Jesus Christ: A Vicar or Model or both?

Contributed the following article to the Dec '16 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

He was born as a Carpenter’s son; His mother having to travel during full-term pregnancy possibly to escape social ostracization, denied even the minimal comforts of an inn while having to deliver while on travel, and having to be content with the privacy afforded by a manger in Bethlehem; His family having to run into nearby Egypt as refugees during His early childhood before returning to Nazareth. He did not have the luxury of learning under a scholar - the kind that wealthy roman citizens like Saul of Tarsus could afford – possibly trained just as an under-study to His father in carpentry. He as a human, beginning humbly as a fragile, tender, dependent baby, having to be cared for – fed, cleaned, put to sleep - by his mother, and as an adult in later years needing food, sleep, personal hygiene just like any other man who has walked on earth. Why this humiliation for the Creator, charting life just like any ordinary creation for 33-some years, culminating in death on the cross?

It is true that He came in our stead, to pay the price for our sins. The sinless died for the sinful, that we could be granted his righteousness. His suffering was indeed ‘vicarious’. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Surely He took up our pain, and bore our suffering.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people He was punished. “My righteous servant will justify many and He will bear their iniquities”. He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For He bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors (Isa 53). Yes, He was our Vicar, our Substitute!

We now do not have to face the second death – the eternal hell-fire. Instead we are now being formed again into His image, before we can be taken to where God is, to spend an eternity there. He will then wipe away every tear from our eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. No longer will there be any curse (Rev 21:4; 22:3). Thanks to our precious redemption bought by the blood of our Lord Jesus, shed on the cross. Indeed a glorious future we all look forward to. But what about the present? Will there be pain, tears, death and mourning now? Has that too been removed by our Lord’s suffering on the cross? If He was only our substitute, who has already endured all that we had to, we should be free from any suffering from this point forward.  But our experience post-salvation does not seem to say so? What does the Bible tell us about suffering, here and now?

“It is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:19-21). Oh! So Christ suffered not only as a Vicar but also as a Model.  Our suffering can never purchase us our redemption, and he had to suffer and die in our stead. We understand that.  But there is another suffering that He expects us to undergo, following His footsteps. We often miss this. We cannot suffer to buy our own salvation, but we need to suffer so that we are made into the image of our Model.

Suffering in this world is guaranteed. What else can we expect from a fallen world? In this dog-eat-dog world, people return evil for good. Selfish exploitation of resources, people, relationships have led to natural catastrophes, sicknesses, and emotional breakdowns. We can choose to retaliate with evil, bitterness and complaining. Or we can choose to follow our mentor and take the suffering in our earthly stride. “When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered He made no threats. Instead He entrusted Himself to Him who judges fairly” (1 Pet 2: 23). People do not want to suffer this way. And when they don’t follow the Mentor, they suffer the wrong way, for their own wrong-doing. Binge eating leads to obesity which in turn leads to cardiac arrests. Promiscuousness leads to venereal diseases. Drunken driving leads to accidents and deaths. We saw Peter already telling us that such suffering is not as a Christian; it brings no credit.  “Jesus committed no sins and no deceit was found in His mouth” (1 Pet 2:22).  Suffering like Christ while doing good is commendable, because such enduring is enabled by god-consciousness.

Paul too talks about being moulded into our Mentor’s image through suffering.  He says that he bears on his body the marks of Jesus (Gal 6:17). When he was wronged, he prayed like Jesus. “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them” (2 Tim 4:16). The words of his mentor “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” echoing in his own response to the evil that confronted him.

Paul tells the Church at Colosse, “I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church” (Col 1:24).  He is not saying that Christ’s suffering for our salvation, as our Substitute, is incomplete. Christ himself had said on the cross, “It is finished”, having paid the full ransom. What he is talking about is the other suffering that Christ underwent setting an example, that we should follow in his footsteps.  This suffering will be completed only when Christ returns.  Till then, the church will undergo suffering, even as our Lord himself participates in it alongside us. That is what he told Paul when he was tormenting the Church - it was Christ himself who he was persecuting.

Would we submit to God in our suffering, as our Mentor did? We have the assurance that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:28,29). Knowing fully well that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us, he tells the church at Philippe, that it has been granted to us on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him (Phil 1:29). Suffering is not a curse, it is a blessing. It moulds us too like Paul, into the very image that we lost because of Adam’s sin.

