How to Live as a Christian - PART 3

                               Hi everybody, Well....Today again I've come up with the continuation post of the previous two posts of mine. We've been meditating on the book of James each chapter by chapter. And today I'm here to throw some of the seeds of the fruits given in James Chapter 3. I'll straightly go into our content of this chapter.

CONTROLLING THE THINGS WE SAY (James 3:1-12)

                                You know which is really the most dangerous risky part of our body? hands? feet? head? eyes????...... No, here in this passage, James clearly points out that its nothing but the 'Tongue'. The first verse itself starts with a warning to all those who are to become teachers that they should be even more careful and cautious than others since they and their actions and deeds would watched more by others and judged strictly. He emphasises this saying that they have to be more careful about their words that come out of their tongue. Here, he quotes the examples of horse and ship regarding the control of the tongue. Our tongue seems to be a small part of the body, but it has the capability to push us into destruction and spoil our entire life from being holy. The prophet James compares our tongue to the forest fire, which can spread to large areas and cause great devastating effects. He says that, we, humans can't able to tame our tongue since its wild and evil and full of deadly poison (James 3:8).
                               He brings out the reality of mankind so boldly that he says that we use the same tongue to praise and worship the God Almighty as well as to curse the people whom He Himself had created. Doesn't this seem so true and ironic? So, in the verses 10 to 12,he advises that this should never happen, relating this to different scenarios such as good and bad water coming from the same spring and the like.


TRUE WISDOM (James 3:13-18)

                                   This passage of Scripture makes us clear about true wisdom and understanding. The Word of God stress that true wisdom and understanding will be manifested by living right and doing good deeds with a gentleness that comes from wisdom. On the contrary, James speaks about jealousy and selfishness which are the two traits that lead to bragging about a lie hiding the truth. He undoubtedly tells that this kind of wisdom is not from God, but from the world; and it not spiritual, but devilish. Verses 17 and 18 gives us an exact answer about being truly wise, which states that being pure, gentle, peaceful , helpful, fair and honest and the outcomes of original wisdom from God.


So friends, the third chapter of James just teaches us two things : how we should be careful in using our tongue and being true wise with understanding, which guides us to leave a sin-free holy true Christian life. Let us all pray to our God Almighty for giving us the strength, patience and endurance for us to become like His only son Jesus Christ who was a worthy lamb, amidst this sorrowful and sinful world. In my next post, we'll have an outline of the fourth chapter. God Bless You!

                           

How to Live as a Christian - PART 2

                               Hello friends, I've again come up with the continuation of my previous post.....hope you'd have gone through the first chapter of James and contemplated on the underlying spiritual meaning of the facts given in it. Today, let me give a short outline of the second chapter of James and bring out the hidden spiritual fruits of Christian life stated in this chapter.

LOVE ALL PEOPLE (James 2:1-13)

                             Basically, what does the word 'love' mean? What do we think love is? According to my opinion, we, humans, view love as the affection and attachment or even attraction (at the young age) upon a person of our family (may be our parents or siblings) or else, on the other side of the coin, the feeling which comes upon a person whom we establish a liking at a starting point (mainly due to the attraction aroused in our minds due to their physical appearance, gestures or due to their effective flattering speech) which then develops into our hearts as a so-called feeling 'love'. But....friends.....is this really love all about? Is this the kind of love that our God Almighty and the Son of God, Jesus Christ also had upon the people? No...Its not!
                            What the Scripture says, especially in this passage of James is the unconditional love or the compassion or in other words, the unprejudiced affection and concern that we ought to have upon our fellow human beings, regardless of their race, status, creed, colour, physical appearance or any other such earthly attributes. Yes....it clearly pictures a scenario in the church service...how we treat a poor man in contrary to a rich man with a rich look. If we really look deeply into our hearts and self-analyse ourselves, tis is the reality folks....This is how we really are...... But the Word of God clearly and strictly warns that if we continue to be like these kind of human beings without a single trace of real love in our heart, we aren't going to inherit His kingdom, for sure! ((James 2:2-7)
                           James also quotes the main law found in our Scriptures from the Old Testament, "Love your neighbour, as you love yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), saying that, if we just obey this law, we are doing right or we're living a right kind of Christian living in this world. Basically, what He tries to emphasise into our minds is that, when we treat one person important than the other for no reason, we're truly sinning and are made guilty of obeying God's Law. Most importantly, the Ten Commandments or the Laws that our Father had taught us MUST be followed for us to be made free under His law. Its not that following all of them but leaving only one for granted.. So, as Christians, we are bound to show mercy upon others so that Our God will show His mercy upon us on the Judgement day....Tats it!!

