Joy to the world

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In actual fact Jesus was meant to bring joy to the world. And, on the days that I experience this joy, I feel for the people who may never have. By saying this I don't mean to be patronising, but much rather the opposite.

This joy that comes from deep within is the smell of freedom. The freedom to be you. The you whom you were created to be. The you who is  free of your inner demons, the you who loves yourself, the you who is free from hate and poisonous feelings. The you who is as light as a bird. Free to love, free to live and free to be a light.

Now what did this man Jesus do to bring this joy to the world?
This joy was predestined for man. It existed since the beginning of existence, but was forgotten by man.
Jesus came to remind mankind how to rekindle this joy in themselves and become complete.


We are the masters of our destiny. There is no need to look at life forlornly and think of  the 'what ifs' and 'has beens'. It is up to us to pick ourselves up today and decide that we want better and we can do better. And by better I am not talking of some financial or socio-economic ladder. I am talking of our lives, what really matters to us deep within.
Now you might be wondering where does Jesus fit into this picture because I said we are the masters of our destiny. God and us are not mutually exclusive.
The good news that Jesus brought us was basically this-- know the creator God and love and respect him for He is your Father in the true sense of the word. He created you and we are His sons and daughters. Whichever religion you may follow the above holds good. The creator God IS our father and we are called in THIS life to wake up to this call and claim the heavenly joy which is our right.
It is this very important fact that we  mortals forgot along the way of evolution and civilisation and religionisms.
We have the power, the power of being Gods children. Anything in accordance with His will is possible in our lives when we love HIM.

So this Christmas may we purge ourselves of whatever oppresses us, whatever enslaves us, and rise up and claim our rightful position as children of the most high God. Let us rid ourselves of all the negativity that floats around us in the media and elsewhere which aims to cripple and subjugate us.

Let us arise - to be alive and joyful and free.

Signing off with a toast to freedom, joy and life. 

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The Humanity of Jesus

The humanity and the divinity of Jesus has been discussed over a multitude of times by men of faith from the earliest centuries. I am not even attempting to go down the route that many others more worthy than I have trod.
In this blog my aim is simple. I aim to show you a simple human being called Yeshua who was born about 2000 years ago.

When we see Jesus as God who trod on this earth somehow the magnitude of His life on earth gets diluted.
Just like Adam, Jesus was wholly human. Just like you and me. He, of His own did not possess any special powers - just like you and me. He too had to pray for sustenance - just like you and me. The miracles that He performed were in His own words , the Father working through Him. Jesus also goes on to say that we His followers would be able to do more things than Him because He is going to the Father and that They shall send the Holy Spirit for us.

Dear friends, Yeshua was wholly human when he trod this earth. He, through His life, was showing us how to BE the word; how to love the Father and how to do the will of the Father. It wasn't somehow supernaturally easier for Jesus to live a Holy life and to submit to Gods will. Just like you and me He was born with His own free will. Just like you and me He was tempted by satan. What is important is to learn from Him how he dealt with difficult situations.
What we need to learn from Him and from His words in the gospel is how He found the graces to withstand the temptations of this world, and how He showed us through His life, How to do the will of the Father , AND most importantly how to love the Father.
Because through Adam humanity failed in Gods design of man being the light of the world,  it was neccessary that another man came to show humanity THE WAY to be THE LIGHT. And he had to be wholly human to show us that it was wholly possible to be the light of this world.
When we read the gospel, if we concentrate on the words that Jesus says, His teachings and His conversations, we come to see a great truth. Jesus always refers to His Father in heaven with great awe and respect. He attributes everything to the Father in humility and love.
 He says to Mary Magdalene (JOHN 20:17) - But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'
We are His brothers and siblings, children of the same God whom our Lord Jesus called His God. We are born as children of this God entitled to the relationship which Jesus had with His Father and His God.
 This is our call ---To live our lives as Jesus did. This is no mean call. It is a call to this life.
This life on earth is not an insignificant passing of time to while away in worthy deeds in order to gain admission into heaven at the end of it.(that is the subject of another blog) Unfortunately many in the Christian faith, even many renowned preachers too, believe that that is so.

Just as the Father was in Jesus and Jesus was in the Father while He lived on earth, Jesus calls us to live in Him so that we be one. This oneness comes from total surrender and total love. To love with all our soul, all our heart, all our strength and all our mind.
 WE are called to be ONE with GOD. This is not an utopian idea or concept but a wholly doable and wholly required surrender from mankind. When we love God as Jesus taught us how to, great graces are released into our lives. It becomes much more easier to follow the other commandments. For as children of the most High God we do it out of love. We become incapable of sin for it is farthest from our minds.
Till now the gospel has been preached to us the wrong way round. We have been told to turn away from sin and to believe in Jesus Christ so as to avoid eternal damnation. This is a purely materialistic and 'me first' form of Gospel preaching and Christianity.
First we have to know our God and then to love Him. The love of God should come first, not only in the order of commandments but also in our gospel preaching and Christianity. We are always told that God is love and so he forgives---yes it is true. But more importantly we are called to be love--and to love HIM.
For without this foundation stone -  the love Jesus had for His Father and the love that Jesus wanted each one of us who are called, to have for His and Our Father -- Christain life is like the house built without a foundation.