In God’s view, suffering for Christ is not a Loss. For a Christian, profit-and-loss accounting does not close here. The day is coming, when we will see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not (Mal 3:18). True followers of the greatest Leader who ever walked on earth, disciples of that Perfect Mentor, are those who are willing to suffer here. Their citizenship is in heaven, from where they eagerly await their savior coming with weighty rewards.

This Christmas, may we see the beauty of the Truth that Christ is not just our Vicar, He is also our Model, blazing the trail ahead of us..

EVOLUTION or CREATION: What to Believe?

Contributed the following article to the Jun '16 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

Till the middle of 19^th century, the predominant view around the world, including the western culture, was that God created the universe.  Around that time, an unknown scientist called Charles Darwin became fascinated by what he observed in selective breeding experiments.  He developed a hypothesis and published it in a book in 1859, titled ‘On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection’.  He postulated that all plants and animals  are the product of random interplay of heredity processes  (RANDOM MUTATION), and differential reproduction in which weak traits give way to stronger ones (NATURAL SELECTION).

EVOLUTION: MICRO & MACRO

Darwin believed that it was an undirected, mechanistic process of mutation and natural selection, and its resultant changes that led from one life form (or few life forms) to another over years. Before we get to whether a life form can change to another this way, let us first see if at all variations from environmental changes are possible. 

Studies in the Galapagos Islands showed that the average size and thickness of finch beaks increased during a drought.  Having to crack the few remaining hard seeds would have toughened the beaks of the surviving birds. When the rains returned and seeds became plentiful, the beak sizes returned to normal. Such change at a species level is technically called MICRO EVOLUTION, is supported by scientific evidence and is indeed possible. 

MACRO EVOLUTION on the other hand refers to innovations such as new organs like eyes, new structures like wings and new body parts. This suggests that a unicellular organism moved from one level of complexity to another, over millions of years of time, all through natural selection and finally humans evolved from their immediate ancestors in the animal kingdom such as monkeys and apes.  Scientific evidence does not support Macro Evolution.

William Paley in his book Natural Theology introduced the ‘Watchmaker’ analogy that helps us understand the improbability of Macro Evolution.  If you are walking through a field and find a watch that tells time, you can be sure that the watch was the result of intelligence (there was a watchmaker) and not the result of undirected natural processes. It just could not have fallen into place by itself.  

Biochemist Michael J Behe has given a similar analogy that puts Evolution in it right place - Micro Evolution is all the evolution that has been happening.  He compares the Darwinian explanation for humans to an explanation for a ‘Watch with a cover’ by starting with an assumption that a factory was already making a watch without a cover, and then going on to show what an improvement a cover would be.

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY

Defenders of Darwinism are offering a story for peripheral features instead of dealing with real complexities of systems like a Retina. Darwin himself realized, that for an organ as complex as the eye with its interdependent features and complicated chemicals to have suddenly appeared in one generation, would be a miracle.   In Darwin’s own words in his ‘On the Origin of Species’ book, “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 degree.” 

Darwin however hoped that it too could be shown to have developed gradually. In his words, “Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory.” But the human eye is an “irreducibly complex biological system”, no part of which can function unless all the other parts are already working, and therefore it cannot be produced gradually.

FOSSIL RECORD

Paleontologists have found an explosion of life around the same period. Almost every major phylum (each a broad classification) of animal life has appeared around the same period. On April 23, 1991, the New York Times reported this discovery under a page-wide headline “Spectacular Fossils record Riot of Creation”.

 If Darwin’s theory had been true, plotting the fossils against Morphological distance (difference in body architecture) along the x axis and time along the Y axis, should have come up as Tree. It should show a common ancestor relating all living things as the stem, a multitude of intermediary and transitional forms branching out, gradually increasing in number and getting more diverse as you move up in time. But the graphic depiction of the actual fossil record is not a tree.  It looks like a bar-code.

Darwin looked for gradual changes of one form changing into another in the Fossil Record, but couldn’t find it.  He admitted in his Origin of Species, “The number of intermediate entities which have formerly existed on earth, must be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graded organic chain, and this perhaps is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory”.  About 155 years have passed since then, and there have been tremendous fossil discovery as Darwin had hoped.  But the evidence is to the contrary, as seen in the preceding 2 paragraphs.

The only way to scientifically prove that man descended from apes is to show a transition between monkeys, apes and humans. But despite what students are being taught in school, paleontologists have not uncovered any transitional fossil not just between monkeys and apes, and between apes and human, but between any major forms.

