Mat 17
20 Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

2Cor 12:9
But Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

From the two pieces of scripture mentioned above, we are able to deduce that the act of overcoming our trials, is in thinking less of ourselves and focusing our lives more on the Son of God “Jesus Christ”, through whom God creates and restores life in all its holistic essence. It is in counting all we have achieved in the flesh as loss (Phil 3:8) and dying to ourselves and living for the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 12:24-26) that we enjoy life in all its fullness. Have you ever noticed that people who show-off, put on the poorest show? The thing is we were not made for the purpose to glorify ourselves but to live for the glory of God, and am speaking of those who have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not about what we have done but about finding refuge in Jesus, learning His precepts & be empowered by His Holy Spirit to exercise His commandments with a new heart that beats for God (Ezek 36:26-27).

Mat 22
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Psalm 2
11 Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Remember how God tells Israel in Deut 7:7 that He did not choose Israel because they were great but because they were the least of all peoples. You know, God is so Sovereign and Mighty that His enemies exists simply because He raises them, like fattening a cow for the slaughter (Rom 9:17, 22). Even Satan does nothing more than further God’s agenda in this world. You might ask, so if everyone is doing the will of God, why are people going to hell? Good Question… well, unlike the serpent in the garden of Eden, we who were made in the image of God are warm blooded, so as to indicate that we won’t adapt to our environment to the extent of succumbing to it. Take Simon for example, whose name means “a reed that sways with the wind” but after his confession concerning Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God, Jesus named him “Peter” meaning ‘rock’ (Mat 16:18), a testimony which cannot be shaken and upon which Jesus shall build His Church. It is said about God that He is immutable (there is no shifting shadow [James 1:17]) and this is how we are to be… holy as God is Holy, that even in an environment of a fallen world we shall be as saints empowered by grace to serve the Lord (Phil 3:14 & 4:13), like the lotus that grows in the marshes. So it is, that from the fall, all men are sinners (Rom 3:23) left with the self-righteousness they chose in Adam to saves themselves while the Saints are God’s elect in whom God overcame sin by the power of Jesus’ blood and reconciled them to Himself (1Jn 2:2). So, the reason people are going to hell is because the righteousness they chose for themselves in Adam doesn’t save them from sin, especially when you consider how self-righteousness blatantly differs from the righteousness of God, revealed to us in Christ.

John 1
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him.

Rom 5
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

The counterfeit religions of the world have a very misleading view of piety, because their righteousness is not revealed to them through Christ, the only mediator between God & men (1Tim 2:5). As a matter of fact, these religions are driven by the people’s self-righteousness in their wasted attempt to please God on their own terms but truth be told the only god they serve is themselves because if their righteousness is their own, then these fools are a law to themselves & wise in their own eyes. Following Jesus (true Christianity) on the other hand, calls for a piety where the precepts we are to obey are moral (Mat 28:18-20). I really don’t think God is really concerned with the people’s sadistic take on religion, who beat themselves silly, grow an unkempt beard or walk long distances barefoot to the Mosque, temple or monastery. If you think your zeal to not eat pork or drink wine pleases God (Mat 15:17-18), guess what… it doesn’t. What pleases God is seeing you obey His Moral Law, where you first love the Lord with all your strength and second that you love your neigbour as you love yourself (Mat 22:36-40). The religions of the world believe in putting on a show of humility with their attire for all the world to see, while by way of self-righteousness they magnify themselves before God concerning how they merited/attained their jannat/nirvana with their sadistic religious routines. However, the truth is Salvation is about being put right with God… aligning your desires with His by the redeeming merit of the unblemished lamb of God: Jesus, by whose blood we have forgiveness of sins. Salvation is not naturally possible for any person, until the irresistible grace of God converts the person from being self-centered to being God centered. This is true conversion and is only possible by way to repentance, where after God brings the person to realize the futility of his/her self-righteousness, that person submits/lowers/prostrates himself/herself to God, that in truly admitting his/her weakness, he/she may find comfort & refuge in God, through Jesus Christ.

