శోధన అనగా....... TEMPTATION....?

గ్రీకు మూల పదాల లో శోధన లేక శోధనము అనే పదాలకు రెండు అర్ధలు ఉన్నాయి.1 పరిశీలన,పరిశోధన,పరీక్ష, ప్రక్షాళన, శుద్ధిచేయుట ఇది -దేవుని పని  2. కల్మషాన్నీ వేదకటం, ఉన్నతస్థాయి బండి మలించటం పాపాపకార్యానికి పురికొల్పడం- ఇది సాతాను పని. బైబిల్ లో శోధన అని వచ్చినపుడు, దేవుని దగ్గిర నుంచా లేదా అపవది నుంచా అని మనం ex చూద్దాం:హెబ్రీ11:17లో అబ్రాహాము "శోధించబడి" అని ఉంది.ఆది22:1 చూస్తే పరిశోధించెను అని ఉంది.అబ్రాహాము లో ఎటువంటి దురాశ లేదు గనుక ఇది దేవుని దగ్గరినుంచి వచ్చిన పరీక్ష గా మనం అర్థం చేసుకోవాలి. *రెండవ అర్దనికి tempting, temptation, గా స్థిరపరిచారు. ఈ రెండవ అర్దనికి  సంబంధించి కొంత విపులంగా చూదాం.          శోధన అనగా.....*స్వకీయమైన దురాశ  ,
తెలిసికూడా తప్పవు చేయాలి అణా భావన,

 సత్యం నుంచి దారి మళ్లించే వక్రమార్గం 

పరిస్థితులా ఆధారం గా నీలో కలిగే చెడ్డ కదలిక

  నీలో శారీరిక స్వభావాన్ని బయటకు లాగే వత్తిడి

అశింది ఎలాగైనా పొందడానికి  అవలంబించే తప్పుడు మార్గం

  దేవుని చిత్తం కానీ దానిని పొందాలనే  ఆశ పాపం చేయాలి అనే చెడ్డ ఆలోచన   

దేవుని నుంచి వేరైపోవాలి అనే ఉద్దేశ్యం.

   క్రీస్తు బోధలకు  వ్యతిరేకంగా  నడవలెనే ప్రేరణ

Source....r.p.d....book

Who Am I....?

Who am I....?

Self-esteem is one’s opinion of oneself, an emotional evaluation of one’s self worth. A high self- esteem is having a good opinion of yourself and a low self-esteem is having a bad opinion of yourself. Having a good self-image is a new age phenomenon founded on humanistic psychology. It’s the mantra of current times, even in the Christian world.

Self-esteem depends on many thoughts that run in a person’s mind. A few important ones are:

Am I successful?

Do people respect me? Am I accepted?

How am I compared to others?

Self-esteem is self-centred, not God-centred. Christian teaching on self-esteem is not biblical.

How should a Christian view self-esteem? A good self-esteem as a Christian comes from having a right relationship with God. When we know who God is, we know who we are, what we are made for and understand the meaning of life. We understand that we belong to a huge family across the world, the family of Jesus Christ.

In our society, people often have feelings of worth based on appearance, status, career accomplishments, the neighbourhood we live in, the cars we drive, dressing styles etc. This kind of attitude can cause us to take excess pride in ourselves, make us indulge in self worship and lessen our love for God. The Bible teaches us that the love of self is the root of all sins. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, followed by a list of terrible sins (2 Tim 3:1,2). Esteeming the self is nothing but loving of the self.

The Bible never asks us to consider ourselves highly esteemed. Instead Jesus wants His followers to deny themselves, take up His cross and follow Him. We are not worthy or special, but we are forgiven, accepted and loved. God in His grace has made us His children.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4: 6) Our trust must be in God and not our earthly resources. Wealth comes and goes. God is our friend and anchor all the time.

The youth of today pay a fortune to make themselves look good and flaunt accessories to highlight status. They think that will make them more successful and accepted. Maybe we can impress others with our looks to an extent. Jesse proudly paraded his seven sons before Samuel in Bethlehem. Samuel looked at their fine features and appearance and thought that one of them were God’s choice for a king. Instead God spoke to him. . . . God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (I Samuel 16:7) This incident must be an eye-opener.

The forgotten shepherd boy became king, not the handsome older brothers. God knows our hearts.

There are many who suffer low self- esteem. A low self-esteem could come from lack of good looks, lack of education, tragic happenings or abuse. This could lead to sin, abuse, drug addiction, sexual promiscuity and so on. A word of encouragement or kindness can go a long way in helping such people. God’s forgiveness and love can be shared with them so broken hearts become healed in Jesus Christ.

God paid a huge price to redeem us. His words comfort us, corrects us, encourages us and shows us the way. As God’s children, we can walk in confidence and trust, which leads to a healthy outlook towards life.

A low self-esteem can appear to be the opposite of pride, but it too can be a form of pride. Some tend to associate low self- esteem twith humility and end up being proud of their humility. Some people want others to help them out, comfort them and feel sorry for them. This can be a self- focussed and selfish attitude. As Christians, we are called to be selfless people.

God’s love and mercy is not dependant on our performance or accomplishments. What a wonderful God He is! He loves us unconditionally, just the way we are. We are important to the Almighty God.