CREATION: THE ONLY EXPLANATION

IN THE BEGINNING GOD is the only plausible explanation for life.  We all need to go to town with this proclamation rather than being bogged down by the Age of the Earth. 

While all Bible believing Christians have unshakable faith that they did not happen by chance, but were created by God, they are divided on either side of the fence over whether the Earth is young or old.  Some, labeled the ‘Young Earth Creationists’ insist on a young earth that is only about 6000 years old and a Creation Week of 6 literal days of 24 hours duration.  Others, called the Old Earth Creationists’, with the same faith on the creator, allow that each creation day could have been a period of thousands or millions of years.

Science is always evolving but the Word of the Lord stands forever. Getting us into a fight over the age of the earth could be the devil’s deception to draw man’s attention away from the rock-solid truth of Creation. While some think that carbon-dating the earth to be several billions of years old is too hard a scientific fact to ignore, others think that Carbon-dating cannot be accurate over more than a few thousands of years and that the change in atmospheric conditions in the aftermath of Noah’s flood makes the process irrelevant for the period prior to that.

Let us make it unambiguously clear to our colleagues at work, our children at home, our youth in the church and to all other we come in contact with, that the Bible’s opening statement that God created all that is visible stands unchallenged by any contrary view – be it Science or Philosophy. After all, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (with words like speculate, probable and suggest, scattered all over) is just a speculation, a postulation, a probabilistic thinking that man happened by chance.  Contrary to the popular perception created by the ubiquitous picture of ‘Monkey morphing into Man’, and the wide currency provided to it in today’s School Curriculum, EVOLUTION IS NOT PROVEN. IT NEVER WILL BE.

Truly Seeking GOD's Mind ?

Contributed the following article to the Apr-May '13 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

Our God has always been speaking to mankind, at times through visions and dreams.  Sometimes, God’s message was intended for the person he spoke to, like in the case of Jacob and Joseph.  On certain occasions, particularly when God spoke to those who were not familiar with him, it was in order to fulfill his purpose for his people, as when he spoke to King Cyrus.  At other times, as often with the prophets, it was meant to be received and additionally communicated to a group of people.  Who is a Prophet?  He is a spokesperson.  God shares a portion of his burden with those who get close to God’s heart.  When God’s burden becomes their heart beat, they begin to be his spokespersons.  They begin to represent God to a generation that is not directly in tune with God.

In Amos 3:7 we find that the Sovereign Lord reveals his plans to his servants the prophets when he is about to do anything.  Why does he ever do that? We see 3 reasons across the Bible.  Firstly, to warn the people of impending judgment so they may repent and escape from judgment.  Bible is replete with history of people turning away from God, becoming self-centered, bringing forth evil and trampling others under the feet for selfish gain.  The second reason is for the Prophet to intercede for the people about to be judged.  Finally, God also foretold them about his plan for mankind – redemption through the Messiah and a new covenant that was to fulfill and replace the old.

PROPHECY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

We read in Heb 1:1,2 that “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”  God who had been revealing himself little by little incrementally had finally completely revealed himself in the person of Jesus, when he walked on earth as a man for 33-some years.  The God who had been a far-away being had come close that men could see him, touch him and hear him, not in dreams and visions, but in the physical world.  He was the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. 

After the Pentecost, God has come even closer, into our hearts, making our bodies his dwelling place.  More than a millenium before the New Testament time dawned, Moses had wished that all the Lord’s people were his Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them (Num 11:29).  What Moses wished has atlast come true.  His Holy Spirit now indwells us and leads us into truth (John 14:16; 16: 13,14).  We live in an age where it is blessed to walk by faith and not by sight (John 20:29, 2 Cor 5:7).

Today, a child of God does not have to look up to someone else as a Prophet to know what God would have us do in any situation.  God has revealed his nature and his pleasure in Jesus and in the written word, and his Holy Spirit who indwells us reminds us of what he has already revealed. We can therefore be God’s spokespersons to the unregenerate around us, if we will only listen to his still small voice and in obedience, reveal him through our life and words.

Can God still use visions and dreams?  He can, in his sovereignty.  Are we to desire visions and dreams? Not after what he has already provided.  Are visions and dreams, a measure of spiritual growth or maturity?  Absolutely NOT. The Bible never says that.  Does God speak to every child of God?  Absolutely, if only you will listen to him as you read God’s word and commune with God in prayer.

