a rather
subdued tone, "I am Christiana!" "Oh, sorry Christiana! What do you do
besides working here, are you a student?" Christiana smiled again and
told us that she is a student, working towards a job in hotel
management. Then whenever, we walked in to the restaurant she smiled
at us from behind the counter painted black, and whenever he laid the
food on the black table-cloths she wished us. My friend has made
Christiana smile and talk!
Christiana is representative of a generation of young people whose
parents never taught them to smile though they were free to. Their
parents and grandparents have been through repressive communist
regimes that not only rationed out food and comforts but controlled
their intellectual and emotional life.
In the streets, people don't care to make eye-contact with others. The
cashiers at the super-market counters don't greet the customers. The
bus-driver looks away from the passenger as they enter the bus. The
people of this country are still under the spell of the repressive
regime though they are free.
There is religious freedom in almost all countries that belonged to
the Eastern block; Freedom to propogate and to practice ones faith.
However, having lived their lives for three generations without
religion the natural hunger for God that every human being has seems
to have died out. The new generation generally doesn't care. Their
parents did not go to churches or Sunday Schools and they do not know
why these are essential for their children. If they could manage their
without these then their children should also.
We have been hearing a lot about religious freedom in the former
communist countries ever since Berlin wall fell. However, as I walked
through the doors, what I found is freedom but a freedom nobody like
to make use of and is not excited about.
It is not only in former USSR or but people who had gone through
similar repressive regimes also feel the same way. I remember praying
with a colleague from Combodia some years back. He said, though the
country is now free, the people are still under the spell of the Pol
Pot regime.
The Christian challenge in these countries to proclaim that there is
freedom; to make them realize that they are now free to smile, talk.
To lead them to a greater joy that is in Christ means that they should
first discover the need to be joyful. My prayer for the younger
generation would be that their eyes will be open to realize the need
to be joyful and later discover that the real joy comes from the Lord.

A Day in the Graveyard

The Indian Christian Cemetery in Pune is "alive” these days, especially the left side of the cemetery that is Catholic. Pune has two big cemeteries on the Solapur Road. The one of the left side is the European Cemetery. That is where the European Christians who lived in Pune during the colonial times are buried. After Independence, Indians who go to some of the mainline churches of European heritage are buried there. As the number of these churches are dwindling, the cemetery is also less frequented. A visit to these churches on Sundays and may make you think that there are more members in the cemetery than in the pews now. The growing younger churches manage the cemetery on the right side of the Solapur highway. That was designated for the Indian Christian population in colonial times and thus got its name as "Indian Christian Cemetery." That is divided as the Catholic and the non-Catholic cemeteries by the unpaved pathway in the middle. If you are Catholic turn left and if you are Protestant turn right!

As you enter workers are waiting for you. "Are you here for cleaning up?” They inquire! They have shovels, and knives. Some boys are ready with paint-buckets and brushes. They will help you clean up the tombs of your dear ones, weed around it and also give it a coat of paint. These workers and those who are visiting the grave of their dear-ones are all over the place. The family members are giving the graves of their dear ones a face-lift well ahead of the All Saints Day that is approaching.

On the left side of the pathway a few steps after the chapel I noticed a little grave. By the size of it I guessed that a very young life is buried there. Judging by the age of the flower plant at the head of the grave, it is not new. It is not built up, no marble, no tombstone--just a heap of mud. It has a metal cross at the head and a few bricks around it. A lady in her late forties has cleaned it up and is giving it a coat of cow-dung. Cow dung is sacred and it is used for polishing the mud-floors in villages. A ten-year-old boy is very keenly watching the skillful movements of his mother’s hand on the smooth cow-dung paste. Another lady, is applying white lime-paste on the bricks around the small grave.

I approached her to find out who is sleeping under that small heap of mud, so passionately attended to. The lady applying the cow-dung was so absorbed in her work and did not bother to answer my question. But the lady with the brush and the lime bucket raised her head to look at me. She said, "It is her sister”, pointing towards the lady with the cow-dung polish. "How did she die?” I wanted to know. She said he doesn’t know the cause of her death. She was also not sure of her exact age at death as well. But only one thing she knows that it was forty years ago that she lost her little sister "Yesther” (Mararthi for Esther). She has kept that grave, protected it all these forty-some years. Now her ten year old son accompanies her to his aunt’s grave. She is celebrating her loss, her brother’s wife who came to her life much later has joined in her grief and in her labor of love! I could sense there a bond that is not broken even after forty years and a bond of love that is being passed on and shared by all those who entered her life.

