Have you ever sinned???

It’s 1:15 in the morning as I start writing this blog. A summary of the message that I shared with my fellow mates last Wednesday in prayer cell:

Have you ever thought that you’ve actually not been a bad guy/girl in your life?? Have you ever thought that you’ve never sinned in your life?? Then read on... this is for you!!

What is sin? The Bible gives us the best definition for it in Genesis 6:6 –“The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” So anything that we do that will grieve God and cause Him pain is called sin. It shouldn’t really matter to us what others think of us but what God thinks of us is the most important thing.

What is sin?

1. It is a choice.

Well, I will not cheat in an exam when an examiner is standing right next to me. A robber will not rob a bank if he knows that the cameras are focussing on him. And we will not switch over to another channel or to another web page when we notice someone standing behind us.

So there is no point in blaming our society, friends and family for our wrong doings. They can only influence us but can never cause us to sin.

What is ‘peer pressure’ then? This was explained beautifully in one of the youth camps that I attended this summer vacation and it shook me totally.

“When I want to do something (wrong) but don’t have the courage to do it alone, I wait for my friend (friend, really???) to give me that initial push. And I’ll call it peer pressure so that the blame doesn’t fall on me...” wow!!

HOW OFTEN DO WE BLAME OUR ‘FALL’ ON PEER PRESSURE?

2. Sin is being away from God.

If I think that I am finding value and significance in my life to live without depending on God, that’s a sin. O yes!! It is. God does exist. It needn’t be proven ‘cos if I don’t believe it and if I am not ready to give Him the praise, then according to Psalm 19:1, I have this whole nature around me crying out praises to him. So no excuses if you are an atheist. Just look around you and you’ll know there is a Higher Power. Not submitting to Him is definitely a sin!!

What is addiction? Anything that controls me, my thought process and my actions is an addiction. Not just drinking and smoking fall under this category, but also our favourite tv shows, gaming, the internet and most importantly our cell phones. None should control us but God. So, we better be addicted to God and not value anything else above Him in our lives.

WHAT/ WHO ARE YOU ADDICTED TO? GOD OR THE WORLD?

3. Sin starts as a thought, not as actions.

The Bible says in Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' ". Yea!! It’s our thoughts that make us ‘unclean’. Before Eve could even pluck the apple from the tree, she had sinned. She had desired (thought process) for the wisdom that God had forbidden Adam and Eve to have (Genesis 3:6). Her thought process led her to a simple act of disobedience which made God throw both Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.

IF ALL YOUR THOUGHTS CAN BE SCREENED ON A BIG SCREEN, WILL YOU BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU ARE SEEING??

4. There is no big sin and small sin in God’s view point.

Pride, selfish ambitions, anger and jealousy are just as deadly a sin like murder and adultery. In the Bible, God compares anger to murder (Matthew 5:22) and a lustful eye to adultery (Matthew 5:28) and says that it is all one and the same!! Remember, Adam and Eve was punished not for committing a crime as huge as we do these days. They were punished for their simple act of disobedience. Then just imagine how gracious our God is now!! How many times have we disobeyed God’s Word, out parents, our elders and never considered it as a sin? God still takes our acts of disobedience very seriously but has been too patient with us not to punish us for all that we do!!

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT THAT A ‘SMALL’ LIE OR A ‘SMALL’ BACKTALK WAS NOT ALL THAT WRONG??

Now that we know what sin is, I am sure all of us will agree that we have all sinned at some point of time or the other. So what do we do? We need to sincerely analyse ourselves and repent of our sins. We need to ask God to forgive us and more importantly ask God for His grace to help us not to repeat them again.

Pray this small prayer:

“Dear Jesus, I know that I’ve disappointed You so many times in my life. Forgive me for all that I’ve done to this day. I leave my old life behind. Give me Your grace and help me not to fall into the sinful trap again. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

Now if you’ve prayed this prayer, make sure that you lead a new life from now on so that you don’t give God the chance to say this again, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”(Genesis 6:6) Let Him give you the grace that you need to lead a life pleasing in His sight. But first, repent and surrender your life to God. It's now or never!!

The Prayer Cell within college campus- the beginning of great things to come!!

This post is probably a little late, but better late than never!! J We had our FIRST prayer cell within the college campus last Wednesday. We’ve been having prayer groups held outside the campus and within the hostels but this is the first of its kind, having it in a class room. I think of it even now and I am like, “wow... Jesus... wow...” God’s been gracious in giving us a place within the campus to worship him and learn more about His love for us and more importantly spread the Good News to one and all.

