A Personal Note!

Dear Friends,

I am taking a short brake, as I am going out of the country for a week. On return I want to refurbish the blog and make it a bit more presentable. Some people suggest that I go for .org instead of .com. I am not sure. In case you have any suggestions in this matter, please do let me know. Also if you would like me to deal with any subject matter that you want to, do let me know that also. I will try and do my best.

My e mail address is,

shanthakumaril@gmail.com

Thank you so much for reading my blogs and encouraging me. I am sure by God's grace, the blogs have been useful to you.

with regards,
shanthi
(L. Shanthakumari Sunder)

"Know my anxious thoughts!"

The Psalmist, David the King, was no stranger to anxiety, as we are in the 21^st century! He is asking God to search and see if there are any anxious thoughts in his mind and help him. The passage, Psalm 139:23-24, goes like this:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.”

What is this anxiety? Oxford Dictionary describes it as ‘the state of feeling nervous or worried that something bad is going to happen.’ It is something about which we are anxious even before it happens. The premonitions like, ‘I am sure I will fail in the interview and not get the job.’ Or, ‘I am going to go blank at the examination hall and flunk the exam.’ Or, ‘today it started bad, I am sure I will get into some accident as I drive my car.’ And on and on it goes, with no rhyme or reason. A lot of negative thoughts, self-proclaimed prophecies, keep flooding the mind, many of which come true, mainly because we think so. A pessimistic attitude to life, may be a result of put downs during early childhood by a parent, brings about such negative thoughts to mind. Fear of doom or something worse to happen surfaces during such times of anxiety.

Worry is a close cousin of anxiety, which again is defined as to keep thinking about unpleasant things that might happen or about problems that one has. It could be an anxiety to get into a good college after schooling, or marriage of a son or a daughter to be solemnized, or to get a job or old age or any one of life’s problems, which confront us in the various stages of our life.

Where does the anxious thought originate? Why does it do so?  Medical science has discovered the seat of all our emotions and passions, including fear and anxiety, in a small part of the brain called amygdala. ‘It is an almond-shaped cluster of interconnected structures perched above the brain-stem, near the bottom of the limbic ring,’ one on each side of the brain, writes Dr. Daniel Goleman, in his book “Emotional Intelligence.” It functions like an alarm system, reacting to emergent situations, impulsively enabling the body to decide to either stand and fight or take to flight. When our hunter-gatherer forefathers roamed the forests in search of prey, they had to remain alert and such ‘flight or fight’ situations would come and split second decisions had to be made. Amygdala decided that action and it is also the place, where our instinctive and impulsive thoughts arise. It almost sounds like children’s standard phrase, ‘trick or treat,’ during Halloween, who is then treated to some chocolates by the friendly neighbors!

Worry or anxiety is a warning system build into our emotional make up and is good, when it is within the limit. It becomes unhealthy only when it becomes chronic and takes over all the other functions of the body. Then it leads to too much of anxiety, stress, leading to depression, where a person feels very sad, anxious, without any hope and sinks into the morass of helplessness.

How do we get over such chronic anxiety and worry? First, as the Psalmist prays, we need to examine our hearts and thoughts. Where our thoughts are fixed and what are our hearts’ desires? As it is difficult for us to examine and find out our own wrong desires and wrong motives, it is better, like the Psalmist, we ask the Lord God to examine our thoughts and bring to our notice any unwanted thoughts rising up in our minds, which will be detrimental to our well being.

Thoughts that could give rise to anxiety are pursuit of happiness as the single one goal of life; lust for money - to make money by any and every means; slothfulness and indulgences, making self-disciplined life a difficulty and may be even setting impossible goals to achieve. We need to analyze our thoughts and motives and goals to see if they are reasonable and manageable and worthy of leading peaceful life.

Secondly, sit down and write down what exactly is causing the anxiety or worry. In case of a job interview, there is anxiety that one should do well and get the job. So set to work on it instead of worrying about it. Learn more about the job, the requirements and be ready for any question on the issue. If communication is the problem, take a course and improve the skills. If sloppy appearance is the problem, go to a salon and groom yourself up. See what you can do about it all to make a success out of it. Be prepared, be alert, and be ready to face the task.

Thirdly, have faith in the Lord, your God. Jesus Christ, when he was on earth said a few beautiful truths about worry. In Matthew 6:25-34 he says thus,

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barn, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe  you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “what shall we eat/” or ‘what shall we drink?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  

A few things become clear. Jesus is telling us that none of us can change anything by worrying. It will only affect our health. Secondly God our Father in heaven knows what we need and will provide for it, as long as our priorities are correct.  Instead of pursuing wealth and happiness and enjoyment, if we focus on seeking God and how He wants us to live in this world, everything else also, like food and clothing will be provided for. God knows we need these things and He will provide for us. Only those who do not know God run after money and mirth. We need to live on faith in God and His provision.

It doesn’t mean that we sit and expect God to pour everything onto our lap, but work for it and earn it in the right way, keeping our focus on God and godly living. Thirdly Jesus is telling us that lets deal with each day as it comes and not worry about tomorrow. Leave that in God’s hands, for He is able to take care of it. Deal with today, in the present, and not something unknown, the future. Future is safe in the hands of our Almighty God. He will give us the wisdom and capacity to deal with whatever comes tomorrow. We are to have that faith. 

Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:7,

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

Yes, we have a caring and loving Father in heaven, who will not want His children to suffer without reason. It is a great solace to know that He cares for us.

Apostle Paul states while writing to the church in Philippi, in Philippians 4:6-7,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

All that we need is to hand all our problems and anxious thoughts over to God, in prayer and petition. I usually write it down in my prayer journal. It helps! Of course you are to do that with a thankful heart. Let us be thankful for what we have got, what God has blessed us with and then in recognition of God’s grace, let us bring our fresh petitions before him. The result is peace that passes all   understanding in our hearts. Again priority is to guard our hearts and minds, that is our desires and thoughts in Christ Jesus, seeking His kingdom and His righteousness in our lives.

Finally I just want to bring to remembrance, what the disciple Peter did, wanting to walk on water like Jesus, who walked on waters of Sea of Galilee and came towards them, who were in the boat. He started well, climbed out of the boat to walk on water, but soon noticed the boisterous waves and started to sink. He cried to the Lord, who immediately stretched forth his hands and held him. When we focus on the situations around us, we sink, but the moment we focus our attention on the Lord, we rise above our situations like an eagle that soars above the clouds.

God help us to rise above our situations and soar high in our lives, with a thankful heart and carefree soul. 

Origin of Life: Creation or Evolution?

Having done Masters (M.Sc) in Zoology in my college days, I was a sworn adherent of evolution theory, as propounded by Charles Darwin in his book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” published in 1859. Though Darwin was not the first person to suggest evolution, he got all the credit for it, may be because famous people like Aldous Huxley popularized his work.

We now know it as the evolutionary theory, by which we mean every organism in the course of its life, undergoes changes in its genetic material, due to mutations in the DNA of its cells and these changes, if found favorable in its surroundings, gives it an advantage in the struggle for survival and thereby giving the organism a better chance of passing on these advantageous traits to the off springs. The off springs start off with an advantage over the other members of the species and thus establish themselves in life. The ill-adapted members die off and lose the chance of passing on their genes to the next generation. Such changes lead to the formation of new species and races and this happens over millions of years, either through a process of incremental changes or through sudden leaps.

Though I generally believed in the Bible, when scientific explanations like these were available I gravitated towards that. Even after I became a believing Christian, I still held on to the evolutionary ideas, superimposing it on creation. Well, God created the heavens and the earth and all that there is in six days, says the Bible. But who knows how many human years equal one day of God? It could be millions or billions of years. So in the process of explaining the creation, why not use evolutionary approach, and we can understand God’s creation in a more scientific manner applying evolutionary process to creation account. Or so I thought! 

  

It took me some time, a few years to realize that people adopting the view of evolution are really anti-God, just as Darwin himself was, for he was an atheist. At the age of 42, he lost his favorite and beloved daughter Anne, who was just 10 years old when she died. Her death affected him deeply and once for all he set his face against God, whom he thought was heartless for having taken his daughter, who did no wrong, at such a tender age.

Evolution really proposes that natural selection, a natural force was all that was necessary for producing new species and there was no need for a God to do that. In the 19^th century it caught up the imagination of the intellectuals and the creation account of Genesis chapter 1 in the Bible lost its credibility in the eyes of these people, and along with it Bible and Christianity.

That is when I realized that I either believe that God created everything as written in Genesis, or life evolved on its own over millions or billions of years due to a process of natural selection. There is no overlapping of each other or mixing of these two approaches. Evolution is in actuality antagonistic to God and creation. Once I realized that I gave up my admiration for evolution and depended entirely on God’s wisdom and power to produce all kinds of life on earth and let them adapt themselves to the various climates and geological locations so that they can survive.

A dog may have many varieties or breeds, but a dog remains a dog and no new race or a new animal has been produced so for. Even when due to human ingenuity such hybrids are produced, they are not able to reproduce. Similarly there is really no solid evidence for evolution or natural selection, for the scientists have not been able to show a single ‘missing link’ or an ancestor that showed characteristics of both the animals, say for example, an animal that shows the characteristics of human beings and apes. According to evolutionists, humans evolved from apes. If so, where are such ‘missing links’ or hybrid animals, either living or fossils?   

Anthropologists construct a whole human being and his family from a tooth or a jaw bone and tell us these were the intermediary humans, but it is far-fetched. No reliable data or evidence is available.

I would rather believe that God created man as His crowning glory, someone created in the very image of God Himself, with an ability to think and rationalize. He was created above all animals including apes. He was created to rule them, take care of them and nurture them, as God’s viceroy on earth. Human being is not a mere animal, albeit highly evolved animal, a descendant from apes. He is the glory of God’s creation, crated in His image, to be His viceroy on earth.

Biblical account of man is much better and reliable and trust worthy than the imaginations and creations of scientists, who had their own axes to grind. 

Death and the Dying

It is surprising that we know so little about death and the dying, even though people are dying all around us, of old age, accidents, illnesses like cancer, war, terrorist attacks and so on. Sometimes we are so scared of talking about it, an unpleasant and may be unnecessary topic to engage in. Nonetheless people of certain profession need to engage in such matters day in and day out. Doctors, nurses, Pastors, counselors and may be psychiatrists. These people cannot avoid seeing people die, sometimes in their hands and deal with such situations. Even so they also are not really comfortable talking about such topics.

