Myth and Faith - 18

Myth: I am the author of my life. I can use my time as I like, according to my will.

Faith: God is the author of Life and Time as well. He is the begining of the time "The Alpha and Omega" When we are using someone elses's things we will be careful right, So God is expecting us to be careful how we use our time.

Let us try to understand this thing that God is the author of life and time. 

When we say that God is the author of life and time, it implies that both our life and time are the most valuable and precious things, which are not in our control, but in God's hands. We know that our life is in the hands of God, He can keep it or remove it according to His own will. But let us examine this concept of God is in control of time. As a matter of fact all of us is a part of time but God alone is outside the realm of Time. That means we live for from somepoint to somepoint in the time, but God has no begining and end. He is there before the time began and will be there after this time ends. Within His time he gave life for us to live. 

Therefore the time we have in this world is a debt we owe to the God. And God lend this time to us to live according to His will and glorify Him. It indicates we are not to use our time purposelessly but we have to utilise it wisely for the Glory of God. 

Now what does this using wisely means. Whenever we clean the leafy vegetables for cooking, we collect all good and healthy leaves and reject the wrinkled, old and unhealthy leaves. Likewise, we have to set what are our goals and select our activities accordingly and reject all other irrelevant activities. This helps us save our time and reach our goal within the set time. 

For example, if our goal is to reach Delhi from hyderabad by the end of the day, obviously we take the next flight and go, but we wouldn't take a train that takes atleast 18hours right? If we have to go in next two days, we can book a train ticket and go leisurely. That means, we schedule our work according to our requirement. 

Then if our requirement is to live a life that glorifies the God who gave it to us...then why do we waste our time on the worldly things, instead of focusing on eternity? It doesnt mean that we do not need anything of this world, but our focus should be only on what we need in this world for us to prepare for our eternity. To give us eternity, to make us also eternal beings as He is, God Himself stepped down into this world and offered Himself as atoning sacrifice on the cross so that whoever believes in this shall have the eternal life. 

We donot know when our time comes to an End. Then how can we be leisurely in using our time rather than using it wisely all the ways? How can we be focusing on mortal things than eternal things? How can we waste time collecting pebbles instead of seeking Jewels? 

Myth and Faith - 17

 Myth: I don't need to get salvation in the days of my youth. Iam too young for it, it is for older people, I will pray for salvation when I become old.

Faith: Living a life having Jesus and being saved from sins in the youth is the best thing that can happen to any person. Lets see how

The bible says, It is good for man to bear the yoke in the days of his youth.

Let us try to understand why God wanted a man to bear the yoke in youth?

Let us observe deeply various stages of life of a human being, childhood, youth, middle age, old age...and examine how they respond to a situation. 

For instance, lets think of a big poisonous snake is found on a road and people gather to watch. Now in this case if you do not kill the snake it is a threat to the community, may bite anyone anytime leading to unexpected deaths. 

In the by-watchers if a 6th grade child is there, who have lot of courage and wants to kill the snake... his strength wouldn't be sufficient to execute the task and also the he may not have adequate experience and the level of judgement required to do it. If he tries, he may fail and loose his life too. If a middle aged man is there, his thought process would be like, why should I unecessarily involve in risk by going to kill this snake, he generally thinks to be on safe side because of the family ties he is having....An elderly man would'nt dare to go ahead killing the snake because again the strength he is having may or maybe not sufficient, he may or may not have the swift ness required etc. 

If you consider a person in his youth, he has the strength and swiftness and the judgement required which is lacking in a child and elderly, and will have the thrust to go ahead inspite of hesitation seen in a family man. This is the very reason why whenever there is a dispute between neighbhors, or communities, or when riots take place anywhere, youth will take major part of it. This very concept is made use of and youth are molded by the intentions of the elderly of any community to execute anything needed. This is the very concept on which age limit for entry in to the army is decided, since it is difficult to mold a person to a lifestyle if his youth is crossed.  

It suggests that what feed is given to a person in his youth will decide the direction and ultimate fate of the persons life. It decides the kind of life a person will end up in. Therefore we being the children of God, should be able to imbibe this God sense in the youth so that not only a generation deidicated to God will rise up, but also the peak strength of a persons life will be dedicated to God.

The yoke God is talking about here is about humility. It means a person should learn humility in his youth. As already discussed, if a person understands Gods nature in his youth days, then his life will be very fruitful unto God.

Myth and Faith - 16

Myth: Whatever we believe that is true to us, if you do not believe that is your own interest, but it is true to me, because I believe it. 

Faith: Faith is actually based on substantial truth, not just because we believe in it.

Faith is actually believing the unseen as it is mentioned in the bible in Hebrews 11:1

According to this verse faith is the proof of fact that things which are hoping for exist actually and we are waiting for them to be revealed.

If we observe every human being, belonging to whichever religion (except athiests) believes God is there, He hears us, He will oversee our lives, He will keep us safe, protect us etc etc. 

If we consider a doctor treating a critically ill person, untill when the body is responding to the treatment, though there are minimal signs of improvement, the doctor keeps working, and when the body stops responding he says "no faith". In this case, the ground of faith can be understood as the all the processes in the patients body that work towards healing. That means they are what the word "faith" of the doctor are based upon. Just as functioning of these complex processes forms the basis of "faith" in case of a patient, faith in God must also be based on something substantial and real. But understanding God maybe a highly specialised task just like a specialist doctor understand the patients response.