Interlude

I had previously mentioned here that life and religion can be really simple. Let me add to that and say that it can be plenty joyful as well. The secret is simple, in fact really simple. Just get to know this big father God and love Him. Love Him with all your heart, soul and mind. From that central point flows everything else.
This is such a simple and universal truth that has been hidden by layers of religion, rituals, customs, theology etc. This God is not purely a God of the Christians or God of only the Abrahamic religions of the world. This God is one and the same yesterday, today and forever and He has created each and every person and entity on this earth. He only desires that we, His creation, choose to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. He desires that we cast our burdens onto Him and allow Him to flow His graces into our lives. He desires that we submit the free will that He has given us to His Divine will.
This God sent His son, to show us as a human how it is possible to call the Almighty, our Father. This son came to show us how to love the Father and how it was possible to submit our will to the will of the Father. Through the redemption He purchased for us, this Man also showed us that the price of our love and will can topple the evils of this world.
This Man, called himself the Son of Man whilst on earth, to liken Himself to us, to show us that we are all sons and daughters of the greatest power of the universe. And the hidden fuel that works miracles is LOVE and the GRACE that flows from Our Father through this love.

In The Beginning...

I'm a human by birth.Though many might describe me as a Christian, being born into a Christian household doesn't in actual fact make you a Christian!
 Christianity is one of those Choice religions I should say. In comparison a Hindu is a follower of Sanatana Dharma,  Hinduism is also a cultural form of living. So one can be born into it and remain in it without having to go through an initiation ceremony or anything such. One is a Hindu by virtue of birth. The Jewish religion and Jews too are similar--one is born a Jew and is culturally a Jew as well. One doesn't choose(mostly) to be a Jew but is one by virtue of birth.
I can only truly be a Christian if I understand who Jesus Christ is and what it is that He came to do. This knowledge is neccessary for me to be His follower (or Christian) in the true sense of the world. To become a follower of Christ is a conscious decision I need to make.
To make this decision I need to make sense of who He is and what His role was on earth. I shall attempt to explain as clearly as I can over the next few blogs, so bear with me.

God or the supreme creator of the universe exists from beyond time. He is existance itself. The bible tells us of the darkness that was the earth. It also tells us of the fallen angels that were thrown into the darkness.
It was into this earth that God created the birds of the sky and the fishes of the sea. It was into this earth that God created man. We call the first man Adam. When God created man he created Him with one unique quality. He gave man free will, a will to choose what to do.
God loved His creation. He loved Adam and mankind too. God desired that man would choose to love God with his own free will. God forbade Adam and his companion, the woman to eat from the tree of  knowledge of Good and Evil. This was because if they ate from this tree God knew that from that moment on they would have to use their free will to decide and differentiate between good and evil every second of the day. Every decision would become difficult as we can well see in our own day to day life--we are confronted with the truth that our conscience presents to us and the evil that is often neccesary to get ahead in life.
But God also knew that if Man of His own free will choose to obey Gods commands, then he would always be able to walk in the presence of God in paradise. God also desired that the love man would have for God would be the light that would dispel the darkness of the earth.
But alas it was not to be.
Satan knew that man loving His God and submitting to the will of the Father would bring about satans destruction. So he used his innate cunning to get man to disobey God. As a result they had to be banished from paradise. 

Why a blog

I have started writing many books over the past several years, but have never gotten beyond the first few pages. I've always loved transcribing my thoughts to words and somewhere along the way I came to realise that time pressures, family resposibilities and my innate nature all combined means I may never ever get beyond a first chapter of my first book. So this is mainly why I started blogging--to transcribe my thoughts and inspirations into words and share them.

WHY THIS BLOG?
Simple answer - I love my Father very much, feel like I am living in heaven when I am with Him, and wish others too may come to realise how simple life and religion can really be.

Being the Light

I feel that I have had a privileged upbringing. The term 'privilege' that I use has nothing to do with anything remotely monetary. It purely alludes to my perception of fortune that i associate with being born into a family who were Christians and who knew enough of God to show me through their lives that he is the answer to every prayer.
Having been born to this privilege, and after years of navigating life with and without this God,I have come to the conclusion that each man is destined and duty bound to be the light that he can be, to those around us who may not be as fortunate to be born into a privileged background such as I have described.