Thought - Believe Him

The objective of this page is to focus deep and meditate on core Christian principles

[expand title="Why Easter and Resurrection so important?" tag="h3"]

We enjoy and celebrate Easter every year. There are many forms of celebration in many culture like Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. The celebrations were also mixed with local cultural celebrations like folk dance and burning of effigies ( Ex : Latin America). Easter is definitely a time to rejoice. The cultural celebrations and gatherings are very important part of Easter, at the same time it should not dilute the true spirit and reason.

Easters marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection is closely linked to after life i.e what happens after death? Interestingly, most of the religions accepts one or other form of after life. They also agree there is some form of connection in after life based on the quality of life on the current life. In other words the widely accepted worldly religious belief system is that soul of mankind never dies, but it take different form(s) post death.

The result of not believing in after life brings a thought that life begins and ends in earth and there is no moral consequence for our actions. It leads to a fearless and bold social behavior.

If we do believe in after life, its important to understand what is resurrection. The definition of resurrection is “One dies and raises up to live for ever”. Resurrection put strong emphasize on perishable body and everlasting soul. In other words human soul ones formed in mother’s womb never dies and programmed to live for ever.

Now we celebrate Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Bible says, Jesus is the resurrection and life and the one who believes in him will live, even though they die (John 11:25). There is a hope of resurrection for mankind because of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20-22).

If there is no resurrection of Christ then every one dies in Christ are lost and the purpose of Christian faith and living is completely lost (1 Cor 15:32). On the other hand, It is only through Christ’s resurrection we get everlasting life. The promise of God on everlasting life (John 3:16) gets fulfilled only through Christ resurrection.

Easter gains lot more significance, since it so personal to us and our eternal life. It gives assurance, when we die to our sins through Christ’s, we raise along with him through his resurrection (Romans 6:8,9) and enter everlasting life. When we celebrate Easter next time along with our friends and families, lets take time to remember Christ’s supreme sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection, which offers eternal life to our soul.

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen

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[expand title="Jesus our Mediator" tag="h3"]

When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden they enjoyed perfect communion with the Holy God. He gave Adam the privilege of naming the animals. God blessed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28). The companionship ended when they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit. The direct relationship with God and man ended abruptly, when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve. The Holy God can no longer commune with sinful man.

Over the next 4000 years of biblical history many great men of God played the role of mediators. Abraham, Moses, Judges, prophets and high priests stood up between God and people to intercede for their sins.

Moses as Mediator

One of the greatest example of mediation is the conversation between Moses and God in the mount of Sinai. When Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive God's commandments and laws, people were asked to consecrate and wait at the bottom of the mountain. Moses spent 40 days and nights with God ( Exodus 24:18). During this time, Gods explains to Moses on His desire to dwell among them ( Exodus 25:8) and gives details about the arrangements Moses has to make. God expresses his love and desire to commune with people of Israel. From Exodus chapter 25 to 31, God gives detailed guidance about his dwelling place on earth. He also provides two tablets of covenant law inscribed with his own fingers (Exodus 31:18).

During the same time people of Israel sinned by worshiping golden calf. God's anger burnt against the people of Israel. The conversation between Moses and God in Exodus 32:7-14 are the classic example of mediation. Moses convinced the righteous God to turn away from anger by pleading with him. The mediation continued again from Exodus 33:12 to 34:8, when God refused to lead the Israelite and agreed to send only angel(Exodus 33:3).

Moses was followed by Joshua, Judges, Priests and Prophets as mediators. God introduced burnt, fellowship, sin and guilt offerings to introduce forgiveness and communion with man. People longed for lack of mediators (Job 9:33) and missed direct relationship with God.

Jesus as Mediator

God's attempt to commune with man kept failing all through the old testament history due to human short comings. God's permanent solution came in the form of Jesus, His own Son (1 Timo 2:5). Jesus Christ offered his own life as ransom on the cross as a sin and guilt offering for our sins (Heb 9:15). The blood of blameless animals were replaced by precious blood of Christ. Instead of high priest, Jesus himself stood before God the father and pleaded for our sins (Heb 9:11). Since he is blameless he need not consecrate himself and had direct access to Father's presence. We receive our forgiveness through Christ; we become righteous through the blood of Christ.

