When one takes into account also His reiterated assertions about His Divinity - such as asking us to love Him above parents, to believe in Him even in the face of persecution, to be ready to sacrifice our bodies in order to save our souls in union with Him - to call Him just a good man ignores the facts. No man is good unless he is humble; and humility is a recognition of truth concerning oneself. A man who thinks he is greater than he actually is is not humble, but a vain and boastful fool. How can any man claim prerogatives over conscience, and over history, and over society and the world and still claim he is 'meek and humble of heart'? But if He is God as well as man, His language falls into place and everything that He says is intelligible. But if He is not what He claimed to be, then some of His most precious sayings are nothing but bombastic outburts of self-adulation that breathe rather the spirit of Lucifer than the spirit of a good man. What avails Him to proclam the law of self-renouncement, if He Himself renounces truth to call Himself God? Even His sacrifice on the Cross becomes a suspect and dated thing, when it goes hand in hand with delusions of grandeur and infernal conceit. He could not be called even a sincere teacher, for no sincere teacher would allow anyone to construe his claims to share the rank and the name of the Great God in heaven.

I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was God as well as man, then His suffering and death lose all value in their eyes, 'because it must have been so easy for him.' Others may (very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this objection; what staggers me is the misunderstanding it betrays. In one sense, of course, those who make it are right. They have even understated their own case. The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because he was God, but were possible only because He was God. But surely that is a very odd reason for not accepting them? The teacher is able to form the letters for the child because the teacher is grown-up and knows how to write. That, of course, makes it easier for the teacher; and only because 'it's easy for grown ups' and waited to learn writing from another child who could not write itself (and so had no 'unfair' advantage), it would not get on very quickly. If I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought I to shout back (between my gasps) 'No, it's not fair! You have an advantage! You're keeping one foot on the bank? That advantage--call it 'unfair' if you like--is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?

People who are starving and dressed in rags don’t want to hear someone read a list of propositional “good news.” They want to see the good news in action. The church doesn’t hold revival meetings and call it a day — we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, dig wells, and staff medical clinics. Social action isn’t an optional part of evangelism; it is evangelism. This is an important correction to the overspirituality that dominated evangelical Christianity just a generation ago. But the both/and of holistic mission still misses the heart of Jesus if we don’t see that the church needs the poor as much as the poor need the church. Jesus didn’t embrace the poor only because he pitied them or because he knew he had the resources to help them. Jesus embraced the poor because they were rushing into the kingdom ahead of the scribes and Pharisees — those who called themselves God’s people. Jesus welcomed people who knew poverty because they were ready to receive what he had to offer. Religious people, he said, could learn something from them. Our spiritual lives are linked to the material conditions of our life. When we feel like we don’t need much materially, we often have trouble remembering why we need God. We comfortable Americans can go through an entire day without thinking of God. But Jesus gave the poor more than food to eat and relief from their sickness. He restored them to God’s beloved community.

Here at our ministry we refuse to present a picture of “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” a portrait that tugs at your sentiments or pulls at your heartstrings. That’s because we deal with so many people who suffer, and when you’re hurting hard, you’re neither helped nor inspired by a syrupy picture of the Lord, like those sugary, sentimental images many of us grew up with. You know what I mean? Jesus with His hair parted down the middle, surrounded by cherubic children and bluebirds.Come on. Admit it: When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, when you feel like Morton’s salt is being poured into your wounded soul, you don’t want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus who relates only to lambs and birds and babies.You want a warrior Jesus.You want a battlefield Jesus. You want his rigorous and robust gospel to command your sensibilities to stand at attention.To be honest, many of the sentimental hymns and gospel songs of our heritage don’t do much to hone that image. One of the favorite words of hymn writers in days gone by was sweet. It’s a term that down’t have the edge on it that it once did. When you’re in a dark place, when lions surround you, when you need strong help to rescue you from impossibility, you don’t want “sweet.” You don’t want faded pastels and honeyed softness.You want mighty. You want the strong arm an unshakable grip of God who will not let you go — no matter what.

