How much can God forgive?

I am not sure; if it is a common feeling or specific to me, but I always had a question can really God forgive my “BIG” sins?  Never, quite understood the grace fully, but let me try to portray my newly found understanding of grace with the following scenario. I and my husband were sitting in the beautiful seashore, one tide gently touched our feet; other just moved us to the different directions. Suddenly he took a handful of mud and buried my feet, and as I was struggling to get my feet out of mud, one tide came by my feet, cleansed the mud completely. Can I compare the sand in my feet with the water in the sea? This sea can pretty much clean me as well, if he would have buried me in with the mud. Grace is like the sea, looking from my prospect my feet is buried with the mud and how am I going to get my feet out? But for the sea it is nothing, nothing at all. God’s grace is like a sea, you cannot quite understand how much it can clean, but you can understand your sins are nothing compares to His grace, that He earned by sacrificial death of His son(Jesus Christ).

I also thought what If I was standing far from the sea? Can it wash me? No. I have to be close to experience this cleansing. From our prospect our sins is huge, but in His prospect He can forgive it completely with nothing; however, this cleansing process takes our intentional effort; we have to go next to Him, allow Him to clean us, and believe that He can clean us completely.

Understanding Grace is complex, but without GRACE OF GOD there is no foundation for Christian faith. Let God forgive you, believe He can forgive you, and experience true forgiveness, more than anything after you are forgiven, forgive yourself. God bless.

I love my lacking

Truly I love my lacking, I have lacks in my life that I would give anything to get them fulfilled, but in spite of the burning desire to get everything I need, I still love my lacks for the very reason that they keep me depend more on my Creator.

I am a person who loves to have control over everything at least to those things that would affect me, my family and friends but that could very well be my sin sometimes. My Pastor mentioned, “Sin is nothing but missing God’s purpose” I believe God does want me depend on Him for everything small and big, for the stuff I long for and for the stuff I don’t care much.

When my Doctor said, “This is going to be another miscarriage” me and my husband both ego, “what can we do to prevent this from happening again?” You could not believe the answer, “Nothing” the doctor replied coldly (I don’t blame him, how many times can he cry everyday) but you could only imagine the frustration in both of our eyes. I was confused; there should be something I could do to prevent, if not me, then this doctor who has a special degree in doing so, but nothing? The humanity in its sixth sense can do nothing to prevent my misery. Then I realized no, I can do one thing, depend on my God, who knows the count of the strings of my hair and also the name of every star that I see in the sky and I don’t see. I love  my lacking that keeps me from sinning against God by self reliance, I love my lacking it reminds me of my humanness, I love lacking more than anything that keeps me depending on my Creator.

God Bless.

Same old bible makes lot of sense now

As I am looking back the previous years when I started reading the bible, I actually read the whole bible before but never made lot of sense, never felt this much interest I am feeling now, specifically when I get to certain parts of bible, my pastor says “Every single word in bible is inspired by Holy spirit and we cannot omit any part of it” but I did not quite treated every word same. However all of a sudden, I am no more forcing myself to read these verses but seems like I am indulging in these verses totally with my being. I even ask my husband to continue with whatever plan and continue to dwell in these verse longer than my allotted prayer time, why is this change?

I start to read my bible in different prospect; this is the same old bible but makes lot of sense now. Ever since I started believing in this God, I was reading bible as though God is giving me direction for that day and that’s all. I went to bible either to get to know how my day is going to be or to get some encouragement from God that all is going to be well, there is nothing wrong in that but I don’t see every verse in bible is just doing that, if you’re a person who “learned” bible (not “read” like me for so long) would definitely know this to be true. I found a gap between these two of my mottos and some of the verse in bible, it just didn’t make sense to me, but found this new purpose of this great books, in which every words is inspired by the Holy spirit Himself , who hovered over the universe before any of these incidence came into being, that is bible reveals the very nature of my God, everything that I need to know and understand about the magnificent person whom I never met face to face but deeply in love with, is revealed in this book  perfectly and beautifully. Oh, now I could not stop reading my bible and it all makes sense. I hope you read your bible with different prospect too. God bless.

Pathway to Victory

When you don’t find the ram instead you’re Isaac?

Genesis 22 explains the great and mystical story of God asking for Abraham’s son, who is given as a promise. This particular passage even though very famous didn’t catch much of my attention until I had this message from my doctor stating I might have another miscarriage this time (I barely came out of the previous loss). I was not in shock, some how I always felt from the starting of this pregnancy what if? But I was broken completely, I know God breaks the person before He can create a right person He wants, but never understood that breaking will be this painful.