A few steps away, an man in his later sixties, sitting on a large tomb, is retouching the engravings on the marble tomb stone with white paint. He is completely absorbed in his work.  He raised his head as my camera flashed and smiled at me. I took him for a hired hand. "You do this for a living?” I asked. "No”, he said. "This is my mother and son and that one is my uncle,” pointing to another tomb behind him. He has buried in one grave his mother and 31 years after that his own son who died at 28. That was almost twenty years back. His son was engaged to be married. But just five days before the marriage, he died of massive heart attack. So, he opened the grave of his mother and buried her grandson with her. That is beside the grave of his uncle. "This was brought from Bangalore,” he told me showing the green marble slabs on the graves. His eyes were gleaming with pride. "You can’t get this type of marble in Pune,” he said. He has done something special for his departed dear ones so that their graves will stand out on All Saints Day. He has suffered great loss, mother, uncle and a dear son. His dreams of being a father-in-law and a grand father were dashed. However, he seems to have over come all the sorrows, but the bond of love remains beyond the grave though there may be practically no remains beneath those marble slabs. Twenty years is enough for all that is buried to degrade in to soil. However, love and affection are not biodegradable and memories can never be erased.

I was waiting for the body of my colleague’s husband to arrive! He was a army personnel, served the Lord during his days in the army and after his retirement as a full-time pastor. He pastored a congregation of about 300 people. It was an unusual funeral, some of those who were waiting were growing impatient. The church has decided to have a funeral procession something unheard these days in a city like Pune. Usually there are undertakers who do the job. They bring the body to the cemetery in an ambulance, the family members and friends come in their own cars or public transport. No one takes walks to the cemetery with the body these days.

While were waiting two other funerals were also going on. On the catholic side a body was brought and an altar was quickly put up, candles were lighted. I had nothing else to do and I wanted to find out who is in the coffin. It was a man in his fifties. A small crowd of about fifty people has gathered as they waited for the priest to come. The dead man has a "sindhur” on his forehead and was wearing a red-sports cap! The cap was new, I am sure he did not die in that cap! There was an old lady kissing the dead man and crying in Marathi. But the expression on the face of the dead man was quite sportive. If they held the coffin vertical he would look like a soccer umpire who froze to death! Jolly good guy he probably was in life!

On the other side of the cemetery was another coffin, a very small group of around twenty people are gathered there by the grave. They all came in cars. Nobody is crying, they are waiting for the priest to come! All are well-dressed and spoke English. It was not about the dead man or his family or about the funeral arrangements. Most of them are looking towards the irons gates of the cemetery probably for the priest’s car to come; one or two people are passing occasional glances at the coffin. They seem to be eager to get this over and get back to their life. Death means many things to many people.

Our wait was over. A red car with loud-speaker on its top, a keyboardist and a tabla player inside entered through the rusted iron gates. Three or four men in white shirts and black pants with cloth-bags on their shoulders were walking behind the car leading a procession of about 1000 people. They had microphones in their hands and were singing in Hindi. The huge crowd walking behind them joined in the singing. Whenever the young men stopped singing between two songs the crowd shouted "Yesu Masih ki Jay!” a usual phrase praising Jesus. There was another car behind it inching its way forward through the crowd. They stopped it and pulled the coffin of their dear pastor out and carried it on their shoulders to the grave-side. The young men had stopped singing through the microphone but the crowd continued to sing as they walked towards the grave. The young men had grabbed their keyboard and tabla and ran ahead of everyone to the grave-side. They fixed the loudspeaker on a tripod. Assembled the system and put all things together and began singing before the procession reached the grave. They continued singing in Hindi again through the microphone: "I have a land, I have home in Heaven.” Someone prayed through the loudspeaker in English and it was translated in to Hindi. I noticed that they did not pray for the comfort of the family, the wife who is left behind or the children. But their prayer was that those among gathering who haven’t found the hope in Jesus Christ may find it now! That is the purpose of this public funeral. Then there were few more testimonies; they talked about the their pastors life and faith! The first preacher spoke about eternity and how to follow the deceased pastor to the heavenly bliss. I know there will be another speaker may be one more saying the same thing. They are so excited that they got another chance to explain "the hope that is in us.”

I was exhausted, dehydrated from the long wait in the hot-sun. The pollen from the weeds thriving in the graveyard was irritating my eyes. I had to leave. I walked away leaving the crowd who was turning the funeral of their dear pastor to a evangelistic campaign. I walked past the father adorning the marble grave of his son, passing one more glance at the little grave of Yesther shining with the fresh coat of cow-dung. The English speaking funeral party is still waiting for their pastor to come growing impatient. While the friends of the dead man in red cap and sindhur was proceeding to the grave following the priest.