FAITH AND GOOD WORKS (James 2:14-26)

                                        Already we came across 'faith' in James Chapter 1. But now, I would like to raise a question to you....... Is it enough that we sit still having lot of faith and doing nothing? is it ok? will we be rewarded by God for that? No frnzzz...... if there is real faith stirring up within our hearts, it will surely be manifested by our deeds.... I mean...our good works and actions in our lives that makes us right with our God. What James states is, having faith without doing anything is worth nothing...nothing! He says a beautiful example for this about a person without any food or clothes coming to us stating his/her problem. At this juncture, if we say plainly, "God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat" without offering him his needs, what is that faith useful for? its just a dead one! (James 2:15-17)

                                      Everyone have belief and faith....but showing it in deeds is the true way of living in faith on God. At this point, James ridicules us to be a foolish person having faith alone, doing nothing. The best person who's been taken as best example for living by faith is Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, having complete extraordinary faith in the Almighty. If you read James 2:23, it clearly refers the Scripture about the faith of Abraham from Genesis 15:6, and so he was called God's friend (2Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8)

                                    So, the simple point that we ought to notice here is that, just as a body without spirit is dead, so is faith without doing anything!(James 2:26)

Beloved in Christ, these are the two main virtues that are being focussed by James in his second chapter regarding the journey of our life as Christians on this earth. Just what we have to do is, have a look into ourselves and examine our conscience how we are really to the core..... Do we have the real love and compassion that Jesus pursued in His life or the worldly fake ones? Do our faith really accompany with good works or only by fashionable words? Come on frnz....let us transform us into worthy Christians before God's sight. I'll come up with the spiritual jewels of third Chapter of James soon.....!

How to Live as a Christian - PART 1

                              Last week fully I was completely going through the book of James in the Bible, where there are five whole chapters written by James, a servant of God, whose teachings were fully concentrated on how we should lead our life as true Christians. I found it really very useful for the growth of my spiritual life as well as I felt that it guided me perfectly how to have my life in this world. So, just thought of sharing with everybody and  I've started this spiritual post as 'part 1' dividing my posts into five parts, each explaining the five individual chapters of James. Hope it would be useful for you too...:-)

FAITH AND WISDOM (James 1:2-8)

                      First of all, the first thing that James speaks about is 'Faith'. What is faith? Faith is actually the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing. So, as Christians, first and foremost we have to place our complete trust and faith in the Almighty that He'll deliver us from all kinds of troubles and tribulations of this world. It simply implies that we should always be filled with joy and happiness inspite of the tough times we may go through in our journey of life, having strong faith in the Lord because these difficulties test our faith and patience and we should prove ourselves to God, our Savior. The next thing is about wisdom which is an important trait that we ought to pursue for withstanding in this deceiving world. So, we need to ask God for gifting us wisdom and when we ask, we should not doubt. Verses 6-8 clearly states about the doubters.


TRUE RICHES (James 1:8-11)

                           These four verses clearly depict that a person is said to be rich before God's eyes only if he's 'spiritually' rich and not the earthly riches. True riches and pride lies only with the person who's spiritual enough, pleasing God.


