I spent the last three days at Salem in South India where I had the opportunity to attend the wedding of one of my close cousin’s son. While all the ceremonies were going on, I spent my time in the back benches talking to an old man who was curious to know more about Jesus. He had heard about my writings on Christian faith for a blog and wanted to know as to why God was not doing anything for him. He had a sudden need and was expecting God to whip out a miracle from the air to meet his problem. He was desperate and sorry for himself as he said “I have done no harm to anyone, I help many people and yet God is deaf to my cries. Is there a way out, please?” The poor old man did not know anything about God’s way of doing things according to the Christian faith. I must admit most believers also face the same dilemma in that they do not see at all God operating in their lives. They face one failure after another again and again. They lose heart and give up after a time. I had to show to the old man that the Christian way of receiving from God was only through faith. And that came only from the Word of God in the Bible. See what Hebrews 11:1 had to say “Faith is the substance and evidence of things not seen.” What does this really mean? It only means that what we need and want is already there in the spiritual realm! We may not see it, but it is there! The evidence is only in the faith. Can we just hope and receive from God? No, we cannot. Because ‘hope’is in the believing that God will do something on a future day. We will hear a man who is just hoping say “I am sure God will bless me some day.” But the man with faith is bound to say “God has already given me what I want.” There is a difference, friends... Faith is for the ‘now’ but ‘hope’ is for sometime tomorrow. How do we increase our faith? We heard several times before that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Bible is full of priceless promises, each one for every need we all have. The more we read and meditate on those promises, the more will our faith become. A stage will come when we will not … [Read more...]
Jesus resurrection: How much of it is it true?
Even as a young believer in Christ Jesus, I have often wondered about this fact. The more I read the Bible, the more I listened to the sermons in my church and the more I watched my favourite preachers on television, this strange truth has baffled me over the years. Believe me, I’m not a Christian by birth. I was a Hindu born to Hindu parents. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Yes, He sure did. Why? Because the Bible said so. There ended the matter for me, we do not question the Word of God in the Bible. If it said in the Bible that it was made of iron and not paper, then it really was made out of iron. The debate ended even before it began. Still, the reality of Jesus rising back to life has continued to intrigue me even today. Because nowhere in the history of the world do we hear a person rising from the dead. Jesus was the only human who rose from the dead. Why is it so important to believe that Jesus indeed was raised from the dead? Because only then can we believe that if we confessed and believed that Jesus had died for our sin and rose again, we too will go to Heaven to be with our loved ones who had died before us. This was a promise that was made in body and blood by Jesus himself. He took so much pain to tell us that our real life begins after our bodies die. Remember He proclaimed boldly “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.” There were many witnesses to his death and also to His coming back to life and walked among his disciples for days together. The disciples had touched Him, eaten with Him and were seen moving with Him for a whole 40 days after that. This is the life giving promise given to all us Christians for more 2000 years till now. Even so there are sceptics who firmly believe that the resurrection of Jesus was a myth. They say it was a story that grew with time and that there was no real evidence to prove it. To probe further we need to look into History and make our own judgement. It is a pity that great philosophers like Russell and others were not even willing to look … [Read more...]