PROPHECY TODAY

Today the Lord gives gifts to the church that will help them to bring in those who do not know God.  ‘Word of Wisdom’ and ‘Word of Knowledge’ are often understood to be gifts that help one to understand the secret things of someone else’s life.  People mistakenly understand that God will reveal to a prophet what the future holds for a person – whether they will have a child, will it be a boy or a girl, should they take this job or that, should they marry this girl or that – and they go to someone they think is a Prophet with a gift to foretell.  To be blunt, they think that a prophet is a ‘fortune teller’.  God has clearly and strongly forbidden sorcery, divination and all other practices that the pagan world used, to find what their future held for them (Due 18).

A Prophet as God’s spokesperson is to speak only when God gives him something to tell the people.  There have been times when a Prophet did not have any word from the Lord for long periods.  There was also the inter-testamental period called the hiatus, when God did not speak to the people for about half-a-millennium.  But today people expect to hear a specific word from God every time they go to who they think is God’s prophet.  And this so-called ‘Prophet’ of today always seems to have a word from God, never to disappoint anyone who comes ‘seeking the mind of God’.

DECEPTION

The incident narrated in I Kings 13 is a severe indictment against those listening to false prophets or false prophecies from people who had at some point been used as prophets. These are the deceiving prophets.  Then there are those prophets who are given to deception.  Though they may think that they are indeed prophesying by the Lord, they could actually be following ‘lying spirits’. In I Kings 10 we see about 400 prophets lying to King Ahab influenced by a lying spirit. Paul warns the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:13-15) that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light and his servants too masquerade as servants of righteousness.

Why does God allow such deception?  Deuteronomy 13 tells us that the Lord is testing the people to find out whether they love him with all their heart and with all their soul.  Prophets who lead people away from him are not God’s spokespersons.  What they foretell may take place but that is not a sign that they are God’s spokespersons.  Today’s false prophets lead people to worship idols – not a creation made of wood or stone – their wealth, health, family and sometimes other men who take the place of God in their lives.

Finally, a dream could also be just plain natural with no intervention from God.  A dream comes when there are many cares (Eccl 5:3).  We should be careful not to interpret them as God’s revelation.  Often, we are greedy and itching for something so much, that we want to believe that God is giving it to us.  People who are given to their lusts, tell the Seers to see no visions and the Prophets to give no vision of what is right. They want to hear pleasant things, so they ask illusions to be prophesied (Isa 30:10)

BE ON GUARD

Peter writes in his second letter (1:21) that the word of God in the scriptures is surer than any experience.  We are to look at it as light in a dark place, in our temporary dark periods of anxiety and doubt as well as in our journey called life.  The church at Berea even while listening to Paul who gave us more than a third of the New Testament, examined the scriptures every day to see if what he said was true (Act 17:11). They have therefore been commended as of noble character.

Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint (Prov 29:18).  What we need is a vision in our mind’s eye to catch a glimpse of what God has in store for us.  Let us pray like Paul that that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we may know him better; that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened in order that we may know the hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephe 1:17-19).

Top 3 Concerns

Contributed the following article to the JAN '14 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

My Friend,

   I wanted to share my views on three issues that I believe will be weighing heavily on the mind of any individual.  It is for you to accept my view or reject it, but I cannot withhold it from you for fear of either being rejected or mocked.  It has helped me handle three of the biggest problems in my life, and it is out of friendship and love that I want to share it with you.

   All of us have done things that we are not proud of -- Things that we did out of some compulsion that we felt in our body and mind; Things that we did hoping it would bring us happiness.  We might have lied to someone who trusted us, cheated our elders, grabbed what is rightfully someone else’s, hurt those who suddenly turned enemies, disobeyed our parents, disrespected our teachers, and humiliated someone who was not as wealthy or handsome (beautiful) or knowledgeable as we are.  All of us may not have done all of these things, but I am sure there is none who has not done any of these things. 

   Memories of some of these things haunt us.  Depending on the values we hold today, we try our best to erase memories of these or justify them.  Some of us justify these by looking at people around us and concluding that none is exempt from these and therefore to be human is to be imperfect.  Others among us justify these by attributing our past actions to impulses in the body which are determined by our Chromosomes, something that we are not responsible for.  To be sure, I have had a good share of these from all the years of my existence.