Mat 5
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2Cor 7:10
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

To conclude, if we were to look at Eph 2:8-10 and Luke 17: 10, we understand that we are saved by grace through faith and the evidence of our salvation is in the fruits but the merit is of Christ and so if we are to boast, we are to boast in the Lord (Jer 9:23-24) & think less of ourselves to the extent of boasting in our weakness, which is spiritual prostration in revealing how much we really love the Lord our God who is worthy of true worship (Rev 5:8-14 & 7:10). It is therefore in earnestly seeking the Lord concerning the obedience He requires of us, that we can see beyond ourselves and beyond our apostate totalitarian environment, only to realize as Paul did, how helpless we are as sinners (Rom 7:24) and how great the mercy of God is for those who seek Him that where our sin abound, His saving grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20).

Romans 8 (in the context of Rom 5:17)
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

I am prompted to write this because a fellow countryman of mine working in the US sent me this video of Trump choosing Dr. Robert Jeffress to be the embassy in Jerusalem. In that video, I heard Dr. Jeffress speak out clearly against Islam as being a lie from the pit of hell and Judaism’s having no salvation without Jesus Christ. I told this friend of mine that I agreed with whatever was there in that video and that it was Christian culture that has shaped the west, which still remains a conducive environment despite its backsliding into self-righteousness, liberalism and humanism. I do believe in the equality of all people but I believe this equality is determined in the sight of God but somehow liberalism wants to treat all people as equal by equaling their fabricated religious system to the truth about God, which has made the west what it is, a refuge for people, where making a living is easier and the quality of life is better; not because those people are special in and of themselves but because it’s a society is built on the framework of God’s law. I must however say that the Mosaic Law does allow foreigners into its society who must abide by the Civil Law of God Almighty in that land or suffer the repercussion for acting contentiously. Unlike Islam, there is no Jizya levied on them for not being of the same faith. The Moral Law on the other hand requires the tithe to be paid by the believer and not the unbeliever because the more the gospel progresses, the more believers there will be and the more that society shall progress under God, which is unlike the Jizya that keeps the Non-Muslim in their Non-Muslim state to maintain the Jizya coming and thus furthering strife in the land.

Mat 13:32
31 Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man planted in his field. 32 Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

I heard my Prime Minister Narendra Modi once say that he wanted to see Mumbai become like Shanghai but I don’t know how that is going to happen with nearly 80% of Indians still worshiping animals, trees & stones. Surely there are many Non-Christians who are very rich but riches is not critical in determining the quality of life. Look at the Middle-East for instance, the Arabs have more money than they know what to do with it, they surely aren’t rich for their ability to enterprise, rather they are rich only for their oil, which makes me sometimes wonder if that is curse or a blessing… looking at all the wars and strife it has caused. Surely, that strife has come to them from God, who converts curses to blessings through His work on the cross (Gal 3:3) and blessings into curses to those who deny the truth of His Son (Mal 2:2/Ps 2:12). Though my country may have some of the most intelligent people on the planet, most of the people who rule over them (politicians) are uneducated, which is not surprising when their gods are animals, trees and stones.

Mat 28
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Take China for instance, its economy has surged to second place after the USA, because China is where the Gospel is growing the most aggressively in the world. Btw. It might interest you to know that though Gautama Buddha existed from 480 to 400 BC, according to the Tibetan historian Bu-ston, states Warder, the earliest collection of Buddhist text called the Tripataka was written around 1st century AD, a few decades after the gospels. This explains why many of the Buddhist teachings sound a lot like the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel. The Chinese, I think have had enough of this rip-off called Buddhism and they are now after the real thing, which is why they are doing so well. Today, corporations in China are inculcating Biblical values in their employees because they have noticed it encourages the right work ethic, which in turn builds employer-employee relationships and helps businesses succeed.

Romans 3
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:
“That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
…
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified [g]freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

To to love and respect people as you do yourself, is commanded in the Bible (Mat 22:36-40) but it is totally another thing to buy their lies about God by treating it at par with God’s truth revealed in Christ. For how you can consider people’s misplaced sentiments over God’s truth (Rom 3:3), unless you are an unbeliever who has no sight of God in the way you go about life (Jn 3:3). This is the main reason I oppose the mass influx of refugees into the west because it will turn out to be a cultural washout of Christian values in that land. The liberals however support this mass immigration because being self-righteous and godless themselves they couldn’t care any less. Liberals have no sight of God, these fools think of people equality in all the wrong terms especially faith, and they are paying dearly for being so hell-bent on making their country a shit-hole. Take Sweden for example, their homeless are still on the streets while refuges are provided furnished homes, plunging that nation further into debt. Btw. Sweden is now the rape capital of Europe, while in the UK, refugees are feeling so welcomed that they freely barge into people’s homes and gang-rape their daughters and wives, just like the militants do in Kashmir.