TEMPTATION IS NOT FROM GOD (James 1:14-18)

                            This is a very important area that we have to focus on..... Even in our personal lives, we have the habit of blaming God saying,"God is tempting me" when we're facing tough challenges in life. No...Never...my dear friend...The Word of God clearly states that, "Every good action and every perfect gift is from God."(James 1:17). It is we, sinners, who are to be blamed for our own temptation and evil desires that trap us, leading to sin and consequently death.(James 1:13-15). So, hereafter, when we are facing temptation or trials or tribulations or whatever worse may be, when we stand strong in the faith and continue to be happy, God will reward us with a good life forever.... Let us stop rebuking Him for our own mistakes!


 LISTENING AND OBEYING (James 1:19-25)  

                            In all these verses, James teaches us how we should be....I mean...how should our character be. The main thing that is emphasised is that we should be willing to listen and slow to speak. (which is actually very tought for us...isn't it??). Also, 'anger' is also to be controlled by us, since the Bible clearly says that, if its present, it will not leave us to live the right kind of  life that God wants. (James 1:20). When I was reading this verse, I really got a guilty feeling and felt that I should atleast try to control the feelings of anger step-by-step, in the future. Its clearly stated that, so we should leave all these evil things and characters aside and in 'GENTLENESS'  accept God's teachings which is powerful to save us. 
                          All of us listen to the sermons and messages through church services, television programmes and so on. But, How many of us obey, follow and live accordingly? A matter to think over and over....Am I right? Yes friends, the Word of God warns us saying that when you listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. Instead, we have to OBEY the truth and follow it in our lives. (James 1:22-25)


THE TRUE WAY TO WORSHIP GOD (James 1:26-27)  

                               Finally, this chapter conveys a simple message in these two verses. People who say that they are religious and do evil actions and deeds are just fools....tats it! Their so-called 'Religion' is an utter waste. The true religion and worship that God accepts is, being pure, keeping ourselves free from this world's evil influences. (James 1:27)          


My beloved friends in Christ, what I've posted is just a brief explanation of the first chapter of James in a nutshell. If you had gone through my post, side-by-side referring the Scripture, it would have been more useful for you...I guess! So, let us all strive to live as true worthy Christians in this fake world... I'll come up with the facts of the second chapter of James soooon..............................!

The Significance of Daily Skin Care Regimen

                                Today am here with a different kinda topic to share with. Yes...have you ever wondered or admired your own personality...I mean....your physical appearance....especially your SKIN? You know how God created us soo soooo beautiful with a soft and smooth skin? Jus remember your soft shiny smoooooth velvetty, feather-touch skin which you had the time when you landed on this earth right away from your mother's womb :-). But how many of us have tat same kind of skin that we had while we were a baby....tat flawless clear skin! The make-up pasted groomed skin cannot be compared in any way near to that fresh skin without any cosmetics, right? Why is it so? Why most of us do not possess a healthy skin? I have the answer for that. Its just because of our mistake tat we do not care and maintain our skin so much(in the right way) as we grow up. We do not give the importance to skin that we give for other needs for our body. Skin is a very important part in the body and its high time tat we realize it and give a delicate sensible care for it. I'll jus give simple ways to take care of our skin on a daily basis so that it doesn't loses its natural texture even as years go.....

 
To start with, first of all we all have to get aware of our skin, its importance and its functions. Our skin is the one which covers and protects our entire body. It gives shape and its the main reason behind our solid physical appearance that we've got. The fuctions of skin are numerous that they can't be fully explained here but the point that I mean to insist is that its the one which is the basic outward factor for others to determine and manipulate us. (I mean....the one which is the main source of first impression). Basically, a truth is, when our skin is flawless and looks shiny, tat itself manifests the physical and mental wellness of an individual. So, see how important it is!!!
                       

Since I'm a person who's a lil' bit beauty-conscious, I have a good idea about the daily care and maintenance that normally our skin ought to have and I'll share some of my ideas which are useful for you too :P. Here they come...................................


*  The basic and vital requirement that all of ours' skin need is the nourishment in the form of cleansing, toning and moisturising. Always application of a good quality cleanser, toner and moisturiser at night before going to bed serves to be an excellent skin food which helps to keep your skin not losing it moisture and natural texture, thereby prevents aging.


