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Showing posts from 2011

"The last day"

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Finally the day had arrived. Finally the hour had come. “Finally, my last day on earth” he told himself. The wait had been excruciating, but now it was here. The day of his execution had finally arrived. “Ah! The smell of fresh air, these guys need to provide better prisons. But who cares, my life here is done. This is it. This is where and this is how things are going to end. I have no regrets, I have done nothing wrong. He deserved it, he deserve to die. How could he ever have thought he could get away with it, that guy I killed he deserved it. So what if they call me a murderer? So what if his wife is a widow now? So what if I have had sleepless night because of the guilt? I did right, or at least I hope I did.” His thoughts went on; it was the day when Pilate would release one that the people would ask for. But he knew he was not one among them, he was a criminal and the cross was already decided for him. And he had accepted it. Really he didn’t have a choice; the concept of for...

"There is a One!"

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Everyday was the same. The same long walk. The same walk that yielded nothing. It was a walk that made her think. It was a walk that made her curse her life. ‘I should have just stayed with the first guy. Why did I ever leave him?’ she thought ‘What a mess? Went searching for pleasure and look at me, what have I made of myself? I used to be so beautiful when I was young. I thought I could rule the world with my looks. Always thought my body would be enough for me to survive on this earth. But now it’s all gone. I thought I would never have to thirst, I thought life was going to be easy. But now I thirst and hunger, nothing satisfies me. What have I made of myself?’ After five husbands, more aptly put after living through five broken marriages, not many of us would have the will to survive, but this woman was still surviving. If it was not bad enough to have been in five broken marriages, now she was in a ‘live-in’ relationship, could things be worse? She continued to walk. ‘Ah! ...

"I am coming home"

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Slowly he approached the place he once called home. Questions raged within him, questions he thought he knew the answers to. But secretly he hoped the answers he knew were wrong, secretly he hoped for acceptance, secretly he hoped for love. ‘But doesn’t hope always disappoint?’ Thoughts collided in his head, they multiplied, they divided, but never did they add. Everything around him screamed ‘Turn back!! Don’t make a fool of yourself!’ He sat down on a rock close by; he had made it to the lane that would lead to him to his father’s house. ‘Should I go in?’ he questioned himself and his thoughts continued ‘I guess I shouldn’t. Which father would accept a son who has wasted everything the father had given him? If I was the father I would not accept a son who has done what I have done. What a mess have I made! Why? Oh Why? Did I squander everything? My father gave me half of what he had worked for his entire life and look what I made out of it. I have destroyed it, blown it away to ...

"Does God care?"

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The tsunami came and left destruction. The nuclear plant leaked and caused chaos. The buildings fell and people lost their loved ones. The heart attack came and he was gone. The car got hit by a truck and no one remained. In times when death is close to us, as much as life is, one nagging question keeps coming back to us, ‘Does God care?’ The answer to the question remains as it was in my first blog post ‘Yes! God does care.’ How do we know this? Let’s head to story of Jesus raising a widow’s dead son found in Luke 7:11-17(Bible) . The story starts with Jesus walking towards a town called Nain; just as He is about to enter the town, He sees a funeral procession. A widow had lost her only son. It is important for us to understand the position of the widow, she had lost everything. Her only reason to live was no more. Probably the only light in her world was no more. Her source of joy, hope and a blessed future was no more. One of the most testing times in anyone’s life is when he o...

Open my eyes, O Lord

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Open my eyes, O Lord, I need to see. Open my eyes, O Lord, I need to believe. With my eyes shut, O Lord, All I can see is darkness. With my eyes shut, O Lord, I forget I was made in Your likeness. Open my eyes, O Lord, I am thirsting for Your presence. Open my eyes, O Lord, I am searching for Your purpose. With my eyes shut, O Lord, I feel I am worthless. With my eyes shut, O Lord, I feel like I am faithless. Open my eyes, O Lord, Please move these mountains. Open my eyes, O Lord, I need to see You moulding this lifeless. With my eyes shut, O Lord, Let me hear your voice again. With my eyes shut, O Lord, Let me feel You fill my veins with strength. Open my eyes, O Lord, Let me drown in Your love. Open my eyes, O Lord, Let me take this moment to tell Oh! How I love! For in Your presence, O Lord, There is fullness of joy. And in Your grace, O Lord, I’ll find purpose from above. And let me remember every day, This life is passing. And let me re...

