I am not alone...

So often I felt, a stillness that was gripping around,

At the edge of life I was so often found!

For I willed myself for a fight,

Yet for so long this tunnel was devoid of light!!

Day upon day, as the sun went down,

Deep into my inner self, I let myself drown!

Into a horizon where thoughts of mine,

Played in the loneliness of my mind!!

From that far-fetched horizon,

From this barren season!

I wish I could rise,

I wish there is an answer to my cries!!

I wandered, and stumbled,

My pride crushed, hurting & humbled!

Defeated, and all at loss,

Finally, I found myself at the cross!!

Then I lifted my eyes and there I see,

Someone had been through all this much before me!

I needn’t have taken this entire grind,

For the one hung there, was loving & kind!!

For redemption on my own, I did everything I can,

But all I needed was to have found the son of man!

For all my mistakes & flaws,

He had already given Himself to the cross!

I just knelt and said a prayer for a moment

And there escaped all reasons to lament!!

For I found hope, and a reason

I found meaning to this mortal season!!

From that moment, when I become His

Life has changed into everything bliss

Now I know that I am not alone...

For He loves me, and I am all His own!!

Am I willing to let him go???

The cricket grounds and the milling crowds,

The Coffee Days and the ever so languid ways!

We met so often, and we were friends so thick...

Through good & bad, we'd always stick!!

We walked through the festivities & fairs,

Telling each other "Who cares"!

We ate lunch off each other’s plate,

Got bumped off college for being late!!

We roamed by night, in the lonely street,

And also by the mid-day heat!

Such was the blessing of a friend,

I'd always love him to the world's end!!

Yet when it comes to the judgment day,

My friend & I might be going a different way!

For I realize I was a big failure,

When it came to introducing my friend to my savior!!

I knew the Lord on the cross,

But this to my friend I never put across!

Its not easy and wont happen in a day,

So I’ll go down on my knees and begin to pray!!

Am I willing to let him go?

This dearest friend, am I willing to lose?

Then what stops me from sharing the good news??

The Lord's Most Awesome Creation!!

As the sun beats down its might,

I squint into the horizon

Its brilliance so awesome,

And radiance blinds my sight!!

As the rains continue to batter

I gaze out of my window,

And watch the rain drops,

Condense into a pool of water!!

In winter, the blast of cold,

Leave the hills frozen,

Breathtaking & majestic,

In words it could never be told!!

In all this how can you not see?

That for all wonders of seasons & days,

The Lords most awesome creation,

Remains the dust thats You & Me!!

The God Standard!!

And she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."
The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.

Genesis 21:10, 11

The Bible says that our God is a jealous God and that He does not share His glory with anyone, what it also illustrates amply is that our God is an uncompromising God – be it standards, expectations or fulfilling His Word.

In our complicated and complex lives, compromise is probably something none of us can ever escape, being able to ‘accommodate’ be ‘flexible’ are highly commendable virtues, and yet sometimes they don’t cut any ice with the uncompromising nature of our Lord. The circumstances could be any, the cost of following His path could be any, the difficulty in not compromising could be colossal and yet for nothing in the world, or outside it, would our God go back on His standards.

The above passage is a great example of such an uncompromising nature of God. God had promised Abraham a son, and yet Abraham (with Sarah’s advice) devised his own methods to fulfill God’s promise. Clearly, it went outside of God’s plan! God had his own plan of blessing Abraham with a son… and then fulfilling his promise of making Abraham’s descendants a Great Nation.

By resorting to his own ways, Abraham clearly put a spanner in God’s work. God wanted to give Abraham one child, who would take all his blessing; yet Abraham now ensured that he had two sons – both vying for Abraham’s inheritance.

Our human way of looking at would be to say, “now, what can be done… both of them are sons of Abraham, its but logical or fair that each get a share of his father’s inheritance” … And yet it is not how our God looks at it, He clearly had a plan and He is not compromising on it. He wants to bless Abraham and his descendants – but only in the way He has designed… not with the ‘surprises’ bought in by Abraham.

If Abraham wants the blessing then he had to “Get rid of the slave woman & son”, no doubt the child was Abraham’s own… and he clearly is distressed by such a thought (v. 11) and yet there is no compromise when it comes to God’s standards.

Be it work, friends, relatives, habits, studies… anything… when something doesn’t confirm to God’s standards He wants you to simply get rid of them. Easy or hard… distressing or displeasing, to be partakers in God’s abundant blessing it is simply imperative that we comply. And what happens when we comply is so amply clear from the blessed life that Abraham had since then.

Momentarily, he was distressed… but when he confirmed himself to God’s standards he came to be called ‘God’s Best Friend’... there was no count to the blessings in his life, and the momentary pain/distress never again is mentioned with his story! Centuries & millenniums later... we still fondly remember him as 'Father Abraham' all for the reason that he chose to gave up on what did not confirm to the standards of his Father !!

He Came, He Died, He Conquered!!

When He saw me in tears,
When He heard me cry!
Then He choose to give up heaven,
And on the cross He chose to die!!

For He understood my heartache,
And had seen my swelling sorrow!
For He knew of all my fears,
About that unknown tomorrow!!

So He traded all the trouble,
And took all my pain!
He stood by me through thunders,
Through the darkest clound & rain!!

For He came into this world,
And "I" was all He wanted to seek!
Great and mightly He was,
Yet for me, He chose to be meek!!

Then how could I forget all of it,
And Let His sacrifice in vain!
'Cos after Death came the third day,
When my victory was complete, As He rose again!!

The Glory Of The Cross

The Glory of the Cross is beyond description. The cross is the pivot as well as the centre of New Testament. The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centrality of Christianity.

Here is a question to ponder. Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear not the Jews for envy, but the Father, for LOVE.

God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Remember always one central truth. That is, Jesus came into the world and died and rose again to save mankind from sin (matthew 1:12).

The passion and death of Christ demands our surrender to Jesus Christ. That is why Paul responded rightly when he declared "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Its apt to conclude this thought with the portion of an immortal hymn that is ever fresh and fragrant.

"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to your Cross I cling,
Naked, come to you for dress
Helpless, look to you for grace,
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour or I die.
Rock of ages cleft for me
Let me hide myself in thee.............."

Practice Makes Perfect

"GO TO THE ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where i sat alone many hours." he said. "Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall.I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the top! This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson."

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, "If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notices it." It is the old doctrine, "Practice makes man perfect." We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing- we know what the result would be. If we could only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

The motto of David Livingstone was in these words, "I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose." By unfaltering persistence and faith in God he conquered.

"Silently sat the artist alone,
Carving a Christ from the ivory bone;
Little by little, with toil and pain
He won his way through the sightless grain,
That held and yet hid the thing he sought,
Till the work stood up like a growing thought