my Articulate Heart

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus draws an interesting parallel between the Kingdom of Heaven and workers in the vineyard [20:1-16] At the end of the day, when Master settles the wages, he gives all servants, those who came in first hour and to those who joined in last hour, the same wage. People who came in the first hour feel cheated and thus complaint to the master asking for an explanation for the evident bias. Master does not explain but replies “Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be envious because I am generous?" [15] The truth is, much more than the wage at the end of the day, what should have fulfilled them is the honor of serving the master [Jesus himself].  The experience of any labour depends on the nature of the master. We have a master who ties a loin cloth around his waist, bends down to wash our feet. He rises up to be dragged on the streets and be nailed to the wood in order to take upon himself the punishment that should have been o...

Our bodies are the defiled temples, destroyed yet restored in Jesus - to be the sacred dwelling of the Spirit of God. This process of restoration begins it's course in our own bodies when we believe in Jesus Christ who is the resurrection and life. Resurrection begets new life. God detests sin yet has tremendous compassion on the sinner. He clearly distinguishes sinner [Child of God] from his sinful nature. The same way, our bodies are to be perceived as a gift and it's corrupt nature, a show stopper [detestable]. The body is not to be discarded as less worthy but to be respected and restored to its original status though the renewal of our minds [according to the spirit]. St. Paul in Romans says Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and mature. [12:02] The corruption of the temple [body] continues to retract us ...

We would like God to correct us if we go wrong. But when He does, we rebel having to change. The book of Job says "Happy is the man whom God corrects" [5:17] Correction demands breaking and a defenseless acceptance of defeat. Rarely do we amend our ways if God uses someone to correct us. God's correction escapes us either because we are not sensitive enough to discern or our ego doesn't permit us to change. Like the prodigal son, we choose to learn the hard way having to eat what is assigned to pigs. Our unteachability leads us to learn it the hard way. When God uses a difficult situation to correct us, the darkness may linger on without a distant light to anchor our hope. But when we have successfully yielded to this pedagogy of God, we emerge in the light, a light bright enough to lead us through imminent tunnels joyfully. This experiential learning leaves us with deep conviction about what is pleasing to God. But better is to accept correction as it com...

Lord, much more than profound wisdom and great understanding, I desire a heart that is pure, lowly and contrite. This is truly what I need.

Fragmented and fragile I’m, that I willingly forfeit the joy of thy presence for cheap pleasure. I savour from your table all the day and quietly sneak out to devourer the rubbish as if it is a delicacy, until I’m done with it. Then I find myself far away, swept into a hostile world. My integrity, faithfulness and even existence, sinisterly questioned. I feel ashamed. The voices around me say “Stay here, we will give your unworthiness, company. I either am sipping from the malicious chalice of unrealistic pleasure or staring at it fearfully. In both the cases, this vicious chalice is my preoccupation. Deep down I long for it. The Truth fades to oblivion; knowledge takes a nap because I let them do. Truth aglow, knowledge ushers in. I see what is happening to me as if I were outside of me. The sweetness of your love enthrall my inside yet again. I can walk into your presence without a veil. You receive me with acceptance unconditional. Here I get up and walk.  The voices, st...

My children cry persistently for no visible reason some nights. After all attempts to pacify them, I turn to God asking Him to intervene, seeking protection, praying deliverances and covering them with the precious blood. It happened a few times, the situation remained the same even after all this. I remember in two occasions, in desperation,  I yelled out to Jesus “why do you remain unmoved. Have you not anything to do?” Yesterday Lord allowed me to face frustration throughout the day. At home, my wife faced a share of it too by the way of unusually cranky children. It continued into the night. My one year old continued to cry for a long time waking the other children and then what followed was a total chaos. My wife lost her temper. But unlike the other times, I remained patient, being sensitive to what He is trying to teach me. I carried my little one off to the next room and felt persuaded to read the scriptures. I opened to the book of Daniel. It was Kin...

I often thought, to be doing a big sacrifice and favour to God by choosing not to sin. It is as if I have been forced to forgo something really exciting, probably like staying determined not to eat from a bowl delicious Biriyani, that’s beside me, even as the strong aroma appeals to my senses to stretch-out and grab a handful and yield to the lure. Little did I know, that it was a bowl of “excrement” cleverly disguised as delicious, highly desirable and real. What deters me from sin must be “extreme aversion” not fear, duty or sheer determination. Extreme aversion to sin must be a result of the true knowledge of sin in the light of the love of Christ. I force myself to avoid sin still assuming it is something good yet forbidden. This is far from truth.  Keeping my gaze fixed on Jesus brings me to the knowledge of truth. Sin is truly understood only in the light of His super abounding love. May this understanding  help me elude sin. For the LORD God is a sun a...

When we come to face with the brutal mutilation Jesus was subjected to and the completely inhuman and unjust proceedings that ended up in crucifixion, we often are moved to tears. These tears are that of sympathy and a reaction to the magnitude of infliction Jesus underwent. Yet, sadly, we fail to recognize “His love for you and me” that prompted Jesus to carry though this extreme cruelty and complete this mission to save us. Jesus said in Mathew 10: 8 “ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. Here Jesus is elevating our thoughts to a higher realm surpassing body and mind. Jesus does not desire our sympathy. He said looking at the women of Jerusalem, who wept bitterly, as their eyes met with the disfigured Jesus who was dragging his steps to the peak of Calvary "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children”.   Even in the thick of s...

If Christ and Christianity could be reduced to a word, that would be “Love”. God has a system installed which takes care of all the day to today processes concerning our lives, all living and non living things and the planets. God, like we tend to assume, is not busy dealing with innumerable issues at all time. The system takes care of it. Sun rising, Birth of babies, Consequence of bad deeds, blessings, giving grace, recording even the tiniest good we do, warning men of the impeding danger, hair falling etc are all executed and updated promptly in this supernatural software. The latest system He established was the “Process of Salvation for all mankind” by sacrificing Himself on the cross. So then what is God doing, if all these processes are automated? The answer is “He is Loving”. This is precisely why His love is new every morning. His love is ever renewing and is ever growing. This love that binds the Trinity is extended to each of us. Tapping into this love is wh...

After a slack or a grim period, as we try to get back into the relating- interacting relationship with Jesus, the mistake we often make is to focus too much on the lapse itself. We dissect the wound left and right, trying to understand what went wrong, how it happened, what I should have done to avoid it, what I must do in the future in similar situations and the agenda is endless. All this super scrupulousness leads to chronic guilt. Guild leads to discouragement and slowly the enthusiasm “to relate” dies down. The beauty of Jesus stops to draw our attention. Imagine our self to be a paint brush. The fulfillment of every brush is the beautiful painting, the artist paints, using it. The artist is God. The brush is you and I and the painting is our life. God the artist has a canvas for each of us. He is forever ready to use us but the problem is that we are not available or we would have taken a sabbatical after a period of co-operation. This sabbatical is the lapse we saw in the prev...