Holy-unholy

A strike difference between any so called Maha gurus, godmens and Christ came to my mind when I was going through the below passage in Bible. Which can be found in “The women subject to bleeding” (Luke 8:40-48, Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:22-43). Below is the passage from the book of Luke.

Luke 8:43-48

43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

    And I found it fascinating to know that in the culture from where this story is told, they were jews and they had so many laws given to them and the society revolved around the culture most likely here in India where we have priests and teachers of the Religious texts and we live under the laws taught by them. As ours is a gender biased society we look down at women so was in that culture. And therefore we see author have mentioned that Nameless woman dare not to come and seek help from Jesus because she was afraid of the society and the culture and what they will think of or perhaps she will be rebuked and thrown away. And yet inspite of all that she had faith that if she just touches the cloak of Jesus she will be healed and same happened and that too we see author mentions immediately.

It is one the greatest miracle of healing I ever read but more than that I see attitude of Jesus that follows after this event. He asks who touched Him? And before reading the further verses I thought what the woman must have thought, surely now He will rebuke me, He will take away all the healing as I stole it or He will punish me because I, an unclean women who have such deadly disease have touched a Holy man like Him. And surely I would have  scared to death of people condemning me for such act. Yet we read that the woman came to Jesus’ feet trembling and she told what had happened. And is just Marveled at the reply of Jesus, instead of all that we thought He called her Daughter. Nothing else but daughter, a closest word coming from Father’s mouth. And He said your faith has healed you and God in peace.

In Indian context I was reminded of my personal encounter of one the well known gurus in Maharashtra. He was a well known priest or religious teacher I have not collected much information about him but I knew this much he is a guru, a servant of god as they called him. And we were all there on a visit to a well known temple there and we got a privilege to meet this man and we were told he will just offer us some blessing. Here in our culture blessing is offered if we respect the person just by touching his feets and he putting his hand on our forehead. So I thought as usual we do this to every elder we meet as part of our culture we are told to respect them without knowing why? So we were all in a line and were to go in line and take blessing. As we went one by one I thought what kind of culture we have but then continued and as my turn came I went forward to touch his feet but as I bent down I was warned not to physically touch him, I was amazed why they did so. Later I asked my friends and teacher about it and I learned he is holy man who have done a lot of chanting and other worship related stuff and maintained himself unblemish and I was literally shocked to hear that if we touch him we will make him unholy. And I hated the very idea that how one man can be made unholy by mere touch. Imagine a doctor not treating the patient saying oh! how ugly germ ridden body he have and yet I would say he some how justifies what he do but how can a man be defiled by mere touch.

And I see a stark difference between gurus, godmen and my Lord Jesus. His grace, compassion, mercy are not just recorded in books but He actually lived that live and He himself never wrote a single piece of article because He was busy healing sick, giving sight to blind, preaching and proclaiming the good news. And all that Father have told Him to do. It is by action we know our Lord Jesus came on earth because of us. And scripture says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21

Think of it Son of God became Man so that son of man can be reconciled with God and become adopted sons of God.

P.S. A better look to the story(The women subject to bleeding) can be found at http://donotdepart.com/trembling-faith

Gospel in short.... Just like that...

This is one of the unusual days when I woke up from sleep and started writing what I felt God is telling me. As yesterday’s passage was also very relevant and then it came as answer to my prayers and I am thankful for the way God spoke to me. And it was so comforting that the Creator of Heavens and Earth, The King of kings, LORD spoke to me and it is humbling to see that He calls us son.

    Who am I? I was reminded of the words of David where he says in Psalms 8:

“3When I consider your heavens,

   the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

   which you have set in place,

4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

   human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels

   and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

   you put everything under their feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

   and the animals of the wild,

8 the birds in the sky,

   and the fish in the sea,

   all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Interesting read because think of it! Here is someone who created all things the Creator of heavens and earth what if He decides that He will create everything again from scratch and He can create better creature than us, He is Omnipotent, we don't doubt this right! But still He is mindful of us. Shouldnt we be really thankful towards His mercy and grace that He loves us and He is good and not wiping us out from the face of the earth. And on other hand we the rebellious people how do we respond to His love by saying who is God? What do He think of Himself? How can we call him good if there is so much of evil?