As Christians, we celebrate many holidays and memorials throughout the year. Some we decide to celebrate by referencing events in the Bible. Others are related to events in our personal lives. Still more are pushed upon by this World.There's nothing necessarily wrong with celebrating events that bring us joy or keep important parts of our lives in focus.As a Christian, it is important for me to follow Christ's words and teachings. I do not obey man's intepretations of God's word. I read it and follow it. Its that simple. I dont need an interpreter. Christ is my intermediary. Ive been blessed to have been given the gift of language and... in the Bible, when you read it in Aramaic, there is only ONE event, one memorial that Jesus asks us to remember and thus honor our Savior. And its not His birthday. We are upon that annual event this weekend. For Jesus "blessed and he broke and he said, “Take eat; this is my body, which is broken for your persons; thus you shall do for my Memorial."[1 Cor 11:24]Holidays can be fun times for families to get together and to celebrate life. This weekend lets not lose focus. For this is the one and ONLY holiday that our Christ commands us to memorialize. Its in his words. Its in the Bible. It was important enough for Him to spell it out. It should be important enough for us to listen. Above all other events in our lives, isn't Christ Jesus's sacrifice truly the most magnificent one? Lets remember our Savior and not allow the World to mislead us into over prioritizing any other day than when -He gave His life for us. Truly His act was a gift to mankind that remains matchless.

But the heavy stroke which most of all distresses me is my dear Mother. I cannot overcome my too selfish sorrow, all her tenderness towards me, her care and anxiety for my welfare at all times, her watchfulness over my infant years, her advice and instruction in maturer age; all, all indear her memory to me, and highten my sorrow for her loss. At the same time I know a patient submission is my Duty. I will strive to obtain it! But the lenient hand of time alone can blunt the keen Edg of Sorrow. He who deignd to weep over a departed Friend, will surely forgive a sorrow which at all times desires to be bounded and restrained, by a firm Belief that a Being of infinite wisdom and unbounded Goodness, will carve out my portion in tender mercy towards me! Yea tho he slay me I will trust in him said holy Job. What tho his corrective Hand hath been streached against me; I will not murmer. Tho earthly comforts are taken away I will not repine, he who gave them has surely a right to limit their Duration, and has continued them to me much longer than deserved. I might have been striped of my children as many others have been. I might o! forbid it Heaven, I might have been left a solitary widow. Still I have many blessing left, many comforts to be thankfull for, and rejoice in. I am not left to mourn as one without hope. My dear parent knew in whom she had Believed...The violence of her disease soon weakned her so that she was unable to converse, but whenever she could speak, she testified her willingness to leave the world and an intire resignation to the Divine Will. She retaind her Senses to the last moment of her Existance, and departed the world with an easy tranquility, trusting in the merrits of a Redeamer," (p. 81 & 82).

A friend of mine commented yesterday that she has experienced similar insights that I talked about that all enlightened Masters and founders of religion are actually talking about the same ocean, the same invisible life source, the same God. She also said that she worked in a Christan environment at the time that she received these insights, and when she tried to share these insights with the Christians she was accused of being "impure" and of being associated with the "Devil". Christians hold on to the idea that Jesus was the only son of God, without realizing that we are all son's and daughter's of God. By holding on to the idea that Jesus is the only son of God, they do not either to realize that all enlightened Masters are talking about the same God. Jesus did not talk about faith, he talked about trust. He talked about discovering a trust in yourself and in relationship to God. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you. In Christianity, the church has become the intermediate between man and God, and people who claim that they have found a direct relationship to God are accused of blasphemy. The Christan church has become a barrier between man and God, and anyone who has declared that he has found a direct relationship to God are immediately banned by the church, for example Master Eckhart and Franciskus of Assisi. I have always had a deep love for Jesus, but it is not the picture of Jesus that the Christian church presents. I was a disciple of Jesus in a former life, and was thrown to the lions in Colosseum in Rome as one of the early Christians. Jesus had many more disciples than the twelve disciples mentioned in The Bible. In this life, I resigned my automatic membership in the church as soon as I could think for myself when I was 15 years old. I was also disgusted with an organization that said that they preached love and which has murdered more people than Hitler. My experience with these rare and precious insights are that they expand our consciousness of reality. They are gradual initiations into reality. They may fade away, but we will never be the same again after receiving them. They will also come more and more, the more committment we have to our spiritual growth.