A few promises from the Bible to rejoice in

1. God made each of us in His own image.
2. God watches over us night and day and knows us inside out.
3. God has a plan for our lives. Each of us were born for a purpose.
4. God’s word is the way, the truth and the light.
5. God’s grace is sufficient to handle all life’s problems.
6. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
7. A heavenly reward awaits each Christian who walks in faith.

Do you struggle with your feelings of self-worth? Child of God, take your eyes off yourself and look up to God. The Cross is bigger than our doubts, tears and failures. God calls the broken hearted, the miserable and the riff- raff of this world to come to Him. He sets them free from bondage and crowns them as His princes and princesses. Straighten your crown and walk free.

Do you have problems with pride? Read God’s word and ask God for help and forgiveness. Let us remember that we are mere mortals. Riches do not last forever. Money and looks can perish in no time.

There are three views to every person on earth. What God thinks of us, what others think of us and what we think of ourselves. Of these, the first one is the most important. Let’s turn our hearts back to God and live for Him. Let’s strive to lead a God-centred life, not a self-centred one. Let us learn to love others more than we love ourselves. Let us keep away from subtle yet deceptive new teachings like self-esteem. Let us not be lovers of the self.

Christians find their identity not in an improved or enhanced self-image, but in Jesus Christ.

Jeslyne Isaac has a Masters in pharmacy and serves on the Board of Healthcare Christian fellowship India

MENTORING SPIRITUAL LEADERS

Mentoring Spiritual Leaders

“An army of sheep led by a Lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep” – African proverb

The need of the hour for the developing and maturing organization like UESI is mentoring servant leaders. The focus area or the thrust area for the coming 2017-19, as declared by UESI is MENTORING SERVANT LEADERS.

If we go back to the origins of the word Mentor in Greek mythology, ‘Mentor’ was a trusted friend of Odysseus who was appointed to take care of his son Telemachus when he left for Trojan War. Mentor became Telemachus’ teacher, coach, counselor and protector, building a relationship based on affection and trust.

Over the centuries the word ‘Mentor’ has come to mean as trusted friend, effective coach, creative teacher, reliable counselor and wonderful protector. Mentor builds relationship with his mentee based on affection and trust and thereby brings out the potential of the mentee and shapes his character.In the coming years we will be focusing on mentoring servant leaders who can lead from the front with a servant attitude having the mind of Christ for the betterment of UESI.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the best example to model upon. Jesus had chosen 12 disciples and mentored them for over 3 years and had a wonderful relationship with them. As mentor, he invested his precious time in building them, taught them valuable lessons both about the kingdom of God and about daily living, prayed for them and prayed with them, rebuked their attitudes and actions, tapped their potential and assigned them with specific responsibilities, loved and protected them, demonstrated to them what servant leadership is all about, worked constantly on enhancing their faith in Him, forgave their shortcomings and restored them; and more than anything else, he ultimately suffered and died for them. After our Lord’s death and resurrection, His disciples exhibited the same qualities in their lives and ministry to the amazement of many. Our Lord and his disciples left a wonderful legacy for the church to follow.

Next to our Lord, Apostle Paul is the second best example to model upon. He mentored several servant leaders. He picked upon young disciples in all his missionary journeys and worked on them in terms of shaping their character, entrusting responsibilities and helping them to learn new things from him. Timothy, Ephaphras, Epaphroditus, Silas, Titus, Philemon, Onesimus, Dr. Luke and Young families like Aquila and Priscilla are few servant leaders who were mentored by Apostle Paul. The great Gamaliel and encouraging disciple named Barnabas mentored Paul.

We can work on at least 3 important areas in mentoring. Every mentor should focus on these 3 areas as he or she commits himself or herself to this wonderful relationship of mentoring.

Firstly, we should work on Character building of the mentee. Character includes who we are, our attitudes, our core values, commitments, what passions drive us, how we relate to each other, how faith policy works in our organization and what servant leadership is all about. These are some of the most important things that determine the effectiveness of our movement.

Secondly, we should work on Legacy that is, leaving wonderful footprints for others to follow. What do you want to be known for? How to go about it and how to build on so that others can walk in the same path as Paul said ‘follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.’ In the process of mentoring, a mentor’s life style, vision, commitment, sacrifice and many more areas are being watched and adopted by the mentee. We have wonderful examples of spiritual stalwarts who served and slept in the Lord like Prof. Enoch, Rev P. T. Chandapilla (to name a few) and a cloud of witnesses whom we call as UESI diamonds like Sis. Prema Fenn, Sathkeerthi Rao, P.C. Varghese and so on. They have left us a wonderful legacy to emulate.

Thirdly it is about Presence, How to do things in an effective way, how to learn new things, how we should go chapter by chapter in a way that brings glory to God. Paul commends Timothy in his letter to Philippians saying, “ I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare ”. About Epaphroditus Paul says “ my fellow worker, fellow soldier..”. Mentors are bound to make their mentee’s work effective, bringing out their hidden potential and motivating them for a higher calling and living.

Character, Legacy and Presence are three important things to be focused in terms of mentoring. We are not here to make our own clowns but to help mentees to become what God wants them to be. Indeed spiritual mentoring is a tiresome responsibility but the end result or productivity is immeasurable. Let us make lions that can lead…

Sudhir Gaddam is the State Secretary of UESI Telangana

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