*  Avoid soap since it creates dryness on the skin. Use only facewash for face.


*  The greatest mistake that most of us commit is improper make-up removal which is the main reason for many of the skin disorders and imperfections. Always remove the make-up completely and neatly using a cleanser before going to bed.


*  The best and the foremost beauty tip that I would always recommend is, drink plenty and plenty of water as much as you can. Also, maintain a balanced diet which also has a greatest influence on our skin.


*  Sleep is one of the most vital one which is required for a beautiful skin. When there is inadequate sleep, our eyes display our sleepless nights through puffiness and under-eye dark circles which completely erase a face's beauty. You can apply eye cream at night before going to bed as a prevention for under-eye dark circles. After all, eyes are the most expressive and beautiful aspect of our face, they reveal everything!


*  Above all, as I have said earlier, our mind and physical appearance always have a contact with each other. So, maximum try to keep your mind in a normal state inspite of all the difficulties and problems that we encounter in life. Prayer is the only way for this. Pray to God earnestly, start your day after having an encounter with Him. Cast all your burdens upon the Lord and become free. He'll take care of everything. When our mind is completely depressed and stressed, surely whatever cosmetics you use, your face will be dull and it shows your mental illness. Another antidote for this is practice of yoga also. Always keep your mind into your control.


*  Grooming is always necessary in this polluted unclean enviroment. Therefore, a monthly facial at a good beauty parlour is always recommended which provides a relaxation as well as a rejuvenation for your skin. Moreover, there's no wrong in trimming your eyebrows and keeping them neat and clean which enhances the  features of your face.


*  Light make-up when you step out of ur home is always advisable. Eventhough natural beauty is good, this kinda little grooming shows freshness and adds beauty to your naturally beautiful face.


*  Moreover, weekly once its good if you do some steaming (opens the pores of your skin), scrubbing ( gets rid of dead cells and blackheads) and apply some natural face pack on your face and wash your face. Since its not affordable for all to always visit a parlour and treat their skin, the best way is to go in the way of natural home remedies which are very effective and long-lasting too.


*  Application of sunscreen when going out is necessary to protect yourself from the adverse effects of UV-rays.

                              These are some of the skin care activities that are necessary to practise which, when done, helps to preserve our precious skin getting affected by the well-known skin disorders such as tanning, pigmentation, pimples and acne, dryness, blemishes, blackheads and whiteheads, wrinkles and scars. For more home-made beauty tips, click this.
                             Finally, what I'd like to say is, beauty is not something which is related to the outward appearance alone, its a combination of inner as well as outer beauty. So, however we maintain and groom our face, its very necessary to keep up with our inner character too. B'coz  people admire only when you are a perfect blend of inner and outward beauty, and not in the presence of only the outer appearance. Other than that, its good to maintain your skin too and look awesome and young forever so that you'll gain more self-confidence, which is one of the most important criteria to be a successful person in lyf :-)
                           There is one beauty tip incomparable to any other, which is none other than...........
                            SMILE............It makes you pretty!                             

What is LOVE all about.....???

Immature love says, “I love you because I need you.” Mature love says, “I need you because I love you.”
~Erich Fromm

                                        This whole week..... wherever I go, its like Valentine's day special....gifts, roses, teddies and the list goes on.................. So, I thought that the concept of  Lover's day has gained that much importance universally that people make this day as something part of their lives. Yes...tats ok...but still my only doubt is whether they really mean the exact 'purpose' of the day and whether tat purpose is served or not..... Is valentine's day just a means of  entertainment or enjoyment with 'tat special someone' or is it a day that gives an opportunity to express your love to your soul-mate in an exact way that you wanted to? Is there a necessity for something like this day? 

                                     I wonder whether nowadays people, especially the adolescent boys and girls really understand the meaning of love or is it something like a means of 'timepass' for them. Wherever we turn about, we can see young boys and girls going together while cutting their classes and jus passing their precious time like tat, in an young age where they can accomplish great things in their life. But actually, according to me, what they think and do lyk tis at this age is not love but it can be mentioned with some other words like infatuation, attraction, lust and so on....Yes, its b'coz of their age and the physical and psychological hormone changes in their body that make them go into something like love affairs ( puppy love) which is so childish, ruining their entire future and career. 