ഉത്സവം കഴിഞ്ഞുഒന്നിച്ചു നൃത്തം ചവിട്ടിയവര്‍അവരവരുടെ കൂടാരങ്ങളിലെയ്ക ­്ക് മടങ്ങി.മഞ്ഞുപെയ്യുന്ന ഈ രാവില്‍,മുനിഞ്ഞു കത്തുന്ന വിളക്കുമരത്തിനു ­ താഴെഒരാള്‍ തനിച്ചാവുന്നു.പിന്നീടാണ്‌ ക്രിസ്തു വന്നത്.അവസാനത്തെ ചങ്ങാതിയും പടിയിറങ്ങുമ്പോള ­്‍ആരുമറിയാതെ ഉള്ളിലേക്കെത്തു ­ന്ന സുഹൃത്ത്‌.കുന്തിരിക്കത്തി ­ന്റെ ഗന്ധത്തില്‍ നിന്ന്നമുക്കീ തച്ചന്റെ വിയര്‍പ്പിലേക്ക ­് മടങ്ങാം.

ഇരുകരങ്ങളും നീട്ടി നമുക്കീ ക്രിസ്തുമസിനെ വരവേല്‍ക്കാം... ­ കാരണം ഓരോ ക്രിസ്തുമസും ദൈവത്തിന്‍റെ പ്രത്യാശയുടെ സുവിശേഷമാണ് പ്രഘോഷിക്കുക... ­ പ്രളയകാലങ്ങള്‍ക ­്ക്‌ ശേഷം ചക്രവാളത്തില്‍ തെളിയുന്ന ഒരു മഴവില്ല്... തിന്മയുടെ വിത്ത് വിതച്ച വഴലുകളില്‍ നിന്ന് പോലും സുകൃതിയുടെ പൂക്കള്‍ വിരിയുമെന്നു വിശ്വസിക്കുന്ന ദൈവം മന്ത്രിക്കുന്നു ­: ഇല്ല അവസാനത്തേത് എന്ന് പറയരുത്...ഇനിയു ­ം പൂക്കള്‍ വിരിയാനുണ്ട്... ­ഇനിയും കിളികള്‍ ചിലക്കാനുണ്ട്.. ­.ആടുകള്‍ക്ക് ഇനിയും ഇടയനുണ്ട്... അവനിനിയും അത്താഴമുണ്ട്...

പ്ളാറ്റ്ഫോമില്‍ ­ ട്രെയിന്‍ വന്ന നേരം. അന്ധനായ കളിപ്പാട്ടവില്‍ ­പ്പനക്കാരന്റെ പൊക്കണത്തെ തിരക്കില്‍ ആരോ തട്ടിവീഴ്ത്തി. ചിതറി വീഴുന്ന കളിപ്പാട്ടങ്ങളു ­ടെ ഒച്ചയയാള്‍ കേള്‍ക്കുന്നുണ് ­ട്. ട്രെയിന്‍ കടന്നുപോയി. ആള്‍പെരുമാറ്റം തീരെയില്ലാത്ത ആ പ്ളാറ്റ്ഫോമില്‍ ­ ആരോ ഒരാള്‍ കളിപ്പാട്ടങ്ങള് ­‍ ശേഖരിച്ച് അയാളുടെ തട്ടത്തില്‍ വക്കുന്നതയാള്‍ ശ്രദ്ധിച്ചു. അവസാനത്തെ കളിപ്പാട്ടം അങ്ങനെ വച്ചപ്പോള്‍ ആ കൈകളില്‍ മുറുകെ പിടിച്ചയാള്‍ വിതുമ്പി: സര്‍ , നിങ്ങള്‍ ക്രിസ്തുവാണോ ? ആ ട്രെയിന്‍ വിട്ടുപോകട്ടെയെ ­ന്നു നിശ്ചയിച്ച നിങ്ങള്‍ ....?

കൌതുകകരമായ ഒരു നിരീക്ഷണം ഇതാണ്.ഭാരതീയ ചാതുര്‍വര്‍ണ്യത്തിന്റെ പാടങ്ങള്‍ ഉപയോഗിച്ചാല്‍ ക്രിസ്തുവിന്റെതു ഏതു വര്‍ണം ? പിറവികൊണ്ടു ക്ഷത്രിയന്‍ -ദാവിദിന്റെ വംശത്തില്‍ ജനിച്ചവന്‍.തൊഴിലുകൊണ്ട് വൈശ്യന്‍ .സംസര്‍ഗം കൊണ്ട് ശൂദ്രന്‍ - വിജാതിയരുടെയും ചുങ്കക്കാരുടെയും ചങ്ങാതി .ധ്യാനം കൊണ്ടും ബലികൊണ്ടും പുരോഹിതന്‍ . ഒരേസമയം നിന്നിലുണ്ടാകണം ഈ ചതുര്മാനങ്ങള്‍ .തോല്‍ക്കുന്ന യുദ്ധങ്ങളില്‍ ഏര്‍പ്പെടുന്ന പോരാളി ,വിയര്‍പ്പുകൊണ്ട് മാത്രം അപ്പം ഭക്ഷിക്കുന്ന പണിയാളന്‍,ഭ്രഷ്ട് അനുഭവിക്കുന്നവരുടെയും , വിളുബില്‍ വസിക്കുന്നവരുടെയും ചങ്ങാതി .

