Purity and Simplicity

I went to a  local supermarket here just bout two hours ago and as my mom was paying the bill at the counter, I was going thru the magazines that they had kept there, some of them were in Tamil, and others bout films and stuff like that, finally something caught my eye, it was a magazine bout careers for youth, thats what the cover read anyways, I can't remember the name of the magazine now, but as I opened the cover and flipped thru, and just randomly stopped at an article, it started with a quote, which stuck with me, and I couldnt read any further coz it kept repeating in my mind, and I wanted to share it with you all :

 Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature. - Thomas Kempis

 And when I read it it was literally like those two words 'purity' and 'simplicity' just jumped at me, It makes me think bout how without those two things we can destroy ourselves and sometimes even the people we love the most .... If we just have purity and simplicity in all our relationships whether its with God or with other people we can always love people unconditionally ... Coz thats the way God love's us, the Bible says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8), His love for you and me is unconditional, which means that He never said do this or do that, and then I'll love you, He says come JUST AS YOU ARE .... And then He begins to transform us from the inside out ....

 

Healed from Spondylolisthesis .....

My written testimony can be found below under the title of " A Miracle in my life ...".

Steady My Heart

Kari Jobe is one of my favorite worship leaders, and this one song is my favorite right now, it just reaches down to the very depths of my heart everytime I listen to it ...

In the difficult times, I know that Jesus You are not just the healer of my wounds but You remove even the scars, You've got me in the palm of Your hands, even when it hurts, even when its hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You for refuge in Your arms ....Oh Lord You steady my heart .....

 

It's all about Love ...

I've been doing some serious thinking over the past few days, the product of all that thinking along with my conversations with several people has resulted in this post ....

The main reason I started this blog was to reach ppl with the Good News, that Jesus Christ is real and He is a God of today.... The reason I say this is coz I see a world out there, full of people, some hurting, some hopeful, some angry, eccentric, sad, happy, religious, loving, searching for hope, fanatical, the list just goes on and on .... No matter who we are, where we come from, or what we all believe in, we are all in search of just one thing and that is the TRUTH ... truth to satisfy this deep thirst within ourselves .... Truth basically about two things, life and love .... And we have all come to some conclusions from various life experiences, whether it s a particular religious belief or a scientific fact, or belief in our own selves ... all that we do is to satisfy that thirst for the truth ....

And from watching people silently from the backseat of life, this is something I've noticed ... Oh and please bear with me if I sound lyk I'm going off topic .... When you experience something so real, wonderful, enriching, amazing, touching and powerful, what is your natural response ??? You feel like sharing it with the person you love the most, right ??? U share it with family, friends, neighbours ... sometimes in our excitement we even share it with absolute strangers .... That abundance of joy, and happiness just bursts out of you like an overflowing dam .... So after all this you are probably wondering wat my point is ... Well my point is this:

Why has the church today lost that simple passion of just sharing with people the same love that we have experienced in our relationship with Jesus ????? Hey, dont get me wrong here I am not accusing anyone .... See I'm also guilty of getting so caught up in trying to evangelize someone that sometimes I forget that I first need to love them ... When Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest, He replied saying "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it, you shall love yor neighbour as you do yourself" He further goes on to say that these two commandments sum up the entire law and it all depends upon these ....

And the only way we can love God and love others, is when we realise the extent of God's love for us... I remember this as I speak of His love:

" I asked Jesus, "How much do you love me?", He said, "This much" and stretched out His arms and died for me, a sinner."

 And this is the ultimate truth that I've learnt about love and life, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, along the way in my search for life, He found me, and because He is Love, I am no longer searching but experiencing Him and His Love for me, and this is my aim in life now, to share with everyone I meet this love and life that I am experiencing ....

 

Friends Forever ....

I've been thinking about what Friendship means over the past few days .... bout the past (a bad habit of mine), the present and I've given up trying to picture the future, when it comes to making friends.... And as today is Friendship Day .... I thought that this might be relevant ....

So when I think bout friendship I wonder, do we really know the meaning of that word ??? I mean the words 'friend' and 'friendship' are really powerful words but in this day and age its significance has been diluted by ppl in the virtual world who take pride in having hundreds of "friends" on facebook, and other social networking sites, who they barely even know, and ppl who in the real world are surrounded, by 'friends', but the truth is all those so called friends only see the benefits that they can suck out of that 'friendship', and once those benefits have been exhausted, the "FRIENDSHIP" also comes to an end ....