John 1 (refers to having faith in Jesus)
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Col 1
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

To conclude, it is important to note that this world continues to exist only because God has plans to restore this world in His Son. Unlike the various concocted religions of the world out there, Christianity will not spread under the edge of the sword, nor by way of deception, nor by appealing to the people’s sinful appetite but by the power of God alone.

Rom 12:19
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Very often we come across situations where we are not only terribly wronged but also slandered for speaking the truth to those who have wronged us. Moving-on from there… is not so much about saving your image in society but about acting sincerely in that situation in the sight of God. There may be times when you want to bludgeon people (who have wronged you) to death, and it is worse if you’re short tempered because then many who love the thrill of a near death experience will instigated you. Still what you should fear is not so much the Law Enforcement so as to save your own skin but you ought to fear God and nip it at the bud by way of repentance unto God before those thoughts fruition into actions. So, what you must go about doing is the next righteous thing, despite the slander and you will come to notice that when your time of testing is over, that the perpetrator/s who you were contending with is/are dealt with so severely by God, that you will feel sorry for them (Isaiah 10:12).

Psalm 3:7 (Call on Him to give you Justice)
Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

Mat 11:28 (Find your rest in Him through your trials)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

If you insist on avenging yourself, then the only moving-on you will be doing, will be from the frying pan to the fire. However, if you are willing to let the fear of the Lord rule over your heart (Ps 119:10-11), your life shall be blessed, in your moving on from a self-centered life to God-centered life because you will never be able to really move on (Mat 5:4-6) unless you die to yourself and live for the glory of God who is just (Jn 12:24-26). Though you may sometimes be so angry that you can vividly imagine the bloody justice you would stoop to, to set things right. The truth is you are neither God over that situation, nor over yourself, nor over the person you seek to get even with. So, the best thing is to do is to swallow your pride, overcome your anxiety and find your rest in Christ (Mat 11:28-29), by way of reading scripture or listening to some Gospel music because it is in dying to ourselves and living for God that we find true peace in our situations. Moving-on, is not something synonymous with weakness rather it is about portraying the meek nature of Christ where our actions emerge not from the love/faith we have in ourselves but from the love/faith we avail in God through Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16). So, when you place your faith in God, moving-on is the bravest thing you can do while you are at peace, resting in Jesus (Jn 14:27). In fact, when you act from such faith and move on, it makes the people who have hurt you feel insecure for no longer having that emotionally destructive hold on you anymore.

Psalm 14:1
The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.

Prov 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Wisdom serves as a great comforter in helping us move on from acts of vengeance against those who have treated us unjustly. We must thereby understand that we live in a world where people think it’s ok to sin, as long as the people they are sinning against don’t know what they’re up to. However, for those victims who foolishly revere (from unholy fear) those who victimize them, their perpetrators are only encouraged to take advantage of them further because their victims awareness makes them feel unstoppable in their wickedness to a god-like degree. In all these circumstances, these sinners believe there is no God and they are in no way answerable for their actions to God. Though these who are wicked and unrepentant, may be wise in their own eyes, there is more hope for a fool than there is for them (Prov 26:12) & if you are ever stuck in such a circumstance, you need to learn to move on from being concerned about your image in the sight of people to being concerned about your image in the sight of God… in the sense, you need cut these people out of your lives and be totally unabashed about it, because you need not be deceived in revering people from unholy fear but you must learn to revere God from holy fear.

Rev 15
2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

It’s amazing how unbelievers fool themselves into thinking that God doesn’t exist, so they can sin against their neighbour without even a second thought of contending with a gracious yet formidable God (Heb 10:31) because from the fall of Adam unbelievers are each a law to themselves but God can see through them like a sea of glass and if you will look at Rev 15:2 you shall notice that those who have come out of them (sea of glass) (Rev 7:14) were tutored in the fear of the Lord (Rev 15:4) unto wisdom and in their victory (Mat 24:13) they are equipped to praise God for the Salvation He has accomplished in them (Phil 1:6) through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus (Rom 5:9). For some reason I guess the unbelievers don’t get the idea of God’s good justice playing out in their life because their sinning is so rampant accompanied with that deliberate blindness that ‘there is no God’ that incurring God’s justice becomes as common as breathing air and if they have managed to fool themselves so far, fooling themselves further to have no fear-of-God is not a far-fetched idea but one which maintains them as fools in their sinning against the Triune God Almighty.

