Loving Rascal

I was thinking about comparative testimonies of Christ-followers in Hindustan (India). The Christ-followers from Hindu families have a testimony of tears and struggles. In contrast, those from Christian families testify about how God helped them achieve success in their worldly life. They seldom have any (real) life struggles except those they manufacture. Those who come from Hindu families are persecuted first by Hindus and then neglected by Christians. After a while, Christian pastors would blame generational curses or evil spirits for the problems of Hindu converts to Christ. With some rare exceptions, the following is the shared testimony of Christ-followers from Hindu families. I became a follower of Jesus for eternal life. My parents, siblings, and friends abandoned me. Now, I am alone in the faith, hoping that, someday, my family will become Christian. I am involved in some gospel activities, like distributing notices of Christian meetings. I help pastors to organize and conduct...

Dear friends, we are not any Hamans or Balaams. We are Christ-followers from Hindu families trying to survive in our faith. We have no political power or influence. Nobody gives us money to follow Jesus, to see dreams, or to pray. Our only influence is God and his Word. God speaks to his people through dreams and visions as you believe. We also believe the same things. If God revealed to Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Israel, it is not Jeremiah's fault. Jeremiah spoke what he heard. You cannot force the Holy Spirit to speak whatever you want to happen. Even if Nebuchadnezzar is Powerful, God knows how to protect his dear ones. "My just ones shall live by faith/faithfulness." In other words, "my just ones would remain faithful come what may." When Elijah prayed, God stopped the rain. Israel's King believed that the famine was Prophet Elijah's fault. However, God's word reveals that God was angry with Israel's idol worship. Ahab couldn...

  Genesis is a biography of Abraham's family. It introduces the God of the Hebrews –Abraham's descendants– and their relationship with him. Genesis 1-11 is a metaphorical and mythological introduction that leads up to Abraham. Therefore, we must not take the stories of Genesis 1-11 literally. For instance, Genesis 1 is a polemical poem, not a scientific explanation of the world's origin. It tells the Hebrews that unlike the idols of their surrounding cultures (modeled after animals, the sun, moon, and stars), their God is the invisible creator. The cosmos is his temple, and humans are his image-bearers. So, they must bear his image of love and steward his creation faithfully.   Genesis 2–3 is a moral story of disobedience of a couple that represents the whole of humanity set up in a mythical garden. God curses them and casts them away. Their first child murders the second out of jealousy (Gen. 4). The ancients designed these stories to help people unde...

At a post-inauguration prayer service, a bishop pleaded with President Donald Trump to have mercy for the LBGT+ community and illegal immigrants. The president faced the woke bishop bravely. He said, "[The Bishop] failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA... She and her church owe the public an apology!" However, Trump did not speak much about his decision on LGBTQ++.  The following is my response to the pastor's speech. Dear pastor, how can you defend LGBTQ using the Holy Bible? Nobody is killing them or persecuting them, as you portray. However, your democratic friends force pastors to observe Homosexual pride months and fly their flags. We cannot do it because we follow God's word, which considers Homosexual behavior as sinful as Murder and Adultery. Nobody flies flags to celebrate the spirit of murder. Do they? Why are illegal immigrants coming to Am...

I saw a video of some Hindu leaders in Orissa torturing a Christian family from a Hindu background. The Hindu leaders commanded the Christ-following man to apply sindoor –vermillion– on his wife’s forehead in the presence of the villagers. Hindus consider sindoor as a “sign of marital covenant.” It is a sign of a woman's loyalty towards her husband. If a married woman removes the sindoor, it signifies widowhood. I think Christian pastors should not tell people to remove such cultural identity markers. Paul told the Jews, “If you were circumcised before believing in Christ, don’t uncircumcise.” He said to Gentiles, “You don’t need to get  circumcised.” What matters is not circumcision or uncircumcision but a new creation. “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.” (Gal 6:15) After this, Hindus made the Christ-follower stand on the Holy Bible. It is disrespectful. One day, these persecutors will also become Christ-followers. Righ...

We need Hindi to be our official national language. English is the language of the colonizers. Every country has its language. Even after 280 years of its introduction, most people can't use English correctly. Yesterday, I had a Bengali patient. He couldn't speak Malayalam or Marwadi (my language). I don't know Bengali. I asked him a few questions in English. He didn't know how to answer. However, Hindi bridged the gap, and we had a fruitful conversation.    For commoners of North Indian states, Hindi is the common language. South India is slow to accept Hindi as our national language. Even so, they also love Bollywood movies and use Hindi in Arabian countries. Eventually, as per the Constitution, we will make Hindi our national language. Dr Ambedkar allowed fifteen years to transition from English to Hindi. The main clause of the Constitution 343 (1) is that Hindi is our official language. The subclause 343 (2) allows using English for fifteen ye...

Lately, some people, particularly democrats, have been glorifying the heinous acts of Hamas terrorists, saying that they are fighting for their freedom. However, in reality, terrorists are not freedom fighters. They are human rights violators. Terrorists kill, steal, rape, take captive innocent civilians. They use civilians as human shields, and seldom do they fight soldiers face-to-face. They are afraid of patriots and soldiers. Terrorism anywhere is a threat to peace anywhere. Therefore, we must pray that God will end Terrorism everywhere because it is not the right way to fight for any cause. Further, there are other, more honorable ways to fight for freedom and fight against injustice. India had a nonviolent freedom fighter, Gandhi, and so did South Africa, Nelson Mandela. We need to follow the nonviolent ways of Jesus, Gandhi, and Mandela, not the violent ways of Hamas and Hezbollah. Hatred destroys, and love builds up. Injustice cannot overcome injustice. Hatred cannot overcome h...