Come as you are!

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“What are you wearing??!!!”, “Why is your hair such a mess??!!!”, “Ahhhh!!! Not a pimple, not today!!!” and the crying goes on. With so much money being put into surveys and advertisements to promote the importance of good looks, it is hard to ignore the fact that our looks can take us places. Beauty may be skin deep, but for many, it is a way of life. Many hours are spent in front of the mirror, lots of money on hairstyles, all this for acceptance. For the many of us who don’t have those gorgeous looks and those who can’t afford body sculpting, ‘make-up’ comes to our rescue. I still remember those days when ‘make-up’ meant just putting some powder on the face, but now it’s about the layers of ‘make-up’. Now a day’s ‘make-up’ is not just about your face, its’ about the entire body. The so called beauty experts are finding new things to do each day with every part of our body. I remember those days when ‘make-up’ was just for the ladies, but now there is a significant increase wit...

Grammy Winners and Nominations in Gospel category - 2011

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To all of those who didn't know...well yes there are Grammy awards for gospel artists as well..!!:) Would like to share the lists of the winners and nominees for 2011... Also sharing the links to a few songs..:) Enjoy..:) My opinion Lecrae deserved the best rock and rap Grammy more than the Switchfoot...then again its my opinion Best Gospel Performance WINNER: "Grace" - BeBe & CeCe Winans Track from: Still "He Wants It All" - Forever Jones Track from: Get Ready "You Hold My World" - Israel Houghton Track from: Love God. Love People. "Nobody Greater" - Vashawn Mitchell Track from: Triumphant "He's Been Just That Good" - Kirk Whalum & Lalah Hathaway Track from: The Gospel According To Jazz Chapter III Best Gospel Song WINNER: "It's What I Do" Performed by Kirk Whalum & Lalah Hathaway. Track from: The Gospel According To Jazz Chapter III "Beautiful Things...

I want to break free!

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Every now and then teenagers are heard complaining about their parents “These guys, will never give me the freedom, I deserve.” In an age where the definition of freedom is rapidly changing, I decided to set out on a mission to understand the word. This post is an output of that mission. In this, I decided to do an analysis of a few of the so called ‘freeing experiences’ available in the world. Before I start, I think it would be better for all of us to agree on the purpose of freedom. The purpose of freedom, is to bring joy to our life, it is to comfort us, and to give us peace. The purpose of freedom is to make sure that our lives add colour to the world around us. Precisely the purpose of freedom is to keep us at peace with ourselves and our surroundings. Now if we agree on this, let me get back to the so called ‘freeing experiences’ I mentioned before. Most of these experiences, never deal with God or spirituality, but more than often they deal with rebelling against God an...

"Walk by Faith"

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“Sorry, his condition is not getting any better”; “We have done all that we could”; “Only God can save her”, statements that none of us want to hear, but many of us face at least once in our life. And the people in these discussions are our generally the one’s we care most about. Death, failure, divorce, accidents, terminal diseases, pink slips, when times of such pain hit one’s life, what does one do? For all of us it is easy to believe in God when we see a calm ocean, than when we see a tsunami. For all of us, God is easily seen in a new born than in a dead body. Again for all of us, God is easily found in times of peace, than in times of war. It is easier for us to thank God for our victories, than for our defeats. We love Him when we get what we want, but we are at a loss for words when He takes away something He gave. Wonder why? Humans haven’t changed much. Even with all the new technologies, even though we have come a long way from wearing sheep skin, still something’s ha...

"The Pursuit of Happiness"

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Pic courtesy: Flickr “Work hard, Party harder”, “King of good times”, “Let the good times roll” extremely known phrases aren’t they! The media keeps throwing at us these happy faces, faces with a can of beer in hand, or with the latest funky gadget in hand, or with sum new fashion line on, or simply with a new toothpaste in hand. Come to think of it, when the advertisers bring these ads out they are desperately trying to tell us that our pursuit of happiness will end with their product but it never does. Being 23 years old in 2011, and working in the corporate, comes with its set of challenges. From my interactions with my ‘generation mates’ over the past year, I have found, that for my generation life is all about the ‘I’ and the ‘me’. And just like the media portrays, my friends have come to believe that, happiness is in the ‘fashion’, it is in the ‘drink’ and it is in the ‘flings’. It is in everything that can be bought. More bluntly put all of we have been made to believe in...