   Next, all of us want to rise above ourselves. We all want to be good people who will not lie, cheat, grab, hurt or disrespect.  We want to be good, kind and do good to others. But our dormant nature rears its ugly head, just when we think we have moved on.  When we stand in any queue, be it at the Post Office, at the Ticket Counter or at a Wedding Reception, the urge to edge out some and gain a few slots up just would not die down. When we are in a crowd, be it at a social party or a team meeting, the urge to stand up and be counted, even at the cost of putting down someone else, just would not go away. When we are moved in our hearts and would want to extend a helping hand, the thought of what it will cost us in time, money and effort just does not help our actions to match with our intentions.

   We are all struggling with these contradictions within us.  We want to do something beautiful but end up doing something else.  But we tell ourselves that we will improve.  We read self-help books and attend camps.

   We are told that we are intrinsically good; that it is what we have acquired over the years through our up-bringing and environment that is causing our actions to be incongruent with our true self; and that they can be shed by inward gazing to see our self in isolation from our actions.  But we have not become any better.

   Others have asked us to wake up the lion inside us.  But we feel ever smaller as we realize again and again that we just don’t measure up to our own expectations.

   Finally, given our past and our present struggles, we wonder what life is all about.  Is there any meaning in life?  Is it not all about finding happiness?  If happiness is what is paramount, does it really matter if we are kind or cruel?  Does it make any difference whether we are proud or humble?  Despite all our blemishes, if we can still be happy, is that not what we should pursue rather than be bogged by this discussion about good and evil?

   We are told that there is no over-arching meaning in life; that we are to give small meanings to our day-to-day activities and events that we come across; that if we can have small things line up our lives that bring us a smile, or a laughter or happiness, we can provide meaning to our life.

   Accordingly, we have crowded our lives with parties, celebrations, ceremonies and travels.  We have arranged trainings, competitions and performances for our children.  But the emptiness refuses to go away.

   If you have read thus far, it is likely you agree with me that you share the Top 3 concerns for life:

1. We all have done things we are not proud of.  2. We want to rise above ourselves.   3. We want to find what will bring meaning and purpose to life.  I will now want to share how I have got these concerns addressed in my life.

   When I have done things that I am not proud of, obviously they are things that are not right.  I find a moral law written in my conscience that is telling me what is right and what is wrong.  If I know they are not right, I deserve punishment.  My own conscience will judge me as a culprit, as someone who has trespassed.  If my own conscience judges me, God the maker of you and me, is greater than my conscience and He being just is sure to judge me.  I therefore deserve and await God’s judgment.  It is this burden of knowing I deserve punishment that is called GUILT.

   I cannot wish my Guilt away.  The fact that others are equally guilty or worse does not help me.  I still deserve God’s punishment, like all others.  Thankfully God understands and He has provided me a way.  He loved me so much that He came down to pay the penalty so I can be free.  I have chosen to trust Him and enjoy freedom. The alternative will be to refuse to acknowledge His kind act for me, and continue to grovel in guilt.

   When I have found that no self-help helps, obviously I need help from outside.   I find that no matter how hard I will, I just don’t have it in me to carry it out.  It is true that when I sow an action, I reap a habit, when I sow a habit, I reap a character and when I sow a character, I reap a destiny.  But the trouble is with the start.  If I am brutally honest with myself, sowing a thought is not necessarily helping me reap an action.  Despite the amount of good books I have read, the discourses I have listened to and the trainings I have attended, being good is something alien.  I am just too selfish.

   Here again, if I am not too proud to recognize my limitation, help from outside is available.  God Himself comes to live inside me.  He gives me a sensitive heart that easily recognizes His prompting. When I obey His prompting, He enables me to carry it out.  The power of Him that created the universe and all that we see around us with His word is available for me to resist the tug from my weak self. God living inside me transforms me by renewing my mind, and enables me to act as He would.

   Now that I have accepted God’s forgiveness and have Him living with me, fellowship with Him has become a reality.  I am no longer alone.  The all-knowing God is living in me.  He knows best and that is true with knowing what brings me happiness and fulfillment too.

   He made me for Himself.  He did not make me for myself, nor did I create myself.  I am therefore incapable of defining purpose.  My creator alone knows what He made me for.

   He does not give me a blue-print about my future.  He does not tell me what I will become in the next 5 or 10 years, and how I will get there.  He tells me what I should do every moment and in every situation.  He has laid out principles in His written word for me, by which I should direct my steps.  When it is His pleasure that becomes paramount to me, I can be sure that my life will be lived out beautifully and meaningfully.  Any time I turn back and look at how my years have been spent, I will see how wonderfully He has accomplished His purposes through me.

