“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow……”

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow……”

BY ES JOHN, AUSTRALIA

The fear of life, not the fear of God, is the cornerstone foundation of all our frustrations, failures and woes of our life. The famous scientific theory, ‘Nothing can be created and nothing could be destroyed’ validates the universal fact that man who is only a breath is a steward of this earth, not the author or the owner of anything here or hereafter. Everything for our life is given, not created by our merit and strength. “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything…., Gen.9: 1-7. Man has no ownership of anything in this world; yet he claims ownership and fear his own brother, as all other created things fear man due to his superiority in the ladder of creation. “Fear is the root cause of all human evils”, says Bertrand Russell. The ego of keeping the superior position of Satan had injected the same fear into the blood of Eve, so that ‘the fruit was desired to make one wise’, Gen.3: 5, and then becoming like God.

Fear

‘Fear not’ is the common salutation of angelic visitations because there is nothing to be scared upon, if we move as satellites of the Heavenly and cosmic powers, Gen.15: 1; 26: 24; Deut.20: 3; Lk.1: 13, 30. Just as there is a terrestrial created order and law, there is one for the celestial universe too, and these two are synchronized in a Divine formula. “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage…Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go, Josh.1: 5-7. The middle verse of the bible, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man”, Ps.118: 8, declares that man is only a breath, not a provider of breath. God is the only Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient power; leave alone man, not even saints and angels also. But our head weight claims that we are everything and we can do whatever things we want. There is only one name to be feared; that is the Almighty God, Rom.11: 36. Unless the God- fearing in us make a sincere confession that declares openly that God is great and we are only the dust of the earth, our faith becomes shallow and barren. The reason for giving prominence to God in the Mosaic commandment and the Lord’s Prayer is on the basis of this spiritual law that governs the universe.

Different kinds of fears

There are only two creative passions; one is love and the other is fear. The sublimity of love evaporates fear automatically. Fear has two aspects; first one is the creative fear and the other destructive. Fear of God that convinces us the nothingness of man belong to the former category, whereas the latter one is the imaginary fear that consumes the very fibre of our earthly mission. Analyzing about the imaginary fear, we can experience that the victims have no zealous fear of the Creator who imbibe the spirit at every moment of our life. I have heard the bombastic utterances of charlatans,” I am a self-made man”. Nobody is self made; our every moment rest in the hand of the mercy of God. “Those who trusts in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides for ever”, Ps.125. The imaginary fear is called the fear of the unknown. Fear is an instinct that is a product which is inherent with the disobedience of God, the reason for the first parents to make a hideout after the taste of the apple which made an apple of discord right in the beginning of history. The fear of our inner guilt has unfathomable depth. But the fear that is inculcated by aggression, suppression, oppression and repression is destructive and should be disallowed by any means.

Fear of God

“…..but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord, Lev.19: 14, 32; 25: 17; 1.Pet.2: 17; Rev.14: 7. “O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no want”, Ps.34: 9. The fear of the Lord is only the beginning of wisdom that is the garland, maturing and progressing for the greater spiritual renewal all through out the life. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction, Pro.1: 7”. Wisdom and precocity that help us through the shadows of death for leading an excellent way of life by killing the bestiality of the physical man is a gift that can sift between good and bad. We fear God because He created and sustain us abundantly while we go forward through this transitory life. Job and Cornelius feared God because they were righteous men, Job.1: 1; Acts.10: 2. Fearing God is a virtue, not a weakness as some gullible claim, because in their eyes God is a friend who is expected to love us without any pre-conditions. Where there is the fear of the Lord, there comes humility and submission that vibrates the nothingness and helplessness of man.

Fear of men

The love or the fear of man is also creative because that which is written in our lifeblood is to serve God and man. The fear of God and regard of man, Lk.18:2 are the essential qualities in life. There are also people who don’t treat the fellow men as human beings; despite they ought to serve one and all. It is very difficult to make a change in the self -centered and self-deceieted crooks who try to exploit the vulnerability of others. Our agenda is to change their way of life, but the methods that we use should be Godly, otherwise it will backfire and root out our good intentions. Fearing such men is needed because our sincere intentions will be challenged and trampled over. “Do not resist one who is evil. But if one strikes you on the right cheek, turn him to the other also…Love your enemies and those who persecute you.., Mt.5: 39-48. This fear is the outcome of love, but fearing man by dishonouring God is a deadly poison that melts away the virtues of life. “And do not fear that kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell, Mt.10: 28.

