Born Once Die Twice; Born Twice Die Once

Hello dear readers. I guess my posts are benefiting you guys is some way. So this time I was thinking about what to write as I was walking to my college and then suddenly I remembered an incident happened months back. I named this incident as "Life Changing". It happened unexpectedly that one of my close brother's (brother in Christ) dad passed away. He passed away due to some unexpected heart problem. As I was there for the funeral and burial, my whole concept of looking at life changed. It is common to people who attend these kind of occasions but it was different in the sense that I see what people actually reflected on the one who died. The goods and bads were made transparent that day. But it wasn't that which made me write this but it was the next day. During the burial, a normal service took place with Pastor giving his warm message to those who lost their loved one. After the ceremony, another Pastor (Pastor Abraham) quoted this statement "Born once, die twice; Born twice, die once". I don't know whether he knew how deep it could mean but it was a deep quote. I decided to write about it today.

     I see that many or almost three quarter of us get the concept of baptism pretty shallow or some even so inaccurate. Before I was saved, I hardly found the logic behind this sacred ceremony. I ridiculed baptism and in fact, I took it just to shut my mom's nag about my conversion. But from that day on I made a point to know what it meant completely to value my salvation. I hear people ask and say:

a) Ok, I believe in Jesus and I will pray and obey to all what He said but I don't want to baptize.

b) I am a born Christian. My parents are Christians and so why do I need baptism?

c) Why do we need to baptize? 

etc.

     It is pretty simple actually. Baptism is not an act of tradition but a symbol of acceptance and repentance. Ok now first let us see the first part of the title "Born once die twice". Every single living being on Earth born once. That is a common thing and we also know what when there is something called birth, there is definitely something called death. And one day we will die; this is certainly accepted by all levels of humanity and creatures. But The Holy Bible says in Revelations 2:11, Revelations 20:6 & 14 and Revelations 21:8 that those who are not born in Christ will suffer Second Death. What is Second Death? We human are made up of Body, Spirit and Soul. Since the fall of due to the disobedience of the First Man Adam, we have lost our spirit and lived like animals. Thats why we hardly see any difference between man and animal in earliest time frames. When the soul departs from the body, technically when we die, body rots to dust and soul goes either to Hell or Heaven depending on the deeds. Since man naturally sin, it is almost impossible for any soul to enter Heaven. And so when we die without being saved, we suffer death on Earth and also in Hell eternally. It is said that in Hell, we have double the senses we have now and so a prick can cause pain as much as a stab. 

     Now going to the second part of the title "Born twice, die once". As told before, it almost impossible for any man to enter Heaven. So God being aware of this, came down as man like us to suffer the world's sin once shot on the cross, dying to defeat the Death and Hades and finally rising to Glory, He opened a chance for us to enter Heaven. To assure that our Body and Soul doesn't adapt with the corrupted nature again, He gave us His Holy Spirit to have governance over the two elements and to drive us close to perfection in order to be worthy of His Kingdom. Now we don't live bodily but we are given Spirit to live spiritually. But though the door to Heaven is now open, there are some rules and methods to enter it. It is very logical for these rules to exist because even in today's world, you can't enter another country just like that. So, the rules are simple. We need to live a renewed life and live as Holy as possible. It can be only done with the help of The Counselor- The Holy Spirit. So why baptism? Baptism is simply an act of imitation and acceptance of what Christ has done for us on the Cross. We go down into the water with all our corrupt nature, lust, greed and sinful characters symbolizing all the agony Christ suffered on the Cross to defeat those sins. And when we rise up again, it symbolized His resurrection after having complete control over Sin and Death. We also rise up as a New Man (A New Birth) accepting the salvation from God through Christ to get away from all our past sins. 

     This act is important because it is like we celebrate birthdays to remember that we were born on that day and we are of some age during that time. Similarly, baptism symbolizes our crucifixion along with our sins like Christ and our resurrection as a new creation as Christ. It is not religious act but it is a spiritual act. After this baptism, your body and soul will be totally controlled by God Himself to be guided in the path of life. But it doesn't end there. We see in The Book of Acts that they were baptized in Holy Spirit. That was what John said about Jesus. He will baptize us in Fire and Spirit. So water baptism washes away our bodily sins and entitles us for the Salvation of Christ. After being completely cleansed, The Holy Spirit falls on and in us to remain with us to help us live in this corrupted world and to guide us to be worthy of Eternal Life. The Baptism of Holy Spirit is a topic by its own and I will certainly write about it in another blog. As for baptism, this is it. 