   Would you like to have Him, know His purpose, and enjoy His Enabling presence and power to make your life meaningful?

Are you dying for LOVE?

Contributed the following article to the FEB '13 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

There have always been men and women who have voluntarily extinguished the flame of life in them, but SUICIDES have increased significantly in proportion over the last few years. Today Chennai, followed by Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, account for most suicidal deaths in India. Not a day passes without some suicide in some corner of the country rending our hearts with its gloomy detail. Suicide on one hand, smacks of man playing God by choosing to end his life that in reality is not his own. On the other hand, it also betrays a gloom and despair that most men are driven to, either momentarily or for a life time.

What makes one take the extreme step of snuffing out one’s life? Some are overcome by the guilt of a heinous crime they have committed – betrayal of the trust of a parent or a spouse. Some are haunted by loneliness – a feeling that they are alone while the entire world seems to be conspiring against them. Some are driven by fear of what tomorrow will hold for them – how they are going to repay the debt or bring up their family. Others are left to wallow in dejection and disappointment with no one to provide care or offer comfort. Reasons are many and real though these do not drive everyone to this very end.

Statistics reveal that for every successful suicide there are 10 to 20 unsuccessful attempts that go unnoticed. Why has life come to this? What is the anti-dote? Is there any good news that one can offer someone groping in this darkness?

The CAUSE:

The guilt, loneliness, fear and dejection all stem from a deep malaise within us. When we look around us, we find people to be selfish, jealous, greedy and proud. We see this same nature in us too, if we look deep within and honestly admit what we see. It is this nature in man that has made his surrounding a hell for himself and for those around him. Greed and lust drive him to steal, rape and kill. In the process, he makes someone else a pauper, a widow, an orphan, or worst a violated person. While a widow or an orphan often experiences the fallout of a trauma that the murdered directly experienced for a duration, a rape victim experiences first-hand a trauma that scars both her psyche and her image for the length of her life. The victim (widow, orphan, violated) is then haunted by loneliness, fear and dejection. Suddenly she is out of the safety of the world she had known all along and thrust into a wicked and uncaring world. Fear of those who seem powerful enough to determine everyone else’s future stalks her for the rest of her life. Fear of what the future holds cripples her.

The evil that our nature causes for others is real. There is no such thing as a harmless sin. The perpetrator of a crime who gives in to a moment’s greed and creates misery for others, is himself hounded by guilt for the rest of his life. His conscience pricks him and leaves him devoid of the pleasure or joy that he thought he will obtain through hook or crook. His sense of guilt is also very real and cannot be wished away. Men burdened by guilt try to manage it in one of the following ways. Some stifle the voice of their conscience so they can continue in their ways without any qualms. Others are too proud to accept that they are guilty. Still others are only afraid of being caught. But guilt catches up and drives one wallowing in it to life’s very edge.

What about ACTS of GOD?

But you may say that not all misery is caused by humans. What about natural calamities – flood, earthquake, Tsunami, cold wave, heat wave, drought, famine? There are enough things today that can rock the boat of someone who has been having a smooth sail. Imagine a world that is inhabited only by selfless individuals – most of these would not have the same debilitating sting. Destruction from floods, droughts and famines may well be prevented. In a country where rivers like Ganges, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, Cauvery and Krishna flow, there are also states that do not have enough water bodies to provide for their drinking and irrigation needs. If only we can be selfless enough to allow these rivers to be interconnected! Damages from earthquake, tsunami and extreme temperatures may be greatly mitigated in a sharing and caring world. Unfortunately, our selfishness results in most help meant for the victims being pocketed by self-serving politicians and social service agencies, while the little that reaches the victims serving only the fittest among them.

In a world such as this, is it possible to not suffer any loss – man-made or nature-caused? While on the outside one may appear to have everything going for him or her, one could still be feeling very empty inside. Our values have all got so skewed. Our picture of the world has become upside-down. We often strive with the rest of the world after things that do not satisfy. We work hard that we may have money to relax and enjoy life. But the very thing that we earnestly seek – enjoyment with family – we lose in the seeking. The prophet asked long ago “Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy” (Isa 55:2) ?

The good news is that you can get out of this rut. Irrespective of whether you have been a victim or a perpetrator, there is a way out. You and the world around you can be different. Are you keen enough?