Agonies of Fears

Whatever are the hindrances and stumbling blocks that see on the road should not scare us from the duty of work that is entrusted upon us. When we go ahead with the work of God, Satan interferes in and pulls us back from our endeavor. As the confrontations that we face during a noble work, most of us think that God is not in favour of our venture, consequently retreat from the task, without knowing that it was an obstacle given by God’s enemy, just like the Devil stopped St.Paul and Daniel and many other elects of God. Satan is also is very powerful, tireless and sleepless all the 24 hours a day and trying to entrap us in his snare. Both God and Satan are superior powers than man who is in mortal frame, though the latter is inferior. The Devil also believes in the existence of God, and can misquote the bible for his convenience to confuse man, Mt.4. I have heard from some people that they were not fasting or not in favour of ‘Ettu Nombu’, but am committed now because they get abundance of blessings after observing it. I also faced some problems during this year’s fasting period, but am not deterred by such roadblocks, as I treat it as a temptation or problem given by Satan for provoking and pushing me into his pit. Life is not a mid-summer night dream, nor a tempest nor a comedy of errors, but you may take it as you like it.

A Vacillating or oscillating mind is a playground of Satan who disguise as angels of light and grabs us by his tricks. Christian life is an ocean of sufferings that also comes from temptations; it is a test whether we have enough faith and inner strength to go through them. My God, only a mountain of temptations could make us land in an unknown territory that doesn’t conquer us, provided we are with the angels of God. Here are the harvesting seasons for the charismatic Christianity that offers tons of fake miracles that is stated to be the escape routes of worldly problems. We are like Israelites who wanted Jesus to perform miracles that were the signs of testimony that He was the Messiah. They saw the miracles and ate enough food out of them, yet remained as the snake which peels of its seasonal outer layers. Brood over and thank God for the invisible miracles that keep us at every moment of our lives. “I have food to eat of which you do not know…my food is the will of him who sent me, and accomplish his work”, Jn.4: 32-35. We are lazy idolaters who want to lead a crazy life of earthly glory, without shaking a single finger. Do crazy miracles and grab the pockets of the marginalized and vulnerable ones for their masters’ opulent living. Tithe is not important and costlier than the two pence of the widow who put everything into the temple treasury that is the commonwealth of the congregation, not giving as a salvation premium for the indulgence of false prophets and false christs.
Christian life is a procession of temptations that take us to the bottom of despair at times, because Satan is so powerful to baffle and defeat us. Every moment is a seeming defeat due to the immensity of vexations and woes and anxieties. Our prayer is not to let this bitter cup pass from us, but do it according to thy will, Mt.26: 39. It doesn’t mean that all our problems are the product of our affinity with the Lord, like that of Job; we suffer many times physically and mentally due to our proximity with the vicissitudes of the flesh.

There are two types of sufferings, firstly due to our attachment with the vanities of life, secondly because of the temptations that the devil creates owing to our nearness with the Almighty. However, Christian life is a battle either directs with the Devil with regards to our faith or against the lust of our own flesh, the co-owner. “He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne”, Rev.3: 21.
Woe unto those who have no afflictions, mental conflicts and failures in life because their judgement is already written. The Devil doesn’t tempt any one who is already in his kingdom that allows one to suck the cup of sinning. A stereotype club life of today is a copycat life of the prince of this world; flow with the current is the mode of the present life that has no vein of thinking in the correct direction. To be a hero, somehow, today in any field is the aim of our life; no hesitation in going with the mob, if it brings name and fame. As such people have no motto in real life; they fall into the land of confusion that overpowers them to be the victim of any heinous and cowardly actions. Manufacturing of thousands of Christian cults and denominations are the obvious symptoms of such fever and fervour, despite many individuals there also genuinely worship the real God.