1 Corinthians 3
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

I would like to conclude this piece on moving-on from vengeance by expounding on the above scripture. Salvation is sure when we stand on the rock that is Jesus Christ and we mature spiritually depending on how we build on this foundation. For those whose hearts are established in Christ, moving-on from vengeance is a lesson we will learn either willingly which is the easier way or unwillingly which is the hard way (1Cor 3:15/Mat 3:11) because such is the pivotal role the Sovereign will of God plays in our lives.

James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

As a reformed Christian believer, I do believe that “justification is by faith alone” but very often we have humanist fools who differentiate faith from works because somehow, they want to credit the salvation God offers us in Jesus Christ to the works they do by their own volition. So, they like to see faith separate from works because they would like to see this all coming from their own volition. After all, their faith exists because they choose to believe from their own free will and since this faith arises from their own volition it must not reflect their depraved spiritual condition, lest their faith be proven counterfeit. It’s as Jesus says that you can tell a tree from its fruit (Mat 7:19-20), a good tree bear good fruit and bad tree bears bad fruit. As for most unbelieving goats (self-righteously stubborn humanists) who are wise in their own eyes, they subconsciously realize that if faith and works are not considered separate, then their wicked lives would prove that their faith is useless and so they fool themselves into believing that faith and works is separate in the sight of God.

Titus 1
13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

If you were to read the account of the fall of mankind in Adam as reported in Genesis 3, you would notice that what Adam willingly chose over the righteousness of God was the righteousness of self. In Adam, we have this natural apathy for the truth about God and His righteousness (Is 5:20) but in Christ the elect are spiritually reborn (Jn 3:3), being given this living hope which is from God (2Cor 4:8-10). It’s very important that scripture be understood in the light of scripture because when you look at scripture like Phil 3:14 in the light of Phil 4:13 or for that matter Eph 2:10 in the light of Eph 2:8-9, we understand that works is simply the evidence of genuine faith. This is why on one hand the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) while on the other hand it says that faith without works is dead (Jam 2:26).

Eph 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The faith and works argument is very much like the grace and law argument. The humanist however argues that faith and works are separate because he/she foolishly believes faith & works are actuated by his/her own free will and not by the Sovereign will of God as the Bible teaches (Eph 2:8-10). When it comes to grace and law, the humanist goes on another wild goose chase because he/she believes that the grace he/she receives in salvation is a license for him/her to live as he/she pleases (Rom 6:15). However, grace seen from a Biblical perspective teaches us that saving grace is that unmerited favour by which God turns us around from ourselves unto Himself (Jn 12:24-26) because truthfully, we are not God but God is God. It is therefore in turning to God that we learn there is standard we are to live by. The Moral Law is the very nature… the very image/character of God in which we were made (Gen 1:26). Imagine the immense privilege we have been given by grace (unmerited favour) to share in the very nature of the Almighty Triune God! Though we are not under the Law but under grace (Rom 6:14), those who won’t live by the Law shall perish apart from the law (Rom 2:12-16) because if we won’t glorify God by conforming to the image of God-the-Son (Rom 8:29), we have no right to the life offers us in Himself (Jn 14:6). The Bible says that the Law is like a mirror, which the elect look into and make amends in their own nature (Jam 1:23), in willingly conforming to the nature of Christ as revealed in scripture. The aspect of grace is in this, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) that we may not just share at His table but also share in His nature. A nature which is now a Law we live by! Still, we are justified through faith alone and not by works because if we were justified by our works then the salvation we have in Jesus would not be by the power of God but by the power of our own will, and this blasphemes the redeeming merit of Jesus Christ who secured for all His people, salvation in all its fullness which is lacking in nothing. I hope you are able to see how works identify genuine faith by which we are justified just as the Moral Law identifies with saving grace by which we are saved. By grace alone… through faith alone… in Christ alone!

