Blessed are you when people insult you...

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matt 5:11,12

“…when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you…”

Jesus knew very well that things like this will happen to us. And that’s why He makes it a point to mention this. Each day we interact with many people who are around us – at our workplace, our home, our neighborhood etc. There are times when we are insulted and humiliated in front of people, and it pains us. People might do so many things against us which might hurt us every day. They might crush us with their false accusations.
Let’s take the scenario at our workplace,
There will be times when we are purposely set at naught by our team mates.
People might deliberately avoid us and constantly try to pull us down.
Our mangers and other authorities might not appreciate us but rather always find fault.
All the good things we do and all our hard work might go unnoticed.
Maybe we are not given our promotion and appraisal on time,unjustly, for selfish reasons.
These are few examples of what might be relevant to what Jesus is quoting.

“…because of me...”

All the above mentioned issues become significant only when they happen because of the fact that we have made a conscious decision to follow Jesus and it is evident to the people around us.
You might very well go through tough times in office because of your manager for not doing your work sincerely. For this you cannot quote this verse and say you are being persecuted. Instead when you stand for Jesus in your work place and refuse to do what is not right and for this reason you are persecuted then this verse is applicable.
It might be the issue of paying your tax honestly, not claiming bills incorrectly, not telling a lie to cover up missed deadlines, not using office stationery for personal work etc.
We need to be a testimony where ever we are an in everything we do. You never know, you might be the only Bible people at your workplace may ever get to read.

“Blessed are you…” “…Rejoice and be glad…”

Many a times when things go wrong when we stand for the truth, when people persecute us because we have chosen to stand for Jesus, we tend to get discouraged and disheartened. We forget the fact that when we stand for Jesus, He will never put us to shame. We need to trust Him and hold on. Jesus reminds us to rejoice and be glad because we are blessed.

“…great is your reward in heaven…”

Jesus tells us how our reward is in heaven. We might expect things to work-out here, down on earth. Most of the time, it might not. In spite of being honest and truthful in all that we do in office our managers might still not appreciate us but rather look down on us. But it’s perfectly alright. Let us not yearn to gain for earthly reward and recognition which are temporary. Let us fix our eye on what is eternal, that which no one can take away from us.

“…in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Jesus encourages us quoting how there have been people before us who have been treated this way. So we are not the only ones who are being persecuted, but many who have stood for Jesus, also faced the same. So let us not get discouraged but hold on to what is right. Let us stand for Jesus the way our fore-fathers did, even to the point of death.

Can anyone understand me ?!!

Can anyone understand me?

At times life throws us into whirlpools of doubt and denial about our ‘self’ and individuality.

Times can be rough, our days so empty and parched; and this feeling of suffocating loneliness and questions like, “why are things like this happening only to me”, “life is just so unfair”, “things never work out for good for me” etc. grip us, binding us with fetters which can make us so handicapped and helpless.

“Life is not a bed of roses”… it’s so easy for all my elders to quote this.

But wait a min – does that mean my life always has to be such a bumpy road, that each time, I get tossed and turned, violent enough that I dread to tread this road?!! The moment I realize that no one seems to understand what I am going through, and can so easily only comfort saying “things will be fine, don’t worry”, loneliness curls around me like an ivy which most of the times is poisonous.

Loneliness pushes us into this unending maze of questions and self-reasoning- Why? Why?? Why???

It kills our conscious mind and dumps us into an endless loop of inferiority, insecurity and dis-satisfaction in life. Now this is when we tend to get into this faux reality of “no one understands me!” and it starts to sop up the life out of us.

Yeah, actually no one can understand us. We are unique and so different in everything from another individual. Though people might be able to pity us and share our sorrow, no one can really understand the actual pain we go through. And that’s why it takes somebody supernatural- God, to understand us completely. Remember He created us- designed the minute details of our being.

Every individual has some period in their life which is a span of extreme loneliness, at times – a very bitter experience. But then I believe for us who are believers, sometimes God does allow these times in our lives. Trust me, these are the most crucial moments in an individual’s life, because the choices he makes in these times has a rather huge consequence on the future course of his life.