I recently read a book “On Death and Dying,” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a book prescribed for reading for my fourth session of Counseling course, conducted by ‘Person to Person,’ a training Institution on counseling, run by Dr. Samson Gandhi, with head office in Hyderabad. It was an eyes opener. Dr. Kubler-Ross and some theological and medical students had undertaken interviewing of some 200 odd terminally ill patients in the University of Chicago Billings hospital, to see how these people on the verge of death feel and what are their wants and needs, so that they can be better attended to, when they are confined to the hospital. This work had turned into a monumental work, for it has opened the eyes of the medical professionals and the families of the dying, and taught them what such people feel and how to care for these people, who are at the verge of death.

Dr. Kubler-Ross describes five stages these people go through when they come to know they are affected by a disease for which there is no cure and that it is fatal. The terminally ill people first deny that such a fate has come to be theirs. At this stage they consult many doctors, take up many tests hoping that some where the doctors could have wrongly diagnosed or the tests done might be wrong. Once it dawns on them that the diagnosis is correct, then they get angry, angry with every one, any and every healthy person and angry with God, asking this pertinent question, “Why me?” Then they move on to the third stage, where they start to bargain with the medical doctors or God, if they believe in one, that they may be given time, a few years more, so that they can finish with the unfinished tasks of their life. A child to graduate, parents to be taken care of, marriage of the daughter to be attended to, legal matters to be settled and so on. Once they realize that they do not have that type of time, they sink into deep depression, mired in their own sorrow and suffering. Finally comes the stage of acceptance, acceptance of the fact that they are going to die and they start saying good bye to friends and family and giving instructions regarding the funeral and such other arrangements, getting ready to leave this world, with peace in their heart.

Of course, not everyone goes through all these stages, neither are these stages gone through consecutively. Some might get stuck at the angry stage itself; some might progress through to the final stage of acceptance early on; some will fight to the end. Nevertheless there will always a hope, a hope that a miracle might happen or a new medicine might be discovered, which might pull them through.

It was also found that the religiously strong persons, who had faith in God and an afterlife, and were ready to face their Maker, were the ones who were able to face death with equanimity and peace. It gave them a strong sense of being taken care by God, who knew the best and that they will be with Him in death.

What comes out clearly is that these terminally ill patients wanted to talk, wanted to give vent to their feelings, fears, hopes, and dreams. This is where a busy Doctor attending to them could take a few minutes off and sit with them and listen to them. Equally important is the attention given by the nurses, who could discuss these issues with them and not shy away from it. Even rapprochements with family members, is possible and desirable.

Christ taught clearly that his people, people who have put their trust in him, will also rise after death, just like he rose from death after three days. Christ will come again to gather his people, John 14:3,

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; … I go to prepare a place for you.

…I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

We will live with him in eternity. The second death, which is the spiritual death, will have no power over us. So death is only a passage to the other world, where we will meet our loves ones when their times come and they also enter eternity. Eternal life is the gift of Christ. Those who believe in him as the Son of God, who came to earth to give his life as a ransom for the lives of many as a penalty for the sins committed by them. All one has to do is to accept Christ as one’s Savior, seek his forgiveness in repentance of the sins committed and then one is safe in his arms. Such a person is admitted into the family of God and can look forward to meeting his/her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the next life and enjoy eternity in the presence of God and Christ.

Along with Apostle Paul we can also ask, 1 Corinthians 15:55,

“O death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

To the people strongly rooted in the Lord, death is no longer a threat or a fearful event. Christ has conquered death and so shall we, by His grace. 

Devadasi System – another form of sexual exploitation?

As Director, Women and child welfare in 1980s, I was confronted with what was called a social evil, the Devadasi system prevalent in Karnataka State and debate was going on with demands to do away with that system. I went with a few officers of my department on a fact-finding mission and organized a widely participated, taluk level seminar on the subject and undertook some field study. Very interesting facts emerged.

The place where this tradition is practiced is in Soundatti, a taluka place in the district of Belgaum in Karnataka State. It is some 70 kilometers away from Belgaum town, on top of hillocks there. There in a temple, where the local goddess, Yellamma is worshiped and tradition has that her real name is Renuka. She is worshiped as a Mother goddess, Yellamma. The Devadasi tradition associated with this worship seems to have been strongly established even since 10^th century AD. Here on a full moon day, anytime between November to February, young girls are dedicated to the goddess. At least five times during that period such rituals are organized.

The girls are dedicated, mainly as young children around 8 to 12 years old by her parents, seeking the intervention of the goddess in their affairs. It could be a serious sickness in the family, when the parents vow to dedicate a daughter praying the goddess to bring healing; or it could be a prayer wanting a son; or to overcome a financial difficulty or simply to get rid of a superfluous daughter. There could be a ‘call’ by the deity in many cases, with a sign, like the formation of a clump in the hair or a white patch of leprosy, indicating the desire of the goddess to have that child as her devotee. There are male children who are offered similarly.

The girls are taken to the ponds near the temple, given ritual bath, made to wear only neem tree (Margosa tree) leaves as dress and with a pot full of water on their heads, made to climb the hill to the temple. Of course the path is lined by ogling young boys and men. In the temple, the priests amidst rituals tie around the neck of the girl, a thread with beads, taken from the goddess’ neck. Now she has become married to the goddess and enters into the service of the deity, serving her by singing and dancing and worshiping. Such girls are forbidden to marry any mortal. 