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

To conclude, remember how Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit that the Lord of lords may eat and be satiated (Mark 11:12-25)? This is very much along the lines of Mat 7:21 where Jesus says not all who call Him Lord shall enter His abode but only those who do the will of His Father because just like faith and works aren’t separate, so too recognizing Jesus as Lord over our lives is not separate from obeying His Commandments/Law in our lives.

Did you know that India’s Standard & Poor’s rating stands at “BBB-” implying we are adequate in capacity to meet our financial commitments but adverse economic conditions or changing circumstances are more likely to weaken our capacity to meet these financial commitments! India’s population is currently 1.345 billion, and according to ICE 360° Survey conducted in 2016 over 90% of the average monthly household income is under Rs. 35000. What worsens the matter is that there are over 400 thousand beggars in India as reported by NDTV in 2015, while DNA reported in 2016 that over 60 thousand children and kidnapped and forced into begging each year. Add to this the 21.5 million who work for the government with about 3 million in central government and 185 million employees working under state government. The reason am counting government employees it because these jobs are supported through the taxes paid by the common man. This is that socialist’s utopia that defines a democratic nation, that the people who are actually inching the nation onward are marginal in number but these are not helped in anyway, instead these are taxed further for the benefit of the rest who are sitting on their butts. It is for this reason that many of NASA’s scientists are Indian and the reason why Bose couldn’t find a market for his sound engineering in India (his home country) as he did in the USA on the count of its Christian environment, which makes it the land of opportunity like no other.

Coming back to India, there is nothing wrong with giving alms to people who are in need but the people who are in need are those who are struggle to see a better day, not those who are living off that religious gesture of alms giving. Sometime when I see beggars lined up outside Hindu Temples and Mosques, I think its almost like a set up to make the rich look good with their generosity that comes across as convenience to ease their conscience, as over people trying to help their neighbours learn to make a living for themselves. I think able-bodied, doesn’t necessarily mean handicapped but people who are willing to work hard for a living despite their physical or mental setbacks… which in other words is to carry your cross and follow Jesus, wherever it is you are in life (Lk 14:27). The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and in him we learn something called dignity of life(Jn 14:6), which is a far cry from the self-righteously abusive mafia run begging business we see here in India. Yes, Jesus did heal and was sympathetic towards many beggars and lepers but after their encounter with Jesus they did not go back to being vessels of the people’s sympathy. Rather they became bold witnesses for the gospel standing against even people in power to speak out for Jesus (Jn 9:3-8, 16-27).

Mat 5
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

1 Cor 15:10
10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

I don’t know how many of you have watched this movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”, the maiming of people in that movie in preparing them to beg is as real as it gets in that movie. There have been newspaper reports where doctors have taken bribes from beggars to maim them, that people may take pity on them and give them money. The problem is not so much about people being financially poor but about them being spiritually poor and living in denial of it. If we were to look at the scripture mentioned above, we see that salvation involves coming to terms with God’s saving grace, that unmerited favour by which we learn how filthy our self-righteousness is before the Majesty of a perfect Triune God, who saves us in Jesus Christ. By this grace we receive in Christ, we receive a spiritual rebirth, which makes God interests our own interest and gives us that capacity to do His will and good pleasure (Eph 2:8-10).
Phil 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Phil 4:13
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

In India, there are many different kinds of beggars. Some of them are even revered by the people. Take the eunuchs for instance, whose blessing or curse is seemed to carry a lot of power as believed by many because they have seemingly given up their manhood for such a lifestyle of spiritual power. I remember my stupid cousin once offered a eunuch Rs. 5 in the local train to bless his little sister, his sister whom he today doesn’t talk to anymore. My colleague too, recently had a son and he laughingly told us that eunuchs came demanding Rs.5000 since he had a baby boy and he had to give it to them or else they would have taken his baby away. I lost my temper just listening to that… a bunch of castrated men come demanding a ransom from a father else they will kidnap the baby & this fool thinks it was the right thing to pay them the money. My righteous disgust at this reverence for eunuchs was however met by reproof from another fool of a colleague, who said that eunuch have supernatural powers in brings curses or blessings to pass and he said this with a tear rolling down his cheek. Also, I need to mention that according to the telegraph UK, there were about 2 million eunuchs in India as of 2014, who live in groups under a eunuch guru and make a living through begging. The funny thing, people who become eunuchs, do so because there’s money in it. It’s just like a beggar maiming himself to become subject for the people sympathy. It’s not a nice thing to live at the mercy of people, I get it but this is the curse of a godless society where people are not religiously tutored to love their neighbours as themselves. The masses from the fall of Adam think they are gods to themselves and so they will only help those who call upon their self-righteous pity or trigger their unholy fear because that is how people who are a law to themselves function.

