Is sin relative ?

Last week there was a big buzz on television in India about gay rights. I was watching one of the televised discussions on it where the TV anchor was making fun of a pastor for having an alternate opinion. The point being that how can christians term something as wrong when the rest of the world feels it is not wrong to do so. It made me ponder about a very interesting question: is sin an absolute term ? or is it one that evolves with time and is dependent on the context ? If there is a God sin has to be absolute. To me sin is like the laws of nature, they have to be absolute. Just like the laws of nature your understanding/interpretation of it will depend on your knowledge of God. To me the fundamental principle is your Love for God and your willingness to live your life for Him. Anything that does not align with this fundamental belief becomes a sin. You will have to delight in his word and in understanding it. As per the Bible everyone is a sinner and hence no one has the right to judge others of their sin. God looks at our hearts and knows every thought that crosses our minds. All sins lead to death. We are saved by His grace and not by our actions. It is our duty to acknowledge the great sacrifice and love and live our lives for his glory. We have to be open to the notion of Holy Spirit convicting us of our fallacies, prejudices and our concept of sin within the context of God's word.

Over the last couple of weeks I am getting my house painted, furnished and generally settling down in bangalore. I have had the opportunity to interact with a whole bunch of people from poorer background. It is amazing to find their ingenuity and willingness for hardwork. They are also very happy with what they have. For the driver getting a Rs. 500 cell phone from reliance made his day. For the electrician an extra tip of Rs. 100 makes his day. The guy who does the tiles and appreciation about the quality of work and some cakes makes his day. I am begining to believe irrespective of the amount of money or wealth we have we can be happy. When I was in college I do not feel nervous when I do not have any money in my pocket. I remember once when we were doing a project in bangalore we went to work but did not have money to return home. Even in that situation we were not stressed out. We were able to trust that our parents would bail us out. But now even with lakhs in the bank we are still stressed about our financial future. It is just sad that the trust in God's provision is very hard. I think learning to seek happiness in small things and trusting in God's provision will help us live a stress free life.

Mission vs. Ambition

This year there have been several incidents around me that has helped me understand the distinction between Mission and Ambition. During the US elections, there was rhetoric of the presidency being a career for Obama and a mission for John Mccain. In the indian election Modi has been saying that he has a mission to transform Gujarat and India but does not have the ambition to become the CM or a PM. I was also reading an article in rediff where this man was complaining how he wasted his whole career by not building skill but going after titles and positions. I am just now starting to read principle centered leadership from Stephen Covey and he is also stating that people often miss the opportunity to build core skills in their race to climb up the corporate ladder and when they fall it becomes very difficult to get back up.

When I reflect on my life I realize that whenever I have been driven by ambition and opportunism, I have landed up with dissatisfaction and limited skill accumulation or learning. In the occasions when I have been driven by a mission I have had tremendous satisfaction and have built valuable skills. In the Bible there has been lots of stories where people who are driven by ambition often fail in the God's eye and end up doing stupid things to protect their positions.

I am using the word ambition to mean growing up in the corporate/institutional ladder.

Calling ..

Couple of years back we did a study on Rick Warren's "Purpose driven Life"  in our bible study. In that Rick Warren contends that every one of us has a special gift from God and our purposes are decided at birth. Over the last week in my life this message has been reinforced through different incidences. I was talking to one of my friends in singapore and he was mentioning about his pastor who is an inspiration to people in the corporate world. The pastor was a senior executive in Citibank who went into full time ministry and his background has come in handy in organizing and ministering to the people. I was at a church last sunday and the church was able to get ready for the 3G launch in India by adding capability to listen to God's word through cell phones. This was made possible because somebody who was experienced in that area was tapped by God. It is amazing to see God's hand and his work through people with different backgrounds. There are many more such people. This is not by accident but by design. God says in Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart I appointed you as a prophet to the nations". Paul says in Ephesians " It was he who gave some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that body of christ may be built up until we  all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the son of God and become mature, attaining whole measure of the fullness of christ."  Just like we need different perspectives to visualize a building that is being constructed, having different perspectives of God helps understand his true nature.

evolution vs. creationism.