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'" John 7:37-38 (NIV)As soon as we were old enough to understand fairy tales, we were told to start looking for the one.Someday my prince will come.Someday I'll find my love.As we got older, Prince Charming looked a bit different. Our teenage hearts thrilled when the latest vocal sensation sang about finding us and how our love would last forever.Wherever we turned, we were told our soul mate was waiting. And we were led to believe we were "less than" if we didn't find the one who would complete us!Even now, whether we're 15, 45 or 75, the equation hasn't changed: "Guy + Me = Valuable."So, if the movies, books and songs are so right, how come when we find the one, we can still feel like we're missing something? Why are there married people who are lonely with an emptiness that marriage can't fill? Our hearts can get confused if our reality doesn't match fantasy and we wonder:Maybe my one isn't really the one? Or, whether we're married or single, we might wonder, is the one for me still out there?In this place of uncertainty our hearts can grow perplexed. If we find ourselves in this vulnerable place of questioning, and all of a sudden a guy who seems to be the one enters the picture, it can stir up confusion.If we are married, we might wonder if we should walk away from a husband, who we thought was perfect for us, in order to have a new one, who seems more perfect. Singles might wonder if this guy is really a gift from God ... the one we've waited for?In my personal search to have my love gap filled, I have discovered there is The One for each and every one of us.It is Jesus Himself! He's The One our hearts are looking for. He's The One who is the filler of my lonely places and misunderstood parts.No matter what is going on in my roller coaster heart, Jesus' love for me is secure and stable. On the days when the relationship with my husband is everything I'm looking for, Jesus is The One. On the days when the cart of marriage is wobbly and off-kilter, He's still The One.Oh the relief Jesus brings to the rest of my relationships! When I turn to Him to fill the love gap in my heart, it takes the pressure off others! While my needy heart could wear my family out, Jesus is a continual source of unconditional love pouring into me. Not the type of filling that is once and done, but an endless supply ... each and every day.Listen to His promise in John 7:37-38, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."Ahhh ... the refreshing that comes when we discover He is The One we are looking for.What a relief my heart experiences as I stop looking to others to fill me and find Jesus as my constant, day after day, contentment. Take time today to go to Him and ask Him to fill up the empty places and refresh the areas of your heart that are dry. Jesus is The One and only who can fill and complete us.Lord, help me to recognize You are The One my heart is looking for. Each and every day, teach me to look to You to fill the love gap in my heart. Amen

I have a complicated spiritual history. Here's the short version: I was born into a Mass-going Roman Catholic family, but my parents left the church when I was in the fifth grade and joined a Southern Baptist church—yes, in Connecticut. I am an alumnus of Wheaton College—Billy Graham's alma mater in Illinois, not the Seven Sisters school in Massachusetts—and the summer between my junior and senior year of (Christian) high school, I spent a couple of months on a missions trip performing in whiteface as a mime-for-the-Lord on the streets of London's West End. Once I left home for Wheaton, I ended up worshiping variously (and when I could haul my lazy tuckus out of bed) at the nondenominational Bible church next to the college, a Christian hippie commune in inner-city Chicago left over from the Jesus Freak movement of the 1960s, and an artsy-fartsy suburban Episcopal parish that ended up splitting over same-sex issues. My husband of more than a decade likes to describe himself as a “collapsed Catholic,” and for more than twenty-five years, I have been a born-again Christian. Groan, I know. But there's really no better term in the current popular lexicon to describe my seminal spiritual experience. It happened in the summer of 1980 when I was about to turn ten years old. My parents had both had born-again experiences themselves about six months earlier, shortly before our family left the Catholic church—much to the shock and dismay of the rest of our extended Irish and/or Italian Catholic family—and started worshiping in a rented public grade school gymnasium with the Southern Baptists. My mother had told me all about what she'd experienced with God and how I needed to give my heart to Jesus so I could spend eternity with him in heaven and not frying in hell. I was an intellectually stubborn and precocious child, so I didn't just kneel down with her and pray the first time she told me about what was going on with her and Daddy and Jesus. If something similar was going to happen to me, it was going to happen in my own sweet time. A few months into our family's new spiritual adventure, after hearing many lectures from Mom and sitting through any number of sermons at the Baptist church—each ending with an altar call and an invitation to make Jesus the Lord of my life—I got up from bed late one Sunday night and went downstairs to the den where my mother was watching television. I couldn't sleep, which was unusual for me as a child. I was a champion snoozer. In hindsight I realize something must have been troubling my spirit.Mom went into the kitchen for a cup of tea and left me alone with the television, which she had tuned to a church service. I don't remember exactly what the preacher said in his impassioned, sweaty sermon, but I do recall three things crystal clearly: The preacher was Jimmy Swaggart; he gave an altar call, inviting the folks in the congregation in front of him and at home in TV land to pray a simple prayer asking Jesus to come into their hearts; and that I prayed that prayer then and there, alone in the den in front of the idiot box. Seriously. That is precisely how I got “saved.” Alone. Watching Jimmy Swaggart on late-night TV. I also spent a painful vacation with my family one summer at Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Heritage USA Christian theme park in South Carolina. But that's a whole other book…