It is just like the "theorem and the converse" If the theorem is that 'radius of a circle is the distance between the centre to any point on periphery', the converse is 'if you draw a shape connecting all points with equal distance from the centre it becomes a circle'. Likewise if 'faith in God' is the theorem, then 'existence of God himself' is the converse.  

So God is a pre-existent being, not created after the human race came into existence. Therefore it always wise to rever God for what He is actually, but not for what He is for us/what He did for us. If we are trying to give him to a particular form, that means we are trying limit him into a form, where true nature of God is infinity, No Begining and No End. That is why  it is important to develop faith in God himself and worship him truely instead of anything else or anyone else, and God shall reveal himself in due time for those who seek him, from any sort of faith/religion.

Man believes there is God, but not able to appreciate the true God. Thus many came in the name of God, some true and some false, some misleading, but the purpose of human life is to connect with the God who actually is the author for the soul he is carrying. Just as a lay man cannot understand the pathophysiological condition in a patient except the specialist, a human being cannot appreciate the truth of God, without special introduction.

Myth and Faith-15

 Myth: If you commit one sin nothing happens. If you are not able to stop doing some sin, you can do untill it wont harm you. It is all in the control of one's self.

Faith: Committing sin in like harmning ones self and needs a deliverer/redeemer.

Let us first try to understand this concept of sin.

Sin is like... when u are doing it you may or may not face it's consequences...but you are always vulnerable to its consequences once u are into it. You may get to face it's consequences immediately, or after sometime, or after still little more time....or you may even not encounter the consequences at all too...but once you enter into it, you are vulnerable to the consequences. 

It is just like a person's liver may fail in a very short span after starting drinking, or even after drinking for a few years, or he may not get a liver failure at all. But he is vulnerable to liver failure. The chances of a person facing the consequences are 100% compared to a person who don't commit the sin, but the probability of facing the consequence is 50%(may or maynot have to face the consequences), but same all through the time the person commits the sin. 

This indefinite concept of sin is comparable to that of falling down the bottomless pit in the Bible, to relieve from which God himself should come into this world to remove and give solid rock to stand upon to those who commit sin.

And this very concept of consequences of sin showing up is indefinite, people commit sin fearlessly. In other words, people will have their time until they face the repercussions, or until they come face to face with the consequences either to stop doing it or to repent for it. If the person repents about it and turns to Jesus at any time before his time is up, Jesus is ready to forgive, and such is the Love of Lord Jesus. When it is said that He is able to forgive even the worsest sinner, it means how big is the sin and for how long the person committing the sin, if he turns to Jesus, repents about his sin and acknowleges sacrifice of Jesus and grace of God, God forgives him. 

Trying to stop doing sin on ones own is dependant on ones will power and, if he cannot withstand the temptation, he falls for it again and again. Getting washed/rid off is the only way to come out of the sin, for which, there is no promise in this world except the precious blood of Christ Jesus shed to redeem the mankind from this sin.  

After being washed in the blood of Jesus, the person may still have to face the repurcusiions for his sins he committed in past, but his soul is redeemed. Other wise his soul is doomed to eternal hell.

Myth and Faith - 14

Myth: Little bit of quarrelling and managing life to gain in life is not a sin. We quarrel or argue or manage to get what we deserve actually and it is the weakness of others who cannot fight and win. Only the strong wins and can live as they like.

Faith: 

Every single act or effort to keep up togetherness and prosperity between fellow human beings is from God. 

Every single act that drag people away from harmony even though it is natural self respect of a human being is not from God. 

God forbids creating disharmony and asks us to be humble to be at peace to win people to your side, at the expense of our ownself. Infact this is the plan of God for human beings in garden of Eden when He first created man, if anyone ponder over this for a while it is easily understandable. But that is spoiled with Adam himself(first Adam) and restored by Jesus Christ(Last Adam). 

That means lovable nature in human beings is the Godly nature. And all nature of disagreeing and tantrums is of the human nature, which is then put into him by Satan.

Likewise every single effort to live is from the Lord. Every negative thought is from satan. God honour's our effort to live until we trust in him unfailingly

Myth and Faith -12

Myth: God wont hear my prayer. God will only hear the prayer of some very good pastor and help me if I get prayed by Him

Faith: 1. Prayer has power. Prayer made in the name of Lord Jesus has power. 

Whatever we pray with genuine need, God will give. We may not do a perfect prayer. Infact we may do wrong prayer too. We may think wrong things too. But whatever right things we ask God in the name of Jesus, with right need and earnestly, God grants such requests. God will not turn us down. 

The way God turns things if you experience it then only you will really understand what God's help is. If you understand once and if you start believing, again God will work in your life more. More you believe, more you can see his works. More you see his works more you can believe and become a strong believer. It is a cycle.

But it happens when you actually start to depend on God, instead of devising your own worldly ways. Actually devising own worldly ways is seen more in Christians due to getting habituated to the religion and searching own ways and naming them as the Gods leading. Gods leading or Help will be clear and you will feel that hand of God working. Things you are seeking will come to you if it is Gods providence from ways you wont expect. 

2. This is the jouney of faith that we need to walk through. In this journey of faith, we may have attacks that we cannot handle alone. In such a state we will need the help of a very good pastor, who have constant communion with God and lead by the spirit of God. God accepts their requests on our behalf. 

But in a nutshell if you keep asking for prayers without you yourself praying, you may get your needs, because God is merciful enough to provide for the needs of His children, with the hope that they will understand His Love and Mercy sometime or the other, but you will remain in a superficial religion where you miss all the beauty of God's providence, love, encouragement, acceptance, guidance, forgiveness, above all His fellowship.