The poor and the rich meet here. Their poverty and wealth is still reflected in appearance of their graves. Some express their love with cow-dung and lime; some with imported marble. Some are passionate and some detach themselves from the dead. They love life and hate death. But there are still a few bury their dead brimming with the joy of life eternal. They will not visit the grave again, never will they clean it up. Their hope is not in the grave but life beyond the grave!

iDeath and eLife: What Steve Jobs Discovered and Missed

Steve Jobs, as Rick Warren rightly tweeted was " the Thomas Edison" of his generation. Steve Jobs changed the way we look at the world just as Edison. Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ friend and colleague from the very beginning of his career remarked in his "tearful” interview with Associated Press that, "We lost something that we will never get back!" Steve Jobs was so unique! Everyone shared that sense of loss but will still remember Steve Jobs for the way he changed the world.


Like thousands of others, Apple computers made my life different. The first work I ever did on a computer was on an old IBM PC way back in 1986-1988 during my student days in Bangalore. It had no hard disk, it used two 5" floppy disk drives. One of the floppy disks had the OS and the word processing program. The other was for saving the documents to. The computer had no memory of any sort, we had to enter the time and date at start up. We did not know what we were going to get. I mean, the screen and the printout did not match exactly. If you forgot to close the code for bold font (which was invisible on the screen) then the entire document from that point will be in bold!


However, two years later, I was introduced to an Apple Macintosh Classic computer with a black and white screen. It had a mouse, what I saw on the screen was I what I got in the printout (WYSWYG). It could type Hebrew and Greek, the two languages that I had to use besides English. It was a great leap for me! Then a few months later, I had my own Apple-- A Macintosh LC with color monitor! Nineteen years now, I still keep it; it is still functional though I don't use it! I  had to part my ways with Apple. I could not travel with Apple any further as my iBook crashed a few years back. I changed my loyalties to Linux run on PCs. Apples turned out to be expensive. Moreover it was difficult to keep pace with the speed at which they updated the hardware and the software-- every six months something new rolled out of Steve Jobs mind to the market. However, I still am an Apple fan and hold no hatred for iPhones or iPads!


The world of technology and business hail him for his inventions; iPhone, iPad, iCloud and all that preceded these. However, I think his greatest achievement was not an invention but a discovery that he made. I would like to call it iDeath!


He disclosed that discovery when he went public after being diagnosed for pancreatic cancer in 2005. That is his discovery of the significance of death for him. He said, "Remembering that I' ll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." 


However, even before that, from the very beginning of his career he had death in view. Steve Wozniak who knew him from the very beginning of his life as a computer genius and business man made another revelation about Jobs in his interview with the Associated Press. He said that Jobs told him around the time he left Apple in 1985 that he had a feeling he would die before the age of 40. Because of that, "a lot of his life was focused on trying to get things done quickly," Wozniak said.


This discovery of the significance of death for a human being defined Jobs’ life-style and his impatience for achievements. Former colleagues remember him being rude and impatient. He fired people if their answer did not satisfy him. He had no time to waste, he was on a rush. The secret seems to be that he always saw death before him, he had the end in view; he had to achieve all that he could before he reached that point.


I would like to use the metaphor of a ship on collision course to understand Steve Jobs view of life and death. He seems to have imagined that his ship will not survive the collision and will sink deep down never to raise again. Seeing the immanent death (though he lived longer than he thought he will) he was on a hurry. He was bent on achieving as much as he can before the collision happens. That is what made him brash and impatient. That sense of urgency is the secret of his achievements as well.


However, that is not the only perspective on life and death that is possible. Saint Paul saw death every day in his life. He lived a very dangerous life which he described as "we die every day" (1 Cor 15:31). Death was an every day possibility for him. He had survived shipwrecks, snake bites, robbery attempts, had fought with animals in the arena. He knew that he may drop dead any time! Though death was a daily reality for him, his view on death was very different from that of Steve Jobs.


If he saw his life as a ship, he would have seen death as a thick fog through which his ship has to pass through and not as an ice-berg that it would crash on to.While Steve Jobs could not see the other side of death, Saint Paul could see through the fog the other side of life beyond the grave.


The other side of the grave (the fog) as the Bible presents it is beautiful and radically different from one the one that we have now. The Bible describes it as a life where the perishable is turned into imperishable, and the mortal turned in to immortal. It is a life without limit: no limit on its time and no cap on its quality. That limitless length and quality is what qualifies it to be described as "Eternal Life" or eLife borrowing Steve Job’s language! (One of his flops was the eMac!).


This eLife is not a life of passivity; spent waiting for the other life. It has the same urgency that Steve Jobs maintained but for two different reasons. The first reason is that the passing through the fog is to a place from where there is no return. Whatever to be achieved in this world has to be achieved before the ship enters the fog. The second reason is that we can only predict the possibility of the fog but can’t predict how far we are from it. One day our ships will meet the fog, but none knows when. That demands that every moment has to be redeemed. There is urgency that fuels our life to achieve.