Social Network or Social Minefield?

Contributed the following article to the APRIL-MAY 'Combined' issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

Very early in my childhood, I learned that man is a ‘social animal’. I remember a teacher driving this indelibly into our minds in the morning assembly one day, “No man is an island”. I did not understand its full import then. Over time however, I have come to understand that we need one another and that communication is key to both express and fulfill this need.

 

Man has always had the urge to connect with dear ones. Before telephones became common place towards the close of the 20th century, all long-distance communication was through postal mail with a minimum turn-around of 6 working days. However, convergence of Information Technology and Telecommunication Systems over the last decade, have made it easier now for people using different forms of communication to interconnect. It was first the explosion of email and pagers. Slowly online chat replaced emails and increased comfort with SMS and the proliferation of mobile handsets and cheaper service plans made pagers altogether obsolete. Bottom line is that communication has become faster and cheaper.

 

It is true that modern communication technologies have reduced the wait time for responses. They have also helped loved ones stay in touch with each other anytime, anywhere and removed lot of anxiety about each other’s safety and well-being from their hearts. However it has also led to unnecessary communication that just fills time. Even without a need to communicate, people indulge in empty chatter to just kill time and avoid boredom. Time that could otherwise have been used in more profitable activities and boredom that could have been overcome in meaningful ways are now being handled through casual communication with acquaintances and even strangers. Modern technology has left more time at people’s disposal and Social Networking has attracted a great number of such folks.

 

Social Networking provides the power to easily locate, connect with and communicate ideas to like-minded people. A positive outcome has been collaborative learning. Students in some institutions submit assignments on a Social Networking platform. In some other, students are asked to post summaries of the classes they attended, so those who missed classes can update themselves by reading them. Alumni groups on Social Networking sites have helped students decide on Colleges, Careers, etc., based on inputs from students who had passed out earlier. Students have even got Question papers from previous years uploaded so that they are useful for future students when preparing for various examinations.

 

Social Minefield:

 

However it needs to be stated that it is a minefield that can destroy lives. A Research team in the U.S. had found students’ concentration to lapse within just 15 minutes of study, because of the urge to check their Facebook page almost every third minute. Spending too much time on Social Networking sites can lead one to “narcissistic tendencies” – excessive self-love and fascination with oneself. Analysts following cultural trends had said of Television half-a-century ago, that it was transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business. This is even truer of Social Network with its potential to accommodate millions on stage compared to the hundreds or thousands that are accommodated on Television screens. It produces a vain behavior where one is trying to show off all the time. It has the potential to make users more prone to aggressive and anti-social behavior too. It can also cause in users bouts of anxiety, depression and sleeping problems.

 

Neil Postman had said in his 1985 book ‘Amusing ourselves to death’, “When I hear people talk about the information super highway, that it will become possible to shop at home, and bank at home, and get your texts at home, and get your entertainment at home, I often wonder if this doesn't signify the end of any community life.” This indeed has come true. It is removing all elements of community living and driving individuals into a closet, and this is happening from very young age. Youth are wasting time not using it to go out and play or interact with others.

 

Worse still, man's almost infinite appetite for distractions is hurtling him to his downfall today. Today’s world is controlling him by inflicting pleasure. If they are not wary, they could be drawn to inappropriate content on the internet and become slaves for live. Neil Postman had recalled how correctly Huxley had foreseen what was coming. Huxley had more than 50 years ago dismissed fears that people in power would ban books, deprive people of information, conceal truth and make the masses captive. He rather feared that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one; that people in power would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism; that truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance; and that the masses would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some form of illicit pleasure. In short, he feared that what we love will ruin us. When one looks at the preoccupation of today’s world with Social Networking and how it is being used, Huxley’s words have chillingly become true.

 

In Closing:

 

“When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive”, says Proverbs 23:1-3. A popular Indian saying likewise advises us to emulate the proverbial goose that separates the milk from water before consuming. It would be wise to exercise such discretion and be extremely careful about what we consume on Social Networking sites. Let us follow the example of Daniel who resolved not to defile himself with wine from the King’s table and stay healthy with the vegetables from his kitchen.