    But have we done the homework, who is evil have we asked ourselves? As it is said in hindi “Apne girban mein jhak-ke dekho”?(Have you introspected in your own life). Are you spotless, without sin, have you not done any wrong till day? Peep in properly and you will find the worst darkness in your own heart. And your brokenness is smelling everywhere and so is of others. Why are we dragging God in all this. And may I suggest if there is no God we will never know what Good is and there will be no Absolute. It is because of God we are able to see good and bad. All goodness is nothing but His character and evil everywhere is nothing but corruption of that good. If anyone is guilty and responsible for it, that is you and me.

    And yet inspite of it God loves us. He is patient and thats why He became Man and dwelt among us. He loves us, truly not just by words but He demonstrated it throughout the history. And He said “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13. What more He can give. He said “ 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.” John 3:16 and Further In John 3:18-21 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

    For this is the message we Christians long to spread. There is no other story to be told. There is no other news but the Gospel. His-story is the main story and rest follows.

Picture of life

                  

If I ask you how you picture life, what image would come to your mind? - Monika Singh

A facebook quote by friend and it made me thinking. So I was really challenged to give an answer. My answer was instant that “I don't know but surely its work in progress”.

But then on later wondering what I really picture it. Thing about my picture I know surely about few things that it is a colorful one. I still stand on my first thought that the picture is incomplete and work is still in progress. But the colors I am sure about so far are Black, Red and White.

So we will see what these colors represent in my life. Black is in my past and present. Black represents Sin, transgressions, darkness; where I was lost and unsure about anything and everything. It’s my past where I was lonely, scared, and hopeless where everything was mere meaningless for me. “Vanity of vanities”. A dungeon like a black hole where I thought my destination and only comfort will be death. It was a place where right and wrong didn’t matter at all. Morality was an illusion for me.

After that comes the color Red. It’s my favorite color, I don't know particular reason but I just love it and I am telling in advance and now I will tell the importance in my life. This color reminds me of Blood. Blood is one the most vital part of our body. In fact the bible refers it to as currency of life or value of life {paraphrased in my words} (Leviticus 17:11). It reminds of the blood which was shed by Jesus on the cross for our sins; the sacrifice of the blameless Lamb of God. Who was nailed on the cross, crucified for you and me. And as Isaiah 53:5 describes

“But 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.”

I am renewed because of his blood. I am cleansed by it. Or in other words as Apostle Peter said in Peter 2:18-19

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

And as we all know that there is no Atonement without blood (without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness) Hebrews 9:22. So no one comes to God (Father) except through Jesus. It was Jesus who took the wrath of God on himself and made us Holy and rose from death and gave us his Holy Spirit so that we can access God through Him. And our sins were forgiven we were cleansed by his blood. As it is written in 1 John 1:7

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

    After that comes my final color White. I continue from where I left I was black in sin now cleansed by the blood and now pure and acceptable to God. As it is written in Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”

says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.”

So we are cleansed and made white. Now we are Holy because of Jesus. Accepted to Lord as we wear the coat of Righteousness through Jesus as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:21

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

White reminds me of purity and holiness that I got from God through Jesus because of which I have that relationship with Him. I love you God for giving this colors in my life and making the picture colorful for me. I am sure there are many colors which God painted, still painting and will paint. But these are my favorite colors so far with my limited understanding.

Half a decade: Part four the stable era of working with Novatium

You read different stories part one, two, three and this final story under the title half a decade in gurgaon because this is the last company and the current place where I am working from last three years and longest era so far.

    First up all I must tell I don’t deserve to be here, its definitely God’s plan for me to bring here. Indeed if I have worked for so long here its because of many reasons and one of the most important one is that it was God’s plan to bring me here and sure He have a purpose behind it. So this job is definitely a gift from Daddy and I really thank Him for this job.

Mussorie trip with team Novatium

    I was doing great while working with Wipro in fact you know, I didn’t want to leave that job. I had a great team and great fun working with them. But then there were few things like job growth, and no one to appreciate the job and no fixed weekly offs and rotational shifts and monotonous job but yet great to learn. But then one fine day I get a call from a Chennai based consultancy’s phone asking me for my experience and job profile and if I am looking for job, till day I have no idea from where they found my number. Then I said yes to it, just to give interview. I was not really prepared, I took a very old Resume, read about the company bits and pieces and went to give interview next morning.

    From HR, to technical and till operation round same question was asked that why my resume looks so untidy and so many markings on it. I just told them the truth. This was one of the most enthusiastic interviews. I remember I was so confident and boost up on that day, rather being nervous I was encouraging a friend Tarun it was his first day as GET in that company and as people came and went away, I was thinking indeed a good job it is, will id get it?