Steve Jobs has been a great achiever. His achievement was prompted by the certainty of an immanent death from which he cannot escape. That great discovery of death made him rush and gained a place with the greatest minds of our times. But he could have had the same urgency and achievements that follow from that sense of urgency with another view of life and death as well. He could have held a view which would have given him hope not only in this world but also in the world to come. It seems that he missed that perspective. His greatest achievement is the discovery of iDeath on which he could not put any controls. He missed eLife-- eternal life that Jesus offers to all who put their trust in him. If Steve Jobs had read that Book which talks about it, he would have discovered eLife.

The "AGAPE" Love

The Bible teaches us that love is a fruit of the Spirit and it has supremacy over the gifts of the Spirit. In fact Saint Paul argues that the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit is useless if devoid of love. Being devoid of love is a state of existence which can be very well described as "being nothing” (1 Cor 13:2) and such lives "gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:3).

The love mentioned in this passage is a entirely different type of love, very different from what we usually mean by it. The Greek word AGAPE is consistently used throughout the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, the greatest poem on love.

It was a common word for love which found a new meaning in the New Testament because of the experience of love that the writers had. Their experience was different from those who lived before their era, before Christ came in to this world to put up a magnifcient show of this special love. The translators of the Old Testament into Greek who lived about 200 years before Christ had many Greek words to choose from to translate the word, "love.” So, they chose as they thought fitting for the context of each occurance in the Hebrew bible. The word AGAPE is used for love only 20 times in the entire Old Testament in Greek though the word love comes more 500 than times! However, the New Testament writers use the word AGAPE 116 times (75 times by Paul alone) though the New Testament is only one third the size of the Old Testament! The resaon for this use is their experience of God’s love through his Son, Jesus Christ which the Hellenistic Jews missed.

This love is not a convenient love or a congenial love but a love for the most unlovable. Most of the time we love whom it is convenient to love. Inconvenience hinders such love. Haven’t you seen people break up when one of the lovers change universities or move away from the other. The distance and new circumstances becomes inconveniet for love and love ends there. AGAPE love is is not congenial. Congenial love is the love for the things that we like or for those of the same kind. Crows peck away the alien birds who enter their tree because they cannot love birds of other kind. Their love is congenial. Human beings also have the same mentality. It is easy to love people of our family, our country, of our skin colour and the like. Though, we may not hate people who are different from others, loving them demands effort.

However, the love that God displayed through his son is qualitatively quiet different from this. It is the love for the most unlovable, when they were most unlovable. In Romans 5:8 we see the nature of this love: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” First of all Christ loved for the sinners whom God really doesn’t like at all. The Bible says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). However, God is willing to love us though we donot deserve his love. The New Testament writers reserved this word for that sort of love. Secondly, God loved us with his AGAPE love when we did not deserve us. God’s love for the sinners was not after their conversion to God’s children. He loves them even before that, when they "were still sinners.” Thank God that he did not say, "if you stop sinning I will try to love you.”

John, who is known as the Apostle of Love says that God was so liberal in loving us, his love was unlimited. He uses the word "lavish” to express the manner of God’s love! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1 NIV). The most unworthy of all are the ones who are loved by this type of love.

Moreover, this love is transformative. It transforms the persons who are loved so that they look at the world and all around them with AGAPE love. This transformative power is expressed in 1 John. "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14 ESV). "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:16 ESV).

The reason for the AGAPE love is not in the object of love, but proceeds from the character of the lover. God is able to love us with the AGAPE love because he is love. We cannot love others with AGAPE love unless we are transformed by this love. That love transforms our world-views, the quality of service, and all that we do and think. That is why this love has the supremacy over all the magnificent gifts of the Spirit and display of spiritual power.