Heavenly Peace

Despair and disappointments are the ultimate result of a wayward life of the flesh, triggering the multiplications of yearly suicide rate. Repentance that cleanses our body and spirit is an outcome of difficulties which give introspection into one’s past, present and future life, just as “morality enters when rivalry begins”. Overcoming temptations and following the foot print of the Saviour is a joy of life. This is called the Heavenly peace. Taste the presence of the Lord in the valley of death that cannot conquer our spirit. Most of those who contributed some noble achievements to the society or spiritual arena are the ones who sold their life for the Lord by wading through the river of tears and sweats. Martyrs are the seeds for the germination of a new promising eternal life by emulating them. What is lost in temporal is gained in reality that no one else can offer it in this plane of the flesh. We can’t have both at the same time, either kill the flesh here and earn the transformed spirit in the unknown plane, or kill here the soul that mortify the spirit and the flesh in the Hades.

Final glow of the earthly glamour

No law or rule can apply in this Kaliyuga period because everything is overturned during this final flickering age of gloom. “Fair is foul and foul is fair, hovering through the filthy air”, Shakespeare, is the tragic gain of today’s irreligious life. The air is filthy on account of our own sins that invited climate change and all other connected cataclysmic typhoons, 7 plagues, 7 woes, etc, devastating all what God has given and made us from. Though the foul air in the Poet laureate’s time was due to the immoral life, today’s air is foul because of global warming, pollution and lethal sins that are committed in the areas of seven deadly vices. The black gold, petrol, that we have been using for decades is the drinks of the demons from inside the earth, while the God-given drink, water, the inevitable drink-the product of hydrogen and oxygen- is emptied and poisoned by the underground oil and its products that make us unfit to live in this world of catastrophic changes because fairness of man and his good relationship is turned as folly and foul. When foul has become the master of the world during this doomsday culture, nothing good can survive out of long and enduring struggle. Read the kaliyuga symptoms and infections from the Indian narratives and realize where we are now.

Loss of Fear

The fear of the Lord or the fear and regard of man is almost wiped out from our daily life. The Atheists and agnostics don’t believe in the existence of God; then what to talk of the fear of the Lord. Many those who fear God also cultivate fanatical worships that wreak vengeance upon other beliefs and their followers, paving way for money and power culture to thrive and gain in every vista of life. People who die for religious extremism are adored as martyrs, a seeming covetable status in the afterlife. Many godless people like to end this life by unnatural means due to the sufferings and agonies that some believe are the creations of God or other people’s. Accusing somebody has become a trademark of our life by throwing blame upon others; everyone thinks that he/she is better than others, a sign of self-assumed saintliness that see others as mere fools or cowards or bravados. Such people think to end this life and escape into a fairy land of eternal paradise, without knowing that earthly suffering is the groundwork of everlasting joy in the celestial kingdom.

Death

All animals, including man, used to prefer life to death; it is contrary now because of the disappearance of the belief in God. The medical science, particularly psychiatry that conclude by observations or survey, without depending upon religious evidences or moral affidavits, is of the opinion that the life after death is peaceful and rapturous, the main reasons for multiplications of suicides for any silly reasons, ignoring the fact that afterlife prescriptions remain as a mystery that any science or religion cannot wholly penetrate into. The believers of God believe that there is life after death that either lead to Heaven or hell, but how can one believe in the existence of hell while the person doesn’t believe in the existence of God or devil or an afterlife. Hence atheists and agnostics are playing with the fire of self-immolation by not accepting a merciful God or in a celestial bliss after death. The fearlessness of death is a lethal symptom of challenging and confronting and doing any scenario that fetch victory in this life. Just as committing suicide, the tendency of killing anybody for minor reason is a grave concern for the thinking persons now. Killing by wars, dissentions, massacres, assaults, human bombs and many other murders and tortures for minor reasons have multiplied in geometrical progression, making warnings and alarms for the rulers to take precautionary measures in curtailing the untimely deaths and an ocean of crippled people.

Emotions

Fearlessness of death is the demise of religions that used to keep the equilibrium of the emotional minds. Emotions unless channeled in proper directions certainly will overturn the destiny of man. The unnatural and superficial life of super-tech life that deviated man to a level of bestial lifestyle is an incredible sidetrack due to the emotional imbalance that once used to be checked by religious and moral obliquity. Religion and moral concepts only can train to keep one’s sanity by worshipping, repenting and introspection. To take precautions and modify life that goes through sufferings and hopelessness is a great advantage of a fearful life of God. Emotions that are the bubbles of pains or insinuations will have to be curtailed by the fear and submission to God. The artificial lifestyle of superfluousness has modified man to the level of a nervous wreck. People have no considerations about values and principles that control the hysterical dispositions and animal reflexes, making our nerves and bone as brittle and breakable by passionate outbursts of delirious reactions.