Now the question we need to ask ourselves is – why am I feeling lonely?

Is it because I have no friends, or because of a breakup or because I am far away from my family and home, or is it because there is this vacuum in my life even though I have everything I want ???

“The loneliest moment in life is when, you have just acquired, that which you thought would give you the greatest pleasure, and it has let you down”

Each of ushave some desire in our lives which decides most of our actions in our everyday life. There is this longing within us to belong to someone, to achieve something, to be loved and have someone to whom we can express our love. These are basic emotional needs inside all of us and I am sure no one can deny these.

When one of these is not fulfilled, we feel a strange emptiness inside us which compels us to constantly strive to fulfill this need. Now this is where we need to be extremely careful, because we need to realize the fact that as human beings we will go to any extent to achieve this. And unless we look up to God for this we will definitely mess up.

“There is a God shaped vacuum in every human being which obviously only God can fill”

This is when we play ‘Jekyll and Hyde’. We know it’s not right but we can’t help but do it. The good that we want to do, we are unable to do and the bad that we do not want to do, we end up doing. And after doing it, guilt fills our heart and persecutes us. It makes us feel so bad that we begin to hate ourselves. But surprisingly, this does not stop us from doing the same old mistake after a while. Slowly we realize we are addicted to it. It ties our hands and makes us a slave, dragging us into the quick sand again and again, till we sink beyond recovery.

On the outside we are this happy, nice and smart looking individual – but living a lie on the inside. Because only, we know, the ‘Hyde’ we are on the inside, the secret life that no one else knows other than God. We hate it but cherish it owing to our addiction. A helpless feeling grips us when we think about it. Thus we seldom take time to even think about it and so rather than taking efforts to change and come out of it, we are content being a secret slave to our own defiant and lustful desires.

It might be different for different people. Maybe it’s an unwanted relationship that has enslaved you, a habit you are struggling with or a degraded and deteriorating lifestyle all together.

At the end of it all, we realize how all these things which we thought would give us the pleasure we wanted was only temporary and that we have been cheated, betrayed and fooled. This further wounds us and most of the times we let our wounds be wounded again. Yes, maybe the wounds may heal but remember the scars remain!

Deep inside I hear myself crying out – can anyone understand me? why am I messing myself up so much when I know I should not ? I hate to be ‘Me’.

My plastic smiles - does anyone really know that it’s fake!

Desperation pushes me to the edge but I still don’t know what to do.

But my friend, there is somebody who ‘can’ understand you. And this is what He has to say…

I know what you've been hearing
I've seen you hide your fear
Embarrassed by your weaknesses
Afraid to let Me near
I wish you knew how much
I long for you to understand
No matter what may happen, child
I'll never let go of your hand

I know you've been forsaken
By all you've known before
When you failed their expectations
They frowned and closed the door
But even though your heart itself
Should lose the will to stand
No matter what may happen, child
I'll never let go of your hand

The life that I have given you
No one can take away
I've sealed it with my Spirit, Blood and Word
The everlasting Father
Has made His covenant with you
And He's stronger than the world you've seen and heard

So don't you fear to show them
All the love I have for you
I'll be with you everywhere
In everything you do
And even if you do it wrong
And miss the joy I've planned
I'll never, never let go of your hand

The life that I have given you
No one can take away
I've sealed it with my Spirit, Blood and Word
The everlasting Father
Has made His covenant with you
And He's stronger than the world you've seen and heard

So don't you fear to show them
All the love I have for you
I'll be with you everywhere
In everything you do
And even if you do it wrong
And miss the joy I've planned
I'll never, never let go of your hand
I'll never let go of your hand

Maybe you are going through life’s loneliest moments right now, let me assure you of this, that “He does not cast away anyone who comes to Him”.

He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

A bruised reed He will not break, a flickering flame He will not snuff out.