മണലിൽ പണിതവനും ശിലയിൽ പണിതവനും എന്നൊക്കെ ക്രിസ്തു പറയുന്നതിനിടയിലെ അകലമാണിത്. അറിവ് ഒരു മണൽക്കൂമ്പാരമാണ്‌. അതിനുമുകളിൽ ക്രിസ്തുവിനോടുള്ള നിലപാടിന്റെ വീട് പണിയുകയാണെങ്കിൽ നാളെ തീർച്ചയായും കാറ്റും മഴയുമുണ്ടാകുമ്പോൾ അതിളകിത്തുടങ്ങും. വ്യത്യസ്തമോവിപരീതമോ ആയ ഏറ്റവും ചെറിയ അറിവുപോലും കാറ്റായും മഴയായും മാറി ഭവനത്തെ ഉലയ്ക്കും. എന്നാൽ, അനുഭവങ്ങളുടെ ശിലമേൽ വീടുപണിയുക. കാറ്റും മഴയുമൊന്നും ആർക്കും ഒഴിവാക്കാനാവില്ല. പക്ഷേ, അതിനെയും അതിജീവിക്കാൻ ഈ ശിലയ്ക്ക് കെല്പുണ്ട്. നാളെ ജീവിതത്തിൽ അനർത്ഥങ്ങളുടെ അഗ്നിമഴ പെയ്താലും ദൈവം സ്നേഹമാണെന്ന അനുഭവദാർഢ്യങ്ങളെ ഉലയ്ക്കാൻ അവമതിയാവുന്നില്ല.

ക്രിസ്തുവിനെ പോലെ രക്ത ബന്ധങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് പുറത്തേക്ക് നീണ്ടു നില്‍ക്കുന്ന കര്‍മ്മ ബന്ധങ്ങളുടെ ശിഖരങ്ങളെ ഗൌരവമായി എടുത്ത മറ്റൊരാള്‍ ഉണ്ടാവില്ല.പക്ഷെ നമുക്കെന്തു പറ്റി?"ഭൂമിയെ അദൃശ്യമായ ഒരു ചരടില്‍ ജപമണികള്‍ പോലെ അവന്‍ കോര്‍ത്തെടുത്തു ­.അതുകൊണ്ട് ഇനി മുതല്‍ ആരെയും നോക്കി ഉടപ്പിറന്നോന, ഉടപ്പിറന്നോളെ എന്ന് വിളിക്കാന്‍ നമുക്കാവും.ഒരുവള്‍ ഗണിക തെരുവില്‍ ഊഴം കാത്തു നില്‍ക്കുന്നു.ഒരുത്തന്‍ ആരുടെയോ പോക്കറ്റടിച്ച് ആ ഓടയ്ക്ക് കുറുകെ ഓടുന്നു.ഒരു പൈത്യക്കാരന്‍ എച്ചില്‍ വീപ്പയ്ക്ക് താഴെ ഉപവാസ പ്രാര്‍ഥനയില്‍ ഇരിക്കുന്നു.പലകാരണങ്ങള്‍ കൊണ്ട് ചിതറി പോയ എന്‍റെ ഉടപ്പിറന്നോര്‍. ­"ഇനി ഞാനവനോട് എന്തു മറുപടി പറയും?