FINE TUNED STRINGS thoughts. ramblings.

In the wake of the recent disaster in Japan, my attention was captured by the humanitarian efforts of the International Red Cross and National chapters all over the world. Massive efforts are being made to bring hope to a region devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami, and the Red Cross stands in the forefront. My heart aches for the nation of Japan and those affected by this tragic event.

With all this, I cannot shake this thought. The cross in its original design and intent was not meant to be a symbol of hope. The cross depicted a brutal and tragic death, reserved for the worst of all criminals: a purposefully painful and gruesome method of public execution. Countless people were brutally executed on the cross, and their shame was on public spectacle for all to see. All this changed with the crucifixion of one man: Jesus Christ. When the blameless, sinless perfect Son of God bore the sins of humanity on the cross, not only did we undeservingly receive hope from the penalty of death; Christ transformed a symbol of shame into a symbol of hope. Now the American Red Cross symbolizes hope, rather than being equivalent to the American Red Gallows!

If Christ can transform a symbol of despicable shame into a symbol of eternal hope, He can do the same for us. All we have to do is let Him. He is willing to take our shame, guilt,remorse and regret and exchange it for eternal hope and joy.

Pray this prayer. You have nothing to lose (except shame, guilt, remorse and the like).

Dear Jesus, I believe that you came to die for my sins, paid the price I had to pay. I’m tired of carrying my shame, guilt, remorse, regret and sorrow on my own. You died so I don’t have to. So today, I ask that You would place your joy, love, and peace inside of me, and give me a new hope for eternity. I receive it in Jesus name, Amen.

Christian celebrities are an oxymoron in every sense of the word. The word Christian is used three times in New Testament (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). Followers of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because they chose to act in a manner unlike any other; like Christ. In its original context, “Christian” was used in contempt rather than praise. The dictionary however defines a celebrity as a famous person, or the state of being well known. A celebrity is famous for who THEY are and what THEY do. A Christian serves a famous GOD, and lives to please Him. Jesus set the perfect example in John 6:15, where he sensed the people’s desire to make Him king, and He departed to the mountains alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for giving respect where respect is due. Men and women of God invest tears, countless hours, their time, heart and soul to achieve Kingdom feats. That deserves all our respect, but things start going wrong when we start treating them as celebrities. They are only human, and in doing so, notions of self-achievement and grandeur begin to develop. We have witnessed many influential men and women of God fall from grace after being set so high not necessarily by themselves, but by us. We do this a lot with pastors, leaders and worship leaders and it is WRONG! Regrettably, this has started to generate a negative trend wherein serving Christians aim for a status rather than exemplifying servanthood.  The focus begins to shift from Christ to imperfect human beings, and an unhealthy following of a single person ensues. Let us be careful to treat men and women of God with the utmost respect without crossing into stardom. We create such elephants in the pew, and then point fingers.

If you serve the Kingdom of God, do so humbly and faithfully. It is all for the sake of the Cross. Pride goes before a fall. Let us strive to keep the focus on Christ and His cross. Everyone else is simply just a carrier of that message. Christian celebrities are an oxymoron. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Carrying the cross of Christ in not easy. People in ministry who obey the mandate of carrying the cross often come to a point where the weight of the cross becomes to great to bear. We feel like throwing in the towel and calling it quits on the ministry God has called us for. Distractions, doubts, feeling of being unaccomplished suddenly seem too overwhelming. The sight of other people “doing things right” begins to discourage rather than encourage, and we succumb to the lie that we are not cut out for this ballgame. Such feelings drew my attention to Jesus who carried his cross to Golgotha. The gospels of Matthew, Mark and John mention the cross being carried by Simon of Cyrene from a certain point.  The movie, Passion of the Christ dramatically depicts Jesus stumbling under the weight of the cross along the Via Dolorosa. Even though the Bible never mentions Jesus stumbling, my thought started racing. Did Jesus really stumble three times? Why was someone else commanded to carry the cross? Was my Master ever unable to carry His own cross? I wrestle with my spirit to understand why my God Himself couldn’t carry His cross all the way to Golgotha but then, to my burning question I sense the Holy Spirit whispering, “Because He can. It’s not that He couldn’t carry the cross all the way, He didn’t have to.”

Read More

If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?” – As quoted from the movie, Evan Almighty.

Quite interesting when you think about it. Don’t waste your life trying to find opportunities to serve God and be a better person. You are surrounded by opportunities to love and serve. Seize it. Over the last two years of being married, my wife has taught me a very important lesson..well, there are several, but one that stands out the most is learning to give unconditionally. People who have not tapped into the joy of giving are most unfortunate. There are opportunities to give and serve all around you. Give your time, love, ears, heart and passion. Jesus did it for us. We have a responsibility to do the same for His people.

Give. Love. Serve- God. People

The Bible, in Acts 28 mentions the story of Paul at the island of Malta. The story goes that Paul and the others on the ship stumbled upon this island after the shipwreck. The native people showed them kindness and lit a fire since it was cold and began to rain. Paul gathered a bundle of sticks for the fire and to everyone’s surprise; a viper crawled out and latched on to his hand. While the crowd expected Paul to drop dead, he simply shook off the snake into the fire and walked away unharmed. Here’s what I learnt:

Read More

Not sure how many of you religiously follow the NBA like I do but if you do, here’s a story that probably caught your attention.
Kevin Garnett who plays for the Boston Celtics has an atrocious reputation for being a trash talker on the court. Apart from that, he’s a great leader, team player and team-mate to have. Well, at least that’s what the Celtics say. So the other day in a heated game against the Detroit Pistons, KG got into it with Charlie Villanueva who plays for the Pistons. Obviously some not so pleasant trash-talking ensued and later on, ole Charlie V tweeted that Garnett referred to him as a “cancer patient”. (Charlie Villanueva suffers from a medical condition called Alopecia that causes hair loss). Garnett claimed what he really said was, “You are cancerous to your team and our league”.

I  find it hard to believe that the word “cancerous” made it into Garnett’s trash talking vocabulary, but his words got me thinking. In my line of work, I fight cancer on a daily basis. Cancer doesn’t adhere to rules. It exponentially consumes resources while negatively contributing to its environment. Cancer has absolutely no regard for families, careers, ministry, dreams, ambitions and the like.

Read More