  

Jacson and me

  I waited and waited and finally my turn came and I gave first round with HR, managed to pass it, then technical one was bit tougher as Manish now my team mate and immediate boss and then came my boss Prathish sir, who says he hired me just because of my confidence and nothing else and he thought me fitting in his team. One thing he asked me was will you leave in few months or so, are you flexible and many such questions. I just answered them patiently and got this job. This is the first organization where final round was to speak with CEO of company. So I did spoke to Alok sir and he just told that he will inform HR. And HR did call me up and I was selected.

    Now just shifting the car to back gear, I just want to take you back to the previous employer wipro. I don’t want to name the person and people who were working with me will know this. My boss was very fond of Paras and me and we were famous guys. And she never thought we would leave the company without informing her or giving proper resignation. But we did that and she was very angry with us. Because I left the company without any prior notice. On top of that look at my foolishness, I am updating my facebook status one day before joining Novatium and leaving previous company that “Next day I am joining a new company please pray for me” and all my colleagues are liking it and cheering up and with all kind of comments I see one of my boss commenting on it “Tomorrow????” it was so funny. On top of that just to add more spices to it, I wrote an adieu mail to all my teammates and telling them where I am joining and letting my boss know the company where I am joining. You might think whats wrong in that. What wrong was my manager next day asked my teammates where he have joined, call that HR and tell them not to hire him, and black list me and stuff like that.

Right to left:Jacson,Manish and me

    But in spite of all this I joined this new company, coolest thing about here fixed Saturday and Sunday off and you know what a boy coming from a rotational shift, and no fixed off and six days working for him this things matter a lot. I really cherish this offs and want to use them wisely .Here it was completely a different set, this a small place compare to where I have worked before. But it has a lot off benefits because of it. There is a lot of flexibility in policies and work environment. And you get a chance to learn a lot and take responsibilities of various different things. Also you become multi-tasking because here they want to make most of you. Initially it was difficult to work with someone who took your interview someone senior to you working in same team as yours. But then I had new buddy who joined in, so I tagged myself with him and learned the ways just to go through motions. Initial phase with this organization was a difficult one, because it was transit time in my life where I was a very young Christian and going through those tough times where you are growing and falling, failing and learning from it.

    Many a times I felt like burdened and thought I will not be able to stay here longer and this profile is not for me. I am a team worker and like to work with more dynamic climate but this place was small for me to fly. But then as time passed, I became matured as a Christian. And also my relationships with my teammates and my boss improved drastically and more than colleagues they became part of my life and then I started enjoying my work, celebrating with them. And a lot of stories revolved and I see a lot of stability here and enjoyed working on every project.

    It is my first company which sent me somewhere outstation to work on a project and it was really nice initiative and how I handled it and how once I missed opportunity to visit Chennai. But then all things worked together for me and I remained here and working from almost three years with lot of ups and downs of company.

Being thankful

Hi, all I have missed writing posts and have hardly noticed my blog from long time but that is just because I am busy at work and other stuffs but I will still try to come back and keep writing on and off. Of course writing is not my fulltime job but its something I am burdened to do.

    Today I am simply to going to share why I am thankful as I do on my thankful thursday posts.

# I am thankful to know that I am not alone, God is always with me.

# I am thankful to know that He is always listening to me and answering my smallest prayers

# I am thankful He is right beside me when I feel to give up

# I am thankful for the unconditional love that He demonstrates, inspite of my regular failures He never gives up on me

# I am thankful for the work I am doing, indeed its God’s blessing

# I am thankful that I was privileged to attend CPE seminar by Pastor Alok Benjamin and you can check more about his Ministry here http://www.meeknessandtruth.in

# I am thankful for I can worship God, talk about Him freely

# I am thankful for the forgiveness that I need everyday to cleanse myself and move on

# I am thankful for the Word of God which helps us to have daily spiritual nourishment

# I am thankful for my office is shifted to new place and I am working on 20th floor for the first time, it was something I dreamt of (though I think, why I dreamt such a dream)

# I am thankful for all the provision in my life from food, clothing and shelter and all other basic need

# I am thankful for the changes I see in my life

# I am thankful for the process and pain I am going through in this change

# I am thankful for my blog and for blog readers as they encourage me a lot by reading and commenting here

# I am thankful for the internet, books, music, stationery like pencil and pen that I can write

# I am thankful for the busyness and yet in that I can take time to thank God

    But most of all I am thankful for the hope I have in Jesus’ second coming, because I am weary and falling apart and I just want to go home. But yet not my, let Your will be done.