The mediation of Jesus Christ resulted in long lasting relationship and opened the door for communion between two parties i.e man and God.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!

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[expand title="Why Faith?" tag="h3"]

Why Christians need faith? There is a strong emphasize on faith among Christians community for different reasons. There are several faith based movements which focus on blessing and God’s provision. As Christians we do tell ourselves and others to grow in faith. We will focus today to understand, what aspects faith are essential to Christians.

The corner stone of Christianity is following (John 3:16):

God the father loved mankind and he sent his own son to the earth.
He died on the cross so that our sins can be forgiven.
All those who believe Him will have everlasting life.

Jesus says, he is the ONLY way (John 14:6) and no one can go to father except through him. The sin, guilt, burnt and wave offerings are no longer valid. The duty of the high priest was taken over by Jesus himself. If anybody needs to commune with God the father, it has to be only through Jesus. No sin will be forgiven unless Jesus forgives it. The sins are forgiven through his precious blood and no longer through any goat, ram or pigeon’s blood. This is the new order and older way of worshipping was cancelled in the new order.

Now this is faith:

Believing in Jesus as God and loving him for the sacrifice he made for our redemption from sins.
Believe that he has power to forgive our sins - 1 John 1:9
Having assurance on eternal life promised by Jesus - John 4:14, John 14:2,3

This is also faith:

We can also put our faith in God for earthly provisions. God is capable of giving us luxury, healing us from sickness and glorifying us through earthly awards and promotions. But bible says, if our hope in Christ is restricted to this earthly life then we are the pittiest people ( 1 Corinthians 15:19)

I have recently met an insurance sales person. He showed all the nice benefits of buying insurance and the return of investment. When I start going through brochure none of the benefits he has shared was there in the brochure as guaranteed benefits. They are part of simulations. The truth is any benefit given by financial organization has two components 1. Guaranteed or Assured 2. Non – Guaranteed which are subject to market conditions or other parameters.

Now we have guaranteed provisions from God, which comes to us unconditionally Ex : His love, forgiveness to sin and eternal life. Every Christian is called to believe. Most of the churches declare this through Apostle creed every week.

On the other hand we have blessings which are focused on earthly provisions, which are temporary.

Now where are we going to put our faith on? Lets build our Christian faith on solid foundation.

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[expand title="Jehovah Jireh – God my provider" tag="h3"]

“Jehovah Jireh – My provider“ - Most of us will know this famous Song written by Don Moen. To refresh our memory on the background, God called Abraham to come out of his forefather’s land and gave him promise that he will make his descendants a great nation (Gen 12:1-3). After waiting for twenty five years and at the age of hundred the miracle happened! Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac. God’s promise was fulfilled. A promised son at last.

But after some time, God came in a dream and asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac. It was mentioned in multiple times (Lev 18:21, Lev 20:2) that God hates child sacrifice and it calls for capital punishment. But why God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?

Abraham obeyed God and took Isaac along with his two servants and reached the spot God told him on the third day. Wonder what his thought process would have been all through this journey. What can he tell Sarah, when he goes back? What happened to God’s promise? Is Ishmael his promised son? There was one more question from Isaac, his beloved Son (Gen 22:7), Father where is the sacrifice? Abraham’s response came promptly and prophetically, “God himself will provide”.

Abraham himself builds the altar, arranges food and finally bounds his son. Time has come to take his knife to slay his son. God stops him and he was asked swap Isaac with a ram. So Abraham called the place, “Lord will provide”.

Father God knew, He would have to sacrifice his son Jesus Christ one day on Calvary. After 1500 years on the mount of Calvary the creator was allowed to be sacrificed for his beloved creation i.e mankind. God provided his only Son in order to reconcile man with God. Jesus Christ offered himself as willing sacrifice in order to forgive our sins. Jehovah Jireh should always remind us about God and His providence through his son Jesus Christ. Though the term Jehovah Jirah is alternatively used and claimed for earthly blessings the original intent of God and the sacrifice He made us should never be forgotten when ever we say Jehovah Jireh.