The Centurion and the Galilean: A study in authority

When a Galilean carpenter commands "Go" nobody moves; they may look at him curiously wondering if he is all right. When he beckons to someone to come they may, but not always! Nobody is under his command and he has no authority over anyone.
However, a Roman centurion is different. He has 100 soldiers under his command. When he walks in, they all stand in attention and salute him. When he commands one of them to go and fetch something he does. When he shouts 'march' they march on in an array. All of them are under his command. His words work. They can change things; they make things move!
The Roman centurion whom we find in Luke 7 was in desperate need, a need which was beyond the resources he had at hand. One of his servants was sick and no words of him will heal him. The sickness or whatever that caused that sickness was not under his authority. They won't heed his commands. He was helpless.
However, he was humble. Humility is the pre-requisite for faith. He knew higher authorities exist. He knew from his experience that authorities higher than him had higher commanding power. An officer in-charge of a legion had much higher power than a centurion.
Centurion's knowledge and experience shaped his faith. He did not want Jesus to come to his house. The reason for not taking Jesus to his house is not that it was not big enough for Jesus. The reason was simple; Jesus doesn't need to be there. His word is enough! 'But say the word, and my servant will be healed' (Luke 7:7). The article (the) on "word" is important. He meant "the word" for sickness to leave! He knew there is a word to make the army march, there is a word to make the army to retreat, so there must be a word for sickness to leave and healing to come in. The one who has authority over sickness can command using 'the word that heals.' In Jesus he recognized that authority and the power of Jesus' command.
Centurions' faith was commended because his faith came from his experience and his recognition of Jesus' authority. In Jesus he saw more than a Galilean tramp, a man of authority. In Jesus he saw a man who has authority over all sickness. That's what is called faith!

+Amrutha Pulikottil +Johns Abraham +John Alex +Baju Joy  +Barry L Ross +Denny Babu +bibi george +Tess Chai +Connie Karsten +Chris Wright +Daman Chawla +christy mathew +DeCruz Pulikottil +David Neidert +Devender Verma +Edison Thella +Philip P. Eapen +Ebin Abraham +EBEN TOM PHILIP +Georgy Fredy +Frank Ho +Rev. Fr. Sajeev Sugu Jacob +Faustina Moktan +George Ohia +sohan tiwade +Rev. Dr. Harold D. Hunter +Steve Hardy +Hanson Samuel +Hasita Issac +Shirley Ho +Hannah Muhar +Anne Cathers +Coordinator UAE +Meren Imchen +Joshy John +John Thomas +Jean-Daniel Pluess +Kee Nelson +Anoop Krishnan +Desmond T H Lim +Starla Luke +Margaret Lamb +Sebastian moktan +Shalu T. Mathew +Sam Mathew +Sam Mathew +Johney Joseph +Nilav Kolay +Jos Vargh +Jonathan Ng +George Ohia +Rojin Pynummood +oommen george +Stephen Olsen +Lim Siew Pik +Renjen Philip +Reji Philip +jimmy cherian +Godly John +Robin Jacob +simmy saji +Simjan. Jacob +Jerin Thomas +Tim Wiford +Cynthia Sprunger +alan varghese +Rachel Varkey +John Walters +Willy Abraham +Michelle Fernandes +Terry Yeow +Caleb Yeshwanth +C P Thomas +Gigi Zachariah +Zeroob Baby +Prakash Philip Zacharia +Fadhilah Zulkifly +zakkariya parammal

Exonerating Jonah

We have been very unkind to Jonah. No character of the Bible has suffered so badly at the hands of Bible interpreters and preachers like this man often pictured in a long robe and a long beard. Sometimes pcitured in the belly of a huge fish! Christians and Jews of all ages are equally guilty of this. They pick up a negative image of this poor prophet from early childhood as the Sunday School teachers use their flannel graphs and tell the children not to be so disobient as this disobedient prophet! And when these children mature to adulthood they become Sunday School teachers and preachers to continue the millennial old negative propaganda against this prophet of Israel.

Jonah was not that bad! He ran away from the presence of the Lord, I agree! Probably, he did not have read Psalm 139 especially verses 7 -10 of that psalm: "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalms 139:7-10 ESV).

Not only him, even long after him, the people of Israel thought that the presence of God was limited to certain places. This is what the Samaritan woman quizzed Jesus: "The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” (John 4:19-20). So, he thought he can get rid of this nagging God if he left the country and sailed for a far away place, beyond the reach of the Hebrew God!

Now, running away from his country to avoid the presence of God, that is a serious charge! But tell me which prophet of Israel was not fed up with this God who always demanded too much from them. Moses, complained to God many times when he was under stress, Elijah wanted to die unable to carry on, Jeremiah wept, protested, argued with God, Isaiah was despondent, the list can go on! We all are tempted to do it. It is just human.

Sleeping at the bottom of the ship while a storm was raging and every sailor was praying to his god is quite an achievement! Who can sleep peacefully amidst such a turbulance? Remember what you did when when you are 40,000 ft above the Atlantic and the pilot turned the seat-belt light on with a warning that the plane is facing turbulent weather? You made a sign of the cross and closed your eyes but were not able to sleep until the plane got back to a smooth path? Jonah was not sleeping, I think, was pondering "O God, you are here too! You got me?"

The story portrays an ordinary human being. It tells us what any prophet would do if God asks him to do something that he has never done before. Not just prophets all devout persons have limits to their patience and endurance. Jonah had reached his. That explains his behaviour.