This reminds me of the verse from the Bible which says "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24) I mean isn't that what friendship is really supposed to be about ... Isn't it supposed to be a relationship where two persons, according to wikipedia, have "mutual affection for each other", or as I would like to put it, where two persons help each other along in their respective journey of life, who thru the ups and downs, let every experience strengthen the bond between them .... But today this has become just wishful thinking ....

I have seen so many ppl who look like they are the best of friends, the way they walk, the way they talk and their actions all point towards an image of an 'unbreakable bond' of "friendship", but only when you look closely at them do u realise that their relationship has no foundation whatsoever ..... Its just a beautiful building, just waiting to crumble .... After seeing this it made me think that we should use the word 'friend' really carefully, because the truth is that most of the ppl we do know are actually 'acquaintances', and not 'friends' .....

I have personally had a lot of bad experiences in the area of friends, almost to the point where I was paranoid when it came to making friends ..... After tym and again being let down at every attempt at friendship, I came to this conclusion ..... 'I will never have a FRIEND in the true sense of the word' .... I lived like that until my eyes were opened to the truth, and I realised that I was ABSOLUTELY wrong.... I had a friend all along, one who never left my side, who stood beside me every time I cried and felt the same pain I did, who never betrayed me even though I was ungrateful and hurtful, even when I betrayed our trust, one who just loved me for who I was .... And only after I reached the end of my rope did I actually realise that .... It took me several betrayals, uncountable occassions of being hurt and finally reaching the end of my rope, to realise that JESUS was right beside me in every single one of those moments, carrying me thru ....

This reminds me of another verse from the Bible which says "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) I dont know a single person who would be willing to lay down their life for a person who has hurt, insulted, and stabbed them in the back, except Jesus, who did just that for you and me ....

 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7,8)

So on this day dedicated to friends, this is the message I want to pass onto those who think that I don't have anybody to call as friend .....You are never alone, though ppl whom u trusted may let u down, though there is pain and hurt in ur heart and though u may think that u have been scarred beyond the point of fixing, and the reason I can say this with confidence is coz Jesus, died in replacement of you and me, and He didnt remain that way He conquered death and now is, and always will be beside u thru the good and bad times, all u have to do is accept His free gift of love ..... And to those who have so many "friends".... I say this "Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?"(Proverbs 20:6) So beware of those you call as 'friends' ...

So this post is dedicated to my Best Friend Forever, JESUS and also to my true friends out there ....

Here's wishing you all a HAPPY AND BLESSED FRIENDSHIP DAY !!!!!



How He LOVES Us ....

As a christian u dont automatically become perfect, it doesnt mean that u'll never ever do anything wrong ever again ... it means that even if u do ... there's an amazing God, who loves you soo much, He's willing and able to forgive u ... to pick u up, dust u off and send u on ur way to fulfilling the plans and purposes He has set out for u .... His love for u and me is so strong and powerful .... And nothing we've ever done or will do can change that .....

This is an amazing song called How He Loves by David Crowder Band .... I just happened to hear some of my favorite worship songs remixed for the first tym and so as I was searching for more of such songs, I found this and it is so awesome ... This song coupled with the message speaks volumes ... I hope God touches u as u listen ...

I don't want to gain the whole world ....

I really love this song, 'Lose my Soul' by TobyMac ..... It is so true ..... 'I dont want to gain the whole world and lose my soul' .... But I also know, that doesn't mean that God wants me to be poor and pitiable, Jesus took all sin, sickness and poverty on the cross 2000 yrs ago .... So we can all become righteous thru believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus and confessing the fact that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, we can be free from sickness because 'By His stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:5) and we no longer have to live in poverty because it is conquered, it only has as much power as we allow it to yield over us ..... And poverty is not always poverty in terms of money...... it is also poverty of spirit .....

So what more do we need, We've got more than the world can ever offer ....

JESUS, You're the GREATEST !!!!

I serve a GREAT GOD, and I want to share something that happened today that proves His greatness…. AGAIN :)

My dad had his vacation for the past 2 weeks and today he is to leave for the airport back to his job and I wanted to see him off along with my family, but I had a class scheduled for the same time in the evening ..... So I've been praying about it for the past few days, I prayed that somehow that particular class would get cancelled.... So as usual I attended the morning session of my class, still praying that somehow the one in the evening would be cancelled, but then when the first session was over the schedule was put up and it said that the class was scheduled to be at the same time.... I was a bit disappointed, but I didn’t have time to brood over it, coz my next class was going to start soon, so without giving much of thought to it I just went on with the other class and completely forgot all about it.....

