The fact is that the humanity itself, for whom God sacrificed Himself, though living, is as good as dead. If a man has no fear of God, he is controlled by a craziness. Atheism also causes a craziness. The pride of knowledge rendered Nietzsche insane and he eventually died insane.
An atheist lives a perplexed life. Many questions haunt him – how did it happen? How did the creation come into existence? What will happen after this life? He lives a restless life in an effort to disprove the existence of God. The faith of an atheist rests on baseless assumptions. They argue that if God can exist on His own, why not the earth? They ignore the fact that God and earth cannot be equated. It is foolish to bring them under the same logic for unlike the earth, God was never created, He Is! He is eternal, whereas the earth and all its things are temporal. Everyday, things of the earth are born and die.
Some believe that God does exist but their thinking is tied down to religion, not God. In general, our society is built of such ‘religion’ minded people. They can do anything for their religion. For the sake of their own religion, they can kill those who follow another religion, they can burn their innocent children and devastate their dwellings too. Only ‘religion’ can instigate people to commit such heinous acts, never God. Those who love God also love human beings and being humane; while those who love ‘religion’ have no concern either for humans or for being humane.
Just review the condition of our society; man has become more frightening than a venomous snake. In an isolated place, one is more afraid of meeting a man than a snake. Nowadays people’s efforts to prevent intrusions from harmful animals are far less than those made to safeguard themselves from intruding human beings. An occasional person dies, bitten by a snake; but the toxins and poisons of men are destroying so many daily.
Our unrighteousness is the same
Our religions may be different but our unrighteousness is the same. Whatever be our religion, our works are similar, the condition of our lives and our families is similar. A disparate family exists together under one roof. The father lives in the ego of his being ‘the father’; the wife never misses an opportunity to recount the ‘favors’ she does to the husband – given this, done that etc. If the husband happens to reply in kind, it precipitates a disaster. For whom the heart ached at one time, has now become a heartache. The children are pre-occupied with themselves. Relatives have more of mutual tensions than relationships; they may ‘get-together’ but their hearts do not. Nobody knows when a blood relation will trick them. Whom to believe and whom not to, is very difficult to discern. Behind a smiling faces lurk hearts that curse. We do not even realize how many deceptions are hidden behind each smiling face we meet.
Though just a jest, this anecdote serves to illustrate the conditions in many homes. After another domestic quarrel, the husband got very angry, determined to commit suicide, he went to the market, purchased poison, consumed it and lay down on his bed to die. He did not die, but became quite sick. The wife yelled back at the husband, “See, isn’t this is what I keep telling you – properly check what you buy, but you never listen to me. Again you have gone and wasted money on a spurious thing and come out a loser!”
This may not be the state of your family, but in many homes the husband-wife relationship has soured. They may continue to live together, but their hearts have grown apart, within themselves they are as good as divorced; for them living together has become a compulsion. Often when a husband and wife separate, people say, “They could not understand each other.” But the fact is that the actual knowing and understanding of each other’s true self begins only with living together under one roof, even if they may have known each other beforehand.
Doors and pains
Even though we may not be aware of or understand the pains of another person, nobody is bereft of pains and problems. As an example, you will not be able to fully appreciate the travails of a balding man. Firstly, what are the limits till which he should wash his ‘face’ when he has to? Then, going to a barber’s shop is quite an embarrassment, what will the people sitting there say? They may not articulate anything, but their side-glances and then a sly smile hurts deeply. Even the barber is put to the test, what to trim and from where, and what to leave! His payment, should it be for trimming the hair or searching for it? We may not appreciate the problems others have, but every one of us has problems.
Seeing a foreigner, some beggars stretched out their hands, begging for money. The foreigner first made ready his camera, and then reached into his pocket for some coins. Instead of giving them the coins, he did a strange thing, he scattered the coins on the ground. The beggars leapt to gather the coins, jostling each other to pick them up, while the foreigner started to click and record this scene in his camera. A man was watching all this and felt very bad. After the foreigner had left, he said to the beggars, “That man will go back to his country and publish those photos in the magazines there. How humiliating it will be for this country, and what will their people think about us, did you at all think about this? A beggar answered, “Sir, we know all this, but our hungry stomach does not; and if you can, then do something about our sorry condition instead of this lip service.” We have many sermons on problems but no solutions to them.