  

So far so good; but what happens in reality after this marriage to the deity is sickening. The girl is taken in by the temple poojari (priest) first or by the landlord or a rich man of a village, the highest bidder. The patron pays lump sum money to the parents of the girl, pays for the ceremony and also maintains the girl. She may be kept as his mistress for a year or more, till he is tired of her or finds a new girl. Thereafter the girl really enters into prostitution to eke out her livelihood, with any and every one. These girls are forbidden to claim to be a wife of any one man. The children born out of such unions are given the surname of Basava, the goddess. Virginity of a girl is offered as an offering to the goddess. They become the female prostitutes attached to the temple; there are male prostitutes also.

When the seminar was going on with many experts speaking on the subject and social reformers waxing eloquent, I took a few of my officers and quietly went and visited a few Devadasis in the surrounding villages. In the local temples of the villages I was able to find three to four Devadasis and fell into conversation with them. They were about 40 to 50 years of age and they said that they were married to the goddess, when they were still young and for so many years they have lived as Devadasis. Surprisingly they all belonged to the lower castes of Mahar or Chambahar. They were poor, illiterate and marginalized. The men who visit them are usually from the village itself and mostly the upper caste men. They got paid Rs 5 and 6 for their services in the 1980s. They seemed to be satisfied with their lot, casting the burden on the goddess, saying that type of life was the will of the goddess for them.

It immediately struck me that here was a system devised by the rich and the upper castes men of the area to have a few women to serve as prostitutes in their own villages, sanctified by their religion and traditions. It was so very convenient; they need not go anywhere in search of such services; they had them in their own villages and at a cheap rate. No one can point their fingers at them, because are they not serving the goddess by taking care of her devoted female servants? What a stark exploitation of poor and illiterate women in the name of religion? 

I was so angry, I made a detailed report to the government and law was passed in 1982 abolishing the Devadasi system and making such dedications punishable by law. Plans and schemes were drafted for the rehabilitation of the affected women. The worse off were the younger women, who had one or two children and slowly being lured to Bombay red-light area for better prospects. They had to be educated, taught skills and shown other respectable means of earning their livelihood. We did our best to institute these changes in the area.  

Well, recently I learnt that the tradition is still strong in the area, though the rituals of dedication are held clandestinely without the knowledge of the authorities. It takes times and constant vigilance from the government and society to root out these social evils of open exploitation in the name of religion. 

Such traditions were found in other places too; temple Devadasis of Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu; Jaggannath temple of Odhisha. These girls were experts in Bharatanatyam dance in Tamil Nadu and Odisa dance on Odhisha. They were simply the nautch girls, the dancing girls of the yester years attached to the temples.

They were not unlike the Geisha girls of Japan, who served a similar role, but not attached to any temple, but all the same entertained their male customers serving as courtesans. What makes the exploitation in Devadasi system acute is the religion sanction attached to it, for it becomes a divine prostitution, in the service of the deity, the goddess, but in reality serving the lust of the upper caste men in society. Every attempt must be made to root out such exploitation.

We need a God who says, 'I hate such practices;' God of the Bible says, in Deuteronomy 23:17, 18,

“No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.

You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.”

Such things are abomination to God of the Bible. Moses wrote these laws around 1500 BC, as commanded by God. He is a holy God, demanding holiness in the life of His children.

“Be thou holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2.

No wonder man-made traditions of exploitation in the name of religion do not hold sway under the banner of Christ, who is the core subject of the Bible. As Christ wins over people, these forms of exploitation will wither and fade away for good. That is the only hope for humanity.

Sex as an offering to goddess?

I read in the newspapers today about the Tamil author Perumal Murugan, who is to be felicitated in the Fourth Indian Languages Festival to be held on November 28^th. This author got into problems with the local Hindu and caste-based groups for having offended the Hindu sentiments. In December 2014, there was an uproar in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, regarding his novel, “One Part Woman’” a literal English translation of the Tamil title, “Madhorubhagan,” a novel which he wrote in 2010. Highly disgusted with the Hindu opposition to what he had written, he announced his decision never again to write another word. According to him, the author Murugan was dead.

The author writes about a tradition that prevailed in India around 1935-1940, some 75 years back, in Thiruchengodu, a temple town in Tamil Nadu. Here there is a temple for Ardhanareeswaran, an idol of Shiva, left part of whose body is that of a woman, his consort, Parvathi. It is half male and half female, that is, ‘One part woman.’ In the ancient Hindu chariot festival held in this temple annually, there was a tradition, where childless women can go to the temple and choose any man to lie with and if she becomes pregnant, it is taken as ‘god-given child’ or ‘god’s child.’ Such a man is called ‘anonymous sami.’ The novel spins around a childless couple married for 12 years, who attend this festival and the wife, on the encouragement of the mother-in-law and other relatives, ventures into this tradition and it creates huge problems, for her husband presumably was not a party to this decision. This is the story. The objection was that it showed Hindu traditions in a bad and derogatory manner and that the book should be banned and author taken to task.

This is extraordinary. That there was a tradition like the one mentioned in the novel cannot be disputed. The author has done his research sufficiently for he is also a Tamil Professor. There are other resources which mention such traditions in the 19^th and beginning of 20^th century in India. For example, Abbe J.A. Dubois, a French Catholic Missionary working for 31 years in the Madras Presidency of British Raj, writes about such practices in his book, “Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies.” This book was published in 1897.