     When we are born once (from mother's womb), We die twice (Death and Hell);

     When we are born twice (from mother's womb and baptism), We die once (Death).

The Fruit of Baptism is Eternal Life with God. 

   

"I am Thirsty"- A global thirst for redemption of souls.

Hello everybody! It has been pretty long since I had consistent timing to post on my blog. But the delay will never fade the propagation of this blog. So now God gave me this title to write about and it all started fortnight before when I attended an Indian Classical Music Workshop by Sound of Grace. They were remarkable in their game of instruments. But I noticed that they wrote a song specially for Malaysian visit and they named it "I am thirsty". The troop leader explained it as it was one of the last statements of Christ on the cross before He commended His spirit. I realized that this title has so much depth theologically. And I decided to elaborate further from where they stopped.

We are going to see the depth of these words based on 2 passages in The Holy Bible:
a) John 19:28
b) John 4 (Samaritan Woman)

I believe that many have written and talked about this topic even before decades but God might speak something new to different people. Ok now these words of "I am Thirsty" can be divided into 2 purposes of being said. John says in 19:28 that Jesus said that in accordance of fulfilling the foretold prophecies. And we are also going to look at it as a thirst for global redemption of souls.

We can see that Jesus hardly requested or asked anything from the people or His disciples throughout His ministry. He asked for their complete commitment and divine discipline. Apart from that there is no record that He actually asked for food, money, water etc for Himself. But in these contexts, we see Jesus requesting for something for Himself, outwardly. But actually they don't mean as it's seen. 

Jesus was terribly whipped, spat on, stripped, hated, dismayed, tortured under the scorching hot sun without any food or water given. He was subjected to what we call the extreme pre-cruxifixion torture. In other words, if we were there in His place, we would have died even before getting crucified. Because we have no need to be crucified as we know we are going to die. But Jesus had to hold on to His last breath till all the nails have gone through His nerves and veins. Was it because of this He was thirsty? 

If you get a chance to watch The Passion of Christ, we see that Jesus (Mel Gibson) say that He was thirsty but when He was offered some sour wine, He refused to take it. Its because that wasn't what He thirsted for. Looking at John 4(Samaritan woman), we again see that Jesus here asking for water from a Samaritan woman. This context is an exemplary for evangelism. He asked her for water but ended up doing evangelism by turning the whole village to the knowledge of salvation. When the Samaritan woman ran into the village to tell about Jesus, Jesus refused to eat or drink with His disciples because He said He has divine work to do. It is quite obvious that Jesus did not ask for water literally but the thirst here is a symbolic display of thirst for souls. 

So on the cross, being completely stripped, knowing that He has to give up His life, Jesus thirsted for the redemption of His children. He knew that all the sufferings He went through will lay down as a foundation to redeem the lost souls. His thirst is great and as an effort to quench His thirst, He gave up His life to redeem our lives. Mark 14:25 says that Jesus said He will never drink wine again until He drinks it new in the kingdom of God. It means He renewed the covenant and stretched Himself on the cross so that he could quench His thirst once for all by redeeming us. 

When we thirst, we will turn the whole world upside down to get some water. Similarly, He is The Creator, so He turned the world Right Side Up to quench His thirst for souls. Now we as His redeemed nation, are we having the same thirst as He had? Are we ready to go through times of trouble out of our comfort zone to quench His thirst? Or are we waiting down the street seeing lives perish in vanity and emptiness?

DECIDE FOR THE LORD IS COMING SOON!

Anointing The Anointed...Part 3

Judas's Response

In John 12:4-5, author John has clearly and distinctively showed and explained Judas's response and his intention on what he said;

4 But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii[a] and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.
John 12:5
New King James Version 

John clearly explains the raw intentions of Judas before and after Judas responded to ensure that the readers don't get confused. But if John had not explained the intention of Judas in verse 6, how do we differentiate between good intentions or greed in the face of good intentions? In other words, how John would have discerned that Judas was not telling that in a genuine manner?

Looking at the event and Judas response, it didn't seem shocking because the perfume was very expensive to be poured indeed. He even justified that the money from the trade of the perfume can be used for charity purposes. Wasn't that what Jesus always taught and preached? Even I would have supported Judas at that moment if I didn't know how to discern the magnitude of sincerity and genuineness in one's response.