But what I like in the story of Jonah is that he did something that many godly people normally won’t do. First of all, he knew what is wrong! He was a good troubleshooter! He told his fellow sailors that it is the hand of his God who created heaven, earth and sea! Many of us are equally good trouble shooters as well. But the difference is that Jonah not only found out what is wrong but he admitted that he is responsible for it! That many of us don't do. We normally score very low as troubleshooters, but very high as trouble-makers. Even when we succeed in locating the reason for the problem we tend to park it at somebody else's door! Taking up responsibility for the mess we created is often not in our nature. Now, I want Jonah to be exonerated at least on this ground! Long live Jonah!

Rights, Duties and Duties without Rights

We are very conscious of our rights. Students go strike for their rights so do factory workers, government staff and even in a family individuals insist on their rights, though they may not go for a sit-in.

Conflicts are bred when people insist on their rights. Two ships collided head on in the Black Sea killing hundreds of people in 1986. The reason for this tragedy was simple! Both captains insisted on their right of way and were not willing to yield! By the time they realized that they were on a collision path it was too late!

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister once reminded his people that there are no rights without duties! People who insist on their rights often ignore that they have duties to perform. Those who ignore that obligation have no claim on rights.

However, the Bible extends the correlation between rights and duties further than an issue of priority; that is the question of right first or duty first. In 1 Corinthians 9 Saint Paul illustrates through his own life that sometimes we will have to surrender our rights for the sake of our duties.

He had every right to travel with his wife on his missionary tours. We are not sure if he was married and a widower or he was never married. Whichever way it goes, he travelled without the company of a wife. However, that was not the practice Christian circles those days. Other Apostles took their wives on their trips (1 Corinthians 9:5). As a minister of the gospel there was nothing wrong in being rewarded for his service (1 Corinthians 9:6). That was the practice of the apostles and that was also supported by the scriptures (1 Corinthians 9:13-14). However, Paul did not insist on this right also. Rather he chose to work and earn his support so that he can preach free without burdening the people to whom ministered (Acts 18:2-3). He had many such rights but he did not insist on any of them.

At least two times he states that he did not insist on his rights (1 Corinthians 9:12, 15). Why did he not insist on his rights? His reason for forfeiting his rights is that it may hinder his duty of preaching the gospel. So for the sake of his duty he would rather give up his rights.

Sometimes, preachers may become such heavy weights that smaller people may not be able to come closer to them. In such scenarios the gospel suffers. Many times inisting on our rights we lose friends, opportunities for conversation and even opportunities for service. When forfeiting our rights for the sake of gospel we don’t lose anything but make great profits by winning souls for Christ.

Bin Laden: Avenge, Revenge, Justice!

Osama Bin Laden was shot dead and buried in the Arabian Sea by the US Navy Seals. President Obama announcing the death of United States' most wanted enemy said that "Justice is done!". There were celebrations all over the United States celebrating the death of the most hated terrorist who allegedly is responsible for the death of many Americans. The excitement was so hight in some places that they did not care who really died. When the news was announced, some students who were celebrating in an American university shouted cheefully that "Obama is shot dead," not realizing the subtle difference in the two names!
There are lot of questions to be answered. First of all, what is "justice" and how justice is done?
Justice is righting wrong. Justice means that somebody has caused someone some sort of distress and that situation has to be corrected. There are many ways of righting the wrong. Restraining the person who did the wrong thing and making sure that person will not do it again is one thing. But that is the second step. Removing the disadvantage that the victim suffers is the first step. Then comes the second step of making sure that it will not happen.
When someone robs a person, the person is caught, he has to return what he has robbed. The wrong is corrected. Then the robber is restrained or corrected so that it will not happen again. However, this really doesn't apply to murders. The murderer has taken from the victim and his dear ones something he cannot return, that is life. However, the disadvantage that the victim suffers can be corrected. The ways the Old Testament deals with this is instructive. If the murder was intentional then the murderer has to pay by his life. He will be killed. If the murder was unintentional then the murderer can take refuge in one of the asylums called "cites of refuge" and spend the rest of his life there or will be caught and executed.
In both cases, justice is done by removing the disadvantages that the victim suffers. In ancient agrarian societies number mattered. The families with larger number of people were better off than smaller families. That is, the sheer number of workforce was crucial for their life, prosperity and security. When a family or clan is killed the murderer and his group gains an advantage over them. This can be corrected only by the death of a member from the family or clan of the murderer; and nobody is responsible for this other than the murderer, so his life has to be taken. By keeping the murderer in one of the cities of refuge he is restrained by participating in the life of his community. Thus "An eye for an eye" approach was a primitive form of ensuring peace and prosperity.
This clarifies the words "revenge" and "avenge". There is a huge difference between "revenge" and "avenge". Revenging is to return the evil for evil. It has no other motivation or purpose. However, "avenge" is correcting a situation and bringing justice by returning the same or similar act. Revenge is retaliation but avenging is to bring justice. The Old Testament "An eye for an eye" thinking was a avenging than revenge.
This same principle doesn't apply to modern situations. By killing the man who is responsible for the death of thousands of Shias (Saddam Hussein), or American civilians in WTC attack (Osama bin Laden) the disadvantage that the victims or their families suffer is not corrected. All that they get is the feeling that he will not be able to do it again to anyone else beside satisfying their thirst for revenge. However, there are number of other ways of making sure that he will not doing it again than killing him and revenge is not Christian at all.
Killing a person terminates not only life but opportunities for that person to be a better person in life. In Christ there is a standing invitation to all humanity to change, to shed hatred. To deny any person that opportunity is a denial of God. To conclude that a person is beyond correction is arrogance. The modern world has denied Saddam Hussein, Velupillai Prabhakaran, Bin Laden and many others that opportunity. What we have done is gross injustice to our Christian conscience!