Abbe talks in his book about barren women flocking to the Temple in Tirupathi, again in South India, where they are told that Lord Venkateshwara will come in the night and grant them their desire. And it was the priests of the temple who really fulfilled the dreams of these women. He describes another temple in Nangungud, near Mysore, again in South India, where women go to cure their sterility. And they were indeed cured, but in similar fashion. He writes that this happens in Junginagatta also, on the banks of Cauvery River during January festivals.

So what are we objecting to? Is not such a tradition seen in many of the ancient cultures around the world, before Christianity conquered them all? Abbe himself quotes from the writings of Herodotus that similar prostitution by decent family women occurred in the name of religion among Assyrians and Babylonians, in the Temple of the goddess Mylitta, the Aphrodite, and consort of Assyrian god Ashur. So should they object now? It all happened so many centuries or decades back.

We have the Temple of Artemis, the Great Artemis of Ephesus, mentioned in the Bible, Acts 19.28. 34. Ephesus is in the present Turkey and was a great place of worship of the goddess Artemis, a goddess of fertility, depicted with many breasts. She was the great mother earth, causing humans to be born and sustaining them. She was also the goddess of moon and the hunt. She was served by eunuch priests and young maidens.

The Roman goddess of fertility was Diana, equal to the Greek goddess of Artemis. Diana was a virgin goddess of hunt, moon and child birth. Her shrines were always under great sacred oak trees and her male priests will have to fight and kill the reigning priest to occupy that post. Even here such clandestine night visits were made even by the aristocratic women to offer their sex with some unknown men in the temple premises as an offering to the goddess.  

Going further back in time, Ashtoreth, the female principle of fertility was worshipped as goddess through our Canaan, mentioned in the Bible, warning the Israelite not to become pray to their lewd cults. Ashtoreth was the fertility goddess, the consort of the male god Baal or Moloch. In the Mesopotamian region of Assyria and Babylon of yester years, Ashtoreth was called Ishtar and she was a goddess of sexual love and warfare. Sacred prostitution abounded and her devotees had sex with the priests and priestesses of the goddess and considered it as an offering to the goddess.

Well, so this was the dark side of the religions in many parts of the ancient world. It was in the past and may be trying to come back through many ways in the modern world. There is nothing new or to be ashamed of, particularly in India. It was all over the world, in different forms. 

It was only with the coming of the teachings of Christ, such worship was considered morally wrong and these gradually disappeared from the world. The Judaeo-Christian culture, which pervaded the world after 1^st century AD, almost put a stop to these practices. To India it came quite late, in the 19^th century.

God of Bible warns Israel repeatedly against sexual sins. In Leviticus 18:20-24, God commands,  

“Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her.

And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination,

Nor shall you mate with any beast to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before a beast to mate with it. It is perversion.

Do not defile yourself with any of these things; for by these the nations (before you) are defiled, which I am casting out before you.”   

The sins of the Amorites were these sexual sins and God threw them out and planted His people Israel there, so that they would prove to be holy, following all his precepts.

God asked the Israelite to destroy the altars, sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images of the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, who were before them in the Promised Land (now Palestine). 

This command was given so that Israel will not fall for the abominations practiced by these nations. Exodus 34: 15-17,-

“lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,

And you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.

You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.” 

The sad thing was, in spite of all these warnings, Israel did play the harlot with the gods and goddesses of those nations around them and got punished and the ‘land vomited them’ and were displaced.

As we look around our world today, there are increasing sexual assaults and violence and extremes of sexual behavior, against which God of the Bible, both in the Old Testament through His prophets and in the New Testament through Christ and his Apostles, warned severely.

But who listens to these warnings? If we have listened we would have been a far better world, morally, psychologically and emotionally.  

Who listens? Only those guided by the Holy Spirit of God and those who have become His children by accepting Christ, His provision for saving us all from our sins. Let us strive hard to be those blessed people. 

Strive! Strive on!

Today it is going to be almost like a personal diary; lighthearted and mundane; no serious discussions on God of the Bible or His nature. Yes, we need a break, don’t we?

Today in the pool I almost achieved my target – to swim 20 laps (one up and one down) within 40 minutes. The pool is quite small, 17 meters by 7 meters. Still it used to take me almost 45 minutes to swim 15 laps, for I stop and rest at both the ends to catch my breath. This year I have been swimming on and off since April, but only 15 laps, leisurely in 45 minutes, with lot of chatting, enjoying and resting in between.

Suddenly a few weeks back I woke up, because the season is going to end soon, for Bangalore turns cold by November beginning. Thereafter it will be impossible for me to enter the water, because the water will be so cold that my lungs almost close and I choke. The indication that the cold is unbearable is when the coconut oil I keep at home becomes solid. That means it is below 17 degrees centigrade and not possible for me to swim. The pools in Bangalore are not heated, you see.

Almost in a panic I strove hard to catch up, for towards the end of the season, in the previous years, I always end up doing 20 laps but in 60 minutes. I resolved to do not just 20 laps but at reduced timings. I reduced my resting time at one end so that I can do one lap without resting. This brought the timing from 45 minutes to 30 minutes for 15 laps within 2 weeks. Then last week, I increased the laps from 15 to 18 and then this Monday to 20. Again very gradually but working hard at it. Still, last few days I was able to do 20 laps only in 47 minutes. Day before I did it in 45 minutes and yesterday 42 minutes and today voila, in 40 minutes! I achieved my goal!