He also says,

“Before you were born, you were special to Me. I knew you before you were conceived in your mother’s womb. With My hands I fearfully and wonderfully created very detail that makes you unique. I knit you together. I saw you long before you ever existed. I watched everyday of your life. So I know you. I know where you have been, where you are and where you are going…

If only you knew the thoughts I have towards you. Did you know My thoughts outnumber the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world? You are the apple of my eye. When trouble approaches, I hide you in the shadow of My wings. I have even engraved you in the palms of My hands.

It is My love for you that makes you precious and honored in my sight. I not only created you for My glory, I adopted you as My own child. I will never abandon you. So do not fret. Remember – you are My child. I know you, I love you, I am proud of you and I will fulfill my purpose for your life. Never forget this…Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed,

Yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken.

My love endures forever.”

If you are still wondering as to who this person is…

He is Jesus- The way, The truth and The life.

Invite Him into your heart and you will never feel lonely again- because he is the only one who can understand you just as you are.

~ Azariah Jerry Manuel

Android made simple...!

What is Android ?

Step into a cellphone store these past few years, and it’s hard to miss Android. From a surprise public announcement back in 2007, to occupying the smartphone top-spot today – depending on which analysts or researchers you talk to – Android has managed to carve itself a niche as the Apple iPhone’s key rival.

Google does search, what are they doing on my phone?

Google may be best known for its search engine – and its place as many people’s homepage – but the company has plenty of other side-projects going on. Android has grown to be one of the biggest, freely-available software for manufacturers to put on mobile phones, tablets, set-top boxes (such as for cable or satellite TV) and other gadgets.
The core Android technology was bought when Google acquired the company responsible – and secured the services of its co-founder Andy Rubin, who is now heading the whole project as a Google senior vice-president – back in 2005. Although rumors suggested the search giant was planning a so-called “Google Phone”, in actual fact the ambition was much bigger: a whole platform for phones cheap and expensive, as well as all manner of other electronics, to use.
“Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models” Eric Schmidt, Google
Google’s argument is that by having a standardized, core platform, phones can be created quicker and manufacturers can spend less tinkering on software and thus make their handsets cheaper and more cost-effective. Meanwhile, those people creating apps – distributed through the Android Market, Google’s equivalent of the iPhone’s App store – have a much bigger target audience to appeal to.

So who’s involved?

Rather than go it alone, Google needed manufacturers (and the suppliers who provide them with components for cellphones) to sign up to the Android ethos. The end result is the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a consortium of several companies including manufacturers, carriers, software providers, component suppliers and more.
Currently, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are perhaps the best-known handset makers involved in the OHA, while network operators such as Sprint, Vodafone and T-Mobile are all onboard too. While collectively they’ve agreed to help drive Android and promote its adoption, they’ve also agreed not to break its consistency by tinkering too much with the software, despite the fact that Android is considered “open”.

What do you mean, open?

“Open”, or “open-source”, means that the underlying software which Android uses is accessible to anybody interested in taking a look. If you’re a manufacturer, that means you don’t have to ask Google (or indeed pay Google) to use Android on your gadget; if you’re creating software, you don’t have to pay to get access in order to make your apps work. Google’s engineers take responsibility for each Android update, but they include public submissions deemed worthy of being made official, suggestions from manufacturers and others, and everything is documented and released (eventually) online for all to see.
In that way, Android differs significantly from most of the other major mobile phone software platforms popular today. Apple won’t let anybody else use iOS as on the iPhone, for instance, and RIM won’t let anybody use its BlackBerry software. Microsoft gets paid by manufacturers wanting to use its Windows Phone software, and limits what changes can be made to the code.

So the experience on every Android phone is the same?