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[expand title="Kadesh – Forget not!!" tag="h3"]

If we go back in history to around BC 1400, ask the Jews who were journeying from Egypt to promised land and ask them to share some of the bitter memories most of them will mention the word Kadesh. Yes Kadesh!! a place they reached so close to the promised land but could not enter it.

Israelites spent around 400 years in Egypt as slaves suffering at the hand of Pharaoh. Bible does not mention the Pharaoh’s name. Based on the city they were building it could be Ramses. But there are no evidences for it. They got used to slavery mind set and getting used to following orders. After might miracles Israelites came out of Egypt and miraculously crossed the red sea by God’s guidance. They enjoyed the protection of God all through the journey. The food was given to them every day and they were walking towards the promised land, the land of milk and honey. After approximately two years they reached Kadesh, which was at the edge of promised land.

As per God’s instruction 12 men (all leaders) one each from tribe were selected and send out to explore the promised land (Numbers 13:3). There were specifically instructed with tasks what they should be doing in the next 40 days. After 40 days they reported back all they found.

The reports is recorded in Numbers 13:27-29:

They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.

This is the report from the Jewish leaders, who saw the mighty miracles of God in Egypt and all through their journey for the past two years. They had approximately 600,000 abled men to fight. Above all, they had Jehovah God himself as their leader and captain of the army. Their mindset of slavery came back to them and started comparing themselves as grasshoppers (Numbers 13:33). Contemplated about going back to Egypt and stoning Moses and Aaron (Numbers 14:10).

The curse of God came heavily on them. It costed them all.

In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. – Numbers 14:29,30.

Israelites after all did enter promised land but had to wait for 38 more years. Not the generation which walked out of Egypt, a new generation under the guidance of Joshua.

Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. – Deuteronomy 2:14

Is our spiritual blessings blocked by our incompetence to stand up to challenges God is asking us to take? Are we cozy, comfortable and happy with the earthly blessings God has provided and unwilling to move? The message from Kadesh is clear.

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[expand title="Things we learnt early .. John 3:16" tag="h3"]

John 3:16 is the very familiar verse among the Christian kids. Most of them learn it at the very young age.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

Though we learn this verse so early in life and at times most of us get the real meaning very late. We move on in Christian life, we end up chasing many things beyond and away from the purpose, we are called, forgetting the basic and very core God offered to us that is Eternal life.

All the religions have their own path for eternal life.

The pantheistic religions offer reincarnation till eternal life in heaven is attained. The process of reincarnation happens in pantheism based on the deeds done during the life span and the soul moves upwards in the scale of holiness. There are several schools thoughts around whether the good deeds from one reincarnation will be carried to another or not. The process is complex and painful.

Christ offered a simple solution for eternal life. He put all the suffering and pain on himself and made sure man can achieve eternal life with one simple step. All man has to do is to believe him. Nothing else.

Man was always created to live eternally in heaven. There was a glorious tree called “Tree of life” in the garden of Eden. There was no restriction for man to eat it. But once man disobeyed God and evil entered the world, God made sure the tree of life is beyond the reach of mankind (Gen 3:22).

But now the purpose was defeated. The purpose of man is to enjoy the eternal life. Alas, he was forbidden and will be killed as the tree of life was secured through flaming sword (Gen 3:24). What a loss!!.

Path to establishing eternal life

Did God rejected man after his first failure? Is this the end of eternity? No. He came up with a way of establishing his covenant by putting all responsibilities on himself. In Gen 17 God establishes a covenant with Abraham by walking alone between the sacrifice. In other words, independent of who ever breaks the covenant God is responsible.

In Gen 22, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the mount of Moriah. The pain Abraham felt during the process of taking Isaac and the agony of the father’s heart carefully documented in the Bible. Isaac asked a final question, “The fire and wood are here but where is the lamb”? (Gen 22:7). Abraham with all the courage and the strength responded his son lovingly. “Jehovah Jireh - God will provide”.