Easter: Your Search Ends Here!

Easter settled a big question. Was Jesus a failure or not? At his arrest and crucifixion his opponents and also his disciples thought that he has failed, he is another failed Messiah of Judaism who led a popular movement duly suppressed by the Roman military power. However, when they found that the tomb was empty on the third day they knew that he was not a failure but a victor. He rose from the dead. "O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting?" Death had grip on him only for a few hours and he for ever overcame death.

However, it took some time for his disciples to come to terms with this reality. Mary and other women did not remember that he had claimed that he will rise again. They went on a wrong search at the wrong place. They were not supposed to search for him in the tomb he was buried. Because he was not going to be there on the third day. They longed to see his dead body again, but that is the wrong thing they were looking for. Many continue similar searches for truth making pilgrimages to places to find truth there but truth is not a place and cannot be found in any place. Jesus is truth and he is not be confined to any pilgrim places.

However, meeting the risen Jesus altogether changed her search and the mindset of the disciples who verified that the tomb was indeed empty. They found the linen wrapping in the grave, but did not bother to keep a few pieces of this to be venerated later. For them they have met the risen saviour and having him back to "walk with them and talk with them" is far greater than keeping some rags to venerate. When I have the reality of Jesus Christ why should they settle for something less.

Easter Sunday come with the message: Your search ends here, if you begin a walk with the risen Lord.

Finishing Well

People start in style however the end may not be always as glorious as the beginning. In a sprinter event, every runner brims with confidence at the starting point and it is difficult to say which one will win. Some give up after a few feet, some trail far behind and the eyes of those in the gallery are no more upon them. Some may faint in the tracks. Some give up when they hear the crowd cheering the winner. However, there are a few whether the winner is decided, though the finishing line is still far away, still run in style and finish. They don't care if they are the last. They were committed to the race.

Finishing the race and finishing it well is what is important when that race is Christian life. The Bible reminds us that Christian life is a race.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-12 ESV).

In Christian life the price is not just for those who finish ahead of others but to all those who finish; it is not a race where only the first three are honored. It is a race where all those who complete the race are honored because it is not a test of speed but of perseverance.

Moreover, Christian life, is not an race with its end in itself. It is a qualifying race, a race that prepares us and qualifies us to another level of existence where there is no race at all. There times stands still, it is called eternity.

It is true that Christian is called to a life of eternity. But eternity should not be imagined not only in terms of time but in terms of its quality of life. New Testament construes eternal life very much in line with the Greek concept where it is the life of the ages or the life of the gods. It is possible to have a taste of it while on earth. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36 ESV).

Jesus was not talking about eternal life in terms of its quantity but the quality. We are invited to live that quality of life now on earth but we will experience it for ever amd in its fullness when life on earth comes to an end. For that to happen, the life on earth, which is considered as a race through alien land has to come touch the finishing line. Finishing it well and in style is thus very important.

Finishing well first of all means to run the full course of the race and qualify for entry to the eternity waiting for us. Bible also gives examples of people who gave up in the middle of the race. Paul has a few examples of those who gave up in the middle:

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim 1:18-20 ESV).

Finishing well is more than dying and having a Christian funeral. It is dying with the hope and assurance that we are going somewhere better. We may call it dying with Christian hope. One of the criminals crucified with Jesus had that assurance before he breathed his last. He was so fortunate to have the saviour of the world by his “side” at the time of his death! No one will be so lucky. However, we can still die with the saviour by our side and be carried to the presence of God if we have faith and hope enough. Dying with a smile on the face is so great!

