Because He Lives

I look forward to the day when Igniter Media makes a full-length movie.

Husband and Wife

Husband: Let's spend some time together!

Wife: I love you hun, but you do know that I've set apart Sundays for you, don't you?

Husband: Sundays are great, but why do we have to limit our communication to just Sundays? Do you know how much I long to connect with you daily?

Wife: What do you mean? Do you not know that I wake up every day, early in the morning and read about you and talk to you?

Husband: Duh, how can I forget the time when you are having that non-stop monologue with me? 

I am glad you know all the data about me, but reading about me is totally different from actually spending time with me. Do you have a clue of how much I long for a personal connection?

I was not kidding when I said I love you. You, my beloved, are constantly on my mind. 

When I try to reach you, you think you have to dedicate a certain time for me. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, I look forward to your responses to my text messages that I send you throughout the day. But you seem to have this notion that mere texts won't count. Mere texts? My dearest, don't you know that there is nothing "mere" about the thoughts we have for each other? It's the little things that matters. What is little to you, means the world to me!

By the way, I find it funny when you speak to me so formally in Elizabethan English. But I always hear you speak very normally with your friends. What's up with that?!

And why does your face become all serious when you talk to me?

Seriously, it pains me when you try to become someone else around me. My heart sinks when you try to connect with me.

You do not have to try. Just be yourself. I love you for who you are. I will continue to love you unconditionally, even if you choose not to communicate with me at all, because my love towards you was never based on your response or performance. Also, I am least bothered about how well your communications skills are. 

It is your heart that I am after. 

So, be free! 

Be you!

Baklava and Faith

When we go through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not often feel Him. As a result, we may have the urge to conclude that he has abandoned us.

How can he abandon us when he said, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" ?

But still, we like the confirmation of our senses. And I don't think it is too much to ask for. Joy cannot be theorized. 

So how do we go about experiencing Him in the middle of the worst storms?

This is where believing His words with a child-like faith come into play. We have to make the decision to take "I am with you always" at face value. 

Believing has nothing to do with feelings. It is a choice that we make. We might not feel a thing initially, but as we take the baby steps with him each day, we get to taste and see that He is good.

Tasting is not a theoretical concept.  

I do not taste baklava by faith. I love that pastry and I long for more. My taste buds can never get enough of it. But if I were new to that pastry, I would have to choose to taste it. But now that I know (not just know about) how baklava tastes, there is no going back. It's too good.

Angels and Demons

There was a phase in my teen life when I tried to be an atheist. I read plenty of books on atheism and I thought I was one. But deep down, I could not agree fully with the notion that there is no God, which is why I say that I tried to be one.  

Wasn't it common sense to become an atheist or at least be an agnostic? Angels, demons, virgin birth, resurrection? For sure, it must all be part of a big religious hoax, designed to control the mass. 

Or is it?

Either way, I still could not commit to the concept of there is no God.

Why could I not believe in atheism? Perhaps it was due to the fact that I had received Jesus Christ to my heart at a younger age?

It is possible. But I am not sure. 

Fast forward to the present. Right now, I believe that it takes an immense amount of faith to declare that there is no God. I can see why people are allergic to religion (I know I am). And I see how the biblical stories may be perceived as fairy tales and mythologies. 

But to come to the conclusion that this universe and everything that contains it popped just out of the blue... I just do not have enough faith to believe that blindly, because my next questions would be, where did the blue come from and how did the very first cell come into existence? "It just happened" violates the basic scientific principle of cause and effect. Nothing just happens. I think it's an insult to the intellect to even consider that reasoning.

Even Charles Darwin was skeptical about his theory.

His words: "To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree."

But then, what do I know? I might be a close-minded religious nut job incapable of thinking for himself.

Heaven on Earth?

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

Most of us know that verse by heart. It's from the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray (see Matthew 6:9-13).

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

But often times, we do not see the power that is contained within that statement.

If we did, we would not accept the ills that we see in our lives or around us.

The media screams "economic Armageddon" and we accept that. The newscaster declares the "flu season" and we prepare for the season. Likewise, we mindlessly nod our heads to a plethora of things that is alien to our new life in Him and His Kingdom.

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

Let the scripture sink into our soul...

Let's Do It!

Religion hurts. I am not theorizing here. Here is a real-life example. 

I am part of the prison ministry team of the church organization that I attend and I have the privilege to connect with inmates in person and through letters. 

Couple of weeks ago when I was at a particular correctional facility sharing the good news of the love of Christ Jesus, I met a man who came from a very churchy background. He said was raised in a church, used to be a drummer at the church and that most of his immediate family were pastors for multiple generations. But when he made some wrong choices in life, they disconnected him from their lives. Yes.

The man was deeply hurt. His questions were along these lines: how could his family, the supposed servants of a loving God be this nasty to him? Is God like this too?

Welcome to religion. This is a classic example of what religion does to a person. It condemns, hurts and alienates people from God's love. Religion mouths the name of Jesus, but its only god is the organization that it serves. 

The truth is, those hurtful actions by his family members are alien to Jesus. Listen to Jesus' words, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:17). Read the Gospels closely; the only crowd that Jesus chastised was the religious crowd,  not because He hated them, but because they were dependent on their self-efforts to be in right standing with God.

Condemnation is not from God, because the price for the sin of the human race was paid for by Jesus Christ, once and for all. As Paul said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom 8:1). 

It's the goodness of the Lord that leads a person to repentance (Gr: metanoia - which simply means a 'change of mind'). Jesus did not die for us when we had all our acts in order. He demonstrated his love towards us by dying for us while we were sinners (see Rom 8:5). Period.