Ultimate Sacrifice for eternal life

God did provide in the mount of Calvary by sacrificing his own son by crucifying him. He took all the responsibility and paid the entire price on one condition, we should believe in Jesus. Great God who created the heaven and earth came down to earth and humbled himself to death (Phil 2:6-11). Why such a sacrifice for man who can not hold any responsibility, any accountability, any obedience, any covenant and any holiness. The only answer is the first part of John 3:16, “He loved the world”.

God loved us first, created us, called us and wanted to stay with us forever. He created eternity to have fellowship with us. Is it so hard to believe this God? Yes. That’s the only precondition for eternal life. Some say they believe him but they don’t behave like a believer. Some choose not to believe him. Few are willing to believe and follow him. Independent of individual free will, Jesus opened the eternal life for all those who believe him. He is the way to eternal life. Believe Him.

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[expand title="Things we learnt early .. John 6:35" tag="h3"]

“I am the bread of life” – This is another verse we teach our kids in their early age. Its small verse, easy to memorize, recite and remember. Though we teach this verse to small kids the explanation Jesus provided was so in depth and so metaphor at the end, even the Jesus’s own disciples started grumbling about it (John 6:61). Some of them left Jesus after this teaching(John 6:66)

Lets get to the context. John 6 was focused around Galilee. When Jesus reached the shore of Galilee big crowd of about 5000 men approached him because of the signs he has performed in other places (John 6:2). Jesus fed them with five barley loves and two fishes and they collected twelve basket full of left over. It a miracle!!

When the evening came his disciples took the boat and travelled to Capernaum, while Jesus stayed back (John 6:17). In the middle of night Jesus walked in the sea and got into the boat. As soon as he got into the boat the shore came.

Lets take some stock here. Jesus’s disciples have seen two sign so far in the last twenty four hours. 1. Jesus feeding 5000 men with 5 barley loaves and two fishes 2. Jesus walking on the water. The people of Men of Galilee also have seen two signs. 1. Jesus feeding 5000 men with 5 barley loves and two fishes 2. They knew for sure there is only one boat and it was only used by Jesus disciples. So they knew it’s a miracle Jesus reached the other side of the shore without the boat.

When the men of Galilee reached Capernaum, Jesus very well aware of their intention pointing them to focus on the food which gives eternal life and not on earthly food (6:27). Now as soon as Jesus explains the criteria for getting the eternal life is believing in himself, they asked for a sign(6:30). If we go back they gathered around Jesus in Galilee after hearing about the signs he performed and saw themselves two more miracles. Now they are looking for more.

But Jesus gives them no more signs but definition of bread of God :

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. – John 6:33

The definition has two parts.

The bread should come down from heaven: There are two genealogies of Jesus in the gospel. One in Matthew chapter 1 and another one in Luke 3. Both these genealogies were connecting Jesus to his earthly forefathers. Jewish men were very well aware of this and had great difficulty in accepting Jesus Christ as bread of life, who came from heaven. Well, but Jesus was born of virgin birth through the power of holy spirit without physical union. Before he came down to earth he was already existing in heaven. John accurately captures it in John 1:1-4:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

Jesus existed even before he was born on earth. He is the only one who came from heaven and continued on earth and went back to heaven. Hence only Jesus can fulfill the definition of bread of life, which has to come down from heaven.

The bread of life should give eternal life: Jesus goes ahead and explain this part in metaphor from John 6:50. Jesus explanation of eating the flesh and drinking the blood is His continuation of metaphor that relates to bread. For Jews this is an abomination in physical sense. Eating human body and consuming its blood!!

Before we move forward a note on covenant. The word covenant repeats 295 times in old testament. Our God is a God of covenants. Same word repeats 37 times in new testament. If we remove all the old testament references from new testament and limit to gospel where Jesus spoke, it comes down to three and all three focus on single context i.e. the Last Supper which involves bread, blood and the New Covenant.