As today is the weekend we were all looking forward to going home, and maybe catching up with some lost sleep….  But then our teacher gave us some work to do and we were all totally engrossed in it, and we completely lost track of time….. And just as the class was coming to an end I was discussing something that I couldn’t understand with a friend and I thought I heard him say the word ‘cancelled’, and I was like, maybe I didn’t hear what he said clearly and so I asked someone what he said, and she told me “He said that the class in the evening is cancelled.” Everyone was happy that the class was cancelled but I think I went into shock, it felt as if for that moment time itself stood still, and once that faded I couldn’t stop smiling ….. I tried to contain myself coz otherwise ppl would think that I was a little or maybe a lot more than that, unstable upstairs…..As I was waiting for my mom to come and pick me up, I just kept on smiling, and till now I can’t seem to stop, I think that I’ve told God how much I love Him at least a million times by now ….. And this day just seems to be getting better I mean so many things that I had to do, and had no idea how I would squeeze into my schedule for today, are suddenly all just falling in line….. And some of things are stuff that I didn’t even pray about ….. I mean my God is soo great HE knows the desires of my heart, He is working far above I can ask or even imagine, just like the Bible says ….. JESUS I LOVE YOU !!!!

I know I've been posting a lot of songs, but thats just me, I love to sing ..... It's the way I express my emotions .... Well anyway, Hope you like this song ..... One of my favorites :)

I am in the Best of Hands ....

I just happened to be listening to this song when I was returning home from my classes this morning and, I thought I'd share it ..... Like I said in my previous post, God is really Great, I mean only He can use the most unexpected people and incidents to cheer us up and teach us practical life lessons .... I am in the Best of Hands and those are in the hands of my Lord and Savior Jesus

Isaiah 49:15,16

15. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

16. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

A peace that passes ALL understanding

As a little kid I always remember, being afraid of death ….. You’re probably thinking wat does a kid even know about that….. But I always had this fear, fear of the unknown ….. For lack of a better word I can call it a feeling of being doomed …..And it was frightening. But since Saturday nite, I’ve been meditating on all the wonderful things that God has done in my lyf and I don’t mean only the great healing, I mean every single thing from the small to the big, and I’ve got this joy which I know comes from MY JESUS.

I no longer fear death, I see it as being reunited with Jesus, after I have fulfilled all that He has planned for me in my lyf. I’ve spent too much time in the past trying to intellectualize why things happen the way they do. So I’ve drawn this conclusion from the Bible ‘All things work together for good to those who love God’, so I no longer worry, my future is secure, my past is erased and my present is being unraveled every moment lyk a portion of a painting, the end which can only be seen in the eyes of the Master Painter, God’s Word, the lamp to my feet guides me, it doesn’t show me the whole path, it just shows me the next step that I should take, for the rest I have faith, faith that He loves me and that He will never and I mean NEVER let me go.

Incidentally, I happened to be listening to this song at the time and it seemed really appropriate .... It's called 'Times' and the group is Tenth Avenue North. Hope you like it .....

God's Love Letter to Us ...

THE BIBLE

The Thread

I said in my previous post that I had seen a few interesting vids on youtube and wanted to share them .....  well this is one of them ..... I hope you like it ..... :)

It makes perfect sense rite "The thread that ties it all in is Love .... God's unfailing love for all human kind ......a love big enough for the whole world"

JOHN 3:16

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.

What Is The Church ???

I found a few interesting and meaningful videos on youtube which I would like to share with you ...... The first one is called as " What is the Church? "

I think in the world today, we mistake the church to be something that it is not, we expect it to give us something, but this video makes it clear that 'WE ARE THE CHURCH' so we should be contributing and not always taking ........

Jesus Loves You .....

This season is called as the lent season, or simply put it is the days which lead upto the death and resurrection of Jesus, and it is this one singular event that gives us the right the boldly say that I am a Son/Daughter of God.

So as God is leading me, I want to challenge everyone who reads this article.

I was reading the last chapter of the book of John, this morning and in it Jesus asks Simon Peter, His disciple three times, "Do you truly love me more than these?", and when I read that it was as if those words just jumped at me. SO, here's my challenge to you, both christians and those who are not.

• If you are a Christian the same question Jesus asked Simon Peter I ask you, "DO YOU TRULY LOVE JESUS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE?"

• And for those of you have not had the oppotunity to meet Jesus the Savior or have passed up such an opportunity, my question to you is simply this,       "DO YOU KNOW THAT JESUS TRULY LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE?"

So I hope that this Food for Thought will leave you stirrd and thinking as we remember what Jesus did for us.