In my faith I said, “Lord, you provided a Ram instead of Isaac, and please provide a Ram instead of this little child in my womb” (Even though I didn’t wait 25 long years, and my husband is not 100, I am talking about the pain of loosing a child), I knew life and death is in God’s hand, I knew God in his complete sovereignty allows me to go through this most painful path. I prayed and said Lord, “I know you are my God and you have been faithful all the time, now provide the ram so I can sacrifice instead of this child”, I want this child seriously”, in tears so intense I prayed, Holy sprit whispered in my ears, “What if you don’t find the ram instead, I am not your God anymore?”

Then I thought about it, what Abraham would have done if he did not find the Ram and the angel didn’t stop him, offered Isaac? I don’t know, but I believe he would have because he didn’t have the idea of what is going to happen but still got up early and set out to reach the mountain, but he would have definitely cried and mourned for Isaac many many years.

I stopped for a second and said, “ No God, even if I don’t find the Ram, your are still my God and you will ever be, not because I choose you but you choose me first, not because I love you, but you loved me abundantly first."

It took lot of prayers, lot of tears, trips to different places, isolation, consolation, and so much reading, before I understood God is merciful and loving to allow me through this, this could have been lot more worse, He reassured me that I will see my child and get to hold her in a perfect painless world, where I don’t have to worry about,  if she is going to get in to the right school, get the right grade, will she wear right clothes, will she choose the right man, more than anything about her salvation. How glorious it will be to see my beautiful child, in the perfect world, behind my savior with an open arm, I can’t wait to get to heaven.

God Bless.

Find Your Unique Calling

Find Your Unique Calling

Uniqueness, individuality, difference between human natures, these are the virtue of human beings. Just imagine if we all act, talk, and think similar this world will be one uninspiring place. Modern day culture encourages you to be yourself. As I was meditating God’s word, this is remarkably true even with the calling we have from God. We have a unique calling from God, maybe there are other people called for similar work but every calling is unique. I believe God did not create anybody to, just do the same think that I am called to do and vice versa. This does not mean if I am not doing what I am suppose to do that will stop God’s plan or kingdom advancement, but I believe my calling is unique and so as yours. In this article, I am trying to compare two different specific calling from Jesus to New Testament believers.

Demon demon-possessed man in the region of the Gadarenes

In all three gospels, of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the incident of Jesus restoring this terribly demon possessed man is mentioned. Even though, Matthew mentions another man who was also possessed by demons, the other two gospels gave importance to this one man who was possessed by demons. This man had a hard life, did not live in home for a long time, did not wear clothes, terrible life that a human can have.

I used to work in the psychiatric unit, and used to seeing people, not in their mind, the anguish the patients and their family go through (I am not saying psychiatric conditions are demon possession, but the symptoms explained in this passages are truly much similar).Jesus had a passion for this man and restored him and casted out the demons. He is restored. I have never seen a fully cured chronically ill psychiatric patient. I could only imagine if anyone can totally cure them, how thankful this person and the entire family would be for the person who treated them. I conjecture similarly, this person who was healed, not asked but begged to go with him but Jesus had the unique calling for this man, He said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” He did the same, and began to tell in the Decapolis, how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were amazed.

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

Jesus called his first disciples to come and follow Him. He was calling them to leave everything as it is and follow Him. In all three gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke, accounts this solemn incident of Jesus calling His first disciples. None of these people begged to follow Jesus, but Jesus did call them intentionally. In the gospel of Mark, it is also mentioned without delay Jesus called them.

Comparison of callings

In above mentioned two incidences, the demon possessed man is begging to go with Jesus, but Jesus denies him to go with him. Jesus gives this man a unique mission to do. In the contrary, in Luke 5-8 Simon peter realized he was a sinful man and says, "go away from me, lord: I am a sinful man”, but Jesus calls him and other disciple intentional y to leave everything and follow him without delay. In eternal prospect, both of these missions are imperative. I cannot say which one is superior. Jesus gave his life for every one of us. So there is no superior or weaker calling in eternal prospect, but it is about what is your unique calling and fulfilling it with the entire capacity.

I believe if Jesus had asked the disciples to go and preach in Decapolis that had been less efficient, in the case of the witness of demon possessed man it is first hand information. The people lived in Decapolis did see that the person was possessed and troubled but now healed. So I believe that the witness from this man means a lot to them. I love listening to lovely testimony in TV, Radio, and the internet, but nothing compares to testimony from my own church. So I think this is one of the logical reasons for this unique calling but God knows past, present, and future. He knows the inmost thoughts and there may be multiple other reasons for these two different callings.