When I was mentioning this to my friend, she was not very impressed but was very dismissal at the least. Her point was why I should be striving so hard at this age in my life, for I am definitely not going to compete in any Olympic games! Well, I am definitely not going to compete in any competition, let alone Olympics. But the matter of achievement need not necessarily be so huge. Even a small improvement in timing and in the laps covered is a huge achievement for me. It is the striving that counts. Striving to improve one’s performance, even if by a small degree gives you immense satisfaction. It is a pleasure of improving, competing with one’s own capacity, to do what you once thought were impossible.

Another interesting point, you may like to note. I used to take rest at both the ends of the pool to catch up with breath, because I used to really pant and heave. I used to be asthmatic once and though now it is fully under control, I always imagined that my asthmatic lungs needed that type of rest. Suddenly when I wanted to improve my timing and cut down resting at one end, I discovered that my lungs were able to do that! How come? Was it only in my mind or was it sheer grace of God? Could be both! What I am trying to point out is that when we determine to do a thing and put our heart and mind to do that, the body cooperates and we do it. That is another pleasure of achievement.

The lesson of it all is we need to set targets for ourselves, set goals to achieve, even if it is a small measure only and go ahead, strive, strive and achieve it. There is pleasure in such achievements. For the students, for working young adults, working mothers, home-bound women, superannuating senior citizens and elderly people, for everyone this golden rule applies. Age is no bar, so also sex or the activity itself! Strive, strive and strive on! Nothing is impossible to achieve.

I will close with a quote from the Bible, which is my favorite too. Paul the Apostle writes in Philippians 4:13,

    “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.”

Isn’t that fabulous! We can do all things in life, with the strength with which Christ strengthens us.

Set your goal high and strive on, for sky is the limit.

And God keep you blessed.

God of Old Testament and God of New Testament: are they the same?

Last three blogs I have been trying to examine this main issue: Is God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament of the Bible the same? Or are they different? In one blog, I countered the arguments of the skeptic that God in the Old Testament is bloodthirsty or vindictive, and showed that God had always been fair and just; He always warned the human beings involved about the wrongs they were doing. Only when they did not repent of the sins, punishment and judgments came. God had been loving, long suffering and patient, but also He is the God of justice and righteousness. There are reasons for what He did and why destruction happened.

As written in Isaiah 59:2,

   “But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

    And your sins have hidden His face from you,

    So that He will not hear (your petitions).”

God of the Bible is a Holy God, who insists that His people be holy too. In Leviticus 19:1, 2 it is mentioned,

   “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

    Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘You shall be     holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.’”

His demand for holiness from His people was a constant thread which weaves through all the narratives of the Old Testament. And that is exactly where His people, Israel, let Him down. He pleads with them, disputes with them, calls them to argue it out, though the prophets He sent down the line. “Repent, return to me and live,’ was and is His constant demand of His people.

God is not just the God of Israel; His real purpose of selecting Abraham and creating a nation and a people, Israel, out of him, was to pass on the blessings given to Abraham to all the families on the earth.Latter part of Genesis 12:3 says,

        “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This blessing is nothing but salvation, salvation from sin and suffering and inheriting the eternal life. This will come through a descendant of David, the King of Israel, an Israelite, a Jew, the “seed,” promised to Abraham, Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:16. Thus His concern is not just the Jews, but the whole humanity, people belonging to every race, every community and every religion, living in the world, the universe.

With the coming of Jesus, salvation was offered to the whole of humanity. Jesus begins his ministry on earth saying,

     “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17

It is the same appeal, first made to Israel in the Old Testament, now being made to everyone in the world in the New Testament.

It is the same God, who prepared a nation for such a purpose, and sent His Son as a human being into the world, to suffer and die, paying the penalty for the sins of the humanity, so that we can go scot free. God made this provision for us, for our salvation, and to reconcile the recalcitrant, rebellious and estranged human beings to Himself though Jesus Christ. He raised Jesus from death after three days and in doing so, not only gave the authority to Jesus Christ to forgive our sins, but also set before us the hope of eternal life after our physical death on earth. God loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son to earth so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Is there any other proof needed to show that God is a loving Father, concerned with our future in eternity and has been at work for our redemption, since the time of Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve.

God is like the Father in the parable of Prodigal son, told by Jesus, waiting, with His arms outstretched, for us to return to Him, in repentance and seeking forgiveness. He is ever willing to forgive us and take us into His family, to shower us with His blessings and love. How can we miss such a great love!

It is the same God, to whom both the Old Testament and New Testament testify. A God of love is He, physically represented by Jesus on earth, showing what love can do for His people. Jesus laid down his life for us, he came to die for us, so we can be reconciled to God, His Father, and now Father of all who accept the invitation of Jesus Christ to repent and return.

It is one continuum, from the start to finish. We are almost at the end of the race; for the world as we know will end soon, when Jesus Christ will come back again to gather His people. He will establish His rule of justice and righteousness on earth forever.

Are we ready for that day? How can we not be? Let us not be foolish enough to spurn such a great love like this, but yield to it and inherit eternal life promised to us through Jesus Christ.   

Was God in the Old Testament severe with Israel?