So we see that God's love is unconditional towards every human being (not just the Christians. see John 3:16). And if we are His ambassadors, is not it fair to assume that we are to represent our King? 

Let's look at everyone as God sees them. 

Let's do it, by abiding in Him!

What the gehenna!

When I first heard about the concept of universal salvation, I was elated. Who in their right minds would really want to see anyone burn in the lake of fire? I’ve never understood the Christian who relishes the thought of someone burning in the lake of fire. Often times, the person who gleefully and viciously condemns someone to hell does so from a posture of self-righteousness. He thinks he has somehow earned the credentials to be in right standing with God and as a result, he now reserves the right to judge and condemn everyone who does not agree with what he thinks is right. Based on Ephesians 2:8-9, we know that no one earns the passage to Heaven. But that is not the focus of my post. 

Back to universal salvation. Even though I loved the concept of automatic salvation, I had a lot of questions. I simply cannot agree with a view based on its popularity or because it’s the new fad. Initially I ignored the questions thinking that it must be the religion that is holding me back from receiving the new revelation and that what I felt had to be right. But this is a topic that cannot be taken lightly or can be viewed as another "doctrine". This topic affects people’s destinies. In the end, if the universalists are right, all is well! But there is still a huge chance where the well-meaning universalist position may not line up with God's plan and I could not pretend to ignore that. So I asked the Lord to shed light on this matter. The clearest answer and the confirmation of what I believed (even though it is not what I would love to believe, if I had a say in the matter) came in the form of a book titled Erasing Hell, by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle. The book dissects and explores the core scriptures that the universalists use to base their positions on. The author does not do a lot of interpretation for the reader. His views are based on clear scriptures from where we can form our conclusions inspired by the Holy Spirit. If you are curious about the topic of universal reconciliation and hell, I recommend this book. It is a short read, but to the point. 

It was a very sobering read for me as well. This book stripped me off of my need to portray God solely in the light of how I thought everyone wanted to see Him. The Christian religion may need a new PR agency, but in my view, I don't think the Creator of the universe is a weakling who needs our defense so that He can reach many people. He is The Truth and Truth is capable to stand on His own. It was very small and ignorant of me to think that I had to promote and encase God in a package of my choice, even though the package was biblical. This does not mean I am joining the 'turn or burn' bandwagon. There is a middle ground between the extremes of 'turn or burn' camp and the 'feel-numb' camp, where the apostle Paul and the other writers of the New Testament stood unabashedly.

Why I like Google+

Google Plus has to be the finest product from the stables of Google, as of now. Their Circles feature is a breath of relief and is a game changer. While Facebook is a robust platform, the lack of an intuitive way to connect with different people was limited and hence, I was always uncomfortable connecting with people on Facebook. Aside from inviting few members from specific groups, I had never ever asked anyone to find me on Facebook. I have a wide range of interests and friends and contacts from a wide range of backgrounds. Circles helps me categorize them and connect with the individual groups. I am looking forward to see what G+ is planning to do to cater to the business crowd.

This definitely does not mean Facebook has become obsolete by any stretch. Its 750 million membership is a formidable force and it has a robust platform for businesses and groups. Over 2.5 million websites are integrated with Facebook. This healthy competition from G+ will encourage Facebook to break new grounds. But at this point, Facebook will not be playing an important role in my life.

My G+ profile is http://gplus.to/framesmedia. Let’s connect.

Son Conscious Vs Sin Conscious

I just read an article that said along the lines that the message of Grace promotes sin and that one needs to speak more about sin. While I agree with the intent of the author, I differ with him on his solution, which is to speak more of sin. 

Grace frees us from sin, not to sin. If anyone thinks that grace is a license to sin, they have not received the revelation of the message of Grace. We are saved by grace and we continue to live by grace, because if we choose to live by keeping the law, we have no choice but to keep all the laws (10 commandments plus the 614 laws), and breaking one law equals breaking all the laws. If we could be righteous by keeping the law with our own strength, then Christ died in vain.  

What needed is not sin consciousness, but Son consciousness. In other words, the knowledge of our new-creation reality in Christ. We are brand new creations in Christ Jesus. We are masterpieces in Him. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. The more we renew our mind with our new-creation reality, we will not want to sin. Who would intentionally want to stain a dazzling white shirt? "Thou shalt not sin" begets more sin because the strength of the sin is law. Sin will not have dominion over us as long as we are under grace and not law.

The branch does not struggle to bear fruit. But it bears fruit only when it abides in the Vine. This is why our life source is Christ and not our self-effort, no matter how sincere we are with our efforts.

Thou shalt be Free

Biblically speaking, we can only live either by law or by grace. Choosing to live by the law requires that one must keep all (I cannot pick and choose from the 10 commandments and the 600 plus sub commandments) the laws with absolute perfection. There isn't a slightest margin for error (James 2:10). I cannot pull the "I'm trying my best" card.

The religion comes in with blithe ignorance and proclaims that, "all you have to do is keep the law and God will smile at you" and place the sincere believer on a never-ending treadmill, when the the fact of the matter is, not one of us can score a 100 out of 100. And this is precisely why we need a Savior!

The purpose of the law (let's not forget that it was not even given to the gentiles) then, was to reveal man's inability to reach God's perfection with his self-effort. Not one action qualifies us to be in right-standing with Him. Not one action of ours qualifies us to receive His blessings. The only route through which we can receive anything from Him is by grace through faith. 

Law leaves us guilty and helpless, which in turn draws us to receive His grace and mercy. The heavy-lifting was already done by the rabbi from Nazareth. All we do is acknowledge and receive the free gift - the glorified Him. Law weighs us down while He frees us.