Now let us see some examples and try to relate it to this scenario in the hope that we learn something from here. Why is this clear view of charity and "in the mask of charity" important is that, in today's world we see many Judas kind of people doing charity but we don't have Johns to explain and reveal them. So we are left undecided and some even trust their outward good looks and get cheated. So let us once for all clear this out? 

How to know whether Judas was genuine is his response or not?

2 years ago, when I was still a non-believer, I had a chance to see a movie titled "3 Idiots". It was a Hindi movie starred by Amir Khan and it was well received by most non-indians. Now why am I saying this? There was one scene in that movie where Amir Khan will ask Kareena Kapoor to think wisely before getting married to her fiancée because he was a "price tag"; meaning money concerned guy. So Amir tested it out to Kareena by spilling the Pudina Chutney on his new shoes. When it spilt, he screamed shouting the price of the shoes in public remarking how expensive it was to be a plate for pudina chutney. Hahah! Let's not get carried away. That was in the movie. I took this example because in today's world we do see many scenarios like this. Lets analyse it slowly. There could have been 2 kinds of response when the chutney was spilt:
a) Oh my God! My shoes! There are so precious to me. I just bought it.
b) Oh my God! My shoes! It costed RM1000.

Now what's the difference between both the scenarios? Event A shows that the guy was more concerned about the shoes rather than the money and that is why we see more emphasize was on shoes in his cry. Event B however shows that the person had more concern for the money rather than the shoes itself. Is it getting clearer? What people mention first are the basic and most fundamental state of mind of theirs. This is called basic deduction from a psychological view.

In Judas's case, he responded by stating the Value of the item first before justifying it later by saying that it can be used for charity. He even stated the exact amount . This clearly shows that he was not satisfied that such costly item being wasted away in that process but he was more interested in making money out of it but to make him travel is a safe boat, he added the glimpse of charity in it. This was how his raw intentions came to light.

In today's world we see many charitable events are being performed by all parties. But how far they are done with concern and sincerity we do not know. They might do it with great love like Mother Theressa or might be even another modern day Judas. I myself have seen many charities are done in expectation of something in return like maybe votes, support, popularity etc. Jesus did not teach us to do charity this way. He said let not our left hand know what our right hand does. Keep it down and do it big. People nowadays even reaching to the extent of publishing their charities in websites, papers, news etc. I won't deny that many NGO's today are silently helping out many, let it be Christian or Non-Christian organization for our God is one, Lord Jesus. So, He promised that whatever good deeds we perform in silent, He shall reward us in public. 

So my brethren, live to do good in the sight of The Lord and glorify His name till the last breath of our lives.
AMEN!

Anointing The Anointed...Part 2

The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil

We clearly saw the chain of events and their significant meanings in the last part. Now we see that author John goes on to describe the scenario at the moment as; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Now thanks to John who enables us to imagine what happened there that time with some really good illustrations. But here, we see that John emphasizes on this wonderful event of fragrance overwhelming the house. Following the lovely scene of Mary anointing Jesus' feet, this event took place. I call this a picture perfect moment.

But why was this so important the John had to say it in the midst of other important events happened concurrently? It was because "It wasn't the fragrance alone that filled the house but the Glory of God covered the place because He sensed a pure and loving heart in Mary". When the most expensive perfume was poured on His feet, all the people felt fascinated and humbled with the love of Mary towards Christ and it was expressed better along with the filling of the wonderful fragrance of that oil throughout the house.

Jesus' said in another context we are supposed to be lights to the world; shining in all dark places showing the glory of God and the power of redemption. All these are possible only when you are truly free and saved by Jesus Christ. Similarly, this event from The Bible teaches us one major thing. What is that?

When we lay down all our best; in time, money, effort, love, care, devotion, commitment etc at His feet, this humility shall cause the Fragrance of Christ in you to fill the place you stay, work, study or go. Put everything you have at His feet and you shall see that others will experience Christ through you. Fragrance of Christ means the resemblance of Christ through you. Don't ever think that your talents, education or popularity shall help God in His marvellous plan of Redemption but know that when you lay it down at His feet, He shall multiply all that you have in a way you can never expect. So, not for our name or fame but His name shall be glorified.  

Anointing The Anointed One...Part 1

Hello dear readers, I have continuously been unsystematic in updating my blogs but here I would like to share something new again. As usual, I was following up with Pastor's sermon in Sunday service and it encircled Judas, The Betrayer. As I was reading the context given, I had a thought of writing it in a different way. 