                                  Ok...then if this is so, what is 'true love' all about? I donno to give poetic or cinematic definitions like "love is like the sky,stars..." and so on.... But when thinking practically, this is a gist of what I got exactly in ma mind abt the word 'love' : 

Love....I mean, the love which blossoms between a young man and woman can be held on till their death only if its a sensible and matured one unlike the other attractions and infatuations. Maybe, the physical attractions and appearances may be the first step to start a love relationship between two souls, but this factor is only a temporary thing and with this attraction and desire alone a love relationship can't last at all. In my opinion, a true love is the one which doesn't gets break-up at ANY situation in life other than one of the persons' death. So, literally, if we deeply think about this statement, it becomes possible and true only when both of them mutually have the same feelings and understanding and sharing for each other, right? not in a one-sided manner. Without knowing this fact, I feel pity for so many young souls, who fall in love with someone in an one-sided manner and go on lamenting and go into other unwanted habits, mistaking it as true love. So, basically, if its love, it MUST be double-sided to be a successful one. Some of the attributes of love that flashes into my mind currently are 'giving and taking' attitude, care, affection, being supportive, admiring, appreciating, missing, liking, being faithful and truthful, transparency, sharing and so on.... In a nutshell, perfect love is something like loving and accepting and liking the other person as a whole with all of their imperfections. After all, no man in this world is perfect! Also, a pair can lead their life successfully only when they are always in phase with each other, in the sense that, they are compatible and comfortable with each other. It is the only key for a peaceful, life-long love life. Whatever it be, my entire idea of love is simply, 
"Love after marriage is only true love and nothing else"....Yes, before marriage I can't accept tat it is love, its something like a liking or attraction towards another person and anybody can go through that....but even that love can be said as a true and genuine one only when it goes on nurturing and budding between the two after wedding as years progress. Now just take a lil' time and think, 'How many of them are like tat??? Why I insist this because, in real life, its after marriage that they go through tough challenges that challenge their true love for each other. It is that period of time when we can see the other person's 'real' and 'true' colour and the challenge about it is, do we continue to love them inspite of their negative characteristics. This is why many love marriages end in a break-up since the couple who love dearly before marriage fail to love each other after marriage. Then what is the use of their love and what is that love that they had? 

                                     So, my conclusion is, I have given my own creation of definition for love which is stated below : 

L - Liking and living for

O - Our

V - Valentine

E - Ever and ever....till our heart stops beating......

so that there is no need for a special day called 'Valentine's day', since each and every day of their life will be cherished as lover's day....................

 Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.  ~Peter Ustinov

DOWRY - payment for a girl's life?????

                                 Since I am a person who had been born and brought up from the Southern part of Tamilnadu in India, it is a place where exists a variety of ethnic customs and traditions accompanied by a conservative kinda people. Though you would have gone through my previous blog posts which pictures most of the beautiful and positive aspects of my place, this time I'm sharing a little bitter truth and information about the people (not the place), which, according to me, is one of the most negative matter I always ponder my mind with. And the thing tat I'm gonna deal with, today is...............of course.........nothing other than the dowry system prevailing here in my place to a very greater extent. 


                               Before going in-depth into my topic, lemme just present an illustration to give a start to it. Just have a look at the two pictures shown below.