"What is love?"

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You can’t live in the 21st century if you don’t have the art of making complex things simple. But in our attempt to do this, somehow have we complicated our life? In our time, people say “I Love You” more on SMS than when they talk to each other. Gone are those days of poetry running to pages, we have come to the generation were poets have only 160 characters to express their “love”. But then again, what is love? Enrique’s latest song “Tonight I am loving you” has another version which simply takes the word “love” and replaces it with the F-word. Now are both of them the same? Greg Laurie, one of the most passionate evangelists working amongst the youth warns all the teenagers saying, “Guys will love to get sex, and girls will have sex to get love”. I would like to continue from there and say, that is not love but that is lust. In the 80’s there was still some difference between love and lust. But as we modernise, or simplify things for ourselves, we have made, both love and lu...

"18 Till I Die!!"

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“There you are older by another year now” said the brain of a youngster to his heart, “And you still don’t know where you’re headed”. His heart replied “I agree, no point in growing up, when you lack direction, no point in breathing if it lacks purpose” He let his brain and heart continue their complaining, you see in a few days he’ll be celebrating his birthday, and just like every new year he has witnessed in his life, even this one seems to lack direction, and purpose. His thoughts stopped there and then like always they questioned themselves “Seriously! What is this life for?” As youngsters many of us want to live for the moment, we hardly want to work, but surely want to party harder. We want to shop on an impulse, make friends in a click, and lead a life where the world revolves around us. In retrospection, I seem to have done the same. A major portion of my life was lived on my terms. Every time I lived for myself I came back home emptier than before. What good is it to ha...

"Be A Rebel!!"

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“Murder at high noon” screamed the Mirror this week as it announced the death of the Additional Collector of Nasik district, Yashwant Sonawane. As I sat in the comfort of my cubicle, surrounded by the beauty of manmade architecture, the dream world of a growing India burned around me. Will India ever get there? Will corruption ever leave us? Will the system ever change? Will honesty ever be respected? Will love ever rule over selfish desire? As these thoughts bogged me down, a sudden realization gripped me, living the life of a Christian means to be a rebel! Everything that Christ taught was against the system, against the principles of the world. Christ is a rebel! So this makes every follower of Christ a rebel! We have come to live in a world, where everything from educational degrees to sex is available for a price. We have come to live in a world where selfish gain is counted before the betterment of the nation. We have come to live in a world where saving trees is more im...

"If there is a Christian then what is he doing?"

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If you are finding it hard to understand the reason for this blog, then probably you are new to my world. A world filled with these wonderful people, with wonderful Christian names, but their lives are anything but Christian. A world where Christianity is screamed out from microphones, than from lives. A world that does not know where it is headed. 33% of the people on planet earth claim to be Christians. If all these people were actually Christ’s followers then we would not need songs like ‘Heal the world’. The so called ‘Leader of the nations’, America, which once praised ‘God’ in everything, from their national anthem to their currency, has not only unanimously decided to take ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christmas’, but also it has lost sight of the ‘God’ it use to believe in and worship. If you think that there is nothing much we can do about America. Then let’s come back to the Indian Christian. Try reading the news paper for a week and make a note of the articles were Christian name...

“If there is a God what is He doing?”

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As I sat and read the paper, this is what I thought, “If there is a God what is He doing? What’s with the sickness, the floods, the wars, the pain, the stress, the poverty, the hunger? If there is a God, and if He cares like the spiritualists tell me, He should sure be sleeping. Else he won’t let us get so…STUCK!!” Just look at our generation self-obsessed, greedy, pleasure-seeking, thoughtless, mercy less and emotion less. Probably you my friends who are reading this would disagree, but lay back and think, we do what we do, we do it for ourselves. We study for our future, we work for our salary, we live for our glory, and we die for our glory. “Why God? If you are there, Why have you let us get here, why have you let us become like this? Why have I become the seeker of “I-Pods, I-Pads, I-Life and I-Glory? Why God!!!” I rambled on in my thoughts, I looked at my life, I looked the lives of my friends searching a sign of God, I looked at outside the window, looked at people in the...