I would like to give a gist of what we did that day..

A small prayer to begin with by thanking God for all His goodness and for the time that He’d given us to worship Him.

We started by singing the beautiful song, ‘God will make a way(by Don Moen)’ which ministered to me personally in a different way and it was so apt for us to sing it that day ‘cos God had indeed made a way for us to spread about His love in college. We next sang ‘We fall down (by Chris Tomlin)’ as an act of surrender to God followed by a wonderful testimony from Jasmine(my classmate) on how God had saved her from her sickbed and how every doctor said just one thing, ”this has been possible only because God was with you!!” Glory to Jesus indeed!!

We followed it up with a small game and learnt this lesson: “We need to live in this world and yet not be of the world. It is difficult, yes, but hey, not impossible!!” And we definitely had some nice time in the process of learning it.

And then we had a message from His Word. We dealt with a delicate topic of ‘sin’, but probably the most important topic for us today in this world where ‘sin’ is termed as either ‘cool’ or ‘not that bad’.

Finally, we all spent a few moments in silence repenting of our sins and sang the song, ’Create in me a clean heart (psalm 51)’. Elizabeth finished it up with the closing prayer.

What a day. This day will be etched in my memory for long for the breakthrough that God gave us in college. When I leave this college two years from now, I will definitely look back on this day and thank my Jesus for His faithfulness and for His promises that are so very true.

So many souls to be won for Christ. Praying that He showers His grace and favour upon my college (Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai). Many should come, taste and see that He is indeed good. One life to live and I’ll live it running for my Jesus!!

The real independent India!!

Hey all. . Tomorrow is the 15^th of August. The same day, in 1947, the white men left our land. How is “Independent India” any different from the “Slave India”? Just that the white men left and the brown men took charge??What exactly does 15^th august mean to you all?? A holiday to sit at home?? O yea... Sure it is... (But unfortunately it falls on a Sunday this year. So govt hols minus one.. )So… What else??Think about it. Are we all enjoying and experiencing the real peace, joy and freedom? Some of us find it easy to confide in our friends than in our own parents and we put the blame on ‘generation gap’!! Most of us say that we tend (or bound/forced??) to do things that our friends do just to be accepted in the ‘gang’ and we give it a name ‘peer pressure’. There are a few of us who feel that we enjoy all the freedom in this world only when we hang out with friends every weekend, watching almost every first day – first shows, spending every penny that our dad earns and we call it ‘cool’. And there are some who are just out from school daring and raring to plunge in to the pool called ‘world’ and want to stay far away from home and complete education just because they wanna be ‘free birds’. Furthermore, there are still some who think ‘suicide’ is the only way-out to get out of the pressures of this fast-paced world. Is this real freedom where basically all of us are bound in our hearts and minds???

Real freedom must be first born on the inside. There is more to life than just the material pleasures that this world has to offer. The day, the youth of this nation realize this one truth; India will truly be an independent nation. India will taste true freedom the day you and I realize that our looks are not our first priority, the day we stop spending hours digging into our albums looking for a cool profile pic for our orkuts, twitters and facebooks, realise that facebook is not all that important and the day we stop wanting (not needing) for more. In short, India will be truly free the day we stop living to please others but rather be proud of whom we are, be proud of the Creator who made you and me so fearfully and wonderfully.

An India free from all the evils under the sun like lust, addictions (too much of facebook is an addiction too!!) corruption, bribery, terrorism, suicidal rate, blind faith, child marriage, sati, dowry system, caste and creed discrimination, gender inequality, poverty, child labour, witch craft, black magic, superstitions and what not seems a faraway dream. Sometimes it seems like we’re building too many castles in the air by expecting to see such an “India”. Right?? But hey, can we by any chance hope to see Hindustan anywhere near this dream of ours?? Oh yes. Definitely. But how??

“With man, things are impossible but with God all things are possible!!”

The day we, the youth of this nation break free from all the eastern, western and Indian culture and follow God’s ONE culture, this dream of ours will start turning into a true reality. A cleaner, greener and a standardized India will follow automatically. To put it in a nut shell, a truly ‘Independent India’ will be born the day Youngistan finds THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE and sways to the tune of ‘marg paaya, satya paaya, jeevan paaya re’!! Jai Hind!!