Indian bride on her wedding day (before getting married)

A married girl who's tormented for the one and only cause - "Dowry"

                                                         Yes, this is the real portrayal of millions and millions of married girls in India who are going through the rash effects of dowry system. With reference to the two pictures above, when we look at the first picture, its damn cool in the sense that it shows the real 'inside' of the woman....how she feels.......how she enjoys her dreams about her new life. Her whole face is lighted up with extreme happiness and excitement, mainly regarding her soul-mate who's gonna be with her forever. But, on the contrary, when we look at the second one, why??? what happened? where has that blushing face gone? why is the girl's face filled wih 'questions marks' all over her face regarding her life? why??? why???? So many questions can be arised...........The answer?.................The one and only answer is, complete shattering of her dreams. To be more concise, none of her expectations were met in her husband's house. Instead, from the very first day itself, complete package of tortures and torments which were unbearable and shocking that it erased all the happiness in her face into sorrow. The reason behind this??? Dowry............Yes....this is not just a fake or imaginative condition. But, this is really the true harassment that's going on in many ladies' life because of the greediness and cruelty of the bridegroom's family.

                                    I wonder why the people's mentality is like this! Why are girls thought as something which is sold to the bridegroom's family? Isn't she a human being? Doesn't she have any feelings or emotions? Does money and assests and all other materialistic things play an important role in this world than the marriage life which is considered to be so pure? Why is this so? What is this custom? What does property, jewels and money need to make with an entirely different concept of starting a new family life? Are girls that much degradable, cheap and inferior to men? I have many more questions running in my mind...................Feel so pity for ample number of newly married girls who were tormented and chased by their husband and in-laws to get more from their home, as a result of which the daily newspapers get numerous incidents as news where poor, innocent girls commit suicide. Apart from that, the other side is, many of them being murdered for the sake of dowry too. 

                                Here in our district, I've come across, seen and heard about the extreme difficulties that girls face each and everyday because of this dowry harassment. The worst part of this matter is, a woman being an enemy to another woman...the mother-in-laws who make their daughter-in-laws die. But why is this and wats the solution for this? The current situation is , in my opinion, dowry is something which decides the fate of a girl's marriage life. When raking my mind regarding the solution for this, really I can't get a practical answer for this..............The only feeling that I got in my heart was that, when each and every individual take a decision to be against dowry, then that's the time when there will be atleast a tiny start for resolving this problem. But, I am longing for such a period to come in my place when the people become more broad-minded leaving their traditional and conservative thinking. Unless the people come to the ground of humanity, whatever laws or acts our constitution provide would be of no use....I feel!

                               My only desire is that the girls who get married should find their husband's family and house as a Heaven and not as a Hell. But will this current plight of girls change? Will have to wait and see.......
And thats the time I'll feel really happy because really I feel so much bad about this matter......... Always respect a woman and her feelings..............

We must remember that unless and until women are given their rightful place, 

no society or country can progress.
                                   --Prime Minister IK Gujral
                                      On Occasion of India 50

X'Mas 2010 & NewYear 2011 in Nagercoil

                               So, I've given a fresh and hopeful start to this year 2011 and wish that this year will surely be a blessed one. And this is the first post that I'm publishing this year. As I have written many previous blog posts about my hometown Nagercoil, its quite obvious that I always have a zeal to write something abt ma place. And what I'm gonna share today is how was Christmas and New Year celebrated here. This time its gonna be a visual treat since I've taken many snaps exclusively for the sake of this post :-).
                              Basically, an interesting information that I'd lyk to convey is, in the whole state of Tamilnadu, 80% of the christians are residing in Nagercoil, which means that the highly Christian-populated area is our place. Therefore, even as the month of December starts, I get soo excited about x'mas since it will be a really enjoyable celebration. Unlike the X'mas celebrations in the Western countries with snow, candles and Santa, here its a different package of enjoyments like lights, stars, christmas trees, manger, carols, shopping, crackers, family get-togethers, traditional church services and the list goes on like that...............

This is my 'home sweet home'

Magnificient Santa

CSI Home Church ( front view)

Duthie School Junction

State Bank of India, Nagercoil Branch

Side view of another CSI church

Calvary Lutheran Church

Heart of the Town - Tower Junction at its best!

One of my pals' house

                                           I think you'd have enjoyed glancing through ma snaps. Though I was not able to publish all, these are just some of the beautifully decorated ones........tat I thought of publishing them. So, that was how my place would look like at the time of the year end. Anyway, had a nice time enjoying x'mas 2010 and welcoming the year 2011.....:-)