Not at all. While the core software may be the same, manufacturers are free to make all manner of tweaks to Android as they see fit. Considering the fast pace of the mobile phone segment today, those changes are often done to better differentiate one handset from another. They can vary from a few minor amendments so that the homescreen – the main page of the phone – looks different from everyone else’s, to broad changes that dig deep into the underlying software and make the handset significantly different to use.
That act of changing Android to suit an individual company’s market intentions has led to what’s known as fragmentation, or divergences to “pure” Android as Google releases it. Google has certain limits it insists manufacturers abide by if they want to use its premium software – such as the Gmail app, or getting access to the Android Market of third-party apps – which include the minimum specifications of the phone and what tweaks to the software have been made.
Even within those limits, however, manufacturers have pushed their own ideas and left big differences in the overall Android experience moving from device to device. Pick up an HTC-made Android phone, for instance, and it’s a very different look and feel to, say, a Motorola-made phone. Experts disagree on how dangerous this fragmentation will be to Android’s progression, though a rough rule of thumb is that the more changes a manufacturer makes, the longer it takes for them to push out software updates when Google amends the underlying Android code.

What’s next?

Although manufacturers have experimented with putting Android on devices other than phones, Google’s next “official” push is tablets. These have bigger touchscreens and so lend themselves to a different on-screen layout and features. Google has begun a separate strand of Android development, known as “Honeycomb”, which is intended specifically for tablets, as manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and others attempt to take on Apple’s iPad.

How old is the earth?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

The question of the age of the earth has produced heated discussions on debate boards, classrooms, TV, radio, and in many churches, Christian colleges, and seminaries. The primary sides are:

• Young earth proponents (biblical age of the earth and universe of about 6,000 years)
• Old earth proponents (secular age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years and a universe about 14 billion years old)

The difference is immense! Let’s give a little history of where these two basic calculations came from and which worldview is more reasonable.

Where did a young-earth worldview come from?

Simply put, it came from the Bible. Of course, the Bible doesn’t say explicitly anywhere, “the earth is 6,000 years old.” Good thing it doesn’t; otherwise it would be out of date the following year. But we wouldn’t expect an all-knowing God to make that kind of a mistake.

God gave us something better. In essence, He gave us a “birth certificate.” For example, using my personal birth certificate, I can calculate how old I am at any point. It is similar with the earth. Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:1–5). From there, we can begin calculations of the age of the earth.

Let’s do a rough calculation to show how this works. The age of the earth can be estimated by taking the first 5 days of creation (from earth’s creation to Adam), then following the genealogies from Adam to Abraham in Genesis 5 and 11, then adding in the time from Abraham to today.

Adam was created on Day 6, so there were 5 days before him. If we add up the dates from Adam to Abraham, we get about 2,000 years, using the Masoretic Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11.Whether Christian or secular, most scholars would agree that Abraham lived about 2,000 B.C. (4,000 years ago).

So a simple calculation is:

5 days
+ ~2000 years
+ ~4000 years
______________
~6000 years

At this point, the first 5 days are negligible. Quite a few people have done this calculation using the Masoretic text (which is what most English translations are based on) and, with careful attention to the biblical details, have arrived at the same time-frame of about 6,000 years, or about 4,000 B.C.

Where did the old-earth worldview come from?

Prior to the 1700s, few believed in an old earth. The approximate 6,000-year age for the earth was challenged only rather recently, beginning in the late 18th century. These opponents of the biblical chronology essentially left God out of the picture. Three of the old-earth advocates included Comte de Buffon, who thought the earth was at least 75,000 years old. Pièrre LaPlace imagined an indefinite but very long history. And Jean Lamarck also proposed long ages.

However, the idea of millions of years really took hold in geology when men like Abraham Werner, James Hutton, William Smith, Georges Cuvier, and Charles Lyell used their interpretations of geology as the standard, rather than the Bible. Werner estimated the age of the earth at about one million years. Smith and Cuvier believed untold ages were needed for the formation of rock layers. Hutton said he could see no geological evidence of a beginning of the earth; and building on Hutton’s thinking, Lyell advocated "millions of years".

From these men and others came the consensus view that the geologic layers were laid down slowly over long periods of time based on the rates we see them accumulating today. Hutton said:

The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. ... No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.