World's Greatest LOVE story

Contributed the following article to the February 2012 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

 

Romance has been fantasized across centuries.  Anyone who is in love feels that he has obtained the ultimate. He cares about nothing other than being with the one he is in love with.  He often forgoes food to be on time where his ‘love’ is expected to be, foregoes sleep thinking about all the ‘sweet little nothings’ that they exchanged over their last meeting and conjuring what he should speak when they meet again, and often forgoes a lot of his duties, be it at the workplace or school, and at home.  On the other hand, most people who have never fallen in love wonder if ever such a ‘love relationship’ will come their way.  That is one reason why masses throng to watch love stories in theatres, to vicariously experience ‘love’, although in the lives of a strange couple and that too fictitious.

Anyone who is bugged by romantic love forgets that he too had been born a baby someday, had longed for the loving attention of his parents and then wanted the joyful company of friends as he began to spend more time away from home since going to school.  Just as with romance, only some have got to experience the love of their parents and friends, while for others it had always been a ‘Mirage’ - a dream that never materialized.  Often children born to working couples, envy their friend who is received at home by his mom and entertained with an evening snack.

Most of us grow past our longings for love from parents, friends and even the romantic love and desire the mature love of a spouse.  Love of someone who is not always in awe of your charm and strength, but who loves you despite your shortcomings.  Someone who accepts you as you are and for who you are.  Experience is not the same in the marital landscape too.  Some come across as ideal couples, always proud of the other and always nice to the other.  However, most couples struggle to get along in their private lives, even when signs of strain do not show up outside.  There is a silent longing if this is what married life is all about.

LOVER PAR EXCELLENCE

Whatever your age is and your experience has been in your childhood, growing years, adolescence and adult life, you need to know that there is one who has always loved you.  He has loved you more dearly than a parent, longed to have a relationship more eager than a doting lover, and ever willing to support you several times over the most understanding spouse.

He is the God about whom it is said that he is LOVE personified.  Though we will not understand Trinity on this side of glory, we can see that there is love and community in the Godhead from eternity to eternity.  After the last supper on his way to Gethsemane Jesus makes these astounding statements while he prays.  He prays that “all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21).  He tells the Father, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22,23).  At the beginning, before He created earth and put man on it, we see that God said, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen 1:26).  We see of the Son of God harking back to the creation time, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him” (Prov 8:30).  Jesus is spoken of as the Only Begotten, who is in the bosom of the father (John 1:18, KJV).

This God who is Love, Joy and self-sufficient, decided to create man and love him as a Father, as a doting lover, and as his Husband.  He has across time spoken to man in endearing terms.  In Moses’ time, about 15 centuries before Christ, we see him talking to the Israelites, “There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

During Hosea’s time, about 7 centuries before Christ, he said of his people, “I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. . . In that day, you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.”  During Ezekiel’s time, while Judah had walked away from God and was in captivity in Babylon, he reminisced, “I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine. . . I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry” (Eze 16:8, 10, 11)

This love for man cost him everything.  We see that Jesus Christ who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil 2:6,7).  The Lord washed the feet of his disciples; the Master washed the feet of his servants.  As a matter of fact, He said that He no longer called them servants, “because a servant does not know his master’s business.” Instead, He called them friends, for everything that He learned from His Father He had made known to them. (John 17:14, 15).  We find that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich (II Cor 8:9).  To be reunited in fellowship with his Creation, he chose the path of humiliation on the cross.   Sin is real and a just God had to rightly deal with it.  Ahead of walking to the cross, He laid open his heart to show man the full extent of his love (John 13:1).  He declared his love, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit” (John 15:13, 16).  He cried at the thought of separation from God, and had to walk alone through that valley, so you and I do not have to be strangers to God and feel the pangs of separation.

CONSTANT COMPANION

The Lord who lives in unapproachable light whom no man can see (I Tim 6:16), who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens (Heb 7:26), had to himself make us holy so he can live inside us and make our bodies his temple.  The Lord who rent the heavens to come down to walk alongside man, yearns to live inside of us, even as much as anyone who understands the glory of having him on his side yearns for such fellowship.

On the eve of crucifixion, he told such men who were crest-fallen about his impending departure, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. . .  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him . . . we will come to him and make our home with him. . . The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 13:33; 14:16-21, 23, 26)

“I am going away and I am coming back to you. . . It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment . . . a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. . . Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 14:28; 16:7,8, 16, 22)”

TODAY, HE LIVES THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT INSIDE ANYONE WHO IS WILLING TO ACCEPT HIS LOVE.  WILL YOU INVITE HIM TO COME INSIDE YOU AND BRING HIS JOY AND PEACE TO FILL YOUR HEART?