It would have been a serious problem, if the demon possessed man would have asked “why God, you are intentionally calling people to follow you by leaving everything? When they are not even asking for it, and I am begging to go with you and you deny?" Or if the disciples had said," We will stay back here, and minister to other fisher man or people live in Galilee". So comparing your mission with other ministries is as unintelligent as this. If it is small or large, call to leave everything or to stay in your place and preach, it is extremely critical that we exactly respond to God’s unique calling.

Time of calling

I would like to add one more thought to this article, God calls us even before people finds us, for example, in the incident of Jesus meting Nathanael. Nathanael asked Jesus, ‘how do you know me”, and Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Many times God sees us even before men can call us or confirm the call, so your unique ministry from God is already decided, and He is the only person, who have complete knowledge of that ministry. It is necessary we get first hand information from Him, However I am all for other Godly people confirming your call. Bible explains many other people who are called uniquely for their ministry according to will of God. I hope and pray we will find our unique ministry from Jesus and fulfill it with all our capacity. God bless.

Please refer –Mark1& 5, Luke 8& 5, Matthew 8:28-34.

In The Race to Overcome The Creator

“A species of flatworm has been discovered to be potentially immortal - raising hopes that the ageing process in humans could be combated” (Woollacott, 2012)

This and many other head line news makes me think about the critical question that the Human species ask today, can we overcome our creator? Or is there someone who is a creator?

The purpose of this article is to answer many other questions including the two above mentioned questions, with in authors believe and rational, in no way this article is trying to prove that there is God that conviction is to be personal rather than influential. In fact, no religion or the scared books are trying to prove that there is God in contrary to atheism and humanism; instead they just declare the God’s nature.

On the journey to beat up the Creator, if man reaches the place to create human from soil just like God created once, than below will be the communication between God and human, according to an unknown pastor,

Man- God, “I learned to create a human from soil, as you claimed you did”.

God – “ok, go ahead and make one”

Man – Bending down to pick up the soil

God-“mm hum, make your own soil first.”

Interesting right?

Is atheism and humanism are religions?

Religion simply has to explain the set of belief concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. Atheism and humanism simply denies that there is a super natural power that created universe, and the existence of the super natural power ("Dictionary.com", 2012).

Including the most recent published scientist ideas about universe in summary are,

1.      Approximately 13.7 billion years ago, the entirety of our universe was compressed into the confines of an atomic nucleus and it exploded and created universe

2.      There is no centre of the universe!  According to the standard theories of cosmology, the universe started with a "Big Bang" about 14 thousand million years ago and has been expanding ever since

3.      Dark energy is responsible for this expansion, and NASA Explains “Dark Energy affects the Universe's expansion, More is unknown than is known about dark energy, it is an important mystery. It turns out that roughly 70% of the Universe is dark energy”

4.      Nobody really knows the height, length, width, and depth of the universe (NASA, 2012).

In fact human species could not yet comprehend, not with one but all great minds put together, the reason for the compression before big-bang, actual center of the universe, or is there a center of the universe? , if it is expanding, why is it expanding? What makes this expansion possible? Basically as whole human species, our knowledge about our universe is speck in the eternity of its mystery. Atheism and humanism does not deny the evidence of our fractional knowledge about universe, they just argue that there is no supernatural power that is responsible for creation of Universe.  They Claim, “One day, human being will see the entire universe and find what is dark matter, and the million other mysteries in our universe.” well, then it is possible even that, by the end of it, they can find the greater power which created all this too. If, God is a myth, don’t you think big bang and other explanation of creations is more so? Neither can be proved if any human is trying to, just because, we are human and not God. If a person start to say, “I will only believe what I see” the entire world will mock at that man, because the existence of the Universe and dark maters, and the expansions are evidence of science and to an extent proved by researches, However human being cannot see its existence completely.

Now back to the definition of religion, if we don’t really know the universe and it is phenomena, how could we explain the cause, nature, and purpose of it without including supernatural power? Atheism and humanism does not try to explains any thoughts of it is own but simply trying to disprove what they don’t have adequate knowledge about, so in all rational it is not a religion of its own but could be a parasitic religion because it needs other religions to exist and simply try (but fails) to disprove the power of super natural existence.

If there is God, and He is good, why many wrong things happen?

Just because humans are not the robots with pre installed programs by God, but we are the crown of the creation and God chose to give us “free will”.

What is free will?

God has a control over everything in the world including human beings; however He let human choose their action depending on their own will. The ultimate controller is God.

Why He gave this free will?