God was not just severe in His judgment of the people of the world as seen in the Old Testament, but He was very severe in His punishment of also Israel, people called after His own name. Why so? Basically, the question again is, is God of the Old Testament a cruel and willful God? Does He have any resemblance to the loving God portrayed in the New Testament by Jesus Christ and his followers, the Christians? Or is He a separate and a different God altogether?

In the last two blogs I examined these questions and tried to answer these from God’s command to Israelite for the whole sale destruction of the Amorites and Canaanites in the Promised Land of Canaan before their settlement and the various narratives in the Bible about God’s dealings, starting from the first human couple, to Cain, and up to people of Noah’s time.

The truth to observe in all these dealings with people is that God always warned people of the wrong things they were committing and gave them sufficient time to repent and turn back to Him and stick to the commandments given to them to lead a holy and blameless life. It was only when these warnings fell to deaf ears and they still persisted in their evil ways that God brought in the judgment and punished them. Even then He does not punish us as much as our sinfulness deserves. I also pointed out that He is a God of righteousness and justice and cannot let sin and wrong-doings go unpunished. However, His punishments are always tempered with mercy and His love for people, the crown of His creation.

In this blog I want to show that God was not judging only the other people in the world, but also His own people, people called the Israel. He punished them, sometimes severely, not without reason. How far was He justified in doing so? To answer this question, we need to know a little background of God’s purpose in shaping Israel as His own people.

God selects Abraham and calls him to be faithful to Him. God enters into a covenant relationship with him, promising that He will bring out a nation from his seed, let them inherit the land of Canaan and also to bless the nations of the world though his seed. In Genesis 12:2-3, God tells Abraham,

“I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing…

And in you all the families of the earth

Shall be blessed.”

The purpose and plan of God was to bring salvation and restoration of relationship with Him to all the people of the world through the descendants of Abraham. This was followed by Mosaic covenant bestowed upon the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, prescribing His laws and commandments, including the Ten Commandments, to be followed strictly by Israelite, to lead a holy life pleasing to Him. Such obedience would bring blessings from God to the people and disobedience will bring curses or punishment from the same God. These blessings and curses are written in Leviticus 26:1-13 and 14-39. This long passage ends with the clause that if these people, who because of their disobedience suffered the curses as a consequence, confess their sins and seek forgiveness from God, He will be merciful forgive them and restore them to their former covenant relationship with Him. Leviticus 26:40-42.

But what happened as narrated thereafter in the books of history of Israel in Bible was a dismal failure of Israel to keep up the laws of God. The intention of God in selecting Abraham and bringing up a nation out of him and prescribing His statues and commandments to them, was that these people will be His own people, and be a witness to Him and His true nature to all the world. Moses says in Deuteronomy 7:6,

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

Israel was to be ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ to God. Exodus 19:6.

Oh how miserably they failed Him! The books of Judges and the Kings and Chronicles detail how the people whom God chose as His special people, so that they could be His witnesses to the whole world, to showcase His Holiness, righteousness and justice, His demand that people, His creation also lead a holy life, worth of their Creator, failed Him repeatedly. In spite of repeated warnings through His prophets, whom He sent to them throughout their life time, they slipped back to the pattern of life of the people around them, worshiping idols created by them, sacrificing their children to their gods and goddesses, and leading immoral and depraved lives. Through His prophet Micah, God asks his people,

“…And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?”

They could not obey even this much in their lives. After repeatedly warning them of the dire consequences of their actions, God brings in the calamity on them. The Northern Kingdom of Israel falls to the assault of Assyrian king in 721 BC and after 135 years, the Southern Kingdom of Judah also falls a victim to the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, in 586 BC. These are historical facts verifiable from secular writings. The people were taken captive and scattered; the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Jews deported to Babylon were permitted to return to Jerusalem in 538 BC to rebuild their Temple and resettle in Judah during the reign of Cyrus King of Persia who conquered Babylon. On their return they discard idols and stick to the worship of Lord their God alone.

Was God harsh in His punishment to the Israel? I don’t think so. What God had commanded them not to do they did openly, with least regard to their God. They worshiped the gods of the nations around them, made idols of goats and calves and offered their children to these gods as sacrifices, which were abominations to God. They worshiped the sun, moon and the stars, creations of God instead of worshiping the creator of these, the Almighty God. In Jeremiah 2:13, God says,

“For My people have committed two evils:

They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,

And hewn themselves cisterns-broken cisterns that hold no water.”

                                                                                              

God brings charges against His own people. He calls out to them, “Return, backsliding Israel,” but to no avail. He tells them “…I am merciful, and I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledged your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God,” Jeremiah 3:12, 13. ‘I will forgive you and restore you.’ But Israel spurned His offer of love and ended up as captives in another land. He proclaims again, “…I am the Lord, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” Jeremiah 9:24. He pleads with them, but of no avail. Then He scatters them in the Gentile world. Instead of being the head they ended up being the tail, as was prophesied in the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy.

Whose fault was that? Was it God their merciful Creator or their own sinful conduct? God described in the Bible is never willful or vindictive or whimsical or harsh. He loves His people as His own, He wants only the best for them; but when they turn against Him and walk away from Him with disregard to His commands and expectations, even then he is patient and gives them a long rope, sends warnings after warnings, so they could return from their evil ways and come back to Him. Only when their wrong doings go beyond the limit, does He brings down the calamities that were promised for disobedience.