Freedom

The new definition of freedom and liberty that is the nerve- centre of democracy has altogether a different connotation due to its wrong application. Freedom never allows one to play with one’s body that is the seat of the Spirit in man. Any form of profligacy that in thought, word or deed will affect both his body that runs on by certain chemical formulae and his spirit that also is remote controlled by a cosmic Spirit. Secondly man’s freedom shouldn’t affect any other person whether dear ones or distant ones, because the chain reaction of the same will tarnish or improve the social and religious qualitative life of many. Democracy and its theoretical freedom is good as long as it doesn’t bring down the quality of life; we have no right or freedom to hurt any one in his body and spirit. The Athenian democracy, the cradle of democracy, that was meant only for about 2,000 people of ancient Athenia was good because all the members could come and discuss their merits, worries and failures of the infrastructure of a small community.
India has a population that consists of different religions, ethnic origins, castes, creeds, languages and many other diversities of a political web of 1.3 billion people. Though it is managing with many individual and social problems, there are millions who live under poverty lines due to the disparities and exploitation by a minority, whereas the material development of China, that functions on a Marxist ideology and agenda which suppress the freedom of its subjects, as a super power is staggering and envious. However, materialism doesn’t offer the ultimate happiness to the inner man, yet we are bound to provide the basic amenities for a simple and humble life. The Western democracy that gives superlative comforts also doesn’t calm down surely the yearning inner thirst of the soul that long for affection, love and tranquility because of a legal-minded formulae that runs the society has myriads of rigidities, loopholes and short comings. However, law and order is a sign of a disciplined life, if religious and moral sensibilities control the animal magnetism that is immanent in our instincts. But the basic facilities that is not given in the developing and third world countries is a main concern that has no definite answer because of a different set of values prevail there, officially or unofficially.

Individualism

As everyone claims that we live in a free country and free world, people have a notion that we can think and do anything that brings apparent benefits to us. This trait of individualism, making him as an unripe fruit due to the absence of maturity, experience and wisdom that comes by age and sufferings, is a damaging result of so-called free concept of liberty and equality. As man is chained with needs and responsibilities, while freedom is an imaginary idea, the individualism that we attribute has no room for individuals to develop and progress in his own limited abilities, conversely that individualism make a fool’s paradise, a narrow self-conceited world, for him. The god of individualism has drifted away man from his responsibilities that he owes to God and other fellow beings. Any form of constructive punishment is good for the evil acts one do out of his idiosyncrasies. The research proves that corporal punishment till the flowering of teenage is a healthy and efficacious prescription that makes slow or spontaneous corrections in nervous malfunctions which doesn’t emanate any hatred or acrimony in the victim towards the administrator. No one cherishes any hatred to the teacher or parents who give moderate caning during one’s childhood or schooling life. ‘Spare the rod spoils the child’ is a good discipline that can curtail the teenage evil tendencies in growing up children. Whip lashing for minor crimes that is applied in some countries also has proven to be productive.

There is no freedom in the dictionary of life that is meant to be a procession of sharing the agonies and woes of others and then leaving from this world with anxieties and worries because death is a fearful reality that one cannot fully conceive during our sojourn. Contrary to our misconception, the real colour of our enemy is seen and experienced directly is only after death. There are two kinds of fears in fact, one is the fear of God and the other is the fear of Satan who is always journeying with us for snatching us to his kingdom of darkness that allows no freedom to the victim. The fear of God is liberation from the clutches of the demon, while the fear of the Devil is the slavery that never finds a termination which can’t take us to the vicinity of the Almighty. While the fear of God is creative and productive, the fear of Satan is destructive and painful due to the eternal fire and biting of the worm that never die or perish.

A free and quiet life that brings harmony and peace from the fear of God is the beauty of life that assures a Heavenly peace. Why worry and make our life miserable, as there is no harness to curtail our wailings and control our next breath. The lilies of the field saturate fragrance around by their colourful and sweet flowers, and disappear like the glow-worm which glimmer a flicker of light in the dead of the night. “Therefore do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all……Therefore do not be afraid about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself”, Mt.6: 25-34

source: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/MORM/message/1542