On the night before his arrest, Jesus Christ took the bread and broke it. Matthew 26:27,28

²⁷Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸This is my blood of the^[^b^] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The bread depicts the suffering he has to go through, blood he has to shed to wash away our sins and the death he has to go through to open the eternal life for us. Yes, this is a new covenant and the only covenant Jesus Christ gave us on his last night on the earth in physical form.

Lets wrap it up. Why people cannot believe Jesus after so many signs John 6? The key is John 6:65

“This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

Unless Father God enables one’s heart to come to Jesus and believe Him, no one come to him. Father God is the source of knowledge. Unless the knowledge of God is revealed to a person it is impossible for a person to believe him. Now we can prove the bible in scientific and historic manner, but all that stops at the point of believing Jesus. Believing Jesus is the key to eternal life.

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[expand title="Spiritual Gifts" tag="h3"]

God is a God of variety. Everything he has created he has made with variety. Its true with His gifts as well. Now the spiritual gifts are gifts given by God. We neither pay nor qualify for it. It is given by God to use for his purpose and glorify His name.

In the below table we will try to cover the all the gifts listed in the bible. Once we have all of them we will try to remove the duplicates and identify the unique the gifts.

As a next step lets try to group the gifts broadly under three categories. The foundation, Discipleship and transformation gifts.

1. 1. Foundation Gifts :
    - In any ministry gifts such as administration, leadership, giving and faith are essential building blocks, without that the ministry would not be able to be survive. We hear ministries and organization getting into non-compliance issues against government and local laws, taxation issues and property disputes due to bad or negligent administration. God's ministry has to run in extreme diligence and carefulness than the worldly organizations as it reflects the glory of the God. The gift of administration and leadership plays crucial in following compliance and regulation.Another aspect of foundation is our faith. We would have seen people operating on their zeal than God given faith. Now is the zeal wrong? No. But it should be catalyst-ed by the faith. If we operate only by zeal then we go by our strength and not by the will of God. There are so many plans made, meetings organized and money spent purely on somebody's zeal.
  2. Discipleship Gifts :
  3. Transformation Gifts :

While we study the gifts, lets remember below facts from bible.
1. Man is known by his fruit (Luke 6:43-45, Matthew 7:16-20) and not by his gifts (Matthew 7:21-23). Hence the gifts are primarily for glorifying God's kingdom and it should be used in His service with at most care.
2. It does not matter how many gifts we have or given, but it matters how we use them (Matthew 25:14-30)

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[expand title="Be Wise" tag="h3"]

Intellectuals makes a good living but a wise man makes a good life. Good living might give comfort and pleasure on the other hand good life assures happiness. While the world measure human success in terms of “things” earned, God measures the same by its “values”. Bible puts focus on human wisdom than intellectual ability of man.

Who is a wise man? A wise man will have a combination of experience, knowledge and good judgement as per the definition of dictionary. Is it possible for men to have all the possible experience in one life, all knowledge to derive judgement? In today’s world it is difficult. Somebody can be knowledgeable but not wise enough with experience to make right judgement. But we know wisdom is essential for our personal, professional and spiritual life.

When God gave King Solomon a choice to choose anything he wants, Solomon asked for the discerning heart and ability to distinguish between right and wrong. King Solomon went on and wrote three books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon), which are part of the old testament and put much of his focus in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes around being wise and how not be foolish. The word wisdom repeats eighty times in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the word fool repeats for ninety-five times. That’s the magnitude of focus Solomon has put on the topic of wisdom in his books.

In Proverbs, King Solomon gives principles and sources from which we can gain wisdom.

God is the source of our Wisdom:

Our fundamental source of wisdom and its beginning comes from God. The verse Fear of God is beginning of wisdom repeats twice (1:7, 9:10) in proverbs. God being all source (2:6) of wisdom and knowledge, can make anybody wise independent of age and background. God was source of wisdom for Joseph, Daniel and Moses, when the odds are stacked against them. God raised them up for His own glory by shining the wisdom through their life.

Our elders in our family have more experience and discernment than us. Hence its important to take advice from our parents and elders to gain discernment from their life.

The other key elements through which we can gain wisdom are being humble, willing to take advice and our ability to lead disciplined life.

What we gain from wisdom:

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