Still all is not lost. After punishments and judgments, God is still tenderhearted towards His people. He says,

“…O Jacob,

And Israel, for you are My servant;

I have formed you, you are My servant;

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!”  Isaiah 44:21

He promised to gather and bring back Israel, who were scattered all over the world. He says,

“For behold, the days are coming…that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah… I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”  Jeremiah 30:3

That was God’s promise to Israel that He will bring them back to the land He gave to their fathers and settle them down there. After being stateless and nation-less for almost 18 centuries, a new country ‘Israel’ was formed in 1948 and Jews from all over the world returned to their land. It is said that as on today only 50% of the Israelite from other countries have returned to Israel. May be it will be 100% only wit the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he will establish His rule on earth, and rule with justice and righteousness for one and all.

After Jesus was born as a human being on earth, some 2000 years ago, the blessings of Abraham have been extended by God to all the people of the earth. It is no longer restricted to Israel alone. Ah, but that will be the subject of the next blog. 

Until then good bye.

Is God just a Whimsical Judge or a Merciful Judge?

The question is, whether God is a tyrannical, capricious and whimsical Judge or is He a reasonable and merciful Judge? Does He kill and destroy on flimsy grounds, depending on His moods and for His pleasure or is He a loving Father, who is just and merciful, but at the same time does not condone wrong doings on the part of humankind? 

Bible, through the length and breadth of Old Testament and elsewhere, talks about a God, who is righteous and just. Righteousness and justice rule all His decisions, especially while dealing with humankind. For example,

“He is the Rock, His work is perfect;

For all His ways are justice,

A God of truth and without injustice;

Righteous and upright is He.”   Deuteronomy 32:4

That is His character and one can depend on His character to do the right thing and that too after weighing His decisions to do what is just and right. Bible portrays Him as a God of mercy and love. Lord reveals Himself at Mt. Sinai to Moses, while He was shepherding the people of Israel from Egypt,  

“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but no means clearing the guilty,…” Exodus 34: 6,7

Does it sound like a tyrannical and whimsical God? No, not at all. Since beginning He has been slow to anger, warns human beings, gives them lot of chances to correct their behavior and when it falls on deaf ears and for too long, only then does He bring down the judgment on them. Even then we are not punished as per the severity of our crimes, but always tempered with kindness and mercy.

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.”   Psalm 103:10

Let us see some examples from the Biblical narrative itself.

At the Garden of Eden, God warned the first human pair not to touch the forbidden fruit, but when they listened rather to the enemy, Lucifer or Satan and disobeyed God, still God did not curse them; He punished them, by throwing them out of the Garden and letting them suffer the consequences of their action, of facing sin, sickness, suffering and finally death. Even so, God still planned for the redemption of the fallen mankind and send His son, Jesus Christ to be born on earth as human being, to suffer like us, to die like us, but rescue us from death by raising him from death, thus redeeming us. In New Testament it is said,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Cain was warned by God not to get upset, but to do well, so that his offering will also be accepted. He was told to overcome sin, but Cain let himself be overcome by sin and murdered his brother Abel. God punished Cain, but tempered it, by putting a mark on him so that no one will kill him, as feared by him. Genesis 4:7, 15. Was God being just and merciful or outright tyrannical?

Let us look at the narrative of Noah’s flood and the destruction in its wake. God saw that wickedness of humans was greatly increased on earth and He was sorry that He created man on earth. Looking at the sin committed by men and women, God’s heart grieved. Then He decided to destroy man and the beast from earth. Still He gave humankind a long rope, almost 100 years to repent and repair their behavior. Not that they would. Then came the judgment of God in the form of flood and the destruction.

“The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence… and God said)  behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Genesis 6:11,13.

God directs Noah, whom he found to be righteous in his generation, to build an ark to save Noah’s family and animals, a pair of different species. Noah was 500 years old when God spoke to him thus. When he completed the construction of the ark and went in and God sent the 40 days’ of rain, Noah was 600 years old. Genesis 5:32 & Genesis 7:11. All these 100 years, when Noah was building the ark on dry ground, people of his day mocked him and of course did not believe that a flood will come and wash them all away. I am sure Noah warned them, explained to them why he was building the ark, for he is called the ‘preacher of righteousness,’ in 2 Peter 2:5, but who was interested in listening to him? It was only when the flood came they realized the truth, but it was too late for them to save themselves.

Are we not sailing in the same boat? Do we listen to the warnings that are being issued even today? 

Jesus Christ said,

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:

They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the days that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

Even in Noah’s time, God destroyed the earth with flood only when sin and wickedness increased greatly on earth and that too not without warning. It is the same warning that Jesus Christ gave when he was living on earth, which is repeated today also by many of his faithful followers. But who wants to listen to these warnings or who is even interested in reading these? Are they not just ridiculed by a generation that is too much in a hurry to stop and listen to these warnings?

Take any other major tragedy or punishment written about in the Bible; each one came with plenty of warnings and that too only because in spite of the warnings, human kind did not correct themselves, but went on indulging in their sinful ways when punishment became necessary. Can we turn and blame God for that? Is that reasonable? A God who is just and righteous cannot forever turn a blind eye to the evil on earth. One day He will act and we will have to pay the price for all our disobedience and willfulness. God, in His mercy, will save those who are obedient to Him. Let us not be found wanting then.