The sacred cow that Job unintentionally created

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away" - one of the most sacred cows that has ever emerged from the institutional Christianity. When bad things happens to one's life, we are quick to point our fingers to God, based on these words by Job.

Where we miss the boat is the fact that Job was making this comment without realizing who really was the taker here. The book of Job Chapter 1 clearly shows us who the thief was. Job obviously could not read his book. He was living it.

"Ah, but God allowed it", says the follow-up response. 

I beg to differ. 

I do not have the slightest clue of why bad things happen to folks when it does not make any sense and my job here is not to speculate on that. But in Job's case, it was Job who allowed it. 

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he". 

What happened to him was the fruit of what he dominantly meditated on. Listen to his words in Job 3:25, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me."

We do the same thing today. We are constantly surrounded by the negative news, and expect the sky to fall on our heads. And it does, when we give into that fear. 

Faith and fear comes through one channel - by hearing. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. And let's not forget that, the word of God is not just the written text. It is the person of Jesus!

Fear comes by hearing the news media incessantly or anything that does not line up the knowledge and the reality of who we are in Christ Jesus. I'm not suggesting that we should turn the TV off and go live in a cave. I may not be able to stop the birds from flying over my head, but I certainly have the freedom to not let it build a nest on my head; unless of course, I want to believe that God allowed the bird to build the nest on my head!

The issue here is not about a doctrinal debate. This is not another theological discussion. This affects real lives. I personally have heard about the story of a man, who was dying of cancer, proudly saying that the cancer was from God and that he would not mind if God afflicted him with more severe diseases. He did not have to believe that lie when the stripes that Jesus bore on his back took care of his disease.

Obama, Michelle, Jesus and Us

"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."

This is Jesus' response to Peter when he said that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God."

It is tempting to try to intellectually figure it all out and box what I want to believe about Him. But this business of believing and trusting the Person of Jesus is not based on what I necessarily perceive with my senses. It goes beyond the sense realm. 

The truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and not by dissecting a stack of Scriptures with my head. Unless we walk by faith and not by sight, we may know plenty about Jesus, but fail to know Him, the resurrected Jesus who said, "I am with you always". This faith is not the product of our making. It is the gift of God. All we need to have is the desire to know the One who will never leave us nor forsake us.

Most of us know plenty about President Obama from Wikipedia or from the news media. But only Michelle Obama knows him intimately. Her knowledge is not based on the facts about Obama. She has a personal bond with him.

Stones for bread

I've never understood the reasoning behind the bright idea that, "God gives us sickness to teach a lesson". 

What possible lesson would one glean from a deadly disease, other than the fact that it is stealing, killing and destroying their health? 

If we, who are works in progress, would not give stones to our children when they ask for bread, why would we assume that God, who is Love would afflict us with sickness? 

When Jesus said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." (Jn 11:4), He was not glorifying the sickness as it is sometimes perceived. There is no glory in a dead Lazarus. It was the resurrection of Lazarus that glorified Him.

Sickness is merely one of the curses that Jesus redeemed us from and we have the provision of healing by His stripes.

Instead of being led by opinions, let's go by what He said and did.

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.