This viewpoint is called naturalistic uniformitarianism, and would exclude any major catastrophes like Noah’s Flood. Though some, such as Cuvier and Smith, believed in multiple catastrophes separated by long periods of time, the uniformitarian concept became the ruling dogma in geology.

Thinking biblically, we can see that the global Flood in Genesis 6–8 would wipe away the concept of millions of years, for this Flood would explain massive amounts of fossil layers.

Most Christians fail to realize that if there was a global Flood, it would rip up many of the previous rock layers and redeposit them elsewhere, destroying the previous fragile contents. This would destroy any evidence of alleged millions of years anyway. So the rock layers can theoretically represent the evidence of either millions of years or a global Flood, but not both. Sadly, by about 1840 even most of the Church had accepted the dogmatic claims of the secular geologists and rejected the global Flood and the biblical age of the earth.

After Lyell, in 1899, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) calculated the age of the earth, based on the cooling rate of a molten sphere, at a maximum of about 20–40 million years (this was revised from his earlier calculation of 100 million years in 1862). With the development of radiometric dating in the early 20th century, the age of the earth expanded radically. In 1913 Arthur Holmes’ book, The Age of the Earth, gave an age of 1.6 billion years. Since then, the supposed age of the earth has expanded to its present estimate of about 4.5 billion years (and about 14 billion years for the universe).

Conclusion

When we start our thinking with God’s Word, we see that the world is about 6,000 years old. When we rely on man’s fallible (and often demonstrably false) dating methods, we can get a confusing range of ages from a few thousand to billions of years, though the vast majority of methods do not give dates even close to billions.

Cultures around the world give an age of the earth which confirms what the Bible teaches. Radiometric dates, on the other hand, have been shown to be wildly in error.

The age of the earth ultimately comes down to a matter of trust—it’s a worldview issue. Will you trust what an all-knowing God says on the subject or will you trust imperfect man’s assumptions and imaginations about the past that regularly are changing?

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the LORD.
But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isaiah 66:1–2).

For Further reading:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/05/30/how-old-is-earth

Life is a gift

[a letter written by a brother to his younger siblings]


Life is a gift…
The Bible says that God breathed the breath of life into man and he became a living being.
You and I are blessed to have this breath of life, in us, which is God’s own.
If you can recall what you learnt at Sunday school and probably later in your quiet time,
God did not just straight away create man and gave him the world as it was.
God took time, and in His wisdom created beautiful things that we see today in our rich blue planet,
saw all that He had created was good and then…and then He created man in His own image.
I personally believe that God wants us to enjoy life, in its fullness and live happily.
But then it does not stop there, the important fact is that God intends that we enjoy life in the right way, within the limits which He in His Wisdom has set for us.
I am sure you will now ask me what do you mean by “enjoy life in the right way”?
You are either just entering your teenage or you are in your youth; If you are saying I don’t fit into either of these categories then you should be in life’s most exciting but also the most risky phase – adolescence.
Probably till now you have not come across situations which demanded you to make a big decision.
Maybe all the choices you have made so far were influence by your parents or made by them.
But my friend let me tell you that from this phase of life you will be called to make tough decisions.

From now on, in every step you take you might have to make a choice and mind you, these small choices you make will ultimately make a huge difference in your life.


The story is told of a young man who was unjustly sold as a slave into a foreign land. He was deprived of all the dreams that he had as a kid, all that he wanted to enjoy in life after he grew up. Things did not work out for him the way he had anticipated back at home, being the most loved in the family. He was young, handsome, strong, intelligent - all that any young man would want to be. But he lacked this one thing which you and I enjoy - freedom.
Being away from home, a slave in a foreign land, under a cruel master (in olden days slaves were treated worse than animals), I am sure he would have been frustrated and depressed.
And now that mom and dad are not around he would be free to do what he wants. He would have thought, when life is throwing all the bad things it’s got at him, why not just enjoy life the way he wanted.
It happened so that the lady of the house, where he was a slave, noticed him. She enticed him each day into making the wrong choice. But this young man, though so far away from home and with no one to watch over him, just did not give in. The lady could not stand it. She went to the extent of pulling him to bed. And this is where this young man takes his first but firm stand.