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus has said that you can tell a tree by looking at it fruit (Mat 7:17-20) and when you look at how intricately beggars fit in from a sense of culture and religion in India, you come to know that what we are dealing with here is really a social problem fabricated by a pagan belief system. You must understand that there would no supply if there was no demand and so since the rich and powerful want to feel good in the self-righteousness, there is therefore a market for beggars in this country which is of no help to national growth as its only aim is to attempt the satisfy the godless pursuits of those who are in power in an environment where ignorance is bliss.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

James 1:12-13
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The above two verses tell you what it is like to be satiated in God and what it is like to try and satisfy yourself with idolatry. Idolatry is simply the means of serving your own ungodly interests by way of fabricating gods for your worship, pursuing a life of greed, sexual immorality or a desire to wield power from that pride of self. Being satiated by God on the other hand is about using all the means God has provided you in life to serve His interest and good pleasure. It is only possible to know God through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:18), unto whom God draws the elect (Jn 6:44) and offers His salvation (Jn 1:12-13), transforming us each day into the likeness of His Son (Rom 8:29) for we who belong to God, belong to Christ (Rom 8:9), made and restored for Jesus’s glory (Col 1:16-18). Now, let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures that highlight the absolute frustration of self-idolatry compared to the pure satisfaction of serving the Lord.

Psalm 1
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

John 4
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

If we were to go back to the fall of Adam & Eve in Gen 3:1-6, we see from verse 5 where the idolatry of self really started, and it is for this reason the Lord Jesus Christ says that man can either serve money or serve God, not both (Mat 6:24) because nothing serves our own vested interest like money. There is nothing wrong with earning money, money can very well be used to serve God’s righteous interests i.e. furthering the gospel, nourishing ourselves & feeding our families. The problem is when, we see money as the means as furthering our rebellion against God, and in doing so, fund our own destruction (Prov 8:36). The thing about idolatry is that, we value only that which serves our ungodly interests and only for so long as it does, after that everything becomes dispensable and disposable because from the fall, our lives are founded on a lie that we are gods to ourselves (Gen 3:5) and so unlike God who does good in serving His own interests, we do only the most heinous things in serving nothing more than our own interests because the truth is the Triune God Almighty is God and we are not.

Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Mat 10
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

So, the only rightful place for God in our lives is FIRST PLACE, over our neighbours (friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances). If anything but God, takes FIRST PLACE then you will see yourself doing the most heinous things in justifying that idolatry. I must add the world is filled with the worst of hypocrites who calls what is good: evil and what is evil: good (Is 5:20). In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees claimed Jesus did all the good he did, not by the power of God but by the power of the chief of demons Beelzebul but that is exactly how it is with the people of the world, who are gods to themselves, their wishful thinking allows them to blurt out any damn nonsense which they desire others to accept as truth, simply because it came out of their mouth but the truth is these fools aren’t God, only the Triune God Almighty is God. Therefore, it is only the word of God that endures forever (Is 40:8) because it is the truth of The Triune God Almighty, who really is God and hence His word goes forth and doesn’t return void (Isaiah 55:11). Unlike rejecting the vested lies of fallen men, rejecting the truth of God revealed in Christ only works towards our destruction (Jn 3:16-18) according to the righteous will of God.

Psalm 34
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
9 O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.
10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

Mat 10
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

I would like to conclude by saying that to fear anything more than God is idolatry as well because Psalm 34:10 says that even the most fearsome unbelievers, will never be satiated in life with everything they have but those who seek and fear the Lord, whose lives are accountable to their Lord-&-Saviour Jesus Christ, these shall be satisfied in God & not be left in want of any good thing (Mat 6:33).

