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Showing posts with the label Christian spirituality

Gratis Pro Deo: Free for the Sake of God

Commodification, branding and monetising are the forces that drive the modern world, especially entrepreneurship. Commodification transforms goods, services, ideas, or even human experiences into commodities that can be bought, sold, or traded in a market. Commodification often involves assigning economic value to things that were previously not considered commercial products. For example, entertainment is commodified as music and video channels that must be subscribed. Education is commodified and sold at competitive prices (fees) depending on the institution’s quality and reputation. Health care is another commodity whose cost shoots past ordinary people’s purchasing ability. Once commodified, services and goods that were once free must be branded to stand out among competitors. Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business, product, or individual in the minds of consumers. It involves shaping how a brand is perceived through its name, logo, design, messaging...

What Happened to My Unanswered Prayers?

Some time back, I sent an email to my friend’s Gmail account. However, for many weeks there was no response from my friend. Then I wrote another email to him to the other email ID of his that I had. He promptly replied. Later we discovered that the mail I sent was sitting in the Spam folder of his Gmail account. My mail was automatically filtered to the spam folder! This made me contemplate on the prayers. I have been praying ever since my childhood. From short bed-time prayers to long intercessory prayers, pastoral prayers, prayers for the sick, in desperate need, etc. God answered some prayers but many are yet to be answered. What is happening to those prayers of mine that are not answered? God did not get it, or are they sitting in his spam folder? I wish I could just visit heaven and see what is happening to those prayers of mine that are not ever attended to. For that, I will have to wait. However, God has specially favored John the Apostle with some special privileges. One such...

Devotion: Sacrificial Extravagance

I looked up Wikipedia for a definition of the word "Devotion" and was surprised to find that in Christianity "devotion" is identified with Bible Study. And that is very much true. When someone says that s/he had devotion in the morning what they mean usually is that they read their Bible. However, the meaning of the word is quite different from studying the scriptures. Devotion is being devoted to someone or something. It is ardent love or surrender in love. Many Hindu Bhaktas understand and practice devotion in that sense. However, in Christian spirituality we often tend to forget this aspect though it has a very prominent place in the Bible. For example, Jesus asking Peter if we love him more that all that he has is certainly a demand for ardent love and total surrender in love (John 21:15). Loving God is a dominant theme in both the Old and New Testaments. See for example the command in Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with a...