Again we are not even close identifying the creation complete, how much do we know about the creator? Only so much that He Himself reveled in many different ways, but that doesn’t prove that He does not exists. But in my rational, I would like my children to love me with their choice but not my force; this could be the same simple reason, that God want us to search Him and do good deeds like Him, just because we love Him, but not because that is what He instilled in us.

If God is true, why He did not answer my question when it was crucial for me?

“God is not an ATM machine”, May be it sound radical, but  this  is the great word I heard from one of my favorite radio show, I am sorry to state this here, but we cannot treat this creator God to be our ATM machine, and just say, “ ok, you don’t give me what I want, so you don’t exist” , remember you could argue it in either way, but the purpose of this article is not to prove God but to explain some rational thoughts of mine.

Can we ask?

The earth, why do you rotate in 24 hrs, why not 30 hours? No

 The sun, why the flares and radiations, why not just the light and energy? No

If we cannot even ask questions to the creation that they are so above our power, what about the Creator, and His thoughts, we either can understand or deny His existence just because, He does not act the way we want Him to.

This is not the question but the statement, many atheist makes, this article does not answer but respond to the below statement,

Religions are responsible for all the killing and problems, so let us get rid of them.

Now here, I am not trying to explain which religion is true but simply explaining why religion is not responsible for all the killing and problems. There are many criteria, to come to a conclusion of what is a true religion and what is not? But this is one of the simplest thought about religion that I guess most of us will agree upon.

(Elsaie, n.d), “Religion should convey a message that does not contradict human intuition and accepted morals.”

If a true religion should teach us something that does not contradict human intuition and accepted morals, how could religion be the cause of destruction? I have never seen any human being argue that mere killing is right, but they might have all their reasons for the murder they committed, so now is it a fault of the reason or the intuition? Every human if they search in their heart in normal mental capacity, can rationally think and say what is right and wrong, at least the fundamentals. To kill is wrong, to rape is wrong, without anyone telling us, but how ever a person can in his own rational thought misinterpret his religion and give all kind of irrational reasons for his killing and radically blame it on his religious teaching, and that is not a fault of the religion but the fault of the individual who is commuting it. For sure, any religion in its full, teaches to kill innocent people is not a religion at all.

In contrary religion teaches us morals, build families the fundamental units of intact society, it keeps us accountable. In a closer and clear look, the problem and killings are caused by the people taking the religions name and not really knowing them in depth, so instead of getting rid of the religion, we can teach our children the depth of the religion and all the aspects, so we can create a peaceful and better community.

Finally, Atheists argue, the evolution and other theories are not in favor of the Creator God,

I am repeating this many time that I am not trying to prove that there is God, instead giving my own rational explanations, evolution is not a proven fact but a theory. If you say that God is not proven but a theory, and you accept the evolution, you have not so much to boost about your intelligent and rational ideas but just to boost about your own choice in those two theories.

Evolution struggles great deal of inadequacies, just like the big-bang mess, few of the common arguments of the evolutionist against the creationists are,

There are connections between two different species,

Are you kidding me, this is exactly what I am trying to say, there will be a connection between two species just because there is one God who created all.

There are vestigial organs in our body

Remember ,God did created human being but the creationists are not at all against the micro evolution, that is may be  Adam was dark and now we are all, white, brown, dark many colors, that does not make us birds.

There is no intelligent design in human body?

This is the only arguments that make me argue, as a nurse, and learned at least the necessary anatomy and physiology; I was always amazed at the mechanism of human architect. The amazing way of conception and development, the exceptional way the brain and nerves works, the miracle of life and death, if you call it a bad design, why don’t you at least remotely make something closer to this yet?

There are science and rational all against evolution, we can argue but at least the few common basics for the evolution can be argued even by a lay person like me, without any biology background.

Finally I would never be able to prove that there is God by my power because I am a mere human, but God revealed himself to us in many way, it is easy for us to question His existence because of our ignorance, if you are going through that session of life, hold on and search more, search rationally, with all the blame of atheism and rationalism claims against God and religion, if only can this Human race open the eye and look at the vast creation and amazing ways we our self operate, we will stop wasting our energy in overcoming our  creator, instead get His help in improving the future of our human race with our “free will” allowed by our creator. God bless.

Reference,

Dictionary.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

Elsaie, A. (n.d). The Religion Criteria. Retrieved from http://www.usislam.org/47relig.htm

NASA. (2012). Retrieved from http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/

Woollacott, E. (2012). TG Daily. Retrieved from http://www.tgdaily.com/health-features/61735-flatworms-could-reveal-secret-of-immortality