I want you to carefully pay attention to the reason he quotes for his decision. Would you turn with me to Gen 39:9 in your Bible?
“How can I sin against God?”
He was surely aware of this one fact that even if there was no one around God was watching and it is to God that he is accountable.



I am sure by now you’d have realized that I have been talking about Joseph. 


There are only two things that can be running in your mind now:
1. Not again! I have heard this story a million times!
OR
2. Hey I ain’t like that! I would not give in to such a big sin. This is will never happen to me!


My loving friend let me assure you of this, if not this situation, situations similar to this are on their way and you can’t avoid them. But yes, you too can take a stand and say NO, just like Joseph did.
The world we live in, changes very quickly. The modern culture that we are exposed to today is very deceptive. Things are introduced to us in a very subtle way. We would have hardly realized we were into it and by then, we would have been dragged way into the system.


The Bible reminds us that we should not give the devil a foothold. The devil is a roaring lion looking out whom to devour.


Ships are anchored far at the sea when they do not get permission to dock at the harbor. Usually the period they stay anchored at sea is pretty long. During this time corals and other crustaceans attach themselves to the hull (the base, lower part of the ship). Now if the crew does not carefully clean them off, they quickly spread and become powerful enough to even sink a mighty ship.
In life, there are many unwanted things which can so easily hook on to us, and most of the time, we are unaware of it. If we are not careful to constantly keep a check on our habits and lifestyle, we will fall prey to the enemy.


The devil with his crafty plans will target us who are young, in this area of life – relationship with the opposite sex. Unless we are very careful and are always on our guard we will fall.



As TobyMac in his song IRENE says, “please be aware of snakes, they come in all shapes and sizes to tempt you”, be very careful, “gentle as a dove and shrewd as a serpent “and watch and pray that you might not fall into temptation.


You need to take steps to I want you to keep the following as “Non-Negotiables”, meaning to say that at any cost, you should not compromise. Remember Daniel and his friends did not compromise even to the point of death and they were rewarded.


Non-Negotiables: (You can add to this list after consulting your parents/elders)

•  Never have just one person to whom you constantly associate. Make sure you do not do special favors for a single individual. 
• Do not touch or allow being touched! Always keep safe distance.
•  Avoid phone calls and text messages unless and until it’s very important. Share with your parents/mentors about all your friends.
•  Never be in a place or go out with the person of the opposite sex alone; be it elder or younger. 
• At any cost do not confide or share personal issues with the person from the opposite sex. 

• Riding along in a bike or travelling in a car alone with a person of the opposite sex is a strict NO! NO! However urgent the situation might be. When in doubt, if talking to someone is right or wrong, always ask your parents or mentors. Never assume. They always have better experience than us even if we feel they are old-fashioned.
• It is good to                                                                                     - Have a mentor (someone senior whom you can trust) e.g. Moses & Joshua
  - Be a mentor for someone younger than you are e.g. Paul & Timothy
  - Have a peer to whom you will be able to share with and will keep things confidential e.g. Paul and Barnabas
  NOTE: The other person involved in all these cases should be from the same sex. 

Unless we have a set of principles and convictions for our life we will sink for sure. The danger is that even before we realize we are sinking, we would have sunk to good depth.
 Because,
It’s a slow fade…


Be careful little eyes what you see It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings Be careful little feet where you go For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow
Be careful little ears what you hear When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near Be careful little lips what you say For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray


It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid 
When you give yourself away People never crumble in a day 
The journey from your mind to your hands Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand You just might be sinking 





Just as Daniel resolved not to defile himself with something as ordinary as food, I would encourage you too to take small but firm decisions which will please and honor God.


Remember,
when you take one small step towards honoring God He will take a hundred to honor you.
It is my earnest prayer that God will help you even as you take a decision to honor him.


“The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth,
to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him”