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Yoked to Jesus

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“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” †  Mathew 11: 28-30  What is the labour and burden that Jesus is asking me to deal with? Perhaps I have to let go of the compulsive burden (or is it a sort of entitlement?) that my spouse and children should choose a spiritual path that I know to be right. Jesus accompanied Judas Iscariot to the very end but never deprived him of his freedom to choose his own destiny. Jesus on the other hand, uninterrupted by Judas's choice to reject him, continues to accomplish his mission. He does become a victim of Judas's betrayal but he seldom takes on the victim's identity. In divine wisdom, Jesus chooses to die in our place (and that of Judas) in a redeeming act of love. Rather than being compelled to fix those whom God has entrusted to my headship by m

Mortification

Mortification is the disciplining of the body and it's appetites by self-denial. It is a conscious effort to free our “will” from the natural inclinations of the body & mind in order to align it with the "supreme will of God". It is not an act of doing penance; seeking to “justify”ourselves, for no work of ours is sufficient to repair the inequities we have committed against God, except the perfect sacrifice offered on the cross by Jesus. We repeat with great desire “thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” many times a day. Yet it remains just a desire, unless we act with “deeds” to prove our sincerity to that desire. As a young soldier submitting himself to rigorous training before being put into combat, we must train ourselves, cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit with in us, to rise above our fallen nature. These deeds are not to be flaunted in the presence of men but to remain exposed only to us and to our Lord. God supplies unlimite

Intoxication of knowledge

Deliver us God, from the intoxication of knowledge for we know even at the peak of great learning, there is room for us to die to what we have learned and be open to a much greater knowledge. Yet, oh God, greatest of our knowledge remains a tiny little drop in the ocean of thy omniscience. The Holy Scriptures lead us into the hidden mysteries of God. Yet not all who diligently study them are lead into the fullness of Truth. It is because the written word [scriptures] does not exhaust the reality of the Word of God [Christ]. John in his gospel quotes Jesus saying "You search the scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet scripture bears witness to me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life"  [5:39-40] We must approach the scriptures in the light of the same experience of those who witnessed Jesus one-to-one [Body, blood, soul and divinity]. In his first epistle, John narrates his experience “That which was from the beginning, which we have he

Skin deep!

How beautiful it would be if all of us wore cloths such a way that the "gaze of the onlooker" remains naturally on our face. One who gazes the face is able to see  and  recognize  far more than what meets the eye. Face is the window into the whole inner reality of a person . On the contrary, if cloths make the onlooker gaze everywhere else [except the face], it tragically limits his perception "skin deep" and is being tripped into the vice of commoditizing (utilizing) the  person for the gratification of lust and sensual entertainment. Lust is the chewed up residue of "man's innate desire to give himself as a gift to the other" devoid of Love [God] or in other words, it is Eros minus Agape. How unaware we are of the imminent danger of immodest dressing. The ready-made garment industry has  literally robbed us of our freedom to wear cloths of our choice. In the name of convenience we are forced to wear cloths that are designed with no moral obl

Being a child of God

Jesus came not only to save us but also to make us children of God. It is a comforting "status" any human can rightly assume or be. But the danger of limiting God-Man relationship to only father-child dimension” truncates the expanse we are capable of treading as children into the reality of God the father. It is so because we reduce this relationship to our own understanding of a father-child relationship. In a typical human experience, the father [biological father] does not have the right, capacity or the gift to decide the destiny of his child [heaven or hell] however intimate their relationship may be. In our relationship with God as our father, we must not forget that God the father also is our judge who will decide our eternal destiny.[Mathew 10:28] In the movie “Chronicles of Narnia” Jesus is portrayed as an untamed lion [Lion of Judah]. Yet we see the children grow into a relationship with the Lion [Jesus] as intimate as that of a child to the father. This father

Kingdom of heaven

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

I refuse, I embrace

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

Learning the hard way

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