We have been looking at the creationism vs. evolution. One of the things that was striking was that the emprical data does not really lend itself to either theory at the same time it does not really refute either theory. It does seem like we need to have extraordinary faith to believe in either. So when I thought about it I came to the conclusion that neither side is going to convince the other and the debate will continue. The tilt of the scientist seem to depend on their experience or the personal evidence about the presence/absence of God in their day to day activity. It is said that Darwin was intrigued by evil in this world and also how good people suffer. This led him to find out answers as to how the world came into being and that is the starting point for his theory of evolution. There also seems to be some pre-conceived notion that if there is a God then there should be no evil in this world. Do we see evidence in our day to day life about the presence of God ?

Joy vs. Happiness

For long I have heard sermons and read articles that talk about the difference between Joy and Happiness: Joy is something permanent and Happiness depends on something fleeting and depends on what happens in our lives. How can we be joyful when we are sad ? How can we enjoy something when we are hurting ? It seems highly illogical. Yet the Bible says that we are supposed to have joy which is the fruit of the spirit. That is if we have the holy spirit in us we are supposed to be joyful all the time. Does this mean if we truly have the holy spirit life will be filled only with good things ? If I look at the Bible all the characters went through really bad times in their life when they were filled with spirit: Jesus was crucified in the cross, Paul was imprisoned many times and so was peter. Where they happy in those moments did they really enjoy it ?

I was pondering over it and I thought about the things that make me happy and the things that I enjoy doing. I used to have a friend who said that activities like backpacking are only for masochists. How can a sane man enjoy walking in a forest and living in tents ? During christmas I had the opportunity to take a ride on the roller coaster and I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the journey back I had to take a flight through some choppy weather and I was very nervous about the turbulence and I did not enjoy it at all. This made me ponder about the difference between the 2. In the roller coaster I was sure that it will be over in 2 mins and it was designed for this bumpiness even though the motion made me uneasy I enjoyed the uneasiness because I was assured of the outcome. The same was not true with the turbulence in the aircraft.

I also noticed that I am able to enjoy movies that are tragic as well as movies that are scary. Even though the movie might be able to trigger emotions of happiness/sadness/fear and helplessness I do enjoy it.

When Paul was imprisoned or when Jesus was crucified they were sure of their eternal life. If the holy spirit is in us we are sure of the outcome and this is why joy is possible even amidst emotions of happiness/sorrow and fear. I am hoping and praying that I would be able to stand firm in my faith and beleive that God is sovreign and be able to enjoy the life's journey no matter what I feel emotionally.

Judgement vs. Discernment

This week I was stumbled upon Matthew 7:1 in my daily devotion reading and started thinking about judging others. In this passage Jesus asks us not to Judge others. At the same time Paul in I corinthians 2:15 Paul states that any man who is spiritual will continue to judge all the time. So what does it mean to not judge other people but at the same time continue judge every information that comes to you ?

When you judge some one it disassociates you from the person/or the people you judge. On the other hand you have to be able to differentiate good from bad for your functioning. In order for you to do this you need to be able to discern what is the right thing. When you judge some one it makes you superior to the other person on the other hand when you discern it makes you feel equal. Jesus says we are all sinners and hence we are all equal and we are saved only by God's Grace so one person is not superior to the other person by anything.

Matthew 7 goes on to say that we should remove the plank from our eyes before trying to remove the spec from your brother. I can relate to this a lot. When I was growing up whenever somebody comes over from the US and wants to drink mineral water I would pass judgement on them. Now when I go back from the US it bothers me that I am doing the same thing as the people I passed judgement on. It restricts your choices on what you can do because you would have to fear judgement.

The next question is what about a christian who is a judge is it a bad thing. Does the bible prohibit that ? There are instances in paul's letters where he requires this set of new christians to be discerning and protect themselves. All of us who live in a society are obliged to discern for the sake of the community that they live in. This creates a collective set of good and evil. This becomes the laws in the society. In order for this to be enforced some people should be authorized to pass judgement based on the laws. Through out history God placed kings/prophets and judges in judgement of the israelites. These judges should understand that it needs to be done with the highest empathy, humility.