I have been by the dead bodies of modern day saints who died of various causes. One thing that I have noticed is the peace and tranquility that is frozen on their face. Sometimes a smile of great satisfaction still lingers on the frozen pale lips. They died peacefully and with lots of hope. That does not mean that their death was painless. Some died of massive heart attack, and some had painful cancer for years but at the point of death they had faith and hope that helped them “finish well.”

Some years back I head this story of a terminally ill godly patient counting down his days on earth. He had a bed by the window in the hospice room that he shared with others. Many of those who shared the same room with him were not believing Christians. He was so weak but he will turn his head towards the open window and describe the beautiful sights that he could see. He would look through the window and describe what he saw: of meadows, placid lakes, rivers, singing birds and flowers. When he died many of his roommates wanted to move to his bed by the window with a view that opens to beautiful landscape. One of them was lucky enough to the get that coveted bed. He was disappointed the first morning itself. He looked through the window eagerly as the dawn broke but there was absolutely no view there, a high concrete wall just two feet from the window even banned breeze from entering that room. The patient who died was not seeing what is outside the window, he was in fact seeing through the roof, the sight of heaven above; because he knew he was going there and was filled with faith and hope.

My mother has been my inspiration always though I had her only for the first eight years of my life. In fact six years, because bed-ridden for two years before she died at the prime age of 41. Most of my memories of mother is when she was sick and have to do with her death and funeral. She knew she was dying and those who loved her did not want her to die. But she had accepted the fact that she is going home and did all that she could do to make the life of those who she is leaving behind happy. She asked her husband to marry again, she called her children to her bedside and distributed her belongings according to their age. Prayed for them and entrusted them to God's hands. One day with her widely open at staring at the ceiling she told her family that she see roses of different colors, angels in while glowing apparels and the like. She requested those around her bed-side to sing songs of hope and requested her favorite ones.

Her friends and prayer partners were not willing to give up. One day they gathered around her bed in fasting and prayer, trying to twist God's hand. They were sincere people. When the prayer which lasted for hours was over, she told them quite calmly: “I have seen the shores of the Beulah land, I have to go, can’t turn back now, don't hold me back! Let me go!” Within a few days she went flew away to Beulah land is enjoying the presence of her Savior and Lord. She finished well!

Some of us may be allowed lot of time to prepare for the Beulah land. But when sick, is important to know whether we are moving towards healing and being pulled out of the pit, or moving towards the shores of eternity. That requires some discernment which only God can give. However, a Christian has to be ready for the home-call.

However, there is a false gospel that is so widespread that deprives Christians the privileged of “finishing well.” They teach never to give up and they fight to the last minute even when it is clear there is no point fighting. I have come across sick people who hoped that they will be healed. They could not think of sickness as a chariot God has sent to take them home. They were taught that all sickness could be fought and won. I came across a dear brother whose father died on a prayer mountain praying for his healing till the last minute. He could not take time to prepare himself for the shores eternity. He was taught that all sickness can be healed by prayer.

I was by the side of a 51 year old widow who was diagnosed with some rare disease for which no cure is still found. Doctors have told her and the family that she will eventually die of this sickness but they cannot tell how soon it would be. Medical science has no hope for her. I knew it was incurable but also believed that there was nothing impossible for God. However, I felt the need to prepare her for eternity. One day I gathered enough courage after praying many hours for her to ask her a simple question. “If it is the Lord's will to call you home, are you ready? I will continue to pray for your healing.” She replied that she is not ready to die and believed that God will heal her. She called people with gifts of healing and prophecy to pray over her. One after another continued to assure her that she will be healed. In spite of all the prayers, she died within a few months, still fighting a battle she was not supposed to fight at all. Her sickness was a chariot that was waiting for her, but she could not see it and those spiritual specialists deceived her.

The problem with the prosperity theology or the “name it and claim it” teaching and the triumphalist preaching is that it deprives people a closer walk with God towards eternity through their struggles. They are not teaching growth but survival. They teach people to do well in this life as if there is no life beyond. They don't prepare people to “finish well.

I knew of a young man who owned a brilliant mind that was corrupted by the prosperity teaching. He devoured the “name-it-claim-it” literature uncritically. He was convinced and preached that children of God will not die before they reach 70, never die in an accident, will not fall sick, etc. He used to drive at high speed since he believed that he will not die in accident. However, at a very prime youth he died in a car accident leaving behind his young wife and two children proving all that he claimed and preached were wrong. Sadly, the proof was his death.

Historically, Christian church believed that people have to be prepared to go! The Last Unction or its equivalents in various traditions were saying bye to the dear ones and encouraging those who are dying to look forward to a life beyond the grave. That great tradition is wiped out and replaced by a mind-set of rebellious refusal to go! It is that rebellion manifested in the form of healing ministries without discernment that should go if we want to see more people “finishing well.”