Jesus- The Way, The Truth and The Life.
For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?(Mark 8:36)
Believe it or not, we are currently living at a time when wrong becomes right and right becomes wrong. Regardless of faith, race, geographical boundaries, caste or creed, consciously or subconsciously we accept wrong as right.
In Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20 it says: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
We are all moving with the current, simply being carried away by the flow of the times, little realising that, this is leading us to nothing but troubles and more of it.
The human mind always believes and accepts what is perceived by others as normal. If you have noticed,companies do not air their ads on TV or any other channels once or twice. It is being done over a period of time to make the viewers believe and accept their message. As humans we love to move with the crowd and to be accepted by others. People’s fascination with fame and media personalities has spiralled out of control,thanks to the current media outlets. Media rules the world, hence, we blindly follow what everyone does because that is in vogue.
As Christians who are called to follow Christ, we have to dare to be different. I recently happened to listen to a message given by a God’s servant where he said, “If we truly follow Christ in every activities at our work place, we would be dismissed in a month’s time! Well, that is a challenge we have to face as soldiers for Christ.
Sadly, we live at a time when we ridicule the truth of God’s Divine Word and call it pluralism. Blasphemous to the core is when we endorse perversion and call it alternative lifestyle. We go against God’s Word and very conveniently stand up for the devil, fighting against God by condoning and backing wickedness by saying we are in ecumenism. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 1:22 “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
We are yet to see a Christian leader speak up on the lines of Paul or Stephen when asked about the Gospel. Why? because we fear men and hey, our “pluralism” ideology overtakes respect for God’s Divine Word. In this context, it is apt to recall (Galatians 1:6-7). “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”
As we have almost reached a time when the return of our Messiah is very near, can we hold on to the Lord and run the race as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27? “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
Remember, in Philippians 4:13 it says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” So let us dare to be different and take up the challenges leading to accomplish our mission, the race!