I have a theory with enough Biblical support to decode the number of this man who is 666 from Rev 13:18. I have reason to believe that this man is fallen Adam, who was deceived by Satan to receive his own righteous standard which was passed down to all his progeny through procreation. This nature of rebellion against God that comes from men who are each a law to themselves from fallen Adam is the spirit of Anti-Christ (1Jn 4:3 & 2Jn 1:7).

Deut 6 (Christ Law)
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Rev 13 (Anti-Christ Law)
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Have you ever wondered, what it is to be a law to yourself, it is to be a god to yourself because you are answerable to none but yourself for everything you do and this is what happened in the fall (Gen 3:5-6). The whole world however has been deceived in Adam because nobody is really answerable to only to himself, he in fact stands accountable to that ungodly peer pressure, which determines his survival in it. So, if you look at Rev 13:16-17 above, you understand that godless societies exude that unholy fear by which it’s members are forced to yield for the sake of their survival, because their members are mere existentialists, estranged from God, knowing nothing more than their own existence. God’s Law on the other hand was revealed to us men through Christ (Jn 1:18), which in the Old Testament was through the Angel of the Lord a.k.a. the Son of God and in the New Testament through Jesus Christ (Gal 3:19). This Law is the very nature of God, whose image we were made in and whose character we were made to represent in our being through in His Son Jesus Christ (Col 1:16-20). Now, what exactly is this Law?

Mat 22:36-40
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is the Moral Law of God, whose interest we are to serve before our own. So, if you were to look at this in the context of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: 1-17, you would notice that this Law reflects the first four laws of the Ten Commandments instructing the Saints to fiercely love God with all their strength and second to love the people in our environment as ourselves. This Law as Jesus has taught us is not merely exercised in deed but also in thought (Job 31:1/Mat 5:17-20 & 27-28), which is metaphorically referred to as binding the Law to your forehead and right arm. Now if you were to take a look at the Ten Commandments, you will see what makes up the anti-Christian law, because Biblically a three time reference signifies fulfillment, so the number 6 representing the six laws to do with our neighbour, mentioned thrice i.e. 666, signifies an unsaved people (Rev 13:8) who are each a law to themselves. This is how a godless syndicate works in society, where neither grace nor deserving justice is entertained because surely you know what it is to be at the mercy of people and you know how senseless violence promotes that unholy fear by which these godless syndicates bring its people to remain committed to their cause for the sake of their own survival, being convinced by the awe in which they are brought to stand of ungodly syndicates who are recognized for their wickedness both in thought and deed (Rev 13:12-15).

Psalm 14:10
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

Psalm 84:10
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Mat 10
28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

If we were to look at Ps 14:10 & Mat 10:28 in the light of Psalm 84:10, you would know how critical it is to remain devoted to God even in the face of affliction. If we were to look at the definition of Israel as given in Gen 32:28, we see God’s sovereignty in the salvation of His elect in this, that the godly are sanctified in the furnace of affliction which is the world, and prevail by the power of Christ… just as Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego did walking with the Son of God (Angel of the Lord) in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:25). The Church, which comprises of both New Testament and Old Testament saints is the spiritual Israel (Eph 2:11-13), that thrives by the Spirit of Christ even in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus is that seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), which germinates in the hearts of God’s elect in calling them out of the world and adopting them into the family of God. This seed of Abraham, is the Spirit of Christ by whose power the individual who is called unto God, successfully resists the nature of fallen Adam, which is so naturally prevalent in the world that the Bible refers to it as that broad road of destruction (Mat 7:13). Surely this nature of fallen Adam is Satanic and resisting this nature (James 4:7) in the world is not to merely to fight against flesh and blood but to wage war against the spiritual forces or darkness (Eph 6:12) but as always there is hope for the elect in Christ, as mentioned in Rom 8:38-39. It was through the Son and for His glory that all creation came into being (Col 1:16), a glory which He shares with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and it is through His Son that God promises a complete takeover of this world (Col 1:20/Dan 2:44-45). For there shall come a time when this world shall stop glorifying His good justice under the deception of the anti-Christ and be transformed to glorify His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16-18) as prophesied in Isaiah 11, for in this God delights, seeing His image restored in mankind by the redeeming power of His Almighty Son.

Happy Ending… (for the Godly)!