Lets now see the context from John 12:3-5 and this would be the foundation of this post.

We are going to see several aspects of how it unfolds by dividing the passage into 3 parts:
a) Mary took an expensive fragrant oil to anoint Jesus's feet.
b) The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil
c) Judas's response

Mary took an expensive fragrant oil to anoint Jesus's feet

We see that Mary anointed Jesus's feet with an expensive oil. How we know how expensive it was? Ok Bible never leaves us questioning and so it answers our doubts through Judas's response saying that it was worth 300 denarii and it was actually about one year's wages for a worker. If it was taken to match recent days, an average wage for a normal worker is about RM800 per month. For a year, it will total up to RM800 x 12 = RM9600. It is just a calculation for least case and we know that nowadays average wage can go up to RM1000 a month. But it doesn't matter, almost RM10000 worth oil poured on His feet just like that. No wonder Judas fell back with great shock! I would have rolled on the floor asking her whether she was mad.

But lets look at it properly. She did that because that was the highest value of appreciation she could offer for saving her beloved brother's life. She knew Jesus worth more than that but that's the much she had. The money that was saved for sustenance of their lives was spent at His feet. This shows that she wholly believed that He is more than sufficient to sustain her life and not the money. She praised Him with all she had. That's what I call a serious Worship!

But it must have been the Best Perfume at that time because it costed up to RM10,000. Jesus deserves your best and not the alternative. Even The Best, when you humble it down to His feet, it touches His heart more than anything. It is not necessarily a perfume or money. It can be your dedication, worship, praise, thanksgiving and adoration. In all manner give Him your best. He deserves it!

Ladies treasure their hair the most more than anything in the world. Mary wiped the feet of Jesus that was anointed with perfume with her HAIR! I was like what? Didn't she manage to find a towel or something? But it alarmed me something else. Woman who takes best care of her hair wiped One's feet showing great reverence and superiority He has. In front of Him, all the best shall be least and all the least shall be the best. Secondly, Jesus has said before in His messages that when you put your trust in Him, not one strand of your hair shall be moved. He also says that all our hairs are numbered. So it means He has great care for us even in a minute thing. So wiping His feet with hair symbolizes a gratitude for His great Care and Love for us.

Wow! It is just one part and so much to talk about. So in the next posts we shall see further on the next divisions of the context!

Amen.

My Anchor of Hope

                                              

Hello readers, how are you all? So this is once in a blue moon where I get to post something in the midnight. So what is this post all about? I always wanted to write about it but thanks to a Christian song on highlighting it out to me.

Yes it is all about The Anchor of Hope. We often, knowing and unknowingly, refer to Jesus as The Anchor of Hope. I wondered why and as usual it led me to a beautiful revelation of whom He was. I really feel blessed to share this in my blog. Let's systemically see how to opens up from the very basic understanding of an Anchor.

Wikipedia defines Anchor as a instrument that is used to hold a boat or ship from drifting away. While in normal words we can say that an anchor is used to station a ship or a boat. Based on my knowledge so far, I have listed down the basic facts of an anchor. I believe there are plenty more.

Facts of Anchor:
a) A tool to hold an object from drifting away
b) Though it holds the boat in place, the boat still moves to and fro, propagates.
c) It enables the process of loading and unloading to take place.
d) It has to go down to make sure the boat stays up safe and stable.

Lets see how it applies to the term Anchor of Hope. We need to understand the symbolic meaning of some terms before we can see further. Boat here refers to the hope and Anchor as Jesus.

a)  A tool to hold an object drifting away

Jesus is referred as The Anchor of Hope. Like the anchor holds the boat from drifting away, Jesus holds us with His Gracious Love from drifting away to the tragic pathway of the world. His love is more than enough for us to survive in this world. Once we believe in Him, or like the boat trusts the anchor, He shall hold us tight in the stormy, tragic and disastrous world. 


b) Though it holds the boat in place, the boat still moves to and fro, propagates.

We often see that boat on shore doesn't really stay stationary. It propagates to and fro due to the wavy sea waves. But no matter what, it has its limits and shall return back to position being pulled by the force of the anchor. Similarly, Jesus being our Anchor of Hope, might seem silent in some issues causing us to doubt our hope in Him and start to drift away little from the true path. We might seem like going very much away from safety and comfortability but when we allow it to happen and keep calm and also trust in Him, we shall definitely come back to safer and stable position because Jesus is a Restoring God. He shall pull us back and keep us stable in our life and problems.

c) It enables the process of loading and unloading to take place.