When life becomes a burden
“Tension” is a word that you can find in every aspect of life. ‘Tension’ if you are married, ‘Tension’ if you are not. ‘Tension’ if you have children, ‘Tension’ if you don’t. ‘Tension’ if you get a job, ‘Tension’ if you don’t. ‘Tension’ if a person is lean and thin, ‘Tension’ if he is fat. Many illnesses keep us in ‘Tension’. Hope starts to fade because of problems, man looses heart and with questions like – what, how tormenting him, soon fears engulf him and then life becomes a burden.
No matter how grand an education, job, house and possessions one may have, if there is no peace in life and the home, they are all futile. Having gained everything that the world has to offer, if there is still discontent, then what is the gain of it all? The cause of problems is not the lack of money or worldly goods; they are there because of our pride, our vanity, the desire to take revenge, to humiliate the other person. Many have illicit relations, bad habits and have made life miserable not only for themselves but for their families too and yet they behave so insolently as if they are ‘all-in-all’ and can do anything.
From the stone-age till this computer-age, man has been able to change so many things, but the one thing he has been unable to change is his nature. Most of us want that our politicians should change their character, our police should change its methods, our government employees should change their ways and our officers should change their behavior. We sincerely desire this change, but how many desire to change themselves, their nature, their character, their family life? How many actually make any efforts to bring about this change in themselves? The condition of the world now is such that neither we ourselves nor our world can be tranquil. Yesterday had its problems; today’s problems are no less, and tomorrow is waiting with even worse problems.
If in the midst of all this, death were to steal us away, it will dump us into an eternal problem. Whether you believe it or not, ‘SIN’ is the root cause of all problems. All of us have sinned, its nature, severity and vileness may vary. Whether you are traveling in the First Class or in the Second Class, the destination remains the same; whatever be the severity of your sin, the outcome is the same. Dear reader, only the Lord Jesus can deliver you from sin. That is what He came into the world for. By associating Jesus with a religion called Christianity, we insult Him, because He did not come for any religion or race or region; He came for the whole world. He is for everybody and loves everybody. He loved the world so much that He sacrificed Himself for everybody’s sins, so that you and I can be partakers of an eternal joy and wonderful peace.
One prayer will change everything for you; you have no need to undergo any religious conversion. Just one prayer, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner, and forgive my sins.” Only 12 words, seeking forgiveness, will remove forever all your penalty of sin.
All that is hidden in you
I have to write all that you have kept hidden within you. Maybe some dark shameful deeds committed at some time and now concealed from the world. These deeds, these sins that you & I have committed, till when will they remain hidden? At some time they will be manifest, if not now, then later; if not in this world then definitely in the next. Sin has to pay its wages and nobody can escape receiving them; at best they may keep it in abeyance for a period, but at some time the wages will be paid into our accounts. If this ‘SIN’ account is not settled and cleared in this world, then it will drag us into an eternal predicament in the next, from where no deliverance will ever be possible.
The voice of the Lord speaks lovingly and directly to the heart. However hard you may try, this voice brings out your actual self before you. It exposes all your dark deeds very clearly before you; and in face of his reality man is taken aback. But, the same Lord will change everything too; all you have to do is ask Him for the change. He will transform everything; just take a step towards Him. Just open the door, The Light is waiting to stream in, dispel all darkness and enlighten your life. All the waiting and aloofness is only from your end.
The present times will soon change into such dreadful times that even if you want to repent, you may not be able to do so. Therefore it is time to take cognizance and break out of the reverie. To lose your darkness accept The Light, to lose fallacies accept The Truth.
I have now committed these words to print and sent them to you, so that through them the voice of God’s heart can reach your heart. He does not want you to perish. One prayer has the power to transform everything for you – your present, your future and your eternity – “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.”
All I can do is encourage you; it remains for you to make the decision. At this very moment you can taste the Lord’s goodness and blessings through just one plea – “Lord Jesus accept my prayer and have mercy on me a sinner.”
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