So this is mere common sense. The boat needed to be anchored in the shore to enable it to be loaded and unloaded or else it might be almost impossible to do it. Similarly, when we stay calm relying on Him as our Anchor of Hope, though it might seem a little unstable, but it the most ideal position to load and unload data. Data is refers to a massive amount of matters. Namely blessings and curses, good names and bad names, love and hatred, etc. A boat has to be unloaded first to be loaded with newer goods. So negative gets unloaded and positive gets loaded when we have complete hope and trust in Him.


d) It has to go down to make sure the boat stays up safe and stable.

Finally, the anchor has to be thrown down to enable the safe and stable position of the boat. Without it being thrown down, it is impossible to station a boat. So, Jesus was thrown, rejected and crucified for our sins and trespassing when then He rose to defeat Death and have complete control over the universe. So now being the Cornerstone and Foundation as well as Anchor of Hope, Jesus is able to hold onto us from drifting, toppling and sinking. He went Down and Rose Up to make sure we always stay Up.


These are some of the reasons we call Him The Anchor of Hope. He is the Only One who is completely reliable and trustworthy. With Him beside, our boat shall not be moved. 
MY REDEEMER LIVES.
Take Care. 

Cheated? Trust me, it is temporary..

     So yeah today is 6th May 2013 and I am certainly writing this after Malaysia's Historical Election Day. Many speculations, events and activities took place on this day that stirred up most Malaysians even to this morning. I am supportive towards better Malaysia and so I practically got angry as well as upset with so much of unjust around me.
     Since this is not a political blog, I am not going to comment on any parties or candidates, though I wish to. But reviewing what happened yesterday, I can't stand it, I need to write it out. So it happened in front of my eyes. Biased, unjust, one-sided, democratic failure etc all took place at once. I felt so cheated and heartbroken of the incident yesterday. We all know who supposed to win and we all know who won. 
     I couldn't take it and at one point I started questioning God on why such things happen? So practically let's see what Bible has to add to this situation. It is very important for us to reflect back everything to The Bible because Nothing happens without His knowledge. If He knew it and it happened, there must be a reason or similar events in The Bible as well.
     Looking back in the Old Testament, I realised that so many injustice and cruelty have taken place and God might seem silent about that matter but finally we can see what was His reaction. Firstly, in the case of Jacob. Jacob was a prophetic child who was well pleased by his parents. But he had an elder brother and we know that olden tradition suggests that oldest son gets twice the property and they have certain specialities. Esau, the elder brother being exposed to this was willing to sell his birthright to Jacob for a small issue. Rather than looking that way, Jacob cleverly pushed Esau to such situation to buy his birthright. Jacob indirectly cheated his brother. He went on to act as Esau to his old and eye-blurred father to obtain the fullest blessing and older son's specialities. So, Jacob cheated his father as well.
     But God rather seemed silent in this two occasions permitting it to take place. I wondered why? But reading on further gave me a clearer picture of what God intended to do. He needed Jacob to accomplish His plans and He didn't want Jacob's shortcoming to delay His plans. But once His plans are done, Jacob's attitude and his mastermind in cheating gets its reward. Jacob was cheated by his father-in-law on giving his daughter for marriage, Jacob was cheated by his wife and worst still his son defiled Jacob's bed. 
     God never lets anyone or any sin unpunished. They have got to meet their reactions of what they did so that they can learn how others felt when it initially took place. In our country, we might feel that people have got cheated, they have been snatched off of their democracy or even our country is doomed. We might also feel that God is rather silent on this issue.
    But Bible teaches us that all this are allowed to happen for a moment and for a purpose. Job says God's plan can never be stopped or delayed by anyone, absolutely anyone. So as true Malaysians, we should not loose hope. What happened yesterday might be temporary necessary to bring His plan to come to pass and then we shall see His true reward for those who have 'sincerely' participated in the General Election.
     Bible says what we declare by our mouth, He shall make it come to pass. Don't loose hope and say negative words. Say positive words and encourage others to keep fighting to transform this country to a better Malaysia. Besides, there are many events in The Bible that might give us some inspiration in this time of let down. More to come and stay tuned.

God says My plans are to prosper you and not harm you. So why worry?
Keep calm and Pray Hard!
God Bless.